CHAPTER XVII
A SICK BED CONFESSION
One of the men built the fire, and assistance with the crockery byothers meant breakfast being served ultimately.
Gerald had an appetite which some of the farm hands paused to view witha kind of envy. In the rare intervals of the meal, when his mouth wasnot too full, he told the farmer the rest of the story.
Susan came out of her fit, but it left her lying there as weak as a rat.
It was explained to her that Gerald was really alive, and then sherelapsed into sullen silence--she guessed that the sheriff or his menwould be the next to interview her.
Later in the day the farmer and Gerald went up to her room.
Danvers was so buoyant over his release, so assured that the woman had agrievance, and above all so curious to get to the bottom of the affair,that he greeted her with a smile on his lips, and no visible anger.
She answered him never a word.
He sat on the bedside, and addressed her at some length, while thefarmer seated himself near the head of the bed.
"Susan, those born to be hanged can't be drowned, you know; so I amhere. There's no need to bother you by telling you how I escaped--I'mhere. That's good enough. Now, what I want to know is what the dickensmade you put me on the wheel."
Sullen silence.
"Don't think I feel more than necessarily angry over it, because Idon't. I know perfectly well that you, in your own mind, thought you hada good reason, or you would not have done it. What was it?"
Sullen silence.
"You said I had murdered your husband. I have never seen him, never evenheard his name, and never hurt, killed, or wounded any man, woman, orchild in the whole course of my life."
She turned her head and looked at him.
"Yes," he said smilingly, "I can look you straight in the face, Susan.And I should be scarcely likely to do that, should I, if I had killedyour husband?"
Still she looked at him.
"On the steamer in which I crossed the Atlantic there certainly was aman found dead. But whether murdered or suicide, or what his name was, Idon't know. Was that your husband, or was the other man?--who, no doubthad been murdered, judging by the way his body was found."
That made her open her lips. She was startled into a speech. She said:
"Other man?"
"Yes; there were two bodies found in the one cabin."
"I only saw one."
That brought the farmer to his feet. He said:
"You saw? How on earth could you see?"
But the woman, annoyed at having been betrayed into speech, was silent.
Gerald spoke again.
"Susan, don't be a fool. If your husband is dead, I did not kill him.Your common sense ought to tell you that. But if he is dead, you oughtto know how, and by what means.
"I never saw either of the passengers who were found dead, and do notknow their names--if I ever heard them. But it is surely a duty for youto find out the true story. Dead men tell no tales, but live ones do.
"Find out the truth. Come, let me help you. I bear you no malice--not ascrap. Tell me all about it--tell me."
She spoke at last.
"I don't trust you."
"I see that, Susan," he answered cheerfully; "and it is that distrust Iwant to wipe away. Why, do you know, over in England, I was in theoffice of a private detective agency, and there is no knowing how Imight be able to help you."
Again she said:
"I don't trust you."
"I know. But why? You have got in your mind some reason for thisdistrust. It's a wrong reason, absolutely wrong, Susan. Anyway, tell mewhat causes you to suspect me, and see if it cannot be explained away."
"You are wearing my dear husband's clothes."
"What!"
He sprang to his feet in such genuine amazement, that even Susan'sbelief in his guilt was shaken.
"Your husband's clothes!" he blurted out; "why, I bought this suit thevery week I left England at Samuels', on Ludgate Hill."
"I meant your underclothes," she said shortly.
"Underclothes!" he answered. "Those I certainly did not buy. Friends gotthe outfit for me. It came on board in my portmanteau, save thosethings I wore on board. How on earth you can suppose that I am wearinganother man's clothes, I can't think."
"All the same, you have been wearing my husband's shirt."
"Your husband who was on the boat? Stay, though. A light breaks in onme. I changed on board. I got wet through in jumping overboard after achild. I sent one of the men to the hold for my portmanteau. What isyour husband's name?"
The woman did not answer--the farmer did:
"Josh Todd."
"That's not it, then," said Danvers. "That is not the explanation. Nosailor would be such an ass as to make a mistake like that. I told himto go to a long, brown portmanteau with the initials 'G. D.' on."
"My initials," said the farmer.
"So they are," said Danvers. "I did not notice it. But that does notaffect the matter. No sailor would be fool enough when I told him to goto a bag labeled 'G. D.' to go to one bearing the initials 'J. T.' Thatthrows no light on the thing."
The woman turned uneasily on her bed. Danvers spoke again, earnestlynow.
"Susan, tell us everything. You have some knowledge. You knowsomething. I can see you do. What is it? Lying here you will never findthe man who murdered your husband, and you seem sure that he is dead."
"Or he would have written me; I know it, I know it, I know it."
"Yes, yes, I understand. You think he was on the steamer?"
"I did. Then I didn't. I do now."
"Why now?"
"Because when I was there I heard nothing of two bodies."
"Why were you there?"
"I went to meet my husband."
"He was on the boat, then?"
"He cabled me from England that he was coming by it."
"England?"
"Yes; he has been over there."
"You say you saw one body on the boat?"
"Yes; the boat people showed it me, then I fainted from relief that itwas not my husband."
"Did they not tell you of the other?"
"No, I did not wait. I came away, back home here as quickly aspossible."
"And," interposed the farmer, "that is all she would know. We are rightoff the map here. There is no one to carry the news. Some weeks we geta N'York paper, other weeks we don't, and I question if Susan everpicked one up."
"Tell me," she said, "the description of the other dead man."
"I can't, Susan, for I don't know it. I certainly, as a matter ofcuriosity, read it, but I don't remember."
His humanity made him abstain from telling her how the second body wasfound. He said:
"We can find all that out for you, Susan. Just trust us fully. It isright you should know, and you shall. Do you believe you can trust me?"
"Now--yes, I do."
"Why the change?"
"Because I can understand your wearing my husband's shirt now."
"You can?"
"Yes, in the change on the boat."
"No; I told you that my bag was marked 'G. D.'--your husband's was not."
"Yes--it was!"
"What!"
"I had better make a full confession, and tell you everything. It is thebetter way."
She was going to do so. It was no longer a case of rebellious Susan.