Kneeling upon the floor, he laid his ear to the combination plate, and slowly turned the k.n.o.b. As he had surmised, it was locked at only a "day com."--upon one number. His keen ear caught the faint warning click as the tumbler was disturbed; he used the clue--the handle turned. He swung the door wide open.
The interior of the safe was bare--not even a sc.r.a.p of paper rested within the hollow iron cube.
Doctor James rose to his feet and walked back to the bed.
A thick dew had formed upon the dying man"s brow, but there was a mocking, grim smile on his lips and in his eyes.
"I never--saw it before," he said, painfully, "medicine and--burglary wedded! Do you--make the--combination pay--dear Doctor?"
Than that situation afforded, there was never a more rigorous test of Doctor James"s greatness. Trapped by the diabolic humor of his victim into a position both ridiculous and unsafe, he maintained his dignity as well as his presence of mind. Taking out his watch, he waited for the man to die.
"You were--just a shade--too--anxious--about that money. But it never was--in any danger--from you, dear Doctor. It"s safe. Perfectly safe.
It"s all--in the hands--of the bookmakers. Twenty--thousand--Amy"s money. I played it at the races--lost every--cent of it. I"ve been a pretty bad boy, Burglar--excuse me--Doctor, but I"ve been a square sport. I don"t think--I ever met--such an--eighteen-carat rascal as you are, Doctor--excuse me--Burglar, in all my rounds. Is it contrary--to the ethics--of your--gang, Burglar, to give a victim--excuse me--patient, a drink of water?"
Doctor James brought him a drink. He could scarcely swallow it. The reaction from the powerful drug was coming in regular, intensifying waves. But his moribund fancy must have one more grating fling.
"Gambler--drunkard--spendthrift--I"ve been those, but--a doctor-burglar!"
The physician indulged himself to but one reply to the other"s caustic taunts. Bending low to catch Chandler"s fast crystallizing gaze, he pointed to the sleeping lady"s door with a gesture so stern and significant that the prostrate man half-lifted his head, with his remaining strength, to see. He saw nothing; but he caught the cold words of the doctor--the last sounds hie was to hear:
"I never yet--struck a woman."
It were vain to attempt to con such men. There is no curriculum that can reckon with them in its ken. Thev are offshoots from the types whereof men say, "He will do this," or "He will do that." We only know that they exist; and that we can observe them, and tell one another of their bare performances, as children watch and speak of the marionettes.
Yet it were a droll study in egoism to consider these two--one an a.s.sa.s.sin and a robber, standing above his victim; the other baser in his offences, if a lesser law-breaker, lying, abhorred, in the house of the wife he had persecuted, spoiled, and smitten, one a tiger, the other a dog-wolf--to consider each of them sickening at the foulness of the other; and each flourishing out of the mire of his manifest guilt his own immaculate standard--of conduct, if not of honor.
The one retort of Doctor James must have struck home to the other"s remaining shreds of shame and manhood, for it proved the _coup de grace_. A deep blush suffused his face--an ignominious _rosa mortis_; the respiration ceased, and, with scarcely a tremor, Chandler expired.
Close following upon his last breath came the negress, bringing the medicine. With a hand gently pressing upon the closed eyelids, Doctor James told her of the end. Not grief, but a hereditary rapprochement with death in the abstract, moved her to a dismal, watery snuffling, accompanied by her usual jeremiad.
"Dar now! It"s in de Lawd"s hands. He am de jedge ob de transgressor, and de suppo"t of dem in distress. He gwine hab suppo"t us now. Cindy done paid out de last quarter fer dis bottle of physic, and it nebber come to no use."
"Do I understand," asked Doctor James, "that Mrs. Chandler has no money?"
"Money, suh? You know what make Miss Amy fall down and so weak?
Stahvation, sub. Nothin" to eat in dis house but some crumbly crackers in three days. Dat angel sell her finger rings and watch mont"s ago.
Dis fine house, suh, wid de red cyarpets and shiny bureaus, it"s all hired; and de man talkin" scan"lous about de rent. Dat debble--"scuse me, Lawd--he done in Yo" hands fer jedgment, now--he made way wid everything."
The physician"s silence encouraged her to continue. The history that he gleaned from Cindy"s disordered monologue was an old one, of illusion, wilfulness, disaster, cruelty and pride. Standing out from the blurred panorama of her gabble were little clear pictures--an ideal home in the far South; a quickly repented marriage; an unhappy season, full of wrongs and abuse, and, of late, an inheritance of money that promised deliverance; its seizure and waste by the dog-wolf during a two months" absence, and his return in the midst of a scandalous carouse.
Un.o.btruded, but visible between every line, ran a pure white thread through the smudged warp of the story--the simple, all-enduring, sublime love of the old negress, following her mistress unswervingly through everything to the end.
When at last she paused, the physician spoke, asking if the house contained whiskey or liquor of any sort. There was, the old woman informed him, half a bottle of brandy left in the sideboard by the dog-wolf.
"Prepare a toddy as I told you," said Doctor James. "Wake your mistress; have her drink it, and tell her what has happened."
Some ten minutes afterward, Mrs. Chandler entered, supported by old Cindy"s arm. She appeared to be a little stronger since her sleep and the stimulant she had taken. Doctor James had covered, with a sheet, the form upon the bed.
The lady turned her mournful eyes once, with a half-frightened look, toward it, and pressed closer to her loyal protector. Her eyes were dry and bright. Sorrow seemed to have done its utmost with her. The fount of tears was dried; feeling itself paralyzed.
Doctor James was standing near the table, his overcoat donned, his hat and medicine case in his hand. His face was calm and impa.s.sive--practice had inured him to the sight of human suffering. His lambent brown eyes alone expressed a discreet professional sympathy.
He spoke kindly and briefly, stating that, as the hour was late, and a.s.sistance, no doubt, difficult to procure, he would himself send the proper persons to attend to the necessary finalities.
"One matter, in conclusion," said the doctor, pointing to the safe with its still wide-open door. "Your husband, Mrs. Chandler, toward the end, felt that he could not live; and directed me to open that safe, giving me the number upon which the combination is set. In case you may need to use it, you will remember that the number is forty-one. Turn several times to the right; then to the left once; stop at forty-one. He would not permit me to waken you, though he knew the end was near.
"In that safe he said he had placed a sum of money--not large--but enough to enable you to carry out his last request. That was that you should return to your old home, and, in after days, when time shall have made it easier, forgive his many sins against you."
He pointed to the table, where lay an orderly pile of banknotes, surmounted by two stacks of gold coins.
"The money is there--as he described it--eight hundred and thirty dollars. I beg to leave my card with you, in case I can be of any service later on."
So, he had thought of her--and kindly--at the last! So late! And yet the lie fanned into life one last spark of tenderness where she had thought all was turned to ashes and dust. She cried aloud "Rob! Rob!" She turned, and, upon the ready bosom of her true servitor, diluted her grief in relieving tears. It is well to think, also, that in the years to follow, the murderer"s falsehood shone like a little star above the grave of love, comforting her, and gaining the forgiveness that is good in itself, whether asked for or no.
Hushed and soothed upon the dark bosom, like a child, by a crooning, babbling sympathy, at last she raised her head--but the doctor was gone.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Will you go in?" (cartoon from _The Rolling Stone_)]
THE MARQUIS AND MISS SALLY
[Originally published in _Everybody"s Magazine_, June, 1903.]
Without knowing it, Old Bill Bascom had the honor of being overtaken by fate the same day with the Marquis of Borodale.
The Marquis lived in Regent Square, London. Old Bill lived on Limping Doe Creek, Hardeman County, Texas. The cataclysm that engulfed the Marquis took the form of a bursting bubble known as the Central and South American Mahogany and Caoutchouc Monopoly. Old Bill"s Nemesis was in the no less perilous shape of a band of civilized Indian cattle thieves from the Territory who ran off his entire herd of four hundred head, and shot old Bill dead as he trailed after them. To even up the consequences of the two catastrophes, the Marquis, as soon as he found that all he possessed would pay only fifteen shillings on the pound of his indebtedness, shot himself.
Old Bill left a family of six motherless sons and daughters, who found themselves without even a red steer left to eat, or a red cent to buy one with.
The Marquis left one son, a young man, who had come to the States and established a large and well-stocked ranch in the Panhandle of Texas.
When this young man learned the news he mounted his pony and rode to town. There he placed everything he owned except his horse, saddle, Winchester, and fifteen dollars in his pockets, in the hands of his lawyers, with instructions to sell and forward the proceeds to London to be applied upon the payment of his father"s debts. Then he mounted his pony and rode southward.
One day, arriving about the same time, but by different trails, two young chaps rode up to the Diamond-Cross ranch, on the Little Piedra, and asked for work. Both were dressed neatly and sprucely in cowboy costume. One was a straight-set fellow, with delicate, handsome features, short, brown hair, and smooth face, sunburned to a golden brown. The other applicant was stouter and broad-shouldered, with fresh, red complexion, somewhat freckled, reddish, curling hair, and a rather plain face, made attractive by laughing eyes and a pleasant mouth.
The superintendent of the Diamond-Cross was of the opinion that he could give them work. In fact, word had reached him that morning that the camp cook--a most important member of the outfit--had straddled his broncho and departed, being unable to withstand the fire of fun and practical jokes of which he was, ex officio, the legitimate target.
"Can either of you cook?" asked the superintendent.
"I can," said the reddish-haired fellow, promptly. "I"ve cooked in camp quite a lot. I"m willing to take the job until you"ve got something else to offer."
"Now, that"s the way I like to hear a man talk," said the superintendent, approvingly. "I"ll give you a note to Saunders, and he"ll put you to work."
Thus the names of John Bascom and Charles Norwood were added to the pay-roll of the Diamond-Cross. The two left for the round-up camp immediately after dinner. Their directions were simple, but sufficient: "Keep down the arroyo for fifteen miles till you get there." Both being strangers from afar, young, spirited, and thus thrown together by chance for a long ride, it is likely that the comradeship that afterward existed so strongly between them began that afternoon as they meandered along the little valley of the Canada Verda.