XXV
A SUMMONS
The doctor's emotion equalled mine.
"It may have been so," he admitted. "There was always some unexplainedmystery in connection with his presence at the wreck and the reticencehe maintained in regard to it. If what you suggest is true and he wasthe man who shared the engineer's ride down those precipitous slopesto the rescue of a train on which he knew his wife to be, it will beeasy enough for us to start a plea of mental derangement. No one couldgo through such an adventure, with its overpowering excitement andunspeakable suspense, without some injury to his mental or physicalhealth. But it is hard to conceive how Leighton Gillespie should havebeen wandering on the mountain-side that day instead of taking theexcursion with his wife."
"I don't advance this explanation as a fact, only as a possibility," Ireplied. "The shock of his wife's sudden death would be enough initself to change the man."
"Yes, and it did change him; to that I can swear."
"How long a time elapsed after this catastrophe before you saw him?"
"Just two days. He telegraphed for me, and I went West to assist himin bringing home the remains of his young wife. I remember finding himin a strained, nervous condition; this was natural enough; but hisworst symptoms disappeared after the funeral."
"Do you mind telling me where this funeral took place?"
"In a small place up the Hudson River, where the Gillespies have acountry home. Mr. Gillespie carried his feeling against hisdaughter-in-law so far as not to wish to have her buried from his NewYork house."
"I suppose so; another reason, perhaps, why Leighton has neverrecovered from this blow. And little Claire? You have not mentionedher. Was she with her parents when this disastrous event occurred?"
"She was but an infant, and from her very birth was given into thecharge of her grandfather. She never knew her mother."
It would have been a satisfaction to me to have learned the cause ofthe determined hostility on the part of a man seemingly so just as Mr.Gillespie; but the doctor gave me no encouragement in this direction,and I merely said:
"We have made a start in case the necessity arises for proving him tobe no longer responsible for his actions. But only a start. Thedirection taken by his mania is perilously like the excesses of adiscouraged and reckless man."
"I am not so sure of that. In his sane mind, Leighton Gillespie is agreat respecter of the rights of other people. I shall look into thissubject, Mr. Outhwaite; I shall look into it at once. A half-hour'stalk with him will satisfy me whether he is a victim of disease or theprey of unbridled passions and murderous instincts."
The good doctor rose with every appearance of starting forth then andthere.
"But you have had no dinner," I suggested.
"I want none."
I accompanied the doctor out, but parted with him at the corner. Iwould have given much for the privilege of going with him to theGillespie house, but as this was not to be thought of, I resolutelyturned towards my apartments, which were in quite a differentdirection.
How was it, then, that by the time the lights began to be lit in thestreets I found myself circulating restlessly in the vicinity of thevery house I had determined to avoid? Had the exciting incidents ofthe day been too much for me? It certainly looked so. Surely I had notwandered hither through any act of my own volition or for any definitepurpose I could name. Yet now that I had been so led; now that I waswithin sight of the house where so important an interview was goingon, I surely might be pardoned for taking advantage of this proximityto note the doctor when he came out and see, if possible, from hismanner and bearing the result of a visit upon which such seriousissues hung.
It had threatened storm all day, and during the last few minutes theatmosphere had become permeated with a drizzle which made furthertramping over wet pavements undesirable. I therefore looked about forrefuge, and perceiving a building in process of construction on theopposite side of the way, I glided amid its shadows, happy both at theprotection it offered and the full view it gave me of the Gillespiefront door.
That this was the act of one bent on espionage I am ready toacknowledge, but it was espionage undertaken in a good cause and forjustifiable reasons. At all events I was engaged in inwardlypersuading myself to this effect, when an event occurred which drew myattention from myself and fixed it with renewed interest on the door Iwas watching.
A boy of whose proximity I had had some previous intimation suddenlydarted out from the space behind me, and went flying across the streetto the Gillespie house. He had a missive in his hand, and seemedanxious lest he should be caught and stopped.
This roused my curiosity, so that no detail of what followed escapedme. I noted the furtive way in which he thrust the letter into theunwilling hand of the old butler, who answered his frightened ring atthe bell. Also the misgiving shake of the head with which the latterreceived it, and the doubtful looks they both cast at someone back inthe hall. Who was this someone, and what lay behind old Hewson'sagitated demeanour? The door closed on my curiosity, and I was left toponder this new event. But not for long; scarcely had my eyes returnedfrom following the escaping figure of the boy, when the door on theopposite side of the street unclosed again and Dr. Bennett came out.
Now, as I have taken pains to say, I had posted myself there in orderto note how this gentleman looked on leaving Leighton Gillespie. Butnow that this opportunity had come, I not only failed to avail myselfof it, but found my whole attention caught and my interest fullyabsorbed by a glimpse I had received of the latter gentleman standingback in the hall reading the letter I had just seen delivered in sucha surreptitious manner.
His attitude, the gestures he unconsciously made, argued sudden andoverwhelming emotion, an emotion so sudden and overwhelming that hecould not conceal it, though he evidently would have been glad to doso, judging from the haste with which he thrust the letter in hispocket and turned--But here the door closed, as frequently happens atcritical moments, and I found my eyes resting upon nothing moreexciting than the figure of the doctor feeling his way with due caredown the damp steps.
Had I not been witness both to the peculiar actions of the urchin whobrought this letter, and to the strange manner in which Leightonreceived it, I might not have considered it decorous to make mypresence known to the doctor at a moment and in a place so suggestiveof a watch upon his movements. But as everything affecting Leightonwas as interesting to this, his best friend, as it was to me, Icrossed the street, and, with scant apology for the seeming intrusion,told the good doctor what had just come under my observation.
He seemed surprised, if not affected, by what I had to say. He hadseen no letter and no evidences of disorder on the part of Leighton.To be sure, he had left before any letter had been received.
"Indeed, you astonish me," he declared. "Seldom have I seen my youngfriend in a more equable frame of mind. He talked evenly and withdiscretion about the most exciting subjects; and, though I could wishhim to have been more open, he showed a self-control hardly to beexpected from a man placed in such a disturbing situation. Thedetective, who appeared to have full range of the house, hardly lookedour way once. The letter which you say he received just as I left himmust have contained very agitating news. I wonder if we will ever knowwhat."
"Were you able to settle in your own mind the question just now raisedbetween us at your office?" I asked, after a momentary silence. "Itmay not be in order for me to ask, and you may not feel at all readyto answer me. If so, do not hesitate to rebuke my importunity, whichsprings entirely from my excessive interest in the matter."
"I will the more readily excuse you," was his reply, "because myanswer must dash your client's hopes. Leighton Gillespie is not avictim of double consciousness. If he were, he would not remember inone state what passes in the other. Now, he does remember. Though hegives no explanation of what allures him into haunts so out of keepingwith his usual associations, I caught the glint in his eye when Imentioned certain names. Leighton cannot deceive me. Mo
reover, Mr.Outhwaite, I cannot professionally state that in my opinion he isotherwise than completely sane, notwithstanding the tragic experiencehe once went through. I say tragic, because the surmise you indulgedin concerning him was true. He was the man who flung himself upon thefoot-rail of that plunging engine. He acknowledged it to me just now,and acknowledged, also, that he knew that those cars containeddynamite. A great and wonderful act for a man who had had noexperience outside the club-room and the gymnasium."
"I respect heroism wherever I meet it," said I, slightly lifting myhat.
"And I," echoed the doctor; then as we turned down the street; "I donot comprehend Leighton or what has led him into this course ofduplicity if not crime. A hero at one period of his life; a scamp, ifnot worse, at another! What are we to think of the man whose natureadmits such contradictions! What are we to think of human natureitself! I declare I am sometimes baffled by its operations, andheartily wish that in this present instance I could ascribe them to anunsound mental condition."
I had no answer for this ebullition of feeling, so walked on silentlytill our ways divided. As he turned towards home, I took the shortestroute to my apartments. But before entering them I dined in the cafebelow, so that it was eight o'clock at least before I mounted to myrooms.
A man was sitting on the stairs waiting for me. As I stooped to unlockmy door, he made known his errand. He was an officer in plain clothes,and he came to tell me that I was wanted at the earliest possiblemoment at the District Attorney's office.