Geraldine Bonner

“ Bassett was prepared for what he had to tell. During the long wait for the officers of the law his mind had been ranging over it, shaking bare from unnecessary detail the chain of events that had ended in murder. It was impossible to conceal the situation between Sybil and the Stokeses; he could not if he had wished it and he did not wish it. A girl had been brutally done to death, a girl innocent of any evil intention, and his desire to bring her murderer to justice was as strong as either Williams’ or Rawson’s. ”

“ For a moment she could not speak and the other, thinking her silence meant reluctance to agree, caught at her hands, pleading, with breathless urgence:
“They’ve accepted everything—it’s all explained and ended. Joe has gone, dropped out of sight. Boys of his kind do that, do something they’re ashamed of and disappear. What good would it do Stokes or Bassett or the police to know it was Joe who was killed? It’s not lies, it’s not being false to any one, it’s only to keep silent and let me go. Oh, Anne, we’ve been real friends, we’ve loved each other— Love me enough to let me be happy.” ”

“ He looked there now, let his glance slip along the curve of headlands till it reached the two girls, perched on a boulder like a pair of bright-plumaged birds. He was thinking how to approach the matter in his mind, when Mrs. Cornell went on:
“I don’t see what any one wanted to build a house here for—cut off this way. It’s too lonesome. With the tide at the full as it is now you can’t get ashore without a motor-boat. You know that current’s something fierce.” ”

“ Again nothing—vacancy, dust in a film on the bureau tops, beds untouched in meticulous smoothness.
One door was closed, near the stair-head. Opening this she looked into a store-room, a large, dark interior lit by two small windows. They were dust grimed, and the light came in dimly, showing upturned trunks and boxes, pieces of furniture, lines of clothes hanging on the walls.
“Here,” she thought, and with her heart leaping in her throat, crossed the threshold:
“Joe, it’s Anne. I’ve come to help you.”
Nothing stirred in the encumbered space, no stealthy body detached itself from the shadows. ”

“ It was an undecipherable blackness, its farther limit defined by the shore lights. But the night was very still, the sagging weight of cloud hung low pressing down sounds. She could hear the barking of dogs, the cries of children, a snatch of song from the mainland. In this intense quiet the first explosive throbs of a starting launch would be carried clearly across the sounding board of the water.
She kept telling herself that Rawson’s absence had nothing to do with Joe. She had been telling herself the same thing ever since Williams’ remark at supper. ”

“ Rawson considered before he spoke:
“I don’t see Stokes as deliberately murdering the woman he was in love with. That’s generally an act of impulse, sudden desperation. And there was no impulse here. Careful premeditation—the stealing of the revolver, luring her to this summer-house, the threats or rage when she got here that made her fly. It’s more like the working out of revenge than the act of blind passion. Stokes doesn’t look to me the kind of man that would kill so carefully. He’s too soft.”
“Then who is it?” Williams exclaimed. “Somebody killed her.” ”

“ Walberg engaged Stokes in a hurry and sent him up. It’s spoiled everything for the rest of us. He’s crazy about Sybil if you want to know what’s the matter with him.”
“Oh!” It came with an understanding inflection, the haggard glances rising on Shine’s memory.
“Can’t hide it, doesn’t want to hide it. There’s no shame in him, tracking after the girl. And it’s not as if he got any encouragement. She can’t bear him; that’s why she has Anne Tracy out there, afraid if she sits alone five minutes he’ll come loping up. You’d think if he didn’t have any pride he’d have some feeling for his wife. ”

“ If Joe had done it and if he was on the island he would try to get off at low tide. It was safe to assume that he was outside, hidden till the causeway was open. To go out to find him would be useless, he would never reveal himself to her, and if she was seen suspicion would instantly be aroused. She must get somewhere that would command the causeway and its approaches. Her mind ran over every nook and angle, every shadow and rock ledge between the house and the shore. Impossible—it was too open and the light was like day. The best place—the only place—was the living-room entrance. ”

“ Bassett, who had hoped to get a word with Anne, was bidden to join them, and the three left the house step by step tracing the passage of the dead girl.
They began with the pine grove. Needles carpeted the ground, slippery smooth, a beaten trail winding between the tree trunks. Beyond it the path ascended the bare slope to the summer-house. “No place to hide here,” Rawson said. “The murderer, if Mrs. Stokes’ story is true, was either in the open or in the summer-house.” They paused, moved on, bent for a closer scrutiny of the dry grass, searched for an imprint in the pebbled walk. ”

“ Bassett saw him go and made no move—he could not leave Anne now. The detonation and fire-work illumination that had made him leap for the path had roused Patrick. As he ran, not knowing what had taken place in the house, he had heard the man’s grunt of returning consciousness and a hoarse expletive thrown into the night. Rawson would find him awake and his dereliction never be known. ”

“ Williams’ questions were many and pointed, and it soon became evident to Bassett what he had in his mind—that her explanation of her actions did not account for the length of time she had been on the shore. Whether she saw it or not he could not tell; checked in her story she would answer patiently, reiterating her first statement that her stunned condition had robbed her of the power of thought or motion. But he was sure Stokes had grasped the trend of the query; he drew nearer, his flexible lips working, the hand hanging at his side clenching and unclenching. ”

“ When Shine left it he had gone down, passed the balcony where Stokes was waiting, and hearing his following footsteps, moved with that close imitation of Sybil’s gait to the summer-house. There the dim light and the drooping curls of his wig enabled him to carry through the deception. Stokes’ wild speech, followed by the drawing of the pistol, had terrified him. Confronted by a man armed and half-mad, panic had seized him and he had made a rush from the place.
So Joe had died, a body clad in gala dress swirling out on currents that would never bring him back. Anne said nothing. ”

“ He was a big thick-set man with a quiet reposeful quality unshaken even by the heat. It was difficult to think of Bassett shaken by any exterior accident of life, so suggestive was his whole make-up of a sustained equilibrium, a balanced adjustment of mental and physical forces. He had dropped in a great deal this summer and as the droppings-in became more frequent Anne’s outside engagements became less. They always simulated a mutual surprise, giving them time to get over that somewhat breathless moment of meeting. ”

“ All of us cooped up in this place where you can’t get off. I thought it was going to be such a nice restful change. But lord! It’s about as restful as camping on the side of Vesuvius. Sybil and Joe Tracy ready to fight at the drop of the hat and Flora going round in circles and Stokes like one of those fireworks that starts sputtering and you don’t know whether they’re going to explode or die on you. ”

“ Anne had taken off her costume and slipped into a negligée to do her packing comfortably, and then decided she had better bid good-by to Joe first. Bidding good-by was not an obligation between them, but she had to get the key of his trunk—it was going back to New York with hers—and her heart in its new warmth yearned to him, her only relation. She wanted to tell him her great secret, see an answering joy leap into his face, for he thought more of Bassett than anybody, and he’d be so surprised to hear that Anne, her charms held at a low valuation, had won such a prize. ”

“ But he planted his feet with a hard defiance, each step drew a ringing echo from the rocks and he held his head high. Bassett, following them, noted his rigid carriage, and when he turned his profile, the wide nostril spread like that of a winded horse.
There was a ghastly lunch. The men of the law ate greedily and without words. Shine was ashamed that he had any appetite and tried to appease it with bread which he could extract from the plate in front of him without notice. ”

“ The screen still covered by the sheet and the projector facing it were untouched and gave the place the air of a scene set for a play. Silence brooded over the room, a silence so peaceful and profound that it seemed as if the hideous tumult of the last hour must be a nightmare illusion. He dropped into a chair, his breath expelled with a groaning note, then heard Anne’s voice from the gallery above:
“I’ve been waiting for you. May I come down?” ”

“ Williams was unable to hide his elation. His idea, augmented by Shine’s, was a bull’s-eye hit, and his voice showed an exultant excitement as he called to Miss Pinkney to bring a sheet. Rawson’s satisfaction was less apparent, but his eye was alight with anticipation. If it was the boy, he had run back up-stairs, for no exit had been attempted through the kitchen. With the whole house astir he’d be afraid to come down and they had him safe as a rat in a trap. Impatient at the wait for Shine’s reappearance he left the room, saying he was going to the boat-house for a word with Patrick. ”

“ A jeweled brightness of garden extended along its seaward front. Beyond this was the one stretch of cultivated turf on the island, an emerald slope leading to the cuplike hollow that held the amphitheater. He skirted the side balcony, the wide-flung doors giving a glimpse of an entrance hall, and turning the corner emerged upon the land front of the long capacious building. The surroundings on this side had been left as nature made them—rock shelves and ledges, devoid of vegetation, a path winding round them from the entrance to the wharf. ”

“ Her laughter came more naturally, his with it. They were like a pair of children, delighting in a little secret. “Won’t they be surprised when they hear? Nobody has a suspicion of it.”
She looked so enchanting with her eyebrows arched in mischievous query that he made a movement to clasp her again, and then came the creak of an opening door from the floor above.
“Hist!” she held up a warning hand and slid away, her face, glancing back for a last look, beautiful in its radiant joy.
Bassett moved to the stair-foot. Once again he had to come down to earth with a bump. ”

“ When the search of the island started she went up to the side of the gallery that skirted the line of windows. From there she could command the whole seaward sweep of its ten acres. She would be alone here, secure against intrusion; she could drop her mask, let her face show what it might, not watch from beneath her eyelids for the questioning looks she dreaded.
The group of men came into her line of vision, moving across the flat land between the house and the ocean. ”

“ At areaways red-faced women sat limp in loose clothing, and from open windows came the crying of tired little children. To leave Joe to this while she was basking in the delights of Gull Island—apart from anything he might do—it wasn’t fair. And then suddenly the expression of her face changed and she drew in from the window—Hugh Bassett was coming down the street. ”

“ On the lower of these steps Shine found a lady sitting smoking a cigarette. This was the Maria of the cast, Mrs. Cornell in private life. She was still in her costume, her redundant figure swelling over the traditional laced bodice, the rouge on her cheeks hardly showing against the coat of sunburn a week at Gull Island had laid on. He had found her as easy as himself, good-humoredly loquacious and not involved in the prevailing discord. An admirable person to clear up mysteries. He sank down beside her on the step and took the cigarette box she flipped toward him. ”

“ He felt the elation of a good work done for the charitable ladies—they could get no one as capable as Sybil Saunders for the price—and for the girl herself whose best hope was to get back into harness. So, in a glow of mutual satisfaction, they walked to the door, Mr. Walberg telling over such members of the cast as had already been engaged: Sylvanus Grey for the Duke, Isabel Cornell for Maria, John Gordon Trevor for Sir Toby—no one could beat him, had the old English tradition—and Anne Tracy for Olivia. ”

“ The matrons who had organized it scanned the crowd converging toward the dock and smiled the comfortable smile of accomplishment. The summer home for tenement children could build its new wing and employ that man from Boston who had such modern scientific methods. And the matrons, stiff in the back and unbecomingly flushed after sitting two hours in the sun on the stone seats of the theater, drew toward one another on the wharf and agreed that everything had gone off beautifully and the board should at once write to Mr. Driscoll and thank him for lending the island. ”

“ Stopping by the edge of the pine wood he pointed out the scene of the shooting and was again struck by the man’s quick comprehension.
Moving on, Williams observed with grim relish:
“You couldn’t have a murder committed in a better place than this—better for us. Once you’re on here it’s a damned hard business getting off. These folks are as good as in prison. Now, Mr. Bassett, just where does that causeway lie?”
The channel stretched before them, a shining expanse, ripple-creased, summits of rock emerging. ”

“ Then in a tone of bright discovery: “Why look where Anne and Sybil are! Have they been there long?”
“Ever since I’ve been here.” Mrs. Cornell’s voice was more than soothing, bluffly reassuring as the voice of one who tells a child there is no ghost. “And ever since Mr. Shine got through the pictures! Wallowing in the beauties of nature like the rest of us.”
“Won’t you wallow, too?” Shine indicated the long unoccupied space on the step. ”