CHAPTER IV AN INTERVIEW WITH HERCULES
Among the furniture stored in the study was one piece which Nyoda hadpounced upon with an exclamation of joy the night before when she openedthe room to please the Winnebagos. That was an invalid's wheel chair.
"Just the thing for Sylvia!" she exclaimed delightedly. "She can getaround the house by herself in this. It's a good thing you got curiousabout this room, Sahwah dear; I'm afraid I wouldn't have thought ofopening it until spring. I remember now, Uncle Jasper had a paralyticstroke some months before he died which left him lame, and he went aboutin a wheel chair during his last days. This certainly comes in handynow."
The morning after Sahwah had discovered the iron shutter Sylvia was setin the wheel chair and rolled into the study, and the rest came flockingup to watch Sherry and the boys remove the shutter. It was no easy job,taking that shutter off, for the screws had rusted in so that it wasalmost impossible to turn them. Nyoda gave an exclamation of dismay atthe holes left in the mahogany casement. The Winnebagos were too muchabsorbed in the window which was revealed by the removal of the shutterto pay any attention to the damaged casement. Unlike the other windows inthe room, which were of clear glass, this one was composed of tiny leadedpanes in colors. It was so dirty on the outside that it was impossible tosee what it really was like. Sahwah hastened out and got cleaning ragsand washed it inside and out, standing on the roof of the side porch toget at it on the outside, because it did not open. When it was clean, andthe bright sun shone through it, the beauty of the window struck themdumb.
The leaded panes were wrought into a design of climbing roses, growingover a little arched gateway, the rich red and green tints of the flowersand leaves glowing splendid in the mellow light that streamed through it.
After a moment of breathless silence the Winnebagos found their voicesand broke into admiring cries. Hinpoha promptly went into raptures.
"Why, you can almost _smell_ those roses, they're so natural! Oh, thedarling archway! Did you ever see anything so beautiful? Don't you just_long_ to go through it? O why did your uncle ever have that horrible oldshutter put over it?"
"Maybe he was afraid it would get broken," suggested Gladys.
"But why would he put the shutter on the inside?" asked Sahwah shrewdly."There would be more danger of the window's getting broken from theoutside than from the inside, I should think."
"There wouldn't be with Slim around," said the captain, and prudentlybarricaded himself behind a bookcase in the corner. Slim gave him awithering glance, but did not deign to follow him and open an attack. Hecould not have squeezed in behind the bookcase, so he ignored the thrust.
"I wonder why he didn't put shutters on the other windows also," saidKatherine.
"Mercy, I'm glad he didn't!" said Nyoda with a shiver, eyeing the uglyscrew holes in the smooth mahogany casement with housewifely horror atsuch marring of beauty. "One set of holes like that is enough. Isn't itjust like a man, though, to put screws into that woodwork! It's time awoman owned this house. A few more generations of eccentric bachelors andthe place would be ruined."
"But," said Sahwah musingly, "didn't you tell us once that this house wasthe pride of your uncle's heart, and he never would let any children infor fear they would scratch the floors and furniture?"
"That's so, too," replied Nyoda. "Uncle Jasper was so fond of this housethat it was a byword among the relations. He loved it as though it werehis own child. How he ever allowed anyone to put screws into thatmahogany casement is a mystery."
"Don't you think," said Sahwah shrewdly, "that there must have been somegreat and important reason for putting up that shutter? A reason thatmade him forget all about the holes he was making in the woodwork?"
A little thrill went through the group; all at once they seemed to feelthat they were standing in the shadow of some mystery.
"What kind of a man was your uncle Jasper?" asked Sahwah.
"He was a queer, silent man," replied Nyoda, sitting down on the edge ofa table and rubbing her forehead to aid her recollection. "He was anauthor--wrote historical works. I confess I don't know a great deal abouthim. I only saw him twice; once when I was a very little girl and once afew years ago. He never corresponded with any of his relations and nevervisited them nor had them come to visit him. Most everybody was afraid ofhim; he was so grim and stern looking. He couldn't have been verysociable here either, for none of the people of Oakwood seemed to havebeen in the habit of calling on him. None of those that called on me hadever been inside the house before. The old man didn't mix with theneighbors, they said. He seldom went outside the house. No one seems toknow much about him. Of course," she added, "living up here on the hillhe was sort of by himself; there are no near neighbors."
"Maybe he put up that shutter for protection," suggested Hinpoha.
"With all the other windows in the house unshuttered?" asked the captainderisively. "A lot of protection that would be! Besides, do you think theneighbors were in the habit of shooting pop guns at him?"
"Well, can you think of any other reason?" retorted Hinpoha.
"Why don't you ask old Hercules?" suggested Sahwah. "He might know."
"To be sure!" cried Nyoda, springing down from the table. "Why didn't Ithink of Hercules before? Of course he'd know. He was with Uncle Jasperall his life. I'll call him in and ask him and we'll have the mysterycleared up in a jiffy. Will one of you boys go out and bring him in?"
The captain and Justice sprang up simultaneously in answer to her requestand raced for the stable. In a few minutes they were back, bringing oldHercules with them. Hercules had a somewhat forlorn air about him likethat of a dog without a master. Nyoda said he was grieving for UncleJasper; Sherry said it was the goat he was mourning for. At any rate, hewas a pathetic figure as he hobbled painfully up the stairs one step at atime on his shaky, stiff old limbs. His eyes brightened a bit as he sawthe door into Uncle Jasper's study standing open, and he looked aroundthe room with an affectionate gaze as the boys piloted him in. Nyoda sawhis eyes rest on the window from which the shutter had been removed, andit seemed to her that he gave a start and gazed through the windowapprehensively.
"Hercules," said Nyoda briskly, "we've just taken this ugly old shutteroff that stained glass window, and we're curious to know why it was putup. It seems such a pity to have put those great screws into thatmahogany casement. Why did Uncle Jasper put it up?"
Hercules scratched his head and shifted his corn cob pipe to the otherside of his mouth. "Dat shutter's bin up a good many years, Mis''Lizbeth," he quavered.
"I see it has, from the way the screws were rusted in," replied Nyoda."But why was it put up?"
"Dat shutter's bin dere twenty-five years," reiterated the old mansolemnly, still looking at it in a half-fascinated, half-apprehensiveway.
"Yes, yes," said Nyoda, trying to control her impatience. "But _why_ hasit been there all this time? Why did Uncle Jasper put it up?"
Hercules scratched his head again, and replaced his pipe in its originalposition. "I disremember, Mis' 'Lizbeth," he said deprecatingly. "It'sbin so long since. My memry's bin powerful bad lately, Mis' 'Lizbeth.Seems like I caint remember hardly anything. It's de mizry, Mis''Lizbeth; it's settled in my memry." He carefully avoided her eyes.
"Please try to remember!" said Nyoda, trying hard to hold on to herpatience, but morally certain that Hercules was trying to sidestep herquestions. "Think, now. Twenty-five years ago Uncle Jasper put up an ironshutter to cover the most beautiful window in Carver House. Why did he doit?"
Nyoda turned so that she looked right into his face, and her compellingblack eyes held his shifty gaze steady. There was something strangelymagnetic about Nyoda's eyes. People could avoid answering her questionsas long as they did not look into her eyes, but once let her catch yourgaze, and things she wanted to know had a habit of coming out of theirown accord. Hercules seemed to be on the point of speaking; he clearedhis throat nervously and shifted the pip
e once more. Nyoda cast atriumphant glance at Sherry. In that instant Hercules shifted his gazefrom her face and met another pair of eyes, eyes that seemed to look athim accusingly, and sent a chill running down his spine. These were noneother than the eyes of Uncle Jasper, who, hanging in his frame on thestudy wall, seemed to be looking straight at him, in the way that eyes inpictures have. When Nyoda glanced back at Hercules he was staringuneasily at Uncle Jasper's picture and there was a guilty look about himas if he had been caught in a misdemeanor.
"I 'clare, I cain't remember nothin' 'bout why dat shutter was put up,Mis' 'Lizbeth," he said earnestly. "Come to think on it now, Marse Jasperain't never _told_ me why he want it put up," he continued triumphantly."He just say, 'Herc'les, put up dat shutter,' and he ain't ever say why.I axed him, 'Marse Jasper, what for you puttin' up dat shutter over datwindow?' and he say, 'Herc'les, you put up dat shutter and mind yourbusiness. I ain't tellin' _why_ I wants it put up; I jest wants it putup, dat's all.' No'm, Mis' 'Lizbeth, I's often wondered myself about datshutter, but I never found out nothin'."
He glanced up at Uncle Jasper's picture as though expecting some token ofapproval from the stern, grim face.
Nyoda saw it was no use trying to get anything out of Hercules. Either hereally did not know anything, or he would not tell.
"You may go, Hercules," she said. "That's all we wanted of you."
Hercules looked unaccountably relieved and started for the door. Half wayacross the room he turned and looked long through the clear panel ofglass underneath the archway of the gate in the stained glass window. Hestood still, seemingly lost in reverie, and quite oblivious to the groupabout him. Finally his lips began to move, and he began to mutter tohimself, and Sahwah's sharp ears caught the sound of the words.
"Dey's tings," muttered the old man, "dat folks don't _want_ ter look at,and dey's tings dey _dassent_ look at!"
Still lost in reverie he shuffled out of the room and hobbled painfullydownstairs.