CHAPTER IX Conflicting Theories
In the kitchen the discussion was going on in less guarded terms.
"It's murder," Thorpe declared flatly. "No spooks ever killed off thosetwo people in a minute, just like that!"
"Murder, your grandmother!" snorted Stebbins. "Who done it, and how? Iask you that! Those folks came up here to hunt ghosts, and I should saythey found 'em, good and plenty! You know's well's I do, this house hasalways been ha'nted, ever since that woman killed her husband in thatvery room where the little girl's lyin' now. I wouldn't go in that thereroom for a fortune, I wouldn't!"
"Now Eli, don't be foolish," and Thorpe shook his head. "How could aspook kill two folks at onct,--right out in the open, as you may say?"
"For that matter, how could anybody murder two people at once? Nobody wasaround but their own crowd, and that lot of people ain't for murderin'each other! I know that!"
"It was spooks," declared Hester, with an air of settling the matter;"I've smelled 'em of late. That smell of bitter almonds is been in theair a heap, and I ain't had none for flavourin' or anything. Land, I'dnever flavour a cake with that! I put vanilla even in my 'Angel Food.'"
"I've smelled it too," spoke up Nannie, a helper of the older woman's;"when I've been a-dustin' round in that there ha'nted room, I've smelledit--not strong, you know, but jest a faint whiff, now'n then. I skittledout 's fast's I could, I kin tell you!"
"Nope, you're all wrong," insisted old Thorpe. "'Tain't spooks, it'smurder. That's what it is."
"Who done it, then?" demanded his wife.
"That I dunno. But I have my s'picions. How,--I dunno, either. But that'sneither here nor there. Murder's been done, but I'll bet thatmutton-headed Crawford ain't got brains enough to see it."
"He ain't got brains enough to go in when it rains," agreed Stebbins,"but you're 'way off, Thorpe, a surmisin' murder. Why, jest f'r instance,now, how _could_ it 'a' been done?"
"Now how can I tell that!" Thorpe spoke with fine scorn. "I don't knowall the goin's on of them hifalutin folks, but if you'd heard 'em talkin''s much as I have, you'd know that they're up to lots of things such asus ignorant people don't know nothin' about."
"They do talk awful hifalutin," corroborated Hester. "I've heard 'em saythings that hadn't no meanin' whatsoever to me, and yet they was plainEnglish too."
"Well, if you ask me," and Thorpe looked important, "I'd jest say keepyour eye on one of them women."
"You mean that red-headed varmint, I know," said his wife. "Well, she's ahandful, all right, but I don't believe she'd go so far's to killanybody."
"You don't, don't you? Well, she'd go just so far as there was any goin'at all,--an' then she'd go right on. Oh, I kin read character," andThorpe plumed himself so evidently on his mental powers that Stebbinssnorted outright.
"You're, a hummer, you are! I s'pose you're clairvoyant, yourself! Well,let me advise you to keep your trap shut about Miss--that lady youreferred to. This is my house, and those are my tenants, and I won'tstand any talk from _you_ about 'em."
"That's right, Thorpe," admonished his wife. "Mr. Stebbins, he's right.An' he's right about the ghosts, too. Why, I happen to know that thespooks warned that little Reid girl she'd die at four o'clock, and dieshe did, jest at four! Can you beat it? Spooks? Why, of course it wasspooks! What else?"
"Yes, and the message was that two of 'em 'd die, and two of 'em did,"added Stebbins. "How could any mortal human bein' bring that about? I askyou?"
"Land! I don't know! I told you I didn't. But," and Thorpe wagged hishead positively, "it wasn't spooks."
The same questions were being discussed in the hall by the ones moreintimately interested.
Doctor Wayburn had arrived, and he and Crawford were shut in the drawingroom endeavouring to wrest from the unknown, the secret of GiffordBruce's death.
The little group, still gathered in the hall, were talking earnestly ofthe immediate future.
"It's so pathetic," Norma was saying, "that there are so few to mourn forpoor little Vernie. That child had actually no relatives but her uncleand Mr. Braye."
"Wynne is a sort of a cousin, too," put in Milly, "and indeed, Norma, Ifeel as sorry as if Vernie had been my own sister."
"Oh, I don't mean that,--of course, we all feel that way. But, she was soalone in the world. Mr. Braye is terribly broken up. He loved her----"
"Not only loved her," said Eve, "but he was ambitious for her. He wantedher put in care of a capable woman this fall, and brought up properly.Mr. Bruce was no sort of a guardian for the child--I mean he was allright, of course, as a legal guardian, but he was no man to have chargeof her social and home life."
"He knew that," said Landon, "he told me he meant to have Vernie properlychaperoned and all that, this winter. She was a dear kiddie."
"Oh, she was," and Norma wept afresh.
"I am a complete convert to spiritualism, now," said the Professor,gravely. "I've thought over these things very deeply, I've consideredevery possible aspect of the case, and there is no explanation of thosetwo mysterious deaths, except supernormal forces. It is no use to shirkthe supposition of murder, indeed we must consider it very carefully, butit is out of the question. Nobody could have compassed those two deathsin an instant of time, however secret or subtle the methods. Do you allagree?"
"Of course," said Eve, positively, and Tracy added, "That is undeniable,Professor, foul play _was_ impossible. But, moreover, there was no onehere present but our own party. I can't let the implication pass that itcould have been in the heart of any one of us----"
"Nonsense!" interrupted Hardwick, "that's absurd, Mr. Tracy. When I speakof murder, it is in the abstract, and because it is right that we shouldconsider the matter from every angle. We must even think of suicide, andof----"
"Suicide is as absurd as murder," said Landon, indignantly. "But whatother atrocity had you in mind?"
"Don't lose your temper, please," the Professor said, mildly. "I amobliged to preserve an impersonal attitude, or I can't think at all! Theother thought is, that one of the victims killed himself _and_ the otherone."
"Please, Professor," said Eve, "at least confine yourself to rationalcommon sense. But since you raise this absurd theory, let's settle itonce and for all. Could Mr. Bruce have willingly killed himself andVernie?" she asked of them all.
"No!" replied Landon. "Mr. Bruce was fond of life and he adored thatchild! Cut that out!"
"Then," pursued Eve, "could Vernie have killed herself and her uncle?"
"Rubbish!" cried Landon, "don't say such things, Eve. Professor, are youanswered?"
"And remember," put in Tracy, "the two were the width of this hall apart.What means could have been employed?"
"What means were employed, anyway?" said Norma. "Oh, what did kill thosepeople?"
"The utter absence of any material means proves the fact that it wassupernatural," declared the Professor. "I only mentioned those othertheories to prove their absurdity. Now, as I say, I am a convert tospiritualism in all its form and phases. How can one help being afterthis? And I, for one, desire to stay here for a time and I feel sure thatthe departed spirits of our friends will communicate with us."
Milly shuddered at the idea, but Eve's wonderful eyes glowed with asudden anticipation.
"Oh, Professor Hardwick!" she exclaimed, "how splendid! Will you reallystay here a while? Will you, Milly? I can't stay unless you and Wynne do.Will you stay, Norma? and you, Mr. Tracy?"
"Oh, I can't!" Milly moaned. "I needn't, need I, Wynne?"
"No; darling, not if you don't want to. I can't see, Eve, why you wish tostay here. It gives me the horrors to think of it. And if you reallyexpect spiritual communications from Vernie or Mr. Bruce, you can receivethem just as well anywhere else."
"Not just as well," demurred the Professor. "The conditions here areideal for investigations. We haven't taken it up seriously, you know."
"But, Miss Carnforth, can't you ask som
e other friends to come, if theLandons prefer to return to New York? I don't doubt you know the rightones, who could chaperon you, and also take an interest in our work."
"Yes," began Eve, thoughtfully, and then Stebbins came into the room.
"The doctors through yet?" he asked; "what they found out?"
"No, they're not through yet," answered Landon. "Sit down, Stebbins, andtalk a little bit. I wish you'd tell us of anything you know of your ownexperience, not hearsay, mind you, that has happened in this house, thatcan truly be called supernatural."
"Well, that ha'nted room,----"
"Wait a minute," interrupted Landon, "don't tell us anything about thathaunted room that you don't _know_, personally, to be a fact."
"I know it's ha'nted," asserted Stebbins, doggedly. "I've slept there andI've seen ghosts spookin' around in it."
"Do you think there are really such things as ghosts?"
"I know it."
"And do you think they could be responsible for the death of Mr. Bruceand Miss Reid?"
"I know it. That Thorpe he says it's murder, but he can't guess how itcould be. That fool of a Crawford, he don't know nothing, of any sort.Wayburn, now, he's a fair doctor, but, good land! what can they learnfrom a post-mortem? Those people was warned, and them warnin's wascarried out. What more is there to learn?"
"Well and clearly put, Mr. Stebbins," commented the Professor. "Noelaboration of phrases could state that more succinctly. They werewarned,--the warnings were carried out. That is the whole truth."
"But granting that," said Norma, "and I'm willing to grant it, why didthe spirits want to kill Vernie? A lovely, innocent child couldn't haveincurred the wrath of the spirits to that extent."
"They ain't no tellin', ma'am, what them ha'nts will do." Stebbins spokeheavily, as if burdened with fear. "Now I leave it to you folks. Ain'tyou smelled prussic acid around?"
"I have," said Norma. "And I," added the Professor. "I know it was notbrought here by any of our party----"
"Nor not by the cook," said Stebbins. "Hester, she's leery of that bitteralmond flavourin' and she don't never use it. Well, don't that smellprove somethin'?"
"It isn't actual proof," and Tracy looked thoughtful. "But it is aninexplicable odour to hang round an old house."
"'Tain't inexplicable if it's due to the ha'nt," urged Stebbins. "Andthat's what it is due to. Why, that smell's been said to be round hereever since the time of the Montgomery murder."
"What's wrong between you and Doctor Crawford?" asked Eve, suddenly. "Yousay yourself you aren't good friends."
"No, ma'am, we ain't. It's a sort o' feud of long standin'. They ain't nospecial reason, jest a conglomeration of little things. But one thing is'cause he makes fun of the spooks here. He don't take no stock in suchthings, and nobody can make him. Thorpe, now, he don't neither. He sticksto it Mr. Bruce and Miss Vernie was murdered."
"By what means, does he think?" asked Eve, quickly.
"Well, that he don't know. But murder he says it was, and that he sticksto, like a puppy to a root."
"Get him in here," said Landon, abruptly, and Thorpe was summoned.
"Yes, sir," the butler averred, on being questioned. "I'm willin' to goon record as a disbeliever in spooks. They ain't no such things. I don'tdeny I've been some scared up hearin' you ladies and gentlemen talk aboutsuch matters. But I don't believe in 'em and I never will. Them two porecritters was done to death, but I'm free to confess I can't see how."
Professor Hardwick looked at the speaker. "As Mr. Dooley observed," hesaid, "your remarks is inthrestin' but not convincin'. My man, if thereis no possible way that murder could have been done,--and we in here areagreed on that point,--what is left but the inevitability of supernormalagents?"
"Your long words gets me, sir, but it don't make no difference. It wa'n'tspooks."
"He's hopeless," said Tracy. "Let's ask him other things. Thorpe, my man,have you never seen any circumstance or occurrence in this house, thatyou couldn't explain by natural means?"
"I ain't never been in this house, sir, except as I came here to buttlefor you folks. Mr. Stebbins, he give the job to me and my wife, 'causewe're honest, hard-working people, and he knew he could trust us not totattle or tell no tales of your goin's on. He says, 'Thorpe,' says he,'they're a queer lot what's comin' up here, but they're my tenants, and Idon't want 'em bothered none by gossip and tale-bearin' to the village.'Ain't that right, Mr. Stebbins?"
"Just so," said Stebbins, calmly. "Them's just about my very words. Youtold me, Mr. Landon, that you were a crowd of spook-hunters, and so itwas up to me to spare you all the annoyance I could. An' well I know howthe villagers gossip about this here house, if they get a chance. So,with the Thorpes at the head of things and a couple of good close-mouthedgirls for helpers, I 'llowed you'd not be troubled. And you ain'tbeen,--up to now. But this thing can't be kept quiet no longer. Ofcourse, a thing like this is more or less public property, and I can tellyou, there'll be plenty of curious villagers up here to the inquest andall that."
"Inquest!" cried Eve, "what do you mean?"
"Jest that, ma'am. That dunder-headed coroner, or county physician as hereally is, he's set on havin' an inquest,--says he's got to. Well, Idon't know much about law, but if they can ketch and hang a ha'nt, let'em do it, say I!"
The arrival on the scene of the two doctors cut short further discussion."There is a strange condition of things," Crawford began, addressinghimself to Wynne Landon. "We find decisive, though very slight evidencethat Mr. Bruce died from poison."
A hush followed, as his stunned hearers thought over the gravesignificance of this statement.
"Poison?" repeated Landon, dazedly. "What sort of poison? Whoadministered it?"
"As I said," resumed the coroner, "it's a strange case. The poison foundis the minutest quantity of a very powerful drug, known among theprofession as strychnine hydrochlorate. This is so deadly that a halfgrain will kill a man instantly, or in a few seconds. But my colleagueand I have agreed that since it is impossible for this to have beenadministered at the moment of Mr. Bruce's death, it must be that he hadtaken it in cumulative doses, and the result culminated in his suddendeath."
"Why would he take it?" cried Milly.
"Where could he get it?" asked the Professor. "Such a drug is notavailable to the general public, is it?"
"It is not, sir, but whoever gave it to him, must have procured itsomehow. Those questions are for the future. We are just learning thefacts. The results of our tests prove positively the presence of thatparticular poison. There is no doubt of that."
"But wait," and Eve fixed her compelling eyes on the coroner's face."Remember, Doctor Crawford, though you may not believe in the occult,other and wiser minds do. I wish to remind you, therefore, that we whobelieve these deaths were caused by supernatural agency, believe alsothat the powers that compassed the deaths are able to make the deathsseem attributable to natural causes, whether poison or anything else."
"Eve!" exclaimed Milly, "that is going too far!"
"Not at all!" said the Professor. "Miss Carnforth is quite right; andindeed, logic must prove that if a phantasm can take away a human life itcan also produce effects that resemble conditions brought about by humanmeans."
"I repeat," the coroner interrupted, "these things are beside thequestion. We are conducting an autopsy, not an inquest, at present. I amgiving you my report as a medical man, not as a member of the policeforce. Those other matters will be considered later. We have completedour examinations in the one case, we will now proceed to the case of theother victim."
"They killed each other," Thorpe broke in, nodding his head in thepositive manner he affected. "Leastwise, one of 'em killed both; and ofcourse, Miss Vernie, she wasn't no murderer!"
"Wait till you are called upon to testify, my man," and Crawford gloweredat the forwardness of the old butler.
"There'll be testifyin' on both sides," volunteered Stebbins, speaking alittle belligerently.
Crawford tu
rned on him, and it was easily seen that enmity existedbetween these two. "You, 'Lijah Stebbins, keep quiet," he admonished,"there's them that says you know too much about these doings, anyhow."
"What do you mean by that?" Stebbins' eyes glowed with anger.
"Nothing now, and maybe nothing at any time. But you'd better lie low.You might be unduly suspected of ha'nting your own house!"
To the surprise of all present, Stebbins turned a chalky white, andwhimpered a little, as he said, "I don't know what you mean,--I ain'tdone anything."
"See's you don't!" advised Crawford, enigmatically, and then the twodoctors started to go on their second gruesome errand.
"This door's locked," announced Doctor Wayburn, trying to gain entranceto the Room with the Tassels.
"I have the key," said Eve Carnforth, slowly, and, with a white face, sheoffered it to the men.
"What are _you_ doing with it?" asked Landon, in amazement.
"I d-don't know," and Eve showed great nervousness. "I think I fearedsome one would go in there."
The others looked at her curiously, for the white face was pallid and thescarlet line of her lips was thin and straight.
An exclamation from Doctor Wayburn claimed their attention, and speakingfrom the doorway of the Room with the Tassels, he said:
"There is no body here."
"What!" cried several at once, and crowded to the door.
"Absolutely none," repeated the doctor, and Professor Hardwick pushed hisway past the two medical men and entered the room.
"It's gone!" he said, reappearing, "Vernie's body is gone!"
"Impossible!" cried Landon, "what do you mean? Why, we've all been righthere all the morning! How could it be gone?"
"See for yourself," and Hardwick stepped aside.
There was no denying the fact. Scrutiny of the whole room showed nopresence of the cold, still form that had been reverently laid on thatbed. Everybody entered and peered around, fruitlessly. They shook theheavy hangings and looked behind them, but to no avail.
Vernie's body had utterly disappeared!