The Secret of Lonesome Cove Part 12

A sheep-herder had risen in his place, and without the formality of an oath told of sighting the body at the edge of the surf at seven o'clock in the morning. Others, following, testified to the position on the beach, the lashing of the body to the grating, the wounds, and the manacles. Doctor Breed announced briefly that the deceased had come to her death by drowning, and that the skull had been crushed in, presumably, when the waves hammered the body upon the reefs.

"Then the corpse must have come from a good ways out," said Sailor Smith; "for the reefs wouldn't catch it at that tide."

"n.o.body knows how the dead come to Lonesome Cove," said the sheriff in his deep voice.

There was a murmur of a.s.sent. The people felt a certain pride in the ill-omened locality.

Elder Ira Dennett was the next and last witness called. Somewhere beneath the Elder's dry exterior lurked the instinct of the drama.

Stalking to the platform, he told his story with skill and fervor. He made a telling point of the newly finished picture he had seen in Sedgwick's studio, depicting the moonlit charge of the wave-mounted corpse. He sketched out the encounter between the artist and the dead woman vividly. As he proceeded, the glances turned upon Sedgwick darkened from suspicion to enmity. Kent was almost ready to wish that he had come armed, when Dennett, with a final fling of his arm toward the artist, stepped from the platform and resumed his seat, amid a surcharged silence.

Then Sedgwick rose. He was white; but his voice was under perfect control as he said, "I presume I have the right to be heard in my own defense?"

"n.o.body's accused you yet," growled Schlager.

"Public opinion accuses me. That is not to be wondered at, in view of what Elder Dennett has just told you. It is all true. But I do not know the woman who accosted me. I never saw her before that evening. She spoke strangely to me, and indicated that she was to meet some one and go aboard ship, though I saw no sign of a ship."

"You couldn't see much of the ocean from your house," said the medical officer.

"I walked on the cliffs later," said Sedgwick, and a murmur went through the court room; "but I never found the woman. And as for throwing her out of a ship, or any such fantastic nonsense, I can prove that I was back in my house by a little after nine o'clock that night."

He sat down, coolly enough; but his eyes dilated when Kent whispered to him:

"Keep your nerve. The probability will be shown that she was killed before ten o'clock."

Now, however, Doctor Breed was on his feet again. "Form in line, ladies and gentlemen," said he, "and pa.s.s the coffin as spry as possible."

At this, Sheriff Schlager stepped forward and loosened the hasps, preparatory to removing the cover. "The body has been left," said he, slipping the lid aside, "just as-" Of a sudden, his eyes stiffened. A convulsive shudder ran through his big body. He jammed the cover back, and, with fingers that actually drummed on the wood, forced the hasps into place.

"She's come to life!" cried a voice from the rear.

"No, no!" rumbled the sheriff. Whirling upon the medical officer, he whispered in his ear; not more than a single word, it seemed to the watchful Kent.

The doctor turned ghastly. "Gents," he said in a quavering voice to the amazed crowd, "the program will not be carried out as arranged.

The-the-well, the condition of the deceased is not fitten-" He stopped, mopping his brow.

But Yankee curiosity was not so easily to be balked of its food. It found expression in Lawyer Adam Bain.

"That ain't the law, Doc," he said.

"I'm the law here," declared Sheriff Schlager, planting himself solidly between the crowd and the coffin. One hand crept slowly back toward his hip.

"Don't pull any gun on me," retorted the lawyer quietly. "It ain't necessary."

"You heard Doc Breed say the body wasn't fitten to be viewed," pursued the sheriff.

"That's all right, too. But the doc hasn't got the final word. The law has."

A quick murmur of a.s.sent pa.s.sed through the room.

"And the law says," continued Bain, "that the body shall be duly viewed.

Otherwise, and the deceased being buried without view, an order of the court to exhume may be obtained."

"Look at Breed," whispered Kent to Sedgwick.

The medical officer's lips were gray, as he leaned forward to pluck at the sheriff's arm. There was a whispered colloquy between them. Then Breed spoke, with a pitiful effort at self-control:

"Lawyer Bain's point is correct; undoubtedly correct. But the body must be prepared. It ought to 'a' been looked to last night. But somehow I-we-Will six citizens kindly volunteer to fetch the coffin back to my house?"

Ten times six offered their services. The box was carried out swiftly, followed by the variable hum of excited conjecture. Quickly the room emptied itself, except for a few stragglers.

CHAPTER V-ONE USE FOR A MONOCLE

Sedgwick, who had followed the impromptu cortege with his vision, was brought up sharply by the glare of a pair of eyes outside the nearest window. The eyes were fixed on his own. Their expression was distinctly malevolent. Without looking round, Sedgwick said in a low voice:

"Kent!"

No answer came.

"Kent!" said the artist a little louder.

"Huh?" responded a m.u.f.fled and abstracted voice behind him.

"See here for a moment."

There was neither sound nor movement from the scientist.

"An Indian-looking chap outside the window is trying to hypnotize me, or something of the sort."

This information, deemed by its giver to be of no small interest, elicited not the faintest response. Somewhat piqued, the artist turned, to behold his friend stretched on a bench, with face to the ceiling, eyes closed, and heels on the raised end. His lips moved faintly.

Alarmed lest the heat had been too much for him, Sedgwick bent over the upturned face. From the moving lips issued a musical breath which began its career softly as Raff's _Cavatina_ and came to an inglorious end in the strains of _Honey Boy_. Sedgwick shook the whistler insistently.

"Eh? What?" cried Kent, wrenching his shoulder free. "Go away! Can't you see I'm busy?"

"I'll give you something to think about. Look at this face of a cigar-store Indian at the window. No! It's gone!"

"Gansett Jim, probably," opined Kent. "Just where his interest in this case comes in, I haven't yet found out. He favored me with his regard outside. And he had some dealings with the sheriff on the beach. But I don't want to talk about him now, nor about anything else."

Acting on this hint, Sedgwick let his companion severely alone, until a bustle from without warned him that the crowd was returning. Being aroused, Kent accosted one of the villagers who had just entered.

"Body coming back?" he asked.

"Yep. On its way now."

"What occurred in the house where they took it?"