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Page 26
Nor was this the only sign in the room of a bygone presence that had
possessed a taste for something beyond the mere necessities of life.
On the grim coarsely papered wall hung more than one picture; cut
from pictorial newspapers to be sure, but each and every one, if I may
be called a judge of such matters, possessing some quality of
expression to commend it to a certain order of taste. They were all
strong pictures. Vivid faces of men and women in daring positions; a
hunter holding back a jaguar from his throat; a soldier protecting
his comrade from the stroke; and most striking of all, a woman lissome
as she was powerful, starting aghast and horror stricken from--what?
I could not tell; a rough hand had stripped the remainder of the
picture from the wall.
A bit of candle and a half sheet of a newspaper lay on the floor. I
picked up the paper. It was a Rutland Herald and bore the date of two
days before. As I read I realized what I had done. If these daring
robbers were not at this very moment in the house, they had been
there, and that within two or three days. The broken panes of glass
in the garret above were now explained. I was not the first one who
had climbed that creaking pine tree this fall.
Something like a sensible dread of a very possible danger now seized
hold of me. If I had stumbled upon these strangely subtile, yet
devilishly bold creatures in their secret lair, the pistol I carried
was not going to save me. Shut in like a fox in a hole, I had little
to hope for, if they once made their appearance at the stairhead or
came upon me from any of the dim halls of the crazy old dwelling,
which I now began to find altogether too large for my comfort.
Stealing cautiously forth from the room in which I had found so much
to disconcert me, I crept towards the front staircase and listened.
All was deathly quiet. The old pine tree moaned and twisted without,
and from time to time the wind came sweeping down the chimney with an
unearthly shrieking sound that was weirdly in keeping with the place.
But within and below all was still as the tomb, and though in no ways
reassured, I determined to descend and have the suspense over at
once. I did so, pistol in hand and ears stretched to their utmost to
catch the slightest rustle, but no sound came to disturb me, nor did
I meet on this lower floor the sign of any other presence in the
house but my own. Passing hastily through what appeared to be a sort
of rude parlor, I stepped into the kitchen and tried one of the
windows. Finding I could easily lift it from the inside, I drew my
breath with ease for the first time since I had alighted among the
broken glass above, and turning back, deliberately opened the door of
the kitchen stove, and looked in. As I half expected, I found a pile
of partly charred rags, showing where the wretches had burned their
prison clothing, and proceeding further, picked up from the ashes a
ring which whether or not they were conscious of having attempted to
destroy in this way I cannot say, but which I thankfully put in my
pocket against the day it might be required as proof.
Discerning nothing more in that quarter inviting interest, I asked
myself if I had nerve to descend into the cellar. Finally concluding
that that was more than could be expected from any man in my position,
I gave one look of farewell to the damp and desolate walls about me,
then with a breath of relief jumped from the kitchen window again
into the light and air of day. As I did so I could swear I heard a
door within that old house swing on its hinges and softly close. With
a thrill I recognized the fact that it came from the cellar.
* * * *
My thoughts on the road back to Melville were many and conflicting.
Chief above them all, however, rose the comfortable conclusion that
in the pursuit of one mysterious affair, I had stumbled, as is often
the case, upon the clue to another of yet greater importance, and by
so doing got a start that might yet redound greatly to my advantage.
For the reward offered for the recapture of the Schoenmakers was
large, and the possibility of my being the one to put the authorities
upon their track, certainly appeared after this day's developements,
open at least to a very reasonable hope. At all events I determined
not to let the grass grow under my feet till I had informed the
Superintendent of what I had seen and heard that day in the old haunt
of these two escaped convicts.
Arrived at the public house in Melville, and learning that Mr. Blake
had safely returned there an hour before, I drew the landlord to one
side and asked what he could tell me about that old house of the two
noted robbers Schoenmaker, I had passed on my way back among the
hills.
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