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THE CHIEF LEGATEE
by
ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
Author of
"The Leavenworth Case," "The Woman in the Alcove," Etc., Etc.
Illustrated in Water-Colors by Frank T. Merrill
Copyright, 1906, by Anna Katharine Green Rohlfs
Weinstock, Lubin & Co.
Special Edition,
400 to 418 K. Street, Sacramento, Cal.
New York and London
The Authors and Newspapers Association
1906
Copyright, 1906, by
Anna Katharine Green Rohlfs
Entered at Stationers' Hall.
All rights reserved.
Composition, Electrotyping,
Printing and Binding by
The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
[Illustration: A young girl sitting on a low stool by the window mending
a rent in her skirt.]
CONTENTS
PART I.--A WOMAN OF MYSTERY
CHAPTER
I. A Bride of Five Hours
II. The Lady in Number Three
III. "He Knows the Word"
IV. Mr. Ransom Waits
V. In Corridor and in Room
VI. The Lawyer
VII. Rain
VIII. Elimination
IX. Hunter's Inn
PART II.--THE CALL OF THE WATERFALL
X. Two Doors
XI. Half-Past One in the Morning
XII. "Georgian"
XIII. Where the Mill Stream Runs Fiercest
XIV. A Detective's Work
XV. Anitra
XVI. "Love"
XVII. "I Don't Hear"
PART III.--MONEY
XVIII. God's Forest, Then Man's
XIX. In Mrs. Deo's Room
XX. Between the Elderberry Bushes
XXI. On the Cars
XXII. A Suspicious Test
XXIII. A Startling Decision
XXIV. The Devil's Cauldron
PART IV.--THE MAN OF MYSTERY
XXV. Death Eddy
XXVI. Hazen
XXVII. She Speaks
XXVIII. Fifteen Minutes
XXIX. "There is One Way"
XXX. Not Yet
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
A young girl sitting on a low stool by the window mending a rent in her
skirt (_Frontispiece_)
"I cut them letters there fifteen years ago. Now I'm to cut 'em out"
"A slight, dark form steals from the shadows and lays a hand on the
stooping man's shoulder"
"Cormorants!" escaped his lips. "They look for a feast of death, but they
will be disappointed"
[Illustration: Facsimile Page of Manuscript from THE LEAVENWORTH CASE
"Yes, sir,"
Might even have entered
his room late at night,
crossed it and stood at his
side, without disturbing him
sufficiently to cause him to
turn his head?
"Yes," her hands pressing
themselves painfully together.
"Miss Leavenworth, the key
to the library door is missing."
She made no answer.
"It has been testified to,
that previous to the actual
discovery of the murder,
you visited the door of the
library above. Will you tell
us if the key to the door
was there in the lock?"
"It was not."
Anna K. Green Rohlfs]
THE CHIEF LEGATEE
PART I
A Woman of Mystery
CHAPTER I
A BRIDE OF FIVE HOURS
"What's up?"
This from the manager of the Hotel ---- to his chief clerk. "Something
wrong in Room 81?"
"Yes, sir. I've just sent for a detective. You were not to be found and
the gentleman is desperate. But very anxious to have it all kept quiet;
very anxious. I think we can oblige him there, or, at least, we'll try.
Am I right, sir?"
"Of course, if--"
"Oh! it's nothing criminal. The lady's missing, that's all; the lady
whose name you see here."
The register lay open between them; the clerk's finger, running along the
column, rested about half-way down.
The manager bent over the page.
"'Roger J. Ransom and wife,'" he read out in decided astonishment. "Why,
they are--"
"You're right. Married to-day in Grace Church. A great wedding; the
papers are full of it. Well, she's the lady. They registered here a few
minutes before five o'clock and in ten minutes the bride was missing.
It's a queer story Mr. Ransom tells. You'd better hear it. Ah, there's
our man! Perhaps you'll go up with him."
"You may bet your last dollar on that," muttered the manager. And joining
the new-comer, he made a significant gesture which was all that passed
between them till they stepped out on the second floor.
"Wanted in Room 81?" the manager now asked.
"Yes, by a man named Ransom."
"Just so. That's the door. Knock--or, rather, I'll knock, for I must hear
his story as soon as you do. The reputation of the hotel--"
"Yes, yes, but the gentleman's waiting. Ah! that's better."
The manager had just knocked.
An exclamation from within, a hurried step, and the door fell open. The
figure which met their eyes was startling. Distress, anxiety, and an
impatience almost verging on frenzy, distorted features naturally amiable
if not handsome.
"My wife," fell in a gasp from his writhing lips.
"We have come to help you find her," Mr. Gerridge calmly assured him. Mr.
Gerridge was the detective. "Relate the circumstances, sir. Tell us where
you were when you first missed her."
Mr. Ransom's glance wandered past him to the door. It was partly open.
The manager, whose name was Loomis, hastily closed it. Mr. Ransom showed
relief and hurried into his story. It was to this effect:
"I was married to-day in Grace Church. At the altar my bride--you
probably know her name, Miss Georgian Hazen--wore a natural look, and was
in all respects, so far as any one could see, a happy woman, satisfied
with her choice and pleased with the eclat and elegancies of the
occasion. Half-way down the aisle this all changed. I remember the
instant perfectly. Her hand was on my arm and I felt it suddenly stiffen.
I was not alarmed, but I gave her a quick look and saw that something had
happened. What, I could not at the moment determine. She didn't answer
when I spoke to her and seemed to be mainly concerned in getting out of
the church before her emotions overcame her. This she succeeded in doing
with my help; and, once in the vestibule, recovered herself so
completely, and met all my inquiries with such a gay shrug of the
shoulders, that I should have passed the matter over as a mere attack of
nerves, if I had not afterwards detected in her face, through all the
hurry and excitement of the ensuing reception, a strained expression not
at all natural to her. This was still more evident after the
congratulations of a certain guest, who, I am sure, whispered to her
before he passed on; and when the time came for her to go up-stairs she
was so pale and unlike herself that I became seriously alarmed and asked
if she felt well enough to start upon the journey we had meditated.
Instantly her manner changed. She turned upon me with a look I have been
trying ever since to explain to myself, and begged me not to take her out
of town to-night but to some quiet hotel where we might rest for a few
days before starting on our travels. She looked me squarely in the eye as
she made this request and, seeing in her nothing more than a feverish
anxiety lest I should make difficulties of some kind, I promised to do
what she asked and bade her run away and get herself ready to go and say
nothing to any one of our change of plan. She smiled and turned away
towards her own room, but presently came hurrying back to ask if I would
grant her one more favor. Would I be so good as not to speak to her or
expect her to speak to me till we got to the hotel; she was feeling very
nervous but was sure that a few minutes of complete rest would entirely
restore her; something had occurred (she acknowledged this) which she
wanted to think out; wouldn't I grant her this one opportunity of doing
so? It was a startling request, but she looked so lovely--pardon me, I
must explain my easy acquiescence--that I gave her the assurance she
wished and went about my own preparations, somewhat disconcerted but
still not at all prepared for what happened afterward. I had absolutely
no idea that she meant to leave me."
Mr. Ransom paused, greatly affected; but upon the detective asking him
how and when Mrs. Ransom had deserted him, he controlled himself
sufficiently to say:
"Here; immediately after that silent and unnatural ride. She entered the
office with me and was standing close at my side all the time I was
writing our names in the register; but later, when I turned to ask her to
enter the elevator with me, she was gone, and the boy who was standing by
with our two bags said that she had slipped into the reception-room
across the hall. But I didn't find her there or in any of the adjoining
rooms. Nor has anybody since succeeded in finding her. She has left the
building--left me, and--"
"You want her back again?"
This from the detective, but very dryly.
"Yes. For she was not following her own inclinations in thus abandoning
me so soon after the words which made us one were spoken. Some influence
was brought to bear on her which she felt unable to resist. I have
confidence enough in her to believe that. The rest is mystery--a mystery
which I am forced to ask you to untangle. I have neither the necessary
calmness nor experience myself."
"But you surely have done something," protested Gerridge. "Telephoned to
her late home or--"
"Oh yes, I have done all that, but with no result. She has not returned
to her old home. Her uncle has just been here and he is as much mystified
by the whole occurrence as I am. He could tell me nothing, absolutely
nothing."
"Indeed! and the man, the one who whispered to her during the reception,
couldn't you learn anything about him?"
Mr. Ransom's face took on an expression almost ferocious.
"No. He's a stranger to Mr. Fulton; yet Mr. Fulton's niece introduced him
to me as a relative."
"A relative? When was that?"
"At the reception. He was introduced as Mr. Hazen (my wife's maiden name,
you know), and when I saw how his presence disturbed her, I said to her,
'A cousin of yours?' and she answered with very evident embarrassment, 'A
relative';--which you must acknowledge didn't locate him very definitely.
Mr. Fulton doesn't know of any such relative. And I don't believe he is
a relative. He didn't sit with the rest of the family in the church."
"Ah! you saw him in the church."
"Yes. I noticed him for two reasons. First, because he occupied an end
seat and so came directly under my eye in our passage down the aisle.
Secondly, because his face of all those which confronted me when I looked
for the cause of her sudden agitation, was the only one not turned
towards her in curiosity or interest. His eyes were fixed and vacant; his
only. That made him conspicuous and when I saw him again I knew him."
"Describe the man."
Mr. Ransom's face lightened up with an expression of strong satisfaction.
"I am going to astonish you," said he. "The fellow is so plain that
children must cry at him. He has suffered some injury and his mouth and
jaw have such a twist in them that the whole face is thrown out of shape.
So you see," continued the unhappy bridegroom, as his eyes flashed from
the detective's face to that of the manager's, "that the influence he
exerts over my wife is not that of love. No one could love _him_. The
secret's of another kind. What kind, what, what, what? Find out and I'll
pay you any amount you ask. She is too dear and of too sensitive a
temperament to be subject to a wretch of his appearance. I cannot bear
the thought. It stifles, it chokes me; and yet for three hours I've had
to endure it. Three hours! and with no prospect of release unless you--"
"Oh, I'll do something," was Gerridge's bland reply. "But first I must
have a few more facts. A man such as you describe should be easy to find;
easier than the lady. Is he a tall man?"
"Unusually so."
"Dark or light?"
"Dark."
"Any beard?"
"None. That's why the injury to his jaw shows so plainly."
"I see. Is he what you would call a gentleman?"
"Yes, I must acknowledge that. He shows the manners of good society, if
he did whisper words into my wife's ear which were not meant for mine."
"And Mr. Fulton knows nothing of him?"
"Nothing."
"Well, we'll drop him for the present. You have a photograph of your
wife?"
"Her picture was in all the papers to-night."
"I noticed. But can we go by it? Does it resemble her?"
"Only fairly. She is far prettier. My wife is something uncommon. No
picture ever does her justice."
"She looks like a dark beauty. Is her hair black or brown?"
"Black. So black it has purple shades in it."
"And her eyes? Black too?"
"No, gray. A deep gray, which look black owing to her long lashes."
"Very good. Now about her dress. Describe it as minutely as you can. It
was a bride's traveling costume, I suppose."
"Yes. That is, I presume so. I know that it was all right and suitable to
the occasion, but I don't remember much about it. I was thinking too much
of the woman in the gown to notice the gown itself."
"Cannot you tell the color?"
"It was a dark one. I'm sure it was a dark one, but colors are not much
in my line. I know she looked well--they can tell you about it at the
house. All that I distinctly remember is the veil she had wound so
tightly around her face and hat to keep the rice out of her hair that
I could not get one glimpse of her features. All nonsense that veil,
especially when I had promised not to address her or even to touch her
in the cab. And she wore it into the office. If it had not been for that
I might have foreseen her intention in time to prevent it."
"Perhaps she knew that."
"It looks as if she did."
"Which means that she was meditating flight from the first."
"From the time she saw that man," Mr. Ransom corrected.
"Just so; from the time she left her uncle's house. Your wife is a woman
of means, I believe."
"Yes, unfortunately."
"Why unfortunately?"
"It makes her independent and offers a lure to irresponsible wretches
like him."
"Her fortune is large, then?"
"Very large; larger than my own."
Every one knew Mr. Ransom to be a millionaire.
"Left her by her father?"
"No, by some great-uncle, I believe, who made his fortune in the
Klondike."
"And entirely under her own control?"
"Entirely so."
"Who is her man of business?"
"Edward Harper, of--Wall Street."
"He's your man. He'll know sooner or later where she is."
"Yes, but later won't do. I must know to-night; or, if that is
impossible, to-morrow. Were it not for the mortification it would cause
her I should beg you to put on all your force and ransack the city for
this bride of five hours. But such publicity is too shocking. I should
like to give her a day to reconsider her treatment of me. She cannot mean
to leave me for good. She has too much self-respect; to say nothing of
her very positive and not to be questioned affection for myself."
The detective looked thoughtful. The problem had its difficulties.
"Are those hers?" he asked at last, pointing to the two trunks he saw
standing against the wall.
"Yes. I had them brought up, in the hope that she had slipped away on
some foolish errand or other and would yet come back."
"By their heft I judge them to be full; how about her hand-bag?"
"She had only a small bag and an umbrella. They are both here."
"How's that?"
"The colored boy took them at the door. She went away with nothing in her
hands."
Gerridge glanced at the bag Mr. Ransom had pointed out, fingered it, then
asked the young husband to open it.
He did so. The usual articles and indispensable adjuncts of a nice
woman's toilet met their eyes. Also a pocketbook containing considerable
money and a case holding more than one valuable jewel.
The eyes of the officer and manager met in ill disguised alarm.
"She must have been under the most violent excitement to slip away
without these," suggested the former. "I'd better be at work. Give me two
hours," were his parting words to Mr. Ransom. "By that time I'll either
be back or telephone you. You had better stay here; she may return.
Though I don't think that likely," he muttered as he passed the manager.
At the door he stopped. "You can't tell me the color of that veil?"
"No."
"Look about the room, sir. There's lots of colors in the furniture and
hangings. Don't you see one somewhere that reminds you of her veil or
even of her dress?"
The miserable bridegroom looked up from the bag into which he was still
staring and, glancing slowly around him, finally pointed at a chair
upholstered in brown and impulsively said:
"The veil was like that; I remember now. Brown, isn't it? a dark brown?"
"Yes. And the dress?"
"I can't tell you a thing about the dress. But her gloves--I remember
something about them. They were so tight they gaped open at the wrist.
Her hands looked quite disfigured. I wondered that so sensible a woman
should buy gloves at least two sizes too small for her. I think she was
ashamed of them herself, for she tried to hide them after she saw me
looking."
"This was in the cab?"
"Yes."
"Where you didn't speak a word?"
"Not a word."
"Though she seemed so very much cut up?"
"No, she didn't seem cut up; only tired."
"How tired?"
"She sat with her head pressed against the side of the cab."
"And a little turned away?"
"Yes."
"As if she shrank from you?"
"A little so."
"Did she brighten when the carriage stopped?"
"She started upright."
"Did you help her out?"
"No, I had promised not to touch her."
"She jumped out after you?"
"Yes."
"And never spoke?"
"Not a word."
Gerridge opened the door, motioned for the manager to follow, and, once
in the hall, remarked to that gentleman:
"I should like to see the boy who took her bag and was with them when she
slipped away."