CHAPTER XXII
A SUSPICIOUS TEST
"Let him make his experiment. It will do no harm, and if it rids us ofhim, well and good."
Such was Mr. Harper's decision after hearing all that Mr. Ransom had totell him of the present situation.
"His disappointment when he learns that he has nothing to hope for fromhis sister's generosity calls for some consideration from us," proceededthe lawyer. "Go and have your little talk with the landlady or takewhatever other means suggest themselves for luring this girl from herroom. I will summon Hazen and hold him very closely under my eye till thewhole affair is over. He shall get no chance for any hocus-pocusbusiness, not while I have charge of your interests. He shall do justwhat he has laid out for himself and nothing more; you may rely on that."
Ransom expressed his satisfaction, and left the room with a lighter heartthan he had felt since Hazen came upon the scene. He did not know thatall he had been through was as nothing to what lay before him.
It was an hour before he returned. When he did, it was to find Hazen andthe lawyer awaiting him in ill-concealed impatience. These two were muchtoo incongruous in tastes and interests to be very happy in a forced andprolonged tete-a-tete.
"Have you done it?" exclaimed Hazen, leaping eagerly to his feet as thedoor closed softly behind Ransom. "Is she out of her room? I havelistened and listened for her step, but could not be sure of it. Thereseem to be a lot of people in the house to-night."
"Too many," quoth Ransom. "That is why I couldn't get hold of Mrs. Deoany sooner. Anitra is having her hair brushed or something else of equalimportance done for her in one of the rear rooms. So we can proceedfearlessly. Have you looked to see if you can get a good glimpse of herdoor through the keyhole of this one?"
"Haven't you already made a trial of that? Then do so now," suggestedHazen, drawing out the key and laying it on the table.
But this was too uncongenial a task for Ransom.
"I shall be satisfied," said he, "if Mr. Harper tells me that it can."
"It can," asserted that gentleman, falling on his knees and adjusting hiseye to the keyhole. "Or rather, you can see plainly the face of any oneapproaching it. I don't suppose any of us expected to see the dooritself."
"No, it is not the door, but the woman entering the door, we want to see.Did you ask for an extra lamp?"
"Yes, and saw it placed. It is on a small table almost opposite herroom."
"Then everything is ready."
"All but the mark which I am to put on the panel."
"Very good. Here is the chalk. Let us see what you mean to do with itbefore you risk an attempt on the door itself."
Ransom thought a minute, then with one quick twist produced thefollowing:
"Correct," muttered Hazen, with what Harper thought to be a slight butunmistakable shudder. "One would think you had been making use of thisvery cabalistic sign all your life."
"Then _one_ would be mistaken. I have simply a true eye and a readyhand."
"And a very remarkable memory. You have recalled every little line andquirk."
"That's possible. What I have made once I can make the second time. It'sa peculiarity of mine."
There was no mistaking the continued intensity of Hazen's gaze. Ransomfelt his color rise, but succeeded in preserving his quiet tone, as headded:
"Besides, this character is not a wholly new one to me. My attention wascalled to it months ago. It was when I was courting Georgian. She waswriting a note one day when she suddenly stopped to think and I saw herpen making some marks which I considered curious. But I should not haveremembered them five minutes, if she had not impulsively laid her handover them when she saw me looking. That fixed the memory of them in mymind, and when I saw this combination of lines again, I remembered it.That is why I lent myself so readily to this experiment. I lent that whatyou said about her acquaintance with this odd arrangement of lines wastrue."
Hazen's hand stole up to his neck, a token of agitation which Ransomshould have recognized by this time.
"And her account of the use we made of it tallied with mine?"
"She gave me no account of any use she had ever made of it."
"That was because you didn't ask her."
"Just so. Why should I ask her? It was a small matter to trouble herabout."
"You are right," acquiesced Hazen, wheeling himself away towards thewindow. Then after a momentary silence, "It was so then, but it is likelyto prove of some importance now. Let me see if the hall is empty."
As he bent to open the door, the lawyer, who had not moved nor spokentill now, turned a quick glance on Ransom and impulsively stretched outhis hand. But he dropped it very quickly and subsided into his oldattitude of simple watchfulness, as Hazen glanced back with the remark:
"There's nobody stirring; now's your time, Ransom."
The moment for action had arrived.
Ransom stepped into the hall. As he passed Hazen, the latter whispered:
"Don't forget that last downward quirk. That was the line she alwaysemphasized."
Ransom gave him an annoyed look. His nerves as well as his feelings wereon a keen stretch, and this persistence of Hazen's was more than he couldbear.
"I'll not forget the least detail," he answered shortly, and passedquickly down the hall, while Hazen watched him through the crack of thedoor, and the lawyer watched Hazen.
Suddenly Mr. Harper's brow wrinkled. Hazen had uttered such a sigh ofrelief that the lawyer was startled. In another moment Ransom re-enteredthe room.
"She's coming," said he, striving to hide his extreme emotion. "I heardher voice in the hall beyond."
Hazen sprang to the door which Ransom had carefully closed, and was aboutto fall on his knees before the keyhole when he suddenly stiffenedhimself and, turning towards the lawyer, cried with a new strain ofloftiness in his tone:
"You. You shall do the looking, only promise to be very minute in yourdescription of her behavior. It's a great trust I repose in you. See thatyou honor it."
The revulsion of feeling caused in the lawyer by this show of confidencewas not perceptible. But it softened his step as well as his manner as hecrossed to do the other's bidding.
The remaining two stood at his side breathless, waiting for his firstword.
It came in a whisper:
"She's approaching her room. She looks tired. Her eyes are stealing thisway;--no, they are resting on her own door. She sees the sign. She standsstaring at it, but not like a person who has ever seen it before. It'sthe stare of an uneducated woman who runs upon something she does notunderstand. Now she touches it with one finger and glances up and downthe hall with a doubtful shake of the head. Now she is running to anotherdoor, now to another. She is looking to see if this scrawl is to be foundanywhere else; she even casts her eye this way--I feel like leaving mypost. If I do, you may know that she's coming--No, she's back at her owndoor and--gentlemen, her bringing up or rather coming up asserts itself.She has put her palm to her mouth and is vigorously rubbing off themarks."
The next instant Mr. Harper rose. "She's gone into her room," said he."Listen and you will hear her key click in the lock."
Ransom sank into a seat; Hazen had walked to the window. Presently heturned.
"I am convinced," said he. "I will not trouble you gentlemen further.Mr. Ransom, I condole with you upon your loss. My sister was a woman ofuncommon gifts."
Mr. Ransom bowed. He had no words for this man at a moment of suchextreme excitement. He did not even note the latent sting hidden in theother's seeming tribute to Georgian. But the lawyer did and Hazenperceived that he did, for pausing in his act of crossing the room, heleaned for a moment on the table with his eyes down, then quicklyraising them remarked to that gentleman:
"I am going to leave by the midnight train for New York. To-morrow Ishall be on the ocean. Will it be transgressing all rules of proprietyfor me to ask the purport of my sister's will? It is a serious matter tome, sir. If she has left me anything--"
> "She has _not_," emphasized the lawyer.
A shadow darkened the disappointed man's brow. His wound swelled and hiseyes gleamed ironically as he turned them upon Ransom.
Instantly that gentleman spoke.
"I have received but a moiety," said he. "You need not envy me theamount."
"Who has it then?" briskly demanded the startled man. "Who? who? _She?_"
Mr. Harper never knew why he did it. He was reserved as a man and,usually, more than reserved as a lawyer, but as Hazen lifted his handsfrom the table and turned to leave, he quietly remarked:
"The chief legatee--the one she chose to leave the bulk of her very largefortune to--is a man we none of us know. His name is Josiah Auchincloss."
The change which the utterance of this name caused in Hazen's expressionthrew them both into confusion.
"Why didn't you tell me that in the beginning?" he cried. "I needn't havewasted all this time and effort."
His eyes shone, his poor lips smiled, his whole air was jubilant. BothMr. Harper and his client surveyed him in amazement. The lines so fastdisappearing from his brow were beginning to reappear on theirs.
"Mr. Harper," this hard-to-be-understood man now declared, "you maysafely administer the estate of my sister. She is surely dead."