Charles Edmonds Walk

“ What tragedy of starved romance lay hidden here!
But what threatened General Westbrook?
Charlotte was destined never to hear from her mother. When the clamorous little clock told her that dawn was near, Mrs. Fairchild began to grow quieter, and at last to doze; and from that sleep she can scarcely be said to have awakened, unless to be deprived of the least volition of every member, to be unable to utter an articulate sound, to be more helpless and dependent than a babe newly born, is to be counted among the quick instead of the dead. ”

“ No one is less capable of perpetrating such a deed than Mobley Westbrook. Why, you know the man!" He appealed with feverish eagerness to the two figures now sternly confronting him. "Every one knows Mobley Westbrook's character; would he do such a thing?"
"But come to the point—come to the point, man!" the Chief demanded, rapping sharply upon the desk with his knuckles. "What of the weapon—was it a knife—sword—axe—hatchet? Where was it?"
"Well, Mobley had some kind of a—blade, a—dagger in his hand; but—"
"Ah! And standing over a man whose very life-blood is ebbing away beneath his eyes!" ”

“ What I have to say seems, even to myself, so wild and impossible, that I sometimes wonder if I am not the victim of a wretched nightmare. But, Mr. Mountjoy—Mr. Converse—I trust you will believe me." She clasped her hands and looked an earnest appeal from one to the other.
The lawyer now was grave, his thin features yielding no decipherable expression; Converse's mien was wholly encouraging and sympathetic.
"Pshaw, Miss Westbrook," said the latter, heartily, "don't let such a doubt worry you for an instant. You have no idea what my credulity will stand." ”

“ A disheartening sense of depression, such as he had experienced after leaving Miss Charlotte, came over Converse again, while the detective instinct was uncompromisingly alert to McCaleb's words. Whether the vision of Joyce evoked any such feelings in the younger man, it would be impossible to say; his hawk-like gaze remained riveted upon her while she stood at the window—as if she were merely an enigma hard to solve—and as soon as she was gone, he resumed speaking in unaltered tones. ”

“ He had struck a responsive chord; for Charlotte was undisguisedly, girlishly pleased at any honest admiration of her cherished possession. To the porch, by all means.
The Captain filled his prodigious chest with the sweet air. "It is like wine, Miss Fairchild," he said, quietly; "you can't imagine what this means to a city man like me. It's hard to think of evil at such a time."
"Oh—don't!" she protested, still smiling; "think of the flowers instead. I am glad you like them. Any one who loves flowers sincerely can think of evil only to hate it." ”

“ It is selfish—wrong—for us to consider our own happiness at such a time. He is the only one who can clear that cloud away, Mobley. Oh, why doesn't he come? It is time! It is time!"
Doctor Westbrook's impatience evinced itself only by a shrug of the shoulders.
"I have no such hope," said he. "He's like all the rest of them; unless a thing's as plain as a pikestaff, he can't do any more than an ordinary mortal,—unless, again, it's further to complicate matters and cause more trouble. Why doesn't he come, indeed! He will, perhaps, when the whole affair has had time to die of inanition." ”

“ Never had I breathed a word to any living soul of my love for Elinor Clay; it was a secret locked safely in the treasure-house of my heart; and now I could overwhelm her with gratitude. I would go to her—now that her foolish girl sentiment for the bowelless Westbrook had long been dead—and at once show her what a hypocrite he was, how basely he had treated her, and then present the immense contrast offered by my lifelong devotion and generosity. Could any mortal—especially a woman—resist such an appeal? I pride myself on my knowledge of the sex ”

“ As a leopardess might have sprung, she stood quivering above him, her eyes tragic, her slim fingers interlocked in a convulsive clasp before her.
"Quick!" she demanded in a tense whisper, "has anything happened to Mobley?"
"No, no; be assured. It was—"
"Oh, not Joyce?"
"General Westbrook."
She caught her breath sharply, and seemed unable to speak; and like a blind person, returned to her seat. But in a moment she was more tranquil and very earnest.
"Tell me plainly, Mr. Converse—is this the—the trouble?"
"It is bad enough, Miss Fairchild; the General is—dead." ”

“ Charlotte feared the result of a refusal to withdraw quite as much as she feared to leave her mother alone with Slade; but with many misgivings she reluctantly turned away and departed from the room, closing the door behind her.
No earthly interest was powerful enough to allow her to remain where she might overhear one word not intended for her ears; still, the feeling of dread, in spite of Mr. Slade's assurances, was real and insistent; above all things she wanted to linger within sound of her mother's voice. ”

“ I believe there has never been a time when Clay did not love Joyce, dear, darling, beautiful girl that she is. As for her, I do not know. She has a warm attachment for Clay; she admires him; still, she is so young—her life has been so gay and light-hearted, so entirely free from any care and responsibility—that it is pleasant to think no strong emotion has yet laid its touch upon her heart. To her, Clay has been a playmate, a loved comrade, a friend; whether he is destined ever to be more, I cannot say. ”

“ Come; make an effort. Pull yourself together and tell me about it."
"But the murderer!" the young man went on, still with high excitement, but unconsciously sinking back into the chair under the gentle pressure of the Chief's hand. "The murderer will escape! Great Heavens, man! even now he may be assaulting the doctor—Mobley—do you hear me?—he may have killed him! Send officers—go yourself—anything but to sit here idle. Come!" He made as if to rise again; but the other pressed him back.
"Steady," said the Chief quietly. "Mobley? Do you mean Doctor Mobley Westbrook? Has he been murdered?" ”

“ The point was like a needle's, and terminated a slender, tapering blade, silver-like in its brightly polished steel, two-edged, and of indubitable fineness. The guard, a solid piece of beautifully engraved gold, was shaped somewhat like a Cupid's bow, while the hilt, of silver, was decorated with an intricate, graceful pattern of chasing, inlaid with gold, and surrounding a scroll upon which was engraved in script the single word:
Paquita
The chasing, in addition to being an exquisite work of art, possessed also the utility of supplying an excellent purchase for any hand grasping it. ”

“ What with the introduction of the man Adams into the enigma, the Doctor's arrest, the assertion that Lynden had been an eye-witness of De Sanchez's murder, Converse's abrupt and unexpected advent after so long an absence, Slade's confession, and—to cap each of these climaxes—an assurance that the mystery was a mystery no longer, it may be believed that Charlotte's tranquil exterior belied the tumult of thought and emotion which presently came to possess her, increasing the more as she pondered. ”

“ The world marvelled at the time; but the truth, like all puzzles of simple solution, was never hit upon. Louise Shepardson, when the Judge, her father, died, became possessed of more acres than would ever come to Elinor Clay. Good, broad acres constituted the only bait to which so cold-blooded a fish as Westbrook would ever rise. Did gracious Elinor ever suspect this simple explanation? No; her gentle soul never could comprehend such infamy. She wedded Richard Fairchild, believing she had driven Peyton Westbrook from her—blaming her pure self for his heartless baseness. ”

“ Added to the tumultuous occurrences of that day, Lynden's advent with the published evidence of the Coroner's fatuity produced a condition in the Westbrook household amounting to consternation. For a time Joyce managed to infuse a semblance of calmness into her mien; but as the brutality of the narrative impressed itself upon her, as realization grew in her dazed mind of the callous indifference with which her own feelings were ignored in the light of the mere sensation, she seemed gradually to sink as if beneath a crushing weight ”

“ A sudden accession of light caused both to look up, and Converse perceived the slight, graceful figure of Joyce Westbrook standing by one of the windows. The blind was now raised, and all the lights in an electrolier behind the girl threw a flood of reflected radiance upon the beautiful countenance. The light cast an aureole about her wealth of hair—ebon tresses which, if unbound, would dissolve into the fluent blackness of night, like water into water. ”

“ The Coroner, apparently more and more at sea, stared first at one and then another of the room's occupants, at the partition which separated the reception-room from the laboratory, and lastly through the open doorway into the hall. The most extreme of the different points were not over six feet apart; and for three men—wide awake and in full possession of their faculties—to be so close to such a crime and know nothing of it until it was all over! How could human ingenuity supply an explanation for so incongruous a circumstance? ”

“ God bless Elinor Clay, and reward her with a saint's crown of glory; may He everlastingly damn the rest! ...
Most vicious of all—proud, stiff-necked, sick in his self-esteem, overweening, and malicious—was Peyton Westbrook. From the first he stood in my path, thwarting and despising me, looking upon William Slade as something less than the dirt beneath his aristocratic feet. What was Peyton Westbrook that I was not? We were man and man. ”

“ Now it introduced the response to his question, "Do you think Doctor Westbrook could have done it?"
"The Doctor is a strong, vigorous man, isn't he? I don't see why he couldn't."
"My dear sir," Lynden anxiously expostulated, "you don't know Mobley Westbrook, or you never could entertain such a thought."
"Pardon me," said Mr. Converse, carelessly, "the thought seems to be your own; I was simply giving you the first fact that occurred to me, to justify your opinion. I have formed none myself." ”

“ She took up a lamp and advanced down the narrow hall to the small reception-hall. Without any hesitation she unlocked the door and opened it wide at once; and it is probable that no apparition of any person, dead or living, could have affected her so profoundly as what she then beheld in the light of the lamp. She was so astonished at sight of the crusty abstracter that she stood quite speechless. ”

“ Immediately uncertain footsteps, marked by many shufflings, as of some person laboring beneath a burden, approach the dining-room door; a load of some nature is eased to the floor without; next, the door itself turns on screaming hinges to reveal a dim form. The form enters, drags a prodigious bundle after it, upon which it collapses as if its endurance were quite spent, and discloses the sallow, marasmic countenance of Mr. William Slade. ”

“ I thought nothing of it when he hastened by me into the room I had just quitted, as if to learn the cause of my agitation and unceremonious intrusion upon his privacy—I was simply wild to escape, and I ran on to the other hall door, where I stopped again. Other footsteps! I thought that terrible man would be for ever in passing, and I crouched there, clinging to the door-knob and whimpering like a terrified child. Then, quite suddenly, through the crack of the door, I caught a glimpse of Howard Lynden ”

“ If she had ever possessed any of the illusions common to girlhood, they had been dispelled—forgotten—long, long since: a woman temperamentally beyond the influence of the smaller courtesies and amenities of life, it was quite patent that she could not have lived that life more alone had it been cast in the midst of a desert isle; and it was difficult to imagine her so shaken from her aplomb as McCaleb and Clancy had beheld her the night before. ”

“ But a controlling strain of fatalism and superstition in the man stayed his hand; he was convinced that his sister's dagger would come to him again; that its return would be the signal to strike; and he bided the time, watching De Sanchez as a cat might watch the mouse marked for its prey. With instinctive caution, though, Castillo had avoided General Westbrook, so the latter never became familiar with his presence and appearance. ”

“ Did "Paquita" contain a hidden charm—some invisible potency—to guide the hand to its hideous, self-appointed task?
Alas, if it could but tell! If, instead of the prænomen, redolent as it was of fresh maiden innocence, the scroll had borne some word pointing to the assassin! And yet, after all, could it be possible that the momentous intelligence actually was there, and only human eyes were blind? If such be the case, it will require a vision more than human to seek it out and read what is there written. Surely; for the weapon bore no other mark or testimony. ”

“ McCaleb could see the outline of a small French heel, and beside it a second, which had been partially obliterated by another foot—the latter unmistakably masculine.
"A woman!" the young man breathed; his astonishment was complete. "Well, well! a woman, after all." He looked at the Captain with open curiosity; but Mr. Converse was grimly silent.
If he had been alive before to overlook no possible detail, the concentration with which he now began an inspection of the driveway seemed to include within his scrutiny each separate grain of sand. ”

“ Westbrook's encircling arm, Converse lifted Joyce lightly and deposited her upon a couch. The look which he bestowed upon the white, pinched face was one of concern, and for an instant he laid one hand lightly upon her marble-like brow, then felt her pulse.
"I was afraid of this," said Mountjoy. "How insensibly a man can be a brute. Poor child, she has fainted; the strain—" He paused suddenly, catching a peculiar look from the Captain. ”

“ If the sensation was incompatible with his profession, it at least proved that, as a human being, he was not so utterly devoid of feeling as his grim exterior continually indicated; and when the irresistible logic of the present investigation singled out again and again a beautiful girl as the author of a monstrous assassination; when the amorphous figure of Paquita—that featureless, shadowy phantom—presented itself between his mental vision and Joyce Westbrook—it was with a sense of relief that he asked, "Paquita, what do you spell?" ”