Read Lost Man's Lane: A Second Episode in the Life of Amelia Butterworth Page 31

  XXX

  INVESTIGATION

  The shock of these words--if false, most horrible; if true, still morehorrible--threw us all aback and made even Mr. Gryce's features assumean aspect quite uncommon to them.

  "Your mother's grave?" said he, looking from her to Loreen with veryevident doubt. "I thought your mother died seven or more years ago, andthis grave has been dug within three days."

  "I know," she whispered. "To the world my mother has been dead many,many years, but not to us. We closed her eyes night before last, and itwas to preserve this secret, which involves others affecting our familyhonor, that we resorted to expedients which have perhaps attracted thenotice of the police and drawn this humiliation down upon us. I canconceive no other reason for this visit, ushered in as it was by Mr.Trohm."

  "Miss Lucetta"--Mr. Gryce spoke quickly; if he had not I certainly couldnot have restrained some expression of the emotions awakened in my ownbreast by this astounding revelation--"Miss Lucetta, it is not necessaryto bring Mr. Trohm's name into this matter or that of any other personthan myself. I saw the coffin lowered here, which you say contained thebody of your mother. Thinking this a strange place of burial and notknowing it was your mother to whom you were paying these last dutifulrites, I took advantage of my position as detective to satisfy myselfthat nothing wrong lay behind so mysterious a death and burial. Can youblame me, Miss? Would I have been a man to trust if I had let such anevent as this go by unchallenged?"

  She did not answer. She had heard but one sentence of all this longspeech.

  "You saw my mother's coffin lowered? Where were you that you should seethat? In some of these dark passages, let in by I know not what traitorto our peace of mind." And her eyes, which seemed to have grown almostsupernaturally large and bright under her emotions, turned slowly intheir sockets till they rested with something like doubtful accusationupon mine. But not to remain there, for Mr. Gryce recalled them almostinstantly by this short, sharp negative.

  "No, I was nearer than that. I lent my strength to this burial. If youhad thought to look under Mother Jane's hood, you would have seen whatwould have forced these explanations then and there."

  "And you----"

  "I was Mother Jane for the nonce. Not from choice, Miss, but fromnecessity. I was impersonating the old woman when your brother came tothe cottage. I could not give away my plans by refusing the task yourbrother offered me."

  "It is well." Lucetta had risen and was now standing by the side ofLoreen. "Such a secret as ours defies concealment. Even Providence takespart against us. What you want to know we must tell, but I assure you ithas nothing to do with the business you profess to be chiefly interestedin--nothing at all."

  "Then perhaps you and your sister will retire," said he. "Distracted asyou are by family griefs, I would not wish to add one iota to yourdistress. This lady, whom you seem to regard with more or less favor asfriend or relative, will stay to see that no dishonor is paid to yourmother's remains. But your mother's face we must see, Miss Lucetta, ifonly to lighten the explanations you will doubtless feel called upon tomake."

  It was Loreen who answered this.

  "If it must be," said she, "remember your own mother and deal reverentlywith ours." Which entreaty and the way it was uttered, gave me my firstdistinct conviction that these girls were speaking the truth, and thatthe diminutive body we had come to unearth was that of Althea Knollys,whose fairy-like form I had so long supposed commingled with foreignsoil.

  The thought was almost too much for my self-possession, and I advancedupon Loreen with a dozen burning questions on my lips when the voice ofMr. Gryce stopped me.

  "Explanations later," said he. "For the present we want you here."

  It was no easy task for me to linger there with all my doubts unsolved,waiting for the decisive moment when Mr. Gryce should say: "Come! Look!Is it she?" But the will that had already sustained me through so manytrying experiences did not fail me now, and, grievous as was the ordeal,I passed steadily through it, being able to say, though not without someemotion, I own: "It is Althea Knollys! Changed almost beyond conception,but still these girls' mother!" which was a happier end to thisadventure than that we had first feared, mysterious as the event was,not only to myself, but, as I could see, to the acute detective as well.

  The girls had withdrawn long before this, just as Mr. Gryce had desired,and I now expected to be allowed to join them, but Mr. Gryce detained metill the grave was refilled and made decent again, when he turned and tomy intense astonishment--for I had thought the matter was all over andthe exoneration of this household complete--said softly and with tellingemphasis in my ear:

  "Our work is not done yet. They who make graves so readily in cellarsmust have been more or less accustomed to the work. We have still somedigging to do."