The Red Mouse: A Mystery Romance

by William Hamilton Osborne

  VI

  "Brutes every one of them--and Billy Murgatroyd the worst of all!" Theexclamation fell from Shirley Bloodgood's lips.

  Miriam Challoner had been resting her head forlornly on her arms as shesat at a table, but on hearing the young woman's bitter remark sheraised her head and smiled a wan smile.

  "Mr. Murgatroyd?" The tone was one of surprise. "Why, I thought youliked him, Shirley?"

  The girl hunched her shoulders expressively.

  "You have things badly twisted, Miriam--_he_ likes _me_." And suddenlyrising to her feet, she clapped her hands impulsively. "Oh, Miriam, Ialmost forgot--I've good news--good news for you!" Then she ran swiftlytoward Mrs. Challoner and swiftly back again to the window. "No, they'reout of sight--almost...."

  "Good news? What good news?" Miriam asked incredulously.

  Shirley placed a hand upon her lips.

  "Prosecutor Murgatroyd," she began, "told me in confidence----"

  "In confidence!" Miriam repeated; "then you had better not----"

  Shirley shook her head belligerently.

  "Oh, no!" she laughed. "It's all right! Billy Murgatroyd likes to tellthings to me. He told me once that he believed that to be one of thecontrolling motives that led to matrimony.... That a man should havesomebody to tell things to."

  Mrs. Challoner's curiosity got the better of her.

  "And he told you--" she inquired eagerly.

  "He told me the facts--gave away his evidence to me." Shirley tossed herhead.

  "But--" again protested Miriam.

  Once more Shirley silenced her.

  "No--I shall tell you--this may be a matter of life and death; besides,you are entitled to know the truth."

  "Yes, yes," assented Miriam, "tell me--I must know--but first, wait amoment." She pushed a button and Stevens entered.

  "Stevens," she said in a low, strained voice, "don't let any one in thehouse. Do you understand? I simply cannot stand it--to see anotherperson."

  When Stevens had left the room the girl resumed:--

  "Murgatroyd told me, Miriam, the greatest cock-and-bull story you everheard." Miriam looked as if her brain would snap. "It seems that thepapers have distorted, exaggerated everything. The fact is, Miriam,dear, the case is the flimsiest...."

  Miriam drew a deep breath.

  "How? Explain yourself!"

  Then Shirley went on to tell that nobody had seen Hargraves killed,nobody had seen the shot fired; that they had only got some disreputablegambler or other who claimed to have witnessed a quarrel between them.

  "And, oh, yes," she added a moment later, "the man that killed Hargravesrobbed him of ten thousand dollars--and of course Lawrence Challonerwouldn't rob a man, much less kill one--so don't you see, there'snothing in the story at all."

  "I don't know," answered Miriam slowly, "whether he would or not."

  "What!" gasped the girl.

  "Don't misunderstand me," pleaded the woman. "There are two LawrenceChalloners--one is the man I love--that loves me; the other is theLawrence Challoner who--well--I don't care," she added fiercely, "whathe's done, I want him back." She sobbed for an instant. "You didn'tknow, Shirley, that we had a quarrel--I treated him badly, shamefully;he hasn't come back since."

  "You quarrelled--you, Miriam!" The girl opened her eyes wide. "Whatabout?"

  "Money," admitted the conscience-stricken woman--"money. He wanted me togive him some--a perfectly natural request, wasn't it?--Men have got tohave money," she went on, repeating his words, "and I wouldn't give himany. It was brutal in me--I can never forgive myself!"

  A look of astonishment crossed Shirley's face.

  "You wouldn't give him any money? And he didn't have any when he wentaway?"

  Miriam wept. After a moment she answered:--

  "No. My poor Laurie--think of him starving, freezing, perhaps dying!"

  Shirley Bloodgood drew a long breath.

  "And Colonel Hargraves was robbed," she murmured to herself.

  "I don't think you understand," Miriam went on, breaking in upon herthoughts. "Of course I don't believe that Laurie is guilty of the thingsthey charge him with; but he must come back and stand trial and beacquitted--and I must stand by his side through it all." She broke downcompletely.

  "On the evidence they have," Shirley returned, trying to comfort her,"they'll----"

  "What's that?" inquired Mrs. Challoner, starting up nervously, in alarm."It's that horrible bell ringing again," she went on breathlessly."Don't you hear voices below? Listen--I thought I heard...."

  Shirley stole to the door and listened. Presently she called back:--

  "Don't worry--whoever it is, Stevens is sending them away!"

  "I hope so," sighed Miriam, "for I can't see any one--I won't see anyone, unless--Oh, Laurie, Laurie," she cried out, "why don't you comehome!"

  Suddenly Shirley fell back from the door; it was being stealthily pushedopen.

  "Oh," she gasped, "it's only Stevens! How you frightened me!"

  Stevens stood in the door at attention, looking neither to the right norto the left, but straight over the heads of the women. He drew a longintake of breath, then he spoke the name:--

  "_Mr. Challoner._"

  And hardly were the words out of his mouth than he was thrust aside, andthere stood in his place a spare, gaunt, tottering figure--a mandishevelled, soiled, exhausted--James Lawrence Challoner had come home!

  At the sound of the name the young wife's face turned pale, and for amoment words failed her. Then all of a sudden she sprang to her feet andrushed to him, crying in an ecstasy of joy:--

  "Laurie, Laurie, you've come home to me at last!" And throwing her armsaround his neck, she kissed him many times, laughing hysterically andcrying the while: "You've come back to me!" And once more the freshnessof youth, joy and hope were in her voice.

  But Challoner, still standing just within the entrance of the room, didnot heed her; he cast her off with a frantic sweep of the arm.

  "Keep away--keep away from me!" he cried. "I'm tired, dog-tired--I'vegot to sleep, sleep."

  Painful as was the scene, Shirley was keenly alive to what his presencethere might mean.

  "Stevens," she called, pointing to a window, "pull that curtain down. Ipulled it up after _they_ went; pull it down."

  Challoner now turned upon her.

  "Leave the curtain alone, I tell you," he said, "I don't care if it isup. I don't care about you either--nor you," looking at his wife. "Idon't know you. I must have sleep--sleep--sleep."

  Deep down in her soul Shirley knew that she should not hear all this,and she would have fled if she had not promised Miriam not to leave her.Suddenly she wheeled upon Stevens as if she and not Miriam were themistress of the house, exclaiming peremptorily:--

  "Stevens, leave the room!"

  Stevens obeyed her as he would his mistress, and left the room posthaste.

  Miriam now went over to the girl.

  "You're not going to leave me!" she exclaimed, clinging to her. "You andLaurie are the only friends I have--you must stay here with Laurie andme."

  Shirley saw the agony in her face and patted her affectionately as shepromised:--

  "There, there, Miriam, dear, of course I shall stay." And Miriam, atonce reassured, darted back to her husband, and cried:--

  "Laurie, dear," kissing him and pushing the hair back from his forehead,"so tired--so tired."

  But Challoner, a wolf now and not a man, jerked away from her, andanswered:--

  "I came home, didn't I? Well, then, I must have sleep, sleep, I tellyou, sleep." And tottering over to a dainty silken covered sofa, hethrew himself upon it with a deep sigh, saying as though to himself:"Sleep--I must have sleep."

  Spellbound, Miriam watched him for a moment, then following him to thesofa, she went down on her knees and drew him to her in a close embrace.

  "Everything's all right now that you've come back," she told him insoothing tones. "And, dear, you'll forgive me for quarrelling withyou--I'm so sorry, yes
, I am, Laurie," kissing him on the lips, theface, the forehead. "Say you'll forgive me, Laurie, dear?"

  His answer was a snore. Challoner lay supinely where he had thrownhimself, sleeping as does the beast that has crept back to his lairafter days of hunting by the man pack.

  "Miriam," the whispered name came from Shirley, "you and I, dear, mustnow think of things. We must not forget that Murgatroyd and his men haveonly just left. We must not let him lie here; it was lucky they searchedthe house when they did...."

  Miriam waved the other back.

  "No," she objected strenuously, "he must sleep; we must let him alone."

  "No, no, Miriam," persisted Shirley, putting great emphasis on thewords, "we ought to tell him what kind of evidence is against him. Heought to know that. If we didn't warn him in time, he'd never forgiveus--he'd never forgive you. He's a man...."

  "Perhaps you're right, Shirley--you seem to be always right. Yes, Isuppose he ought to know." Gently Miriam shook him, rocked him to andfro upon the sofa, as some fond mother might wake a drowsy, growing boyon a lazy summer morn.

  "Lawrence," she cried softly in his ear, "wake up! Wake up, dear, wakeup!"

  For an instant Challoner stirred. Presently there came in gutturaltones:--

  "Yes, yes, that's all right...." But he slept, and kept on sleeping.

  "I can hardly realise that Laurie is back," murmured Miriam, happily.Unconscious of the other's words, she remained kneeling at the side ofthe dainty sofa with its far from dainty burden, her arm still about theneck of the man who slept upon it.

  "Yes, yes," returned the girl, "but don't you think we had better warnhim? He must not be found----"

  The other laughed joyously, trying lovingly to smooth out his tangledhair. After a moment she answered absently:--

  "They'll find him now, I suppose; but I don't care--I've got him back."She turned and kissed him once again. "My Laurie," she murmured in hisear. Somehow she thought he heard and was glad to hear.

  The girl stooped down and caught her by the shoulder.

  "But, Miriam," she expostulated, "we must take no chances--we ought towake him."

  Miriam looked up at the girl helplessly.

  "You must not stop, Miriam," insisted Shirley, "we must wake him----"

  At that instant as they stood clustered about the sleeping thing, thebell once more broke out in feeble clamour. They clung to each other inabject fear.

  "The bell!" chorused the women, and stood frozen, silent. They heardStevens toiling up the stairs; waited; watched the door; finally theysaw him enter. Neither of the women spoke, but gazed at himquestioningly.

  Stevens met their gaze with frightened eyes. At last he found his voice.

  "It's the prosecutor's men again, Madam. They've come to----"

  "Stevens," interrupted Shirley, "surely you didn't tell them that----"

  "Not one word, Miss Bloodgood. But they said they saw him----"

  Shirley groaned and pointed to the sofa; Mrs. Challoner rose to her feetand stood before it as if to hide the man upon it.

  "You left them outside, Stevens?" Miriam was calm and apparently in fullcontrol of herself now.

  "One of them--the other forced his way in and sent after theprosecutor."

  There was a tap at the door, and the maid, quivering with fear,excitement and indignation, entered, bursting forth with:--

  "There's a man coming upstairs, Madam--but I stopped him. He said he'dwait out there on the landing to see you--said he knew Mr. Challoner wasin the house and he was going to arrest him."

  Challoner continued to sleep noisily.

  "Oh, dear, there's nothing to be done, I suppose, but to let the manin." Mrs. Challoner was speaking to Shirley now; and then withoutwaiting for a reply she ordered Foster to show the man up, adding: "Ihope he'll wait until Laurie wakes."

  Instantly Miriam crossed to the sofa and once more rested her soft, warmface on his, hoping that he could feel the love that she bore for him,then she shook him somewhat roughly.

  "Laurie, dear, you must wake up." And then like a flash the thought ofresistance crossed her mind. She sprang up with a cry, rushed pastShirley, past Stevens, reached the door, closed it, fumbled for aninstant, and finding the key locked it tight.

  "No, no," she muttered, "they shan't take him--I won't let them--hebelongs to me!"

  In a frenzy she piled up the light chairs and tables, and pushed themagainst the door to form a barricade, crying the while to Stevens: "Helpme, quick! We've got to keep them out! We must not let them in, mustnot...."

  Shirley went over to her and caught her in her arms, whispering whileshe affectionately rested her head on Miriam's shoulder:--

  "Don't, dear, don't! We can't help it, don't you see? There's no otherway out of it but to let the men come in."

  "Of course we can't help it," after a moment Miriam said resignedly, andproceeded to pull the chairs and tables away that she had so vigorouslypiled up. "Yes, yes, let them in," and wearily fell into a chair.

  Stevens unlocked the door, and Mixley entered the room, McGrathfollowing soon after.

  "There's no help for it, ma'am," they spoke as one man.

  At the sight of them Miriam rushed back to her husband and shook himslightly, speaking his name softly. Then she turned plaintively to themen:--

  "If you would only let him sleep--just a little while longer," she saidfalteringly.

  "You must leave him to us, ma'am," spoke up Mixley; and pointing to thefar corner of the room, added: "Will you take that chair, there, please?Don't be afraid, ladies," he went on, glancing at Shirley; "we won'thurt the gentleman, see if we do."

  And suddenly, together, the men bodily lifted Challoner from the sofaand as suddenly dropped him back again.

  At this use of physical force Miriam covered her face with her hands andcried:--

  "Don't do that--please don't...."

  They desisted, but for quite another reason.

  "There's a hump here that we'd best attend to," said Mixley to the otherdetective, meaningly, running his hand over the outline of Challoner'sclothing. "He may not be so sound asleep as he seems to be."

  At this juncture Shirley motioned to Stevens to leave the room; the nextinstant revealed a revolver which they took from Challoner's hip-pocket.

  "Is the thing loaded?" queried McGrath. Together they examined it; thensimultaneously they glanced in the direction of the women.

  "Ma'am--ladies," said Mixley, crossing the room, "we're fair people, andProsecutor Murgatroyd is fair. You seen us take this here firearm fromMr. Challoner just now, didn't you?"

  Miriam and Shirley nodded in acknowledgment. Challoner dropped back intohis former position and continued to snore.

  Mixley came closer to them and requested that they take a good look atit.

  "Don't give it to me," cried Shirley, eluding the outstretched hand andits contents.

  "Give it to me," said Miriam, unhesitatingly.

  McGrath crowded up.

  "You see that there's five chambers loaded, don't you, Mrs. Challoner?"

  Mrs. Challoner turned the revolver upside down and looked at ithelplessly.

  "Five chambers loaded?" she asked innocently, unsuspectingly.

  "Here," broke in Mixley, "let me show you." And he counted slowly: "One,two, three, four, five--all full, see?"

  "Yes, five chambers," Mrs. Challoner agreed.

  There was a pause in which Mixley looked meaningly at McGrath; then hesaid:--

  "And one chamber empty?"

  "Oh, yes," she acknowledged almost eagerly, as he placed his finger onit, "there's surely one chamber empty--I see it now."

  McGrath hesitated, but Mixley went on:--

  "Will you smell it please--just the end of it--the muzzle. What do yousmell?"

  Mrs. Challoner smiled faintly.

  "A Fourth of July smell," she ventured; "gunpowder, of course."

  "Burnt powder, exactly, ma'am," they said, and smiled, too. But McGrathhad still another card to play. />
  "Look at this here figure on this here gun, will you, ma'am? Here--thereit is. I want you to tell me what it is."

  "What is it, Shirley?" asked Miriam, bringing it closer to the light.

  Shirley shook her head.

  "I'd rather not."

  "Please," asked Mrs. Challoner.

  Shirley peered at it. Finally she declared:--

  "It's '.38,'" touching the gun lightly; "the figures are '.38.'"

  Mixley fell back admiringly.

  "There now--no one can say we ain't been fair. You saw us take it fromhim; you examined it; and you told us what you saw. That's fair. You'refair and we're fair--see?"

  "Yes. But what of it?" asked Shirley and Miriam in one breath.

  McGrath opened his eyes in mock wonder.

  "Why bless me, didn't you know? This here Colonel Hargraves was shot bya bullet that came out of a thirty-eight calibre revolver. That's all.We wanted to be fair."

  Shirley rubbed vigorously the hand with which she had touched the gun.

  "Fair!" she cried bitterly. "And Mr. Murgatroyd sanctions suchmethods--will use us for evidence--make a case by us?"

  But even then Miriam did not understand. She was watching Mixley, whohad returned to Challoner; watching Mixley and McGrath, who were liftingChalloner up and dropping him--watching them draw him up to a standingposture and then throw him back again on the sofa, calling the while:--

  "Wake up! Wake up!"

  "I've got to sleep," was all they could get out of Challoner.

  At last, however, a lift and a drop a trifle more vigorous than thepreceding ones caused Challoner to open his eyes and look about him.Then he closed them again.

  "Are you James Lawrence Challoner?" asked Mixley loudly, peremptorily.

  "I am," Challoner answered; "now leave me alone."

  And now again the bell; and a moment later Murgatroyd, the prosecutor,stood in the doorway. The heat of much haste was on his brow; he lookedneither at Mrs. Challoner nor at Shirley; it was toward Challoner andhis men that he directed his gaze.

  "Has he talked?" Murgatroyd asked, standing over Challoner.

  "No," answered the men, "he ain't awake yet."

  "Lift him to his feet," ordered the prosecutor.

  The men did so.

  And then it was that the women heard him say in a tone that cut intotheir souls:--

  "Challoner, wake up! This is Murgatroyd, prosecutor of the pleas." Itwas a summons; Challoner obeyed it. He opened his eyes, closed them,yawned stupidly, and then, awake, stood squarely on his feet without anyhelp.

  "Hello, Murgatroyd!" he said.

  "Challoner," said Murgatroyd severely, "remember that I am not here asyour friend--I am the prosecutor, do you hear?"

  "I understand," said Challoner.

  "Very well then," went on Murgatroyd, "you know why I am here. You arecharged--I charge you now, Challoner, with the murder of Colonel RichardHargraves. Do you understand me?"

  "Perfectly," was Challoner's reply. "You want to take me into custody?All right--only let me sleep when I get there, will you? I----"

  "Wait a minute, Challoner," persisted Murgatroyd. "It's my duty toinform you that anything you say will be used against you. You must notforget that I am the prosecutor."

  Miriam came forward quickly.

  "Oh, Laurie, dear, don't say anything, just yet," she cried in alarm.

  Shirley seconded her warning, saying quickly:--

  "Don't say a word to Mr. Murgatroyd until you have seen a lawyer."

  Challoner, still sullen, looked over his shoulder at his wife.

  "Who's saying all this? Only a lot of women--what do they know?" Andturning back to Murgatroyd: "See here, Murgatroyd, let's get thisstraight, shall we?" And he looked him full in the eye. "You're theprosecutor--and anything I say will be used against me. Is that right?Well, this little matter is just as simple as A, B, C." And suddenlydrawing himself up to his full height, he went on in a loud, clearvoice:--

  "I waited for Richard Hargraves with----"

  "I warned you," cried Murgatroyd, stretching forth a hand.

  Challoner scornfully refused to listen.

  "... and when I found him--" he glanced about him defiantly and gave animitation of a man taking aim and shooting. "There, now, you know thefacts."

  Murgatroyd turned to his two men.

  "It's a case of wilful, deliberate, premeditated murder--murder in thefirst degree. Take him away!"

  Shirley was on her feet in an instant.

  "Oh, Mr. Challoner," she cried, springing forward, "why did you tellhim?"

  "Come on!" Challoner called out gruffly to the men. "Take me away!" Hedid not even glance at his wife, who clung to the girl, and sobbed onher breast.

  The prosecutor nodded to his subordinates, and immediately they seizedChalloner by the arm and started toward the door.

  "No, no," cried Miriam, tearing herself from Shirley's hold, "don't takehim away!" And again and again with all the force left in her: "No! No!No!--Oh, Laurie!----"

  The doors closed behind the men. Then Miriam sank down upon the soiledsofa where he had lain, and sobbed as though her heart would break.