The Room with the Tassels

Mr. Tracy, always graceful in social matters, helped pass the cups and plates, for no one liked to have the old Thorpes about unnecessarily.

“No tea for me, please,” declared Norma; “I think it upsets my nerves, – ”

“And that is not the thing to do in this house,” laughed Landon. “This is mighty good tea, though, – didn’t know anybody could brew it as well as Milly. Congratulations, Eve.”

“Thank you,” and Eve’s long lashes swept upward as she gave him a coquettish glance.

“Referring to that matter of which we were talking, Hardwick,” Gifford Bruce began, “I – ”

Even as he spoke, the clock chimed four, and, as always, they paused to count the long, slow strokes.

Then Bruce began again: “I think, myself – ”

A strange change passed over his face. His jaw fell, his eyes stared, and then, his teacup fell from his hand, and he slumped down in an awful – a terrifying heap!

Landon sprang to his assistance, Norma ran to him, while Tracy, with a quick glance at Vernie, flew to the child’s side.

“What is it?” he cried to her, “what’s the matter, Vernie?” He slipped an arm round her, just as, with a wild look and a ringing shriek, the girl’s head fell back and her eyes closed.

“Oh,” cried Eve, “what has happened?”

“I don’t know,” and Tracy’s voice shook. “Help me, Miss Carnforth – let us lay her on this sofa.”

Between them they carried the girl, for she was past muscular effort, and as they placed her gently on the sofa her eyes fluttered, she gave a gasping sigh, and fell back, inert.

“Oh,” cried Eve, “she isn’t – she isn’t—oh, it’s just four o’clock!”

Landon ran to Vernie’s side and felt of her heart.

“She is dead,” he said, solemnly, his face white, his voice shaking; “and Gifford Bruce is dead, too. It is four o’clock!”

CHAPTER VII

The Mystery

In the panic-stricken moments that followed the realization of the double tragedy, the natural characteristics of all those present showed themselves. Eve Carnforth, strong and calm, suddenly became self-appointed dictator.

“Lay Mr. Bruce flat on his back,” she called out, as she darted upstairs for her room, and returned with smelling salts, ammonia and such things.

Tracy, also capable and self-possessed, took a vial from her and held it before the face of the stricken child, while others strove to bring back to consciousness the motionless figure of Gifford Bruce, now stretched on the floor.

“It’s no use,” declared Landon, flinging the beads of sweat from his forehead, “they are dead, – both of them. Oh, what does it mean?”

Norma sat in a big chair, her hands clutching its carved arms, and her face stony white. She was using all her will power to keep from utter collapse, and she couldn’t understand how Eve could be so natural and self-possessed.

“Brace up, Norma,” Eve admonished her; “here, take this salts-bottle. Now is no time to make more trouble!”

The brusque words had the effect of rousing Norma, and she forced herself to rise.

“What can I do?” she whispered.

“Do!” cried Eve, “there’s everything to do! Some one telephone for a doctor!”

“I – can’t,” Norma moaned. “You do that, Professor, – won’t you?”

“Oh, I can’t!” and Hardwick fell limply into a chair. “I – I’m all upset – ”

“Of course you are, Professor,” said Tracy, kindly. “I’ll telephone, Miss Carnforth. Do you know the village doctor’s name? Of course, – it’s too late – ” he glanced at the two still forms, “but a physician must be summoned.”

“No, I don’t know any name, – call Thorpe, or Hester.”

Tracy rang a bell and Thorpe came shuffling in.

At sight of the tragedy, he turned and ran, screaming. Hester came, and proved the more useful of the two. Her stolidity was helpful, and she told the doctor’s name and number.

“Dead, ain’t they?” she said, with a grieved intonation that robbed her words of curtness. “What happened to ’em?”

The simple question roused them all. What had happened? What had killed two strong, well, able-bodied people at the same moment, and that the very moment said to be fatal in that dread house?

“I believe,” said the Professor, dropping his face in his hands, “I believe now in the supernatural. Nothing else can explain this thing.”

“Of course not,” and Eve solemnly acquiesced. “There is no possibility of anything else. What could kill them, like this, at once, and at four o’clock exactly, except a supernormal agent?”

“But that seems so impossible!” and Tracy’s practical, matter-of-fact voice did indeed make it seem so.

“What else is possible?” broke in Landon. “It isn’t suicide, it isn’t murder. It isn’t death from natural causes, – at least, it can’t be in Vernie’s case, – I suppose Mr. Bruce might have died from heart disease.”

“That’s why we want a doctor,” said Eve. “We can judge nothing until we know the immediate cause of death.”

“I wish we were in the city,” Tracy said; “the doctor will be nearly an hour getting here, I suppose.”

“Did you tell him all?” asked Eve.

“No, I didn’t. It didn’t seem wise to spread the news in that way. I told him to get here as soon as he possibly could, – that it was a matter of life and death.”

“Which it certainly is,” murmured Norma. “Oh, Eve, what do you really think?”

Eve Carnforth looked at the other girl. Eve, so poised and collected, strength and will power written in every line of her face, – Norma so fragile, and shaken by the awful scenes about her.

“I don’t know what to think,” Eve replied, slowly. “There’s only one thing certain, Vernie received a warning of death, – and Vernie is dead. Mr. Bruce received no definite warning, that I know of, but he may have had one. You know, he said he was visited by the phantom, but we wouldn’t believe him.”

“That’s so!” and Tracy looked up in surprise. “We never quite believed Mr. Bruce’s statements, because he scorned all talk of spirit manifestations. If he really did see the ghost that night that he said he did – ”

“Of course he did,” declared Eve. “I believed him all the time. I can always tell when any one is speaking the truth. It’s part of my sensitive nature.”

Wynne Landon stalked about the hall like a man in torment. “What shall I do with Milly?” he groaned. “She and Braye will be back soon, – any minute now. She mustn’t see these – ”

“They ought to be placed in some other room,” said Eve, gently.