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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/25724-8.txt b/25724-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1824cd --- /dev/null +++ b/25724-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5215 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Other Side of the Door, by Lucia Chamberlain + +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 Other Side of the Door + +Author: Lucia Chamberlain + +Illustrator: Herman Pfeifer + +Release Date: June 8, 2008 [EBook #25724] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Looking up at her I felt she had won.] + + + + + + +THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR + + +BY + +LUCIA CHAMBERLAIN + + + +Author of + +THE COAST OF CHANCE + + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +HERMAN PFEIFER + + + +New York + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +Publishers + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1909 + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + +MAY + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + PROLOGUE--THE CITY + I THE BASKET OF MUSHROOMS + II THE EVIDENCE + III THE RUMORS + IV THE FIRST DAY IN COURT + V THE SECOND DAY IN COURT + VI THE SPANISH WOMAN'S HOUSE + VII THE REFUGE + VIII THE LAST DAY OF THE TRIAL + IX THE CONCEALMENT + X A LIGHT IN THE DARK + XI THE LUGGER + EPILOGUE--TWO YEARS + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +Looking up at her I felt she had won. . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +"What's the matter, child?" father said. + +I tried to make myself look as pretty as possible. + + + +[Transcriber's note: A fourth illustration was missing from the book.] + + + + +THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR + + +PROLOGUE + +THE CITY + +The city is always gray. Even in March, the greenest month of all, +when the Presidio, and the Mission Hills, and the islands in the bay +are beautiful with spring, there's only such a little bit of green gets +into the city! It lies in the lap of five hills, climbing upward +toward their crests where the trees are all doubled and bent by the +trade-wind. It seems to give its own color to the growing things in +it. The cypress hedges are dusty black; the eucalyptus trees are gray +as the house fronts they knock against, and even the plaza grass looks +dark and old, as if it had been the same grass always, and never came +up new in the spring. + +But for the most part there are no trees, and only the finest places +have gardens. There are only rows and rows of houses painted gray, +with here and there a white one, or a glass conservatory front. But +the fog and dust all summer gray these, too, and when the trade-winds +blow hard it takes the smoke out over the east bay, and makes that as +gray as the city. + +And yet the city doesn't look sad. The sky is too blue, and the bay is +too blue around it; and the flying fog, and the wind, and the strong +tide flowing in and out of the bay are like restless, eager creatures +that never sleep or grow tired. When I was a very little child the +fierceness of it frightened me. All the noises of the city made one +harsh, threatening voice to my ears; and the perilous water +encompassing far as eye could reach; and the high hills running up into +the sky now blinded by dust, now buried in fog, now drenched in rain, +were overpowering and terrifying to me. Beyond that general seeming of +terror there is little I remember of the early city, except the glimmer +of white tent tops against gray fog or blue water, the loud voices in +the streets, and a vague, general impression of rapid and violent +changes of place and circumstance. Through their confusion three +figures only, move with any clearness,--my tall, teasing, father, my +grim nurse Abby, and my pale-haired mother. Indeed, the first distinct +incident that stands forth from that dim background is the death of my +mother. + +It was a puzzle for a child. One day she was there, ill in bed, but +visible, palpable, able to speak, to smile, to kiss,--the next, she had +disappeared. They said she had gone away, but I knew that was +nonsense; for when people went away it was in the daytime with bags and +umbrellas, and every one knew they were going, and where they went, but +with my mother it was different. One day she was there,--the next she +was not, nor in any of the rooms of the house could she be found. It +was long before I ceased to expect her back; long before I ceased, by +some process of child's reasoning, to blame her departure on the gray +unaccountable city. For as early as I can recall a coherent sequence +of impressions the city appeared to me strange and unaccountable. +There was a secret shut away from me behind every closed house front; +the eucalyptus trees seemed to whisper "mystery" above my head; and at +night, when the fog came heaping in, thicker than feather-beds, across +the Mission, and streaming down the long hills on the heels of the +wind, it brought an army of ghosts to inhabit the dark places beyond +the safety of the lighted window-pane. Though I had lived among the +seven hills almost all my life; and though in ways it had grown +familiar, and even dear to me, yet I never seemed to grow quite used to +the city. It had strange tricks of deception that were enough to +unsettle the finest faith. For when I looked at it from the windows of +my room under the roof it was as flat as a plate, visible in its +entirety from end to end, and it was as easy to find Telegraph Hill or +the Plaza upon it as it was to pick up a block from the carpet. But, +when I went abroad in it, it hid away from me. It would never show me +more than one street at a time, and never by any chance would it reveal +to me, through the tall houses, in what part of it I was walking. + +But by the time I was old enough to play in the garden by myself, and +make friends through the hedge with Hallie Ferguson, who lived a block +below us, I had come to accept this trick of the city as somewhat less +extraordinary. It was developing other characteristics not so fearful +to my mind and of far greater fascination; and I spent hours, when I +could not be out of doors, watching it from the windows of my room. +Father had built what was at the time one of the finest houses in San +Francisco. It had a glass conservatory at the side, and a garden with +a lawn and palm in the corner; and on rainy nights when the wind was +high, and the house was shaking, I could hear the long palm-fingers +tap-tapping on my window glass. The house stood half-way up Washington +Street Hill, on what was then the western skirts of the city, and from +my window under the roof I could look down over the whole city to the +east water front, with Rincon Hill misty on the south, and Telegraph +bold on the north of it. By leaning far out of the window, as Hallie +and I sometimes did when a ship was coming in, we could see northward +as far as North Beach, and Alcatraz Island; and from Abby's room across +the hall we could continue the panorama around to Russian Hill, whose +high crown cut off the Golden Gate. It was a favorite game of ours, +hanging out the window, with our heads in the palm leaves, to pretend +stories of what we saw going on in the city beneath. + +All sorts of strange and interesting things went on in the city. We +could see the signals run up on Telegraph Hill when a ship was sighted. +And then the "express" would go dashing furiously down some street +below us, the pony at gallop; and the line would form in front of the +post-office and stretch like a black snake up Washington Street. Or we +watched the yellow omnibuses laboring down Washington Street like +clumsy beetles. It seemed to me that a city was the most delightful +and absorbing plaything a child could have, and it was a hard arbitrary +blow of fate that took me from it to the convent school at Santa Clara. + +But if to leave the city was hard, it was terrible indeed to leave the +house, the familiar rooms, the familiar footsteps and voices that I +loved, and listened for. I had never been away from father and Abby in +my life, and though Hallie Ferguson and Estrella Mendez went also, I +was very homesick. + +There was nothing at all interesting at the convent,--nothing but +pepper trees, and nun's black hoods, and books. Even when we walked +out there were only the dreary Santa Clara flats with the mountains so +distant on the horizon that their far-awayness made me want to cry. +The only nice thing about the convent was the vacation that took us +away from it, back, out of the burning summer valley to the bay, the +rows of gray-faced houses, the shipping and the wind. Each time I came +back it was with the rapture one must feel returning to some long left, +beloved place and finding it unchanged. + +The palm, the cypress hedges, the sunny conservatory, the low, long +rooms beyond it, the dark hall, and narrow, precipitous stair were +always adorably the same. But around them the city was growing with +such speed that each time I returned I had to learn to know it afresh. +Already there were several blocks of houses beyond ours, and the second +year I came home from the convent Hallie Ferguson told me her father +was going to move because there was a gambling-house going up across +the street from them, "and build," Hallie expressed it, "in a more +fashionable neighborhood." + +It was at the foot of Chestnut Street Hill their new house was +building, and that vacation we used often to walk over with +Abby--Estrella, Hallie and I--across the city and across the North +Beach district--to play in the building house. It was going up with +the same furious speed that was accomplishing the whole city. It +seemed that we had hardly stopped looking through the skeleton supports +at the bay before the plaster was drying on the solid walls; that we +had hardly ceased walking on the great naked flooring beams before the +smooth floor itself was palpitating under the feet of the dancers at +the housewarming. + +I remember sitting up with Hallie through the earlier part of that +evening, and with a sort of worship, looking for the first time at +women with uncovered necks and arms emerging white as wax from their +diaphanous or glittering gowns. To me they were radiant, transported +to a sphere of existence beyond my own, something I never would attain +to. I recall them as a vague, dreamlike spectacle. In all of it there +is but one incident that I remember clearly; and that is, when whirling +out of the crowd and into an empty space, that the dancers had left +clear for a moment, came a couple--a large blond girl and a young man, +a boy, hardly as old as she, but so handsome, so dark, so full of life, +and a sparkling sort of mischief, that it made one feel quite gay just +to look at him. As they danced past the place where Hallie and I were +sitting he was holding his partner's gauzy train in his long, fine +fingers, and they went by us laughing. + +"Who is that?" I whispered. + +"That's Johnny Montgomery," Hallie whispered back. + +"Who's he?" + +"Why don't you know?" Hallie cried. She dearly loved to give +information. "The Montgomerys were one of the very best families here; +and he's the last of them. Old lady Montgomery died the year we went +away to school, and he had heaps of money--but he lost it." + +My sole performance in this line had been the dropping of a two-bit +piece down a crack in the board walk, and before I had time to ask how +Johnny Montgomery had managed to lose sight of "heaps," Mr. Ferguson +came up and asked, "Don't you little girls want some ice-cream?" so I +forgot to say any more about it. + +That same season there was another notable occasion, when Hallie led me +to the bedroom of her grown-up sister, and exhibited to me with +awe-struck pride the dress her sister was to wear to the Sumner Light +Guards' ball that night. It was a blue tulle with a fine frost of +spangles over the bodice, and it seemed too dazzling to belong to a +creature less wonderful than a fairy. But when Hallie went on, in a +cautious whisper lest we be discovered, to confide to me that when she +was grown up and out of school her mother had promised to give her a +party, and that, since I was her best friend, of course she was going +to invite me first of all, I began to realize that I, too, might some +day grow up into a young lady, and be laced into a gown perhaps as +beautiful as the one spread out on the bed before us. + +Such a dazzling idea gave me an entirely new set of fancies, and was a +pleasant book companion and bedfellow to take back to the convent. +Hallie, who was a year older and half a head taller than I, had already +begun to lengthen her dresses, and do up her hair, and I found it +humiliating to be so small that at sixteen I had still to wear mine +down my back in long curls, and my skirts above my ankles. The only +thing that comforted me was that whenever father came to see me he +always said: + +"Child, how tall you are! You're almost a woman!" and though he was +the one person who seemed to think so it was quite sufficient for me. +When my graduation day came I was much excited to think how absolutely +grown-up I would appear to him in my first long frock, but when I came +to him after the exercises were over, he looked at me as if he were +sad, and said, "Child, how little you are!" + +That was a dreadful disappointment to me, but when I reminded him how +he had always told me I was tall, he laughed, and said: "You were tall +for a school-girl, but you're very little to be the mistress of a +house." + +That puzzled me; but on the way home, driving up through the valley, he +told me more about what he meant. He said, "Now that you have stopped +being a child you are going to be a very gay young lady; going to have +fine gowns, and dance about like a butterfly; and you're going to keep +on being my little girl; but at the same time I am afraid you will have +to be a little lady of the house, too, and take care of me, and +Abby--now that Abby's rheumatism is so bad--and go to call on the +ladies who were your mother's friends, and are going to be yours. Do +you think you are tall enough to do all that?" + +I was so surprised and so happy that I hugged him right there in the +buggy, and said: "Do you really mean it?" + +Father laughed, just as he does to cover up being rather serious, and +said: "You are your mother's daughter, for she was a little fair woman, +but there was never anything too big for her to manage." + +I was happier than ever to hear him say that--he so seldom spoke of +mother--and the idea of a whole house to manage, and of sitting at the +foot of the table, and calling on grown-up married women seemed to me +as merry and exciting as going to parties, and having beaus. + +I had not been in the city for a year, spending my last vacations at +the ranch at Menlo Park; and though I knew from what Hallie had told +me, that the city was very different, yet when I got out of the buggy +in front of the house the look of the street startled me. For a moment +even the house seemed strange. But that was only because the other +houses were all about it. As far as one looked up the hill there was +nothing but thick houses, and queer little shops were crowding up the +block so close that we had the appearance of being almost down-town. +Even inside the house looked different, but quite beautifully +different, done over with lovely, fresh papers, and Japanese mattings; +but what touched and pleased me most of all was to find the picture of +mother, which had used to hang over father's dressing-table, now in my +room, above my bed. "You need it now more than I do," he said, and +though I couldn't see just why I needed it, I loved to look at it. The +amusing part of it was that mother in the picture was holding me--a +little me--a baby two years old. Myself would never look out at me. +But mother looked always, with the same half-brave, half-timid glance, +when, sitting on the bed, I made her my confidences. + +With all my new responsibilities, and my new clothes I felt as if I had +somehow been "done over" too. Yet it was surprising how quickly I +became used to the patter of my long petticoats around my feet as I +walked, the weight of all my hair upon my head, and my stately pouring +of the tea at the foot of the dinner-table. Father's friends were +always coming in and out, and staying to luncheon or dinner, and with +their high silk hats, their elegant bows to me, and their laughing at +things I said which were not in the least funny, at first they confused +me not a little. But I grew accustomed to them, too; I grew even to +like them, especially Mr. Dingley, father's greatest friend, who was +the district attorney. He was a big, dark man, with a broad face, and +a frown that never came out of his forehead. He looked frightfully +severe, but I soon found out he was really quite easy-going, much more +so than father, and often I could get around Mr. Dingley when father, +for all his being pleasant, wouldn't have given an inch. But father +said he had to be very stern, or other people would spoil me. By that +he meant not so much Mr. Dingley, who was the same to everybody, as +Seņora Mendez, who had been mother's greatest friend. She had been a +New England girl, who, in the early days of California, had married a +Spanish gentleman. She was lovely to me. It was at her house that I +went to my first ball. Except the Fergusons', hers was the only house +in the city with rooms large enough to dance in, and that ball is still +the most dazzling I can remember. I wore a rose-colored tulle skirt +with a peasant waist of rose-colored satin, and father, for a great +surprise, had given me a pair of pink silk stockings. No other girl in +town had such a beautiful thing, and in the dressing-room they would +not let me go down until I had shown them. The lighted dancing-rooms, +and all the strange people, and my tall partners made me nearly die of +shyness, but I danced two large holes in the toes of my lovely +stockings, and afterward father teased me, and said he found he had +suddenly become very popular with the young men. He had never been so +called upon in his life. + +But most of our parties were not such elegant affairs, though sometimes +they were even more fun, like the Fergusons' calico ball, where I wore +my grandmother's gingham, and prunella shoes; or the party the Sumner +Light Guards gave, which was the prettiest of all on account of the +young men's uniforms, and the way we sat around the little refreshment +tables between dances with our mothers and our partners, the band +playing all the time, and every one so gay. + +I sometimes went to as many as four parties a week, so that in the +morning it was all I could do to be up in time to see breakfast on the +table. I found out that being a housekeeper meant more than long +petticoats, and pouring tea. It meant being all over the house before +ten in the morning, for, as Abby said, a house has a lot of strings to +it, and unless you keep them all tied up tight something's going to +sag. But I enjoyed my authority of the house, and my liberty abroad +seemed like license to me. I felt launched on a wide sea of life. + +The city itself was changed to my new horizon. It was larger, more +complicated, with more masts in the harbor, new streets and horse-car +lines, and every one moved about in it like the pieces of a Chinese +puzzle. The friends who had lived close about us had all moved +westward or southward with the trend of the city, and between Telegraph +and Chestnut Street Hills there were some very, fine houses. I was +often running over there to see Hallie or Estrella, and my shortest way +lay past the convent that stood a little apart in the middle of the +settlement. Next to it, but facing on another street, was a house +which had been built at the same time as the convent. The convent wall +came up at its back. On the other three sides was a high fence. Over +the fence only the upper story could be seen, and it had a look so +still and closed up, that it brought back to me that feeling of mystery +the city used to give me as a child. But I never noticed or wondered +about it particularly until one day when I saw an open carriage waiting +in front of the steps. + +While I was looking a woman came out of the gate, and got into the +carriage. She was Spanish, I saw at a glance, and big, and all in +sweeping black, but instead of being dark she was tawny, with a +wonderful glow of copper-colored hair through her black lace veil, and +in all my life I had never seen a creature move so gracefully as she. +It was like watching a beautiful cat. I asked Estrella Mendez who she +was, and Estrella blushed, and said she did not know. And when I asked +was she sure, because I knew the woman was Spanish, Estrella got quite +angry, and said she wasn't supposed to know all the Spanish people in +the city, and especially if they didn't have husbands. That surprised +me, for the woman had looked quite like a great lady, and when I went +home I spoke to father about it. + +He said he feared Estrella was right--we none of us knew the Spanish +woman. "But," I told him, "she looks like a queen; and she has a +beautiful carriage." He laughed and said yes, she had money, and a +good deal of influence in high places, but the women she knew were not +the sort of people I would care about; and he finished by saying I was +a silly child to go staring at strange "greasers." + +I did hate to have father laugh at me, but I couldn't help looking at +her slyly when now and then I saw her about the city. She was like no +other Spanish woman I had ever seen. Most of them are as white as +callas, powdered over the lashes; but you could see the strong bloom of +her skin even through the thick coat of rice powder she wore, and her +lashes were lovely. I noticed that because she kept them half down, +and looked out through them. But the most fascinating thing about her +was the way she moved, like something flowing; and once in a shop I +heard her speak, and her voice was so attractive, sweet and rather +thick, with such a gracious, petting sound to it! But she was always +alone. With it all she seemed to be mysterious, like her quiet +closed-up house. I got to making up stories about her, and sometimes +in my room, in front of my mirror, I practised looking out through my +lashes. But it was a nuisance, for though they weren't short they +curled back so suddenly that it didn't look right; and my hair being +blond and flying into corkscrews, and my being so little, and +forgetting not to step on my flounces when I tried to "sweep," +altogether made it rather a failure, in spite of the black lace shawl. + +But though I thought about her I didn't say anything more to father or +Abby, because questions that hadn't bothered them when I was little +seemed to worry them now. Father was for ever talking of the things I +must not do. One was not to be about in our neighborhood alone. It +was changing. And above all never to go over to Dupont Street, for +that, he said was getting to be notorious, and he hated to have it so +near. It was only a block below us, but it seemed to me very quiet, +and though Mr. Rood's gambling-house was on the corner there was never +any noise there, only such fine young men, and some that I knew, all +the time going in and out of it. + +But that pleased father least of anything, and he asked me how would I +like to move over to the North Beach district, where all my friends +were. Talking it over with Hallie and Estrella I liked the idea very +much. But when I came home again to the old house, with the long +windows, and the palm, and the long steps up to the conservatory, and +all the rooms I knew, the very idea that I could have thought for a +moment of going away from it gave me a lump in my throat. + +So I had to tell father that I couldn't. He pinched my cheek, and +said: "Next year, then;" and so we stayed on. This was in February, +1865. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE BASKET OF MUSHROOMS + +The seventh of May was my father's birthday. I always planned some +little surprise for him beside his present, and this morning I had got +up very early, before any one else was stirring, to slip down to the +Washington Street market for some fine fresh mushrooms. He was +extravagantly fond of them, but we seldom had them because Abby was +getting too old to be up for early marketing, and father always said +that mushrooms should come in with the dew to be good. + +I had bought a little straw basket, green and red, and lined it with +leaves; and now I put on my white flounced gown and my flat green hat, +so that when I should come in with my basket as they sat at breakfast +it would seem like a little fęte. Then I went a-tiptoe down the stairs +that would creak, for I could hear Lee, the China boy, stirring in the +kitchen, and it would have spoiled everything to be caught going out +with my empty basket. When I had let myself into the street I felt +very naughty and festive in my furbelows at such an hour of the +morning. The city seemed so dim and still and empty that the rustle of +my petticoats sounded loud as I walked along. + +The Washington Street market was fully six blocks away, and they seemed +the longer for being so quiet. When I got there the men were still +taking the crates off the carts, and the stalls were not set out yet. +It took me a long time to find what I wanted, so that when I came out +the wagons were clattering on Montgomery Street, and in one or two +shops the shutters were already down. That made me hurry, for I was +afraid of being late. I flew along with my basket in one hand and my +flounces in the other. The sunlight had caught the gilt ball on the +flagstaff of the Alta California building, and the sky that had been +misty was now broad blue above the gray housetops. In my flurry I +found myself on Dupont Street before I knew it; but after all it was +the shortest way, and everything was quiet, not a blind turned. The +houses on either hand were locked and silent, and nothing moved in the +steep little street but the top of the green-leafed tree half-way up +the block. + +I was walking on the upper side of the street, and drawing near the +corner. I was opposite Mr. Rood's gambling-house, which was shuttered +tight, and looked as blank as the rest, with only the slatted +half-doors of the bar and the dark spaces above and below them to +suggest that it had an inside. I was just thinking I heard people +talking there, when suddenly a sharp splitting noise seemed to ring +inside my head, the slatted doors flew open and a man fell out +backward. He fell in a heap on the sidewalk; and over him, almost upon +him, leaped another man, with such a rush, such a face, and such a wild +look, that he filled the street with terror. + +I stood there, staring stupidly, too stunned to realize what had +happened. He saw me, and for an instant he stood, with the pistol +smoking in his hand--the handsomest man I ever saw in my life, and the +most terrible. Then he flung the pistol into the street and ran. + +He ran down Dupont, and disappeared into Washington; and all the while +I stood there, listening to the terrible loud clatter his feet made in +the silence. I looked across the street, and blue smoke was drifting +out of the slatted door over the man who lay still. Then there seemed +to come over me at once the meaning of the horrible thing that had +happened, and I ran. + +I heard a shutter flung open in the street behind me. I saw a glitter +near the curb, a flash of steel, a shine of mother-of-pearl, and that +was the pistol he had flung away. I felt suffocating, and my feet +seemed weighted with lead as if I were running in a dream. And, +strange enough, what filled me with the wildest terror was not the +sight of the thing that lay still on the pavement under the drifting +smoke, but the sound of those furiously running feet, dying away and +away into the sleepy city. I felt as if I myself were a criminal +pursued, as if the house was the one refuge that would save me, and +with a thousand horrors at my heels I burst in upon father just sitting +down with Mr. Dingley, in the quiet, sunny dining-room. + +At sight of me both jumped up. + +"What's the matter, child?" father said. + +[Illustration: "What's the matter, child?" father said.] + +I looked around, and realized I was still clutching my basket, though +all the mushrooms had fallen out, and my foot was through a torn +flounce, and my hat hanging on my neck. My mouth was dry. For a +moment I couldn't get a word off my tongue; and then, "He fell, he +fell!" I said, and, "He is gone!" + +"Where was it?" The words seemed to be in Mr. Dingley's voice, yet +came as if from, far off. + +"Mr. Rood's gambling-house!" I gasped, and felt the top of my head +getting cold and the floor beginning to move under me. I had a dim +impression of Mr. Dingley rushing out of the room with his napkin still +in his hand; then I found myself sitting on the sofa, with a stinging +taste of brandy on my tongue, and heard father's voice saying, "Can't +you tell me, child?" + +"Oh," I said, "he's dead!" And then I poured all the story out in a +breath. I saw father's face growing more and more keen and grave and I +could feel his fingers gently around my arm as if he feared my turning +faint again. Indeed the room around me seemed unreal, but what had +happened in the street was still fearfully clear. It was cut into my +mind as if it were still before my eyes, the toppling lurch of the +falling body, the silk hat rolling into the gutter, and then that fine +terrible gentleman that had sprung out after. The moment had stamped +him as clear in my memory as years could have done. I could tell how +very tall he was, how dark, how his brows made one black bar across his +forehead, how his eyes were set deeply under them, how his chin was +wide and keen and his left cheek flicked by a white scar near the +mouth. At the time in my furious excitement I only knew that I must +tell some one everything, or the thing would kill me. But whether it +was father's strange stern face, his seeming so calm and going out so +quietly, and yet in such haste; or whether it was some memory of the +hunted look of the man who had flung away the pistol, I wished I had +not described him so exactly. It would have been easy enough to have +said I could not remember him clearly. + +I was so stunned by what had happened before my eyes that I could not +even formulate in my thoughts what it had been. The very impression of +terror that remained with me was confused, and mixed with wounding +pity. For though he had looked so wild I could not remember that he +had seemed ferocious or afraid. The look I remembered had not been +fear of what was going to happen to him, but horror of what had been +done--and horror at sight of me. + +Voices in the street, sounding unwontedly loud and excited, reached me. +People were hurrying past the house--all hurrying downward in the same +direction. I saw Lee run across the yard and stand peering out of the +side gate. I put my hands over my ears, and up and down, up and down I +walked; and back and forth Abby followed me with a little plaid shawl +she was trying to put over my shoulders. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE EVIDENCE + +It did not seem possible that Mr. Dingley and father could be gone +longer than half an hour, but the hands of the clock went to nine and +then to ten before I heard them on the steps. I made a dash ahead of +Abby, and opened the door. "Did he get away?" The words flew off my +tongue before I could think. I knew it had been a dreadfully wrong +thing to say. "I mean the other man--is he dead?" I gasped. Father +had quickly closed the front door behind him, for there seemed to be +quite a crowd in the street, and there in the half dark I could see his +face, and Mr. Dingley's, only as palish spots in the gloom. The +thought came to me, "Of course he isn't going to tell me anything. He +is going to say it is nothing I ought to hear about, and that I must go +up-stairs." + +"Ellie," he began--then he caught sight of Abby in the dining-room +door. He held out his hand to me. "Come into the study, Ellie, Mr. +Dingley wants to ask you a question." + +It was all so unexpected and so startling to be called into the study +where only men went and only business was talked about; and to hear it +was Mr. Dingley, not father, who wished to ask me a question, that I +wanted to shrink away and escape from the very facts I had been so +anxious to know a few minutes before. But father held me by the hand, +and I had to drag my feet down the long dark passage that leads to the +study, hearing Mr. Dingley striding at my heels. + +It was a small room, full of a great litter of papers, and smelling +faintly of tobacco and Russia leather. I sat down in the leather +armchair that was drawn up to the table. Just opposite me was a window +looking directly into the green branches of a weeping willow; and at +intervals the wind blew the leaves against the glass with a sound like +"Hush!" Up to that moment I had had no memory connected with that +room--only the general sense of awe it had given me as a child. But as +soon as I was in that chair, facing that window, hearing the "Hush, +hush," of the weeping leaves, in a quick distinct flash I saw myself, a +naughty child, sitting up in that chair, in anguish of mind over a +stolen jam pot, and my mother's face pulled to great gravity, no doubt +to keep from laughing at the sight of me. I seemed to hear her voice +again, "The truth, Ellie, remember nothing but good ever comes of the +truth." + +It flitted through my mind as a little, sweet memory, having nothing to +do with what was happening at the moment, for the thought in my mind +was all, "What has become of the man with the revolver?" + +Father had sat down opposite me on a corner of the table, but Mr. +Dingley walked to the fireplace, turned his back to it, put his hands +behind his coat-tails, buried his big chin deep in his collar, and in +just the same cheerful voice he used when he asked me how many hearts I +had broken, "Now, Miss Ellie," he said, "what makes you think that the +man who came second out of that door had a revolver in his hand?" + +I looked at him in astonishment, his question seemed so silly. "Why, +because I saw it." + +He gave his head a brisk shake. "Yes, but what makes you know you saw +it?" + +"Because I heard it strike the ground." I was growing more and more +bewildered. + +"You heard it strike the ground," Mr. Dingley repeated slowly, "but"-- +Then with a sudden pouncing forward motion of his head and shoulders, +he shot the words at me, "I thought you said he had it in his hand." + +"Yes," I stammered, "but that was before." + +Mr. Dingley was watching me steadily. + +"Now, Miss Ellie, aren't you a little confused on that point?" + +I was indeed; but it was his manner that was doing it. He seemed to +snatch the words out of my mouth, and turn them into another meaning. +"But it was there! you saw it yourselves!" I appealed to him. + +Father and Mr. Dingley glanced at each other, and a strange thought +came to me with a rush of relief. "Wasn't he dead, had he gone away, +didn't you find anything?" + +The answering look of their faces made my heart go down like lead. "We +found everything as you told us except the revolver. There was no +revolver there." + +I sat clutching the arms of the chair, staring hard at Mr. Dingley, who +seemed suddenly to have become a stranger to me. "Then some one must +have picked it up." + +"But, Miss Ellie, you say that the street was absolutely deserted when +this thing occurred; and when I reached the spot there was a woman +looking out of a window, and some laborers running up from Sutter +Street, but no one had yet reached the place. Now, how could--" + +Father struck in, "No, Jim, you'll only frighten her!" In a lower +voice he said something that sounded like, "Not on the stand yet." +Then, leaning toward me, across the table, resting on his elbow until +his face was level with my own, "I know you must have been much +frightened at what you saw, child, and it's possible you may have been +a little hysterical, isn't it? It's possible you might have fancied a +revolver in his hand, isn't it, when there was none there?" + +He said this very slowly and gently, as if he were trying to soothe me, +but looking straight into his eyes I saw a sharp anxious light there, +and the conviction came to me that he very much wanted me to have been +mistaken. Mr. Dingley, from the fireplace, was watching me hard, as if +he were trying, with that incredulous look of his, to force it on me +that I must be mistaken. And then the thought floated through my mind +that in some way it would be better for that handsome, terrible man if +I could say I hadn't seen a revolver. I tried to make myself believe +that they were right; I shut my eyes. The picture came to me as if it +were before me still, and nothing in it was more clear than that thing +of steel and pearl. "I wasn't hysterical," I said, "I saw it plainly." + +"Could you take your oath in court?" father said in a stern voice. + +"Oh, yes." + +Father dropped my hand and leaned back. He looked puzzled. Mr. +Dingley came close to him and said something so low that I couldn't +catch it. But father answered in his usual voice as if he had +forgotten I was there, "No, Jim, if she says so then she did--be sure +of that!" He listened again while Mr. Dingley murmured to him, and the +look of their faces, the lowered, hushed tones of their voices, made me +feel, more than words could have done, that they were talking about +something very serious. All the while Mr. Dingley was speaking father +slowly nodded. "I have no doubt you could, Jim," he said at last, "and +it's very good of you to offer, but we can't suppress evidence because +it happens--" He dropped his voice and I lost the last word. + +Mr. Dingley looked silently down for a moment, and I thought he was +going to say something more, but finally he only, shrugged. "Well, +what time do you want to go down, then?" he said. + +Father looked at his watch. "We might as well get this business over +as soon as possible. Ellie--" His voice sounded so sharply on my name +that I jumped up, all of a nervous tremble. "Go up-stairs and put on +your bonnet, I want you to come with me." + +I felt that my voice was woefully unsteady. + +"Won't you please tell me what is happening and where we are going?" + +"Martin Rood has been shot; he is dead. A man has been arrested, +corresponding to your description, and we are going down to the prison +to see if you can identify him." I stared at father, and my only +feeling was one of vague, incredulous wonder. Martin Rood, the fine +sleek gentleman whom I had seen swinging out of his gambling-house in +the late afternoons--could that have been he, that huddled heap of +clothes in the gutter? + +"Quickly, Ellie," father's voice reminded me. I went stumbling +up-stairs in a burning excitement. I think I had some wild notion of +locking myself into my room and defying the house, for the idea of +facing that terrible man with his wild terror-stricken face threw me +into a panic. But Abby screamed at me that I was treading on my ruffle +as I came up-stairs, and captured me; and I let her put another gown on +me and my turban and a heavy veil without lifting a finger to help her, +as if I had been a child. I knew father was waiting for me at the foot +of the stairs, and there was no escape, I must go down. When I got +into the hall I saw that Mr. Dingley's buggy was standing in front of +the house, though it was but a few blocks down Washington Street to the +prison on Kearney. + +But we did not drive as I had expected straight down Washington, making +instead a detour of several blocks, and finally, by means of a little +alleyway, coming to the back door of the prison. + +The only people in sight were a couple of policemen, but, Mr. Dingley +on one side and father on the other, fairly lifted me out by the arms, +and hurried me into the building, as if they were afraid of being +caught by some one. The first thing I was aware of was the cold gray +light falling on us from high overhead, and a faint sickly odor, very +faint but very penetrating, the like of which I had never breathed +before. We were standing in a flagged hall, looking up through a great +well, past gallery after gallery, to a skylight covering the top of the +roof. It was the sunshine filtering through the dull, thick, greenish +glass which gave that cold, sad-colored light. Within the galleries I +caught glimpses of men at work at desks; and over the railings lounged +figures, peered faces, disheveled, sodden, disreputable; and sometimes +near these a policeman's star twinkled. I saw it all in one upward +glance, for I was hurried on. Our steps clattered over the flags of +the hall, and then, turning to the right, we began to go down-stairs. +I took tighter hold on father's arm, for we seemed to be descending +into a dungeon. That sickly, acrid odor grew heavier, making me think +of caged animals, and yet, what made it worse, it wasn't quite like an +animal either. + +The hall we came out into was smaller and darker than the one above it, +and empty except for a policeman standing by a door. To him Mr. +Dingley handed his card, and, after a few minutes, we were admitted to +a small office. It was divided in half by a railing; on the inner side +was a desk, at which a man with a star on his coat was writing under +the light of a green-shaded lamp. He came forward, opened a gate in +the railing for us to enter, shook hands with Mr. Dingley and father, +and then was introduced to me. His name did not reach me, but I +understood the words "Chief of Police." Then all three talked together +in low voices, while I sat where I had been bidden, in a chair close to +the railing. Once or twice the man with the star glanced at me, and +then, presently, they all looked at me, and I couldn't distinguish one +face from another. My head was whirling so with excitement I felt as +if I were living in a dream. Yet when the man with the star began +speaking I heard him with curious distinctness. + +"All that is necessary for you to do, Miss Fenwick, is to tell me +whether you recognize the person you saw this morning." + +I sat forward on the edge of my chair. I tried to draw a deep breath, +but the sickly atmosphere seemed choking me. There was the tread of +feet outside the door; it opened and two officers came in, stopping one +on each side of the doorway; and then, with a queer shock, I saw not +the one man I had expected, but a file of men, shuffling one behind the +other, and linked together by what seemed a long steel chain, from +wrist to wrist, into the seeming of a single thing. This thing halted +opposite the railing, and faced about before me, where it appeared to +me as a line of heads and moving arms and legs and shuffling feet. But +among them all I saw only one individual. It was absurd if they had +expected to confuse me with these other creatures. I saw him instantly +and I knew him past hope of mistaking. His clothes were all torn and +disordered; there was a cut on his forehead and a bloodstained bandage +showed on his wrist beneath his sleeve; and the bitter way he held his +head up and stared straight past me at the wall made him seem quite +grim and yet, somehow, very forlorn. A lump rose in my throat. I +heard the Chief of Police saying, "Is there any person here you +recognize?" I swallowed hard and opened my lips, but the only sound +that came was like a sob. + +Quickly the prisoner turned his eyes on me. There crossed his face +again a look like the faint shadow of that look which had transfixed +me, as he burst out of the door. But in a moment it was gone, and he +smiled. Such a smile, so warm and kind, as if he were reassuring and +encouraging me to go on! It transformed him from a terrifying presence +into something beautiful. It made me forget the others and the room +and, curiously, in their place, came the confusing memory of a +ball-room and a slim boy with black brows whirling down the polished +floor with his splendid partner, both in a gale of laughter. Those +long white hands, now linked together with a chain,--hadn't I seen them +holding up a woman's filmy draperies? + +"Speak, Ellie," my father's voice said. "Can't you tell us?" + +It brought me back from my fancies with a great start, and before I +knew what I was saying I had stammered out, "Yes." The next moment I +realized they were all waiting, waiting for and looking at me; and it +seemed as if I could not go on with the truth. It was only the thought +that everything depended on me, and that, whatever I said, father would +believe it, that nerved me to get through with it. + +"He is that one," I said, "the fourth from the end." + +The Chief of Police looked at me sternly. "You are sure of that?" + +"Quite sure." I was surprised at how steady; my voice had grown. + +The Chief of Police said something in a lifted voice, the line of +prisoners filed out with one of the policemen, and left the man I had +pointed out alone in front of me. It was then I noticed how his hands +were awkwardly carried in front of him, held by two steel bands around +his wrists, with a chain like a bracelet-chain swinging between. The +sight of it affected me strangely. I had a new bracelet which also had +two bands with a chain between, but they were of gold, and both were +worn on the one hand. + +The Chief of Police came and stood beside me, and said, "Look at this +person, Miss Fenwick;" and I had been looking at him all the time, as +if by doing that I could make him understand how terribly I wished I +had never seen him. "Can you take your oath--could you take your oath +in open court that he is the man?" + +The Chief's voice sounded solemn, and those words "oath" and "open +court" made me feel frightened. But I saw he held up his hand, palm +out, and mechanically I held up mine. "Yes," I repeated after him, "I +can take my oath in open court." My voice sounded very loud to me, and +clear, and not at all like my own. + +There was a pause, and now they were no longer looking at me, but at +the man standing alone in the middle of the room, as if the chain +between his wrists had made him different from them, as if he wasn't a +man at all, but a stone. Yet I couldn't look at him like that. He was +not at all dreadful to look at, only so alone and fiercely proud and +wretched looking that something ached inside of me just to see his face. + +Then the Chief of Police nodded at the policeman and said, "That will +do." But before the man could move forward the prisoner had walked +straight up to the rail, and standing there scarcely two feet from me, +in such a low voice that only I could hear, "I am sorry I frightened +you this morning," he said. "If I had known you were passing I should +have managed it differently." + +This all happened so quickly that I had hardly seen how dark his eyes +were before father thrust between us, and I heard his voice, sounding +very low, and saying something about infernal impudence and not +presuming to come near me. The policeman touched the dark man's elbow. +He started, half-turned on the man, made a movement with his hands; but +then he felt the jerk of the chain. The blood rushed to his face. +With the policeman holding his arm he walked away across the room, and +I wondered what sort of place he was being taken to. It wasn't until +the door had closed upon him that I realized how angry father was. Mr. +Dingley was saying that prisoners ought not to be permitted to speak +without permission, but the Chief leaned over his desk, smiling at me, +and asked, "What did the prisoner say to you?" + +"He apologized for frightening me," I answered. + +Still smiling, as if he were coaxing a child, "Exactly what words did +he use, Miss Fenwick?" + +I could have repeated them exactly, but I hesitated, for the last words +he had let slip had sounded oddly in my mind--"If I had known you were +there I should have managed it differently." He seemed to make himself +so absolutely responsible for what had happened! And when I thought +how Mr. Dingley had twisted my words about I was afraid--afraid that if +I repeated the ones that this man had spoken they would somehow get +twisted into a meaning--perhaps not the true one--that would be bad for +him. I was so upset, I said, and so startled by the man's speaking to +me at all I hardly thought I could repeat them word for word. + +Father put my coat around me and said, "I hope that is all," very +coldly. + +"Yes," the Chief said, "except that this young lady must understand +that she is not to speak of what she saw this morning." + +"Remember, Ellie," father said, "if your friends talk to you about it, +you have heard and seen nothing." + +I murmured, "Of course," and followed father out of the prison with a +very strong conviction that nothing was real. + +As we walked home again all the familiar surroundings seemed dreamlike +to me--the Plaza, with its high iron railing, and the shops facing upon +it, and our own green palm farther up the street, fluttering on the +sky. Father himself, so silent and walking on without ever turning his +head to look at me, seemed quite a different person from the father who +had gone with me the day before, merrily, to buy my bracelet. The +thought of the man with the dark eyes and the chain between his wrists +filled all my mind. Who could he be? The sense of warmth that had +come with his smile, and that very curious sensation I had had when he +had come up close to the bar and spoken to me, were with me yet. His +voice had been pleading and deferential, surely nothing in it to +resent. The memory of his face made me forget the chain between his +wrists; as if he himself had been greater than any of the people around +him. + +We had reached our own door, but before father could put his key in the +lock, the door opened from within, and there in the hall stood Hallie +Ferguson, her new blue bonnet on one side, her face crimson with haste +and excitement. + +"Oh, Ellie," she gasped, "have you heard? I've been waiting the +longest time for you. Isn't it awful? Johnny Montgomery has shot +Martin Rood, and they say it's about the Spanish Woman." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE RUMORS + +Hallie's facts dashed so coldly and so suddenly upon the warm fancies +which had been taking possession of my mind, that for the moment I +could only stupidly gaze at her. Then, without any reason that I could +account for, I burst into tears. + +I cried all the while father carried me upstairs. I cried convulsively +while Abby was getting me to bed, and, wound up in the sheets with my +face hidden in the pillow, I cried inconsolably for a long time. That +aching sensation in my throat would not wash away with tears. Vaguely +I heard the doctor explaining to father how my present condition was +due "to severe nervous strain, and the subconscious effort of the +constitution to combat it." I knew it was nothing of the sort, but +just the plain fact that Johnny Montgomery, seen once dancing at a +ball, and ever after to me the model of all romantic heroes, was a +murderer. It was dreadful to think that it was through me he had been +taken, because I had remembered so well his beautiful black eyebrows, +and the little white scar near his mouth; but nothing that had followed +had been so terrible as that first sight of him, when he rushed out of +the door, with all the horror of what had just happened, in his face; +or so cruel as the thought that he could have done such a thing. But +why did his look, both then and later, come back to me accusing and +reproachful? How could I help what I had done? I had had to tell the +truth, and surely he must know that nothing but good ever comes of +that, no matter how hard it seems. I agonized through the early +evening hours, and fell asleep not with a sense of being drifted +deliciously away, but of sinking down under deep exhaustion. + +When I awakened the next morning I was astonished to find myself +feeling quite differently--a little tired and languid--but the aching +misery, the black hopelessness, that had fallen on me the night before +had quite evaporated, left perhaps in that bottomless pit of sleep into +which I had sunk. + +It seemed now, in the broad daylight, as if I had made too much of +everything that had happened; as if Hallie must be mistaken. It could +not have been Johnny Montgomery who had shot a man, or, if he had, it +must have been an accident. And, even suppose he had meant to kill +him, what possible difference could it make to me? + +Here Abby knocked at the door, and, showing a rather forbidding face +around it, said that Hallie was down-stairs; but that if I was going to +have any more conniption fits I would better stay where I was. She +left a glass of milk and a clean tucker and sleeves on my chair. I +swallowed the milk, and hurried into my clothes, but I descended rather +slowly to the hall. I had always confided in Hallie, and I knew she +would probably expect to hear all about it from the moment I had seen +him. I hated to think of the questions I would have to answer; yet I +would have to face them sometime, and it was better to get it over at +once. + +When I reached the sitting-room door I was decidedly dashed at sight of +Estrella Mendez's red pelisse behind Hallie's blue hat ribbons. Two of +them were a little too much for me, and I was all ready for flight when +Hallie pounced upon me. She is such an imposing person, wears so many +tucks and ruffles in her clothes, such bows on her hats, and can spread +her skirts about and rustle so, that I always feel like the merest +child beside her. + +"You poor little Ellie," she began, "how pale you look still! I am +afraid I frightened you to death yesterday." + +I murmured something about being much upset. + +"Yes, your father said you were not at all well. He gave me such a +scolding for pouncing out on you like that!" She laughed her deep +throaty chuckle. "But I supposed of course you had heard, it happened +so close to you. Didn't you even hear the shot?" + +I must have gaped at her. Could it be she didn't know that I had seen +it? Didn't know what I had been through? I recalled confusedly the +warning of the Chief of Police and father not to say anything of what I +had seen. This was what they meant; this was the meaning of the +carriage, the alley and the back door of the prison; all my part in the +business had been kept secret. I wondered what in the world Hallie +could have thought of my behavior last night, but I was greatly +relieved to think of the fusillade of questions I had escaped. I +managed to get out something about father's having heard a shot. + +"Of course I know that," Hallie said, pulling me down on the sofa +beside her. She was too full of her subject to notice how oddly I must +have looked. "It's all in the paper, how they found him--Mr. Rood, I +mean." + +"It's here," Estrella said, sitting down on the other side of me, and +unfolding the crumpled sheet she had been carrying rolled up in her +hand. She and Hallie held it stretched out in front of me. + +The sight of Johnny Montgomery's name staring at me from the page made +my heart beat a little. But when I began reading down the column I +couldn't seem to make sense of it. The only thing that stood out in +the jumble was a name nearly at the bottom of the sheet, Carlotta +Valencia. It gave me a queer little stir of feeling, merely seeing +that name under his. Keeping my finger on it, "Who is that?" I asked. + +"Oh, don't you know?" Hallie demanded, looking surprised, but delighted +at the chance of giving more information. "That is the Spanish Woman." +Estrella crossed her arms on her waist, and drew herself up, exactly as +her mother does when she thinks some one is beneath her. "You see," +Hallie went on, explaining a little more to me, "she was--well, a sort +of friend of Mr. Rood's, and the paper says she feels dreadfully about +him!" Estrella sniffed. + +"But," I cried, "you said last night that the shooting had been over +her." + +"Yes, I know!" Hallie leaned forward impressively and seized a hand of +each of us. "It's perfectly true--at least it's what my father said +when the news came. He said, 'That confounded Valencia woman is at the +bottom of this, depend upon it.' But your father was very angry that I +had spoken of it, so of course I'm telling you this in strictest +confidence. The paper," Hallie went on, we both listening with open +eyes, "doesn't say the Spanish Woman had anything to do with the +shooting. So you see, no one does know exactly what it's about. It's +really the most mysterious thing! They found Mr. Rood lying there +quite dead," she continued breathlessly, "and they went to Johnny +Montgomery's house, but he wasn't there. Then some one told Mr. +Dingley they had seen a man run down Washington Street, so they +followed that trail, and finally they got him in a house down on the +water front, in a bad part of the city. My father said it would have +made things better for him if he had given himself up quietly; but he +barricaded the house, and almost escaped out of a back window. They +had a dreadful fight before they got him even then. He is so strong, +father says, that he just threw the men right and left as if he had +been a madman." + +Hallie is wonderful when she is telling news. She never says unkind +things about anybody, and she is always so excited over what has +happened that she makes it sound like a romance. But now I was too +anxious to enjoy it. I felt I had to ask one question more, though +every word that came out of my mouth was a possible slip or lie. "But, +if they found Mr. Rood in the street with nobody near him, what makes +them think it was Mr. Montgomery who shot him?" + +"That is the very queerest part of it," Hallie declared, nodding until +her green feathers nodded again, "but he was suspected immediately. +What they say is--" she lowered her voice impressively--"that some one +saw him do it." + +I fairly cowered in my chair. "But he can't have meant to kill him," I +urged. "Why, his family was one of the best in the city. Just think, +Hallie, your mother knew his mother well, and he used to play with +Estrella's brothers." + +Estrella flushed. "He hasn't been in our house since he was a little +boy," she said angrily. "I wouldn't think of bowing to him on the +street. He hasn't been received in good society for a long time." + +Hallie sagely shook her head. "Yes, but I guess it's because he didn't +care to go, and lots of very nice girls have always been in love with +Johnny Montgomery. Lily West kept his picture in a satin case hidden +among her party clothes for ever so long. And do you know, when Laura +Burnet heard about Johnny's arrest last night, she fainted flat on the +floor." + +Hallie's bolt upright impressiveness seemed to demand some comment, but +I could not manage a sound; for at her words there rushed back to me, +with humiliating clearness, my own hysterics of the night before. Was +it possible that Hallie thought I was in love with him, too? My cheeks +burned and burned. + +"Were you ever introduced to him, Ellie?" Estrella asked, looking at me +curiously. + +"No, she has never met him," Hallie promptly took the response out of +my mouth; "but she saw him once--don't you remember, Ellie, at my +sister Adelaide's coming-out ball?" + +I said, yes, I remembered it. + +"He danced most of that evening with Laura Burnet," Hallie pursued, +"and she was perfectly wild about him. My brother Tom saw him kiss her +in the conservatory," Hallie chuckled at that memory, "and for a while +it was said that they were engaged, though she was three years older +than he was. But he was terribly in debt then, and of course she had +lots of money." Hallie sighed, and added, "Isn't it awful he should +have ended in this way? Adelaide always said there was no one who +could put your shawl around you so beautifully as he." + +It seemed terrible to me that they could sit there talking of how badly +he had been thought of by society, and how beautifully he had put +women's shawls around them, when he was in prison waiting to be tried +for his life. I was glad when the girls went and I could think about +it by myself. + +I felt sick and bruised. All suggestions that Hallie had innocently +let fall put such an ugly face upon his actions. I didn't want to +believe that hateful gossip. His smile had been so charming and kind. +There was something about him that made him seem of so much greater +importance than any one else I had known; that made every little look +and motion of his memorable and eloquent. And when he had looked +straight into my eyes I had felt the warm flowing of the blood in my +veins. Had it been these strange qualities of his that had made nice +girls fall in love with him? I peeped into my mirror to see if my face +looked as queer as my feelings felt. I whispered the words again, "To +fall in love." What could that be like? To make Laura Burnet faint +away at just the news of his arrest--what a great and terrible feeling +it must be! When I thought of him as a person who could inspire such +emotions he gathered a halo of mystery and power; but when I remembered +Hallie's saying how he had been engaged to Laura for the sake of her +money, he seemed to me the merest wretch. I told myself there was no +need of my worrying about it, as he was in prison and my part was done. +It couldn't possibly interest me any further. All the same I couldn't +get it out of my head. + +Father came home to luncheon that day, bringing Seņora Mendez with him. +He looked worried and tired, but I had never seen her so sweet, and so +very gay. + +She said I had been in the house too much, looked pale, and that she +was going to take me shopping. As we got up from the table she +lingered a moment, saying something to father about taking some one's +mind off something. And father said, yes until we can tell which way +it will go. So I supposed they were talking business. + +Seņora Mendez is such a great grand sort of lady that usually one is a +little in awe of her; but to-day she made me feel very much at home, as +we drove down the street in her big open carriage. She never once +mentioned the shooting, and I didn't have courage to speak of it +myself. But we heard of it all around us. In the first shop we went +into a woman just behind me said in a loud voice, "Do the rebels think +they can shoot us all down as Wilkes Booth shot the president?" And +then, again, at another shop where we were looking at lace, the clerk +said, "This is a terrible thing for the city, Madam, the loss of such a +valuable citizen." But Seņora Mendez seemed not to hear him, and went +on explaining to me the difference between honiton and thread, and +showing me how beautiful embroidered net looked over pale blue silk, +until I felt quite cheerful just through listening to her and looking +at the pretty things. She wound up by buying me a lovely pair of +thread lace sleeves, and swept me out in the wake of her train feeling +almost happy again. + +Just as we had got into the carriage two gentlemen with silk hats, very +elegant indeed, came up and talked over the carriage door with her. +The one with yellow gloves said, "This is a bad business. It's a good +thing poor old lady Montgomery never lived to see this day." And the +other said, "I wonder what the effect on the city will be?" + +Seņora Mendez said she hoped the effect would be a law requiring our +young men to settle disputes with their fists instead of firearms, and +that it was a shame nice boys would brawl in gambling-houses. She +smiled and looked most easy and pleasant over it, and all the way up +the street she chatted right along as if nothing serious had ever +happened. But when we stopped at the house, just as I was leaving the +carriage, she quickly took my face between her hands and kissed me hard +on the forehead. "You poor little motherless duck," she said, and left +me with the impression there had been tears in her eyes. + +I wondered why she should feel so suddenly sorry for me; nevertheless I +felt cheered and consoled--hadn't she spoken kindly of Johnny +Montgomery as a nice boy? But it was the last good word I was to hear +of him for a week. I needed the memory of that cheer and consolation +through the next hard days. + +For now that I was recovered from the shock of the first day I began to +realize that the shooting of Martin Rood was not at all an ordinary +shooting. It had stirred up great excitement. Only one month had +passed since the president's assassination; the feeling against the +Southerners was still very bitter, and not only were all the +Montgomerys dyed-in-the-wool Alabamians, but some of the relatives had +fought on the Southern side. Rumors flew about the city of a mob +attacking the prison. There was a guard of soldiers around it the +first night, and when they took him from there to the jail on Broadway, +it was in the middle of an armed escort. All sorts of stories as to +what had caused the shooting were abroad, but the one thing the reports +agreed upon was the fact that the quarrel had been of long standing. +This was very exciting to hear about, yet I didn't enjoy talking of it +as the other girls did. + +Only when I was alone, with hot cheeks and anxious eyes, I read through +the long accounts that filled the papers, hoping to find some word in +his favor. It seemed to me that the whole city was against Johnny +Montgomery. The _Bulletin_ had stories of another shooting down South, +though it appeared that that time he had been the one who was shot at; +and of how he had lost his money in land speculations of a doubtful +character. The _Alta California_ called him a rebel, and said that his +career had been "a demoralizing influence to the youth of the city." +Though, on the other hand, it called Mr. Rood our esteemed and lamented +citizen, which was puzzling to me, for he was only a gambling-house +keeper whom none of the best men in town was friendly with. But the +papers spoke very warmly of him; called Mrs. Rood, Senior, his +sorrowing mother, and then they mentioned the Spanish Woman. They said +she had been in love with Rood, and that he had expected to marry her. +That recalled a memory of what father had told me when I first asked +him about the Spanish Woman--that she had money, and influence in high +places--and I wondered what that influence could do to Johnny +Montgomery's case. Altogether I was much disturbed. I hated to ask +questions of father, he had been so distressed over my part in the +affair; and besides he had been very busy that week, so many men +interviewing him when he was at home--Mr. Dingley, and others who were +not elegant, but very businesslike--that I hardly saw him except at +meals. Once or twice I had caught him, when he thought I wasn't +looking, watching me with an anxious and harassed expression; but most +of the time he was preoccupied. + +On the morning of the fourth day after the shooting, as I sat at +breakfast, I took up the paper and read that the trial of the People +Versus John Montgomery was set for the last week of May. I glanced +down the column and a sentence caught my eye. "It is said the +prosecution is in possession of sensational evidence which will +materially affect the aspect of the case." I sat for some minutes with +the paper in my hand, listening to it rustle, gathering my courage. + +"Father," I finally said, "do you think that Mr. Montgomery is really +wicked?" + +He looked over at me with that smile of his which is most serious. "My +dear child, I am not Almighty God." + +"But you know what I mean," I protested. "The papers have been saying +such nice things about Mr. Rood, but you yourself once said he was an +'insidious and pernicious influence in the community'; and the papers +are printing such dreadful things about Johnny Montgomery! They are +telling all sorts of stories about him--that he has been in shooting +scrapes and dishonorable business deals, and--and horrible things," I +ended rather uncertainly. + +"Oh, no doubt he hasn't been such a bad fellow," father said, passing +his cup for coffee. "As far as his land operations are concerned, I +know for a fact that the 'dishonorable dealing' the _Bulletin_ talks +about was all on the side of the men who got his money. But you see he +would go into the deal in spite of the advice of the executor of the +estate, antagonized all his father's friends--plucked the Roman +senators by the beards, as it were;--so of course they were ready to +believe the worst of him. Then he went badly into debt, and +accumulated too many creditors to be popular. But Rood, you see, +always had money, always kept his escapades quiet, and was very liberal +to the city. He has given a deal to different public institutions. +They can't do otherwise than praise him." + +He took up his letters and began to open them with a paper-knife. + +"But," I said, "they say Mr. Montgomery has been engaged to a girl for +her money." + +Father threw back his head and laughed--I can never tell when I am +going to amuse him. + +"Engaged to a girl for her money? That's the worst thing on his list, +I suppose, eh, Ellie?" Before he finished the sentence he was almost +grave again. "I know where you got that information." He shook the +paper-knife at me. "Women's gossip is an invention of the devil! +Don't listen to it! The poor fellow has enough real counts to be +accused on, God knows!" + +He said the last words with such an emphasis as did away with all the +comfort his explanation had brought me. I did not dare to press him +further; I was afraid I might hear worse. + +He sat a moment frowning down at the tablecloth; then, "How would you +like to go down to the ranch for a week or so?" he inquired. + +"Alone?" I asked. + +"Well, I will go down with you, and stay as long as I can. Abby, of +course, will be there all the while. The colts are to be broken in +next week--that will be worth seeing; and no doubt the flowers will be +beautiful." + +I said I would like to--though indeed I did not at all care. I was not +thinking of flowers. After father had left the house I went up-stairs +to my room; and, first locking the door and drawing the curtains close +because I did not want even my climbing white rose to see me, I took +out my new bracelet, and clasped it--one gold band around each wrist +with its chain swinging between--and closed my eyes and, holding my +wrists out, drew them apart until the chain jerked and stopped them--to +see just how it felt! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FIRST DAY IN COURT + +As father had said, the breaking of the colts was well worth seeing. +The first day I arrived at the ranch, clinging to the top rail of the +corral, I watched the glossy huddled flanks and shoulders and tossing +heads of the youngsters crowding together in the middle of the +inclosure, quivering with apprehension of the man approaching with his +rope; until, the man being unendurably near, one and another would +break and wheel, and trot with high head, whinnying, around the corral +close to the fence. Then, when Perez had one fast, one end of his rope +around the glossy neck, and slowly working toward him, hand over hand, +finally touched the velvety head, how the creature started, swerved, +tried to back, and felt the jerk of the halter. It made me think of +the way the prisoner had started when the policeman touched his arm. +At first their nervous, proud, restive airs reminded me constantly of +that strange person; and not only the colts, but some times it was some +drifting shadow of cloud, some color or some sound, that inexplicably +brought him up to mind; and I would plague myself with wondering what +was going on in the city, and what was to become of him. But as the +days passed and no newspapers came from the city--at least I saw +none--and no letters to remind me of what was happening there, I +recalled him less and less distinctly. He remained in my mind but as a +sort of dream; things about me reminded me only of themselves, and I +became absorbed in picking out a new saddle-horse, and searching the +meadows over to see if the Mariposa lilies were coming up this year in +their accustomed places. + +Splendid fields, in early spring filled with wild flowers, stretched +down toward the bay, but close around the house were the somber and, to +me, more beautiful groves of oaks. To wander away until I had lost +sight of the house in their olive glooms and saw nothing around me but +dark trunks, crooked elbows of boughs and sweeping leaves, was my +delight. I loved to crown myself with their white beards of moss, and +fancy I was walking through a cathedral aisle, a princess going to be +married. But, whereas I had never needed to imagine a bride-groom +before--myself and the crown had been enough--now my imagination +insistently placed a figure walking beside me, or coming to meet me +under the solemn roof of branches. I had to abandon my crown, and run +races with myself before I could leave the figure behind. + +On the whole it was safer, I found, just now not to imagine too much, +but instead, while father was there, to take long rides with him into +the San Mateo Hills; and, after he had gone, shorter excursions in the +vicinity of the town. Or else to walk with Abby in the morning down +the broad Embarcadero Road to the little wharf on the bay. It was +charming enough there when all was idle, with white adobe huts, and +dark faces sleeping in the sun, and the lap of the tide on the +breakwater. But when a ship was coming in, or was loading to get out, +the Embarcadero filled the eye,--carts backing up with vegetables; +casks being rolled out on the wharf with a hollow and reverberating +sound; hallooings from the boat; and then round she would swing, with a +tremendous snapping of canvas, while the shadow of her brown sails, +patched with red, floated over all. + +The country, and especially the country in spring, seems to have a way +of making the place where one has lived before very unreal and far +distant. Two weeks of such dreamy living drifted the city, and the +violent things that had been done there, so far behind me that I could +think of them without a tremor. I could even think of my own part in +them as if it had happened in a play. + +Then one evening, just before dark, a boy on a heavily lathered horse +rode up to the piazza steps, and, like the messenger in a novel, handed +me a letter. It was from father. "Have everything in readiness to +start to-morrow morning," he wrote. "I shall expect you at the house +at six-thirty to-morrow night without fail." This letter threw me into +a flutter of excitement. I was accustomed to short-notice orders from +father, orders that carried no explanations; but they had always been +sent through the mails. A messenger meant great need of haste. I +recognized him as father's office-boy. Was my father ill, I asked. + +No, he was in excellent health. + +I thought, "Perhaps he has been suddenly called out of the city and +wants to see me before he leaves home." It surely couldn't be that +this summons had anything to do with Johnny Montgomery's case. Having +to rush off at such short notice I was luckily too busy to have time to +worry about it; coming up through the valley Perez let me drive a good +deal, and the horses were so spirited I needed all my wits to keep them +from running away. But when we began to wind in and out among the tall +round hills to the south of the city a nervousness came upon me, and I +kept wondering what could be wanted of me. By the time we reached the +house on Washington Street I could scarcely sit still. + +Father was standing in the door to welcome me. I fairly flew up the +steps. "What is the matter?" I asked, almost before I hugged him. + +"By, and by we will talk about that," he said. "Now, come in and see +what a fine host I am." But as I passed him, I heard him saying to +Perez, "Before you put up the horses I want you to take this note out +to Mr. James Dingley, at his house, and wait for an answer." + +It was a charming table, lit with candles, and there was a delicious +dinner, but I was too excited to eat. The glass of wine that father +made me drink only seemed to make my thoughts spin faster, wondering +what could be going on since by father's manner, and the message he had +given Perez I felt sure it must be something unusual. When dessert had +been put on, and Lee had gone out, leaving us alone there opposite each +other, I thought, "Now it's coming." + +Father had set down his coffee-cup untasted. "I have had to send for +you, Ellie," he said, "because of a matter connected with the trial." + +My heart was beating quickly, and in spite of myself my voice trembled. + +"When does it begin?" I asked. + +"It began last week," father answered, "but there has been no evidence +of any consequence yet." + +He was silent for a moment, looking thoughtfully at the dancing flames +of the candles. "I suppose you know," he went on, "that, in trials +there is usually plenty of circumstantial evidence, but eye witnesses +are rare and their testimony most valuable?" + +I nodded. This feeling of suspense was intolerable. + +"I very much hoped that yours would not be necessary. Mr. Dingley was +of that opinion. But a new development has suddenly arisen, and now I +am afraid you will have to be state's witness--the most important one +they will have." + +There are no words to tell of the panic I was in. Father's face, +wrinkled with anxiety, was watching me. "I would give anything to keep +you out of it," he said. + +I tried to make my voice steady. "And will I have to tell them whether +or not I think him guilty?" + +He put his hand over mine. "God bless the child, no! You will have to +tell them only exactly what you saw, all that you saw, and just how you +saw it." + +I could breathe again. After that one awful moment, when the whole +weight of the trial seemed on my shoulders, anything was a relief. +"But, father," I said; "do you really think that he is guilty?" + +Father gave me an odd look. "Aren't you the one person in this city +best qualified to answer that question?" + +I stared at him. I felt as if I had been suddenly set up in a high +tower, above all other people in the world, and that I was going to +fall. I had known in a blind sort of way what I had seen, and, also, +that no one else had seen it; but I had not realized the terrible +isolation, the responsibility of such knowledge. "Oh," I cried, "I +only wish I had never gone near Dupont Street. I am so sorry I have +made you unhappy!" + +"Well, my dear child, this is no time for regretting what has been +done. We must think of ourselves only as two citizens of the state, +and be ready to do all we can in that cause. You know it will not be +easy, it will be made as difficult as possible for you to answer +straightly." He had hold of both my hands now, was looking hard into +my face. "And a young good-looking prisoner will make it harder yet." +His eyes seemed to go straight to my thoughts. "Ellie, I can depend +upon you, can't I?" + +I was glad I could say, in quite a steady voice, "Oh, yes, yes!" + +He smiled. "Of course I should have known without asking. Now don't +fret about it. To bed, to bed, to bed! We shall have to be up early +to-morrow if we are to be in court by nine o'clock." + +He was smiling, as he said this, with his old gaiety, but I suspected +he was only putting it on to cheer me, as I now understand Seņora +Mendez had done when she had taken me shopping. + +After I got up-stairs I couldn't sleep. At about ten o'clock I heard +the door-bell ring, then long heavy steps going down the hall, and the +shutting of a door which I guessed to be the door of the study. That +was odd; father seldom had visitors so late. I tossed and tossed. I +kept trying to picture the court room. I saw it as a vast place, with +a cold chilly light, like the hall of the prison, filled with a surging +mob of people; serried rows of lawyers all in white wigs--the memory of +some English pictures--and a terrible judge in a black gown, calling +out my name. Suppose, even with the best I could do, I should make a +mistake; forget something, or, what would be much worse, remember +something wrongly! + +I realized that I was hearing voices with remarkable clearness. I was +able to recognize father's and Mr. Dingley's, and they seemed to be +talking just beneath my window. Then it occurred to me that, since the +evening was mild, the window of the study, which was just beneath my +room, must be open. The sound of those voices worried me; Mr. +Dingley's was louder than common, and there were times when both seemed +to speak at once. I got up softly and going to my window very +noiselessly closed it. Then, so that I should not be quite stifled for +air, I set the door into the hall wide. It opened outward, so that I +had to step out on the landing. Just as I did so, I heard the study +door flung open, quick steps in the hall, and there, from that part of +the hall directly beneath the landing, Mr. Dingley's voice: + +"Oh, that's just your supersensitive conscience! There was no need of +bringing the child up to town. There's enough circumstantial evidence +to convict ten men of whatever guilt there is." + +Then father--"Yes, and I thought you had enough to convict one--that is +I did last week. But this new development,--this Valencia woman, puts +another face on the business." + +"Come, now, Fred, the poor woman is really mighty upset over Rood's +death! All she says is that she doesn't really believe the boy did it." + +"And for that reason, and that reason alone," father broke in, "she is +going to throw all her influence with the defense--thousands of dollars +spent, and Lord knows what wires pulled, to get him off. Man, you +can't believe it! Don't you know she's going to fight us every inch of +the way? You'll need every scrap of testimony you can dig up! And +such an important piece as--" They were advancing up the hall. I +shrank back and closed the door. + +Faintly I heard the voices in the hall going on a few moments longer, +then the front door shut with a deep sound, and the house was still. I +got back into bed but it was not to sleep. + +It seemed that since I had been away from the city this strange thing +had happened: the Spanish Woman, whom the papers had described as +mourning for Rood, had taken up the defense of Montgomery. I couldn't +understand it. It would seem that I ought to have been glad--I, who +had been so anxious to find a champion for him--but queerly enough the +only feeling that came was one of fear, as if, instead of saving, she +had been dragging him into worse danger. I lay, staring now at the +ceiling, now at the window, where, toward dawn, a paling light began to +shine. I no longer felt the nervous anxieties that had kept me awake +through the earlier part of the night. I was calmed by one great +dread,--the thought of the Spanish Woman! Her presence rose up and +possessed my imaginary court room, obliterating the figures of the +judge and the lawyers, until it seemed that she and I and the prisoner +were the only persons in the room, and that the one person she was +fighting in all the city was myself. + +The next morning when I came in to breakfast father laid his hand on my +cheek, which felt very burning, and said, "You are not fit to answer +one question." My throat was dry, and it was hard work to swallow +things, but he stood over me and made me eat a good breakfast. After +that he had me go over the story of what I had seen on the morning I +had been coming home with my basket of mushrooms. When that was done, +"Now remember," he said, "all you will have to do will be to tell that +same story, and to answer to the best of your recollection all +questions put to you. If you are careful to do that they can't confuse +you." Abby had fetched my turban, with a dark veil, which I had to put +over my face before I went into the street. There a carriage was +waiting. + +As we drove it seemed to me there were more people in the street than +usual; and when we reached the jail there was a dense crowd in front of +it, and policemen were striking with their clubs to make a passage +through. But our carriage drove, as Mr. Dingley's had done before, +around the building and through the little alley to the back entrance. +Even here some people were gathered; and as I stepped to the pavement a +woman called out in a shrill voice, "Ain't that Carlotta Valencia?" +Father seized me, and almost lifted me up the steps and into the high, +coldly lit hall. + +To-day, however, it was not empty. A continuous stream of men, some of +them escorting ladies, were hurrying in the front door, and across the +echoing flags, and up the stairs. Following them, we were upon the +first balcony and in front of the door which was kept a-swing by the +people going in. Father stopped and said something to a policeman who +seemed to be on guard in the hall. He pointed at a door next to the +one which was so constantly opening and shutting. + +"This way," father said, and I found myself, much to my surprise, not +in a crowded court room, but in a small box of a place, hardly large +enough to hold the six chairs that furnished it, and with only one +other person in it besides ourselves. "This is the witness room," +father explained. "We await our summons here." + +I took one of the six chairs. The room was a dreary little place, with +a high, dingy ceiling, one small window, placed far up the wall, and a +small air-tight stove with no fire in it. I looked at the one other +occupant with a greater interest, now that I knew that he must be a +witness. He was a dark, slick, Mexican-looking man, who dangled his +hat nervously from his fingers, and kept glancing at the door. +Presently it opened, a policeman put his head in And said, "Witness +Manuel Gora." The Mexican jumped and shuffled hastily out. Father +took the _Alta California_ from his coat pocket, and I sat trying to +make out the pattern in the old carpet at my feet. + +I had distinguished a dead-looking rose and some faded out sunflowers +when I heard the click of the door, and a waft of perfume touched the +stale air, and made it like a garden. I looked up. There she stood in +the doorway, the Spanish Woman. + +She was all in black, her face wax-white, a little black hat on her +wonderful golden-red hair, and in her breast a tuberose. It was the +intoxicating sweetness of that which had breathed upon me first, and +now kept on breathing upon me, while she watched me through her +eyelashes. From sheer fright I kept looking at her--I couldn't help +it--until I felt father's hand touch mine. That seemed to break the +spell. I looked down at the carpet again and felt the color rushing to +my face. I heard the rustle of her dress, a soft, silky, indefinite +sound. She had come forward into the room, had taken one of the +chairs, I knew--I heard the subsiding of her draperies--and then I felt +her watching me. Her presence was like a great light in a closet. It +was oppressive. I began to breathe quickly, and the odor of her flower +was making my head ache. + +I heard the crackle of father's paper as he rolled it; then his voice, +low and speaking close to me, "Mr. Dingley said you were to be called +after Gora. We would better go into the court now, so as not to be +hurried." + +Somehow I had a fancy he would not have suggested our going into court +so soon if the Spanish Woman had not come into the witness room. I +followed him down the hall, not daring to turn my head, though I +thought I heard the door open again after we had closed it, and then +the rustle of her dress; but it did not seem to be following us, but to +grow fainter, as if she had turned in another direction. + +We joined the crowd of people hastening toward the swinging door. As +we came up to it I heard from within a high-lifted resonant voice that +I thought I recognized as Mr. Dingley's speaking with pauses and rising +inflections, as if addressing an audience. It ceased just as we +entered the court. + +The room was large, though not nearly so large as I had imagined, and +quite cheerful in color. I had an impression of yellowish pine walls +and plenty of light, a continuous though not loud murmur of voices and +the incessant flutter of the movement of a crowd. There were no +serried ranks of judges and barristers in black gowns, indeed at first +sight my confused eyes saw nothing but the crowd. And such a +well-dressed, holiday-looking gathering! I saw girls whom I knew, +their gowns making bright spots of color among the men's dark coats. +It looked more like an afternoon concert than a trial. Every place +seemed to be taken, and men and women, standing up, lined the walls. +But a police officer said seats had been reserved for us, and led us to +two on the side aisle near the front, and quite under the shadow of the +balcony. Once I had sat down among the crowd I ceased to notice it, +and began to take in what was directly before me. + +At that end of the room which we were facing was a platform, railed +off, and on it a great high desk, at which a rather undersized man sat, +leaning his head on a beautiful white plump hand, and looking up at the +ceiling as if he were thinking. His face was round, fair and unlined, +and had it not been for his mop of grizzled hair I would have thought +him quite young. + +"That is Judge Kelland, who tries the case," father whispered. + +I felt a wonder that he should seem so uninterested in what was going +on. In front of his desk, but below the platform, a man was writing at +a little table covered with papers; and in front of this again was +another table, larger and quite long, at which a number of men were +sitting. Nearest us Mr. Dingley sat with another gentleman, small, +slim and very calm looking. They had their heads together, evidently +talking; and next to them was a young man who seemed to be making +jottings in a note-book. Beyond him I could make out no more than +vague heads and elbows, on account of the movement of the crowd. To +the right of this long table and on a line with our places was +something I recognized as the jury box, the heads of some of the men in +it showing quaintly over the high side. + +From one thing to another my eyes traveled hastily, taking them in +unconsciously, for the one figure I was looking for--that I had +expected to see before all others, standing up in the prisoner's dock, +the centering point for all eyes--I could not find. The only thing +that might have been a prisoner's dock, a small railed inclosure on the +right hand of the judge's desk, was empty. But presently there was a +shift in the restless gathering, some people, who had been standing up, +sat down; and I saw a little more of the long table, first a space, +where no one was sitting, and then the broad back of a man, who had +shifted in his chair as if to face the person next to him. In a moment +he had turned back again, and leaned forward, and there, in the little +space through the crowd,--a profile like a picture in a frame,--I saw +Johnny Montgomery's face. + +The start it gave me may have been pure astonishment, I saw it so +suddenly and it looked so different. All the dishevelment, the +defiance and anger were gone. His black hair was brushed down, smooth +and burnished as a crow's breast. The stock and the great black satin +bow beneath his chin were as immaculate and as perfectly arranged as +father's, and his face itself was calm, almost sweet in expression. + +I had been expecting to find a prisoner in a dock, and here he was, +dressed like any other distinguished young gentleman in the court room, +and sitting among the lawyers. All at once he put up his hand to push +back his hair, and I saw that his hands were free. I felt a sense of +unspeakable relief, as if he had already been acquitted. The only +thing that seemed to set him apart from others was that expression of +his, which was troubling in its very sweetness, as if he were not +trying to combat or oppose anything; as if he had foreseen to the end +what would happen, and had given himself up from the first. + +Then a voice, high and sing-song, seeming to come from nowhere, began +calling out something which I couldn't understand, and the Mexican I +had seen in the witness room rose from the crowd and shuffled up into +the little railed inclosure. The gentleman who was sitting with Mr. +Dingley got up and began asking questions in a weary monotonous voice, +to which the Mexican replied that his name was Manuel Gora, that he was +a Mexican by birth, and by occupation a barkeeper; that at present he +was without employment, but that previous to the seventh of May he had +for ten years been in the employment of Martin Rood. + +I could hear the stir all over the court room, and my own heart began +to beat. + +"Ah!" The gentleman who was on his feet seemed to shake off his apathy +and grew very, emphatic, "Now, Mr. Gora--on the night of May the sixth +where were you?" + +The man answered in a low voice that all that night he had been in Mr. +Rood's gambling-hall. + +"Go on, tell us and the gentlemen of the jury all that you remember of +the occurrences of that night and of the morning of the seventh until +six-thirty o'clock." + +When the Mexican began speaking all the rustle died out in the court, +and in the deep silence his precise, mincing utterance made every word +distinct. He had gone on duty at six-thirty o'clock, he said; the hall +had closed at eleven, it being Sunday night, and at that hour Mr. Rood +had not yet come home. He had locked the doors and sat up until two. +Then Mr. Rood came, and went immediately to bed. + +Here the lawyer interrupted, "Do I understand you that Mr. Rood lived +at the gambling-hall?" + +No, the man said, but he had rooms upstairs which he often used. After +Mr. Rood had retired he had himself gone to his own room, which was +also up-stairs, but in the back of the house. He was not yet asleep +when he heard the bell at the side door ring. "And then," the Mexican +said, "I went to Mr. Rood's door and asked if I should go down-stairs. +Mr. Rood said, 'No,' and then he said, 'Curse him, no, I won't let him +in.' But after the bell had rung three times more, he called me and +said, 'Go down, Manuel, let him in. I will come down in a few minutes.' + +"After that I went down and let in Mr. Montgomery." + +"One moment, Mr. Gora." The lawyer who was standing had raised his +hand. "Was there anything in Mr. Rood's manner which led you to +suppose he had feared a visit from Mr. Montgomery?" + +The man who had been sitting next the prisoner was on his feet. +"Object, your Honor, to the form of the question, as being--" He +mumbled the rest, I couldn't get a word of it. + +The judge brought his eyes down from the ceiling, looked at the big man +who was calling out to him; then said in a conversational voice: +"Objection sustained." Then looking at the other man, "Change the form +of the question." + +"Father," I whispered, "that man who just now objected, isn't he Mr. +Jackson? Hasn't he been at the house to dinner?" + +"Yes, and one of the best lawyers in the city; but he is defending +Montgomery, I am sorry!" + +"Did Mr. Rood," the first lawyer began again, "show surprise when you +told him there was some one at the door?" + +"No, sir." The man hesitated. "He was angry." + +Mr. Dingley's lawyer looked triumphantly at the lawyer for the defense; +then he again turned to the witness. "Had you ever seen the person you +let in before?" + +"Very often. He came a great deal to play." + +"Can you point him out?" + +The Mexican peered at the crowd. "He is sitting the third from the end +at that table." + +There was a sigh that seemed to come from the whole court room. I +tried to get a glimpse of Johnny Montgomery's face, but too many people +were standing up, and moving chairs, and when the flutter subsided a +little I was able to catch the witness' voice going on. + +"Then I brought them some drinks, and Mr. Rood told me to go to bed. +They were left alone down there when I had gone up-stairs. I went to +sleep. I was waked up in the very early morning by quarreling voices, +and before I was wide-awake I heard a pistol shot. I ran down the +stairs and out into the back of the house, as I do when there is +trouble, and wait until I think it is over. Then, after listening a +while, everything perfectly quiet, I go out into the bar where I left +them and it was empty; but on the floor I see a pistol; I look at it +and it is discharged; then I go into the other rooms, no one. Then I +hear the crowd crying, I look out the door--there I see him!" + +It seemed to me I couldn't bear to hear any more, and I stopped my ears +until I saw the lawyer for the prosecution sit down. But as soon as he +was down the lawyer for the defense was on his feet, and had begun +asking a lot of questions that seemed to me very foolish, and very +little concerned with Johnny Montgomery. Then, without seeming to have +made any point at all, Mr. Jackson sat down; the Mexican came down from +the witness-stand, the judge left his place and went out through a door +at the back, and a man who had been hovering on the outskirts of the +lawyers' table, hurried to Mr. Dingley, and whispered something to him. +Instead of coming over to speak with us, as I had expected, Mr. Dingley +went hastily out of the room. Father left me to speak with a man on +the other side of the court; and, among all the standing and walking +and going out, Johnny Montgomery and I were the only ones who sat quite +still. + +As yet I saw him in profile. He was leaning forward, his elbows on the +table; now and then he ran his fingers through his hair. Once I +thought he was going to drop his head in his hands; but after an +instant's drooping he threw it up sharply with a sort of shake that +tossed the long locks out of his eyes, and faced around in his chair +and saw me. He didn't seem surprised at finding me there. I couldn't +be sure that he had not known just where I was all the while; but +though he looked at me so steadily it was not, somehow, like a stare. +He did not look, at me quite as if I were a human being, but as if I +were a statue or a picture. He was the one who turned away. Then I +sat looking at the back of his head. + +There was a murmur of talk all through the room, but above it I heard +two men behind me greeting each other. + +One said, "Well, what's the game? Is she a stricken widow or a hopeful +fiancée?" + +"A little of both, I guess," the other answered. "She's been pretty +good to Rood--ten years--but he was getting gray and fat, and the fair +Carlotta herself is nearing the age when a woman begins to yearn for +beauty and youth. There's one thing I will say for her, though, she +seems, to be hard hit. I never saw the man Carlotta would turn her +little finger over for before, and she's going in for acquittal with +all she's got." + +"It's scandalous, that's what it is!" I heard the first speaker bring +down his fist on his open palm. + +"Oh, I don't know," the other said. "I think it's pretty decent of +her, and she may manage it. Great is Carlotta!'" + +They moved away, and I sat still, staring stupidly at the back of +Johnny Montgomery's head. The cool callous tones of the men knocked on +my heart like blows. I was amazed at the familiar way they spoke of +the Spanish Woman, in spite of all her dignity, and commanding beauty; +but to hear them speaking of Johnny Montgomery as if he belonged too +her was intolerable. It was ridiculous! Of course it might be that +she was interested in his case, might even be in love with him; but +that he should care for her-- + +I was so unnerved that I didn't notice father's reappearance until he +leaned over and touched my arm. + +"You will probably be called next," he said. Then, he must have felt +me trembling and supposed it to be nervousness. "Remember, for the +honor of the family," he whispered, smiling. + +The lawyers and the men who had been writing were all coming back to +their places; and then Mr. Dingley hurried in, and down the aisle to +where we were. + +"My dear Fred," he began; and then I couldn't hear any more, because he +pulled father by the arm until they stood a little farther off from me, +where they talked very earnestly for some moments. Father looked +perfectly disgusted. + +"Next time, be very sure before you order our presence in court," he +said as he came back to his chair. "I am capable of great +disagreeableness, as you know." + +Mr. Dingley smiled and rubbed his hands, and said these little +unexpected things would turn up. Then, as the judge was coming into +the room, he hastened back into his place. Father threw his coat over +his arm and said, "Come along, Ellie." + +"What is the matter?" I asked. + +"Oh, one of their infernal technical hitches. After insisting on your +presence this morning, your testimony is not required." + +I got up very slowly. I couldn't resist sending one glance toward +where Johnny Montgomery was sitting, and as I did so he turned his +head. It was the same quiet gaze he had given me before. It must have +been only my fancy that saw something wistful in it; but I hated to go. +I felt as if I were leaving him alone in the hands of his enemies. It +seemed impossible for me to remember that of all those enemies he had I +was the very worst. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SECOND DAY IN COURT + +As father and I crossed the lower hall, "Do you believe all these +stories about the Spanish Woman are true?" I asked. + +He looked at me quickly. "What stories?" + +"Why, I heard them talking in court to-day; and last night,--I didn't +mean to,--I overheard you and Mr. Dingley as you came out of the study." + +Father looked grim. "It is with those stories they will try to convict +him." He took a few more strides before he added, "If they can prove +that Montgomery wanted to cut out Rood they'll have a bad case against +him." He didn't speak again until he put me in the carriage. Then he +said, "I hope that you will get this matter out of your mind. I hate +to have you think about it." + +I said I would try. Indeed, after that last remark of father's about +Montgomery wanting to cut out Rood it seemed to me that, if I didn't +quickly get something else into my mind, I should go crazy. So while +the carriage bounded over the cobblestones, I was busy planning--the +menu for dinner to-morrow, where to leave my ear-rings to be mended, +how to do over my blue silk gown, and where had been the error in the +butcher's bill. My thoughts rushed from one little thing to another, +afraid for an instant to let go. + +Upon arriving home, Abby hanging over the banisters, wanted to hear +about the court proceedings; but I called out to her that my testimony +hadn't been required--and would she please get out the apricots, and +after luncheon I would make that sauce she had been after me to do for +the last week. + +She seemed astonished, but gratified, at my unwonted energy. I had +been an absolutely useless creature about the house for so long. Now I +hurried through luncheon, and attacked the apricots as if my life were +staked on getting them halved, stoned, and boiling. + +"Good Heavens, child, how you rush!" Abby protested. "There's no such +great haste." But she did not know that I was trying to run away from +an idea. + +In the intervals of preserving I dived into the cellar and brought up +my rose and lilac plants; and the afternoon was spent in running +hot-cheeked from the stove to the garden, digging, carefully +sprinkling, while Abby lowered the roots; then packing the earth and +patting with all my might; darting back to the kitchen again to ladle +out the steaming stuff into jars and strenuously to screw on their +covers. + +But for all my wearing of myself out, through the steam of the cooking +pots, between the leaves of the rose-bushes, the pursuing idea would +lift its head. The picture of the Spanish Woman as she stood in the +witness room, the golden glimmer of her hair, her wonderful white waxy +face, and the way her eyes had sparkled at me through her lashes, +returned to my memory, powerful as the odor of her flower. I compared +her with that flower--luxurious and perfect looking, as if she had +grown in a hothouse; and with that strange overwhelming characteristic +which drew, in spite of all disliking. It was useless to cry, "I do +not like you and I will not believe in you." There were two things I +had to acknowledge--her will, and her power of seduction. Hadn't I +felt the light of it as she had stood looking at me? + +Finally, when wearied out, I lay in bed that night, the idea I had been +fleeing overtook me; and I gave up and looked it in the face. "Well, +yes, and suppose he does love her? Should that surprise me so much? +How should he help it? She is so beautiful!" + +Still that admission had been forced out of me in a moment of weakness, +between my pillow and the dark; and I was determined it should not get +hold of me with its swarm of attendant tormenting thoughts. I was +resolved to go into court, thinking of nothing but just that small +measure of evidence which was mine to give; and to come away again, +turning my back upon the whole matter, and taking up again the round of +my daily employments. + +This heroic resolution was knocked on the head the next morning by +father's announcing that I was not summoned for the opening of the +court,--and he added parenthetically Lord knew when!--but might be +called for any time that afternoon, so I was to hold myself in +readiness. This left me in a miserable state of uncertainty, which was +not improved by seeing my name in the _Alta_, as witness, just above an +exhortation to the people of San Francisco to see that justice was +done, even if the law failed in its work. + +The best course seemed to be the immolation of myself in the long +neglected house work. A vigorous sweeping of my room, the preparation +of an elaborate luncheon salad, and the total rearrangement of the +parlor furniture might help to get rid of that heart-beating +expectation--soothing, and bulwarking me around with domesticity. But +the excitement of the city kept invading my retreat, as if it were so +full of that great matter that it had to spill over even into houses +where it wasn't wanted. The first ripple had been the sight of my name +in the paper that morning; but the wave went quite over me when, just +before luncheon, Hallie rushed in. She had been at the trial all the +morning, and had only just seen the _Alta_ with my name. + +She hugged me a number of times, with exclamations of how awful but +fascinating it must be, to be a witness, and what was it I knew--why +hadn't I told her--she would never have divulged one word of it--though +of course if I was under oath! Still, couldn't I tell her all about it +now? + +I believe that Hallie's respect for me had taken a leap with the news +of my position, and when I explained that I was still under oath, and +couldn't tell anybody anything until I told it from the witness-stand, +she looked at me with positive awe. + +She stayed to luncheon, and it was a trying but most exciting meal. +Alas for my elaborate salad! We might have been eating india-rubber +for all we knew or cared. For Hallie poured forth all the history of +the trial, from the time I left the court room, and I would not have +stopped her had it been possible to do so. + +It seemed that the afternoon of the opening day a man who was a waiter +at the Poodle Dog was put on the stand. This was the new witness Mr. +Dingley had spoken of. He told how Mr. Rood had been at supper in the +restaurant at about midnight, how Mr. Montgomery had come in with +another gentleman, and gone up to the table where Rood was sitting. +While he did so the other gentleman sat at a table near the door. Mr. +Rood and Mr. Montgomery did not have supper together, the waiter said; +did not even drink together. They talked only for a few minutes, and +he thought they were disagreeing because, though their voices were not +loud, they sounded angry. Then Mr. Rood got up suddenly, overturning +his chair, and said, "I won't hear anything from you," and though he +had not finished supper, paid his bill and went out of the restaurant. +Mr. Montgomery had waited a few moments before he followed him. The +gentleman who had sat near the door had been the last to leave the +restaurant. + +"And then," said Hallie, warming to her narrative, "they called the man +who had come into the Poodle Dog with Johnny, and what do you think! it +was Willie Felton." + +"Not the one who went to dancing-school with us, and had such red +cheeks?" I wondered. + +"His cheeks aren't red now," said Hallie; "and he has wrinkles all +around his eyes, just like an old man. He has been awfully dissipated. +And, oh Ellie, you should have seen him sitting up there looking at Mr. +Dingley and looking at Mr. Jackson, and biting his nails, and never +daring to look at Johnny Montgomery. He said he had met Johnny about +twelve o'clock that night, by chance on Montgomery Street. They had +walked a little way together, and Johnny had said, 'I am going away +to-morrow,' and Willie Felton asked was he going to the races. Johnny +laughed and said, 'No. I am going to some place I've never seen +before, and I'm not coming back until everybody has forgotten me.' He +behaved queerly, seemed to be very much excited; although, Willie said, +he was sure he hadn't been drinking. + +"As they came to the Poodle Dog Johnny said, 'There is some one here I +want to speak to.' And after they were inside he said, 'Excuse me a +moment,' so Willie Felton took a table near the door, saw Johnny talk +with Rood, saw Rood upset his chair as he went out, and Johnny follow +him out of the door. When he himself got outside, he said that Rood +was nowhere in sight and that Johnny was standing looking up Montgomery +Street. He seemed to be very angry. Willie said, 'Where are you +going?' and Johnny turned on him and said, 'I'll tell you where I'm +going--I am going about my business!' and then he walked quickly away +up the street in the same direction that Rood had taken. + +"While he was telling about it," Hallie went on, "Mr. Jackson kept +interrupting, saying, 'Object, your Honor,' and making it awfully hard +to follow the testimony. Then another young man was called, and he +didn't tell any story. They had a hard time even making him answer +questions. But he did tell that he knew the quarrel between Rood and +Johnny began three years ago at the time of the California Bank +shortage, when Johnny said that Rood had lied himself out of prison and +an innocent man in. + +"Oh," I cried, "I'm so glad!" + +Hallie looked as if she thought I was crazy; but I explained that what +I really was glad of was that the quarrel had been Rood's, and not +Johnny's fault; indeed that it had shown Johnny to be in the right, at +least that once. + +"Well," Hallie declared, "he does need a good word, I must say!" + +This morning, she informed me, had been awfully stupid,--just +cross-examining, and interrupting; but finally they did call some one +new--a Mexican woman. And she testified that for two years Carlotta +Valencia's friends had known her as Mrs. Rood. "And then mother +wouldn't let me stay any longer," Hallie lamented, "because she said +the woman wasn't a proper person. But I wanted awfully to hear what +else she said!" + +Here Abby came in, and remarked that if we were going to talk all day +we would better go somewhere else and give Lee a chance to clear off +the table. + +The garden has lovely places in which to sit, so we went out there and +took the rustic bench in the shade of the cypress hedge. + +"But what does Johnny Montgomery's lawyer say?" I asked, for that was +really the point of interest for me. + +"Why, he claims that Rood committed suicide, because he was despondent +over something--business I guess; and of course they did find a +discharged revolver in the bar. The weak spot in that, father says, is +that the bullet Rood was shot with is much too small for that revolver." + +I knew there was a far weaker point in the defense than that, and I +wondered, in the face of it, how I was ever going to drag my unwilling +spirit up into the witness-box. The summons might come at any +moment,--might come now, while we sat talking with our feet in the sun +and the cypress shadow cool upon our foreheads. + +At four o'clock father came stepping out of the conservatory, calling +out, "What young person will give a tired man a cup of tea?" Then, +noticing my questioning look, "No summons for us to-day," he said; so I +ran in to fetch the tea-table. + +Tea in the garden was a rare event. The few warm spring days gave the +opportunity, and nothing was prettier than the scarlet lacquer tray +with the Nankin cups set out under the heliotrope vines. I asked +whether this was any special celebration, and father said yes; it was a +farewell complimentary to him. He had to go out of town to-night. He +hated to be away over Sunday, he explained, but there was business at +Alma which he must look into sometime during the next five days; and +week days for the present would be out of the question--by which I knew +he meant he must stay on account of the trial. Then he stopped being +sensible, and began teasing Hallie about her latest beau. He loves to +do that, because she takes it all so seriously, and never sees that he +is joking her. Just as she was protesting that she had no serious +intentions toward the person in question, two young men came around the +path from the front of the house. Hallie's beau and Jack Tracy, who +had fluttered my sentiment a short time before by asking me to marry +him. But now he was too bubbling over with importance to remember to +look sentimental. + +Had we heard the latest sensation, they wanted to know? Montgomery had +tried to break jail. Came mighty near doing it, too! + +I had been holding a cup and saucer when he began speaking, and when he +stopped it was on the brick path in a hundred pieces. + +"Poppycock," father said, "the town is full of rumors." + +But, no, they said, it was true enough. They had it from good +authority. It seemed that the sheriff had been bribed. Just how and +by whom I couldn't make out, because every one was talking at once. +But the sheriff had been removed, "pending trial," said Jack Tracy, and +the deputy was acting in his place. + +"But," I said, "if it wasn't Mr. Montgomery who bribed the sheriff, how +can you tell he really wanted to escape?" + +Then every one laughed, and I stooped over and began picking up the +pieces of the Nankin cup, so that no one should see how I was blushing, +but my hands shook so that it was all I could do to hold the pieces. +What in the world was the matter with me lately? There was no reason +in my behaving like this, as if Johnny Montgomery had been an old +friend. I excused myself on the pretext of having father's bag to +pack, and escaped into the house. "All the same," I said to myself, "I +don't believe he tried to get out, or even really wanted to. From the +way he looked in the court I am sure he doesn't care what happens to +him." + +But oh, I did wish he cared a little more; how I wished that some one +could show, in his behalf, one contradictory piece of evidence; so that +all the testimony wouldn't seem to be narrowing down to one point where +there would be room for but one thing I could believe him to be! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE SPANISH WOMAN'S HOUSE + +Sunday, which found me sole mistress of the place, was beautiful, warm, +and beguiling. That lovely locked-in feeling, which comes only when +the streets are quiet, and no tradesmen, not even the postman, comes +knocking, soothed me after the days of tension and expectancy. + +Abby went off early to church, and I took a book out to the rustic seat +by the heliotrope. At about half-past ten Mr. Dingley came through the +conservatory; but he was used to coming in and out of the house so much +that his joining me in the garden was no more of an invasion than if he +had been one of the family. He said father had told him he was to be +out of town, and he had come around to see how the household was +getting on. We sat there very comfortably in the warm sun, aimlessly +talking, hearing the sweet notes of church bells. I was just about to +resume my book when Lee put his head out of the conservatory door. + +"Some one to see you, Miss Ellie," he announced, and disappeared +abruptly before I could ask who. + +I went in, fearing it would prove to be some girl whom I did not know +well, who had called out of mere curiosity. I was surprised to find, +awaiting me in the hall, a person whom I did not know at all--whom I +had never even seen before. It was a half-grown shuffling Mexican, +with a blank and stupid face, looking as if he might be some one's +stable-boy. But as soon as he saw me, he produced from some pocket and +presented to me with remarkable swiftness and dexterity, a small +immaculate white note. It was addressed to me, and the writing was not +Estrella Mendez's small copper-plate script, but a larger, bolder, more +dashing hand, scarcely like a woman's. + +"To the Seņorita Elenora:" it began,--and I wondered whether it could +be from one of mother's old friends, for she had had several among the +great Spanish families of the north. "I am asking if you will honor me +with your presence for a short hour this morning," the letter ran. "It +is impossible that I come to you, for I am ill. But there is a very +great reason why I must see you. It is a matter touching justice. You +will not fail." It was signed "Carlotta Valencia." + +I read the signature twice over, and then the letter. No, my eyes were +not playing tricks. But still, could it be some practical joke? I put +the envelope to my face. Ah, it was she, it was the perfume of that +flower! She had really written; she had summoned me. + +The very fact that she had communicated with me, this being who was not +as I was, whose life seemed as irrevocably separated from mine, as if +she inhabited another planet, was amazing. And as for those +expressions in her letter, "a very great matter," "touching justice," I +dared not think what I wanted to believe. + +I carried the note out into the garden. "I don't know how to answer +this," I said, handing it to Mr. Dingley. + +He read it, and whistled. "Well!" he said; and then, "there's one +thing sure; you will not go alone!" + +"Why, you don't mean to say I'm to go!" I cried. + +He looked inquiringly. "Why not?" + +"Oh, but father doesn't even like me to speak her name." + +Mr. Dingley coughed. "Quite right, quite right! That is, of course, +under ordinary circumstances. But in affairs of this sort, where +state's evidence is concerned, we are obliged to lay personal feeling +aside. Now from this letter," and Mr. Dingley tapped the little sheet +which he held before him, "I gather that the Seņora Valencia may have +some information concerning this case of ours now going forward. Of +course if it's incriminating, the state must have it. On the other +hand, if it should tend to exonerate the defendant, of course we shall +be very glad." + +I murmured, "Oh, yes!" The hope of a possible means of clearing Johnny +Montgomery went flushing through me. + +If the Spanish Woman had anything to say I knew it would be in his +favor. Still, there was something strange about it. "But if she has +this information," I asked, "why doesn't she tell it in the court?" + +"My dear Miss Ellie, why indeed? We never know why women do things. +But it has been my experience in legal cases, and especially in +criminal ones, that women will often give evidence in some such +high-fantastic way as this, which could never be got out of them +through the proper channel,--that is by means of cross-examination, in +court. Now she's evidently taken a fancy to tell you something, and I +feel it is our duty to see just how much is in it." + +"Oh, yes," I said again, but this time more faintly, for when I thought +of whom I was to face, some cowardly thing in me wavered, "But are you +sure it's--safe?" + +Mr. Dingley laughed. "My dear Miss Ellie, we don't live in the dark +ages!" + +He made me feel ashamed of my hesitations. I went back into the hall, +told the Mexican in Spanish, yes, that I would come quickly. He seemed +satisfied with this verbal message, and I watched him shuffle down the +steps, in spite of his loose-hung gait, with admirable quickness. Then +I told Lee that I was going out; dinner at half-past two, all as simply +and usually as if I had been intending merely to stroll over to the +beach. But there the usualness of things ended. + +Mr. Dingley did not at all take the way I expected, the most direct and +open way by the broad easy streets, where at this hour of Sunday the +church-goers were promenading; but we went roundabout, through +unexpected short cuts, and then across the empty stretches of the +sand-lots toward where the long gray faįade of the convent stretched; +and close beside it the high fence with the latticed top which +surrounded the Spanish Woman's house. Above the fence the roof and the +small windows beneath the eaves were just visible. As we drew near my +heart beat quickly, and still I felt that, as when I was a child, I was +only going to pass it. But we turned, and I realized I was actually +stopping at the gate. + +This was so high it was merely a door cut in the fence, allowing no +glimpse of what was within, and instead of immediately opening it, Mr. +Dingley rapped upon it with the iron knocker, whose lion head had been +wont to snarl at me years ago. I heard a sharp clicking as of +something being unlocked, and the gate opened. But after we were +inside I got an uncanny shock, for excepting ourselves there was not a +soul to be seen. + +"Clever contrivance that," said Mr. Dingley, glancing up. And then I +noticed a wire which ran from the fastening of the gate to its top, and +from there in a straight line to the house. But even this discovery +didn't remove my uneasy sense of being in an enchantment. + +Around us were weedy grass plots, bushes smothering in vines, broken +flower urns, a dry and weather-stained fountain; and to and fro across +the neglect of it all moved the shadows of the restless eucalyptus +trees. A brick path, very mossy and giving uncertain foothold, ran +straight to the front of the house--a blank-looking faįade, all the +shutters closed over the windows, and a deeply hooded door. + +Mr. Dingley gave the bell handle a vigorous pull, but not the faintest +tinkle reëchoed through the interior. We waited. There wasn't a sound +of any one inside approaching through the hall. I was fully prepared +to be admitted by the same unseen agency that had moved the gate. But +when, quite suddenly, the door opened, I was aware of a figure, very +dimly seen in the gloom of the hall. We were allowed to enter without +a question, without a word; and as quickly the door closed upon us. +After the broad sunlight the hall seemed so dark, I could but sense +high ceilings and hanging draperies above my head, and feel beneath my +feet the soft depth of a carpet. All that my eyes could distinguish +was the little white glimmer of Mr. Dingley's card as he handed it to +the person who had opened the door. + +We were led through several rooms; but either they were interior rooms +without windows, or else the windows were closely muffled, for they +were so dark I could hardly find my way. But when at last our +conductor drew back a curtain, a tempered light streamed upon us, and +showed me that the cornices of the anteroom where we were standing were +gilded, that the carpet which I was crushing under my feet, was the +color of wine, and every fold of the velvet curtain where it took the +light like a ruby. The servant, holding it back, was a strange +creature, with a tightly closed mouth, and eyes that looked as if he +kept them open only a crack to see out of, but not on any account to +let any one peep in. He waved at the room in front of us, and then, +still silent as an apparition, returned, disappearing into the gloom +through which we had come, carrying Mr. Dingley's card with him. I +followed Mr. Dingley into the great apartment, which I thought must be +the _sala_ of the house, and sat down in the midst of its magnificence. + +It was in strange contrast to the neglect of the garden without; and to +my eyes it was novel in character. There were dark portraits in old +gold frames on the wall; curtains shutting out all light, but the +faintest and most colored; mirrors multiplying the tapestries and +marble statues, and seeming to extend the very walls of the room +itself. I kept catching glimpses of figures standing in these delusive +vistas, and then, with a start, realizing they were but myself. +Presently the servant returned. I saw multiple images of him advancing +upon me from all sides as if to surround me. They flitted, +disappeared, and the real presence bowed. + +"The Seņora wishes to say she is too ill to descend to the _sala_. +Will the Seņorita graciously come up-stairs?" + +Mr. Dingley turned to me. "That's about as I expected. Then I will +wait for you here." + +Involuntarily I took hold of his coat, "But you said I shouldn't go +alone!" + +"Oh, of course, of course," he smiled. "I meant I'd come with you to +the house. That's one matter. But to go up-stairs, that's hardly +possible! Don't you see, Miss Ellie," he lowered his voice, "it's +quite probable this is just a ruse to get rid of me? She would hardly +want to speak before a third party." + +The reminder that the Spanish Woman was going to speak, and the +probability of what that speech might mean was enough to make me +relinquish Mr. Dingley's coat, and send me in the wake of the +serving-man with almost a light heart. + +He led me out of the _sala_, not by the curtained way through which we +had come, but by a door opening on a little entry, and from that up a +stair, which was not at all like the stairway I had seen in the large +entrance hall. I had never been in a house so bewilderingly built. I +followed down halls that dwindled into passageways and so quickly did +my guide move, so far he kept in front of me that even when my blue bow +dropped from my hair pat upon the floor I dared not stoop to pick it up +for fear of losing sight of him. I kept on ascending unexpected little +steps; entered doors that opened abruptly as panels in the wall, +branched off into yet narrower halls, and finally was ushered into what +seemed a sort of anteroom, with only a few chairs furnishing it, and a +great extent of polished floor stretching out in front of me to a +curtain which hung across one whole side of it. There was a sweet +though rather close odor, which wrought powerfully upon my imagination. +Walking cautiously, since the floor seemed as slippery as glass, I +followed my conductor. He drew the curtain aside a little--enough to +let me slip through--said something in Spanish, some one musical word +which I did not understand, and the curtain closed behind me. I stood +there feeling like a doll, absurd, small and lost. + +I was aware of a greater sense of air and sun than I had had since I +entered the house, of a farther extent of that shining floor, broken by +great opaque oblongs which absorbed light and gave out colors beautiful +and dim; of a uniform even interplay of color upon all sides of me, as +if the walls were hung with tapestry of one pattern; but all I was +really intensely conscious of was a seated figure. She was sitting +almost profile to me, with her back to the light, which fell splendidly +upon the full length of her hair, hanging quite to the floor. She was +wrapped in something silk, of two shifting colors, green and copper, +uncovering the neck and leaving a most beautiful arm bare to the +shoulder. A maid was brushing her hair, bending low with each measured +stroke. At my appearance she straightened, stopped, and stepped back. +It looked really as if she sank away into the shadow; and the Spanish +Woman rose and came toward me, holding out her hand. The colors in her +gown seemed fairly alive, and whether it was really a woven pattern of +copper serpents rushing through green water, or only an accident of my +fancy and the twisted lights, I couldn't determine. But, looking in +her face, I thought, "Oh, surely Mr. Dingley is right. It isn't that +she is ill, but only that she wants to talk with me alone." Like her +hand, her voice was soft and warm. + +"You are very kind," she said. There was hardly a trace of accent in +her speech, only a delicate precision that made it delightful. "You +see, I have been sick, and am yet too weak to go out upon the street. +It is why I have given you the trouble to come to me." And still +keeping my hand she led me to a chair and gently, prettily pushed me +into it. There was something persuasive in her very touch. Then, +taking her seat again, "Maria, _prondo_!" she cried; and the maid +coming forward gathered up the mass of hair, twisted it deftly into a +sort of crown around her head, filling it with gold-colored hair-pins, +tucked into its coil a single tuberose; then collecting the combs and +brushes went softly out of the room. + +The Spanish Woman sat there, resting her chin in her hand, looking at +me with a pleasant rather smiling expression; and I thought she was a +great deal less overwhelming than I had expected, though she was even +more beautiful. "You have seen Mr. Montgomery?" she began. I thought +it was only a question in form. + +I said, "Oh, yes, I first saw him several years ago, dancing at a ball." + +She gave me a keen glance. "Yes, and later than that?" + +"Then, then," I stammered, for I was at a loss to know whether she knew +what my evidence was to be, "then once or twice on the street, and +yesterday in court." + +"Well, and what do you think of him?" + +"Why I--I don't know him." + +She made an amused little sound in her throat. "Yet you have seen him +three times. Once would have been enough. Surely you can tell me at +least one thing--do you think he looks like a murderer?" + +"Oh, no!" I murmured. + +Her eyes never left me. "But you do not think well of him; he is +perhaps repulsive to you?" + +"Oh, no!" I whispered. There was a painful tightness around my heart, +and my head felt on fire. It was not the Spanish Woman but I who +seemed to be telling the story. + +She gave a quick nod, as if my answers thus far had satisfied her. +"You do not believe him to be a murderer, you do not even think him +unpleasant, and yet you will go into the court and swear away his +freedom--perhaps his life?" + +"I said I thought he did not look like a murderer," I desperately +insisted, "but I can't help--" + +"I know, my child, just what you are going to say," she interrupted. +"You are going to say the words they have taught you--that it is your +duty, and all that! And do you not know that the law is just a great +machine of rules, and that this is one of them: that you must tell +whatever you have seen, no matter how unjust, no matter what harm it +does? It is for that reason I do not go to the law. I come to you, +who are a woman like me, and have compassion. You say you do not know +this man, but you have seen him. You can not be quite blind to what he +is. He has been rash and foolish, and it is true that he has made +angry some very virtuous citizens"--she rolled out the last two words +with a curl of her handsome lip--"but he is a most lovable and charming +boy, and the most brave! Can't you see by his face that he could not +do an evil thing? He was dragged into this affair as a matter of +honor; the quarrel was a fair and open one." + +A joyful feeling went through me at her words--the first really kind, +saving words I had heard spoken of him. I almost loved her for them; +and the expectation that the next moment I was to hear the explanation +of them held me, leaning forward in my chair, breathless. + +She made a little imploring movement toward me with her open hands. +"It would be cruel, cruel for a gentle, tender-hearted girl like you to +speak such words against him!" A faint color was beginning to shine in +her cheeks, and her eyes had opened wide their wonderful blacks. + +"But," I cried, "if you know something in his favor why don't you go +into court and tell them about it? If only you would speak to them as +you do to me, I know they would believe you! They couldn't help it!" + +She shot a quick glance at me, half suspicious, half fierce; but +immediately it softened into a rather sad smile. "That is very +gracious of you, to speak so; but about the court do not make a +mistake! The words I have, the things I know, are not those that speak +to the mind but to the heart. All that the lawyers take count of are +the facts; and for the jury, they would be more swayed by one word a +little innocent-eyed girl will say, than by the most eloquent plea I +could offer. It is you who will sway this balance of justice. Do not +try to escape from that responsibility. Think, think, of how, when you +saw him come out of the door, he looked at you, and with his eyes +implored you to be silent!" + +I stared at her, terribly wrought upon by the memory she had called up +of that look; astounded that she had known of it, had even been able to +translate its meaning for me. + +"Yes," she said, smiling, "I know all about it. And then you ran home +and told them." Her voice grew very caressing. "But that was in the +moment when you had lost your head. Now that you have had time to +think it all over, now that you know how much it means--oh, surely, you +will not speak again! I beg you, in human mercy, not that you plead +for him, not that you tell a false story, but only as you are a woman, +keep silence, keep silence!" + +I listened with increasing dismay, as the hot words poured from her +lips; and, with the end, a revulsion of feeling took me, a lost and +bewildered sense of being completely astray. It was not to tell me +anything she had called me hither--oh, quite the opposite!--it was to +try to close my lips. If I hadn't been so blinded by my obstinate +hopes I might have thought of this before! I might have saved myself +the ordeal; for I had felt the very heart in me weaken at the picture +of him her words called up. + +"If I could make myself believe as you do," I said, "that what I have +to tell will condemn him, even though he is innocent, I should want, +myself, to die. But I can't believe, I can't think, that God can be so +unjust as to let him be condemned when he is innocent!" + +She let her head drop back, and laughed a little. "You will find, my +child, that it is men who control the affairs of the earth; and that if +you believe any such fine things of them you will be disappointed. As +for the lawyers, they will convict an innocent man as merrily as they +will eat their dinner, if only the popular cry is loud enough, and they +can get enough of what they call their evidence against him. Do not +expect any miraculous intervention on his behalf." + +"I don't," I cried stoutly. "But some one must know the truth of what +has really happened; and that person surely will come forward and tell +what he knows before he will let Mr. Montgomery be condemned. Oh, if +only I knew, nothing should keep me from saying it!" + +She had drawn herself upright in her chair, her face whiter than her +flower, her clenched hands resting on either arm; and now she slowly +rose to her feet. Standing there she seemed fairly to tower above me, +and looking down with her eyes glimmering upon me through her lashes. +"What if he is guilty?" she said slowly. + +The room around me grew dreamy. My head felt light. All the things I +had ever believed in seemed to have fallen far, far below me, tiny and +inconsequent. I closed my hands hard around the arms of my chair. I +clung to it as if it had been my last principle of faith. "I have +given my word," I said, "and even if I had not, I should have to tell +the truth. It is a question of honor." + +She stood a moment longer with her hands still clenched and slightly +raised, as if she were going to strike a blow--myself, or her own +breast. Then she let them fall limp, and, lifting her shoulders with a +superb little scornful motion, "Ah, I thought you were only a fool," +she said. "I see, you are cold." + +She turned sharply about, and crossed the room to where something which +looked like a large bench stood against the wall, covered with +gold-colored velvet. I saw her fling back the covering and kneel +beside it, fumbling with the lid. I heard the clicking of what seemed +a series of locks. At last she turned her head and spoke, "Come here!" + +I rose and went slowly over to where she knelt in the shadow. + +"Sit down." + +I seemed involuntarily to obey those imperious words. I took the seat +she indicated, a carved stool, drawn near the chest, and saw her just +lifting out a long string of blue flashing stars. It was like a toy, +like one of those strings you hang upon a Christmas tree, only a +hundred times more brilliant. "See how pretty!" she said, and ran it +through her fingers in a little blue stream; then, with an easy motion +of her wrist, she tossed it around my shoulders. She put her hand down +into the chest and brought out a long, long string of pearls--if pearls +had ever been so large--long as the rosaries I used to string of oak +balls, and dropped it over my head. I felt the great weight of it upon +my neck. + +"Look," she said, and taking up a velvet case, opened it, and showed +me, lying on the crimson satin bed, a necklace like a wreath of light. +There was no misunderstanding the preciousness of that. The shock of +the realization of what they were sent the blood into my face. Her +eyes laughed at me with a gleam that seemed devilish. She threw the +box into my lap. She took out rings and covered my fingers with them, +drops of blood, red, and brilliant green, and rainbow colors. I +couldn't seem to speak or move. I thought she must be mad. + +"Here," she said, and leaning toward me, deftly pulled out the pins and +took off my hat. Then in both her hands she lifted something from the +chest, and, before I could stop her she had pressed it down upon my +head. Then she rose. Her face was flushed; her lips parted eagerly on +her gleaming teeth. She caught my hand and pulled me in front of a +great mirror that hung upon the wall. + +I saw reflected there a small, shrinking figure, with a white face, in +a white dress, crowned with a circlet of gold, and hung with necklaces +that made brightness in the shadow. I heard the Spanish Woman's voice +speaking excitedly close beside my cheek. + +"There is not their like in this state, in this country. Some of those +have come out of the greatest houses in Spain. They will make you +rich, they will make you beautiful! They are nothing to me; I will +give them to you, every one, to keep for ever! Take them--take them +all! And go away! Just for three little days; until the trial is +over!" + +I shrank from her in mere amazement. In the first moment I did not +take in what she meant. + +"No, but listen," she cried, catching at me, "I can make it easy for +you to go. I have influence--I will help you--I will hide you! We +will arrange the story." + +I raised my hands to my head. Now I was choking with anger, with +tears. "Do you think I would do for these, what I would not do for +him?" I lifted the circlet off my head, but my hands shook so that it +fell, and rolled on the floor between us, and I believe we both forgot +it. "Do you suppose I don't care as much as you do? I would do +anything in the world to clear him of this charge. But you don't +understand--to clear him! I can't hush it and hide it. It wouldn't +make it come right, and I don't believe he wants me to. I don't +believe that is what he meant. I know he would hate me if I saved him +with such a lie!" + +She grew white. A small sharp shadow came on each side of her mouth. +Her lips parted with a sort of gasp. "What do you know about saving or +dying; what do you know about hating or loving? You would not lie--oh, +no! You would save him--if he were innocent! Why, you child, I would +save him the same if he had killed fifty! You are so precious of your +little self, and your little virtue! Virtue? Pah! I love him--and +that is my virtue!" + +Something in the triumphant ring of her voice, in the very strength of +her passion itself, for the moment made her noble. Beside her I felt +myself small, mean and wretched. + +It seemed to me I was in a nightmare and never should awake. I pulled +the necklaces, the bracelets, the rings, off me, struggling with the +tangled chains and stubborn clasps. I shook my hand free of the last +jewel, and then snatching up my turban, pinned it on with trembling +fingers, and all the while she stood looking silently at me. One could +not tell what was behind her face. But when, at last, I had taken up +the little ball of my gloves and stood before her, she spoke in a very +soft voice: + +"Pardon me, I have lost my wits. But you are made of a material--I do +not know it--but it is not flesh and blood. Nevertheless we must not +part bad friends." + +She turned to the table and, pushing aside the jewels as if they had +been colored glass, pulled toward her a tray, and took up a glass +decanter. She poured two glasses of wine, and taking one, gracefully +held it out to me. "Will you not drink to his acquittal?" she asked. + +"Forgive me," I said, "if I do not drink to it. I will wish for it +with all my heart. That will be the same." + +"But it is not," she said, advancing, with her bright eyes fixed upon +me. "To drink--that is a deed which shows the good will. The rest is +but words. Come, you have spoken of great things you would do for him +if only you could. Well, here is one small thing. Let me see you make +good your words!" Her voice was so sweetly coaxing my hand hesitated +toward the glass. Then, as she thought I was going to take it, +something in the expectant, intense look of her caught me; and a +dreadful thought flashed into my mind. + +I shrank back. "No," I said, "I can not!" + +But she was fairly upon me with it. She was leaning over me. "Drink, +yes, drink!" She thrust it upon me. + +"No, no!" I cried in terror. "I will not!" I flung up my hand with +the impulse to keep it off me, and struck the glass, and overturned it. + +She stepped backward and set down the tray with a clang. There was no +perceptible change in her face, but suddenly she had become terrible. +"You shall never go out of my house," she said. + +My ears wouldn't believe, my senses rejected the meaning of those +words. "You would not do such a thing--you would not dare!" + +She threw back her head until I could see the great column of her white +throat swell, and laughed. "I tell you, my pretty little girl, I would +fling away a dozen such as you for only the chance of saving him!" + +I saw that she meant it--I understood how well!--I felt like a little +dry stick in a river, like a leaf in the wind. I looked behind me. +The windows did not open into the outer air but into a tightly closed +conservatory. The sound that was struggling in my throat was a scream, +but suppose it would only call in some of her creatures before Mr. +Dingley should hear! I looked squarely into her face, and I am sure, +in that moment, that I understood what death might mean. "I am going," +I said, very quietly, and walked across the room toward the curtains. + +She did not try to stop me, and every unobstructed step I took forward +I thought, with increasing terror, "What is it that she means to do?" +When I reached the closed curtain the grasp of her hands, which I had +dreaded; was the least of my fears. The anteroom was empty, but as I +passed its threshold I heard her move across the inner room, and then a +bell rang, away down in the lower part of the house. There is no +describing the feeling that was in me when, with the sound of that +uncanny signal in my ears, I opened the door into the grizzly maze of +passageways. + +I remembered that I had turned to the right in coming in, so now I +turned to the left, and hurried down that narrow, unlighted way that +led me directly to another door. But I remembered that and opened it +and stepped through into another hall. Here were three branching ways, +and it was only one of these, of course, which would bring me to the +_sala_ door. The others might plunge me into Heaven knew what places +of the house, or what hands! There was no time to hesitate, I must +choose and chance it! There was not one thing--window, furniture or +color--to distinguish them. Yet in my agony of mind I gave a glance +down one and two of them; and on the floor of the second, a few yards +from me some small, light-colored object was lying. I ran forward and +stooped. It was the blue bow that had fallen from my hair. + +I picked it up with a rush of thankfulness. This was an incident in a +fairy tale! It seemed an omen of safety, and as I held it in my hand I +fairly ran along the passage and came at last triumphantly out into the +hall, which I remembered, broad and carpeted with red. + +Down the stairs I hastened, my heart going quick with the alarms of my +escape, opened the door at the foot of it and came into the little +entry. As I entered it I fancied a sound. It was like a step, very +soft, so soft as to be hardly audible, not behind me, not on the other +side of the door in front of me, but somewhere beyond the entry +partition on my right. It was there, I reckoned, that one of those +dark anterooms, through which we had approached the _sala_, must be. +The flesh of my back was pricking, but I was almost safe. Once let me +reach Mr. Dingley and I knew that somehow he would get us out. With a +great effort I pulled open the heavy door into the _sala_. + +"Oh, I--" I began; but then I stopped. The room was so large that it +took me some moments to make sure it was empty. Mr. Dingley was not +there. + +I stood perfectly still in that stupendous place. Everything in me +seemed to have stopped moving, too--my blood and my heart. And, in the +listening pause, there came again unmistakably, soft, stealthy +footsteps, sounding beyond the heavy curtain of the door--sounding as +if creatures were gathering in those dark rooms that lay between me and +the outer hall. + +I didn't scream. I didn't want to. I walked quite quietly across the +room to one of the heavily curtained windows at the back, and pulled +the hangings aside. + +In front of me, not three feet from the window was the blank face of +the convent wall rising straight up, higher than I could see. I looked +downward. The stone pavement, which I could just make out in the +gloom, must have been ten feet below. Nevertheless I had a wild +thought that, if the worst came, I could at least fling myself down the +narrow cleft; and in that mind I took hold of the window-frame. I had +no hope that I could move it, even after I had stirred the heavy locks; +but, with the pressure of all my weight against it, slowly the two +sides of the casement opened out. As the dusty panes of glass swung +away from before me my eye caught a singular irregularity in the +surface of the wall. About on a level with the window-sill was a niche +in the masonry, perhaps three feet square, and looking to be the depth +of the wall itself. The back of it seemed to be made of a dark +substance--darker than the bricks--through which shone twinkling +glimpses of daylight. + +I climbed upon the window-sill, and, taking hold of the upper edge of +one of the casements, swung myself by this. I felt myself hovering an +instant in mid-air. Then my feet had found the niche. I crouched, +and, groping forward with one hand, grasped a stout tangle of vines. +Releasing the casement I half-dragged, half-swung myself into the +opening in the wall. I clung there a moment trembling, catching my +breath, before I realized that the dark mass at the back of the niche +was merely ivy, some of which I had grasped, tearing quite a little +opening, and through this I could see a blessed glimpse of blue sky. + +Putting my eyes close to this peep-hole I looked downward and saw below +me the grass plots of the convent garden. A great tangle of bushes was +at the foot of the wall, but in spite of that it looked a dreadful +drop. I glanced over my shoulder into the room behind me, and thought +I saw a shadow moving down the floor. I do not know how I turned +myself in the cramped space where I knelt. All I could remember +afterward was the feel of the edge of the rough masonry under my +fingers; the tearing of the ivy as my body crushed through it; the +straining of my arms as I swung downward. I gave one horrified glance +into the depths of the garden; then closed my eyes and let go. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE REFUGE + +I could not tell how long a time had passed, but gradually out of +complete consciousness, grew up the sense of a wretched throbbing. I +thought it was my head. I opened my eyes and found I was looking +straight up into the sky. I lay staring at it, it was so wonderfully +soft and blue. Presently the wind swayed a green branch into my line +of vision; at sight of that the query of where I was came into my mind. + +I moved my head and felt the crackle of twigs at my cheek. I was lying +in a mass of ivy and lemon verbena bushes, and at one side of me rose +the great face of a wall. The memory of what had happened returned. I +scrambled to a sitting posture. My head was so dizzy that I had to +catch at the bushes to hold myself upright, and my body felt sore and +shaken, but the impulse to get away from the house, whose windows +overlooking the convent wall still spied upon me, carried me to my feet. + +Through the shrubbery I peered at the garden beyond. There was a level +green lawn, with sedate paths marching around it, but no black hooded +figures were moving there in ones or twos or in solemn file, as I had +been wont to see them. I walked rather uncertainly forward across the +grass, across the dank and mossy paths, and into the shadowy length of +the corridor. This, too, was empty, and at one end of it a little +door, with a grill across it, seemed as effectually to bar me out as +the Spanish Woman's house had shut me in. In my dazed state the only +thing I could think of doing, to call the attention of the place to my +presence, was to seize the grill in both hands and shake it with all my +weakened strength. It made quite a rattling, and then I heard hurrying +feet, and presently the small, startled face of a nun peered through +the grating. + +"I want to see the Mother Superior," I said in a trembling voice. + +She looked at me sharply, and, I thought, a little as if she were +frightened. "Why didn't you ring the bell?" she asked. + +"The bell? What bell?" I stammered, for the only bell I could call to +mind was the bell the Spanish Woman had rung. Then, as the sister +appeared to be about to draw back, "Oh, please, please," I cried, "take +me to the Mother Superior! I am in great trouble!" + +There was a pause; then a little rustling, then a whispering of voices +behind the grating, and another face, rounder and larger than the +first, peered out; and a more sympathetic voice said: "Poor little +creature! and her hat is all on one side!" + +Then, after some further deliberation, in which one of the voices +seemed to be protesting that it was afraid of something, the nun who +had come first disappeared,--I could hear the sound of her feet +hastening away,--and the second opened the grating and drew me in. She +led me down a narrow, musty-smelling hall and into a dull little room +where she made me sit down, and put my hat straight, and smoothed my +hair very kindly but rather clumsily with hands like white pincushions. +At last, with the timid nun following furtively at her heels, the +Mother Superior came. She was a thin woman in flowing robes, with a +great white sheer coif around her delicate face; and she looked at me +very kindly and benevolently while I stammered out the essentials of my +story--how the Spanish Woman had tried to keep me in her house, and how +I got out of the window and through a hole in the wall and so down into +the garden. When I came to this point in my tale, "But those windows +are closed up!" cried one of the nuns. "And the wall is eight feet!" +cried the other, "and there is no hole in it! It would be impossible!" + +The Mother Superior shook her head at them, and said to me: "Can you +tell me where you live, my child?" + +I thought it odd that there should be any doubt in her mind as to that, +but I eagerly gave her the number and the street. "And if you will +only send for a carriage," I said, "because I am afraid I am too tired +to walk, I should like to go home." + +"It will be best to notify your parents," she said in a soothing voice, +"and they will fetch you away." + +"But there is no one there now, except Abby, and she is lame and very +old. Father is not in town. He will not be back until night, and I +can perfectly well go home alone!" I was beginning to feel desperate, +as I thought I never should get out of the place. + +She smiled and said, "Well, we will see! Give me your father's name." +She looked surprised when she heard it and not quite as if she believed +me, but all she said was, "Now you must lie down and rest a little +while before you go out." + +I protested that I did not feel tired, and indeed my anxiety to get +away had wiped out all memory of my bruises. But in the end I had to +follow the round-faced nun up the bare, cement stairway to another +small room. It seemed strange after the luxurious glooms of the +Spanish Woman's house, to be in this bare, whitewashed place, where all +the light fell unobstructed through little, narrow windows placed high +up in the walls. There were no mirrors here, not one, to reflect one's +figure; and it was only when I had taken off my hat that I discovered +what a wreck it was, crushed absurdly out of shape; and my hair was +half down. The nun helped me to unwind and brush it out, and I heard +her murmuring at my back, "When I was young my hair was as long as +this." + +And then she coaxed me to lie down on a little bed. I felt her cover +me up; but when she tried to make me drink something from a glass a +hideous memory sprang in my mind, and I had struck and knocked the +glass out of her hand before I could think what I was doing. I heard +her muttering anxiously to herself as she picked the pieces up, and +then I was left alone. + +With confused puzzles moving through my mind I lay there, tense, +feverish, tossing, each moment expecting some one to come and tell me I +could go home. Finally, I seemed at last really to be going. The only +trouble was that the nuns told me I could not leave unless I left as a +bride, and they had no satin and no orange flowers. + +I was startled out of this fancy by voices sounding loud upon the edge +of my dream. One said angrily, "In the first place you ought never to +have taken her to that infernal house, either for the sake of getting +evidence or any other thing." The second retorted, "Well, I wanted to +keep her out of the whole business. It was you who insisted on +dragging her in; and once you get into this sort of thing difficult +situations often present themselves." + +My eyes opened wide, and in the faint light of the floating candle +flames, just above me, I saw Mr. Dingley's face. "You weren't there! +Why weren't you there?" I said, sitting up. + +"You see," a woman's voice that I thought was the Mother Superior's, +put in, "she says and does such strange things that I dared not let her +go out into the street alone." + +Then, with an unutterable sense of relief, I recognized father's voice. +"Yes, that was quite right. She was better here." And he sat down on +the edge of the bed. + +"Oh, take me home!" I cried. + +He smiled, and said, with that same exasperating sort of reassurance +which the Mother Superior had used, "Yes, we are going immediately." + +They all made me feel as if they thought that I didn't know what I was +talking about. + +"Either every one is crazy," I thought, "or the whole world is in some +plot against me, and they have deceived father, too." Of course my +mind knew that to be ridiculous, but everything conspired to make +familiar people strange. What was it Mr. Dingley had been telling +father just before I returned to consciousness? "Perhaps after I am +alone with father at home I can get him to listen to what I want to +say," I thought. + +But there were many reasons why this undertaking was much more +difficult than I had supposed. + +In the first place, it was Mr. Dingley who began by asking me where I +had gone. He had been waiting in the front hall for me all the while, +he said, and how had I got out without his seeing me? He had hunted +all through the rooms on the lower floor, and not finding me, had gone +back to our house, supposing I had returned; and from there had set out +in search of me. + +It sounded very reasonable, and I was at a loss to understand why it +didn't seem probable to me. Then, when we reached home, we found a +person waiting--a detective Mr. Dingley had sent for--and to him and to +Mr. Dingley as well as to father, I had to tell my story. It came out +in bits and snatches, with questions and answers, Mr. Dingley's all +mixed in with mine; and when they did let me speak uninterruptedly I +was so excited that the words came tumbling out, all confused. It +seemed to me, too, that father was much more anxious over the fact that +I was feverish and had a lump on my forehead, than the fact that the +Spanish Woman had offered me that glass of wine, and then said I should +never leave the house. But he said the thing should be investigated; +and Mr. Dingley said something about making inquiries to-night; and +finally all three went out together, leaving me in a wretched state of +anxiety and doubt. + +It seemed to me that none of them at all understood the situation, and +it was so wonderfully clear, in my own mind, so enormous and astounding +in its menace, that I was woefully puzzled to see how they could have +missed it. But I was to learn no more until the following day, when, +lying in bed, stiff and sore, with every muscle in my arms and +shoulders aching, father came in with that unwontedly grave and puzzled +face that the poor dear had worn so often since the beginning of the +whole miserable experience. + +The detective and police had been to the Spanish Woman's house, he +said, and had interviewed her. She had told them quite frankly that +she had indeed sent for me to come to her, and had implored me not to +give the evidence which I was expected to give; because she said she +fully believed it to be false--that the pistol I had thought I had seen +in Johnny Montgomery's hand must have been a fancy of mine, and that +she could not bear to have such damaging testimony given so recklessly. +She had thought, so she said, that being a woman she might perhaps know +better how to elicit the real facts of the case from me, since the +men,--lawyers, police officers and even my father,--might very well +have frightened away my memory by their manner of going about it. But +when I had been so obstinate, she said, she had lost her head and +become angry, and that had frightened me. She said she had tried in +every way to reassure me; but I had resisted all her offers of +hospitality, and finally, becoming hysterical, had struck a glass of +wine which she had offered me, out of her hand, and rushed out of the +room, before she could stop me or even discover why I had so suddenly +fled. + +Mr. Dingley, father went on, had explained that he had been waiting for +me, as he had said he would, down-stairs; but at the moment when I had +come he had not been in the _sala_. + +I could only stare at father. These didn't seem to be at all the same +experiences which I had been through so short a time before; and yet, +when I considered, I couldn't contradict a thing. The incidents were +there, but somehow they all sounded perfectly harmless. I felt +bewildered. Beside these mild-looking facts my actions seemed those of +a madwoman. + +Furthermore, father went on, Mr. Dingley had said that when he went +through the _sala_ afterward, searching for me, the windows had been +closed and locked fast and the police had declared there was no hole in +the convent wall, and that the wall itself would have been a difficult +drop even for a man. + +I pounced upon this as a tangible fact. "Then some one in the house +must have closed and locked the window again; and there was a hole in +the wall, or how could I have gone through it? The drop was very bad +indeed, for my hat was crushed out of shape." + +Poor father looked very much puzzled. "But about the wine--I don't +understand. Why did you do that?" + +The answer was ready at my amazed lips, but I stopped it, for now at +last I began to see. I began to see how, without that peculiar intent +look with which the Spanish Woman had handed me the wine-glass, nor the +menacing gesture with which she had thrust it upon me, the episode of +the wine that had seemed to me so threatening became a mere empty +courtesy; and indeed, separated from the sinister appearance of the +moment, not one episode that had taken place in that extraordinary +house which could not be explained away! I knew past any doubting, +that the Spanish Woman had tried to bribe me, had tried to poison me, +and failing that would have detained me by force, if I had not got out +of the window. And, if I should tell him the whole adventure now while +it was so burning fresh in my own mind, with all its suggestive +atmosphere, its eloquent details, couldn't I make him see it as I saw +it? No. The Spanish Woman had blown the magic breath of her +plausibility, her ingenuity, upon the poor little substance of my true +story, and had scattered it like ash. It was too much of an +undertaking, even supposing it to be possible, to bring together the +pieces again. And a vaguer but even more insistent voice, prompted, +"Then suppose he does believe me? What will it mean to Johnny +Montgomery?" It seemed to me that I had been enough of a Spartan as +far as that man was considered. + +I looked up at father and said, "She frightened me--the Spanish Woman +frightened me, and so I ran away." + +How readily he took this up, showed me it was the explanation he +expected. "Yes, I know. It would be quite natural," he said +soothingly. "You have been much over-wrought, and this infernal +performance has thrown you into hysterics. But that wall, child--an +awful drop!" He laughed a little, but I could see how much moved he +was. "I hope to see that courage displayed in a worthier cause some +time." + +I did not tell him how worthy the cause this time had been, how were it +not for that bold leap of mine there would have been no star witness +for the people to-morrow. + +Something in my noncommittal air seemed to touch father, and make him +still look anxiously at me. "Of course, Dingley is going to have the +matter investigated further. The woman will probably be arrested, if +only on suspicion." + +But that evening he told me that Mr. Dingley had said nothing had been +elicited from her that would warrant such a thing; and though father +seemed vexed and dissatisfied, he argued what could one do if there was +no evidence to fasten upon? + +I did not answer; I knew it would be of no use, Mr. Dingley's +explanations were so reasonable. But since I had talked with father +that morning a piece of news had come to me which had only succeeded in +strengthening my belief in the meaning of the Spanish Woman's actions. +This was brought me by Hallie, my envoy extraordinary, who had wormed +it out of her mother who had got it from Mr. Ferguson. + +It seemed that on Saturday, just after Hallie had left the court, the +Spanish Woman had taken the witness-stand and testified that she had +been Rood's wife. Mr. Ferguson said this was ridiculous to suppose, +yet no one, not even Mr. Dingley, had challenged her statement. She +denied there had ever been any trouble between the two men. She said +she had been interested in Mr. Montgomery as a woman might be who was +old enough to be his mother, but that Rood had been her husband and +that she had loved and been faithful to him. She was wonderfully calm +and convincing, Mr. Ferguson had said, and it looked at first as if her +testimony would help the defense very much, but when Mr. Dingley's +associate began cross-examining her, he seemed to turn her testimony +inside out, and then it appeared that her evidence had been the worst +thing possible for the prisoner. For if Rood had stood so firmly in +Montgomery's way, the lawyer argued, that would give the very strongest +motive for the shooting. + +"Wasn't it dreadful!" Hallie exclaimed. "When she wanted so much to +help him, to find she had only made things worse. Father said that +when she realized how the evidence had been turned against him she grew +as white as death." + +From this I was able to understand better why the Spanish Woman had +been willing to take the terrible chance involved in sending for me to +come to her house. She must have been desperate. But, what I could +not understand was, why had not Mr. Dingley challenged any of her +testimony in the court? Why was it always his associate? + +I had a sense of things going on under the surface which even my father +did not suspect. There was plenty of news flying about in plain +hearing and sight--news of mob law preached from the custom-house +steps; news of the double guard at the jail so there would be no second +chance of escape--all these things I heard without their being able to +rouse in me any special interest. My mind was fixed on the +under-currents. I couldn't explain them to father because I didn't +understand them myself, only felt them. I felt as if I and all the +rest had been handled, were being handled now, by a baffling and subtle +power which one could not lay hands upon, because it seemed, as if by +magic, to be able to erase the evidence of its action. + +There was no telling, I thought, what the Spanish Woman might not +manage to do. Yes, even though I seemed to be safe; for hadn't she, in +a fashion, conjured me out of Mr. Dingley's protection? Her power of +persuasion--it was that which was her magic! Thus far father was the +only one who seemed untouched by it. Even I had felt the pressure of +it. Those appeals she had made when she had begged me to remember how +Johnny Montgomery had implored me, as she said, with his look, to be +silent--they had nearly undone me, and still they haunted me. + +"But I don't believe he wanted it, I don't believe he would want +anything so cowardly! and I know I do not want him at that price." +This last reflection of mine astonished myself. What could I have +meant by that? Oh, of course, that I did not want him released at that +price! But was it probable that whether he were released or convicted +it would be in any way for my happiness? Suppose, with her dark power, +she was going to be the enchantress to-morrow. Was she again going to +scatter, in some unforeseen and uncombatible way, all my testimony, and +triumphantly see the prisoner acquitted? Oughtn't I to be glad that he +would be free? Ah, that was the strange part of it! For it appeared +to me that in such an acquittal there would be something doubly guilty; +something that would send him out of the court under a deeper shadow +than ever he had found in prison; something that would pledge him to +her for ever. It was that last thought of all I could least endure. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE LAST DAY OF THE TRIAL + +After the restless crowd--craning necks; shifting feet, half-caught +sentences--excited, alert, like a nervous horse dancing at a shadow, +ready at the vaguest rumor to rush into a sensation, how quiet, +prosaic, and even peaceful the court room seemed! That morning when we +entered it was only partly filled, and in the space behind the railing +the clerk of the court was scribbling, the lawyers were lolling, +certain individuals looking like janitors were wandering idly about, +and at his high desk the judge was writing steadily, his fine, white +hand moving across the paper, his eyes now and then glancing aside as +if he were thinking and paying no attention at all to what was going on +in the room around him. It was reassuring in a way, as if after all +nothing remarkable were going to happen. + +Some women came in all in a group, among them Hallie Ferguson, her +mother hanging back in her wake, as if she were being towed along in +spite of herself. Hallie came over to where we sat, and began to +whisper in my ear some long story of something which she was deeply +absorbed in at the moment. This, too, had a habitual and pleasant +feeling about it. Even when, with a black veil over her face, sweeping +in folds down the length of her dress, the Spanish Woman came in, it +was hard to believe that she was that same terrible creature who had +stood before me only the day before yesterday telling me I should never +leave her house. + +She took one of the chairs which had been placed along the wall, so +that instead of facing the judge's desk, she fronted the crowd, and +threw her veil back. She looked white, whiter than I had ever seen +her, as if she were deeply powdered, and this had the effect of a mask. +I have never seen a human face so calm or so indifferently sweet as +hers, and she sat as motionless as if she had been carved there. One +heard the whisperings around the room, saw the nudges and the twisting +of heads, but it was as if she did not see or know them. Then the +interest of the room turned toward the door. With that queer instinct +of a crowd, which knows before it sees, the whole room know that the +prisoner was coming before there was a glimpse of him visible. + +He walked up the aisle, looking remarkably fresh and calm, as if he +were here on the merest matter of business. As soon as he was seated +he turned his head and glanced behind him, and I thought his eyes +rested first on that place where I had sat the week before; but they +did not linger there a moment, sweeping on in a half circle around the +room, glancing over me so quickly that I could not tell at all whether +he had noticed me. I thought he had been looking for some one, though +it couldn't have been the Spanish Woman, since she sat in plain sight +on the other side of the room. + +The court filled rapidly. Young men whom I knew came in, and evidently +one or two of these knew Johnny Montgomery; for they walked up and into +the railed inclosure where he sat, shook hands with him and stood +talking with him. I could not but believe that at any time he pleased. +he could rise and leave the court as freely as those others could have +done. The thing going on here which they called a trial had the +appearance of being just a pretense--a play. + +At last one of the men who had been wandering aimlessly among the +tables came forward and intoned those words which I could never +understand, but which, nevertheless, always brought quick order. Then +there was some exchange of words between the lawyers on the other side +of the rail, now with the judge, now with one another; and now it was +the clerk of the court who was speaking; and I couldn't repress the +absurd feeling of surprise that they should turn their backs and mumble +so, since it appeared irresistibly to me that we were an audience, and +the thing was being done for our benefit. + +I was trying to make out what it was that Mr. Jackson had been saying +to the judge since it seemed to make for much smiling, when above the +rustle and whisper I heard again the voice of the clerk calling out. +There was a moment's wait. Then he raised his tone; I heard, and the +words went pealing through me: + +"Eleanor Fenwick, Eleanor Fenwick!" + +I sat gazing pitifully at him while he chanted it out in that +monotonous, singing voice. + +"Ellie!" father whispered. + +I rose, then realized with a sense of desertion that father was not +coming with me. I would have to be alone. Feeling strange, oh very +strange, with the echo of my own name still ringing in my ears, I +pattered up the aisle toward that railing. As I advanced I felt as if +I were walking away from all the world. I heard the movement and the +stir of it behind me. In front I saw only the faces of the lawyers, of +the clerk, of the judge, and these all seemed without any feeling, as +if they were not people at all. + +I found myself standing in front of the railing, and two men were +facing me, one the clerk of the court, who was holding an open book. I +had an impression that they were speaking to me, still in those +monotonous, artificial voices, as if they were not saying anything with +human meaning in it, and while they spoke they held their hands up, +palm out, and I held mine. The next thing I knew I was mounting into +the little raised and railed-in seat on the left hand of the judge's +desk. + +"What is it that is going to happen here?" I thought. I turned and +took the chair, and found myself facing a mass,--a monster,--numberless +heads and eyes, all gazing at me. A cold sensation of fear went over +me, like a great wave, closing my throat, and making my head feel as if +it were fitted with a cap of ice. "Oh, I can not, I can not!" I kept +repeating to myself. + +But, while it still seemed to me as if I should never make another +sound, I heard a voice asking me my name. I recognized it as Mr. +Dingley's. To see him standing up there and gravely, as if he had +never seen me before, putting that question was indeed absurd. It was +impossible to be frightened with such laughable procedure. He asked me +my age, my place of residence, when he knew both very well, then, where +had I been walking when I heard the shot; and with these questions I +was familiar, having answered them all the day in the library, so it +made the speaking now a little easier. And finally when he said: "Now +tell the court and the gentlemen of the jury as well as you can +remember exactly what you saw," my only thought was, "Oh, how often I +have repeated this before! Will there never be an end of it?" + +But as I began, I was aware that the judge's pen, which had been +steadily scratching ever since the court had opened, had ceased; and, +as I went on, all the rustling and whispering in the room fell silent. +The stillness made the place seem immense, and for a little while my +voice went on through the silence like a tiny thread. And now it had +stopped. I had come to the end of what I knew. It had been so small a +thing to say! But the silence was so deep I dared not look around. I +kept my eyes on Mr. Dingley's face, and thought it looked very strange +and worn. + +"Can you," he began, in his ponderous official voice, each word coming +down heavily upon my ears, "Can you positively identify this person you +describe with the revolver?" + +I believe that my "Yes" was a movement of the lips and a bend of the +head. + +"Do you see him here in this court?" + +The very idea of looking again at that terrible mass of heads and eyes, +all watching me, like some fabulous dragon, brought back the sickening +panic. But, queerly enough, when my eyes did move across them, I saw +only a dark, impersonal blur, and then the one face. It appeared, in +the indefiniteness around it, singularly near and distinct. He was +looking at me with that gentle, sweet expression which my sick fancy +hinted he never showed except when he looked at me. And he was +smiling, reassuringly, as if he were encouraging me to go on; as if he +would have me to understand that no great issues hung upon what I was +going to say, that really what was happening was not so very momentous +after all. + +"He is sitting there," I said. "The third from the end of the bench, +next to Mr. Jackson." + +Instantly voices of officers rang all about the court, crying, "Order, +order!" though there had been no sound, only a great stir, which seemed +to pass across the crowd, and which the next moment might have become +articulate. I sat trembling, wondering what it all meant, clasping my +hands tightly in my lap. All the back of the hall was crowded with +men, and most of these looked like street-loungers, unshaven and rough. +They stood so close together they hid the door, and seemed to sway and +press forward upon the room; and I thought, "There are a great many +Mexicans in here." + +Mr. Dingley asked me more questions--if I had heard voices quarreling, +and I had not; which side of the street had been in sunshine, and what +color dress I had worn. I told him, thinking that this was nonsense +again. And then Mr. Jackson said something to the judge, Mr. Dingley +sat down, and Mr. Jackson leaned on the railing, making me think of a +figure on the stage, and asked me why had I gone out at that early hour +of the morning, what had been my business, how had it happened that I +was walking through such a street as Dupont, and how did I suppose the +doors of the saloon had happened to be open so early? It was all in +such a tone as made my cheeks burn with a sense of shame and +indignation, though I could not see what he was getting at. Then +suddenly he veered and demanded how could I tell that the handle of the +revolver had been mother-of-pearl when it had fallen on the shady side +of the street, how large was it exactly, how had Johnny Montgomery held +it, how had he thrown it, then--quickly leaning toward me--could I +produce this revolver? + +At this there were sounds from the back of the court like hisses, and +voices choked off on the first syllable by rappings and calls of +"Order!" The small man who was Mr. Dingley's associate attorney was +calling out, "I object, your Honor," very fiercely. + +I felt faint, and did not know in the least what was the trouble. I +began to answer that I had not touched the revolver, but the judge +smiled at me, and said in his conversational voice: only now it was not +indifferent but very kind, "You needn't answer that question." + +So I said, "Thank you." And Mr. Jackson said, "That will do," and I +noticed that some of the jurors were smiling, but quite nicely, so I +didn't mind that, as I went down out of the witness-box. + +"Can it be that this is all I am to do?" I thought. "Is it over?" I +had expected this for so long in my days and in my dreams; and the +moment had come and had passed so quickly. And here was father waiting +for me. + +"I shall have to testify. I will take you to the witness room and you +can wait for me there," he explained to me. + +"Oh, no," I said, "let me stay here. I am afraid to be alone." I +suppose the thought of the Spanish Woman occurred to him, for he did +not insist, but really I was not afraid of anything except of having to +leave the court room before I knew what the end was to be. + +By the time I had got back to my seat they had already called another +witness, and such a queer little, compact, positive-looking woman, with +a very gay, very best hat, was sitting in the witness-box looking, +possibly as I had looked, like a queer, scared animal in a pen. + +She told how on the morning of May the seventh she had been awakened by +a pistol shot, had looked out of the window and seen a woman running +down the street. Questioned as to this woman's personal appearance, +she said she could not tell, but that she wore a white dress. In what +direction did she run? The woman thought south, yes, she was sure it +was south. At this I saw father shake his head, for our house was +north of Mr. Rood's gambling place, and I noticed that Johnny +Montgomery, who had been very calm while I was talking, had now grown +nervous and jerked about in his chair. + +Father was the next witness, and when he came back again he really +tried to insist that we should go home. But, for the first time in my +life, I stood out against him. I said I could not go until I knew at +least what was going to become of Johnny Montgomery. Father gave me +such a strange look, neither angry nor sad--something which I did not +at all understand. He didn't urge me further, he hardly looked at me, +but I was conscious of his set profile while I listened to a +disagreement between Mr. Dingley's associate and Mr. Jackson. Mr. +Jackson waved his arms a good deal, but the little man kept saying, "I +insist, your Honor!" And finally the judge seemed to decide it in a +way that pleased Mr. Dingley's man; though Mr. Dingley himself seemed +not to be interested, paying no attention at all to the little man, who +kept leaning over and speaking excitedly to him, and the court crier +was calling for "Latovier." + +A pale, indefinite-looking creature rose up from somewhere out of the +crowd and shuffled slowly toward the witness-box. "There he is," I +heard the whispers around me. "Why, don't you know? That's the man +who was shipped off. They only got him back yesterday. He's supposed +to know--" + +I felt in my heart that something decisive was coming, and I had a +premonition it was going to be something bad; the man appeared so +wretchedly nervous as he sat there in the witness-box. He kept +glancing at Johnny Montgomery, shuffling his feet and shifting his hat +from hand to hand and what they got out of him came not at all as a +story, but only with very many questions. + +It seemed he had a little gunsmith's shop, not very well known, to +which, he admitted, gentlemen such as the prisoner there, hardly ever +came. But he said that on a certain night, perhaps two months ago, the +prisoner and another man had come into the shop and looked a long time +and bargained for the very best pistol he had in the place. It was a +mother-of-pearl handle, he said, with trimmings of steel, and quite +small. He had told them that it was hardly the weapon for a man to +carry, and Johnny Montgomery had answered him that he did not mean to +carry it long. + +At this there was quite an uproar in the court, the lawyers shouting, +the clerk trying to call order, and a great commotion in the press +about the door. But I do not remember being afraid, only the +inconvenience of having father keep his arm around my shoulders while I +was trying to see how Johnny Montgomery looked. Finally quiet was +restored, and then the man who had gone into the gunsmith's with Johnny +testified; and after another pause, with all my expectations strained +to tighter pitch than I could bear, came the general uprising which +meant the court dismissed, that it was noon. + +Father, looking down at me, said, "Now what do you propose to do? Are +you going home with me?" + +"Please," I said, "do this one thing for me. I have done everything +you have wished so far. I can not endure not to know the worst or the +best that can happen. I must hear the end. Let us come back here +again this afternoon." + +I was so excited that I didn't care what father thought of me. But all +he said was, "Well!" And, "Then we will go over to the restaurant +across the street for luncheon instead of going home." + +It was a help not to have to step out of the excitement of the +proceedings. It was that which kept me up, which carried me along. +"There she is; that's the girl who saw it!" The voices whispering +behind me gave me a sad stir of feeling, but it was better than being +left to think. It spurred me; and the clatter of dishes and the crowd +which filled the restaurant, talking all at once, yet with no distinct +words audible, all helped to bridge over the chasm of the waiting. I +could see Laura Burnet sitting at a near table with her thick veil +raised only a little above her nose, just enough to let her drink a cup +of tea. Some of father's friends and one or two of the young men I +knew stopped at our table to shake hands, but very little was said, and +of the trial nothing at all. For all their trying to be easy and +natural, I could see that my presence embarrassed them. I could see +them glancing at me as if they wondered what sort of person I could +be--as though I had become something different from a girl by answering +questions in the witness-box. By two o'clock we were back in court +again; and how changed everything seemed! All that desultory feeling +of the morning was gone, and as I looked about over the faces I could +see how every one's mind was fixed on the same thing. A woman whom I +did not know, jostling at my shoulder as I went in, confided to me that +what she wanted was, "To hear Dingley tear the defense to pieces." I +wondered if the only people in the room who didn't want to hear that +were myself and the Spanish Woman. + +But it was Mr. Jackson who got up first. Though I had heard all the +evidence that morning it had come out in such little bits and patches +with such disagreements of lawyers between, and I had myself been so in +the midst of it that I had no idea as to how it would sum up; and I had +been waiting anxiously to hear what this man, whom father said was such +a fine lawyer, would say. + +He began with a sort of oration, all about the Montgomery family, and +what a fine family, they had been, how much they had done for the city! +Then he talked about Johnny, and he drew a very beautiful picture of +him, speaking of his great promise and fine character and then of the +blow which was being struck at his brilliant career; and it was somehow +awful to have to listen to it, for even supposing it were true, this +seemed scarcely the time for saying it. I could see Johnny's face +getting more and more set-looking and grim, as if he hated listening to +the words that were pouring over his head. + +Then, in some way I couldn't follow, Mr. Jackson got from that to +talking about courts and evidence, and corroborating testimony; and +though for a while I couldn't make out what he was driving at, +presently it began to appear to me that he was trying to prove that all +the witnesses on the state's behalf had been lying. He was wonderfully +clever in his way of making the testimony seem improbable. He pulled +even mine to pieces, pointing out the revolver's not being where I said +it had fallen. He declared there was a plot against the prisoner; that +the gunsmith who had testified about the buying of the pistol had been +bribed to do so; and he appealed to the feelings of humanity and +justice in the jury. + +He spoke beautifully. It made one's heart beat to hear just the tone +of his voice, even though one couldn't quite understand what he was +saying. And yet it was strange I thought that with everything he said +he did not bring forward, or even try to bring forward, one single +direct proof to show that Johnny Montgomery was innocent. + +I was in a very confused state of mind indeed when Mr. Dingley got to +his feet. Though I had never heard him speak in a court I had read in +the newspapers that he was "Our golden-tongued orator," and father had +been used to say that, "Dingley was a whirlwind." But now, when he +rose, and turned toward the jury-box and began, his voice sounded stiff +and cold, as if he brought it out with a great effort. He didn't shake +his finger at the jury, as Mr. Jackson had done, nor fling out his +hands, nor lift his arms in the air and bring them down as if he were +bringing the world down on one's head. He simply stood there, and in a +matter of fact, even voice gathered up the evidence of the different +witnesses as one would beads in the hand, and strung them together; and +I saw a long chain of evidence winding around Johnny Montgomery. As he +went on measuring it out, for the first time I understood how heavily +my testimony counted. It seemed to do away with the whole defense. In +spite of Mr. Dingley the case seemed to be proving itself, and as he +went on he warmed to the very sound of his own argument; his voice +began to ring out more and I lost sight and memory of everything that +Mr. Jackson had said. + +All heads were craning toward him as he stood with his back to all of +us, talking at the men in the jury-box as if they were the only people +in the world. The Spanish Woman was leaning forward, her elbow on her +knee, her head drooped, her hand hiding the lower part of her face, but +looking out from under her eyebrows like a picture I had once seen of a +prophetess. I felt that we were being wound up every moment more and +more tense, and when Mr. Dingley stopped, he left us at the highest +pitch possible for human beings to bear. When he sat down again he +gave a quick glance behind and around him and, as for a moment it +lingered on the Spanish Woman, I thought it seemed a little defiant. + +I hardly realized what was happening in the room around me. The judge +was reading something endless to the jury, not one word of which my +ears could take. Then that sound ceased, and presently I noticed that +the jurymen were leaving the room. + +With the closing of the door upon them the aspect of things behind the +railings changed, the judge getting up, walking restlessly back and +forth in front of his platform for a minute, then going back to his +writing; the clerk of the court keeping on with his, and most of the +lawyers going out. Mr. Dingley passed us with just a bend of the head, +and father glanced after him and made a little sound in his throat, a +sort of meditative "h'm" of surprise. But the crowd kept very quiet; +as the minutes passed the room grew more and more still. A sense of +nervousness was over all. Every time a door opened there was a rumor +that the jury was coming back. + +"Well, it may be five minutes, and it may be all night," I heard Mr. +Ferguson saying to father. "That pistol disappearing is going to give +him a chance." Father answered, "That was a guilty man's defense, just +the same." + +But I seemed to have forgotten there were such things as guilt or +innocence. I kept watching Johnny Montgomery, who was sitting almost +alone, with his head a little bent forward, looking at the table in +front of him. The light fell strongly on his face, making it almost +seem to shine, and I looked at the little white seam of the scar on his +cheek that had helped to identify him, at his black, brooding eyebrows, +and the long lock of hair falling over his forehead, and I thought, so +softly that it scarcely dared to be a thought, "Perhaps I shall never +see any of these again." I felt very quiet, as though I should never +want to laugh or cry again. + +I lost all track of time; but the light was falling in the room and +that bright look it had given Johnny's face was turning gray, when, +quite suddenly, he gave a shiver, and pulled himself up in his chair, +nervously drawing in his shoulders. I looked quickly at the judge's +desk and saw a man standing beside it and offering a paper. It +glimmered faintly white as he held it up. I saw the judge lean over, +stretching out his fine, plump hand to take it, and I heard him say: +"Is this your verdict?" + +Then instantly the room heard and knew. And almost at the same time I +felt myself lifted to my feet and heard father saying, in a voice I +should have never dared to question, "Quick, your coat!" + +I fumbled wildly for the sleeves. I no longer knew what I was doing, +nor why, but obeyed him blindly. I felt there was some reason for this +haste, but even as I tried to follow him out it seemed the whole room +had risen, and a voice somewhere in front of us was speaking--had +spoken. + +There was a moment of dreadful silence, and then all about me broke out +quick whispers, suddenly, like a refrain. Not once but over and over, +I heard them around me. + +"Murder--yes, yes, murder!" + +"Oh, no, guilty in the second degree." + +A woman near me fainted, and I wished I could have lost consciousness +so as to be rid of those terrible words, but I could not even cry. I +raised my hand to my throat and pressed it there hard, because there +seemed to be constriction there. + +The police were thick about the door, but even they, struggling with +the hoodlums who had crowded the back of the room, couldn't get a +passage open, and the large sergeant of police lifted me up as if I had +been a child and carried me out, and set me down on the sidewalk. +There I stood in the lovely, mild twilight, looking at the familiar +surroundings as if I had never seen them before. Among the vehicles +that filled the street I noticed the Spanish Woman's carriage, with its +beautiful nervous horses. Father put my arm through his and said, "Do +you think you can get across the street?" + +"Oh, yes," I said, surprised that he should suppose I could not, since, +except for that queer feeling of not having any emotions at all, I felt +quite well. + +He took me over to the restaurant. "But I am not hungry," I said. And +father answered, "Probably not." Then, turning to the waiter, "A glass +of brandy, please, and call me a carriage." + +I sat down at a table near the window, and pushing aside the curtain a +little, looked out at the court-house entrance on the other side of the +street. In front of it a little group of men in uniform was waiting. +I could see the last of the sunlight catch on their side-arms and +bayonets. A good many people were coming out, and more were gathering +in from Kearney Street, and up from Montgomery. The police kept +shaking their clubs and trying to make them walk away. But in spite of +all they could do the crowd gathered and gathered, and made a sort of +narrow lane down the steps and across the sidewalk. Presently the +Spanish Woman's carriage drew up just opposite this narrow way, and +down the steps she came, like a queen, with her black veil sweeping +over her face, stepped in and was carried quickly down the street. But +as she passed I saw that her head was bent and that she was holding a +handkerchief in front of her face. + +I swallowed the brandy in a few gulps, scarcely knowing what it was, +and kept watching the prison door, for I had the greatest longing to +see Johnny Montgomery again. But presently our carriage came, so I had +to go out and get into it. Just as we were making the turn across the +street, I was face to face with the prison door, and at that moment +they brought him out. + +The guard passed close to us, and I saw his face as white and set as if +he were already dead. "I have killed him," I thought, though that +thought did not bring me any special feeling. + +For a few moments we seemed to be caught in the crowd, the driver +couldn't get forward with the horses, and I could turn my head and +watch the little escort moving off down the street. + +It was after sunset now, just beginning to be dusky. The sad gray +twilight was over everything, and as the figures retreated they merged +into a single dark mass in the throat of the street. As this mass +reached Jackson Street corner, there was an outcry. In the peaceful +stillness of the evening it came with a shrill, terrifying sound. The +crowd at the corner broke and scattered before a rush of horsemen. +They seemed to come from all sides, and meet in the middle of the +street. Then we couldn't see the guard, but shots rang out, yells, and +then more firing; and the mounted men swept on across the street. Men +on foot were running after them and firing. In their wake a wounded +horse was rolling on the ground and there was something else sprawled +away from it that might have been a man. I had just a glimpse before +the crowd closed in upon it. + +"Stay where you are," father said, and jumping out of the carriage, he +ran up the street. Other men were running past. + +The horrible thought of the vigilance committee turned me sick. I +called to the driver to go forward, but, already the crowd was swarming +on both sides and our progress up the street was very slow. As we drew +near the place a man in the uniform of the guards, with blood running +down his face, went staggering by, another man supporting him; and I +heard him groaning out: "I don't see how it happened, my God, I don't +see how it happened!" + +Another man, a young man, with his coattails flying and his silk hat +knocked over his eyes, burst out of the crowd close beside the +carriage. I recognized the dandy, Jack Tracy. He was so near I could +have touched him, and for one moment I forgot all about being a lady. +I grasped him, by the sleeve. "Tell me, for Heaven's sake, what has +happened!" + +He fairly glared at me, so excited that I believe he didn't recognize +me. "They've got him--the Mexicans! He's gone!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE CONCEALMENT + +It took a deal more running back and forth, and questioning and +explaining, before I could come at any understanding of what had +happened. And even when I had heard as much as any one knew it was +strangely little--simply that a body of Mexican horsemen had swept out +upon the guard from apparently all points of the compass, had +overpowered them, leaving one dead and one of their own number wounded, +and swept on. After they had gone it was discovered that the prisoner +had vanished too. The cry had been that the horsemen had taken him; +but some of the guard who had followed the riders a little way declared +that he had not been among them, and one man insisted that he had seen +Johnny Montgomery dart in at the door of one of the small houses on +Jackson Street. This was immediately surrounded by police and +searched, but nothing was discovered; and all the while I sat faint and +trembling in the carriage, with a conviction that I ought to be +horrified, and yet with an ungovernable feeling of relief. The only +thoughts in my mind were, "He is safe!" and "He is free!" If only for +a moment, at least it would be a moment! + +Half an hour passed before the street could be cleared, and we could +get across. Meanwhile in the fast-gathering dark, I kept hearing +voices speaking with that stern ring they have when men are excited and +talking among themselves, and hoofs of horses clattering off in the +direction the Mexicans had taken. + +Every moment my heart was in my mouth, lest suddenly should come the +cry that Johnny Montgomery was found; but he seemed to have vanished as +completely as if he had been made invisible; and presently a hateful +thought crept into my mind: "What if it is the Spanish Woman who has +played the enchantress?" The rumor was abroad that the sortie had been +planned by some of Johnny Montgomery's friends--they were such wild +fellows that their doing the thing would not seem extraordinary. + +Yet the other explanation seemed so much more probable to me, so +burningly evident. It came upon me with the shock of conviction, as if +the Spanish Woman herself had whispered it in my ear, and I was afraid +to look at any one lest he should read my thought in my conscious face. +I kept my head bent and held my trembling lips tight, glad that the +dark covered my agitations. + +But later, at home, sitting on the edge of my bed, I told mother all +about it. I did not form the words aloud, but when I sat there looking +up at her pictured face I knew she understood every idea that went +through my mind. My thoughts went back over the incidents of the +trial. Each little separate memory struck the same note--the attempt +to get him out of prison, the attempt to make way with witnesses, and +finally this successful snatching of him from the law--it was the +Spanish Woman who had been responsible each time, and now it was she. +Oh, I understood now why Johnny Montgomery had smiled at me as I was +giving my testimony! I had thought it had been to encourage me to go +on, but it must have been a mere mockery, since he knew that, no matter +what story I told, he was safe. + +But, had he known it? When I recalled his white, set face I doubted. +Yet at any rate, even in spite of him, she had saved him. He was gone, +gone to her perhaps, and I was left with the mere comfort of having +done what I thought was right. It was cold comfort when every feeling +in me had been outraged by the doing, and now the forlorn doubt +continually stirred as to the certainty that what I had done was right, +if, as the Spanish Woman said, love was a woman's only virtue. + +I was horrified to find myself, without apparent reason or any evident +leading up to it, with that word on my lips. Love? Why, what had that +to do with me? I looked in a fright at mother, as if I expected her to +answer the question; but that timid look of hers seemed to have only a +reflection of my own fear in it. With a sudden feeling of weakness and +helplessness I hid my face in my hands. + +From that moment I began to understand what father had meant the day he +had said that I would need mother's picture now. It comforted me that +she was there watching me and seeming to understand, never looking +angrily at me no matter what foolish or frightening things I had to +tell her, and there were so many in those days that followed--dreadful +days for me! The very girls, my friends, even while with round, awed +eyes they admired me for my heroic performance on the witness-stand, +yet, for that very reason seemed to set me a little apart from +themselves. And then the talk about the search for Johnny Montgomery, +full of the cruel eagerness of men hunting a man! + +The word had been that, of course, he would be retaken immediately. +But the hours slipped away, and the days, and still there was no trace +of him. The whole city was searched, and I discovered then that the +Spanish Woman was far from escaping public suspicion. Detectives went +in and out of her house, ransacking its remotest, most cunningly +concealed places. She herself was closely questioned, but nothing +could be elicited. + +If I had needed any reassurance that she alone was responsible for +Johnny's disappearance, this effacement of the means by which she had +accomplished her object would have convinced me. Whatever creatures +they were who had effected her purpose for her, they were apt pupils in +her art of disappearance, and even those who had failed here, were +still completely hers. The Mexican who had been wounded by the guard +had closed his teeth and died without a word, not even a confession to +the priest. The horsemen, it was said, had swept straight through the +city in the direction of the Mission, and it was supposed they had +disbanded there and scattered through the ranches, where it was +impossible to trace them. But the belief was general that the prisoner +had not gone with them, that the sortie had only been a blind for his +escape in some less obvious direction, abetted by the half darkness. + +That week the city was under strict surveillance and I went seldom upon +the street. For after my first relief at his escape was over, I was in +constant dread lest he be retaken or shot; and when I did have to be +out I went shrinkingly, dreading lest I see his face, haggard and +ghostly, gazing down at me from some window, or glimpse him retreating +up some evil alley. + +"Oh, you are too good for this!" my heart accused him. "To think of +you slinking and hiding! I could forgive you anything, even killing +him--yes or even wanting to kill him--but not this running away! What +power is it that this woman has over you, when a little while before +you seemed so brave?" + +The fear that it was because he loved her went through me, the +bitterest thought of all. Against it I treasured the one sentence he +had spoken to me, the only words I had ever heard him speak, and the +looks he had given--the gentleness which had consorted oddly with his +dark face and great strength, and that first shocked, reproachful gaze +which so haunted me; and then the way he had helped me, smilingly, over +the hard places in my testimony against him! How that had moved me! + +Yet what were a few, frail glances beside the thing he had done for the +Spanish Woman? I saw her once driving upon the street. The glint of +her splendid hair made a crown around her head. She leaned back in the +carriage, smiling, looking happy and triumphant; and it was a strange +thought that these days so dreadful for me were good days for some one +else. + +By the end of the week the theory that Johnny was hidden in the city +was abandoned, and search was directed toward the mining-camps, whence +from time to time came reports that he had been seen. But all of these +turned out to be false leads, and the idle talk about it swung into +just the channel that I had feared--how that of course he had been +guilty since he had tried to escape and had succeeded. + +Whatever chance there had been for him before, chance of appeal or +chance of pardon, was gone now. It was as if he had sunk into a deep +pit, out of which he would never rise. I told myself that I must not +think about it, that surely he could not be anything to me any more; +and yet my mind turned to nothing else but the memory of him, and +seemed to fix and fasten upon the thought. I knew that father saw I +brooded. Whether he knew why, I did not like to think; but he used to +take me out upon long drives, among the hills across the bay, and out +to the Presidio to see the military maneuvers; so that he kept me with +him much of the time. And he would urge me to go about to see the +girls I knew; but Hallie was the only one I went to see at all. + +She had been very tactful after the first outburst of enthusiasm over +me upon the witness-stand; and as soon as she understood how I hated +and couldn't endure any allusions to it, had never mentioned it to me +again, though I used sometimes to catch her looking at me in a way +which made me know she was sympathetic and curious; and that made a +bond between us. + +I was fond of the Fergusons' house itself. It had a charming garden, +planted with roses, with big, blue Chinese jars at the elbows of the +paths and on the porch, and a dear little upper balcony--just such a +one as Leonore walks out upon in _Il Trovatore_--which overlooked the +convent and its gardens. Sitting here with Hallie one late afternoon, +while sunlight was still among the housetops, but with the convent +garden in shadow so deep it looked like a reflection in water, I saw +the procession of nuns, slim, black figures and bending heads, winding +slowly through it. The sight touched me with a very melancholy yet not +quite unhappy feeling. + +"What would you think, Hallie," I asked, "if I should become a nun?" + +"A nun!" Hallie almost shrieked. "Ellie Fenwick, what are you thinking +of? Why, you would have to cut off all your lovely hair!" + +"Yes," I said, "one of the sisters there told me that she had hair as +long as mine when she was a girl, and yet she doesn't look unhappy now. +And then everything is so peaceful over there, the garden is so quiet, +and they are so calm! I think I should love to; and oh, dear, Hallie, +you don't know! I am very unhappy!" + +Hallie put her arm around me and said firmly, "You will do no such +thing! You will come to Estrella's party to-night and forget all about +convents and such hateful things! Of course, I know what the matter +is; and it's very lovely and awfully romantic, but really I'm afraid +that he is quite gone, dear. Don't you think you could think of some +one else?" + +I said I couldn't bear to, that I didn't want to go to Estrella's +party, that I hated the thought of the people I would have to meet. +But Hallie can be very persuading, and when I left her my resolution +had weakened considerably. + +"Why not go?" I argued with myself on my way home. "I will have to +begin this sort of thing again sometime--that is, supposing I don't go +into the convent, and I am afraid father wouldn't like me to do that. +At least while I am making up my mind about it anything will be better +than brooding over this thing, which I can't help." + +When I reached home I felt restless and the house seemed very small. +Rather diffidently I broached the subject of Estrella's ball to father; +but he was quite delighted. + +"Excellent," he said, hurried off a boy to the Mendez house with word +that I was coming, sent out for flowers and made a lovely little fuss +about me. I tried to make myself look as pretty as possible in a pale +tulle, with little rosy wreaths upon it, and the high old +tortoise-shell comb, that had been mother's, in my hair. The +excitement gave me more color than I had had for weeks. I thought, +"Even if I am not happy, at least I can be excited." + +[Illustration: I tried to make myself look as pretty as possible.] + +Father looked so tired that when he left me at the Mendez house I asked +why need he come back for me, why not just send the carriage. He +wouldn't hear of that, and then Seņora Mendez said why shouldn't I stay +at their house all night? So it was agreed, and Estrella, looking like +a little dancer, in a yellow gown sown [Transcriber's note: sewn?] with +twinkling spangles, came running and hurried me up-stairs to take off +my cloak. + +The ball was a large one--one of those affairs that is so big it makes +you feel lost. I danced, danced madly; but a forlorn conviction kept +growing on me that I did not have that same joyful feeling that I could +dance on air which other parties had brought me. Every young man who +looked at me was not a possible sweetheart, yet more looked at me than +ever did before. I had a little crowd around me, and lots of pretty +things were said to me, and I was not so afraid to reply as I had been. +When Seņor Mendez, Estrella's father, who is fat, but dances like +thistledown, took me for a turn around the room, "You are having quite +a success, eh, my child?" he said. "The young men are beginning to +wake up. You are coming out." + +That was all very pleasing and my wits were never any too sharp at a +dance, being in a dreamy and delicious state of obedience to the music +and the swimming atmosphere, so that I did not keenly take note of why +Laura Burnet did not return my bow. Jack Tracy took me in to supper, +and fussed until he found seats for us in the big hall beyond the +supper-room. It appeared he was wanting to propose to me again; and, +as I was ready for anything as far as only making proposals went, I did +not try to stop him. Behind us a curtain hung, the only thing between +us and the ball-room, but the orchestra was still playing softly and +there was hardly any one in that room, so I thought no one could +overhear us. + +In the midst of it, Aleppo Mendez put his head in the door and asked +what had Jack done with his partner's program? Jack, not discovering +it in his pocket, very much vexed at being interrupted, went to look +for it with Aleppo in the supper-room, and I was left alone. + +For a few moments I sat listening to the music. Then this ended with a +soft chord, and on the other side of the curtain I heard the quick +rustling of a girl's frock, and a girl's voice, "Just wait, I must put +one more hair-pin in it or it never will stay up." + +I recognized Estrella's tones. There was a little pause, and then, +evidently resuming the main thread of her discourse she went on, "Of +course, as I was saying, it was awfully brave of her to do it, but how +could she! Why, if I had been in such a position just thinking what it +would have meant to him, I know I couldn't have made a sound!" + +"Well, if I could I wouldn't have!" It was Laura speaking with great +bitterness. "It wasn't as if she had to tell. She was the only one in +the city who saw it. No one would have known anything if only she had +held her tongue!" + +"Oh, but," Estrella broke in, in a deprecating voice, "it was an awful +thing he did!" + +"Oh, was it?" Laura retorted scornfully, "Lots of men do the same thing +and aren't so very bad; and lots more would do it if they dared. Just +because he is handsomer and braver and has a higher temper than most, +lots of people hate him. And because Ellie Fenwick is little and looks +young, and every one was saying how pale and pathetic she looked and +how convincing it was, the way she told her story, oh, I heard the talk +all around the court room!--she just worked on the sympathies of the +jury! It wasn't justice that convicted him! It was Ellie Fenwick!" + +I sat perfectly still, grasping my cold little ice-cream plate in one +hand, not hearing anything more, not even seeming to think, until I +heard Jack Tracy's voice beside me. + +"Good Heavens! what's the matter?" And then, calling out in absurd +alarm, "Don't faint, don't faint!" + +"I am not going to faint," I said, though I had a very strange feeling +of floating, and his face looked a little misty to me. "I want to go +home. Get me a carriage!" + +"But you're ill! Let me call Estrella." + +I caught hold of his sleeve. "Don't say a word to her! Don't dare, +promise me!" I shook his sleeve fiercely. He looked quite scared. +"Get me a carriage," I said, "and mind you don't say anything to any +one until I have gone. Then you can tell Estrella that I was feeling +ill and decided to go home." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A LIGHT IN THE DARK + +Fortunately it was late, after midnight, and a few early ones, dragged +away by their fathers and mothers, were already going; and muffled in +my long cloak and lace scarf I managed to slip out in the wake of a +group of these--hoping they would not notice my being alone--and into +my carriage, evading Jack's insistence that he must see me home by +shutting the door in his face. + +As the carriage went laboring off down the dark hill I crouched in a +heap on the seat. If Estrella and Laura had seized me by the shoulders +and bodily thrust me out of doors I could not have felt more utterly an +outcast. "Does every one feel like that about me, even my friends?" I +thought. + +All my life I had been taught, and had believed, that only good came of +telling the truth. Well, now the opportunity to prove that had come. +I had done what had been demanded of me, and every one looked upon me +as though I were inhuman. Had all the laws of the universe been +suddenly turned upside down? Ought my lips to have been sealed +instinctively by what I saw? Ought I to have been struck dumb on the +witness-stand? Was it true, the terrible injustice of Laura's words, +that because of me--not alone the story I had told, but my looks, my +misery, my very pity for him--he had been convicted? + +I was recalled to my surroundings by the rocking of the carriage. +Great rains, which had fallen lately, had left the roads gullied, and +rough as the sea. The moon would not rise until after one o'clock, and +what made our progress really dangerous, something had gone wrong with +the carriage lights. They dwindled and went out when we were but a +block on our way, and no scratching of matches would make them stay +lighted for a minute. At the foot of the hill the driver brought the +horses to a halt, and informed me that the road ahead looked impassable. + +I peered out of the window. + +An unbuilt space was on my right, and across the dark expanse, and +across the street which cut the other side of it I looked to the long +roofs and walls of the convent, all a dull monotone scarcely +distinguishable from the night. Only on the corner a solitary street +lamp illuminated a little space of the wall and made a pool of light on +the pavement beneath. + +The silence was broken by the sound of voices talking--the jargon of +peons, I thought--and I remembered that I was alone, and driving across +a lonely part of the city. The voices seemed to be approaching down +Powell Street, even now perhaps under the very convent walls. They +sounded loud and jovial. + +"Can't you turn into the sand-lot, and make a cross-cut to Mason +Street?" I whispered to the driver. + +Muttering that sand was "decenter than mud at least," he remounted his +box and swung the horses about. In the mud the wheels and hoofs made +only a soft "squshing" sound. We turned away into the dark, unlighted +space without the approaching group being any the wiser of our presence. + +But, as we went, I saw, suddenly emerging from behind the convent wall +and coming out into the pool of light, the swinging serapes and great +shadowy hats of the Mexicans. They were crossing Lombard, they were +keeping straight on down Powell, probably for some of the North Beach +resorts; but, as with voluble talk and laughter they passed the +opposite curb, I noticed a singular thing--one man who dropped out of +the group silently as if unobserved by his companions. He seemed to +make one step from the lighted street into the shadow, and was +swallowed up in it as completely as if he had plunged into a forest. +He had entered that very tract that I had entered! + +I put my head out of the window and spoke softly to the driver. "Stop! +Keep perfectly still until he gets by." + +The hackman seemed to understand what I wanted, and drew up the team, +and we waited. I heard footsteps. They seemed to be coming straight +toward the carriage. No, they were passing to the left of it. It was +probable that this person was quite unconscious of our presence, but my +heart was beating so hard it seemed to me he surely must hear it. + +The footsteps stopped. I hardly dared to breathe. Then I heard the +rough sound of a match; there came a small blue spurt, and suddenly in +the little upthrown illumination I saw the lips holding tightly the +cigarette; a little higher the flame stretched, and I saw the eyes and +the black bar of the brows. I almost screamed. At the same instant he +looked up and saw me. + +It was just for an instant we gazed at each other thus. Then the match +went out, the light of the cigarette failed, and I saw it drop like a +glow-worm to the ground. I was looking again into nothing but +impenetrable dark. Could it have been real--that glimpse of him--or +only a picture on the night? + +I leaned forward through the window and called softly into the +blackness: "Come here!" I had the scared, shamed, unreal feeling of a +child playing at conjurer who hopes, yet knows no miracle can happen. +The shock was the greater then when, after a moment's interval, a +formless bulk shadowed my window. I shrank back in the surprise and +joy and fear of knowing him there. + +"What can I do for you?" a voice asked, proceeding from the shadow, as +courteously, as formally, as if it were speaking in the lighted +ball-room I had just quitted. + +"Oh, get in, get into the carriage!" I cried, for it seemed to me that +all the city was spying on him, and the risk he ran was more than I +could bear. He hesitated one more heart-breaking instant. Then, I +thought, he drew back. I reached out blindly toward him and clasped +his wrist. + +My fingers were astonished at the great pulse that throbbed under them +like a heart, sending a thrilling through my veins. Then I felt the +downward sway of the carriage, and the sweeping of a serape over my +feet; and I had released his wrist and knew he was sitting opposite me. +I leaned out of the still open door and spoke to the cabman. "Drive +over to Washington Square, and then around the Square." + +Extraordinary as this direction was, he made no demur, only a sort of +grunt, deep in his coat-collar, and almost before I was in my seat +again the wheels were turning, and I saw the arm of my otherwise +indistinguishable companion move darkly against the paler square of +glass as he closed the carriage door, and shut us up alone together in +the dark. He himself was scarcely separable from it, but I seemed to +know how hard he was looking at me. + +"Where were you going?" I said. + +"Nowhere that you may go. Tell me quickly what you want of me." + +It was strange that he, who so long had been a speechless figure--our +only communication by looks--now had become a disembodied voice, like +himself, quick, strong and imperious. There were a dozen questions +which, over and over in imaginary interviews, I had asked him, all my +anxieties and wonders and terrors about him; why he had said those +first words of his to me in the police station; why he had encouraged +me so recklessly with my testimony, and then fled, and of all those +other puzzling inconsistencies in his behavior. But now that my +opportunity and he were both here there boiled up in my brain my +latest, most bitter perplexity of all, the one that had been presented +to me tonight, not a question but a confession. Before I realized what +I was saying I was telling him, very incoherently, how terribly I felt +about having had to give my evidence, and why it had seemed the only +thing to do. "But I know you do not think so," I said. "You think it +strange and cruel of me that I did not keep silent." + +His voice sounded very calm, almost casual. "I think nothing of the +sort. You did quite right, and I am glad there is one woman who can +speak the truth." + +This was utterly different from anything that I had ever expected! +"But," I stammered, "from the way you looked at me first when--when you +ran out at the door, and then again when, I had to tell them who you +were! I thought--" + +I heard the sweep of his serape as he leaned forward toward me. "I +hated, for your own sake, that you should see anything so hideous. +When I came out of that door and saw you there on the other side of the +street, do you know what you seemed to me? You seemed to me like the +reminder of everything good I had ever hoped for or believed in, +looking at me across that distance, horrified at me. It was that I +could not bear." His voice sounded harsh and uncertain, but it was +better to hear than the even off-hand tone he had used at first. + +"I hated to see you have to go through that sordid business in the +police station," he said, "hated to have you dragged through the court, +to think you had to touch such things, even to know that they exist. I +could not forgive myself! But what are you doing here alone at this +hour of the night?" He broke off suddenly. The half stern, half +protecting note made my heart beat. + +"I was at a ball," I stammered. "I came away suddenly because--because +I couldn't bear it. I heard them talking behind the curtains. They +said it was I who had convicted you." + +A touch came on my hand as if it had been the point of a finger, +"Believe me, that is nonsense. It was I who convicted myself." + +I turned toward him. I would have given anything, in that moment, for +a glimpse of his face. + +"If you did anything at all toward that end," he went on steadily, +"remember you only helped me toward what I really wanted to do." + +I kept my eyes fixed on that space of darkness from which his voice +came. "If you wanted to convict yourself then why did you try to +escape?" + +There was quite an interval while I waited, trembling on the brink of +the mystery. When at last he spoke his voice sounded a note of +reserve. The unconscious intimateness was gone. + +"Whatever my motive in convicting myself has been, let me assure you it +has put me so far away from you that I am hardly worthy even to speak +to you. But I feared you had been troubled about giving your evidence, +and I am glad of this one chance to tell you that you have helped +rather than hurt me. But now it is all over; you will not have to +worry or think about it any more, for what I am going to do now will +put me quite out of your sight." + +He said it with such a sad, reckless gaiety, and it sounded so final +that it seemed to me the world had come to an end with it; and, without +any understanding of how or why it happened, I found myself crying, +with my face in my hands. My ears were filled with the sound of my own +sobs, but through them I could hear him begging me to stop, and, though +he did not touch me, I could feel him now close beside me on the same +seat and bending above me. + +"The thing isn't worth it," I heard him say, "I deserve it +all--everything! You are too good to waste any pity on me! But I love +you for it. I have loved you since the moment I saw you staring at me +as if I were the devil. I loved you when you came to the prison and +pointed me out for what I was, the man with the pistol. I will never +forget you." + +At that I cried all the harder, but now there was a curious feeling of +comfort in it. All the misery I had kept shut up in my thoughts for so +many weeks seemed to be running out with my tears. + +"What can I do to make you feel differently about it?" He was pleading. + +"Don't do what you are going to do," I whispered, muffled up in my +handkerchief. + +He made a queer little sound in his throat--amusement or despair, I +couldn't tell which. "Don't you know I can't stay here? Whether I +shot the man or not I am forfeit. I have to go. But before I do I +want to tell you one thing. You won't believe it, but here it is--I +didn't shoot Rood!" + +A great weight seemed to slip from my heart. I dropped my hands and +looked up, and instead of darkness, there was his face above me, great, +shadowy hollows for the eyes, and a soft, gray shadow for the mouth. +His hat was thrown aside and I could see a faint light on his forehead. + +It seemed like a miracle in the first, wondering moment. The next I +understood what had happened. The quarter moon was rising, and +everything was filmed with her dim silver. For a little I looked up at +him quite contentedly, with a feeling of peace at my heart that I had +not felt since I had first seen him. "Of course I believe you," I +said. "I was only so frightened because in the court you wouldn't +speak, and no one would speak for you and explain how it happened. It +made it seem as if you were the one. That was why every one thought +so." + +He smiled rather grimly. "Yes, that is what I supposed." + +"But now you will go back, you will tell them how it really happened, +you will be proved innocent?" + +"I can't be proved innocent," he answered harshly. "There is nothing +here for me." Yet all the while he looked at me so wistfully that it +was hard to understand. + +"But there is I," I said. "Doesn't it matter to you that I care?" + +He did not move or speak, only kept looking down at me with those dark +hollows of his eyes, not a glimmer of light moved in them that I could +see, and, listening to the deep come-and-go of his breathing I felt +frightened. + +"No, I never thought, I never dreamed such a thing was possible," he +said at last, in a queer, shocked, half-awed voice. "You don't know +what you are talking about, child," and he leaned forward, resting his +elbow on his knee and his forehead in his hand. + +"But I do know! I care terribly. All these days when I haven't known +what had become of you I have been understanding it, and I am glad I +said it," I put my hand on his, which rested on the seat beside me. + +He shook it off, pushed it away from him. "No, don't do that," he said +quickly. "Don't tell me that it is so. You are too good for it!" +Then he said slowly, measuring every word as if he meant I should +clearly understand: "This comes too late for me. I have gone too far +in the wrong direction, and now I am going away with the Spanish Woman." + +"No, no, no!" I cried vehemently. "You must not! You are too good for +that!" + +"No, that is all I am good for now. And she has done everything for +me. The sortie at the court house was hers. She has kept me hidden in +her house all these days; and, when that was searched, in the convent +garden. She has chartered a lugger to take us to Mexico. It is lying +out in the bay, now, on the other side of Chestnut Street Hill. She +has slipped me out of her house with a group of her peons for a screen. +I am going aboard now. She is coming out at dawn." He lifted his head +and looked at me again, smiling a little, "And if your conscience can +keep you from reporting this before eight o'clock this morning we shall +be safe." + +He said it in a monotonous, dull tone, as if there were no longer any +question about it, as if for some reason the thing were irrevocable! +And yet I couldn't understand why. There was no reason in it at all +that one could see. I had the dreadful sense of fighting something +invisible. + +"But all that she has done for you," I insisted, "hasn't made any one +happy. It has only kept making things worse and worse for you and +every one else, and finally it has made you a coward." + +How that made him wince! "That's not quite the fact, that's too ugly," +he said quickly. "I can't let you think that; it isn't all my +weakness. It is partly that I owe it to her. I am bound to do this, +just as you were bound to speak the truth in court. You won't +understand it I know, for to you the world is black and white, and each +incident stands by itself. But as a man lives these incidents are +interwoven like the links of a chain, each one depending on the others, +so that sometimes what appears to be a bad thing is really the only +decent thing if one knows the circumstances." + +"But it is because you are only looking at a little string of wrong +things, that the last one of them looks right, because it's like the +others," I said. "If you go back to the big wrong that started them +all and straighten it out, you will see that everything that follows +will straighten itself." + +He threw back his head, looking down at me with an expression I could +not make out, astonished, incredulous, and half ashamed. "Out of the +mouths of babes--" I thought that was what he said very softly. Then, +"And this great wrong, Miss Fenwick?" + +I was conscious that somehow I had gained an advantage, and I kept my +eyes upon him as if in such a fashion I could hold it tight. "You must +tell them how Martin Rood really died." + +"Ah, never!" The word rang with such unexpected finality that all my +hope went tumbling at the sound. + +"Oh, he loves her, he loves her!" I thought and my pleading became the +pleading of despair. "Yes, yes, you will go back, if not for my sake +then for your own, and tell them what you have told me, and the rest of +it; and I know everything will come out right." + +He still kept gazing at me with that puzzling expression, only now +there seemed to be more of tenderness than of incredulity in it. "You +seem to have great faith in things coming out right." + +"Oh, but it's true," I urged. "They will, if only you will go back and +face the thing." + +Slowly he shook his head. "Yes, it may be true. It may even be +workable in some cases, but I have got too far away from what is right +ever to get back. If I should try I would only succeed in doing some +one else still greater wrong--a wrong that even you, with all your +awful sense of justice, could not ask me to do." + +He turned from me, and sat for a little while gazing straight before +him, and I looked at his stern profile set against the window glass, +saw the shift of expression upon it, and knew that he was thinking. At +last, turning to me again, as if there had been no interval between his +words, "But this much I can do," he said. "Even if I can not quite get +back to the great wrong, I will go back as far as I can in honor to set +this thing right. I will give myself up--" He waited a moment, then +added: "On one condition; that you will promise never to say a word of +what I have told you to-night." + +"But," I protested, "then how will they ever know you are innocent?" + +"They won't." + +"Oh, but then you will be--" I began, with a wail. + +"Wait, don't speak, don't answer until I have asked you another +question," and the strong touch of his hand held me quiet. "Suppose I +can't make it come out right--don't you think it is better to make a +strike to get as near to the right as I can, instead of going on, +getting deeper and deeper into the wrong?" + +"Yes," I whispered. "Don't you?" + +"I don't know," he said slowly. "I only know that since I have seen +you I can't go on. After being with you only for this little while, +after what you have told me, I can't go to her." + +We faced each other in silence. My hands were clasped tightly in my +lap but my heart went out to him in gratitude and thankfulness. + +Then, bending a little toward me, "Now, have I your word?" he gently +asked. + +I could have promised him more than my word in that moment. + +He smiled. "I know that I can trust you. I have seen that you have a +loyal heart; but this promise shan't cost you anything. I shall answer +no questions. Now, I shall have to send a message to Seņora Valencia." + +"Oh, do not," I begged. "She will stop you from going back. You don't +know what she is capable of; she can do anything!" + +"No one can undo what you have done," he said. "She will not stop me. +I must send her a word to tell her she is to go away on the lugger +without me." + +"But why?" I cried. "I am afraid to have you go near the house. I +know I shall never see you again." + +"Come, you must be brave. I am only going to write a line and slip it +under the gate. We must not be cruel if we are righteous, you know." + +I hardly understood his scruple, but the determination of his voice +made me feel that it was right. Thus reassured the practical question +rose as to what there was he could write with or upon. We should have +to be quick, for already, the first pale change, which is scarcely dawn +but only that fading of the deepest blue of night, was in the sky. He +fumbled in all his pockets, and in the folds of his sash. We explored +the seat and the floor of the carriage. In my eagerness my cloak +slipped from my shoulders, and as he drew it up around me again, with +nervous fingers fastening the clasps across the bosom, "What is that?" +he asked suddenly. + +I put my hand down and it touched a stiff little edge of paper +thrusting from my girdle. I drew it out. It was my dance program. I +had quite forgotten about it. One side of it was scrawled thickly with +names, but most of the other side was clear, and the little white +pencil was still fastened to it. + +He took it from me, and holding it on the palm of his hand, "I wonder +if you have any idea what thing you are asking me to do?" he said. + +I did not speak, because I felt that if I opened my mouth it would be +to say something weak and foolish, and when I had put the card into his +hand I had seen him hesitate; so I knew that he needed all my strength. +He bent his head and began to write slowly and laboriously because of +the swinging of the carriage; and, letting down the window, I put my +head out and addressed the driver who was hunched up like a shivering +bird on his high seat. + +"Drive to the Seņora Valencia's house." For perhaps an hour he had +been jogging us around and around the Square, and one would have +thought that this order would have come upon him as a surprise. But he +only turned his head slowly toward me, and then as slowly back again, +with a movement that made me think of a mechanical toy, then he guided +the horses' heads from Washington Square into Lombard Street. + +I had sunk back into my corner and covered my eyes with my hand. "Do +you want to read what I have written?" I heard Johnny ask. + +I shook my head. I felt that I had made him do something terrible, as +he said, I did not know how terrible. I did not even look when the +carriage stopped, when I heard him getting out. But even from where I +sat I could hear the beat of the brass knocker. A moment passed, with +fear thick at my heart; then he was back again. He gave the direction +to the driver before he got in, and the cab turned and was rattling +down the street, with a speed that suggested that the hackman was at +last stirred to excitement by the name of our final destination. We +two looked into each other's face. + +"You would better drop me at Montgomery," Johnny said. + +"No," I answered, "I am going to take you all the way." He frowned. I +thought he was going to object. "Let me stay with you as long as I +can," I begged. "It will make it easier for me." + +Still with his eyes on me his lips moved with some word. Not a sound +came through but I thought he had said my name. And all the while +through the cold, gray twilight we were driving downward through the +city. The farther we went the more a strange and calm feeling settled +upon me, and the more I forgot everything in the world but him. It +seemed as if for ever we would continue to drive on together with this +wonderful quietness between us. + +But the carriage was drawing up. I looked at him anxiously. "What is +the matter? Why are we stopping?" + +His face was strange. "Don't you know? It is the prison." + +He half rose, his hand was on the door, he had turned his back on me. +A sudden anguish went through me, keen as physical pain. Something +that was not my mind at all seemed to be acting for me. I caught hold +of his arm with I don't know what impulse to pull him back. + +He turned, looking at me with smiling eyes, gently unclasped my +fingers, bent his head and touched them with his lips. "Don't spoil +it," he said, "and remember your word." + +I watched him walking down the half block to the prison door, a figure +tall and solitary, and in spite of his gay Mexican trappings, with an +air of somber resolution. So I saw him pass the lone, gray house +fronts, and be swallowed up in the great entrance of the prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LUGGER + +As he disappeared the desire to run after him, to cry out to him, to +cry out to all the ears of the court the story he had told me, rushed +over me, an insane impulse. "What would that do but make everything +worse, even harder for him to bear? Haven't I made things hard enough +for him already?" I who had said I loved him, that I believed in his +innocence, had yet virtuously urged him to go back and give himself +up--to what? Why, my poor little coward mind was even afraid to name +what that thing was! + +The Spanish Woman had not been afraid, no, not of anything! She had +risked everything that she had to save him in the best way that she +knew. Was I, as she had so bitterly told me, only a creature of words +with no deeds to make them good? It was all very well to say things +would turn out right; but now I saw that they would not unless I made +them; and how was that to be managed if he wouldn't speak, and I was in +his confidence and couldn't? + +I puzzled it over as my carriage rattled slowly back up Montgomery +Avenue. Suddenly from what had been absolutely sterile cogitation, +there sprang up the full flower of an idea. All that he had said that +evening had carried the same perplexing undercurrent of a thing that he +could not speak of, and always it seemed to point to the Spanish Woman. +"She knows!" I thought triumphantly, "and if she knows, why, she must +not go away until she has told me." The whole thing opened before me +complete, unexpected, a deliverance. + +I looked out of the window. Faintest, earliest dawn was already +beginning. There was but one thing to do. Johnny had told me that the +Spanish Woman was going aboard the lugger at dawn. I directed the +driver to drive to the Black Point wharf. + +He peered at me as if he thought me crazy. "That feller gave me a gold +piece, ye know," he said, "or I wouldn't have taken ye as far as this." + +"Go on," I said, and queerly enough I didn't feel at all afraid of the +man. "Go on, and my father, Mr. Fenwick, will give you more when you +take me home; and besides you are doing a service for the city." + +Muttering that it was the weirdest go that he had ever struck, he +clucked to the weary horses, and after a little more of cobblestones, +began the struggle through the sand. + +Those terrible sand-hills! We labored in them like a snail. They +seemed to hang on the wheels, and to heap themselves in front of us; +but the increasing light came on wings and what exact moment in all +this long, gray and golden approach of the sun was to be considered +dawn? At last we were over the hilltop, and floundering down the other +side, the trees and gardens of houses overlooking the water front upon +my left-hand, upon the other, sand and sea. Straight below, running +out from the shore, was the little disused wharf. One or two Italian +fishing-boats rocked in its shadow, but no vessel was in sight. + +Could it be that I was too late? I thought, in an agony of +uncertainty, as the carriage drew up at the pier. Thrusting my head +and as much of my body as possible out of the carriage window I looked +out the gray, winding channel toward the Heads. Not a sail in sight! +This was encouraging, for I knew, that even starting with the grayest +light, there would not have been time for the vessel to have vanished +out at sea. Through the other window Chestnut Street Hill, a great +rounding mass, rose bluffly out of the water, shouldering the city out +of sight. Near its base tall eucalyptus trees swayed against the blue +bay; and through their shifting leaves and branches I was able to make +out the masts and sails of the lugger lying close under the hill. It +was so well hidden that had I not been expecting to see it, I must +certainly have passed it over altogether, taking the masts for tree +boles, and the furled canvas for the light acacia bark. + +I drew my cloak closer around my shoulders, pulled up the carriage +blinds on each side, allowing only a crack wide enough for me to look +through, and settled myself to the hard task of waiting, of being at +once patient and vigilant. There was not an instant when I dared relax +my watch, first at this window, now at that, for who could tell by +which way the Spanish Woman would approach--through the sand-hills, +driven up in her carriage, or, what was more probable, on foot over the +tree-guarded slopes of the hill. The blink of an eyelash might lose +her! + +The dull gray light that had chilled shore and sea began to take on a +warmer glint. I knew the east was growing rosy. And still she did not +come. The fishing-boats began to go out, and at my back I heard the +first murmur of the city stirring out of sleep. Two of the fishermen, +Italians, stood on the wharf and stared at my carriage curiously, but I +hardly noticed them. I felt as if I were outside of all the world, and +everything usual that could happen. + +The wind was freshening, picking up whitecaps on the bay, and presently +I noticed that the lugger had shifted her position, had moved out a +little from under the lea of the hill, and I saw they were running up +sail on board. One large flapping white wing, and then another, rose +and spread beyond the trees. I could even hear the piping sound of the +sailors' voices; and then, with a veering and a tilting, and finally +with a graceful bowing motion, she stood away from the hill and began +to go out to sea. + +Beautiful sight that it was I looked at it with despair. I could not +believe it. How had the Spanish Woman got on board without my seeing +her? Could she have slipped along through the bewildering shadows and +so evaded me; or had she gone on board even before I had come? but, no, +that couldn't be, for then the lugger could have sailed immediately, I +thought, as I stood on the step of the carriage and watched the ship +carrying my last hope swing round and dip her nose deep in the channel +tide. + +"There is only one chance," I said to myself. "Perhaps she will have +left some word for him behind her at the house." + +The thought had no sooner come into my mind than it possessed me with +the conviction that this must be so. For when I remembered her looks +and her words to me as she talked of him I felt sure that nothing could +make her quite desert him, even though he had disappointed her. The +idea of her house which a little while ago had terrified me, came now +like an inspiration. I did not know what I should do or say when I +reached it, "But something will tell me what to do when I am there," I +thought, as we retraced our way over the floundering track of the hills. + +When, for the second time that morning, I found myself in front of the +Spanish Woman's gate, I sprang out of the carriage without a moment's +hesitation. I told the man to drive back to our house on Washington +Street and tell Mr. Fenwick there that I wanted him. + +There I stood in the chill daylight, shivering in my pale blue cloak, +impetuously clanging the brazen lion's head upon its clapper. The +outer door opened to me noiselessly as it had done before, shutting as +silently after. But the garden, which had seemed picturesque and +dreamy under the kind sunlight, now looked ghastly, disheveled, +crumbling, as if it had been deserted for at least a hundred years. +The inner door was a long time in opening. Just as I was beginning to +despair it swung a cautious crack. I saw the glimmer of eyes, then +immediately it was opened wide by a woman, the same maid whom I had +seen brushing out the Spanish Woman's hair. + +"The Seņora Valencia?" I asked, feeling the mockery of my question, but +pressing forward in terror lest she should not let me in. Her face had +a set appearance. She looked as if she hated me, but she admitted me +readily enough, closing the door quickly upon me. There, just within +the threshold of the house, she held out to me a white envelope. + +The outside was blank, enigmatic as the servant's face, but from it I +pulled a folded sheet of paper scrawled in that bold hand, which, like +all other attributes of that woman, was unforgettable. Within the +paper was a card. Upon the card I read: + +"You see, he understands me perfectly. He wishes to be rid of me and +he has chosen the one way possible. I give you back his words." + +No signature, and the card was my dance program still with its little +pencil. On the back I read the farewell Johnny Montgomery had made +her. It was in Spanish. "I am in love with another woman. Go away +without me. I am going back." + +I stood crumpling the thing in my clenched hand and the first thought +came trembling in words: "Oh, cruel, cruel! How could he say it!" +When I remembered her passionate face and wild will I wondered what +love had done with her when first she had read that card. If a girl +like Laura Burnet had fainted at a lesser shock, what had a creature +like the Spanish Woman done? And then the next thought came, wiping +out the memory of the first. "But there is nothing here to help Johnny +Montgomery--nothing at all!" + +The maid's voice broke upon my bewilderment, harsh and grating. "Will +the Seņorita walk up-stairs?" + +I turned to her in increasing amazement. What might this mean? Was I +after all to find my mystery's clew? + +"The Seņora's room," the woman explained, going before, and I followed +up the stair. + +I thought I could have told without previous knowledge that the house +had been deserted by its mistress. The rooms which had been warm as +with the heat of life were now deathly cold, as if they had been closed +for a long time. The sweet, thick perfume which had pervaded them had +failed, leaving only a dank smell of old weighty hangings; the very +mysteriousness seemed to have disappeared out of the passageways and +doors, every turn and unexpected opening and winding of which I +remembered through sheer terror. + +At the door of the private _sala_ there was no pause; the maid did not +knock. No need, was there, at the door of an empty room? She led me +straight across the anteroom and there in front of the curtain stood +the impassive major-domo, the man who had led me there the first time. +He was as still as a bronze. He did not even seem to see me, but +stretching out his hand gathered up the velvet folds and drew the +curtain a little to one side. + +There breathed upon me across the threshold, wonderfully fresh and +living, like a human presence, that strong perfume of the Spanish +Woman's flower. I stood fixed in astonishment. There at the far end +of the room she was, the Spanish Woman herself. + +She was seated, yet not as she had been the first time I had seen her, +in her low combing chair; but full facing me on a great high-backed +seat like a throne, her feet on a footstool, a table at her right on +which her hand rested over some white thing, like a folded paper. Her +gown, too dull for gold, too shining for anything else, streamed down +on each side to the floor. Her whole look was as if she had dressed +and seated herself and made ready for some great thing. Her head was +flung back, resting against the cushion and she was looking straight at +me. She did not speak. I felt she was waiting, and that I must begin. + +I walked slowly across the room, not knowing what to say to her, but +when I had covered half the distance some shaft of sunrise slanting +into the room lighted her face with its pale reflection and I saw her +eyes. They were half closed, and behind her thick, long lashes they +gleamed mistily like silver. My knees doubled up under me and I went +down on them in sheer weakness, for I knew that she was dead. + +For a moment I could think of nothing and the room like a wheel went +around me; but I kept saying, "No, no! I will not, I must not faint!" +and after a few moments I moved forward, still, I think, on my knees, +and looked at the paper under her hand. I was too weak to get to my +feet. I reached up and took it. I looked at the Spanish Woman. I +looked at the fine, firm, foreign handwriting. + + +"On the day of May the seventh, 1865, in the presence of John +Montgomery and my peon, Victor Perez, I, Carlotta Valencia, shot and +killed Martin Rood in his gambling-house on Dupont and Washington +Streets. Signed, Carlotta Valencia. Victor Perez." + + +On the table, almost hidden by her hand, I saw the thing which I had +seen once before lying in the gutter on Dupont Street--the +pearl-handled revolver. + +I sat there at her feet, and, looking up at her, I felt as if she had +won, though now I knew it was quite the other way. But she looked so +calm, so mighty, so indifferent, sitting up there above me, that she +made death seem a little thing, and she herself not even wicked. Then +the room swam away from me as in a dream. + +The next thing I was conscious of was a broken foreign voice speaking; +and I found myself covered up with a great coat lying on a sofa in the +down-stairs _sala_; and there, strangely seen among its velvet and +gilding, was father with his hair tossed on end and his clothes huddled +upon him, and Mr. Dingley, very white and drawn, and the peon Perez, +who was talking. I listened to his voice going on as if it were part +of a dream. + +Yes, he said, it was true there had been bad blood between the two men. +First it had been the young man's debts, and then it had been the +Seņora. The Seņora had told the young man she would give up Rood; but +of course that was impossible, Perez said, with a shrug, as where was +the money to come from he should like to know? But she was constantly +afraid lest young Montgomery might find it out. Therefore, Perez said, +when he had seen Montgomery going into Rood's place at two o'clock on +the morning of the shooting he went at once to his mistress and told +her. Taking Perez with her, she had hurried to the gambling-house with +the purpose of somehow separating the two, and there in the bar the +quarrel had taken place. + +It seemed that the truth of Rood's position as "protector" to the +Seņora had reached Montgomery, and he had come to tax Rood with it, and +Rood had told him. He told him even before the Seņora's face, and +Montgomery had said he was done with the whole crew of them. He was +going to get out of it, he was going away. Then the Seņora had clung +to Montgomery, telling him she would do anything to keep him with her; +and Rood had turned upon him. It was then that the Seņora had shot +Rood. He had been standing so near the swinging door that at the shot, +to their horror, he had fallen backward through it. + +Before any one could think, the peon went on, Montgomery had snatched +the revolver from her, saying: "I shot him," and had rushed out into +the street, and after a moment's waiting the Seņora had run out, and +seeing the revolver picked it up. Yes, he said, she had worn a white +dress and undoubtedly it was she and not the Seņorita Fenwick that the +woman who had looked out the window had seen. But she had not run down +the street, as this witness had said, who, like all women, only +remembered what she wished to believe, but back into the +gambling-house, and through there into an alley at the rear, from which +they entered a house the Seņora was familiar with, and remained there +until the afternoon when the excitement had somewhat subsided. Then +they had gone quietly back to the Seņora's house. + +Yes, the pistol was the Seņora's. Mr. Montgomery had bought it for her +a little while before. Yes, the Seņora had made sure to save Mr. +Montgomery and but for the Seņorita Fenwick it would have been. For +she had many friends, friends of power, he said. At that Mr. Dingley +grew paler, and started to speak, but then he seemed to change his +mind. Father looked at him, and I wondered then had the trouble been +that Mr. Dingley had been one of those friends of hers. When the +police came and we left the place, Mr. Dingley and father separated +without a word, and father took me home alone in the carriage. + + + + +EPILOGUE + +TWO YEARS + +All the experiences which I had gone through with, with such apparent +lack of feeling, seemed to take their revenge on me at once. For a +while I was very ill, delirious with fever; and when I was myself again +and the doctor would let me be talked to, the new trial was all over, +and Johnny Montgomery had been acquitted a week ago. It was Hallie, +all smiles, with her hands full of roses, who brought this news in to +me; and in a few days, she said, Jack Tracy had told her, Montgomery +was going to leave the city. This set me wondering whether that night +in the carriage and everything we had told each other then had been no +more than part of my fever visions. + +At last I gathered courage enough to ask father if Johnny Montgomery +had inquired about me. Father looked annoyed, and said, "Yes," that he +had been sending every day, and that he had asked if he might see me +when I was able, but, father said, he had thought it best to refuse. +That made me so miserable I began to be ill again, and the doctor was +afraid I would have a relapse; so finally father gave his permission +for me to see Johnny. + +It was strange and unreal to think that it was actually he, gaunt and +white and serious-looking, standing beside my bed and gazing down at me +with timid eyes. We were both so glad to see each other we were a +little afraid. The shadow of things that had happened was over us +still and made us grave. + +I must have looked very thin, for he took my hand as if he thought it +would break and his voice was hardly above a whisper. He said whatever +good came of him and whatever happiness he had hereafter he would owe +to me, and that would be more than owing me his life; but father was +right in saying that a man with the reputation he held in this city had +no right to see or speak with me. He had only come to thank me and to +say good-by. He was going away to South America. + +"But father does not know you," I said, "and I am sure you are quite a +different man from what any one here thinks you. And if you go away it +will break my heart." + +At that he looked happier and said if I felt that way he would go just +the same, but it would make him want to come back again. And then, +perhaps, he might be more the sort of man my father would give his +daughter to. A friend of his father's, he said, had offered him an +overseer's place in his mine in South America; and would I forget all +about him in two years, he wanted to know? + +"Two years will seem a very long time," I said, "but I shall remember +you and wait for you for ever." + +He smiled and said, "Those two years will be almost for ever to me, but +I have bought my chance dear, and even the hope of such happiness is +more than I deserve." + +And then I called father and told him. He was very grave, and said to +Johnny, "It depends on you; if you can show yourself a different sort +of man and wipe out the record you have made for yourself, well, then, +I suppose she will be of age, and it will be your own affair--but I +hope she will forget you." That was absurd! + +So I kissed Johnny good-by--though father didn't like that at all--for +it would help to make the two years shorter. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Other Side of the Door, by Lucia Chamberlain + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR *** + +***** This file should be named 25724-8.txt or 25724-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/7/2/25724/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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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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 Other Side of the Door + +Author: Lucia Chamberlain + +Illustrator: Herman Pfeifer + +Release Date: June 8, 2008 [EBook #25724] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-cover"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover art" BORDER="2" WIDTH="482" HEIGHT="760"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 482px"> +Cover art +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="Looking up at her I felt she had won." BORDER="2" WIDTH="449" HEIGHT="591"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 449px"> +Looking up at her I felt she had won. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +LUCIA CHAMBERLAIN +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Author of +<BR> +THE COAST OF CHANCE +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY +<BR> +HERMAN PFEIFER +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +New York +<BR> +GROSSET & DUNLAP +<BR> +Publishers +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +COPYRIGHT 1909 +<BR> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +<BR><BR> +MAY +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap00a">PROLOGUE—THE CITY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">THE BASKET OF MUSHROOMS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">THE EVIDENCE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">THE RUMORS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE FIRST DAY IN COURT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">THE SECOND DAY IN COURT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">THE SPANISH WOMAN'S HOUSE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">THE REFUGE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">THE LAST DAY OF THE TRIAL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">THE CONCEALMENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">A LIGHT IN THE DARK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">THE LUGGER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">EPILOGUE—TWO YEARS</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +ILLUSTRATIONS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-front"> +Looking up at her I felt she had won. . . . . . <I>Frontispiece</I> +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-028"> +"What's the matter, child?" father said. +</A> +</H3> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#img-224"> +I tried to make myself look as pretty as possible. +</A> +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: A fourth illustration was missing from the book.] +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap00a"></A> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PROLOGUE +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CITY +</H3> + +<P> +The city is always gray. Even in March, the greenest month of all, +when the Presidio, and the Mission Hills, and the islands in the bay +are beautiful with spring, there's only such a little bit of green gets +into the city! It lies in the lap of five hills, climbing upward +toward their crests where the trees are all doubled and bent by the +trade-wind. It seems to give its own color to the growing things in +it. The cypress hedges are dusty black; the eucalyptus trees are gray +as the house fronts they knock against, and even the plaza grass looks +dark and old, as if it had been the same grass always, and never came +up new in the spring. +</P> + +<P> +But for the most part there are no trees, and only the finest places +have gardens. There are only rows and rows of houses painted gray, +with here and there a white one, or a glass conservatory front. But +the fog and dust all summer gray these, too, and when the trade-winds +blow hard it takes the smoke out over the east bay, and makes that as +gray as the city. +</P> + +<P> +And yet the city doesn't look sad. The sky is too blue, and the bay is +too blue around it; and the flying fog, and the wind, and the strong +tide flowing in and out of the bay are like restless, eager creatures +that never sleep or grow tired. When I was a very little child the +fierceness of it frightened me. All the noises of the city made one +harsh, threatening voice to my ears; and the perilous water +encompassing far as eye could reach; and the high hills running up into +the sky now blinded by dust, now buried in fog, now drenched in rain, +were overpowering and terrifying to me. Beyond that general seeming of +terror there is little I remember of the early city, except the glimmer +of white tent tops against gray fog or blue water, the loud voices in +the streets, and a vague, general impression of rapid and violent +changes of place and circumstance. Through their confusion three +figures only, move with any clearness,—my tall, teasing, father, my +grim nurse Abby, and my pale-haired mother. Indeed, the first distinct +incident that stands forth from that dim background is the death of my +mother. +</P> + +<P> +It was a puzzle for a child. One day she was there, ill in bed, but +visible, palpable, able to speak, to smile, to kiss,—the next, she had +disappeared. They said she had gone away, but I knew that was +nonsense; for when people went away it was in the daytime with bags and +umbrellas, and every one knew they were going, and where they went, but +with my mother it was different. One day she was there,—the next she +was not, nor in any of the rooms of the house could she be found. It +was long before I ceased to expect her back; long before I ceased, by +some process of child's reasoning, to blame her departure on the gray +unaccountable city. For as early as I can recall a coherent sequence +of impressions the city appeared to me strange and unaccountable. +There was a secret shut away from me behind every closed house front; +the eucalyptus trees seemed to whisper "mystery" above my head; and at +night, when the fog came heaping in, thicker than feather-beds, across +the Mission, and streaming down the long hills on the heels of the +wind, it brought an army of ghosts to inhabit the dark places beyond +the safety of the lighted window-pane. Though I had lived among the +seven hills almost all my life; and though in ways it had grown +familiar, and even dear to me, yet I never seemed to grow quite used to +the city. It had strange tricks of deception that were enough to +unsettle the finest faith. For when I looked at it from the windows of +my room under the roof it was as flat as a plate, visible in its +entirety from end to end, and it was as easy to find Telegraph Hill or +the Plaza upon it as it was to pick up a block from the carpet. But, +when I went abroad in it, it hid away from me. It would never show me +more than one street at a time, and never by any chance would it reveal +to me, through the tall houses, in what part of it I was walking. +</P> + +<P> +But by the time I was old enough to play in the garden by myself, and +make friends through the hedge with Hallie Ferguson, who lived a block +below us, I had come to accept this trick of the city as somewhat less +extraordinary. It was developing other characteristics not so fearful +to my mind and of far greater fascination; and I spent hours, when I +could not be out of doors, watching it from the windows of my room. +Father had built what was at the time one of the finest houses in San +Francisco. It had a glass conservatory at the side, and a garden with +a lawn and palm in the corner; and on rainy nights when the wind was +high, and the house was shaking, I could hear the long palm-fingers +tap-tapping on my window glass. The house stood half-way up Washington +Street Hill, on what was then the western skirts of the city, and from +my window under the roof I could look down over the whole city to the +east water front, with Rincon Hill misty on the south, and Telegraph +bold on the north of it. By leaning far out of the window, as Hallie +and I sometimes did when a ship was coming in, we could see northward +as far as North Beach, and Alcatraz Island; and from Abby's room across +the hall we could continue the panorama around to Russian Hill, whose +high crown cut off the Golden Gate. It was a favorite game of ours, +hanging out the window, with our heads in the palm leaves, to pretend +stories of what we saw going on in the city beneath. +</P> + +<P> +All sorts of strange and interesting things went on in the city. We +could see the signals run up on Telegraph Hill when a ship was sighted. +And then the "express" would go dashing furiously down some street +below us, the pony at gallop; and the line would form in front of the +post-office and stretch like a black snake up Washington Street. Or we +watched the yellow omnibuses laboring down Washington Street like +clumsy beetles. It seemed to me that a city was the most delightful +and absorbing plaything a child could have, and it was a hard arbitrary +blow of fate that took me from it to the convent school at Santa Clara. +</P> + +<P> +But if to leave the city was hard, it was terrible indeed to leave the +house, the familiar rooms, the familiar footsteps and voices that I +loved, and listened for. I had never been away from father and Abby in +my life, and though Hallie Ferguson and Estrella Mendez went also, I +was very homesick. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing at all interesting at the convent,—nothing but +pepper trees, and nun's black hoods, and books. Even when we walked +out there were only the dreary Santa Clara flats with the mountains so +distant on the horizon that their far-awayness made me want to cry. +The only nice thing about the convent was the vacation that took us +away from it, back, out of the burning summer valley to the bay, the +rows of gray-faced houses, the shipping and the wind. Each time I came +back it was with the rapture one must feel returning to some long left, +beloved place and finding it unchanged. +</P> + +<P> +The palm, the cypress hedges, the sunny conservatory, the low, long +rooms beyond it, the dark hall, and narrow, precipitous stair were +always adorably the same. But around them the city was growing with +such speed that each time I returned I had to learn to know it afresh. +Already there were several blocks of houses beyond ours, and the second +year I came home from the convent Hallie Ferguson told me her father +was going to move because there was a gambling-house going up across +the street from them, "and build," Hallie expressed it, "in a more +fashionable neighborhood." +</P> + +<P> +It was at the foot of Chestnut Street Hill their new house was +building, and that vacation we used often to walk over with +Abby—Estrella, Hallie and I—across the city and across the North +Beach district—to play in the building house. It was going up with +the same furious speed that was accomplishing the whole city. It +seemed that we had hardly stopped looking through the skeleton supports +at the bay before the plaster was drying on the solid walls; that we +had hardly ceased walking on the great naked flooring beams before the +smooth floor itself was palpitating under the feet of the dancers at +the housewarming. +</P> + +<P> +I remember sitting up with Hallie through the earlier part of that +evening, and with a sort of worship, looking for the first time at +women with uncovered necks and arms emerging white as wax from their +diaphanous or glittering gowns. To me they were radiant, transported +to a sphere of existence beyond my own, something I never would attain +to. I recall them as a vague, dreamlike spectacle. In all of it there +is but one incident that I remember clearly; and that is, when whirling +out of the crowd and into an empty space, that the dancers had left +clear for a moment, came a couple—a large blond girl and a young man, +a boy, hardly as old as she, but so handsome, so dark, so full of life, +and a sparkling sort of mischief, that it made one feel quite gay just +to look at him. As they danced past the place where Hallie and I were +sitting he was holding his partner's gauzy train in his long, fine +fingers, and they went by us laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is that?" I whispered. +</P> + +<P> +"That's Johnny Montgomery," Hallie whispered back. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you know?" Hallie cried. She dearly loved to give +information. "The Montgomerys were one of the very best families here; +and he's the last of them. Old lady Montgomery died the year we went +away to school, and he had heaps of money—but he lost it." +</P> + +<P> +My sole performance in this line had been the dropping of a two-bit +piece down a crack in the board walk, and before I had time to ask how +Johnny Montgomery had managed to lose sight of "heaps," Mr. Ferguson +came up and asked, "Don't you little girls want some ice-cream?" so I +forgot to say any more about it. +</P> + +<P> +That same season there was another notable occasion, when Hallie led me +to the bedroom of her grown-up sister, and exhibited to me with +awe-struck pride the dress her sister was to wear to the Sumner Light +Guards' ball that night. It was a blue tulle with a fine frost of +spangles over the bodice, and it seemed too dazzling to belong to a +creature less wonderful than a fairy. But when Hallie went on, in a +cautious whisper lest we be discovered, to confide to me that when she +was grown up and out of school her mother had promised to give her a +party, and that, since I was her best friend, of course she was going +to invite me first of all, I began to realize that I, too, might some +day grow up into a young lady, and be laced into a gown perhaps as +beautiful as the one spread out on the bed before us. +</P> + +<P> +Such a dazzling idea gave me an entirely new set of fancies, and was a +pleasant book companion and bedfellow to take back to the convent. +Hallie, who was a year older and half a head taller than I, had already +begun to lengthen her dresses, and do up her hair, and I found it +humiliating to be so small that at sixteen I had still to wear mine +down my back in long curls, and my skirts above my ankles. The only +thing that comforted me was that whenever father came to see me he +always said: +</P> + +<P> +"Child, how tall you are! You're almost a woman!" and though he was +the one person who seemed to think so it was quite sufficient for me. +When my graduation day came I was much excited to think how absolutely +grown-up I would appear to him in my first long frock, but when I came +to him after the exercises were over, he looked at me as if he were +sad, and said, "Child, how little you are!" +</P> + +<P> +That was a dreadful disappointment to me, but when I reminded him how +he had always told me I was tall, he laughed, and said: "You were tall +for a school-girl, but you're very little to be the mistress of a +house." +</P> + +<P> +That puzzled me; but on the way home, driving up through the valley, he +told me more about what he meant. He said, "Now that you have stopped +being a child you are going to be a very gay young lady; going to have +fine gowns, and dance about like a butterfly; and you're going to keep +on being my little girl; but at the same time I am afraid you will have +to be a little lady of the house, too, and take care of me, and +Abby—now that Abby's rheumatism is so bad—and go to call on the +ladies who were your mother's friends, and are going to be yours. Do +you think you are tall enough to do all that?" +</P> + +<P> +I was so surprised and so happy that I hugged him right there in the +buggy, and said: "Do you really mean it?" +</P> + +<P> +Father laughed, just as he does to cover up being rather serious, and +said: "You are your mother's daughter, for she was a little fair woman, +but there was never anything too big for her to manage." +</P> + +<P> +I was happier than ever to hear him say that—he so seldom spoke of +mother—and the idea of a whole house to manage, and of sitting at the +foot of the table, and calling on grown-up married women seemed to me +as merry and exciting as going to parties, and having beaus. +</P> + +<P> +I had not been in the city for a year, spending my last vacations at +the ranch at Menlo Park; and though I knew from what Hallie had told +me, that the city was very different, yet when I got out of the buggy +in front of the house the look of the street startled me. For a moment +even the house seemed strange. But that was only because the other +houses were all about it. As far as one looked up the hill there was +nothing but thick houses, and queer little shops were crowding up the +block so close that we had the appearance of being almost down-town. +Even inside the house looked different, but quite beautifully +different, done over with lovely, fresh papers, and Japanese mattings; +but what touched and pleased me most of all was to find the picture of +mother, which had used to hang over father's dressing-table, now in my +room, above my bed. "You need it now more than I do," he said, and +though I couldn't see just why I needed it, I loved to look at it. The +amusing part of it was that mother in the picture was holding me—a +little me—a baby two years old. Myself would never look out at me. +But mother looked always, with the same half-brave, half-timid glance, +when, sitting on the bed, I made her my confidences. +</P> + +<P> +With all my new responsibilities, and my new clothes I felt as if I had +somehow been "done over" too. Yet it was surprising how quickly I +became used to the patter of my long petticoats around my feet as I +walked, the weight of all my hair upon my head, and my stately pouring +of the tea at the foot of the dinner-table. Father's friends were +always coming in and out, and staying to luncheon or dinner, and with +their high silk hats, their elegant bows to me, and their laughing at +things I said which were not in the least funny, at first they confused +me not a little. But I grew accustomed to them, too; I grew even to +like them, especially Mr. Dingley, father's greatest friend, who was +the district attorney. He was a big, dark man, with a broad face, and +a frown that never came out of his forehead. He looked frightfully +severe, but I soon found out he was really quite easy-going, much more +so than father, and often I could get around Mr. Dingley when father, +for all his being pleasant, wouldn't have given an inch. But father +said he had to be very stern, or other people would spoil me. By that +he meant not so much Mr. Dingley, who was the same to everybody, as +Seņora Mendez, who had been mother's greatest friend. She had been a +New England girl, who, in the early days of California, had married a +Spanish gentleman. She was lovely to me. It was at her house that I +went to my first ball. Except the Fergusons', hers was the only house +in the city with rooms large enough to dance in, and that ball is still +the most dazzling I can remember. I wore a rose-colored tulle skirt +with a peasant waist of rose-colored satin, and father, for a great +surprise, had given me a pair of pink silk stockings. No other girl in +town had such a beautiful thing, and in the dressing-room they would +not let me go down until I had shown them. The lighted dancing-rooms, +and all the strange people, and my tall partners made me nearly die of +shyness, but I danced two large holes in the toes of my lovely +stockings, and afterward father teased me, and said he found he had +suddenly become very popular with the young men. He had never been so +called upon in his life. +</P> + +<P> +But most of our parties were not such elegant affairs, though sometimes +they were even more fun, like the Fergusons' calico ball, where I wore +my grandmother's gingham, and prunella shoes; or the party the Sumner +Light Guards gave, which was the prettiest of all on account of the +young men's uniforms, and the way we sat around the little refreshment +tables between dances with our mothers and our partners, the band +playing all the time, and every one so gay. +</P> + +<P> +I sometimes went to as many as four parties a week, so that in the +morning it was all I could do to be up in time to see breakfast on the +table. I found out that being a housekeeper meant more than long +petticoats, and pouring tea. It meant being all over the house before +ten in the morning, for, as Abby said, a house has a lot of strings to +it, and unless you keep them all tied up tight something's going to +sag. But I enjoyed my authority of the house, and my liberty abroad +seemed like license to me. I felt launched on a wide sea of life. +</P> + +<P> +The city itself was changed to my new horizon. It was larger, more +complicated, with more masts in the harbor, new streets and horse-car +lines, and every one moved about in it like the pieces of a Chinese +puzzle. The friends who had lived close about us had all moved +westward or southward with the trend of the city, and between Telegraph +and Chestnut Street Hills there were some very, fine houses. I was +often running over there to see Hallie or Estrella, and my shortest way +lay past the convent that stood a little apart in the middle of the +settlement. Next to it, but facing on another street, was a house +which had been built at the same time as the convent. The convent wall +came up at its back. On the other three sides was a high fence. Over +the fence only the upper story could be seen, and it had a look so +still and closed up, that it brought back to me that feeling of mystery +the city used to give me as a child. But I never noticed or wondered +about it particularly until one day when I saw an open carriage waiting +in front of the steps. +</P> + +<P> +While I was looking a woman came out of the gate, and got into the +carriage. She was Spanish, I saw at a glance, and big, and all in +sweeping black, but instead of being dark she was tawny, with a +wonderful glow of copper-colored hair through her black lace veil, and +in all my life I had never seen a creature move so gracefully as she. +It was like watching a beautiful cat. I asked Estrella Mendez who she +was, and Estrella blushed, and said she did not know. And when I asked +was she sure, because I knew the woman was Spanish, Estrella got quite +angry, and said she wasn't supposed to know all the Spanish people in +the city, and especially if they didn't have husbands. That surprised +me, for the woman had looked quite like a great lady, and when I went +home I spoke to father about it. +</P> + +<P> +He said he feared Estrella was right—we none of us knew the Spanish +woman. "But," I told him, "she looks like a queen; and she has a +beautiful carriage." He laughed and said yes, she had money, and a +good deal of influence in high places, but the women she knew were not +the sort of people I would care about; and he finished by saying I was +a silly child to go staring at strange "greasers." +</P> + +<P> +I did hate to have father laugh at me, but I couldn't help looking at +her slyly when now and then I saw her about the city. She was like no +other Spanish woman I had ever seen. Most of them are as white as +callas, powdered over the lashes; but you could see the strong bloom of +her skin even through the thick coat of rice powder she wore, and her +lashes were lovely. I noticed that because she kept them half down, +and looked out through them. But the most fascinating thing about her +was the way she moved, like something flowing; and once in a shop I +heard her speak, and her voice was so attractive, sweet and rather +thick, with such a gracious, petting sound to it! But she was always +alone. With it all she seemed to be mysterious, like her quiet +closed-up house. I got to making up stories about her, and sometimes +in my room, in front of my mirror, I practised looking out through my +lashes. But it was a nuisance, for though they weren't short they +curled back so suddenly that it didn't look right; and my hair being +blond and flying into corkscrews, and my being so little, and +forgetting not to step on my flounces when I tried to "sweep," +altogether made it rather a failure, in spite of the black lace shawl. +</P> + +<P> +But though I thought about her I didn't say anything more to father or +Abby, because questions that hadn't bothered them when I was little +seemed to worry them now. Father was for ever talking of the things I +must not do. One was not to be about in our neighborhood alone. It +was changing. And above all never to go over to Dupont Street, for +that, he said was getting to be notorious, and he hated to have it so +near. It was only a block below us, but it seemed to me very quiet, +and though Mr. Rood's gambling-house was on the corner there was never +any noise there, only such fine young men, and some that I knew, all +the time going in and out of it. +</P> + +<P> +But that pleased father least of anything, and he asked me how would I +like to move over to the North Beach district, where all my friends +were. Talking it over with Hallie and Estrella I liked the idea very +much. But when I came home again to the old house, with the long +windows, and the palm, and the long steps up to the conservatory, and +all the rooms I knew, the very idea that I could have thought for a +moment of going away from it gave me a lump in my throat. +</P> + +<P> +So I had to tell father that I couldn't. He pinched my cheek, and +said: "Next year, then;" and so we stayed on. This was in February, +1865. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE BASKET OF MUSHROOMS +</H3> + +<P> +The seventh of May was my father's birthday. I always planned some +little surprise for him beside his present, and this morning I had got +up very early, before any one else was stirring, to slip down to the +Washington Street market for some fine fresh mushrooms. He was +extravagantly fond of them, but we seldom had them because Abby was +getting too old to be up for early marketing, and father always said +that mushrooms should come in with the dew to be good. +</P> + +<P> +I had bought a little straw basket, green and red, and lined it with +leaves; and now I put on my white flounced gown and my flat green hat, +so that when I should come in with my basket as they sat at breakfast +it would seem like a little fęte. Then I went a-tiptoe down the stairs +that would creak, for I could hear Lee, the China boy, stirring in the +kitchen, and it would have spoiled everything to be caught going out +with my empty basket. When I had let myself into the street I felt +very naughty and festive in my furbelows at such an hour of the +morning. The city seemed so dim and still and empty that the rustle of +my petticoats sounded loud as I walked along. +</P> + +<P> +The Washington Street market was fully six blocks away, and they seemed +the longer for being so quiet. When I got there the men were still +taking the crates off the carts, and the stalls were not set out yet. +It took me a long time to find what I wanted, so that when I came out +the wagons were clattering on Montgomery Street, and in one or two +shops the shutters were already down. That made me hurry, for I was +afraid of being late. I flew along with my basket in one hand and my +flounces in the other. The sunlight had caught the gilt ball on the +flagstaff of the Alta California building, and the sky that had been +misty was now broad blue above the gray housetops. In my flurry I +found myself on Dupont Street before I knew it; but after all it was +the shortest way, and everything was quiet, not a blind turned. The +houses on either hand were locked and silent, and nothing moved in the +steep little street but the top of the green-leafed tree half-way up +the block. +</P> + +<P> +I was walking on the upper side of the street, and drawing near the +corner. I was opposite Mr. Rood's gambling-house, which was shuttered +tight, and looked as blank as the rest, with only the slatted +half-doors of the bar and the dark spaces above and below them to +suggest that it had an inside. I was just thinking I heard people +talking there, when suddenly a sharp splitting noise seemed to ring +inside my head, the slatted doors flew open and a man fell out +backward. He fell in a heap on the sidewalk; and over him, almost upon +him, leaped another man, with such a rush, such a face, and such a wild +look, that he filled the street with terror. +</P> + +<P> +I stood there, staring stupidly, too stunned to realize what had +happened. He saw me, and for an instant he stood, with the pistol +smoking in his hand—the handsomest man I ever saw in my life, and the +most terrible. Then he flung the pistol into the street and ran. +</P> + +<P> +He ran down Dupont, and disappeared into Washington; and all the while +I stood there, listening to the terrible loud clatter his feet made in +the silence. I looked across the street, and blue smoke was drifting +out of the slatted door over the man who lay still. Then there seemed +to come over me at once the meaning of the horrible thing that had +happened, and I ran. +</P> + +<P> +I heard a shutter flung open in the street behind me. I saw a glitter +near the curb, a flash of steel, a shine of mother-of-pearl, and that +was the pistol he had flung away. I felt suffocating, and my feet +seemed weighted with lead as if I were running in a dream. And, +strange enough, what filled me with the wildest terror was not the +sight of the thing that lay still on the pavement under the drifting +smoke, but the sound of those furiously running feet, dying away and +away into the sleepy city. I felt as if I myself were a criminal +pursued, as if the house was the one refuge that would save me, and +with a thousand horrors at my heels I burst in upon father just sitting +down with Mr. Dingley, in the quiet, sunny dining-room. +</P> + +<P> +At sight of me both jumped up. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter, child?" father said. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-028"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-028.jpg" ALT=""What's the matter, child?" father said." BORDER="2" WIDTH="455" HEIGHT="625"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 455px"> +"What's the matter, child?" father said. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +I looked around, and realized I was still clutching my basket, though +all the mushrooms had fallen out, and my foot was through a torn +flounce, and my hat hanging on my neck. My mouth was dry. For a +moment I couldn't get a word off my tongue; and then, "He fell, he +fell!" I said, and, "He is gone!" +</P> + +<P> +"Where was it?" The words seemed to be in Mr. Dingley's voice, yet +came as if from, far off. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Rood's gambling-house!" I gasped, and felt the top of my head +getting cold and the floor beginning to move under me. I had a dim +impression of Mr. Dingley rushing out of the room with his napkin still +in his hand; then I found myself sitting on the sofa, with a stinging +taste of brandy on my tongue, and heard father's voice saying, "Can't +you tell me, child?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," I said, "he's dead!" And then I poured all the story out in a +breath. I saw father's face growing more and more keen and grave and I +could feel his fingers gently around my arm as if he feared my turning +faint again. Indeed the room around me seemed unreal, but what had +happened in the street was still fearfully clear. It was cut into my +mind as if it were still before my eyes, the toppling lurch of the +falling body, the silk hat rolling into the gutter, and then that fine +terrible gentleman that had sprung out after. The moment had stamped +him as clear in my memory as years could have done. I could tell how +very tall he was, how dark, how his brows made one black bar across his +forehead, how his eyes were set deeply under them, how his chin was +wide and keen and his left cheek flicked by a white scar near the +mouth. At the time in my furious excitement I only knew that I must +tell some one everything, or the thing would kill me. But whether it +was father's strange stern face, his seeming so calm and going out so +quietly, and yet in such haste; or whether it was some memory of the +hunted look of the man who had flung away the pistol, I wished I had +not described him so exactly. It would have been easy enough to have +said I could not remember him clearly. +</P> + +<P> +I was so stunned by what had happened before my eyes that I could not +even formulate in my thoughts what it had been. The very impression of +terror that remained with me was confused, and mixed with wounding +pity. For though he had looked so wild I could not remember that he +had seemed ferocious or afraid. The look I remembered had not been +fear of what was going to happen to him, but horror of what had been +done—and horror at sight of me. +</P> + +<P> +Voices in the street, sounding unwontedly loud and excited, reached me. +People were hurrying past the house—all hurrying downward in the same +direction. I saw Lee run across the yard and stand peering out of the +side gate. I put my hands over my ears, and up and down, up and down I +walked; and back and forth Abby followed me with a little plaid shawl +she was trying to put over my shoulders. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE EVIDENCE +</H3> + +<P> +It did not seem possible that Mr. Dingley and father could be gone +longer than half an hour, but the hands of the clock went to nine and +then to ten before I heard them on the steps. I made a dash ahead of +Abby, and opened the door. "Did he get away?" The words flew off my +tongue before I could think. I knew it had been a dreadfully wrong +thing to say. "I mean the other man—is he dead?" I gasped. Father +had quickly closed the front door behind him, for there seemed to be +quite a crowd in the street, and there in the half dark I could see his +face, and Mr. Dingley's, only as palish spots in the gloom. The +thought came to me, "Of course he isn't going to tell me anything. He +is going to say it is nothing I ought to hear about, and that I must go +up-stairs." +</P> + +<P> +"Ellie," he began—then he caught sight of Abby in the dining-room +door. He held out his hand to me. "Come into the study, Ellie, Mr. +Dingley wants to ask you a question." +</P> + +<P> +It was all so unexpected and so startling to be called into the study +where only men went and only business was talked about; and to hear it +was Mr. Dingley, not father, who wished to ask me a question, that I +wanted to shrink away and escape from the very facts I had been so +anxious to know a few minutes before. But father held me by the hand, +and I had to drag my feet down the long dark passage that leads to the +study, hearing Mr. Dingley striding at my heels. +</P> + +<P> +It was a small room, full of a great litter of papers, and smelling +faintly of tobacco and Russia leather. I sat down in the leather +armchair that was drawn up to the table. Just opposite me was a window +looking directly into the green branches of a weeping willow; and at +intervals the wind blew the leaves against the glass with a sound like +"Hush!" Up to that moment I had had no memory connected with that +room—only the general sense of awe it had given me as a child. But as +soon as I was in that chair, facing that window, hearing the "Hush, +hush," of the weeping leaves, in a quick distinct flash I saw myself, a +naughty child, sitting up in that chair, in anguish of mind over a +stolen jam pot, and my mother's face pulled to great gravity, no doubt +to keep from laughing at the sight of me. I seemed to hear her voice +again, "The truth, Ellie, remember nothing but good ever comes of the +truth." +</P> + +<P> +It flitted through my mind as a little, sweet memory, having nothing to +do with what was happening at the moment, for the thought in my mind +was all, "What has become of the man with the revolver?" +</P> + +<P> +Father had sat down opposite me on a corner of the table, but Mr. +Dingley walked to the fireplace, turned his back to it, put his hands +behind his coat-tails, buried his big chin deep in his collar, and in +just the same cheerful voice he used when he asked me how many hearts I +had broken, "Now, Miss Ellie," he said, "what makes you think that the +man who came second out of that door had a revolver in his hand?" +</P> + +<P> +I looked at him in astonishment, his question seemed so silly. "Why, +because I saw it." +</P> + +<P> +He gave his head a brisk shake. "Yes, but what makes you know you saw +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because I heard it strike the ground." I was growing more and more +bewildered. +</P> + +<P> +"You heard it strike the ground," Mr. Dingley repeated slowly, "but"— +Then with a sudden pouncing forward motion of his head and shoulders, +he shot the words at me, "I thought you said he had it in his hand." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," I stammered, "but that was before." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dingley was watching me steadily. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Miss Ellie, aren't you a little confused on that point?" +</P> + +<P> +I was indeed; but it was his manner that was doing it. He seemed to +snatch the words out of my mouth, and turn them into another meaning. +"But it was there! you saw it yourselves!" I appealed to him. +</P> + +<P> +Father and Mr. Dingley glanced at each other, and a strange thought +came to me with a rush of relief. "Wasn't he dead, had he gone away, +didn't you find anything?" +</P> + +<P> +The answering look of their faces made my heart go down like lead. "We +found everything as you told us except the revolver. There was no +revolver there." +</P> + +<P> +I sat clutching the arms of the chair, staring hard at Mr. Dingley, who +seemed suddenly to have become a stranger to me. "Then some one must +have picked it up." +</P> + +<P> +"But, Miss Ellie, you say that the street was absolutely deserted when +this thing occurred; and when I reached the spot there was a woman +looking out of a window, and some laborers running up from Sutter +Street, but no one had yet reached the place. Now, how could—" +</P> + +<P> +Father struck in, "No, Jim, you'll only frighten her!" In a lower +voice he said something that sounded like, "Not on the stand yet." +Then, leaning toward me, across the table, resting on his elbow until +his face was level with my own, "I know you must have been much +frightened at what you saw, child, and it's possible you may have been +a little hysterical, isn't it? It's possible you might have fancied a +revolver in his hand, isn't it, when there was none there?" +</P> + +<P> +He said this very slowly and gently, as if he were trying to soothe me, +but looking straight into his eyes I saw a sharp anxious light there, +and the conviction came to me that he very much wanted me to have been +mistaken. Mr. Dingley, from the fireplace, was watching me hard, as if +he were trying, with that incredulous look of his, to force it on me +that I must be mistaken. And then the thought floated through my mind +that in some way it would be better for that handsome, terrible man if +I could say I hadn't seen a revolver. I tried to make myself believe +that they were right; I shut my eyes. The picture came to me as if it +were before me still, and nothing in it was more clear than that thing +of steel and pearl. "I wasn't hysterical," I said, "I saw it plainly." +</P> + +<P> +"Could you take your oath in court?" father said in a stern voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes." +</P> + +<P> +Father dropped my hand and leaned back. He looked puzzled. Mr. +Dingley came close to him and said something so low that I couldn't +catch it. But father answered in his usual voice as if he had +forgotten I was there, "No, Jim, if she says so then she did—be sure +of that!" He listened again while Mr. Dingley murmured to him, and the +look of their faces, the lowered, hushed tones of their voices, made me +feel, more than words could have done, that they were talking about +something very serious. All the while Mr. Dingley was speaking father +slowly nodded. "I have no doubt you could, Jim," he said at last, "and +it's very good of you to offer, but we can't suppress evidence because +it happens—" He dropped his voice and I lost the last word. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dingley looked silently down for a moment, and I thought he was +going to say something more, but finally he only, shrugged. "Well, +what time do you want to go down, then?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +Father looked at his watch. "We might as well get this business over +as soon as possible. Ellie—" His voice sounded so sharply on my name +that I jumped up, all of a nervous tremble. "Go up-stairs and put on +your bonnet, I want you to come with me." +</P> + +<P> +I felt that my voice was woefully unsteady. +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you please tell me what is happening and where we are going?" +</P> + +<P> +"Martin Rood has been shot; he is dead. A man has been arrested, +corresponding to your description, and we are going down to the prison +to see if you can identify him." I stared at father, and my only +feeling was one of vague, incredulous wonder. Martin Rood, the fine +sleek gentleman whom I had seen swinging out of his gambling-house in +the late afternoons—could that have been he, that huddled heap of +clothes in the gutter? +</P> + +<P> +"Quickly, Ellie," father's voice reminded me. I went stumbling +up-stairs in a burning excitement. I think I had some wild notion of +locking myself into my room and defying the house, for the idea of +facing that terrible man with his wild terror-stricken face threw me +into a panic. But Abby screamed at me that I was treading on my ruffle +as I came up-stairs, and captured me; and I let her put another gown on +me and my turban and a heavy veil without lifting a finger to help her, +as if I had been a child. I knew father was waiting for me at the foot +of the stairs, and there was no escape, I must go down. When I got +into the hall I saw that Mr. Dingley's buggy was standing in front of +the house, though it was but a few blocks down Washington Street to the +prison on Kearney. +</P> + +<P> +But we did not drive as I had expected straight down Washington, making +instead a detour of several blocks, and finally, by means of a little +alleyway, coming to the back door of the prison. +</P> + +<P> +The only people in sight were a couple of policemen, but, Mr. Dingley +on one side and father on the other, fairly lifted me out by the arms, +and hurried me into the building, as if they were afraid of being +caught by some one. The first thing I was aware of was the cold gray +light falling on us from high overhead, and a faint sickly odor, very +faint but very penetrating, the like of which I had never breathed +before. We were standing in a flagged hall, looking up through a great +well, past gallery after gallery, to a skylight covering the top of the +roof. It was the sunshine filtering through the dull, thick, greenish +glass which gave that cold, sad-colored light. Within the galleries I +caught glimpses of men at work at desks; and over the railings lounged +figures, peered faces, disheveled, sodden, disreputable; and sometimes +near these a policeman's star twinkled. I saw it all in one upward +glance, for I was hurried on. Our steps clattered over the flags of +the hall, and then, turning to the right, we began to go down-stairs. +I took tighter hold on father's arm, for we seemed to be descending +into a dungeon. That sickly, acrid odor grew heavier, making me think +of caged animals, and yet, what made it worse, it wasn't quite like an +animal either. +</P> + +<P> +The hall we came out into was smaller and darker than the one above it, +and empty except for a policeman standing by a door. To him Mr. +Dingley handed his card, and, after a few minutes, we were admitted to +a small office. It was divided in half by a railing; on the inner side +was a desk, at which a man with a star on his coat was writing under +the light of a green-shaded lamp. He came forward, opened a gate in +the railing for us to enter, shook hands with Mr. Dingley and father, +and then was introduced to me. His name did not reach me, but I +understood the words "Chief of Police." Then all three talked together +in low voices, while I sat where I had been bidden, in a chair close to +the railing. Once or twice the man with the star glanced at me, and +then, presently, they all looked at me, and I couldn't distinguish one +face from another. My head was whirling so with excitement I felt as +if I were living in a dream. Yet when the man with the star began +speaking I heard him with curious distinctness. +</P> + +<P> +"All that is necessary for you to do, Miss Fenwick, is to tell me +whether you recognize the person you saw this morning." +</P> + +<P> +I sat forward on the edge of my chair. I tried to draw a deep breath, +but the sickly atmosphere seemed choking me. There was the tread of +feet outside the door; it opened and two officers came in, stopping one +on each side of the doorway; and then, with a queer shock, I saw not +the one man I had expected, but a file of men, shuffling one behind the +other, and linked together by what seemed a long steel chain, from +wrist to wrist, into the seeming of a single thing. This thing halted +opposite the railing, and faced about before me, where it appeared to +me as a line of heads and moving arms and legs and shuffling feet. But +among them all I saw only one individual. It was absurd if they had +expected to confuse me with these other creatures. I saw him instantly +and I knew him past hope of mistaking. His clothes were all torn and +disordered; there was a cut on his forehead and a bloodstained bandage +showed on his wrist beneath his sleeve; and the bitter way he held his +head up and stared straight past me at the wall made him seem quite +grim and yet, somehow, very forlorn. A lump rose in my throat. I +heard the Chief of Police saying, "Is there any person here you +recognize?" I swallowed hard and opened my lips, but the only sound +that came was like a sob. +</P> + +<P> +Quickly the prisoner turned his eyes on me. There crossed his face +again a look like the faint shadow of that look which had transfixed +me, as he burst out of the door. But in a moment it was gone, and he +smiled. Such a smile, so warm and kind, as if he were reassuring and +encouraging me to go on! It transformed him from a terrifying presence +into something beautiful. It made me forget the others and the room +and, curiously, in their place, came the confusing memory of a +ball-room and a slim boy with black brows whirling down the polished +floor with his splendid partner, both in a gale of laughter. Those +long white hands, now linked together with a chain,—hadn't I seen them +holding up a woman's filmy draperies? +</P> + +<P> +"Speak, Ellie," my father's voice said. "Can't you tell us?" +</P> + +<P> +It brought me back from my fancies with a great start, and before I +knew what I was saying I had stammered out, "Yes." The next moment I +realized they were all waiting, waiting for and looking at me; and it +seemed as if I could not go on with the truth. It was only the thought +that everything depended on me, and that, whatever I said, father would +believe it, that nerved me to get through with it. +</P> + +<P> +"He is that one," I said, "the fourth from the end." +</P> + +<P> +The Chief of Police looked at me sternly. "You are sure of that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Quite sure." I was surprised at how steady; my voice had grown. +</P> + +<P> +The Chief of Police said something in a lifted voice, the line of +prisoners filed out with one of the policemen, and left the man I had +pointed out alone in front of me. It was then I noticed how his hands +were awkwardly carried in front of him, held by two steel bands around +his wrists, with a chain like a bracelet-chain swinging between. The +sight of it affected me strangely. I had a new bracelet which also had +two bands with a chain between, but they were of gold, and both were +worn on the one hand. +</P> + +<P> +The Chief of Police came and stood beside me, and said, "Look at this +person, Miss Fenwick;" and I had been looking at him all the time, as +if by doing that I could make him understand how terribly I wished I +had never seen him. "Can you take your oath—could you take your oath +in open court that he is the man?" +</P> + +<P> +The Chief's voice sounded solemn, and those words "oath" and "open +court" made me feel frightened. But I saw he held up his hand, palm +out, and mechanically I held up mine. "Yes," I repeated after him, "I +can take my oath in open court." My voice sounded very loud to me, and +clear, and not at all like my own. +</P> + +<P> +There was a pause, and now they were no longer looking at me, but at +the man standing alone in the middle of the room, as if the chain +between his wrists had made him different from them, as if he wasn't a +man at all, but a stone. Yet I couldn't look at him like that. He was +not at all dreadful to look at, only so alone and fiercely proud and +wretched looking that something ached inside of me just to see his face. +</P> + +<P> +Then the Chief of Police nodded at the policeman and said, "That will +do." But before the man could move forward the prisoner had walked +straight up to the rail, and standing there scarcely two feet from me, +in such a low voice that only I could hear, "I am sorry I frightened +you this morning," he said. "If I had known you were passing I should +have managed it differently." +</P> + +<P> +This all happened so quickly that I had hardly seen how dark his eyes +were before father thrust between us, and I heard his voice, sounding +very low, and saying something about infernal impudence and not +presuming to come near me. The policeman touched the dark man's elbow. +He started, half-turned on the man, made a movement with his hands; but +then he felt the jerk of the chain. The blood rushed to his face. +With the policeman holding his arm he walked away across the room, and +I wondered what sort of place he was being taken to. It wasn't until +the door had closed upon him that I realized how angry father was. Mr. +Dingley was saying that prisoners ought not to be permitted to speak +without permission, but the Chief leaned over his desk, smiling at me, +and asked, "What did the prisoner say to you?" +</P> + +<P> +"He apologized for frightening me," I answered. +</P> + +<P> +Still smiling, as if he were coaxing a child, "Exactly what words did +he use, Miss Fenwick?" +</P> + +<P> +I could have repeated them exactly, but I hesitated, for the last words +he had let slip had sounded oddly in my mind—"If I had known you were +there I should have managed it differently." He seemed to make himself +so absolutely responsible for what had happened! And when I thought +how Mr. Dingley had twisted my words about I was afraid—afraid that if +I repeated the ones that this man had spoken they would somehow get +twisted into a meaning—perhaps not the true one—that would be bad for +him. I was so upset, I said, and so startled by the man's speaking to +me at all I hardly thought I could repeat them word for word. +</P> + +<P> +Father put my coat around me and said, "I hope that is all," very +coldly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," the Chief said, "except that this young lady must understand +that she is not to speak of what she saw this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Remember, Ellie," father said, "if your friends talk to you about it, +you have heard and seen nothing." +</P> + +<P> +I murmured, "Of course," and followed father out of the prison with a +very strong conviction that nothing was real. +</P> + +<P> +As we walked home again all the familiar surroundings seemed dreamlike +to me—the Plaza, with its high iron railing, and the shops facing upon +it, and our own green palm farther up the street, fluttering on the +sky. Father himself, so silent and walking on without ever turning his +head to look at me, seemed quite a different person from the father who +had gone with me the day before, merrily, to buy my bracelet. The +thought of the man with the dark eyes and the chain between his wrists +filled all my mind. Who could he be? The sense of warmth that had +come with his smile, and that very curious sensation I had had when he +had come up close to the bar and spoken to me, were with me yet. His +voice had been pleading and deferential, surely nothing in it to +resent. The memory of his face made me forget the chain between his +wrists; as if he himself had been greater than any of the people around +him. +</P> + +<P> +We had reached our own door, but before father could put his key in the +lock, the door opened from within, and there in the hall stood Hallie +Ferguson, her new blue bonnet on one side, her face crimson with haste +and excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Ellie," she gasped, "have you heard? I've been waiting the +longest time for you. Isn't it awful? Johnny Montgomery has shot +Martin Rood, and they say it's about the Spanish Woman." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE RUMORS +</H3> + +<P> +Hallie's facts dashed so coldly and so suddenly upon the warm fancies +which had been taking possession of my mind, that for the moment I +could only stupidly gaze at her. Then, without any reason that I could +account for, I burst into tears. +</P> + +<P> +I cried all the while father carried me upstairs. I cried convulsively +while Abby was getting me to bed, and, wound up in the sheets with my +face hidden in the pillow, I cried inconsolably for a long time. That +aching sensation in my throat would not wash away with tears. Vaguely +I heard the doctor explaining to father how my present condition was +due "to severe nervous strain, and the subconscious effort of the +constitution to combat it." I knew it was nothing of the sort, but +just the plain fact that Johnny Montgomery, seen once dancing at a +ball, and ever after to me the model of all romantic heroes, was a +murderer. It was dreadful to think that it was through me he had been +taken, because I had remembered so well his beautiful black eyebrows, +and the little white scar near his mouth; but nothing that had followed +had been so terrible as that first sight of him, when he rushed out of +the door, with all the horror of what had just happened, in his face; +or so cruel as the thought that he could have done such a thing. But +why did his look, both then and later, come back to me accusing and +reproachful? How could I help what I had done? I had had to tell the +truth, and surely he must know that nothing but good ever comes of +that, no matter how hard it seems. I agonized through the early +evening hours, and fell asleep not with a sense of being drifted +deliciously away, but of sinking down under deep exhaustion. +</P> + +<P> +When I awakened the next morning I was astonished to find myself +feeling quite differently—a little tired and languid—but the aching +misery, the black hopelessness, that had fallen on me the night before +had quite evaporated, left perhaps in that bottomless pit of sleep into +which I had sunk. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed now, in the broad daylight, as if I had made too much of +everything that had happened; as if Hallie must be mistaken. It could +not have been Johnny Montgomery who had shot a man, or, if he had, it +must have been an accident. And, even suppose he had meant to kill +him, what possible difference could it make to me? +</P> + +<P> +Here Abby knocked at the door, and, showing a rather forbidding face +around it, said that Hallie was down-stairs; but that if I was going to +have any more conniption fits I would better stay where I was. She +left a glass of milk and a clean tucker and sleeves on my chair. I +swallowed the milk, and hurried into my clothes, but I descended rather +slowly to the hall. I had always confided in Hallie, and I knew she +would probably expect to hear all about it from the moment I had seen +him. I hated to think of the questions I would have to answer; yet I +would have to face them sometime, and it was better to get it over at +once. +</P> + +<P> +When I reached the sitting-room door I was decidedly dashed at sight of +Estrella Mendez's red pelisse behind Hallie's blue hat ribbons. Two of +them were a little too much for me, and I was all ready for flight when +Hallie pounced upon me. She is such an imposing person, wears so many +tucks and ruffles in her clothes, such bows on her hats, and can spread +her skirts about and rustle so, that I always feel like the merest +child beside her. +</P> + +<P> +"You poor little Ellie," she began, "how pale you look still! I am +afraid I frightened you to death yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +I murmured something about being much upset. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, your father said you were not at all well. He gave me such a +scolding for pouncing out on you like that!" She laughed her deep +throaty chuckle. "But I supposed of course you had heard, it happened +so close to you. Didn't you even hear the shot?" +</P> + +<P> +I must have gaped at her. Could it be she didn't know that I had seen +it? Didn't know what I had been through? I recalled confusedly the +warning of the Chief of Police and father not to say anything of what I +had seen. This was what they meant; this was the meaning of the +carriage, the alley and the back door of the prison; all my part in the +business had been kept secret. I wondered what in the world Hallie +could have thought of my behavior last night, but I was greatly +relieved to think of the fusillade of questions I had escaped. I +managed to get out something about father's having heard a shot. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I know that," Hallie said, pulling me down on the sofa +beside her. She was too full of her subject to notice how oddly I must +have looked. "It's all in the paper, how they found him—Mr. Rood, I +mean." +</P> + +<P> +"It's here," Estrella said, sitting down on the other side of me, and +unfolding the crumpled sheet she had been carrying rolled up in her +hand. She and Hallie held it stretched out in front of me. +</P> + +<P> +The sight of Johnny Montgomery's name staring at me from the page made +my heart beat a little. But when I began reading down the column I +couldn't seem to make sense of it. The only thing that stood out in +the jumble was a name nearly at the bottom of the sheet, Carlotta +Valencia. It gave me a queer little stir of feeling, merely seeing +that name under his. Keeping my finger on it, "Who is that?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, don't you know?" Hallie demanded, looking surprised, but delighted +at the chance of giving more information. "That is the Spanish Woman." +Estrella crossed her arms on her waist, and drew herself up, exactly as +her mother does when she thinks some one is beneath her. "You see," +Hallie went on, explaining a little more to me, "she was—well, a sort +of friend of Mr. Rood's, and the paper says she feels dreadfully about +him!" Estrella sniffed. +</P> + +<P> +"But," I cried, "you said last night that the shooting had been over +her." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know!" Hallie leaned forward impressively and seized a hand of +each of us. "It's perfectly true—at least it's what my father said +when the news came. He said, 'That confounded Valencia woman is at the +bottom of this, depend upon it.' But your father was very angry that I +had spoken of it, so of course I'm telling you this in strictest +confidence. The paper," Hallie went on, we both listening with open +eyes, "doesn't say the Spanish Woman had anything to do with the +shooting. So you see, no one does know exactly what it's about. It's +really the most mysterious thing! They found Mr. Rood lying there +quite dead," she continued breathlessly, "and they went to Johnny +Montgomery's house, but he wasn't there. Then some one told Mr. +Dingley they had seen a man run down Washington Street, so they +followed that trail, and finally they got him in a house down on the +water front, in a bad part of the city. My father said it would have +made things better for him if he had given himself up quietly; but he +barricaded the house, and almost escaped out of a back window. They +had a dreadful fight before they got him even then. He is so strong, +father says, that he just threw the men right and left as if he had +been a madman." +</P> + +<P> +Hallie is wonderful when she is telling news. She never says unkind +things about anybody, and she is always so excited over what has +happened that she makes it sound like a romance. But now I was too +anxious to enjoy it. I felt I had to ask one question more, though +every word that came out of my mouth was a possible slip or lie. "But, +if they found Mr. Rood in the street with nobody near him, what makes +them think it was Mr. Montgomery who shot him?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is the very queerest part of it," Hallie declared, nodding until +her green feathers nodded again, "but he was suspected immediately. +What they say is—" she lowered her voice impressively—"that some one +saw him do it." +</P> + +<P> +I fairly cowered in my chair. "But he can't have meant to kill him," I +urged. "Why, his family was one of the best in the city. Just think, +Hallie, your mother knew his mother well, and he used to play with +Estrella's brothers." +</P> + +<P> +Estrella flushed. "He hasn't been in our house since he was a little +boy," she said angrily. "I wouldn't think of bowing to him on the +street. He hasn't been received in good society for a long time." +</P> + +<P> +Hallie sagely shook her head. "Yes, but I guess it's because he didn't +care to go, and lots of very nice girls have always been in love with +Johnny Montgomery. Lily West kept his picture in a satin case hidden +among her party clothes for ever so long. And do you know, when Laura +Burnet heard about Johnny's arrest last night, she fainted flat on the +floor." +</P> + +<P> +Hallie's bolt upright impressiveness seemed to demand some comment, but +I could not manage a sound; for at her words there rushed back to me, +with humiliating clearness, my own hysterics of the night before. Was +it possible that Hallie thought I was in love with him, too? My cheeks +burned and burned. +</P> + +<P> +"Were you ever introduced to him, Ellie?" Estrella asked, looking at me +curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"No, she has never met him," Hallie promptly took the response out of +my mouth; "but she saw him once—don't you remember, Ellie, at my +sister Adelaide's coming-out ball?" +</P> + +<P> +I said, yes, I remembered it. +</P> + +<P> +"He danced most of that evening with Laura Burnet," Hallie pursued, +"and she was perfectly wild about him. My brother Tom saw him kiss her +in the conservatory," Hallie chuckled at that memory, "and for a while +it was said that they were engaged, though she was three years older +than he was. But he was terribly in debt then, and of course she had +lots of money." Hallie sighed, and added, "Isn't it awful he should +have ended in this way? Adelaide always said there was no one who +could put your shawl around you so beautifully as he." +</P> + +<P> +It seemed terrible to me that they could sit there talking of how badly +he had been thought of by society, and how beautifully he had put +women's shawls around them, when he was in prison waiting to be tried +for his life. I was glad when the girls went and I could think about +it by myself. +</P> + +<P> +I felt sick and bruised. All suggestions that Hallie had innocently +let fall put such an ugly face upon his actions. I didn't want to +believe that hateful gossip. His smile had been so charming and kind. +There was something about him that made him seem of so much greater +importance than any one else I had known; that made every little look +and motion of his memorable and eloquent. And when he had looked +straight into my eyes I had felt the warm flowing of the blood in my +veins. Had it been these strange qualities of his that had made nice +girls fall in love with him? I peeped into my mirror to see if my face +looked as queer as my feelings felt. I whispered the words again, "To +fall in love." What could that be like? To make Laura Burnet faint +away at just the news of his arrest—what a great and terrible feeling +it must be! When I thought of him as a person who could inspire such +emotions he gathered a halo of mystery and power; but when I remembered +Hallie's saying how he had been engaged to Laura for the sake of her +money, he seemed to me the merest wretch. I told myself there was no +need of my worrying about it, as he was in prison and my part was done. +It couldn't possibly interest me any further. All the same I couldn't +get it out of my head. +</P> + +<P> +Father came home to luncheon that day, bringing Seņora Mendez with him. +He looked worried and tired, but I had never seen her so sweet, and so +very gay. +</P> + +<P> +She said I had been in the house too much, looked pale, and that she +was going to take me shopping. As we got up from the table she +lingered a moment, saying something to father about taking some one's +mind off something. And father said, yes until we can tell which way +it will go. So I supposed they were talking business. +</P> + +<P> +Seņora Mendez is such a great grand sort of lady that usually one is a +little in awe of her; but to-day she made me feel very much at home, as +we drove down the street in her big open carriage. She never once +mentioned the shooting, and I didn't have courage to speak of it +myself. But we heard of it all around us. In the first shop we went +into a woman just behind me said in a loud voice, "Do the rebels think +they can shoot us all down as Wilkes Booth shot the president?" And +then, again, at another shop where we were looking at lace, the clerk +said, "This is a terrible thing for the city, Madam, the loss of such a +valuable citizen." But Seņora Mendez seemed not to hear him, and went +on explaining to me the difference between honiton and thread, and +showing me how beautiful embroidered net looked over pale blue silk, +until I felt quite cheerful just through listening to her and looking +at the pretty things. She wound up by buying me a lovely pair of +thread lace sleeves, and swept me out in the wake of her train feeling +almost happy again. +</P> + +<P> +Just as we had got into the carriage two gentlemen with silk hats, very +elegant indeed, came up and talked over the carriage door with her. +The one with yellow gloves said, "This is a bad business. It's a good +thing poor old lady Montgomery never lived to see this day." And the +other said, "I wonder what the effect on the city will be?" +</P> + +<P> +Seņora Mendez said she hoped the effect would be a law requiring our +young men to settle disputes with their fists instead of firearms, and +that it was a shame nice boys would brawl in gambling-houses. She +smiled and looked most easy and pleasant over it, and all the way up +the street she chatted right along as if nothing serious had ever +happened. But when we stopped at the house, just as I was leaving the +carriage, she quickly took my face between her hands and kissed me hard +on the forehead. "You poor little motherless duck," she said, and left +me with the impression there had been tears in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +I wondered why she should feel so suddenly sorry for me; nevertheless I +felt cheered and consoled—hadn't she spoken kindly of Johnny +Montgomery as a nice boy? But it was the last good word I was to hear +of him for a week. I needed the memory of that cheer and consolation +through the next hard days. +</P> + +<P> +For now that I was recovered from the shock of the first day I began to +realize that the shooting of Martin Rood was not at all an ordinary +shooting. It had stirred up great excitement. Only one month had +passed since the president's assassination; the feeling against the +Southerners was still very bitter, and not only were all the +Montgomerys dyed-in-the-wool Alabamians, but some of the relatives had +fought on the Southern side. Rumors flew about the city of a mob +attacking the prison. There was a guard of soldiers around it the +first night, and when they took him from there to the jail on Broadway, +it was in the middle of an armed escort. All sorts of stories as to +what had caused the shooting were abroad, but the one thing the reports +agreed upon was the fact that the quarrel had been of long standing. +This was very exciting to hear about, yet I didn't enjoy talking of it +as the other girls did. +</P> + +<P> +Only when I was alone, with hot cheeks and anxious eyes, I read through +the long accounts that filled the papers, hoping to find some word in +his favor. It seemed to me that the whole city was against Johnny +Montgomery. The <I>Bulletin</I> had stories of another shooting down South, +though it appeared that that time he had been the one who was shot at; +and of how he had lost his money in land speculations of a doubtful +character. The <I>Alta California</I> called him a rebel, and said that his +career had been "a demoralizing influence to the youth of the city." +Though, on the other hand, it called Mr. Rood our esteemed and lamented +citizen, which was puzzling to me, for he was only a gambling-house +keeper whom none of the best men in town was friendly with. But the +papers spoke very warmly of him; called Mrs. Rood, Senior, his +sorrowing mother, and then they mentioned the Spanish Woman. They said +she had been in love with Rood, and that he had expected to marry her. +That recalled a memory of what father had told me when I first asked +him about the Spanish Woman—that she had money, and influence in high +places—and I wondered what that influence could do to Johnny +Montgomery's case. Altogether I was much disturbed. I hated to ask +questions of father, he had been so distressed over my part in the +affair; and besides he had been very busy that week, so many men +interviewing him when he was at home—Mr. Dingley, and others who were +not elegant, but very businesslike—that I hardly saw him except at +meals. Once or twice I had caught him, when he thought I wasn't +looking, watching me with an anxious and harassed expression; but most +of the time he was preoccupied. +</P> + +<P> +On the morning of the fourth day after the shooting, as I sat at +breakfast, I took up the paper and read that the trial of the People +Versus John Montgomery was set for the last week of May. I glanced +down the column and a sentence caught my eye. "It is said the +prosecution is in possession of sensational evidence which will +materially affect the aspect of the case." I sat for some minutes with +the paper in my hand, listening to it rustle, gathering my courage. +</P> + +<P> +"Father," I finally said, "do you think that Mr. Montgomery is really +wicked?" +</P> + +<P> +He looked over at me with that smile of his which is most serious. "My +dear child, I am not Almighty God." +</P> + +<P> +"But you know what I mean," I protested. "The papers have been saying +such nice things about Mr. Rood, but you yourself once said he was an +'insidious and pernicious influence in the community'; and the papers +are printing such dreadful things about Johnny Montgomery! They are +telling all sorts of stories about him—that he has been in shooting +scrapes and dishonorable business deals, and—and horrible things," I +ended rather uncertainly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no doubt he hasn't been such a bad fellow," father said, passing +his cup for coffee. "As far as his land operations are concerned, I +know for a fact that the 'dishonorable dealing' the <I>Bulletin</I> talks +about was all on the side of the men who got his money. But you see he +would go into the deal in spite of the advice of the executor of the +estate, antagonized all his father's friends—plucked the Roman +senators by the beards, as it were;—so of course they were ready to +believe the worst of him. Then he went badly into debt, and +accumulated too many creditors to be popular. But Rood, you see, +always had money, always kept his escapades quiet, and was very liberal +to the city. He has given a deal to different public institutions. +They can't do otherwise than praise him." +</P> + +<P> +He took up his letters and began to open them with a paper-knife. +</P> + +<P> +"But," I said, "they say Mr. Montgomery has been engaged to a girl for +her money." +</P> + +<P> +Father threw back his head and laughed—I can never tell when I am +going to amuse him. +</P> + +<P> +"Engaged to a girl for her money? That's the worst thing on his list, +I suppose, eh, Ellie?" Before he finished the sentence he was almost +grave again. "I know where you got that information." He shook the +paper-knife at me. "Women's gossip is an invention of the devil! +Don't listen to it! The poor fellow has enough real counts to be +accused on, God knows!" +</P> + +<P> +He said the last words with such an emphasis as did away with all the +comfort his explanation had brought me. I did not dare to press him +further; I was afraid I might hear worse. +</P> + +<P> +He sat a moment frowning down at the tablecloth; then, "How would you +like to go down to the ranch for a week or so?" he inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Alone?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I will go down with you, and stay as long as I can. Abby, of +course, will be there all the while. The colts are to be broken in +next week—that will be worth seeing; and no doubt the flowers will be +beautiful." +</P> + +<P> +I said I would like to—though indeed I did not at all care. I was not +thinking of flowers. After father had left the house I went up-stairs +to my room; and, first locking the door and drawing the curtains close +because I did not want even my climbing white rose to see me, I took +out my new bracelet, and clasped it—one gold band around each wrist +with its chain swinging between—and closed my eyes and, holding my +wrists out, drew them apart until the chain jerked and stopped them—to +see just how it felt! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE FIRST DAY IN COURT +</H3> + +<P> +As father had said, the breaking of the colts was well worth seeing. +The first day I arrived at the ranch, clinging to the top rail of the +corral, I watched the glossy huddled flanks and shoulders and tossing +heads of the youngsters crowding together in the middle of the +inclosure, quivering with apprehension of the man approaching with his +rope; until, the man being unendurably near, one and another would +break and wheel, and trot with high head, whinnying, around the corral +close to the fence. Then, when Perez had one fast, one end of his rope +around the glossy neck, and slowly working toward him, hand over hand, +finally touched the velvety head, how the creature started, swerved, +tried to back, and felt the jerk of the halter. It made me think of +the way the prisoner had started when the policeman touched his arm. +At first their nervous, proud, restive airs reminded me constantly of +that strange person; and not only the colts, but some times it was some +drifting shadow of cloud, some color or some sound, that inexplicably +brought him up to mind; and I would plague myself with wondering what +was going on in the city, and what was to become of him. But as the +days passed and no newspapers came from the city—at least I saw +none—and no letters to remind me of what was happening there, I +recalled him less and less distinctly. He remained in my mind but as a +sort of dream; things about me reminded me only of themselves, and I +became absorbed in picking out a new saddle-horse, and searching the +meadows over to see if the Mariposa lilies were coming up this year in +their accustomed places. +</P> + +<P> +Splendid fields, in early spring filled with wild flowers, stretched +down toward the bay, but close around the house were the somber and, to +me, more beautiful groves of oaks. To wander away until I had lost +sight of the house in their olive glooms and saw nothing around me but +dark trunks, crooked elbows of boughs and sweeping leaves, was my +delight. I loved to crown myself with their white beards of moss, and +fancy I was walking through a cathedral aisle, a princess going to be +married. But, whereas I had never needed to imagine a bride-groom +before—myself and the crown had been enough—now my imagination +insistently placed a figure walking beside me, or coming to meet me +under the solemn roof of branches. I had to abandon my crown, and run +races with myself before I could leave the figure behind. +</P> + +<P> +On the whole it was safer, I found, just now not to imagine too much, +but instead, while father was there, to take long rides with him into +the San Mateo Hills; and, after he had gone, shorter excursions in the +vicinity of the town. Or else to walk with Abby in the morning down +the broad Embarcadero Road to the little wharf on the bay. It was +charming enough there when all was idle, with white adobe huts, and +dark faces sleeping in the sun, and the lap of the tide on the +breakwater. But when a ship was coming in, or was loading to get out, +the Embarcadero filled the eye,—carts backing up with vegetables; +casks being rolled out on the wharf with a hollow and reverberating +sound; hallooings from the boat; and then round she would swing, with a +tremendous snapping of canvas, while the shadow of her brown sails, +patched with red, floated over all. +</P> + +<P> +The country, and especially the country in spring, seems to have a way +of making the place where one has lived before very unreal and far +distant. Two weeks of such dreamy living drifted the city, and the +violent things that had been done there, so far behind me that I could +think of them without a tremor. I could even think of my own part in +them as if it had happened in a play. +</P> + +<P> +Then one evening, just before dark, a boy on a heavily lathered horse +rode up to the piazza steps, and, like the messenger in a novel, handed +me a letter. It was from father. "Have everything in readiness to +start to-morrow morning," he wrote. "I shall expect you at the house +at six-thirty to-morrow night without fail." This letter threw me into +a flutter of excitement. I was accustomed to short-notice orders from +father, orders that carried no explanations; but they had always been +sent through the mails. A messenger meant great need of haste. I +recognized him as father's office-boy. Was my father ill, I asked. +</P> + +<P> +No, he was in excellent health. +</P> + +<P> +I thought, "Perhaps he has been suddenly called out of the city and +wants to see me before he leaves home." It surely couldn't be that +this summons had anything to do with Johnny Montgomery's case. Having +to rush off at such short notice I was luckily too busy to have time to +worry about it; coming up through the valley Perez let me drive a good +deal, and the horses were so spirited I needed all my wits to keep them +from running away. But when we began to wind in and out among the tall +round hills to the south of the city a nervousness came upon me, and I +kept wondering what could be wanted of me. By the time we reached the +house on Washington Street I could scarcely sit still. +</P> + +<P> +Father was standing in the door to welcome me. I fairly flew up the +steps. "What is the matter?" I asked, almost before I hugged him. +</P> + +<P> +"By, and by we will talk about that," he said. "Now, come in and see +what a fine host I am." But as I passed him, I heard him saying to +Perez, "Before you put up the horses I want you to take this note out +to Mr. James Dingley, at his house, and wait for an answer." +</P> + +<P> +It was a charming table, lit with candles, and there was a delicious +dinner, but I was too excited to eat. The glass of wine that father +made me drink only seemed to make my thoughts spin faster, wondering +what could be going on since by father's manner, and the message he had +given Perez I felt sure it must be something unusual. When dessert had +been put on, and Lee had gone out, leaving us alone there opposite each +other, I thought, "Now it's coming." +</P> + +<P> +Father had set down his coffee-cup untasted. "I have had to send for +you, Ellie," he said, "because of a matter connected with the trial." +</P> + +<P> +My heart was beating quickly, and in spite of myself my voice trembled. +</P> + +<P> +"When does it begin?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"It began last week," father answered, "but there has been no evidence +of any consequence yet." +</P> + +<P> +He was silent for a moment, looking thoughtfully at the dancing flames +of the candles. "I suppose you know," he went on, "that, in trials +there is usually plenty of circumstantial evidence, but eye witnesses +are rare and their testimony most valuable?" +</P> + +<P> +I nodded. This feeling of suspense was intolerable. +</P> + +<P> +"I very much hoped that yours would not be necessary. Mr. Dingley was +of that opinion. But a new development has suddenly arisen, and now I +am afraid you will have to be state's witness—the most important one +they will have." +</P> + +<P> +There are no words to tell of the panic I was in. Father's face, +wrinkled with anxiety, was watching me. "I would give anything to keep +you out of it," he said. +</P> + +<P> +I tried to make my voice steady. "And will I have to tell them whether +or not I think him guilty?" +</P> + +<P> +He put his hand over mine. "God bless the child, no! You will have to +tell them only exactly what you saw, all that you saw, and just how you +saw it." +</P> + +<P> +I could breathe again. After that one awful moment, when the whole +weight of the trial seemed on my shoulders, anything was a relief. +"But, father," I said; "do you really think that he is guilty?" +</P> + +<P> +Father gave me an odd look. "Aren't you the one person in this city +best qualified to answer that question?" +</P> + +<P> +I stared at him. I felt as if I had been suddenly set up in a high +tower, above all other people in the world, and that I was going to +fall. I had known in a blind sort of way what I had seen, and, also, +that no one else had seen it; but I had not realized the terrible +isolation, the responsibility of such knowledge. "Oh," I cried, "I +only wish I had never gone near Dupont Street. I am so sorry I have +made you unhappy!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, my dear child, this is no time for regretting what has been +done. We must think of ourselves only as two citizens of the state, +and be ready to do all we can in that cause. You know it will not be +easy, it will be made as difficult as possible for you to answer +straightly." He had hold of both my hands now, was looking hard into +my face. "And a young good-looking prisoner will make it harder yet." +His eyes seemed to go straight to my thoughts. "Ellie, I can depend +upon you, can't I?" +</P> + +<P> +I was glad I could say, in quite a steady voice, "Oh, yes, yes!" +</P> + +<P> +He smiled. "Of course I should have known without asking. Now don't +fret about it. To bed, to bed, to bed! We shall have to be up early +to-morrow if we are to be in court by nine o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +He was smiling, as he said this, with his old gaiety, but I suspected +he was only putting it on to cheer me, as I now understand Seņora +Mendez had done when she had taken me shopping. +</P> + +<P> +After I got up-stairs I couldn't sleep. At about ten o'clock I heard +the door-bell ring, then long heavy steps going down the hall, and the +shutting of a door which I guessed to be the door of the study. That +was odd; father seldom had visitors so late. I tossed and tossed. I +kept trying to picture the court room. I saw it as a vast place, with +a cold chilly light, like the hall of the prison, filled with a surging +mob of people; serried rows of lawyers all in white wigs—the memory of +some English pictures—and a terrible judge in a black gown, calling +out my name. Suppose, even with the best I could do, I should make a +mistake; forget something, or, what would be much worse, remember +something wrongly! +</P> + +<P> +I realized that I was hearing voices with remarkable clearness. I was +able to recognize father's and Mr. Dingley's, and they seemed to be +talking just beneath my window. Then it occurred to me that, since the +evening was mild, the window of the study, which was just beneath my +room, must be open. The sound of those voices worried me; Mr. +Dingley's was louder than common, and there were times when both seemed +to speak at once. I got up softly and going to my window very +noiselessly closed it. Then, so that I should not be quite stifled for +air, I set the door into the hall wide. It opened outward, so that I +had to step out on the landing. Just as I did so, I heard the study +door flung open, quick steps in the hall, and there, from that part of +the hall directly beneath the landing, Mr. Dingley's voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's just your supersensitive conscience! There was no need of +bringing the child up to town. There's enough circumstantial evidence +to convict ten men of whatever guilt there is." +</P> + +<P> +Then father—"Yes, and I thought you had enough to convict one—that is +I did last week. But this new development,—this Valencia woman, puts +another face on the business." +</P> + +<P> +"Come, now, Fred, the poor woman is really mighty upset over Rood's +death! All she says is that she doesn't really believe the boy did it." +</P> + +<P> +"And for that reason, and that reason alone," father broke in, "she is +going to throw all her influence with the defense—thousands of dollars +spent, and Lord knows what wires pulled, to get him off. Man, you +can't believe it! Don't you know she's going to fight us every inch of +the way? You'll need every scrap of testimony you can dig up! And +such an important piece as—" They were advancing up the hall. I +shrank back and closed the door. +</P> + +<P> +Faintly I heard the voices in the hall going on a few moments longer, +then the front door shut with a deep sound, and the house was still. I +got back into bed but it was not to sleep. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed that since I had been away from the city this strange thing +had happened: the Spanish Woman, whom the papers had described as +mourning for Rood, had taken up the defense of Montgomery. I couldn't +understand it. It would seem that I ought to have been glad—I, who +had been so anxious to find a champion for him—but queerly enough the +only feeling that came was one of fear, as if, instead of saving, she +had been dragging him into worse danger. I lay, staring now at the +ceiling, now at the window, where, toward dawn, a paling light began to +shine. I no longer felt the nervous anxieties that had kept me awake +through the earlier part of the night. I was calmed by one great +dread,—the thought of the Spanish Woman! Her presence rose up and +possessed my imaginary court room, obliterating the figures of the +judge and the lawyers, until it seemed that she and I and the prisoner +were the only persons in the room, and that the one person she was +fighting in all the city was myself. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning when I came in to breakfast father laid his hand on my +cheek, which felt very burning, and said, "You are not fit to answer +one question." My throat was dry, and it was hard work to swallow +things, but he stood over me and made me eat a good breakfast. After +that he had me go over the story of what I had seen on the morning I +had been coming home with my basket of mushrooms. When that was done, +"Now remember," he said, "all you will have to do will be to tell that +same story, and to answer to the best of your recollection all +questions put to you. If you are careful to do that they can't confuse +you." Abby had fetched my turban, with a dark veil, which I had to put +over my face before I went into the street. There a carriage was +waiting. +</P> + +<P> +As we drove it seemed to me there were more people in the street than +usual; and when we reached the jail there was a dense crowd in front of +it, and policemen were striking with their clubs to make a passage +through. But our carriage drove, as Mr. Dingley's had done before, +around the building and through the little alley to the back entrance. +Even here some people were gathered; and as I stepped to the pavement a +woman called out in a shrill voice, "Ain't that Carlotta Valencia?" +Father seized me, and almost lifted me up the steps and into the high, +coldly lit hall. +</P> + +<P> +To-day, however, it was not empty. A continuous stream of men, some of +them escorting ladies, were hurrying in the front door, and across the +echoing flags, and up the stairs. Following them, we were upon the +first balcony and in front of the door which was kept a-swing by the +people going in. Father stopped and said something to a policeman who +seemed to be on guard in the hall. He pointed at a door next to the +one which was so constantly opening and shutting. +</P> + +<P> +"This way," father said, and I found myself, much to my surprise, not +in a crowded court room, but in a small box of a place, hardly large +enough to hold the six chairs that furnished it, and with only one +other person in it besides ourselves. "This is the witness room," +father explained. "We await our summons here." +</P> + +<P> +I took one of the six chairs. The room was a dreary little place, with +a high, dingy ceiling, one small window, placed far up the wall, and a +small air-tight stove with no fire in it. I looked at the one other +occupant with a greater interest, now that I knew that he must be a +witness. He was a dark, slick, Mexican-looking man, who dangled his +hat nervously from his fingers, and kept glancing at the door. +Presently it opened, a policeman put his head in And said, "Witness +Manuel Gora." The Mexican jumped and shuffled hastily out. Father +took the <I>Alta California</I> from his coat pocket, and I sat trying to +make out the pattern in the old carpet at my feet. +</P> + +<P> +I had distinguished a dead-looking rose and some faded out sunflowers +when I heard the click of the door, and a waft of perfume touched the +stale air, and made it like a garden. I looked up. There she stood in +the doorway, the Spanish Woman. +</P> + +<P> +She was all in black, her face wax-white, a little black hat on her +wonderful golden-red hair, and in her breast a tuberose. It was the +intoxicating sweetness of that which had breathed upon me first, and +now kept on breathing upon me, while she watched me through her +eyelashes. From sheer fright I kept looking at her—I couldn't help +it—until I felt father's hand touch mine. That seemed to break the +spell. I looked down at the carpet again and felt the color rushing to +my face. I heard the rustle of her dress, a soft, silky, indefinite +sound. She had come forward into the room, had taken one of the +chairs, I knew—I heard the subsiding of her draperies—and then I felt +her watching me. Her presence was like a great light in a closet. It +was oppressive. I began to breathe quickly, and the odor of her flower +was making my head ache. +</P> + +<P> +I heard the crackle of father's paper as he rolled it; then his voice, +low and speaking close to me, "Mr. Dingley said you were to be called +after Gora. We would better go into the court now, so as not to be +hurried." +</P> + +<P> +Somehow I had a fancy he would not have suggested our going into court +so soon if the Spanish Woman had not come into the witness room. I +followed him down the hall, not daring to turn my head, though I +thought I heard the door open again after we had closed it, and then +the rustle of her dress; but it did not seem to be following us, but to +grow fainter, as if she had turned in another direction. +</P> + +<P> +We joined the crowd of people hastening toward the swinging door. As +we came up to it I heard from within a high-lifted resonant voice that +I thought I recognized as Mr. Dingley's speaking with pauses and rising +inflections, as if addressing an audience. It ceased just as we +entered the court. +</P> + +<P> +The room was large, though not nearly so large as I had imagined, and +quite cheerful in color. I had an impression of yellowish pine walls +and plenty of light, a continuous though not loud murmur of voices and +the incessant flutter of the movement of a crowd. There were no +serried ranks of judges and barristers in black gowns, indeed at first +sight my confused eyes saw nothing but the crowd. And such a +well-dressed, holiday-looking gathering! I saw girls whom I knew, +their gowns making bright spots of color among the men's dark coats. +It looked more like an afternoon concert than a trial. Every place +seemed to be taken, and men and women, standing up, lined the walls. +But a police officer said seats had been reserved for us, and led us to +two on the side aisle near the front, and quite under the shadow of the +balcony. Once I had sat down among the crowd I ceased to notice it, +and began to take in what was directly before me. +</P> + +<P> +At that end of the room which we were facing was a platform, railed +off, and on it a great high desk, at which a rather undersized man sat, +leaning his head on a beautiful white plump hand, and looking up at the +ceiling as if he were thinking. His face was round, fair and unlined, +and had it not been for his mop of grizzled hair I would have thought +him quite young. +</P> + +<P> +"That is Judge Kelland, who tries the case," father whispered. +</P> + +<P> +I felt a wonder that he should seem so uninterested in what was going +on. In front of his desk, but below the platform, a man was writing at +a little table covered with papers; and in front of this again was +another table, larger and quite long, at which a number of men were +sitting. Nearest us Mr. Dingley sat with another gentleman, small, +slim and very calm looking. They had their heads together, evidently +talking; and next to them was a young man who seemed to be making +jottings in a note-book. Beyond him I could make out no more than +vague heads and elbows, on account of the movement of the crowd. To +the right of this long table and on a line with our places was +something I recognized as the jury box, the heads of some of the men in +it showing quaintly over the high side. +</P> + +<P> +From one thing to another my eyes traveled hastily, taking them in +unconsciously, for the one figure I was looking for—that I had +expected to see before all others, standing up in the prisoner's dock, +the centering point for all eyes—I could not find. The only thing +that might have been a prisoner's dock, a small railed inclosure on the +right hand of the judge's desk, was empty. But presently there was a +shift in the restless gathering, some people, who had been standing up, +sat down; and I saw a little more of the long table, first a space, +where no one was sitting, and then the broad back of a man, who had +shifted in his chair as if to face the person next to him. In a moment +he had turned back again, and leaned forward, and there, in the little +space through the crowd,—a profile like a picture in a frame,—I saw +Johnny Montgomery's face. +</P> + +<P> +The start it gave me may have been pure astonishment, I saw it so +suddenly and it looked so different. All the dishevelment, the +defiance and anger were gone. His black hair was brushed down, smooth +and burnished as a crow's breast. The stock and the great black satin +bow beneath his chin were as immaculate and as perfectly arranged as +father's, and his face itself was calm, almost sweet in expression. +</P> + +<P> +I had been expecting to find a prisoner in a dock, and here he was, +dressed like any other distinguished young gentleman in the court room, +and sitting among the lawyers. All at once he put up his hand to push +back his hair, and I saw that his hands were free. I felt a sense of +unspeakable relief, as if he had already been acquitted. The only +thing that seemed to set him apart from others was that expression of +his, which was troubling in its very sweetness, as if he were not +trying to combat or oppose anything; as if he had foreseen to the end +what would happen, and had given himself up from the first. +</P> + +<P> +Then a voice, high and sing-song, seeming to come from nowhere, began +calling out something which I couldn't understand, and the Mexican I +had seen in the witness room rose from the crowd and shuffled up into +the little railed inclosure. The gentleman who was sitting with Mr. +Dingley got up and began asking questions in a weary monotonous voice, +to which the Mexican replied that his name was Manuel Gora, that he was +a Mexican by birth, and by occupation a barkeeper; that at present he +was without employment, but that previous to the seventh of May he had +for ten years been in the employment of Martin Rood. +</P> + +<P> +I could hear the stir all over the court room, and my own heart began +to beat. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" The gentleman who was on his feet seemed to shake off his apathy +and grew very, emphatic, "Now, Mr. Gora—on the night of May the sixth +where were you?" +</P> + +<P> +The man answered in a low voice that all that night he had been in Mr. +Rood's gambling-hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Go on, tell us and the gentlemen of the jury all that you remember of +the occurrences of that night and of the morning of the seventh until +six-thirty o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +When the Mexican began speaking all the rustle died out in the court, +and in the deep silence his precise, mincing utterance made every word +distinct. He had gone on duty at six-thirty o'clock, he said; the hall +had closed at eleven, it being Sunday night, and at that hour Mr. Rood +had not yet come home. He had locked the doors and sat up until two. +Then Mr. Rood came, and went immediately to bed. +</P> + +<P> +Here the lawyer interrupted, "Do I understand you that Mr. Rood lived +at the gambling-hall?" +</P> + +<P> +No, the man said, but he had rooms upstairs which he often used. After +Mr. Rood had retired he had himself gone to his own room, which was +also up-stairs, but in the back of the house. He was not yet asleep +when he heard the bell at the side door ring. "And then," the Mexican +said, "I went to Mr. Rood's door and asked if I should go down-stairs. +Mr. Rood said, 'No,' and then he said, 'Curse him, no, I won't let him +in.' But after the bell had rung three times more, he called me and +said, 'Go down, Manuel, let him in. I will come down in a few minutes.' +</P> + +<P> +"After that I went down and let in Mr. Montgomery." +</P> + +<P> +"One moment, Mr. Gora." The lawyer who was standing had raised his +hand. "Was there anything in Mr. Rood's manner which led you to +suppose he had feared a visit from Mr. Montgomery?" +</P> + +<P> +The man who had been sitting next the prisoner was on his feet. +"Object, your Honor, to the form of the question, as being—" He +mumbled the rest, I couldn't get a word of it. +</P> + +<P> +The judge brought his eyes down from the ceiling, looked at the big man +who was calling out to him; then said in a conversational voice: +"Objection sustained." Then looking at the other man, "Change the form +of the question." +</P> + +<P> +"Father," I whispered, "that man who just now objected, isn't he Mr. +Jackson? Hasn't he been at the house to dinner?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and one of the best lawyers in the city; but he is defending +Montgomery, I am sorry!" +</P> + +<P> +"Did Mr. Rood," the first lawyer began again, "show surprise when you +told him there was some one at the door?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir." The man hesitated. "He was angry." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dingley's lawyer looked triumphantly at the lawyer for the defense; +then he again turned to the witness. "Had you ever seen the person you +let in before?" +</P> + +<P> +"Very often. He came a great deal to play." +</P> + +<P> +"Can you point him out?" +</P> + +<P> +The Mexican peered at the crowd. "He is sitting the third from the end +at that table." +</P> + +<P> +There was a sigh that seemed to come from the whole court room. I +tried to get a glimpse of Johnny Montgomery's face, but too many people +were standing up, and moving chairs, and when the flutter subsided a +little I was able to catch the witness' voice going on. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I brought them some drinks, and Mr. Rood told me to go to bed. +They were left alone down there when I had gone up-stairs. I went to +sleep. I was waked up in the very early morning by quarreling voices, +and before I was wide-awake I heard a pistol shot. I ran down the +stairs and out into the back of the house, as I do when there is +trouble, and wait until I think it is over. Then, after listening a +while, everything perfectly quiet, I go out into the bar where I left +them and it was empty; but on the floor I see a pistol; I look at it +and it is discharged; then I go into the other rooms, no one. Then I +hear the crowd crying, I look out the door—there I see him!" +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to me I couldn't bear to hear any more, and I stopped my ears +until I saw the lawyer for the prosecution sit down. But as soon as he +was down the lawyer for the defense was on his feet, and had begun +asking a lot of questions that seemed to me very foolish, and very +little concerned with Johnny Montgomery. Then, without seeming to have +made any point at all, Mr. Jackson sat down; the Mexican came down from +the witness-stand, the judge left his place and went out through a door +at the back, and a man who had been hovering on the outskirts of the +lawyers' table, hurried to Mr. Dingley, and whispered something to him. +Instead of coming over to speak with us, as I had expected, Mr. Dingley +went hastily out of the room. Father left me to speak with a man on +the other side of the court; and, among all the standing and walking +and going out, Johnny Montgomery and I were the only ones who sat quite +still. +</P> + +<P> +As yet I saw him in profile. He was leaning forward, his elbows on the +table; now and then he ran his fingers through his hair. Once I +thought he was going to drop his head in his hands; but after an +instant's drooping he threw it up sharply with a sort of shake that +tossed the long locks out of his eyes, and faced around in his chair +and saw me. He didn't seem surprised at finding me there. I couldn't +be sure that he had not known just where I was all the while; but +though he looked at me so steadily it was not, somehow, like a stare. +He did not look, at me quite as if I were a human being, but as if I +were a statue or a picture. He was the one who turned away. Then I +sat looking at the back of his head. +</P> + +<P> +There was a murmur of talk all through the room, but above it I heard +two men behind me greeting each other. +</P> + +<P> +One said, "Well, what's the game? Is she a stricken widow or a hopeful +fiancée?" +</P> + +<P> +"A little of both, I guess," the other answered. "She's been pretty +good to Rood—ten years—but he was getting gray and fat, and the fair +Carlotta herself is nearing the age when a woman begins to yearn for +beauty and youth. There's one thing I will say for her, though, she +seems, to be hard hit. I never saw the man Carlotta would turn her +little finger over for before, and she's going in for acquittal with +all she's got." +</P> + +<P> +"It's scandalous, that's what it is!" I heard the first speaker bring +down his fist on his open palm. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't know," the other said. "I think it's pretty decent of +her, and she may manage it. Great is Carlotta!'" +</P> + +<P> +They moved away, and I sat still, staring stupidly at the back of +Johnny Montgomery's head. The cool callous tones of the men knocked on +my heart like blows. I was amazed at the familiar way they spoke of +the Spanish Woman, in spite of all her dignity, and commanding beauty; +but to hear them speaking of Johnny Montgomery as if he belonged too +her was intolerable. It was ridiculous! Of course it might be that +she was interested in his case, might even be in love with him; but +that he should care for her— +</P> + +<P> +I was so unnerved that I didn't notice father's reappearance until he +leaned over and touched my arm. +</P> + +<P> +"You will probably be called next," he said. Then, he must have felt +me trembling and supposed it to be nervousness. "Remember, for the +honor of the family," he whispered, smiling. +</P> + +<P> +The lawyers and the men who had been writing were all coming back to +their places; and then Mr. Dingley hurried in, and down the aisle to +where we were. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear Fred," he began; and then I couldn't hear any more, because he +pulled father by the arm until they stood a little farther off from me, +where they talked very earnestly for some moments. Father looked +perfectly disgusted. +</P> + +<P> +"Next time, be very sure before you order our presence in court," he +said as he came back to his chair. "I am capable of great +disagreeableness, as you know." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dingley smiled and rubbed his hands, and said these little +unexpected things would turn up. Then, as the judge was coming into +the room, he hastened back into his place. Father threw his coat over +his arm and said, "Come along, Ellie." +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, one of their infernal technical hitches. After insisting on your +presence this morning, your testimony is not required." +</P> + +<P> +I got up very slowly. I couldn't resist sending one glance toward +where Johnny Montgomery was sitting, and as I did so he turned his +head. It was the same quiet gaze he had given me before. It must have +been only my fancy that saw something wistful in it; but I hated to go. +I felt as if I were leaving him alone in the hands of his enemies. It +seemed impossible for me to remember that of all those enemies he had I +was the very worst. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE SECOND DAY IN COURT +</H3> + +<P> +As father and I crossed the lower hall, "Do you believe all these +stories about the Spanish Woman are true?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +He looked at me quickly. "What stories?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I heard them talking in court to-day; and last night,—I didn't +mean to,—I overheard you and Mr. Dingley as you came out of the study." +</P> + +<P> +Father looked grim. "It is with those stories they will try to convict +him." He took a few more strides before he added, "If they can prove +that Montgomery wanted to cut out Rood they'll have a bad case against +him." He didn't speak again until he put me in the carriage. Then he +said, "I hope that you will get this matter out of your mind. I hate +to have you think about it." +</P> + +<P> +I said I would try. Indeed, after that last remark of father's about +Montgomery wanting to cut out Rood it seemed to me that, if I didn't +quickly get something else into my mind, I should go crazy. So while +the carriage bounded over the cobblestones, I was busy planning—the +menu for dinner to-morrow, where to leave my ear-rings to be mended, +how to do over my blue silk gown, and where had been the error in the +butcher's bill. My thoughts rushed from one little thing to another, +afraid for an instant to let go. +</P> + +<P> +Upon arriving home, Abby hanging over the banisters, wanted to hear +about the court proceedings; but I called out to her that my testimony +hadn't been required—and would she please get out the apricots, and +after luncheon I would make that sauce she had been after me to do for +the last week. +</P> + +<P> +She seemed astonished, but gratified, at my unwonted energy. I had +been an absolutely useless creature about the house for so long. Now I +hurried through luncheon, and attacked the apricots as if my life were +staked on getting them halved, stoned, and boiling. +</P> + +<P> +"Good Heavens, child, how you rush!" Abby protested. "There's no such +great haste." But she did not know that I was trying to run away from +an idea. +</P> + +<P> +In the intervals of preserving I dived into the cellar and brought up +my rose and lilac plants; and the afternoon was spent in running +hot-cheeked from the stove to the garden, digging, carefully +sprinkling, while Abby lowered the roots; then packing the earth and +patting with all my might; darting back to the kitchen again to ladle +out the steaming stuff into jars and strenuously to screw on their +covers. +</P> + +<P> +But for all my wearing of myself out, through the steam of the cooking +pots, between the leaves of the rose-bushes, the pursuing idea would +lift its head. The picture of the Spanish Woman as she stood in the +witness room, the golden glimmer of her hair, her wonderful white waxy +face, and the way her eyes had sparkled at me through her lashes, +returned to my memory, powerful as the odor of her flower. I compared +her with that flower—luxurious and perfect looking, as if she had +grown in a hothouse; and with that strange overwhelming characteristic +which drew, in spite of all disliking. It was useless to cry, "I do +not like you and I will not believe in you." There were two things I +had to acknowledge—her will, and her power of seduction. Hadn't I +felt the light of it as she had stood looking at me? +</P> + +<P> +Finally, when wearied out, I lay in bed that night, the idea I had been +fleeing overtook me; and I gave up and looked it in the face. "Well, +yes, and suppose he does love her? Should that surprise me so much? +How should he help it? She is so beautiful!" +</P> + +<P> +Still that admission had been forced out of me in a moment of weakness, +between my pillow and the dark; and I was determined it should not get +hold of me with its swarm of attendant tormenting thoughts. I was +resolved to go into court, thinking of nothing but just that small +measure of evidence which was mine to give; and to come away again, +turning my back upon the whole matter, and taking up again the round of +my daily employments. +</P> + +<P> +This heroic resolution was knocked on the head the next morning by +father's announcing that I was not summoned for the opening of the +court,—and he added parenthetically Lord knew when!—but might be +called for any time that afternoon, so I was to hold myself in +readiness. This left me in a miserable state of uncertainty, which was +not improved by seeing my name in the <I>Alta</I>, as witness, just above an +exhortation to the people of San Francisco to see that justice was +done, even if the law failed in its work. +</P> + +<P> +The best course seemed to be the immolation of myself in the long +neglected house work. A vigorous sweeping of my room, the preparation +of an elaborate luncheon salad, and the total rearrangement of the +parlor furniture might help to get rid of that heart-beating +expectation—soothing, and bulwarking me around with domesticity. But +the excitement of the city kept invading my retreat, as if it were so +full of that great matter that it had to spill over even into houses +where it wasn't wanted. The first ripple had been the sight of my name +in the paper that morning; but the wave went quite over me when, just +before luncheon, Hallie rushed in. She had been at the trial all the +morning, and had only just seen the <I>Alta</I> with my name. +</P> + +<P> +She hugged me a number of times, with exclamations of how awful but +fascinating it must be, to be a witness, and what was it I knew—why +hadn't I told her—she would never have divulged one word of it—though +of course if I was under oath! Still, couldn't I tell her all about it +now? +</P> + +<P> +I believe that Hallie's respect for me had taken a leap with the news +of my position, and when I explained that I was still under oath, and +couldn't tell anybody anything until I told it from the witness-stand, +she looked at me with positive awe. +</P> + +<P> +She stayed to luncheon, and it was a trying but most exciting meal. +Alas for my elaborate salad! We might have been eating india-rubber +for all we knew or cared. For Hallie poured forth all the history of +the trial, from the time I left the court room, and I would not have +stopped her had it been possible to do so. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed that the afternoon of the opening day a man who was a waiter +at the Poodle Dog was put on the stand. This was the new witness Mr. +Dingley had spoken of. He told how Mr. Rood had been at supper in the +restaurant at about midnight, how Mr. Montgomery had come in with +another gentleman, and gone up to the table where Rood was sitting. +While he did so the other gentleman sat at a table near the door. Mr. +Rood and Mr. Montgomery did not have supper together, the waiter said; +did not even drink together. They talked only for a few minutes, and +he thought they were disagreeing because, though their voices were not +loud, they sounded angry. Then Mr. Rood got up suddenly, overturning +his chair, and said, "I won't hear anything from you," and though he +had not finished supper, paid his bill and went out of the restaurant. +Mr. Montgomery had waited a few moments before he followed him. The +gentleman who had sat near the door had been the last to leave the +restaurant. +</P> + +<P> +"And then," said Hallie, warming to her narrative, "they called the man +who had come into the Poodle Dog with Johnny, and what do you think! it +was Willie Felton." +</P> + +<P> +"Not the one who went to dancing-school with us, and had such red +cheeks?" I wondered. +</P> + +<P> +"His cheeks aren't red now," said Hallie; "and he has wrinkles all +around his eyes, just like an old man. He has been awfully dissipated. +And, oh Ellie, you should have seen him sitting up there looking at Mr. +Dingley and looking at Mr. Jackson, and biting his nails, and never +daring to look at Johnny Montgomery. He said he had met Johnny about +twelve o'clock that night, by chance on Montgomery Street. They had +walked a little way together, and Johnny had said, 'I am going away +to-morrow,' and Willie Felton asked was he going to the races. Johnny +laughed and said, 'No. I am going to some place I've never seen +before, and I'm not coming back until everybody has forgotten me.' He +behaved queerly, seemed to be very much excited; although, Willie said, +he was sure he hadn't been drinking. +</P> + +<P> +"As they came to the Poodle Dog Johnny said, 'There is some one here I +want to speak to.' And after they were inside he said, 'Excuse me a +moment,' so Willie Felton took a table near the door, saw Johnny talk +with Rood, saw Rood upset his chair as he went out, and Johnny follow +him out of the door. When he himself got outside, he said that Rood +was nowhere in sight and that Johnny was standing looking up Montgomery +Street. He seemed to be very angry. Willie said, 'Where are you +going?' and Johnny turned on him and said, 'I'll tell you where I'm +going—I am going about my business!' and then he walked quickly away +up the street in the same direction that Rood had taken. +</P> + +<P> +"While he was telling about it," Hallie went on, "Mr. Jackson kept +interrupting, saying, 'Object, your Honor,' and making it awfully hard +to follow the testimony. Then another young man was called, and he +didn't tell any story. They had a hard time even making him answer +questions. But he did tell that he knew the quarrel between Rood and +Johnny began three years ago at the time of the California Bank +shortage, when Johnny said that Rood had lied himself out of prison and +an innocent man in. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," I cried, "I'm so glad!" +</P> + +<P> +Hallie looked as if she thought I was crazy; but I explained that what +I really was glad of was that the quarrel had been Rood's, and not +Johnny's fault; indeed that it had shown Johnny to be in the right, at +least that once. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," Hallie declared, "he does need a good word, I must say!" +</P> + +<P> +This morning, she informed me, had been awfully stupid,—just +cross-examining, and interrupting; but finally they did call some one +new—a Mexican woman. And she testified that for two years Carlotta +Valencia's friends had known her as Mrs. Rood. "And then mother +wouldn't let me stay any longer," Hallie lamented, "because she said +the woman wasn't a proper person. But I wanted awfully to hear what +else she said!" +</P> + +<P> +Here Abby came in, and remarked that if we were going to talk all day +we would better go somewhere else and give Lee a chance to clear off +the table. +</P> + +<P> +The garden has lovely places in which to sit, so we went out there and +took the rustic bench in the shade of the cypress hedge. +</P> + +<P> +"But what does Johnny Montgomery's lawyer say?" I asked, for that was +really the point of interest for me. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, he claims that Rood committed suicide, because he was despondent +over something—business I guess; and of course they did find a +discharged revolver in the bar. The weak spot in that, father says, is +that the bullet Rood was shot with is much too small for that revolver." +</P> + +<P> +I knew there was a far weaker point in the defense than that, and I +wondered, in the face of it, how I was ever going to drag my unwilling +spirit up into the witness-box. The summons might come at any +moment,—might come now, while we sat talking with our feet in the sun +and the cypress shadow cool upon our foreheads. +</P> + +<P> +At four o'clock father came stepping out of the conservatory, calling +out, "What young person will give a tired man a cup of tea?" Then, +noticing my questioning look, "No summons for us to-day," he said; so I +ran in to fetch the tea-table. +</P> + +<P> +Tea in the garden was a rare event. The few warm spring days gave the +opportunity, and nothing was prettier than the scarlet lacquer tray +with the Nankin cups set out under the heliotrope vines. I asked +whether this was any special celebration, and father said yes; it was a +farewell complimentary to him. He had to go out of town to-night. He +hated to be away over Sunday, he explained, but there was business at +Alma which he must look into sometime during the next five days; and +week days for the present would be out of the question—by which I knew +he meant he must stay on account of the trial. Then he stopped being +sensible, and began teasing Hallie about her latest beau. He loves to +do that, because she takes it all so seriously, and never sees that he +is joking her. Just as she was protesting that she had no serious +intentions toward the person in question, two young men came around the +path from the front of the house. Hallie's beau and Jack Tracy, who +had fluttered my sentiment a short time before by asking me to marry +him. But now he was too bubbling over with importance to remember to +look sentimental. +</P> + +<P> +Had we heard the latest sensation, they wanted to know? Montgomery had +tried to break jail. Came mighty near doing it, too! +</P> + +<P> +I had been holding a cup and saucer when he began speaking, and when he +stopped it was on the brick path in a hundred pieces. +</P> + +<P> +"Poppycock," father said, "the town is full of rumors." +</P> + +<P> +But, no, they said, it was true enough. They had it from good +authority. It seemed that the sheriff had been bribed. Just how and +by whom I couldn't make out, because every one was talking at once. +But the sheriff had been removed, "pending trial," said Jack Tracy, and +the deputy was acting in his place. +</P> + +<P> +"But," I said, "if it wasn't Mr. Montgomery who bribed the sheriff, how +can you tell he really wanted to escape?" +</P> + +<P> +Then every one laughed, and I stooped over and began picking up the +pieces of the Nankin cup, so that no one should see how I was blushing, +but my hands shook so that it was all I could do to hold the pieces. +What in the world was the matter with me lately? There was no reason +in my behaving like this, as if Johnny Montgomery had been an old +friend. I excused myself on the pretext of having father's bag to +pack, and escaped into the house. "All the same," I said to myself, "I +don't believe he tried to get out, or even really wanted to. From the +way he looked in the court I am sure he doesn't care what happens to +him." +</P> + +<P> +But oh, I did wish he cared a little more; how I wished that some one +could show, in his behalf, one contradictory piece of evidence; so that +all the testimony wouldn't seem to be narrowing down to one point where +there would be room for but one thing I could believe him to be! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE SPANISH WOMAN'S HOUSE +</H3> + +<P> +Sunday, which found me sole mistress of the place, was beautiful, warm, +and beguiling. That lovely locked-in feeling, which comes only when +the streets are quiet, and no tradesmen, not even the postman, comes +knocking, soothed me after the days of tension and expectancy. +</P> + +<P> +Abby went off early to church, and I took a book out to the rustic seat +by the heliotrope. At about half-past ten Mr. Dingley came through the +conservatory; but he was used to coming in and out of the house so much +that his joining me in the garden was no more of an invasion than if he +had been one of the family. He said father had told him he was to be +out of town, and he had come around to see how the household was +getting on. We sat there very comfortably in the warm sun, aimlessly +talking, hearing the sweet notes of church bells. I was just about to +resume my book when Lee put his head out of the conservatory door. +</P> + +<P> +"Some one to see you, Miss Ellie," he announced, and disappeared +abruptly before I could ask who. +</P> + +<P> +I went in, fearing it would prove to be some girl whom I did not know +well, who had called out of mere curiosity. I was surprised to find, +awaiting me in the hall, a person whom I did not know at all—whom I +had never even seen before. It was a half-grown shuffling Mexican, +with a blank and stupid face, looking as if he might be some one's +stable-boy. But as soon as he saw me, he produced from some pocket and +presented to me with remarkable swiftness and dexterity, a small +immaculate white note. It was addressed to me, and the writing was not +Estrella Mendez's small copper-plate script, but a larger, bolder, more +dashing hand, scarcely like a woman's. +</P> + +<P> +"To the Seņorita Elenora:" it began,—and I wondered whether it could +be from one of mother's old friends, for she had had several among the +great Spanish families of the north. "I am asking if you will honor me +with your presence for a short hour this morning," the letter ran. "It +is impossible that I come to you, for I am ill. But there is a very +great reason why I must see you. It is a matter touching justice. You +will not fail." It was signed "Carlotta Valencia." +</P> + +<P> +I read the signature twice over, and then the letter. No, my eyes were +not playing tricks. But still, could it be some practical joke? I put +the envelope to my face. Ah, it was she, it was the perfume of that +flower! She had really written; she had summoned me. +</P> + +<P> +The very fact that she had communicated with me, this being who was not +as I was, whose life seemed as irrevocably separated from mine, as if +she inhabited another planet, was amazing. And as for those +expressions in her letter, "a very great matter," "touching justice," I +dared not think what I wanted to believe. +</P> + +<P> +I carried the note out into the garden. "I don't know how to answer +this," I said, handing it to Mr. Dingley. +</P> + +<P> +He read it, and whistled. "Well!" he said; and then, "there's one +thing sure; you will not go alone!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you don't mean to say I'm to go!" I cried. +</P> + +<P> +He looked inquiringly. "Why not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but father doesn't even like me to speak her name." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dingley coughed. "Quite right, quite right! That is, of course, +under ordinary circumstances. But in affairs of this sort, where +state's evidence is concerned, we are obliged to lay personal feeling +aside. Now from this letter," and Mr. Dingley tapped the little sheet +which he held before him, "I gather that the Seņora Valencia may have +some information concerning this case of ours now going forward. Of +course if it's incriminating, the state must have it. On the other +hand, if it should tend to exonerate the defendant, of course we shall +be very glad." +</P> + +<P> +I murmured, "Oh, yes!" The hope of a possible means of clearing Johnny +Montgomery went flushing through me. +</P> + +<P> +If the Spanish Woman had anything to say I knew it would be in his +favor. Still, there was something strange about it. "But if she has +this information," I asked, "why doesn't she tell it in the court?" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear Miss Ellie, why indeed? We never know why women do things. +But it has been my experience in legal cases, and especially in +criminal ones, that women will often give evidence in some such +high-fantastic way as this, which could never be got out of them +through the proper channel,—that is by means of cross-examination, in +court. Now she's evidently taken a fancy to tell you something, and I +feel it is our duty to see just how much is in it." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes," I said again, but this time more faintly, for when I thought +of whom I was to face, some cowardly thing in me wavered, "But are you +sure it's—safe?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dingley laughed. "My dear Miss Ellie, we don't live in the dark +ages!" +</P> + +<P> +He made me feel ashamed of my hesitations. I went back into the hall, +told the Mexican in Spanish, yes, that I would come quickly. He seemed +satisfied with this verbal message, and I watched him shuffle down the +steps, in spite of his loose-hung gait, with admirable quickness. Then +I told Lee that I was going out; dinner at half-past two, all as simply +and usually as if I had been intending merely to stroll over to the +beach. But there the usualness of things ended. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dingley did not at all take the way I expected, the most direct and +open way by the broad easy streets, where at this hour of Sunday the +church-goers were promenading; but we went roundabout, through +unexpected short cuts, and then across the empty stretches of the +sand-lots toward where the long gray faįade of the convent stretched; +and close beside it the high fence with the latticed top which +surrounded the Spanish Woman's house. Above the fence the roof and the +small windows beneath the eaves were just visible. As we drew near my +heart beat quickly, and still I felt that, as when I was a child, I was +only going to pass it. But we turned, and I realized I was actually +stopping at the gate. +</P> + +<P> +This was so high it was merely a door cut in the fence, allowing no +glimpse of what was within, and instead of immediately opening it, Mr. +Dingley rapped upon it with the iron knocker, whose lion head had been +wont to snarl at me years ago. I heard a sharp clicking as of +something being unlocked, and the gate opened. But after we were +inside I got an uncanny shock, for excepting ourselves there was not a +soul to be seen. +</P> + +<P> +"Clever contrivance that," said Mr. Dingley, glancing up. And then I +noticed a wire which ran from the fastening of the gate to its top, and +from there in a straight line to the house. But even this discovery +didn't remove my uneasy sense of being in an enchantment. +</P> + +<P> +Around us were weedy grass plots, bushes smothering in vines, broken +flower urns, a dry and weather-stained fountain; and to and fro across +the neglect of it all moved the shadows of the restless eucalyptus +trees. A brick path, very mossy and giving uncertain foothold, ran +straight to the front of the house—a blank-looking faįade, all the +shutters closed over the windows, and a deeply hooded door. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dingley gave the bell handle a vigorous pull, but not the faintest +tinkle reëchoed through the interior. We waited. There wasn't a sound +of any one inside approaching through the hall. I was fully prepared +to be admitted by the same unseen agency that had moved the gate. But +when, quite suddenly, the door opened, I was aware of a figure, very +dimly seen in the gloom of the hall. We were allowed to enter without +a question, without a word; and as quickly the door closed upon us. +After the broad sunlight the hall seemed so dark, I could but sense +high ceilings and hanging draperies above my head, and feel beneath my +feet the soft depth of a carpet. All that my eyes could distinguish +was the little white glimmer of Mr. Dingley's card as he handed it to +the person who had opened the door. +</P> + +<P> +We were led through several rooms; but either they were interior rooms +without windows, or else the windows were closely muffled, for they +were so dark I could hardly find my way. But when at last our +conductor drew back a curtain, a tempered light streamed upon us, and +showed me that the cornices of the anteroom where we were standing were +gilded, that the carpet which I was crushing under my feet, was the +color of wine, and every fold of the velvet curtain where it took the +light like a ruby. The servant, holding it back, was a strange +creature, with a tightly closed mouth, and eyes that looked as if he +kept them open only a crack to see out of, but not on any account to +let any one peep in. He waved at the room in front of us, and then, +still silent as an apparition, returned, disappearing into the gloom +through which we had come, carrying Mr. Dingley's card with him. I +followed Mr. Dingley into the great apartment, which I thought must be +the <I>sala</I> of the house, and sat down in the midst of its magnificence. +</P> + +<P> +It was in strange contrast to the neglect of the garden without; and to +my eyes it was novel in character. There were dark portraits in old +gold frames on the wall; curtains shutting out all light, but the +faintest and most colored; mirrors multiplying the tapestries and +marble statues, and seeming to extend the very walls of the room +itself. I kept catching glimpses of figures standing in these delusive +vistas, and then, with a start, realizing they were but myself. +Presently the servant returned. I saw multiple images of him advancing +upon me from all sides as if to surround me. They flitted, +disappeared, and the real presence bowed. +</P> + +<P> +"The Seņora wishes to say she is too ill to descend to the <I>sala</I>. +Will the Seņorita graciously come up-stairs?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dingley turned to me. "That's about as I expected. Then I will +wait for you here." +</P> + +<P> +Involuntarily I took hold of his coat, "But you said I shouldn't go +alone!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, of course, of course," he smiled. "I meant I'd come with you to +the house. That's one matter. But to go up-stairs, that's hardly +possible! Don't you see, Miss Ellie," he lowered his voice, "it's +quite probable this is just a ruse to get rid of me? She would hardly +want to speak before a third party." +</P> + +<P> +The reminder that the Spanish Woman was going to speak, and the +probability of what that speech might mean was enough to make me +relinquish Mr. Dingley's coat, and send me in the wake of the +serving-man with almost a light heart. +</P> + +<P> +He led me out of the <I>sala</I>, not by the curtained way through which we +had come, but by a door opening on a little entry, and from that up a +stair, which was not at all like the stairway I had seen in the large +entrance hall. I had never been in a house so bewilderingly built. I +followed down halls that dwindled into passageways and so quickly did +my guide move, so far he kept in front of me that even when my blue bow +dropped from my hair pat upon the floor I dared not stoop to pick it up +for fear of losing sight of him. I kept on ascending unexpected little +steps; entered doors that opened abruptly as panels in the wall, +branched off into yet narrower halls, and finally was ushered into what +seemed a sort of anteroom, with only a few chairs furnishing it, and a +great extent of polished floor stretching out in front of me to a +curtain which hung across one whole side of it. There was a sweet +though rather close odor, which wrought powerfully upon my imagination. +Walking cautiously, since the floor seemed as slippery as glass, I +followed my conductor. He drew the curtain aside a little—enough to +let me slip through—said something in Spanish, some one musical word +which I did not understand, and the curtain closed behind me. I stood +there feeling like a doll, absurd, small and lost. +</P> + +<P> +I was aware of a greater sense of air and sun than I had had since I +entered the house, of a farther extent of that shining floor, broken by +great opaque oblongs which absorbed light and gave out colors beautiful +and dim; of a uniform even interplay of color upon all sides of me, as +if the walls were hung with tapestry of one pattern; but all I was +really intensely conscious of was a seated figure. She was sitting +almost profile to me, with her back to the light, which fell splendidly +upon the full length of her hair, hanging quite to the floor. She was +wrapped in something silk, of two shifting colors, green and copper, +uncovering the neck and leaving a most beautiful arm bare to the +shoulder. A maid was brushing her hair, bending low with each measured +stroke. At my appearance she straightened, stopped, and stepped back. +It looked really as if she sank away into the shadow; and the Spanish +Woman rose and came toward me, holding out her hand. The colors in her +gown seemed fairly alive, and whether it was really a woven pattern of +copper serpents rushing through green water, or only an accident of my +fancy and the twisted lights, I couldn't determine. But, looking in +her face, I thought, "Oh, surely Mr. Dingley is right. It isn't that +she is ill, but only that she wants to talk with me alone." Like her +hand, her voice was soft and warm. +</P> + +<P> +"You are very kind," she said. There was hardly a trace of accent in +her speech, only a delicate precision that made it delightful. "You +see, I have been sick, and am yet too weak to go out upon the street. +It is why I have given you the trouble to come to me." And still +keeping my hand she led me to a chair and gently, prettily pushed me +into it. There was something persuasive in her very touch. Then, +taking her seat again, "Maria, <I>prondo</I>!" she cried; and the maid +coming forward gathered up the mass of hair, twisted it deftly into a +sort of crown around her head, filling it with gold-colored hair-pins, +tucked into its coil a single tuberose; then collecting the combs and +brushes went softly out of the room. +</P> + +<P> +The Spanish Woman sat there, resting her chin in her hand, looking at +me with a pleasant rather smiling expression; and I thought she was a +great deal less overwhelming than I had expected, though she was even +more beautiful. "You have seen Mr. Montgomery?" she began. I thought +it was only a question in form. +</P> + +<P> +I said, "Oh, yes, I first saw him several years ago, dancing at a ball." +</P> + +<P> +She gave me a keen glance. "Yes, and later than that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then, then," I stammered, for I was at a loss to know whether she knew +what my evidence was to be, "then once or twice on the street, and +yesterday in court." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, and what do you think of him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why I—I don't know him." +</P> + +<P> +She made an amused little sound in her throat. "Yet you have seen him +three times. Once would have been enough. Surely you can tell me at +least one thing—do you think he looks like a murderer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no!" I murmured. +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes never left me. "But you do not think well of him; he is +perhaps repulsive to you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no!" I whispered. There was a painful tightness around my heart, +and my head felt on fire. It was not the Spanish Woman but I who +seemed to be telling the story. +</P> + +<P> +She gave a quick nod, as if my answers thus far had satisfied her. +"You do not believe him to be a murderer, you do not even think him +unpleasant, and yet you will go into the court and swear away his +freedom—perhaps his life?" +</P> + +<P> +"I said I thought he did not look like a murderer," I desperately +insisted, "but I can't help—" +</P> + +<P> +"I know, my child, just what you are going to say," she interrupted. +"You are going to say the words they have taught you—that it is your +duty, and all that! And do you not know that the law is just a great +machine of rules, and that this is one of them: that you must tell +whatever you have seen, no matter how unjust, no matter what harm it +does? It is for that reason I do not go to the law. I come to you, +who are a woman like me, and have compassion. You say you do not know +this man, but you have seen him. You can not be quite blind to what he +is. He has been rash and foolish, and it is true that he has made +angry some very virtuous citizens"—she rolled out the last two words +with a curl of her handsome lip—"but he is a most lovable and charming +boy, and the most brave! Can't you see by his face that he could not +do an evil thing? He was dragged into this affair as a matter of +honor; the quarrel was a fair and open one." +</P> + +<P> +A joyful feeling went through me at her words—the first really kind, +saving words I had heard spoken of him. I almost loved her for them; +and the expectation that the next moment I was to hear the explanation +of them held me, leaning forward in my chair, breathless. +</P> + +<P> +She made a little imploring movement toward me with her open hands. +"It would be cruel, cruel for a gentle, tender-hearted girl like you to +speak such words against him!" A faint color was beginning to shine in +her cheeks, and her eyes had opened wide their wonderful blacks. +</P> + +<P> +"But," I cried, "if you know something in his favor why don't you go +into court and tell them about it? If only you would speak to them as +you do to me, I know they would believe you! They couldn't help it!" +</P> + +<P> +She shot a quick glance at me, half suspicious, half fierce; but +immediately it softened into a rather sad smile. "That is very +gracious of you, to speak so; but about the court do not make a +mistake! The words I have, the things I know, are not those that speak +to the mind but to the heart. All that the lawyers take count of are +the facts; and for the jury, they would be more swayed by one word a +little innocent-eyed girl will say, than by the most eloquent plea I +could offer. It is you who will sway this balance of justice. Do not +try to escape from that responsibility. Think, think, of how, when you +saw him come out of the door, he looked at you, and with his eyes +implored you to be silent!" +</P> + +<P> +I stared at her, terribly wrought upon by the memory she had called up +of that look; astounded that she had known of it, had even been able to +translate its meaning for me. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said, smiling, "I know all about it. And then you ran home +and told them." Her voice grew very caressing. "But that was in the +moment when you had lost your head. Now that you have had time to +think it all over, now that you know how much it means—oh, surely, you +will not speak again! I beg you, in human mercy, not that you plead +for him, not that you tell a false story, but only as you are a woman, +keep silence, keep silence!" +</P> + +<P> +I listened with increasing dismay, as the hot words poured from her +lips; and, with the end, a revulsion of feeling took me, a lost and +bewildered sense of being completely astray. It was not to tell me +anything she had called me hither—oh, quite the opposite!—it was to +try to close my lips. If I hadn't been so blinded by my obstinate +hopes I might have thought of this before! I might have saved myself +the ordeal; for I had felt the very heart in me weaken at the picture +of him her words called up. +</P> + +<P> +"If I could make myself believe as you do," I said, "that what I have +to tell will condemn him, even though he is innocent, I should want, +myself, to die. But I can't believe, I can't think, that God can be so +unjust as to let him be condemned when he is innocent!" +</P> + +<P> +She let her head drop back, and laughed a little. "You will find, my +child, that it is men who control the affairs of the earth; and that if +you believe any such fine things of them you will be disappointed. As +for the lawyers, they will convict an innocent man as merrily as they +will eat their dinner, if only the popular cry is loud enough, and they +can get enough of what they call their evidence against him. Do not +expect any miraculous intervention on his behalf." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't," I cried stoutly. "But some one must know the truth of what +has really happened; and that person surely will come forward and tell +what he knows before he will let Mr. Montgomery be condemned. Oh, if +only I knew, nothing should keep me from saying it!" +</P> + +<P> +She had drawn herself upright in her chair, her face whiter than her +flower, her clenched hands resting on either arm; and now she slowly +rose to her feet. Standing there she seemed fairly to tower above me, +and looking down with her eyes glimmering upon me through her lashes. +"What if he is guilty?" she said slowly. +</P> + +<P> +The room around me grew dreamy. My head felt light. All the things I +had ever believed in seemed to have fallen far, far below me, tiny and +inconsequent. I closed my hands hard around the arms of my chair. I +clung to it as if it had been my last principle of faith. "I have +given my word," I said, "and even if I had not, I should have to tell +the truth. It is a question of honor." +</P> + +<P> +She stood a moment longer with her hands still clenched and slightly +raised, as if she were going to strike a blow—myself, or her own +breast. Then she let them fall limp, and, lifting her shoulders with a +superb little scornful motion, "Ah, I thought you were only a fool," +she said. "I see, you are cold." +</P> + +<P> +She turned sharply about, and crossed the room to where something which +looked like a large bench stood against the wall, covered with +gold-colored velvet. I saw her fling back the covering and kneel +beside it, fumbling with the lid. I heard the clicking of what seemed +a series of locks. At last she turned her head and spoke, "Come here!" +</P> + +<P> +I rose and went slowly over to where she knelt in the shadow. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down." +</P> + +<P> +I seemed involuntarily to obey those imperious words. I took the seat +she indicated, a carved stool, drawn near the chest, and saw her just +lifting out a long string of blue flashing stars. It was like a toy, +like one of those strings you hang upon a Christmas tree, only a +hundred times more brilliant. "See how pretty!" she said, and ran it +through her fingers in a little blue stream; then, with an easy motion +of her wrist, she tossed it around my shoulders. She put her hand down +into the chest and brought out a long, long string of pearls—if pearls +had ever been so large—long as the rosaries I used to string of oak +balls, and dropped it over my head. I felt the great weight of it upon +my neck. +</P> + +<P> +"Look," she said, and taking up a velvet case, opened it, and showed +me, lying on the crimson satin bed, a necklace like a wreath of light. +There was no misunderstanding the preciousness of that. The shock of +the realization of what they were sent the blood into my face. Her +eyes laughed at me with a gleam that seemed devilish. She threw the +box into my lap. She took out rings and covered my fingers with them, +drops of blood, red, and brilliant green, and rainbow colors. I +couldn't seem to speak or move. I thought she must be mad. +</P> + +<P> +"Here," she said, and leaning toward me, deftly pulled out the pins and +took off my hat. Then in both her hands she lifted something from the +chest, and, before I could stop her she had pressed it down upon my +head. Then she rose. Her face was flushed; her lips parted eagerly on +her gleaming teeth. She caught my hand and pulled me in front of a +great mirror that hung upon the wall. +</P> + +<P> +I saw reflected there a small, shrinking figure, with a white face, in +a white dress, crowned with a circlet of gold, and hung with necklaces +that made brightness in the shadow. I heard the Spanish Woman's voice +speaking excitedly close beside my cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"There is not their like in this state, in this country. Some of those +have come out of the greatest houses in Spain. They will make you +rich, they will make you beautiful! They are nothing to me; I will +give them to you, every one, to keep for ever! Take them—take them +all! And go away! Just for three little days; until the trial is +over!" +</P> + +<P> +I shrank from her in mere amazement. In the first moment I did not +take in what she meant. +</P> + +<P> +"No, but listen," she cried, catching at me, "I can make it easy for +you to go. I have influence—I will help you—I will hide you! We +will arrange the story." +</P> + +<P> +I raised my hands to my head. Now I was choking with anger, with +tears. "Do you think I would do for these, what I would not do for +him?" I lifted the circlet off my head, but my hands shook so that it +fell, and rolled on the floor between us, and I believe we both forgot +it. "Do you suppose I don't care as much as you do? I would do +anything in the world to clear him of this charge. But you don't +understand—to clear him! I can't hush it and hide it. It wouldn't +make it come right, and I don't believe he wants me to. I don't +believe that is what he meant. I know he would hate me if I saved him +with such a lie!" +</P> + +<P> +She grew white. A small sharp shadow came on each side of her mouth. +Her lips parted with a sort of gasp. "What do you know about saving or +dying; what do you know about hating or loving? You would not lie—oh, +no! You would save him—if he were innocent! Why, you child, I would +save him the same if he had killed fifty! You are so precious of your +little self, and your little virtue! Virtue? Pah! I love him—and +that is my virtue!" +</P> + +<P> +Something in the triumphant ring of her voice, in the very strength of +her passion itself, for the moment made her noble. Beside her I felt +myself small, mean and wretched. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to me I was in a nightmare and never should awake. I pulled +the necklaces, the bracelets, the rings, off me, struggling with the +tangled chains and stubborn clasps. I shook my hand free of the last +jewel, and then snatching up my turban, pinned it on with trembling +fingers, and all the while she stood looking silently at me. One could +not tell what was behind her face. But when, at last, I had taken up +the little ball of my gloves and stood before her, she spoke in a very +soft voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me, I have lost my wits. But you are made of a material—I do +not know it—but it is not flesh and blood. Nevertheless we must not +part bad friends." +</P> + +<P> +She turned to the table and, pushing aside the jewels as if they had +been colored glass, pulled toward her a tray, and took up a glass +decanter. She poured two glasses of wine, and taking one, gracefully +held it out to me. "Will you not drink to his acquittal?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me," I said, "if I do not drink to it. I will wish for it +with all my heart. That will be the same." +</P> + +<P> +"But it is not," she said, advancing, with her bright eyes fixed upon +me. "To drink—that is a deed which shows the good will. The rest is +but words. Come, you have spoken of great things you would do for him +if only you could. Well, here is one small thing. Let me see you make +good your words!" Her voice was so sweetly coaxing my hand hesitated +toward the glass. Then, as she thought I was going to take it, +something in the expectant, intense look of her caught me; and a +dreadful thought flashed into my mind. +</P> + +<P> +I shrank back. "No," I said, "I can not!" +</P> + +<P> +But she was fairly upon me with it. She was leaning over me. "Drink, +yes, drink!" She thrust it upon me. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" I cried in terror. "I will not!" I flung up my hand with +the impulse to keep it off me, and struck the glass, and overturned it. +</P> + +<P> +She stepped backward and set down the tray with a clang. There was no +perceptible change in her face, but suddenly she had become terrible. +"You shall never go out of my house," she said. +</P> + +<P> +My ears wouldn't believe, my senses rejected the meaning of those +words. "You would not do such a thing—you would not dare!" +</P> + +<P> +She threw back her head until I could see the great column of her white +throat swell, and laughed. "I tell you, my pretty little girl, I would +fling away a dozen such as you for only the chance of saving him!" +</P> + +<P> +I saw that she meant it—I understood how well!—I felt like a little +dry stick in a river, like a leaf in the wind. I looked behind me. +The windows did not open into the outer air but into a tightly closed +conservatory. The sound that was struggling in my throat was a scream, +but suppose it would only call in some of her creatures before Mr. +Dingley should hear! I looked squarely into her face, and I am sure, +in that moment, that I understood what death might mean. "I am going," +I said, very quietly, and walked across the room toward the curtains. +</P> + +<P> +She did not try to stop me, and every unobstructed step I took forward +I thought, with increasing terror, "What is it that she means to do?" +When I reached the closed curtain the grasp of her hands, which I had +dreaded; was the least of my fears. The anteroom was empty, but as I +passed its threshold I heard her move across the inner room, and then a +bell rang, away down in the lower part of the house. There is no +describing the feeling that was in me when, with the sound of that +uncanny signal in my ears, I opened the door into the grizzly maze of +passageways. +</P> + +<P> +I remembered that I had turned to the right in coming in, so now I +turned to the left, and hurried down that narrow, unlighted way that +led me directly to another door. But I remembered that and opened it +and stepped through into another hall. Here were three branching ways, +and it was only one of these, of course, which would bring me to the +<I>sala</I> door. The others might plunge me into Heaven knew what places +of the house, or what hands! There was no time to hesitate, I must +choose and chance it! There was not one thing—window, furniture or +color—to distinguish them. Yet in my agony of mind I gave a glance +down one and two of them; and on the floor of the second, a few yards +from me some small, light-colored object was lying. I ran forward and +stooped. It was the blue bow that had fallen from my hair. +</P> + +<P> +I picked it up with a rush of thankfulness. This was an incident in a +fairy tale! It seemed an omen of safety, and as I held it in my hand I +fairly ran along the passage and came at last triumphantly out into the +hall, which I remembered, broad and carpeted with red. +</P> + +<P> +Down the stairs I hastened, my heart going quick with the alarms of my +escape, opened the door at the foot of it and came into the little +entry. As I entered it I fancied a sound. It was like a step, very +soft, so soft as to be hardly audible, not behind me, not on the other +side of the door in front of me, but somewhere beyond the entry +partition on my right. It was there, I reckoned, that one of those +dark anterooms, through which we had approached the <I>sala</I>, must be. +The flesh of my back was pricking, but I was almost safe. Once let me +reach Mr. Dingley and I knew that somehow he would get us out. With a +great effort I pulled open the heavy door into the <I>sala</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I—" I began; but then I stopped. The room was so large that it +took me some moments to make sure it was empty. Mr. Dingley was not +there. +</P> + +<P> +I stood perfectly still in that stupendous place. Everything in me +seemed to have stopped moving, too—my blood and my heart. And, in the +listening pause, there came again unmistakably, soft, stealthy +footsteps, sounding beyond the heavy curtain of the door—sounding as +if creatures were gathering in those dark rooms that lay between me and +the outer hall. +</P> + +<P> +I didn't scream. I didn't want to. I walked quite quietly across the +room to one of the heavily curtained windows at the back, and pulled +the hangings aside. +</P> + +<P> +In front of me, not three feet from the window was the blank face of +the convent wall rising straight up, higher than I could see. I looked +downward. The stone pavement, which I could just make out in the +gloom, must have been ten feet below. Nevertheless I had a wild +thought that, if the worst came, I could at least fling myself down the +narrow cleft; and in that mind I took hold of the window-frame. I had +no hope that I could move it, even after I had stirred the heavy locks; +but, with the pressure of all my weight against it, slowly the two +sides of the casement opened out. As the dusty panes of glass swung +away from before me my eye caught a singular irregularity in the +surface of the wall. About on a level with the window-sill was a niche +in the masonry, perhaps three feet square, and looking to be the depth +of the wall itself. The back of it seemed to be made of a dark +substance—darker than the bricks—through which shone twinkling +glimpses of daylight. +</P> + +<P> +I climbed upon the window-sill, and, taking hold of the upper edge of +one of the casements, swung myself by this. I felt myself hovering an +instant in mid-air. Then my feet had found the niche. I crouched, +and, groping forward with one hand, grasped a stout tangle of vines. +Releasing the casement I half-dragged, half-swung myself into the +opening in the wall. I clung there a moment trembling, catching my +breath, before I realized that the dark mass at the back of the niche +was merely ivy, some of which I had grasped, tearing quite a little +opening, and through this I could see a blessed glimpse of blue sky. +</P> + +<P> +Putting my eyes close to this peep-hole I looked downward and saw below +me the grass plots of the convent garden. A great tangle of bushes was +at the foot of the wall, but in spite of that it looked a dreadful +drop. I glanced over my shoulder into the room behind me, and thought +I saw a shadow moving down the floor. I do not know how I turned +myself in the cramped space where I knelt. All I could remember +afterward was the feel of the edge of the rough masonry under my +fingers; the tearing of the ivy as my body crushed through it; the +straining of my arms as I swung downward. I gave one horrified glance +into the depths of the garden; then closed my eyes and let go. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE REFUGE +</H3> + +<P> +I could not tell how long a time had passed, but gradually out of +complete consciousness, grew up the sense of a wretched throbbing. I +thought it was my head. I opened my eyes and found I was looking +straight up into the sky. I lay staring at it, it was so wonderfully +soft and blue. Presently the wind swayed a green branch into my line +of vision; at sight of that the query of where I was came into my mind. +</P> + +<P> +I moved my head and felt the crackle of twigs at my cheek. I was lying +in a mass of ivy and lemon verbena bushes, and at one side of me rose +the great face of a wall. The memory of what had happened returned. I +scrambled to a sitting posture. My head was so dizzy that I had to +catch at the bushes to hold myself upright, and my body felt sore and +shaken, but the impulse to get away from the house, whose windows +overlooking the convent wall still spied upon me, carried me to my feet. +</P> + +<P> +Through the shrubbery I peered at the garden beyond. There was a level +green lawn, with sedate paths marching around it, but no black hooded +figures were moving there in ones or twos or in solemn file, as I had +been wont to see them. I walked rather uncertainly forward across the +grass, across the dank and mossy paths, and into the shadowy length of +the corridor. This, too, was empty, and at one end of it a little +door, with a grill across it, seemed as effectually to bar me out as +the Spanish Woman's house had shut me in. In my dazed state the only +thing I could think of doing, to call the attention of the place to my +presence, was to seize the grill in both hands and shake it with all my +weakened strength. It made quite a rattling, and then I heard hurrying +feet, and presently the small, startled face of a nun peered through +the grating. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see the Mother Superior," I said in a trembling voice. +</P> + +<P> +She looked at me sharply, and, I thought, a little as if she were +frightened. "Why didn't you ring the bell?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"The bell? What bell?" I stammered, for the only bell I could call to +mind was the bell the Spanish Woman had rung. Then, as the sister +appeared to be about to draw back, "Oh, please, please," I cried, "take +me to the Mother Superior! I am in great trouble!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a pause; then a little rustling, then a whispering of voices +behind the grating, and another face, rounder and larger than the +first, peered out; and a more sympathetic voice said: "Poor little +creature! and her hat is all on one side!" +</P> + +<P> +Then, after some further deliberation, in which one of the voices +seemed to be protesting that it was afraid of something, the nun who +had come first disappeared,—I could hear the sound of her feet +hastening away,—and the second opened the grating and drew me in. She +led me down a narrow, musty-smelling hall and into a dull little room +where she made me sit down, and put my hat straight, and smoothed my +hair very kindly but rather clumsily with hands like white pincushions. +At last, with the timid nun following furtively at her heels, the +Mother Superior came. She was a thin woman in flowing robes, with a +great white sheer coif around her delicate face; and she looked at me +very kindly and benevolently while I stammered out the essentials of my +story—how the Spanish Woman had tried to keep me in her house, and how +I got out of the window and through a hole in the wall and so down into +the garden. When I came to this point in my tale, "But those windows +are closed up!" cried one of the nuns. "And the wall is eight feet!" +cried the other, "and there is no hole in it! It would be impossible!" +</P> + +<P> +The Mother Superior shook her head at them, and said to me: "Can you +tell me where you live, my child?" +</P> + +<P> +I thought it odd that there should be any doubt in her mind as to that, +but I eagerly gave her the number and the street. "And if you will +only send for a carriage," I said, "because I am afraid I am too tired +to walk, I should like to go home." +</P> + +<P> +"It will be best to notify your parents," she said in a soothing voice, +"and they will fetch you away." +</P> + +<P> +"But there is no one there now, except Abby, and she is lame and very +old. Father is not in town. He will not be back until night, and I +can perfectly well go home alone!" I was beginning to feel desperate, +as I thought I never should get out of the place. +</P> + +<P> +She smiled and said, "Well, we will see! Give me your father's name." +She looked surprised when she heard it and not quite as if she believed +me, but all she said was, "Now you must lie down and rest a little +while before you go out." +</P> + +<P> +I protested that I did not feel tired, and indeed my anxiety to get +away had wiped out all memory of my bruises. But in the end I had to +follow the round-faced nun up the bare, cement stairway to another +small room. It seemed strange after the luxurious glooms of the +Spanish Woman's house, to be in this bare, whitewashed place, where all +the light fell unobstructed through little, narrow windows placed high +up in the walls. There were no mirrors here, not one, to reflect one's +figure; and it was only when I had taken off my hat that I discovered +what a wreck it was, crushed absurdly out of shape; and my hair was +half down. The nun helped me to unwind and brush it out, and I heard +her murmuring at my back, "When I was young my hair was as long as +this." +</P> + +<P> +And then she coaxed me to lie down on a little bed. I felt her cover +me up; but when she tried to make me drink something from a glass a +hideous memory sprang in my mind, and I had struck and knocked the +glass out of her hand before I could think what I was doing. I heard +her muttering anxiously to herself as she picked the pieces up, and +then I was left alone. +</P> + +<P> +With confused puzzles moving through my mind I lay there, tense, +feverish, tossing, each moment expecting some one to come and tell me I +could go home. Finally, I seemed at last really to be going. The only +trouble was that the nuns told me I could not leave unless I left as a +bride, and they had no satin and no orange flowers. +</P> + +<P> +I was startled out of this fancy by voices sounding loud upon the edge +of my dream. One said angrily, "In the first place you ought never to +have taken her to that infernal house, either for the sake of getting +evidence or any other thing." The second retorted, "Well, I wanted to +keep her out of the whole business. It was you who insisted on +dragging her in; and once you get into this sort of thing difficult +situations often present themselves." +</P> + +<P> +My eyes opened wide, and in the faint light of the floating candle +flames, just above me, I saw Mr. Dingley's face. "You weren't there! +Why weren't you there?" I said, sitting up. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," a woman's voice that I thought was the Mother Superior's, +put in, "she says and does such strange things that I dared not let her +go out into the street alone." +</P> + +<P> +Then, with an unutterable sense of relief, I recognized father's voice. +"Yes, that was quite right. She was better here." And he sat down on +the edge of the bed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, take me home!" I cried. +</P> + +<P> +He smiled, and said, with that same exasperating sort of reassurance +which the Mother Superior had used, "Yes, we are going immediately." +</P> + +<P> +They all made me feel as if they thought that I didn't know what I was +talking about. +</P> + +<P> +"Either every one is crazy," I thought, "or the whole world is in some +plot against me, and they have deceived father, too." Of course my +mind knew that to be ridiculous, but everything conspired to make +familiar people strange. What was it Mr. Dingley had been telling +father just before I returned to consciousness? "Perhaps after I am +alone with father at home I can get him to listen to what I want to +say," I thought. +</P> + +<P> +But there were many reasons why this undertaking was much more +difficult than I had supposed. +</P> + +<P> +In the first place, it was Mr. Dingley who began by asking me where I +had gone. He had been waiting in the front hall for me all the while, +he said, and how had I got out without his seeing me? He had hunted +all through the rooms on the lower floor, and not finding me, had gone +back to our house, supposing I had returned; and from there had set out +in search of me. +</P> + +<P> +It sounded very reasonable, and I was at a loss to understand why it +didn't seem probable to me. Then, when we reached home, we found a +person waiting—a detective Mr. Dingley had sent for—and to him and to +Mr. Dingley as well as to father, I had to tell my story. It came out +in bits and snatches, with questions and answers, Mr. Dingley's all +mixed in with mine; and when they did let me speak uninterruptedly I +was so excited that the words came tumbling out, all confused. It +seemed to me, too, that father was much more anxious over the fact that +I was feverish and had a lump on my forehead, than the fact that the +Spanish Woman had offered me that glass of wine, and then said I should +never leave the house. But he said the thing should be investigated; +and Mr. Dingley said something about making inquiries to-night; and +finally all three went out together, leaving me in a wretched state of +anxiety and doubt. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to me that none of them at all understood the situation, and +it was so wonderfully clear, in my own mind, so enormous and astounding +in its menace, that I was woefully puzzled to see how they could have +missed it. But I was to learn no more until the following day, when, +lying in bed, stiff and sore, with every muscle in my arms and +shoulders aching, father came in with that unwontedly grave and puzzled +face that the poor dear had worn so often since the beginning of the +whole miserable experience. +</P> + +<P> +The detective and police had been to the Spanish Woman's house, he +said, and had interviewed her. She had told them quite frankly that +she had indeed sent for me to come to her, and had implored me not to +give the evidence which I was expected to give; because she said she +fully believed it to be false—that the pistol I had thought I had seen +in Johnny Montgomery's hand must have been a fancy of mine, and that +she could not bear to have such damaging testimony given so recklessly. +She had thought, so she said, that being a woman she might perhaps know +better how to elicit the real facts of the case from me, since the +men,—lawyers, police officers and even my father,—might very well +have frightened away my memory by their manner of going about it. But +when I had been so obstinate, she said, she had lost her head and +become angry, and that had frightened me. She said she had tried in +every way to reassure me; but I had resisted all her offers of +hospitality, and finally, becoming hysterical, had struck a glass of +wine which she had offered me, out of her hand, and rushed out of the +room, before she could stop me or even discover why I had so suddenly +fled. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dingley, father went on, had explained that he had been waiting for +me, as he had said he would, down-stairs; but at the moment when I had +come he had not been in the <I>sala</I>. +</P> + +<P> +I could only stare at father. These didn't seem to be at all the same +experiences which I had been through so short a time before; and yet, +when I considered, I couldn't contradict a thing. The incidents were +there, but somehow they all sounded perfectly harmless. I felt +bewildered. Beside these mild-looking facts my actions seemed those of +a madwoman. +</P> + +<P> +Furthermore, father went on, Mr. Dingley had said that when he went +through the <I>sala</I> afterward, searching for me, the windows had been +closed and locked fast and the police had declared there was no hole in +the convent wall, and that the wall itself would have been a difficult +drop even for a man. +</P> + +<P> +I pounced upon this as a tangible fact. "Then some one in the house +must have closed and locked the window again; and there was a hole in +the wall, or how could I have gone through it? The drop was very bad +indeed, for my hat was crushed out of shape." +</P> + +<P> +Poor father looked very much puzzled. "But about the wine—I don't +understand. Why did you do that?" +</P> + +<P> +The answer was ready at my amazed lips, but I stopped it, for now at +last I began to see. I began to see how, without that peculiar intent +look with which the Spanish Woman had handed me the wine-glass, nor the +menacing gesture with which she had thrust it upon me, the episode of +the wine that had seemed to me so threatening became a mere empty +courtesy; and indeed, separated from the sinister appearance of the +moment, not one episode that had taken place in that extraordinary +house which could not be explained away! I knew past any doubting, +that the Spanish Woman had tried to bribe me, had tried to poison me, +and failing that would have detained me by force, if I had not got out +of the window. And, if I should tell him the whole adventure now while +it was so burning fresh in my own mind, with all its suggestive +atmosphere, its eloquent details, couldn't I make him see it as I saw +it? No. The Spanish Woman had blown the magic breath of her +plausibility, her ingenuity, upon the poor little substance of my true +story, and had scattered it like ash. It was too much of an +undertaking, even supposing it to be possible, to bring together the +pieces again. And a vaguer but even more insistent voice, prompted, +"Then suppose he does believe me? What will it mean to Johnny +Montgomery?" It seemed to me that I had been enough of a Spartan as +far as that man was considered. +</P> + +<P> +I looked up at father and said, "She frightened me—the Spanish Woman +frightened me, and so I ran away." +</P> + +<P> +How readily he took this up, showed me it was the explanation he +expected. "Yes, I know. It would be quite natural," he said +soothingly. "You have been much over-wrought, and this infernal +performance has thrown you into hysterics. But that wall, child—an +awful drop!" He laughed a little, but I could see how much moved he +was. "I hope to see that courage displayed in a worthier cause some +time." +</P> + +<P> +I did not tell him how worthy the cause this time had been, how were it +not for that bold leap of mine there would have been no star witness +for the people to-morrow. +</P> + +<P> +Something in my noncommittal air seemed to touch father, and make him +still look anxiously at me. "Of course, Dingley is going to have the +matter investigated further. The woman will probably be arrested, if +only on suspicion." +</P> + +<P> +But that evening he told me that Mr. Dingley had said nothing had been +elicited from her that would warrant such a thing; and though father +seemed vexed and dissatisfied, he argued what could one do if there was +no evidence to fasten upon? +</P> + +<P> +I did not answer; I knew it would be of no use, Mr. Dingley's +explanations were so reasonable. But since I had talked with father +that morning a piece of news had come to me which had only succeeded in +strengthening my belief in the meaning of the Spanish Woman's actions. +This was brought me by Hallie, my envoy extraordinary, who had wormed +it out of her mother who had got it from Mr. Ferguson. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed that on Saturday, just after Hallie had left the court, the +Spanish Woman had taken the witness-stand and testified that she had +been Rood's wife. Mr. Ferguson said this was ridiculous to suppose, +yet no one, not even Mr. Dingley, had challenged her statement. She +denied there had ever been any trouble between the two men. She said +she had been interested in Mr. Montgomery as a woman might be who was +old enough to be his mother, but that Rood had been her husband and +that she had loved and been faithful to him. She was wonderfully calm +and convincing, Mr. Ferguson had said, and it looked at first as if her +testimony would help the defense very much, but when Mr. Dingley's +associate began cross-examining her, he seemed to turn her testimony +inside out, and then it appeared that her evidence had been the worst +thing possible for the prisoner. For if Rood had stood so firmly in +Montgomery's way, the lawyer argued, that would give the very strongest +motive for the shooting. +</P> + +<P> +"Wasn't it dreadful!" Hallie exclaimed. "When she wanted so much to +help him, to find she had only made things worse. Father said that +when she realized how the evidence had been turned against him she grew +as white as death." +</P> + +<P> +From this I was able to understand better why the Spanish Woman had +been willing to take the terrible chance involved in sending for me to +come to her house. She must have been desperate. But, what I could +not understand was, why had not Mr. Dingley challenged any of her +testimony in the court? Why was it always his associate? +</P> + +<P> +I had a sense of things going on under the surface which even my father +did not suspect. There was plenty of news flying about in plain +hearing and sight—news of mob law preached from the custom-house +steps; news of the double guard at the jail so there would be no second +chance of escape—all these things I heard without their being able to +rouse in me any special interest. My mind was fixed on the +under-currents. I couldn't explain them to father because I didn't +understand them myself, only felt them. I felt as if I and all the +rest had been handled, were being handled now, by a baffling and subtle +power which one could not lay hands upon, because it seemed, as if by +magic, to be able to erase the evidence of its action. +</P> + +<P> +There was no telling, I thought, what the Spanish Woman might not +manage to do. Yes, even though I seemed to be safe; for hadn't she, in +a fashion, conjured me out of Mr. Dingley's protection? Her power of +persuasion—it was that which was her magic! Thus far father was the +only one who seemed untouched by it. Even I had felt the pressure of +it. Those appeals she had made when she had begged me to remember how +Johnny Montgomery had implored me, as she said, with his look, to be +silent—they had nearly undone me, and still they haunted me. +</P> + +<P> +"But I don't believe he wanted it, I don't believe he would want +anything so cowardly! and I know I do not want him at that price." +This last reflection of mine astonished myself. What could I have +meant by that? Oh, of course, that I did not want him released at that +price! But was it probable that whether he were released or convicted +it would be in any way for my happiness? Suppose, with her dark power, +she was going to be the enchantress to-morrow. Was she again going to +scatter, in some unforeseen and uncombatible way, all my testimony, and +triumphantly see the prisoner acquitted? Oughtn't I to be glad that he +would be free? Ah, that was the strange part of it! For it appeared +to me that in such an acquittal there would be something doubly guilty; +something that would send him out of the court under a deeper shadow +than ever he had found in prison; something that would pledge him to +her for ever. It was that last thought of all I could least endure. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LAST DAY OF THE TRIAL +</H3> + +<P> +After the restless crowd—craning necks; shifting feet, half-caught +sentences—excited, alert, like a nervous horse dancing at a shadow, +ready at the vaguest rumor to rush into a sensation, how quiet, +prosaic, and even peaceful the court room seemed! That morning when we +entered it was only partly filled, and in the space behind the railing +the clerk of the court was scribbling, the lawyers were lolling, +certain individuals looking like janitors were wandering idly about, +and at his high desk the judge was writing steadily, his fine, white +hand moving across the paper, his eyes now and then glancing aside as +if he were thinking and paying no attention at all to what was going on +in the room around him. It was reassuring in a way, as if after all +nothing remarkable were going to happen. +</P> + +<P> +Some women came in all in a group, among them Hallie Ferguson, her +mother hanging back in her wake, as if she were being towed along in +spite of herself. Hallie came over to where we sat, and began to +whisper in my ear some long story of something which she was deeply +absorbed in at the moment. This, too, had a habitual and pleasant +feeling about it. Even when, with a black veil over her face, sweeping +in folds down the length of her dress, the Spanish Woman came in, it +was hard to believe that she was that same terrible creature who had +stood before me only the day before yesterday telling me I should never +leave her house. +</P> + +<P> +She took one of the chairs which had been placed along the wall, so +that instead of facing the judge's desk, she fronted the crowd, and +threw her veil back. She looked white, whiter than I had ever seen +her, as if she were deeply powdered, and this had the effect of a mask. +I have never seen a human face so calm or so indifferently sweet as +hers, and she sat as motionless as if she had been carved there. One +heard the whisperings around the room, saw the nudges and the twisting +of heads, but it was as if she did not see or know them. Then the +interest of the room turned toward the door. With that queer instinct +of a crowd, which knows before it sees, the whole room know that the +prisoner was coming before there was a glimpse of him visible. +</P> + +<P> +He walked up the aisle, looking remarkably fresh and calm, as if he +were here on the merest matter of business. As soon as he was seated +he turned his head and glanced behind him, and I thought his eyes +rested first on that place where I had sat the week before; but they +did not linger there a moment, sweeping on in a half circle around the +room, glancing over me so quickly that I could not tell at all whether +he had noticed me. I thought he had been looking for some one, though +it couldn't have been the Spanish Woman, since she sat in plain sight +on the other side of the room. +</P> + +<P> +The court filled rapidly. Young men whom I knew came in, and evidently +one or two of these knew Johnny Montgomery; for they walked up and into +the railed inclosure where he sat, shook hands with him and stood +talking with him. I could not but believe that at any time he pleased. +he could rise and leave the court as freely as those others could have +done. The thing going on here which they called a trial had the +appearance of being just a pretense—a play. +</P> + +<P> +At last one of the men who had been wandering aimlessly among the +tables came forward and intoned those words which I could never +understand, but which, nevertheless, always brought quick order. Then +there was some exchange of words between the lawyers on the other side +of the rail, now with the judge, now with one another; and now it was +the clerk of the court who was speaking; and I couldn't repress the +absurd feeling of surprise that they should turn their backs and mumble +so, since it appeared irresistibly to me that we were an audience, and +the thing was being done for our benefit. +</P> + +<P> +I was trying to make out what it was that Mr. Jackson had been saying +to the judge since it seemed to make for much smiling, when above the +rustle and whisper I heard again the voice of the clerk calling out. +There was a moment's wait. Then he raised his tone; I heard, and the +words went pealing through me: +</P> + +<P> +"Eleanor Fenwick, Eleanor Fenwick!" +</P> + +<P> +I sat gazing pitifully at him while he chanted it out in that +monotonous, singing voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Ellie!" father whispered. +</P> + +<P> +I rose, then realized with a sense of desertion that father was not +coming with me. I would have to be alone. Feeling strange, oh very +strange, with the echo of my own name still ringing in my ears, I +pattered up the aisle toward that railing. As I advanced I felt as if +I were walking away from all the world. I heard the movement and the +stir of it behind me. In front I saw only the faces of the lawyers, of +the clerk, of the judge, and these all seemed without any feeling, as +if they were not people at all. +</P> + +<P> +I found myself standing in front of the railing, and two men were +facing me, one the clerk of the court, who was holding an open book. I +had an impression that they were speaking to me, still in those +monotonous, artificial voices, as if they were not saying anything with +human meaning in it, and while they spoke they held their hands up, +palm out, and I held mine. The next thing I knew I was mounting into +the little raised and railed-in seat on the left hand of the judge's +desk. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it that is going to happen here?" I thought. I turned and +took the chair, and found myself facing a mass,—a monster,—numberless +heads and eyes, all gazing at me. A cold sensation of fear went over +me, like a great wave, closing my throat, and making my head feel as if +it were fitted with a cap of ice. "Oh, I can not, I can not!" I kept +repeating to myself. +</P> + +<P> +But, while it still seemed to me as if I should never make another +sound, I heard a voice asking me my name. I recognized it as Mr. +Dingley's. To see him standing up there and gravely, as if he had +never seen me before, putting that question was indeed absurd. It was +impossible to be frightened with such laughable procedure. He asked me +my age, my place of residence, when he knew both very well, then, where +had I been walking when I heard the shot; and with these questions I +was familiar, having answered them all the day in the library, so it +made the speaking now a little easier. And finally when he said: "Now +tell the court and the gentlemen of the jury as well as you can +remember exactly what you saw," my only thought was, "Oh, how often I +have repeated this before! Will there never be an end of it?" +</P> + +<P> +But as I began, I was aware that the judge's pen, which had been +steadily scratching ever since the court had opened, had ceased; and, +as I went on, all the rustling and whispering in the room fell silent. +The stillness made the place seem immense, and for a little while my +voice went on through the silence like a tiny thread. And now it had +stopped. I had come to the end of what I knew. It had been so small a +thing to say! But the silence was so deep I dared not look around. I +kept my eyes on Mr. Dingley's face, and thought it looked very strange +and worn. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you," he began, in his ponderous official voice, each word coming +down heavily upon my ears, "Can you positively identify this person you +describe with the revolver?" +</P> + +<P> +I believe that my "Yes" was a movement of the lips and a bend of the +head. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you see him here in this court?" +</P> + +<P> +The very idea of looking again at that terrible mass of heads and eyes, +all watching me, like some fabulous dragon, brought back the sickening +panic. But, queerly enough, when my eyes did move across them, I saw +only a dark, impersonal blur, and then the one face. It appeared, in +the indefiniteness around it, singularly near and distinct. He was +looking at me with that gentle, sweet expression which my sick fancy +hinted he never showed except when he looked at me. And he was +smiling, reassuringly, as if he were encouraging me to go on; as if he +would have me to understand that no great issues hung upon what I was +going to say, that really what was happening was not so very momentous +after all. +</P> + +<P> +"He is sitting there," I said. "The third from the end of the bench, +next to Mr. Jackson." +</P> + +<P> +Instantly voices of officers rang all about the court, crying, "Order, +order!" though there had been no sound, only a great stir, which seemed +to pass across the crowd, and which the next moment might have become +articulate. I sat trembling, wondering what it all meant, clasping my +hands tightly in my lap. All the back of the hall was crowded with +men, and most of these looked like street-loungers, unshaven and rough. +They stood so close together they hid the door, and seemed to sway and +press forward upon the room; and I thought, "There are a great many +Mexicans in here." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dingley asked me more questions—if I had heard voices quarreling, +and I had not; which side of the street had been in sunshine, and what +color dress I had worn. I told him, thinking that this was nonsense +again. And then Mr. Jackson said something to the judge, Mr. Dingley +sat down, and Mr. Jackson leaned on the railing, making me think of a +figure on the stage, and asked me why had I gone out at that early hour +of the morning, what had been my business, how had it happened that I +was walking through such a street as Dupont, and how did I suppose the +doors of the saloon had happened to be open so early? It was all in +such a tone as made my cheeks burn with a sense of shame and +indignation, though I could not see what he was getting at. Then +suddenly he veered and demanded how could I tell that the handle of the +revolver had been mother-of-pearl when it had fallen on the shady side +of the street, how large was it exactly, how had Johnny Montgomery held +it, how had he thrown it, then—quickly leaning toward me—could I +produce this revolver? +</P> + +<P> +At this there were sounds from the back of the court like hisses, and +voices choked off on the first syllable by rappings and calls of +"Order!" The small man who was Mr. Dingley's associate attorney was +calling out, "I object, your Honor," very fiercely. +</P> + +<P> +I felt faint, and did not know in the least what was the trouble. I +began to answer that I had not touched the revolver, but the judge +smiled at me, and said in his conversational voice: only now it was not +indifferent but very kind, "You needn't answer that question." +</P> + +<P> +So I said, "Thank you." And Mr. Jackson said, "That will do," and I +noticed that some of the jurors were smiling, but quite nicely, so I +didn't mind that, as I went down out of the witness-box. +</P> + +<P> +"Can it be that this is all I am to do?" I thought. "Is it over?" I +had expected this for so long in my days and in my dreams; and the +moment had come and had passed so quickly. And here was father waiting +for me. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall have to testify. I will take you to the witness room and you +can wait for me there," he explained to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no," I said, "let me stay here. I am afraid to be alone." I +suppose the thought of the Spanish Woman occurred to him, for he did +not insist, but really I was not afraid of anything except of having to +leave the court room before I knew what the end was to be. +</P> + +<P> +By the time I had got back to my seat they had already called another +witness, and such a queer little, compact, positive-looking woman, with +a very gay, very best hat, was sitting in the witness-box looking, +possibly as I had looked, like a queer, scared animal in a pen. +</P> + +<P> +She told how on the morning of May the seventh she had been awakened by +a pistol shot, had looked out of the window and seen a woman running +down the street. Questioned as to this woman's personal appearance, +she said she could not tell, but that she wore a white dress. In what +direction did she run? The woman thought south, yes, she was sure it +was south. At this I saw father shake his head, for our house was +north of Mr. Rood's gambling place, and I noticed that Johnny +Montgomery, who had been very calm while I was talking, had now grown +nervous and jerked about in his chair. +</P> + +<P> +Father was the next witness, and when he came back again he really +tried to insist that we should go home. But, for the first time in my +life, I stood out against him. I said I could not go until I knew at +least what was going to become of Johnny Montgomery. Father gave me +such a strange look, neither angry nor sad—something which I did not +at all understand. He didn't urge me further, he hardly looked at me, +but I was conscious of his set profile while I listened to a +disagreement between Mr. Dingley's associate and Mr. Jackson. Mr. +Jackson waved his arms a good deal, but the little man kept saying, "I +insist, your Honor!" And finally the judge seemed to decide it in a +way that pleased Mr. Dingley's man; though Mr. Dingley himself seemed +not to be interested, paying no attention at all to the little man, who +kept leaning over and speaking excitedly to him, and the court crier +was calling for "Latovier." +</P> + +<P> +A pale, indefinite-looking creature rose up from somewhere out of the +crowd and shuffled slowly toward the witness-box. "There he is," I +heard the whispers around me. "Why, don't you know? That's the man +who was shipped off. They only got him back yesterday. He's supposed +to know—" +</P> + +<P> +I felt in my heart that something decisive was coming, and I had a +premonition it was going to be something bad; the man appeared so +wretchedly nervous as he sat there in the witness-box. He kept +glancing at Johnny Montgomery, shuffling his feet and shifting his hat +from hand to hand and what they got out of him came not at all as a +story, but only with very many questions. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed he had a little gunsmith's shop, not very well known, to +which, he admitted, gentlemen such as the prisoner there, hardly ever +came. But he said that on a certain night, perhaps two months ago, the +prisoner and another man had come into the shop and looked a long time +and bargained for the very best pistol he had in the place. It was a +mother-of-pearl handle, he said, with trimmings of steel, and quite +small. He had told them that it was hardly the weapon for a man to +carry, and Johnny Montgomery had answered him that he did not mean to +carry it long. +</P> + +<P> +At this there was quite an uproar in the court, the lawyers shouting, +the clerk trying to call order, and a great commotion in the press +about the door. But I do not remember being afraid, only the +inconvenience of having father keep his arm around my shoulders while I +was trying to see how Johnny Montgomery looked. Finally quiet was +restored, and then the man who had gone into the gunsmith's with Johnny +testified; and after another pause, with all my expectations strained +to tighter pitch than I could bear, came the general uprising which +meant the court dismissed, that it was noon. +</P> + +<P> +Father, looking down at me, said, "Now what do you propose to do? Are +you going home with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Please," I said, "do this one thing for me. I have done everything +you have wished so far. I can not endure not to know the worst or the +best that can happen. I must hear the end. Let us come back here +again this afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +I was so excited that I didn't care what father thought of me. But all +he said was, "Well!" And, "Then we will go over to the restaurant +across the street for luncheon instead of going home." +</P> + +<P> +It was a help not to have to step out of the excitement of the +proceedings. It was that which kept me up, which carried me along. +"There she is; that's the girl who saw it!" The voices whispering +behind me gave me a sad stir of feeling, but it was better than being +left to think. It spurred me; and the clatter of dishes and the crowd +which filled the restaurant, talking all at once, yet with no distinct +words audible, all helped to bridge over the chasm of the waiting. I +could see Laura Burnet sitting at a near table with her thick veil +raised only a little above her nose, just enough to let her drink a cup +of tea. Some of father's friends and one or two of the young men I +knew stopped at our table to shake hands, but very little was said, and +of the trial nothing at all. For all their trying to be easy and +natural, I could see that my presence embarrassed them. I could see +them glancing at me as if they wondered what sort of person I could +be—as though I had become something different from a girl by answering +questions in the witness-box. By two o'clock we were back in court +again; and how changed everything seemed! All that desultory feeling +of the morning was gone, and as I looked about over the faces I could +see how every one's mind was fixed on the same thing. A woman whom I +did not know, jostling at my shoulder as I went in, confided to me that +what she wanted was, "To hear Dingley tear the defense to pieces." I +wondered if the only people in the room who didn't want to hear that +were myself and the Spanish Woman. +</P> + +<P> +But it was Mr. Jackson who got up first. Though I had heard all the +evidence that morning it had come out in such little bits and patches +with such disagreements of lawyers between, and I had myself been so in +the midst of it that I had no idea as to how it would sum up; and I had +been waiting anxiously to hear what this man, whom father said was such +a fine lawyer, would say. +</P> + +<P> +He began with a sort of oration, all about the Montgomery family, and +what a fine family, they had been, how much they had done for the city! +Then he talked about Johnny, and he drew a very beautiful picture of +him, speaking of his great promise and fine character and then of the +blow which was being struck at his brilliant career; and it was somehow +awful to have to listen to it, for even supposing it were true, this +seemed scarcely the time for saying it. I could see Johnny's face +getting more and more set-looking and grim, as if he hated listening to +the words that were pouring over his head. +</P> + +<P> +Then, in some way I couldn't follow, Mr. Jackson got from that to +talking about courts and evidence, and corroborating testimony; and +though for a while I couldn't make out what he was driving at, +presently it began to appear to me that he was trying to prove that all +the witnesses on the state's behalf had been lying. He was wonderfully +clever in his way of making the testimony seem improbable. He pulled +even mine to pieces, pointing out the revolver's not being where I said +it had fallen. He declared there was a plot against the prisoner; that +the gunsmith who had testified about the buying of the pistol had been +bribed to do so; and he appealed to the feelings of humanity and +justice in the jury. +</P> + +<P> +He spoke beautifully. It made one's heart beat to hear just the tone +of his voice, even though one couldn't quite understand what he was +saying. And yet it was strange I thought that with everything he said +he did not bring forward, or even try to bring forward, one single +direct proof to show that Johnny Montgomery was innocent. +</P> + +<P> +I was in a very confused state of mind indeed when Mr. Dingley got to +his feet. Though I had never heard him speak in a court I had read in +the newspapers that he was "Our golden-tongued orator," and father had +been used to say that, "Dingley was a whirlwind." But now, when he +rose, and turned toward the jury-box and began, his voice sounded stiff +and cold, as if he brought it out with a great effort. He didn't shake +his finger at the jury, as Mr. Jackson had done, nor fling out his +hands, nor lift his arms in the air and bring them down as if he were +bringing the world down on one's head. He simply stood there, and in a +matter of fact, even voice gathered up the evidence of the different +witnesses as one would beads in the hand, and strung them together; and +I saw a long chain of evidence winding around Johnny Montgomery. As he +went on measuring it out, for the first time I understood how heavily +my testimony counted. It seemed to do away with the whole defense. In +spite of Mr. Dingley the case seemed to be proving itself, and as he +went on he warmed to the very sound of his own argument; his voice +began to ring out more and I lost sight and memory of everything that +Mr. Jackson had said. +</P> + +<P> +All heads were craning toward him as he stood with his back to all of +us, talking at the men in the jury-box as if they were the only people +in the world. The Spanish Woman was leaning forward, her elbow on her +knee, her head drooped, her hand hiding the lower part of her face, but +looking out from under her eyebrows like a picture I had once seen of a +prophetess. I felt that we were being wound up every moment more and +more tense, and when Mr. Dingley stopped, he left us at the highest +pitch possible for human beings to bear. When he sat down again he +gave a quick glance behind and around him and, as for a moment it +lingered on the Spanish Woman, I thought it seemed a little defiant. +</P> + +<P> +I hardly realized what was happening in the room around me. The judge +was reading something endless to the jury, not one word of which my +ears could take. Then that sound ceased, and presently I noticed that +the jurymen were leaving the room. +</P> + +<P> +With the closing of the door upon them the aspect of things behind the +railings changed, the judge getting up, walking restlessly back and +forth in front of his platform for a minute, then going back to his +writing; the clerk of the court keeping on with his, and most of the +lawyers going out. Mr. Dingley passed us with just a bend of the head, +and father glanced after him and made a little sound in his throat, a +sort of meditative "h'm" of surprise. But the crowd kept very quiet; +as the minutes passed the room grew more and more still. A sense of +nervousness was over all. Every time a door opened there was a rumor +that the jury was coming back. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it may be five minutes, and it may be all night," I heard Mr. +Ferguson saying to father. "That pistol disappearing is going to give +him a chance." Father answered, "That was a guilty man's defense, just +the same." +</P> + +<P> +But I seemed to have forgotten there were such things as guilt or +innocence. I kept watching Johnny Montgomery, who was sitting almost +alone, with his head a little bent forward, looking at the table in +front of him. The light fell strongly on his face, making it almost +seem to shine, and I looked at the little white seam of the scar on his +cheek that had helped to identify him, at his black, brooding eyebrows, +and the long lock of hair falling over his forehead, and I thought, so +softly that it scarcely dared to be a thought, "Perhaps I shall never +see any of these again." I felt very quiet, as though I should never +want to laugh or cry again. +</P> + +<P> +I lost all track of time; but the light was falling in the room and +that bright look it had given Johnny's face was turning gray, when, +quite suddenly, he gave a shiver, and pulled himself up in his chair, +nervously drawing in his shoulders. I looked quickly at the judge's +desk and saw a man standing beside it and offering a paper. It +glimmered faintly white as he held it up. I saw the judge lean over, +stretching out his fine, plump hand to take it, and I heard him say: +"Is this your verdict?" +</P> + +<P> +Then instantly the room heard and knew. And almost at the same time I +felt myself lifted to my feet and heard father saying, in a voice I +should have never dared to question, "Quick, your coat!" +</P> + +<P> +I fumbled wildly for the sleeves. I no longer knew what I was doing, +nor why, but obeyed him blindly. I felt there was some reason for this +haste, but even as I tried to follow him out it seemed the whole room +had risen, and a voice somewhere in front of us was speaking—had +spoken. +</P> + +<P> +There was a moment of dreadful silence, and then all about me broke out +quick whispers, suddenly, like a refrain. Not once but over and over, +I heard them around me. +</P> + +<P> +"Murder—yes, yes, murder!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, guilty in the second degree." +</P> + +<P> +A woman near me fainted, and I wished I could have lost consciousness +so as to be rid of those terrible words, but I could not even cry. I +raised my hand to my throat and pressed it there hard, because there +seemed to be constriction there. +</P> + +<P> +The police were thick about the door, but even they, struggling with +the hoodlums who had crowded the back of the room, couldn't get a +passage open, and the large sergeant of police lifted me up as if I had +been a child and carried me out, and set me down on the sidewalk. +There I stood in the lovely, mild twilight, looking at the familiar +surroundings as if I had never seen them before. Among the vehicles +that filled the street I noticed the Spanish Woman's carriage, with its +beautiful nervous horses. Father put my arm through his and said, "Do +you think you can get across the street?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes," I said, surprised that he should suppose I could not, since, +except for that queer feeling of not having any emotions at all, I felt +quite well. +</P> + +<P> +He took me over to the restaurant. "But I am not hungry," I said. And +father answered, "Probably not." Then, turning to the waiter, "A glass +of brandy, please, and call me a carriage." +</P> + +<P> +I sat down at a table near the window, and pushing aside the curtain a +little, looked out at the court-house entrance on the other side of the +street. In front of it a little group of men in uniform was waiting. +I could see the last of the sunlight catch on their side-arms and +bayonets. A good many people were coming out, and more were gathering +in from Kearney Street, and up from Montgomery. The police kept +shaking their clubs and trying to make them walk away. But in spite of +all they could do the crowd gathered and gathered, and made a sort of +narrow lane down the steps and across the sidewalk. Presently the +Spanish Woman's carriage drew up just opposite this narrow way, and +down the steps she came, like a queen, with her black veil sweeping +over her face, stepped in and was carried quickly down the street. But +as she passed I saw that her head was bent and that she was holding a +handkerchief in front of her face. +</P> + +<P> +I swallowed the brandy in a few gulps, scarcely knowing what it was, +and kept watching the prison door, for I had the greatest longing to +see Johnny Montgomery again. But presently our carriage came, so I had +to go out and get into it. Just as we were making the turn across the +street, I was face to face with the prison door, and at that moment +they brought him out. +</P> + +<P> +The guard passed close to us, and I saw his face as white and set as if +he were already dead. "I have killed him," I thought, though that +thought did not bring me any special feeling. +</P> + +<P> +For a few moments we seemed to be caught in the crowd, the driver +couldn't get forward with the horses, and I could turn my head and +watch the little escort moving off down the street. +</P> + +<P> +It was after sunset now, just beginning to be dusky. The sad gray +twilight was over everything, and as the figures retreated they merged +into a single dark mass in the throat of the street. As this mass +reached Jackson Street corner, there was an outcry. In the peaceful +stillness of the evening it came with a shrill, terrifying sound. The +crowd at the corner broke and scattered before a rush of horsemen. +They seemed to come from all sides, and meet in the middle of the +street. Then we couldn't see the guard, but shots rang out, yells, and +then more firing; and the mounted men swept on across the street. Men +on foot were running after them and firing. In their wake a wounded +horse was rolling on the ground and there was something else sprawled +away from it that might have been a man. I had just a glimpse before +the crowd closed in upon it. +</P> + +<P> +"Stay where you are," father said, and jumping out of the carriage, he +ran up the street. Other men were running past. +</P> + +<P> +The horrible thought of the vigilance committee turned me sick. I +called to the driver to go forward, but, already the crowd was swarming +on both sides and our progress up the street was very slow. As we drew +near the place a man in the uniform of the guards, with blood running +down his face, went staggering by, another man supporting him; and I +heard him groaning out: "I don't see how it happened, my God, I don't +see how it happened!" +</P> + +<P> +Another man, a young man, with his coattails flying and his silk hat +knocked over his eyes, burst out of the crowd close beside the +carriage. I recognized the dandy, Jack Tracy. He was so near I could +have touched him, and for one moment I forgot all about being a lady. +I grasped him, by the sleeve. "Tell me, for Heaven's sake, what has +happened!" +</P> + +<P> +He fairly glared at me, so excited that I believe he didn't recognize +me. "They've got him—the Mexicans! He's gone!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CONCEALMENT +</H3> + +<P> +It took a deal more running back and forth, and questioning and +explaining, before I could come at any understanding of what had +happened. And even when I had heard as much as any one knew it was +strangely little—simply that a body of Mexican horsemen had swept out +upon the guard from apparently all points of the compass, had +overpowered them, leaving one dead and one of their own number wounded, +and swept on. After they had gone it was discovered that the prisoner +had vanished too. The cry had been that the horsemen had taken him; +but some of the guard who had followed the riders a little way declared +that he had not been among them, and one man insisted that he had seen +Johnny Montgomery dart in at the door of one of the small houses on +Jackson Street. This was immediately surrounded by police and +searched, but nothing was discovered; and all the while I sat faint and +trembling in the carriage, with a conviction that I ought to be +horrified, and yet with an ungovernable feeling of relief. The only +thoughts in my mind were, "He is safe!" and "He is free!" If only for +a moment, at least it would be a moment! +</P> + +<P> +Half an hour passed before the street could be cleared, and we could +get across. Meanwhile in the fast-gathering dark, I kept hearing +voices speaking with that stern ring they have when men are excited and +talking among themselves, and hoofs of horses clattering off in the +direction the Mexicans had taken. +</P> + +<P> +Every moment my heart was in my mouth, lest suddenly should come the +cry that Johnny Montgomery was found; but he seemed to have vanished as +completely as if he had been made invisible; and presently a hateful +thought crept into my mind: "What if it is the Spanish Woman who has +played the enchantress?" The rumor was abroad that the sortie had been +planned by some of Johnny Montgomery's friends—they were such wild +fellows that their doing the thing would not seem extraordinary. +</P> + +<P> +Yet the other explanation seemed so much more probable to me, so +burningly evident. It came upon me with the shock of conviction, as if +the Spanish Woman herself had whispered it in my ear, and I was afraid +to look at any one lest he should read my thought in my conscious face. +I kept my head bent and held my trembling lips tight, glad that the +dark covered my agitations. +</P> + +<P> +But later, at home, sitting on the edge of my bed, I told mother all +about it. I did not form the words aloud, but when I sat there looking +up at her pictured face I knew she understood every idea that went +through my mind. My thoughts went back over the incidents of the +trial. Each little separate memory struck the same note—the attempt +to get him out of prison, the attempt to make way with witnesses, and +finally this successful snatching of him from the law—it was the +Spanish Woman who had been responsible each time, and now it was she. +Oh, I understood now why Johnny Montgomery had smiled at me as I was +giving my testimony! I had thought it had been to encourage me to go +on, but it must have been a mere mockery, since he knew that, no matter +what story I told, he was safe. +</P> + +<P> +But, had he known it? When I recalled his white, set face I doubted. +Yet at any rate, even in spite of him, she had saved him. He was gone, +gone to her perhaps, and I was left with the mere comfort of having +done what I thought was right. It was cold comfort when every feeling +in me had been outraged by the doing, and now the forlorn doubt +continually stirred as to the certainty that what I had done was right, +if, as the Spanish Woman said, love was a woman's only virtue. +</P> + +<P> +I was horrified to find myself, without apparent reason or any evident +leading up to it, with that word on my lips. Love? Why, what had that +to do with me? I looked in a fright at mother, as if I expected her to +answer the question; but that timid look of hers seemed to have only a +reflection of my own fear in it. With a sudden feeling of weakness and +helplessness I hid my face in my hands. +</P> + +<P> +From that moment I began to understand what father had meant the day he +had said that I would need mother's picture now. It comforted me that +she was there watching me and seeming to understand, never looking +angrily at me no matter what foolish or frightening things I had to +tell her, and there were so many in those days that followed—dreadful +days for me! The very girls, my friends, even while with round, awed +eyes they admired me for my heroic performance on the witness-stand, +yet, for that very reason seemed to set me a little apart from +themselves. And then the talk about the search for Johnny Montgomery, +full of the cruel eagerness of men hunting a man! +</P> + +<P> +The word had been that, of course, he would be retaken immediately. +But the hours slipped away, and the days, and still there was no trace +of him. The whole city was searched, and I discovered then that the +Spanish Woman was far from escaping public suspicion. Detectives went +in and out of her house, ransacking its remotest, most cunningly +concealed places. She herself was closely questioned, but nothing +could be elicited. +</P> + +<P> +If I had needed any reassurance that she alone was responsible for +Johnny's disappearance, this effacement of the means by which she had +accomplished her object would have convinced me. Whatever creatures +they were who had effected her purpose for her, they were apt pupils in +her art of disappearance, and even those who had failed here, were +still completely hers. The Mexican who had been wounded by the guard +had closed his teeth and died without a word, not even a confession to +the priest. The horsemen, it was said, had swept straight through the +city in the direction of the Mission, and it was supposed they had +disbanded there and scattered through the ranches, where it was +impossible to trace them. But the belief was general that the prisoner +had not gone with them, that the sortie had only been a blind for his +escape in some less obvious direction, abetted by the half darkness. +</P> + +<P> +That week the city was under strict surveillance and I went seldom upon +the street. For after my first relief at his escape was over, I was in +constant dread lest he be retaken or shot; and when I did have to be +out I went shrinkingly, dreading lest I see his face, haggard and +ghostly, gazing down at me from some window, or glimpse him retreating +up some evil alley. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you are too good for this!" my heart accused him. "To think of +you slinking and hiding! I could forgive you anything, even killing +him—yes or even wanting to kill him—but not this running away! What +power is it that this woman has over you, when a little while before +you seemed so brave?" +</P> + +<P> +The fear that it was because he loved her went through me, the +bitterest thought of all. Against it I treasured the one sentence he +had spoken to me, the only words I had ever heard him speak, and the +looks he had given—the gentleness which had consorted oddly with his +dark face and great strength, and that first shocked, reproachful gaze +which so haunted me; and then the way he had helped me, smilingly, over +the hard places in my testimony against him! How that had moved me! +</P> + +<P> +Yet what were a few, frail glances beside the thing he had done for the +Spanish Woman? I saw her once driving upon the street. The glint of +her splendid hair made a crown around her head. She leaned back in the +carriage, smiling, looking happy and triumphant; and it was a strange +thought that these days so dreadful for me were good days for some one +else. +</P> + +<P> +By the end of the week the theory that Johnny was hidden in the city +was abandoned, and search was directed toward the mining-camps, whence +from time to time came reports that he had been seen. But all of these +turned out to be false leads, and the idle talk about it swung into +just the channel that I had feared—how that of course he had been +guilty since he had tried to escape and had succeeded. +</P> + +<P> +Whatever chance there had been for him before, chance of appeal or +chance of pardon, was gone now. It was as if he had sunk into a deep +pit, out of which he would never rise. I told myself that I must not +think about it, that surely he could not be anything to me any more; +and yet my mind turned to nothing else but the memory of him, and +seemed to fix and fasten upon the thought. I knew that father saw I +brooded. Whether he knew why, I did not like to think; but he used to +take me out upon long drives, among the hills across the bay, and out +to the Presidio to see the military maneuvers; so that he kept me with +him much of the time. And he would urge me to go about to see the +girls I knew; but Hallie was the only one I went to see at all. +</P> + +<P> +She had been very tactful after the first outburst of enthusiasm over +me upon the witness-stand; and as soon as she understood how I hated +and couldn't endure any allusions to it, had never mentioned it to me +again, though I used sometimes to catch her looking at me in a way +which made me know she was sympathetic and curious; and that made a +bond between us. +</P> + +<P> +I was fond of the Fergusons' house itself. It had a charming garden, +planted with roses, with big, blue Chinese jars at the elbows of the +paths and on the porch, and a dear little upper balcony—just such a +one as Leonore walks out upon in <I>Il Trovatore</I>—which overlooked the +convent and its gardens. Sitting here with Hallie one late afternoon, +while sunlight was still among the housetops, but with the convent +garden in shadow so deep it looked like a reflection in water, I saw +the procession of nuns, slim, black figures and bending heads, winding +slowly through it. The sight touched me with a very melancholy yet not +quite unhappy feeling. +</P> + +<P> +"What would you think, Hallie," I asked, "if I should become a nun?" +</P> + +<P> +"A nun!" Hallie almost shrieked. "Ellie Fenwick, what are you thinking +of? Why, you would have to cut off all your lovely hair!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," I said, "one of the sisters there told me that she had hair as +long as mine when she was a girl, and yet she doesn't look unhappy now. +And then everything is so peaceful over there, the garden is so quiet, +and they are so calm! I think I should love to; and oh, dear, Hallie, +you don't know! I am very unhappy!" +</P> + +<P> +Hallie put her arm around me and said firmly, "You will do no such +thing! You will come to Estrella's party to-night and forget all about +convents and such hateful things! Of course, I know what the matter +is; and it's very lovely and awfully romantic, but really I'm afraid +that he is quite gone, dear. Don't you think you could think of some +one else?" +</P> + +<P> +I said I couldn't bear to, that I didn't want to go to Estrella's +party, that I hated the thought of the people I would have to meet. +But Hallie can be very persuading, and when I left her my resolution +had weakened considerably. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not go?" I argued with myself on my way home. "I will have to +begin this sort of thing again sometime—that is, supposing I don't go +into the convent, and I am afraid father wouldn't like me to do that. +At least while I am making up my mind about it anything will be better +than brooding over this thing, which I can't help." +</P> + +<P> +When I reached home I felt restless and the house seemed very small. +Rather diffidently I broached the subject of Estrella's ball to father; +but he was quite delighted. +</P> + +<P> +"Excellent," he said, hurried off a boy to the Mendez house with word +that I was coming, sent out for flowers and made a lovely little fuss +about me. I tried to make myself look as pretty as possible in a pale +tulle, with little rosy wreaths upon it, and the high old +tortoise-shell comb, that had been mother's, in my hair. The +excitement gave me more color than I had had for weeks. I thought, +"Even if I am not happy, at least I can be excited." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-224"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-224.jpg" ALT="I tried to make myself look as pretty as possible." BORDER="2" WIDTH="447" HEIGHT="700"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 447px"> +I tried to make myself look as pretty as possible. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +Father looked so tired that when he left me at the Mendez house I asked +why need he come back for me, why not just send the carriage. He +wouldn't hear of that, and then Seņora Mendez said why shouldn't I stay +at their house all night? So it was agreed, and Estrella, looking like +a little dancer, in a yellow gown sown [Transcriber's note: sewn?] with +twinkling spangles, came running and hurried me up-stairs to take off +my cloak. +</P> + +<P> +The ball was a large one—one of those affairs that is so big it makes +you feel lost. I danced, danced madly; but a forlorn conviction kept +growing on me that I did not have that same joyful feeling that I could +dance on air which other parties had brought me. Every young man who +looked at me was not a possible sweetheart, yet more looked at me than +ever did before. I had a little crowd around me, and lots of pretty +things were said to me, and I was not so afraid to reply as I had been. +When Seņor Mendez, Estrella's father, who is fat, but dances like +thistledown, took me for a turn around the room, "You are having quite +a success, eh, my child?" he said. "The young men are beginning to +wake up. You are coming out." +</P> + +<P> +That was all very pleasing and my wits were never any too sharp at a +dance, being in a dreamy and delicious state of obedience to the music +and the swimming atmosphere, so that I did not keenly take note of why +Laura Burnet did not return my bow. Jack Tracy took me in to supper, +and fussed until he found seats for us in the big hall beyond the +supper-room. It appeared he was wanting to propose to me again; and, +as I was ready for anything as far as only making proposals went, I did +not try to stop him. Behind us a curtain hung, the only thing between +us and the ball-room, but the orchestra was still playing softly and +there was hardly any one in that room, so I thought no one could +overhear us. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of it, Aleppo Mendez put his head in the door and asked +what had Jack done with his partner's program? Jack, not discovering +it in his pocket, very much vexed at being interrupted, went to look +for it with Aleppo in the supper-room, and I was left alone. +</P> + +<P> +For a few moments I sat listening to the music. Then this ended with a +soft chord, and on the other side of the curtain I heard the quick +rustling of a girl's frock, and a girl's voice, "Just wait, I must put +one more hair-pin in it or it never will stay up." +</P> + +<P> +I recognized Estrella's tones. There was a little pause, and then, +evidently resuming the main thread of her discourse she went on, "Of +course, as I was saying, it was awfully brave of her to do it, but how +could she! Why, if I had been in such a position just thinking what it +would have meant to him, I know I couldn't have made a sound!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if I could I wouldn't have!" It was Laura speaking with great +bitterness. "It wasn't as if she had to tell. She was the only one in +the city who saw it. No one would have known anything if only she had +held her tongue!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but," Estrella broke in, in a deprecating voice, "it was an awful +thing he did!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, was it?" Laura retorted scornfully, "Lots of men do the same thing +and aren't so very bad; and lots more would do it if they dared. Just +because he is handsomer and braver and has a higher temper than most, +lots of people hate him. And because Ellie Fenwick is little and looks +young, and every one was saying how pale and pathetic she looked and +how convincing it was, the way she told her story, oh, I heard the talk +all around the court room!—she just worked on the sympathies of the +jury! It wasn't justice that convicted him! It was Ellie Fenwick!" +</P> + +<P> +I sat perfectly still, grasping my cold little ice-cream plate in one +hand, not hearing anything more, not even seeming to think, until I +heard Jack Tracy's voice beside me. +</P> + +<P> +"Good Heavens! what's the matter?" And then, calling out in absurd +alarm, "Don't faint, don't faint!" +</P> + +<P> +"I am not going to faint," I said, though I had a very strange feeling +of floating, and his face looked a little misty to me. "I want to go +home. Get me a carriage!" +</P> + +<P> +"But you're ill! Let me call Estrella." +</P> + +<P> +I caught hold of his sleeve. "Don't say a word to her! Don't dare, +promise me!" I shook his sleeve fiercely. He looked quite scared. +"Get me a carriage," I said, "and mind you don't say anything to any +one until I have gone. Then you can tell Estrella that I was feeling +ill and decided to go home." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A LIGHT IN THE DARK +</H3> + +<P> +Fortunately it was late, after midnight, and a few early ones, dragged +away by their fathers and mothers, were already going; and muffled in +my long cloak and lace scarf I managed to slip out in the wake of a +group of these—hoping they would not notice my being alone—and into +my carriage, evading Jack's insistence that he must see me home by +shutting the door in his face. +</P> + +<P> +As the carriage went laboring off down the dark hill I crouched in a +heap on the seat. If Estrella and Laura had seized me by the shoulders +and bodily thrust me out of doors I could not have felt more utterly an +outcast. "Does every one feel like that about me, even my friends?" I +thought. +</P> + +<P> +All my life I had been taught, and had believed, that only good came of +telling the truth. Well, now the opportunity to prove that had come. +I had done what had been demanded of me, and every one looked upon me +as though I were inhuman. Had all the laws of the universe been +suddenly turned upside down? Ought my lips to have been sealed +instinctively by what I saw? Ought I to have been struck dumb on the +witness-stand? Was it true, the terrible injustice of Laura's words, +that because of me—not alone the story I had told, but my looks, my +misery, my very pity for him—he had been convicted? +</P> + +<P> +I was recalled to my surroundings by the rocking of the carriage. +Great rains, which had fallen lately, had left the roads gullied, and +rough as the sea. The moon would not rise until after one o'clock, and +what made our progress really dangerous, something had gone wrong with +the carriage lights. They dwindled and went out when we were but a +block on our way, and no scratching of matches would make them stay +lighted for a minute. At the foot of the hill the driver brought the +horses to a halt, and informed me that the road ahead looked impassable. +</P> + +<P> +I peered out of the window. +</P> + +<P> +An unbuilt space was on my right, and across the dark expanse, and +across the street which cut the other side of it I looked to the long +roofs and walls of the convent, all a dull monotone scarcely +distinguishable from the night. Only on the corner a solitary street +lamp illuminated a little space of the wall and made a pool of light on +the pavement beneath. +</P> + +<P> +The silence was broken by the sound of voices talking—the jargon of +peons, I thought—and I remembered that I was alone, and driving across +a lonely part of the city. The voices seemed to be approaching down +Powell Street, even now perhaps under the very convent walls. They +sounded loud and jovial. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you turn into the sand-lot, and make a cross-cut to Mason +Street?" I whispered to the driver. +</P> + +<P> +Muttering that sand was "decenter than mud at least," he remounted his +box and swung the horses about. In the mud the wheels and hoofs made +only a soft "squshing" sound. We turned away into the dark, unlighted +space without the approaching group being any the wiser of our presence. +</P> + +<P> +But, as we went, I saw, suddenly emerging from behind the convent wall +and coming out into the pool of light, the swinging serapes and great +shadowy hats of the Mexicans. They were crossing Lombard, they were +keeping straight on down Powell, probably for some of the North Beach +resorts; but, as with voluble talk and laughter they passed the +opposite curb, I noticed a singular thing—one man who dropped out of +the group silently as if unobserved by his companions. He seemed to +make one step from the lighted street into the shadow, and was +swallowed up in it as completely as if he had plunged into a forest. +He had entered that very tract that I had entered! +</P> + +<P> +I put my head out of the window and spoke softly to the driver. "Stop! +Keep perfectly still until he gets by." +</P> + +<P> +The hackman seemed to understand what I wanted, and drew up the team, +and we waited. I heard footsteps. They seemed to be coming straight +toward the carriage. No, they were passing to the left of it. It was +probable that this person was quite unconscious of our presence, but my +heart was beating so hard it seemed to me he surely must hear it. +</P> + +<P> +The footsteps stopped. I hardly dared to breathe. Then I heard the +rough sound of a match; there came a small blue spurt, and suddenly in +the little upthrown illumination I saw the lips holding tightly the +cigarette; a little higher the flame stretched, and I saw the eyes and +the black bar of the brows. I almost screamed. At the same instant he +looked up and saw me. +</P> + +<P> +It was just for an instant we gazed at each other thus. Then the match +went out, the light of the cigarette failed, and I saw it drop like a +glow-worm to the ground. I was looking again into nothing but +impenetrable dark. Could it have been real—that glimpse of him—or +only a picture on the night? +</P> + +<P> +I leaned forward through the window and called softly into the +blackness: "Come here!" I had the scared, shamed, unreal feeling of a +child playing at conjurer who hopes, yet knows no miracle can happen. +The shock was the greater then when, after a moment's interval, a +formless bulk shadowed my window. I shrank back in the surprise and +joy and fear of knowing him there. +</P> + +<P> +"What can I do for you?" a voice asked, proceeding from the shadow, as +courteously, as formally, as if it were speaking in the lighted +ball-room I had just quitted. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, get in, get into the carriage!" I cried, for it seemed to me that +all the city was spying on him, and the risk he ran was more than I +could bear. He hesitated one more heart-breaking instant. Then, I +thought, he drew back. I reached out blindly toward him and clasped +his wrist. +</P> + +<P> +My fingers were astonished at the great pulse that throbbed under them +like a heart, sending a thrilling through my veins. Then I felt the +downward sway of the carriage, and the sweeping of a serape over my +feet; and I had released his wrist and knew he was sitting opposite me. +I leaned out of the still open door and spoke to the cabman. "Drive +over to Washington Square, and then around the Square." +</P> + +<P> +Extraordinary as this direction was, he made no demur, only a sort of +grunt, deep in his coat-collar, and almost before I was in my seat +again the wheels were turning, and I saw the arm of my otherwise +indistinguishable companion move darkly against the paler square of +glass as he closed the carriage door, and shut us up alone together in +the dark. He himself was scarcely separable from it, but I seemed to +know how hard he was looking at me. +</P> + +<P> +"Where were you going?" I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Nowhere that you may go. Tell me quickly what you want of me." +</P> + +<P> +It was strange that he, who so long had been a speechless figure—our +only communication by looks—now had become a disembodied voice, like +himself, quick, strong and imperious. There were a dozen questions +which, over and over in imaginary interviews, I had asked him, all my +anxieties and wonders and terrors about him; why he had said those +first words of his to me in the police station; why he had encouraged +me so recklessly with my testimony, and then fled, and of all those +other puzzling inconsistencies in his behavior. But now that my +opportunity and he were both here there boiled up in my brain my +latest, most bitter perplexity of all, the one that had been presented +to me tonight, not a question but a confession. Before I realized what +I was saying I was telling him, very incoherently, how terribly I felt +about having had to give my evidence, and why it had seemed the only +thing to do. "But I know you do not think so," I said. "You think it +strange and cruel of me that I did not keep silent." +</P> + +<P> +His voice sounded very calm, almost casual. "I think nothing of the +sort. You did quite right, and I am glad there is one woman who can +speak the truth." +</P> + +<P> +This was utterly different from anything that I had ever expected! +"But," I stammered, "from the way you looked at me first when—when you +ran out at the door, and then again when, I had to tell them who you +were! I thought—" +</P> + +<P> +I heard the sweep of his serape as he leaned forward toward me. "I +hated, for your own sake, that you should see anything so hideous. +When I came out of that door and saw you there on the other side of the +street, do you know what you seemed to me? You seemed to me like the +reminder of everything good I had ever hoped for or believed in, +looking at me across that distance, horrified at me. It was that I +could not bear." His voice sounded harsh and uncertain, but it was +better to hear than the even off-hand tone he had used at first. +</P> + +<P> +"I hated to see you have to go through that sordid business in the +police station," he said, "hated to have you dragged through the court, +to think you had to touch such things, even to know that they exist. I +could not forgive myself! But what are you doing here alone at this +hour of the night?" He broke off suddenly. The half stern, half +protecting note made my heart beat. +</P> + +<P> +"I was at a ball," I stammered. "I came away suddenly because—because +I couldn't bear it. I heard them talking behind the curtains. They +said it was I who had convicted you." +</P> + +<P> +A touch came on my hand as if it had been the point of a finger, +"Believe me, that is nonsense. It was I who convicted myself." +</P> + +<P> +I turned toward him. I would have given anything, in that moment, for +a glimpse of his face. +</P> + +<P> +"If you did anything at all toward that end," he went on steadily, +"remember you only helped me toward what I really wanted to do." +</P> + +<P> +I kept my eyes fixed on that space of darkness from which his voice +came. "If you wanted to convict yourself then why did you try to +escape?" +</P> + +<P> +There was quite an interval while I waited, trembling on the brink of +the mystery. When at last he spoke his voice sounded a note of +reserve. The unconscious intimateness was gone. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever my motive in convicting myself has been, let me assure you it +has put me so far away from you that I am hardly worthy even to speak +to you. But I feared you had been troubled about giving your evidence, +and I am glad of this one chance to tell you that you have helped +rather than hurt me. But now it is all over; you will not have to +worry or think about it any more, for what I am going to do now will +put me quite out of your sight." +</P> + +<P> +He said it with such a sad, reckless gaiety, and it sounded so final +that it seemed to me the world had come to an end with it; and, without +any understanding of how or why it happened, I found myself crying, +with my face in my hands. My ears were filled with the sound of my own +sobs, but through them I could hear him begging me to stop, and, though +he did not touch me, I could feel him now close beside me on the same +seat and bending above me. +</P> + +<P> +"The thing isn't worth it," I heard him say, "I deserve it +all—everything! You are too good to waste any pity on me! But I love +you for it. I have loved you since the moment I saw you staring at me +as if I were the devil. I loved you when you came to the prison and +pointed me out for what I was, the man with the pistol. I will never +forget you." +</P> + +<P> +At that I cried all the harder, but now there was a curious feeling of +comfort in it. All the misery I had kept shut up in my thoughts for so +many weeks seemed to be running out with my tears. +</P> + +<P> +"What can I do to make you feel differently about it?" He was pleading. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't do what you are going to do," I whispered, muffled up in my +handkerchief. +</P> + +<P> +He made a queer little sound in his throat—amusement or despair, I +couldn't tell which. "Don't you know I can't stay here? Whether I +shot the man or not I am forfeit. I have to go. But before I do I +want to tell you one thing. You won't believe it, but here it is—I +didn't shoot Rood!" +</P> + +<P> +A great weight seemed to slip from my heart. I dropped my hands and +looked up, and instead of darkness, there was his face above me, great, +shadowy hollows for the eyes, and a soft, gray shadow for the mouth. +His hat was thrown aside and I could see a faint light on his forehead. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed like a miracle in the first, wondering moment. The next I +understood what had happened. The quarter moon was rising, and +everything was filmed with her dim silver. For a little I looked up at +him quite contentedly, with a feeling of peace at my heart that I had +not felt since I had first seen him. "Of course I believe you," I +said. "I was only so frightened because in the court you wouldn't +speak, and no one would speak for you and explain how it happened. It +made it seem as if you were the one. That was why every one thought +so." +</P> + +<P> +He smiled rather grimly. "Yes, that is what I supposed." +</P> + +<P> +"But now you will go back, you will tell them how it really happened, +you will be proved innocent?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't be proved innocent," he answered harshly. "There is nothing +here for me." Yet all the while he looked at me so wistfully that it +was hard to understand. +</P> + +<P> +"But there is I," I said. "Doesn't it matter to you that I care?" +</P> + +<P> +He did not move or speak, only kept looking down at me with those dark +hollows of his eyes, not a glimmer of light moved in them that I could +see, and, listening to the deep come-and-go of his breathing I felt +frightened. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I never thought, I never dreamed such a thing was possible," he +said at last, in a queer, shocked, half-awed voice. "You don't know +what you are talking about, child," and he leaned forward, resting his +elbow on his knee and his forehead in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"But I do know! I care terribly. All these days when I haven't known +what had become of you I have been understanding it, and I am glad I +said it," I put my hand on his, which rested on the seat beside me. +</P> + +<P> +He shook it off, pushed it away from him. "No, don't do that," he said +quickly. "Don't tell me that it is so. You are too good for it!" +Then he said slowly, measuring every word as if he meant I should +clearly understand: "This comes too late for me. I have gone too far +in the wrong direction, and now I am going away with the Spanish Woman." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no, no!" I cried vehemently. "You must not! You are too good for +that!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, that is all I am good for now. And she has done everything for +me. The sortie at the court house was hers. She has kept me hidden in +her house all these days; and, when that was searched, in the convent +garden. She has chartered a lugger to take us to Mexico. It is lying +out in the bay, now, on the other side of Chestnut Street Hill. She +has slipped me out of her house with a group of her peons for a screen. +I am going aboard now. She is coming out at dawn." He lifted his head +and looked at me again, smiling a little, "And if your conscience can +keep you from reporting this before eight o'clock this morning we shall +be safe." +</P> + +<P> +He said it in a monotonous, dull tone, as if there were no longer any +question about it, as if for some reason the thing were irrevocable! +And yet I couldn't understand why. There was no reason in it at all +that one could see. I had the dreadful sense of fighting something +invisible. +</P> + +<P> +"But all that she has done for you," I insisted, "hasn't made any one +happy. It has only kept making things worse and worse for you and +every one else, and finally it has made you a coward." +</P> + +<P> +How that made him wince! "That's not quite the fact, that's too ugly," +he said quickly. "I can't let you think that; it isn't all my +weakness. It is partly that I owe it to her. I am bound to do this, +just as you were bound to speak the truth in court. You won't +understand it I know, for to you the world is black and white, and each +incident stands by itself. But as a man lives these incidents are +interwoven like the links of a chain, each one depending on the others, +so that sometimes what appears to be a bad thing is really the only +decent thing if one knows the circumstances." +</P> + +<P> +"But it is because you are only looking at a little string of wrong +things, that the last one of them looks right, because it's like the +others," I said. "If you go back to the big wrong that started them +all and straighten it out, you will see that everything that follows +will straighten itself." +</P> + +<P> +He threw back his head, looking down at me with an expression I could +not make out, astonished, incredulous, and half ashamed. "Out of the +mouths of babes—" I thought that was what he said very softly. Then, +"And this great wrong, Miss Fenwick?" +</P> + +<P> +I was conscious that somehow I had gained an advantage, and I kept my +eyes upon him as if in such a fashion I could hold it tight. "You must +tell them how Martin Rood really died." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, never!" The word rang with such unexpected finality that all my +hope went tumbling at the sound. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he loves her, he loves her!" I thought and my pleading became the +pleading of despair. "Yes, yes, you will go back, if not for my sake +then for your own, and tell them what you have told me, and the rest of +it; and I know everything will come out right." +</P> + +<P> +He still kept gazing at me with that puzzling expression, only now +there seemed to be more of tenderness than of incredulity in it. "You +seem to have great faith in things coming out right." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but it's true," I urged. "They will, if only you will go back and +face the thing." +</P> + +<P> +Slowly he shook his head. "Yes, it may be true. It may even be +workable in some cases, but I have got too far away from what is right +ever to get back. If I should try I would only succeed in doing some +one else still greater wrong—a wrong that even you, with all your +awful sense of justice, could not ask me to do." +</P> + +<P> +He turned from me, and sat for a little while gazing straight before +him, and I looked at his stern profile set against the window glass, +saw the shift of expression upon it, and knew that he was thinking. At +last, turning to me again, as if there had been no interval between his +words, "But this much I can do," he said. "Even if I can not quite get +back to the great wrong, I will go back as far as I can in honor to set +this thing right. I will give myself up—" He waited a moment, then +added: "On one condition; that you will promise never to say a word of +what I have told you to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"But," I protested, "then how will they ever know you are innocent?" +</P> + +<P> +"They won't." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but then you will be—" I began, with a wail. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait, don't speak, don't answer until I have asked you another +question," and the strong touch of his hand held me quiet. "Suppose I +can't make it come out right—don't you think it is better to make a +strike to get as near to the right as I can, instead of going on, +getting deeper and deeper into the wrong?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," I whispered. "Don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," he said slowly. "I only know that since I have seen +you I can't go on. After being with you only for this little while, +after what you have told me, I can't go to her." +</P> + +<P> +We faced each other in silence. My hands were clasped tightly in my +lap but my heart went out to him in gratitude and thankfulness. +</P> + +<P> +Then, bending a little toward me, "Now, have I your word?" he gently +asked. +</P> + +<P> +I could have promised him more than my word in that moment. +</P> + +<P> +He smiled. "I know that I can trust you. I have seen that you have a +loyal heart; but this promise shan't cost you anything. I shall answer +no questions. Now, I shall have to send a message to Seņora Valencia." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, do not," I begged. "She will stop you from going back. You don't +know what she is capable of; she can do anything!" +</P> + +<P> +"No one can undo what you have done," he said. "She will not stop me. +I must send her a word to tell her she is to go away on the lugger +without me." +</P> + +<P> +"But why?" I cried. "I am afraid to have you go near the house. I +know I shall never see you again." +</P> + +<P> +"Come, you must be brave. I am only going to write a line and slip it +under the gate. We must not be cruel if we are righteous, you know." +</P> + +<P> +I hardly understood his scruple, but the determination of his voice +made me feel that it was right. Thus reassured the practical question +rose as to what there was he could write with or upon. We should have +to be quick, for already, the first pale change, which is scarcely dawn +but only that fading of the deepest blue of night, was in the sky. He +fumbled in all his pockets, and in the folds of his sash. We explored +the seat and the floor of the carriage. In my eagerness my cloak +slipped from my shoulders, and as he drew it up around me again, with +nervous fingers fastening the clasps across the bosom, "What is that?" +he asked suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +I put my hand down and it touched a stiff little edge of paper +thrusting from my girdle. I drew it out. It was my dance program. I +had quite forgotten about it. One side of it was scrawled thickly with +names, but most of the other side was clear, and the little white +pencil was still fastened to it. +</P> + +<P> +He took it from me, and holding it on the palm of his hand, "I wonder +if you have any idea what thing you are asking me to do?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +I did not speak, because I felt that if I opened my mouth it would be +to say something weak and foolish, and when I had put the card into his +hand I had seen him hesitate; so I knew that he needed all my strength. +He bent his head and began to write slowly and laboriously because of +the swinging of the carriage; and, letting down the window, I put my +head out and addressed the driver who was hunched up like a shivering +bird on his high seat. +</P> + +<P> +"Drive to the Seņora Valencia's house." For perhaps an hour he had +been jogging us around and around the Square, and one would have +thought that this order would have come upon him as a surprise. But he +only turned his head slowly toward me, and then as slowly back again, +with a movement that made me think of a mechanical toy, then he guided +the horses' heads from Washington Square into Lombard Street. +</P> + +<P> +I had sunk back into my corner and covered my eyes with my hand. "Do +you want to read what I have written?" I heard Johnny ask. +</P> + +<P> +I shook my head. I felt that I had made him do something terrible, as +he said, I did not know how terrible. I did not even look when the +carriage stopped, when I heard him getting out. But even from where I +sat I could hear the beat of the brass knocker. A moment passed, with +fear thick at my heart; then he was back again. He gave the direction +to the driver before he got in, and the cab turned and was rattling +down the street, with a speed that suggested that the hackman was at +last stirred to excitement by the name of our final destination. We +two looked into each other's face. +</P> + +<P> +"You would better drop me at Montgomery," Johnny said. +</P> + +<P> +"No," I answered, "I am going to take you all the way." He frowned. I +thought he was going to object. "Let me stay with you as long as I +can," I begged. "It will make it easier for me." +</P> + +<P> +Still with his eyes on me his lips moved with some word. Not a sound +came through but I thought he had said my name. And all the while +through the cold, gray twilight we were driving downward through the +city. The farther we went the more a strange and calm feeling settled +upon me, and the more I forgot everything in the world but him. It +seemed as if for ever we would continue to drive on together with this +wonderful quietness between us. +</P> + +<P> +But the carriage was drawing up. I looked at him anxiously. "What is +the matter? Why are we stopping?" +</P> + +<P> +His face was strange. "Don't you know? It is the prison." +</P> + +<P> +He half rose, his hand was on the door, he had turned his back on me. +A sudden anguish went through me, keen as physical pain. Something +that was not my mind at all seemed to be acting for me. I caught hold +of his arm with I don't know what impulse to pull him back. +</P> + +<P> +He turned, looking at me with smiling eyes, gently unclasped my +fingers, bent his head and touched them with his lips. "Don't spoil +it," he said, "and remember your word." +</P> + +<P> +I watched him walking down the half block to the prison door, a figure +tall and solitary, and in spite of his gay Mexican trappings, with an +air of somber resolution. So I saw him pass the lone, gray house +fronts, and be swallowed up in the great entrance of the prison. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE LUGGER +</H3> + +<P> +As he disappeared the desire to run after him, to cry out to him, to +cry out to all the ears of the court the story he had told me, rushed +over me, an insane impulse. "What would that do but make everything +worse, even harder for him to bear? Haven't I made things hard enough +for him already?" I who had said I loved him, that I believed in his +innocence, had yet virtuously urged him to go back and give himself +up—to what? Why, my poor little coward mind was even afraid to name +what that thing was! +</P> + +<P> +The Spanish Woman had not been afraid, no, not of anything! She had +risked everything that she had to save him in the best way that she +knew. Was I, as she had so bitterly told me, only a creature of words +with no deeds to make them good? It was all very well to say things +would turn out right; but now I saw that they would not unless I made +them; and how was that to be managed if he wouldn't speak, and I was in +his confidence and couldn't? +</P> + +<P> +I puzzled it over as my carriage rattled slowly back up Montgomery +Avenue. Suddenly from what had been absolutely sterile cogitation, +there sprang up the full flower of an idea. All that he had said that +evening had carried the same perplexing undercurrent of a thing that he +could not speak of, and always it seemed to point to the Spanish Woman. +"She knows!" I thought triumphantly, "and if she knows, why, she must +not go away until she has told me." The whole thing opened before me +complete, unexpected, a deliverance. +</P> + +<P> +I looked out of the window. Faintest, earliest dawn was already +beginning. There was but one thing to do. Johnny had told me that the +Spanish Woman was going aboard the lugger at dawn. I directed the +driver to drive to the Black Point wharf. +</P> + +<P> +He peered at me as if he thought me crazy. "That feller gave me a gold +piece, ye know," he said, "or I wouldn't have taken ye as far as this." +</P> + +<P> +"Go on," I said, and queerly enough I didn't feel at all afraid of the +man. "Go on, and my father, Mr. Fenwick, will give you more when you +take me home; and besides you are doing a service for the city." +</P> + +<P> +Muttering that it was the weirdest go that he had ever struck, he +clucked to the weary horses, and after a little more of cobblestones, +began the struggle through the sand. +</P> + +<P> +Those terrible sand-hills! We labored in them like a snail. They +seemed to hang on the wheels, and to heap themselves in front of us; +but the increasing light came on wings and what exact moment in all +this long, gray and golden approach of the sun was to be considered +dawn? At last we were over the hilltop, and floundering down the other +side, the trees and gardens of houses overlooking the water front upon +my left-hand, upon the other, sand and sea. Straight below, running +out from the shore, was the little disused wharf. One or two Italian +fishing-boats rocked in its shadow, but no vessel was in sight. +</P> + +<P> +Could it be that I was too late? I thought, in an agony of +uncertainty, as the carriage drew up at the pier. Thrusting my head +and as much of my body as possible out of the carriage window I looked +out the gray, winding channel toward the Heads. Not a sail in sight! +This was encouraging, for I knew, that even starting with the grayest +light, there would not have been time for the vessel to have vanished +out at sea. Through the other window Chestnut Street Hill, a great +rounding mass, rose bluffly out of the water, shouldering the city out +of sight. Near its base tall eucalyptus trees swayed against the blue +bay; and through their shifting leaves and branches I was able to make +out the masts and sails of the lugger lying close under the hill. It +was so well hidden that had I not been expecting to see it, I must +certainly have passed it over altogether, taking the masts for tree +boles, and the furled canvas for the light acacia bark. +</P> + +<P> +I drew my cloak closer around my shoulders, pulled up the carriage +blinds on each side, allowing only a crack wide enough for me to look +through, and settled myself to the hard task of waiting, of being at +once patient and vigilant. There was not an instant when I dared relax +my watch, first at this window, now at that, for who could tell by +which way the Spanish Woman would approach—through the sand-hills, +driven up in her carriage, or, what was more probable, on foot over the +tree-guarded slopes of the hill. The blink of an eyelash might lose +her! +</P> + +<P> +The dull gray light that had chilled shore and sea began to take on a +warmer glint. I knew the east was growing rosy. And still she did not +come. The fishing-boats began to go out, and at my back I heard the +first murmur of the city stirring out of sleep. Two of the fishermen, +Italians, stood on the wharf and stared at my carriage curiously, but I +hardly noticed them. I felt as if I were outside of all the world, and +everything usual that could happen. +</P> + +<P> +The wind was freshening, picking up whitecaps on the bay, and presently +I noticed that the lugger had shifted her position, had moved out a +little from under the lea of the hill, and I saw they were running up +sail on board. One large flapping white wing, and then another, rose +and spread beyond the trees. I could even hear the piping sound of the +sailors' voices; and then, with a veering and a tilting, and finally +with a graceful bowing motion, she stood away from the hill and began +to go out to sea. +</P> + +<P> +Beautiful sight that it was I looked at it with despair. I could not +believe it. How had the Spanish Woman got on board without my seeing +her? Could she have slipped along through the bewildering shadows and +so evaded me; or had she gone on board even before I had come? but, no, +that couldn't be, for then the lugger could have sailed immediately, I +thought, as I stood on the step of the carriage and watched the ship +carrying my last hope swing round and dip her nose deep in the channel +tide. +</P> + +<P> +"There is only one chance," I said to myself. "Perhaps she will have +left some word for him behind her at the house." +</P> + +<P> +The thought had no sooner come into my mind than it possessed me with +the conviction that this must be so. For when I remembered her looks +and her words to me as she talked of him I felt sure that nothing could +make her quite desert him, even though he had disappointed her. The +idea of her house which a little while ago had terrified me, came now +like an inspiration. I did not know what I should do or say when I +reached it, "But something will tell me what to do when I am there," I +thought, as we retraced our way over the floundering track of the hills. +</P> + +<P> +When, for the second time that morning, I found myself in front of the +Spanish Woman's gate, I sprang out of the carriage without a moment's +hesitation. I told the man to drive back to our house on Washington +Street and tell Mr. Fenwick there that I wanted him. +</P> + +<P> +There I stood in the chill daylight, shivering in my pale blue cloak, +impetuously clanging the brazen lion's head upon its clapper. The +outer door opened to me noiselessly as it had done before, shutting as +silently after. But the garden, which had seemed picturesque and +dreamy under the kind sunlight, now looked ghastly, disheveled, +crumbling, as if it had been deserted for at least a hundred years. +The inner door was a long time in opening. Just as I was beginning to +despair it swung a cautious crack. I saw the glimmer of eyes, then +immediately it was opened wide by a woman, the same maid whom I had +seen brushing out the Spanish Woman's hair. +</P> + +<P> +"The Seņora Valencia?" I asked, feeling the mockery of my question, but +pressing forward in terror lest she should not let me in. Her face had +a set appearance. She looked as if she hated me, but she admitted me +readily enough, closing the door quickly upon me. There, just within +the threshold of the house, she held out to me a white envelope. +</P> + +<P> +The outside was blank, enigmatic as the servant's face, but from it I +pulled a folded sheet of paper scrawled in that bold hand, which, like +all other attributes of that woman, was unforgettable. Within the +paper was a card. Upon the card I read: +</P> + +<P> +"You see, he understands me perfectly. He wishes to be rid of me and +he has chosen the one way possible. I give you back his words." +</P> + +<P> +No signature, and the card was my dance program still with its little +pencil. On the back I read the farewell Johnny Montgomery had made +her. It was in Spanish. "I am in love with another woman. Go away +without me. I am going back." +</P> + +<P> +I stood crumpling the thing in my clenched hand and the first thought +came trembling in words: "Oh, cruel, cruel! How could he say it!" +When I remembered her passionate face and wild will I wondered what +love had done with her when first she had read that card. If a girl +like Laura Burnet had fainted at a lesser shock, what had a creature +like the Spanish Woman done? And then the next thought came, wiping +out the memory of the first. "But there is nothing here to help Johnny +Montgomery—nothing at all!" +</P> + +<P> +The maid's voice broke upon my bewilderment, harsh and grating. "Will +the Seņorita walk up-stairs?" +</P> + +<P> +I turned to her in increasing amazement. What might this mean? Was I +after all to find my mystery's clew? +</P> + +<P> +"The Seņora's room," the woman explained, going before, and I followed +up the stair. +</P> + +<P> +I thought I could have told without previous knowledge that the house +had been deserted by its mistress. The rooms which had been warm as +with the heat of life were now deathly cold, as if they had been closed +for a long time. The sweet, thick perfume which had pervaded them had +failed, leaving only a dank smell of old weighty hangings; the very +mysteriousness seemed to have disappeared out of the passageways and +doors, every turn and unexpected opening and winding of which I +remembered through sheer terror. +</P> + +<P> +At the door of the private <I>sala</I> there was no pause; the maid did not +knock. No need, was there, at the door of an empty room? She led me +straight across the anteroom and there in front of the curtain stood +the impassive major-domo, the man who had led me there the first time. +He was as still as a bronze. He did not even seem to see me, but +stretching out his hand gathered up the velvet folds and drew the +curtain a little to one side. +</P> + +<P> +There breathed upon me across the threshold, wonderfully fresh and +living, like a human presence, that strong perfume of the Spanish +Woman's flower. I stood fixed in astonishment. There at the far end +of the room she was, the Spanish Woman herself. +</P> + +<P> +She was seated, yet not as she had been the first time I had seen her, +in her low combing chair; but full facing me on a great high-backed +seat like a throne, her feet on a footstool, a table at her right on +which her hand rested over some white thing, like a folded paper. Her +gown, too dull for gold, too shining for anything else, streamed down +on each side to the floor. Her whole look was as if she had dressed +and seated herself and made ready for some great thing. Her head was +flung back, resting against the cushion and she was looking straight at +me. She did not speak. I felt she was waiting, and that I must begin. +</P> + +<P> +I walked slowly across the room, not knowing what to say to her, but +when I had covered half the distance some shaft of sunrise slanting +into the room lighted her face with its pale reflection and I saw her +eyes. They were half closed, and behind her thick, long lashes they +gleamed mistily like silver. My knees doubled up under me and I went +down on them in sheer weakness, for I knew that she was dead. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment I could think of nothing and the room like a wheel went +around me; but I kept saying, "No, no! I will not, I must not faint!" +and after a few moments I moved forward, still, I think, on my knees, +and looked at the paper under her hand. I was too weak to get to my +feet. I reached up and took it. I looked at the Spanish Woman. I +looked at the fine, firm, foreign handwriting. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"On the day of May the seventh, 1865, in the presence of John +Montgomery and my peon, Victor Perez, I, Carlotta Valencia, shot and +killed Martin Rood in his gambling-house on Dupont and Washington +Streets. Signed, Carlotta Valencia. Victor Perez." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +On the table, almost hidden by her hand, I saw the thing which I had +seen once before lying in the gutter on Dupont Street—the +pearl-handled revolver. +</P> + +<P> +I sat there at her feet, and, looking up at her, I felt as if she had +won, though now I knew it was quite the other way. But she looked so +calm, so mighty, so indifferent, sitting up there above me, that she +made death seem a little thing, and she herself not even wicked. Then +the room swam away from me as in a dream. +</P> + +<P> +The next thing I was conscious of was a broken foreign voice speaking; +and I found myself covered up with a great coat lying on a sofa in the +down-stairs <I>sala</I>; and there, strangely seen among its velvet and +gilding, was father with his hair tossed on end and his clothes huddled +upon him, and Mr. Dingley, very white and drawn, and the peon Perez, +who was talking. I listened to his voice going on as if it were part +of a dream. +</P> + +<P> +Yes, he said, it was true there had been bad blood between the two men. +First it had been the young man's debts, and then it had been the +Seņora. The Seņora had told the young man she would give up Rood; but +of course that was impossible, Perez said, with a shrug, as where was +the money to come from he should like to know? But she was constantly +afraid lest young Montgomery might find it out. Therefore, Perez said, +when he had seen Montgomery going into Rood's place at two o'clock on +the morning of the shooting he went at once to his mistress and told +her. Taking Perez with her, she had hurried to the gambling-house with +the purpose of somehow separating the two, and there in the bar the +quarrel had taken place. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed that the truth of Rood's position as "protector" to the +Seņora had reached Montgomery, and he had come to tax Rood with it, and +Rood had told him. He told him even before the Seņora's face, and +Montgomery had said he was done with the whole crew of them. He was +going to get out of it, he was going away. Then the Seņora had clung +to Montgomery, telling him she would do anything to keep him with her; +and Rood had turned upon him. It was then that the Seņora had shot +Rood. He had been standing so near the swinging door that at the shot, +to their horror, he had fallen backward through it. +</P> + +<P> +Before any one could think, the peon went on, Montgomery had snatched +the revolver from her, saying: "I shot him," and had rushed out into +the street, and after a moment's waiting the Seņora had run out, and +seeing the revolver picked it up. Yes, he said, she had worn a white +dress and undoubtedly it was she and not the Seņorita Fenwick that the +woman who had looked out the window had seen. But she had not run down +the street, as this witness had said, who, like all women, only +remembered what she wished to believe, but back into the +gambling-house, and through there into an alley at the rear, from which +they entered a house the Seņora was familiar with, and remained there +until the afternoon when the excitement had somewhat subsided. Then +they had gone quietly back to the Seņora's house. +</P> + +<P> +Yes, the pistol was the Seņora's. Mr. Montgomery had bought it for her +a little while before. Yes, the Seņora had made sure to save Mr. +Montgomery and but for the Seņorita Fenwick it would have been. For +she had many friends, friends of power, he said. At that Mr. Dingley +grew paler, and started to speak, but then he seemed to change his +mind. Father looked at him, and I wondered then had the trouble been +that Mr. Dingley had been one of those friends of hers. When the +police came and we left the place, Mr. Dingley and father separated +without a word, and father took me home alone in the carriage. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +EPILOGUE +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TWO YEARS +</H3> + +<P> +All the experiences which I had gone through with, with such apparent +lack of feeling, seemed to take their revenge on me at once. For a +while I was very ill, delirious with fever; and when I was myself again +and the doctor would let me be talked to, the new trial was all over, +and Johnny Montgomery had been acquitted a week ago. It was Hallie, +all smiles, with her hands full of roses, who brought this news in to +me; and in a few days, she said, Jack Tracy had told her, Montgomery +was going to leave the city. This set me wondering whether that night +in the carriage and everything we had told each other then had been no +more than part of my fever visions. +</P> + +<P> +At last I gathered courage enough to ask father if Johnny Montgomery +had inquired about me. Father looked annoyed, and said, "Yes," that he +had been sending every day, and that he had asked if he might see me +when I was able, but, father said, he had thought it best to refuse. +That made me so miserable I began to be ill again, and the doctor was +afraid I would have a relapse; so finally father gave his permission +for me to see Johnny. +</P> + +<P> +It was strange and unreal to think that it was actually he, gaunt and +white and serious-looking, standing beside my bed and gazing down at me +with timid eyes. We were both so glad to see each other we were a +little afraid. The shadow of things that had happened was over us +still and made us grave. +</P> + +<P> +I must have looked very thin, for he took my hand as if he thought it +would break and his voice was hardly above a whisper. He said whatever +good came of him and whatever happiness he had hereafter he would owe +to me, and that would be more than owing me his life; but father was +right in saying that a man with the reputation he held in this city had +no right to see or speak with me. He had only come to thank me and to +say good-by. He was going away to South America. +</P> + +<P> +"But father does not know you," I said, "and I am sure you are quite a +different man from what any one here thinks you. And if you go away it +will break my heart." +</P> + +<P> +At that he looked happier and said if I felt that way he would go just +the same, but it would make him want to come back again. And then, +perhaps, he might be more the sort of man my father would give his +daughter to. A friend of his father's, he said, had offered him an +overseer's place in his mine in South America; and would I forget all +about him in two years, he wanted to know? +</P> + +<P> +"Two years will seem a very long time," I said, "but I shall remember +you and wait for you for ever." +</P> + +<P> +He smiled and said, "Those two years will be almost for ever to me, but +I have bought my chance dear, and even the hope of such happiness is +more than I deserve." +</P> + +<P> +And then I called father and told him. He was very grave, and said to +Johnny, "It depends on you; if you can show yourself a different sort +of man and wipe out the record you have made for yourself, well, then, +I suppose she will be of age, and it will be your own affair—but I +hope she will forget you." That was absurd! +</P> + +<P> +So I kissed Johnny good-by—though father didn't like that at all—for +it would help to make the two years shorter. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Other Side of the Door, by Lucia Chamberlain + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR *** + +***** This file should be named 25724-h.htm or 25724-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/7/2/25724/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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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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 Other Side of the Door + +Author: Lucia Chamberlain + +Illustrator: Herman Pfeifer + +Release Date: June 8, 2008 [EBook #25724] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Looking up at her I felt she had won.] + + + + + + +THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR + + +BY + +LUCIA CHAMBERLAIN + + + +Author of + +THE COAST OF CHANCE + + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +HERMAN PFEIFER + + + +New York + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +Publishers + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1909 + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + +MAY + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + PROLOGUE--THE CITY + I THE BASKET OF MUSHROOMS + II THE EVIDENCE + III THE RUMORS + IV THE FIRST DAY IN COURT + V THE SECOND DAY IN COURT + VI THE SPANISH WOMAN'S HOUSE + VII THE REFUGE + VIII THE LAST DAY OF THE TRIAL + IX THE CONCEALMENT + X A LIGHT IN THE DARK + XI THE LUGGER + EPILOGUE--TWO YEARS + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +Looking up at her I felt she had won. . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +"What's the matter, child?" father said. + +I tried to make myself look as pretty as possible. + + + +[Transcriber's note: A fourth illustration was missing from the book.] + + + + +THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR + + +PROLOGUE + +THE CITY + +The city is always gray. Even in March, the greenest month of all, +when the Presidio, and the Mission Hills, and the islands in the bay +are beautiful with spring, there's only such a little bit of green gets +into the city! It lies in the lap of five hills, climbing upward +toward their crests where the trees are all doubled and bent by the +trade-wind. It seems to give its own color to the growing things in +it. The cypress hedges are dusty black; the eucalyptus trees are gray +as the house fronts they knock against, and even the plaza grass looks +dark and old, as if it had been the same grass always, and never came +up new in the spring. + +But for the most part there are no trees, and only the finest places +have gardens. There are only rows and rows of houses painted gray, +with here and there a white one, or a glass conservatory front. But +the fog and dust all summer gray these, too, and when the trade-winds +blow hard it takes the smoke out over the east bay, and makes that as +gray as the city. + +And yet the city doesn't look sad. The sky is too blue, and the bay is +too blue around it; and the flying fog, and the wind, and the strong +tide flowing in and out of the bay are like restless, eager creatures +that never sleep or grow tired. When I was a very little child the +fierceness of it frightened me. All the noises of the city made one +harsh, threatening voice to my ears; and the perilous water +encompassing far as eye could reach; and the high hills running up into +the sky now blinded by dust, now buried in fog, now drenched in rain, +were overpowering and terrifying to me. Beyond that general seeming of +terror there is little I remember of the early city, except the glimmer +of white tent tops against gray fog or blue water, the loud voices in +the streets, and a vague, general impression of rapid and violent +changes of place and circumstance. Through their confusion three +figures only, move with any clearness,--my tall, teasing, father, my +grim nurse Abby, and my pale-haired mother. Indeed, the first distinct +incident that stands forth from that dim background is the death of my +mother. + +It was a puzzle for a child. One day she was there, ill in bed, but +visible, palpable, able to speak, to smile, to kiss,--the next, she had +disappeared. They said she had gone away, but I knew that was +nonsense; for when people went away it was in the daytime with bags and +umbrellas, and every one knew they were going, and where they went, but +with my mother it was different. One day she was there,--the next she +was not, nor in any of the rooms of the house could she be found. It +was long before I ceased to expect her back; long before I ceased, by +some process of child's reasoning, to blame her departure on the gray +unaccountable city. For as early as I can recall a coherent sequence +of impressions the city appeared to me strange and unaccountable. +There was a secret shut away from me behind every closed house front; +the eucalyptus trees seemed to whisper "mystery" above my head; and at +night, when the fog came heaping in, thicker than feather-beds, across +the Mission, and streaming down the long hills on the heels of the +wind, it brought an army of ghosts to inhabit the dark places beyond +the safety of the lighted window-pane. Though I had lived among the +seven hills almost all my life; and though in ways it had grown +familiar, and even dear to me, yet I never seemed to grow quite used to +the city. It had strange tricks of deception that were enough to +unsettle the finest faith. For when I looked at it from the windows of +my room under the roof it was as flat as a plate, visible in its +entirety from end to end, and it was as easy to find Telegraph Hill or +the Plaza upon it as it was to pick up a block from the carpet. But, +when I went abroad in it, it hid away from me. It would never show me +more than one street at a time, and never by any chance would it reveal +to me, through the tall houses, in what part of it I was walking. + +But by the time I was old enough to play in the garden by myself, and +make friends through the hedge with Hallie Ferguson, who lived a block +below us, I had come to accept this trick of the city as somewhat less +extraordinary. It was developing other characteristics not so fearful +to my mind and of far greater fascination; and I spent hours, when I +could not be out of doors, watching it from the windows of my room. +Father had built what was at the time one of the finest houses in San +Francisco. It had a glass conservatory at the side, and a garden with +a lawn and palm in the corner; and on rainy nights when the wind was +high, and the house was shaking, I could hear the long palm-fingers +tap-tapping on my window glass. The house stood half-way up Washington +Street Hill, on what was then the western skirts of the city, and from +my window under the roof I could look down over the whole city to the +east water front, with Rincon Hill misty on the south, and Telegraph +bold on the north of it. By leaning far out of the window, as Hallie +and I sometimes did when a ship was coming in, we could see northward +as far as North Beach, and Alcatraz Island; and from Abby's room across +the hall we could continue the panorama around to Russian Hill, whose +high crown cut off the Golden Gate. It was a favorite game of ours, +hanging out the window, with our heads in the palm leaves, to pretend +stories of what we saw going on in the city beneath. + +All sorts of strange and interesting things went on in the city. We +could see the signals run up on Telegraph Hill when a ship was sighted. +And then the "express" would go dashing furiously down some street +below us, the pony at gallop; and the line would form in front of the +post-office and stretch like a black snake up Washington Street. Or we +watched the yellow omnibuses laboring down Washington Street like +clumsy beetles. It seemed to me that a city was the most delightful +and absorbing plaything a child could have, and it was a hard arbitrary +blow of fate that took me from it to the convent school at Santa Clara. + +But if to leave the city was hard, it was terrible indeed to leave the +house, the familiar rooms, the familiar footsteps and voices that I +loved, and listened for. I had never been away from father and Abby in +my life, and though Hallie Ferguson and Estrella Mendez went also, I +was very homesick. + +There was nothing at all interesting at the convent,--nothing but +pepper trees, and nun's black hoods, and books. Even when we walked +out there were only the dreary Santa Clara flats with the mountains so +distant on the horizon that their far-awayness made me want to cry. +The only nice thing about the convent was the vacation that took us +away from it, back, out of the burning summer valley to the bay, the +rows of gray-faced houses, the shipping and the wind. Each time I came +back it was with the rapture one must feel returning to some long left, +beloved place and finding it unchanged. + +The palm, the cypress hedges, the sunny conservatory, the low, long +rooms beyond it, the dark hall, and narrow, precipitous stair were +always adorably the same. But around them the city was growing with +such speed that each time I returned I had to learn to know it afresh. +Already there were several blocks of houses beyond ours, and the second +year I came home from the convent Hallie Ferguson told me her father +was going to move because there was a gambling-house going up across +the street from them, "and build," Hallie expressed it, "in a more +fashionable neighborhood." + +It was at the foot of Chestnut Street Hill their new house was +building, and that vacation we used often to walk over with +Abby--Estrella, Hallie and I--across the city and across the North +Beach district--to play in the building house. It was going up with +the same furious speed that was accomplishing the whole city. It +seemed that we had hardly stopped looking through the skeleton supports +at the bay before the plaster was drying on the solid walls; that we +had hardly ceased walking on the great naked flooring beams before the +smooth floor itself was palpitating under the feet of the dancers at +the housewarming. + +I remember sitting up with Hallie through the earlier part of that +evening, and with a sort of worship, looking for the first time at +women with uncovered necks and arms emerging white as wax from their +diaphanous or glittering gowns. To me they were radiant, transported +to a sphere of existence beyond my own, something I never would attain +to. I recall them as a vague, dreamlike spectacle. In all of it there +is but one incident that I remember clearly; and that is, when whirling +out of the crowd and into an empty space, that the dancers had left +clear for a moment, came a couple--a large blond girl and a young man, +a boy, hardly as old as she, but so handsome, so dark, so full of life, +and a sparkling sort of mischief, that it made one feel quite gay just +to look at him. As they danced past the place where Hallie and I were +sitting he was holding his partner's gauzy train in his long, fine +fingers, and they went by us laughing. + +"Who is that?" I whispered. + +"That's Johnny Montgomery," Hallie whispered back. + +"Who's he?" + +"Why don't you know?" Hallie cried. She dearly loved to give +information. "The Montgomerys were one of the very best families here; +and he's the last of them. Old lady Montgomery died the year we went +away to school, and he had heaps of money--but he lost it." + +My sole performance in this line had been the dropping of a two-bit +piece down a crack in the board walk, and before I had time to ask how +Johnny Montgomery had managed to lose sight of "heaps," Mr. Ferguson +came up and asked, "Don't you little girls want some ice-cream?" so I +forgot to say any more about it. + +That same season there was another notable occasion, when Hallie led me +to the bedroom of her grown-up sister, and exhibited to me with +awe-struck pride the dress her sister was to wear to the Sumner Light +Guards' ball that night. It was a blue tulle with a fine frost of +spangles over the bodice, and it seemed too dazzling to belong to a +creature less wonderful than a fairy. But when Hallie went on, in a +cautious whisper lest we be discovered, to confide to me that when she +was grown up and out of school her mother had promised to give her a +party, and that, since I was her best friend, of course she was going +to invite me first of all, I began to realize that I, too, might some +day grow up into a young lady, and be laced into a gown perhaps as +beautiful as the one spread out on the bed before us. + +Such a dazzling idea gave me an entirely new set of fancies, and was a +pleasant book companion and bedfellow to take back to the convent. +Hallie, who was a year older and half a head taller than I, had already +begun to lengthen her dresses, and do up her hair, and I found it +humiliating to be so small that at sixteen I had still to wear mine +down my back in long curls, and my skirts above my ankles. The only +thing that comforted me was that whenever father came to see me he +always said: + +"Child, how tall you are! You're almost a woman!" and though he was +the one person who seemed to think so it was quite sufficient for me. +When my graduation day came I was much excited to think how absolutely +grown-up I would appear to him in my first long frock, but when I came +to him after the exercises were over, he looked at me as if he were +sad, and said, "Child, how little you are!" + +That was a dreadful disappointment to me, but when I reminded him how +he had always told me I was tall, he laughed, and said: "You were tall +for a school-girl, but you're very little to be the mistress of a +house." + +That puzzled me; but on the way home, driving up through the valley, he +told me more about what he meant. He said, "Now that you have stopped +being a child you are going to be a very gay young lady; going to have +fine gowns, and dance about like a butterfly; and you're going to keep +on being my little girl; but at the same time I am afraid you will have +to be a little lady of the house, too, and take care of me, and +Abby--now that Abby's rheumatism is so bad--and go to call on the +ladies who were your mother's friends, and are going to be yours. Do +you think you are tall enough to do all that?" + +I was so surprised and so happy that I hugged him right there in the +buggy, and said: "Do you really mean it?" + +Father laughed, just as he does to cover up being rather serious, and +said: "You are your mother's daughter, for she was a little fair woman, +but there was never anything too big for her to manage." + +I was happier than ever to hear him say that--he so seldom spoke of +mother--and the idea of a whole house to manage, and of sitting at the +foot of the table, and calling on grown-up married women seemed to me +as merry and exciting as going to parties, and having beaus. + +I had not been in the city for a year, spending my last vacations at +the ranch at Menlo Park; and though I knew from what Hallie had told +me, that the city was very different, yet when I got out of the buggy +in front of the house the look of the street startled me. For a moment +even the house seemed strange. But that was only because the other +houses were all about it. As far as one looked up the hill there was +nothing but thick houses, and queer little shops were crowding up the +block so close that we had the appearance of being almost down-town. +Even inside the house looked different, but quite beautifully +different, done over with lovely, fresh papers, and Japanese mattings; +but what touched and pleased me most of all was to find the picture of +mother, which had used to hang over father's dressing-table, now in my +room, above my bed. "You need it now more than I do," he said, and +though I couldn't see just why I needed it, I loved to look at it. The +amusing part of it was that mother in the picture was holding me--a +little me--a baby two years old. Myself would never look out at me. +But mother looked always, with the same half-brave, half-timid glance, +when, sitting on the bed, I made her my confidences. + +With all my new responsibilities, and my new clothes I felt as if I had +somehow been "done over" too. Yet it was surprising how quickly I +became used to the patter of my long petticoats around my feet as I +walked, the weight of all my hair upon my head, and my stately pouring +of the tea at the foot of the dinner-table. Father's friends were +always coming in and out, and staying to luncheon or dinner, and with +their high silk hats, their elegant bows to me, and their laughing at +things I said which were not in the least funny, at first they confused +me not a little. But I grew accustomed to them, too; I grew even to +like them, especially Mr. Dingley, father's greatest friend, who was +the district attorney. He was a big, dark man, with a broad face, and +a frown that never came out of his forehead. He looked frightfully +severe, but I soon found out he was really quite easy-going, much more +so than father, and often I could get around Mr. Dingley when father, +for all his being pleasant, wouldn't have given an inch. But father +said he had to be very stern, or other people would spoil me. By that +he meant not so much Mr. Dingley, who was the same to everybody, as +Senora Mendez, who had been mother's greatest friend. She had been a +New England girl, who, in the early days of California, had married a +Spanish gentleman. She was lovely to me. It was at her house that I +went to my first ball. Except the Fergusons', hers was the only house +in the city with rooms large enough to dance in, and that ball is still +the most dazzling I can remember. I wore a rose-colored tulle skirt +with a peasant waist of rose-colored satin, and father, for a great +surprise, had given me a pair of pink silk stockings. No other girl in +town had such a beautiful thing, and in the dressing-room they would +not let me go down until I had shown them. The lighted dancing-rooms, +and all the strange people, and my tall partners made me nearly die of +shyness, but I danced two large holes in the toes of my lovely +stockings, and afterward father teased me, and said he found he had +suddenly become very popular with the young men. He had never been so +called upon in his life. + +But most of our parties were not such elegant affairs, though sometimes +they were even more fun, like the Fergusons' calico ball, where I wore +my grandmother's gingham, and prunella shoes; or the party the Sumner +Light Guards gave, which was the prettiest of all on account of the +young men's uniforms, and the way we sat around the little refreshment +tables between dances with our mothers and our partners, the band +playing all the time, and every one so gay. + +I sometimes went to as many as four parties a week, so that in the +morning it was all I could do to be up in time to see breakfast on the +table. I found out that being a housekeeper meant more than long +petticoats, and pouring tea. It meant being all over the house before +ten in the morning, for, as Abby said, a house has a lot of strings to +it, and unless you keep them all tied up tight something's going to +sag. But I enjoyed my authority of the house, and my liberty abroad +seemed like license to me. I felt launched on a wide sea of life. + +The city itself was changed to my new horizon. It was larger, more +complicated, with more masts in the harbor, new streets and horse-car +lines, and every one moved about in it like the pieces of a Chinese +puzzle. The friends who had lived close about us had all moved +westward or southward with the trend of the city, and between Telegraph +and Chestnut Street Hills there were some very, fine houses. I was +often running over there to see Hallie or Estrella, and my shortest way +lay past the convent that stood a little apart in the middle of the +settlement. Next to it, but facing on another street, was a house +which had been built at the same time as the convent. The convent wall +came up at its back. On the other three sides was a high fence. Over +the fence only the upper story could be seen, and it had a look so +still and closed up, that it brought back to me that feeling of mystery +the city used to give me as a child. But I never noticed or wondered +about it particularly until one day when I saw an open carriage waiting +in front of the steps. + +While I was looking a woman came out of the gate, and got into the +carriage. She was Spanish, I saw at a glance, and big, and all in +sweeping black, but instead of being dark she was tawny, with a +wonderful glow of copper-colored hair through her black lace veil, and +in all my life I had never seen a creature move so gracefully as she. +It was like watching a beautiful cat. I asked Estrella Mendez who she +was, and Estrella blushed, and said she did not know. And when I asked +was she sure, because I knew the woman was Spanish, Estrella got quite +angry, and said she wasn't supposed to know all the Spanish people in +the city, and especially if they didn't have husbands. That surprised +me, for the woman had looked quite like a great lady, and when I went +home I spoke to father about it. + +He said he feared Estrella was right--we none of us knew the Spanish +woman. "But," I told him, "she looks like a queen; and she has a +beautiful carriage." He laughed and said yes, she had money, and a +good deal of influence in high places, but the women she knew were not +the sort of people I would care about; and he finished by saying I was +a silly child to go staring at strange "greasers." + +I did hate to have father laugh at me, but I couldn't help looking at +her slyly when now and then I saw her about the city. She was like no +other Spanish woman I had ever seen. Most of them are as white as +callas, powdered over the lashes; but you could see the strong bloom of +her skin even through the thick coat of rice powder she wore, and her +lashes were lovely. I noticed that because she kept them half down, +and looked out through them. But the most fascinating thing about her +was the way she moved, like something flowing; and once in a shop I +heard her speak, and her voice was so attractive, sweet and rather +thick, with such a gracious, petting sound to it! But she was always +alone. With it all she seemed to be mysterious, like her quiet +closed-up house. I got to making up stories about her, and sometimes +in my room, in front of my mirror, I practised looking out through my +lashes. But it was a nuisance, for though they weren't short they +curled back so suddenly that it didn't look right; and my hair being +blond and flying into corkscrews, and my being so little, and +forgetting not to step on my flounces when I tried to "sweep," +altogether made it rather a failure, in spite of the black lace shawl. + +But though I thought about her I didn't say anything more to father or +Abby, because questions that hadn't bothered them when I was little +seemed to worry them now. Father was for ever talking of the things I +must not do. One was not to be about in our neighborhood alone. It +was changing. And above all never to go over to Dupont Street, for +that, he said was getting to be notorious, and he hated to have it so +near. It was only a block below us, but it seemed to me very quiet, +and though Mr. Rood's gambling-house was on the corner there was never +any noise there, only such fine young men, and some that I knew, all +the time going in and out of it. + +But that pleased father least of anything, and he asked me how would I +like to move over to the North Beach district, where all my friends +were. Talking it over with Hallie and Estrella I liked the idea very +much. But when I came home again to the old house, with the long +windows, and the palm, and the long steps up to the conservatory, and +all the rooms I knew, the very idea that I could have thought for a +moment of going away from it gave me a lump in my throat. + +So I had to tell father that I couldn't. He pinched my cheek, and +said: "Next year, then;" and so we stayed on. This was in February, +1865. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE BASKET OF MUSHROOMS + +The seventh of May was my father's birthday. I always planned some +little surprise for him beside his present, and this morning I had got +up very early, before any one else was stirring, to slip down to the +Washington Street market for some fine fresh mushrooms. He was +extravagantly fond of them, but we seldom had them because Abby was +getting too old to be up for early marketing, and father always said +that mushrooms should come in with the dew to be good. + +I had bought a little straw basket, green and red, and lined it with +leaves; and now I put on my white flounced gown and my flat green hat, +so that when I should come in with my basket as they sat at breakfast +it would seem like a little fete. Then I went a-tiptoe down the stairs +that would creak, for I could hear Lee, the China boy, stirring in the +kitchen, and it would have spoiled everything to be caught going out +with my empty basket. When I had let myself into the street I felt +very naughty and festive in my furbelows at such an hour of the +morning. The city seemed so dim and still and empty that the rustle of +my petticoats sounded loud as I walked along. + +The Washington Street market was fully six blocks away, and they seemed +the longer for being so quiet. When I got there the men were still +taking the crates off the carts, and the stalls were not set out yet. +It took me a long time to find what I wanted, so that when I came out +the wagons were clattering on Montgomery Street, and in one or two +shops the shutters were already down. That made me hurry, for I was +afraid of being late. I flew along with my basket in one hand and my +flounces in the other. The sunlight had caught the gilt ball on the +flagstaff of the Alta California building, and the sky that had been +misty was now broad blue above the gray housetops. In my flurry I +found myself on Dupont Street before I knew it; but after all it was +the shortest way, and everything was quiet, not a blind turned. The +houses on either hand were locked and silent, and nothing moved in the +steep little street but the top of the green-leafed tree half-way up +the block. + +I was walking on the upper side of the street, and drawing near the +corner. I was opposite Mr. Rood's gambling-house, which was shuttered +tight, and looked as blank as the rest, with only the slatted +half-doors of the bar and the dark spaces above and below them to +suggest that it had an inside. I was just thinking I heard people +talking there, when suddenly a sharp splitting noise seemed to ring +inside my head, the slatted doors flew open and a man fell out +backward. He fell in a heap on the sidewalk; and over him, almost upon +him, leaped another man, with such a rush, such a face, and such a wild +look, that he filled the street with terror. + +I stood there, staring stupidly, too stunned to realize what had +happened. He saw me, and for an instant he stood, with the pistol +smoking in his hand--the handsomest man I ever saw in my life, and the +most terrible. Then he flung the pistol into the street and ran. + +He ran down Dupont, and disappeared into Washington; and all the while +I stood there, listening to the terrible loud clatter his feet made in +the silence. I looked across the street, and blue smoke was drifting +out of the slatted door over the man who lay still. Then there seemed +to come over me at once the meaning of the horrible thing that had +happened, and I ran. + +I heard a shutter flung open in the street behind me. I saw a glitter +near the curb, a flash of steel, a shine of mother-of-pearl, and that +was the pistol he had flung away. I felt suffocating, and my feet +seemed weighted with lead as if I were running in a dream. And, +strange enough, what filled me with the wildest terror was not the +sight of the thing that lay still on the pavement under the drifting +smoke, but the sound of those furiously running feet, dying away and +away into the sleepy city. I felt as if I myself were a criminal +pursued, as if the house was the one refuge that would save me, and +with a thousand horrors at my heels I burst in upon father just sitting +down with Mr. Dingley, in the quiet, sunny dining-room. + +At sight of me both jumped up. + +"What's the matter, child?" father said. + +[Illustration: "What's the matter, child?" father said.] + +I looked around, and realized I was still clutching my basket, though +all the mushrooms had fallen out, and my foot was through a torn +flounce, and my hat hanging on my neck. My mouth was dry. For a +moment I couldn't get a word off my tongue; and then, "He fell, he +fell!" I said, and, "He is gone!" + +"Where was it?" The words seemed to be in Mr. Dingley's voice, yet +came as if from, far off. + +"Mr. Rood's gambling-house!" I gasped, and felt the top of my head +getting cold and the floor beginning to move under me. I had a dim +impression of Mr. Dingley rushing out of the room with his napkin still +in his hand; then I found myself sitting on the sofa, with a stinging +taste of brandy on my tongue, and heard father's voice saying, "Can't +you tell me, child?" + +"Oh," I said, "he's dead!" And then I poured all the story out in a +breath. I saw father's face growing more and more keen and grave and I +could feel his fingers gently around my arm as if he feared my turning +faint again. Indeed the room around me seemed unreal, but what had +happened in the street was still fearfully clear. It was cut into my +mind as if it were still before my eyes, the toppling lurch of the +falling body, the silk hat rolling into the gutter, and then that fine +terrible gentleman that had sprung out after. The moment had stamped +him as clear in my memory as years could have done. I could tell how +very tall he was, how dark, how his brows made one black bar across his +forehead, how his eyes were set deeply under them, how his chin was +wide and keen and his left cheek flicked by a white scar near the +mouth. At the time in my furious excitement I only knew that I must +tell some one everything, or the thing would kill me. But whether it +was father's strange stern face, his seeming so calm and going out so +quietly, and yet in such haste; or whether it was some memory of the +hunted look of the man who had flung away the pistol, I wished I had +not described him so exactly. It would have been easy enough to have +said I could not remember him clearly. + +I was so stunned by what had happened before my eyes that I could not +even formulate in my thoughts what it had been. The very impression of +terror that remained with me was confused, and mixed with wounding +pity. For though he had looked so wild I could not remember that he +had seemed ferocious or afraid. The look I remembered had not been +fear of what was going to happen to him, but horror of what had been +done--and horror at sight of me. + +Voices in the street, sounding unwontedly loud and excited, reached me. +People were hurrying past the house--all hurrying downward in the same +direction. I saw Lee run across the yard and stand peering out of the +side gate. I put my hands over my ears, and up and down, up and down I +walked; and back and forth Abby followed me with a little plaid shawl +she was trying to put over my shoulders. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE EVIDENCE + +It did not seem possible that Mr. Dingley and father could be gone +longer than half an hour, but the hands of the clock went to nine and +then to ten before I heard them on the steps. I made a dash ahead of +Abby, and opened the door. "Did he get away?" The words flew off my +tongue before I could think. I knew it had been a dreadfully wrong +thing to say. "I mean the other man--is he dead?" I gasped. Father +had quickly closed the front door behind him, for there seemed to be +quite a crowd in the street, and there in the half dark I could see his +face, and Mr. Dingley's, only as palish spots in the gloom. The +thought came to me, "Of course he isn't going to tell me anything. He +is going to say it is nothing I ought to hear about, and that I must go +up-stairs." + +"Ellie," he began--then he caught sight of Abby in the dining-room +door. He held out his hand to me. "Come into the study, Ellie, Mr. +Dingley wants to ask you a question." + +It was all so unexpected and so startling to be called into the study +where only men went and only business was talked about; and to hear it +was Mr. Dingley, not father, who wished to ask me a question, that I +wanted to shrink away and escape from the very facts I had been so +anxious to know a few minutes before. But father held me by the hand, +and I had to drag my feet down the long dark passage that leads to the +study, hearing Mr. Dingley striding at my heels. + +It was a small room, full of a great litter of papers, and smelling +faintly of tobacco and Russia leather. I sat down in the leather +armchair that was drawn up to the table. Just opposite me was a window +looking directly into the green branches of a weeping willow; and at +intervals the wind blew the leaves against the glass with a sound like +"Hush!" Up to that moment I had had no memory connected with that +room--only the general sense of awe it had given me as a child. But as +soon as I was in that chair, facing that window, hearing the "Hush, +hush," of the weeping leaves, in a quick distinct flash I saw myself, a +naughty child, sitting up in that chair, in anguish of mind over a +stolen jam pot, and my mother's face pulled to great gravity, no doubt +to keep from laughing at the sight of me. I seemed to hear her voice +again, "The truth, Ellie, remember nothing but good ever comes of the +truth." + +It flitted through my mind as a little, sweet memory, having nothing to +do with what was happening at the moment, for the thought in my mind +was all, "What has become of the man with the revolver?" + +Father had sat down opposite me on a corner of the table, but Mr. +Dingley walked to the fireplace, turned his back to it, put his hands +behind his coat-tails, buried his big chin deep in his collar, and in +just the same cheerful voice he used when he asked me how many hearts I +had broken, "Now, Miss Ellie," he said, "what makes you think that the +man who came second out of that door had a revolver in his hand?" + +I looked at him in astonishment, his question seemed so silly. "Why, +because I saw it." + +He gave his head a brisk shake. "Yes, but what makes you know you saw +it?" + +"Because I heard it strike the ground." I was growing more and more +bewildered. + +"You heard it strike the ground," Mr. Dingley repeated slowly, "but"-- +Then with a sudden pouncing forward motion of his head and shoulders, +he shot the words at me, "I thought you said he had it in his hand." + +"Yes," I stammered, "but that was before." + +Mr. Dingley was watching me steadily. + +"Now, Miss Ellie, aren't you a little confused on that point?" + +I was indeed; but it was his manner that was doing it. He seemed to +snatch the words out of my mouth, and turn them into another meaning. +"But it was there! you saw it yourselves!" I appealed to him. + +Father and Mr. Dingley glanced at each other, and a strange thought +came to me with a rush of relief. "Wasn't he dead, had he gone away, +didn't you find anything?" + +The answering look of their faces made my heart go down like lead. "We +found everything as you told us except the revolver. There was no +revolver there." + +I sat clutching the arms of the chair, staring hard at Mr. Dingley, who +seemed suddenly to have become a stranger to me. "Then some one must +have picked it up." + +"But, Miss Ellie, you say that the street was absolutely deserted when +this thing occurred; and when I reached the spot there was a woman +looking out of a window, and some laborers running up from Sutter +Street, but no one had yet reached the place. Now, how could--" + +Father struck in, "No, Jim, you'll only frighten her!" In a lower +voice he said something that sounded like, "Not on the stand yet." +Then, leaning toward me, across the table, resting on his elbow until +his face was level with my own, "I know you must have been much +frightened at what you saw, child, and it's possible you may have been +a little hysterical, isn't it? It's possible you might have fancied a +revolver in his hand, isn't it, when there was none there?" + +He said this very slowly and gently, as if he were trying to soothe me, +but looking straight into his eyes I saw a sharp anxious light there, +and the conviction came to me that he very much wanted me to have been +mistaken. Mr. Dingley, from the fireplace, was watching me hard, as if +he were trying, with that incredulous look of his, to force it on me +that I must be mistaken. And then the thought floated through my mind +that in some way it would be better for that handsome, terrible man if +I could say I hadn't seen a revolver. I tried to make myself believe +that they were right; I shut my eyes. The picture came to me as if it +were before me still, and nothing in it was more clear than that thing +of steel and pearl. "I wasn't hysterical," I said, "I saw it plainly." + +"Could you take your oath in court?" father said in a stern voice. + +"Oh, yes." + +Father dropped my hand and leaned back. He looked puzzled. Mr. +Dingley came close to him and said something so low that I couldn't +catch it. But father answered in his usual voice as if he had +forgotten I was there, "No, Jim, if she says so then she did--be sure +of that!" He listened again while Mr. Dingley murmured to him, and the +look of their faces, the lowered, hushed tones of their voices, made me +feel, more than words could have done, that they were talking about +something very serious. All the while Mr. Dingley was speaking father +slowly nodded. "I have no doubt you could, Jim," he said at last, "and +it's very good of you to offer, but we can't suppress evidence because +it happens--" He dropped his voice and I lost the last word. + +Mr. Dingley looked silently down for a moment, and I thought he was +going to say something more, but finally he only, shrugged. "Well, +what time do you want to go down, then?" he said. + +Father looked at his watch. "We might as well get this business over +as soon as possible. Ellie--" His voice sounded so sharply on my name +that I jumped up, all of a nervous tremble. "Go up-stairs and put on +your bonnet, I want you to come with me." + +I felt that my voice was woefully unsteady. + +"Won't you please tell me what is happening and where we are going?" + +"Martin Rood has been shot; he is dead. A man has been arrested, +corresponding to your description, and we are going down to the prison +to see if you can identify him." I stared at father, and my only +feeling was one of vague, incredulous wonder. Martin Rood, the fine +sleek gentleman whom I had seen swinging out of his gambling-house in +the late afternoons--could that have been he, that huddled heap of +clothes in the gutter? + +"Quickly, Ellie," father's voice reminded me. I went stumbling +up-stairs in a burning excitement. I think I had some wild notion of +locking myself into my room and defying the house, for the idea of +facing that terrible man with his wild terror-stricken face threw me +into a panic. But Abby screamed at me that I was treading on my ruffle +as I came up-stairs, and captured me; and I let her put another gown on +me and my turban and a heavy veil without lifting a finger to help her, +as if I had been a child. I knew father was waiting for me at the foot +of the stairs, and there was no escape, I must go down. When I got +into the hall I saw that Mr. Dingley's buggy was standing in front of +the house, though it was but a few blocks down Washington Street to the +prison on Kearney. + +But we did not drive as I had expected straight down Washington, making +instead a detour of several blocks, and finally, by means of a little +alleyway, coming to the back door of the prison. + +The only people in sight were a couple of policemen, but, Mr. Dingley +on one side and father on the other, fairly lifted me out by the arms, +and hurried me into the building, as if they were afraid of being +caught by some one. The first thing I was aware of was the cold gray +light falling on us from high overhead, and a faint sickly odor, very +faint but very penetrating, the like of which I had never breathed +before. We were standing in a flagged hall, looking up through a great +well, past gallery after gallery, to a skylight covering the top of the +roof. It was the sunshine filtering through the dull, thick, greenish +glass which gave that cold, sad-colored light. Within the galleries I +caught glimpses of men at work at desks; and over the railings lounged +figures, peered faces, disheveled, sodden, disreputable; and sometimes +near these a policeman's star twinkled. I saw it all in one upward +glance, for I was hurried on. Our steps clattered over the flags of +the hall, and then, turning to the right, we began to go down-stairs. +I took tighter hold on father's arm, for we seemed to be descending +into a dungeon. That sickly, acrid odor grew heavier, making me think +of caged animals, and yet, what made it worse, it wasn't quite like an +animal either. + +The hall we came out into was smaller and darker than the one above it, +and empty except for a policeman standing by a door. To him Mr. +Dingley handed his card, and, after a few minutes, we were admitted to +a small office. It was divided in half by a railing; on the inner side +was a desk, at which a man with a star on his coat was writing under +the light of a green-shaded lamp. He came forward, opened a gate in +the railing for us to enter, shook hands with Mr. Dingley and father, +and then was introduced to me. His name did not reach me, but I +understood the words "Chief of Police." Then all three talked together +in low voices, while I sat where I had been bidden, in a chair close to +the railing. Once or twice the man with the star glanced at me, and +then, presently, they all looked at me, and I couldn't distinguish one +face from another. My head was whirling so with excitement I felt as +if I were living in a dream. Yet when the man with the star began +speaking I heard him with curious distinctness. + +"All that is necessary for you to do, Miss Fenwick, is to tell me +whether you recognize the person you saw this morning." + +I sat forward on the edge of my chair. I tried to draw a deep breath, +but the sickly atmosphere seemed choking me. There was the tread of +feet outside the door; it opened and two officers came in, stopping one +on each side of the doorway; and then, with a queer shock, I saw not +the one man I had expected, but a file of men, shuffling one behind the +other, and linked together by what seemed a long steel chain, from +wrist to wrist, into the seeming of a single thing. This thing halted +opposite the railing, and faced about before me, where it appeared to +me as a line of heads and moving arms and legs and shuffling feet. But +among them all I saw only one individual. It was absurd if they had +expected to confuse me with these other creatures. I saw him instantly +and I knew him past hope of mistaking. His clothes were all torn and +disordered; there was a cut on his forehead and a bloodstained bandage +showed on his wrist beneath his sleeve; and the bitter way he held his +head up and stared straight past me at the wall made him seem quite +grim and yet, somehow, very forlorn. A lump rose in my throat. I +heard the Chief of Police saying, "Is there any person here you +recognize?" I swallowed hard and opened my lips, but the only sound +that came was like a sob. + +Quickly the prisoner turned his eyes on me. There crossed his face +again a look like the faint shadow of that look which had transfixed +me, as he burst out of the door. But in a moment it was gone, and he +smiled. Such a smile, so warm and kind, as if he were reassuring and +encouraging me to go on! It transformed him from a terrifying presence +into something beautiful. It made me forget the others and the room +and, curiously, in their place, came the confusing memory of a +ball-room and a slim boy with black brows whirling down the polished +floor with his splendid partner, both in a gale of laughter. Those +long white hands, now linked together with a chain,--hadn't I seen them +holding up a woman's filmy draperies? + +"Speak, Ellie," my father's voice said. "Can't you tell us?" + +It brought me back from my fancies with a great start, and before I +knew what I was saying I had stammered out, "Yes." The next moment I +realized they were all waiting, waiting for and looking at me; and it +seemed as if I could not go on with the truth. It was only the thought +that everything depended on me, and that, whatever I said, father would +believe it, that nerved me to get through with it. + +"He is that one," I said, "the fourth from the end." + +The Chief of Police looked at me sternly. "You are sure of that?" + +"Quite sure." I was surprised at how steady; my voice had grown. + +The Chief of Police said something in a lifted voice, the line of +prisoners filed out with one of the policemen, and left the man I had +pointed out alone in front of me. It was then I noticed how his hands +were awkwardly carried in front of him, held by two steel bands around +his wrists, with a chain like a bracelet-chain swinging between. The +sight of it affected me strangely. I had a new bracelet which also had +two bands with a chain between, but they were of gold, and both were +worn on the one hand. + +The Chief of Police came and stood beside me, and said, "Look at this +person, Miss Fenwick;" and I had been looking at him all the time, as +if by doing that I could make him understand how terribly I wished I +had never seen him. "Can you take your oath--could you take your oath +in open court that he is the man?" + +The Chief's voice sounded solemn, and those words "oath" and "open +court" made me feel frightened. But I saw he held up his hand, palm +out, and mechanically I held up mine. "Yes," I repeated after him, "I +can take my oath in open court." My voice sounded very loud to me, and +clear, and not at all like my own. + +There was a pause, and now they were no longer looking at me, but at +the man standing alone in the middle of the room, as if the chain +between his wrists had made him different from them, as if he wasn't a +man at all, but a stone. Yet I couldn't look at him like that. He was +not at all dreadful to look at, only so alone and fiercely proud and +wretched looking that something ached inside of me just to see his face. + +Then the Chief of Police nodded at the policeman and said, "That will +do." But before the man could move forward the prisoner had walked +straight up to the rail, and standing there scarcely two feet from me, +in such a low voice that only I could hear, "I am sorry I frightened +you this morning," he said. "If I had known you were passing I should +have managed it differently." + +This all happened so quickly that I had hardly seen how dark his eyes +were before father thrust between us, and I heard his voice, sounding +very low, and saying something about infernal impudence and not +presuming to come near me. The policeman touched the dark man's elbow. +He started, half-turned on the man, made a movement with his hands; but +then he felt the jerk of the chain. The blood rushed to his face. +With the policeman holding his arm he walked away across the room, and +I wondered what sort of place he was being taken to. It wasn't until +the door had closed upon him that I realized how angry father was. Mr. +Dingley was saying that prisoners ought not to be permitted to speak +without permission, but the Chief leaned over his desk, smiling at me, +and asked, "What did the prisoner say to you?" + +"He apologized for frightening me," I answered. + +Still smiling, as if he were coaxing a child, "Exactly what words did +he use, Miss Fenwick?" + +I could have repeated them exactly, but I hesitated, for the last words +he had let slip had sounded oddly in my mind--"If I had known you were +there I should have managed it differently." He seemed to make himself +so absolutely responsible for what had happened! And when I thought +how Mr. Dingley had twisted my words about I was afraid--afraid that if +I repeated the ones that this man had spoken they would somehow get +twisted into a meaning--perhaps not the true one--that would be bad for +him. I was so upset, I said, and so startled by the man's speaking to +me at all I hardly thought I could repeat them word for word. + +Father put my coat around me and said, "I hope that is all," very +coldly. + +"Yes," the Chief said, "except that this young lady must understand +that she is not to speak of what she saw this morning." + +"Remember, Ellie," father said, "if your friends talk to you about it, +you have heard and seen nothing." + +I murmured, "Of course," and followed father out of the prison with a +very strong conviction that nothing was real. + +As we walked home again all the familiar surroundings seemed dreamlike +to me--the Plaza, with its high iron railing, and the shops facing upon +it, and our own green palm farther up the street, fluttering on the +sky. Father himself, so silent and walking on without ever turning his +head to look at me, seemed quite a different person from the father who +had gone with me the day before, merrily, to buy my bracelet. The +thought of the man with the dark eyes and the chain between his wrists +filled all my mind. Who could he be? The sense of warmth that had +come with his smile, and that very curious sensation I had had when he +had come up close to the bar and spoken to me, were with me yet. His +voice had been pleading and deferential, surely nothing in it to +resent. The memory of his face made me forget the chain between his +wrists; as if he himself had been greater than any of the people around +him. + +We had reached our own door, but before father could put his key in the +lock, the door opened from within, and there in the hall stood Hallie +Ferguson, her new blue bonnet on one side, her face crimson with haste +and excitement. + +"Oh, Ellie," she gasped, "have you heard? I've been waiting the +longest time for you. Isn't it awful? Johnny Montgomery has shot +Martin Rood, and they say it's about the Spanish Woman." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE RUMORS + +Hallie's facts dashed so coldly and so suddenly upon the warm fancies +which had been taking possession of my mind, that for the moment I +could only stupidly gaze at her. Then, without any reason that I could +account for, I burst into tears. + +I cried all the while father carried me upstairs. I cried convulsively +while Abby was getting me to bed, and, wound up in the sheets with my +face hidden in the pillow, I cried inconsolably for a long time. That +aching sensation in my throat would not wash away with tears. Vaguely +I heard the doctor explaining to father how my present condition was +due "to severe nervous strain, and the subconscious effort of the +constitution to combat it." I knew it was nothing of the sort, but +just the plain fact that Johnny Montgomery, seen once dancing at a +ball, and ever after to me the model of all romantic heroes, was a +murderer. It was dreadful to think that it was through me he had been +taken, because I had remembered so well his beautiful black eyebrows, +and the little white scar near his mouth; but nothing that had followed +had been so terrible as that first sight of him, when he rushed out of +the door, with all the horror of what had just happened, in his face; +or so cruel as the thought that he could have done such a thing. But +why did his look, both then and later, come back to me accusing and +reproachful? How could I help what I had done? I had had to tell the +truth, and surely he must know that nothing but good ever comes of +that, no matter how hard it seems. I agonized through the early +evening hours, and fell asleep not with a sense of being drifted +deliciously away, but of sinking down under deep exhaustion. + +When I awakened the next morning I was astonished to find myself +feeling quite differently--a little tired and languid--but the aching +misery, the black hopelessness, that had fallen on me the night before +had quite evaporated, left perhaps in that bottomless pit of sleep into +which I had sunk. + +It seemed now, in the broad daylight, as if I had made too much of +everything that had happened; as if Hallie must be mistaken. It could +not have been Johnny Montgomery who had shot a man, or, if he had, it +must have been an accident. And, even suppose he had meant to kill +him, what possible difference could it make to me? + +Here Abby knocked at the door, and, showing a rather forbidding face +around it, said that Hallie was down-stairs; but that if I was going to +have any more conniption fits I would better stay where I was. She +left a glass of milk and a clean tucker and sleeves on my chair. I +swallowed the milk, and hurried into my clothes, but I descended rather +slowly to the hall. I had always confided in Hallie, and I knew she +would probably expect to hear all about it from the moment I had seen +him. I hated to think of the questions I would have to answer; yet I +would have to face them sometime, and it was better to get it over at +once. + +When I reached the sitting-room door I was decidedly dashed at sight of +Estrella Mendez's red pelisse behind Hallie's blue hat ribbons. Two of +them were a little too much for me, and I was all ready for flight when +Hallie pounced upon me. She is such an imposing person, wears so many +tucks and ruffles in her clothes, such bows on her hats, and can spread +her skirts about and rustle so, that I always feel like the merest +child beside her. + +"You poor little Ellie," she began, "how pale you look still! I am +afraid I frightened you to death yesterday." + +I murmured something about being much upset. + +"Yes, your father said you were not at all well. He gave me such a +scolding for pouncing out on you like that!" She laughed her deep +throaty chuckle. "But I supposed of course you had heard, it happened +so close to you. Didn't you even hear the shot?" + +I must have gaped at her. Could it be she didn't know that I had seen +it? Didn't know what I had been through? I recalled confusedly the +warning of the Chief of Police and father not to say anything of what I +had seen. This was what they meant; this was the meaning of the +carriage, the alley and the back door of the prison; all my part in the +business had been kept secret. I wondered what in the world Hallie +could have thought of my behavior last night, but I was greatly +relieved to think of the fusillade of questions I had escaped. I +managed to get out something about father's having heard a shot. + +"Of course I know that," Hallie said, pulling me down on the sofa +beside her. She was too full of her subject to notice how oddly I must +have looked. "It's all in the paper, how they found him--Mr. Rood, I +mean." + +"It's here," Estrella said, sitting down on the other side of me, and +unfolding the crumpled sheet she had been carrying rolled up in her +hand. She and Hallie held it stretched out in front of me. + +The sight of Johnny Montgomery's name staring at me from the page made +my heart beat a little. But when I began reading down the column I +couldn't seem to make sense of it. The only thing that stood out in +the jumble was a name nearly at the bottom of the sheet, Carlotta +Valencia. It gave me a queer little stir of feeling, merely seeing +that name under his. Keeping my finger on it, "Who is that?" I asked. + +"Oh, don't you know?" Hallie demanded, looking surprised, but delighted +at the chance of giving more information. "That is the Spanish Woman." +Estrella crossed her arms on her waist, and drew herself up, exactly as +her mother does when she thinks some one is beneath her. "You see," +Hallie went on, explaining a little more to me, "she was--well, a sort +of friend of Mr. Rood's, and the paper says she feels dreadfully about +him!" Estrella sniffed. + +"But," I cried, "you said last night that the shooting had been over +her." + +"Yes, I know!" Hallie leaned forward impressively and seized a hand of +each of us. "It's perfectly true--at least it's what my father said +when the news came. He said, 'That confounded Valencia woman is at the +bottom of this, depend upon it.' But your father was very angry that I +had spoken of it, so of course I'm telling you this in strictest +confidence. The paper," Hallie went on, we both listening with open +eyes, "doesn't say the Spanish Woman had anything to do with the +shooting. So you see, no one does know exactly what it's about. It's +really the most mysterious thing! They found Mr. Rood lying there +quite dead," she continued breathlessly, "and they went to Johnny +Montgomery's house, but he wasn't there. Then some one told Mr. +Dingley they had seen a man run down Washington Street, so they +followed that trail, and finally they got him in a house down on the +water front, in a bad part of the city. My father said it would have +made things better for him if he had given himself up quietly; but he +barricaded the house, and almost escaped out of a back window. They +had a dreadful fight before they got him even then. He is so strong, +father says, that he just threw the men right and left as if he had +been a madman." + +Hallie is wonderful when she is telling news. She never says unkind +things about anybody, and she is always so excited over what has +happened that she makes it sound like a romance. But now I was too +anxious to enjoy it. I felt I had to ask one question more, though +every word that came out of my mouth was a possible slip or lie. "But, +if they found Mr. Rood in the street with nobody near him, what makes +them think it was Mr. Montgomery who shot him?" + +"That is the very queerest part of it," Hallie declared, nodding until +her green feathers nodded again, "but he was suspected immediately. +What they say is--" she lowered her voice impressively--"that some one +saw him do it." + +I fairly cowered in my chair. "But he can't have meant to kill him," I +urged. "Why, his family was one of the best in the city. Just think, +Hallie, your mother knew his mother well, and he used to play with +Estrella's brothers." + +Estrella flushed. "He hasn't been in our house since he was a little +boy," she said angrily. "I wouldn't think of bowing to him on the +street. He hasn't been received in good society for a long time." + +Hallie sagely shook her head. "Yes, but I guess it's because he didn't +care to go, and lots of very nice girls have always been in love with +Johnny Montgomery. Lily West kept his picture in a satin case hidden +among her party clothes for ever so long. And do you know, when Laura +Burnet heard about Johnny's arrest last night, she fainted flat on the +floor." + +Hallie's bolt upright impressiveness seemed to demand some comment, but +I could not manage a sound; for at her words there rushed back to me, +with humiliating clearness, my own hysterics of the night before. Was +it possible that Hallie thought I was in love with him, too? My cheeks +burned and burned. + +"Were you ever introduced to him, Ellie?" Estrella asked, looking at me +curiously. + +"No, she has never met him," Hallie promptly took the response out of +my mouth; "but she saw him once--don't you remember, Ellie, at my +sister Adelaide's coming-out ball?" + +I said, yes, I remembered it. + +"He danced most of that evening with Laura Burnet," Hallie pursued, +"and she was perfectly wild about him. My brother Tom saw him kiss her +in the conservatory," Hallie chuckled at that memory, "and for a while +it was said that they were engaged, though she was three years older +than he was. But he was terribly in debt then, and of course she had +lots of money." Hallie sighed, and added, "Isn't it awful he should +have ended in this way? Adelaide always said there was no one who +could put your shawl around you so beautifully as he." + +It seemed terrible to me that they could sit there talking of how badly +he had been thought of by society, and how beautifully he had put +women's shawls around them, when he was in prison waiting to be tried +for his life. I was glad when the girls went and I could think about +it by myself. + +I felt sick and bruised. All suggestions that Hallie had innocently +let fall put such an ugly face upon his actions. I didn't want to +believe that hateful gossip. His smile had been so charming and kind. +There was something about him that made him seem of so much greater +importance than any one else I had known; that made every little look +and motion of his memorable and eloquent. And when he had looked +straight into my eyes I had felt the warm flowing of the blood in my +veins. Had it been these strange qualities of his that had made nice +girls fall in love with him? I peeped into my mirror to see if my face +looked as queer as my feelings felt. I whispered the words again, "To +fall in love." What could that be like? To make Laura Burnet faint +away at just the news of his arrest--what a great and terrible feeling +it must be! When I thought of him as a person who could inspire such +emotions he gathered a halo of mystery and power; but when I remembered +Hallie's saying how he had been engaged to Laura for the sake of her +money, he seemed to me the merest wretch. I told myself there was no +need of my worrying about it, as he was in prison and my part was done. +It couldn't possibly interest me any further. All the same I couldn't +get it out of my head. + +Father came home to luncheon that day, bringing Senora Mendez with him. +He looked worried and tired, but I had never seen her so sweet, and so +very gay. + +She said I had been in the house too much, looked pale, and that she +was going to take me shopping. As we got up from the table she +lingered a moment, saying something to father about taking some one's +mind off something. And father said, yes until we can tell which way +it will go. So I supposed they were talking business. + +Senora Mendez is such a great grand sort of lady that usually one is a +little in awe of her; but to-day she made me feel very much at home, as +we drove down the street in her big open carriage. She never once +mentioned the shooting, and I didn't have courage to speak of it +myself. But we heard of it all around us. In the first shop we went +into a woman just behind me said in a loud voice, "Do the rebels think +they can shoot us all down as Wilkes Booth shot the president?" And +then, again, at another shop where we were looking at lace, the clerk +said, "This is a terrible thing for the city, Madam, the loss of such a +valuable citizen." But Senora Mendez seemed not to hear him, and went +on explaining to me the difference between honiton and thread, and +showing me how beautiful embroidered net looked over pale blue silk, +until I felt quite cheerful just through listening to her and looking +at the pretty things. She wound up by buying me a lovely pair of +thread lace sleeves, and swept me out in the wake of her train feeling +almost happy again. + +Just as we had got into the carriage two gentlemen with silk hats, very +elegant indeed, came up and talked over the carriage door with her. +The one with yellow gloves said, "This is a bad business. It's a good +thing poor old lady Montgomery never lived to see this day." And the +other said, "I wonder what the effect on the city will be?" + +Senora Mendez said she hoped the effect would be a law requiring our +young men to settle disputes with their fists instead of firearms, and +that it was a shame nice boys would brawl in gambling-houses. She +smiled and looked most easy and pleasant over it, and all the way up +the street she chatted right along as if nothing serious had ever +happened. But when we stopped at the house, just as I was leaving the +carriage, she quickly took my face between her hands and kissed me hard +on the forehead. "You poor little motherless duck," she said, and left +me with the impression there had been tears in her eyes. + +I wondered why she should feel so suddenly sorry for me; nevertheless I +felt cheered and consoled--hadn't she spoken kindly of Johnny +Montgomery as a nice boy? But it was the last good word I was to hear +of him for a week. I needed the memory of that cheer and consolation +through the next hard days. + +For now that I was recovered from the shock of the first day I began to +realize that the shooting of Martin Rood was not at all an ordinary +shooting. It had stirred up great excitement. Only one month had +passed since the president's assassination; the feeling against the +Southerners was still very bitter, and not only were all the +Montgomerys dyed-in-the-wool Alabamians, but some of the relatives had +fought on the Southern side. Rumors flew about the city of a mob +attacking the prison. There was a guard of soldiers around it the +first night, and when they took him from there to the jail on Broadway, +it was in the middle of an armed escort. All sorts of stories as to +what had caused the shooting were abroad, but the one thing the reports +agreed upon was the fact that the quarrel had been of long standing. +This was very exciting to hear about, yet I didn't enjoy talking of it +as the other girls did. + +Only when I was alone, with hot cheeks and anxious eyes, I read through +the long accounts that filled the papers, hoping to find some word in +his favor. It seemed to me that the whole city was against Johnny +Montgomery. The _Bulletin_ had stories of another shooting down South, +though it appeared that that time he had been the one who was shot at; +and of how he had lost his money in land speculations of a doubtful +character. The _Alta California_ called him a rebel, and said that his +career had been "a demoralizing influence to the youth of the city." +Though, on the other hand, it called Mr. Rood our esteemed and lamented +citizen, which was puzzling to me, for he was only a gambling-house +keeper whom none of the best men in town was friendly with. But the +papers spoke very warmly of him; called Mrs. Rood, Senior, his +sorrowing mother, and then they mentioned the Spanish Woman. They said +she had been in love with Rood, and that he had expected to marry her. +That recalled a memory of what father had told me when I first asked +him about the Spanish Woman--that she had money, and influence in high +places--and I wondered what that influence could do to Johnny +Montgomery's case. Altogether I was much disturbed. I hated to ask +questions of father, he had been so distressed over my part in the +affair; and besides he had been very busy that week, so many men +interviewing him when he was at home--Mr. Dingley, and others who were +not elegant, but very businesslike--that I hardly saw him except at +meals. Once or twice I had caught him, when he thought I wasn't +looking, watching me with an anxious and harassed expression; but most +of the time he was preoccupied. + +On the morning of the fourth day after the shooting, as I sat at +breakfast, I took up the paper and read that the trial of the People +Versus John Montgomery was set for the last week of May. I glanced +down the column and a sentence caught my eye. "It is said the +prosecution is in possession of sensational evidence which will +materially affect the aspect of the case." I sat for some minutes with +the paper in my hand, listening to it rustle, gathering my courage. + +"Father," I finally said, "do you think that Mr. Montgomery is really +wicked?" + +He looked over at me with that smile of his which is most serious. "My +dear child, I am not Almighty God." + +"But you know what I mean," I protested. "The papers have been saying +such nice things about Mr. Rood, but you yourself once said he was an +'insidious and pernicious influence in the community'; and the papers +are printing such dreadful things about Johnny Montgomery! They are +telling all sorts of stories about him--that he has been in shooting +scrapes and dishonorable business deals, and--and horrible things," I +ended rather uncertainly. + +"Oh, no doubt he hasn't been such a bad fellow," father said, passing +his cup for coffee. "As far as his land operations are concerned, I +know for a fact that the 'dishonorable dealing' the _Bulletin_ talks +about was all on the side of the men who got his money. But you see he +would go into the deal in spite of the advice of the executor of the +estate, antagonized all his father's friends--plucked the Roman +senators by the beards, as it were;--so of course they were ready to +believe the worst of him. Then he went badly into debt, and +accumulated too many creditors to be popular. But Rood, you see, +always had money, always kept his escapades quiet, and was very liberal +to the city. He has given a deal to different public institutions. +They can't do otherwise than praise him." + +He took up his letters and began to open them with a paper-knife. + +"But," I said, "they say Mr. Montgomery has been engaged to a girl for +her money." + +Father threw back his head and laughed--I can never tell when I am +going to amuse him. + +"Engaged to a girl for her money? That's the worst thing on his list, +I suppose, eh, Ellie?" Before he finished the sentence he was almost +grave again. "I know where you got that information." He shook the +paper-knife at me. "Women's gossip is an invention of the devil! +Don't listen to it! The poor fellow has enough real counts to be +accused on, God knows!" + +He said the last words with such an emphasis as did away with all the +comfort his explanation had brought me. I did not dare to press him +further; I was afraid I might hear worse. + +He sat a moment frowning down at the tablecloth; then, "How would you +like to go down to the ranch for a week or so?" he inquired. + +"Alone?" I asked. + +"Well, I will go down with you, and stay as long as I can. Abby, of +course, will be there all the while. The colts are to be broken in +next week--that will be worth seeing; and no doubt the flowers will be +beautiful." + +I said I would like to--though indeed I did not at all care. I was not +thinking of flowers. After father had left the house I went up-stairs +to my room; and, first locking the door and drawing the curtains close +because I did not want even my climbing white rose to see me, I took +out my new bracelet, and clasped it--one gold band around each wrist +with its chain swinging between--and closed my eyes and, holding my +wrists out, drew them apart until the chain jerked and stopped them--to +see just how it felt! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FIRST DAY IN COURT + +As father had said, the breaking of the colts was well worth seeing. +The first day I arrived at the ranch, clinging to the top rail of the +corral, I watched the glossy huddled flanks and shoulders and tossing +heads of the youngsters crowding together in the middle of the +inclosure, quivering with apprehension of the man approaching with his +rope; until, the man being unendurably near, one and another would +break and wheel, and trot with high head, whinnying, around the corral +close to the fence. Then, when Perez had one fast, one end of his rope +around the glossy neck, and slowly working toward him, hand over hand, +finally touched the velvety head, how the creature started, swerved, +tried to back, and felt the jerk of the halter. It made me think of +the way the prisoner had started when the policeman touched his arm. +At first their nervous, proud, restive airs reminded me constantly of +that strange person; and not only the colts, but some times it was some +drifting shadow of cloud, some color or some sound, that inexplicably +brought him up to mind; and I would plague myself with wondering what +was going on in the city, and what was to become of him. But as the +days passed and no newspapers came from the city--at least I saw +none--and no letters to remind me of what was happening there, I +recalled him less and less distinctly. He remained in my mind but as a +sort of dream; things about me reminded me only of themselves, and I +became absorbed in picking out a new saddle-horse, and searching the +meadows over to see if the Mariposa lilies were coming up this year in +their accustomed places. + +Splendid fields, in early spring filled with wild flowers, stretched +down toward the bay, but close around the house were the somber and, to +me, more beautiful groves of oaks. To wander away until I had lost +sight of the house in their olive glooms and saw nothing around me but +dark trunks, crooked elbows of boughs and sweeping leaves, was my +delight. I loved to crown myself with their white beards of moss, and +fancy I was walking through a cathedral aisle, a princess going to be +married. But, whereas I had never needed to imagine a bride-groom +before--myself and the crown had been enough--now my imagination +insistently placed a figure walking beside me, or coming to meet me +under the solemn roof of branches. I had to abandon my crown, and run +races with myself before I could leave the figure behind. + +On the whole it was safer, I found, just now not to imagine too much, +but instead, while father was there, to take long rides with him into +the San Mateo Hills; and, after he had gone, shorter excursions in the +vicinity of the town. Or else to walk with Abby in the morning down +the broad Embarcadero Road to the little wharf on the bay. It was +charming enough there when all was idle, with white adobe huts, and +dark faces sleeping in the sun, and the lap of the tide on the +breakwater. But when a ship was coming in, or was loading to get out, +the Embarcadero filled the eye,--carts backing up with vegetables; +casks being rolled out on the wharf with a hollow and reverberating +sound; hallooings from the boat; and then round she would swing, with a +tremendous snapping of canvas, while the shadow of her brown sails, +patched with red, floated over all. + +The country, and especially the country in spring, seems to have a way +of making the place where one has lived before very unreal and far +distant. Two weeks of such dreamy living drifted the city, and the +violent things that had been done there, so far behind me that I could +think of them without a tremor. I could even think of my own part in +them as if it had happened in a play. + +Then one evening, just before dark, a boy on a heavily lathered horse +rode up to the piazza steps, and, like the messenger in a novel, handed +me a letter. It was from father. "Have everything in readiness to +start to-morrow morning," he wrote. "I shall expect you at the house +at six-thirty to-morrow night without fail." This letter threw me into +a flutter of excitement. I was accustomed to short-notice orders from +father, orders that carried no explanations; but they had always been +sent through the mails. A messenger meant great need of haste. I +recognized him as father's office-boy. Was my father ill, I asked. + +No, he was in excellent health. + +I thought, "Perhaps he has been suddenly called out of the city and +wants to see me before he leaves home." It surely couldn't be that +this summons had anything to do with Johnny Montgomery's case. Having +to rush off at such short notice I was luckily too busy to have time to +worry about it; coming up through the valley Perez let me drive a good +deal, and the horses were so spirited I needed all my wits to keep them +from running away. But when we began to wind in and out among the tall +round hills to the south of the city a nervousness came upon me, and I +kept wondering what could be wanted of me. By the time we reached the +house on Washington Street I could scarcely sit still. + +Father was standing in the door to welcome me. I fairly flew up the +steps. "What is the matter?" I asked, almost before I hugged him. + +"By, and by we will talk about that," he said. "Now, come in and see +what a fine host I am." But as I passed him, I heard him saying to +Perez, "Before you put up the horses I want you to take this note out +to Mr. James Dingley, at his house, and wait for an answer." + +It was a charming table, lit with candles, and there was a delicious +dinner, but I was too excited to eat. The glass of wine that father +made me drink only seemed to make my thoughts spin faster, wondering +what could be going on since by father's manner, and the message he had +given Perez I felt sure it must be something unusual. When dessert had +been put on, and Lee had gone out, leaving us alone there opposite each +other, I thought, "Now it's coming." + +Father had set down his coffee-cup untasted. "I have had to send for +you, Ellie," he said, "because of a matter connected with the trial." + +My heart was beating quickly, and in spite of myself my voice trembled. + +"When does it begin?" I asked. + +"It began last week," father answered, "but there has been no evidence +of any consequence yet." + +He was silent for a moment, looking thoughtfully at the dancing flames +of the candles. "I suppose you know," he went on, "that, in trials +there is usually plenty of circumstantial evidence, but eye witnesses +are rare and their testimony most valuable?" + +I nodded. This feeling of suspense was intolerable. + +"I very much hoped that yours would not be necessary. Mr. Dingley was +of that opinion. But a new development has suddenly arisen, and now I +am afraid you will have to be state's witness--the most important one +they will have." + +There are no words to tell of the panic I was in. Father's face, +wrinkled with anxiety, was watching me. "I would give anything to keep +you out of it," he said. + +I tried to make my voice steady. "And will I have to tell them whether +or not I think him guilty?" + +He put his hand over mine. "God bless the child, no! You will have to +tell them only exactly what you saw, all that you saw, and just how you +saw it." + +I could breathe again. After that one awful moment, when the whole +weight of the trial seemed on my shoulders, anything was a relief. +"But, father," I said; "do you really think that he is guilty?" + +Father gave me an odd look. "Aren't you the one person in this city +best qualified to answer that question?" + +I stared at him. I felt as if I had been suddenly set up in a high +tower, above all other people in the world, and that I was going to +fall. I had known in a blind sort of way what I had seen, and, also, +that no one else had seen it; but I had not realized the terrible +isolation, the responsibility of such knowledge. "Oh," I cried, "I +only wish I had never gone near Dupont Street. I am so sorry I have +made you unhappy!" + +"Well, my dear child, this is no time for regretting what has been +done. We must think of ourselves only as two citizens of the state, +and be ready to do all we can in that cause. You know it will not be +easy, it will be made as difficult as possible for you to answer +straightly." He had hold of both my hands now, was looking hard into +my face. "And a young good-looking prisoner will make it harder yet." +His eyes seemed to go straight to my thoughts. "Ellie, I can depend +upon you, can't I?" + +I was glad I could say, in quite a steady voice, "Oh, yes, yes!" + +He smiled. "Of course I should have known without asking. Now don't +fret about it. To bed, to bed, to bed! We shall have to be up early +to-morrow if we are to be in court by nine o'clock." + +He was smiling, as he said this, with his old gaiety, but I suspected +he was only putting it on to cheer me, as I now understand Senora +Mendez had done when she had taken me shopping. + +After I got up-stairs I couldn't sleep. At about ten o'clock I heard +the door-bell ring, then long heavy steps going down the hall, and the +shutting of a door which I guessed to be the door of the study. That +was odd; father seldom had visitors so late. I tossed and tossed. I +kept trying to picture the court room. I saw it as a vast place, with +a cold chilly light, like the hall of the prison, filled with a surging +mob of people; serried rows of lawyers all in white wigs--the memory of +some English pictures--and a terrible judge in a black gown, calling +out my name. Suppose, even with the best I could do, I should make a +mistake; forget something, or, what would be much worse, remember +something wrongly! + +I realized that I was hearing voices with remarkable clearness. I was +able to recognize father's and Mr. Dingley's, and they seemed to be +talking just beneath my window. Then it occurred to me that, since the +evening was mild, the window of the study, which was just beneath my +room, must be open. The sound of those voices worried me; Mr. +Dingley's was louder than common, and there were times when both seemed +to speak at once. I got up softly and going to my window very +noiselessly closed it. Then, so that I should not be quite stifled for +air, I set the door into the hall wide. It opened outward, so that I +had to step out on the landing. Just as I did so, I heard the study +door flung open, quick steps in the hall, and there, from that part of +the hall directly beneath the landing, Mr. Dingley's voice: + +"Oh, that's just your supersensitive conscience! There was no need of +bringing the child up to town. There's enough circumstantial evidence +to convict ten men of whatever guilt there is." + +Then father--"Yes, and I thought you had enough to convict one--that is +I did last week. But this new development,--this Valencia woman, puts +another face on the business." + +"Come, now, Fred, the poor woman is really mighty upset over Rood's +death! All she says is that she doesn't really believe the boy did it." + +"And for that reason, and that reason alone," father broke in, "she is +going to throw all her influence with the defense--thousands of dollars +spent, and Lord knows what wires pulled, to get him off. Man, you +can't believe it! Don't you know she's going to fight us every inch of +the way? You'll need every scrap of testimony you can dig up! And +such an important piece as--" They were advancing up the hall. I +shrank back and closed the door. + +Faintly I heard the voices in the hall going on a few moments longer, +then the front door shut with a deep sound, and the house was still. I +got back into bed but it was not to sleep. + +It seemed that since I had been away from the city this strange thing +had happened: the Spanish Woman, whom the papers had described as +mourning for Rood, had taken up the defense of Montgomery. I couldn't +understand it. It would seem that I ought to have been glad--I, who +had been so anxious to find a champion for him--but queerly enough the +only feeling that came was one of fear, as if, instead of saving, she +had been dragging him into worse danger. I lay, staring now at the +ceiling, now at the window, where, toward dawn, a paling light began to +shine. I no longer felt the nervous anxieties that had kept me awake +through the earlier part of the night. I was calmed by one great +dread,--the thought of the Spanish Woman! Her presence rose up and +possessed my imaginary court room, obliterating the figures of the +judge and the lawyers, until it seemed that she and I and the prisoner +were the only persons in the room, and that the one person she was +fighting in all the city was myself. + +The next morning when I came in to breakfast father laid his hand on my +cheek, which felt very burning, and said, "You are not fit to answer +one question." My throat was dry, and it was hard work to swallow +things, but he stood over me and made me eat a good breakfast. After +that he had me go over the story of what I had seen on the morning I +had been coming home with my basket of mushrooms. When that was done, +"Now remember," he said, "all you will have to do will be to tell that +same story, and to answer to the best of your recollection all +questions put to you. If you are careful to do that they can't confuse +you." Abby had fetched my turban, with a dark veil, which I had to put +over my face before I went into the street. There a carriage was +waiting. + +As we drove it seemed to me there were more people in the street than +usual; and when we reached the jail there was a dense crowd in front of +it, and policemen were striking with their clubs to make a passage +through. But our carriage drove, as Mr. Dingley's had done before, +around the building and through the little alley to the back entrance. +Even here some people were gathered; and as I stepped to the pavement a +woman called out in a shrill voice, "Ain't that Carlotta Valencia?" +Father seized me, and almost lifted me up the steps and into the high, +coldly lit hall. + +To-day, however, it was not empty. A continuous stream of men, some of +them escorting ladies, were hurrying in the front door, and across the +echoing flags, and up the stairs. Following them, we were upon the +first balcony and in front of the door which was kept a-swing by the +people going in. Father stopped and said something to a policeman who +seemed to be on guard in the hall. He pointed at a door next to the +one which was so constantly opening and shutting. + +"This way," father said, and I found myself, much to my surprise, not +in a crowded court room, but in a small box of a place, hardly large +enough to hold the six chairs that furnished it, and with only one +other person in it besides ourselves. "This is the witness room," +father explained. "We await our summons here." + +I took one of the six chairs. The room was a dreary little place, with +a high, dingy ceiling, one small window, placed far up the wall, and a +small air-tight stove with no fire in it. I looked at the one other +occupant with a greater interest, now that I knew that he must be a +witness. He was a dark, slick, Mexican-looking man, who dangled his +hat nervously from his fingers, and kept glancing at the door. +Presently it opened, a policeman put his head in And said, "Witness +Manuel Gora." The Mexican jumped and shuffled hastily out. Father +took the _Alta California_ from his coat pocket, and I sat trying to +make out the pattern in the old carpet at my feet. + +I had distinguished a dead-looking rose and some faded out sunflowers +when I heard the click of the door, and a waft of perfume touched the +stale air, and made it like a garden. I looked up. There she stood in +the doorway, the Spanish Woman. + +She was all in black, her face wax-white, a little black hat on her +wonderful golden-red hair, and in her breast a tuberose. It was the +intoxicating sweetness of that which had breathed upon me first, and +now kept on breathing upon me, while she watched me through her +eyelashes. From sheer fright I kept looking at her--I couldn't help +it--until I felt father's hand touch mine. That seemed to break the +spell. I looked down at the carpet again and felt the color rushing to +my face. I heard the rustle of her dress, a soft, silky, indefinite +sound. She had come forward into the room, had taken one of the +chairs, I knew--I heard the subsiding of her draperies--and then I felt +her watching me. Her presence was like a great light in a closet. It +was oppressive. I began to breathe quickly, and the odor of her flower +was making my head ache. + +I heard the crackle of father's paper as he rolled it; then his voice, +low and speaking close to me, "Mr. Dingley said you were to be called +after Gora. We would better go into the court now, so as not to be +hurried." + +Somehow I had a fancy he would not have suggested our going into court +so soon if the Spanish Woman had not come into the witness room. I +followed him down the hall, not daring to turn my head, though I +thought I heard the door open again after we had closed it, and then +the rustle of her dress; but it did not seem to be following us, but to +grow fainter, as if she had turned in another direction. + +We joined the crowd of people hastening toward the swinging door. As +we came up to it I heard from within a high-lifted resonant voice that +I thought I recognized as Mr. Dingley's speaking with pauses and rising +inflections, as if addressing an audience. It ceased just as we +entered the court. + +The room was large, though not nearly so large as I had imagined, and +quite cheerful in color. I had an impression of yellowish pine walls +and plenty of light, a continuous though not loud murmur of voices and +the incessant flutter of the movement of a crowd. There were no +serried ranks of judges and barristers in black gowns, indeed at first +sight my confused eyes saw nothing but the crowd. And such a +well-dressed, holiday-looking gathering! I saw girls whom I knew, +their gowns making bright spots of color among the men's dark coats. +It looked more like an afternoon concert than a trial. Every place +seemed to be taken, and men and women, standing up, lined the walls. +But a police officer said seats had been reserved for us, and led us to +two on the side aisle near the front, and quite under the shadow of the +balcony. Once I had sat down among the crowd I ceased to notice it, +and began to take in what was directly before me. + +At that end of the room which we were facing was a platform, railed +off, and on it a great high desk, at which a rather undersized man sat, +leaning his head on a beautiful white plump hand, and looking up at the +ceiling as if he were thinking. His face was round, fair and unlined, +and had it not been for his mop of grizzled hair I would have thought +him quite young. + +"That is Judge Kelland, who tries the case," father whispered. + +I felt a wonder that he should seem so uninterested in what was going +on. In front of his desk, but below the platform, a man was writing at +a little table covered with papers; and in front of this again was +another table, larger and quite long, at which a number of men were +sitting. Nearest us Mr. Dingley sat with another gentleman, small, +slim and very calm looking. They had their heads together, evidently +talking; and next to them was a young man who seemed to be making +jottings in a note-book. Beyond him I could make out no more than +vague heads and elbows, on account of the movement of the crowd. To +the right of this long table and on a line with our places was +something I recognized as the jury box, the heads of some of the men in +it showing quaintly over the high side. + +From one thing to another my eyes traveled hastily, taking them in +unconsciously, for the one figure I was looking for--that I had +expected to see before all others, standing up in the prisoner's dock, +the centering point for all eyes--I could not find. The only thing +that might have been a prisoner's dock, a small railed inclosure on the +right hand of the judge's desk, was empty. But presently there was a +shift in the restless gathering, some people, who had been standing up, +sat down; and I saw a little more of the long table, first a space, +where no one was sitting, and then the broad back of a man, who had +shifted in his chair as if to face the person next to him. In a moment +he had turned back again, and leaned forward, and there, in the little +space through the crowd,--a profile like a picture in a frame,--I saw +Johnny Montgomery's face. + +The start it gave me may have been pure astonishment, I saw it so +suddenly and it looked so different. All the dishevelment, the +defiance and anger were gone. His black hair was brushed down, smooth +and burnished as a crow's breast. The stock and the great black satin +bow beneath his chin were as immaculate and as perfectly arranged as +father's, and his face itself was calm, almost sweet in expression. + +I had been expecting to find a prisoner in a dock, and here he was, +dressed like any other distinguished young gentleman in the court room, +and sitting among the lawyers. All at once he put up his hand to push +back his hair, and I saw that his hands were free. I felt a sense of +unspeakable relief, as if he had already been acquitted. The only +thing that seemed to set him apart from others was that expression of +his, which was troubling in its very sweetness, as if he were not +trying to combat or oppose anything; as if he had foreseen to the end +what would happen, and had given himself up from the first. + +Then a voice, high and sing-song, seeming to come from nowhere, began +calling out something which I couldn't understand, and the Mexican I +had seen in the witness room rose from the crowd and shuffled up into +the little railed inclosure. The gentleman who was sitting with Mr. +Dingley got up and began asking questions in a weary monotonous voice, +to which the Mexican replied that his name was Manuel Gora, that he was +a Mexican by birth, and by occupation a barkeeper; that at present he +was without employment, but that previous to the seventh of May he had +for ten years been in the employment of Martin Rood. + +I could hear the stir all over the court room, and my own heart began +to beat. + +"Ah!" The gentleman who was on his feet seemed to shake off his apathy +and grew very, emphatic, "Now, Mr. Gora--on the night of May the sixth +where were you?" + +The man answered in a low voice that all that night he had been in Mr. +Rood's gambling-hall. + +"Go on, tell us and the gentlemen of the jury all that you remember of +the occurrences of that night and of the morning of the seventh until +six-thirty o'clock." + +When the Mexican began speaking all the rustle died out in the court, +and in the deep silence his precise, mincing utterance made every word +distinct. He had gone on duty at six-thirty o'clock, he said; the hall +had closed at eleven, it being Sunday night, and at that hour Mr. Rood +had not yet come home. He had locked the doors and sat up until two. +Then Mr. Rood came, and went immediately to bed. + +Here the lawyer interrupted, "Do I understand you that Mr. Rood lived +at the gambling-hall?" + +No, the man said, but he had rooms upstairs which he often used. After +Mr. Rood had retired he had himself gone to his own room, which was +also up-stairs, but in the back of the house. He was not yet asleep +when he heard the bell at the side door ring. "And then," the Mexican +said, "I went to Mr. Rood's door and asked if I should go down-stairs. +Mr. Rood said, 'No,' and then he said, 'Curse him, no, I won't let him +in.' But after the bell had rung three times more, he called me and +said, 'Go down, Manuel, let him in. I will come down in a few minutes.' + +"After that I went down and let in Mr. Montgomery." + +"One moment, Mr. Gora." The lawyer who was standing had raised his +hand. "Was there anything in Mr. Rood's manner which led you to +suppose he had feared a visit from Mr. Montgomery?" + +The man who had been sitting next the prisoner was on his feet. +"Object, your Honor, to the form of the question, as being--" He +mumbled the rest, I couldn't get a word of it. + +The judge brought his eyes down from the ceiling, looked at the big man +who was calling out to him; then said in a conversational voice: +"Objection sustained." Then looking at the other man, "Change the form +of the question." + +"Father," I whispered, "that man who just now objected, isn't he Mr. +Jackson? Hasn't he been at the house to dinner?" + +"Yes, and one of the best lawyers in the city; but he is defending +Montgomery, I am sorry!" + +"Did Mr. Rood," the first lawyer began again, "show surprise when you +told him there was some one at the door?" + +"No, sir." The man hesitated. "He was angry." + +Mr. Dingley's lawyer looked triumphantly at the lawyer for the defense; +then he again turned to the witness. "Had you ever seen the person you +let in before?" + +"Very often. He came a great deal to play." + +"Can you point him out?" + +The Mexican peered at the crowd. "He is sitting the third from the end +at that table." + +There was a sigh that seemed to come from the whole court room. I +tried to get a glimpse of Johnny Montgomery's face, but too many people +were standing up, and moving chairs, and when the flutter subsided a +little I was able to catch the witness' voice going on. + +"Then I brought them some drinks, and Mr. Rood told me to go to bed. +They were left alone down there when I had gone up-stairs. I went to +sleep. I was waked up in the very early morning by quarreling voices, +and before I was wide-awake I heard a pistol shot. I ran down the +stairs and out into the back of the house, as I do when there is +trouble, and wait until I think it is over. Then, after listening a +while, everything perfectly quiet, I go out into the bar where I left +them and it was empty; but on the floor I see a pistol; I look at it +and it is discharged; then I go into the other rooms, no one. Then I +hear the crowd crying, I look out the door--there I see him!" + +It seemed to me I couldn't bear to hear any more, and I stopped my ears +until I saw the lawyer for the prosecution sit down. But as soon as he +was down the lawyer for the defense was on his feet, and had begun +asking a lot of questions that seemed to me very foolish, and very +little concerned with Johnny Montgomery. Then, without seeming to have +made any point at all, Mr. Jackson sat down; the Mexican came down from +the witness-stand, the judge left his place and went out through a door +at the back, and a man who had been hovering on the outskirts of the +lawyers' table, hurried to Mr. Dingley, and whispered something to him. +Instead of coming over to speak with us, as I had expected, Mr. Dingley +went hastily out of the room. Father left me to speak with a man on +the other side of the court; and, among all the standing and walking +and going out, Johnny Montgomery and I were the only ones who sat quite +still. + +As yet I saw him in profile. He was leaning forward, his elbows on the +table; now and then he ran his fingers through his hair. Once I +thought he was going to drop his head in his hands; but after an +instant's drooping he threw it up sharply with a sort of shake that +tossed the long locks out of his eyes, and faced around in his chair +and saw me. He didn't seem surprised at finding me there. I couldn't +be sure that he had not known just where I was all the while; but +though he looked at me so steadily it was not, somehow, like a stare. +He did not look, at me quite as if I were a human being, but as if I +were a statue or a picture. He was the one who turned away. Then I +sat looking at the back of his head. + +There was a murmur of talk all through the room, but above it I heard +two men behind me greeting each other. + +One said, "Well, what's the game? Is she a stricken widow or a hopeful +fiancee?" + +"A little of both, I guess," the other answered. "She's been pretty +good to Rood--ten years--but he was getting gray and fat, and the fair +Carlotta herself is nearing the age when a woman begins to yearn for +beauty and youth. There's one thing I will say for her, though, she +seems, to be hard hit. I never saw the man Carlotta would turn her +little finger over for before, and she's going in for acquittal with +all she's got." + +"It's scandalous, that's what it is!" I heard the first speaker bring +down his fist on his open palm. + +"Oh, I don't know," the other said. "I think it's pretty decent of +her, and she may manage it. Great is Carlotta!'" + +They moved away, and I sat still, staring stupidly at the back of +Johnny Montgomery's head. The cool callous tones of the men knocked on +my heart like blows. I was amazed at the familiar way they spoke of +the Spanish Woman, in spite of all her dignity, and commanding beauty; +but to hear them speaking of Johnny Montgomery as if he belonged too +her was intolerable. It was ridiculous! Of course it might be that +she was interested in his case, might even be in love with him; but +that he should care for her-- + +I was so unnerved that I didn't notice father's reappearance until he +leaned over and touched my arm. + +"You will probably be called next," he said. Then, he must have felt +me trembling and supposed it to be nervousness. "Remember, for the +honor of the family," he whispered, smiling. + +The lawyers and the men who had been writing were all coming back to +their places; and then Mr. Dingley hurried in, and down the aisle to +where we were. + +"My dear Fred," he began; and then I couldn't hear any more, because he +pulled father by the arm until they stood a little farther off from me, +where they talked very earnestly for some moments. Father looked +perfectly disgusted. + +"Next time, be very sure before you order our presence in court," he +said as he came back to his chair. "I am capable of great +disagreeableness, as you know." + +Mr. Dingley smiled and rubbed his hands, and said these little +unexpected things would turn up. Then, as the judge was coming into +the room, he hastened back into his place. Father threw his coat over +his arm and said, "Come along, Ellie." + +"What is the matter?" I asked. + +"Oh, one of their infernal technical hitches. After insisting on your +presence this morning, your testimony is not required." + +I got up very slowly. I couldn't resist sending one glance toward +where Johnny Montgomery was sitting, and as I did so he turned his +head. It was the same quiet gaze he had given me before. It must have +been only my fancy that saw something wistful in it; but I hated to go. +I felt as if I were leaving him alone in the hands of his enemies. It +seemed impossible for me to remember that of all those enemies he had I +was the very worst. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SECOND DAY IN COURT + +As father and I crossed the lower hall, "Do you believe all these +stories about the Spanish Woman are true?" I asked. + +He looked at me quickly. "What stories?" + +"Why, I heard them talking in court to-day; and last night,--I didn't +mean to,--I overheard you and Mr. Dingley as you came out of the study." + +Father looked grim. "It is with those stories they will try to convict +him." He took a few more strides before he added, "If they can prove +that Montgomery wanted to cut out Rood they'll have a bad case against +him." He didn't speak again until he put me in the carriage. Then he +said, "I hope that you will get this matter out of your mind. I hate +to have you think about it." + +I said I would try. Indeed, after that last remark of father's about +Montgomery wanting to cut out Rood it seemed to me that, if I didn't +quickly get something else into my mind, I should go crazy. So while +the carriage bounded over the cobblestones, I was busy planning--the +menu for dinner to-morrow, where to leave my ear-rings to be mended, +how to do over my blue silk gown, and where had been the error in the +butcher's bill. My thoughts rushed from one little thing to another, +afraid for an instant to let go. + +Upon arriving home, Abby hanging over the banisters, wanted to hear +about the court proceedings; but I called out to her that my testimony +hadn't been required--and would she please get out the apricots, and +after luncheon I would make that sauce she had been after me to do for +the last week. + +She seemed astonished, but gratified, at my unwonted energy. I had +been an absolutely useless creature about the house for so long. Now I +hurried through luncheon, and attacked the apricots as if my life were +staked on getting them halved, stoned, and boiling. + +"Good Heavens, child, how you rush!" Abby protested. "There's no such +great haste." But she did not know that I was trying to run away from +an idea. + +In the intervals of preserving I dived into the cellar and brought up +my rose and lilac plants; and the afternoon was spent in running +hot-cheeked from the stove to the garden, digging, carefully +sprinkling, while Abby lowered the roots; then packing the earth and +patting with all my might; darting back to the kitchen again to ladle +out the steaming stuff into jars and strenuously to screw on their +covers. + +But for all my wearing of myself out, through the steam of the cooking +pots, between the leaves of the rose-bushes, the pursuing idea would +lift its head. The picture of the Spanish Woman as she stood in the +witness room, the golden glimmer of her hair, her wonderful white waxy +face, and the way her eyes had sparkled at me through her lashes, +returned to my memory, powerful as the odor of her flower. I compared +her with that flower--luxurious and perfect looking, as if she had +grown in a hothouse; and with that strange overwhelming characteristic +which drew, in spite of all disliking. It was useless to cry, "I do +not like you and I will not believe in you." There were two things I +had to acknowledge--her will, and her power of seduction. Hadn't I +felt the light of it as she had stood looking at me? + +Finally, when wearied out, I lay in bed that night, the idea I had been +fleeing overtook me; and I gave up and looked it in the face. "Well, +yes, and suppose he does love her? Should that surprise me so much? +How should he help it? She is so beautiful!" + +Still that admission had been forced out of me in a moment of weakness, +between my pillow and the dark; and I was determined it should not get +hold of me with its swarm of attendant tormenting thoughts. I was +resolved to go into court, thinking of nothing but just that small +measure of evidence which was mine to give; and to come away again, +turning my back upon the whole matter, and taking up again the round of +my daily employments. + +This heroic resolution was knocked on the head the next morning by +father's announcing that I was not summoned for the opening of the +court,--and he added parenthetically Lord knew when!--but might be +called for any time that afternoon, so I was to hold myself in +readiness. This left me in a miserable state of uncertainty, which was +not improved by seeing my name in the _Alta_, as witness, just above an +exhortation to the people of San Francisco to see that justice was +done, even if the law failed in its work. + +The best course seemed to be the immolation of myself in the long +neglected house work. A vigorous sweeping of my room, the preparation +of an elaborate luncheon salad, and the total rearrangement of the +parlor furniture might help to get rid of that heart-beating +expectation--soothing, and bulwarking me around with domesticity. But +the excitement of the city kept invading my retreat, as if it were so +full of that great matter that it had to spill over even into houses +where it wasn't wanted. The first ripple had been the sight of my name +in the paper that morning; but the wave went quite over me when, just +before luncheon, Hallie rushed in. She had been at the trial all the +morning, and had only just seen the _Alta_ with my name. + +She hugged me a number of times, with exclamations of how awful but +fascinating it must be, to be a witness, and what was it I knew--why +hadn't I told her--she would never have divulged one word of it--though +of course if I was under oath! Still, couldn't I tell her all about it +now? + +I believe that Hallie's respect for me had taken a leap with the news +of my position, and when I explained that I was still under oath, and +couldn't tell anybody anything until I told it from the witness-stand, +she looked at me with positive awe. + +She stayed to luncheon, and it was a trying but most exciting meal. +Alas for my elaborate salad! We might have been eating india-rubber +for all we knew or cared. For Hallie poured forth all the history of +the trial, from the time I left the court room, and I would not have +stopped her had it been possible to do so. + +It seemed that the afternoon of the opening day a man who was a waiter +at the Poodle Dog was put on the stand. This was the new witness Mr. +Dingley had spoken of. He told how Mr. Rood had been at supper in the +restaurant at about midnight, how Mr. Montgomery had come in with +another gentleman, and gone up to the table where Rood was sitting. +While he did so the other gentleman sat at a table near the door. Mr. +Rood and Mr. Montgomery did not have supper together, the waiter said; +did not even drink together. They talked only for a few minutes, and +he thought they were disagreeing because, though their voices were not +loud, they sounded angry. Then Mr. Rood got up suddenly, overturning +his chair, and said, "I won't hear anything from you," and though he +had not finished supper, paid his bill and went out of the restaurant. +Mr. Montgomery had waited a few moments before he followed him. The +gentleman who had sat near the door had been the last to leave the +restaurant. + +"And then," said Hallie, warming to her narrative, "they called the man +who had come into the Poodle Dog with Johnny, and what do you think! it +was Willie Felton." + +"Not the one who went to dancing-school with us, and had such red +cheeks?" I wondered. + +"His cheeks aren't red now," said Hallie; "and he has wrinkles all +around his eyes, just like an old man. He has been awfully dissipated. +And, oh Ellie, you should have seen him sitting up there looking at Mr. +Dingley and looking at Mr. Jackson, and biting his nails, and never +daring to look at Johnny Montgomery. He said he had met Johnny about +twelve o'clock that night, by chance on Montgomery Street. They had +walked a little way together, and Johnny had said, 'I am going away +to-morrow,' and Willie Felton asked was he going to the races. Johnny +laughed and said, 'No. I am going to some place I've never seen +before, and I'm not coming back until everybody has forgotten me.' He +behaved queerly, seemed to be very much excited; although, Willie said, +he was sure he hadn't been drinking. + +"As they came to the Poodle Dog Johnny said, 'There is some one here I +want to speak to.' And after they were inside he said, 'Excuse me a +moment,' so Willie Felton took a table near the door, saw Johnny talk +with Rood, saw Rood upset his chair as he went out, and Johnny follow +him out of the door. When he himself got outside, he said that Rood +was nowhere in sight and that Johnny was standing looking up Montgomery +Street. He seemed to be very angry. Willie said, 'Where are you +going?' and Johnny turned on him and said, 'I'll tell you where I'm +going--I am going about my business!' and then he walked quickly away +up the street in the same direction that Rood had taken. + +"While he was telling about it," Hallie went on, "Mr. Jackson kept +interrupting, saying, 'Object, your Honor,' and making it awfully hard +to follow the testimony. Then another young man was called, and he +didn't tell any story. They had a hard time even making him answer +questions. But he did tell that he knew the quarrel between Rood and +Johnny began three years ago at the time of the California Bank +shortage, when Johnny said that Rood had lied himself out of prison and +an innocent man in. + +"Oh," I cried, "I'm so glad!" + +Hallie looked as if she thought I was crazy; but I explained that what +I really was glad of was that the quarrel had been Rood's, and not +Johnny's fault; indeed that it had shown Johnny to be in the right, at +least that once. + +"Well," Hallie declared, "he does need a good word, I must say!" + +This morning, she informed me, had been awfully stupid,--just +cross-examining, and interrupting; but finally they did call some one +new--a Mexican woman. And she testified that for two years Carlotta +Valencia's friends had known her as Mrs. Rood. "And then mother +wouldn't let me stay any longer," Hallie lamented, "because she said +the woman wasn't a proper person. But I wanted awfully to hear what +else she said!" + +Here Abby came in, and remarked that if we were going to talk all day +we would better go somewhere else and give Lee a chance to clear off +the table. + +The garden has lovely places in which to sit, so we went out there and +took the rustic bench in the shade of the cypress hedge. + +"But what does Johnny Montgomery's lawyer say?" I asked, for that was +really the point of interest for me. + +"Why, he claims that Rood committed suicide, because he was despondent +over something--business I guess; and of course they did find a +discharged revolver in the bar. The weak spot in that, father says, is +that the bullet Rood was shot with is much too small for that revolver." + +I knew there was a far weaker point in the defense than that, and I +wondered, in the face of it, how I was ever going to drag my unwilling +spirit up into the witness-box. The summons might come at any +moment,--might come now, while we sat talking with our feet in the sun +and the cypress shadow cool upon our foreheads. + +At four o'clock father came stepping out of the conservatory, calling +out, "What young person will give a tired man a cup of tea?" Then, +noticing my questioning look, "No summons for us to-day," he said; so I +ran in to fetch the tea-table. + +Tea in the garden was a rare event. The few warm spring days gave the +opportunity, and nothing was prettier than the scarlet lacquer tray +with the Nankin cups set out under the heliotrope vines. I asked +whether this was any special celebration, and father said yes; it was a +farewell complimentary to him. He had to go out of town to-night. He +hated to be away over Sunday, he explained, but there was business at +Alma which he must look into sometime during the next five days; and +week days for the present would be out of the question--by which I knew +he meant he must stay on account of the trial. Then he stopped being +sensible, and began teasing Hallie about her latest beau. He loves to +do that, because she takes it all so seriously, and never sees that he +is joking her. Just as she was protesting that she had no serious +intentions toward the person in question, two young men came around the +path from the front of the house. Hallie's beau and Jack Tracy, who +had fluttered my sentiment a short time before by asking me to marry +him. But now he was too bubbling over with importance to remember to +look sentimental. + +Had we heard the latest sensation, they wanted to know? Montgomery had +tried to break jail. Came mighty near doing it, too! + +I had been holding a cup and saucer when he began speaking, and when he +stopped it was on the brick path in a hundred pieces. + +"Poppycock," father said, "the town is full of rumors." + +But, no, they said, it was true enough. They had it from good +authority. It seemed that the sheriff had been bribed. Just how and +by whom I couldn't make out, because every one was talking at once. +But the sheriff had been removed, "pending trial," said Jack Tracy, and +the deputy was acting in his place. + +"But," I said, "if it wasn't Mr. Montgomery who bribed the sheriff, how +can you tell he really wanted to escape?" + +Then every one laughed, and I stooped over and began picking up the +pieces of the Nankin cup, so that no one should see how I was blushing, +but my hands shook so that it was all I could do to hold the pieces. +What in the world was the matter with me lately? There was no reason +in my behaving like this, as if Johnny Montgomery had been an old +friend. I excused myself on the pretext of having father's bag to +pack, and escaped into the house. "All the same," I said to myself, "I +don't believe he tried to get out, or even really wanted to. From the +way he looked in the court I am sure he doesn't care what happens to +him." + +But oh, I did wish he cared a little more; how I wished that some one +could show, in his behalf, one contradictory piece of evidence; so that +all the testimony wouldn't seem to be narrowing down to one point where +there would be room for but one thing I could believe him to be! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE SPANISH WOMAN'S HOUSE + +Sunday, which found me sole mistress of the place, was beautiful, warm, +and beguiling. That lovely locked-in feeling, which comes only when +the streets are quiet, and no tradesmen, not even the postman, comes +knocking, soothed me after the days of tension and expectancy. + +Abby went off early to church, and I took a book out to the rustic seat +by the heliotrope. At about half-past ten Mr. Dingley came through the +conservatory; but he was used to coming in and out of the house so much +that his joining me in the garden was no more of an invasion than if he +had been one of the family. He said father had told him he was to be +out of town, and he had come around to see how the household was +getting on. We sat there very comfortably in the warm sun, aimlessly +talking, hearing the sweet notes of church bells. I was just about to +resume my book when Lee put his head out of the conservatory door. + +"Some one to see you, Miss Ellie," he announced, and disappeared +abruptly before I could ask who. + +I went in, fearing it would prove to be some girl whom I did not know +well, who had called out of mere curiosity. I was surprised to find, +awaiting me in the hall, a person whom I did not know at all--whom I +had never even seen before. It was a half-grown shuffling Mexican, +with a blank and stupid face, looking as if he might be some one's +stable-boy. But as soon as he saw me, he produced from some pocket and +presented to me with remarkable swiftness and dexterity, a small +immaculate white note. It was addressed to me, and the writing was not +Estrella Mendez's small copper-plate script, but a larger, bolder, more +dashing hand, scarcely like a woman's. + +"To the Senorita Elenora:" it began,--and I wondered whether it could +be from one of mother's old friends, for she had had several among the +great Spanish families of the north. "I am asking if you will honor me +with your presence for a short hour this morning," the letter ran. "It +is impossible that I come to you, for I am ill. But there is a very +great reason why I must see you. It is a matter touching justice. You +will not fail." It was signed "Carlotta Valencia." + +I read the signature twice over, and then the letter. No, my eyes were +not playing tricks. But still, could it be some practical joke? I put +the envelope to my face. Ah, it was she, it was the perfume of that +flower! She had really written; she had summoned me. + +The very fact that she had communicated with me, this being who was not +as I was, whose life seemed as irrevocably separated from mine, as if +she inhabited another planet, was amazing. And as for those +expressions in her letter, "a very great matter," "touching justice," I +dared not think what I wanted to believe. + +I carried the note out into the garden. "I don't know how to answer +this," I said, handing it to Mr. Dingley. + +He read it, and whistled. "Well!" he said; and then, "there's one +thing sure; you will not go alone!" + +"Why, you don't mean to say I'm to go!" I cried. + +He looked inquiringly. "Why not?" + +"Oh, but father doesn't even like me to speak her name." + +Mr. Dingley coughed. "Quite right, quite right! That is, of course, +under ordinary circumstances. But in affairs of this sort, where +state's evidence is concerned, we are obliged to lay personal feeling +aside. Now from this letter," and Mr. Dingley tapped the little sheet +which he held before him, "I gather that the Senora Valencia may have +some information concerning this case of ours now going forward. Of +course if it's incriminating, the state must have it. On the other +hand, if it should tend to exonerate the defendant, of course we shall +be very glad." + +I murmured, "Oh, yes!" The hope of a possible means of clearing Johnny +Montgomery went flushing through me. + +If the Spanish Woman had anything to say I knew it would be in his +favor. Still, there was something strange about it. "But if she has +this information," I asked, "why doesn't she tell it in the court?" + +"My dear Miss Ellie, why indeed? We never know why women do things. +But it has been my experience in legal cases, and especially in +criminal ones, that women will often give evidence in some such +high-fantastic way as this, which could never be got out of them +through the proper channel,--that is by means of cross-examination, in +court. Now she's evidently taken a fancy to tell you something, and I +feel it is our duty to see just how much is in it." + +"Oh, yes," I said again, but this time more faintly, for when I thought +of whom I was to face, some cowardly thing in me wavered, "But are you +sure it's--safe?" + +Mr. Dingley laughed. "My dear Miss Ellie, we don't live in the dark +ages!" + +He made me feel ashamed of my hesitations. I went back into the hall, +told the Mexican in Spanish, yes, that I would come quickly. He seemed +satisfied with this verbal message, and I watched him shuffle down the +steps, in spite of his loose-hung gait, with admirable quickness. Then +I told Lee that I was going out; dinner at half-past two, all as simply +and usually as if I had been intending merely to stroll over to the +beach. But there the usualness of things ended. + +Mr. Dingley did not at all take the way I expected, the most direct and +open way by the broad easy streets, where at this hour of Sunday the +church-goers were promenading; but we went roundabout, through +unexpected short cuts, and then across the empty stretches of the +sand-lots toward where the long gray facade of the convent stretched; +and close beside it the high fence with the latticed top which +surrounded the Spanish Woman's house. Above the fence the roof and the +small windows beneath the eaves were just visible. As we drew near my +heart beat quickly, and still I felt that, as when I was a child, I was +only going to pass it. But we turned, and I realized I was actually +stopping at the gate. + +This was so high it was merely a door cut in the fence, allowing no +glimpse of what was within, and instead of immediately opening it, Mr. +Dingley rapped upon it with the iron knocker, whose lion head had been +wont to snarl at me years ago. I heard a sharp clicking as of +something being unlocked, and the gate opened. But after we were +inside I got an uncanny shock, for excepting ourselves there was not a +soul to be seen. + +"Clever contrivance that," said Mr. Dingley, glancing up. And then I +noticed a wire which ran from the fastening of the gate to its top, and +from there in a straight line to the house. But even this discovery +didn't remove my uneasy sense of being in an enchantment. + +Around us were weedy grass plots, bushes smothering in vines, broken +flower urns, a dry and weather-stained fountain; and to and fro across +the neglect of it all moved the shadows of the restless eucalyptus +trees. A brick path, very mossy and giving uncertain foothold, ran +straight to the front of the house--a blank-looking facade, all the +shutters closed over the windows, and a deeply hooded door. + +Mr. Dingley gave the bell handle a vigorous pull, but not the faintest +tinkle reechoed through the interior. We waited. There wasn't a sound +of any one inside approaching through the hall. I was fully prepared +to be admitted by the same unseen agency that had moved the gate. But +when, quite suddenly, the door opened, I was aware of a figure, very +dimly seen in the gloom of the hall. We were allowed to enter without +a question, without a word; and as quickly the door closed upon us. +After the broad sunlight the hall seemed so dark, I could but sense +high ceilings and hanging draperies above my head, and feel beneath my +feet the soft depth of a carpet. All that my eyes could distinguish +was the little white glimmer of Mr. Dingley's card as he handed it to +the person who had opened the door. + +We were led through several rooms; but either they were interior rooms +without windows, or else the windows were closely muffled, for they +were so dark I could hardly find my way. But when at last our +conductor drew back a curtain, a tempered light streamed upon us, and +showed me that the cornices of the anteroom where we were standing were +gilded, that the carpet which I was crushing under my feet, was the +color of wine, and every fold of the velvet curtain where it took the +light like a ruby. The servant, holding it back, was a strange +creature, with a tightly closed mouth, and eyes that looked as if he +kept them open only a crack to see out of, but not on any account to +let any one peep in. He waved at the room in front of us, and then, +still silent as an apparition, returned, disappearing into the gloom +through which we had come, carrying Mr. Dingley's card with him. I +followed Mr. Dingley into the great apartment, which I thought must be +the _sala_ of the house, and sat down in the midst of its magnificence. + +It was in strange contrast to the neglect of the garden without; and to +my eyes it was novel in character. There were dark portraits in old +gold frames on the wall; curtains shutting out all light, but the +faintest and most colored; mirrors multiplying the tapestries and +marble statues, and seeming to extend the very walls of the room +itself. I kept catching glimpses of figures standing in these delusive +vistas, and then, with a start, realizing they were but myself. +Presently the servant returned. I saw multiple images of him advancing +upon me from all sides as if to surround me. They flitted, +disappeared, and the real presence bowed. + +"The Senora wishes to say she is too ill to descend to the _sala_. +Will the Senorita graciously come up-stairs?" + +Mr. Dingley turned to me. "That's about as I expected. Then I will +wait for you here." + +Involuntarily I took hold of his coat, "But you said I shouldn't go +alone!" + +"Oh, of course, of course," he smiled. "I meant I'd come with you to +the house. That's one matter. But to go up-stairs, that's hardly +possible! Don't you see, Miss Ellie," he lowered his voice, "it's +quite probable this is just a ruse to get rid of me? She would hardly +want to speak before a third party." + +The reminder that the Spanish Woman was going to speak, and the +probability of what that speech might mean was enough to make me +relinquish Mr. Dingley's coat, and send me in the wake of the +serving-man with almost a light heart. + +He led me out of the _sala_, not by the curtained way through which we +had come, but by a door opening on a little entry, and from that up a +stair, which was not at all like the stairway I had seen in the large +entrance hall. I had never been in a house so bewilderingly built. I +followed down halls that dwindled into passageways and so quickly did +my guide move, so far he kept in front of me that even when my blue bow +dropped from my hair pat upon the floor I dared not stoop to pick it up +for fear of losing sight of him. I kept on ascending unexpected little +steps; entered doors that opened abruptly as panels in the wall, +branched off into yet narrower halls, and finally was ushered into what +seemed a sort of anteroom, with only a few chairs furnishing it, and a +great extent of polished floor stretching out in front of me to a +curtain which hung across one whole side of it. There was a sweet +though rather close odor, which wrought powerfully upon my imagination. +Walking cautiously, since the floor seemed as slippery as glass, I +followed my conductor. He drew the curtain aside a little--enough to +let me slip through--said something in Spanish, some one musical word +which I did not understand, and the curtain closed behind me. I stood +there feeling like a doll, absurd, small and lost. + +I was aware of a greater sense of air and sun than I had had since I +entered the house, of a farther extent of that shining floor, broken by +great opaque oblongs which absorbed light and gave out colors beautiful +and dim; of a uniform even interplay of color upon all sides of me, as +if the walls were hung with tapestry of one pattern; but all I was +really intensely conscious of was a seated figure. She was sitting +almost profile to me, with her back to the light, which fell splendidly +upon the full length of her hair, hanging quite to the floor. She was +wrapped in something silk, of two shifting colors, green and copper, +uncovering the neck and leaving a most beautiful arm bare to the +shoulder. A maid was brushing her hair, bending low with each measured +stroke. At my appearance she straightened, stopped, and stepped back. +It looked really as if she sank away into the shadow; and the Spanish +Woman rose and came toward me, holding out her hand. The colors in her +gown seemed fairly alive, and whether it was really a woven pattern of +copper serpents rushing through green water, or only an accident of my +fancy and the twisted lights, I couldn't determine. But, looking in +her face, I thought, "Oh, surely Mr. Dingley is right. It isn't that +she is ill, but only that she wants to talk with me alone." Like her +hand, her voice was soft and warm. + +"You are very kind," she said. There was hardly a trace of accent in +her speech, only a delicate precision that made it delightful. "You +see, I have been sick, and am yet too weak to go out upon the street. +It is why I have given you the trouble to come to me." And still +keeping my hand she led me to a chair and gently, prettily pushed me +into it. There was something persuasive in her very touch. Then, +taking her seat again, "Maria, _prondo_!" she cried; and the maid +coming forward gathered up the mass of hair, twisted it deftly into a +sort of crown around her head, filling it with gold-colored hair-pins, +tucked into its coil a single tuberose; then collecting the combs and +brushes went softly out of the room. + +The Spanish Woman sat there, resting her chin in her hand, looking at +me with a pleasant rather smiling expression; and I thought she was a +great deal less overwhelming than I had expected, though she was even +more beautiful. "You have seen Mr. Montgomery?" she began. I thought +it was only a question in form. + +I said, "Oh, yes, I first saw him several years ago, dancing at a ball." + +She gave me a keen glance. "Yes, and later than that?" + +"Then, then," I stammered, for I was at a loss to know whether she knew +what my evidence was to be, "then once or twice on the street, and +yesterday in court." + +"Well, and what do you think of him?" + +"Why I--I don't know him." + +She made an amused little sound in her throat. "Yet you have seen him +three times. Once would have been enough. Surely you can tell me at +least one thing--do you think he looks like a murderer?" + +"Oh, no!" I murmured. + +Her eyes never left me. "But you do not think well of him; he is +perhaps repulsive to you?" + +"Oh, no!" I whispered. There was a painful tightness around my heart, +and my head felt on fire. It was not the Spanish Woman but I who +seemed to be telling the story. + +She gave a quick nod, as if my answers thus far had satisfied her. +"You do not believe him to be a murderer, you do not even think him +unpleasant, and yet you will go into the court and swear away his +freedom--perhaps his life?" + +"I said I thought he did not look like a murderer," I desperately +insisted, "but I can't help--" + +"I know, my child, just what you are going to say," she interrupted. +"You are going to say the words they have taught you--that it is your +duty, and all that! And do you not know that the law is just a great +machine of rules, and that this is one of them: that you must tell +whatever you have seen, no matter how unjust, no matter what harm it +does? It is for that reason I do not go to the law. I come to you, +who are a woman like me, and have compassion. You say you do not know +this man, but you have seen him. You can not be quite blind to what he +is. He has been rash and foolish, and it is true that he has made +angry some very virtuous citizens"--she rolled out the last two words +with a curl of her handsome lip--"but he is a most lovable and charming +boy, and the most brave! Can't you see by his face that he could not +do an evil thing? He was dragged into this affair as a matter of +honor; the quarrel was a fair and open one." + +A joyful feeling went through me at her words--the first really kind, +saving words I had heard spoken of him. I almost loved her for them; +and the expectation that the next moment I was to hear the explanation +of them held me, leaning forward in my chair, breathless. + +She made a little imploring movement toward me with her open hands. +"It would be cruel, cruel for a gentle, tender-hearted girl like you to +speak such words against him!" A faint color was beginning to shine in +her cheeks, and her eyes had opened wide their wonderful blacks. + +"But," I cried, "if you know something in his favor why don't you go +into court and tell them about it? If only you would speak to them as +you do to me, I know they would believe you! They couldn't help it!" + +She shot a quick glance at me, half suspicious, half fierce; but +immediately it softened into a rather sad smile. "That is very +gracious of you, to speak so; but about the court do not make a +mistake! The words I have, the things I know, are not those that speak +to the mind but to the heart. All that the lawyers take count of are +the facts; and for the jury, they would be more swayed by one word a +little innocent-eyed girl will say, than by the most eloquent plea I +could offer. It is you who will sway this balance of justice. Do not +try to escape from that responsibility. Think, think, of how, when you +saw him come out of the door, he looked at you, and with his eyes +implored you to be silent!" + +I stared at her, terribly wrought upon by the memory she had called up +of that look; astounded that she had known of it, had even been able to +translate its meaning for me. + +"Yes," she said, smiling, "I know all about it. And then you ran home +and told them." Her voice grew very caressing. "But that was in the +moment when you had lost your head. Now that you have had time to +think it all over, now that you know how much it means--oh, surely, you +will not speak again! I beg you, in human mercy, not that you plead +for him, not that you tell a false story, but only as you are a woman, +keep silence, keep silence!" + +I listened with increasing dismay, as the hot words poured from her +lips; and, with the end, a revulsion of feeling took me, a lost and +bewildered sense of being completely astray. It was not to tell me +anything she had called me hither--oh, quite the opposite!--it was to +try to close my lips. If I hadn't been so blinded by my obstinate +hopes I might have thought of this before! I might have saved myself +the ordeal; for I had felt the very heart in me weaken at the picture +of him her words called up. + +"If I could make myself believe as you do," I said, "that what I have +to tell will condemn him, even though he is innocent, I should want, +myself, to die. But I can't believe, I can't think, that God can be so +unjust as to let him be condemned when he is innocent!" + +She let her head drop back, and laughed a little. "You will find, my +child, that it is men who control the affairs of the earth; and that if +you believe any such fine things of them you will be disappointed. As +for the lawyers, they will convict an innocent man as merrily as they +will eat their dinner, if only the popular cry is loud enough, and they +can get enough of what they call their evidence against him. Do not +expect any miraculous intervention on his behalf." + +"I don't," I cried stoutly. "But some one must know the truth of what +has really happened; and that person surely will come forward and tell +what he knows before he will let Mr. Montgomery be condemned. Oh, if +only I knew, nothing should keep me from saying it!" + +She had drawn herself upright in her chair, her face whiter than her +flower, her clenched hands resting on either arm; and now she slowly +rose to her feet. Standing there she seemed fairly to tower above me, +and looking down with her eyes glimmering upon me through her lashes. +"What if he is guilty?" she said slowly. + +The room around me grew dreamy. My head felt light. All the things I +had ever believed in seemed to have fallen far, far below me, tiny and +inconsequent. I closed my hands hard around the arms of my chair. I +clung to it as if it had been my last principle of faith. "I have +given my word," I said, "and even if I had not, I should have to tell +the truth. It is a question of honor." + +She stood a moment longer with her hands still clenched and slightly +raised, as if she were going to strike a blow--myself, or her own +breast. Then she let them fall limp, and, lifting her shoulders with a +superb little scornful motion, "Ah, I thought you were only a fool," +she said. "I see, you are cold." + +She turned sharply about, and crossed the room to where something which +looked like a large bench stood against the wall, covered with +gold-colored velvet. I saw her fling back the covering and kneel +beside it, fumbling with the lid. I heard the clicking of what seemed +a series of locks. At last she turned her head and spoke, "Come here!" + +I rose and went slowly over to where she knelt in the shadow. + +"Sit down." + +I seemed involuntarily to obey those imperious words. I took the seat +she indicated, a carved stool, drawn near the chest, and saw her just +lifting out a long string of blue flashing stars. It was like a toy, +like one of those strings you hang upon a Christmas tree, only a +hundred times more brilliant. "See how pretty!" she said, and ran it +through her fingers in a little blue stream; then, with an easy motion +of her wrist, she tossed it around my shoulders. She put her hand down +into the chest and brought out a long, long string of pearls--if pearls +had ever been so large--long as the rosaries I used to string of oak +balls, and dropped it over my head. I felt the great weight of it upon +my neck. + +"Look," she said, and taking up a velvet case, opened it, and showed +me, lying on the crimson satin bed, a necklace like a wreath of light. +There was no misunderstanding the preciousness of that. The shock of +the realization of what they were sent the blood into my face. Her +eyes laughed at me with a gleam that seemed devilish. She threw the +box into my lap. She took out rings and covered my fingers with them, +drops of blood, red, and brilliant green, and rainbow colors. I +couldn't seem to speak or move. I thought she must be mad. + +"Here," she said, and leaning toward me, deftly pulled out the pins and +took off my hat. Then in both her hands she lifted something from the +chest, and, before I could stop her she had pressed it down upon my +head. Then she rose. Her face was flushed; her lips parted eagerly on +her gleaming teeth. She caught my hand and pulled me in front of a +great mirror that hung upon the wall. + +I saw reflected there a small, shrinking figure, with a white face, in +a white dress, crowned with a circlet of gold, and hung with necklaces +that made brightness in the shadow. I heard the Spanish Woman's voice +speaking excitedly close beside my cheek. + +"There is not their like in this state, in this country. Some of those +have come out of the greatest houses in Spain. They will make you +rich, they will make you beautiful! They are nothing to me; I will +give them to you, every one, to keep for ever! Take them--take them +all! And go away! Just for three little days; until the trial is +over!" + +I shrank from her in mere amazement. In the first moment I did not +take in what she meant. + +"No, but listen," she cried, catching at me, "I can make it easy for +you to go. I have influence--I will help you--I will hide you! We +will arrange the story." + +I raised my hands to my head. Now I was choking with anger, with +tears. "Do you think I would do for these, what I would not do for +him?" I lifted the circlet off my head, but my hands shook so that it +fell, and rolled on the floor between us, and I believe we both forgot +it. "Do you suppose I don't care as much as you do? I would do +anything in the world to clear him of this charge. But you don't +understand--to clear him! I can't hush it and hide it. It wouldn't +make it come right, and I don't believe he wants me to. I don't +believe that is what he meant. I know he would hate me if I saved him +with such a lie!" + +She grew white. A small sharp shadow came on each side of her mouth. +Her lips parted with a sort of gasp. "What do you know about saving or +dying; what do you know about hating or loving? You would not lie--oh, +no! You would save him--if he were innocent! Why, you child, I would +save him the same if he had killed fifty! You are so precious of your +little self, and your little virtue! Virtue? Pah! I love him--and +that is my virtue!" + +Something in the triumphant ring of her voice, in the very strength of +her passion itself, for the moment made her noble. Beside her I felt +myself small, mean and wretched. + +It seemed to me I was in a nightmare and never should awake. I pulled +the necklaces, the bracelets, the rings, off me, struggling with the +tangled chains and stubborn clasps. I shook my hand free of the last +jewel, and then snatching up my turban, pinned it on with trembling +fingers, and all the while she stood looking silently at me. One could +not tell what was behind her face. But when, at last, I had taken up +the little ball of my gloves and stood before her, she spoke in a very +soft voice: + +"Pardon me, I have lost my wits. But you are made of a material--I do +not know it--but it is not flesh and blood. Nevertheless we must not +part bad friends." + +She turned to the table and, pushing aside the jewels as if they had +been colored glass, pulled toward her a tray, and took up a glass +decanter. She poured two glasses of wine, and taking one, gracefully +held it out to me. "Will you not drink to his acquittal?" she asked. + +"Forgive me," I said, "if I do not drink to it. I will wish for it +with all my heart. That will be the same." + +"But it is not," she said, advancing, with her bright eyes fixed upon +me. "To drink--that is a deed which shows the good will. The rest is +but words. Come, you have spoken of great things you would do for him +if only you could. Well, here is one small thing. Let me see you make +good your words!" Her voice was so sweetly coaxing my hand hesitated +toward the glass. Then, as she thought I was going to take it, +something in the expectant, intense look of her caught me; and a +dreadful thought flashed into my mind. + +I shrank back. "No," I said, "I can not!" + +But she was fairly upon me with it. She was leaning over me. "Drink, +yes, drink!" She thrust it upon me. + +"No, no!" I cried in terror. "I will not!" I flung up my hand with +the impulse to keep it off me, and struck the glass, and overturned it. + +She stepped backward and set down the tray with a clang. There was no +perceptible change in her face, but suddenly she had become terrible. +"You shall never go out of my house," she said. + +My ears wouldn't believe, my senses rejected the meaning of those +words. "You would not do such a thing--you would not dare!" + +She threw back her head until I could see the great column of her white +throat swell, and laughed. "I tell you, my pretty little girl, I would +fling away a dozen such as you for only the chance of saving him!" + +I saw that she meant it--I understood how well!--I felt like a little +dry stick in a river, like a leaf in the wind. I looked behind me. +The windows did not open into the outer air but into a tightly closed +conservatory. The sound that was struggling in my throat was a scream, +but suppose it would only call in some of her creatures before Mr. +Dingley should hear! I looked squarely into her face, and I am sure, +in that moment, that I understood what death might mean. "I am going," +I said, very quietly, and walked across the room toward the curtains. + +She did not try to stop me, and every unobstructed step I took forward +I thought, with increasing terror, "What is it that she means to do?" +When I reached the closed curtain the grasp of her hands, which I had +dreaded; was the least of my fears. The anteroom was empty, but as I +passed its threshold I heard her move across the inner room, and then a +bell rang, away down in the lower part of the house. There is no +describing the feeling that was in me when, with the sound of that +uncanny signal in my ears, I opened the door into the grizzly maze of +passageways. + +I remembered that I had turned to the right in coming in, so now I +turned to the left, and hurried down that narrow, unlighted way that +led me directly to another door. But I remembered that and opened it +and stepped through into another hall. Here were three branching ways, +and it was only one of these, of course, which would bring me to the +_sala_ door. The others might plunge me into Heaven knew what places +of the house, or what hands! There was no time to hesitate, I must +choose and chance it! There was not one thing--window, furniture or +color--to distinguish them. Yet in my agony of mind I gave a glance +down one and two of them; and on the floor of the second, a few yards +from me some small, light-colored object was lying. I ran forward and +stooped. It was the blue bow that had fallen from my hair. + +I picked it up with a rush of thankfulness. This was an incident in a +fairy tale! It seemed an omen of safety, and as I held it in my hand I +fairly ran along the passage and came at last triumphantly out into the +hall, which I remembered, broad and carpeted with red. + +Down the stairs I hastened, my heart going quick with the alarms of my +escape, opened the door at the foot of it and came into the little +entry. As I entered it I fancied a sound. It was like a step, very +soft, so soft as to be hardly audible, not behind me, not on the other +side of the door in front of me, but somewhere beyond the entry +partition on my right. It was there, I reckoned, that one of those +dark anterooms, through which we had approached the _sala_, must be. +The flesh of my back was pricking, but I was almost safe. Once let me +reach Mr. Dingley and I knew that somehow he would get us out. With a +great effort I pulled open the heavy door into the _sala_. + +"Oh, I--" I began; but then I stopped. The room was so large that it +took me some moments to make sure it was empty. Mr. Dingley was not +there. + +I stood perfectly still in that stupendous place. Everything in me +seemed to have stopped moving, too--my blood and my heart. And, in the +listening pause, there came again unmistakably, soft, stealthy +footsteps, sounding beyond the heavy curtain of the door--sounding as +if creatures were gathering in those dark rooms that lay between me and +the outer hall. + +I didn't scream. I didn't want to. I walked quite quietly across the +room to one of the heavily curtained windows at the back, and pulled +the hangings aside. + +In front of me, not three feet from the window was the blank face of +the convent wall rising straight up, higher than I could see. I looked +downward. The stone pavement, which I could just make out in the +gloom, must have been ten feet below. Nevertheless I had a wild +thought that, if the worst came, I could at least fling myself down the +narrow cleft; and in that mind I took hold of the window-frame. I had +no hope that I could move it, even after I had stirred the heavy locks; +but, with the pressure of all my weight against it, slowly the two +sides of the casement opened out. As the dusty panes of glass swung +away from before me my eye caught a singular irregularity in the +surface of the wall. About on a level with the window-sill was a niche +in the masonry, perhaps three feet square, and looking to be the depth +of the wall itself. The back of it seemed to be made of a dark +substance--darker than the bricks--through which shone twinkling +glimpses of daylight. + +I climbed upon the window-sill, and, taking hold of the upper edge of +one of the casements, swung myself by this. I felt myself hovering an +instant in mid-air. Then my feet had found the niche. I crouched, +and, groping forward with one hand, grasped a stout tangle of vines. +Releasing the casement I half-dragged, half-swung myself into the +opening in the wall. I clung there a moment trembling, catching my +breath, before I realized that the dark mass at the back of the niche +was merely ivy, some of which I had grasped, tearing quite a little +opening, and through this I could see a blessed glimpse of blue sky. + +Putting my eyes close to this peep-hole I looked downward and saw below +me the grass plots of the convent garden. A great tangle of bushes was +at the foot of the wall, but in spite of that it looked a dreadful +drop. I glanced over my shoulder into the room behind me, and thought +I saw a shadow moving down the floor. I do not know how I turned +myself in the cramped space where I knelt. All I could remember +afterward was the feel of the edge of the rough masonry under my +fingers; the tearing of the ivy as my body crushed through it; the +straining of my arms as I swung downward. I gave one horrified glance +into the depths of the garden; then closed my eyes and let go. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE REFUGE + +I could not tell how long a time had passed, but gradually out of +complete consciousness, grew up the sense of a wretched throbbing. I +thought it was my head. I opened my eyes and found I was looking +straight up into the sky. I lay staring at it, it was so wonderfully +soft and blue. Presently the wind swayed a green branch into my line +of vision; at sight of that the query of where I was came into my mind. + +I moved my head and felt the crackle of twigs at my cheek. I was lying +in a mass of ivy and lemon verbena bushes, and at one side of me rose +the great face of a wall. The memory of what had happened returned. I +scrambled to a sitting posture. My head was so dizzy that I had to +catch at the bushes to hold myself upright, and my body felt sore and +shaken, but the impulse to get away from the house, whose windows +overlooking the convent wall still spied upon me, carried me to my feet. + +Through the shrubbery I peered at the garden beyond. There was a level +green lawn, with sedate paths marching around it, but no black hooded +figures were moving there in ones or twos or in solemn file, as I had +been wont to see them. I walked rather uncertainly forward across the +grass, across the dank and mossy paths, and into the shadowy length of +the corridor. This, too, was empty, and at one end of it a little +door, with a grill across it, seemed as effectually to bar me out as +the Spanish Woman's house had shut me in. In my dazed state the only +thing I could think of doing, to call the attention of the place to my +presence, was to seize the grill in both hands and shake it with all my +weakened strength. It made quite a rattling, and then I heard hurrying +feet, and presently the small, startled face of a nun peered through +the grating. + +"I want to see the Mother Superior," I said in a trembling voice. + +She looked at me sharply, and, I thought, a little as if she were +frightened. "Why didn't you ring the bell?" she asked. + +"The bell? What bell?" I stammered, for the only bell I could call to +mind was the bell the Spanish Woman had rung. Then, as the sister +appeared to be about to draw back, "Oh, please, please," I cried, "take +me to the Mother Superior! I am in great trouble!" + +There was a pause; then a little rustling, then a whispering of voices +behind the grating, and another face, rounder and larger than the +first, peered out; and a more sympathetic voice said: "Poor little +creature! and her hat is all on one side!" + +Then, after some further deliberation, in which one of the voices +seemed to be protesting that it was afraid of something, the nun who +had come first disappeared,--I could hear the sound of her feet +hastening away,--and the second opened the grating and drew me in. She +led me down a narrow, musty-smelling hall and into a dull little room +where she made me sit down, and put my hat straight, and smoothed my +hair very kindly but rather clumsily with hands like white pincushions. +At last, with the timid nun following furtively at her heels, the +Mother Superior came. She was a thin woman in flowing robes, with a +great white sheer coif around her delicate face; and she looked at me +very kindly and benevolently while I stammered out the essentials of my +story--how the Spanish Woman had tried to keep me in her house, and how +I got out of the window and through a hole in the wall and so down into +the garden. When I came to this point in my tale, "But those windows +are closed up!" cried one of the nuns. "And the wall is eight feet!" +cried the other, "and there is no hole in it! It would be impossible!" + +The Mother Superior shook her head at them, and said to me: "Can you +tell me where you live, my child?" + +I thought it odd that there should be any doubt in her mind as to that, +but I eagerly gave her the number and the street. "And if you will +only send for a carriage," I said, "because I am afraid I am too tired +to walk, I should like to go home." + +"It will be best to notify your parents," she said in a soothing voice, +"and they will fetch you away." + +"But there is no one there now, except Abby, and she is lame and very +old. Father is not in town. He will not be back until night, and I +can perfectly well go home alone!" I was beginning to feel desperate, +as I thought I never should get out of the place. + +She smiled and said, "Well, we will see! Give me your father's name." +She looked surprised when she heard it and not quite as if she believed +me, but all she said was, "Now you must lie down and rest a little +while before you go out." + +I protested that I did not feel tired, and indeed my anxiety to get +away had wiped out all memory of my bruises. But in the end I had to +follow the round-faced nun up the bare, cement stairway to another +small room. It seemed strange after the luxurious glooms of the +Spanish Woman's house, to be in this bare, whitewashed place, where all +the light fell unobstructed through little, narrow windows placed high +up in the walls. There were no mirrors here, not one, to reflect one's +figure; and it was only when I had taken off my hat that I discovered +what a wreck it was, crushed absurdly out of shape; and my hair was +half down. The nun helped me to unwind and brush it out, and I heard +her murmuring at my back, "When I was young my hair was as long as +this." + +And then she coaxed me to lie down on a little bed. I felt her cover +me up; but when she tried to make me drink something from a glass a +hideous memory sprang in my mind, and I had struck and knocked the +glass out of her hand before I could think what I was doing. I heard +her muttering anxiously to herself as she picked the pieces up, and +then I was left alone. + +With confused puzzles moving through my mind I lay there, tense, +feverish, tossing, each moment expecting some one to come and tell me I +could go home. Finally, I seemed at last really to be going. The only +trouble was that the nuns told me I could not leave unless I left as a +bride, and they had no satin and no orange flowers. + +I was startled out of this fancy by voices sounding loud upon the edge +of my dream. One said angrily, "In the first place you ought never to +have taken her to that infernal house, either for the sake of getting +evidence or any other thing." The second retorted, "Well, I wanted to +keep her out of the whole business. It was you who insisted on +dragging her in; and once you get into this sort of thing difficult +situations often present themselves." + +My eyes opened wide, and in the faint light of the floating candle +flames, just above me, I saw Mr. Dingley's face. "You weren't there! +Why weren't you there?" I said, sitting up. + +"You see," a woman's voice that I thought was the Mother Superior's, +put in, "she says and does such strange things that I dared not let her +go out into the street alone." + +Then, with an unutterable sense of relief, I recognized father's voice. +"Yes, that was quite right. She was better here." And he sat down on +the edge of the bed. + +"Oh, take me home!" I cried. + +He smiled, and said, with that same exasperating sort of reassurance +which the Mother Superior had used, "Yes, we are going immediately." + +They all made me feel as if they thought that I didn't know what I was +talking about. + +"Either every one is crazy," I thought, "or the whole world is in some +plot against me, and they have deceived father, too." Of course my +mind knew that to be ridiculous, but everything conspired to make +familiar people strange. What was it Mr. Dingley had been telling +father just before I returned to consciousness? "Perhaps after I am +alone with father at home I can get him to listen to what I want to +say," I thought. + +But there were many reasons why this undertaking was much more +difficult than I had supposed. + +In the first place, it was Mr. Dingley who began by asking me where I +had gone. He had been waiting in the front hall for me all the while, +he said, and how had I got out without his seeing me? He had hunted +all through the rooms on the lower floor, and not finding me, had gone +back to our house, supposing I had returned; and from there had set out +in search of me. + +It sounded very reasonable, and I was at a loss to understand why it +didn't seem probable to me. Then, when we reached home, we found a +person waiting--a detective Mr. Dingley had sent for--and to him and to +Mr. Dingley as well as to father, I had to tell my story. It came out +in bits and snatches, with questions and answers, Mr. Dingley's all +mixed in with mine; and when they did let me speak uninterruptedly I +was so excited that the words came tumbling out, all confused. It +seemed to me, too, that father was much more anxious over the fact that +I was feverish and had a lump on my forehead, than the fact that the +Spanish Woman had offered me that glass of wine, and then said I should +never leave the house. But he said the thing should be investigated; +and Mr. Dingley said something about making inquiries to-night; and +finally all three went out together, leaving me in a wretched state of +anxiety and doubt. + +It seemed to me that none of them at all understood the situation, and +it was so wonderfully clear, in my own mind, so enormous and astounding +in its menace, that I was woefully puzzled to see how they could have +missed it. But I was to learn no more until the following day, when, +lying in bed, stiff and sore, with every muscle in my arms and +shoulders aching, father came in with that unwontedly grave and puzzled +face that the poor dear had worn so often since the beginning of the +whole miserable experience. + +The detective and police had been to the Spanish Woman's house, he +said, and had interviewed her. She had told them quite frankly that +she had indeed sent for me to come to her, and had implored me not to +give the evidence which I was expected to give; because she said she +fully believed it to be false--that the pistol I had thought I had seen +in Johnny Montgomery's hand must have been a fancy of mine, and that +she could not bear to have such damaging testimony given so recklessly. +She had thought, so she said, that being a woman she might perhaps know +better how to elicit the real facts of the case from me, since the +men,--lawyers, police officers and even my father,--might very well +have frightened away my memory by their manner of going about it. But +when I had been so obstinate, she said, she had lost her head and +become angry, and that had frightened me. She said she had tried in +every way to reassure me; but I had resisted all her offers of +hospitality, and finally, becoming hysterical, had struck a glass of +wine which she had offered me, out of her hand, and rushed out of the +room, before she could stop me or even discover why I had so suddenly +fled. + +Mr. Dingley, father went on, had explained that he had been waiting for +me, as he had said he would, down-stairs; but at the moment when I had +come he had not been in the _sala_. + +I could only stare at father. These didn't seem to be at all the same +experiences which I had been through so short a time before; and yet, +when I considered, I couldn't contradict a thing. The incidents were +there, but somehow they all sounded perfectly harmless. I felt +bewildered. Beside these mild-looking facts my actions seemed those of +a madwoman. + +Furthermore, father went on, Mr. Dingley had said that when he went +through the _sala_ afterward, searching for me, the windows had been +closed and locked fast and the police had declared there was no hole in +the convent wall, and that the wall itself would have been a difficult +drop even for a man. + +I pounced upon this as a tangible fact. "Then some one in the house +must have closed and locked the window again; and there was a hole in +the wall, or how could I have gone through it? The drop was very bad +indeed, for my hat was crushed out of shape." + +Poor father looked very much puzzled. "But about the wine--I don't +understand. Why did you do that?" + +The answer was ready at my amazed lips, but I stopped it, for now at +last I began to see. I began to see how, without that peculiar intent +look with which the Spanish Woman had handed me the wine-glass, nor the +menacing gesture with which she had thrust it upon me, the episode of +the wine that had seemed to me so threatening became a mere empty +courtesy; and indeed, separated from the sinister appearance of the +moment, not one episode that had taken place in that extraordinary +house which could not be explained away! I knew past any doubting, +that the Spanish Woman had tried to bribe me, had tried to poison me, +and failing that would have detained me by force, if I had not got out +of the window. And, if I should tell him the whole adventure now while +it was so burning fresh in my own mind, with all its suggestive +atmosphere, its eloquent details, couldn't I make him see it as I saw +it? No. The Spanish Woman had blown the magic breath of her +plausibility, her ingenuity, upon the poor little substance of my true +story, and had scattered it like ash. It was too much of an +undertaking, even supposing it to be possible, to bring together the +pieces again. And a vaguer but even more insistent voice, prompted, +"Then suppose he does believe me? What will it mean to Johnny +Montgomery?" It seemed to me that I had been enough of a Spartan as +far as that man was considered. + +I looked up at father and said, "She frightened me--the Spanish Woman +frightened me, and so I ran away." + +How readily he took this up, showed me it was the explanation he +expected. "Yes, I know. It would be quite natural," he said +soothingly. "You have been much over-wrought, and this infernal +performance has thrown you into hysterics. But that wall, child--an +awful drop!" He laughed a little, but I could see how much moved he +was. "I hope to see that courage displayed in a worthier cause some +time." + +I did not tell him how worthy the cause this time had been, how were it +not for that bold leap of mine there would have been no star witness +for the people to-morrow. + +Something in my noncommittal air seemed to touch father, and make him +still look anxiously at me. "Of course, Dingley is going to have the +matter investigated further. The woman will probably be arrested, if +only on suspicion." + +But that evening he told me that Mr. Dingley had said nothing had been +elicited from her that would warrant such a thing; and though father +seemed vexed and dissatisfied, he argued what could one do if there was +no evidence to fasten upon? + +I did not answer; I knew it would be of no use, Mr. Dingley's +explanations were so reasonable. But since I had talked with father +that morning a piece of news had come to me which had only succeeded in +strengthening my belief in the meaning of the Spanish Woman's actions. +This was brought me by Hallie, my envoy extraordinary, who had wormed +it out of her mother who had got it from Mr. Ferguson. + +It seemed that on Saturday, just after Hallie had left the court, the +Spanish Woman had taken the witness-stand and testified that she had +been Rood's wife. Mr. Ferguson said this was ridiculous to suppose, +yet no one, not even Mr. Dingley, had challenged her statement. She +denied there had ever been any trouble between the two men. She said +she had been interested in Mr. Montgomery as a woman might be who was +old enough to be his mother, but that Rood had been her husband and +that she had loved and been faithful to him. She was wonderfully calm +and convincing, Mr. Ferguson had said, and it looked at first as if her +testimony would help the defense very much, but when Mr. Dingley's +associate began cross-examining her, he seemed to turn her testimony +inside out, and then it appeared that her evidence had been the worst +thing possible for the prisoner. For if Rood had stood so firmly in +Montgomery's way, the lawyer argued, that would give the very strongest +motive for the shooting. + +"Wasn't it dreadful!" Hallie exclaimed. "When she wanted so much to +help him, to find she had only made things worse. Father said that +when she realized how the evidence had been turned against him she grew +as white as death." + +From this I was able to understand better why the Spanish Woman had +been willing to take the terrible chance involved in sending for me to +come to her house. She must have been desperate. But, what I could +not understand was, why had not Mr. Dingley challenged any of her +testimony in the court? Why was it always his associate? + +I had a sense of things going on under the surface which even my father +did not suspect. There was plenty of news flying about in plain +hearing and sight--news of mob law preached from the custom-house +steps; news of the double guard at the jail so there would be no second +chance of escape--all these things I heard without their being able to +rouse in me any special interest. My mind was fixed on the +under-currents. I couldn't explain them to father because I didn't +understand them myself, only felt them. I felt as if I and all the +rest had been handled, were being handled now, by a baffling and subtle +power which one could not lay hands upon, because it seemed, as if by +magic, to be able to erase the evidence of its action. + +There was no telling, I thought, what the Spanish Woman might not +manage to do. Yes, even though I seemed to be safe; for hadn't she, in +a fashion, conjured me out of Mr. Dingley's protection? Her power of +persuasion--it was that which was her magic! Thus far father was the +only one who seemed untouched by it. Even I had felt the pressure of +it. Those appeals she had made when she had begged me to remember how +Johnny Montgomery had implored me, as she said, with his look, to be +silent--they had nearly undone me, and still they haunted me. + +"But I don't believe he wanted it, I don't believe he would want +anything so cowardly! and I know I do not want him at that price." +This last reflection of mine astonished myself. What could I have +meant by that? Oh, of course, that I did not want him released at that +price! But was it probable that whether he were released or convicted +it would be in any way for my happiness? Suppose, with her dark power, +she was going to be the enchantress to-morrow. Was she again going to +scatter, in some unforeseen and uncombatible way, all my testimony, and +triumphantly see the prisoner acquitted? Oughtn't I to be glad that he +would be free? Ah, that was the strange part of it! For it appeared +to me that in such an acquittal there would be something doubly guilty; +something that would send him out of the court under a deeper shadow +than ever he had found in prison; something that would pledge him to +her for ever. It was that last thought of all I could least endure. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE LAST DAY OF THE TRIAL + +After the restless crowd--craning necks; shifting feet, half-caught +sentences--excited, alert, like a nervous horse dancing at a shadow, +ready at the vaguest rumor to rush into a sensation, how quiet, +prosaic, and even peaceful the court room seemed! That morning when we +entered it was only partly filled, and in the space behind the railing +the clerk of the court was scribbling, the lawyers were lolling, +certain individuals looking like janitors were wandering idly about, +and at his high desk the judge was writing steadily, his fine, white +hand moving across the paper, his eyes now and then glancing aside as +if he were thinking and paying no attention at all to what was going on +in the room around him. It was reassuring in a way, as if after all +nothing remarkable were going to happen. + +Some women came in all in a group, among them Hallie Ferguson, her +mother hanging back in her wake, as if she were being towed along in +spite of herself. Hallie came over to where we sat, and began to +whisper in my ear some long story of something which she was deeply +absorbed in at the moment. This, too, had a habitual and pleasant +feeling about it. Even when, with a black veil over her face, sweeping +in folds down the length of her dress, the Spanish Woman came in, it +was hard to believe that she was that same terrible creature who had +stood before me only the day before yesterday telling me I should never +leave her house. + +She took one of the chairs which had been placed along the wall, so +that instead of facing the judge's desk, she fronted the crowd, and +threw her veil back. She looked white, whiter than I had ever seen +her, as if she were deeply powdered, and this had the effect of a mask. +I have never seen a human face so calm or so indifferently sweet as +hers, and she sat as motionless as if she had been carved there. One +heard the whisperings around the room, saw the nudges and the twisting +of heads, but it was as if she did not see or know them. Then the +interest of the room turned toward the door. With that queer instinct +of a crowd, which knows before it sees, the whole room know that the +prisoner was coming before there was a glimpse of him visible. + +He walked up the aisle, looking remarkably fresh and calm, as if he +were here on the merest matter of business. As soon as he was seated +he turned his head and glanced behind him, and I thought his eyes +rested first on that place where I had sat the week before; but they +did not linger there a moment, sweeping on in a half circle around the +room, glancing over me so quickly that I could not tell at all whether +he had noticed me. I thought he had been looking for some one, though +it couldn't have been the Spanish Woman, since she sat in plain sight +on the other side of the room. + +The court filled rapidly. Young men whom I knew came in, and evidently +one or two of these knew Johnny Montgomery; for they walked up and into +the railed inclosure where he sat, shook hands with him and stood +talking with him. I could not but believe that at any time he pleased. +he could rise and leave the court as freely as those others could have +done. The thing going on here which they called a trial had the +appearance of being just a pretense--a play. + +At last one of the men who had been wandering aimlessly among the +tables came forward and intoned those words which I could never +understand, but which, nevertheless, always brought quick order. Then +there was some exchange of words between the lawyers on the other side +of the rail, now with the judge, now with one another; and now it was +the clerk of the court who was speaking; and I couldn't repress the +absurd feeling of surprise that they should turn their backs and mumble +so, since it appeared irresistibly to me that we were an audience, and +the thing was being done for our benefit. + +I was trying to make out what it was that Mr. Jackson had been saying +to the judge since it seemed to make for much smiling, when above the +rustle and whisper I heard again the voice of the clerk calling out. +There was a moment's wait. Then he raised his tone; I heard, and the +words went pealing through me: + +"Eleanor Fenwick, Eleanor Fenwick!" + +I sat gazing pitifully at him while he chanted it out in that +monotonous, singing voice. + +"Ellie!" father whispered. + +I rose, then realized with a sense of desertion that father was not +coming with me. I would have to be alone. Feeling strange, oh very +strange, with the echo of my own name still ringing in my ears, I +pattered up the aisle toward that railing. As I advanced I felt as if +I were walking away from all the world. I heard the movement and the +stir of it behind me. In front I saw only the faces of the lawyers, of +the clerk, of the judge, and these all seemed without any feeling, as +if they were not people at all. + +I found myself standing in front of the railing, and two men were +facing me, one the clerk of the court, who was holding an open book. I +had an impression that they were speaking to me, still in those +monotonous, artificial voices, as if they were not saying anything with +human meaning in it, and while they spoke they held their hands up, +palm out, and I held mine. The next thing I knew I was mounting into +the little raised and railed-in seat on the left hand of the judge's +desk. + +"What is it that is going to happen here?" I thought. I turned and +took the chair, and found myself facing a mass,--a monster,--numberless +heads and eyes, all gazing at me. A cold sensation of fear went over +me, like a great wave, closing my throat, and making my head feel as if +it were fitted with a cap of ice. "Oh, I can not, I can not!" I kept +repeating to myself. + +But, while it still seemed to me as if I should never make another +sound, I heard a voice asking me my name. I recognized it as Mr. +Dingley's. To see him standing up there and gravely, as if he had +never seen me before, putting that question was indeed absurd. It was +impossible to be frightened with such laughable procedure. He asked me +my age, my place of residence, when he knew both very well, then, where +had I been walking when I heard the shot; and with these questions I +was familiar, having answered them all the day in the library, so it +made the speaking now a little easier. And finally when he said: "Now +tell the court and the gentlemen of the jury as well as you can +remember exactly what you saw," my only thought was, "Oh, how often I +have repeated this before! Will there never be an end of it?" + +But as I began, I was aware that the judge's pen, which had been +steadily scratching ever since the court had opened, had ceased; and, +as I went on, all the rustling and whispering in the room fell silent. +The stillness made the place seem immense, and for a little while my +voice went on through the silence like a tiny thread. And now it had +stopped. I had come to the end of what I knew. It had been so small a +thing to say! But the silence was so deep I dared not look around. I +kept my eyes on Mr. Dingley's face, and thought it looked very strange +and worn. + +"Can you," he began, in his ponderous official voice, each word coming +down heavily upon my ears, "Can you positively identify this person you +describe with the revolver?" + +I believe that my "Yes" was a movement of the lips and a bend of the +head. + +"Do you see him here in this court?" + +The very idea of looking again at that terrible mass of heads and eyes, +all watching me, like some fabulous dragon, brought back the sickening +panic. But, queerly enough, when my eyes did move across them, I saw +only a dark, impersonal blur, and then the one face. It appeared, in +the indefiniteness around it, singularly near and distinct. He was +looking at me with that gentle, sweet expression which my sick fancy +hinted he never showed except when he looked at me. And he was +smiling, reassuringly, as if he were encouraging me to go on; as if he +would have me to understand that no great issues hung upon what I was +going to say, that really what was happening was not so very momentous +after all. + +"He is sitting there," I said. "The third from the end of the bench, +next to Mr. Jackson." + +Instantly voices of officers rang all about the court, crying, "Order, +order!" though there had been no sound, only a great stir, which seemed +to pass across the crowd, and which the next moment might have become +articulate. I sat trembling, wondering what it all meant, clasping my +hands tightly in my lap. All the back of the hall was crowded with +men, and most of these looked like street-loungers, unshaven and rough. +They stood so close together they hid the door, and seemed to sway and +press forward upon the room; and I thought, "There are a great many +Mexicans in here." + +Mr. Dingley asked me more questions--if I had heard voices quarreling, +and I had not; which side of the street had been in sunshine, and what +color dress I had worn. I told him, thinking that this was nonsense +again. And then Mr. Jackson said something to the judge, Mr. Dingley +sat down, and Mr. Jackson leaned on the railing, making me think of a +figure on the stage, and asked me why had I gone out at that early hour +of the morning, what had been my business, how had it happened that I +was walking through such a street as Dupont, and how did I suppose the +doors of the saloon had happened to be open so early? It was all in +such a tone as made my cheeks burn with a sense of shame and +indignation, though I could not see what he was getting at. Then +suddenly he veered and demanded how could I tell that the handle of the +revolver had been mother-of-pearl when it had fallen on the shady side +of the street, how large was it exactly, how had Johnny Montgomery held +it, how had he thrown it, then--quickly leaning toward me--could I +produce this revolver? + +At this there were sounds from the back of the court like hisses, and +voices choked off on the first syllable by rappings and calls of +"Order!" The small man who was Mr. Dingley's associate attorney was +calling out, "I object, your Honor," very fiercely. + +I felt faint, and did not know in the least what was the trouble. I +began to answer that I had not touched the revolver, but the judge +smiled at me, and said in his conversational voice: only now it was not +indifferent but very kind, "You needn't answer that question." + +So I said, "Thank you." And Mr. Jackson said, "That will do," and I +noticed that some of the jurors were smiling, but quite nicely, so I +didn't mind that, as I went down out of the witness-box. + +"Can it be that this is all I am to do?" I thought. "Is it over?" I +had expected this for so long in my days and in my dreams; and the +moment had come and had passed so quickly. And here was father waiting +for me. + +"I shall have to testify. I will take you to the witness room and you +can wait for me there," he explained to me. + +"Oh, no," I said, "let me stay here. I am afraid to be alone." I +suppose the thought of the Spanish Woman occurred to him, for he did +not insist, but really I was not afraid of anything except of having to +leave the court room before I knew what the end was to be. + +By the time I had got back to my seat they had already called another +witness, and such a queer little, compact, positive-looking woman, with +a very gay, very best hat, was sitting in the witness-box looking, +possibly as I had looked, like a queer, scared animal in a pen. + +She told how on the morning of May the seventh she had been awakened by +a pistol shot, had looked out of the window and seen a woman running +down the street. Questioned as to this woman's personal appearance, +she said she could not tell, but that she wore a white dress. In what +direction did she run? The woman thought south, yes, she was sure it +was south. At this I saw father shake his head, for our house was +north of Mr. Rood's gambling place, and I noticed that Johnny +Montgomery, who had been very calm while I was talking, had now grown +nervous and jerked about in his chair. + +Father was the next witness, and when he came back again he really +tried to insist that we should go home. But, for the first time in my +life, I stood out against him. I said I could not go until I knew at +least what was going to become of Johnny Montgomery. Father gave me +such a strange look, neither angry nor sad--something which I did not +at all understand. He didn't urge me further, he hardly looked at me, +but I was conscious of his set profile while I listened to a +disagreement between Mr. Dingley's associate and Mr. Jackson. Mr. +Jackson waved his arms a good deal, but the little man kept saying, "I +insist, your Honor!" And finally the judge seemed to decide it in a +way that pleased Mr. Dingley's man; though Mr. Dingley himself seemed +not to be interested, paying no attention at all to the little man, who +kept leaning over and speaking excitedly to him, and the court crier +was calling for "Latovier." + +A pale, indefinite-looking creature rose up from somewhere out of the +crowd and shuffled slowly toward the witness-box. "There he is," I +heard the whispers around me. "Why, don't you know? That's the man +who was shipped off. They only got him back yesterday. He's supposed +to know--" + +I felt in my heart that something decisive was coming, and I had a +premonition it was going to be something bad; the man appeared so +wretchedly nervous as he sat there in the witness-box. He kept +glancing at Johnny Montgomery, shuffling his feet and shifting his hat +from hand to hand and what they got out of him came not at all as a +story, but only with very many questions. + +It seemed he had a little gunsmith's shop, not very well known, to +which, he admitted, gentlemen such as the prisoner there, hardly ever +came. But he said that on a certain night, perhaps two months ago, the +prisoner and another man had come into the shop and looked a long time +and bargained for the very best pistol he had in the place. It was a +mother-of-pearl handle, he said, with trimmings of steel, and quite +small. He had told them that it was hardly the weapon for a man to +carry, and Johnny Montgomery had answered him that he did not mean to +carry it long. + +At this there was quite an uproar in the court, the lawyers shouting, +the clerk trying to call order, and a great commotion in the press +about the door. But I do not remember being afraid, only the +inconvenience of having father keep his arm around my shoulders while I +was trying to see how Johnny Montgomery looked. Finally quiet was +restored, and then the man who had gone into the gunsmith's with Johnny +testified; and after another pause, with all my expectations strained +to tighter pitch than I could bear, came the general uprising which +meant the court dismissed, that it was noon. + +Father, looking down at me, said, "Now what do you propose to do? Are +you going home with me?" + +"Please," I said, "do this one thing for me. I have done everything +you have wished so far. I can not endure not to know the worst or the +best that can happen. I must hear the end. Let us come back here +again this afternoon." + +I was so excited that I didn't care what father thought of me. But all +he said was, "Well!" And, "Then we will go over to the restaurant +across the street for luncheon instead of going home." + +It was a help not to have to step out of the excitement of the +proceedings. It was that which kept me up, which carried me along. +"There she is; that's the girl who saw it!" The voices whispering +behind me gave me a sad stir of feeling, but it was better than being +left to think. It spurred me; and the clatter of dishes and the crowd +which filled the restaurant, talking all at once, yet with no distinct +words audible, all helped to bridge over the chasm of the waiting. I +could see Laura Burnet sitting at a near table with her thick veil +raised only a little above her nose, just enough to let her drink a cup +of tea. Some of father's friends and one or two of the young men I +knew stopped at our table to shake hands, but very little was said, and +of the trial nothing at all. For all their trying to be easy and +natural, I could see that my presence embarrassed them. I could see +them glancing at me as if they wondered what sort of person I could +be--as though I had become something different from a girl by answering +questions in the witness-box. By two o'clock we were back in court +again; and how changed everything seemed! All that desultory feeling +of the morning was gone, and as I looked about over the faces I could +see how every one's mind was fixed on the same thing. A woman whom I +did not know, jostling at my shoulder as I went in, confided to me that +what she wanted was, "To hear Dingley tear the defense to pieces." I +wondered if the only people in the room who didn't want to hear that +were myself and the Spanish Woman. + +But it was Mr. Jackson who got up first. Though I had heard all the +evidence that morning it had come out in such little bits and patches +with such disagreements of lawyers between, and I had myself been so in +the midst of it that I had no idea as to how it would sum up; and I had +been waiting anxiously to hear what this man, whom father said was such +a fine lawyer, would say. + +He began with a sort of oration, all about the Montgomery family, and +what a fine family, they had been, how much they had done for the city! +Then he talked about Johnny, and he drew a very beautiful picture of +him, speaking of his great promise and fine character and then of the +blow which was being struck at his brilliant career; and it was somehow +awful to have to listen to it, for even supposing it were true, this +seemed scarcely the time for saying it. I could see Johnny's face +getting more and more set-looking and grim, as if he hated listening to +the words that were pouring over his head. + +Then, in some way I couldn't follow, Mr. Jackson got from that to +talking about courts and evidence, and corroborating testimony; and +though for a while I couldn't make out what he was driving at, +presently it began to appear to me that he was trying to prove that all +the witnesses on the state's behalf had been lying. He was wonderfully +clever in his way of making the testimony seem improbable. He pulled +even mine to pieces, pointing out the revolver's not being where I said +it had fallen. He declared there was a plot against the prisoner; that +the gunsmith who had testified about the buying of the pistol had been +bribed to do so; and he appealed to the feelings of humanity and +justice in the jury. + +He spoke beautifully. It made one's heart beat to hear just the tone +of his voice, even though one couldn't quite understand what he was +saying. And yet it was strange I thought that with everything he said +he did not bring forward, or even try to bring forward, one single +direct proof to show that Johnny Montgomery was innocent. + +I was in a very confused state of mind indeed when Mr. Dingley got to +his feet. Though I had never heard him speak in a court I had read in +the newspapers that he was "Our golden-tongued orator," and father had +been used to say that, "Dingley was a whirlwind." But now, when he +rose, and turned toward the jury-box and began, his voice sounded stiff +and cold, as if he brought it out with a great effort. He didn't shake +his finger at the jury, as Mr. Jackson had done, nor fling out his +hands, nor lift his arms in the air and bring them down as if he were +bringing the world down on one's head. He simply stood there, and in a +matter of fact, even voice gathered up the evidence of the different +witnesses as one would beads in the hand, and strung them together; and +I saw a long chain of evidence winding around Johnny Montgomery. As he +went on measuring it out, for the first time I understood how heavily +my testimony counted. It seemed to do away with the whole defense. In +spite of Mr. Dingley the case seemed to be proving itself, and as he +went on he warmed to the very sound of his own argument; his voice +began to ring out more and I lost sight and memory of everything that +Mr. Jackson had said. + +All heads were craning toward him as he stood with his back to all of +us, talking at the men in the jury-box as if they were the only people +in the world. The Spanish Woman was leaning forward, her elbow on her +knee, her head drooped, her hand hiding the lower part of her face, but +looking out from under her eyebrows like a picture I had once seen of a +prophetess. I felt that we were being wound up every moment more and +more tense, and when Mr. Dingley stopped, he left us at the highest +pitch possible for human beings to bear. When he sat down again he +gave a quick glance behind and around him and, as for a moment it +lingered on the Spanish Woman, I thought it seemed a little defiant. + +I hardly realized what was happening in the room around me. The judge +was reading something endless to the jury, not one word of which my +ears could take. Then that sound ceased, and presently I noticed that +the jurymen were leaving the room. + +With the closing of the door upon them the aspect of things behind the +railings changed, the judge getting up, walking restlessly back and +forth in front of his platform for a minute, then going back to his +writing; the clerk of the court keeping on with his, and most of the +lawyers going out. Mr. Dingley passed us with just a bend of the head, +and father glanced after him and made a little sound in his throat, a +sort of meditative "h'm" of surprise. But the crowd kept very quiet; +as the minutes passed the room grew more and more still. A sense of +nervousness was over all. Every time a door opened there was a rumor +that the jury was coming back. + +"Well, it may be five minutes, and it may be all night," I heard Mr. +Ferguson saying to father. "That pistol disappearing is going to give +him a chance." Father answered, "That was a guilty man's defense, just +the same." + +But I seemed to have forgotten there were such things as guilt or +innocence. I kept watching Johnny Montgomery, who was sitting almost +alone, with his head a little bent forward, looking at the table in +front of him. The light fell strongly on his face, making it almost +seem to shine, and I looked at the little white seam of the scar on his +cheek that had helped to identify him, at his black, brooding eyebrows, +and the long lock of hair falling over his forehead, and I thought, so +softly that it scarcely dared to be a thought, "Perhaps I shall never +see any of these again." I felt very quiet, as though I should never +want to laugh or cry again. + +I lost all track of time; but the light was falling in the room and +that bright look it had given Johnny's face was turning gray, when, +quite suddenly, he gave a shiver, and pulled himself up in his chair, +nervously drawing in his shoulders. I looked quickly at the judge's +desk and saw a man standing beside it and offering a paper. It +glimmered faintly white as he held it up. I saw the judge lean over, +stretching out his fine, plump hand to take it, and I heard him say: +"Is this your verdict?" + +Then instantly the room heard and knew. And almost at the same time I +felt myself lifted to my feet and heard father saying, in a voice I +should have never dared to question, "Quick, your coat!" + +I fumbled wildly for the sleeves. I no longer knew what I was doing, +nor why, but obeyed him blindly. I felt there was some reason for this +haste, but even as I tried to follow him out it seemed the whole room +had risen, and a voice somewhere in front of us was speaking--had +spoken. + +There was a moment of dreadful silence, and then all about me broke out +quick whispers, suddenly, like a refrain. Not once but over and over, +I heard them around me. + +"Murder--yes, yes, murder!" + +"Oh, no, guilty in the second degree." + +A woman near me fainted, and I wished I could have lost consciousness +so as to be rid of those terrible words, but I could not even cry. I +raised my hand to my throat and pressed it there hard, because there +seemed to be constriction there. + +The police were thick about the door, but even they, struggling with +the hoodlums who had crowded the back of the room, couldn't get a +passage open, and the large sergeant of police lifted me up as if I had +been a child and carried me out, and set me down on the sidewalk. +There I stood in the lovely, mild twilight, looking at the familiar +surroundings as if I had never seen them before. Among the vehicles +that filled the street I noticed the Spanish Woman's carriage, with its +beautiful nervous horses. Father put my arm through his and said, "Do +you think you can get across the street?" + +"Oh, yes," I said, surprised that he should suppose I could not, since, +except for that queer feeling of not having any emotions at all, I felt +quite well. + +He took me over to the restaurant. "But I am not hungry," I said. And +father answered, "Probably not." Then, turning to the waiter, "A glass +of brandy, please, and call me a carriage." + +I sat down at a table near the window, and pushing aside the curtain a +little, looked out at the court-house entrance on the other side of the +street. In front of it a little group of men in uniform was waiting. +I could see the last of the sunlight catch on their side-arms and +bayonets. A good many people were coming out, and more were gathering +in from Kearney Street, and up from Montgomery. The police kept +shaking their clubs and trying to make them walk away. But in spite of +all they could do the crowd gathered and gathered, and made a sort of +narrow lane down the steps and across the sidewalk. Presently the +Spanish Woman's carriage drew up just opposite this narrow way, and +down the steps she came, like a queen, with her black veil sweeping +over her face, stepped in and was carried quickly down the street. But +as she passed I saw that her head was bent and that she was holding a +handkerchief in front of her face. + +I swallowed the brandy in a few gulps, scarcely knowing what it was, +and kept watching the prison door, for I had the greatest longing to +see Johnny Montgomery again. But presently our carriage came, so I had +to go out and get into it. Just as we were making the turn across the +street, I was face to face with the prison door, and at that moment +they brought him out. + +The guard passed close to us, and I saw his face as white and set as if +he were already dead. "I have killed him," I thought, though that +thought did not bring me any special feeling. + +For a few moments we seemed to be caught in the crowd, the driver +couldn't get forward with the horses, and I could turn my head and +watch the little escort moving off down the street. + +It was after sunset now, just beginning to be dusky. The sad gray +twilight was over everything, and as the figures retreated they merged +into a single dark mass in the throat of the street. As this mass +reached Jackson Street corner, there was an outcry. In the peaceful +stillness of the evening it came with a shrill, terrifying sound. The +crowd at the corner broke and scattered before a rush of horsemen. +They seemed to come from all sides, and meet in the middle of the +street. Then we couldn't see the guard, but shots rang out, yells, and +then more firing; and the mounted men swept on across the street. Men +on foot were running after them and firing. In their wake a wounded +horse was rolling on the ground and there was something else sprawled +away from it that might have been a man. I had just a glimpse before +the crowd closed in upon it. + +"Stay where you are," father said, and jumping out of the carriage, he +ran up the street. Other men were running past. + +The horrible thought of the vigilance committee turned me sick. I +called to the driver to go forward, but, already the crowd was swarming +on both sides and our progress up the street was very slow. As we drew +near the place a man in the uniform of the guards, with blood running +down his face, went staggering by, another man supporting him; and I +heard him groaning out: "I don't see how it happened, my God, I don't +see how it happened!" + +Another man, a young man, with his coattails flying and his silk hat +knocked over his eyes, burst out of the crowd close beside the +carriage. I recognized the dandy, Jack Tracy. He was so near I could +have touched him, and for one moment I forgot all about being a lady. +I grasped him, by the sleeve. "Tell me, for Heaven's sake, what has +happened!" + +He fairly glared at me, so excited that I believe he didn't recognize +me. "They've got him--the Mexicans! He's gone!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE CONCEALMENT + +It took a deal more running back and forth, and questioning and +explaining, before I could come at any understanding of what had +happened. And even when I had heard as much as any one knew it was +strangely little--simply that a body of Mexican horsemen had swept out +upon the guard from apparently all points of the compass, had +overpowered them, leaving one dead and one of their own number wounded, +and swept on. After they had gone it was discovered that the prisoner +had vanished too. The cry had been that the horsemen had taken him; +but some of the guard who had followed the riders a little way declared +that he had not been among them, and one man insisted that he had seen +Johnny Montgomery dart in at the door of one of the small houses on +Jackson Street. This was immediately surrounded by police and +searched, but nothing was discovered; and all the while I sat faint and +trembling in the carriage, with a conviction that I ought to be +horrified, and yet with an ungovernable feeling of relief. The only +thoughts in my mind were, "He is safe!" and "He is free!" If only for +a moment, at least it would be a moment! + +Half an hour passed before the street could be cleared, and we could +get across. Meanwhile in the fast-gathering dark, I kept hearing +voices speaking with that stern ring they have when men are excited and +talking among themselves, and hoofs of horses clattering off in the +direction the Mexicans had taken. + +Every moment my heart was in my mouth, lest suddenly should come the +cry that Johnny Montgomery was found; but he seemed to have vanished as +completely as if he had been made invisible; and presently a hateful +thought crept into my mind: "What if it is the Spanish Woman who has +played the enchantress?" The rumor was abroad that the sortie had been +planned by some of Johnny Montgomery's friends--they were such wild +fellows that their doing the thing would not seem extraordinary. + +Yet the other explanation seemed so much more probable to me, so +burningly evident. It came upon me with the shock of conviction, as if +the Spanish Woman herself had whispered it in my ear, and I was afraid +to look at any one lest he should read my thought in my conscious face. +I kept my head bent and held my trembling lips tight, glad that the +dark covered my agitations. + +But later, at home, sitting on the edge of my bed, I told mother all +about it. I did not form the words aloud, but when I sat there looking +up at her pictured face I knew she understood every idea that went +through my mind. My thoughts went back over the incidents of the +trial. Each little separate memory struck the same note--the attempt +to get him out of prison, the attempt to make way with witnesses, and +finally this successful snatching of him from the law--it was the +Spanish Woman who had been responsible each time, and now it was she. +Oh, I understood now why Johnny Montgomery had smiled at me as I was +giving my testimony! I had thought it had been to encourage me to go +on, but it must have been a mere mockery, since he knew that, no matter +what story I told, he was safe. + +But, had he known it? When I recalled his white, set face I doubted. +Yet at any rate, even in spite of him, she had saved him. He was gone, +gone to her perhaps, and I was left with the mere comfort of having +done what I thought was right. It was cold comfort when every feeling +in me had been outraged by the doing, and now the forlorn doubt +continually stirred as to the certainty that what I had done was right, +if, as the Spanish Woman said, love was a woman's only virtue. + +I was horrified to find myself, without apparent reason or any evident +leading up to it, with that word on my lips. Love? Why, what had that +to do with me? I looked in a fright at mother, as if I expected her to +answer the question; but that timid look of hers seemed to have only a +reflection of my own fear in it. With a sudden feeling of weakness and +helplessness I hid my face in my hands. + +From that moment I began to understand what father had meant the day he +had said that I would need mother's picture now. It comforted me that +she was there watching me and seeming to understand, never looking +angrily at me no matter what foolish or frightening things I had to +tell her, and there were so many in those days that followed--dreadful +days for me! The very girls, my friends, even while with round, awed +eyes they admired me for my heroic performance on the witness-stand, +yet, for that very reason seemed to set me a little apart from +themselves. And then the talk about the search for Johnny Montgomery, +full of the cruel eagerness of men hunting a man! + +The word had been that, of course, he would be retaken immediately. +But the hours slipped away, and the days, and still there was no trace +of him. The whole city was searched, and I discovered then that the +Spanish Woman was far from escaping public suspicion. Detectives went +in and out of her house, ransacking its remotest, most cunningly +concealed places. She herself was closely questioned, but nothing +could be elicited. + +If I had needed any reassurance that she alone was responsible for +Johnny's disappearance, this effacement of the means by which she had +accomplished her object would have convinced me. Whatever creatures +they were who had effected her purpose for her, they were apt pupils in +her art of disappearance, and even those who had failed here, were +still completely hers. The Mexican who had been wounded by the guard +had closed his teeth and died without a word, not even a confession to +the priest. The horsemen, it was said, had swept straight through the +city in the direction of the Mission, and it was supposed they had +disbanded there and scattered through the ranches, where it was +impossible to trace them. But the belief was general that the prisoner +had not gone with them, that the sortie had only been a blind for his +escape in some less obvious direction, abetted by the half darkness. + +That week the city was under strict surveillance and I went seldom upon +the street. For after my first relief at his escape was over, I was in +constant dread lest he be retaken or shot; and when I did have to be +out I went shrinkingly, dreading lest I see his face, haggard and +ghostly, gazing down at me from some window, or glimpse him retreating +up some evil alley. + +"Oh, you are too good for this!" my heart accused him. "To think of +you slinking and hiding! I could forgive you anything, even killing +him--yes or even wanting to kill him--but not this running away! What +power is it that this woman has over you, when a little while before +you seemed so brave?" + +The fear that it was because he loved her went through me, the +bitterest thought of all. Against it I treasured the one sentence he +had spoken to me, the only words I had ever heard him speak, and the +looks he had given--the gentleness which had consorted oddly with his +dark face and great strength, and that first shocked, reproachful gaze +which so haunted me; and then the way he had helped me, smilingly, over +the hard places in my testimony against him! How that had moved me! + +Yet what were a few, frail glances beside the thing he had done for the +Spanish Woman? I saw her once driving upon the street. The glint of +her splendid hair made a crown around her head. She leaned back in the +carriage, smiling, looking happy and triumphant; and it was a strange +thought that these days so dreadful for me were good days for some one +else. + +By the end of the week the theory that Johnny was hidden in the city +was abandoned, and search was directed toward the mining-camps, whence +from time to time came reports that he had been seen. But all of these +turned out to be false leads, and the idle talk about it swung into +just the channel that I had feared--how that of course he had been +guilty since he had tried to escape and had succeeded. + +Whatever chance there had been for him before, chance of appeal or +chance of pardon, was gone now. It was as if he had sunk into a deep +pit, out of which he would never rise. I told myself that I must not +think about it, that surely he could not be anything to me any more; +and yet my mind turned to nothing else but the memory of him, and +seemed to fix and fasten upon the thought. I knew that father saw I +brooded. Whether he knew why, I did not like to think; but he used to +take me out upon long drives, among the hills across the bay, and out +to the Presidio to see the military maneuvers; so that he kept me with +him much of the time. And he would urge me to go about to see the +girls I knew; but Hallie was the only one I went to see at all. + +She had been very tactful after the first outburst of enthusiasm over +me upon the witness-stand; and as soon as she understood how I hated +and couldn't endure any allusions to it, had never mentioned it to me +again, though I used sometimes to catch her looking at me in a way +which made me know she was sympathetic and curious; and that made a +bond between us. + +I was fond of the Fergusons' house itself. It had a charming garden, +planted with roses, with big, blue Chinese jars at the elbows of the +paths and on the porch, and a dear little upper balcony--just such a +one as Leonore walks out upon in _Il Trovatore_--which overlooked the +convent and its gardens. Sitting here with Hallie one late afternoon, +while sunlight was still among the housetops, but with the convent +garden in shadow so deep it looked like a reflection in water, I saw +the procession of nuns, slim, black figures and bending heads, winding +slowly through it. The sight touched me with a very melancholy yet not +quite unhappy feeling. + +"What would you think, Hallie," I asked, "if I should become a nun?" + +"A nun!" Hallie almost shrieked. "Ellie Fenwick, what are you thinking +of? Why, you would have to cut off all your lovely hair!" + +"Yes," I said, "one of the sisters there told me that she had hair as +long as mine when she was a girl, and yet she doesn't look unhappy now. +And then everything is so peaceful over there, the garden is so quiet, +and they are so calm! I think I should love to; and oh, dear, Hallie, +you don't know! I am very unhappy!" + +Hallie put her arm around me and said firmly, "You will do no such +thing! You will come to Estrella's party to-night and forget all about +convents and such hateful things! Of course, I know what the matter +is; and it's very lovely and awfully romantic, but really I'm afraid +that he is quite gone, dear. Don't you think you could think of some +one else?" + +I said I couldn't bear to, that I didn't want to go to Estrella's +party, that I hated the thought of the people I would have to meet. +But Hallie can be very persuading, and when I left her my resolution +had weakened considerably. + +"Why not go?" I argued with myself on my way home. "I will have to +begin this sort of thing again sometime--that is, supposing I don't go +into the convent, and I am afraid father wouldn't like me to do that. +At least while I am making up my mind about it anything will be better +than brooding over this thing, which I can't help." + +When I reached home I felt restless and the house seemed very small. +Rather diffidently I broached the subject of Estrella's ball to father; +but he was quite delighted. + +"Excellent," he said, hurried off a boy to the Mendez house with word +that I was coming, sent out for flowers and made a lovely little fuss +about me. I tried to make myself look as pretty as possible in a pale +tulle, with little rosy wreaths upon it, and the high old +tortoise-shell comb, that had been mother's, in my hair. The +excitement gave me more color than I had had for weeks. I thought, +"Even if I am not happy, at least I can be excited." + +[Illustration: I tried to make myself look as pretty as possible.] + +Father looked so tired that when he left me at the Mendez house I asked +why need he come back for me, why not just send the carriage. He +wouldn't hear of that, and then Senora Mendez said why shouldn't I stay +at their house all night? So it was agreed, and Estrella, looking like +a little dancer, in a yellow gown sown [Transcriber's note: sewn?] with +twinkling spangles, came running and hurried me up-stairs to take off +my cloak. + +The ball was a large one--one of those affairs that is so big it makes +you feel lost. I danced, danced madly; but a forlorn conviction kept +growing on me that I did not have that same joyful feeling that I could +dance on air which other parties had brought me. Every young man who +looked at me was not a possible sweetheart, yet more looked at me than +ever did before. I had a little crowd around me, and lots of pretty +things were said to me, and I was not so afraid to reply as I had been. +When Senor Mendez, Estrella's father, who is fat, but dances like +thistledown, took me for a turn around the room, "You are having quite +a success, eh, my child?" he said. "The young men are beginning to +wake up. You are coming out." + +That was all very pleasing and my wits were never any too sharp at a +dance, being in a dreamy and delicious state of obedience to the music +and the swimming atmosphere, so that I did not keenly take note of why +Laura Burnet did not return my bow. Jack Tracy took me in to supper, +and fussed until he found seats for us in the big hall beyond the +supper-room. It appeared he was wanting to propose to me again; and, +as I was ready for anything as far as only making proposals went, I did +not try to stop him. Behind us a curtain hung, the only thing between +us and the ball-room, but the orchestra was still playing softly and +there was hardly any one in that room, so I thought no one could +overhear us. + +In the midst of it, Aleppo Mendez put his head in the door and asked +what had Jack done with his partner's program? Jack, not discovering +it in his pocket, very much vexed at being interrupted, went to look +for it with Aleppo in the supper-room, and I was left alone. + +For a few moments I sat listening to the music. Then this ended with a +soft chord, and on the other side of the curtain I heard the quick +rustling of a girl's frock, and a girl's voice, "Just wait, I must put +one more hair-pin in it or it never will stay up." + +I recognized Estrella's tones. There was a little pause, and then, +evidently resuming the main thread of her discourse she went on, "Of +course, as I was saying, it was awfully brave of her to do it, but how +could she! Why, if I had been in such a position just thinking what it +would have meant to him, I know I couldn't have made a sound!" + +"Well, if I could I wouldn't have!" It was Laura speaking with great +bitterness. "It wasn't as if she had to tell. She was the only one in +the city who saw it. No one would have known anything if only she had +held her tongue!" + +"Oh, but," Estrella broke in, in a deprecating voice, "it was an awful +thing he did!" + +"Oh, was it?" Laura retorted scornfully, "Lots of men do the same thing +and aren't so very bad; and lots more would do it if they dared. Just +because he is handsomer and braver and has a higher temper than most, +lots of people hate him. And because Ellie Fenwick is little and looks +young, and every one was saying how pale and pathetic she looked and +how convincing it was, the way she told her story, oh, I heard the talk +all around the court room!--she just worked on the sympathies of the +jury! It wasn't justice that convicted him! It was Ellie Fenwick!" + +I sat perfectly still, grasping my cold little ice-cream plate in one +hand, not hearing anything more, not even seeming to think, until I +heard Jack Tracy's voice beside me. + +"Good Heavens! what's the matter?" And then, calling out in absurd +alarm, "Don't faint, don't faint!" + +"I am not going to faint," I said, though I had a very strange feeling +of floating, and his face looked a little misty to me. "I want to go +home. Get me a carriage!" + +"But you're ill! Let me call Estrella." + +I caught hold of his sleeve. "Don't say a word to her! Don't dare, +promise me!" I shook his sleeve fiercely. He looked quite scared. +"Get me a carriage," I said, "and mind you don't say anything to any +one until I have gone. Then you can tell Estrella that I was feeling +ill and decided to go home." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A LIGHT IN THE DARK + +Fortunately it was late, after midnight, and a few early ones, dragged +away by their fathers and mothers, were already going; and muffled in +my long cloak and lace scarf I managed to slip out in the wake of a +group of these--hoping they would not notice my being alone--and into +my carriage, evading Jack's insistence that he must see me home by +shutting the door in his face. + +As the carriage went laboring off down the dark hill I crouched in a +heap on the seat. If Estrella and Laura had seized me by the shoulders +and bodily thrust me out of doors I could not have felt more utterly an +outcast. "Does every one feel like that about me, even my friends?" I +thought. + +All my life I had been taught, and had believed, that only good came of +telling the truth. Well, now the opportunity to prove that had come. +I had done what had been demanded of me, and every one looked upon me +as though I were inhuman. Had all the laws of the universe been +suddenly turned upside down? Ought my lips to have been sealed +instinctively by what I saw? Ought I to have been struck dumb on the +witness-stand? Was it true, the terrible injustice of Laura's words, +that because of me--not alone the story I had told, but my looks, my +misery, my very pity for him--he had been convicted? + +I was recalled to my surroundings by the rocking of the carriage. +Great rains, which had fallen lately, had left the roads gullied, and +rough as the sea. The moon would not rise until after one o'clock, and +what made our progress really dangerous, something had gone wrong with +the carriage lights. They dwindled and went out when we were but a +block on our way, and no scratching of matches would make them stay +lighted for a minute. At the foot of the hill the driver brought the +horses to a halt, and informed me that the road ahead looked impassable. + +I peered out of the window. + +An unbuilt space was on my right, and across the dark expanse, and +across the street which cut the other side of it I looked to the long +roofs and walls of the convent, all a dull monotone scarcely +distinguishable from the night. Only on the corner a solitary street +lamp illuminated a little space of the wall and made a pool of light on +the pavement beneath. + +The silence was broken by the sound of voices talking--the jargon of +peons, I thought--and I remembered that I was alone, and driving across +a lonely part of the city. The voices seemed to be approaching down +Powell Street, even now perhaps under the very convent walls. They +sounded loud and jovial. + +"Can't you turn into the sand-lot, and make a cross-cut to Mason +Street?" I whispered to the driver. + +Muttering that sand was "decenter than mud at least," he remounted his +box and swung the horses about. In the mud the wheels and hoofs made +only a soft "squshing" sound. We turned away into the dark, unlighted +space without the approaching group being any the wiser of our presence. + +But, as we went, I saw, suddenly emerging from behind the convent wall +and coming out into the pool of light, the swinging serapes and great +shadowy hats of the Mexicans. They were crossing Lombard, they were +keeping straight on down Powell, probably for some of the North Beach +resorts; but, as with voluble talk and laughter they passed the +opposite curb, I noticed a singular thing--one man who dropped out of +the group silently as if unobserved by his companions. He seemed to +make one step from the lighted street into the shadow, and was +swallowed up in it as completely as if he had plunged into a forest. +He had entered that very tract that I had entered! + +I put my head out of the window and spoke softly to the driver. "Stop! +Keep perfectly still until he gets by." + +The hackman seemed to understand what I wanted, and drew up the team, +and we waited. I heard footsteps. They seemed to be coming straight +toward the carriage. No, they were passing to the left of it. It was +probable that this person was quite unconscious of our presence, but my +heart was beating so hard it seemed to me he surely must hear it. + +The footsteps stopped. I hardly dared to breathe. Then I heard the +rough sound of a match; there came a small blue spurt, and suddenly in +the little upthrown illumination I saw the lips holding tightly the +cigarette; a little higher the flame stretched, and I saw the eyes and +the black bar of the brows. I almost screamed. At the same instant he +looked up and saw me. + +It was just for an instant we gazed at each other thus. Then the match +went out, the light of the cigarette failed, and I saw it drop like a +glow-worm to the ground. I was looking again into nothing but +impenetrable dark. Could it have been real--that glimpse of him--or +only a picture on the night? + +I leaned forward through the window and called softly into the +blackness: "Come here!" I had the scared, shamed, unreal feeling of a +child playing at conjurer who hopes, yet knows no miracle can happen. +The shock was the greater then when, after a moment's interval, a +formless bulk shadowed my window. I shrank back in the surprise and +joy and fear of knowing him there. + +"What can I do for you?" a voice asked, proceeding from the shadow, as +courteously, as formally, as if it were speaking in the lighted +ball-room I had just quitted. + +"Oh, get in, get into the carriage!" I cried, for it seemed to me that +all the city was spying on him, and the risk he ran was more than I +could bear. He hesitated one more heart-breaking instant. Then, I +thought, he drew back. I reached out blindly toward him and clasped +his wrist. + +My fingers were astonished at the great pulse that throbbed under them +like a heart, sending a thrilling through my veins. Then I felt the +downward sway of the carriage, and the sweeping of a serape over my +feet; and I had released his wrist and knew he was sitting opposite me. +I leaned out of the still open door and spoke to the cabman. "Drive +over to Washington Square, and then around the Square." + +Extraordinary as this direction was, he made no demur, only a sort of +grunt, deep in his coat-collar, and almost before I was in my seat +again the wheels were turning, and I saw the arm of my otherwise +indistinguishable companion move darkly against the paler square of +glass as he closed the carriage door, and shut us up alone together in +the dark. He himself was scarcely separable from it, but I seemed to +know how hard he was looking at me. + +"Where were you going?" I said. + +"Nowhere that you may go. Tell me quickly what you want of me." + +It was strange that he, who so long had been a speechless figure--our +only communication by looks--now had become a disembodied voice, like +himself, quick, strong and imperious. There were a dozen questions +which, over and over in imaginary interviews, I had asked him, all my +anxieties and wonders and terrors about him; why he had said those +first words of his to me in the police station; why he had encouraged +me so recklessly with my testimony, and then fled, and of all those +other puzzling inconsistencies in his behavior. But now that my +opportunity and he were both here there boiled up in my brain my +latest, most bitter perplexity of all, the one that had been presented +to me tonight, not a question but a confession. Before I realized what +I was saying I was telling him, very incoherently, how terribly I felt +about having had to give my evidence, and why it had seemed the only +thing to do. "But I know you do not think so," I said. "You think it +strange and cruel of me that I did not keep silent." + +His voice sounded very calm, almost casual. "I think nothing of the +sort. You did quite right, and I am glad there is one woman who can +speak the truth." + +This was utterly different from anything that I had ever expected! +"But," I stammered, "from the way you looked at me first when--when you +ran out at the door, and then again when, I had to tell them who you +were! I thought--" + +I heard the sweep of his serape as he leaned forward toward me. "I +hated, for your own sake, that you should see anything so hideous. +When I came out of that door and saw you there on the other side of the +street, do you know what you seemed to me? You seemed to me like the +reminder of everything good I had ever hoped for or believed in, +looking at me across that distance, horrified at me. It was that I +could not bear." His voice sounded harsh and uncertain, but it was +better to hear than the even off-hand tone he had used at first. + +"I hated to see you have to go through that sordid business in the +police station," he said, "hated to have you dragged through the court, +to think you had to touch such things, even to know that they exist. I +could not forgive myself! But what are you doing here alone at this +hour of the night?" He broke off suddenly. The half stern, half +protecting note made my heart beat. + +"I was at a ball," I stammered. "I came away suddenly because--because +I couldn't bear it. I heard them talking behind the curtains. They +said it was I who had convicted you." + +A touch came on my hand as if it had been the point of a finger, +"Believe me, that is nonsense. It was I who convicted myself." + +I turned toward him. I would have given anything, in that moment, for +a glimpse of his face. + +"If you did anything at all toward that end," he went on steadily, +"remember you only helped me toward what I really wanted to do." + +I kept my eyes fixed on that space of darkness from which his voice +came. "If you wanted to convict yourself then why did you try to +escape?" + +There was quite an interval while I waited, trembling on the brink of +the mystery. When at last he spoke his voice sounded a note of +reserve. The unconscious intimateness was gone. + +"Whatever my motive in convicting myself has been, let me assure you it +has put me so far away from you that I am hardly worthy even to speak +to you. But I feared you had been troubled about giving your evidence, +and I am glad of this one chance to tell you that you have helped +rather than hurt me. But now it is all over; you will not have to +worry or think about it any more, for what I am going to do now will +put me quite out of your sight." + +He said it with such a sad, reckless gaiety, and it sounded so final +that it seemed to me the world had come to an end with it; and, without +any understanding of how or why it happened, I found myself crying, +with my face in my hands. My ears were filled with the sound of my own +sobs, but through them I could hear him begging me to stop, and, though +he did not touch me, I could feel him now close beside me on the same +seat and bending above me. + +"The thing isn't worth it," I heard him say, "I deserve it +all--everything! You are too good to waste any pity on me! But I love +you for it. I have loved you since the moment I saw you staring at me +as if I were the devil. I loved you when you came to the prison and +pointed me out for what I was, the man with the pistol. I will never +forget you." + +At that I cried all the harder, but now there was a curious feeling of +comfort in it. All the misery I had kept shut up in my thoughts for so +many weeks seemed to be running out with my tears. + +"What can I do to make you feel differently about it?" He was pleading. + +"Don't do what you are going to do," I whispered, muffled up in my +handkerchief. + +He made a queer little sound in his throat--amusement or despair, I +couldn't tell which. "Don't you know I can't stay here? Whether I +shot the man or not I am forfeit. I have to go. But before I do I +want to tell you one thing. You won't believe it, but here it is--I +didn't shoot Rood!" + +A great weight seemed to slip from my heart. I dropped my hands and +looked up, and instead of darkness, there was his face above me, great, +shadowy hollows for the eyes, and a soft, gray shadow for the mouth. +His hat was thrown aside and I could see a faint light on his forehead. + +It seemed like a miracle in the first, wondering moment. The next I +understood what had happened. The quarter moon was rising, and +everything was filmed with her dim silver. For a little I looked up at +him quite contentedly, with a feeling of peace at my heart that I had +not felt since I had first seen him. "Of course I believe you," I +said. "I was only so frightened because in the court you wouldn't +speak, and no one would speak for you and explain how it happened. It +made it seem as if you were the one. That was why every one thought +so." + +He smiled rather grimly. "Yes, that is what I supposed." + +"But now you will go back, you will tell them how it really happened, +you will be proved innocent?" + +"I can't be proved innocent," he answered harshly. "There is nothing +here for me." Yet all the while he looked at me so wistfully that it +was hard to understand. + +"But there is I," I said. "Doesn't it matter to you that I care?" + +He did not move or speak, only kept looking down at me with those dark +hollows of his eyes, not a glimmer of light moved in them that I could +see, and, listening to the deep come-and-go of his breathing I felt +frightened. + +"No, I never thought, I never dreamed such a thing was possible," he +said at last, in a queer, shocked, half-awed voice. "You don't know +what you are talking about, child," and he leaned forward, resting his +elbow on his knee and his forehead in his hand. + +"But I do know! I care terribly. All these days when I haven't known +what had become of you I have been understanding it, and I am glad I +said it," I put my hand on his, which rested on the seat beside me. + +He shook it off, pushed it away from him. "No, don't do that," he said +quickly. "Don't tell me that it is so. You are too good for it!" +Then he said slowly, measuring every word as if he meant I should +clearly understand: "This comes too late for me. I have gone too far +in the wrong direction, and now I am going away with the Spanish Woman." + +"No, no, no!" I cried vehemently. "You must not! You are too good for +that!" + +"No, that is all I am good for now. And she has done everything for +me. The sortie at the court house was hers. She has kept me hidden in +her house all these days; and, when that was searched, in the convent +garden. She has chartered a lugger to take us to Mexico. It is lying +out in the bay, now, on the other side of Chestnut Street Hill. She +has slipped me out of her house with a group of her peons for a screen. +I am going aboard now. She is coming out at dawn." He lifted his head +and looked at me again, smiling a little, "And if your conscience can +keep you from reporting this before eight o'clock this morning we shall +be safe." + +He said it in a monotonous, dull tone, as if there were no longer any +question about it, as if for some reason the thing were irrevocable! +And yet I couldn't understand why. There was no reason in it at all +that one could see. I had the dreadful sense of fighting something +invisible. + +"But all that she has done for you," I insisted, "hasn't made any one +happy. It has only kept making things worse and worse for you and +every one else, and finally it has made you a coward." + +How that made him wince! "That's not quite the fact, that's too ugly," +he said quickly. "I can't let you think that; it isn't all my +weakness. It is partly that I owe it to her. I am bound to do this, +just as you were bound to speak the truth in court. You won't +understand it I know, for to you the world is black and white, and each +incident stands by itself. But as a man lives these incidents are +interwoven like the links of a chain, each one depending on the others, +so that sometimes what appears to be a bad thing is really the only +decent thing if one knows the circumstances." + +"But it is because you are only looking at a little string of wrong +things, that the last one of them looks right, because it's like the +others," I said. "If you go back to the big wrong that started them +all and straighten it out, you will see that everything that follows +will straighten itself." + +He threw back his head, looking down at me with an expression I could +not make out, astonished, incredulous, and half ashamed. "Out of the +mouths of babes--" I thought that was what he said very softly. Then, +"And this great wrong, Miss Fenwick?" + +I was conscious that somehow I had gained an advantage, and I kept my +eyes upon him as if in such a fashion I could hold it tight. "You must +tell them how Martin Rood really died." + +"Ah, never!" The word rang with such unexpected finality that all my +hope went tumbling at the sound. + +"Oh, he loves her, he loves her!" I thought and my pleading became the +pleading of despair. "Yes, yes, you will go back, if not for my sake +then for your own, and tell them what you have told me, and the rest of +it; and I know everything will come out right." + +He still kept gazing at me with that puzzling expression, only now +there seemed to be more of tenderness than of incredulity in it. "You +seem to have great faith in things coming out right." + +"Oh, but it's true," I urged. "They will, if only you will go back and +face the thing." + +Slowly he shook his head. "Yes, it may be true. It may even be +workable in some cases, but I have got too far away from what is right +ever to get back. If I should try I would only succeed in doing some +one else still greater wrong--a wrong that even you, with all your +awful sense of justice, could not ask me to do." + +He turned from me, and sat for a little while gazing straight before +him, and I looked at his stern profile set against the window glass, +saw the shift of expression upon it, and knew that he was thinking. At +last, turning to me again, as if there had been no interval between his +words, "But this much I can do," he said. "Even if I can not quite get +back to the great wrong, I will go back as far as I can in honor to set +this thing right. I will give myself up--" He waited a moment, then +added: "On one condition; that you will promise never to say a word of +what I have told you to-night." + +"But," I protested, "then how will they ever know you are innocent?" + +"They won't." + +"Oh, but then you will be--" I began, with a wail. + +"Wait, don't speak, don't answer until I have asked you another +question," and the strong touch of his hand held me quiet. "Suppose I +can't make it come out right--don't you think it is better to make a +strike to get as near to the right as I can, instead of going on, +getting deeper and deeper into the wrong?" + +"Yes," I whispered. "Don't you?" + +"I don't know," he said slowly. "I only know that since I have seen +you I can't go on. After being with you only for this little while, +after what you have told me, I can't go to her." + +We faced each other in silence. My hands were clasped tightly in my +lap but my heart went out to him in gratitude and thankfulness. + +Then, bending a little toward me, "Now, have I your word?" he gently +asked. + +I could have promised him more than my word in that moment. + +He smiled. "I know that I can trust you. I have seen that you have a +loyal heart; but this promise shan't cost you anything. I shall answer +no questions. Now, I shall have to send a message to Senora Valencia." + +"Oh, do not," I begged. "She will stop you from going back. You don't +know what she is capable of; she can do anything!" + +"No one can undo what you have done," he said. "She will not stop me. +I must send her a word to tell her she is to go away on the lugger +without me." + +"But why?" I cried. "I am afraid to have you go near the house. I +know I shall never see you again." + +"Come, you must be brave. I am only going to write a line and slip it +under the gate. We must not be cruel if we are righteous, you know." + +I hardly understood his scruple, but the determination of his voice +made me feel that it was right. Thus reassured the practical question +rose as to what there was he could write with or upon. We should have +to be quick, for already, the first pale change, which is scarcely dawn +but only that fading of the deepest blue of night, was in the sky. He +fumbled in all his pockets, and in the folds of his sash. We explored +the seat and the floor of the carriage. In my eagerness my cloak +slipped from my shoulders, and as he drew it up around me again, with +nervous fingers fastening the clasps across the bosom, "What is that?" +he asked suddenly. + +I put my hand down and it touched a stiff little edge of paper +thrusting from my girdle. I drew it out. It was my dance program. I +had quite forgotten about it. One side of it was scrawled thickly with +names, but most of the other side was clear, and the little white +pencil was still fastened to it. + +He took it from me, and holding it on the palm of his hand, "I wonder +if you have any idea what thing you are asking me to do?" he said. + +I did not speak, because I felt that if I opened my mouth it would be +to say something weak and foolish, and when I had put the card into his +hand I had seen him hesitate; so I knew that he needed all my strength. +He bent his head and began to write slowly and laboriously because of +the swinging of the carriage; and, letting down the window, I put my +head out and addressed the driver who was hunched up like a shivering +bird on his high seat. + +"Drive to the Senora Valencia's house." For perhaps an hour he had +been jogging us around and around the Square, and one would have +thought that this order would have come upon him as a surprise. But he +only turned his head slowly toward me, and then as slowly back again, +with a movement that made me think of a mechanical toy, then he guided +the horses' heads from Washington Square into Lombard Street. + +I had sunk back into my corner and covered my eyes with my hand. "Do +you want to read what I have written?" I heard Johnny ask. + +I shook my head. I felt that I had made him do something terrible, as +he said, I did not know how terrible. I did not even look when the +carriage stopped, when I heard him getting out. But even from where I +sat I could hear the beat of the brass knocker. A moment passed, with +fear thick at my heart; then he was back again. He gave the direction +to the driver before he got in, and the cab turned and was rattling +down the street, with a speed that suggested that the hackman was at +last stirred to excitement by the name of our final destination. We +two looked into each other's face. + +"You would better drop me at Montgomery," Johnny said. + +"No," I answered, "I am going to take you all the way." He frowned. I +thought he was going to object. "Let me stay with you as long as I +can," I begged. "It will make it easier for me." + +Still with his eyes on me his lips moved with some word. Not a sound +came through but I thought he had said my name. And all the while +through the cold, gray twilight we were driving downward through the +city. The farther we went the more a strange and calm feeling settled +upon me, and the more I forgot everything in the world but him. It +seemed as if for ever we would continue to drive on together with this +wonderful quietness between us. + +But the carriage was drawing up. I looked at him anxiously. "What is +the matter? Why are we stopping?" + +His face was strange. "Don't you know? It is the prison." + +He half rose, his hand was on the door, he had turned his back on me. +A sudden anguish went through me, keen as physical pain. Something +that was not my mind at all seemed to be acting for me. I caught hold +of his arm with I don't know what impulse to pull him back. + +He turned, looking at me with smiling eyes, gently unclasped my +fingers, bent his head and touched them with his lips. "Don't spoil +it," he said, "and remember your word." + +I watched him walking down the half block to the prison door, a figure +tall and solitary, and in spite of his gay Mexican trappings, with an +air of somber resolution. So I saw him pass the lone, gray house +fronts, and be swallowed up in the great entrance of the prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LUGGER + +As he disappeared the desire to run after him, to cry out to him, to +cry out to all the ears of the court the story he had told me, rushed +over me, an insane impulse. "What would that do but make everything +worse, even harder for him to bear? Haven't I made things hard enough +for him already?" I who had said I loved him, that I believed in his +innocence, had yet virtuously urged him to go back and give himself +up--to what? Why, my poor little coward mind was even afraid to name +what that thing was! + +The Spanish Woman had not been afraid, no, not of anything! She had +risked everything that she had to save him in the best way that she +knew. Was I, as she had so bitterly told me, only a creature of words +with no deeds to make them good? It was all very well to say things +would turn out right; but now I saw that they would not unless I made +them; and how was that to be managed if he wouldn't speak, and I was in +his confidence and couldn't? + +I puzzled it over as my carriage rattled slowly back up Montgomery +Avenue. Suddenly from what had been absolutely sterile cogitation, +there sprang up the full flower of an idea. All that he had said that +evening had carried the same perplexing undercurrent of a thing that he +could not speak of, and always it seemed to point to the Spanish Woman. +"She knows!" I thought triumphantly, "and if she knows, why, she must +not go away until she has told me." The whole thing opened before me +complete, unexpected, a deliverance. + +I looked out of the window. Faintest, earliest dawn was already +beginning. There was but one thing to do. Johnny had told me that the +Spanish Woman was going aboard the lugger at dawn. I directed the +driver to drive to the Black Point wharf. + +He peered at me as if he thought me crazy. "That feller gave me a gold +piece, ye know," he said, "or I wouldn't have taken ye as far as this." + +"Go on," I said, and queerly enough I didn't feel at all afraid of the +man. "Go on, and my father, Mr. Fenwick, will give you more when you +take me home; and besides you are doing a service for the city." + +Muttering that it was the weirdest go that he had ever struck, he +clucked to the weary horses, and after a little more of cobblestones, +began the struggle through the sand. + +Those terrible sand-hills! We labored in them like a snail. They +seemed to hang on the wheels, and to heap themselves in front of us; +but the increasing light came on wings and what exact moment in all +this long, gray and golden approach of the sun was to be considered +dawn? At last we were over the hilltop, and floundering down the other +side, the trees and gardens of houses overlooking the water front upon +my left-hand, upon the other, sand and sea. Straight below, running +out from the shore, was the little disused wharf. One or two Italian +fishing-boats rocked in its shadow, but no vessel was in sight. + +Could it be that I was too late? I thought, in an agony of +uncertainty, as the carriage drew up at the pier. Thrusting my head +and as much of my body as possible out of the carriage window I looked +out the gray, winding channel toward the Heads. Not a sail in sight! +This was encouraging, for I knew, that even starting with the grayest +light, there would not have been time for the vessel to have vanished +out at sea. Through the other window Chestnut Street Hill, a great +rounding mass, rose bluffly out of the water, shouldering the city out +of sight. Near its base tall eucalyptus trees swayed against the blue +bay; and through their shifting leaves and branches I was able to make +out the masts and sails of the lugger lying close under the hill. It +was so well hidden that had I not been expecting to see it, I must +certainly have passed it over altogether, taking the masts for tree +boles, and the furled canvas for the light acacia bark. + +I drew my cloak closer around my shoulders, pulled up the carriage +blinds on each side, allowing only a crack wide enough for me to look +through, and settled myself to the hard task of waiting, of being at +once patient and vigilant. There was not an instant when I dared relax +my watch, first at this window, now at that, for who could tell by +which way the Spanish Woman would approach--through the sand-hills, +driven up in her carriage, or, what was more probable, on foot over the +tree-guarded slopes of the hill. The blink of an eyelash might lose +her! + +The dull gray light that had chilled shore and sea began to take on a +warmer glint. I knew the east was growing rosy. And still she did not +come. The fishing-boats began to go out, and at my back I heard the +first murmur of the city stirring out of sleep. Two of the fishermen, +Italians, stood on the wharf and stared at my carriage curiously, but I +hardly noticed them. I felt as if I were outside of all the world, and +everything usual that could happen. + +The wind was freshening, picking up whitecaps on the bay, and presently +I noticed that the lugger had shifted her position, had moved out a +little from under the lea of the hill, and I saw they were running up +sail on board. One large flapping white wing, and then another, rose +and spread beyond the trees. I could even hear the piping sound of the +sailors' voices; and then, with a veering and a tilting, and finally +with a graceful bowing motion, she stood away from the hill and began +to go out to sea. + +Beautiful sight that it was I looked at it with despair. I could not +believe it. How had the Spanish Woman got on board without my seeing +her? Could she have slipped along through the bewildering shadows and +so evaded me; or had she gone on board even before I had come? but, no, +that couldn't be, for then the lugger could have sailed immediately, I +thought, as I stood on the step of the carriage and watched the ship +carrying my last hope swing round and dip her nose deep in the channel +tide. + +"There is only one chance," I said to myself. "Perhaps she will have +left some word for him behind her at the house." + +The thought had no sooner come into my mind than it possessed me with +the conviction that this must be so. For when I remembered her looks +and her words to me as she talked of him I felt sure that nothing could +make her quite desert him, even though he had disappointed her. The +idea of her house which a little while ago had terrified me, came now +like an inspiration. I did not know what I should do or say when I +reached it, "But something will tell me what to do when I am there," I +thought, as we retraced our way over the floundering track of the hills. + +When, for the second time that morning, I found myself in front of the +Spanish Woman's gate, I sprang out of the carriage without a moment's +hesitation. I told the man to drive back to our house on Washington +Street and tell Mr. Fenwick there that I wanted him. + +There I stood in the chill daylight, shivering in my pale blue cloak, +impetuously clanging the brazen lion's head upon its clapper. The +outer door opened to me noiselessly as it had done before, shutting as +silently after. But the garden, which had seemed picturesque and +dreamy under the kind sunlight, now looked ghastly, disheveled, +crumbling, as if it had been deserted for at least a hundred years. +The inner door was a long time in opening. Just as I was beginning to +despair it swung a cautious crack. I saw the glimmer of eyes, then +immediately it was opened wide by a woman, the same maid whom I had +seen brushing out the Spanish Woman's hair. + +"The Senora Valencia?" I asked, feeling the mockery of my question, but +pressing forward in terror lest she should not let me in. Her face had +a set appearance. She looked as if she hated me, but she admitted me +readily enough, closing the door quickly upon me. There, just within +the threshold of the house, she held out to me a white envelope. + +The outside was blank, enigmatic as the servant's face, but from it I +pulled a folded sheet of paper scrawled in that bold hand, which, like +all other attributes of that woman, was unforgettable. Within the +paper was a card. Upon the card I read: + +"You see, he understands me perfectly. He wishes to be rid of me and +he has chosen the one way possible. I give you back his words." + +No signature, and the card was my dance program still with its little +pencil. On the back I read the farewell Johnny Montgomery had made +her. It was in Spanish. "I am in love with another woman. Go away +without me. I am going back." + +I stood crumpling the thing in my clenched hand and the first thought +came trembling in words: "Oh, cruel, cruel! How could he say it!" +When I remembered her passionate face and wild will I wondered what +love had done with her when first she had read that card. If a girl +like Laura Burnet had fainted at a lesser shock, what had a creature +like the Spanish Woman done? And then the next thought came, wiping +out the memory of the first. "But there is nothing here to help Johnny +Montgomery--nothing at all!" + +The maid's voice broke upon my bewilderment, harsh and grating. "Will +the Senorita walk up-stairs?" + +I turned to her in increasing amazement. What might this mean? Was I +after all to find my mystery's clew? + +"The Senora's room," the woman explained, going before, and I followed +up the stair. + +I thought I could have told without previous knowledge that the house +had been deserted by its mistress. The rooms which had been warm as +with the heat of life were now deathly cold, as if they had been closed +for a long time. The sweet, thick perfume which had pervaded them had +failed, leaving only a dank smell of old weighty hangings; the very +mysteriousness seemed to have disappeared out of the passageways and +doors, every turn and unexpected opening and winding of which I +remembered through sheer terror. + +At the door of the private _sala_ there was no pause; the maid did not +knock. No need, was there, at the door of an empty room? She led me +straight across the anteroom and there in front of the curtain stood +the impassive major-domo, the man who had led me there the first time. +He was as still as a bronze. He did not even seem to see me, but +stretching out his hand gathered up the velvet folds and drew the +curtain a little to one side. + +There breathed upon me across the threshold, wonderfully fresh and +living, like a human presence, that strong perfume of the Spanish +Woman's flower. I stood fixed in astonishment. There at the far end +of the room she was, the Spanish Woman herself. + +She was seated, yet not as she had been the first time I had seen her, +in her low combing chair; but full facing me on a great high-backed +seat like a throne, her feet on a footstool, a table at her right on +which her hand rested over some white thing, like a folded paper. Her +gown, too dull for gold, too shining for anything else, streamed down +on each side to the floor. Her whole look was as if she had dressed +and seated herself and made ready for some great thing. Her head was +flung back, resting against the cushion and she was looking straight at +me. She did not speak. I felt she was waiting, and that I must begin. + +I walked slowly across the room, not knowing what to say to her, but +when I had covered half the distance some shaft of sunrise slanting +into the room lighted her face with its pale reflection and I saw her +eyes. They were half closed, and behind her thick, long lashes they +gleamed mistily like silver. My knees doubled up under me and I went +down on them in sheer weakness, for I knew that she was dead. + +For a moment I could think of nothing and the room like a wheel went +around me; but I kept saying, "No, no! I will not, I must not faint!" +and after a few moments I moved forward, still, I think, on my knees, +and looked at the paper under her hand. I was too weak to get to my +feet. I reached up and took it. I looked at the Spanish Woman. I +looked at the fine, firm, foreign handwriting. + + +"On the day of May the seventh, 1865, in the presence of John +Montgomery and my peon, Victor Perez, I, Carlotta Valencia, shot and +killed Martin Rood in his gambling-house on Dupont and Washington +Streets. Signed, Carlotta Valencia. Victor Perez." + + +On the table, almost hidden by her hand, I saw the thing which I had +seen once before lying in the gutter on Dupont Street--the +pearl-handled revolver. + +I sat there at her feet, and, looking up at her, I felt as if she had +won, though now I knew it was quite the other way. But she looked so +calm, so mighty, so indifferent, sitting up there above me, that she +made death seem a little thing, and she herself not even wicked. Then +the room swam away from me as in a dream. + +The next thing I was conscious of was a broken foreign voice speaking; +and I found myself covered up with a great coat lying on a sofa in the +down-stairs _sala_; and there, strangely seen among its velvet and +gilding, was father with his hair tossed on end and his clothes huddled +upon him, and Mr. Dingley, very white and drawn, and the peon Perez, +who was talking. I listened to his voice going on as if it were part +of a dream. + +Yes, he said, it was true there had been bad blood between the two men. +First it had been the young man's debts, and then it had been the +Senora. The Senora had told the young man she would give up Rood; but +of course that was impossible, Perez said, with a shrug, as where was +the money to come from he should like to know? But she was constantly +afraid lest young Montgomery might find it out. Therefore, Perez said, +when he had seen Montgomery going into Rood's place at two o'clock on +the morning of the shooting he went at once to his mistress and told +her. Taking Perez with her, she had hurried to the gambling-house with +the purpose of somehow separating the two, and there in the bar the +quarrel had taken place. + +It seemed that the truth of Rood's position as "protector" to the +Senora had reached Montgomery, and he had come to tax Rood with it, and +Rood had told him. He told him even before the Senora's face, and +Montgomery had said he was done with the whole crew of them. He was +going to get out of it, he was going away. Then the Senora had clung +to Montgomery, telling him she would do anything to keep him with her; +and Rood had turned upon him. It was then that the Senora had shot +Rood. He had been standing so near the swinging door that at the shot, +to their horror, he had fallen backward through it. + +Before any one could think, the peon went on, Montgomery had snatched +the revolver from her, saying: "I shot him," and had rushed out into +the street, and after a moment's waiting the Senora had run out, and +seeing the revolver picked it up. Yes, he said, she had worn a white +dress and undoubtedly it was she and not the Senorita Fenwick that the +woman who had looked out the window had seen. But she had not run down +the street, as this witness had said, who, like all women, only +remembered what she wished to believe, but back into the +gambling-house, and through there into an alley at the rear, from which +they entered a house the Senora was familiar with, and remained there +until the afternoon when the excitement had somewhat subsided. Then +they had gone quietly back to the Senora's house. + +Yes, the pistol was the Senora's. Mr. Montgomery had bought it for her +a little while before. Yes, the Senora had made sure to save Mr. +Montgomery and but for the Senorita Fenwick it would have been. For +she had many friends, friends of power, he said. At that Mr. Dingley +grew paler, and started to speak, but then he seemed to change his +mind. Father looked at him, and I wondered then had the trouble been +that Mr. Dingley had been one of those friends of hers. When the +police came and we left the place, Mr. Dingley and father separated +without a word, and father took me home alone in the carriage. + + + + +EPILOGUE + +TWO YEARS + +All the experiences which I had gone through with, with such apparent +lack of feeling, seemed to take their revenge on me at once. For a +while I was very ill, delirious with fever; and when I was myself again +and the doctor would let me be talked to, the new trial was all over, +and Johnny Montgomery had been acquitted a week ago. It was Hallie, +all smiles, with her hands full of roses, who brought this news in to +me; and in a few days, she said, Jack Tracy had told her, Montgomery +was going to leave the city. This set me wondering whether that night +in the carriage and everything we had told each other then had been no +more than part of my fever visions. + +At last I gathered courage enough to ask father if Johnny Montgomery +had inquired about me. Father looked annoyed, and said, "Yes," that he +had been sending every day, and that he had asked if he might see me +when I was able, but, father said, he had thought it best to refuse. +That made me so miserable I began to be ill again, and the doctor was +afraid I would have a relapse; so finally father gave his permission +for me to see Johnny. + +It was strange and unreal to think that it was actually he, gaunt and +white and serious-looking, standing beside my bed and gazing down at me +with timid eyes. We were both so glad to see each other we were a +little afraid. The shadow of things that had happened was over us +still and made us grave. + +I must have looked very thin, for he took my hand as if he thought it +would break and his voice was hardly above a whisper. He said whatever +good came of him and whatever happiness he had hereafter he would owe +to me, and that would be more than owing me his life; but father was +right in saying that a man with the reputation he held in this city had +no right to see or speak with me. He had only come to thank me and to +say good-by. He was going away to South America. + +"But father does not know you," I said, "and I am sure you are quite a +different man from what any one here thinks you. And if you go away it +will break my heart." + +At that he looked happier and said if I felt that way he would go just +the same, but it would make him want to come back again. And then, +perhaps, he might be more the sort of man my father would give his +daughter to. A friend of his father's, he said, had offered him an +overseer's place in his mine in South America; and would I forget all +about him in two years, he wanted to know? + +"Two years will seem a very long time," I said, "but I shall remember +you and wait for you for ever." + +He smiled and said, "Those two years will be almost for ever to me, but +I have bought my chance dear, and even the hope of such happiness is +more than I deserve." + +And then I called father and told him. He was very grave, and said to +Johnny, "It depends on you; if you can show yourself a different sort +of man and wipe out the record you have made for yourself, well, then, +I suppose she will be of age, and it will be your own affair--but I +hope she will forget you." That was absurd! + +So I kissed Johnny good-by--though father didn't like that at all--for +it would help to make the two years shorter. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Other Side of the Door, by Lucia Chamberlain + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR *** + +***** This file should be named 25724.txt or 25724.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/7/2/25724/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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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