XXVIII
"ROMANTIC! TOO ROMANTIC!"
Next morning Mr. Gryce left his home an hour earlier than usual. Hewished to have a talk with Mrs. Taylor's nurse before encountering theInspector.
It was an inconvenient time for a nurse to leave the sick-bed; but thematter being so important, she was prevailed upon to give him a fewmoments, in the little reception room where he had seated himself. Theresult was meagre--that is, from her standpoint. All she had to add towhat she had written him the day before was the fact that the two linesof verse quoted in the note she had sent him were Mrs. Taylor's firstcoherent utterance, and that they had been spoken not only once but manytimes, in every kind of tone, and with ever-varying emphasis. That and adreamy request for "The papers! the papers!" which had followed someaction of her own this very morning comprised all she had to give infulfillment of the promise she had made him at the beginning of thisillness.
Mr. Gryce believed her and rose reluctantly to his feet.
"Then she is still very ill?"
"Very ill, but mending daily; or so the doctor says."
"If she talks again, as she is liable to do at any moment, do not checkher, but remember every word. The importance of this I cannot impressupon you too fully. But do not by any show of curiosity endanger herrecovery. She seems to be one of the very best sort; I would not have herbody or mind sacrificed on any account."
"You may trust me, sir."
He nodded, giving her his hand.
But as he was turning away, he looked back with the quiet remark: "Ishould like to ask a final question. You have been in constant attendanceon this lady for some time and must have seen many of her friends, aswell as taken charge of her mail and of any messages which may have beenleft for her. Has there been anything in this experience to settle thedoubt as to whether her talk of a vision in which she saw her absenthusband stricken simultaneously with the poor child lying at that verymoment dead at her feet simply delirium or a striking instance oftelepathy recording an accomplished fact? In other words, do you believeher husband to be living or not living at the present time?"
"That is a subject upon which I have not been able to form any opinion.I have heard nothing, seen nothing to influence my mind either way. Someother people have asked me this same question. If her mail contains anynews, it is still in the hands of the proprietor of the hotel. He hasrefrained from sending it up. She has lived here, as you know, for a longwhile."
"Has she no relative to share your watch or take such things in charge?"
"I have seen none. Friends she has in plenty, but no one who claimsrelationship with her, or who raises the least objection to anything Ido."
He seemed about to ask another question, but refrained and allowed her todepart after some final injunction as to what she should do in case ofcertain emergencies. Then he had a talk with the proprietor, which addedlittle or nothing to his present knowledge; and these duties off hismind, he went downtown.
As he expected, he found the Chief Inspector awaiting him. The death ofMadame Duclos had added still another serious complication to the manywith which this difficult affair was already encumbered, and he wasanxious to talk over the matter with one who had been on the spot andupon whose impressions he consequently could rely.
But when he heard all that Mr. Gryce had to say on the subject, he grewas serious as the detective himself could wish, even going so far as topropose an immediate ride over to the District Attorney's office.
Fortunately, they found that gentleman in and ready to listen, thoughit was evident he expected little from the conference. But his temperchanged as Mr. Gryce opened up his theory and began to substantiate itwith facts. The looks which he exchanged with the Chief Inspector grewmore and more earnest and inquiring, and when Mr. Gryce reached thatportion of his report which connected Mr. Roberts so indisputably withthe arrow, he called in his assistant and together they listened to whatMr. Gryce had further to say.
With this addition to his audience, the old man's manner changed andbecame a trifle more formal. He related the fact, not generally known, ofMr. Roberts' engagement to a young girl residing on Long Island, and howthis was broken off immediately after the occurrence at the museum,seemingly from no other reason than the unhappy condition of mind inwhich he found himself, a condition added to if not explained by thepertinacity with which he had haunted the morgue and dwelt upon the imageof the young girl who had perished under no random shot.
Here the old man paused, shrinking as much from what he had yet to say asthey from the hearing of it. It was not till the Chief Inspector had madehim an encouraging gesture that he found the requisite courage toproceed. He did so, in these words:
"I know that the evidence I have thus far advanced is of a purelycircumstantial nature, capable, perhaps, of a more or less satisfactoryexplanation. But what I have to add cannot be so easily disposed of.Connections have developed between persons we thought strangers whichhave opened up a field of inquiry which brings the doubts and surmisesof an old detective within the scope of this office. I do not know whatto make of them; perhaps their full meaning can only be found out here.Of this only I am assured. The gentleman whom it seems presumptuous on mypart to connect even in a casual way with crime has not gained but lostby what I have to tell of Madame Duclos' suicidal death. To those who seeno association between the two, it looks like the opening of a new lead,but when I tell you that they knew each other, or at all events that sheknew him and in the way of actual hatred, it looks more like a deepeningof the old one. See here, gentlemen."
Opening a package he had hitherto held in hand, he showed themFredericks' fifteen-year-old photograph of Mr. Roberts, together with itsmutilated counterpart, and explained how the latter came to be in itspresent mutilated condition.
"But this is not all," he continued, as the remarks incident upon thisproof of deadly hatred on the part of the mother of the victim for theman whom circumstances seemed to point out as her slayer subsided underthe pressure of their interest in what he had further to impart. "As youwill see after a moment's consideration, this token of animosity does notexplain Madame Duclos' flight, and certainly not her death, which, as theunhappy witness of it, I am ready to declare was not the death of onedriven to extremity from personal fear, but by some exalted feeling whichwe have yet to understand. All that I now wish to point out in itsconnection is the proof offered by this shattered photograph, that Mr.Roberts was in some manner and from some cause a party to this crime fromwhich a superficial observation would completely dissociate him.
"Where is the connecting link? How can we hope to establish it? That iswhat it has now become my unfortunate duty to make plain to you. CarletonRoberts drawing a bow to shoot an innocent schoolgirl is incredible. Inspite of all I have said and shown you, I do not believe him guilty of soinhuman an act. He drew the bow, he shot the arrow, but----Here allow meto pause a moment to present another aspect of the case as surprising asany you have yet heard. You are aware--we all are aware--that the inquestwe await has been held back for the purpose of giving Mrs. Taylor anopportunity to recover from the illness into which she has been thrown bywhat she saw and suffered that day. Gentlemen, this Mrs. Taylor whom weall--I will not even exclude myself from this category--regarded not onlyas a casual visitor to the museum, but a stranger to all concerned, is,on the contrary, as I think you will soon see, more closely allied to theseemingly dispassionate director than even Madame Duclos. The shock whichlaid her low was not that usually ascribed to her, or even the one she sofantastically offered to our acceptance; but the recognition of CarletonRoberts as the author of this tragedy,--Carleton Roberts whom she notonly knew well but had loved in days gone by, as sincerely as he hadloved her. This I now propose to prove to you by what I cannot but regardas incontestable evidence."
Taking from a small portfolio which he carried another photograph,unmounted this time and evidently the work of an amateur, he laid it outbefore them. The silence with which his last statement had been re
ceived,the kind of silence which covers emotions too deep for audibleexpression, remained unbroken save for an involuntary murmur or so, asthe District Attorney and his assistant bent over this crude presentationof something--they hardly knew what--which this old but long trusteddetective was offering them in substantiation of the well-nighunbelievable statement he had just made.
"This, gentlemen," he went on, as he pointed to the following, "is thecopy of a label pasted on the back of a certain Swiss clock to be seen atthis very moment on the wall of Mr. Roberts' own bedroom in his home inBelport, Long Island. He prizes this clock. He has been heard to say thatit goes where he goes and stays where he stays, and as it is far from avaluable one either from intrinsic worth or from any accuracy it displaysin keeping time, the reason for this partiality must lie in oldassociations and the memories they invoke. A love token. Can you not seethat it is such from the couplet scrawled across it? If not, just take alook at the initials appended to that couplet. May I ask you to readthem?"
The District Attorney stooped, adjusted his glasses and slowly read out:
"C. C. R."
"Carleton Clifton Roberts," explained Mr. Gryce. Then slowly, "The othertwo if you will be so good."
"E. T."
"Ermentrude Taylor," declared the inexorable voice. "And written byherself. Here is her signature which I have obtained; and here is his.Compare them at your leisure with their initials inscribed according tothe date there, sixteen years or more ago. Now where were these two--thisman and this woman--at the time just designated? Alone, or together? Letus see if we can find out," pursued the detective with a quiet ignoringof the effect he had produced, which revealed him as the master of asituation probably as difficult and disconcerting as the three officialshanging in manifest anxiety upon his words had ever been called upon toface. "Mr. Roberts was in Switzerland, as his housekeeper will be obligedto admit on oath, she being an honest woman and a domestic in hismother's house at the time. And Ermentrude Taylor! I have a witness toprove where she was also! A witness I should be glad to have youinterrogate. Here is her name and address." And he slipped a small scrapof paper into the District Attorney's hand. "What she will say is this,for I think I have very thoroughly sounded her: First, that she is Mrs.Taylor's most intimate friend. This is conceded by all who know her.Secondly, that while her intimacy does not extend back to their girlhooddays--Mrs. Taylor being an Englishwoman by birth and remarkably reticentas to her former life and experiences--she has one story to tell of thattime which answers the question I have given you. She got it from Mrs.Taylor herself, and in this manner. They were engaged in talking one dayabout our Western mountains and the grandeur of scenery generally, whenMrs. Taylor let fall some remark about the Alps, which led this friend ofhers to ask if she had ever seen them. Mrs. Taylor answered in theaffirmative, but with such embarrassment and abrupt change of subjectthat it was plainly apparent she had no wish to discuss it. Indeed, herabruptness was so marked and her show of trouble so great, she washerself disturbed by what might very easily give offense, and being of akindly, even loving disposition, took occasion when next they met toexplain that it was as a girl she had visited Switzerland, and that herexperiences there had been so unfortunate that any allusion whichrecalled those days distressed her. This is all that ever passed betweenthese two on this subject, but is it not enough when we read thiscouplet, and mark the combined initials, and recognize them as those ofCarleton Roberts and Ermentrude Taylor? But lest you should doubt eventhis evidence of an old-time friendship so intimate that it has almostthe look of a betrothal, I must add one more item of corroborative factwhich came to me as late as last night. In a moment of partialconsciousness, while the nurse hung over her bed, Mrs. Taylor spoke herfirst coherent sentence since she fell into a state demanding medicalassistance. And what was that sentence? A repetition of this couplet,gentlemen, spoken not once but over and over again, till even the nursegrew tired of listening to it.
'I love but thee, And thee will I love to eternity.'"
As the last word fell from Mr. Gryce's lips, the District Attorneymuttered a quick exclamation, and sat down heavily in his chair.
"No coincidence that," he cried, with forced vivacity. "The couplet istoo little known."
"Exactly," came from Mr. Gryce in dry confirmation. "Mrs. Taylor, as wellas her friends can judge, is a woman of thirty-five or thirty-eight. Ifshe went to Switzerland as a girl, this would make her visit coincident,so far as we can calculate from our present knowledge, with that ofCarleton Roberts. For the surer advancement of our argument, let us saythat it was. What follows? Let the inscription of this label speak forus. They met; they loved--as was natural when we remember the youth andgood looks of both, and--_they parted_. This we must concede, or howcould the experience have been one she could not recall without aheart-break. They parted, and he returned home, to marry within the year,while she--I do not think she married--though I have no doubt she looksupon herself as a wife and forever bound to the man who deserted her.Women of her kind think in this way of such matters, and act upon themtoo as is shown by the fact that, on following him here, she passedherself off as a woman separated from her husband. Changing the Missbefore her name to Mrs., she lived under this assumption for twelve yearsat her present hotel. In all that time, so far as I can learn, she hasnever been visited by anyone of an appearance answering to that of herformer lover; nor have I any reason to think she ever intruded herself onhim, or made herself in any way obnoxious. He was married and settled,and contrary to the usual course of men who step with one stride intoaffluence, was living a life of usefulness which was rapidly makinghim a marked man in public esteem. Perhaps she had no right to meddlewith what no longer concerned her. At all events, there is no evidenceof her having done so in all these fourteen years. Even after Mrs.Roberts' death, all went on as usual; _but_--" Here Mr. Gryce becameemphatic--"when he turned his attention to a second marriage and thatwith a very young girl--(I can name her to you, gentlemen, if you wish)her patient soul may have been roused; she may have troubled him withimportunities; may have threatened him with a scandal which would haveinterfered greatly with his political hopes if it had not ended them atonce. I can conceive such an end to her long patience, can't you,gentlemen? And what is more, if this were so, and the gentleman found thesituation intolerable, it might account for the flight of that arrow asnothing else ever will."
Both men had started to their feet.
"How! It was not _she_----"
"It was not she who was struck, _but it was she who was aimed at_. Theyoung girl merely got in the way. But before I enlarge upon this point,"he continued in lower tones as the two officials slowly reseatedthemselves, "allow me to admit that any proof of correspondence betweenthese old-time lovers would have added much to my present argument. Butwhile I have no doubt that such an interchange of letters took place, andthat in all probability some one or more of them still exist, Mrs.Taylor's illness and Mr. Roberts' high position prevent anysubstantiation of the same on our part. I must therefore ask you toassume that it was in obedience to some definite agreement between themthat she came to the museum on that fatal morning and made her appearancein that especial section of the gallery marked II. If this strikes you asinconceivable and too presumptuous for belief, you must at least concedethat we have ample proof of his entire readiness for her coming. The bowbrought up so many days before from the cellar was within reach; thearrow under his coat; and his place of concealment so chosen as to makehis escape feasible the moment that arrow flew from the bow. Had sheentered that section alone--had the arrow found lodgment in her breastinstead of in that of another--nay, I will go even further and say thathad no cry followed his act, an expectation he had every right to countupon from the lightning-like character of the attack,--he would havereached the Curator's office and been out of the building before quickdiscovery of the deed made his completion of this attempt impossible."
"But the girl did cry out," remarked the Assistant District Attorney."
How do you account for that, since, as you say, it was not natural forone pierced to the heart without warning?"
"Ah, you see the big mistake we made,--Correy and all the rest of us. HadMiss Willetts, or I should say, Mademoiselle Duclos, been the one to letout that dolorous cry, the man just behind the partition would have beenthere almost in time to see her fall. Correy, who started up the stairsat the first sound, would have been at the gallery entrance before theman of the arrow could have dropped the hanging over his retreatingfigure. But it was not from her lips, poor girl, that this gasping shriekwent up, but from those of the woman who saw the deed and knew from whomthe arrow came and for whom it was meant. How do I know this? Because ofthe time which elapsed, the few precious minutes which allowed Mr.Roberts to get as far away as the court. For she did not voice her agonyimmediately. Even she, with her own unwounded heart keeping up itsfunctions, stood benumbed before this horror. Not till the full meaningof it all had penetrated her reluctant brain did she move or cry out. Howlong this interval was; whether three minutes were consumed by it, orfive, we have no means of telling. She, in her despair, would take nonote of time, nor would Mr. Travis, reeling in the opposite gallery underthe shock of seeing all that he loved taken from him in one awfulminute."
Here the detective turned with great earnestness toward the twoofficials.
"This question of time has been, as I have repeatedly said, the greateststumbling-block we have encountered in our consideration of this crime.How could the assassin, by any means possible, have got so far away fromthe pedestal, in the infinitesimal lapse of time between the cry that washeard and the quick alarm which followed. Now we know. Have you anythingto say against this conclusion? Any other explanation to give which willaccount for every fact as this does?"
His answer came in a dubious gesture from the District Attorney and ahalf-hearted "No" from his Assistant. They were both either too awed bythe circumstance or too fearful of mistake, to accept without a strugglean accusation of this grave and momentous character against one of Mr.Roberts' stamp and consequence.
This was no more than Mr. Gryce had expected, and while he realized thathis reputation as a detective of extraordinary insight in cases of anunusually baffling nature trembled in the balance, he experienced asudden distaste of his work which almost drove him into renouncing thewhole affair. But the habits of a lifetime are not parted with soeasily; and when the Chief Inspector observed--evidently with the idea ofgoading him on--"This seems to be mainly a matter of conjecture, Gryce,"his old self reasserted itself, and he answered boldly:
"I acknowledge that; but conjecture is what in nine cases out of tensmoothes out many of our difficulties. I have here a short statement madeby myself, after the most careful inquiries, of all that Mrs. Taylor andthe untrapped director did and said in the few difficult moments whenthey met face to face over the body of his unfortunate victim. I will askyou to listen to a portion of it.
"'She had not moved. After her one cry of horror which had brought a rushof witnesses upon the scene, she remained fixed on her knees in theabsorbed introspection common to those brought suddenly face to face witha life and death crisis. He, finding that his own safety demanded actionsuitable to his position as a director, had entered with the crowd andnow stood in her presence, in face of his own diabolical work, in anattitude of cold courage such as certain strong natures are able toassume under the pressure of great emergencies.
"'So long as she was deaf to all appeal to rouse and explain thesituation, he stood back, watchful and silent; but when she finallyroused and showed a disposition to speak, his desperation drove himinto questioning her in order to see how much she understood of an attackwhich had killed a harmless stranger and let herself go free.
"'He asked her first if she could tell them from which direction came thearrow which ended this young girl's life.
"'She made no reply in words; but glanced significantly at the oppositegallery.
"'This called from him the direct inquiry, "Did you see anyone over thereat the moment this young girl fell?"
"'She shook her head. Afterward she explained the denial by saying thatshe had been looking down into the court.
"'But he did not cease his inquiries. Turning to the people crowdingabout him, he put the like question to them; but receiving no answer, asilence followed, during which a woman suggested in tones loud enough forall to hear, that there were no arrows on the other side of the court,but that the gallery where they stood was full of them.
"'This seemed to alarm Mrs. Taylor. Turning to the director, she askedwhether he was sure that the opposite gallery held no arrows and no bows;and when he replied that nothing of the kind was to be found along itsentire length, she proceeded to inquire whether any such deed could becommitted in a place so open to view, without attracting the observationof some one wandering in court or gallery.
"'This, undoubtedly, to ascertain the full extent of his danger, beforebestowing a thought upon herself. But at his answer, given with the coldprecision of a thoroughly selfish man, that if anyone in the wholebuilding had seen so much as a movement in a spot so under suspicion,that person would have been heard from by this time, she faltered and washeard to ask what he had in mind and why the people about her looked ather so. He did not respond directly, but made some remark about thepolice, which increased her alarm to the point of an attemptedjustification. She said that it was true about the arrows, as anyonecould see by looking up at the walls. But where was the bow? No one couldshoot an arrow without a bow, and when some one shouted that if an arrowwas used as a dagger, one wouldn't need a bow, a sort of frenzy seizedher and she acted quite insane, falling at the young girl's side andwhispering sentence after sentence in her ear.
"'What more was needed to stamp her as a mad woman in the eyes of theordinary observer? Nothing. But to you and me, with the cue just given,it has another look. She had just seen the man whom she had herselfspared from an accusation which would have been his ruin accept in thecoldest fashion an explanation which left her own innocence in doubt.What wonder she succumbed to temporary aberration! As will be remembered,she soon became comparatively calm again, and so remained until in aninterview I had with her a half hour or so later I urged her, possiblywith too much insistence, for some explanation of the extreme agitationshe had shown at the time, when she broke forth with the remarkablestatement that it was not the child, but her husband, she was mourning,stricken to death, as she would have us believe, simultaneously with theyoung and innocent victim then lying dead at her feet.
"'Of course, such a coincidence was much too startling not to be regardedby us all as the ravings of delirium; nor has anything occurred since inthe way of communication from, or in regard to the absent one, to showthat this so-called warning of death has been followed up by fact. But,if you test her action by the theory I have just advanced, viz., that theman she called husband was at that moment in the room with us and thatthese words were a plea to him--the last appeal of a broken-hearted womanfor the support she felt to be her due--how the atmosphere of unreasonand mystery clears itself. His suggestion that what was needed there wasan alienist, and the pitiful efforts she made to exonerate herselfwithout implicating him in the murderous event, fall naturally intoplace, as the action of a guilty man and the self-denying conduct of adevoted woman.'"
"Romantic! too romantic!" objected the District Attorney. "I should thinkwe were listening to one of Dumas' tales."
"Dumas got his greatest effects from life, or so I have been told,"remarked the Chief Inspector.
Mr. Gryce sat silent.
Suddenly, the District Attorney observed with the slightest tinge ofirony edging his tone:
"I presume you would find a like explanation for the messages sheprofessed to be sending to her husband, when engaged in babbling foolwords into the dead girl's ear."
"Certainly. He was there, mark you! He stood where he could both see andhear her. All she said and all she did was by way of appeal to him forsome token of reg
ret, some sign that he appreciated her reticence; andwhen she found that it was bringing her nothing, she fainted away."
"Ingenious, very ingenious, Gryce. Had you failed to give us proofsconnecting this idol of the Republican party with the actual shooting,it would have been simply ingenious and a quite useless expenditureof talent. But we have these proofs, and while they are mainlycircumstantial, they undoubtedly call upon us for some recognition, andso we will hear you out whatever action we may take afterward."
"But first I should like to ask Mr. Gryce one question," interposed hisassistant. Then addressing the detective: "Two mysteries are involved inthis matter. You have given us a clever explanation of one of them, buthow about the other? Will you, before going further, tell us whatconnection you find between the theory just advanced and the flight andultimate suicide of Madame Duclos under circumstances which point to adesire to suppress evidence even at the cost of her life? It was notfrom consideration for Mr. Roberts, whom you have shown she hated. Whatwas it then? Have you an equally ingenious explanation for that too?"
"I have an explanation, but I cannot say that it is altogethersatisfactory. She died but yesterday, and my opportunities have beensmall for any work since. What I have learned was from her sister-in-law,whom I saw this morning. Realizing that she will be obliged to give fulltestimony at the inevitable inquest, she is at last ready to acknowledgethat she has been aware for a long time of a secret in Madame's life.That while she knew nothing of its nature, she had always thought that itwas in some manner connected with her prolonged residence abroad. Whetherit would also explain the meaning of her return at this time and theseemingly inexplicable change made in her daughter's name while _enroute_, must be left to our judgment. Madame had told her nothing. Shehad simply made use of their home, coming and going, not once, but twice,without giving them the least excuse for her inexplicable conduct. Ahundred questions could not elicit more. But to one who like myself hashad the opportunity of observing this wretched woman at the moment of hersupreme distress an insight is given into her character, which suggeststhe only plausible explanation of her action. Her sacrifice was one ofdevotion! She perished in an exaltation of feeling. Love drove her tothis desperate act. Not the love of woman for a man, but the love whichwomen of her profound nature sometimes feel for one of their own sex.Mrs. Taylor was her friend--wait, I hope to prove it--and to save herfrom experiencing the extreme misery of seeing the man who was the joyas well as bane of her life suffer from the consequences of his ownmisdeeds, Antoinette Duclos felt willing to die and did. You smile,gentlemen. You think the old man is approaching senility. Perhaps I am,but if the contention is raised that no connection has been shown toexist between Mrs. Taylor and this foreign Madame, save such as was madeby the death of Madame's child, I must retort by asking who warned MadameDuclos of the fatal occurrence at the museum in time for her to fleebefore even our telephone messages reached her hotel? Gentlemen, there isbut one person who could have done this--our chief witness, ErmentrudeTaylor. She alone had not only the incentive, but the necessaryopportunity. Coroner Price as well as myself made a great mistake when weallowed Mrs. Taylor to go home alone that day."
"Very likely." This from the Chief Inspector. "But if the information Ihave received on this point is correct, she seemed at that time to be soentirely dissociated with a deed whose origin had just been located inthe opposite gallery, that you have no real cause to blame yourselves inthis regard."
"True; our minds were diverted. But you are waiting for me to explainwhat I mean by opportunity. Since my attention has been drawn to Mrs.Taylor again, I have been making inquiries. The chauffeur who drove herto her hotel has been found, and he admits that she stopped once on herway home, to buy some coffee. He watched her as she went into the storeand he watched her as she came out; and he smelled the coffee. Happily,the interest he took in her as a sick woman intrusted to his care wasstrong enough for him to remember the store. It was one with twoentrances, front and back; and next door to it there is a public buildingwith a long row of telephone booths on the ground floor. If I read theincident aright, she bought her coffee, ordered it ground, slipped out atthe rear door and into the adjoining building, where, unnoticed andunheard, she called up the Universal and got into communication withMadame Duclos. When she returned it was by the same route. She did notforget her coffee nor give way under the great strain to which she hadsubjected herself till she reached her own apartment."
"Clever."
"And true, gentlemen; I will stake my reputation on it, unable as I am toexplain every circumstance, and close up every gap. Have you any furtherquestions to ask or shall I leave you to your deliberations?"