MYSTERIOUS FINDINGS
Monday morning Elder Craigmile walked to the bank with the stubborn
straightening of the knees at each step that always betokened
irritation with him. Neither of the young men had appeared at
breakfast, a matter peculiarly annoying to him. Peter Junior he had
not expected to see, as, owing to his long period of recovery, he had
naturally been excused from rigorous rules, but his nephew surely
might have done that much out of courtesy, where he had always been
treated as a son, to promote the orderliness of the household. It was
unpardonable in the young man to lie abed in the morning thus when a
guest in that home. It was a mistake of his wife to allow Peter Junior
a night key. It induced late hours. He would take it from him. And as
for Richard--there was no telling what habits he had fallen into
during these years of wandering. What if he had come home to them with
a clear skin and laughing eye! Was not the "heart of man deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked"? And was not Satan abroad in
the world laying snares for the feet of wandering youths?
It was still early enough for many of the workmen to be on their way
to their day of labor with their tin dinner pails, and among them Mr.
Walters passed him, swinging his pail with the rest, although he was
master of his own foundry and employed fifty men. He had always gone
early to work, and carried his tin pail when he was one of the
workmen, and he still did it from choice. He, too, was a Scotchman of
a slightly different class from the Elder, it is true, but he was a
trustee of the church, and a man well respected in the community.
He touched his hat to the Elder, and the Elder nodded in return, but
neither spoke a word. Mr. Walters smiled after he was well past. "The
man has a touch of the indigestion," he said.
When the Elder entered his front door at noon, his first glance was at
the rack in the corner of the hall, where, on the left-hand hook,
Peter Junior's coat and hat had hung when he was at home, ever since
he was a boy. They were not there. The Elder lifted his bushy brows
one higher than the other, then drew them down to their usual straight
line, and walked on into the dining room. His wife was not there, but
in a moment she entered, looking white and perturbed.
"Peter!" she said, going up to her husband instead of taking her place
opposite him, "Peter!" She laid a trembling hand on his arm. "I
haven't seen the boys this morning. Their beds have not been slept
in."
"Quiet yourself, lass, quiet yourself. Sit and eat in peace. 'Evil
communications corrupt good manners,' but when doom strikes him, he'll
maybe experience a change of heart." The Elder spoke in a tone not
unkindly. He seated himself heavily.
Then his wife silently took her place at the table and he bowed his
head and repeated the grace to which she had listened three times a
day for nearly thirty years, only that this time he added the request
that the Lord would, in his "merciful kindness, strike terror to the
hearts of all evildoers and turn them from their way."
When the silent meal was ended, Hester followed her husband to the
door and laid a detaining hand on his arm. He stood and looked down on
that slender white hand as if it were something that too sudden a
movement would joggle off, and she did not know that it was as if she
had laid her hand on his very heart. "Peter, tell me what happened
yesterday afternoon. You should tell me, Peter."
Then the Elder did an unwonted thing. He placed his hand over hers and
pressed it harder on his arm, and after an instant's pause he stooped
and kissed her on the forehead.
"I spoke the lad fair, Hester, and made him an offer, but he would
none of it. He thinks he is his own master, but I have put him in the
Lord's hands."
"Has he gone, Peter?"
"Maybe, but the offer I made him was a good one. Comfort your heart,
lass. If he's gone, he will return. When the Devil holds the whip, he
makes a hard bargain, and drives fast. When the boy is hard pressed,
he will be glad to return to his father's house."
"Richard's valise is gone. The maid says he came late yesterday after
I was gone, and took it away with him."
"They are likely gone together."
"But Peter's things are all here. No, they would never go like that
and not bid me good-by."
The Elder threw out his hands with his characteristic downward gesture
of impatience. "I have no way of knowing, more than you. It is no
doubt that Richard has become a ne'er-do-weel. He felt shame to tell
us he was going a journey on the Sabbath day."
"Oh, Peter, I think not. Peter, be just. You know your son was never
one to let the Devil drive; he is like yourself, Peter. And as for
Richard, Peter Junior would never think so much of him if he were a
ne'er-do-weel."
"Women are foolish and fond. It is their nature, and perhaps that is
how we love them most, but the men should rule, for their own good. A
man should be master in his own house. When the lad returns, the door
is open to him. That is enough."
With a sorrowful heart he left her, and truth to tell, the sorrow was
more for his wife's hurt than for his own. The one great tenderness of
his life was his feeling for her, and this she felt rather than knew;
but he believed himself absolutely right and that the hurt was
inevitable, and for her was intensified by her weakness and fondness.
As for Hester, she turned away from the door and went quietly about
her well-ordered house, directing the maidservant and looking
carefully over her husband's wardrobe. Then she did the same for Peter
Junior's, and at last, taking her basket of mending, she sat in the
large, lace-curtained window looking out toward the west--the
direction from which Peter Junior would be likely to come. For how
long she would sit there during the days to come--waiting--she little
knew.
She was comforted by the thought of the talk she had had with him the
day before. She knew he was upright, and she felt that this
quarrel--if it had been a quarrel--with his father would surely be
healed; and then, there was Betty to call him back. The love of a girl
was a good thing for a man. It would be stronger to draw him and hold
him than love of home or of mother; it was the divine way for
humanity, and it was a good way, and she must be patient and wait.
She was glad she had gone without delay to Mary Ballard. The two women
were fond of each other, and the visit had been most satisfactory.
Betty she had not seen, for the maiden was still sleeping the long,
heavy sleep which saves a normal healthy body from wreck after severe
emotion. Betty was so young--it might be best that matters should wait
awhile as they were.
If Peter Junior went to Paris now, he would have to earn his own way,
of course, and possibly he had gone west with Richard where he could
earn faster than at home. Maybe that had been the grounds of the
quarrel. Surely she would hear from him soon. Perhaps he had taken
their talk on Sunday afternoon as a good-by to her; or he might yet
come to her and tell her his plans. So she comforted herself in the
most wholesome and natural way.
Richard's action in taking his valise away during her absence and
leaving no word of farewell for her was more of a surprise to her. But
then--he might have resented the Elder's attitude and sided with his
cousin. Or, he might have feared he would say things he would
afterwards regret, if he appeared, and so have taken himself quietly
away. Still, these reasons did not wholly appeal to her, and she was
filled with misgivings for him even more than for her son.
Peter Junior she trusted absolutely and Richard she loved as a son;
but there was much of his father in him, and the Irish nature was
erratic and wild, as the Elder said. Where was that father now? No
one knew. It was one of the causes for anxiety she had for the boy
that his father had been lost to them all ever since Richard's birth
and his wife's death. He had gone out of their lives as completely as
a candle in a gale of wind. She had mothered the boy, and the Elder
had always been kind to him for his own dead sister's sake, but of the
father they never spoke.
It was while Hester Craigmile sat in her western window, thinking her
thoughts, that two lads came hurrying down the bluff from the old camp
ground, breathless and awed. One carried a straw hat, and the other a
stout stick--a stick with an irregular knob at the end. It was Larry
Kildene's old blackthorn that Peter Junior had been carrying. The
Ballards' home was on the way between the bluff and the village, and
Mary Ballard was standing at their gate watching for the children from
school. She wished Jamie to go on an errand for her.
Mary noticed the agitation of the boys. They were John Walters and
Charlie Dean--two chums who were always first to be around when there
was anything unusual going on, or to be found. It was they who
discovered the fire in the foundry in time to have it put out. It was
they who knew where the tramps were hiding who had been stealing from
the village stores, and now Mary wondered what they had discovered.
She left the gate swinging open and walked down to meet them.
"What is it, boys?"
"We--we--found these--and--there's something happened," panted the
boys, both speaking at once.
She took the hat of white straw from John's hand. "Why! This is Peter
Junior's hat! Where did you find it?" She turned it about and saw
dark red stains, as if it had been grasped by a bloody hand--finger
marks of blood plainly imprinted on the rim.
"And this, Mrs. Ballard," said Charlie, putting Peter Junior's stick
in her hand, and pointing to the same red stains sunken into the knob.
"We think there's been a fight and some one's been hit with this."
She took it and looked at it in a dazed way. "Yes. He was carrying
this in the place of his crutch," she said, as if to herself.
"We think somebody's been pushed over the bluff into the river, Mrs.
Ballard, for they's a hunk been tore out as big as a man, from the
edge, and it's gone clean over, and down into the river. We can see
where it is gone. And it's an awful swift place."
She handed the articles back to the boys.
"Sit down in the shade here, and I'll bring you some sweet apples, and
if any one comes by, don't say anything about it until I have time to
consult with Mr. Ballard."
She hurried back and passed quickly around the house, and on to her
husband, who was repairing the garden fence.
"Bertrand, come with me quickly. Something serious has happened. I
don't want Betty to hear of it until we know what it is."
They hastened to the waiting boys, and together they slowly climbed
the long path leading to the old camping place. Bertrand carried the
stick and the hat carefully, for they were matters of great moment.
"This looks grave," he said, when the boys had told him their story.
"Perhaps we ought to have brought some one with us--if anything--"
said Mary.
"No, no; better wait and see, before making a stir."
It was a good half hour's walk up the hill, and every moment of the
time seemed heavily freighted with foreboding. They said no more until
they reached the spot where the boys had found the edge of the bluff
torn away. There, for a space of about two feet only, back from the
brink, the sparse grass was trampled, and the earth showed marks of
heels and in places the sod was freshly torn up.
"There's been something happened here, you see," said Charlie Dean.
"Here is where a foot has been braced to keep from being pushed over;
see, Mary? And here again."
"I see indeed." Mary looked, and stooping, picked something from the
ground that glinted through the loosened earth. She held it on her
open palm toward Bertrand, and the two boys looked intently at it. Her
husband did not touch it, but glanced quickly into her eyes and then
at the boys. Then her fingers closed over it, and taking her
handkerchief she tied it in one corner securely.
"Did you ever see anything like it, boys?" she asked.
"No, ma'am. It's a watch charm, isn't it? Or what?"
"I suppose it must be."
"I guess the fellah that was being pushed over must 'a' grabbed for
the other fellah's watch. Maybe he was trying to rob him."
"Let's see whether we can find anything else," said John Walters,
peering over the bluff.
"Don't, John, don't. You may fall over. It might have been a fall, and
one of them might have been trying to save the other, you know. He
might have caught at him and pulled this off. There's no reason why we
should surmise the worst."
"They might ha' been playing--you know--wrestling--and it might 'a'
happened so," said Charlie.
"Naw! They'd been big fools to wrestle so near the edge of the bluff
as this," said the practical John. "I see something white way down
there, Mrs. Ballard. I can get it, I guess."
"But take care, John. Go further round by the path."
Both boys ran along the bluff until they came to a path that led down
to the river. "Do be careful, boys!" called Mary.
"Now, let me see that again, my dear," and Mary untied the handkerchief.
"Yes, it is what I thought. That belonged to Larry Kildene. He got it
in India, although he said it was Chinese. He was a year in the
British service in India. I've often examined it. I should have known
it anywhere. He must have left it with Hester for the boy."
"Poor Larry! And it has come to this. I remember it on Richard's chain
when he came out there to meet us in the grove. Bertrand, what shall
we do? They must have been here--and have quarreled--and what has
happened! I'm going back to ask Betty."
"Ask Betty! My dear! What can Betty know about it?"
"Something upset her terribly yesterday morning. She was ill and with
no cause that I could see, and I believe she had had a nervous
shock."
"But she seemed all right this morning,--a little pale, but otherwise
quite herself." Bertrand turned the little charm over in his hand.
"He thought it was Chinese because it is jade, but this carving is
Egyptian. I don't think it is jade, and I don't think it is Chinese."
"But whatever it is, it was on Richard's chain Saturday," said Mary,
sadly. "And now, what can we do? On second thought I'll say nothing to
Betty. If a tragedy has come upon the Craigmiles, it will also fall on
her now, and we must spare her all of it we can, until we know."
A call came to them from below, and Bertrand hastily handed the charm
back to his wife, and she tied it again in her handkerchief.
"Oh, Bertrand, don't go near that terrible brink. It might give way.
I'm sure this has been an accident."
"But the stick, Mary, and the marks of blood on Peter Junior's hat.
I'm afraid--afraid."
"But they were always fond of each other. They have been like
brothers."
"And quarrels between brothers are often the bitterest."
"But we have never heard of their quarreling, and they were so glad to
see each other Saturday. And you know Peter Junior was always
possessed to do whatever Richard planned. They were that way about
enlisting, you remember, and everything else. What cause could Richard
have against Peter Junior?"
"We can't say it was Richard against Peter. You see the stick was
bloody, and it was Peter's. We must offer no opinion, no matter what
we think, for the world may turn against the wrong one, and only time
will tell."
They both were silent as the boys came panting up the bank. "Here's a
handkerchief. It was what I saw. It was caught on a thorn bush, and
here--here's Peter Junior's little notebook, with his name--"
"This is Peter's handkerchief. P. C. J. Hester Craigmile embroidered
those letters." Mary's eyes filled with tears. "Bertrand, we must go
to her. She may hear in some terrible way."
"And the book, where was that, John?"
"It was lying on that flat rock. John had to crawl along the ledge on
his belly to get it; and here, I found this lead pencil," cried
Charlie, excited and important.
"'Faber No. 2.' Yes, this was also Peter's." Bertrand shut it in the
notebook. "Mary, this looks sinister. We'd better go down. There's
nothing more to learn here."
"Maybe we'll find the young men both safely at home."
"Richard was to leave early this morning."
"I remember."
Sadly they returned, and the two boys walked with them, gravely and
earnestly propounding one explanation after another.
"You'd better go back to the house, Mary, and I'll go on to the
village with the boys. We'll consult with your father, John; he's a
thoughtful man, and--"
"And he's a coroner, too--" said John.
"Yes, but if there's nobody found, who's he goin' to sit on?"
"They don't sit on the body, they sit on the jury," said John, with
contempt.
"Don't I know that? But they've got to find the body, haven't they,
before they can sit on anything? Guess I know that much."
"Now, boys," said Bertrand, "this may turn out to be a very grave
matter, and you must keep silent about it. It won't do to get the town
all stirred up about it and all manner of rumors afloat. It must be
looked into quietly first, by responsible people, and you must keep
all your opinions and surmises to yourselves until the truth can be
learned."
"Don't walk, Bertrand; take the carryall, and these can be put under
the seat. Boys, if you'll go back there in the garden, you'll find
some more apples, and I'll fetch you out some cookies to go with
them." The boys briskly departed. "I don't want Betty to see them, and
we'll be silent until we know what to tell her," Mary added, as they
walked slowly up the front path.
Bertrand turned off to the stable, carrying the sad trophies with him,
and Mary entered the house. She looked first for Betty, but no Betty
was to be found, and the children were at home clamoring for something
to eat. They always came home from school ravenously hungry. Mary
hastily packed them a basket of fruit and cookies and sent them to
play picnic down by the brook. Still no Betty appeared.
"Where is she?" asked Bertrand, as he entered the kitchen after
bringing up the carryall.
"I don't know. She may have gone over to Clara Dean's. She spoke of
going there to-day. I'm glad--rather."
"Yes, yes."
A little later in the day, almost closing time at the bank, James
Walters and Bertrand Ballard entered and asked to see the Elder. They
were shown into the director's room, and found him seated alone at the
great table in the center. He pushed his papers one side and rose,
greeting them with his grave courtesy, as usual.
Mr. Walters, a shy man of few words, looked silently at Mr. Ballard
to speak, while the Elder urged them to be seated. "A warm day for the
season, and very pleasant to have it so. We'll hope the winter may
come late this year."
"Yes, yes. We wish to inquire after your son, Elder Craigmile. Is he
at home to-day?"
"Ah, yes. He was not at home--not when I left this noon." The Elder
cleared his throat and looked keenly at his friend. "Is it--ahem--a
matter of business, Mr. Ballard?"
"Unfortunately, no. We have come to inquire if he--when he was last at
home--or if his cousin--has been with you?"
"Not Richard, no. He came unexpectedly and has gone with as little
ceremony, but my son was here on the Sabbath--ahem--He dined that day
with you, Mr. Ballard?"
"He did--but--Elder, will you come with us? A matter with regard to
him and his cousin should be looked into."
"It is not necessary for me to interfere in matters regarding my son
any longer. He has taken the ordering of his life in his own hands
hereafter. As for Richard, he has long been his own master."
"Elder, I beg you to come with us. We fear foul play of some sort. It
is not a question now of family differences of opinion."
The Elder's face remained immovable, and Bertrand reluctantly added,
"We fear either your son or his cousin, possibly both of them, have
met with disaster--maybe murder."
A pallor crept over the Elder's face, and without a word further he
took his hat from a hook in the corner of the room, paused, and then
carefully arranged the papers he had pushed aside at their entrance
and placing them in his desk, turned the key, still without a word. At
the door he waited a moment with his hand on the knob, and with the
characteristic lift of his brows, asked: "Has anything been said to my
wife?"
"No, no. We thought best to do nothing until under your direction."
"Thank you. That's well. Whatever comes, I would spare her all I
can."
The three then drove slowly back to the top of the bluff, and on the
way Bertrand explained to the Elder all that had transpired. "It
seemed best to Mary and me that you should look the ground over
yourself, before any action be taken. We hoped appearances might be
deceptive, and that you would have information that would set our
fears at rest before news of a mystery should reach the town."
"Where are the boys who found these things?"
Mr. Walters spoke, "My son was one of them, and he is now at home.
They are forbidden to speak to any one until we know more about it."
Arrived at the top of the bluff the three men went carefully over the
ground, even descending the steep path to the margin of the river.
"There," said Bertrand, "the notebook was picked up on that flat rock
which juts out from that narrow ledge. John Walters crawled along the
ledge to get it. The handkerchief was caught on that thorn shrub,
halfway up, see? And the pencil was picked up down here, somewhere."
The Elder looked up to the top of the bluff and down at the rushing
river beneath, and as he looked he seemed visibly to shrink and become
in the instant an old man--older by twenty years. As they climbed back
again, his shoulders drooped and his breath came hard. As they neared
the top, Bertrand turned and gave him his aid to gain a firm footing
above.
"Don't forget that we can't always trust to appearances," he urged.
"Some heavy body--heavier than a clod of earth, has gone down there,"
said the Elder, and his voice sounded weak and thin.
"Yes, yes. But even so, a stone may have been dislodged. You can't be
sure."
"Ay, the lads might have been wrestling in play--or the like--and sent
a rock over; it's like lads, that," hazarded Mr. Walters.
"Wrestling on the Sabbath evening! They are men, not lads."
Mr. Walters looked down in embarrassment, and the old man continued.
"Would a stone leave a handkerchief clinging to a thorn? Would it
leave a notebook thrown down on yonder rock?" The Elder lifted his
head and looked to the sky: holding one hand above his head he shook
it toward heaven. "Would a stone leave a hat marked with a bloody
hand--my son's hat? There has been foul play here. May the curse of
God fall on him who has robbed me of my son, be he stranger or my own
kin."
His voice broke and he reeled backward and would have fallen over the
brink but for Bertrand's quickness. Then, trembling and bowed, his two
friends led him back to the carryall and no further word was spoken
until they reached the village, when the Elder said:--
"Will you kindly drive me to the bank, Mr. Ballard?"
They did so. No one was there, and the Elder quietly unlocked the door
and carried the articles found on the bluff into the room beyond and
locked them away. Bertrand followed him, loath to leave him thus, and
anxious to make a suggestion. The Elder opened the door of a cupboard
recessed into the wall and laid the hat on a high shelf. Then he took
the stick and looked at it with a sudden awakening in his eyes as if
he saw it for the first time.
"This stick--this blackthorn stick--accursed! How came it here? I
thought it had been burned. It was left years ago in my front hall
by--Richard's father. I condemned it to be burned."
"Peter Junior was using that in place of his crutch, no doubt because
of its strength. He had it at my house, and I recognize it now as one
Larry brought over with him--"
"Peter was using it! My God! My God! The blow was struck with this. It
is my son who is the murderer, and I have called down the curse of God
on him? It falls--it falls on me!" He sank in his chair--the same in
which he had sat when he talked with Peter Junior--and bowed his head
in his arms. "It is enough, Mr. Ballard. Will you leave me?"
"I can't leave you, sir: there is more to be said. We must not be
hasty in forming conclusions. If any one was thrown over the bluff, it
must have been your son, for he was lame and could not have saved
himself. If he struck any one, he could not have killed him; for
evidently he got away, unless he also went over the brink. If he got
away, he must be found. There is something for you to do, Elder
Craigmile."
The old man lifted his head and looked in Bertrand's face, pitifully
seeking there for help. "You are a good man, Mr. Ballard. I need your
counsel and help."
"First, we will go below the rapids and search; the sooner the better,
for in the strong current there is no telling how far--"
"Yes, we will search." The Elder lifted himself to his full height,
inspired by the thought of action. "We'll go now." He looked down on
his shorter friend, and Bertrand looked up to him, his genial face
saddened with sympathy, yet glowing with kindliness.
"Wait a little, Elder; let us consider further. Mr. Walters--sit down,
Elder Craigmile, for a moment--Mr. Walters is capable, and he can
organize the search; for if you keep this from your wife, you must be
discreet. Here is something I haven't shown you before. It is the
charm from Richard's watch. It was almost covered with earth where
they had been struggling, and Mary found it. You see there is a
mystery--and let us hope whatever happened was an accident. The
evidences are so--so--mingled, that no one may know whom to blame."
The Elder looked down on the charm without touching it, as it lay on
Bertrand's palm. "That belonged--" his lips twitched--"that belonged
to the man who took from me my twin sister. The shadow--forever the
shadow of Larry Kildene hangs over me." He was silent for some
moments, then he said: "Mr. Ballard, if, after the search, my son is
found to be murdered, I will put a detective on the trail of the man
who did the deed, and be he whom he may, he shall hang."
"Hush, Elder Craigmile; in Wisconsin men are not hanged."
"I tell you--be he whom he may--he shall suffer what is worse than to
be hanged, he shall enter the living grave of a life imprisonment."