CHAPTER XXIV
THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON
The solemnity of Hazen's whole manner impressed Mr. Harper strongly. Assoon as the opportunity offered he cornered the young man in the officewhere he had taken refuge, and giving him to understand that furtherexplanations must pass between them before either slept, he drew himapart and put the straight question to him:
"Who is Josiah Auchincloss?"
The answer was abrupt, almost menacing in its emphasis and tone.
"A trunk-maker in St. Louis. A man she was indebted to."
"How indebted to--a trunk-maker?"
"That I cannot, do not desire to state. It is enough that she felt sheowed him the bulk of her fortune. Though this eliminates me from benefitsof a wealth I had some rights to share, I make no complaint. She knew herbusiness best, and I am disposed to accept her judgment in the matterwithout criticism."
"You are?" The tone was sharp, the sarcasm biting. "I can understandthat. For Auchincloss, in this will, read Hazen; but how about herhusband? How about her friends and the general community? Do you notthink they will ask why a beautiful and socially well-placed young womanlike your sister should leave so large a portion of her wealth to anobscure man in another town, of whom her friends and even her businessagent have never heard? It would have been better if she had left you herthousands directly."
The smile which was Hazen's only retort was very bitter.
"You drew up her will," said he. "You must have reasoned with her on thisvery point as you are now trying to reason with me?"
The lawyer waved this aside.
"I didn't know at that time the social status of the legatee; nor did Iknow her brother then as well as I do now."
"You do not know me now."
"I know that you are very pale; that the determination you have just madehas cost you more than you perhaps are willing to state. That there ismystery in your past, mystery in your present, and, possibly, mysterythreatening your future, and all in connection with your great desire forthis money."
Hazen made a forcible gesture, but whether of denial or depreciation, itwas not easy to decide.
"Would it not then be better for all parties," pursued the lawyer, "foryou to give me some idea of the great obligation under which your sisterlay to this man, that I may have an answer ready when people ask me whyshe passed you so conspicuously by, in order to enrich this stranger?"
"The story is not mine. Had she wished you to know it, she would haveconfided it to you herself. I must decline--"
Mr. Harper interrupted the other impressively. "Do you realize what ashadow may be thrown upon your sister's memory by this reticence on yourpart? Her death was suggestive enough without the complications youmention. In justice to your relationship you should speak. If, as Ithink, the money is really meant for you, say so. The subterfuge may bedifficult of explanation, but it will not hurt her memory as much as thisextraordinary silence on your part."
"I am sorry," began Hazen. But Harper cut him short.
"You expect the money--you yourself," said he. "Nothing else would forceyou into an attempt so perilous. You would risk death. Risk somethingless final; risk your place in my esteem, your standing among men, andconfess the full truth about this matter. If it involves crime--why, I'ma lawyer and can see you through better than you can win through by yourown misdirected efforts. The truth, my lad, the truth, nothing else willserve you."
The look he received he will never forget.
"You are a man of limited experience, Mr. Harper," were the words whichaccompanied it. "You would not understand the truth, Georgian or me.Ransom might, but I shall not even risk Ransom's discretion. Now thisis all I am going to say about this matter. Georgian's last will andtestament, followed though it was by suicide, was a perfectly regularone. The only impediment to its being so recognized and acted upon is thedoubt as to her actual decease. If the body of my poor young sister hasbecome lodged in the Devil's Cauldron, I am going there to seek it. Asthe project calls for courage and, above all, a good condition of bodyand mind, I shall be obliged to you if you will allow me the benefit ofthe sleep I most certainly need. To-morrow I may have something more tosay to you, and I may not. Perhaps I shall want to make _my will_, whoknows?" And with a smile full of sarcastic meaning, he pushed Mr.Harper's arm aside and made for the staircase, up which he presentlyvanished without another attempt on the lawyer's part to hold him back.
A few minutes later the lawyer was getting what information he couldabout the so-called Devil's Cauldron.
It seems that this was a very deep hole in which, on account of the rockyformation surrounding it, the water swept in an eddy which had the forceof a whirlpool. No one had ever sounded its depths and nothing had everbeen seen again which had once been sucked into its deathly hollow. ThatGeorgian's body had found its everlasting grave there, many had believedfrom the first, and if the conviction had not yet been publicly expressedit was out of consideration for Mr. Ransom, to whose hopes it could butring a final knell.
"Where is the hole? How far from the waterfall?" queried Mr. Harper.
"A good mile," muttered one man. "Quite around the bend of the stream.It's a horrid place, sir. We've always been mortal careful about rowingdown that side of the river. Children are never allowed to. Only a man'sstrength could get him free again if he once struck the eddy."
"Would anything floating down from the falls be apt to strike this eddy?"
"Very apt. It would be a miracle if it didn't. That is why we all turnedout so willingly the first day. We knew that if Mrs. Ransom's body was tobe found at all, it would be found then; another day it would be beyondour reach."
"You say that no one has ever sounded the depths of that hole. Has anyone ever tried to?"
"More than once. Scientific men and others."
"Did they ever emerge--any of them?"
"Yes, one, a powerful sort of chap with Indian blood in him. But hedidn't advise any one to try it; said the knowledge wasn't worth thestrain to heart and muscle."
"What was the knowledge? We can imagine the strain."
"Oh, he said as how the walls of the vortex--didn't he call it avortex--was all stone, and he spoke of a ledge--I didn't hear whatelse."
"To go down there a man would have to take his life in his hand, I see.Well, I don't think I will try," dryly observed the lawyer as he left theroom.
He could no longer hide his excitement at the thought that Hazenmeditated this undertaking.
"How he must want money!" thought he. That a man should face such ahorror for another man's profit did not seem likely enough to engage hisconsideration for a moment.
Lawyer Harper knew the world--or thought he did.
Next day the whole town was thrown into a hubbub. Word had gone outthrough every medium possible to so small a place, that Alfred Hazen,Georgian's long-lost brother, was going to dare Death Eddy in a finalattempt to recover his sister's body.
PART IV
The Man of Mystery
The Chief Legatee Page 25