"I"m not in a position to make suggestions myself that are really valuable," Frank replied, "and of the hundreds that have been made there has been but one that really appealed to me. That came from my Colorado friend--Miss Renner; but this is a matter where you must be the sole judge, and I want you to make your own selection, regardless of any other person"s ideas."
"Miss Renner is a very keen woman," Jack said, a gleam of curiosity in his manner. "I should like to hear her proposition; it is sure to be original, anyhow."
Frank answered rather hesitatingly. "At first, I was enthusiastic about it, but I fear you will not approve of trusting your life to a woman, and I don"t urge it in any way; Miss Renner wants us to employ Silvia Holland."
"Miss Holland defend me? Will she--would she be willing to do it?" Jack asked, in startled tones.
"Carroll Renner says she will," Frank answered, "and she is curiously correct in her judgments of people, and they have been pretty close this last summer."
Earl gave a sigh of relief. "Then by all means employ her at once," he said. "I not trust my life to a woman? Dear Frank, when is there ever a time when man does not trust his fate to woman? The infant owes his existence to a woman; the boy would make sad progress in the world were it not for the woman. The young man would drop back to barbarism but for her, and where would you and I be but for that dear, sweet sister of ours? Simply because the Twentieth Century woman is breaking away from the old, destructive life of the parasite and endeavoring to fulfill her destiny on earth, is no reason for believing that she does not still possess all the n.o.ble qualities that have characterized her since the world began. Not only have I no prejudices against, but a decided partiality for a woman defender," and so the matter was settled.
Silvia went to consult with Earl every day that she was in the city, and strongly advised against any attempt to secure bail, as sure to open anew the charges and innuendoes which were already but dimly remembered by the New York public. She took personal charge of every phase of the case, and although Frank was a.s.sociated with her he asked few questions and she volunteered but little information. A week later she spent several days in Boston and stopped at Providence on her way back, but aside from telling his family where she had been she gave no intimation either of her purposes or the results of her trip, and cautioned every one to give nothing to the press.
"What did you do with the box of candied fruit you bought at Thompson"s candy store when you were in Boston?" she demanded of Dr. Earl at her first interview after her return.
For a moment he looked dazed. "Box of candied fruit--I didn"t buy any--oh, yes; wait a minute. While at Magnolia, I wished to pay a visit to some old friends who live in East Boston; they have a youngster in the family, and I bought the candied fruit for her at the same time I bought the pecans which I sent to Alice; but do you know, a curious thing happened to that package of candied fruit. I put it on the seat beside me while crossing the ferry, and then took up a magazine article I was much interested in, and when I rose to leave the boat the package was gone. I hadn"t been conscious that any one was near enough to take it, but there was a crowd on the boat, and my package disappeared; naturally, I didn"t mention it to my friends."
The look she bent upon him was full of perplexity. "Of course it can"t be traced," she said to herself. "Did the box have the name of the store, or any name of a manufacturer or dealer upon it? Try and remember," she said.
"Really, I cannot say; I didn"t notice, except that the clerk wrapped it in plain white paper," he replied.
"Were you in Providence on this trip, or have you been there recently?"
she continued.
"Not in four years," he answered and she gave an involuntary sigh of relief.
"Have you expressed any annoyance to your medical friends over the development of tuberculosis in the knee of little Alice Bell, or have you stated that the case baffled you?" she asked with considerable concern.
"Yes, I have said to at least two surgeons that I was annoyed at what I believe to be the recurrence of an old condition, but never that I was baffled. It is perfectly simple."
"How I wish I could find that letter," she said, more to herself than to him. "The post-office department has ransacked the country for it, but it seems to have disappeared as completely as did your package on the boat.
I do wish I could clear up two or three things to my own satisfaction, but you can"t help me, and there is no need of annoying you with them."
She looked about the small room set aside for the consultation of prisoners with their counsel, but gained no inspiration from the bare walls, and rose to go, extending her hand as she did so.
"You do believe in my innocence?" he asked.
She gave no direct answer in words, but as her eyes met his he knew that he was no longer alone in his struggles, and whatever her belief in the merits of his case, her faith in him was supreme.
"It is not a question of what I believe," she said at last, "but of what the State can prove on the one hand, and what we shall be able to show on the other."
"You are worried," he said quickly.
"Yes," she said, "I am; your life may be at stake, and if I fail to clear you every one in the country will say that I should never have taken this case, and they will be right. Even now, Dr. Earl, are you certain it would not be better to employ counsel eminent in this branch of the profession? I shall be very glad to serve in second place."
"This is no time for flattery or false sentiment, and I shall attempt neither," he said, "as you know, I prefer thorough methods in all professions, and those methods require rather more of the psychological than the usual pract.i.tioner employs. I think we are quite agreed in that. For that and other ample reasons I prefer to leave my case just where it is."
The look that the blue eyes flashed up to the brown ones was pleased and proud, and something that she saw there sent a quick flush to her cheek, and though her heart was heavy her step was light as she left the gloomy building.
Her car was waiting at the door, and calmly seated therein was Carroll Renner. Silvia greeted her eagerly. "Of all persons on earth you are the one I was most wishing to see," she said. "How did you happen to come here?"
"I got your telepathy, Silvia, dear," she answered, with a squeeze of the hand, "when on mischief bent about three blocks from here, and decided to come by this cheerful edifice on the chance that you might be here. I saw the car, introduced myself to your chauffeur and climbed in.
I must say," she added, "that you were an unconscionable time. Now, what can I do for you?"
"Let"s go and have luncheon somewhere," answered Silvia, "and I"ll tell you all about it."
"No," said the newspaper woman, "I have to interview a Mrs. Somebody or other who has just come to town to teach us how to connect our trolleys with psychic wires, or our subliminal minds with ethereal vibrations.
She"s stopping at the Buckingham, and if you want to take me out there I"ll be glad of the lift, for I"m short on time, and we can talk on the way."
"Surely, I"ll take you gladly," Silvia answered, giving the directions to the chauffeur, "and since I"ve wasted so much of your afternoon, I"ll send back for you, and have you taken to the office if you"re going there, or to your own hotel, unless you"ll come and dine with me; I"m alone to-night."
"Thank you," Miss Renner answered; "I would be glad to get back home, for I"ve a wretched headache; not that I"m particularly comfortable there, for it"s been abominably warm the last few days."
Silvia gave a sigh of relief. "Has it? Well, that makes it easier for me to ask a favor of you. But first tell me, Carroll, are you timid--nervous?"
"Do you mean am I given to "seein" things at night"?" Carroll asked. "I don"t know how it will be after I have my seance with Mrs. Whoever-it-is I"m going to see, but when I"m reasonably abstemious I"m not given to ingrowing nerves. What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to go and live in what was Mrs. Bell"s home. I had paid the rent for her up to the end of October, and after her death I took charge of the place. Of course, I couldn"t send Alice back there, but I went and got her clothes and toys and I"ve been there a number of times. I had a new lock put on, and have taken a maid there and kept it in order, so all you"ll have to do will be to send up your trunk."
"Certainly I"ll go," Carroll answered soberly, "but what do you expect to gain by it? Of course you have a motive."
"Yes," answered the other woman, "I have, but it isn"t the sort of thing one can speak of, except in the closest confidence. I haven"t mentioned it even to Frank Earl, whose interest in this case is at least as great as mine, and you mustn"t. I haven"t been practicing law so very long, but I"ve heard that all lawyers, who are really worth while, are superst.i.tious about talking over a case before it goes to trial. They don"t tell their clients more than a bare outline, and I believe it is true, for surely I"ve found myself more fanciful than I ever was before.
The day before Mrs. Bell was found dead in her room she wrote to Alice; it was a very short letter, and she excused herself by saying that she was very tired, having written me a long letter. Naturally, Alice showed me the letter, and I remarked at the time that it was strange mine hadn"t come by the same mail. Then after the tragedy it slipped my mind for a day or so, and when I made inquiries it had not been received, or if it had, the servants said it was forwarded to me here. I made more inquiries, but nothing could be found in my office, though there was a bunch of mail from Nutwood. The longer I thought of it the more anxious I became to find that letter, and when I was employed in this case it seemed to me absolutely imperative that I should do so. I have seen all the postal authorities here who could have any knowledge of the letter, or its possible disposition, and have written to Washington, but all in vain. I am sure it would clear up several matters that are troubling me greatly."
"Couldn"t the letter have been returned to Mrs. Bell"s apartment, through some error in the address? She would not have mailed an important letter without the return address," said Carroll practically.
"That was my idea exactly, so when it didn"t come I looked for it there; several letters addressed to her had been delivered, but there was no sign of this one. Now, I can"t tell why, but I feel as if I want somebody in that house. Was there ever anything more utterly unreasonable than that? I wouldn"t dare tell any one but you; I can"t explain it, but neither can I rid myself of the feeling, and I was going to seek you, to ask if you will undertake this for me. All I want is that you shall put in whatever time you spend in your own apartment there. Nothing may come of it, but you have no idea what a relief it will be to me if you will not be too much inconvenienced, and you have no dread of the rather morbid a.s.sociations."
"I"ll do it," Carroll answered. "There are too many other people in the building for me to be afraid of anything alive, and as for the dead--well, I shouldn"t be afraid of her either. I can"t tell you why, but I believe this is a good move." She gave a little shiver. "I hope the new lock is a strong one, Silvia; I should hate to have the murderer come back to the scene of his crime."
CHAPTER XVIII
DR. EARL IS INDICTED FOR MURDER
The grand jury returned an indictment against Dr. John Earl for the murder of Mrs. Emma Bell. There could be but one grade of homicide in this kind of a case, and he was accordingly charged with murder in the first degree and his trial was set for Tuesday of the following week.
Frank came to see him early Sat.u.r.day morning. "The neighbors of Mrs.
Bell will be at the trial in full force to tell of your daily visits there at all sorts of unG.o.dly hours. Their gossip indicates that they believe you had a very serious affair on with her, and this, together with the claim of the surgeons that you botched the operation on the child"s leg, furnishes a fairly powerful motive for the crime, at least in the public mind. Jack," he asked, with a mixture of doubt and anxiety, "did you really have an affair with her?"
"Nonsense, Frank, nonsense," answered his brother. "It is true that I went there at rather unusual hours; I was pretty busy, and when I found she was in the habit of sitting up until after midnight I used to drop in there when I was through for the day. I don"t think I ever went there later than nine-thirty or ten, and I seldom stayed more than fifteen or twenty minutes. Later on I was, and I still am, greatly worried about the child. Of course my operation didn"t produce tuberculosis; that is silly, but it serves the purposes of jealous rivals. When I found this tubercular condition developing I asked her mother a great many questions; it seemed to me so improbable that it should have occurred when the child was really having better care than usual, judging from their surroundings, that I sought to learn whether it was not a recurrence of some trouble she had apparently outgrown, and from her mother"s answers I think there is absolutely no doubt that this is true.
You will readily see, under the circ.u.mstances, that I did not time my visits watch in hand, but the charge of a _liaison_ there would be ridiculous were it not so vulgar and malicious. There was some sort of a tragedy in the woman"s life, but I have no idea whatever as to its nature."
"With your handwriting on both the outside and inside of the package, your intimate relations with the family, the complications of this surgical case, the fact that you were practically in Boston at the time the package was mailed, and the total lack of suspicion of any one else," said Frank, checking the indictments off on his fingers, "they have a fairly convincing case against you, old man, and if you know anything that can break these theories down now is the time to divulge it."
"Naturally, if there were anything of the kind you imply, it would be easier for me to discuss it with you than with my leading counsel," his brother replied, "but equally, of course, in such a case, I should not have employed a woman to defend me; certainly not such a rabid feminist as Miss Holland. I have told her all I know, all I can conjecture, but candidly, Frank, I fear she is greatly worried over the outcome. I know the difficulty in overcoming gossip and prejudice and jealousy, and if that cannot be done I fear I must pay the penalty of being the target of their shafts. Crushing as that is, there is one haunting thought that is even more intolerable," he concluded.