FRAZER’S CONFESSION.
Donald Frazer’s confession, made on the day following his capture,
corroborated the statements which had been made by Corporal Rand. The
actual murder, according to Frazer, had been committed by Pierre and
Henri Mekewai in the trading room at Half Way House on the night of
April 18th, just ten days after the prospector had been seen at Lynx
Lake by the Indian, Henri Karek, and within two hours after his,
Miller’s, arrival at the post.
“He drove in at ten o’clock or very shortly after,” Frazer told them.
“Since morning it had snowed heavily and the wind had risen almost to a
gale. There were five of us in the trading room at the time, Wolf
Brennan, Toby McCallum, the two Mekewai brothers and myself. We had all
been drinking for several hours. The first intimation we had of Miller’s
arrival was when we heard the sound of a sledge outside, then a voice
calling through the door. Brennan and McCallum went out and assisted
Miller to unharness and feed his team and later helped him carry in his
grub-box, blankets and the two pokes containing gold. Miller was chilled
to the bone and had not eaten for twelve hours. He asked me if I could
get supper for him. He especially wanted a hot cup of tea. He was very
tired, he said, and wished to get to bed as quickly as possible.
“I went to the door of the loft to summon my native boy, Meschel, who,
like Mr. Scott, had already retired, when Wolf Brennan called me to one
side, suggesting in an undertone that he would do the work himself.
Immediately afterward Wolf started for the kitchen, winking at me
covertly as he went past. On some pretext or other, I followed him a few
minutes later, and there in the kitchen, while Wolf brewed the tea and
prepared the lunch, he told me about the two pokes.
“‘They’re worth thousands’, he informed me. ‘Gold enough there to buy
our way into Kingdom Come’.”
“At first I was appalled at the thought.
“‘You mean to murder him’?” I asked.
“Wolf told me that that was exactly what he meant. For a few hundred
dollars and a bottle of rum, he said, the Mekewai boys would be willing
to slip up behind Miller while he ate and knife him in the back.
“I told him flatly that I wouldn’t be party to such a crime. I was
horrified. The mere thought of it sent cold shivers running down my
back. But after we had two or three more drinks from a bottle, I looked
at it differently. For days I had been desperate, wondering where I
could get enough money to repay what I had borrowed from company
funds—in all about two thousand dollars.”
“Why had you borrowed that amount?” interrupted Corporal Rand:
“Money I had lost at cards. I had to cover my shortage before the books
were audited or else suffer disgrace and probably imprisonment. I lived
in constant fear of Mr. MacClaren’s coming. Here was a chance to get
myself out of a very bad hole. I took it.”
Frazer lowered his eyes and a deep silence crept over the little room.
“Within thirty minutes of the time I came to a decision,” he resumed,
“the crime had been committed. Miller’s death was almost instantaneous.
At my suggestion, we dug the pit under the floor in the cellar. The
Mekewai boys concealed the body there, were paid their blood-money and
bottle of rum and went home singing.”
“Singing!” gasped Dick.
“Yes, they went home singing,” repeated the former factor. “Just as soon
as they had gone, Brennan, McCallum and I held a short conference and it
was decided that I should keep the gold in my possession until it could
be sold to advantage. The money received for it would be divided equally
among the three of us. Before entering the service of the Hudson’s Bay
Company I was a cabinetmaker by trade and that night I told them that I
could easily construct a wall-cabinet in my office, where we could hide
the gold.
“The next morning the Mekewai brothers came over before daybreak—as it
had been previously planned—to get the dead man’s effects. The dogs were
sold to an Indian, who resides at Fort Chipewayan, and all the others
things were weighted with rocks and sunk through a hole in the ice in
Half Way River.
“Miller’s body was the only thing we had to worry about. As the days
passed, I began to see that I would never know one moment’s peace as
long as the corpse remained in the cellar. My waking hours were filled
with grim spectres of fear and horror, with a constant dread of
discovery. The thing preyed upon my mind so much that finally I summoned
Wolf and Toby and explained to them that we must find a safer burial
place. The body, I told them, had to be moved. I simply couldn’t stand
the worry and suspense any longer. I was rapidly becoming a physical and
mental wreck. I jumped at my own shadow.
“Brennan and McCallum endeavored to laugh away my fears, but I was
obdurate. Wolf pointed out that moving the body again presented unusual
difficulties. Even at night there was a chance that someone might see
us. The days were getting longer, he said. Neither he nor his partner,
he made it quite plain, wished to have anything to do with such a
perilous and unnecessary undertaking.
“Thus the matter rested for several days, and then I had an inspiration.
As soon as I could send Mr. Scott away, I hired the Mekewai brothers to
come over late at night and dismember the body. They put it in sacks and
agreed to come back on the following night and take the sacks away and
bury them.”
Frazer paused, wiping his perspiring face.
“We could not carry out this plan because on the very next morning these
three boys appeared. I can not begin to tell you, Corporal Rand, how
their coming startled me. I was afraid that the mounted police had in
some mysterious way got wind of the murder and had sent them here to spy
upon me. I recalled that during the previous summer the boys had
assisted you in solving the Dewberry case. By the end of the week,
frantic, desperate, I began to plan how I could get them to leave the
post without arousing their suspicions.”
Again Frazer paused and again, he daubed at his flushed sweat-streaked
face.
“I need not tell you how I eventually succeeded. You all know what
subsequently occurred. But I was afraid even when the boys departed for
the island of the dinosaur that they could see into my little game and
would return as soon as they were out of sight of the post. In order to
make sure on this point, I sent Brennan and McCallum to watch them
closely and prevent them from coming back again.
“Strange as it may seem, I had no opportunity during the next few weeks
to remove Miller’s body from the cellar. People dropped in at the post
unexpectedly. Mr. Stearns, an old friend of mine, came up from Fort
Vermilion and remained with me for several days. No sooner had he left
than a party of prospectors arrived on the scene and camped in the trees
just outside the trading room for a full week. Then you put in an
appearance, Corporal, and _within two hours of your departure Mr.
MacClaren walked in upon me_.”
Startled by these disclosures, Sandy leaned over and whispered in Dick’s
ear:
“Divine interference! And some people doubt the existence of God!”
“Please continue with your confession,” the policeman instructed Frazer.
“I have nothing more to tell.”
Corporal Rand turned his head thoughtfully and looked out of the window.
Another deep silence pervaded the room.
“Does old Bill Willison know anything about the murder of Miller?” he
asked finally.
Frazer shook his head. “No, not a thing. He’s as innocent as a babe. He
doesn’t enter into this case at all except in a small way. He lives in a
cabin now along the lower stretches of Half Way River. When Wolf and
Toby lost their canoe, they walked back in the woods to Willison’s place
and hired him to take them up river in pursuit of these boys. On the
way, they conceived the plan of dressing Willison like a wild man and
frightening the boys so badly that they would leave the course of the
river and strike off toward Fort Good Faith.”
“It didn’t work, did it?” glared Sandy.
“No comments, please!” came the corporal’s sharp reprimand.
“You set fire to the warehouse.” The policeman turned again to Frazer.
“Yes, it was a ruse to get Scott and these boys out of the post.”
“Did you instruct Pierre Mekewai to shoot at Dick that night Dick stood
near the window of the loft?”
“No, Corporal, I did not. Those instructions were issued by Wolf Brennan
who bore this young man a grudge.”
“Who threw the knife that wounded young John Toma?”
“Henri Mekewai.”
“By your orders?”
“No, sir. I knew nothing about it until afterwards.”
Corporal Rand gathered up the sheets of foolscap on the desk in front of
him.
“I have your confession here, Mr. Frazer, word for word, just as you
have told it to us. Are there any other statements you wish to make
apropos of this case?”
Frazer raised his head and for the first time that afternoon he looked
straight into the eyes of his questioner.
“With your permission, Corporal,” he stated in a hollow, choking voice,
“I’d like to say that heinous as my crime is and black as my character
may seem to you, I am ready and willing to pay the penalty. I want you
all to know that I hold no brief for myself, expect no sympathy or
mercy. On the other hand, I’d like to have you understand, to believe
somehow, that here at the last I am a changed man, an altogether
different person than he who was one of the slayers of Conroy Miller.
Before God, now that it is too late, I am deeply and sincerely sorry.
Crime is a terrible thing, Corporal, and if I had my life to live again
I swear to you——”
In the middle of a sentence, Frazer stopped short, sank back in his
chair and covered his face with his hands. In the deep silence that
followed Dick looked searchingly at Sandy and together they rose and
tip-toed out of the room. They did not pause until they had reached the
path, leading to the river.
“How sweet and cool the air is outside,” remarked Sandy.