Part 46 (1/2)

”It's his affair, not mine. He thinks he has a certain interest in you.”

Then he turned in exasperation to the sheriff. ”Can you give me a little information, Mr. Kellar? What has that Swede to do with me? Why am I arrested for the murder of my own self--preposterous! I, a man as alive as you are? You can see for yourself that I am Elder Craigmile's son. You know me?”

”I know the Elder fairly well--every one in Leauvite knows him, but I can't say as I've ever taken particular notice of his boy, and, anyway, the boy was murdered three years ago--a little over--for it was in the fall of the year--well, that's most four years--and I must say it's a mighty clever dodge, as Mr. Stiles says, for you to play off this on us. It's a matter that will bear looking into. Now you sit down here and hold on to yourself, while I go through your things.

You'll get them all, never fear.”

Then Harry King sat down and looked off through the open window, and paid no heed to what the men were doing. They might turn his large valise inside out and read every sc.r.a.p of written paper. There was nothing to give the slightest clew to his ident.i.ty. He had left the envelope addressed to the Elder, containing the letters he had written, at the bank, to be placed in the safety vault, and not to be delivered until ordered to do so by himself.

As they finished their search and restored the articles to his valise, he asked again that the handcuffs be left off as he walked through the streets.

”I have no desire to escape. It is my wish to go with you. I only wish I might have seen the--my father first. He could not have helped me--but he would have understood--it would have seemed less--”

He could not go on, and the sheriff slipped the handcuffs in his pocket, and they proceeded in silence to the courthouse, where he listened to the reading of the warrant and his indictment in dazed stupefaction, and then walked again in silence between his captors to the jail in the rear.

”No one has ever been in this cell,” said Mr. Kellar. ”I'm doing the best I can for you.”

”How long must I stay here? Who brings accusation?”

”I don't know how long: as this is a murder charge you can't be bailed out, and the trial will take time. The Elder brings accusation--naturally.”

”When is he expected home?”

”Can't say. You'll have some one to defend you, and then you can ask all the questions you wish.” The sheriff closed the heavy door and the key was turned.

Then began weary days of waiting. If it had been possible to get the trial over with, Harry would have been glad, but it made little difference to him now, since the step had been taken, and a trial in his case would only be a verdict, anyway--and confession was a simple thing, and the hearing also.

The days pa.s.sed, and he wondered that no one came to him--no friend of the old time. Where were Bertrand Ballard and Mary? Where was little Betty? Did they not know he was in jail? He did not know that others had been arrested on the same charge and released, more than once.

True, no one had made the claim of being the Elder's own son and the murdered man himself. As such incidents were always disturbing to Betty, when Bertrand read the notice of the arrest in the _Mercury_, the paper was laid away in his desk and his little daughter was spared the sight of it this time.

But he spoke of the matter to his wife. ”Here is another case of arrest for poor Peter Junior's murder, Mary. The man claims to be Peter Junior himself, but as he registered at the hotel under an a.s.sumed name it is likely to be only another attempt to get the reward money by some detective. It was very unwise for the Elder to make it so large a sum.”

”It can't be. Peter Junior would never be so cruel as to stay away all this time, if he were alive, no matter how deeply he may have quarreled with his father. I believe they both went over the bluff and are both dead.”

”It stands to reason that one or the other body would have been found in that case. One might be lost, but hardly both. The search was very thorough, even down to the mill race ten miles below.”

”The current is so swift there, they might have been carried over the race, and on, before the search began. I think so, although no one else seems to.”

”I wish the Elder would remove that temptation of the reward. It is only an inducement to crime. Time alone will solve the mystery, and as long as he continues to brood over it, he will go on failing in health. It's coming to an obsession with him to live to see Richard Kildene hung, and some one will have to swing for it if he has his way. Now he will return and find this man in jail, and will bend every effort, and give all his thought toward getting him convicted.”

”But I thought you said they do not hang in this state.”

”True--true. But imprisonment for life is--worse. I'm thinking of what the Elder would like could he have his way.”

”Bertrand--I believe the Elder is sure the man will be found and that it will kill his wife, when she comes to know that Peter Junior was murdered, and that is why he took her to Scotland. She told me she was sure her son was there, or would go to see his great aunts there, and that is why she consented to go--but I'm sure the Elder wished to get her out of the way.”

”Strange--strange,” said Bertrand. ”After all, it is better to forgive. No one knows what transpired, and Richard is the real sufferer.”

”Do you suppose he'll leave Hester there, Bertrand?”