CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 65, 30 August 1884, Page 4

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

U.NEXI'ECTUD WORDS. It will havo blood : they say blood will have blood, Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak ; Augurs and understood relations havo, By niaßot-pies and choughs and rooks, brought forth The secret'st man of blood. Foul whisperings arc abroad ; unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles ; infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. — -Mauheth. " Mk Orcutt dead ?" "Dying, sir." "How, when, where?" "In his own house, sir. JTc has been struck down by a falling limb." The District Attorney, who had been roused from his bed to hear thoovil tidings, looked at the porturbed face of the messenger before him — who was none other than Mr Byrd— and with difficulty restrained his emotion. " I sympathise with your horror and surprise," exclaimed the detective respectfully. Then, with a strange mixture of embarrassment and agitation, added : "It is considered absolutely necessary that yo< come to the house. II o may yet speak— and— and— you will find Miss Daro there," he concluded, with a peculiarly hesitating glance and a rapid movement toward the door. Mr Ferris, who, as wo know, cherished a strong feeling of friendship for Mr Orcutt, stared uneasily at the departing form of the detective. " What do you say ?" he repeated. "Miss Daro there, in Mr Orcutt's house?" The short "Yes," and the celerity with which Mr Byrd vanished, gave him the appearance of one anxious to escape further inquiries?. Astonished, as well as greatly distressed, the District Attorney made speedy preparations for following him, and soon was in the street. Ho found it all alive with eager citizens, who, notwithstanding the latoness of the hour, were rushing hither and thither in search ot particulars concerning this sudden calamity ; and upon reaching the house it&olf, found it wellnigh surrounded by an agitated throng of neighbom\s and friends. Simply pausing at tho gate to cast one glance at the tree and its fallen limb, he made his way to the front door. It was immediately opened. Dr. Tredwoll, whose face it was a shock to encounter in this place, stood before him, and farther back a group of such favoured friends as had been allowed to enter tho house. Something in the look of the coroner, as he silently reached forth his hand in salutation, added to tho mysterious impression which had been made upon Mr Ferris by the manner, if not words, of Mr Byrd. Feeling that ho was losing his self-com-mand, tho District Attorney grasped the hand that was held out to him, and huskily inquired if Mr Orcutt was still alive. Tho coroner, who had been standing beforo him with a troubled brow and lowered eyes, gravely bowod, and quietly leading the way, ushered him forward to Mr Orcutt's bedroom door. There he paused and looked as if ho would liko to speak, but hastily changing his mind, opened tho door and motioned the District Attorney in. As he did so, he cast a moaning and solemn look toward the bed, then drew back, watching with evident anxiety what the effect of the scene before him would havo upon this new vritnoss. A stupefying one it seemed, for Mr Ferris, pausing in his approach, looked at the cluster of persons about the bed,, and then drew his hand across his eyes like a man in a maze. Suddenly he turned upon Dr. Tredwell with the same strange look he had himself seen in the eyes of Byrd, and said, almost as if the words were forced from his lips : " This is no new eight to us, doctor ; we have been spectators of a scene like this before." That was it. As nearly as the alteration in circumstances and surroundings would allow, the spectacle before him was the same as that which he had encountered

months before in a small cottage at the other ond of the town. On the bed a pallid, senseless, but slowly breathing form, whoso features, stamped with the approach of death stared at them with marble-like rigidity from beneath the heavy bandage , which proclaimed the injury to be ono on the head. At his side the doctor — the same ono who had been callod in to attend Mrs Clommens — wearing, as he did then, a look of sombre anticipation which Mr Ferris expeotod every instant to see culminato in the solemn gesture wliich he had used at the widow's bedsido before she spoke. Even tie group of women who clustered about the toot of the couch wore much the same expression as those who waitod for movement on the part of Mrs Clemmens ; and had it not been for tho sight of Imogeno Daro sitting immovable and watchful on the farther side of tho bed, he might almost have imagined he was transported back to tho old scone, and that all this now horror undor which ho was labouring was a dream from which ho would speedily be awakened. But Imogone's faco, her look, her air of patient waiting, were not to bo mistaken. Attention once really artracted to her, it was not possibio for it to wander elsewhere-. Even the face of the dying man and tho countenance of tho watchful physician paled in interest before that fixed look which, never wavering, never altering, studiod tho marble visage before lior, for tho first faint signs of reawakening consciousness. Even his sister, who, if weak of mind, was most certainly of a loving disposition, seemed to feel tho force of the tio that bound Imogono to that pillow ; and, though she hovered nearer and nearer tho beloved form as tho woariful moments sped by, did not prosumo to inter poso her griof or her assistance between the burning eyo of Imogene and tho immovable form of her stricken brother. The hush that lay upon tho room was unbroken save by tho agitated breaths of all present. " To there no hopo ?" whihj ercd Mr Ferri* to Dr. Tiedwcll, a^, seeing no immediate prohpoct of chango, they sought for seats at the other sido of tho room. "No ; tho wound is strangely like that which Mrs Clcmmcns received. Ho will rouse, probably, but ho will not live. Our only comfort is that in this caco it is not a minder." Tho District Attorney mado a gesturo in tho direction of Imogene. " Ifow came flic to bo hero?" he asked. Dr. Trcdwell rose and drew him from the room. "It needs some explanation," he said; and began to relate to him how Mr Orcutt was escorting Miss Dare to the gato when the bough lell which seemed likely to rob him of his life. Mr Ferris, through whose mind thoso old words of tho widow wore running in a way that could only be accounted for by memories which the scene within had awakened — " May the vengeance of heaven light upon the head of him who has brought mo to this pass ! May the fate that has come upon mo be visited upon him, measure for measure, blow for blow, death for death !" — turned with impressive gravity and asked if Miss Dare had not been hurt. But Dr. Trcdwell shook his head. " She is not even bruised," said he. " And yet was on his arm?" "Possibly, though I very much doubt it." " She was standing at his side," uttered the quiet voice of Mr Byrd in their car ; " and disappeared when he did, under the falling branch. She must have been bruised, though she says not. I do not think she is in a condition to feel her injuries." " You were present, then," observed MiFerris, with a meaning glanco at the detective. "I was present," ho returned, with a look the District Attorney did not find it difficult to understand. "Is there anything you ought to tell mo ?" Mr Ferris inquired, when a moment or so later the coroner had been drawn away by a friend. ""I do not know," said Byid. "Of the conversation that passed between Miss Dare and Mr Orcutt, but a short portion came to our ears. It is her mannor, her actions, that have astonished us, and made us anxious to ha\e you upon the spot." And he told with what an expression of fear she had fled from her interview with Mr Orcutt in the library, and then gave, as nearly as ho could, an account of what had passed between them before the falling of the fatal limb. Finally he said : " Hickory and I expected to find her lying crushed and bleeding beneath, but instead of that, no sooner was tho bough lifted than she sprang to her knees, and seeing Mr Orcutt lying before her insensible, bent over him with that same expression of breathless awe and expectation which you see in her now. It looks as if she were waiting for him to rouse and finish tho sentence that was cut short by this catastrophe." " And what was that sentence ?" "As near as I can recollect, it was this : 'If any man suffers for this crime it shall not be Craik Mansell, but ' He did not have time to say whom." " My poor friend !" ejaculated Mr Ferris, " cut doM n in the exercise of his duties ! It is a mysterious providence — a very mysterious providence !" And crossing again to the sick-room, he went sadly in. He found the aspect unchanged. On the pillow the same white, immovable faco ; at the bedside the same constant and expectant watchers. Imogene especially seemed scarcely to havo made a move in all the time ot his absence. Like a marble image watching over a form of clay she 3at silent, breathless, intent — a sight to draw all eyes and satisfy none ; for her look was not one of grief, nor of awe, nor of hope, yet it had that within it which made her presence there seem a matter of right even to thoso who did not know the exact character of the bond which had united her to the unhappy sufferer. Mr Ferris, who had been only too ready to accopt Mr Byrd's explanation of her conduct, allowed himself to gaze at her unhindered. Overwhelmed as he was by tho calamity which promised to rob tho Bar of ono of its most distinguished advocates, and himself of a long-tried friend, ho could not but fcol tho throb of those deep in torests which, in tho estimation of this woman at least, hung upon a Avord which those dying lips might utter. And swayed by this feeling, he unconsciously bocame a third watcher, though for what, and in hopo of what, he could scarcoly havo told, so much was he benumbed by the suddenness of this great catastrophe, and the extraordinary circumstances by which it was surrounded. And so ono o'clock came and passed. It was not tho last timo the clock struck bofore a change came. Tho hour of two went by, then that of three, and still, to the casual eye, all remained the same. But ere tho stroke of four was heard, Mr Ferris, who had relaxed his survey of Imogene to bestow a fuller attention upon his friend, folt an indefinable sensation of dismay assail him, and rising to his feet, drew a step or so nearer the bed, and looked at its silent occupant with the air of a man who would fain shut his eyes to tho meaning of what ho sees bofore him. At the same moment Mr Byrd, who had just come in, found himself attracted by the subtlo difference he observed in tho expression of Miss Dare. The expectancy in her look was gone, and

its entire expression was that of awe. Advancing to the sido of Mr Ferris, he glanced down at the dying lawyer He afc once saw what it was that had so attracted and moved the District Attorney. A change had come over Mr Orcutt's face. Though rigid still, and unrelieved by any signs of returning consciousness, it was no longer that of a man they knew, but a strange face, owning the same features, but distinguished now by a look sinister as it was unaccustomed, filling the hreasts of thoso who saw it with dismay, and making any contemplation of his countenance more than painful to those who loved him. Nor did it decrease as they watched him. Like that charmed writing which appears on a blank paper when it is subjected to the heat, the subtle, unmistakable lines came out, moment by moment, on the mask of his unconscious face, till oven Imogenc trembled, and turned an appealing glance upon Mr Ferris, as if to bid him note this involuntary evidence of nature against the purity and good intentions of the man who had always stood so high in the world's regard. Then, satisfied, perhaps, with the expression she encountered on tho face of the District Attorney, she looked back ; and the heavy minutos went on, only more drearily, and perhaps more fearfully, than before. Suddenly — was it at a gesture of the physician, or a look from Imogene?--a thrill of expectation passed through the room, and Dr. Tredwell, Mr Ferris, and a certain othor gcxtloman who had but just entered at a remote corner of the apartment, came hurriedly forward and stood at the foot of the bed. At the same instant Imogene rose, and motioning thorn a trifle aside, with an air of mingled entreaty and command, bent slowly down toward tho injured man. A look of recognition answered her from the face upon the pillow, but she did not wait to meet it, nor pause for the word that evidently trembled on his momentarily conscious lip. Shutting out with her form tho group of anxious watchers behind her, she threw all her soul into the regard with which she held him enchained ; then slowly, solemnly, but Avith unyielding determination, uttered these words, which no one there could know were but a repetition of a question marlo a few eventful hours ago : "Jf Craik Mansell is not the man who killed Mrs Clemmens, do you, Mr Orcutt, tell us who is !" and, pausing, lemained with her gaze fixed demandingly on that of tho lawyer, undeterred by the smothered exclamations cf tho&e who witnessed this scene and missed its clue or found it only in tho supposition that this last great shock had unsettled her mind. Tho panting sufferer just trembling on tho vergo of life thrilled all down his once alert and nervous frame, then searching her face for ono sign of relenting, unclosed his rigid lips and said, with emphasis : " Has not Fate spoken ?" Instantly Imogene sprang erect, and. amid the stifled shrieks of the uomen and the muttered exclamations of tho men, pointed at the recumbent figui*e before thorn, saying : ''You hear! Tremont Orcutt declares upon his deathbed that it is the voice of Heaven which has spoken in this dreadful calamity. You who wero present when Mrs Clemmens breathed her imprecations on the head of her murderer, must know what that means." Mr Ferris, who of all present, perhaps, possessed the greatest regard for tho lawyer, gave an ejaculation of surprise at this, and bounding forward, lifted her away from the bedside he believed her to have so basely desecrated. "Madwoman," he criod, "where will your ravings end? He will tell no such tale to mo." But when he bent above the lawyer with tho question forced from him by Miss Dare's words, he found him already lapsed into that strange insensibility which was every moment showing itself more and more to bo the percursor of death. The sight seemed to rob Mr Ferris of his last grain of self-command. Rising, ho confronted the dazed faces of those about him with a severe look. " This charge," said he, "is akin to that which Miss Daro mado against herself in the court yesterday morning. When a woman has become crazed she no longer knows what she says." But Imogonc, strong in the belief that tho hand of Heaven had pointed out the culprit for ■whom they had so long been searching, shook her head in quiet denial, and simply saying, "None of you know this man as 1 do," moved quietly asido to a dim corner, where she sat down in calm expectation of another awakening on the part of tho dying lawyer. It came soon — came before Mr Ferris had recovered himself, or Dr. Tredwell had had a chanco to givo any uttcranco to the emotions which this scene was calculated to awaken. Rousing as the -widow had done, but seeming to sec no one, not even tho physician who bent close at his side, Mr Orcutt lifted his voice again, this time in tho old stentorian tones which he used in court, and clearly, iirmly exclaimed : " Blood will have blood !" Then in lower and more familiar accents, cried: "Ah, Imogene, Imogene, it was all for you !" And with her name on his lips, the great lawyer closed his eyes again, and sank for tho last timo into a state of insensibility. lmngene at once rose. " I must go," she murmured ; my duty in this place is done. " And sho attempted to cross the floor. But the purpose which had sustained her boing at an end, sho felt the full -weight of her misery, and looking in the faces about hor, and seeing nothing there but reprobation, sho tottorcd and would have fallen had not a certain portly gentleman who stood near by put forth his arm to sustain hor. Accepting the support with gratitude, but scarcely pausing to note from what source it came, she turned for an instant to Mr Ferris. "I realise," said she, "with what surprise you must have heard tho revolation which has just come from Mr Orcutt's lips. So unexpected is it that you cannot yet believe it, but the time will come whon, of all the words I havo spoken, thoso alono will bo found worthy your full credit ; that not Craik Mansoll, not Gouvt>rnour Hildrcth, not even unhappy Imogene Daro herself, could tell you so much of the real cause and manner of Mrs Clommens's death as this man who lies striken here a victim of Divine justice." And merely stopping to cast ono final look in the direction of the bed, she stumbled from the room. A few minutes later and sho reached the front door ; but only to fall against the lintel with a moan : "My words are true, but who will ever believe them ?" " Pardon mo," exclaimed a bland and fatherly voice over her shoulder, "I am a man who can believe in anything. Put your confidence in me, Miss Dare, and we will see — we will see." Startled by her surprise into new life, she gave one glance at the gentleman who had followed her to the door. It was the same who had offered her his arm, and whom she supposed to have remained behind her in Mr Orcutt's room. She saw before her a large comfortable-looking personage of middle age, of no great pretensions to elegance or culture, but bearing that within his face which, oddly enough, baffled

her understanding while it encouraged her trust. This was* the more peculiar in that he was not looking at her, but stood, with his eyes fixed on the fading light of the hall-lamp, which he surveyed with an expression of concern that almost amounted to pity. " Sir. who are you ?" eho tremblingly asked. Dropping his eyes from the lamp, he riveted them upon the veil she held tightly clasped in her right hand. "If you will allow me the liberty of whispering in your ear, I will soon tell you," said he. She bent her weary head downward ; he at once leaned toward her and murmured a half-dozen words that made her instantly .start erect with new light in her eyes. " And you will help me ?" she cried. " What else am I here for?" he answered. And turning toward a quiet figure which she now saw for the first time standing on the threshold of a small room near by, ho said with the calmness of a master : "Hickory, see that no one entors or leaves the sick-room till I return." And offering Imogene his arm, he conducted her into the library, the door of which he shut to behind them. (To be Continued.)