The Mystery of the Sycamore

“It’s a bad lookout! All I can say now, is, to preserve a non-committal demeanor, and keep things stationary as much as you can. Maybe when I come back, we can – well, at least muddle things so – ”

“Complicate the evidence! So that it won’t indicate – ”

“Be careful now! You know what compounding a felony means, don’t you? Oh, Allen, you’re so young and impulsive, and the Wheelers are so emotional and indiscreet, I wonder what will happen before I get back!”

“Somebody ought to be in charge here.”

“Yes, some good lawyer, or some level-headed person who would hold back those fool detectives, and look out for the interests of the Wheelers.”

“I wish you could stay.”

“I wish so, too, but I’ll do all I can to return quickly. And Mr. Wheeler ought to be able to look after his own affairs!”

“I know he ought to – but he isn’t. Also, I ought to, but I’m not!”

“Yes you are, Jeffrey,” cried Maida, who had happened along in time to hear the young man’s depreciation of himself.

“Hello, Maida,” he turned to her. “What did you mean by making up that string of falsehoods?”

“Don’t talk about it, Jeff,” and the girl’s face went white. “If you do, I shall go mad!”

“I don’t wonder, Miss Wheeler,” said Keefe, sympathetically. “Now, as I’ve just told Allen, I’m coming back as soon as I can make it, and until I do, won’t you try to hold off those men? Don’t let them pound you and your parents into admissions better left unmade. I’m not asking you any questions, I’ve no right to, but I beg of you to keep your own counsel. If you are shielding someone, say as little as possible. If you are guilty yourself, say nothing.”

“‘Guilty herself!’ You’ve no right to say such a thing!” Allen cried out.

“Of course I have,” Keefe returned, “when I heard Miss Wheeler avow the crime! But I must go now. Here’s the car. Good-bye, both of you, and – Miss Wheeler, if I may advise, don’t confide too much – in anybody.”

The last words were spoken in an aside, and if Allen heard them he gave no sign. He bade Keefe good-bye with a preoccupied air, and as others joined them then, he waited till the car started, and then took Maida’s arm and led her away, toward the garden.

Miss Lane, of course, went with Keefe, and as the girls parted Maida had suddenly felt a sense of loneliness.

“I liked Genevieve a lot,” she said to Allen, as they walked away.

“I didn’t,” he returned.

“Oh, Jeff, you are so quick to take prejudices against people. I don’t mean I’m specially fond of Genevieve, but she was kind to me, and now I do seem so alone.”

“Alone, Maida? When you have your parents and me? What do you mean?”

“I can’t tell you, exactly, but I seem to want someone – someone with wide experience and educated judgment – to whom I can go for advice.”

“Won’t I do, dear?”

“You’re kind enough and loving enough – but, Jeff, you don’t know things! I mean, you haven’t had experience in – in criminal cases – ”

“Come on, Maida, let’s have it out. What about this criminal case of ours? For it’s mine as much as it’s yours.”

“Oh, no, it isn’t, Jeff. You’ve nothing to do with it. I must bear my burden alone – and – I must ask you to release me from our engagement – ”

“Which I will never do! How absurd! Now, Maida mine, if you won’t speak out, I must. I know perfectly well you never killed Mr. Appleby. I know, too, that you saw either your father or mother kill him and you’re trying to shield the criminal. Very right, too, except that you mustn’t keep the truth from me. How can I help you, dear, unless I know what you’re doing – or trying to do? So, tell me the truth – now.”

“I can’t tell you more than I have, Jeff,” Maida spoke with a long-drawn sigh. “You must believe me. And as a – a murderer, I never, of course, shall marry.”

“Maida, you’re a transparent little prevaricator! Don’t think I don’t realize the awful situation, for I do, but I can’t – I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for either of your parents. I don’t ask you which one it was – in fact, I’d rather you wouldn’t tell me – but I do ask you to believe that I know it wasn’t you. Now, drop that foolishness.”

“Jeffrey,” and Maida spoke very solemnly, “don’t you believe that I could kill a man? If he was so cruel, so dangerous to my father – my dear father, that I couldn’t stand it another minute, don’t you believe I’d be capable of killing him?”

“We’ve spoken of that before, Maida, and I think I said I believed you would be capable, in a moment of sudden, intense anger and excitement – ”

“Well, then, why do you doubt my word? I told the detectives – I tell you, that the moment came – I saw my father, under stress of terrible anger – in immediate, desperate danger from Samuel Appleby. I – I shot – to kill – ” the girl broke down and Jeffrey took the slender, quivering form in his arms.

“All right, sweetheart,” he whispered, “don’t say another word – I understand. I don’t blame you – how could you think I would! I just want to help you. How can I best do that?”

But Maida could not tell him. Her tears, once started, came in torrents. Her whole frame shook with the intensity of her sobs, and, unable to control herself at all, she ran from him into the house and up to her own room.

“What did you find out?” Burdon asked, coming out from behind a nearby clump of shrubbery.

“You sneak, you cad!” Allen cried, but the detective stopped him.

“Now, look here, Mr. Allen,” he said, “we’re here to do our duty, said duty being to discover the perpetrator of a pretty awful crime. You may be so minded as to let the murderer go scot-free, even help him or her to make a getaway, but I can’t indulge in any such philanthropic scheme. Mr. Appleby’s been foully murdered, and it’s up to the law to find out the killer and see justice done. My job is not a pleasant one, but I’ve got to see it through, and that’s all there is about that! Now, this case is what we call open-and-shut. The murderer is sure and positively one of three people – said three people being known to us. So, I’ve just got to use all my powers to discover which of the three I’m really after, and when I find that out, then make my arrest. But I’ve no desire to nab the wrong one.”

“Which one do you think it is?” demanded Allen, angrily.

“I’ve got no right nor reason to think it’s either one. I’ve got to find out for sure, not just think it. So, I ask you what you learned just now from Miss Wheeler, and why did she run to the house, weeping like a willow tree?”

“I found out nothing that would throw any light on your quest, and she wept because her nerves are strained to the breaking point with worry and exhaustion.”

“And I don’t wonder!” the detective spoke sympathetically. “But all the same, I’m obliged to keep on investigating, and I must ask you what she said to you just now.”

Allen thought over the conversation he had had with Maida. Then he said: “I am telling the truth when I say there was no word said between us that would be of any real use to you. Miss Wheeler is my fiancée, and I tried to comfort her, and also to assure her anew of my faithfulness and devotion in her trouble.”

“And what did she say?”

“Without remembering her words exactly, I think I can state that she said nothing more than to reiterate that she had killed Mr. Appleby. But I want to state also, that I believe she said it, as she said it to you, to shield some one else.”

“Her parents – or, one of them?”

“That is the reasonable supposition. But I do not accuse either of the elder Wheelers. I still suspect an intruder from outside.”

“Of course you do… Anybody in your position would. But there was none such. It was one of the three Wheelers, and I’ll proceed to find out which one.”

“Just how do you propose to find out?”

“Well, the one that did it is very likely to give it away. It’s mighty difficult to be on your guard every minute, and with one guilty, and two shielding, and all three knowing, which is which, as I’ve no doubt they do, why, it’s a cinch that one of the three breaks down through sheer overcarefulness pretty soon.”

“That’s true enough,” Allen agreed, ruefully. “Is that your only plan?”

“Yes, except to look up the weapon. It’s a great help, always, to find the revolver.”