Kastle Krags: A Story of Mystery

by Absalom Martin

  CHAPTER XII

  Nealman was of course the most important witness. Further testimony wasreally only in corroboration of his. The coroner called on Marten next.

  This man spoke bluntly, answering all questions in a vigorous, rathermasterful voice. Financier, he said simply, in answer to the question asto his occupation.

  "You were with Mr. Nealman when you heard Florey's scream?"

  "Yes."

  "Who else was there?"

  "Mr. Van Hope and Mr. Killdare."

  "Do you know the exact location of any other of the guests at the timeof the murder?"

  "No, not exactly. They were all in rooms adjoining the living-room."

  "You're sure of that?"

  "Practically sure. They came in and out every few minutes."

  "Did you have any previous acquaintance with the dead man?"

  "None whatever."

  In reply to the coroner's questions, he testified as to the finding ofthe body, the nature of the scream we had heard and gave a similarreport as to the appearance of the wound. He had observed no suspiciousactions on the part of any one.

  "You led the search, I believe, through the gardens?"

  "Yes."

  "You were the one man that was armed. May I ask how you happened to havea pistol in the pocket of dinner clothes?"

  "I was held up, once," Marten replied straightforwardly. "Several yearsago. I've carried a pistol ever since."

  The coroner nodded. "Did your party stay together in searching thegardens, or did they scatter out?" he asked.

  "We scattered out. We couldn't have hoped to find any one if we hadstayed together. We called back and forth, however."

  "You kept track of one another all the time?"

  "I can't say that. The gardens and grounds are large and full ofshrubbery."

  "The search lasted--how long?"

  "Only a few minutes."

  The coroner dismissed him at this point, calling on Mr. Van Hope. Thelatter told of his long acquaintance with Nealman, and verified in everydetail the story that his friend had told.

  "And where were you, Mr. Dell, when the scream was heard?" the coronerasked.

  "In the library," was the reply. Major Dell spoke evenly, but his keen,flushed face showed that he was taking the most keen and lively interestin the proceedings.

  "Why weren't you with the others in the party?"

  "We were all running all over the house. I was trying to find Mr.Nealman's copy of Jordan's work on fish. Fargo and I had got into anargument about black bass."

  "Mr. Fargo was not with you at the time?"

  "I was alone. I had left Mr. Fargo at the billiard table."

  Weldon's voice changed in tone. "And how did the argument come out, mayI ask."

  Major Dell smiled dryly. "It isn't concluded yet," he said.

  The coroner paused, then took a new tack. "You heard the sounddistinctly?"

  "Distinctly, but probably not so clearly as Mr. Nealman heard it. Thelibrary is back of the lounging-room."

  "Then what did you do?"

  "I ran outside. I joined Nealman and some of the other guests on thegrounds, and went down with them to investigate."

  "You took part in the hunt through the grounds?"

  "Yes. I beat back and forth with the rest."

  "And saw or heard nothing suspicious?"

  "Something moved in the shrubbery, but we couldn't locate it. Nealmanthought afterward it was a raccoon or some other small animal."

  "You knew Mr. Florey?"

  "I had never set eyes upon him before."

  "You've had long acquaintance with Mr. Nealman, however?"

  Major Dell hesitated, just an instant. "No. I had never met Mr. Nealmanuntil last night."

  The coroner's interest quickened. "You didn't? How did you happen to beincluded among his guests?"

  "I was a great friend of his friend, Mr. Van Hope. I was invited throughhis kindness. He wanted me to have a taste of shooting and fishing."

  "What is your occupation, Mr. Dell?"

  "I am interested in finance, in a modest way."

  "You saw, heard or knew of nothing connected with this murder that youhaven't testified."

  "No." Dell paused, considering. "Nothing, I'm sure."

  "I say 'murder.' Testimony has gone to show that Florey was dead, notjust severely wounded, when you and the others reached his side. Mr.Dell, do you think there is any possibility that life remained in hisbody when you saw him beside the inlet?"

  Dell spoke clearly. "None whatever," he said.

  "You speak very sure."

  "I am sure. I've seen too many dead men ever to make a mistake. Theposition of the body, the features--everything told it as plain as day."

  The coroner leaned forward. His eyes gleamed. "And where and how did youhappen to see all these dead men, may I ask?"

  There was an instant's second of strain throughout the room. All of us,I think, were siding with Major Dell--from the sheer instinctivedistrust of constituted authority that seems to be implanted in ourbodies at birth. Dell looked down, and his face was gray.

  "In the Argonne," he said, quietly. The room was deathly still.

  Fargo, called immediately after, testified as to his argument with Dellas to the nature of black bass. Dell had left him, he said, to go intothe library.

  "You were alone in the billiard room when you heard the cry?"

  "Yes. But I ran outdoors and joined the others."

  Van Hope testified as to his acquaintance with Major Dell, saying thatthey had known each other for several months, and that Dell belonged toone of his clubs. He verified Nealman's story perfectly.

  "And what is your occupation, Mr. Pescini?" the coroner asked.

  "I am in the publishing business, in New York."

  "You have a long acquaintance with Mr. Nealman?"

  "Something over four years."

  "Where were you when you heard David Florey scream?"

  "On the veranda."

  "Alone?"

  "Yes, alone. I had been with Mr. Van Hope and Nealman a few momentsbefore. I was rather hot, and I went out on the veranda for a breath ofair. I rushed out toward the sound, and Nealman and his party caught upwith me."

  He testified that he had taken part in the search, and was utterlybaffled as to the solution of the mystery.

  Nopp was in the music room, he said, looking for a certain record thathe wished his friends to hear. He had been in the billiard room a fewseconds before. He had heard the cry but faintly, and had not beenespecially alarmed. The shouts of the other guests, he said, rather thanthe scream of the dying man, had caused him to rush out and join in theinvestigation. He had known Nealman a long time, was an architect byprofession, and had been one of those to partake in the hunt through thegardens.

  Last of all the white men, he called on me. I told of my relations withNealman, the work I had been hired to do and, my own reactions to thefearful scream in the darkness. I had been with Marten, Van Hope andNealman and had sent through the calls to Ochakee.

  "You saw or heard nothing beyond that which these other gentlemen havetestified?"

  "Nothing at all," I answered.

  "You have made no subsequent discoveries?"

  Just for a moment I was silent, conjecturing what my answer should be.Was I to tell of the cryptogram I had found beside the body, and itstheft during the night?

  I couldn't see how the least good would come of it. Indeed, if lastnight's intruder was in the room, listening to my testimony, he would bevery glad to know if I had discovered the theft. I had resolved to workout the case in my own way, employing the methods of a naturalist, andthese agents of the law were not my allies.

  "Nothing has come to my observation," I told him simply.

  If he had pressed the matter he might have got the admission out of me;but fortunately he turned to other subjects.

  There was quite a little stir of interest throughout the circle when hebegan to question Edith. None of us
will forget the picture of thatgolden head, graced by the sunlight slanting through the leaded panes ofthe window, the flushed, lovely face, the frank eyes and the girlishfigure, lost in the big chair. She was in such contrast to the rest ofus. Except for the housekeeper, buxom and fifty, she was the only whitewoman present; and she could have been the daughter of any one of thegray men in the circle.

  She had gone to her room about ten, she said, and had read for perhapsan hour. Her room was just over the front hall. About eleven she went tobed, and the coroner's questions brought out the interesting fact thatseemingly she had been the last of the household--unless the murdererhimself was to be included thus--to have seen Florey alive. Her bedstood just beside the front window, and just before she had retired shehad seen him walking out toward the lagoon.

  The whole circle, tired of the dull testimony of the past hour, leanedforward in rapt attention. "He was alone?" the coroner asked.

  "Yes. I think I heard the door close behind him--I'm not sure. Then Isaw his form in the moonlight on the front lawn."

  "You recognized him at once?"

  "Not at once. I thought perhaps it was one of the guests. But in abright patch of moonlight I saw him plain."

  "Where did he go?"

  "He turned down the driveway toward the lagoon. I didn't see him again."

  At the sound of the piercing scream she got up and put on adressing-gown, but she did not come down at once. She was afraid, shesaid--she didn't know what to do. She had no knowledge as to theactivities and the positions of the other members of the household atthe time of the crime.

  She had come to work as her uncle's secretary but a few weeks before;and she verified perfectly Nealman's testimony in regard to the deadservant. If he had had enemies in the household she had not been awareof it, she knew of no chronic malady, and she did not think that hecarried any large amount of money on his person. The scream had seemedto her to be one of unfathomable fear.

  The housekeeper, Mrs. Gentry, was the last of the white people to becalled upon; and her testimony threw no new light upon the problem. Shewas in bed and asleep, and the shouts of the men without had wakenedher.

  The coroner called on the negroes in turn, and I was a little amazedat the ease with which he wrung their testimony out of them. He knewthese dark people: no northern man could have hoped to have been sosuccessful. Sometimes he shouted at them as if in fury, sometimes hewheedled or jested with them.

  Not one of them but could prove an alibi. They were all in their ownquarters, they said, at the moment of the tragedy. Because this was theSouth and they were black, they did not know Florey, a white man, verywell. And they had all been frightened nearly out of their wits by theevents of the night.

  One by one he questioned them, but the inquest ended just as itbegan--with the affair of Florey's murder as great a mystery as ever.At the end of the fatiguing afternoon we were face to face with thebaffling fact that only four men had proven satisfactory alibis--LemuelMarten, Van Hope, Nealman and myself--and that any one of the dozen ormore men and women in that great, rambling house might have done thedeed.