HOURS OF TERROR
Droom's intentions were clear. It was not a tender heart nor was it
chivalry which prompted him to do the deed of valour just described.
He had started out to do his duty by James Bansemer because he was
in his hire; and he felt it still his duty to cover the tracks of
his master as best he could. He knew that he was jeopardising his
own safety; the obstinate cunning of his nature insisted that the
man he had watched was Bansemer, although his brief glimpse of the
fugitive's face discouraged that belief.
The gaunt clerk kept his chin well covered with his great muffler;
the broad collar of his ulster was turned up about his face. The
rapid plan that dashed into his mind comprehended but two things:
the effort to restore life to Frances Cable and the hope of escaping
without being recognised. He felt that she had not been in the
water long enough to drown; every hope depended upon the force of
the blow that he imagined had been delivered.
Chilled to the bone, his teeth chattering like castanets, the old
man was stooping over the inanimate form on the ground when the
two men came up. In answer to their startled questions, he merely
said that he had seen the struggle from across the street, but had
been too late to prevent the tragedy.
"We must get her into one of these houses quick," he grunted. "Take
hold of her, you. And YOU over there hurry and ring a doorbell.
Get inside and 'phone for a doctor--a doctor first and then the
police. We may be able to save her life."
The first of the rich men's homes denied them admission. The man
of the house said he would not "stand for the notoriety." Droom,
supporting the head of the wet, icy figure, made a remark which
the man was never to forget. At the second house they were admitted.
In an instant all was confusion. A card game was broken up and
guests of the house assisted their host and hostess in doing all
manner of unnecessary things. Droom gave the commands which sooner
or later resolved themselves into excited, wrathy demands upon the
telephone operator, calls for a certain near-by doctor, calls for
the police, calls for stimulants, maids, hot water bottles--everything.
"She's been robbed," said one of the men. "Her rings have been torn
off. Look at the blood!"
"She's well-dressed, too," said another. "Say, her face looks
familiar---"
To the amazement of everyone, the lips of the woman parted and a
gasping, choking sound issued from between them, a slight shudder
swept over her frame.
"She's alive!" exclaimed Droom. "Get these wet clothes off of
her--quick!"
The men stood grouped in the hallway while the women tore the wet
garments from the reviving victim and prepared a warm bed for her.
Elias Droom was edging towards the door, bent on escape, when the
awed, chattering voice of the young fellow who had assisted in
carrying her to the house arrested him. A great sense of relief
crept over him as he listened to the young man's story; his eyes
blinked with satisfaction. He was forgetting his own remark of a
minute ago that he was freezing and must get into some dry clothes
at once. The young man was saying:
"It happened right out there by the sea wall--where the big break
is. Harry and I were coming up the Drive and I called attention to
a man running south along the wall. Just then, this gentleman ran
over from this side of the street and, a minute or two later, we
saw him jump into the break over there. Suicide, I thought, but
he wasn't a minute coming up. There was the woman! He'd pulled her
out! By thunder, it was the bravest thing I ever saw! He---"
And then it was that everybody began to shower praise upon the man
who only had tried to do his duty by the one who hired him to do
ugly, not gallant, deeds.
"Did you watch which way the robber ran?" demanded Droom eagerly.
"Lost him in the dark. He ran like fury. You must have scared him
off," said the second young man. "I wish we could have seen his
face. Did you see it?"
"Not distinctly," answered Droom. "He struck me as being a slim young
fellow, that's all." Of one thing he was assured: the evidence of
these two men would prove that he had acted as a valiant protector
and not as a thug--a fear which had not left his mind until now.
They had seen the fleeing assailant, but there was only one person
who could identify him. That person was Frances Cable, the victim.
If it was not James Bansemer, then who could it have been?
The door opened and an agitated young woman came out.
"It is Mrs. Cable," she cried in trembling tones.
The physician arrived at that moment, and a few minutes later came
an officer who had been hailed from the doorway. While the policeman
was listening to the voluble young eye-witnesses, Droom stood aloof,
puzzling himself vainly in the effort to solve an inside mystery.
He had been ready, a few minutes before, to curse himself for pulling
the woman out of the water, but now, as the belief grew stronger
within him that her assailant was not James Bansemer, his viewpoint
changed. If such was the case, there would be no need to fear Mrs.
Cable's story if she revived sufficiently to tell it. On the other
hand, if it was Bansemer, he had rescued her to an ill purpose. He
was conscious finally that someone was speaking to him.
"What do you know of this?" demanded the policeman. Droom repeated
his brief story. "What is your name and where do you live?"
"My name is Elias Droom and I live over in Wells Street."
"Could you identify the man?"
"I don't think so."
"What were you doing over in this part of town?"
"Walking up to see the skaters on the park lagoon. But what's
that get to do with it? You'd better be out looking for the thief
instead of wasting time on me here," snarled Droom. The officer
gasped and there is no telling what might have happened, if the
captain and a swarm of bluecoats had not appeared on the scene
at that moment. Two minutes later they were off scouring the lake
front in search of the mysterious hold-up man. Two plain-clothes men
remained to question the witnesses and to inspect the neighbourhood
in which the crime was committed.
Word came from the inner room that Mrs. Cable was regaining
consciousness.
"Does--can she throw any light on the affair?" asked Elias Droom.
"She has uttered no word except her husband's name. I think she is
still calling upon him for help, poor thing," said the young woman
who bore the news.
"Cable ought to be notified," said one of the men.
"Don't do it over the 'phone," said Droom quickly. "I'm going past
his house. I'll stop in and tell him. Let me out, officer; I must
get out of these wet garments. I'm an old man, you know."
The probable solution had come to Droom like a flash. As he hurried
up the street his mind was full of the theory. He scarcely could
wait for the door of David Cable's house to be opened in response
to his vigorous ringing. The maid announced that Mr. and Mrs. Cable
were out. It was enough for Droom. He put the puzzle together in
that instant. David Cable's face was the one he had seen; not James
Bansemer's. The maid set up a hysterical shrieking when he bluntly
told her of the mishap to her mistress, but he did not wait to
answer questions. He was off to find James Bansemer. The volcano
he had been watching so long was about to burst, and he knew it.
Forgetting his wet garments, he entered a drug store and telephoned
to Bansemer's home. His employer answered the call so readily that
Droom knew he had not been far from the instrument that evening.
There was a note of disappointment in his voice when Droom's hoarse
tones replied to his polite: "Hello!"
"I'll be over in half an hour," said Droom. "Very important business.
Is Graydon there?"
"He's just gone to Cable's. Someone telephoned for him a minute or
so ago. What's wrong? Do you know?"
"I'll be there in fifteen minutes," was all that Droom would say.
Elias' memory could not carry him back to the time when he had
hired a cab. A cab was one of the luxuries he had not cultivated.
One can only imagine his surprise, then, when he found himself
hailing a passing hansom; and greater the surprise he must have
felt when he clambered in and ordered the driver to go in a gallop
to a certain place in Wells Street. Ten minutes later he was attired
in dry, warm clothes and in the cab again, bound for Bansemer's
home. What he said to James Bansemer on that memorable occasion
need not be repeated. It is only necessary to say that his host
was bitterly impressed and willing to admit that the developments
might prove serious. They could only speculate as to what had
transpired between David Cable and his wife out there by the sea
wall, but it was enough for them to know that a crisis was at hand.
"We'll see what the morning papers say about the affair," said
Bansemer, uneasy and cold.
The morning papers were full of the sensational robbery, the
prominence of the victim and the viciousness of the attack. Elias
Droom read the accounts eagerly as he breakfasted in the dingy little
restaurant near his home, bright and early. He grinned appreciably
over the share of glory that fell to him; and he actually cackled
over the new developments in the great mystery.
He had observed with relief that the name of James Bansemer was
not mentioned. The reports from the bedside of the robber's victim
were most optimistic. She was delirious from the effects of the
shock, but no serious results were expected. The great headlines on
the first page of the paper he was reading set his mind temporarily
at rest. There was no suggestion of truth in them.
The reader of this narrative, who knows the true facts in the
case, is doubtless more interested in the movements and emotions of
David Cable than in the surmises of others. It would be difficult,
for a certainty, to ask one to put himself in Cable's place and
to experience the sensations of that unhappy man as he fled along
the dark shore of the lake. Perhaps much will be taken on faith if
the writer simply says that the fugitive finally slunk from the
weeds and refuse of what was then called "The District of Lake
Michigan"--"Streeterville," in local parlance--to find himself
panting and terror-struck in the bleak east end of Chicago Avenue.
It was not until then that he secured control of his nerves and
resorted to the stealth and cunning of the real criminal.
From that time until he stood shivering and white with dogged
intention in a theatre foyer, bent upon establishing an alibi, his
movements are scarcely worth the details. Between the acts he saw
a dozen men whom he knew and he took drinks with several of them.
His tremendous will power carried him through the ordeal in a way
that could not have fallen to the good fortunes of the ordinary
lawbreaker.
Every second of the time his thoughts were of the thing which was
being buffeted by the icy waters of the lake. Where was that thing
now? How far out into the lake had it been carried?
His body was covered with the cold perspiration of dread and horror.
His soul was moaning; his whole being was aghast with the awfulness
of the deed; he could have shrieked aloud in his madness. How he
lived through the hour in that theatre he never could have told,
nor could he believe that he was sitting there with all those
frightful thoughts piling themselves upon him. Other people laughed
and shouted with happiness; he stared and wept in his heart, and
shivered and cringed and groaned within himself.
He had killed her! She had been true to him, and yet, he had taken
her life--the life she had given him! He gave no thought to Jane,
no thought to Bansemer; he thought only of himself as the slayer.
Would her body be recovered? What would be his excuse, what his
punishment? The gallows? A thousand horrors ran riot in his brain,
a thousand tremors with each.
But why dwell upon the feelings of this miserable wretch? Why say
more of his terror, his misery, his remorse? He held himself in
the seat until the middle of the last act of the play. At last,
unable to restrain himself longer, he arose and almost ran from
the theatre. That instinct which no slayer can control or explain,
was overpowering him; it was the instinct which attracts the murderer
to the spot where his crime was committed. No man can describe or
define this resistless impulse, and yet all criminology records
it, clear and unmistakable. It is no less than a form of curiosity.
Driven by this irresistible force, David Cable, with bravado that
cost him dearly, worked his uninterrupted way to the scene of his
crime. By trolley car to Chicago Avenue and, then, like a homeless
dog scenting his way fearfully, to a corner not far from the break
in the wall.
His legs trembled and his eyes grew wide with dread. The swish of
the water came to his ears and he stood still for many minutes,
listening for a cry for help from off the shore, but none came;
and again skulking alongside the houses of his friends, he covered
the blocks that lay between him and the magnetic rift in the wall.
Near the corner, he stopped with a start of alarm.
The figure of a man could be seen standing like a statue on the
very spot where he had seen her disappear. While he stood there,
his heart scarcely beating, the solitary figure was joined by two
others. Cable shrank back into the dense shadows. Like a flash it
occurred to him that they were searching for the body. A shriek of
agony arose to his lips; but he checked it.
Far off on one of the crosstown streets a newsboy was calling an
extra--hoarse, unintelligible shouts that froze his blood. He bent
his ear to catch the far-away words of the boy: "All about de Nor'
Side murder!" He cringed and shook under the raucous shout. He knew
what it meant.
A policeman suddenly turned the corner and came toward him. The
first impulse was to fly; the next was to stand and deliver himself.
The resolution came with shocking unexpectedness. He would give
himself up! He would admit that he had killed his wife! The words
of anguish were on his lips when the policeman spoke.
"Is it you, Mr. Cable? How is she, sir?"
Cable did not hear the man, for, as he opened his lips to cry out
his own guilt, a thought formed in his brain that almost staggered
him with its cunning savagery. Why not let the penalty fall on James
Bansemer? She had gone out to meet him! If she had not destroyed
the note, it would hang James Bansemer, and James Bansemer was
worse than a murderer. But even as this remarkable thought rushed
into his brain, the last words of the officer began to drive it
out.
"Is she going to pull through, sir?" was the next question--and he
caught it vaguely.
"Pull through?" he mumbled inarticulately. He leaned against a
great stone rail suddenly. Everything was leaping before his eyes.
"Good Lord, Mr. Cable--I--I forgot. Don't you know about it?" gasped
the officer.
"Know what?" asked Cable, completely dazed.
"Go home at once, sir. I didn't mean to--oh, hurry, sir. Don't
be worried. They say she'll be all right. Sure! She's been hurt a
little, sir."
"My daughter?" demanded Cable, as keen as a razor in an instant.
His heart was trying to jump from his body.
"Your wife, sir. Nothin' serious, sir. She was held up along here
somewhere and robbed. They're sure to get the villain. She---"
But Cable was off like a deer for his home, racing as though on
air.
Nothing else mattered now. She was alive! He could have her with
him again to love as he never had loved her before.