Part 44 (1/2)
”Are you sure you saw that person come in here?” they heard a voice ask--Jack's voice.
”I'm certain.” The voice that answered was Mary's.
”I'll bet it was a sneak thief,” said a third voice--Mr. Pyecroft's.
”To slip into a house at a funeral, or a wedding, when a lot of people are coming and going--that's one of their oldest tricks.” He turned the k.n.o.b, and finding the door locked, shook it violently. ”Open up, in there!” he called.
The three clung to one another for support.
”Better open up!” called a fourth voice--Judge Harvey's. ”For we know you're in there!”
Breathless, the trembling conspirators clung yet more desperately.
”But how could she get in?” queried the excited voice of Mary. ”I understood that Mrs. De Peyster locked the door before she went away.”
”Skeleton key,” was Mr. Pyecroft's brief explanation. ”Mrs. De Peyster, we three will watch the door to see she doesn't get out--there may have been more than one of her. You go and telephone for a locksmith and the police.”
”All right,” said Mary.
”It's--it's all over!” breathed Mrs. De Peyster.
”Oh, oh! What shall we ever do?” wailed Olivetta, collapsing into a chair.
”The police!--she mustn't go!” gasped Mrs. De Peyster. ”Open the door, Matilda, quick!” Then in a weak, quavering voice she called to her besiegers:--
”Wait!”
After which she wilted away into the nearest chair--which chanced to be directly beneath the awesome, unbending, blue-blue-blooded Mrs.
De Peyster of the golden frame, whose proud composure it was beyond things mortal to disturb.
CHAPTER XXII
A FAMILY REUNION
Matilda's shaking hand unlocked the door. Jack lunged in, behind him Mr. Pyecroft and Judge Harvey, and behind them Mary. On Jack's face was a look of menacing justice. But at sight of the trembling turnkey the invading party suddenly halted, and Jack's stern jaw relaxed and almost dropped from its sockets.
”Matilda!” he exclaimed. And from behind him, like a triplicate echo, sounded the others' ”Matilda!”
”Good--good-morning, Mr. Jack,” quavered Matilda, locking the door again.
Then the four sighted Olivetta.
”What, you, Olivetta!” Jack and Judge Harvey cried in unison.
”Yes, it's I, Jack,” she said with an hysterical laugh. ”I just thought I'd call in to express--it's no more than is proper, my being her cousin, you know,--to express my sympathy to your mother.”
”Your sympathy to my mother?”
”Yes. To--to tell her how--how sorry I am that she's dead,” elucidated Olivetta.