The Room with the Tassels

“We must settle some things,” Braye said, looking at Landon. “I arranged to send the bodies to Chicago, – of course, I didn’t know – ”

“Isn’t it terrible!” exclaimed Norma. “What shall you do now?”

“I think I’ll send Uncle Gif’s body, at once, and hope to find Vernie’s later. It must be found – ” Braye looked about wildly. “I wish I had been here last night! Oh, forgive me, I’m not casting any hint of blame on you others, but, – well, you know I wasn’t here when – when it happened, either, and I can’t sense it all as you do. Professor Hardwick, what do you think about it all?”

“I’m an old man, Braye, and I’ve had wide experience, also, I’m a hard one to convince without strong and definite proof, but I’ll state now, once for all, that I’m a complete convert to spiritism and I believe, – I know, – these deaths of our friends were the acts of an inimical spirit, a phantasm, incensed at our curiosity concerning the occult, and our frivolous attitude toward the whole subject.”

“You really believe that, Professor?”

“I really do, Braye, and moreover I am convinced that the disappearance of – of little Vernie, is the work of the evil spirit. What else can explain it?”

“Nothing that I know of, but I can’t swallow the idea of a disembodied spirit making off with a real, material body! I wish I’d been here! Didn’t anybody see or hear anything?”

“No,” declared Landon, but Norma gave a quick glance at Eve, who returned it with a defiant toss of her Titian-coloured head.

“Why do you look at me like that, Norma?” she asked, shortly.

“Why do I?” Norma repeated in a soft significant tone. “I think you know, Eve.”

“Well, I for one, shall stay up here for a time, and see how matters go on,” said Braye, with sudden determination. “Who else wants to stay?”

“I do,” said Professor Hardwick, “I think we’ve by no means seen the last of the manifestations, and though I feel there is a danger, I am ready to brave it for the sake of investigating further.”

“I don’t want to stay,” and Milly shook with nervous apprehension. “Can’t we go home, Wynne?”

“Very soon, darling. You can go at once, and I’ll follow as soon as things are adjusted up here. I think none of us ought to seem to run away.”

“Certainly not,” Tracy agreed, promptly. “The whole affair is so astounding, I can scarcely get my wits together, but I see clearly, no one must leave this house, until we are all exonerated from suspicion.”

“Not even me?” asked Milly, tearfully.

“That’s for you and Mr. Landon to decide,” returned Tracy, gently. “I’m not dictating, not even advising, but I have strong opinions on the subject. What say, Braye?”

“I quite agree with you, Tracy. But, I’m sure if Mrs. Landon prefers to go down to New York and stay at her mother’s no one could possibly object.”

“But I don’t!” Milly surprised them all by saying, “if you put it that way, – if it’s cowardly to go away, I don’t want to go. I want to stay, if Wynne does, and if Eve and Norma stay.”

“That’s my brave girl,” and Landon smiled at his wife; “I’ll guarantee that Milly won’t make any trouble, either. Once she’s awake to a duty, she’s bold as a lion. Now, see here, if Crawford stirs up suspicion of any of us, we’ll have to deal with him pretty roughly, I fear. He’s a pig-headed sort, and he will move heaven and earth to gain his point. Moreover, we can’t expect him to subscribe to spook theories, any more than those men Rudolph talked to in New York. One has to go through some such experiences as we have, to believe in them. You, Professor, would never have been convinced by hearsay evidence, would you?”

“No, sir, I would not! It took these otherwise inexplicable happenings to prove to me that there is but one way to look. Even a coroner can’t produce a human criminal who could kill those two people the way they were killed, and who could get into and out of this house and take a human body with him! The thing is preposterous!”

“You know the doors and windows were all locked?” asked Braye, thoughtfully.

“I looked after them, myself,” said Landon. “I always do. After the last one goes upstairs for the night, I invariably look after the locking up. And the house, properly locked, is impregnable. The servants’ quarters are shut off and locked; there is absolutely no way of getting in from outside.”

“Going back to Jennings’ theory,” mused Braye, “could we suspect old Thorpe?”

“Not for a minute,” declared Landon. “And, too, he wasn’t in the hall when they died. No, I’d trust Thorpe as far as I would any of ourselves. But, there’s Stebbins. I’ve never felt sure that he’s entirely trustworthy.”

“Even so,” said Braye, “he wasn’t here when – when they died.”

“No, he wasn’t. I can’t see any way he could have arranged things unless he poisoned the cake – ”

“Rubbish, Wynne!” cried Eve, “you know we all ate that cake. Do be rational.”

“But Mr. Bruce was poisoned, Eve, we can’t get away from that.”

“Of course he was,” broke in Hardwick, “and doubtless Vernie was too, but it was not done by human agency.”

“Well, there we go, reasoning round in a circle,” murmured Norma; “I think our talk is useless, when we surmise and speculate about it all. Let us decide on our immediate plans. Shall you send Mr. Bruce’s body to Chicago, and stay here yourself, Rudolph?”

“Yes, as I look at it now. I can’t see anything else to do.”

Nor was there anything else to do.

For Doctor Crawford persisted in treating the case as a criminal one, and requested that all concerned remain at Black Aspens for the present, with a hint that unless they did so, the request might become a command.

“Then you think the two people were murdered?” asked Landon of the county physician.

“I don’t say that, for sure; but when a man drops dead, and a trace of poison is found in his stomach, it looks mighty like an intention of death on some one’s part, – maybe the man himself. There’s a show of suicide, you know.”

“But Gifford Bruce never would commit suicide!”

“If only those committed suicide who are expected to do so, there’d be mighty few of them. Now, I hold that poison was taken into Mr. Bruce’s stomach while he was eating that cake, or whatever he did eat.”

“We agree to that,” Landon spoke slowly, “but some of us think the poison was put in by supernatural means.”

“Now, ain’t that nonsense, – for reasonable, rational men!” and Crawford’s fine scorn nettled Landon.

“Professor Hardwick doesn’t think it nonsense,” he returned.

The two were alone, Crawford having asked an interview with the man who had rented the house.

“Professor!” and Crawford fairly snorted. “For fool theories, commend me to a college professor. They can’t see two inches either side of their noses!”

“We have had reason to believe in spiritual manifestations,” went on Braye.

“Yes, and who gave you those reasons? Who rented this house to you folks, for the sole purpose of supplying you with a ha’nted house! Who knew that ghosts must be forthcoming, if you folks was to be satisfied? Who performed ghost doings himself, in order that you might not be disappointed?”

“What are you implying? That Mr. – that the owner tricked us?”

“That’s for you to find out. You came up here to investigate, as I understand it. Well, why don’t you investigate? You swallow all them ghosts and ha’ntings, and never look around to see who’s fooling you!”

“But, Doctor Crawford, what you insinuate is not possible. All the strange things we have seen or heard have occurred at night, or, – yes, – occasionally in the daytime, but always when Mr. Stebbins was at his home in East Dryden.”

“How do you know he was?”

“Why, he has never been to the house at all, except two or three times on commonplace errands, since we’ve been here. The supernatural manifestations we have observed had no more to do with him than they had with you!”