by Lucetta with a feverish impatience quite new to me. As none of us
could eat, the supper table had not been laid, and though I had no means
of knowing what was in store for us, the sombre silence and oppression
under which the whole house lay seemed a portent that was by no means
encouraging.
Suddenly I heard a knock at my door. Rising hastily, I opened it. Loreen
stood before me, with parted lips and terror in all her looks.
"Come!" she cried. "Come and see what I have found in Lucetta's room."
"Then she's gone?" I cried.
"Yes, she's gone, but come and see what she has left behind her."
Hastening after Loreen, who was by this time half-way down the hall, I
soon found myself on the threshold of the room I knew to be Lucetta's.
"She made me promise," cried Loreen, halting to look back at me, "that I
would let her go alone, and that I would not enter the highway till an
hour after her departure. But with these evidences of the extent of her
dread before us, how can we stay in this house?" And dragging me to a
table, she showed me lying on its top a folded paper and two letters.
The folded paper was Lucetta's Will, and the letters were directed
severally to Loreen and to myself with the injunction that they were not
to be read till she had been gone six hours.
"She has prepared herself for death!" I exclaimed, shocked to my heart's
core, but determinedly hiding it. "But you need not fear any such event.
Is she not accompanied by Mr. Gryce?"
"I do not know; I do not think so. How could she accomplish her task if
not alone? Miss Butterworth, Miss Butterworth, she has gone to brave Mr.
Trohm, our mother's persecutor and our life-long enemy, thinking,
hoping, believing that in so doing she will rouse his criminal
instincts, if he has them, and so lead to the discovery of his crimes
and the means by which he has been enabled to carry them out so long
undetected. It is noble, it is heroic, it is martyr-like, but--oh! Miss
Butterworth, I have never broken a promise to any one before in all my
life, but I am going to break the one I made her. Come, let us fly after
her! She has her lover's memory, but I have nothing in all the world but
her."
I immediately turned and hastened down the stairs in a state of
humiliation which should have made ample amends for any show of
arrogance I may have indulged in in my more fortunate moments.
Loreen followed me, and when we were in the lower hall she gave me a
look and said:
"My promise was not to enter the highway. Would you be afraid to follow
me by another road--a secret road--all overgrown with thistles and
blackberry bushes which have not been trimmed up for years?"
I thought of my thin shoes, my neat silk dress, but only to forget them
the next moment.
"I will go anywhere," said I.
But Loreen was already too far in advance of me to answer. She was young
and lithe, and had reached the kitchen before I had passed the Flower
Parlor. But when we had sped clear of the house I found that my progress
bade fair to be as rapid as hers, for her agitation was a hindrance to
her, while excitement always brings out my powers and heightens both my
wits and my judgment.
Our way lay past the stables, from which I expected every minute to see
two or three dogs jump. But William, who had been discreetly sent out of
the way early in the afternoon, had taken Saracen with him, and possibly
the rest, so our passing by disturbed nothing, not even ourselves. The
next moment we were in a field of prickers, through which we both
struggled till we came into a sort of swamp. Here was bad going, but we
floundered on, edging continually toward a distant fence beyond which
rose the symmetrical lines of an orchard--Mr. Trohm's orchard, in which
those pleasant fruits grew which--Bah! should I ever be able to get the
taste of them out of my mouth!
At a tiny gateway covered with vines, Loreen stopped.
"I do not believe this has been opened for years, but it must be opened
now." And, throwing her whole weight against it, she burst it through,
and bidding me pass, hastened after me over the trailing branches and
made, without a word, for the winding path we now saw clearly defined on
the edge of the orchard before us.
"Oh!" exclaimed Loreen, stopping one moment to catch her breath, "I do
not know what I fear or to what our steps will bring us. I only know
that I must hunt for Lucetta till I find her. If there is danger where
she is, I must share it. You can rest here or come farther on."
I went farther on.
Suddenly we both started; a man had sprung up from behind the hedgerow
that ran parallel with the fence that surrounded Mr. Trohm's place.
"Silence!" he whispered, putting his finger on his lips. "If you are
looking for Miss Knollys," he added, seeing us both pause aghast, "she
is on the lawn beyond, talking to Mr. Trohm. If you will step here, you
can see her. She is in no kind of danger, but if she were, Mr. Gryce is
in the first row of trees to the back there, and a call from me----"
That made me remember my whistle. It was still round my neck, but my
hand, which had instinctively gone to it, fell again in extraordinary
emotion as I realized the situation and compared it with that of the
morning when, blinded by egotism and foolish prejudice in favor of this
man, I ate of his fruit and hearkened to his outrageous addresses.
"Come!" beckoned Loreen, happily too absorbed in her own emotions to
notice mine. "Let us get nearer. If Mr. Trohm is the wicked man we fear,
there is no telling what the means are which he uses to get rid of his
victims. There was nothing to be found in his house, but who knows where
the danger may lurk, and that it may not be near her now? It was
evidently to dare it she came, to offer herself as a martyr, that we
might know----"
"Hush!" I whispered, controlling my own fears roused against my will by
this display of terror in this usually calmest of natures. "No danger
can menace her where they stand, unless he is a common assassin and
carries a pistol----"
"No pistol," murmured the man, who had crept again near us. "Pistols
make a noise. He will not use a pistol."
"Good God!" I whispered. "_You_ do not share her sister's fears that it
is in the heart of this man to kill Lucetta?"
"Five strong men have disappeared hereabout," said the fellow, never
moving his eye from the couple before us. "Why not one weak girl?"
With a cry Loreen started forward. "Run!" she whispered. "Run!"
But as this word left her lips, a slight movement took place in the belt
of trees where we had been told Mr. Gryce lay in hiding, and we could
see him issue for a moment into sight with his finger like that of his
man laid warningly on his lips. Loreen trembled and drew back, seeing
which, the man beside us pointed to the hedge and whispered softly:
"There is just room between it and the fence for a person to pass
sideways. If you and this lady want to get nearer to Miss Knollys, you
might take that road. But Mr. Gryce will expect you to be very quiet.
The young lady expressly said, before she came into this place, that she
could do nothing if for any reason Mr. Trohm should suspect they were
not alone."
"We will be quiet," I assured him, anxious to hide my face, which I felt
twitch at every mention of Mr. Trohm's name. Loreen was already behind
the hedge.
The evening was one of those which are made for peace. The sun, which
had set in crimson, had left a glow on the branches of the forest which
had not yet faded into the gray of twilight. The lawn, around which we
were skirting, had not lost the mellow brilliancy which made it sparkle,
nor had the cluster of varied-hued hollyhocks which set their
gorgeousness against the neat yellow of the peaceful doorposts, shown
any dimness in their glory, which was on a par with that of the setting
sun. But though I saw all this, it no longer appeared to me desirable.
Lucetta and Lucetta's fate, the mystery and the impossibility of its
being explained out here in the midst of turf and blossoms, filled all
my thoughts, and made me forget my own secret cause for shame and
humiliation.
Loreen, who had wormed her way along till she crouched nearly opposite
to the place where her sister stood, plucked me by the gown as I
approached her, and, pointing to the hedge, which pressed up so close it
nearly touched our faces, seemed to bid me look through. Searching for a
spot where there was a small opening, I put my eye to this and
immediately drew back.
"They are moving nearer the gate," I signalled to Loreen, at which she
crept along a few paces, but with a stealth so great that, alert as I
was, I could not hear a twig snap. I endeavored to imitate her, but not
with as much success as I could wish. The sense of horror which had all
at once settled upon me, the supernatural dread of something which I
could not see, but which I felt, had seized me for the first time and
made the ruddy sky and the broad stretch of velvet turf with the shadows
playing over it of swaying tree-tops and clustered oleanders, more
thrilling and awesome to me than the dim halls of the haunted house of
the Knollys family in that midnight hour when I saw a body carried out
for burial amid trouble and hush and a mystery so great it would have
daunted most spirits for the remainder of their lives.
The very sweetness of the scene made its horror. Never have I had such
sensations, never have I felt so deeply the power of the unseen, yet it
seemed so impossible that anything could happen here, anything which
would explain the total disappearance of several persons at different
times, without a trace of their fate being left to the eye, that I could
but liken my state to that of nightmare, where visions take the place of
realities and often overwhelm them.
I had pressed too close against the hedge as I struggled with these
feelings, and the sound I made struck me as distinct, if not alarming;
but the tree-tops were rustling overhead, and, while Lucetta might have
heard the hedge-branches crack, her companion gave no evidence of doing
so. We could distinguish what they were saying now, and realizing this,
we stopped moving and gave our whole attention to listening. Mr. Trohm
was speaking. I could hardly believe it was his voice, it had so changed
in tone, nor could I perceive in his features, distorted as they now
were by every evil passion, the once quiet and dignified countenance
which had so lately imposed upon me.
"Lucetta, my little Lucetta," he was saying, "so she has come to see me,
come to taunt me with the loss of her lover, whom she says I have robbed
her of almost before her eyes! I rob her! How can I rob her or any one
of a man with a voice and arm of his own stronger than mine? Am I a
wizard to dissipate his body in vapor? Yet can you find it in my house
or on my lawn? You are a fool, Lucetta; so are all these men about here
fools! It is in your house----"
"Hush!" she cried, her slight figure rising till we forgot it was the
feeble Lucetta we were gazing at. "No more accusations directed against
us. It is you who must expect them now. Mr. Trohm, your evil practices
are discovered. To-morrow you will have the police here in earnest. They
did but play with you when they were here before."
"You child!" he gasped, striving, however, to restrain all evidences of
shock and terror. "Why, who was it called in the police and set them
working in Lost Man's Lane? Was it not I----"
"Yes, that they might not suspect you, and perhaps that they might
suspect us. But it was useless, Obadiah Trohm. Althea Knollys' children
have been long-suffering, but the limit of their forbearance has been
reached. When you laid your hand upon my lover, you roused a spirit in
me that nothing but your own destruction can satisfy. Where is he, Mr.
Trohm? and where is Silly Rufus and all the rest who have vanished
between Deacon Spear's house and the little home of the cripples on the
highroad? They have asked me this question, but if any one in Lost Man's
Lane can answer, it is you, persecutor of my mother, and traducer of
ourselves, whom I here denounce in face of these skies where God reigns
and this earth where man lives to harry and condemn."
And then I saw that the instinct of this girl had accomplished what our
united acumen and skill had failed to do. The old man--indeed he seemed
an old man now--cringed, and the wrinkles came out in his face till he
was demoniacally ugly.
"You viper!" he shrieked. "How dare you accuse me of crime--you whose
mother would have died in jail but for my forbearance? Have you ever
seen me set my foot upon a worm? Look at my fruit and flowers, look at
my home, without a spot or blemish to mar its neatness and propriety.
Can a man who loves these things stomach the destruction of a man, much
less of a silly, yawping boy? Lucetta, you are mad!"
"Mad or sane, my accusation will have its results, Mr. Trohm. I believe
too deeply in your guilt not to make others do so."
"Ah," said he, "then you have not done so yet? You believe this and
that, but you have not told any one what your suspicions are?"
"No," she calmly returned, though her face blanched to the colorlessness
of wax, "I have not said what I think of you yet."
Oh, the cunning that crept into his face!
"She has not said. Oh, the little Lucetta, the wise, the careful little
Lucetta!"
"But I will," she cried, meeting his eye with the courage and constancy
of a martyr, "though I bring destruction upon myself. I will denounce
you and do it before the night has settled down upon us. I have a lover
to avenge, a brother to defend. Besides, the earth should be rid of such
a monster as you."
"Such a monster as I? Well, my pretty one,"--his voice grown suddenly
wheedling, his face a study of mingled passions,--"we will see about
that. Come just a step nearer, Lucetta. I want to see if you are really
the little girl I used to dandle on my knee."
They were now near the gateway. They had been moving all this time. His
hand was on the curb of the old well. His face, so turned that it caught
the full glare of the setting sun, leaned toward the girl, exerting a
fascinating influence upon her. She took the step he asked, and before
we could shriek out "Beware!" we saw him bend forward with a sudden
quick motion and then start upright again, while her form, which but an
instant before had stood there in all its frail and inspired beauty,
tottered as if the ground were bending under it, and in another moment
disappeared from our appalled sight, swallowed in some dreadful cavern
that for an instant yawned in the smoothly cut lawn before us, and then
vanished again from sight as if it had never been.
A shriek from my whistle mingled with a simultaneous cry of agony from
Loreen. We heard Mr. Gryce rush from behind us, but we ourselves found
it impossible to stir, paralyzed as we were by the sight of the old
man's demoniacal delight. He was leaping to and fro over the turf,
holding up his fingers in the red sunset glare.
"Six!" he shrieked. "Six! and room for two more! Oh, it's a merry life I
lead! Flowers and fruit and love-making" (oh, how I cringed at that!),
"and now and then a little spice like this! But where is my pretty
Lucetta? Surely she was here a moment ago. How could she have vanished,
then, so quickly? I do not see her form amid the trees, there is no
trace of her presence upon the lawn, and if they search the house from
top to bottom and from bottom to top they will find nothing of her--no,
not so much as a print of her footstep or the scent of the violets she
so often wears tucked into her hair."
These last words, uttered in a different voice from the rest, gave the
clue to the whole situation. We saw, even while we all bounded forward
to the rescue of the devoted maiden, that he was one of those maniacs
who have perfect control over themselves and pass for very decent sort
of men except in the moment of triumph; and, noting his look of sinister
delight, perceived that half his pleasure and almost his sole reward for
the horrible crimes he had perpetrated, was in the mystery surrounding
his victims and the entire immunity from suspicion which up to this time
he had enjoyed.
Meantime Mr. Gryce had covered the wretch with his pistol, and his man,
who succeeded in reaching the place even sooner than ourselves, hampered
as we were by the almost impenetrable hedge behind which we had
crouched, tried to lift the grass-covered lid we could faintly discern
there. But this was impossible until I, with almost superhuman
self-possession, considering the imperative nature of the emergency,
found the spring hidden in the well-curb which worked the deadly
mechanism. A yell from the writhing creature cowering under the
detective's pistol guided me unconsciously in its action, and in another
moment we saw the fatal lid tip and disclose what appeared to be the
remains of a second well, long ago dried up and abandoned for the other.
The rescue of Lucetta followed. As she had fainted in falling she had
not suffered much, and soon we had the supreme delight of seeing her
eyes unclose.
"Ah," she murmured, in a voice whose echo pierced to every heart save
that of the guilty wretch now lying handcuffed on the sward, "I thought
I saw Albert! He was not dead, and I----"
But here Mr. Gryce, with an air at once contrite and yet strangely
triumphant, interposed his benevolent face between hers and her weeping
sister's and whispered something in her ear which turned her pallid
cheek to a glowing scarlet. Rising up, she threw her arms around his
neck and let him lift her. As he carried her--where was his rheumatism
now?--out of those baleful grounds and away from the reach of the
maniac's mingled laughs and cries, her face was peace itself. But
his--well, his was a study.
XL
EXPLANATIONS
The hour we all spent together late that night in the old house was
unlike any hour which that place had seen for years. Mr. Ostrander,
Lucetta, Loreen, William, Mr. Gryce, and myself, all were there, and as
an especial grace, Saracen was allowed to enter, that there might not be
a cloud upon a single face there assembled. Though it is a small matter,
I will add that this dog persisted in lying down by my side, not
yielding even to the wiles of his master, whose amusement over this fact
kept him good-natured to the last adieu.
There were too few candles in the house to make it bright, but Lucetta's
unearthly beauty, the peace in Loreen's soft eyes, made us forget the
sombreness of our surroundings and the meagreness of the entertainment
Hannah attempted to offer us. It was the promise of coming joy, and
when, our two guests departed, I bade good-night to the girls in their
grim upper hall, it was with feelings which found their best expression
in the two letters I hastened to write as soon as I gained the refuge of
my own apartment. I will admit you sufficiently into my confidence to
let you read those letters. The first of them ran thus:
"DEAR OLIVE:
"To make others happy is the best way to forget our own
misfortunes. A sudden wedding is to take place in this house.
Order at once for me from the shops you know me to be in the
habit of patronizing, a wedding gown of dainty white taffeta [I
did this not to recall too painfully to herself the wedding
dress I helped her buy, and which was, as you may remember, of
creamy satin], with chiffon trimmings, and a wedding veil of
tulle. Add to this a dress suitable for ocean travel and a
half-dozen costumes adapted to a southern climate. Let
everything be suitable for a delicate but spirited girl who has
seen trouble, but who is going to be happy now if a little
attention and money can make her so. Do not spare expense, yet
show no extravagance, for she is a shy bird, easily frightened.
The measurements you will find enclosed; also those of another
young lady, her sister, who must also be supplied with a white
dress, the material of which, however, had better be of crape.
"All these things must be here by Wednesday evening, my own
best dress included. On Saturday evening you may look for my
return. I shall bring the latter young lady with me, so your
present loneliness will be forgotten in the pleasure of
entertaining an agreeable guest. Faithfully yours,
"AMELIA BUTTERWORTH."
The second letter was a longer and more important one. It was directed
to the president of the company which had proposed to send Mr. Ostrander
to South America. In it I related enough of the circumstances which had
kept Mr. Ostrander in X. to interest him in the young couple personally,
and then I told him that if he would forgive Mr. Ostrander this delay
and allow him to sail with his young bride by the next steamer, I myself
would undertake to advance whatever sums might have been lost by this
change of arrangement.
I did not know then that Mr. Gryce had already made this matter good
with this same gentleman.
The next morning we all took a walk in the lane. (I say nothing about
the night. If I did not choose to sleep, or if I had any cause not to
feel quite as elevated in spirit as the young people about me, there is
surely no reason why I should dwell upon it with you or even apologize
for a weakness which you will regard, I hope, as an exception setting
off my customary strength.)
Now a walk in this lane was an event. To feel at liberty to stroll among
its shadows without fear, to know that the danger had been so located
that we all felt free to inhale the autumn air and to enjoy the beauties
of the place without a thought of peril lurking in its sweetest nooks
and most attractive coverts, gave to this short half-hour a distinctive
delight aptly expressed by Loreen when she said:
"I never knew the place was so beautiful. Why, I think I can be happy
here now." At which Lucetta grew pensive, till I roused her by saying:
"So much for a constitutional, girls. Now we must to work. This house,
as you see it now, has to be prepared for a wedding. William, your
business will be to see that these grounds are put in as good order as
possible in the short time allotted to you. I will bear the expense, and
Loreen----"
But William had a word to say for himself.
"Miss Butterworth," said he, "you're a right good sort of woman, as
Saracen has found out, and we, too, in these last few plaguy days. But
I'm not such a bad lot either, and if I do like my own way, which may
not be other people's way, and if I am sometimes short with the girls
for some of their d--d nonsense, I have a little decency about me, too,
and I promise to fix these grounds, and out of my own money, too. Now
that nine tenths of our income does not have to go abroad, we'll have
chink enough to let us live in a respectable manner once more in a place
where one horse, if he's good enough, will give a fellow a standing and
make him the envy of those who, for some other pesky reasons, may think
themselves called upon to fight shy of him. I don't begrudge the old
place a few dollars, especially as I mean to live and die in it; so look
out, you three women folks, and work as lively as you can on the inside
of the old rookery, or the slickness of the outside will put you to open
shame, and that would never please Loreen, nor, as I take it, Miss
Butterworth either."
It was a challenge we were glad to accept, especially as from the number
of persons we now saw come flocking into the lane, it was very apparent
that we should experience no further difficulty in obtaining any help we
might need to carry out our undertakings.
Meantime my thoughts were not altogether concentrated upon these
pleasing plans for Lucetta's benefit. There were certain points yet to
be made clear in the matter just terminated, and there was a confession
for me to make, without which I could not face Mr. Gryce with all that
unwavering composure which our peculiar relations seemed to demand.
The explanations came first. They were volunteered by Mr. Gryce, whom I
met in the course of the morning at Mother Jane's cottage. That old
crone had been perfectly happy all night, sleeping with the coin in her
hand and waking to again devour it with her greedy but loving eyes. As I
was alternately watching her and Mr. Gryce, who was directing with his
hand the movements of the men who had come to smooth down her garden and
make it presentable again, the detective spoke: