The Oakdale Affair
Page 9
never been a badgirl--and---and--I had nothing to do with that awful thing that happenedto-night."
Bridge and the boy realized that she was not talking to them--that forthe moment she had lost sight of their presence--she was talking to thatfather whose heart would be breaking with the breaking of the new day,trying to convince him that his little girl had done no wrong.
Again she sat up, and when she spoke there was no tremor in her voice.
"I may die," she said. "I want to die. I do not see how I can go onliving after last night; but if I do die I want my father to know thatI had nothing to do with it and that they tried to kill me becauseI wouldn't promise to keep still. It was the little one who murderedhim--the one they called 'Jimmie' and 'The Oskaloosa Kid.' The big onedrove the car--his name was 'Terry.' After they killed him I tried tojump out--I had been sitting in front with Terry--and then they draggedme over into the tonneau and later--the Oskaloosa Kid tried to kill metoo, and threw me out."
Bridge heard the boy at his side gulp. The girl went on.
"To-morrow you will know about the murder--everyone will know about it;and I will be missed; and there will be people who saw me in the carwith them, for someone must have seen me. Oh, I can't face it! I want todie. I will die! I come of a good family. My father is a prominent man.I can't go back and stand the disgrace and see him suffer, as he willsuffer, for I was all he had--his only child. I can't bear to tell youmy name--you will know it soon enough--but please find some way tolet my father know all that I have told you--I swear that it is thetruth--by the memory of my dead mother, I swear it!"
Bridge laid a hand upon the girl's shoulder. "If you are telling us thetruth," he said, "you have only a silly escapade with strange men uponyour conscience. You must not talk of dying now--your duty is to yourfather. If you take your own life it will be a tacit admission of guiltand will only serve to double the burden of sorrow and ignominy whichyour father is bound to feel when this thing becomes public, as itcertainly must if a murder has been done. The only way in which youcan atone for your error is to go back and face the consequences withhim--do not throw it all upon him; that would be cowardly."
The girl did not reply; but that the man's words had impressed herseemed evident. For a while each was occupied with his own thoughts;which were presently disturbed by the sound of footsteps upon the floorbelow--the muffled scraping of many feet followed a moment later by anexclamation and an oath, the words coming distinctly through the looseand splintered flooring.
"Pipe the stiff," exclaimed a voice which The Oskaloosa Kid recognizedimmediately as that of Soup Face.
"The Kid musta croaked him," said another.
A laugh followed this evidently witty sally.
"The guy probably lamped the swag an' died of heart failure," suggestedanother.
The men were still laughing when the sound of a clanking chain echoeddismally from the cellar. Instantly silence fell upon the newcomers uponthe first floor, followed by a--"Wotinel's that?" Two of the men hadapproached the staircase and started to ascend it. Slowly the uncannyclanking drew closer to the first floor. The girl on the bed turnedtoward Bridge.
"What is it?" she gasped.
"We don't know," replied the man. "It followed us up here, or ratherit chased us up; and then went down again just before you regainedconsciousness. I imagine we shall hear some interesting developmentsfrom below."
"It's The Sky Pilot and his gang," whispered The Oskaloosa Kid.
"It's The Oskaloosa Kid," came a voice from below.
"But wot was that light upstairs then?" queried another.
"An' wot croaked this guy here?" asked a third. "It wasn't nothin'nice--did you get the expression on his mug an' the red foam on hislips? I tell youse there's something in this house beside human bein's.I know the joint--it's hanted--they's spooks in it. Gawd! there it isnow," as the clanking rose to the head of the cellar stairs; and thoseabove heard a sudden rush of footsteps as the men broke for the openair--all but the two upon the stairway. They had remained too long andnow, their retreat cut off, they scrambled, cursing and screaming, tothe second floor.
Along the hallway they rushed to the closed door at the end--the doorof the room in which the three listened breathlessly--hurling themselvesagainst it in violent effort to gain admission.
"Who are you and what do you want?" cried Bridge.
"Let us in! Let us in!" screamed two voices. "Fer God's sake let us in.Can't you hear IT? It'll be comin' up here in a minute."
The sound of the dragging chain could be heard at intervals upon thefloor below. It seemed to the tense listeners above to pause beside thedead man as though hovering in gloating exultation above its gruesomeprey and then it moved again, this time toward the stairway wherethey all heard it ascending with a creepy slowness which wrought moreterribly upon tense nerves than would a sudden rush.
"The mills of the Gods grind slowly," quoted Bridge.
"Oh, don't!" pleaded The Oskaloosa Kid.
"Let us in," screamed the men without. "Fer the luv o' Mike have aheart! Don't leave us out here! IT's comin'! IT's comin'!"
"Oh, let the poor things in," pleaded the girl on the bed. She was,herself, trembling with terror.
"No funny business, now, if I let you in," commanded Bridge.
"On the square," came the quick and earnest reply.
The THING had reached the head of the stairs when Bridge dragged the bedaside and drew the bolt. Instantly two figures hurled themselves intothe room but turned immediately to help Bridge resecure the doorway.
Just as it had done before, when Bridge and The Oskaloosa Kid had takenrefuge there with the girl, the THING moved down the hallway to theclosed door. The dragging chain marked each foot of its advance. If itmade other sounds they were drowned by the clanking of the links overthe time roughened flooring.
Within the room the five were frozen into utter silence, and beyond thedoor an equal quiet prevailed for a long minute; then a great forcemade the door creak and a weird scratching sounded high up upon the oldfashioned panelling. Bridge heard a smothered gasp from the boy besidehim, followed instantly by a flash of flame and the crack of a smallcaliber automatic; The Oskaloosa Kid had fired through the door.
Bridge seized the boy's arm and wrenched the weapon from him. "Becareful!" he cried. "You'll hurt someone. You didn't miss the girl muchthat time--she's on the bed right in front of the door."
The Oskaloosa Kid pressed closer to the man as though he soughtprotection from the unknown menace without. The girl sprang from thebed and crossed to the opposite side of the room. A flash of lightningilluminated the chamber for an instant and the roof of the verandahwithout. The girl noted the latter and the open window.
"Look!" she cried. "Suppose it went out of another window upon thisporch. It could get us so easily that way!"
"Shut up, you fool!" whispered one of the two newcomers. "It might hearyou." The girl subsided into silence.
There was no sound from the hallway.
"I reckon you croaked IT," suggested the second newcomer, hopefully;but, as though the THING without had heard and understood, the clankingof the chain recommenced at once; but now it was retreating along thehallway, and soon they heard it descending the stairs.
Sighs of relief escaped more than a single pair of lips. "IT didn't hearme," whispered the girl.
Bridge laughed. "We're a nice lot of babies seeing things at night," hescoffed.
"If you're so nervy why don't you go down an' see wot it is?" asked oneof the late arrivals.
"I believe I shall," replied Bridge and pulled the bed away from thedoor.
Instantly a chorus of protests arose, the girl and The Oskaloosa Kidbeing most insistent. What was the use? What good could he accomplish?It might be nothing; yet on the other hand what had brought deathso horribly to the cold clay on the floor below? At last their pleasprevailed and Bridge replaced the bed before the door.
For two hours the five sat about the room waiting for daylight. Therecould be
no sleep for any of them. Occasionally they spoke, usuallyadvancing and refuting suggestions as to the identity of the nocturnalprowler below-stairs. The THING seemed to have retreated again to thecellar, leaving the upper floor to the five strangely assorted prisonersand the first floor to the dead man.
During the brief intervals of conversation the girl repeated snatchesof her story and once she mentioned The Oskaloosa Kid as the murderer ofthe unnamed victim. The two men who had come last pricked up their earsat this and Bridge felt the boy's hand just touch his arm as though inmute appeal for belief and protection. The