CHAPTER XVII
THE WHITE VEIL
Long after every one had retired Ruth Stuart lay wide awake. Try as shemight, sleep refused to visit her eyelids. At last, after she had countedinnumerable sheep and was wider awake than ever, she resolved to go andwaken Bab. Ruth moved about in the dark carefully, in order not to arouseGrace, with whom she roomed, found her dressing-gown and slippers, andtip-toed softly into Barbara's room. She knew that Barbara would notresent being awakened even at that unseasonable hour.
"Barbara, are you awake?" she whispered, coming up to Bab's bed andlaying a gentle hand on her friend's face. "I want to talk with youand I am so thirsty. Won't you come downstairs with me to get a drinkof water?"
Bab turned over sleepily and yawned: "Isn't there always some water inthe hall, Ruth? I am so tired I can't wake up," she declared.
But Ruth gave her another shake. Barbara crawled slowly out of bed, whileRuth found her bedroom slippers and wrapped her in her warm bathrobe.Then both girls stole softly out into the dark hall.
At the head of the stairs there was a broad landing. On this landing,just under a stained glass window, there was a leather couch and a table,which always held a pitcher of drinking water. On the window ledge theservants were required to keep a candle, so that anyone who wished to doso might find his way downstairs at night, without difficulty.
The two girls made their way slowly to this spot, and Bab felt along thesill for the candle. It was not in its accustomed place.
"I can't find the candle, Ruth," Bab whispered. "But you know where tofind the water. Just fumble until you get hold of the pitcher."
"Won't you have a glass of water?" Ruth invited, pushing the tumblerunder Bab's very nose. Then the two girls began to giggle softly.
"No, thank you," Bab answered decidedly. "Come, thirsty maiden! Who tookme from my nice warm bed? Ruth Stuart! Let's go back upstairs and get tosleep again in a hurry."
But for answer, Ruth drew Barbara down on the old leather couch in thecomplete darkness and put her arms about her.
"Don't go back to bed, Bab. I'm not a bit sleepy. That's why I draggedyou out of bed. I couldn't go to sleep and I just had to have company. Bea nice Bab and let's sit here and exchange conversation."
"All right," Bab replied amiably, snuggling up closer to her friend."Dear me, isn't it cold and dark and quiet out here!"
Ruth gave a faint shiver. Then both girls sat absolutely still withoutspeaking or moving--they had heard an unmistakable sound in the hallbelow them. The noise was so slight it could hardly be called a sound.Yet even this slight movement did not belong to the night and the silenceof the sleeping household.
The sound was repeated. Then a stillness followed, more absolutethan before.
"Is it a burglar, Bab?" Ruth breathed.
Barbara's hand pressure meant they must listen and wait. "It may bepossible," Bab thought, "that a dog or cat has somehow gotten into thehouse downstairs."
At this, the girls left the sofa and, going over to the banister, peeredcautiously down into the darkness.
This time the two girls saw a light that shone like a flame in thedarkness below. Quietly there floated into their line of vision somethingwhite, ethereal--perchance a spirit from another world. It vanished andthe blackness was again unbroken. The figure had seemed strangely tall.It appeared to swim along, rather than to walk, draperies as fine as misthanging about it.
"What on earth was that, Barbara?" Ruth queried, more curious thanfrightened by the apparition. "If I believed in spirits I might think wehad just seen the ghost of Harriet's mother. Harriet's old black Mammyhas always said that Aunt Hattie comes back at night to guard Harriet, ifshe is in any special trouble or danger."
"I suppose we had better go downstairs and find out what we have seen,"whispered more matter-of-fact Bab. "Mr. Hamlin is not here. I don't thinkthere is any sense in our arousing the family until we know somethingmore. I should not like to frighten Mrs. Wilson and Harriet for nothing."
The two girls slipped downstairs without making a sound. Everything onthe lower floor seemed dark and quiet. Ruth and Bab both began to thinkthey had been haunted by a dream. They were on their way upstairs again,when Ruth suddenly turned and glanced behind her.
"Bab," she whispered, clutching at Barbara's bathrobe until that youngwoman nearly tumbled backwards down the steps, "there is a light inUncle's study! I suppose it is Harriet who is down there."
It flashed across Bab's mind to wonder, oddly, if Harriet's visit to herfather's study at night could have anything to do with her debt to herdressmaker of five hundred dollars! For Mollie had reported to her sisterthat Harriet was feeling desperate over her unpleasant situation.
"If it is Harriet downstairs I don't think we ought to go down," Babobjected. "We would frighten her if we walked in on her so unexpectedly."
"Harriet ought not to be alone downstairs," Ruth insisted. "Uncle wouldnot like it. I am going to peep in on her, and then make her come onupstairs to bed."
Ruth led the way, with Bab at her heels. But it occurred to Barbara thatthe midnight visitor to Mr. Hamlin's study might be some one other thanhis daughter. Bab did not know whether Mr. Hamlin kept any money in hisstrong box in the study. She and Ruth were both unarmed, and might beapproaching an unknown danger. Quick as a flash Bab arranged a littlescheme of defense.
There were two old-fashioned square stools placed on opposite sides ofthe hall. Without a word to Ruth, who was intent on her errand, Bab drewout these two stools and placed them side by side in the immediate centreof the hall. Any one who tried to escape from the study would stumbleover these stools and at once alarm the household. Of course, if Bab andRuth found Harriet in her father's study Bab could warn them of her trap.
"What shall we do, Bab?" Ruth asked when Barbara joined her. "The lightis still shining in the study. But I do not want to knock on the door; itwould frighten Harriet. And it would terrify her even more if we walkedright into the study out of this darkness. But we can't wait out here allnight. I am catching cold."
Barbara did not reply. They were in a difficult situation. SupposeHarriet were in the study? They did not wish to frighten her. In case theveiled figure was not Harriet any speech of theirs would give theirpresence away.
"I think we had better open the door quickly and rush in," Ruth nowdecided. "Then Harriet can see at once who we are."
Without waiting for further consultation with Bab, Ruth flung wide thestudy door.
In the same instant the light in the room went out like a flash.
"Harriet, is that you?" Ruth faltered. There was no answer, save someone's quick breathing. Ruth and Bab could both perceive that anabsolutely white figure was crouched in a corner of the room in the dark.
Bab moved cautiously toward the spot where she knew an electric lightswung just above Mr. Hamlin's desk. But it was so dark that she had tomove her hand gropingly above her head, for a moment, in order to locatethe light.
The veiled being in the corner must have guessed her motive. Like azephyr it floated past the two girls. So light and swift was its movementthat Bab's hand was arrested in its design. Surely a ghost, not a humancreature, had passed by them.
The next sound that Ruth and Bab heard was not ghostlike. It was veryhuman. First came a crash, then a cry of terror and surprise.
At the same moment Bab found the light she sought, turned it on, and Ruthrushed out into the hall.
There on the floor Ruth discovered a jumble of stools and whitedraperies. And, shaking with the shock of her fall and forcedlaughter, was--not Harriet, but her guest, Mrs. Wilson! She had a longwhite chiffon veil over her head, a filmy shawl over her shoulders,and a white gown. With her white hair she made a very satisfactorypicture of a ghost.
"My dear Mrs. Wilson!" cried Ruth, in horrified tones, "What has happenedto you? Were you walking in your sleep! Do let me help you up. I did notknow these stools were out here where you could stumble over them."
Bab stood gravely looking on
at the scene without expressing suchmarked surprise.
Mrs. Wilson gave one curious, malignant glance at Bab, then she smiled:
"Help me up, children. I am fairly caught in my crime."
Bab took hold of Mrs. Wilson by one arm, Ruth grasped her by the other,and they both struggled to lift her. Mrs. Wilson gave a slight groan asshe got fairly on her feet. Her right hand clutched Bab for addedsupport. In falling over the stools Mrs. Wilson had given her knee asevere wrench.
At the moment she staggered, Barbara saw a large, oblong envelope fall tothe floor from under Mrs. Wilson's soft white draperies.
"What is the trouble?" called Harriet, Mollie and Grace, poking theirthree sleepy heads over the banisters.
At this interruption Bab stooped down and quickly caught up the envelope,while Mrs. Wilson's attention was distracted by the three girls who wererapidly descending the steps.
"Mrs. Wilson came downstairs for something," Ruth explained in her quiet,well-bred fashion. "Bab and I heard a noise and, as we did not recognizeher, we followed her. We frightened Mrs. Wilson so that she stumbled overthese stools out in the hall. I am afraid she is a little hurt. I thinkyou had better call the servants, Harriet."
Ruth did not, for an instant, let the surprise she felt at Mrs. Wilson'sextraordinary conduct appear in her voice.
"No, don't call any of the servants to-night, Harriet," Mrs. Wilsondemurred. "I am all right now. I owe you children an apology for myconduct to-night and also an explanation. But I think I can explaineverything much more satisfactorily if we wait until morning. I thinkMiss Thurston already understands my escapade. I have taken her into myconfidence."
Mrs. Wilson directed at Barbara a glance so compelling that it wasalmost hypnotic.
Bab did not return her look or make any answer.
A little while later Barbara disappeared. She went back alone to Mr.Hamlin's study. On top of his desk she discovered a box about a foot anda half long. It had been opened and a key was lying beside it on thedesk. Barbara could see that there was no money in the box, only acollection of papers. Bab returned the long envelope, which she had foundat Mrs. Wilson's feet in the hall to its place, turned the key in thelock of the box, and then carried the key upstairs, intending to hand itover to Harriet. But Bab did not know whether or not she ought to explainto Harriet how she had come by the key.
Harriet was in the room with Mrs. Wilson, seeing her guest to bed for thesecond time, when Barbara went upstairs. Bab had no desire to face Mrs.Wilson again that night. The distrust of the woman that was deepening inthe girl's mind was too great to conceal.
"Come into my room in the morning before breakfast, Harriet, dear," Mrs.Wilson entreated, as she kissed her young hostess good night. "I know youwill forgive my foolishness, when I have had a little talk with you. Itis too late now for explanations."
It was between two and three o'clock in the morning before the householdof the Assistant Secretary of State again settled itself to sleep. Underher pillow Barbara Thurston had the key to Mr. William Hamlin's strongbox, in which valuable state papers were sometimes temporarily placed.