SPECULATIONS.
For a long time subsequent to the night of the disappearance a more
puzzled community than the one settled along the Millbrook and
Spotswood road would have been hard to find in Upper Canada. At first
sight it seemed probable that the missing man had been murdered for his
money. On the afternoon of the day when he was last seen in Millbrook
the fact of his having four hundred pounds in bank bills in his
possession was known to a great many people, for, as already intimated,
he told the story of his dispute at the bank to pretty nearly everyone
with whom he came in contact during the subsequent portion of the day,
and he in every instance wound up his narration by proclaiming to all
whom it might concern that he had the notes in his pocket. But it was
difficult to fix upon any particular individual as being open to
suspicion. There had been no attempt on the part of any of his
associates on that afternoon to detain him in town, and his remaining
there until the evening had been entirely due to his own inclinations.
So far as was known, he had not been followed by any person after his
departure from the Peacock at 7.45. Anyone following would have had no
prospect of overtaking him unless mounted on a good horse, and must
perforce have passed through the toll-gate. According to the testimony
of Perry and his wife, nobody had passed through the gate in his wake,
nor for more than an hour after him. But--mystery of mysteries--where
had he managed to hide himself and his mare during the two or three
minutes which had elapsed between his departure from the gate and the
arrival there of Lapierre? And, if he had been murdered, what had
become of his body?
Had it been at all within the bounds of reason to suspect Stolliver,
suspicion would certainly have fallen upon that personage. But any idea
of the kind was altogether out of the question. Stolliver was a
boorish, uncompanionable fellow, but a more unlikely man to commit such
a serious crime could not have been found in the whole country side.
Again, he could not have had any conceivable motive for making away
with Savareen, as he had been working all day in the fields and knew
nothing about the four hundred pounds. Besides, a little quiet
investigation proved the thing to be an absolute impossibility. At the
time of Savareen's disappearance, Stolliver had been sitting at his own
table, in the company of his wife, his family, and a grown-up female
servant. He had sat down to table at about a quarter to eight, and had
not risen therefrom until several minutes after the town bell had
ceased to ring. On rising, he had gone out with his two boys--lads of
thirteen and fifteen years of age respectively--and had barely taken up
a position with them on the front fence when Lapierre came along and
questioned him, as related in a former chapter. So it was certainly not
worth while to pursue that branch of enquiry any farther.
The only other persons upon whom the shadow of suspicion could by any
possibility fall were Lapierre and Jonathan Perry. Well, so far as the
latter was concerned the idea was too absurd for serious consideration.
To begin with, Jonathan was seventy-six years of age, feeble and almost
decrepid. Then, he was a man of excellent character, and,
notwithstanding his humble station in life, was liked and respected by
all who knew him. Finally, he could not have done away with Savareen
without the knowledge and concurrence of his wife, a gentle, kindly old
soul, who found her best consolation between the covers of her bible,
and who would not have raised her finger against a worm. So that branch
of the enquiry might also be considered as closed.
As to Lapierre, the idea was at least as preposterous as either of the
others. The jovial landlord of the Royal Oak was on the whole about as
likely a man to commit robbery or murder as the bishop of the diocese.
He was of a cheery, open nature; was not greedy or grasping; had a
fairly prosperous business, and was tolerably well-to-do. On the night
of the 17th, he had undertaken to go down town and bring home the
absent man, but he had done so at the pressing request of the man's
wife, and out of pure kindness of heart. When setting out on his
mission he knew nothing about the altercation at the bank, and was
consequently ignorant that Savareen had any considerable sum of money
on his person. His first knowledge on these subjects had been
communicated to him by Perry, and before that time the man had
disappeared. It also counted for something that Savareen and he had
always been on the most friendly terms, and that Savareen was one of
his best customers. But, even if he had been the most bloodthirsty of
mankind, he had positively had no time to perpetrate a murder. The
two or three minutes elapsing between Savareen's departure from the
toll-gate and Lapierre's arrival there had been too brief to admit of
the latter's having meanwhile killed the former and made away with his
body; to say nothing of his having also made such a disposition of the
black mare as to enable it to be found in Cranberry Swamp on the
following day.
After a while people began to ask whether it was probable that any
murder at all had been committed. The finding of the coat was an
unfathomable mystery, but it really furnished no evidence one way or
the other. And if there had been a murder, how was it that no traces of
the body were discoverable? How was it that no cry or exclamation of
any kind had been heard by old Jonathan, sitting there at the door in
the open air on a still night? It was certain that his ears had been
wide open, and ready enough to take in whatever was stirring, for he
had heard the sound of Count Frontenac's hoofs as they came clattering
down the road.
Such questions as these were constantly in the mouths of the people of
that neighborhood for some days after the disappearance, but they met
with no satisfactory answer from any quarter, and as the time passed by
it began to be believed that no light would ever be thrown upon the
most mysterious occurrence that had ever taken place since that part of
the country had been first settled. One of the constables, discouraged
by repeated failures, ventured in all seriousness to express a
suspicion that Savareen had been bodily devoured by his mare. How else
could you account for no trace of him being visible anywhere?
By an unaccountable oversight, Shuttleworth had kept no memorandum of
the number of the notes paid over to Savareen, and it was thus
impossible to trace them.