CHAPTER XVI
IN THE EARLY MORNING
I stood looking at the empty bed. The coverings had been thrown back,and Louise's pink silk dressing-gown was gone from the foot, where ithad lain. The night lamp burned dimly, revealing the emptiness of theplace. I picked it up, but my hand shook so that I put it down again,and got somehow to the door.
There were voices in the hall and Gertrude came running toward me.
"What is it?" she cried. "What was that sound? Where is Louise?"
"She is not in her room," I said stupidly. "I think--it was she--whoscreamed."
Liddy had joined us now, carrying a light. We stood huddled togetherat the head of the circular staircase, looking down into its shadows.There was nothing to be seen, and it was absolutely quiet down there.Then we heard Halsey running up the main staircase. He came quicklydown the hall to where we were standing.
"There's no one trying to get in. I thought I heard some one shriek.Who was it?"
Our stricken faces told him the truth.
"Some one screamed down there," I said. "And--and Louise is not in herroom."
With a jerk Halsey took the light from Liddy and ran down the circularstaircase. I followed him, more slowly. My nerves seemed to be in astate of paralysis: I could scarcely step. At the foot of the stairsHalsey gave an exclamation and put down the light.
"Aunt Ray," he called sharply.
At the foot of the staircase, huddled in a heap, her head on the lowerstair, was Louise Armstrong. She lay limp and white, her dressing-gowndragging loose from one sleeve of her night-dress, and the heavy braidof her dark hair stretching its length a couple of steps above herhead, as if she had slipped down.
She was not dead: Halsey put her down on the floor, and began to rubher cold hands, while Gertrude and Liddy ran for stimulants. As for me,I sat there at the foot of that ghostly staircase--sat, because myknees wouldn't hold me--and wondered where it would all end. Louisewas still unconscious, but she was breathing better, and I suggestedthat we get her back to bed before she came to. There was somethinggrisly and horrible to me, seeing her there in almost the same attitudeand in the same place where we had found her brother's body. And toadd to the similarity, just then the hall clock, far off, struckfaintly three o'clock.
It was four before Louise was able to talk, and the first rays of dawnwere coming through her windows, which faced the east, before she couldtell us coherently what had occurred. I give it as she told it. Shelay propped in bed, and Halsey sat beside her, unrebuffed, and held herhand while she talked.
"I was not sleeping well," she began, "partly, I think, because I hadslept during the afternoon. Liddy brought me some hot milk at teno'clock and I slept until twelve. Then I wakened and--I got tothinking about things, and worrying, so I could not go to sleep.
"I was wondering why I had not heard from Arnold since the--since I sawhim that night at the lodge. I was afraid he was ill, because--he wasto have done something for me, and he had not come back. It must havebeen three when I heard some one rapping. I sat up and listened, to bequite sure, and the rapping kept up. It was cautious, and I was aboutto call Liddy.
"Then suddenly I thought I knew what it was. The east entrance and thecircular staircase were always used by Arnold when he was out late, andsometimes, when he forgot his key, he would rap and I would go down andlet him in. I thought he had come back to see me--I didn't think aboutthe time, for his hours were always erratic. But I was afraid I wastoo weak to get down the stairs.
"The knocking kept up, and just as I was about to call Liddy, she ranthrough the room and out into the hall. I got up then, feeling weakand dizzy, and put on my dressing-gown. If it was Arnold, I knew Imust see him.
"It was very dark everywhere, but, of course, I knew my way. I feltalong for the stair-rail, and went down as quickly as I could. Theknocking had stopped, and I was afraid I was too late. I got to thefoot of the staircase and over to the door on to the east veranda. Ihad never thought of anything but that it was Arnold, until I reachedthe door. It was unlocked and opened about an inch. Everything wasblack: it was perfectly dark outside. I felt very queer and shaky.Then I thought perhaps Arnold had used his key; he did--strange thingssometimes, and I turned around. Just as I reached the foot of thestaircase I thought I heard some one coming. My nerves were goinganyhow, there in the dark, and I could scarcely stand. I got up as faras the third or fourth step; then I felt that some one was comingtoward me on the staircase. The next instant a hand met mine on thestair-rail. Some one brushed past me, and I screamed. Then I musthave fainted."
That was Louise's story. There could be no doubt of its truth, and thething that made it inexpressibly awful to me was that the poor girl hadcrept down to answer the summons of a brother who would never need herkindly offices again. Twice now, without apparent cause, some one hadentered the house by means of the east entrance: had apparently gonehis way unhindered through the house, and gone out again as he hadentered. Had this unknown visitor been there a third time, the nightArnold Armstrong was murdered? Or a fourth, the time Mr. Jamieson hadlocked some one in the clothes chute?
Sleep was impossible, I think, for any of us. We dispersed finally tobathe and dress, leaving Louise little the worse for her experience.But I determined that before the day was over she must know the truestate of affairs. Another decision I made, and I put it into executionimmediately after breakfast. I had one of the unused bedrooms in theeast wing, back along the small corridor, prepared for occupancy, andfrom that time on, Alex, the gardener, slept there. One man in thatbarn of a house was an absurdity, with things happening all the time,and I must say that Alex was as unobjectionable as any one couldpossibly have been.
The next morning, also, Halsey and I made an exhaustive examination ofthe circular staircase, the small entry at its foot, and the card-roomopening from it. There was no evidence of anything unusual the nightbefore, and had we not ourselves heard the rapping noises, I shouldhave felt that Louise's imagination had run away with her. The outerdoor was closed and locked, and the staircase curved above us, for allthe world like any other staircase.
Halsey, who had never taken seriously my account of the night Liddy andI were there alone, was grave enough now. He examined the paneling ofthe wainscoting above and below the stairs, evidently looking for asecret door, and suddenly there flashed into my mind the recollectionof a scrap of paper that Mr. Jamieson had found among ArnoldArmstrong's effects. As nearly as possible I repeated its contents tohim, while Halsey took them down in a note-book.
"I wish you had told me that before," he said, as he put the memorandumcarefully away. We found nothing at all in the house, and I expectedlittle from any examination of the porch and grounds. But as we openedthe outer door something fell into the entry with a clatter. It was acue from the billiard-room.
Halsey picked it up with an exclamation.
"That's careless enough," he said. "Some of the servants have beenamusing themselves."
I was far from convinced. Not one of the servants would go into thatwing at night unless driven by dire necessity. And a billiard cue! Asa weapon of either offense or defense it was an absurdity, unless oneaccepted Liddy's hypothesis of a ghost, and even then, as Halseypointed out, a billiard-playing ghost would be a very modern evolutionof an ancient institution.
That afternoon we, Gertrude, Halsey and I, attended the coroner'sinquest in town. Doctor Stewart had been summoned also, it transpiringthat in that early Sunday morning, when Gertrude and I had gone to ourrooms, he had been called to view the body. We went, the four of us,in the machine, preferring the execrable roads to the matinee train,with half of Casanova staring at us. And on the way we decided to saynothing of Louise and her interview with her stepbrother the night hedied. The girl was in trouble enough as it was.
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