Share and Share Alike

Southland Times, Issue 11900, 23 November 1891, Page 4

Share and Share Alike

(By Luke Sharp.) The qitiok most haste to vengeance For, tune. is on his head ; Bat be can wait at the door of fate, Though the stay be long and the hour beJato— The dead." Melville Hardlock stood in the centre of the room with his feet wide apart and hit hands in his trousers pockets, a characteristic attitude of his. 'He gave a quick glance at the door and saw with relief that the key was in the lock and that the bolt prevented anybody coming in unexpectedly. Then he gazed once more at the body of his friend,which lay in such a. helpless-looking attitude upon the floor. He looked at the body with a feeling of mild curiosity, he wondered what there was about the lines of the figure on the floor that so certainly be* tokened (death rather than sle9p, even tbough the face was turned away from him. He thought, perhaps, it might be the hand with its back to the floor and its palm towards the ceiling ; there was certain look of helplessness about that. He resolved to investigate the subject some time when he had leisure. Then his thoughts turned towards the subject of murder. It was so easy to kill, he felt no pride in having been able to accomplish that much. But it was not everybody who could escape the consequences of his crime. It required an acute brain o plan after events so that shrewd det tives would be baffled. There was a complacent conceit about Melville Hardlock that was as characteristic of him as his intense selfishneßß,and this conceit led him to believe that the future path he had outlined for himself would not be followed by justice. With a sigh Melville suddenly seemed to realise that while there was no necessity for undue haste, yet it was not wise to be too leisurely in some things, so he took his hands from his pockets and draw to tbe middle of the floor a large Saratoga trunk. He threw tbe lid open, and in doing so showed that the interior of the trunk was empty. Picking up the body of his friend, which he was surprised to note was so heavy and troublesome to handle, he with some difficulty doubled it up so that it slipped into the trunk. He piled on top of it some old coats, vests, newspapers, and other miscellaneous articles until the space above the body was filled. Then he pressed down the lid and locked it, fastening the catches at each end . Two stout straps were now placed around tbe trunk and firmly buckled after he had drawn them as tight as possible. Finally he dampened the gam side of a paper label, and when he bad pasted it on the end of the trunk it showed the words in red lettere/S.S, Platonic, Cabin, wanted.' This done, Melville threw open the window to allow the fnmes of chloroform to dissipate themselves in the outside air. He placed a closed, packed, and labelled portmanteau beside the trunk and a valise beside that again, which with a couple of handbags, made up his lugg»ge; Then be unlocked the door, threw back the bolt, and having fastened it again, from the outside,stro<Je down the thickly carpeted stairs of the hotel into the large pillared and marblefloored vestibule where tbe clerk's office was. Strolling up to the counter uehind which stood the clerk of the hotel, he shoved his key across to that functionary, who placed it in the pigeonhole marked by the number of his room. 'Did my friend leave for the west last night, do you know ?' 'Yes/ answered the clerk. 'He paid his bill and left. Haven't you seen him since?' 'No/ replied Hardlock. ' Well,he'll be disappointed about that because he told me he expected to see you before you left, and would call up to your room later. I suppose he didn't have time. By the way, he said you were going back to England to-morrow. Is that so V 'Yes, 1 sail in the Platonic. I sup pose I can have my luggage sent to the steamer from here without further trouble ?' 'Oh, certainly/ answered the clerk ; 'how many pieces are there ? It will be fifty cents each.' 'Very well, just put that down in my bill with tbe rest of expenses and let me have it to-night. I will settle when I come iv. Five pieces of luggage altogether/ • Very good. You'll have breakfast to-morrow, I suppose V 'Yes, the boat does not leave till nine o'clock. 1 ' Very well, better call you about seven, Mr Hardlock. Will you have a carriage)' ' No, I shall walk down to the boat. You will be sure, of course, to have my things there in time V <Ob,no fear of that. They will be on the steamer by half-past eight.' 'Thank you.' As Mr Hardlock walked down to the boat next morning he thought he had done rather a clever thing in sending his trunk in tbe ordinary way to the steamer. 'Most people,' he said to himself, ' would have made the mistake of being too careful about it. It goes along in the ordinary course of business. If anything should go wrong it will seem incredible that a sane man would send such a package in an ordinary express waggon to be dumped about, as they do dump about luggage in New York.' He stood by the gangway on board the steamer, watching tho trunks, valises and portmanteaux come on board. 'Stop/ he cried to the man, ' that is not to go down in tbe hold; I want it. Don't you see it's marked 'wanted 1" ' 'It is very large, sir/ said the man ; 'it will fill up a stateroom by itself. 'I have the captain's room/ was the answer. So the man dumped the trunk on the deck with a crash that made even the cool Mr Hardlock shudder, 'Did you say you had the captain's room, sir V asked the steward standing near. 'Yes/ 1 Then lam your bedreom steward/ was the answer ; ' I will see that tbe trunk is put in all right/ Tbe first day out was rainy, but not rough ; the second day was fair, and tbe sea smooth, The second night Hardlock stayed in the smoking-room until tbe last man bad left. Then, when the lights were turned oat, he went op on the upper deck, where hi*

■oom was, and walked up and down, T imoking his cigar. There was another I nan also walking the deck, and the red ' 'low of his cigar, dim and bright alter— lately, shone in the darkness like a Hardlock wished that he would turn in, whoever (he was. Finally the man flung his cigar overboard and went down the stairway. Hardlock had now the dark deck to himself. He pushed open the door of his room and turned the electric light out. It was only a few steps from his door to^tbe rail of the vessel high above the water. Dimly on the bridge he saw the shadowy figure of an officer walking back and forth. Hardlock looked over the side at the phosphorescent glitter of the water which made the black ocean seem blacker still. The sharp ring of the bell betokening midnight made Melville start as if a hand had touched him, and the quick beating of his heart took some moments to subside. ' I've been smoking too much to-day,' he said to himself. Then looking quickly up and down the deck, he walked on tiptoe to bis room, took the trunk by its stout leather handle, and pulled it over the ledge in the doorway. There were email wheels at the bottom of the trunk, but although they made the pulling of it easy, they seemed to creak with appalling loudnese. He realised the fearful weight of the trunk as he lifted the end of it up on the rail. He balanced it there for a moment and took a quuk look up and down the deck, but there was nothing there to alarm him. In spite of is natural coolness he felt a strange, haunting dread of some undefinabla disaster which had been completely absent from him at the time he committed the murder. He shoved off the ttunk before he had quite intended to do so, and the next instant he nearly bit through his tongue to suppress a groan of agony. There passed half a dozen moments of supreme agony and fear before he realised what bad happened. His wrist had caught in the strap handle of the trunk and his shoulder was dislocated. His right arm was stretched taut and helpless, like a rope holding up the f ightful and ever increasing weight that hung between him and the sea. His breast was pressed against the rail, and his left band gripped the iron stanchion to keep himself from going ever. He felt that his feet were slipping, and he set bis teeth and gripped the iron with a grasp that was itself like iron. He hoped the trunk would slip off his useless wrist, but it rested against the side of the vessel, and the more it seemed to weigh the more it pressed the hard strap handle against his nerveless wrist. He had realised from the first that he dare not cry for help, and his breath came hard through bis clenched teeth as the weight grew heavier and heavier. Then, with his eyes strained by the fearful pressure and perhaps dazzled by the fluttering phosphorescence running so swiftly beside the steamer far below, he seemed to see from out the trunk something in the form and semblance of his dead friend quivering like summer heat below kirn. Sometimes it was the glittering phosphorescence, then again it Was the wraith hovering over the trunk. Hardlock, in spite of his agony, wondered which it really was ; bat he wondered no longer when it epoke to him. • Old Friend,' it said, ' you remember our compact when we left England. It was to be ' share and share alike,' my boy — ' share and share alike} 7 I have had my share. Come !' Then on the still night air came the belated cr> for help, but it was after the foot had slipped and the hand bad been wrenched from the iron stanchion.