A Husband by Proxy

by Jack Steele

  CHAPTER XXVI

  STARTLING DISCLOSURES

  Durgin sat down on a box, picked up a sliver of wood and began to chewit slowly. He was not a man of rapid thoughts; and he was stunned.

  "How did you find out all these things?" he said.

  "From Dorothy, partially, and in part from my own investigations."

  "Dorothy didn't go back on the boy like that?" The man was hurt by thethought.

  "Not at all. She tried to shield him. I came to Rockdale on heraccount, to try to discover if there is anyone else who might have hada motive for the crime."

  Durgin pulled the sliver of wood to shreds with his teeth.

  "I don't think Foster would have done it," he said, concealing the painin his breast. "He's been wild. I've lost all patience with his waysof livin', but Uncle John was never afraid of Foster, though he was ofHiram Cleave."

  "What's that?" said Garrison, instantly, alive to a possible factor inthe case. "Do you mean there was a man Mr. Hardy was afraid of--Hiramwhat?"

  "He never wanted me to tell of that," said Durgin in his heavy manner."He wasn't a coward; he said so, and I know it's true, but he had afear of Cleave."

  "Now that's just exactly what I've got to know!" said Garrison. "Manalive, if you wish to help me clear your brother, you've got to give meall the facts you can think of concerning Mr. Hardy, his enemies, andeverything else in the case! What sort of a man is this Cleave?"

  "A short, middle-aged man," drawled Durgin deliberately. "I never sawhim but once."

  "What was the cause of enmity between him and Hardy, do you know?"

  "No, I don't. It went far back--a woman, I guess. But I hope youwon't ever say I told that it was. I promised I wouldn't, and I neverdid till now."

  The big fellow looked at Garrison with honest anxiety in his eyes.

  "It's not my business to tell things," Garrison assured him. "This isa matter perhaps of life and death for your brother. Do you think Mr.Hardy feared this man Cleave would take his life?"

  "He did, yes."

  "Was it ever attempted before?"

  Durgin looked at him oddly.

  "I think so, but I couldn't be sure."

  "You mean, Mr. Hardy told you a little about it, but, perhaps, not all?"

  "How did you know that?" Durgin asked, mystified by Garrison'sswiftness of thinking.

  "I don't know anything. I'm trying to find out. How much did Hardytell you of a former attempt on his life?"

  "He didn't really tell it. He sort of let it out a little, andwouldn't say anything more."

  "But you knew it was this man Cleave?"

  "Yes, he was the one."

  Garrison questioned eagerly: "Where is he now?"

  "I don't know."

  "When was it that you saw the man?"

  "A year ago."

  "Where?"

  "In the village--Rockdale," answered Durgin.

  "Mr. Hardy pointed him out?"

  "Yes, but how did you----"

  "What was the color of his hair?" Garrison interrupted.

  "He had his hat on. I didn't see his hair."

  "What did your uncle say at the time?"

  "Nothing much, just 'that's the man'--that's all," said the duck man."And he went away that night--I guess because Cleave turned around andsaw us in the store."

  "All right," said Garrison. "Where's your brother now?"

  "I don't know. We don't get on."

  "Do you think he knew anything about Mr. Hardy's will?"

  Durgin answered with a query: "Which one?"

  "Why, the only one, I suppose," said Garrison. "What do you mean?"

  "Well, there must have been more than one," drawled the duck man withexasperating slowness. "Foster was down in the first, but that wasburned. I don't think he ever saw the others, but he knew he wasn't afavorite any more."

  "What about yourself?" asked Garrison.

  "I asked Uncle John to leave me out. I've got enough," was the answer."We're no blood kin to the Hardys. I know I wasn't in the last."

  "The last?" repeated Garrison. "You mean the last will of Mr.Hardy--the one in favor of Dorothy, in case she should be married?"

  Durgin studied his distant ducks for a moment.

  "No, I don't think that was the last. I'm sure that will wasn't thelast."

  Garrison stared at him fixedly.

  "You're sure it wasn't the last?" he echoed. "What do you mean?"

  "Uncle John sent a letter and said he'd made a brand-new will,"answered Durgin in his steady way of certainty. "I burned up theletter only yesterday, clearing up my papers."

  "You don't mean quite recently?" insisted Garrison.

  "Since Dorothy got married," answered Durgin, at a loss to understandGarrison's interest. "Why?"

  "This could make all the difference in the world to the case," Garrisontold him. "Did he say what he'd done with this new document?"

  "Just that he'd made a new will."

  "Who helped him? Who was the lawyer? Who were the witnesses?"

  "He didn't say."

  Garrison felt everything disarranged. And Durgin's ignorance wasbaffling. He went at him aggressively.

  "Where was your uncle when he wrote the letter?"

  "He was up to Albany."

  Albany! There were thousands of lawyers and tens of thousands of menwho would do as witnesses in Albany!

  "But," insisted Garrison, "perhaps he told you where it was depositedor who had drawn it up, or you may know his lawyer in Albany.

  "No. He just mentioned it, that's all," said Durgin. "The letter wasmost about ducks."

  "This is too bad," Garrison declared. "Have you any idea in the worldwhere the will may be?"

  "No, I haven't."

  "You found nothing of it, or anything to give you a hint, when youclaimed the body for burial, and examined his possessions in Hickwood?"

  "No."

  "Where was Dorothy then?"

  "I don't know. She's always looked after Foster more than me, he beingthe weak one and most in need."

  Desperate for more information. Garrison probed in every conceivabledirection, but elicited nothing further of importance, save that anold-time friend of Hardy's, one Israel Snow, a resident of Rockdale,might perhaps be enabled to assist him.

  Taking leave of Durgin, who offered his hand and expressed a deep-lyinghope that something could be done to clear all suspicion from hisbrother, Garrison returned to Rockdale.

  The news of a will made recently, a will concerning which Dorothy knewnothing,--this was so utterly disconcerting that it quite overshadowed,for a time, the equally important factor in the case supplied byDurgin's tale concerning this unknown Hiram Cleave.

  Where the clews pointed now it was utterly impossible to know. If thefact should transpire that Dorothy did, in fact, know something of thenew will made by her uncle, or if Foster knew, and no such will shouldever be produced, the aspect of the case would be dark indeed.

  Not at all convinced that Theodore Robinson might not yet be found atthe bottom of the mystery, Garrison wondered where the fellow had goneand what his departure might signify.

  Israel Snow was out of town. He would not return till the morrow.Garrison's third night was passed in the little hotel, and no word hadcome from Dorothy. He had written four letters to the EighteenthStreet address. He was worried by her silence.

  On the following day Mr. Snow returned. He proved to be a stooped oldman, but he supplied a number of important facts.

  In the first place he stated that Hiram Cleave had long since assumedanother name which no one in Rockdale knew. No one was acquainted withhis business or his whereabouts. The reason of the enmity between himand John Hardy went deep enough to satisfy the most exacting mind.

  Cleave, Hardy, and Scott, the inventor, had been boys together, and, inyoung manhood, chums. Hardy had fallen in love with Scott's sister,while he was still a young, romantic man. Cleave, developing anutterly malicious a
nd unscrupulous nature, had deceived his friendHardy, tried to despoil Miss Scott's very life, thereby ultimatelycausing her death, and Hardy had intervened only in time to save herfrom utter shame and ruin.

  Then, having discovered Cleave guilty of a forgery, he had spared noeffort or expense till he landed the creature in prison out in Indiana.Cleave had threatened his life at the time. He had long since beenliberated. His malicious resentment had never been abated, and for thepast two or three years, with Miss Scott a sad, sweet memory only, JohnHardy had lived a lonely life, constantly moving to avoid his enemy.

  A friend of another friend of a third friend of Snow's, who might havemoved away, had once had a photograph of Cleave. Old Snow promised toprocure it if possible and deliver it over to Garrison, who made eageroffers to go and try to get it for himself, but without avail. Hepromised to wait for the picture, and returned at last to his hotel.

  A telegram was waiting for him at the desk. He almost knew what heshould find on reading it. The message read:

  Please return at once. JERALDINE.

  He paid off his bill, and posting a note to Israel Snow, giving anaddress, "Care of J. Garrison," in the New York building where he hadhis office, he caught the first train going down and arrived inManhattan at three.