sofa there. Lucetta, who was standing before me, started immediately to
do my bidding, without stopping to think, poor child, that it was very
strange I did not go to my own room and consult my own Bible as any good
Presbyterian would be expected to do. As she was turning toward the
large front room I stopped her with the quiet injunction:
"Get me one with good print, Lucetta. My eyes won't bear much
straining."
At which she turned and to my great relief hurried down the corridor
toward William's room, from which she presently returned, bringing the
very volume I was anxious to consult.
Meanwhile I had laid aside my hat. I felt flurried and unhappy, and
showed it. Lucetta's pitiful face had a strange sweetness in it this
morning, and I felt sure as I took the sacred book from her hand that
her thoughts were all with the lover she had sent from her side and not
at all with me or with what at the moment occupied me. Yet my thoughts
at this moment involved, without doubt, the very deepest interests of
her life, if not that very lover she was brooding over in her darkened
and resigned mind. As I realized this I heaved an involuntary sigh,
which seemed to startle her, for she turned and gave me a quick look as
she was slipping away to join her sister, who was busy at the other end
of the hall.
The Bible I held was an old one, of medium size and most excellent
print. I had no difficulty in finding the text and settling the question
which had been my ostensible reason for wanting the book, but it took me
longer to discover the indentation which I had made in one of its pages;
but when I did, you may imagine my awe and the turmoil into which my
mind was cast, when I found that it marked those great verses in
Corinthians which are so universally read at funerals:
"Behold I shew you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all
be changed."
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye----"
XXVIII
AN INTRUSION
I was so moved by this discovery that I was not myself for several
moments.
The reading of these words over the body which had been laid away under
the Flower Parlor was in keeping with the knot of crape on the
window-shutter and argued something more than remorse on the part of
some one of the Knollys family. Who was this one, and why, with such
feelings in the breast of any of the three, had the deceit and crime to
which I had been witness succeeded to such a point as to demand the
attention of the police? An impossible problem of which I dared seek no
solution, even in the faces of these seemingly innocent girls.
I was, of course, in no position to determine what plan Mr. Gryce
intended to pursue. I only knew what course I myself meant to follow,
which was to remain quiet and sustain the part I had already played in
this house as visitor and friend. It was therefore as such both in heart
and manner that I hastened from my room late in the afternoon to inquire
the meaning of the cry I had just heard issue from Lucetta's lips. It
had come from the front of the house, and, as I hastened thither, I met
the two Misses Knollys, looking more openly anxious and distraught than
at any former time of anxiety and trouble.
As they looked up and saw my face, Loreen paused and laid her hand on
Lucetta's arm. But Lucetta was not to be restrained.
"He has dared to enter our gates, bringing a police officer with him,"
was her hoarse and almost unintelligible cry. "We know that the man with
him is a police officer because he was here once before, and though he
was kind enough then, he cannot have come the second time except to----"
Here the pressure of Loreen's hand was so strong as to make the feeble
Lucetta quiver. She stopped, and Miss Knollys took up her words:
"Except to make us talk on subjects much better buried in oblivion. Miss
Butterworth, will you go down with us? Your presence may act as a
restraint. Mr. Trohm seems to have some respect for you."
"Mr. Trohm?"
"Yes. It is his coming which has so agitated Lucetta. He and a man named
Gryce are just coming up the walk. There goes the knocker. Lucetta, you
must control yourself or leave me to face these unwelcome visitors
alone."
Lucetta, with a sudden fierce effort, subdued her trembling.
"If he must be met," said she, "my anger and disdain may give some
weight to your quiet acceptance of the family's disgrace. I shall not
accept his denunciations quietly, Loreen. You must expect me to show
some of the feelings that I have held in check all these years." And
without waiting for reply, without waiting even to see what effect these
strange words might have upon me, she dashed down the stairs and pulled
open the front door.
We had followed rapidly, too rapidly for speech ourselves, and were
therefore in the hall when the door swung back, revealing the two
persons I had been led to expect. Mr. Trohm spoke first, evidently in
answer to the defiance to be seen in Lucetta's face.
"Miss Knollys, a thousand pardons. I know I am transgressing, but, I
assure you, the occasion warrants it. I am certain you will acknowledge
this when you hear what my errand is."
"Your errand? What can your errand be but to----"
Why did she pause? Mr. Gryce had not looked at her. Yet that it was
under his influence she ceased to commit herself I am as convinced as we
can be of anything in a world which is half deceit.
"Let us hear your errand," put in Loreen, with that gentle emphasis
which is no sign of weakness.
"I will let this gentleman speak for me," returned Mr. Trohm. "You have
seen him before--a New York detective of whose business in this town you
cannot be ignorant."
Lucetta turned a cold eye upon Mr. Gryce and quietly remarked:
"When he visited this lane a few days ago, he professed to be seeking a
clue to the many disappearances which have unfortunately taken place
within its precincts."
Mr. Trohm's nod was one of acquiescence. But Lucetta was still looking
at the detective.
"Is that your business now?" she asked, appealing directly to Mr. Gryce.
His fatherly accents when he answered her were a great relief after the
alternate iciness and fire with which she had addressed his companion
and himself.
"I hardly know how to reply without arousing your just anger. If your
brother is in----"
"My brother would face you with less patience than we. Tell us your
errand, Mr. Gryce, and do not think of calling in my brother till we
have failed to answer your questions or satisfy your demands."
"Very well," said he. "The quickest explanation is the kindest in these
cases. I merely wish, as a police officer whose business it is to locate
the disappearances which have made this lane notorious, and who believes
the surest way to do this is to find out once and for all where they did
not and could not have taken place, to make an official search of these
premises as I already have those of Mother Jane and of Deacon Spear."
"And my errand here," interposed Mr. Trohm, "is to make everything easier
by the assurance that my house will be the next to undergo a complete
investigation. As all the houses in the lane will be visited alike, none
of us need complain or feel our good name attacked."
This was certainly thoughtful of him, but knowing how much they had to
fear, I could not expect Loreen or Lucetta to show any great sense
either of his kindness or Mr. Gryce's consideration. They were in no
position to have a search made of their premises, and, serene as was
Loreen's nature and powerful as was Lucetta's will, the apprehension
under which they labored was evident to us all, though neither of them
attempted either subterfuge or evasion.
"If the police wish to search this house, it is open to them," said
Loreen.
"But not to Mr. Trohm," quoth Lucetta, quickly. "Our poverty should be
our protection from the curiosity of neighbors."
"Mr. Trohm has no wish to intrude," was Mr. Gryce's conciliatory remark;
but Mr. Trohm said nothing. He probably understood why Lucetta wished to
curtail his stay in this house better than Mr. Gryce did.
XXIX
IN THE CELLAR
I had meanwhile stood silent. There was no reason for me to obtrude
myself, and I was happy not to do so. This does not mean, however, that
my presence was not noticed. Mr. Trohm honored me with more than one
glance during these trying moments, in which I read the anxiety he felt
lest my peace of mind should be too much disturbed, and when, in
response to the undoubted dismissal he had received from Lucetta, he
prepared to take his leave, it was upon me he bestowed his final look
and most deferential bow. It was a tribute to my position and character
which all seemed to feel, and I was not at all surprised when Lucetta,
after carefully watching his departure, turned to me with childlike
impetuosity, saying:
"This must be very unpleasant for you, Miss Butterworth, yet must we ask
you to stand our friend. God knows we need one."
"I shall never forget I occupied that position toward your mother," was
my straightforward reply, and I did not forget it, not for a moment.
"I shall begin with the cellar," Mr. Gryce announced.
Both girls quivered. Then Loreen lifted her proud head and said quietly:
"The whole house is at your disposal. Only I pray you to be as
expeditious as possible. My sister is not well, and the sooner our
humiliation is over, the better it will be for her."
And, indeed, Lucetta was in a state that aroused even Mr. Gryce's
anxiety. But when she saw us all hovering over her she roused herself
with an extraordinary effort, and, waving us aside, led the way to the
kitchen, from which, as I gathered, the only direct access could be had
to the cellar. Mr. Gryce immediately followed, and behind him came
Loreen and myself, both too much agitated to speak. At the Flower Parlor
Mr. Gryce paused as if he had forgotten something, but Lucetta urged him
feverishly on, and before long we were all standing in the kitchen. Here
a surprise awaited us. Two men were sitting there who appeared to be
strangers to Hannah, from the lowering looks she cast them as she
pretended to be busy over her stove. This was so out of keeping with her
usual good humor as to attract the attention even of her young mistress.
"What is the matter, Hannah?" asked Lucetta. "And who are these men?"
"They are my men," said Mr. Gryce. "The job I have undertaken cannot be
carried on alone."
The quick look the two sisters interchanged did not escape me, or the
quiet air of resignation which was settling slowly over Loreen.
"Must they go into the cellar too?" she asked.
Mr. Gryce smiled his most fatherly smile as he said:
"My dear young ladies, these men are interested in but one thing; they
are searching for a clue to the disappearances that have occurred in
this lane. As they will not find this in your cellar, nothing else that
they may see there will remain in their minds for a moment."
Lucetta said no more. Even her indomitable spirit was giving way before
the inevitable discovery that threatened them.
"Do not let William know," were the low words with which she passed
Hannah; but from the short glimpse I caught of William's burly figure
standing in the stable door, under the guardianship of two detectives, I
felt this injunction to be quite superfluous. William evidently did
know.
I was not going to descend the cellar stairs, but the girls made me.
"We want you with us," Loreen declared in no ordinary tones, while
Lucetta paused and would not go on till I followed. This surprised me. I
no longer seemed to have any clue to their motives; but I was glad to be
one of the party.
Hannah, under Loreen's orders, had furnished one of the men with a
lighted lantern, and upon our descent into the dark labyrinth below, it
became his duty to lead the way, which he did with due circumspection.
What all this underground space into which we were thus introduced had
ever been used for, it would be difficult to tell. At present it was
mostly empty. After passing a small collection of stores, a wine-cellar,
the very door of which was unhinged and lay across the cellar bottom, we
struck into a hollow void, in which there was nothing worth an instant's
investigation save the earth under our feet.
This the two foremost detectives examined very carefully, detaining us
often longer, I thought, than Mr. Gryce desired or Lucetta had patience
for. But nothing was said in protest nor did the older detective give an
order or manifest any special interest in the investigation till he saw
the men in front stoop and throw out of the way a coil of rope, when he
immediately hurried forward and called upon the party to stop.
The girls, who were on either side of me, crossed glances at this
command, and Lucetta, who had been tottering for the last few minutes,
fell upon her knees and hid her face in the hollow of her two hands.
Loreen came around and stood by her, and I do not know which of them
presented the most striking picture of despair, the shrinking Lucetta or
Loreen with her quivering form uplifted to meet the shafts of fate
without a droop of her eyelids or a murmur from her lips. The light of
the one lantern which, intentionally or unintentionally, was
concentrated on this pathetic group, made it stand out from the midst of
the surrounding darkness in a way to draw the gaze of Mr. Gryce upon
them. He looked, and his own brow became overcast. Evidently we were not
far from the cause of their fears.
Ordering the candle lifted, he surveyed the ceiling above, at which
Loreen's lips opened slightly in secret dread and amazement. Then he
commanded the men to move on slowly, while he himself looked overhead
rather than underneath, which seemed to astonish his associates, who
evidently had heard nothing of the hole which had been cut in the floor
of the Flower Parlor.
Suddenly I heard a slight gasp from Lucetta, who had not moved forward
with the rest of us. Then her rushing figure flew by us and took up its
stand by Mr. Gryce, who had himself paused and was pointing with an
imperious forefinger to the ground under his feet.
"You will dig here," said he, not heeding her, though I am sure he was
as well acquainted with her proximity as we.
"Dig?" repeated Loreen, in what we all saw was a final effort to stave
off disgrace and misery.
"My duty demands it," said he. "Some one else has been digging here
within a very few days, Miss Knollys. That is as evident as is the fact
that a communication has been made with this place through an opening
into the room above. See!" And taking the lantern from the man at his
side, he held it up toward the ceiling.
There was no hole there now, but there were ample evidences of there
having been one, and that within a very short time. Loreen made no
further attempt to stay him.
"The house is at your disposal," she reiterated, but I do not think she
knew what she said. The man with the bundle in his arms was already
unrolling it on the cellar bottom. A spade came to light, together with
some other tools. Lifting the spade, he thrust it smartly into the
ground toward which Mr. Gryce's inexorable finger still pointed. At the
sight and the sound it made, a thrill passed through Lucetta which made
her another creature. Dashing forward, she flung herself down upon the
spot with lifted head and outstretched arms.
"Stop your desecrating hand!" she cried. "This is a grave--the grave,
sirs, of our mother!"
XXX
INVESTIGATION
The shock of these words--if false, most horrible; if true, still more
horrible--threw us all aback and made even Mr. Gryce's features assume
an aspect quite uncommon to them.
"Your mother's grave?" said he, looking from her to Loreen with very
evident doubt. "I thought your mother died seven or more years ago, and
this grave has been dug within three days."
"I know," she whispered. "To the world my mother has been dead many,
many years, but not to us. We closed her eyes night before last, and it
was to preserve this secret, which involves others affecting our family
honor, that we resorted to expedients which have perhaps attracted the
notice of the police and drawn this humiliation down upon us. I can
conceive no other reason for this visit, ushered in as it was by Mr.
Trohm."
"Miss Lucetta"--Mr. Gryce spoke quickly; if he had not I certainly could
not have restrained some expression of the emotions awakened in my own
breast by this astounding revelation--"Miss Lucetta, it is not necessary
to bring Mr. Trohm's name into this matter or that of any other person
than myself. I saw the coffin lowered here, which you say contained the
body of your mother. Thinking this a strange place of burial and not
knowing it was your mother to whom you were paying these last dutiful
rites, I took advantage of my position as detective to satisfy myself
that nothing wrong lay behind so mysterious a death and burial. Can you
blame me, Miss? Would I have been a man to trust if I had let such an
event as this go by unchallenged?"
She did not answer. She had heard but one sentence of all this long
speech.
"You saw my mother's coffin lowered? Where were you that you should see
that? In some of these dark passages, let in by I know not what traitor
to our peace of mind." And her eyes, which seemed to have grown almost
supernaturally large and bright under her emotions, turned slowly in
their sockets till they rested with something like doubtful accusation
upon mine. But not to remain there, for Mr. Gryce recalled them almost
instantly by this short, sharp negative.
"No, I was nearer than that. I lent my strength to this burial. If you
had thought to look under Mother Jane's hood, you would have seen what
would have forced these explanations then and there."
"And you----"
"I was Mother Jane for the nonce. Not from choice, Miss, but from
necessity. I was impersonating the old woman when your brother came to
the cottage. I could not give away my plans by refusing the task your
brother offered me."
"It is well." Lucetta had risen and was now standing by the side of
Loreen. "Such a secret as ours defies concealment. Even Providence takes
part against us. What you want to know we must tell, but I assure you it
has nothing to do with the business you profess to be chiefly interested
in--nothing at all."
"Then perhaps you and your sister will retire," said he. "Distracted as
you are by family griefs, I would not wish to add one iota to your
distress. This lady, whom you seem to regard with more or less favor as
friend or relative, will stay to see that no dishonor is paid to your
mother's remains. But your mother's face we must see, Miss Lucetta, if
only to lighten the explanations you will doubtless feel called upon to
make."
It was Loreen who answered this.
"If it must be," said she, "remember your own mother and deal reverently
with ours." Which entreaty and the way it was uttered, gave me my first
distinct conviction that these girls were speaking the truth, and that
the diminutive body we had come to unearth was that of Althea Knollys,
whose fairy-like form I had so long supposed commingled with foreign
soil.
The thought was almost too much for my self-possession, and I advanced
upon Loreen with a dozen burning questions on my lips when the voice of
Mr. Gryce stopped me.
"Explanations later," said he. "For the present we want you here."
It was no easy task for me to linger there with all my doubts unsolved,
waiting for the decisive moment when Mr. Gryce should say: "Come! Look!
Is it she?" But the will that had already sustained me through so many
trying experiences did not fail me now, and, grievous as was the ordeal,
I passed steadily through it, being able to say, though not without some
emotion, I own: "It is Althea Knollys! Changed almost beyond conception,
but still these girls' mother!" which was a happier end to this
adventure than that we had first feared, mysterious as the event was,
not only to myself, but, as I could see, to the acute detective as well.
The girls had withdrawn long before this, just as Mr. Gryce had desired,
and I now expected to be allowed to join them, but Mr. Gryce detained me
till the grave was refilled and made decent again, when he turned and to
my intense astonishment--for I had thought the matter was all over and
the exoneration of this household complete--said softly and with telling
emphasis in my ear:
"Our work is not done yet. They who make graves so readily in cellars
must have been more or less accustomed to the work. We have still some
digging to do."
XXXI
STRATEGY
I was overwhelmed.
"What," said I, "you still doubt?"
"I always doubt," he gravely replied. "This cellar bottom offers a wide
field for speculation. Too wide, perhaps, but, then, I have a plan."
Here he leaned over and whispered a few concise sentences into my ear in
a tone so low I should feel that I was betraying his confidence in
repeating them. But their import will soon become apparent from what
presently occurred.
"Light Miss Butterworth to the stairway," Mr. Gryce now commanded one of
the men, and thus accompanied I found my way back to the kitchen, where
Hannah was bemoaning uncomforted the shame which had come upon the
house.
I did not stop to soothe her. That was not my cue, nor would it have
answered my purpose. On the contrary, I broke into angry ejaculations as
I passed her:
"What a shame! Those wretches cannot be got away from the cellar. What
do you suppose they expect to find there? I left them poking hither and
thither in a way that will be very irritating to Miss Knollys when she
finds it out. I wonder William stands it."
What she said in reply I do not know. I was half way down the hall
before my own words were finished.
My next move was to go to my room and take from my trunk a tiny hammer
and some very small, sharp-pointed tacks. Curious articles, you will
think, for a woman to carry on her travels, but I am a woman of
experience, and have known only too often what it was to want these
petty conveniences and not be able to get them. They were to serve me an
odd turn now. Taking a half-dozen tacks in one hand and concealing the
hammer in my bag, I started boldly for William's room. I knew that the
girls were not there, for I had heard them talking together in the
sitting-room as I came up. Besides, if they were, I had a ready answer
for any demand they might make.
Searching out his boots, I turned them over, and into the sole of each I
drove one of my small tacks. Then I put them back in the same place and
position in which I found them. Task number one was accomplished.
When I issued from the room, I went as quickly as I could below. I was
now ready for a talk with the girls, whom I found as I had anticipated,
talking and weeping together in the sitting-room.
They rose as I came in, awaiting my first words in evident anxiety. They
had not heard me go up-stairs. I immediately allowed my anxiety and
profound interest in this matter to have full play.
"My poor girls! What is the meaning of this? Your mother just dead, and
the matter kept from me, her friend! It is astounding--incomprehensible!
I do not know what to make of it or of you."
"It has a strange look," Loreen gravely admitted; "but we had reasons
for this deception, Miss Butterworth. Our mother, charming and sweet as
you remember her, has not always done right, or, what you will better
understand, she committed a criminal act against a person in this town,
the penalty of which is state's prison."
With difficulty the words came out. With difficulty she kept down the
flush of shame which threatened to overwhelm her and did overwhelm her
more sensitive sister. But her self-control was great, and she went
bravely on, while I, in faint imitation of her courage, restrained my
own surprise and intolerable sense of shock and bitter sorrow under a
guise of simple sympathy.