|FAR in the night he said to her: “It is the only way. I shall leave you
to yourself now, Frieda. The rest is with God and you. Tomorrow morning
they will take you away. They may--they probably will shoot you as
a spy. I cannot save you,--nothing that I can do will be of avail in
turning aside or tempering the wrath of Justice.”
She sat, limply, with bowed head. Her fine body seemed to have
shrivelled; emptied of its vitality, it had shrunk as with age before
his eyes. Everything that had fed her blood for years seeped away,
leaving a waste of sunken flesh: pride, arrogance, defiance, and, last
of all, fury,--all had gone out of the house of her soul. There was
nothing left but the pitiful thing called life.
She raised her eyes.
“I cannot take _your_ way out, Davenport,” she said dully.
He pointed to the revolver he had laid on her dressing-table.
“_That_, Frieda, is the only friend you have in all this world tonight.”
“Oh, my God! Are you heartless? Have you no pity, no love, no--”
“I have pity,--nothing more. Love? I have given you love for twenty
years and more. You have defiled it. Do not speak of love!”
“You know I love you--you know I would die for you a thousand times
over. You are my man,--my master, my--”
“Enough, Frieda! You have played a great game,--but an ignoble one,--and
you have lost. You have begged me to--to become your executioner. You
ask me to kill you. You--”
“I do not ask it now,” she broke in, looking him full in the eye. “Go,
Davenport. Leave me to myself. Thank you for--for being kind to me
tonight,--after all. I have told you the truth,--you know everything
that my conscience permits me to reveal. You know more than that man
who sits out there like a vulture, waiting for--waiting for _me_. What
I have confessed to you I would die a thousand times over rather than
confess to another living soul. They could take me away tonight and
torture me till I died, and not one word of what I have said to you
would pass my lips. They know enough, but you alone know all. You say
the world will never know what I have done. I do not care. Let the world
know. I am proud of my blood--I rejoice in the little I have been able
to do for----”
“Hush! Do not say it.”
“Very well. It hurts you. I do not want to hurt you now, husband. The
world is to believe that I--that an accident--a sudden--” She buried her
face in her hands. Her body shook.
“I would spare your son, Frieda,” said he.
She looked up, dry-eyed. A quick flash,--could it have been of
joy?--lighted her haggard face.
“Yes, yes,--he must be spared,” she cried. A deep, inscrutable
expression came into her eyes. She drew a deep, full breath. “Thank God!
He is young,--he has a long and useful life to live. I gave it him. That
is the best, the biggest thing I have done. Now, go, Davenport. Shall we
say--good-night?”
The following day,--in the noon issues--all of the New York evening
papers printed, under varied headlines, the details, so far as
available, of the shocking accident which resulted in the death of Mrs.
Davenport Carstairs. She had fallen from a window in her bed-chamber to
the brick-paved courtyard ten stories below. Death was instantaneous.
“Accidental,” was the prompt decision of the coroner.
Deduction readily established the fact. Mrs. Carstairs must have become
ill in the night. A bottle of smelling salts was found on the floor near
the window which was open to the full. Evidently, she had gone to the
window for air. After opening it wide, a sudden faintness or dizziness
caused her to topple forward.... Before retiring for the night, she had
complained to her husband of a dull, throbbing headache, due, no doubt,
to anxiety over the alarming illness of her niece, Miss Hansbury....
Sometime after one o'clock, Mr. Carstairs, in the adjoining bed-room,
heard her moaning as if in pain. He arose instantly and opened the
connecting door. She was lying on her bed, and, in response to his
inquiry, begged him not to worry about her. Dr. Browne, called in to
attend Miss Hansbury, had decided to remain for the night. He was lying
down in a guest-chamber, and had fallen asleep.
Uneasy over his wife's condition, Mr. Carstairs awoke the physician
and together they returned to her room. A knock on the door brought
no response,--but some relief in the thought that she was asleep. The
husband opened the door slightly and listened. There was no sound.
He entered the room, which was dark, and approached the bed. Then,
he called out to the doctor to switch on the lights.... A cold icy
draft,--the Night-Wind,--rushing into the room through the open
window....
Continuing, the papers spoke profoundly of the great loss to society,
of the qualities that made Mrs. Davenport Carstairs one of the most
sincerely beloved women in all the great city, of her prominence in
the conduct of important war charities and reliefs, of her unswerving
devotion to the cause for which America and her sons were fighting, of
her manifold charms and graces. Her untimely death created a void that
could never be filled. Eulogy upon eulogy!
Among the hundreds of telegrams of condolence received by Davenport
Carstairs was one from Mr. Paul Zimmerlein, couched in most exquisite
terms, conveying tribute to the dead and sympathy to the living. It was
sent on the second day from the smart club to which he belonged; on the
third flowers went up with his card.
As business went on as usual at the offices of Mr. Paul Zimmerlein, it
would be sheer presumption to even suggest that this unhappy chronicle
has reached
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's Shot With Crimson, by George Barr McCutcheon