Kastle Krags: A Story of Mystery

by Absalom Martin

  CHAPTER XX

  It wasn't easy to steady Wilkson so that he could tell an intelligentstory. His own dark superstitions had hold of him, and his shamblingsearch through the darkened corridors had stretched his nerves to theabsolute breaking-point. It was evident at once that there was nothingto do but let him take his time and get the story out the best he could.After all, immediate action had never helped matters in this affair ofKastle Krags. There had been a grim finality about everything that hadoccurred. Those who were gone had not been brought back by promptsearch.

  He did not respond to any of the ruses so often used to get a coloredman to talk--scorn or incredulity or sternness. He was aware of nothingbut his own terror, and the image in those fear-widened eyes no mancould guess.

  "You say a telegram came for him, Wilkson?" I asked gently. "Some onephoned it in?"

  "De phone bell rung, jus' off de su'vant's rooms," he explained. "It wasa message fo' Majo' Dell. 'Get him up to get dis telegram,' some whitegen'lman said, so I done went to get him up. He ain't in his room. Bednot been slept in. I called and no one answered. Den I ask Mrs.Gentry--she saw him go down the hall hour ago, all dressed, and seen himturn in yo' room----"

  "He's not here. He hasn't been here." I slipped on a dressing-gownand slippers, then stood a moment with Wilkson in the darkened hall.It was curious that the housekeeper should have made such an oddmistake--thinking that Dell had turned into my door. Perhaps at thedistance she had observed she confused the door either to the right orleft with mine.

  There was no need for panic yet. Any one of a dozen things might haveexplained his temporary absence from his room in the dead of night. Hemight be in the room to my right--Fargo's room--in some conference withhis friend. Yet there was no light under the door.

  I knocked loudly. Fargo called sharply from his bed.

  "Have you seen Major Dell?" I asked.

  "Dell? No! Good Lord, he hasn't disappeared, too?"

  "We can't find him." I heard Fargo spring from his bed, and I turned tothe room to my left. Yet in an instant I remembered and halted on thethreshold. This was Nealman's room, dark and chill with shadows. Iscratched a match and lifted it high.

  But no one was here. My voice rang with a hollow sound back to me. Ourshouts had aroused Nopp, and in a moment he came out in the hall to joinus. I think Nopp was a steadying influence on us both. He walked, ratherthan ran, he was perfectly composed, wholly himself, and his voice whenhe spoke was low and even. Yet there was no tone or note of an attemptto belittle our alarm. He acted as I have seen strong men act in thepresence of some great disaster--calmly, soberly, rather white-faced andsilent, but unflinching and steadfast.

  There was no amazement in Nopp's face. Evidently he had expected justsuch a development.

  "Another gone, eh?" he said. "I wish these devils would stay in theirrooms, where they belong. What's taking them out there, Killdare?"

  "How do I know? Maybe they just can't sleep--want to walk----"

  "They wouldn't want to walk in that part of the grounds, if they'rehuman, unless they've got business there. But no matter. We've got tolook around for him at least. I don't suppose it will do any good----"

  He spoke with an unmistakable fatalism. "You don't mean--that he's gonelike the rest----"

  I heard our low breathing as I waited for his answer. "What's the use offooling ourselves any more, Killdare?" he replied quietly. "We're upagainst something--God knows what. Of course he's gone--just like therest. Where else could he be?"

  We turned once more into his room. Wilkson had reported rightly--his bedhad not been slept in, and there was not the slightest sign of disorder.His coat--a well-made garment of some gray, cotton cloth hung on theback of his chair, and the butts of two cigars lay on his smoking stand.He was not in his bathroom, nor did we hear his voice from someadjoining room.

  And now all the other guests, all of whom slept on this same floor, weregathering about us, wakened by the sound of our voices. Marten came,swearing under his breath, and Van Hope's brow was beaded withperspiration that glistened in the dim light. But none of them knewwhere Major Dell was. Indeed none of them had seen him since he hadgone to his room.

  There was a curious, dream-like quality about the little session that wehad together at the door of Dell's room. It was all rather dim, obscure,the voices that we heard seemed to come from some place far off, andthat ring of faces no longer looked clear-cut and sharp. I suppose theanswer lay in the great preoccupation that was upon us all, a strugglefor understanding that engulfed our minds.

  There were no excited, frenzied voices. The men spoke rather quietly andslowly, as if measuring their words, and Van Hope was smiling, faintly.It wasn't a mirthful smile, but rather a wan smile such as a man giveswhen some incredible disaster, long expected, has fallen upon him. Noneof us liked to see it. There was nothing to believe but that the mysteryhad gone home to him more fully than to any one else--and we all wishedthat he could be spared the tragic, vain hour of search that awaited us.Because none of us had the least hope, in our own hearts, that we wouldever see Major Dell again. We had got past the point where we coulddeceive ourselves. The truth was all too self-evident. We would searchthrough the grounds, as a matter of duty we would call and run back andforth. But the end was already sure.

  Indeed, there was no look of surprise on any one of those white faces.Rather they had a helpless, almost fatalistic expression, as men havewhen at last they are crushed to earth by the inevitable. I have heard adetachment of soldiers, seemingly trapped by death, speak in the samequiet way, and have seen the same baffled, resigned expression on theirfaces.

  I didn't try to keep track of who was there and who was absent. It wasimpossible to think of such things now. But bitter, blasting fear surgedthrough me when I thought of Edith--wondering if she was safe in herroom.

  There was a moment of stress, a sudden, momentary explosion ofsuppressed excitement, when Slatterly the sheriff joined us in the hall.We heard his running feet in the corridor, and we turned to watch him,his dressing-gown flopping about him. Evidently he had heard our wordsfrom his room in the upper corridor. Certain exclamations were on hislips--whether they were profane oaths I do not know.

  "What is it?" he demanded in an irritable, rasping voice. "Why are youall gathered here?"

  Silently we waited for Nopp to speak--Nopp who had become the strongestarm in the affair. "We're not having any late evening gossip," heanswered. "Kastle Krags has its tail up again. We're here--to find outwhat has become of Major Dell."

  "Major Dell! Good God, don't tell me he's gone too."

  Instantly the sudden, deadly surge of wrath we had all felt toward thesheriff died in our breasts. That cry he made, the hopeless, defeatedway in which he spoke, made him, in an instant, one of us--subject tothe same fear and despair, a crushed and impotent human being likeourselves.

  "He's gone," Nopp told him quietly. "He's not in his room. He doesn'tseem to be any place else."

  "Have you searched? I don't suppose there's any use of it, but we've gotto search. Oh, why didn't I guard him--why did I ever take such acriminal risk!"

  None of us could forget his rugged, brown face in the wan electriclight. Whether it was regret or fear that swept it we didn't know. Itwas ashen, almost expressionless, and his eyes were lifeless under hisheavy brows. His hands hung, fingers slightly apart, at his side.

  "Wait just a minute before we begin an indiscriminate search," Noppsaid. "Slatterly, we've got to face facts. Do you think--there's anyplace in these grounds that none of us _ought to go_?"

  We knew what he meant. He wanted to guard against further loss of life.

  "The thing seems to run according to rule," the sheriff replied, rathergrimly. "Just one gone--every night. But keep together when you're downnear the lagoon."

  There was not the least good in searching further through the house.Most of the household had gathered around us, by now, and no one hadseen Major Dell. We walked the length of the corridor and down thestairs
, and then we went out into the still darkness. The hour wasevidently shortly after midnight--the tide was almost at its flood.

  Just a moment more we stood just below the great veranda, and no manknew the other's thoughts. The moon was rising--we could see its argentgleam through nebulous clouds to the East. Far away the gray shorestretched to the darkened sea, and the natural rock wall showed a faint,gray line. Then we headed out into the grounds.

  But there was no answer to the calls we made, and only such littlepeople as moles and gophers, burrowers in the ground, stirred in thethickets as we crushed through. We hunted aimlessly, more to satisfy ourown sense of duty than through any expectation of finding the missingman. The moon came out more vividly, but its light did not bringsuccess. At last we collected, a silent, rather breathless group, infront of the house.

  "What now, Slatterly?" Nopp asked. "Is there anything more we can do?"

  "Nothing more." His old confidence was gone from his voice. "I wish I'ddone something long ago, instead of being so sure. But this thing can'thappen to-morrow night."

  "Slatterly, you're a brave man to say that _anything_ can't happento-morrow night. I thought you'd learned your lesson----"

  "I have. Never fear for that. To-morrow night I'm going to watch besidethat lagoon with a loaded gun--and I am going to see this thingthrough."