Finally the Curator paused, and stealing another look at that white head, remarked anxiously: "Have you not grown gray very suddenly? I don"t remember your being whiter than myself the day I dined with you just preceding the horrible occurrence at the museum."
"I have been growing gray for a year," rejoined the other. "My father was white at forty; I am just forty-three."
"It becomes you, and yet--Roberts, you have taken this matter too much to heart. We were not to blame in any way, unless it was in having such deadly weapons within reach. How could one suppose----"
"Yes, how could one suppose!" echoed the director. "And the mystery of it! The police seem no nearer solving the problem now than on the night they practised archery in the galleries. It does wear on me, possibly because I live so much alone. I see----"
Here he stopped abruptly. They had been strolling in the direction of the house, and at this moment were not many paces from it.
"See what?" urged the Curator with an accent one might almost call tender--would have been called tender, if used in addressing a woman.
"See her, that dead girl!--constantly--at night when my eyes are shut--in the daytime while I go about my affairs, here, there and everywhere. The young, young face! so white, so still, so strangely and so unaccountably familiar! Do you feel the same? Did she remind you of anyone we know? I grow old trying to place her. I can say this to you; but not to another soul could I speak of what has become to me a sort of blind obsession. She was a stranger. I know of no Madame Duclos and am sure that I never saw her young daughter before; and yet I have started up in my bed more than once during these past few nights, confident that in another moment memory would supply the clue which will rid my mind of the eternal question as to where I have seen a face like hers before? But memory fails to answer; and the struggle, momentarily interrupted, begins again, to the destruction of my peace and comfort."
"Odd! but you must rid yourself of what unnerves you so completely. It does no good and only adds to regrets which are poignant enough in themselves."
"That is true; but--stop a minute. I see it now--her face, I mean. It comes between me and the house there. Even your presence does not dispel it. It is--no, it"s gone again. Let us go back once more and take another look at the sea. It is the one thing which draws me away from this pursuing vision."
They resumed their stroll, this time away from the house and toward the oval cut in the trees for a straight view out to the sea. Across this oval a ship was now sailing which attracted the eyes of both; not till it had pa.s.sed, did the Curator say: "You live too lonely a life. You should seek change--recreation--possibly something more absorbing than either."
"You mean marriage?"
"Yes, Roberts, I do. Pardon me; I want to see your eye beam again with contentment. The loss of your late companion has left you desolate, more desolate than you have been willing to acknowledge. You cannot replace her----"
"I am wedded to politics."
"An untrustworthy jade. When did politics ever make a man happy?"
"Happy!" They were turned toward the house again. When near, Roberts capped his exclamation with the remark: "You ask a great deal for me, more than you ask for yourself. You have not married again."
"But my mistress is not a jade. I find joy in my work. I have not had time to woo a woman as she should be wooed if she"s to be a happy second wife. I should have so much to explain to her. When I get looking over prints, the dinner-bell might ring a dozen times without my hearing it. A letter from an agent telling of some wonderful find in Mesopotamia would make me forget whether my wife"s hair were brown or black. I don"t need diversion, Roberts."
"Yet you enjoy a couple of hours in the country, a whiff of fresh air----"
"And a chat with a friend. Yes, I do; but if the museum were open----"
Mr. Roberts smiled.
"I see that you are incorrigible." Then, with a gesture toward the house: "Come and see my new veranda. Its outlook will surprise you."
As you have already surmised, he was the owner of this place; and the man for whose better understanding Sweet.w.a.ter had again taken up the plane and the hammer.
XVII.
THE CUCKOO-CLOCK.
As they made their way through scattered timber and the litter of fresh carpentry-work, the man who was busy there and who certainly had outstayed his time took up his kit and disappeared around the corner of the house. Neither noted him. The cuckoo-clock was chirping out its five small notes from the cheerful interior, and the Curator was remarking upon it.
"That"s a merry sound both sweet and stimulating; and what is still better, I can hear it without effort. I believe I should like to have a clock of that kind."
"It goes where I go," muttered its strange owner with what seemed an involuntary emphasis. Then as the Curator turned upon him in some surprise, he added with studied indifference: "I brought it from Switzerland when I was younger than I am now--a silly memento, but I fancy it."
A commonplace explanation surely; why, then, did that same workman, who had stopped short after rounding the corner to pick up something which he as quickly threw down, turn a quick head and listen eagerly for what might be said next. Nothing came of it, for the veranda door was near and the two gentlemen had stepped in; but to one who knew Sweet.w.a.ter, the smile with which he resumed his work had an element in it which, if seen, would have darkened still further the gloom in the troubled eye of the speaker.
Switzerland! He had said Switzerland.
It was not long after this that the Curator and his host left for New York.
The house was not quite ready for occupancy, but was in the process of being made so by the woman who had done duty as housekeeper for Mr. Roberts both before his marriage and since his wife"s death. During the fifteen years which had intervened, she had been simply the cook.
This woman, Huldah Weston by name, did not accompany them. She was in Belport to stay, and as it behooves us to remain there for a while longer ourselves, we will join her in the quiet rest she is taking on the kitchen steps before shutting up the house for the night.
She is not alone. A young man is with her--one to whom she is giving temporary board and lodging in exchange for the protection of his presence and such slight help as he can afford her in the heavy task of distributing and arranging the furniture.
We know this man. It is the one we have just seen halting at the corner of the house, on quitting his work on the new veranda--Sweet.w.a.ter.
He is a genial soul; she, though very old for the responsibilities she still insists upon carrying, enjoys a good laugh. Nor is she averse to the numberless little kindly attentions with which he shows his respect for her age if not a personal liking for herself. In short, they are almost friends, and she trusts him as she has never trusted any young man yet, save the boy she lost when she was still a comely widow.
Perhaps this is why, on this night when we find the two together, he ventures to turn the talk upon the man she had so devotedly served during the better part of her life.
He began with the cuckoo-clock. Where did it come from? How long had they had it? What a jolly little customer the wee bird was, darting out and darting in with his hurry-call to anyone who would listen! It made a fellow feel ashamed to dawdle at his work. It wouldn"t do to let any mere bird get ahead of him--a wooden bird at that!
He got her talking. She had known Mr. Roberts" mother, and she had been in the house (a young girl then) when he went away to Europe. He had not wanted to go. He was in love, or thought he was, with a woman older than himself. But the mother did not approve of the match, though the lady had a mint of money and everything in her favor but those seven years. She afterward became his wife and for all his mother"s fears they lived together very happily. Since her death which occurred about a year ago he"s been a different man; very sad and much given to sitting alone. Anyone can see the effect it has had upon him if they look at him closely.
"She was a good woman, then?"
"Very good."
"Well, life must be lonesome for a widower, especially if he has no children. But perhaps he has some married or at school?"
"No, he has no children, and no relations, to speak of."
"And he brought that clock from Switzerland? Did he ever say from what part of Switzerland?"
"If he did, I don"t remember; I"ve no memory for foreign names."
This sent Sweet.w.a.ter off on another tack. He knew such a good story, which, having told, he seemed to have forgotten all about the clock, for he said nothing more about it, and not much more about Mr. Roberts.
But when, a little later, he followed her into that gentleman"s room for the purpose of unlocking a trunk which had been delivered that day, he took advantage of her momentary absence in search of the key to pull out that cuckoo-clock from the wall where it hung and read the small slip of paper pasted across its back. As he hoped, it gave both the name and address of the merchant from whom it had been bought. But that was not all. Running in diagonal lines across this label, he saw some faded lines in fine handwriting, which proved to be a couplet signed with five initials. The latter were not quite legible, but the couplet he could read without the least difficulty. It was highly sentimental, and might mean much and might mean nothing. If the handwriting should prove to be Mr. Roberts", the probabilities were in favor of the former supposition--or so he said to himself, as he swung the clock back into place.
When Mrs. Weston returned, he was standing as patiently as possible in the middle of the room, saying over and over to himself to insure remembrance till he could jot the lines down in his notebook: _Bossberg, Lucerne.... I love but thee--and thee will I love to eternity._ His interest in this slight and doubtful clue, however, sank into insignificance when, having unlocked and unstrapped the trunk which Mrs. Weston pointed out, he saw to his infinite satisfaction that it held Mr. Roberts" clothing--the one thing in the world toward which at this exact moment his curiosity mainly pointed. If only he might help her handle the heavy coats which lay so temptingly on top! Should he propose to do so? Looking at her firm chin and steady eye, he felt that he did not dare. To rouse the faintest suspicion in this woman"s intelligent mind would be fatal to all further procedure, and so he stood indifferent, while she lifted garment after garment and laid them carefully on the bed. He counted five coats and as many vests--and was racking his brains for some plausible excuse for a nearer inspection, when she stopped in the midst of her work, with the cheery remark: "That will do for to-night. To-morrow I will look them all over for moths before hanging them away in the closet."
And he had to go, leaving them lying there within reach of his hand, when one glance at the lining of a certain coat which had especially attracted his eye might have given him the one clue he most needed.
The room which had been allotted to him in this house was in the rear and at the top of a steep flight of stairs. As he sought it that night, he cast a quick glance through the narrow pa.s.sageway opening just beyond his own door. Would it be possible for him to thread those devious ways and reach Mr. Roberts" room without rousing Mrs. Weston, who in spite of her years had the alertness of a watchdog with eye and ear ever open? To be found strolling through quarters where he had no business would be worse than being suspected of taking a personal interest in the owner"s garments. He was of an adventurous turn, and ever ready to risk something on the turn of a die, but not too much. A false move might hazard all; besides, he remembered the airing these clothes were to get and the nearness of the clothes-yard to the pump he so frequently patronized, and all the chances which this gave for an inspection which would carry little danger to one of his ready wit.
So he gave up the midnight search he might have attempted under other circ.u.mstances, and shut his room from the moon and his eyes to sleep, and dreamed. Was it of the great museum, with its hidden mystery enshrouding its many wonders of high art, or of a far-off time and a far-off scene, where in the stress of some great emotion the trembling hand of Carleton Roberts had written on the back of this foolish clock for which he still retained so great a fancy the couplet which he himself had so faithfully memorized: I love but thee, And thee will I love to eternity.
At eight o"clock on the following morning the quick strokes of the workman"s hammer reawakened the echoes at the end of the building where the big enclosed veranda was going up.
As the clock struck nine Mrs. Weston could be seen hanging up her master"s coats and trousers on a long line stretched across the clothes-yard. They remained there two hours, viewed from afar by Sweet.w.a.ter, but not approached till he saw the old woman disappear from one of the gates with a basket on her arm. Then he developed thirst and went rearward to the pump. While there, he took a look at the sea. A brisk wind was springing up. It gave him an idea.
Making sure that his fellow workmen were all busy, he loosened one end of the line holding the fluttering garments and then went back to his work. As the wind increased, the strain on the line became too great, and soon he had the satisfaction of seeing the whole thing fall in one wild flap to the ground. With an exclamation calculated to draw the attention of the men about him to what had happened, he rushed to the rescue, lifted the line and rearranged the clothes. Then refastening--this time securely--the end of the line which had slipped loose, he returned to his post, with just one quick and disappointed look thrown back at the now safe if wildly fluttering garments.
He had improved his opportunity to examine the inside of every coat and had found nothing to reward his scrutiny. But it was not this which had given him his chief annoyance. It was the fact that the one coat from which he had expected the antic.i.p.ated clue--the coat which Mr. Roberts had certainly worn on that tragic day at the museum--was not there. A summer overcoat had filled out the number, and his investigation was incomplete.
Why was that one coat lacking? He was sure he had seen it the night before lying on the bed with the others. Was it still there, or had it been stowed away in drawer or closet, irrespective of its danger from moths, for a reason he would give his eyeteeth to know but dared not inquire into till he had clinched his friendship with this old woman so thoroughly that he could ask her anything--which certainly was not the case as yet.
The absence of the one coat he wanted most to see afflicted him sorely. He told Mrs. Weston, on her return, how the line had fallen and how he had replaced it, but for all his wits, he could not get any further. With the close of the day"s work and the reappearance of Mr. Roberts, he slipped away to the village, to avoid an encounter of the results of which he felt very doubtful. His dinner would not be ready till after Mr. Roberts had been served, and the three hours which must necessarily elapse before that happy moment looked very long and very unproductive to him, especially as he had found no answer as yet to the question which so grievously perplexed him.
He had paced the main street twice and had turned into a narrow lane ending in the smallest of gardens and the most infinitesimal of houses, when the door of this same house opened and a man came out whose appearance held him speechless for a moment--then sent him forward with a quickly beating heart. It was not the man himself that produced this somewhat startling effect; it was his clothes. So far as his hat and nether garments went, they were, if not tattered, not very far from it; but the coat he wore was not only trim but made of the finest cloth and without the smallest sign of wear. It was so conspicuously fine, and looked so grotesquely out of place on the man wearing it, that he could pa.s.s no one without rousing curiosity, and he probably had all he wanted to do for the next few days in explaining how a fine gentleman"s coat had fallen to his lot.
But to Sweet.w.a.ter its interest lay in something more important than the amusing incongruity it offered to the eye. It looked exactly like the one belonging to Mr. Roberts which had escaped his scrutiny in so remarkable a way. Should it prove to be that same, how fortunate he was to have it brought thus easily within his reach and under circ.u.mstances so natural it was not necessary for him to think twice how best to take advantage of them.
Father Dobbins--for that is the name by which this old codger was known to the boys--was, as might be expected, very proud of his new acquisition and quite blind to the contrast it offered to his fringed-out trouser-legs. He had a smile on his face which broadened as he caught Sweet.w.a.ter"s sympathetic glance.
"Fine day," he mumbled. "Are ye wantin" somethin" of me that ye"re comin" this way?"
"Perhaps and perhaps," answered Sweet.w.a.ter, "--if that fine coat I see you wearing is the one given you by Mrs. Weston up the road."
""Deed, sir, and what"s amiss? She gave it to me, yes. Came all the way into the village to find me and give it to me. Too small for her master, she said; and would I take it to oblige him. Does she want it back?"
"Oh, no--not she. She"s not that kind. It"s only that she has since remembered that one of the pockets has a hole in it--an inside one, I believe. She"s afraid it might lose you a dime some day. Will you let me see if she is right? If so, I was to take you to the tailor"s and have it fixed immediately. I am to pay for it."
The old man stared in slow comprehension; then with the deliberation which evidently marked all his movements, he slowly put down his basket.
"I warrant ye it"s all right," he said. "But look, an ye will. I don"t want to lose no dimes."
Sweet.w.a.ter threw back one side of the coat, then the other, felt in the pockets and smiled. But Gryce, and not ignorant Father Dobbins, should have seen that smile. There was comedy in it, and there was the deepest tragedy also; for the marks of st.i.tches forcibly cut were to be seen under one of the pockets--st.i.tches which must have held something as narrow as an umbrella-band and no longer than the little strip at which Mr. Gryce had been looking one night in a melancholy little short of prophetic.
XVIII.
MRS. DAVIS" STRANGE LODGER.
"If you will look carefully at this chart, and note where the various persons then in the museum were standing at the moment Correy shouted his alarm, you will see that of all upon whom suspicion can with any probability be attached there is but one who could have fulfilled the conditions of escape as just explained to you."
Stretching forth an impressive finger, Mr. Gryce pointed to a certain number on the chart outspread between him and the Chief Inspector.
He looked--saw the number "3" and glanced anxiously down at the name it prefigured.
"Roberts--the director! Impossible! Not to be considered for a moment. I"m afraid you"re getting old, Gryce." And he looked about to be sure that the door was quite shut.
Mr. Gryce smiled, a little drearily perhaps, as he acknowledged this self-evident fact.
"You are right, Chief: I am getting old--but not so old as to venture upon so shocking an insinuation against a man of Mr. Roberts" repute and seeming honor, if I had not some very substantial proofs to offer in its support."
"No doubt, no doubt; but it won"t do. I tell you, Gryce, it won"t do. There cannot be any such far-fetched and ridiculous explanation to the crime you talk about. Why, he"s next to being the Republican nominee for Senator. An attack upon him, especially of this monstrous character, would be looked upon as a clear case of political persecution. And such it would be, and nothing less; and it would be all to no purpose, I am sure. I hope you are alone in these conclusions--that you have not seen fit to share your ideas on this subject with any of the boys?"
"Only with Sweet.w.a.ter, who did some of the work for me."
"And Joyce? How about him?"
"He had the same opportunities as myself, but we have not reached the point of mentioning names. I thought it best to consult with you first."
"Good! Then we"ll drop it."
It was decisively said, but Gryce gave no signs of yielding.
"I"m afraid that"s impossible," said he. Then with the dignity of long experience, he added with quiet impressiveness: "I have, as you know, faced crime these many years in all its aspects. I have tracked the ignorant, almost imbecile, murderer of the slums, and laid my hand in arrest on the shoulder of so-called gentlemen hiding their criminal instincts under a show of culture and sometimes of wide education. Human nature is not so very different in high and low; and what may lead an irresponsible dago into unsheathing his knife against his fellow may work a like effect upon his high-bred brother if circ.u.mstances lend their aid to make discovery appear impossible.
"Mr. Roberts is the friend of many a good man who would swear to his integrity with a clear conscience. I would have sworn to it myself, a month ago, had I heard it questioned in the slightest manner; and I may live to swear to it again, notwithstanding the doubts which have been raised in my mind by certain strange discoveries which link him to this unhappy affair by what we are pleased to call circ.u.mstantial evidence. For, as I am obliged to acknowledge, the one great thing we rely upon, in accusations of this kind, is so far lacking in his case: I mean, the motive.
"I know of none--can, in fact, conceive of none--which would cause a gentleman of even life and ambitious projects to turn a deadly weapon upon an innocent child with whom he is not, so far as we can discover, even acquainted. Dementia only can account for such a freak, and to dementia we must ascribe this crime, if it is necessary for us to find cause before proceeding to lay our evidence before the District Attorney. All I propose to do at present is to show you my reasons for thinking that the arrow which slew Angeline Willetts--or, as we have been a.s.sured by unimpeachable authority, Angeline Duclos masquerading under the name of Angeline Willetts--was set to bow and loosed across the court by the gentleman we have just mentioned."
Here Mr. Gryce stopped for a look of encouragement from the severely silent man he was endeavoring to impress. But he did not get it. With a full sense of his years weighing upon him as never before, he sighed, but continued with little change of tone: "In the first day or two of keen surprise following an event of so many complicated mysteries, I drew up in my own mind a list of questions which I felt should be properly answered before I would consider it my duty to submit to you a report to the disadvantage of any one suspect. This was Question One: ""Whose was the hand to bring up into the museum gallery the bow recognized by Correy as the one which had been lying by for an indefinite length of time in the cellar?"
"Not till yesterday did I get any really definite answer to this. Correy would not talk; nor would the Curator; and I dared not press either of them beyond a certain point, for equally with yourself, I felt it most undesirable to allow anyone to suspect the nature of my theory or whom it especially involved.
"The Curator had nothing to hide on this or any other point connected with the tragedy. But it was different with Correy. He had some very strong ideas about that visit to the cellar--only he would not acknowledge them. So yesterday, after the satisfactory settlement of another puzzling question, I made up my mind to trap him--which I did after this manner. He has, as most men have, in fact, a great love for the Curator. In discussing with him the mysterious fetching up of the bow and its subsequent concealment in the Curator"s office, I remarked, with a smile I did not mean to have him take as real, that only the Curator himself would do such a thing and then forget it; that it must have been his shadow he saw; and I begged him, in a way half jocose, half earnest, to say so and have done with it.
"It worked, sir. He flushed like a man who had been struck; then he grew white with indignation and blurted forth that it was no more his shadow than it was Mr. Roberts"--that indeed it was much more like Mr. Roberts" than the Curator"s. At which I simply remarked: "You think so, Correy?" To which he replied: "I do not think anything. But I know that Curator Jewett never brought up that bow from the cellar, or he would have said so the minute he saw it. There"s no better man in the world than he." "Nor than Mr. Roberts either," I put in, and left him comforted if not quite rea.s.sured.
"So much for Question One-- "Number Two is of a similar nature. "Was the transference of the arrow from one gallery to the other due to the same person who brought up the bow?" Now, in answer to that, I have a curious thing to show you." And lifting into view a bundle of goodly size, wrapped in heavy brown paper, he opened it up and disclosed a gentleman"s coat. Spreading this out between them lining side out, and pointing out two marks an inch or so apart showing the remains of st.i.tches for which there seemed to have been no practical use, he took from his own vest-pocket what looked like a bit of narrow black tape. This he laid down on the upturned lining in the s.p.a.ce bounded by the two lines of marks I have mentioned, and drawing the Chief"s attention to it, observed in quiet explanation: "The one fits the other--st.i.tch for st.i.tch. Look closely at them both, I beg, and tell me if in your judgment it is not evident that this strap or loop, or whatever we may call it, has been cut away from this coat to which it had been previously sewed--and by no woman either."
Anyone could see that this had been so. There could be but one reply: "This coat I bought from an old man to whom it had been given by Mr. Roberts" housekeeper on their arrival at his new home on Long Island. The strip was picked up at the museum in the room where Mrs. Taylor spent an hour or so immediately upon leaving the scene of crime. With her at the time was the young lady who had kindly offered to look after her and two or three men directly a.s.sociated with the museum, of whom Mr. Roberts was one. These and these only. Now, this strap or let us say loop, since we are beginning to see for what purpose it was used, was not on the floor previous to the entrance of these few persons into this room--or, indeed, for some little time afterward. Otherwise this young lady, who was the one to open my eyes to this clue, surely would have seen it in the half-hour she stood at Mrs. Taylor"s side with no one to talk to and quite free to look about her. But it was there after that lady had revived from her fainting-fit--dropped, as you see--cut from its owner"s coat and dropped! Chief, let me ask why this should have been done in a time of such suspense if it had had nothing to do with the crime then occupying everybody"s attention--a good coat too, almost new, as you will observe?"
The Chief, possibly with a shade less of irony in his manner, answered this direct question with one equally direct: "And what connection have you succeeded in establishing between this abominable crime and the coat with or without a loop worn by the museum"s leading director? One as straight and indisputable, no doubt, as that you have just attempted to make between this same gentleman and the museum bow," he added with biting incredulity.
"Yes," returned the other in calm disregard of the sarcasm, "straighter and more indisputable, if anything. We are asking, as you will remember, how an arrow could have been carried from the southern to the northern gallery without attracting anyone"s attention. I will show you how."
With a rap on the table which brought Sweet.w.a.ter into the room, he proceeded to pin again into its old place on the lining of Mr. Roberts" coat the so-called tag. Then, taking the arrow which Sweet.w.a.ter proceeded to hand him, he slipped it into the loop thus made and showed how securely it could be held there by its feather end.
"A man of Mr. Roberts" upright carriage might, with his coat well b.u.t.toned up, walk the length of Broadway without disclosing the presence of this stick," remarked Mr. Gryce as, at his look, Sweet.w.a.ter doffed his own coat and put on the one thus discreetly weighted.
The Chief stared, paling slightly as he noted the result. Mr. Gryce, who never overemphasised his effects, motioned Sweet.w.a.ter to leave and proceeded to the next question.
"Number Three," he now observed, "should have come first, as it has already been answered. It asks if it is possible to hit the mark in Section II of the museum"s gallery, from behind the pedestal in Section VIII. From the pedestal nearest the front, no; but from the one further back--upon which, by the way, Stevens found the print of a gloved finger--yes.