OCR Text |
Show JICIRCDMSIANCE WJmt y Harry Irving Greene JJlh Author Yosondc of Ibe Wilderness" CSZpkjJ llkirre.tlora fev Magnus O. K-tt r r Sewed on the Buttons Misting From Hit Garments or Trimmed the Edges of HI Ever Frayed Collar. myself, whom he tolerated as a aort of Uoenaud and necessary evil; Druce Halllday, my aecond cousin, whose happy-go-lucky eiplolts be would aotnetlrae chuckle over, Dd Clare Wlnton, another dlatant cousin of mine from a different branch of the family. Hut It waa practically Impossible Impos-sible to know Clare and not love her a little at least; and It was his af-dectlon af-dectlon for her, combined with bis fondness for nature, that made me realise that be was a human being after all. Bruce used to say to me privately that If Uncle Abner was the crab apple of the family tret, Clare was crtalnlr the peacb, but I always preferred to regard her as the Jewel. I would not liken her to diamond as I would Mrs. Dace, who scintillates and dazzles, but rather to a perfect pearl whose beauty Is soft and emanates ema-nates from deep within. While It waa easy enough to account ac-count for his fondness for Clare, i never could quite understand what a man of his Instincts saw about a prodigal prodi-gal like Bruce to pat on the back, good looking and agreeable though be la. And It puzzled me almost as much to notice that Clare, who Is high-minded high-minded and as sweet and wholesome as fresh milk, would ao readily overlook over-look things in my cousin of which I knew she Instinctively disapproved. . One day I spoke to ber about it I good naturedly charged her with being be-ing very fond of him, and she admitted ad-mitted It with audacious sang frotd. "Of course I am. Everybody Is everything Is. Children climb all over him and stray dogs follow him home. Why shouldn't they If he pets them?" I expostulated. "Hut he Is so obvious obvi-ous I might even say notorious about his well. I will call them financial fi-nancial peculiarities.' He doesn't care who knows about them." 8he answered an-swered me as pertly as a sparrow. "That's just what I like about him. (truce doesn't know there is such a thing as underbandedness." 80 that's the way some Immaculate women have of sticking up for tar-nluhpd tar-nluhpd men. It seems to be one of the mysteries of the ft-male mental equipment which is Incomprehensible to the male mind. Hut while I always al-ways liked Bruce, we are of somewhat different temperaments. I am not a purist In any sense of the word, but I believe In discretion. Personally I prefer a person who does the Indiscreet thing discreetly to one who does the discreet thing Indiscreetly. And that is one way In which be and I differ. Neither do I admit that It Is hypocrisy hypoc-risy on my part merely discretion. It has always seemed to me that when two people's characters are equal, that whatever advantage the one may have over the other rests with the one who has the better reputation. reputa-tion. Also Bruce was usually up to bis ears in trouble of one of two kinds financial or feminine. Hut no matter which it was, he always managed to slip through It like an eel through oil. 75 1 c!se4 other things that were In common com-mon between us. Bhe understood perfectly per-fectly that there waa no animus back of my words, and I would not have cared particularly If she bad told htm all I said. As a general proposition she would agree with me, but not always. al-ways. I remember once when she crushed the rose which she had been caressing Into a shapeless pulp with one convulsive squeeze at some careless care-less remark of mine concerning his Improvidence. "Did you ever happen to notice where Bruce's clothes show the first signs of wear?" she asked defiantly. I admitted that I had not. "Then I will tell you. It is at the flap of his right hand trouser's pocket where he carries the loose money that he loans and Rives away." So you see her action signified nothing except ex-cept another Instinctive desire on her part to fly to bis defense and cover his sins of extravagance by the mantle man-tle of his charities. And, of course, against sentiment like that loglo Is useless. Then, too, when it comes to his little lit-tle love affairs Iiruce is certainly a pachyderm. You could shoot him as full of Cupid's arrows as you could thrust a human pin cushion full- of needles, and the result would be the same in each rase. An unfortunate affair of the heart affects some people peo-ple not unlike a mosquito. It annoys them for a few moments, and then another an-other mosquito comes and the first one Is forgotten. With others It gets under the skin like a "chlgger" festers fes-ters and torments and will not be scratched out And there Is where Hruce and I differ again. He Is of the first class, while I am of the chlgger-bltten chlgger-bltten variety. Clare nearly always came to see us upon Sunday afternoons. We would usually hear her whistling as she came up the walk when she was still quite a ways distant Clare can sing like an angel, but she much prefers to whistle like the devil. She squeaks and trebles and flats with her lips In a pucker and her chin aslant and the discord she creates Is shocking. Hut she never gets discouraged, dis-couraged, and would rather shrill a few false notes through her puckered lips than open ber round throat and let notes pour forth that would drive a prima donna to glaring envy. Into the bouse she would come by means of her private key with a fife of her Hps and a hat a-tat tat of her feet on the uncarjeted stairs, until a final hollow thump would announce ber arrival ar-rival at the portals of my uncle's Inner In-ner sanctuary. Thereupon I would arise to a military "attention" and my uncle to a creaking resemblance of uprightness up-rightness as she threw open the door to reveal herself, sinking to the floor with skirts spread In an exaggerated curtsey of the olden days. Up to uncle un-cle she would go with a ridiculous kiss upon the bald spot of his bead, and then settle light as a puff ball In the window seat and commence to ; CHAPTER (. That was a rather peculiar crime, the robbing of my Uncle Abner's safe. It was cleverly planned, opportunely timed and successfully executed. It was a good haul, too. Forty thousand dollars In cruip coin of the realm 1 pretty high pay for almost any criminal crim-inal for a few hours' work and risk, and that Is what the perpetrator got out of it You will notice that I said "erlm-'inal. "erlm-'inal. I did that to distinguish It from the operation of a gang of thieves; for as It turned out it was the work of a single individual and not the combination of effort of a coterie. That made It still more difficult to aolve. As a chain Is no stronger than Its weakest link, so Is the cunning of a combination of men no keener than tho wits of Its dullest member. That 1 why conspiracies generally come to grlof somebody turns out to tie weak. In the matter of which I am epeaklng there were aa many baffling points as there are to a bedgohog, and for a time It seemed Impregnable. As (or the sleuth bounds of the police, they came up to It with caution, Bmulled about It discreetly and then drew away, looking wise, to ponder ovtr It, and for all I know are looking look-ing wbie and pondering yet. Hut with William LeDuc the case was different. differ-ent. IjcDuc had been something of a friend of mine ever since we were achoolboys together, and he did really real-ly brilliant work on the case. Everything Every-thing conjured up by the human mind 1h capable of human solution If we go ulout It right, and LcDua found the wuy. Just because a dug Is help-lens help-lens before a bristling porcupine It Is 1 no hlKn that all animals are. The wild , eat Isn't. He Is too quick for the I brlftle.-. He feints him out of bis de-; de-; feriBlve posture by lightning play and eventually gets him by the un-' un-' protected none which Is the begin-' begin-' nlng of the end of the problem. Just 1 whnt LeDuc did has never been made . public up to this time for the reason that none but be or I is competent to give the Inner particulars of the running run-ning down of the thief, and up to this time neither of us has cared to tell. Hut I feel that I must do so now. That I happened to know more than anybody else about certain Incidents connected with the affair and was able to supply LeDuc with the proofs - ' , of guilt was due to the fact that I . Jived with Uncle Abner at the time the crime took place. I, also, was the one who found him lying bound and unconrclous. Also It was myself who jeported matters to the police and In-, In-, produced LeDuc to my uncle. As for jthe time when the burglary took fclaco, I happened to be away from Ihome, having stayed at a hotel In the tiuslnes district quite a few tulles from where I lived. I And now at the outset I am going o emphasize one fact While It U an jtinpleasant thing for me to do so, I am going to toll everything I know regarding this crime. I am going to pare nobody's feelings, faults o& reputations. repu-tations. That I have not done so before be-fore was because of a reason which will be apparent when all the other facts are known. Hut now that a certain event has happened I feel free to make everything known. In writing this account I have thought best to do so chronologically when possible. Therefore, I must go ftomewhat Into matters which preceded pre-ceded and were more or less directly connected with the crime In order (that the motive may be shown and that there may be the proper perspective. per-spective. To do this I must tell more or less about people not absolutely , connected with the burglarly, but wtio are necessary to the narrative by reason of their propinquity. How-ever, How-ever, they are simply the shading and side lights that go to make up the picture. And while LeDuc may disappear disap-pear for considerable periods In the telling, the mistake should not be made of thinking be Is nowhere around. That Is what he did In the actual ferreting out of the case, and that Is what misled the criminal. Hut when his fine Italian hand did appear at the finish. It wore a glove of mall. Right at this point I find myself somewhat at a lass to decide Just where to begls the recital. This is for the reason that I am not a writer trained In the art of building up a mystery with such skill that it stands Intact until the time comes to demolish demol-ish It; when with one deft blow the keystone Is removed and the whole fabric comes down with a crash. Therefore all I can hope to do I to tlmply and plainly outline the characters char-acters which seem to me to be pr-tlnent pr-tlnent to a full understanding of conditions, con-ditions, and then go on and relate events as they happened. Perhaps I bad better begin with a brief description descrip-tion of Uncle Abner, bis peculiarities and meannesses. When you look at that Ut sentence sen-tence agsln you will begls, e understand under-stand that ! meant It when I said I waa going to spare tiobod. Nelttser do I believe any one will think as I proceed that I am attempting to spare my own feelings. Wbst an Idiot I was! 1 think when the fates were making the world's supply of fools, after they had constructed me they broke the mold. Having turned out a perfect specimen there was no use of experimenting further. I have called Uncle Abner mean and peculiar, but that description Is Insipid. It Is about as adequate as describing Satan as not being a pleasant pleas-ant person. Of all the cold blooded men I ever met Abner Halllday bad the most frog like, temperature. I once bad a dream which will illustrate my lifelong Impression of him. It happened hap-pened when I was spending a year at a technical school learning practical mechanics prior to entering college, and it was brought about by a particularly partic-ularly heartless and thoroughly uncalled un-called for letter which he had written me. I dreumed that I had seen blm dissected at a clinic and that bis veins were filled with liquid air instead in-stead of warm red corpuscles. And when It came to the region of bla heart they found Its place occupied by a toadstool. He was long, lean, miserly and rich. Aa to the amount of his wealth, I had little knowledge except from a boast be once made to me and which I waa inclined to believe be-lieve at the time. I happened Incidentally to remark that he must be a pretty wealthy man, and he turned to me with that cunning cun-ning leer of bis a leer that had the cunnlug of a fox and the rolentless-nees rolentless-nees of a wolf. "I suppose you know how far it la from here to the heart of the city," he grinned. I told him that It was eight miles as the crow files. "And about 80 rods. Now, you listen to mo. young gadabout. If I should turn all my money into American dollars dol-lars and put them side by side, edges touching, remember, they'd reach from here to tho city ball." "Which Is a long ways." I assented meekly. He grinned again. "And I'll tell you where else they would reach. They'd reach to the chambers of the Judges; they'd reach to the private office of the assessor, and they'd reach to the heart of any public official I wanted, then to which Is the reason I desire them. Understand, now, young Jackanapes?" "Yes." I returned wearily, disgusted by his contempt for all human honesty. hon-esty. Then I went away and left him, feeling more resentful than ever that I must toll day In and out aa the cashier of a soulless corporation for $2,000 a year, and then out of it pay my uncle pretty near first-class hotel rates for my board and lodgings. At times his browbeating and Insults fairly fair-ly slckeued me of life; yet I swallowed them with the resignation of a schoolboy school-boy who takes quinine as a condition to his being allowed to go fishing. Oh, dead men's shoes! How we will dance until we fall for the prospect of wearing wear-ing them. Now a few words about the house we lived In. It was a rookery. targe and rambling. ram-bling. It had degenerated from a handsome, hand-some, well groomed sut urban home to a bulking, tatterdemalion outcast amidst respectability. It waa bruised and battered. The spine of its roof already bad a curvature; the paint bung from it in shreds, and ragweeds surrounded It Internally it was nearly hollow. Year by year Uncle Abner, clutching his dollars, sat by and watched It run down as steadily as a clock that Is never rewound; prldeless of himself and of all belonging be-longing to him save bis money. And whenever he did spend a few dollars upon repairs his cheerfulness was that of one who gives a surgeon bis fee for extracting his vermiform appendix. ap-pendix. Necessity, eo grinding and Imiwratlve that further neglect would prove fatal, was the only condition that could loosen the Oordlan knot which bound his money bags. I never opened the heavy door that led from the group of magnificent century cen-tury old oaks, the branch ends of which stroked the gray house like caressing ca-ressing hands, without a feeling of disgust and hot shame. The lower floors were unfurnished save for the kitchen, the dining room and the room for the housekeeper. Barring those portions It waa as barren as a ship's empty bold. For years Mrs. Tebbets had been the housekeeper of the place, doing all the household work and never to our knowledge receiving re-ceiving company, and almost never leaving the premises. The upstairs pcrliuu of the htsuMt io bare of furniture save for my uncle's and my apartments, ills quarters consisted con-sisted of a large, sparsely furnished room running the length of the front of the bouse, with an alcove In connection, con-nection, my own sleeping room and den being adjscent thereto. That Uncle Abner continued to live amidst this shameful waste of handsomely designed rooms and broad natural grounds, was about the only piece of extravagance I ever knew him to Indulge In-dulge himself In. However, I could partially account for It In two ways. In the first place be had come Into possession of the premises throsgn some sort of a hocus-pocus swap; bad secured them for a song, won the resulting re-sulting lawsuit and then left the former owner to whistle for the song; snd In the second be had a real and sbldltg fondntss for trees and grass. Trees and grass, however, do not require re-quire repairs. Now as to bis associates. There were only three people In the world whom be did not seem to have a natural avenloa for. These were ml "If I Should Turn All My Money Into American Dollars, They'd Risen From Here to the City Hall.' seem to care for any men but Hruce and myself, and I can't believe that you and he are In earnest In your brazen flirtations. In the first place, he baa no more seriousness about him than a Jumping Jack, and In the second sec-ond I cannot conceive of a girl with your Ideals loving a man of his peculiar pe-culiar financial practices and alley-cat habits. Outside of hla more or less respectable club be has no more fixed plsce of abode than baa a balloon, bal-loon, and I don't believe be would be any more content to settle down than one." She would toss ber head. "That Is because the poor fellow has no home to allure him. Just you wait until be gets married. If be wins the right wife be will settle down so hard that you can hear the echo." I would wave my bands In protest "Hut be speculates upon the board bets, and all that, -.nd while I do not consider such things as particularly depraved, I know that you are utterly against them. Besides, he is a financial finan-cial humorist How could he support a wife in the dreary, moneyless periods?" pe-riods?" "I'm sure I don't know that would be his end of the bargain. Hut 1 do know that If he had a wife who would save what he throws away when he Is prosperous they would never come to want And I am not sure, after all, but that It Is better to have a lot of money part of the time and none the rest than to have only a little all the time." That would quiet me for a time. I had 'to depend entirely upon my salary, sal-ary, for being under heavy bonds I could not have speculated had I cared to and still retained my po' tlon if the fact became known. Still, by certain economies I bad managed to hide away a few hundreds for emergencies, and In addition to that I had In the savings bank $5,000 which had come to me from my father's fa-ther's estate. That however, I regarded re-garded a good deal as a trust fund which was to be left unused except In case of last resort So I would take another tack and try and Impress her with the greater virtue of ultimate achievement through Industry and economy rather than by mowing your way through the ranks of your fellow men. From ber quietness I would think she was becoming converted until un-til of a sudden she would give a fidget "There he comes now, down the walk back of us." she would assert without even a glance around. And sure enough It would be Hruce, a cigar In bis mouth and a bundle as big as a peck measure wrapped up in paper under his arm. . 1 always thought my physical senses were particularly par-ticularly alert, but she would Invariably Invar-iably announce bis coming before 1 knew he was within gunshot. Hearing, Hear-ing, intuition, instinct or sixth sense, I know not what it was, but at times It struck me as almost uncsnny. Up to us he would come strolling with a smile and audacious "Hello, little sweetheart," and a nod and an offhand "Howdy, old man," to me; and standing before us with his feet wide apart would grin at ber like a i;ood natured puppy. Then I would see Clare's eves begin to light up. "What Is It this time. Bruce?" she would hslf ga?p excitedly. With a studied deliberation that would keep ber In squirming suspense be would gradually oen the bundle and ralce It on high. Then suddenly he would pour a pailful of roses, carnations or violets over her head and send them tumbling into ber lap and down on the grass in a waterfall of fragrance. And at that she would utter a little cry and go down upon her kne-s as she gathered them up by the handful, scolding blm like a msg pie for bis ex travaganre, and stopping after every few words for a rapturous smell of esch captured treasure. And that would be my reward for my lecture on the tin of extravagance. Then, regardless of my pretence. he would sit down and begin to make love to ber. Nor would he do this In the way that any other civilized man would go about such a thing, but openly and notoriously In the filibustering filibus-tering fashion In which he did everything. every-thing. She always seemed helpless before his extravagant compliments, while, as for myself, I would watch him In silence unable to make up my mind whether I was amused or disgusted. dis-gusted. After he got tired of that be would Insist tbst she go with him over to the boulevard where they could sit on a bench and pick out an automobile from those going by, such as he was going to purchase for ber especial benefit At first she would demur, but would finally say, "AH right. If Tom will go, too." Whereat be would laugh and say to me with an audacious wink: "Oh, Tom doesn't care to go. He would rather loaf up in his den and read a book than go over there and sit In the dust, wouldn't you, Tom?" In reply I would bow low and say "certainly,' with a sarcasm , that would have shriveled any other living human being, but at which he would only laugh again and straightway march ber off. and that, of course, would be the last of them for that day so far as I was concerned. As I said before, I was not In love with her; I did not think that he was more than, half In earnest and therefore waa not Jealous. Hut it always al-ways left me feeling sort of disgusted. I don't believe It Is In the male nature na-ture for-eny man to witness a woman whom be likes tacitly accepting the advances of a mcn other than himself without wishing that be bad horns. He may not particularly want the woman himself, but the sight of It breeds a sneaking desire In him to go out and hook something. CHAPTER II. In my uncle's large front room there waa a safe that he had picked up somewhere In the dark ages of bis youth, doubtless upon some foreclosure; fore-closure; and it was one of the simplicities sim-plicities of his complex mind that be should cling to It with the faith which a child reposes In the toy savings bank In which be had deposited hla treasure. It was a dogged enough looking contraption, and around It revolve re-volve the principal characters and events of this history as a moth circles cir-cles a flame. Behind the portly doors were kept the Integrals of his fortune; i the mortgages, leases, deeds and notes 1 that w ere the material evidences of j bis possessions. While it was nearly always practically empty of cash, at remote Intervals, and for a few days at a time only. It contained considerable sums In specie. This last happened w hen be would collect the money on a mortgage or other security, and because be-cause of not feeling well would re-reive re-reive payment at the house Instead of the bank. Once In a long while this would change to occur after banking hours, or on a Sunday or holiday, and in that event, after the payee had departed, de-parted, he would give himself over to a revel with the currency wl'h all the delight of a child fondling a new toy, He did not seem to care for gold as the stereotyped miser always di but would nose around among the bundles of greenbacks with the seaming seam-ing fascination of a feline for catnip. It was during one of these scenes tbst our qusrrel occurred. (TO BB CONTINt'En.l Csute for Joyf Mis pert Ever, since I refused Tom two wetks ago he hasn't been sober a lsy. Miss Caustlque Not tired celebrat, Ing. eh? Exrhsnge. Nothing Else. He I wish you would select more arprorrlate times to go to your dressmakers dress-makers She My dear man. all times to go ta a dressmakers are fitting occasions. He Is a broker by trsde. Also, be speculates on bis own account, and part of the time la Coating like a bubble bub-ble on the tcp wave of prosperity and the rest of the time swimming for dear life in the succeeding trough. It was a good deal as he himself once put It, when be had planned to feed a few of us a week In advance: "You bad better put a sandwich In your pocket, boys, for life Is uncertain. uncer-tain. As you know. It Is turkey with me one dsy and feathers the next, and you have got to take your chance as to which you will gel when you dine with me. Hut come on Just the same. If It is turkey It will be the biggest one In the market, and If It's the other It will be festhers in our caps anyhow." In spite of yourself you can't cherish cher-ish anything against a man like tbst. I never criticized htm to any one ssve Clare, and only to her Incidentally Incident-ally and openly the ssme as we critl- chatter. Five minutes of that would put her out of breath, after wblcb she would be content to settle down to ordinary conversation as she sewed on the buttons missing from his garments, gar-ments, or trimmed the edges of bis ever frayed collars. For while Mrs. Tebbets was employed to do all this, Clare always reserved tboee tasks for herself and Jealously Insisted upon retaining her prerogatives. I'erhata an hour later. If the weather was fitting. fit-ting. I would manage to catch ber eye with a significant glance and would then go down to a rustic seat benesth the big oaks. Presently she would Join me. While I was not really In love with her. neither waa I with anybody else. I liked her exceedingly, realised that she wo-jld make a well nigh Ideal wife, and sometime used to speak to ber about love matters. I would be half In fun and half la earnest. "Clare." I would sav. "you deal |