A WOMAN'S SCREAM
I turned from Alfred Fluette to encounter a sober, questioning look
from Genevieve. Her sweet face was pale and still troubled, and while
nothing would have pleased me better than to hasten to her side, I was
obliged--for the present only, I made mental qualification--to content
myself with a smile and a reassuring nod. Her cousin Belle's demeanor
was haughty, even supercilious, and she quite frankly ignored everybody
excepting her father, her cousin, and Maillot.
Nothing occurred to retard the inquest, which I shall refer to only as
is necessary to keep bound together the thread of my narrative.
After Stodger had given his brief testimony and returned to his post in
the upper hall, I descended to the library and took a seat beside Dr.
De Breen at one end of the big library table. As I did so I observed
that Mr. Fluette was taking stock of me with a keen sidewise look. I
recognized in his regard, surreptitious as it was, that quality which
is accustomed to estimating and judging the characters of other
men,--usually with unerring exactness, I fancied,--but I affected to
appear unconscious of the fact that he was noticing me at all.
Alexander Burke was the second witness. His testimony did not vary
from his already familiar story, and after the deputy-coroner had put
all the interrogations he could think of, I began to prompt the
energetic and shrewd examiner. Thenceforward the whilom secretary's
examination proceeded as follows:
"Did Mr. Page have a revolver?"
"Yes. But it is now in my possession. More than a week ago I was
engaged with Mr. Page here until a late hour. It was necessary for me
to go to his office to procure some papers; it was past eleven, and he
handed me his pistol. I forgot to return it."
So much for the pistol. The weapon was immaterial.
"In pursuance of your duties as Mr. Page's confidential clerk, Mr.
Burke, you had occasion quite frequently to come here to the house, did
you not?"
"Not frequently--sometimes."
"Were you familiar with his habits about the house?"
"I suppose so--yes."
"Which rooms did Mr. Page use the oftenest?"
"This one--and his bedroom. He scarcely ever entered any of the other
rooms--seldom ascended the stairs."
"How would you account for the door-hinges on all three doors between
the alcove and the bedroom having been freshly oiled?"
He did n't attempt to account for it; he merely evinced a mild surprise
that such should have been the case. So, impatiently, I requested Dr.
De Breen to dismiss him.
I was anxious to have over with the real ordeal of the day, for I knew
that I thus correctly characterized to myself Maillot's session in the
witness-chair, and, if I was not much mistaken, whatever was to follow
after he was through with his remarkable story. Correct as I was in a
part of my assumption, everybody present was far from being prepared
for the startling denouement.
Maillot began his account of Tuesday night's happenings in a
straightforward way, and told it at length as convincingly as such an
improbable story could be told at all. His injured eye was even worse
discolored than it had been the previous day, and I--watching closely
the half-dozen honest citizens with whom lay his immediate
fate--observed that they noticed and commented upon it among themselves.
And my anticipations presently began to be realized. As the young man
made plain the purpose of his errand to Mr. Page, as he again went over
all the extraordinary particulars of his uncle producing the ruby and
promising to give it to him to convey to Mr. Fluette, I saw the jurors
exchange questioning glances with one another; and then, as the enmity
and ill feeling between the two men became more and more apparent, the
six faces gradually came to assume expressions of open incredulity.
If the young lawyer remarked the effect of his testimony, which he
could scarcely help doing, the circumstance seemed not to dismay him in
the least. But the worst was yet to come: plainly, whatever doubts may
have lingered in the minds of the jury during this stage of his
examination, they were definitely dispelled when the witness frankly
admitted that according to the best of his belief he was Felix Page's
sole heir.
But to me Maillot's testimony was scarcely more than a running
accompaniment to Alfred Fluette's strange behavior. It was impossible
to interpret the seething conflict of thought and emotion which his
haggard visage hid only indifferently; he stared at the young man,
fascinated; but dominating every influence, gripping his very heart and
biting like acid, I could discern the evidence of a horror which must
inevitably drive him, sooner or later, to some violent outburst. It
was manifestly more than human nature could endure.
Why?--I asked myself--why? Why should he be so profoundly stirred by
the experience of one against whom he entertained such a strong
antipathy? And so promptly that it took me by surprise, he supplied
the potential answer to my unspoken question.
With a sudden movement, as if to sit longer inactive had become an
unendurable torment, he stood upright, flung off his heavy overcoat and
then whipped off his gloves.
_On the middle finger of his right hand gleamed a broad band of gold!_
I glanced at the sweet, concerned face of Genevieve Cooper. From the
intentness with which she hung upon my every action and change of
expression, I knew that she was trying to plumb the farther depths and
learn the trend of the hidden currents of this drama, which was of such
vital moment to her. I was glad that I could still offer her the
encouragement of a smile.
My attention was directed to Maillot when one of the jurors began
interrogating him.
"While Mr. Burke was absent," inquired the juror, "did you see the
ruby?" His reference was to Burke's absence when he went to notify the
police of the crime.
"I did not," was the reply. "I saw it no more after Mr. Page returned
it to the jewel-case; I never even thought of it during the time of
which you speak."
"Were you near the concealed safe?"
"Yes, sir--although at the time I did n't know that the open trap-door
in the closet led to a safe. I saw that the small cavity was empty,
and that was all I did observe about it."
"When did you first learn about the safe?"
"When Burke showed it to Mr. Swift yesterday morning."
"Why, then, in your testimony, did you say the deceased went to the
safe after the ruby for the purpose of showing it to you?"
Maillot frowned and considered a moment.
"I did not make the assertion from knowledge of the act co-existent
with the performance of the act itself," said Maillot at length, with a
great show of deliberation. A man can't be utterly hardened who can
quiz another at such a time. "I advanced it as the most likely theory
by which to account for all of his actions during the time I waited
here in the library, explaining the antecedent occurrence with
knowledge subsequently acquired. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"
The inquisitive juror stared a moment, then subsided. Dr. De Breen
turned to me with a broad grin.
"That all?" he whispered.
I nodded. "Let the axe fall; I 'm curious to see what effect it will
have."
Everybody's attention was abruptly diverted by Genevieve Cooper.
Without a word to any one, she rose precipitately, glided noiselessly
across the room to the alcove, and disappeared behind the curtains.
Blank bewilderment brought me to my feet. What could have impelled her
to this extraordinary move at such a critical stage? I started to
follow her, but at that very instant the foreman started to announce
the verdict.
Silence fell instantly. Maillot sat plucking aimlessly at the margin
of a newspaper, the tiny fragments floating unheeded to the floor;
while Miss Fluette, strikingly handsome with her transparent
complexion, her red-brown hair, and clear hazel eyes, sat imperiously
beside him, alone in her assurance as to the outcome.
The young man seemed to have forgotten her presence, so deep was his
abstraction. In a little while he pushed the paper to one side, and
began feeling idly in a pocket of his vest. His mood was distrait, and
in a moment he produced something that glittered; something that made
me start and rivet my attention upon him.
The something was a broad gold ring. He toyed with it for a moment,
apparently wholly absorbed. Then he slipped it upon the _middle finger
of his right hand_!
The ring seemed to fit perfectly. He turned the hand over and back a
number of times, inspecting the ornament from different angles of
vision. After which, seemingly satisfied with his critical survey, he
removed it from the finger and returned it to his pocket.
I studied the young man in perplexity. Here I had two rings on two
different right hands: what was I to conclude from--
But events were moving swiftly, almost to the verge of confusion.
"We, the jury," read the foreman, with the tremulous, irresolute air of
a man unaccustomed to forensic exercises, "find that Felix Page came to
his death from a blow on the head, administered with some blunt
instrument in the hands of--"
He got no further. At that instant a piercing feminine shriek rose in
some remote part of the house. Coming as it did at such a juncture,
when all present were hanging in suspense upon the words as they fell
from the foreman's lips, it produced much the same effect as might have
followed the explosion of a bomb in the company's midst. Miss Fluette
gasped, and her face went as white as ashes. Maillot and Fluette were
both instantly upon their feet, startled and tense.
The scream was a thrilling, prolonged note of horror. For one electric
second my blood seemed to chill in my veins. The cry swelled in a
quavering crescendo, lingered with the persistence of terror, then
abruptly ceased, like the cutting off of a shrieking steam-jet.
For one awful moment everybody sat or stood as if petrified. If a bomb
had exploded it might have passed unnoticed. Then, with a wild,
unnerving recollection of Genevieve, I rushed to the door.
"Don't let a soul stir from this room!" I hoarsely shouted to Dr. De
Breen.
In the next instant I had plunged into the hall, brushed aside the
stupefied policeman there, and was taking the stairs four at a time.