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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/33305-8.txt b/33305-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7021158 --- /dev/null +++ b/33305-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10640 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost Man's Lane, by Anna Katharine Green + +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: Lost Man's Lane + A Second Episode in the Life of Amelia Butterworth + +Author: Anna Katharine Green + +Release Date: July 31, 2010 [EBook #33305] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST MAN'S LANE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + LOST MAN'S LANE + + A SECOND EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF AMELIA BUTTERWORTH + + BY ANNA KATHARINE GREEN + + (MRS. CHARLES ROHLFS) + + Author of "That Affair Next Door," "The Leavenworth Case," + "The Forsaken Inn," etc. + + +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS +NEW YORK & LONDON +The Knickerbocker Press +1899 + +COPYRIGHT, 1898 +BY ANNA KATHARINE ROHLFS + +Entered at Stationers' Hall, London + +Set up and electrotyped March, 1898. Reprinted March, 1898; +April, 1898; July, 1898; Aug., 1898; Oct., 1898; Aug., 1899 + +The Knickerbocker Press, New York + + + To + ELIZABETH D. SHEPARD + COUSIN AND FRIEND + THIS BOOK +IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED + + + + +PREFACE + + +A word to my readers before they begin these pages. + +As a woman of inborn principle and strict Presbyterian training, I hate +deception and cannot abide subterfuge. This is why, after a year or more +of hesitation, I have felt myself constrained to put into words the true +history of the events surrounding the solution of that great mystery +which made Lost Man's Lane the dread of the neighboring country. +Feminine delicacy, and a natural shrinking from revealing to the world +certain weaknesses on my part, inseparable from a true relation of this +tale, led me to consent to the publication of that meagre and decidedly +falsified account of the matter which has appeared in some of our +leading papers. + +But conscience has regained its sway in my breast, and with all due +confidence in your forbearance, I herein take my rightful place in these +annals, of whose interest and importance I now leave you to judge. + +AMELIA BUTTERWORTH. + +GRAMERCY PARK, NEW YORK. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +_BOOK I_ THE KNOLLYS FAMILY + +I.--A VISIT FROM MR. GRYCE + +II.--I AM TEMPTED + +III.--I SUCCUMB + +IV.--A GHOSTLY INTERIOR + +V.--A STRANGE HOUSEHOLD + +VI.--A SOMBRE EVENING + +VII.--THE FIRST NIGHT + +VIII.--ON THE STAIRS + +IX.--A NEW ACQUAINTANCE + +X.--SECRET INSTRUCTIONS + +XI.--MEN, WOMEN, AND GHOSTS + +XII.--THE PHANTOM COACH + +XIII.--GOSSIP + +XIV.--I FORGET MY AGE, OR, RATHER, REMEMBER IT + + +_BOOK II_ THE FLOWER PARLOR + +XV.--LUCETTA FULFILS MY EXPECTATION OF HER + +XVI.--LOREEN + +XVII.--THE FLOWER PARLOR + +XVIII.--THE SECOND NIGHT + +XIX.--A KNOT OF CRAPE + +XX.--QUESTIONS + +XXI.--MOTHER JANE + +XXII.--THE THIRD NIGHT + + +_BOOK III_ FORWARD AND BACK + +XXIII.--ROOM 3, HOTEL CARTER + +XXIV.--THE ENIGMA OF NUMBERS + +XXV.--TRIFLES, BUT NOT TRIFLING + +XXVI.--A POINT GAINED + +XXVII.--THE TEXT WITNESSETH + +XXVIII.--AN INTRUSION + +XXIX.--IN THE CELLAR + +XXX.--INVESTIGATION + +XXXI.--STRATEGY + +XXXII.--RELIEF + + +_BOOK IV_ THE BIRDS OF THE AIR + +XXXIII.--LUCETTA + +XXXIV.--CONDITIONS + +XXXV--THE DOVE + +XXXVI.--AN HOUR OF STARTLING EXPERIENCES + +XXXVII.--I ASTONISH MR. GRYCE AND HE ASTONISHES ME + +XXXVIII.--A FEW WORDS + +XXXIX.--UNDER A CRIMSON SKY + +XL.--EXPLANATIONS + +EPILOGUE + + + + +LOST MAN'S LANE + + + + +_BOOK I_ + +THE KNOLLYS FAMILY + + + + +I + +A VISIT FROM MR. GRYCE + + +Ever since my fortunate--or shall I say unfortunate?--connection with +that famous case of murder in Gramercy Park, I have had it intimated to +me by many of my friends--and by some who were not my friends--that no +woman who had met with such success as myself in detective work would +ever be satisfied with a single display of her powers, and that sooner +or later I would find myself again at work upon some other case of +striking peculiarities. + +As vanity has never been my foible, and as, moreover, I never have +forsaken and never am likely to forsake the plain path marked out for my +sex, at any other call than that of duty, I invariably responded to +these insinuations by an affable but incredulous smile, striving to +excuse the presumption of my friends by remembering their ignorance of +my nature and the very excellent reasons I had for my one notable +interference in the police affairs of New York City. + +Besides, though I appeared to be resting quietly, if not in entire +contentment, on my laurels, I was not so utterly removed from the old +atmosphere of crime and its detection as the world in general considered +me to be. Mr. Gryce still visited me; not on business, of course, but as +a friend, for whom I had some regard; and naturally our conversation was +not always confined to the weather or even to city politics, provocative +as the latter subject is of wholesome controversy. + +Not that he ever betrayed any of the secrets of his office--oh no; that +would have been too much to expect--but he did sometimes mention the +outward aspects of some celebrated case, and though I never ventured +upon advice--I know too much for that, I hope--I found my wits more or +less exercised by a conversation in which he gained much without +acknowledging it, and I gave much without appearing conscious of the +fact. + +I was therefore finding life pleasant and full of interest, when +suddenly (I had no right to expect it, and I do not blame myself for not +expecting it or for holding my head so high at the prognostications of +my friends) an opportunity came for a direct exercise of my detective +powers in a line seemingly so laid out for me by Providence that I felt +I would be slighting the Powers above if I refused to enter upon it, +though now I see that the line was laid out for me by Mr. Gryce, and +that I was obeying anything but the call of duty in following it. + +But this is not explicit. One night Mr. Gryce came to my house looking +older and more feeble than usual. He was engaged in a perplexing case, +he said, and missed his early vigor and persistency. Would I like to +hear about it? It was not in the line of his usual work, yet it had +points--and well!--it would do him good to talk about it to a +non-professional who was capable of sympathizing with its baffling and +worrisome features and yet would never have to be told to hold her +peace. + +I ought to have been on my guard. I ought to have known the old fox well +enough to feel certain that when he went so manifestly out of his way to +take me into his confidence he did it for a purpose. But Jove nods now +and then--or so I have been assured on unimpeachable authority,--and if +Jove has ever been caught napping, surely Amelia Butterworth may be +pardoned a like inconsistency. + +"It is not a city crime," Mr. Gryce went on to explain, and here he was +base enough to sigh. "At my time of life this is an important +consideration. It is no longer a simple matter for me to pack up a +valise and go off to some distant village, way up in the mountains +perhaps, where comforts are few and secrecy an impossibility. Comforts +have become indispensable to my threescore years and ten, and +secrecy--well, if ever there was an affair where one needs to go softly, +it is this one; as you will see if you will allow me to give you the +facts of the case as known at Headquarters to-day." + +I bowed, trying not to show my surprise or my extreme satisfaction. Mr. +Gryce assumed his most benignant aspect (always a dangerous one with +him), and began his story. + + + + +II + +I AM TEMPTED + + +"Some ninety miles from here, in a more or less inaccessible region, +there is a small but interesting village, which has been the scene of so +many unaccountable disappearances that the attention of the New York +police has at last been directed to it. The village, which is at least +two miles from any railroad, is one of those quiet, placid little spots +found now and then among the mountains, where life is simple, and crime, +to all appearance, an element so out of accord with every other +characteristic of the place as to seem a complete anomaly. Yet crime, or +some other hideous mystery almost equally revolting, has during the last +five years been accountable for the disappearance in or about this +village of four persons of various ages and occupations. Of these, three +were strangers and one a well-known vagabond accustomed to tramp the +hills and live on the bounty of farmers' wives. All were of the male +sex, and in no case has any clue ever come to light as to their fate. +That is the matter as it stands before the police to-day." + +"A serious affair," I remarked. "Seems to me I have read of such things +in novels. Is there a tumbled-down old inn in the vicinity where beds +are made up over trap-doors?" + +His smile was a mild protest against my flippancy. + +"I have visited the town myself. There is no inn there, but a +comfortable hotel of the most matter-of-fact sort, kept by the frankest +and most open-minded of landlords. Besides, these disappearances, as a +rule, did not take place at night, but in broad daylight. Imagine this +street at noon. It is a short one, and you know every house on it, and +you think you know every lurking-place. You see a man enter it at one +end and you expect him to issue from it at the other. But suppose he +never does. More than that, suppose he is never heard of again, and that +this thing should happen in this one street four times during five +years." + +"I should move," I dryly responded. + +"Would you? Many good people have moved from the place I speak of, but +that has not helped matters. The disappearances go on just the same and +the mystery continues." + +"You interest me," I said. "Come to think of it, if this street were the +scene of such an unexplained series of horrors as you have described, I +do not think I should move." + +"I thought not," he curtly rejoined. "But since you are interested in +this matter, let me be more explicit in my statements. The first person +whose disappearance was noted----" + +"Wait," I interrupted. "Have you a map of the place?" + +He smiled, nodded quite affectionately to a little statuette on the +mantel-piece, which had had the honor of sharing his confidences in days +gone by, but did not produce the map. + +"That detail will keep," said he. "Let me go on with my story. As I was +saying, madam, the first person whose disappearance was noted in this +place was a peddler of small wares, accustomed to tramp the mountains. +On this occasion he had been in town longer than usual, and was known to +have sold fully half of his goods. Consequently he must have had quite a +sum of money upon him. One day his pack was found lying under a cluster +of bushes in a wood, but of him nothing was ever again heard. It made an +excitement for a few days while the woods were being searched for his +body, but, nothing having been discovered, he was forgotten, and +everything went on as before, till suddenly public attention was again +aroused by the pouring in of letters containing inquiries in regard to a +young man who had been sent there from Duluth to collect facts in a law +case, and who after a certain date had failed to communicate with his +firm or show up at any of the places where he was known. Instantly the +village was in arms. Many remembered the young man, and some two or +three of the villagers could recall the fact of having seen him go up +the street with his hand-bag in his hand as if on his way to the +Mountain-station. The landlord of the hotel could fix the very day at +which he left his house, but inquiries at the station failed to +establish the fact that he took train from there, nor were the most +minute inquiries into his fate ever attended by the least result. He was +not known to have carried much money, but he carried a very handsome +watch and wore a ring of more than ordinary value, neither of which has +ever shown up at any pawnbroker's known to the police. This was three +years ago. + +"The next occurrence of a like character did not take place till a year +after. This time it was a poor old man from Hartford, who vanished +almost as it were before the eyes of these astounded villagers. He had +come to town to get subscriptions for a valuable book issued by a +well-known publisher. He had been more or less successful, and was +looking very cheerful and contented, when one morning, after making a +sale at a certain farmhouse, he sat down to dine with the family, it +being close on to noon. He had eaten several mouthfuls and was chatting +quite freely, when suddenly they saw him pause, clap his hand to his +pocket, and rise up very much disturbed. 'I have left my pocket-book +behind me at Deacon Spear's,' he cried. 'I cannot eat with it out of my +possession. Excuse me if I go for it.' And without any further +apologies, he ran out of the house and down the road in the direction of +Deacon Spear's. He never reached Deacon Spear's, nor was he ever seen in +that village again or in his home in Hartford. This was the most +astonishing mystery of all. Within a half-mile's radius, in a populous +country town, this man disappeared as if the road had swallowed him and +closed again. It was marvellous, it was incredible, and remained so even +after the best efforts of the country police to solve the mystery had +exhausted themselves. After this, the town began to acquire a bad name, +and one or two families moved away. Yet no one was found who was willing +to admit that these various persons had been the victims of foul play +till a month later another case came to light of a young man who had +left the village for the hillside station, and had never arrived at that +or any other destination so far as could be learned. As he was a distant +relative of a wealthy cattle owner in Iowa, who came on post-haste to +inquire into his nephew's fate, the excitement ran high, and through his +efforts and that of one of the town's leading citizens, the services of +our office were called into play. But the result has been nil. We have +found neither the bodies of these men nor any clue to their fate." + +"Yet _you_ have been there?" I suggested. + +He nodded. + +"Wonderful! And you came upon no suspicious house, no suspicious +person?" + +The finger with which he was rubbing his eyeglasses went round and round +the rims with a slower and slower and still more thoughtful motion. + +"Every town has its suspicious-looking houses," he slowly remarked, +"and, as for persons, the most honest often wear a lowering look in +which an unbridled imagination can see guilt. I never trust to +appearances of that kind." + +"What else can you trust in, when a case is as impenetrable as this +one?" I asked. + +His finger, going slower and slower, suddenly stopped. + +"In my knowledge of persons," he replied. "In my knowledge of their +fears, their hopes, and their individual concerns. If I were twenty +years younger"--here he stole a glance at me in the mirror which made me +bridle; did he think I was only twenty years younger than himself?--"I +would," he went on, "make myself so acquainted with every man, woman, +and child there, that--" Here he drew himself up with a jerk. "But the +day for that is passed," said he. "I am too old and too crippled to +succeed in such an undertaking. Having been there once, I am a marked +man. My very walk betrays me. He whose good fortune it will be to get at +the bottom of these people's hearts must awaken no suspicions as to his +connection with the police. Indeed, I do not think that any man can +succeed in doing this now." + +I started. This was a frank showing of his hand at least. No man! It was +then a woman's aid he was after. I laughed as I thought of it. I had not +thought him either so presumptuous or so appreciative of talents of a +character so directly in line with his own. + +"Don't you agree with me, madam?" + +I did agree with him; but I had a character of great dignity to +maintain, so I simply surveyed him with an air of well-tempered +severity. + +"I do not know of any woman who would undertake such a task," I calmly +observed. + +"No?" he smiled with that air of forbearance which is so exasperating to +me. "Well, perhaps there isn't any such woman to be found. It would take +one of very uncommon characteristics, I own." + +"Pish!" I cried. "Not so very!" + +"Indeed, I think you have not fully taken in the case," he urged in +quiet superiority. "The people there are of the higher order of country +folk. Many of them are of extreme refinement. One family"--here his tone +changed a trifle--"is poor enough and cultivated enough to interest even +such a woman as yourself." + +"Indeed!" I ejaculated, with just a touch of my father's hauteur to hide +the stir of curiosity his words naturally evoked. + +"It is in some such home," he continued with an ease that should have +warned me he had started on this pursuit with a quiet determination to +win, "that the clue will be found to the mystery we are considering. +Yes, you may well look startled, but that conclusion is the one thing I +brought away with me from--X., let us say. I regard it as one of some +moment. What do you think of it?" + +"Well," I admitted, "it makes me feel like recalling that _pish_ I +uttered a few minutes ago. It would take a woman of uncommon +characteristics to assist you in this matter." + +"I am glad we have got that far," said he. + +"A lady," I went on. + +"Most assuredly a lady." + +I paused. Sometimes discreet silence is more sarcastic than speech. + +"Well, what lady would lend herself to this scheme?" I demanded at last. + +The tap, tap of his fingers on the rim of his glasses was my only +answer. + +"I do not know of any," said I. + +His eyebrows rose perhaps a hair's-breadth, but I noted the implied +sarcasm, and for an instant forgot my dignity. + +"Now," said I, "this will not do. You mean me, Amelia Butterworth; a +woman who--but I do not think it is necessary to tell you either who or +what I am. You have presumed, sir--Now do not put on that look of +innocence, and above all do not attempt to deny what is so manifestly in +your thoughts, for that would make me feel like showing you the door." + +"Then," he smiled, "I shall be sure to deny nothing. I am not anxious to +leave--yet. Besides, whom could I mean but you? A lady visiting friends +in this remote and beautiful region--what opportunities might she not +have to probe this important mystery if, like yourself, she had tact, +discretion, excellent understanding, and an experience which if not +broad or deep is certainly such as to give her a certain confidence in +herself, and an undoubted influence with the man fortunate enough to +receive her advice." + +"Bah!" I exclaimed. It was one of his favorite expressions. That was +perhaps why I used it. "One would think I was a member of your police." + +"You flatter us too deeply," was his deferential answer. "Such an honor +as that would be beyond our deserts." + +To this I gave but the faintest sniff. That he should think that I, +Amelia Butterworth, could be amenable to such barefaced flattery! Then I +faced him with some asperity, and said bluntly: "You waste your time. I +have no more intention of meddling in another affair than----" + +"You had in meddling in the first," he politely, too politely, +interpolated. "I understand, madam." + +I was angry, but made no show of being so. I was not willing he should +see that I could be affected by anything he could say. + +"The Van Burnams are my next-door neighbors," I remarked sweetly. "I had +the best of excuses for the interest I took in their affairs." + +"So you had," he acquiesced. "I am glad to be reminded of the fact. I +wonder I was able to forget it." + +Angry now to the point of not being able to hide it, I turned upon him +with firm determination. + +"Let us talk of something else," I said. + +But he was equal to the occasion. Drawing a folded paper from his +pocket, he opened it out before my eyes, observing quite naturally: +"That is a happy thought. Let us look over this sketch you were sharp +enough to ask for a few moments ago. It shows the streets of the village +and the places where each of the persons I have mentioned was last seen. +Is not that what you wanted?" + +I know that I should have drawn back with a frown, that I never should +have allowed myself the satisfaction of casting so much as a glance +toward the paper, but the human nature which links me to my kind was too +much for me, and with an involuntary "Exactly!" I leaned over it with an +eagerness I strove hard, even at that exciting moment, to keep within +the bounds I thought proper to my position as a non-professional, +interested in the matter from curiosity alone. + +This is what I saw: + +[Illustration] + +"Mr. Gryce," said I, after a few minutes' close contemplation of this +diagram, "I do not suppose you want any opinion from me." + +"Madam," he retorted, "it is all you have left me free to ask for." + +Receiving this as a permission to speak, I put my finger on the road +marked with a cross. + +"Then," said I, "so far as I can gather from this drawing, all the +disappearances seem to have taken place in or about this especial road." + +"You are as correct as usual," he returned. "What you have said is so +true, that the people of the vicinity have already given to this winding +way a special cognomen of its own. For two years now it has been called +Lost Man's Lane." + +"Indeed!" I cried. "They have got the matter down as close as that, and +yet have not solved its mystery? How long is this road?" + +"A half mile or so." + +I must have looked my disgust, for his hands opened deprecatingly. + +"The ground has undergone a thorough search," said he. "Not a square +foot in those woods you see on either side of the road, but has been +carefully examined." + +"And the houses? I see there are three houses on this road." + +"Oh, they are owned by most respectable people--_most_ respectable +people," he repeated, with a lingering emphasis that gave me an inward +shudder. "I think I had the honor of intimating as much to you a few +minutes ago." + +I looked at him earnestly, and irresistibly drew a little nearer to him +over the diagram. + +"Have none of these houses been visited by you?" I asked. "Do you mean +to say you have not seen the inside of them all?" + +"Oh," he replied, "I have been in them all, of course; but a mystery +such as we are investigating is not written upon the walls of parlors or +halls." + +"You freeze my blood," was my uncharacteristic rejoinder. Somehow the +sight of the homes indicated on this diagram seemed to bring me into +more intimate sympathy with the affair. + +His shrug was significant. + +"I told you that this was no vulgar mystery," he declared; "or why +should I be considering it with _you_? It is quite worthy of your +interest. Do you see that house marked A?" + +"I do," I nodded. + +"Well, that is a decayed mansion of imposing proportions, set in a +forest of overgrown shrubbery. The ladies who inhabit it----" + +"Ladies!" I put in, with a small shock of horror. + +"Young ladies," he explained, "of a refined if not over-prosperous +appearance. They are the interesting residue of a family of some repute. +Their father was a judge, I believe." + +"And do they live there alone," I asked,--"two young ladies in a house +so large and in a neighborhood so full of mystery?" + +"Oh, they have a brother with them, a lout of no great attractions," he +responded carelessly--too carelessly, I thought. + +I made a note of the house A in my mind. + +"And who lives in the house marked B?" I now queried. + +"A Mr. Trohm. You will remember that it was through his exertions the +services of the New York police were secured. His place there is one of +the most interesting in town, and he does not wish to be forced to leave +it, but he will be obliged to do so if the road is not soon relieved of +its bad name; and so will Deacon Spear. The very children shun the road +now. I do not know of a lonelier place." + +"I see a little mark made here on the verge of the woods. What does that +mean?" + +"That stands for a hut--it can hardly be called a cottage--where a poor +old woman lives called Mother Jane. She is a harmless imbecile, against +whom no one has ever directed a suspicion. You may take your finger off +that mark, Miss Butterworth." + +I did so, but I did not forget that it stood very near the footpath +branching off to the station. + +"You entered this hut as well as the big houses?" I intimated. + +"And found," was his answer, "four walls; nothing more." + +I let my finger travel along the footpath I have just mentioned. + +"Steep," was his comment. "Up, up, all the way, but no precipices. +Nothing but pine woods on either side, thickly carpeted with needles." + +My finger came back and stopped at the house marked M. + +"Why is a letter affixed to this spot?" I asked. + +"Because it stands at the head of the lane. Any one sitting at the +window L can see whoever enters or leaves the lane at this end. And some +one is always sitting there. The house contains two crippled children, a +boy and a girl. One of them is always in that window." + +"I see," said I. Then abruptly: "What do you think of Deacon Spear?" + +"Oh, he's a well-meaning man, none too fine in his feelings. He does not +mind the neighborhood; likes quiet, he says. I hope you will know him +for yourself some day," the detective slyly added. + +At this return to the forbidden subject, I held myself very much aloof. + +"Your diagram is interesting," I remarked, "but it has not in the least +changed my determination. It is you who will return to X., and that, +very soon." + +"Very soon?" he repeated. "Whoever goes there on this errand must go at +once; to-night, if possible; if not, to-morrow at the latest." + +"To-night! to-morrow!" I expostulated. "And you thought----" + +"No matter what I thought," he sighed. "It seems I had no reason for my +hopes." And folding up the map, he slowly rose. "The young man we have +left there is doing more harm than good. That is why I say that some one +of real ability must replace him immediately. The detective from New +York must seem to have left the place." + +I made him my most ladylike bow of dismissal. + +"I shall watch the papers," I said. "I have no doubt that I shall soon +be gratified by seeing in them some token of your success." + +He cast a rueful look at his hands, took a painful step toward the door, +and dolefully shook his head. + +I kept my silence undisturbed. + +He took another painful step, then turned. + +"By the way," he remarked, as I stood watching him with an +uncompromising air, "I have forgotten to mention the name of the town in +which these disappearances have occurred. It is called X., and it is to +be found on one of the spurs of the Berkshire Hills." And, being by this +time at the door, he bowed himself out with all the insinuating suavity +which distinguishes him at certain critical moments. The old fox was so +sure of his triumph that he did not wait to witness it. He knew--how, it +is easy enough for me to understand now--that X. was a place I had often +threatened to visit. The family of one of my dearest friends lived +there, the children of Althea Knollys. She had been my chum at school, +and when she died I had promised myself not to let many months go by +without making the acquaintance of her children. Alas! I had allowed +years to elapse. + + + + +III + +I SUCCUMB + + +That night the tempter had his own way with me. Without much difficulty +he persuaded me that my neglect of Althea Burroughs' children was +without any excuse; that what had been my duty toward them when I knew +them to be left motherless and alone, had become an imperative demand +upon me now that the town in which they lived had become overshadowed by +a mystery which could not but affect the comfort and happiness of all +its inhabitants. I could not wait a day. I recalled all that I had heard +of poor Althea's short and none too happy marriage, and immediately felt +such a burning desire to see if her dainty but spirited beauty--how well +I remembered it--had been repeated in her daughters, that I found myself +packing my trunk before I knew it. + +I had not been from home for a long time--all the more reason why I +should have a change now--and when I notified Mrs. Randolph and the +servants of my intention of leaving on the early morning train, it +created quite a sensation in the house. + +But I had the best of explanations to offer. I had been thinking of my +dead friend, and my conscience would not let me neglect her dear and +possibly unhappy progeny any longer. I had purposed many times to visit +X., and now I was going to do it. When I come to a decision, it is +usually suddenly, and I never rest after having once made up my mind. + +My sentiment went so far that I got down an old album and began hunting +up the pictures I had brought away with me from boarding-school. Hers +was among them, and I really did experience more or less compunction +when I saw again the delicate yet daring features which had once had a +very great influence over my mind. What a teasing sprite she was, yet +what a will she had, and how strange it was that, having been so +intimate as girls, we never knew anything of each other as women! Had it +been her fault or mine? Was her marriage to blame for it or my +spinsterhood? Difficult to tell then, impossible to tell now. I would +not even think of it again, save as a warning. Nothing must stand +between me and her children now that my attention has been called to +them again. + +I did not mean to take them by surprise--that is, not entirely. The +invitation which they had sent me years ago was still in force, making +it simply necessary for me to telegraph them that I had decided to make +them a visit, and that they might expect me by the noon train. If in +times gone by they had been properly instructed by their mother in +regard to the character of her old friend, this need not put them out. I +am not a woman of unbounded expectations. I do not look for the comforts +abroad I am accustomed to find at home, and if, as I have reason to +believe, their means are not of the greatest, they would only provoke me +by any show of effort to make me feel at home in the humble cottage +suited to their fortunes. + +So the telegram was sent, and my preparations completed for an early +departure. + +But, resolved as I was to make this visit, my determination came near +receiving a check. Just as I was leaving the house--at the very moment, +in fact, when the hackman was carrying out my trunk, I perceived a man +approaching me with every evidence of haste. He had a letter in his +hand, which he held out to me as soon as he came within reach. + +"For Miss Butterworth," he announced. "Private and immediate." + +"Ah," thought I, "a communication from Mr. Gryce," and hesitated for a +moment whether to open it on the spot or to wait and read it at my +leisure on the cars. The latter course promised me less inconvenience +than the first, for my hands were cumbered with the various small +articles I consider indispensable to the comfortable enjoyment of the +shortest journey, and the glasses without which I cannot read a word, +were in the very bottom of my pocket under many other equally necessary +articles. + +But something in the man's expectant look warned me that he would never +leave me till I had read the note, so with a sigh I called Lena to my +aid, and after several vain attempts to reach my glasses, succeeded at +last in pulling them out, and by their help reading the following +hurried lines: + + "DEAR MADAM: + + "I send you this by a swifter messenger than myself. Do not let + anything that I may have said last night influence you to leave + your comfortable home. The adventure offers too many dangers + for a woman. Read the inclosed. G." + +The inclosed was a telegram from X., sent during the night, and +evidently just received at Headquarters. Its contents were certainly not +reassuring: + + "Another person missing. Last seen in Lost Man's Lane. A + harmless lad known as Silly Rufus. What's to be done? Wire + orders. TROHM." + +"Mr. Gryce bade me say that he would be up here some time before noon," +said the man, seeing me look with some blankness at these words. + +Nothing more was needed to restore my self-possession. Folding up the +letter, I put it in my bag. + +"Say to Mr. Gryce from me that my intended visit cannot be postponed," I +replied. "I have telegraphed to my friends to expect me, and only a +great emergency would lead me to disappoint them. I will be glad to +receive Mr. Gryce on my return." And without further parley, I took my +bundles back from Lena, and proceeded at once to the carriage. Why +should I show any failure of courage at an event that was but a +repetition of the very ones which made my visit necessary? Was I a +likely person to fall victim to a mystery to which my eyes had been +opened? Had I not been sufficiently warned of the dangers of Lost Man's +Lane to keep myself at a respectable distance from the place of peril? I +was going to visit the children of my once devoted friend. If there were +perils of no ordinary nature to be encountered in so doing, was I not +all the more called upon to lend them the support of my presence? + +Yes, Mr. Gryce, and nothing now should hold me back. I even felt an +increased desire to reach the scene of these mysteries, and chafed some +at the length of the journey, which was of a more tedious character than +I expected. A poor beginning for events requiring patience as well as +great moral courage; but I little knew what was before me, and only +considered that every moment spent on this hot and dusty train kept me +thus much longer from the embraces of Althea's children. + +I recovered my equanimity, however, as we approached X. The scenery was +really beautiful, and the consciousness that I should soon alight at the +mountain station which had played a more or less serious part in Mr. +Gryce's narrative, awakened in me a pleasurable excitement which should +have been a sufficient warning to me that the spirit of investigation +which had led me so triumphantly through that affair next door had +seized me again in a way that meant equal absorption if not equal +success. + +The number of small packages I carried gave me enough to think of at the +moment of alighting, but as soon as I was safely again on terra firma I +threw a hasty glance around to see if any of Althea's children were on +hand to meet me. + +I felt that I ought to know them at first glance. Their mother had been +so characteristically pretty, she could not have failed to transmit some +of her most charming traits to her offspring. But while there were two +or three country maidens to be seen standing in and around the little +pavilion known here as the Mountain-station, I saw no one who by any +stretch of imagination could be regarded as of Althea Burroughs' blood +or breeding. + +Somewhat disappointed, for I had expected different results from my +telegram, I stepped up to the station-master, and asked him whether I +would have any difficulty in procuring a carriage to take me to Miss +Knollys' house. He stared, it seemed to me, unnecessarily long, before +replying. + +"Waal," said he, "Simmons is usually here, but I don't see him around +to-day. Perhaps some of these farmer lads will drive you in." + +But they all drew back with a scared look, and I was beginning to tuck +up my skirts preparatory to walking, when a little old man of +exceedingly meek appearance drove up in a very old-fashioned coach, and +with a hesitating air, springing entirely from bashfulness, managed to +ask if I was Miss Butterworth. I hastened to assure him that I was that +lady, whereupon he stammered out some words about Miss Knollys, and how +sorry she was that she could not come for me herself. Then he pointed to +his coach, and made me understand that I was to step into it and go with +him. + +This I had not counted upon doing, for I desired to both see and hear as +much as possible before reaching my destination. There was but one way +out of it. To his astonishment, I insisted that my belongings be put +inside the coach, while I rode on the box. + +It was an inauspicious beginning to a very doubtful adventure. I +understood this when I saw the heads of the various onlookers draw +together and many curious looks directed at both us and the conveyance +that was to carry us. But I was in no mood to be daunted now, and +mounting to the box with what grace I could, prepared myself for a ride +into town. + +But it seems I was not to be allowed to leave the spot without another +warning. While the old man was engaged in fetching my trunk, the +station-master approached me with great civility, and asked if it was my +intention to spend a few days with the Misses Knollys. I told him that +it was, and thinking it best to establish my position at once in the +eyes of the whole town, added with a politeness equal to his own, that I +was an old friend of the family, and had been coming to visit them for +years, but had never found it convenient till now, and that I hoped they +were all well and would be glad to see me. + +His reply showed considerable embarrassment. + +"Perhaps you have not heard that this village is under a cloud just +now?" + +"I have heard that one or two men have disappeared from here somewhat +mysteriously," I returned. "Is that what you mean?" + +"Yes, ma'am. One person, a boy, disappeared only two days ago." + +"That's bad," I said. "But what has it to do with me?" I smilingly +added, for I saw that he was not at the end of his talk. + +"Oh, nothing," he eagerly replied, "only I didn't know but you might be +timid----" + +"Oh, I'm not at all timid," I hastened to interject. "If I were, I +should not have come here at all. Such matters don't affect me." And I +spread out my skirts and arranged myself for my ride with as much care +and precision as if the horrors he had mentioned had made no more +impression upon me than if his chat had been of the weather. + +Perhaps I overdid it, for he looked at me for another moment in a +curious, lingering way; then he walked off, and I saw him enter the +circle of gossips on the platform, where he stood shaking his head as +long as we were within sight. + +My companion, who was the shyest man I ever saw, did not speak a word +while we were descending the hill. I talked, and endeavored to make him +follow my example, but his replies were mere grunts or half-syllables +which conveyed no information whatever. As we cleared the thicket, +however, he allowed himself an ejaculation or two as he pointed out the +beauties of the landscape. And indeed it was well worth his admiration +and mine had my mind been free to enjoy it. But the houses, which now +began to appear on either side of the way, drew my attention from the +mountains. Though still somewhat remote from the town, we were rapidly +approaching the head of that lane of evil fame with whose awe-inspiring +history my thoughts were at this time full. I was so anxious not to pass +it without one look into its grewsome recesses that I kept my head +persistently turned that way till I felt I was attracting the attention +of my companion. As this was not desirable, I put on a nonchalant look +and began chatting about what I saw. But he had lapsed into his early +silence, and seemed wholly engrossed in his attempt to remove with the +butt-end of his whip a bit of rag which had somehow become entangled in +the spokes of one of the front wheels. The furtive look he cast me as he +succeeded in doing this struck me oddly at the moment, but it was too +small a matter to hold my attention long or to cause any cessation in +the flow of small talk with which I was endeavoring to enliven the +situation. + +My desire for conversation lagged, however, as I saw rising up before us +the dark boughs of a pine thicket. We were nearing Lost Man's Lane; we +were abreast of it; we were--yes, we were turning into it! + +I could not repress an exclamation of dismay. + +"Where are we going?" I asked. + +"To Miss Knollys' house," he found words to say, with a sidelong glance +at me full of uneasy inquiry. + +"Do they live on this road?" I cried, remembering with a certain shock +Mr. Gryce's suspicious description of the two young ladies who with +their brother inhabited the dilapidated mansion marked A in the map he +had shown me. + +"Where else?" was his laconic answer; and, obliged to be satisfied with +this curtest of curt replies, I drew myself up with just one longing +look behind me at the cheerful highway we were so rapidly leaving. A +cottage, with an open window, in which a child's head could be seen +nodding eagerly toward me, met my eyes and filled me with quite an odd +sense of discomfort as I realized that I had caught the attention of one +of the little cripples who, according to Mr. Gryce, always kept watch +over this entrance into Lost Man's Lane. Another moment and the pine +branches had shut the vision out, but I did not soon forget that eager, +childish face and pointing hand, marking me out as a possible victim to +the horrors of this ill-reputed lane. But I was aware of no secret +flinching from the adventure into which I was plunging. On the contrary, +I felt a strange and fierce delight in thus being thrust into the very +heart of the mystery I had only expected to approach by degrees. The +warning message sent me by Mr. Gryce had acquired a deeper and more +significant meaning, as did the looks which had been cast me by the +station-master and his gossips on the hillside, but in my present mood +these very tokens of the serious nature of my undertaking only gave an +added spur to my courage. I felt my brain clear and my heart expand, as +if at this moment, before I had so much as set eyes on the faces of +these young people, I recognized the fact that they were the victims of +a web of circumstances so tragic and incomprehensible that only a woman +like myself would be able to dissipate them and restore these girls to +the confidence of the people around them. + +I forgot that these girls had a brother and that--But not a word to +forestall the truth. I wish this story to grow upon you just as it did +upon me, and with just as little preparation. + +The farmer who drove me, and who I afterwards learned was called +Simsbury, showed a certain dogged interest in my behavior that would +have amused me, or, at least, have awakened my disdain under +circumstances of a less thrilling nature. I saw his eye roll in a sort +of wonder over my person, which may have been held a little more stiffly +than was necessary, and settle finally on my face, with a look I might +have thought complimentary had I had any thought to bestow on such +matters. Not till we had passed the path branching up through the woods +toward the mountain did he see fit to withdraw it, nor did I fail to +find it fixed again upon me as we rode by the little hut occupied by the +old woman considered so harmless by Mr. Gryce. + +Perhaps he had a reason for this, as I was very much interested in this +hut and its occupant, about whom I felt free to cherish my own secret +doubts--so interested that I cast it a very sharp glance, and was glad +when I caught a glimpse through the doorway of the old crone mumbling +over a piece of bread she was engaged in eating as we passed her. + +"That's Mother Jane," explained my companion, breaking the silence of +many minutes. "And yonder is Miss Knollys' house," he added, lifting his +whip and pointing toward the half-concealed façade of a large and +pretentious dwelling a few rods farther on down the road. "She will be +powerful glad to see you, Miss. Company is scarce in these parts." + +Astonished at this sudden launch into conversation by one whose reserve +I had hitherto found it impossible to penetrate, I gave him the affable +answer he evidently expected, and then looked eagerly toward the house. +It was as Mr. Gryce had intimated, exceedingly forbidding even at that +distance, and as we approached nearer and I was given a full view of its +worn and discolored front, I felt myself forced to acknowledge that +never in my life had my eyes fallen upon a habitation more given over to +neglect or less promising in its hospitality. + +Had it not been for the thin circle of smoke eddying up from one of its +broken chimneys, I would have looked upon the place as one which had not +known the care or presence of man for years. There was a riot of +shrubbery in the yard, a lack of the commonest attention to order in the +way the vines drooped in tangled masses over the face of the desolate +porch, that gave to the broken pilasters and decayed window-frames of +this dreariest of façades that look of abandonment which only becomes +picturesque when nature has usurped the prerogative of man and taken +entirely to herself the empty walls and falling casements of what was +once a human dwelling. That any one should be living in it now and that +I, who have never been able to see a chair standing crooked or a curtain +awry, without a sensation of the keenest discomfort, should be on the +point of deliberately entering its doors as an inmate, filled me at the +moment with such a sense of unreality, that I descended from the +carriage in a sort of a dream and was making my way through one of the +gaps in the high antique fence that separated the yard from the gateway, +when Mr. Simsbury stopped me and pointed out the gate. + +I did not think it worth while to apologize for my mistake, for the +broken palings certainly offered as good an entrance as the gate, which +had slipped from its hinges and hung but a few inches open. But I took +the course he indicated, holding up my skirts, and treading gingerly for +fear of the snails and toads that incumbered such portions of the path +as the weeds had left visible. As I proceeded on my way, something in +the silence of the spot struck me. Was I becoming over-sensitive to +impressions or was there something really uncanny in the absolute lack +of sound or movement in a dwelling of such dimensions? But I should not +have said movement, for at that instant I saw a flash in one of the +upper windows as of a curtain being stealthily drawn and as stealthily +let fall again, and though it gave me the promise of some sort of +greeting, there was a furtiveness in the action, so in keeping with the +suspicions of Mr. Gryce that I felt my nerves braced at once to mount +the half-dozen uninviting-looking steps that led to the front door. + +But no sooner had I done this, with what I am fain to consider my best +air, than I suddenly collapsed with what I am bound to regard as a +comprehensible and quite excusable fear; for, while I do not quail +before men, and have a reasonable fortitude in the presence of most +dangers, corporeal and moral, I am not quite myself in face of a rampant +and barking dog. It is my one weakness, and while I usually can, and +under most circumstances do, succeed in hiding my inner trepidation +under the emergency just mentioned, I always feel that it would be a +happy relief for me if the day should ever come when these so-called +domestic animals would be banished from the affections and homes of men. +Then I think I would begin to live in good earnest and perhaps enjoy +trips into the country, which now, for all my apparent bravery, I regard +more in the light of a penance than a pleasure. + +Imagine, then, how hard I found it to retain my self-possession or even +any appearance of dignity, when at the moment I was stretching forth my +hand toward the knocker of this inhospitable mansion I heard rising from +some unknown quarter a howl so keen, piercing, and prolonged that it +frightened the very birds over my head and sent them flying from the +vines in clouds. + +It was the unhappiest kind of welcome for me. I did not know whether it +came from within or without, and when after a moment of indecision I saw +the door open, I am not sure whether the smile I called up to grace the +occasion had any of the real Amelia Butterworth in it, so much was my +mind divided between a desire to produce a favorable impression and a +very decided and not-to-be-hidden fear of the dog who had greeted my +arrival with such an ominous howl. + +"Call off the dog!" I cried almost before I saw what sort of person I +was addressing. + +Mr. Gryce, when I saw him later, declared this to be the most +significant introduction I could have made of myself upon entering the +Knollys mansion. + + + + +IV + +A GHOSTLY INTERIOR + + +The hall into which I had stepped was so dark that for a few minutes I +could see nothing but the indistinct outline of a young woman with a +very white face. She had uttered some sort of murmur at my words, but +for some reason was strangely silent, and, if I could trust my eyes, +seemed rather to be looking back over her shoulder than into the face of +her advancing guest. This was odd, but before I could quite satisfy +myself as to the cause of her abstraction, she suddenly bethought +herself, and throwing open the door of an adjoining room, let in a +stream of light by which we were enabled to see each other and exchange +the greetings suitable to the occasion. + +"Miss Butterworth, my mother's old friend," she murmured, with an almost +pitiful effort to be cordial, "we are so glad to have you visit us. +Won't you--won't you sit down?" + +What did it mean? She had pointed to a chair in the sitting-room, but +her face was turned away again as if drawn irresistibly toward some +secret object of dread. Was there anyone or anything at the top of the +dim staircase I could faintly see in the distance? It would not do for +me to ask, nor was it wise for me to show that I thought this reception +a strange one. Stepping into the room she pointed out, I waited for her +to follow me, which she did with manifest reluctance. But when she was +once out of the atmosphere of the hall, or out of reach of the sight or +sound of whatever it was that frightened her, her face took on a smile +that ingratiated her with me at once and gave to her very delicate +aspect, which up to that moment had not suggested the remotest likeness +to her mother, a piquant charm and subtle fascination that were not +unworthy of the daughter of Althea Burroughs. + +"You must not mind the poverty of your welcome," she said, with a +half-proud, half-apologetic look around her, which I must say the +bareness and shabby character of the room we were in fully justified. +"We have not been very well off since father died and mother left us. +Had you given us a chance we should have written you that our home would +not offer many inducements to you after your own, but you have come +unexpectedly and----" + +"There, there," I put in, for I saw that her embarrassment would soon +get the better of her, "do not speak of it. I did not come to enjoy your +home, but to see you. Are you the eldest, my dear, and where are your +sister and brother?" + +"I am not the eldest," she said. "I am Lucetta. My sister"--here +her head stole irresistibly back to its old position of +listening--"will--will come soon. My brother is not in the house." + +"Well," said I, astonished that she did not ask me to take off my +things, "you are a pretty girl, but you do not look very strong. Are you +quite well, my dear?" + +She started, looked at me eagerly, almost anxiously, for a moment, then +straightened herself and began to lose some of her abstraction. + +"I am not a strong person," she smiled, "but neither am I so very weak +either. I was always small. So was my mother, you know." + +I was glad to have her talk of her mother. I therefore answered her in a +way to prolong the conversation. + +"Yes, your mother was small," I admitted, "but never thin or pallid. She +was like a fairy among us schoolgirls. Does it seem odd to hear so old a +woman as I speak of herself as a schoolgirl?" + +"Oh, no!" she said, but there was no heart in her voice. + +"I had almost forgotten those days till I happened to hear the name of +Althea mentioned the other day," I proceeded, seeing I must keep up the +conversation if we were not to sit in total silence. "Then my early +friendship with your mother recurred to me, and I started up--as I +always do when I come to any decision, my dear--and sent that telegram, +which I hope I have not followed by an unwelcome presence." + +"Oh, no," she repeated, but this time with some feeling; "we need +friends, and if you will overlook our shortcomings--But you have not +taken off your hat. What will Loreen say to me?" + +And with a sudden nervous action as marked as her late listlessness, she +jumped up and began busying herself over me, untying my bonnet and +laying aside my bundles, which up to this moment I had held in my hands. + +"I--I am so absent-minded," she murmured. "I--I did not think--I hope +you will excuse me. Loreen would have given you a much better welcome." + +"Then Loreen should have been here," I said, with a smile. I could not +restrain this slight rebuke, yet I liked the girl; notwithstanding +everything I had heard and her own odd and unaccountable behavior, there +was a sweetness in her face, when she chose to smile, that proved an +irresistible attraction. And then, for all her absent-mindedness and +abstracted ways, she was such a lady! Her plain dress, her restrained +manner, could not hide this fact. It was apparent in every line of her +thin but graceful form and in every inflection of her musical but +constrained voice. Had I seen her in my own parlor instead of between +these bare and moldering walls, I should have said the same thing: "She +is such a lady!" But this only passed through my mind at the time. I was +not studying her personality, but trying to understand why my presence +in the house had so visibly disturbed her. Was it the embarrassment of +poverty, not knowing how to meet the call made so suddenly upon it? I +hardly thought so. Fear would not enter into a sensation of this kind, +and fear was what I had seen in her face before the front door had +closed upon me. But that fear? Was it connected with me or with +something threatening her from another portion of the house? + +The latter supposition seemed the probable one. The way her ear was +turned, the slight start she gave at every sound, convinced me that her +cause of dread lay elsewhere than with myself, and therefore was worthy +of my closest attention. Though I chatted and tried in every way to +arouse her confidence, I could not help asking myself between the +sentences, if the cause of her apprehension lay with her sister, her +brother, or in something entirely apart from either, and connected with +the dreadful matter which had drawn me to X. Or another supposition +still, was it merely the sign of an habitual distemper which, +misunderstood by Mr. Gryce, had given rise to the suspicions which it +was my possible mission here to dispel? + +Anxious to force things a little, I remarked, with a glance at the +dismal branches that almost forced their way into the open casements: +"What a scene for young eyes like yours! Do you never get tired of these +pine-boughs and clustering shadows? Would not a little cottage in the +sunnier part of the town be preferable to all this dreary grandeur?" + +She looked up with sudden wistfulness that made her smile piteous. + +"Some of my happiest days have been passed here and some of my saddest. +I do not think I should like to leave it for any sunny cottage. We were +not made for bonny homes," she continued. "The sombreness of this old +house suits us." + +"And of this road," I ventured. "It is the darkest and most picturesque +I ever rode through. I thought I was threading a wilderness." + +For a moment she forgot her cause of anxiety and looked at me quite +intently, while a subtle shade of doubt passed slowly over her features. + +"It is a solitary one," she acquiesced. "I do not wonder it struck you +as dismal. Have you heard--has any one ever told you that--that it was +not considered quite safe?" + +"Safe?" I repeated, with--God forgive me!--an expression of mild wonder +in my eyes. + +"Yes, it has not the best of reputations. Strange things have happened +in it. I thought that some one might have been kind enough to tell you +this at the station." + +There was a gentle sort of sarcasm in the tone; only that, or so it +seemed to me at the time. I began to feel myself in a maze. + +"Somebody--I suppose it was the station-master--did say something to me +about a boy lost somewhere in this portion of the woods. Do you mean +that, my dear?" + +She nodded, glancing again over her shoulder and partly rising as if +moved by some instinct of flight. + +"They are dark enough, for more than one person to have been lost in +their recesses," I observed with another look toward the heavily +curtained windows. + +"They certainly are," she assented, reseating herself and eying me +nervously while she spoke. "We are used to the terrors they inspire in +strangers, but if you"--she leaped to her feet in manifest eagerness and +her whole face changed in a way she little realized herself--"if you +have any fear of sleeping amid such gloomy surroundings, we can procure +you a room in the village where you will be more comfortable, and where +we can visit you almost as well as we can here. Shall I do it? Shall I +call----" + +My face must have assumed a very grim look, for her words tripped at +that point, and a flush, the first I had seen on her cheek, suffused her +face, giving her an appearance of great distress. + +"Oh, I wish Loreen would come! I am not at all happy in my suggestions," +she said, with a deprecatory twitch of her lip that was one of her +subtle charms. "Oh, there she is! Now I may go," she cried; and without +the least appearance of realizing that she had said anything out of +place, she rushed from the room almost before her sister had entered it. + +But not before their eyes had met in a look of unusual significance. + + + + +V + +A STRANGE HOUSEHOLD + + +Had I not surprised this look of mutual understanding, I might have +received an impression of Miss Knollys which would in a measure have +counteracted that made by the more nervous and less restrained Lucetta. +The dignified reserve of her bearing, the quiet way in which she +approached, and, above all, the even tones in which she uttered her +welcome, were such as to win my confidence and put me at my ease in the +house of which she was the nominal mistress. But that look! With that in +my memory, I was enabled to pierce below the surface of this placid +nature, and in the very constraint she put upon herself, detect the +presence of the same secret uneasiness which had been so openly, if +unconsciously, manifested by her sister. + +She was more beautiful than Lucetta in form and feature, and even more +markedly elegant in her plain black gown and fine lawn ruffles, but she +lacked her sister's evanescent charm, and though admirable to all +appearance, was less lovable on a short acquaintance. + +But this delays my tale, which is one of action rather than reflection. +I had naturally expected that with the appearance of the elder Miss +Knollys I should be taken to my room; but, on the contrary, she sat down +and with an apologetic air informed me that she was sorry she could not +show me the customary attentions. Circumstances over which she had no +control had made it impossible, she said, for her to offer me the +guest-chamber, but if I would be so good as to accept another for this +one night, she would endeavor to provide me with better accommodations +on the morrow. + +Satisfied of the almost painful nature of their poverty and determined +to submit to privations rather than leave a house so imbued with +mystery, I hastened to assure her that any room would be acceptable to +me; and with a display of good feeling not wholly insincere, began to +gather up my wraps in anticipation of being taken at once up-stairs. + +But Miss Knollys again surprised me by saying that my room was not yet +ready; that they had not been able to complete all their arrangements, +and begged me to make myself at home in the room where I was till +evening. + +As this was asking a good deal of a woman of my years, fresh from a +railroad journey and with natural habits of great neatness and order, I +felt somewhat disconcerted, but hiding my feelings in consideration of +reasons before given, replaced my bundles on the table and endeavored to +make the best of a somewhat trying situation. + +Launching at once into conversation, I began, as with Lucetta, to talk +about her mother. I had never known, save in the vaguest way, why Mrs. +Knollys had taken the journey which had ended in her death and burial in +a foreign land. Rumor had it that she had gone abroad for her health +which had begun to fail after the birth of Lucetta; but as Rumor had not +added why she had gone unaccompanied by her husband or children, there +remained much which these girls might willingly tell me, which would be +of the greatest interest to me. But Miss Knollys, intentionally or +unintentionally, assumed an air so cold at my well meant questions, that +I desisted from pressing them, and began to talk about myself in a way +which I hoped would establish really friendly relations between us and +make it possible for her to tell me later, if not at the present moment, +what it was that weighed so heavily upon the household, that no one +could enter this home without feeling the shadow of the secret terror +enveloping it. + +But Miss Knollys, while more attentive to my remarks than her sister had +been, showed, by certain unmistakable signs, that her heart and interest +were anywhere but in that room; and while I could not regard this as +throwing any discredit upon my powers of pleasing--which have rarely +failed when I have exerted them to their utmost,--I still could not but +experience the dampening effect of her manner. I went on chatting, but +in a desultory way, noting all that was odd in her unaccountable +reception of me, but giving, as I firmly believe, no evidence of my +concern and rapidly increasing curiosity. + +The peculiarities observable in this my first interview with these +interesting but by no means easily-to-be-understood sisters continued +all day. When one sister came in, the other stepped out, and when dinner +was announced and I was ushered down the bare and dismal hall into an +equally bare and unattractive dining-room, it was to find the chairs set +for four, and Lucetta only seated at the table. + +"Where is Loreen?" I asked wonderingly, as I took the seat she pointed +out to me with one of her faint and quickly vanishing smiles. + +"She cannot come at present," my young hostess stammered with an +unmistakable glance of distress at the large, hearty-looking woman who +had summoned me to the dining-room. + +"Ah," I ejaculated, thinking that possibly Loreen had found it necessary +to assist in the preparation of the meal, "and your brother?" + +It was the first time he had been mentioned since my first inquiries. I +had shrunk from the venture out of a motive of pure compassion, and they +had not seen fit to introduce his name into any of our conversations. +Consequently I awaited her response, with some anxiety, having a secret +premonition that in some way he was at the bottom of my strange +reception. + +Her hasty answer, given, however, without any increase of embarrassment, +somewhat dispelled this supposition. + +"Oh, he will be in presently," said she. "William is never very +punctual." + +But when he did come in, I could not help seeing that her manner +instantly changed and became almost painfully anxious. Though it was my +first meeting with the real head of the house, she waited for an +interchange of looks with him before giving me the necessary +introduction, and when, this duty performed, he took his seat at the +table, her thoughts and attention remained so fixed upon him that she +well-nigh forgot the ordinary civilities of a hostess. Had it not been +for the woman I have spoken of, who in her good-natured attention to my +wants amply made up for the abstraction of her mistress, I should have +fared ill at this meal, good and ample as it was, considering the +resources of those who provided it. + +She seemed to dread to have him speak, almost to have him move. She +watched him with her lips half open, ready, as it appeared, to stop any +inadvertent expression he might utter in his efforts to be agreeable. +She even kept her left hand disengaged, with the evident intention of +stretching it out in his direction if in his lumbering stupidity he +should utter a sentence calculated to open my eyes to what she so +passionately desired to have kept secret. I saw it all as plainly as I +saw his heavy indifference to her anxiety; and knowing from experience +that it is in just such stolid louts as these that the worst passions +are often hidden, I took advantage of my years and forced a conversation +in which I hoped some flash of his real self would appear, despite her +wary watch upon him. + +Not liking to renew the topic of the lane itself, I asked with a very +natural show of interest, who was their nearest neighbor. It was William +who looked up and William who answered. + +"Old Mother Jane is the nearest," said he; "but she's no good. We never +think of her. Mr. Trohm is the only neighbor I care for. Such peaches as +the old fellow raises! Such grapes! Such melons! He gave me two of the +nicest you ever saw this morning. By Jupiter, I taste them yet!" + +Lucetta's face, which should have crimsoned with mortification, turned +most unaccountably pale. Yet not so pale as it had previously done when, +a few minutes before, he began to say, "Loreen wants some of this soup +saved for"--and stopped awkwardly, conscious perhaps that Loreen's wants +should not be mentioned before me. + +"I thought you promised me that you would never again ask Mr. Trohm for +any of his fruit," remonstrated Lucetta. + +"Oh, I didn't ask! I just stood at the fence and looked over. Mr. Trohm +and I are good friends. Why shouldn't I eat his fruit?" + +The look she gave him might have moved a stone, but he seemed perfectly +impervious to it. Seeing him so stolid, her head drooped, and she did +not answer a word. Yet somehow I felt that even while she was so +manifestly a prey to the deepest mortification, her attention was not +wholly given over to this one emotion. There was something else she +feared. Hoping to relieve her and lighten the situation, I forced myself +to smile on the young man as I said: + +"Why don't you raise melons yourself? I think if I possessed your land I +should be anxious to raise everything I could on it." + +"Oh, you're a woman!" he retorted, almost roughly. "It's good business +for women; and for men, too, perhaps, who love to see fruit hang, but I +only care to eat it." + +"Don't," Lucetta put in, but not with the vigor I had expected. + +"I like to hunt, train dogs, and enjoy other people's fruit," he +laughed, with a nod at the blushing Lucetta. "I don't see any use in a +man's putting himself out for things he can get for the asking. Life's +too short for such folly. I mean to have a good time while I'm on this +blessed sphere." + +"William!" + +The cry was irresistible, yet it was not the cry I had been looking for. +Painful as was this exhibition of his stupidity and utter want of +feeling, it was not the one thing she stood in dread of, or why was her +protest so much weaker than her appearance had given token of? + +"Oh!" he shouted in great amusement, while she shrunk back with a +horrified look. "Lucetta don't like to hear me say that. She thinks a +man ought to work, plow, harrow, dig, make a slave of himself, to keep +up a place that's no good anyway. But I tell her that work is something +she'll never get out of me. I was born a gentleman, and a gentleman I +will live if the place tumbles down over our heads. Perhaps it would be +the best way to get rid of it. Then I could go live with Mr. Trohm, and +have melons from early morn till late at night." And again his coarse +laugh rang out. + +This, or was it his words, seemed to rouse her as nothing had done +before. Thrusting out her hand, she laid it on his mouth, with a look of +almost frenzied appeal at the woman who was standing at his back. + +"Mr. William, how can you!" that woman protested; and when he would have +turned upon her angrily, she leaned over and whispered in his ear a few +words that seemed to cow him, for he gave a short grunt through his +sister's trembling fingers and, with a shrug of his heavy shoulders, +subsided into silence. + +To all this I was a simple spectator, but I did not soon forget a single +feature of the scene. + +The remainder of the dinner passed quietly, William and myself eating +with more or less heartiness, Lucetta tasting nothing at all. In mercy +to her I declined coffee, and as soon as William gave token of being +satisfied, we hurriedly rose. It was the most uncomfortable meal I ever +ate in my life. + + + + +VI + +A SOMBRE EVENING + + +The evening, like the afternoon, was spent in the sitting-room with one +of the sisters. One event alone is worth recording. I had become +excessively tired of a conversation that always languished, no matter on +what topic it started, and, observing an old piano in one corner--I once +played very well--I sat down before it and impulsively struck a few +chords from the yellow keys. Instantly Lucetta--it was Lucetta who was +with me then--bounded to my side with a look of horror. + +"Don't do that!" she cried, laying her hand on mine to stop me. Then, +seeing my look of dignified astonishment, she added with an appealing +smile, "I beg pardon, but every sound goes through me to-night." + +"Are you not well?" I asked. + +"I am never very well," she returned, and we went back to the sofa and +renewed our forced and pitiful attempts at conversation. + +Promptly at nine o'clock Miss Knollys came in. She was very pale and +cast, as usual, a sad and uneasy look at her sister before she spoke to +me. Immediately Lucetta rose, and, becoming very pale herself, was +hurrying toward the door when her sister stopped her. + +"You have forgotten," she said, "to say good-night to our guest." + +Instantly Lucetta turned, and, with a sudden, uncontrollable impulse, +seized my hand and pressed it convulsively. + +"Good-night," she cried. "I hope you will sleep well," and was gone +before I could say a word in response. + +"Why does Lucetta go out of the room when you come in?" I asked, +determined to know the reason for this peculiar conduct. "Have you any +other guests in the house?" + +The reply came with unexpected vehemence. "No," she cried, "why should +you think so? There is no one here but the family." And she turned away +with a dignity she must have inherited from her father, for Althea +Burroughs had every interesting quality but that. "You must be very +tired," she remarked. "If you please we will go now to your room." + +I rose at once, glad of the prospect of seeing the upper portion of the +house. She took my wraps on her arm, and we passed immediately into the +hall. As we did so, I heard voices, one of them shrill and full of +distress; but the sound was so quickly smothered by a closing door that +I failed to discover whether this tone of suffering proceeded from a man +or a woman. + +Miss Knollys, who was preceding me, glanced back in some alarm, but as I +gave no token of having noticed anything out of the ordinary, she +speedily resumed her way up-stairs. As the sounds I had heard proceeded +from above, I followed her with alacrity, but felt my enthusiasm +diminish somewhat when I found myself passing door after door down a +long hall to a room as remote as possible from what seemed to be the +living portion of the house. + +"Is it necessary to put me off quite so far?" I asked, as my young +hostess paused and waited for me to join her on the threshold of the +most forbidding room it had ever been my fortune to enter. + +The blush which mounted to her brow showed that she felt the situation +keenly. + +"I am sure," she said, "that it is a matter of great regret to me to be +obliged to offer you so mean a lodging, but all our other rooms are out +of order, and I cannot accommodate you with anything better to-night." + +"But isn't there some spot nearer you?" I urged. "A couch in the same +room with you would be more acceptable to me than this distant room." + +"I--I hope you are not timid," she began, but I hastened to disabuse her +mind on this score. + +"I am not afraid of any earthly thing but dogs," I protested warmly. +"But I do not like solitude. I came here for companionship, my dear. I +really would like to sleep with one of you." + +This, to see how she would meet such urgency. She met it, as I might +have known she would, by a rebuff. + +"I am very sorry," she again repeated, "but it is quite impossible. If I +could give you the comforts you are accustomed to, I should be glad, but +we are unfortunate, we girls, and--" She said no more, but began to busy +herself about the room, which held but one object that had the least +look of comfort in it. That was my trunk, which had been neatly placed +in one corner. + +"I suppose you are not used to candles," she remarked, lighting what +struck me as a very short end, from the one she held in her hand. + +"My dear," said I, "I can accommodate myself to much that I am not used +to. I have very few old maid's ways or notions. You shall see that I am +far from being a difficult guest." + +She heaved a sigh, and then, seeing my eye travelling slowly over the +gray discolored walls which were not relieved by so much as a solitary +print, she pointed to a bell-rope near the head of the bed, and +considerately remarked: + +"If you wish anything in the night, or are disturbed in any way, pull +that. It communicates with my room, and I will be only too glad to come +to you." + +I glanced up at the rope, ran my eye along the wire communicating with +it, and saw that it was broken sheer off before it even entered into the +wall. + +"I am afraid you will not hear me," I answered, pointing to the break. + +She flushed a deep scarlet, and for a moment looked as embarrassed as +ever her sister had done. + +"I did not know," she murmured. "The house is so old, everything is more +or less out of repair." And she made haste to quit the room. + +I stepped after her in grim determination. + +"But there is no key to the door," I objected. + +She came back with a look that was as nearly desperate as her placid +features were capable of. + +"I know," she said, "I know. We have nothing. But if you are not +afraid--and of what could you be afraid in this house, under our +protection, and with a good dog outside?--you will bear with things +to-night, and--Good God!" she murmured, but not so low but that my +excited sense caught every syllable, "can she have heard? Has the +reputation of this place gone abroad? Miss Butterworth," she repeated +earnestly, "the house contains no cause of terror for you. Nothing +threatens our guest, nor need you have the least concern for yourself or +us, whether the night passes in quiet or whether it is broken by +unaccountable sounds. They will have no reference to anything in which +you are interested." + +"Ah, ha," thought I, "won't they! You give me credit for much +indifference, my dear." But I said nothing beyond a few soothing +phrases, which I made purposely short, seeing that every moment I +detained her was just so much unnecessary torture to her. Then I went +back to my room and carefully closed the door. My first night in this +dismal and strangely ordered house had opened anything but propitiously. + + + + +VII + +THE FIRST NIGHT + + +I spoke with a due regard to truth when I assured Miss Knollys that I +entertained no fears at the prospect of sleeping apart from the rest of +the family. I am a woman of courage--or so I have always believed--and +at home occupy my second floor alone without the least apprehension. But +there is a difference in these two abiding-places, as I think you are +ready by this time to acknowledge, and, though I felt little of what is +called fear, I certainly did not experience my usual satisfaction in the +minute preparations with which I am accustomed to make myself +comfortable for the night. There was a gloom both within and without the +four bare walls between which I now found myself shut, which I would +have been something less than human not to feel, and though I had no +dread of being overcome by it, I was glad to add something to the cheer +of the spot by opening my trunk and taking out a few of those little +matters of personal equipment without which the brightest room looks +barren and a den like this too desolate for habitation. + +Then I took a good look about me to see how I could obtain for myself +some sense of security. The bed was light and could be pulled in front +of the door. This was something. There was but one window, and that was +closely draped with some thick, dark stuff, very funereal in its +appearance. Going to it, I pulled aside the thick folds and looked out. +A mass of heavy foliage at once met my eye, obstructing the view of the +sky and adding much to the lonesomeness of the situation. I let the +curtain fall again and sat down in a chair to think. + +The shortness of the candle-end with which I had been provided had +struck me as significant, so significant that I had not allowed it to +burn long after Miss Knollys had left me. If these girls, charming, no +doubt, but sly, had thought to shorten my watch by shortening my candle, +I would give them no cause to think but that their ruse had been +successful. The foresight which causes me to add a winter wrap to my +stock of clothing even when the weather is at the hottest, leads me to +place a half dozen or so of candles in my travelling trunk, and so I had +only to open a little oblong box in the upper tray to have the means at +my disposal of keeping a light all night. + +So far, so good. I had a light, but had I anything else in case William +Knollys--but with this thought Miss Knollys's look and reassuring words +recurred to me. "Whatever you may hear--if you hear anything--will have +no reference to yourself and need not disturb you." + +This was comforting certainly, from a selfish standpoint; but did it +relieve my mind concerning others? + +Not knowing what to think of it all, and fully conscious that sleep +would not visit me under existing circumstances, I finally made up my +mind not to lie down till better assured that sleep on my part would be +desirable. So after making the various little arrangements already +alluded to, I drew over my shoulders a comfortable shawl and set myself +to listen for what I feared would be more than one dreary hour of this +not to be envied night. + +And here just let me stop to mention that, carefully considered as all +my precautions were, I had forgotten one thing upon leaving home which +at this minute made me very nearly miserable. I had not included among +my effects the alcohol lamp and all the other private and particular +conveniences which I possess for making tea in my own apartment. Had I +but had them with me, and had I been able to make and sip a cup of my +own delicious tea through the ordeal of listening for whatever sounds +might come to disturb the midnight stillness of this house, what relief +it would have been to my spirits and in what a different light I might +have regarded Mr. Gryce and the mission with which I had been intrusted. +But I not only lacked this element of comfort, but the satisfaction of +thinking that it was any one's fault but my own. Lena had laid her hand +on that teapot, but I had shaken my head, fearing that the sight of it +might offend the eyes of my young hostesses. But I had not calculated +upon being put in a remote corner like this of a house large enough to +accommodate a dozen families, and if ever I travel again---- + +But this is a matter personal to Amelia Butterworth, and of no interest +to you. I will not inflict my little foibles upon you again. + +Eleven o'clock came and went. I had heard no sound. Twelve, and I began +to think that all was not quite so still as before; that I certainly +could hear now and then faint noises as of a door creaking on its +hinges, or the smothered sound of stealthily moving feet. Yet all was so +far from being distinct, that for some time I hesitated to acknowledge +to myself that anything could be going on in the house, which was not to +be looked for in a home professing to be simply the abode of a decent +young man and two very quiet-appearing young ladies; and even after the +noises and whispering had increased to such an extent that I could even +distinguish the sullen tones of the brother from the softer and more +carefully modulated accents of Lucetta and her sister, I found myself +ready to explain the matter by any conjecture short of that which +involved these delicate young ladies in any scheme of secret wickedness. + +But when I found there was likely to be no diminution in the various +noises and movements that were taking place in the front of the house, +and that only something much out of the ordinary could account for so +much disturbance in a country home so long after midnight, I decided +that only a person insensible to all sight and sound could be expected +to remain asleep under such circumstances, and that I would be perfectly +justified in their eyes in opening my door and taking a peep down the +corridor. So without further ado, I drew my bed aside and glanced out. + +All was perfectly dark and silent in the great house. The only light +visible came from the candle burning in the room behind me, and as for +sound, it was almost too still--it was the stillness of intent rather +than that of natural repose. + +This was so unexpected that for an instant I stood baffled and +wondering. Then my nose went up, and I laughed quietly to myself. I +could see nothing and I could hear nothing; but Amelia Butterworth, like +most of her kind, boasts of more than two senses, and happily there was +something to smell. A quickly blown-out candle leaves a witness behind +it to sensitive nostrils like mine, and this witness assured me that the +darkness was deceptive. Some one had just passed the head of my corridor +with a light, and because the light was extinguished it did not follow +that the person who held it was far away. Indeed, I thought that now I +heard a palpitating breath. + +"Humph," I cried aloud, but as if in unconscious communion with myself, +"it is not often I have so vivid a dream! I was sure that I heard steps +in the hall. I fear I'm growing nervous." + +Nothing moved. No one answered me. + +"Miss Knollys!" I called firmly. + +No reply. + +"Lucetta, dear!" + +I thought this appeal would go unanswered also, but when I raised my +voice for the third time, a sudden rushing sound took place down the +corridor, and Lucetta's excited figure, fully dressed, appeared in the +faint circle of light caused by my now rapidly waning candle. + +"Miss Butterworth, what is the matter?" she asked, making as if she +would draw me into my room--a proceeding which I took good care she +should not succeed in. + +Giving a glance at her dress, which was the same she had worn at the +supper table, I laughingly retorted: + +"Isn't that a question I might better ask you? It is two o'clock by my +watch, and you, for all your apparent delicacy, are still up. What does +it mean, my dear? Have I put you out so completely by my coming that +none of you can sleep?" + +Her eyes, which had fallen before mine, quickly looked up. + +"I am sorry," she began, flushing and trying to take a peep into my +room, possibly to see if I had been to bed. "We did not mean to disturb +you, but--but--oh, Miss Butterworth, pray excuse our makeshifts and our +poverty. We wished to fix up another room for you, and were ashamed to +have you see how little we had to do it with, so we were moving some +things out of our own room to-night, and----" + +Here her voice broke, and she burst into an almost uncontrollable flood +of tears. + +"Don't," she entreated, "don't," as, quite thoroughly ashamed, I began +to utter some excuses. "I shall be all right in a moment. I am used to +humiliations. Only"--and her whole body seemed to join in the plea, it +trembled so--"do not, I pray, speak quite so loud. My brother is more +sensitive than even Loreen and myself about these things, and if he +should hear----" + +Here a suppressed oath from way down the hall assured me that he did +hear, but I gave no sign of my recognition of this fact, and Lucetta +added quickly: "He would not forgive us for our carelessness in waking +you. He is rough sometimes, but so good at heart, so good." + +This, with the other small matter I have just mentioned, caused a +revulsion in my feelings. He good? I did not believe it. Yet her eyes +showed no wavering when I interrogated them with mine, and feeling that +I had perhaps been doing them all an injustice, and that what I had seen +was, as she evidently meant to intimate, due to their efforts to make a +sudden guest comfortable amid their poverty, I put the best face I could +on the matter and gave the poor, pitiful, pleading face a kiss. I was +startled to feel how cold her forehead was, and, more and more +concerned, loaded her down with such assurances of appreciation as came +to my lips, and sent her back to her own room with an injunction not to +trouble herself any more about fixing up any other room for me. "Only," +I added, as her whole face showed relief, "we will go to the locksmith +to-morrow and get a key; and after to-night you will be kind enough to +see that I have a cup of tea brought to my room just before I retire. I +am no good without my cup of tea, my dear. What keeps other people awake +makes me sleep." + +"Oh, you shall have your tea!" she cried, with an eagerness that was +almost unnatural, and then, slipping from my grasp, she uttered another +hasty apology for having roused me from my sleep and ran hastily back. + +I stretched out my arm for the candle guttering in my room and held it +up to light her. She seemed to shrink at sight of its rays, and the last +vision I had of her speeding figure showed me that same look of dread on +her pallid features which had aroused my interest in our first +interview. + +"She may have explained why the three of them are up at this time of +night," I muttered, "but she has not explained why her every +conversation is seasoned by an expression of fear." + +And thus brooding, I went back to my room and, pushing the bed again +against the door, lay down upon it and out of sheer chagrin fell fast +asleep. + + + + +VIII + +ON THE STAIRS + + +I did not wake up till morning. The room was so dark that in all +probability I should not have wakened then, if my habits of exact +punctuality had not been aided by a gentle knock at my door. + +"Who's there?" I called, for I could not say "Come in" till I had moved +my bed and made way for the door to open. + +"Hannah with warm water," replied a voice, at which I made haste to +rise. Hannah was the woman who had waited on us at dinner. + +The sight of her pleasant countenance, which nevertheless looked a +trifle haggard, was a welcome relief after the sombre features of the +night. Addressing her with my usual brusqueness, but with quite my usual +kindness, I asked how the young ladies were feeling this morning. + +Her answer made a great show of frankness. + +"Oh, they are much as usual," said she. "Miss Loreen is in the kitchen +and Miss Lucetta will soon be here to inquire how you are. I hope you +passed a good night yourself, ma'am." + +I had slept more than I ought to, perhaps, and made haste to reassure +her as to my own condition. Then seeing that a little talk would not be +unwelcome to this hearty woman, tired to death possibly with life in +this dreary house, I made some excuse for keeping her a few minutes, +saying as I did so: + +"What an immense dwelling this is for four persons to live in, or have +you another inmate whom I have not seen?" + +I thought her buxom color showed a momentary sign of failing, but it all +came back with her answer, which was given in a round, hearty voice. + +"Oh, I'm the only maid, ma'am. I cook and sweep and all. I couldn't +abide another near me. Even Mr. Simsbury, who tends the cow and horse +and who only comes in for his dinner, worries me by spells. I like to +have my own way in the kitchen, except when the young ladies choose to +come in. Is there anything more you want, ma'am, and do you prefer tea +or coffee for breakfast?" + +I told her that I always drank coffee in the morning, and would have +liked to have added a question or two, but she gave me no chance. As she +went out I saw her glance at my candlestick. There was only a +half-burned end in it. She is calculating, too, how long I sat up, +thought I. + +Lucetta stood at the head of the stairs as I went down. + +"Will you excuse me for a few moments?" said she. "I am not quite ready +to follow you, but will be soon." + +"I will take a look at the grounds." + +I thought she hesitated for a moment; then her face lighted up. "Be sure +you don't encounter the dog," she cried, and slipped hastily down a side +hall I had not noticed the night before. + +"Ah, a good way to keep me in," I reasoned. "But I shall see the grounds +yet if I have to poison that dog." Notwithstanding, I made no haste to +leave the house. I don't believe in tempting Providence, especially +where a dog is concerned. + +Instead of that, I stood still and looked up and down the halls, +endeavoring to get some idea of their plan and of the location of my own +room in reference to the rest. + +I found that the main hall ran at right angles to the long corridor down +which I had just come, and noting that the doors opening into it were of +a size and finish vastly superior to those I had passed in the corridor +just mentioned, I judged that the best bedrooms all lay front, and that +I had been quartered at the end of what had once been considered as the +servants' hall. At my right, as I looked down the stairs, ran a wall +with a break, which looked like an opening into another corridor, and +indeed I afterward learned that the long series of rooms of which mine +was the last, had its counterpart on the other side of this enormous +dwelling, giving to the house the shape of a long, square U. + +I was looking in some wonderment at this opening and marvelling over the +extravagant hospitality of those old days which necessitated such a +number of rooms in a private gentleman's home, when I heard a door open +and two voices speaking. One was rough and careless, unmistakably that +of William Knollys. The other was slow and timid, and was just as +unmistakably that of the man who had driven me to this house the day +before. They were talking of some elderly person, and I had good sense +enough not to allow my indignation to blind me to the fact that by that +elderly person they meant me. This is important, for their words were +not without significance. + +"How shall we keep the old girl out of the house till it is all over?" +was what I heard from William's surly lips. + +"Lucetta has a plan," was the hardly distinguishable answer. "I am to +take----" + +That was all I could hear; a closing door shut off the remainder. +Something, then, was going on in this house, of a dark if not mysterious +character, and the attempts made by these two interesting and devoted +girls to cover up the fact, by explanations founded on their poverty, +had been but subterfuges after all. Grieved on their account, but +inwardly grateful to the imprudence of their more than reckless brother, +for this not-to-be-mistaken glimpse into the truth, I slowly descended +the stairs, in that state of complete self-possession which is given by +a secret knowledge of the intentions formed against us by those whose +actions we have reason to suspect. + +Henceforth I had but one duty--to penetrate the mystery of this +household. Whether it was the one suspected by Mr. Gryce or another of a +less evil and dangerous character hardly mattered in my eyes. While the +blight of it rested upon this family, eyes would be lowered and heads +shaken at their name. This, if I could help it, must no longer be. If +guilt lay at the bottom of all this fear, then this guilt must be known; +if innocence--I thought of the brother's lowering brow and felt it +incompatible with innocence, but remembering Mr. Gryce's remarks on this +subject, read an instant lecture to myself and, putting all conclusions +aside, devoted the few minutes in which I found myself alone in the +dining-room to a careful preparation of my mind for its duty, which was +not likely to be of the simplest character if Lucetta's keen wits were +to be pitted against mine. + + + + +IX + +A NEW ACQUAINTANCE + + +When my mind is set free from doubt and fully settled upon any course, I +am capable of much good nature and seeming simplicity. I was therefore +able to maintain my own at the breakfast-table with some success, so +that the meal passed off without any of the disagreeable experiences of +the night before. Perhaps the fact that Loreen presided at the +coffee-urn instead of Lucetta had something to do with this. Her calm, +even looks seemed to put some restraint upon the boisterous outbursts to +which William was only too liable, while her less excitable nature +suffered less if by any chance he did break out and startle the decorous +silence by one of his rude guffaws. + +I am a slow eater, but I felt forced to hurry through the meal or be +left eating alone at the end. This did not put me in the best of humor, +for I hated to risk an indigestion just when my faculties needed to be +unusually alert. I compromised by leaving the board hungry, but I did it +with such a smile that I do not think Miss Knollys knew I had not risen +from any table so ill satisfied in years. + +"I will leave you to my brother for a few minutes," said she, hastily +tripping from the room. "I pray that you will not think of going to your +room till we have had an opportunity of arranging it." + +I instantly made up my mind to disobey this injunction. But first, it +was necessary to see what I could make of William. + +He was not a very promising subject as he turned and led the way toward +the front of the house. + +"I thought you might like to see the grounds," he growled, evidently not +enjoying the rôle assigned him. "They are so attractive," he sneered. +"Children hereabout call them the jungle." + +"Who's to blame for that?" I asked, with only a partial humoring of his +ill nature. "You have a sturdy pair of arms of your own, and a little +trimming here and a little trimming there would have given quite a +different appearance to this undergrowth. A gentleman usually takes +pride in his place." + +"Yes, when it's all his. This belongs to my sisters as much as to me. +What's the use of my bothering myself about it?" + +The man was so selfish he did not realize the extent of the exhibition +he made of it. Indeed he seemed to take pride in what he probably called +his independence. I began to feel the most intense aversion for him, and +only with the greatest difficulty could prolong this conversation +unmoved. + +"I should think it would be a pleasure to give that much assistance to +your sisters. They do not seem to be sparing in their attempts to please +you." + +He snapped his fingers, and I was afraid a dog or two would come leaping +around the corner of the house. But it was only his way of expressing +disdain. + +"Oh, the girls are well enough," he grumbled; "but they will stick to +the place. Lucetta might have married a half-dozen times, and once I +thought she was going to, but suddenly she turned straight about and +sent her lover packing, and that made me mad beyond everything. Why +should she hang on to me like a burr when there are other folks willing +to take on the burden?" + +It was the most palpable display of egotism I had ever seen and one of +the most revolting. I was so disgusted by it that I spoke up without any +too much caution. + +"Perhaps she thinks she can be useful to you," I said. "I have known +sisters give up their own happiness on no better grounds." + +"Useful?" he sneered. "It's a usefulness a man like me can dispense +with. Do you know what I would like?" + +We were standing in one of the tangled pathways, with our faces turned +toward the house. As he spoke, he looked up and made a rude sort of +gesture toward the blank expanse of empty and curtainless windows. + +"I would like that great house all to myself, to make into one huge, +bachelor's hall. I should like to feel that I could tramp from one end +of it to the other without awakening an echo I did not choose to hear +there. I should not find it too big. I should not find it too lonesome. +I and my dogs would know how to fill it, wouldn't we, Saracen? Oh, I +forgot, Saracen is locked up." + +The way he mumbled the last sentence showed displeasure, but I gave +little heed to that. The gloating way in which he said he and his dogs +would fill it had given me a sort of turn. I began to have more than an +aversion for the man. He inspired me with something like terror. + +"Your wishes," said I, with as little expression as possible, "seem to +leave your sisters entirely out of your calculations. How would your +mother regard that if she could see you from the place where she is +gone?" + +He turned upon me with a look of anger that made his features positively +ugly. + +"What do you mean by speaking to me of my mother? Have I spoken of her +to you? Is there any reason why you should lug my mother into this +conversation? If so, say so, and be----" + +He did not swear at me; he did not dare to, but he came precious near to +it, and that was enough to make me recoil. + +"She was my friend," said I. "I knew and loved her before you were born. +That was why I spoke of her, and I think it very natural myself." + +He seemed to feel ashamed. He grumbled out some sort of apology and +looked about quite helplessly, possibly for the dog he manifestly was in +the habit of seeing forever at his heels. I took advantage of this +momentary abstraction on his part to smooth my own disturbed features. + +"She was a beautiful girl," I remarked, on the principle that, the ice +once broken, one should not hesitate about jumping in. "Was your father +equally handsome for a man?" + +"My father--yes, let's talk of father. He was a judge of horses, he was. +When he died, there were three mares in the stable not to be beat this +side of Albany, but those devils of executors sold them, and I--well, +you had a chance to test the speed of old Bess yesterday. You weren't +afraid of being thrown out, I take it. Great Scott, to think of a man of +my tastes owning no other horse than that!" + +"You have not answered my question," I suggested, turning him about and +moving toward the gate. + +"Oh, about the way my father looked! What does that matter? He was +handsome, though. Folks say that I get whatever good looks I have from +him. He was big--bigger than I am, and while he lived--What did you make +a fellow talk for?" + +I don't know why I did, but I was certainly astonished at the result. +This great, huge lump of selfish clay had actually shown feeling and was +ashamed of it, like the lout he was. + +"Yesterday," said I, anxious to change the subject, "I had difficulty in +getting in through that gate we are pointing for. Couldn't you set it +straight, with just a little effort?" + +He paused, looked at me to see if I were in earnest, then took a dogged +step toward the gate I was still indicating with my resolute right hand, +but before he could touch it he perceived something on that deserted and +ominous highway which made him start in sudden surprise. + +"Why, Trohm," he cried, "is that you? Well, it's an age since I have +seen you turn that corner on a visit to us." + +"Sometime, certainly," answered a hearty and pleasant voice, and before +I could quite drop the look of severity with which I was endeavoring to +shame this young man into some decent show of interest in this place, +and assume the more becoming aspect of a lady caught unawares at an +early morning hour plucking flowers from a stunted syringa, a gentleman +stepped into sight on the other side of the fence with a look and a bow +so genial and devoid of mystery that I experienced for the first time +since entering the gloomy precincts of this town a decided sensation of +pleasure. + +"Miss Butterworth," explained Mr. Knollys with a somewhat forced gesture +in my direction. "A guest of my sisters," he went on, and looked as if +he hoped I would retire, though he made no motion to welcome Mr. Trohm +in, but rather leaned a little conspicuously on the gate as if anxious +to show that he had no idea that the other's intention went any further +than the passing of a few neighborly comments at the gate. + +I like to please the young even when they are no more agreeable than my +surly host, and if the gentleman who had just shown himself had been +equally immature, I would certainly have left them to have their talk +out undisturbed. But he was not. He was older; he was even of sufficient +years for his judgment to have become thoroughly matured and his every +faculty developed. I therefore could not see why my society should be +considered an intrusion by him, so I waited. His next sentence was +addressed to me. + +"I am happy," said he, "to have the pleasure of a personal introduction +to Miss Butterworth. I did not expect it. The surprise is all the more +agreeable. I only anticipated being allowed to leave this package and +letter with the maid. They are addressed to you, madam, and were left at +my house by mistake." + +I could not hide my astonishment. + +"I live in the next house below," said he. "The boy who brought these +from the post office was a stupid lad, and I could not induce him to +come any farther up the road. I hope you will excuse the present +messenger and believe there has been no delay." + +I bowed with what must have seemed an abstracted politeness. The letter +was from New York, and, as I strongly suspected, from Mr. Gryce. Somehow +this fact created in me an unmistakable embarrassment. I put both letter +and package into my pocket and endeavored to meet the gentleman's eye +with my accustomed ease in the presence of strangers. But, strange to +say, I had no sooner done so than I saw that he was no more at his ease +than myself. He smiled, glanced at William, made an offhand remark or so +about the weather, but he could not deceive eyes sharpened by such +experience as mine. Something disturbed him, something connected with +me. It made my cheek a little hot to acknowledge this even to myself, +but it was so very evident that I began to cast about for the means of +ridding ourselves of William when that blundering youth suddenly spoke: + +"I suppose he was afraid to come up the lane. Do you know, I think +you're brave to attempt it, Trohm. We haven't a very good name here." +And with a sudden, perfectly unnatural burst, he broke out into one of +his huge guffaws that so shook the old gate on which he was leaning that +I thought it would tumble down with him before our eyes. + +I saw Mr. Trohm start and cast him a look in which I seemed to detect +both surprise and horror, before he turned to me and with an air of +polite deprecation anxiously said: + +"I am afraid Miss Butterworth will not understand your allusions, Mr. +Knollys. I hear this is her first visit in town." + +As his manner showed even more feeling than the occasion seemed to +warrant, I made haste to answer that I was well acquainted with the +tradition of the lane; that its name alone showed what had happened +here. + +His bearing betrayed an instant relief. + +"I am glad to find you so well informed," said he. "I was afraid"--here +he cast another very strange glance at William--"that your young friends +might have shrunk, from some sense of delicacy, from telling you what +might frighten most guests from a lonely road like this. I compliment +you upon their thoughtfulness." + +William bowed as if the words of the other contained no other suggestion +than that which was openly apparent. Was he so dull, or was he--I had +not time to finish my conjectures even in my own mind, for at this +moment a quick cry rose behind us, and Lucetta's light figure appeared +running toward us with every indication of excitement. + +"Ah," murmured Mr. Trohm, with an appearance of great respect, "your +sister, Mr. Knollys. I had better be moving on. Good-morning, Miss +Butterworth. I am sorry that circumstances make it impossible for me to +offer you those civilities which you might reasonably expect from so +near a neighbor. Miss Lucetta and I are at swords' points over a matter +upon which I still insist she is to blame. See how shocked she is to see +me even standing at her gate." + +Shocked! I would have said terrified. Nothing but fear--her old fear +aggravated to a point that made all attempt at concealment +impossible--could account for her white, drawn features and trembling +form. She looked as if her whole thought was, "Have I come in time?" + +"What--what has procured us the honor of this visit?" she asked, moving +up beside William as if she would add her slight frame to his bulky one +to keep this intruder out. + +"Nothing that need alarm you," said the other with a suggestive note in +his kind and mellow voice. "I was rather unexpectedly intrusted this +morning with a letter for your agreeable guest here, and I have merely +come to deliver it." + +Her look of astonishment passing from him to me, I thrust my hand into +my pocket and drew out the letter which I had just received. + +"From home," said I, without properly considering that this was in some +measure an untruth. + +"Oh!" she murmured as if but half convinced. "William could have gone +for it," she added, still eying Mr. Trohm with a pitiful anxiety. + +"I was only too happy," said the other, with a low and reassuring bow. +Then, as if he saw that her distress would only be relieved by his +departure, he raised his hat and stepped back into the open highway. "I +will not intrude again, Miss Knollys," were his parting words. "If you +want anything of Obadiah Trohm, you know where to find him. His doors +will always be open to you." + +Lucetta, with a start, laid her hand on her brother's arm as if to +restrain the words she saw slowly laboring to his lips, and leaning +breathlessly forward, watched the fine figure of this perfect country +gentleman till it had withdrawn quite out of sight. Then she turned, and +with a quick abandonment of all self-control, cried out with a pitiful +gesture toward her brother, "I thought all was over; I feared he meant +to come into the house," and fell stark and seemingly lifeless at our +feet. + + + + +X + +SECRET INSTRUCTIONS + + +For a moment William and myself stood looking at each other over this +frail and prostrate figure. Then he stooped, and with an unexpected show +of kindness raised her up and began carrying her toward the house. + +"Lucetta is a fool," he cried suddenly, stopping and giving me a quick +glance over his shoulder. "Because folks are terrified of this road and +come to see us but seldom, she has got to feel a most unreasonable dread +of visitors. She was even set against your coming till we showed her +what folly it was for her to think we could always live here like +hermits. Then she doesn't like Mr. Trohm; thinks he is altogether too +friendly to me--as if that was any of her business. Am I an idiot? Have +I no sense? Cannot I be trusted to take care of my own affairs and keep +my own secrets? She's a weak, silly chit, to go and flop over like this +when, d--n it, we have enough to look after without nursing her up +and--I mean," he said, tripping himself up with an air of polite +consideration so out of keeping with his usual churlishness as to be +more than noticeable, "that it cannot add much to the pleasure of your +visit to have such things happen as this." + +"Oh, don't worry about me!" I curtly responded. "Get the poor girl in. +I'll look after her." + +But as if she heard these words and was startled by them, Lucetta roused +in her brother's arms and struggled passionately to her feet. "Oh! what +has happened to me?" she cried. "Have I said anything? William, have I +said anything?" she asked wildly, clinging to her brother in terror. + +He gave her a look and pushed her off. + +"What are you talking about?" he cried. "One would think you had +something to conceal." + +She steadied herself up in an instant. + +"I am the weakest of the family," said she, walking straight up to me +and taking me affectionately by the arm. "All my life I have been +delicate and these turns are nothing new to me. Sometimes I think I will +die in one of them; but I am quite restored now," she hastily added, as +I could not help showing my concern. "See! I can walk quite alone." And +she ran, rather than walked, up the few short steps of the porch, at +which we had now arrived. "Don't tell Loreen," she begged, as I followed +her into the house. "She worries so about me, and it will do no good." + +William had stalked off toward the stables. We were therefore alone. I +turned and laid a finger on her arm. + +"My dear," said I, "I never make foolish promises, but I can be trusted +never to heedlessly slight any one's wishes. If I see no good reason why +I should tell your sister of this fainting fit, I shall certainly hold +my peace." + +She seemed moved by my manner, if not by my words. + +"Oh," she cried, seizing my hand and pressing it. "If I dared to tell +you of my troubles! But it is impossible, quite impossible." And before +I could urge a plea for her confidence she was gone, leaving me in the +company of Hannah, who at this moment was busying herself with something +at the other end of the hall. + +I had no wish to interfere with Hannah just then. I had my letter to +read, and did not wish to be disturbed. So I slipped into the +sitting-room and carefully closed the door. Then I opened my letter. + +It was, as I supposed, from Mr. Gryce, and ran thus: + + "DEAR MISS BUTTERWORTH: + + "I am astonished at your determination, but since your desire + to visit your friends is such as to lead you to brave the + dangers of Lost Man's Lane, allow me to suggest certain + precautions. + + "First.--Do not trust anybody. + + "Second.--Do not proceed anywhere alone or on foot. + + "Third.--If danger comes to you, and you find yourself in a + condition of real peril, blow once shrilly on the whistle I + inclose with this. If, however, the danger is slight, or you + wish merely to call the attention of those who will be set to + watch over you, let the blast be short, sharp, and + repeated--twice to summon assistance, three times to call + attention. + + "I advise you to fasten this whistle about your neck in a way + to make it easily obtainable. + + "I have advised you to trust nobody. I should have excepted Mr. + Trohm, but I do not think you will be given an opportunity to + speak to him. Remember that all depends upon your not awakening + suspicion. If, however, you wish advice or desire to make any + communication to me or the man secretly holding charge over + this affair in X., seek the first opportunity of riding into + town and go at once to the hotel where you will ask for Room 3. + It has been retained in your service, and once shown into it, + you, may expect a visitor who will be the man you seek. + + "As you will see, every confidence is put in your judgment." + +There was no signature to this--it needed none--and in the packet which +came with it was the whistle. I was glad to see it, and glad to hear +that I was not left entirely without protection in my somewhat hazardous +enterprise. + +The events of the morning had been so unexpected that till this moment I +had forgotten my early determination to go to my room before any change +there could be made. Recalling it now, I started for the staircase, and +did not stop though I heard Hannah calling me back. The consequence was +that I ran full tilt against Miss Knollys coming down the hall with a +tray in her hand. + +"Ah," I cried; "some one sick in the house?" + +The attack was too sudden. I saw her recoil and for one instant hesitate +before replying. Then her natural self-possession came to her aid, and +she placidly remarked: + +"We were all up to a late hour last night, as you know. It was necessary +for us to have some food." + +I accepted the explanation and made no further remark, but as in passing +her I had detected on this tray of food supposed to have been sent up +the night before, the half-eaten portion of a certain dish we had had +for breakfast, I reserved to myself the privilege of doubting her exact +truthfulness. To me the sight of this partially consumed breakfast was +proof positive of there being in the house some person of whose presence +I was supposed to be ignorant--not a pleasant thought under the +circumstances, but quite an important fact to have established. I felt +that in this one discovery I had clutched the thread that would yet lead +me out of the labyrinth of this mystery. + +Miss Knollys, who was on her way down-stairs, called Hannah to take the +tray, and, coming back, beckoned me toward a door opening into one of +the front rooms. + +"This is to be your room," she announced, "but I do not know that I can +move you to-day." + +She was so calm, so perfectly mistress of herself, that I could not but +admire her. Lucetta would have flushed and fidgeted, but Loreen stood as +erect and placid as if no trouble weighed upon her heart and the words +were as unimportant in their character as they seemed. + +"Do not distress yourself," said I. "I told Lucetta last night that I +was perfectly comfortable and had no wish to change my quarters. I am +sorry you should have thought it necessary to disturb yourself on my +account last night. Don't do it again, I pray. A woman like myself had +rather put herself to some slight inconvenience than move. + +"I am much obliged to you," said she, and came at once from the door. I +don't know but after all I like Lucetta's fidgety ways better than +Loreen's unmovable self-possession. + +"Shall I order the coach for you?" she suddenly asked, as I turned +toward the corridor leading to my room. + +"The coach?" I repeated. + +"I thought that perhaps you might like to ride into town. Mr. Simsbury +is at leisure this morning. I regret that neither Lucetta nor myself +will be able to accompany you." + +I thought what this same Mr. Simsbury had said about Lucetta's plan, and +hesitated. It was evidently their wish to have me spend my morning +elsewhere than with them. Should I humor them, or find excuses for +remaining home? Either course had its difficulties. If I went, what +might not take place in my absence! If I remained, what suspicions might +I not rouse! I decided to compromise matters, and start for town even if +I did not go there. + +"I am hesitating," said I, "because of the two or three rather +threatening-looking clouds toward the east. But if you are sure Mr. +Simsbury can be spared, I think I will risk it. I really would like to +get a key for my door; and then riding in the country is so pleasant." + +Miss Knollys, with a bow, passed immediately down-stairs. I went in a +state of some doubt toward my own room. "Am I surveying these +occurrences through highly magnifying glasses?" thought I. It was very +possible, yet not so possible but that I cast very curious glances at +the various closed doors I had to pass before reaching my own. Such a +little thing would make me feel like trying them. Such a little +thing--that is, added to the other things which had struck me as +unexplainable. + +I found my bed made and everything in apple-pie order. I had therefore +nothing to do but to prepare for going out. This I did quickly, and was +down-stairs sooner perhaps than I was expected. At all events Lucetta +and William parted very suddenly when they saw me, she in tears and he +with a dogged shrug and some such word as this: + +"You're a fool to take on so. Since it's got to be, the sooner the +better, I say. Don't you see that every minute makes less our chances of +concealment?" + +It made me feel like changing my mind and staying home. But the habit of +a lifetime is not easily broken into. I kept to my first decision. + + + + +XI + +MEN, WOMEN, AND GHOSTS + + +Mr. Simsbury gave me quite an amiable bow as I entered the buggy. This +made it easy for me to say: + +"You are on hand early this morning. Do you sleep in the Knollys house?" + +The stare he gave me had the least bit of suspicion in it. + +"I live over yonder," he said, pointing with his whip across the +intervening woods to the main road. "I come through the marshes to my +breakfast; my old woman says they owes me three meals, and three meals I +must have." + +It was the longest sentence with which he had honored me. Finding him in +a talkative mood, I prepared to make myself agreeable, a proceeding +which he seemed to appreciate, for he began to sniff and pay great +attention to his horse, which he was elaborately turning about. + +"Why do you go that way?" I protested. "Isn't it the longest way to the +village?" + +"It's the way I'm most accustomed to," said he. "But we can go the other +way if you like. Perhaps we will get a glimpse of Deacon Spear. He's a +widower, you know." + +The leer with which he said this was intolerable. I bridled up--but no, +I will not admit that I so much as manifested by my manner that I +understood him. I merely expressed my wish to go the old way. + +He whipped up the horse at once, almost laughing outright. I began to +think this man capable of most any wicked deed. He was forced, however, +to pull up suddenly. Directly in our path was the stooping figure of a +woman. She did not move as we advanced, and so we had no alternative but +to stop. Not till the horse's head touched her shoulder did she move. +Then she rose up and looked at us somewhat indignantly. + +"Didn't you hear us?" I asked, willing to open conversation with the old +crone, whom I had no difficulty in recognizing as Mother Jane. + +"She's deaf--deaf, as a post," muttered Mr. Simsbury. "No use shouting +at her." His tone was brusque, yet I noticed he waited with great +patience for her to hobble out of the way. + +Meanwhile I was watching the old creature with much interest. She had +not a common face or a common manner. She was gray, she was toothless, +she was haggard, and she was bent, but she was not ordinary or just one +of the crowd of old women to be seen on country doorsteps. There was +force in her aged movements and a strong individuality in the glances +she shot at us as she backed slowly out of the roadway. + +"Do they say she is imbecile?" I asked. "She looks far from foolish to +me." + +"Hearken a bit," said he. "Don't you see she is muttering? She talks to +herself all the time." And in fact her lips were moving. + +"I cannot hear her," I said. "Make her come nearer. Somehow the old +creature interests me." + +He at once beckoned to the crone; but he might as well have beckoned to +the tree against which she had pushed herself. She neither answered him +nor gave any indication that she understood the gesture he had made. Yet +her eyes never moved from our faces. + +"Well, well," said I, "she seems dull as well as deaf. You had better +drive on." But before he could give the necessary jerk of the reins, I +caught sight of some pennyroyal growing about the front of the cottage a +few steps beyond, and, pointing to it with some eagerness, I cried: "If +there isn't some of the very herb I want to take home with me! Do you +think she would give me a handful of it if I paid her?" + +With an obliging grunt he again pulled up. "If you can make her +understand," said he. + +I thought it worth the effort. Though Mr. Gryce had been at pains to +tell me there was no harm in this woman and that I need not even +consider her in any inquiries I might be called upon to make, I +remembered that Mr. Gryce had sometimes made mistakes in just such +matters as these, and that Amelia Butterworth had then felt herself +called upon to set him right. If that could happen once, why not twice? +At all events, I was not going to lose the least chance of making the +acquaintance of the people living in this lane. Had he not himself said +that only in this way could we hope to come upon the clue that had +eluded all open efforts to find it? + +Knowing that the sight of money is the strongest appeal that can be made +to one living in such abject poverty as this woman, making the blind to +see and the deaf to hear, I drew out my purse and held up before her a +piece of silver. She bounded as if she had been shot, and when I held it +toward her came greedily forward and stood close beside the wheels +looking up. + +"For you," I indicated, after making a motion toward the plant which had +attracted my attention. + +She glanced from me to the herb and nodded with quick appreciation. As +in a flash she seemed to take in the fact that I was a stranger, a city +lady with memories of the country and this humble plant, and hurrying to +it with the same swiftness she had displayed in advancing to the +carriage, she tore off several of the sprays and brought them back to +me, holding out her hand for the money. + +I had never seen greater eagerness, and I think even Mr. Simsbury was +astonished at this proof of her poverty or her greed. I was inclined to +think it the latter, for her portly figure was far from looking either +ill-fed or poorly cared for. Her dress was of decent calico, and her +pipe had evidently been lately filled, for I could smell the odor of +tobacco about her. Indeed, as I afterward heard, the good people of X. +had never allowed her to suffer. Yet her fingers closed upon that coin +as if in it she grasped the salvation of her life, and into her eyes +leaped a light that made her look almost young, though she must have +been fully eighty. + +"What do you suppose she will do with that?" I asked Mr. Simsbury, as +she turned away in an evident fear I might repent of my bargain. + +"Hark!" was his brief response. "She is talking now." + +I did hearken, and heard these words fall from her quickly moving lips: + +"Seventy; twenty-eight; and now ten." + +Jargon; for I had given her twenty-five cents, an amount quite different +from any she had mentioned. + +"Seventy!" She was repeating the figures again, this time in a tone of +almost frenzied elation. "Seventy; twenty-eight; and now ten! Won't +Lizzie be surprised! Seventy; twenty--" I heard no more--she had bounded +into her cottage and shut the door. + +"Waal, what do you think of her now?" chuckled Mr. Simsbury, touching up +his horse. "She's always like that, saying over numbers, and muttering +about Lizzie. Lizzie was her daughter. Forty years ago she ran off with +a man from Boston, and for thirty-eight years she's been lying in a +Massachusetts grave. But her mother still thinks she is alive and is +coming back. Nothing will ever make her think different. But she's +harmless, perfectly harmless. You needn't be afeard of her." + +This, because I cast a look behind me of more than ordinary curiosity, I +suppose. Why were they all so sure she was harmless? I had thought her +expression a little alarming at times, especially when she took the +money from my hand. If I had refused it or even held it back a little, I +think she would have fallen upon me tooth and nail. I wished I could +take a peep into her cottage. Mr. Gryce had described it as four walls +and nothing more, and indeed it was small and of the humblest +proportions; but the fluttering of some half-dozen pigeons about its +eaves proved it to be a home and, as such, of interest to me, who am +often able to read character from a person's habitual surroundings. + +There was no yard attached to this simple building, only a small open +place in front in which a few of the commonest vegetables grew, such as +turnips, carrots, and onions. Elsewhere towered the forest--the great +pine forest through which this portion of the road ran. + +Mr. Simsbury had been so talkative up to now that I was in hope he would +enter into some details about the persons and things we encountered, +which might assist me in the acquaintanceship I was anxious to make. But +his loquaciousness ended with this small adventure I have just +described. Not till we were well quit of the pines and had entered into +the main thoroughfare did he deign to respond to any of my suggestions, +and then it was in a manner totally unsatisfactory and quite +uncommunicative. The only time he deigned to offer a remark was when we +emerged from the forest and came upon the little crippled child, looking +from its window. Then he cried: + +"Why, how's this? That's Sue you see there, and her time isn't till +arternoon. Rob allers sits there of a mornin'. I wonder if the little +chap's sick. S'pose I ask." + +As this was just what I would have suggested if he had given me time, I +nodded complacently, and we drove up and stopped. + +The piping voice of the child at once spoke up: + +"How d' ye do, Mr. Simsbury? Ma's in the kitchen. Rob isn't feelin' good +to-day." + +I thought her tone had a touch of mysteriousness in it. I greeted the +pale little thing, and asked if Rob was often sick. + +"Never," she answered, "except, like me, he can't walk. But I'm not to +talk about it, ma says. I'd like to, but----" + +Ma's face appearing at this moment over her shoulder put an end to her +innocent garrulity. + +"How d' ye do, Mr. Simsbury?" came a second time from the window, but +this time in very different tones. "What's the child been saying? She's +so sot up at being allowed to take her brother's place in the winder +that she don't know how to keep her tongue still. Rob's a little +languid, that's all. You'll see him in his old place to-morrow." And she +drew back as if in polite intimation that we might drive on. + +Mr. Simsbury responded to the suggestion, and in another moment we were +trotting down the road. Had we stayed a minute longer, I think the child +would have said something more or less interesting to hear. + +The horse, which had brought us thus far at a pretty sharp trot, now +began to lag, which so attracted Mr. Simsbury's attention, that he +forgot to answer even by a grunt more than half of my questions. He +spent most of his time looking at the nag's hind feet, and finally, just +as we came in sight of the stores, he found his tongue sufficiently to +announce that the horse was casting a shoe and that he would be obliged +to go to the blacksmith's with her. + +"Humph, and how long will that take?" I asked. + +He hesitated so long, rubbing his nose with his finger, that I grew +suspicious and cast a glance at the horse's foot myself. The shoe was +loose. I began to hear it clang. + +"Waal, it may be a matter of a couple of hours," he finally drawled. "We +have no blacksmith in town, and the ride up there is two miles. Sorry it +happened, ma'am, but there's all sorts of shops here, you see, and I've +allers heard that a woman can easily spend two hours haggling away in +shops." + +I glanced at the two ill-furnished windows he pointed out, thought of +Arnold & Constable's, Tiffany's, and the other New York establishments I +had been in the habit of visiting, and suppressed my disdain. Either the +man was a fool or he was acting a part in the interests of Lucetta and +her family. I rather inclined to the latter supposition. If the plan was +to keep me out most of the morning why could that shoe not have been +loosened before the mare left the stable? + +"I made all necessary purchases while in New York," said I, "but if you +must get the horse shod, why, take her off and do it. I suppose there is +a hotel parlor near here where I can sit." + +"Oh, yes," and he made haste to point out to me where the hotel stood. +"And it's a very nice place, ma'am. Mrs. Carter, the landlady, is the +nicest sort of person. Only you won't try to go home, ma'am, on foot? +You'll wait till I come back for you?" + +"It isn't likely I'll go streaking through Lost Man's Lane alone," I +exclaimed indignantly. "I'd rather sit in Mrs. Carter's parlor till +night." + +"And I would advise you to," he said. "No use making gossip for the +village folks. They have enough to talk about as it is." + +Not exactly seeing the force of this reasoning, but quite willing to be +left to my own devices for a little while, I pointed to a locksmith's +shop I saw near by, and bade him put me down there. + +With a sniff I declined to interpret into a token of disapproval, he +drove me up to the shop and awkwardly assisted me to alight. + +"Trunk key missing?" he ventured to inquire before getting back into his +seat. + +I did not think it necessary to reply, but walked immediately into the +shop. He looked dissatisfied at this, but whatever his feelings were he +refrained from any expression of them, and presently mounted to his +place and drove off. I was left confronting the decent man who +represented the lock-fitting interests in X. + +I found some difficulty in broaching my errand. Finally I said: + +"Miss Knollys, who lives up the road, wishes a key fitted to one of her +doors. Will you come or send a man to her house to-day? She is too +occupied to see about it herself." + +The man must have been struck by my appearance, for he stared at me +quite curiously for a minute. Then he gave a hem and a haw and said: + +"Certainly. What kind of a door is it?" When I had answered, he gave me +another curious glance and seemed uneasy to step back to where his +assistant was working with a file. + +"You will be sure to come in time to have the lock fitted before night?" +I said in that peremptory manner of mine which means simply, "I keep my +promises and expect you to keep yours." + +His "Certainly" struck me as a little weaker this time, possibly because +his curiosity was excited. "Are you the lady from New York who is +staying with them?" he asked, stepping back, seemingly quite unawed by +my positive demeanor. + +"Yes," said I, thawing a trifle; "I am Miss Butterworth." + +He looked at me almost as if I were a curiosity. + +"And did you sleep there last night?" he urged. + +I thought it best to thaw still more. + +"Of course," I said. "Where do you think I would sleep? The young ladies +are friends of mine." + +He rapped abstractedly on the counter with a small key he was holding. + +"Excuse me," said he, with some remembrance of my position toward him as +a stranger, "but weren't you afraid?" + +"Afraid?" I echoed. "Afraid in Miss Knollys' house?" + +"Why, then, do you want a key to your door?" he asked, with a slight +appearance of excitement. "We don't lock doors here in the village; at +least we didn't." + +"I did not say it was my door," I began, but, feeling that this was a +prevarication not only unworthy of me, but one that he was entirely too +sharp to accept, I added stiffly: "It is for my door. I am not +accustomed even at home to sleep with my room unlocked." + +"Oh," he murmured, totally unconvinced, "I thought you might have got a +scare. Folks somehow are afraid of that old place, it's so big and +ghost-like. I don't think you would find any one in this village who +would sleep there all night." + +"A pleasing preparation for my rest to-night," I grimly laughed. +"Dangers on the road and ghosts in the house. Happily I don't believe in +the latter." + +The gesture he made showed incredulity. He had ceased rapping with the +key or even to show any wish to join his assistant. All his thoughts for +the moment seemed to be concentrated on me. + +"You don't know little Rob," he inquired, "the crippled lad who lives at +the head of the lane?" + +"No," I said; "I haven't been in town a day yet, but I mean to know Rob +and his sister too. Two cripples in one family rouse my interest." + +He did not say why he had spoken of the child, but began tapping with +his key again. + +"And you are sure you saw nothing?" he whispered. "Lots of things can +happen in a lonely road like that." + +"Not if everybody is as afraid to enter it as you say your villagers +are," I retorted. + +But he didn't yield a jot. + +"Some folks don't mind present dangers," said he. "Spirits----" + +But he received no encouragement in his return to this topic. "You don't +believe in spirits?" said he. "Well, they are doubtful sort of folks, +but when honest and respectable people such as live in this town, when +children even, see what answers to nothing but phantoms, then I remember +what a wiser man than any of us once said----But perhaps you don't read +Shakespeare, madam?" + +Nonplussed for the moment, but interested in the man's talk more than +was consistent with my need of haste, I said with some spirit, for it +struck me as very ridiculous that this country mechanic should question +my knowledge of the greatest dramatist of all time, "Shakespeare and the +Bible form the staple of my reading." At which he gave me a little nod +of apology and hastened to say: + +"Then you know what I mean--Hamlet's remark to Horatio, madam, 'There +are more things,' etc. Your memory will readily supply you with the +words." + +I signified my satisfaction and perfect comprehension of his meaning, +and, feeling that something important lay behind his words, I endeavored +to make him speak more explicitly. + +"The Misses Knollys show no terror of their home," I observed. "They +cannot believe in spirits either." + +"Miss Knollys is a woman of a great deal of character," said he. "But +look at Lucetta. There is a face for you, for a girl not yet out of her +twenties; and such a round-cheeked lass as she was once! Now what has +made the change? The sights and sounds of that old house, I say. Nothing +else would give her that scared look--nothing merely mortal, I mean." + +This was going a step too far. I could not discuss Lucetta with this +stranger, anxious as I was to hear what he had to say about her. + +"I don't know," I remonstrated, taking up my black satin bag, without +which I never stir. "One would think the terrors of the lane she lives +in might account for some appearance of fear on her part." + +"So it might," he assented, but with no great heartiness. "But Lucetta +has never spoken of those dangers. The people in the lane do not seem to +fear them. Even Deacon Spear says that, set aside the wickedness of the +thing, he rather enjoys the quiet which the ill repute of the lane gives +him. I don't understand this indifference myself. I have no relish for +horrible mysteries or for ghosts either." + +"You won't forget the key?" I suggested shortly, preparing to walk out, +in my dread lest he should again introduce the subject of Lucetta. + +"No," said he, "I won't forget it." His tone should have warned me that +I need not expect to have a locked door that night. + + + + +XII + +THE PHANTOM COACH + + +Ghosts! What could the fellow have meant? If I had pressed him he would +have told me, but it did not seem quite a lady's business to pick up +information in this way, especially when it involved a young lady like +Lucetta. Yet did I think I would ever come to the end of this matter +without involving Lucetta? No. Why, then, did I allow my instincts to +triumph over my judgment? Let those answer who understand the workings +of the human heart. I am simply stating facts. + +Ghosts! Somehow the word startled me as if in some way it gave a rather +unwelcome confirmation to my doubts. Apparitions seen in the Knollys +mansion or in any of the houses bordering on this lane! That was a +serious charge; how serious seemed to be but half comprehended by this +man. But I comprehended it to the full, and wondered if it was on +account of such gossip as this that Mr. Gryce had persuaded me to enter +Miss Knollys' house as a guest. + +I was crossing the street to the hotel as I indulged in these +conjectures, and intent as my mind was upon them, I could not but note +the curiosity and interest which my presence excited in the simple +country folk invariably to be found lounging about a country tavern. +Indeed, the whole neighborhood seemed agog, and though I would have +thought it derogatory to my dignity to notice the fact, I could not but +see how many faces were peering at me from store doors and the +half-closed blinds of adjoining cottages. No young girl in the pride of +her beauty could have awakened more interest, and this I attributed, as +was no doubt right, not to my appearance, which would not perhaps be apt +to strike these simple villagers as remarkable, or to my dress, which is +rather rich than fashionable, but to the fact that I was a stranger in +town, and, what was more extraordinary, a guest of the Misses Knollys. + +My intention in approaching the hotel was not to spend a couple of +dreary hours in the parlor with Mrs. Carter, as Mr. Simsbury had +suggested, but to obtain if possible a conveyance to carry me +immediately back to the Knollys mansion. But this, which would have been +a simple matter in most towns, seemed well-nigh an impossibility in X. +The landlord was away, and Mrs. Carter, who was very frank with me, told +me it would be perfectly useless to ask one of the men to drive me +through the lane. "It's an unwholesome spot," said she, "and only Mr. +Carter and the police have the courage to brave it." + +I suggested that I was willing to pay well, but it seemed to make very +little difference to her. "Money won't hire them," said she, and I had +the satisfaction of knowing that Lucetta had triumphed in her plan, and +that, after all, I must sit out the morning in the precincts of the +hotel parlor with Mrs. Carter. + +It was my first signal defeat, but I was determined to make the best of +it, and if possible glean such knowledge from the talk of this woman as +would make me feel that I had lost nothing by my disappointment. She was +only too ready to talk, and the first topic was little Rob. + +I saw the moment I mentioned his name that I was introducing a subject +which had already been well talked over by every eager gossip in the +village. + +Her attitude of importance, the air of mystery she assumed, were +preparations I had long been accustomed to in women of this kind, and I +was not at all surprised when she announced in a way that admitted of no +dispute: + +"Oh, there's no wonder the child is sick. We would be sick under the +circumstances. _He has seen the phantom coach._" + +The phantom coach! So that was what the locksmith meant. A phantom +coach! I had heard of every kind of phantom but that. Somehow the idea +was a thrilling one, or would have been to a nature less practical than +mine. + +"I don't know what you mean," said I. "Some superstition of the place? I +never heard of a ghostly appearance of that nature before." + +"No, I expect not. It belongs to X. I never heard of it beyond these +mountains. Indeed, I have never known it to have been seen but upon one +road. I need not mention what road, madam. You can guess." + +Yes, I could guess, and the guessing made me set my lips a little +grimly. + +"Tell me more about this thing," I urged, half laughing. "It ought to be +of some interest to me." + +She nodded, drew her chair a trifle nearer, and impetuously began: + +"You see this is a very old town. It has more than one ancient country +house similar to the one you are now living in, and it has its early +traditions. One is, that an old-fashioned coach, perfectly noiseless, +drawn by horses through which you can see the moonlight, haunts the +highroad at intervals and flies through the gloomy forest road we have +christened of late years Lost Man's Lane. It is a superstition, +possibly, but you cannot find many families in town but believe in it as +a fact, for there is not an old man or woman in the place but has either +seen it in the past or has had some relative who has seen it. It passes +only at night, and it is thought to presage some disaster to those who +see it. My husband's uncle died the next morning after it flew by him on +the highway. Fortunately years elapse between its going and coming. It +is ten years, I think they say, since it was last seen. Poor little Rob! +It has frightened him almost out of his wits." + +"I should think so," I cried with becoming credulity. "But how came he +to see it? I thought you said it only passed at night." + +"At midnight," she repeated. "But Rob, you see, is a nervous lad, and +night before last he was so restless he could not sleep, so he begged to +be put in the window to cool off. This his mother did, and he sat there +for a good half-hour alone, looking out at the moonlight. As his mother +is an economical woman there was no candle lit in the room, so he got +his pleasure out of the shadows which the great trees made on the +highroad, when suddenly--you ought to hear the little fellow tell it--he +felt the hair rise on his forehead and all his body grow stiff with a +terror that made his tongue feel like lead in his mouth. A something he +would have called a horse and a carriage in the daytime, but which, in +this light and under the influence of the mortal terror he was in, took +on a distorted shape which made it unlike any team he was accustomed to, +was going by, not as if being driven over the earth and stones of the +road,--though there was a driver in front, a driver with an odd +three-cornered hat on his head and a cloak about his shoulders, such as +the little fellow remembered to have seen hanging in his grandmother's +closet,--but as if it floated along without sound or stir; in fact, a +spectre team which seemed to find its proper destination when it turned +into Lost Man's Lane and was lost among the shadows of that ill-reputed +road." + +"Pshaw!" was my spirited comment as she paused to take her breath and +see how I was affected by this grewsome tale. "A dream of the poor +little lad! He had heard stories of this apparition and his imagination +supplied the rest." + +"No; excuse me, madam, he had been carefully kept from hearing all such +tales. You could see this by the way he told his story. He hardly +believed what he had himself seen. It was not till some foolish neighbor +blurted out, 'Why, that was the phantom coach,' that he had any idea he +was not relating a dream." + +My second _Pshaw!_ was no less marked than the first. + +"He did know about it, notwithstanding," I insisted. "Only he had +forgotten the fact. Sleep often supplies us with these lost memories." + +"Very true, and your supposition is very plausible, Miss Butterworth, +and might be regarded as correct, if he had been the only person to see +this apparition. But Mrs. Jenkins saw it too, and she is a woman to be +believed." + +This was becoming serious. + +"Saw it before he did or afterwards?" I asked. "Does she live on the +highway or somewhere in Lost Man's Lane?" + +"She lives on the highway about a half-mile from the station. She was +sitting up with her sick husband and saw it just as it was going down +the hill. She said it made no more noise than a cloud slipping by. She +expects to lose old Rause. No one could behold such a thing as that and +not have some misfortune follow." + +I laid all this up in my mind. My hour of waiting was not likely to +prove wholly unprofitable. + +"You see," the good woman went on, with a relish for the marvellous that +stood me in good stead, "there is an old tradition of that road +connected with a coach. Years ago, before any of us were born, and the +house where you are now staying was a gathering-place for all the gay +young bloods of the county, a young man came up from New York to visit +Mr. Knollys. I do not mean the father or even the grandfather of the +folks you are visiting, ma'am. He was great-grandfather to Lucetta, and +a very fine gentleman, if you can trust the pictures that are left of +him. But my story has not to do with him. He had a daughter at that +time, a widow of great and sparkling attractions, and though she was +older than the young man I have mentioned, every one thought he would +marry her, she was so handsome and such an heiress. + +"But he failed to pay his court to her, and though he was handsome +himself and made a fool of more than one girl in the town, every one +thought he would return as he had come, a free-hearted bachelor, when +suddenly one night the coach was missed from the stables and he from the +company, which led to the discovery that the young widow's daughter was +gone too, a chit who was barely fifteen, and without a hundredth part of +the beauty of her mother. Love only could account for this, for in those +days young ladies did not ride with gentlemen in the evening for +pleasure, and when it came to the old gentleman's ears, and, what was +worse, came to the mother's, there was a commotion in the great house, +the echoes of which, some say, have never died out. Though the pipers +were playing and the fiddles were squeaking in the great room where they +used to dance the night away, Mrs. Knollys, with her white brocade +tucked up about her waist, stood with her hand on the great front door, +waiting for the horse upon which she was determined to follow the flying +lovers. The father, who was a man of eighty years, stood by her side. He +was too old to ride himself, but he made no effort to hold her back, +though the jewels were tumbling from her hair and the moon had vanished +from the highway. + +"'I will bring her back or die!' the passionate beauty exclaimed, and +not a lip said her nay, for they saw, what neither man nor woman had +been able to see up to that moment, that her very life and soul were +wrapped up in the man who had stolen away her daughter. + +"Shrilly piped the pipes, squeak and hum went the fiddles, but the sound +that was sweetest to her was the pound of the horses' hoofs on the road +in front. That was music indeed, and as soon as she heard it she +bestowed one wild kiss on her father and bounded from the house. An +instant later and she was gone. One flash of her white robe at the gate, +then all was dark on the highway, and only the old father stood in the +wide-open door, waiting, as he vowed he would wait, till his daughter +returned. + +"She did not go alone. A faithful groom was behind her, and from him was +learned the conclusion of that quest. For an hour and a half they rode; +then they came upon a chapel in the mountains, in which were burning +unwonted lights. At the sight the lady drew rein and almost fell from +her horse into the arms of her lackey. 'A marriage!' she murmured; 'a +marriage!' and pointed to an empty coach standing in the shadow of a +wide-spreading tree. It was their family coach. How well she knew it! +Rousing herself, she made for the chapel door. 'I will stop these +unhallowed rites!' she cried! 'I am her mother, and she is not of age.' +But the lackey drew her back by her rich white dress. 'Look!' he cried, +pointing in at one of the windows, and she looked. The man she loved +stood before the altar with her daughter. He was smiling in that +daughter's face with a look of passionate devotion. It went like a +dagger to her heart. Crushing her hands against her face, she wailed out +some fearful protest; then she dashed toward the door with 'Stop! stop!' +on her lips. But the faithful lackey at her side drew her back once +more. 'Listen!' was his word, and she listened. The minister, whose form +she had failed to note in her first hurried look, was uttering his +benediction. She had come too late. The young couple were married. + +"Her servant said, or so the tradition runs, that when she realized this +she grew calm as walking death. Making her way into the chapel, she +stood ready at the door to greet them as they issued forth, and when +they saw her there, with her rich bedraggled robe and the gleam of +jewels on a neck she had not even stopped to envelop in more than the +veil from her hair, the bridegroom seemed to realize what he had done +and stopped the bride, who in her confusion would have fled back to the +altar where she had just been made a wife. 'Kneel!' he cried. 'Kneel, +Amarynth! Only thus can we ask pardon of our mother.' But at that word, +a word which seemed to push her a million miles away from these two +beings who but two hours before had been the delight of her life, the +unhappy woman gave a cry and fled from their presence. 'Go! go!' were +her parting words. 'As you have chosen, you must abide. But let no +tongue ever again call me mother.' + +"They found her lying on the grass outside. As she could no longer +sustain herself on a horse, they put her into the coach, gave the reins +to her devoted lackey, and themselves rode off on horseback. One man, +the fellow who had driven them to that place, said that the clock struck +twelve from the chapel tower as the coach turned away and began its +rapid journey home. This may and may not be so. We only know that its +apparition always enters Lost Man's Lane a few minutes before one, which +is the very hour at which the real coach came back and stopped before +Mr. Knollys' gate. And now for the worst, Miss Butterworth. When the old +gentleman went down to greet the runaways, he found the lackey on the +box and his daughter sitting all alone in the coach. But the soil on the +brocaded folds of her white dress was no longer that of mud only. She +had stabbed herself to the heart with a bodkin she wore in her hair, and +it was a corpse which the faithful negro had been driving down the +highway that night." + +I am not a sentimental woman, but this story as thus told gave me a +thrill I do not know as I really regret experiencing. + +"What was this unhappy mother's name?" I asked. + +"Lucetta," was the unexpected and none too reassuring answer. + + + + +XIII + +GOSSIP + + +This name once mentioned called for more gossip, but of a somewhat +different nature. + +"The Lucetta of to-day is not like her ancient namesake," observed Mrs. +Carter. "She may have the heart to love, but she is not capable of +showing that love by any act of daring." + +"I don't know about that," I replied, astonished that I felt willing to +enter into a discussion with this woman on the very subject I had just +shrunk from talking over with the locksmith. "Girls as frail and nervous +as she is, sometimes astonish one at a pinch. I do not think Lucetta +lacks daring." + +"You don't know her. Why, I have seen her jump at the sight of a spider, +and heaven knows that they are common enough among the decaying walls in +which she lives. A puny chit, Miss Butterworth; pretty enough, but weak. +The very kind to draw lovers, but not to hold them. Yet every one pities +her, her smile is so heart-broken." + +"With ghosts to trouble her and a lover to bemoan, she has surely some +excuse for that," said I. + +"Yes, I don't deny it. But why has she a lover to bemoan? He seemed a +proper man and much beyond the ordinary. Why let him go as she did? Even +her sister admits that she loved him." + +"I am not acquainted with the circumstances," I suggested. + +"Well, there isn't much of a story to it. He is a young man from over +the mountains, well educated, and with something of a fortune of his +own. He came here to visit the Spears, I believe, and seeing Lucetta +leaning one day on the gate in front of her house, he fell in love with +her and began to pay her his attentions. That was before the lane got +its present bad name, but not before one or two men had vanished from +among us. William--that is her brother, you know--has always been +anxious to have his sisters marry, so he did not stand in the way, and +no more did Miss Knollys, but after two or three weeks of doubtful +courtship, the young man went away, and that was the end of it. And a +great pity, too, say I, for once clear of that house, Lucetta would grow +into another person. Sunshine and love are necessities to most women, +Miss Butterworth, especially to such as are weakly and timid." + +I thought the qualification excellent. + +"You are right," I assented, "and I should like to see the result of +them upon Lucetta." Then, with an attempt to still further sound this +woman's mind and with it the united mind of the whole village, I +remarked: "The young do not usually throw aside such prospects without +excellent reasons. Have you never thought that Lucetta was governed by +principle in discarding this very excellent young man?" + +"Principle? What principle could she have had in letting a desirable +husband go?" + +"She may have thought the match an undesirable one for him." + +"For him? Well, I never thought of that. True, she may. They are known +to be poor, but poverty don't count in such old families as theirs. I +hardly think she would be influenced by any such consideration. Now, if +this had happened since the lane got its bad name and all this stir had +been made about the disappearance of certain folks within its precincts, +I might have given some weight to your suggestion--women are so queer. +But this happened long ago and at a time when the family was highly +thought of, leastwise the girls, for William does not go for much, you +know--too stupid and too brutal." + +William! Would the utterance of that name heighten my suggestion? I +surveyed her closely, but could detect no change in her somewhat puzzled +countenance. + +"My allusions were not in reference to the disappearances," said I. "I +was thinking of something else. Lucetta is not well." + +"Ah, I know! They say she has some kind of heart complaint, but that was +not true then. Why, her cheeks were like roses in those days, and her +figure as plump and pretty as any you could see among our village +beauties. No, Miss Butterworth, it was through her weakness she lost +him. She probably palled upon his taste. It was noticed that he held his +head very high in going out of town." + +"Has he married since?" I asked. + +"Not to my knowledge, ma'am." + +"Then he loved her," I declared. + +She looked at me quite curiously. Doubtless that word sounds a little +queer on my lips, but that shall not deter me from using it when the +circumstances seem to require. Besides, there was once a time--But +there, I promised to fall into no digressions. + +"You should have been married yourself, Miss Butterworth," said she. + +I was amazed, first at her daring, and secondly that I was so little +angry at this sudden turning of the tables upon myself. But then the +woman meant no offence, rather intended a compliment. + +"I am very well contented as I am," I returned. "_I_ am neither sickly +nor timid." + +She smiled, looked as if she thought it only common politeness to agree +with me, and tried to say so, but finding the situation too much for +her, coughed and discreetly held her peace. I came to her rescue with a +new question: + +"Have the women of the Knollys family ever been successful in love? The +mother of these girls, say--she who was Miss Althea Burroughs--was her +life with her husband happy? I have always been curious to know. She and +I were schoolmates." + +"You were? You knew Althea Knollys when she was a girl? Wasn't she +charming, ma'am? Did you ever see a livelier girl or one with more knack +at winning affection? Why, she couldn't sit down with you a half-hour +before you felt like sharing everything you had with her. It made no +difference whether you were man or woman, it was all the same. She had +but to turn those mischievous, pleading eyes upon you for you to become +a fool at once. Yet her end was sad, ma'am; too sad, when you remember +that she died at the very height of her beauty alone and in a foreign +land. But I have not answered your question. Were she and the judge +happy together? I have never heard to the contrary, ma'am. I'm sure he +mourned her faithfully enough. Some think that her loss killed him. He +did not survive her more than three years." + +"The children do not favor her much," said I, "but I see an expression +now and then in Lucetta which reminds me of her mother." + +"They are all Knollys," said she. "Even William has traits which, with a +few more brains back of them, would remind you of his grandfather, who +was the plainest of his race." + +I was glad that the talk had reverted to William. + +"He seems to lack heart, as well as brains," I said. "I marvel that his +sisters put up with him as well as they do." + +"They cannot help it. He is not a fellow to be fooled with. Besides, he +holds third share in the house. If they could sell it! But, deary me, +who would buy an old tumble-down place like that, on a road you cannot +get folks who have any consideration for their lives to enter for love +or money? But excuse me, ma'am; I forgot that you are living just now on +that very road. I'm sure I beg a thousand pardons." + +"I am living there as a guest," I returned. "I have nothing to do with +its reputation--except to brave it." + +"A courageous thing to do, ma'am, and one that may do the road some +good. If you can spend a month with the Knollys girls and come out of +their house at the end as hale and hearty as you entered it, it will be +the best proof possible that there is less to be feared there than some +people think. I shall be glad if you can do it, ma'am, for I like the +girls and would be glad to have the reputation of the place restored." + +"Pshaw!" was my final comment. "The credulity of the town has had as +much to do with its loss as they themselves. That educated people such +as I see here should believe in ghosts!" + +I say final, for at this moment the good lady, springing up, put an end +to our conversation. She had just seen a buggy pass the window. + +"It's Mr. Trohm," she exclaimed. "Ma'am, if you wish to return home +before Mr. Simsbury comes back you may be able to do so with this +gentleman. He's a most obliging man, and lives less than a quarter of a +mile from the Misses Knollys." + +I did not say I had already met the gentleman. Why, I do not know. I +only drew myself up and waited with some small inner perturbation for +the result of the inquiry I saw she had gone to make. + + + + +XIV + +I FORGET MY AGE, OR, RATHER, REMEMBER IT + + +Mr. Trohm did not disappoint my expectations. In another moment I +perceived him standing in the open doorway with the most genial smile on +his lips. + +"Miss Butterworth," said he, "I feel too honored. If you will deign to +accept a seat in my buggy, I shall only be too happy to drive you home." + +I have always liked the manners of country gentlemen. There is just a +touch of formality in their bearing which has been quite eliminated from +that of their city brothers. I therefore became gracious at once and +accepted the seat he offered me without any hesitation. + +The heads that showed themselves at the neighboring windows warned us to +hasten on our route. Mr. Trohm, with a snap of his whip, touched up his +horse, and we rode in dignified calm away from the hotel steps into the +wide village street known as the main road. The fact that Mr. Gryce had +told me that this was the one man I could trust, joined to my own +excellent knowledge of human nature and the persons in whom explicit +confidence can be put, made the moment one of great satisfaction to me. +I was about to make my appearance at the Knollys mansion two hours +before I was expected, and thus outwit Lucetta by means of the one man +whose assistance I could conscientiously accept. + +We were not slow in beginning conversation. The fine air, the prosperous +condition of the town offered themes upon which we found it quite easy +to dilate, and so naturally and easily did our acquaintanceship progress +that we had turned the corner into Lost Man's Lane before I quite +realized it. The entrance from the village offered a sharp contrast to +the one I had already traversed. There it was but a narrow opening +between sombre and unduly crowding trees. Here it was the gradual +melting of a village street into a narrow and less frequented road, +which only after passing Deacon Spear's house assumed that aspect of +wildness which a quarter of a mile farther on deepened into something +positively sombre and repellent. + +I speak of Deacon Spear because he was sitting on his front doorstep +when we rode by. As he was a resident in the lane, I did not fail to +take notice of him, though guardedly and with such restraint as a +knowledge of his widowed condition rendered both wise and proper. + +He was not an agreeable-looking person, at least to me. His hair was +sleek, his beard well cared for, his whole person in good if not +prosperous condition, but he had the self-satisfied expression I detest, +and looked after us with an aspect of surprise I chose to consider a +trifle impertinent. Perhaps he envied Mr. Trohm. If so, he may have had +good reason for it--it is not for me to judge. + +Up to now I had seen only a few scrub bushes at the side of the road, +with here and there a solitary poplar to enliven the dead level on +either side of us; but after we had ridden by the fence which sets the +boundary to the good deacon's land, I noticed such a change in the +appearance of the lane that I could not but exclaim over the natural as +well as cultivated beauties which every passing moment was bringing +before me. + +Mr. Trohm could not conceal his pleasure. + +"These are my lands," said he. "I have bestowed unremitting attention +upon them for years. It is my hobby, madam. There is not a tree you see +that has not received my careful attention. Yonder orchard was set out +by me, and the fruit it yields--Madam, I hope you will remain long +enough with us to taste a certain rare and luscious peach that I brought +from France a few years ago. It gives promise of reaching its full +perfection this year, and I shall be gratified indeed if you can give it +your approval." + +This was politeness indeed, especially as I knew what value men like him +set upon each individual fruit they watch ripen under their care. +Testifying my appreciation of his kindness, I endeavored to introduce +another and less harmless and perhaps less personally interesting topic +of conversation. The chimneys of his house were beginning to show over +the trees, and I had heard nothing from this man on the subject which +should have been the most interesting of all to me at this moment. And +he was the only person in town I was at liberty to really confide in, +and possibly the only man in town who could give me a reliable statement +of the reasons why the family I was visiting was regarded in a doubtful +light not only by the credulous villagers, but by the New York police. I +began by an allusion to the phantom coach. + +"I hear," said I, "that this lane has other claims to attention beyond +those afforded by the mysteries connected with it. I hear that it has at +times a ghostly visitant in the shape of a spectral horse and carriage." + +"Yes," he replied, with a seeming understanding that was very +flattering; "do not spare the lane one of its honors. It has its nightly +horror as well as its daily fear. I wish the one were as unreal as the +other." + +"You act as if both were unreal to you," said I. "The contrast between +your appearance and that of some other members of the lane is quite +marked." + +"You refer"--he seemed to hate to speak--"to the Misses Knollys, I +presume." + +I endeavored to treat the subject lightly. + +"To your young enemy, Lucetta," I smilingly replied. + +He had been looking at me in a perfectly modest and respectful manner, +but he dropped his eyes at this and busied himself abstractedly, and yet +I thought with some intention, in removing a fly from the horse's flank +with the tip of his whip. + +"I will not acknowledge her as an enemy," he quietly returned in +strictly modulated tones. "I like the girl too well." + +The fly had been by this time dislodged, but he did not look up. + +"And William?" I suggested. "What do you think of William?" + +Slowly he straightened himself. Slowly he dropped the whip back into its +socket. I thought he was going to answer, when suddenly his whole +attitude changed and he turned upon me a beaming face full of nothing +but pleasure. + +"The road takes a turn here. In another moment you will see my house." +And even while he spoke it burst upon us, and I instantly forgot that I +had just ventured on a somewhat hazardous question. + +It was such a pretty place, and it was so beautifully and exquisitely +kept. There was a charm about its rose-encircled porch that is only to +be found in very old places that have been appreciatively cared for. A +high fence painted white inclosed a lawn like velvet, and the house +itself, shining with a fresh coat of yellow paint, bore signs of comfort +in its white-curtained windows not usually to be found in the solitary +dwelling of a bachelor. I found my eyes roving over each detail with +delight, and almost blushed, or, rather, had I been twenty years younger +might have been thought to blush, as I met his eyes and saw how much my +pleasure gratified him. + +"You must excuse me if I express too much admiration for what I see +before me," I said, with what I have every reason to believe was a +highly successful effort to hide my confusion. "I have always had a +great leaning towards well-ordered walks and trimly kept flower-beds--a +leaning, alas! which I have found myself unable to gratify." + +"Do not apologize," he hastened to say. "You but redouble my own +pleasure in thus honoring my poor efforts with your regard. I have +spared no pains, madam, I have spared no pains to render this place +beautiful, and most of what you see, I am proud to say, has been +accomplished by my own hands." + +"Indeed!" I cried in some surprise, letting my eye rest with +satisfaction on the top of a long well-sweep that was one of the +picturesque features of the place. + +"It may have been folly," he remarked, with a gloating sweep of his eye +over the velvet lawn and flowering shrubs--a peculiar look that seemed +to express something more than the mere delight of possession, "but I +seemed to begrudge any hired assistance in the tending of plants every +one of which seems to me like a personal friend." + +"I understand," was my somewhat un-Butterworthian reply. I really did +not quite know myself. "What a contrast to the dismal grounds at the +other end of the lane!" + +This was more in my usual vein. He seemed to feel the difference, for +his expression changed at my remark. + +"Oh, that den!" he exclaimed, bitterly; then, seeing me look a little +shocked, he added, with an admirable return to his old manner, "I call +any place a den where flowers do not grow." And jumping from the buggy, +he gathered an exquisite bunch of heliotrope, which he pressed upon me. +"I love sunshine, beds of roses, fountains, and a sweep of lawn like +this we see before us. But do not let me bore you. You have probably +lingered long enough at the old bachelor's place and now would like to +drive on. I will be with you in a moment. Doubtful as it is whether I +shall soon again be so fortunate as to be able to offer you any +hospitality, I would like to bring you a glass of wine--or, for I see +your eyes roaming longingly toward my old-fashioned well, would you like +a draft of water fresh from the bucket?" + +I assured him I did not drink wine, at which I thought his eyes +brightened, but that neither did I indulge in water when in a heat, as +at present, at which he looked disappointed and came somewhat +reluctantly back to the buggy. + +He brightened up, however, the moment he was again at my side. + +"Now for the woods," he exclaimed, with what was undoubtedly a forced +laugh. + +I thought the opportunity one I ought not to slight. + +"Do you think," said I, "that it is in those woods the disappearances +occur of which Miss Knollys has told me?" + +He showed the same hesitancy as before to enter upon this subject. + +"I think the less you allow your mind to dwell on this matter the +better," said he--"that is, if you are going to remain long in this +lane. I do not expend any more thought upon it than is barely necessary, +or I should not retain sufficient courage to remain among my roses and +my fruits. I wonder--pardon me the indiscretion--that you could bring +yourself to enter so ill-reputed a neighborhood. You must be a very +brave woman." + +"I thought it my duty--" I began. "Althea Knollys was my friend, and I +felt I owed a duty toward her children. Besides--" Should I tell Mr. +Trohm my real errand in this place? Mr. Gryce had intimated that he was +in the confidence of the police, and if so, his assistance in case of +necessity might be of inestimable value to me. Yet if no such necessity +should arise would I want this man to know that Amelia Butterworth--No, +I would not take him into my confidence--not yet. I would only try to +get at his idea of where the blame lay--that is, if he had any. + +"Besides," he suggested in polite reminder, after waiting a minute or +two for me to continue. + +"Did I say besides?" was my innocent rejoinder. "I think I meant that +after seeing them my sense of the importance of that duty had increased. +William especially seems to be a young man of very doubtful amiability." + +Immediately the non-commital look returned to Mr. Trohm's face. + +"I have no fault to find with William," said he. "He's not the most +agreeable companion in the world perhaps, but he has a pretty fancy for +fruit--a very pretty fancy." + +"One can hardly wonder at that in a neighbor of Mr. Trohm," said I, +watching his look, which was fixed somewhat gloomily upon the forest of +trees now rapidly closing in around us. + +"Perhaps not, perhaps not, madam. The sight of a blossoming honeysuckle +hanging from an arbor such as runs along my south walls is a great +stimulant to one's taste, madam, I'll not deny that." + +"But William?" I repeated, determined not to let the subject go; "have +you never thought he was a little indifferent to his sisters?" + +"A little, madam." + +"And a trifle rough to everything but his dogs?" + +"A trifle, madam." + +Such reticence seemed unnecessary. I was almost angry, but restrained +myself and pursued quietly, "The girls, on the contrary, seem devoted to +him?" + +"Women have that weakness." + +"And act as if they would do--what would they not do for him?" + +"Miss Butterworth, I have never seen a more amiable woman than yourself. +Will you promise me one thing?" + +His manner was respect itself, his smile genial and highly contagious. I +could not help responding to it in the way he expected. + +"Do not talk to me about this family. It is a painful subject to me. +Lucetta--you know the girl, and I shall not be able to prejudice you +against her--has conceived the idea that I encourage William in an +intimacy of which she does not approve. She does not want him to talk to +me. William has a loose tongue in his head and sometimes drops unguarded +words about their doings, which if any but William spoke--But there, I +am forgetting one of the most important rules of my own life, which is +to keep my mouth from babbling and my tongue from guile. Influence of a +congenial companion, madam; it is irresistible sometimes, especially to +a man living so much alone as myself." + +I considered his fault very pardonable, but did not say so lest I should +frighten his confidences away. + +"I thought there was something wrong between you," I said. "Lucetta +acted almost afraid of you this morning. I should think she would be +glad of the friendship of so good a neighbor." + +His face took on a very sombre look. + +"She is afraid of me," he admitted, "afraid of what I have seen or may +see of--their poverty," he added, with an odd emphasis. I scarcely think +he expected to deceive me. + +I did not push the subject an inch farther. I saw it had gone as far as +discretion permitted at this time. + +We had reached the heart of the forest and were rapidly approaching the +Knollys house. As the tops of its great chimneys rose above the foliage, +I saw his aspect suddenly change. + +"I don't know why I should so hate to leave you here," he remarked. + +I myself thought the prospect of re-entering the Knollys mansion +somewhat uninviting after the pleasant ride I had had and the glimpse +which had been given me of a really cheery home and pleasant +surroundings. + +"This morning I looked upon you as a somewhat daring woman, the progress +of whose stay here would be watched by me with interest, but after the +companionship of the last half-hour I am conscious of an anxiety in your +regard which makes me doubly wish that Miss Knollys had not shut me out +from her home. Are you sure you wish to enter this house again, madam?" + +I was surprised--really surprised--at the feeling he showed. If my +well-disciplined heart had known how to flutter it would probably have +fluttered then, but happily the restraint of years did not fail me in +this emergency. Taking advantage of the emotion which had betrayed him +into an acknowledgment of his real feelings regarding the dangers +lurking in this home, despite the check he had endeavored to put upon +his lips, I said, with an attempt at _naïveté_ only to be excused by the +exigencies of the occasion: + +"Why, I thought you considered this domicile perfectly harmless. You +like the girls and have no fault to find with William. Can it be that +this great building has another occupant? I do not allude to ghosts. +Neither of us are likely to believe in the supernatural." + +"Miss Butterworth, you have me at a disadvantage. I do not know of any +other occupant which the house can hold save the three young people you +have mentioned. If I seem to feel any doubt of them--but I don't feel +any doubt. I only dread any place for you which is not watched over by +someone interested in your defence. The danger threatening the +inhabitants of this lane is such a veiled one. If we knew where it +lurked, we would no longer call it danger. Sometimes I think the ghosts +you allude to are not as innocent as mere spectres usually are. But +don't let me frighten you. Don't--" How quick his voice changed! "Ah, +William, I have brought back your guest, you see! I couldn't let her sit +out the noon hour in old Carter's parlor. That would be too much for +even so amiable a person as Miss Butterworth to endure." + +I had hardly realized we were so near the gate and certainly was +surprised to find William anywhere within hearing. That his appearance +at this moment was anything but welcome, must be evident to every one. +The sentence which it interrupted might have contained the most +important advice, or at the least a warning I could ill afford to lose. +But destiny was against me, and being one who accepts the inevitable +with good grace, I prepared to alight, with Mr. Trohm's assistance. + +The bunch of heliotrope I held was a little in my way or I should have +managed the jump with confidence and dignified agility. As it was, I +tripped slightly, which brought out a chuckle from William that at the +moment seemed more wicked to me than any crime. Meanwhile he had not let +matters proceed thus far without putting more than one question. + +"And where's Simsbury? And why did Miss Butterworth think she had got to +sit in Carter's parlor?" + +"Mr. Simsbury," said I as soon as I could recover from the mingled +exertion and embarrassment of my descent to terra firma, "felt it +necessary to take the horse to the shoer's. That is a half-day's work, +as you know, and I felt confident that he and especially you would be +glad to have me accept any means for escaping so dreary a waiting." + +The grunt he uttered was eloquent of anything but satisfaction. + +"I'll go tell the girls," he said. But he didn't go till he had seen Mr. +Trohm enter his buggy and drive slowly off. + +That all this did not add to my liking for William goes without saying. + + + + +_BOOK II_ + +THE FLOWER PARLOR + + + + +XV + +LUCETTA FULFILS MY EXPECTATION OF HER + + +It was not till Mr. Trohm had driven away that I noticed, in the shadow +of the trees on the opposite side of the road, a horse tied up, whose +empty saddle bespoke a visitor within. At any other gate and on any +other road this would not have struck me as worthy of notice, much less +of comment. But here, and after all that I had heard during the morning, +the circumstance was so unexpected I could not help showing my +astonishment. + +"A visitor?" I asked. + +"Some one to see Lucetta." + +William had no sooner said this than I saw he was in a state of high +excitement. He had probably been in this condition when we drove up, but +my attention being directed elsewhere I had not noticed it. Now, +however, it was perfectly plain to me, and it did not seem quite the +excitement of displeasure, though hardly that of joy. + +"She doesn't expect you yet," he pursued, as I turned sharply toward the +house, "and if you interrupt her--D--n it, if I thought you would +interrupt her----" + +I thought it time to teach him a lesson in manners. + +"Mr. Knollys," I interposed somewhat severely, "I am a lady. Why should +I interrupt your sister or give her or you a moment of pain?" + +"I don't know," he muttered. "You are so very quick I was afraid you +might think it necessary to join her in the parlor. She is perfectly +able to take care of herself, Miss Butterworth, and if she don't do +it--" The rest was lost in indistinct guttural sounds. + +I made no effort to answer this tirade. I took my usual course in quite +my usual way to the front steps and proceeded to mount them without so +much as looking behind me to see whether or not this uncouth +representative of the Knollys name had kept at my heels or not. + +Entering the door, which was open, I came without any effort on my part +upon Lucetta and her visitor, who proved to be a young gentleman. They +were standing together in the middle of the hall and were so absorbed in +what they were saying that they neither saw nor heard me. I was +therefore enabled to catch the following sentences, which struck me as +of some moment. The first was uttered by her, and in very pleading +tones: + +"A week--I only ask a week. Then perhaps I can give you an answer which +will satisfy you." + +His reply, in manner if not in matter, proclaimed him the lover of whom +I had so lately heard. + +"I cannot, dear girl; indeed, I cannot. My whole future depends upon my +immediately making the move in which I have asked you to join me. If I +wait a week, my opportunity will be gone, Lucetta. You know me and you +know how I love you. Then come----" + +A rude hand on my shoulder distracted my attention. William stood +lowering behind me and, as I turned, whispered in my ear: + +"You must come round the other way. Lucetta is so touchy, the sight of +you will drive every sensible idea out of her head." + +His blundering whisper did what my presence and by no means light +footsteps had failed to do. With a start Lucetta turned and, meeting my +eye, drew back in visible confusion. The young man followed her hastily. + +"Is it good-by, Lucetta?" he pleaded, with a fine, manly ignoring of our +presence that roused my admiration. + +She did not answer. Her look was enough. William, seeing it, turned +furious at once, and, bounding by me, faced the young man with an oath. + +"You're a fool to take no from a silly chit like that," he vociferated. +"If I loved a girl as you say you love Lucetta, I'd have her if I had to +carry her away by force. She'd stop screaming before she was well out of +the lane. I know women. While you listen to them they'll talk and talk; +but once let a man take matters into his own hands and--" A snap of his +fingers finished the sentence. I thought the fellow brutal, but scarcely +so stupid as I had heretofore considered him. + +His words, however, might just as well have been uttered into empty air. +The young man he so violently addressed appeared hardly to have heard +him, and as for Lucetta, she was so nearly insensible from misery that +she had sufficient ado to keep herself from falling at her lover's feet. + +"Lucetta, Lucetta, is it then good-by? You will not go with me?" + +"I cannot. William, here, knows that I cannot. I must wait till----" + +But here her brother seized her so violently by the wrist that she +stopped from sheer pain, I fear. However that was, she turned pale as +death under his clutch, and, when he tried to utter some hot, passionate +words into her ear, shook her head, but did not speak, though her lover +was gazing with a last, final appeal into her eyes. The delicate girl +was bearing out my estimate of her. + +Seeing her thus unresponsive, William flung her hand from him and turned +upon me. + +"It's your fault," he cried. "You _would_ come in----" + +But, at this, Lucetta, recovering her poise in a moment, cried out +shrilly: + +"For shame, William! What has Miss Butterworth to do with this? You are +not helping me with your roughness. God knows I find this hour hard +enough, without this show of anxiety on your part to be rid of me." + +"There's woman's gratitude for you," was his snarling reply. "I offer to +take all the responsibilities on my own shoulders and make it right +with--with her sister, and all that, and she calls it desire to get rid +of her. Well, have your own way," he growled, storming down the hall; +"I'm done with it for one." + +The young man, whose attitude of reserve, mixed with a strange and +lingering tenderness for this girl, whom he evidently loved without +fully understanding her, was every minute winning more and more of my +admiration, had meanwhile raised her trembling hand to his lips in what +was, as we all could see, a last farewell. + +In another moment he was walking by us, giving me as he passed a low bow +that for all its grace did not succeed in hiding from me the deep and +heartfelt disappointment with which he quitted this house. As his figure +passed through the door, hiding for one moment the sunshine, I felt an +oppression such as has not often visited my healthy nature, and when it +passed and disappeared, something like the good spirit of the place +seemed to go with it, leaving in its place doubt, gloom, and a morbid +apprehension of that unknown something which in Lucetta's eyes had +rendered his dismissal necessary. + +"Where's Saracen? I declare I'm nothing but a fool without that dog," +shouted William. "If he has to be tied up another day--" But shame was +not entirely eliminated from his breast, for at Lucetta's reproachful +"William!" he sheepishly dropped his head and strode out, muttering some +words I was fain to accept as an apology. + +I had expected to encounter a wreck in Lucetta, as, this episode in her +life closed, she turned toward me. But I did not yet know this girl, +whose frailty seemed to lie mostly in her physique. Though she was +suffering far more than her defence of me to her brother would seem to +denote, there was a spirit in her approach and a steady look in her dark +eye which assured me that I could not calculate upon any loss in +Lucetta's keenness, in case we came to an issue over the mystery that +was eating into the happiness as well as the honor of this household. + +"I am glad to see you," were her unexpected words. "The gentleman who +has just gone out was a lover of mine; at least he once professed to +care for me very much, and I should have been glad to have married him, +but there were reasons which I once thought most excellent why this +seemed anything but expedient, and so I sent him away. To-day he came +without warning to ask me to go away with him, after the hastiest of +ceremonies, to South America, where a splendid prospect has suddenly +opened for him. You see, don't you, that I could not do that; that it +would be the height of selfishness in me to leave Loreen--to leave +William----" + +"Who seems only too anxious to be left," I put in, as her voice trailed +off in the first evidence of embarrassment she had shown since she faced +me. + +"William is a difficult man to understand," was her firm but quiet +retort. "From his talk you would judge him to be morose, if not +positively unkind, but in action--" She did not tell me how he was in +action. Perhaps her truthfulness got the better of her, or perhaps she +saw it would be hard work to prejudice me now in his favor. + + + + +XVI + +LOREEN + + +Lucetta had said to her departing lover, that in a week she might be +able (were he willing or in a position to wait) to give him a more +satisfactory answer. Why in a week? + +That her hesitation sprang from the mere dislike of leaving her sister +so suddenly, or that she had sacrificed her life's happiness to any +childish idea of decorum, I did not think probable. The spirit she had +shown, her immovable attitude under a temptation which had not only +romance to recommend it, but everything else which could affect a young +and sensitive woman, argued in my mind the existence of some uncompleted +duty of so exacting and imperative a nature that she could not even +consider the greatest interests of her own life until this one thing was +out of her way. William's rude question of the morning, "What shall we +do with the old girl till it is all over?" recurred to me in support of +this theory, making me feel that I needed no further confirmation, to be +quite certain that a crisis was approaching in this house which would +tax my powers to the utmost and call perhaps for the use of the whistle +which I had received from Mr. Gryce, and which, following his +instructions, I had tied carefully about my neck. Yet how could I +associate Lucetta with crime, or dream of the police in connection with +the serene Loreen, whose every look was a rebuke to all that was false, +vile, or even common? Easily, my readers, easily, with that great, +hulking William in my remembrance. To shield _him_, to hide perhaps his +deformity of soul from the world, even such gentle and gracious women as +these have been known to enter into acts which to an unprejudiced eye +and an unbiased conscience would seem little short of fiendish. Love for +an unworthy relative, or rather the sense of duty toward those of one's +own blood, has driven many a clear-minded woman to her ruin, as may be +seen any day in the police annals. + +I am quite aware that I have not as yet put into definite words the +suspicion upon which I was now prepared to work. Up to this time it had +been too vague, or rather of too monstrous a character for me not to +consider other theories, such as, for instance, the possible connection +of old Mother Jane with the unaccountable disappearances which had taken +place in this lane. But after this scene, the increased assurance I was +hourly receiving that something extraordinary and out of keeping with +the customary appearances of the household was secretly going on in some +one of the various chambers of that long corridor I had been prevented +from entering, forced me to accept and act upon the belief that these +young women held in charge a prisoner of some kind, of whose presence in +the house they dreaded the discovery. + +Now, who could this prisoner be? + +Common sense supplied me with but one answer; Silly Rufus, the boy who +within a few days had vanished from among the good people of this +seemingly guileless community. + +This theory once established in my mind, I applied myself to a +consideration of the means at my disposal for determining its validity. +The simplest, surest, but least satisfactory to one of my nature was to +summon the police and have the house thoroughly searched, but this +involved, in case I had been deceived by appearances--as was possible +even to a woman of my experience and discrimination,--a scandal and an +opprobrium which I would be the last to inflict upon Althea's children, +unless justice to the rest of the world demanded it. + +It was in consideration of this very fact, perhaps, that I had been +chosen for this duty instead of some regular police spy. Mr. Gryce, as I +very well knew, has made it his rule of life never to risk the +reputation of any man or woman without reasons so excellent as to carry +their own exoneration with them, and should I, a woman, with full as +much heart as himself, if not quite as much brain (at least in the +estimation of people in general), by any premature exposure of my +suspicions, subject these young friends of mine to humiliations they are +far too weak and too poor to rise above? + +No, rather would I trust a little longer to my own perspicacity and make +sure by the use of my own eyes that the situation called for the +interference I had, as you may say, at the end of the cord I wore about +my neck. + +Lucetta had not asked me how I came to be back so much sooner than she +had reason to expect me. The unlooked-for arrival of her lover had +probably put all idea of her former plans out of her head. I therefore +gave her the shortest of explanations when we met at the dinner table. +Nothing further seemed to be necessary, for the girls were even more +abstracted than before, and William positively boorish till a warning +glance from Loreen recalled him to his better self, which meant silence. + +The afternoon was spent in very much the same way as the evening before. +Neither sister remained an instant with me after the other entered my +company, and though the alternations were less frequent than at that +time, their peculiarities were more marked and less naturally accounted +for. It was while Loreen was with me that I made the suggestion which +had been hovering on my lips ever since the noon. + +"I consider this," I observed, in one of the pauses of our more than +fitful conversation, "one of the most interesting houses it has ever +been my good fortune to enter. Would you mind my roaming about a bit +just to enjoy the old-time flavor of its great empty rooms? I know they +are mostly closed and possibly unfurnished, but to a connoisseur like +myself in colonial architecture, this rather adds to, than detracts +from, their interest." + +"Impossible," she was going to say, but caught herself back in time and +changed the imperative word to one more conciliatory if equally +unyielding. + +"I am sorry, Miss Butterworth, to deny you this gratification, but the +condition of the rooms and the unhappy excitement into which we have +been thrown by the unfortunate visit paid to Lucetta by a gentleman to +whom she is only too much attached, make it quite impossible for me to +consider any such undertaking to-day. To-morrow I may find it easier; +but, if not, be assured you shall see every nook and corner of this +house before you finally leave it." + +"Thank you. I will remember that. To one of my tastes an ancient room in +a time-honored mansion like this, affords a delight not to be understood +by one who knows less of the last century's life. The legends connected +with your great drawing-room below [we were sitting in my room, I having +refused to be cooped up in their dreary side parlor, and she not having +offered me any other spot more cheerful] are sufficient in themselves to +hold me entranced for an hour. I heard one of them to-day." + +"Which?" + +She spoke more quickly than usual, and for her quite sharply. + +"That of Lucetta's namesake," I explained. "She who rode through the +night after a daughter who had won her lover's heart away from her. + +"Ah, it is a well-known tale, but I think Mrs. Carter might have left +its relation to us. Did she tell you anything else?" + +"No other tradition of this place," I assured her. + +"I am glad she was so considerate. But why--if you will pardon me--did +she happen to light upon that story? We have not heard those incidents +spoken of for years." + +"Not since the phantom coach flew through this road the last time," I +ventured, with a smile that should have disarmed her from suspecting any +ulterior motive on my part in thus introducing a subject which could not +be altogether pleasing to her. + +"The phantom coach! Have you heard of that?" + +I wish it had been Lucetta who had said this and to whom my reply was +due. The opportunities would have been much greater for an injudicious +display of feeling on her part and for a suitable conclusion on mine. + +But it was Loreen, and she never forgot herself. So I had to content +myself with the persuasion that her voice was just a whit less clear +than usual and her serenity enough impaired for her to look out of my +one high and dismal window instead of into my face. + +"My dear,"--I had not called her this before, though the term had +frequently risen to my lips in answer to Lucetta--"you should have gone +with me into the village to-day. Then you would not need to ask if I had +heard of the phantom coach." + +The probe had reached the quick at last. She looked quite startled. + +"You amaze me," she said. "What do you mean, Miss Butterworth? Why +should I not have needed to ask?" + +"Because you would have heard it whispered about in every lane and +corner. It is common talk in town to-day. You must know why, Miss +Knollys." + +She was not looking out of the window now. She was looking at me. + +"I assure you," she murmured, "I do not know at all. Nothing could be +more incomprehensible to me. Explain yourself, I entreat you. The +phantom coach is but a myth to me, interesting only as involving certain +long-vanished ancestors of mine." + +"Of course," I assented. "No one of real sense could regard it in any +other light. But villagers will talk, and they say--you will soon know +what, if I do not tell you myself--that it passed through the lane on +Tuesday night." + +"Tuesday night!" Her composure had been regained, but not so entirely +but that her voice slightly trembled. "That was before you came. I hope +it was not an omen." + +I was in no mood for pleasantry. + +"They say that the passing of this apparition denotes misfortune to +those who see it. I am therefore obviously exempt. But you--did you see +it? I am just curious to know if it is visible to those who live in the +lane. It ought to have turned in here. Were you fortunate enough to have +been awake at that moment and to have seen this spectral appearance?" + +She shuddered. I was not mistaken in believing I saw this sign of +emotion, for I was watching her very closely, and the movement was +unmistakable. + +"I have never seen anything ghostly in my life," said she. "I am not at +all superstitious." + +If I had been ill-natured or if I had thought it wise to press her too +closely, I might have inquired why she looked so pale and trembled so +visibly. + +But my natural kindness, together with an instinct of caution, +restrained me, and I only remarked: + +"There you are sensible, Miss Knollys--doubly so as a denizen of this +house, which, Mrs. Carter was obliging enough to suggest to me, is +considered by many as haunted." + +The straightening of Miss Knollys' lips augured no good to Mrs. Carter. + +"Now I only wish it was," I laughed dryly. "I should really like to meet +a ghost, say, in your great drawing-room, which I am forbidden to +enter." + +"You are not forbidden," she hastily returned. "You may explore it now +if you will excuse me from accompanying you; but you will meet no +ghosts. The hour is not propitious." + +Taken aback by her sudden amenity, I hesitated for a moment. Would it be +worth while for me to search a room she was willing to have me enter? +No, and yet any knowledge which could be obtained in regard to this +house might be of use to me or to Mr. Gryce. I decided to embrace her +offer, after first testing her with one other question. + +"Would you prefer to have me steal down these corridors at night and +dare their dusky recesses at a time when spectres are supposed to walk +the halls they once flitted through in happy consciousness?" + +"Hardly." She made the greatest effort to sustain the jest, but her +concern and dread were manifest. "I think I had better give you the keys +now, than subject you to the drafts and chilling discomforts of this old +place at midnight." + +I rose with a semblance of eager anticipation. + +"I will take you at your word," said I. "The keys, my dear. I am going +to visit a haunted room for the first time in my life." + +I do not think she was deceived by this feigned ebullition. Perhaps it +was too much out of keeping with my ordinary manner, but she gave no +sign of surprise and rose in her turn with an air suggestive of relief. + +"Excuse me, if I precede you," she begged. "I will meet you at the head +of the corridor with the keys." + +I was in hopes she would be long enough in obtaining them to allow me to +stroll along the front hall to the opening into the corridor I was so +anxious to enter. But the spryness I showed, seemed to have a +corresponding effect upon her, for she almost flew down the passageway +before me and was back at my side before I could take a step in the +coveted direction. + +"These will take you into any room on the first floor," said she. "You +will meet with dust and Lucetta's abhorrence, spiders, but for these I +shall make no apologies. Girls who cannot provide comforts for the few +rooms they utilize, cannot be expected to keep in order the large and +disused apartments of a former generation." + +"I hate dirt and despise spiders," was my dry retort, "but I am willing +to brave both for the pleasure of satisfying my love for the antique." +At which she handed me the keys, with a calm smile which was not without +its element of sadness. + +"I will be here on your return," she said, leaning over the banisters to +speak to me as I took my first steps down. "I shall want to hear whether +you are repaid for your trouble." + +I thanked her and proceeded on my way, somewhat doubtful whether by so +doing I was making the best possible use of my opportunities. + + + + +XVII + +THE FLOWER PARLOR + + +The lower hall did not correspond exactly with the one above. It was +larger, and through its connection with the front door, presented the +shape of a letter T--that is, to the superficial observer who was not +acquainted with the size of the house and had not had the opportunity of +remarking that at the extremities of the upper hall making this T, were +two imposing doors usually found shut except at meal-times, when the +left-hand one was thrown open, disclosing a long and dismal corridor +similar to the ones above. Half-way down this corridor was the +dining-room, into which I had now been taken three times. + +The right-hand one, I had no doubt, led the way into the great +drawing-room or dancing-hall which I had started out to see. + +Proceeding first to the front of the house, where some glimmer of light +penetrated from the open sitting-room door, I looked the keys over and +read what was written on the several tags attached to them. They were +seven in number, and bore some such names as these: "Blue Chamber," +"Library," "Flower Parlor," "Shell Cabinet," "Dark Parlor"--all of which +was very suggestive, and, to an antiquarian like myself, most alluring. + +But it was upon a key marked "A" I first fixed my attention. This, I had +been told, would open the large door at the extremity of the upper hall, +and when I made a trial with it I found it to move easily, though +somewhat gratingly, in the lock, releasing the great doors, which in +another moment swung inward with a growling sound which might have been +startling to a nervous person filled with the legends of the place. + +But in me the only emotion awakened was one of disgust at the nauseous +character of the air which instantly enveloped me. Had I wished for any +further proof than was afforded by the warning given me by the condition +of the hinges, that the foot of man had not lately invaded these +precincts, I would have had it in the mouldy atmosphere and smell of +dust that greeted me on the threshold. Neither human breath nor a ray of +outdoor sunshine seemed to have disturbed its gloomy quiet for years, +and when I moved, as I presently did, to open one of the windows I dimly +discerned at my right, I felt such a movement of something foul and +noisome amid the decaying rags of the carpet through which I was +stumbling that I had to call into use the stronger elements of my +character not to back out of a place so given over to rot and the +creatures that infest it. + +"What a spot," thought I, "for Amelia Butterworth to find herself in!" +and wondered if I could ever wear again the three-dollar-a-yard silk +dress in which I was then enveloped. Of my shoes I took no account. They +were ruined, of course. + +I reached the window in safety, but could not open it; neither could I +move the adjoining one. There were sixteen in all, or so I afterwards +found, and not till I reached the last (you see, I am very persistent) +did I succeed in loosening the bar that held its inner shutter in place. +This done, I was able to lift the window, and for the first time in +years, perhaps, let in a ray of light into this desolated apartment. + +The result was disappointing. Mouldy walls, worm-eaten hangings, two +very ancient and quaint fireplaces, met my eyes, and nothing more. The +room was absolutely empty. For a few minutes I allowed my eyes to roam +over the great rectangular space in which so much that was curious and +interesting had once taken place, and then, with a vague sense of +defeat, turned my eyes outward, anxious to see what view could be +obtained from the window I had opened. To my astonishment, I saw before +me a high wall with here and there a window in it, all tightly barred +and closed, till by a careful inspection about me I realized that I was +looking upon the other wing of the building, and that between these +wings extended a court so narrow and long that it gave to the building +the shape, as I have before said, of the letter U. A dreary prospect, +reminding one of the view from a prison, but it had its point of +interest, for in the court below me, the brick pavement of which was +half obliterated by grass, I caught sight of William in an attitude so +different from any I had hitherto seen him assume that I found it +difficult to account for it till I caught sight of the jaws of a dog +protruding from under his arms, and then I realized he was hugging +Saracen. + +The dog was tied, but the comfort which William seemed to take in just +this physical contact with his rough skin was something worth seeing. It +made me quite thoughtful for a moment. + +I detest dogs, and it gives me a creepy sensation to see them fondled, +but sincerity of feeling appeals to me, and no one could watch William +Knollys with his dogs without seeing that he really loved the brutes. +Thus in one day I had witnessed the best and worst side of this man. But +wait! Had I seen the worst? I was not so sure that I had. + +He had not noticed my peering, for which I was duly thankful, and after +another fruitless survey of the windows in the wall before me, I drew +back and prepared to leave the place. This was by no means a pleasant +undertaking. I could now see what I had only felt before, and to +traverse the space before me amid beetles and spiders required a +determination of no ordinary nature. I was glad when I reached the great +doors and more than glad when they closed behind me. + +"So much for Room A," thought I. + +The next most promising apartment was in the same corridor as the +dining-room. It was called the Dark Parlor. Entering it, I found it dark +indeed, but not because of lack of light, but because its hangings were +all of a dismal red and its furniture of the blackest ebony. As this +mainly consisted of shelves and cabinets placed against three of its +four walls, the effect was gloomy indeed, and fully accounted for the +name which the room had received. I lingered in it, however, longer than +I had in the big drawing-room, chiefly because the shelves contained +books. + +Had anything better offered I might not have continued my explorations, +but not seeing exactly how I could pass away the time more profitably, I +chose out another key and began to search for the Flower Parlor. I found +it beyond the dining-room in the same hall as the Dark Parlor. + +It was, as I might have expected from the name, the brightest and most +cheerful spot I had yet found in the whole house. The air in it was even +good, as if sunshine and breeze had not been altogether shut out of it, +yet I had no sooner taken one look at its flower-painted walls and +pretty furniture than I felt an oppression difficult to account for. +Something was wrong about this room. I am not superstitious and have no +faith in premonitions, but once seized by a conviction, I have never +known myself to be mistaken as to its import. Something was wrong about +this room--what, it was my business to discover. + +Letting in more light, I took a closer survey of the objects I had +hitherto seen but dimly. They were many and somewhat contradictory in +character. The floor was bare--the first bare floor I had come upon--but +the shades in the windows, the chintz-covered lounges drawn up beside +tables bestrewn with books and other objects of comfort and luxury, +bespoke a place in common if not every-day use. + +A faint smell of tobacco assured me in whose use, and from the minute I +recognized that this was William's sanctum, my curiosity grew unbounded +and I neglected nothing which would be likely to attract the +keenest-eyed detective in Mr. Gryce's force. There were several things +to be noted there: First, that this lumbering lout of a man read, but +only on one topic--vivisection; secondly, that he was not a reader +merely, for there were instruments in the cases heaped up on the tables +about me, and in one corner--it made me a little sick, but I persevered +in searching out the corners--a glass case with certain horrors in it +which I took care to note, but which it is not necessary for me to +describe. Another corner was blocked up by a closet which stood out in +the room in a way to convince me it had been built in after the room was +otherwise finished. As I crossed over to examine the door, which did not +appear to me to be quite closed, I noticed on the floor at my feet a +huge discoloration. This was the worst thing I had yet encountered, and +while I did not feel quite justified in giving it a name, I could not +but feel some regret for the worm-eaten rags of the drawing-room, which, +after all, are more comfortable underfoot than bare boards with such +suggestive marks upon them as these. + +The door to the closet was, as I had expected, slightly ajar, a fact for +which I was profoundly grateful, for, set it down to breeding or a +natural recognition of other people's rights, I would have found it most +difficult to turn the knob of a closet door, inspection of which had not +been offered me. + +But finding it open, I gave it just a little pull and found--well, it +was a surprise, much more so than the sight of a skeleton would have +been--that the whole interior was taken up by a small circular staircase +such as you find in public libraries where the books are piled up in +tiers. It stretched from the floor to the ceiling, and dark as it was I +thought I detected the outlines of a trap-door by means of which +communication was established with the room above. Anxious to be +convinced of this, I consulted with myself as to what a detective would +do in my place. The answer came readily enough: "Mount the stairs and +feel for yourself whether there is a lock there." But my delicacy +or--shall I acknowledge it for once?--an instinct of timidity seemed to +restrain me, till a remembrance of Mr. Gryce's sarcastic look which I +had seen honoring lesser occasions than these, came to nerve me, and I +put foot on the stairs which had last been trod--by whom, shall I say? +William? Let us hope by William, and William only. + +Being tall, I had to mount but a few steps before reaching the ceiling. +Pausing for breath, the air being close and the stairs steep, I reached +up and felt for the hinge or clasp I had every reason to expect to +encounter. I found it almost immediately, and, satisfied now that +nothing but a board separated me from the room above, I tried that board +with my finger and was astonished to feel it yield. As this was a wholly +unexpected discovery I drew back and asked myself if it would be wise to +pursue it to the point of raising this door, and had hardly settled the +question in my own mind, when the sound of a voice raised in a soothing +murmur, revealed the fact that the room above was not empty, and that I +would be committing a grave indiscretion in thus tampering with a means +of entrance possibly under the very eye of the person speaking. + +If the voice I had heard had been all that had come to my ears, I might +have ventured after a moment of hesitation to brave the displeasure of +Miss Knollys by an attempt which would have at once satisfied me as to +the correctness of the suspicions which were congealing my blood as I +stood there, but another voice--the heavy and threatening voice of +William--had broken into this murmur, and I knew that if I so much as +awakened in him the least suspicion of my whereabouts, I would have to +dread an anger that might not know where to stop. + +I therefore rested from further efforts in this direction, and fearing +he might bethink him of some errand which would bring him to the +trap-door himself, I began a retreat which I made slow only from my +desire not to make any noise. I succeeded as well as if my feet had been +shod in velvet and my dress had been made of wool instead of a rustling +silk, and when once again I found myself planted in the centre of the +Flower Parlor, the closet door closed, and no evidence remaining of my +late attempt to probe this family secret, I drew a deep breath of relief +that was but a symbol of my devout thankfulness. + +I did not mean to remain much longer in this spot of evil suggestions, +but spying the corner of a book protruding from under a cushion of one +of the lounges, I had a curiosity to see if it were similar to the +others I had handled. Drawing it out, I took one look at it. + +I need not tell what it was, but after a hasty glance here and there +through its pages, I put it back, shuddering. If any doubt remained in +my breast that William was one of those monsters who feed their morbid +cravings by experiments upon the weak and defenceless, it had been +dispelled by what I had just seen in this book. + +However, I did not leave the room immediately. As it was of the greatest +importance that I should be able to locate in which of the many +apartments on the floor above, the supposed prisoner was lodged, I cast +about me for the means of doing this through the location of the room in +which I then was. As this could only be done by affixing some token to +the window, which could be recognized from without, I thought, first, of +thrusting the end of my handkerchief through one of the slats of the +outside blinds; secondly, of simply leaving one of these blinds ajar; +and finally, of chipping off a piece with the penknife I always carry +with innumerable other small things in the bag I invariably wear at my +side. (Fashion, I hold, counts for nothing against convenience.) + +This last seemed by much the best device. A handkerchief could be +discovered and pulled out, an open blind could be shut, but a sliver +once separated from the wood of the casement, nothing could replace it +or even cover it up without itself attracting attention. + +Taking out my knife, I glanced at the door leading into the hall, found +it still shut and everything quiet behind it. Then I took a look into +the shrubs and bushes of the yard outside, and, observing nothing to +disturb me, snipped off a bit from one of the outer edges of the slats +and then carefully reclosed the blinds and the window. + +I was crossing the threshold when I heard a rapid footstep in the hall. +Miss Knollys was hastening down the hall to my side. + +"Oh, Miss Butterworth," she exclaimed, with one quick look into the room +I was leaving, "this is William's den, the one spot he never allows any +of us to enter. I don't know how the key came to be upon the string. It +never was before, and I am afraid he never will forgive me." + +"He need never know that I have been the victim of such a mistake," said +I. "My feet leave no trail, and as I use no perfumes he will never +suspect that I have enjoyed a glimpse of these old-fashioned walls and +ancient cabinets." + +"The slats of the blinds are a little open," she remarked, her eyes +searching my face for some sign that I am sure she did not find there. +"Were they so when you came in?" + +"I hardly think so; it was very dark. Shall I put them as I found them?" + +"No. He will not notice." And she hurried me out, still eying me +breathlessly as if she half distrusted my composure. + +"Come, Amelia," I now whispered in self-admonition, "the time for +exertion has come. Show this young woman, who is not much behind you in +self-control, some of the lighter phases of your character. Charm her, +Amelia, charm her, or you may live to rue this invasion into family +secrets more than you may like to acknowledge at the present moment." + +A task of some difficulty, but I rejoice in difficult tasks, and before +another half-hour had passed, I had the satisfaction of seeing Miss +Knollys entirely restored to that state of placid melancholy which was +the natural expression of her calm but unhappy nature. + +We visited the Shell Cabinet, the Blue Parlor, and another room, the +peculiarities of which I have forgotten. Frightened by the result of +leaving me to my own devices, she did not quit me for an instant, and +when, my curiosity quite satisfied, I hinted that a short nap in my own +room would rest me for the evening, she proceeded with me to the door of +my apartment. + +"The locksmith whom I saw this morning has not kept his word," I +remarked as she was turning away. + +"None of the tradesmen here do that," was her cold answer. "I have given +up expecting having any attention paid to my wants." + +"Humph," thought I. "Another pleasant admission. Amelia Butterworth, +this has not been a cheerful day." + + + + +XVIII + +THE SECOND NIGHT + + +I cannot say that I looked forward to the night with any very cheerful +anticipations. The locksmith having failed to keep his appointment, I +was likely to have no more protection against intrusion than I had had +the night before, and while I cannot say that I especially feared any +unwelcome entrance into my apartment, I should have gone to my rest with +a greater sense of satisfaction if a key had been in the lock and that +key had been turned by my own hand on my own side of the door. + +The atmosphere of gloom which settled down over the household after the +evening meal, seemed like the warning note of something strange and evil +awaiting us. So marked was this, that many in my situation would have +further disturbed these girls by some allusion to the fact. But that was +not the rôle I had set myself to play at this crisis. I remembered what +Mr. Gryce had said about winning their confidence, and though the +turmoil evident in Lucetta's mind and the distraction visible even in +the careful Miss Knollys led me to expect a culmination of some kind +before the night was over, I not only hid my recognition of this fact, +but succeeded in sufficiently impressing them with the contentment which +my own petty employments afforded me (I am never idle even in other +persons' houses) for them to spare me the harassment of their alternate +visits, which, in their present mood and mine promised little in the way +of increased knowledge of their purposes and much in the way of +distraction and the loss of that nerve upon which I calculated for a +successful issue out of the possible difficulties of this night. + +Had I been a woman of ordinary courage, I would have sounded three +premonitory notes upon my whistle before blowing out my candle, but +while I am not lacking, I hope, in many of the finer feminine qualities +which link me to my sex, I have but few of that sex's weaknesses and +none of its instinctive reliance upon others which leads it so often to +neglect its own resources. Till I saw good reasons for summoning the +police, I proposed to preserve a discreet silence, a premature alarm +being in their eyes, as I knew from many talks with Mr. Gryce, the one +thing suggestive of a timid and inexperienced mind. + +Hannah had brought me a delicious cup of tea at ten, the influence of +which was to make me very drowsy at eleven, but I shook this weakness +off and began my night's watch in a state of stern composure which I +verily believe would have awakened Mr. Gryce's admiration had it been +consonant with the proprieties for him to have seen it. Indeed the very +seriousness of the occasion was such that I could not have trembled if I +would, every nerve and faculty being strained to their utmost to make +the most of every sound which might arise in the now silent and +discreetly darkened house. + +I had purposely omitted the precaution of pushing my bed against the +door of my room, as I had done the night before, being anxious to find +myself in a position to cross its threshold at the least alarm. That +this would come, I felt positive, for Hannah in leaving my room had +taken pains to say, in unconscious imitation of what Miss Knollys had +remarked the night before: + +"Don't let any queer sounds you may hear disturb you, Miss Butterworth. +There's nothing to hurt you in this house; nothing at all." An +admonition which I am sure her young mistresses would not have allowed +her to utter if they had been made acquainted with her intention. + +But though in a state of high expectation, and listening, as I supposed, +with every faculty alert, the sounds I apprehended delayed so long that +I began after an hour or two unaccountably to nod in my chair, and +before I knew it I was asleep, with the whistle in my hand and my feet +pressed against the panels of the door I had set myself to guard. How +deep that sleep was or how long I indulged in it, I can only judge from +the state of emotion in which I found myself when I suddenly woke. I was +sitting there still, but my usually calm frame was in a violent tremble, +and I found it difficult to stir, much more to speak. Some one or +something was at my door. + +An instant and my powerful nature would have asserted itself, but before +this could happen the stealthy step drew nearer, and I heard the quiet, +almost noiseless, insertion of a key into the lock, and the quick turn +which made me a prisoner. + +This, with the indignation it caused, brought me quickly to myself. So +the door had a key after all, and this was the use it was reserved for. +Rising quickly to my feet, I shouted out the names of Loreen, Lucetta, +and William, but received no other response than the rapid withdrawal of +feet down the corridor. Then I felt for the whistle, which had somehow +slipped from my hand, but failed to find it in the darkness, nor when I +went to search for the matches to relight the candle I had left standing +on a table near by, could I by any means succeed in igniting one, so +that I presently had the pleasure of finding myself shut up in my room, +with no means of communicating with the world outside and with no light +to render the situation tolerable. This was having the tables turned +upon me with a vengeance and in a way for which I could not account. I +could understand why they had locked me in the room and why they had not +heeded my cry of indignant appeal, but I could not comprehend how my +whistle came to be gone, nor why the matches, which were sufficiently +plentiful in the safe, refused one and all to perform their office. + +On these points I felt it necessary to come to some sort of conclusion +before I proceeded to invent some way out of my difficulties. So, +dropping on my knees by the chair in which I had been sitting, I began a +quiet search for the petty object upon which, nevertheless, hung not my +safety perhaps, but all chances of success in an undertaking which was +every moment growing more serious. I did not find it, but I did find +where it had gone. In the floor near the door, my hand encountered a +hole which had been covered up by a rug early in the evening, but which +I now distinctly remembered having pushed aside with my feet when I took +my seat there. This aperture was not large, but it was so deep that my +hand failed to reach to the bottom of it; and into this hole by some +freak of chance had slipped the small whistle I had so indiscreetly +taken into my hand. The mystery of the matches was less easy of +solution; so I let it go after a moment of indecisive thought and bent +my energies once again to listen, when suddenly and without the least +warning there rose from somewhere in the house a cry so wild and +unearthly that I started up appalled, and for a moment could not tell +whether I was laboring under some fearful dream or a still more fearful +reality. + +A rushing of feet in the distance and an involuntary murmur of voices +soon satisfied me, however, on this score, and drawing upon every energy +I possessed, I listened for a renewal of the cry which was yet curdling +my blood. But none came, and presently all was as still as if no sound +had arisen to disturb the midnight, though every fibre in my body told +me that the event I had feared--the event of which I hardly dared +mention the character even to myself--had taken place, and that I, who +was sent there to forestall it, was not only a prisoner in my room, but +a prisoner through my own folly and my inordinate love of tea. + +The anger with which I contemplated this fact, and the remorse I felt at +the consequences which had befallen the innocent victim whose scream I +had just heard, made me very wide-awake indeed, and after an ineffectual +effort to make my voice heard from the window, I called my usual +philosophy to my aid and decided that since the worst had happened and +I, a prisoner, had to await events like any other weak and defenceless +woman, I might as well do it with calmness and in a way to win my own +approval at least. The dupe of William and his sisters, I would not be +the dupe of my own fears or even of my own regrets. + +The consequence was a renewed equanimity and a gentle brooding over the +one event of the day which brought no regret in its train. The ride with +Mr. Trohm, and the acquaintanceship to which it had led, were topics +upon which I could rest with great soothing effect through the weary +hours stretching between me and daylight. Consequently of Mr. Trohm I +thought. + +Whether the almost deathly quiet into which the house had now fallen, or +the comforting nature of my meditations held inexorably to the topic I +had chosen, acted as a soporific upon me I cannot tell, but greatly as I +dislike to admit it, feeling sure that you will expect to hear I kept +myself awake all that night, I insensibly sank from great alertness to +an easy indifference to my surroundings, and from that to vague dreams +in which beds of lilies and trellises covered with roses mingled +strangely with narrow, winding staircases whose tops ended in the +swaying branches of great trees; and so, into quiet and a nothingness +that were only broken into by a rap at my door and a cheerful: + +"Eight o'clock, ma'am. The young ladies are waiting." + +I bounded, literally bounded from my chair. Such a summons, after such a +night! What did it mean? I was sitting half dressed in my chair before +my door in a straightened and uncomfortable attitude, and therefore had +not dreamed that I had been upon the watch all night, yet the sunshine +in the room, the cheery tones such as I had not heard even from this +woman before, seemed to argue that my imagination had played me false +and that no horrors had come to disturb my rest or render my waking +distressing. + +Stretching out my hand toward the door, I was about to open it, when I +bethought me. + +"Turn the key in the lock," said I. "Somebody was careful enough of my +safety to fasten me in last night." + +An exclamation of astonishment came from outside the door. + +"There is no key here, ma'am. The door is not locked. Shall I open it +and come in?" + +I was about to say yes in my anxiety to talk to the woman, but +remembering that nothing was to be gained by letting it be seen to what +an extent I had carried my suspicions, I hastily disrobed and crept into +bed. Pulling the coverings about me, I assumed a comfortable attitude +and then cried: + +"Come in." + +The door immediately opened. + +"There, ma'am! What did I tell you? Locked?--this door? Why, the key has +been lost for months." + +"I cannot help it," I protested, but with little if any asperity, for it +did not suit me that she should see I was moved by any extraordinary +feeling. "A key was put in that lock about midnight, and I was locked +in. It was about the time some one screamed in your own part of the +house." + +"Screamed?" Her brows took a fine pucker of perplexity. "Oh, that must +have been Miss Lucetta." + +"Lucetta?" + +"Yes, ma'am; she had an attack, I believe. Poor Miss Lucetta! She often +has attacks like that." + +Confounded, for the woman spoke so naturally that only a suspicious +nature like mine would fail to have been deceived by it, I raised myself +on my elbow and gave her an indignant look. + +"Yet you said just now that the young ladies were expecting me to +breakfast." + +"Yes, and why not?" Her look was absolutely guileless. "Miss Lucetta +sometimes keeps us up half the night, but she does not miss breakfast on +that account. When the turn is over, she is as well as ever she was. A +fine young lady, Miss Lucetta. I'd lose my two hands for her any day." + +"She certainly is a remarkable girl," I declared, not, however, as dryly +as I felt. "I can hardly believe I dreamed about the key. Let me feel of +your pocket," I laughed. + +She, without the smallest hesitancy, pulled aside her apron. + +"I am sorry you put so little confidence in my word, ma'am, but Lor' me, +what you heard is nothing to what some of our guests have complained +of--in the days, I mean, when we did have guests. I have known them to +scream out themselves in the middle of the night and vow they saw white +figures creeping up and down the halls--all nonsense, ma'am, but +believed in by some folks. You don't look as if you believed in ghosts." + +"And I don't," I said, "not a whit. It would be a poor way to try to +frighten me. How is Mr. William this morning?" + +"Oh, he's well and feeding the dogs, ma'am. What made you think of him?" + +"Politeness, Hannah," I found myself forced to say. "He's the only man +in the house. Why shouldn't I think of him?" + +She fingered her apron a minute and laughed. + +"I didn't know you liked him. He's so rough, it isn't everybody who +understands him," she said. + +"Must one understand a person to like him?" I queried good-humoredly. I +was beginning to think I might have dreamed about that key. + +"I don't know," she said, "I don't always understand Miss Lucetta, but I +like her through and through, ma'am, as I like this little finger," and +holding up this member to my inspection, she crossed the room for my +water-pitcher, which she proposed to fill with hot water. + +I followed her closely with my eyes. When she came back, I saw her +attention caught by the break in the flooring, which she had not noticed +on entering. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, "what a shame!" her honest face coloring as she +drew the rug back over the small black gap. "I am sure, ma'am," she +cried, "you must think very poorly of us. But I assure you, ma'am, it's +honest poverty, nothing but honest poverty as makes them so neglectful," +and with an air as far removed from mystery as her frank, good-natured +manner seemed to be from falsehood, she slid from the room with a kind: + +"Don't hurry, ma'am. It is Miss Knollys' turn in the kitchen, and she +isn't as quick as Miss Lucetta." + +"Humph," thought I, "supposing I had called in the police." + +But by the time she had returned with the water, my doubts had +reawakened. She was not changed in manner, though I have no doubt she +had recounted all that I had said, below, but I was, for I remembered +the matches and thought I saw a way of tripping her up in her +self-complacency. + +Just as she was leaving me for the second time I called her back. + +"What is the matter with your matches?" I asked. "I couldn't make them +light last night." + +With a wholly undisturbed countenance she turned toward the bureau and +took up the china trinket that held the few remaining matches I had not +scraped on the piece of sandpaper I myself had fastened up alongside the +door. A sheepish cry of dismay at once escaped her. + +"Why, these are old matches!" she declared, showing me the box in which +a half-dozen or so burned matches stood with their burned tops all +turned down. + +"I thought they were all right. I'm afraid we are a little short of +matches." + +I did not like to tell her what I thought about it, but it made me +doubly anxious to join the young ladies at breakfast and judge for +myself from their conduct and expression if I had been deceived by my +own fears into taking for realities the phantasies of a nightmare, or +whether I was correct in ascribing to fact that episode of the key with +all the possibilities that lay behind it. + +I did not let my anxiety, however, stand in the way of my duty. Mr. +Gryce had bid me carry the whistle he had sent me constantly about my +person, and I felt that he would have the right to reproach me if I left +my room without making some endeavor to recover this lost article. How +to do this without aid or appliances of any kind was a problem. I knew +where it was, but I could not see it, much less reach it. Besides, they +were waiting for me--never a pleasant thought. It occurred to me that I +might lower into the hole a lighted candle hung by a string. + +Looking over my effects, I chose out a hairpin, a candle, and two corset +laces, (Pardon me. I am as modest as most of my sex, but I am not +squeamish. Corset laces are strings, and as such only I present them to +your notice.) I should like to have added a button-hook to my +collection, but not having as yet discarded the neatly laced boot of my +ancestor, I could only produce a small article from my toilet-service +which shall remain unmentioned, as I presently discarded it and turned +my whole attention to the other objects I have named. A poor array, but +out of them I hoped to find the means of fishing up my lost whistle. + +My intention was to lower first a lighted candle into the hole by means +of a string tied about its middle, then to drop a line on the whistle +thus discovered and draw it up with the point of a bent hairpin, which I +fondly hoped I could make do the service of a hook. To think was to try. +The candle was soon down in the hole, and by its light the whistle was +easily seen. The string and bent hairpin went down next. I was +successful in hooking the prize and proceeded to pull it up with great +care. For an instant I realized what a ridiculous figure I was cutting, +stooping over a hole in the floor on both knees, a string in each hand, +leading apparently to nowhere, and I at work cautiously steadying one +and as carefully pulling on the other. Having hooked the string holding +the whistle over the first finger of the hand holding the candle, I may +have become too self-conscious to notice the slight release of weight on +the whistle hand. Whatever the reason, when the end of the string came +in sight there was no whistle on it. The charred end showed me that the +candle had burned the cord, letting the whistle fall again out of reach. +Down went the candle again. It touched bottom, but no whistle was to be +seen. After a long and fruitless search, I concluded to abandon my +whistle-fishing excursion, and, rising from my cramped and undignified +position, I proceeded to pull up the candle. To my surprise and delight, +I found the whistle firmly stuck to the lower side of it. Some drops of +candle grease had fallen upon the whistle where it lay. The candle +coming in contact with it, the two had adhered, and I became indebted to +accident rather than to acumen for the restoration of the precious +article. + + + + +XIX + +A KNOT OF CRAPE + + +I was prepared for some change in the appearance of my young hostesses, +but not for so great a one as I saw on entering the dining-room that +memorable morning. The blinds, which were always half closed, were now +wide open, and under the cheerful influence of the light which was thus +allowed to enter, the table and all its appointments had a much less +dreary look than before. Behind the urn sat Miss Knollys, with a smile +on her lips, and in the window William stood whistling a cheerful air, +unrebuked. Lucetta was not present, but to my great astonishment she +presently walked in with her hands laden with sprays of morning-glory, +which she flung down in the centre of the board. It was the first time I +had seen any attempt made by any of them to lighten the sombreness of +their surroundings, and it was also the first time I had seen the three +together. + +I was more disconcerted by this simple show of improved spirits than I +like to acknowledge. In the first place, they were natural and not +forced; and, secondly, they were to all appearance unconscious. + +They were not marked enough to show relief, and in Lucetta especially +did not serve to hide the underlying melancholy of a disappointed girl, +yet it was not what I expected from my supposed experiences of the +night, and led me to answer a little warily when, with a frank laugh, +Loreen exclaimed: + +"So you have lost your character as a practical woman, Miss Butterworth? +Hannah tells me you were the victim of a ghostly visit last night." + +"Hannah gossips unmercifully," was my cautious and somewhat peevish +reply. "If I chose to dream that I was locked into my room by some +erratic spectre, I cannot see why she should take the confession of my +folly out of my mouth. I was going to relate the fact myself, with all +the accompaniments of rushing steps and wild and unearthly cries which +are expected by the listeners to a veritable ghost story. But now I have +simply to defend myself from a charge of credulity. It's too bad, Miss +Knollys, much too bad. I did not come to a haunted house for this." + +My manner, rather than my words, seemed to completely deceive them. +Perhaps it deceived myself, for I began to feel a loss of the depression +which had weighed upon me ever since that scream rang in my ears at +midnight. It disappeared still further when Lucetta said: + +"If your ramblings through the old rooms on this floor were the occasion +of this nightmare, you must be prepared for a recurrence of the same +to-night, for I am going to take you through the upper rooms myself this +morning. Isn't that the programme, Loreen? Or have you changed your mind +and planned a drive for Miss Butterworth?" + +"She shall do both," Loreen answered. "When she is tired of tramping +through dusty chambers and examining the decayed remnants of old +furniture which encumber them, William stands ready to drive her over +the hills, where she will find views well worth her attention." + +"Thank you," said I. "It is a pleasant prospect." But inwardly I uttered +anything but thanks; rather asked myself if I had not played the part of +a fool in ascribing so much importance to the events of the past night, +and decided almost without an argument that I had. + +However, beliefs die hard in a mind like mine, and though I was ready to +consider that an inflamed imagination may often carry us beyond the +bounds of fact and even into the realm of fancy and misconception, I yet +was not ready to give up my suspicions altogether, or to acknowledge +that I had no foundation for the fear that something uncanny if not +awful had taken place under this roof the night before. The very +naturalness I observed in this hitherto restrained trio might be the +result of the removal of some great strain, and if that was the +case--Ah, well, alertness is the motto of the truly wise. It is when +vigilance sleeps that the enemy gains the victory. I would not let +myself be deceived even at the cost of a little ridicule. Amelia +Butterworth was still awake, even under a semblance of well-laid +suspicion. + +My footsteps were not dogged after this as they had hitherto been in my +movements about the house. I was allowed to go and come and even to +stray into the second long corridor, without any other let than my own +discretion and good breeding. Lucetta joined me, to be sure, after a +while, but only as guide and companion. She took me into rooms I forgot +the next minute, and into others I remember to this day as quaint +memorials of a past ever and always interesting to me. We ransacked the +house, yet after all was over and I sat down to rest in my own room, two +formidable questions rose in my mind for which I found no satisfactory +answer. Why, with so many more or less attractive bedchambers at their +command, had they chosen to put me into a hole, where the very flooring +was unsafe, and the outlook the most dismal that could be imagined? and +why, in all our peregrinations in and out of rooms, had we always passed +one door without entering? She had said that it was William's--a +sufficient explanation, if true, and I have no doubt it was,--but the +change of countenance with which she passed it and the sudden lightening +of her tread (so instinctive that she was totally unconscious of it) +marked that door as one it would be my duty to enter if fate should yet +give me the opportunity. That it was the one in communication with the +Flower Parlor I felt satisfied, but in order to make assurance doubly +sure I resolved upon a tour through the shrubbery outside, that I might +compare the location of the window having the chipped blind with that of +this room, which was, as well as I could calculate, the third from the +rear on the left-hand side. + +When, therefore, William called up to know if I was ready for my drive, +I answered back that I found myself very tired and would be glad to +exchange the pleasure he offered, for a visit to the stables. + +This, as I expected, caused considerable comment and some disturbance. +They wanted me to repeat my experience of the day before and spend two +if not more hours of the morning out of the house. But I did not mean to +gratify them. Indeed I felt that my duty held me to the house, and was +so persistent in my wishes, or rather in my declaration of them, that +all opposition had to give way, even in the stubborn William. + +"I thought you had a dread of dogs," was the final remark with which he +endeavored to turn me aside from my purpose. "I have three in the barn +and two in the stable, and they make a great fuss when I come around, I +assure you." + +"Then they will have enough to do without noticing me," said I, with a +brazen assumption of courage sufficiently surprising if I had had any +real intention of invading a place so guarded. But I had not. I no more +meant to enter the stables than to jump off the housetop, but it was +necessary that I should start for them and make the start from the left +wing of the house. + +How I managed the intractable William and led him as I did from bush to +bush and shrub to shrub, up and down the length of that interminable +façade of the left wing, would make an interesting story in itself. The +curiosity I showed in plants, even such plants as had survived the +neglect that had made a wilderness of this old-time garden; the +indifference which, contrary to all my habits, I persisted in +manifesting to every inconvenience I encountered in the way of +straightforward walking to any object I set my fancy upon examining; the +knowledge I exhibited, and the interest which I took it for granted he +felt in all I discovered and all I imparted to him, would form the basis +of a farce of no ordinary merit had it not had its birth in interests +and intents bordering on the tragic. + +A row of bushes of various species ran along the wall and covered in +some instances the lower ledges of the first row of windows. As I made +for a certain shrub which I had observed growing near what I supposed to +be the casement from whose blind I had chipped a small sliver, I allowed +my enthusiasm to bubble over, in my evident desire to display my +erudition. + +"This," said I, "is, without any doubt at all, a stunted but undoubted +specimen of that rare tree found seldom north of the thirtieth degree, +the _Magnolia grandiflora_. I have never seen it but once before, and +that was in the botanical gardens in Washington. Note its leaves. You +have noted its flowers, smaller undoubtedly than they should be--but +then you must acknowledge it has been in a measure neglected--are they +not fine?" + +Here I pulled a branch down which interfered with my view of the window. +There was no chip visible in the blinds thus discovered. Seeing this, I +let the branch go. "But the oddest feature of this tree and one with +which you are perhaps not acquainted" (I wonder if anybody is?) "is that +it will not grow within twenty feet of any plant which scatters pollen. +See for yourself. This next shrub bears no flower" (I was moving along +the wall), "nor this." I drew down a branch as I spoke, caught sight of +the mark I was looking for, and let the bough spring back. I had found +the window I wanted. + +His grunts and groans during all this formed a running accompaniment +which would have afforded me great secret amusement had my purpose been +less serious. As it was, I could pay but little attention to him, +especially after I had stepped back far enough to take a glance at the +window over the one I had just located as that of the Flower Parlor. It +was, as I expected, the third one from the rear corner; but it was not +this fact which gave me a thrill of feeling so strong that I have never +had harder work to preserve my equanimity. _It was the knot of black +crape with which the shutters were tied together._ + + + + +XX + +QUESTIONS + + +I kept the promise I had made to myself and did not go to the stables. +Had I intended to go there, I could not have done so after the discovery +I have just mentioned. It awakened too many thoughts and contradictory +surmises. If this knot was a signal, for whom was this signal meant? If +it was a mere acknowledgment of death, how reconcile the sentimentality +which prompted such an acknowledgment with the monstrous and diseased +passions lying at the base of the whole dreadful occurrence? Lastly, if +it was the result of pure carelessness, a bit of crape having been +caught up and used for a purpose for which any ordinary string would +have answered, what a wonderful coincidence between it and my +thoughts,--a coincidence, indeed, amounting almost to miracle! + +Marvelling at the whole affair and deciding nothing, I allowed myself to +stroll down alone to the gate, William having left me at my peremptory +refusal to drag my skirts any longer through the briers. The day being +bright and the sunshine warm, the road looked less gloomy than usual, +especially in the direction of the village and Deacon Spear's cottage. +The fact is, that anything seemed better than the grim and lowering +walls of the house behind me. If my home was there, so was my dread, and +I welcomed the sight of Mother Jane's heavy figure bent over her herbs +at the door of her hut, a few paces to my left, where the road turned. + +Had she not been deaf, I believed I would have called her. As it was, I +contented myself with watching the awkward swayings of her body as she +pottered to and fro among her turnips and carrots. My eyes were still on +her when I suddenly heard the clatter of a horse's hoofs on the highway. +Looking up, I encountered the trim figure of Mr. Trohm, bending to me +from a fine sorrel. + +"Good morning, Miss Butterworth. It's a great relief to me to see you in +such good health and spirits this morning," were the pleasant words with +which he endeavored, perhaps, to explain his presence in a spot more or +less under a ban. + +It was certainly a surprise. What right had I to look for such +attentions from a man whose acquaintance I had made only the day before? +It touched me, little as I am in the habit of allowing myself to be +ruled by trivial sentimentalities, and though I was discreet enough to +avoid any further recognition of his kindness than was his due from a +lady of great self-respect, he was evidently sufficiently gratified by +my response to draw rein and pause for a moment's conversation under the +pine trees. This for the moment seemed so natural that I forgot that +more than one pair of eyes might be watching me from the windows behind +us--eyes which might wonder at a meeting which to the foolish +understandings of the young might have the look of premeditation. But, +pshaw! I am talking as if I were twenty instead of--Well, I will leave +you to consult our family record on that point. There are certain +secrets which even the wisest among us cannot be blamed for preserving. + +"How did you pass the night?" was Mr. Trohm's first question. "I hope in +all due peace and quiet." + +"Thank you," I returned, not seeing why I should increase his anxiety in +my regard. "I have nothing to complain of. I had a dream; but dreams are +to be expected where one has to pass a half-dozen empty rooms to one's +apartment." + +He could not restrain his curiosity. + +"A dream!" he repeated. "I do not believe in sleep that is broken by +dreams, unless they are of the most cheerful sort possible. And I judge +from what you say that yours were not cheerful." + +I wanted to confide in him. I felt that in a way he had a right to know +what had happened to me, or what I thought had happened to me, under +this roof. And yet I did not speak. What I could tell would sound so +puerile in the broad sunshine that enveloped us. I merely remarked that +cheerfulness was not to be expected in a domicile so given over to the +ravages of time, and then with that lightness and versatility which +characterize me under certain exigencies, I introduced a topic we could +discuss without any embarrassment to himself or me. + +"Do you see Mother Jane over there?" I asked. "I had some talk with her +yesterday. She seems like a harmless imbecile." + +"Very harmless," he acquiesced; "her only fault is greed; that is +insatiable. Yet it is not strong enough to take her a quarter of a mile +from this place. Nothing could do that, I think. She believes that her +daughter Lizzie is still alive and will come back to the hut some day. +It's very sad when you think that the girl's dead, and has been dead +nearly forty years." + +"Why does she harp on numbers?" I asked. "I heard her mutter certain +ones over and over." + +"That is a mystery none of us have ever been able to solve," said he. +"Possibly she has no reason for it. The vagaries of the witless are +often quite unaccountable." + +He remained looking at me long after he had finished speaking, not, I +felt sure, from any connection he found between what he had just said +and anything to be observed in me, but from--Well, I was glad that I had +been carefully trained in my youth to pay the greatest attention to my +morning toilets. Any woman can look well at night and many women in the +flush of a bright afternoon, but the woman who looks well in the morning +needs not always to be young to attract the appreciative gaze of a man +of real penetration. Mr. Trohm was such a man, and I did not begrudge +him the pleasure he showed in my neat gray silk and carefully adjusted +collar. But he said nothing, and a short silence ensued, which was +perhaps more of a compliment than otherwise. Then he uttered a short +sigh and lifted the reins. + +"If only I were not debarred from entering," he smiled, with a short +gesture toward the house. + +I did not answer. Even I understand that on occasion the tongue plays +but a sorry part in interviews of this nature. + +He sighed again and uttered some short encouragement to his horse, which +started that animal up and sent him slowly pacing down the road toward +the cheerful clearing whither my own eyes were looking with what I was +determined should not be construed even by the most sanguine into a +glance of anything like wistfulness. As he went he made a bow I have +never seen surpassed in my own parlor in Gramercy Park, and upon my +bestowing upon him a return nod, glanced up at the house with an +intentness which seemed to increase as some object, invisible to me at +that moment, caught his eye. As that eye was directed toward the left +wing, and lifted as far as the second row of windows, I could not help +asking myself if he had seen the knot of crape which had produced upon +me so lugubrious an impression. Before I could make sure of this he had +passed from sight, and the highway fell again into shadow--why, I hardly +knew, for the sun certainly had been shining a few minutes before. + + + + +XXI + +MOTHER JANE + + +"Well, well, what did Trohm want here this morning?" cried a harsh voice +from amid the tangled walks behind me. "Seems to me he finds this place +pretty interesting all of a sudden." + +I turned upon the intruder with a look that should have daunted him. +I had recognized William's courteous tones and was in no mood to +endure a questioning so unbecoming in one of his age to one of mine. +But as I met his eye, which had something in it besides anger and +suspicion--something that was quizzical if not impertinent--I changed my +intention and bestowed upon him a conciliatory smile, which I hope +escaped the eye of the good angel who records against man all his small +hypocrisies and petty deceits. + +"Mr. Trohm rides for his health," said I. "Seeing me looking up the road +at Mother Jane, he stopped to tell me some of the idiosyncrasies of that +old woman. A very harmless courtesy, Mr. Knollys." + +"Very," he echoed, not without a touch of sarcasm. "I only hope that is +all," he muttered, with a sidelong look back at the house. "Lucetta +hasn't a particle of belief in that man's friendship, or, rather, she +believes he never goes anywhere without a particular intention, and +I do believe she's right, or why should he come spying around here +just at a time when"--he caught himself up with almost a look of +terror--"when--when you are here?" he completed lamely. + +"I do not think," I retorted, more angrily than the occasion perhaps +warranted, "that the word spying applies to Mr. Trohm. But if it does, +what has he to gain from a pause at the gate and a word to such a new +acquaintance as I am?" + +"I don't know," William persisted suspiciously. "Trohm's a sharp fellow. +If there was anything to see, he would see it without half looking. But +there isn't. You don't know of anything wrong here, do you, which such a +man as that, hand in glove with the police as we know him to be, might +consider himself interested in?" + +Astonished both at this blundering committal of himself and at the +certain sort of anxious confidence he showed in me, I hesitated for a +moment, but only for a moment, since, if half my suspicions were true, +this man must not know that my perspicacity was more to be feared than +even Mr. Trohm's was. + +"If Mr. Trohm shows an increased interest in this household during the +last two days," said I, with a heroic defiance of ridicule which I hope +Mr. Gryce has duly appreciated, "I beg leave to call your attention to +the fact that on yesterday morning he came to deliver a letter addressed +to me which had inadvertently been left at his house, and that this +morning he called to inquire how I had spent the night, which, in +consideration of the ghosts which are said to haunt this house and the +strange and uncanny apparitions which only three nights ago made the +entrance to this lane hideous to one pair of eyes at least, should not +cause a gentleman's son like yourself any astonishment. It does not seem +odd to me, I assure you." + +He laughed. I meant he should, and, losing almost instantly his air of +doubt and suspicion, turned toward the gate from which I had just moved +away, muttering: + +"Well, it's a small matter to me anyway. It's only the girls that are +afraid of Mr. Trohm. I am not afraid of anything but losing Saracen, who +has pined like the deuce at his long confinement in the court. Hear him +now; just hear him." + +And I could hear the low and unhappy moaning of the hound distinctly. It +was not a pleasant sound, and I was almost tempted to bid William +unloose the dog, but thought better of it. + +"By the way," said he, "speaking of Mother Jane, I have a message to her +from the girls. You will excuse me if I speak to the poor woman." + +Alarmed by his politeness more than I ever have been by his roughness +and inconsiderate sarcasms, I surveyed him inquiringly as he left the +gate, and did not know whether to stand my ground or retreat to the +house. I decided to stand my ground; a message to this woman seeming to +me a matter of some interest. + +I was glad I did, for after some five minutes' absence, during which he +had followed her into the house, I saw him come back again in a state of +sullen displeasure, which, however, partially disappeared when he saw me +still standing by the gate. + +"Ah, Miss Butterworth, you can do me a favor. The old creature is in one +of her stubborn fits to-day, and won't give me a hearing. She may not be +so deaf to you; she isn't apt to be to women. Will you cross the road +and speak to her? I will go with you. You needn't be afraid." + +The way he said this, the confidence he expected to inspire, had almost +a ghastly effect upon me. Did he know or suspect that the only thing I +feared in this lane was he? Evidently not, for he met my eye quite +confidently. + +It would not do to shake his faith at such a moment as this, so calling +upon Providence to see me safely through this adventure, I stepped into +the highway and went with him into Mother Jane's cottage. + +Had I been favored with any other companion than himself, I should have +been glad of this opportunity. As it was, I found myself ignoring any +possible danger I might be running, in my interest in the remarkable +interior to which I was thus introduced. + +Having been told that Mother Jane was poor, I had expected to confront +squalor and possibly filth, but I never have entered a cleaner place or +one in which order made the poorest belongings look more decent. The +four walls were unfinished, and so were the rafters which formed the +ceiling, but the floor, neatly laid in brick, was spotless, and the +fireplace, also of brick, was as deftly swept as one could expect from +the little scrub I saw hanging by its side. Crouched within this +fireplace sat the old woman we had come to interview. Her back was to +us, and she looked helplessly and hopelessly deaf. + +"Ask her," said William, pointing towards her with a rude gesture, "if +she will come to the house at sunset. My sisters have some work for her +to do. They will pay her well." + +Advancing at his bidding, I passed a rocking-chair, in the cushion of +which a dozen patches met my eye. This drew my eyes toward a bed, over +which a counterpane was drawn, made up of a thousand or more pieces of +colored calico, and noticing their varied shapes and the intricacy with +which they were put together, I wondered whether she ever counted them. +The next moment I was at her back. + +"Seventy," burst from her lips as I leaned over her shoulder and showed +her the coin which I had taken pains to have in my hand. + +"Yours," I announced, pointing in the direction of the house, "if you +will do some work for Miss Knollys to-night." + +Slowly she shook her head before burying it deeper in the shawl she wore +wrapped about her shoulders. Listening a minute, I thought I heard her +mutter: "Twenty-eight, ten, but no more. I can count no more. Go away!" + +But I'm nothing if not persistent. Feeling for her hands, which were +hidden away somewhere under her shawl, I touched them with the coin and +cried again: + +"This and more for a small piece of work to-night. Come, you are strong; +earn it." + +"What kind of work is it?" I asked innocently, or it must have appeared +innocently, of Mr. Knollys, who was standing at my back. + +He frowned, all the black devils in his heart coming into his look at +once. + +"How do I know! Ask Loreen; she's the one who sent me. I don't take +account of what goes on in the kitchen." + +I begged his pardon, somewhat sarcastically I own, and made another +attempt to attract the attention of the old crone, who had remained +perfectly callous to my allurements. + +"I thought you liked money," I said. "For Lizzie, you know, for Lizzie." + +But she only muttered in lower and lower gutturals, "I can count no +more"; and, disgusted at my failure, being one who accounts failure as +little short of disgrace, I drew back and made my way toward the door, +saying: "She's in a different mood from what she was yesterday when she +snatched a quarter from me at the first intimation it was hers. I don't +think you can get her to do any work to-night. Innocents take these +freaks. Isn't there some one else you can call in?" + +The scowl that disfigured his none too handsome features was a fitting +prelude to his words. + +"You talk," said he, "as if we had the whole village at our command. How +did you succeed with the locksmith yesterday? Came, didn't he? Well, +that's what we have to expect whenever we want any help." + +Whirling on his heel, he led the way out of the hut, whither I would +have immediately followed him if I had not stopped to take another look +at the room, which struck me, even upon a second scrutiny, as one of the +best ordered and best kept I had ever entered. Even the strings and +strings of dried fruits and vegetables, which hung in festoons from +every beam of the roof, were free from dust and cobwebs, and though the +dishes were few and the pans scarce, they were bright and speckless, +giving to the shelf along which they were ranged a semblance of +ornament. + +"Wise enough to keep her house in order," thought I, and actually found +it hard to leave, so attractive to my eyes are absolute neatness and +order. + +William was pushing at his own gate when I joined him. He looked as if +he wished I had spent the morning with Mother Jane, and was barely civil +in our walk up to the house. I was not, therefore, surprised when he +burst into a volley of oaths at the doorway and turned upon me almost as +if he would forbid me the house, for tap, tap, tap, from some distant +quarter came a distinct sound like that of nails being driven into a +plank. + + + + +XXII + +THE THIRD NIGHT + + +Mother Jane must have changed her mind after we left her. For late in +the evening I caught a glimpse of her burly figure in the kitchen as I +went to give Hannah some instructions concerning certain little changes +in the housekeeping arrangements which the girls and I had agreed were +necessary to our mutual comfort. + +I wished to address the old crone, but warned, by the ill-concealed +defiance with which Hannah met my advances, that any such attempt on my +part would be met by anything but her accustomed good-nature, I +refrained from showing my interest in her strange visitor, or from even +appearing conscious of her own secret anxieties and evident +preoccupation. + +Loreen and Lucetta exchanged a meaning look as I rejoined them in the +sitting-room; but my volubility in regard to the domestic affair which +had just taken me to the kitchen seemed to speedily reassure them, and +when a few minutes later I said good-night and prepared to leave the +room, it was with the conviction that I had relieved their mind at the +expense of my own. Mother Jane in the kitchen at this late hour meant +business. What that business was, I seemed to know only too well. + +I had formed a plan for the night which required some courage. Recalling +Lucetta's expression of the morning, that I might expect a repetition of +the former night's experiences, I prepared to profit by the warning in a +way she little meant. Satisfied that if there was any truth in the +suspicions I had formed, there would be an act performed in this house +to-night which, if seen by me, would forever settle the question +agitating the whole countryside, I made up my mind that no locked door +should interfere with my opportunity of doing so. How I effected this +result I will presently relate. + +Lucetta had accompanied me to my door with a lighted candle. + +"I hear you had some trouble with matches last night," said she. "You +will find them all right now. Hannah must be blamed for some of this +carelessness." Then as I began some reassuring reply, she turned upon me +with a look that was almost fond, and, throwing out her arms, cried +entreatingly: "Won't you give me a little kiss, Miss Butterworth? We +have not given you the best of welcomes, but you are my mother's old +friend, and sometimes I feel a little lonely." + +I could easily believe that, and yet I found it hard to embrace her. Too +many shadows swam between Althea's children and myself. She saw my +hesitancy (a hesitancy I could not but have shown even at the risk of +losing her confidence), and, paling slightly, dropped her hands with a +pitiful smile. + +"You don't like me," she said. "I do not wonder, but I was in hopes you +would for my mother's sake. I have no claims myself." + +"You are an interesting girl, and you have, what your mother had not, a +serious side to your nature that is anything but displeasing to me. But +my kisses, Lucetta, are as rare as my tears. I had rather give you good +advice, and that is a fact. Perhaps it is as strong a proof of affection +as any ordinary caress would be." + +"Perhaps," she assented, but she did not encourage me to give it to her +notwithstanding. Instead of that, she drew back and bade me a gentle +good-night, which for some reason made me sadder than I wished to be at +a crisis demanding so much nerve. Then she walked quickly away, and I +was left to face the night alone. + +Knowing that I should be rather weakened than helped by the omission of +any of the little acts of preparation with which I am accustomed to calm +my spirits for the night, I went through them all, with just as much +precision as if I had expected to spend the ensuing hours in rest. When +all was done and only my cup of tea remained to be quaffed, I had a +little struggle with myself, which ended in my not drinking it at all. +Nothing, not even this comfortable solace for an unsatisfactory day, +should stand in the way of my being the complete mistress of my wits +this night. Had I known that this tea contained a soporific in the shape +of a little harmless morphine, I would have found this act of +self-denial much easier. + +It was now eleven. Confident that nothing would be done while my light +was burning, I blew it out, and, taking a candle and some matches in my +hand, softly opened my door and, after a moment of intense listening, +stepped out and closed it carefully behind me. Nothing could be stiller +than the house or darker than the corridor. + +"Am I watched or am I not watched?" I queried, and for an instant stood +undecided. Then, seeing nothing and hearing nothing, I slipped down the +hall to the door beyond mine and, opening it with all the care possible, +stepped inside. + +I knew the room. I had taken especial note of it in my visit of the +morning. I knew that it was nearly empty and that there was a key in the +lock which I could turn. I therefore felt more or less safe in it, +especially as its window was undarkened by the branches that hung so +thickly across my own casement, shutting me in, or seeming to shut me +in, from all communication with the outside world and the unknown +guardian which I had been assured constantly attended my summons. + +That I might strengthen my spirits by one glimpse of this same outside +world, before settling down for the watch I had set for myself, I +stepped softly to the window and took one lingering look without. A belt +of forest illumined by a gibbous moon met my eyes; nothing else. Yet +this sight was welcome, and it was only after I had been struck by the +possibility of my own figure being seen at the casement by some possible +watcher in the shadows below, that I found the hardihood necessary to +withdraw into the darker precincts of the room, and begin that lonely +watch which my doubts and expectations rendered necessary. + +This was the third I had been forced to keep, and it was by far the most +dismal; for though the bolted door between me and the hall promised me +personal safety, there presently rose in some far-off place a smothered +repetition of that same tap, tap, tap which had sent the shudders over +me upon my sudden entrance into the house early in the morning. Heard +now, it caused me to tremble in a way I had not supposed possible to one +of my hardy nature, and while with this recognition of my feminine +susceptibility to impressions there came a certain pride in the +stanchness of purpose which led me to restrain all acknowledgment of +fear, by any recourse to my whistle, I was more than glad when even this +sound ceased, and I had only to expect the swishing noise of a skirt +down the hall, and that stealthy locking of the door of the room I had +taken the precaution of leaving. + +It came sooner than I expected, came just in the way it had previously +done, only that the person paused a moment to listen before hastening +back. The silence within must have satisfied her, for I heard a low sigh +like that of relief, before the steps took themselves back. That they +would turn my way gave me a momentary concern, but I had too completely +lulled my young hostesses' suspicions, or (let me be faithful to all the +possibilities of the case) they had put too much confidence in the +powder with which they had seasoned my nightly cup of tea, for them to +doubt that I was soundly asleep in my own quarters. + +Three minutes later I followed those steps as far down the corridor as I +dared to go. For, since my last appearance in it, a candle had been lit +in the main hall, and faint as was its glimmer, it was still a glimmer +into the circle of which I felt it would be foolhardiness for me to +step. At some twenty paces, then, from the opening, I paused and gave +myself up to listening. Alas, there was plenty now for me to hear. + +You have heard the sound; we all have heard the sound, but few of us in +such a desolate structure and at the hour and under the influences of +midnight! The measured tread of men struggling under a heavy weight, and +that weight--how well I knew it! as well as if I had seen it, as I +really did in my imagination. + +They advanced from the adjoining corridor, from the room I had as yet +found no opportunity of entering, and they approached surely and slowly +the main hall near which I was standing in such a position as rendered +it impossible for me to see anything if they took the direct course to +the head of the stairs and so down, as there was every reason to expect +they would. I did not dare to draw nearer, however, so concentrated my +faculties anew upon listening, when suddenly I perceived on the great +white wall in front of me--the wall of the main hall, I mean, toward +which the opening looked--the shapeless outline of a drooping head, and +realized that the candle had been placed in such a position that the +wall must receive the full shadow of the passing cortège. + +And thus it was I saw it, huge, distorted, and suggestive beyond any +picture I ever beheld,--the passing of a body to its long home, carried +by six anxious figures, four of which seemed to be those of women. + +But that long home! Where was it located--in the house or in the +grounds? It was a question so important that for a moment I could think +of nothing but how I could follow the small procession, without running +the risk of discovery. It had reached the head of the stairs by this +time, and I heard Miss Knollys' low, firm voice enjoining silence. Then +the six bearers began to descend with their burden. + +Ere they reached the foot, a doubt struck me. Would it be better to +follow them or to take the opportunity afforded by every member of the +household being engaged in this task, to take a peep into the room where +the death had occurred? I had not decided, when I heard them take the +forward course from the foot of the stairs to what, to my straining ear, +seemed to be the entrance to the dining-room corridor. But as in my +anxiety to determine this fact I slipped far enough forward to make sure +that their destination lay somewhere within reach of the Flower Parlor, +I was so struck by the advantages to be gained by a cautious use of the +trap-door in William's room, that I hesitated no longer, but sped with +what swiftness I could toward the spot from which I had so lately heard +this strange procession advance. + +A narrow band of light lying across the upper end of the long corridor, +proved that the door was not only ajar, but that a second candle was +burning in the room I was about to invade; but this was scarcely to +be regretted, since there could be no question of the emptiness of +the room. The six figures I had seen go by embraced every one who +by any possibility could be considered as having part in this +transaction--William, Mr. Simsbury, Miss Knollys, Lucetta, Hannah, and +Mother Jane. No one else was left to guard this room, so I pushed the +door open quite boldly and entered. + +What I saw there I will relate later, or, rather, I will but hint at +now. A bed with a sheet thrown back, a stand covered with vials, a +bureau with a man's shaving paraphernalia upon it, and on the wall such +pictures as only sporting gentlemen delight in. The candle was guttering +on a small table upon which, to my astonishment, a Bible lay open. Not +having my glasses with me, I could not see what portion of the sacred +word was thus disclosed, but I took the precaution to indent the upper +leaf with my thumb-nail, so that I might find it again in case of future +opportunity. My attention was attracted by other small matters that +would be food for thought at a more propitious moment, but at that +instant the sound of voices coming distinctly to my ear from below, +warned me that a halt had been made at the Flower Parlor, and that the +duty of the moment was to locate the trap-door and if possible determine +the means of raising it. + +This was less difficult than I anticipated. Either this room was +regarded as so safe from intrusion that a secret like this could be +safely left unguarded, or the door which was plainly to be seen in one +corner had been so lately lifted, that it had hardly sunk back into its +place. I found it, if the expression may be used of a horizontal object, +slightly ajar and needing but the slightest pull to make it spring +upright. + +The hole thus disclosed was filled with the little staircase up which I +had partly mounted in my daring explorations of the day before. It was +dark now, darker than it was then, but I felt that I must descend by it, +for plainly to be heard now through the crack in the closet door, which +seemed to have a knack of standing partly open, I could hear the heavy +tread of the six bearers as they entered the parlor below, still +carrying their burden, concerning the destination of which I was so +anxious to be informed. + +That it could be in the room itself was too improbable for +consideration. Yet if they took up their stand in this room it was for a +purpose, and what that purpose was I was determined to know. The noise +their feet made on the bare boards of the floor and the few words I now +heard uttered in William's stolid tones and Lucetta's musical treble +assured me that my own light steps would no more be heard, than my dark +gown of quiet wool would be seen through the narrow slit through which I +was preparing to peer. Yet it took no small degree of what my father +used to call pluck, for me to put foot on this winding staircase and +descend almost, as it were, into the midst of what I must regard as the +last wicked act of a most cowardly and brutal murder. + +I did it, however, and after a short but grim communion with my own +heart, which would persist in beating somewhat noisily, I leaned forward +with all the precaution possible and let my gaze traverse the chamber in +which I had previously seen such horrors as should have prepared me for +this last and greatest one. + +In a moment I understood the whole. A long square hole in the floor, +lately sawed, provided an opening through which the plain plank coffin, +of which I now caught sight, was to be lowered into the cellar and so +into the grave which had doubtless been dug there. The ropes in the +hands of the six persons, in whose identity I had made no mistake, was +proof enough of their intention; and, satisfied as I now was of the +means and mode of the interment which had been such a boundless mystery +to me, I shrank a step upward, fearing lest my indignation and the +horror I could not but feel, from this moment on, of Althea's children, +would betray me into some exclamation which might lead to my discovery +and a similar fate. + +One other short glance, in which I saw them all ranged around the dark +opening, and I was up out of their reach, Lucetta's face and Lucetta's +one sob as the ropes began to creak, being the one memory which followed +me the most persistently. She, at least, was overwhelmed with remorse +for a deed she was perhaps only answerable for in that she failed to +make known to the world her brother's madness and the horrible crimes to +which it gave rise. + +I took one other look around his room before I fled to my own, or +rather, to the one in which I had taken refuge while my own was under +lock and key. That I spent the next two hours on my knees no one can +wonder. When my own room was unlocked, as it was before the day broke, I +hastened to enter it and lay my head with all its unhappy knowledge on +my pillow. But I did not sleep; and, what was stranger still, never once +thought of sounding a single note on the whistle which would have +brought the police into this abode of crime. Perhaps it was a wise +omission. I had seen enough that was horrible that night without +beholding Althea's children arrested before my eyes. + + + + +_BOOK III_ + +FORWARD AND BACK + + + + +XXIII + +ROOM 3, HOTEL CARTER + + +I rose at my usual hour. I dressed myself with my usual care. I was, to +a superficial observer at least, in all respects my usual self when +Hannah came to my door to ask what she could do for me. As there was +nothing I wanted but to get out of this house, which had become +unbearable to me, I replied with the utmost cheerfulness that my wants +were all supplied and that I would soon be down, at which she answered +that in that case she must bestir herself or the breakfast would not be +ready, and hurried away. + +There was no one in the dining-room when I entered, and judging from +appearances that several minutes must elapse before breakfast would be +ready, I took occasion to stroll through the grounds and glance up at +the window of William's room. The knot of crape was gone. + +I would have gone farther, but just then I heard a great rushing and +scampering, and, looking up, saw an enormous dog approaching at full +gallop from the stables. Saracen was loose. + +I did not scream or give way to other feminine expressions of fear, but +I did return as quickly as possible to the house, where I now saw I must +remain till William chose to take me into town. + +This I was determined should take place as soon after breakfast as +practicable. The knowledge which I now possessed warranted, nay, +demanded, instant consultation with the police, and as this could best +be effected by following out the orders I had received from Mr. Gryce, I +did not consider any other plan than that of meeting the man on duty in +Room No. 3 at the hotel. + +Loreen, Lucetta, and William were awaiting me in the hall, and made no +apology for the flurry into which I had been thrown by my rapid escape +from Saracen. Indeed I doubt if they noticed it, for with all the +attempt they made to seem gay and at ease, the anxieties and fatigue of +the foregoing nights were telling upon them, and from Miss Knollys down, +they looked physically exhausted. But they also looked mentally +relieved. In the clear depths of Lucetta's eye there was now no +wavering, and the head which was always turning in anxious anticipation +over her shoulder rested firm, though not as erect as her sister's, who +had less cause perhaps for regret and sorrow. + +William was joyful to a degree, but it was a forced joviality which only +became real when he heard a sudden, quick bark under the window and the +sound of scraping paws against the mastic coating of the wall outside. +Then he broke out into a loud laugh of unrestrained pleasure, crying out +thoughtlessly: + +"There's Saracen. How quick he knows----" + +A warning look from Lucetta stopped him. + +"I mean," he stammered, "it's a dull dog that cannot find his master. +Miss Butterworth, you will have to overcome your fear of dogs if you +stay with us long. Saracen is unbound this morning, and"--he used a +great oath--"he's going to remain so." + +By which I came to understand that it was not out of consideration for +me he had been tied up in the court till now, but for reasons connected +with their own safety and the preservation of the secret which they so +evidently believed had been buried with the body, which I did not like +to remember lay at that very minute too nearly under our feet for my own +individual comfort. + +However, this has nothing to do with the reply I made to William. + +"I hope he does not run with the buggy," I objected. "I want to take a +ride very much this morning and could get small pleasure out of it if +that dog must be our companion." + +"I cannot go out this morning," William began, but changed his sentence, +possibly at the touch of his sister's foot under the table, into: "But +if you say I must, why, I must. You women folks are so plagued +unreasonable." + +Had he been ten years younger I would have boxed his ears; had he been +that much older I would have taken cue and packed my trunk before he +could have finished the cup of coffee he was drinking. But he was just +too old to reprimand in the way just mentioned, and not old enough to +appreciate any display of personal dignity or self-respect on the part +of the person he had offended. Besides, he was a knave; so I just let +his impertinence pass with the remark: + +"I have purchases to make in the village": and so that matter ended, +manifestly to the two girls' relief, who naturally did not like to see +me insulted, even if they did not possess sufficient power over their +brother to prevent it. + +One other small episode and then I will take you with me to the village. +As we were leaving the table, where I ate less than common, +notwithstanding all my efforts to seem perfectly unconcerned, Lucetta, +who had waited for her brother to go out, took me gently by the arm, +and, eying me closely, said: + +"Did you have any dreams last night, Miss Butterworth? You know I +promised you some." + +The question disconcerted me, and for a moment I felt like taking the +two girls into my confidence and bidding them fly from the shame and +doom so soon to fall upon their brother; but the real principle +underlying all such momentary impulses on my part deterred me, and in as +light a tone as I could command and not be an absolute hypocrite, I +replied that I was sorry to disappoint her, but I had had no dreams, +which seemed to please her more than it should, for if I had had no +dreams I certainly had suffered from the most frightful realities. + +I will not describe our ride into town. Saracen did go with us, and +indignation not only rendered me speechless, but gave to my thoughts a +turn which made that half-hour of very little value to me. Mother Jane's +burly figure crouching in her doorway might otherwise have given me +opportunity for remark, and so might the dubious looks of people we met +on the highroad--looks to which I am so wholly unaccustomed that I had +difficulty in recognizing myself as the butt of so much doubt and +possibly dislike. I attributed this, however, all to the ill repute +under which William so deservedly labored, and did not allow myself to +more than notice it. Indeed, I could only be sorry for people who did +not know in what consideration I was held at home, and who, either +through ignorance or prejudice, allowed themselves privileges they would +be the first to regret did they know the heart and mind of Amelia +Butterworth. + +Once in the village, I took the direction of affairs. + +"Set me down at the hotel," I commanded, "and then go about such +business as you may have here in town. I am not going to allow myself to +be tracked all over by that dog." + +"I have no business," was the surly reply. + +"Then make some," was my sharp retort. "I want to see the +locksmith--that locksmith who wouldn't come to do an honest piece of +work for me in your house; and I want to buy dimities and wools and +sewing silks at the dry-goods store over there. Indeed I have a thousand +things to do, and expect to spend half the morning before the counters. +Why, man, I haven't done any shopping for a week." + +He gaped at me perfectly aghast (as I meant he should), and, having but +little experience of city ladies, took me at my word and prepared to +beat an honorable retreat. As a result, I found myself ten minutes later +standing on the top step of the hotel porch, watching William driving +away with Saracen perched on the seat beside him. Then I realized that +the village held no companions for him, and did not know whether I felt +glad or sorry. + +To the clerk who came to meet me, I said quietly, "Room No. 3, if you +please," at which he gave a nod of intelligence and led me as +unostentatiously as possible into a small hall, at the end of which I +saw a door with the aforesaid number on it. + +"If you will take a seat inside," said he, "I will send you whatever you +may desire for your comfort." + +"I think you know what that is," I rejoined, at which he nodded again +and left me, closing the door carefully behind him as he went. + +The few minutes which elapsed before my quiet was disturbed were spent +by me in thinking. There were many little questions to settle in my own +mind, for which a spell of uninterrupted contemplation was necessary. +One of these was whether, in the event of finding the police amenable, I +should reveal or hide from these children of my old friend, the fact +that it was through my instrumentality that their nefarious secret had +been discovered. I wished--nay, I hoped--that the affair might be so +concluded, but the possibility of doing so seemed so problematical, +especially since Mr. Gryce was not on hand to direct matters, that I +spent very little time on the subject, deep and important as it was to +all concerned. + +What most occupied me was the necessity of telling my story in such a +way as to exonerate the girls as much as possible. They were mistaken in +their devotion and most unhappy in the exercise of it, but they were not +innately wicked and should not be made to appear so. Perhaps the one +thing for which I should yet have the best cause to congratulate myself, +would be the opportunity I had gained of giving to their connection with +this affair its true and proper coloring. + +I was still dwelling on this thought when there came a knock at my door +which advised me that the visitor I expected had arrived. To open and +admit him was the work of a moment, but it took more than a moment for +me to overcome my surprise at seeing in my visitor no lesser person than +Mr. Gryce himself, who in our parting interview had assured me he was +too old and too feeble for further detective work and must therefore +delegate it to me. + +"Ah!" I ejaculated slowly. "It is you, is it? Well, I am not surprised." +(I shouldn't have been.) "When you say you are old, you mean old enough +to pull the wool over other people's eyes, and when you say you are +lame, you mean that you only halt long enough to let others get far +enough ahead for them not to see how fast you hobble up behind them. But +do not think I am not happy to see you. I am, Mr. Gryce, for I have +discovered the secret of Lost Man's Lane, and find it somewhat too heavy +a one for my own handling." + +To my surprise he showed this was more than he expected. + +"You have?" he asked, with just that shade of incredulity which it is so +tantalizing to encounter. "Then I suppose congratulations are in order. +But are you sure, Miss Butterworth, that you really have obtained a clue +to the many strange and fearful disappearances which have given to this +lane its name?" + +"Quite sure," I returned, nettled. "Why do you doubt it? Because I have +kept so quiet and not sounded one note of alarm from my whistle?" + +"No," said he. "Knowing your self-restraint so well, I cannot say that +that is my reason." + +"What is it, then?" I urged. + +"Well," said he, "my real reason for doubting if you have been quite as +successful as you think, is that we ourselves have come upon a clue +about which there can be no question. Can you say the same of yours?" + +You will expect my answer to have been a decided "Yes," uttered with all +the positiveness of which you know me capable. But for some reason, +perhaps because of the strange influence this man's personality +exercises upon all--yes, all--who do not absolutely steel themselves +against him, I faltered just long enough for him to cry: + +"I thought not. The clue is outside the Knollys house, not in it, Miss +Butterworth, for which, of course, you are not to be blamed or your +services scorned. I have no doubt they have been invaluable in +unearthing _a_ secret, if not _the_ secret." + +"Thank you," was my quiet retort. I thought his presumption beyond all +bounds, and would at that moment have felt justified in snapping my +fingers at the clue he boasted of, had it not been for one thing. What +that thing is I am not ready yet to state. + +"You and I have come to issue over such matters before," said he, "and +therefore need not take too much account of the feelings it is likely to +engender. I will merely state that my clue points to Mother Jane, and +ask if you have found in the visit she paid at the house last night +anything which would go to strengthen the suspicion against her." + +"Perhaps," said I, in a state of disdain that was more or less +unpardonable, considering that my own suspicions previous to my +discovery of the real tragedy enacted under my eyes at the Knollys +mansion had played more or less about this old crone. + +"Only perhaps?" He smiled, with a playful forbearance for which I should +have been truly grateful to him. + +"She was there for no good purpose," said I, "and yet if you had not +characterized her as the person most responsible for the crimes we are +here to investigate, I should have said from all that I then saw of her +conduct that she acted as a supernumerary rather than principal, and +that it is to me you should look for the correct clue to the criminal, +notwithstanding your confidence in your own theories and my momentary +hesitation to assert that there was no possible defect in mine." + +"Miss Butterworth,"--I thought he looked a trifle shaken,--"what did +Mother Jane do in that closely shuttered house last night?" + +Mother Jane? Well! Did he think I was going to introduce my tragic story +by telling what Mother Jane did? I must have looked irritated, and +indeed I think I had cause. + +"Mother Jane ate her supper," I snapped out angrily. "Miss Knollys gave +it to her. Then she helped a little with a piece of work they had on +hand. It will not interest you to know what. It has nothing to do with +your clue, I warrant." + +He did not get angry. He has an admirable temper, has Mr. Gryce, but he +did stop a minute to consider. + +"Miss Butterworth," he said at last, "most detectives would have held +their peace and let you go on with what you have to tell without a hint +that it was either unwelcome or unnecessary, but I have consideration +for persons' feelings and for persons' secrets so long as they do not +come in collision with the law, and my opinion is, or was when I entered +this room, that such discoveries as you have made at your old friend's +house" (Why need he emphasize friend--did he think I forgot for a moment +that Althea was my friend?) "were connected rather with some family +difficulty than with the dreadful affair we are considering. That is why +I hastened to tell you that we had found a clue to the disappearances in +Mother Jane's cottage. I wished to save the Misses Knollys." + +If he had thought to mollify me by this assertion, he did not succeed. +He saw it and made haste to say: + +"Not that I doubt your consideration for them, only the justness of your +conclusions." + +"You have doubted those before and with more reason," I replied, "yet +they were not altogether false." + +"That I am willing to acknowledge, so willing that if you still think +after I have told my story that yours is _apropos_, then I will listen +to it only too eagerly. My object is to find the real criminal in this +matter. I say at the present moment it is Mother Jane." + +"God grant you are right," I said, influenced in spite of myself by the +calm assurance of his manner. "If she was at the house night before last +between eleven and twelve, then perhaps she is all you think her. But I +see no reason to believe it--not yet, Mr. Gryce. Supposing you give me +one. It would be better than all this controversy. One small reason, Mr. +Gryce, as good as"--I did not say what, but the fillip it gave to his +intention stood me in good stead, for he launched immediately into the +matter with no further play upon my curiosity, which was now, as you can +believe, thoroughly aroused, though I could not believe that anything he +had to bring up against Mother Jane could for a moment stand against the +death and the burial I had witnessed in Miss Knollys' house during the +two previous nights. + + + + +XXIV + +THE ENIGMA OF NUMBERS + + +"When in our first conversation on this topic I told you that Mother +Jane was not to be considered in this matter, I meant she was not to be +considered by you. She was a subject to be handled by the police, and we +have handled her. Yesterday afternoon I made a search of her cabin." +Here Mr. Gryce paused and eyed me quizzically. He sometimes does eye me, +which same I cannot regard as a compliment, considering how fond he is +of concentrating all his wisdom upon small and insignificant objects. + +"I wonder," said he, "what you would have done in such a search as that. +It was no common one, I assure you. There are not many hiding-places +between Mother Jane's four walls." + +I felt myself begin to tremble, with eagerness, of course. + +"I wish I had been given the opportunity," said I--"that is, if anything +was to be found there." + +He seemed to be in a sympathetic mood toward me, or perhaps--and this is +the likelier supposition--he had a minute of leisure and thought he +could afford to give himself a little quiet amusement. However that was, +he answered me by saying: + +"The opportunity is not lost. You have been in her cabin and have noted, +I have no doubt, its extreme simplicity. Yet it contains, or rather did +contain up till last night, distinct evidences of more than one of the +crimes which have been perpetrated in this lane." + +"Good! And you want me to guess where you found them? Well, it's not +fair." + +"Ah, and why not?" + +"Because you probably did not find them on your first attempt. You had +time to look about. I am asked to guess at once and without second trial +what I warrant it took you several trials to determine." + +He could not help but laugh. "And why do you think it took me several +trials?" + +"Because there is more than one thing in that room made up of parts." + +"Parts?" He attempted to look puzzled, but I would not have it. + +"You know what I mean," I declared; "seventy parts, twenty-eight, or +whatever the numbers are she so constantly mutters." + +His admiration was unqualified and sincere. + +"Miss Butterworth," said he, "you are a woman after my own heart. How +came you to think that her mutterings had anything to do with a +hiding-place?" + +"Because it did not have anything to do with the amount of money I gave +her. When I handed her twenty-five cents, she cried, 'Seventy, +twenty-eight, and now ten!' Ten what? Not ten cents or ten dollars, but +ten----" + +"Why do you stop?" + +"I do not want to risk my reputation on a guess. There is a quilt on the +bed made up of innumerable pieces. There is a floor of neatly laid +brick----" + +"And there is a Bible on the stand whose leaves number many over +seventy." + +"Ah, it was in the Bible you found----" + +His smile put mine quite to shame. + +"I must acknowledge," he cried, "that I looked in the Bible, but I found +nothing there beyond what we all seek when we open its sacred covers. +Shall I tell my story?" + +He was evidently bursting with pride. You would think that after a +half-century of just such successes, a man would take his honors more +quietly. But pshaw! Human nature is just the same in the old as in the +young. He was no more tired of compliment or of awakening the +astonishment of those he confided in, than when he aroused the +admiration of the force by his triumphant handling of the Leavenworth +Case. Of course in presence of such weakness I could do nothing less +than give him a sympathetic ear. I may be old myself some day. Besides, +his story was likely to prove more or less interesting. + +"Tell your story?" I repeated. "Don't you see that I am"--I was going to +say "on pins and needles till I hear it," but the expression is too +vulgar for a woman of my breeding; so I altered the words, happily +before they were spoken, into "that I am in a state of the liveliest +curiosity concerning the whole matter? Tell your story, of course." + +"Well, Miss Butterworth, if I do, it is because I know you will +appreciate it. You, like myself, placed weight upon the numbers she is +forever running over, and you, like myself, have conceived the +possibility of these numbers having reference to something in the one +room she inhabits. At first glance the extreme bareness of the spot +seemed to promise nothing to my curiosity. I looked at the floor and +detected no signs of any disturbance having taken place in its +symmetrically laid bricks for years. Yet I counted up to seventy one way +and twenty-eight the other, and marking the brick thus selected, began +to pry it out. It came with difficulty and showed me nothing underneath +but green mold and innumerable frightened insects. Then I counted the +bricks the other way, but nothing came of it. The floor does not appear +to have been disturbed for years. Turning my attention away from the +floor, I began upon the quilt. This was a worse job than the other, and +it took me an hour to rip apart the block I settled upon as the +suspicious one, but my labor was entirely wasted. There was no hidden +treasure in the quilt. Then I searched the walls, using the measurements +seventy by twenty-eight, but no result followed these endeavors, +and--well, what do you think I did then?" + +"You will tell me," I said, "if I give you one more minute to do it in." + +"Very well," said he. "I see you do not know, madam. Having searched +below and around me, I next turned my attention overhead. Do you +remember the strings and strings of dried vegetables that decorate the +beams above?" + +"I do," I replied, not stinting any of the astonishment I really felt. + +"Well, I began to count them next, and when I reached the seventieth +onion from the open doorway, I crushed it between my fingers and--these +fell out, madam--worthless trinkets, as you will immediately see, +but----" + +"Well, well," I urged. + +"They have been identified as belonging to the peddler who was one of +the victims in whose fate we are interested." + +"Ah, ah!" I ejaculated, somewhat amazed, I own. "And number +twenty-eight?" + +"That was a carrot, and it held a really valuable ring--a ruby +surrounded by diamonds. If you remember, I once spoke to you of this +ring. It was the property of young Mr. Chittenden and worn by him while +he was in this village. He disappeared on his way to the railway +station, having taken, as many can vouch, the short detour by Lost Man's +Lane, which would lead him directly by Mother Jane's cottage." + +"You thrill me," said I, keeping down with admirable self-possession my +own thoughts in regard to this matter. "And what of No. ten, beyond +which she said she could not count?" + +"In ten was your twenty-five-cent piece, and in various other +vegetables, small coins, whose value taken collectively would not amount +to a dollar. The only numbers which seemed to make any impression on her +mind were those connected with these crimes. Very good evidence, Miss +Butterworth, that Mother Jane holds the clue to this matter, even if she +is not responsible for the death of the individuals represented by this +property." + +"Certainly," I acquiesced, "and if you examined her after her return +from the Knollys mansion last night you would probably have found upon +her some similar evidence of her complicity in the last crime of this +terrible series. It would needs have been small, as Silly Rufus neither +indulged in the brass trinkets sold by the old peddler nor the real +jewelry of a well-to-do man like Mr. Chittenden." + +"Silly Rufus?" + +"He was the last to disappear from these parts, was he not?" + +"Yes, madam." + +"And as such, should have left some clue to his fate in the hands of +this old crone, if her motive in removing him was, as you seem to think, +entirely that of gain." + +"I did not say it was entirely so. Silly Rufus would be the last person +any one, even such a _non compos mentis_ as Mother Jane, would destroy +for hope of gain." + +"But what other motive could she have? And, Mr. Gryce, where could she +bestow the bodies of so many unfortunate victims, even if by her great +strength she could succeed in killing them?" + +"There you have me," said he. "We have not been able as yet to unearth +any bodies. Have you?" + +"No," said I, with some little show of triumph showing through my +disdain, "but I can show _you_ where to unearth one." + +He should have been startled, profoundly startled. Why wasn't he? I +asked this of myself over and over in the one instant he weighed his +words before answering. + +"You have made some definite discoveries, then," he declared. "You have +come across a grave or a mound which you have taken for a grave." + +I shook my head. + +"No mound," said I. Why should I not play for an instant or more with +his curiosity? He had with mine. + +"Ah, then, why do you talk of unearthing? No one has told you where you +can lay hand on Silly Rufus' body, I take it." + +"No," said I. "The Knollys house is not inclined to give up its +secrets." + +He started, glancing almost remorsefully first at the tip, then at the +head of the cane he was balancing in his hand. + +"It's too bad," he muttered, "but you've been led astray, Miss +Butterworth,--excusably, I acknowledge, quite excusably, but yet in a +way to give you quite wrong conclusions. The secret of the Knollys +house--But wait a moment. Then you were not locked up in your room last +night?" + +"Scarcely," I returned, wavering between the doubts he had awakened by +his first sentence and the surprise which his last could not fail to +give me. + +"I might have known they would not be likely to catch you in a trap," he +remarked. "So you were up and in the halls?" + +"I was up," I acknowledged, "and in the halls. May I ask where you +were?" + +He paid no heed to the last sentence. "This complicates matters," said +he, "and yet perhaps it is as well. I understand you now, and in a few +minutes you will understand me. You thought it was Silly Rufus who was +buried last night. That was rather an awful thought, Miss Butterworth. I +wonder, with that in your mind, you look as well as you do this morning, +madam. Truly you are a wonderful woman--a very wonderful woman." + +"A truce to compliments," I begged. "If you know as much as your words +imply of what went on in that ill-omened house last night, you ought to +show some degree of emotion yourself, for if it was not Silly Rufus who +was laid away under the Flower Parlor, who, then, was it? No one for +whom tears could openly be shed or of whose death public acknowledgment +could be made, or we would not be sitting here talking away at cross +purposes the morning after his burial." + +"Tears are not shed or public acknowledgment made for the subject of a +half-crazy man's love for scientific investigation. It was no human +being whom you saw buried, madam, but a victim of Mr. Knollys' passion +for vivisection." + +"You are playing with me," was my indignant answer; "outrageously and +inexcusably playing with me. Only a human being would be laid away in +such secrecy and with such manifestations of feeling as I was witness +to. You must think me in my dotage, or else----" + +"We will take the rest of the sentence for granted," he dryly +interpolated. "You know that I can have no wish to insult your +intelligence, Miss Butterworth, and that if I advance a theory on my own +account I must have ample reasons for it. Now can you say the same for +yours? Can you adduce irrefutable proof that the body we buried last +night was that of a man? If you can, there is no more to be said, or, +rather, there is everything to be said, for this would give to the +transaction a very dreadful and tragic significance which at present I +am not disposed to ascribe to it." + +Taken aback by his persistence, but determined not to acknowledge defeat +until forced to it, I stolidly replied: "You have made an assertion, and +it is for you to adduce proof. It will be time enough for me to talk +when your own theory is proved untenable." + +He was not angry: fellow-feeling for my disappointment made him +unusually gentle. His voice was therefore very kind when he said: + +"Madam, if you know it to have been a man, say so. I do not wish to +waste my time." + +"I do not know it." + +"Very well, then, I will tell you why I think my supposition true. Mr. +Knollys, as you probably have already discovered, is a man with a secret +passion for vivisection." + +"Yes, I have discovered that." + +"It is known to his family, and it is known to a very few others, but it +is not known to the world at large, not even to his fellow-villagers.' + +"I can believe it," said I. + +"His sisters, who are gentle girls, regard the matter as the +gentle-hearted usually do. They have tried in every way to influence him +to abandon it, but unsuccessfully so far, for he is not only entirely +unamenable to persuasion, but has a nature of such brutality he could +not live without some such excitement to help away his life in this +dreary house. All they can do, then, is to conceal these cruelties from +the eyes of the people who already execrate him for his many roughnesses +and the undoubted shadow under which he lives. Time was when I thought +this shadow had a substance worth our investigation, but a further +knowledge of his real fault and a completer knowledge of his sisters' +virtues turned my inquiries in a new direction, where I have found, as I +have told you, actual reason for arresting Mother Jane. Have you +anything to say against these conclusions? Cannot you see that all your +suspicions can be explained by the brother's cruel impulses and the +sisters' horror of having those impulses known?" + +I thought a moment; then I cried out boldly: "No, I cannot, Mr. Gryce. +The anxiety, the fear, which I have seen depicted on these sisters' +faces for days might be explained perhaps by this theory; but the knot +of crape on the window-shutter, the open Bible in the room of +death--William's room, Mr. Gryce,--proclaim that it was a human being, +and nothing less, for whom Lucetta's sobs went up." + +"I do not follow you," he said, moved for the first time from his +composure. "What do you mean by a knot of crape, and when was it you +obtained entrance into William's room?" + +"Ah," I exclaimed in dry retort; "you are beginning to see that I have +something as interesting to report as yourself. Did you think me a +superficial egotist, without facts to back my assertions?" + +"I should not have done you that injustice." + +"I have penetrated, I think, deeper than even yourself, into William's +character. I think him capable--But do satisfy my curiosity on one +point first, Mr. Gryce. How came you to know as much as you do about +last night's proceedings? You could not have been in the house. Did +Mother Jane talk after she got back?" + +The tip of his cane was up, and he frowned at it. Then the handle took +its place, and he gave it a good-natured smile. + +"Miss Butterworth," said he, "I have not succeeded in making Mother Jane +at any time go beyond her numerical monologue. But you have been more +successful." And with a sudden marvellous change of expression, pose, +and manner he threw over his head my shawl, which had fallen to the +floor in my astonishment, and, rocking himself to and fro before me, +muttered grimly: + +"Seventy! Twenty-eight! Ten! No more! I can count no more! Go." + +"Mr. Gryce, it was you----" + +"Whom you interviewed in Mother Jane's cottage with Mr. Knollys," he +finished. "And it was _I_ who helped to bury what you now declare, to my +real terror and astonishment, to have been a human being. Miss +Butterworth, what about the knot of crape? Tell me." + + + + +XXV + +TRIFLES, BUT NOT TRIFLING + + +I was so astounded I hardly took in this final question. + +_He_ had been the sixth party in the funeral cortège I had seen pause in +the Flower Parlor. Well, what might I not expect from this man next! + +But I am methodical even under the greatest excitement and at the most +critical instants, as those who have read _That Affair Next Door_ have +had ample opportunity to know. Once having taken in the startling fact +he mentioned, I found it impossible to proceed to establish my +standpoint till I knew a little more about his. + +"Wait," I said; "tell me first if I have ever seen the real Mother Jane; +or were you the person I saw stooping in the road, and of whom I bought +the pennyroyal?" + +"No," he replied; "that was the old woman herself. My appearance in the +cottage dates from yesterday noon. I felt the need of being secretly +near you, and I also wished for an opportunity to examine this humble +interior unsuspected and unobserved. So I prevailed upon the old woman +to exchange places with me; she taking up her abode in the woods for the +night and I her old stool on the hearthstone. She was the more willing +to do this from the promise I gave her to watch out for Lizzie. That I +would don her own Sunday suit and personate her in her own home she +evidently did not suspect. Had not wit enough, I suppose. At the present +moment she is back in her old place." + +I nodded my thanks for this explanation, but was not deterred from +pressing the point I was anxious to have elucidated. + +"If," I went on to urge, "you took advantage of your disguise to act as +assistant in the burial which took place last night, you are in a much +better situation than myself to decide the question we are at present +considering. Was it because of any secret knowledge thus gained you +declare so positively that it was not a human being you helped lower in +its grave?" + +"Partially. Having some skill in these disguises, especially where my +own infirmities can have full play, as in the case of this strong but +half-bent woman, I had no reason to think my own identity was suspected, +much less discovered. Therefore I could trust to what I saw and heard as +being just what Mother Jane herself would be allowed to see or hear +under the same circumstances. If, therefore, these young people and this +old crone had been, as you seem to think they are, in league for murder, +Lucetta would hardly have greeted me as she did when she came down to +meet me in the kitchen." + +"And how was that? What did she say?" + +"She said: 'Ah, Mother Jane, we have a piece of work for you. You are +strong, are you not?'" + +"Humph!" + +"And then she commiserated me a bit and gave me food which, upon my +word, I found hard to eat, though I had saved my appetite for the +occasion. Before she left me she bade me sit in the inglenook till she +wanted me, adding in Hannah's ear as she passed her: 'There is no use +trying to explain anything to her. Show her when the time comes what +there is to do and trust to her short memory to forget it before she +leaves the house. She could not understand my brother's propensity or +our shame in pandering to it. So attempt nothing, Hannah. Only keep the +money in her view.'" + +"So, and that gave you no idea?" + +"It gave me the idea I have imparted to you, or, rather, added to the +idea which had been instilled in me by others." + +"And this idea was not affected by what you saw afterwards?" + +"Not in the least--rather strengthened. Of the few words I overheard, +one was uttered in reference to yourself by Miss Knollys. She said: 'I +have locked Miss Butterworth again into her room. If she accuses me of +having done so, I shall tell her our whole story. Better she should know +the family's disgrace than imagine us guilty of crimes of which we are +utterly incapable.'" + +"So! so!" I cried, "you heard that?" + +"Yes, madam, I heard that, and I do not think she knew she was dropping +that word into the ear of a detective, but on this point you are, of +course, at liberty to differ with me." + +"I am not yet ready to avail myself of the privilege," I retorted. "What +else did these girls let fall in your hearing?" + +"Not much. It was Hannah who led me into the upper hall, and Hannah who +by signs and signals rather than words showed me what was expected of +me. However, when, after the box was lowered into the cellar, Hannah was +drawing me away, Lucetta stepped up and whispered in her ear: 'Don't +give her the biggest coin. Give her the little one, or she may mistake +our reasons for secrecy. I wouldn't like even a fool to do that even for +the moment it would remain lodged in Mother Jane's mind.'" + +"Well, well," I again cried, certainly puzzled, for these stray +expressions of the sisters were in a measure contradictory not only of +the suspicions I entertained, but of the facts which had seemingly come +to my attention. + +Mr. Gryce, who was probably watching my face more closely than he did +the cane with whose movements he was apparently engrossed, stopped to +give a caressing rub to the knob of that same cane before remarking: + +"One such peep behind the scenes is worth any amount of surmise expended +on the wrong side of the curtain. I let you share my knowledge because +it is your due. Now if you feel willing to explain what you mean by a +knot of crape on the shutter, I am at your service, madam." + +I felt that it would be cruel to delay my story longer, and so I began +it. It was evidently more interesting than he expected, and as I dilated +upon the special features which had led me to believe that it was a +thinking, suffering mortal like ourselves who had been shut up in +William's room and afterwards buried in the cellar under the Flower +Parlor, I saw his face lengthen and doubt take the place of the quiet +assurance with which he had received my various intimations up to this +time. The cane was laid aside, and from the action of his right +forefinger on the palm of his left hand I judged that I was making no +small impression on his mind. When I had finished, he sat for a minute +silent; then he said: + +"Thanks, Miss Butterworth; you have more than fulfilled my hopes. What +we buried was undoubtedly human, and the question now is, Who was it, +and of what death did he die?" Then, after a meaning pause: "_You_ think +it was Silly Rufus." + +I will astonish you with my reply. "No," said I, "I do not. That is +where you make a mistake, Mr. Gryce." + + + + +XXVI + +A POINT GAINED + + +He was surprised, for all his attempts to conceal it. + +"No?" said he. "Who, then? You are becoming interesting, Miss +Butterworth." + +This I thought I could afford to ignore. + +"Yesterday," I proceeded, "I would have declared it to be Silly Rufus, +in the face of God and man, but after what I saw in William's room +during the hurried survey I gave it, I am inclined to doubt if the +explanation we have to give to this affair is so simple as that would +make it. Mr. Gryce, in one corner of that room, from which the victim +had so lately been carried, was a pair of shoes that could never have +been worn by any boy-tramp I have ever seen or known of." + +"They were Loreen's, or possibly Lucetta's." + +"No, Loreen and Lucetta both have trim feet, but these were the shoes of +a child of ten, very dainty at that, and of a cut and make worn by +women, or rather, I should say, by girls. Now, what do you make of +that?" + +He did not seem to know what to make of it. Tap, tap went his finger on +his seasoned palm, and as I watched the slowness with which it fell, I +said to myself, "I have proposed a problem this time that will tax even +Mr. Gryce's powers of deduction." + +And I had. It was minutes before he ventured an opinion, and then it was +with a shade of doubt in his tone that I acknowledge to have felt some +pride in producing. + +"They were Lucetta's shoes. The emotions under which you labored--very +pardonable emotions, madam, considering the circumstances and the +hour----" + +"Excuse me," said I. "We do not want to waste a moment. I was excited, +suitably and duly excited, or I would have been a stone. But I never +lose my head under excitement, nor do I part with my sense of +proportion. The shoes were not Lucetta's. She never wore any approaching +them in smallness since her tenth year." + +"Has Simsbury a daughter? Has there not been a child about the house +some time to assist the cook in errands and so on?" + +"No, or I should have seen her. Besides, how would the shoes of such a +person come into William's room?" + +"Easily. Secrecy was required. You were not to be disturbed; so shoes +were taken off that quiet might result." + +"Was Lucetta shoeless or William or even Mother Jane? You have not told +me that you were requested to walk in stocking feet up the hall. No, Mr. +Gryce, the shoes were the shoes of a girl. I know it because it was +matched by a dress I saw hanging up in a sort of wardrobe." + +"Ah! You looked into the wardrobe?" + +"I did and felt justified in doing so. It was after I had spied the +shoes." + +"Very good. And you saw a dress?" + +"A little dress; a dress with a short skirt. It was of silk too; another +anomaly--and the color, I think, was blue, but I cannot swear to that +point. I was in great haste and took the briefest glance. But my brief +glances can be trusted, Mr. Gryce. That, I think, you are beginning to +know." + +"Certainly," said he, "and as proof of it we will now act upon these two +premises--that the victim in whose burial I was an innocent partaker was +a human being and that this human being was a girl-child who came into +the house well dressed. Now where does that lead us? Into a maze, I +fear." + +"We are accustomed to mazes," I observed. + +"Yes," he answered somewhat gloomily, "but they are not exactly +desirable in this case. I want to find the Knollys family innocent." + +"And I. But William's character, I fear, will make that impossible." + +"But this girl? Who is she, and where did she come from? No girl has +been reported to us as missing from this neighborhood." + +"I supposed not." + +"A visitor--But no visitor could enter this house without it being known +far and wide. Why, I heard of your arrival here before I left the train +on which I followed you. Had we allowed ourselves to be influenced by +what the people about here say, we would have turned the Knollys house +inside out a week ago. But I don't believe in putting too much +confidence in the prejudice of country people. The idea they suggested, +and which you suggest without putting it too clearly into words, is much +too horrible to be acted upon without the best of reasons. Perhaps we +have found those reasons, yet I still feel like asking, Where did this +girl come from and how could she have become a prisoner in the Knollys +house without the knowledge of--Madam, have you met Mr. Trohm?" + +The question was so sudden I had not time to collect myself. But perhaps +it was not necessary that I should, for the simple affirmation I used +seemed to satisfy Mr. Gryce, who went on to say: + +"It is he who first summoned us here, and it is he who has the greatest +interest in locating the source of these disappearances, yet he has seen +no child come here." + +"Mr. Trohm is not a spy," said I, but the remark, happily, fell +unheeded. + +"No one has," he pursued. "We must give another turn to our +suppositions." + +Suddenly a silence fell upon us both. His finger ceased to lay down the +law, and my gaze, which had been searching his face inquiringly, became +fixed. At the same moment and in much the same tone of voice we both +spoke, he saying, "Humph!" and I, "Ah!" as a prelude to the simultaneous +exclamation: + +"The phantom coach!" + +We were so pleased with this discovery that we allowed a moment to pass +in silent contemplation of each other's satisfaction. Then he quietly +added: + +"Which on the evening preceding your arrival came from the mountains and +passed into Lost Man's Lane, from which no one ever saw it emerge." + +"It was no phantom," I put in. + +"It was their own old coach bringing to the house a fresh victim." + +This sounded so startling we both sat still for a moment, lost in the +horror of it, then I spoke: + +"People living in remote and isolated quarters like this are naturally +superstitious. The Knollys family know this, and, remembering the old +legend, forbore to contradict the conclusions of their neighbors. +Loreen's emotion when the topic was broached to her is explained by this +theory." + +"It is not a pleasant one, but we cannot be wrong in contemplating it." + +"Not at all. This apparition, as they call it, was seen by two persons; +therefore it was no apparition but a real coach. It came from the +mountains, that is, from the Mountain Station, and it glided--ah!" + +"Well?" + +"Mr. Gryce, it was its noiselessness that gave it its spectral +appearance. Now I remember a petty circumstance which I dare you to +match, in corroboration of our suspicions." + +"You do?" + +I could not repress a slight toss of my head. "Yes, I do," I repeated. + +He smiled and made the slightest of deprecatory gestures. + +"You have had advantages----" he began. + +"And disadvantages," I finished, determined that he should award me my +full meed of praise. "You are probably not afraid of dogs. I am. You +could visit the stables." + +"And did; but I found nothing there." + +"I thought not!" I could not help the exclamation. It is so seldom one +can really triumph over this man. "Not having the cue, you would not be +apt to see what gives this whole thing away. I would never have thought +of it again if we had not had this talk. Is Mr. Simsbury a neat man?" + +"A neat man? Madam, what do you mean?" + +"Something important, Mr. Gryce. If Mr. Simsbury is a neat man, he will +have thrown away the old rags which, I dare promise you, cumbered his +stable floor the morning after the phantom coach was seen to enter the +lane. If he is not, you may still find them there. One of them, I know, +you will not find. He pulled it off of his wheel with his whip the +afternoon he drove me down from the station. I can see the sly look he +gave me as he did it. It made no impression on me then, but now----" + +"Madam, you have supplied the one link necessary to the establishment of +this theory. Allow me to felicitate you upon it. But whatever our +satisfaction may be from a professional standpoint, we cannot but feel +the unhappy nature of the responsibility incurred by these discoveries. +If this seemingly respectable family stooped to such subterfuge, going +to the length of winding rags around the wheels of their lumbering old +coach to make it noiseless, and even tying up their horse's feet for +this same purpose, they must have had a motive dark enough to warrant +your worst suspicions. And William was not the only one involved. +Simsbury, at least, had a hand in it, nor does it look as if the girls +were as innocent as we would like to consider them." + +"I cannot stop to consider the girls," I declared. "I can no longer +consider the girls." + +"Nor I," he gloomily assented. "Our duty requires us to sift this +matter, and it shall be sifted. We must first find if any child alighted +from the cars at the Mountain Station on that especial night, or, what +is more probable, from the little station at C., five miles farther back +in the mountains." + +"And--" I urged, seeing that he had still something to say. + +"We must make sure who lies buried under the floor of the room you call +the Flower Parlor. You may expect me at the Knollys house some time +to-day. I shall come quietly, but in my own proper person. You are not +to know me, and, unless you desire it, need not appear in the matter." + +"I do not desire it." + +"Then good-morning, Miss Butterworth. My respect for your abilities has +risen even higher than before. We part in a similar frame of mind for +once." + +And this he expected me to regard as a compliment. + + + + +XXVII + +THE TEXT WITNESSETH + + +I have a grim will when I choose to exert it. After Mr. Gryce left the +hotel, I took a cup of tea with the landlady and then made a round of +the stores. I bought dimity, sewing silk, and what not, as I said I +would, but this did not occupy me long (to the regret probably of the +country merchants, who expected to make a fool of me and found it a by +no means easy task), and was quite ready for William when he finally +drove up. + +The ride home was a more or less silent one. I had conceived such a +horror of the man beside me, that talking for talk's sake was +impossible, while he was in a mood which it would be charity to call +non-communicative. It may be that my own reticence was at the bottom of +this, but I rather think not. The remark he made in passing Deacon +Spear's house showed that something more than spite was working in his +slow but vindictive brain. + +"There's a man of your own sort," he cried. "You won't find him doing +anything out of the way; oh, no. Pity your visit wasn't paid there. +You'd have got a better impression of the lane." + +To this I made no reply. + +At Mr. Trohm's he spoke again: + +"I suppose that you and Trohm had the devil of a say about Lucetta and +the rest of us. I don't know why, but the whole neighborhood seems to +feel they've a right to use our name as they choose. But it isn't going +to be so, long. We have played poor and pinched and starved all I'm +going to. I'm going to have a new horse, and Lucetta shall have a dress, +and that mighty quick too. I'm tired of all this shabbiness, and mean to +have a change." + +I wanted to say, "No change yet; change under the present circumstances +would be the worst thing possible for you all," but I felt that this +would be treason to Mr. Gryce, and refrained, saying simply, as he +looked sideways at me for a word: + +"Lucetta needs a new dress. That no one can deny. But you had better let +me get it for her, or perhaps that is what you mean." + +The grunt which was my only answer might be interpreted in any way. I +took it, however, for assent. + +As soon as I was relieved of his presence and found myself again with +the girls, I altered my whole manner and cried out in querulous tones: + +"Mrs. Carter and I have had a difference." (This was true. We did have a +difference over our cup of tea. I did not think it necessary to say this +difference was a forced one. Some things we are perfectly justified in +keeping to ourselves.) "She remembers a certain verse in the New +Testament one way and I in another. We had not time to settle it by a +consultation with the sacred word, but I cannot rest till it is settled, +so will you bring your Bible to me, my dear, that I may look that verse +up?" + +We were in the upper hall, where I had taken a seat on the old-fashioned +sofa there. Lucetta, who was standing before me, started immediately to +do my bidding, without stopping to think, poor child, that it was very +strange I did not go to my own room and consult my own Bible as any good +Presbyterian would be expected to do. As she was turning toward the +large front room I stopped her with the quiet injunction: + +"Get me one with good print, Lucetta. My eyes won't bear much +straining." + +At which she turned and to my great relief hurried down the corridor +toward William's room, from which she presently returned, bringing the +very volume I was anxious to consult. + +Meanwhile I had laid aside my hat. I felt flurried and unhappy, and +showed it. Lucetta's pitiful face had a strange sweetness in it this +morning, and I felt sure as I took the sacred book from her hand that +her thoughts were all with the lover she had sent from her side and not +at all with me or with what at the moment occupied me. Yet my thoughts +at this moment involved, without doubt, the very deepest interests of +her life, if not that very lover she was brooding over in her darkened +and resigned mind. As I realized this I heaved an involuntary sigh, +which seemed to startle her, for she turned and gave me a quick look as +she was slipping away to join her sister, who was busy at the other end +of the hall. + +The Bible I held was an old one, of medium size and most excellent +print. I had no difficulty in finding the text and settling the question +which had been my ostensible reason for wanting the book, but it took me +longer to discover the indentation which I had made in one of its pages; +but when I did, you may imagine my awe and the turmoil into which my +mind was cast, when I found that it marked those great verses in +Corinthians which are so universally read at funerals: + +"Behold I shew you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all +be changed." + +"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye----" + + + + +XXVIII + +AN INTRUSION + + +I was so moved by this discovery that I was not myself for several +moments. + +The reading of these words over the body which had been laid away under +the Flower Parlor was in keeping with the knot of crape on the +window-shutter and argued something more than remorse on the part of +some one of the Knollys family. Who was this one, and why, with such +feelings in the breast of any of the three, had the deceit and crime to +which I had been witness succeeded to such a point as to demand the +attention of the police? An impossible problem of which I dared seek no +solution, even in the faces of these seemingly innocent girls. + +I was, of course, in no position to determine what plan Mr. Gryce +intended to pursue. I only knew what course I myself meant to follow, +which was to remain quiet and sustain the part I had already played in +this house as visitor and friend. It was therefore as such both in heart +and manner that I hastened from my room late in the afternoon to inquire +the meaning of the cry I had just heard issue from Lucetta's lips. It +had come from the front of the house, and, as I hastened thither, I met +the two Misses Knollys, looking more openly anxious and distraught than +at any former time of anxiety and trouble. + +As they looked up and saw my face, Loreen paused and laid her hand on +Lucetta's arm. But Lucetta was not to be restrained. + +"He has dared to enter our gates, bringing a police officer with him," +was her hoarse and almost unintelligible cry. "We know that the man with +him is a police officer because he was here once before, and though he +was kind enough then, he cannot have come the second time except to----" + +Here the pressure of Loreen's hand was so strong as to make the feeble +Lucetta quiver. She stopped, and Miss Knollys took up her words: + +"Except to make us talk on subjects much better buried in oblivion. Miss +Butterworth, will you go down with us? Your presence may act as a +restraint. Mr. Trohm seems to have some respect for you." + +"Mr. Trohm?" + +"Yes. It is his coming which has so agitated Lucetta. He and a man named +Gryce are just coming up the walk. There goes the knocker. Lucetta, you +must control yourself or leave me to face these unwelcome visitors +alone." + +Lucetta, with a sudden fierce effort, subdued her trembling. + +"If he must be met," said she, "my anger and disdain may give some +weight to your quiet acceptance of the family's disgrace. I shall not +accept his denunciations quietly, Loreen. You must expect me to show +some of the feelings that I have held in check all these years." And +without waiting for reply, without waiting even to see what effect these +strange words might have upon me, she dashed down the stairs and pulled +open the front door. + +We had followed rapidly, too rapidly for speech ourselves, and were +therefore in the hall when the door swung back, revealing the two +persons I had been led to expect. Mr. Trohm spoke first, evidently in +answer to the defiance to be seen in Lucetta's face. + +"Miss Knollys, a thousand pardons. I know I am transgressing, but, I +assure you, the occasion warrants it. I am certain you will acknowledge +this when you hear what my errand is." + +"Your errand? What can your errand be but to----" + +Why did she pause? Mr. Gryce had not looked at her. Yet that it was +under his influence she ceased to commit herself I am as convinced as we +can be of anything in a world which is half deceit. + +"Let us hear your errand," put in Loreen, with that gentle emphasis +which is no sign of weakness. + +"I will let this gentleman speak for me," returned Mr. Trohm. "You have +seen him before--a New York detective of whose business in this town you +cannot be ignorant." + +Lucetta turned a cold eye upon Mr. Gryce and quietly remarked: + +"When he visited this lane a few days ago, he professed to be seeking a +clue to the many disappearances which have unfortunately taken place +within its precincts." + +Mr. Trohm's nod was one of acquiescence. But Lucetta was still looking +at the detective. + +"Is that your business now?" she asked, appealing directly to Mr. Gryce. + +His fatherly accents when he answered her were a great relief after the +alternate iciness and fire with which she had addressed his companion +and himself. + +"I hardly know how to reply without arousing your just anger. If your +brother is in----" + +"My brother would face you with less patience than we. Tell us your +errand, Mr. Gryce, and do not think of calling in my brother till we +have failed to answer your questions or satisfy your demands." + +"Very well," said he. "The quickest explanation is the kindest in these +cases. I merely wish, as a police officer whose business it is to locate +the disappearances which have made this lane notorious, and who believes +the surest way to do this is to find out once and for all where they did +not and could not have taken place, to make an official search of these +premises as I already have those of Mother Jane and of Deacon Spear." + +"And my errand here," interposed Mr. Trohm, "is to make everything easier +by the assurance that my house will be the next to undergo a complete +investigation. As all the houses in the lane will be visited alike, none +of us need complain or feel our good name attacked." + +This was certainly thoughtful of him, but knowing how much they had to +fear, I could not expect Loreen or Lucetta to show any great sense +either of his kindness or Mr. Gryce's consideration. They were in no +position to have a search made of their premises, and, serene as was +Loreen's nature and powerful as was Lucetta's will, the apprehension +under which they labored was evident to us all, though neither of them +attempted either subterfuge or evasion. + +"If the police wish to search this house, it is open to them," said +Loreen. + +"But not to Mr. Trohm," quoth Lucetta, quickly. "Our poverty should be +our protection from the curiosity of neighbors." + +"Mr. Trohm has no wish to intrude," was Mr. Gryce's conciliatory remark; +but Mr. Trohm said nothing. He probably understood why Lucetta wished to +curtail his stay in this house better than Mr. Gryce did. + + + + +XXIX + +IN THE CELLAR + + +I had meanwhile stood silent. There was no reason for me to obtrude +myself, and I was happy not to do so. This does not mean, however, that +my presence was not noticed. Mr. Trohm honored me with more than one +glance during these trying moments, in which I read the anxiety he felt +lest my peace of mind should be too much disturbed, and when, in +response to the undoubted dismissal he had received from Lucetta, he +prepared to take his leave, it was upon me he bestowed his final look +and most deferential bow. It was a tribute to my position and character +which all seemed to feel, and I was not at all surprised when Lucetta, +after carefully watching his departure, turned to me with childlike +impetuosity, saying: + +"This must be very unpleasant for you, Miss Butterworth, yet must we ask +you to stand our friend. God knows we need one." + +"I shall never forget I occupied that position toward your mother," was +my straightforward reply, and I did not forget it, not for a moment. + +"I shall begin with the cellar," Mr. Gryce announced. + +Both girls quivered. Then Loreen lifted her proud head and said quietly: + +"The whole house is at your disposal. Only I pray you to be as +expeditious as possible. My sister is not well, and the sooner our +humiliation is over, the better it will be for her." + +And, indeed, Lucetta was in a state that aroused even Mr. Gryce's +anxiety. But when she saw us all hovering over her she roused herself +with an extraordinary effort, and, waving us aside, led the way to the +kitchen, from which, as I gathered, the only direct access could be had +to the cellar. Mr. Gryce immediately followed, and behind him came +Loreen and myself, both too much agitated to speak. At the Flower Parlor +Mr. Gryce paused as if he had forgotten something, but Lucetta urged him +feverishly on, and before long we were all standing in the kitchen. Here +a surprise awaited us. Two men were sitting there who appeared to be +strangers to Hannah, from the lowering looks she cast them as she +pretended to be busy over her stove. This was so out of keeping with her +usual good humor as to attract the attention even of her young mistress. + +"What is the matter, Hannah?" asked Lucetta. "And who are these men?" + +"They are my men," said Mr. Gryce. "The job I have undertaken cannot be +carried on alone." + +The quick look the two sisters interchanged did not escape me, or the +quiet air of resignation which was settling slowly over Loreen. + +"Must they go into the cellar too?" she asked. + +Mr. Gryce smiled his most fatherly smile as he said: + +"My dear young ladies, these men are interested in but one thing; they +are searching for a clue to the disappearances that have occurred in +this lane. As they will not find this in your cellar, nothing else that +they may see there will remain in their minds for a moment." + +Lucetta said no more. Even her indomitable spirit was giving way before +the inevitable discovery that threatened them. + +"Do not let William know," were the low words with which she passed +Hannah; but from the short glimpse I caught of William's burly figure +standing in the stable door, under the guardianship of two detectives, I +felt this injunction to be quite superfluous. William evidently did +know. + +I was not going to descend the cellar stairs, but the girls made me. + +"We want you with us," Loreen declared in no ordinary tones, while +Lucetta paused and would not go on till I followed. This surprised me. I +no longer seemed to have any clue to their motives; but I was glad to be +one of the party. + +Hannah, under Loreen's orders, had furnished one of the men with a +lighted lantern, and upon our descent into the dark labyrinth below, it +became his duty to lead the way, which he did with due circumspection. +What all this underground space into which we were thus introduced had +ever been used for, it would be difficult to tell. At present it was +mostly empty. After passing a small collection of stores, a wine-cellar, +the very door of which was unhinged and lay across the cellar bottom, we +struck into a hollow void, in which there was nothing worth an instant's +investigation save the earth under our feet. + +This the two foremost detectives examined very carefully, detaining us +often longer, I thought, than Mr. Gryce desired or Lucetta had patience +for. But nothing was said in protest nor did the older detective give an +order or manifest any special interest in the investigation till he saw +the men in front stoop and throw out of the way a coil of rope, when he +immediately hurried forward and called upon the party to stop. + +The girls, who were on either side of me, crossed glances at this +command, and Lucetta, who had been tottering for the last few minutes, +fell upon her knees and hid her face in the hollow of her two hands. +Loreen came around and stood by her, and I do not know which of them +presented the most striking picture of despair, the shrinking Lucetta or +Loreen with her quivering form uplifted to meet the shafts of fate +without a droop of her eyelids or a murmur from her lips. The light of +the one lantern which, intentionally or unintentionally, was +concentrated on this pathetic group, made it stand out from the midst of +the surrounding darkness in a way to draw the gaze of Mr. Gryce upon +them. He looked, and his own brow became overcast. Evidently we were not +far from the cause of their fears. + +Ordering the candle lifted, he surveyed the ceiling above, at which +Loreen's lips opened slightly in secret dread and amazement. Then he +commanded the men to move on slowly, while he himself looked overhead +rather than underneath, which seemed to astonish his associates, who +evidently had heard nothing of the hole which had been cut in the floor +of the Flower Parlor. + +Suddenly I heard a slight gasp from Lucetta, who had not moved forward +with the rest of us. Then her rushing figure flew by us and took up its +stand by Mr. Gryce, who had himself paused and was pointing with an +imperious forefinger to the ground under his feet. + +"You will dig here," said he, not heeding her, though I am sure he was +as well acquainted with her proximity as we. + +"Dig?" repeated Loreen, in what we all saw was a final effort to stave +off disgrace and misery. + +"My duty demands it," said he. "Some one else has been digging here +within a very few days, Miss Knollys. That is as evident as is the fact +that a communication has been made with this place through an opening +into the room above. See!" And taking the lantern from the man at his +side, he held it up toward the ceiling. + +There was no hole there now, but there were ample evidences of there +having been one, and that within a very short time. Loreen made no +further attempt to stay him. + +"The house is at your disposal," she reiterated, but I do not think she +knew what she said. The man with the bundle in his arms was already +unrolling it on the cellar bottom. A spade came to light, together with +some other tools. Lifting the spade, he thrust it smartly into the +ground toward which Mr. Gryce's inexorable finger still pointed. At the +sight and the sound it made, a thrill passed through Lucetta which made +her another creature. Dashing forward, she flung herself down upon the +spot with lifted head and outstretched arms. + +"Stop your desecrating hand!" she cried. "This is a grave--the grave, +sirs, of our mother!" + + + + +XXX + +INVESTIGATION + + +The shock of these words--if false, most horrible; if true, still more +horrible--threw us all aback and made even Mr. Gryce's features assume +an aspect quite uncommon to them. + +"Your mother's grave?" said he, looking from her to Loreen with very +evident doubt. "I thought your mother died seven or more years ago, and +this grave has been dug within three days." + +"I know," she whispered. "To the world my mother has been dead many, +many years, but not to us. We closed her eyes night before last, and it +was to preserve this secret, which involves others affecting our family +honor, that we resorted to expedients which have perhaps attracted the +notice of the police and drawn this humiliation down upon us. I can +conceive no other reason for this visit, ushered in as it was by Mr. +Trohm." + +"Miss Lucetta"--Mr. Gryce spoke quickly; if he had not I certainly could +not have restrained some expression of the emotions awakened in my own +breast by this astounding revelation--"Miss Lucetta, it is not necessary +to bring Mr. Trohm's name into this matter or that of any other person +than myself. I saw the coffin lowered here, which you say contained the +body of your mother. Thinking this a strange place of burial and not +knowing it was your mother to whom you were paying these last dutiful +rites, I took advantage of my position as detective to satisfy myself +that nothing wrong lay behind so mysterious a death and burial. Can you +blame me, Miss? Would I have been a man to trust if I had let such an +event as this go by unchallenged?" + +She did not answer. She had heard but one sentence of all this long +speech. + +"You saw my mother's coffin lowered? Where were you that you should see +that? In some of these dark passages, let in by I know not what traitor +to our peace of mind." And her eyes, which seemed to have grown almost +supernaturally large and bright under her emotions, turned slowly in +their sockets till they rested with something like doubtful accusation +upon mine. But not to remain there, for Mr. Gryce recalled them almost +instantly by this short, sharp negative. + +"No, I was nearer than that. I lent my strength to this burial. If you +had thought to look under Mother Jane's hood, you would have seen what +would have forced these explanations then and there." + +"And you----" + +"I was Mother Jane for the nonce. Not from choice, Miss, but from +necessity. I was impersonating the old woman when your brother came to +the cottage. I could not give away my plans by refusing the task your +brother offered me." + +"It is well." Lucetta had risen and was now standing by the side of +Loreen. "Such a secret as ours defies concealment. Even Providence takes +part against us. What you want to know we must tell, but I assure you it +has nothing to do with the business you profess to be chiefly interested +in--nothing at all." + +"Then perhaps you and your sister will retire," said he. "Distracted as +you are by family griefs, I would not wish to add one iota to your +distress. This lady, whom you seem to regard with more or less favor as +friend or relative, will stay to see that no dishonor is paid to your +mother's remains. But your mother's face we must see, Miss Lucetta, if +only to lighten the explanations you will doubtless feel called upon to +make." + +It was Loreen who answered this. + +"If it must be," said she, "remember your own mother and deal reverently +with ours." Which entreaty and the way it was uttered, gave me my first +distinct conviction that these girls were speaking the truth, and that +the diminutive body we had come to unearth was that of Althea Knollys, +whose fairy-like form I had so long supposed commingled with foreign +soil. + +The thought was almost too much for my self-possession, and I advanced +upon Loreen with a dozen burning questions on my lips when the voice of +Mr. Gryce stopped me. + +"Explanations later," said he. "For the present we want you here." + +It was no easy task for me to linger there with all my doubts unsolved, +waiting for the decisive moment when Mr. Gryce should say: "Come! Look! +Is it she?" But the will that had already sustained me through so many +trying experiences did not fail me now, and, grievous as was the ordeal, +I passed steadily through it, being able to say, though not without some +emotion, I own: "It is Althea Knollys! Changed almost beyond conception, +but still these girls' mother!" which was a happier end to this +adventure than that we had first feared, mysterious as the event was, +not only to myself, but, as I could see, to the acute detective as well. + +The girls had withdrawn long before this, just as Mr. Gryce had desired, +and I now expected to be allowed to join them, but Mr. Gryce detained me +till the grave was refilled and made decent again, when he turned and to +my intense astonishment--for I had thought the matter was all over and +the exoneration of this household complete--said softly and with telling +emphasis in my ear: + +"Our work is not done yet. They who make graves so readily in cellars +must have been more or less accustomed to the work. We have still some +digging to do." + + + + +XXXI + +STRATEGY + + +I was overwhelmed. + +"What," said I, "you still doubt?" + +"I always doubt," he gravely replied. "This cellar bottom offers a wide +field for speculation. Too wide, perhaps, but, then, I have a plan." + +Here he leaned over and whispered a few concise sentences into my ear in +a tone so low I should feel that I was betraying his confidence in +repeating them. But their import will soon become apparent from what +presently occurred. + +"Light Miss Butterworth to the stairway," Mr. Gryce now commanded one of +the men, and thus accompanied I found my way back to the kitchen, where +Hannah was bemoaning uncomforted the shame which had come upon the +house. + +I did not stop to soothe her. That was not my cue, nor would it have +answered my purpose. On the contrary, I broke into angry ejaculations as +I passed her: + +"What a shame! Those wretches cannot be got away from the cellar. What +do you suppose they expect to find there? I left them poking hither and +thither in a way that will be very irritating to Miss Knollys when she +finds it out. I wonder William stands it." + +What she said in reply I do not know. I was half way down the hall +before my own words were finished. + +My next move was to go to my room and take from my trunk a tiny hammer +and some very small, sharp-pointed tacks. Curious articles, you will +think, for a woman to carry on her travels, but I am a woman of +experience, and have known only too often what it was to want these +petty conveniences and not be able to get them. They were to serve me an +odd turn now. Taking a half-dozen tacks in one hand and concealing the +hammer in my bag, I started boldly for William's room. I knew that the +girls were not there, for I had heard them talking together in the +sitting-room as I came up. Besides, if they were, I had a ready answer +for any demand they might make. + +Searching out his boots, I turned them over, and into the sole of each I +drove one of my small tacks. Then I put them back in the same place and +position in which I found them. Task number one was accomplished. + +When I issued from the room, I went as quickly as I could below. I was +now ready for a talk with the girls, whom I found as I had anticipated, +talking and weeping together in the sitting-room. + +They rose as I came in, awaiting my first words in evident anxiety. They +had not heard me go up-stairs. I immediately allowed my anxiety and +profound interest in this matter to have full play. + +"My poor girls! What is the meaning of this? Your mother just dead, and +the matter kept from me, her friend! It is astounding--incomprehensible! +I do not know what to make of it or of you." + +"It has a strange look," Loreen gravely admitted; "but we had reasons +for this deception, Miss Butterworth. Our mother, charming and sweet as +you remember her, has not always done right, or, what you will better +understand, she committed a criminal act against a person in this town, +the penalty of which is state's prison." + +With difficulty the words came out. With difficulty she kept down the +flush of shame which threatened to overwhelm her and did overwhelm her +more sensitive sister. But her self-control was great, and she went +bravely on, while I, in faint imitation of her courage, restrained my +own surprise and intolerable sense of shock and bitter sorrow under a +guise of simple sympathy. + +"It was forgery," she explained. "This has never before passed our lips. +Though a cherished wife and a beloved mother, she longed for many things +my father could not give her, and in an evil hour she imitated the name +of a rich man here and took the check thus signed to New York. The fraud +was not detected, and she received the money, but ultimately the rich +man whose money she had spent, discovered the use she had made of his +name, and, if she had not escaped, would have had her arrested. But she +left the country, and the only revenge he took, was to swear that if she +ever set foot again in X., he would call the police down upon her. Yes, +if she were dying, and they had to drag her from the brink of the grave. +And he would have done it; and knowing this, we have lived under the +shadow of this fear for eleven years. My father died under it, and my +mother--ah, she spent all the remaining years of her life under foreign +skies, but when she felt the hand of death upon her, her affection for +her own flesh and blood triumphed over her discretion, and she came, +secretly, I own, but still with that horror menacing her, to these +doors, and begging our forgiveness, lay down under the roof where we +were born, and died with the halo of our love about her." + +"Ah," said I, thinking of all that had happened since I had come into +this house and finding nothing but confirmation of what she was saying, +"I begin to understand." + +But Lucetta shook her head. + +"No," said she, "you cannot understand yet. We who had worn mourning for +her because my father wished to make this very return impossible, knew +nothing of what was in store for us till a letter came saying she would +be at the C. station on the very night we received it. To acknowledge +our deception, to seek and bring her home openly to this house, could +not be thought of for a moment. How, then, could we satisfy her dying +wishes without compromising her memory and ourselves? Perhaps you have +guessed, Miss Butterworth. You have had time since we revealed the +unhappy secret of this household." + +"Yes," said I. "I have guessed." + +Lucetta, with her hand laid on mine, looked wistfully into my face. + +"Don't blame us!" she cried. "Our mother's good name is everything to +us, and we knew no other way to preserve it than by making use of the +one superstition of this place. Alas! our efforts were in vain. The +phantom coach brought our mother safely to us, but the circumstances +which led to our doors being opened to outsiders, rendered it impossible +for us to carry out our plans unsuspected. Her grave has been discovered +and desecrated, and we----" + +She stopped, choked. Loreen took advantage of her silence to pursue the +explanations she seemed to think necessary. + +"It was Simsbury who undertook to bring our dying mother from C. station +to our door. He has a crafty spirit under his meek ways, and dressed +himself in a way to lend color to the superstition he hoped to awaken. +William, who did not dare to accompany him for fear of arousing gossip, +was at the gate when the coach drove in. It was he who lifted our mother +out, and it was while she still clung to him with her face pressed close +to his breast that we saw her first. Ah! what a pitiable sight it was! +She was so wan, so feeble, and yet so radiantly happy. + +"She looked up at Lucetta, and her face grew wonderful in its unearthly +beauty. She was not the mother we remembered, but a mother whose life +had culminated in the one desire to see and clasp her children again. +When she could tear her eyes away from Lucetta, she looked at me, and +then the tears came, and we all wept together, even William; and thus +weeping and murmuring words of welcome and cheer, we carried her +up-stairs and laid her in the great front chamber. Alas! we did not +foresee what would happen the very next morning--I mean the arrival of +your telegram, to be followed so soon by yourself." + +"Poor girls! Poor girls!" It was all I could say. I was completely +overwhelmed. + +"The first night after your arrival we moved her into William's room as +being more remote and thus a safer refuge for her. The next night she +died. The dream which you had of being locked in your room was no dream. +Lucetta did that in foolish precaution against your trying to search us +out in the night. It would have been better if we had taken you into our +confidence." + +"Yes," I assented, "that would have been better." But I did not say how +much better. That would have been giving away my secret. + +Lucetta had now recovered sufficiently to go on with the story. + +"William, who is naturally colder than we and less sensitive in regard +to our mother's good name, has shown some little impatience at the +restraint imposed upon him by her presence, and this was an extra +burden, Miss Butterworth, but that and all the others we have been +forced to bear" (the generous girl did not speak of her own special +grief and loss) "have all been rendered useless by the unhappy chance +which has brought into our midst this agent of the police. Ah, if I only +knew whether this was the providence of God rebuking us for years of +deception, or just the malice of man seeking to rob us of our one best +treasure, a mother's untarnished name!" + +"Mr. Gryce acts from no malice--" I began, but I saw they were not +listening. + +"Have they finished down below?" asked Lucetta. + +"Does the man you call Gryce seem satisfied?" asked Loreen. + +I drew myself up physically and mentally. My second task was about to +begin. + +"I do not understand those men," said I. "They seem to want to look +farther than the sacred spot where we left them. If they are going +through a form, they are doing it very thoroughly." + +"That is their duty," observed Loreen, but Lucetta took it less calmly. + +"It is an unhappy day for us!" cried she. "Shame after shame, disgrace +upon disgrace! I wish we had all died in our childhood. Loreen, I must +see William. He will be doing some foolish thing, swearing or----" + +"My dear, let me go to William," I urgently put in. "He may not like me +overmuch, but I will at least prove a restraint to him. You are too +feeble. See, you ought to be lying on the couch instead of trying to +drag yourself out to the stables." + +And indeed at that moment Lucetta's strength gave suddenly out, and she +sank into Loreen's arms insensible. + +When she was restored, I hurried away to the stables, still in pursuit +of the task which I had not yet completed. I found William sitting +doggedly on a stool in the open doorway, grunting out short sentences to +the two men who lounged in his vicinity on either side. He was angry, +but not as angry as I had seen him many times before. The men were +townsfolk and listened eagerly to his broken sentences. One or two of +these reached my ears. + +"Let 'em go it. It won't be now or to-day they'll settle this business. +It's the devil's work, and devils are sly. My house won't give up that +secret, or any other house they'll be likely to visit. The place I +would ransack--But Loreen would say I was babbling. Goodness knows a +fellow's got to talk about something when his fellow-townsfolk come to +see him." And here his laugh broke in, harsh, cruel, and insulting. I +felt it did him no good, and made haste to show myself. + +Immediately his whole appearance changed. He was so astonished to see me +there that for a moment he was absolutely silent; then he broke out +again into another loud guffaw, but this time in a different tone. + +"Why, it's Miss Butterworth," he laughed. "Here, Saracen! Come, pay your +respects to the lady who likes you so well." + +And Saracen came, but I did not forsake my ground. I had espied in one +corner just what I had hoped to see there, and Saracen's presence +afforded me the opportunity of indulging in one or two rather curious +antics. + +"I am not afraid of the dog," I declared, with marked loftiness, +shrinking toward the pail of water I had already marked with my eye. +"Not at all afraid," I continued, catching up the pail and putting it +before me as the dog made a wild rush in my direction. "These gentlemen +will not see me hurt." And though they all laughed--they would have been +fools if they had not--and the dog jumped the pail and I jumped--not a +pail, but a broom-handle that was lying amid all the rest of the +disorder on the floor--they did not see that I had succeeded in doing +what I wished, which was to place that pail so near to William's feet +that--But wait a moment; everything in its own time. I escaped the dog, +and next moment had my eye on him. He did not move after that, which +rather put a stop to the laughter, which observing, I drew very near to +William, and with a sly gesture to the two men, which for some reason +they seemed to understand, whispered in the rude fellow's ear: + +"They've found your mother's grave under the Flower Parlor. Your sisters +told me to tell you. But that is not all. They're trampling hither and +yon through all the secret places in the cellar, turning up the earth +with their spades. I know they won't find anything, but we thought you +ought to know----" + +Here I made a feint of being startled, and ceased. My second task was +done. The third only remained. Fortunately at that moment Mr. Gryce and +his followers showed themselves in the garden. They had just come from +the cellar and played their part in the same spirit I had mine. Though +they were too far off for their words to be heard, the air of secrecy +they maintained and the dubious looks they cast towards the stable, +could not but evince even to William's dull understanding that their +investigations had resulted in a doubt which left them far from +satisfied; but, once this impression made, they did not linger long +together. The man with the lantern moved off, and Mr. Gryce turned +towards us, changing his whole appearance as he advanced, till no one +could look more cheerful and good-humored. + +"Well, that is over," he sighed, with a forced air of infinite relief. +"Mere form, Mr. Knollys--mere form. We have to go through these +pretended investigations at times, and good people like yourself have to +submit; but I assure you it is not pleasant, and under the present +circumstances--I am sure you understand me, Mr. Knollys--the task has +occasioned me a feeling almost of remorse; but that is inseparable from +a detective's life. He is obliged every day of his life to ride over the +tenderest emotions. Forgive me! And now, boys, scatter till I call you +together again. I hope our next search will be without such sorrowful +accompaniments." + +It succeeded. William stared at him and stared at the men slowly filing +off down the yard, but was not for a moment deceived by these +overflowing expressions. On the contrary, he looked more concerned than +he had while seated between the two men manifestly set to guard him. + +"The deuce!" he cried, with a shrug of his shoulders that expressed +anything but satisfaction. "Lucetta always said--" But even he knew +enough not to finish that sentence, low as he had mumbled it. Watching +him and watching Mr. Gryce, who at that moment turned to follow his men, +I thought the time had come for action. Making another spring as if in +fresh terror of Saracen, who, by the way, was eying me with the meekness +of a lamb, I tipped over that pail with such suddenness and with such +dexterity that its whole contents poured in one flood over William's +feet. My third task was accomplished. + +The oath he uttered and the excuses which I volubly poured forth could +not have reached Mr. Gryce's ears, for he did not return. And yet from +the way his shoulders shook as he disappeared around the corner of the +house, I judge that he was not entirely ignorant of the subterfuge by +which I hoped to force this blundering booby of ours to change the boots +he wore for one of the pairs into which I had driven those little tacks. + + + + +XXXII + +RELIEF + + +The plan succeeded. Mr. Gryce's plans usually do. William went +immediately to his room, and in a little while came down and hastened +into the cellar. + +"I want to see what mischief they have done," said he. + +When he came back, his face was beaming. + +"All right," he shouted to his sisters, who had come into the hall to +meet him. "Your secret's out, but mine----" + +"There, there!" interposed Loreen, "you had better go up-stairs and +prepare for supper. We must eat, William, or rather, Miss Butterworth +must eat, whatever our sorrows or disappointments." + +He took the rebuke with a grunt and relieved us of his company. Little +did he think as he went whistling up the stairs that he had just shown +Mr. Gryce where to search for whatever might be lying under the broad +sweep of that cellar-bottom. + +That night--it was after supper, which I did not eat for all my natural +stoicism--Hannah came rushing in where we all sat silent, for the girls +showed no disposition to enlarge their confidences in regard to their +mother, and no other topic seemed possible, and, closing the door behind +her, said quickly and with evident chagrin: + +"Those men are here again. They say they forgot something. What do you +think it means, Miss Loreen? They have spades and lanterns and----" + +"They are the police, Hannah. If they forgot something, they have the +right to return. Don't work yourself up about that. The secret they have +already found out was our worst. There is nothing to fear after that." +And she dismissed Hannah, merely bidding her let us know when the house +was quite clear. + +Was she right? Was there nothing worse for them to fear? I longed to +leave these trembling sisters, longed to join the party below and follow +in the track of the tiny impressions made by the tacks I had driven into +William's soles. If there was anything hidden under the cellar-bottom, +natural anxiety would carry him to the spot he had most to fear; so they +would only have to dig at the places where these impressions took a +sharp turn. + +But was there anything hidden there? From the sisters' words and actions +I judged there was nothing serious, but would they know? William was +quite capable of deceiving them. Had he done so? It was a question. + +It was solved for us by Mr. Gryce's reappearance in the room an hour or +so later. From the moment the light fell upon his kindly features I knew +that I might breathe again freely. It was not the face he showed in the +house of a criminal, nor did his bow contain any of the false deference +with which he sometimes tries to hide his secret doubt or contempt. + +"I have come to trouble you for the last time, ladies. We have made a +double search through this house and through the stables, and feel +perfectly justified in saying that our duty henceforth will lead us +elsewhere. The secrets we have surprised are your own, and if possible +shall remain so. Your brother's propensity for vivisection and the +return and death of your mother bear so little on the real question +which interests this community that we may be able to prevent their +spread as gossip through the town. That this may be done +conscientiously, however, I ought to know something more of the latter +circumstance. If Miss Butterworth will then be good enough to grant me a +few minutes' conference with these ladies, I may be able to satisfy +myself to such an extent as to let this matter rest where it is." + +I rose with right good will. A mountain weight had been lifted from me, +proof positive that I had really come to love these girls. + +What they told him, whether it was less or more than they told me, I +cannot say, and for the moment did not know. That it had not shaken his +faith in them was evident, for when he came out to where I was waiting +in the hall his aspect was even more encouraging than it had been +before. + +"No guile in those girls," he whispered as he passed me. "The clue given +by what seemed mysterious in this house has come to naught. To-morrow we +take up another. The trinkets found in Mother Jane's cottage are +something real. You may sleep soundly to-night, Miss Butterworth. Your +part has been well played, but I know you are glad that it has failed." + +And I knew that I was glad, too, which is the best proof that there is +something in me besides the detective instinct. + +The front door had scarcely closed behind him when William came storming +in. He had been gossiping over the fence with Mr. Trohm, and had been +beguiled into taking a glass of wine in his house. This was evident +without his speaking of it. + +"Those sneaks!" cried he. "I hear they've been back again, digging and +stirring up our cellar-bottom like mad. That's because you're so +dreadful shy, you girls. You're afraid of this, you're afraid of that. +You don't want folks to know that mother once--Well, well, there it is +now! If you had not tried to keep this wretched secret, it would have +been an old matter by this time, and my affairs would have been left +untouched. But now every fool will cry out at me in this staid, +puritanical old town, and all because a few bones have been found of +animals which have died in the cause of science. I say it's all your +fault! Not that I have anything to be ashamed of, because I haven't, but +because this other thing, this d--d wicked series of disappearances, +taking place, for aught we know, a dozen rods from our gates (though I +think--but no matter what I think--you all like, or say you like, old +Deacon Spear), has made every one so touchy in this pharisaical town +that to kill a fly has become a crime even if it is to save oneself from +poison. I'm going to see if I cannot make folks blink askance at some +other man than me. I'm going to find out who or what causes these +disappearances." + +This was a declaration to make us all stare and look a little bit +foolish. William playing the detective! Well, what might I not live to +see next! But the next moment an overpowering thought struck me. Might +this Deacon Spear by any chance be the rich man whose animosity Althea +Knollys had awakened? + + + + +_BOOK IV_ + +THE BIRDS OF THE AIR + + + + +XXXIII + +LUCETTA + + +The next morning I rose with the lark. I had slept well, and all my old +vigor had returned. A new problem was before me; a problem of surpassing +interest, now that the Knollys family had been eliminated from the list +of persons regarded with suspicion by the police. Mother Jane and the +jewels were to be Mr. Gryce's starting-point for future investigation. +Should they be mine? My decision on this point halted, and thinking it +might be helped by a breath of fresh air, I decided upon an early stroll +as a means of settling this momentous question. + +There was silence in the house when I passed through it on my way to the +front door. But that silence had lost its terrors and the old house its +absorbing mystery. Yet it was not robbed of its interest. When I +realized that Althea Knollys, the Althea of my youth, had just died +within its walls as ignorant of my proximity as I of hers, I felt that +no old-time romance, nor any terror brought by flitting ghost or +stalking apparition, could compare with the wonder of this return and +the strange and thrilling circumstances which had attended it. And the +end was not yet. Peaceful as everything now looked, I still felt that +the end had not come. + +The fact that Saracen was loose in the yard gave me some slight concern +as I opened the great front door and looked out. But the control under +which I had held him the day before encouraged me in my venture, and +after a few words with Hannah, who was careful not to let me slip away +unnoticed, I boldly stepped forth and took my solitary way down to the +gate. + +It was not yet eight, and the grass was still heavy with dew. At the +gate I paused. I wished to go farther, but Mr. Gryce's injunction had +been imperative about venturing into the lane alone. Besides--No, that +was not a horse's hoof. There could be no one on the road so early as +this. I was alarming myself unnecessarily, yet--Well, I held my place, a +little awkwardly, perhaps. Self-consciousness is always awkward, and I +could not help being a trifle self-conscious at a meeting so unexpected +and--But the more I attempt to explain, the more confused my expressions +become, so I will just say that, by this very strange chance, I was +leaning over the gate when Mr. Trohm rode up for the second time and +found me there. + +I did not attempt any excuses. He is gentleman enough to understand that +a woman of my temperament rises early and must have the morning air. +That he should feel the same necessity is a coincidence, natural +perhaps, but still a coincidence. So there was nothing to be said about +it. + +But had there been, I would not have spoken, for he seemed so gratified +at finding me enjoying nature at this early hour that any words from me +would have been quite superfluous. He did not dismount--that would have +shown intention--but he stopped, and--well, we have both passed the age +of romance, and what he said cannot be of interest to the general +public, especially as it did not deal with the disappearances or with +the discoveries made in the Knollys house the day before, or with any of +those questions which have absorbed our attention up to this time. + +That we were engaged more than five minutes in this conversation I +cannot believe. I have always been extremely accurate in regard to time, +yet a good half-hour was lost by me that morning for which I have never +been able to account. Perhaps it was spent in the short discussion which +terminated our interview; a discussion which may be of interest to you, +for it was upon the action of the police. + +"Nothing came of the investigations made by Mr. Gryce yesterday, I +perceive," Mr. Trohm had remarked, with some reluctance, as he gathered +up his reins to depart. "Well, that is not strange. How could he have +hoped to find any clue to such a mystery as he is engaged to unearth, in +a house presided over by Miss Knollys?" + +"How could he, indeed! Yet," I added, determined to allay this man's +suspicions, which, notwithstanding the openness of his remark, were +still observable in his tones, "you say that with an air I should hardly +expect from so good a neighbor and friend. Why is this, Mr. Trohm? +Surely you do not associate crime with the Misses Knollys?" + +"Crime? Oh, no, certainly not. No one could associate crime with the +Misses Knollys. If my tone was at fault, it was due perhaps to my +embarrassment--this meeting, your kindness, the beauty of the day, and +the feeling these all call forth. Well, I may be pardoned if my tones +are not quite true in discussing other topics. My thoughts were with the +one I addressed." + +"Then that tone of doubt was all the more misplaced," I retorted. "I am +so frank, I cannot bear innuendo in others. Besides, Mr. Trohm, the +worst folly of this home was laid bare yesterday in a way to set at rest +all darker suspicions. You knew that William indulged in vivisection. +Well, that is bad, but it cannot be called criminal. Let us do him +justice, then, and, for his sisters' sake, see how we can re-establish +him in the good graces of the community." + +But Mr. Trohm, who for all our short acquaintance was not without a very +decided appreciation for certain points in my character, shook his head +and with a smiling air returned: + +"You are asking the impossible not only of the community, but yourself. +William can never re-establish himself. He is of too rude a make. The +girls may recover the esteem they seem to have lost, but William--Why, +if the cause of those disappearances was found to-day, and found at the +remotest end of this road or even up in the mountains, where no one +seems to have looked for it, William would still be known throughout the +county as a rough and cruel man. I have tried to stand his friend, but +it's been against odds, Miss Butterworth. Even his sisters recognize +this, and show their lack of confidence in our friendship. But I would +like to oblige you." + +I knew he ought to go. I knew that if he had simply lingered the five +minutes which common courtesy allowed, that curious eyes would be +looking from Loreen's window, and that at any minute I might expect some +interference from Lucetta, who had read through this man's forbearance +toward William the very natural distrust he could not but feel toward so +uncertain a character. Yet with such an opportunity at my command, how +could I let him go without another question? + +"Mr. Trohm," said I, "you have the kindest heart and the closest lips, +but have you ever thought that Deacon Spear----" + +He stopped me with a really horrified look. "Deacon Spear's house was +thoroughly examined yesterday," said he, "as mine will be to-day. Don't +insinuate anything against him! Leave that for foolish William." Then +with the most charming return to his old manner, for I felt myself in a +measure rebuked, he lifted his hat and urged his horse forward. But, +having withdrawn himself a step or two, he paused and with the slightest +gesture toward the little hut he was facing, added in a much lower tone +than any he had yet used: "Besides, Deacon Spear is much too far away +from Mother Jane's cottage. Don't you remember that I told you she never +could be got to go more than forty rods from her own doorstep?" And, +breaking into a quick canter, he rode away. + +I was left to think over his words and the impossibility of my picking +up any other clue than that given me by Mr. Gryce. + +I was turning toward the house when I heard a slight noise at my feet. +Looking down, I encountered the eyes of Saracen. He was crouching at my +side, and as I turned toward him, his tail actually wagged. It was a +sight to call the color up to my cheek; not that I blushed at this sign +of good-will, astonishing as it was, considering my feeling toward dogs, +but at his being there at all without my knowing it. So palpable a proof +that no woman--I make no exceptions--can listen more than one minute to +the expressions of a man's sincere admiration without losing a little of +her watchfulness, was not to be disregarded by one as inexorable to her +own mistakes as to those of others. I saw myself the victim of vanity, +and while somewhat abashed by the discovery, I could not but realize +that this solitary proof of feminine weakness was not really to be +deplored in one who has not yet passed the line beyond which any such +display is ridiculous. + +Lucetta met me at the door just as I had expected her to. Giving me a +short look, she spoke eagerly but with a latent anxiety, for which I was +more or less prepared. + +"I am glad to see you looking so bright this morning," she declared. "We +are all feeling better now that the incubus of secrecy is removed. +But"--here she hesitated--"I would not like to think you told Mr. Trohm +what happened to us yesterday." + +"Lucetta," said I, "there may be women of my age who delight in +gossiping about family affairs with comparative strangers, but I am not +that kind of woman. Mr. Trohm, friendly as he has proved himself and +worthy as he undoubtedly is of your confidence and trust, will have to +learn from some other person than myself anything which you may wish to +have withheld from him." + +For reply she gave me an impulsive kiss. "I thought I could trust you," +she cried. Then, with a dubious look, half daring, half shrinking, she +added: + +"When you come to know and like us better, you will not care so much to +talk to neighbors. They never can understand us or do us justice, Mr. +Trohm, especially." + +This was a remark I could not let pass. + +"Why?" I demanded. "Why do you think Mr. Trohm cherishes such animosity +towards you? Has he ever----" + +But Lucetta could exercise a repellent dignity when she chose. I did not +finish my sentence, though I must have looked the inquiry I thought +better not to put into words. + +"Mr. Trohm is a man of blameless reputation," she avowed. "If he has +allowed himself to cherish suspicions in our regard, he has doubtless +had his reasons for it." + +And with these quiet words she left me to my thoughts, and I must say to +my doubts, which were all the more painful that I saw no immediate +opportunity for clearing them up. + +Late in the afternoon William burst in with news from the other end of +the lane. + +"Such a lark!" he cried. "The investigation at Deacon Spear's house was +a mere farce, and I just made them repeat it with a few frills. They had +dug up my cellar, and I was determined they should dig up his. Oh, the +fun it was! The old fellow kicked, but I had my way. They couldn't +refuse me, you know; I hadn't refused them. So that man's cellar-bottom +has had a stir up. They didn't find anything, but it did me a lot of +good, and that's something. I do hate Deacon Spear--couldn't hate him +worse if he'd killed and buried ten men under his hearthstone." + +"There is no harm in Deacon Spear," said Lucetta, quickly. + +"Did they submit Mr. Trohm's house to a search also?" asked Loreen, +ashamed of William's heat and anxious to avert any further display of +it. + +"Yes, they went through that too. I was with them. Glad I was too. I +say, girls, I could have laughed to see all the comforts that old +bachelor has about him. Never saw such fixings. Why, that house is as +neat and pretty from top to bottom as any old maid's. It's silly, of +course, for a man, and I'd rather live in an old rookery like this, +where I can walk from room to room in muddy boots if I want to, and +train my dogs and live in freedom like the man I am. Yet I couldn't help +thinking it mighty comfortable, too, for an old fellow like him who +likes such things and don't have chick or child to meddle. Why, he had +pincushions on all his bureaus, and they had pins in them." + +The laugh with which he delivered this last sentence might have been +heard a quarter of a mile away. Lucetta looked at Loreen and Loreen +looked at me, but none of us joined in the mirth, which seemed to me +very ill-timed. + +Suddenly Lucetta asked: + +"Did they dig up Mr. Trohm's cellar?" + +William stopped laughing long enough to say: + +"His cellar? Why, it's cemented as hard as an oak floor. No, they didn't +polish their spades in his house, which was another source of +satisfaction to me. Deacon Spear hasn't even that to comfort him. Oh, +how I did enjoy that old fellow's face when they began to root up his +old fungi!" + +Lucetta turned away with a certain odd constraint I could not but +notice. + +"It's a humiliating day for the lane," said she. "And what is worse," +she suddenly added, "nothing will ever come of it. It will take more +than a band of police to reach the root of this matter." + +I thought her manner odd, and, moving towards her, took her by the hand +with something of a relative's familiarity. + +"What makes you say that? Mr. Gryce seems a very capable man." + +"Yes, yes, but capability has nothing to do with it. Chance might and +pluck might, but wit and experience not. Otherwise the mystery would +have been settled long ago. I wish I----" + +"Well?" Her hand was trembling violently. + +"Nothing. I don't know why I have allowed myself to talk on this +subject. Loreen and I once made a compact never to give any opinion upon +it. You see how I have kept it." + +She had drawn her hand away and suddenly had become quite composed. I +turned my attention toward Loreen, but she was looking out of the window +and showed no intention of further pursuing the conversation. William +had strolled out. + +"Well," said I, "if ever a girl had reason for breaking such a compact +you are certainly that girl. I could never have been as silent as you +have been--that is, if I had any suspicions on so serious a subject. +Why, your own good name is impugned--yours and that of every other +person living in this lane." + +"Miss Butterworth," she replied, "I have gone too far. Besides, you have +misunderstood me. I have no more knowledge than anybody else as to the +source of these terrible tragedies. I only know that an almost +superhuman cunning lies at the bottom of so many unaccountable +disappearances, a cunning so great that only a crazy person----" + +"Ah," I murmured eagerly, "Mother Jane!" + +She did not answer. Instantly I took a resolution. + +"Lucetta," said I, "is Deacon Spear a rich man?" + +Starting violently, she looked at me amazed. + +"If he is, I should like to hazard the guess that he is the man who has +held you in such thraldom for years." + +"And if he were?" said she. + +"I could understand William's antipathy to him and also his suspicions." + +She gave me a strange look, then without answering walked over and took +Loreen by the hand. "Hush!" I thought I heard her whisper. At all events +the two sisters were silent for more than a moment. Then Lucetta said: + +"Deacon Spear is well off, but nothing will ever make me accuse living +man of crime so dreadful." And she walked away, drawing Loreen after +her. In another moment she was out of the room, leaving me in a state of +great excitement. + +"This girl holds the secret to the whole situation," I inwardly decided. +"The belief that nothing more can be learned from her is a false one. I +must see Mr. Gryce. William's rodomontades are so much empty air, but +Lucetta's silence has a meaning we cannot afford to ignore." + +So impressed was I by this, that I took the first opportunity which +presented itself of seeing the detective. This was early the next +morning. He and several of the townspeople had made their appearance at +Mother Jane's cottage, with spades and picks, and the sight had +naturally drawn us all down to the gate, where we stood watching +operations in a silence which would have been considered unnatural by +any one who did not realize the conflicting nature of the emotions +underlying it. William, to whom the death of his mother seemed to be a +great deliverance, had been inclined to be more or less jocular, but his +sallies meeting with no response, he had sauntered away to have it out +with his dogs, leaving me alone with the two girls and Hannah. + +The latter seemed to be absorbed entirely by the aspect of Mother Jane, +who stood upon her doorstep in an attitude so menacing that it was +little short of tragic. Her hood, for the first time in the memory of +those present, had fallen away from her head, revealing a wealth of gray +hair which flew away from her head like a weird halo. Her features we +could not distinguish, but the emotion which inspired her, breathed in +every gesture of her uplifted arms and swaying body. It was wrath +personified, and yet an unreasoning wrath. One could see she was as much +dazed as outraged. Her lares and penates were being attacked, and she +had come from the heart of her solitude to defend them. + +"I declare!" Hannah protested. "It is pitiful. She has nothing in the +world but that garden, and now they are going to root that up." + +"Do you think that the sight of a little money would appease her?" I +inquired, anxious for an excuse to drop a word into the ear of Mr. +Gryce. + +"Perhaps," said Hannah. "She dearly loves money, but it will not take +away her fright." + +"It will if she has nothing to be frightened about," said I; and turning +to the girls, I asked them, somewhat mincingly for me, if they thought I +would make myself conspicuous if I crossed the road on this errand, and +when Loreen answered that that would not deter her if she had the money, +and Lucetta added that the sight of such misery was too painful for any +mere personal consideration, I took advantage of their complaisance, and +hastily made my way over to the group, who were debating as to the point +they would attack first. + +"Gentlemen," said I, "good-morning. I am here on an errand of mercy. +Poor old Mother Jane is half imbecile and does not understand why you +invade her premises with these implements. Will you object if I endeavor +to distract her mind with a little piece of gold I happen to have in my +pocket? She may not deserve it, but it will make your task easier and +save us some possible concern." + +Half of the men at once took off their hats. The other half nudged each +other's elbows, and whispered and grimaced like the fools they were. The +first half were gentlemen, though not all of them wore gentlemen's +clothes. + +It was Mr. Gryce who spoke: + +"Certainly, madam. Give the old woman anything you please, but--" And +here he stepped up to me and began to whisper; "You have something to +say. What is it?" + +I answered in the same quick way: "The mine you thought exhausted has +possibilities in it yet. Question Lucetta. It may prove a more fruitful +task than turning up this soil." + +The bow he made was more for the onlookers than for the suggestion I had +given him. Yet he was not ungrateful for the latter, as I, who was +beginning to understand him, could see. + +"Be as generous as you please!" he cried aloud. "We would not disturb +the old crone if it were not for one of her well-known follies. Nothing +will take her over forty rods away from her home. Now what lies within +those forty rods? These men think we ought to see." + +The shrug I gave answered both the apparent and the concealed question. +Satisfied that he would understand it so, I hurried away from him and +approached Mother Jane. + +"See!" said I, astonished at the regularity of her features, now that I +had a good opportunity of observing them. "I have brought you money. Let +them dig up your turnips if they will." + +She did not seem to perceive me. Her eyes were wild with dismay and her +lips trembling with a passion far beyond my power to comfort. + +"Lizzie!" she cried. "Lizzie! She will come back and find no home. Oh, +my poor girl! My poor, poor girl!" + +It was pitiable. I could not doubt her anguish or her sincerity. The +delirium of a broken heart cannot be simulated. And this heart was not +controlled by reason; that was equally apparent. Immediately my heart, +which goes out slowly, but none the less truly on that account, was +touched by something more than the surface sympathy of the moment. She +may have stolen, she may have done worse, she may even have been at the +bottom of the horrible crimes which have given its name to the lane we +were in, but her acts, if acts they were, were the result of a clouded +mind fixed forever upon the fancied needs of another, and not the +expression of personal turpitude or even of personal longing or avarice. +Therefore I could pity her, and I did. + +Making another appeal, I pressed the coin hard into one of her hands +till the contact effected what my words had been unable to do, and she +finally looked down and saw what she was clutching. Then indeed her +aspect changed, and in a few minutes of slowly growing comprehension she +became so quiet and absorbed that she forgot to look at the men and even +forgot me, who was probably nothing more than a flitting shadow to her. + +"A silk gown," she murmured. "It will buy Lizzie a silk gown. Oh! where +did it come from, the good, good gold, the beautiful gold; such a little +piece, yet enough to make her look fine, my Lizzie, my pretty, pretty +Lizzie?" + +No numbers this time. The gift was too overpowering for her even to +remember that it must be hidden away. + +I walked away while her delight was still voluble. Somehow it eased my +mind to have done her this little act of kindness, and I think it eased +the minds of the men too. At all events, every hat was off when I +repassed them on my way back to the Knollys gateway. + +I had left both the girls there, but I found only one awaiting me. +Lucetta had gone in, and so had Hannah. On what errand I was soon to +know. + +"What do you suppose that detective wants of Lucetta now?" asked Loreen +as I took my station again at her side. "While you were talking to +Mother Jane he stepped over here, and with a word or two induced Lucetta +to walk away with him toward the house. See, there they are in those +thick shrubs near the right wing. He seems to be pleading with her. Do +you think I ought to join them and find out what he is urging upon her +so earnestly? I don't like to seem intrusive, but Lucetta is easily +agitated, you know, and his business cannot be of an indifferent nature +after all he has discovered concerning our affairs." + +"No," I agreed, "and yet I think Lucetta will be strong enough to +sustain the conversation, judging from the very erect attitude she is +holding now. Perhaps he thinks she can tell him where to dig. They seem +a little at sea over there, and living, as you do, a few rods from +Mother Jane, he may imagine that Lucetta can direct him where to first +plant the spade." + +"It's an insult," Loreen protested. "All these talks and visits are +insults. To be sure, this detective has some excuse, but----" + +"Keep your eye on Lucetta," I interrupted. "She is shaking her head and +looking very positive. She will prove to him it is an insult. We need +not interfere, I think." + +But Loreen had grown pensive and did not heed my suggestion. A look that +was almost wistful had supplanted the expression of indignant revolt +with which she had addressed me, and when next moment the two we had +been watching turned and came slowly toward us, it was with decided +energy she bounded forward and joined them. + +"What is the matter now?" she asked. "What does Mr. Gryce want, +Lucetta?" + +Mr. Gryce himself spoke. + +"I simply want her," said he, "to assist me with a clue from her inmost +thoughts. When I was in your house," he explained with a praiseworthy +consideration for me and my relations to these girls for which I cannot +be too grateful, "I saw in this young lady something which convinced me +that, as a dweller in this lane, she was not without her suspicions as +to the secret cause of the fatal mysteries which I have been sent here +to clear up. To-day I have frankly accused her of this, and asked her to +confide in me. But she refuses to do so, Miss Loreen. Yet her face shows +even at this moment that my old eyes were not at fault in my reading of +her. She does suspect somebody, and it is not Mother Jane." + +"How can you say that?" began Lucetta, but the eyes which Loreen that +moment turned upon her seemed to trouble her, for she did not attempt to +say any more--only looked equally obstinate and distressed. + +"If Lucetta suspects any one," Loreen now steadily remarked, "then I +think she ought to tell you who it is." + +"You do. Then perhaps you--" commenced Mr. Gryce--"can persuade her as +to her duty," he finished, as he saw her head rise in protest of what he +evidently had intended to demand. + +"Lucetta will not yield to persuasion," was her quiet reply. "Nothing +short of conviction will move the sweetest-natured but the most +determined of all my mother's children. What she thinks is right, she +will do. I will not attempt to influence her." + +Mr. Gryce, with one comprehensive survey of the two, hesitated no +longer. I saw the rising of the blood into his forehead, which always +precedes the beginning of one of his great moves, and, filled with a +sudden excitement, I awaited his next words as a tyro awaits the first +unfolding of the plan he has seen working in the brain of some famous +strategist. + +"Miss Lucetta,"--his very tone was changed, changed in a way to make us +all start notwithstanding the preparation his momentary silence had +given us--"I have been thus pressing and perhaps rude in my appeal, +because of something which has come to my knowledge which cannot but +make you of all persons extremely anxious as to the meaning of this +terrible mystery. I am an old man, and you will not mind my bluntness. I +have been told--and your agitation convinces me there is truth in the +report--that you have a lover, a Mr. Ostrander----" + +"Ah!" She had sunk as if crushed by one overwhelming blow to the earth. +The eyes, the lips, the whole pitiful face that was upturned to us, +remain in my memory to-day as the most terrible and yet the most moving +spectacle that has come into my by no means uneventful life. "What has +happened to him? Quick, quick, tell me!" + +For answer Mr. Gryce drew out a telegram. + +"From the master of the ship on which he was to sail," he explained. "It +asks if Mr. Ostrander left this town on Tuesday last, as no news has +been received of him." + +"Loreen! Loreen! When he left us he passed down that way!" shrieked the +girl, rising like a spirit and pointing east toward Deacon Spear's. "He +is gone! He is lost! But his fate shall not remain a mystery. I will +dare its solution. I--I--To-night you will hear from me again." + +And without another glance at any of us she turned and fled toward the +house. + + + + +XXXIV + +CONDITIONS + + +But in another moment she was back, her eyes dilated and her whole +person exhaling a terrible purpose. + +"Do not look at me, do not notice me!" she cried, but in a voice so +hoarse no one but Mr. Gryce could fully understand her. "I am for no +one's eyes but God's. Pray that he may have mercy upon me." Then as she +saw us all instinctively fall back, she controlled herself, and, +pointing toward Mother Jane's cottage, said more distinctly: "As for +those men, let them dig. Let them dig the whole day long. Secrecy must +be kept, a secrecy so absolute that not even the birds of the air must +see that our thoughts range beyond the forty rods surrounding Mother +Jane's cottage." + +She turned and would have fled away for the second time, but Mr. Gryce +stopped her. "You have set yourself a task beyond your strength. Can you +perform it?" + +"I can perform it," she said. "If Loreen does not talk, and I am allowed +to spend the day in solitude." + +I had never seen Mr. Gryce so agitated--no, not when he left Olive +Randolph's bedside after an hour of vain pleading. "But to wait all day! +Is it necessary for you to wait all day?" + +"It is necessary." She spoke like an automaton. "To-night at twilight, +when the sun is setting, meet me at the great tree just where the road +turns. Not a minute sooner, not an hour later. I will be calmer then." +And waiting now for nothing, not for a word from Loreen nor a detaining +touch from Mr. Gryce, she flew away for the second time. This time +Loreen followed her. + +"Well, that is the hardest thing I ever had to do," said Mr. Gryce, +wiping his forehead and speaking in a tone of real grief and anxiety. +"Do you think her delicate frame can stand it? Will she survive this day +and carry through whatever it is she has set herself to accomplish?" + +"She has no organic disease," said I, "but she loved that young man very +much, and the day will be a terrible one to her." + +Mr. Gryce sighed. + +"I wish I had not been obliged to resort to such means," said he, "but +women like that only work under excitement, and she does know the secret +of this affair." + +"Do you mean," I demanded, almost aghast, "that you have deceived her +with a false telegram; that that slip of paper you hold----" + +"Read it," he cried, holding it out toward me. + +I did read it. Alas, there was no deception in it. It read as he said. + +"However--" I began. + +But he had pocketed the telegram and was several steps away before I had +finished my sentence. + +"I am going to start these men up," said he. "You will breathe no word +to Miss Lucetta of my sympathy nor let your own interests slack in the +investigations which are going on under our noses." + +And with a quick, sharp bow, he made his way to the gate, whither I +followed him in time to see him set his foot upon a patch of sage. + +"You will begin at this place," he cried, "and work east; and, +gentlemen, something tells me that we shall be successful." + +With almost a simultaneous sound a dozen spades and picks struck the +ground. The digging up of Mother Jane's garden had begun in earnest. + + + + +XXXV + +THE DOVE + + +I remained at the gate. I had been bidden to show my interest in what +was going on in Mother Jane's garden, and this was the way I did it. But +my thoughts were not with the diggers. I knew, as well then as later, +that they would find nothing worth the trouble they were taking; and, +having made up my mind to this, I was free to follow the lead of my own +thoughts. + +They were not happy ones; I was neither satisfied with myself nor with +the prospect of the long day of cruel suspense that awaited us. When I +undertook to come to X., it was with the latent expectation of making +myself useful in ferreting out its mystery. And how had I succeeded? I +had been the means through which one of its secrets had been discovered, +but not _the_ secret; and while Mr. Gryce was good enough, or wise +enough, to show no diminution in his respect for me, I knew that I had +sunk a peg in his estimation from the consciousness I had of having sunk +two, if not three pegs, in my own. + +This was a galling thought to me. But it was not the only one which +disturbed me. Happily or unhappily, I have as much heart as pride, and +Lucetta's despair, and the desperate resolve to which it had led, had +made an impression upon me which I could not shake off. + +Whether she knew the criminal or only suspected him; whether in the heat +of her sudden anguish she had promised more or less than she could +perform, the fact remained that we (by whom I mean first and above all, +Mr. Gryce, the ablest detective on the New York force, and myself, who, +if no detective, am at least a factor of more or less importance in an +inquiry like this) were awaiting the action of a weak and suffering girl +to discover what our own experience should be able to obtain for us +unassisted. + +That Mr. Gryce felt that he was playing a great card in thus enlisting +her despair in our service, did not comfort me. I am not fond of games +in which real hearts take the place of painted ones; and, besides, I was +not ready to acknowledge that my own capacity for ferreting out this +mystery was quite exhausted, or that I ought to remain idle while +Lucetta bent under a task so much beyond her strength. So deeply was I +impressed by this latter consideration, that I found myself, even in the +midst of my apparent interest in what was going on at Mother Jane's +cottage, asking if I was bound to accept the defeat pronounced upon my +efforts by Mr. Gryce, and if there was not yet time to retrieve myself +and save Lucetta. One happy thought, or clever linking of cause to +effect, might lead me yet to the clue which we had hitherto sought in +vain. And then who would have more right to triumph than Amelia +Butterworth, or who more reason to apologize than Ebenezar Gryce! But +where was I to get my happy thought, and by what stroke of fortune could +I reasonably hope to light upon a clue which had escaped the penetrating +eye of my quondam colleague? Lucetta's gesture and Lucetta's +exclamation, "He passed that way!" indicated that her suspicions pointed +in the direction of Deacon Spear's cottage; so did William's wandering +accusations: but this was little help to me, confined as I was to the +Knollys demesnes, both by Mr. Gryce's command and by my own sense of +propriety. No, I must light on something more tangible; something +practical enough to justify me in my own eyes for any interference I +might meditate. In short, I must start from a fact, and not from a +suspicion. But what fact? Why, there was but one, and that was the +finding of certain indisputable tokens of crime in Mother Jane's +keeping. That was a clue, a clue, to be sure, which Mr. Gryce, while +ostensibly following it in his present action, really felt to lead +nowhere, but which I--Here my thoughts paused. I dare not promise myself +too satisfactory results to my efforts, even while conscious of that +vague elation which presages success, and which I could only overcome by +resorting again to reasoning. This time I started with a question. Had +Mother Jane committed these crimes herself? I did not think so; neither +did Mr. Gryce, for all the persistence he showed in having the ground +about her humble dwelling-place turned over. Then, how had the ring of +Mr. Chittenden come to be in her possession, when, as all agreed, she +never was known to wander more than forty rods away from home? If the +crime by which this young gentleman had perished had taken place up the +road, as Lucetta's denouncing finger plainly indicated, then this token +of Mother Jane's complicity in it had been carried across the +intervening space by other means than Mother Jane herself. In other +words, it was brought to her by the perpetrator, or it was placed where +she could lay hand on it; neither supposition implying guilt on her +part, she being in all probability as innocent of wrong as she was of +sense. At all events, such should be my theory for the nonce, old +theories having exploded or become of little avail in the present aspect +of things. To discover, then, the source of crime, I must discover the +means by which this ring reached Mother Jane--an almost hopeless task, +but not to be despaired of on that account: had I not wrung the truth in +times gone by from that piece of obstinate stolidity the Van Burnam +scrub-woman? and if I could do this, might I not hope to win an equal +confidence from this half-demented creature, with a heart so passionate +it beat to but one tune, her Lizzie? I meant at least to try, and, under +the impulse of this resolve, I left my position at the gate and +recrossed the road to Mother Jane, whose figure I could dimly discern on +the farther side of her little house. + +Mr. Gryce barely looked up as I passed him, and the men not at all. They +were deep in their work, and probably did not see me. Neither did Mother +Jane at first. She had not yet wearied of the shining gold she held, +though she had begun again upon that chanting of numbers the secret of +which Mr. Gryce had discovered in his investigation of her house. + +I therefore found it hard to make her hear me when I attempted to speak. +She had fixed upon the new number fifteen and seemed never to tire of +repeating it. At last I took cue from her speech, and shouted out the +word _ten_. It was the number of the vegetable in which Mr. Chittenden's +ring had been hidden, and it made her start violently. + +"Ten! ten!" I reiterated, catching her eye. "He who brought it has +carried it away; come into the house and look." + +It was a desperate attempt. I felt myself quake inwardly as I realized +how near Mr. Gryce was standing, and what his anger would be if he +surprised me at this move after he had cried "Halt!" + +But neither my own perturbation nor the thought of his possible anger +could restrain the spirit of investigation which had returned to me with +the above words; and when I saw that they had not fallen upon deaf ears, +but that Mother Jane heard and in a measure understood them, I led the +way into the hut and pointed to the string from which the one precious +vegetable had been torn. + +She gave a spring toward it that was well-nigh maniacal in its fury, and +for an instant I thought she was going to rend the air with one of her +wild yells, when there came a swishing of wings at one of the open +windows, and a dove flew in and nestled in her breast, diverting her +attention so, that she dropped the empty husk of the onion she had just +grasped and seized the bird in its stead. It was a violent clutch, so +violent that the poor dove panted and struggled under it till its head +flopped over and I looked to see it die in her hands. + +"Stop!" I cried, horrified at a sight I was so unprepared to expect from +one who was supposed to cherish these birds most tenderly. + +But she heard me no more than she saw the gesture of indignant appeal I +made her. All her attention, as well as all her fury, was fixed upon the +dove, over whose neck and under whose wings she ran her trembling +fingers with the desperation of one looking for something he failed to +find. + +"Ten! ten!" it was now her turn to shout, as her eyes passed in angry +menace from the bird to the empty husk that dangled over her head. "You +brought it, did you, and you've taken it, have you? There, then! You'll +never bring or carry any more!" And lifting up her hand, she flung the +bird to the other side of the room, and would have turned upon me, in +which contingency I would for once have met my match, if, in releasing +the bird from her hands, she had not at the same time released the coin +which she had hitherto managed to hold through all her passionate +gestures. + +The sight of this piece of gold, which she had evidently forgotten for +the moment, turned her thoughts back to the joys it promised her. +Recapturing it once more, she sank again into her old ecstasy, upon +which I proceeded to pick up the poor, senseless dove, and leave the hut +with a devout feeling of gratitude for my undoubted escape. + +That I did this quietly and with the dove hidden under my little cape, +no one who knows me well will doubt. I had brought something from the +hut besides this victim of the old imbecile's fury, and I was no more +willing that Mr. Gryce should see the one than detect the other. I had +brought away a clue. + +"The birds of the air shall carry it." So the Scripture runs. This bird, +this pigeon, who now lay panting out his life in my arms had brought her +the ring which in Mr. Gryce's eyes had seemed to connect her with the +disappearance of young Mr. Chittenden. + + + + +XXXVI + +AN HOUR OF STARTLING EXPERIENCES + + +Not till I was safely back in the Knollys grounds, not, indeed, till I +had put one or two large and healthy shrubs between me and a certain +pair of very prying eyes, did I bring the dove out from under my cape +and examine the poor bird for any sign which might be of help to me in +the search to which I was newly committed. + +But I found nothing, and was obliged to resort to my old plan of +reasoning to make anything out of the situation in which I thus so +unexpectedly found myself. The dove had brought the ring into old Mother +Jane's hands, but whence and through whose agency? This was as much a +secret as before, but the longer I contemplated it, the more I realized +that it need not remain a secret long; that we had simply to watch the +other doves, note where they lighted, and in whose barn-doors they were +welcome, for us to draw inferences that might lead to revelations before +the day was out. If Deacon Spear--But Deacon Spear's house had been +examined as well as that of every other resident in the lane. This I +knew, but it had not been examined by me, and unwilling as I was to +challenge the accuracy or thoroughness of a search led on by such a man +as Mr. Gryce, I could not but feel that, with such a hint as I had +received from the episode in the hut, it would be a great relief to my +mind to submit these same premises to my own somewhat penetrating +survey, no man in my judgment having the same quickness of eyesight in +matters domestic as a woman trained to know every inch of a house and to +measure by a hair's-breadth every fall of drapery within it. + +But how in the name of goodness was I to obtain an opportunity for this +survey. Had we not one and all been bidden to confine our attention to +what was going on in Mother Jane's cottage, and would it not be treason +to Lucetta to run the least risk of awakening apprehension in any +possibly guilty mind at the other end of the road? Yes, but for all that +I could not keep still if fate, or my own ingenuity, offered me the +least chance of pursuing the clue I had wrung from our imbecile neighbor +at the risk of my life. It was not in my nature to do so, any more than +it was in my nature to yield up my present advantage to Mr. Gryce +without making a personal effort to utilize it. I forgot that I failed +in this once before in my career, or rather I recalled this failure, +perhaps, and felt the great need of retrieving myself. + +When, therefore, in my slow stroll towards the house I encountered +William in the shrubbery, I could not forbear accosting him with a +question or two. + +"William," I remarked, gently rubbing the side of my nose with an +irresolute forefinger and looking at him from under my lids, "that was a +scurvy trick you played Deacon Spear yesterday." + +He stood amazed, then burst into one of his loud laughs. + +"You think so?" he cried. "Well, I don't. He only got what he deserved, +the hard, sanctimonious sneak!" + +"Do you say that," I inquired, with some spirit, "because you dislike +the man, or because you really believe him to be worthy of hatred?" + +William's amusement at this argued little for my hopes. + +"_We_ are very much interested in the Deacon," he suggested, with a +leer; which insolence I allowed to pass unnoticed, because it best +suited my plan. + +"You have not answered my question," I remarked, with a forced air of +anxiety. + +"Oh, no," he cried, "so I haven't"; and he tried to look serious too. +"Well, well, to be just, I have nothing really against the man but his +mean ways. Still, if I were going to risk my life on a hazard as to who +is the evil spirit of this lane, I should say Spear and done with it, he +has such cursed small eyes." + +"_I_ don't think his eyes are too small," I returned loftily. Then with +a sudden change of manner, I suggested anxiously: "And my opinion is +shared by your sisters. They evidently think very well of him." + +"Oh!" he sneered; "girls are no judges. They don't know a good man when +they see him, and they don't know a bad. You mustn't go by what they +say." + +I had it on the tip of my tongue to ask if he did not think Lucetta +sufficiently understood herself to be trusted in what she contemplated +doing that night. But this was neither in accordance with my plan, nor +did it seem quite loyal to Lucetta, who, so far as I knew, had not +communicated her intentions to this booby brother. I therefore changed +this question into a repetition of my first remark: + +"Well, I still think the trick you played Deacon Spear yesterday a poor +one; and I advise you, as a gentleman, to go and ask his pardon." + +This was such a preposterous proposition, he could not hold his peace. + +"_I ask his pardon!_" he snorted. "Well, Saracen, did you ever hear the +like of that! _I_ ask Deacon Spear's pardon for obliging him to be +treated with as great attention as I had been myself." + +"If you do not," I went on, unmoved, "I shall go and do it myself. I +think that is what my friendship for you warrants. I am determined that +while I am a visitor in your house no one shall be able to pick a flaw +in your conduct." + +He stared (as he might well do), tried to read my face, then my +intentions, and failing to do both, which was not strange, broke into +noisy mirth. + +"Oh, ho!" he laughed. "So that is your game, is it! Well, I never! +Saracen, Miss Butterworth wants to reform me; wants to make one of her +sleek city chaps out of William Knollys. She'll have hard work of it, +won't she? But then we're beginning to like her well enough to let her +try. Miss Butterworth, I'll go with you to Deacon Spear. I haven't had +so much chance for fun in a twelve-month." + +I had not expected such success, and was duly thankful. But I made no +reference to it aloud. On the contrary, I took his complaisance as a +matter of course, and, hiding all token of triumph, suggested quietly +that we should make as little ado as possible over our errand, seeing +that Mr. Gryce was something of a meddler and _might_ take it into his +head to interfere. Which suggestion had all the effect I anticipated, +for at the double prospect of amusing himself at the Deacon's expense, +and of outwitting the man whose business it was to outwit us, he became +not only willing but eager to undertake the adventure offered him. So +with the understanding that I was to be ready to drive into town as soon +as he could hitch up the horse, we parted on the most amicable terms, he +proceeding towards the stable and I towards the house, where I hoped to +learn something new about Lucetta. + +But Loreen, from whom alone I could hope to glean any information, was +shut in her room, and did not come out, though I called her more than +once, which, if it left my curiosity unsatisfied, at least allowed me to +quit the house without awakening hers. + +William was waiting for me at the gate when I descended. He was in the +best of humors, and helped me into the buggy he had resurrected from +some corner of the old stable, with a grimace of suppressed mirth which +argued well for the peace of our proposed drive. The horse's head was +turned away from the quarter we were bound for, but as we were +ostensibly on our way to the village, this showed but common prudence on +William's part, and, as such, met with my entire approbation. + +Mr. Gryce and his men were hard at work when we passed them. Knowing the +detective so well, and rating at its full value his undoubted talent for +reading the motives of those about him, I made no attempt at cajolery in +the explanation I proffered of our sudden departure, but merely said, in +my old, peremptory way, that I found waiting at the gate so tedious that +I had accepted William's invitation to drive into town. Which, while it +astonished the old gentleman, did not really arouse his suspicions, as a +more conciliatory manner and speech might have done. This disposed of, +we drove rapidly away. + +William's sense of humor once aroused was not easily allayed. He seemed +so pleased with his errand that he could talk of nothing else, and +turned the subject over and over in his clumsy way, till I began to +wonder if he had seen through the object of our proposed visit and was +making _me_ the butt of his none too brilliant wit. + +But no, he was really amused at the part he was called upon to play, +and, once convinced of this, I let his humor run on without check till +we had re-entered Lost Man's Lane from the other end and were in sight +of the low sloping roof of Deacon Spear's old-fashioned farmhouse. + +Then I thought it time to speak. + +"William," said I, "Deacon Spear is too good a man, and, as I take it, +is in possession of too great worldly advantages for you to be at enmity +with him. Remember that he is a neighbor, and that you are a landed +proprietor in this lane." + +"Good for you!" was the elegant reply with which this young boor honored +me. "I didn't think you had such an eye for the main chance." + +"Deacon Spear is rich, is he not?" I pursued, with an ulterior motive he +was far from suspecting. + +"Rich? Why, I don't know; that depends upon what you city ladies call +rich; _I_ shouldn't call him so, but then, as you say, I am a landed +proprietor myself." + +His laugh was boisterously loud, and as we were then nearly in front of +the Deacon's house, it rang in through the open windows, causing such +surprise, that more than one head bobbed up from within to see who dared +to laugh like that in Lost Man's Lane. While I noted these heads and +various other small matters about the house and place, William tied up +the horse and held out his hand for me to descend. + +"I begin to suspect," he whispered as he helped me out, "why you are so +anxious to have me on good terms with the Deacon." At which insinuation +I attempted to smile, but only succeeded in forcing a grim twitch or two +to my lips, for at that moment and before I could take one step towards +the house, a couple of pigeons rose up from behind the house and flew +away in a bee-line for Mother Jane's cottage. + +"Ha!" thought I; "my instinct has not failed me. Behold the link between +this house and the hut in which those tokens of crime were found," and +was for the moment so overwhelmed by this confirmation of my secret +suspicions, that I quite forgot to advance, and stood stupidly staring +after these birds now rapidly disappearing in the distance. + +William's voice aroused me. + +"Come!" he cried. "Don't be bashful. I don't think much of Deacon Spear +myself, but if _you_ do--Why, what's the matter now?" he asked, with a +startled look at me. I had clutched him by the arm. + +"Nothing," I protested, "only--you see that window over there? The one +in the gable of the barn, I mean. I thought I saw a hand thrust out,--a +white hand that dropped crumbs. Have they a child on this place?" + +"No," replied William, in an odd voice and with an odd look toward the +window I have mentioned. "Did you really see a hand there?" + +"I most certainly did," I answered, with an air of indifference I was +far from feeling. "Some one is up in the hay-loft; perhaps it is Deacon +Spear himself. If so, he will have to come down, for now that we are +here, I am determined you shall do your duty." + +"Deacon Spear can't climb that hay-loft," was the perplexed answer I +received in a hardly intelligible mutter. "I've been there, and I know; +only a boy or a very agile young man could crawl along the beams that +lead to that window. It is the one hiding-place in this part of the +lane; and when I said yesterday that if I were the police and had the +same search to make which they have, I knew where I would look, I meant +that same little platform up behind the hay, whose only outlook is +yonder window. But I forgot that _you_ have no suspicions of our good +Deacon; that _you_ are here on quite a different errand than to search +for Silly Rufus. So come along and----" + +But I resisted his impelling hand. He was so much in earnest and so +evidently under the excitement of what appeared to him a great +discovery, that he seemed quite another man. This made my own suspicions +less hazardous, and also added to the situation fresh difficulties which +could only be met by an appearance on my part of perfect ingenuousness. + +Turning back to the buggy as if I had forgotten something, and thus +accounting to any one who might be watching us, for the delay we showed +in entering the house, I said to William: "You have reasons for thinking +this man a villain, or you wouldn't be so ready to suspect him. Now what +if I should tell you that I agree with you, and that this is why I have +dragged you here this fine morning?" + +"I should say you were a deuced smart woman," was his ready answer. "But +what can you do here?" + +"What have we already done?" I asked. "Discovered that they have some +one in hiding in what you call an inaccessible place in the barn. But +didn't the police examine the whole place yesterday? They certainly told +me they had searched the premises thoroughly." + +"Yes," he repeated, with great disdain, "they said and they said; but +they didn't climb up to the one hiding-place in sight. That old fellow +Gryce declared it wasn't worth their while; that only birds could reach +that loophole." + +"Oh," I returned, somewhat taken aback; "you called his attention to it, +then?" + +To which William answered with a vigorous nod and the grumbling words: + +"I don't believe in the police. I think they're often in league with the +very rogues they----" + +But here the necessity of approaching the house became too apparent for +further delay. Deacon Spear had shown himself at the front door, and the +sight of his astonished face twisted into a grimace of doubtful welcome +drove every other thought away than how we were to acquit ourselves in +the coming interview. Seeing that William was more or less nonplussed by +the situation, I caught him by the arm, and whispering, "Let us keep to +our first programme," led him up the walk with much the air of a +triumphant captain bringing in a recalcitrant prisoner. + +My introduction under these circumstances can be imagined by those who +have followed William's awkward ways. But the Deacon, who was probably +the most surprised, if not the most disconcerted member of the group, +possessed a natural fund of conceit and self-complacency that prevented +any outward manifestation of his feelings, though I could not help +detecting a carefully suppressed antagonism in his eye when he allowed +it to fall upon William, which warned me to exercise my full arts in the +manipulation of the matter before me. I accordingly spoke first and with +all the prim courtesy such a man might naturally expect from an intruder +of my sex and appearance. + +"Deacon Spear," said I, as soon as we were seated in his stiff +old-fashioned parlor, "you are astonished to see us here, no doubt, +especially after the display of animosity shown towards you yesterday by +this graceless young friend of mine. But it is on account of this +unfortunate occurrence that we are here. After a little reflection and a +few hints, I may add, from one who has seen more of life than himself, +William felt that he had cause to be ashamed of himself for his show of +sport in yesterday's proceedings, and accordingly he has come in my +company to tender his apologies and entreat your forbearance. Am I not +right, William?" + +The fellow is a clown under all and every circumstance, and serious as +our real purpose was, and dreadful as was the suspicion he professed to +cherish against the suave and seemingly respectable member of the +community we were addressing, he could not help laughing, as he +blunderingly replied: + +"That you are, Miss Butterworth! She's always right, Deacon. I did act +like a fool yesterday." And seeming to think that, with this one +sentence he had played his part out to perfection, he jumped up and +strolled out of the house, almost pushing down as he did so the two +daughters of the house, who had crept into the hall from the +sitting-room to listen. + +"Well, well!" exclaimed the Deacon, "you have done wonders, Miss +Butterworth, to bring him to even so small an acknowledgment as that! +He's a vicious one, is William Knollys, and if _I_ were not such a lover +of peace and concord, he should not long be the only aggressive one. But +_I_ have no taste for strife, and so you may both regard his apology as +accepted. But why do you rise, madam? Sit down, I pray, and let me do +the honors. Martha! Jemima!" + +But I would not allow him to summon his daughters. The man inspired me +with too much dislike, if not fear; besides, I was anxious about +William. What was he doing, and of what blunder might he not be guilty +without my judicious guidance? + +"I am obliged to you," I returned; "but I cannot wait to meet your +daughters now. Another time, Deacon. There is important business going +on at the other end of the lane, and William's presence there may be +required." + +"Ah," he observed, following me to the door, "they are digging up Mother +Jane's garden." + +I nodded, restraining myself with difficulty. + +"Fool's work!" he muttered. Then with a curious look which made me +instinctively draw back, he added, "These things must inconvenience you, +madam. I wish you had made your visit to the lane in happier times." + +There was a smirk on his face which made him positively repellent. I +could scarcely bow my acknowledgments, his look and attitude made the +interview so obnoxious. Looking about for William, I stepped down from +the stoop. The Deacon followed me. + +"Where is William?" I asked. + +The Deacon ran his eye over the place, and suddenly frowned with +ill-concealed vexation. + +"The scapegrace!" he murmured. "What business has he in my barn?" + +I immediately forced a smile which, in days long past (I've almost +forgotten them now), used to do some execution. + +"Oh, he's a boy!" I exclaimed. "Do not mind his pranks, I pray. What a +comfortable place you have here!" + +Instantly a change passed over the Deacon, and he turned to me with an +air of great interest, broken now and then by an uneasy glance behind +him at the barn. + +"I am glad you like the place," he insinuated, keeping close at my side +as I stepped somewhat briskly down the walk. "It is a nice place, worthy +of the commendation of so competent a judge as yourself." (It was a +barren, hard-worked farm, without one attractive feature.) "I have lived +on it now forty years, thirty-two of them with my beloved wife Caroline, +and two--" Here he stopped and wiped a tear from the dryest eye I ever +saw. "Miss Butterworth, I am a widower." + +I hastened my steps. I here duly and with the strictest regard for the +truth aver, that I decidedly hastened my steps at this very unnecessary +announcement. But he, with another covert glance behind him towards the +barn, from which, to my surprise and increasing anxiety, William had not +yet emerged, kept well up to me, and only paused when I paused at the +side of the road near the buggy. + +"Miss Butterworth," he began, undeterred by the air of dignity I +assumed, "I have been thinking that your visit here is a rebuke to my +unneighborliness. But the business which has occupied the lane these +last few days has put us all into such a state of unpleasantness that it +was useless to attempt sociability." + +His voice was so smooth, his eyes so small and twinkling, that if I +could have thought of anything except William's possible discoveries in +the barn, I should have taken delight in measuring my wits against his +egotism. + +But as it was, I said nothing, possibly because I only half heard what +he was saying. + +"I am no lady's man,"--these were the next words I heard,--"but then I +judge you're not anxious for flattery, but prefer the square thing +uttered by a square man without delay or circumlocution. Madam, I am +fifty-three, and I have been a widower two years. I am not fitted for a +solitary life, and I am fitted for the companionship of an affectionate +wife who will keep my hearth clean and my affections in good working +order. Will you be that wife? You see my home,"--here his eye stole +behind him with that uneasy look towards the barn which William's +presence in it certainly warranted,--"a home which I can offer you +unencumbered, if you----" + +"Desire to live in Lost Man's Lane," I put in, subduing both my surprise +and my disgust at this preposterous proposal, in order to throw all the +sarcasm of which I was capable into this single sentence. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed, "you don't like the neighborhood. Well, we could go +elsewhere. I am not set against the city myself----" + +Astounded at his presumption, regarding him as a possible criminal, who +was endeavoring to beguile me for purposes of his own, I could no longer +repress either my indignation or the wrath with which such impromptu +addresses naturally inspired me. Cutting him short with a gesture which +made him open his small eyes, I exclaimed in continuation of his remark: + +"Nor, as I take it, are you set against the comfortable little income +somebody has told you I possessed. I see your disinterestedness, Deacon, +but I should be sorry to profit by it. Why, man, I never spoke to you +before in my life, and do you think----" + +"Oh!" he suavely insinuated, with a suppressed chuckle which even his +increasing uneasiness as to William could not altogether repress, "I see +you are _not_ above the flattery that pleases other women. Well, madam, +I know a tremendous fine woman when I see her, and from the moment I saw +you riding by the other day, I made up my mind I would have you for the +second Mrs. Spear, if persistence and a proper advocacy of my cause +could accomplish it. Madam, I was going to visit you with this proposal +to-night, but seeing you here, the temptation was too great for my +discretion, and so I have addressed you on the spot. But you need not +answer me at once. I don't need to know any more about _you_ than what I +can take in with my two eyes, but if you would like a little more +acquaintance with _me_, why I can wait a couple of weeks till we've +rubbed the edges off our strangeness, when----" + +"When you think I will be so charmed with Deacon Spear that I will be +ready to settle down with him in Lost Man's Lane, or if that will not +do, carry him off to Gramercy Park, where he will be the admiration of +all New York and Brooklyn to boot. Why, man, if I was so easily +satisfied as that, I would not be in a position to-day for you to honor +me with this proposal. I am not easy to suit, so I advise you to turn +your attention to some one much more anxious to be married than I am. +But"--and here I allowed some of my real feelings to appear--"if you +value your own reputation or the happiness of the lady you propose to +inveigle into an union with you, do not venture too far in the +matrimonial way till the mystery is dispelled which shrouds Lost Man's +Lane in horror. If you were an honest man you would ask no one to share +your fortunes whilst the least doubt rests upon your reputation." + +"_My_ reputation?" He had started very visibly at these words. "Madam, +be careful. I admire you, but----" + +"No offence," said I. "For a stranger I have been, perhaps, unduly +frank. I only mean that any one who lives in this lane must feel himself +more or less enveloped by the shadow which rests upon it. When that is +lifted, each and every one of you will feel himself a man again. From +indications to be seen in the lane to-day, that time may not be far +distant. Mother Jane is a likely source for the mysteries that agitate +us. She knows just enough to have no proper idea of the value of a human +life." + +The Deacon's retort was instantaneous. "Madam," said he, with a snap of +his fingers, "I have not that much interest in what is going on down +there. If men have been killed in this lane (which I do not believe), +old Mother Jane has had no hand in it. My opinion is--and you may value +it or not, just as you please--that what the people hereabout call +crimes are so many coincidences, which some day or other will receive +their due explanation. Every one who has disappeared in this vicinity +has disappeared naturally. No one has been killed. That is my theory, +and you will find it correct. On this point I have expended more than a +little thought." + +I was irate. I was also dumfounded at his audacity. Did he think I was +the woman to be deceived by any such balderdash as that? But I shut my +lips tightly lest I should say something, and he, not finding this +agreeable, being no conversationalist himself, drew himself up with a +pompously expressed hope that he would see me again after his reputation +was cleared, when his attention as well as my own was diverted by seeing +William's slouching figure appear in the barn door and make slowly +towards us. + +Instantly the Deacon forgot me in his interest in William's approach, +which was so slow as to be tantalizing to us both. + +When he was within speaking distance, Deacon Spear started towards him. + +"Well!" he cried; "one would think you had gone back a dozen or so years +and were again robbing your neighbor's hen-roosts. Been in the hay, eh?" +he added, leaning forward and plucking a wisp or two from my companion's +clothes. "Well, what did you find there?" + +In trembling fear for what the lout might answer, I put my hand on the +buggy rail and struggled anxiously to my seat. William stepped forward +and loosened the horse before speaking. Then with a leer he dived into +his pocket, and remarking slowly, "I found _this_," brought to light a +small riding-whip which we both recognized as one he often carried. "I +flung it up in the hay yesterday in one of my fits of laughing, so just +thought I would bring it down to-day. You know it isn't the first time +I've climbed about those rafters, Deacon, as you have been good enough +to insinuate." + +The Deacon, evidently taken aback, eyed the young fellow with a leer in +which I saw something more serious than mere suspicion. + +"Was that all?" he began, but evidently thought better than to finish, +whilst William, with a nonchalance that surprised me, blunderingly +avoided his eye, and, bounding into the buggy beside me, started up the +horse and drove slowly off. + +"Ta, ta, Deacon," he called back; "if you want to see fun, come up to +our end of the lane; there's precious little here." And thus, with a +laugh, terminated an interview which, all things considered, was the +most exciting as well as the most humiliating I have ever taken part in. + +"William," I began, but stopped. The two pigeons whose departure I had +watched a little while before were coming back, and, as I spoke, +fluttered up to the window before mentioned, where they alighted and +began picking up the crumbs which I had seen scattered for them. "See!" +I suddenly exclaimed, pointing them out to William. "Was I mistaken when +I thought I saw a hand drop crumbs from that window?" + +The answer was a very grave one for him. + +"No," said he, "for I have seen more than a hand, through the loophole I +made in the hay. I saw a man's leg stretched out as if he were lying on +the floor with his head toward the window. It was but a glimpse I got, +but the leg moved as I looked at it, and so I know that some one lies +hid in that little nook up under the roof. Now it isn't any one +belonging to the lane, for I know where every one of us is or ought to +be at this blessed moment; and it isn't a detective, for I heard a sound +like heavy sobbing as I crouched there. Then who is it? Silly Rufus, I +say; and if that hay was all lifted, we would see sights that would make +us ashamed of the apologies we uttered to the old sneak just now." + +"I want to get home," said I. "Drive fast! Your sisters ought to know +this." + +"The girls?" he cried. "Yes, it will be a triumph over them. They never +would believe I had an atom of judgment. But we'll show them, if William +Knollys is altogether a fool." + +We were now near to Mr. Trohm's hospitable gateway. Coming from the +excitements of my late interview, it was a relief to perceive the genial +owner of this beautiful place wandering among his vines and testing the +condition of his fruit by a careful touch here and there. As he heard +our wheels he turned, and seeing who we were, threw up his hands in +ill-restrained pleasure, and came buoyantly forward. There was nothing +to do but to stop, so we stopped. + +"Why, William! Why, Miss Butterworth, what a pleasure!" Such was his +amiable greeting. "I thought you were all busy at your end of the lane; +but I see you have just come from town. Had an errand there, I suppose?" + +"Yes," William grumbled, eying the luscious pear Mr. Trohm held in his +hand. + +The look drew a smile from that gentleman. + +"Admiring the first fruits?" he observed. "Well, it is a handsome +specimen," he admitted, handing it to me with his own peculiar grace. "I +beg you will take it, Miss Butterworth. You look tired; pardon me if I +mention it." (He is the only person I know who detects any signs of +suffering or fatigue on my part.) + +"I am worried by the mysteries of this lane," I ventured to remark. "I +hate to see Mother Jane's garden uprooted." + +"Ah!" he acquiesced, with much evidence of good feeling, "it is a +distressing thing to witness. I wish she might have been spared. +William, there are other pears on the tree this came from. Tie up the +horse, I pray, and gather a dozen or so of these for your sisters. They +will never be in better condition for plucking than they are to-day." + +William, whose mouth and eyes were both watering for a taste of the fine +fruit thus offered, moved with alacrity to obey this invitation, while +I, more startled than pleased--or, rather, as much startled as +pleased--by the prospect of a momentary _tête-à-tête_ with our agreeable +neighbor, sat uneasily eying the luscious fruit in my hand, and wishing +I was ten years younger, that the blush I felt slowly stealing up my +cheek might seem more appropriate to the occasion. + +But Mr. Trohm appeared not to share my wish. He was evidently so +satisfied with me as I was, that he found it difficult to speak at +first, and when he did--But tut! tut! you have no desire to hear any +such confidences as these, I am sure. A middle-aged gentleman's +expressions of admiration for a middle-aged lady may savor of romance to +her, but hardly to the rest of the world, so I will pass this +conversation by, with the single admission that it ended in a question +to which I felt obliged to return a reluctant _No_. + +Mr. Trohm was just recovering from the disappointment of this, when +William sauntered back with his hands and pockets full. + +"Ah!" that graceless scamp chuckled, with a suspicious look at our +downcast faces, "been improving the opportunity, eh?" + +Mr. Trohm, who had fallen back against his old well-curb, surveyed his +young neighbor for the first time with a look of anger. But it vanished +almost as quickly as it appeared, and he contented himself with a low +bow, in which I read real grief. + +This was too much for me, and I was about to open my lips with a kind +phrase or two, when a flutter took place over our heads, and the two +pigeons whose flight I had watched more than once during the last hour, +flew down and settled upon Mr. Trohm's arm and shoulders. + +"Oh!" I exclaimed, with a sudden shrinking that I hardly understood +myself. And though I covered up the exclamation with as brisk a good-by +as my inward perturbation would allow, that sight and the involuntary +ejaculation I had uttered, were all I saw or heard during our hasty +drive homeward. + + + + +XXXVII + +I ASTONISH MR. GRYCE AND HE ASTONISHES ME + + +But as we approached the group of curious people which now filled up the +whole highway in front of Mother Jane's cottage, I broke from the +nightmare into which this last discovery had thrown me, and, turning to +William, said with a resolute air: + +"You and your sisters are not of one mind regarding these +disappearances. You ascribe them to Deacon Spear, but they--whom do they +ascribe them to?" + +"I shouldn't think it would take a woman of your wit to answer that +question." + +The rebuke was deserved. I had wit, but I had refused to exercise it; my +blind partiality for a man of pleasing exterior and magnetic address had +prevented the cool play of my usual judgment, due to the occasion and +the trust which had been imposed in me by Mr. Gryce. Resolved that this +should end, no matter at what cost to my feelings, I quietly said: + +"You allude to Mr. Trohm." + +"That is the name," he carelessly assented. "Girls, you know, let their +prejudices run away with them. An old grudge----" + +"Yes," I tentatively put in; "he persecuted your mother, and so they +think him capable of any wickedness." + +The growl which William gave was not one of dissent. + +"But I don't care what they think," said he, looking down at the heap of +fruit which lay between us. "I'm Trohm's friend, and don't believe one +word they choose to insinuate against him. What if he didn't like what +my mother did! We didn't like it either, and----" + +"William," I calmly remarked, "if your sisters knew that Silly Rufus had +been found in Deacon Spear's barn they would no longer do Mr. Trohm this +injustice." + +"No; that would settle them; that would give me a triumph which would +last long after this matter was out of the way." + +"Very well, then," said I, "I am going to bring about this triumph. I am +going to tell Mr. Gryce at once what we have discovered in Deacon +Spear's barn." + +And without waiting for his ah, yes, or no, I jumped from the buggy and +made my way to the detective's side. + +His welcome was somewhat unexpected. "Ah, fresh news!" he exclaimed. "I +see it in your eye. What have you chanced upon, madam, in your +disinterested drive into town?" + +I thought I had eliminated all expression from my face, and that my +words would bring a certain surprise with them. But it is useless to try +to surprise Mr. Gryce. + +"You read me like a book," said I; "I have something to add to the +situation. Mr. Gryce, I have just come from the other end of the lane, +where I found a clue which may shorten the suspense of this weary day, +and possibly save Lucetta from the painful task she has undertaken in +our interests. Mr. Chittenden's ring----" + +I paused for the exclamation of encouragement he is accustomed to give +on such occasions, and while I paused, prepared for my accustomed +triumph. He did not fail me in the exclamation, nor did I miss my +expected triumph. + +"Was not found by Mother Jane, or even brought to her in any ordinary +way or by any ordinary messenger. It came to her on a pigeon's neck, the +pigeon you will find lying dead among the bushes in the Knollys yard." + +He was amazed. He controlled himself, but he was very visibly amazed. +His exclamations proved it. + +"Madam! Miss Butterworth! This ring--Mr. Chittenden's ring, whose +presence in her hut we thought an evidence of guilt, was brought to her +by one of her pigeons?" + +"So she told me. I aroused her fury by showing her the empty husk in +which it had been concealed. In her rage at its loss, she revealed the +fact I have just mentioned. It is a curious one, sir, and one I am a +little proud to have discovered." + +"Curious? It is more than curious; it is bizarre, and will rank, I am +safe in prophesying, as one of the most remarkable facts that have ever +adorned the annals of the police. Madam, when I say I envy you the honor +of its discovery, you will appreciate my estimate of it--and you. But +when did you find this out, and what explanation are you able to give of +the presence of this ring on a pigeon's neck?" + +"Sir, to your first question I need only reply that I was here two hours +or so ago, and to the second that everything points to the fact that the +ring was attached to the bird by the victim himself, as an appeal for +succor to whoever might be fortunate enough to find it. Unhappily it +fell into the wrong hands. That is the ill-luck which often befalls +prisoners." + +"Prisoners?" + +"Yes. Cannot you imagine a person shut up in an inaccessible place +making some such attempt to communicate with his fellow-creatures?" + +"But what inaccessible place have we in----" + +"Wait," said I. "You have been in Deacon Spear's barn." + +"Certainly, many times." But the answer, glib as it was, showed shock. I +began to gather courage. + +"Well," said I, "there is a hiding-place in that barn which I dare +declare you have not penetrated." + +"Do you think so, madam?" + +"A little loft way up under the eaves, which can only be reached by +clambering over the rafters. Didn't Deacon Spear tell you there was such +a place?" + +"No, but----" + +"William, then?" I inexorably pursued. "He says he pointed such a spot +out to you, and that you pooh-poohed at it as inaccessible and not worth +the searching." + +"William is a--Madam, I beg your pardon, but William has just wit enough +to make trouble." + +"But there is such a place there," I urged; "and, what is more, there is +some one hidden in it now. I saw him myself." + +"_You_ saw him?" + +"Saw a part of him; in short, saw his hand. He was engaged in scattering +crumbs for the pigeons." + +"That does not look like starvation," smiled Mr. Gryce, with the first +hint of sarcasm he had allowed himself to make use of in this interview. + +"No," said I; "but the time may not have come to inflict this penalty on +Silly Rufus. He has been there but a few days, and--well, what have I +said now?" + +"Nothing, ma'am, nothing. But what made you think the hand you saw +belonged to Silly Rufus?" + +"Because he was the last person to disappear from this lane. The +last--what am I saying? He wasn't the last. Lucetta's lover was the +last. Mr. Gryce, could that hand have belonged to Mr. Ostrander?" + +I was intensely excited; so much so that Mr. Gryce made me a warning +gesture. + +"Hush!" he whispered; "you are attracting attention. That hand _was_ the +hand of Mr. Ostrander; and the reason why I did not accept William +Knollys' suggestion to search the Deacon's barn-loft was because I knew +it had been chosen as a place of refuge by this missing lover of +Lucetta." + + + + +XXXVIII + +A FEW WORDS + + +Never have keener or more conflicting emotions been awakened in my +breast than by these simple words. But alive to the necessity of hiding +my feelings from those about me, I gave no token of my surprise, but +rather turned a stonier face than common upon the man who had caused it. + +"Refuge?" I repeated. "He is there, then, of his own free will--or +yours?" I sarcastically added, not being able to quite keep down this +reproach as I remembered the deception practised upon Lucetta. + +"Mr. Ostrander, madam, has been spending the week with Deacon +Spear--they are old friends, you know. That he should spend it quietly +and, to a degree, in hiding, was as much his plan as mine. For while he +found it impossible to leave Lucetta in the doubtful position in which +she and her family at present stand, he did not wish to aggravate her +misery by the thought that he was thus jeopardizing the position on +which all his hopes of future advancement depended. He preferred to +watch and wait in secret, seeing which, I did what I could to further +his wishes. His usual lodging was with the family, but when the search +was instituted, I suggested that he should remove himself to that eyrie +back of the hay where you were sharp enough to detect him to-day." + +"Don't attempt any of your flatteries upon me," I protested. "They will +not make me forget that I have not been treated fairly. And Lucetta--oh! +may I not tell Lucetta----" + +"And spoil our entire prospect of solving this mystery? No, madam, you +may not tell Lucetta. When Fate has put such a card into our hands as I +played with that telegram to-day, we would be flying in the face of +Providence not to profit by it. Lucetta's despair makes her bold; upon +that boldness we depend to discover and bring to justice a great +criminal." + +I felt myself turn pale; for that very reason, perhaps, I assumed a +still sterner air, and composedly said: + +"If Mr. Ostrander is in hiding at the Deacon's, and he and his host are +both in your confidence, then the only man whom _you_ can designate in +your thoughts by this dreadful title must be Mr. Trohm." + +I had perhaps hoped he would recoil at this or give some other evidence +of his amazement at an assumption which to me seemed preposterous. But +he did not, and I saw, with what feelings may be imagined, that this +conclusion, which was half bravado with me, had been accepted by him +long enough for no emotion to follow its utterance. + +"Oh!" I exclaimed, "how can you reconcile such a suspicion with the +attitude you have always preserved towards Mr. Trohm?" + +"Madam," said he, "do not criticise my attitude without taking into +account existing appearances. They are undoubtedly in Mr. Trohm's +favor." + +"I am glad to hear you say so," said I, "I am glad to hear you say so. +Why, it was in response to his appeal that you came to X. at all." + +Mr. Gryce's smile conveyed a reproach which I could not but acknowledge +I amply merited. Had he spent evening after evening at my house, +entertaining me with tales of the devices and the many inconsistencies +of criminals, to be met now by such a puerile disclaimer as this? But +beyond that smile he said nothing; on the contrary, he continued as if I +had not spoken at all. + +"But appearances," he declared, "will not stand before the insight of a +girl like Lucetta. She has marked the man as guilty, and we will give +her the opportunity of proving the correctness of her instinct." + +"But Mr. Trohm's house has been searched, and you have found +nothing--nothing," I argued somewhat feebly. + +"That is the reason we find ourselves forced to yield our judgment to +Lucetta's intuitions," was his quick reply. And smiling upon me with his +blandest air, he obligingly added: "Miss Butterworth is a woman of too +much character not to abide the event with all her accustomed +composure." And with this final suggestion, I was as yet too crushed to +resent, he dismissed me to an afternoon of unparalleled suspense and +many contradictory emotions. + + + + +XXXIX + +UNDER A CRIMSON SKY + + +When, in the course of events, the current of my thoughts receive a +decided check and I find myself forced to change former conclusions or +habituate myself to new ideas and a fresh standpoint, I do it, as I do +everything else, with determination and a total disregard of my own +previous predilections. Before the afternoon was well over I was ready +for any revelations which might follow Lucetta's contemplated action, +merely reserving a vague hope that my judgment would yet be found +superior to her instinct. + +At five o'clock the diggers began to go home. Nothing had been found +under the soil of Mother Jane's garden, and the excitement of search +which had animated them early in the day had given place to a dull +resentment mainly directed towards the Knollys family, if one could +judge of these men's feelings by the heavy scowls and significant +gestures with which they passed our broken-down gateway. + +By six the last man had filed by, leaving Mr. Gryce free for the work +which lay before him. + +I had retired long before this to my room, where I awaited the hour set +by Lucetta with a feverish impatience quite new to me. As none of us +could eat, the supper table had not been laid, and though I had no means +of knowing what was in store for us, the sombre silence and oppression +under which the whole house lay seemed a portent that was by no means +encouraging. + +Suddenly I heard a knock at my door. Rising hastily, I opened it. Loreen +stood before me, with parted lips and terror in all her looks. + +"Come!" she cried. "Come and see what I have found in Lucetta's room." + +"Then she's gone?" I cried. + +"Yes, she's gone, but come and see what she has left behind her." + +Hastening after Loreen, who was by this time half-way down the hall, I +soon found myself on the threshold of the room I knew to be Lucetta's. + +"She made me promise," cried Loreen, halting to look back at me, "that I +would let her go alone, and that I would not enter the highway till an +hour after her departure. But with these evidences of the extent of her +dread before us, how can we stay in this house?" And dragging me to a +table, she showed me lying on its top a folded paper and two letters. +The folded paper was Lucetta's Will, and the letters were directed +severally to Loreen and to myself with the injunction that they were not +to be read till she had been gone six hours. + +"She has prepared herself for death!" I exclaimed, shocked to my heart's +core, but determinedly hiding it. "But you need not fear any such event. +Is she not accompanied by Mr. Gryce?" + +"I do not know; I do not think so. How could she accomplish her task if +not alone? Miss Butterworth, Miss Butterworth, she has gone to brave Mr. +Trohm, our mother's persecutor and our life-long enemy, thinking, +hoping, believing that in so doing she will rouse his criminal +instincts, if he has them, and so lead to the discovery of his crimes +and the means by which he has been enabled to carry them out so long +undetected. It is noble, it is heroic, it is martyr-like, but--oh! Miss +Butterworth, I have never broken a promise to any one before in all my +life, but I am going to break the one I made her. Come, let us fly after +her! She has her lover's memory, but I have nothing in all the world but +her." + +I immediately turned and hastened down the stairs in a state of +humiliation which should have made ample amends for any show of +arrogance I may have indulged in in my more fortunate moments. + +Loreen followed me, and when we were in the lower hall she gave me a +look and said: + +"My promise was not to enter the highway. Would you be afraid to follow +me by another road--a secret road--all overgrown with thistles and +blackberry bushes which have not been trimmed up for years?" + +I thought of my thin shoes, my neat silk dress, but only to forget them +the next moment. + +"I will go anywhere," said I. + +But Loreen was already too far in advance of me to answer. She was young +and lithe, and had reached the kitchen before I had passed the Flower +Parlor. But when we had sped clear of the house I found that my progress +bade fair to be as rapid as hers, for her agitation was a hindrance to +her, while excitement always brings out my powers and heightens both my +wits and my judgment. + +Our way lay past the stables, from which I expected every minute to see +two or three dogs jump. But William, who had been discreetly sent out of +the way early in the afternoon, had taken Saracen with him, and possibly +the rest, so our passing by disturbed nothing, not even ourselves. The +next moment we were in a field of prickers, through which we both +struggled till we came into a sort of swamp. Here was bad going, but we +floundered on, edging continually toward a distant fence beyond which +rose the symmetrical lines of an orchard--Mr. Trohm's orchard, in which +those pleasant fruits grew which--Bah! should I ever be able to get the +taste of them out of my mouth! + +At a tiny gateway covered with vines, Loreen stopped. + +"I do not believe this has been opened for years, but it must be opened +now." And, throwing her whole weight against it, she burst it through, +and bidding me pass, hastened after me over the trailing branches and +made, without a word, for the winding path we now saw clearly defined on +the edge of the orchard before us. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Loreen, stopping one moment to catch her breath, "I do +not know what I fear or to what our steps will bring us. I only know +that I must hunt for Lucetta till I find her. If there is danger where +she is, I must share it. You can rest here or come farther on." + +I went farther on. + +Suddenly we both started; a man had sprung up from behind the hedgerow +that ran parallel with the fence that surrounded Mr. Trohm's place. + +"Silence!" he whispered, putting his finger on his lips. "If you are +looking for Miss Knollys," he added, seeing us both pause aghast, "she +is on the lawn beyond, talking to Mr. Trohm. If you will step here, you +can see her. She is in no kind of danger, but if she were, Mr. Gryce is +in the first row of trees to the back there, and a call from me----" + +That made me remember my whistle. It was still round my neck, but my +hand, which had instinctively gone to it, fell again in extraordinary +emotion as I realized the situation and compared it with that of the +morning when, blinded by egotism and foolish prejudice in favor of this +man, I ate of his fruit and hearkened to his outrageous addresses. + +"Come!" beckoned Loreen, happily too absorbed in her own emotions to +notice mine. "Let us get nearer. If Mr. Trohm is the wicked man we fear, +there is no telling what the means are which he uses to get rid of his +victims. There was nothing to be found in his house, but who knows where +the danger may lurk, and that it may not be near her now? It was +evidently to dare it she came, to offer herself as a martyr, that we +might know----" + +"Hush!" I whispered, controlling my own fears roused against my will by +this display of terror in this usually calmest of natures. "No danger +can menace her where they stand, unless he is a common assassin and +carries a pistol----" + +"No pistol," murmured the man, who had crept again near us. "Pistols +make a noise. He will not use a pistol." + +"Good God!" I whispered. "_You_ do not share her sister's fears that it +is in the heart of this man to kill Lucetta?" + +"Five strong men have disappeared hereabout," said the fellow, never +moving his eye from the couple before us. "Why not one weak girl?" + +With a cry Loreen started forward. "Run!" she whispered. "Run!" + +But as this word left her lips, a slight movement took place in the belt +of trees where we had been told Mr. Gryce lay in hiding, and we could +see him issue for a moment into sight with his finger like that of his +man laid warningly on his lips. Loreen trembled and drew back, seeing +which, the man beside us pointed to the hedge and whispered softly: + +"There is just room between it and the fence for a person to pass +sideways. If you and this lady want to get nearer to Miss Knollys, you +might take that road. But Mr. Gryce will expect you to be very quiet. +The young lady expressly said, before she came into this place, that she +could do nothing if for any reason Mr. Trohm should suspect they were +not alone." + +"We will be quiet," I assured him, anxious to hide my face, which I felt +twitch at every mention of Mr. Trohm's name. Loreen was already behind +the hedge. + +The evening was one of those which are made for peace. The sun, which +had set in crimson, had left a glow on the branches of the forest which +had not yet faded into the gray of twilight. The lawn, around which we +were skirting, had not lost the mellow brilliancy which made it sparkle, +nor had the cluster of varied-hued hollyhocks which set their +gorgeousness against the neat yellow of the peaceful doorposts, shown +any dimness in their glory, which was on a par with that of the setting +sun. But though I saw all this, it no longer appeared to me desirable. +Lucetta and Lucetta's fate, the mystery and the impossibility of its +being explained out here in the midst of turf and blossoms, filled all +my thoughts, and made me forget my own secret cause for shame and +humiliation. + +Loreen, who had wormed her way along till she crouched nearly opposite +to the place where her sister stood, plucked me by the gown as I +approached her, and, pointing to the hedge, which pressed up so close it +nearly touched our faces, seemed to bid me look through. Searching for a +spot where there was a small opening, I put my eye to this and +immediately drew back. + +"They are moving nearer the gate," I signalled to Loreen, at which she +crept along a few paces, but with a stealth so great that, alert as I +was, I could not hear a twig snap. I endeavored to imitate her, but not +with as much success as I could wish. The sense of horror which had all +at once settled upon me, the supernatural dread of something which I +could not see, but which I felt, had seized me for the first time and +made the ruddy sky and the broad stretch of velvet turf with the shadows +playing over it of swaying tree-tops and clustered oleanders, more +thrilling and awesome to me than the dim halls of the haunted house of +the Knollys family in that midnight hour when I saw a body carried out +for burial amid trouble and hush and a mystery so great it would have +daunted most spirits for the remainder of their lives. + +The very sweetness of the scene made its horror. Never have I had such +sensations, never have I felt so deeply the power of the unseen, yet it +seemed so impossible that anything could happen here, anything which +would explain the total disappearance of several persons at different +times, without a trace of their fate being left to the eye, that I could +but liken my state to that of nightmare, where visions take the place of +realities and often overwhelm them. + +I had pressed too close against the hedge as I struggled with these +feelings, and the sound I made struck me as distinct, if not alarming; +but the tree-tops were rustling overhead, and, while Lucetta might have +heard the hedge-branches crack, her companion gave no evidence of doing +so. We could distinguish what they were saying now, and realizing this, +we stopped moving and gave our whole attention to listening. Mr. Trohm +was speaking. I could hardly believe it was his voice, it had so changed +in tone, nor could I perceive in his features, distorted as they now +were by every evil passion, the once quiet and dignified countenance +which had so lately imposed upon me. + +"Lucetta, my little Lucetta," he was saying, "so she has come to see me, +come to taunt me with the loss of her lover, whom she says I have robbed +her of almost before her eyes! I rob her! How can I rob her or any one +of a man with a voice and arm of his own stronger than mine? Am I a +wizard to dissipate his body in vapor? Yet can you find it in my house +or on my lawn? You are a fool, Lucetta; so are all these men about here +fools! It is in your house----" + +"Hush!" she cried, her slight figure rising till we forgot it was the +feeble Lucetta we were gazing at. "No more accusations directed against +us. It is you who must expect them now. Mr. Trohm, your evil practices +are discovered. To-morrow you will have the police here in earnest. They +did but play with you when they were here before." + +"You child!" he gasped, striving, however, to restrain all evidences of +shock and terror. "Why, who was it called in the police and set them +working in Lost Man's Lane? Was it not I----" + +"Yes, that they might not suspect you, and perhaps that they might +suspect us. But it was useless, Obadiah Trohm. Althea Knollys' children +have been long-suffering, but the limit of their forbearance has been +reached. When you laid your hand upon my lover, you roused a spirit in +me that nothing but your own destruction can satisfy. Where is he, Mr. +Trohm? and where is Silly Rufus and all the rest who have vanished +between Deacon Spear's house and the little home of the cripples on the +highroad? They have asked me this question, but if any one in Lost Man's +Lane can answer, it is you, persecutor of my mother, and traducer of +ourselves, whom I here denounce in face of these skies where God reigns +and this earth where man lives to harry and condemn." + +And then I saw that the instinct of this girl had accomplished what our +united acumen and skill had failed to do. The old man--indeed he seemed +an old man now--cringed, and the wrinkles came out in his face till he +was demoniacally ugly. + +"You viper!" he shrieked. "How dare you accuse me of crime--you whose +mother would have died in jail but for my forbearance? Have you ever +seen me set my foot upon a worm? Look at my fruit and flowers, look at +my home, without a spot or blemish to mar its neatness and propriety. +Can a man who loves these things stomach the destruction of a man, much +less of a silly, yawping boy? Lucetta, you are mad!" + +"Mad or sane, my accusation will have its results, Mr. Trohm. I believe +too deeply in your guilt not to make others do so." + +"Ah," said he, "then you have not done so yet? You believe this and +that, but you have not told any one what your suspicions are?" + +"No," she calmly returned, though her face blanched to the colorlessness +of wax, "I have not said what I think of you yet." + +Oh, the cunning that crept into his face! + +"She has not said. Oh, the little Lucetta, the wise, the careful little +Lucetta!" + +"But I will," she cried, meeting his eye with the courage and constancy +of a martyr, "though I bring destruction upon myself. I will denounce +you and do it before the night has settled down upon us. I have a lover +to avenge, a brother to defend. Besides, the earth should be rid of such +a monster as you." + +"Such a monster as I? Well, my pretty one,"--his voice grown suddenly +wheedling, his face a study of mingled passions,--"we will see about +that. Come just a step nearer, Lucetta. I want to see if you are really +the little girl I used to dandle on my knee." + +They were now near the gateway. They had been moving all this time. His +hand was on the curb of the old well. His face, so turned that it caught +the full glare of the setting sun, leaned toward the girl, exerting a +fascinating influence upon her. She took the step he asked, and before +we could shriek out "Beware!" we saw him bend forward with a sudden +quick motion and then start upright again, while her form, which but an +instant before had stood there in all its frail and inspired beauty, +tottered as if the ground were bending under it, and in another moment +disappeared from our appalled sight, swallowed in some dreadful cavern +that for an instant yawned in the smoothly cut lawn before us, and then +vanished again from sight as if it had never been. + +A shriek from my whistle mingled with a simultaneous cry of agony from +Loreen. We heard Mr. Gryce rush from behind us, but we ourselves found +it impossible to stir, paralyzed as we were by the sight of the old +man's demoniacal delight. He was leaping to and fro over the turf, +holding up his fingers in the red sunset glare. + +"Six!" he shrieked. "Six! and room for two more! Oh, it's a merry life I +lead! Flowers and fruit and love-making" (oh, how I cringed at that!), +"and now and then a little spice like this! But where is my pretty +Lucetta? Surely she was here a moment ago. How could she have vanished, +then, so quickly? I do not see her form amid the trees, there is no +trace of her presence upon the lawn, and if they search the house from +top to bottom and from bottom to top they will find nothing of her--no, +not so much as a print of her footstep or the scent of the violets she +so often wears tucked into her hair." + +These last words, uttered in a different voice from the rest, gave the +clue to the whole situation. We saw, even while we all bounded forward +to the rescue of the devoted maiden, that he was one of those maniacs +who have perfect control over themselves and pass for very decent sort +of men except in the moment of triumph; and, noting his look of sinister +delight, perceived that half his pleasure and almost his sole reward for +the horrible crimes he had perpetrated, was in the mystery surrounding +his victims and the entire immunity from suspicion which up to this time +he had enjoyed. + +Meantime Mr. Gryce had covered the wretch with his pistol, and his man, +who succeeded in reaching the place even sooner than ourselves, hampered +as we were by the almost impenetrable hedge behind which we had +crouched, tried to lift the grass-covered lid we could faintly discern +there. But this was impossible until I, with almost superhuman +self-possession, considering the imperative nature of the emergency, +found the spring hidden in the well-curb which worked the deadly +mechanism. A yell from the writhing creature cowering under the +detective's pistol guided me unconsciously in its action, and in another +moment we saw the fatal lid tip and disclose what appeared to be the +remains of a second well, long ago dried up and abandoned for the other. + +The rescue of Lucetta followed. As she had fainted in falling she had +not suffered much, and soon we had the supreme delight of seeing her +eyes unclose. + +"Ah," she murmured, in a voice whose echo pierced to every heart save +that of the guilty wretch now lying handcuffed on the sward, "I thought +I saw Albert! He was not dead, and I----" + +But here Mr. Gryce, with an air at once contrite and yet strangely +triumphant, interposed his benevolent face between hers and her weeping +sister's and whispered something in her ear which turned her pallid +cheek to a glowing scarlet. Rising up, she threw her arms around his +neck and let him lift her. As he carried her--where was his rheumatism +now?--out of those baleful grounds and away from the reach of the +maniac's mingled laughs and cries, her face was peace itself. But +his--well, his was a study. + + + + +XL + +EXPLANATIONS + + +The hour we all spent together late that night in the old house was +unlike any hour which that place had seen for years. Mr. Ostrander, +Lucetta, Loreen, William, Mr. Gryce, and myself, all were there, and as +an especial grace, Saracen was allowed to enter, that there might not be +a cloud upon a single face there assembled. Though it is a small matter, +I will add that this dog persisted in lying down by my side, not +yielding even to the wiles of his master, whose amusement over this fact +kept him good-natured to the last adieu. + +There were too few candles in the house to make it bright, but Lucetta's +unearthly beauty, the peace in Loreen's soft eyes, made us forget the +sombreness of our surroundings and the meagreness of the entertainment +Hannah attempted to offer us. It was the promise of coming joy, and +when, our two guests departed, I bade good-night to the girls in their +grim upper hall, it was with feelings which found their best expression +in the two letters I hastened to write as soon as I gained the refuge of +my own apartment. I will admit you sufficiently into my confidence to +let you read those letters. The first of them ran thus: + + "DEAR OLIVE: + + "To make others happy is the best way to forget our own + misfortunes. A sudden wedding is to take place in this house. + Order at once for me from the shops you know me to be in the + habit of patronizing, a wedding gown of dainty white taffeta [I + did this not to recall too painfully to herself the wedding + dress I helped her buy, and which was, as you may remember, of + creamy satin], with chiffon trimmings, and a wedding veil of + tulle. Add to this a dress suitable for ocean travel and a + half-dozen costumes adapted to a southern climate. Let + everything be suitable for a delicate but spirited girl who has + seen trouble, but who is going to be happy now if a little + attention and money can make her so. Do not spare expense, yet + show no extravagance, for she is a shy bird, easily frightened. + The measurements you will find enclosed; also those of another + young lady, her sister, who must also be supplied with a white + dress, the material of which, however, had better be of crape. + + "All these things must be here by Wednesday evening, my own + best dress included. On Saturday evening you may look for my + return. I shall bring the latter young lady with me, so your + present loneliness will be forgotten in the pleasure of + entertaining an agreeable guest. Faithfully yours, + + "AMELIA BUTTERWORTH." + +The second letter was a longer and more important one. It was directed +to the president of the company which had proposed to send Mr. Ostrander +to South America. In it I related enough of the circumstances which had +kept Mr. Ostrander in X. to interest him in the young couple personally, +and then I told him that if he would forgive Mr. Ostrander this delay +and allow him to sail with his young bride by the next steamer, I myself +would undertake to advance whatever sums might have been lost by this +change of arrangement. + +I did not know then that Mr. Gryce had already made this matter good +with this same gentleman. + +The next morning we all took a walk in the lane. (I say nothing about +the night. If I did not choose to sleep, or if I had any cause not to +feel quite as elevated in spirit as the young people about me, there is +surely no reason why I should dwell upon it with you or even apologize +for a weakness which you will regard, I hope, as an exception setting +off my customary strength.) + +Now a walk in this lane was an event. To feel at liberty to stroll among +its shadows without fear, to know that the danger had been so located +that we all felt free to inhale the autumn air and to enjoy the beauties +of the place without a thought of peril lurking in its sweetest nooks +and most attractive coverts, gave to this short half-hour a distinctive +delight aptly expressed by Loreen when she said: + +"I never knew the place was so beautiful. Why, I think I can be happy +here now." At which Lucetta grew pensive, till I roused her by saying: + +"So much for a constitutional, girls. Now we must to work. This house, +as you see it now, has to be prepared for a wedding. William, your +business will be to see that these grounds are put in as good order as +possible in the short time allotted to you. I will bear the expense, and +Loreen----" + +But William had a word to say for himself. + +"Miss Butterworth," said he, "you're a right good sort of woman, as +Saracen has found out, and we, too, in these last few plaguy days. But +I'm not such a bad lot either, and if I do like my own way, which may +not be other people's way, and if I am sometimes short with the girls +for some of their d--d nonsense, I have a little decency about me, too, +and I promise to fix these grounds, and out of my own money, too. Now +that nine tenths of our income does not have to go abroad, we'll have +chink enough to let us live in a respectable manner once more in a place +where one horse, if he's good enough, will give a fellow a standing and +make him the envy of those who, for some other pesky reasons, may think +themselves called upon to fight shy of him. I don't begrudge the old +place a few dollars, especially as I mean to live and die in it; so look +out, you three women folks, and work as lively as you can on the inside +of the old rookery, or the slickness of the outside will put you to open +shame, and that would never please Loreen, nor, as I take it, Miss +Butterworth either." + +It was a challenge we were glad to accept, especially as from the number +of persons we now saw come flocking into the lane, it was very apparent +that we should experience no further difficulty in obtaining any help we +might need to carry out our undertakings. + +Meantime my thoughts were not altogether concentrated upon these +pleasing plans for Lucetta's benefit. There were certain points yet to +be made clear in the matter just terminated, and there was a confession +for me to make, without which I could not face Mr. Gryce with all that +unwavering composure which our peculiar relations seemed to demand. + +The explanations came first. They were volunteered by Mr. Gryce, whom I +met in the course of the morning at Mother Jane's cottage. That old +crone had been perfectly happy all night, sleeping with the coin in her +hand and waking to again devour it with her greedy but loving eyes. As I +was alternately watching her and Mr. Gryce, who was directing with his +hand the movements of the men who had come to smooth down her garden and +make it presentable again, the detective spoke: + +"I suppose you have found it difficult, in the light of these new +discoveries, to explain to yourself how Mother Jane happened to have +those trinkets from the peddler's pack, and also how the ring, which you +very naturally thought must have been entrusted to the dove by Mr. +Chittenden himself, came to be about its neck when it flew home that day +of Mr. Chittenden's disappearance. Madam, we think old Mother Jane must +have helped herself out of the peddler's pack before it was found in the +woods there back of her hut, and of the other matter our explanation is +this: + +"One day a young man, equipped for travelling, paused for a glass of +water at the famous well in Mr. Trohm's garden just as Mother Jane's +pigeons were picking up the corn scattered for them by the former, whose +tastes are not confined to the cultivation of fruits and flowers, but +extend to dumb animals, to whom he is uniformly kind. The young man wore +a ring, and, being nervous, was fiddling with it as he talked to the +pleasant old gentleman who was lowering the bucket for him. As he +fiddled with it, the earth fell from under him, and as the daylight +vanished above his head, the ring flew from his up-thrown hand, and lay, +the only token of his now blotted-out existence, upon the emerald sward +he had but a moment before pressed with his unsuspicious feet. It +burned--this ruby burned like a drop of blood in the grass, when that +demon came again to his senses, and being a tell-tale evidence of crime +in the eyes of one who had allowed nothing to ever speak against him in +these matters, he stared at it as at a deadly thing directed against +himself and to be got rid of at once and by means which by no +possibility could recoil back upon himself as its author. + +"The pigeons stalking near offered to his abnormally acute understanding +the only solution which would leave him absolutely devoid of fear. He +might have swung open the lid of the well once more and flung it after +its owner, but this meant an aftermath of experience from which he +shrank, his delight being in the thought that the victims he saw vanish +before his eyes were so many encumbrances wiped off the face of the +earth by a sweep of the hand. To see or hear them again would be +destructive of this notion. He preferred the subtler way and to take +advantage of old Mother Jane's characteristics, so he caught one of the +pigeons (he has always been able to lure birds into his hands), and +tying the ring around the neck of the bird with a blade of grass plucked +up from the highway, he let it fly, and so was rid of the bauble which +to Mother Jane's eyes, of course, was a direct gift from the heavens +through which the bird had flown before lighting on her doorstep." + +"Wonderful!" I exclaimed, almost overwhelmed with humiliation, but +preserving a brave front. "What invention and what audacity!--the +invention and the audacity of a man totally irresponsible for his deeds, +was it not?" I asked. "There is no doubt, is there, about his being an +absolute maniac?" + +"No, madam." What a relief I felt at that word! "Since we entrapped him +yesterday and he found himself fully discovered, he has lost all grip +upon himself and fills the room we put him in with the unmistakable +ravings of a madman. It was through these I learned the facts I have +just mentioned." + +I drew a deep breath. We were standing in the sight of several men, and +their presence there seemed intolerable. Unconsciously I began to walk +away. Unconsciously Mr. Gryce followed me. At the end of several paces +we both stopped. We were no longer visible to the crowd, and I felt I +could speak the words I had been burning to say ever since I saw the +true nature of Mr. Trohm's character exposed. + +"Mr. Gryce," said I, flushing scarlet--which I here solemnly declare is +something which has not happened to me before in years, and if I can +help it shall never happen to me again,--"I am interested in what you +say, because yesterday, at his own gateway, Mr. Trohm proposed to me, +and----" + +"You did not accept him?" + +"No. What do you think I am made of, Mr. Gryce? I did not accept him, +but I made the refusal a gentle one, and--this is not easy work, Mr. +Gryce," I interrupted myself to say with suitable grimness--"the same +thing took place between me and Deacon Spear, and to him I gave a +response such as I thought his presumption warranted. The discrimination +does not argue well for my astuteness, Mr. Gryce. You see, I crave no +credit that I do not deserve. Perhaps you cannot understand that, but it +is a part of my nature." + +"Madam," said he, and I must own I thought his conduct perfect, "had I +not been as completely deceived as yourself I might find words of +criticism for this possibly unprofessional partiality. But when an old +hand like myself can listen to the insinuations of a maniac, and repose, +as I must say I did repose, more or less confidence in the statements he +chose to make me, and which were true enough as to the facts he +mentioned, but wickedly false and preposterously wrong in suggestion, I +can have no words of blame for a woman who, whatever her understanding +and whatever her experience, necessarily has seen less of human nature +and its incalculable surprises. As to the more delicate matter you have +been good enough to confide to me, madam, I have but one remark to make. +With such an example of womanhood suddenly brought to their notice in +such a wild as this, how could you expect them, sane or insane, to do +otherwise than they did? I know many a worthy man who would like to +follow their example." And with a bow that left me speechless, Mr. Gryce +laid his hand on his heart and softly withdrew. + + + + +EPILOGUE + +SOME STRAY LEAFLETS FROM AN OLD DIARY OF ALTHEA KNOLLYS, FOUND BY ME IN +THE PACKET LEFT IN MY CHARGE BY HER DAUGHTER LUCETTA. + + +I never thought I should do so foolish a thing as begin a diary. When in +my boarding-school days (which I am very glad to be rid of) I used to +see Meeley Butterworth sit down every night of her life over a little +book which she called the repository of her daily actions, I thought +that if ever I reached that point of imbecility I would deserve to have +fewer lovers and more sense, just as she so frequently advised me to. +And yet here I am, pencil in hand, jotting down the nothings of the +moment, and with every prospect of continuing to do so for two weeks at +least. For (why was I born such a chatterbox!) I have seen my fate, and +must talk to some one about him, if only to myself, nature never having +meant me to keep silence on any living topic that interests me. + +Yes, with lovers in Boston, lovers in New York, and a most determined +suitor on the other side of our own home-walls in Peekskill, I have +fallen victim to the grave face and methodical ways of a person I need +not name, since he is the only gentleman in this whole town, except--But +I won't except anybody. Charles Knollys has no peer here or anywhere, +and this I am ready to declare, after only one sight of his face and one +look from his eye, though to no one but you, my secret, non-committal +confidant--for to acknowledge to any human being that my admiration +could be caught, or my heart touched, by a person who had not sued two +years at my feet, would be to abdicate an ascendency I am so accustomed +to I could not see it vanish without pain. Besides, who knows how I +shall feel to-morrow? Meeley Butterworth never shows any hesitation in +uttering her opinion either of men or things, but then her opinion never +changes, whilst mine is a very thistle-down, blowing hither and thither +till I cannot follow its wanderings myself. It is one of my charms, +certain fools say, but that is nonsense. If my cheeks lacked color and +my eyes were without sparkle, or even if I were two inches taller +instead of being the tiniest bit of mortal flesh to be found amongst all +the young ladies of my age in our so-called society, I doubt if the +lightness of my mind would meet with the approbation of even the warmest +woman-lovers of this time. As it is, it just passes, and sometimes, as +to-night, for instance, when I can hardly see to inscribe these lines on +this page for the vision of two grave, if not quietly reproving eyes +which float between it and me, I almost wish I had some of Meeley's +responsible characteristics, instead of being the airiest, merriest, and +most volatile being that ever tried to laugh down the grandeur of this +dreary old house with its century of memories. + +Ah! that allusion has given me something to say. This house. What is +there about it except its size to make a stranger like me look back +continually over her shoulder in going down the long halls, or even when +nestling comfortably by the great wood-fire in the immense drawing-room? +_I_ am not one of your fanciful ones; but I can no more help doing this, +than I can help wishing Judge Knollys lived in a less roomy mansion with +fewer echoing corners in its innumerable passages. _I_ like brightness +and cheer, at least in my surroundings. If I must have gloom, or a +seriousness which some would call gloom, let me have it in individuals +where there is some prospect of a blithe, careless-hearted little midget +effecting a change, and not in great towering walls and endless floors +which no amount of sunshine or laughter could ever render homelike, or +even comfortable. + +But there! If one has the man, one must have the home, so I had better +say no more against the home till I am quite sure I do not want the man. +For--Well, well, I am not a fool, but I _did_ hear something just then, +a something which makes me tremble yet, though I have spent five good +minutes trilling the gayest songs I know. + +I think it is very inconsiderate of the witches to bother thus a +harmless mite like myself, who only asks for love, light, and money +enough to buy a ribbon or a jewel when the fancy takes her, which is not +as often as my enemies declare. And now a question! Why are my enemies +always to be found among the girls, and among the plainest of them too? +I never heard a man say anything against me, though I have sometimes +surprised a look on their faces (I saw it to-day) which might signify +reproof if it were not accompanied by a smile showing anything but +displeasure. + +But this is a digression, as Meeley would say. What I want to do, but +which I seem to find it very difficult to do, is to tell how I came to +be here, and what I have seen since I came. First, then, to be very +short about the matter, I am here because the old folks--that is, my +father and Mr. Knollys, have decided Charles and I should know each +other. In thought, I courtesy to the decision; I think we ought to too. +For while many other men are handsomer or better known, or have more +money, alas! than he, he alone has a way of drawing up to one's side +with an air that captivates the eye and sets the heart trembling, a +heart, moreover, that never knew before it could tremble, except in the +presence of great worldly prosperity and beautiful, beautiful things. +So, as this experience is new, I am dutifully obliged for the excitement +it gives me, and am glad to be here, awesome as the place is, and +destitute of any such pleasures as I have been accustomed to in the gay +cities where I have hitherto spent most of my time. + +But there! I am rambling again. I have come to X., as you now see, for +good and sufficient reasons, and while this house is one of consequence +and has been the resort of many notable people, it is a little lonesome, +our only neighbor being a young man who has a fine enough appearance, +but who has already shown his admiration of me so plainly--of course he +was in the road when I drove up to the house--that I lost all interest +in him at once, such a nonsensical liking at first sight being, as I +take it, a tribute only to my audacious little travelling bonnet and the +curl or two which will fall out on my cheek when I move my head about +too quickly, as I certainly could not be blamed for doing, in driving +into a place where I was expected to make myself happy for two weeks. + +He, then, is out of these chronicles. When I say his name is Obadiah +Trohm, you will probably be duly thankful. But he is not as stiff and +biblical as his name would lead you to expect. On the contrary, he is +lithe, graceful, and suave to a point which makes Charles Knollys' +judicial face a positive relief to the eye and such little understanding +as has been accorded me. + +I cannot write another word. It is twelve o'clock, and though I have the +cosiest room in the house, all chintz and decorated china, I find myself +listening and peering just as I did down-stairs in their great barn of a +drawing-room. I wonder if any very dreadful things ever happened in this +house? I will ask old Mr. Knollys to-morrow, or--or Mr. Charles. + + * * * * * + +I am sorry I was so inquisitive; for the stories Charles told me--I +thought I had better not trouble the old gentleman--have only served to +people the shadows of this rambling old house with figures of whose +acquaintance I am likely to be more or less shy. One tale in particular +gave me the shivers. It was about a mother and daughter who both loved +the same man (it seems incredible, girls so seldom seeing with the eyes +of their mothers), and it was the daughter who married him, while the +mother, broken-hearted, fled from the wedding and was driven up to the +great door, here, in a coach, dead. They say that the coach still +travels the road just before some calamity to the family,--a phantom +coach which floats along in shadow, turning the air about it to mist +that chills the marrow in the bones of the unfortunate who sees it. I am +going to see it myself some day, the real coach, I mean, in which this +tragic event took place. It is still in the stable, Charles tells me. I +wonder if I will have the courage to sit where that poor devoted mother +breathed out her miserable existence. I shall endeavor to do so if only +to defy the fate which seems to be closing in upon me. + +Charles is an able lawyer, but his argument in favor of close bonnets +_versus_ bewitching little pokes with a rose or two in front, was very +weak, I thought, to-day. He seemed to think so himself, after a while; +for when, as the only means of convincing him of the weakness of the +cause he was advocating, I ran up-stairs and put on a poke similar to +the aforesaid, he retracted at once and let the case go by default. For +which I, and the poke, made suitable acknowledgments, to the great +amusement of papa Knollys, who was on my side from the first. + +Not much going on to-day. Yet I have never felt merrier. Oh, ye hideous, +bare old walls! Won't I make you ring if---- + + * * * * * + +I won't have it! I won't have that smooth, persistent hypocrite pushing +his way into my presence, when my whole heart and attention belong to a +man who would love me if he only could get his own leave to do so. +Obadiah Trohm has been here to-day, on one pretext or another, three +times. Once he came to bring some very choice apples--as if I cared for +apples! The second time he had a question of great importance, no doubt, +to put to Charles, and as Charles was in my company, the whole interview +lasted, let us say, a good half-hour at least. The third time he came, +it was to see _me_, which, as it was now evening, meant talk, talk, talk +in the great drawing-room, with just a song interpolated now and then, +instead of a cosy chat in the window-seat of the pretty Flower Parlor, +with only one pair of ears to please and one pair of eyes to watch. +Master Trohm was intrusive, and, if no one felt it but myself, it is +because Charles Knollys has set himself up an ideal of womanhood to +which I am a contradiction. But that will not affect the end. A woman +may be such a contradiction and yet win, if her heart is in the struggle +and she has, besides, a certain individuality of her own which appeals +to the eye and heart if not to the understanding. I do not despair of +seeing Charles Knollys' forehead taking a very deep frown at sight of +his handsome and most attentive neighbor. Heigho! why don't I answer +Meeley Butterworth's last letter? Am I ashamed to tell her that I have +to limit my effusion to just four pages because I have commenced a +diary? + + * * * * * + +I declare I begin to regard it a misfortune to have dimples. I never +have regarded it so before when I have seen man after man succumb to +them, but _now_ they have become my bane, for they attract two admirers, +just at the time they should attract but one, and it is upon the wrong +man they flash the oftenest; why, I leave it to all true lovers to +explain. As a consequence, Master Trohm is beginning to assume an air of +superiority, and Charles, who may not believe in dimples, but who on +that very account, perhaps, seems to be always on the lookout for them, +shrinks more or less into the background, as is not becoming in a man +with so many claims to respect, if not to love. _I_ want to feel that +each one of these precious fourteen days contains all that it can of +delight and satisfaction, and how can I when Obadiah--oh, the charming +and romantic name!--holds my crewels, instead of Charles, and whispers +words which, coming from other lips, would do more than waken my +dimples! + +But if I must have a suitor, just when a suitor is not wanted, let me at +least make him useful. Charles shall read his own heart in this man's +passion. + + * * * * * + +I don't know why, but I have taken a dislike to the Flower Parlor. It +now vies with the great drawing-room in my disregard. Yesterday, in +crossing it, I felt a chill, so sudden and so penetrating, that I +irresistibly thought of the old saying, "Some one is walking over my +grave." _My grave!_ where lies it, and why should I feel the shudder of +it now? Am I destined to an early death? The bounding life in my veins +says no. But I never again shall like that room. It has made me think. + + * * * * * + +I have not only sat in the old coach, but I had (let me drop the words +slowly, they are so precious) I--I have had--a _kiss_--given me there. +Charles gave me this kiss; he could not help it. I was sitting on the +seat in front, in a sort of mock mirth he was endeavoring to frown upon, +when suddenly I glanced up and our eyes met, and--He says it was the +sauciness of my dimples (oh, those old dimples! they seem to have stood +me in good stead after all); but I say it was my sincere affection which +drew him, for he stooped like a man forgetful of everything in the whole +wide world but the little trembling, panting being before him, and gave +me one of those caresses which seals a woman's fate forever, and made +me, the feather-brained and thoughtless coquette, a slave to this +large-minded and true-hearted man for all my life hereafter. + +Why I should be so happy over this event is beyond my understanding. +That he should be in the seventh heaven of delight is only to be +expected, but that I should find myself tripping through this gloomy old +house like one treading on air is a mystery, to the elucidation of which +I can only give my dimples. My reason can make nothing out of it. I, who +thought of nothing short of a grand establishment in Boston, money, +servants, and a husband who would love me blindly whatever my faults, +have given my troth--you will say my lips, but the one means the +other--to a man who will never be known outside of his own county, never +be rich, never be blind even, for he frowns upon me as often as he +smiles, and, worst of all, who lives in a house so vast and so full of +tragic suggestion that it might well awaken doleful anticipations in +much more serious-minded persons than myself. + +And yet I am happy, so happy that I have even attempted to make the +acquaintance of the grim old portraits and weak pastels which line the +walls of many of these bedrooms. Old Mr. Knollys caught me courtesying +just now before one of these ancestral beauties, whose face seemed to +hold a faint prophecy of my own, and perceiving by my blushes that this +was something more than a mere childish freak on my part, he chucked me +under the chin and laughingly asked, how long it was likely to be before +he might have the honor of adding my pretty face to the collection. +Which should have made me indignant, only I am not in an indignant mood +just now. + + * * * * * + +Why have I been so foolish? Why did I not let my over-fond neighbor know +from the beginning that I detested him, instead of--But what have I done +anyway? A smile, a nod, a laughing word mean nothing. When one has eyes +which persist in dancing in spite of one's every effort to keep them +demure, men who become fools are apt to call one a coquette, when a +little good sense would teach them that the woman who smiles always has +some other way of showing her regard to the man she really favors. I +could not help being on merry terms with Mr. Trohm, if only to hide the +effect another's presence has on me. But he thinks otherwise, and to-day +I had ample reason for seeing why his good looks and easy manners have +invariably awakened distrust in me rather than admiration. Master Trohm +is vindictive, and I should be afraid of him, if I had not observed in +him the presence of another passion which will soon engross all his +attention and make him forget me as soon as ever I become Charles' wife. +Money is his idol, and as fortune seems to favor him, he will soon be +happy in the mere pleasure of accumulation. But this is not relating +what happened to-day. + +We were walking in the shrubbery (by _we_ I naturally mean Charles and +myself), and he was saying things which made me at the same time happy +and a bit serious, when I suddenly felt myself under the spell of some +baleful influence that filled me with a dismay I could neither +understand nor escape from. + +As this could not proceed from Charles, I turned to look about me, when +I encountered the eyes of Obadiah Trohm, who was leaning on the fence +separating his grounds from those of Mr. Knollys, looking directly at +us. If I flinched at this surveillance, it was but the natural +expression of my indignation. His face wore a look calculated to +frighten any one, and though he did not respond to the gesture I made +him, I felt that my only chance of escaping a scene was to induce +Charles to leave me before he should see what I saw in the lowering +countenance of his intrusive neighbor. As the situation demanded +self-possession and the exercise of a ready wit, and as these are +qualities in which I am not altogether deficient, I succeeded in +carrying out my intention sooner even than I expected. Charles hurried +from my presence at the first word, and proceeded towards the house +without seeing Trohm, and I, quivering with dread, turned towards the +man whom I felt, rather than saw, approaching me. + +He met me with a look I shall never forget. I have had lovers--too many +of them,--and this is not the first man I have been compelled to meet +with rebuff and disdain, but never in the whole course of my none too +extended existence have I been confronted by such passion or overwhelmed +with such bitter recrimination. He seemed like a man beside himself, yet +he was quiet, too quiet, and while his voice did not rise above a +whisper, and he approached no nearer than the demands of courtesy +required, he produced so terrifying an effect upon me that I longed to +cry for help, and would have done so, but that my throat closed with +fright, and I could only gurgle forth a remonstrance, too faint even for +him to hear. + +"You have played with a man's best feelings," he said. "You have led me +to believe that I had only to speak to have you for my own. Are you +simply foolish, or are you wicked? Did you care for me at all, or was it +only your wish to increase the number of men in your train? This one" +(here his hand pointed quiveringly towards the house) "has enjoyed a +happiness denied me. His hand has touched yours, his lips--" Here his +words became almost unintelligible till his purpose gave him strength, +and he cried: "But notwithstanding this, notwithstanding any vows you +may have exchanged, I have claims upon you that I will not yield. I who +have loved no woman before you, will have such a hand in your fate that +you will never be able to separate yourself from the influence I shall +exert over you. I will not intrude between you and your lover; I will +not affect dislike or disturb your outer life with any vain display of +my hatred or my passion, but I will work upon your secret thoughts, and +create a slowly increasing dread in the inner sanctuary of your heart +till you wish you had called up the deadliest of serpents in your +pathway rather than the latent fury of Obadiah Trohm. You are a girl +now; when you are married and become a mother, you will understand me. +For the present I leave you. The shadow of this old house which has +never seen much happiness within it will soon rest upon your thoughtless +head. What that will not do, your own inherent weakness will. The woman +who trifles with a strong man's heart has a flaw in her nature which +will work out her own destruction in time. I can afford to let you enjoy +your prospective honeymoon in peace. Afterwards--" He cast a threatening +look towards the decaying structure behind me, and was silent. But that +silence did not unloose my tongue. I was absolutely speechless. + +"Ten brides have crossed yonder threshold," he presently went on in a +low musing tone freighted with horrible fatality. "One--and she was the +girl whose mother was driven up to these doors dead--lived to take her +grandchildren on her knees. The rest died early, and most of them +unhappily. Oh, I have studied the traditions of your future home! _You_ +will live, but of all the brides who have triumphed in the honorable +name of Knollys, you will lead the saddest life and meet the gloomiest +end notwithstanding you stand before me now, with loose locks flying in +the wind, and a heart so gay that even my despair can barely pale the +roses on your cheek." + +This was the raving of a madman. I recognized it as such, and took a +little heart. How could he see into my future? How could he prophesy +evil to one over whom he will have no control? to one watched over and +beloved by a man like Charles? He is a dreamer, a fanatic. His talk +about the flaw in my nature is nonsense, and as for the fate lowering +over my head, in the shadows falling from the toppling old house in +which I am likely to take up my abode--that is only frenzy, and I would +be unworthy of happiness to heed it. As I realized this, my indignation +grew, and, uttering a few contemptuous words, I was hurrying away when +he stopped me with a final warning. + +"Wait!" he said, "women like you cannot keep either their joys or their +miseries to themselves. But I advise you not to take Charles Knollys +into your confidence. If you do, a duel will follow, and if I have not +the legal acumen of your intended, I have an eye and a hand before which +he must fall, if our passions come to an issue. So beware! never while +you live betray what has passed between us at this interview, unless the +weariness of a misplaced affection should come to you, and with it the +desire to be rid of your husband." + +A frightful threat which, unfortunately perhaps, has sealed my lips. Oh, +why should such monsters live! + + * * * * * + +I have been all through the house to-day with old Mr. Knollys. Every +room was opened for my inspection, and I was bidden to choose which +should be refurnished for my benefit. It was a gruesome trip, from which +I have returned to my own little nook of chintz as to a refuge. Great +rooms which for years have been the abode of spiders, are not much to my +liking, but I chose out two which at least have fireplaces in them, and +these are to be made as cheerful as circumstances will permit. I hope +when I again see them, it will not be by the light of a waning November +afternoon, when the few leaves still left to flutter from the trees +blow, soggy and wet, against the panes of the solitary windows, or lie +in sodden masses at the foot of the bare trunks, which cluster so +thickly on the lawn as to hide all view of the highroad. I was meant for +laughter and joy, flashing lights, and the splendors of ballrooms. Why +have I chosen, then, to give up the great world and settle down in this +grimmest of grim old houses in a none too lively village? I think it is +because I love Charles Knollys, and so, no matter how my heart sinks in +the dim shadows that haunt every spot I stray into, I will be merry, +will think of Charles instead of myself, and so live down the unhappy +prophecies uttered by the wretch who, with his venomous words, has +robbed the future of whatever charm my love was likely to cast upon it. +The fact that this man left the town to-day for a lengthy trip abroad +should raise my spirits more than it has. If we were going now, Charles +and I--But why dream of a Paradise whose doors remain closed to you? It +is here our honeymoon is destined to be passed; within these walls and +in sight of the bare boughs rattling at this moment against the panes. + +I made a misstatement when I said that I had gone into all the rooms of +the house this afternoon. _I did not enter the Flower Parlor._ + + * * * * * + +I had been married a month and had, as I thought, no further use for +this foolish diary. So one evening when Charles was away, I attempted to +burn it. + +But when I had flung myself down before the blazing logs of my bedroom +fire (I was then young enough to love to crouch for hours on the rug in +my lonely room, seeking for all I delighted in and longed for in the +glowing embers), some instinct, or was it a premonition? made me +withhold from destruction a record which coming events might make worthy +of preservation. That was five years ago, and to-day I have reopened the +secret drawer in which this simple book has so long lain undisturbed, +and am once more penning lines destined perhaps to pass into oblivion +together with the others. Why? I do not know. There is no change in my +married life. I have no trouble, no anxiety, no reason for dread; +yet--Well, well, some women are made for the simple round of domestic +duties, and others are as out of place in the nursery and kitchen as +butterflies in a granary. I want just the things Charles cannot give me. +I have home, love, children, all that some women most crave, and while I +idolize my husband and know of nothing sweeter than my babies, I yet +have spells of such wretched weariness, that it would be a relief to me +to be a little less comfortable if only I might enjoy a more brilliant +existence. But Charles is not rich; sometimes I think he is poor, and +however much I may desire change, I cannot have it. Heigho! and, what is +worse, I haven't had a new dress in a year; I who so love dress, and +become it so well! Why, if it is my lot to go shabby, and tie up my +dancing ringlets with faded ribbons, was I made with the figure of a +fairy and given a temperament which, without any effort on my part, +makes me, diminutive as I am, the centre of every group I enter? If I +were plain, or shy, or even self-contained, I might be happy here, but +now--There! there! I will go kiss little William, and lay Loreen's baby +arm about my neck and see if the wicked demons will fly away. Charles is +too busy for me to intrude upon him in that horrid Flower Parlor. + + * * * * * + +I was never superstitious till I entered this house; but now I believe +in every sort of thing a sane woman should not. Yesterday, after a +neglect of five years, I brought out my diary. To-day I have to record +in it that there was a reason for my doing so. Obadiah Trohm has +returned home. I saw him this morning leaning over his fence in the same +place and in very much the same attitude as on that day when he +frightened me so, a month before my wedding. + +But he did not frighten me to-day. He merely looked at me very sharply +and with a less offensive admiration than in the early days of our first +acquaintance. At which I made him my best courtesy. I was not going to +remind him of the past in our new relations, and he, thankful perhaps +for this, took off his hat with a smile I am trying even yet to explain +to myself. Then we began to talk. He had travelled everywhere and I had +been nowhere; he wore the dress and displayed the manners of the great +world, while I had only a hungry desire to do the same. As for fashion, +I needed all my beauty and the fading sparkle of my old animation to +enable me to hold up my head before him. + +But as for liking him, I did not. I could admire his appearance, but he +himself attracted me no more than when he had words of angry fury on his +tongue. He is a gentleman, and one who has seen the world, but in other +ways he is no more to be compared with my Charles than his pert new +house, built in his absence, with the grand old structure with whose +fatality he once threatened me. + +I do not think he wants to threaten me with disaster now. Time closes +such wounds as his very effectually. I wish we had some of his money. + + * * * * * + +I have always heard that the wives of the Knollys, whatever their +misfortune, have always loved their husbands. I do not think I am any +exception to the rule. When Charles has leisure to give me an hour from +his musty old books, the place here seems lively enough, and the +children's voices do not sound so shrill. But these hours are so +infrequent. If it were not for Mr. Trohm's journal (Did I mention that +he had lent me a journal of his travels?) I should often eat my heart +out with loneliness. I am beginning to like the man better as I follow +him from city to city of the old world. If he had ever mentioned me in +its pages, I would not read another line in it, but he seems to have +expended both his love and spite when he bade me farewell in the garden +underlying these bleak old walls. + + * * * * * + +I am becoming as well acquainted with Mr. Trohm's handwriting as with my +own. I read and read and read in his journal, and only stop when the +dreaded midnight hour comes with its ghostly suggestions and the +unaccountable noises which make this old dwelling so uncanny. Charles +often finds me curled up over this book, and when he does he sighs. Why? + + * * * * * + +I have been teaching Loreen to dance. Oh, how merry it has made me! I +think I will be happier now. We have the large upper hall to take steps +in, and when she makes a misstep we laugh, and that is a good sound to +hear in this old place. If I could only have a little money to buy her a +fresh frock and some ribbons, I would feel perfectly satisfied; but I do +believe Charles is getting poorer and poorer every day; the place costs +so much to keep up, he says, and when his father died there were debts +to be paid which leaves us, his innocent inheritors, very straitened. +Master Trohm has no such difficulties. He has money enough. But I don't +like the man for all that, polite as he is to us all. He seems to quite +adore Loreen, and as to William, he pets him till I feel almost +uncomfortable at times. + + * * * * * + +What shall I do? I am invited to New York, _I_, and Charles says I may +go, too--only I have nothing to wear. Oh, for some money! a little +money! it is my right to have some money; but Charles tells me he can +only spare enough to pay my expenses, that my Sunday frock looks very +well, and that, even if it did not, I am pretty enough to do without +fine clothes, and other nonsense like that,--sweet enough, but totally +without point, in fact. If I am pretty, all the more I need a little +finery to set me off, and, besides, to go to New York without +money--why, I should be perfectly miserable. Charles himself ought to +realize this, and be willing to sell his old books before he would let +me go into this whirl of temptation without a dollar to spend. As he +don't, I must devise some plan of my own for obtaining a little money, +for I won't give up my trip--the first offered me since I was +married,--and neither will I go away and come back without a gift for my +two girls, who have grown to womanhood without a jewel to adorn them or +a silk dress to make them look like gentlemen's children. But how get +money without Charles knowing it? Mr. Trohm is such a good friend, he +might lend me a little, but I don't know how to ask him without +recalling to his mind certain words long since forgotten by him perhaps, +but never to be forgotten by me, feather-brained as many people think +me. Is there any one else? + + * * * * * + +I wonder if some things are as wicked as people say they are. I---- + + * * * * * + +Here the diary breaks off abruptly. But we know what followed. The +forgery, the discovery of it by her suave but secret enemy, his +unnatural revenge, and the never-dying enmity which led to the tragic +events it has been my unhappy fortune to relate at such length. Poor +Althea! with thy name I write _finis_ to these pages. May the dust lie +lightly on thy breast under the shadow of the Flower Parlor, through +which thy footsteps passed with such dread in the old days of thy +youthful beauty and innocence! + + +THE END + + + + +WORKS BY Anna Katharine Green + + The Leavenworth Case. + A Strange Disappearance. + The Sword of Damocles. + Hand and Ring. + The Mill Mystery. + Behind Closed Doors. + Cynthia Wakeham's Money. + Marked "Personal." + Miss Hurd: An Enigma. + Dr. Izard. + That Affair Next Door. + Lost Man's Lane. + Agatha Webb. + The Old Stone House. + The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock. + X. Y. Z. A Detective Story. + 7 to 12. A Detective Story. + The Defence of the Bride. + Risifi's Daughter. A Drama. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost Man's Lane, by Anna Katharine Green + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST MAN'S LANE *** + +***** This file should be named 33305-8.txt or 33305-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/3/0/33305/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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: Lost Man's Lane + A Second Episode in the Life of Amelia Butterworth + +Author: Anna Katharine Green + +Release Date: July 31, 2010 [EBook #33305] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST MAN'S LANE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>LOST MAN'S LANE</h1> + +<h3>A SECOND EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF AMELIA BUTTERWORTH</h3> + +<h2>BY ANNA KATHARINE GREEN</h2> + +<h4>(MRS. CHARLES ROHLFS)</h4> + +<h4>Author of "That Affair Next Door," "The Leavenworth Case," "The Forsaken +Inn," etc.</h4> + + +<h4>G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br /> +NEW YORK & LONDON<br /> +The Knickerbocker Press<br /> +1899</h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1898</span><br /> +BY ANNA KATHARINE ROHLFS</h4> + +<h4>Entered at Stationers' Hall, London</h4> + +<h4>Set up and electrotyped March, 1898. Reprinted March, 1898;<br /> +April, 1898; July, 1898; Aug., 1898; Oct., 1898; Aug., 1899</h4> + +<h4>The Knickerbocker Press, New York</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>To<br /> +ELIZABETH D. SHEPARD<br /> +COUSIN AND FRIEND<br /> +THIS BOOK<br /> +IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED</h4> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>A word to my readers before they begin these pages.</p> + +<p>As a woman of inborn principle and strict Presbyterian training, I hate +deception and cannot abide subterfuge. This is why, after a year or more +of hesitation, I have felt myself constrained to put into words the true +history of the events surrounding the solution of that great mystery +which made Lost Man's Lane the dread of the neighboring country. +Feminine delicacy, and a natural shrinking from revealing to the world +certain weaknesses on my part, inseparable from a true relation of this +tale, led me to consent to the publication of that meagre and decidedly +falsified account of the matter which has appeared in some of our +leading papers.</p> + +<p>But conscience has regained its sway in my breast, and with all due +confidence in your forbearance, I herein take my rightful place in these +annals, of whose interest and importance I now leave you to judge.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Amelia Butterworth.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gramercy Park, New York.</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#BOOK_I"><i>BOOK I</i> THE KNOLLYS FAMILY</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#I">I.—A VISIT FROM MR. GRYCE</a><br /> +<a href="#II">II.—I AM TEMPTED</a><br /> +<a href="#III">III.—I SUCCUMB</a><br /> +<a href="#IV">IV.—A GHOSTLY INTERIOR</a><br /> +<a href="#V">V.—A STRANGE HOUSEHOLD</a><br /> +<a href="#VI">VI.—A SOMBRE EVENING</a><br /> +<a href="#VII">VII.—THE FIRST NIGHT</a><br /> +<a href="#VIII">VIII.—ON THE STAIRS</a><br /> +<a href="#IX">IX.—A NEW ACQUAINTANCE</a><br /> +<a href="#X">X.—SECRET INSTRUCTIONS</a><br /> +<a href="#XI">XI.—MEN, WOMEN, AND GHOSTS</a><br /> +<a href="#XII">XII.—THE PHANTOM COACH</a><br /> +<a href="#XIII">XIII.—GOSSIP</a><br /> +<a href="#XIV">XIV.—I FORGET MY AGE, OR, RATHER, REMEMBER IT</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_II"><i>BOOK II</i> THE FLOWER PARLOR</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#XV">XV.—LUCETTA FULFILS MY EXPECTATION OF HER</a><br /> +<a href="#XVI">XVI.—LOREEN</a><br /> +<a href="#XVII">XVII.—THE FLOWER PARLOR</a><br /> +<a href="#XVIII">XVIII.—THE SECOND NIGHT</a><br /> +<a href="#XIX">XIX.—A KNOT OF CRAPE</a><br /> +<a href="#XX">XX.—QUESTIONS</a><br /> +<a href="#XXI">XXI.—MOTHER JANE</a><br /> +<a href="#XXII">XXII.—THE THIRD NIGHT</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_III"><i>BOOK III</i> FORWARD AND BACK</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#XXIII">XXIII.—ROOM 3, HOTEL CARTER</a><br /> +<a href="#XXIV">XXIV.—THE ENIGMA OF NUMBERS</a><br /> +<a href="#XXV">XXV.—TRIFLES, BUT NOT TRIFLING</a><br /> +<a href="#XXVI">XXVI.—A POINT GAINED</a><br /> +<a href="#XXVII">XXVII.—THE TEXT WITNESSETH</a><br /> +<a href="#XXVIII">XXVIII.—AN INTRUSION</a><br /> +<a href="#XXIX">XXIX.—IN THE CELLAR</a><br /> +<a href="#XXX">XXX.—INVESTIGATION</a><br /> +<a href="#XXXI">XXXI.—STRATEGY</a><br /> +<a href="#XXXII">XXXII.—RELIEF</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_IV"><i>BOOK IV</i> THE BIRDS OF THE AIR</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#XXXIII">XXXIII.—LUCETTA</a><br /> +<a href="#XXXIV">XXXIV.—CONDITIONS</a><br /> +<a href="#XXXV">XXXV—THE DOVE</a><br /> +<a href="#XXXVI">XXXVI.—AN HOUR OF STARTLING EXPERIENCES</a><br /> +<a href="#XXXVII">XXXVII.—I ASTONISH MR. GRYCE AND HE ASTONISHES ME</a><br /> +<a href="#XXXVIII">XXXVIII.—A FEW WORDS</a><br /> +<a href="#XXXIX">XXXIX.—UNDER A CRIMSON SKY</a><br /> +<a href="#XL">XL.—EXPLANATIONS</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#EPILOGUE">EPILOGUE</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#WORKS_BY_Anna_Katharine_Green">WORKS BY Anna Katharine Green</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LOST MAN'S LANE</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BOOK_I" id="BOOK_I"></a><i>BOOK I</i></h2> + +<h3>THE KNOLLYS FAMILY</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<h3>A VISIT FROM MR. GRYCE</h3> + + +<p>Ever since my fortunate—or shall I say unfortunate?—connection with +that famous case of murder in Gramercy Park, I have had it intimated to +me by many of my friends—and by some who were not my friends—that no +woman who had met with such success as myself in detective work would +ever be satisfied with a single display of her powers, and that sooner +or later I would find myself again at work upon some other case of +striking peculiarities.</p> + +<p>As vanity has never been my foible, and as, moreover, I never have +forsaken and never am likely to forsake the plain path marked out for my +sex, at any other call than that of duty, I invariably responded to +these insinuations by an affable but incredulous smile, striving to +excuse the presumption of my friends by remembering their ignorance of +my nature and the very excellent reasons I had for my one notable +interference in the police affairs of New York City.</p> + +<p>Besides, though I appeared to be resting quietly, if not in entire +contentment, on my laurels, I was not so utterly removed from the old +atmosphere of crime and its detection as the world in general considered +me to be. Mr. Gryce still visited me; not on business, of course, but as +a friend, for whom I had some regard; and naturally our conversation was +not always confined to the weather or even to city politics, provocative +as the latter subject is of wholesome controversy.</p> + +<p>Not that he ever betrayed any of the secrets of his office—oh no; that +would have been too much to expect—but he did sometimes mention the +outward aspects of some celebrated case, and though I never ventured +upon advice—I know too much for that, I hope—I found my wits more or +less exercised by a conversation in which he gained much without +acknowledging it, and I gave much without appearing conscious of the +fact.</p> + +<p>I was therefore finding life pleasant and full of interest, when +suddenly (I had no right to expect it, and I do not blame myself for not +expecting it or for holding my head so high at the prognostications of +my friends) an opportunity came for a direct exercise of my detective +powers in a line seemingly so laid out for me by Providence that I felt +I would be slighting the Powers above if I refused to enter upon it, +though now I see that the line was laid out for me by Mr. Gryce, and +that I was obeying anything but the call of duty in following it.</p> + +<p>But this is not explicit. One night Mr. Gryce came to my house looking +older and more feeble than usual. He was engaged in a perplexing case, +he said, and missed his early vigor and persistency. Would I like to +hear about it? It was not in the line of his usual work, yet it had +points—and well!—it would do him good to talk about it to a +non-professional who was capable of sympathizing with its baffling and +worrisome features and yet would never have to be told to hold her +peace.</p> + +<p>I ought to have been on my guard. I ought to have known the old fox well +enough to feel certain that when he went so manifestly out of his way to +take me into his confidence he did it for a purpose. But Jove nods now +and then—or so I have been assured on unimpeachable authority,—and if +Jove has ever been caught napping, surely Amelia Butterworth may be +pardoned a like inconsistency.</p> + +<p>"It is not a city crime," Mr. Gryce went on to explain, and here he was +base enough to sigh. "At my time of life this is an important +consideration. It is no longer a simple matter for me to pack up a +valise and go off to some distant village, way up in the mountains +perhaps, where comforts are few and secrecy an impossibility. Comforts +have become indispensable to my threescore years and ten, and +secrecy—well, if ever there was an affair where one needs to go softly, +it is this one; as you will see if you will allow me to give you the +facts of the case as known at Headquarters to-day."</p> + +<p>I bowed, trying not to show my surprise or my extreme satisfaction. Mr. +Gryce assumed his most benignant aspect (always a dangerous one with +him), and began his story.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<h3>I AM TEMPTED</h3> + + +<p>"Some ninety miles from here, in a more or less inaccessible region, +there is a small but interesting village, which has been the scene of so +many unaccountable disappearances that the attention of the New York +police has at last been directed to it. The village, which is at least +two miles from any railroad, is one of those quiet, placid little spots +found now and then among the mountains, where life is simple, and crime, +to all appearance, an element so out of accord with every other +characteristic of the place as to seem a complete anomaly. Yet crime, or +some other hideous mystery almost equally revolting, has during the last +five years been accountable for the disappearance in or about this +village of four persons of various ages and occupations. Of these, three +were strangers and one a well-known vagabond accustomed to tramp the +hills and live on the bounty of farmers' wives. All were of the male +sex, and in no case has any clue ever come to light as to their fate. +That is the matter as it stands before the police to-day."</p> + +<p>"A serious affair," I remarked. "Seems to me I have read of such things +in novels. Is there a tumbled-down old inn in the vicinity where beds +are made up over trap-doors?"</p> + +<p>His smile was a mild protest against my flippancy.</p> + +<p>"I have visited the town myself. There is no inn there, but a +comfortable hotel of the most matter-of-fact sort, kept by the frankest +and most open-minded of landlords. Besides, these disappearances, as a +rule, did not take place at night, but in broad daylight. Imagine this +street at noon. It is a short one, and you know every house on it, and +you think you know every lurking-place. You see a man enter it at one +end and you expect him to issue from it at the other. But suppose he +never does. More than that, suppose he is never heard of again, and that +this thing should happen in this one street four times during five +years."</p> + +<p>"I should move," I dryly responded.</p> + +<p>"Would you? Many good people have moved from the place I speak of, but +that has not helped matters. The disappearances go on just the same and +the mystery continues."</p> + +<p>"You interest me," I said. "Come to think of it, if this street were the +scene of such an unexplained series of horrors as you have described, I +do not think I should move."</p> + +<p>"I thought not," he curtly rejoined. "But since you are interested in +this matter, let me be more explicit in my statements. The first person +whose disappearance was noted——"</p> + +<p>"Wait," I interrupted. "Have you a map of the place?"</p> + +<p>He smiled, nodded quite affectionately to a little statuette on the +mantel-piece, which had had the honor of sharing his confidences in days +gone by, but did not produce the map.</p> + +<p>"That detail will keep," said he. "Let me go on with my story. As I was +saying, madam, the first person whose disappearance was noted in this +place was a peddler of small wares, accustomed to tramp the mountains. +On this occasion he had been in town longer than usual, and was known to +have sold fully half of his goods. Consequently he must have had quite a +sum of money upon him. One day his pack was found lying under a cluster +of bushes in a wood, but of him nothing was ever again heard. It made an +excitement for a few days while the woods were being searched for his +body, but, nothing having been discovered, he was forgotten, and +everything went on as before, till suddenly public attention was again +aroused by the pouring in of letters containing inquiries in regard to a +young man who had been sent there from Duluth to collect facts in a law +case, and who after a certain date had failed to communicate with his +firm or show up at any of the places where he was known. Instantly the +village was in arms. Many remembered the young man, and some two or +three of the villagers could recall the fact of having seen him go up +the street with his hand-bag in his hand as if on his way to the +Mountain-station. The landlord of the hotel could fix the very day at +which he left his house, but inquiries at the station failed to +establish the fact that he took train from there, nor were the most +minute inquiries into his fate ever attended by the least result. He was +not known to have carried much money, but he carried a very handsome +watch and wore a ring of more than ordinary value, neither of which has +ever shown up at any pawnbroker's known to the police. This was three +years ago.</p> + +<p>"The next occurrence of a like character did not take place till a year +after. This time it was a poor old man from Hartford, who vanished +almost as it were before the eyes of these astounded villagers. He had +come to town to get subscriptions for a valuable book issued by a +well-known publisher. He had been more or less successful, and was +looking very cheerful and contented, when one morning, after making a +sale at a certain farmhouse, he sat down to dine with the family, it +being close on to noon. He had eaten several mouthfuls and was chatting +quite freely, when suddenly they saw him pause, clap his hand to his +pocket, and rise up very much disturbed. 'I have left my pocket-book +behind me at Deacon Spear's,' he cried. 'I cannot eat with it out of my +possession. Excuse me if I go for it.' And without any further +apologies, he ran out of the house and down the road in the direction of +Deacon Spear's. He never reached Deacon Spear's, nor was he ever seen in +that village again or in his home in Hartford. This was the most +astonishing mystery of all. Within a half-mile's radius, in a populous +country town, this man disappeared as if the road had swallowed him and +closed again. It was marvellous, it was incredible, and remained so even +after the best efforts of the country police to solve the mystery had +exhausted themselves. After this, the town began to acquire a bad name, +and one or two families moved away. Yet no one was found who was willing +to admit that these various persons had been the victims of foul play +till a month later another case came to light of a young man who had +left the village for the hillside station, and had never arrived at that +or any other destination so far as could be learned. As he was a distant +relative of a wealthy cattle owner in Iowa, who came on post-haste to +inquire into his nephew's fate, the excitement ran high, and through his +efforts and that of one of the town's leading citizens, the services of +our office were called into play. But the result has been nil. We have +found neither the bodies of these men nor any clue to their fate."</p> + +<p>"Yet <i>you</i> have been there?" I suggested.</p> + +<p>He nodded.</p> + +<p>"Wonderful! And you came upon no suspicious house, no suspicious +person?"</p> + +<p>The finger with which he was rubbing his eyeglasses went round and round +the rims with a slower and slower and still more thoughtful motion.</p> + +<p>"Every town has its suspicious-looking houses," he slowly remarked, +"and, as for persons, the most honest often wear a lowering look in +which an unbridled imagination can see guilt. I never trust to +appearances of that kind."</p> + +<p>"What else can you trust in, when a case is as impenetrable as this +one?" I asked.</p> + +<p>His finger, going slower and slower, suddenly stopped.</p> + +<p>"In my knowledge of persons," he replied. "In my knowledge of their +fears, their hopes, and their individual concerns. If I were twenty +years younger"—here he stole a glance at me in the mirror which made me +bridle; did he think I was only twenty years younger than himself?—"I +would," he went on, "make myself so acquainted with every man, woman, +and child there, that—" Here he drew himself up with a jerk. "But the +day for that is passed," said he. "I am too old and too crippled to +succeed in such an undertaking. Having been there once, I am a marked +man. My very walk betrays me. He whose good fortune it will be to get at +the bottom of these people's hearts must awaken no suspicions as to his +connection with the police. Indeed, I do not think that any man can +succeed in doing this now."</p> + +<p>I started. This was a frank showing of his hand at least. No man! It was +then a woman's aid he was after. I laughed as I thought of it. I had not +thought him either so presumptuous or so appreciative of talents of a +character so directly in line with his own.</p> + +<p>"Don't you agree with me, madam?"</p> + +<p>I did agree with him; but I had a character of great dignity to +maintain, so I simply surveyed him with an air of well-tempered +severity.</p> + +<p>"I do not know of any woman who would undertake such a task," I calmly +observed.</p> + +<p>"No?" he smiled with that air of forbearance which is so exasperating to +me. "Well, perhaps there isn't any such woman to be found. It would take +one of very uncommon characteristics, I own."</p> + +<p>"Pish!" I cried. "Not so very!"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I think you have not fully taken in the case," he urged in +quiet superiority. "The people there are of the higher order of country +folk. Many of them are of extreme refinement. One family"—here his tone +changed a trifle—"is poor enough and cultivated enough to interest even +such a woman as yourself."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" I ejaculated, with just a touch of my father's hauteur to hide +the stir of curiosity his words naturally evoked.</p> + +<p>"It is in some such home," he continued with an ease that should have +warned me he had started on this pursuit with a quiet determination to +win, "that the clue will be found to the mystery we are considering. +Yes, you may well look startled, but that conclusion is the one thing I +brought away with me from—X., let us say. I regard it as one of some +moment. What do you think of it?"</p> + +<p>"Well," I admitted, "it makes me feel like recalling that <i>pish</i> I +uttered a few minutes ago. It would take a woman of uncommon +characteristics to assist you in this matter."</p> + +<p>"I am glad we have got that far," said he.</p> + +<p>"A lady," I went on.</p> + +<p>"Most assuredly a lady."</p> + +<p>I paused. Sometimes discreet silence is more sarcastic than speech.</p> + +<p>"Well, what lady would lend herself to this scheme?" I demanded at last.</p> + +<p>The tap, tap of his fingers on the rim of his glasses was my only +answer.</p> + +<p>"I do not know of any," said I.</p> + +<p>His eyebrows rose perhaps a hair's-breadth, but I noted the implied +sarcasm, and for an instant forgot my dignity.</p> + +<p>"Now," said I, "this will not do. You mean me, Amelia Butterworth; a +woman who—but I do not think it is necessary to tell you either who or +what I am. You have presumed, sir—Now do not put on that look of +innocence, and above all do not attempt to deny what is so manifestly in +your thoughts, for that would make me feel like showing you the door."</p> + +<p>"Then," he smiled, "I shall be sure to deny nothing. I am not anxious to +leave—yet. Besides, whom could I mean but you? A lady visiting friends +in this remote and beautiful region—what opportunities might she not +have to probe this important mystery if, like yourself, she had tact, +discretion, excellent understanding, and an experience which if not +broad or deep is certainly such as to give her a certain confidence in +herself, and an undoubted influence with the man fortunate enough to +receive her advice."</p> + +<p>"Bah!" I exclaimed. It was one of his favorite expressions. That was +perhaps why I used it. "One would think I was a member of your police."</p> + +<p>"You flatter us too deeply," was his deferential answer. "Such an honor +as that would be beyond our deserts."</p> + +<p>To this I gave but the faintest sniff. That he should think that I, +Amelia Butterworth, could be amenable to such barefaced flattery! Then I +faced him with some asperity, and said bluntly: "You waste your time. I +have no more intention of meddling in another affair than——"</p> + +<p>"You had in meddling in the first," he politely, too politely, +interpolated. "I understand, madam."</p> + +<p>I was angry, but made no show of being so. I was not willing he should +see that I could be affected by anything he could say.</p> + +<p>"The Van Burnams are my next-door neighbors," I remarked sweetly. "I had +the best of excuses for the interest I took in their affairs."</p> + +<p>"So you had," he acquiesced. "I am glad to be reminded of the fact. I +wonder I was able to forget it."</p> + +<p>Angry now to the point of not being able to hide it, I turned upon him +with firm determination.</p> + +<p>"Let us talk of something else," I said.</p> + +<p>But he was equal to the occasion. Drawing a folded paper from his +pocket, he opened it out before my eyes, observing quite naturally: +"That is a happy thought. Let us look over this sketch you were sharp +enough to ask for a few moments ago. It shows the streets of the village +and the places where each of the persons I have mentioned was last seen. +Is not that what you wanted?"</p> + +<p>I know that I should have drawn back with a frown, that I never should +have allowed myself the satisfaction of casting so much as a glance +toward the paper, but the human nature which links me to my kind was too +much for me, and with an involuntary "Exactly!" I leaned over it with an +eagerness I strove hard, even at that exciting moment, to keep within +the bounds I thought proper to my position as a non-professional, +interested in the matter from curiosity alone.</p> + +<p>This is what I saw:</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/diagram.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<p>"Mr. Gryce," said I, after a few minutes' close contemplation of this +diagram, "I do not suppose you want any opinion from me."</p> + +<p>"Madam," he retorted, "it is all you have left me free to ask for."</p> + +<p>Receiving this as a permission to speak, I put my finger on the road +marked with a cross.</p> + +<p>"Then," said I, "so far as I can gather from this drawing, all the +disappearances seem to have taken place in or about this especial road."</p> + +<p>"You are as correct as usual," he returned. "What you have said is so +true, that the people of the vicinity have already given to this winding +way a special cognomen of its own. For two years now it has been called +Lost Man's Lane."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" I cried. "They have got the matter down as close as that, and +yet have not solved its mystery? How long is this road?"</p> + +<p>"A half mile or so."</p> + +<p>I must have looked my disgust, for his hands opened deprecatingly.</p> + +<p>"The ground has undergone a thorough search," said he. "Not a square +foot in those woods you see on either side of the road, but has been +carefully examined."</p> + +<p>"And the houses? I see there are three houses on this road."</p> + +<p>"Oh, they are owned by most respectable people—<i>most</i> respectable +people," he repeated, with a lingering emphasis that gave me an inward +shudder. "I think I had the honor of intimating as much to you a few +minutes ago."</p> + +<p>I looked at him earnestly, and irresistibly drew a little nearer to him +over the diagram.</p> + +<p>"Have none of these houses been visited by you?" I asked. "Do you mean +to say you have not seen the inside of them all?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," he replied, "I have been in them all, of course; but a mystery +such as we are investigating is not written upon the walls of parlors or +halls."</p> + +<p>"You freeze my blood," was my uncharacteristic rejoinder. Somehow the +sight of the homes indicated on this diagram seemed to bring me into +more intimate sympathy with the affair.</p> + +<p>His shrug was significant.</p> + +<p>"I told you that this was no vulgar mystery," he declared; "or why +should I be considering it with <i>you</i>? It is quite worthy of your +interest. Do you see that house marked A?"</p> + +<p>"I do," I nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, that is a decayed mansion of imposing proportions, set in a +forest of overgrown shrubbery. The ladies who inhabit it——"</p> + +<p>"Ladies!" I put in, with a small shock of horror.</p> + +<p>"Young ladies," he explained, "of a refined if not over-prosperous +appearance. They are the interesting residue of a family of some repute. +Their father was a judge, I believe."</p> + +<p>"And do they live there alone," I asked,—"two young ladies in a house +so large and in a neighborhood so full of mystery?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, they have a brother with them, a lout of no great attractions," he +responded carelessly—too carelessly, I thought.</p> + +<p>I made a note of the house A in my mind.</p> + +<p>"And who lives in the house marked B?" I now queried.</p> + +<p>"A Mr. Trohm. You will remember that it was through his exertions the +services of the New York police were secured. His place there is one of +the most interesting in town, and he does not wish to be forced to leave +it, but he will be obliged to do so if the road is not soon relieved of +its bad name; and so will Deacon Spear. The very children shun the road +now. I do not know of a lonelier place."</p> + +<p>"I see a little mark made here on the verge of the woods. What does that +mean?"</p> + +<p>"That stands for a hut—it can hardly be called a cottage—where a poor +old woman lives called Mother Jane. She is a harmless imbecile, against +whom no one has ever directed a suspicion. You may take your finger off +that mark, Miss Butterworth."</p> + +<p>I did so, but I did not forget that it stood very near the footpath +branching off to the station.</p> + +<p>"You entered this hut as well as the big houses?" I intimated.</p> + +<p>"And found," was his answer, "four walls; nothing more."</p> + +<p>I let my finger travel along the footpath I have just mentioned.</p> + +<p>"Steep," was his comment. "Up, up, all the way, but no precipices. +Nothing but pine woods on either side, thickly carpeted with needles."</p> + +<p>My finger came back and stopped at the house marked M.</p> + +<p>"Why is a letter affixed to this spot?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Because it stands at the head of the lane. Any one sitting at the +window L can see whoever enters or leaves the lane at this end. And some +one is always sitting there. The house contains two crippled children, a +boy and a girl. One of them is always in that window."</p> + +<p>"I see," said I. Then abruptly: "What do you think of Deacon Spear?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's a well-meaning man, none too fine in his feelings. He does not +mind the neighborhood; likes quiet, he says. I hope you will know him +for yourself some day," the detective slyly added.</p> + +<p>At this return to the forbidden subject, I held myself very much aloof.</p> + +<p>"Your diagram is interesting," I remarked, "but it has not in the least +changed my determination. It is you who will return to X., and that, +very soon."</p> + +<p>"Very soon?" he repeated. "Whoever goes there on this errand must go at +once; to-night, if possible; if not, to-morrow at the latest."</p> + +<p>"To-night! to-morrow!" I expostulated. "And you thought——"</p> + +<p>"No matter what I thought," he sighed. "It seems I had no reason for my +hopes." And folding up the map, he slowly rose. "The young man we have +left there is doing more harm than good. That is why I say that some one +of real ability must replace him immediately. The detective from New +York must seem to have left the place."</p> + +<p>I made him my most ladylike bow of dismissal.</p> + +<p>"I shall watch the papers," I said. "I have no doubt that I shall soon +be gratified by seeing in them some token of your success."</p> + +<p>He cast a rueful look at his hands, took a painful step toward the door, +and dolefully shook his head.</p> + +<p>I kept my silence undisturbed.</p> + +<p>He took another painful step, then turned.</p> + +<p>"By the way," he remarked, as I stood watching him with an +uncompromising air, "I have forgotten to mention the name of the town in +which these disappearances have occurred. It is called X., and it is to +be found on one of the spurs of the Berkshire Hills." And, being by this +time at the door, he bowed himself out with all the insinuating suavity +which distinguishes him at certain critical moments. The old fox was so +sure of his triumph that he did not wait to witness it. He knew—how, it +is easy enough for me to understand now—that X. was a place I had often +threatened to visit. The family of one of my dearest friends lived +there, the children of Althea Knollys. She had been my chum at school, +and when she died I had promised myself not to let many months go by +without making the acquaintance of her children. Alas! I had allowed +years to elapse.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<h3>I SUCCUMB</h3> + + +<p>That night the tempter had his own way with me. Without much difficulty +he persuaded me that my neglect of Althea Burroughs' children was +without any excuse; that what had been my duty toward them when I knew +them to be left motherless and alone, had become an imperative demand +upon me now that the town in which they lived had become overshadowed by +a mystery which could not but affect the comfort and happiness of all +its inhabitants. I could not wait a day. I recalled all that I had heard +of poor Althea's short and none too happy marriage, and immediately felt +such a burning desire to see if her dainty but spirited beauty—how well +I remembered it—had been repeated in her daughters, that I found myself +packing my trunk before I knew it.</p> + +<p>I had not been from home for a long time—all the more reason why I +should have a change now—and when I notified Mrs. Randolph and the +servants of my intention of leaving on the early morning train, it +created quite a sensation in the house.</p> + +<p>But I had the best of explanations to offer. I had been thinking of my +dead friend, and my conscience would not let me neglect her dear and +possibly unhappy progeny any longer. I had purposed many times to visit +X., and now I was going to do it. When I come to a decision, it is +usually suddenly, and I never rest after having once made up my mind.</p> + +<p>My sentiment went so far that I got down an old album and began hunting +up the pictures I had brought away with me from boarding-school. Hers +was among them, and I really did experience more or less compunction +when I saw again the delicate yet daring features which had once had a +very great influence over my mind. What a teasing sprite she was, yet +what a will she had, and how strange it was that, having been so +intimate as girls, we never knew anything of each other as women! Had it +been her fault or mine? Was her marriage to blame for it or my +spinsterhood? Difficult to tell then, impossible to tell now. I would +not even think of it again, save as a warning. Nothing must stand +between me and her children now that my attention has been called to +them again.</p> + +<p>I did not mean to take them by surprise—that is, not entirely. The +invitation which they had sent me years ago was still in force, making +it simply necessary for me to telegraph them that I had decided to make +them a visit, and that they might expect me by the noon train. If in +times gone by they had been properly instructed by their mother in +regard to the character of her old friend, this need not put them out. I +am not a woman of unbounded expectations. I do not look for the comforts +abroad I am accustomed to find at home, and if, as I have reason to +believe, their means are not of the greatest, they would only provoke me +by any show of effort to make me feel at home in the humble cottage +suited to their fortunes.</p> + +<p>So the telegram was sent, and my preparations completed for an early +departure.</p> + +<p>But, resolved as I was to make this visit, my determination came near +receiving a check. Just as I was leaving the house—at the very moment, +in fact, when the hackman was carrying out my trunk, I perceived a man +approaching me with every evidence of haste. He had a letter in his +hand, which he held out to me as soon as he came within reach.</p> + +<p>"For Miss Butterworth," he announced. "Private and immediate."</p> + +<p>"Ah," thought I, "a communication from Mr. Gryce," and hesitated for a +moment whether to open it on the spot or to wait and read it at my +leisure on the cars. The latter course promised me less inconvenience +than the first, for my hands were cumbered with the various small +articles I consider indispensable to the comfortable enjoyment of the +shortest journey, and the glasses without which I cannot read a word, +were in the very bottom of my pocket under many other equally necessary +articles.</p> + +<p>But something in the man's expectant look warned me that he would never +leave me till I had read the note, so with a sigh I called Lena to my +aid, and after several vain attempts to reach my glasses, succeeded at +last in pulling them out, and by their help reading the following +hurried lines:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Madam</span>:</p> + +<p>"I send you this by a swifter messenger than myself. Do not let +anything that I may have said last night influence you to leave +your comfortable home. The adventure offers too many dangers +for a woman. Read the inclosed. G."</p></blockquote> + +<p>The inclosed was a telegram from X., sent during the night, and +evidently just received at Headquarters. Its contents were certainly not +reassuring:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Another person missing. Last seen in Lost Man's Lane. A +harmless lad known as Silly Rufus. What's to be done? Wire +orders. <span class="smcap">Trohm.</span>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>"Mr. Gryce bade me say that he would be up here some time before noon," +said the man, seeing me look with some blankness at these words.</p> + +<p>Nothing more was needed to restore my self-possession. Folding up the +letter, I put it in my bag.</p> + +<p>"Say to Mr. Gryce from me that my intended visit cannot be postponed," I +replied. "I have telegraphed to my friends to expect me, and only a +great emergency would lead me to disappoint them. I will be glad to +receive Mr. Gryce on my return." And without further parley, I took my +bundles back from Lena, and proceeded at once to the carriage. Why +should I show any failure of courage at an event that was but a +repetition of the very ones which made my visit necessary? Was I a +likely person to fall victim to a mystery to which my eyes had been +opened? Had I not been sufficiently warned of the dangers of Lost Man's +Lane to keep myself at a respectable distance from the place of peril? I +was going to visit the children of my once devoted friend. If there were +perils of no ordinary nature to be encountered in so doing, was I not +all the more called upon to lend them the support of my presence?</p> + +<p>Yes, Mr. Gryce, and nothing now should hold me back. I even felt an +increased desire to reach the scene of these mysteries, and chafed some +at the length of the journey, which was of a more tedious character than +I expected. A poor beginning for events requiring patience as well as +great moral courage; but I little knew what was before me, and only +considered that every moment spent on this hot and dusty train kept me +thus much longer from the embraces of Althea's children.</p> + +<p>I recovered my equanimity, however, as we approached X. The scenery was +really beautiful, and the consciousness that I should soon alight at the +mountain station which had played a more or less serious part in Mr. +Gryce's narrative, awakened in me a pleasurable excitement which should +have been a sufficient warning to me that the spirit of investigation +which had led me so triumphantly through that affair next door had +seized me again in a way that meant equal absorption if not equal +success.</p> + +<p>The number of small packages I carried gave me enough to think of at the +moment of alighting, but as soon as I was safely again on terra firma I +threw a hasty glance around to see if any of Althea's children were on +hand to meet me.</p> + +<p>I felt that I ought to know them at first glance. Their mother had been +so characteristically pretty, she could not have failed to transmit some +of her most charming traits to her offspring. But while there were two +or three country maidens to be seen standing in and around the little +pavilion known here as the Mountain-station, I saw no one who by any +stretch of imagination could be regarded as of Althea Burroughs' blood +or breeding.</p> + +<p>Somewhat disappointed, for I had expected different results from my +telegram, I stepped up to the station-master, and asked him whether I +would have any difficulty in procuring a carriage to take me to Miss +Knollys' house. He stared, it seemed to me, unnecessarily long, before +replying.</p> + +<p>"Waal," said he, "Simmons is usually here, but I don't see him around +to-day. Perhaps some of these farmer lads will drive you in."</p> + +<p>But they all drew back with a scared look, and I was beginning to tuck +up my skirts preparatory to walking, when a little old man of +exceedingly meek appearance drove up in a very old-fashioned coach, and +with a hesitating air, springing entirely from bashfulness, managed to +ask if I was Miss Butterworth. I hastened to assure him that I was that +lady, whereupon he stammered out some words about Miss Knollys, and how +sorry she was that she could not come for me herself. Then he pointed to +his coach, and made me understand that I was to step into it and go with +him.</p> + +<p>This I had not counted upon doing, for I desired to both see and hear as +much as possible before reaching my destination. There was but one way +out of it. To his astonishment, I insisted that my belongings be put +inside the coach, while I rode on the box.</p> + +<p>It was an inauspicious beginning to a very doubtful adventure. I +understood this when I saw the heads of the various onlookers draw +together and many curious looks directed at both us and the conveyance +that was to carry us. But I was in no mood to be daunted now, and +mounting to the box with what grace I could, prepared myself for a ride +into town.</p> + +<p>But it seems I was not to be allowed to leave the spot without another +warning. While the old man was engaged in fetching my trunk, the +station-master approached me with great civility, and asked if it was my +intention to spend a few days with the Misses Knollys. I told him that +it was, and thinking it best to establish my position at once in the +eyes of the whole town, added with a politeness equal to his own, that I +was an old friend of the family, and had been coming to visit them for +years, but had never found it convenient till now, and that I hoped they +were all well and would be glad to see me.</p> + +<p>His reply showed considerable embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you have not heard that this village is under a cloud just +now?"</p> + +<p>"I have heard that one or two men have disappeared from here somewhat +mysteriously," I returned. "Is that what you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am. One person, a boy, disappeared only two days ago."</p> + +<p>"That's bad," I said. "But what has it to do with me?" I smilingly +added, for I saw that he was not at the end of his talk.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing," he eagerly replied, "only I didn't know but you might be +timid——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm not at all timid," I hastened to interject. "If I were, I +should not have come here at all. Such matters don't affect me." And I +spread out my skirts and arranged myself for my ride with as much care +and precision as if the horrors he had mentioned had made no more +impression upon me than if his chat had been of the weather.</p> + +<p>Perhaps I overdid it, for he looked at me for another moment in a +curious, lingering way; then he walked off, and I saw him enter the +circle of gossips on the platform, where he stood shaking his head as +long as we were within sight.</p> + +<p>My companion, who was the shyest man I ever saw, did not speak a word +while we were descending the hill. I talked, and endeavored to make him +follow my example, but his replies were mere grunts or half-syllables +which conveyed no information whatever. As we cleared the thicket, +however, he allowed himself an ejaculation or two as he pointed out the +beauties of the landscape. And indeed it was well worth his admiration +and mine had my mind been free to enjoy it. But the houses, which now +began to appear on either side of the way, drew my attention from the +mountains. Though still somewhat remote from the town, we were rapidly +approaching the head of that lane of evil fame with whose awe-inspiring +history my thoughts were at this time full. I was so anxious not to pass +it without one look into its grewsome recesses that I kept my head +persistently turned that way till I felt I was attracting the attention +of my companion. As this was not desirable, I put on a nonchalant look +and began chatting about what I saw. But he had lapsed into his early +silence, and seemed wholly engrossed in his attempt to remove with the +butt-end of his whip a bit of rag which had somehow become entangled in +the spokes of one of the front wheels. The furtive look he cast me as he +succeeded in doing this struck me oddly at the moment, but it was too +small a matter to hold my attention long or to cause any cessation in +the flow of small talk with which I was endeavoring to enliven the +situation.</p> + +<p>My desire for conversation lagged, however, as I saw rising up before us +the dark boughs of a pine thicket. We were nearing Lost Man's Lane; we +were abreast of it; we were—yes, we were turning into it!</p> + +<p>I could not repress an exclamation of dismay.</p> + +<p>"Where are we going?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"To Miss Knollys' house," he found words to say, with a sidelong glance +at me full of uneasy inquiry.</p> + +<p>"Do they live on this road?" I cried, remembering with a certain shock +Mr. Gryce's suspicious description of the two young ladies who with +their brother inhabited the dilapidated mansion marked A in the map he +had shown me.</p> + +<p>"Where else?" was his laconic answer; and, obliged to be satisfied with +this curtest of curt replies, I drew myself up with just one longing +look behind me at the cheerful highway we were so rapidly leaving. A +cottage, with an open window, in which a child's head could be seen +nodding eagerly toward me, met my eyes and filled me with quite an odd +sense of discomfort as I realized that I had caught the attention of one +of the little cripples who, according to Mr. Gryce, always kept watch +over this entrance into Lost Man's Lane. Another moment and the pine +branches had shut the vision out, but I did not soon forget that eager, +childish face and pointing hand, marking me out as a possible victim to +the horrors of this ill-reputed lane. But I was aware of no secret +flinching from the adventure into which I was plunging. On the contrary, +I felt a strange and fierce delight in thus being thrust into the very +heart of the mystery I had only expected to approach by degrees. The +warning message sent me by Mr. Gryce had acquired a deeper and more +significant meaning, as did the looks which had been cast me by the +station-master and his gossips on the hillside, but in my present mood +these very tokens of the serious nature of my undertaking only gave an +added spur to my courage. I felt my brain clear and my heart expand, as +if at this moment, before I had so much as set eyes on the faces of +these young people, I recognized the fact that they were the victims of +a web of circumstances so tragic and incomprehensible that only a woman +like myself would be able to dissipate them and restore these girls to +the confidence of the people around them.</p> + +<p>I forgot that these girls had a brother and that—But not a word to +forestall the truth. I wish this story to grow upon you just as it did +upon me, and with just as little preparation.</p> + +<p>The farmer who drove me, and who I afterwards learned was called +Simsbury, showed a certain dogged interest in my behavior that would +have amused me, or, at least, have awakened my disdain under +circumstances of a less thrilling nature. I saw his eye roll in a sort +of wonder over my person, which may have been held a little more stiffly +than was necessary, and settle finally on my face, with a look I might +have thought complimentary had I had any thought to bestow on such +matters. Not till we had passed the path branching up through the woods +toward the mountain did he see fit to withdraw it, nor did I fail to +find it fixed again upon me as we rode by the little hut occupied by the +old woman considered so harmless by Mr. Gryce.</p> + +<p>Perhaps he had a reason for this, as I was very much interested in this +hut and its occupant, about whom I felt free to cherish my own secret +doubts—so interested that I cast it a very sharp glance, and was glad +when I caught a glimpse through the doorway of the old crone mumbling +over a piece of bread she was engaged in eating as we passed her.</p> + +<p>"That's Mother Jane," explained my companion, breaking the silence of +many minutes. "And yonder is Miss Knollys' house," he added, lifting his +whip and pointing toward the half-concealed façade of a large and +pretentious dwelling a few rods farther on down the road. "She will be +powerful glad to see you, Miss. Company is scarce in these parts."</p> + +<p>Astonished at this sudden launch into conversation by one whose reserve +I had hitherto found it impossible to penetrate, I gave him the affable +answer he evidently expected, and then looked eagerly toward the house. +It was as Mr. Gryce had intimated, exceedingly forbidding even at that +distance, and as we approached nearer and I was given a full view of its +worn and discolored front, I felt myself forced to acknowledge that +never in my life had my eyes fallen upon a habitation more given over to +neglect or less promising in its hospitality.</p> + +<p>Had it not been for the thin circle of smoke eddying up from one of its +broken chimneys, I would have looked upon the place as one which had not +known the care or presence of man for years. There was a riot of +shrubbery in the yard, a lack of the commonest attention to order in the +way the vines drooped in tangled masses over the face of the desolate +porch, that gave to the broken pilasters and decayed window-frames of +this dreariest of façades that look of abandonment which only becomes +picturesque when nature has usurped the prerogative of man and taken +entirely to herself the empty walls and falling casements of what was +once a human dwelling. That any one should be living in it now and that +I, who have never been able to see a chair standing crooked or a curtain +awry, without a sensation of the keenest discomfort, should be on the +point of deliberately entering its doors as an inmate, filled me at the +moment with such a sense of unreality, that I descended from the +carriage in a sort of a dream and was making my way through one of the +gaps in the high antique fence that separated the yard from the gateway, +when Mr. Simsbury stopped me and pointed out the gate.</p> + +<p>I did not think it worth while to apologize for my mistake, for the +broken palings certainly offered as good an entrance as the gate, which +had slipped from its hinges and hung but a few inches open. But I took +the course he indicated, holding up my skirts, and treading gingerly for +fear of the snails and toads that incumbered such portions of the path +as the weeds had left visible. As I proceeded on my way, something in +the silence of the spot struck me. Was I becoming over-sensitive to +impressions or was there something really uncanny in the absolute lack +of sound or movement in a dwelling of such dimensions? But I should not +have said movement, for at that instant I saw a flash in one of the +upper windows as of a curtain being stealthily drawn and as stealthily +let fall again, and though it gave me the promise of some sort of +greeting, there was a furtiveness in the action, so in keeping with the +suspicions of Mr. Gryce that I felt my nerves braced at once to mount +the half-dozen uninviting-looking steps that led to the front door.</p> + +<p>But no sooner had I done this, with what I am fain to consider my best +air, than I suddenly collapsed with what I am bound to regard as a +comprehensible and quite excusable fear; for, while I do not quail +before men, and have a reasonable fortitude in the presence of most +dangers, corporeal and moral, I am not quite myself in face of a rampant +and barking dog. It is my one weakness, and while I usually can, and +under most circumstances do, succeed in hiding my inner trepidation +under the emergency just mentioned, I always feel that it would be a +happy relief for me if the day should ever come when these so-called +domestic animals would be banished from the affections and homes of men. +Then I think I would begin to live in good earnest and perhaps enjoy +trips into the country, which now, for all my apparent bravery, I regard +more in the light of a penance than a pleasure.</p> + +<p>Imagine, then, how hard I found it to retain my self-possession or even +any appearance of dignity, when at the moment I was stretching forth my +hand toward the knocker of this inhospitable mansion I heard rising from +some unknown quarter a howl so keen, piercing, and prolonged that it +frightened the very birds over my head and sent them flying from the +vines in clouds.</p> + +<p>It was the unhappiest kind of welcome for me. I did not know whether it +came from within or without, and when after a moment of indecision I saw +the door open, I am not sure whether the smile I called up to grace the +occasion had any of the real Amelia Butterworth in it, so much was my +mind divided between a desire to produce a favorable impression and a +very decided and not-to-be-hidden fear of the dog who had greeted my +arrival with such an ominous howl.</p> + +<p>"Call off the dog!" I cried almost before I saw what sort of person I +was addressing.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gryce, when I saw him later, declared this to be the most +significant introduction I could have made of myself upon entering the +Knollys mansion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<h3>A GHOSTLY INTERIOR</h3> + + +<p>The hall into which I had stepped was so dark that for a few minutes I +could see nothing but the indistinct outline of a young woman with a +very white face. She had uttered some sort of murmur at my words, but +for some reason was strangely silent, and, if I could trust my eyes, +seemed rather to be looking back over her shoulder than into the face of +her advancing guest. This was odd, but before I could quite satisfy +myself as to the cause of her abstraction, she suddenly bethought +herself, and throwing open the door of an adjoining room, let in a +stream of light by which we were enabled to see each other and exchange +the greetings suitable to the occasion.</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth, my mother's old friend," she murmured, with an almost +pitiful effort to be cordial, "we are so glad to have you visit us. +Won't you—won't you sit down?"</p> + +<p>What did it mean? She had pointed to a chair in the sitting-room, but +her face was turned away again as if drawn irresistibly toward some +secret object of dread. Was there anyone or anything at the top of the +dim staircase I could faintly see in the distance? It would not do for +me to ask, nor was it wise for me to show that I thought this reception +a strange one. Stepping into the room she pointed out, I waited for her +to follow me, which she did with manifest reluctance. But when she was +once out of the atmosphere of the hall, or out of reach of the sight or +sound of whatever it was that frightened her, her face took on a smile +that ingratiated her with me at once and gave to her very delicate +aspect, which up to that moment had not suggested the remotest likeness +to her mother, a piquant charm and subtle fascination that were not +unworthy of the daughter of Althea Burroughs.</p> + +<p>"You must not mind the poverty of your welcome," she said, with a +half-proud, half-apologetic look around her, which I must say the +bareness and shabby character of the room we were in fully justified. +"We have not been very well off since father died and mother left us. +Had you given us a chance we should have written you that our home would +not offer many inducements to you after your own, but you have come +unexpectedly and——"</p> + +<p>"There, there," I put in, for I saw that her embarrassment would soon +get the better of her, "do not speak of it. I did not come to enjoy your +home, but to see you. Are you the eldest, my dear, and where are your +sister and brother?"</p> + +<p>"I am not the eldest," she said. "I am Lucetta. My sister"—here +her head stole irresistibly back to its old position of +listening—"will—will come soon. My brother is not in the house."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, astonished that she did not ask me to take off my +things, "you are a pretty girl, but you do not look very strong. Are you +quite well, my dear?"</p> + +<p>She started, looked at me eagerly, almost anxiously, for a moment, then +straightened herself and began to lose some of her abstraction.</p> + +<p>"I am not a strong person," she smiled, "but neither am I so very weak +either. I was always small. So was my mother, you know."</p> + +<p>I was glad to have her talk of her mother. I therefore answered her in a +way to prolong the conversation.</p> + +<p>"Yes, your mother was small," I admitted, "but never thin or pallid. She +was like a fairy among us schoolgirls. Does it seem odd to hear so old a +woman as I speak of herself as a schoolgirl?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" she said, but there was no heart in her voice.</p> + +<p>"I had almost forgotten those days till I happened to hear the name of +Althea mentioned the other day," I proceeded, seeing I must keep up the +conversation if we were not to sit in total silence. "Then my early +friendship with your mother recurred to me, and I started up—as I +always do when I come to any decision, my dear—and sent that telegram, +which I hope I have not followed by an unwelcome presence."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," she repeated, but this time with some feeling; "we need +friends, and if you will overlook our shortcomings—But you have not +taken off your hat. What will Loreen say to me?"</p> + +<p>And with a sudden nervous action as marked as her late listlessness, she +jumped up and began busying herself over me, untying my bonnet and +laying aside my bundles, which up to this moment I had held in my hands.</p> + +<p>"I—I am so absent-minded," she murmured. "I—I did not think—I hope +you will excuse me. Loreen would have given you a much better welcome."</p> + +<p>"Then Loreen should have been here," I said, with a smile. I could not +restrain this slight rebuke, yet I liked the girl; notwithstanding +everything I had heard and her own odd and unaccountable behavior, there +was a sweetness in her face, when she chose to smile, that proved an +irresistible attraction. And then, for all her absent-mindedness and +abstracted ways, she was such a lady! Her plain dress, her restrained +manner, could not hide this fact. It was apparent in every line of her +thin but graceful form and in every inflection of her musical but +constrained voice. Had I seen her in my own parlor instead of between +these bare and moldering walls, I should have said the same thing: "She +is such a lady!" But this only passed through my mind at the time. I was +not studying her personality, but trying to understand why my presence +in the house had so visibly disturbed her. Was it the embarrassment of +poverty, not knowing how to meet the call made so suddenly upon it? I +hardly thought so. Fear would not enter into a sensation of this kind, +and fear was what I had seen in her face before the front door had +closed upon me. But that fear? Was it connected with me or with +something threatening her from another portion of the house?</p> + +<p>The latter supposition seemed the probable one. The way her ear was +turned, the slight start she gave at every sound, convinced me that her +cause of dread lay elsewhere than with myself, and therefore was worthy +of my closest attention. Though I chatted and tried in every way to +arouse her confidence, I could not help asking myself between the +sentences, if the cause of her apprehension lay with her sister, her +brother, or in something entirely apart from either, and connected with +the dreadful matter which had drawn me to X. Or another supposition +still, was it merely the sign of an habitual distemper which, +misunderstood by Mr. Gryce, had given rise to the suspicions which it +was my possible mission here to dispel?</p> + +<p>Anxious to force things a little, I remarked, with a glance at the +dismal branches that almost forced their way into the open casements: +"What a scene for young eyes like yours! Do you never get tired of these +pine-boughs and clustering shadows? Would not a little cottage in the +sunnier part of the town be preferable to all this dreary grandeur?"</p> + +<p>She looked up with sudden wistfulness that made her smile piteous.</p> + +<p>"Some of my happiest days have been passed here and some of my saddest. +I do not think I should like to leave it for any sunny cottage. We were +not made for bonny homes," she continued. "The sombreness of this old +house suits us."</p> + +<p>"And of this road," I ventured. "It is the darkest and most picturesque +I ever rode through. I thought I was threading a wilderness."</p> + +<p>For a moment she forgot her cause of anxiety and looked at me quite +intently, while a subtle shade of doubt passed slowly over her features.</p> + +<p>"It is a solitary one," she acquiesced. "I do not wonder it struck you +as dismal. Have you heard—has any one ever told you that—that it was +not considered quite safe?"</p> + +<p>"Safe?" I repeated, with—God forgive me!—an expression of mild wonder +in my eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it has not the best of reputations. Strange things have happened +in it. I thought that some one might have been kind enough to tell you +this at the station."</p> + +<p>There was a gentle sort of sarcasm in the tone; only that, or so it +seemed to me at the time. I began to feel myself in a maze.</p> + +<p>"Somebody—I suppose it was the station-master—did say something to me +about a boy lost somewhere in this portion of the woods. Do you mean +that, my dear?"</p> + +<p>She nodded, glancing again over her shoulder and partly rising as if +moved by some instinct of flight.</p> + +<p>"They are dark enough, for more than one person to have been lost in +their recesses," I observed with another look toward the heavily +curtained windows.</p> + +<p>"They certainly are," she assented, reseating herself and eying me +nervously while she spoke. "We are used to the terrors they inspire in +strangers, but if you"—she leaped to her feet in manifest eagerness and +her whole face changed in a way she little realized herself—"if you +have any fear of sleeping amid such gloomy surroundings, we can procure +you a room in the village where you will be more comfortable, and where +we can visit you almost as well as we can here. Shall I do it? Shall I +call——"</p> + +<p>My face must have assumed a very grim look, for her words tripped at +that point, and a flush, the first I had seen on her cheek, suffused her +face, giving her an appearance of great distress.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish Loreen would come! I am not at all happy in my suggestions," +she said, with a deprecatory twitch of her lip that was one of her +subtle charms. "Oh, there she is! Now I may go," she cried; and without +the least appearance of realizing that she had said anything out of +place, she rushed from the room almost before her sister had entered it.</p> + +<p>But not before their eyes had met in a look of unusual significance.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<h3>A STRANGE HOUSEHOLD</h3> + + +<p>Had I not surprised this look of mutual understanding, I might have +received an impression of Miss Knollys which would in a measure have +counteracted that made by the more nervous and less restrained Lucetta. +The dignified reserve of her bearing, the quiet way in which she +approached, and, above all, the even tones in which she uttered her +welcome, were such as to win my confidence and put me at my ease in the +house of which she was the nominal mistress. But that look! With that in +my memory, I was enabled to pierce below the surface of this placid +nature, and in the very constraint she put upon herself, detect the +presence of the same secret uneasiness which had been so openly, if +unconsciously, manifested by her sister.</p> + +<p>She was more beautiful than Lucetta in form and feature, and even more +markedly elegant in her plain black gown and fine lawn ruffles, but she +lacked her sister's evanescent charm, and though admirable to all +appearance, was less lovable on a short acquaintance.</p> + +<p>But this delays my tale, which is one of action rather than reflection. +I had naturally expected that with the appearance of the elder Miss +Knollys I should be taken to my room; but, on the contrary, she sat down +and with an apologetic air informed me that she was sorry she could not +show me the customary attentions. Circumstances over which she had no +control had made it impossible, she said, for her to offer me the +guest-chamber, but if I would be so good as to accept another for this +one night, she would endeavor to provide me with better accommodations +on the morrow.</p> + +<p>Satisfied of the almost painful nature of their poverty and determined +to submit to privations rather than leave a house so imbued with +mystery, I hastened to assure her that any room would be acceptable to +me; and with a display of good feeling not wholly insincere, began to +gather up my wraps in anticipation of being taken at once up-stairs.</p> + +<p>But Miss Knollys again surprised me by saying that my room was not yet +ready; that they had not been able to complete all their arrangements, +and begged me to make myself at home in the room where I was till +evening.</p> + +<p>As this was asking a good deal of a woman of my years, fresh from a +railroad journey and with natural habits of great neatness and order, I +felt somewhat disconcerted, but hiding my feelings in consideration of +reasons before given, replaced my bundles on the table and endeavored to +make the best of a somewhat trying situation.</p> + +<p>Launching at once into conversation, I began, as with Lucetta, to talk +about her mother. I had never known, save in the vaguest way, why Mrs. +Knollys had taken the journey which had ended in her death and burial in +a foreign land. Rumor had it that she had gone abroad for her health +which had begun to fail after the birth of Lucetta; but as Rumor had not +added why she had gone unaccompanied by her husband or children, there +remained much which these girls might willingly tell me, which would be +of the greatest interest to me. But Miss Knollys, intentionally or +unintentionally, assumed an air so cold at my well meant questions, that +I desisted from pressing them, and began to talk about myself in a way +which I hoped would establish really friendly relations between us and +make it possible for her to tell me later, if not at the present moment, +what it was that weighed so heavily upon the household, that no one +could enter this home without feeling the shadow of the secret terror +enveloping it.</p> + +<p>But Miss Knollys, while more attentive to my remarks than her sister had +been, showed, by certain unmistakable signs, that her heart and interest +were anywhere but in that room; and while I could not regard this as +throwing any discredit upon my powers of pleasing—which have rarely +failed when I have exerted them to their utmost,—I still could not but +experience the dampening effect of her manner. I went on chatting, but +in a desultory way, noting all that was odd in her unaccountable +reception of me, but giving, as I firmly believe, no evidence of my +concern and rapidly increasing curiosity.</p> + +<p>The peculiarities observable in this my first interview with these +interesting but by no means easily-to-be-understood sisters continued +all day. When one sister came in, the other stepped out, and when dinner +was announced and I was ushered down the bare and dismal hall into an +equally bare and unattractive dining-room, it was to find the chairs set +for four, and Lucetta only seated at the table.</p> + +<p>"Where is Loreen?" I asked wonderingly, as I took the seat she pointed +out to me with one of her faint and quickly vanishing smiles.</p> + +<p>"She cannot come at present," my young hostess stammered with an +unmistakable glance of distress at the large, hearty-looking woman who +had summoned me to the dining-room.</p> + +<p>"Ah," I ejaculated, thinking that possibly Loreen had found it necessary +to assist in the preparation of the meal, "and your brother?"</p> + +<p>It was the first time he had been mentioned since my first inquiries. I +had shrunk from the venture out of a motive of pure compassion, and they +had not seen fit to introduce his name into any of our conversations. +Consequently I awaited her response, with some anxiety, having a secret +premonition that in some way he was at the bottom of my strange +reception.</p> + +<p>Her hasty answer, given, however, without any increase of embarrassment, +somewhat dispelled this supposition.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he will be in presently," said she. "William is never very +punctual."</p> + +<p>But when he did come in, I could not help seeing that her manner +instantly changed and became almost painfully anxious. Though it was my +first meeting with the real head of the house, she waited for an +interchange of looks with him before giving me the necessary +introduction, and when, this duty performed, he took his seat at the +table, her thoughts and attention remained so fixed upon him that she +well-nigh forgot the ordinary civilities of a hostess. Had it not been +for the woman I have spoken of, who in her good-natured attention to my +wants amply made up for the abstraction of her mistress, I should have +fared ill at this meal, good and ample as it was, considering the +resources of those who provided it.</p> + +<p>She seemed to dread to have him speak, almost to have him move. She +watched him with her lips half open, ready, as it appeared, to stop any +inadvertent expression he might utter in his efforts to be agreeable. +She even kept her left hand disengaged, with the evident intention of +stretching it out in his direction if in his lumbering stupidity he +should utter a sentence calculated to open my eyes to what she so +passionately desired to have kept secret. I saw it all as plainly as I +saw his heavy indifference to her anxiety; and knowing from experience +that it is in just such stolid louts as these that the worst passions +are often hidden, I took advantage of my years and forced a conversation +in which I hoped some flash of his real self would appear, despite her +wary watch upon him.</p> + +<p>Not liking to renew the topic of the lane itself, I asked with a very +natural show of interest, who was their nearest neighbor. It was William +who looked up and William who answered.</p> + +<p>"Old Mother Jane is the nearest," said he; "but she's no good. We never +think of her. Mr. Trohm is the only neighbor I care for. Such peaches as +the old fellow raises! Such grapes! Such melons! He gave me two of the +nicest you ever saw this morning. By Jupiter, I taste them yet!"</p> + +<p>Lucetta's face, which should have crimsoned with mortification, turned +most unaccountably pale. Yet not so pale as it had previously done when, +a few minutes before, he began to say, "Loreen wants some of this soup +saved for"—and stopped awkwardly, conscious perhaps that Loreen's wants +should not be mentioned before me.</p> + +<p>"I thought you promised me that you would never again ask Mr. Trohm for +any of his fruit," remonstrated Lucetta.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I didn't ask! I just stood at the fence and looked over. Mr. Trohm +and I are good friends. Why shouldn't I eat his fruit?"</p> + +<p>The look she gave him might have moved a stone, but he seemed perfectly +impervious to it. Seeing him so stolid, her head drooped, and she did +not answer a word. Yet somehow I felt that even while she was so +manifestly a prey to the deepest mortification, her attention was not +wholly given over to this one emotion. There was something else she +feared. Hoping to relieve her and lighten the situation, I forced myself +to smile on the young man as I said:</p> + +<p>"Why don't you raise melons yourself? I think if I possessed your land I +should be anxious to raise everything I could on it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're a woman!" he retorted, almost roughly. "It's good business +for women; and for men, too, perhaps, who love to see fruit hang, but I +only care to eat it."</p> + +<p>"Don't," Lucetta put in, but not with the vigor I had expected.</p> + +<p>"I like to hunt, train dogs, and enjoy other people's fruit," he +laughed, with a nod at the blushing Lucetta. "I don't see any use in a +man's putting himself out for things he can get for the asking. Life's +too short for such folly. I mean to have a good time while I'm on this +blessed sphere."</p> + +<p>"William!"</p> + +<p>The cry was irresistible, yet it was not the cry I had been looking for. +Painful as was this exhibition of his stupidity and utter want of +feeling, it was not the one thing she stood in dread of, or why was her +protest so much weaker than her appearance had given token of?</p> + +<p>"Oh!" he shouted in great amusement, while she shrunk back with a +horrified look. "Lucetta don't like to hear me say that. She thinks a +man ought to work, plow, harrow, dig, make a slave of himself, to keep +up a place that's no good anyway. But I tell her that work is something +she'll never get out of me. I was born a gentleman, and a gentleman I +will live if the place tumbles down over our heads. Perhaps it would be +the best way to get rid of it. Then I could go live with Mr. Trohm, and +have melons from early morn till late at night." And again his coarse +laugh rang out.</p> + +<p>This, or was it his words, seemed to rouse her as nothing had done +before. Thrusting out her hand, she laid it on his mouth, with a look of +almost frenzied appeal at the woman who was standing at his back.</p> + +<p>"Mr. William, how can you!" that woman protested; and when he would have +turned upon her angrily, she leaned over and whispered in his ear a few +words that seemed to cow him, for he gave a short grunt through his +sister's trembling fingers and, with a shrug of his heavy shoulders, +subsided into silence.</p> + +<p>To all this I was a simple spectator, but I did not soon forget a single +feature of the scene.</p> + +<p>The remainder of the dinner passed quietly, William and myself eating +with more or less heartiness, Lucetta tasting nothing at all. In mercy +to her I declined coffee, and as soon as William gave token of being +satisfied, we hurriedly rose. It was the most uncomfortable meal I ever +ate in my life.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<h3>A SOMBRE EVENING</h3> + + +<p>The evening, like the afternoon, was spent in the sitting-room with one +of the sisters. One event alone is worth recording. I had become +excessively tired of a conversation that always languished, no matter on +what topic it started, and, observing an old piano in one corner—I once +played very well—I sat down before it and impulsively struck a few +chords from the yellow keys. Instantly Lucetta—it was Lucetta who was +with me then—bounded to my side with a look of horror.</p> + +<p>"Don't do that!" she cried, laying her hand on mine to stop me. Then, +seeing my look of dignified astonishment, she added with an appealing +smile, "I beg pardon, but every sound goes through me to-night."</p> + +<p>"Are you not well?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I am never very well," she returned, and we went back to the sofa and +renewed our forced and pitiful attempts at conversation.</p> + +<p>Promptly at nine o'clock Miss Knollys came in. She was very pale and +cast, as usual, a sad and uneasy look at her sister before she spoke to +me. Immediately Lucetta rose, and, becoming very pale herself, was +hurrying toward the door when her sister stopped her.</p> + +<p>"You have forgotten," she said, "to say good-night to our guest."</p> + +<p>Instantly Lucetta turned, and, with a sudden, uncontrollable impulse, +seized my hand and pressed it convulsively.</p> + +<p>"Good-night," she cried. "I hope you will sleep well," and was gone +before I could say a word in response.</p> + +<p>"Why does Lucetta go out of the room when you come in?" I asked, +determined to know the reason for this peculiar conduct. "Have you any +other guests in the house?"</p> + +<p>The reply came with unexpected vehemence. "No," she cried, "why should +you think so? There is no one here but the family." And she turned away +with a dignity she must have inherited from her father, for Althea +Burroughs had every interesting quality but that. "You must be very +tired," she remarked. "If you please we will go now to your room."</p> + +<p>I rose at once, glad of the prospect of seeing the upper portion of the +house. She took my wraps on her arm, and we passed immediately into the +hall. As we did so, I heard voices, one of them shrill and full of +distress; but the sound was so quickly smothered by a closing door that +I failed to discover whether this tone of suffering proceeded from a man +or a woman.</p> + +<p>Miss Knollys, who was preceding me, glanced back in some alarm, but as I +gave no token of having noticed anything out of the ordinary, she +speedily resumed her way up-stairs. As the sounds I had heard proceeded +from above, I followed her with alacrity, but felt my enthusiasm +diminish somewhat when I found myself passing door after door down a +long hall to a room as remote as possible from what seemed to be the +living portion of the house.</p> + +<p>"Is it necessary to put me off quite so far?" I asked, as my young +hostess paused and waited for me to join her on the threshold of the +most forbidding room it had ever been my fortune to enter.</p> + +<p>The blush which mounted to her brow showed that she felt the situation +keenly.</p> + +<p>"I am sure," she said, "that it is a matter of great regret to me to be +obliged to offer you so mean a lodging, but all our other rooms are out +of order, and I cannot accommodate you with anything better to-night."</p> + +<p>"But isn't there some spot nearer you?" I urged. "A couch in the same +room with you would be more acceptable to me than this distant room."</p> + +<p>"I—I hope you are not timid," she began, but I hastened to disabuse her +mind on this score.</p> + +<p>"I am not afraid of any earthly thing but dogs," I protested warmly. +"But I do not like solitude. I came here for companionship, my dear. I +really would like to sleep with one of you."</p> + +<p>This, to see how she would meet such urgency. She met it, as I might +have known she would, by a rebuff.</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry," she again repeated, "but it is quite impossible. If I +could give you the comforts you are accustomed to, I should be glad, but +we are unfortunate, we girls, and—" She said no more, but began to busy +herself about the room, which held but one object that had the least +look of comfort in it. That was my trunk, which had been neatly placed +in one corner.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you are not used to candles," she remarked, lighting what +struck me as a very short end, from the one she held in her hand.</p> + +<p>"My dear," said I, "I can accommodate myself to much that I am not used +to. I have very few old maid's ways or notions. You shall see that I am +far from being a difficult guest."</p> + +<p>She heaved a sigh, and then, seeing my eye travelling slowly over the +gray discolored walls which were not relieved by so much as a solitary +print, she pointed to a bell-rope near the head of the bed, and +considerately remarked:</p> + +<p>"If you wish anything in the night, or are disturbed in any way, pull +that. It communicates with my room, and I will be only too glad to come +to you."</p> + +<p>I glanced up at the rope, ran my eye along the wire communicating with +it, and saw that it was broken sheer off before it even entered into the +wall.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you will not hear me," I answered, pointing to the break.</p> + +<p>She flushed a deep scarlet, and for a moment looked as embarrassed as +ever her sister had done.</p> + +<p>"I did not know," she murmured. "The house is so old, everything is more +or less out of repair." And she made haste to quit the room.</p> + +<p>I stepped after her in grim determination.</p> + +<p>"But there is no key to the door," I objected.</p> + +<p>She came back with a look that was as nearly desperate as her placid +features were capable of.</p> + +<p>"I know," she said, "I know. We have nothing. But if you are not +afraid—and of what could you be afraid in this house, under our +protection, and with a good dog outside?—you will bear with things +to-night, and—Good God!" she murmured, but not so low but that my +excited sense caught every syllable, "can she have heard? Has the +reputation of this place gone abroad? Miss Butterworth," she repeated +earnestly, "the house contains no cause of terror for you. Nothing +threatens our guest, nor need you have the least concern for yourself or +us, whether the night passes in quiet or whether it is broken by +unaccountable sounds. They will have no reference to anything in which +you are interested."</p> + +<p>"Ah, ha," thought I, "won't they! You give me credit for much +indifference, my dear." But I said nothing beyond a few soothing +phrases, which I made purposely short, seeing that every moment I +detained her was just so much unnecessary torture to her. Then I went +back to my room and carefully closed the door. My first night in this +dismal and strangely ordered house had opened anything but propitiously.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<h3>THE FIRST NIGHT</h3> + + +<p>I spoke with a due regard to truth when I assured Miss Knollys that I +entertained no fears at the prospect of sleeping apart from the rest of +the family. I am a woman of courage—or so I have always believed—and +at home occupy my second floor alone without the least apprehension. But +there is a difference in these two abiding-places, as I think you are +ready by this time to acknowledge, and, though I felt little of what is +called fear, I certainly did not experience my usual satisfaction in the +minute preparations with which I am accustomed to make myself +comfortable for the night. There was a gloom both within and without the +four bare walls between which I now found myself shut, which I would +have been something less than human not to feel, and though I had no +dread of being overcome by it, I was glad to add something to the cheer +of the spot by opening my trunk and taking out a few of those little +matters of personal equipment without which the brightest room looks +barren and a den like this too desolate for habitation.</p> + +<p>Then I took a good look about me to see how I could obtain for myself +some sense of security. The bed was light and could be pulled in front +of the door. This was something. There was but one window, and that was +closely draped with some thick, dark stuff, very funereal in its +appearance. Going to it, I pulled aside the thick folds and looked out. +A mass of heavy foliage at once met my eye, obstructing the view of the +sky and adding much to the lonesomeness of the situation. I let the +curtain fall again and sat down in a chair to think.</p> + +<p>The shortness of the candle-end with which I had been provided had +struck me as significant, so significant that I had not allowed it to +burn long after Miss Knollys had left me. If these girls, charming, no +doubt, but sly, had thought to shorten my watch by shortening my candle, +I would give them no cause to think but that their ruse had been +successful. The foresight which causes me to add a winter wrap to my +stock of clothing even when the weather is at the hottest, leads me to +place a half dozen or so of candles in my travelling trunk, and so I had +only to open a little oblong box in the upper tray to have the means at +my disposal of keeping a light all night.</p> + +<p>So far, so good. I had a light, but had I anything else in case William +Knollys—but with this thought Miss Knollys's look and reassuring words +recurred to me. "Whatever you may hear—if you hear anything—will have +no reference to yourself and need not disturb you."</p> + +<p>This was comforting certainly, from a selfish standpoint; but did it +relieve my mind concerning others?</p> + +<p>Not knowing what to think of it all, and fully conscious that sleep +would not visit me under existing circumstances, I finally made up my +mind not to lie down till better assured that sleep on my part would be +desirable. So after making the various little arrangements already +alluded to, I drew over my shoulders a comfortable shawl and set myself +to listen for what I feared would be more than one dreary hour of this +not to be envied night.</p> + +<p>And here just let me stop to mention that, carefully considered as all +my precautions were, I had forgotten one thing upon leaving home which +at this minute made me very nearly miserable. I had not included among +my effects the alcohol lamp and all the other private and particular +conveniences which I possess for making tea in my own apartment. Had I +but had them with me, and had I been able to make and sip a cup of my +own delicious tea through the ordeal of listening for whatever sounds +might come to disturb the midnight stillness of this house, what relief +it would have been to my spirits and in what a different light I might +have regarded Mr. Gryce and the mission with which I had been intrusted. +But I not only lacked this element of comfort, but the satisfaction of +thinking that it was any one's fault but my own. Lena had laid her hand +on that teapot, but I had shaken my head, fearing that the sight of it +might offend the eyes of my young hostesses. But I had not calculated +upon being put in a remote corner like this of a house large enough to +accommodate a dozen families, and if ever I travel again——</p> + +<p>But this is a matter personal to Amelia Butterworth, and of no interest +to you. I will not inflict my little foibles upon you again.</p> + +<p>Eleven o'clock came and went. I had heard no sound. Twelve, and I began +to think that all was not quite so still as before; that I certainly +could hear now and then faint noises as of a door creaking on its +hinges, or the smothered sound of stealthily moving feet. Yet all was so +far from being distinct, that for some time I hesitated to acknowledge +to myself that anything could be going on in the house, which was not to +be looked for in a home professing to be simply the abode of a decent +young man and two very quiet-appearing young ladies; and even after the +noises and whispering had increased to such an extent that I could even +distinguish the sullen tones of the brother from the softer and more +carefully modulated accents of Lucetta and her sister, I found myself +ready to explain the matter by any conjecture short of that which +involved these delicate young ladies in any scheme of secret wickedness.</p> + +<p>But when I found there was likely to be no diminution in the various +noises and movements that were taking place in the front of the house, +and that only something much out of the ordinary could account for so +much disturbance in a country home so long after midnight, I decided +that only a person insensible to all sight and sound could be expected +to remain asleep under such circumstances, and that I would be perfectly +justified in their eyes in opening my door and taking a peep down the +corridor. So without further ado, I drew my bed aside and glanced out.</p> + +<p>All was perfectly dark and silent in the great house. The only light +visible came from the candle burning in the room behind me, and as for +sound, it was almost too still—it was the stillness of intent rather +than that of natural repose.</p> + +<p>This was so unexpected that for an instant I stood baffled and +wondering. Then my nose went up, and I laughed quietly to myself. I +could see nothing and I could hear nothing; but Amelia Butterworth, like +most of her kind, boasts of more than two senses, and happily there was +something to smell. A quickly blown-out candle leaves a witness behind +it to sensitive nostrils like mine, and this witness assured me that the +darkness was deceptive. Some one had just passed the head of my corridor +with a light, and because the light was extinguished it did not follow +that the person who held it was far away. Indeed, I thought that now I +heard a palpitating breath.</p> + +<p>"Humph," I cried aloud, but as if in unconscious communion with myself, +"it is not often I have so vivid a dream! I was sure that I heard steps +in the hall. I fear I'm growing nervous."</p> + +<p>Nothing moved. No one answered me.</p> + +<p>"Miss Knollys!" I called firmly.</p> + +<p>No reply.</p> + +<p>"Lucetta, dear!"</p> + +<p>I thought this appeal would go unanswered also, but when I raised my +voice for the third time, a sudden rushing sound took place down the +corridor, and Lucetta's excited figure, fully dressed, appeared in the +faint circle of light caused by my now rapidly waning candle.</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth, what is the matter?" she asked, making as if she +would draw me into my room—a proceeding which I took good care she +should not succeed in.</p> + +<p>Giving a glance at her dress, which was the same she had worn at the +supper table, I laughingly retorted:</p> + +<p>"Isn't that a question I might better ask you? It is two o'clock by my +watch, and you, for all your apparent delicacy, are still up. What does +it mean, my dear? Have I put you out so completely by my coming that +none of you can sleep?"</p> + +<p>Her eyes, which had fallen before mine, quickly looked up.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," she began, flushing and trying to take a peep into my +room, possibly to see if I had been to bed. "We did not mean to disturb +you, but—but—oh, Miss Butterworth, pray excuse our makeshifts and our +poverty. We wished to fix up another room for you, and were ashamed to +have you see how little we had to do it with, so we were moving some +things out of our own room to-night, and——"</p> + +<p>Here her voice broke, and she burst into an almost uncontrollable flood +of tears.</p> + +<p>"Don't," she entreated, "don't," as, quite thoroughly ashamed, I began +to utter some excuses. "I shall be all right in a moment. I am used to +humiliations. Only"—and her whole body seemed to join in the plea, it +trembled so—"do not, I pray, speak quite so loud. My brother is more +sensitive than even Loreen and myself about these things, and if he +should hear——"</p> + +<p>Here a suppressed oath from way down the hall assured me that he did +hear, but I gave no sign of my recognition of this fact, and Lucetta +added quickly: "He would not forgive us for our carelessness in waking +you. He is rough sometimes, but so good at heart, so good."</p> + +<p>This, with the other small matter I have just mentioned, caused a +revulsion in my feelings. He good? I did not believe it. Yet her eyes +showed no wavering when I interrogated them with mine, and feeling that +I had perhaps been doing them all an injustice, and that what I had seen +was, as she evidently meant to intimate, due to their efforts to make a +sudden guest comfortable amid their poverty, I put the best face I could +on the matter and gave the poor, pitiful, pleading face a kiss. I was +startled to feel how cold her forehead was, and, more and more +concerned, loaded her down with such assurances of appreciation as came +to my lips, and sent her back to her own room with an injunction not to +trouble herself any more about fixing up any other room for me. "Only," +I added, as her whole face showed relief, "we will go to the locksmith +to-morrow and get a key; and after to-night you will be kind enough to +see that I have a cup of tea brought to my room just before I retire. I +am no good without my cup of tea, my dear. What keeps other people awake +makes me sleep."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you shall have your tea!" she cried, with an eagerness that was +almost unnatural, and then, slipping from my grasp, she uttered another +hasty apology for having roused me from my sleep and ran hastily back.</p> + +<p>I stretched out my arm for the candle guttering in my room and held it +up to light her. She seemed to shrink at sight of its rays, and the last +vision I had of her speeding figure showed me that same look of dread on +her pallid features which had aroused my interest in our first +interview.</p> + +<p>"She may have explained why the three of them are up at this time of +night," I muttered, "but she has not explained why her every +conversation is seasoned by an expression of fear."</p> + +<p>And thus brooding, I went back to my room and, pushing the bed again +against the door, lay down upon it and out of sheer chagrin fell fast +asleep.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<h3>ON THE STAIRS</h3> + + +<p>I did not wake up till morning. The room was so dark that in all +probability I should not have wakened then, if my habits of exact +punctuality had not been aided by a gentle knock at my door.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?" I called, for I could not say "Come in" till I had moved +my bed and made way for the door to open.</p> + +<p>"Hannah with warm water," replied a voice, at which I made haste to +rise. Hannah was the woman who had waited on us at dinner.</p> + +<p>The sight of her pleasant countenance, which nevertheless looked a +trifle haggard, was a welcome relief after the sombre features of the +night. Addressing her with my usual brusqueness, but with quite my usual +kindness, I asked how the young ladies were feeling this morning.</p> + +<p>Her answer made a great show of frankness.</p> + +<p>"Oh, they are much as usual," said she. "Miss Loreen is in the kitchen +and Miss Lucetta will soon be here to inquire how you are. I hope you +passed a good night yourself, ma'am."</p> + +<p>I had slept more than I ought to, perhaps, and made haste to reassure +her as to my own condition. Then seeing that a little talk would not be +unwelcome to this hearty woman, tired to death possibly with life in +this dreary house, I made some excuse for keeping her a few minutes, +saying as I did so:</p> + +<p>"What an immense dwelling this is for four persons to live in, or have +you another inmate whom I have not seen?"</p> + +<p>I thought her buxom color showed a momentary sign of failing, but it all +came back with her answer, which was given in a round, hearty voice.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm the only maid, ma'am. I cook and sweep and all. I couldn't +abide another near me. Even Mr. Simsbury, who tends the cow and horse +and who only comes in for his dinner, worries me by spells. I like to +have my own way in the kitchen, except when the young ladies choose to +come in. Is there anything more you want, ma'am, and do you prefer tea +or coffee for breakfast?"</p> + +<p>I told her that I always drank coffee in the morning, and would have +liked to have added a question or two, but she gave me no chance. As she +went out I saw her glance at my candlestick. There was only a +half-burned end in it. She is calculating, too, how long I sat up, +thought I.</p> + +<p>Lucetta stood at the head of the stairs as I went down.</p> + +<p>"Will you excuse me for a few moments?" said she. "I am not quite ready +to follow you, but will be soon."</p> + +<p>"I will take a look at the grounds."</p> + +<p>I thought she hesitated for a moment; then her face lighted up. "Be sure +you don't encounter the dog," she cried, and slipped hastily down a side +hall I had not noticed the night before.</p> + +<p>"Ah, a good way to keep me in," I reasoned. "But I shall see the grounds +yet if I have to poison that dog." Notwithstanding, I made no haste to +leave the house. I don't believe in tempting Providence, especially +where a dog is concerned.</p> + +<p>Instead of that, I stood still and looked up and down the halls, +endeavoring to get some idea of their plan and of the location of my own +room in reference to the rest.</p> + +<p>I found that the main hall ran at right angles to the long corridor down +which I had just come, and noting that the doors opening into it were of +a size and finish vastly superior to those I had passed in the corridor +just mentioned, I judged that the best bedrooms all lay front, and that +I had been quartered at the end of what had once been considered as the +servants' hall. At my right, as I looked down the stairs, ran a wall +with a break, which looked like an opening into another corridor, and +indeed I afterward learned that the long series of rooms of which mine +was the last, had its counterpart on the other side of this enormous +dwelling, giving to the house the shape of a long, square U.</p> + +<p>I was looking in some wonderment at this opening and marvelling over the +extravagant hospitality of those old days which necessitated such a +number of rooms in a private gentleman's home, when I heard a door open +and two voices speaking. One was rough and careless, unmistakably that +of William Knollys. The other was slow and timid, and was just as +unmistakably that of the man who had driven me to this house the day +before. They were talking of some elderly person, and I had good sense +enough not to allow my indignation to blind me to the fact that by that +elderly person they meant me. This is important, for their words were +not without significance.</p> + +<p>"How shall we keep the old girl out of the house till it is all over?" +was what I heard from William's surly lips.</p> + +<p>"Lucetta has a plan," was the hardly distinguishable answer. "I am to +take——"</p> + +<p>That was all I could hear; a closing door shut off the remainder. +Something, then, was going on in this house, of a dark if not mysterious +character, and the attempts made by these two interesting and devoted +girls to cover up the fact, by explanations founded on their poverty, +had been but subterfuges after all. Grieved on their account, but +inwardly grateful to the imprudence of their more than reckless brother, +for this not-to-be-mistaken glimpse into the truth, I slowly descended +the stairs, in that state of complete self-possession which is given by +a secret knowledge of the intentions formed against us by those whose +actions we have reason to suspect.</p> + +<p>Henceforth I had but one duty—to penetrate the mystery of this +household. Whether it was the one suspected by Mr. Gryce or another of a +less evil and dangerous character hardly mattered in my eyes. While the +blight of it rested upon this family, eyes would be lowered and heads +shaken at their name. This, if I could help it, must no longer be. If +guilt lay at the bottom of all this fear, then this guilt must be known; +if innocence—I thought of the brother's lowering brow and felt it +incompatible with innocence, but remembering Mr. Gryce's remarks on this +subject, read an instant lecture to myself and, putting all conclusions +aside, devoted the few minutes in which I found myself alone in the +dining-room to a careful preparation of my mind for its duty, which was +not likely to be of the simplest character if Lucetta's keen wits were +to be pitted against mine.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<h3>A NEW ACQUAINTANCE</h3> + + +<p>When my mind is set free from doubt and fully settled upon any course, I +am capable of much good nature and seeming simplicity. I was therefore +able to maintain my own at the breakfast-table with some success, so +that the meal passed off without any of the disagreeable experiences of +the night before. Perhaps the fact that Loreen presided at the +coffee-urn instead of Lucetta had something to do with this. Her calm, +even looks seemed to put some restraint upon the boisterous outbursts to +which William was only too liable, while her less excitable nature +suffered less if by any chance he did break out and startle the decorous +silence by one of his rude guffaws.</p> + +<p>I am a slow eater, but I felt forced to hurry through the meal or be +left eating alone at the end. This did not put me in the best of humor, +for I hated to risk an indigestion just when my faculties needed to be +unusually alert. I compromised by leaving the board hungry, but I did it +with such a smile that I do not think Miss Knollys knew I had not risen +from any table so ill satisfied in years.</p> + +<p>"I will leave you to my brother for a few minutes," said she, hastily +tripping from the room. "I pray that you will not think of going to your +room till we have had an opportunity of arranging it."</p> + +<p>I instantly made up my mind to disobey this injunction. But first, it +was necessary to see what I could make of William.</p> + +<p>He was not a very promising subject as he turned and led the way toward +the front of the house.</p> + +<p>"I thought you might like to see the grounds," he growled, evidently not +enjoying the rôle assigned him. "They are so attractive," he sneered. +"Children hereabout call them the jungle."</p> + +<p>"Who's to blame for that?" I asked, with only a partial humoring of his +ill nature. "You have a sturdy pair of arms of your own, and a little +trimming here and a little trimming there would have given quite a +different appearance to this undergrowth. A gentleman usually takes +pride in his place."</p> + +<p>"Yes, when it's all his. This belongs to my sisters as much as to me. +What's the use of my bothering myself about it?"</p> + +<p>The man was so selfish he did not realize the extent of the exhibition +he made of it. Indeed he seemed to take pride in what he probably called +his independence. I began to feel the most intense aversion for him, and +only with the greatest difficulty could prolong this conversation +unmoved.</p> + +<p>"I should think it would be a pleasure to give that much assistance to +your sisters. They do not seem to be sparing in their attempts to please +you."</p> + +<p>He snapped his fingers, and I was afraid a dog or two would come leaping +around the corner of the house. But it was only his way of expressing +disdain.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the girls are well enough," he grumbled; "but they will stick to +the place. Lucetta might have married a half-dozen times, and once I +thought she was going to, but suddenly she turned straight about and +sent her lover packing, and that made me mad beyond everything. Why +should she hang on to me like a burr when there are other folks willing +to take on the burden?"</p> + +<p>It was the most palpable display of egotism I had ever seen and one of +the most revolting. I was so disgusted by it that I spoke up without any +too much caution.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she thinks she can be useful to you," I said. "I have known +sisters give up their own happiness on no better grounds."</p> + +<p>"Useful?" he sneered. "It's a usefulness a man like me can dispense +with. Do you know what I would like?"</p> + +<p>We were standing in one of the tangled pathways, with our faces turned +toward the house. As he spoke, he looked up and made a rude sort of +gesture toward the blank expanse of empty and curtainless windows.</p> + +<p>"I would like that great house all to myself, to make into one huge, +bachelor's hall. I should like to feel that I could tramp from one end +of it to the other without awakening an echo I did not choose to hear +there. I should not find it too big. I should not find it too lonesome. +I and my dogs would know how to fill it, wouldn't we, Saracen? Oh, I +forgot, Saracen is locked up."</p> + +<p>The way he mumbled the last sentence showed displeasure, but I gave +little heed to that. The gloating way in which he said he and his dogs +would fill it had given me a sort of turn. I began to have more than an +aversion for the man. He inspired me with something like terror.</p> + +<p>"Your wishes," said I, with as little expression as possible, "seem to +leave your sisters entirely out of your calculations. How would your +mother regard that if she could see you from the place where she is +gone?"</p> + +<p>He turned upon me with a look of anger that made his features positively +ugly.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by speaking to me of my mother? Have I spoken of her +to you? Is there any reason why you should lug my mother into this +conversation? If so, say so, and be——"</p> + +<p>He did not swear at me; he did not dare to, but he came precious near to +it, and that was enough to make me recoil.</p> + +<p>"She was my friend," said I. "I knew and loved her before you were born. +That was why I spoke of her, and I think it very natural myself."</p> + +<p>He seemed to feel ashamed. He grumbled out some sort of apology and +looked about quite helplessly, possibly for the dog he manifestly was in +the habit of seeing forever at his heels. I took advantage of this +momentary abstraction on his part to smooth my own disturbed features.</p> + +<p>"She was a beautiful girl," I remarked, on the principle that, the ice +once broken, one should not hesitate about jumping in. "Was your father +equally handsome for a man?"</p> + +<p>"My father—yes, let's talk of father. He was a judge of horses, he was. +When he died, there were three mares in the stable not to be beat this +side of Albany, but those devils of executors sold them, and I—well, +you had a chance to test the speed of old Bess yesterday. You weren't +afraid of being thrown out, I take it. Great Scott, to think of a man of +my tastes owning no other horse than that!"</p> + +<p>"You have not answered my question," I suggested, turning him about and +moving toward the gate.</p> + +<p>"Oh, about the way my father looked! What does that matter? He was +handsome, though. Folks say that I get whatever good looks I have from +him. He was big—bigger than I am, and while he lived—What did you make +a fellow talk for?"</p> + +<p>I don't know why I did, but I was certainly astonished at the result. +This great, huge lump of selfish clay had actually shown feeling and was +ashamed of it, like the lout he was.</p> + +<p>"Yesterday," said I, anxious to change the subject, "I had difficulty in +getting in through that gate we are pointing for. Couldn't you set it +straight, with just a little effort?"</p> + +<p>He paused, looked at me to see if I were in earnest, then took a dogged +step toward the gate I was still indicating with my resolute right hand, +but before he could touch it he perceived something on that deserted and +ominous highway which made him start in sudden surprise.</p> + +<p>"Why, Trohm," he cried, "is that you? Well, it's an age since I have +seen you turn that corner on a visit to us."</p> + +<p>"Sometime, certainly," answered a hearty and pleasant voice, and before +I could quite drop the look of severity with which I was endeavoring to +shame this young man into some decent show of interest in this place, +and assume the more becoming aspect of a lady caught unawares at an +early morning hour plucking flowers from a stunted syringa, a gentleman +stepped into sight on the other side of the fence with a look and a bow +so genial and devoid of mystery that I experienced for the first time +since entering the gloomy precincts of this town a decided sensation of +pleasure.</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth," explained Mr. Knollys with a somewhat forced gesture +in my direction. "A guest of my sisters," he went on, and looked as if +he hoped I would retire, though he made no motion to welcome Mr. Trohm +in, but rather leaned a little conspicuously on the gate as if anxious +to show that he had no idea that the other's intention went any further +than the passing of a few neighborly comments at the gate.</p> + +<p>I like to please the young even when they are no more agreeable than my +surly host, and if the gentleman who had just shown himself had been +equally immature, I would certainly have left them to have their talk +out undisturbed. But he was not. He was older; he was even of sufficient +years for his judgment to have become thoroughly matured and his every +faculty developed. I therefore could not see why my society should be +considered an intrusion by him, so I waited. His next sentence was +addressed to me.</p> + +<p>"I am happy," said he, "to have the pleasure of a personal introduction +to Miss Butterworth. I did not expect it. The surprise is all the more +agreeable. I only anticipated being allowed to leave this package and +letter with the maid. They are addressed to you, madam, and were left at +my house by mistake."</p> + +<p>I could not hide my astonishment.</p> + +<p>"I live in the next house below," said he. "The boy who brought these +from the post office was a stupid lad, and I could not induce him to +come any farther up the road. I hope you will excuse the present +messenger and believe there has been no delay."</p> + +<p>I bowed with what must have seemed an abstracted politeness. The letter +was from New York, and, as I strongly suspected, from Mr. Gryce. Somehow +this fact created in me an unmistakable embarrassment. I put both letter +and package into my pocket and endeavored to meet the gentleman's eye +with my accustomed ease in the presence of strangers. But, strange to +say, I had no sooner done so than I saw that he was no more at his ease +than myself. He smiled, glanced at William, made an offhand remark or so +about the weather, but he could not deceive eyes sharpened by such +experience as mine. Something disturbed him, something connected with +me. It made my cheek a little hot to acknowledge this even to myself, +but it was so very evident that I began to cast about for the means of +ridding ourselves of William when that blundering youth suddenly spoke:</p> + +<p>"I suppose he was afraid to come up the lane. Do you know, I think +you're brave to attempt it, Trohm. We haven't a very good name here." +And with a sudden, perfectly unnatural burst, he broke out into one of +his huge guffaws that so shook the old gate on which he was leaning that +I thought it would tumble down with him before our eyes.</p> + +<p>I saw Mr. Trohm start and cast him a look in which I seemed to detect +both surprise and horror, before he turned to me and with an air of +polite deprecation anxiously said:</p> + +<p>"I am afraid Miss Butterworth will not understand your allusions, Mr. +Knollys. I hear this is her first visit in town."</p> + +<p>As his manner showed even more feeling than the occasion seemed to +warrant, I made haste to answer that I was well acquainted with the +tradition of the lane; that its name alone showed what had happened +here.</p> + +<p>His bearing betrayed an instant relief.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to find you so well informed," said he. "I was afraid"—here +he cast another very strange glance at William—"that your young friends +might have shrunk, from some sense of delicacy, from telling you what +might frighten most guests from a lonely road like this. I compliment +you upon their thoughtfulness."</p> + +<p>William bowed as if the words of the other contained no other suggestion +than that which was openly apparent. Was he so dull, or was he—I had +not time to finish my conjectures even in my own mind, for at this +moment a quick cry rose behind us, and Lucetta's light figure appeared +running toward us with every indication of excitement.</p> + +<p>"Ah," murmured Mr. Trohm, with an appearance of great respect, "your +sister, Mr. Knollys. I had better be moving on. Good-morning, Miss +Butterworth. I am sorry that circumstances make it impossible for me to +offer you those civilities which you might reasonably expect from so +near a neighbor. Miss Lucetta and I are at swords' points over a matter +upon which I still insist she is to blame. See how shocked she is to see +me even standing at her gate."</p> + +<p>Shocked! I would have said terrified. Nothing but fear—her old fear +aggravated to a point that made all attempt at concealment +impossible—could account for her white, drawn features and trembling +form. She looked as if her whole thought was, "Have I come in time?"</p> + +<p>"What—what has procured us the honor of this visit?" she asked, moving +up beside William as if she would add her slight frame to his bulky one +to keep this intruder out.</p> + +<p>"Nothing that need alarm you," said the other with a suggestive note in +his kind and mellow voice. "I was rather unexpectedly intrusted this +morning with a letter for your agreeable guest here, and I have merely +come to deliver it."</p> + +<p>Her look of astonishment passing from him to me, I thrust my hand into +my pocket and drew out the letter which I had just received.</p> + +<p>"From home," said I, without properly considering that this was in some +measure an untruth.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she murmured as if but half convinced. "William could have gone +for it," she added, still eying Mr. Trohm with a pitiful anxiety.</p> + +<p>"I was only too happy," said the other, with a low and reassuring bow. +Then, as if he saw that her distress would only be relieved by his +departure, he raised his hat and stepped back into the open highway. "I +will not intrude again, Miss Knollys," were his parting words. "If you +want anything of Obadiah Trohm, you know where to find him. His doors +will always be open to you."</p> + +<p>Lucetta, with a start, laid her hand on her brother's arm as if to +restrain the words she saw slowly laboring to his lips, and leaning +breathlessly forward, watched the fine figure of this perfect country +gentleman till it had withdrawn quite out of sight. Then she turned, and +with a quick abandonment of all self-control, cried out with a pitiful +gesture toward her brother, "I thought all was over; I feared he meant +to come into the house," and fell stark and seemingly lifeless at our +feet.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<h3>SECRET INSTRUCTIONS</h3> + + +<p>For a moment William and myself stood looking at each other over this +frail and prostrate figure. Then he stooped, and with an unexpected show +of kindness raised her up and began carrying her toward the house.</p> + +<p>"Lucetta is a fool," he cried suddenly, stopping and giving me a quick +glance over his shoulder. "Because folks are terrified of this road and +come to see us but seldom, she has got to feel a most unreasonable dread +of visitors. She was even set against your coming till we showed her +what folly it was for her to think we could always live here like +hermits. Then she doesn't like Mr. Trohm; thinks he is altogether too +friendly to me—as if that was any of her business. Am I an idiot? Have +I no sense? Cannot I be trusted to take care of my own affairs and keep +my own secrets? She's a weak, silly chit, to go and flop over like this +when, d—n it, we have enough to look after without nursing her up +and—I mean," he said, tripping himself up with an air of polite +consideration so out of keeping with his usual churlishness as to be +more than noticeable, "that it cannot add much to the pleasure of your +visit to have such things happen as this."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't worry about me!" I curtly responded. "Get the poor girl in. +I'll look after her."</p> + +<p>But as if she heard these words and was startled by them, Lucetta roused +in her brother's arms and struggled passionately to her feet. "Oh! what +has happened to me?" she cried. "Have I said anything? William, have I +said anything?" she asked wildly, clinging to her brother in terror.</p> + +<p>He gave her a look and pushed her off.</p> + +<p>"What are you talking about?" he cried. "One would think you had +something to conceal."</p> + +<p>She steadied herself up in an instant.</p> + +<p>"I am the weakest of the family," said she, walking straight up to me +and taking me affectionately by the arm. "All my life I have been +delicate and these turns are nothing new to me. Sometimes I think I will +die in one of them; but I am quite restored now," she hastily added, as +I could not help showing my concern. "See! I can walk quite alone." And +she ran, rather than walked, up the few short steps of the porch, at +which we had now arrived. "Don't tell Loreen," she begged, as I followed +her into the house. "She worries so about me, and it will do no good."</p> + +<p>William had stalked off toward the stables. We were therefore alone. I +turned and laid a finger on her arm.</p> + +<p>"My dear," said I, "I never make foolish promises, but I can be trusted +never to heedlessly slight any one's wishes. If I see no good reason why +I should tell your sister of this fainting fit, I shall certainly hold +my peace."</p> + +<p>She seemed moved by my manner, if not by my words.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she cried, seizing my hand and pressing it. "If I dared to tell +you of my troubles! But it is impossible, quite impossible." And before +I could urge a plea for her confidence she was gone, leaving me in the +company of Hannah, who at this moment was busying herself with something +at the other end of the hall.</p> + +<p>I had no wish to interfere with Hannah just then. I had my letter to +read, and did not wish to be disturbed. So I slipped into the +sitting-room and carefully closed the door. Then I opened my letter.</p> + +<p>It was, as I supposed, from Mr. Gryce, and ran thus:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Miss Butterworth:</span></p> + +<p>"I am astonished at your determination, but since your desire +to visit your friends is such as to lead you to brave the +dangers of Lost Man's Lane, allow me to suggest certain +precautions.</p> + +<p>"First.—Do not trust anybody.</p> + +<p>"Second.—Do not proceed anywhere alone or on foot.</p> + +<p>"Third.—If danger comes to you, and you find yourself in a +condition of real peril, blow once shrilly on the whistle I +inclose with this. If, however, the danger is slight, or you +wish merely to call the attention of those who will be set to +watch over you, let the blast be short, sharp, and +repeated—twice to summon assistance, three times to call +attention.</p> + +<p>"I advise you to fasten this whistle about your neck in a way +to make it easily obtainable.</p> + +<p>"I have advised you to trust nobody. I should have excepted Mr. +Trohm, but I do not think you will be given an opportunity to +speak to him. Remember that all depends upon your not awakening +suspicion. If, however, you wish advice or desire to make any +communication to me or the man secretly holding charge over +this affair in X., seek the first opportunity of riding into +town and go at once to the hotel where you will ask for Room 3. +It has been retained in your service, and once shown into it, +you, may expect a visitor who will be the man you seek.</p> + +<p>"As you will see, every confidence is put in your judgment."</p></blockquote> + +<p>There was no signature to this—it needed none—and in the packet which +came with it was the whistle. I was glad to see it, and glad to hear +that I was not left entirely without protection in my somewhat hazardous +enterprise.</p> + +<p>The events of the morning had been so unexpected that till this moment I +had forgotten my early determination to go to my room before any change +there could be made. Recalling it now, I started for the staircase, and +did not stop though I heard Hannah calling me back. The consequence was +that I ran full tilt against Miss Knollys coming down the hall with a +tray in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Ah," I cried; "some one sick in the house?"</p> + +<p>The attack was too sudden. I saw her recoil and for one instant hesitate +before replying. Then her natural self-possession came to her aid, and +she placidly remarked:</p> + +<p>"We were all up to a late hour last night, as you know. It was necessary +for us to have some food."</p> + +<p>I accepted the explanation and made no further remark, but as in passing +her I had detected on this tray of food supposed to have been sent up +the night before, the half-eaten portion of a certain dish we had had +for breakfast, I reserved to myself the privilege of doubting her exact +truthfulness. To me the sight of this partially consumed breakfast was +proof positive of there being in the house some person of whose presence +I was supposed to be ignorant—not a pleasant thought under the +circumstances, but quite an important fact to have established. I felt +that in this one discovery I had clutched the thread that would yet lead +me out of the labyrinth of this mystery.</p> + +<p>Miss Knollys, who was on her way down-stairs, called Hannah to take the +tray, and, coming back, beckoned me toward a door opening into one of +the front rooms.</p> + +<p>"This is to be your room," she announced, "but I do not know that I can +move you to-day."</p> + +<p>She was so calm, so perfectly mistress of herself, that I could not but +admire her. Lucetta would have flushed and fidgeted, but Loreen stood as +erect and placid as if no trouble weighed upon her heart and the words +were as unimportant in their character as they seemed.</p> + +<p>"Do not distress yourself," said I. "I told Lucetta last night that I +was perfectly comfortable and had no wish to change my quarters. I am +sorry you should have thought it necessary to disturb yourself on my +account last night. Don't do it again, I pray. A woman like myself had +rather put herself to some slight inconvenience than move.</p> + +<p>"I am much obliged to you," said she, and came at once from the door. I +don't know but after all I like Lucetta's fidgety ways better than +Loreen's unmovable self-possession.</p> + +<p>"Shall I order the coach for you?" she suddenly asked, as I turned +toward the corridor leading to my room.</p> + +<p>"The coach?" I repeated.</p> + +<p>"I thought that perhaps you might like to ride into town. Mr. Simsbury +is at leisure this morning. I regret that neither Lucetta nor myself +will be able to accompany you."</p> + +<p>I thought what this same Mr. Simsbury had said about Lucetta's plan, and +hesitated. It was evidently their wish to have me spend my morning +elsewhere than with them. Should I humor them, or find excuses for +remaining home? Either course had its difficulties. If I went, what +might not take place in my absence! If I remained, what suspicions might +I not rouse! I decided to compromise matters, and start for town even if +I did not go there.</p> + +<p>"I am hesitating," said I, "because of the two or three rather +threatening-looking clouds toward the east. But if you are sure Mr. +Simsbury can be spared, I think I will risk it. I really would like to +get a key for my door; and then riding in the country is so pleasant."</p> + +<p>Miss Knollys, with a bow, passed immediately down-stairs. I went in a +state of some doubt toward my own room. "Am I surveying these +occurrences through highly magnifying glasses?" thought I. It was very +possible, yet not so possible but that I cast very curious glances at +the various closed doors I had to pass before reaching my own. Such a +little thing would make me feel like trying them. Such a little +thing—that is, added to the other things which had struck me as +unexplainable.</p> + +<p>I found my bed made and everything in apple-pie order. I had therefore +nothing to do but to prepare for going out. This I did quickly, and was +down-stairs sooner perhaps than I was expected. At all events Lucetta +and William parted very suddenly when they saw me, she in tears and he +with a dogged shrug and some such word as this:</p> + +<p>"You're a fool to take on so. Since it's got to be, the sooner the +better, I say. Don't you see that every minute makes less our chances of +concealment?"</p> + +<p>It made me feel like changing my mind and staying home. But the habit of +a lifetime is not easily broken into. I kept to my first decision.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<h3>MEN, WOMEN, AND GHOSTS</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Simsbury gave me quite an amiable bow as I entered the buggy. This +made it easy for me to say:</p> + +<p>"You are on hand early this morning. Do you sleep in the Knollys house?"</p> + +<p>The stare he gave me had the least bit of suspicion in it.</p> + +<p>"I live over yonder," he said, pointing with his whip across the +intervening woods to the main road. "I come through the marshes to my +breakfast; my old woman says they owes me three meals, and three meals I +must have."</p> + +<p>It was the longest sentence with which he had honored me. Finding him in +a talkative mood, I prepared to make myself agreeable, a proceeding +which he seemed to appreciate, for he began to sniff and pay great +attention to his horse, which he was elaborately turning about.</p> + +<p>"Why do you go that way?" I protested. "Isn't it the longest way to the +village?"</p> + +<p>"It's the way I'm most accustomed to," said he. "But we can go the other +way if you like. Perhaps we will get a glimpse of Deacon Spear. He's a +widower, you know."</p> + +<p>The leer with which he said this was intolerable. I bridled up—but no, +I will not admit that I so much as manifested by my manner that I +understood him. I merely expressed my wish to go the old way.</p> + +<p>He whipped up the horse at once, almost laughing outright. I began to +think this man capable of most any wicked deed. He was forced, however, +to pull up suddenly. Directly in our path was the stooping figure of a +woman. She did not move as we advanced, and so we had no alternative but +to stop. Not till the horse's head touched her shoulder did she move. +Then she rose up and looked at us somewhat indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Didn't you hear us?" I asked, willing to open conversation with the old +crone, whom I had no difficulty in recognizing as Mother Jane.</p> + +<p>"She's deaf—deaf, as a post," muttered Mr. Simsbury. "No use shouting +at her." His tone was brusque, yet I noticed he waited with great +patience for her to hobble out of the way.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile I was watching the old creature with much interest. She had +not a common face or a common manner. She was gray, she was toothless, +she was haggard, and she was bent, but she was not ordinary or just one +of the crowd of old women to be seen on country doorsteps. There was +force in her aged movements and a strong individuality in the glances +she shot at us as she backed slowly out of the roadway.</p> + +<p>"Do they say she is imbecile?" I asked. "She looks far from foolish to +me."</p> + +<p>"Hearken a bit," said he. "Don't you see she is muttering? She talks to +herself all the time." And in fact her lips were moving.</p> + +<p>"I cannot hear her," I said. "Make her come nearer. Somehow the old +creature interests me."</p> + +<p>He at once beckoned to the crone; but he might as well have beckoned to +the tree against which she had pushed herself. She neither answered him +nor gave any indication that she understood the gesture he had made. Yet +her eyes never moved from our faces.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said I, "she seems dull as well as deaf. You had better +drive on." But before he could give the necessary jerk of the reins, I +caught sight of some pennyroyal growing about the front of the cottage a +few steps beyond, and, pointing to it with some eagerness, I cried: "If +there isn't some of the very herb I want to take home with me! Do you +think she would give me a handful of it if I paid her?"</p> + +<p>With an obliging grunt he again pulled up. "If you can make her +understand," said he.</p> + +<p>I thought it worth the effort. Though Mr. Gryce had been at pains to +tell me there was no harm in this woman and that I need not even +consider her in any inquiries I might be called upon to make, I +remembered that Mr. Gryce had sometimes made mistakes in just such +matters as these, and that Amelia Butterworth had then felt herself +called upon to set him right. If that could happen once, why not twice? +At all events, I was not going to lose the least chance of making the +acquaintance of the people living in this lane. Had he not himself said +that only in this way could we hope to come upon the clue that had +eluded all open efforts to find it?</p> + +<p>Knowing that the sight of money is the strongest appeal that can be made +to one living in such abject poverty as this woman, making the blind to +see and the deaf to hear, I drew out my purse and held up before her a +piece of silver. She bounded as if she had been shot, and when I held it +toward her came greedily forward and stood close beside the wheels +looking up.</p> + +<p>"For you," I indicated, after making a motion toward the plant which had +attracted my attention.</p> + +<p>She glanced from me to the herb and nodded with quick appreciation. As +in a flash she seemed to take in the fact that I was a stranger, a city +lady with memories of the country and this humble plant, and hurrying to +it with the same swiftness she had displayed in advancing to the +carriage, she tore off several of the sprays and brought them back to +me, holding out her hand for the money.</p> + +<p>I had never seen greater eagerness, and I think even Mr. Simsbury was +astonished at this proof of her poverty or her greed. I was inclined to +think it the latter, for her portly figure was far from looking either +ill-fed or poorly cared for. Her dress was of decent calico, and her +pipe had evidently been lately filled, for I could smell the odor of +tobacco about her. Indeed, as I afterward heard, the good people of X. +had never allowed her to suffer. Yet her fingers closed upon that coin +as if in it she grasped the salvation of her life, and into her eyes +leaped a light that made her look almost young, though she must have +been fully eighty.</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose she will do with that?" I asked Mr. Simsbury, as +she turned away in an evident fear I might repent of my bargain.</p> + +<p>"Hark!" was his brief response. "She is talking now."</p> + +<p>I did hearken, and heard these words fall from her quickly moving lips:</p> + +<p>"Seventy; twenty-eight; and now ten."</p> + +<p>Jargon; for I had given her twenty-five cents, an amount quite different +from any she had mentioned.</p> + +<p>"Seventy!" She was repeating the figures again, this time in a tone of +almost frenzied elation. "Seventy; twenty-eight; and now ten! Won't +Lizzie be surprised! Seventy; twenty—" I heard no more—she had bounded +into her cottage and shut the door.</p> + +<p>"Waal, what do you think of her now?" chuckled Mr. Simsbury, touching up +his horse. "She's always like that, saying over numbers, and muttering +about Lizzie. Lizzie was her daughter. Forty years ago she ran off with +a man from Boston, and for thirty-eight years she's been lying in a +Massachusetts grave. But her mother still thinks she is alive and is +coming back. Nothing will ever make her think different. But she's +harmless, perfectly harmless. You needn't be afeard of her."</p> + +<p>This, because I cast a look behind me of more than ordinary curiosity, I +suppose. Why were they all so sure she was harmless? I had thought her +expression a little alarming at times, especially when she took the +money from my hand. If I had refused it or even held it back a little, I +think she would have fallen upon me tooth and nail. I wished I could +take a peep into her cottage. Mr. Gryce had described it as four walls +and nothing more, and indeed it was small and of the humblest +proportions; but the fluttering of some half-dozen pigeons about its +eaves proved it to be a home and, as such, of interest to me, who am +often able to read character from a person's habitual surroundings.</p> + +<p>There was no yard attached to this simple building, only a small open +place in front in which a few of the commonest vegetables grew, such as +turnips, carrots, and onions. Elsewhere towered the forest—the great +pine forest through which this portion of the road ran.</p> + +<p>Mr. Simsbury had been so talkative up to now that I was in hope he would +enter into some details about the persons and things we encountered, +which might assist me in the acquaintanceship I was anxious to make. But +his loquaciousness ended with this small adventure I have just +described. Not till we were well quit of the pines and had entered into +the main thoroughfare did he deign to respond to any of my suggestions, +and then it was in a manner totally unsatisfactory and quite +uncommunicative. The only time he deigned to offer a remark was when we +emerged from the forest and came upon the little crippled child, looking +from its window. Then he cried:</p> + +<p>"Why, how's this? That's Sue you see there, and her time isn't till +arternoon. Rob allers sits there of a mornin'. I wonder if the little +chap's sick. S'pose I ask."</p> + +<p>As this was just what I would have suggested if he had given me time, I +nodded complacently, and we drove up and stopped.</p> + +<p>The piping voice of the child at once spoke up:</p> + +<p>"How d' ye do, Mr. Simsbury? Ma's in the kitchen. Rob isn't feelin' good +to-day."</p> + +<p>I thought her tone had a touch of mysteriousness in it. I greeted the +pale little thing, and asked if Rob was often sick.</p> + +<p>"Never," she answered, "except, like me, he can't walk. But I'm not to +talk about it, ma says. I'd like to, but——"</p> + +<p>Ma's face appearing at this moment over her shoulder put an end to her +innocent garrulity.</p> + +<p>"How d' ye do, Mr. Simsbury?" came a second time from the window, but +this time in very different tones. "What's the child been saying? She's +so sot up at being allowed to take her brother's place in the winder +that she don't know how to keep her tongue still. Rob's a little +languid, that's all. You'll see him in his old place to-morrow." And she +drew back as if in polite intimation that we might drive on.</p> + +<p>Mr. Simsbury responded to the suggestion, and in another moment we were +trotting down the road. Had we stayed a minute longer, I think the child +would have said something more or less interesting to hear.</p> + +<p>The horse, which had brought us thus far at a pretty sharp trot, now +began to lag, which so attracted Mr. Simsbury's attention, that he +forgot to answer even by a grunt more than half of my questions. He +spent most of his time looking at the nag's hind feet, and finally, just +as we came in sight of the stores, he found his tongue sufficiently to +announce that the horse was casting a shoe and that he would be obliged +to go to the blacksmith's with her.</p> + +<p>"Humph, and how long will that take?" I asked.</p> + +<p>He hesitated so long, rubbing his nose with his finger, that I grew +suspicious and cast a glance at the horse's foot myself. The shoe was +loose. I began to hear it clang.</p> + +<p>"Waal, it may be a matter of a couple of hours," he finally drawled. "We +have no blacksmith in town, and the ride up there is two miles. Sorry it +happened, ma'am, but there's all sorts of shops here, you see, and I've +allers heard that a woman can easily spend two hours haggling away in +shops."</p> + +<p>I glanced at the two ill-furnished windows he pointed out, thought of +Arnold & Constable's, Tiffany's, and the other New York establishments I +had been in the habit of visiting, and suppressed my disdain. Either the +man was a fool or he was acting a part in the interests of Lucetta and +her family. I rather inclined to the latter supposition. If the plan was +to keep me out most of the morning why could that shoe not have been +loosened before the mare left the stable?</p> + +<p>"I made all necessary purchases while in New York," said I, "but if you +must get the horse shod, why, take her off and do it. I suppose there is +a hotel parlor near here where I can sit."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," and he made haste to point out to me where the hotel stood. +"And it's a very nice place, ma'am. Mrs. Carter, the landlady, is the +nicest sort of person. Only you won't try to go home, ma'am, on foot? +You'll wait till I come back for you?"</p> + +<p>"It isn't likely I'll go streaking through Lost Man's Lane alone," I +exclaimed indignantly. "I'd rather sit in Mrs. Carter's parlor till +night."</p> + +<p>"And I would advise you to," he said. "No use making gossip for the +village folks. They have enough to talk about as it is."</p> + +<p>Not exactly seeing the force of this reasoning, but quite willing to be +left to my own devices for a little while, I pointed to a locksmith's +shop I saw near by, and bade him put me down there.</p> + +<p>With a sniff I declined to interpret into a token of disapproval, he +drove me up to the shop and awkwardly assisted me to alight.</p> + +<p>"Trunk key missing?" he ventured to inquire before getting back into his +seat.</p> + +<p>I did not think it necessary to reply, but walked immediately into the +shop. He looked dissatisfied at this, but whatever his feelings were he +refrained from any expression of them, and presently mounted to his +place and drove off. I was left confronting the decent man who +represented the lock-fitting interests in X.</p> + +<p>I found some difficulty in broaching my errand. Finally I said:</p> + +<p>"Miss Knollys, who lives up the road, wishes a key fitted to one of her +doors. Will you come or send a man to her house to-day? She is too +occupied to see about it herself."</p> + +<p>The man must have been struck by my appearance, for he stared at me +quite curiously for a minute. Then he gave a hem and a haw and said:</p> + +<p>"Certainly. What kind of a door is it?" When I had answered, he gave me +another curious glance and seemed uneasy to step back to where his +assistant was working with a file.</p> + +<p>"You will be sure to come in time to have the lock fitted before night?" +I said in that peremptory manner of mine which means simply, "I keep my +promises and expect you to keep yours."</p> + +<p>His "Certainly" struck me as a little weaker this time, possibly because +his curiosity was excited. "Are you the lady from New York who is +staying with them?" he asked, stepping back, seemingly quite unawed by +my positive demeanor.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, thawing a trifle; "I am Miss Butterworth."</p> + +<p>He looked at me almost as if I were a curiosity.</p> + +<p>"And did you sleep there last night?" he urged.</p> + +<p>I thought it best to thaw still more.</p> + +<p>"Of course," I said. "Where do you think I would sleep? The young ladies +are friends of mine."</p> + +<p>He rapped abstractedly on the counter with a small key he was holding.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me," said he, with some remembrance of my position toward him as +a stranger, "but weren't you afraid?"</p> + +<p>"Afraid?" I echoed. "Afraid in Miss Knollys' house?"</p> + +<p>"Why, then, do you want a key to your door?" he asked, with a slight +appearance of excitement. "We don't lock doors here in the village; at +least we didn't."</p> + +<p>"I did not say it was my door," I began, but, feeling that this was a +prevarication not only unworthy of me, but one that he was entirely too +sharp to accept, I added stiffly: "It is for my door. I am not +accustomed even at home to sleep with my room unlocked."</p> + +<p>"Oh," he murmured, totally unconvinced, "I thought you might have got a +scare. Folks somehow are afraid of that old place, it's so big and +ghost-like. I don't think you would find any one in this village who +would sleep there all night."</p> + +<p>"A pleasing preparation for my rest to-night," I grimly laughed. +"Dangers on the road and ghosts in the house. Happily I don't believe in +the latter."</p> + +<p>The gesture he made showed incredulity. He had ceased rapping with the +key or even to show any wish to join his assistant. All his thoughts for +the moment seemed to be concentrated on me.</p> + +<p>"You don't know little Rob," he inquired, "the crippled lad who lives at +the head of the lane?"</p> + +<p>"No," I said; "I haven't been in town a day yet, but I mean to know Rob +and his sister too. Two cripples in one family rouse my interest."</p> + +<p>He did not say why he had spoken of the child, but began tapping with +his key again.</p> + +<p>"And you are sure you saw nothing?" he whispered. "Lots of things can +happen in a lonely road like that."</p> + +<p>"Not if everybody is as afraid to enter it as you say your villagers +are," I retorted.</p> + +<p>But he didn't yield a jot.</p> + +<p>"Some folks don't mind present dangers," said he. "Spirits——"</p> + +<p>But he received no encouragement in his return to this topic. "You don't +believe in spirits?" said he. "Well, they are doubtful sort of folks, +but when honest and respectable people such as live in this town, when +children even, see what answers to nothing but phantoms, then I remember +what a wiser man than any of us once said——But perhaps you don't read +Shakespeare, madam?"</p> + +<p>Nonplussed for the moment, but interested in the man's talk more than +was consistent with my need of haste, I said with some spirit, for it +struck me as very ridiculous that this country mechanic should question +my knowledge of the greatest dramatist of all time, "Shakespeare and the +Bible form the staple of my reading." At which he gave me a little nod +of apology and hastened to say:</p> + +<p>"Then you know what I mean—Hamlet's remark to Horatio, madam, 'There +are more things,' etc. Your memory will readily supply you with the +words."</p> + +<p>I signified my satisfaction and perfect comprehension of his meaning, +and, feeling that something important lay behind his words, I endeavored +to make him speak more explicitly.</p> + +<p>"The Misses Knollys show no terror of their home," I observed. "They +cannot believe in spirits either."</p> + +<p>"Miss Knollys is a woman of a great deal of character," said he. "But +look at Lucetta. There is a face for you, for a girl not yet out of her +twenties; and such a round-cheeked lass as she was once! Now what has +made the change? The sights and sounds of that old house, I say. Nothing +else would give her that scared look—nothing merely mortal, I mean."</p> + +<p>This was going a step too far. I could not discuss Lucetta with this +stranger, anxious as I was to hear what he had to say about her.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," I remonstrated, taking up my black satin bag, without +which I never stir. "One would think the terrors of the lane she lives +in might account for some appearance of fear on her part."</p> + +<p>"So it might," he assented, but with no great heartiness. "But Lucetta +has never spoken of those dangers. The people in the lane do not seem to +fear them. Even Deacon Spear says that, set aside the wickedness of the +thing, he rather enjoys the quiet which the ill repute of the lane gives +him. I don't understand this indifference myself. I have no relish for +horrible mysteries or for ghosts either."</p> + +<p>"You won't forget the key?" I suggested shortly, preparing to walk out, +in my dread lest he should again introduce the subject of Lucetta.</p> + +<p>"No," said he, "I won't forget it." His tone should have warned me that +I need not expect to have a locked door that night.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<h3>THE PHANTOM COACH</h3> + + +<p>Ghosts! What could the fellow have meant? If I had pressed him he would +have told me, but it did not seem quite a lady's business to pick up +information in this way, especially when it involved a young lady like +Lucetta. Yet did I think I would ever come to the end of this matter +without involving Lucetta? No. Why, then, did I allow my instincts to +triumph over my judgment? Let those answer who understand the workings +of the human heart. I am simply stating facts.</p> + +<p>Ghosts! Somehow the word startled me as if in some way it gave a rather +unwelcome confirmation to my doubts. Apparitions seen in the Knollys +mansion or in any of the houses bordering on this lane! That was a +serious charge; how serious seemed to be but half comprehended by this +man. But I comprehended it to the full, and wondered if it was on +account of such gossip as this that Mr. Gryce had persuaded me to enter +Miss Knollys' house as a guest.</p> + +<p>I was crossing the street to the hotel as I indulged in these +conjectures, and intent as my mind was upon them, I could not but note +the curiosity and interest which my presence excited in the simple +country folk invariably to be found lounging about a country tavern. +Indeed, the whole neighborhood seemed agog, and though I would have +thought it derogatory to my dignity to notice the fact, I could not but +see how many faces were peering at me from store doors and the +half-closed blinds of adjoining cottages. No young girl in the pride of +her beauty could have awakened more interest, and this I attributed, as +was no doubt right, not to my appearance, which would not perhaps be apt +to strike these simple villagers as remarkable, or to my dress, which is +rather rich than fashionable, but to the fact that I was a stranger in +town, and, what was more extraordinary, a guest of the Misses Knollys.</p> + +<p>My intention in approaching the hotel was not to spend a couple of +dreary hours in the parlor with Mrs. Carter, as Mr. Simsbury had +suggested, but to obtain if possible a conveyance to carry me +immediately back to the Knollys mansion. But this, which would have been +a simple matter in most towns, seemed well-nigh an impossibility in X. +The landlord was away, and Mrs. Carter, who was very frank with me, told +me it would be perfectly useless to ask one of the men to drive me +through the lane. "It's an unwholesome spot," said she, "and only Mr. +Carter and the police have the courage to brave it."</p> + +<p>I suggested that I was willing to pay well, but it seemed to make very +little difference to her. "Money won't hire them," said she, and I had +the satisfaction of knowing that Lucetta had triumphed in her plan, and +that, after all, I must sit out the morning in the precincts of the +hotel parlor with Mrs. Carter.</p> + +<p>It was my first signal defeat, but I was determined to make the best of +it, and if possible glean such knowledge from the talk of this woman as +would make me feel that I had lost nothing by my disappointment. She was +only too ready to talk, and the first topic was little Rob.</p> + +<p>I saw the moment I mentioned his name that I was introducing a subject +which had already been well talked over by every eager gossip in the +village.</p> + +<p>Her attitude of importance, the air of mystery she assumed, were +preparations I had long been accustomed to in women of this kind, and I +was not at all surprised when she announced in a way that admitted of no +dispute:</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's no wonder the child is sick. We would be sick under the +circumstances. <i>He has seen the phantom coach.</i>"</p> + +<p>The phantom coach! So that was what the locksmith meant. A phantom +coach! I had heard of every kind of phantom but that. Somehow the idea +was a thrilling one, or would have been to a nature less practical than +mine.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you mean," said I. "Some superstition of the place? I +never heard of a ghostly appearance of that nature before."</p> + +<p>"No, I expect not. It belongs to X. I never heard of it beyond these +mountains. Indeed, I have never known it to have been seen but upon one +road. I need not mention what road, madam. You can guess."</p> + +<p>Yes, I could guess, and the guessing made me set my lips a little +grimly.</p> + +<p>"Tell me more about this thing," I urged, half laughing. "It ought to be +of some interest to me."</p> + +<p>She nodded, drew her chair a trifle nearer, and impetuously began:</p> + +<p>"You see this is a very old town. It has more than one ancient country +house similar to the one you are now living in, and it has its early +traditions. One is, that an old-fashioned coach, perfectly noiseless, +drawn by horses through which you can see the moonlight, haunts the +highroad at intervals and flies through the gloomy forest road we have +christened of late years Lost Man's Lane. It is a superstition, +possibly, but you cannot find many families in town but believe in it as +a fact, for there is not an old man or woman in the place but has either +seen it in the past or has had some relative who has seen it. It passes +only at night, and it is thought to presage some disaster to those who +see it. My husband's uncle died the next morning after it flew by him on +the highway. Fortunately years elapse between its going and coming. It +is ten years, I think they say, since it was last seen. Poor little Rob! +It has frightened him almost out of his wits."</p> + +<p>"I should think so," I cried with becoming credulity. "But how came he +to see it? I thought you said it only passed at night."</p> + +<p>"At midnight," she repeated. "But Rob, you see, is a nervous lad, and +night before last he was so restless he could not sleep, so he begged to +be put in the window to cool off. This his mother did, and he sat there +for a good half-hour alone, looking out at the moonlight. As his mother +is an economical woman there was no candle lit in the room, so he got +his pleasure out of the shadows which the great trees made on the +highroad, when suddenly—you ought to hear the little fellow tell it—he +felt the hair rise on his forehead and all his body grow stiff with a +terror that made his tongue feel like lead in his mouth. A something he +would have called a horse and a carriage in the daytime, but which, in +this light and under the influence of the mortal terror he was in, took +on a distorted shape which made it unlike any team he was accustomed to, +was going by, not as if being driven over the earth and stones of the +road,—though there was a driver in front, a driver with an odd +three-cornered hat on his head and a cloak about his shoulders, such as +the little fellow remembered to have seen hanging in his grandmother's +closet,—but as if it floated along without sound or stir; in fact, a +spectre team which seemed to find its proper destination when it turned +into Lost Man's Lane and was lost among the shadows of that ill-reputed +road."</p> + +<p>"Pshaw!" was my spirited comment as she paused to take her breath and +see how I was affected by this grewsome tale. "A dream of the poor +little lad! He had heard stories of this apparition and his imagination +supplied the rest."</p> + +<p>"No; excuse me, madam, he had been carefully kept from hearing all such +tales. You could see this by the way he told his story. He hardly +believed what he had himself seen. It was not till some foolish neighbor +blurted out, 'Why, that was the phantom coach,' that he had any idea he +was not relating a dream."</p> + +<p>My second <i>Pshaw!</i> was no less marked than the first.</p> + +<p>"He did know about it, notwithstanding," I insisted. "Only he had +forgotten the fact. Sleep often supplies us with these lost memories."</p> + +<p>"Very true, and your supposition is very plausible, Miss Butterworth, +and might be regarded as correct, if he had been the only person to see +this apparition. But Mrs. Jenkins saw it too, and she is a woman to be +believed."</p> + +<p>This was becoming serious.</p> + +<p>"Saw it before he did or afterwards?" I asked. "Does she live on the +highway or somewhere in Lost Man's Lane?"</p> + +<p>"She lives on the highway about a half-mile from the station. She was +sitting up with her sick husband and saw it just as it was going down +the hill. She said it made no more noise than a cloud slipping by. She +expects to lose old Rause. No one could behold such a thing as that and +not have some misfortune follow."</p> + +<p>I laid all this up in my mind. My hour of waiting was not likely to +prove wholly unprofitable.</p> + +<p>"You see," the good woman went on, with a relish for the marvellous that +stood me in good stead, "there is an old tradition of that road +connected with a coach. Years ago, before any of us were born, and the +house where you are now staying was a gathering-place for all the gay +young bloods of the county, a young man came up from New York to visit +Mr. Knollys. I do not mean the father or even the grandfather of the +folks you are visiting, ma'am. He was great-grandfather to Lucetta, and +a very fine gentleman, if you can trust the pictures that are left of +him. But my story has not to do with him. He had a daughter at that +time, a widow of great and sparkling attractions, and though she was +older than the young man I have mentioned, every one thought he would +marry her, she was so handsome and such an heiress.</p> + +<p>"But he failed to pay his court to her, and though he was handsome +himself and made a fool of more than one girl in the town, every one +thought he would return as he had come, a free-hearted bachelor, when +suddenly one night the coach was missed from the stables and he from the +company, which led to the discovery that the young widow's daughter was +gone too, a chit who was barely fifteen, and without a hundredth part of +the beauty of her mother. Love only could account for this, for in those +days young ladies did not ride with gentlemen in the evening for +pleasure, and when it came to the old gentleman's ears, and, what was +worse, came to the mother's, there was a commotion in the great house, +the echoes of which, some say, have never died out. Though the pipers +were playing and the fiddles were squeaking in the great room where they +used to dance the night away, Mrs. Knollys, with her white brocade +tucked up about her waist, stood with her hand on the great front door, +waiting for the horse upon which she was determined to follow the flying +lovers. The father, who was a man of eighty years, stood by her side. He +was too old to ride himself, but he made no effort to hold her back, +though the jewels were tumbling from her hair and the moon had vanished +from the highway.</p> + +<p>"'I will bring her back or die!' the passionate beauty exclaimed, and +not a lip said her nay, for they saw, what neither man nor woman had +been able to see up to that moment, that her very life and soul were +wrapped up in the man who had stolen away her daughter.</p> + +<p>"Shrilly piped the pipes, squeak and hum went the fiddles, but the sound +that was sweetest to her was the pound of the horses' hoofs on the road +in front. That was music indeed, and as soon as she heard it she +bestowed one wild kiss on her father and bounded from the house. An +instant later and she was gone. One flash of her white robe at the gate, +then all was dark on the highway, and only the old father stood in the +wide-open door, waiting, as he vowed he would wait, till his daughter +returned.</p> + +<p>"She did not go alone. A faithful groom was behind her, and from him was +learned the conclusion of that quest. For an hour and a half they rode; +then they came upon a chapel in the mountains, in which were burning +unwonted lights. At the sight the lady drew rein and almost fell from +her horse into the arms of her lackey. 'A marriage!' she murmured; 'a +marriage!' and pointed to an empty coach standing in the shadow of a +wide-spreading tree. It was their family coach. How well she knew it! +Rousing herself, she made for the chapel door. 'I will stop these +unhallowed rites!' she cried! 'I am her mother, and she is not of age.' +But the lackey drew her back by her rich white dress. 'Look!' he cried, +pointing in at one of the windows, and she looked. The man she loved +stood before the altar with her daughter. He was smiling in that +daughter's face with a look of passionate devotion. It went like a +dagger to her heart. Crushing her hands against her face, she wailed out +some fearful protest; then she dashed toward the door with 'Stop! stop!' +on her lips. But the faithful lackey at her side drew her back once +more. 'Listen!' was his word, and she listened. The minister, whose form +she had failed to note in her first hurried look, was uttering his +benediction. She had come too late. The young couple were married.</p> + +<p>"Her servant said, or so the tradition runs, that when she realized this +she grew calm as walking death. Making her way into the chapel, she +stood ready at the door to greet them as they issued forth, and when +they saw her there, with her rich bedraggled robe and the gleam of +jewels on a neck she had not even stopped to envelop in more than the +veil from her hair, the bridegroom seemed to realize what he had done +and stopped the bride, who in her confusion would have fled back to the +altar where she had just been made a wife. 'Kneel!' he cried. 'Kneel, +Amarynth! Only thus can we ask pardon of our mother.' But at that word, +a word which seemed to push her a million miles away from these two +beings who but two hours before had been the delight of her life, the +unhappy woman gave a cry and fled from their presence. 'Go! go!' were +her parting words. 'As you have chosen, you must abide. But let no +tongue ever again call me mother.'</p> + +<p>"They found her lying on the grass outside. As she could no longer +sustain herself on a horse, they put her into the coach, gave the reins +to her devoted lackey, and themselves rode off on horseback. One man, +the fellow who had driven them to that place, said that the clock struck +twelve from the chapel tower as the coach turned away and began its +rapid journey home. This may and may not be so. We only know that its +apparition always enters Lost Man's Lane a few minutes before one, which +is the very hour at which the real coach came back and stopped before +Mr. Knollys' gate. And now for the worst, Miss Butterworth. When the old +gentleman went down to greet the runaways, he found the lackey on the +box and his daughter sitting all alone in the coach. But the soil on the +brocaded folds of her white dress was no longer that of mud only. She +had stabbed herself to the heart with a bodkin she wore in her hair, and +it was a corpse which the faithful negro had been driving down the +highway that night."</p> + +<p>I am not a sentimental woman, but this story as thus told gave me a +thrill I do not know as I really regret experiencing.</p> + +<p>"What was this unhappy mother's name?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Lucetta," was the unexpected and none too reassuring answer.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2> + +<h3>GOSSIP</h3> + + +<p>This name once mentioned called for more gossip, but of a somewhat +different nature.</p> + +<p>"The Lucetta of to-day is not like her ancient namesake," observed Mrs. +Carter. "She may have the heart to love, but she is not capable of +showing that love by any act of daring."</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that," I replied, astonished that I felt willing to +enter into a discussion with this woman on the very subject I had just +shrunk from talking over with the locksmith. "Girls as frail and nervous +as she is, sometimes astonish one at a pinch. I do not think Lucetta +lacks daring."</p> + +<p>"You don't know her. Why, I have seen her jump at the sight of a spider, +and heaven knows that they are common enough among the decaying walls in +which she lives. A puny chit, Miss Butterworth; pretty enough, but weak. +The very kind to draw lovers, but not to hold them. Yet every one pities +her, her smile is so heart-broken."</p> + +<p>"With ghosts to trouble her and a lover to bemoan, she has surely some +excuse for that," said I.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I don't deny it. But why has she a lover to bemoan? He seemed a +proper man and much beyond the ordinary. Why let him go as she did? Even +her sister admits that she loved him."</p> + +<p>"I am not acquainted with the circumstances," I suggested.</p> + +<p>"Well, there isn't much of a story to it. He is a young man from over +the mountains, well educated, and with something of a fortune of his +own. He came here to visit the Spears, I believe, and seeing Lucetta +leaning one day on the gate in front of her house, he fell in love with +her and began to pay her his attentions. That was before the lane got +its present bad name, but not before one or two men had vanished from +among us. William—that is her brother, you know—has always been +anxious to have his sisters marry, so he did not stand in the way, and +no more did Miss Knollys, but after two or three weeks of doubtful +courtship, the young man went away, and that was the end of it. And a +great pity, too, say I, for once clear of that house, Lucetta would grow +into another person. Sunshine and love are necessities to most women, +Miss Butterworth, especially to such as are weakly and timid."</p> + +<p>I thought the qualification excellent.</p> + +<p>"You are right," I assented, "and I should like to see the result of +them upon Lucetta." Then, with an attempt to still further sound this +woman's mind and with it the united mind of the whole village, I +remarked: "The young do not usually throw aside such prospects without +excellent reasons. Have you never thought that Lucetta was governed by +principle in discarding this very excellent young man?"</p> + +<p>"Principle? What principle could she have had in letting a desirable +husband go?"</p> + +<p>"She may have thought the match an undesirable one for him."</p> + +<p>"For him? Well, I never thought of that. True, she may. They are known +to be poor, but poverty don't count in such old families as theirs. I +hardly think she would be influenced by any such consideration. Now, if +this had happened since the lane got its bad name and all this stir had +been made about the disappearance of certain folks within its precincts, +I might have given some weight to your suggestion—women are so queer. +But this happened long ago and at a time when the family was highly +thought of, leastwise the girls, for William does not go for much, you +know—too stupid and too brutal."</p> + +<p>William! Would the utterance of that name heighten my suggestion? I +surveyed her closely, but could detect no change in her somewhat puzzled +countenance.</p> + +<p>"My allusions were not in reference to the disappearances," said I. "I +was thinking of something else. Lucetta is not well."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I know! They say she has some kind of heart complaint, but that was +not true then. Why, her cheeks were like roses in those days, and her +figure as plump and pretty as any you could see among our village +beauties. No, Miss Butterworth, it was through her weakness she lost +him. She probably palled upon his taste. It was noticed that he held his +head very high in going out of town."</p> + +<p>"Has he married since?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Not to my knowledge, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Then he loved her," I declared.</p> + +<p>She looked at me quite curiously. Doubtless that word sounds a little +queer on my lips, but that shall not deter me from using it when the +circumstances seem to require. Besides, there was once a time—But +there, I promised to fall into no digressions.</p> + +<p>"You should have been married yourself, Miss Butterworth," said she.</p> + +<p>I was amazed, first at her daring, and secondly that I was so little +angry at this sudden turning of the tables upon myself. But then the +woman meant no offence, rather intended a compliment.</p> + +<p>"I am very well contented as I am," I returned. "<i>I</i> am neither sickly +nor timid."</p> + +<p>She smiled, looked as if she thought it only common politeness to agree +with me, and tried to say so, but finding the situation too much for +her, coughed and discreetly held her peace. I came to her rescue with a +new question:</p> + +<p>"Have the women of the Knollys family ever been successful in love? The +mother of these girls, say—she who was Miss Althea Burroughs—was her +life with her husband happy? I have always been curious to know. She and +I were schoolmates."</p> + +<p>"You were? You knew Althea Knollys when she was a girl? Wasn't she +charming, ma'am? Did you ever see a livelier girl or one with more knack +at winning affection? Why, she couldn't sit down with you a half-hour +before you felt like sharing everything you had with her. It made no +difference whether you were man or woman, it was all the same. She had +but to turn those mischievous, pleading eyes upon you for you to become +a fool at once. Yet her end was sad, ma'am; too sad, when you remember +that she died at the very height of her beauty alone and in a foreign +land. But I have not answered your question. Were she and the judge +happy together? I have never heard to the contrary, ma'am. I'm sure he +mourned her faithfully enough. Some think that her loss killed him. He +did not survive her more than three years."</p> + +<p>"The children do not favor her much," said I, "but I see an expression +now and then in Lucetta which reminds me of her mother."</p> + +<p>"They are all Knollys," said she. "Even William has traits which, with a +few more brains back of them, would remind you of his grandfather, who +was the plainest of his race."</p> + +<p>I was glad that the talk had reverted to William.</p> + +<p>"He seems to lack heart, as well as brains," I said. "I marvel that his +sisters put up with him as well as they do."</p> + +<p>"They cannot help it. He is not a fellow to be fooled with. Besides, he +holds third share in the house. If they could sell it! But, deary me, +who would buy an old tumble-down place like that, on a road you cannot +get folks who have any consideration for their lives to enter for love +or money? But excuse me, ma'am; I forgot that you are living just now on +that very road. I'm sure I beg a thousand pardons."</p> + +<p>"I am living there as a guest," I returned. "I have nothing to do with +its reputation—except to brave it."</p> + +<p>"A courageous thing to do, ma'am, and one that may do the road some +good. If you can spend a month with the Knollys girls and come out of +their house at the end as hale and hearty as you entered it, it will be +the best proof possible that there is less to be feared there than some +people think. I shall be glad if you can do it, ma'am, for I like the +girls and would be glad to have the reputation of the place restored."</p> + +<p>"Pshaw!" was my final comment. "The credulity of the town has had as +much to do with its loss as they themselves. That educated people such +as I see here should believe in ghosts!"</p> + +<p>I say final, for at this moment the good lady, springing up, put an end +to our conversation. She had just seen a buggy pass the window.</p> + +<p>"It's Mr. Trohm," she exclaimed. "Ma'am, if you wish to return home +before Mr. Simsbury comes back you may be able to do so with this +gentleman. He's a most obliging man, and lives less than a quarter of a +mile from the Misses Knollys."</p> + +<p>I did not say I had already met the gentleman. Why, I do not know. I +only drew myself up and waited with some small inner perturbation for +the result of the inquiry I saw she had gone to make.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2> + +<h3>I FORGET MY AGE, OR, RATHER, REMEMBER IT</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Trohm did not disappoint my expectations. In another moment I +perceived him standing in the open doorway with the most genial smile on +his lips.</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth," said he, "I feel too honored. If you will deign to +accept a seat in my buggy, I shall only be too happy to drive you home."</p> + +<p>I have always liked the manners of country gentlemen. There is just a +touch of formality in their bearing which has been quite eliminated from +that of their city brothers. I therefore became gracious at once and +accepted the seat he offered me without any hesitation.</p> + +<p>The heads that showed themselves at the neighboring windows warned us to +hasten on our route. Mr. Trohm, with a snap of his whip, touched up his +horse, and we rode in dignified calm away from the hotel steps into the +wide village street known as the main road. The fact that Mr. Gryce had +told me that this was the one man I could trust, joined to my own +excellent knowledge of human nature and the persons in whom explicit +confidence can be put, made the moment one of great satisfaction to me. +I was about to make my appearance at the Knollys mansion two hours +before I was expected, and thus outwit Lucetta by means of the one man +whose assistance I could conscientiously accept.</p> + +<p>We were not slow in beginning conversation. The fine air, the prosperous +condition of the town offered themes upon which we found it quite easy +to dilate, and so naturally and easily did our acquaintanceship progress +that we had turned the corner into Lost Man's Lane before I quite +realized it. The entrance from the village offered a sharp contrast to +the one I had already traversed. There it was but a narrow opening +between sombre and unduly crowding trees. Here it was the gradual +melting of a village street into a narrow and less frequented road, +which only after passing Deacon Spear's house assumed that aspect of +wildness which a quarter of a mile farther on deepened into something +positively sombre and repellent.</p> + +<p>I speak of Deacon Spear because he was sitting on his front doorstep +when we rode by. As he was a resident in the lane, I did not fail to +take notice of him, though guardedly and with such restraint as a +knowledge of his widowed condition rendered both wise and proper.</p> + +<p>He was not an agreeable-looking person, at least to me. His hair was +sleek, his beard well cared for, his whole person in good if not +prosperous condition, but he had the self-satisfied expression I detest, +and looked after us with an aspect of surprise I chose to consider a +trifle impertinent. Perhaps he envied Mr. Trohm. If so, he may have had +good reason for it—it is not for me to judge.</p> + +<p>Up to now I had seen only a few scrub bushes at the side of the road, +with here and there a solitary poplar to enliven the dead level on +either side of us; but after we had ridden by the fence which sets the +boundary to the good deacon's land, I noticed such a change in the +appearance of the lane that I could not but exclaim over the natural as +well as cultivated beauties which every passing moment was bringing +before me.</p> + +<p>Mr. Trohm could not conceal his pleasure.</p> + +<p>"These are my lands," said he. "I have bestowed unremitting attention +upon them for years. It is my hobby, madam. There is not a tree you see +that has not received my careful attention. Yonder orchard was set out +by me, and the fruit it yields—Madam, I hope you will remain long +enough with us to taste a certain rare and luscious peach that I brought +from France a few years ago. It gives promise of reaching its full +perfection this year, and I shall be gratified indeed if you can give it +your approval."</p> + +<p>This was politeness indeed, especially as I knew what value men like him +set upon each individual fruit they watch ripen under their care. +Testifying my appreciation of his kindness, I endeavored to introduce +another and less harmless and perhaps less personally interesting topic +of conversation. The chimneys of his house were beginning to show over +the trees, and I had heard nothing from this man on the subject which +should have been the most interesting of all to me at this moment. And +he was the only person in town I was at liberty to really confide in, +and possibly the only man in town who could give me a reliable statement +of the reasons why the family I was visiting was regarded in a doubtful +light not only by the credulous villagers, but by the New York police. I +began by an allusion to the phantom coach.</p> + +<p>"I hear," said I, "that this lane has other claims to attention beyond +those afforded by the mysteries connected with it. I hear that it has at +times a ghostly visitant in the shape of a spectral horse and carriage."</p> + +<p>"Yes," he replied, with a seeming understanding that was very +flattering; "do not spare the lane one of its honors. It has its nightly +horror as well as its daily fear. I wish the one were as unreal as the +other."</p> + +<p>"You act as if both were unreal to you," said I. "The contrast between +your appearance and that of some other members of the lane is quite +marked."</p> + +<p>"You refer"—he seemed to hate to speak—"to the Misses Knollys, I +presume."</p> + +<p>I endeavored to treat the subject lightly.</p> + +<p>"To your young enemy, Lucetta," I smilingly replied.</p> + +<p>He had been looking at me in a perfectly modest and respectful manner, +but he dropped his eyes at this and busied himself abstractedly, and yet +I thought with some intention, in removing a fly from the horse's flank +with the tip of his whip.</p> + +<p>"I will not acknowledge her as an enemy," he quietly returned in +strictly modulated tones. "I like the girl too well."</p> + +<p>The fly had been by this time dislodged, but he did not look up.</p> + +<p>"And William?" I suggested. "What do you think of William?"</p> + +<p>Slowly he straightened himself. Slowly he dropped the whip back into its +socket. I thought he was going to answer, when suddenly his whole +attitude changed and he turned upon me a beaming face full of nothing +but pleasure.</p> + +<p>"The road takes a turn here. In another moment you will see my house." +And even while he spoke it burst upon us, and I instantly forgot that I +had just ventured on a somewhat hazardous question.</p> + +<p>It was such a pretty place, and it was so beautifully and exquisitely +kept. There was a charm about its rose-encircled porch that is only to +be found in very old places that have been appreciatively cared for. A +high fence painted white inclosed a lawn like velvet, and the house +itself, shining with a fresh coat of yellow paint, bore signs of comfort +in its white-curtained windows not usually to be found in the solitary +dwelling of a bachelor. I found my eyes roving over each detail with +delight, and almost blushed, or, rather, had I been twenty years younger +might have been thought to blush, as I met his eyes and saw how much my +pleasure gratified him.</p> + +<p>"You must excuse me if I express too much admiration for what I see +before me," I said, with what I have every reason to believe was a +highly successful effort to hide my confusion. "I have always had a +great leaning towards well-ordered walks and trimly kept flower-beds—a +leaning, alas! which I have found myself unable to gratify."</p> + +<p>"Do not apologize," he hastened to say. "You but redouble my own +pleasure in thus honoring my poor efforts with your regard. I have +spared no pains, madam, I have spared no pains to render this place +beautiful, and most of what you see, I am proud to say, has been +accomplished by my own hands."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" I cried in some surprise, letting my eye rest with +satisfaction on the top of a long well-sweep that was one of the +picturesque features of the place.</p> + +<p>"It may have been folly," he remarked, with a gloating sweep of his eye +over the velvet lawn and flowering shrubs—a peculiar look that seemed +to express something more than the mere delight of possession, "but I +seemed to begrudge any hired assistance in the tending of plants every +one of which seems to me like a personal friend."</p> + +<p>"I understand," was my somewhat un-Butterworthian reply. I really did +not quite know myself. "What a contrast to the dismal grounds at the +other end of the lane!"</p> + +<p>This was more in my usual vein. He seemed to feel the difference, for +his expression changed at my remark.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that den!" he exclaimed, bitterly; then, seeing me look a little +shocked, he added, with an admirable return to his old manner, "I call +any place a den where flowers do not grow." And jumping from the buggy, +he gathered an exquisite bunch of heliotrope, which he pressed upon me. +"I love sunshine, beds of roses, fountains, and a sweep of lawn like +this we see before us. But do not let me bore you. You have probably +lingered long enough at the old bachelor's place and now would like to +drive on. I will be with you in a moment. Doubtful as it is whether I +shall soon again be so fortunate as to be able to offer you any +hospitality, I would like to bring you a glass of wine—or, for I see +your eyes roaming longingly toward my old-fashioned well, would you like +a draft of water fresh from the bucket?"</p> + +<p>I assured him I did not drink wine, at which I thought his eyes +brightened, but that neither did I indulge in water when in a heat, as +at present, at which he looked disappointed and came somewhat +reluctantly back to the buggy.</p> + +<p>He brightened up, however, the moment he was again at my side.</p> + +<p>"Now for the woods," he exclaimed, with what was undoubtedly a forced +laugh.</p> + +<p>I thought the opportunity one I ought not to slight.</p> + +<p>"Do you think," said I, "that it is in those woods the disappearances +occur of which Miss Knollys has told me?"</p> + +<p>He showed the same hesitancy as before to enter upon this subject.</p> + +<p>"I think the less you allow your mind to dwell on this matter the +better," said he—"that is, if you are going to remain long in this +lane. I do not expend any more thought upon it than is barely necessary, +or I should not retain sufficient courage to remain among my roses and +my fruits. I wonder—pardon me the indiscretion—that you could bring +yourself to enter so ill-reputed a neighborhood. You must be a very +brave woman."</p> + +<p>"I thought it my duty—" I began. "Althea Knollys was my friend, and I +felt I owed a duty toward her children. Besides—" Should I tell Mr. +Trohm my real errand in this place? Mr. Gryce had intimated that he was +in the confidence of the police, and if so, his assistance in case of +necessity might be of inestimable value to me. Yet if no such necessity +should arise would I want this man to know that Amelia Butterworth—No, +I would not take him into my confidence—not yet. I would only try to +get at his idea of where the blame lay—that is, if he had any.</p> + +<p>"Besides," he suggested in polite reminder, after waiting a minute or +two for me to continue.</p> + +<p>"Did I say besides?" was my innocent rejoinder. "I think I meant that +after seeing them my sense of the importance of that duty had increased. +William especially seems to be a young man of very doubtful amiability."</p> + +<p>Immediately the non-commital look returned to Mr. Trohm's face.</p> + +<p>"I have no fault to find with William," said he. "He's not the most +agreeable companion in the world perhaps, but he has a pretty fancy for +fruit—a very pretty fancy."</p> + +<p>"One can hardly wonder at that in a neighbor of Mr. Trohm," said I, +watching his look, which was fixed somewhat gloomily upon the forest of +trees now rapidly closing in around us.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not, perhaps not, madam. The sight of a blossoming honeysuckle +hanging from an arbor such as runs along my south walls is a great +stimulant to one's taste, madam, I'll not deny that."</p> + +<p>"But William?" I repeated, determined not to let the subject go; "have +you never thought he was a little indifferent to his sisters?"</p> + +<p>"A little, madam."</p> + +<p>"And a trifle rough to everything but his dogs?"</p> + +<p>"A trifle, madam."</p> + +<p>Such reticence seemed unnecessary. I was almost angry, but restrained +myself and pursued quietly, "The girls, on the contrary, seem devoted to +him?"</p> + +<p>"Women have that weakness."</p> + +<p>"And act as if they would do—what would they not do for him?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth, I have never seen a more amiable woman than yourself. +Will you promise me one thing?"</p> + +<p>His manner was respect itself, his smile genial and highly contagious. I +could not help responding to it in the way he expected.</p> + +<p>"Do not talk to me about this family. It is a painful subject to me. +Lucetta—you know the girl, and I shall not be able to prejudice you +against her—has conceived the idea that I encourage William in an +intimacy of which she does not approve. She does not want him to talk to +me. William has a loose tongue in his head and sometimes drops unguarded +words about their doings, which if any but William spoke—But there, I +am forgetting one of the most important rules of my own life, which is +to keep my mouth from babbling and my tongue from guile. Influence of a +congenial companion, madam; it is irresistible sometimes, especially to +a man living so much alone as myself."</p> + +<p>I considered his fault very pardonable, but did not say so lest I should +frighten his confidences away.</p> + +<p>"I thought there was something wrong between you," I said. "Lucetta +acted almost afraid of you this morning. I should think she would be +glad of the friendship of so good a neighbor."</p> + +<p>His face took on a very sombre look.</p> + +<p>"She is afraid of me," he admitted, "afraid of what I have seen or may +see of—their poverty," he added, with an odd emphasis. I scarcely think +he expected to deceive me.</p> + +<p>I did not push the subject an inch farther. I saw it had gone as far as +discretion permitted at this time.</p> + +<p>We had reached the heart of the forest and were rapidly approaching the +Knollys house. As the tops of its great chimneys rose above the foliage, +I saw his aspect suddenly change.</p> + +<p>"I don't know why I should so hate to leave you here," he remarked.</p> + +<p>I myself thought the prospect of re-entering the Knollys mansion +somewhat uninviting after the pleasant ride I had had and the glimpse +which had been given me of a really cheery home and pleasant +surroundings.</p> + +<p>"This morning I looked upon you as a somewhat daring woman, the progress +of whose stay here would be watched by me with interest, but after the +companionship of the last half-hour I am conscious of an anxiety in your +regard which makes me doubly wish that Miss Knollys had not shut me out +from her home. Are you sure you wish to enter this house again, madam?"</p> + +<p>I was surprised—really surprised—at the feeling he showed. If my +well-disciplined heart had known how to flutter it would probably have +fluttered then, but happily the restraint of years did not fail me in +this emergency. Taking advantage of the emotion which had betrayed him +into an acknowledgment of his real feelings regarding the dangers +lurking in this home, despite the check he had endeavored to put upon +his lips, I said, with an attempt at <i>naïveté</i> only to be excused by the +exigencies of the occasion:</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought you considered this domicile perfectly harmless. You +like the girls and have no fault to find with William. Can it be that +this great building has another occupant? I do not allude to ghosts. +Neither of us are likely to believe in the supernatural."</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth, you have me at a disadvantage. I do not know of any +other occupant which the house can hold save the three young people you +have mentioned. If I seem to feel any doubt of them—but I don't feel +any doubt. I only dread any place for you which is not watched over by +someone interested in your defence. The danger threatening the +inhabitants of this lane is such a veiled one. If we knew where it +lurked, we would no longer call it danger. Sometimes I think the ghosts +you allude to are not as innocent as mere spectres usually are. But +don't let me frighten you. Don't—" How quick his voice changed! "Ah, +William, I have brought back your guest, you see! I couldn't let her sit +out the noon hour in old Carter's parlor. That would be too much for +even so amiable a person as Miss Butterworth to endure."</p> + +<p>I had hardly realized we were so near the gate and certainly was +surprised to find William anywhere within hearing. That his appearance +at this moment was anything but welcome, must be evident to every one. +The sentence which it interrupted might have contained the most +important advice, or at the least a warning I could ill afford to lose. +But destiny was against me, and being one who accepts the inevitable +with good grace, I prepared to alight, with Mr. Trohm's assistance.</p> + +<p>The bunch of heliotrope I held was a little in my way or I should have +managed the jump with confidence and dignified agility. As it was, I +tripped slightly, which brought out a chuckle from William that at the +moment seemed more wicked to me than any crime. Meanwhile he had not let +matters proceed thus far without putting more than one question.</p> + +<p>"And where's Simsbury? And why did Miss Butterworth think she had got to +sit in Carter's parlor?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Simsbury," said I as soon as I could recover from the mingled +exertion and embarrassment of my descent to terra firma, "felt it +necessary to take the horse to the shoer's. That is a half-day's work, +as you know, and I felt confident that he and especially you would be +glad to have me accept any means for escaping so dreary a waiting."</p> + +<p>The grunt he uttered was eloquent of anything but satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"I'll go tell the girls," he said. But he didn't go till he had seen Mr. +Trohm enter his buggy and drive slowly off.</p> + +<p>That all this did not add to my liking for William goes without saying.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BOOK_II" id="BOOK_II"></a><i>BOOK II</i></h2> + +<h3>THE FLOWER PARLOR</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h2> + +<h3>LUCETTA FULFILS MY EXPECTATION OF HER</h3> + + +<p>It was not till Mr. Trohm had driven away that I noticed, in the shadow +of the trees on the opposite side of the road, a horse tied up, whose +empty saddle bespoke a visitor within. At any other gate and on any +other road this would not have struck me as worthy of notice, much less +of comment. But here, and after all that I had heard during the morning, +the circumstance was so unexpected I could not help showing my +astonishment.</p> + +<p>"A visitor?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Some one to see Lucetta."</p> + +<p>William had no sooner said this than I saw he was in a state of high +excitement. He had probably been in this condition when we drove up, but +my attention being directed elsewhere I had not noticed it. Now, +however, it was perfectly plain to me, and it did not seem quite the +excitement of displeasure, though hardly that of joy.</p> + +<p>"She doesn't expect you yet," he pursued, as I turned sharply toward the +house, "and if you interrupt her—D—n it, if I thought you would +interrupt her——"</p> + +<p>I thought it time to teach him a lesson in manners.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Knollys," I interposed somewhat severely, "I am a lady. Why should +I interrupt your sister or give her or you a moment of pain?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he muttered. "You are so very quick I was afraid you +might think it necessary to join her in the parlor. She is perfectly +able to take care of herself, Miss Butterworth, and if she don't do +it—" The rest was lost in indistinct guttural sounds.</p> + +<p>I made no effort to answer this tirade. I took my usual course in quite +my usual way to the front steps and proceeded to mount them without so +much as looking behind me to see whether or not this uncouth +representative of the Knollys name had kept at my heels or not.</p> + +<p>Entering the door, which was open, I came without any effort on my part +upon Lucetta and her visitor, who proved to be a young gentleman. They +were standing together in the middle of the hall and were so absorbed in +what they were saying that they neither saw nor heard me. I was +therefore enabled to catch the following sentences, which struck me as +of some moment. The first was uttered by her, and in very pleading +tones:</p> + +<p>"A week—I only ask a week. Then perhaps I can give you an answer which +will satisfy you."</p> + +<p>His reply, in manner if not in matter, proclaimed him the lover of whom +I had so lately heard.</p> + +<p>"I cannot, dear girl; indeed, I cannot. My whole future depends upon my +immediately making the move in which I have asked you to join me. If I +wait a week, my opportunity will be gone, Lucetta. You know me and you +know how I love you. Then come——"</p> + +<p>A rude hand on my shoulder distracted my attention. William stood +lowering behind me and, as I turned, whispered in my ear:</p> + +<p>"You must come round the other way. Lucetta is so touchy, the sight of +you will drive every sensible idea out of her head."</p> + +<p>His blundering whisper did what my presence and by no means light +footsteps had failed to do. With a start Lucetta turned and, meeting my +eye, drew back in visible confusion. The young man followed her hastily.</p> + +<p>"Is it good-by, Lucetta?" he pleaded, with a fine, manly ignoring of our +presence that roused my admiration.</p> + +<p>She did not answer. Her look was enough. William, seeing it, turned +furious at once, and, bounding by me, faced the young man with an oath.</p> + +<p>"You're a fool to take no from a silly chit like that," he vociferated. +"If I loved a girl as you say you love Lucetta, I'd have her if I had to +carry her away by force. She'd stop screaming before she was well out of +the lane. I know women. While you listen to them they'll talk and talk; +but once let a man take matters into his own hands and—" A snap of his +fingers finished the sentence. I thought the fellow brutal, but scarcely +so stupid as I had heretofore considered him.</p> + +<p>His words, however, might just as well have been uttered into empty air. +The young man he so violently addressed appeared hardly to have heard +him, and as for Lucetta, she was so nearly insensible from misery that +she had sufficient ado to keep herself from falling at her lover's feet.</p> + +<p>"Lucetta, Lucetta, is it then good-by? You will not go with me?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot. William, here, knows that I cannot. I must wait till——"</p> + +<p>But here her brother seized her so violently by the wrist that she +stopped from sheer pain, I fear. However that was, she turned pale as +death under his clutch, and, when he tried to utter some hot, passionate +words into her ear, shook her head, but did not speak, though her lover +was gazing with a last, final appeal into her eyes. The delicate girl +was bearing out my estimate of her.</p> + +<p>Seeing her thus unresponsive, William flung her hand from him and turned +upon me.</p> + +<p>"It's your fault," he cried. "You <i>would</i> come in——"</p> + +<p>But, at this, Lucetta, recovering her poise in a moment, cried out +shrilly:</p> + +<p>"For shame, William! What has Miss Butterworth to do with this? You are +not helping me with your roughness. God knows I find this hour hard +enough, without this show of anxiety on your part to be rid of me."</p> + +<p>"There's woman's gratitude for you," was his snarling reply. "I offer to +take all the responsibilities on my own shoulders and make it right +with—with her sister, and all that, and she calls it desire to get rid +of her. Well, have your own way," he growled, storming down the hall; +"I'm done with it for one."</p> + +<p>The young man, whose attitude of reserve, mixed with a strange and +lingering tenderness for this girl, whom he evidently loved without +fully understanding her, was every minute winning more and more of my +admiration, had meanwhile raised her trembling hand to his lips in what +was, as we all could see, a last farewell.</p> + +<p>In another moment he was walking by us, giving me as he passed a low bow +that for all its grace did not succeed in hiding from me the deep and +heartfelt disappointment with which he quitted this house. As his figure +passed through the door, hiding for one moment the sunshine, I felt an +oppression such as has not often visited my healthy nature, and when it +passed and disappeared, something like the good spirit of the place +seemed to go with it, leaving in its place doubt, gloom, and a morbid +apprehension of that unknown something which in Lucetta's eyes had +rendered his dismissal necessary.</p> + +<p>"Where's Saracen? I declare I'm nothing but a fool without that dog," +shouted William. "If he has to be tied up another day—" But shame was +not entirely eliminated from his breast, for at Lucetta's reproachful +"William!" he sheepishly dropped his head and strode out, muttering some +words I was fain to accept as an apology.</p> + +<p>I had expected to encounter a wreck in Lucetta, as, this episode in her +life closed, she turned toward me. But I did not yet know this girl, +whose frailty seemed to lie mostly in her physique. Though she was +suffering far more than her defence of me to her brother would seem to +denote, there was a spirit in her approach and a steady look in her dark +eye which assured me that I could not calculate upon any loss in +Lucetta's keenness, in case we came to an issue over the mystery that +was eating into the happiness as well as the honor of this household.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see you," were her unexpected words. "The gentleman who +has just gone out was a lover of mine; at least he once professed to +care for me very much, and I should have been glad to have married him, +but there were reasons which I once thought most excellent why this +seemed anything but expedient, and so I sent him away. To-day he came +without warning to ask me to go away with him, after the hastiest of +ceremonies, to South America, where a splendid prospect has suddenly +opened for him. You see, don't you, that I could not do that; that it +would be the height of selfishness in me to leave Loreen—to leave +William——"</p> + +<p>"Who seems only too anxious to be left," I put in, as her voice trailed +off in the first evidence of embarrassment she had shown since she faced +me.</p> + +<p>"William is a difficult man to understand," was her firm but quiet +retort. "From his talk you would judge him to be morose, if not +positively unkind, but in action—" She did not tell me how he was in +action. Perhaps her truthfulness got the better of her, or perhaps she +saw it would be hard work to prejudice me now in his favor.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI</h2> + +<h3>LOREEN</h3> + + +<p>Lucetta had said to her departing lover, that in a week she might be +able (were he willing or in a position to wait) to give him a more +satisfactory answer. Why in a week?</p> + +<p>That her hesitation sprang from the mere dislike of leaving her sister +so suddenly, or that she had sacrificed her life's happiness to any +childish idea of decorum, I did not think probable. The spirit she had +shown, her immovable attitude under a temptation which had not only +romance to recommend it, but everything else which could affect a young +and sensitive woman, argued in my mind the existence of some uncompleted +duty of so exacting and imperative a nature that she could not even +consider the greatest interests of her own life until this one thing was +out of her way. William's rude question of the morning, "What shall we +do with the old girl till it is all over?" recurred to me in support of +this theory, making me feel that I needed no further confirmation, to be +quite certain that a crisis was approaching in this house which would +tax my powers to the utmost and call perhaps for the use of the whistle +which I had received from Mr. Gryce, and which, following his +instructions, I had tied carefully about my neck. Yet how could I +associate Lucetta with crime, or dream of the police in connection with +the serene Loreen, whose every look was a rebuke to all that was false, +vile, or even common? Easily, my readers, easily, with that great, +hulking William in my remembrance. To shield <i>him</i>, to hide perhaps his +deformity of soul from the world, even such gentle and gracious women as +these have been known to enter into acts which to an unprejudiced eye +and an unbiased conscience would seem little short of fiendish. Love for +an unworthy relative, or rather the sense of duty toward those of one's +own blood, has driven many a clear-minded woman to her ruin, as may be +seen any day in the police annals.</p> + +<p>I am quite aware that I have not as yet put into definite words the +suspicion upon which I was now prepared to work. Up to this time it had +been too vague, or rather of too monstrous a character for me not to +consider other theories, such as, for instance, the possible connection +of old Mother Jane with the unaccountable disappearances which had taken +place in this lane. But after this scene, the increased assurance I was +hourly receiving that something extraordinary and out of keeping with +the customary appearances of the household was secretly going on in some +one of the various chambers of that long corridor I had been prevented +from entering, forced me to accept and act upon the belief that these +young women held in charge a prisoner of some kind, of whose presence in +the house they dreaded the discovery.</p> + +<p>Now, who could this prisoner be?</p> + +<p>Common sense supplied me with but one answer; Silly Rufus, the boy who +within a few days had vanished from among the good people of this +seemingly guileless community.</p> + +<p>This theory once established in my mind, I applied myself to a +consideration of the means at my disposal for determining its validity. +The simplest, surest, but least satisfactory to one of my nature was to +summon the police and have the house thoroughly searched, but this +involved, in case I had been deceived by appearances—as was possible +even to a woman of my experience and discrimination,—a scandal and an +opprobrium which I would be the last to inflict upon Althea's children, +unless justice to the rest of the world demanded it.</p> + +<p>It was in consideration of this very fact, perhaps, that I had been +chosen for this duty instead of some regular police spy. Mr. Gryce, as I +very well knew, has made it his rule of life never to risk the +reputation of any man or woman without reasons so excellent as to carry +their own exoneration with them, and should I, a woman, with full as +much heart as himself, if not quite as much brain (at least in the +estimation of people in general), by any premature exposure of my +suspicions, subject these young friends of mine to humiliations they are +far too weak and too poor to rise above?</p> + +<p>No, rather would I trust a little longer to my own perspicacity and make +sure by the use of my own eyes that the situation called for the +interference I had, as you may say, at the end of the cord I wore about +my neck.</p> + +<p>Lucetta had not asked me how I came to be back so much sooner than she +had reason to expect me. The unlooked-for arrival of her lover had +probably put all idea of her former plans out of her head. I therefore +gave her the shortest of explanations when we met at the dinner table. +Nothing further seemed to be necessary, for the girls were even more +abstracted than before, and William positively boorish till a warning +glance from Loreen recalled him to his better self, which meant silence.</p> + +<p>The afternoon was spent in very much the same way as the evening before. +Neither sister remained an instant with me after the other entered my +company, and though the alternations were less frequent than at that +time, their peculiarities were more marked and less naturally accounted +for. It was while Loreen was with me that I made the suggestion which +had been hovering on my lips ever since the noon.</p> + +<p>"I consider this," I observed, in one of the pauses of our more than +fitful conversation, "one of the most interesting houses it has ever +been my good fortune to enter. Would you mind my roaming about a bit +just to enjoy the old-time flavor of its great empty rooms? I know they +are mostly closed and possibly unfurnished, but to a connoisseur like +myself in colonial architecture, this rather adds to, than detracts +from, their interest."</p> + +<p>"Impossible," she was going to say, but caught herself back in time and +changed the imperative word to one more conciliatory if equally +unyielding.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry, Miss Butterworth, to deny you this gratification, but the +condition of the rooms and the unhappy excitement into which we have +been thrown by the unfortunate visit paid to Lucetta by a gentleman to +whom she is only too much attached, make it quite impossible for me to +consider any such undertaking to-day. To-morrow I may find it easier; +but, if not, be assured you shall see every nook and corner of this +house before you finally leave it."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. I will remember that. To one of my tastes an ancient room in +a time-honored mansion like this, affords a delight not to be understood +by one who knows less of the last century's life. The legends connected +with your great drawing-room below [we were sitting in my room, I having +refused to be cooped up in their dreary side parlor, and she not having +offered me any other spot more cheerful] are sufficient in themselves to +hold me entranced for an hour. I heard one of them to-day."</p> + +<p>"Which?"</p> + +<p>She spoke more quickly than usual, and for her quite sharply.</p> + +<p>"That of Lucetta's namesake," I explained. "She who rode through the +night after a daughter who had won her lover's heart away from her.</p> + +<p>"Ah, it is a well-known tale, but I think Mrs. Carter might have left +its relation to us. Did she tell you anything else?"</p> + +<p>"No other tradition of this place," I assured her.</p> + +<p>"I am glad she was so considerate. But why—if you will pardon me—did +she happen to light upon that story? We have not heard those incidents +spoken of for years."</p> + +<p>"Not since the phantom coach flew through this road the last time," I +ventured, with a smile that should have disarmed her from suspecting any +ulterior motive on my part in thus introducing a subject which could not +be altogether pleasing to her.</p> + +<p>"The phantom coach! Have you heard of that?"</p> + +<p>I wish it had been Lucetta who had said this and to whom my reply was +due. The opportunities would have been much greater for an injudicious +display of feeling on her part and for a suitable conclusion on mine.</p> + +<p>But it was Loreen, and she never forgot herself. So I had to content +myself with the persuasion that her voice was just a whit less clear +than usual and her serenity enough impaired for her to look out of my +one high and dismal window instead of into my face.</p> + +<p>"My dear,"—I had not called her this before, though the term had +frequently risen to my lips in answer to Lucetta—"you should have gone +with me into the village to-day. Then you would not need to ask if I had +heard of the phantom coach."</p> + +<p>The probe had reached the quick at last. She looked quite startled.</p> + +<p>"You amaze me," she said. "What do you mean, Miss Butterworth? Why +should I not have needed to ask?"</p> + +<p>"Because you would have heard it whispered about in every lane and +corner. It is common talk in town to-day. You must know why, Miss +Knollys."</p> + +<p>She was not looking out of the window now. She was looking at me.</p> + +<p>"I assure you," she murmured, "I do not know at all. Nothing could be +more incomprehensible to me. Explain yourself, I entreat you. The +phantom coach is but a myth to me, interesting only as involving certain +long-vanished ancestors of mine."</p> + +<p>"Of course," I assented. "No one of real sense could regard it in any +other light. But villagers will talk, and they say—you will soon know +what, if I do not tell you myself—that it passed through the lane on +Tuesday night."</p> + +<p>"Tuesday night!" Her composure had been regained, but not so entirely +but that her voice slightly trembled. "That was before you came. I hope +it was not an omen."</p> + +<p>I was in no mood for pleasantry.</p> + +<p>"They say that the passing of this apparition denotes misfortune to +those who see it. I am therefore obviously exempt. But you—did you see +it? I am just curious to know if it is visible to those who live in the +lane. It ought to have turned in here. Were you fortunate enough to have +been awake at that moment and to have seen this spectral appearance?"</p> + +<p>She shuddered. I was not mistaken in believing I saw this sign of +emotion, for I was watching her very closely, and the movement was +unmistakable.</p> + +<p>"I have never seen anything ghostly in my life," said she. "I am not at +all superstitious."</p> + +<p>If I had been ill-natured or if I had thought it wise to press her too +closely, I might have inquired why she looked so pale and trembled so +visibly.</p> + +<p>But my natural kindness, together with an instinct of caution, +restrained me, and I only remarked:</p> + +<p>"There you are sensible, Miss Knollys—doubly so as a denizen of this +house, which, Mrs. Carter was obliging enough to suggest to me, is +considered by many as haunted."</p> + +<p>The straightening of Miss Knollys' lips augured no good to Mrs. Carter.</p> + +<p>"Now I only wish it was," I laughed dryly. "I should really like to meet +a ghost, say, in your great drawing-room, which I am forbidden to +enter."</p> + +<p>"You are not forbidden," she hastily returned. "You may explore it now +if you will excuse me from accompanying you; but you will meet no +ghosts. The hour is not propitious."</p> + +<p>Taken aback by her sudden amenity, I hesitated for a moment. Would it be +worth while for me to search a room she was willing to have me enter? +No, and yet any knowledge which could be obtained in regard to this +house might be of use to me or to Mr. Gryce. I decided to embrace her +offer, after first testing her with one other question.</p> + +<p>"Would you prefer to have me steal down these corridors at night and +dare their dusky recesses at a time when spectres are supposed to walk +the halls they once flitted through in happy consciousness?"</p> + +<p>"Hardly." She made the greatest effort to sustain the jest, but her +concern and dread were manifest. "I think I had better give you the keys +now, than subject you to the drafts and chilling discomforts of this old +place at midnight."</p> + +<p>I rose with a semblance of eager anticipation.</p> + +<p>"I will take you at your word," said I. "The keys, my dear. I am going +to visit a haunted room for the first time in my life."</p> + +<p>I do not think she was deceived by this feigned ebullition. Perhaps it +was too much out of keeping with my ordinary manner, but she gave no +sign of surprise and rose in her turn with an air suggestive of relief.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, if I precede you," she begged. "I will meet you at the head +of the corridor with the keys."</p> + +<p>I was in hopes she would be long enough in obtaining them to allow me to +stroll along the front hall to the opening into the corridor I was so +anxious to enter. But the spryness I showed, seemed to have a +corresponding effect upon her, for she almost flew down the passageway +before me and was back at my side before I could take a step in the +coveted direction.</p> + +<p>"These will take you into any room on the first floor," said she. "You +will meet with dust and Lucetta's abhorrence, spiders, but for these I +shall make no apologies. Girls who cannot provide comforts for the few +rooms they utilize, cannot be expected to keep in order the large and +disused apartments of a former generation."</p> + +<p>"I hate dirt and despise spiders," was my dry retort, "but I am willing +to brave both for the pleasure of satisfying my love for the antique." +At which she handed me the keys, with a calm smile which was not without +its element of sadness.</p> + +<p>"I will be here on your return," she said, leaning over the banisters to +speak to me as I took my first steps down. "I shall want to hear whether +you are repaid for your trouble."</p> + +<p>I thanked her and proceeded on my way, somewhat doubtful whether by so +doing I was making the best possible use of my opportunities.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII</h2> + +<h3>THE FLOWER PARLOR</h3> + + +<p>The lower hall did not correspond exactly with the one above. It was +larger, and through its connection with the front door, presented the +shape of a letter T—that is, to the superficial observer who was not +acquainted with the size of the house and had not had the opportunity of +remarking that at the extremities of the upper hall making this T, were +two imposing doors usually found shut except at meal-times, when the +left-hand one was thrown open, disclosing a long and dismal corridor +similar to the ones above. Half-way down this corridor was the +dining-room, into which I had now been taken three times.</p> + +<p>The right-hand one, I had no doubt, led the way into the great +drawing-room or dancing-hall which I had started out to see.</p> + +<p>Proceeding first to the front of the house, where some glimmer of light +penetrated from the open sitting-room door, I looked the keys over and +read what was written on the several tags attached to them. They were +seven in number, and bore some such names as these: "Blue Chamber," +"Library," "Flower Parlor," "Shell Cabinet," "Dark Parlor"—all of which +was very suggestive, and, to an antiquarian like myself, most alluring.</p> + +<p>But it was upon a key marked "A" I first fixed my attention. This, I had +been told, would open the large door at the extremity of the upper hall, +and when I made a trial with it I found it to move easily, though +somewhat gratingly, in the lock, releasing the great doors, which in +another moment swung inward with a growling sound which might have been +startling to a nervous person filled with the legends of the place.</p> + +<p>But in me the only emotion awakened was one of disgust at the nauseous +character of the air which instantly enveloped me. Had I wished for any +further proof than was afforded by the warning given me by the condition +of the hinges, that the foot of man had not lately invaded these +precincts, I would have had it in the mouldy atmosphere and smell of +dust that greeted me on the threshold. Neither human breath nor a ray of +outdoor sunshine seemed to have disturbed its gloomy quiet for years, +and when I moved, as I presently did, to open one of the windows I dimly +discerned at my right, I felt such a movement of something foul and +noisome amid the decaying rags of the carpet through which I was +stumbling that I had to call into use the stronger elements of my +character not to back out of a place so given over to rot and the +creatures that infest it.</p> + +<p>"What a spot," thought I, "for Amelia Butterworth to find herself in!" +and wondered if I could ever wear again the three-dollar-a-yard silk +dress in which I was then enveloped. Of my shoes I took no account. They +were ruined, of course.</p> + +<p>I reached the window in safety, but could not open it; neither could I +move the adjoining one. There were sixteen in all, or so I afterwards +found, and not till I reached the last (you see, I am very persistent) +did I succeed in loosening the bar that held its inner shutter in place. +This done, I was able to lift the window, and for the first time in +years, perhaps, let in a ray of light into this desolated apartment.</p> + +<p>The result was disappointing. Mouldy walls, worm-eaten hangings, two +very ancient and quaint fireplaces, met my eyes, and nothing more. The +room was absolutely empty. For a few minutes I allowed my eyes to roam +over the great rectangular space in which so much that was curious and +interesting had once taken place, and then, with a vague sense of +defeat, turned my eyes outward, anxious to see what view could be +obtained from the window I had opened. To my astonishment, I saw before +me a high wall with here and there a window in it, all tightly barred +and closed, till by a careful inspection about me I realized that I was +looking upon the other wing of the building, and that between these +wings extended a court so narrow and long that it gave to the building +the shape, as I have before said, of the letter U. A dreary prospect, +reminding one of the view from a prison, but it had its point of +interest, for in the court below me, the brick pavement of which was +half obliterated by grass, I caught sight of William in an attitude so +different from any I had hitherto seen him assume that I found it +difficult to account for it till I caught sight of the jaws of a dog +protruding from under his arms, and then I realized he was hugging +Saracen.</p> + +<p>The dog was tied, but the comfort which William seemed to take in just +this physical contact with his rough skin was something worth seeing. It +made me quite thoughtful for a moment.</p> + +<p>I detest dogs, and it gives me a creepy sensation to see them fondled, +but sincerity of feeling appeals to me, and no one could watch William +Knollys with his dogs without seeing that he really loved the brutes. +Thus in one day I had witnessed the best and worst side of this man. But +wait! Had I seen the worst? I was not so sure that I had.</p> + +<p>He had not noticed my peering, for which I was duly thankful, and after +another fruitless survey of the windows in the wall before me, I drew +back and prepared to leave the place. This was by no means a pleasant +undertaking. I could now see what I had only felt before, and to +traverse the space before me amid beetles and spiders required a +determination of no ordinary nature. I was glad when I reached the great +doors and more than glad when they closed behind me.</p> + +<p>"So much for Room A," thought I.</p> + +<p>The next most promising apartment was in the same corridor as the +dining-room. It was called the Dark Parlor. Entering it, I found it dark +indeed, but not because of lack of light, but because its hangings were +all of a dismal red and its furniture of the blackest ebony. As this +mainly consisted of shelves and cabinets placed against three of its +four walls, the effect was gloomy indeed, and fully accounted for the +name which the room had received. I lingered in it, however, longer than +I had in the big drawing-room, chiefly because the shelves contained +books.</p> + +<p>Had anything better offered I might not have continued my explorations, +but not seeing exactly how I could pass away the time more profitably, I +chose out another key and began to search for the Flower Parlor. I found +it beyond the dining-room in the same hall as the Dark Parlor.</p> + +<p>It was, as I might have expected from the name, the brightest and most +cheerful spot I had yet found in the whole house. The air in it was even +good, as if sunshine and breeze had not been altogether shut out of it, +yet I had no sooner taken one look at its flower-painted walls and +pretty furniture than I felt an oppression difficult to account for. +Something was wrong about this room. I am not superstitious and have no +faith in premonitions, but once seized by a conviction, I have never +known myself to be mistaken as to its import. Something was wrong about +this room—what, it was my business to discover.</p> + +<p>Letting in more light, I took a closer survey of the objects I had +hitherto seen but dimly. They were many and somewhat contradictory in +character. The floor was bare—the first bare floor I had come upon—but +the shades in the windows, the chintz-covered lounges drawn up beside +tables bestrewn with books and other objects of comfort and luxury, +bespoke a place in common if not every-day use.</p> + +<p>A faint smell of tobacco assured me in whose use, and from the minute I +recognized that this was William's sanctum, my curiosity grew unbounded +and I neglected nothing which would be likely to attract the +keenest-eyed detective in Mr. Gryce's force. There were several things +to be noted there: First, that this lumbering lout of a man read, but +only on one topic—vivisection; secondly, that he was not a reader +merely, for there were instruments in the cases heaped up on the tables +about me, and in one corner—it made me a little sick, but I persevered +in searching out the corners—a glass case with certain horrors in it +which I took care to note, but which it is not necessary for me to +describe. Another corner was blocked up by a closet which stood out in +the room in a way to convince me it had been built in after the room was +otherwise finished. As I crossed over to examine the door, which did not +appear to me to be quite closed, I noticed on the floor at my feet a +huge discoloration. This was the worst thing I had yet encountered, and +while I did not feel quite justified in giving it a name, I could not +but feel some regret for the worm-eaten rags of the drawing-room, which, +after all, are more comfortable underfoot than bare boards with such +suggestive marks upon them as these.</p> + +<p>The door to the closet was, as I had expected, slightly ajar, a fact for +which I was profoundly grateful, for, set it down to breeding or a +natural recognition of other people's rights, I would have found it most +difficult to turn the knob of a closet door, inspection of which had not +been offered me.</p> + +<p>But finding it open, I gave it just a little pull and found—well, it +was a surprise, much more so than the sight of a skeleton would have +been—that the whole interior was taken up by a small circular staircase +such as you find in public libraries where the books are piled up in +tiers. It stretched from the floor to the ceiling, and dark as it was I +thought I detected the outlines of a trap-door by means of which +communication was established with the room above. Anxious to be +convinced of this, I consulted with myself as to what a detective would +do in my place. The answer came readily enough: "Mount the stairs and +feel for yourself whether there is a lock there." But my delicacy +or—shall I acknowledge it for once?—an instinct of timidity seemed to +restrain me, till a remembrance of Mr. Gryce's sarcastic look which I +had seen honoring lesser occasions than these, came to nerve me, and I +put foot on the stairs which had last been trod—by whom, shall I say? +William? Let us hope by William, and William only.</p> + +<p>Being tall, I had to mount but a few steps before reaching the ceiling. +Pausing for breath, the air being close and the stairs steep, I reached +up and felt for the hinge or clasp I had every reason to expect to +encounter. I found it almost immediately, and, satisfied now that +nothing but a board separated me from the room above, I tried that board +with my finger and was astonished to feel it yield. As this was a wholly +unexpected discovery I drew back and asked myself if it would be wise to +pursue it to the point of raising this door, and had hardly settled the +question in my own mind, when the sound of a voice raised in a soothing +murmur, revealed the fact that the room above was not empty, and that I +would be committing a grave indiscretion in thus tampering with a means +of entrance possibly under the very eye of the person speaking.</p> + +<p>If the voice I had heard had been all that had come to my ears, I might +have ventured after a moment of hesitation to brave the displeasure of +Miss Knollys by an attempt which would have at once satisfied me as to +the correctness of the suspicions which were congealing my blood as I +stood there, but another voice—the heavy and threatening voice of +William—had broken into this murmur, and I knew that if I so much as +awakened in him the least suspicion of my whereabouts, I would have to +dread an anger that might not know where to stop.</p> + +<p>I therefore rested from further efforts in this direction, and fearing +he might bethink him of some errand which would bring him to the +trap-door himself, I began a retreat which I made slow only from my +desire not to make any noise. I succeeded as well as if my feet had been +shod in velvet and my dress had been made of wool instead of a rustling +silk, and when once again I found myself planted in the centre of the +Flower Parlor, the closet door closed, and no evidence remaining of my +late attempt to probe this family secret, I drew a deep breath of relief +that was but a symbol of my devout thankfulness.</p> + +<p>I did not mean to remain much longer in this spot of evil suggestions, +but spying the corner of a book protruding from under a cushion of one +of the lounges, I had a curiosity to see if it were similar to the +others I had handled. Drawing it out, I took one look at it.</p> + +<p>I need not tell what it was, but after a hasty glance here and there +through its pages, I put it back, shuddering. If any doubt remained in +my breast that William was one of those monsters who feed their morbid +cravings by experiments upon the weak and defenceless, it had been +dispelled by what I had just seen in this book.</p> + +<p>However, I did not leave the room immediately. As it was of the greatest +importance that I should be able to locate in which of the many +apartments on the floor above, the supposed prisoner was lodged, I cast +about me for the means of doing this through the location of the room in +which I then was. As this could only be done by affixing some token to +the window, which could be recognized from without, I thought, first, of +thrusting the end of my handkerchief through one of the slats of the +outside blinds; secondly, of simply leaving one of these blinds ajar; +and finally, of chipping off a piece with the penknife I always carry +with innumerable other small things in the bag I invariably wear at my +side. (Fashion, I hold, counts for nothing against convenience.)</p> + +<p>This last seemed by much the best device. A handkerchief could be +discovered and pulled out, an open blind could be shut, but a sliver +once separated from the wood of the casement, nothing could replace it +or even cover it up without itself attracting attention.</p> + +<p>Taking out my knife, I glanced at the door leading into the hall, found +it still shut and everything quiet behind it. Then I took a look into +the shrubs and bushes of the yard outside, and, observing nothing to +disturb me, snipped off a bit from one of the outer edges of the slats +and then carefully reclosed the blinds and the window.</p> + +<p>I was crossing the threshold when I heard a rapid footstep in the hall. +Miss Knollys was hastening down the hall to my side.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Butterworth," she exclaimed, with one quick look into the room +I was leaving, "this is William's den, the one spot he never allows any +of us to enter. I don't know how the key came to be upon the string. It +never was before, and I am afraid he never will forgive me."</p> + +<p>"He need never know that I have been the victim of such a mistake," said +I. "My feet leave no trail, and as I use no perfumes he will never +suspect that I have enjoyed a glimpse of these old-fashioned walls and +ancient cabinets."</p> + +<p>"The slats of the blinds are a little open," she remarked, her eyes +searching my face for some sign that I am sure she did not find there. +"Were they so when you came in?"</p> + +<p>"I hardly think so; it was very dark. Shall I put them as I found them?"</p> + +<p>"No. He will not notice." And she hurried me out, still eying me +breathlessly as if she half distrusted my composure.</p> + +<p>"Come, Amelia," I now whispered in self-admonition, "the time for +exertion has come. Show this young woman, who is not much behind you in +self-control, some of the lighter phases of your character. Charm her, +Amelia, charm her, or you may live to rue this invasion into family +secrets more than you may like to acknowledge at the present moment."</p> + +<p>A task of some difficulty, but I rejoice in difficult tasks, and before +another half-hour had passed, I had the satisfaction of seeing Miss +Knollys entirely restored to that state of placid melancholy which was +the natural expression of her calm but unhappy nature.</p> + +<p>We visited the Shell Cabinet, the Blue Parlor, and another room, the +peculiarities of which I have forgotten. Frightened by the result of +leaving me to my own devices, she did not quit me for an instant, and +when, my curiosity quite satisfied, I hinted that a short nap in my own +room would rest me for the evening, she proceeded with me to the door of +my apartment.</p> + +<p>"The locksmith whom I saw this morning has not kept his word," I +remarked as she was turning away.</p> + +<p>"None of the tradesmen here do that," was her cold answer. "I have given +up expecting having any attention paid to my wants."</p> + +<p>"Humph," thought I. "Another pleasant admission. Amelia Butterworth, +this has not been a cheerful day."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE SECOND NIGHT</h3> + + +<p>I cannot say that I looked forward to the night with any very cheerful +anticipations. The locksmith having failed to keep his appointment, I +was likely to have no more protection against intrusion than I had had +the night before, and while I cannot say that I especially feared any +unwelcome entrance into my apartment, I should have gone to my rest with +a greater sense of satisfaction if a key had been in the lock and that +key had been turned by my own hand on my own side of the door.</p> + +<p>The atmosphere of gloom which settled down over the household after the +evening meal, seemed like the warning note of something strange and evil +awaiting us. So marked was this, that many in my situation would have +further disturbed these girls by some allusion to the fact. But that was +not the rôle I had set myself to play at this crisis. I remembered what +Mr. Gryce had said about winning their confidence, and though the +turmoil evident in Lucetta's mind and the distraction visible even in +the careful Miss Knollys led me to expect a culmination of some kind +before the night was over, I not only hid my recognition of this fact, +but succeeded in sufficiently impressing them with the contentment which +my own petty employments afforded me (I am never idle even in other +persons' houses) for them to spare me the harassment of their alternate +visits, which, in their present mood and mine promised little in the way +of increased knowledge of their purposes and much in the way of +distraction and the loss of that nerve upon which I calculated for a +successful issue out of the possible difficulties of this night.</p> + +<p>Had I been a woman of ordinary courage, I would have sounded three +premonitory notes upon my whistle before blowing out my candle, but +while I am not lacking, I hope, in many of the finer feminine qualities +which link me to my sex, I have but few of that sex's weaknesses and +none of its instinctive reliance upon others which leads it so often to +neglect its own resources. Till I saw good reasons for summoning the +police, I proposed to preserve a discreet silence, a premature alarm +being in their eyes, as I knew from many talks with Mr. Gryce, the one +thing suggestive of a timid and inexperienced mind.</p> + +<p>Hannah had brought me a delicious cup of tea at ten, the influence of +which was to make me very drowsy at eleven, but I shook this weakness +off and began my night's watch in a state of stern composure which I +verily believe would have awakened Mr. Gryce's admiration had it been +consonant with the proprieties for him to have seen it. Indeed the very +seriousness of the occasion was such that I could not have trembled if I +would, every nerve and faculty being strained to their utmost to make +the most of every sound which might arise in the now silent and +discreetly darkened house.</p> + +<p>I had purposely omitted the precaution of pushing my bed against the +door of my room, as I had done the night before, being anxious to find +myself in a position to cross its threshold at the least alarm. That +this would come, I felt positive, for Hannah in leaving my room had +taken pains to say, in unconscious imitation of what Miss Knollys had +remarked the night before:</p> + +<p>"Don't let any queer sounds you may hear disturb you, Miss Butterworth. +There's nothing to hurt you in this house; nothing at all." An +admonition which I am sure her young mistresses would not have allowed +her to utter if they had been made acquainted with her intention.</p> + +<p>But though in a state of high expectation, and listening, as I supposed, +with every faculty alert, the sounds I apprehended delayed so long that +I began after an hour or two unaccountably to nod in my chair, and +before I knew it I was asleep, with the whistle in my hand and my feet +pressed against the panels of the door I had set myself to guard. How +deep that sleep was or how long I indulged in it, I can only judge from +the state of emotion in which I found myself when I suddenly woke. I was +sitting there still, but my usually calm frame was in a violent tremble, +and I found it difficult to stir, much more to speak. Some one or +something was at my door.</p> + +<p>An instant and my powerful nature would have asserted itself, but before +this could happen the stealthy step drew nearer, and I heard the quiet, +almost noiseless, insertion of a key into the lock, and the quick turn +which made me a prisoner.</p> + +<p>This, with the indignation it caused, brought me quickly to myself. So +the door had a key after all, and this was the use it was reserved for. +Rising quickly to my feet, I shouted out the names of Loreen, Lucetta, +and William, but received no other response than the rapid withdrawal of +feet down the corridor. Then I felt for the whistle, which had somehow +slipped from my hand, but failed to find it in the darkness, nor when I +went to search for the matches to relight the candle I had left standing +on a table near by, could I by any means succeed in igniting one, so +that I presently had the pleasure of finding myself shut up in my room, +with no means of communicating with the world outside and with no light +to render the situation tolerable. This was having the tables turned +upon me with a vengeance and in a way for which I could not account. I +could understand why they had locked me in the room and why they had not +heeded my cry of indignant appeal, but I could not comprehend how my +whistle came to be gone, nor why the matches, which were sufficiently +plentiful in the safe, refused one and all to perform their office.</p> + +<p>On these points I felt it necessary to come to some sort of conclusion +before I proceeded to invent some way out of my difficulties. So, +dropping on my knees by the chair in which I had been sitting, I began a +quiet search for the petty object upon which, nevertheless, hung not my +safety perhaps, but all chances of success in an undertaking which was +every moment growing more serious. I did not find it, but I did find +where it had gone. In the floor near the door, my hand encountered a +hole which had been covered up by a rug early in the evening, but which +I now distinctly remembered having pushed aside with my feet when I took +my seat there. This aperture was not large, but it was so deep that my +hand failed to reach to the bottom of it; and into this hole by some +freak of chance had slipped the small whistle I had so indiscreetly +taken into my hand. The mystery of the matches was less easy of +solution; so I let it go after a moment of indecisive thought and bent +my energies once again to listen, when suddenly and without the least +warning there rose from somewhere in the house a cry so wild and +unearthly that I started up appalled, and for a moment could not tell +whether I was laboring under some fearful dream or a still more fearful +reality.</p> + +<p>A rushing of feet in the distance and an involuntary murmur of voices +soon satisfied me, however, on this score, and drawing upon every energy +I possessed, I listened for a renewal of the cry which was yet curdling +my blood. But none came, and presently all was as still as if no sound +had arisen to disturb the midnight, though every fibre in my body told +me that the event I had feared—the event of which I hardly dared +mention the character even to myself—had taken place, and that I, who +was sent there to forestall it, was not only a prisoner in my room, but +a prisoner through my own folly and my inordinate love of tea.</p> + +<p>The anger with which I contemplated this fact, and the remorse I felt at +the consequences which had befallen the innocent victim whose scream I +had just heard, made me very wide-awake indeed, and after an ineffectual +effort to make my voice heard from the window, I called my usual +philosophy to my aid and decided that since the worst had happened and +I, a prisoner, had to await events like any other weak and defenceless +woman, I might as well do it with calmness and in a way to win my own +approval at least. The dupe of William and his sisters, I would not be +the dupe of my own fears or even of my own regrets.</p> + +<p>The consequence was a renewed equanimity and a gentle brooding over the +one event of the day which brought no regret in its train. The ride with +Mr. Trohm, and the acquaintanceship to which it had led, were topics +upon which I could rest with great soothing effect through the weary +hours stretching between me and daylight. Consequently of Mr. Trohm I +thought.</p> + +<p>Whether the almost deathly quiet into which the house had now fallen, or +the comforting nature of my meditations held inexorably to the topic I +had chosen, acted as a soporific upon me I cannot tell, but greatly as I +dislike to admit it, feeling sure that you will expect to hear I kept +myself awake all that night, I insensibly sank from great alertness to +an easy indifference to my surroundings, and from that to vague dreams +in which beds of lilies and trellises covered with roses mingled +strangely with narrow, winding staircases whose tops ended in the +swaying branches of great trees; and so, into quiet and a nothingness +that were only broken into by a rap at my door and a cheerful:</p> + +<p>"Eight o'clock, ma'am. The young ladies are waiting."</p> + +<p>I bounded, literally bounded from my chair. Such a summons, after such a +night! What did it mean? I was sitting half dressed in my chair before +my door in a straightened and uncomfortable attitude, and therefore had +not dreamed that I had been upon the watch all night, yet the sunshine +in the room, the cheery tones such as I had not heard even from this +woman before, seemed to argue that my imagination had played me false +and that no horrors had come to disturb my rest or render my waking +distressing.</p> + +<p>Stretching out my hand toward the door, I was about to open it, when I +bethought me.</p> + +<p>"Turn the key in the lock," said I. "Somebody was careful enough of my +safety to fasten me in last night."</p> + +<p>An exclamation of astonishment came from outside the door.</p> + +<p>"There is no key here, ma'am. The door is not locked. Shall I open it +and come in?"</p> + +<p>I was about to say yes in my anxiety to talk to the woman, but +remembering that nothing was to be gained by letting it be seen to what +an extent I had carried my suspicions, I hastily disrobed and crept into +bed. Pulling the coverings about me, I assumed a comfortable attitude +and then cried:</p> + +<p>"Come in."</p> + +<p>The door immediately opened.</p> + +<p>"There, ma'am! What did I tell you? Locked?—this door? Why, the key has +been lost for months."</p> + +<p>"I cannot help it," I protested, but with little if any asperity, for it +did not suit me that she should see I was moved by any extraordinary +feeling. "A key was put in that lock about midnight, and I was locked +in. It was about the time some one screamed in your own part of the +house."</p> + +<p>"Screamed?" Her brows took a fine pucker of perplexity. "Oh, that must +have been Miss Lucetta."</p> + +<p>"Lucetta?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am; she had an attack, I believe. Poor Miss Lucetta! She often +has attacks like that."</p> + +<p>Confounded, for the woman spoke so naturally that only a suspicious +nature like mine would fail to have been deceived by it, I raised myself +on my elbow and gave her an indignant look.</p> + +<p>"Yet you said just now that the young ladies were expecting me to +breakfast."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and why not?" Her look was absolutely guileless. "Miss Lucetta +sometimes keeps us up half the night, but she does not miss breakfast on +that account. When the turn is over, she is as well as ever she was. A +fine young lady, Miss Lucetta. I'd lose my two hands for her any day."</p> + +<p>"She certainly is a remarkable girl," I declared, not, however, as dryly +as I felt. "I can hardly believe I dreamed about the key. Let me feel of +your pocket," I laughed.</p> + +<p>She, without the smallest hesitancy, pulled aside her apron.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry you put so little confidence in my word, ma'am, but Lor' me, +what you heard is nothing to what some of our guests have complained +of—in the days, I mean, when we did have guests. I have known them to +scream out themselves in the middle of the night and vow they saw white +figures creeping up and down the halls—all nonsense, ma'am, but +believed in by some folks. You don't look as if you believed in ghosts."</p> + +<p>"And I don't," I said, "not a whit. It would be a poor way to try to +frighten me. How is Mr. William this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's well and feeding the dogs, ma'am. What made you think of him?"</p> + +<p>"Politeness, Hannah," I found myself forced to say. "He's the only man +in the house. Why shouldn't I think of him?"</p> + +<p>She fingered her apron a minute and laughed.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know you liked him. He's so rough, it isn't everybody who +understands him," she said.</p> + +<p>"Must one understand a person to like him?" I queried good-humoredly. I +was beginning to think I might have dreamed about that key.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she said, "I don't always understand Miss Lucetta, but I +like her through and through, ma'am, as I like this little finger," and +holding up this member to my inspection, she crossed the room for my +water-pitcher, which she proposed to fill with hot water.</p> + +<p>I followed her closely with my eyes. When she came back, I saw her +attention caught by the break in the flooring, which she had not noticed +on entering.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she exclaimed, "what a shame!" her honest face coloring as she +drew the rug back over the small black gap. "I am sure, ma'am," she +cried, "you must think very poorly of us. But I assure you, ma'am, it's +honest poverty, nothing but honest poverty as makes them so neglectful," +and with an air as far removed from mystery as her frank, good-natured +manner seemed to be from falsehood, she slid from the room with a kind:</p> + +<p>"Don't hurry, ma'am. It is Miss Knollys' turn in the kitchen, and she +isn't as quick as Miss Lucetta."</p> + +<p>"Humph," thought I, "supposing I had called in the police."</p> + +<p>But by the time she had returned with the water, my doubts had +reawakened. She was not changed in manner, though I have no doubt she +had recounted all that I had said, below, but I was, for I remembered +the matches and thought I saw a way of tripping her up in her +self-complacency.</p> + +<p>Just as she was leaving me for the second time I called her back.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with your matches?" I asked. "I couldn't make them +light last night."</p> + +<p>With a wholly undisturbed countenance she turned toward the bureau and +took up the china trinket that held the few remaining matches I had not +scraped on the piece of sandpaper I myself had fastened up alongside the +door. A sheepish cry of dismay at once escaped her.</p> + +<p>"Why, these are old matches!" she declared, showing me the box in which +a half-dozen or so burned matches stood with their burned tops all +turned down.</p> + +<p>"I thought they were all right. I'm afraid we are a little short of +matches."</p> + +<p>I did not like to tell her what I thought about it, but it made me +doubly anxious to join the young ladies at breakfast and judge for +myself from their conduct and expression if I had been deceived by my +own fears into taking for realities the phantasies of a nightmare, or +whether I was correct in ascribing to fact that episode of the key with +all the possibilities that lay behind it.</p> + +<p>I did not let my anxiety, however, stand in the way of my duty. Mr. +Gryce had bid me carry the whistle he had sent me constantly about my +person, and I felt that he would have the right to reproach me if I left +my room without making some endeavor to recover this lost article. How +to do this without aid or appliances of any kind was a problem. I knew +where it was, but I could not see it, much less reach it. Besides, they +were waiting for me—never a pleasant thought. It occurred to me that I +might lower into the hole a lighted candle hung by a string.</p> + +<p>Looking over my effects, I chose out a hairpin, a candle, and two corset +laces, (Pardon me. I am as modest as most of my sex, but I am not +squeamish. Corset laces are strings, and as such only I present them to +your notice.) I should like to have added a button-hook to my +collection, but not having as yet discarded the neatly laced boot of my +ancestor, I could only produce a small article from my toilet-service +which shall remain unmentioned, as I presently discarded it and turned +my whole attention to the other objects I have named. A poor array, but +out of them I hoped to find the means of fishing up my lost whistle.</p> + +<p>My intention was to lower first a lighted candle into the hole by means +of a string tied about its middle, then to drop a line on the whistle +thus discovered and draw it up with the point of a bent hairpin, which I +fondly hoped I could make do the service of a hook. To think was to try. +The candle was soon down in the hole, and by its light the whistle was +easily seen. The string and bent hairpin went down next. I was +successful in hooking the prize and proceeded to pull it up with great +care. For an instant I realized what a ridiculous figure I was cutting, +stooping over a hole in the floor on both knees, a string in each hand, +leading apparently to nowhere, and I at work cautiously steadying one +and as carefully pulling on the other. Having hooked the string holding +the whistle over the first finger of the hand holding the candle, I may +have become too self-conscious to notice the slight release of weight on +the whistle hand. Whatever the reason, when the end of the string came +in sight there was no whistle on it. The charred end showed me that the +candle had burned the cord, letting the whistle fall again out of reach. +Down went the candle again. It touched bottom, but no whistle was to be +seen. After a long and fruitless search, I concluded to abandon my +whistle-fishing excursion, and, rising from my cramped and undignified +position, I proceeded to pull up the candle. To my surprise and delight, +I found the whistle firmly stuck to the lower side of it. Some drops of +candle grease had fallen upon the whistle where it lay. The candle +coming in contact with it, the two had adhered, and I became indebted to +accident rather than to acumen for the restoration of the precious +article.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX</h2> + +<h3>A KNOT OF CRAPE</h3> + + +<p>I was prepared for some change in the appearance of my young hostesses, +but not for so great a one as I saw on entering the dining-room that +memorable morning. The blinds, which were always half closed, were now +wide open, and under the cheerful influence of the light which was thus +allowed to enter, the table and all its appointments had a much less +dreary look than before. Behind the urn sat Miss Knollys, with a smile +on her lips, and in the window William stood whistling a cheerful air, +unrebuked. Lucetta was not present, but to my great astonishment she +presently walked in with her hands laden with sprays of morning-glory, +which she flung down in the centre of the board. It was the first time I +had seen any attempt made by any of them to lighten the sombreness of +their surroundings, and it was also the first time I had seen the three +together.</p> + +<p>I was more disconcerted by this simple show of improved spirits than I +like to acknowledge. In the first place, they were natural and not +forced; and, secondly, they were to all appearance unconscious.</p> + +<p>They were not marked enough to show relief, and in Lucetta especially +did not serve to hide the underlying melancholy of a disappointed girl, +yet it was not what I expected from my supposed experiences of the +night, and led me to answer a little warily when, with a frank laugh, +Loreen exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"So you have lost your character as a practical woman, Miss Butterworth? +Hannah tells me you were the victim of a ghostly visit last night."</p> + +<p>"Hannah gossips unmercifully," was my cautious and somewhat peevish +reply. "If I chose to dream that I was locked into my room by some +erratic spectre, I cannot see why she should take the confession of my +folly out of my mouth. I was going to relate the fact myself, with all +the accompaniments of rushing steps and wild and unearthly cries which +are expected by the listeners to a veritable ghost story. But now I have +simply to defend myself from a charge of credulity. It's too bad, Miss +Knollys, much too bad. I did not come to a haunted house for this."</p> + +<p>My manner, rather than my words, seemed to completely deceive them. +Perhaps it deceived myself, for I began to feel a loss of the depression +which had weighed upon me ever since that scream rang in my ears at +midnight. It disappeared still further when Lucetta said:</p> + +<p>"If your ramblings through the old rooms on this floor were the occasion +of this nightmare, you must be prepared for a recurrence of the same +to-night, for I am going to take you through the upper rooms myself this +morning. Isn't that the programme, Loreen? Or have you changed your mind +and planned a drive for Miss Butterworth?"</p> + +<p>"She shall do both," Loreen answered. "When she is tired of tramping +through dusty chambers and examining the decayed remnants of old +furniture which encumber them, William stands ready to drive her over +the hills, where she will find views well worth her attention."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said I. "It is a pleasant prospect." But inwardly I uttered +anything but thanks; rather asked myself if I had not played the part of +a fool in ascribing so much importance to the events of the past night, +and decided almost without an argument that I had.</p> + +<p>However, beliefs die hard in a mind like mine, and though I was ready to +consider that an inflamed imagination may often carry us beyond the +bounds of fact and even into the realm of fancy and misconception, I yet +was not ready to give up my suspicions altogether, or to acknowledge +that I had no foundation for the fear that something uncanny if not +awful had taken place under this roof the night before. The very +naturalness I observed in this hitherto restrained trio might be the +result of the removal of some great strain, and if that was the +case—Ah, well, alertness is the motto of the truly wise. It is when +vigilance sleeps that the enemy gains the victory. I would not let +myself be deceived even at the cost of a little ridicule. Amelia +Butterworth was still awake, even under a semblance of well-laid +suspicion.</p> + +<p>My footsteps were not dogged after this as they had hitherto been in my +movements about the house. I was allowed to go and come and even to +stray into the second long corridor, without any other let than my own +discretion and good breeding. Lucetta joined me, to be sure, after a +while, but only as guide and companion. She took me into rooms I forgot +the next minute, and into others I remember to this day as quaint +memorials of a past ever and always interesting to me. We ransacked the +house, yet after all was over and I sat down to rest in my own room, two +formidable questions rose in my mind for which I found no satisfactory +answer. Why, with so many more or less attractive bedchambers at their +command, had they chosen to put me into a hole, where the very flooring +was unsafe, and the outlook the most dismal that could be imagined? and +why, in all our peregrinations in and out of rooms, had we always passed +one door without entering? She had said that it was William's—a +sufficient explanation, if true, and I have no doubt it was,—but the +change of countenance with which she passed it and the sudden lightening +of her tread (so instinctive that she was totally unconscious of it) +marked that door as one it would be my duty to enter if fate should yet +give me the opportunity. That it was the one in communication with the +Flower Parlor I felt satisfied, but in order to make assurance doubly +sure I resolved upon a tour through the shrubbery outside, that I might +compare the location of the window having the chipped blind with that of +this room, which was, as well as I could calculate, the third from the +rear on the left-hand side.</p> + +<p>When, therefore, William called up to know if I was ready for my drive, +I answered back that I found myself very tired and would be glad to +exchange the pleasure he offered, for a visit to the stables.</p> + +<p>This, as I expected, caused considerable comment and some disturbance. +They wanted me to repeat my experience of the day before and spend two +if not more hours of the morning out of the house. But I did not mean to +gratify them. Indeed I felt that my duty held me to the house, and was +so persistent in my wishes, or rather in my declaration of them, that +all opposition had to give way, even in the stubborn William.</p> + +<p>"I thought you had a dread of dogs," was the final remark with which he +endeavored to turn me aside from my purpose. "I have three in the barn +and two in the stable, and they make a great fuss when I come around, I +assure you."</p> + +<p>"Then they will have enough to do without noticing me," said I, with a +brazen assumption of courage sufficiently surprising if I had had any +real intention of invading a place so guarded. But I had not. I no more +meant to enter the stables than to jump off the housetop, but it was +necessary that I should start for them and make the start from the left +wing of the house.</p> + +<p>How I managed the intractable William and led him as I did from bush to +bush and shrub to shrub, up and down the length of that interminable +façade of the left wing, would make an interesting story in itself. The +curiosity I showed in plants, even such plants as had survived the +neglect that had made a wilderness of this old-time garden; the +indifference which, contrary to all my habits, I persisted in +manifesting to every inconvenience I encountered in the way of +straightforward walking to any object I set my fancy upon examining; the +knowledge I exhibited, and the interest which I took it for granted he +felt in all I discovered and all I imparted to him, would form the basis +of a farce of no ordinary merit had it not had its birth in interests +and intents bordering on the tragic.</p> + +<p>A row of bushes of various species ran along the wall and covered in +some instances the lower ledges of the first row of windows. As I made +for a certain shrub which I had observed growing near what I supposed to +be the casement from whose blind I had chipped a small sliver, I allowed +my enthusiasm to bubble over, in my evident desire to display my +erudition.</p> + +<p>"This," said I, "is, without any doubt at all, a stunted but undoubted +specimen of that rare tree found seldom north of the thirtieth degree, +the <i>Magnolia grandiflora</i>. I have never seen it but once before, and +that was in the botanical gardens in Washington. Note its leaves. You +have noted its flowers, smaller undoubtedly than they should be—but +then you must acknowledge it has been in a measure neglected—are they +not fine?"</p> + +<p>Here I pulled a branch down which interfered with my view of the window. +There was no chip visible in the blinds thus discovered. Seeing this, I +let the branch go. "But the oddest feature of this tree and one with +which you are perhaps not acquainted" (I wonder if anybody is?) "is that +it will not grow within twenty feet of any plant which scatters pollen. +See for yourself. This next shrub bears no flower" (I was moving along +the wall), "nor this." I drew down a branch as I spoke, caught sight of +the mark I was looking for, and let the bough spring back. I had found +the window I wanted.</p> + +<p>His grunts and groans during all this formed a running accompaniment +which would have afforded me great secret amusement had my purpose been +less serious. As it was, I could pay but little attention to him, +especially after I had stepped back far enough to take a glance at the +window over the one I had just located as that of the Flower Parlor. It +was, as I expected, the third one from the rear corner; but it was not +this fact which gave me a thrill of feeling so strong that I have never +had harder work to preserve my equanimity. <i>It was the knot of black +crape with which the shutters were tied together.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX</h2> + +<h3>QUESTIONS</h3> + + +<p>I kept the promise I had made to myself and did not go to the stables. +Had I intended to go there, I could not have done so after the discovery +I have just mentioned. It awakened too many thoughts and contradictory +surmises. If this knot was a signal, for whom was this signal meant? If +it was a mere acknowledgment of death, how reconcile the sentimentality +which prompted such an acknowledgment with the monstrous and diseased +passions lying at the base of the whole dreadful occurrence? Lastly, if +it was the result of pure carelessness, a bit of crape having been +caught up and used for a purpose for which any ordinary string would +have answered, what a wonderful coincidence between it and my +thoughts,—a coincidence, indeed, amounting almost to miracle!</p> + +<p>Marvelling at the whole affair and deciding nothing, I allowed myself to +stroll down alone to the gate, William having left me at my peremptory +refusal to drag my skirts any longer through the briers. The day being +bright and the sunshine warm, the road looked less gloomy than usual, +especially in the direction of the village and Deacon Spear's cottage. +The fact is, that anything seemed better than the grim and lowering +walls of the house behind me. If my home was there, so was my dread, and +I welcomed the sight of Mother Jane's heavy figure bent over her herbs +at the door of her hut, a few paces to my left, where the road turned.</p> + +<p>Had she not been deaf, I believed I would have called her. As it was, I +contented myself with watching the awkward swayings of her body as she +pottered to and fro among her turnips and carrots. My eyes were still on +her when I suddenly heard the clatter of a horse's hoofs on the highway. +Looking up, I encountered the trim figure of Mr. Trohm, bending to me +from a fine sorrel.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Miss Butterworth. It's a great relief to me to see you in +such good health and spirits this morning," were the pleasant words with +which he endeavored, perhaps, to explain his presence in a spot more or +less under a ban.</p> + +<p>It was certainly a surprise. What right had I to look for such +attentions from a man whose acquaintance I had made only the day before? +It touched me, little as I am in the habit of allowing myself to be +ruled by trivial sentimentalities, and though I was discreet enough to +avoid any further recognition of his kindness than was his due from a +lady of great self-respect, he was evidently sufficiently gratified by +my response to draw rein and pause for a moment's conversation under the +pine trees. This for the moment seemed so natural that I forgot that +more than one pair of eyes might be watching me from the windows behind +us—eyes which might wonder at a meeting which to the foolish +understandings of the young might have the look of premeditation. But, +pshaw! I am talking as if I were twenty instead of—Well, I will leave +you to consult our family record on that point. There are certain +secrets which even the wisest among us cannot be blamed for preserving.</p> + +<p>"How did you pass the night?" was Mr. Trohm's first question. "I hope in +all due peace and quiet."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," I returned, not seeing why I should increase his anxiety in +my regard. "I have nothing to complain of. I had a dream; but dreams are +to be expected where one has to pass a half-dozen empty rooms to one's +apartment."</p> + +<p>He could not restrain his curiosity.</p> + +<p>"A dream!" he repeated. "I do not believe in sleep that is broken by +dreams, unless they are of the most cheerful sort possible. And I judge +from what you say that yours were not cheerful."</p> + +<p>I wanted to confide in him. I felt that in a way he had a right to know +what had happened to me, or what I thought had happened to me, under +this roof. And yet I did not speak. What I could tell would sound so +puerile in the broad sunshine that enveloped us. I merely remarked that +cheerfulness was not to be expected in a domicile so given over to the +ravages of time, and then with that lightness and versatility which +characterize me under certain exigencies, I introduced a topic we could +discuss without any embarrassment to himself or me.</p> + +<p>"Do you see Mother Jane over there?" I asked. "I had some talk with her +yesterday. She seems like a harmless imbecile."</p> + +<p>"Very harmless," he acquiesced; "her only fault is greed; that is +insatiable. Yet it is not strong enough to take her a quarter of a mile +from this place. Nothing could do that, I think. She believes that her +daughter Lizzie is still alive and will come back to the hut some day. +It's very sad when you think that the girl's dead, and has been dead +nearly forty years."</p> + +<p>"Why does she harp on numbers?" I asked. "I heard her mutter certain +ones over and over."</p> + +<p>"That is a mystery none of us have ever been able to solve," said he. +"Possibly she has no reason for it. The vagaries of the witless are +often quite unaccountable."</p> + +<p>He remained looking at me long after he had finished speaking, not, I +felt sure, from any connection he found between what he had just said +and anything to be observed in me, but from—Well, I was glad that I had +been carefully trained in my youth to pay the greatest attention to my +morning toilets. Any woman can look well at night and many women in the +flush of a bright afternoon, but the woman who looks well in the morning +needs not always to be young to attract the appreciative gaze of a man +of real penetration. Mr. Trohm was such a man, and I did not begrudge +him the pleasure he showed in my neat gray silk and carefully adjusted +collar. But he said nothing, and a short silence ensued, which was +perhaps more of a compliment than otherwise. Then he uttered a short +sigh and lifted the reins.</p> + +<p>"If only I were not debarred from entering," he smiled, with a short +gesture toward the house.</p> + +<p>I did not answer. Even I understand that on occasion the tongue plays +but a sorry part in interviews of this nature.</p> + +<p>He sighed again and uttered some short encouragement to his horse, which +started that animal up and sent him slowly pacing down the road toward +the cheerful clearing whither my own eyes were looking with what I was +determined should not be construed even by the most sanguine into a +glance of anything like wistfulness. As he went he made a bow I have +never seen surpassed in my own parlor in Gramercy Park, and upon my +bestowing upon him a return nod, glanced up at the house with an +intentness which seemed to increase as some object, invisible to me at +that moment, caught his eye. As that eye was directed toward the left +wing, and lifted as far as the second row of windows, I could not help +asking myself if he had seen the knot of crape which had produced upon +me so lugubrious an impression. Before I could make sure of this he had +passed from sight, and the highway fell again into shadow—why, I hardly +knew, for the sun certainly had been shining a few minutes before.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI</h2> + +<h3>MOTHER JANE</h3> + + +<p>"Well, well, what did Trohm want here this morning?" cried a harsh voice +from amid the tangled walks behind me. "Seems to me he finds this place +pretty interesting all of a sudden."</p> + +<p>I turned upon the intruder with a look that should have daunted him. +I had recognized William's courteous tones and was in no mood to +endure a questioning so unbecoming in one of his age to one of mine. +But as I met his eye, which had something in it besides anger and +suspicion—something that was quizzical if not impertinent—I changed my +intention and bestowed upon him a conciliatory smile, which I hope +escaped the eye of the good angel who records against man all his small +hypocrisies and petty deceits.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Trohm rides for his health," said I. "Seeing me looking up the road +at Mother Jane, he stopped to tell me some of the idiosyncrasies of that +old woman. A very harmless courtesy, Mr. Knollys."</p> + +<p>"Very," he echoed, not without a touch of sarcasm. "I only hope that is +all," he muttered, with a sidelong look back at the house. "Lucetta +hasn't a particle of belief in that man's friendship, or, rather, she +believes he never goes anywhere without a particular intention, and +I do believe she's right, or why should he come spying around here +just at a time when"—he caught himself up with almost a look of +terror—"when—when you are here?" he completed lamely.</p> + +<p>"I do not think," I retorted, more angrily than the occasion perhaps +warranted, "that the word spying applies to Mr. Trohm. But if it does, +what has he to gain from a pause at the gate and a word to such a new +acquaintance as I am?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," William persisted suspiciously. "Trohm's a sharp fellow. +If there was anything to see, he would see it without half looking. But +there isn't. You don't know of anything wrong here, do you, which such a +man as that, hand in glove with the police as we know him to be, might +consider himself interested in?"</p> + +<p>Astonished both at this blundering committal of himself and at the +certain sort of anxious confidence he showed in me, I hesitated for a +moment, but only for a moment, since, if half my suspicions were true, +this man must not know that my perspicacity was more to be feared than +even Mr. Trohm's was.</p> + +<p>"If Mr. Trohm shows an increased interest in this household during the +last two days," said I, with a heroic defiance of ridicule which I hope +Mr. Gryce has duly appreciated, "I beg leave to call your attention to +the fact that on yesterday morning he came to deliver a letter addressed +to me which had inadvertently been left at his house, and that this +morning he called to inquire how I had spent the night, which, in +consideration of the ghosts which are said to haunt this house and the +strange and uncanny apparitions which only three nights ago made the +entrance to this lane hideous to one pair of eyes at least, should not +cause a gentleman's son like yourself any astonishment. It does not seem +odd to me, I assure you."</p> + +<p>He laughed. I meant he should, and, losing almost instantly his air of +doubt and suspicion, turned toward the gate from which I had just moved +away, muttering:</p> + +<p>"Well, it's a small matter to me anyway. It's only the girls that are +afraid of Mr. Trohm. I am not afraid of anything but losing Saracen, who +has pined like the deuce at his long confinement in the court. Hear him +now; just hear him."</p> + +<p>And I could hear the low and unhappy moaning of the hound distinctly. It +was not a pleasant sound, and I was almost tempted to bid William +unloose the dog, but thought better of it.</p> + +<p>"By the way," said he, "speaking of Mother Jane, I have a message to her +from the girls. You will excuse me if I speak to the poor woman."</p> + +<p>Alarmed by his politeness more than I ever have been by his roughness +and inconsiderate sarcasms, I surveyed him inquiringly as he left the +gate, and did not know whether to stand my ground or retreat to the +house. I decided to stand my ground; a message to this woman seeming to +me a matter of some interest.</p> + +<p>I was glad I did, for after some five minutes' absence, during which he +had followed her into the house, I saw him come back again in a state of +sullen displeasure, which, however, partially disappeared when he saw me +still standing by the gate.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Miss Butterworth, you can do me a favor. The old creature is in one +of her stubborn fits to-day, and won't give me a hearing. She may not be +so deaf to you; she isn't apt to be to women. Will you cross the road +and speak to her? I will go with you. You needn't be afraid."</p> + +<p>The way he said this, the confidence he expected to inspire, had almost +a ghastly effect upon me. Did he know or suspect that the only thing I +feared in this lane was he? Evidently not, for he met my eye quite +confidently.</p> + +<p>It would not do to shake his faith at such a moment as this, so calling +upon Providence to see me safely through this adventure, I stepped into +the highway and went with him into Mother Jane's cottage.</p> + +<p>Had I been favored with any other companion than himself, I should have +been glad of this opportunity. As it was, I found myself ignoring any +possible danger I might be running, in my interest in the remarkable +interior to which I was thus introduced.</p> + +<p>Having been told that Mother Jane was poor, I had expected to confront +squalor and possibly filth, but I never have entered a cleaner place or +one in which order made the poorest belongings look more decent. The +four walls were unfinished, and so were the rafters which formed the +ceiling, but the floor, neatly laid in brick, was spotless, and the +fireplace, also of brick, was as deftly swept as one could expect from +the little scrub I saw hanging by its side. Crouched within this +fireplace sat the old woman we had come to interview. Her back was to +us, and she looked helplessly and hopelessly deaf.</p> + +<p>"Ask her," said William, pointing towards her with a rude gesture, "if +she will come to the house at sunset. My sisters have some work for her +to do. They will pay her well."</p> + +<p>Advancing at his bidding, I passed a rocking-chair, in the cushion of +which a dozen patches met my eye. This drew my eyes toward a bed, over +which a counterpane was drawn, made up of a thousand or more pieces of +colored calico, and noticing their varied shapes and the intricacy with +which they were put together, I wondered whether she ever counted them. +The next moment I was at her back.</p> + +<p>"Seventy," burst from her lips as I leaned over her shoulder and showed +her the coin which I had taken pains to have in my hand.</p> + +<p>"Yours," I announced, pointing in the direction of the house, "if you +will do some work for Miss Knollys to-night."</p> + +<p>Slowly she shook her head before burying it deeper in the shawl she wore +wrapped about her shoulders. Listening a minute, I thought I heard her +mutter: "Twenty-eight, ten, but no more. I can count no more. Go away!"</p> + +<p>But I'm nothing if not persistent. Feeling for her hands, which were +hidden away somewhere under her shawl, I touched them with the coin and +cried again:</p> + +<p>"This and more for a small piece of work to-night. Come, you are strong; +earn it."</p> + +<p>"What kind of work is it?" I asked innocently, or it must have appeared +innocently, of Mr. Knollys, who was standing at my back.</p> + +<p>He frowned, all the black devils in his heart coming into his look at +once.</p> + +<p>"How do I know! Ask Loreen; she's the one who sent me. I don't take +account of what goes on in the kitchen."</p> + +<p>I begged his pardon, somewhat sarcastically I own, and made another +attempt to attract the attention of the old crone, who had remained +perfectly callous to my allurements.</p> + +<p>"I thought you liked money," I said. "For Lizzie, you know, for Lizzie."</p> + +<p>But she only muttered in lower and lower gutturals, "I can count no +more"; and, disgusted at my failure, being one who accounts failure as +little short of disgrace, I drew back and made my way toward the door, +saying: "She's in a different mood from what she was yesterday when she +snatched a quarter from me at the first intimation it was hers. I don't +think you can get her to do any work to-night. Innocents take these +freaks. Isn't there some one else you can call in?"</p> + +<p>The scowl that disfigured his none too handsome features was a fitting +prelude to his words.</p> + +<p>"You talk," said he, "as if we had the whole village at our command. How +did you succeed with the locksmith yesterday? Came, didn't he? Well, +that's what we have to expect whenever we want any help."</p> + +<p>Whirling on his heel, he led the way out of the hut, whither I would +have immediately followed him if I had not stopped to take another look +at the room, which struck me, even upon a second scrutiny, as one of the +best ordered and best kept I had ever entered. Even the strings and +strings of dried fruits and vegetables, which hung in festoons from +every beam of the roof, were free from dust and cobwebs, and though the +dishes were few and the pans scarce, they were bright and speckless, +giving to the shelf along which they were ranged a semblance of +ornament.</p> + +<p>"Wise enough to keep her house in order," thought I, and actually found +it hard to leave, so attractive to my eyes are absolute neatness and +order.</p> + +<p>William was pushing at his own gate when I joined him. He looked as if +he wished I had spent the morning with Mother Jane, and was barely civil +in our walk up to the house. I was not, therefore, surprised when he +burst into a volley of oaths at the doorway and turned upon me almost as +if he would forbid me the house, for tap, tap, tap, from some distant +quarter came a distinct sound like that of nails being driven into a +plank.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII</h2> + +<h3>THE THIRD NIGHT</h3> + + +<p>Mother Jane must have changed her mind after we left her. For late in +the evening I caught a glimpse of her burly figure in the kitchen as I +went to give Hannah some instructions concerning certain little changes +in the housekeeping arrangements which the girls and I had agreed were +necessary to our mutual comfort.</p> + +<p>I wished to address the old crone, but warned, by the ill-concealed +defiance with which Hannah met my advances, that any such attempt on my +part would be met by anything but her accustomed good-nature, I +refrained from showing my interest in her strange visitor, or from even +appearing conscious of her own secret anxieties and evident +preoccupation.</p> + +<p>Loreen and Lucetta exchanged a meaning look as I rejoined them in the +sitting-room; but my volubility in regard to the domestic affair which +had just taken me to the kitchen seemed to speedily reassure them, and +when a few minutes later I said good-night and prepared to leave the +room, it was with the conviction that I had relieved their mind at the +expense of my own. Mother Jane in the kitchen at this late hour meant +business. What that business was, I seemed to know only too well.</p> + +<p>I had formed a plan for the night which required some courage. Recalling +Lucetta's expression of the morning, that I might expect a repetition of +the former night's experiences, I prepared to profit by the warning in a +way she little meant. Satisfied that if there was any truth in the +suspicions I had formed, there would be an act performed in this house +to-night which, if seen by me, would forever settle the question +agitating the whole countryside, I made up my mind that no locked door +should interfere with my opportunity of doing so. How I effected this +result I will presently relate.</p> + +<p>Lucetta had accompanied me to my door with a lighted candle.</p> + +<p>"I hear you had some trouble with matches last night," said she. "You +will find them all right now. Hannah must be blamed for some of this +carelessness." Then as I began some reassuring reply, she turned upon me +with a look that was almost fond, and, throwing out her arms, cried +entreatingly: "Won't you give me a little kiss, Miss Butterworth? We +have not given you the best of welcomes, but you are my mother's old +friend, and sometimes I feel a little lonely."</p> + +<p>I could easily believe that, and yet I found it hard to embrace her. Too +many shadows swam between Althea's children and myself. She saw my +hesitancy (a hesitancy I could not but have shown even at the risk of +losing her confidence), and, paling slightly, dropped her hands with a +pitiful smile.</p> + +<p>"You don't like me," she said. "I do not wonder, but I was in hopes you +would for my mother's sake. I have no claims myself."</p> + +<p>"You are an interesting girl, and you have, what your mother had not, a +serious side to your nature that is anything but displeasing to me. But +my kisses, Lucetta, are as rare as my tears. I had rather give you good +advice, and that is a fact. Perhaps it is as strong a proof of affection +as any ordinary caress would be."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," she assented, but she did not encourage me to give it to her +notwithstanding. Instead of that, she drew back and bade me a gentle +good-night, which for some reason made me sadder than I wished to be at +a crisis demanding so much nerve. Then she walked quickly away, and I +was left to face the night alone.</p> + +<p>Knowing that I should be rather weakened than helped by the omission of +any of the little acts of preparation with which I am accustomed to calm +my spirits for the night, I went through them all, with just as much +precision as if I had expected to spend the ensuing hours in rest. When +all was done and only my cup of tea remained to be quaffed, I had a +little struggle with myself, which ended in my not drinking it at all. +Nothing, not even this comfortable solace for an unsatisfactory day, +should stand in the way of my being the complete mistress of my wits +this night. Had I known that this tea contained a soporific in the shape +of a little harmless morphine, I would have found this act of +self-denial much easier.</p> + +<p>It was now eleven. Confident that nothing would be done while my light +was burning, I blew it out, and, taking a candle and some matches in my +hand, softly opened my door and, after a moment of intense listening, +stepped out and closed it carefully behind me. Nothing could be stiller +than the house or darker than the corridor.</p> + +<p>"Am I watched or am I not watched?" I queried, and for an instant stood +undecided. Then, seeing nothing and hearing nothing, I slipped down the +hall to the door beyond mine and, opening it with all the care possible, +stepped inside.</p> + +<p>I knew the room. I had taken especial note of it in my visit of the +morning. I knew that it was nearly empty and that there was a key in the +lock which I could turn. I therefore felt more or less safe in it, +especially as its window was undarkened by the branches that hung so +thickly across my own casement, shutting me in, or seeming to shut me +in, from all communication with the outside world and the unknown +guardian which I had been assured constantly attended my summons.</p> + +<p>That I might strengthen my spirits by one glimpse of this same outside +world, before settling down for the watch I had set for myself, I +stepped softly to the window and took one lingering look without. A belt +of forest illumined by a gibbous moon met my eyes; nothing else. Yet +this sight was welcome, and it was only after I had been struck by the +possibility of my own figure being seen at the casement by some possible +watcher in the shadows below, that I found the hardihood necessary to +withdraw into the darker precincts of the room, and begin that lonely +watch which my doubts and expectations rendered necessary.</p> + +<p>This was the third I had been forced to keep, and it was by far the most +dismal; for though the bolted door between me and the hall promised me +personal safety, there presently rose in some far-off place a smothered +repetition of that same tap, tap, tap which had sent the shudders over +me upon my sudden entrance into the house early in the morning. Heard +now, it caused me to tremble in a way I had not supposed possible to one +of my hardy nature, and while with this recognition of my feminine +susceptibility to impressions there came a certain pride in the +stanchness of purpose which led me to restrain all acknowledgment of +fear, by any recourse to my whistle, I was more than glad when even this +sound ceased, and I had only to expect the swishing noise of a skirt +down the hall, and that stealthy locking of the door of the room I had +taken the precaution of leaving.</p> + +<p>It came sooner than I expected, came just in the way it had previously +done, only that the person paused a moment to listen before hastening +back. The silence within must have satisfied her, for I heard a low sigh +like that of relief, before the steps took themselves back. That they +would turn my way gave me a momentary concern, but I had too completely +lulled my young hostesses' suspicions, or (let me be faithful to all the +possibilities of the case) they had put too much confidence in the +powder with which they had seasoned my nightly cup of tea, for them to +doubt that I was soundly asleep in my own quarters.</p> + +<p>Three minutes later I followed those steps as far down the corridor as I +dared to go. For, since my last appearance in it, a candle had been lit +in the main hall, and faint as was its glimmer, it was still a glimmer +into the circle of which I felt it would be foolhardiness for me to +step. At some twenty paces, then, from the opening, I paused and gave +myself up to listening. Alas, there was plenty now for me to hear.</p> + +<p>You have heard the sound; we all have heard the sound, but few of us in +such a desolate structure and at the hour and under the influences of +midnight! The measured tread of men struggling under a heavy weight, and +that weight—how well I knew it! as well as if I had seen it, as I +really did in my imagination.</p> + +<p>They advanced from the adjoining corridor, from the room I had as yet +found no opportunity of entering, and they approached surely and slowly +the main hall near which I was standing in such a position as rendered +it impossible for me to see anything if they took the direct course to +the head of the stairs and so down, as there was every reason to expect +they would. I did not dare to draw nearer, however, so concentrated my +faculties anew upon listening, when suddenly I perceived on the great +white wall in front of me—the wall of the main hall, I mean, toward +which the opening looked—the shapeless outline of a drooping head, and +realized that the candle had been placed in such a position that the +wall must receive the full shadow of the passing cortège.</p> + +<p>And thus it was I saw it, huge, distorted, and suggestive beyond any +picture I ever beheld,—the passing of a body to its long home, carried +by six anxious figures, four of which seemed to be those of women.</p> + +<p>But that long home! Where was it located—in the house or in the +grounds? It was a question so important that for a moment I could think +of nothing but how I could follow the small procession, without running +the risk of discovery. It had reached the head of the stairs by this +time, and I heard Miss Knollys' low, firm voice enjoining silence. Then +the six bearers began to descend with their burden.</p> + +<p>Ere they reached the foot, a doubt struck me. Would it be better to +follow them or to take the opportunity afforded by every member of the +household being engaged in this task, to take a peep into the room where +the death had occurred? I had not decided, when I heard them take the +forward course from the foot of the stairs to what, to my straining ear, +seemed to be the entrance to the dining-room corridor. But as in my +anxiety to determine this fact I slipped far enough forward to make sure +that their destination lay somewhere within reach of the Flower Parlor, +I was so struck by the advantages to be gained by a cautious use of the +trap-door in William's room, that I hesitated no longer, but sped with +what swiftness I could toward the spot from which I had so lately heard +this strange procession advance.</p> + +<p>A narrow band of light lying across the upper end of the long corridor, +proved that the door was not only ajar, but that a second candle was +burning in the room I was about to invade; but this was scarcely to +be regretted, since there could be no question of the emptiness of +the room. The six figures I had seen go by embraced every one who +by any possibility could be considered as having part in this +transaction—William, Mr. Simsbury, Miss Knollys, Lucetta, Hannah, and +Mother Jane. No one else was left to guard this room, so I pushed the +door open quite boldly and entered.</p> + +<p>What I saw there I will relate later, or, rather, I will but hint at +now. A bed with a sheet thrown back, a stand covered with vials, a +bureau with a man's shaving paraphernalia upon it, and on the wall such +pictures as only sporting gentlemen delight in. The candle was guttering +on a small table upon which, to my astonishment, a Bible lay open. Not +having my glasses with me, I could not see what portion of the sacred +word was thus disclosed, but I took the precaution to indent the upper +leaf with my thumb-nail, so that I might find it again in case of future +opportunity. My attention was attracted by other small matters that +would be food for thought at a more propitious moment, but at that +instant the sound of voices coming distinctly to my ear from below, +warned me that a halt had been made at the Flower Parlor, and that the +duty of the moment was to locate the trap-door and if possible determine +the means of raising it.</p> + +<p>This was less difficult than I anticipated. Either this room was +regarded as so safe from intrusion that a secret like this could be +safely left unguarded, or the door which was plainly to be seen in one +corner had been so lately lifted, that it had hardly sunk back into its +place. I found it, if the expression may be used of a horizontal object, +slightly ajar and needing but the slightest pull to make it spring +upright.</p> + +<p>The hole thus disclosed was filled with the little staircase up which I +had partly mounted in my daring explorations of the day before. It was +dark now, darker than it was then, but I felt that I must descend by it, +for plainly to be heard now through the crack in the closet door, which +seemed to have a knack of standing partly open, I could hear the heavy +tread of the six bearers as they entered the parlor below, still +carrying their burden, concerning the destination of which I was so +anxious to be informed.</p> + +<p>That it could be in the room itself was too improbable for +consideration. Yet if they took up their stand in this room it was for a +purpose, and what that purpose was I was determined to know. The noise +their feet made on the bare boards of the floor and the few words I now +heard uttered in William's stolid tones and Lucetta's musical treble +assured me that my own light steps would no more be heard, than my dark +gown of quiet wool would be seen through the narrow slit through which I +was preparing to peer. Yet it took no small degree of what my father +used to call pluck, for me to put foot on this winding staircase and +descend almost, as it were, into the midst of what I must regard as the +last wicked act of a most cowardly and brutal murder.</p> + +<p>I did it, however, and after a short but grim communion with my own +heart, which would persist in beating somewhat noisily, I leaned forward +with all the precaution possible and let my gaze traverse the chamber in +which I had previously seen such horrors as should have prepared me for +this last and greatest one.</p> + +<p>In a moment I understood the whole. A long square hole in the floor, +lately sawed, provided an opening through which the plain plank coffin, +of which I now caught sight, was to be lowered into the cellar and so +into the grave which had doubtless been dug there. The ropes in the +hands of the six persons, in whose identity I had made no mistake, was +proof enough of their intention; and, satisfied as I now was of the +means and mode of the interment which had been such a boundless mystery +to me, I shrank a step upward, fearing lest my indignation and the +horror I could not but feel, from this moment on, of Althea's children, +would betray me into some exclamation which might lead to my discovery +and a similar fate.</p> + +<p>One other short glance, in which I saw them all ranged around the dark +opening, and I was up out of their reach, Lucetta's face and Lucetta's +one sob as the ropes began to creak, being the one memory which followed +me the most persistently. She, at least, was overwhelmed with remorse +for a deed she was perhaps only answerable for in that she failed to +make known to the world her brother's madness and the horrible crimes to +which it gave rise.</p> + +<p>I took one other look around his room before I fled to my own, or +rather, to the one in which I had taken refuge while my own was under +lock and key. That I spent the next two hours on my knees no one can +wonder. When my own room was unlocked, as it was before the day broke, I +hastened to enter it and lay my head with all its unhappy knowledge on +my pillow. But I did not sleep; and, what was stranger still, never once +thought of sounding a single note on the whistle which would have +brought the police into this abode of crime. Perhaps it was a wise +omission. I had seen enough that was horrible that night without +beholding Althea's children arrested before my eyes.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BOOK_III" id="BOOK_III"></a><i>BOOK III</i></h2> + +<h3>FORWARD AND BACK</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII</h2> + +<h3>ROOM 3, HOTEL CARTER</h3> + + +<p>I rose at my usual hour. I dressed myself with my usual care. I was, to +a superficial observer at least, in all respects my usual self when +Hannah came to my door to ask what she could do for me. As there was +nothing I wanted but to get out of this house, which had become +unbearable to me, I replied with the utmost cheerfulness that my wants +were all supplied and that I would soon be down, at which she answered +that in that case she must bestir herself or the breakfast would not be +ready, and hurried away.</p> + +<p>There was no one in the dining-room when I entered, and judging from +appearances that several minutes must elapse before breakfast would be +ready, I took occasion to stroll through the grounds and glance up at +the window of William's room. The knot of crape was gone.</p> + +<p>I would have gone farther, but just then I heard a great rushing and +scampering, and, looking up, saw an enormous dog approaching at full +gallop from the stables. Saracen was loose.</p> + +<p>I did not scream or give way to other feminine expressions of fear, but +I did return as quickly as possible to the house, where I now saw I must +remain till William chose to take me into town.</p> + +<p>This I was determined should take place as soon after breakfast as +practicable. The knowledge which I now possessed warranted, nay, +demanded, instant consultation with the police, and as this could best +be effected by following out the orders I had received from Mr. Gryce, I +did not consider any other plan than that of meeting the man on duty in +Room No. 3 at the hotel.</p> + +<p>Loreen, Lucetta, and William were awaiting me in the hall, and made no +apology for the flurry into which I had been thrown by my rapid escape +from Saracen. Indeed I doubt if they noticed it, for with all the +attempt they made to seem gay and at ease, the anxieties and fatigue of +the foregoing nights were telling upon them, and from Miss Knollys down, +they looked physically exhausted. But they also looked mentally +relieved. In the clear depths of Lucetta's eye there was now no +wavering, and the head which was always turning in anxious anticipation +over her shoulder rested firm, though not as erect as her sister's, who +had less cause perhaps for regret and sorrow.</p> + +<p>William was joyful to a degree, but it was a forced joviality which only +became real when he heard a sudden, quick bark under the window and the +sound of scraping paws against the mastic coating of the wall outside. +Then he broke out into a loud laugh of unrestrained pleasure, crying out +thoughtlessly:</p> + +<p>"There's Saracen. How quick he knows——"</p> + +<p>A warning look from Lucetta stopped him.</p> + +<p>"I mean," he stammered, "it's a dull dog that cannot find his master. +Miss Butterworth, you will have to overcome your fear of dogs if you +stay with us long. Saracen is unbound this morning, and"—he used a +great oath—"he's going to remain so."</p> + +<p>By which I came to understand that it was not out of consideration for +me he had been tied up in the court till now, but for reasons connected +with their own safety and the preservation of the secret which they so +evidently believed had been buried with the body, which I did not like +to remember lay at that very minute too nearly under our feet for my own +individual comfort.</p> + +<p>However, this has nothing to do with the reply I made to William.</p> + +<p>"I hope he does not run with the buggy," I objected. "I want to take a +ride very much this morning and could get small pleasure out of it if +that dog must be our companion."</p> + +<p>"I cannot go out this morning," William began, but changed his sentence, +possibly at the touch of his sister's foot under the table, into: "But +if you say I must, why, I must. You women folks are so plagued +unreasonable."</p> + +<p>Had he been ten years younger I would have boxed his ears; had he been +that much older I would have taken cue and packed my trunk before he +could have finished the cup of coffee he was drinking. But he was just +too old to reprimand in the way just mentioned, and not old enough to +appreciate any display of personal dignity or self-respect on the part +of the person he had offended. Besides, he was a knave; so I just let +his impertinence pass with the remark:</p> + +<p>"I have purchases to make in the village": and so that matter ended, +manifestly to the two girls' relief, who naturally did not like to see +me insulted, even if they did not possess sufficient power over their +brother to prevent it.</p> + +<p>One other small episode and then I will take you with me to the village. +As we were leaving the table, where I ate less than common, +notwithstanding all my efforts to seem perfectly unconcerned, Lucetta, +who had waited for her brother to go out, took me gently by the arm, +and, eying me closely, said:</p> + +<p>"Did you have any dreams last night, Miss Butterworth? You know I +promised you some."</p> + +<p>The question disconcerted me, and for a moment I felt like taking the +two girls into my confidence and bidding them fly from the shame and +doom so soon to fall upon their brother; but the real principle +underlying all such momentary impulses on my part deterred me, and in as +light a tone as I could command and not be an absolute hypocrite, I +replied that I was sorry to disappoint her, but I had had no dreams, +which seemed to please her more than it should, for if I had had no +dreams I certainly had suffered from the most frightful realities.</p> + +<p>I will not describe our ride into town. Saracen did go with us, and +indignation not only rendered me speechless, but gave to my thoughts a +turn which made that half-hour of very little value to me. Mother Jane's +burly figure crouching in her doorway might otherwise have given me +opportunity for remark, and so might the dubious looks of people we met +on the highroad—looks to which I am so wholly unaccustomed that I had +difficulty in recognizing myself as the butt of so much doubt and +possibly dislike. I attributed this, however, all to the ill repute +under which William so deservedly labored, and did not allow myself to +more than notice it. Indeed, I could only be sorry for people who did +not know in what consideration I was held at home, and who, either +through ignorance or prejudice, allowed themselves privileges they would +be the first to regret did they know the heart and mind of Amelia +Butterworth.</p> + +<p>Once in the village, I took the direction of affairs.</p> + +<p>"Set me down at the hotel," I commanded, "and then go about such +business as you may have here in town. I am not going to allow myself to +be tracked all over by that dog."</p> + +<p>"I have no business," was the surly reply.</p> + +<p>"Then make some," was my sharp retort. "I want to see the +locksmith—that locksmith who wouldn't come to do an honest piece of +work for me in your house; and I want to buy dimities and wools and +sewing silks at the dry-goods store over there. Indeed I have a thousand +things to do, and expect to spend half the morning before the counters. +Why, man, I haven't done any shopping for a week."</p> + +<p>He gaped at me perfectly aghast (as I meant he should), and, having but +little experience of city ladies, took me at my word and prepared to +beat an honorable retreat. As a result, I found myself ten minutes later +standing on the top step of the hotel porch, watching William driving +away with Saracen perched on the seat beside him. Then I realized that +the village held no companions for him, and did not know whether I felt +glad or sorry.</p> + +<p>To the clerk who came to meet me, I said quietly, "Room No. 3, if you +please," at which he gave a nod of intelligence and led me as +unostentatiously as possible into a small hall, at the end of which I +saw a door with the aforesaid number on it.</p> + +<p>"If you will take a seat inside," said he, "I will send you whatever you +may desire for your comfort."</p> + +<p>"I think you know what that is," I rejoined, at which he nodded again +and left me, closing the door carefully behind him as he went.</p> + +<p>The few minutes which elapsed before my quiet was disturbed were spent +by me in thinking. There were many little questions to settle in my own +mind, for which a spell of uninterrupted contemplation was necessary. +One of these was whether, in the event of finding the police amenable, I +should reveal or hide from these children of my old friend, the fact +that it was through my instrumentality that their nefarious secret had +been discovered. I wished—nay, I hoped—that the affair might be so +concluded, but the possibility of doing so seemed so problematical, +especially since Mr. Gryce was not on hand to direct matters, that I +spent very little time on the subject, deep and important as it was to +all concerned.</p> + +<p>What most occupied me was the necessity of telling my story in such a +way as to exonerate the girls as much as possible. They were mistaken in +their devotion and most unhappy in the exercise of it, but they were not +innately wicked and should not be made to appear so. Perhaps the one +thing for which I should yet have the best cause to congratulate myself, +would be the opportunity I had gained of giving to their connection with +this affair its true and proper coloring.</p> + +<p>I was still dwelling on this thought when there came a knock at my door +which advised me that the visitor I expected had arrived. To open and +admit him was the work of a moment, but it took more than a moment for +me to overcome my surprise at seeing in my visitor no lesser person than +Mr. Gryce himself, who in our parting interview had assured me he was +too old and too feeble for further detective work and must therefore +delegate it to me.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" I ejaculated slowly. "It is you, is it? Well, I am not surprised." +(I shouldn't have been.) "When you say you are old, you mean old enough +to pull the wool over other people's eyes, and when you say you are +lame, you mean that you only halt long enough to let others get far +enough ahead for them not to see how fast you hobble up behind them. But +do not think I am not happy to see you. I am, Mr. Gryce, for I have +discovered the secret of Lost Man's Lane, and find it somewhat too heavy +a one for my own handling."</p> + +<p>To my surprise he showed this was more than he expected.</p> + +<p>"You have?" he asked, with just that shade of incredulity which it is so +tantalizing to encounter. "Then I suppose congratulations are in order. +But are you sure, Miss Butterworth, that you really have obtained a clue +to the many strange and fearful disappearances which have given to this +lane its name?"</p> + +<p>"Quite sure," I returned, nettled. "Why do you doubt it? Because I have +kept so quiet and not sounded one note of alarm from my whistle?"</p> + +<p>"No," said he. "Knowing your self-restraint so well, I cannot say that +that is my reason."</p> + +<p>"What is it, then?" I urged.</p> + +<p>"Well," said he, "my real reason for doubting if you have been quite as +successful as you think, is that we ourselves have come upon a clue +about which there can be no question. Can you say the same of yours?"</p> + +<p>You will expect my answer to have been a decided "Yes," uttered with all +the positiveness of which you know me capable. But for some reason, +perhaps because of the strange influence this man's personality +exercises upon all—yes, all—who do not absolutely steel themselves +against him, I faltered just long enough for him to cry:</p> + +<p>"I thought not. The clue is outside the Knollys house, not in it, Miss +Butterworth, for which, of course, you are not to be blamed or your +services scorned. I have no doubt they have been invaluable in +unearthing <i>a</i> secret, if not <i>the</i> secret."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," was my quiet retort. I thought his presumption beyond all +bounds, and would at that moment have felt justified in snapping my +fingers at the clue he boasted of, had it not been for one thing. What +that thing is I am not ready yet to state.</p> + +<p>"You and I have come to issue over such matters before," said he, "and +therefore need not take too much account of the feelings it is likely to +engender. I will merely state that my clue points to Mother Jane, and +ask if you have found in the visit she paid at the house last night +anything which would go to strengthen the suspicion against her."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said I, in a state of disdain that was more or less +unpardonable, considering that my own suspicions previous to my +discovery of the real tragedy enacted under my eyes at the Knollys +mansion had played more or less about this old crone.</p> + +<p>"Only perhaps?" He smiled, with a playful forbearance for which I should +have been truly grateful to him.</p> + +<p>"She was there for no good purpose," said I, "and yet if you had not +characterized her as the person most responsible for the crimes we are +here to investigate, I should have said from all that I then saw of her +conduct that she acted as a supernumerary rather than principal, and +that it is to me you should look for the correct clue to the criminal, +notwithstanding your confidence in your own theories and my momentary +hesitation to assert that there was no possible defect in mine."</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth,"—I thought he looked a trifle shaken,—"what did +Mother Jane do in that closely shuttered house last night?"</p> + +<p>Mother Jane? Well! Did he think I was going to introduce my tragic story +by telling what Mother Jane did? I must have looked irritated, and +indeed I think I had cause.</p> + +<p>"Mother Jane ate her supper," I snapped out angrily. "Miss Knollys gave +it to her. Then she helped a little with a piece of work they had on +hand. It will not interest you to know what. It has nothing to do with +your clue, I warrant."</p> + +<p>He did not get angry. He has an admirable temper, has Mr. Gryce, but he +did stop a minute to consider.</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth," he said at last, "most detectives would have held +their peace and let you go on with what you have to tell without a hint +that it was either unwelcome or unnecessary, but I have consideration +for persons' feelings and for persons' secrets so long as they do not +come in collision with the law, and my opinion is, or was when I entered +this room, that such discoveries as you have made at your old friend's +house" (Why need he emphasize friend—did he think I forgot for a moment +that Althea was my friend?) "were connected rather with some family +difficulty than with the dreadful affair we are considering. That is why +I hastened to tell you that we had found a clue to the disappearances in +Mother Jane's cottage. I wished to save the Misses Knollys."</p> + +<p>If he had thought to mollify me by this assertion, he did not succeed. +He saw it and made haste to say:</p> + +<p>"Not that I doubt your consideration for them, only the justness of your +conclusions."</p> + +<p>"You have doubted those before and with more reason," I replied, "yet +they were not altogether false."</p> + +<p>"That I am willing to acknowledge, so willing that if you still think +after I have told my story that yours is <i>apropos</i>, then I will listen +to it only too eagerly. My object is to find the real criminal in this +matter. I say at the present moment it is Mother Jane."</p> + +<p>"God grant you are right," I said, influenced in spite of myself by the +calm assurance of his manner. "If she was at the house night before last +between eleven and twelve, then perhaps she is all you think her. But I +see no reason to believe it—not yet, Mr. Gryce. Supposing you give me +one. It would be better than all this controversy. One small reason, Mr. +Gryce, as good as"—I did not say what, but the fillip it gave to his +intention stood me in good stead, for he launched immediately into the +matter with no further play upon my curiosity, which was now, as you can +believe, thoroughly aroused, though I could not believe that anything he +had to bring up against Mother Jane could for a moment stand against the +death and the burial I had witnessed in Miss Knollys' house during the +two previous nights.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV</h2> + +<h3>THE ENIGMA OF NUMBERS</h3> + + +<p>"When in our first conversation on this topic I told you that Mother +Jane was not to be considered in this matter, I meant she was not to be +considered by you. She was a subject to be handled by the police, and we +have handled her. Yesterday afternoon I made a search of her cabin." +Here Mr. Gryce paused and eyed me quizzically. He sometimes does eye me, +which same I cannot regard as a compliment, considering how fond he is +of concentrating all his wisdom upon small and insignificant objects.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said he, "what you would have done in such a search as that. +It was no common one, I assure you. There are not many hiding-places +between Mother Jane's four walls."</p> + +<p>I felt myself begin to tremble, with eagerness, of course.</p> + +<p>"I wish I had been given the opportunity," said I—"that is, if anything +was to be found there."</p> + +<p>He seemed to be in a sympathetic mood toward me, or perhaps—and this is +the likelier supposition—he had a minute of leisure and thought he +could afford to give himself a little quiet amusement. However that was, +he answered me by saying:</p> + +<p>"The opportunity is not lost. You have been in her cabin and have noted, +I have no doubt, its extreme simplicity. Yet it contains, or rather did +contain up till last night, distinct evidences of more than one of the +crimes which have been perpetrated in this lane."</p> + +<p>"Good! And you want me to guess where you found them? Well, it's not +fair."</p> + +<p>"Ah, and why not?"</p> + +<p>"Because you probably did not find them on your first attempt. You had +time to look about. I am asked to guess at once and without second trial +what I warrant it took you several trials to determine."</p> + +<p>He could not help but laugh. "And why do you think it took me several +trials?"</p> + +<p>"Because there is more than one thing in that room made up of parts."</p> + +<p>"Parts?" He attempted to look puzzled, but I would not have it.</p> + +<p>"You know what I mean," I declared; "seventy parts, twenty-eight, or +whatever the numbers are she so constantly mutters."</p> + +<p>His admiration was unqualified and sincere.</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth," said he, "you are a woman after my own heart. How +came you to think that her mutterings had anything to do with a +hiding-place?"</p> + +<p>"Because it did not have anything to do with the amount of money I gave +her. When I handed her twenty-five cents, she cried, 'Seventy, +twenty-eight, and now ten!' Ten what? Not ten cents or ten dollars, but +ten——"</p> + +<p>"Why do you stop?"</p> + +<p>"I do not want to risk my reputation on a guess. There is a quilt on the +bed made up of innumerable pieces. There is a floor of neatly laid +brick——"</p> + +<p>"And there is a Bible on the stand whose leaves number many over +seventy."</p> + +<p>"Ah, it was in the Bible you found——"</p> + +<p>His smile put mine quite to shame.</p> + +<p>"I must acknowledge," he cried, "that I looked in the Bible, but I found +nothing there beyond what we all seek when we open its sacred covers. +Shall I tell my story?"</p> + +<p>He was evidently bursting with pride. You would think that after a +half-century of just such successes, a man would take his honors more +quietly. But pshaw! Human nature is just the same in the old as in the +young. He was no more tired of compliment or of awakening the +astonishment of those he confided in, than when he aroused the +admiration of the force by his triumphant handling of the Leavenworth +Case. Of course in presence of such weakness I could do nothing less +than give him a sympathetic ear. I may be old myself some day. Besides, +his story was likely to prove more or less interesting.</p> + +<p>"Tell your story?" I repeated. "Don't you see that I am"—I was going to +say "on pins and needles till I hear it," but the expression is too +vulgar for a woman of my breeding; so I altered the words, happily +before they were spoken, into "that I am in a state of the liveliest +curiosity concerning the whole matter? Tell your story, of course."</p> + +<p>"Well, Miss Butterworth, if I do, it is because I know you will +appreciate it. You, like myself, placed weight upon the numbers she is +forever running over, and you, like myself, have conceived the +possibility of these numbers having reference to something in the one +room she inhabits. At first glance the extreme bareness of the spot +seemed to promise nothing to my curiosity. I looked at the floor and +detected no signs of any disturbance having taken place in its +symmetrically laid bricks for years. Yet I counted up to seventy one way +and twenty-eight the other, and marking the brick thus selected, began +to pry it out. It came with difficulty and showed me nothing underneath +but green mold and innumerable frightened insects. Then I counted the +bricks the other way, but nothing came of it. The floor does not appear +to have been disturbed for years. Turning my attention away from the +floor, I began upon the quilt. This was a worse job than the other, and +it took me an hour to rip apart the block I settled upon as the +suspicious one, but my labor was entirely wasted. There was no hidden +treasure in the quilt. Then I searched the walls, using the measurements +seventy by twenty-eight, but no result followed these endeavors, +and—well, what do you think I did then?"</p> + +<p>"You will tell me," I said, "if I give you one more minute to do it in."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said he. "I see you do not know, madam. Having searched +below and around me, I next turned my attention overhead. Do you +remember the strings and strings of dried vegetables that decorate the +beams above?"</p> + +<p>"I do," I replied, not stinting any of the astonishment I really felt.</p> + +<p>"Well, I began to count them next, and when I reached the seventieth +onion from the open doorway, I crushed it between my fingers and—these +fell out, madam—worthless trinkets, as you will immediately see, +but——"</p> + +<p>"Well, well," I urged.</p> + +<p>"They have been identified as belonging to the peddler who was one of +the victims in whose fate we are interested."</p> + +<p>"Ah, ah!" I ejaculated, somewhat amazed, I own. "And number +twenty-eight?"</p> + +<p>"That was a carrot, and it held a really valuable ring—a ruby +surrounded by diamonds. If you remember, I once spoke to you of this +ring. It was the property of young Mr. Chittenden and worn by him while +he was in this village. He disappeared on his way to the railway +station, having taken, as many can vouch, the short detour by Lost Man's +Lane, which would lead him directly by Mother Jane's cottage."</p> + +<p>"You thrill me," said I, keeping down with admirable self-possession my +own thoughts in regard to this matter. "And what of No. ten, beyond +which she said she could not count?"</p> + +<p>"In ten was your twenty-five-cent piece, and in various other +vegetables, small coins, whose value taken collectively would not amount +to a dollar. The only numbers which seemed to make any impression on her +mind were those connected with these crimes. Very good evidence, Miss +Butterworth, that Mother Jane holds the clue to this matter, even if she +is not responsible for the death of the individuals represented by this +property."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," I acquiesced, "and if you examined her after her return +from the Knollys mansion last night you would probably have found upon +her some similar evidence of her complicity in the last crime of this +terrible series. It would needs have been small, as Silly Rufus neither +indulged in the brass trinkets sold by the old peddler nor the real +jewelry of a well-to-do man like Mr. Chittenden."</p> + +<p>"Silly Rufus?"</p> + +<p>"He was the last to disappear from these parts, was he not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, madam."</p> + +<p>"And as such, should have left some clue to his fate in the hands of +this old crone, if her motive in removing him was, as you seem to think, +entirely that of gain."</p> + +<p>"I did not say it was entirely so. Silly Rufus would be the last person +any one, even such a <i>non compos mentis</i> as Mother Jane, would destroy +for hope of gain."</p> + +<p>"But what other motive could she have? And, Mr. Gryce, where could she +bestow the bodies of so many unfortunate victims, even if by her great +strength she could succeed in killing them?"</p> + +<p>"There you have me," said he. "We have not been able as yet to unearth +any bodies. Have you?"</p> + +<p>"No," said I, with some little show of triumph showing through my +disdain, "but I can show <i>you</i> where to unearth one."</p> + +<p>He should have been startled, profoundly startled. Why wasn't he? I +asked this of myself over and over in the one instant he weighed his +words before answering.</p> + +<p>"You have made some definite discoveries, then," he declared. "You have +come across a grave or a mound which you have taken for a grave."</p> + +<p>I shook my head.</p> + +<p>"No mound," said I. Why should I not play for an instant or more with +his curiosity? He had with mine.</p> + +<p>"Ah, then, why do you talk of unearthing? No one has told you where you +can lay hand on Silly Rufus' body, I take it."</p> + +<p>"No," said I. "The Knollys house is not inclined to give up its +secrets."</p> + +<p>He started, glancing almost remorsefully first at the tip, then at the +head of the cane he was balancing in his hand.</p> + +<p>"It's too bad," he muttered, "but you've been led astray, Miss +Butterworth,—excusably, I acknowledge, quite excusably, but yet in a +way to give you quite wrong conclusions. The secret of the Knollys +house—But wait a moment. Then you were not locked up in your room last +night?"</p> + +<p>"Scarcely," I returned, wavering between the doubts he had awakened by +his first sentence and the surprise which his last could not fail to +give me.</p> + +<p>"I might have known they would not be likely to catch you in a trap," he +remarked. "So you were up and in the halls?"</p> + +<p>"I was up," I acknowledged, "and in the halls. May I ask where you +were?"</p> + +<p>He paid no heed to the last sentence. "This complicates matters," said +he, "and yet perhaps it is as well. I understand you now, and in a few +minutes you will understand me. You thought it was Silly Rufus who was +buried last night. That was rather an awful thought, Miss Butterworth. I +wonder, with that in your mind, you look as well as you do this morning, +madam. Truly you are a wonderful woman—a very wonderful woman."</p> + +<p>"A truce to compliments," I begged. "If you know as much as your words +imply of what went on in that ill-omened house last night, you ought to +show some degree of emotion yourself, for if it was not Silly Rufus who +was laid away under the Flower Parlor, who, then, was it? No one for +whom tears could openly be shed or of whose death public acknowledgment +could be made, or we would not be sitting here talking away at cross +purposes the morning after his burial."</p> + +<p>"Tears are not shed or public acknowledgment made for the subject of a +half-crazy man's love for scientific investigation. It was no human +being whom you saw buried, madam, but a victim of Mr. Knollys' passion +for vivisection."</p> + +<p>"You are playing with me," was my indignant answer; "outrageously and +inexcusably playing with me. Only a human being would be laid away in +such secrecy and with such manifestations of feeling as I was witness +to. You must think me in my dotage, or else——"</p> + +<p>"We will take the rest of the sentence for granted," he dryly +interpolated. "You know that I can have no wish to insult your +intelligence, Miss Butterworth, and that if I advance a theory on my own +account I must have ample reasons for it. Now can you say the same for +yours? Can you adduce irrefutable proof that the body we buried last +night was that of a man? If you can, there is no more to be said, or, +rather, there is everything to be said, for this would give to the +transaction a very dreadful and tragic significance which at present I +am not disposed to ascribe to it."</p> + +<p>Taken aback by his persistence, but determined not to acknowledge defeat +until forced to it, I stolidly replied: "You have made an assertion, and +it is for you to adduce proof. It will be time enough for me to talk +when your own theory is proved untenable."</p> + +<p>He was not angry: fellow-feeling for my disappointment made him +unusually gentle. His voice was therefore very kind when he said:</p> + +<p>"Madam, if you know it to have been a man, say so. I do not wish to +waste my time."</p> + +<p>"I do not know it."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then, I will tell you why I think my supposition true. Mr. +Knollys, as you probably have already discovered, is a man with a secret +passion for vivisection."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have discovered that."</p> + +<p>"It is known to his family, and it is known to a very few others, but it +is not known to the world at large, not even to his fellow-villagers.'</p> + +<p>"I can believe it," said I.</p> + +<p>"His sisters, who are gentle girls, regard the matter as the +gentle-hearted usually do. They have tried in every way to influence him +to abandon it, but unsuccessfully so far, for he is not only entirely +unamenable to persuasion, but has a nature of such brutality he could +not live without some such excitement to help away his life in this +dreary house. All they can do, then, is to conceal these cruelties from +the eyes of the people who already execrate him for his many roughnesses +and the undoubted shadow under which he lives. Time was when I thought +this shadow had a substance worth our investigation, but a further +knowledge of his real fault and a completer knowledge of his sisters' +virtues turned my inquiries in a new direction, where I have found, as I +have told you, actual reason for arresting Mother Jane. Have you +anything to say against these conclusions? Cannot you see that all your +suspicions can be explained by the brother's cruel impulses and the +sisters' horror of having those impulses known?"</p> + +<p>I thought a moment; then I cried out boldly: "No, I cannot, Mr. Gryce. +The anxiety, the fear, which I have seen depicted on these sisters' +faces for days might be explained perhaps by this theory; but the knot +of crape on the window-shutter, the open Bible in the room of +death—William's room, Mr. Gryce,—proclaim that it was a human being, +and nothing less, for whom Lucetta's sobs went up."</p> + +<p>"I do not follow you," he said, moved for the first time from his +composure. "What do you mean by a knot of crape, and when was it you +obtained entrance into William's room?"</p> + +<p>"Ah," I exclaimed in dry retort; "you are beginning to see that I have +something as interesting to report as yourself. Did you think me a +superficial egotist, without facts to back my assertions?"</p> + +<p>"I should not have done you that injustice."</p> + +<p>"I have penetrated, I think, deeper than even yourself, into William's +character. I think him capable—But do satisfy my curiosity on one +point first, Mr. Gryce. How came you to know as much as you do about +last night's proceedings? You could not have been in the house. Did +Mother Jane talk after she got back?"</p> + +<p>The tip of his cane was up, and he frowned at it. Then the handle took +its place, and he gave it a good-natured smile.</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth," said he, "I have not succeeded in making Mother Jane +at any time go beyond her numerical monologue. But you have been more +successful." And with a sudden marvellous change of expression, pose, +and manner he threw over his head my shawl, which had fallen to the +floor in my astonishment, and, rocking himself to and fro before me, +muttered grimly:</p> + +<p>"Seventy! Twenty-eight! Ten! No more! I can count no more! Go."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Gryce, it was you——"</p> + +<p>"Whom you interviewed in Mother Jane's cottage with Mr. Knollys," he +finished. "And it was <i>I</i> who helped to bury what you now declare, to my +real terror and astonishment, to have been a human being. Miss +Butterworth, what about the knot of crape? Tell me."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV</h2> + +<h3>TRIFLES, BUT NOT TRIFLING</h3> + + +<p>I was so astounded I hardly took in this final question.</p> + +<p><i>He</i> had been the sixth party in the funeral cortège I had seen pause in +the Flower Parlor. Well, what might I not expect from this man next!</p> + +<p>But I am methodical even under the greatest excitement and at the most +critical instants, as those who have read <i>That Affair Next Door</i> have +had ample opportunity to know. Once having taken in the startling fact +he mentioned, I found it impossible to proceed to establish my +standpoint till I knew a little more about his.</p> + +<p>"Wait," I said; "tell me first if I have ever seen the real Mother Jane; +or were you the person I saw stooping in the road, and of whom I bought +the pennyroyal?"</p> + +<p>"No," he replied; "that was the old woman herself. My appearance in the +cottage dates from yesterday noon. I felt the need of being secretly +near you, and I also wished for an opportunity to examine this humble +interior unsuspected and unobserved. So I prevailed upon the old woman +to exchange places with me; she taking up her abode in the woods for the +night and I her old stool on the hearthstone. She was the more willing +to do this from the promise I gave her to watch out for Lizzie. That I +would don her own Sunday suit and personate her in her own home she +evidently did not suspect. Had not wit enough, I suppose. At the present +moment she is back in her old place."</p> + +<p>I nodded my thanks for this explanation, but was not deterred from +pressing the point I was anxious to have elucidated.</p> + +<p>"If," I went on to urge, "you took advantage of your disguise to act as +assistant in the burial which took place last night, you are in a much +better situation than myself to decide the question we are at present +considering. Was it because of any secret knowledge thus gained you +declare so positively that it was not a human being you helped lower in +its grave?"</p> + +<p>"Partially. Having some skill in these disguises, especially where my +own infirmities can have full play, as in the case of this strong but +half-bent woman, I had no reason to think my own identity was suspected, +much less discovered. Therefore I could trust to what I saw and heard as +being just what Mother Jane herself would be allowed to see or hear +under the same circumstances. If, therefore, these young people and this +old crone had been, as you seem to think they are, in league for murder, +Lucetta would hardly have greeted me as she did when she came down to +meet me in the kitchen."</p> + +<p>"And how was that? What did she say?"</p> + +<p>"She said: 'Ah, Mother Jane, we have a piece of work for you. You are +strong, are you not?'"</p> + +<p>"Humph!"</p> + +<p>"And then she commiserated me a bit and gave me food which, upon my +word, I found hard to eat, though I had saved my appetite for the +occasion. Before she left me she bade me sit in the inglenook till she +wanted me, adding in Hannah's ear as she passed her: 'There is no use +trying to explain anything to her. Show her when the time comes what +there is to do and trust to her short memory to forget it before she +leaves the house. She could not understand my brother's propensity or +our shame in pandering to it. So attempt nothing, Hannah. Only keep the +money in her view.'"</p> + +<p>"So, and that gave you no idea?"</p> + +<p>"It gave me the idea I have imparted to you, or, rather, added to the +idea which had been instilled in me by others."</p> + +<p>"And this idea was not affected by what you saw afterwards?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least—rather strengthened. Of the few words I overheard, +one was uttered in reference to yourself by Miss Knollys. She said: 'I +have locked Miss Butterworth again into her room. If she accuses me of +having done so, I shall tell her our whole story. Better she should know +the family's disgrace than imagine us guilty of crimes of which we are +utterly incapable.'"</p> + +<p>"So! so!" I cried, "you heard that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, madam, I heard that, and I do not think she knew she was dropping +that word into the ear of a detective, but on this point you are, of +course, at liberty to differ with me."</p> + +<p>"I am not yet ready to avail myself of the privilege," I retorted. "What +else did these girls let fall in your hearing?"</p> + +<p>"Not much. It was Hannah who led me into the upper hall, and Hannah who +by signs and signals rather than words showed me what was expected of +me. However, when, after the box was lowered into the cellar, Hannah was +drawing me away, Lucetta stepped up and whispered in her ear: 'Don't +give her the biggest coin. Give her the little one, or she may mistake +our reasons for secrecy. I wouldn't like even a fool to do that even for +the moment it would remain lodged in Mother Jane's mind.'"</p> + +<p>"Well, well," I again cried, certainly puzzled, for these stray +expressions of the sisters were in a measure contradictory not only of +the suspicions I entertained, but of the facts which had seemingly come +to my attention.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gryce, who was probably watching my face more closely than he did +the cane with whose movements he was apparently engrossed, stopped to +give a caressing rub to the knob of that same cane before remarking:</p> + +<p>"One such peep behind the scenes is worth any amount of surmise expended +on the wrong side of the curtain. I let you share my knowledge because +it is your due. Now if you feel willing to explain what you mean by a +knot of crape on the shutter, I am at your service, madam."</p> + +<p>I felt that it would be cruel to delay my story longer, and so I began +it. It was evidently more interesting than he expected, and as I dilated +upon the special features which had led me to believe that it was a +thinking, suffering mortal like ourselves who had been shut up in +William's room and afterwards buried in the cellar under the Flower +Parlor, I saw his face lengthen and doubt take the place of the quiet +assurance with which he had received my various intimations up to this +time. The cane was laid aside, and from the action of his right +forefinger on the palm of his left hand I judged that I was making no +small impression on his mind. When I had finished, he sat for a minute +silent; then he said:</p> + +<p>"Thanks, Miss Butterworth; you have more than fulfilled my hopes. What +we buried was undoubtedly human, and the question now is, Who was it, +and of what death did he die?" Then, after a meaning pause: "<i>You</i> think +it was Silly Rufus."</p> + +<p>I will astonish you with my reply. "No," said I, "I do not. That is +where you make a mistake, Mr. Gryce."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI</h2> + +<h3>A POINT GAINED</h3> + + +<p>He was surprised, for all his attempts to conceal it.</p> + +<p>"No?" said he. "Who, then? You are becoming interesting, Miss +Butterworth."</p> + +<p>This I thought I could afford to ignore.</p> + +<p>"Yesterday," I proceeded, "I would have declared it to be Silly Rufus, +in the face of God and man, but after what I saw in William's room +during the hurried survey I gave it, I am inclined to doubt if the +explanation we have to give to this affair is so simple as that would +make it. Mr. Gryce, in one corner of that room, from which the victim +had so lately been carried, was a pair of shoes that could never have +been worn by any boy-tramp I have ever seen or known of."</p> + +<p>"They were Loreen's, or possibly Lucetta's."</p> + +<p>"No, Loreen and Lucetta both have trim feet, but these were the shoes of +a child of ten, very dainty at that, and of a cut and make worn by +women, or rather, I should say, by girls. Now, what do you make of +that?"</p> + +<p>He did not seem to know what to make of it. Tap, tap went his finger on +his seasoned palm, and as I watched the slowness with which it fell, I +said to myself, "I have proposed a problem this time that will tax even +Mr. Gryce's powers of deduction."</p> + +<p>And I had. It was minutes before he ventured an opinion, and then it was +with a shade of doubt in his tone that I acknowledge to have felt some +pride in producing.</p> + +<p>"They were Lucetta's shoes. The emotions under which you labored—very +pardonable emotions, madam, considering the circumstances and the +hour——"</p> + +<p>"Excuse me," said I. "We do not want to waste a moment. I was excited, +suitably and duly excited, or I would have been a stone. But I never +lose my head under excitement, nor do I part with my sense of +proportion. The shoes were not Lucetta's. She never wore any approaching +them in smallness since her tenth year."</p> + +<p>"Has Simsbury a daughter? Has there not been a child about the house +some time to assist the cook in errands and so on?"</p> + +<p>"No, or I should have seen her. Besides, how would the shoes of such a +person come into William's room?"</p> + +<p>"Easily. Secrecy was required. You were not to be disturbed; so shoes +were taken off that quiet might result."</p> + +<p>"Was Lucetta shoeless or William or even Mother Jane? You have not told +me that you were requested to walk in stocking feet up the hall. No, Mr. +Gryce, the shoes were the shoes of a girl. I know it because it was +matched by a dress I saw hanging up in a sort of wardrobe."</p> + +<p>"Ah! You looked into the wardrobe?"</p> + +<p>"I did and felt justified in doing so. It was after I had spied the +shoes."</p> + +<p>"Very good. And you saw a dress?"</p> + +<p>"A little dress; a dress with a short skirt. It was of silk too; another +anomaly—and the color, I think, was blue, but I cannot swear to that +point. I was in great haste and took the briefest glance. But my brief +glances can be trusted, Mr. Gryce. That, I think, you are beginning to +know."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said he, "and as proof of it we will now act upon these two +premises—that the victim in whose burial I was an innocent partaker was +a human being and that this human being was a girl-child who came into +the house well dressed. Now where does that lead us? Into a maze, I +fear."</p> + +<p>"We are accustomed to mazes," I observed.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he answered somewhat gloomily, "but they are not exactly +desirable in this case. I want to find the Knollys family innocent."</p> + +<p>"And I. But William's character, I fear, will make that impossible."</p> + +<p>"But this girl? Who is she, and where did she come from? No girl has +been reported to us as missing from this neighborhood."</p> + +<p>"I supposed not."</p> + +<p>"A visitor—But no visitor could enter this house without it being known +far and wide. Why, I heard of your arrival here before I left the train +on which I followed you. Had we allowed ourselves to be influenced by +what the people about here say, we would have turned the Knollys house +inside out a week ago. But I don't believe in putting too much +confidence in the prejudice of country people. The idea they suggested, +and which you suggest without putting it too clearly into words, is much +too horrible to be acted upon without the best of reasons. Perhaps we +have found those reasons, yet I still feel like asking, Where did this +girl come from and how could she have become a prisoner in the Knollys +house without the knowledge of—Madam, have you met Mr. Trohm?"</p> + +<p>The question was so sudden I had not time to collect myself. But perhaps +it was not necessary that I should, for the simple affirmation I used +seemed to satisfy Mr. Gryce, who went on to say:</p> + +<p>"It is he who first summoned us here, and it is he who has the greatest +interest in locating the source of these disappearances, yet he has seen +no child come here."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Trohm is not a spy," said I, but the remark, happily, fell +unheeded.</p> + +<p>"No one has," he pursued. "We must give another turn to our +suppositions."</p> + +<p>Suddenly a silence fell upon us both. His finger ceased to lay down the +law, and my gaze, which had been searching his face inquiringly, became +fixed. At the same moment and in much the same tone of voice we both +spoke, he saying, "Humph!" and I, "Ah!" as a prelude to the simultaneous +exclamation:</p> + +<p>"The phantom coach!"</p> + +<p>We were so pleased with this discovery that we allowed a moment to pass +in silent contemplation of each other's satisfaction. Then he quietly +added:</p> + +<p>"Which on the evening preceding your arrival came from the mountains and +passed into Lost Man's Lane, from which no one ever saw it emerge."</p> + +<p>"It was no phantom," I put in.</p> + +<p>"It was their own old coach bringing to the house a fresh victim."</p> + +<p>This sounded so startling we both sat still for a moment, lost in the +horror of it, then I spoke:</p> + +<p>"People living in remote and isolated quarters like this are naturally +superstitious. The Knollys family know this, and, remembering the old +legend, forbore to contradict the conclusions of their neighbors. +Loreen's emotion when the topic was broached to her is explained by this +theory."</p> + +<p>"It is not a pleasant one, but we cannot be wrong in contemplating it."</p> + +<p>"Not at all. This apparition, as they call it, was seen by two persons; +therefore it was no apparition but a real coach. It came from the +mountains, that is, from the Mountain Station, and it glided—ah!"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Gryce, it was its noiselessness that gave it its spectral +appearance. Now I remember a petty circumstance which I dare you to +match, in corroboration of our suspicions."</p> + +<p>"You do?"</p> + +<p>I could not repress a slight toss of my head. "Yes, I do," I repeated.</p> + +<p>He smiled and made the slightest of deprecatory gestures.</p> + +<p>"You have had advantages——" he began.</p> + +<p>"And disadvantages," I finished, determined that he should award me my +full meed of praise. "You are probably not afraid of dogs. I am. You +could visit the stables."</p> + +<p>"And did; but I found nothing there."</p> + +<p>"I thought not!" I could not help the exclamation. It is so seldom one +can really triumph over this man. "Not having the cue, you would not be +apt to see what gives this whole thing away. I would never have thought +of it again if we had not had this talk. Is Mr. Simsbury a neat man?"</p> + +<p>"A neat man? Madam, what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Something important, Mr. Gryce. If Mr. Simsbury is a neat man, he will +have thrown away the old rags which, I dare promise you, cumbered his +stable floor the morning after the phantom coach was seen to enter the +lane. If he is not, you may still find them there. One of them, I know, +you will not find. He pulled it off of his wheel with his whip the +afternoon he drove me down from the station. I can see the sly look he +gave me as he did it. It made no impression on me then, but now——"</p> + +<p>"Madam, you have supplied the one link necessary to the establishment of +this theory. Allow me to felicitate you upon it. But whatever our +satisfaction may be from a professional standpoint, we cannot but feel +the unhappy nature of the responsibility incurred by these discoveries. +If this seemingly respectable family stooped to such subterfuge, going +to the length of winding rags around the wheels of their lumbering old +coach to make it noiseless, and even tying up their horse's feet for +this same purpose, they must have had a motive dark enough to warrant +your worst suspicions. And William was not the only one involved. +Simsbury, at least, had a hand in it, nor does it look as if the girls +were as innocent as we would like to consider them."</p> + +<p>"I cannot stop to consider the girls," I declared. "I can no longer +consider the girls."</p> + +<p>"Nor I," he gloomily assented. "Our duty requires us to sift this +matter, and it shall be sifted. We must first find if any child alighted +from the cars at the Mountain Station on that especial night, or, what +is more probable, from the little station at C., five miles farther back +in the mountains."</p> + +<p>"And—" I urged, seeing that he had still something to say.</p> + +<p>"We must make sure who lies buried under the floor of the room you call +the Flower Parlor. You may expect me at the Knollys house some time +to-day. I shall come quietly, but in my own proper person. You are not +to know me, and, unless you desire it, need not appear in the matter."</p> + +<p>"I do not desire it."</p> + +<p>"Then good-morning, Miss Butterworth. My respect for your abilities has +risen even higher than before. We part in a similar frame of mind for +once."</p> + +<p>And this he expected me to regard as a compliment.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a>XXVII</h2> + +<h3>THE TEXT WITNESSETH</h3> + + +<p>I have a grim will when I choose to exert it. After Mr. Gryce left the +hotel, I took a cup of tea with the landlady and then made a round of +the stores. I bought dimity, sewing silk, and what not, as I said I +would, but this did not occupy me long (to the regret probably of the +country merchants, who expected to make a fool of me and found it a by +no means easy task), and was quite ready for William when he finally +drove up.</p> + +<p>The ride home was a more or less silent one. I had conceived such a +horror of the man beside me, that talking for talk's sake was +impossible, while he was in a mood which it would be charity to call +non-communicative. It may be that my own reticence was at the bottom of +this, but I rather think not. The remark he made in passing Deacon +Spear's house showed that something more than spite was working in his +slow but vindictive brain.</p> + +<p>"There's a man of your own sort," he cried. "You won't find him doing +anything out of the way; oh, no. Pity your visit wasn't paid there. +You'd have got a better impression of the lane."</p> + +<p>To this I made no reply.</p> + +<p>At Mr. Trohm's he spoke again:</p> + +<p>"I suppose that you and Trohm had the devil of a say about Lucetta and +the rest of us. I don't know why, but the whole neighborhood seems to +feel they've a right to use our name as they choose. But it isn't going +to be so, long. We have played poor and pinched and starved all I'm +going to. I'm going to have a new horse, and Lucetta shall have a dress, +and that mighty quick too. I'm tired of all this shabbiness, and mean to +have a change."</p> + +<p>I wanted to say, "No change yet; change under the present circumstances +would be the worst thing possible for you all," but I felt that this +would be treason to Mr. Gryce, and refrained, saying simply, as he +looked sideways at me for a word:</p> + +<p>"Lucetta needs a new dress. That no one can deny. But you had better let +me get it for her, or perhaps that is what you mean."</p> + +<p>The grunt which was my only answer might be interpreted in any way. I +took it, however, for assent.</p> + +<p>As soon as I was relieved of his presence and found myself again with +the girls, I altered my whole manner and cried out in querulous tones:</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Carter and I have had a difference." (This was true. We did have a +difference over our cup of tea. I did not think it necessary to say this +difference was a forced one. Some things we are perfectly justified in +keeping to ourselves.) "She remembers a certain verse in the New +Testament one way and I in another. We had not time to settle it by a +consultation with the sacred word, but I cannot rest till it is settled, +so will you bring your Bible to me, my dear, that I may look that verse +up?"</p> + +<p>We were in the upper hall, where I had taken a seat on the old-fashioned +sofa there. Lucetta, who was standing before me, started immediately to +do my bidding, without stopping to think, poor child, that it was very +strange I did not go to my own room and consult my own Bible as any good +Presbyterian would be expected to do. As she was turning toward the +large front room I stopped her with the quiet injunction:</p> + +<p>"Get me one with good print, Lucetta. My eyes won't bear much +straining."</p> + +<p>At which she turned and to my great relief hurried down the corridor +toward William's room, from which she presently returned, bringing the +very volume I was anxious to consult.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile I had laid aside my hat. I felt flurried and unhappy, and +showed it. Lucetta's pitiful face had a strange sweetness in it this +morning, and I felt sure as I took the sacred book from her hand that +her thoughts were all with the lover she had sent from her side and not +at all with me or with what at the moment occupied me. Yet my thoughts +at this moment involved, without doubt, the very deepest interests of +her life, if not that very lover she was brooding over in her darkened +and resigned mind. As I realized this I heaved an involuntary sigh, +which seemed to startle her, for she turned and gave me a quick look as +she was slipping away to join her sister, who was busy at the other end +of the hall.</p> + +<p>The Bible I held was an old one, of medium size and most excellent +print. I had no difficulty in finding the text and settling the question +which had been my ostensible reason for wanting the book, but it took me +longer to discover the indentation which I had made in one of its pages; +but when I did, you may imagine my awe and the turmoil into which my +mind was cast, when I found that it marked those great verses in +Corinthians which are so universally read at funerals:</p> + +<p>"Behold I shew you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all +be changed."</p> + +<p>"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye——"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII"></a>XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>AN INTRUSION</h3> + + +<p>I was so moved by this discovery that I was not myself for several +moments.</p> + +<p>The reading of these words over the body which had been laid away under +the Flower Parlor was in keeping with the knot of crape on the +window-shutter and argued something more than remorse on the part of +some one of the Knollys family. Who was this one, and why, with such +feelings in the breast of any of the three, had the deceit and crime to +which I had been witness succeeded to such a point as to demand the +attention of the police? An impossible problem of which I dared seek no +solution, even in the faces of these seemingly innocent girls.</p> + +<p>I was, of course, in no position to determine what plan Mr. Gryce +intended to pursue. I only knew what course I myself meant to follow, +which was to remain quiet and sustain the part I had already played in +this house as visitor and friend. It was therefore as such both in heart +and manner that I hastened from my room late in the afternoon to inquire +the meaning of the cry I had just heard issue from Lucetta's lips. It +had come from the front of the house, and, as I hastened thither, I met +the two Misses Knollys, looking more openly anxious and distraught than +at any former time of anxiety and trouble.</p> + +<p>As they looked up and saw my face, Loreen paused and laid her hand on +Lucetta's arm. But Lucetta was not to be restrained.</p> + +<p>"He has dared to enter our gates, bringing a police officer with him," +was her hoarse and almost unintelligible cry. "We know that the man with +him is a police officer because he was here once before, and though he +was kind enough then, he cannot have come the second time except to——"</p> + +<p>Here the pressure of Loreen's hand was so strong as to make the feeble +Lucetta quiver. She stopped, and Miss Knollys took up her words:</p> + +<p>"Except to make us talk on subjects much better buried in oblivion. Miss +Butterworth, will you go down with us? Your presence may act as a +restraint. Mr. Trohm seems to have some respect for you."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Trohm?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It is his coming which has so agitated Lucetta. He and a man named +Gryce are just coming up the walk. There goes the knocker. Lucetta, you +must control yourself or leave me to face these unwelcome visitors +alone."</p> + +<p>Lucetta, with a sudden fierce effort, subdued her trembling.</p> + +<p>"If he must be met," said she, "my anger and disdain may give some +weight to your quiet acceptance of the family's disgrace. I shall not +accept his denunciations quietly, Loreen. You must expect me to show +some of the feelings that I have held in check all these years." And +without waiting for reply, without waiting even to see what effect these +strange words might have upon me, she dashed down the stairs and pulled +open the front door.</p> + +<p>We had followed rapidly, too rapidly for speech ourselves, and were +therefore in the hall when the door swung back, revealing the two +persons I had been led to expect. Mr. Trohm spoke first, evidently in +answer to the defiance to be seen in Lucetta's face.</p> + +<p>"Miss Knollys, a thousand pardons. I know I am transgressing, but, I +assure you, the occasion warrants it. I am certain you will acknowledge +this when you hear what my errand is."</p> + +<p>"Your errand? What can your errand be but to——"</p> + +<p>Why did she pause? Mr. Gryce had not looked at her. Yet that it was +under his influence she ceased to commit herself I am as convinced as we +can be of anything in a world which is half deceit.</p> + +<p>"Let us hear your errand," put in Loreen, with that gentle emphasis +which is no sign of weakness.</p> + +<p>"I will let this gentleman speak for me," returned Mr. Trohm. "You have +seen him before—a New York detective of whose business in this town you +cannot be ignorant."</p> + +<p>Lucetta turned a cold eye upon Mr. Gryce and quietly remarked:</p> + +<p>"When he visited this lane a few days ago, he professed to be seeking a +clue to the many disappearances which have unfortunately taken place +within its precincts."</p> + +<p>Mr. Trohm's nod was one of acquiescence. But Lucetta was still looking +at the detective.</p> + +<p>"Is that your business now?" she asked, appealing directly to Mr. Gryce.</p> + +<p>His fatherly accents when he answered her were a great relief after the +alternate iciness and fire with which she had addressed his companion +and himself.</p> + +<p>"I hardly know how to reply without arousing your just anger. If your +brother is in——"</p> + +<p>"My brother would face you with less patience than we. Tell us your +errand, Mr. Gryce, and do not think of calling in my brother till we +have failed to answer your questions or satisfy your demands."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said he. "The quickest explanation is the kindest in these +cases. I merely wish, as a police officer whose business it is to locate +the disappearances which have made this lane notorious, and who believes +the surest way to do this is to find out once and for all where they did +not and could not have taken place, to make an official search of these +premises as I already have those of Mother Jane and of Deacon Spear."</p> + +<p>"And my errand here," interposed Mr. Trohm, "is to make everything easier +by the assurance that my house will be the next to undergo a complete +investigation. As all the houses in the lane will be visited alike, none +of us need complain or feel our good name attacked."</p> + +<p>This was certainly thoughtful of him, but knowing how much they had to +fear, I could not expect Loreen or Lucetta to show any great sense +either of his kindness or Mr. Gryce's consideration. They were in no +position to have a search made of their premises, and, serene as was +Loreen's nature and powerful as was Lucetta's will, the apprehension +under which they labored was evident to us all, though neither of them +attempted either subterfuge or evasion.</p> + +<p>"If the police wish to search this house, it is open to them," said +Loreen.</p> + +<p>"But not to Mr. Trohm," quoth Lucetta, quickly. "Our poverty should be +our protection from the curiosity of neighbors."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Trohm has no wish to intrude," was Mr. Gryce's conciliatory remark; +but Mr. Trohm said nothing. He probably understood why Lucetta wished to +curtail his stay in this house better than Mr. Gryce did.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></a>XXIX</h2> + +<h3>IN THE CELLAR</h3> + + +<p>I had meanwhile stood silent. There was no reason for me to obtrude +myself, and I was happy not to do so. This does not mean, however, that +my presence was not noticed. Mr. Trohm honored me with more than one +glance during these trying moments, in which I read the anxiety he felt +lest my peace of mind should be too much disturbed, and when, in +response to the undoubted dismissal he had received from Lucetta, he +prepared to take his leave, it was upon me he bestowed his final look +and most deferential bow. It was a tribute to my position and character +which all seemed to feel, and I was not at all surprised when Lucetta, +after carefully watching his departure, turned to me with childlike +impetuosity, saying:</p> + +<p>"This must be very unpleasant for you, Miss Butterworth, yet must we ask +you to stand our friend. God knows we need one."</p> + +<p>"I shall never forget I occupied that position toward your mother," was +my straightforward reply, and I did not forget it, not for a moment.</p> + +<p>"I shall begin with the cellar," Mr. Gryce announced.</p> + +<p>Both girls quivered. Then Loreen lifted her proud head and said quietly:</p> + +<p>"The whole house is at your disposal. Only I pray you to be as +expeditious as possible. My sister is not well, and the sooner our +humiliation is over, the better it will be for her."</p> + +<p>And, indeed, Lucetta was in a state that aroused even Mr. Gryce's +anxiety. But when she saw us all hovering over her she roused herself +with an extraordinary effort, and, waving us aside, led the way to the +kitchen, from which, as I gathered, the only direct access could be had +to the cellar. Mr. Gryce immediately followed, and behind him came +Loreen and myself, both too much agitated to speak. At the Flower Parlor +Mr. Gryce paused as if he had forgotten something, but Lucetta urged him +feverishly on, and before long we were all standing in the kitchen. Here +a surprise awaited us. Two men were sitting there who appeared to be +strangers to Hannah, from the lowering looks she cast them as she +pretended to be busy over her stove. This was so out of keeping with her +usual good humor as to attract the attention even of her young mistress.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, Hannah?" asked Lucetta. "And who are these men?"</p> + +<p>"They are my men," said Mr. Gryce. "The job I have undertaken cannot be +carried on alone."</p> + +<p>The quick look the two sisters interchanged did not escape me, or the +quiet air of resignation which was settling slowly over Loreen.</p> + +<p>"Must they go into the cellar too?" she asked.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gryce smiled his most fatherly smile as he said:</p> + +<p>"My dear young ladies, these men are interested in but one thing; they +are searching for a clue to the disappearances that have occurred in +this lane. As they will not find this in your cellar, nothing else that +they may see there will remain in their minds for a moment."</p> + +<p>Lucetta said no more. Even her indomitable spirit was giving way before +the inevitable discovery that threatened them.</p> + +<p>"Do not let William know," were the low words with which she passed +Hannah; but from the short glimpse I caught of William's burly figure +standing in the stable door, under the guardianship of two detectives, I +felt this injunction to be quite superfluous. William evidently did +know.</p> + +<p>I was not going to descend the cellar stairs, but the girls made me.</p> + +<p>"We want you with us," Loreen declared in no ordinary tones, while +Lucetta paused and would not go on till I followed. This surprised me. I +no longer seemed to have any clue to their motives; but I was glad to be +one of the party.</p> + +<p>Hannah, under Loreen's orders, had furnished one of the men with a +lighted lantern, and upon our descent into the dark labyrinth below, it +became his duty to lead the way, which he did with due circumspection. +What all this underground space into which we were thus introduced had +ever been used for, it would be difficult to tell. At present it was +mostly empty. After passing a small collection of stores, a wine-cellar, +the very door of which was unhinged and lay across the cellar bottom, we +struck into a hollow void, in which there was nothing worth an instant's +investigation save the earth under our feet.</p> + +<p>This the two foremost detectives examined very carefully, detaining us +often longer, I thought, than Mr. Gryce desired or Lucetta had patience +for. But nothing was said in protest nor did the older detective give an +order or manifest any special interest in the investigation till he saw +the men in front stoop and throw out of the way a coil of rope, when he +immediately hurried forward and called upon the party to stop.</p> + +<p>The girls, who were on either side of me, crossed glances at this +command, and Lucetta, who had been tottering for the last few minutes, +fell upon her knees and hid her face in the hollow of her two hands. +Loreen came around and stood by her, and I do not know which of them +presented the most striking picture of despair, the shrinking Lucetta or +Loreen with her quivering form uplifted to meet the shafts of fate +without a droop of her eyelids or a murmur from her lips. The light of +the one lantern which, intentionally or unintentionally, was +concentrated on this pathetic group, made it stand out from the midst of +the surrounding darkness in a way to draw the gaze of Mr. Gryce upon +them. He looked, and his own brow became overcast. Evidently we were not +far from the cause of their fears.</p> + +<p>Ordering the candle lifted, he surveyed the ceiling above, at which +Loreen's lips opened slightly in secret dread and amazement. Then he +commanded the men to move on slowly, while he himself looked overhead +rather than underneath, which seemed to astonish his associates, who +evidently had heard nothing of the hole which had been cut in the floor +of the Flower Parlor.</p> + +<p>Suddenly I heard a slight gasp from Lucetta, who had not moved forward +with the rest of us. Then her rushing figure flew by us and took up its +stand by Mr. Gryce, who had himself paused and was pointing with an +imperious forefinger to the ground under his feet.</p> + +<p>"You will dig here," said he, not heeding her, though I am sure he was +as well acquainted with her proximity as we.</p> + +<p>"Dig?" repeated Loreen, in what we all saw was a final effort to stave +off disgrace and misery.</p> + +<p>"My duty demands it," said he. "Some one else has been digging here +within a very few days, Miss Knollys. That is as evident as is the fact +that a communication has been made with this place through an opening +into the room above. See!" And taking the lantern from the man at his +side, he held it up toward the ceiling.</p> + +<p>There was no hole there now, but there were ample evidences of there +having been one, and that within a very short time. Loreen made no +further attempt to stay him.</p> + +<p>"The house is at your disposal," she reiterated, but I do not think she +knew what she said. The man with the bundle in his arms was already +unrolling it on the cellar bottom. A spade came to light, together with +some other tools. Lifting the spade, he thrust it smartly into the +ground toward which Mr. Gryce's inexorable finger still pointed. At the +sight and the sound it made, a thrill passed through Lucetta which made +her another creature. Dashing forward, she flung herself down upon the +spot with lifted head and outstretched arms.</p> + +<p>"Stop your desecrating hand!" she cried. "This is a grave—the grave, +sirs, of our mother!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXX" id="XXX"></a>XXX</h2> + +<h3>INVESTIGATION</h3> + + +<p>The shock of these words—if false, most horrible; if true, still more +horrible—threw us all aback and made even Mr. Gryce's features assume +an aspect quite uncommon to them.</p> + +<p>"Your mother's grave?" said he, looking from her to Loreen with very +evident doubt. "I thought your mother died seven or more years ago, and +this grave has been dug within three days."</p> + +<p>"I know," she whispered. "To the world my mother has been dead many, +many years, but not to us. We closed her eyes night before last, and it +was to preserve this secret, which involves others affecting our family +honor, that we resorted to expedients which have perhaps attracted the +notice of the police and drawn this humiliation down upon us. I can +conceive no other reason for this visit, ushered in as it was by Mr. +Trohm."</p> + +<p>"Miss Lucetta"—Mr. Gryce spoke quickly; if he had not I certainly could +not have restrained some expression of the emotions awakened in my own +breast by this astounding revelation—"Miss Lucetta, it is not necessary +to bring Mr. Trohm's name into this matter or that of any other person +than myself. I saw the coffin lowered here, which you say contained the +body of your mother. Thinking this a strange place of burial and not +knowing it was your mother to whom you were paying these last dutiful +rites, I took advantage of my position as detective to satisfy myself +that nothing wrong lay behind so mysterious a death and burial. Can you +blame me, Miss? Would I have been a man to trust if I had let such an +event as this go by unchallenged?"</p> + +<p>She did not answer. She had heard but one sentence of all this long +speech.</p> + +<p>"You saw my mother's coffin lowered? Where were you that you should see +that? In some of these dark passages, let in by I know not what traitor +to our peace of mind." And her eyes, which seemed to have grown almost +supernaturally large and bright under her emotions, turned slowly in +their sockets till they rested with something like doubtful accusation +upon mine. But not to remain there, for Mr. Gryce recalled them almost +instantly by this short, sharp negative.</p> + +<p>"No, I was nearer than that. I lent my strength to this burial. If you +had thought to look under Mother Jane's hood, you would have seen what +would have forced these explanations then and there."</p> + +<p>"And you——"</p> + +<p>"I was Mother Jane for the nonce. Not from choice, Miss, but from +necessity. I was impersonating the old woman when your brother came to +the cottage. I could not give away my plans by refusing the task your +brother offered me."</p> + +<p>"It is well." Lucetta had risen and was now standing by the side of +Loreen. "Such a secret as ours defies concealment. Even Providence takes +part against us. What you want to know we must tell, but I assure you it +has nothing to do with the business you profess to be chiefly interested +in—nothing at all."</p> + +<p>"Then perhaps you and your sister will retire," said he. "Distracted as +you are by family griefs, I would not wish to add one iota to your +distress. This lady, whom you seem to regard with more or less favor as +friend or relative, will stay to see that no dishonor is paid to your +mother's remains. But your mother's face we must see, Miss Lucetta, if +only to lighten the explanations you will doubtless feel called upon to +make."</p> + +<p>It was Loreen who answered this.</p> + +<p>"If it must be," said she, "remember your own mother and deal reverently +with ours." Which entreaty and the way it was uttered, gave me my first +distinct conviction that these girls were speaking the truth, and that +the diminutive body we had come to unearth was that of Althea Knollys, +whose fairy-like form I had so long supposed commingled with foreign +soil.</p> + +<p>The thought was almost too much for my self-possession, and I advanced +upon Loreen with a dozen burning questions on my lips when the voice of +Mr. Gryce stopped me.</p> + +<p>"Explanations later," said he. "For the present we want you here."</p> + +<p>It was no easy task for me to linger there with all my doubts unsolved, +waiting for the decisive moment when Mr. Gryce should say: "Come! Look! +Is it she?" But the will that had already sustained me through so many +trying experiences did not fail me now, and, grievous as was the ordeal, +I passed steadily through it, being able to say, though not without some +emotion, I own: "It is Althea Knollys! Changed almost beyond conception, +but still these girls' mother!" which was a happier end to this +adventure than that we had first feared, mysterious as the event was, +not only to myself, but, as I could see, to the acute detective as well.</p> + +<p>The girls had withdrawn long before this, just as Mr. Gryce had desired, +and I now expected to be allowed to join them, but Mr. Gryce detained me +till the grave was refilled and made decent again, when he turned and to +my intense astonishment—for I had thought the matter was all over and +the exoneration of this household complete—said softly and with telling +emphasis in my ear:</p> + +<p>"Our work is not done yet. They who make graves so readily in cellars +must have been more or less accustomed to the work. We have still some +digging to do."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI"></a>XXXI</h2> + +<h3>STRATEGY</h3> + + +<p>I was overwhelmed.</p> + +<p>"What," said I, "you still doubt?"</p> + +<p>"I always doubt," he gravely replied. "This cellar bottom offers a wide +field for speculation. Too wide, perhaps, but, then, I have a plan."</p> + +<p>Here he leaned over and whispered a few concise sentences into my ear in +a tone so low I should feel that I was betraying his confidence in +repeating them. But their import will soon become apparent from what +presently occurred.</p> + +<p>"Light Miss Butterworth to the stairway," Mr. Gryce now commanded one of +the men, and thus accompanied I found my way back to the kitchen, where +Hannah was bemoaning uncomforted the shame which had come upon the +house.</p> + +<p>I did not stop to soothe her. That was not my cue, nor would it have +answered my purpose. On the contrary, I broke into angry ejaculations as +I passed her:</p> + +<p>"What a shame! Those wretches cannot be got away from the cellar. What +do you suppose they expect to find there? I left them poking hither and +thither in a way that will be very irritating to Miss Knollys when she +finds it out. I wonder William stands it."</p> + +<p>What she said in reply I do not know. I was half way down the hall +before my own words were finished.</p> + +<p>My next move was to go to my room and take from my trunk a tiny hammer +and some very small, sharp-pointed tacks. Curious articles, you will +think, for a woman to carry on her travels, but I am a woman of +experience, and have known only too often what it was to want these +petty conveniences and not be able to get them. They were to serve me an +odd turn now. Taking a half-dozen tacks in one hand and concealing the +hammer in my bag, I started boldly for William's room. I knew that the +girls were not there, for I had heard them talking together in the +sitting-room as I came up. Besides, if they were, I had a ready answer +for any demand they might make.</p> + +<p>Searching out his boots, I turned them over, and into the sole of each I +drove one of my small tacks. Then I put them back in the same place and +position in which I found them. Task number one was accomplished.</p> + +<p>When I issued from the room, I went as quickly as I could below. I was +now ready for a talk with the girls, whom I found as I had anticipated, +talking and weeping together in the sitting-room.</p> + +<p>They rose as I came in, awaiting my first words in evident anxiety. They +had not heard me go up-stairs. I immediately allowed my anxiety and +profound interest in this matter to have full play.</p> + +<p>"My poor girls! What is the meaning of this? Your mother just dead, and +the matter kept from me, her friend! It is astounding—incomprehensible! +I do not know what to make of it or of you."</p> + +<p>"It has a strange look," Loreen gravely admitted; "but we had reasons +for this deception, Miss Butterworth. Our mother, charming and sweet as +you remember her, has not always done right, or, what you will better +understand, she committed a criminal act against a person in this town, +the penalty of which is state's prison."</p> + +<p>With difficulty the words came out. With difficulty she kept down the +flush of shame which threatened to overwhelm her and did overwhelm her +more sensitive sister. But her self-control was great, and she went +bravely on, while I, in faint imitation of her courage, restrained my +own surprise and intolerable sense of shock and bitter sorrow under a +guise of simple sympathy.</p> + +<p>"It was forgery," she explained. "This has never before passed our lips. +Though a cherished wife and a beloved mother, she longed for many things +my father could not give her, and in an evil hour she imitated the name +of a rich man here and took the check thus signed to New York. The fraud +was not detected, and she received the money, but ultimately the rich +man whose money she had spent, discovered the use she had made of his +name, and, if she had not escaped, would have had her arrested. But she +left the country, and the only revenge he took, was to swear that if she +ever set foot again in X., he would call the police down upon her. Yes, +if she were dying, and they had to drag her from the brink of the grave. +And he would have done it; and knowing this, we have lived under the +shadow of this fear for eleven years. My father died under it, and my +mother—ah, she spent all the remaining years of her life under foreign +skies, but when she felt the hand of death upon her, her affection for +her own flesh and blood triumphed over her discretion, and she came, +secretly, I own, but still with that horror menacing her, to these +doors, and begging our forgiveness, lay down under the roof where we +were born, and died with the halo of our love about her."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said I, thinking of all that had happened since I had come into +this house and finding nothing but confirmation of what she was saying, +"I begin to understand."</p> + +<p>But Lucetta shook her head.</p> + +<p>"No," said she, "you cannot understand yet. We who had worn mourning for +her because my father wished to make this very return impossible, knew +nothing of what was in store for us till a letter came saying she would +be at the C. station on the very night we received it. To acknowledge +our deception, to seek and bring her home openly to this house, could +not be thought of for a moment. How, then, could we satisfy her dying +wishes without compromising her memory and ourselves? Perhaps you have +guessed, Miss Butterworth. You have had time since we revealed the +unhappy secret of this household."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I. "I have guessed."</p> + +<p>Lucetta, with her hand laid on mine, looked wistfully into my face.</p> + +<p>"Don't blame us!" she cried. "Our mother's good name is everything to +us, and we knew no other way to preserve it than by making use of the +one superstition of this place. Alas! our efforts were in vain. The +phantom coach brought our mother safely to us, but the circumstances +which led to our doors being opened to outsiders, rendered it impossible +for us to carry out our plans unsuspected. Her grave has been discovered +and desecrated, and we——"</p> + +<p>She stopped, choked. Loreen took advantage of her silence to pursue the +explanations she seemed to think necessary.</p> + +<p>"It was Simsbury who undertook to bring our dying mother from C. station +to our door. He has a crafty spirit under his meek ways, and dressed +himself in a way to lend color to the superstition he hoped to awaken. +William, who did not dare to accompany him for fear of arousing gossip, +was at the gate when the coach drove in. It was he who lifted our mother +out, and it was while she still clung to him with her face pressed close +to his breast that we saw her first. Ah! what a pitiable sight it was! +She was so wan, so feeble, and yet so radiantly happy.</p> + +<p>"She looked up at Lucetta, and her face grew wonderful in its unearthly +beauty. She was not the mother we remembered, but a mother whose life +had culminated in the one desire to see and clasp her children again. +When she could tear her eyes away from Lucetta, she looked at me, and +then the tears came, and we all wept together, even William; and thus +weeping and murmuring words of welcome and cheer, we carried her +up-stairs and laid her in the great front chamber. Alas! we did not +foresee what would happen the very next morning—I mean the arrival of +your telegram, to be followed so soon by yourself."</p> + +<p>"Poor girls! Poor girls!" It was all I could say. I was completely +overwhelmed.</p> + +<p>"The first night after your arrival we moved her into William's room as +being more remote and thus a safer refuge for her. The next night she +died. The dream which you had of being locked in your room was no dream. +Lucetta did that in foolish precaution against your trying to search us +out in the night. It would have been better if we had taken you into our +confidence."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I assented, "that would have been better." But I did not say how +much better. That would have been giving away my secret.</p> + +<p>Lucetta had now recovered sufficiently to go on with the story.</p> + +<p>"William, who is naturally colder than we and less sensitive in regard +to our mother's good name, has shown some little impatience at the +restraint imposed upon him by her presence, and this was an extra +burden, Miss Butterworth, but that and all the others we have been +forced to bear" (the generous girl did not speak of her own special +grief and loss) "have all been rendered useless by the unhappy chance +which has brought into our midst this agent of the police. Ah, if I only +knew whether this was the providence of God rebuking us for years of +deception, or just the malice of man seeking to rob us of our one best +treasure, a mother's untarnished name!"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Gryce acts from no malice—" I began, but I saw they were not +listening.</p> + +<p>"Have they finished down below?" asked Lucetta.</p> + +<p>"Does the man you call Gryce seem satisfied?" asked Loreen.</p> + +<p>I drew myself up physically and mentally. My second task was about to +begin.</p> + +<p>"I do not understand those men," said I. "They seem to want to look +farther than the sacred spot where we left them. If they are going +through a form, they are doing it very thoroughly."</p> + +<p>"That is their duty," observed Loreen, but Lucetta took it less calmly.</p> + +<p>"It is an unhappy day for us!" cried she. "Shame after shame, disgrace +upon disgrace! I wish we had all died in our childhood. Loreen, I must +see William. He will be doing some foolish thing, swearing or——"</p> + +<p>"My dear, let me go to William," I urgently put in. "He may not like me +overmuch, but I will at least prove a restraint to him. You are too +feeble. See, you ought to be lying on the couch instead of trying to +drag yourself out to the stables."</p> + +<p>And indeed at that moment Lucetta's strength gave suddenly out, and she +sank into Loreen's arms insensible.</p> + +<p>When she was restored, I hurried away to the stables, still in pursuit +of the task which I had not yet completed. I found William sitting +doggedly on a stool in the open doorway, grunting out short sentences to +the two men who lounged in his vicinity on either side. He was angry, +but not as angry as I had seen him many times before. The men were +townsfolk and listened eagerly to his broken sentences. One or two of +these reached my ears.</p> + +<p>"Let 'em go it. It won't be now or to-day they'll settle this business. +It's the devil's work, and devils are sly. My house won't give up that +secret, or any other house they'll be likely to visit. The place I +would ransack—But Loreen would say I was babbling. Goodness knows a +fellow's got to talk about something when his fellow-townsfolk come to +see him." And here his laugh broke in, harsh, cruel, and insulting. I +felt it did him no good, and made haste to show myself.</p> + +<p>Immediately his whole appearance changed. He was so astonished to see me +there that for a moment he was absolutely silent; then he broke out +again into another loud guffaw, but this time in a different tone.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's Miss Butterworth," he laughed. "Here, Saracen! Come, pay your +respects to the lady who likes you so well."</p> + +<p>And Saracen came, but I did not forsake my ground. I had espied in one +corner just what I had hoped to see there, and Saracen's presence +afforded me the opportunity of indulging in one or two rather curious +antics.</p> + +<p>"I am not afraid of the dog," I declared, with marked loftiness, +shrinking toward the pail of water I had already marked with my eye. +"Not at all afraid," I continued, catching up the pail and putting it +before me as the dog made a wild rush in my direction. "These gentlemen +will not see me hurt." And though they all laughed—they would have been +fools if they had not—and the dog jumped the pail and I jumped—not a +pail, but a broom-handle that was lying amid all the rest of the +disorder on the floor—they did not see that I had succeeded in doing +what I wished, which was to place that pail so near to William's feet +that—But wait a moment; everything in its own time. I escaped the dog, +and next moment had my eye on him. He did not move after that, which +rather put a stop to the laughter, which observing, I drew very near to +William, and with a sly gesture to the two men, which for some reason +they seemed to understand, whispered in the rude fellow's ear:</p> + +<p>"They've found your mother's grave under the Flower Parlor. Your sisters +told me to tell you. But that is not all. They're trampling hither and +yon through all the secret places in the cellar, turning up the earth +with their spades. I know they won't find anything, but we thought you +ought to know——"</p> + +<p>Here I made a feint of being startled, and ceased. My second task was +done. The third only remained. Fortunately at that moment Mr. Gryce and +his followers showed themselves in the garden. They had just come from +the cellar and played their part in the same spirit I had mine. Though +they were too far off for their words to be heard, the air of secrecy +they maintained and the dubious looks they cast towards the stable, +could not but evince even to William's dull understanding that their +investigations had resulted in a doubt which left them far from +satisfied; but, once this impression made, they did not linger long +together. The man with the lantern moved off, and Mr. Gryce turned +towards us, changing his whole appearance as he advanced, till no one +could look more cheerful and good-humored.</p> + +<p>"Well, that is over," he sighed, with a forced air of infinite relief. +"Mere form, Mr. Knollys—mere form. We have to go through these +pretended investigations at times, and good people like yourself have to +submit; but I assure you it is not pleasant, and under the present +circumstances—I am sure you understand me, Mr. Knollys—the task has +occasioned me a feeling almost of remorse; but that is inseparable from +a detective's life. He is obliged every day of his life to ride over the +tenderest emotions. Forgive me! And now, boys, scatter till I call you +together again. I hope our next search will be without such sorrowful +accompaniments."</p> + +<p>It succeeded. William stared at him and stared at the men slowly filing +off down the yard, but was not for a moment deceived by these +overflowing expressions. On the contrary, he looked more concerned than +he had while seated between the two men manifestly set to guard him.</p> + +<p>"The deuce!" he cried, with a shrug of his shoulders that expressed +anything but satisfaction. "Lucetta always said—" But even he knew +enough not to finish that sentence, low as he had mumbled it. Watching +him and watching Mr. Gryce, who at that moment turned to follow his men, +I thought the time had come for action. Making another spring as if in +fresh terror of Saracen, who, by the way, was eying me with the meekness +of a lamb, I tipped over that pail with such suddenness and with such +dexterity that its whole contents poured in one flood over William's +feet. My third task was accomplished.</p> + +<p>The oath he uttered and the excuses which I volubly poured forth could +not have reached Mr. Gryce's ears, for he did not return. And yet from +the way his shoulders shook as he disappeared around the corner of the +house, I judge that he was not entirely ignorant of the subterfuge by +which I hoped to force this blundering booby of ours to change the boots +he wore for one of the pairs into which I had driven those little tacks.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXII" id="XXXII"></a>XXXII</h2> + +<h3>RELIEF</h3> + + +<p>The plan succeeded. Mr. Gryce's plans usually do. William went +immediately to his room, and in a little while came down and hastened +into the cellar.</p> + +<p>"I want to see what mischief they have done," said he.</p> + +<p>When he came back, his face was beaming.</p> + +<p>"All right," he shouted to his sisters, who had come into the hall to +meet him. "Your secret's out, but mine——"</p> + +<p>"There, there!" interposed Loreen, "you had better go up-stairs and +prepare for supper. We must eat, William, or rather, Miss Butterworth +must eat, whatever our sorrows or disappointments."</p> + +<p>He took the rebuke with a grunt and relieved us of his company. Little +did he think as he went whistling up the stairs that he had just shown +Mr. Gryce where to search for whatever might be lying under the broad +sweep of that cellar-bottom.</p> + +<p>That night—it was after supper, which I did not eat for all my natural +stoicism—Hannah came rushing in where we all sat silent, for the girls +showed no disposition to enlarge their confidences in regard to their +mother, and no other topic seemed possible, and, closing the door behind +her, said quickly and with evident chagrin:</p> + +<p>"Those men are here again. They say they forgot something. What do you +think it means, Miss Loreen? They have spades and lanterns and——"</p> + +<p>"They are the police, Hannah. If they forgot something, they have the +right to return. Don't work yourself up about that. The secret they have +already found out was our worst. There is nothing to fear after that." +And she dismissed Hannah, merely bidding her let us know when the house +was quite clear.</p> + +<p>Was she right? Was there nothing worse for them to fear? I longed to +leave these trembling sisters, longed to join the party below and follow +in the track of the tiny impressions made by the tacks I had driven into +William's soles. If there was anything hidden under the cellar-bottom, +natural anxiety would carry him to the spot he had most to fear; so they +would only have to dig at the places where these impressions took a +sharp turn.</p> + +<p>But was there anything hidden there? From the sisters' words and actions +I judged there was nothing serious, but would they know? William was +quite capable of deceiving them. Had he done so? It was a question.</p> + +<p>It was solved for us by Mr. Gryce's reappearance in the room an hour or +so later. From the moment the light fell upon his kindly features I knew +that I might breathe again freely. It was not the face he showed in the +house of a criminal, nor did his bow contain any of the false deference +with which he sometimes tries to hide his secret doubt or contempt.</p> + +<p>"I have come to trouble you for the last time, ladies. We have made a +double search through this house and through the stables, and feel +perfectly justified in saying that our duty henceforth will lead us +elsewhere. The secrets we have surprised are your own, and if possible +shall remain so. Your brother's propensity for vivisection and the +return and death of your mother bear so little on the real question +which interests this community that we may be able to prevent their +spread as gossip through the town. That this may be done +conscientiously, however, I ought to know something more of the latter +circumstance. If Miss Butterworth will then be good enough to grant me a +few minutes' conference with these ladies, I may be able to satisfy +myself to such an extent as to let this matter rest where it is."</p> + +<p>I rose with right good will. A mountain weight had been lifted from me, +proof positive that I had really come to love these girls.</p> + +<p>What they told him, whether it was less or more than they told me, I +cannot say, and for the moment did not know. That it had not shaken his +faith in them was evident, for when he came out to where I was waiting +in the hall his aspect was even more encouraging than it had been +before.</p> + +<p>"No guile in those girls," he whispered as he passed me. "The clue given +by what seemed mysterious in this house has come to naught. To-morrow we +take up another. The trinkets found in Mother Jane's cottage are +something real. You may sleep soundly to-night, Miss Butterworth. Your +part has been well played, but I know you are glad that it has failed."</p> + +<p>And I knew that I was glad, too, which is the best proof that there is +something in me besides the detective instinct.</p> + +<p>The front door had scarcely closed behind him when William came storming +in. He had been gossiping over the fence with Mr. Trohm, and had been +beguiled into taking a glass of wine in his house. This was evident +without his speaking of it.</p> + +<p>"Those sneaks!" cried he. "I hear they've been back again, digging and +stirring up our cellar-bottom like mad. That's because you're so +dreadful shy, you girls. You're afraid of this, you're afraid of that. +You don't want folks to know that mother once—Well, well, there it is +now! If you had not tried to keep this wretched secret, it would have +been an old matter by this time, and my affairs would have been left +untouched. But now every fool will cry out at me in this staid, +puritanical old town, and all because a few bones have been found of +animals which have died in the cause of science. I say it's all your +fault! Not that I have anything to be ashamed of, because I haven't, but +because this other thing, this d—d wicked series of disappearances, +taking place, for aught we know, a dozen rods from our gates (though I +think—but no matter what I think—you all like, or say you like, old +Deacon Spear), has made every one so touchy in this pharisaical town +that to kill a fly has become a crime even if it is to save oneself from +poison. I'm going to see if I cannot make folks blink askance at some +other man than me. I'm going to find out who or what causes these +disappearances."</p> + +<p>This was a declaration to make us all stare and look a little bit +foolish. William playing the detective! Well, what might I not live to +see next! But the next moment an overpowering thought struck me. Might +this Deacon Spear by any chance be the rich man whose animosity Althea +Knollys had awakened?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BOOK_IV" id="BOOK_IV"></a><i>BOOK IV</i></h2> + +<h3>THE BIRDS OF THE AIR</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXIII" id="XXXIII"></a>XXXIII</h2> + +<h3>LUCETTA</h3> + + +<p>The next morning I rose with the lark. I had slept well, and all my old +vigor had returned. A new problem was before me; a problem of surpassing +interest, now that the Knollys family had been eliminated from the list +of persons regarded with suspicion by the police. Mother Jane and the +jewels were to be Mr. Gryce's starting-point for future investigation. +Should they be mine? My decision on this point halted, and thinking it +might be helped by a breath of fresh air, I decided upon an early stroll +as a means of settling this momentous question.</p> + +<p>There was silence in the house when I passed through it on my way to the +front door. But that silence had lost its terrors and the old house its +absorbing mystery. Yet it was not robbed of its interest. When I +realized that Althea Knollys, the Althea of my youth, had just died +within its walls as ignorant of my proximity as I of hers, I felt that +no old-time romance, nor any terror brought by flitting ghost or +stalking apparition, could compare with the wonder of this return and +the strange and thrilling circumstances which had attended it. And the +end was not yet. Peaceful as everything now looked, I still felt that +the end had not come.</p> + +<p>The fact that Saracen was loose in the yard gave me some slight concern +as I opened the great front door and looked out. But the control under +which I had held him the day before encouraged me in my venture, and +after a few words with Hannah, who was careful not to let me slip away +unnoticed, I boldly stepped forth and took my solitary way down to the +gate.</p> + +<p>It was not yet eight, and the grass was still heavy with dew. At the +gate I paused. I wished to go farther, but Mr. Gryce's injunction had +been imperative about venturing into the lane alone. Besides—No, that +was not a horse's hoof. There could be no one on the road so early as +this. I was alarming myself unnecessarily, yet—Well, I held my place, a +little awkwardly, perhaps. Self-consciousness is always awkward, and I +could not help being a trifle self-conscious at a meeting so unexpected +and—But the more I attempt to explain, the more confused my expressions +become, so I will just say that, by this very strange chance, I was +leaning over the gate when Mr. Trohm rode up for the second time and +found me there.</p> + +<p>I did not attempt any excuses. He is gentleman enough to understand that +a woman of my temperament rises early and must have the morning air. +That he should feel the same necessity is a coincidence, natural +perhaps, but still a coincidence. So there was nothing to be said about +it.</p> + +<p>But had there been, I would not have spoken, for he seemed so gratified +at finding me enjoying nature at this early hour that any words from me +would have been quite superfluous. He did not dismount—that would have +shown intention—but he stopped, and—well, we have both passed the age +of romance, and what he said cannot be of interest to the general +public, especially as it did not deal with the disappearances or with +the discoveries made in the Knollys house the day before, or with any of +those questions which have absorbed our attention up to this time.</p> + +<p>That we were engaged more than five minutes in this conversation I +cannot believe. I have always been extremely accurate in regard to time, +yet a good half-hour was lost by me that morning for which I have never +been able to account. Perhaps it was spent in the short discussion which +terminated our interview; a discussion which may be of interest to you, +for it was upon the action of the police.</p> + +<p>"Nothing came of the investigations made by Mr. Gryce yesterday, I +perceive," Mr. Trohm had remarked, with some reluctance, as he gathered +up his reins to depart. "Well, that is not strange. How could he have +hoped to find any clue to such a mystery as he is engaged to unearth, in +a house presided over by Miss Knollys?"</p> + +<p>"How could he, indeed! Yet," I added, determined to allay this man's +suspicions, which, notwithstanding the openness of his remark, were +still observable in his tones, "you say that with an air I should hardly +expect from so good a neighbor and friend. Why is this, Mr. Trohm? +Surely you do not associate crime with the Misses Knollys?"</p> + +<p>"Crime? Oh, no, certainly not. No one could associate crime with the +Misses Knollys. If my tone was at fault, it was due perhaps to my +embarrassment—this meeting, your kindness, the beauty of the day, and +the feeling these all call forth. Well, I may be pardoned if my tones +are not quite true in discussing other topics. My thoughts were with the +one I addressed."</p> + +<p>"Then that tone of doubt was all the more misplaced," I retorted. "I am +so frank, I cannot bear innuendo in others. Besides, Mr. Trohm, the +worst folly of this home was laid bare yesterday in a way to set at rest +all darker suspicions. You knew that William indulged in vivisection. +Well, that is bad, but it cannot be called criminal. Let us do him +justice, then, and, for his sisters' sake, see how we can re-establish +him in the good graces of the community."</p> + +<p>But Mr. Trohm, who for all our short acquaintance was not without a very +decided appreciation for certain points in my character, shook his head +and with a smiling air returned:</p> + +<p>"You are asking the impossible not only of the community, but yourself. +William can never re-establish himself. He is of too rude a make. The +girls may recover the esteem they seem to have lost, but William—Why, +if the cause of those disappearances was found to-day, and found at the +remotest end of this road or even up in the mountains, where no one +seems to have looked for it, William would still be known throughout the +county as a rough and cruel man. I have tried to stand his friend, but +it's been against odds, Miss Butterworth. Even his sisters recognize +this, and show their lack of confidence in our friendship. But I would +like to oblige you."</p> + +<p>I knew he ought to go. I knew that if he had simply lingered the five +minutes which common courtesy allowed, that curious eyes would be +looking from Loreen's window, and that at any minute I might expect some +interference from Lucetta, who had read through this man's forbearance +toward William the very natural distrust he could not but feel toward so +uncertain a character. Yet with such an opportunity at my command, how +could I let him go without another question?</p> + +<p>"Mr. Trohm," said I, "you have the kindest heart and the closest lips, +but have you ever thought that Deacon Spear——"</p> + +<p>He stopped me with a really horrified look. "Deacon Spear's house was +thoroughly examined yesterday," said he, "as mine will be to-day. Don't +insinuate anything against him! Leave that for foolish William." Then +with the most charming return to his old manner, for I felt myself in a +measure rebuked, he lifted his hat and urged his horse forward. But, +having withdrawn himself a step or two, he paused and with the slightest +gesture toward the little hut he was facing, added in a much lower tone +than any he had yet used: "Besides, Deacon Spear is much too far away +from Mother Jane's cottage. Don't you remember that I told you she never +could be got to go more than forty rods from her own doorstep?" And, +breaking into a quick canter, he rode away.</p> + +<p>I was left to think over his words and the impossibility of my picking +up any other clue than that given me by Mr. Gryce.</p> + +<p>I was turning toward the house when I heard a slight noise at my feet. +Looking down, I encountered the eyes of Saracen. He was crouching at my +side, and as I turned toward him, his tail actually wagged. It was a +sight to call the color up to my cheek; not that I blushed at this sign +of good-will, astonishing as it was, considering my feeling toward dogs, +but at his being there at all without my knowing it. So palpable a proof +that no woman—I make no exceptions—can listen more than one minute to +the expressions of a man's sincere admiration without losing a little of +her watchfulness, was not to be disregarded by one as inexorable to her +own mistakes as to those of others. I saw myself the victim of vanity, +and while somewhat abashed by the discovery, I could not but realize +that this solitary proof of feminine weakness was not really to be +deplored in one who has not yet passed the line beyond which any such +display is ridiculous.</p> + +<p>Lucetta met me at the door just as I had expected her to. Giving me a +short look, she spoke eagerly but with a latent anxiety, for which I was +more or less prepared.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see you looking so bright this morning," she declared. "We +are all feeling better now that the incubus of secrecy is removed. +But"—here she hesitated—"I would not like to think you told Mr. Trohm +what happened to us yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Lucetta," said I, "there may be women of my age who delight in +gossiping about family affairs with comparative strangers, but I am not +that kind of woman. Mr. Trohm, friendly as he has proved himself and +worthy as he undoubtedly is of your confidence and trust, will have to +learn from some other person than myself anything which you may wish to +have withheld from him."</p> + +<p>For reply she gave me an impulsive kiss. "I thought I could trust you," +she cried. Then, with a dubious look, half daring, half shrinking, she +added:</p> + +<p>"When you come to know and like us better, you will not care so much to +talk to neighbors. They never can understand us or do us justice, Mr. +Trohm, especially."</p> + +<p>This was a remark I could not let pass.</p> + +<p>"Why?" I demanded. "Why do you think Mr. Trohm cherishes such animosity +towards you? Has he ever——"</p> + +<p>But Lucetta could exercise a repellent dignity when she chose. I did not +finish my sentence, though I must have looked the inquiry I thought +better not to put into words.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Trohm is a man of blameless reputation," she avowed. "If he has +allowed himself to cherish suspicions in our regard, he has doubtless +had his reasons for it."</p> + +<p>And with these quiet words she left me to my thoughts, and I must say to +my doubts, which were all the more painful that I saw no immediate +opportunity for clearing them up.</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon William burst in with news from the other end of +the lane.</p> + +<p>"Such a lark!" he cried. "The investigation at Deacon Spear's house was +a mere farce, and I just made them repeat it with a few frills. They had +dug up my cellar, and I was determined they should dig up his. Oh, the +fun it was! The old fellow kicked, but I had my way. They couldn't +refuse me, you know; I hadn't refused them. So that man's cellar-bottom +has had a stir up. They didn't find anything, but it did me a lot of +good, and that's something. I do hate Deacon Spear—couldn't hate him +worse if he'd killed and buried ten men under his hearthstone."</p> + +<p>"There is no harm in Deacon Spear," said Lucetta, quickly.</p> + +<p>"Did they submit Mr. Trohm's house to a search also?" asked Loreen, +ashamed of William's heat and anxious to avert any further display of +it.</p> + +<p>"Yes, they went through that too. I was with them. Glad I was too. I +say, girls, I could have laughed to see all the comforts that old +bachelor has about him. Never saw such fixings. Why, that house is as +neat and pretty from top to bottom as any old maid's. It's silly, of +course, for a man, and I'd rather live in an old rookery like this, +where I can walk from room to room in muddy boots if I want to, and +train my dogs and live in freedom like the man I am. Yet I couldn't help +thinking it mighty comfortable, too, for an old fellow like him who +likes such things and don't have chick or child to meddle. Why, he had +pincushions on all his bureaus, and they had pins in them."</p> + +<p>The laugh with which he delivered this last sentence might have been +heard a quarter of a mile away. Lucetta looked at Loreen and Loreen +looked at me, but none of us joined in the mirth, which seemed to me +very ill-timed.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Lucetta asked:</p> + +<p>"Did they dig up Mr. Trohm's cellar?"</p> + +<p>William stopped laughing long enough to say:</p> + +<p>"His cellar? Why, it's cemented as hard as an oak floor. No, they didn't +polish their spades in his house, which was another source of +satisfaction to me. Deacon Spear hasn't even that to comfort him. Oh, +how I did enjoy that old fellow's face when they began to root up his +old fungi!"</p> + +<p>Lucetta turned away with a certain odd constraint I could not but +notice.</p> + +<p>"It's a humiliating day for the lane," said she. "And what is worse," +she suddenly added, "nothing will ever come of it. It will take more +than a band of police to reach the root of this matter."</p> + +<p>I thought her manner odd, and, moving towards her, took her by the hand +with something of a relative's familiarity.</p> + +<p>"What makes you say that? Mr. Gryce seems a very capable man."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, but capability has nothing to do with it. Chance might and +pluck might, but wit and experience not. Otherwise the mystery would +have been settled long ago. I wish I——"</p> + +<p>"Well?" Her hand was trembling violently.</p> + +<p>"Nothing. I don't know why I have allowed myself to talk on this +subject. Loreen and I once made a compact never to give any opinion upon +it. You see how I have kept it."</p> + +<p>She had drawn her hand away and suddenly had become quite composed. I +turned my attention toward Loreen, but she was looking out of the window +and showed no intention of further pursuing the conversation. William +had strolled out.</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "if ever a girl had reason for breaking such a compact +you are certainly that girl. I could never have been as silent as you +have been—that is, if I had any suspicions on so serious a subject. +Why, your own good name is impugned—yours and that of every other +person living in this lane."</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth," she replied, "I have gone too far. Besides, you have +misunderstood me. I have no more knowledge than anybody else as to the +source of these terrible tragedies. I only know that an almost +superhuman cunning lies at the bottom of so many unaccountable +disappearances, a cunning so great that only a crazy person——"</p> + +<p>"Ah," I murmured eagerly, "Mother Jane!"</p> + +<p>She did not answer. Instantly I took a resolution.</p> + +<p>"Lucetta," said I, "is Deacon Spear a rich man?"</p> + +<p>Starting violently, she looked at me amazed.</p> + +<p>"If he is, I should like to hazard the guess that he is the man who has +held you in such thraldom for years."</p> + +<p>"And if he were?" said she.</p> + +<p>"I could understand William's antipathy to him and also his suspicions."</p> + +<p>She gave me a strange look, then without answering walked over and took +Loreen by the hand. "Hush!" I thought I heard her whisper. At all events +the two sisters were silent for more than a moment. Then Lucetta said:</p> + +<p>"Deacon Spear is well off, but nothing will ever make me accuse living +man of crime so dreadful." And she walked away, drawing Loreen after +her. In another moment she was out of the room, leaving me in a state of +great excitement.</p> + +<p>"This girl holds the secret to the whole situation," I inwardly decided. +"The belief that nothing more can be learned from her is a false one. I +must see Mr. Gryce. William's rodomontades are so much empty air, but +Lucetta's silence has a meaning we cannot afford to ignore."</p> + +<p>So impressed was I by this, that I took the first opportunity which +presented itself of seeing the detective. This was early the next +morning. He and several of the townspeople had made their appearance at +Mother Jane's cottage, with spades and picks, and the sight had +naturally drawn us all down to the gate, where we stood watching +operations in a silence which would have been considered unnatural by +any one who did not realize the conflicting nature of the emotions +underlying it. William, to whom the death of his mother seemed to be a +great deliverance, had been inclined to be more or less jocular, but his +sallies meeting with no response, he had sauntered away to have it out +with his dogs, leaving me alone with the two girls and Hannah.</p> + +<p>The latter seemed to be absorbed entirely by the aspect of Mother Jane, +who stood upon her doorstep in an attitude so menacing that it was +little short of tragic. Her hood, for the first time in the memory of +those present, had fallen away from her head, revealing a wealth of gray +hair which flew away from her head like a weird halo. Her features we +could not distinguish, but the emotion which inspired her, breathed in +every gesture of her uplifted arms and swaying body. It was wrath +personified, and yet an unreasoning wrath. One could see she was as much +dazed as outraged. Her lares and penates were being attacked, and she +had come from the heart of her solitude to defend them.</p> + +<p>"I declare!" Hannah protested. "It is pitiful. She has nothing in the +world but that garden, and now they are going to root that up."</p> + +<p>"Do you think that the sight of a little money would appease her?" I +inquired, anxious for an excuse to drop a word into the ear of Mr. +Gryce.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Hannah. "She dearly loves money, but it will not take +away her fright."</p> + +<p>"It will if she has nothing to be frightened about," said I; and turning +to the girls, I asked them, somewhat mincingly for me, if they thought I +would make myself conspicuous if I crossed the road on this errand, and +when Loreen answered that that would not deter her if she had the money, +and Lucetta added that the sight of such misery was too painful for any +mere personal consideration, I took advantage of their complaisance, and +hastily made my way over to the group, who were debating as to the point +they would attack first.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said I, "good-morning. I am here on an errand of mercy. +Poor old Mother Jane is half imbecile and does not understand why you +invade her premises with these implements. Will you object if I endeavor +to distract her mind with a little piece of gold I happen to have in my +pocket? She may not deserve it, but it will make your task easier and +save us some possible concern."</p> + +<p>Half of the men at once took off their hats. The other half nudged each +other's elbows, and whispered and grimaced like the fools they were. The +first half were gentlemen, though not all of them wore gentlemen's +clothes.</p> + +<p>It was Mr. Gryce who spoke:</p> + +<p>"Certainly, madam. Give the old woman anything you please, but—" And +here he stepped up to me and began to whisper; "You have something to +say. What is it?"</p> + +<p>I answered in the same quick way: "The mine you thought exhausted has +possibilities in it yet. Question Lucetta. It may prove a more fruitful +task than turning up this soil."</p> + +<p>The bow he made was more for the onlookers than for the suggestion I had +given him. Yet he was not ungrateful for the latter, as I, who was +beginning to understand him, could see.</p> + +<p>"Be as generous as you please!" he cried aloud. "We would not disturb +the old crone if it were not for one of her well-known follies. Nothing +will take her over forty rods away from her home. Now what lies within +those forty rods? These men think we ought to see."</p> + +<p>The shrug I gave answered both the apparent and the concealed question. +Satisfied that he would understand it so, I hurried away from him and +approached Mother Jane.</p> + +<p>"See!" said I, astonished at the regularity of her features, now that I +had a good opportunity of observing them. "I have brought you money. Let +them dig up your turnips if they will."</p> + +<p>She did not seem to perceive me. Her eyes were wild with dismay and her +lips trembling with a passion far beyond my power to comfort.</p> + +<p>"Lizzie!" she cried. "Lizzie! She will come back and find no home. Oh, +my poor girl! My poor, poor girl!"</p> + +<p>It was pitiable. I could not doubt her anguish or her sincerity. The +delirium of a broken heart cannot be simulated. And this heart was not +controlled by reason; that was equally apparent. Immediately my heart, +which goes out slowly, but none the less truly on that account, was +touched by something more than the surface sympathy of the moment. She +may have stolen, she may have done worse, she may even have been at the +bottom of the horrible crimes which have given its name to the lane we +were in, but her acts, if acts they were, were the result of a clouded +mind fixed forever upon the fancied needs of another, and not the +expression of personal turpitude or even of personal longing or avarice. +Therefore I could pity her, and I did.</p> + +<p>Making another appeal, I pressed the coin hard into one of her hands +till the contact effected what my words had been unable to do, and she +finally looked down and saw what she was clutching. Then indeed her +aspect changed, and in a few minutes of slowly growing comprehension she +became so quiet and absorbed that she forgot to look at the men and even +forgot me, who was probably nothing more than a flitting shadow to her.</p> + +<p>"A silk gown," she murmured. "It will buy Lizzie a silk gown. Oh! where +did it come from, the good, good gold, the beautiful gold; such a little +piece, yet enough to make her look fine, my Lizzie, my pretty, pretty +Lizzie?"</p> + +<p>No numbers this time. The gift was too overpowering for her even to +remember that it must be hidden away.</p> + +<p>I walked away while her delight was still voluble. Somehow it eased my +mind to have done her this little act of kindness, and I think it eased +the minds of the men too. At all events, every hat was off when I +repassed them on my way back to the Knollys gateway.</p> + +<p>I had left both the girls there, but I found only one awaiting me. +Lucetta had gone in, and so had Hannah. On what errand I was soon to +know.</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose that detective wants of Lucetta now?" asked Loreen +as I took my station again at her side. "While you were talking to +Mother Jane he stepped over here, and with a word or two induced Lucetta +to walk away with him toward the house. See, there they are in those +thick shrubs near the right wing. He seems to be pleading with her. Do +you think I ought to join them and find out what he is urging upon her +so earnestly? I don't like to seem intrusive, but Lucetta is easily +agitated, you know, and his business cannot be of an indifferent nature +after all he has discovered concerning our affairs."</p> + +<p>"No," I agreed, "and yet I think Lucetta will be strong enough to +sustain the conversation, judging from the very erect attitude she is +holding now. Perhaps he thinks she can tell him where to dig. They seem +a little at sea over there, and living, as you do, a few rods from +Mother Jane, he may imagine that Lucetta can direct him where to first +plant the spade."</p> + +<p>"It's an insult," Loreen protested. "All these talks and visits are +insults. To be sure, this detective has some excuse, but——"</p> + +<p>"Keep your eye on Lucetta," I interrupted. "She is shaking her head and +looking very positive. She will prove to him it is an insult. We need +not interfere, I think."</p> + +<p>But Loreen had grown pensive and did not heed my suggestion. A look that +was almost wistful had supplanted the expression of indignant revolt +with which she had addressed me, and when next moment the two we had +been watching turned and came slowly toward us, it was with decided +energy she bounded forward and joined them.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter now?" she asked. "What does Mr. Gryce want, +Lucetta?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Gryce himself spoke.</p> + +<p>"I simply want her," said he, "to assist me with a clue from her inmost +thoughts. When I was in your house," he explained with a praiseworthy +consideration for me and my relations to these girls for which I cannot +be too grateful, "I saw in this young lady something which convinced me +that, as a dweller in this lane, she was not without her suspicions as +to the secret cause of the fatal mysteries which I have been sent here +to clear up. To-day I have frankly accused her of this, and asked her to +confide in me. But she refuses to do so, Miss Loreen. Yet her face shows +even at this moment that my old eyes were not at fault in my reading of +her. She does suspect somebody, and it is not Mother Jane."</p> + +<p>"How can you say that?" began Lucetta, but the eyes which Loreen that +moment turned upon her seemed to trouble her, for she did not attempt to +say any more—only looked equally obstinate and distressed.</p> + +<p>"If Lucetta suspects any one," Loreen now steadily remarked, "then I +think she ought to tell you who it is."</p> + +<p>"You do. Then perhaps you—" commenced Mr. Gryce—"can persuade her as +to her duty," he finished, as he saw her head rise in protest of what he +evidently had intended to demand.</p> + +<p>"Lucetta will not yield to persuasion," was her quiet reply. "Nothing +short of conviction will move the sweetest-natured but the most +determined of all my mother's children. What she thinks is right, she +will do. I will not attempt to influence her."</p> + +<p>Mr. Gryce, with one comprehensive survey of the two, hesitated no +longer. I saw the rising of the blood into his forehead, which always +precedes the beginning of one of his great moves, and, filled with a +sudden excitement, I awaited his next words as a tyro awaits the first +unfolding of the plan he has seen working in the brain of some famous +strategist.</p> + +<p>"Miss Lucetta,"—his very tone was changed, changed in a way to make us +all start notwithstanding the preparation his momentary silence had +given us—"I have been thus pressing and perhaps rude in my appeal, +because of something which has come to my knowledge which cannot but +make you of all persons extremely anxious as to the meaning of this +terrible mystery. I am an old man, and you will not mind my bluntness. I +have been told—and your agitation convinces me there is truth in the +report—that you have a lover, a Mr. Ostrander——"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" She had sunk as if crushed by one overwhelming blow to the earth. +The eyes, the lips, the whole pitiful face that was upturned to us, +remain in my memory to-day as the most terrible and yet the most moving +spectacle that has come into my by no means uneventful life. "What has +happened to him? Quick, quick, tell me!"</p> + +<p>For answer Mr. Gryce drew out a telegram.</p> + +<p>"From the master of the ship on which he was to sail," he explained. "It +asks if Mr. Ostrander left this town on Tuesday last, as no news has +been received of him."</p> + +<p>"Loreen! Loreen! When he left us he passed down that way!" shrieked the +girl, rising like a spirit and pointing east toward Deacon Spear's. "He +is gone! He is lost! But his fate shall not remain a mystery. I will +dare its solution. I—I—To-night you will hear from me again."</p> + +<p>And without another glance at any of us she turned and fled toward the +house.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXIV" id="XXXIV"></a>XXXIV</h2> + +<h3>CONDITIONS</h3> + + +<p>But in another moment she was back, her eyes dilated and her whole +person exhaling a terrible purpose.</p> + +<p>"Do not look at me, do not notice me!" she cried, but in a voice so +hoarse no one but Mr. Gryce could fully understand her. "I am for no +one's eyes but God's. Pray that he may have mercy upon me." Then as she +saw us all instinctively fall back, she controlled herself, and, +pointing toward Mother Jane's cottage, said more distinctly: "As for +those men, let them dig. Let them dig the whole day long. Secrecy must +be kept, a secrecy so absolute that not even the birds of the air must +see that our thoughts range beyond the forty rods surrounding Mother +Jane's cottage."</p> + +<p>She turned and would have fled away for the second time, but Mr. Gryce +stopped her. "You have set yourself a task beyond your strength. Can you +perform it?"</p> + +<p>"I can perform it," she said. "If Loreen does not talk, and I am allowed +to spend the day in solitude."</p> + +<p>I had never seen Mr. Gryce so agitated—no, not when he left Olive +Randolph's bedside after an hour of vain pleading. "But to wait all day! +Is it necessary for you to wait all day?"</p> + +<p>"It is necessary." She spoke like an automaton. "To-night at twilight, +when the sun is setting, meet me at the great tree just where the road +turns. Not a minute sooner, not an hour later. I will be calmer then." +And waiting now for nothing, not for a word from Loreen nor a detaining +touch from Mr. Gryce, she flew away for the second time. This time +Loreen followed her.</p> + +<p>"Well, that is the hardest thing I ever had to do," said Mr. Gryce, +wiping his forehead and speaking in a tone of real grief and anxiety. +"Do you think her delicate frame can stand it? Will she survive this day +and carry through whatever it is she has set herself to accomplish?"</p> + +<p>"She has no organic disease," said I, "but she loved that young man very +much, and the day will be a terrible one to her."</p> + +<p>Mr. Gryce sighed.</p> + +<p>"I wish I had not been obliged to resort to such means," said he, "but +women like that only work under excitement, and she does know the secret +of this affair."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean," I demanded, almost aghast, "that you have deceived her +with a false telegram; that that slip of paper you hold——"</p> + +<p>"Read it," he cried, holding it out toward me.</p> + +<p>I did read it. Alas, there was no deception in it. It read as he said.</p> + +<p>"However—" I began.</p> + +<p>But he had pocketed the telegram and was several steps away before I had +finished my sentence.</p> + +<p>"I am going to start these men up," said he. "You will breathe no word +to Miss Lucetta of my sympathy nor let your own interests slack in the +investigations which are going on under our noses."</p> + +<p>And with a quick, sharp bow, he made his way to the gate, whither I +followed him in time to see him set his foot upon a patch of sage.</p> + +<p>"You will begin at this place," he cried, "and work east; and, +gentlemen, something tells me that we shall be successful."</p> + +<p>With almost a simultaneous sound a dozen spades and picks struck the +ground. The digging up of Mother Jane's garden had begun in earnest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXV" id="XXXV"></a>XXXV</h2> + +<h3>THE DOVE</h3> + + +<p>I remained at the gate. I had been bidden to show my interest in what +was going on in Mother Jane's garden, and this was the way I did it. But +my thoughts were not with the diggers. I knew, as well then as later, +that they would find nothing worth the trouble they were taking; and, +having made up my mind to this, I was free to follow the lead of my own +thoughts.</p> + +<p>They were not happy ones; I was neither satisfied with myself nor with +the prospect of the long day of cruel suspense that awaited us. When I +undertook to come to X., it was with the latent expectation of making +myself useful in ferreting out its mystery. And how had I succeeded? I +had been the means through which one of its secrets had been discovered, +but not <i>the</i> secret; and while Mr. Gryce was good enough, or wise +enough, to show no diminution in his respect for me, I knew that I had +sunk a peg in his estimation from the consciousness I had of having sunk +two, if not three pegs, in my own.</p> + +<p>This was a galling thought to me. But it was not the only one which +disturbed me. Happily or unhappily, I have as much heart as pride, and +Lucetta's despair, and the desperate resolve to which it had led, had +made an impression upon me which I could not shake off.</p> + +<p>Whether she knew the criminal or only suspected him; whether in the heat +of her sudden anguish she had promised more or less than she could +perform, the fact remained that we (by whom I mean first and above all, +Mr. Gryce, the ablest detective on the New York force, and myself, who, +if no detective, am at least a factor of more or less importance in an +inquiry like this) were awaiting the action of a weak and suffering girl +to discover what our own experience should be able to obtain for us +unassisted.</p> + +<p>That Mr. Gryce felt that he was playing a great card in thus enlisting +her despair in our service, did not comfort me. I am not fond of games +in which real hearts take the place of painted ones; and, besides, I was +not ready to acknowledge that my own capacity for ferreting out this +mystery was quite exhausted, or that I ought to remain idle while +Lucetta bent under a task so much beyond her strength. So deeply was I +impressed by this latter consideration, that I found myself, even in the +midst of my apparent interest in what was going on at Mother Jane's +cottage, asking if I was bound to accept the defeat pronounced upon my +efforts by Mr. Gryce, and if there was not yet time to retrieve myself +and save Lucetta. One happy thought, or clever linking of cause to +effect, might lead me yet to the clue which we had hitherto sought in +vain. And then who would have more right to triumph than Amelia +Butterworth, or who more reason to apologize than Ebenezar Gryce! But +where was I to get my happy thought, and by what stroke of fortune could +I reasonably hope to light upon a clue which had escaped the penetrating +eye of my quondam colleague? Lucetta's gesture and Lucetta's +exclamation, "He passed that way!" indicated that her suspicions pointed +in the direction of Deacon Spear's cottage; so did William's wandering +accusations: but this was little help to me, confined as I was to the +Knollys demesnes, both by Mr. Gryce's command and by my own sense of +propriety. No, I must light on something more tangible; something +practical enough to justify me in my own eyes for any interference I +might meditate. In short, I must start from a fact, and not from a +suspicion. But what fact? Why, there was but one, and that was the +finding of certain indisputable tokens of crime in Mother Jane's +keeping. That was a clue, a clue, to be sure, which Mr. Gryce, while +ostensibly following it in his present action, really felt to lead +nowhere, but which I—Here my thoughts paused. I dare not promise myself +too satisfactory results to my efforts, even while conscious of that +vague elation which presages success, and which I could only overcome by +resorting again to reasoning. This time I started with a question. Had +Mother Jane committed these crimes herself? I did not think so; neither +did Mr. Gryce, for all the persistence he showed in having the ground +about her humble dwelling-place turned over. Then, how had the ring of +Mr. Chittenden come to be in her possession, when, as all agreed, she +never was known to wander more than forty rods away from home? If the +crime by which this young gentleman had perished had taken place up the +road, as Lucetta's denouncing finger plainly indicated, then this token +of Mother Jane's complicity in it had been carried across the +intervening space by other means than Mother Jane herself. In other +words, it was brought to her by the perpetrator, or it was placed where +she could lay hand on it; neither supposition implying guilt on her +part, she being in all probability as innocent of wrong as she was of +sense. At all events, such should be my theory for the nonce, old +theories having exploded or become of little avail in the present aspect +of things. To discover, then, the source of crime, I must discover the +means by which this ring reached Mother Jane—an almost hopeless task, +but not to be despaired of on that account: had I not wrung the truth in +times gone by from that piece of obstinate stolidity the Van Burnam +scrub-woman? and if I could do this, might I not hope to win an equal +confidence from this half-demented creature, with a heart so passionate +it beat to but one tune, her Lizzie? I meant at least to try, and, under +the impulse of this resolve, I left my position at the gate and +recrossed the road to Mother Jane, whose figure I could dimly discern on +the farther side of her little house.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gryce barely looked up as I passed him, and the men not at all. They +were deep in their work, and probably did not see me. Neither did Mother +Jane at first. She had not yet wearied of the shining gold she held, +though she had begun again upon that chanting of numbers the secret of +which Mr. Gryce had discovered in his investigation of her house.</p> + +<p>I therefore found it hard to make her hear me when I attempted to speak. +She had fixed upon the new number fifteen and seemed never to tire of +repeating it. At last I took cue from her speech, and shouted out the +word <i>ten</i>. It was the number of the vegetable in which Mr. Chittenden's +ring had been hidden, and it made her start violently.</p> + +<p>"Ten! ten!" I reiterated, catching her eye. "He who brought it has +carried it away; come into the house and look."</p> + +<p>It was a desperate attempt. I felt myself quake inwardly as I realized +how near Mr. Gryce was standing, and what his anger would be if he +surprised me at this move after he had cried "Halt!"</p> + +<p>But neither my own perturbation nor the thought of his possible anger +could restrain the spirit of investigation which had returned to me with +the above words; and when I saw that they had not fallen upon deaf ears, +but that Mother Jane heard and in a measure understood them, I led the +way into the hut and pointed to the string from which the one precious +vegetable had been torn.</p> + +<p>She gave a spring toward it that was well-nigh maniacal in its fury, and +for an instant I thought she was going to rend the air with one of her +wild yells, when there came a swishing of wings at one of the open +windows, and a dove flew in and nestled in her breast, diverting her +attention so, that she dropped the empty husk of the onion she had just +grasped and seized the bird in its stead. It was a violent clutch, so +violent that the poor dove panted and struggled under it till its head +flopped over and I looked to see it die in her hands.</p> + +<p>"Stop!" I cried, horrified at a sight I was so unprepared to expect from +one who was supposed to cherish these birds most tenderly.</p> + +<p>But she heard me no more than she saw the gesture of indignant appeal I +made her. All her attention, as well as all her fury, was fixed upon the +dove, over whose neck and under whose wings she ran her trembling +fingers with the desperation of one looking for something he failed to +find.</p> + +<p>"Ten! ten!" it was now her turn to shout, as her eyes passed in angry +menace from the bird to the empty husk that dangled over her head. "You +brought it, did you, and you've taken it, have you? There, then! You'll +never bring or carry any more!" And lifting up her hand, she flung the +bird to the other side of the room, and would have turned upon me, in +which contingency I would for once have met my match, if, in releasing +the bird from her hands, she had not at the same time released the coin +which she had hitherto managed to hold through all her passionate +gestures.</p> + +<p>The sight of this piece of gold, which she had evidently forgotten for +the moment, turned her thoughts back to the joys it promised her. +Recapturing it once more, she sank again into her old ecstasy, upon +which I proceeded to pick up the poor, senseless dove, and leave the hut +with a devout feeling of gratitude for my undoubted escape.</p> + +<p>That I did this quietly and with the dove hidden under my little cape, +no one who knows me well will doubt. I had brought something from the +hut besides this victim of the old imbecile's fury, and I was no more +willing that Mr. Gryce should see the one than detect the other. I had +brought away a clue.</p> + +<p>"The birds of the air shall carry it." So the Scripture runs. This bird, +this pigeon, who now lay panting out his life in my arms had brought her +the ring which in Mr. Gryce's eyes had seemed to connect her with the +disappearance of young Mr. Chittenden.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXVI" id="XXXVI"></a>XXXVI</h2> + +<h3>AN HOUR OF STARTLING EXPERIENCES</h3> + + +<p>Not till I was safely back in the Knollys grounds, not, indeed, till I +had put one or two large and healthy shrubs between me and a certain +pair of very prying eyes, did I bring the dove out from under my cape +and examine the poor bird for any sign which might be of help to me in +the search to which I was newly committed.</p> + +<p>But I found nothing, and was obliged to resort to my old plan of +reasoning to make anything out of the situation in which I thus so +unexpectedly found myself. The dove had brought the ring into old Mother +Jane's hands, but whence and through whose agency? This was as much a +secret as before, but the longer I contemplated it, the more I realized +that it need not remain a secret long; that we had simply to watch the +other doves, note where they lighted, and in whose barn-doors they were +welcome, for us to draw inferences that might lead to revelations before +the day was out. If Deacon Spear—But Deacon Spear's house had been +examined as well as that of every other resident in the lane. This I +knew, but it had not been examined by me, and unwilling as I was to +challenge the accuracy or thoroughness of a search led on by such a man +as Mr. Gryce, I could not but feel that, with such a hint as I had +received from the episode in the hut, it would be a great relief to my +mind to submit these same premises to my own somewhat penetrating +survey, no man in my judgment having the same quickness of eyesight in +matters domestic as a woman trained to know every inch of a house and to +measure by a hair's-breadth every fall of drapery within it.</p> + +<p>But how in the name of goodness was I to obtain an opportunity for this +survey. Had we not one and all been bidden to confine our attention to +what was going on in Mother Jane's cottage, and would it not be treason +to Lucetta to run the least risk of awakening apprehension in any +possibly guilty mind at the other end of the road? Yes, but for all that +I could not keep still if fate, or my own ingenuity, offered me the +least chance of pursuing the clue I had wrung from our imbecile neighbor +at the risk of my life. It was not in my nature to do so, any more than +it was in my nature to yield up my present advantage to Mr. Gryce +without making a personal effort to utilize it. I forgot that I failed +in this once before in my career, or rather I recalled this failure, +perhaps, and felt the great need of retrieving myself.</p> + +<p>When, therefore, in my slow stroll towards the house I encountered +William in the shrubbery, I could not forbear accosting him with a +question or two.</p> + +<p>"William," I remarked, gently rubbing the side of my nose with an +irresolute forefinger and looking at him from under my lids, "that was a +scurvy trick you played Deacon Spear yesterday."</p> + +<p>He stood amazed, then burst into one of his loud laughs.</p> + +<p>"You think so?" he cried. "Well, I don't. He only got what he deserved, +the hard, sanctimonious sneak!"</p> + +<p>"Do you say that," I inquired, with some spirit, "because you dislike +the man, or because you really believe him to be worthy of hatred?"</p> + +<p>William's amusement at this argued little for my hopes.</p> + +<p>"<i>We</i> are very much interested in the Deacon," he suggested, with a +leer; which insolence I allowed to pass unnoticed, because it best +suited my plan.</p> + +<p>"You have not answered my question," I remarked, with a forced air of +anxiety.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," he cried, "so I haven't"; and he tried to look serious too. +"Well, well, to be just, I have nothing really against the man but his +mean ways. Still, if I were going to risk my life on a hazard as to who +is the evil spirit of this lane, I should say Spear and done with it, he +has such cursed small eyes."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> don't think his eyes are too small," I returned loftily. Then with +a sudden change of manner, I suggested anxiously: "And my opinion is +shared by your sisters. They evidently think very well of him."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" he sneered; "girls are no judges. They don't know a good man when +they see him, and they don't know a bad. You mustn't go by what they +say."</p> + +<p>I had it on the tip of my tongue to ask if he did not think Lucetta +sufficiently understood herself to be trusted in what she contemplated +doing that night. But this was neither in accordance with my plan, nor +did it seem quite loyal to Lucetta, who, so far as I knew, had not +communicated her intentions to this booby brother. I therefore changed +this question into a repetition of my first remark:</p> + +<p>"Well, I still think the trick you played Deacon Spear yesterday a poor +one; and I advise you, as a gentleman, to go and ask his pardon."</p> + +<p>This was such a preposterous proposition, he could not hold his peace.</p> + +<p>"<i>I ask his pardon!</i>" he snorted. "Well, Saracen, did you ever hear the +like of that! <i>I</i> ask Deacon Spear's pardon for obliging him to be +treated with as great attention as I had been myself."</p> + +<p>"If you do not," I went on, unmoved, "I shall go and do it myself. I +think that is what my friendship for you warrants. I am determined that +while I am a visitor in your house no one shall be able to pick a flaw +in your conduct."</p> + +<p>He stared (as he might well do), tried to read my face, then my +intentions, and failing to do both, which was not strange, broke into +noisy mirth.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ho!" he laughed. "So that is your game, is it! Well, I never! +Saracen, Miss Butterworth wants to reform me; wants to make one of her +sleek city chaps out of William Knollys. She'll have hard work of it, +won't she? But then we're beginning to like her well enough to let her +try. Miss Butterworth, I'll go with you to Deacon Spear. I haven't had +so much chance for fun in a twelve-month."</p> + +<p>I had not expected such success, and was duly thankful. But I made no +reference to it aloud. On the contrary, I took his complaisance as a +matter of course, and, hiding all token of triumph, suggested quietly +that we should make as little ado as possible over our errand, seeing +that Mr. Gryce was something of a meddler and <i>might</i> take it into his +head to interfere. Which suggestion had all the effect I anticipated, +for at the double prospect of amusing himself at the Deacon's expense, +and of outwitting the man whose business it was to outwit us, he became +not only willing but eager to undertake the adventure offered him. So +with the understanding that I was to be ready to drive into town as soon +as he could hitch up the horse, we parted on the most amicable terms, he +proceeding towards the stable and I towards the house, where I hoped to +learn something new about Lucetta.</p> + +<p>But Loreen, from whom alone I could hope to glean any information, was +shut in her room, and did not come out, though I called her more than +once, which, if it left my curiosity unsatisfied, at least allowed me to +quit the house without awakening hers.</p> + +<p>William was waiting for me at the gate when I descended. He was in the +best of humors, and helped me into the buggy he had resurrected from +some corner of the old stable, with a grimace of suppressed mirth which +argued well for the peace of our proposed drive. The horse's head was +turned away from the quarter we were bound for, but as we were +ostensibly on our way to the village, this showed but common prudence on +William's part, and, as such, met with my entire approbation.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gryce and his men were hard at work when we passed them. Knowing the +detective so well, and rating at its full value his undoubted talent for +reading the motives of those about him, I made no attempt at cajolery in +the explanation I proffered of our sudden departure, but merely said, in +my old, peremptory way, that I found waiting at the gate so tedious that +I had accepted William's invitation to drive into town. Which, while it +astonished the old gentleman, did not really arouse his suspicions, as a +more conciliatory manner and speech might have done. This disposed of, +we drove rapidly away.</p> + +<p>William's sense of humor once aroused was not easily allayed. He seemed +so pleased with his errand that he could talk of nothing else, and +turned the subject over and over in his clumsy way, till I began to +wonder if he had seen through the object of our proposed visit and was +making <i>me</i> the butt of his none too brilliant wit.</p> + +<p>But no, he was really amused at the part he was called upon to play, +and, once convinced of this, I let his humor run on without check till +we had re-entered Lost Man's Lane from the other end and were in sight +of the low sloping roof of Deacon Spear's old-fashioned farmhouse.</p> + +<p>Then I thought it time to speak.</p> + +<p>"William," said I, "Deacon Spear is too good a man, and, as I take it, +is in possession of too great worldly advantages for you to be at enmity +with him. Remember that he is a neighbor, and that you are a landed +proprietor in this lane."</p> + +<p>"Good for you!" was the elegant reply with which this young boor honored +me. "I didn't think you had such an eye for the main chance."</p> + +<p>"Deacon Spear is rich, is he not?" I pursued, with an ulterior motive he +was far from suspecting.</p> + +<p>"Rich? Why, I don't know; that depends upon what you city ladies call +rich; <i>I</i> shouldn't call him so, but then, as you say, I am a landed +proprietor myself."</p> + +<p>His laugh was boisterously loud, and as we were then nearly in front of +the Deacon's house, it rang in through the open windows, causing such +surprise, that more than one head bobbed up from within to see who dared +to laugh like that in Lost Man's Lane. While I noted these heads and +various other small matters about the house and place, William tied up +the horse and held out his hand for me to descend.</p> + +<p>"I begin to suspect," he whispered as he helped me out, "why you are so +anxious to have me on good terms with the Deacon." At which insinuation +I attempted to smile, but only succeeded in forcing a grim twitch or two +to my lips, for at that moment and before I could take one step towards +the house, a couple of pigeons rose up from behind the house and flew +away in a bee-line for Mother Jane's cottage.</p> + +<p>"Ha!" thought I; "my instinct has not failed me. Behold the link between +this house and the hut in which those tokens of crime were found," and +was for the moment so overwhelmed by this confirmation of my secret +suspicions, that I quite forgot to advance, and stood stupidly staring +after these birds now rapidly disappearing in the distance.</p> + +<p>William's voice aroused me.</p> + +<p>"Come!" he cried. "Don't be bashful. I don't think much of Deacon Spear +myself, but if <i>you</i> do—Why, what's the matter now?" he asked, with a +startled look at me. I had clutched him by the arm.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," I protested, "only—you see that window over there? The one +in the gable of the barn, I mean. I thought I saw a hand thrust out,—a +white hand that dropped crumbs. Have they a child on this place?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied William, in an odd voice and with an odd look toward the +window I have mentioned. "Did you really see a hand there?"</p> + +<p>"I most certainly did," I answered, with an air of indifference I was +far from feeling. "Some one is up in the hay-loft; perhaps it is Deacon +Spear himself. If so, he will have to come down, for now that we are +here, I am determined you shall do your duty."</p> + +<p>"Deacon Spear can't climb that hay-loft," was the perplexed answer I +received in a hardly intelligible mutter. "I've been there, and I know; +only a boy or a very agile young man could crawl along the beams that +lead to that window. It is the one hiding-place in this part of the +lane; and when I said yesterday that if I were the police and had the +same search to make which they have, I knew where I would look, I meant +that same little platform up behind the hay, whose only outlook is +yonder window. But I forgot that <i>you</i> have no suspicions of our good +Deacon; that <i>you</i> are here on quite a different errand than to search +for Silly Rufus. So come along and——"</p> + +<p>But I resisted his impelling hand. He was so much in earnest and so +evidently under the excitement of what appeared to him a great +discovery, that he seemed quite another man. This made my own suspicions +less hazardous, and also added to the situation fresh difficulties which +could only be met by an appearance on my part of perfect ingenuousness.</p> + +<p>Turning back to the buggy as if I had forgotten something, and thus +accounting to any one who might be watching us, for the delay we showed +in entering the house, I said to William: "You have reasons for thinking +this man a villain, or you wouldn't be so ready to suspect him. Now what +if I should tell you that I agree with you, and that this is why I have +dragged you here this fine morning?"</p> + +<p>"I should say you were a deuced smart woman," was his ready answer. "But +what can you do here?"</p> + +<p>"What have we already done?" I asked. "Discovered that they have some +one in hiding in what you call an inaccessible place in the barn. But +didn't the police examine the whole place yesterday? They certainly told +me they had searched the premises thoroughly."</p> + +<p>"Yes," he repeated, with great disdain, "they said and they said; but +they didn't climb up to the one hiding-place in sight. That old fellow +Gryce declared it wasn't worth their while; that only birds could reach +that loophole."</p> + +<p>"Oh," I returned, somewhat taken aback; "you called his attention to it, +then?"</p> + +<p>To which William answered with a vigorous nod and the grumbling words:</p> + +<p>"I don't believe in the police. I think they're often in league with the +very rogues they——"</p> + +<p>But here the necessity of approaching the house became too apparent for +further delay. Deacon Spear had shown himself at the front door, and the +sight of his astonished face twisted into a grimace of doubtful welcome +drove every other thought away than how we were to acquit ourselves in +the coming interview. Seeing that William was more or less nonplussed by +the situation, I caught him by the arm, and whispering, "Let us keep to +our first programme," led him up the walk with much the air of a +triumphant captain bringing in a recalcitrant prisoner.</p> + +<p>My introduction under these circumstances can be imagined by those who +have followed William's awkward ways. But the Deacon, who was probably +the most surprised, if not the most disconcerted member of the group, +possessed a natural fund of conceit and self-complacency that prevented +any outward manifestation of his feelings, though I could not help +detecting a carefully suppressed antagonism in his eye when he allowed +it to fall upon William, which warned me to exercise my full arts in the +manipulation of the matter before me. I accordingly spoke first and with +all the prim courtesy such a man might naturally expect from an intruder +of my sex and appearance.</p> + +<p>"Deacon Spear," said I, as soon as we were seated in his stiff +old-fashioned parlor, "you are astonished to see us here, no doubt, +especially after the display of animosity shown towards you yesterday by +this graceless young friend of mine. But it is on account of this +unfortunate occurrence that we are here. After a little reflection and a +few hints, I may add, from one who has seen more of life than himself, +William felt that he had cause to be ashamed of himself for his show of +sport in yesterday's proceedings, and accordingly he has come in my +company to tender his apologies and entreat your forbearance. Am I not +right, William?"</p> + +<p>The fellow is a clown under all and every circumstance, and serious as +our real purpose was, and dreadful as was the suspicion he professed to +cherish against the suave and seemingly respectable member of the +community we were addressing, he could not help laughing, as he +blunderingly replied:</p> + +<p>"That you are, Miss Butterworth! She's always right, Deacon. I did act +like a fool yesterday." And seeming to think that, with this one +sentence he had played his part out to perfection, he jumped up and +strolled out of the house, almost pushing down as he did so the two +daughters of the house, who had crept into the hall from the +sitting-room to listen.</p> + +<p>"Well, well!" exclaimed the Deacon, "you have done wonders, Miss +Butterworth, to bring him to even so small an acknowledgment as that! +He's a vicious one, is William Knollys, and if <i>I</i> were not such a lover +of peace and concord, he should not long be the only aggressive one. But +<i>I</i> have no taste for strife, and so you may both regard his apology as +accepted. But why do you rise, madam? Sit down, I pray, and let me do +the honors. Martha! Jemima!"</p> + +<p>But I would not allow him to summon his daughters. The man inspired me +with too much dislike, if not fear; besides, I was anxious about +William. What was he doing, and of what blunder might he not be guilty +without my judicious guidance?</p> + +<p>"I am obliged to you," I returned; "but I cannot wait to meet your +daughters now. Another time, Deacon. There is important business going +on at the other end of the lane, and William's presence there may be +required."</p> + +<p>"Ah," he observed, following me to the door, "they are digging up Mother +Jane's garden."</p> + +<p>I nodded, restraining myself with difficulty.</p> + +<p>"Fool's work!" he muttered. Then with a curious look which made me +instinctively draw back, he added, "These things must inconvenience you, +madam. I wish you had made your visit to the lane in happier times."</p> + +<p>There was a smirk on his face which made him positively repellent. I +could scarcely bow my acknowledgments, his look and attitude made the +interview so obnoxious. Looking about for William, I stepped down from +the stoop. The Deacon followed me.</p> + +<p>"Where is William?" I asked.</p> + +<p>The Deacon ran his eye over the place, and suddenly frowned with +ill-concealed vexation.</p> + +<p>"The scapegrace!" he murmured. "What business has he in my barn?"</p> + +<p>I immediately forced a smile which, in days long past (I've almost +forgotten them now), used to do some execution.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's a boy!" I exclaimed. "Do not mind his pranks, I pray. What a +comfortable place you have here!"</p> + +<p>Instantly a change passed over the Deacon, and he turned to me with an +air of great interest, broken now and then by an uneasy glance behind +him at the barn.</p> + +<p>"I am glad you like the place," he insinuated, keeping close at my side +as I stepped somewhat briskly down the walk. "It is a nice place, worthy +of the commendation of so competent a judge as yourself." (It was a +barren, hard-worked farm, without one attractive feature.) "I have lived +on it now forty years, thirty-two of them with my beloved wife Caroline, +and two—" Here he stopped and wiped a tear from the dryest eye I ever +saw. "Miss Butterworth, I am a widower."</p> + +<p>I hastened my steps. I here duly and with the strictest regard for the +truth aver, that I decidedly hastened my steps at this very unnecessary +announcement. But he, with another covert glance behind him towards the +barn, from which, to my surprise and increasing anxiety, William had not +yet emerged, kept well up to me, and only paused when I paused at the +side of the road near the buggy.</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth," he began, undeterred by the air of dignity I +assumed, "I have been thinking that your visit here is a rebuke to my +unneighborliness. But the business which has occupied the lane these +last few days has put us all into such a state of unpleasantness that it +was useless to attempt sociability."</p> + +<p>His voice was so smooth, his eyes so small and twinkling, that if I +could have thought of anything except William's possible discoveries in +the barn, I should have taken delight in measuring my wits against his +egotism.</p> + +<p>But as it was, I said nothing, possibly because I only half heard what +he was saying.</p> + +<p>"I am no lady's man,"—these were the next words I heard,—"but then I +judge you're not anxious for flattery, but prefer the square thing +uttered by a square man without delay or circumlocution. Madam, I am +fifty-three, and I have been a widower two years. I am not fitted for a +solitary life, and I am fitted for the companionship of an affectionate +wife who will keep my hearth clean and my affections in good working +order. Will you be that wife? You see my home,"—here his eye stole +behind him with that uneasy look towards the barn which William's +presence in it certainly warranted,—"a home which I can offer you +unencumbered, if you——"</p> + +<p>"Desire to live in Lost Man's Lane," I put in, subduing both my surprise +and my disgust at this preposterous proposal, in order to throw all the +sarcasm of which I was capable into this single sentence.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" he exclaimed, "you don't like the neighborhood. Well, we could go +elsewhere. I am not set against the city myself——"</p> + +<p>Astounded at his presumption, regarding him as a possible criminal, who +was endeavoring to beguile me for purposes of his own, I could no longer +repress either my indignation or the wrath with which such impromptu +addresses naturally inspired me. Cutting him short with a gesture which +made him open his small eyes, I exclaimed in continuation of his remark:</p> + +<p>"Nor, as I take it, are you set against the comfortable little income +somebody has told you I possessed. I see your disinterestedness, Deacon, +but I should be sorry to profit by it. Why, man, I never spoke to you +before in my life, and do you think——"</p> + +<p>"Oh!" he suavely insinuated, with a suppressed chuckle which even his +increasing uneasiness as to William could not altogether repress, "I see +you are <i>not</i> above the flattery that pleases other women. Well, madam, +I know a tremendous fine woman when I see her, and from the moment I saw +you riding by the other day, I made up my mind I would have you for the +second Mrs. Spear, if persistence and a proper advocacy of my cause +could accomplish it. Madam, I was going to visit you with this proposal +to-night, but seeing you here, the temptation was too great for my +discretion, and so I have addressed you on the spot. But you need not +answer me at once. I don't need to know any more about <i>you</i> than what I +can take in with my two eyes, but if you would like a little more +acquaintance with <i>me</i>, why I can wait a couple of weeks till we've +rubbed the edges off our strangeness, when——"</p> + +<p>"When you think I will be so charmed with Deacon Spear that I will be +ready to settle down with him in Lost Man's Lane, or if that will not +do, carry him off to Gramercy Park, where he will be the admiration of +all New York and Brooklyn to boot. Why, man, if I was so easily +satisfied as that, I would not be in a position to-day for you to honor +me with this proposal. I am not easy to suit, so I advise you to turn +your attention to some one much more anxious to be married than I am. +But"—and here I allowed some of my real feelings to appear—"if you +value your own reputation or the happiness of the lady you propose to +inveigle into an union with you, do not venture too far in the +matrimonial way till the mystery is dispelled which shrouds Lost Man's +Lane in horror. If you were an honest man you would ask no one to share +your fortunes whilst the least doubt rests upon your reputation."</p> + +<p>"<i>My</i> reputation?" He had started very visibly at these words. "Madam, +be careful. I admire you, but——"</p> + +<p>"No offence," said I. "For a stranger I have been, perhaps, unduly +frank. I only mean that any one who lives in this lane must feel himself +more or less enveloped by the shadow which rests upon it. When that is +lifted, each and every one of you will feel himself a man again. From +indications to be seen in the lane to-day, that time may not be far +distant. Mother Jane is a likely source for the mysteries that agitate +us. She knows just enough to have no proper idea of the value of a human +life."</p> + +<p>The Deacon's retort was instantaneous. "Madam," said he, with a snap of +his fingers, "I have not that much interest in what is going on down +there. If men have been killed in this lane (which I do not believe), +old Mother Jane has had no hand in it. My opinion is—and you may value +it or not, just as you please—that what the people hereabout call +crimes are so many coincidences, which some day or other will receive +their due explanation. Every one who has disappeared in this vicinity +has disappeared naturally. No one has been killed. That is my theory, +and you will find it correct. On this point I have expended more than a +little thought."</p> + +<p>I was irate. I was also dumfounded at his audacity. Did he think I was +the woman to be deceived by any such balderdash as that? But I shut my +lips tightly lest I should say something, and he, not finding this +agreeable, being no conversationalist himself, drew himself up with a +pompously expressed hope that he would see me again after his reputation +was cleared, when his attention as well as my own was diverted by seeing +William's slouching figure appear in the barn door and make slowly +towards us.</p> + +<p>Instantly the Deacon forgot me in his interest in William's approach, +which was so slow as to be tantalizing to us both.</p> + +<p>When he was within speaking distance, Deacon Spear started towards him.</p> + +<p>"Well!" he cried; "one would think you had gone back a dozen or so years +and were again robbing your neighbor's hen-roosts. Been in the hay, eh?" +he added, leaning forward and plucking a wisp or two from my companion's +clothes. "Well, what did you find there?"</p> + +<p>In trembling fear for what the lout might answer, I put my hand on the +buggy rail and struggled anxiously to my seat. William stepped forward +and loosened the horse before speaking. Then with a leer he dived into +his pocket, and remarking slowly, "I found <i>this</i>," brought to light a +small riding-whip which we both recognized as one he often carried. "I +flung it up in the hay yesterday in one of my fits of laughing, so just +thought I would bring it down to-day. You know it isn't the first time +I've climbed about those rafters, Deacon, as you have been good enough +to insinuate."</p> + +<p>The Deacon, evidently taken aback, eyed the young fellow with a leer in +which I saw something more serious than mere suspicion.</p> + +<p>"Was that all?" he began, but evidently thought better than to finish, +whilst William, with a nonchalance that surprised me, blunderingly +avoided his eye, and, bounding into the buggy beside me, started up the +horse and drove slowly off.</p> + +<p>"Ta, ta, Deacon," he called back; "if you want to see fun, come up to +our end of the lane; there's precious little here." And thus, with a +laugh, terminated an interview which, all things considered, was the +most exciting as well as the most humiliating I have ever taken part in.</p> + +<p>"William," I began, but stopped. The two pigeons whose departure I had +watched a little while before were coming back, and, as I spoke, +fluttered up to the window before mentioned, where they alighted and +began picking up the crumbs which I had seen scattered for them. "See!" +I suddenly exclaimed, pointing them out to William. "Was I mistaken when +I thought I saw a hand drop crumbs from that window?"</p> + +<p>The answer was a very grave one for him.</p> + +<p>"No," said he, "for I have seen more than a hand, through the loophole I +made in the hay. I saw a man's leg stretched out as if he were lying on +the floor with his head toward the window. It was but a glimpse I got, +but the leg moved as I looked at it, and so I know that some one lies +hid in that little nook up under the roof. Now it isn't any one +belonging to the lane, for I know where every one of us is or ought to +be at this blessed moment; and it isn't a detective, for I heard a sound +like heavy sobbing as I crouched there. Then who is it? Silly Rufus, I +say; and if that hay was all lifted, we would see sights that would make +us ashamed of the apologies we uttered to the old sneak just now."</p> + +<p>"I want to get home," said I. "Drive fast! Your sisters ought to know +this."</p> + +<p>"The girls?" he cried. "Yes, it will be a triumph over them. They never +would believe I had an atom of judgment. But we'll show them, if William +Knollys is altogether a fool."</p> + +<p>We were now near to Mr. Trohm's hospitable gateway. Coming from the +excitements of my late interview, it was a relief to perceive the genial +owner of this beautiful place wandering among his vines and testing the +condition of his fruit by a careful touch here and there. As he heard +our wheels he turned, and seeing who we were, threw up his hands in +ill-restrained pleasure, and came buoyantly forward. There was nothing +to do but to stop, so we stopped.</p> + +<p>"Why, William! Why, Miss Butterworth, what a pleasure!" Such was his +amiable greeting. "I thought you were all busy at your end of the lane; +but I see you have just come from town. Had an errand there, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," William grumbled, eying the luscious pear Mr. Trohm held in his +hand.</p> + +<p>The look drew a smile from that gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Admiring the first fruits?" he observed. "Well, it is a handsome +specimen," he admitted, handing it to me with his own peculiar grace. "I +beg you will take it, Miss Butterworth. You look tired; pardon me if I +mention it." (He is the only person I know who detects any signs of +suffering or fatigue on my part.)</p> + +<p>"I am worried by the mysteries of this lane," I ventured to remark. "I +hate to see Mother Jane's garden uprooted."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he acquiesced, with much evidence of good feeling, "it is a +distressing thing to witness. I wish she might have been spared. +William, there are other pears on the tree this came from. Tie up the +horse, I pray, and gather a dozen or so of these for your sisters. They +will never be in better condition for plucking than they are to-day."</p> + +<p>William, whose mouth and eyes were both watering for a taste of the fine +fruit thus offered, moved with alacrity to obey this invitation, while +I, more startled than pleased—or, rather, as much startled as +pleased—by the prospect of a momentary <i>tête-à-tête</i> with our agreeable +neighbor, sat uneasily eying the luscious fruit in my hand, and wishing +I was ten years younger, that the blush I felt slowly stealing up my +cheek might seem more appropriate to the occasion.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Trohm appeared not to share my wish. He was evidently so +satisfied with me as I was, that he found it difficult to speak at +first, and when he did—But tut! tut! you have no desire to hear any +such confidences as these, I am sure. A middle-aged gentleman's +expressions of admiration for a middle-aged lady may savor of romance to +her, but hardly to the rest of the world, so I will pass this +conversation by, with the single admission that it ended in a question +to which I felt obliged to return a reluctant <i>No</i>.</p> + +<p>Mr. Trohm was just recovering from the disappointment of this, when +William sauntered back with his hands and pockets full.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" that graceless scamp chuckled, with a suspicious look at our +downcast faces, "been improving the opportunity, eh?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Trohm, who had fallen back against his old well-curb, surveyed his +young neighbor for the first time with a look of anger. But it vanished +almost as quickly as it appeared, and he contented himself with a low +bow, in which I read real grief.</p> + +<p>This was too much for me, and I was about to open my lips with a kind +phrase or two, when a flutter took place over our heads, and the two +pigeons whose flight I had watched more than once during the last hour, +flew down and settled upon Mr. Trohm's arm and shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" I exclaimed, with a sudden shrinking that I hardly understood +myself. And though I covered up the exclamation with as brisk a good-by +as my inward perturbation would allow, that sight and the involuntary +ejaculation I had uttered, were all I saw or heard during our hasty +drive homeward.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXVII" id="XXXVII"></a>XXXVII</h2> + +<h3>I ASTONISH MR. GRYCE AND HE ASTONISHES ME</h3> + + +<p>But as we approached the group of curious people which now filled up the +whole highway in front of Mother Jane's cottage, I broke from the +nightmare into which this last discovery had thrown me, and, turning to +William, said with a resolute air:</p> + +<p>"You and your sisters are not of one mind regarding these +disappearances. You ascribe them to Deacon Spear, but they—whom do they +ascribe them to?"</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't think it would take a woman of your wit to answer that +question."</p> + +<p>The rebuke was deserved. I had wit, but I had refused to exercise it; my +blind partiality for a man of pleasing exterior and magnetic address had +prevented the cool play of my usual judgment, due to the occasion and +the trust which had been imposed in me by Mr. Gryce. Resolved that this +should end, no matter at what cost to my feelings, I quietly said:</p> + +<p>"You allude to Mr. Trohm."</p> + +<p>"That is the name," he carelessly assented. "Girls, you know, let their +prejudices run away with them. An old grudge——"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I tentatively put in; "he persecuted your mother, and so they +think him capable of any wickedness."</p> + +<p>The growl which William gave was not one of dissent.</p> + +<p>"But I don't care what they think," said he, looking down at the heap of +fruit which lay between us. "I'm Trohm's friend, and don't believe one +word they choose to insinuate against him. What if he didn't like what +my mother did! We didn't like it either, and——"</p> + +<p>"William," I calmly remarked, "if your sisters knew that Silly Rufus had +been found in Deacon Spear's barn they would no longer do Mr. Trohm this +injustice."</p> + +<p>"No; that would settle them; that would give me a triumph which would +last long after this matter was out of the way."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then," said I, "I am going to bring about this triumph. I am +going to tell Mr. Gryce at once what we have discovered in Deacon +Spear's barn."</p> + +<p>And without waiting for his ah, yes, or no, I jumped from the buggy and +made my way to the detective's side.</p> + +<p>His welcome was somewhat unexpected. "Ah, fresh news!" he exclaimed. "I +see it in your eye. What have you chanced upon, madam, in your +disinterested drive into town?"</p> + +<p>I thought I had eliminated all expression from my face, and that my +words would bring a certain surprise with them. But it is useless to try +to surprise Mr. Gryce.</p> + +<p>"You read me like a book," said I; "I have something to add to the +situation. Mr. Gryce, I have just come from the other end of the lane, +where I found a clue which may shorten the suspense of this weary day, +and possibly save Lucetta from the painful task she has undertaken in +our interests. Mr. Chittenden's ring——"</p> + +<p>I paused for the exclamation of encouragement he is accustomed to give +on such occasions, and while I paused, prepared for my accustomed +triumph. He did not fail me in the exclamation, nor did I miss my +expected triumph.</p> + +<p>"Was not found by Mother Jane, or even brought to her in any ordinary +way or by any ordinary messenger. It came to her on a pigeon's neck, the +pigeon you will find lying dead among the bushes in the Knollys yard."</p> + +<p>He was amazed. He controlled himself, but he was very visibly amazed. +His exclamations proved it.</p> + +<p>"Madam! Miss Butterworth! This ring—Mr. Chittenden's ring, whose +presence in her hut we thought an evidence of guilt, was brought to her +by one of her pigeons?"</p> + +<p>"So she told me. I aroused her fury by showing her the empty husk in +which it had been concealed. In her rage at its loss, she revealed the +fact I have just mentioned. It is a curious one, sir, and one I am a +little proud to have discovered."</p> + +<p>"Curious? It is more than curious; it is bizarre, and will rank, I am +safe in prophesying, as one of the most remarkable facts that have ever +adorned the annals of the police. Madam, when I say I envy you the honor +of its discovery, you will appreciate my estimate of it—and you. But +when did you find this out, and what explanation are you able to give of +the presence of this ring on a pigeon's neck?"</p> + +<p>"Sir, to your first question I need only reply that I was here two hours +or so ago, and to the second that everything points to the fact that the +ring was attached to the bird by the victim himself, as an appeal for +succor to whoever might be fortunate enough to find it. Unhappily it +fell into the wrong hands. That is the ill-luck which often befalls +prisoners."</p> + +<p>"Prisoners?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Cannot you imagine a person shut up in an inaccessible place +making some such attempt to communicate with his fellow-creatures?"</p> + +<p>"But what inaccessible place have we in——"</p> + +<p>"Wait," said I. "You have been in Deacon Spear's barn."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, many times." But the answer, glib as it was, showed shock. I +began to gather courage.</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "there is a hiding-place in that barn which I dare +declare you have not penetrated."</p> + +<p>"Do you think so, madam?"</p> + +<p>"A little loft way up under the eaves, which can only be reached by +clambering over the rafters. Didn't Deacon Spear tell you there was such +a place?"</p> + +<p>"No, but——"</p> + +<p>"William, then?" I inexorably pursued. "He says he pointed such a spot +out to you, and that you pooh-poohed at it as inaccessible and not worth +the searching."</p> + +<p>"William is a—Madam, I beg your pardon, but William has just wit enough +to make trouble."</p> + +<p>"But there is such a place there," I urged; "and, what is more, there is +some one hidden in it now. I saw him myself."</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> saw him?"</p> + +<p>"Saw a part of him; in short, saw his hand. He was engaged in scattering +crumbs for the pigeons."</p> + +<p>"That does not look like starvation," smiled Mr. Gryce, with the first +hint of sarcasm he had allowed himself to make use of in this interview.</p> + +<p>"No," said I; "but the time may not have come to inflict this penalty on +Silly Rufus. He has been there but a few days, and—well, what have I +said now?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, ma'am, nothing. But what made you think the hand you saw +belonged to Silly Rufus?"</p> + +<p>"Because he was the last person to disappear from this lane. The +last—what am I saying? He wasn't the last. Lucetta's lover was the +last. Mr. Gryce, could that hand have belonged to Mr. Ostrander?"</p> + +<p>I was intensely excited; so much so that Mr. Gryce made me a warning +gesture.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" he whispered; "you are attracting attention. That hand <i>was</i> the +hand of Mr. Ostrander; and the reason why I did not accept William +Knollys' suggestion to search the Deacon's barn-loft was because I knew +it had been chosen as a place of refuge by this missing lover of +Lucetta."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXVIII" id="XXXVIII"></a>XXXVIII</h2> + +<h3>A FEW WORDS</h3> + + +<p>Never have keener or more conflicting emotions been awakened in my +breast than by these simple words. But alive to the necessity of hiding +my feelings from those about me, I gave no token of my surprise, but +rather turned a stonier face than common upon the man who had caused it.</p> + +<p>"Refuge?" I repeated. "He is there, then, of his own free will—or +yours?" I sarcastically added, not being able to quite keep down this +reproach as I remembered the deception practised upon Lucetta.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ostrander, madam, has been spending the week with Deacon +Spear—they are old friends, you know. That he should spend it quietly +and, to a degree, in hiding, was as much his plan as mine. For while he +found it impossible to leave Lucetta in the doubtful position in which +she and her family at present stand, he did not wish to aggravate her +misery by the thought that he was thus jeopardizing the position on +which all his hopes of future advancement depended. He preferred to +watch and wait in secret, seeing which, I did what I could to further +his wishes. His usual lodging was with the family, but when the search +was instituted, I suggested that he should remove himself to that eyrie +back of the hay where you were sharp enough to detect him to-day."</p> + +<p>"Don't attempt any of your flatteries upon me," I protested. "They will +not make me forget that I have not been treated fairly. And Lucetta—oh! +may I not tell Lucetta——"</p> + +<p>"And spoil our entire prospect of solving this mystery? No, madam, you +may not tell Lucetta. When Fate has put such a card into our hands as I +played with that telegram to-day, we would be flying in the face of +Providence not to profit by it. Lucetta's despair makes her bold; upon +that boldness we depend to discover and bring to justice a great +criminal."</p> + +<p>I felt myself turn pale; for that very reason, perhaps, I assumed a +still sterner air, and composedly said:</p> + +<p>"If Mr. Ostrander is in hiding at the Deacon's, and he and his host are +both in your confidence, then the only man whom <i>you</i> can designate in +your thoughts by this dreadful title must be Mr. Trohm."</p> + +<p>I had perhaps hoped he would recoil at this or give some other evidence +of his amazement at an assumption which to me seemed preposterous. But +he did not, and I saw, with what feelings may be imagined, that this +conclusion, which was half bravado with me, had been accepted by him +long enough for no emotion to follow its utterance.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" I exclaimed, "how can you reconcile such a suspicion with the +attitude you have always preserved towards Mr. Trohm?"</p> + +<p>"Madam," said he, "do not criticise my attitude without taking into +account existing appearances. They are undoubtedly in Mr. Trohm's +favor."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear you say so," said I, "I am glad to hear you say so. +Why, it was in response to his appeal that you came to X. at all."</p> + +<p>Mr. Gryce's smile conveyed a reproach which I could not but acknowledge +I amply merited. Had he spent evening after evening at my house, +entertaining me with tales of the devices and the many inconsistencies +of criminals, to be met now by such a puerile disclaimer as this? But +beyond that smile he said nothing; on the contrary, he continued as if I +had not spoken at all.</p> + +<p>"But appearances," he declared, "will not stand before the insight of a +girl like Lucetta. She has marked the man as guilty, and we will give +her the opportunity of proving the correctness of her instinct."</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Trohm's house has been searched, and you have found +nothing—nothing," I argued somewhat feebly.</p> + +<p>"That is the reason we find ourselves forced to yield our judgment to +Lucetta's intuitions," was his quick reply. And smiling upon me with his +blandest air, he obligingly added: "Miss Butterworth is a woman of too +much character not to abide the event with all her accustomed +composure." And with this final suggestion, I was as yet too crushed to +resent, he dismissed me to an afternoon of unparalleled suspense and +many contradictory emotions.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XXXIX" id="XXXIX"></a>XXXIX</h2> + +<h3>UNDER A CRIMSON SKY</h3> + + +<p>When, in the course of events, the current of my thoughts receive a +decided check and I find myself forced to change former conclusions or +habituate myself to new ideas and a fresh standpoint, I do it, as I do +everything else, with determination and a total disregard of my own +previous predilections. Before the afternoon was well over I was ready +for any revelations which might follow Lucetta's contemplated action, +merely reserving a vague hope that my judgment would yet be found +superior to her instinct.</p> + +<p>At five o'clock the diggers began to go home. Nothing had been found +under the soil of Mother Jane's garden, and the excitement of search +which had animated them early in the day had given place to a dull +resentment mainly directed towards the Knollys family, if one could +judge of these men's feelings by the heavy scowls and significant +gestures with which they passed our broken-down gateway.</p> + +<p>By six the last man had filed by, leaving Mr. Gryce free for the work +which lay before him.</p> + +<p>I had retired long before this to my room, where I awaited the hour set +by Lucetta with a feverish impatience quite new to me. As none of us +could eat, the supper table had not been laid, and though I had no means +of knowing what was in store for us, the sombre silence and oppression +under which the whole house lay seemed a portent that was by no means +encouraging.</p> + +<p>Suddenly I heard a knock at my door. Rising hastily, I opened it. Loreen +stood before me, with parted lips and terror in all her looks.</p> + +<p>"Come!" she cried. "Come and see what I have found in Lucetta's room."</p> + +<p>"Then she's gone?" I cried.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she's gone, but come and see what she has left behind her."</p> + +<p>Hastening after Loreen, who was by this time half-way down the hall, I +soon found myself on the threshold of the room I knew to be Lucetta's.</p> + +<p>"She made me promise," cried Loreen, halting to look back at me, "that I +would let her go alone, and that I would not enter the highway till an +hour after her departure. But with these evidences of the extent of her +dread before us, how can we stay in this house?" And dragging me to a +table, she showed me lying on its top a folded paper and two letters. +The folded paper was Lucetta's Will, and the letters were directed +severally to Loreen and to myself with the injunction that they were not +to be read till she had been gone six hours.</p> + +<p>"She has prepared herself for death!" I exclaimed, shocked to my heart's +core, but determinedly hiding it. "But you need not fear any such event. +Is she not accompanied by Mr. Gryce?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know; I do not think so. How could she accomplish her task if +not alone? Miss Butterworth, Miss Butterworth, she has gone to brave Mr. +Trohm, our mother's persecutor and our life-long enemy, thinking, +hoping, believing that in so doing she will rouse his criminal +instincts, if he has them, and so lead to the discovery of his crimes +and the means by which he has been enabled to carry them out so long +undetected. It is noble, it is heroic, it is martyr-like, but—oh! Miss +Butterworth, I have never broken a promise to any one before in all my +life, but I am going to break the one I made her. Come, let us fly after +her! She has her lover's memory, but I have nothing in all the world but +her."</p> + +<p>I immediately turned and hastened down the stairs in a state of +humiliation which should have made ample amends for any show of +arrogance I may have indulged in in my more fortunate moments.</p> + +<p>Loreen followed me, and when we were in the lower hall she gave me a +look and said:</p> + +<p>"My promise was not to enter the highway. Would you be afraid to follow +me by another road—a secret road—all overgrown with thistles and +blackberry bushes which have not been trimmed up for years?"</p> + +<p>I thought of my thin shoes, my neat silk dress, but only to forget them +the next moment.</p> + +<p>"I will go anywhere," said I.</p> + +<p>But Loreen was already too far in advance of me to answer. She was young +and lithe, and had reached the kitchen before I had passed the Flower +Parlor. But when we had sped clear of the house I found that my progress +bade fair to be as rapid as hers, for her agitation was a hindrance to +her, while excitement always brings out my powers and heightens both my +wits and my judgment.</p> + +<p>Our way lay past the stables, from which I expected every minute to see +two or three dogs jump. But William, who had been discreetly sent out of +the way early in the afternoon, had taken Saracen with him, and possibly +the rest, so our passing by disturbed nothing, not even ourselves. The +next moment we were in a field of prickers, through which we both +struggled till we came into a sort of swamp. Here was bad going, but we +floundered on, edging continually toward a distant fence beyond which +rose the symmetrical lines of an orchard—Mr. Trohm's orchard, in which +those pleasant fruits grew which—Bah! should I ever be able to get the +taste of them out of my mouth!</p> + +<p>At a tiny gateway covered with vines, Loreen stopped.</p> + +<p>"I do not believe this has been opened for years, but it must be opened +now." And, throwing her whole weight against it, she burst it through, +and bidding me pass, hastened after me over the trailing branches and +made, without a word, for the winding path we now saw clearly defined on +the edge of the orchard before us.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" exclaimed Loreen, stopping one moment to catch her breath, "I do +not know what I fear or to what our steps will bring us. I only know +that I must hunt for Lucetta till I find her. If there is danger where +she is, I must share it. You can rest here or come farther on."</p> + +<p>I went farther on.</p> + +<p>Suddenly we both started; a man had sprung up from behind the hedgerow +that ran parallel with the fence that surrounded Mr. Trohm's place.</p> + +<p>"Silence!" he whispered, putting his finger on his lips. "If you are +looking for Miss Knollys," he added, seeing us both pause aghast, "she +is on the lawn beyond, talking to Mr. Trohm. If you will step here, you +can see her. She is in no kind of danger, but if she were, Mr. Gryce is +in the first row of trees to the back there, and a call from me——"</p> + +<p>That made me remember my whistle. It was still round my neck, but my +hand, which had instinctively gone to it, fell again in extraordinary +emotion as I realized the situation and compared it with that of the +morning when, blinded by egotism and foolish prejudice in favor of this +man, I ate of his fruit and hearkened to his outrageous addresses.</p> + +<p>"Come!" beckoned Loreen, happily too absorbed in her own emotions to +notice mine. "Let us get nearer. If Mr. Trohm is the wicked man we fear, +there is no telling what the means are which he uses to get rid of his +victims. There was nothing to be found in his house, but who knows where +the danger may lurk, and that it may not be near her now? It was +evidently to dare it she came, to offer herself as a martyr, that we +might know——"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" I whispered, controlling my own fears roused against my will by +this display of terror in this usually calmest of natures. "No danger +can menace her where they stand, unless he is a common assassin and +carries a pistol——"</p> + +<p>"No pistol," murmured the man, who had crept again near us. "Pistols +make a noise. He will not use a pistol."</p> + +<p>"Good God!" I whispered. "<i>You</i> do not share her sister's fears that it +is in the heart of this man to kill Lucetta?"</p> + +<p>"Five strong men have disappeared hereabout," said the fellow, never +moving his eye from the couple before us. "Why not one weak girl?"</p> + +<p>With a cry Loreen started forward. "Run!" she whispered. "Run!"</p> + +<p>But as this word left her lips, a slight movement took place in the belt +of trees where we had been told Mr. Gryce lay in hiding, and we could +see him issue for a moment into sight with his finger like that of his +man laid warningly on his lips. Loreen trembled and drew back, seeing +which, the man beside us pointed to the hedge and whispered softly:</p> + +<p>"There is just room between it and the fence for a person to pass +sideways. If you and this lady want to get nearer to Miss Knollys, you +might take that road. But Mr. Gryce will expect you to be very quiet. +The young lady expressly said, before she came into this place, that she +could do nothing if for any reason Mr. Trohm should suspect they were +not alone."</p> + +<p>"We will be quiet," I assured him, anxious to hide my face, which I felt +twitch at every mention of Mr. Trohm's name. Loreen was already behind +the hedge.</p> + +<p>The evening was one of those which are made for peace. The sun, which +had set in crimson, had left a glow on the branches of the forest which +had not yet faded into the gray of twilight. The lawn, around which we +were skirting, had not lost the mellow brilliancy which made it sparkle, +nor had the cluster of varied-hued hollyhocks which set their +gorgeousness against the neat yellow of the peaceful doorposts, shown +any dimness in their glory, which was on a par with that of the setting +sun. But though I saw all this, it no longer appeared to me desirable. +Lucetta and Lucetta's fate, the mystery and the impossibility of its +being explained out here in the midst of turf and blossoms, filled all +my thoughts, and made me forget my own secret cause for shame and +humiliation.</p> + +<p>Loreen, who had wormed her way along till she crouched nearly opposite +to the place where her sister stood, plucked me by the gown as I +approached her, and, pointing to the hedge, which pressed up so close it +nearly touched our faces, seemed to bid me look through. Searching for a +spot where there was a small opening, I put my eye to this and +immediately drew back.</p> + +<p>"They are moving nearer the gate," I signalled to Loreen, at which she +crept along a few paces, but with a stealth so great that, alert as I +was, I could not hear a twig snap. I endeavored to imitate her, but not +with as much success as I could wish. The sense of horror which had all +at once settled upon me, the supernatural dread of something which I +could not see, but which I felt, had seized me for the first time and +made the ruddy sky and the broad stretch of velvet turf with the shadows +playing over it of swaying tree-tops and clustered oleanders, more +thrilling and awesome to me than the dim halls of the haunted house of +the Knollys family in that midnight hour when I saw a body carried out +for burial amid trouble and hush and a mystery so great it would have +daunted most spirits for the remainder of their lives.</p> + +<p>The very sweetness of the scene made its horror. Never have I had such +sensations, never have I felt so deeply the power of the unseen, yet it +seemed so impossible that anything could happen here, anything which +would explain the total disappearance of several persons at different +times, without a trace of their fate being left to the eye, that I could +but liken my state to that of nightmare, where visions take the place of +realities and often overwhelm them.</p> + +<p>I had pressed too close against the hedge as I struggled with these +feelings, and the sound I made struck me as distinct, if not alarming; +but the tree-tops were rustling overhead, and, while Lucetta might have +heard the hedge-branches crack, her companion gave no evidence of doing +so. We could distinguish what they were saying now, and realizing this, +we stopped moving and gave our whole attention to listening. Mr. Trohm +was speaking. I could hardly believe it was his voice, it had so changed +in tone, nor could I perceive in his features, distorted as they now +were by every evil passion, the once quiet and dignified countenance +which had so lately imposed upon me.</p> + +<p>"Lucetta, my little Lucetta," he was saying, "so she has come to see me, +come to taunt me with the loss of her lover, whom she says I have robbed +her of almost before her eyes! I rob her! How can I rob her or any one +of a man with a voice and arm of his own stronger than mine? Am I a +wizard to dissipate his body in vapor? Yet can you find it in my house +or on my lawn? You are a fool, Lucetta; so are all these men about here +fools! It is in your house——"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" she cried, her slight figure rising till we forgot it was the +feeble Lucetta we were gazing at. "No more accusations directed against +us. It is you who must expect them now. Mr. Trohm, your evil practices +are discovered. To-morrow you will have the police here in earnest. They +did but play with you when they were here before."</p> + +<p>"You child!" he gasped, striving, however, to restrain all evidences of +shock and terror. "Why, who was it called in the police and set them +working in Lost Man's Lane? Was it not I——"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that they might not suspect you, and perhaps that they might +suspect us. But it was useless, Obadiah Trohm. Althea Knollys' children +have been long-suffering, but the limit of their forbearance has been +reached. When you laid your hand upon my lover, you roused a spirit in +me that nothing but your own destruction can satisfy. Where is he, Mr. +Trohm? and where is Silly Rufus and all the rest who have vanished +between Deacon Spear's house and the little home of the cripples on the +highroad? They have asked me this question, but if any one in Lost Man's +Lane can answer, it is you, persecutor of my mother, and traducer of +ourselves, whom I here denounce in face of these skies where God reigns +and this earth where man lives to harry and condemn."</p> + +<p>And then I saw that the instinct of this girl had accomplished what our +united acumen and skill had failed to do. The old man—indeed he seemed +an old man now—cringed, and the wrinkles came out in his face till he +was demoniacally ugly.</p> + +<p>"You viper!" he shrieked. "How dare you accuse me of crime—you whose +mother would have died in jail but for my forbearance? Have you ever +seen me set my foot upon a worm? Look at my fruit and flowers, look at +my home, without a spot or blemish to mar its neatness and propriety. +Can a man who loves these things stomach the destruction of a man, much +less of a silly, yawping boy? Lucetta, you are mad!"</p> + +<p>"Mad or sane, my accusation will have its results, Mr. Trohm. I believe +too deeply in your guilt not to make others do so."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said he, "then you have not done so yet? You believe this and +that, but you have not told any one what your suspicions are?"</p> + +<p>"No," she calmly returned, though her face blanched to the colorlessness +of wax, "I have not said what I think of you yet."</p> + +<p>Oh, the cunning that crept into his face!</p> + +<p>"She has not said. Oh, the little Lucetta, the wise, the careful little +Lucetta!"</p> + +<p>"But I will," she cried, meeting his eye with the courage and constancy +of a martyr, "though I bring destruction upon myself. I will denounce +you and do it before the night has settled down upon us. I have a lover +to avenge, a brother to defend. Besides, the earth should be rid of such +a monster as you."</p> + +<p>"Such a monster as I? Well, my pretty one,"—his voice grown suddenly +wheedling, his face a study of mingled passions,—"we will see about +that. Come just a step nearer, Lucetta. I want to see if you are really +the little girl I used to dandle on my knee."</p> + +<p>They were now near the gateway. They had been moving all this time. His +hand was on the curb of the old well. His face, so turned that it caught +the full glare of the setting sun, leaned toward the girl, exerting a +fascinating influence upon her. She took the step he asked, and before +we could shriek out "Beware!" we saw him bend forward with a sudden +quick motion and then start upright again, while her form, which but an +instant before had stood there in all its frail and inspired beauty, +tottered as if the ground were bending under it, and in another moment +disappeared from our appalled sight, swallowed in some dreadful cavern +that for an instant yawned in the smoothly cut lawn before us, and then +vanished again from sight as if it had never been.</p> + +<p>A shriek from my whistle mingled with a simultaneous cry of agony from +Loreen. We heard Mr. Gryce rush from behind us, but we ourselves found +it impossible to stir, paralyzed as we were by the sight of the old +man's demoniacal delight. He was leaping to and fro over the turf, +holding up his fingers in the red sunset glare.</p> + +<p>"Six!" he shrieked. "Six! and room for two more! Oh, it's a merry life I +lead! Flowers and fruit and love-making" (oh, how I cringed at that!), +"and now and then a little spice like this! But where is my pretty +Lucetta? Surely she was here a moment ago. How could she have vanished, +then, so quickly? I do not see her form amid the trees, there is no +trace of her presence upon the lawn, and if they search the house from +top to bottom and from bottom to top they will find nothing of her—no, +not so much as a print of her footstep or the scent of the violets she +so often wears tucked into her hair."</p> + +<p>These last words, uttered in a different voice from the rest, gave the +clue to the whole situation. We saw, even while we all bounded forward +to the rescue of the devoted maiden, that he was one of those maniacs +who have perfect control over themselves and pass for very decent sort +of men except in the moment of triumph; and, noting his look of sinister +delight, perceived that half his pleasure and almost his sole reward for +the horrible crimes he had perpetrated, was in the mystery surrounding +his victims and the entire immunity from suspicion which up to this time +he had enjoyed.</p> + +<p>Meantime Mr. Gryce had covered the wretch with his pistol, and his man, +who succeeded in reaching the place even sooner than ourselves, hampered +as we were by the almost impenetrable hedge behind which we had +crouched, tried to lift the grass-covered lid we could faintly discern +there. But this was impossible until I, with almost superhuman +self-possession, considering the imperative nature of the emergency, +found the spring hidden in the well-curb which worked the deadly +mechanism. A yell from the writhing creature cowering under the +detective's pistol guided me unconsciously in its action, and in another +moment we saw the fatal lid tip and disclose what appeared to be the +remains of a second well, long ago dried up and abandoned for the other.</p> + +<p>The rescue of Lucetta followed. As she had fainted in falling she had +not suffered much, and soon we had the supreme delight of seeing her +eyes unclose.</p> + +<p>"Ah," she murmured, in a voice whose echo pierced to every heart save +that of the guilty wretch now lying handcuffed on the sward, "I thought +I saw Albert! He was not dead, and I——"</p> + +<p>But here Mr. Gryce, with an air at once contrite and yet strangely +triumphant, interposed his benevolent face between hers and her weeping +sister's and whispered something in her ear which turned her pallid +cheek to a glowing scarlet. Rising up, she threw her arms around his +neck and let him lift her. As he carried her—where was his rheumatism +now?—out of those baleful grounds and away from the reach of the +maniac's mingled laughs and cries, her face was peace itself. But +his—well, his was a study.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XL" id="XL"></a>XL</h2> + +<h3>EXPLANATIONS</h3> + + +<p>The hour we all spent together late that night in the old house was +unlike any hour which that place had seen for years. Mr. Ostrander, +Lucetta, Loreen, William, Mr. Gryce, and myself, all were there, and as +an especial grace, Saracen was allowed to enter, that there might not be +a cloud upon a single face there assembled. Though it is a small matter, +I will add that this dog persisted in lying down by my side, not +yielding even to the wiles of his master, whose amusement over this fact +kept him good-natured to the last adieu.</p> + +<p>There were too few candles in the house to make it bright, but Lucetta's +unearthly beauty, the peace in Loreen's soft eyes, made us forget the +sombreness of our surroundings and the meagreness of the entertainment +Hannah attempted to offer us. It was the promise of coming joy, and +when, our two guests departed, I bade good-night to the girls in their +grim upper hall, it was with feelings which found their best expression +in the two letters I hastened to write as soon as I gained the refuge of +my own apartment. I will admit you sufficiently into my confidence to +let you read those letters. The first of them ran thus:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Olive</span>:</p> + +<p>"To make others happy is the best way to forget our own +misfortunes. A sudden wedding is to take place in this house. +Order at once for me from the shops you know me to be in the +habit of patronizing, a wedding gown of dainty white taffeta [I +did this not to recall too painfully to herself the wedding +dress I helped her buy, and which was, as you may remember, of +creamy satin], with chiffon trimmings, and a wedding veil of +tulle. Add to this a dress suitable for ocean travel and a +half-dozen costumes adapted to a southern climate. Let +everything be suitable for a delicate but spirited girl who has +seen trouble, but who is going to be happy now if a little +attention and money can make her so. Do not spare expense, yet +show no extravagance, for she is a shy bird, easily frightened. +The measurements you will find enclosed; also those of another +young lady, her sister, who must also be supplied with a white +dress, the material of which, however, had better be of crape.</p> + +<p>"All these things must be here by Wednesday evening, my own +best dress included. On Saturday evening you may look for my +return. I shall bring the latter young lady with me, so your +present loneliness will be forgotten in the pleasure of +entertaining an agreeable guest. Faithfully yours,</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Amelia Butterworth.</span>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>The second letter was a longer and more important one. It was directed +to the president of the company which had proposed to send Mr. Ostrander +to South America. In it I related enough of the circumstances which had +kept Mr. Ostrander in X. to interest him in the young couple personally, +and then I told him that if he would forgive Mr. Ostrander this delay +and allow him to sail with his young bride by the next steamer, I myself +would undertake to advance whatever sums might have been lost by this +change of arrangement.</p> + +<p>I did not know then that Mr. Gryce had already made this matter good +with this same gentleman.</p> + +<p>The next morning we all took a walk in the lane. (I say nothing about +the night. If I did not choose to sleep, or if I had any cause not to +feel quite as elevated in spirit as the young people about me, there is +surely no reason why I should dwell upon it with you or even apologize +for a weakness which you will regard, I hope, as an exception setting +off my customary strength.)</p> + +<p>Now a walk in this lane was an event. To feel at liberty to stroll among +its shadows without fear, to know that the danger had been so located +that we all felt free to inhale the autumn air and to enjoy the beauties +of the place without a thought of peril lurking in its sweetest nooks +and most attractive coverts, gave to this short half-hour a distinctive +delight aptly expressed by Loreen when she said:</p> + +<p>"I never knew the place was so beautiful. Why, I think I can be happy +here now." At which Lucetta grew pensive, till I roused her by saying:</p> + +<p>"So much for a constitutional, girls. Now we must to work. This house, +as you see it now, has to be prepared for a wedding. William, your +business will be to see that these grounds are put in as good order as +possible in the short time allotted to you. I will bear the expense, and +Loreen——"</p> + +<p>But William had a word to say for himself.</p> + +<p>"Miss Butterworth," said he, "you're a right good sort of woman, as +Saracen has found out, and we, too, in these last few plaguy days. But +I'm not such a bad lot either, and if I do like my own way, which may +not be other people's way, and if I am sometimes short with the girls +for some of their d—d nonsense, I have a little decency about me, too, +and I promise to fix these grounds, and out of my own money, too. Now +that nine tenths of our income does not have to go abroad, we'll have +chink enough to let us live in a respectable manner once more in a place +where one horse, if he's good enough, will give a fellow a standing and +make him the envy of those who, for some other pesky reasons, may think +themselves called upon to fight shy of him. I don't begrudge the old +place a few dollars, especially as I mean to live and die in it; so look +out, you three women folks, and work as lively as you can on the inside +of the old rookery, or the slickness of the outside will put you to open +shame, and that would never please Loreen, nor, as I take it, Miss +Butterworth either."</p> + +<p>It was a challenge we were glad to accept, especially as from the number +of persons we now saw come flocking into the lane, it was very apparent +that we should experience no further difficulty in obtaining any help we +might need to carry out our undertakings.</p> + +<p>Meantime my thoughts were not altogether concentrated upon these +pleasing plans for Lucetta's benefit. There were certain points yet to +be made clear in the matter just terminated, and there was a confession +for me to make, without which I could not face Mr. Gryce with all that +unwavering composure which our peculiar relations seemed to demand.</p> + +<p>The explanations came first. They were volunteered by Mr. Gryce, whom I +met in the course of the morning at Mother Jane's cottage. That old +crone had been perfectly happy all night, sleeping with the coin in her +hand and waking to again devour it with her greedy but loving eyes. As I +was alternately watching her and Mr. Gryce, who was directing with his +hand the movements of the men who had come to smooth down her garden and +make it presentable again, the detective spoke:</p> + +<p>"I suppose you have found it difficult, in the light of these new +discoveries, to explain to yourself how Mother Jane happened to have +those trinkets from the peddler's pack, and also how the ring, which you +very naturally thought must have been entrusted to the dove by Mr. +Chittenden himself, came to be about its neck when it flew home that day +of Mr. Chittenden's disappearance. Madam, we think old Mother Jane must +have helped herself out of the peddler's pack before it was found in the +woods there back of her hut, and of the other matter our explanation is +this:</p> + +<p>"One day a young man, equipped for travelling, paused for a glass of +water at the famous well in Mr. Trohm's garden just as Mother Jane's +pigeons were picking up the corn scattered for them by the former, whose +tastes are not confined to the cultivation of fruits and flowers, but +extend to dumb animals, to whom he is uniformly kind. The young man wore +a ring, and, being nervous, was fiddling with it as he talked to the +pleasant old gentleman who was lowering the bucket for him. As he +fiddled with it, the earth fell from under him, and as the daylight +vanished above his head, the ring flew from his up-thrown hand, and lay, +the only token of his now blotted-out existence, upon the emerald sward +he had but a moment before pressed with his unsuspicious feet. It +burned—this ruby burned like a drop of blood in the grass, when that +demon came again to his senses, and being a tell-tale evidence of crime +in the eyes of one who had allowed nothing to ever speak against him in +these matters, he stared at it as at a deadly thing directed against +himself and to be got rid of at once and by means which by no +possibility could recoil back upon himself as its author.</p> + +<p>"The pigeons stalking near offered to his abnormally acute understanding +the only solution which would leave him absolutely devoid of fear. He +might have swung open the lid of the well once more and flung it after +its owner, but this meant an aftermath of experience from which he +shrank, his delight being in the thought that the victims he saw vanish +before his eyes were so many encumbrances wiped off the face of the +earth by a sweep of the hand. To see or hear them again would be +destructive of this notion. He preferred the subtler way and to take +advantage of old Mother Jane's characteristics, so he caught one of the +pigeons (he has always been able to lure birds into his hands), and +tying the ring around the neck of the bird with a blade of grass plucked +up from the highway, he let it fly, and so was rid of the bauble which +to Mother Jane's eyes, of course, was a direct gift from the heavens +through which the bird had flown before lighting on her doorstep."</p> + +<p>"Wonderful!" I exclaimed, almost overwhelmed with humiliation, but +preserving a brave front. "What invention and what audacity!—the +invention and the audacity of a man totally irresponsible for his deeds, +was it not?" I asked. "There is no doubt, is there, about his being an +absolute maniac?"</p> + +<p>"No, madam." What a relief I felt at that word! "Since we entrapped him +yesterday and he found himself fully discovered, he has lost all grip +upon himself and fills the room we put him in with the unmistakable +ravings of a madman. It was through these I learned the facts I have +just mentioned."</p> + +<p>I drew a deep breath. We were standing in the sight of several men, and +their presence there seemed intolerable. Unconsciously I began to walk +away. Unconsciously Mr. Gryce followed me. At the end of several paces +we both stopped. We were no longer visible to the crowd, and I felt I +could speak the words I had been burning to say ever since I saw the +true nature of Mr. Trohm's character exposed.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Gryce," said I, flushing scarlet—which I here solemnly declare is +something which has not happened to me before in years, and if I can +help it shall never happen to me again,—"I am interested in what you +say, because yesterday, at his own gateway, Mr. Trohm proposed to me, +and——"</p> + +<p>"You did not accept him?"</p> + +<p>"No. What do you think I am made of, Mr. Gryce? I did not accept him, +but I made the refusal a gentle one, and—this is not easy work, Mr. +Gryce," I interrupted myself to say with suitable grimness—"the same +thing took place between me and Deacon Spear, and to him I gave a +response such as I thought his presumption warranted. The discrimination +does not argue well for my astuteness, Mr. Gryce. You see, I crave no +credit that I do not deserve. Perhaps you cannot understand that, but it +is a part of my nature."</p> + +<p>"Madam," said he, and I must own I thought his conduct perfect, "had I +not been as completely deceived as yourself I might find words of +criticism for this possibly unprofessional partiality. But when an old +hand like myself can listen to the insinuations of a maniac, and repose, +as I must say I did repose, more or less confidence in the statements he +chose to make me, and which were true enough as to the facts he +mentioned, but wickedly false and preposterously wrong in suggestion, I +can have no words of blame for a woman who, whatever her understanding +and whatever her experience, necessarily has seen less of human nature +and its incalculable surprises. As to the more delicate matter you have +been good enough to confide to me, madam, I have but one remark to make. +With such an example of womanhood suddenly brought to their notice in +such a wild as this, how could you expect them, sane or insane, to do +otherwise than they did? I know many a worthy man who would like to +follow their example." And with a bow that left me speechless, Mr. Gryce +laid his hand on his heart and softly withdrew.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE"></a>EPILOGUE</h2> + +<h3>SOME STRAY LEAFLETS FROM AN OLD DIARY OF ALTHEA KNOLLYS, FOUND BY ME IN +THE PACKET LEFT IN MY CHARGE BY HER DAUGHTER LUCETTA.</h3> + + +<p>I never thought I should do so foolish a thing as begin a diary. When in +my boarding-school days (which I am very glad to be rid of) I used to +see Meeley Butterworth sit down every night of her life over a little +book which she called the repository of her daily actions, I thought +that if ever I reached that point of imbecility I would deserve to have +fewer lovers and more sense, just as she so frequently advised me to. +And yet here I am, pencil in hand, jotting down the nothings of the +moment, and with every prospect of continuing to do so for two weeks at +least. For (why was I born such a chatterbox!) I have seen my fate, and +must talk to some one about him, if only to myself, nature never having +meant me to keep silence on any living topic that interests me.</p> + +<p>Yes, with lovers in Boston, lovers in New York, and a most determined +suitor on the other side of our own home-walls in Peekskill, I have +fallen victim to the grave face and methodical ways of a person I need +not name, since he is the only gentleman in this whole town, except—But +I won't except anybody. Charles Knollys has no peer here or anywhere, +and this I am ready to declare, after only one sight of his face and one +look from his eye, though to no one but you, my secret, non-committal +confidant—for to acknowledge to any human being that my admiration +could be caught, or my heart touched, by a person who had not sued two +years at my feet, would be to abdicate an ascendency I am so accustomed +to I could not see it vanish without pain. Besides, who knows how I +shall feel to-morrow? Meeley Butterworth never shows any hesitation in +uttering her opinion either of men or things, but then her opinion never +changes, whilst mine is a very thistle-down, blowing hither and thither +till I cannot follow its wanderings myself. It is one of my charms, +certain fools say, but that is nonsense. If my cheeks lacked color and +my eyes were without sparkle, or even if I were two inches taller +instead of being the tiniest bit of mortal flesh to be found amongst all +the young ladies of my age in our so-called society, I doubt if the +lightness of my mind would meet with the approbation of even the warmest +woman-lovers of this time. As it is, it just passes, and sometimes, as +to-night, for instance, when I can hardly see to inscribe these lines on +this page for the vision of two grave, if not quietly reproving eyes +which float between it and me, I almost wish I had some of Meeley's +responsible characteristics, instead of being the airiest, merriest, and +most volatile being that ever tried to laugh down the grandeur of this +dreary old house with its century of memories.</p> + +<p>Ah! that allusion has given me something to say. This house. What is +there about it except its size to make a stranger like me look back +continually over her shoulder in going down the long halls, or even when +nestling comfortably by the great wood-fire in the immense drawing-room? +<i>I</i> am not one of your fanciful ones; but I can no more help doing this, +than I can help wishing Judge Knollys lived in a less roomy mansion with +fewer echoing corners in its innumerable passages. <i>I</i> like brightness +and cheer, at least in my surroundings. If I must have gloom, or a +seriousness which some would call gloom, let me have it in individuals +where there is some prospect of a blithe, careless-hearted little midget +effecting a change, and not in great towering walls and endless floors +which no amount of sunshine or laughter could ever render homelike, or +even comfortable.</p> + +<p>But there! If one has the man, one must have the home, so I had better +say no more against the home till I am quite sure I do not want the man. +For—Well, well, I am not a fool, but I <i>did</i> hear something just then, +a something which makes me tremble yet, though I have spent five good +minutes trilling the gayest songs I know.</p> + +<p>I think it is very inconsiderate of the witches to bother thus a +harmless mite like myself, who only asks for love, light, and money +enough to buy a ribbon or a jewel when the fancy takes her, which is not +as often as my enemies declare. And now a question! Why are my enemies +always to be found among the girls, and among the plainest of them too? +I never heard a man say anything against me, though I have sometimes +surprised a look on their faces (I saw it to-day) which might signify +reproof if it were not accompanied by a smile showing anything but +displeasure.</p> + +<p>But this is a digression, as Meeley would say. What I want to do, but +which I seem to find it very difficult to do, is to tell how I came to +be here, and what I have seen since I came. First, then, to be very +short about the matter, I am here because the old folks—that is, my +father and Mr. Knollys, have decided Charles and I should know each +other. In thought, I courtesy to the decision; I think we ought to too. +For while many other men are handsomer or better known, or have more +money, alas! than he, he alone has a way of drawing up to one's side +with an air that captivates the eye and sets the heart trembling, a +heart, moreover, that never knew before it could tremble, except in the +presence of great worldly prosperity and beautiful, beautiful things. +So, as this experience is new, I am dutifully obliged for the excitement +it gives me, and am glad to be here, awesome as the place is, and +destitute of any such pleasures as I have been accustomed to in the gay +cities where I have hitherto spent most of my time.</p> + +<p>But there! I am rambling again. I have come to X., as you now see, for +good and sufficient reasons, and while this house is one of consequence +and has been the resort of many notable people, it is a little lonesome, +our only neighbor being a young man who has a fine enough appearance, +but who has already shown his admiration of me so plainly—of course he +was in the road when I drove up to the house—that I lost all interest +in him at once, such a nonsensical liking at first sight being, as I +take it, a tribute only to my audacious little travelling bonnet and the +curl or two which will fall out on my cheek when I move my head about +too quickly, as I certainly could not be blamed for doing, in driving +into a place where I was expected to make myself happy for two weeks.</p> + +<p>He, then, is out of these chronicles. When I say his name is Obadiah +Trohm, you will probably be duly thankful. But he is not as stiff and +biblical as his name would lead you to expect. On the contrary, he is +lithe, graceful, and suave to a point which makes Charles Knollys' +judicial face a positive relief to the eye and such little understanding +as has been accorded me.</p> + +<p>I cannot write another word. It is twelve o'clock, and though I have the +cosiest room in the house, all chintz and decorated china, I find myself +listening and peering just as I did down-stairs in their great barn of a +drawing-room. I wonder if any very dreadful things ever happened in this +house? I will ask old Mr. Knollys to-morrow, or—or Mr. Charles.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I am sorry I was so inquisitive; for the stories Charles told me—I +thought I had better not trouble the old gentleman—have only served to +people the shadows of this rambling old house with figures of whose +acquaintance I am likely to be more or less shy. One tale in particular +gave me the shivers. It was about a mother and daughter who both loved +the same man (it seems incredible, girls so seldom seeing with the eyes +of their mothers), and it was the daughter who married him, while the +mother, broken-hearted, fled from the wedding and was driven up to the +great door, here, in a coach, dead. They say that the coach still +travels the road just before some calamity to the family,—a phantom +coach which floats along in shadow, turning the air about it to mist +that chills the marrow in the bones of the unfortunate who sees it. I am +going to see it myself some day, the real coach, I mean, in which this +tragic event took place. It is still in the stable, Charles tells me. I +wonder if I will have the courage to sit where that poor devoted mother +breathed out her miserable existence. I shall endeavor to do so if only +to defy the fate which seems to be closing in upon me.</p> + +<p>Charles is an able lawyer, but his argument in favor of close bonnets +<i>versus</i> bewitching little pokes with a rose or two in front, was very +weak, I thought, to-day. He seemed to think so himself, after a while; +for when, as the only means of convincing him of the weakness of the +cause he was advocating, I ran up-stairs and put on a poke similar to +the aforesaid, he retracted at once and let the case go by default. For +which I, and the poke, made suitable acknowledgments, to the great +amusement of papa Knollys, who was on my side from the first.</p> + +<p>Not much going on to-day. Yet I have never felt merrier. Oh, ye hideous, +bare old walls! Won't I make you ring if——</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I won't have it! I won't have that smooth, persistent hypocrite pushing +his way into my presence, when my whole heart and attention belong to a +man who would love me if he only could get his own leave to do so. +Obadiah Trohm has been here to-day, on one pretext or another, three +times. Once he came to bring some very choice apples—as if I cared for +apples! The second time he had a question of great importance, no doubt, +to put to Charles, and as Charles was in my company, the whole interview +lasted, let us say, a good half-hour at least. The third time he came, +it was to see <i>me</i>, which, as it was now evening, meant talk, talk, talk +in the great drawing-room, with just a song interpolated now and then, +instead of a cosy chat in the window-seat of the pretty Flower Parlor, +with only one pair of ears to please and one pair of eyes to watch. +Master Trohm was intrusive, and, if no one felt it but myself, it is +because Charles Knollys has set himself up an ideal of womanhood to +which I am a contradiction. But that will not affect the end. A woman +may be such a contradiction and yet win, if her heart is in the struggle +and she has, besides, a certain individuality of her own which appeals +to the eye and heart if not to the understanding. I do not despair of +seeing Charles Knollys' forehead taking a very deep frown at sight of +his handsome and most attentive neighbor. Heigho! why don't I answer +Meeley Butterworth's last letter? Am I ashamed to tell her that I have +to limit my effusion to just four pages because I have commenced a +diary?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I declare I begin to regard it a misfortune to have dimples. I never +have regarded it so before when I have seen man after man succumb to +them, but <i>now</i> they have become my bane, for they attract two admirers, +just at the time they should attract but one, and it is upon the wrong +man they flash the oftenest; why, I leave it to all true lovers to +explain. As a consequence, Master Trohm is beginning to assume an air of +superiority, and Charles, who may not believe in dimples, but who on +that very account, perhaps, seems to be always on the lookout for them, +shrinks more or less into the background, as is not becoming in a man +with so many claims to respect, if not to love. <i>I</i> want to feel that +each one of these precious fourteen days contains all that it can of +delight and satisfaction, and how can I when Obadiah—oh, the charming +and romantic name!—holds my crewels, instead of Charles, and whispers +words which, coming from other lips, would do more than waken my +dimples!</p> + +<p>But if I must have a suitor, just when a suitor is not wanted, let me at +least make him useful. Charles shall read his own heart in this man's +passion.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I don't know why, but I have taken a dislike to the Flower Parlor. It +now vies with the great drawing-room in my disregard. Yesterday, in +crossing it, I felt a chill, so sudden and so penetrating, that I +irresistibly thought of the old saying, "Some one is walking over my +grave." <i>My grave!</i> where lies it, and why should I feel the shudder of +it now? Am I destined to an early death? The bounding life in my veins +says no. But I never again shall like that room. It has made me think.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I have not only sat in the old coach, but I had (let me drop the words +slowly, they are so precious) I—I have had—a <i>kiss</i>—given me there. +Charles gave me this kiss; he could not help it. I was sitting on the +seat in front, in a sort of mock mirth he was endeavoring to frown upon, +when suddenly I glanced up and our eyes met, and—He says it was the +sauciness of my dimples (oh, those old dimples! they seem to have stood +me in good stead after all); but I say it was my sincere affection which +drew him, for he stooped like a man forgetful of everything in the whole +wide world but the little trembling, panting being before him, and gave +me one of those caresses which seals a woman's fate forever, and made +me, the feather-brained and thoughtless coquette, a slave to this +large-minded and true-hearted man for all my life hereafter.</p> + +<p>Why I should be so happy over this event is beyond my understanding. +That he should be in the seventh heaven of delight is only to be +expected, but that I should find myself tripping through this gloomy old +house like one treading on air is a mystery, to the elucidation of which +I can only give my dimples. My reason can make nothing out of it. I, who +thought of nothing short of a grand establishment in Boston, money, +servants, and a husband who would love me blindly whatever my faults, +have given my troth—you will say my lips, but the one means the +other—to a man who will never be known outside of his own county, never +be rich, never be blind even, for he frowns upon me as often as he +smiles, and, worst of all, who lives in a house so vast and so full of +tragic suggestion that it might well awaken doleful anticipations in +much more serious-minded persons than myself.</p> + +<p>And yet I am happy, so happy that I have even attempted to make the +acquaintance of the grim old portraits and weak pastels which line the +walls of many of these bedrooms. Old Mr. Knollys caught me courtesying +just now before one of these ancestral beauties, whose face seemed to +hold a faint prophecy of my own, and perceiving by my blushes that this +was something more than a mere childish freak on my part, he chucked me +under the chin and laughingly asked, how long it was likely to be before +he might have the honor of adding my pretty face to the collection. +Which should have made me indignant, only I am not in an indignant mood +just now.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Why have I been so foolish? Why did I not let my over-fond neighbor know +from the beginning that I detested him, instead of—But what have I done +anyway? A smile, a nod, a laughing word mean nothing. When one has eyes +which persist in dancing in spite of one's every effort to keep them +demure, men who become fools are apt to call one a coquette, when a +little good sense would teach them that the woman who smiles always has +some other way of showing her regard to the man she really favors. I +could not help being on merry terms with Mr. Trohm, if only to hide the +effect another's presence has on me. But he thinks otherwise, and to-day +I had ample reason for seeing why his good looks and easy manners have +invariably awakened distrust in me rather than admiration. Master Trohm +is vindictive, and I should be afraid of him, if I had not observed in +him the presence of another passion which will soon engross all his +attention and make him forget me as soon as ever I become Charles' wife. +Money is his idol, and as fortune seems to favor him, he will soon be +happy in the mere pleasure of accumulation. But this is not relating +what happened to-day.</p> + +<p>We were walking in the shrubbery (by <i>we</i> I naturally mean Charles and +myself), and he was saying things which made me at the same time happy +and a bit serious, when I suddenly felt myself under the spell of some +baleful influence that filled me with a dismay I could neither +understand nor escape from.</p> + +<p>As this could not proceed from Charles, I turned to look about me, when +I encountered the eyes of Obadiah Trohm, who was leaning on the fence +separating his grounds from those of Mr. Knollys, looking directly at +us. If I flinched at this surveillance, it was but the natural +expression of my indignation. His face wore a look calculated to +frighten any one, and though he did not respond to the gesture I made +him, I felt that my only chance of escaping a scene was to induce +Charles to leave me before he should see what I saw in the lowering +countenance of his intrusive neighbor. As the situation demanded +self-possession and the exercise of a ready wit, and as these are +qualities in which I am not altogether deficient, I succeeded in +carrying out my intention sooner even than I expected. Charles hurried +from my presence at the first word, and proceeded towards the house +without seeing Trohm, and I, quivering with dread, turned towards the +man whom I felt, rather than saw, approaching me.</p> + +<p>He met me with a look I shall never forget. I have had lovers—too many +of them,—and this is not the first man I have been compelled to meet +with rebuff and disdain, but never in the whole course of my none too +extended existence have I been confronted by such passion or overwhelmed +with such bitter recrimination. He seemed like a man beside himself, yet +he was quiet, too quiet, and while his voice did not rise above a +whisper, and he approached no nearer than the demands of courtesy +required, he produced so terrifying an effect upon me that I longed to +cry for help, and would have done so, but that my throat closed with +fright, and I could only gurgle forth a remonstrance, too faint even for +him to hear.</p> + +<p>"You have played with a man's best feelings," he said. "You have led me +to believe that I had only to speak to have you for my own. Are you +simply foolish, or are you wicked? Did you care for me at all, or was it +only your wish to increase the number of men in your train? This one" +(here his hand pointed quiveringly towards the house) "has enjoyed a +happiness denied me. His hand has touched yours, his lips—" Here his +words became almost unintelligible till his purpose gave him strength, +and he cried: "But notwithstanding this, notwithstanding any vows you +may have exchanged, I have claims upon you that I will not yield. I who +have loved no woman before you, will have such a hand in your fate that +you will never be able to separate yourself from the influence I shall +exert over you. I will not intrude between you and your lover; I will +not affect dislike or disturb your outer life with any vain display of +my hatred or my passion, but I will work upon your secret thoughts, and +create a slowly increasing dread in the inner sanctuary of your heart +till you wish you had called up the deadliest of serpents in your +pathway rather than the latent fury of Obadiah Trohm. You are a girl +now; when you are married and become a mother, you will understand me. +For the present I leave you. The shadow of this old house which has +never seen much happiness within it will soon rest upon your thoughtless +head. What that will not do, your own inherent weakness will. The woman +who trifles with a strong man's heart has a flaw in her nature which +will work out her own destruction in time. I can afford to let you enjoy +your prospective honeymoon in peace. Afterwards—" He cast a threatening +look towards the decaying structure behind me, and was silent. But that +silence did not unloose my tongue. I was absolutely speechless.</p> + +<p>"Ten brides have crossed yonder threshold," he presently went on in a +low musing tone freighted with horrible fatality. "One—and she was the +girl whose mother was driven up to these doors dead—lived to take her +grandchildren on her knees. The rest died early, and most of them +unhappily. Oh, I have studied the traditions of your future home! <i>You</i> +will live, but of all the brides who have triumphed in the honorable +name of Knollys, you will lead the saddest life and meet the gloomiest +end notwithstanding you stand before me now, with loose locks flying in +the wind, and a heart so gay that even my despair can barely pale the +roses on your cheek."</p> + +<p>This was the raving of a madman. I recognized it as such, and took a +little heart. How could he see into my future? How could he prophesy +evil to one over whom he will have no control? to one watched over and +beloved by a man like Charles? He is a dreamer, a fanatic. His talk +about the flaw in my nature is nonsense, and as for the fate lowering +over my head, in the shadows falling from the toppling old house in +which I am likely to take up my abode—that is only frenzy, and I would +be unworthy of happiness to heed it. As I realized this, my indignation +grew, and, uttering a few contemptuous words, I was hurrying away when +he stopped me with a final warning.</p> + +<p>"Wait!" he said, "women like you cannot keep either their joys or their +miseries to themselves. But I advise you not to take Charles Knollys +into your confidence. If you do, a duel will follow, and if I have not +the legal acumen of your intended, I have an eye and a hand before which +he must fall, if our passions come to an issue. So beware! never while +you live betray what has passed between us at this interview, unless the +weariness of a misplaced affection should come to you, and with it the +desire to be rid of your husband."</p> + +<p>A frightful threat which, unfortunately perhaps, has sealed my lips. Oh, +why should such monsters live!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I have been all through the house to-day with old Mr. Knollys. Every +room was opened for my inspection, and I was bidden to choose which +should be refurnished for my benefit. It was a gruesome trip, from which +I have returned to my own little nook of chintz as to a refuge. Great +rooms which for years have been the abode of spiders, are not much to my +liking, but I chose out two which at least have fireplaces in them, and +these are to be made as cheerful as circumstances will permit. I hope +when I again see them, it will not be by the light of a waning November +afternoon, when the few leaves still left to flutter from the trees +blow, soggy and wet, against the panes of the solitary windows, or lie +in sodden masses at the foot of the bare trunks, which cluster so +thickly on the lawn as to hide all view of the highroad. I was meant for +laughter and joy, flashing lights, and the splendors of ballrooms. Why +have I chosen, then, to give up the great world and settle down in this +grimmest of grim old houses in a none too lively village? I think it is +because I love Charles Knollys, and so, no matter how my heart sinks in +the dim shadows that haunt every spot I stray into, I will be merry, +will think of Charles instead of myself, and so live down the unhappy +prophecies uttered by the wretch who, with his venomous words, has +robbed the future of whatever charm my love was likely to cast upon it. +The fact that this man left the town to-day for a lengthy trip abroad +should raise my spirits more than it has. If we were going now, Charles +and I—But why dream of a Paradise whose doors remain closed to you? It +is here our honeymoon is destined to be passed; within these walls and +in sight of the bare boughs rattling at this moment against the panes.</p> + +<p>I made a misstatement when I said that I had gone into all the rooms of +the house this afternoon. <i>I did not enter the Flower Parlor.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I had been married a month and had, as I thought, no further use for +this foolish diary. So one evening when Charles was away, I attempted to +burn it.</p> + +<p>But when I had flung myself down before the blazing logs of my bedroom +fire (I was then young enough to love to crouch for hours on the rug in +my lonely room, seeking for all I delighted in and longed for in the +glowing embers), some instinct, or was it a premonition? made me +withhold from destruction a record which coming events might make worthy +of preservation. That was five years ago, and to-day I have reopened the +secret drawer in which this simple book has so long lain undisturbed, +and am once more penning lines destined perhaps to pass into oblivion +together with the others. Why? I do not know. There is no change in my +married life. I have no trouble, no anxiety, no reason for dread; +yet—Well, well, some women are made for the simple round of domestic +duties, and others are as out of place in the nursery and kitchen as +butterflies in a granary. I want just the things Charles cannot give me. +I have home, love, children, all that some women most crave, and while I +idolize my husband and know of nothing sweeter than my babies, I yet +have spells of such wretched weariness, that it would be a relief to me +to be a little less comfortable if only I might enjoy a more brilliant +existence. But Charles is not rich; sometimes I think he is poor, and +however much I may desire change, I cannot have it. Heigho! and, what is +worse, I haven't had a new dress in a year; I who so love dress, and +become it so well! Why, if it is my lot to go shabby, and tie up my +dancing ringlets with faded ribbons, was I made with the figure of a +fairy and given a temperament which, without any effort on my part, +makes me, diminutive as I am, the centre of every group I enter? If I +were plain, or shy, or even self-contained, I might be happy here, but +now—There! there! I will go kiss little William, and lay Loreen's baby +arm about my neck and see if the wicked demons will fly away. Charles is +too busy for me to intrude upon him in that horrid Flower Parlor.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I was never superstitious till I entered this house; but now I believe +in every sort of thing a sane woman should not. Yesterday, after a +neglect of five years, I brought out my diary. To-day I have to record +in it that there was a reason for my doing so. Obadiah Trohm has +returned home. I saw him this morning leaning over his fence in the same +place and in very much the same attitude as on that day when he +frightened me so, a month before my wedding.</p> + +<p>But he did not frighten me to-day. He merely looked at me very sharply +and with a less offensive admiration than in the early days of our first +acquaintance. At which I made him my best courtesy. I was not going to +remind him of the past in our new relations, and he, thankful perhaps +for this, took off his hat with a smile I am trying even yet to explain +to myself. Then we began to talk. He had travelled everywhere and I had +been nowhere; he wore the dress and displayed the manners of the great +world, while I had only a hungry desire to do the same. As for fashion, +I needed all my beauty and the fading sparkle of my old animation to +enable me to hold up my head before him.</p> + +<p>But as for liking him, I did not. I could admire his appearance, but he +himself attracted me no more than when he had words of angry fury on his +tongue. He is a gentleman, and one who has seen the world, but in other +ways he is no more to be compared with my Charles than his pert new +house, built in his absence, with the grand old structure with whose +fatality he once threatened me.</p> + +<p>I do not think he wants to threaten me with disaster now. Time closes +such wounds as his very effectually. I wish we had some of his money.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I have always heard that the wives of the Knollys, whatever their +misfortune, have always loved their husbands. I do not think I am any +exception to the rule. When Charles has leisure to give me an hour from +his musty old books, the place here seems lively enough, and the +children's voices do not sound so shrill. But these hours are so +infrequent. If it were not for Mr. Trohm's journal (Did I mention that +he had lent me a journal of his travels?) I should often eat my heart +out with loneliness. I am beginning to like the man better as I follow +him from city to city of the old world. If he had ever mentioned me in +its pages, I would not read another line in it, but he seems to have +expended both his love and spite when he bade me farewell in the garden +underlying these bleak old walls.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I am becoming as well acquainted with Mr. Trohm's handwriting as with my +own. I read and read and read in his journal, and only stop when the +dreaded midnight hour comes with its ghostly suggestions and the +unaccountable noises which make this old dwelling so uncanny. Charles +often finds me curled up over this book, and when he does he sighs. Why?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I have been teaching Loreen to dance. Oh, how merry it has made me! I +think I will be happier now. We have the large upper hall to take steps +in, and when she makes a misstep we laugh, and that is a good sound to +hear in this old place. If I could only have a little money to buy her a +fresh frock and some ribbons, I would feel perfectly satisfied; but I do +believe Charles is getting poorer and poorer every day; the place costs +so much to keep up, he says, and when his father died there were debts +to be paid which leaves us, his innocent inheritors, very straitened. +Master Trohm has no such difficulties. He has money enough. But I don't +like the man for all that, polite as he is to us all. He seems to quite +adore Loreen, and as to William, he pets him till I feel almost +uncomfortable at times.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>What shall I do? I am invited to New York, <i>I</i>, and Charles says I may +go, too—only I have nothing to wear. Oh, for some money! a little +money! it is my right to have some money; but Charles tells me he can +only spare enough to pay my expenses, that my Sunday frock looks very +well, and that, even if it did not, I am pretty enough to do without +fine clothes, and other nonsense like that,—sweet enough, but totally +without point, in fact. If I am pretty, all the more I need a little +finery to set me off, and, besides, to go to New York without +money—why, I should be perfectly miserable. Charles himself ought to +realize this, and be willing to sell his old books before he would let +me go into this whirl of temptation without a dollar to spend. As he +don't, I must devise some plan of my own for obtaining a little money, +for I won't give up my trip—the first offered me since I was +married,—and neither will I go away and come back without a gift for my +two girls, who have grown to womanhood without a jewel to adorn them or +a silk dress to make them look like gentlemen's children. But how get +money without Charles knowing it? Mr. Trohm is such a good friend, he +might lend me a little, but I don't know how to ask him without +recalling to his mind certain words long since forgotten by him perhaps, +but never to be forgotten by me, feather-brained as many people think +me. Is there any one else?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I wonder if some things are as wicked as people say they are. I——</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Here the diary breaks off abruptly. But we know what followed. The +forgery, the discovery of it by her suave but secret enemy, his +unnatural revenge, and the never-dying enmity which led to the tragic +events it has been my unhappy fortune to relate at such length. Poor +Althea! with thy name I write <i>finis</i> to these pages. May the dust lie +lightly on thy breast under the shadow of the Flower Parlor, through +which thy footsteps passed with such dread in the old days of thy +youthful beauty and innocence!</p> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WORKS_BY_Anna_Katharine_Green" id="WORKS_BY_Anna_Katharine_Green"></a>WORKS BY Anna Katharine Green</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Leavenworth Case.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Strange Disappearance.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Sword of Damocles.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hand and Ring.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Mill Mystery.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behind Closed Doors.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cynthia Wakeham's Money.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marked "Personal."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Miss Hurd: An Enigma.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dr. Izard.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Affair Next Door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lost Man's Lane.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Agatha Webb.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Old Stone House.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">X. Y. Z. A Detective Story.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">7 to 12. A Detective Story.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Defence of the Bride.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Risifi's Daughter. A Drama.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost Man's Lane, by Anna Katharine Green + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST MAN'S LANE *** + +***** This file should be named 33305-h.htm or 33305-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/3/0/33305/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/33305-h/images/diagram.jpg b/33305-h/images/diagram.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7fb8e83 --- /dev/null +++ b/33305-h/images/diagram.jpg diff --git a/33305.txt b/33305.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f44d415 --- /dev/null +++ b/33305.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10640 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost Man's Lane, by Anna Katharine Green + +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: Lost Man's Lane + A Second Episode in the Life of Amelia Butterworth + +Author: Anna Katharine Green + +Release Date: July 31, 2010 [EBook #33305] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST MAN'S LANE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + LOST MAN'S LANE + + A SECOND EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF AMELIA BUTTERWORTH + + BY ANNA KATHARINE GREEN + + (MRS. CHARLES ROHLFS) + + Author of "That Affair Next Door," "The Leavenworth Case," + "The Forsaken Inn," etc. + + +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS +NEW YORK & LONDON +The Knickerbocker Press +1899 + +COPYRIGHT, 1898 +BY ANNA KATHARINE ROHLFS + +Entered at Stationers' Hall, London + +Set up and electrotyped March, 1898. Reprinted March, 1898; +April, 1898; July, 1898; Aug., 1898; Oct., 1898; Aug., 1899 + +The Knickerbocker Press, New York + + + To + ELIZABETH D. SHEPARD + COUSIN AND FRIEND + THIS BOOK +IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED + + + + +PREFACE + + +A word to my readers before they begin these pages. + +As a woman of inborn principle and strict Presbyterian training, I hate +deception and cannot abide subterfuge. This is why, after a year or more +of hesitation, I have felt myself constrained to put into words the true +history of the events surrounding the solution of that great mystery +which made Lost Man's Lane the dread of the neighboring country. +Feminine delicacy, and a natural shrinking from revealing to the world +certain weaknesses on my part, inseparable from a true relation of this +tale, led me to consent to the publication of that meagre and decidedly +falsified account of the matter which has appeared in some of our +leading papers. + +But conscience has regained its sway in my breast, and with all due +confidence in your forbearance, I herein take my rightful place in these +annals, of whose interest and importance I now leave you to judge. + +AMELIA BUTTERWORTH. + +GRAMERCY PARK, NEW YORK. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +_BOOK I_ THE KNOLLYS FAMILY + +I.--A VISIT FROM MR. GRYCE + +II.--I AM TEMPTED + +III.--I SUCCUMB + +IV.--A GHOSTLY INTERIOR + +V.--A STRANGE HOUSEHOLD + +VI.--A SOMBRE EVENING + +VII.--THE FIRST NIGHT + +VIII.--ON THE STAIRS + +IX.--A NEW ACQUAINTANCE + +X.--SECRET INSTRUCTIONS + +XI.--MEN, WOMEN, AND GHOSTS + +XII.--THE PHANTOM COACH + +XIII.--GOSSIP + +XIV.--I FORGET MY AGE, OR, RATHER, REMEMBER IT + + +_BOOK II_ THE FLOWER PARLOR + +XV.--LUCETTA FULFILS MY EXPECTATION OF HER + +XVI.--LOREEN + +XVII.--THE FLOWER PARLOR + +XVIII.--THE SECOND NIGHT + +XIX.--A KNOT OF CRAPE + +XX.--QUESTIONS + +XXI.--MOTHER JANE + +XXII.--THE THIRD NIGHT + + +_BOOK III_ FORWARD AND BACK + +XXIII.--ROOM 3, HOTEL CARTER + +XXIV.--THE ENIGMA OF NUMBERS + +XXV.--TRIFLES, BUT NOT TRIFLING + +XXVI.--A POINT GAINED + +XXVII.--THE TEXT WITNESSETH + +XXVIII.--AN INTRUSION + +XXIX.--IN THE CELLAR + +XXX.--INVESTIGATION + +XXXI.--STRATEGY + +XXXII.--RELIEF + + +_BOOK IV_ THE BIRDS OF THE AIR + +XXXIII.--LUCETTA + +XXXIV.--CONDITIONS + +XXXV--THE DOVE + +XXXVI.--AN HOUR OF STARTLING EXPERIENCES + +XXXVII.--I ASTONISH MR. GRYCE AND HE ASTONISHES ME + +XXXVIII.--A FEW WORDS + +XXXIX.--UNDER A CRIMSON SKY + +XL.--EXPLANATIONS + +EPILOGUE + + + + +LOST MAN'S LANE + + + + +_BOOK I_ + +THE KNOLLYS FAMILY + + + + +I + +A VISIT FROM MR. GRYCE + + +Ever since my fortunate--or shall I say unfortunate?--connection with +that famous case of murder in Gramercy Park, I have had it intimated to +me by many of my friends--and by some who were not my friends--that no +woman who had met with such success as myself in detective work would +ever be satisfied with a single display of her powers, and that sooner +or later I would find myself again at work upon some other case of +striking peculiarities. + +As vanity has never been my foible, and as, moreover, I never have +forsaken and never am likely to forsake the plain path marked out for my +sex, at any other call than that of duty, I invariably responded to +these insinuations by an affable but incredulous smile, striving to +excuse the presumption of my friends by remembering their ignorance of +my nature and the very excellent reasons I had for my one notable +interference in the police affairs of New York City. + +Besides, though I appeared to be resting quietly, if not in entire +contentment, on my laurels, I was not so utterly removed from the old +atmosphere of crime and its detection as the world in general considered +me to be. Mr. Gryce still visited me; not on business, of course, but as +a friend, for whom I had some regard; and naturally our conversation was +not always confined to the weather or even to city politics, provocative +as the latter subject is of wholesome controversy. + +Not that he ever betrayed any of the secrets of his office--oh no; that +would have been too much to expect--but he did sometimes mention the +outward aspects of some celebrated case, and though I never ventured +upon advice--I know too much for that, I hope--I found my wits more or +less exercised by a conversation in which he gained much without +acknowledging it, and I gave much without appearing conscious of the +fact. + +I was therefore finding life pleasant and full of interest, when +suddenly (I had no right to expect it, and I do not blame myself for not +expecting it or for holding my head so high at the prognostications of +my friends) an opportunity came for a direct exercise of my detective +powers in a line seemingly so laid out for me by Providence that I felt +I would be slighting the Powers above if I refused to enter upon it, +though now I see that the line was laid out for me by Mr. Gryce, and +that I was obeying anything but the call of duty in following it. + +But this is not explicit. One night Mr. Gryce came to my house looking +older and more feeble than usual. He was engaged in a perplexing case, +he said, and missed his early vigor and persistency. Would I like to +hear about it? It was not in the line of his usual work, yet it had +points--and well!--it would do him good to talk about it to a +non-professional who was capable of sympathizing with its baffling and +worrisome features and yet would never have to be told to hold her +peace. + +I ought to have been on my guard. I ought to have known the old fox well +enough to feel certain that when he went so manifestly out of his way to +take me into his confidence he did it for a purpose. But Jove nods now +and then--or so I have been assured on unimpeachable authority,--and if +Jove has ever been caught napping, surely Amelia Butterworth may be +pardoned a like inconsistency. + +"It is not a city crime," Mr. Gryce went on to explain, and here he was +base enough to sigh. "At my time of life this is an important +consideration. It is no longer a simple matter for me to pack up a +valise and go off to some distant village, way up in the mountains +perhaps, where comforts are few and secrecy an impossibility. Comforts +have become indispensable to my threescore years and ten, and +secrecy--well, if ever there was an affair where one needs to go softly, +it is this one; as you will see if you will allow me to give you the +facts of the case as known at Headquarters to-day." + +I bowed, trying not to show my surprise or my extreme satisfaction. Mr. +Gryce assumed his most benignant aspect (always a dangerous one with +him), and began his story. + + + + +II + +I AM TEMPTED + + +"Some ninety miles from here, in a more or less inaccessible region, +there is a small but interesting village, which has been the scene of so +many unaccountable disappearances that the attention of the New York +police has at last been directed to it. The village, which is at least +two miles from any railroad, is one of those quiet, placid little spots +found now and then among the mountains, where life is simple, and crime, +to all appearance, an element so out of accord with every other +characteristic of the place as to seem a complete anomaly. Yet crime, or +some other hideous mystery almost equally revolting, has during the last +five years been accountable for the disappearance in or about this +village of four persons of various ages and occupations. Of these, three +were strangers and one a well-known vagabond accustomed to tramp the +hills and live on the bounty of farmers' wives. All were of the male +sex, and in no case has any clue ever come to light as to their fate. +That is the matter as it stands before the police to-day." + +"A serious affair," I remarked. "Seems to me I have read of such things +in novels. Is there a tumbled-down old inn in the vicinity where beds +are made up over trap-doors?" + +His smile was a mild protest against my flippancy. + +"I have visited the town myself. There is no inn there, but a +comfortable hotel of the most matter-of-fact sort, kept by the frankest +and most open-minded of landlords. Besides, these disappearances, as a +rule, did not take place at night, but in broad daylight. Imagine this +street at noon. It is a short one, and you know every house on it, and +you think you know every lurking-place. You see a man enter it at one +end and you expect him to issue from it at the other. But suppose he +never does. More than that, suppose he is never heard of again, and that +this thing should happen in this one street four times during five +years." + +"I should move," I dryly responded. + +"Would you? Many good people have moved from the place I speak of, but +that has not helped matters. The disappearances go on just the same and +the mystery continues." + +"You interest me," I said. "Come to think of it, if this street were the +scene of such an unexplained series of horrors as you have described, I +do not think I should move." + +"I thought not," he curtly rejoined. "But since you are interested in +this matter, let me be more explicit in my statements. The first person +whose disappearance was noted----" + +"Wait," I interrupted. "Have you a map of the place?" + +He smiled, nodded quite affectionately to a little statuette on the +mantel-piece, which had had the honor of sharing his confidences in days +gone by, but did not produce the map. + +"That detail will keep," said he. "Let me go on with my story. As I was +saying, madam, the first person whose disappearance was noted in this +place was a peddler of small wares, accustomed to tramp the mountains. +On this occasion he had been in town longer than usual, and was known to +have sold fully half of his goods. Consequently he must have had quite a +sum of money upon him. One day his pack was found lying under a cluster +of bushes in a wood, but of him nothing was ever again heard. It made an +excitement for a few days while the woods were being searched for his +body, but, nothing having been discovered, he was forgotten, and +everything went on as before, till suddenly public attention was again +aroused by the pouring in of letters containing inquiries in regard to a +young man who had been sent there from Duluth to collect facts in a law +case, and who after a certain date had failed to communicate with his +firm or show up at any of the places where he was known. Instantly the +village was in arms. Many remembered the young man, and some two or +three of the villagers could recall the fact of having seen him go up +the street with his hand-bag in his hand as if on his way to the +Mountain-station. The landlord of the hotel could fix the very day at +which he left his house, but inquiries at the station failed to +establish the fact that he took train from there, nor were the most +minute inquiries into his fate ever attended by the least result. He was +not known to have carried much money, but he carried a very handsome +watch and wore a ring of more than ordinary value, neither of which has +ever shown up at any pawnbroker's known to the police. This was three +years ago. + +"The next occurrence of a like character did not take place till a year +after. This time it was a poor old man from Hartford, who vanished +almost as it were before the eyes of these astounded villagers. He had +come to town to get subscriptions for a valuable book issued by a +well-known publisher. He had been more or less successful, and was +looking very cheerful and contented, when one morning, after making a +sale at a certain farmhouse, he sat down to dine with the family, it +being close on to noon. He had eaten several mouthfuls and was chatting +quite freely, when suddenly they saw him pause, clap his hand to his +pocket, and rise up very much disturbed. 'I have left my pocket-book +behind me at Deacon Spear's,' he cried. 'I cannot eat with it out of my +possession. Excuse me if I go for it.' And without any further +apologies, he ran out of the house and down the road in the direction of +Deacon Spear's. He never reached Deacon Spear's, nor was he ever seen in +that village again or in his home in Hartford. This was the most +astonishing mystery of all. Within a half-mile's radius, in a populous +country town, this man disappeared as if the road had swallowed him and +closed again. It was marvellous, it was incredible, and remained so even +after the best efforts of the country police to solve the mystery had +exhausted themselves. After this, the town began to acquire a bad name, +and one or two families moved away. Yet no one was found who was willing +to admit that these various persons had been the victims of foul play +till a month later another case came to light of a young man who had +left the village for the hillside station, and had never arrived at that +or any other destination so far as could be learned. As he was a distant +relative of a wealthy cattle owner in Iowa, who came on post-haste to +inquire into his nephew's fate, the excitement ran high, and through his +efforts and that of one of the town's leading citizens, the services of +our office were called into play. But the result has been nil. We have +found neither the bodies of these men nor any clue to their fate." + +"Yet _you_ have been there?" I suggested. + +He nodded. + +"Wonderful! And you came upon no suspicious house, no suspicious +person?" + +The finger with which he was rubbing his eyeglasses went round and round +the rims with a slower and slower and still more thoughtful motion. + +"Every town has its suspicious-looking houses," he slowly remarked, +"and, as for persons, the most honest often wear a lowering look in +which an unbridled imagination can see guilt. I never trust to +appearances of that kind." + +"What else can you trust in, when a case is as impenetrable as this +one?" I asked. + +His finger, going slower and slower, suddenly stopped. + +"In my knowledge of persons," he replied. "In my knowledge of their +fears, their hopes, and their individual concerns. If I were twenty +years younger"--here he stole a glance at me in the mirror which made me +bridle; did he think I was only twenty years younger than himself?--"I +would," he went on, "make myself so acquainted with every man, woman, +and child there, that--" Here he drew himself up with a jerk. "But the +day for that is passed," said he. "I am too old and too crippled to +succeed in such an undertaking. Having been there once, I am a marked +man. My very walk betrays me. He whose good fortune it will be to get at +the bottom of these people's hearts must awaken no suspicions as to his +connection with the police. Indeed, I do not think that any man can +succeed in doing this now." + +I started. This was a frank showing of his hand at least. No man! It was +then a woman's aid he was after. I laughed as I thought of it. I had not +thought him either so presumptuous or so appreciative of talents of a +character so directly in line with his own. + +"Don't you agree with me, madam?" + +I did agree with him; but I had a character of great dignity to +maintain, so I simply surveyed him with an air of well-tempered +severity. + +"I do not know of any woman who would undertake such a task," I calmly +observed. + +"No?" he smiled with that air of forbearance which is so exasperating to +me. "Well, perhaps there isn't any such woman to be found. It would take +one of very uncommon characteristics, I own." + +"Pish!" I cried. "Not so very!" + +"Indeed, I think you have not fully taken in the case," he urged in +quiet superiority. "The people there are of the higher order of country +folk. Many of them are of extreme refinement. One family"--here his tone +changed a trifle--"is poor enough and cultivated enough to interest even +such a woman as yourself." + +"Indeed!" I ejaculated, with just a touch of my father's hauteur to hide +the stir of curiosity his words naturally evoked. + +"It is in some such home," he continued with an ease that should have +warned me he had started on this pursuit with a quiet determination to +win, "that the clue will be found to the mystery we are considering. +Yes, you may well look startled, but that conclusion is the one thing I +brought away with me from--X., let us say. I regard it as one of some +moment. What do you think of it?" + +"Well," I admitted, "it makes me feel like recalling that _pish_ I +uttered a few minutes ago. It would take a woman of uncommon +characteristics to assist you in this matter." + +"I am glad we have got that far," said he. + +"A lady," I went on. + +"Most assuredly a lady." + +I paused. Sometimes discreet silence is more sarcastic than speech. + +"Well, what lady would lend herself to this scheme?" I demanded at last. + +The tap, tap of his fingers on the rim of his glasses was my only +answer. + +"I do not know of any," said I. + +His eyebrows rose perhaps a hair's-breadth, but I noted the implied +sarcasm, and for an instant forgot my dignity. + +"Now," said I, "this will not do. You mean me, Amelia Butterworth; a +woman who--but I do not think it is necessary to tell you either who or +what I am. You have presumed, sir--Now do not put on that look of +innocence, and above all do not attempt to deny what is so manifestly in +your thoughts, for that would make me feel like showing you the door." + +"Then," he smiled, "I shall be sure to deny nothing. I am not anxious to +leave--yet. Besides, whom could I mean but you? A lady visiting friends +in this remote and beautiful region--what opportunities might she not +have to probe this important mystery if, like yourself, she had tact, +discretion, excellent understanding, and an experience which if not +broad or deep is certainly such as to give her a certain confidence in +herself, and an undoubted influence with the man fortunate enough to +receive her advice." + +"Bah!" I exclaimed. It was one of his favorite expressions. That was +perhaps why I used it. "One would think I was a member of your police." + +"You flatter us too deeply," was his deferential answer. "Such an honor +as that would be beyond our deserts." + +To this I gave but the faintest sniff. That he should think that I, +Amelia Butterworth, could be amenable to such barefaced flattery! Then I +faced him with some asperity, and said bluntly: "You waste your time. I +have no more intention of meddling in another affair than----" + +"You had in meddling in the first," he politely, too politely, +interpolated. "I understand, madam." + +I was angry, but made no show of being so. I was not willing he should +see that I could be affected by anything he could say. + +"The Van Burnams are my next-door neighbors," I remarked sweetly. "I had +the best of excuses for the interest I took in their affairs." + +"So you had," he acquiesced. "I am glad to be reminded of the fact. I +wonder I was able to forget it." + +Angry now to the point of not being able to hide it, I turned upon him +with firm determination. + +"Let us talk of something else," I said. + +But he was equal to the occasion. Drawing a folded paper from his +pocket, he opened it out before my eyes, observing quite naturally: +"That is a happy thought. Let us look over this sketch you were sharp +enough to ask for a few moments ago. It shows the streets of the village +and the places where each of the persons I have mentioned was last seen. +Is not that what you wanted?" + +I know that I should have drawn back with a frown, that I never should +have allowed myself the satisfaction of casting so much as a glance +toward the paper, but the human nature which links me to my kind was too +much for me, and with an involuntary "Exactly!" I leaned over it with an +eagerness I strove hard, even at that exciting moment, to keep within +the bounds I thought proper to my position as a non-professional, +interested in the matter from curiosity alone. + +This is what I saw: + +[Illustration] + +"Mr. Gryce," said I, after a few minutes' close contemplation of this +diagram, "I do not suppose you want any opinion from me." + +"Madam," he retorted, "it is all you have left me free to ask for." + +Receiving this as a permission to speak, I put my finger on the road +marked with a cross. + +"Then," said I, "so far as I can gather from this drawing, all the +disappearances seem to have taken place in or about this especial road." + +"You are as correct as usual," he returned. "What you have said is so +true, that the people of the vicinity have already given to this winding +way a special cognomen of its own. For two years now it has been called +Lost Man's Lane." + +"Indeed!" I cried. "They have got the matter down as close as that, and +yet have not solved its mystery? How long is this road?" + +"A half mile or so." + +I must have looked my disgust, for his hands opened deprecatingly. + +"The ground has undergone a thorough search," said he. "Not a square +foot in those woods you see on either side of the road, but has been +carefully examined." + +"And the houses? I see there are three houses on this road." + +"Oh, they are owned by most respectable people--_most_ respectable +people," he repeated, with a lingering emphasis that gave me an inward +shudder. "I think I had the honor of intimating as much to you a few +minutes ago." + +I looked at him earnestly, and irresistibly drew a little nearer to him +over the diagram. + +"Have none of these houses been visited by you?" I asked. "Do you mean +to say you have not seen the inside of them all?" + +"Oh," he replied, "I have been in them all, of course; but a mystery +such as we are investigating is not written upon the walls of parlors or +halls." + +"You freeze my blood," was my uncharacteristic rejoinder. Somehow the +sight of the homes indicated on this diagram seemed to bring me into +more intimate sympathy with the affair. + +His shrug was significant. + +"I told you that this was no vulgar mystery," he declared; "or why +should I be considering it with _you_? It is quite worthy of your +interest. Do you see that house marked A?" + +"I do," I nodded. + +"Well, that is a decayed mansion of imposing proportions, set in a +forest of overgrown shrubbery. The ladies who inhabit it----" + +"Ladies!" I put in, with a small shock of horror. + +"Young ladies," he explained, "of a refined if not over-prosperous +appearance. They are the interesting residue of a family of some repute. +Their father was a judge, I believe." + +"And do they live there alone," I asked,--"two young ladies in a house +so large and in a neighborhood so full of mystery?" + +"Oh, they have a brother with them, a lout of no great attractions," he +responded carelessly--too carelessly, I thought. + +I made a note of the house A in my mind. + +"And who lives in the house marked B?" I now queried. + +"A Mr. Trohm. You will remember that it was through his exertions the +services of the New York police were secured. His place there is one of +the most interesting in town, and he does not wish to be forced to leave +it, but he will be obliged to do so if the road is not soon relieved of +its bad name; and so will Deacon Spear. The very children shun the road +now. I do not know of a lonelier place." + +"I see a little mark made here on the verge of the woods. What does that +mean?" + +"That stands for a hut--it can hardly be called a cottage--where a poor +old woman lives called Mother Jane. She is a harmless imbecile, against +whom no one has ever directed a suspicion. You may take your finger off +that mark, Miss Butterworth." + +I did so, but I did not forget that it stood very near the footpath +branching off to the station. + +"You entered this hut as well as the big houses?" I intimated. + +"And found," was his answer, "four walls; nothing more." + +I let my finger travel along the footpath I have just mentioned. + +"Steep," was his comment. "Up, up, all the way, but no precipices. +Nothing but pine woods on either side, thickly carpeted with needles." + +My finger came back and stopped at the house marked M. + +"Why is a letter affixed to this spot?" I asked. + +"Because it stands at the head of the lane. Any one sitting at the +window L can see whoever enters or leaves the lane at this end. And some +one is always sitting there. The house contains two crippled children, a +boy and a girl. One of them is always in that window." + +"I see," said I. Then abruptly: "What do you think of Deacon Spear?" + +"Oh, he's a well-meaning man, none too fine in his feelings. He does not +mind the neighborhood; likes quiet, he says. I hope you will know him +for yourself some day," the detective slyly added. + +At this return to the forbidden subject, I held myself very much aloof. + +"Your diagram is interesting," I remarked, "but it has not in the least +changed my determination. It is you who will return to X., and that, +very soon." + +"Very soon?" he repeated. "Whoever goes there on this errand must go at +once; to-night, if possible; if not, to-morrow at the latest." + +"To-night! to-morrow!" I expostulated. "And you thought----" + +"No matter what I thought," he sighed. "It seems I had no reason for my +hopes." And folding up the map, he slowly rose. "The young man we have +left there is doing more harm than good. That is why I say that some one +of real ability must replace him immediately. The detective from New +York must seem to have left the place." + +I made him my most ladylike bow of dismissal. + +"I shall watch the papers," I said. "I have no doubt that I shall soon +be gratified by seeing in them some token of your success." + +He cast a rueful look at his hands, took a painful step toward the door, +and dolefully shook his head. + +I kept my silence undisturbed. + +He took another painful step, then turned. + +"By the way," he remarked, as I stood watching him with an +uncompromising air, "I have forgotten to mention the name of the town in +which these disappearances have occurred. It is called X., and it is to +be found on one of the spurs of the Berkshire Hills." And, being by this +time at the door, he bowed himself out with all the insinuating suavity +which distinguishes him at certain critical moments. The old fox was so +sure of his triumph that he did not wait to witness it. He knew--how, it +is easy enough for me to understand now--that X. was a place I had often +threatened to visit. The family of one of my dearest friends lived +there, the children of Althea Knollys. She had been my chum at school, +and when she died I had promised myself not to let many months go by +without making the acquaintance of her children. Alas! I had allowed +years to elapse. + + + + +III + +I SUCCUMB + + +That night the tempter had his own way with me. Without much difficulty +he persuaded me that my neglect of Althea Burroughs' children was +without any excuse; that what had been my duty toward them when I knew +them to be left motherless and alone, had become an imperative demand +upon me now that the town in which they lived had become overshadowed by +a mystery which could not but affect the comfort and happiness of all +its inhabitants. I could not wait a day. I recalled all that I had heard +of poor Althea's short and none too happy marriage, and immediately felt +such a burning desire to see if her dainty but spirited beauty--how well +I remembered it--had been repeated in her daughters, that I found myself +packing my trunk before I knew it. + +I had not been from home for a long time--all the more reason why I +should have a change now--and when I notified Mrs. Randolph and the +servants of my intention of leaving on the early morning train, it +created quite a sensation in the house. + +But I had the best of explanations to offer. I had been thinking of my +dead friend, and my conscience would not let me neglect her dear and +possibly unhappy progeny any longer. I had purposed many times to visit +X., and now I was going to do it. When I come to a decision, it is +usually suddenly, and I never rest after having once made up my mind. + +My sentiment went so far that I got down an old album and began hunting +up the pictures I had brought away with me from boarding-school. Hers +was among them, and I really did experience more or less compunction +when I saw again the delicate yet daring features which had once had a +very great influence over my mind. What a teasing sprite she was, yet +what a will she had, and how strange it was that, having been so +intimate as girls, we never knew anything of each other as women! Had it +been her fault or mine? Was her marriage to blame for it or my +spinsterhood? Difficult to tell then, impossible to tell now. I would +not even think of it again, save as a warning. Nothing must stand +between me and her children now that my attention has been called to +them again. + +I did not mean to take them by surprise--that is, not entirely. The +invitation which they had sent me years ago was still in force, making +it simply necessary for me to telegraph them that I had decided to make +them a visit, and that they might expect me by the noon train. If in +times gone by they had been properly instructed by their mother in +regard to the character of her old friend, this need not put them out. I +am not a woman of unbounded expectations. I do not look for the comforts +abroad I am accustomed to find at home, and if, as I have reason to +believe, their means are not of the greatest, they would only provoke me +by any show of effort to make me feel at home in the humble cottage +suited to their fortunes. + +So the telegram was sent, and my preparations completed for an early +departure. + +But, resolved as I was to make this visit, my determination came near +receiving a check. Just as I was leaving the house--at the very moment, +in fact, when the hackman was carrying out my trunk, I perceived a man +approaching me with every evidence of haste. He had a letter in his +hand, which he held out to me as soon as he came within reach. + +"For Miss Butterworth," he announced. "Private and immediate." + +"Ah," thought I, "a communication from Mr. Gryce," and hesitated for a +moment whether to open it on the spot or to wait and read it at my +leisure on the cars. The latter course promised me less inconvenience +than the first, for my hands were cumbered with the various small +articles I consider indispensable to the comfortable enjoyment of the +shortest journey, and the glasses without which I cannot read a word, +were in the very bottom of my pocket under many other equally necessary +articles. + +But something in the man's expectant look warned me that he would never +leave me till I had read the note, so with a sigh I called Lena to my +aid, and after several vain attempts to reach my glasses, succeeded at +last in pulling them out, and by their help reading the following +hurried lines: + + "DEAR MADAM: + + "I send you this by a swifter messenger than myself. Do not let + anything that I may have said last night influence you to leave + your comfortable home. The adventure offers too many dangers + for a woman. Read the inclosed. G." + +The inclosed was a telegram from X., sent during the night, and +evidently just received at Headquarters. Its contents were certainly not +reassuring: + + "Another person missing. Last seen in Lost Man's Lane. A + harmless lad known as Silly Rufus. What's to be done? Wire + orders. TROHM." + +"Mr. Gryce bade me say that he would be up here some time before noon," +said the man, seeing me look with some blankness at these words. + +Nothing more was needed to restore my self-possession. Folding up the +letter, I put it in my bag. + +"Say to Mr. Gryce from me that my intended visit cannot be postponed," I +replied. "I have telegraphed to my friends to expect me, and only a +great emergency would lead me to disappoint them. I will be glad to +receive Mr. Gryce on my return." And without further parley, I took my +bundles back from Lena, and proceeded at once to the carriage. Why +should I show any failure of courage at an event that was but a +repetition of the very ones which made my visit necessary? Was I a +likely person to fall victim to a mystery to which my eyes had been +opened? Had I not been sufficiently warned of the dangers of Lost Man's +Lane to keep myself at a respectable distance from the place of peril? I +was going to visit the children of my once devoted friend. If there were +perils of no ordinary nature to be encountered in so doing, was I not +all the more called upon to lend them the support of my presence? + +Yes, Mr. Gryce, and nothing now should hold me back. I even felt an +increased desire to reach the scene of these mysteries, and chafed some +at the length of the journey, which was of a more tedious character than +I expected. A poor beginning for events requiring patience as well as +great moral courage; but I little knew what was before me, and only +considered that every moment spent on this hot and dusty train kept me +thus much longer from the embraces of Althea's children. + +I recovered my equanimity, however, as we approached X. The scenery was +really beautiful, and the consciousness that I should soon alight at the +mountain station which had played a more or less serious part in Mr. +Gryce's narrative, awakened in me a pleasurable excitement which should +have been a sufficient warning to me that the spirit of investigation +which had led me so triumphantly through that affair next door had +seized me again in a way that meant equal absorption if not equal +success. + +The number of small packages I carried gave me enough to think of at the +moment of alighting, but as soon as I was safely again on terra firma I +threw a hasty glance around to see if any of Althea's children were on +hand to meet me. + +I felt that I ought to know them at first glance. Their mother had been +so characteristically pretty, she could not have failed to transmit some +of her most charming traits to her offspring. But while there were two +or three country maidens to be seen standing in and around the little +pavilion known here as the Mountain-station, I saw no one who by any +stretch of imagination could be regarded as of Althea Burroughs' blood +or breeding. + +Somewhat disappointed, for I had expected different results from my +telegram, I stepped up to the station-master, and asked him whether I +would have any difficulty in procuring a carriage to take me to Miss +Knollys' house. He stared, it seemed to me, unnecessarily long, before +replying. + +"Waal," said he, "Simmons is usually here, but I don't see him around +to-day. Perhaps some of these farmer lads will drive you in." + +But they all drew back with a scared look, and I was beginning to tuck +up my skirts preparatory to walking, when a little old man of +exceedingly meek appearance drove up in a very old-fashioned coach, and +with a hesitating air, springing entirely from bashfulness, managed to +ask if I was Miss Butterworth. I hastened to assure him that I was that +lady, whereupon he stammered out some words about Miss Knollys, and how +sorry she was that she could not come for me herself. Then he pointed to +his coach, and made me understand that I was to step into it and go with +him. + +This I had not counted upon doing, for I desired to both see and hear as +much as possible before reaching my destination. There was but one way +out of it. To his astonishment, I insisted that my belongings be put +inside the coach, while I rode on the box. + +It was an inauspicious beginning to a very doubtful adventure. I +understood this when I saw the heads of the various onlookers draw +together and many curious looks directed at both us and the conveyance +that was to carry us. But I was in no mood to be daunted now, and +mounting to the box with what grace I could, prepared myself for a ride +into town. + +But it seems I was not to be allowed to leave the spot without another +warning. While the old man was engaged in fetching my trunk, the +station-master approached me with great civility, and asked if it was my +intention to spend a few days with the Misses Knollys. I told him that +it was, and thinking it best to establish my position at once in the +eyes of the whole town, added with a politeness equal to his own, that I +was an old friend of the family, and had been coming to visit them for +years, but had never found it convenient till now, and that I hoped they +were all well and would be glad to see me. + +His reply showed considerable embarrassment. + +"Perhaps you have not heard that this village is under a cloud just +now?" + +"I have heard that one or two men have disappeared from here somewhat +mysteriously," I returned. "Is that what you mean?" + +"Yes, ma'am. One person, a boy, disappeared only two days ago." + +"That's bad," I said. "But what has it to do with me?" I smilingly +added, for I saw that he was not at the end of his talk. + +"Oh, nothing," he eagerly replied, "only I didn't know but you might be +timid----" + +"Oh, I'm not at all timid," I hastened to interject. "If I were, I +should not have come here at all. Such matters don't affect me." And I +spread out my skirts and arranged myself for my ride with as much care +and precision as if the horrors he had mentioned had made no more +impression upon me than if his chat had been of the weather. + +Perhaps I overdid it, for he looked at me for another moment in a +curious, lingering way; then he walked off, and I saw him enter the +circle of gossips on the platform, where he stood shaking his head as +long as we were within sight. + +My companion, who was the shyest man I ever saw, did not speak a word +while we were descending the hill. I talked, and endeavored to make him +follow my example, but his replies were mere grunts or half-syllables +which conveyed no information whatever. As we cleared the thicket, +however, he allowed himself an ejaculation or two as he pointed out the +beauties of the landscape. And indeed it was well worth his admiration +and mine had my mind been free to enjoy it. But the houses, which now +began to appear on either side of the way, drew my attention from the +mountains. Though still somewhat remote from the town, we were rapidly +approaching the head of that lane of evil fame with whose awe-inspiring +history my thoughts were at this time full. I was so anxious not to pass +it without one look into its grewsome recesses that I kept my head +persistently turned that way till I felt I was attracting the attention +of my companion. As this was not desirable, I put on a nonchalant look +and began chatting about what I saw. But he had lapsed into his early +silence, and seemed wholly engrossed in his attempt to remove with the +butt-end of his whip a bit of rag which had somehow become entangled in +the spokes of one of the front wheels. The furtive look he cast me as he +succeeded in doing this struck me oddly at the moment, but it was too +small a matter to hold my attention long or to cause any cessation in +the flow of small talk with which I was endeavoring to enliven the +situation. + +My desire for conversation lagged, however, as I saw rising up before us +the dark boughs of a pine thicket. We were nearing Lost Man's Lane; we +were abreast of it; we were--yes, we were turning into it! + +I could not repress an exclamation of dismay. + +"Where are we going?" I asked. + +"To Miss Knollys' house," he found words to say, with a sidelong glance +at me full of uneasy inquiry. + +"Do they live on this road?" I cried, remembering with a certain shock +Mr. Gryce's suspicious description of the two young ladies who with +their brother inhabited the dilapidated mansion marked A in the map he +had shown me. + +"Where else?" was his laconic answer; and, obliged to be satisfied with +this curtest of curt replies, I drew myself up with just one longing +look behind me at the cheerful highway we were so rapidly leaving. A +cottage, with an open window, in which a child's head could be seen +nodding eagerly toward me, met my eyes and filled me with quite an odd +sense of discomfort as I realized that I had caught the attention of one +of the little cripples who, according to Mr. Gryce, always kept watch +over this entrance into Lost Man's Lane. Another moment and the pine +branches had shut the vision out, but I did not soon forget that eager, +childish face and pointing hand, marking me out as a possible victim to +the horrors of this ill-reputed lane. But I was aware of no secret +flinching from the adventure into which I was plunging. On the contrary, +I felt a strange and fierce delight in thus being thrust into the very +heart of the mystery I had only expected to approach by degrees. The +warning message sent me by Mr. Gryce had acquired a deeper and more +significant meaning, as did the looks which had been cast me by the +station-master and his gossips on the hillside, but in my present mood +these very tokens of the serious nature of my undertaking only gave an +added spur to my courage. I felt my brain clear and my heart expand, as +if at this moment, before I had so much as set eyes on the faces of +these young people, I recognized the fact that they were the victims of +a web of circumstances so tragic and incomprehensible that only a woman +like myself would be able to dissipate them and restore these girls to +the confidence of the people around them. + +I forgot that these girls had a brother and that--But not a word to +forestall the truth. I wish this story to grow upon you just as it did +upon me, and with just as little preparation. + +The farmer who drove me, and who I afterwards learned was called +Simsbury, showed a certain dogged interest in my behavior that would +have amused me, or, at least, have awakened my disdain under +circumstances of a less thrilling nature. I saw his eye roll in a sort +of wonder over my person, which may have been held a little more stiffly +than was necessary, and settle finally on my face, with a look I might +have thought complimentary had I had any thought to bestow on such +matters. Not till we had passed the path branching up through the woods +toward the mountain did he see fit to withdraw it, nor did I fail to +find it fixed again upon me as we rode by the little hut occupied by the +old woman considered so harmless by Mr. Gryce. + +Perhaps he had a reason for this, as I was very much interested in this +hut and its occupant, about whom I felt free to cherish my own secret +doubts--so interested that I cast it a very sharp glance, and was glad +when I caught a glimpse through the doorway of the old crone mumbling +over a piece of bread she was engaged in eating as we passed her. + +"That's Mother Jane," explained my companion, breaking the silence of +many minutes. "And yonder is Miss Knollys' house," he added, lifting his +whip and pointing toward the half-concealed facade of a large and +pretentious dwelling a few rods farther on down the road. "She will be +powerful glad to see you, Miss. Company is scarce in these parts." + +Astonished at this sudden launch into conversation by one whose reserve +I had hitherto found it impossible to penetrate, I gave him the affable +answer he evidently expected, and then looked eagerly toward the house. +It was as Mr. Gryce had intimated, exceedingly forbidding even at that +distance, and as we approached nearer and I was given a full view of its +worn and discolored front, I felt myself forced to acknowledge that +never in my life had my eyes fallen upon a habitation more given over to +neglect or less promising in its hospitality. + +Had it not been for the thin circle of smoke eddying up from one of its +broken chimneys, I would have looked upon the place as one which had not +known the care or presence of man for years. There was a riot of +shrubbery in the yard, a lack of the commonest attention to order in the +way the vines drooped in tangled masses over the face of the desolate +porch, that gave to the broken pilasters and decayed window-frames of +this dreariest of facades that look of abandonment which only becomes +picturesque when nature has usurped the prerogative of man and taken +entirely to herself the empty walls and falling casements of what was +once a human dwelling. That any one should be living in it now and that +I, who have never been able to see a chair standing crooked or a curtain +awry, without a sensation of the keenest discomfort, should be on the +point of deliberately entering its doors as an inmate, filled me at the +moment with such a sense of unreality, that I descended from the +carriage in a sort of a dream and was making my way through one of the +gaps in the high antique fence that separated the yard from the gateway, +when Mr. Simsbury stopped me and pointed out the gate. + +I did not think it worth while to apologize for my mistake, for the +broken palings certainly offered as good an entrance as the gate, which +had slipped from its hinges and hung but a few inches open. But I took +the course he indicated, holding up my skirts, and treading gingerly for +fear of the snails and toads that incumbered such portions of the path +as the weeds had left visible. As I proceeded on my way, something in +the silence of the spot struck me. Was I becoming over-sensitive to +impressions or was there something really uncanny in the absolute lack +of sound or movement in a dwelling of such dimensions? But I should not +have said movement, for at that instant I saw a flash in one of the +upper windows as of a curtain being stealthily drawn and as stealthily +let fall again, and though it gave me the promise of some sort of +greeting, there was a furtiveness in the action, so in keeping with the +suspicions of Mr. Gryce that I felt my nerves braced at once to mount +the half-dozen uninviting-looking steps that led to the front door. + +But no sooner had I done this, with what I am fain to consider my best +air, than I suddenly collapsed with what I am bound to regard as a +comprehensible and quite excusable fear; for, while I do not quail +before men, and have a reasonable fortitude in the presence of most +dangers, corporeal and moral, I am not quite myself in face of a rampant +and barking dog. It is my one weakness, and while I usually can, and +under most circumstances do, succeed in hiding my inner trepidation +under the emergency just mentioned, I always feel that it would be a +happy relief for me if the day should ever come when these so-called +domestic animals would be banished from the affections and homes of men. +Then I think I would begin to live in good earnest and perhaps enjoy +trips into the country, which now, for all my apparent bravery, I regard +more in the light of a penance than a pleasure. + +Imagine, then, how hard I found it to retain my self-possession or even +any appearance of dignity, when at the moment I was stretching forth my +hand toward the knocker of this inhospitable mansion I heard rising from +some unknown quarter a howl so keen, piercing, and prolonged that it +frightened the very birds over my head and sent them flying from the +vines in clouds. + +It was the unhappiest kind of welcome for me. I did not know whether it +came from within or without, and when after a moment of indecision I saw +the door open, I am not sure whether the smile I called up to grace the +occasion had any of the real Amelia Butterworth in it, so much was my +mind divided between a desire to produce a favorable impression and a +very decided and not-to-be-hidden fear of the dog who had greeted my +arrival with such an ominous howl. + +"Call off the dog!" I cried almost before I saw what sort of person I +was addressing. + +Mr. Gryce, when I saw him later, declared this to be the most +significant introduction I could have made of myself upon entering the +Knollys mansion. + + + + +IV + +A GHOSTLY INTERIOR + + +The hall into which I had stepped was so dark that for a few minutes I +could see nothing but the indistinct outline of a young woman with a +very white face. She had uttered some sort of murmur at my words, but +for some reason was strangely silent, and, if I could trust my eyes, +seemed rather to be looking back over her shoulder than into the face of +her advancing guest. This was odd, but before I could quite satisfy +myself as to the cause of her abstraction, she suddenly bethought +herself, and throwing open the door of an adjoining room, let in a +stream of light by which we were enabled to see each other and exchange +the greetings suitable to the occasion. + +"Miss Butterworth, my mother's old friend," she murmured, with an almost +pitiful effort to be cordial, "we are so glad to have you visit us. +Won't you--won't you sit down?" + +What did it mean? She had pointed to a chair in the sitting-room, but +her face was turned away again as if drawn irresistibly toward some +secret object of dread. Was there anyone or anything at the top of the +dim staircase I could faintly see in the distance? It would not do for +me to ask, nor was it wise for me to show that I thought this reception +a strange one. Stepping into the room she pointed out, I waited for her +to follow me, which she did with manifest reluctance. But when she was +once out of the atmosphere of the hall, or out of reach of the sight or +sound of whatever it was that frightened her, her face took on a smile +that ingratiated her with me at once and gave to her very delicate +aspect, which up to that moment had not suggested the remotest likeness +to her mother, a piquant charm and subtle fascination that were not +unworthy of the daughter of Althea Burroughs. + +"You must not mind the poverty of your welcome," she said, with a +half-proud, half-apologetic look around her, which I must say the +bareness and shabby character of the room we were in fully justified. +"We have not been very well off since father died and mother left us. +Had you given us a chance we should have written you that our home would +not offer many inducements to you after your own, but you have come +unexpectedly and----" + +"There, there," I put in, for I saw that her embarrassment would soon +get the better of her, "do not speak of it. I did not come to enjoy your +home, but to see you. Are you the eldest, my dear, and where are your +sister and brother?" + +"I am not the eldest," she said. "I am Lucetta. My sister"--here +her head stole irresistibly back to its old position of +listening--"will--will come soon. My brother is not in the house." + +"Well," said I, astonished that she did not ask me to take off my +things, "you are a pretty girl, but you do not look very strong. Are you +quite well, my dear?" + +She started, looked at me eagerly, almost anxiously, for a moment, then +straightened herself and began to lose some of her abstraction. + +"I am not a strong person," she smiled, "but neither am I so very weak +either. I was always small. So was my mother, you know." + +I was glad to have her talk of her mother. I therefore answered her in a +way to prolong the conversation. + +"Yes, your mother was small," I admitted, "but never thin or pallid. She +was like a fairy among us schoolgirls. Does it seem odd to hear so old a +woman as I speak of herself as a schoolgirl?" + +"Oh, no!" she said, but there was no heart in her voice. + +"I had almost forgotten those days till I happened to hear the name of +Althea mentioned the other day," I proceeded, seeing I must keep up the +conversation if we were not to sit in total silence. "Then my early +friendship with your mother recurred to me, and I started up--as I +always do when I come to any decision, my dear--and sent that telegram, +which I hope I have not followed by an unwelcome presence." + +"Oh, no," she repeated, but this time with some feeling; "we need +friends, and if you will overlook our shortcomings--But you have not +taken off your hat. What will Loreen say to me?" + +And with a sudden nervous action as marked as her late listlessness, she +jumped up and began busying herself over me, untying my bonnet and +laying aside my bundles, which up to this moment I had held in my hands. + +"I--I am so absent-minded," she murmured. "I--I did not think--I hope +you will excuse me. Loreen would have given you a much better welcome." + +"Then Loreen should have been here," I said, with a smile. I could not +restrain this slight rebuke, yet I liked the girl; notwithstanding +everything I had heard and her own odd and unaccountable behavior, there +was a sweetness in her face, when she chose to smile, that proved an +irresistible attraction. And then, for all her absent-mindedness and +abstracted ways, she was such a lady! Her plain dress, her restrained +manner, could not hide this fact. It was apparent in every line of her +thin but graceful form and in every inflection of her musical but +constrained voice. Had I seen her in my own parlor instead of between +these bare and moldering walls, I should have said the same thing: "She +is such a lady!" But this only passed through my mind at the time. I was +not studying her personality, but trying to understand why my presence +in the house had so visibly disturbed her. Was it the embarrassment of +poverty, not knowing how to meet the call made so suddenly upon it? I +hardly thought so. Fear would not enter into a sensation of this kind, +and fear was what I had seen in her face before the front door had +closed upon me. But that fear? Was it connected with me or with +something threatening her from another portion of the house? + +The latter supposition seemed the probable one. The way her ear was +turned, the slight start she gave at every sound, convinced me that her +cause of dread lay elsewhere than with myself, and therefore was worthy +of my closest attention. Though I chatted and tried in every way to +arouse her confidence, I could not help asking myself between the +sentences, if the cause of her apprehension lay with her sister, her +brother, or in something entirely apart from either, and connected with +the dreadful matter which had drawn me to X. Or another supposition +still, was it merely the sign of an habitual distemper which, +misunderstood by Mr. Gryce, had given rise to the suspicions which it +was my possible mission here to dispel? + +Anxious to force things a little, I remarked, with a glance at the +dismal branches that almost forced their way into the open casements: +"What a scene for young eyes like yours! Do you never get tired of these +pine-boughs and clustering shadows? Would not a little cottage in the +sunnier part of the town be preferable to all this dreary grandeur?" + +She looked up with sudden wistfulness that made her smile piteous. + +"Some of my happiest days have been passed here and some of my saddest. +I do not think I should like to leave it for any sunny cottage. We were +not made for bonny homes," she continued. "The sombreness of this old +house suits us." + +"And of this road," I ventured. "It is the darkest and most picturesque +I ever rode through. I thought I was threading a wilderness." + +For a moment she forgot her cause of anxiety and looked at me quite +intently, while a subtle shade of doubt passed slowly over her features. + +"It is a solitary one," she acquiesced. "I do not wonder it struck you +as dismal. Have you heard--has any one ever told you that--that it was +not considered quite safe?" + +"Safe?" I repeated, with--God forgive me!--an expression of mild wonder +in my eyes. + +"Yes, it has not the best of reputations. Strange things have happened +in it. I thought that some one might have been kind enough to tell you +this at the station." + +There was a gentle sort of sarcasm in the tone; only that, or so it +seemed to me at the time. I began to feel myself in a maze. + +"Somebody--I suppose it was the station-master--did say something to me +about a boy lost somewhere in this portion of the woods. Do you mean +that, my dear?" + +She nodded, glancing again over her shoulder and partly rising as if +moved by some instinct of flight. + +"They are dark enough, for more than one person to have been lost in +their recesses," I observed with another look toward the heavily +curtained windows. + +"They certainly are," she assented, reseating herself and eying me +nervously while she spoke. "We are used to the terrors they inspire in +strangers, but if you"--she leaped to her feet in manifest eagerness and +her whole face changed in a way she little realized herself--"if you +have any fear of sleeping amid such gloomy surroundings, we can procure +you a room in the village where you will be more comfortable, and where +we can visit you almost as well as we can here. Shall I do it? Shall I +call----" + +My face must have assumed a very grim look, for her words tripped at +that point, and a flush, the first I had seen on her cheek, suffused her +face, giving her an appearance of great distress. + +"Oh, I wish Loreen would come! I am not at all happy in my suggestions," +she said, with a deprecatory twitch of her lip that was one of her +subtle charms. "Oh, there she is! Now I may go," she cried; and without +the least appearance of realizing that she had said anything out of +place, she rushed from the room almost before her sister had entered it. + +But not before their eyes had met in a look of unusual significance. + + + + +V + +A STRANGE HOUSEHOLD + + +Had I not surprised this look of mutual understanding, I might have +received an impression of Miss Knollys which would in a measure have +counteracted that made by the more nervous and less restrained Lucetta. +The dignified reserve of her bearing, the quiet way in which she +approached, and, above all, the even tones in which she uttered her +welcome, were such as to win my confidence and put me at my ease in the +house of which she was the nominal mistress. But that look! With that in +my memory, I was enabled to pierce below the surface of this placid +nature, and in the very constraint she put upon herself, detect the +presence of the same secret uneasiness which had been so openly, if +unconsciously, manifested by her sister. + +She was more beautiful than Lucetta in form and feature, and even more +markedly elegant in her plain black gown and fine lawn ruffles, but she +lacked her sister's evanescent charm, and though admirable to all +appearance, was less lovable on a short acquaintance. + +But this delays my tale, which is one of action rather than reflection. +I had naturally expected that with the appearance of the elder Miss +Knollys I should be taken to my room; but, on the contrary, she sat down +and with an apologetic air informed me that she was sorry she could not +show me the customary attentions. Circumstances over which she had no +control had made it impossible, she said, for her to offer me the +guest-chamber, but if I would be so good as to accept another for this +one night, she would endeavor to provide me with better accommodations +on the morrow. + +Satisfied of the almost painful nature of their poverty and determined +to submit to privations rather than leave a house so imbued with +mystery, I hastened to assure her that any room would be acceptable to +me; and with a display of good feeling not wholly insincere, began to +gather up my wraps in anticipation of being taken at once up-stairs. + +But Miss Knollys again surprised me by saying that my room was not yet +ready; that they had not been able to complete all their arrangements, +and begged me to make myself at home in the room where I was till +evening. + +As this was asking a good deal of a woman of my years, fresh from a +railroad journey and with natural habits of great neatness and order, I +felt somewhat disconcerted, but hiding my feelings in consideration of +reasons before given, replaced my bundles on the table and endeavored to +make the best of a somewhat trying situation. + +Launching at once into conversation, I began, as with Lucetta, to talk +about her mother. I had never known, save in the vaguest way, why Mrs. +Knollys had taken the journey which had ended in her death and burial in +a foreign land. Rumor had it that she had gone abroad for her health +which had begun to fail after the birth of Lucetta; but as Rumor had not +added why she had gone unaccompanied by her husband or children, there +remained much which these girls might willingly tell me, which would be +of the greatest interest to me. But Miss Knollys, intentionally or +unintentionally, assumed an air so cold at my well meant questions, that +I desisted from pressing them, and began to talk about myself in a way +which I hoped would establish really friendly relations between us and +make it possible for her to tell me later, if not at the present moment, +what it was that weighed so heavily upon the household, that no one +could enter this home without feeling the shadow of the secret terror +enveloping it. + +But Miss Knollys, while more attentive to my remarks than her sister had +been, showed, by certain unmistakable signs, that her heart and interest +were anywhere but in that room; and while I could not regard this as +throwing any discredit upon my powers of pleasing--which have rarely +failed when I have exerted them to their utmost,--I still could not but +experience the dampening effect of her manner. I went on chatting, but +in a desultory way, noting all that was odd in her unaccountable +reception of me, but giving, as I firmly believe, no evidence of my +concern and rapidly increasing curiosity. + +The peculiarities observable in this my first interview with these +interesting but by no means easily-to-be-understood sisters continued +all day. When one sister came in, the other stepped out, and when dinner +was announced and I was ushered down the bare and dismal hall into an +equally bare and unattractive dining-room, it was to find the chairs set +for four, and Lucetta only seated at the table. + +"Where is Loreen?" I asked wonderingly, as I took the seat she pointed +out to me with one of her faint and quickly vanishing smiles. + +"She cannot come at present," my young hostess stammered with an +unmistakable glance of distress at the large, hearty-looking woman who +had summoned me to the dining-room. + +"Ah," I ejaculated, thinking that possibly Loreen had found it necessary +to assist in the preparation of the meal, "and your brother?" + +It was the first time he had been mentioned since my first inquiries. I +had shrunk from the venture out of a motive of pure compassion, and they +had not seen fit to introduce his name into any of our conversations. +Consequently I awaited her response, with some anxiety, having a secret +premonition that in some way he was at the bottom of my strange +reception. + +Her hasty answer, given, however, without any increase of embarrassment, +somewhat dispelled this supposition. + +"Oh, he will be in presently," said she. "William is never very +punctual." + +But when he did come in, I could not help seeing that her manner +instantly changed and became almost painfully anxious. Though it was my +first meeting with the real head of the house, she waited for an +interchange of looks with him before giving me the necessary +introduction, and when, this duty performed, he took his seat at the +table, her thoughts and attention remained so fixed upon him that she +well-nigh forgot the ordinary civilities of a hostess. Had it not been +for the woman I have spoken of, who in her good-natured attention to my +wants amply made up for the abstraction of her mistress, I should have +fared ill at this meal, good and ample as it was, considering the +resources of those who provided it. + +She seemed to dread to have him speak, almost to have him move. She +watched him with her lips half open, ready, as it appeared, to stop any +inadvertent expression he might utter in his efforts to be agreeable. +She even kept her left hand disengaged, with the evident intention of +stretching it out in his direction if in his lumbering stupidity he +should utter a sentence calculated to open my eyes to what she so +passionately desired to have kept secret. I saw it all as plainly as I +saw his heavy indifference to her anxiety; and knowing from experience +that it is in just such stolid louts as these that the worst passions +are often hidden, I took advantage of my years and forced a conversation +in which I hoped some flash of his real self would appear, despite her +wary watch upon him. + +Not liking to renew the topic of the lane itself, I asked with a very +natural show of interest, who was their nearest neighbor. It was William +who looked up and William who answered. + +"Old Mother Jane is the nearest," said he; "but she's no good. We never +think of her. Mr. Trohm is the only neighbor I care for. Such peaches as +the old fellow raises! Such grapes! Such melons! He gave me two of the +nicest you ever saw this morning. By Jupiter, I taste them yet!" + +Lucetta's face, which should have crimsoned with mortification, turned +most unaccountably pale. Yet not so pale as it had previously done when, +a few minutes before, he began to say, "Loreen wants some of this soup +saved for"--and stopped awkwardly, conscious perhaps that Loreen's wants +should not be mentioned before me. + +"I thought you promised me that you would never again ask Mr. Trohm for +any of his fruit," remonstrated Lucetta. + +"Oh, I didn't ask! I just stood at the fence and looked over. Mr. Trohm +and I are good friends. Why shouldn't I eat his fruit?" + +The look she gave him might have moved a stone, but he seemed perfectly +impervious to it. Seeing him so stolid, her head drooped, and she did +not answer a word. Yet somehow I felt that even while she was so +manifestly a prey to the deepest mortification, her attention was not +wholly given over to this one emotion. There was something else she +feared. Hoping to relieve her and lighten the situation, I forced myself +to smile on the young man as I said: + +"Why don't you raise melons yourself? I think if I possessed your land I +should be anxious to raise everything I could on it." + +"Oh, you're a woman!" he retorted, almost roughly. "It's good business +for women; and for men, too, perhaps, who love to see fruit hang, but I +only care to eat it." + +"Don't," Lucetta put in, but not with the vigor I had expected. + +"I like to hunt, train dogs, and enjoy other people's fruit," he +laughed, with a nod at the blushing Lucetta. "I don't see any use in a +man's putting himself out for things he can get for the asking. Life's +too short for such folly. I mean to have a good time while I'm on this +blessed sphere." + +"William!" + +The cry was irresistible, yet it was not the cry I had been looking for. +Painful as was this exhibition of his stupidity and utter want of +feeling, it was not the one thing she stood in dread of, or why was her +protest so much weaker than her appearance had given token of? + +"Oh!" he shouted in great amusement, while she shrunk back with a +horrified look. "Lucetta don't like to hear me say that. She thinks a +man ought to work, plow, harrow, dig, make a slave of himself, to keep +up a place that's no good anyway. But I tell her that work is something +she'll never get out of me. I was born a gentleman, and a gentleman I +will live if the place tumbles down over our heads. Perhaps it would be +the best way to get rid of it. Then I could go live with Mr. Trohm, and +have melons from early morn till late at night." And again his coarse +laugh rang out. + +This, or was it his words, seemed to rouse her as nothing had done +before. Thrusting out her hand, she laid it on his mouth, with a look of +almost frenzied appeal at the woman who was standing at his back. + +"Mr. William, how can you!" that woman protested; and when he would have +turned upon her angrily, she leaned over and whispered in his ear a few +words that seemed to cow him, for he gave a short grunt through his +sister's trembling fingers and, with a shrug of his heavy shoulders, +subsided into silence. + +To all this I was a simple spectator, but I did not soon forget a single +feature of the scene. + +The remainder of the dinner passed quietly, William and myself eating +with more or less heartiness, Lucetta tasting nothing at all. In mercy +to her I declined coffee, and as soon as William gave token of being +satisfied, we hurriedly rose. It was the most uncomfortable meal I ever +ate in my life. + + + + +VI + +A SOMBRE EVENING + + +The evening, like the afternoon, was spent in the sitting-room with one +of the sisters. One event alone is worth recording. I had become +excessively tired of a conversation that always languished, no matter on +what topic it started, and, observing an old piano in one corner--I once +played very well--I sat down before it and impulsively struck a few +chords from the yellow keys. Instantly Lucetta--it was Lucetta who was +with me then--bounded to my side with a look of horror. + +"Don't do that!" she cried, laying her hand on mine to stop me. Then, +seeing my look of dignified astonishment, she added with an appealing +smile, "I beg pardon, but every sound goes through me to-night." + +"Are you not well?" I asked. + +"I am never very well," she returned, and we went back to the sofa and +renewed our forced and pitiful attempts at conversation. + +Promptly at nine o'clock Miss Knollys came in. She was very pale and +cast, as usual, a sad and uneasy look at her sister before she spoke to +me. Immediately Lucetta rose, and, becoming very pale herself, was +hurrying toward the door when her sister stopped her. + +"You have forgotten," she said, "to say good-night to our guest." + +Instantly Lucetta turned, and, with a sudden, uncontrollable impulse, +seized my hand and pressed it convulsively. + +"Good-night," she cried. "I hope you will sleep well," and was gone +before I could say a word in response. + +"Why does Lucetta go out of the room when you come in?" I asked, +determined to know the reason for this peculiar conduct. "Have you any +other guests in the house?" + +The reply came with unexpected vehemence. "No," she cried, "why should +you think so? There is no one here but the family." And she turned away +with a dignity she must have inherited from her father, for Althea +Burroughs had every interesting quality but that. "You must be very +tired," she remarked. "If you please we will go now to your room." + +I rose at once, glad of the prospect of seeing the upper portion of the +house. She took my wraps on her arm, and we passed immediately into the +hall. As we did so, I heard voices, one of them shrill and full of +distress; but the sound was so quickly smothered by a closing door that +I failed to discover whether this tone of suffering proceeded from a man +or a woman. + +Miss Knollys, who was preceding me, glanced back in some alarm, but as I +gave no token of having noticed anything out of the ordinary, she +speedily resumed her way up-stairs. As the sounds I had heard proceeded +from above, I followed her with alacrity, but felt my enthusiasm +diminish somewhat when I found myself passing door after door down a +long hall to a room as remote as possible from what seemed to be the +living portion of the house. + +"Is it necessary to put me off quite so far?" I asked, as my young +hostess paused and waited for me to join her on the threshold of the +most forbidding room it had ever been my fortune to enter. + +The blush which mounted to her brow showed that she felt the situation +keenly. + +"I am sure," she said, "that it is a matter of great regret to me to be +obliged to offer you so mean a lodging, but all our other rooms are out +of order, and I cannot accommodate you with anything better to-night." + +"But isn't there some spot nearer you?" I urged. "A couch in the same +room with you would be more acceptable to me than this distant room." + +"I--I hope you are not timid," she began, but I hastened to disabuse her +mind on this score. + +"I am not afraid of any earthly thing but dogs," I protested warmly. +"But I do not like solitude. I came here for companionship, my dear. I +really would like to sleep with one of you." + +This, to see how she would meet such urgency. She met it, as I might +have known she would, by a rebuff. + +"I am very sorry," she again repeated, "but it is quite impossible. If I +could give you the comforts you are accustomed to, I should be glad, but +we are unfortunate, we girls, and--" She said no more, but began to busy +herself about the room, which held but one object that had the least +look of comfort in it. That was my trunk, which had been neatly placed +in one corner. + +"I suppose you are not used to candles," she remarked, lighting what +struck me as a very short end, from the one she held in her hand. + +"My dear," said I, "I can accommodate myself to much that I am not used +to. I have very few old maid's ways or notions. You shall see that I am +far from being a difficult guest." + +She heaved a sigh, and then, seeing my eye travelling slowly over the +gray discolored walls which were not relieved by so much as a solitary +print, she pointed to a bell-rope near the head of the bed, and +considerately remarked: + +"If you wish anything in the night, or are disturbed in any way, pull +that. It communicates with my room, and I will be only too glad to come +to you." + +I glanced up at the rope, ran my eye along the wire communicating with +it, and saw that it was broken sheer off before it even entered into the +wall. + +"I am afraid you will not hear me," I answered, pointing to the break. + +She flushed a deep scarlet, and for a moment looked as embarrassed as +ever her sister had done. + +"I did not know," she murmured. "The house is so old, everything is more +or less out of repair." And she made haste to quit the room. + +I stepped after her in grim determination. + +"But there is no key to the door," I objected. + +She came back with a look that was as nearly desperate as her placid +features were capable of. + +"I know," she said, "I know. We have nothing. But if you are not +afraid--and of what could you be afraid in this house, under our +protection, and with a good dog outside?--you will bear with things +to-night, and--Good God!" she murmured, but not so low but that my +excited sense caught every syllable, "can she have heard? Has the +reputation of this place gone abroad? Miss Butterworth," she repeated +earnestly, "the house contains no cause of terror for you. Nothing +threatens our guest, nor need you have the least concern for yourself or +us, whether the night passes in quiet or whether it is broken by +unaccountable sounds. They will have no reference to anything in which +you are interested." + +"Ah, ha," thought I, "won't they! You give me credit for much +indifference, my dear." But I said nothing beyond a few soothing +phrases, which I made purposely short, seeing that every moment I +detained her was just so much unnecessary torture to her. Then I went +back to my room and carefully closed the door. My first night in this +dismal and strangely ordered house had opened anything but propitiously. + + + + +VII + +THE FIRST NIGHT + + +I spoke with a due regard to truth when I assured Miss Knollys that I +entertained no fears at the prospect of sleeping apart from the rest of +the family. I am a woman of courage--or so I have always believed--and +at home occupy my second floor alone without the least apprehension. But +there is a difference in these two abiding-places, as I think you are +ready by this time to acknowledge, and, though I felt little of what is +called fear, I certainly did not experience my usual satisfaction in the +minute preparations with which I am accustomed to make myself +comfortable for the night. There was a gloom both within and without the +four bare walls between which I now found myself shut, which I would +have been something less than human not to feel, and though I had no +dread of being overcome by it, I was glad to add something to the cheer +of the spot by opening my trunk and taking out a few of those little +matters of personal equipment without which the brightest room looks +barren and a den like this too desolate for habitation. + +Then I took a good look about me to see how I could obtain for myself +some sense of security. The bed was light and could be pulled in front +of the door. This was something. There was but one window, and that was +closely draped with some thick, dark stuff, very funereal in its +appearance. Going to it, I pulled aside the thick folds and looked out. +A mass of heavy foliage at once met my eye, obstructing the view of the +sky and adding much to the lonesomeness of the situation. I let the +curtain fall again and sat down in a chair to think. + +The shortness of the candle-end with which I had been provided had +struck me as significant, so significant that I had not allowed it to +burn long after Miss Knollys had left me. If these girls, charming, no +doubt, but sly, had thought to shorten my watch by shortening my candle, +I would give them no cause to think but that their ruse had been +successful. The foresight which causes me to add a winter wrap to my +stock of clothing even when the weather is at the hottest, leads me to +place a half dozen or so of candles in my travelling trunk, and so I had +only to open a little oblong box in the upper tray to have the means at +my disposal of keeping a light all night. + +So far, so good. I had a light, but had I anything else in case William +Knollys--but with this thought Miss Knollys's look and reassuring words +recurred to me. "Whatever you may hear--if you hear anything--will have +no reference to yourself and need not disturb you." + +This was comforting certainly, from a selfish standpoint; but did it +relieve my mind concerning others? + +Not knowing what to think of it all, and fully conscious that sleep +would not visit me under existing circumstances, I finally made up my +mind not to lie down till better assured that sleep on my part would be +desirable. So after making the various little arrangements already +alluded to, I drew over my shoulders a comfortable shawl and set myself +to listen for what I feared would be more than one dreary hour of this +not to be envied night. + +And here just let me stop to mention that, carefully considered as all +my precautions were, I had forgotten one thing upon leaving home which +at this minute made me very nearly miserable. I had not included among +my effects the alcohol lamp and all the other private and particular +conveniences which I possess for making tea in my own apartment. Had I +but had them with me, and had I been able to make and sip a cup of my +own delicious tea through the ordeal of listening for whatever sounds +might come to disturb the midnight stillness of this house, what relief +it would have been to my spirits and in what a different light I might +have regarded Mr. Gryce and the mission with which I had been intrusted. +But I not only lacked this element of comfort, but the satisfaction of +thinking that it was any one's fault but my own. Lena had laid her hand +on that teapot, but I had shaken my head, fearing that the sight of it +might offend the eyes of my young hostesses. But I had not calculated +upon being put in a remote corner like this of a house large enough to +accommodate a dozen families, and if ever I travel again---- + +But this is a matter personal to Amelia Butterworth, and of no interest +to you. I will not inflict my little foibles upon you again. + +Eleven o'clock came and went. I had heard no sound. Twelve, and I began +to think that all was not quite so still as before; that I certainly +could hear now and then faint noises as of a door creaking on its +hinges, or the smothered sound of stealthily moving feet. Yet all was so +far from being distinct, that for some time I hesitated to acknowledge +to myself that anything could be going on in the house, which was not to +be looked for in a home professing to be simply the abode of a decent +young man and two very quiet-appearing young ladies; and even after the +noises and whispering had increased to such an extent that I could even +distinguish the sullen tones of the brother from the softer and more +carefully modulated accents of Lucetta and her sister, I found myself +ready to explain the matter by any conjecture short of that which +involved these delicate young ladies in any scheme of secret wickedness. + +But when I found there was likely to be no diminution in the various +noises and movements that were taking place in the front of the house, +and that only something much out of the ordinary could account for so +much disturbance in a country home so long after midnight, I decided +that only a person insensible to all sight and sound could be expected +to remain asleep under such circumstances, and that I would be perfectly +justified in their eyes in opening my door and taking a peep down the +corridor. So without further ado, I drew my bed aside and glanced out. + +All was perfectly dark and silent in the great house. The only light +visible came from the candle burning in the room behind me, and as for +sound, it was almost too still--it was the stillness of intent rather +than that of natural repose. + +This was so unexpected that for an instant I stood baffled and +wondering. Then my nose went up, and I laughed quietly to myself. I +could see nothing and I could hear nothing; but Amelia Butterworth, like +most of her kind, boasts of more than two senses, and happily there was +something to smell. A quickly blown-out candle leaves a witness behind +it to sensitive nostrils like mine, and this witness assured me that the +darkness was deceptive. Some one had just passed the head of my corridor +with a light, and because the light was extinguished it did not follow +that the person who held it was far away. Indeed, I thought that now I +heard a palpitating breath. + +"Humph," I cried aloud, but as if in unconscious communion with myself, +"it is not often I have so vivid a dream! I was sure that I heard steps +in the hall. I fear I'm growing nervous." + +Nothing moved. No one answered me. + +"Miss Knollys!" I called firmly. + +No reply. + +"Lucetta, dear!" + +I thought this appeal would go unanswered also, but when I raised my +voice for the third time, a sudden rushing sound took place down the +corridor, and Lucetta's excited figure, fully dressed, appeared in the +faint circle of light caused by my now rapidly waning candle. + +"Miss Butterworth, what is the matter?" she asked, making as if she +would draw me into my room--a proceeding which I took good care she +should not succeed in. + +Giving a glance at her dress, which was the same she had worn at the +supper table, I laughingly retorted: + +"Isn't that a question I might better ask you? It is two o'clock by my +watch, and you, for all your apparent delicacy, are still up. What does +it mean, my dear? Have I put you out so completely by my coming that +none of you can sleep?" + +Her eyes, which had fallen before mine, quickly looked up. + +"I am sorry," she began, flushing and trying to take a peep into my +room, possibly to see if I had been to bed. "We did not mean to disturb +you, but--but--oh, Miss Butterworth, pray excuse our makeshifts and our +poverty. We wished to fix up another room for you, and were ashamed to +have you see how little we had to do it with, so we were moving some +things out of our own room to-night, and----" + +Here her voice broke, and she burst into an almost uncontrollable flood +of tears. + +"Don't," she entreated, "don't," as, quite thoroughly ashamed, I began +to utter some excuses. "I shall be all right in a moment. I am used to +humiliations. Only"--and her whole body seemed to join in the plea, it +trembled so--"do not, I pray, speak quite so loud. My brother is more +sensitive than even Loreen and myself about these things, and if he +should hear----" + +Here a suppressed oath from way down the hall assured me that he did +hear, but I gave no sign of my recognition of this fact, and Lucetta +added quickly: "He would not forgive us for our carelessness in waking +you. He is rough sometimes, but so good at heart, so good." + +This, with the other small matter I have just mentioned, caused a +revulsion in my feelings. He good? I did not believe it. Yet her eyes +showed no wavering when I interrogated them with mine, and feeling that +I had perhaps been doing them all an injustice, and that what I had seen +was, as she evidently meant to intimate, due to their efforts to make a +sudden guest comfortable amid their poverty, I put the best face I could +on the matter and gave the poor, pitiful, pleading face a kiss. I was +startled to feel how cold her forehead was, and, more and more +concerned, loaded her down with such assurances of appreciation as came +to my lips, and sent her back to her own room with an injunction not to +trouble herself any more about fixing up any other room for me. "Only," +I added, as her whole face showed relief, "we will go to the locksmith +to-morrow and get a key; and after to-night you will be kind enough to +see that I have a cup of tea brought to my room just before I retire. I +am no good without my cup of tea, my dear. What keeps other people awake +makes me sleep." + +"Oh, you shall have your tea!" she cried, with an eagerness that was +almost unnatural, and then, slipping from my grasp, she uttered another +hasty apology for having roused me from my sleep and ran hastily back. + +I stretched out my arm for the candle guttering in my room and held it +up to light her. She seemed to shrink at sight of its rays, and the last +vision I had of her speeding figure showed me that same look of dread on +her pallid features which had aroused my interest in our first +interview. + +"She may have explained why the three of them are up at this time of +night," I muttered, "but she has not explained why her every +conversation is seasoned by an expression of fear." + +And thus brooding, I went back to my room and, pushing the bed again +against the door, lay down upon it and out of sheer chagrin fell fast +asleep. + + + + +VIII + +ON THE STAIRS + + +I did not wake up till morning. The room was so dark that in all +probability I should not have wakened then, if my habits of exact +punctuality had not been aided by a gentle knock at my door. + +"Who's there?" I called, for I could not say "Come in" till I had moved +my bed and made way for the door to open. + +"Hannah with warm water," replied a voice, at which I made haste to +rise. Hannah was the woman who had waited on us at dinner. + +The sight of her pleasant countenance, which nevertheless looked a +trifle haggard, was a welcome relief after the sombre features of the +night. Addressing her with my usual brusqueness, but with quite my usual +kindness, I asked how the young ladies were feeling this morning. + +Her answer made a great show of frankness. + +"Oh, they are much as usual," said she. "Miss Loreen is in the kitchen +and Miss Lucetta will soon be here to inquire how you are. I hope you +passed a good night yourself, ma'am." + +I had slept more than I ought to, perhaps, and made haste to reassure +her as to my own condition. Then seeing that a little talk would not be +unwelcome to this hearty woman, tired to death possibly with life in +this dreary house, I made some excuse for keeping her a few minutes, +saying as I did so: + +"What an immense dwelling this is for four persons to live in, or have +you another inmate whom I have not seen?" + +I thought her buxom color showed a momentary sign of failing, but it all +came back with her answer, which was given in a round, hearty voice. + +"Oh, I'm the only maid, ma'am. I cook and sweep and all. I couldn't +abide another near me. Even Mr. Simsbury, who tends the cow and horse +and who only comes in for his dinner, worries me by spells. I like to +have my own way in the kitchen, except when the young ladies choose to +come in. Is there anything more you want, ma'am, and do you prefer tea +or coffee for breakfast?" + +I told her that I always drank coffee in the morning, and would have +liked to have added a question or two, but she gave me no chance. As she +went out I saw her glance at my candlestick. There was only a +half-burned end in it. She is calculating, too, how long I sat up, +thought I. + +Lucetta stood at the head of the stairs as I went down. + +"Will you excuse me for a few moments?" said she. "I am not quite ready +to follow you, but will be soon." + +"I will take a look at the grounds." + +I thought she hesitated for a moment; then her face lighted up. "Be sure +you don't encounter the dog," she cried, and slipped hastily down a side +hall I had not noticed the night before. + +"Ah, a good way to keep me in," I reasoned. "But I shall see the grounds +yet if I have to poison that dog." Notwithstanding, I made no haste to +leave the house. I don't believe in tempting Providence, especially +where a dog is concerned. + +Instead of that, I stood still and looked up and down the halls, +endeavoring to get some idea of their plan and of the location of my own +room in reference to the rest. + +I found that the main hall ran at right angles to the long corridor down +which I had just come, and noting that the doors opening into it were of +a size and finish vastly superior to those I had passed in the corridor +just mentioned, I judged that the best bedrooms all lay front, and that +I had been quartered at the end of what had once been considered as the +servants' hall. At my right, as I looked down the stairs, ran a wall +with a break, which looked like an opening into another corridor, and +indeed I afterward learned that the long series of rooms of which mine +was the last, had its counterpart on the other side of this enormous +dwelling, giving to the house the shape of a long, square U. + +I was looking in some wonderment at this opening and marvelling over the +extravagant hospitality of those old days which necessitated such a +number of rooms in a private gentleman's home, when I heard a door open +and two voices speaking. One was rough and careless, unmistakably that +of William Knollys. The other was slow and timid, and was just as +unmistakably that of the man who had driven me to this house the day +before. They were talking of some elderly person, and I had good sense +enough not to allow my indignation to blind me to the fact that by that +elderly person they meant me. This is important, for their words were +not without significance. + +"How shall we keep the old girl out of the house till it is all over?" +was what I heard from William's surly lips. + +"Lucetta has a plan," was the hardly distinguishable answer. "I am to +take----" + +That was all I could hear; a closing door shut off the remainder. +Something, then, was going on in this house, of a dark if not mysterious +character, and the attempts made by these two interesting and devoted +girls to cover up the fact, by explanations founded on their poverty, +had been but subterfuges after all. Grieved on their account, but +inwardly grateful to the imprudence of their more than reckless brother, +for this not-to-be-mistaken glimpse into the truth, I slowly descended +the stairs, in that state of complete self-possession which is given by +a secret knowledge of the intentions formed against us by those whose +actions we have reason to suspect. + +Henceforth I had but one duty--to penetrate the mystery of this +household. Whether it was the one suspected by Mr. Gryce or another of a +less evil and dangerous character hardly mattered in my eyes. While the +blight of it rested upon this family, eyes would be lowered and heads +shaken at their name. This, if I could help it, must no longer be. If +guilt lay at the bottom of all this fear, then this guilt must be known; +if innocence--I thought of the brother's lowering brow and felt it +incompatible with innocence, but remembering Mr. Gryce's remarks on this +subject, read an instant lecture to myself and, putting all conclusions +aside, devoted the few minutes in which I found myself alone in the +dining-room to a careful preparation of my mind for its duty, which was +not likely to be of the simplest character if Lucetta's keen wits were +to be pitted against mine. + + + + +IX + +A NEW ACQUAINTANCE + + +When my mind is set free from doubt and fully settled upon any course, I +am capable of much good nature and seeming simplicity. I was therefore +able to maintain my own at the breakfast-table with some success, so +that the meal passed off without any of the disagreeable experiences of +the night before. Perhaps the fact that Loreen presided at the +coffee-urn instead of Lucetta had something to do with this. Her calm, +even looks seemed to put some restraint upon the boisterous outbursts to +which William was only too liable, while her less excitable nature +suffered less if by any chance he did break out and startle the decorous +silence by one of his rude guffaws. + +I am a slow eater, but I felt forced to hurry through the meal or be +left eating alone at the end. This did not put me in the best of humor, +for I hated to risk an indigestion just when my faculties needed to be +unusually alert. I compromised by leaving the board hungry, but I did it +with such a smile that I do not think Miss Knollys knew I had not risen +from any table so ill satisfied in years. + +"I will leave you to my brother for a few minutes," said she, hastily +tripping from the room. "I pray that you will not think of going to your +room till we have had an opportunity of arranging it." + +I instantly made up my mind to disobey this injunction. But first, it +was necessary to see what I could make of William. + +He was not a very promising subject as he turned and led the way toward +the front of the house. + +"I thought you might like to see the grounds," he growled, evidently not +enjoying the role assigned him. "They are so attractive," he sneered. +"Children hereabout call them the jungle." + +"Who's to blame for that?" I asked, with only a partial humoring of his +ill nature. "You have a sturdy pair of arms of your own, and a little +trimming here and a little trimming there would have given quite a +different appearance to this undergrowth. A gentleman usually takes +pride in his place." + +"Yes, when it's all his. This belongs to my sisters as much as to me. +What's the use of my bothering myself about it?" + +The man was so selfish he did not realize the extent of the exhibition +he made of it. Indeed he seemed to take pride in what he probably called +his independence. I began to feel the most intense aversion for him, and +only with the greatest difficulty could prolong this conversation +unmoved. + +"I should think it would be a pleasure to give that much assistance to +your sisters. They do not seem to be sparing in their attempts to please +you." + +He snapped his fingers, and I was afraid a dog or two would come leaping +around the corner of the house. But it was only his way of expressing +disdain. + +"Oh, the girls are well enough," he grumbled; "but they will stick to +the place. Lucetta might have married a half-dozen times, and once I +thought she was going to, but suddenly she turned straight about and +sent her lover packing, and that made me mad beyond everything. Why +should she hang on to me like a burr when there are other folks willing +to take on the burden?" + +It was the most palpable display of egotism I had ever seen and one of +the most revolting. I was so disgusted by it that I spoke up without any +too much caution. + +"Perhaps she thinks she can be useful to you," I said. "I have known +sisters give up their own happiness on no better grounds." + +"Useful?" he sneered. "It's a usefulness a man like me can dispense +with. Do you know what I would like?" + +We were standing in one of the tangled pathways, with our faces turned +toward the house. As he spoke, he looked up and made a rude sort of +gesture toward the blank expanse of empty and curtainless windows. + +"I would like that great house all to myself, to make into one huge, +bachelor's hall. I should like to feel that I could tramp from one end +of it to the other without awakening an echo I did not choose to hear +there. I should not find it too big. I should not find it too lonesome. +I and my dogs would know how to fill it, wouldn't we, Saracen? Oh, I +forgot, Saracen is locked up." + +The way he mumbled the last sentence showed displeasure, but I gave +little heed to that. The gloating way in which he said he and his dogs +would fill it had given me a sort of turn. I began to have more than an +aversion for the man. He inspired me with something like terror. + +"Your wishes," said I, with as little expression as possible, "seem to +leave your sisters entirely out of your calculations. How would your +mother regard that if she could see you from the place where she is +gone?" + +He turned upon me with a look of anger that made his features positively +ugly. + +"What do you mean by speaking to me of my mother? Have I spoken of her +to you? Is there any reason why you should lug my mother into this +conversation? If so, say so, and be----" + +He did not swear at me; he did not dare to, but he came precious near to +it, and that was enough to make me recoil. + +"She was my friend," said I. "I knew and loved her before you were born. +That was why I spoke of her, and I think it very natural myself." + +He seemed to feel ashamed. He grumbled out some sort of apology and +looked about quite helplessly, possibly for the dog he manifestly was in +the habit of seeing forever at his heels. I took advantage of this +momentary abstraction on his part to smooth my own disturbed features. + +"She was a beautiful girl," I remarked, on the principle that, the ice +once broken, one should not hesitate about jumping in. "Was your father +equally handsome for a man?" + +"My father--yes, let's talk of father. He was a judge of horses, he was. +When he died, there were three mares in the stable not to be beat this +side of Albany, but those devils of executors sold them, and I--well, +you had a chance to test the speed of old Bess yesterday. You weren't +afraid of being thrown out, I take it. Great Scott, to think of a man of +my tastes owning no other horse than that!" + +"You have not answered my question," I suggested, turning him about and +moving toward the gate. + +"Oh, about the way my father looked! What does that matter? He was +handsome, though. Folks say that I get whatever good looks I have from +him. He was big--bigger than I am, and while he lived--What did you make +a fellow talk for?" + +I don't know why I did, but I was certainly astonished at the result. +This great, huge lump of selfish clay had actually shown feeling and was +ashamed of it, like the lout he was. + +"Yesterday," said I, anxious to change the subject, "I had difficulty in +getting in through that gate we are pointing for. Couldn't you set it +straight, with just a little effort?" + +He paused, looked at me to see if I were in earnest, then took a dogged +step toward the gate I was still indicating with my resolute right hand, +but before he could touch it he perceived something on that deserted and +ominous highway which made him start in sudden surprise. + +"Why, Trohm," he cried, "is that you? Well, it's an age since I have +seen you turn that corner on a visit to us." + +"Sometime, certainly," answered a hearty and pleasant voice, and before +I could quite drop the look of severity with which I was endeavoring to +shame this young man into some decent show of interest in this place, +and assume the more becoming aspect of a lady caught unawares at an +early morning hour plucking flowers from a stunted syringa, a gentleman +stepped into sight on the other side of the fence with a look and a bow +so genial and devoid of mystery that I experienced for the first time +since entering the gloomy precincts of this town a decided sensation of +pleasure. + +"Miss Butterworth," explained Mr. Knollys with a somewhat forced gesture +in my direction. "A guest of my sisters," he went on, and looked as if +he hoped I would retire, though he made no motion to welcome Mr. Trohm +in, but rather leaned a little conspicuously on the gate as if anxious +to show that he had no idea that the other's intention went any further +than the passing of a few neighborly comments at the gate. + +I like to please the young even when they are no more agreeable than my +surly host, and if the gentleman who had just shown himself had been +equally immature, I would certainly have left them to have their talk +out undisturbed. But he was not. He was older; he was even of sufficient +years for his judgment to have become thoroughly matured and his every +faculty developed. I therefore could not see why my society should be +considered an intrusion by him, so I waited. His next sentence was +addressed to me. + +"I am happy," said he, "to have the pleasure of a personal introduction +to Miss Butterworth. I did not expect it. The surprise is all the more +agreeable. I only anticipated being allowed to leave this package and +letter with the maid. They are addressed to you, madam, and were left at +my house by mistake." + +I could not hide my astonishment. + +"I live in the next house below," said he. "The boy who brought these +from the post office was a stupid lad, and I could not induce him to +come any farther up the road. I hope you will excuse the present +messenger and believe there has been no delay." + +I bowed with what must have seemed an abstracted politeness. The letter +was from New York, and, as I strongly suspected, from Mr. Gryce. Somehow +this fact created in me an unmistakable embarrassment. I put both letter +and package into my pocket and endeavored to meet the gentleman's eye +with my accustomed ease in the presence of strangers. But, strange to +say, I had no sooner done so than I saw that he was no more at his ease +than myself. He smiled, glanced at William, made an offhand remark or so +about the weather, but he could not deceive eyes sharpened by such +experience as mine. Something disturbed him, something connected with +me. It made my cheek a little hot to acknowledge this even to myself, +but it was so very evident that I began to cast about for the means of +ridding ourselves of William when that blundering youth suddenly spoke: + +"I suppose he was afraid to come up the lane. Do you know, I think +you're brave to attempt it, Trohm. We haven't a very good name here." +And with a sudden, perfectly unnatural burst, he broke out into one of +his huge guffaws that so shook the old gate on which he was leaning that +I thought it would tumble down with him before our eyes. + +I saw Mr. Trohm start and cast him a look in which I seemed to detect +both surprise and horror, before he turned to me and with an air of +polite deprecation anxiously said: + +"I am afraid Miss Butterworth will not understand your allusions, Mr. +Knollys. I hear this is her first visit in town." + +As his manner showed even more feeling than the occasion seemed to +warrant, I made haste to answer that I was well acquainted with the +tradition of the lane; that its name alone showed what had happened +here. + +His bearing betrayed an instant relief. + +"I am glad to find you so well informed," said he. "I was afraid"--here +he cast another very strange glance at William--"that your young friends +might have shrunk, from some sense of delicacy, from telling you what +might frighten most guests from a lonely road like this. I compliment +you upon their thoughtfulness." + +William bowed as if the words of the other contained no other suggestion +than that which was openly apparent. Was he so dull, or was he--I had +not time to finish my conjectures even in my own mind, for at this +moment a quick cry rose behind us, and Lucetta's light figure appeared +running toward us with every indication of excitement. + +"Ah," murmured Mr. Trohm, with an appearance of great respect, "your +sister, Mr. Knollys. I had better be moving on. Good-morning, Miss +Butterworth. I am sorry that circumstances make it impossible for me to +offer you those civilities which you might reasonably expect from so +near a neighbor. Miss Lucetta and I are at swords' points over a matter +upon which I still insist she is to blame. See how shocked she is to see +me even standing at her gate." + +Shocked! I would have said terrified. Nothing but fear--her old fear +aggravated to a point that made all attempt at concealment +impossible--could account for her white, drawn features and trembling +form. She looked as if her whole thought was, "Have I come in time?" + +"What--what has procured us the honor of this visit?" she asked, moving +up beside William as if she would add her slight frame to his bulky one +to keep this intruder out. + +"Nothing that need alarm you," said the other with a suggestive note in +his kind and mellow voice. "I was rather unexpectedly intrusted this +morning with a letter for your agreeable guest here, and I have merely +come to deliver it." + +Her look of astonishment passing from him to me, I thrust my hand into +my pocket and drew out the letter which I had just received. + +"From home," said I, without properly considering that this was in some +measure an untruth. + +"Oh!" she murmured as if but half convinced. "William could have gone +for it," she added, still eying Mr. Trohm with a pitiful anxiety. + +"I was only too happy," said the other, with a low and reassuring bow. +Then, as if he saw that her distress would only be relieved by his +departure, he raised his hat and stepped back into the open highway. "I +will not intrude again, Miss Knollys," were his parting words. "If you +want anything of Obadiah Trohm, you know where to find him. His doors +will always be open to you." + +Lucetta, with a start, laid her hand on her brother's arm as if to +restrain the words she saw slowly laboring to his lips, and leaning +breathlessly forward, watched the fine figure of this perfect country +gentleman till it had withdrawn quite out of sight. Then she turned, and +with a quick abandonment of all self-control, cried out with a pitiful +gesture toward her brother, "I thought all was over; I feared he meant +to come into the house," and fell stark and seemingly lifeless at our +feet. + + + + +X + +SECRET INSTRUCTIONS + + +For a moment William and myself stood looking at each other over this +frail and prostrate figure. Then he stooped, and with an unexpected show +of kindness raised her up and began carrying her toward the house. + +"Lucetta is a fool," he cried suddenly, stopping and giving me a quick +glance over his shoulder. "Because folks are terrified of this road and +come to see us but seldom, she has got to feel a most unreasonable dread +of visitors. She was even set against your coming till we showed her +what folly it was for her to think we could always live here like +hermits. Then she doesn't like Mr. Trohm; thinks he is altogether too +friendly to me--as if that was any of her business. Am I an idiot? Have +I no sense? Cannot I be trusted to take care of my own affairs and keep +my own secrets? She's a weak, silly chit, to go and flop over like this +when, d--n it, we have enough to look after without nursing her up +and--I mean," he said, tripping himself up with an air of polite +consideration so out of keeping with his usual churlishness as to be +more than noticeable, "that it cannot add much to the pleasure of your +visit to have such things happen as this." + +"Oh, don't worry about me!" I curtly responded. "Get the poor girl in. +I'll look after her." + +But as if she heard these words and was startled by them, Lucetta roused +in her brother's arms and struggled passionately to her feet. "Oh! what +has happened to me?" she cried. "Have I said anything? William, have I +said anything?" she asked wildly, clinging to her brother in terror. + +He gave her a look and pushed her off. + +"What are you talking about?" he cried. "One would think you had +something to conceal." + +She steadied herself up in an instant. + +"I am the weakest of the family," said she, walking straight up to me +and taking me affectionately by the arm. "All my life I have been +delicate and these turns are nothing new to me. Sometimes I think I will +die in one of them; but I am quite restored now," she hastily added, as +I could not help showing my concern. "See! I can walk quite alone." And +she ran, rather than walked, up the few short steps of the porch, at +which we had now arrived. "Don't tell Loreen," she begged, as I followed +her into the house. "She worries so about me, and it will do no good." + +William had stalked off toward the stables. We were therefore alone. I +turned and laid a finger on her arm. + +"My dear," said I, "I never make foolish promises, but I can be trusted +never to heedlessly slight any one's wishes. If I see no good reason why +I should tell your sister of this fainting fit, I shall certainly hold +my peace." + +She seemed moved by my manner, if not by my words. + +"Oh," she cried, seizing my hand and pressing it. "If I dared to tell +you of my troubles! But it is impossible, quite impossible." And before +I could urge a plea for her confidence she was gone, leaving me in the +company of Hannah, who at this moment was busying herself with something +at the other end of the hall. + +I had no wish to interfere with Hannah just then. I had my letter to +read, and did not wish to be disturbed. So I slipped into the +sitting-room and carefully closed the door. Then I opened my letter. + +It was, as I supposed, from Mr. Gryce, and ran thus: + + "DEAR MISS BUTTERWORTH: + + "I am astonished at your determination, but since your desire + to visit your friends is such as to lead you to brave the + dangers of Lost Man's Lane, allow me to suggest certain + precautions. + + "First.--Do not trust anybody. + + "Second.--Do not proceed anywhere alone or on foot. + + "Third.--If danger comes to you, and you find yourself in a + condition of real peril, blow once shrilly on the whistle I + inclose with this. If, however, the danger is slight, or you + wish merely to call the attention of those who will be set to + watch over you, let the blast be short, sharp, and + repeated--twice to summon assistance, three times to call + attention. + + "I advise you to fasten this whistle about your neck in a way + to make it easily obtainable. + + "I have advised you to trust nobody. I should have excepted Mr. + Trohm, but I do not think you will be given an opportunity to + speak to him. Remember that all depends upon your not awakening + suspicion. If, however, you wish advice or desire to make any + communication to me or the man secretly holding charge over + this affair in X., seek the first opportunity of riding into + town and go at once to the hotel where you will ask for Room 3. + It has been retained in your service, and once shown into it, + you, may expect a visitor who will be the man you seek. + + "As you will see, every confidence is put in your judgment." + +There was no signature to this--it needed none--and in the packet which +came with it was the whistle. I was glad to see it, and glad to hear +that I was not left entirely without protection in my somewhat hazardous +enterprise. + +The events of the morning had been so unexpected that till this moment I +had forgotten my early determination to go to my room before any change +there could be made. Recalling it now, I started for the staircase, and +did not stop though I heard Hannah calling me back. The consequence was +that I ran full tilt against Miss Knollys coming down the hall with a +tray in her hand. + +"Ah," I cried; "some one sick in the house?" + +The attack was too sudden. I saw her recoil and for one instant hesitate +before replying. Then her natural self-possession came to her aid, and +she placidly remarked: + +"We were all up to a late hour last night, as you know. It was necessary +for us to have some food." + +I accepted the explanation and made no further remark, but as in passing +her I had detected on this tray of food supposed to have been sent up +the night before, the half-eaten portion of a certain dish we had had +for breakfast, I reserved to myself the privilege of doubting her exact +truthfulness. To me the sight of this partially consumed breakfast was +proof positive of there being in the house some person of whose presence +I was supposed to be ignorant--not a pleasant thought under the +circumstances, but quite an important fact to have established. I felt +that in this one discovery I had clutched the thread that would yet lead +me out of the labyrinth of this mystery. + +Miss Knollys, who was on her way down-stairs, called Hannah to take the +tray, and, coming back, beckoned me toward a door opening into one of +the front rooms. + +"This is to be your room," she announced, "but I do not know that I can +move you to-day." + +She was so calm, so perfectly mistress of herself, that I could not but +admire her. Lucetta would have flushed and fidgeted, but Loreen stood as +erect and placid as if no trouble weighed upon her heart and the words +were as unimportant in their character as they seemed. + +"Do not distress yourself," said I. "I told Lucetta last night that I +was perfectly comfortable and had no wish to change my quarters. I am +sorry you should have thought it necessary to disturb yourself on my +account last night. Don't do it again, I pray. A woman like myself had +rather put herself to some slight inconvenience than move. + +"I am much obliged to you," said she, and came at once from the door. I +don't know but after all I like Lucetta's fidgety ways better than +Loreen's unmovable self-possession. + +"Shall I order the coach for you?" she suddenly asked, as I turned +toward the corridor leading to my room. + +"The coach?" I repeated. + +"I thought that perhaps you might like to ride into town. Mr. Simsbury +is at leisure this morning. I regret that neither Lucetta nor myself +will be able to accompany you." + +I thought what this same Mr. Simsbury had said about Lucetta's plan, and +hesitated. It was evidently their wish to have me spend my morning +elsewhere than with them. Should I humor them, or find excuses for +remaining home? Either course had its difficulties. If I went, what +might not take place in my absence! If I remained, what suspicions might +I not rouse! I decided to compromise matters, and start for town even if +I did not go there. + +"I am hesitating," said I, "because of the two or three rather +threatening-looking clouds toward the east. But if you are sure Mr. +Simsbury can be spared, I think I will risk it. I really would like to +get a key for my door; and then riding in the country is so pleasant." + +Miss Knollys, with a bow, passed immediately down-stairs. I went in a +state of some doubt toward my own room. "Am I surveying these +occurrences through highly magnifying glasses?" thought I. It was very +possible, yet not so possible but that I cast very curious glances at +the various closed doors I had to pass before reaching my own. Such a +little thing would make me feel like trying them. Such a little +thing--that is, added to the other things which had struck me as +unexplainable. + +I found my bed made and everything in apple-pie order. I had therefore +nothing to do but to prepare for going out. This I did quickly, and was +down-stairs sooner perhaps than I was expected. At all events Lucetta +and William parted very suddenly when they saw me, she in tears and he +with a dogged shrug and some such word as this: + +"You're a fool to take on so. Since it's got to be, the sooner the +better, I say. Don't you see that every minute makes less our chances of +concealment?" + +It made me feel like changing my mind and staying home. But the habit of +a lifetime is not easily broken into. I kept to my first decision. + + + + +XI + +MEN, WOMEN, AND GHOSTS + + +Mr. Simsbury gave me quite an amiable bow as I entered the buggy. This +made it easy for me to say: + +"You are on hand early this morning. Do you sleep in the Knollys house?" + +The stare he gave me had the least bit of suspicion in it. + +"I live over yonder," he said, pointing with his whip across the +intervening woods to the main road. "I come through the marshes to my +breakfast; my old woman says they owes me three meals, and three meals I +must have." + +It was the longest sentence with which he had honored me. Finding him in +a talkative mood, I prepared to make myself agreeable, a proceeding +which he seemed to appreciate, for he began to sniff and pay great +attention to his horse, which he was elaborately turning about. + +"Why do you go that way?" I protested. "Isn't it the longest way to the +village?" + +"It's the way I'm most accustomed to," said he. "But we can go the other +way if you like. Perhaps we will get a glimpse of Deacon Spear. He's a +widower, you know." + +The leer with which he said this was intolerable. I bridled up--but no, +I will not admit that I so much as manifested by my manner that I +understood him. I merely expressed my wish to go the old way. + +He whipped up the horse at once, almost laughing outright. I began to +think this man capable of most any wicked deed. He was forced, however, +to pull up suddenly. Directly in our path was the stooping figure of a +woman. She did not move as we advanced, and so we had no alternative but +to stop. Not till the horse's head touched her shoulder did she move. +Then she rose up and looked at us somewhat indignantly. + +"Didn't you hear us?" I asked, willing to open conversation with the old +crone, whom I had no difficulty in recognizing as Mother Jane. + +"She's deaf--deaf, as a post," muttered Mr. Simsbury. "No use shouting +at her." His tone was brusque, yet I noticed he waited with great +patience for her to hobble out of the way. + +Meanwhile I was watching the old creature with much interest. She had +not a common face or a common manner. She was gray, she was toothless, +she was haggard, and she was bent, but she was not ordinary or just one +of the crowd of old women to be seen on country doorsteps. There was +force in her aged movements and a strong individuality in the glances +she shot at us as she backed slowly out of the roadway. + +"Do they say she is imbecile?" I asked. "She looks far from foolish to +me." + +"Hearken a bit," said he. "Don't you see she is muttering? She talks to +herself all the time." And in fact her lips were moving. + +"I cannot hear her," I said. "Make her come nearer. Somehow the old +creature interests me." + +He at once beckoned to the crone; but he might as well have beckoned to +the tree against which she had pushed herself. She neither answered him +nor gave any indication that she understood the gesture he had made. Yet +her eyes never moved from our faces. + +"Well, well," said I, "she seems dull as well as deaf. You had better +drive on." But before he could give the necessary jerk of the reins, I +caught sight of some pennyroyal growing about the front of the cottage a +few steps beyond, and, pointing to it with some eagerness, I cried: "If +there isn't some of the very herb I want to take home with me! Do you +think she would give me a handful of it if I paid her?" + +With an obliging grunt he again pulled up. "If you can make her +understand," said he. + +I thought it worth the effort. Though Mr. Gryce had been at pains to +tell me there was no harm in this woman and that I need not even +consider her in any inquiries I might be called upon to make, I +remembered that Mr. Gryce had sometimes made mistakes in just such +matters as these, and that Amelia Butterworth had then felt herself +called upon to set him right. If that could happen once, why not twice? +At all events, I was not going to lose the least chance of making the +acquaintance of the people living in this lane. Had he not himself said +that only in this way could we hope to come upon the clue that had +eluded all open efforts to find it? + +Knowing that the sight of money is the strongest appeal that can be made +to one living in such abject poverty as this woman, making the blind to +see and the deaf to hear, I drew out my purse and held up before her a +piece of silver. She bounded as if she had been shot, and when I held it +toward her came greedily forward and stood close beside the wheels +looking up. + +"For you," I indicated, after making a motion toward the plant which had +attracted my attention. + +She glanced from me to the herb and nodded with quick appreciation. As +in a flash she seemed to take in the fact that I was a stranger, a city +lady with memories of the country and this humble plant, and hurrying to +it with the same swiftness she had displayed in advancing to the +carriage, she tore off several of the sprays and brought them back to +me, holding out her hand for the money. + +I had never seen greater eagerness, and I think even Mr. Simsbury was +astonished at this proof of her poverty or her greed. I was inclined to +think it the latter, for her portly figure was far from looking either +ill-fed or poorly cared for. Her dress was of decent calico, and her +pipe had evidently been lately filled, for I could smell the odor of +tobacco about her. Indeed, as I afterward heard, the good people of X. +had never allowed her to suffer. Yet her fingers closed upon that coin +as if in it she grasped the salvation of her life, and into her eyes +leaped a light that made her look almost young, though she must have +been fully eighty. + +"What do you suppose she will do with that?" I asked Mr. Simsbury, as +she turned away in an evident fear I might repent of my bargain. + +"Hark!" was his brief response. "She is talking now." + +I did hearken, and heard these words fall from her quickly moving lips: + +"Seventy; twenty-eight; and now ten." + +Jargon; for I had given her twenty-five cents, an amount quite different +from any she had mentioned. + +"Seventy!" She was repeating the figures again, this time in a tone of +almost frenzied elation. "Seventy; twenty-eight; and now ten! Won't +Lizzie be surprised! Seventy; twenty--" I heard no more--she had bounded +into her cottage and shut the door. + +"Waal, what do you think of her now?" chuckled Mr. Simsbury, touching up +his horse. "She's always like that, saying over numbers, and muttering +about Lizzie. Lizzie was her daughter. Forty years ago she ran off with +a man from Boston, and for thirty-eight years she's been lying in a +Massachusetts grave. But her mother still thinks she is alive and is +coming back. Nothing will ever make her think different. But she's +harmless, perfectly harmless. You needn't be afeard of her." + +This, because I cast a look behind me of more than ordinary curiosity, I +suppose. Why were they all so sure she was harmless? I had thought her +expression a little alarming at times, especially when she took the +money from my hand. If I had refused it or even held it back a little, I +think she would have fallen upon me tooth and nail. I wished I could +take a peep into her cottage. Mr. Gryce had described it as four walls +and nothing more, and indeed it was small and of the humblest +proportions; but the fluttering of some half-dozen pigeons about its +eaves proved it to be a home and, as such, of interest to me, who am +often able to read character from a person's habitual surroundings. + +There was no yard attached to this simple building, only a small open +place in front in which a few of the commonest vegetables grew, such as +turnips, carrots, and onions. Elsewhere towered the forest--the great +pine forest through which this portion of the road ran. + +Mr. Simsbury had been so talkative up to now that I was in hope he would +enter into some details about the persons and things we encountered, +which might assist me in the acquaintanceship I was anxious to make. But +his loquaciousness ended with this small adventure I have just +described. Not till we were well quit of the pines and had entered into +the main thoroughfare did he deign to respond to any of my suggestions, +and then it was in a manner totally unsatisfactory and quite +uncommunicative. The only time he deigned to offer a remark was when we +emerged from the forest and came upon the little crippled child, looking +from its window. Then he cried: + +"Why, how's this? That's Sue you see there, and her time isn't till +arternoon. Rob allers sits there of a mornin'. I wonder if the little +chap's sick. S'pose I ask." + +As this was just what I would have suggested if he had given me time, I +nodded complacently, and we drove up and stopped. + +The piping voice of the child at once spoke up: + +"How d' ye do, Mr. Simsbury? Ma's in the kitchen. Rob isn't feelin' good +to-day." + +I thought her tone had a touch of mysteriousness in it. I greeted the +pale little thing, and asked if Rob was often sick. + +"Never," she answered, "except, like me, he can't walk. But I'm not to +talk about it, ma says. I'd like to, but----" + +Ma's face appearing at this moment over her shoulder put an end to her +innocent garrulity. + +"How d' ye do, Mr. Simsbury?" came a second time from the window, but +this time in very different tones. "What's the child been saying? She's +so sot up at being allowed to take her brother's place in the winder +that she don't know how to keep her tongue still. Rob's a little +languid, that's all. You'll see him in his old place to-morrow." And she +drew back as if in polite intimation that we might drive on. + +Mr. Simsbury responded to the suggestion, and in another moment we were +trotting down the road. Had we stayed a minute longer, I think the child +would have said something more or less interesting to hear. + +The horse, which had brought us thus far at a pretty sharp trot, now +began to lag, which so attracted Mr. Simsbury's attention, that he +forgot to answer even by a grunt more than half of my questions. He +spent most of his time looking at the nag's hind feet, and finally, just +as we came in sight of the stores, he found his tongue sufficiently to +announce that the horse was casting a shoe and that he would be obliged +to go to the blacksmith's with her. + +"Humph, and how long will that take?" I asked. + +He hesitated so long, rubbing his nose with his finger, that I grew +suspicious and cast a glance at the horse's foot myself. The shoe was +loose. I began to hear it clang. + +"Waal, it may be a matter of a couple of hours," he finally drawled. "We +have no blacksmith in town, and the ride up there is two miles. Sorry it +happened, ma'am, but there's all sorts of shops here, you see, and I've +allers heard that a woman can easily spend two hours haggling away in +shops." + +I glanced at the two ill-furnished windows he pointed out, thought of +Arnold & Constable's, Tiffany's, and the other New York establishments I +had been in the habit of visiting, and suppressed my disdain. Either the +man was a fool or he was acting a part in the interests of Lucetta and +her family. I rather inclined to the latter supposition. If the plan was +to keep me out most of the morning why could that shoe not have been +loosened before the mare left the stable? + +"I made all necessary purchases while in New York," said I, "but if you +must get the horse shod, why, take her off and do it. I suppose there is +a hotel parlor near here where I can sit." + +"Oh, yes," and he made haste to point out to me where the hotel stood. +"And it's a very nice place, ma'am. Mrs. Carter, the landlady, is the +nicest sort of person. Only you won't try to go home, ma'am, on foot? +You'll wait till I come back for you?" + +"It isn't likely I'll go streaking through Lost Man's Lane alone," I +exclaimed indignantly. "I'd rather sit in Mrs. Carter's parlor till +night." + +"And I would advise you to," he said. "No use making gossip for the +village folks. They have enough to talk about as it is." + +Not exactly seeing the force of this reasoning, but quite willing to be +left to my own devices for a little while, I pointed to a locksmith's +shop I saw near by, and bade him put me down there. + +With a sniff I declined to interpret into a token of disapproval, he +drove me up to the shop and awkwardly assisted me to alight. + +"Trunk key missing?" he ventured to inquire before getting back into his +seat. + +I did not think it necessary to reply, but walked immediately into the +shop. He looked dissatisfied at this, but whatever his feelings were he +refrained from any expression of them, and presently mounted to his +place and drove off. I was left confronting the decent man who +represented the lock-fitting interests in X. + +I found some difficulty in broaching my errand. Finally I said: + +"Miss Knollys, who lives up the road, wishes a key fitted to one of her +doors. Will you come or send a man to her house to-day? She is too +occupied to see about it herself." + +The man must have been struck by my appearance, for he stared at me +quite curiously for a minute. Then he gave a hem and a haw and said: + +"Certainly. What kind of a door is it?" When I had answered, he gave me +another curious glance and seemed uneasy to step back to where his +assistant was working with a file. + +"You will be sure to come in time to have the lock fitted before night?" +I said in that peremptory manner of mine which means simply, "I keep my +promises and expect you to keep yours." + +His "Certainly" struck me as a little weaker this time, possibly because +his curiosity was excited. "Are you the lady from New York who is +staying with them?" he asked, stepping back, seemingly quite unawed by +my positive demeanor. + +"Yes," said I, thawing a trifle; "I am Miss Butterworth." + +He looked at me almost as if I were a curiosity. + +"And did you sleep there last night?" he urged. + +I thought it best to thaw still more. + +"Of course," I said. "Where do you think I would sleep? The young ladies +are friends of mine." + +He rapped abstractedly on the counter with a small key he was holding. + +"Excuse me," said he, with some remembrance of my position toward him as +a stranger, "but weren't you afraid?" + +"Afraid?" I echoed. "Afraid in Miss Knollys' house?" + +"Why, then, do you want a key to your door?" he asked, with a slight +appearance of excitement. "We don't lock doors here in the village; at +least we didn't." + +"I did not say it was my door," I began, but, feeling that this was a +prevarication not only unworthy of me, but one that he was entirely too +sharp to accept, I added stiffly: "It is for my door. I am not +accustomed even at home to sleep with my room unlocked." + +"Oh," he murmured, totally unconvinced, "I thought you might have got a +scare. Folks somehow are afraid of that old place, it's so big and +ghost-like. I don't think you would find any one in this village who +would sleep there all night." + +"A pleasing preparation for my rest to-night," I grimly laughed. +"Dangers on the road and ghosts in the house. Happily I don't believe in +the latter." + +The gesture he made showed incredulity. He had ceased rapping with the +key or even to show any wish to join his assistant. All his thoughts for +the moment seemed to be concentrated on me. + +"You don't know little Rob," he inquired, "the crippled lad who lives at +the head of the lane?" + +"No," I said; "I haven't been in town a day yet, but I mean to know Rob +and his sister too. Two cripples in one family rouse my interest." + +He did not say why he had spoken of the child, but began tapping with +his key again. + +"And you are sure you saw nothing?" he whispered. "Lots of things can +happen in a lonely road like that." + +"Not if everybody is as afraid to enter it as you say your villagers +are," I retorted. + +But he didn't yield a jot. + +"Some folks don't mind present dangers," said he. "Spirits----" + +But he received no encouragement in his return to this topic. "You don't +believe in spirits?" said he. "Well, they are doubtful sort of folks, +but when honest and respectable people such as live in this town, when +children even, see what answers to nothing but phantoms, then I remember +what a wiser man than any of us once said----But perhaps you don't read +Shakespeare, madam?" + +Nonplussed for the moment, but interested in the man's talk more than +was consistent with my need of haste, I said with some spirit, for it +struck me as very ridiculous that this country mechanic should question +my knowledge of the greatest dramatist of all time, "Shakespeare and the +Bible form the staple of my reading." At which he gave me a little nod +of apology and hastened to say: + +"Then you know what I mean--Hamlet's remark to Horatio, madam, 'There +are more things,' etc. Your memory will readily supply you with the +words." + +I signified my satisfaction and perfect comprehension of his meaning, +and, feeling that something important lay behind his words, I endeavored +to make him speak more explicitly. + +"The Misses Knollys show no terror of their home," I observed. "They +cannot believe in spirits either." + +"Miss Knollys is a woman of a great deal of character," said he. "But +look at Lucetta. There is a face for you, for a girl not yet out of her +twenties; and such a round-cheeked lass as she was once! Now what has +made the change? The sights and sounds of that old house, I say. Nothing +else would give her that scared look--nothing merely mortal, I mean." + +This was going a step too far. I could not discuss Lucetta with this +stranger, anxious as I was to hear what he had to say about her. + +"I don't know," I remonstrated, taking up my black satin bag, without +which I never stir. "One would think the terrors of the lane she lives +in might account for some appearance of fear on her part." + +"So it might," he assented, but with no great heartiness. "But Lucetta +has never spoken of those dangers. The people in the lane do not seem to +fear them. Even Deacon Spear says that, set aside the wickedness of the +thing, he rather enjoys the quiet which the ill repute of the lane gives +him. I don't understand this indifference myself. I have no relish for +horrible mysteries or for ghosts either." + +"You won't forget the key?" I suggested shortly, preparing to walk out, +in my dread lest he should again introduce the subject of Lucetta. + +"No," said he, "I won't forget it." His tone should have warned me that +I need not expect to have a locked door that night. + + + + +XII + +THE PHANTOM COACH + + +Ghosts! What could the fellow have meant? If I had pressed him he would +have told me, but it did not seem quite a lady's business to pick up +information in this way, especially when it involved a young lady like +Lucetta. Yet did I think I would ever come to the end of this matter +without involving Lucetta? No. Why, then, did I allow my instincts to +triumph over my judgment? Let those answer who understand the workings +of the human heart. I am simply stating facts. + +Ghosts! Somehow the word startled me as if in some way it gave a rather +unwelcome confirmation to my doubts. Apparitions seen in the Knollys +mansion or in any of the houses bordering on this lane! That was a +serious charge; how serious seemed to be but half comprehended by this +man. But I comprehended it to the full, and wondered if it was on +account of such gossip as this that Mr. Gryce had persuaded me to enter +Miss Knollys' house as a guest. + +I was crossing the street to the hotel as I indulged in these +conjectures, and intent as my mind was upon them, I could not but note +the curiosity and interest which my presence excited in the simple +country folk invariably to be found lounging about a country tavern. +Indeed, the whole neighborhood seemed agog, and though I would have +thought it derogatory to my dignity to notice the fact, I could not but +see how many faces were peering at me from store doors and the +half-closed blinds of adjoining cottages. No young girl in the pride of +her beauty could have awakened more interest, and this I attributed, as +was no doubt right, not to my appearance, which would not perhaps be apt +to strike these simple villagers as remarkable, or to my dress, which is +rather rich than fashionable, but to the fact that I was a stranger in +town, and, what was more extraordinary, a guest of the Misses Knollys. + +My intention in approaching the hotel was not to spend a couple of +dreary hours in the parlor with Mrs. Carter, as Mr. Simsbury had +suggested, but to obtain if possible a conveyance to carry me +immediately back to the Knollys mansion. But this, which would have been +a simple matter in most towns, seemed well-nigh an impossibility in X. +The landlord was away, and Mrs. Carter, who was very frank with me, told +me it would be perfectly useless to ask one of the men to drive me +through the lane. "It's an unwholesome spot," said she, "and only Mr. +Carter and the police have the courage to brave it." + +I suggested that I was willing to pay well, but it seemed to make very +little difference to her. "Money won't hire them," said she, and I had +the satisfaction of knowing that Lucetta had triumphed in her plan, and +that, after all, I must sit out the morning in the precincts of the +hotel parlor with Mrs. Carter. + +It was my first signal defeat, but I was determined to make the best of +it, and if possible glean such knowledge from the talk of this woman as +would make me feel that I had lost nothing by my disappointment. She was +only too ready to talk, and the first topic was little Rob. + +I saw the moment I mentioned his name that I was introducing a subject +which had already been well talked over by every eager gossip in the +village. + +Her attitude of importance, the air of mystery she assumed, were +preparations I had long been accustomed to in women of this kind, and I +was not at all surprised when she announced in a way that admitted of no +dispute: + +"Oh, there's no wonder the child is sick. We would be sick under the +circumstances. _He has seen the phantom coach._" + +The phantom coach! So that was what the locksmith meant. A phantom +coach! I had heard of every kind of phantom but that. Somehow the idea +was a thrilling one, or would have been to a nature less practical than +mine. + +"I don't know what you mean," said I. "Some superstition of the place? I +never heard of a ghostly appearance of that nature before." + +"No, I expect not. It belongs to X. I never heard of it beyond these +mountains. Indeed, I have never known it to have been seen but upon one +road. I need not mention what road, madam. You can guess." + +Yes, I could guess, and the guessing made me set my lips a little +grimly. + +"Tell me more about this thing," I urged, half laughing. "It ought to be +of some interest to me." + +She nodded, drew her chair a trifle nearer, and impetuously began: + +"You see this is a very old town. It has more than one ancient country +house similar to the one you are now living in, and it has its early +traditions. One is, that an old-fashioned coach, perfectly noiseless, +drawn by horses through which you can see the moonlight, haunts the +highroad at intervals and flies through the gloomy forest road we have +christened of late years Lost Man's Lane. It is a superstition, +possibly, but you cannot find many families in town but believe in it as +a fact, for there is not an old man or woman in the place but has either +seen it in the past or has had some relative who has seen it. It passes +only at night, and it is thought to presage some disaster to those who +see it. My husband's uncle died the next morning after it flew by him on +the highway. Fortunately years elapse between its going and coming. It +is ten years, I think they say, since it was last seen. Poor little Rob! +It has frightened him almost out of his wits." + +"I should think so," I cried with becoming credulity. "But how came he +to see it? I thought you said it only passed at night." + +"At midnight," she repeated. "But Rob, you see, is a nervous lad, and +night before last he was so restless he could not sleep, so he begged to +be put in the window to cool off. This his mother did, and he sat there +for a good half-hour alone, looking out at the moonlight. As his mother +is an economical woman there was no candle lit in the room, so he got +his pleasure out of the shadows which the great trees made on the +highroad, when suddenly--you ought to hear the little fellow tell it--he +felt the hair rise on his forehead and all his body grow stiff with a +terror that made his tongue feel like lead in his mouth. A something he +would have called a horse and a carriage in the daytime, but which, in +this light and under the influence of the mortal terror he was in, took +on a distorted shape which made it unlike any team he was accustomed to, +was going by, not as if being driven over the earth and stones of the +road,--though there was a driver in front, a driver with an odd +three-cornered hat on his head and a cloak about his shoulders, such as +the little fellow remembered to have seen hanging in his grandmother's +closet,--but as if it floated along without sound or stir; in fact, a +spectre team which seemed to find its proper destination when it turned +into Lost Man's Lane and was lost among the shadows of that ill-reputed +road." + +"Pshaw!" was my spirited comment as she paused to take her breath and +see how I was affected by this grewsome tale. "A dream of the poor +little lad! He had heard stories of this apparition and his imagination +supplied the rest." + +"No; excuse me, madam, he had been carefully kept from hearing all such +tales. You could see this by the way he told his story. He hardly +believed what he had himself seen. It was not till some foolish neighbor +blurted out, 'Why, that was the phantom coach,' that he had any idea he +was not relating a dream." + +My second _Pshaw!_ was no less marked than the first. + +"He did know about it, notwithstanding," I insisted. "Only he had +forgotten the fact. Sleep often supplies us with these lost memories." + +"Very true, and your supposition is very plausible, Miss Butterworth, +and might be regarded as correct, if he had been the only person to see +this apparition. But Mrs. Jenkins saw it too, and she is a woman to be +believed." + +This was becoming serious. + +"Saw it before he did or afterwards?" I asked. "Does she live on the +highway or somewhere in Lost Man's Lane?" + +"She lives on the highway about a half-mile from the station. She was +sitting up with her sick husband and saw it just as it was going down +the hill. She said it made no more noise than a cloud slipping by. She +expects to lose old Rause. No one could behold such a thing as that and +not have some misfortune follow." + +I laid all this up in my mind. My hour of waiting was not likely to +prove wholly unprofitable. + +"You see," the good woman went on, with a relish for the marvellous that +stood me in good stead, "there is an old tradition of that road +connected with a coach. Years ago, before any of us were born, and the +house where you are now staying was a gathering-place for all the gay +young bloods of the county, a young man came up from New York to visit +Mr. Knollys. I do not mean the father or even the grandfather of the +folks you are visiting, ma'am. He was great-grandfather to Lucetta, and +a very fine gentleman, if you can trust the pictures that are left of +him. But my story has not to do with him. He had a daughter at that +time, a widow of great and sparkling attractions, and though she was +older than the young man I have mentioned, every one thought he would +marry her, she was so handsome and such an heiress. + +"But he failed to pay his court to her, and though he was handsome +himself and made a fool of more than one girl in the town, every one +thought he would return as he had come, a free-hearted bachelor, when +suddenly one night the coach was missed from the stables and he from the +company, which led to the discovery that the young widow's daughter was +gone too, a chit who was barely fifteen, and without a hundredth part of +the beauty of her mother. Love only could account for this, for in those +days young ladies did not ride with gentlemen in the evening for +pleasure, and when it came to the old gentleman's ears, and, what was +worse, came to the mother's, there was a commotion in the great house, +the echoes of which, some say, have never died out. Though the pipers +were playing and the fiddles were squeaking in the great room where they +used to dance the night away, Mrs. Knollys, with her white brocade +tucked up about her waist, stood with her hand on the great front door, +waiting for the horse upon which she was determined to follow the flying +lovers. The father, who was a man of eighty years, stood by her side. He +was too old to ride himself, but he made no effort to hold her back, +though the jewels were tumbling from her hair and the moon had vanished +from the highway. + +"'I will bring her back or die!' the passionate beauty exclaimed, and +not a lip said her nay, for they saw, what neither man nor woman had +been able to see up to that moment, that her very life and soul were +wrapped up in the man who had stolen away her daughter. + +"Shrilly piped the pipes, squeak and hum went the fiddles, but the sound +that was sweetest to her was the pound of the horses' hoofs on the road +in front. That was music indeed, and as soon as she heard it she +bestowed one wild kiss on her father and bounded from the house. An +instant later and she was gone. One flash of her white robe at the gate, +then all was dark on the highway, and only the old father stood in the +wide-open door, waiting, as he vowed he would wait, till his daughter +returned. + +"She did not go alone. A faithful groom was behind her, and from him was +learned the conclusion of that quest. For an hour and a half they rode; +then they came upon a chapel in the mountains, in which were burning +unwonted lights. At the sight the lady drew rein and almost fell from +her horse into the arms of her lackey. 'A marriage!' she murmured; 'a +marriage!' and pointed to an empty coach standing in the shadow of a +wide-spreading tree. It was their family coach. How well she knew it! +Rousing herself, she made for the chapel door. 'I will stop these +unhallowed rites!' she cried! 'I am her mother, and she is not of age.' +But the lackey drew her back by her rich white dress. 'Look!' he cried, +pointing in at one of the windows, and she looked. The man she loved +stood before the altar with her daughter. He was smiling in that +daughter's face with a look of passionate devotion. It went like a +dagger to her heart. Crushing her hands against her face, she wailed out +some fearful protest; then she dashed toward the door with 'Stop! stop!' +on her lips. But the faithful lackey at her side drew her back once +more. 'Listen!' was his word, and she listened. The minister, whose form +she had failed to note in her first hurried look, was uttering his +benediction. She had come too late. The young couple were married. + +"Her servant said, or so the tradition runs, that when she realized this +she grew calm as walking death. Making her way into the chapel, she +stood ready at the door to greet them as they issued forth, and when +they saw her there, with her rich bedraggled robe and the gleam of +jewels on a neck she had not even stopped to envelop in more than the +veil from her hair, the bridegroom seemed to realize what he had done +and stopped the bride, who in her confusion would have fled back to the +altar where she had just been made a wife. 'Kneel!' he cried. 'Kneel, +Amarynth! Only thus can we ask pardon of our mother.' But at that word, +a word which seemed to push her a million miles away from these two +beings who but two hours before had been the delight of her life, the +unhappy woman gave a cry and fled from their presence. 'Go! go!' were +her parting words. 'As you have chosen, you must abide. But let no +tongue ever again call me mother.' + +"They found her lying on the grass outside. As she could no longer +sustain herself on a horse, they put her into the coach, gave the reins +to her devoted lackey, and themselves rode off on horseback. One man, +the fellow who had driven them to that place, said that the clock struck +twelve from the chapel tower as the coach turned away and began its +rapid journey home. This may and may not be so. We only know that its +apparition always enters Lost Man's Lane a few minutes before one, which +is the very hour at which the real coach came back and stopped before +Mr. Knollys' gate. And now for the worst, Miss Butterworth. When the old +gentleman went down to greet the runaways, he found the lackey on the +box and his daughter sitting all alone in the coach. But the soil on the +brocaded folds of her white dress was no longer that of mud only. She +had stabbed herself to the heart with a bodkin she wore in her hair, and +it was a corpse which the faithful negro had been driving down the +highway that night." + +I am not a sentimental woman, but this story as thus told gave me a +thrill I do not know as I really regret experiencing. + +"What was this unhappy mother's name?" I asked. + +"Lucetta," was the unexpected and none too reassuring answer. + + + + +XIII + +GOSSIP + + +This name once mentioned called for more gossip, but of a somewhat +different nature. + +"The Lucetta of to-day is not like her ancient namesake," observed Mrs. +Carter. "She may have the heart to love, but she is not capable of +showing that love by any act of daring." + +"I don't know about that," I replied, astonished that I felt willing to +enter into a discussion with this woman on the very subject I had just +shrunk from talking over with the locksmith. "Girls as frail and nervous +as she is, sometimes astonish one at a pinch. I do not think Lucetta +lacks daring." + +"You don't know her. Why, I have seen her jump at the sight of a spider, +and heaven knows that they are common enough among the decaying walls in +which she lives. A puny chit, Miss Butterworth; pretty enough, but weak. +The very kind to draw lovers, but not to hold them. Yet every one pities +her, her smile is so heart-broken." + +"With ghosts to trouble her and a lover to bemoan, she has surely some +excuse for that," said I. + +"Yes, I don't deny it. But why has she a lover to bemoan? He seemed a +proper man and much beyond the ordinary. Why let him go as she did? Even +her sister admits that she loved him." + +"I am not acquainted with the circumstances," I suggested. + +"Well, there isn't much of a story to it. He is a young man from over +the mountains, well educated, and with something of a fortune of his +own. He came here to visit the Spears, I believe, and seeing Lucetta +leaning one day on the gate in front of her house, he fell in love with +her and began to pay her his attentions. That was before the lane got +its present bad name, but not before one or two men had vanished from +among us. William--that is her brother, you know--has always been +anxious to have his sisters marry, so he did not stand in the way, and +no more did Miss Knollys, but after two or three weeks of doubtful +courtship, the young man went away, and that was the end of it. And a +great pity, too, say I, for once clear of that house, Lucetta would grow +into another person. Sunshine and love are necessities to most women, +Miss Butterworth, especially to such as are weakly and timid." + +I thought the qualification excellent. + +"You are right," I assented, "and I should like to see the result of +them upon Lucetta." Then, with an attempt to still further sound this +woman's mind and with it the united mind of the whole village, I +remarked: "The young do not usually throw aside such prospects without +excellent reasons. Have you never thought that Lucetta was governed by +principle in discarding this very excellent young man?" + +"Principle? What principle could she have had in letting a desirable +husband go?" + +"She may have thought the match an undesirable one for him." + +"For him? Well, I never thought of that. True, she may. They are known +to be poor, but poverty don't count in such old families as theirs. I +hardly think she would be influenced by any such consideration. Now, if +this had happened since the lane got its bad name and all this stir had +been made about the disappearance of certain folks within its precincts, +I might have given some weight to your suggestion--women are so queer. +But this happened long ago and at a time when the family was highly +thought of, leastwise the girls, for William does not go for much, you +know--too stupid and too brutal." + +William! Would the utterance of that name heighten my suggestion? I +surveyed her closely, but could detect no change in her somewhat puzzled +countenance. + +"My allusions were not in reference to the disappearances," said I. "I +was thinking of something else. Lucetta is not well." + +"Ah, I know! They say she has some kind of heart complaint, but that was +not true then. Why, her cheeks were like roses in those days, and her +figure as plump and pretty as any you could see among our village +beauties. No, Miss Butterworth, it was through her weakness she lost +him. She probably palled upon his taste. It was noticed that he held his +head very high in going out of town." + +"Has he married since?" I asked. + +"Not to my knowledge, ma'am." + +"Then he loved her," I declared. + +She looked at me quite curiously. Doubtless that word sounds a little +queer on my lips, but that shall not deter me from using it when the +circumstances seem to require. Besides, there was once a time--But +there, I promised to fall into no digressions. + +"You should have been married yourself, Miss Butterworth," said she. + +I was amazed, first at her daring, and secondly that I was so little +angry at this sudden turning of the tables upon myself. But then the +woman meant no offence, rather intended a compliment. + +"I am very well contented as I am," I returned. "_I_ am neither sickly +nor timid." + +She smiled, looked as if she thought it only common politeness to agree +with me, and tried to say so, but finding the situation too much for +her, coughed and discreetly held her peace. I came to her rescue with a +new question: + +"Have the women of the Knollys family ever been successful in love? The +mother of these girls, say--she who was Miss Althea Burroughs--was her +life with her husband happy? I have always been curious to know. She and +I were schoolmates." + +"You were? You knew Althea Knollys when she was a girl? Wasn't she +charming, ma'am? Did you ever see a livelier girl or one with more knack +at winning affection? Why, she couldn't sit down with you a half-hour +before you felt like sharing everything you had with her. It made no +difference whether you were man or woman, it was all the same. She had +but to turn those mischievous, pleading eyes upon you for you to become +a fool at once. Yet her end was sad, ma'am; too sad, when you remember +that she died at the very height of her beauty alone and in a foreign +land. But I have not answered your question. Were she and the judge +happy together? I have never heard to the contrary, ma'am. I'm sure he +mourned her faithfully enough. Some think that her loss killed him. He +did not survive her more than three years." + +"The children do not favor her much," said I, "but I see an expression +now and then in Lucetta which reminds me of her mother." + +"They are all Knollys," said she. "Even William has traits which, with a +few more brains back of them, would remind you of his grandfather, who +was the plainest of his race." + +I was glad that the talk had reverted to William. + +"He seems to lack heart, as well as brains," I said. "I marvel that his +sisters put up with him as well as they do." + +"They cannot help it. He is not a fellow to be fooled with. Besides, he +holds third share in the house. If they could sell it! But, deary me, +who would buy an old tumble-down place like that, on a road you cannot +get folks who have any consideration for their lives to enter for love +or money? But excuse me, ma'am; I forgot that you are living just now on +that very road. I'm sure I beg a thousand pardons." + +"I am living there as a guest," I returned. "I have nothing to do with +its reputation--except to brave it." + +"A courageous thing to do, ma'am, and one that may do the road some +good. If you can spend a month with the Knollys girls and come out of +their house at the end as hale and hearty as you entered it, it will be +the best proof possible that there is less to be feared there than some +people think. I shall be glad if you can do it, ma'am, for I like the +girls and would be glad to have the reputation of the place restored." + +"Pshaw!" was my final comment. "The credulity of the town has had as +much to do with its loss as they themselves. That educated people such +as I see here should believe in ghosts!" + +I say final, for at this moment the good lady, springing up, put an end +to our conversation. She had just seen a buggy pass the window. + +"It's Mr. Trohm," she exclaimed. "Ma'am, if you wish to return home +before Mr. Simsbury comes back you may be able to do so with this +gentleman. He's a most obliging man, and lives less than a quarter of a +mile from the Misses Knollys." + +I did not say I had already met the gentleman. Why, I do not know. I +only drew myself up and waited with some small inner perturbation for +the result of the inquiry I saw she had gone to make. + + + + +XIV + +I FORGET MY AGE, OR, RATHER, REMEMBER IT + + +Mr. Trohm did not disappoint my expectations. In another moment I +perceived him standing in the open doorway with the most genial smile on +his lips. + +"Miss Butterworth," said he, "I feel too honored. If you will deign to +accept a seat in my buggy, I shall only be too happy to drive you home." + +I have always liked the manners of country gentlemen. There is just a +touch of formality in their bearing which has been quite eliminated from +that of their city brothers. I therefore became gracious at once and +accepted the seat he offered me without any hesitation. + +The heads that showed themselves at the neighboring windows warned us to +hasten on our route. Mr. Trohm, with a snap of his whip, touched up his +horse, and we rode in dignified calm away from the hotel steps into the +wide village street known as the main road. The fact that Mr. Gryce had +told me that this was the one man I could trust, joined to my own +excellent knowledge of human nature and the persons in whom explicit +confidence can be put, made the moment one of great satisfaction to me. +I was about to make my appearance at the Knollys mansion two hours +before I was expected, and thus outwit Lucetta by means of the one man +whose assistance I could conscientiously accept. + +We were not slow in beginning conversation. The fine air, the prosperous +condition of the town offered themes upon which we found it quite easy +to dilate, and so naturally and easily did our acquaintanceship progress +that we had turned the corner into Lost Man's Lane before I quite +realized it. The entrance from the village offered a sharp contrast to +the one I had already traversed. There it was but a narrow opening +between sombre and unduly crowding trees. Here it was the gradual +melting of a village street into a narrow and less frequented road, +which only after passing Deacon Spear's house assumed that aspect of +wildness which a quarter of a mile farther on deepened into something +positively sombre and repellent. + +I speak of Deacon Spear because he was sitting on his front doorstep +when we rode by. As he was a resident in the lane, I did not fail to +take notice of him, though guardedly and with such restraint as a +knowledge of his widowed condition rendered both wise and proper. + +He was not an agreeable-looking person, at least to me. His hair was +sleek, his beard well cared for, his whole person in good if not +prosperous condition, but he had the self-satisfied expression I detest, +and looked after us with an aspect of surprise I chose to consider a +trifle impertinent. Perhaps he envied Mr. Trohm. If so, he may have had +good reason for it--it is not for me to judge. + +Up to now I had seen only a few scrub bushes at the side of the road, +with here and there a solitary poplar to enliven the dead level on +either side of us; but after we had ridden by the fence which sets the +boundary to the good deacon's land, I noticed such a change in the +appearance of the lane that I could not but exclaim over the natural as +well as cultivated beauties which every passing moment was bringing +before me. + +Mr. Trohm could not conceal his pleasure. + +"These are my lands," said he. "I have bestowed unremitting attention +upon them for years. It is my hobby, madam. There is not a tree you see +that has not received my careful attention. Yonder orchard was set out +by me, and the fruit it yields--Madam, I hope you will remain long +enough with us to taste a certain rare and luscious peach that I brought +from France a few years ago. It gives promise of reaching its full +perfection this year, and I shall be gratified indeed if you can give it +your approval." + +This was politeness indeed, especially as I knew what value men like him +set upon each individual fruit they watch ripen under their care. +Testifying my appreciation of his kindness, I endeavored to introduce +another and less harmless and perhaps less personally interesting topic +of conversation. The chimneys of his house were beginning to show over +the trees, and I had heard nothing from this man on the subject which +should have been the most interesting of all to me at this moment. And +he was the only person in town I was at liberty to really confide in, +and possibly the only man in town who could give me a reliable statement +of the reasons why the family I was visiting was regarded in a doubtful +light not only by the credulous villagers, but by the New York police. I +began by an allusion to the phantom coach. + +"I hear," said I, "that this lane has other claims to attention beyond +those afforded by the mysteries connected with it. I hear that it has at +times a ghostly visitant in the shape of a spectral horse and carriage." + +"Yes," he replied, with a seeming understanding that was very +flattering; "do not spare the lane one of its honors. It has its nightly +horror as well as its daily fear. I wish the one were as unreal as the +other." + +"You act as if both were unreal to you," said I. "The contrast between +your appearance and that of some other members of the lane is quite +marked." + +"You refer"--he seemed to hate to speak--"to the Misses Knollys, I +presume." + +I endeavored to treat the subject lightly. + +"To your young enemy, Lucetta," I smilingly replied. + +He had been looking at me in a perfectly modest and respectful manner, +but he dropped his eyes at this and busied himself abstractedly, and yet +I thought with some intention, in removing a fly from the horse's flank +with the tip of his whip. + +"I will not acknowledge her as an enemy," he quietly returned in +strictly modulated tones. "I like the girl too well." + +The fly had been by this time dislodged, but he did not look up. + +"And William?" I suggested. "What do you think of William?" + +Slowly he straightened himself. Slowly he dropped the whip back into its +socket. I thought he was going to answer, when suddenly his whole +attitude changed and he turned upon me a beaming face full of nothing +but pleasure. + +"The road takes a turn here. In another moment you will see my house." +And even while he spoke it burst upon us, and I instantly forgot that I +had just ventured on a somewhat hazardous question. + +It was such a pretty place, and it was so beautifully and exquisitely +kept. There was a charm about its rose-encircled porch that is only to +be found in very old places that have been appreciatively cared for. A +high fence painted white inclosed a lawn like velvet, and the house +itself, shining with a fresh coat of yellow paint, bore signs of comfort +in its white-curtained windows not usually to be found in the solitary +dwelling of a bachelor. I found my eyes roving over each detail with +delight, and almost blushed, or, rather, had I been twenty years younger +might have been thought to blush, as I met his eyes and saw how much my +pleasure gratified him. + +"You must excuse me if I express too much admiration for what I see +before me," I said, with what I have every reason to believe was a +highly successful effort to hide my confusion. "I have always had a +great leaning towards well-ordered walks and trimly kept flower-beds--a +leaning, alas! which I have found myself unable to gratify." + +"Do not apologize," he hastened to say. "You but redouble my own +pleasure in thus honoring my poor efforts with your regard. I have +spared no pains, madam, I have spared no pains to render this place +beautiful, and most of what you see, I am proud to say, has been +accomplished by my own hands." + +"Indeed!" I cried in some surprise, letting my eye rest with +satisfaction on the top of a long well-sweep that was one of the +picturesque features of the place. + +"It may have been folly," he remarked, with a gloating sweep of his eye +over the velvet lawn and flowering shrubs--a peculiar look that seemed +to express something more than the mere delight of possession, "but I +seemed to begrudge any hired assistance in the tending of plants every +one of which seems to me like a personal friend." + +"I understand," was my somewhat un-Butterworthian reply. I really did +not quite know myself. "What a contrast to the dismal grounds at the +other end of the lane!" + +This was more in my usual vein. He seemed to feel the difference, for +his expression changed at my remark. + +"Oh, that den!" he exclaimed, bitterly; then, seeing me look a little +shocked, he added, with an admirable return to his old manner, "I call +any place a den where flowers do not grow." And jumping from the buggy, +he gathered an exquisite bunch of heliotrope, which he pressed upon me. +"I love sunshine, beds of roses, fountains, and a sweep of lawn like +this we see before us. But do not let me bore you. You have probably +lingered long enough at the old bachelor's place and now would like to +drive on. I will be with you in a moment. Doubtful as it is whether I +shall soon again be so fortunate as to be able to offer you any +hospitality, I would like to bring you a glass of wine--or, for I see +your eyes roaming longingly toward my old-fashioned well, would you like +a draft of water fresh from the bucket?" + +I assured him I did not drink wine, at which I thought his eyes +brightened, but that neither did I indulge in water when in a heat, as +at present, at which he looked disappointed and came somewhat +reluctantly back to the buggy. + +He brightened up, however, the moment he was again at my side. + +"Now for the woods," he exclaimed, with what was undoubtedly a forced +laugh. + +I thought the opportunity one I ought not to slight. + +"Do you think," said I, "that it is in those woods the disappearances +occur of which Miss Knollys has told me?" + +He showed the same hesitancy as before to enter upon this subject. + +"I think the less you allow your mind to dwell on this matter the +better," said he--"that is, if you are going to remain long in this +lane. I do not expend any more thought upon it than is barely necessary, +or I should not retain sufficient courage to remain among my roses and +my fruits. I wonder--pardon me the indiscretion--that you could bring +yourself to enter so ill-reputed a neighborhood. You must be a very +brave woman." + +"I thought it my duty--" I began. "Althea Knollys was my friend, and I +felt I owed a duty toward her children. Besides--" Should I tell Mr. +Trohm my real errand in this place? Mr. Gryce had intimated that he was +in the confidence of the police, and if so, his assistance in case of +necessity might be of inestimable value to me. Yet if no such necessity +should arise would I want this man to know that Amelia Butterworth--No, +I would not take him into my confidence--not yet. I would only try to +get at his idea of where the blame lay--that is, if he had any. + +"Besides," he suggested in polite reminder, after waiting a minute or +two for me to continue. + +"Did I say besides?" was my innocent rejoinder. "I think I meant that +after seeing them my sense of the importance of that duty had increased. +William especially seems to be a young man of very doubtful amiability." + +Immediately the non-commital look returned to Mr. Trohm's face. + +"I have no fault to find with William," said he. "He's not the most +agreeable companion in the world perhaps, but he has a pretty fancy for +fruit--a very pretty fancy." + +"One can hardly wonder at that in a neighbor of Mr. Trohm," said I, +watching his look, which was fixed somewhat gloomily upon the forest of +trees now rapidly closing in around us. + +"Perhaps not, perhaps not, madam. The sight of a blossoming honeysuckle +hanging from an arbor such as runs along my south walls is a great +stimulant to one's taste, madam, I'll not deny that." + +"But William?" I repeated, determined not to let the subject go; "have +you never thought he was a little indifferent to his sisters?" + +"A little, madam." + +"And a trifle rough to everything but his dogs?" + +"A trifle, madam." + +Such reticence seemed unnecessary. I was almost angry, but restrained +myself and pursued quietly, "The girls, on the contrary, seem devoted to +him?" + +"Women have that weakness." + +"And act as if they would do--what would they not do for him?" + +"Miss Butterworth, I have never seen a more amiable woman than yourself. +Will you promise me one thing?" + +His manner was respect itself, his smile genial and highly contagious. I +could not help responding to it in the way he expected. + +"Do not talk to me about this family. It is a painful subject to me. +Lucetta--you know the girl, and I shall not be able to prejudice you +against her--has conceived the idea that I encourage William in an +intimacy of which she does not approve. She does not want him to talk to +me. William has a loose tongue in his head and sometimes drops unguarded +words about their doings, which if any but William spoke--But there, I +am forgetting one of the most important rules of my own life, which is +to keep my mouth from babbling and my tongue from guile. Influence of a +congenial companion, madam; it is irresistible sometimes, especially to +a man living so much alone as myself." + +I considered his fault very pardonable, but did not say so lest I should +frighten his confidences away. + +"I thought there was something wrong between you," I said. "Lucetta +acted almost afraid of you this morning. I should think she would be +glad of the friendship of so good a neighbor." + +His face took on a very sombre look. + +"She is afraid of me," he admitted, "afraid of what I have seen or may +see of--their poverty," he added, with an odd emphasis. I scarcely think +he expected to deceive me. + +I did not push the subject an inch farther. I saw it had gone as far as +discretion permitted at this time. + +We had reached the heart of the forest and were rapidly approaching the +Knollys house. As the tops of its great chimneys rose above the foliage, +I saw his aspect suddenly change. + +"I don't know why I should so hate to leave you here," he remarked. + +I myself thought the prospect of re-entering the Knollys mansion +somewhat uninviting after the pleasant ride I had had and the glimpse +which had been given me of a really cheery home and pleasant +surroundings. + +"This morning I looked upon you as a somewhat daring woman, the progress +of whose stay here would be watched by me with interest, but after the +companionship of the last half-hour I am conscious of an anxiety in your +regard which makes me doubly wish that Miss Knollys had not shut me out +from her home. Are you sure you wish to enter this house again, madam?" + +I was surprised--really surprised--at the feeling he showed. If my +well-disciplined heart had known how to flutter it would probably have +fluttered then, but happily the restraint of years did not fail me in +this emergency. Taking advantage of the emotion which had betrayed him +into an acknowledgment of his real feelings regarding the dangers +lurking in this home, despite the check he had endeavored to put upon +his lips, I said, with an attempt at _naivete_ only to be excused by the +exigencies of the occasion: + +"Why, I thought you considered this domicile perfectly harmless. You +like the girls and have no fault to find with William. Can it be that +this great building has another occupant? I do not allude to ghosts. +Neither of us are likely to believe in the supernatural." + +"Miss Butterworth, you have me at a disadvantage. I do not know of any +other occupant which the house can hold save the three young people you +have mentioned. If I seem to feel any doubt of them--but I don't feel +any doubt. I only dread any place for you which is not watched over by +someone interested in your defence. The danger threatening the +inhabitants of this lane is such a veiled one. If we knew where it +lurked, we would no longer call it danger. Sometimes I think the ghosts +you allude to are not as innocent as mere spectres usually are. But +don't let me frighten you. Don't--" How quick his voice changed! "Ah, +William, I have brought back your guest, you see! I couldn't let her sit +out the noon hour in old Carter's parlor. That would be too much for +even so amiable a person as Miss Butterworth to endure." + +I had hardly realized we were so near the gate and certainly was +surprised to find William anywhere within hearing. That his appearance +at this moment was anything but welcome, must be evident to every one. +The sentence which it interrupted might have contained the most +important advice, or at the least a warning I could ill afford to lose. +But destiny was against me, and being one who accepts the inevitable +with good grace, I prepared to alight, with Mr. Trohm's assistance. + +The bunch of heliotrope I held was a little in my way or I should have +managed the jump with confidence and dignified agility. As it was, I +tripped slightly, which brought out a chuckle from William that at the +moment seemed more wicked to me than any crime. Meanwhile he had not let +matters proceed thus far without putting more than one question. + +"And where's Simsbury? And why did Miss Butterworth think she had got to +sit in Carter's parlor?" + +"Mr. Simsbury," said I as soon as I could recover from the mingled +exertion and embarrassment of my descent to terra firma, "felt it +necessary to take the horse to the shoer's. That is a half-day's work, +as you know, and I felt confident that he and especially you would be +glad to have me accept any means for escaping so dreary a waiting." + +The grunt he uttered was eloquent of anything but satisfaction. + +"I'll go tell the girls," he said. But he didn't go till he had seen Mr. +Trohm enter his buggy and drive slowly off. + +That all this did not add to my liking for William goes without saying. + + + + +_BOOK II_ + +THE FLOWER PARLOR + + + + +XV + +LUCETTA FULFILS MY EXPECTATION OF HER + + +It was not till Mr. Trohm had driven away that I noticed, in the shadow +of the trees on the opposite side of the road, a horse tied up, whose +empty saddle bespoke a visitor within. At any other gate and on any +other road this would not have struck me as worthy of notice, much less +of comment. But here, and after all that I had heard during the morning, +the circumstance was so unexpected I could not help showing my +astonishment. + +"A visitor?" I asked. + +"Some one to see Lucetta." + +William had no sooner said this than I saw he was in a state of high +excitement. He had probably been in this condition when we drove up, but +my attention being directed elsewhere I had not noticed it. Now, +however, it was perfectly plain to me, and it did not seem quite the +excitement of displeasure, though hardly that of joy. + +"She doesn't expect you yet," he pursued, as I turned sharply toward the +house, "and if you interrupt her--D--n it, if I thought you would +interrupt her----" + +I thought it time to teach him a lesson in manners. + +"Mr. Knollys," I interposed somewhat severely, "I am a lady. Why should +I interrupt your sister or give her or you a moment of pain?" + +"I don't know," he muttered. "You are so very quick I was afraid you +might think it necessary to join her in the parlor. She is perfectly +able to take care of herself, Miss Butterworth, and if she don't do +it--" The rest was lost in indistinct guttural sounds. + +I made no effort to answer this tirade. I took my usual course in quite +my usual way to the front steps and proceeded to mount them without so +much as looking behind me to see whether or not this uncouth +representative of the Knollys name had kept at my heels or not. + +Entering the door, which was open, I came without any effort on my part +upon Lucetta and her visitor, who proved to be a young gentleman. They +were standing together in the middle of the hall and were so absorbed in +what they were saying that they neither saw nor heard me. I was +therefore enabled to catch the following sentences, which struck me as +of some moment. The first was uttered by her, and in very pleading +tones: + +"A week--I only ask a week. Then perhaps I can give you an answer which +will satisfy you." + +His reply, in manner if not in matter, proclaimed him the lover of whom +I had so lately heard. + +"I cannot, dear girl; indeed, I cannot. My whole future depends upon my +immediately making the move in which I have asked you to join me. If I +wait a week, my opportunity will be gone, Lucetta. You know me and you +know how I love you. Then come----" + +A rude hand on my shoulder distracted my attention. William stood +lowering behind me and, as I turned, whispered in my ear: + +"You must come round the other way. Lucetta is so touchy, the sight of +you will drive every sensible idea out of her head." + +His blundering whisper did what my presence and by no means light +footsteps had failed to do. With a start Lucetta turned and, meeting my +eye, drew back in visible confusion. The young man followed her hastily. + +"Is it good-by, Lucetta?" he pleaded, with a fine, manly ignoring of our +presence that roused my admiration. + +She did not answer. Her look was enough. William, seeing it, turned +furious at once, and, bounding by me, faced the young man with an oath. + +"You're a fool to take no from a silly chit like that," he vociferated. +"If I loved a girl as you say you love Lucetta, I'd have her if I had to +carry her away by force. She'd stop screaming before she was well out of +the lane. I know women. While you listen to them they'll talk and talk; +but once let a man take matters into his own hands and--" A snap of his +fingers finished the sentence. I thought the fellow brutal, but scarcely +so stupid as I had heretofore considered him. + +His words, however, might just as well have been uttered into empty air. +The young man he so violently addressed appeared hardly to have heard +him, and as for Lucetta, she was so nearly insensible from misery that +she had sufficient ado to keep herself from falling at her lover's feet. + +"Lucetta, Lucetta, is it then good-by? You will not go with me?" + +"I cannot. William, here, knows that I cannot. I must wait till----" + +But here her brother seized her so violently by the wrist that she +stopped from sheer pain, I fear. However that was, she turned pale as +death under his clutch, and, when he tried to utter some hot, passionate +words into her ear, shook her head, but did not speak, though her lover +was gazing with a last, final appeal into her eyes. The delicate girl +was bearing out my estimate of her. + +Seeing her thus unresponsive, William flung her hand from him and turned +upon me. + +"It's your fault," he cried. "You _would_ come in----" + +But, at this, Lucetta, recovering her poise in a moment, cried out +shrilly: + +"For shame, William! What has Miss Butterworth to do with this? You are +not helping me with your roughness. God knows I find this hour hard +enough, without this show of anxiety on your part to be rid of me." + +"There's woman's gratitude for you," was his snarling reply. "I offer to +take all the responsibilities on my own shoulders and make it right +with--with her sister, and all that, and she calls it desire to get rid +of her. Well, have your own way," he growled, storming down the hall; +"I'm done with it for one." + +The young man, whose attitude of reserve, mixed with a strange and +lingering tenderness for this girl, whom he evidently loved without +fully understanding her, was every minute winning more and more of my +admiration, had meanwhile raised her trembling hand to his lips in what +was, as we all could see, a last farewell. + +In another moment he was walking by us, giving me as he passed a low bow +that for all its grace did not succeed in hiding from me the deep and +heartfelt disappointment with which he quitted this house. As his figure +passed through the door, hiding for one moment the sunshine, I felt an +oppression such as has not often visited my healthy nature, and when it +passed and disappeared, something like the good spirit of the place +seemed to go with it, leaving in its place doubt, gloom, and a morbid +apprehension of that unknown something which in Lucetta's eyes had +rendered his dismissal necessary. + +"Where's Saracen? I declare I'm nothing but a fool without that dog," +shouted William. "If he has to be tied up another day--" But shame was +not entirely eliminated from his breast, for at Lucetta's reproachful +"William!" he sheepishly dropped his head and strode out, muttering some +words I was fain to accept as an apology. + +I had expected to encounter a wreck in Lucetta, as, this episode in her +life closed, she turned toward me. But I did not yet know this girl, +whose frailty seemed to lie mostly in her physique. Though she was +suffering far more than her defence of me to her brother would seem to +denote, there was a spirit in her approach and a steady look in her dark +eye which assured me that I could not calculate upon any loss in +Lucetta's keenness, in case we came to an issue over the mystery that +was eating into the happiness as well as the honor of this household. + +"I am glad to see you," were her unexpected words. "The gentleman who +has just gone out was a lover of mine; at least he once professed to +care for me very much, and I should have been glad to have married him, +but there were reasons which I once thought most excellent why this +seemed anything but expedient, and so I sent him away. To-day he came +without warning to ask me to go away with him, after the hastiest of +ceremonies, to South America, where a splendid prospect has suddenly +opened for him. You see, don't you, that I could not do that; that it +would be the height of selfishness in me to leave Loreen--to leave +William----" + +"Who seems only too anxious to be left," I put in, as her voice trailed +off in the first evidence of embarrassment she had shown since she faced +me. + +"William is a difficult man to understand," was her firm but quiet +retort. "From his talk you would judge him to be morose, if not +positively unkind, but in action--" She did not tell me how he was in +action. Perhaps her truthfulness got the better of her, or perhaps she +saw it would be hard work to prejudice me now in his favor. + + + + +XVI + +LOREEN + + +Lucetta had said to her departing lover, that in a week she might be +able (were he willing or in a position to wait) to give him a more +satisfactory answer. Why in a week? + +That her hesitation sprang from the mere dislike of leaving her sister +so suddenly, or that she had sacrificed her life's happiness to any +childish idea of decorum, I did not think probable. The spirit she had +shown, her immovable attitude under a temptation which had not only +romance to recommend it, but everything else which could affect a young +and sensitive woman, argued in my mind the existence of some uncompleted +duty of so exacting and imperative a nature that she could not even +consider the greatest interests of her own life until this one thing was +out of her way. William's rude question of the morning, "What shall we +do with the old girl till it is all over?" recurred to me in support of +this theory, making me feel that I needed no further confirmation, to be +quite certain that a crisis was approaching in this house which would +tax my powers to the utmost and call perhaps for the use of the whistle +which I had received from Mr. Gryce, and which, following his +instructions, I had tied carefully about my neck. Yet how could I +associate Lucetta with crime, or dream of the police in connection with +the serene Loreen, whose every look was a rebuke to all that was false, +vile, or even common? Easily, my readers, easily, with that great, +hulking William in my remembrance. To shield _him_, to hide perhaps his +deformity of soul from the world, even such gentle and gracious women as +these have been known to enter into acts which to an unprejudiced eye +and an unbiased conscience would seem little short of fiendish. Love for +an unworthy relative, or rather the sense of duty toward those of one's +own blood, has driven many a clear-minded woman to her ruin, as may be +seen any day in the police annals. + +I am quite aware that I have not as yet put into definite words the +suspicion upon which I was now prepared to work. Up to this time it had +been too vague, or rather of too monstrous a character for me not to +consider other theories, such as, for instance, the possible connection +of old Mother Jane with the unaccountable disappearances which had taken +place in this lane. But after this scene, the increased assurance I was +hourly receiving that something extraordinary and out of keeping with +the customary appearances of the household was secretly going on in some +one of the various chambers of that long corridor I had been prevented +from entering, forced me to accept and act upon the belief that these +young women held in charge a prisoner of some kind, of whose presence in +the house they dreaded the discovery. + +Now, who could this prisoner be? + +Common sense supplied me with but one answer; Silly Rufus, the boy who +within a few days had vanished from among the good people of this +seemingly guileless community. + +This theory once established in my mind, I applied myself to a +consideration of the means at my disposal for determining its validity. +The simplest, surest, but least satisfactory to one of my nature was to +summon the police and have the house thoroughly searched, but this +involved, in case I had been deceived by appearances--as was possible +even to a woman of my experience and discrimination,--a scandal and an +opprobrium which I would be the last to inflict upon Althea's children, +unless justice to the rest of the world demanded it. + +It was in consideration of this very fact, perhaps, that I had been +chosen for this duty instead of some regular police spy. Mr. Gryce, as I +very well knew, has made it his rule of life never to risk the +reputation of any man or woman without reasons so excellent as to carry +their own exoneration with them, and should I, a woman, with full as +much heart as himself, if not quite as much brain (at least in the +estimation of people in general), by any premature exposure of my +suspicions, subject these young friends of mine to humiliations they are +far too weak and too poor to rise above? + +No, rather would I trust a little longer to my own perspicacity and make +sure by the use of my own eyes that the situation called for the +interference I had, as you may say, at the end of the cord I wore about +my neck. + +Lucetta had not asked me how I came to be back so much sooner than she +had reason to expect me. The unlooked-for arrival of her lover had +probably put all idea of her former plans out of her head. I therefore +gave her the shortest of explanations when we met at the dinner table. +Nothing further seemed to be necessary, for the girls were even more +abstracted than before, and William positively boorish till a warning +glance from Loreen recalled him to his better self, which meant silence. + +The afternoon was spent in very much the same way as the evening before. +Neither sister remained an instant with me after the other entered my +company, and though the alternations were less frequent than at that +time, their peculiarities were more marked and less naturally accounted +for. It was while Loreen was with me that I made the suggestion which +had been hovering on my lips ever since the noon. + +"I consider this," I observed, in one of the pauses of our more than +fitful conversation, "one of the most interesting houses it has ever +been my good fortune to enter. Would you mind my roaming about a bit +just to enjoy the old-time flavor of its great empty rooms? I know they +are mostly closed and possibly unfurnished, but to a connoisseur like +myself in colonial architecture, this rather adds to, than detracts +from, their interest." + +"Impossible," she was going to say, but caught herself back in time and +changed the imperative word to one more conciliatory if equally +unyielding. + +"I am sorry, Miss Butterworth, to deny you this gratification, but the +condition of the rooms and the unhappy excitement into which we have +been thrown by the unfortunate visit paid to Lucetta by a gentleman to +whom she is only too much attached, make it quite impossible for me to +consider any such undertaking to-day. To-morrow I may find it easier; +but, if not, be assured you shall see every nook and corner of this +house before you finally leave it." + +"Thank you. I will remember that. To one of my tastes an ancient room in +a time-honored mansion like this, affords a delight not to be understood +by one who knows less of the last century's life. The legends connected +with your great drawing-room below [we were sitting in my room, I having +refused to be cooped up in their dreary side parlor, and she not having +offered me any other spot more cheerful] are sufficient in themselves to +hold me entranced for an hour. I heard one of them to-day." + +"Which?" + +She spoke more quickly than usual, and for her quite sharply. + +"That of Lucetta's namesake," I explained. "She who rode through the +night after a daughter who had won her lover's heart away from her. + +"Ah, it is a well-known tale, but I think Mrs. Carter might have left +its relation to us. Did she tell you anything else?" + +"No other tradition of this place," I assured her. + +"I am glad she was so considerate. But why--if you will pardon me--did +she happen to light upon that story? We have not heard those incidents +spoken of for years." + +"Not since the phantom coach flew through this road the last time," I +ventured, with a smile that should have disarmed her from suspecting any +ulterior motive on my part in thus introducing a subject which could not +be altogether pleasing to her. + +"The phantom coach! Have you heard of that?" + +I wish it had been Lucetta who had said this and to whom my reply was +due. The opportunities would have been much greater for an injudicious +display of feeling on her part and for a suitable conclusion on mine. + +But it was Loreen, and she never forgot herself. So I had to content +myself with the persuasion that her voice was just a whit less clear +than usual and her serenity enough impaired for her to look out of my +one high and dismal window instead of into my face. + +"My dear,"--I had not called her this before, though the term had +frequently risen to my lips in answer to Lucetta--"you should have gone +with me into the village to-day. Then you would not need to ask if I had +heard of the phantom coach." + +The probe had reached the quick at last. She looked quite startled. + +"You amaze me," she said. "What do you mean, Miss Butterworth? Why +should I not have needed to ask?" + +"Because you would have heard it whispered about in every lane and +corner. It is common talk in town to-day. You must know why, Miss +Knollys." + +She was not looking out of the window now. She was looking at me. + +"I assure you," she murmured, "I do not know at all. Nothing could be +more incomprehensible to me. Explain yourself, I entreat you. The +phantom coach is but a myth to me, interesting only as involving certain +long-vanished ancestors of mine." + +"Of course," I assented. "No one of real sense could regard it in any +other light. But villagers will talk, and they say--you will soon know +what, if I do not tell you myself--that it passed through the lane on +Tuesday night." + +"Tuesday night!" Her composure had been regained, but not so entirely +but that her voice slightly trembled. "That was before you came. I hope +it was not an omen." + +I was in no mood for pleasantry. + +"They say that the passing of this apparition denotes misfortune to +those who see it. I am therefore obviously exempt. But you--did you see +it? I am just curious to know if it is visible to those who live in the +lane. It ought to have turned in here. Were you fortunate enough to have +been awake at that moment and to have seen this spectral appearance?" + +She shuddered. I was not mistaken in believing I saw this sign of +emotion, for I was watching her very closely, and the movement was +unmistakable. + +"I have never seen anything ghostly in my life," said she. "I am not at +all superstitious." + +If I had been ill-natured or if I had thought it wise to press her too +closely, I might have inquired why she looked so pale and trembled so +visibly. + +But my natural kindness, together with an instinct of caution, +restrained me, and I only remarked: + +"There you are sensible, Miss Knollys--doubly so as a denizen of this +house, which, Mrs. Carter was obliging enough to suggest to me, is +considered by many as haunted." + +The straightening of Miss Knollys' lips augured no good to Mrs. Carter. + +"Now I only wish it was," I laughed dryly. "I should really like to meet +a ghost, say, in your great drawing-room, which I am forbidden to +enter." + +"You are not forbidden," she hastily returned. "You may explore it now +if you will excuse me from accompanying you; but you will meet no +ghosts. The hour is not propitious." + +Taken aback by her sudden amenity, I hesitated for a moment. Would it be +worth while for me to search a room she was willing to have me enter? +No, and yet any knowledge which could be obtained in regard to this +house might be of use to me or to Mr. Gryce. I decided to embrace her +offer, after first testing her with one other question. + +"Would you prefer to have me steal down these corridors at night and +dare their dusky recesses at a time when spectres are supposed to walk +the halls they once flitted through in happy consciousness?" + +"Hardly." She made the greatest effort to sustain the jest, but her +concern and dread were manifest. "I think I had better give you the keys +now, than subject you to the drafts and chilling discomforts of this old +place at midnight." + +I rose with a semblance of eager anticipation. + +"I will take you at your word," said I. "The keys, my dear. I am going +to visit a haunted room for the first time in my life." + +I do not think she was deceived by this feigned ebullition. Perhaps it +was too much out of keeping with my ordinary manner, but she gave no +sign of surprise and rose in her turn with an air suggestive of relief. + +"Excuse me, if I precede you," she begged. "I will meet you at the head +of the corridor with the keys." + +I was in hopes she would be long enough in obtaining them to allow me to +stroll along the front hall to the opening into the corridor I was so +anxious to enter. But the spryness I showed, seemed to have a +corresponding effect upon her, for she almost flew down the passageway +before me and was back at my side before I could take a step in the +coveted direction. + +"These will take you into any room on the first floor," said she. "You +will meet with dust and Lucetta's abhorrence, spiders, but for these I +shall make no apologies. Girls who cannot provide comforts for the few +rooms they utilize, cannot be expected to keep in order the large and +disused apartments of a former generation." + +"I hate dirt and despise spiders," was my dry retort, "but I am willing +to brave both for the pleasure of satisfying my love for the antique." +At which she handed me the keys, with a calm smile which was not without +its element of sadness. + +"I will be here on your return," she said, leaning over the banisters to +speak to me as I took my first steps down. "I shall want to hear whether +you are repaid for your trouble." + +I thanked her and proceeded on my way, somewhat doubtful whether by so +doing I was making the best possible use of my opportunities. + + + + +XVII + +THE FLOWER PARLOR + + +The lower hall did not correspond exactly with the one above. It was +larger, and through its connection with the front door, presented the +shape of a letter T--that is, to the superficial observer who was not +acquainted with the size of the house and had not had the opportunity of +remarking that at the extremities of the upper hall making this T, were +two imposing doors usually found shut except at meal-times, when the +left-hand one was thrown open, disclosing a long and dismal corridor +similar to the ones above. Half-way down this corridor was the +dining-room, into which I had now been taken three times. + +The right-hand one, I had no doubt, led the way into the great +drawing-room or dancing-hall which I had started out to see. + +Proceeding first to the front of the house, where some glimmer of light +penetrated from the open sitting-room door, I looked the keys over and +read what was written on the several tags attached to them. They were +seven in number, and bore some such names as these: "Blue Chamber," +"Library," "Flower Parlor," "Shell Cabinet," "Dark Parlor"--all of which +was very suggestive, and, to an antiquarian like myself, most alluring. + +But it was upon a key marked "A" I first fixed my attention. This, I had +been told, would open the large door at the extremity of the upper hall, +and when I made a trial with it I found it to move easily, though +somewhat gratingly, in the lock, releasing the great doors, which in +another moment swung inward with a growling sound which might have been +startling to a nervous person filled with the legends of the place. + +But in me the only emotion awakened was one of disgust at the nauseous +character of the air which instantly enveloped me. Had I wished for any +further proof than was afforded by the warning given me by the condition +of the hinges, that the foot of man had not lately invaded these +precincts, I would have had it in the mouldy atmosphere and smell of +dust that greeted me on the threshold. Neither human breath nor a ray of +outdoor sunshine seemed to have disturbed its gloomy quiet for years, +and when I moved, as I presently did, to open one of the windows I dimly +discerned at my right, I felt such a movement of something foul and +noisome amid the decaying rags of the carpet through which I was +stumbling that I had to call into use the stronger elements of my +character not to back out of a place so given over to rot and the +creatures that infest it. + +"What a spot," thought I, "for Amelia Butterworth to find herself in!" +and wondered if I could ever wear again the three-dollar-a-yard silk +dress in which I was then enveloped. Of my shoes I took no account. They +were ruined, of course. + +I reached the window in safety, but could not open it; neither could I +move the adjoining one. There were sixteen in all, or so I afterwards +found, and not till I reached the last (you see, I am very persistent) +did I succeed in loosening the bar that held its inner shutter in place. +This done, I was able to lift the window, and for the first time in +years, perhaps, let in a ray of light into this desolated apartment. + +The result was disappointing. Mouldy walls, worm-eaten hangings, two +very ancient and quaint fireplaces, met my eyes, and nothing more. The +room was absolutely empty. For a few minutes I allowed my eyes to roam +over the great rectangular space in which so much that was curious and +interesting had once taken place, and then, with a vague sense of +defeat, turned my eyes outward, anxious to see what view could be +obtained from the window I had opened. To my astonishment, I saw before +me a high wall with here and there a window in it, all tightly barred +and closed, till by a careful inspection about me I realized that I was +looking upon the other wing of the building, and that between these +wings extended a court so narrow and long that it gave to the building +the shape, as I have before said, of the letter U. A dreary prospect, +reminding one of the view from a prison, but it had its point of +interest, for in the court below me, the brick pavement of which was +half obliterated by grass, I caught sight of William in an attitude so +different from any I had hitherto seen him assume that I found it +difficult to account for it till I caught sight of the jaws of a dog +protruding from under his arms, and then I realized he was hugging +Saracen. + +The dog was tied, but the comfort which William seemed to take in just +this physical contact with his rough skin was something worth seeing. It +made me quite thoughtful for a moment. + +I detest dogs, and it gives me a creepy sensation to see them fondled, +but sincerity of feeling appeals to me, and no one could watch William +Knollys with his dogs without seeing that he really loved the brutes. +Thus in one day I had witnessed the best and worst side of this man. But +wait! Had I seen the worst? I was not so sure that I had. + +He had not noticed my peering, for which I was duly thankful, and after +another fruitless survey of the windows in the wall before me, I drew +back and prepared to leave the place. This was by no means a pleasant +undertaking. I could now see what I had only felt before, and to +traverse the space before me amid beetles and spiders required a +determination of no ordinary nature. I was glad when I reached the great +doors and more than glad when they closed behind me. + +"So much for Room A," thought I. + +The next most promising apartment was in the same corridor as the +dining-room. It was called the Dark Parlor. Entering it, I found it dark +indeed, but not because of lack of light, but because its hangings were +all of a dismal red and its furniture of the blackest ebony. As this +mainly consisted of shelves and cabinets placed against three of its +four walls, the effect was gloomy indeed, and fully accounted for the +name which the room had received. I lingered in it, however, longer than +I had in the big drawing-room, chiefly because the shelves contained +books. + +Had anything better offered I might not have continued my explorations, +but not seeing exactly how I could pass away the time more profitably, I +chose out another key and began to search for the Flower Parlor. I found +it beyond the dining-room in the same hall as the Dark Parlor. + +It was, as I might have expected from the name, the brightest and most +cheerful spot I had yet found in the whole house. The air in it was even +good, as if sunshine and breeze had not been altogether shut out of it, +yet I had no sooner taken one look at its flower-painted walls and +pretty furniture than I felt an oppression difficult to account for. +Something was wrong about this room. I am not superstitious and have no +faith in premonitions, but once seized by a conviction, I have never +known myself to be mistaken as to its import. Something was wrong about +this room--what, it was my business to discover. + +Letting in more light, I took a closer survey of the objects I had +hitherto seen but dimly. They were many and somewhat contradictory in +character. The floor was bare--the first bare floor I had come upon--but +the shades in the windows, the chintz-covered lounges drawn up beside +tables bestrewn with books and other objects of comfort and luxury, +bespoke a place in common if not every-day use. + +A faint smell of tobacco assured me in whose use, and from the minute I +recognized that this was William's sanctum, my curiosity grew unbounded +and I neglected nothing which would be likely to attract the +keenest-eyed detective in Mr. Gryce's force. There were several things +to be noted there: First, that this lumbering lout of a man read, but +only on one topic--vivisection; secondly, that he was not a reader +merely, for there were instruments in the cases heaped up on the tables +about me, and in one corner--it made me a little sick, but I persevered +in searching out the corners--a glass case with certain horrors in it +which I took care to note, but which it is not necessary for me to +describe. Another corner was blocked up by a closet which stood out in +the room in a way to convince me it had been built in after the room was +otherwise finished. As I crossed over to examine the door, which did not +appear to me to be quite closed, I noticed on the floor at my feet a +huge discoloration. This was the worst thing I had yet encountered, and +while I did not feel quite justified in giving it a name, I could not +but feel some regret for the worm-eaten rags of the drawing-room, which, +after all, are more comfortable underfoot than bare boards with such +suggestive marks upon them as these. + +The door to the closet was, as I had expected, slightly ajar, a fact for +which I was profoundly grateful, for, set it down to breeding or a +natural recognition of other people's rights, I would have found it most +difficult to turn the knob of a closet door, inspection of which had not +been offered me. + +But finding it open, I gave it just a little pull and found--well, it +was a surprise, much more so than the sight of a skeleton would have +been--that the whole interior was taken up by a small circular staircase +such as you find in public libraries where the books are piled up in +tiers. It stretched from the floor to the ceiling, and dark as it was I +thought I detected the outlines of a trap-door by means of which +communication was established with the room above. Anxious to be +convinced of this, I consulted with myself as to what a detective would +do in my place. The answer came readily enough: "Mount the stairs and +feel for yourself whether there is a lock there." But my delicacy +or--shall I acknowledge it for once?--an instinct of timidity seemed to +restrain me, till a remembrance of Mr. Gryce's sarcastic look which I +had seen honoring lesser occasions than these, came to nerve me, and I +put foot on the stairs which had last been trod--by whom, shall I say? +William? Let us hope by William, and William only. + +Being tall, I had to mount but a few steps before reaching the ceiling. +Pausing for breath, the air being close and the stairs steep, I reached +up and felt for the hinge or clasp I had every reason to expect to +encounter. I found it almost immediately, and, satisfied now that +nothing but a board separated me from the room above, I tried that board +with my finger and was astonished to feel it yield. As this was a wholly +unexpected discovery I drew back and asked myself if it would be wise to +pursue it to the point of raising this door, and had hardly settled the +question in my own mind, when the sound of a voice raised in a soothing +murmur, revealed the fact that the room above was not empty, and that I +would be committing a grave indiscretion in thus tampering with a means +of entrance possibly under the very eye of the person speaking. + +If the voice I had heard had been all that had come to my ears, I might +have ventured after a moment of hesitation to brave the displeasure of +Miss Knollys by an attempt which would have at once satisfied me as to +the correctness of the suspicions which were congealing my blood as I +stood there, but another voice--the heavy and threatening voice of +William--had broken into this murmur, and I knew that if I so much as +awakened in him the least suspicion of my whereabouts, I would have to +dread an anger that might not know where to stop. + +I therefore rested from further efforts in this direction, and fearing +he might bethink him of some errand which would bring him to the +trap-door himself, I began a retreat which I made slow only from my +desire not to make any noise. I succeeded as well as if my feet had been +shod in velvet and my dress had been made of wool instead of a rustling +silk, and when once again I found myself planted in the centre of the +Flower Parlor, the closet door closed, and no evidence remaining of my +late attempt to probe this family secret, I drew a deep breath of relief +that was but a symbol of my devout thankfulness. + +I did not mean to remain much longer in this spot of evil suggestions, +but spying the corner of a book protruding from under a cushion of one +of the lounges, I had a curiosity to see if it were similar to the +others I had handled. Drawing it out, I took one look at it. + +I need not tell what it was, but after a hasty glance here and there +through its pages, I put it back, shuddering. If any doubt remained in +my breast that William was one of those monsters who feed their morbid +cravings by experiments upon the weak and defenceless, it had been +dispelled by what I had just seen in this book. + +However, I did not leave the room immediately. As it was of the greatest +importance that I should be able to locate in which of the many +apartments on the floor above, the supposed prisoner was lodged, I cast +about me for the means of doing this through the location of the room in +which I then was. As this could only be done by affixing some token to +the window, which could be recognized from without, I thought, first, of +thrusting the end of my handkerchief through one of the slats of the +outside blinds; secondly, of simply leaving one of these blinds ajar; +and finally, of chipping off a piece with the penknife I always carry +with innumerable other small things in the bag I invariably wear at my +side. (Fashion, I hold, counts for nothing against convenience.) + +This last seemed by much the best device. A handkerchief could be +discovered and pulled out, an open blind could be shut, but a sliver +once separated from the wood of the casement, nothing could replace it +or even cover it up without itself attracting attention. + +Taking out my knife, I glanced at the door leading into the hall, found +it still shut and everything quiet behind it. Then I took a look into +the shrubs and bushes of the yard outside, and, observing nothing to +disturb me, snipped off a bit from one of the outer edges of the slats +and then carefully reclosed the blinds and the window. + +I was crossing the threshold when I heard a rapid footstep in the hall. +Miss Knollys was hastening down the hall to my side. + +"Oh, Miss Butterworth," she exclaimed, with one quick look into the room +I was leaving, "this is William's den, the one spot he never allows any +of us to enter. I don't know how the key came to be upon the string. It +never was before, and I am afraid he never will forgive me." + +"He need never know that I have been the victim of such a mistake," said +I. "My feet leave no trail, and as I use no perfumes he will never +suspect that I have enjoyed a glimpse of these old-fashioned walls and +ancient cabinets." + +"The slats of the blinds are a little open," she remarked, her eyes +searching my face for some sign that I am sure she did not find there. +"Were they so when you came in?" + +"I hardly think so; it was very dark. Shall I put them as I found them?" + +"No. He will not notice." And she hurried me out, still eying me +breathlessly as if she half distrusted my composure. + +"Come, Amelia," I now whispered in self-admonition, "the time for +exertion has come. Show this young woman, who is not much behind you in +self-control, some of the lighter phases of your character. Charm her, +Amelia, charm her, or you may live to rue this invasion into family +secrets more than you may like to acknowledge at the present moment." + +A task of some difficulty, but I rejoice in difficult tasks, and before +another half-hour had passed, I had the satisfaction of seeing Miss +Knollys entirely restored to that state of placid melancholy which was +the natural expression of her calm but unhappy nature. + +We visited the Shell Cabinet, the Blue Parlor, and another room, the +peculiarities of which I have forgotten. Frightened by the result of +leaving me to my own devices, she did not quit me for an instant, and +when, my curiosity quite satisfied, I hinted that a short nap in my own +room would rest me for the evening, she proceeded with me to the door of +my apartment. + +"The locksmith whom I saw this morning has not kept his word," I +remarked as she was turning away. + +"None of the tradesmen here do that," was her cold answer. "I have given +up expecting having any attention paid to my wants." + +"Humph," thought I. "Another pleasant admission. Amelia Butterworth, +this has not been a cheerful day." + + + + +XVIII + +THE SECOND NIGHT + + +I cannot say that I looked forward to the night with any very cheerful +anticipations. The locksmith having failed to keep his appointment, I +was likely to have no more protection against intrusion than I had had +the night before, and while I cannot say that I especially feared any +unwelcome entrance into my apartment, I should have gone to my rest with +a greater sense of satisfaction if a key had been in the lock and that +key had been turned by my own hand on my own side of the door. + +The atmosphere of gloom which settled down over the household after the +evening meal, seemed like the warning note of something strange and evil +awaiting us. So marked was this, that many in my situation would have +further disturbed these girls by some allusion to the fact. But that was +not the role I had set myself to play at this crisis. I remembered what +Mr. Gryce had said about winning their confidence, and though the +turmoil evident in Lucetta's mind and the distraction visible even in +the careful Miss Knollys led me to expect a culmination of some kind +before the night was over, I not only hid my recognition of this fact, +but succeeded in sufficiently impressing them with the contentment which +my own petty employments afforded me (I am never idle even in other +persons' houses) for them to spare me the harassment of their alternate +visits, which, in their present mood and mine promised little in the way +of increased knowledge of their purposes and much in the way of +distraction and the loss of that nerve upon which I calculated for a +successful issue out of the possible difficulties of this night. + +Had I been a woman of ordinary courage, I would have sounded three +premonitory notes upon my whistle before blowing out my candle, but +while I am not lacking, I hope, in many of the finer feminine qualities +which link me to my sex, I have but few of that sex's weaknesses and +none of its instinctive reliance upon others which leads it so often to +neglect its own resources. Till I saw good reasons for summoning the +police, I proposed to preserve a discreet silence, a premature alarm +being in their eyes, as I knew from many talks with Mr. Gryce, the one +thing suggestive of a timid and inexperienced mind. + +Hannah had brought me a delicious cup of tea at ten, the influence of +which was to make me very drowsy at eleven, but I shook this weakness +off and began my night's watch in a state of stern composure which I +verily believe would have awakened Mr. Gryce's admiration had it been +consonant with the proprieties for him to have seen it. Indeed the very +seriousness of the occasion was such that I could not have trembled if I +would, every nerve and faculty being strained to their utmost to make +the most of every sound which might arise in the now silent and +discreetly darkened house. + +I had purposely omitted the precaution of pushing my bed against the +door of my room, as I had done the night before, being anxious to find +myself in a position to cross its threshold at the least alarm. That +this would come, I felt positive, for Hannah in leaving my room had +taken pains to say, in unconscious imitation of what Miss Knollys had +remarked the night before: + +"Don't let any queer sounds you may hear disturb you, Miss Butterworth. +There's nothing to hurt you in this house; nothing at all." An +admonition which I am sure her young mistresses would not have allowed +her to utter if they had been made acquainted with her intention. + +But though in a state of high expectation, and listening, as I supposed, +with every faculty alert, the sounds I apprehended delayed so long that +I began after an hour or two unaccountably to nod in my chair, and +before I knew it I was asleep, with the whistle in my hand and my feet +pressed against the panels of the door I had set myself to guard. How +deep that sleep was or how long I indulged in it, I can only judge from +the state of emotion in which I found myself when I suddenly woke. I was +sitting there still, but my usually calm frame was in a violent tremble, +and I found it difficult to stir, much more to speak. Some one or +something was at my door. + +An instant and my powerful nature would have asserted itself, but before +this could happen the stealthy step drew nearer, and I heard the quiet, +almost noiseless, insertion of a key into the lock, and the quick turn +which made me a prisoner. + +This, with the indignation it caused, brought me quickly to myself. So +the door had a key after all, and this was the use it was reserved for. +Rising quickly to my feet, I shouted out the names of Loreen, Lucetta, +and William, but received no other response than the rapid withdrawal of +feet down the corridor. Then I felt for the whistle, which had somehow +slipped from my hand, but failed to find it in the darkness, nor when I +went to search for the matches to relight the candle I had left standing +on a table near by, could I by any means succeed in igniting one, so +that I presently had the pleasure of finding myself shut up in my room, +with no means of communicating with the world outside and with no light +to render the situation tolerable. This was having the tables turned +upon me with a vengeance and in a way for which I could not account. I +could understand why they had locked me in the room and why they had not +heeded my cry of indignant appeal, but I could not comprehend how my +whistle came to be gone, nor why the matches, which were sufficiently +plentiful in the safe, refused one and all to perform their office. + +On these points I felt it necessary to come to some sort of conclusion +before I proceeded to invent some way out of my difficulties. So, +dropping on my knees by the chair in which I had been sitting, I began a +quiet search for the petty object upon which, nevertheless, hung not my +safety perhaps, but all chances of success in an undertaking which was +every moment growing more serious. I did not find it, but I did find +where it had gone. In the floor near the door, my hand encountered a +hole which had been covered up by a rug early in the evening, but which +I now distinctly remembered having pushed aside with my feet when I took +my seat there. This aperture was not large, but it was so deep that my +hand failed to reach to the bottom of it; and into this hole by some +freak of chance had slipped the small whistle I had so indiscreetly +taken into my hand. The mystery of the matches was less easy of +solution; so I let it go after a moment of indecisive thought and bent +my energies once again to listen, when suddenly and without the least +warning there rose from somewhere in the house a cry so wild and +unearthly that I started up appalled, and for a moment could not tell +whether I was laboring under some fearful dream or a still more fearful +reality. + +A rushing of feet in the distance and an involuntary murmur of voices +soon satisfied me, however, on this score, and drawing upon every energy +I possessed, I listened for a renewal of the cry which was yet curdling +my blood. But none came, and presently all was as still as if no sound +had arisen to disturb the midnight, though every fibre in my body told +me that the event I had feared--the event of which I hardly dared +mention the character even to myself--had taken place, and that I, who +was sent there to forestall it, was not only a prisoner in my room, but +a prisoner through my own folly and my inordinate love of tea. + +The anger with which I contemplated this fact, and the remorse I felt at +the consequences which had befallen the innocent victim whose scream I +had just heard, made me very wide-awake indeed, and after an ineffectual +effort to make my voice heard from the window, I called my usual +philosophy to my aid and decided that since the worst had happened and +I, a prisoner, had to await events like any other weak and defenceless +woman, I might as well do it with calmness and in a way to win my own +approval at least. The dupe of William and his sisters, I would not be +the dupe of my own fears or even of my own regrets. + +The consequence was a renewed equanimity and a gentle brooding over the +one event of the day which brought no regret in its train. The ride with +Mr. Trohm, and the acquaintanceship to which it had led, were topics +upon which I could rest with great soothing effect through the weary +hours stretching between me and daylight. Consequently of Mr. Trohm I +thought. + +Whether the almost deathly quiet into which the house had now fallen, or +the comforting nature of my meditations held inexorably to the topic I +had chosen, acted as a soporific upon me I cannot tell, but greatly as I +dislike to admit it, feeling sure that you will expect to hear I kept +myself awake all that night, I insensibly sank from great alertness to +an easy indifference to my surroundings, and from that to vague dreams +in which beds of lilies and trellises covered with roses mingled +strangely with narrow, winding staircases whose tops ended in the +swaying branches of great trees; and so, into quiet and a nothingness +that were only broken into by a rap at my door and a cheerful: + +"Eight o'clock, ma'am. The young ladies are waiting." + +I bounded, literally bounded from my chair. Such a summons, after such a +night! What did it mean? I was sitting half dressed in my chair before +my door in a straightened and uncomfortable attitude, and therefore had +not dreamed that I had been upon the watch all night, yet the sunshine +in the room, the cheery tones such as I had not heard even from this +woman before, seemed to argue that my imagination had played me false +and that no horrors had come to disturb my rest or render my waking +distressing. + +Stretching out my hand toward the door, I was about to open it, when I +bethought me. + +"Turn the key in the lock," said I. "Somebody was careful enough of my +safety to fasten me in last night." + +An exclamation of astonishment came from outside the door. + +"There is no key here, ma'am. The door is not locked. Shall I open it +and come in?" + +I was about to say yes in my anxiety to talk to the woman, but +remembering that nothing was to be gained by letting it be seen to what +an extent I had carried my suspicions, I hastily disrobed and crept into +bed. Pulling the coverings about me, I assumed a comfortable attitude +and then cried: + +"Come in." + +The door immediately opened. + +"There, ma'am! What did I tell you? Locked?--this door? Why, the key has +been lost for months." + +"I cannot help it," I protested, but with little if any asperity, for it +did not suit me that she should see I was moved by any extraordinary +feeling. "A key was put in that lock about midnight, and I was locked +in. It was about the time some one screamed in your own part of the +house." + +"Screamed?" Her brows took a fine pucker of perplexity. "Oh, that must +have been Miss Lucetta." + +"Lucetta?" + +"Yes, ma'am; she had an attack, I believe. Poor Miss Lucetta! She often +has attacks like that." + +Confounded, for the woman spoke so naturally that only a suspicious +nature like mine would fail to have been deceived by it, I raised myself +on my elbow and gave her an indignant look. + +"Yet you said just now that the young ladies were expecting me to +breakfast." + +"Yes, and why not?" Her look was absolutely guileless. "Miss Lucetta +sometimes keeps us up half the night, but she does not miss breakfast on +that account. When the turn is over, she is as well as ever she was. A +fine young lady, Miss Lucetta. I'd lose my two hands for her any day." + +"She certainly is a remarkable girl," I declared, not, however, as dryly +as I felt. "I can hardly believe I dreamed about the key. Let me feel of +your pocket," I laughed. + +She, without the smallest hesitancy, pulled aside her apron. + +"I am sorry you put so little confidence in my word, ma'am, but Lor' me, +what you heard is nothing to what some of our guests have complained +of--in the days, I mean, when we did have guests. I have known them to +scream out themselves in the middle of the night and vow they saw white +figures creeping up and down the halls--all nonsense, ma'am, but +believed in by some folks. You don't look as if you believed in ghosts." + +"And I don't," I said, "not a whit. It would be a poor way to try to +frighten me. How is Mr. William this morning?" + +"Oh, he's well and feeding the dogs, ma'am. What made you think of him?" + +"Politeness, Hannah," I found myself forced to say. "He's the only man +in the house. Why shouldn't I think of him?" + +She fingered her apron a minute and laughed. + +"I didn't know you liked him. He's so rough, it isn't everybody who +understands him," she said. + +"Must one understand a person to like him?" I queried good-humoredly. I +was beginning to think I might have dreamed about that key. + +"I don't know," she said, "I don't always understand Miss Lucetta, but I +like her through and through, ma'am, as I like this little finger," and +holding up this member to my inspection, she crossed the room for my +water-pitcher, which she proposed to fill with hot water. + +I followed her closely with my eyes. When she came back, I saw her +attention caught by the break in the flooring, which she had not noticed +on entering. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, "what a shame!" her honest face coloring as she +drew the rug back over the small black gap. "I am sure, ma'am," she +cried, "you must think very poorly of us. But I assure you, ma'am, it's +honest poverty, nothing but honest poverty as makes them so neglectful," +and with an air as far removed from mystery as her frank, good-natured +manner seemed to be from falsehood, she slid from the room with a kind: + +"Don't hurry, ma'am. It is Miss Knollys' turn in the kitchen, and she +isn't as quick as Miss Lucetta." + +"Humph," thought I, "supposing I had called in the police." + +But by the time she had returned with the water, my doubts had +reawakened. She was not changed in manner, though I have no doubt she +had recounted all that I had said, below, but I was, for I remembered +the matches and thought I saw a way of tripping her up in her +self-complacency. + +Just as she was leaving me for the second time I called her back. + +"What is the matter with your matches?" I asked. "I couldn't make them +light last night." + +With a wholly undisturbed countenance she turned toward the bureau and +took up the china trinket that held the few remaining matches I had not +scraped on the piece of sandpaper I myself had fastened up alongside the +door. A sheepish cry of dismay at once escaped her. + +"Why, these are old matches!" she declared, showing me the box in which +a half-dozen or so burned matches stood with their burned tops all +turned down. + +"I thought they were all right. I'm afraid we are a little short of +matches." + +I did not like to tell her what I thought about it, but it made me +doubly anxious to join the young ladies at breakfast and judge for +myself from their conduct and expression if I had been deceived by my +own fears into taking for realities the phantasies of a nightmare, or +whether I was correct in ascribing to fact that episode of the key with +all the possibilities that lay behind it. + +I did not let my anxiety, however, stand in the way of my duty. Mr. +Gryce had bid me carry the whistle he had sent me constantly about my +person, and I felt that he would have the right to reproach me if I left +my room without making some endeavor to recover this lost article. How +to do this without aid or appliances of any kind was a problem. I knew +where it was, but I could not see it, much less reach it. Besides, they +were waiting for me--never a pleasant thought. It occurred to me that I +might lower into the hole a lighted candle hung by a string. + +Looking over my effects, I chose out a hairpin, a candle, and two corset +laces, (Pardon me. I am as modest as most of my sex, but I am not +squeamish. Corset laces are strings, and as such only I present them to +your notice.) I should like to have added a button-hook to my +collection, but not having as yet discarded the neatly laced boot of my +ancestor, I could only produce a small article from my toilet-service +which shall remain unmentioned, as I presently discarded it and turned +my whole attention to the other objects I have named. A poor array, but +out of them I hoped to find the means of fishing up my lost whistle. + +My intention was to lower first a lighted candle into the hole by means +of a string tied about its middle, then to drop a line on the whistle +thus discovered and draw it up with the point of a bent hairpin, which I +fondly hoped I could make do the service of a hook. To think was to try. +The candle was soon down in the hole, and by its light the whistle was +easily seen. The string and bent hairpin went down next. I was +successful in hooking the prize and proceeded to pull it up with great +care. For an instant I realized what a ridiculous figure I was cutting, +stooping over a hole in the floor on both knees, a string in each hand, +leading apparently to nowhere, and I at work cautiously steadying one +and as carefully pulling on the other. Having hooked the string holding +the whistle over the first finger of the hand holding the candle, I may +have become too self-conscious to notice the slight release of weight on +the whistle hand. Whatever the reason, when the end of the string came +in sight there was no whistle on it. The charred end showed me that the +candle had burned the cord, letting the whistle fall again out of reach. +Down went the candle again. It touched bottom, but no whistle was to be +seen. After a long and fruitless search, I concluded to abandon my +whistle-fishing excursion, and, rising from my cramped and undignified +position, I proceeded to pull up the candle. To my surprise and delight, +I found the whistle firmly stuck to the lower side of it. Some drops of +candle grease had fallen upon the whistle where it lay. The candle +coming in contact with it, the two had adhered, and I became indebted to +accident rather than to acumen for the restoration of the precious +article. + + + + +XIX + +A KNOT OF CRAPE + + +I was prepared for some change in the appearance of my young hostesses, +but not for so great a one as I saw on entering the dining-room that +memorable morning. The blinds, which were always half closed, were now +wide open, and under the cheerful influence of the light which was thus +allowed to enter, the table and all its appointments had a much less +dreary look than before. Behind the urn sat Miss Knollys, with a smile +on her lips, and in the window William stood whistling a cheerful air, +unrebuked. Lucetta was not present, but to my great astonishment she +presently walked in with her hands laden with sprays of morning-glory, +which she flung down in the centre of the board. It was the first time I +had seen any attempt made by any of them to lighten the sombreness of +their surroundings, and it was also the first time I had seen the three +together. + +I was more disconcerted by this simple show of improved spirits than I +like to acknowledge. In the first place, they were natural and not +forced; and, secondly, they were to all appearance unconscious. + +They were not marked enough to show relief, and in Lucetta especially +did not serve to hide the underlying melancholy of a disappointed girl, +yet it was not what I expected from my supposed experiences of the +night, and led me to answer a little warily when, with a frank laugh, +Loreen exclaimed: + +"So you have lost your character as a practical woman, Miss Butterworth? +Hannah tells me you were the victim of a ghostly visit last night." + +"Hannah gossips unmercifully," was my cautious and somewhat peevish +reply. "If I chose to dream that I was locked into my room by some +erratic spectre, I cannot see why she should take the confession of my +folly out of my mouth. I was going to relate the fact myself, with all +the accompaniments of rushing steps and wild and unearthly cries which +are expected by the listeners to a veritable ghost story. But now I have +simply to defend myself from a charge of credulity. It's too bad, Miss +Knollys, much too bad. I did not come to a haunted house for this." + +My manner, rather than my words, seemed to completely deceive them. +Perhaps it deceived myself, for I began to feel a loss of the depression +which had weighed upon me ever since that scream rang in my ears at +midnight. It disappeared still further when Lucetta said: + +"If your ramblings through the old rooms on this floor were the occasion +of this nightmare, you must be prepared for a recurrence of the same +to-night, for I am going to take you through the upper rooms myself this +morning. Isn't that the programme, Loreen? Or have you changed your mind +and planned a drive for Miss Butterworth?" + +"She shall do both," Loreen answered. "When she is tired of tramping +through dusty chambers and examining the decayed remnants of old +furniture which encumber them, William stands ready to drive her over +the hills, where she will find views well worth her attention." + +"Thank you," said I. "It is a pleasant prospect." But inwardly I uttered +anything but thanks; rather asked myself if I had not played the part of +a fool in ascribing so much importance to the events of the past night, +and decided almost without an argument that I had. + +However, beliefs die hard in a mind like mine, and though I was ready to +consider that an inflamed imagination may often carry us beyond the +bounds of fact and even into the realm of fancy and misconception, I yet +was not ready to give up my suspicions altogether, or to acknowledge +that I had no foundation for the fear that something uncanny if not +awful had taken place under this roof the night before. The very +naturalness I observed in this hitherto restrained trio might be the +result of the removal of some great strain, and if that was the +case--Ah, well, alertness is the motto of the truly wise. It is when +vigilance sleeps that the enemy gains the victory. I would not let +myself be deceived even at the cost of a little ridicule. Amelia +Butterworth was still awake, even under a semblance of well-laid +suspicion. + +My footsteps were not dogged after this as they had hitherto been in my +movements about the house. I was allowed to go and come and even to +stray into the second long corridor, without any other let than my own +discretion and good breeding. Lucetta joined me, to be sure, after a +while, but only as guide and companion. She took me into rooms I forgot +the next minute, and into others I remember to this day as quaint +memorials of a past ever and always interesting to me. We ransacked the +house, yet after all was over and I sat down to rest in my own room, two +formidable questions rose in my mind for which I found no satisfactory +answer. Why, with so many more or less attractive bedchambers at their +command, had they chosen to put me into a hole, where the very flooring +was unsafe, and the outlook the most dismal that could be imagined? and +why, in all our peregrinations in and out of rooms, had we always passed +one door without entering? She had said that it was William's--a +sufficient explanation, if true, and I have no doubt it was,--but the +change of countenance with which she passed it and the sudden lightening +of her tread (so instinctive that she was totally unconscious of it) +marked that door as one it would be my duty to enter if fate should yet +give me the opportunity. That it was the one in communication with the +Flower Parlor I felt satisfied, but in order to make assurance doubly +sure I resolved upon a tour through the shrubbery outside, that I might +compare the location of the window having the chipped blind with that of +this room, which was, as well as I could calculate, the third from the +rear on the left-hand side. + +When, therefore, William called up to know if I was ready for my drive, +I answered back that I found myself very tired and would be glad to +exchange the pleasure he offered, for a visit to the stables. + +This, as I expected, caused considerable comment and some disturbance. +They wanted me to repeat my experience of the day before and spend two +if not more hours of the morning out of the house. But I did not mean to +gratify them. Indeed I felt that my duty held me to the house, and was +so persistent in my wishes, or rather in my declaration of them, that +all opposition had to give way, even in the stubborn William. + +"I thought you had a dread of dogs," was the final remark with which he +endeavored to turn me aside from my purpose. "I have three in the barn +and two in the stable, and they make a great fuss when I come around, I +assure you." + +"Then they will have enough to do without noticing me," said I, with a +brazen assumption of courage sufficiently surprising if I had had any +real intention of invading a place so guarded. But I had not. I no more +meant to enter the stables than to jump off the housetop, but it was +necessary that I should start for them and make the start from the left +wing of the house. + +How I managed the intractable William and led him as I did from bush to +bush and shrub to shrub, up and down the length of that interminable +facade of the left wing, would make an interesting story in itself. The +curiosity I showed in plants, even such plants as had survived the +neglect that had made a wilderness of this old-time garden; the +indifference which, contrary to all my habits, I persisted in +manifesting to every inconvenience I encountered in the way of +straightforward walking to any object I set my fancy upon examining; the +knowledge I exhibited, and the interest which I took it for granted he +felt in all I discovered and all I imparted to him, would form the basis +of a farce of no ordinary merit had it not had its birth in interests +and intents bordering on the tragic. + +A row of bushes of various species ran along the wall and covered in +some instances the lower ledges of the first row of windows. As I made +for a certain shrub which I had observed growing near what I supposed to +be the casement from whose blind I had chipped a small sliver, I allowed +my enthusiasm to bubble over, in my evident desire to display my +erudition. + +"This," said I, "is, without any doubt at all, a stunted but undoubted +specimen of that rare tree found seldom north of the thirtieth degree, +the _Magnolia grandiflora_. I have never seen it but once before, and +that was in the botanical gardens in Washington. Note its leaves. You +have noted its flowers, smaller undoubtedly than they should be--but +then you must acknowledge it has been in a measure neglected--are they +not fine?" + +Here I pulled a branch down which interfered with my view of the window. +There was no chip visible in the blinds thus discovered. Seeing this, I +let the branch go. "But the oddest feature of this tree and one with +which you are perhaps not acquainted" (I wonder if anybody is?) "is that +it will not grow within twenty feet of any plant which scatters pollen. +See for yourself. This next shrub bears no flower" (I was moving along +the wall), "nor this." I drew down a branch as I spoke, caught sight of +the mark I was looking for, and let the bough spring back. I had found +the window I wanted. + +His grunts and groans during all this formed a running accompaniment +which would have afforded me great secret amusement had my purpose been +less serious. As it was, I could pay but little attention to him, +especially after I had stepped back far enough to take a glance at the +window over the one I had just located as that of the Flower Parlor. It +was, as I expected, the third one from the rear corner; but it was not +this fact which gave me a thrill of feeling so strong that I have never +had harder work to preserve my equanimity. _It was the knot of black +crape with which the shutters were tied together._ + + + + +XX + +QUESTIONS + + +I kept the promise I had made to myself and did not go to the stables. +Had I intended to go there, I could not have done so after the discovery +I have just mentioned. It awakened too many thoughts and contradictory +surmises. If this knot was a signal, for whom was this signal meant? If +it was a mere acknowledgment of death, how reconcile the sentimentality +which prompted such an acknowledgment with the monstrous and diseased +passions lying at the base of the whole dreadful occurrence? Lastly, if +it was the result of pure carelessness, a bit of crape having been +caught up and used for a purpose for which any ordinary string would +have answered, what a wonderful coincidence between it and my +thoughts,--a coincidence, indeed, amounting almost to miracle! + +Marvelling at the whole affair and deciding nothing, I allowed myself to +stroll down alone to the gate, William having left me at my peremptory +refusal to drag my skirts any longer through the briers. The day being +bright and the sunshine warm, the road looked less gloomy than usual, +especially in the direction of the village and Deacon Spear's cottage. +The fact is, that anything seemed better than the grim and lowering +walls of the house behind me. If my home was there, so was my dread, and +I welcomed the sight of Mother Jane's heavy figure bent over her herbs +at the door of her hut, a few paces to my left, where the road turned. + +Had she not been deaf, I believed I would have called her. As it was, I +contented myself with watching the awkward swayings of her body as she +pottered to and fro among her turnips and carrots. My eyes were still on +her when I suddenly heard the clatter of a horse's hoofs on the highway. +Looking up, I encountered the trim figure of Mr. Trohm, bending to me +from a fine sorrel. + +"Good morning, Miss Butterworth. It's a great relief to me to see you in +such good health and spirits this morning," were the pleasant words with +which he endeavored, perhaps, to explain his presence in a spot more or +less under a ban. + +It was certainly a surprise. What right had I to look for such +attentions from a man whose acquaintance I had made only the day before? +It touched me, little as I am in the habit of allowing myself to be +ruled by trivial sentimentalities, and though I was discreet enough to +avoid any further recognition of his kindness than was his due from a +lady of great self-respect, he was evidently sufficiently gratified by +my response to draw rein and pause for a moment's conversation under the +pine trees. This for the moment seemed so natural that I forgot that +more than one pair of eyes might be watching me from the windows behind +us--eyes which might wonder at a meeting which to the foolish +understandings of the young might have the look of premeditation. But, +pshaw! I am talking as if I were twenty instead of--Well, I will leave +you to consult our family record on that point. There are certain +secrets which even the wisest among us cannot be blamed for preserving. + +"How did you pass the night?" was Mr. Trohm's first question. "I hope in +all due peace and quiet." + +"Thank you," I returned, not seeing why I should increase his anxiety in +my regard. "I have nothing to complain of. I had a dream; but dreams are +to be expected where one has to pass a half-dozen empty rooms to one's +apartment." + +He could not restrain his curiosity. + +"A dream!" he repeated. "I do not believe in sleep that is broken by +dreams, unless they are of the most cheerful sort possible. And I judge +from what you say that yours were not cheerful." + +I wanted to confide in him. I felt that in a way he had a right to know +what had happened to me, or what I thought had happened to me, under +this roof. And yet I did not speak. What I could tell would sound so +puerile in the broad sunshine that enveloped us. I merely remarked that +cheerfulness was not to be expected in a domicile so given over to the +ravages of time, and then with that lightness and versatility which +characterize me under certain exigencies, I introduced a topic we could +discuss without any embarrassment to himself or me. + +"Do you see Mother Jane over there?" I asked. "I had some talk with her +yesterday. She seems like a harmless imbecile." + +"Very harmless," he acquiesced; "her only fault is greed; that is +insatiable. Yet it is not strong enough to take her a quarter of a mile +from this place. Nothing could do that, I think. She believes that her +daughter Lizzie is still alive and will come back to the hut some day. +It's very sad when you think that the girl's dead, and has been dead +nearly forty years." + +"Why does she harp on numbers?" I asked. "I heard her mutter certain +ones over and over." + +"That is a mystery none of us have ever been able to solve," said he. +"Possibly she has no reason for it. The vagaries of the witless are +often quite unaccountable." + +He remained looking at me long after he had finished speaking, not, I +felt sure, from any connection he found between what he had just said +and anything to be observed in me, but from--Well, I was glad that I had +been carefully trained in my youth to pay the greatest attention to my +morning toilets. Any woman can look well at night and many women in the +flush of a bright afternoon, but the woman who looks well in the morning +needs not always to be young to attract the appreciative gaze of a man +of real penetration. Mr. Trohm was such a man, and I did not begrudge +him the pleasure he showed in my neat gray silk and carefully adjusted +collar. But he said nothing, and a short silence ensued, which was +perhaps more of a compliment than otherwise. Then he uttered a short +sigh and lifted the reins. + +"If only I were not debarred from entering," he smiled, with a short +gesture toward the house. + +I did not answer. Even I understand that on occasion the tongue plays +but a sorry part in interviews of this nature. + +He sighed again and uttered some short encouragement to his horse, which +started that animal up and sent him slowly pacing down the road toward +the cheerful clearing whither my own eyes were looking with what I was +determined should not be construed even by the most sanguine into a +glance of anything like wistfulness. As he went he made a bow I have +never seen surpassed in my own parlor in Gramercy Park, and upon my +bestowing upon him a return nod, glanced up at the house with an +intentness which seemed to increase as some object, invisible to me at +that moment, caught his eye. As that eye was directed toward the left +wing, and lifted as far as the second row of windows, I could not help +asking myself if he had seen the knot of crape which had produced upon +me so lugubrious an impression. Before I could make sure of this he had +passed from sight, and the highway fell again into shadow--why, I hardly +knew, for the sun certainly had been shining a few minutes before. + + + + +XXI + +MOTHER JANE + + +"Well, well, what did Trohm want here this morning?" cried a harsh voice +from amid the tangled walks behind me. "Seems to me he finds this place +pretty interesting all of a sudden." + +I turned upon the intruder with a look that should have daunted him. +I had recognized William's courteous tones and was in no mood to +endure a questioning so unbecoming in one of his age to one of mine. +But as I met his eye, which had something in it besides anger and +suspicion--something that was quizzical if not impertinent--I changed my +intention and bestowed upon him a conciliatory smile, which I hope +escaped the eye of the good angel who records against man all his small +hypocrisies and petty deceits. + +"Mr. Trohm rides for his health," said I. "Seeing me looking up the road +at Mother Jane, he stopped to tell me some of the idiosyncrasies of that +old woman. A very harmless courtesy, Mr. Knollys." + +"Very," he echoed, not without a touch of sarcasm. "I only hope that is +all," he muttered, with a sidelong look back at the house. "Lucetta +hasn't a particle of belief in that man's friendship, or, rather, she +believes he never goes anywhere without a particular intention, and +I do believe she's right, or why should he come spying around here +just at a time when"--he caught himself up with almost a look of +terror--"when--when you are here?" he completed lamely. + +"I do not think," I retorted, more angrily than the occasion perhaps +warranted, "that the word spying applies to Mr. Trohm. But if it does, +what has he to gain from a pause at the gate and a word to such a new +acquaintance as I am?" + +"I don't know," William persisted suspiciously. "Trohm's a sharp fellow. +If there was anything to see, he would see it without half looking. But +there isn't. You don't know of anything wrong here, do you, which such a +man as that, hand in glove with the police as we know him to be, might +consider himself interested in?" + +Astonished both at this blundering committal of himself and at the +certain sort of anxious confidence he showed in me, I hesitated for a +moment, but only for a moment, since, if half my suspicions were true, +this man must not know that my perspicacity was more to be feared than +even Mr. Trohm's was. + +"If Mr. Trohm shows an increased interest in this household during the +last two days," said I, with a heroic defiance of ridicule which I hope +Mr. Gryce has duly appreciated, "I beg leave to call your attention to +the fact that on yesterday morning he came to deliver a letter addressed +to me which had inadvertently been left at his house, and that this +morning he called to inquire how I had spent the night, which, in +consideration of the ghosts which are said to haunt this house and the +strange and uncanny apparitions which only three nights ago made the +entrance to this lane hideous to one pair of eyes at least, should not +cause a gentleman's son like yourself any astonishment. It does not seem +odd to me, I assure you." + +He laughed. I meant he should, and, losing almost instantly his air of +doubt and suspicion, turned toward the gate from which I had just moved +away, muttering: + +"Well, it's a small matter to me anyway. It's only the girls that are +afraid of Mr. Trohm. I am not afraid of anything but losing Saracen, who +has pined like the deuce at his long confinement in the court. Hear him +now; just hear him." + +And I could hear the low and unhappy moaning of the hound distinctly. It +was not a pleasant sound, and I was almost tempted to bid William +unloose the dog, but thought better of it. + +"By the way," said he, "speaking of Mother Jane, I have a message to her +from the girls. You will excuse me if I speak to the poor woman." + +Alarmed by his politeness more than I ever have been by his roughness +and inconsiderate sarcasms, I surveyed him inquiringly as he left the +gate, and did not know whether to stand my ground or retreat to the +house. I decided to stand my ground; a message to this woman seeming to +me a matter of some interest. + +I was glad I did, for after some five minutes' absence, during which he +had followed her into the house, I saw him come back again in a state of +sullen displeasure, which, however, partially disappeared when he saw me +still standing by the gate. + +"Ah, Miss Butterworth, you can do me a favor. The old creature is in one +of her stubborn fits to-day, and won't give me a hearing. She may not be +so deaf to you; she isn't apt to be to women. Will you cross the road +and speak to her? I will go with you. You needn't be afraid." + +The way he said this, the confidence he expected to inspire, had almost +a ghastly effect upon me. Did he know or suspect that the only thing I +feared in this lane was he? Evidently not, for he met my eye quite +confidently. + +It would not do to shake his faith at such a moment as this, so calling +upon Providence to see me safely through this adventure, I stepped into +the highway and went with him into Mother Jane's cottage. + +Had I been favored with any other companion than himself, I should have +been glad of this opportunity. As it was, I found myself ignoring any +possible danger I might be running, in my interest in the remarkable +interior to which I was thus introduced. + +Having been told that Mother Jane was poor, I had expected to confront +squalor and possibly filth, but I never have entered a cleaner place or +one in which order made the poorest belongings look more decent. The +four walls were unfinished, and so were the rafters which formed the +ceiling, but the floor, neatly laid in brick, was spotless, and the +fireplace, also of brick, was as deftly swept as one could expect from +the little scrub I saw hanging by its side. Crouched within this +fireplace sat the old woman we had come to interview. Her back was to +us, and she looked helplessly and hopelessly deaf. + +"Ask her," said William, pointing towards her with a rude gesture, "if +she will come to the house at sunset. My sisters have some work for her +to do. They will pay her well." + +Advancing at his bidding, I passed a rocking-chair, in the cushion of +which a dozen patches met my eye. This drew my eyes toward a bed, over +which a counterpane was drawn, made up of a thousand or more pieces of +colored calico, and noticing their varied shapes and the intricacy with +which they were put together, I wondered whether she ever counted them. +The next moment I was at her back. + +"Seventy," burst from her lips as I leaned over her shoulder and showed +her the coin which I had taken pains to have in my hand. + +"Yours," I announced, pointing in the direction of the house, "if you +will do some work for Miss Knollys to-night." + +Slowly she shook her head before burying it deeper in the shawl she wore +wrapped about her shoulders. Listening a minute, I thought I heard her +mutter: "Twenty-eight, ten, but no more. I can count no more. Go away!" + +But I'm nothing if not persistent. Feeling for her hands, which were +hidden away somewhere under her shawl, I touched them with the coin and +cried again: + +"This and more for a small piece of work to-night. Come, you are strong; +earn it." + +"What kind of work is it?" I asked innocently, or it must have appeared +innocently, of Mr. Knollys, who was standing at my back. + +He frowned, all the black devils in his heart coming into his look at +once. + +"How do I know! Ask Loreen; she's the one who sent me. I don't take +account of what goes on in the kitchen." + +I begged his pardon, somewhat sarcastically I own, and made another +attempt to attract the attention of the old crone, who had remained +perfectly callous to my allurements. + +"I thought you liked money," I said. "For Lizzie, you know, for Lizzie." + +But she only muttered in lower and lower gutturals, "I can count no +more"; and, disgusted at my failure, being one who accounts failure as +little short of disgrace, I drew back and made my way toward the door, +saying: "She's in a different mood from what she was yesterday when she +snatched a quarter from me at the first intimation it was hers. I don't +think you can get her to do any work to-night. Innocents take these +freaks. Isn't there some one else you can call in?" + +The scowl that disfigured his none too handsome features was a fitting +prelude to his words. + +"You talk," said he, "as if we had the whole village at our command. How +did you succeed with the locksmith yesterday? Came, didn't he? Well, +that's what we have to expect whenever we want any help." + +Whirling on his heel, he led the way out of the hut, whither I would +have immediately followed him if I had not stopped to take another look +at the room, which struck me, even upon a second scrutiny, as one of the +best ordered and best kept I had ever entered. Even the strings and +strings of dried fruits and vegetables, which hung in festoons from +every beam of the roof, were free from dust and cobwebs, and though the +dishes were few and the pans scarce, they were bright and speckless, +giving to the shelf along which they were ranged a semblance of +ornament. + +"Wise enough to keep her house in order," thought I, and actually found +it hard to leave, so attractive to my eyes are absolute neatness and +order. + +William was pushing at his own gate when I joined him. He looked as if +he wished I had spent the morning with Mother Jane, and was barely civil +in our walk up to the house. I was not, therefore, surprised when he +burst into a volley of oaths at the doorway and turned upon me almost as +if he would forbid me the house, for tap, tap, tap, from some distant +quarter came a distinct sound like that of nails being driven into a +plank. + + + + +XXII + +THE THIRD NIGHT + + +Mother Jane must have changed her mind after we left her. For late in +the evening I caught a glimpse of her burly figure in the kitchen as I +went to give Hannah some instructions concerning certain little changes +in the housekeeping arrangements which the girls and I had agreed were +necessary to our mutual comfort. + +I wished to address the old crone, but warned, by the ill-concealed +defiance with which Hannah met my advances, that any such attempt on my +part would be met by anything but her accustomed good-nature, I +refrained from showing my interest in her strange visitor, or from even +appearing conscious of her own secret anxieties and evident +preoccupation. + +Loreen and Lucetta exchanged a meaning look as I rejoined them in the +sitting-room; but my volubility in regard to the domestic affair which +had just taken me to the kitchen seemed to speedily reassure them, and +when a few minutes later I said good-night and prepared to leave the +room, it was with the conviction that I had relieved their mind at the +expense of my own. Mother Jane in the kitchen at this late hour meant +business. What that business was, I seemed to know only too well. + +I had formed a plan for the night which required some courage. Recalling +Lucetta's expression of the morning, that I might expect a repetition of +the former night's experiences, I prepared to profit by the warning in a +way she little meant. Satisfied that if there was any truth in the +suspicions I had formed, there would be an act performed in this house +to-night which, if seen by me, would forever settle the question +agitating the whole countryside, I made up my mind that no locked door +should interfere with my opportunity of doing so. How I effected this +result I will presently relate. + +Lucetta had accompanied me to my door with a lighted candle. + +"I hear you had some trouble with matches last night," said she. "You +will find them all right now. Hannah must be blamed for some of this +carelessness." Then as I began some reassuring reply, she turned upon me +with a look that was almost fond, and, throwing out her arms, cried +entreatingly: "Won't you give me a little kiss, Miss Butterworth? We +have not given you the best of welcomes, but you are my mother's old +friend, and sometimes I feel a little lonely." + +I could easily believe that, and yet I found it hard to embrace her. Too +many shadows swam between Althea's children and myself. She saw my +hesitancy (a hesitancy I could not but have shown even at the risk of +losing her confidence), and, paling slightly, dropped her hands with a +pitiful smile. + +"You don't like me," she said. "I do not wonder, but I was in hopes you +would for my mother's sake. I have no claims myself." + +"You are an interesting girl, and you have, what your mother had not, a +serious side to your nature that is anything but displeasing to me. But +my kisses, Lucetta, are as rare as my tears. I had rather give you good +advice, and that is a fact. Perhaps it is as strong a proof of affection +as any ordinary caress would be." + +"Perhaps," she assented, but she did not encourage me to give it to her +notwithstanding. Instead of that, she drew back and bade me a gentle +good-night, which for some reason made me sadder than I wished to be at +a crisis demanding so much nerve. Then she walked quickly away, and I +was left to face the night alone. + +Knowing that I should be rather weakened than helped by the omission of +any of the little acts of preparation with which I am accustomed to calm +my spirits for the night, I went through them all, with just as much +precision as if I had expected to spend the ensuing hours in rest. When +all was done and only my cup of tea remained to be quaffed, I had a +little struggle with myself, which ended in my not drinking it at all. +Nothing, not even this comfortable solace for an unsatisfactory day, +should stand in the way of my being the complete mistress of my wits +this night. Had I known that this tea contained a soporific in the shape +of a little harmless morphine, I would have found this act of +self-denial much easier. + +It was now eleven. Confident that nothing would be done while my light +was burning, I blew it out, and, taking a candle and some matches in my +hand, softly opened my door and, after a moment of intense listening, +stepped out and closed it carefully behind me. Nothing could be stiller +than the house or darker than the corridor. + +"Am I watched or am I not watched?" I queried, and for an instant stood +undecided. Then, seeing nothing and hearing nothing, I slipped down the +hall to the door beyond mine and, opening it with all the care possible, +stepped inside. + +I knew the room. I had taken especial note of it in my visit of the +morning. I knew that it was nearly empty and that there was a key in the +lock which I could turn. I therefore felt more or less safe in it, +especially as its window was undarkened by the branches that hung so +thickly across my own casement, shutting me in, or seeming to shut me +in, from all communication with the outside world and the unknown +guardian which I had been assured constantly attended my summons. + +That I might strengthen my spirits by one glimpse of this same outside +world, before settling down for the watch I had set for myself, I +stepped softly to the window and took one lingering look without. A belt +of forest illumined by a gibbous moon met my eyes; nothing else. Yet +this sight was welcome, and it was only after I had been struck by the +possibility of my own figure being seen at the casement by some possible +watcher in the shadows below, that I found the hardihood necessary to +withdraw into the darker precincts of the room, and begin that lonely +watch which my doubts and expectations rendered necessary. + +This was the third I had been forced to keep, and it was by far the most +dismal; for though the bolted door between me and the hall promised me +personal safety, there presently rose in some far-off place a smothered +repetition of that same tap, tap, tap which had sent the shudders over +me upon my sudden entrance into the house early in the morning. Heard +now, it caused me to tremble in a way I had not supposed possible to one +of my hardy nature, and while with this recognition of my feminine +susceptibility to impressions there came a certain pride in the +stanchness of purpose which led me to restrain all acknowledgment of +fear, by any recourse to my whistle, I was more than glad when even this +sound ceased, and I had only to expect the swishing noise of a skirt +down the hall, and that stealthy locking of the door of the room I had +taken the precaution of leaving. + +It came sooner than I expected, came just in the way it had previously +done, only that the person paused a moment to listen before hastening +back. The silence within must have satisfied her, for I heard a low sigh +like that of relief, before the steps took themselves back. That they +would turn my way gave me a momentary concern, but I had too completely +lulled my young hostesses' suspicions, or (let me be faithful to all the +possibilities of the case) they had put too much confidence in the +powder with which they had seasoned my nightly cup of tea, for them to +doubt that I was soundly asleep in my own quarters. + +Three minutes later I followed those steps as far down the corridor as I +dared to go. For, since my last appearance in it, a candle had been lit +in the main hall, and faint as was its glimmer, it was still a glimmer +into the circle of which I felt it would be foolhardiness for me to +step. At some twenty paces, then, from the opening, I paused and gave +myself up to listening. Alas, there was plenty now for me to hear. + +You have heard the sound; we all have heard the sound, but few of us in +such a desolate structure and at the hour and under the influences of +midnight! The measured tread of men struggling under a heavy weight, and +that weight--how well I knew it! as well as if I had seen it, as I +really did in my imagination. + +They advanced from the adjoining corridor, from the room I had as yet +found no opportunity of entering, and they approached surely and slowly +the main hall near which I was standing in such a position as rendered +it impossible for me to see anything if they took the direct course to +the head of the stairs and so down, as there was every reason to expect +they would. I did not dare to draw nearer, however, so concentrated my +faculties anew upon listening, when suddenly I perceived on the great +white wall in front of me--the wall of the main hall, I mean, toward +which the opening looked--the shapeless outline of a drooping head, and +realized that the candle had been placed in such a position that the +wall must receive the full shadow of the passing cortege. + +And thus it was I saw it, huge, distorted, and suggestive beyond any +picture I ever beheld,--the passing of a body to its long home, carried +by six anxious figures, four of which seemed to be those of women. + +But that long home! Where was it located--in the house or in the +grounds? It was a question so important that for a moment I could think +of nothing but how I could follow the small procession, without running +the risk of discovery. It had reached the head of the stairs by this +time, and I heard Miss Knollys' low, firm voice enjoining silence. Then +the six bearers began to descend with their burden. + +Ere they reached the foot, a doubt struck me. Would it be better to +follow them or to take the opportunity afforded by every member of the +household being engaged in this task, to take a peep into the room where +the death had occurred? I had not decided, when I heard them take the +forward course from the foot of the stairs to what, to my straining ear, +seemed to be the entrance to the dining-room corridor. But as in my +anxiety to determine this fact I slipped far enough forward to make sure +that their destination lay somewhere within reach of the Flower Parlor, +I was so struck by the advantages to be gained by a cautious use of the +trap-door in William's room, that I hesitated no longer, but sped with +what swiftness I could toward the spot from which I had so lately heard +this strange procession advance. + +A narrow band of light lying across the upper end of the long corridor, +proved that the door was not only ajar, but that a second candle was +burning in the room I was about to invade; but this was scarcely to +be regretted, since there could be no question of the emptiness of +the room. The six figures I had seen go by embraced every one who +by any possibility could be considered as having part in this +transaction--William, Mr. Simsbury, Miss Knollys, Lucetta, Hannah, and +Mother Jane. No one else was left to guard this room, so I pushed the +door open quite boldly and entered. + +What I saw there I will relate later, or, rather, I will but hint at +now. A bed with a sheet thrown back, a stand covered with vials, a +bureau with a man's shaving paraphernalia upon it, and on the wall such +pictures as only sporting gentlemen delight in. The candle was guttering +on a small table upon which, to my astonishment, a Bible lay open. Not +having my glasses with me, I could not see what portion of the sacred +word was thus disclosed, but I took the precaution to indent the upper +leaf with my thumb-nail, so that I might find it again in case of future +opportunity. My attention was attracted by other small matters that +would be food for thought at a more propitious moment, but at that +instant the sound of voices coming distinctly to my ear from below, +warned me that a halt had been made at the Flower Parlor, and that the +duty of the moment was to locate the trap-door and if possible determine +the means of raising it. + +This was less difficult than I anticipated. Either this room was +regarded as so safe from intrusion that a secret like this could be +safely left unguarded, or the door which was plainly to be seen in one +corner had been so lately lifted, that it had hardly sunk back into its +place. I found it, if the expression may be used of a horizontal object, +slightly ajar and needing but the slightest pull to make it spring +upright. + +The hole thus disclosed was filled with the little staircase up which I +had partly mounted in my daring explorations of the day before. It was +dark now, darker than it was then, but I felt that I must descend by it, +for plainly to be heard now through the crack in the closet door, which +seemed to have a knack of standing partly open, I could hear the heavy +tread of the six bearers as they entered the parlor below, still +carrying their burden, concerning the destination of which I was so +anxious to be informed. + +That it could be in the room itself was too improbable for +consideration. Yet if they took up their stand in this room it was for a +purpose, and what that purpose was I was determined to know. The noise +their feet made on the bare boards of the floor and the few words I now +heard uttered in William's stolid tones and Lucetta's musical treble +assured me that my own light steps would no more be heard, than my dark +gown of quiet wool would be seen through the narrow slit through which I +was preparing to peer. Yet it took no small degree of what my father +used to call pluck, for me to put foot on this winding staircase and +descend almost, as it were, into the midst of what I must regard as the +last wicked act of a most cowardly and brutal murder. + +I did it, however, and after a short but grim communion with my own +heart, which would persist in beating somewhat noisily, I leaned forward +with all the precaution possible and let my gaze traverse the chamber in +which I had previously seen such horrors as should have prepared me for +this last and greatest one. + +In a moment I understood the whole. A long square hole in the floor, +lately sawed, provided an opening through which the plain plank coffin, +of which I now caught sight, was to be lowered into the cellar and so +into the grave which had doubtless been dug there. The ropes in the +hands of the six persons, in whose identity I had made no mistake, was +proof enough of their intention; and, satisfied as I now was of the +means and mode of the interment which had been such a boundless mystery +to me, I shrank a step upward, fearing lest my indignation and the +horror I could not but feel, from this moment on, of Althea's children, +would betray me into some exclamation which might lead to my discovery +and a similar fate. + +One other short glance, in which I saw them all ranged around the dark +opening, and I was up out of their reach, Lucetta's face and Lucetta's +one sob as the ropes began to creak, being the one memory which followed +me the most persistently. She, at least, was overwhelmed with remorse +for a deed she was perhaps only answerable for in that she failed to +make known to the world her brother's madness and the horrible crimes to +which it gave rise. + +I took one other look around his room before I fled to my own, or +rather, to the one in which I had taken refuge while my own was under +lock and key. That I spent the next two hours on my knees no one can +wonder. When my own room was unlocked, as it was before the day broke, I +hastened to enter it and lay my head with all its unhappy knowledge on +my pillow. But I did not sleep; and, what was stranger still, never once +thought of sounding a single note on the whistle which would have +brought the police into this abode of crime. Perhaps it was a wise +omission. I had seen enough that was horrible that night without +beholding Althea's children arrested before my eyes. + + + + +_BOOK III_ + +FORWARD AND BACK + + + + +XXIII + +ROOM 3, HOTEL CARTER + + +I rose at my usual hour. I dressed myself with my usual care. I was, to +a superficial observer at least, in all respects my usual self when +Hannah came to my door to ask what she could do for me. As there was +nothing I wanted but to get out of this house, which had become +unbearable to me, I replied with the utmost cheerfulness that my wants +were all supplied and that I would soon be down, at which she answered +that in that case she must bestir herself or the breakfast would not be +ready, and hurried away. + +There was no one in the dining-room when I entered, and judging from +appearances that several minutes must elapse before breakfast would be +ready, I took occasion to stroll through the grounds and glance up at +the window of William's room. The knot of crape was gone. + +I would have gone farther, but just then I heard a great rushing and +scampering, and, looking up, saw an enormous dog approaching at full +gallop from the stables. Saracen was loose. + +I did not scream or give way to other feminine expressions of fear, but +I did return as quickly as possible to the house, where I now saw I must +remain till William chose to take me into town. + +This I was determined should take place as soon after breakfast as +practicable. The knowledge which I now possessed warranted, nay, +demanded, instant consultation with the police, and as this could best +be effected by following out the orders I had received from Mr. Gryce, I +did not consider any other plan than that of meeting the man on duty in +Room No. 3 at the hotel. + +Loreen, Lucetta, and William were awaiting me in the hall, and made no +apology for the flurry into which I had been thrown by my rapid escape +from Saracen. Indeed I doubt if they noticed it, for with all the +attempt they made to seem gay and at ease, the anxieties and fatigue of +the foregoing nights were telling upon them, and from Miss Knollys down, +they looked physically exhausted. But they also looked mentally +relieved. In the clear depths of Lucetta's eye there was now no +wavering, and the head which was always turning in anxious anticipation +over her shoulder rested firm, though not as erect as her sister's, who +had less cause perhaps for regret and sorrow. + +William was joyful to a degree, but it was a forced joviality which only +became real when he heard a sudden, quick bark under the window and the +sound of scraping paws against the mastic coating of the wall outside. +Then he broke out into a loud laugh of unrestrained pleasure, crying out +thoughtlessly: + +"There's Saracen. How quick he knows----" + +A warning look from Lucetta stopped him. + +"I mean," he stammered, "it's a dull dog that cannot find his master. +Miss Butterworth, you will have to overcome your fear of dogs if you +stay with us long. Saracen is unbound this morning, and"--he used a +great oath--"he's going to remain so." + +By which I came to understand that it was not out of consideration for +me he had been tied up in the court till now, but for reasons connected +with their own safety and the preservation of the secret which they so +evidently believed had been buried with the body, which I did not like +to remember lay at that very minute too nearly under our feet for my own +individual comfort. + +However, this has nothing to do with the reply I made to William. + +"I hope he does not run with the buggy," I objected. "I want to take a +ride very much this morning and could get small pleasure out of it if +that dog must be our companion." + +"I cannot go out this morning," William began, but changed his sentence, +possibly at the touch of his sister's foot under the table, into: "But +if you say I must, why, I must. You women folks are so plagued +unreasonable." + +Had he been ten years younger I would have boxed his ears; had he been +that much older I would have taken cue and packed my trunk before he +could have finished the cup of coffee he was drinking. But he was just +too old to reprimand in the way just mentioned, and not old enough to +appreciate any display of personal dignity or self-respect on the part +of the person he had offended. Besides, he was a knave; so I just let +his impertinence pass with the remark: + +"I have purchases to make in the village": and so that matter ended, +manifestly to the two girls' relief, who naturally did not like to see +me insulted, even if they did not possess sufficient power over their +brother to prevent it. + +One other small episode and then I will take you with me to the village. +As we were leaving the table, where I ate less than common, +notwithstanding all my efforts to seem perfectly unconcerned, Lucetta, +who had waited for her brother to go out, took me gently by the arm, +and, eying me closely, said: + +"Did you have any dreams last night, Miss Butterworth? You know I +promised you some." + +The question disconcerted me, and for a moment I felt like taking the +two girls into my confidence and bidding them fly from the shame and +doom so soon to fall upon their brother; but the real principle +underlying all such momentary impulses on my part deterred me, and in as +light a tone as I could command and not be an absolute hypocrite, I +replied that I was sorry to disappoint her, but I had had no dreams, +which seemed to please her more than it should, for if I had had no +dreams I certainly had suffered from the most frightful realities. + +I will not describe our ride into town. Saracen did go with us, and +indignation not only rendered me speechless, but gave to my thoughts a +turn which made that half-hour of very little value to me. Mother Jane's +burly figure crouching in her doorway might otherwise have given me +opportunity for remark, and so might the dubious looks of people we met +on the highroad--looks to which I am so wholly unaccustomed that I had +difficulty in recognizing myself as the butt of so much doubt and +possibly dislike. I attributed this, however, all to the ill repute +under which William so deservedly labored, and did not allow myself to +more than notice it. Indeed, I could only be sorry for people who did +not know in what consideration I was held at home, and who, either +through ignorance or prejudice, allowed themselves privileges they would +be the first to regret did they know the heart and mind of Amelia +Butterworth. + +Once in the village, I took the direction of affairs. + +"Set me down at the hotel," I commanded, "and then go about such +business as you may have here in town. I am not going to allow myself to +be tracked all over by that dog." + +"I have no business," was the surly reply. + +"Then make some," was my sharp retort. "I want to see the +locksmith--that locksmith who wouldn't come to do an honest piece of +work for me in your house; and I want to buy dimities and wools and +sewing silks at the dry-goods store over there. Indeed I have a thousand +things to do, and expect to spend half the morning before the counters. +Why, man, I haven't done any shopping for a week." + +He gaped at me perfectly aghast (as I meant he should), and, having but +little experience of city ladies, took me at my word and prepared to +beat an honorable retreat. As a result, I found myself ten minutes later +standing on the top step of the hotel porch, watching William driving +away with Saracen perched on the seat beside him. Then I realized that +the village held no companions for him, and did not know whether I felt +glad or sorry. + +To the clerk who came to meet me, I said quietly, "Room No. 3, if you +please," at which he gave a nod of intelligence and led me as +unostentatiously as possible into a small hall, at the end of which I +saw a door with the aforesaid number on it. + +"If you will take a seat inside," said he, "I will send you whatever you +may desire for your comfort." + +"I think you know what that is," I rejoined, at which he nodded again +and left me, closing the door carefully behind him as he went. + +The few minutes which elapsed before my quiet was disturbed were spent +by me in thinking. There were many little questions to settle in my own +mind, for which a spell of uninterrupted contemplation was necessary. +One of these was whether, in the event of finding the police amenable, I +should reveal or hide from these children of my old friend, the fact +that it was through my instrumentality that their nefarious secret had +been discovered. I wished--nay, I hoped--that the affair might be so +concluded, but the possibility of doing so seemed so problematical, +especially since Mr. Gryce was not on hand to direct matters, that I +spent very little time on the subject, deep and important as it was to +all concerned. + +What most occupied me was the necessity of telling my story in such a +way as to exonerate the girls as much as possible. They were mistaken in +their devotion and most unhappy in the exercise of it, but they were not +innately wicked and should not be made to appear so. Perhaps the one +thing for which I should yet have the best cause to congratulate myself, +would be the opportunity I had gained of giving to their connection with +this affair its true and proper coloring. + +I was still dwelling on this thought when there came a knock at my door +which advised me that the visitor I expected had arrived. To open and +admit him was the work of a moment, but it took more than a moment for +me to overcome my surprise at seeing in my visitor no lesser person than +Mr. Gryce himself, who in our parting interview had assured me he was +too old and too feeble for further detective work and must therefore +delegate it to me. + +"Ah!" I ejaculated slowly. "It is you, is it? Well, I am not surprised." +(I shouldn't have been.) "When you say you are old, you mean old enough +to pull the wool over other people's eyes, and when you say you are +lame, you mean that you only halt long enough to let others get far +enough ahead for them not to see how fast you hobble up behind them. But +do not think I am not happy to see you. I am, Mr. Gryce, for I have +discovered the secret of Lost Man's Lane, and find it somewhat too heavy +a one for my own handling." + +To my surprise he showed this was more than he expected. + +"You have?" he asked, with just that shade of incredulity which it is so +tantalizing to encounter. "Then I suppose congratulations are in order. +But are you sure, Miss Butterworth, that you really have obtained a clue +to the many strange and fearful disappearances which have given to this +lane its name?" + +"Quite sure," I returned, nettled. "Why do you doubt it? Because I have +kept so quiet and not sounded one note of alarm from my whistle?" + +"No," said he. "Knowing your self-restraint so well, I cannot say that +that is my reason." + +"What is it, then?" I urged. + +"Well," said he, "my real reason for doubting if you have been quite as +successful as you think, is that we ourselves have come upon a clue +about which there can be no question. Can you say the same of yours?" + +You will expect my answer to have been a decided "Yes," uttered with all +the positiveness of which you know me capable. But for some reason, +perhaps because of the strange influence this man's personality +exercises upon all--yes, all--who do not absolutely steel themselves +against him, I faltered just long enough for him to cry: + +"I thought not. The clue is outside the Knollys house, not in it, Miss +Butterworth, for which, of course, you are not to be blamed or your +services scorned. I have no doubt they have been invaluable in +unearthing _a_ secret, if not _the_ secret." + +"Thank you," was my quiet retort. I thought his presumption beyond all +bounds, and would at that moment have felt justified in snapping my +fingers at the clue he boasted of, had it not been for one thing. What +that thing is I am not ready yet to state. + +"You and I have come to issue over such matters before," said he, "and +therefore need not take too much account of the feelings it is likely to +engender. I will merely state that my clue points to Mother Jane, and +ask if you have found in the visit she paid at the house last night +anything which would go to strengthen the suspicion against her." + +"Perhaps," said I, in a state of disdain that was more or less +unpardonable, considering that my own suspicions previous to my +discovery of the real tragedy enacted under my eyes at the Knollys +mansion had played more or less about this old crone. + +"Only perhaps?" He smiled, with a playful forbearance for which I should +have been truly grateful to him. + +"She was there for no good purpose," said I, "and yet if you had not +characterized her as the person most responsible for the crimes we are +here to investigate, I should have said from all that I then saw of her +conduct that she acted as a supernumerary rather than principal, and +that it is to me you should look for the correct clue to the criminal, +notwithstanding your confidence in your own theories and my momentary +hesitation to assert that there was no possible defect in mine." + +"Miss Butterworth,"--I thought he looked a trifle shaken,--"what did +Mother Jane do in that closely shuttered house last night?" + +Mother Jane? Well! Did he think I was going to introduce my tragic story +by telling what Mother Jane did? I must have looked irritated, and +indeed I think I had cause. + +"Mother Jane ate her supper," I snapped out angrily. "Miss Knollys gave +it to her. Then she helped a little with a piece of work they had on +hand. It will not interest you to know what. It has nothing to do with +your clue, I warrant." + +He did not get angry. He has an admirable temper, has Mr. Gryce, but he +did stop a minute to consider. + +"Miss Butterworth," he said at last, "most detectives would have held +their peace and let you go on with what you have to tell without a hint +that it was either unwelcome or unnecessary, but I have consideration +for persons' feelings and for persons' secrets so long as they do not +come in collision with the law, and my opinion is, or was when I entered +this room, that such discoveries as you have made at your old friend's +house" (Why need he emphasize friend--did he think I forgot for a moment +that Althea was my friend?) "were connected rather with some family +difficulty than with the dreadful affair we are considering. That is why +I hastened to tell you that we had found a clue to the disappearances in +Mother Jane's cottage. I wished to save the Misses Knollys." + +If he had thought to mollify me by this assertion, he did not succeed. +He saw it and made haste to say: + +"Not that I doubt your consideration for them, only the justness of your +conclusions." + +"You have doubted those before and with more reason," I replied, "yet +they were not altogether false." + +"That I am willing to acknowledge, so willing that if you still think +after I have told my story that yours is _apropos_, then I will listen +to it only too eagerly. My object is to find the real criminal in this +matter. I say at the present moment it is Mother Jane." + +"God grant you are right," I said, influenced in spite of myself by the +calm assurance of his manner. "If she was at the house night before last +between eleven and twelve, then perhaps she is all you think her. But I +see no reason to believe it--not yet, Mr. Gryce. Supposing you give me +one. It would be better than all this controversy. One small reason, Mr. +Gryce, as good as"--I did not say what, but the fillip it gave to his +intention stood me in good stead, for he launched immediately into the +matter with no further play upon my curiosity, which was now, as you can +believe, thoroughly aroused, though I could not believe that anything he +had to bring up against Mother Jane could for a moment stand against the +death and the burial I had witnessed in Miss Knollys' house during the +two previous nights. + + + + +XXIV + +THE ENIGMA OF NUMBERS + + +"When in our first conversation on this topic I told you that Mother +Jane was not to be considered in this matter, I meant she was not to be +considered by you. She was a subject to be handled by the police, and we +have handled her. Yesterday afternoon I made a search of her cabin." +Here Mr. Gryce paused and eyed me quizzically. He sometimes does eye me, +which same I cannot regard as a compliment, considering how fond he is +of concentrating all his wisdom upon small and insignificant objects. + +"I wonder," said he, "what you would have done in such a search as that. +It was no common one, I assure you. There are not many hiding-places +between Mother Jane's four walls." + +I felt myself begin to tremble, with eagerness, of course. + +"I wish I had been given the opportunity," said I--"that is, if anything +was to be found there." + +He seemed to be in a sympathetic mood toward me, or perhaps--and this is +the likelier supposition--he had a minute of leisure and thought he +could afford to give himself a little quiet amusement. However that was, +he answered me by saying: + +"The opportunity is not lost. You have been in her cabin and have noted, +I have no doubt, its extreme simplicity. Yet it contains, or rather did +contain up till last night, distinct evidences of more than one of the +crimes which have been perpetrated in this lane." + +"Good! And you want me to guess where you found them? Well, it's not +fair." + +"Ah, and why not?" + +"Because you probably did not find them on your first attempt. You had +time to look about. I am asked to guess at once and without second trial +what I warrant it took you several trials to determine." + +He could not help but laugh. "And why do you think it took me several +trials?" + +"Because there is more than one thing in that room made up of parts." + +"Parts?" He attempted to look puzzled, but I would not have it. + +"You know what I mean," I declared; "seventy parts, twenty-eight, or +whatever the numbers are she so constantly mutters." + +His admiration was unqualified and sincere. + +"Miss Butterworth," said he, "you are a woman after my own heart. How +came you to think that her mutterings had anything to do with a +hiding-place?" + +"Because it did not have anything to do with the amount of money I gave +her. When I handed her twenty-five cents, she cried, 'Seventy, +twenty-eight, and now ten!' Ten what? Not ten cents or ten dollars, but +ten----" + +"Why do you stop?" + +"I do not want to risk my reputation on a guess. There is a quilt on the +bed made up of innumerable pieces. There is a floor of neatly laid +brick----" + +"And there is a Bible on the stand whose leaves number many over +seventy." + +"Ah, it was in the Bible you found----" + +His smile put mine quite to shame. + +"I must acknowledge," he cried, "that I looked in the Bible, but I found +nothing there beyond what we all seek when we open its sacred covers. +Shall I tell my story?" + +He was evidently bursting with pride. You would think that after a +half-century of just such successes, a man would take his honors more +quietly. But pshaw! Human nature is just the same in the old as in the +young. He was no more tired of compliment or of awakening the +astonishment of those he confided in, than when he aroused the +admiration of the force by his triumphant handling of the Leavenworth +Case. Of course in presence of such weakness I could do nothing less +than give him a sympathetic ear. I may be old myself some day. Besides, +his story was likely to prove more or less interesting. + +"Tell your story?" I repeated. "Don't you see that I am"--I was going to +say "on pins and needles till I hear it," but the expression is too +vulgar for a woman of my breeding; so I altered the words, happily +before they were spoken, into "that I am in a state of the liveliest +curiosity concerning the whole matter? Tell your story, of course." + +"Well, Miss Butterworth, if I do, it is because I know you will +appreciate it. You, like myself, placed weight upon the numbers she is +forever running over, and you, like myself, have conceived the +possibility of these numbers having reference to something in the one +room she inhabits. At first glance the extreme bareness of the spot +seemed to promise nothing to my curiosity. I looked at the floor and +detected no signs of any disturbance having taken place in its +symmetrically laid bricks for years. Yet I counted up to seventy one way +and twenty-eight the other, and marking the brick thus selected, began +to pry it out. It came with difficulty and showed me nothing underneath +but green mold and innumerable frightened insects. Then I counted the +bricks the other way, but nothing came of it. The floor does not appear +to have been disturbed for years. Turning my attention away from the +floor, I began upon the quilt. This was a worse job than the other, and +it took me an hour to rip apart the block I settled upon as the +suspicious one, but my labor was entirely wasted. There was no hidden +treasure in the quilt. Then I searched the walls, using the measurements +seventy by twenty-eight, but no result followed these endeavors, +and--well, what do you think I did then?" + +"You will tell me," I said, "if I give you one more minute to do it in." + +"Very well," said he. "I see you do not know, madam. Having searched +below and around me, I next turned my attention overhead. Do you +remember the strings and strings of dried vegetables that decorate the +beams above?" + +"I do," I replied, not stinting any of the astonishment I really felt. + +"Well, I began to count them next, and when I reached the seventieth +onion from the open doorway, I crushed it between my fingers and--these +fell out, madam--worthless trinkets, as you will immediately see, +but----" + +"Well, well," I urged. + +"They have been identified as belonging to the peddler who was one of +the victims in whose fate we are interested." + +"Ah, ah!" I ejaculated, somewhat amazed, I own. "And number +twenty-eight?" + +"That was a carrot, and it held a really valuable ring--a ruby +surrounded by diamonds. If you remember, I once spoke to you of this +ring. It was the property of young Mr. Chittenden and worn by him while +he was in this village. He disappeared on his way to the railway +station, having taken, as many can vouch, the short detour by Lost Man's +Lane, which would lead him directly by Mother Jane's cottage." + +"You thrill me," said I, keeping down with admirable self-possession my +own thoughts in regard to this matter. "And what of No. ten, beyond +which she said she could not count?" + +"In ten was your twenty-five-cent piece, and in various other +vegetables, small coins, whose value taken collectively would not amount +to a dollar. The only numbers which seemed to make any impression on her +mind were those connected with these crimes. Very good evidence, Miss +Butterworth, that Mother Jane holds the clue to this matter, even if she +is not responsible for the death of the individuals represented by this +property." + +"Certainly," I acquiesced, "and if you examined her after her return +from the Knollys mansion last night you would probably have found upon +her some similar evidence of her complicity in the last crime of this +terrible series. It would needs have been small, as Silly Rufus neither +indulged in the brass trinkets sold by the old peddler nor the real +jewelry of a well-to-do man like Mr. Chittenden." + +"Silly Rufus?" + +"He was the last to disappear from these parts, was he not?" + +"Yes, madam." + +"And as such, should have left some clue to his fate in the hands of +this old crone, if her motive in removing him was, as you seem to think, +entirely that of gain." + +"I did not say it was entirely so. Silly Rufus would be the last person +any one, even such a _non compos mentis_ as Mother Jane, would destroy +for hope of gain." + +"But what other motive could she have? And, Mr. Gryce, where could she +bestow the bodies of so many unfortunate victims, even if by her great +strength she could succeed in killing them?" + +"There you have me," said he. "We have not been able as yet to unearth +any bodies. Have you?" + +"No," said I, with some little show of triumph showing through my +disdain, "but I can show _you_ where to unearth one." + +He should have been startled, profoundly startled. Why wasn't he? I +asked this of myself over and over in the one instant he weighed his +words before answering. + +"You have made some definite discoveries, then," he declared. "You have +come across a grave or a mound which you have taken for a grave." + +I shook my head. + +"No mound," said I. Why should I not play for an instant or more with +his curiosity? He had with mine. + +"Ah, then, why do you talk of unearthing? No one has told you where you +can lay hand on Silly Rufus' body, I take it." + +"No," said I. "The Knollys house is not inclined to give up its +secrets." + +He started, glancing almost remorsefully first at the tip, then at the +head of the cane he was balancing in his hand. + +"It's too bad," he muttered, "but you've been led astray, Miss +Butterworth,--excusably, I acknowledge, quite excusably, but yet in a +way to give you quite wrong conclusions. The secret of the Knollys +house--But wait a moment. Then you were not locked up in your room last +night?" + +"Scarcely," I returned, wavering between the doubts he had awakened by +his first sentence and the surprise which his last could not fail to +give me. + +"I might have known they would not be likely to catch you in a trap," he +remarked. "So you were up and in the halls?" + +"I was up," I acknowledged, "and in the halls. May I ask where you +were?" + +He paid no heed to the last sentence. "This complicates matters," said +he, "and yet perhaps it is as well. I understand you now, and in a few +minutes you will understand me. You thought it was Silly Rufus who was +buried last night. That was rather an awful thought, Miss Butterworth. I +wonder, with that in your mind, you look as well as you do this morning, +madam. Truly you are a wonderful woman--a very wonderful woman." + +"A truce to compliments," I begged. "If you know as much as your words +imply of what went on in that ill-omened house last night, you ought to +show some degree of emotion yourself, for if it was not Silly Rufus who +was laid away under the Flower Parlor, who, then, was it? No one for +whom tears could openly be shed or of whose death public acknowledgment +could be made, or we would not be sitting here talking away at cross +purposes the morning after his burial." + +"Tears are not shed or public acknowledgment made for the subject of a +half-crazy man's love for scientific investigation. It was no human +being whom you saw buried, madam, but a victim of Mr. Knollys' passion +for vivisection." + +"You are playing with me," was my indignant answer; "outrageously and +inexcusably playing with me. Only a human being would be laid away in +such secrecy and with such manifestations of feeling as I was witness +to. You must think me in my dotage, or else----" + +"We will take the rest of the sentence for granted," he dryly +interpolated. "You know that I can have no wish to insult your +intelligence, Miss Butterworth, and that if I advance a theory on my own +account I must have ample reasons for it. Now can you say the same for +yours? Can you adduce irrefutable proof that the body we buried last +night was that of a man? If you can, there is no more to be said, or, +rather, there is everything to be said, for this would give to the +transaction a very dreadful and tragic significance which at present I +am not disposed to ascribe to it." + +Taken aback by his persistence, but determined not to acknowledge defeat +until forced to it, I stolidly replied: "You have made an assertion, and +it is for you to adduce proof. It will be time enough for me to talk +when your own theory is proved untenable." + +He was not angry: fellow-feeling for my disappointment made him +unusually gentle. His voice was therefore very kind when he said: + +"Madam, if you know it to have been a man, say so. I do not wish to +waste my time." + +"I do not know it." + +"Very well, then, I will tell you why I think my supposition true. Mr. +Knollys, as you probably have already discovered, is a man with a secret +passion for vivisection." + +"Yes, I have discovered that." + +"It is known to his family, and it is known to a very few others, but it +is not known to the world at large, not even to his fellow-villagers.' + +"I can believe it," said I. + +"His sisters, who are gentle girls, regard the matter as the +gentle-hearted usually do. They have tried in every way to influence him +to abandon it, but unsuccessfully so far, for he is not only entirely +unamenable to persuasion, but has a nature of such brutality he could +not live without some such excitement to help away his life in this +dreary house. All they can do, then, is to conceal these cruelties from +the eyes of the people who already execrate him for his many roughnesses +and the undoubted shadow under which he lives. Time was when I thought +this shadow had a substance worth our investigation, but a further +knowledge of his real fault and a completer knowledge of his sisters' +virtues turned my inquiries in a new direction, where I have found, as I +have told you, actual reason for arresting Mother Jane. Have you +anything to say against these conclusions? Cannot you see that all your +suspicions can be explained by the brother's cruel impulses and the +sisters' horror of having those impulses known?" + +I thought a moment; then I cried out boldly: "No, I cannot, Mr. Gryce. +The anxiety, the fear, which I have seen depicted on these sisters' +faces for days might be explained perhaps by this theory; but the knot +of crape on the window-shutter, the open Bible in the room of +death--William's room, Mr. Gryce,--proclaim that it was a human being, +and nothing less, for whom Lucetta's sobs went up." + +"I do not follow you," he said, moved for the first time from his +composure. "What do you mean by a knot of crape, and when was it you +obtained entrance into William's room?" + +"Ah," I exclaimed in dry retort; "you are beginning to see that I have +something as interesting to report as yourself. Did you think me a +superficial egotist, without facts to back my assertions?" + +"I should not have done you that injustice." + +"I have penetrated, I think, deeper than even yourself, into William's +character. I think him capable--But do satisfy my curiosity on one +point first, Mr. Gryce. How came you to know as much as you do about +last night's proceedings? You could not have been in the house. Did +Mother Jane talk after she got back?" + +The tip of his cane was up, and he frowned at it. Then the handle took +its place, and he gave it a good-natured smile. + +"Miss Butterworth," said he, "I have not succeeded in making Mother Jane +at any time go beyond her numerical monologue. But you have been more +successful." And with a sudden marvellous change of expression, pose, +and manner he threw over his head my shawl, which had fallen to the +floor in my astonishment, and, rocking himself to and fro before me, +muttered grimly: + +"Seventy! Twenty-eight! Ten! No more! I can count no more! Go." + +"Mr. Gryce, it was you----" + +"Whom you interviewed in Mother Jane's cottage with Mr. Knollys," he +finished. "And it was _I_ who helped to bury what you now declare, to my +real terror and astonishment, to have been a human being. Miss +Butterworth, what about the knot of crape? Tell me." + + + + +XXV + +TRIFLES, BUT NOT TRIFLING + + +I was so astounded I hardly took in this final question. + +_He_ had been the sixth party in the funeral cortege I had seen pause in +the Flower Parlor. Well, what might I not expect from this man next! + +But I am methodical even under the greatest excitement and at the most +critical instants, as those who have read _That Affair Next Door_ have +had ample opportunity to know. Once having taken in the startling fact +he mentioned, I found it impossible to proceed to establish my +standpoint till I knew a little more about his. + +"Wait," I said; "tell me first if I have ever seen the real Mother Jane; +or were you the person I saw stooping in the road, and of whom I bought +the pennyroyal?" + +"No," he replied; "that was the old woman herself. My appearance in the +cottage dates from yesterday noon. I felt the need of being secretly +near you, and I also wished for an opportunity to examine this humble +interior unsuspected and unobserved. So I prevailed upon the old woman +to exchange places with me; she taking up her abode in the woods for the +night and I her old stool on the hearthstone. She was the more willing +to do this from the promise I gave her to watch out for Lizzie. That I +would don her own Sunday suit and personate her in her own home she +evidently did not suspect. Had not wit enough, I suppose. At the present +moment she is back in her old place." + +I nodded my thanks for this explanation, but was not deterred from +pressing the point I was anxious to have elucidated. + +"If," I went on to urge, "you took advantage of your disguise to act as +assistant in the burial which took place last night, you are in a much +better situation than myself to decide the question we are at present +considering. Was it because of any secret knowledge thus gained you +declare so positively that it was not a human being you helped lower in +its grave?" + +"Partially. Having some skill in these disguises, especially where my +own infirmities can have full play, as in the case of this strong but +half-bent woman, I had no reason to think my own identity was suspected, +much less discovered. Therefore I could trust to what I saw and heard as +being just what Mother Jane herself would be allowed to see or hear +under the same circumstances. If, therefore, these young people and this +old crone had been, as you seem to think they are, in league for murder, +Lucetta would hardly have greeted me as she did when she came down to +meet me in the kitchen." + +"And how was that? What did she say?" + +"She said: 'Ah, Mother Jane, we have a piece of work for you. You are +strong, are you not?'" + +"Humph!" + +"And then she commiserated me a bit and gave me food which, upon my +word, I found hard to eat, though I had saved my appetite for the +occasion. Before she left me she bade me sit in the inglenook till she +wanted me, adding in Hannah's ear as she passed her: 'There is no use +trying to explain anything to her. Show her when the time comes what +there is to do and trust to her short memory to forget it before she +leaves the house. She could not understand my brother's propensity or +our shame in pandering to it. So attempt nothing, Hannah. Only keep the +money in her view.'" + +"So, and that gave you no idea?" + +"It gave me the idea I have imparted to you, or, rather, added to the +idea which had been instilled in me by others." + +"And this idea was not affected by what you saw afterwards?" + +"Not in the least--rather strengthened. Of the few words I overheard, +one was uttered in reference to yourself by Miss Knollys. She said: 'I +have locked Miss Butterworth again into her room. If she accuses me of +having done so, I shall tell her our whole story. Better she should know +the family's disgrace than imagine us guilty of crimes of which we are +utterly incapable.'" + +"So! so!" I cried, "you heard that?" + +"Yes, madam, I heard that, and I do not think she knew she was dropping +that word into the ear of a detective, but on this point you are, of +course, at liberty to differ with me." + +"I am not yet ready to avail myself of the privilege," I retorted. "What +else did these girls let fall in your hearing?" + +"Not much. It was Hannah who led me into the upper hall, and Hannah who +by signs and signals rather than words showed me what was expected of +me. However, when, after the box was lowered into the cellar, Hannah was +drawing me away, Lucetta stepped up and whispered in her ear: 'Don't +give her the biggest coin. Give her the little one, or she may mistake +our reasons for secrecy. I wouldn't like even a fool to do that even for +the moment it would remain lodged in Mother Jane's mind.'" + +"Well, well," I again cried, certainly puzzled, for these stray +expressions of the sisters were in a measure contradictory not only of +the suspicions I entertained, but of the facts which had seemingly come +to my attention. + +Mr. Gryce, who was probably watching my face more closely than he did +the cane with whose movements he was apparently engrossed, stopped to +give a caressing rub to the knob of that same cane before remarking: + +"One such peep behind the scenes is worth any amount of surmise expended +on the wrong side of the curtain. I let you share my knowledge because +it is your due. Now if you feel willing to explain what you mean by a +knot of crape on the shutter, I am at your service, madam." + +I felt that it would be cruel to delay my story longer, and so I began +it. It was evidently more interesting than he expected, and as I dilated +upon the special features which had led me to believe that it was a +thinking, suffering mortal like ourselves who had been shut up in +William's room and afterwards buried in the cellar under the Flower +Parlor, I saw his face lengthen and doubt take the place of the quiet +assurance with which he had received my various intimations up to this +time. The cane was laid aside, and from the action of his right +forefinger on the palm of his left hand I judged that I was making no +small impression on his mind. When I had finished, he sat for a minute +silent; then he said: + +"Thanks, Miss Butterworth; you have more than fulfilled my hopes. What +we buried was undoubtedly human, and the question now is, Who was it, +and of what death did he die?" Then, after a meaning pause: "_You_ think +it was Silly Rufus." + +I will astonish you with my reply. "No," said I, "I do not. That is +where you make a mistake, Mr. Gryce." + + + + +XXVI + +A POINT GAINED + + +He was surprised, for all his attempts to conceal it. + +"No?" said he. "Who, then? You are becoming interesting, Miss +Butterworth." + +This I thought I could afford to ignore. + +"Yesterday," I proceeded, "I would have declared it to be Silly Rufus, +in the face of God and man, but after what I saw in William's room +during the hurried survey I gave it, I am inclined to doubt if the +explanation we have to give to this affair is so simple as that would +make it. Mr. Gryce, in one corner of that room, from which the victim +had so lately been carried, was a pair of shoes that could never have +been worn by any boy-tramp I have ever seen or known of." + +"They were Loreen's, or possibly Lucetta's." + +"No, Loreen and Lucetta both have trim feet, but these were the shoes of +a child of ten, very dainty at that, and of a cut and make worn by +women, or rather, I should say, by girls. Now, what do you make of +that?" + +He did not seem to know what to make of it. Tap, tap went his finger on +his seasoned palm, and as I watched the slowness with which it fell, I +said to myself, "I have proposed a problem this time that will tax even +Mr. Gryce's powers of deduction." + +And I had. It was minutes before he ventured an opinion, and then it was +with a shade of doubt in his tone that I acknowledge to have felt some +pride in producing. + +"They were Lucetta's shoes. The emotions under which you labored--very +pardonable emotions, madam, considering the circumstances and the +hour----" + +"Excuse me," said I. "We do not want to waste a moment. I was excited, +suitably and duly excited, or I would have been a stone. But I never +lose my head under excitement, nor do I part with my sense of +proportion. The shoes were not Lucetta's. She never wore any approaching +them in smallness since her tenth year." + +"Has Simsbury a daughter? Has there not been a child about the house +some time to assist the cook in errands and so on?" + +"No, or I should have seen her. Besides, how would the shoes of such a +person come into William's room?" + +"Easily. Secrecy was required. You were not to be disturbed; so shoes +were taken off that quiet might result." + +"Was Lucetta shoeless or William or even Mother Jane? You have not told +me that you were requested to walk in stocking feet up the hall. No, Mr. +Gryce, the shoes were the shoes of a girl. I know it because it was +matched by a dress I saw hanging up in a sort of wardrobe." + +"Ah! You looked into the wardrobe?" + +"I did and felt justified in doing so. It was after I had spied the +shoes." + +"Very good. And you saw a dress?" + +"A little dress; a dress with a short skirt. It was of silk too; another +anomaly--and the color, I think, was blue, but I cannot swear to that +point. I was in great haste and took the briefest glance. But my brief +glances can be trusted, Mr. Gryce. That, I think, you are beginning to +know." + +"Certainly," said he, "and as proof of it we will now act upon these two +premises--that the victim in whose burial I was an innocent partaker was +a human being and that this human being was a girl-child who came into +the house well dressed. Now where does that lead us? Into a maze, I +fear." + +"We are accustomed to mazes," I observed. + +"Yes," he answered somewhat gloomily, "but they are not exactly +desirable in this case. I want to find the Knollys family innocent." + +"And I. But William's character, I fear, will make that impossible." + +"But this girl? Who is she, and where did she come from? No girl has +been reported to us as missing from this neighborhood." + +"I supposed not." + +"A visitor--But no visitor could enter this house without it being known +far and wide. Why, I heard of your arrival here before I left the train +on which I followed you. Had we allowed ourselves to be influenced by +what the people about here say, we would have turned the Knollys house +inside out a week ago. But I don't believe in putting too much +confidence in the prejudice of country people. The idea they suggested, +and which you suggest without putting it too clearly into words, is much +too horrible to be acted upon without the best of reasons. Perhaps we +have found those reasons, yet I still feel like asking, Where did this +girl come from and how could she have become a prisoner in the Knollys +house without the knowledge of--Madam, have you met Mr. Trohm?" + +The question was so sudden I had not time to collect myself. But perhaps +it was not necessary that I should, for the simple affirmation I used +seemed to satisfy Mr. Gryce, who went on to say: + +"It is he who first summoned us here, and it is he who has the greatest +interest in locating the source of these disappearances, yet he has seen +no child come here." + +"Mr. Trohm is not a spy," said I, but the remark, happily, fell +unheeded. + +"No one has," he pursued. "We must give another turn to our +suppositions." + +Suddenly a silence fell upon us both. His finger ceased to lay down the +law, and my gaze, which had been searching his face inquiringly, became +fixed. At the same moment and in much the same tone of voice we both +spoke, he saying, "Humph!" and I, "Ah!" as a prelude to the simultaneous +exclamation: + +"The phantom coach!" + +We were so pleased with this discovery that we allowed a moment to pass +in silent contemplation of each other's satisfaction. Then he quietly +added: + +"Which on the evening preceding your arrival came from the mountains and +passed into Lost Man's Lane, from which no one ever saw it emerge." + +"It was no phantom," I put in. + +"It was their own old coach bringing to the house a fresh victim." + +This sounded so startling we both sat still for a moment, lost in the +horror of it, then I spoke: + +"People living in remote and isolated quarters like this are naturally +superstitious. The Knollys family know this, and, remembering the old +legend, forbore to contradict the conclusions of their neighbors. +Loreen's emotion when the topic was broached to her is explained by this +theory." + +"It is not a pleasant one, but we cannot be wrong in contemplating it." + +"Not at all. This apparition, as they call it, was seen by two persons; +therefore it was no apparition but a real coach. It came from the +mountains, that is, from the Mountain Station, and it glided--ah!" + +"Well?" + +"Mr. Gryce, it was its noiselessness that gave it its spectral +appearance. Now I remember a petty circumstance which I dare you to +match, in corroboration of our suspicions." + +"You do?" + +I could not repress a slight toss of my head. "Yes, I do," I repeated. + +He smiled and made the slightest of deprecatory gestures. + +"You have had advantages----" he began. + +"And disadvantages," I finished, determined that he should award me my +full meed of praise. "You are probably not afraid of dogs. I am. You +could visit the stables." + +"And did; but I found nothing there." + +"I thought not!" I could not help the exclamation. It is so seldom one +can really triumph over this man. "Not having the cue, you would not be +apt to see what gives this whole thing away. I would never have thought +of it again if we had not had this talk. Is Mr. Simsbury a neat man?" + +"A neat man? Madam, what do you mean?" + +"Something important, Mr. Gryce. If Mr. Simsbury is a neat man, he will +have thrown away the old rags which, I dare promise you, cumbered his +stable floor the morning after the phantom coach was seen to enter the +lane. If he is not, you may still find them there. One of them, I know, +you will not find. He pulled it off of his wheel with his whip the +afternoon he drove me down from the station. I can see the sly look he +gave me as he did it. It made no impression on me then, but now----" + +"Madam, you have supplied the one link necessary to the establishment of +this theory. Allow me to felicitate you upon it. But whatever our +satisfaction may be from a professional standpoint, we cannot but feel +the unhappy nature of the responsibility incurred by these discoveries. +If this seemingly respectable family stooped to such subterfuge, going +to the length of winding rags around the wheels of their lumbering old +coach to make it noiseless, and even tying up their horse's feet for +this same purpose, they must have had a motive dark enough to warrant +your worst suspicions. And William was not the only one involved. +Simsbury, at least, had a hand in it, nor does it look as if the girls +were as innocent as we would like to consider them." + +"I cannot stop to consider the girls," I declared. "I can no longer +consider the girls." + +"Nor I," he gloomily assented. "Our duty requires us to sift this +matter, and it shall be sifted. We must first find if any child alighted +from the cars at the Mountain Station on that especial night, or, what +is more probable, from the little station at C., five miles farther back +in the mountains." + +"And--" I urged, seeing that he had still something to say. + +"We must make sure who lies buried under the floor of the room you call +the Flower Parlor. You may expect me at the Knollys house some time +to-day. I shall come quietly, but in my own proper person. You are not +to know me, and, unless you desire it, need not appear in the matter." + +"I do not desire it." + +"Then good-morning, Miss Butterworth. My respect for your abilities has +risen even higher than before. We part in a similar frame of mind for +once." + +And this he expected me to regard as a compliment. + + + + +XXVII + +THE TEXT WITNESSETH + + +I have a grim will when I choose to exert it. After Mr. Gryce left the +hotel, I took a cup of tea with the landlady and then made a round of +the stores. I bought dimity, sewing silk, and what not, as I said I +would, but this did not occupy me long (to the regret probably of the +country merchants, who expected to make a fool of me and found it a by +no means easy task), and was quite ready for William when he finally +drove up. + +The ride home was a more or less silent one. I had conceived such a +horror of the man beside me, that talking for talk's sake was +impossible, while he was in a mood which it would be charity to call +non-communicative. It may be that my own reticence was at the bottom of +this, but I rather think not. The remark he made in passing Deacon +Spear's house showed that something more than spite was working in his +slow but vindictive brain. + +"There's a man of your own sort," he cried. "You won't find him doing +anything out of the way; oh, no. Pity your visit wasn't paid there. +You'd have got a better impression of the lane." + +To this I made no reply. + +At Mr. Trohm's he spoke again: + +"I suppose that you and Trohm had the devil of a say about Lucetta and +the rest of us. I don't know why, but the whole neighborhood seems to +feel they've a right to use our name as they choose. But it isn't going +to be so, long. We have played poor and pinched and starved all I'm +going to. I'm going to have a new horse, and Lucetta shall have a dress, +and that mighty quick too. I'm tired of all this shabbiness, and mean to +have a change." + +I wanted to say, "No change yet; change under the present circumstances +would be the worst thing possible for you all," but I felt that this +would be treason to Mr. Gryce, and refrained, saying simply, as he +looked sideways at me for a word: + +"Lucetta needs a new dress. That no one can deny. But you had better let +me get it for her, or perhaps that is what you mean." + +The grunt which was my only answer might be interpreted in any way. I +took it, however, for assent. + +As soon as I was relieved of his presence and found myself again with +the girls, I altered my whole manner and cried out in querulous tones: + +"Mrs. Carter and I have had a difference." (This was true. We did have a +difference over our cup of tea. I did not think it necessary to say this +difference was a forced one. Some things we are perfectly justified in +keeping to ourselves.) "She remembers a certain verse in the New +Testament one way and I in another. We had not time to settle it by a +consultation with the sacred word, but I cannot rest till it is settled, +so will you bring your Bible to me, my dear, that I may look that verse +up?" + +We were in the upper hall, where I had taken a seat on the old-fashioned +sofa there. Lucetta, who was standing before me, started immediately to +do my bidding, without stopping to think, poor child, that it was very +strange I did not go to my own room and consult my own Bible as any good +Presbyterian would be expected to do. As she was turning toward the +large front room I stopped her with the quiet injunction: + +"Get me one with good print, Lucetta. My eyes won't bear much +straining." + +At which she turned and to my great relief hurried down the corridor +toward William's room, from which she presently returned, bringing the +very volume I was anxious to consult. + +Meanwhile I had laid aside my hat. I felt flurried and unhappy, and +showed it. Lucetta's pitiful face had a strange sweetness in it this +morning, and I felt sure as I took the sacred book from her hand that +her thoughts were all with the lover she had sent from her side and not +at all with me or with what at the moment occupied me. Yet my thoughts +at this moment involved, without doubt, the very deepest interests of +her life, if not that very lover she was brooding over in her darkened +and resigned mind. As I realized this I heaved an involuntary sigh, +which seemed to startle her, for she turned and gave me a quick look as +she was slipping away to join her sister, who was busy at the other end +of the hall. + +The Bible I held was an old one, of medium size and most excellent +print. I had no difficulty in finding the text and settling the question +which had been my ostensible reason for wanting the book, but it took me +longer to discover the indentation which I had made in one of its pages; +but when I did, you may imagine my awe and the turmoil into which my +mind was cast, when I found that it marked those great verses in +Corinthians which are so universally read at funerals: + +"Behold I shew you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all +be changed." + +"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye----" + + + + +XXVIII + +AN INTRUSION + + +I was so moved by this discovery that I was not myself for several +moments. + +The reading of these words over the body which had been laid away under +the Flower Parlor was in keeping with the knot of crape on the +window-shutter and argued something more than remorse on the part of +some one of the Knollys family. Who was this one, and why, with such +feelings in the breast of any of the three, had the deceit and crime to +which I had been witness succeeded to such a point as to demand the +attention of the police? An impossible problem of which I dared seek no +solution, even in the faces of these seemingly innocent girls. + +I was, of course, in no position to determine what plan Mr. Gryce +intended to pursue. I only knew what course I myself meant to follow, +which was to remain quiet and sustain the part I had already played in +this house as visitor and friend. It was therefore as such both in heart +and manner that I hastened from my room late in the afternoon to inquire +the meaning of the cry I had just heard issue from Lucetta's lips. It +had come from the front of the house, and, as I hastened thither, I met +the two Misses Knollys, looking more openly anxious and distraught than +at any former time of anxiety and trouble. + +As they looked up and saw my face, Loreen paused and laid her hand on +Lucetta's arm. But Lucetta was not to be restrained. + +"He has dared to enter our gates, bringing a police officer with him," +was her hoarse and almost unintelligible cry. "We know that the man with +him is a police officer because he was here once before, and though he +was kind enough then, he cannot have come the second time except to----" + +Here the pressure of Loreen's hand was so strong as to make the feeble +Lucetta quiver. She stopped, and Miss Knollys took up her words: + +"Except to make us talk on subjects much better buried in oblivion. Miss +Butterworth, will you go down with us? Your presence may act as a +restraint. Mr. Trohm seems to have some respect for you." + +"Mr. Trohm?" + +"Yes. It is his coming which has so agitated Lucetta. He and a man named +Gryce are just coming up the walk. There goes the knocker. Lucetta, you +must control yourself or leave me to face these unwelcome visitors +alone." + +Lucetta, with a sudden fierce effort, subdued her trembling. + +"If he must be met," said she, "my anger and disdain may give some +weight to your quiet acceptance of the family's disgrace. I shall not +accept his denunciations quietly, Loreen. You must expect me to show +some of the feelings that I have held in check all these years." And +without waiting for reply, without waiting even to see what effect these +strange words might have upon me, she dashed down the stairs and pulled +open the front door. + +We had followed rapidly, too rapidly for speech ourselves, and were +therefore in the hall when the door swung back, revealing the two +persons I had been led to expect. Mr. Trohm spoke first, evidently in +answer to the defiance to be seen in Lucetta's face. + +"Miss Knollys, a thousand pardons. I know I am transgressing, but, I +assure you, the occasion warrants it. I am certain you will acknowledge +this when you hear what my errand is." + +"Your errand? What can your errand be but to----" + +Why did she pause? Mr. Gryce had not looked at her. Yet that it was +under his influence she ceased to commit herself I am as convinced as we +can be of anything in a world which is half deceit. + +"Let us hear your errand," put in Loreen, with that gentle emphasis +which is no sign of weakness. + +"I will let this gentleman speak for me," returned Mr. Trohm. "You have +seen him before--a New York detective of whose business in this town you +cannot be ignorant." + +Lucetta turned a cold eye upon Mr. Gryce and quietly remarked: + +"When he visited this lane a few days ago, he professed to be seeking a +clue to the many disappearances which have unfortunately taken place +within its precincts." + +Mr. Trohm's nod was one of acquiescence. But Lucetta was still looking +at the detective. + +"Is that your business now?" she asked, appealing directly to Mr. Gryce. + +His fatherly accents when he answered her were a great relief after the +alternate iciness and fire with which she had addressed his companion +and himself. + +"I hardly know how to reply without arousing your just anger. If your +brother is in----" + +"My brother would face you with less patience than we. Tell us your +errand, Mr. Gryce, and do not think of calling in my brother till we +have failed to answer your questions or satisfy your demands." + +"Very well," said he. "The quickest explanation is the kindest in these +cases. I merely wish, as a police officer whose business it is to locate +the disappearances which have made this lane notorious, and who believes +the surest way to do this is to find out once and for all where they did +not and could not have taken place, to make an official search of these +premises as I already have those of Mother Jane and of Deacon Spear." + +"And my errand here," interposed Mr. Trohm, "is to make everything easier +by the assurance that my house will be the next to undergo a complete +investigation. As all the houses in the lane will be visited alike, none +of us need complain or feel our good name attacked." + +This was certainly thoughtful of him, but knowing how much they had to +fear, I could not expect Loreen or Lucetta to show any great sense +either of his kindness or Mr. Gryce's consideration. They were in no +position to have a search made of their premises, and, serene as was +Loreen's nature and powerful as was Lucetta's will, the apprehension +under which they labored was evident to us all, though neither of them +attempted either subterfuge or evasion. + +"If the police wish to search this house, it is open to them," said +Loreen. + +"But not to Mr. Trohm," quoth Lucetta, quickly. "Our poverty should be +our protection from the curiosity of neighbors." + +"Mr. Trohm has no wish to intrude," was Mr. Gryce's conciliatory remark; +but Mr. Trohm said nothing. He probably understood why Lucetta wished to +curtail his stay in this house better than Mr. Gryce did. + + + + +XXIX + +IN THE CELLAR + + +I had meanwhile stood silent. There was no reason for me to obtrude +myself, and I was happy not to do so. This does not mean, however, that +my presence was not noticed. Mr. Trohm honored me with more than one +glance during these trying moments, in which I read the anxiety he felt +lest my peace of mind should be too much disturbed, and when, in +response to the undoubted dismissal he had received from Lucetta, he +prepared to take his leave, it was upon me he bestowed his final look +and most deferential bow. It was a tribute to my position and character +which all seemed to feel, and I was not at all surprised when Lucetta, +after carefully watching his departure, turned to me with childlike +impetuosity, saying: + +"This must be very unpleasant for you, Miss Butterworth, yet must we ask +you to stand our friend. God knows we need one." + +"I shall never forget I occupied that position toward your mother," was +my straightforward reply, and I did not forget it, not for a moment. + +"I shall begin with the cellar," Mr. Gryce announced. + +Both girls quivered. Then Loreen lifted her proud head and said quietly: + +"The whole house is at your disposal. Only I pray you to be as +expeditious as possible. My sister is not well, and the sooner our +humiliation is over, the better it will be for her." + +And, indeed, Lucetta was in a state that aroused even Mr. Gryce's +anxiety. But when she saw us all hovering over her she roused herself +with an extraordinary effort, and, waving us aside, led the way to the +kitchen, from which, as I gathered, the only direct access could be had +to the cellar. Mr. Gryce immediately followed, and behind him came +Loreen and myself, both too much agitated to speak. At the Flower Parlor +Mr. Gryce paused as if he had forgotten something, but Lucetta urged him +feverishly on, and before long we were all standing in the kitchen. Here +a surprise awaited us. Two men were sitting there who appeared to be +strangers to Hannah, from the lowering looks she cast them as she +pretended to be busy over her stove. This was so out of keeping with her +usual good humor as to attract the attention even of her young mistress. + +"What is the matter, Hannah?" asked Lucetta. "And who are these men?" + +"They are my men," said Mr. Gryce. "The job I have undertaken cannot be +carried on alone." + +The quick look the two sisters interchanged did not escape me, or the +quiet air of resignation which was settling slowly over Loreen. + +"Must they go into the cellar too?" she asked. + +Mr. Gryce smiled his most fatherly smile as he said: + +"My dear young ladies, these men are interested in but one thing; they +are searching for a clue to the disappearances that have occurred in +this lane. As they will not find this in your cellar, nothing else that +they may see there will remain in their minds for a moment." + +Lucetta said no more. Even her indomitable spirit was giving way before +the inevitable discovery that threatened them. + +"Do not let William know," were the low words with which she passed +Hannah; but from the short glimpse I caught of William's burly figure +standing in the stable door, under the guardianship of two detectives, I +felt this injunction to be quite superfluous. William evidently did +know. + +I was not going to descend the cellar stairs, but the girls made me. + +"We want you with us," Loreen declared in no ordinary tones, while +Lucetta paused and would not go on till I followed. This surprised me. I +no longer seemed to have any clue to their motives; but I was glad to be +one of the party. + +Hannah, under Loreen's orders, had furnished one of the men with a +lighted lantern, and upon our descent into the dark labyrinth below, it +became his duty to lead the way, which he did with due circumspection. +What all this underground space into which we were thus introduced had +ever been used for, it would be difficult to tell. At present it was +mostly empty. After passing a small collection of stores, a wine-cellar, +the very door of which was unhinged and lay across the cellar bottom, we +struck into a hollow void, in which there was nothing worth an instant's +investigation save the earth under our feet. + +This the two foremost detectives examined very carefully, detaining us +often longer, I thought, than Mr. Gryce desired or Lucetta had patience +for. But nothing was said in protest nor did the older detective give an +order or manifest any special interest in the investigation till he saw +the men in front stoop and throw out of the way a coil of rope, when he +immediately hurried forward and called upon the party to stop. + +The girls, who were on either side of me, crossed glances at this +command, and Lucetta, who had been tottering for the last few minutes, +fell upon her knees and hid her face in the hollow of her two hands. +Loreen came around and stood by her, and I do not know which of them +presented the most striking picture of despair, the shrinking Lucetta or +Loreen with her quivering form uplifted to meet the shafts of fate +without a droop of her eyelids or a murmur from her lips. The light of +the one lantern which, intentionally or unintentionally, was +concentrated on this pathetic group, made it stand out from the midst of +the surrounding darkness in a way to draw the gaze of Mr. Gryce upon +them. He looked, and his own brow became overcast. Evidently we were not +far from the cause of their fears. + +Ordering the candle lifted, he surveyed the ceiling above, at which +Loreen's lips opened slightly in secret dread and amazement. Then he +commanded the men to move on slowly, while he himself looked overhead +rather than underneath, which seemed to astonish his associates, who +evidently had heard nothing of the hole which had been cut in the floor +of the Flower Parlor. + +Suddenly I heard a slight gasp from Lucetta, who had not moved forward +with the rest of us. Then her rushing figure flew by us and took up its +stand by Mr. Gryce, who had himself paused and was pointing with an +imperious forefinger to the ground under his feet. + +"You will dig here," said he, not heeding her, though I am sure he was +as well acquainted with her proximity as we. + +"Dig?" repeated Loreen, in what we all saw was a final effort to stave +off disgrace and misery. + +"My duty demands it," said he. "Some one else has been digging here +within a very few days, Miss Knollys. That is as evident as is the fact +that a communication has been made with this place through an opening +into the room above. See!" And taking the lantern from the man at his +side, he held it up toward the ceiling. + +There was no hole there now, but there were ample evidences of there +having been one, and that within a very short time. Loreen made no +further attempt to stay him. + +"The house is at your disposal," she reiterated, but I do not think she +knew what she said. The man with the bundle in his arms was already +unrolling it on the cellar bottom. A spade came to light, together with +some other tools. Lifting the spade, he thrust it smartly into the +ground toward which Mr. Gryce's inexorable finger still pointed. At the +sight and the sound it made, a thrill passed through Lucetta which made +her another creature. Dashing forward, she flung herself down upon the +spot with lifted head and outstretched arms. + +"Stop your desecrating hand!" she cried. "This is a grave--the grave, +sirs, of our mother!" + + + + +XXX + +INVESTIGATION + + +The shock of these words--if false, most horrible; if true, still more +horrible--threw us all aback and made even Mr. Gryce's features assume +an aspect quite uncommon to them. + +"Your mother's grave?" said he, looking from her to Loreen with very +evident doubt. "I thought your mother died seven or more years ago, and +this grave has been dug within three days." + +"I know," she whispered. "To the world my mother has been dead many, +many years, but not to us. We closed her eyes night before last, and it +was to preserve this secret, which involves others affecting our family +honor, that we resorted to expedients which have perhaps attracted the +notice of the police and drawn this humiliation down upon us. I can +conceive no other reason for this visit, ushered in as it was by Mr. +Trohm." + +"Miss Lucetta"--Mr. Gryce spoke quickly; if he had not I certainly could +not have restrained some expression of the emotions awakened in my own +breast by this astounding revelation--"Miss Lucetta, it is not necessary +to bring Mr. Trohm's name into this matter or that of any other person +than myself. I saw the coffin lowered here, which you say contained the +body of your mother. Thinking this a strange place of burial and not +knowing it was your mother to whom you were paying these last dutiful +rites, I took advantage of my position as detective to satisfy myself +that nothing wrong lay behind so mysterious a death and burial. Can you +blame me, Miss? Would I have been a man to trust if I had let such an +event as this go by unchallenged?" + +She did not answer. She had heard but one sentence of all this long +speech. + +"You saw my mother's coffin lowered? Where were you that you should see +that? In some of these dark passages, let in by I know not what traitor +to our peace of mind." And her eyes, which seemed to have grown almost +supernaturally large and bright under her emotions, turned slowly in +their sockets till they rested with something like doubtful accusation +upon mine. But not to remain there, for Mr. Gryce recalled them almost +instantly by this short, sharp negative. + +"No, I was nearer than that. I lent my strength to this burial. If you +had thought to look under Mother Jane's hood, you would have seen what +would have forced these explanations then and there." + +"And you----" + +"I was Mother Jane for the nonce. Not from choice, Miss, but from +necessity. I was impersonating the old woman when your brother came to +the cottage. I could not give away my plans by refusing the task your +brother offered me." + +"It is well." Lucetta had risen and was now standing by the side of +Loreen. "Such a secret as ours defies concealment. Even Providence takes +part against us. What you want to know we must tell, but I assure you it +has nothing to do with the business you profess to be chiefly interested +in--nothing at all." + +"Then perhaps you and your sister will retire," said he. "Distracted as +you are by family griefs, I would not wish to add one iota to your +distress. This lady, whom you seem to regard with more or less favor as +friend or relative, will stay to see that no dishonor is paid to your +mother's remains. But your mother's face we must see, Miss Lucetta, if +only to lighten the explanations you will doubtless feel called upon to +make." + +It was Loreen who answered this. + +"If it must be," said she, "remember your own mother and deal reverently +with ours." Which entreaty and the way it was uttered, gave me my first +distinct conviction that these girls were speaking the truth, and that +the diminutive body we had come to unearth was that of Althea Knollys, +whose fairy-like form I had so long supposed commingled with foreign +soil. + +The thought was almost too much for my self-possession, and I advanced +upon Loreen with a dozen burning questions on my lips when the voice of +Mr. Gryce stopped me. + +"Explanations later," said he. "For the present we want you here." + +It was no easy task for me to linger there with all my doubts unsolved, +waiting for the decisive moment when Mr. Gryce should say: "Come! Look! +Is it she?" But the will that had already sustained me through so many +trying experiences did not fail me now, and, grievous as was the ordeal, +I passed steadily through it, being able to say, though not without some +emotion, I own: "It is Althea Knollys! Changed almost beyond conception, +but still these girls' mother!" which was a happier end to this +adventure than that we had first feared, mysterious as the event was, +not only to myself, but, as I could see, to the acute detective as well. + +The girls had withdrawn long before this, just as Mr. Gryce had desired, +and I now expected to be allowed to join them, but Mr. Gryce detained me +till the grave was refilled and made decent again, when he turned and to +my intense astonishment--for I had thought the matter was all over and +the exoneration of this household complete--said softly and with telling +emphasis in my ear: + +"Our work is not done yet. They who make graves so readily in cellars +must have been more or less accustomed to the work. We have still some +digging to do." + + + + +XXXI + +STRATEGY + + +I was overwhelmed. + +"What," said I, "you still doubt?" + +"I always doubt," he gravely replied. "This cellar bottom offers a wide +field for speculation. Too wide, perhaps, but, then, I have a plan." + +Here he leaned over and whispered a few concise sentences into my ear in +a tone so low I should feel that I was betraying his confidence in +repeating them. But their import will soon become apparent from what +presently occurred. + +"Light Miss Butterworth to the stairway," Mr. Gryce now commanded one of +the men, and thus accompanied I found my way back to the kitchen, where +Hannah was bemoaning uncomforted the shame which had come upon the +house. + +I did not stop to soothe her. That was not my cue, nor would it have +answered my purpose. On the contrary, I broke into angry ejaculations as +I passed her: + +"What a shame! Those wretches cannot be got away from the cellar. What +do you suppose they expect to find there? I left them poking hither and +thither in a way that will be very irritating to Miss Knollys when she +finds it out. I wonder William stands it." + +What she said in reply I do not know. I was half way down the hall +before my own words were finished. + +My next move was to go to my room and take from my trunk a tiny hammer +and some very small, sharp-pointed tacks. Curious articles, you will +think, for a woman to carry on her travels, but I am a woman of +experience, and have known only too often what it was to want these +petty conveniences and not be able to get them. They were to serve me an +odd turn now. Taking a half-dozen tacks in one hand and concealing the +hammer in my bag, I started boldly for William's room. I knew that the +girls were not there, for I had heard them talking together in the +sitting-room as I came up. Besides, if they were, I had a ready answer +for any demand they might make. + +Searching out his boots, I turned them over, and into the sole of each I +drove one of my small tacks. Then I put them back in the same place and +position in which I found them. Task number one was accomplished. + +When I issued from the room, I went as quickly as I could below. I was +now ready for a talk with the girls, whom I found as I had anticipated, +talking and weeping together in the sitting-room. + +They rose as I came in, awaiting my first words in evident anxiety. They +had not heard me go up-stairs. I immediately allowed my anxiety and +profound interest in this matter to have full play. + +"My poor girls! What is the meaning of this? Your mother just dead, and +the matter kept from me, her friend! It is astounding--incomprehensible! +I do not know what to make of it or of you." + +"It has a strange look," Loreen gravely admitted; "but we had reasons +for this deception, Miss Butterworth. Our mother, charming and sweet as +you remember her, has not always done right, or, what you will better +understand, she committed a criminal act against a person in this town, +the penalty of which is state's prison." + +With difficulty the words came out. With difficulty she kept down the +flush of shame which threatened to overwhelm her and did overwhelm her +more sensitive sister. But her self-control was great, and she went +bravely on, while I, in faint imitation of her courage, restrained my +own surprise and intolerable sense of shock and bitter sorrow under a +guise of simple sympathy. + +"It was forgery," she explained. "This has never before passed our lips. +Though a cherished wife and a beloved mother, she longed for many things +my father could not give her, and in an evil hour she imitated the name +of a rich man here and took the check thus signed to New York. The fraud +was not detected, and she received the money, but ultimately the rich +man whose money she had spent, discovered the use she had made of his +name, and, if she had not escaped, would have had her arrested. But she +left the country, and the only revenge he took, was to swear that if she +ever set foot again in X., he would call the police down upon her. Yes, +if she were dying, and they had to drag her from the brink of the grave. +And he would have done it; and knowing this, we have lived under the +shadow of this fear for eleven years. My father died under it, and my +mother--ah, she spent all the remaining years of her life under foreign +skies, but when she felt the hand of death upon her, her affection for +her own flesh and blood triumphed over her discretion, and she came, +secretly, I own, but still with that horror menacing her, to these +doors, and begging our forgiveness, lay down under the roof where we +were born, and died with the halo of our love about her." + +"Ah," said I, thinking of all that had happened since I had come into +this house and finding nothing but confirmation of what she was saying, +"I begin to understand." + +But Lucetta shook her head. + +"No," said she, "you cannot understand yet. We who had worn mourning for +her because my father wished to make this very return impossible, knew +nothing of what was in store for us till a letter came saying she would +be at the C. station on the very night we received it. To acknowledge +our deception, to seek and bring her home openly to this house, could +not be thought of for a moment. How, then, could we satisfy her dying +wishes without compromising her memory and ourselves? Perhaps you have +guessed, Miss Butterworth. You have had time since we revealed the +unhappy secret of this household." + +"Yes," said I. "I have guessed." + +Lucetta, with her hand laid on mine, looked wistfully into my face. + +"Don't blame us!" she cried. "Our mother's good name is everything to +us, and we knew no other way to preserve it than by making use of the +one superstition of this place. Alas! our efforts were in vain. The +phantom coach brought our mother safely to us, but the circumstances +which led to our doors being opened to outsiders, rendered it impossible +for us to carry out our plans unsuspected. Her grave has been discovered +and desecrated, and we----" + +She stopped, choked. Loreen took advantage of her silence to pursue the +explanations she seemed to think necessary. + +"It was Simsbury who undertook to bring our dying mother from C. station +to our door. He has a crafty spirit under his meek ways, and dressed +himself in a way to lend color to the superstition he hoped to awaken. +William, who did not dare to accompany him for fear of arousing gossip, +was at the gate when the coach drove in. It was he who lifted our mother +out, and it was while she still clung to him with her face pressed close +to his breast that we saw her first. Ah! what a pitiable sight it was! +She was so wan, so feeble, and yet so radiantly happy. + +"She looked up at Lucetta, and her face grew wonderful in its unearthly +beauty. She was not the mother we remembered, but a mother whose life +had culminated in the one desire to see and clasp her children again. +When she could tear her eyes away from Lucetta, she looked at me, and +then the tears came, and we all wept together, even William; and thus +weeping and murmuring words of welcome and cheer, we carried her +up-stairs and laid her in the great front chamber. Alas! we did not +foresee what would happen the very next morning--I mean the arrival of +your telegram, to be followed so soon by yourself." + +"Poor girls! Poor girls!" It was all I could say. I was completely +overwhelmed. + +"The first night after your arrival we moved her into William's room as +being more remote and thus a safer refuge for her. The next night she +died. The dream which you had of being locked in your room was no dream. +Lucetta did that in foolish precaution against your trying to search us +out in the night. It would have been better if we had taken you into our +confidence." + +"Yes," I assented, "that would have been better." But I did not say how +much better. That would have been giving away my secret. + +Lucetta had now recovered sufficiently to go on with the story. + +"William, who is naturally colder than we and less sensitive in regard +to our mother's good name, has shown some little impatience at the +restraint imposed upon him by her presence, and this was an extra +burden, Miss Butterworth, but that and all the others we have been +forced to bear" (the generous girl did not speak of her own special +grief and loss) "have all been rendered useless by the unhappy chance +which has brought into our midst this agent of the police. Ah, if I only +knew whether this was the providence of God rebuking us for years of +deception, or just the malice of man seeking to rob us of our one best +treasure, a mother's untarnished name!" + +"Mr. Gryce acts from no malice--" I began, but I saw they were not +listening. + +"Have they finished down below?" asked Lucetta. + +"Does the man you call Gryce seem satisfied?" asked Loreen. + +I drew myself up physically and mentally. My second task was about to +begin. + +"I do not understand those men," said I. "They seem to want to look +farther than the sacred spot where we left them. If they are going +through a form, they are doing it very thoroughly." + +"That is their duty," observed Loreen, but Lucetta took it less calmly. + +"It is an unhappy day for us!" cried she. "Shame after shame, disgrace +upon disgrace! I wish we had all died in our childhood. Loreen, I must +see William. He will be doing some foolish thing, swearing or----" + +"My dear, let me go to William," I urgently put in. "He may not like me +overmuch, but I will at least prove a restraint to him. You are too +feeble. See, you ought to be lying on the couch instead of trying to +drag yourself out to the stables." + +And indeed at that moment Lucetta's strength gave suddenly out, and she +sank into Loreen's arms insensible. + +When she was restored, I hurried away to the stables, still in pursuit +of the task which I had not yet completed. I found William sitting +doggedly on a stool in the open doorway, grunting out short sentences to +the two men who lounged in his vicinity on either side. He was angry, +but not as angry as I had seen him many times before. The men were +townsfolk and listened eagerly to his broken sentences. One or two of +these reached my ears. + +"Let 'em go it. It won't be now or to-day they'll settle this business. +It's the devil's work, and devils are sly. My house won't give up that +secret, or any other house they'll be likely to visit. The place I +would ransack--But Loreen would say I was babbling. Goodness knows a +fellow's got to talk about something when his fellow-townsfolk come to +see him." And here his laugh broke in, harsh, cruel, and insulting. I +felt it did him no good, and made haste to show myself. + +Immediately his whole appearance changed. He was so astonished to see me +there that for a moment he was absolutely silent; then he broke out +again into another loud guffaw, but this time in a different tone. + +"Why, it's Miss Butterworth," he laughed. "Here, Saracen! Come, pay your +respects to the lady who likes you so well." + +And Saracen came, but I did not forsake my ground. I had espied in one +corner just what I had hoped to see there, and Saracen's presence +afforded me the opportunity of indulging in one or two rather curious +antics. + +"I am not afraid of the dog," I declared, with marked loftiness, +shrinking toward the pail of water I had already marked with my eye. +"Not at all afraid," I continued, catching up the pail and putting it +before me as the dog made a wild rush in my direction. "These gentlemen +will not see me hurt." And though they all laughed--they would have been +fools if they had not--and the dog jumped the pail and I jumped--not a +pail, but a broom-handle that was lying amid all the rest of the +disorder on the floor--they did not see that I had succeeded in doing +what I wished, which was to place that pail so near to William's feet +that--But wait a moment; everything in its own time. I escaped the dog, +and next moment had my eye on him. He did not move after that, which +rather put a stop to the laughter, which observing, I drew very near to +William, and with a sly gesture to the two men, which for some reason +they seemed to understand, whispered in the rude fellow's ear: + +"They've found your mother's grave under the Flower Parlor. Your sisters +told me to tell you. But that is not all. They're trampling hither and +yon through all the secret places in the cellar, turning up the earth +with their spades. I know they won't find anything, but we thought you +ought to know----" + +Here I made a feint of being startled, and ceased. My second task was +done. The third only remained. Fortunately at that moment Mr. Gryce and +his followers showed themselves in the garden. They had just come from +the cellar and played their part in the same spirit I had mine. Though +they were too far off for their words to be heard, the air of secrecy +they maintained and the dubious looks they cast towards the stable, +could not but evince even to William's dull understanding that their +investigations had resulted in a doubt which left them far from +satisfied; but, once this impression made, they did not linger long +together. The man with the lantern moved off, and Mr. Gryce turned +towards us, changing his whole appearance as he advanced, till no one +could look more cheerful and good-humored. + +"Well, that is over," he sighed, with a forced air of infinite relief. +"Mere form, Mr. Knollys--mere form. We have to go through these +pretended investigations at times, and good people like yourself have to +submit; but I assure you it is not pleasant, and under the present +circumstances--I am sure you understand me, Mr. Knollys--the task has +occasioned me a feeling almost of remorse; but that is inseparable from +a detective's life. He is obliged every day of his life to ride over the +tenderest emotions. Forgive me! And now, boys, scatter till I call you +together again. I hope our next search will be without such sorrowful +accompaniments." + +It succeeded. William stared at him and stared at the men slowly filing +off down the yard, but was not for a moment deceived by these +overflowing expressions. On the contrary, he looked more concerned than +he had while seated between the two men manifestly set to guard him. + +"The deuce!" he cried, with a shrug of his shoulders that expressed +anything but satisfaction. "Lucetta always said--" But even he knew +enough not to finish that sentence, low as he had mumbled it. Watching +him and watching Mr. Gryce, who at that moment turned to follow his men, +I thought the time had come for action. Making another spring as if in +fresh terror of Saracen, who, by the way, was eying me with the meekness +of a lamb, I tipped over that pail with such suddenness and with such +dexterity that its whole contents poured in one flood over William's +feet. My third task was accomplished. + +The oath he uttered and the excuses which I volubly poured forth could +not have reached Mr. Gryce's ears, for he did not return. And yet from +the way his shoulders shook as he disappeared around the corner of the +house, I judge that he was not entirely ignorant of the subterfuge by +which I hoped to force this blundering booby of ours to change the boots +he wore for one of the pairs into which I had driven those little tacks. + + + + +XXXII + +RELIEF + + +The plan succeeded. Mr. Gryce's plans usually do. William went +immediately to his room, and in a little while came down and hastened +into the cellar. + +"I want to see what mischief they have done," said he. + +When he came back, his face was beaming. + +"All right," he shouted to his sisters, who had come into the hall to +meet him. "Your secret's out, but mine----" + +"There, there!" interposed Loreen, "you had better go up-stairs and +prepare for supper. We must eat, William, or rather, Miss Butterworth +must eat, whatever our sorrows or disappointments." + +He took the rebuke with a grunt and relieved us of his company. Little +did he think as he went whistling up the stairs that he had just shown +Mr. Gryce where to search for whatever might be lying under the broad +sweep of that cellar-bottom. + +That night--it was after supper, which I did not eat for all my natural +stoicism--Hannah came rushing in where we all sat silent, for the girls +showed no disposition to enlarge their confidences in regard to their +mother, and no other topic seemed possible, and, closing the door behind +her, said quickly and with evident chagrin: + +"Those men are here again. They say they forgot something. What do you +think it means, Miss Loreen? They have spades and lanterns and----" + +"They are the police, Hannah. If they forgot something, they have the +right to return. Don't work yourself up about that. The secret they have +already found out was our worst. There is nothing to fear after that." +And she dismissed Hannah, merely bidding her let us know when the house +was quite clear. + +Was she right? Was there nothing worse for them to fear? I longed to +leave these trembling sisters, longed to join the party below and follow +in the track of the tiny impressions made by the tacks I had driven into +William's soles. If there was anything hidden under the cellar-bottom, +natural anxiety would carry him to the spot he had most to fear; so they +would only have to dig at the places where these impressions took a +sharp turn. + +But was there anything hidden there? From the sisters' words and actions +I judged there was nothing serious, but would they know? William was +quite capable of deceiving them. Had he done so? It was a question. + +It was solved for us by Mr. Gryce's reappearance in the room an hour or +so later. From the moment the light fell upon his kindly features I knew +that I might breathe again freely. It was not the face he showed in the +house of a criminal, nor did his bow contain any of the false deference +with which he sometimes tries to hide his secret doubt or contempt. + +"I have come to trouble you for the last time, ladies. We have made a +double search through this house and through the stables, and feel +perfectly justified in saying that our duty henceforth will lead us +elsewhere. The secrets we have surprised are your own, and if possible +shall remain so. Your brother's propensity for vivisection and the +return and death of your mother bear so little on the real question +which interests this community that we may be able to prevent their +spread as gossip through the town. That this may be done +conscientiously, however, I ought to know something more of the latter +circumstance. If Miss Butterworth will then be good enough to grant me a +few minutes' conference with these ladies, I may be able to satisfy +myself to such an extent as to let this matter rest where it is." + +I rose with right good will. A mountain weight had been lifted from me, +proof positive that I had really come to love these girls. + +What they told him, whether it was less or more than they told me, I +cannot say, and for the moment did not know. That it had not shaken his +faith in them was evident, for when he came out to where I was waiting +in the hall his aspect was even more encouraging than it had been +before. + +"No guile in those girls," he whispered as he passed me. "The clue given +by what seemed mysterious in this house has come to naught. To-morrow we +take up another. The trinkets found in Mother Jane's cottage are +something real. You may sleep soundly to-night, Miss Butterworth. Your +part has been well played, but I know you are glad that it has failed." + +And I knew that I was glad, too, which is the best proof that there is +something in me besides the detective instinct. + +The front door had scarcely closed behind him when William came storming +in. He had been gossiping over the fence with Mr. Trohm, and had been +beguiled into taking a glass of wine in his house. This was evident +without his speaking of it. + +"Those sneaks!" cried he. "I hear they've been back again, digging and +stirring up our cellar-bottom like mad. That's because you're so +dreadful shy, you girls. You're afraid of this, you're afraid of that. +You don't want folks to know that mother once--Well, well, there it is +now! If you had not tried to keep this wretched secret, it would have +been an old matter by this time, and my affairs would have been left +untouched. But now every fool will cry out at me in this staid, +puritanical old town, and all because a few bones have been found of +animals which have died in the cause of science. I say it's all your +fault! Not that I have anything to be ashamed of, because I haven't, but +because this other thing, this d--d wicked series of disappearances, +taking place, for aught we know, a dozen rods from our gates (though I +think--but no matter what I think--you all like, or say you like, old +Deacon Spear), has made every one so touchy in this pharisaical town +that to kill a fly has become a crime even if it is to save oneself from +poison. I'm going to see if I cannot make folks blink askance at some +other man than me. I'm going to find out who or what causes these +disappearances." + +This was a declaration to make us all stare and look a little bit +foolish. William playing the detective! Well, what might I not live to +see next! But the next moment an overpowering thought struck me. Might +this Deacon Spear by any chance be the rich man whose animosity Althea +Knollys had awakened? + + + + +_BOOK IV_ + +THE BIRDS OF THE AIR + + + + +XXXIII + +LUCETTA + + +The next morning I rose with the lark. I had slept well, and all my old +vigor had returned. A new problem was before me; a problem of surpassing +interest, now that the Knollys family had been eliminated from the list +of persons regarded with suspicion by the police. Mother Jane and the +jewels were to be Mr. Gryce's starting-point for future investigation. +Should they be mine? My decision on this point halted, and thinking it +might be helped by a breath of fresh air, I decided upon an early stroll +as a means of settling this momentous question. + +There was silence in the house when I passed through it on my way to the +front door. But that silence had lost its terrors and the old house its +absorbing mystery. Yet it was not robbed of its interest. When I +realized that Althea Knollys, the Althea of my youth, had just died +within its walls as ignorant of my proximity as I of hers, I felt that +no old-time romance, nor any terror brought by flitting ghost or +stalking apparition, could compare with the wonder of this return and +the strange and thrilling circumstances which had attended it. And the +end was not yet. Peaceful as everything now looked, I still felt that +the end had not come. + +The fact that Saracen was loose in the yard gave me some slight concern +as I opened the great front door and looked out. But the control under +which I had held him the day before encouraged me in my venture, and +after a few words with Hannah, who was careful not to let me slip away +unnoticed, I boldly stepped forth and took my solitary way down to the +gate. + +It was not yet eight, and the grass was still heavy with dew. At the +gate I paused. I wished to go farther, but Mr. Gryce's injunction had +been imperative about venturing into the lane alone. Besides--No, that +was not a horse's hoof. There could be no one on the road so early as +this. I was alarming myself unnecessarily, yet--Well, I held my place, a +little awkwardly, perhaps. Self-consciousness is always awkward, and I +could not help being a trifle self-conscious at a meeting so unexpected +and--But the more I attempt to explain, the more confused my expressions +become, so I will just say that, by this very strange chance, I was +leaning over the gate when Mr. Trohm rode up for the second time and +found me there. + +I did not attempt any excuses. He is gentleman enough to understand that +a woman of my temperament rises early and must have the morning air. +That he should feel the same necessity is a coincidence, natural +perhaps, but still a coincidence. So there was nothing to be said about +it. + +But had there been, I would not have spoken, for he seemed so gratified +at finding me enjoying nature at this early hour that any words from me +would have been quite superfluous. He did not dismount--that would have +shown intention--but he stopped, and--well, we have both passed the age +of romance, and what he said cannot be of interest to the general +public, especially as it did not deal with the disappearances or with +the discoveries made in the Knollys house the day before, or with any of +those questions which have absorbed our attention up to this time. + +That we were engaged more than five minutes in this conversation I +cannot believe. I have always been extremely accurate in regard to time, +yet a good half-hour was lost by me that morning for which I have never +been able to account. Perhaps it was spent in the short discussion which +terminated our interview; a discussion which may be of interest to you, +for it was upon the action of the police. + +"Nothing came of the investigations made by Mr. Gryce yesterday, I +perceive," Mr. Trohm had remarked, with some reluctance, as he gathered +up his reins to depart. "Well, that is not strange. How could he have +hoped to find any clue to such a mystery as he is engaged to unearth, in +a house presided over by Miss Knollys?" + +"How could he, indeed! Yet," I added, determined to allay this man's +suspicions, which, notwithstanding the openness of his remark, were +still observable in his tones, "you say that with an air I should hardly +expect from so good a neighbor and friend. Why is this, Mr. Trohm? +Surely you do not associate crime with the Misses Knollys?" + +"Crime? Oh, no, certainly not. No one could associate crime with the +Misses Knollys. If my tone was at fault, it was due perhaps to my +embarrassment--this meeting, your kindness, the beauty of the day, and +the feeling these all call forth. Well, I may be pardoned if my tones +are not quite true in discussing other topics. My thoughts were with the +one I addressed." + +"Then that tone of doubt was all the more misplaced," I retorted. "I am +so frank, I cannot bear innuendo in others. Besides, Mr. Trohm, the +worst folly of this home was laid bare yesterday in a way to set at rest +all darker suspicions. You knew that William indulged in vivisection. +Well, that is bad, but it cannot be called criminal. Let us do him +justice, then, and, for his sisters' sake, see how we can re-establish +him in the good graces of the community." + +But Mr. Trohm, who for all our short acquaintance was not without a very +decided appreciation for certain points in my character, shook his head +and with a smiling air returned: + +"You are asking the impossible not only of the community, but yourself. +William can never re-establish himself. He is of too rude a make. The +girls may recover the esteem they seem to have lost, but William--Why, +if the cause of those disappearances was found to-day, and found at the +remotest end of this road or even up in the mountains, where no one +seems to have looked for it, William would still be known throughout the +county as a rough and cruel man. I have tried to stand his friend, but +it's been against odds, Miss Butterworth. Even his sisters recognize +this, and show their lack of confidence in our friendship. But I would +like to oblige you." + +I knew he ought to go. I knew that if he had simply lingered the five +minutes which common courtesy allowed, that curious eyes would be +looking from Loreen's window, and that at any minute I might expect some +interference from Lucetta, who had read through this man's forbearance +toward William the very natural distrust he could not but feel toward so +uncertain a character. Yet with such an opportunity at my command, how +could I let him go without another question? + +"Mr. Trohm," said I, "you have the kindest heart and the closest lips, +but have you ever thought that Deacon Spear----" + +He stopped me with a really horrified look. "Deacon Spear's house was +thoroughly examined yesterday," said he, "as mine will be to-day. Don't +insinuate anything against him! Leave that for foolish William." Then +with the most charming return to his old manner, for I felt myself in a +measure rebuked, he lifted his hat and urged his horse forward. But, +having withdrawn himself a step or two, he paused and with the slightest +gesture toward the little hut he was facing, added in a much lower tone +than any he had yet used: "Besides, Deacon Spear is much too far away +from Mother Jane's cottage. Don't you remember that I told you she never +could be got to go more than forty rods from her own doorstep?" And, +breaking into a quick canter, he rode away. + +I was left to think over his words and the impossibility of my picking +up any other clue than that given me by Mr. Gryce. + +I was turning toward the house when I heard a slight noise at my feet. +Looking down, I encountered the eyes of Saracen. He was crouching at my +side, and as I turned toward him, his tail actually wagged. It was a +sight to call the color up to my cheek; not that I blushed at this sign +of good-will, astonishing as it was, considering my feeling toward dogs, +but at his being there at all without my knowing it. So palpable a proof +that no woman--I make no exceptions--can listen more than one minute to +the expressions of a man's sincere admiration without losing a little of +her watchfulness, was not to be disregarded by one as inexorable to her +own mistakes as to those of others. I saw myself the victim of vanity, +and while somewhat abashed by the discovery, I could not but realize +that this solitary proof of feminine weakness was not really to be +deplored in one who has not yet passed the line beyond which any such +display is ridiculous. + +Lucetta met me at the door just as I had expected her to. Giving me a +short look, she spoke eagerly but with a latent anxiety, for which I was +more or less prepared. + +"I am glad to see you looking so bright this morning," she declared. "We +are all feeling better now that the incubus of secrecy is removed. +But"--here she hesitated--"I would not like to think you told Mr. Trohm +what happened to us yesterday." + +"Lucetta," said I, "there may be women of my age who delight in +gossiping about family affairs with comparative strangers, but I am not +that kind of woman. Mr. Trohm, friendly as he has proved himself and +worthy as he undoubtedly is of your confidence and trust, will have to +learn from some other person than myself anything which you may wish to +have withheld from him." + +For reply she gave me an impulsive kiss. "I thought I could trust you," +she cried. Then, with a dubious look, half daring, half shrinking, she +added: + +"When you come to know and like us better, you will not care so much to +talk to neighbors. They never can understand us or do us justice, Mr. +Trohm, especially." + +This was a remark I could not let pass. + +"Why?" I demanded. "Why do you think Mr. Trohm cherishes such animosity +towards you? Has he ever----" + +But Lucetta could exercise a repellent dignity when she chose. I did not +finish my sentence, though I must have looked the inquiry I thought +better not to put into words. + +"Mr. Trohm is a man of blameless reputation," she avowed. "If he has +allowed himself to cherish suspicions in our regard, he has doubtless +had his reasons for it." + +And with these quiet words she left me to my thoughts, and I must say to +my doubts, which were all the more painful that I saw no immediate +opportunity for clearing them up. + +Late in the afternoon William burst in with news from the other end of +the lane. + +"Such a lark!" he cried. "The investigation at Deacon Spear's house was +a mere farce, and I just made them repeat it with a few frills. They had +dug up my cellar, and I was determined they should dig up his. Oh, the +fun it was! The old fellow kicked, but I had my way. They couldn't +refuse me, you know; I hadn't refused them. So that man's cellar-bottom +has had a stir up. They didn't find anything, but it did me a lot of +good, and that's something. I do hate Deacon Spear--couldn't hate him +worse if he'd killed and buried ten men under his hearthstone." + +"There is no harm in Deacon Spear," said Lucetta, quickly. + +"Did they submit Mr. Trohm's house to a search also?" asked Loreen, +ashamed of William's heat and anxious to avert any further display of +it. + +"Yes, they went through that too. I was with them. Glad I was too. I +say, girls, I could have laughed to see all the comforts that old +bachelor has about him. Never saw such fixings. Why, that house is as +neat and pretty from top to bottom as any old maid's. It's silly, of +course, for a man, and I'd rather live in an old rookery like this, +where I can walk from room to room in muddy boots if I want to, and +train my dogs and live in freedom like the man I am. Yet I couldn't help +thinking it mighty comfortable, too, for an old fellow like him who +likes such things and don't have chick or child to meddle. Why, he had +pincushions on all his bureaus, and they had pins in them." + +The laugh with which he delivered this last sentence might have been +heard a quarter of a mile away. Lucetta looked at Loreen and Loreen +looked at me, but none of us joined in the mirth, which seemed to me +very ill-timed. + +Suddenly Lucetta asked: + +"Did they dig up Mr. Trohm's cellar?" + +William stopped laughing long enough to say: + +"His cellar? Why, it's cemented as hard as an oak floor. No, they didn't +polish their spades in his house, which was another source of +satisfaction to me. Deacon Spear hasn't even that to comfort him. Oh, +how I did enjoy that old fellow's face when they began to root up his +old fungi!" + +Lucetta turned away with a certain odd constraint I could not but +notice. + +"It's a humiliating day for the lane," said she. "And what is worse," +she suddenly added, "nothing will ever come of it. It will take more +than a band of police to reach the root of this matter." + +I thought her manner odd, and, moving towards her, took her by the hand +with something of a relative's familiarity. + +"What makes you say that? Mr. Gryce seems a very capable man." + +"Yes, yes, but capability has nothing to do with it. Chance might and +pluck might, but wit and experience not. Otherwise the mystery would +have been settled long ago. I wish I----" + +"Well?" Her hand was trembling violently. + +"Nothing. I don't know why I have allowed myself to talk on this +subject. Loreen and I once made a compact never to give any opinion upon +it. You see how I have kept it." + +She had drawn her hand away and suddenly had become quite composed. I +turned my attention toward Loreen, but she was looking out of the window +and showed no intention of further pursuing the conversation. William +had strolled out. + +"Well," said I, "if ever a girl had reason for breaking such a compact +you are certainly that girl. I could never have been as silent as you +have been--that is, if I had any suspicions on so serious a subject. +Why, your own good name is impugned--yours and that of every other +person living in this lane." + +"Miss Butterworth," she replied, "I have gone too far. Besides, you have +misunderstood me. I have no more knowledge than anybody else as to the +source of these terrible tragedies. I only know that an almost +superhuman cunning lies at the bottom of so many unaccountable +disappearances, a cunning so great that only a crazy person----" + +"Ah," I murmured eagerly, "Mother Jane!" + +She did not answer. Instantly I took a resolution. + +"Lucetta," said I, "is Deacon Spear a rich man?" + +Starting violently, she looked at me amazed. + +"If he is, I should like to hazard the guess that he is the man who has +held you in such thraldom for years." + +"And if he were?" said she. + +"I could understand William's antipathy to him and also his suspicions." + +She gave me a strange look, then without answering walked over and took +Loreen by the hand. "Hush!" I thought I heard her whisper. At all events +the two sisters were silent for more than a moment. Then Lucetta said: + +"Deacon Spear is well off, but nothing will ever make me accuse living +man of crime so dreadful." And she walked away, drawing Loreen after +her. In another moment she was out of the room, leaving me in a state of +great excitement. + +"This girl holds the secret to the whole situation," I inwardly decided. +"The belief that nothing more can be learned from her is a false one. I +must see Mr. Gryce. William's rodomontades are so much empty air, but +Lucetta's silence has a meaning we cannot afford to ignore." + +So impressed was I by this, that I took the first opportunity which +presented itself of seeing the detective. This was early the next +morning. He and several of the townspeople had made their appearance at +Mother Jane's cottage, with spades and picks, and the sight had +naturally drawn us all down to the gate, where we stood watching +operations in a silence which would have been considered unnatural by +any one who did not realize the conflicting nature of the emotions +underlying it. William, to whom the death of his mother seemed to be a +great deliverance, had been inclined to be more or less jocular, but his +sallies meeting with no response, he had sauntered away to have it out +with his dogs, leaving me alone with the two girls and Hannah. + +The latter seemed to be absorbed entirely by the aspect of Mother Jane, +who stood upon her doorstep in an attitude so menacing that it was +little short of tragic. Her hood, for the first time in the memory of +those present, had fallen away from her head, revealing a wealth of gray +hair which flew away from her head like a weird halo. Her features we +could not distinguish, but the emotion which inspired her, breathed in +every gesture of her uplifted arms and swaying body. It was wrath +personified, and yet an unreasoning wrath. One could see she was as much +dazed as outraged. Her lares and penates were being attacked, and she +had come from the heart of her solitude to defend them. + +"I declare!" Hannah protested. "It is pitiful. She has nothing in the +world but that garden, and now they are going to root that up." + +"Do you think that the sight of a little money would appease her?" I +inquired, anxious for an excuse to drop a word into the ear of Mr. +Gryce. + +"Perhaps," said Hannah. "She dearly loves money, but it will not take +away her fright." + +"It will if she has nothing to be frightened about," said I; and turning +to the girls, I asked them, somewhat mincingly for me, if they thought I +would make myself conspicuous if I crossed the road on this errand, and +when Loreen answered that that would not deter her if she had the money, +and Lucetta added that the sight of such misery was too painful for any +mere personal consideration, I took advantage of their complaisance, and +hastily made my way over to the group, who were debating as to the point +they would attack first. + +"Gentlemen," said I, "good-morning. I am here on an errand of mercy. +Poor old Mother Jane is half imbecile and does not understand why you +invade her premises with these implements. Will you object if I endeavor +to distract her mind with a little piece of gold I happen to have in my +pocket? She may not deserve it, but it will make your task easier and +save us some possible concern." + +Half of the men at once took off their hats. The other half nudged each +other's elbows, and whispered and grimaced like the fools they were. The +first half were gentlemen, though not all of them wore gentlemen's +clothes. + +It was Mr. Gryce who spoke: + +"Certainly, madam. Give the old woman anything you please, but--" And +here he stepped up to me and began to whisper; "You have something to +say. What is it?" + +I answered in the same quick way: "The mine you thought exhausted has +possibilities in it yet. Question Lucetta. It may prove a more fruitful +task than turning up this soil." + +The bow he made was more for the onlookers than for the suggestion I had +given him. Yet he was not ungrateful for the latter, as I, who was +beginning to understand him, could see. + +"Be as generous as you please!" he cried aloud. "We would not disturb +the old crone if it were not for one of her well-known follies. Nothing +will take her over forty rods away from her home. Now what lies within +those forty rods? These men think we ought to see." + +The shrug I gave answered both the apparent and the concealed question. +Satisfied that he would understand it so, I hurried away from him and +approached Mother Jane. + +"See!" said I, astonished at the regularity of her features, now that I +had a good opportunity of observing them. "I have brought you money. Let +them dig up your turnips if they will." + +She did not seem to perceive me. Her eyes were wild with dismay and her +lips trembling with a passion far beyond my power to comfort. + +"Lizzie!" she cried. "Lizzie! She will come back and find no home. Oh, +my poor girl! My poor, poor girl!" + +It was pitiable. I could not doubt her anguish or her sincerity. The +delirium of a broken heart cannot be simulated. And this heart was not +controlled by reason; that was equally apparent. Immediately my heart, +which goes out slowly, but none the less truly on that account, was +touched by something more than the surface sympathy of the moment. She +may have stolen, she may have done worse, she may even have been at the +bottom of the horrible crimes which have given its name to the lane we +were in, but her acts, if acts they were, were the result of a clouded +mind fixed forever upon the fancied needs of another, and not the +expression of personal turpitude or even of personal longing or avarice. +Therefore I could pity her, and I did. + +Making another appeal, I pressed the coin hard into one of her hands +till the contact effected what my words had been unable to do, and she +finally looked down and saw what she was clutching. Then indeed her +aspect changed, and in a few minutes of slowly growing comprehension she +became so quiet and absorbed that she forgot to look at the men and even +forgot me, who was probably nothing more than a flitting shadow to her. + +"A silk gown," she murmured. "It will buy Lizzie a silk gown. Oh! where +did it come from, the good, good gold, the beautiful gold; such a little +piece, yet enough to make her look fine, my Lizzie, my pretty, pretty +Lizzie?" + +No numbers this time. The gift was too overpowering for her even to +remember that it must be hidden away. + +I walked away while her delight was still voluble. Somehow it eased my +mind to have done her this little act of kindness, and I think it eased +the minds of the men too. At all events, every hat was off when I +repassed them on my way back to the Knollys gateway. + +I had left both the girls there, but I found only one awaiting me. +Lucetta had gone in, and so had Hannah. On what errand I was soon to +know. + +"What do you suppose that detective wants of Lucetta now?" asked Loreen +as I took my station again at her side. "While you were talking to +Mother Jane he stepped over here, and with a word or two induced Lucetta +to walk away with him toward the house. See, there they are in those +thick shrubs near the right wing. He seems to be pleading with her. Do +you think I ought to join them and find out what he is urging upon her +so earnestly? I don't like to seem intrusive, but Lucetta is easily +agitated, you know, and his business cannot be of an indifferent nature +after all he has discovered concerning our affairs." + +"No," I agreed, "and yet I think Lucetta will be strong enough to +sustain the conversation, judging from the very erect attitude she is +holding now. Perhaps he thinks she can tell him where to dig. They seem +a little at sea over there, and living, as you do, a few rods from +Mother Jane, he may imagine that Lucetta can direct him where to first +plant the spade." + +"It's an insult," Loreen protested. "All these talks and visits are +insults. To be sure, this detective has some excuse, but----" + +"Keep your eye on Lucetta," I interrupted. "She is shaking her head and +looking very positive. She will prove to him it is an insult. We need +not interfere, I think." + +But Loreen had grown pensive and did not heed my suggestion. A look that +was almost wistful had supplanted the expression of indignant revolt +with which she had addressed me, and when next moment the two we had +been watching turned and came slowly toward us, it was with decided +energy she bounded forward and joined them. + +"What is the matter now?" she asked. "What does Mr. Gryce want, +Lucetta?" + +Mr. Gryce himself spoke. + +"I simply want her," said he, "to assist me with a clue from her inmost +thoughts. When I was in your house," he explained with a praiseworthy +consideration for me and my relations to these girls for which I cannot +be too grateful, "I saw in this young lady something which convinced me +that, as a dweller in this lane, she was not without her suspicions as +to the secret cause of the fatal mysteries which I have been sent here +to clear up. To-day I have frankly accused her of this, and asked her to +confide in me. But she refuses to do so, Miss Loreen. Yet her face shows +even at this moment that my old eyes were not at fault in my reading of +her. She does suspect somebody, and it is not Mother Jane." + +"How can you say that?" began Lucetta, but the eyes which Loreen that +moment turned upon her seemed to trouble her, for she did not attempt to +say any more--only looked equally obstinate and distressed. + +"If Lucetta suspects any one," Loreen now steadily remarked, "then I +think she ought to tell you who it is." + +"You do. Then perhaps you--" commenced Mr. Gryce--"can persuade her as +to her duty," he finished, as he saw her head rise in protest of what he +evidently had intended to demand. + +"Lucetta will not yield to persuasion," was her quiet reply. "Nothing +short of conviction will move the sweetest-natured but the most +determined of all my mother's children. What she thinks is right, she +will do. I will not attempt to influence her." + +Mr. Gryce, with one comprehensive survey of the two, hesitated no +longer. I saw the rising of the blood into his forehead, which always +precedes the beginning of one of his great moves, and, filled with a +sudden excitement, I awaited his next words as a tyro awaits the first +unfolding of the plan he has seen working in the brain of some famous +strategist. + +"Miss Lucetta,"--his very tone was changed, changed in a way to make us +all start notwithstanding the preparation his momentary silence had +given us--"I have been thus pressing and perhaps rude in my appeal, +because of something which has come to my knowledge which cannot but +make you of all persons extremely anxious as to the meaning of this +terrible mystery. I am an old man, and you will not mind my bluntness. I +have been told--and your agitation convinces me there is truth in the +report--that you have a lover, a Mr. Ostrander----" + +"Ah!" She had sunk as if crushed by one overwhelming blow to the earth. +The eyes, the lips, the whole pitiful face that was upturned to us, +remain in my memory to-day as the most terrible and yet the most moving +spectacle that has come into my by no means uneventful life. "What has +happened to him? Quick, quick, tell me!" + +For answer Mr. Gryce drew out a telegram. + +"From the master of the ship on which he was to sail," he explained. "It +asks if Mr. Ostrander left this town on Tuesday last, as no news has +been received of him." + +"Loreen! Loreen! When he left us he passed down that way!" shrieked the +girl, rising like a spirit and pointing east toward Deacon Spear's. "He +is gone! He is lost! But his fate shall not remain a mystery. I will +dare its solution. I--I--To-night you will hear from me again." + +And without another glance at any of us she turned and fled toward the +house. + + + + +XXXIV + +CONDITIONS + + +But in another moment she was back, her eyes dilated and her whole +person exhaling a terrible purpose. + +"Do not look at me, do not notice me!" she cried, but in a voice so +hoarse no one but Mr. Gryce could fully understand her. "I am for no +one's eyes but God's. Pray that he may have mercy upon me." Then as she +saw us all instinctively fall back, she controlled herself, and, +pointing toward Mother Jane's cottage, said more distinctly: "As for +those men, let them dig. Let them dig the whole day long. Secrecy must +be kept, a secrecy so absolute that not even the birds of the air must +see that our thoughts range beyond the forty rods surrounding Mother +Jane's cottage." + +She turned and would have fled away for the second time, but Mr. Gryce +stopped her. "You have set yourself a task beyond your strength. Can you +perform it?" + +"I can perform it," she said. "If Loreen does not talk, and I am allowed +to spend the day in solitude." + +I had never seen Mr. Gryce so agitated--no, not when he left Olive +Randolph's bedside after an hour of vain pleading. "But to wait all day! +Is it necessary for you to wait all day?" + +"It is necessary." She spoke like an automaton. "To-night at twilight, +when the sun is setting, meet me at the great tree just where the road +turns. Not a minute sooner, not an hour later. I will be calmer then." +And waiting now for nothing, not for a word from Loreen nor a detaining +touch from Mr. Gryce, she flew away for the second time. This time +Loreen followed her. + +"Well, that is the hardest thing I ever had to do," said Mr. Gryce, +wiping his forehead and speaking in a tone of real grief and anxiety. +"Do you think her delicate frame can stand it? Will she survive this day +and carry through whatever it is she has set herself to accomplish?" + +"She has no organic disease," said I, "but she loved that young man very +much, and the day will be a terrible one to her." + +Mr. Gryce sighed. + +"I wish I had not been obliged to resort to such means," said he, "but +women like that only work under excitement, and she does know the secret +of this affair." + +"Do you mean," I demanded, almost aghast, "that you have deceived her +with a false telegram; that that slip of paper you hold----" + +"Read it," he cried, holding it out toward me. + +I did read it. Alas, there was no deception in it. It read as he said. + +"However--" I began. + +But he had pocketed the telegram and was several steps away before I had +finished my sentence. + +"I am going to start these men up," said he. "You will breathe no word +to Miss Lucetta of my sympathy nor let your own interests slack in the +investigations which are going on under our noses." + +And with a quick, sharp bow, he made his way to the gate, whither I +followed him in time to see him set his foot upon a patch of sage. + +"You will begin at this place," he cried, "and work east; and, +gentlemen, something tells me that we shall be successful." + +With almost a simultaneous sound a dozen spades and picks struck the +ground. The digging up of Mother Jane's garden had begun in earnest. + + + + +XXXV + +THE DOVE + + +I remained at the gate. I had been bidden to show my interest in what +was going on in Mother Jane's garden, and this was the way I did it. But +my thoughts were not with the diggers. I knew, as well then as later, +that they would find nothing worth the trouble they were taking; and, +having made up my mind to this, I was free to follow the lead of my own +thoughts. + +They were not happy ones; I was neither satisfied with myself nor with +the prospect of the long day of cruel suspense that awaited us. When I +undertook to come to X., it was with the latent expectation of making +myself useful in ferreting out its mystery. And how had I succeeded? I +had been the means through which one of its secrets had been discovered, +but not _the_ secret; and while Mr. Gryce was good enough, or wise +enough, to show no diminution in his respect for me, I knew that I had +sunk a peg in his estimation from the consciousness I had of having sunk +two, if not three pegs, in my own. + +This was a galling thought to me. But it was not the only one which +disturbed me. Happily or unhappily, I have as much heart as pride, and +Lucetta's despair, and the desperate resolve to which it had led, had +made an impression upon me which I could not shake off. + +Whether she knew the criminal or only suspected him; whether in the heat +of her sudden anguish she had promised more or less than she could +perform, the fact remained that we (by whom I mean first and above all, +Mr. Gryce, the ablest detective on the New York force, and myself, who, +if no detective, am at least a factor of more or less importance in an +inquiry like this) were awaiting the action of a weak and suffering girl +to discover what our own experience should be able to obtain for us +unassisted. + +That Mr. Gryce felt that he was playing a great card in thus enlisting +her despair in our service, did not comfort me. I am not fond of games +in which real hearts take the place of painted ones; and, besides, I was +not ready to acknowledge that my own capacity for ferreting out this +mystery was quite exhausted, or that I ought to remain idle while +Lucetta bent under a task so much beyond her strength. So deeply was I +impressed by this latter consideration, that I found myself, even in the +midst of my apparent interest in what was going on at Mother Jane's +cottage, asking if I was bound to accept the defeat pronounced upon my +efforts by Mr. Gryce, and if there was not yet time to retrieve myself +and save Lucetta. One happy thought, or clever linking of cause to +effect, might lead me yet to the clue which we had hitherto sought in +vain. And then who would have more right to triumph than Amelia +Butterworth, or who more reason to apologize than Ebenezar Gryce! But +where was I to get my happy thought, and by what stroke of fortune could +I reasonably hope to light upon a clue which had escaped the penetrating +eye of my quondam colleague? Lucetta's gesture and Lucetta's +exclamation, "He passed that way!" indicated that her suspicions pointed +in the direction of Deacon Spear's cottage; so did William's wandering +accusations: but this was little help to me, confined as I was to the +Knollys demesnes, both by Mr. Gryce's command and by my own sense of +propriety. No, I must light on something more tangible; something +practical enough to justify me in my own eyes for any interference I +might meditate. In short, I must start from a fact, and not from a +suspicion. But what fact? Why, there was but one, and that was the +finding of certain indisputable tokens of crime in Mother Jane's +keeping. That was a clue, a clue, to be sure, which Mr. Gryce, while +ostensibly following it in his present action, really felt to lead +nowhere, but which I--Here my thoughts paused. I dare not promise myself +too satisfactory results to my efforts, even while conscious of that +vague elation which presages success, and which I could only overcome by +resorting again to reasoning. This time I started with a question. Had +Mother Jane committed these crimes herself? I did not think so; neither +did Mr. Gryce, for all the persistence he showed in having the ground +about her humble dwelling-place turned over. Then, how had the ring of +Mr. Chittenden come to be in her possession, when, as all agreed, she +never was known to wander more than forty rods away from home? If the +crime by which this young gentleman had perished had taken place up the +road, as Lucetta's denouncing finger plainly indicated, then this token +of Mother Jane's complicity in it had been carried across the +intervening space by other means than Mother Jane herself. In other +words, it was brought to her by the perpetrator, or it was placed where +she could lay hand on it; neither supposition implying guilt on her +part, she being in all probability as innocent of wrong as she was of +sense. At all events, such should be my theory for the nonce, old +theories having exploded or become of little avail in the present aspect +of things. To discover, then, the source of crime, I must discover the +means by which this ring reached Mother Jane--an almost hopeless task, +but not to be despaired of on that account: had I not wrung the truth in +times gone by from that piece of obstinate stolidity the Van Burnam +scrub-woman? and if I could do this, might I not hope to win an equal +confidence from this half-demented creature, with a heart so passionate +it beat to but one tune, her Lizzie? I meant at least to try, and, under +the impulse of this resolve, I left my position at the gate and +recrossed the road to Mother Jane, whose figure I could dimly discern on +the farther side of her little house. + +Mr. Gryce barely looked up as I passed him, and the men not at all. They +were deep in their work, and probably did not see me. Neither did Mother +Jane at first. She had not yet wearied of the shining gold she held, +though she had begun again upon that chanting of numbers the secret of +which Mr. Gryce had discovered in his investigation of her house. + +I therefore found it hard to make her hear me when I attempted to speak. +She had fixed upon the new number fifteen and seemed never to tire of +repeating it. At last I took cue from her speech, and shouted out the +word _ten_. It was the number of the vegetable in which Mr. Chittenden's +ring had been hidden, and it made her start violently. + +"Ten! ten!" I reiterated, catching her eye. "He who brought it has +carried it away; come into the house and look." + +It was a desperate attempt. I felt myself quake inwardly as I realized +how near Mr. Gryce was standing, and what his anger would be if he +surprised me at this move after he had cried "Halt!" + +But neither my own perturbation nor the thought of his possible anger +could restrain the spirit of investigation which had returned to me with +the above words; and when I saw that they had not fallen upon deaf ears, +but that Mother Jane heard and in a measure understood them, I led the +way into the hut and pointed to the string from which the one precious +vegetable had been torn. + +She gave a spring toward it that was well-nigh maniacal in its fury, and +for an instant I thought she was going to rend the air with one of her +wild yells, when there came a swishing of wings at one of the open +windows, and a dove flew in and nestled in her breast, diverting her +attention so, that she dropped the empty husk of the onion she had just +grasped and seized the bird in its stead. It was a violent clutch, so +violent that the poor dove panted and struggled under it till its head +flopped over and I looked to see it die in her hands. + +"Stop!" I cried, horrified at a sight I was so unprepared to expect from +one who was supposed to cherish these birds most tenderly. + +But she heard me no more than she saw the gesture of indignant appeal I +made her. All her attention, as well as all her fury, was fixed upon the +dove, over whose neck and under whose wings she ran her trembling +fingers with the desperation of one looking for something he failed to +find. + +"Ten! ten!" it was now her turn to shout, as her eyes passed in angry +menace from the bird to the empty husk that dangled over her head. "You +brought it, did you, and you've taken it, have you? There, then! You'll +never bring or carry any more!" And lifting up her hand, she flung the +bird to the other side of the room, and would have turned upon me, in +which contingency I would for once have met my match, if, in releasing +the bird from her hands, she had not at the same time released the coin +which she had hitherto managed to hold through all her passionate +gestures. + +The sight of this piece of gold, which she had evidently forgotten for +the moment, turned her thoughts back to the joys it promised her. +Recapturing it once more, she sank again into her old ecstasy, upon +which I proceeded to pick up the poor, senseless dove, and leave the hut +with a devout feeling of gratitude for my undoubted escape. + +That I did this quietly and with the dove hidden under my little cape, +no one who knows me well will doubt. I had brought something from the +hut besides this victim of the old imbecile's fury, and I was no more +willing that Mr. Gryce should see the one than detect the other. I had +brought away a clue. + +"The birds of the air shall carry it." So the Scripture runs. This bird, +this pigeon, who now lay panting out his life in my arms had brought her +the ring which in Mr. Gryce's eyes had seemed to connect her with the +disappearance of young Mr. Chittenden. + + + + +XXXVI + +AN HOUR OF STARTLING EXPERIENCES + + +Not till I was safely back in the Knollys grounds, not, indeed, till I +had put one or two large and healthy shrubs between me and a certain +pair of very prying eyes, did I bring the dove out from under my cape +and examine the poor bird for any sign which might be of help to me in +the search to which I was newly committed. + +But I found nothing, and was obliged to resort to my old plan of +reasoning to make anything out of the situation in which I thus so +unexpectedly found myself. The dove had brought the ring into old Mother +Jane's hands, but whence and through whose agency? This was as much a +secret as before, but the longer I contemplated it, the more I realized +that it need not remain a secret long; that we had simply to watch the +other doves, note where they lighted, and in whose barn-doors they were +welcome, for us to draw inferences that might lead to revelations before +the day was out. If Deacon Spear--But Deacon Spear's house had been +examined as well as that of every other resident in the lane. This I +knew, but it had not been examined by me, and unwilling as I was to +challenge the accuracy or thoroughness of a search led on by such a man +as Mr. Gryce, I could not but feel that, with such a hint as I had +received from the episode in the hut, it would be a great relief to my +mind to submit these same premises to my own somewhat penetrating +survey, no man in my judgment having the same quickness of eyesight in +matters domestic as a woman trained to know every inch of a house and to +measure by a hair's-breadth every fall of drapery within it. + +But how in the name of goodness was I to obtain an opportunity for this +survey. Had we not one and all been bidden to confine our attention to +what was going on in Mother Jane's cottage, and would it not be treason +to Lucetta to run the least risk of awakening apprehension in any +possibly guilty mind at the other end of the road? Yes, but for all that +I could not keep still if fate, or my own ingenuity, offered me the +least chance of pursuing the clue I had wrung from our imbecile neighbor +at the risk of my life. It was not in my nature to do so, any more than +it was in my nature to yield up my present advantage to Mr. Gryce +without making a personal effort to utilize it. I forgot that I failed +in this once before in my career, or rather I recalled this failure, +perhaps, and felt the great need of retrieving myself. + +When, therefore, in my slow stroll towards the house I encountered +William in the shrubbery, I could not forbear accosting him with a +question or two. + +"William," I remarked, gently rubbing the side of my nose with an +irresolute forefinger and looking at him from under my lids, "that was a +scurvy trick you played Deacon Spear yesterday." + +He stood amazed, then burst into one of his loud laughs. + +"You think so?" he cried. "Well, I don't. He only got what he deserved, +the hard, sanctimonious sneak!" + +"Do you say that," I inquired, with some spirit, "because you dislike +the man, or because you really believe him to be worthy of hatred?" + +William's amusement at this argued little for my hopes. + +"_We_ are very much interested in the Deacon," he suggested, with a +leer; which insolence I allowed to pass unnoticed, because it best +suited my plan. + +"You have not answered my question," I remarked, with a forced air of +anxiety. + +"Oh, no," he cried, "so I haven't"; and he tried to look serious too. +"Well, well, to be just, I have nothing really against the man but his +mean ways. Still, if I were going to risk my life on a hazard as to who +is the evil spirit of this lane, I should say Spear and done with it, he +has such cursed small eyes." + +"_I_ don't think his eyes are too small," I returned loftily. Then with +a sudden change of manner, I suggested anxiously: "And my opinion is +shared by your sisters. They evidently think very well of him." + +"Oh!" he sneered; "girls are no judges. They don't know a good man when +they see him, and they don't know a bad. You mustn't go by what they +say." + +I had it on the tip of my tongue to ask if he did not think Lucetta +sufficiently understood herself to be trusted in what she contemplated +doing that night. But this was neither in accordance with my plan, nor +did it seem quite loyal to Lucetta, who, so far as I knew, had not +communicated her intentions to this booby brother. I therefore changed +this question into a repetition of my first remark: + +"Well, I still think the trick you played Deacon Spear yesterday a poor +one; and I advise you, as a gentleman, to go and ask his pardon." + +This was such a preposterous proposition, he could not hold his peace. + +"_I ask his pardon!_" he snorted. "Well, Saracen, did you ever hear the +like of that! _I_ ask Deacon Spear's pardon for obliging him to be +treated with as great attention as I had been myself." + +"If you do not," I went on, unmoved, "I shall go and do it myself. I +think that is what my friendship for you warrants. I am determined that +while I am a visitor in your house no one shall be able to pick a flaw +in your conduct." + +He stared (as he might well do), tried to read my face, then my +intentions, and failing to do both, which was not strange, broke into +noisy mirth. + +"Oh, ho!" he laughed. "So that is your game, is it! Well, I never! +Saracen, Miss Butterworth wants to reform me; wants to make one of her +sleek city chaps out of William Knollys. She'll have hard work of it, +won't she? But then we're beginning to like her well enough to let her +try. Miss Butterworth, I'll go with you to Deacon Spear. I haven't had +so much chance for fun in a twelve-month." + +I had not expected such success, and was duly thankful. But I made no +reference to it aloud. On the contrary, I took his complaisance as a +matter of course, and, hiding all token of triumph, suggested quietly +that we should make as little ado as possible over our errand, seeing +that Mr. Gryce was something of a meddler and _might_ take it into his +head to interfere. Which suggestion had all the effect I anticipated, +for at the double prospect of amusing himself at the Deacon's expense, +and of outwitting the man whose business it was to outwit us, he became +not only willing but eager to undertake the adventure offered him. So +with the understanding that I was to be ready to drive into town as soon +as he could hitch up the horse, we parted on the most amicable terms, he +proceeding towards the stable and I towards the house, where I hoped to +learn something new about Lucetta. + +But Loreen, from whom alone I could hope to glean any information, was +shut in her room, and did not come out, though I called her more than +once, which, if it left my curiosity unsatisfied, at least allowed me to +quit the house without awakening hers. + +William was waiting for me at the gate when I descended. He was in the +best of humors, and helped me into the buggy he had resurrected from +some corner of the old stable, with a grimace of suppressed mirth which +argued well for the peace of our proposed drive. The horse's head was +turned away from the quarter we were bound for, but as we were +ostensibly on our way to the village, this showed but common prudence on +William's part, and, as such, met with my entire approbation. + +Mr. Gryce and his men were hard at work when we passed them. Knowing the +detective so well, and rating at its full value his undoubted talent for +reading the motives of those about him, I made no attempt at cajolery in +the explanation I proffered of our sudden departure, but merely said, in +my old, peremptory way, that I found waiting at the gate so tedious that +I had accepted William's invitation to drive into town. Which, while it +astonished the old gentleman, did not really arouse his suspicions, as a +more conciliatory manner and speech might have done. This disposed of, +we drove rapidly away. + +William's sense of humor once aroused was not easily allayed. He seemed +so pleased with his errand that he could talk of nothing else, and +turned the subject over and over in his clumsy way, till I began to +wonder if he had seen through the object of our proposed visit and was +making _me_ the butt of his none too brilliant wit. + +But no, he was really amused at the part he was called upon to play, +and, once convinced of this, I let his humor run on without check till +we had re-entered Lost Man's Lane from the other end and were in sight +of the low sloping roof of Deacon Spear's old-fashioned farmhouse. + +Then I thought it time to speak. + +"William," said I, "Deacon Spear is too good a man, and, as I take it, +is in possession of too great worldly advantages for you to be at enmity +with him. Remember that he is a neighbor, and that you are a landed +proprietor in this lane." + +"Good for you!" was the elegant reply with which this young boor honored +me. "I didn't think you had such an eye for the main chance." + +"Deacon Spear is rich, is he not?" I pursued, with an ulterior motive he +was far from suspecting. + +"Rich? Why, I don't know; that depends upon what you city ladies call +rich; _I_ shouldn't call him so, but then, as you say, I am a landed +proprietor myself." + +His laugh was boisterously loud, and as we were then nearly in front of +the Deacon's house, it rang in through the open windows, causing such +surprise, that more than one head bobbed up from within to see who dared +to laugh like that in Lost Man's Lane. While I noted these heads and +various other small matters about the house and place, William tied up +the horse and held out his hand for me to descend. + +"I begin to suspect," he whispered as he helped me out, "why you are so +anxious to have me on good terms with the Deacon." At which insinuation +I attempted to smile, but only succeeded in forcing a grim twitch or two +to my lips, for at that moment and before I could take one step towards +the house, a couple of pigeons rose up from behind the house and flew +away in a bee-line for Mother Jane's cottage. + +"Ha!" thought I; "my instinct has not failed me. Behold the link between +this house and the hut in which those tokens of crime were found," and +was for the moment so overwhelmed by this confirmation of my secret +suspicions, that I quite forgot to advance, and stood stupidly staring +after these birds now rapidly disappearing in the distance. + +William's voice aroused me. + +"Come!" he cried. "Don't be bashful. I don't think much of Deacon Spear +myself, but if _you_ do--Why, what's the matter now?" he asked, with a +startled look at me. I had clutched him by the arm. + +"Nothing," I protested, "only--you see that window over there? The one +in the gable of the barn, I mean. I thought I saw a hand thrust out,--a +white hand that dropped crumbs. Have they a child on this place?" + +"No," replied William, in an odd voice and with an odd look toward the +window I have mentioned. "Did you really see a hand there?" + +"I most certainly did," I answered, with an air of indifference I was +far from feeling. "Some one is up in the hay-loft; perhaps it is Deacon +Spear himself. If so, he will have to come down, for now that we are +here, I am determined you shall do your duty." + +"Deacon Spear can't climb that hay-loft," was the perplexed answer I +received in a hardly intelligible mutter. "I've been there, and I know; +only a boy or a very agile young man could crawl along the beams that +lead to that window. It is the one hiding-place in this part of the +lane; and when I said yesterday that if I were the police and had the +same search to make which they have, I knew where I would look, I meant +that same little platform up behind the hay, whose only outlook is +yonder window. But I forgot that _you_ have no suspicions of our good +Deacon; that _you_ are here on quite a different errand than to search +for Silly Rufus. So come along and----" + +But I resisted his impelling hand. He was so much in earnest and so +evidently under the excitement of what appeared to him a great +discovery, that he seemed quite another man. This made my own suspicions +less hazardous, and also added to the situation fresh difficulties which +could only be met by an appearance on my part of perfect ingenuousness. + +Turning back to the buggy as if I had forgotten something, and thus +accounting to any one who might be watching us, for the delay we showed +in entering the house, I said to William: "You have reasons for thinking +this man a villain, or you wouldn't be so ready to suspect him. Now what +if I should tell you that I agree with you, and that this is why I have +dragged you here this fine morning?" + +"I should say you were a deuced smart woman," was his ready answer. "But +what can you do here?" + +"What have we already done?" I asked. "Discovered that they have some +one in hiding in what you call an inaccessible place in the barn. But +didn't the police examine the whole place yesterday? They certainly told +me they had searched the premises thoroughly." + +"Yes," he repeated, with great disdain, "they said and they said; but +they didn't climb up to the one hiding-place in sight. That old fellow +Gryce declared it wasn't worth their while; that only birds could reach +that loophole." + +"Oh," I returned, somewhat taken aback; "you called his attention to it, +then?" + +To which William answered with a vigorous nod and the grumbling words: + +"I don't believe in the police. I think they're often in league with the +very rogues they----" + +But here the necessity of approaching the house became too apparent for +further delay. Deacon Spear had shown himself at the front door, and the +sight of his astonished face twisted into a grimace of doubtful welcome +drove every other thought away than how we were to acquit ourselves in +the coming interview. Seeing that William was more or less nonplussed by +the situation, I caught him by the arm, and whispering, "Let us keep to +our first programme," led him up the walk with much the air of a +triumphant captain bringing in a recalcitrant prisoner. + +My introduction under these circumstances can be imagined by those who +have followed William's awkward ways. But the Deacon, who was probably +the most surprised, if not the most disconcerted member of the group, +possessed a natural fund of conceit and self-complacency that prevented +any outward manifestation of his feelings, though I could not help +detecting a carefully suppressed antagonism in his eye when he allowed +it to fall upon William, which warned me to exercise my full arts in the +manipulation of the matter before me. I accordingly spoke first and with +all the prim courtesy such a man might naturally expect from an intruder +of my sex and appearance. + +"Deacon Spear," said I, as soon as we were seated in his stiff +old-fashioned parlor, "you are astonished to see us here, no doubt, +especially after the display of animosity shown towards you yesterday by +this graceless young friend of mine. But it is on account of this +unfortunate occurrence that we are here. After a little reflection and a +few hints, I may add, from one who has seen more of life than himself, +William felt that he had cause to be ashamed of himself for his show of +sport in yesterday's proceedings, and accordingly he has come in my +company to tender his apologies and entreat your forbearance. Am I not +right, William?" + +The fellow is a clown under all and every circumstance, and serious as +our real purpose was, and dreadful as was the suspicion he professed to +cherish against the suave and seemingly respectable member of the +community we were addressing, he could not help laughing, as he +blunderingly replied: + +"That you are, Miss Butterworth! She's always right, Deacon. I did act +like a fool yesterday." And seeming to think that, with this one +sentence he had played his part out to perfection, he jumped up and +strolled out of the house, almost pushing down as he did so the two +daughters of the house, who had crept into the hall from the +sitting-room to listen. + +"Well, well!" exclaimed the Deacon, "you have done wonders, Miss +Butterworth, to bring him to even so small an acknowledgment as that! +He's a vicious one, is William Knollys, and if _I_ were not such a lover +of peace and concord, he should not long be the only aggressive one. But +_I_ have no taste for strife, and so you may both regard his apology as +accepted. But why do you rise, madam? Sit down, I pray, and let me do +the honors. Martha! Jemima!" + +But I would not allow him to summon his daughters. The man inspired me +with too much dislike, if not fear; besides, I was anxious about +William. What was he doing, and of what blunder might he not be guilty +without my judicious guidance? + +"I am obliged to you," I returned; "but I cannot wait to meet your +daughters now. Another time, Deacon. There is important business going +on at the other end of the lane, and William's presence there may be +required." + +"Ah," he observed, following me to the door, "they are digging up Mother +Jane's garden." + +I nodded, restraining myself with difficulty. + +"Fool's work!" he muttered. Then with a curious look which made me +instinctively draw back, he added, "These things must inconvenience you, +madam. I wish you had made your visit to the lane in happier times." + +There was a smirk on his face which made him positively repellent. I +could scarcely bow my acknowledgments, his look and attitude made the +interview so obnoxious. Looking about for William, I stepped down from +the stoop. The Deacon followed me. + +"Where is William?" I asked. + +The Deacon ran his eye over the place, and suddenly frowned with +ill-concealed vexation. + +"The scapegrace!" he murmured. "What business has he in my barn?" + +I immediately forced a smile which, in days long past (I've almost +forgotten them now), used to do some execution. + +"Oh, he's a boy!" I exclaimed. "Do not mind his pranks, I pray. What a +comfortable place you have here!" + +Instantly a change passed over the Deacon, and he turned to me with an +air of great interest, broken now and then by an uneasy glance behind +him at the barn. + +"I am glad you like the place," he insinuated, keeping close at my side +as I stepped somewhat briskly down the walk. "It is a nice place, worthy +of the commendation of so competent a judge as yourself." (It was a +barren, hard-worked farm, without one attractive feature.) "I have lived +on it now forty years, thirty-two of them with my beloved wife Caroline, +and two--" Here he stopped and wiped a tear from the dryest eye I ever +saw. "Miss Butterworth, I am a widower." + +I hastened my steps. I here duly and with the strictest regard for the +truth aver, that I decidedly hastened my steps at this very unnecessary +announcement. But he, with another covert glance behind him towards the +barn, from which, to my surprise and increasing anxiety, William had not +yet emerged, kept well up to me, and only paused when I paused at the +side of the road near the buggy. + +"Miss Butterworth," he began, undeterred by the air of dignity I +assumed, "I have been thinking that your visit here is a rebuke to my +unneighborliness. But the business which has occupied the lane these +last few days has put us all into such a state of unpleasantness that it +was useless to attempt sociability." + +His voice was so smooth, his eyes so small and twinkling, that if I +could have thought of anything except William's possible discoveries in +the barn, I should have taken delight in measuring my wits against his +egotism. + +But as it was, I said nothing, possibly because I only half heard what +he was saying. + +"I am no lady's man,"--these were the next words I heard,--"but then I +judge you're not anxious for flattery, but prefer the square thing +uttered by a square man without delay or circumlocution. Madam, I am +fifty-three, and I have been a widower two years. I am not fitted for a +solitary life, and I am fitted for the companionship of an affectionate +wife who will keep my hearth clean and my affections in good working +order. Will you be that wife? You see my home,"--here his eye stole +behind him with that uneasy look towards the barn which William's +presence in it certainly warranted,--"a home which I can offer you +unencumbered, if you----" + +"Desire to live in Lost Man's Lane," I put in, subduing both my surprise +and my disgust at this preposterous proposal, in order to throw all the +sarcasm of which I was capable into this single sentence. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed, "you don't like the neighborhood. Well, we could go +elsewhere. I am not set against the city myself----" + +Astounded at his presumption, regarding him as a possible criminal, who +was endeavoring to beguile me for purposes of his own, I could no longer +repress either my indignation or the wrath with which such impromptu +addresses naturally inspired me. Cutting him short with a gesture which +made him open his small eyes, I exclaimed in continuation of his remark: + +"Nor, as I take it, are you set against the comfortable little income +somebody has told you I possessed. I see your disinterestedness, Deacon, +but I should be sorry to profit by it. Why, man, I never spoke to you +before in my life, and do you think----" + +"Oh!" he suavely insinuated, with a suppressed chuckle which even his +increasing uneasiness as to William could not altogether repress, "I see +you are _not_ above the flattery that pleases other women. Well, madam, +I know a tremendous fine woman when I see her, and from the moment I saw +you riding by the other day, I made up my mind I would have you for the +second Mrs. Spear, if persistence and a proper advocacy of my cause +could accomplish it. Madam, I was going to visit you with this proposal +to-night, but seeing you here, the temptation was too great for my +discretion, and so I have addressed you on the spot. But you need not +answer me at once. I don't need to know any more about _you_ than what I +can take in with my two eyes, but if you would like a little more +acquaintance with _me_, why I can wait a couple of weeks till we've +rubbed the edges off our strangeness, when----" + +"When you think I will be so charmed with Deacon Spear that I will be +ready to settle down with him in Lost Man's Lane, or if that will not +do, carry him off to Gramercy Park, where he will be the admiration of +all New York and Brooklyn to boot. Why, man, if I was so easily +satisfied as that, I would not be in a position to-day for you to honor +me with this proposal. I am not easy to suit, so I advise you to turn +your attention to some one much more anxious to be married than I am. +But"--and here I allowed some of my real feelings to appear--"if you +value your own reputation or the happiness of the lady you propose to +inveigle into an union with you, do not venture too far in the +matrimonial way till the mystery is dispelled which shrouds Lost Man's +Lane in horror. If you were an honest man you would ask no one to share +your fortunes whilst the least doubt rests upon your reputation." + +"_My_ reputation?" He had started very visibly at these words. "Madam, +be careful. I admire you, but----" + +"No offence," said I. "For a stranger I have been, perhaps, unduly +frank. I only mean that any one who lives in this lane must feel himself +more or less enveloped by the shadow which rests upon it. When that is +lifted, each and every one of you will feel himself a man again. From +indications to be seen in the lane to-day, that time may not be far +distant. Mother Jane is a likely source for the mysteries that agitate +us. She knows just enough to have no proper idea of the value of a human +life." + +The Deacon's retort was instantaneous. "Madam," said he, with a snap of +his fingers, "I have not that much interest in what is going on down +there. If men have been killed in this lane (which I do not believe), +old Mother Jane has had no hand in it. My opinion is--and you may value +it or not, just as you please--that what the people hereabout call +crimes are so many coincidences, which some day or other will receive +their due explanation. Every one who has disappeared in this vicinity +has disappeared naturally. No one has been killed. That is my theory, +and you will find it correct. On this point I have expended more than a +little thought." + +I was irate. I was also dumfounded at his audacity. Did he think I was +the woman to be deceived by any such balderdash as that? But I shut my +lips tightly lest I should say something, and he, not finding this +agreeable, being no conversationalist himself, drew himself up with a +pompously expressed hope that he would see me again after his reputation +was cleared, when his attention as well as my own was diverted by seeing +William's slouching figure appear in the barn door and make slowly +towards us. + +Instantly the Deacon forgot me in his interest in William's approach, +which was so slow as to be tantalizing to us both. + +When he was within speaking distance, Deacon Spear started towards him. + +"Well!" he cried; "one would think you had gone back a dozen or so years +and were again robbing your neighbor's hen-roosts. Been in the hay, eh?" +he added, leaning forward and plucking a wisp or two from my companion's +clothes. "Well, what did you find there?" + +In trembling fear for what the lout might answer, I put my hand on the +buggy rail and struggled anxiously to my seat. William stepped forward +and loosened the horse before speaking. Then with a leer he dived into +his pocket, and remarking slowly, "I found _this_," brought to light a +small riding-whip which we both recognized as one he often carried. "I +flung it up in the hay yesterday in one of my fits of laughing, so just +thought I would bring it down to-day. You know it isn't the first time +I've climbed about those rafters, Deacon, as you have been good enough +to insinuate." + +The Deacon, evidently taken aback, eyed the young fellow with a leer in +which I saw something more serious than mere suspicion. + +"Was that all?" he began, but evidently thought better than to finish, +whilst William, with a nonchalance that surprised me, blunderingly +avoided his eye, and, bounding into the buggy beside me, started up the +horse and drove slowly off. + +"Ta, ta, Deacon," he called back; "if you want to see fun, come up to +our end of the lane; there's precious little here." And thus, with a +laugh, terminated an interview which, all things considered, was the +most exciting as well as the most humiliating I have ever taken part in. + +"William," I began, but stopped. The two pigeons whose departure I had +watched a little while before were coming back, and, as I spoke, +fluttered up to the window before mentioned, where they alighted and +began picking up the crumbs which I had seen scattered for them. "See!" +I suddenly exclaimed, pointing them out to William. "Was I mistaken when +I thought I saw a hand drop crumbs from that window?" + +The answer was a very grave one for him. + +"No," said he, "for I have seen more than a hand, through the loophole I +made in the hay. I saw a man's leg stretched out as if he were lying on +the floor with his head toward the window. It was but a glimpse I got, +but the leg moved as I looked at it, and so I know that some one lies +hid in that little nook up under the roof. Now it isn't any one +belonging to the lane, for I know where every one of us is or ought to +be at this blessed moment; and it isn't a detective, for I heard a sound +like heavy sobbing as I crouched there. Then who is it? Silly Rufus, I +say; and if that hay was all lifted, we would see sights that would make +us ashamed of the apologies we uttered to the old sneak just now." + +"I want to get home," said I. "Drive fast! Your sisters ought to know +this." + +"The girls?" he cried. "Yes, it will be a triumph over them. They never +would believe I had an atom of judgment. But we'll show them, if William +Knollys is altogether a fool." + +We were now near to Mr. Trohm's hospitable gateway. Coming from the +excitements of my late interview, it was a relief to perceive the genial +owner of this beautiful place wandering among his vines and testing the +condition of his fruit by a careful touch here and there. As he heard +our wheels he turned, and seeing who we were, threw up his hands in +ill-restrained pleasure, and came buoyantly forward. There was nothing +to do but to stop, so we stopped. + +"Why, William! Why, Miss Butterworth, what a pleasure!" Such was his +amiable greeting. "I thought you were all busy at your end of the lane; +but I see you have just come from town. Had an errand there, I suppose?" + +"Yes," William grumbled, eying the luscious pear Mr. Trohm held in his +hand. + +The look drew a smile from that gentleman. + +"Admiring the first fruits?" he observed. "Well, it is a handsome +specimen," he admitted, handing it to me with his own peculiar grace. "I +beg you will take it, Miss Butterworth. You look tired; pardon me if I +mention it." (He is the only person I know who detects any signs of +suffering or fatigue on my part.) + +"I am worried by the mysteries of this lane," I ventured to remark. "I +hate to see Mother Jane's garden uprooted." + +"Ah!" he acquiesced, with much evidence of good feeling, "it is a +distressing thing to witness. I wish she might have been spared. +William, there are other pears on the tree this came from. Tie up the +horse, I pray, and gather a dozen or so of these for your sisters. They +will never be in better condition for plucking than they are to-day." + +William, whose mouth and eyes were both watering for a taste of the fine +fruit thus offered, moved with alacrity to obey this invitation, while +I, more startled than pleased--or, rather, as much startled as +pleased--by the prospect of a momentary _tete-a-tete_ with our agreeable +neighbor, sat uneasily eying the luscious fruit in my hand, and wishing +I was ten years younger, that the blush I felt slowly stealing up my +cheek might seem more appropriate to the occasion. + +But Mr. Trohm appeared not to share my wish. He was evidently so +satisfied with me as I was, that he found it difficult to speak at +first, and when he did--But tut! tut! you have no desire to hear any +such confidences as these, I am sure. A middle-aged gentleman's +expressions of admiration for a middle-aged lady may savor of romance to +her, but hardly to the rest of the world, so I will pass this +conversation by, with the single admission that it ended in a question +to which I felt obliged to return a reluctant _No_. + +Mr. Trohm was just recovering from the disappointment of this, when +William sauntered back with his hands and pockets full. + +"Ah!" that graceless scamp chuckled, with a suspicious look at our +downcast faces, "been improving the opportunity, eh?" + +Mr. Trohm, who had fallen back against his old well-curb, surveyed his +young neighbor for the first time with a look of anger. But it vanished +almost as quickly as it appeared, and he contented himself with a low +bow, in which I read real grief. + +This was too much for me, and I was about to open my lips with a kind +phrase or two, when a flutter took place over our heads, and the two +pigeons whose flight I had watched more than once during the last hour, +flew down and settled upon Mr. Trohm's arm and shoulders. + +"Oh!" I exclaimed, with a sudden shrinking that I hardly understood +myself. And though I covered up the exclamation with as brisk a good-by +as my inward perturbation would allow, that sight and the involuntary +ejaculation I had uttered, were all I saw or heard during our hasty +drive homeward. + + + + +XXXVII + +I ASTONISH MR. GRYCE AND HE ASTONISHES ME + + +But as we approached the group of curious people which now filled up the +whole highway in front of Mother Jane's cottage, I broke from the +nightmare into which this last discovery had thrown me, and, turning to +William, said with a resolute air: + +"You and your sisters are not of one mind regarding these +disappearances. You ascribe them to Deacon Spear, but they--whom do they +ascribe them to?" + +"I shouldn't think it would take a woman of your wit to answer that +question." + +The rebuke was deserved. I had wit, but I had refused to exercise it; my +blind partiality for a man of pleasing exterior and magnetic address had +prevented the cool play of my usual judgment, due to the occasion and +the trust which had been imposed in me by Mr. Gryce. Resolved that this +should end, no matter at what cost to my feelings, I quietly said: + +"You allude to Mr. Trohm." + +"That is the name," he carelessly assented. "Girls, you know, let their +prejudices run away with them. An old grudge----" + +"Yes," I tentatively put in; "he persecuted your mother, and so they +think him capable of any wickedness." + +The growl which William gave was not one of dissent. + +"But I don't care what they think," said he, looking down at the heap of +fruit which lay between us. "I'm Trohm's friend, and don't believe one +word they choose to insinuate against him. What if he didn't like what +my mother did! We didn't like it either, and----" + +"William," I calmly remarked, "if your sisters knew that Silly Rufus had +been found in Deacon Spear's barn they would no longer do Mr. Trohm this +injustice." + +"No; that would settle them; that would give me a triumph which would +last long after this matter was out of the way." + +"Very well, then," said I, "I am going to bring about this triumph. I am +going to tell Mr. Gryce at once what we have discovered in Deacon +Spear's barn." + +And without waiting for his ah, yes, or no, I jumped from the buggy and +made my way to the detective's side. + +His welcome was somewhat unexpected. "Ah, fresh news!" he exclaimed. "I +see it in your eye. What have you chanced upon, madam, in your +disinterested drive into town?" + +I thought I had eliminated all expression from my face, and that my +words would bring a certain surprise with them. But it is useless to try +to surprise Mr. Gryce. + +"You read me like a book," said I; "I have something to add to the +situation. Mr. Gryce, I have just come from the other end of the lane, +where I found a clue which may shorten the suspense of this weary day, +and possibly save Lucetta from the painful task she has undertaken in +our interests. Mr. Chittenden's ring----" + +I paused for the exclamation of encouragement he is accustomed to give +on such occasions, and while I paused, prepared for my accustomed +triumph. He did not fail me in the exclamation, nor did I miss my +expected triumph. + +"Was not found by Mother Jane, or even brought to her in any ordinary +way or by any ordinary messenger. It came to her on a pigeon's neck, the +pigeon you will find lying dead among the bushes in the Knollys yard." + +He was amazed. He controlled himself, but he was very visibly amazed. +His exclamations proved it. + +"Madam! Miss Butterworth! This ring--Mr. Chittenden's ring, whose +presence in her hut we thought an evidence of guilt, was brought to her +by one of her pigeons?" + +"So she told me. I aroused her fury by showing her the empty husk in +which it had been concealed. In her rage at its loss, she revealed the +fact I have just mentioned. It is a curious one, sir, and one I am a +little proud to have discovered." + +"Curious? It is more than curious; it is bizarre, and will rank, I am +safe in prophesying, as one of the most remarkable facts that have ever +adorned the annals of the police. Madam, when I say I envy you the honor +of its discovery, you will appreciate my estimate of it--and you. But +when did you find this out, and what explanation are you able to give of +the presence of this ring on a pigeon's neck?" + +"Sir, to your first question I need only reply that I was here two hours +or so ago, and to the second that everything points to the fact that the +ring was attached to the bird by the victim himself, as an appeal for +succor to whoever might be fortunate enough to find it. Unhappily it +fell into the wrong hands. That is the ill-luck which often befalls +prisoners." + +"Prisoners?" + +"Yes. Cannot you imagine a person shut up in an inaccessible place +making some such attempt to communicate with his fellow-creatures?" + +"But what inaccessible place have we in----" + +"Wait," said I. "You have been in Deacon Spear's barn." + +"Certainly, many times." But the answer, glib as it was, showed shock. I +began to gather courage. + +"Well," said I, "there is a hiding-place in that barn which I dare +declare you have not penetrated." + +"Do you think so, madam?" + +"A little loft way up under the eaves, which can only be reached by +clambering over the rafters. Didn't Deacon Spear tell you there was such +a place?" + +"No, but----" + +"William, then?" I inexorably pursued. "He says he pointed such a spot +out to you, and that you pooh-poohed at it as inaccessible and not worth +the searching." + +"William is a--Madam, I beg your pardon, but William has just wit enough +to make trouble." + +"But there is such a place there," I urged; "and, what is more, there is +some one hidden in it now. I saw him myself." + +"_You_ saw him?" + +"Saw a part of him; in short, saw his hand. He was engaged in scattering +crumbs for the pigeons." + +"That does not look like starvation," smiled Mr. Gryce, with the first +hint of sarcasm he had allowed himself to make use of in this interview. + +"No," said I; "but the time may not have come to inflict this penalty on +Silly Rufus. He has been there but a few days, and--well, what have I +said now?" + +"Nothing, ma'am, nothing. But what made you think the hand you saw +belonged to Silly Rufus?" + +"Because he was the last person to disappear from this lane. The +last--what am I saying? He wasn't the last. Lucetta's lover was the +last. Mr. Gryce, could that hand have belonged to Mr. Ostrander?" + +I was intensely excited; so much so that Mr. Gryce made me a warning +gesture. + +"Hush!" he whispered; "you are attracting attention. That hand _was_ the +hand of Mr. Ostrander; and the reason why I did not accept William +Knollys' suggestion to search the Deacon's barn-loft was because I knew +it had been chosen as a place of refuge by this missing lover of +Lucetta." + + + + +XXXVIII + +A FEW WORDS + + +Never have keener or more conflicting emotions been awakened in my +breast than by these simple words. But alive to the necessity of hiding +my feelings from those about me, I gave no token of my surprise, but +rather turned a stonier face than common upon the man who had caused it. + +"Refuge?" I repeated. "He is there, then, of his own free will--or +yours?" I sarcastically added, not being able to quite keep down this +reproach as I remembered the deception practised upon Lucetta. + +"Mr. Ostrander, madam, has been spending the week with Deacon +Spear--they are old friends, you know. That he should spend it quietly +and, to a degree, in hiding, was as much his plan as mine. For while he +found it impossible to leave Lucetta in the doubtful position in which +she and her family at present stand, he did not wish to aggravate her +misery by the thought that he was thus jeopardizing the position on +which all his hopes of future advancement depended. He preferred to +watch and wait in secret, seeing which, I did what I could to further +his wishes. His usual lodging was with the family, but when the search +was instituted, I suggested that he should remove himself to that eyrie +back of the hay where you were sharp enough to detect him to-day." + +"Don't attempt any of your flatteries upon me," I protested. "They will +not make me forget that I have not been treated fairly. And Lucetta--oh! +may I not tell Lucetta----" + +"And spoil our entire prospect of solving this mystery? No, madam, you +may not tell Lucetta. When Fate has put such a card into our hands as I +played with that telegram to-day, we would be flying in the face of +Providence not to profit by it. Lucetta's despair makes her bold; upon +that boldness we depend to discover and bring to justice a great +criminal." + +I felt myself turn pale; for that very reason, perhaps, I assumed a +still sterner air, and composedly said: + +"If Mr. Ostrander is in hiding at the Deacon's, and he and his host are +both in your confidence, then the only man whom _you_ can designate in +your thoughts by this dreadful title must be Mr. Trohm." + +I had perhaps hoped he would recoil at this or give some other evidence +of his amazement at an assumption which to me seemed preposterous. But +he did not, and I saw, with what feelings may be imagined, that this +conclusion, which was half bravado with me, had been accepted by him +long enough for no emotion to follow its utterance. + +"Oh!" I exclaimed, "how can you reconcile such a suspicion with the +attitude you have always preserved towards Mr. Trohm?" + +"Madam," said he, "do not criticise my attitude without taking into +account existing appearances. They are undoubtedly in Mr. Trohm's +favor." + +"I am glad to hear you say so," said I, "I am glad to hear you say so. +Why, it was in response to his appeal that you came to X. at all." + +Mr. Gryce's smile conveyed a reproach which I could not but acknowledge +I amply merited. Had he spent evening after evening at my house, +entertaining me with tales of the devices and the many inconsistencies +of criminals, to be met now by such a puerile disclaimer as this? But +beyond that smile he said nothing; on the contrary, he continued as if I +had not spoken at all. + +"But appearances," he declared, "will not stand before the insight of a +girl like Lucetta. She has marked the man as guilty, and we will give +her the opportunity of proving the correctness of her instinct." + +"But Mr. Trohm's house has been searched, and you have found +nothing--nothing," I argued somewhat feebly. + +"That is the reason we find ourselves forced to yield our judgment to +Lucetta's intuitions," was his quick reply. And smiling upon me with his +blandest air, he obligingly added: "Miss Butterworth is a woman of too +much character not to abide the event with all her accustomed +composure." And with this final suggestion, I was as yet too crushed to +resent, he dismissed me to an afternoon of unparalleled suspense and +many contradictory emotions. + + + + +XXXIX + +UNDER A CRIMSON SKY + + +When, in the course of events, the current of my thoughts receive a +decided check and I find myself forced to change former conclusions or +habituate myself to new ideas and a fresh standpoint, I do it, as I do +everything else, with determination and a total disregard of my own +previous predilections. Before the afternoon was well over I was ready +for any revelations which might follow Lucetta's contemplated action, +merely reserving a vague hope that my judgment would yet be found +superior to her instinct. + +At five o'clock the diggers began to go home. Nothing had been found +under the soil of Mother Jane's garden, and the excitement of search +which had animated them early in the day had given place to a dull +resentment mainly directed towards the Knollys family, if one could +judge of these men's feelings by the heavy scowls and significant +gestures with which they passed our broken-down gateway. + +By six the last man had filed by, leaving Mr. Gryce free for the work +which lay before him. + +I had retired long before this to my room, where I awaited the hour set +by Lucetta with a feverish impatience quite new to me. As none of us +could eat, the supper table had not been laid, and though I had no means +of knowing what was in store for us, the sombre silence and oppression +under which the whole house lay seemed a portent that was by no means +encouraging. + +Suddenly I heard a knock at my door. Rising hastily, I opened it. Loreen +stood before me, with parted lips and terror in all her looks. + +"Come!" she cried. "Come and see what I have found in Lucetta's room." + +"Then she's gone?" I cried. + +"Yes, she's gone, but come and see what she has left behind her." + +Hastening after Loreen, who was by this time half-way down the hall, I +soon found myself on the threshold of the room I knew to be Lucetta's. + +"She made me promise," cried Loreen, halting to look back at me, "that I +would let her go alone, and that I would not enter the highway till an +hour after her departure. But with these evidences of the extent of her +dread before us, how can we stay in this house?" And dragging me to a +table, she showed me lying on its top a folded paper and two letters. +The folded paper was Lucetta's Will, and the letters were directed +severally to Loreen and to myself with the injunction that they were not +to be read till she had been gone six hours. + +"She has prepared herself for death!" I exclaimed, shocked to my heart's +core, but determinedly hiding it. "But you need not fear any such event. +Is she not accompanied by Mr. Gryce?" + +"I do not know; I do not think so. How could she accomplish her task if +not alone? Miss Butterworth, Miss Butterworth, she has gone to brave Mr. +Trohm, our mother's persecutor and our life-long enemy, thinking, +hoping, believing that in so doing she will rouse his criminal +instincts, if he has them, and so lead to the discovery of his crimes +and the means by which he has been enabled to carry them out so long +undetected. It is noble, it is heroic, it is martyr-like, but--oh! Miss +Butterworth, I have never broken a promise to any one before in all my +life, but I am going to break the one I made her. Come, let us fly after +her! She has her lover's memory, but I have nothing in all the world but +her." + +I immediately turned and hastened down the stairs in a state of +humiliation which should have made ample amends for any show of +arrogance I may have indulged in in my more fortunate moments. + +Loreen followed me, and when we were in the lower hall she gave me a +look and said: + +"My promise was not to enter the highway. Would you be afraid to follow +me by another road--a secret road--all overgrown with thistles and +blackberry bushes which have not been trimmed up for years?" + +I thought of my thin shoes, my neat silk dress, but only to forget them +the next moment. + +"I will go anywhere," said I. + +But Loreen was already too far in advance of me to answer. She was young +and lithe, and had reached the kitchen before I had passed the Flower +Parlor. But when we had sped clear of the house I found that my progress +bade fair to be as rapid as hers, for her agitation was a hindrance to +her, while excitement always brings out my powers and heightens both my +wits and my judgment. + +Our way lay past the stables, from which I expected every minute to see +two or three dogs jump. But William, who had been discreetly sent out of +the way early in the afternoon, had taken Saracen with him, and possibly +the rest, so our passing by disturbed nothing, not even ourselves. The +next moment we were in a field of prickers, through which we both +struggled till we came into a sort of swamp. Here was bad going, but we +floundered on, edging continually toward a distant fence beyond which +rose the symmetrical lines of an orchard--Mr. Trohm's orchard, in which +those pleasant fruits grew which--Bah! should I ever be able to get the +taste of them out of my mouth! + +At a tiny gateway covered with vines, Loreen stopped. + +"I do not believe this has been opened for years, but it must be opened +now." And, throwing her whole weight against it, she burst it through, +and bidding me pass, hastened after me over the trailing branches and +made, without a word, for the winding path we now saw clearly defined on +the edge of the orchard before us. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Loreen, stopping one moment to catch her breath, "I do +not know what I fear or to what our steps will bring us. I only know +that I must hunt for Lucetta till I find her. If there is danger where +she is, I must share it. You can rest here or come farther on." + +I went farther on. + +Suddenly we both started; a man had sprung up from behind the hedgerow +that ran parallel with the fence that surrounded Mr. Trohm's place. + +"Silence!" he whispered, putting his finger on his lips. "If you are +looking for Miss Knollys," he added, seeing us both pause aghast, "she +is on the lawn beyond, talking to Mr. Trohm. If you will step here, you +can see her. She is in no kind of danger, but if she were, Mr. Gryce is +in the first row of trees to the back there, and a call from me----" + +That made me remember my whistle. It was still round my neck, but my +hand, which had instinctively gone to it, fell again in extraordinary +emotion as I realized the situation and compared it with that of the +morning when, blinded by egotism and foolish prejudice in favor of this +man, I ate of his fruit and hearkened to his outrageous addresses. + +"Come!" beckoned Loreen, happily too absorbed in her own emotions to +notice mine. "Let us get nearer. If Mr. Trohm is the wicked man we fear, +there is no telling what the means are which he uses to get rid of his +victims. There was nothing to be found in his house, but who knows where +the danger may lurk, and that it may not be near her now? It was +evidently to dare it she came, to offer herself as a martyr, that we +might know----" + +"Hush!" I whispered, controlling my own fears roused against my will by +this display of terror in this usually calmest of natures. "No danger +can menace her where they stand, unless he is a common assassin and +carries a pistol----" + +"No pistol," murmured the man, who had crept again near us. "Pistols +make a noise. He will not use a pistol." + +"Good God!" I whispered. "_You_ do not share her sister's fears that it +is in the heart of this man to kill Lucetta?" + +"Five strong men have disappeared hereabout," said the fellow, never +moving his eye from the couple before us. "Why not one weak girl?" + +With a cry Loreen started forward. "Run!" she whispered. "Run!" + +But as this word left her lips, a slight movement took place in the belt +of trees where we had been told Mr. Gryce lay in hiding, and we could +see him issue for a moment into sight with his finger like that of his +man laid warningly on his lips. Loreen trembled and drew back, seeing +which, the man beside us pointed to the hedge and whispered softly: + +"There is just room between it and the fence for a person to pass +sideways. If you and this lady want to get nearer to Miss Knollys, you +might take that road. But Mr. Gryce will expect you to be very quiet. +The young lady expressly said, before she came into this place, that she +could do nothing if for any reason Mr. Trohm should suspect they were +not alone." + +"We will be quiet," I assured him, anxious to hide my face, which I felt +twitch at every mention of Mr. Trohm's name. Loreen was already behind +the hedge. + +The evening was one of those which are made for peace. The sun, which +had set in crimson, had left a glow on the branches of the forest which +had not yet faded into the gray of twilight. The lawn, around which we +were skirting, had not lost the mellow brilliancy which made it sparkle, +nor had the cluster of varied-hued hollyhocks which set their +gorgeousness against the neat yellow of the peaceful doorposts, shown +any dimness in their glory, which was on a par with that of the setting +sun. But though I saw all this, it no longer appeared to me desirable. +Lucetta and Lucetta's fate, the mystery and the impossibility of its +being explained out here in the midst of turf and blossoms, filled all +my thoughts, and made me forget my own secret cause for shame and +humiliation. + +Loreen, who had wormed her way along till she crouched nearly opposite +to the place where her sister stood, plucked me by the gown as I +approached her, and, pointing to the hedge, which pressed up so close it +nearly touched our faces, seemed to bid me look through. Searching for a +spot where there was a small opening, I put my eye to this and +immediately drew back. + +"They are moving nearer the gate," I signalled to Loreen, at which she +crept along a few paces, but with a stealth so great that, alert as I +was, I could not hear a twig snap. I endeavored to imitate her, but not +with as much success as I could wish. The sense of horror which had all +at once settled upon me, the supernatural dread of something which I +could not see, but which I felt, had seized me for the first time and +made the ruddy sky and the broad stretch of velvet turf with the shadows +playing over it of swaying tree-tops and clustered oleanders, more +thrilling and awesome to me than the dim halls of the haunted house of +the Knollys family in that midnight hour when I saw a body carried out +for burial amid trouble and hush and a mystery so great it would have +daunted most spirits for the remainder of their lives. + +The very sweetness of the scene made its horror. Never have I had such +sensations, never have I felt so deeply the power of the unseen, yet it +seemed so impossible that anything could happen here, anything which +would explain the total disappearance of several persons at different +times, without a trace of their fate being left to the eye, that I could +but liken my state to that of nightmare, where visions take the place of +realities and often overwhelm them. + +I had pressed too close against the hedge as I struggled with these +feelings, and the sound I made struck me as distinct, if not alarming; +but the tree-tops were rustling overhead, and, while Lucetta might have +heard the hedge-branches crack, her companion gave no evidence of doing +so. We could distinguish what they were saying now, and realizing this, +we stopped moving and gave our whole attention to listening. Mr. Trohm +was speaking. I could hardly believe it was his voice, it had so changed +in tone, nor could I perceive in his features, distorted as they now +were by every evil passion, the once quiet and dignified countenance +which had so lately imposed upon me. + +"Lucetta, my little Lucetta," he was saying, "so she has come to see me, +come to taunt me with the loss of her lover, whom she says I have robbed +her of almost before her eyes! I rob her! How can I rob her or any one +of a man with a voice and arm of his own stronger than mine? Am I a +wizard to dissipate his body in vapor? Yet can you find it in my house +or on my lawn? You are a fool, Lucetta; so are all these men about here +fools! It is in your house----" + +"Hush!" she cried, her slight figure rising till we forgot it was the +feeble Lucetta we were gazing at. "No more accusations directed against +us. It is you who must expect them now. Mr. Trohm, your evil practices +are discovered. To-morrow you will have the police here in earnest. They +did but play with you when they were here before." + +"You child!" he gasped, striving, however, to restrain all evidences of +shock and terror. "Why, who was it called in the police and set them +working in Lost Man's Lane? Was it not I----" + +"Yes, that they might not suspect you, and perhaps that they might +suspect us. But it was useless, Obadiah Trohm. Althea Knollys' children +have been long-suffering, but the limit of their forbearance has been +reached. When you laid your hand upon my lover, you roused a spirit in +me that nothing but your own destruction can satisfy. Where is he, Mr. +Trohm? and where is Silly Rufus and all the rest who have vanished +between Deacon Spear's house and the little home of the cripples on the +highroad? They have asked me this question, but if any one in Lost Man's +Lane can answer, it is you, persecutor of my mother, and traducer of +ourselves, whom I here denounce in face of these skies where God reigns +and this earth where man lives to harry and condemn." + +And then I saw that the instinct of this girl had accomplished what our +united acumen and skill had failed to do. The old man--indeed he seemed +an old man now--cringed, and the wrinkles came out in his face till he +was demoniacally ugly. + +"You viper!" he shrieked. "How dare you accuse me of crime--you whose +mother would have died in jail but for my forbearance? Have you ever +seen me set my foot upon a worm? Look at my fruit and flowers, look at +my home, without a spot or blemish to mar its neatness and propriety. +Can a man who loves these things stomach the destruction of a man, much +less of a silly, yawping boy? Lucetta, you are mad!" + +"Mad or sane, my accusation will have its results, Mr. Trohm. I believe +too deeply in your guilt not to make others do so." + +"Ah," said he, "then you have not done so yet? You believe this and +that, but you have not told any one what your suspicions are?" + +"No," she calmly returned, though her face blanched to the colorlessness +of wax, "I have not said what I think of you yet." + +Oh, the cunning that crept into his face! + +"She has not said. Oh, the little Lucetta, the wise, the careful little +Lucetta!" + +"But I will," she cried, meeting his eye with the courage and constancy +of a martyr, "though I bring destruction upon myself. I will denounce +you and do it before the night has settled down upon us. I have a lover +to avenge, a brother to defend. Besides, the earth should be rid of such +a monster as you." + +"Such a monster as I? Well, my pretty one,"--his voice grown suddenly +wheedling, his face a study of mingled passions,--"we will see about +that. Come just a step nearer, Lucetta. I want to see if you are really +the little girl I used to dandle on my knee." + +They were now near the gateway. They had been moving all this time. His +hand was on the curb of the old well. His face, so turned that it caught +the full glare of the setting sun, leaned toward the girl, exerting a +fascinating influence upon her. She took the step he asked, and before +we could shriek out "Beware!" we saw him bend forward with a sudden +quick motion and then start upright again, while her form, which but an +instant before had stood there in all its frail and inspired beauty, +tottered as if the ground were bending under it, and in another moment +disappeared from our appalled sight, swallowed in some dreadful cavern +that for an instant yawned in the smoothly cut lawn before us, and then +vanished again from sight as if it had never been. + +A shriek from my whistle mingled with a simultaneous cry of agony from +Loreen. We heard Mr. Gryce rush from behind us, but we ourselves found +it impossible to stir, paralyzed as we were by the sight of the old +man's demoniacal delight. He was leaping to and fro over the turf, +holding up his fingers in the red sunset glare. + +"Six!" he shrieked. "Six! and room for two more! Oh, it's a merry life I +lead! Flowers and fruit and love-making" (oh, how I cringed at that!), +"and now and then a little spice like this! But where is my pretty +Lucetta? Surely she was here a moment ago. How could she have vanished, +then, so quickly? I do not see her form amid the trees, there is no +trace of her presence upon the lawn, and if they search the house from +top to bottom and from bottom to top they will find nothing of her--no, +not so much as a print of her footstep or the scent of the violets she +so often wears tucked into her hair." + +These last words, uttered in a different voice from the rest, gave the +clue to the whole situation. We saw, even while we all bounded forward +to the rescue of the devoted maiden, that he was one of those maniacs +who have perfect control over themselves and pass for very decent sort +of men except in the moment of triumph; and, noting his look of sinister +delight, perceived that half his pleasure and almost his sole reward for +the horrible crimes he had perpetrated, was in the mystery surrounding +his victims and the entire immunity from suspicion which up to this time +he had enjoyed. + +Meantime Mr. Gryce had covered the wretch with his pistol, and his man, +who succeeded in reaching the place even sooner than ourselves, hampered +as we were by the almost impenetrable hedge behind which we had +crouched, tried to lift the grass-covered lid we could faintly discern +there. But this was impossible until I, with almost superhuman +self-possession, considering the imperative nature of the emergency, +found the spring hidden in the well-curb which worked the deadly +mechanism. A yell from the writhing creature cowering under the +detective's pistol guided me unconsciously in its action, and in another +moment we saw the fatal lid tip and disclose what appeared to be the +remains of a second well, long ago dried up and abandoned for the other. + +The rescue of Lucetta followed. As she had fainted in falling she had +not suffered much, and soon we had the supreme delight of seeing her +eyes unclose. + +"Ah," she murmured, in a voice whose echo pierced to every heart save +that of the guilty wretch now lying handcuffed on the sward, "I thought +I saw Albert! He was not dead, and I----" + +But here Mr. Gryce, with an air at once contrite and yet strangely +triumphant, interposed his benevolent face between hers and her weeping +sister's and whispered something in her ear which turned her pallid +cheek to a glowing scarlet. Rising up, she threw her arms around his +neck and let him lift her. As he carried her--where was his rheumatism +now?--out of those baleful grounds and away from the reach of the +maniac's mingled laughs and cries, her face was peace itself. But +his--well, his was a study. + + + + +XL + +EXPLANATIONS + + +The hour we all spent together late that night in the old house was +unlike any hour which that place had seen for years. Mr. Ostrander, +Lucetta, Loreen, William, Mr. Gryce, and myself, all were there, and as +an especial grace, Saracen was allowed to enter, that there might not be +a cloud upon a single face there assembled. Though it is a small matter, +I will add that this dog persisted in lying down by my side, not +yielding even to the wiles of his master, whose amusement over this fact +kept him good-natured to the last adieu. + +There were too few candles in the house to make it bright, but Lucetta's +unearthly beauty, the peace in Loreen's soft eyes, made us forget the +sombreness of our surroundings and the meagreness of the entertainment +Hannah attempted to offer us. It was the promise of coming joy, and +when, our two guests departed, I bade good-night to the girls in their +grim upper hall, it was with feelings which found their best expression +in the two letters I hastened to write as soon as I gained the refuge of +my own apartment. I will admit you sufficiently into my confidence to +let you read those letters. The first of them ran thus: + + "DEAR OLIVE: + + "To make others happy is the best way to forget our own + misfortunes. A sudden wedding is to take place in this house. + Order at once for me from the shops you know me to be in the + habit of patronizing, a wedding gown of dainty white taffeta [I + did this not to recall too painfully to herself the wedding + dress I helped her buy, and which was, as you may remember, of + creamy satin], with chiffon trimmings, and a wedding veil of + tulle. Add to this a dress suitable for ocean travel and a + half-dozen costumes adapted to a southern climate. Let + everything be suitable for a delicate but spirited girl who has + seen trouble, but who is going to be happy now if a little + attention and money can make her so. Do not spare expense, yet + show no extravagance, for she is a shy bird, easily frightened. + The measurements you will find enclosed; also those of another + young lady, her sister, who must also be supplied with a white + dress, the material of which, however, had better be of crape. + + "All these things must be here by Wednesday evening, my own + best dress included. On Saturday evening you may look for my + return. I shall bring the latter young lady with me, so your + present loneliness will be forgotten in the pleasure of + entertaining an agreeable guest. Faithfully yours, + + "AMELIA BUTTERWORTH." + +The second letter was a longer and more important one. It was directed +to the president of the company which had proposed to send Mr. Ostrander +to South America. In it I related enough of the circumstances which had +kept Mr. Ostrander in X. to interest him in the young couple personally, +and then I told him that if he would forgive Mr. Ostrander this delay +and allow him to sail with his young bride by the next steamer, I myself +would undertake to advance whatever sums might have been lost by this +change of arrangement. + +I did not know then that Mr. Gryce had already made this matter good +with this same gentleman. + +The next morning we all took a walk in the lane. (I say nothing about +the night. If I did not choose to sleep, or if I had any cause not to +feel quite as elevated in spirit as the young people about me, there is +surely no reason why I should dwell upon it with you or even apologize +for a weakness which you will regard, I hope, as an exception setting +off my customary strength.) + +Now a walk in this lane was an event. To feel at liberty to stroll among +its shadows without fear, to know that the danger had been so located +that we all felt free to inhale the autumn air and to enjoy the beauties +of the place without a thought of peril lurking in its sweetest nooks +and most attractive coverts, gave to this short half-hour a distinctive +delight aptly expressed by Loreen when she said: + +"I never knew the place was so beautiful. Why, I think I can be happy +here now." At which Lucetta grew pensive, till I roused her by saying: + +"So much for a constitutional, girls. Now we must to work. This house, +as you see it now, has to be prepared for a wedding. William, your +business will be to see that these grounds are put in as good order as +possible in the short time allotted to you. I will bear the expense, and +Loreen----" + +But William had a word to say for himself. + +"Miss Butterworth," said he, "you're a right good sort of woman, as +Saracen has found out, and we, too, in these last few plaguy days. But +I'm not such a bad lot either, and if I do like my own way, which may +not be other people's way, and if I am sometimes short with the girls +for some of their d--d nonsense, I have a little decency about me, too, +and I promise to fix these grounds, and out of my own money, too. Now +that nine tenths of our income does not have to go abroad, we'll have +chink enough to let us live in a respectable manner once more in a place +where one horse, if he's good enough, will give a fellow a standing and +make him the envy of those who, for some other pesky reasons, may think +themselves called upon to fight shy of him. I don't begrudge the old +place a few dollars, especially as I mean to live and die in it; so look +out, you three women folks, and work as lively as you can on the inside +of the old rookery, or the slickness of the outside will put you to open +shame, and that would never please Loreen, nor, as I take it, Miss +Butterworth either." + +It was a challenge we were glad to accept, especially as from the number +of persons we now saw come flocking into the lane, it was very apparent +that we should experience no further difficulty in obtaining any help we +might need to carry out our undertakings. + +Meantime my thoughts were not altogether concentrated upon these +pleasing plans for Lucetta's benefit. There were certain points yet to +be made clear in the matter just terminated, and there was a confession +for me to make, without which I could not face Mr. Gryce with all that +unwavering composure which our peculiar relations seemed to demand. + +The explanations came first. They were volunteered by Mr. Gryce, whom I +met in the course of the morning at Mother Jane's cottage. That old +crone had been perfectly happy all night, sleeping with the coin in her +hand and waking to again devour it with her greedy but loving eyes. As I +was alternately watching her and Mr. Gryce, who was directing with his +hand the movements of the men who had come to smooth down her garden and +make it presentable again, the detective spoke: + +"I suppose you have found it difficult, in the light of these new +discoveries, to explain to yourself how Mother Jane happened to have +those trinkets from the peddler's pack, and also how the ring, which you +very naturally thought must have been entrusted to the dove by Mr. +Chittenden himself, came to be about its neck when it flew home that day +of Mr. Chittenden's disappearance. Madam, we think old Mother Jane must +have helped herself out of the peddler's pack before it was found in the +woods there back of her hut, and of the other matter our explanation is +this: + +"One day a young man, equipped for travelling, paused for a glass of +water at the famous well in Mr. Trohm's garden just as Mother Jane's +pigeons were picking up the corn scattered for them by the former, whose +tastes are not confined to the cultivation of fruits and flowers, but +extend to dumb animals, to whom he is uniformly kind. The young man wore +a ring, and, being nervous, was fiddling with it as he talked to the +pleasant old gentleman who was lowering the bucket for him. As he +fiddled with it, the earth fell from under him, and as the daylight +vanished above his head, the ring flew from his up-thrown hand, and lay, +the only token of his now blotted-out existence, upon the emerald sward +he had but a moment before pressed with his unsuspicious feet. It +burned--this ruby burned like a drop of blood in the grass, when that +demon came again to his senses, and being a tell-tale evidence of crime +in the eyes of one who had allowed nothing to ever speak against him in +these matters, he stared at it as at a deadly thing directed against +himself and to be got rid of at once and by means which by no +possibility could recoil back upon himself as its author. + +"The pigeons stalking near offered to his abnormally acute understanding +the only solution which would leave him absolutely devoid of fear. He +might have swung open the lid of the well once more and flung it after +its owner, but this meant an aftermath of experience from which he +shrank, his delight being in the thought that the victims he saw vanish +before his eyes were so many encumbrances wiped off the face of the +earth by a sweep of the hand. To see or hear them again would be +destructive of this notion. He preferred the subtler way and to take +advantage of old Mother Jane's characteristics, so he caught one of the +pigeons (he has always been able to lure birds into his hands), and +tying the ring around the neck of the bird with a blade of grass plucked +up from the highway, he let it fly, and so was rid of the bauble which +to Mother Jane's eyes, of course, was a direct gift from the heavens +through which the bird had flown before lighting on her doorstep." + +"Wonderful!" I exclaimed, almost overwhelmed with humiliation, but +preserving a brave front. "What invention and what audacity!--the +invention and the audacity of a man totally irresponsible for his deeds, +was it not?" I asked. "There is no doubt, is there, about his being an +absolute maniac?" + +"No, madam." What a relief I felt at that word! "Since we entrapped him +yesterday and he found himself fully discovered, he has lost all grip +upon himself and fills the room we put him in with the unmistakable +ravings of a madman. It was through these I learned the facts I have +just mentioned." + +I drew a deep breath. We were standing in the sight of several men, and +their presence there seemed intolerable. Unconsciously I began to walk +away. Unconsciously Mr. Gryce followed me. At the end of several paces +we both stopped. We were no longer visible to the crowd, and I felt I +could speak the words I had been burning to say ever since I saw the +true nature of Mr. Trohm's character exposed. + +"Mr. Gryce," said I, flushing scarlet--which I here solemnly declare is +something which has not happened to me before in years, and if I can +help it shall never happen to me again,--"I am interested in what you +say, because yesterday, at his own gateway, Mr. Trohm proposed to me, +and----" + +"You did not accept him?" + +"No. What do you think I am made of, Mr. Gryce? I did not accept him, +but I made the refusal a gentle one, and--this is not easy work, Mr. +Gryce," I interrupted myself to say with suitable grimness--"the same +thing took place between me and Deacon Spear, and to him I gave a +response such as I thought his presumption warranted. The discrimination +does not argue well for my astuteness, Mr. Gryce. You see, I crave no +credit that I do not deserve. Perhaps you cannot understand that, but it +is a part of my nature." + +"Madam," said he, and I must own I thought his conduct perfect, "had I +not been as completely deceived as yourself I might find words of +criticism for this possibly unprofessional partiality. But when an old +hand like myself can listen to the insinuations of a maniac, and repose, +as I must say I did repose, more or less confidence in the statements he +chose to make me, and which were true enough as to the facts he +mentioned, but wickedly false and preposterously wrong in suggestion, I +can have no words of blame for a woman who, whatever her understanding +and whatever her experience, necessarily has seen less of human nature +and its incalculable surprises. As to the more delicate matter you have +been good enough to confide to me, madam, I have but one remark to make. +With such an example of womanhood suddenly brought to their notice in +such a wild as this, how could you expect them, sane or insane, to do +otherwise than they did? I know many a worthy man who would like to +follow their example." And with a bow that left me speechless, Mr. Gryce +laid his hand on his heart and softly withdrew. + + + + +EPILOGUE + +SOME STRAY LEAFLETS FROM AN OLD DIARY OF ALTHEA KNOLLYS, FOUND BY ME IN +THE PACKET LEFT IN MY CHARGE BY HER DAUGHTER LUCETTA. + + +I never thought I should do so foolish a thing as begin a diary. When in +my boarding-school days (which I am very glad to be rid of) I used to +see Meeley Butterworth sit down every night of her life over a little +book which she called the repository of her daily actions, I thought +that if ever I reached that point of imbecility I would deserve to have +fewer lovers and more sense, just as she so frequently advised me to. +And yet here I am, pencil in hand, jotting down the nothings of the +moment, and with every prospect of continuing to do so for two weeks at +least. For (why was I born such a chatterbox!) I have seen my fate, and +must talk to some one about him, if only to myself, nature never having +meant me to keep silence on any living topic that interests me. + +Yes, with lovers in Boston, lovers in New York, and a most determined +suitor on the other side of our own home-walls in Peekskill, I have +fallen victim to the grave face and methodical ways of a person I need +not name, since he is the only gentleman in this whole town, except--But +I won't except anybody. Charles Knollys has no peer here or anywhere, +and this I am ready to declare, after only one sight of his face and one +look from his eye, though to no one but you, my secret, non-committal +confidant--for to acknowledge to any human being that my admiration +could be caught, or my heart touched, by a person who had not sued two +years at my feet, would be to abdicate an ascendency I am so accustomed +to I could not see it vanish without pain. Besides, who knows how I +shall feel to-morrow? Meeley Butterworth never shows any hesitation in +uttering her opinion either of men or things, but then her opinion never +changes, whilst mine is a very thistle-down, blowing hither and thither +till I cannot follow its wanderings myself. It is one of my charms, +certain fools say, but that is nonsense. If my cheeks lacked color and +my eyes were without sparkle, or even if I were two inches taller +instead of being the tiniest bit of mortal flesh to be found amongst all +the young ladies of my age in our so-called society, I doubt if the +lightness of my mind would meet with the approbation of even the warmest +woman-lovers of this time. As it is, it just passes, and sometimes, as +to-night, for instance, when I can hardly see to inscribe these lines on +this page for the vision of two grave, if not quietly reproving eyes +which float between it and me, I almost wish I had some of Meeley's +responsible characteristics, instead of being the airiest, merriest, and +most volatile being that ever tried to laugh down the grandeur of this +dreary old house with its century of memories. + +Ah! that allusion has given me something to say. This house. What is +there about it except its size to make a stranger like me look back +continually over her shoulder in going down the long halls, or even when +nestling comfortably by the great wood-fire in the immense drawing-room? +_I_ am not one of your fanciful ones; but I can no more help doing this, +than I can help wishing Judge Knollys lived in a less roomy mansion with +fewer echoing corners in its innumerable passages. _I_ like brightness +and cheer, at least in my surroundings. If I must have gloom, or a +seriousness which some would call gloom, let me have it in individuals +where there is some prospect of a blithe, careless-hearted little midget +effecting a change, and not in great towering walls and endless floors +which no amount of sunshine or laughter could ever render homelike, or +even comfortable. + +But there! If one has the man, one must have the home, so I had better +say no more against the home till I am quite sure I do not want the man. +For--Well, well, I am not a fool, but I _did_ hear something just then, +a something which makes me tremble yet, though I have spent five good +minutes trilling the gayest songs I know. + +I think it is very inconsiderate of the witches to bother thus a +harmless mite like myself, who only asks for love, light, and money +enough to buy a ribbon or a jewel when the fancy takes her, which is not +as often as my enemies declare. And now a question! Why are my enemies +always to be found among the girls, and among the plainest of them too? +I never heard a man say anything against me, though I have sometimes +surprised a look on their faces (I saw it to-day) which might signify +reproof if it were not accompanied by a smile showing anything but +displeasure. + +But this is a digression, as Meeley would say. What I want to do, but +which I seem to find it very difficult to do, is to tell how I came to +be here, and what I have seen since I came. First, then, to be very +short about the matter, I am here because the old folks--that is, my +father and Mr. Knollys, have decided Charles and I should know each +other. In thought, I courtesy to the decision; I think we ought to too. +For while many other men are handsomer or better known, or have more +money, alas! than he, he alone has a way of drawing up to one's side +with an air that captivates the eye and sets the heart trembling, a +heart, moreover, that never knew before it could tremble, except in the +presence of great worldly prosperity and beautiful, beautiful things. +So, as this experience is new, I am dutifully obliged for the excitement +it gives me, and am glad to be here, awesome as the place is, and +destitute of any such pleasures as I have been accustomed to in the gay +cities where I have hitherto spent most of my time. + +But there! I am rambling again. I have come to X., as you now see, for +good and sufficient reasons, and while this house is one of consequence +and has been the resort of many notable people, it is a little lonesome, +our only neighbor being a young man who has a fine enough appearance, +but who has already shown his admiration of me so plainly--of course he +was in the road when I drove up to the house--that I lost all interest +in him at once, such a nonsensical liking at first sight being, as I +take it, a tribute only to my audacious little travelling bonnet and the +curl or two which will fall out on my cheek when I move my head about +too quickly, as I certainly could not be blamed for doing, in driving +into a place where I was expected to make myself happy for two weeks. + +He, then, is out of these chronicles. When I say his name is Obadiah +Trohm, you will probably be duly thankful. But he is not as stiff and +biblical as his name would lead you to expect. On the contrary, he is +lithe, graceful, and suave to a point which makes Charles Knollys' +judicial face a positive relief to the eye and such little understanding +as has been accorded me. + +I cannot write another word. It is twelve o'clock, and though I have the +cosiest room in the house, all chintz and decorated china, I find myself +listening and peering just as I did down-stairs in their great barn of a +drawing-room. I wonder if any very dreadful things ever happened in this +house? I will ask old Mr. Knollys to-morrow, or--or Mr. Charles. + + * * * * * + +I am sorry I was so inquisitive; for the stories Charles told me--I +thought I had better not trouble the old gentleman--have only served to +people the shadows of this rambling old house with figures of whose +acquaintance I am likely to be more or less shy. One tale in particular +gave me the shivers. It was about a mother and daughter who both loved +the same man (it seems incredible, girls so seldom seeing with the eyes +of their mothers), and it was the daughter who married him, while the +mother, broken-hearted, fled from the wedding and was driven up to the +great door, here, in a coach, dead. They say that the coach still +travels the road just before some calamity to the family,--a phantom +coach which floats along in shadow, turning the air about it to mist +that chills the marrow in the bones of the unfortunate who sees it. I am +going to see it myself some day, the real coach, I mean, in which this +tragic event took place. It is still in the stable, Charles tells me. I +wonder if I will have the courage to sit where that poor devoted mother +breathed out her miserable existence. I shall endeavor to do so if only +to defy the fate which seems to be closing in upon me. + +Charles is an able lawyer, but his argument in favor of close bonnets +_versus_ bewitching little pokes with a rose or two in front, was very +weak, I thought, to-day. He seemed to think so himself, after a while; +for when, as the only means of convincing him of the weakness of the +cause he was advocating, I ran up-stairs and put on a poke similar to +the aforesaid, he retracted at once and let the case go by default. For +which I, and the poke, made suitable acknowledgments, to the great +amusement of papa Knollys, who was on my side from the first. + +Not much going on to-day. Yet I have never felt merrier. Oh, ye hideous, +bare old walls! Won't I make you ring if---- + + * * * * * + +I won't have it! I won't have that smooth, persistent hypocrite pushing +his way into my presence, when my whole heart and attention belong to a +man who would love me if he only could get his own leave to do so. +Obadiah Trohm has been here to-day, on one pretext or another, three +times. Once he came to bring some very choice apples--as if I cared for +apples! The second time he had a question of great importance, no doubt, +to put to Charles, and as Charles was in my company, the whole interview +lasted, let us say, a good half-hour at least. The third time he came, +it was to see _me_, which, as it was now evening, meant talk, talk, talk +in the great drawing-room, with just a song interpolated now and then, +instead of a cosy chat in the window-seat of the pretty Flower Parlor, +with only one pair of ears to please and one pair of eyes to watch. +Master Trohm was intrusive, and, if no one felt it but myself, it is +because Charles Knollys has set himself up an ideal of womanhood to +which I am a contradiction. But that will not affect the end. A woman +may be such a contradiction and yet win, if her heart is in the struggle +and she has, besides, a certain individuality of her own which appeals +to the eye and heart if not to the understanding. I do not despair of +seeing Charles Knollys' forehead taking a very deep frown at sight of +his handsome and most attentive neighbor. Heigho! why don't I answer +Meeley Butterworth's last letter? Am I ashamed to tell her that I have +to limit my effusion to just four pages because I have commenced a +diary? + + * * * * * + +I declare I begin to regard it a misfortune to have dimples. I never +have regarded it so before when I have seen man after man succumb to +them, but _now_ they have become my bane, for they attract two admirers, +just at the time they should attract but one, and it is upon the wrong +man they flash the oftenest; why, I leave it to all true lovers to +explain. As a consequence, Master Trohm is beginning to assume an air of +superiority, and Charles, who may not believe in dimples, but who on +that very account, perhaps, seems to be always on the lookout for them, +shrinks more or less into the background, as is not becoming in a man +with so many claims to respect, if not to love. _I_ want to feel that +each one of these precious fourteen days contains all that it can of +delight and satisfaction, and how can I when Obadiah--oh, the charming +and romantic name!--holds my crewels, instead of Charles, and whispers +words which, coming from other lips, would do more than waken my +dimples! + +But if I must have a suitor, just when a suitor is not wanted, let me at +least make him useful. Charles shall read his own heart in this man's +passion. + + * * * * * + +I don't know why, but I have taken a dislike to the Flower Parlor. It +now vies with the great drawing-room in my disregard. Yesterday, in +crossing it, I felt a chill, so sudden and so penetrating, that I +irresistibly thought of the old saying, "Some one is walking over my +grave." _My grave!_ where lies it, and why should I feel the shudder of +it now? Am I destined to an early death? The bounding life in my veins +says no. But I never again shall like that room. It has made me think. + + * * * * * + +I have not only sat in the old coach, but I had (let me drop the words +slowly, they are so precious) I--I have had--a _kiss_--given me there. +Charles gave me this kiss; he could not help it. I was sitting on the +seat in front, in a sort of mock mirth he was endeavoring to frown upon, +when suddenly I glanced up and our eyes met, and--He says it was the +sauciness of my dimples (oh, those old dimples! they seem to have stood +me in good stead after all); but I say it was my sincere affection which +drew him, for he stooped like a man forgetful of everything in the whole +wide world but the little trembling, panting being before him, and gave +me one of those caresses which seals a woman's fate forever, and made +me, the feather-brained and thoughtless coquette, a slave to this +large-minded and true-hearted man for all my life hereafter. + +Why I should be so happy over this event is beyond my understanding. +That he should be in the seventh heaven of delight is only to be +expected, but that I should find myself tripping through this gloomy old +house like one treading on air is a mystery, to the elucidation of which +I can only give my dimples. My reason can make nothing out of it. I, who +thought of nothing short of a grand establishment in Boston, money, +servants, and a husband who would love me blindly whatever my faults, +have given my troth--you will say my lips, but the one means the +other--to a man who will never be known outside of his own county, never +be rich, never be blind even, for he frowns upon me as often as he +smiles, and, worst of all, who lives in a house so vast and so full of +tragic suggestion that it might well awaken doleful anticipations in +much more serious-minded persons than myself. + +And yet I am happy, so happy that I have even attempted to make the +acquaintance of the grim old portraits and weak pastels which line the +walls of many of these bedrooms. Old Mr. Knollys caught me courtesying +just now before one of these ancestral beauties, whose face seemed to +hold a faint prophecy of my own, and perceiving by my blushes that this +was something more than a mere childish freak on my part, he chucked me +under the chin and laughingly asked, how long it was likely to be before +he might have the honor of adding my pretty face to the collection. +Which should have made me indignant, only I am not in an indignant mood +just now. + + * * * * * + +Why have I been so foolish? Why did I not let my over-fond neighbor know +from the beginning that I detested him, instead of--But what have I done +anyway? A smile, a nod, a laughing word mean nothing. When one has eyes +which persist in dancing in spite of one's every effort to keep them +demure, men who become fools are apt to call one a coquette, when a +little good sense would teach them that the woman who smiles always has +some other way of showing her regard to the man she really favors. I +could not help being on merry terms with Mr. Trohm, if only to hide the +effect another's presence has on me. But he thinks otherwise, and to-day +I had ample reason for seeing why his good looks and easy manners have +invariably awakened distrust in me rather than admiration. Master Trohm +is vindictive, and I should be afraid of him, if I had not observed in +him the presence of another passion which will soon engross all his +attention and make him forget me as soon as ever I become Charles' wife. +Money is his idol, and as fortune seems to favor him, he will soon be +happy in the mere pleasure of accumulation. But this is not relating +what happened to-day. + +We were walking in the shrubbery (by _we_ I naturally mean Charles and +myself), and he was saying things which made me at the same time happy +and a bit serious, when I suddenly felt myself under the spell of some +baleful influence that filled me with a dismay I could neither +understand nor escape from. + +As this could not proceed from Charles, I turned to look about me, when +I encountered the eyes of Obadiah Trohm, who was leaning on the fence +separating his grounds from those of Mr. Knollys, looking directly at +us. If I flinched at this surveillance, it was but the natural +expression of my indignation. His face wore a look calculated to +frighten any one, and though he did not respond to the gesture I made +him, I felt that my only chance of escaping a scene was to induce +Charles to leave me before he should see what I saw in the lowering +countenance of his intrusive neighbor. As the situation demanded +self-possession and the exercise of a ready wit, and as these are +qualities in which I am not altogether deficient, I succeeded in +carrying out my intention sooner even than I expected. Charles hurried +from my presence at the first word, and proceeded towards the house +without seeing Trohm, and I, quivering with dread, turned towards the +man whom I felt, rather than saw, approaching me. + +He met me with a look I shall never forget. I have had lovers--too many +of them,--and this is not the first man I have been compelled to meet +with rebuff and disdain, but never in the whole course of my none too +extended existence have I been confronted by such passion or overwhelmed +with such bitter recrimination. He seemed like a man beside himself, yet +he was quiet, too quiet, and while his voice did not rise above a +whisper, and he approached no nearer than the demands of courtesy +required, he produced so terrifying an effect upon me that I longed to +cry for help, and would have done so, but that my throat closed with +fright, and I could only gurgle forth a remonstrance, too faint even for +him to hear. + +"You have played with a man's best feelings," he said. "You have led me +to believe that I had only to speak to have you for my own. Are you +simply foolish, or are you wicked? Did you care for me at all, or was it +only your wish to increase the number of men in your train? This one" +(here his hand pointed quiveringly towards the house) "has enjoyed a +happiness denied me. His hand has touched yours, his lips--" Here his +words became almost unintelligible till his purpose gave him strength, +and he cried: "But notwithstanding this, notwithstanding any vows you +may have exchanged, I have claims upon you that I will not yield. I who +have loved no woman before you, will have such a hand in your fate that +you will never be able to separate yourself from the influence I shall +exert over you. I will not intrude between you and your lover; I will +not affect dislike or disturb your outer life with any vain display of +my hatred or my passion, but I will work upon your secret thoughts, and +create a slowly increasing dread in the inner sanctuary of your heart +till you wish you had called up the deadliest of serpents in your +pathway rather than the latent fury of Obadiah Trohm. You are a girl +now; when you are married and become a mother, you will understand me. +For the present I leave you. The shadow of this old house which has +never seen much happiness within it will soon rest upon your thoughtless +head. What that will not do, your own inherent weakness will. The woman +who trifles with a strong man's heart has a flaw in her nature which +will work out her own destruction in time. I can afford to let you enjoy +your prospective honeymoon in peace. Afterwards--" He cast a threatening +look towards the decaying structure behind me, and was silent. But that +silence did not unloose my tongue. I was absolutely speechless. + +"Ten brides have crossed yonder threshold," he presently went on in a +low musing tone freighted with horrible fatality. "One--and she was the +girl whose mother was driven up to these doors dead--lived to take her +grandchildren on her knees. The rest died early, and most of them +unhappily. Oh, I have studied the traditions of your future home! _You_ +will live, but of all the brides who have triumphed in the honorable +name of Knollys, you will lead the saddest life and meet the gloomiest +end notwithstanding you stand before me now, with loose locks flying in +the wind, and a heart so gay that even my despair can barely pale the +roses on your cheek." + +This was the raving of a madman. I recognized it as such, and took a +little heart. How could he see into my future? How could he prophesy +evil to one over whom he will have no control? to one watched over and +beloved by a man like Charles? He is a dreamer, a fanatic. His talk +about the flaw in my nature is nonsense, and as for the fate lowering +over my head, in the shadows falling from the toppling old house in +which I am likely to take up my abode--that is only frenzy, and I would +be unworthy of happiness to heed it. As I realized this, my indignation +grew, and, uttering a few contemptuous words, I was hurrying away when +he stopped me with a final warning. + +"Wait!" he said, "women like you cannot keep either their joys or their +miseries to themselves. But I advise you not to take Charles Knollys +into your confidence. If you do, a duel will follow, and if I have not +the legal acumen of your intended, I have an eye and a hand before which +he must fall, if our passions come to an issue. So beware! never while +you live betray what has passed between us at this interview, unless the +weariness of a misplaced affection should come to you, and with it the +desire to be rid of your husband." + +A frightful threat which, unfortunately perhaps, has sealed my lips. Oh, +why should such monsters live! + + * * * * * + +I have been all through the house to-day with old Mr. Knollys. Every +room was opened for my inspection, and I was bidden to choose which +should be refurnished for my benefit. It was a gruesome trip, from which +I have returned to my own little nook of chintz as to a refuge. Great +rooms which for years have been the abode of spiders, are not much to my +liking, but I chose out two which at least have fireplaces in them, and +these are to be made as cheerful as circumstances will permit. I hope +when I again see them, it will not be by the light of a waning November +afternoon, when the few leaves still left to flutter from the trees +blow, soggy and wet, against the panes of the solitary windows, or lie +in sodden masses at the foot of the bare trunks, which cluster so +thickly on the lawn as to hide all view of the highroad. I was meant for +laughter and joy, flashing lights, and the splendors of ballrooms. Why +have I chosen, then, to give up the great world and settle down in this +grimmest of grim old houses in a none too lively village? I think it is +because I love Charles Knollys, and so, no matter how my heart sinks in +the dim shadows that haunt every spot I stray into, I will be merry, +will think of Charles instead of myself, and so live down the unhappy +prophecies uttered by the wretch who, with his venomous words, has +robbed the future of whatever charm my love was likely to cast upon it. +The fact that this man left the town to-day for a lengthy trip abroad +should raise my spirits more than it has. If we were going now, Charles +and I--But why dream of a Paradise whose doors remain closed to you? It +is here our honeymoon is destined to be passed; within these walls and +in sight of the bare boughs rattling at this moment against the panes. + +I made a misstatement when I said that I had gone into all the rooms of +the house this afternoon. _I did not enter the Flower Parlor._ + + * * * * * + +I had been married a month and had, as I thought, no further use for +this foolish diary. So one evening when Charles was away, I attempted to +burn it. + +But when I had flung myself down before the blazing logs of my bedroom +fire (I was then young enough to love to crouch for hours on the rug in +my lonely room, seeking for all I delighted in and longed for in the +glowing embers), some instinct, or was it a premonition? made me +withhold from destruction a record which coming events might make worthy +of preservation. That was five years ago, and to-day I have reopened the +secret drawer in which this simple book has so long lain undisturbed, +and am once more penning lines destined perhaps to pass into oblivion +together with the others. Why? I do not know. There is no change in my +married life. I have no trouble, no anxiety, no reason for dread; +yet--Well, well, some women are made for the simple round of domestic +duties, and others are as out of place in the nursery and kitchen as +butterflies in a granary. I want just the things Charles cannot give me. +I have home, love, children, all that some women most crave, and while I +idolize my husband and know of nothing sweeter than my babies, I yet +have spells of such wretched weariness, that it would be a relief to me +to be a little less comfortable if only I might enjoy a more brilliant +existence. But Charles is not rich; sometimes I think he is poor, and +however much I may desire change, I cannot have it. Heigho! and, what is +worse, I haven't had a new dress in a year; I who so love dress, and +become it so well! Why, if it is my lot to go shabby, and tie up my +dancing ringlets with faded ribbons, was I made with the figure of a +fairy and given a temperament which, without any effort on my part, +makes me, diminutive as I am, the centre of every group I enter? If I +were plain, or shy, or even self-contained, I might be happy here, but +now--There! there! I will go kiss little William, and lay Loreen's baby +arm about my neck and see if the wicked demons will fly away. Charles is +too busy for me to intrude upon him in that horrid Flower Parlor. + + * * * * * + +I was never superstitious till I entered this house; but now I believe +in every sort of thing a sane woman should not. Yesterday, after a +neglect of five years, I brought out my diary. To-day I have to record +in it that there was a reason for my doing so. Obadiah Trohm has +returned home. I saw him this morning leaning over his fence in the same +place and in very much the same attitude as on that day when he +frightened me so, a month before my wedding. + +But he did not frighten me to-day. He merely looked at me very sharply +and with a less offensive admiration than in the early days of our first +acquaintance. At which I made him my best courtesy. I was not going to +remind him of the past in our new relations, and he, thankful perhaps +for this, took off his hat with a smile I am trying even yet to explain +to myself. Then we began to talk. He had travelled everywhere and I had +been nowhere; he wore the dress and displayed the manners of the great +world, while I had only a hungry desire to do the same. As for fashion, +I needed all my beauty and the fading sparkle of my old animation to +enable me to hold up my head before him. + +But as for liking him, I did not. I could admire his appearance, but he +himself attracted me no more than when he had words of angry fury on his +tongue. He is a gentleman, and one who has seen the world, but in other +ways he is no more to be compared with my Charles than his pert new +house, built in his absence, with the grand old structure with whose +fatality he once threatened me. + +I do not think he wants to threaten me with disaster now. Time closes +such wounds as his very effectually. I wish we had some of his money. + + * * * * * + +I have always heard that the wives of the Knollys, whatever their +misfortune, have always loved their husbands. I do not think I am any +exception to the rule. When Charles has leisure to give me an hour from +his musty old books, the place here seems lively enough, and the +children's voices do not sound so shrill. But these hours are so +infrequent. If it were not for Mr. Trohm's journal (Did I mention that +he had lent me a journal of his travels?) I should often eat my heart +out with loneliness. I am beginning to like the man better as I follow +him from city to city of the old world. If he had ever mentioned me in +its pages, I would not read another line in it, but he seems to have +expended both his love and spite when he bade me farewell in the garden +underlying these bleak old walls. + + * * * * * + +I am becoming as well acquainted with Mr. Trohm's handwriting as with my +own. I read and read and read in his journal, and only stop when the +dreaded midnight hour comes with its ghostly suggestions and the +unaccountable noises which make this old dwelling so uncanny. Charles +often finds me curled up over this book, and when he does he sighs. Why? + + * * * * * + +I have been teaching Loreen to dance. Oh, how merry it has made me! I +think I will be happier now. We have the large upper hall to take steps +in, and when she makes a misstep we laugh, and that is a good sound to +hear in this old place. If I could only have a little money to buy her a +fresh frock and some ribbons, I would feel perfectly satisfied; but I do +believe Charles is getting poorer and poorer every day; the place costs +so much to keep up, he says, and when his father died there were debts +to be paid which leaves us, his innocent inheritors, very straitened. +Master Trohm has no such difficulties. He has money enough. But I don't +like the man for all that, polite as he is to us all. He seems to quite +adore Loreen, and as to William, he pets him till I feel almost +uncomfortable at times. + + * * * * * + +What shall I do? I am invited to New York, _I_, and Charles says I may +go, too--only I have nothing to wear. Oh, for some money! a little +money! it is my right to have some money; but Charles tells me he can +only spare enough to pay my expenses, that my Sunday frock looks very +well, and that, even if it did not, I am pretty enough to do without +fine clothes, and other nonsense like that,--sweet enough, but totally +without point, in fact. If I am pretty, all the more I need a little +finery to set me off, and, besides, to go to New York without +money--why, I should be perfectly miserable. Charles himself ought to +realize this, and be willing to sell his old books before he would let +me go into this whirl of temptation without a dollar to spend. As he +don't, I must devise some plan of my own for obtaining a little money, +for I won't give up my trip--the first offered me since I was +married,--and neither will I go away and come back without a gift for my +two girls, who have grown to womanhood without a jewel to adorn them or +a silk dress to make them look like gentlemen's children. But how get +money without Charles knowing it? Mr. Trohm is such a good friend, he +might lend me a little, but I don't know how to ask him without +recalling to his mind certain words long since forgotten by him perhaps, +but never to be forgotten by me, feather-brained as many people think +me. Is there any one else? + + * * * * * + +I wonder if some things are as wicked as people say they are. I---- + + * * * * * + +Here the diary breaks off abruptly. But we know what followed. The +forgery, the discovery of it by her suave but secret enemy, his +unnatural revenge, and the never-dying enmity which led to the tragic +events it has been my unhappy fortune to relate at such length. Poor +Althea! with thy name I write _finis_ to these pages. May the dust lie +lightly on thy breast under the shadow of the Flower Parlor, through +which thy footsteps passed with such dread in the old days of thy +youthful beauty and innocence! + + +THE END + + + + +WORKS BY Anna Katharine Green + + The Leavenworth Case. + A Strange Disappearance. + The Sword of Damocles. + Hand and Ring. + The Mill Mystery. + Behind Closed Doors. + Cynthia Wakeham's Money. + Marked "Personal." + Miss Hurd: An Enigma. + Dr. Izard. + That Affair Next Door. + Lost Man's Lane. + Agatha Webb. + The Old Stone House. + The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock. + X. Y. Z. A Detective Story. + 7 to 12. A Detective Story. + The Defence of the Bride. + Risifi's Daughter. 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