Throughout the day there seemed an interminable passing the New Pike
gate. Many stopped to condole with its inmates, a few through genuine
sympathy, a greater number urged by a secret desire to see how the
bride-elect bore up under the dire misfortune that had come almost with
the suddenness of the lightning's stroke. The curiosity of these was
baffled, for the girl shut herself closely in her own room, and denied
herself to all.
When the news of the tragedy reached town the coroner came out to the
Squire's place to hold an inquest, while numerous others followed in his
wake, drawn thither by the morbid interest that attracts many to the
scene of similar crimes.
Mrs. Brown waited on the gate, eager to know all that was thought or
said of the deplorable affair, and though her daughter asked not a
single word, the mother, who plied with voluble questioning almost
every soul that passed through the gate, told her from time to time of
the rumors that were afloat. Thus the girl learned of the verdict on the
coroner's return--that Squire Bixler had met his death in his own room
the night before, by a knife-thrust at the hand of some person or
persons unknown. The victim had evidently been dead several hours when
his body was found by one of the servants who came to see why the Squire
was so tardy on his wedding morn.
Robbery may have been a cause, for the Squire's pocket-book was found
lying open and empty at his side, and a small drawer in the tall clock
had been pulled out and searched yet the victim's heavy gold watch had
not been taken, and nothing else in the room seemed to have been
disturbed or molested.
The murderer had not broken into the house, evidently, for the front
door was found to be unlocked, and an entrance and exit had doubtless
been effected through that. Considering this fact, it seemed a highly
plausible theory that the murderer must have been admitted to the house
by the Squire himself, and that it was doubtless some one whom the
Squire well knew, else the door had not been unlocked to this one in the
late hours of the night.
The Squire was dressed, with the exception of his coat and shoes, and
had evidently not gone to bed, therefore the murder must have been
committed along in the early part of the night, before his usual
bedtime. The body lay on the floor near a candle-stand before the fire.
The candle had burned entirely down in its socket, and the melted tallow
had afterward hardened into a cake round the bowl of the stick. Amid the
embers in the fireplace, under the charred end of a log that had burned
in two and fallen to one side, was found the remnant of a gray felt hat.
From the position and range of the cut in the body, the blow had
probably been given while the victim was standing up facing his
assailant. His murderer had not stolen upon him unawares. The blow had
been a true one, and had gone straight to the heart. The one thrust had
been sufficient, and the victim had dropped at the feet of his slayer.
When all these various facts had been learned, active minds began to
cast about for some clue as to the identity of the murderer, and for
some motive besides robbery.
While the Squire had never been a very popular man, in a general way, he
was not known to have a single enemy who would be likely to do so
dastardly a deed. Neither was the Squire in the habit of keeping money
about the house, so that if the murderer knew the ways of his victim, he
could not hope to gain a rich reward, therefore some motive besides
robbery must have actuated the crime. What this motive was, had yet to
be discovered, provided the adage came true that "murder will out."
Of those who were unfriendly to the Squire, none was so prominent to
mind as his nephew, Milton Derr, no one would be more profited by the
Squire's death than he, for he was next of kin, and, his uncle being
unmarried, the property would revert to him. This point was especially
emphasized--the uncle being unmarried, and the fact was strongly
commented upon, that it was on the very eve of the Squire's marriage
that he was murdered. Could the motive have been jealousy? The cause of
the open rupture between the two men was generally known--that a woman
was at the bottom of it and this woman was the one to whom the Squire
was to have been wedded. The whole story was told and retold with many
variations.
The neighbors spoke of these things in guarded undertones and with grave
shakings of the head, and although no outspoken accusations were made,
there was an undercurrent of suspicion, deepening into belief, and
growing hourly, like a stream that rapidly swells beyond its banks when
fed by countless minor tributaries. Public opinion was slowly and surely
fastening the deed on the nephew's shoulders.
These vague rumors and surmises were conveyed from time to time by Mrs.
Brown to her daughter's ears, and while the girl steadfastly and
persistently asserted Milton Derr's innocence, there was, nevertheless,
a horrible and slowly strengthening conviction at work in her own bosom
which she could neither silence nor subdue--a conviction that warned her
she was building on false hopes, which might at any moment crumble at
the touch of circumstantial evidence, and reveal her lover not only to
the world, but to her own prejudiced eyes, as a murderer whose soul was
stained with a dark crime.
Closely allied to this harassing fear was a far different feeling that
she could neither still nor repress, though it seemed a heartless and
even cruel one--a feeling of great thankfulness that the Squire's
untimely death had relieved her of a sacrifice that would have been but
a living death to her.
How could she be sorry that he was no longer alive to claim this
sacrifice? To pretend to a grief she did not feel was but base
hypocrisy. Within her heart of hearts she was glad that she was free.
Her only sorrow lay in the tragic manner of his death, and in the secret
fear that Milton Derr, half crazed with a passionate jealousy, was
responsible for it. Had it been possible to recall the Squire to life
again, and so blot out the fearful act of the past night, she would most
gladly have done so, and accepted her fate without a murmur, if its
reward had been Milton's safety and innocence.
Possibly she was the only one who knew of Derr's presence in the
neighborhood the night before. If such was the case, and he had
succeeded in getting away without being seen by others, she would keep
the dreadful secret securely locked in her own bosom, and no one should
ever suspect its presence. She centered all hope of his safety on this
supposition.
Along toward noon, some one passing the New Pike gate on the way from
town, brought the latest news bearing on the tragedy.
As Mrs. Brown sought her daughter's presence, as soon as the informant
had gone, her tone was almost jubilant, as she said:
"Well, they've caught the murderer."
The girl looked up at her mother mutely, almost piteously, as if she
would be spared the unhappy tidings, of whose evil import some subtle
intuition had already reached her brain.
"It's just as I expected," continued Mrs. Brown, full of the news she
had brought. "They caught Milt Derr as he was gettin' on the cars at
Grigg's Station, fifteen miles from here. The sheriff had telephoned to
all the places around to be on the lookout for him. He had sold his
watch, and was about to buy a ticket somewheres out West when they
arrested him. They've brought him to town, an' he's safe in jail there
now, thank goodness! There'll soon be a first-class hanging in this
neighborhood. I hope," she added, with fervor.