XXIII
A SINISTER PAIR
"I beg your pardon," stammered Sweetwater, starting aside and losing onthe instant all further disposition to leave the room.
Indeed, he had not the courage to do so, even if he had had the will.The joint appearance of these two men in this place, and at an hour sofar in advance of that which usually saw Mr. Sutherland enter the town,was far too significant in his eyes for him to ignore it. Had anyexplanation taken place between them, and had Mr. Sutherland's integritytriumphed over personal considerations to the point of his bringingFrederick here to confess?
Meanwhile Dr. Talbot had risen with a full and hearty greeting whichproved to Sweetwater's uneasy mind that notwithstanding Knapp'sdisquieting reticence no direct suspicion had as yet fallen on theunhappy Frederick. Then he waited for what Mr. Sutherland had to say,for it was evident he had come there to say something. Sweetwaterwaited, too, frozen almost into immobility by the fear that it would besomething injudicious, for never had he seen any man so changed as Mr.Sutherland in these last twelve hours, nor did it need a highlypenetrating eye to detect that the relations between him and Frederickwere strained to a point that made it almost impossible for them to morethan assume their old confidential attitude. Knapp, knowing them butsuperficially, did not perceive this, but Dr. Talbot was not blind toit, as was shown by the inquiring look he directed towards them bothwhile waiting.
Mr. Sutherland spoke at last.
"Pardon me for interrupting you so early," said he, with a certaintremble in his voice which Sweetwater quaked to hear. "For certainreasons, I should be very glad to know, WE should be very glad to know,if during your investigations into the cause and manner of Agatha Webb'sdeath, you have come upon a copy of her will."
"No."
Talbot was at once interested, so was Knapp, while Sweetwater withdrewfurther into his corner in anxious endeavour to hide his blanchingcheek. "We have found nothing. We do not even know that she has made awill."
"I ask," pursued Mr. Sutherland, with a slight glance toward Frederick,who seemed, at least in Sweetwater's judgment, to have braced himself upto bear this interview unmoved, "because I have not only receivedintimation that she made such a will, but have even been entrusted witha copy of it as chief executor of the same. It came to me in a letterfrom Boston yesterday. Its contents were a surprise to me. Frederick,hand me a chair. These accumulated misfortunes--for we all suffer underthe afflictions which have beset this town--have made me feel my years."
Sweetwater drew his breath more freely. He thought he might understandby this last sentence that Mr. Sutherland had come here for a differentcause than he had at first feared. Frederick, on the contrary, betrayeda failing ability to hide his emotion. He brought his father a chair,placed it, and was drawing back out of sight when Mr. Sutherlandprevented him by a mild command to hand the paper he had brought to thecoroner.
There was something in his manner that made Sweetwater lean forward andFrederick look up, so that the father's and son's eyes met under thatyoung man's scrutiny. But while he saw meaning in both their regards,there was nothing like collusion, and, baffled by these appearances,which, while interesting, told him little or nothing, he transferred hisattention to Dr. Talbot and Knapp, who had drawn together to see whatthis paper contained.
"As I have said, the contents of this will are a surprise to me,"faltered Mr. Sutherland. "They are equally so to my son. He can hardlybe said to have been a friend even of the extraordinary woman who thusleaves him her whole fortune."
"I never spoke with her but twice," exclaimed Frederick with a studiedcoldness, which was so evidently the cloak of inner agitation thatSweetwater trembled for its effect, notwithstanding the state of his ownthoughts, which were in a ferment. Frederick, the inheritor of AgathaWebb's fortune! Frederick, concerning whom his father had said on theprevious night that he possessed no motive for wishing this good woman'sdeath! Was it the discovery that such a motive existed which had so agedthis man in the last twelve hours? Sweetwater dared not turn again tosee. His own face might convey too much of his own fears, doubts, andstruggle.
But the coroner, for whose next words Sweetwater listened with acuteexpectancy, seemed to be moved simply by the unexpectedness of theoccurrence. Glancing at Frederick with more interest than he had everbefore shown him, he cried with a certain show of enthusiasm:
"A pretty fortune! A very pretty fortune!" Then with a deprecatory airnatural to him in addressing Mr. Sutherland, "Would it be indiscreet forme to ask to what our dear friend Agatha alludes in her reference toyour late lamented wife?" His finger was on a clause of the will and hislips next minute mechanically repeated what he was pointing at:
"'In remembrance of services rendered me in early life by MariettaSutherland, wife of Charles Sutherland of Sutherlandtown, I bequeath toFrederick, sole child of her affection, all the property, real andpersonal, of which I die possessed.' Services rendered! They must havebeen very important ones," suggested Dr. Talbot.
Mr. Sutherland's expression was one of entire perplexity and doubt.
"I do not remember my wife ever speaking of any special act of kindnessshe was enabled to show Agatha Webb. They were always friends, but neverintimate ones. However, Agatha could be trusted to make no mistake. Shedoubtless knew to what she referred. Mrs. Sutherland was fully capableof doing an extremely kind act in secret."
For all his respect for the speaker, Dr. Talbot did not seem quitesatisfied. He glanced at Frederick and fumbled the paper uneasily.
"Perhaps you were acquainted with the reason for this legacy--this largelegacy," he emphasised.
Frederick, thus called upon, nay, forced to speak, raised his head, andwithout perhaps bestowing so much as a thought on the young man behindhim who was inwardly quivering in anxious expectancy of some betrayal onhis part which would precipitate disgrace and lifelong sorrow on all whobore the name of Sutherland, met Dr. Talbot's inquiring glance with asimple earnestness surprising to them all, and said:
"My record is so much against me that I am not surprised that you wonderat my being left with Mrs. Webb's fortune. Perhaps she did not fullyrealise the lack of estimation in which I am deservedly held in thisplace, or perhaps, and this would be much more like her, she hoped thatthe responsibility of owing my independence to so good and sounfortunate a woman might make a man of me."
There was a manliness in Frederick's words and bearing that took themall by surprise. Mr. Sutherland's dejection visibly lightened, whileSweetwater, conscious of the more than vital interests hanging upon theimpression which might be made by this event upon the minds of the menpresent, turned slightly so as to bring their faces into the line of hisvision.
The result was a conviction that as yet no real suspicion of Frederickhad seized upon either of their minds. Knapp's face was perfectly calmand almost indifferent, while the good coroner, who saw this and everyother circumstance connected with this affair through the one medium ofhis belief in Amabel's guilt, was surveying Frederick with somethinglike sympathy.
"I fear," said he, "that others were not as ignorant of your prospectivegood fortune as you were yourself," at which Frederick's cheek turned adark red, though he said nothing, and Sweetwater, with a suddeninvoluntary gesture indicative of resolve, gazed for a momentbreathlessly at the ship, and then with an unexpected and highlyimpetuous movement dashed from the room crying loudly:
"I've seen him! I've seen him! he's just going on board the ship. Waitfor me, Dr. Talbot. I'll be back in fifteen minutes with such awitness--"
Here the door slammed. But they could hear his hurrying footsteps as heplunged down the stairs and rushed away from the building.
It was an unexpected termination to an interview fast becomingunbearable to the two Sutherlands, but no one, not even the oldgentleman himself, took in its full significance.
He was, however, more than agitated by the occurrence and could hardlyprevent himself from repeating aloud Sweetwater's final word, whichafter their interview at Mr.
Halliday's gate, the night before, seemedto convey to him at once a warning and a threat. To keep himself fromwhat he feared might prove a self-betrayal, he faltered out in veryevident dismay:
"What is the matter? What has come over the lad?"
"Oh!" cried Dr. Talbot, "he's been watching that ship for an hour. He isafter some man he has just seen go aboard her. Says he's a new andimportant witness in this case. Perhaps he is. Sweetwater is no man'sfool, for all his small eyes and retreating chin. If you want proof ofit, wait till he comes back. He'll be sure to have something to say."
Meanwhile they had all pressed forward to the window. Frederick, whocarefully kept his face out of his father's view, bent half-way over thesill in his anxiety to watch the flying figure of Sweetwater, who wasmaking straight for the dock, while Knapp, roused at last, leaned overhis shoulder and pointed to the sailors on the deck, who were pulling inthe last ropes, preparatory to sailing.
"He's too late: they won't let him aboard now. What a fool to hangaround here till he saw his man, instead of being at the dock to nabhim! That comes of trusting a country bumpkin. I knew he'd fail us atthe pinch. They lack training, these would-be detectives. See, now! He'srun up against the mate, and the mate pushes him back. His cake is alldough, unless he's got a warrant. Has he a warrant, Dr. Talbot?"
"No," said the coroner, "he didn't ask for one. He didn't even tell mewhom he wanted. Can it be one of those two passengers you see on theforward deck, there?"
It might well be. Even from a distance these two men presented asinister appearance that made them quite marked figures among the crowdof hurrying sailors and belated passengers.
"One of them is peering over the rail with a very evident air ofanxiety. His eye is on Sweetwater, who is dancing with impatience. See,he is gesticulating like a monkey, and--By the powers, they are going tolet him go aboard!"
Mr. Sutherland, who had been leaning heavily against the window-jamb inthe agitation of doubt and suspense which Sweetwater's unaccountableconduct had evoked, here crossed to the other side and stole adetermined look at Frederick. Was his son personally interested in thisattempt of the amateur detective? Did he know whom Sweetwater sought,and was he suffering as much or more than himself from the uncertaintyand fearful possibilities of the moment? He thought he knew Frederick'sface, and that he read dread there, but Frederick had changed socompletely since the commission of this crime that even his father couldno longer be sure of the correct meaning either of his words orexpression.
The torture of the moment continued.
"He climbs like a squirrel," remarked Dr. Talbot, with a touch ofenthusiasm. "Look at him now--he's on the quarterdeck and will be downin the cabins before you can say Jack Robinson. I warrant they have toldhim to hurry. Captain Dunlap isn't the man to wait five minutes afterthe ropes are pulled in."
"Those two men have shrunk away behind some mast or other," cried Knapp."They are the fellows he's after. But what can they have to do with themurder? Have you ever seen them here about town, Dr. Talbot?"
"Not that I remember; they have a foreign air about them. Look likeSouth Americans."
"Well, they're going to South America. Sweetwater can't stop them. Hehas barely time to get off the ship himself. There goes the last rope!Have they forgotten him? They're drawing up the ladder."
"No: the mate stops them; see, he's calling the fellow. I can hear hisvoice, can't you? Sweetwater's game is up. He'll have to leave in ahurry. What's the rumpus now?"
"Nothing, only they've scattered to look for him; the fox is down in thecabins and won't come up, laughing in his sleeve, no doubt, at keepingthe vessel waiting while he hunts up his witness."
"If it's one of those two men he's laying a trap for he won't snare himin a hurry. They're sneaks, those two, and--Why, the sailors are comingback shaking their heads. I can almost hear from here the captain'soaths."
"And such a favourable wind for getting out of the harbour! Sweetwater,my boy, you are distinguishing yourself. If your witness don't pan outwell you won't hear the last of this in a hurry."
"It looks as if they meant to sail without waiting to put him ashore,"observed Frederick in a low tone, too carefully modulated not to strikehis father as unnatural.
"By jingoes, so it does!" ejaculated Knapp. "There go the sails! Thepilot's hand is on the wheel, and Dr. Talbot, are you going to let yourcunning amateur detective and his important witness slip away from youlike this?"
"I cannot help myself," said the coroner, a little dazed himself at thisunexpected chance. "My voice wouldn't reach them from this place;besides they wouldn't heed me if it did. The ship is already under wayand we won't see Sweetwater again till the pilot's boat comes back."
Mr. Sutherland moved from the window and crossed to the door like a manin a dream. Frederick, instantly conscious of his departure, turned tofollow him, but presently stopped and addressing Knapp for the firsttime, observed quietly:
"This is all very exciting, but I think your estimate of this fellowSweetwater is just. He's a busybody and craves notoriety aboveeverything. He had no witness on board, or, if he had, it was animaginary one. You will see him return quite crestfallen before night,with some trumped-up excuse of mistaken identity."
The shrug which Knapp gave dismissed Sweetwater as completely from theaffair as if he had never been in it.
"I think I may now regard myself as having this matter in my solecharge," was his curt remark, as he turned away, while Frederick, with arespectful bow to Dr. Talbot, remarked in leaving:
"I am at your service, Dr. Talbot, if you require me to testify at theinquest in regard to this will. My testimony can all be concentratedinto the one sentence, 'I did not expect this bequest, and have notheories to advance in explanation of it.' But it has made me feelmyself Mrs. Webb's debtor, and given me a justifiable interest in theinquiry which, I am told, you open to-morrow into the cause and mannerof her death. If there is a guilty person in this case, I shall raise nobarrier in the way of his conviction."
And while the coroner's face still showed the embarrassment which thislast sentence called up, his mind being now, as ever, fixed on Amabel,Frederick offered his arm to his father, whose condition was notimproved by the excitements of the last half-hour, and proceeded to leadhim from the building.
Whatever they thought, or however each strove to hide their conclusionsfrom the other, no words passed between them till they came in fullsight of the sea, on a distant billow of which the noble-ship bound forthe Brazils rode triumphantly on its outward course. Then Mr. Sutherlandremarked, with a suggestive glance at the vessel:
"The young man who has found an unexpected passage on that vessel willnot come back with the pilot."
Was the sigh which was Frederick's only answer one of relief? Itcertainly seemed so.