The House of a Thousand Candles Part 8

"I thought I heard some one in the house. I don't want you prowling about in the night, do you hear?"

"Certainly not, sir," he replied in a grieved tone.

I glanced at the book he had been reading. It was a volume of Shakespeare's comedies, open at the first scene of the last act of The Winter's Tale.

"Quite a pretty bit of work that, I should say," he remarked. "It was one of my late master's favorites."

"Go to the devil!" I bawled at him, and went down to my room and slammed the door in rage and chagrin.

CHAPTER XI.

I RECEIVE A CALLER.

Going to bed at three o'clock on a winter morning in a house whose ways are disquieting, after a duel in which you escaped whole only by sheer good luck, does not fit one for sleep. When I finally drew the covers over me it was to lie and speculate upon the events of the night in connection with the history of the few weeks I had spent at Glenarm. Larry had suggested in New York that Pickering was playing some deep game, and I, myself, could not accept Pickering's statement that my grandfather's large fortune had proved to be a myth. If Pickering had not stolen or dissipated it, where was it concealed? Morgan was undoubtedly looking for something of value or he would not risk his life in the business; and it was quite possible that he was employed by Pickering to search for hidden property. This idea took strong hold of me, the more readily, I fear, since I had always been anxious to see evil in Pickering. There was, to be sure, the unknown alternative heir, but neither she nor Sister Theresa was, I imagined, a person capable of hiring an a.s.sa.s.sin to kill me.

On reflection I dismissed the idea of appealing to the county authorities, and I never regretted that resolution. The seat of Wabana County was twenty miles away, the processes of law were unfamiliar, and I wished to avoid publicity. Morgan might, of course, have been easily disposed of by an appeal to the Annandale constable, but now that I suspected Pickering of treachery the caretaker's importance dwindled. I had waited all my life f or a chance at Arthur Pickering, and in this affair I hoped to draw him into the open and settle with him.

I slept presently, but woke at my usual hour, and after a tub felt ready for another day. Bates served me, as usual, a breakfast that gave a fair aspect to the morning. I was alert for any sign of perturbation in him; but I had already decided that I might as well look for emotion in a stone wall as in this placid, colorless serving man. I had no reason to suspect him of complicity in the night's affair, but I had no faith in him, and merely waited until he should throw himself more boldly into the game.

By my plate next morning I found this note, written in a clear, bold, woman's hand: The Sisters of St. Agatha trust that the intrusion upon his grounds by Miss Armstrong, one of their students, has caused Mr. Glenarm no annoyance. The Sisters beg that this infraction of their discipline will be overlooked, and they a.s.sure Mr. Glenarm that it will not recur.

An unnecessary apology! The note-paper was of the best quality. At the head of the page "St. Agatha's, Annandale" was embossed in purple. It was the first note I had received from a woman for a long time, and it gave me a pleasant emotion. One of the Sisters I had seen beyond the wall undoubtedly wrote it--possibly Sister Theresa herself. A clever woman, that! Thoroughly capable of plucking money from guileless old gentlemen! Poor Olivia! born for freedom, but doomed to a pent-up existence with a lot of nuns! I resolved to send her a box of candy sometime, just to annoy her grim guardians. Then my own affairs claimed attention.

"Bates," I asked, "do you know what Mr. Glenarm did with the plans for the house?"

He started slightly. I should not have noticed it if I had not been keen for his answer.

"No, sir. I can't put my hand upon them, sir."

"That's all very well, Bates, but you didn't answer my question. Do you know where they are? I'll put my hand on them if you will kindly tell me where they're kept."

"Mr. Glenarm, I fear very much that they have been destroyed. I tried to find them before you came, to tell you the whole truth, sir; but they must have been made 'way with."

"That's very interesting, Bates. Will you kindly tell me whom you suspect of destroying them? The toast again, please."

His hand shook as he pa.s.sed the plate.

"I hardly like to say, sir, when it's only a suspicion."

"Of course I shouldn't ask you to incriminate yourself, but I'll have to insist on my question. It may have occurred to you, Bates, that I'm in a sense--in a sense, mind you--the master here."

"Well, I should say, if you press me, that I fear Mr. Glenarm, your grandfather, burned the plans when he left here the last time. I hope you will pardon me, sir, for seeming to reflect upon him."

"Reflect upon the devil! What was his idea, do you suppose?"

"I think, sir, if you will pardon--"

"Don't be so fussy!" I snapped. "d.a.m.n your pardon, and go on!"

"He wanted you to study out the place for yourself, sir. It was dear to his heart, this house. He set his heart upon having you enjoy it--"

"I like the word--go ahead."

"And I suppose there are things about it that he wished you to learn for yourself."

"You know them, of course, and are watching me to see when I'm hot or cold, like kids playing hide the handkerchief."

The fellow turned and faced me across the table.

"Mr. Glenarm, as I hope G.o.d may be merciful to me in the last judgment, I don't know any more than you do."

"You were here with Mr. Glenarm all the time he was building the house, but you never saw walls built that weren't what they appeared to be, or doors made that didn't lead anywhere."

I summoned all my irony and contempt for this arraignment. He lifted his hand, as though making oath.

"As G.o.d sees me, that is all true. I was here to care for the dead master's comfort and not to spy on him."

"And Morgan, your friend, what about him?"

"I wish I knew, sir."

"I wish to the devil you did," I said, and flung out of the room and into the library.

At eleven o'clock I heard a pounding at the great front door and Bates came to announce a caller, who was now audibly knocking the snow from his shoes in the outer hall.

"The Reverend Paul Stoddard, sir."

The chaplain of St. Agatha's was a big fellow, as I had remarked on the occasion of his interview with Olivia Gladys Armstrong by the wall. His light brown hair was close-cut; his smooth-shaven face was bright with the freshness of youth. Here was a st.u.r.dy young apostle without frills, but with a vigorous grip that left my hand tingling. His voice was deep and musical--a voice that suggested sincerity and inspired confidence.

"I'm afraid I haven't been neighborly, Mr. Glenarm. I was called away from home a few days after I heard of your arrival, and I have just got back. I blew in yesterday with the snow-storm."

He folded his arms easily and looked at me with cheerful directness, as though politely interested in what manner of man I might be.

"It was a fine storm; I got a great day out of it," I said. "An Indiana snow-storm is something I have never experienced before."

"This is my second winter. I came out here because I wished to do some reading, and thought I'd rather do it alone than in a university."

"Studious habits are rather forced on one out here, I should say. In my own case my course of reading is all cut out for me."

He ran his eyes over the room.

"The Glenarm collection is famous--the best in the country, easily. Mr. Glenarm, your grandfather, was certainly an enthusiast. I met him several times; he was a trifle hard to meet,"--and the clergyman smiled.

I felt rather uncomfortable, a.s.suming that he probably knew I was undergoing discipline, and why my grandfather had so ordained it. The Reverend Paul Stoddard was so simple, unaffected and manly a fellow that I shrank from the thought that I must appear to him an ungrateful blackguard whom my grandfather had marked with obloquy.

"My grandfather had his whims; but he was a fine, generous-hearted old gentleman," I said.

"Yes; in my few interviews with him he surprised me by the range of his knowledge. He was quite able to instruct me in certain curious branches of church history that had appealed to him."

"You were here when he built the house, I suppose?"

My visitor laughed cheerfully.

"I was on my side of the barricade for a part of the time. You know there was a great deal of mystery about the building of this house. The country-folk hereabouts can't quite get over it. They have a superst.i.tion that there's treasure buried somewhere on the place. You see, Mr. Glenarm wouldn't employ any local labor. The work was done by men he brought from afar--none of them, the villagers say, could speak English. They were all Greeks or Italians."

"I have heard something of the kind," I remarked, feeling that here was a man who with a little cultivating might help me to solve some of my riddles.

"You haven't been on our side of the wall yet? Well, I promise not to molest your hidden treasure if you'll be neighborly."

"I fear there's a big joke involved in the hidden treasure," I replied. "I'm so busy staying at home to guard it that I have no time for social recreation."

He looked at me quickly to see whether I was joking. His eyes were steady and earnest. The Reverend Paul Stoddard impressed me more and more agreeably. There was a suggestion of a quiet strength about him that drew me to him.

"I suppose every one around here thinks of nothing but that I'm at Glenarm to earn my inheritance. My residence here must look pretty sordid from the outside."

"Mr. Glenarm's will is a matter of record in the county, of course. But you are too hard on yourself. It's n.o.body's business if your grandfather wished to visit his whims on you. I should say, in my own case, that I don't consider it any of my business what you are here for. I didn't come over to annoy you or to pry into your affairs. I get lonely now and then, and thought I'd like to establish neighborly relations."

"Thank you; I appreciate your coming very much," --and my heart warmed under the manifest kindness of the man.

"And I hope"--he spoke for the first time with restraint --"I hope nothing may prevent your knowing Sister Theresa and Miss Devereux. They are interesting and charming--the only women about here of your own social status."

My liking for him abated slightly. He might be a detective, representing the alternative heir, for all I knew, and possibly Sister Theresa was a party to the conspiracy.

"In time, no doubt, in time, I shall know them," I answered evasively.

"Oh, quite as you like!"--and he changed the subject. We talked of many things--of outdoor sports, with which he showed great familiarity, of universities, of travel and adventure. He was a Columbia man and had spent two years at Oxford.

"Well," he exclaimed, "this has been very pleasant, but I must run. I have just been over to see Morgan, the caretaker at the resort village. The poor fellow accidentally shot himself yesterday, cleaning his gun or something of that sort, and he has an ugly hole in his arm that will shut him in for a month or worse. He gave me an errand to do for him. He's a conscientious fellow and wished me to wire for him to Mr. Pickering that he'd been hurt, but was attending to his duties. Pickering owns a cottage over there, and Morgan has charge of it. You know Pickering, of course?"

I looked my clerical neighbor straight in the eye, a trifle coldly perhaps. I was wondering why Morgan, with whom I had enjoyed a duel in my own cellar only a few hours before, should be reporting his injury to Arthur Pickering.

"I think I have seen Morgan about here," I said.

"Oh, yes! He's a woodsman and a hunter--our Nimrod of the lake."

"A good sort, very likely!"

"I dare say. He has sometimes brought me ducks during the season."

"To be sure! They shoot ducks at night--these Hoosier hunters--so I hear!"

He laughed as he shook himself into his greatcoat.

"That's possible, though unsportsmanlike. But we don't have to look a gift mallard in the eye."

We laughed together. I found that it was easy to laugh with him.

"By the way, I forgot to get Pickering's address from Morgan. If you happen to have it--"

"With pleasure," I said. "Alexis Building, Broadway, New York."

"Good! That's easy to remember," he said, smiling and turning up his coat collar. "Don't forget me; I'm quartered in a hermit's cell back of the chapel, and I believe we can find many matters of interest to talk about."

"I'm confident of it," I said, glad of the sympathy and cheer that seemed to emanate from his stalwart figure.

I threw on my overcoat and walked to the gate with him, and saw him hurry toward the village with long strides.

CHAPTER XII.

I EXPLORE A Pa.s.sAGE.

"Bates!"--I found him busy replenishing the candlesticks in the library--it seemed to me that he was always poking about with an armful of candles--"there are a good many queer things in this world, but I guess you're one of the queerest. I don't mind telling you that there are times when I think you a thoroughly bad lot, and then again I question my judgment and don't give you credit for being much more than a doddering fool."

He was standing on a ladder beneath the great crystal chandelier that hung from the center of the ceiling, and looked down upon me with that patient injury that is so appealing in a dog--in, say, the eyes of an Irish setter, when you accidentally step on his tail. That look is heartbreaking in a setter, but, seen in a man, it arouses the direst homicidal feelings of which I am capable.

"Yes, Mr. Glenarm," he replied humbly.

"Now, I want you to grasp this idea that I'm going to dig into this old sh.e.l.l top and bottom; I'm going to blow it up with dynamite, if I please; and if I catch you spying on me or reporting my doings to my enemies, or engaging in any questionable performances whatever, I'll hang you between the posts out there in the school-wall--do you understand?--so that the sweet Sisters of St. Agatha and the dear little school-girls and the chaplain and all the rest will shudder through all their lives at the very thought of you."

"Certainly, Mr. Glenarm,"--and his tone was the same he would have used if I had asked him to pa.s.s me the matches, and under my breath I consigned him to the harshest tortures of the fiery pit.

"Now, as to Morgan--"

"Yes, sir."

"What possible business do you suppose he has with Mr. Pickering?" I demanded.

"Why, sir, that's clear enough. Mr. Pickering owns a house up the lake--he got it through your grandfather. Morgan has the care of it, sir."

"Very plausible, indeed!"--and I sent him off to his work.

After luncheon I went below and directly to the end of the corridor, and began to sound the walls. To the eye they were all alike, being of cement, and substantial enough. Through the area window I saw the solid earth and snow; surely there was little here to base hope upon, and my wonder grew at the ease with which Morgan had vanished through a barred window and into frozen ground.