Tracy's Story
"Now I wouldn't say," Wise observed, "that there is no such thing as
occult phenomena----"
"What do you mean by phenomena?" interrupted the Professor. "Not one
person in ten uses that word correctly."
"I'm that single and unique one, old top," Wise assured him, "for my
exact meaning, see Webster; but I was going to say, even granting the
possibility of the two deaths being due to supernatural causes, I'm not
going to accept that solution of the mystery until I've exhausted all
other available means of finding a flesh and blood murderer, which same I
strongly expect to find."
"He'll do it," said Zizi, addressing the others, while her black eyes
looked at Wise as at an inanimate object. "He's an effective detective,
first, last and all the time. And I'm the little cog that makes the
wheels go round. So, I think, Tecky-teck, that I'll carry out a plan I've
just thought of. I'll move from the pretty little bedroom I now occupy,
and sleep in the Room with the Tassels."
"Oh, don't!" cried Norma. "Something might happen to you!"
"That's what I'm flattering myself. And it's nice of you, Miss Cameron,
to speak out like that." Zizi's eyes flashed a quizzical glance at Eve,
who was nodding satisfaction at the proposed plan.
Eve coloured and dropped her eyes, and Zizi went on. "You see, people,
Mr. Wise can't size up these ghosts of yours unless he sees them,--and
for me to see them is the same thing. So I'm going to take the haunted
room for my own and if the Shawled Woman appears, I'll pin a tag on her
shawl."
Norma shuddered. "Don't talk like that," she begged. "You don't know what
risk you run. Milly, don't let the child sleep there."
But all objections were overruled, and Zizi quietly transferred her few
simple belongings to the Room with the Tassels.
At breakfast, the morning after her first night in the haunted room, she
declared she had never slept better or more soundly, that there had been
no disturbance of any kind, and that she adored the room.
"You saw and heard nothing?" queried Eve, looking at her intently.
"Nixy," and the pert little face was all smiles. "But the game isn't out
till it's played out, you know."
"I fail to grasp the cryptic meaning of that remark," said Eve, with an
insolent stare at Zizi.
"Same here!" and the child's eerie laugh rang out. "But when I don't know
exactly what to say, I sing out some old saw like that."
Zizi's laugh was infectious, and Milly giggled in sympathy, while the
others smiled too.
"The experience was mine, last night," said Mr. Tracy, in his deep,
resonant voice. "I suppose I'd better tell of it."
"By all means," said Penny Wise, as the clergyman hesitated.
"A phantom appeared to me," Tracy began, "just as the hall clock struck
four. I wasn't asleep, of that I'm sure, but I was suddenly aware of a
presence in the room. A tall, misty shape seemed to take form as I
looked, and it had the appearance of a woman with a shawl over her head.
She drew near to me, and I could see her face, and it was that of a
skull. I was stunned, rather than frightened, and when I tried to call
out, I could make no sound. The thing faded away as gradually as it had
appeared, and after a time I regained a normal state of nerves. I don't
want to be an alarmist, or frighten anybody, but I--well, I confess I
didn't enjoy the experience, and I take occasion to say now, that I shall
leave here to-day. I'm going to Boston, and will return at any time, if
for any reason my presence is desired or my affidavit wanted as a
witness. You all know what I've thought about this whole matter. While
not a spiritualist, I've preserved an open mind toward any revelations we
may have had, and I'm always ready to be convinced. And I may say the
sight I saw last night has gone far to convince me. But I don't care to
see it again," Tracy shuddered, "and at risk of being thought cowardly,
I've determined to go away. I had intended to go shortly, anyway, and I
prefer to go to-day."
"I don't blame you, old chap," said Braye, heartily; "there's no reason
why you should jeopardize your nervous system by exposing it to further
shocks. Let Mr. Wise take down the details of your story, keep in touch
with us as to your whereabouts and where we can communicate with you, and
go ahead. I don't blame you one bit. In fact, if any one else wants to
leave, no objections will be made. How about you, Professor?"
"I want to stay, please. I'm terribly interested in the matter, and I
think Mr. Wise is making progress, and will make more, rapidly. I'm
anxious to stay."
"I'm game, too," said Landon. "In fact I think we all want to see it
through, except Mr. Tracy, and he is not so closely associated with the
case as the rest of us."
So Tracy went, about noon of that day, and left an address that he said
would always reach him, wherever he might be temporarily.
Milly and Norma regretted his going, for they had come to like the grave,
kindly man, but Eve seemed not to care; and the men were all so
interested in the work of Penny Wise, that they only gave a hearty
good-bye and Godspeed to the departing cleric.
"Queer, that spook should appear to him," said Wise, after Mr. Tracy had
gone.
"He told me some time ago," said Norma, reminiscently, "that he often
heard strange sounds at four in the morning. He said they were like faint
moans and rustlings and sometimes a soft step along the halls."
"Did he ever see anything before?" asked Zizi.
"I don't think so. He was not very communicative about it, anyway. I
think he was nervous on the subject."
"I know he was," Eve spoke scornfully. "He was afraid, I'm positive. No
one ought to have joined this party who was afraid."
"We only asked him to fill in, you know," said Milly, rather apologizing
for the minister's timidity. "And goodness knows, _I'm_ afraid! Or I
should be, if Wynne weren't always with me. If that thing appeared to
me,--well!"
Milly could find no words to express her horror, and Landon looked at her
anxiously.
"It won't," said Zizi, reassuringly, "it won't, Mrs. Landon."
"How do you know?" said Eve, a bit abruptly.
"Your mama told my mama and my mama told me," returned Zizi, who could
put such graphic impudence into the silly phrase, that it was impossible
not to be amused at it. "Oh, do _you_ do that, too?" she added, as Eve
bit her lip in annoyance. "So do I! It's such a hard habit to break,
ain't it? But you oughtn't to, it scars your lips. Now, Penny Wise, if
you'll go for a walk and a talk with your little otherwise, she'll tell
you sumpum that you ought to know."
"Look out, Ziz," Wise said to her, as they walked off by themselves, and
followed the path by the lake, "you mustn't be too saucy to Miss
Carnforth, or there'll be trouble."
"Have to, honey. I've got to get her real mad at me, to find out her
secret. She's no criminal, as I've told you, but she knows who is."
"Do you?"
"Not yet, but soon. Now, listen, while I expound a few. Friend Spook did
appear to me last night."
"Really?"
"Sure as shootin'! I thought it over, and decided I'd better not admit it
to the gaping crowd, or we'll never find out who does the stunt."
"But, really, Zizi?"
"Yes, really, Pen. It was about two o'clock,--not four. A tall shape,
draped in white, breezed in and toddled around trying to attract my
attention. I lay there and looked sort of glassy-eyed, as if I was awake,
but kinda hypnotized, you know. Well, I kept up that attitude, and the
thing came nearer and leaned over me, and sure enough it had a skull for
a face; but, land, Penny, it was a _papier maché_ skull,--a mask, you
know. 'Twould be fine in the movies, I must put Manager Reeves up to that
dodge!"
"Go on, Ziz."
"Well, the thing,--the person, I mean, for it was a real, live person all
right,--sashayed around a bit, then gave a hollow groan,--I guess that's
what they call hollow,--and slid out. That's all."
"You're a corker, Zizi! Why didn't you yell?"
"I wanted to see the game. Then, when the pleasant-faced visitor left, I
knew it was because I was supposed to have been sufficiently impressed. I
thought it over, and I decided that at breakfast, I'd say I hadn't seen
anything, and see who looked self-conscious. And, by jiminy! nobody did!
If any one around that table was my visiting spook, he or she carried it
off something marvellous! Not one of 'em flickered an eyelash when I said
I'd had a sweet, sound sleep all night. I can't see how any one could be
so self-controlled. Now, Penny, could it have been anybody who wasn't at
the breakfast table?"
"Meaning Stebbins or the Thorpes?"
"Oh, no! none of them! But how about some outsider, hired, you know, by
somebody in the house."
"How'd he get in?"
"There's a secret way into this house. You needn't tell me there isn't.
Just 'cause you haven't stumbled over it yet! Also, who's doing the
hiring?"
"You said everything came around toward Landon."
"There's motive there. You see, after Mr. Braye, Mr. Landon inherits all
the Bruce fortune, and that's millions."
"What's the matter with Braye being the murderer? He inherits first."
"That's just it. If Mr. Braye wanted to kill his relatives to get the
fortune, he wouldn't do it up here, where he's so liable to be suspected.
He'd invent some subtler way, or some less suspicious scheme. But Mr.
Landon could do it up here, and feel sure the suspicion would fall on Mr.
Braye. Then, you see, Mr. Braye gets the money, and later on, Mr. Landon
puts him out, too. In some awfully clever way, that can't be traced to
him, d'y' see? And, too, Mr. Braye has declared he'll give all the money,
if necessary, to discovering the criminal, if there is one. And he said,
he'd give what was left to build a hospital. No, he doesn't want the
money that came to him in such an awful way, leastwise, not if it throws
suspicion on him. He's going to be cleared, or he's not going to use the
money for himself. Miss Carnforth told me all that, I've talked a lot
with her."
"You've talked with all of them, haven't you?"
"Yes, indeed. I've babbled on, and most often they tell me a lot that
they don't realize. Mrs. Landon, now, she's struggling hard not to
suspect her own husband, but Miss Carnforth has said a few things that
scare Mrs. Landon 'most to death. Oh, Penny, it's a fearful case! We must
fix it up, we must!"
"We will, Zizi. There's so much evidence not to be denied, that we must
ferret out what it really means. I'm getting a glimmer, but your help is
invaluable. That was a stroke of genius for you not to tell of your
ghost! Weren't you frightened?"
"Not a bit. All I wanted to do, was to find out who it was. But I didn't
dare grab at it, for I knew it would get away. I hope it will come again.
I'll try to make it speak, and maybe I'll get a line on the voice."
"Was it a man or a woman?"
"I couldn't tell. The draperies were long and full, and the skull-mask
covered the face."
"Didn't you see the hand?"
"It was lost in the draped shawl. But I'm sure I'll have another visit,
and then I'll get more information. You think I did well, oh, Wise Guy?"
"I do indeed!" and the approving smile that was Zizi's most welcome
reward lighted up the detective's face.
Zizi pursued her plan of talking to the various people separately. She
gleaned much this way and with her powers of lightning calculation, she
put two and two together with astounding results.
She even lured the old Professor into a tête-à-tête conversation.
"No, I don't believe those deaths were supernatural, _now_," he said,
thoughtfully; "I did, but it's too incredible. However, it's no more
unbelievable than that they could have been accomplished by human power."
"They were," and Zizi's black head nodded affirmation.
"How, then?"
"By a diabolically clever genius. Tell me again, Professor, just how
those people were sitting? Were they together?"
"Mr. Bruce and Vernie? No. There was the width of the room between them."
"Were you near either?"
"Yes, sitting next to Mr. Bruce. We were talking absorbedly."
"Had he tasted his tea?"
"I think he had taken one sip,--not more, I'm sure."
"There was poison in that tea, Professor."
"There must have been, but how _could_ there be?"
"Who gave it to him?"
"Let me see; Miss Carnforth presided, as Mrs. Landon was not at home.
Miss Carnforth made the tea, and poured the cups, and Vernie and Mr.
Tracy,--yes, and Mr. Landon were passing the things around. It was all
most informal, we never have the servants in at tea-time. I couldn't
really say just who did give Mr. Bruce his cup. Vernie gave me mine, I
think."
"Well, the poison was put in Mr. Bruce's cup, after Miss Carnforth fixed
it for him."
"Bless my soul, do you think so? That lets Braye out, then, for he wasn't
there."
"You don't suspect Mr. Braye, do you?"
"No; of course not; but I don't really suspect anybody. But Mr. Braye is
the heir, you know, and so may be said to have motive."
"That is true of Mr. Landon,--in a way."
"I can't suspect either of those two,--it's impossible."
"Go on, Professor, tell me about the little girl's death."
"You've heard it before."
"I know, but every little helps."
"She was across the room. I was looking at Bruce, of course, when I heard
an exclamation----"
"From whom?"
"I don't know; Miss Carnforth, I think. Any way, she and Tracy were
bending over Vernie,--they had laid her on a couch,--and in a moment,
they said she was dead. At the same time, Mr. Bruce breathed his last. It
was all so fearful, so terrible, we were stunned. At least, I was, and
one by one we pulled ourselves together, trying to realize what had
happened."
"All right, I know the rest. You've helped me a little----"
"Do you suspect anybody? Does Mr. Wise? Tell me, child. I can doubtless
be of help, if I know what to do."
"No, Professor, you can't help. It's very awful, but it will soon be
clear to all. Heaven help that poor Miss Carnforth."
"Nonsense! Eve didn't do it! Of that I'm certain."
"So am I. Of course, Miss Carnforth didn't do it. The tea was all right
when she fixed Mr. Bruce's cup."
"Then who tampered with it? Not Vernie!"
But Zizi had run away. She had a way of making sudden exits and
entrances, and one never knew where she was or when she would appear.
That night Zizi declared that she hoped the ghost would visit her. She
said this openly, as the whole crowd were preparing to go to their rooms
for the night.
"Perhaps it will," said Wise, looking at her, thoughtfully. "If it called
on Mr. Tracy last night, it may be here again to-night, and you may be
favoured. Are you not afraid?"
"Not of the ghost," said Zizi, "but I am afraid that some of you people
may play a trick just to scare me. Will you double up, so I can feel sure
there's nothing of that sort?"
"I'll take Mr. Tracy's room," said Mr. Wise, "then I can keep my eye on
Mr. Braye and Professor Hardwick. Though I've no mental image of either
of them trailing round in sheets!"
"I should say not!" and Braye shuddered. "No, Miss Zizi, you've nothing
to fear from us."
"Nor us," Norma assured her. "I was going to sleep in the room with Miss
Carnforth, anyway, and that will preclude either of us impersonating a
phantom."
"What an awful idea," and Eve glowered at Zizi. "You don't really think
any of us would stoop to such a despicable thing, do you?"
"You never can tell," said Zizi, nonchalantly. "Mrs. Landon, you won't
let your husband leave your room, will you?"
"No," said Milly, not at all resenting the question which Zizi put to her
in a gentle, pleading tone, very different from that she had used to the
others.
And so, the inmates of the house being accounted for, and the doors and
windows looked after with extra care and precaution, the household
settled itself to quietness, and the dark hours passed, ticked off and
struck by the great deep-toned clock in the hall.
It was between two and three, when Zizi, watching, perceived her door
slowly and silently swing open.
Determined to learn all possible as to who the intruder could be, the
girl lay motionless, but breathing deeply as if asleep.
Her eyes, almost closed, yet took in every movement of her silent
visitor.
It was no white-robed ghost, but a tall figure, clad in a long black
cloak, and wearing a black mask.
With a swift stride, that betokened a man, the figure approached the bed,
having first softly closed the door that led to the hall.
Watching covertly for the next development, Zizi was all unprepared for
what really happened.
The man, with a sudden, swift gesture, took the girl's chin in one strong
hand, and opened her mouth, while with the other he thrust in a thick
soft cloth, saturated with chloroform.
Not enough to make her lose her senses entirely, it partially stupefied
her, and the choking cloth prevented all speech.
Whipping off the long dark cloak he wore, the man flung it round Zizi, as
he lifted the slender form from the bed.
Vainly trying to emit a shriek, or utter a groan, Zizi fell,
half-conscious, back in the arms that supported her.
After an unknown interval, a draught of cool air on her face brought her
back to a dim consciousness, and she realized she was out of doors. A
struggle of her arms and legs resulted in a firmer grasp of the strong
arms that carried her, and she quit moving, to think. She had been
kidnapped, taken from her bed, and had been carried out of doors, but she
had no knowledge of who her captor was nor by what means they had left
the house. Her brain was furiously wide awake, but she made no move, lest
more chloroform be administered, and she lose her regained consciousness.
On the shore of the black lake the man stopped, and set her on her feet.
Her mouth, still filled with the soft cloth, was strained and painful,
but the first attempt to raise her hand resulted in its being clutched by
the strong hand of the man who swayed her destiny.
So slender and light was she, that he handled her as one might a child,
and in his strong grasp she was as powerless as an infant.
Working quickly and deftly, he tied a strong rope round her ankles and to
it attached what was only too evidently a bag of stones or bricks.
Then, without a word, he flung her into the deep, dark waters of the
lake, and with one backward glance, he walked away.