How it came there--whether it rolled from the table, or was swept off inadvertently by the detective"s hand, and how it came to be caught by this old ta.s.sel and held there in spite of the many shakings it must have received, did not concern me at this momentous instant. The talisman of this old family was found. I had but to discover what it held concealed to understand what had baffled Mr.
Moore and made the mystery he had endeavored to penetrate so insolvable. Rejoicing in my triumph, but not wasting a moment in self-congratulation, I bent over the candle with my prize and sought for the clasp or fastening which held its two parts together. I have a knack at clasps and curious fastenings and was able at first touch to spring this one open. And what did I find inside?
Something so different from what I expected, something so trivial and seemingly harmless, that it was not until I recalled the final words of Uncle David"s memorandum that I realized its full import and the possibilities it suggested. In itself it was nothing but a minute magnifying gla.s.s; but when used in connection with--what?
Ah, that was just what Uncle David failed to say, possibly to know.
Yet this was now the important point, the culminating fact which might lead to a full understanding of these many tragedies. Could I hope to guess what presented itself to Mr. Moore as a difficult if not insolvable problem? No; guessing would not answer. I must trust to the inspiration of the moment which suggested with almost irresistible conviction:
The picture! That inane and seemingly worthless drawing over the fireplace in The Colonel"s Own, whose presence in so rich a room has always been a mystery!
Why this object should have suggested itself to me and with such instant conviction, I can not readily say. Whether, from my position near the bed, the sight of this old drawing recalled the restless nights of all who had lain in face of its sickly smile, or whether some recollection of that secret law of the Moores which forbade the removal of any of their pictures from the time-worn walls, or a remembrance of the curiosity which this picture excited in every one who looked at it--Francis Jeffrey among the number--I no sooner asked myself what object in this house might possibly yield counsel or suggest aid when subjected to the influence of a magnifying gla.s.s, than the answer, which I have already given, sprang instantly into my mind: The picture!
Greatly excited, I sprang upon a chair, took down the drawing from the wall and laid it face up on the bed. Then I placed the gla.s.s over one of the large coils surrounding the insipid face, and was startled enough, in spite of all mental preparation, to perceive the crinkly lines which formed it, resolve themselves into script and the script into words, some of which were perfectly legible.
The drawing, simple as it looked, was a communication in writing to those who used a magnifying gla.s.s to read it. I could hardly contain my triumph, hardly find the self-control necessary to a careful study of its undulating and often conflicting lines and to the slow picking out of the words therein contained.
But when I had done this, and had copied the whole of the wandering scrawl on a page of my note book the result was of value.
Read, and judge for yourself.
"Coward that I am, I am willing to throw upon posterity the shadow of a crime whose consequences I dare not incur in life. Confession I must make. To die and leave no record of my deed is impossible.
Yet how tell my story so that only my own heirs may read and they when at the crisis of their fate? I believe I have found the way by this drawing and the injunction I have left to the holders of the filigree ball.
"No man ever wished his enemy dead more than I did, and no man ever spent more cunning on the deed. Master in my own house, I contrived a device by which the man who held my fate in his hands fell on my library hearth with no one near and no sign by which to a.s.sociate me with the act. Does this seem like the a.s.sertion of a madman? Go to the old chamber familiarly called "The Colonel"s Own." Enter its closet, pull out its two drawers, and in the opening thus made seek for the loophole at the back, through which, if you stoop low enough, you can catch a glimpse of the library hearth and its great settle. With these in view, slip your finger along the wall on your right and when it touches an obstruction--pa.s.s it if it is a handle, for that is only used to rewind the apparatus and must be turned from you until it can be turned no farther; but if it is a depression you encounter, press, and press hard on the k.n.o.b concealed within it. But beware when any one you love is seated in that corner of the settle where the cushion invites rest, lest it be your fate to mourn and wail as it is mine to curse the hour when I sought to clear my way by murder. For the doom of the man of blood is upon me. The hindrance is gone from my life, but a horror has entered it beyond the conception of any soul that has not yielded itself to the unimaginable influences emanating from an accomplished crime. I can not be content with having pressed that spring once. A mania is upon me which, after thirty years of useless resistance and superhuman struggle, still draws me from bed and sleep to rehea.r.s.e in ghastly fashion that deed of my early manhood. I can not resist it. To tear out the deadly mechanism, unhinge weight and drum and rid the house of every evidence of crime would but drive me to shriek my guilt aloud and act in open pantomime what I now go through in fearsome silence and secrecy. When the hour comes, as come it must, that I can not rise and enter that fatal closet, I shall still enact the deed in dreams, and shriek aloud in my sleep and wish myself dead and yet fear to die lest my h.e.l.l be to go through all eternity, slaying over and over my man, in ever growing horror and repulsion.
"Do you wish to share my fate? Try to effect through blood a release from the difficulties menacing you."
XXII
A THREAD IN HAND
There are moments which stand out with intense force and clearness in every man"s life. Mine was the one which followed the reading of these lines which were meant for a warning, but which in more than one case had manifestly served to open the way to a repet.i.tion of the very crime they deplored. I felt myself under the same fascination. I wanted to test the mechanism; to follow out then and there the instructions given with such shortsighted minuteness and mark the result. But a sense of decorum prevented.
It was clearly my duty to carry so important a discovery as this to the major and subject myself to his commands before making the experiment suggested by the scroll I had so carefully deciphered.
Besides, it would be difficult to carry out this experiment alone, and with no other light than that afforded by my lantern.
Another man and more lights were needed.
Influenced by these considerations, I restored the picture to its place, and left the building. As I did so, the first signs of dawn became visible in the east. I had expended three hours in picking out the meaning concealed in the wavy lines of the old picture.
I was early at headquarters that morning, but not so early as to find the superintendent alone. A group of men were already congregated about him in his small office, and when, on being admitted, I saw amongst them the district attorney, Durbin and another famous detective, I instinctively knew what matter was under discussion.
I was allowed to remain, possibly because I brought news in my face, possibly because the major felt more kindly toward me than I thought. Though Durbin, who had been speaking, had at first sight of me shut his mouth like a trap, and even went so far as to drum an impatient protest with his fingers on the table before which he stood, neither the major nor the district attorney turned an unkindly face toward me, and my amiable friend was obliged to accept my presence with what grace he could.
There was with them a fourth man, who stood apart. On him the general attention had been concentrated at my entrance and to him it now returned. He was an unpretentious person of kindly aspect.
To any one accustomed to Washington residents, he bore the unmistakable signs of being one of the many departmental employees whose pay is inadequate to the necessities of his family. Of his personal peculiarities I noted two. He blinked when he talked, and stuttered painfully when excited. Notwithstanding these defects he made a good impression, and commanded confidence.
This I soon saw was of importance, for the story he now entered upon was one calculated to make me forget my own errand and even to question my own convictions.
The first intimation I received of the curious nature of his communication was through the following questions, put to him by the major:
"You are sure this gentleman is identical with the one pointed out to you last night?"
"Very sure, sir. I can swear to it."
I omit all evidence of the defect in his speech above mentioned.
"You recognize him positively?"
"Positively. I should have picked him out with the same a.s.surance, if I had seen him in some other city and in a crowd of as fine-looking gentlemen as himself. His face made a great impression on me. You see I had ample time to study it in the few minutes we stood so close together."
"So you have said. Will you be kind enough to repeat the circ.u.mstance? I should like the man who has just come in to hear your description of this scene. Give the action, please. It is all very interesting."
The stranger glanced inquisitively in my direction, and turned to obey the superintendent.
"I was returning to my home in Georgetown, on the evening of May the eleventh, the day of the great tragedy. My wife was ill, and I had been into town to see a physician and should have gone directly home; but I was curious to see how high the flood was running--you remember it was over the banks that night. So I wandered out on the bridge, and came upon the gentleman about whom you have been questioning me. He was standing all alone leaning on the rail thus." Here the speaker drew up a chair, and, crossing his arms over its back, bent his head down over them. "I did not know him, but the way he eyed the water leaping and boiling in a yellow flood beneath was not the way of a curious man like myself, but of one who was meditating some desperate deed. He was handsome and well dressed, but he looked a miserable wretch and was in a state of such complete self-absorption that he did not notice me, though I had stopped not five feet from his side. I expected to see him throw himself over, but instead of that, he suddenly raised his head and, gazing straight before him, not at the heavy current, but at some vision in his own mind, broke forth in these words, spoken as I had never heard words spoken before--"
Here the speaker"s stuttering got the better of him and the district attorney had time to say:
"What were these words? Speak them slowly; we have all the time there is."
Instantly the man plucked up heart and, eying us all impressively, was able to say:
"They were these: "She must die! she must die!" No name, but just the one phrase twice repeated, "She must die!" This startled me, and hardly knowing whether to lay hands on him, or to turn about and run, I was moving slowly away, when he drew his arms from the rail, like this, and, still staring into s.p.a.ce, added, in the same hard and determined voice, this one word more, "To-night!"; and, wheeling about, pa.s.sed me with one blank and wholly unconscious look and betook himself toward the city. As he went by, his lips opened for the third time. "Which means--" he cried, between a groan and a shriek, "a bullet for her and--" I wish I had heard the rest, but he was out of my hearing before his sentence was finished."
"What time was this?"
"As near half-past five as possible. It was six when I reached home a few minutes later."
"Ah, he must have gone to the cemetery after this."
"I am quite sure of it."
"Why didn"t you follow the man?" grumbled Durbin.
"It wasn"t my business. He was a stranger and possibly mad. I didn"t know what to do."
"What did you do?"
"Went home and kept quiet; my wife was very ill that night and I had my own cause for anxiety."
"You, however, read the papers next morning?"
"No, sir, nor for many days. My wife grew constantly worse and for a week I didn"t leave her, not knowing but that every breath would be her last. I was dead to everything outside the sick-room and when she grew better, which was very gradually, we had to take her away, so that I had no opportunity of speaking of this occurrence to any one till a week ago, when some remark, published in connection with Mrs. Jeffrey"s death, recalled that encounter on the bridge. I told a neighbor that I believed the man I had seen there was Mr. Jeffrey, and we looked up the papers and ran over them till we came upon his picture. That settled it, and I could no longer--being free from home anxieties now--hold my tongue and the police heard--"
"That will do, Mr. Gelston," broke in the major. "When we want you again, we will let you know. Durbin, see Mr. Gelston out."
I was left alone with the major and the district attorney.
There was a moment"s silence, during which my own heart beat so loud that I was afraid they would hear it. Since taking up Miss Tuttle"s cause I had never really believed in Mr. Jeffrey"s innocence in spite of the alibi he had brought forward, and now I expected to hear these men utter the same conviction. The major was the first to speak. Addressing the district attorney, he remarked: "This will strengthen your case very materially. We have proof now that Mrs. Jeffrey"s death was actually determined upon. If Miss Tuttle had not shot her, he would. I wonder if it was a relief to him on reaching his door to find that the deed was done."