insight in cases of a more or less baffling nature than I
beheld in him to-day. He is certainly a most wonderful
physician, and I feel bound to record that his mind is as
clear for business as if no shadow had fallen upon it.
* * * * *
"Dr. Zabriskie loves his wife, but in a way that tortures both
himself and her. If she is gone from the house he is wretched,
and yet when she returns he often forbears to speak to her, or
if he does speak, it is with a constraint that hurts her more
than his silence. I was present when she came in to-day. Her
step, which had been eager on the stairway, flagged as she
approached the room, and he naturally noted the change and
gave his own interpretation to it. His face, which had been
very pale, flushed suddenly, and a nervous trembling seized
him which he sought in vain to hide. But by the time her tall
and beautiful figure stood in the doorway he was his usual
self again in all but the expression of his eyes, which stared
straight before him in an agony of longing only to be observed
in those who have once seen.
"'Where have you been, Helen?' he asked, as, contrary to his
wont, he moved to meet her.
"'To my mother's, to Arnold & Constable's, and to the
hospital, as you requested,' was her quick answer, made
without faltering or embarrassment.
"He stepped still nearer and took her hand, and as he did so
my physician's eye noted how his finger lay over her pulse in
seeming unconsciousness.
"'Nowhere else?' he queried.
"She smiled the saddest kind of smile and shook her head;
then, remembering that he could not see this movement, she
cried in a wistful tone:
"'Nowhere else, Constant; I was too anxious to get back.'
"I expected him to drop her hand at this, but he did not; and
his finger still rested on her pulse.
"'And whom did you see while you were gone?' he continued.
"She told him, naming over several names.
"'You must have enjoyed yourself,' was his cold comment, as he
let go her hand and turned away. But his manner showed
relief, and I could not but sympathize with the pitiable
situation of a man who found himself forced to means like
these for probing the heart of his young wife.
"Yet when I turned towards her I realized that her position
was but little happier than his. Tears are no strangers to her
eyes, but those that welled up at this moment seemed to
possess a bitterness that promised but little peace for her
future. Yet she quickly dried them and busied herself with
ministrations for his comfort.
* * * * *
"If I am any judge of woman, Helen Zabriskie is superior to
most of her sex. That her husband mistrusts her is evident,
but whether this is the result of the stand she has taken in
his regard, or only a manifestation of dementia, I have as
yet been unable to determine. I dread to leave them alone
together, and yet when I presume to suggest that she should be
on her guard in her interviews with him, she smiles very
placidly and tells me that nothing would give her greater joy
than to see him lift his hand against her, for that would
argue that he is not accountable for his deeds or for his
assertions.
"Yet it would be a grief to see her injured by this passionate
and unhappy man.
* * * * *
"You have said that you wanted all details I could give; so I
feel bound to say, that Dr. Zabriskie tries to be considerate
of his wife, though he often fails in the attempt. When she
offers herself as his guide, or assists him with his mail, or
performs any of the many acts of kindness by which she
continually manifests her sense of his affliction, he thanks
her with courtesy and often with kindness, yet I know she
would willingly exchange all his set phrases for one fond
embrace or impulsive smile of affection. That he is not in the
full possession of his faculties would be too much to say, and
yet upon what other hypothesis can we account for the
inconsistencies of his conduct.
* * * * *
"I have before me two visions of mental suffering. At noon I
passed the office door, and looking within, saw the figure of
Dr. Zabriskie seated in his great chair, lost in thought or
deep in those memories which make an abyss in one's
consciousness. His hands, which were clenched, rested upon the
arms of his chair, and in one of them I detected a woman's
glove, which I had no difficulty in recognizing as one of the
pair worn by his wife this morning. He held it as a tiger
might hold his prey or a miser his gold, but his set features
and sightless eyes betrayed that a conflict of emotions was
waging within him, among which tenderness had but little
share.
"Though alive, as he usually is, to every sound, he was too
absorbed at this moment to notice my presence though I had
taken no pains to approach quietly. I therefore stood for a
full minute watching him, till an irresistible sense of the
shame of thus spying upon a blind man in his moments of
secret anguish seized upon me and I turned away. But not
before I saw his features relax in a storm of passionate
feeling, as he rained kisses after kisses on the senseless kid
he had so long held in his motionless grasp. Yet when an hour
later he entered the dining-room on his wife's arm, there was
nothing in his manner to show that he had in any way changed
in his attitude towards her.
* * * * *
"The other picture was more tragic still. I have no business
with Mrs. Zabriskie's affairs; but as I passed upstairs to my
room an hour ago, I caught a fleeting vision of her tall form,
with the arms thrown up over her head in a paroxysm of feeling
which made her as oblivious to my presence as her husband had
been several hours before. Were the words that escaped her
lips 'Thank God we have no children!' or was this exclamation
suggested to me by the passion and unrestrained impulse of her
action?"
Side by side with these lines, I, Ebenezer Gryce, placed the following
extracts from my own diary:
"Watched the Zabriskie mansion for five hours this morning,
from the second story window of an adjoining hotel. Saw the
Doctor when he drove away on his round of visits, and saw him
when he returned. A colored man accompanied him.
"To-day I followed Mrs. Zabriskie. I had a motive for this,
the nature of which I think it wisest not to divulge. She
went first to a house in Washington Place where I am told her
mother lives. Here she stayed some time, after which she drove
down to Canal Street, where she did some shopping, and later
stopped at the hospital, into which I took the liberty of
following her. She seemed to know many there, and passed from
cot to cot with a smile in which I alone discerned the sadness
of a broken heart. When she left, I left also, without having
learned anything beyond the fact that Mrs. Zabriskie is one
who does her duty in sorrow as in happiness. A rare and
trustworthy woman I should say, and yet her husband does not
trust her. Why?
* * * * *
"I have spent this day in accumulating details in regard to
Dr. and Mrs. Zabriskie's life previous to the death of Mr.
Hasbrouck. I learned from sources it would be unwise to quote
just here, that Mrs. Zabriskie had not lacked enemies ready to
charge her with coquetry; that while she had never sacrificed
her dignity in public, more than one person had been heard to
declare, that Dr. Zabriskie was fortunate in being blind,
since the sight of his wife's beauty would have but poorly
compensated him for the pain he would have suffered in seeing
how that beauty was admired.
"That all gossip is more or less tinged with exaggeration I
have no doubt, yet when a name is mentioned in connection with
such stories, there is usually some truth at the bottom of
them. And a name is mentioned in this case, though I do not
think it worth my while to repeat it here; and loth as I am to
recognize the fact, it is a name that carries with it doubts
that might easily account for the husband's jealousy. True, I
have found no one who dares to hint that she still continues
to attract attention or to bestow smiles in any direction save
where they legally belong. For since a certain memorable night
which we all know, neither Dr. Zabriskie nor his wife have
been seen save in their own domestic circle, and it is not
into such scenes that this serpent, of which I have spoken,
ever intrudes, nor is it in places of sorrow or suffering that
his smile shines, or his fascinations flourish.
"And so one portion of my theory is proved to be sound. Dr.
Zabriskie is jealous of his wife: whether with good cause or
bad I am not prepared to decide; for her present attitude,
clouded as it is by the tragedy in which she and her husband
are both involved, must differ very much from that which she
held when her life was unshadowed by doubt, and her admirers
could be counted by the score.
* * * * *
"I have just found out where Harry is. As he is in service
some miles up the river, I shall have to be absent from my
post for several hours, but I consider the game well worth the
candle.
* * * * *
"Light at last. I have seen Harry, and, by means known only to
the police, have succeeded in making him talk. His story is
substantially this: That on the night so often mentioned, he
packed his master's portmanteau at eight o'clock and at ten
called a carriage and rode with the Doctor to the Twenty-ninth
Street station. He was told to buy tickets for Poughkeepsie
where his master had been called in consultation, and having
done this, hurried back to join his master on the platform.
They had walked together as far as the cars, and Dr. Zabriskie
was just stepping on to the train when a man pushed himself
hurriedly between them and whispered something into his
master's ear, which caused him to fall back and lose his
footing. Dr. Zabriskie's body slid half under the car, but he
was withdrawn before any harm was done, though the cars gave
a lurch at that moment which must have frightened him
exceedingly, for his face was white when he rose to his feet,
and when Harry offered to assist him again on to the train, he
refused to go and said he would return home and not attempt to
ride to Poughkeepsie that night.
"The gentleman, whom Harry now saw to be Mr. Stanton, an
intimate friend of Dr. Zabriskie, smiled very queerly at this,
and taking the Doctor's arm led him away to a carriage. Harry
naturally followed them, but the Doctor, hearing his steps,
turned and bade him, in a very peremptory tone, to take the
omnibus home, and then, as if on second thought, told him to
go to Poughkeepsie in his stead and explain to the people
there that he was too shaken up by his mis-step to do his
duty, and that he would be with them next morning. This seemed
strange to Harry, but he had no reasons for disobeying his
master's orders, and so rode to Poughkeepsie. But the Doctor
did not follow him the next day; on the contrary he
telegraphed for him to return, and when he got back dismissed
him with a month's wages. This ended Harry's connection with
the Zabriskie family.
"A simple story bearing out what the wife has already told us;
but it furnishes a link which may prove invaluable. Mr.
Stanton, whose first name is Theodore, knows the real reason
why Dr. Zabriskie returned home on the night of the
seventeenth of July, 1851. Mr. Stanton, consequently, I must
see, and this shall be my business to-morrow.
"Checkmate! Theodore Stanton is not in this country. Though
this points him out as the man from whom Dr. Zabriskie bought
the pistol, it does not facilitate my work, which is becoming
more and more difficult.
* * * * *
"Mr. Stanton's whereabouts are not even known to his most
intimate friends. He sailed from this country most
unexpectedly on the eighteenth of July a year ago, which was
_the day after the murder of Mr. Hasbrouck_. It looks like a
flight, especially as he has failed to maintain open
communication even with his relatives. Was he the man who shot
Mr. Hasbrouck? No; but he was the man who put the pistol in
Dr. Zabriskie's hand that night, and, whether he did this with
purpose or not, was evidently so alarmed at the catastrophe
which followed that he took the first outgoing steamer to
Europe. So far, all is clear, but there are mysteries yet to
be solved, which will require my utmost tact. What if I should
seek out the gentleman with whose name that of Mrs. Zabriskie
has been linked, and see if I can in any way connect him with
Mr. Stanton or the events of that night?
* * * * *
"Eureka! I have discovered that Mr. Stanton cherished a mortal
hatred for the gentleman above mentioned. It was a covert
feeling, but no less deadly on that account; and while it
never led him into any extravagances, it was of force
sufficient to account for many a secret misfortune which
happened to that gentleman. Now, if I can prove he was the
Mephistopheles who whispered insinuations into the ear of our
blind Faust, I may strike a fact that will lead me out of this
maze.
"But how can I approach secrets so delicate without
compromising the woman I feel bound to respect, if only for
the devoted love she manifests for her unhappy husband!
* * * * *
"I shall have to appeal to Joe Smithers. This is something
which I always hate to do, but as long as he will take money,
and as long as he is fertile in resources for obtaining the
truth from people I am myself unable to reach, so long must I
make use of his cupidity and his genius. He is an honorable
fellow in one way, and never retails as gossip what he
acquires for our use. How will he proceed in this case, and
by what tactics will he gain the very delicate information
which we need? I own that I am curious to see.
* * * * *
"I shall really have to put down at length the incidents of
this night. I always knew that Joe Smithers was invaluable to
the police, but I really did not know he possessed talents of
so high an order. He wrote me this morning that he had
succeeded in getting Mr. T----'s promise to spend the evening
with him, and advised me that if I desired to be present also,
his own servant would not be at home, and that an opener of
bottles would be required.
"As I was very anxious to see Mr. T---- with my own eyes, I
accepted the invitation to play the spy upon a spy, and went
at the proper hour to Mr. Smithers's rooms, which are in the
University Building. I found them picturesque in the extreme.
Piles of books stacked here and there to the ceiling made
nooks and corners which could be quite shut off by a couple of
old pictures that were set into movable frames that swung out
or in at the whim or convenience of the owner.
"As I liked the dark shadows cast by these pictures, I pulled
them both out, and made such other arrangements as appeared
likely to facilitate the purpose I had in view, then I sat
down and waited for the two gentlemen who were expected to
come in together.
"They arrived almost immediately, whereupon I rose and played
my part with all necessary discretion. While ridding Mr. T----
of his overcoat, I stole a look at his face. It is not a
handsome one, but it boasts of a gay, devil-may-care
expression which doubtless makes it dangerous to many women,
while his manners are especially attractive, and his voice the
richest and most persuasive that I ever heard. I contrasted
him, almost against my will, with Dr. Zabriskie, and decided
that with most women the former's undoubted fascinations of
speech and bearing would outweigh the latter's great beauty
and mental endowments; but I doubted if they would with her.
"The conversation which immediately began was brilliant but
desultory, for Mr. Smithers, with an airy lightness for which
he is remarkable, introduced topic after topic, perhaps for
the purpose of showing off Mr. T----'s versatility, and perhaps
for the deeper and more sinister purpose of shaking the
kaleidoscope of talk so thoroughly, that the real topic which
we were met to discuss should not make an undue impression on
the mind of his guest.
"Meanwhile one, two, three bottles passed, and I saw Joe
Smithers's eye grow calmer and that of Mr. T---- more brilliant
and more uncertain. As the last bottle showed signs of
failing, Joe cast me a meaning glance, and the real business
of the evening began.
"I shall not attempt to relate the half-dozen failures which
Joe made in endeavoring to elicit the facts we were in search
of, without arousing the suspicion of his visitor. I am only
going to relate the successful attempt. They had been talking
now for some hours, and I, who had long before been waved from
their immediate presence, was hiding my curiosity and growing
excitement behind one of the pictures, when suddenly I heard
Joe say:
"'He has the most remarkable memory I ever met. He can tell to
a day when any notable event occurred.'
"'Pshaw!' answered his companion, who, by the by, was known to
pride himself upon his own memory for dates, 'I can state
where I went and what I did on every day in the year. That may
not embrace what you call 'notable events,' but the memory
required is all the more remarkable, is it not?'
"'Pooh!' was his friend's provoking reply, 'you are bluffing,
Ben; I will never believe that.'
"Mr. T----, who had passed by this time into that state of
intoxication which makes persistence in an assertion a duty as
well as a pleasure, threw back his head, and as the wreaths of
smoke rose in airy spirals from his lips, reiterated his
statement, and offered to submit to any test of his vaunted
powers which the other might dictate.
"'You have a diary----' began Joe.
"'Which is at home,' completed the other.
"'Will you allow me to refer to it to-morrow, if I am
suspicious of the accuracy of your recollections?'
"'Undoubtedly,' returned the other.
"'Very well, then, I will wager you a cool fifty, that you
cannot tell where you were between the hours of ten and eleven
on a certain night which I will name.'
"'Done!' cried the other, bringing out his pocket-book and
laying it on the table before him.
"Joe followed his example and then summoned me.
"'Write a date down here,' he commanded, pushing a piece of
paper towards me, with a look keen as the flash of a blade.
'Any date, man,' he added, as I appeared to hesitate in the
embarrassment I thought natural under the circumstances. 'Put
down day, month, and year, only don't go too far back; not
farther than two years.'
"Smiling with the air of a flunkey admitted to the sports of
his superiors, I wrote a line and laid it before Mr.
Smithers, who at once pushed it with a careless gesture
towards his companion. You can of course guess the date I made
use of: July 17, 1851. Mr. T----, who had evidently looked upon
this matter as mere play, flushed scarlet as he read these
words, and for one instant looked as if he had rather flee our
presence than answer Joe Smithers's nonchalant glance of
inquiry.
"'I have given my word and will keep it,' he said at last, but
with a look in my direction that sent me reluctantly back to
my retreat. 'I don't suppose you want names,' he went on,
'that is, if anything I have to tell is of a delicate nature?'
"'O no,' answered the other, 'only facts and places.'
"'I don't think places are necessary either,' he returned. 'I
will tell you what I did and that must serve you. I did not
promise to give number and street.'
"'Well, well,' Joe exclaimed; 'earn your fifty, that is all.
Show that you remember where you were on the night of'--and
with an admirable show of indifference he pretended to consult
the paper between them--'the seventeenth of July, 1851, and I
shall be satisfied.'
"'I was at the club for one thing,' said Mr. T----; 'then I went
to see a lady friend, where I stayed till eleven. She wore a
blue muslin---- What is that?'
"I had betrayed myself by a quick movement which sent a glass
tumbler crashing to the floor. Helen Zabriskie had worn a
blue muslin on that same night. I had noted it when I stood
on the balcony watching her and her husband.
"'That noise?' It was Joe who was speaking. 'You don't know
Reuben as well as I do or you wouldn't ask. It is his
practice, I am sorry to say, to accentuate his pleasure in
draining my bottles, by dropping a glass at every third one.'
"Mr. T---- went on.
"'She was a married woman and I thought she loved me; but--and
this is the greatest proof I can offer you that I am giving
you a true account of that night--she had not had the slightest
idea of the extent of my passion, and only consented to see me
at all because she thought, poor thing, that a word from her
would set me straight, and rid her of attentions that were
fast becoming obnoxious. A sorry figure for a fellow to cut
who has not been without his triumphs; but you caught me on
the most detestable date in my calendar, and----'
"There is where he stopped being interesting, so I will not
waste time by quoting further. And now what reply shall I make
when Joe Smithers asks me double his usual price, as he will
be sure to do, next time? Has he not earned an advance? I
really think so.
* * * * *
"I have spent the whole day in weaving together the facts I
have gleaned, and the suspicions I have formed, into a
consecutive whole likely to present my theory in a favorable
light to my superiors. But just as I thought myself in shape
to meet their inquiries, I received an immediate summons into
their presence, where I was given a duty to perform of so
extraordinary and unexpected a nature, that it effectually
drove from my mind all my own plans for the elucidation of the
Zabriskie mystery.
"This was nothing more nor less than to take charge of a party
of people who were going to the Jersey heights for the purpose
of testing Dr. Zabriskie's skill with a pistol."
III.
The cause of this sudden move was soon explained to me. Mrs. Zabriskie,
anxious to have an end put to the present condition of affairs, had
begged for a more rigid examination into her husband's state. This being
accorded, a strict and impartial inquiry had taken place, with a result
not unlike that which followed the first one. Three out of his four
interrogators judged him insane, and could not be moved from their
opinion though opposed by the verdict of the young expert who had been
living in the house with him. Dr. Zabriskie seemed to read their
thoughts, and, showing extreme agitation, begged as before for an
opportunity to prove his sanity by showing his skill in shooting. This
time a disposition was evinced to grant his request, which Mrs.
Zabriskie no sooner perceived, than she added her supplications to his
that the question might be thus settled.
A pistol was accordingly brought; but at sight of it her courage failed,
and she changed her prayer to an entreaty that the experiment should be
postponed till the next day, and should then take place in the woods
away from the sight and hearing of needless spectators.
Though it would have been much wiser to have ended the matter there and
then, the Superintendent was prevailed upon to listen to her entreaties,
and thus it was that I came to be a spectator, if not a participator,
in the final scene of this most sombre drama.
There are some events which impress the human mind so deeply that their
memory mingles with all after-experiences. Though I have made it a rule
to forget as soon as possible the tragic episodes into which I am
constantly plunged, there is one scene in my life which will not depart
at my will; and that is the sight which met my eyes from the bow of the
small boat in which Dr. Zabriskie and his wife were rowed over to Jersey
on that memorable afternoon.
Though it was by no means late in the day, the sun was already sinking,
and the bright red glare which filled the heavens and shone full upon
the faces of the half-dozen persons before me added much to the tragic
nature of the scene, though we were far from comprehending its full
significance.
The Doctor sat with his wife in the stern, and it was upon their faces
my glance was fixed. The glare shone luridly on his sightless eyeballs,
and as I noticed his unwinking lids I realized as never before what it
was to be blind in the midst of sunshine. Her eyes, on the contrary,
were lowered, but there was a look of hopeless misery in her colorless
face which made her appearance infinitely pathetic, and I felt confident
that if he could only have seen her, he would not have maintained the
cold and unresponsive manner which chilled the words on her lips and
made all advance on her part impossible.
On the seat in front of them sat the Inspector and a doctor, and from
some quarter, possibly from under the Inspector's coat, there came the
monotonous ticking of a small clock, which, I had been told, was to
serve as a target for the blind man's aim.