"I don"t suppose," he began, "that there"s any use asking you about your movements last night?"
"None," Bobby answered jerkily, "unless you arrest me and take me before those who ask questions with authority."
The detective"s smile widened.
"No matter. I didn"t come to argue with you about that. I was curious to know if you"d tried to see your grandfather"s body."
Bobby shook his head.
"I took it for granted the room was locked."
"Yes," the detective answered, "but some people, it seems, have skilful ways of overcoming locks."
He moved to one side, placing his hand on the door k.n.o.b.
"I"ve come to open doors for you, to give you the opportunity an affectionate grandson must crave."
Bobby hesitated, fighting back his feeling of repulsion, his first instinct to refuse. The detective might take it as an evidence against him. On the other hand, if he went, the man would unquestionably try to tear from a meeting between the living and the dead some valuable confirmation of his theory.
"Well?" the detective said. "What"s the matter? Thought the least I could do was to give you a chance. Wouldn"t do it for everybody. Then everybody hasn"t your affectionate nature."
Bobby advanced.
"For G.o.d"s sake, stop mocking me. I"ll go, since you wish."
The detective opened the door and stood aside to let Bobby pa.s.s.
"Daresay you know the room--the way to it?"
Bobby didn"t answer. He went along the corridor and into the main hall where Katherine had met Silas Blackburn last night. He fought back his aversion and entered the corridor of the old wing. He heard the detective behind him. He was aware of the man"s narrow eyes watching him with a malicious a.s.surance.
Bobby, with a feeling of discomfort, sprung in part from the gloomy pa.s.sageway, paused before the door his grandfather had had the unaccountable whim of entering last night. The detective took a key from his pocket and inserted it in the lock.
"Had some trouble repairing the lock this morning," he said. "That fellow, Jenkins, entered with a heavy hand--a good deal heavier than whoever was here before him."
He opened the door.
"Queerest case I"ve ever seen," he mumbled. "Step in, Mr. Blackburn."
Because of the drawn blinds the room was nearly as dark as the corridor. Bobby entered slowly, his nerves taut. Against the farther wall the bed was like an enormous shadow, without form.
"Stay where you are," the detective warned, "until I give you more light. You know, I wouldn"t want you to touch anything, because the room is exactly as it was when he was murdered!"
Bobby experienced a swift impulse to strangle the brutal word in the detective"s throat. But he stood still while the man went to the bureau, struck a match, and applied it to a candle. The wick burned reluctantly. It flickered in the wind that slipped past the curtain of the open window.
"Come here," the detective commanded roughly.
Bobby dragged himself forward until he stood at the foot of the four-poster bed. The detective lifted the candle and held it beneath the canopy.
"You look all you want now, Mr. Robert Blackburn," he said grimly.
Bobby conquered the desire to close his eyes, to refuse to obey. He stared at his grandfather, and a feeling of wonder grew upon him. For Silas Blackburn rested peacefully in the great bed. His eyes were closed. The thick gray brows were no longer gathered in the frown too familiar to Bobby. The face with its gray beard retained no fear, no record of a great shock.
Bobby glanced at the detective who bent over the bed watching him out of his narrow eyes.
"Why," he asked simply, "do you say he was murdered?"
"He was murdered," the detective answered. "Murdered in cold blood, and, look you here, young fellow, I know who did it. I"m going to strap that man in the electric chair. He"s got just one chance--if he talks out, if he makes a clean breast of it."
Across the body he bent closer. He held the candle so that its light searched Bobby"s face instead of the dead man"s, and the uncertain flame was like an ambush for his eyes.
In response to those intolerable words Bobby"s sick nerves stretched too tight. No masquerade remained before this huntsman who had his victim trapped, and calmly studied his agony. The horror of the accusation shot at him across the body of the man he couldn"t be sure he hadn"t murdered, robbed him of his last control. He cried out hysterically: "Why don"t you do something? For G.o.d"s sake, why don"t you arrest me?"
A chuckle came from the man in ambush behind the yellow flame.
"Listen to the boy! What"s he talking about? Grief for his grandfather. That"s what it is--grief."
"Stop!" Bobby shouted. "It"s what you"ve been accusing me with ever since you stopped me at the station." He indicated the silent form of the old man. "You keep telling me I murdered him. Why don"t you arrest me then? Why don"t you lock me up? Why don"t you put the case on a reasonable basis?"
He waited, trembling. The flame continued to flicker, but the hand holding the candlestick failed to move, and Bobby knew that the eyes didn"t waver, either. He forced his glance from the searching flame. He managed to lower and steady his voice.
"You can"t. That"s the trouble. He wasn"t murdered. The coroner will tell you so. Anybody who looks at him will tell you so. Since you haven"t the nerve to arrest me. I"m going. I"m glad to have had this out with you. Understand. I"m my own master. I do what I please. I go where I please."
At last the candle moved to one side. The detective straightened and walked to Bobby. The mult.i.tude of small lines in his face twitched. His voice was too cold for the fury of his words.
"That"s just what I want you to do, d.a.m.n you--anything you please. I"m accusing n.o.body, but I"m getting somebody. I"ve got somebody right now for this old man"s murder. My man"s going to writhe and burn in the chair, confession or no confession. Now get out of this room since you"re so anxious, and don"t come near it again."
Bobby went. At the end of the corridor he heard the closing of the door, the sc.r.a.ping of the key. He was afraid the detective might follow him to his room to heckle him further. To avoid that he hurried to the lower floor. He wanted to be alone. He must have time to accustom himself to this degrading fate which loomed in the too-close future. Unless they could demolish the detective"s theory he, Bobby Blackburn, would go to the death house.
A fire blazed in the big hall fireplace. Paredes stood with his back to it, smoking and warming his hands. A man sat in the shadow of a deep leather chair, his rough, unpolished boots stretched toward the flaming logs. As he came down the stairs Bobby heard the heavy, rumbling voice of the man in the chair: "Certainly it"s a queer case, but not the way Howells means. I daresay the old fool died what the world will call a natural death. If you smoke so much you will, too, before long."
Bobby tried to slip past, but Paredes saw him.
"Feeling better, Bobby?"
The boots were drawn in. From the depths of the chair arose a figure nearly gigantic in the firelight. The man"s face, at first glance, appeared to be covered with hair. Black and curling, it straggled over his forehead. It circled his mouth, and fell in an unkempt beard down his waistcoat. The huge man must have been as old as Silas Blackburn, but he showed no touch of gray. His only concession to age was the sunken and bloodshot appearance of his eyes.
Bobby and Katherine had always been afraid of this great, grim country pract.i.tioner who had attended their childish illnesses. That sense of an overpowering and incomprehensible personality had lingered. Even through his graver fear Bobby felt a sharp discomfort as he surrendered his hand to the other"s absorbing grasp.
"I"m afraid you came too late this time, Doctor Groom."
The doctor looked him up and down.
"Not for you, I guess," he grumbled. "Don"t you know you"re sick, boy?"
Bobby shook his head.
"I"m very tired. That"s all. I"m on my way to the library to try to rest."
He freed his hand. The big man nodded approvingly.
"I"ll send you a dose," he promised, "and don"t you worry about your grandfather"s having been murdered by any man. I"ve seen the body. Stuff and nonsense! Detective"s an a.s.s. Waiting for coroner, although I know he"s one, too."
"I pray," Bobby answered listlessly, "that you"re right."
"If there"s any little thing I can do," Paredes offered formally.
"No, no. Thanks," Bobby answered.
He went on to the library. He glanced with an unpleasant shrinking from the door of the enclosed staircase leading to the private hall just outside the room in which his grandfather lay dead. There was no fire here, but he wrapped himself in a rug and lay on the broad, high-backed lounge which was drawn close to the fireplace, facing it. His complete weariness conquered his premonitions, his feeling of helplessness. The entrance of Jenkins barely aroused him.
"Where are you, Mr. Robert?"
"Here," Bobby answered sleepily.
The butler walked to the lounge and looked over the back.
"To be sure, sir. I didn"t see you here."
He held out a gla.s.s.
"Doctor Groom said you were to drink this. It would make you sleep, sir."
Bobby closed his eyes again.
"Put it on the table where I can reach it when I want it."
"Yes, sir. Mr. Robert! The policeman? Did he say anything, if I might make so bold as to ask?"
"Go away," Bobby groaned. "Leave me in peace."
And peace for a little time came to him. It was the sound of voices in the room that aroused him. He lay for a time, scarcely knowing where he was, but little by little the sickening truth came back, and he realized that it was Graham and the detective, Howells, who talked close to the window, and Graham had already fulfilled his promise.
Bobby didn"t want to eavesdrop, but it was patent he would embarra.s.s Graham by disclosing himself now, and it was likely Graham would be glad of a witness to anything the detective might say.
It was still light. A ray from the low sun entered the window and rested on the door of the enclosed staircase.
Graham"s anxious demand was the first thing Bobby heard distinctly--the thing that warned him to remain secreted.
"I think now with the coroner on his way it"s time you defined your suspicions a trifle more clearly. I am a lawyer. In a sense I represent young Mr. Blackburn. Please tell me why you are so sure his grandfather was murdered."
"All right," the detective"s level voice came back. "Half an hour ago I would have said no again, but now I"ve got the evidence I wanted. I appreciate, Mr. Graham, that you"re a friend of that young rascal, and what I have to say isn"t pleasant for a friend to hear. But first you want to know why I"m so sure the case is murder, in spite of the doctor who made his diagnosis without really looking."
"Go on," Graham said softly.
Bobby waited--his nerves as tense as they had grown in the presence of the dead man.
"Two days ago," the detective went on quietly, "old Mr. Blackburn came to the court house in Smithtown and asked for the best detective the district attorney could put his hand on. I don"t want to blow my own trumpet, but I"ve got away with one or two pretty fair jobs. I"ve had good offers from private firms in New York. So they turned him over to me. It was easy to see the old man was scared, just as his niece says he was last night. The funny part was he wouldn"t say definitely what he was afraid of. I thought he might be shielding somebody until he was a little surer of his ground. He told me he was afraid of being murdered, and he wanted a good man he could call on to come out here to the Cedars if things got too hot for him. I can hear his voice now as distinctly as if he was standing where you are.
""My heart"s all right," he said. "It won"t stop awhile yet unless it"s made to. So if I"m found cold some fine morning you can be sure I was put out of the way."
"I tried to pump him, naturally, but he wouldn"t say another word except that he"d send for me if there was time. He didn"t want any fuss made, and he gave me a handsome present to keep my mouth shut and not to bother him with any more questions. I figured--you can"t blame me, Mr. Graham--that the old boy was a little cracked. So I took his money and let it go at that. I didn"t think much more about it until they told me early this morning he lay dead here under peculiar circ.u.mstances."
"Odd!" Graham commented. "It does make it more like murder, Howells. But he doesn"t look like a murdered man."
"When you know as much about crime as I do, Mr. Graham, you"ll realize that murders which are a long time planning are likely to take on one of two appearances--suicide or natural death."
"All right," Graham said. "For the purpose of argument let us agree it"s murder. Even so, why do you suspect young Blackburn?"
"Without a sc.r.a.p of evidence it"s plain as the nose on your face," the detective answered. "If old Blackburn had lived until this morning our young man would have been a pauper. As it is, he"s a millionaire, but I don"t think he"ll enjoy his money. The two had been at sword"s points for a long time. Robert hated the old man--never made any bones about it. You couldn"t ask for a more damaging motive."
"You can"t convict a man on motive," Graham said shortly. "You spoke of evidence."
"More," the detective replied, "than any jury in the land would ask."
Bobby held his breath, shrinking from this information, which, however, he realized it was better he should know.
"When I got here," the detective said, "I decided on the theory of murder to make a careful search as soon as day broke. I didn"t have to wait for day, though, to find one crying piece of evidence. For a long time I was alone in the room with the body. Queer feeling about that room, Mr. Graham. Don"t know how to describe it except to say it"s uncomfortable. Too old, maybe. Maybe it was just being there alone with the dead man before the dawn, although I thought I was hardened to that sort of thing. Anyway, I didn"t like it. To keep my spirits up, as well as to save time, I commenced searching the place with a candle. Nothing about the bed. Nothing in the closets or the bureau."
He grinned sheepishly.
"You know I kind of was afraid to open the closet doors. Then I got on my knees and looked under the bed. The light was bad and I didn"t see anything at first. After a minute, close against the wall, I noticed something white. I reached in and pulled it out. It was a handkerchief, and it had a monogram, Mr. Graham--R. B. in purple and green."
He paused. Graham exclaimed sharply. Bobby felt the net tighten. If that evidence was conclusive to the others, how much more so was it for him! He recalled how, after awaking in the empty house, he had searched unsuccessfully in all his pockets for his handkerchief, intending to brush the dirt from his shoes.
"I went to his room," the detective hurried on, "and found a lot of his clothes and his stationery and his toilet articles marked with the same cipher. I knew my man had made a big mistake--the sort of mistake every criminal makes no matter how clever he is--and I had him. But that isn"t, by any means, all. Don"t look so distressed, Mr. Graham. There isn"t the slightest chance for him. You see I repaired the lock, and, as soon as it was day, closed the room and went outside to look for signs. Since nightfall no one had come legitimately through the court except Doctor Groom and myself. Our footprints were all right--making a straight line along the path to the front door. In the soft earth by the fountain I found another and a smaller print, made by a very neat shoe, sir, and I said to myself: "There is almost certainly the footprint of the murderer."
"There were plenty of others coming across the gra.s.s. He"d evidently avoided the path. And there was one directly under the open window where the body lies. It"s still there. Perhaps you can see it. No matter. That"s the last one I found. The prints ceased there. There wasn"t a one going back, and I was fair up a stump. Then I saw a little undefined sign of pressure on the gra.s.s, and I got an idea. "Suppose," I says, "my man took his shoes off and went around in his stockinged feet!" I couldn"t understand, though, why he hadn"t thought of that before. I went back to Robert Blackburn"s room and got one of his shoes, and ran into a snag again. The sole of the shoe was a trifle larger than the footprints. Every one of his shoes I tried was the same way. I argued that the handkerchief was enough, but I wanted this other evidence. I simply had to clear up these queer footprints.
"I figured, since the murder had been made to look so much like a natural death, that he"d come out here some time to-day, expecting to carry it off. I wanted to go to the station, anyway, to find out if he"d been seen coming through last night or early this morning. While I was talking to the station agent I had my one piece of luck. I couldn"t believe my eyes. Mr. Robert walks up from the woods. He"d been hiding around the neighbourhood all the time. Probably had missed his handkerchief and decided he"d better not take any chances. Yet it must have seemed a pretty sure thing that the station wouldn"t be watched, and it"s those nervy things, doing the obvious, that skilful criminals get away with all the time. I needed only one look at him, and I had the answer to the mystery of the footprints. I gave him plenty of time to come here and change his clothes, then I manoeuvered him out of his room and went there and found the pumps he"d worn last night and to-day. You see, they"d be a little smaller than his ordinary shoes. Not only did they fit the footprints exactly, but they were stained with soil exactly like that in the court. There you are, sir. I"ve made a plaster cast of one of the prints. I"ve got it here in my pocket where I intend to keep it until I clear the whole case up and turn in my report."
Graham"s tone was shocked and discouraged.
"What more do you want? Why haven"t you arrested him?"
In this room the detective"s satisfied chuckle was an offence.
"No good detective would ask that, Mr. Graham. I want my report clean. The coroner will tell us how the old man was killed. I want to tell how young Blackburn got into that room. One of the windows was raised a trifle, but that"s no use. I"ve figured on the outside of the wing until I"m dizzy. There"s no way up for a normal man. An orangoutang would make hard work of it. His latch key would have let him into the house, and it would have been simple enough for him to find out that the old man had changed his room. I"ve got to find out how he got past those doors, locked on the inside."
He chuckled again.
"Almost like a sleep-walker"s work."
Bobby shivered. Was that where the evidence pointed? Already the net was too finely woven. The detective continued earnestly: "I"m figuring on some scheme to make him show me the way. I"ve a sort of plan for to-night, but it"s only a chance."
"What?" Graham asked.
"Oh, no, sir," Howells laughed. "You"ll learn about that when the time comes."