by George Gibbs
CHAPTER VII
MUSIC
Stryker, who kept guard at the door of McGuire's room, opened itcautiously in response to Peter's knock. He found McGuire sittingrigidly in a rocking-chair at the side of the room, facing the windows,a whisky bottle and glass on the table beside him. His face had lost itspallor, but in his eyes was the same look of glassy bewilderment.
"Why the H---- couldn't you come sooner?" He whined the question, notangrily, but querulously, like a child.
"I was having a look around," replied Peter coolly.
"Oh! And did you find anybody?"
"No."
"H-m! I thought you wouldn't."
Peter hesitated. He meant to conceal the housekeeper's share in thenight's encounters, but he knew that both Andy and the chauffeur wouldtalk, and so,
"There _was_ somebody outside, Mr. McGuire," he said. "You were notmistaken, a man prowling in the dark near the kitchen. Andy thought itwas the chauffeur, who was in the garage washing the cars."
"Ah!"
McGuire started up, battling for his manhood. It seemed to Peter thathis gasp was almost one of relief at discovering that his eyes had notdeceived him, that the face he had seen was that of a real person,instead of the figment of a disordered mind.
"Ah! Why didn't they shoot him?"
"I've just said, sir, Andy thought it was the chauffeur."
McGuire was pacing the floor furiously.
"He has no business to think. I pay him to act. And you--what did youdo?"
"Three of us searched the whole place--every tree, every bush--everyshadow----. The man has gone."
"Gone," sneered the other. "A H---- of a mess you're making of thisjob!"
Peter straightened angrily, but managed to control himself.
"Very well, Mr. McGuire," he said. "Then you'd better get somebody elseat once."
He had never given notice before but the hackneyed phrase fell crisplyfrom his lips. For many reasons, Peter didn't want to go, but he bowedand walked quickly across the room. "Good-night," he said.
Before he had reached the door the frightened man came stumbling afterhim and caught him by the arm.
"No, no, Nichols. Come back. D'ye hear? You mustn't be so d---- touchy.Come back. You can't go. I didn't mean anything. Come now!"
Peter paused, his hand on the knob, and looked down into the man'sflabby, empurpled countenance.
"I thought you meant it," he said.
"No. I--I didn't. I--I like you, Nichols--liked you from the veryfirst--yesterday. Of course you can't be responsible for all theboneheads here."
Peter had "called the bluff." Perhaps the lesson might have a salutaryeffect. And so, as his good humor came back to him, he smiledpleasantly.
"You see, Mr. McGuire, you could hardly expect Andy to shoot thechauffeur. They're on excellent terms."
McGuire had settled down into a chair near the table, and motioned Peterto another one near him.
"Sit down, Nichols. Another glass, Stryker. So." He poured the whiskywith an assumption of ease and they drank.
"You see, Nichols," he went on as he set his empty glass down, "I knowwhat I'm about. There _is_ somebody trying to get at me. It's nodream--no hallucination. You know that too, now. I saw him--I would haveshot him through the window--if it hadn't been for Peggy--and theothers--but I--I didn't dare--for reasons. She mustn't know----" Andthen eagerly, "She doesn't suspect anything yet, does she, Nichols?"
Peter gestured over his shoulder in the direction of the sounds whichstill came from below.
"No. They're having a good time."
"That's all right. To-morrow they'll be leaving for New York, I hope.And then we'll meet this issue squarely. You say the man has gone. Whydo you think so?"
"Isn't it reasonable to think so? His visit was merely a reconnoissance.I think he had probably been lying out in the underbrush all day,getting the lay of the land, watching what we were doing--seeing wherethe men were placed. But he must know now that he'll have to trysomething else--that he hasn't a chance of getting to you past theseguards, if you don't want him to."
"But he nearly succeeded to-night," mumbled McGuire dubiously.
Peter was silent a moment.
"I'm not supposed to question and I won't. But it seems to me, Mr.McGuire, that if this visitor's plan were to murder you, to get rid ofyou, he would have shot you down to-night, through the window. From hisfailure to do so, there is one definite conclusion to draw--and that isthat he wants to see you--to talk with you----"
McGuire fairly threw himself from his chair as he roared,
"I can't see him. I won't. I won't see anybody. I've got the law on myside. A man's house is his castle. A fellow prowls around here in thedark. He's been seen--if he's shot it's his own lookout. And he _will_be shot before he reaches me. You hear me? Your men must shoot--shoot tokill. If they fail I'll----"
He shrugged as if at the futility of his own words, which came stumblingforth, born half of fear, half of braggadocio.
Peter regarded him soberly. It was difficult to conceive of this man,who talked like a madman and a spoiled child, as the silent, stubborn,friendless millionaire, as the power in finance that Sheldon, Senior,had described him to be. The love of making money had succumbed to amore primitive passion which for the time being had mastered him. Fromwhat had been revealed, it seemed probable that it was not death orbodily injury that he feared, for Peter had seen him stand up at thewindow, a fair target for any good marksman, but an interview with thisnocturnal visitor who seemed bent upon bringing it about. Indeed, thechildish bravado of his last speech had voiced a wish, but beneath thewish Peter had guessed a protest against the inevitable.
Peter acknowledged McGuire's right to seclusion in his own house, but hefound himself wondering whether death for the intruder as proposed byhis employer were a justifiable means of preserving it, especially ifthe strange visitor did not himself use violence to gain his ends. Andso, when McGuire presently poured himself another glass of whisky, anddrank it, Peter took the liberty of asking the question.
"I am ignorant of your laws in this country, Mr. McGuire, but doesn't itseem that short of forcible entry of this house we would hardly bejustified in shooting the man?"
"I take the responsibility for that."
"I understand. But what I was going to propose was a hunt through thewoods to-morrow. A description of this man would be helpful. Forinstance, whether he was smoothly shaven or whether he had abeard--or--or a mustache?"
McGuire scowled.
"The man has a slight growth of beard--of mustache. But what differencedoes that make? No one has a right here--without my permission."
Peter sipped at his glass. As he had suspected, there were two of them.
"That's true. But even with this, we can move with more intelligence.This forest is your property. If we find any person who can't give anaccount of himself, we could take him into custody and turn him over tothe proper authorities."
"No. No," cried McGuire. "And have him set loose after a trivialexamination? Little good that would do. This man who is trying to reachme----"
McGuire stopped suddenly, glaring at his superintendent with bloodshoteyes, and Peter very politely waited for him to go on. But he broughthis empty glass down on the table with a crash which shattered it.
"He mustn't reach me," he roared. "I won't see him. That's understood.He's a man I'd have no more compunction about shooting than----"
McGuire, with a curious suddenness, stopped again. Then rose and resumedhis habit of pacing the floor. For a moment it had almost seemed as ifhe were on the point of a revelation. But the mood passed. Instead ofspeaking further he threw out his arms in a wide gesture.
"I've said enough," he growled, "more than enough. You know your duty."And he gestured toward the door. "Do it!" he finished brusquely.
Peter had already risen, and Stryker unemotionally opened the door forhim.
"I'll stay on duty all night, Mr. McGuire," he said quietly. "I'd adv
iseyou to turn in and get some sleep. You need it."
"Yes. Yes, I will. Thanks, Nichols," said McGuire, following him to thedoor and offering a flabby hand. "Don't mind what I've said to-night. Ithink we understand each other. Stryker will see that the house islocked when the young people come up. Keep your men to the mark and takeno chances."
"Good-night."
The remainder of the night, as Mrs. Bergen had predicted, proveduneventful, and at daylight Peter went to his cabin and tumbled intobed, too tired to think further of McGuire's visitors--or even of theman with the black mustache.
The next day he lay abed luxuriously for a while after he had awakened,but no amount of quiet thinking availed to clarify the mystery. Therewere two men, one bearded, interested in watching McGuire, another witha black mustache, interested in Peter. And so, after wondering again forsome puzzling moments as to how Mrs. Bergen, the housekeeper, had cometo be involved in McGuire's fortunes, he gave the problem up.
Foreseeing difficulties over breakfast at the house, he had arranged tomake his own coffee on a small oil stove which happened to be available,and so Peter set the pot on to boil and while he dressed turned over inhis mind the possibilities of the future. It seemed quite certain thatthe antagonism, whatever its nature, between his employer and theprowling stranger must come to an issue of some sort almost at once. Theintruder, if he were the sort of man who could inspire terror, wouldnot remain content merely to prowl fruitlessly about with every dangerof being shot for his pains, and McGuire could hardly remain long in hispresent situation without a physical or mental collapse.
Why hadn't McGuire taken flight? Why indeed had he come to Black RockHouse when it seemed that he would have been much safer amongst thecrowds of the city, where he could fall back upon the protection of thepolice and their courts for immunity from this kind of persecution?
Pieced together, the phrases his employer had let slip suggested thethought that he had come to Black Rock to escape publicity in anythingthat might happen. And McGuire's insistence upon the orders that theguards should shoot to kill also suggested, rather unpleasantly, thethought that McGuire knew who the visitor was and earnestly desired hisdeath.
But Mrs. Bergen could have no such wish, for, unlike McGuire, she hadshown a reticence in her fears, as though her silence had been intendedto protect rather than to accuse. Beth Cameron, too, was in some wayunconsciously involved in the adventure. But how? He drank his coffeeand ate his roll, a prey to a very lively curiosity. Beth interestedhim. And if Aunt Tillie Bergen, her only near relative, showed signs ofinquietude on the girl's account, the mysterious visitor surely had itin his power to make her unhappy. As he washed up the dishes and madehis bed, Peter decided that he would find Beth to-night when she cameback from work and ask her some questions about her Aunt Tillie.
Beth Cameron saved him that trouble. He was sitting at the piano,awaiting a telephone call to Black Rock House, where he was to have aconference with his employer on the forestry situation. He was so deeplyabsorbed in his music that he was unaware of the figure that had stolenthrough the underbrush and was now hidden just outside the door. It wasBeth. She stood with the fingers of one hand lightly touching the edgeof the door-jamb, the other hand at her breast, while she listened,poised lightly as though for flight. But a playful breeze twitched atthe hem of her skirt, flicking it out into the patch of sunlight by thedoorsill, and Peter caught the glint of white from the tail of his eye.
The music ceased suddenly and before Beth could flee into the bushesPeter had caught her by the hand.
Now that she was discovered she made no effort to escape him.
"I--I was listening," she gasped.
"Why, Beth," he exclaimed, voicing the name in his thoughts. "How longhave you been here?"
"I--I don't know. Not long."
"I'm so glad."
She was coloring very prettily.
"You--you told me you--you'd play for me sometime," she said demurely.
"Of course. Won't you come in? It's rather a mess here, but----"
He led her in, glancing at her gingham dress, a little puzzled.
"I thought you'd be farmeretting," he said.
But she shook her head.
"I quit--yesterday."
He didn't ask the reason. He was really enjoying the sight of her. Fewwomen are comely in the morning hours, which have a merciless way ofexaggerating minute imperfections. Beth hadn't any minute imperfectionsexcept her freckles, which were merely Nature's colorings upon awoodland flower. She seemed to fill the cabin with morning fragrance,like a bud just brought in from the garden.
"I'm very glad you've come," he said gallantly, leading her over to thedouble window where there was a chintz-covered seat. "I've wanted verymuch to talk to you."
She followed him protestingly.
"But I didn't come to be talked to. I came to listen to you play."
"You always arrive in the midst of music," he laughed. "I played you in,without knowing it. That was an Elfentanz----"
"What's that?"
"A dance of the Elves--the fairies." And then, with a laugh, "And thelittle devils."
"The little devils? You mean _me_!"
"Elf--fairy and devil too--but mostly elf."
"I'm not sure I like that--but I _do_ like the music. Please play itagain."
She was so lovely in her eagerness that he couldn't refuse, his fingersstraying from the dance by slow transitions into something more quiet,the "Romance" of Sibelius, and then after that into a gay little_scherzo_, at the end of which he turned suddenly to find her flushedand breathless, regarding him in a kind of awe.
"How lovely!" she whispered. "There were no devils in that."
"No, only fairies."
"Angels too--but somethin' else--that quiet piece--like the--the memoryof a--a--sorrow."
"'Romance,' it's called," he explained gently.
"Oh!"
"The things we dream. The things that ought to be, but aren't."
She took a deep breath. "Yes, that's it. That's what it meant. I feltit." And then, as though with a sudden shyness at her self-revelation,she glanced about. "What a pretty place! I've never been here before."
"How did you find your way?"
"Oh, I knew where the cabin was. I came through the woods and across thelog-jam below the pool. Then I heard the music. I didn't think you'dmind."
"Mind! Oh, I say. I don't know when I've been so pleased."
"Are you really? You _say_ a lot."
"Didn't I play it?"
That confused her a little.
"Oh!" she said demurely.
"And now, will you talk to me?"
"Yes, of course. But----"
"But what----?"
"I--I'm not sure that I ought to be here."
"Why not?"
"It's kind of--unusual."
He laughed. "You wouldn't be you, if you weren't unusual."
She glanced at him uneasily.
"You see, I don't know you very well."
"You're very exclusive in Black Rock!" he laughed.
"I guess we _have_ to be exclusive whether we want to or not," shereplied.
"Don't you think I'll do?"
"Maybe. I oughtn't to have come, but I just couldn't keep away."
"I'm glad you did. I wanted to see you."
"It wasn't that," she put in hastily. "I had to hear you play again.That's what I mean."
"I'll play for you whenever you like."
"Will you? Then play again, now. It makes me feel all queer inside."
Peter laughed. "Do you feel that way when you sing?"
"No. It all comes out of me then."
"Would you mind singing for me, Beth?" he asked after a moment.
"I--I don't think I dare."
He got up and went to the piano.
"What do you sing?"
But she hadn't moved and she didn't reply. So he urged her.
"In the woods when you're coming home----?"
; "Oh, I don't know----It just comes out--things I've heard--things I makeup----"
"What have you heard? I don't know that I can accompany you, but I'lltry."
She was flushing painfully. He could see that she wanted to sing forhim--to be a part of this wonderful dream-world in which he belonged,and yet she did not dare.
"What have you heard?" he repeated softly, encouraging her by runninghis fingers slowly over the simple chords of a major key.
Suddenly she started up and joined him by the piano.
"That's it--'The long, long trail a-windin'----" and in a moment wassinging softly. He had heard the air and fell in with her almost atonce.
"There's a long, long trail a-winding Into the land of my dreams, Where the nightingale is singing And a bright moon beams----"
Like the good musician that he was, Peter submerged himself, playinggently, his gaze on his fingers, while he listened. He had made nomistake. The distances across which he had heard her had not flattered.Her voice was untrained, of course, but it seemed to Peter that it hadlost nothing by the neglect, for as she gained confidence, she forgotPeter, as he intended that she should, and sang with the completeabstraction of a thrush in the deep wood. Like the thrush's note, too,Beth's was limpid, clear, and sweet, full of forest sounds--the fallingbrook, the sigh of night winds....
When the song ended he told her so.
"You do say nice things, don't you?" she said joyously.
"Wouldn't you--if it cost you nothing and was the truth? You must haveyour voice trained."
"Must! I might jump over the moon if I had a broomstick."
"It's got to be managed somehow."
"Then you're not disappointed in the way it sounds, close up?"
She stood beside him, leaning against the piano, her face flushed, herbreath rapid, searching his face eagerly. Peter knew that it was onlythe dormant artist in her seeking the light, but he thrilled warmly ather nearness, for she was very lovely. Peter's acquaintance with womenhad been varied, but, curiously enough, each meeting with this girlinstead of detracting had only added to her charm.
"No. I'm not disappointed in it," he said quite calmly, every impulse inhim urging a stronger expression. But he owed a duty to himself._Noblesse oblige!_ It was one of the mottoes of his House--(not alwaysfollowed--alas!). With a more experienced woman he would have said whatwas in his mind. He would probably have taken her in his arms and kissedher at once, for that was really what he would have liked to do. ButBeth....
Perhaps something in the coolness of his tone disconcerted her, for sheturned away from the piano.
"You're very kind," she said quietly.
He had a feeling that she was about to slip away from him, so he got up.
"Won't you sing again, Beth?"
But she shook her head. For some reason the current that had run betweenthem was broken. As she moved toward the door, he caught her by thehand.
"Don't go yet. I want to talk to you."
"I don't think I ought." And then, with a whimsical smile, "And youought to be out makin' the trees grow."
He laughed. "There's a lot of time for that."
She let him lead her to the divan again and sat, her fingers dovetailedaround a slender knee.
"I--I'm sorry I made fun of you the other day," she confessedimmediately.
"I didn't mind in the least."
"But you _did_ seem to know it all," she said. And then smiled in thedirection of the piano. "Now--I'm comin' to think you do. Even Shad saysyou're a wonder. I--I don't think he likes you, though----" sheadmitted.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't you care. Shad don't like anybody but himself andGoda'mighty--with God trailin' a little."
Peter smiled. Her singing voice may have been impersonal but one couldhardly think that of her conversation.
"And you, Beth--where do _you_ come in?"
She glanced at him quickly.
"Oh, I----," she said with a laugh, "I just trail along after God."
Her irony meant no irreverence but a vast derogation of Shad Wells.Somehow her point of view was very illuminating.
"I'm afraid you make him very unhappy," he ventured.
"That's _his_ lookout," she finished.
Peter was taking a great delight in watching her profile, the blue eyesshadowed under the mass of her hair, eyes rather deeply set andthoughtful in repose, the straight nose, the rather full underlip endingin a precipitous dent above her chin. He liked that chin. There wascourage there and strength, softened at once by the curve of the throat,flowing to where it joined the fine deep breast. Yesterday she hadseemed like a boy. To-day she was a woman grown, feminine in everygraceful conformation, on tiptoe at the very verge of life.
But there was no "flapper" here. What she lacked in culture was made upin refinement. He had felt that yesterday--the day before. She belongedelsewhere. And yet to Peter it would have seemed a pity to have changedher in any particular. Her lips were now drawn in a firm line and herbrows bore a curious frown.
"You don't mind my calling you Beth, do you?"
She flashed a glance at him.
"That's what everybody calls me."
"My name is Peter."
"Yes, I know." And then, "That's funny."
"Funny!"
"You look as if your name ought to be Algernon."
"Why?" he asked, laughing.
"Oh, I don't know. It's the name of a man in a book I read--anEnglishman. You're English, you said."
"Half English," said Peter.
"What's the other half?"
"Russian." He knew that he ought to be lying to her, but somehow hecouldn't.
"Russian! I thought Russians all had long hair and carried bombs."
"Some of 'em do. I'm not that kind. The half of me that's English is thebiggest half, and the safest."
"I'm glad of that. I'd hate to think of you as bein' a Bolshevik."
"H-m. So would I."
"But Russia's where you get your music from, isn't it? The band leaderat Glassboro is a Russian. He can play every instrument. Did you learnmusic in Russia?"
Beth was now treading dangerous ground and so it was time to turn thetables.
"Yes, a little," he said, "but music has no nationality. Or why would Ifind a voice like yours out here?"
"Twenty miles from nowhere," she added scornfully.
"How did you come here, Beth? Would you mind telling me? You weren'tborn here, were you? How did you happen to come to Black Rock?"
"Just bad luck, I guess. Nobody'd ever come to Black Rock just becausethey want to. We just came. That's all."
"Just you and Aunt Tillie? Is your father dead?" he asked.
She closed her eyes a moment and then clasped her knees again.
"I don't like to talk about family matters."
"Oh, I----"
And then, gently, she added,
"I never talk about them to any one."
"Oh, I'm sorry," said Peter, aware of the undercurrent of sadness in hervoice. "I didn't know that there was anything painful to you----"
"I didn't know it myself, until you played it to me, just now, the piecewith the sad, low voices, under the melody. It was like somebody deadspeakin' to me. I can't talk about the things I feel like that."
"Don't then----Forgive me for asking."
He laid his fingers softly over hers. She withdrew her hand quickly, butthe look that she turned him found his face sober, his dark eyes warmwith sympathy. And then with a swift inconsequential impulse born ofPeter's recantation,
"I don't s'pose there's any reason why I shouldn't tell you," she saidmore easily. "Everybody around here knows about me--about us. AuntTillie and I haven't lived here always. She brought me here when I was achild."
She paused again and Peter remained silent, watching her intently. Asshe glanced up at him, something in the expression of his face gave hercourage to go on.
"Father's dead. His name was Ben Cameron. He came of nice peop
le," shefaltered. "But he--he was no good. We lived up near New Lisbon. He usedto get drunk on 'Jersey Lightnin'' and tear loose. He was all rightbetween whiles--farmin'--but whisky made him crazy, and then--then hewould come home and beat us up."
"Horrible!"
"It was. I was too little to know much, but Aunt Tillie's husband cameat last and there was a terrible fight. Uncle Will was hurt--hurt sobad--cut with a knife--that he never was the same again. And my--myfather went away cursing us all. Then my mother died--Uncle Willtoo--and Aunt Tillie and I came down here to live. That's all. Not muchto be proud of," she finished ruefully.
Peter was silent. It was a harrowing, sordid story of primitive passion.He was very sorry for her.
Beth made an abrupt graceful movement of an arm across her brows, asthough to wipe out the memory.
"I don't know why I've told you," she said. "I never speak of this toany one."
"I'm so sorry."
He meant it. And Beth knew that he did.
