The Wolf Note
At the door, the man carrying the rifle came close to Eileen. He
caught her hand in his and tapped it lightly.
"Don't worry, little girl! I tried my best to keep them from
disturbing you," he said in low tones, "but you know what these
fellows are like."
"Thank you! You are very kind," answered Eileen quietly. "Father will
thank you, too, when he comes back."
The Mayor wished her good-night, raised his hat and followed the
others, who were already well on their way down the hill.
Eileen waited at the door until they were no longer within sight or
earshot. Then she closed and bolted it. She ran over to the wood-box.
She tossed the chunks of wood about her in frantic haste, whispering,
almost crooning, to the man underneath, who did not hear her for he
was lying there crumpled in a senseless heap.
With a cry she freed him and bent over him. Her supple young arms went
under his shoulders. She raised him, half dragging, half lifting,
until she had him stretched upon the floor in front of the stove. She
ran for a basin of water, cut some linen into strips and, on her knees
beside him, she bathed and dressed the raw, open wound in his side,
where a bullet had ripped and torn along the white flesh.
When she finished, she raised his limp head and bathed his brow with
cold water.
The fugitive groaned and opened his eyes.
He smiled a wan sort of smile through a grimy, unshaven mask, as he
looked into the sweet face above him. Then he closed his eyes again,
as if he feared the picture might vanish.
"Oh, brace up!" Eileen whispered tearfully, almost shaking him in her
fear. "You must brace up. They've gone. But they may come back. If
they do, they'll be sure to get you."
Gathering his scattered senses, the man on the floor raised himself
with an effort on to his elbow. He struggled to his feet and swayed
unsteadily. He passed his hand over his eyes and made an involuntary
movement as if to thrust his fingers through his hair. As he did so, a
pained expression crossed his face, for his fingers encountered
nothing but a short stubble of hair close cropped to his skin.
Eileen lent him her support, as he tried to brace himself. She set him
in an armchair, then brought him bread, butter, some cold meat and
fresh milk from the cupboard, placing them on the table before him.
Only his eyes expressed thanks, but they did it eloquently. Ravenously
he turned to, while his young hostess watched him in curiosity and
wonder, for never before had she seen one really famishingly hungry.
When not a morsel remained, the man pushed back his chair and turned
to the young lady apologetically.
"You'll excuse me if I forgot my table manners, but--but that was my
first food for three days."
He rose.
"I guess I will be able to make it now. I feel all right;--thanks to
you."
"No, no!" exclaimed Eileen, "you mustn't go just yet. You must rest
if only for a few minutes. I was anxious before these men were clear
away, but they have gone. The rest will do you good."
"No!--I must go. It--it would mean trouble for you if they found me
here."
"You shan't! Sit down!" she commanded. "You may require all your
strength before morning."
She set him in the chair again, and he obeyed her helplessly and with
a sigh of weariness.
"But----" he protested feebly, raising his hand.
"Trouble for me!" she interposed; "I am not afraid of trouble."
"You are indeed a Good Samaritan," he said in a voice which sounded
less forlorn. "If I wasn't a jailbird, I'd thank you in my prayers."
He smiled crookedly. "You know, convicts' prayers don't seem to rise
very high, miss--don't seem to reach anywhere. We haven't got the
stand-in with the Boss that others seem to have," he said in some
bitterness.
"Hush!" she whispered. "You must not say that, for it isn't true.
Those men might have caught you,--but they didn't. But, but," she
added seriously, "surely you are not a convict; not a criminal, I
mean?"
He turned his hands outwards with a shrug.
"You don't look like one who loved doing wrong. If you have ever done
wrong, I am sure it was done in a moment of rashness; maybe
thoughtlessness." She clasped her hands in front of her. "You would
never do it again."
He shook his head.
"No,--never, never again!" But his voice had no sound of contrition in
it.
"When you are free--really free--you will try to be what God meant you
to be; a real man; good, honest and earnest."
He moved uneasily, then he got up once more, went over to the window
and looked out into the night. He remained with his back to her for
some time, and she did not seek to break into his thoughts.
Finally he turned, and, as he leaned against the wall by the door, he
gazed at her curiously.
"They nick-named me 'Silent' in jail, because I wouldn't talk," he
said in a husky tone. "God knows!--what inducement had a man to
talk--there?"
"Maybe I shouldn't talk now--but I might feel better if I did, and you
cared to listen."
"Yes, oh yes!--please tell me," replied the girl earnestly.
"I have never committed any crime against anyone. The only wrong I
have done is to myself. Like a fool, I took the blame to save the
other fellow, because, oh, because I thought I was better able
to--that was all. But that other fellow skulked away, deserted
me;--the low coward!"
The man's voice rose in the quiet of that little bungalow upon the
hill where the only other sounds were the ticking of the clock and the
quick breathing of an anxious listener.
"God help him when we meet!"
"Hush!" cautioned the girl again.
"When I took on his troubles," he continued, more quietly, "I did not
think of anything more than a few months in prison, but, Great God!
they gave me five years:--FIVE YEARS!"
His eyes widened at the awfulness of the thought and a look of agony
came into his face.
Eileen Pederstone gasped, and her lips parted.
"Five years," she whispered.
The man continued in bitterness.
"Yes! five years in hell--buried alive--away from humanity--from
light--air--freedom; from the sunshine, the hills, and the valleys;
from the sea, the wind, and, and, the higher things--literature,
music, art: truth--love--life:--buried from the combination of all
these, from God himself."
He shuddered. He almost wept in his frailness. "And now the very
sunshine hurts like an electric shock, the open spaces make me feel
lost and afraid; make me long for the confinement of a cell again."
He stopped suddenly and brushed his eyes with the back of his hand.
Eileen went over to him, laid a hand tenderly on his torn shirt-sleeve
and led him over to the chair again, for he still showed signs of his
physical exhaustion. He sat back and closed his eyes. When he opened
them again, Eileen spoke to him.
"And you ran away? Why, oh, why did you do that? Couldn't you see that
it would mean recapture; more imprisonment? And you were probably so
near the end of it."
Her whole soul was speaking compassionately.
"Near the end!" he said bitterly. "It was the end. I broke prison
because they had no right to keep me there any longer."
"But why? How could that possibly be?" she asked, closing her hands
nervously.
He gave expression to a sound of surprise at her innocence.
"You don't know them, miss. Anything, everything is possible in there.
They are masters, kings, gods. My conduct was good. After three years
and eight months I was due to get out in one month more. But I was
useful to them in there. I had education. I was the only accountant;
the greatest book-lover in jail. To keep me from thinking--for the
thinking is what drives men mad--I worked and slaved night and day.
They had no one to take my place. I was trusted. I did the work of
three men.
"One day I interfered in behalf of a fellow prisoner--a horse
thief--who was wrongly accused at this particular time of breaking
some trivial prison law. My good conduct sheet was cancelled. I was
told that I must serve my full time. That's what I got for trying, for
the second time, to help my fellow-man." He laughed. "That--and a
peculiar-sounding word which that strange little jailbird gave to me,
on condition that I would never sell it, stating it was all he had and
that it might be useful to me some day if I ever had the handling of
horses.
"Yes!--I should have been wise that time. It was my second offence of
helping my neighbour. Three years and nine months in jail for a kindly
act! Fifteen months more in hell in exchange for a word! What
bargains!"
He grew bitter again.
"The hell-hounds!--they thought I didn't tumble to their little
game."
He stopped again, closing his mouth tightly as if inquiring of himself
why he should be telling this young lady so much.
"Please--please go on," Eileen pleaded, divining his thoughts.
"Why?" he asked bluntly, surveying the slight, lissom figure before
him.
"Oh, because--because I am interested. I am so sorry for you and for
so many others like you," she said.
"Well!--I served my full time--five years--three years with 365 days
each and two leap years with an extra day in them,--1,827 days and
nights, 43,848 hours; 2,630,880 minutes; 157,852,800 second strokes on
the clock. You see I remember it all. Great God, how I used to figure
it out!
"Eight days ago my time was up. I asked them regarding my release. And
simply because I inquired instead of waiting their good pleasure, they
told me I had two weeks more to serve. The damnable lie! As if I
didn't know, as if every jailbird doesn't know the day and the very
minute his release is due!
"Two weeks more!" he went on, his face flushed with indignation and
his breath coming in short jerks.
The clock on Eileen's mantelshelf struck midnight, slowly and
clearly.
The convict looked at it and gasped. When it stopped striking, he
turned to Eileen and his eyes twinkled for a second.
"The Governor of the prison has a little clock just the same as that
in his private room," he said. "Do you know, I'm afraid all the time
that I'm going to wake up from this and find myself back there."
He jerked his torn garments together.
"Guess I'd better be going, though. I've stayed far too long already.
I feel rested now."
"Won't you finish your story first?" pleaded Eileen. "I think you are
safer here--for a while longer--than you would be outside. It won't
hurt to let those horrid, prying, suspicious creatures get well away
from here."
"I have already said more than I intended to," he remarked.
The pair presented a strange contrast as they sat opposite each other
in the lamplight; the one, wet-eyed, sympathetic and earnest; the
other, gaunt, indignant and breathless as he gasped out his story with
the hunger of one to whom sympathy was a rediscovered friend.
"Where was I at?" he asked. "Ah, yes!
"The Governor's dirty-worker wouldn't listen when I tried to explain.
He ordered me back.
"At work in the office next day, I took advantage of a warder's
slackness and broke clear away.
"I didn't care what happened then. I was crazed. An old lady in a
cottage--God bless her!--fed me and gave me these clothes--her son's
castaways--and three dollars; all the money she had.
"I walked twenty miles without stop or let-up. After that I slept
during the day and walked at night. Three days after my breakaway, I
got on to a freight train and stole a ride as far as Sicamous. I slept
overnight in a barn there. Next morning I tried to bribe a boy to get
me some food at the grocery store. I gave him a dollar. He never came
back. I heard some men talking at the door of the barn about a
suspicious character who had been seen skulking about. That decided
me. I got out when night came and slipped under an empty fruit car
which was being shunted on the siding. I got off yesterday, slipping
away between a little village up the line and here. The engineer got
his eye on me and stopped the train. He let some men off: they were
two detectives, I think. They had been riding in the caboose. They
came after me. I fell exhausted somewhere in the bush. When I came to
it was broad daylight and the men were gone."
He looked up at Eileen suddenly.
"There isn't much more. Early this morning I managed to get into a
barn by the railway tracks. I got in through a skylight in the roof. I
went to sleep among the straw there. Soon after, the sound of a key in
the padlock outside woke me. I scrambled up and through the skylight
again, and away. There were three men--one with a rifle. They hunted
me, finding me and losing me several times. The devil with the rifle
got a line on me down the hill a short time ago.
"When I got to your door I was all in." He smiled. "You're a real
sport. You didn't give me away."
He got up and threw out his hands. "Oh, what's the good anyway! All
jailbirds tell the tale and shout their innocence."
Eileen's heart was moved. Tears welled up in her eyes. She was at a
loss to know what to do or say.
As the man turned from her, his elbow struck something hanging on the
wall. He caught at it quickly as it was falling.
It was an old violin of very delicate workmanship.
"Sorry!" he exclaimed, handing it to her. "I am clumsy in a house.
Haven't been in one for so long. Glad I didn't smash it."
"I almost wish you had," said Eileen enigmatically.
"Don't you like music?" he asked.
"Oh, yes!"
"Violin music?"
"Yes!--but not from that violin. It is not like other violins: it has
an unsavoury history."
"Do you play?"
"Not the violin," said Eileen, standing with her back to the table,
leaning lightly there, clad in her dressing gown, her plaited hair
hanging over her shoulder and her eyes on her strange visitor in
manifest interest.
"My father is very fond of scraping on a violin. The one he plays is
hanging up there."
She pointed to another violin beside the mantelshelf in the adjoining
room.
"And this one?" he queried curiously, pointing to the one she had laid
on the table.
"This one is several hundred years old. It has been in the family for
ever so long. The story goes with it that the member of our family
who owns it will attain much wealth during his life, but will lose it
again if he doesn't pass it on when he is at the very height of his
prosperity. My father says it has always proved true, and he is hoping
for the day when its promise will be fulfilled in his case, for he
longs for wealth and all it brings; and he has striven all his life to
get it."
"I hope that he has his wish and is able to tell when he gets to the
highest point of his success, so that he may get rid of the violin in
time."
Eileen smiled.
"Daddy says that has been the trouble with our forefathers, who always
got wealthy but never seemed to be able to hold it when they got it.
That is my daddy over there."
She pointed to framed picture on the wall.
"He is big and brawny, and not afraid of anybody. He is--oh, so good.
He is the best in all the world."
The young man gazed at her as she expressed her admiration.
"He isn't here to-night?" he remarked.
Eileen turned her eyes on him sharply, as if she had sensed something
of a suspicious nature in his query. But she shook the thought from
her and laid her mind bare.
"No!--daddy was called away this afternoon. He won't be back until
to-morrow, noon.
"This violin," reverted Eileen, as if endeavouring to interest her
guest and keep his thoughts away from the misery of his own condition
as long as possible, "was the last work of a very famous Italian
violin maker, who disappeared mysteriously and was never heard of
afterwards. It has a most beautiful tone, but for one note, and that
one note is hideous. Ugh!--I hate it."
She shuddered. "I would have destroyed it long ago only my father
prizes it as a great curio and as an heirloom."
The convict showed deep interest.
"Isn't it strange that a beautiful instrument like this should have a
discordant note in it that no one seems to be able to explain away?"
she asked, as they stood together near the window, losing themselves
in their interest.
"Yes,--it is strange," returned the man, examining the violin closely.
"I have read of something similar somewhere. The discord, I think, is
called the _wolf note_, and it is well named. I believe its presence
is difficult to explain, and such an instrument has occasionally been
produced by the best violin makers. They usually destroyed them, as
the discord is unalterable, making the instrument, of course,
unmarketable as a music producer."
Eileen remained in thought for a while, then she held out her hand for
the violin, took it from the man and went to the wall where she hung
it up, as if dismissing a distasteful subject.
Back to the young man's face came the hopeless look of remembrance. "I
had almost forgotten myself," he remarked. "Thank you! I must be off.
I should not be here. I--I should never have intruded."
"One moment!" said Eileen. "The air is chilly and you have nothing but
that thin, torn, cotton shirt on your back. Get into this! It is an
old sweater of mine; it is loose and big. It will keep the cold out."
"No! You have already done more than I can ever hope to pay back. I
might get caught with it on----"
"But you must," she put in imperiously. "I have several of them. This
is the oldest of those I have. You are not depriving me of anything,
and you will be glad of it before the morning, for it is cold up here
at nights."
He took it from her with reluctance, pushed his arms into it and drew
it over his head and shoulders.
"Thank you!" he said in a quiet voice. "I was sick and in prison--I
was anhungered--I was thirsty--I was naked. I don't know exactly how
it goes," he apologised, "but it is something like that and it
certainly does apply to you, miss."
His mood changed. He turned up part of the sleeve of the sweater and
put it to his lips.
Eileen's face took on a flood of colour despite herself.
A smile flitted across the unshaven face of the man, disclosing his
regular, clean teeth.
Eileen drew herself up stiffly.
She went to the door and opened it to allow him to pass out of her
life as he had come into it. But as he turned to go, he started back
at a sound in the dark.
The tall, athletic figure of a man loomed up, blocked the way and
stepped into the kitchen beside them.
Eileen gasped and clutched at her bosom in terror.
"Mr. Brenchfield," she cried in sudden anger, "what do you mean?
You--you have been watching. I didn't think you were a spy, although
after all, possibly I did, for I intentionally held back the man you
are after."
Brenchfield ignored her remark and pointed with his finger at the
fugitive, who came forward, his eyes staring as if he were seeing an
apparition.
"Great God,--you!" exclaimed the young man. Then with a catching sound
in his throat, he sprang at the burly, well-fed man before him.
Brenchfield was taken completely by surprise. He staggered against the
side of the door, as thin claw-like fingers found his throat and tried
to stop the vital air. The fingers closed on his windpipe too tightly
for comfort.
Eileen cried out and tried to go between, but she was thrust aside.
The men swayed together, then Brenchfield's hands went up, catching
the other by the wrists in a firm hold. There was a momentary
struggle, the runaway's grip was broken and he was flung to the
floor.
Brenchfield turned to Eileen.
"Miss Pederstone, have you gone crazy trying to hide this man? Don't
you know he is a runaway; a dangerous convict? The police--blind
fools--didn't tumble to your nervousness, but I caught on. I knew you
had him hidden in the wood-box."
The hunted man rose slowly from the floor and staggered forward,
gasping for breath. He gave Brenchfield a look of loathing.
"Graham," he said brokenly, "may the good God forgive you, for I never
shall."
He threw out his thin arms and looked at them, while tears of
impotence came into his eyes. He clenched his hands and grit his
teeth. "And may the devil, your friend, protect you," he continued
threateningly, "when these grow strong again."
Brenchfield looked him over with indifference.
"My good fellow, you'll excuse me! You have wheels in your head. I
don't know you from a hedge-fence. Damn it!" he suddenly flared
angrily, "I don't want to know you. Get out; quick! before I help you
along, or put you in the hands of your friends down the hill who are
so anxious to renew your acquaintance."
The young man stared fearlessly into the eyes of Graham Brenchfield,
wealthy rancher, cattleman, grain merchant and worthy Mayor of
Vernock. Then his lips parted in a strange smile, as he threw up his
head.
He turned to Eileen.
"Guess I've _got_ to go now. I have my marching orders."
"Come on;--enough of this--git!" put in Brenchfield roughly, stepping
up in a threatening manner.
The fugitive ignored the interruption.
"Good-bye, Miss--Miss Pederstone--and, remember this from a convict
who doesn't count:--as surely as there is a wolf-note in some violins,
so surely is there a wolf-note in some men. Strike the wolf-note and
you set the devils in hell jumping."
In the next moment he passed out at the door and down the dusty
highway leading to Vernock.
Graham Brenchfield stood looking after him until the night shut him
out.
Eileen Pederstone stared in front of her with eyes that saw no outward
thing.
At last Brenchfield broke the silence.
"It was rather unwise--foolish--harbouring such a man as that; and
your father from home."
"Yes?" queried Eileen, with a slow intonation of resentment.
"Unprotected as you were!"
"We girls would have little need for protection if you men were all as
gentlemanly as he was. He seemed to be an old acquaintance of yours.
Who is he?"
Brenchfield shrugged his shoulders.
"Pshaw!--that kind would claim acquaintance with the very devil
himself. You don't suppose I ever met him before. He is a dangerous
criminal escaped from Ukalla."
"He told me so," put in Eileen, as if tired of the interview, "and he
seemed quite annoyed when I refused to believe the _dangerous
criminal_ part."
"But the police tell me he _is_. It was only for your sake that I let
him go."
Brenchfield tried to turn her to the seriousness of her misdemeanour.
"For the sake of your good name, you had no right admitting him. You
know what Vernock is like for gossip. You know the construction likely
to be placed on your action."
Eileen drew herself up haughtily.
"You'll excuse me, Mr. Brenchfield! When did you earn the right to
catechise Eileen Pederstone?"
He changed suddenly and his peculiarly strong and handsome face
softened.
"I am sorry. I did not mean it in that way, Eileen. And this is no
time to speak, but--but I hope--some day----"
The girl held up her hand, and he stopped.
He was tall, full-chested and tremendously athletic of figure and
poise, with dark eyes that fascinated rather than attracted and a
bearing of confidence begotten of five years of triumphal success in
business ventures and real-estate transactions; a man to whom men
would look in a crisis; a man whom most men obeyed instinctively and
one to whom women felt drawn although deep down in their hearts they
were strangely afraid of him.
He held Eileen with his eyes.
"There is something I wish to ask you some day, Eileen. May I?"
"Nothing serious, I hope, Mr. Brenchfield?" she returned lightly, for
she at least had never acknowledged any submission to those searching
eyes of his. "And please remember, it is past midnight. My father
isn't here."
"Serious!--yes!" he returned, ignoring her admonition, "but some day
will do."
"It is an old story;--some day may never come, good sir!"
He smiled indulgently.
Eileen, despite her apparent unconcern, placed her hand over her heart
as if to stay a fluttering there.
Mayor Brenchfield was a young man, a successful man; to many women he
would have been considered a desirable man.
He professed friendship with Eileen's father. He put business her
father's way. He was of the same political leanings. He had met Eileen
on many occasions. Brenchfield was a tremendously energetic man; he
seemed to be everywhere at once.
Eileen, like other women, could not help admiring him for his forceful
handling of other men, for his keen business acumen, for his almost
wizardly success.
He had many qualities that appealed strongly to the romantic in her
youthful nature; but, girl-like, she had not stopped at any time to
analyse the feelings he engendered in her.
And now, up there on the hill, in the chill of the night air, under
the stars that hung so low and prominently that one felt one might
almost reach up and pluck them from the heavens,--now there came a
sudden dread.
It was this inexplicable dread that set her heart athrob.
Brenchfield took her hand from her bosom and patted it gently.
His touch annoyed her. She drew away imperiously, and she shivered.
"Why, little woman!--you are cold and it is very late. How thoughtless
of me! Good night, Eileen!"
"Good night!" she returned wearily, closing the door.
The moment he heard the bolts shoot home, Brenchfield's whole nature
changed. An oath came to his lips. He crushed his hat down on his
head, leapt the fence and rushed headlong by the short cut down
through the orchards--townward.
At the Kenora Hotel corner his low whistle brought two men from the
saloon.
The three conversed together earnestly for a few moments, then they
separated to different positions in the shadows but commanding a full
view of the road leading down the hill from the east of the Main
Street of Vernock.
But of all this Eileen Pederstone--alone in the little bungalow up on
the hill--was blissfully ignorant.