Complete Short Story.

Northland Age, Volume VIII, Issue 2, 1 September 1911, Page 8

Complete Short Story.

BASCOM, THE WATCHMAN. i. We were talking at the desk, Mr. Flewcomb, the proprietor oi Tawdrj House, old Dr. Dii an.l I, of tile mysterious murder of Stanley Arnould the night before. Early that morning bis bodj had been found in the park, through which, ns was his habit, he was walking home to the hotel from the club' He had been shot through the heart. As his hand still clutched the revolver, with one cartridge gone, it was at first thought a case of suicide, but the autopsy disclosed a bullet of the larger calibre than the revolver could carry. Evidently the dead man alarmed by the sudden approach of the' assassin, had fired timultaneously with him. And yet hds watch, wallet, diamond pin and papers were all intact on his person. “ Jt beats me,” said Mr. Flewcomb with unusual feeling. " The thing is as reasonless as a lightning stroke. Arnould had everything to live for—health, wealth, a lovely and devoted young wife. Lord, bow I hated to go upstairs and tell her." ‘ You don’t believe he killed himiclf ?’ sho gasped. " ' I wouldn’t believe it, madam,’ I answered, ‘ had I seen him do it.’ "And no more X wouldn’t. But yet such a kind and jolly big boy of a good fellow—ho hadn’t an enemy." “ Men of that sort are oftenest killed mysteriously,” remarked old Dr. Dii. ’’ When an enmity] is known, then the murder is out." Here a quiet-looking man who had come down the office inquiringly stopped, ami with a touch oi his hat, handed a letter to Mr. Flewcomb. He wore the rather cough and careless clothes of an artisan, but his hands were gloved. "So you are Baecom,” said Mr. Flewcomb after he had ripped open the letter, "whom Kronss, our own watchman, has sent to fill his job until he is well enough to 311 it himself. His brother-in-law, hey? Veil, of course, his recommendation goes. I suppose he has told you what you have to do, how you go on from 8 to 8, and make the rounds every hour, winding your clock on each floor, and all that ?” “ Oh, yes, sir,” answered Bascom, carelessly, and yet he had been listening attentively to every word a 3 if it were a new word. “Go down and get your dinner, then, so as to have time for a talk with the porter and the clerk over who’s going and coming. And by-and-by, if you hear anyone moving about late in Suite 808 you had better call up Miss Holroyd, the housekeeper and let her know that Mrs. Arnould is unable to sleep. * “ I’m worried about that poor little widow, gentlemen. She is so alone in the world. She wouldn’t let me send a nurse or anyone to stay with her. Gome along, Bascom; perhaps I had better male you known to the housekeeper myself.” “ Did you notice anything queer about this watchman, Snifien ?” asked old Dr. Dii. ” I noticed that he wanted to appear to know more about the job than he did know, but that might only be queer because it was zealous” I answered. " Ah, but I did notice something else, not so easily explained. The kid cloves he wore did not match his clothes. They looked like the gloves that a gentleman had worn long enough to be well accustomed to. Yet he wore them unconsciously as a gentleman would wear them.”

” Good,” rejoined the old doctor. " Observation is always along the line of the Interest of the observer. A bootblack would have looked at his shoes. You looted at his dress «nd deportment, while I looked at Ms physiognomy ; you know I was quite a dab at that when in active practice, Sniffen. ’• So jou didn’t notice the peculiar dilation of his eyes ? Well, I did. Tt told me beyond peradventurs that the man was under a nervous strain, wav keeping himself from going all to p:«ts only through the force of hhi will.” ” If* was doing it mighty well, then.” " So well !b»t I should say that only a seyreme necessity enabled him to do Of course this idle speculation is between you and me, Sniffen. 1 would not injure a stranger entering upon bis new work ; and we both know that Krouss is as straight as a string. Only like his seeming to know and his gloves, it is queer, deucedly (queer. ” I ow« I didn’t think much of •ithrr the doctor's speculation or my own. He was right in describing them as idle, e’*en as we both were idle. How else then could wc pass our time if we didn’t continually assume things that were not, anc' from them deduce things that never would be ? Gossip. I fear, was the salt of our idle lives. An 1 yet thi. was hardly fair towards the old doctor ; for though retired from practice, be had lately ■Accepted a position as Coroner. m IJ - Bat yet there were real reasons outcirie cf idle speculation why I should he interested in the Arnould mrrder. TLe lay of my own rooms on the irifeMh floor was such that the back of my bedroom Impinged on the side of their sitting-room. The wall was so far from being deadened that very often I was compelled to he*c vtmt w»r, going on there. Aa I rccult I alone knew in the Tiawdiy House that thi* kind and Jtrtlj tig boy of a good fellow, whom tvtrycn'i ii'id, was a bully and a brute t~ vs wife. I use these words •drisetf!?, .ud that is all I am goto* to Wij about it. Let whoever IOU V\ cat the parts with the dark-

( cat, meanest material, and oven th:n he will come short of the dreadful truth. *

; “I knew enough to feel a sincere sorrowful interest in the frail and Pale little woman, Ethel Arnould. As Mr. Flewcomb had said, she was •o alone in the world. She had never taken advantage of her husband’s neglect to rtiake distractions and friends for herself. She had doggedly accepted her lot ; she had intensely endured.

I found myself mentally asking why this h d been so, that night, as I sat alone in mj room. There was an exaltation to Mrs. Amould’s face that forbade the theory that the <ase and comfort of the Tawdry House had been the price of her slavery. No, she had kept her griefs i to herself, she had taken abuse with- ; out rebellion for some unselfish, imperative reason. That was how I read the emotional lights and shades of Ethel Arnould’s face, even though I was only interested in® dress and deportment, and wasn't a physiognomist like old Dr. Dix.

Let me protest in advance that there is no curiosity about my nature. Not only was I well within my prudent rights when at an unusual sound I tip-toed into my bedroom, but it was wholesome practical sympathy and nothing else that caused me to continue to listen when I learned whence this sound came, and what it was. A curious Old man would simply have gloated over so rare a secret. I, as soon as I came to understand, resolved to be of help.

It was a cooing and cuddling sound that*" I first heard coming through the far from dead wall that separated the Arnould sitting-room from my rooms, a sound as unmistakable as it was inarticulate. Ethel Arnould, instead of being alone and grief-stricken was experiencing the rapture of a mother over her little child from whom she had been parted. What did this mean ? Primarily it explained the young woman’s supreme and unselfish endurance. She had accepted, and had waited in the hope of regaining the child whom her husband had taken from her. I think I should have gone on piecing together what I knew and what I heard into the inevitable deduction, but a childish voice, a voice so childishly childish as to give the impression of powers pathetically less than simple, gave the solution in a breath.

“ Oh, mamma,” cried this childish voice, that halted for both word 3 and ideas, “ I was so frightened, I am bo frightened ! What was that great noise, that flash and smoke ? And why did that bad man instead of doing what he said, fall down and lie still ?”

” Hush, darling !” came Ethel Arnnould’s voice in tones as thrillingly sad as a wind harp’s. ” You must not think of that, you must not speak of that, or you will be taken again from mother—and then, oh, my God, we will both die !”

I didn’t stay, for I wasn’t curious. Again I sat in my cosy chair by the blazing fire, but now my thoughts laclfc-d the comfort of detachment. An awful, instant responsibility had come upon me. I knew, I knew that a duel had been fought in the park, between man and wife, father and mother, and that the cause of it was this little child, with a mind even less than simple. How rash she had been in her devotion to return to the hotel, of all places, with this never Seen, never heard of child. I could see how with its many entrances and luck might have befriended her, but only to betray her the more surely later. Would not the chamber-maid know, would not any passer-by know? I sprang to my feet trembling at a rap on the door. Had they come already, the officers of the law, to take the mother from her baby, to make them both die ? I know not what impracticable impulse was stiffening my muscles and burning my eyes, but I slammed out into the hall like a grenadier and confronted Bascom, the watchman.

As we faced each other for an instant of silence, I did notice the peculiar dilation of his eyes. They were fixed. They glowed sombrely, quiveringly, lit e an electric light through a mist. So glow the eyes of one who has seen, who dreads to see, some frightful vision.

” If I might have a word in private with you, Mr. Sniffen,’’ he said, humbly. And yet his words seemed well selected and as ill adapted to his personality as his clothes.

“ Come in then, and sit down,” I replied closing the door after him. But you had better make haste. It wm i.*> part of your duties as set forth by Mr. Flewcomb to drop in for a talk, and so ho would tell you sharp.”

But if I heard, Mr. Sniffen, you will recollect. Well, I have heard I thought you might have heard also. You se-med so interested and sympathetic, J felt you might he able to explain and then I wouldn’t have to act, as it looks I must.”

Physiognomist or not, I was yet able to note the shadow of a curl at the corner of the tightly compressed lips. This man, whoever he was*, felt that he had an advantage. He was pressing it against me.

I strode nervously up and down the room, but when I stopped I stood leaning against an old-fashioned chest of drawers, the top drawer of which was open, as I always left it at night. “You must either speak more plainly or not at all,” I rejoined, testily. 11 I am a man of regular habits. It is too late for me to try to solve riddles.”

“ As if a curious old gentleman like yotj, with nothing to do but to nose about, didn’t know and hadn’t surmised,” he sneered. 14 Well, just as you please. I*ll rap up the boss.

and not tho housekeeper then, and tell him that the broken-hearted, lovely widow he was so sorry for has a brat of a boy hid in her room, the brat her husband took away from her, the brat she had been looking for the last year or more, tho brat he was removing to a safer place only last night ae can be easily proved.”

“ But why did he deprive her of her child ?” I asked to gain time ; for my thoughts were now whirring like a piece of machinery under full power.

‘‘.Ah, I thought you would want to kfnow. Well, since you seem disposed to meet me half way, I’ll tell you. That brat was worth more dead than alive to Stanley Arnould. A big inheritance would come to him if it died. Of course, he wouldn’t do anything to harm it, but if he took it away from her because she was unfit and it sickened and died in consequence, that would be her fault, not his, wouldn’t it ?” 1,4 A devilish scheme,’* I murmured, “ which has already driven the poor mother half mad and the poor child half silly.” “ Half mad, hey ? Ah, you did surmise after all. The jury might say so ; though if made up of family men with a proper sense of a husband’s authority they might call it deliberate murder.”

“ There is no proof.” “No proof if the revolver which the bullet fits is found in her possession ?” It came on me like a flash, though my thoughts had been making fullpower progress toward it all the time. Of course, she was innocent — how ashamed I felt that I could have believed otherwise. Of course this man committed the murder himself. If there were no other reason, his fear of detection, his hope of selfpreservation, were driving him on and on.

” What is it you wish me to do? 1 I asked.

“ Only what I know you would wish to do for her, what I would wish to do myself were it not for my duty. Tell her what the watchman suspects ; that in half an hour the police will be here. Help her to fly by the side stairs. I have purposely left the door unlocked. “ You can keep the child for her. No one would think of looking for it in here. Make an appointment to meet her in a night or so when we’ve set the hue and cry in a false direction. I’ll back you up ; can’t you see I have a heart of my own ?”

Again the whirring thoughts as he somewhat breathlessly went from one lie to another. There was another reason, two other reasons. He did not want the poor woman to see him; he did want to get possession of the child. No wonder old Dr. Dix had fixed my capacity a t deportment aiTfl dress when a total stranger would pick me out as a tool, a catspaw, for his wicked will.

Already my hand was resting on the revolver I always kept ready for action in the too drawer. Without a word I levelled, it at Bascom and advanced steadily upon him. “ Give me the gun you have in your pocket,” I demanded. Without a word he handed it over to me. It w.o smoke-begrimed and one cartridge was missing. IV. I rapped at the door of Suite 808. Ethel Arnould in, gathering her dressing gown closely around her with one hand. She looked as women look when startled at night by an unknown peril. ‘‘Tell me,” I said, as I gently closed the door upon uk. “ When circumstance and intrigue unite to entrap, it is only the truth that can extricate. Tell me all-”

“ Ah, If I could,” she cried. “ I hardly know how or where to begin ; it is like trjing to explain a nightmare.”

“ Let me help you,” I encouraged. ** From one fact we may step to another fact, just as one stone may lead to another stone when crossing a dangerous stream. Did you ever hear of a man iamed Bascom ?” ** Baecom ? Bascom ?” she pondered . “I think I have heard both Arnould and Hubert speak of some such name, Bascom, why, yes, there was a village boy named Bascom with whom they played while little. Arnould Baw him a while ago in this very hotel talking with Krouss, the watchman. I guess he has never amounted to much.” “ Who is Hubert ?”

“ Arnould's only brother. Oh, I can’t, I can’t. The family has stood too much already.” “ For the sake of the little boy, whose presence here, if known, will surely lead to suspicion and trouble for you and separation for him.” “Never ; I'll not endure that again.” j “ Look at this revolver. Did you ever see it before ? It is mounted in silver and ivory.” “It look® like one my husband used to have. He gave it to Hubert, I think. It looks like the oneno, no, 1 will not say it.” i “ Like the one with which Hubert shot your husband last night. Suppose Hubert had succeeded in his design of hiding this revokver in this room among other things. Ia iGbere anyone besides yourself who knows that he has ever had it ? Wouldn’t its presence here, m conjunction with the presence of your little boy, be guilty evidence against you ?”

“ No one would believe such a thing of me.” “ I believed it myself, madam, an hour ago, before I knew anything about this revolver. Wouldn’t such a suspicious conjunction at least give Hubert the chance to steal your little child which was also his design ? A devoted mother will do anything to protect her child. If you don’t expose Hubert, he will surely get youra awaj from you.” “ Never,** flashed Ethel Arnould,

” nover I Family reputation and wealth I’ll scatter to the winds before I part again from my hoy. my hoy, my boy. I had hopod and believed that it was better for him for me to submit and suffer in silence. But now, listen. “My husband did beep our little hoy from us ; I used to think to torture and master me ; but I fear therewas an even worse reason. So, too, Hubert in his stealthy way, was trying to steal the boy from Arnould.

Arnould was more taunting than ever last night before he went out. He accused me of trying to gain possession of our boy. Finally he said if I wanted' to see him for the last time, before he put him where I could never see him again, for me to be in that lonely part of the pari; at twelve o’clock. “ I went, and he came, the boy in his arms. He set him down and as we embraced he stood over us, threatening, even drawing his revolver and pretending to shoot us both. I saw him look up at a step within the shrubbery and point his revolver. There was a double report ;he fell and I ran, oh, I ran, with my baby in my arms.” With a crash the door flew open. Entered old Dr. Dix and Mr. 4 Flewcomb with two porters at their back. “Sniffen,” said the old doctor, sternly, “ not even your presence here will keep me from my duty. Know that I was advised two hours ago by Bascom, the watchman, that if I came here at this time I would find evidence incriminating this woman of the murder of her husband. There is the child, as he said, asleep over there, a child that no one knew anything about ; that in itself is suspicious, and—” “ You might better have trusted your knowledge of physiognomy, doctor,” I interrupted. “ The man you call Bascom, the watchman, is Hubert Arnould, a brother of Stanley Arnould, who for his own evil purposes managed to substitute himself.” “ Hubert and Stanley Arnould !” exclaimed the old doctor. “ What have I been thinking of not to recognise the latter name ? Madam, was your late husband a son of Edgar Arnould of the Yellow Pines, a grandson of Jabez Arnould ?” “ Yes, yes,” murmured Mrs. Arnould, as she clung to the stiU sleeping child. “ There is insanity in the family," exclaimed the old doctor, ** intermittent, but persistently recurring. Old Jabez, the sanest of the lot, tried in his will to cut off the insane and to enrich the sane. I can see how its

provisions might set father against son, brother against brother.” “ Yes, and uncio against nephew," I interposed ; and then I bold him all I knew and surmised. “ Where is Hubert now 7” asked the doctor. “ I locked him in my closet,” I ananswered ; and oft we hurried to my rooms. The closet door was still locked ; hut there was no frenzied response when we opened it with the utmost caution. Hubert Arnould had managed to hang himself from one of the hooks. He was dead. " I’ll have to take back what I said about dress and deportment, oniffen, ’ said old Dr. Dix, when we foregathered for a while .in his rooms Had not your powers of observation been more general than ' I thought you might have met a horrible death and that poor little woman be in danger of a shameful one. As it is, you both. had a narrow squeak of it.—New York " Sun.”