CHAPTER XXI
ON THE CARS
This episode, which to Ransom's mind would bear but one interpretation,gave him ample food for thought. He decided to be more circumspect in thefuture and to keep an eye out for inquisitive strangers. Not that he hadany thing to conceal, but no man enjoys having his proceedings watched,especially where a woman is concerned.
That Hazen was antagonistic to him he had always known; but that he wasregarded by him with suspicion he had not realized till now. Hazensuspicious of _him_! that meant what? He wished that he had Mr. Harperat his side to enlighten him.
It was now five o'clock and he was sitting in his room awaiting the usualreport from the river, when a quick tap at his door was followed by theentrance of the very man he was thinking about. He rose eagerly toreceive him, determined, however, to allow no inconsiderate impulse todrive him into unnecessary speech.
"I have already said too much," he reminded himself in self-directedmonition. "It's time he did some of the talking."
Hazen seemed willing enough to do this. Taking the seat proffered him, heopened the conversation as follows:
"Mr. Ransom, I have been doing you an injustice. I do not consider itnecessary to tell you just how I have found this out, but I am nowconvinced that you are as much in the dark as myself in regard to thisunfortunate affair, and are as willing as I am to take all justifiablemeans to enlighten yourself. I own that at first I thought it more thanprobable you were in collusion with the girl here to deceive me. That Iwouldn't stand. I'm glad to find you as truly a victim of this mystery asmyself."
Ransom straightened himself.
"If this is an apology," he returned, "I am willing to accept it in thespirit in which it is proffered. But I should like something more thanapology from you. Candor for candor;--your whole story in return formine."
"I'm afraid it would be a trifle tedious,--my whole story," smiled Hazen."If you mean such part of it as concerns Georgian's peculiar actions andthe complications with which we are at this moment struggling, I can onlyrepeat what I have already told you, both at the St. Denis in New Yorkand here. I am Georgian's returned brother, saved from the jaws of hellto see my own country again. I arrived in New York on the tenth.Naturally, after securing a room at the hotel, I took up the papers. Theywere full of the approaching marriage of Miss Hazen. I recognized mysister's name, though not her splendor, for we were the sole survivors ofa poor country family and I knew nothing of the legacy I am now told shereceived. Anxious to see her, I attended the ceremony. She recognized me.I had not expected this, and feeling old affections revive, I followedher friends to the house and was presented to them and to you. WhatI whispered to her on this occasion were my assumed name and the placewhere I was to be found. My changed countenance called for explanations,for which a bridal reception offered no opportunity. Besides, as I havealready said, I stood in sore need of a definite amount of money. I meanther to come and see me, but I did not expect her to play a trick on youin order to do so. This had its birth in the to me unaccountable mysteryembodied in the girl you call Anitra, but whom I'm not ready yet to name.For when I do, action must follow conviction and that without mercy ordelay."
"Action?" repeated Ransom, with quick suspicion and a confused rush ofcontradictory visions in his mind. "What do you mean by that?"
Hazen covered his chin with his hand.
"I will try and explain," he replied. "If I am abrupt in my language, itis owing to the exigencies of the case. I have no time to waste and nodisposition to whitewash a rough piece of work. To speak to the point, Ihave an intense interest in my sister Georgian. I have little or none inmy sister Anitra. Georgian's intelligence, good-will, and command ofmoney would be of inestimable benefit to me. Anitra, on the contrary,could be nothing but a burden, unless--" here he cast a very sharp glanceat Ransom--"unless Georgian should have been sufficiently considerate toleave her a good share of her fortune in the will you say she made justbefore her disappearance and supposed death."
"That I can say nothing about," rejoined Ransom in answer to this feeler."The will is in the hands of her lawyer, but if it will help yourargument any we will suppose that she left her sister to the care of herfriends without any especial provision for her in the way of money."
The steady fingers clutching the scarred neck loosed their grip to wavethis supposition aside.
"A hardly supposable case," was the cold comment with which hesupplemented this disclaimer; "but one which would make the girl a burdenindeed; a burden which for many reasons I could not assume." Here hestruck himself sharply on the neck, with the first display of passion hehad shown. "My advantages are not such as to make it easy for me tosupport myself. It would be simply impossible for me to undertake thecare of any girl, least of all of one with a manifest infirmity."
"Anitra will prosper without your care," replied Ransom, overlooking theheartlessness of the man in the mad, unaccountable sense of relief withwhich he listened to his withdrawal from concerns for which he showed solittle sympathy. "There are others who will be glad to do all that can bedone for Georgian's forsaken sister."
"Yes. That is all right, but--" Here Hazen squared himself across the topof the table before which he had been sitting; "I must be made sure thatthe facts have been rightly represented to me and that the girl now inthis house _is_ Georgian's deserted sister. I'm not yet satisfied thatshe is, and I must be convinced not only on this point but on manyothers, before this day is over. Business of great importance calls meback to the city and, it may be, out of the country. I may never be ableto spend another day on purely personal affairs, so this one must tell. Ihave a scheme (it is a very simple one) which, if carried out as I haveplanned, will satisfy me as nothing else will as to the identity of thegirl we will call, from lack of positive knowledge, Anitra. Will you helpme in its furtherance? It lies with you to do so."
"First, your reasons for doubting the girl," retorted Ransom. "They mustbe excellent ones for you to resist the evidence of such conclusiveproofs as you have yourself been witness to since entering this house. Iam Georgian's husband. I have the strongest wish in the world to see heragain at my side; yet with the exception of her wonderful likeness to mywife, I find nothing in this raw if beautiful girl, of the polished,highly trained woman I married. I have not even succeeded in startlingher ear--something which I should have been able to do if she were notthe totally deaf woman she appears. Confide to me then your reasons fordemanding additional proofs of her identity. If they carry convictionwith them, I will aid you in any scheme you can propose which willneither frighten nor afflict her."
Hazen rose to his feet. Narrow as the room was, he yielded to hisrestless desire to move about and began pacing up and down the restrictedquarters bounded by the edge of the table and the door. Not until he hadmade the second turning did he speak; then it was with seeming openness.
"It's like putting the torch to my last ship," said he; "but this is notime to hesitate. Mr. Ransom, I do not trust my eyes, I do not trust myears, nor your eyes, nor your ears, nor those of any one here, because Ihave talked with a man who was on the same train with my sisters. Henoticed them because of their similar appearance and close intimacy.They were not dressed alike, but they were veiled alike and one did notmove without the other. More than that, they not only walked about thevarious stations where they waited, arm in arm, but they sat thus closelyjoined in the cars all the way from New York. This interested himespecially as he noted great anxiety and incessant movement in the one,and complete passiveness in the other. She who sat in the outer seat waswatchful, busy, and ready to press the other's arm at the leastprovocation, but if either spoke it was always the other. It was not tillthe quick rush and shrill whistle of a passing train made one start andnot the other, that he got the idea that one of them was deaf. As thiswas the one by the window, he felt that their peculiar actions were nowaccounted for, and indeed thus far it all tallied with what we mightexpect from Georgian traveling with the hapless Anitra. But thererema
ined a fact to be told, which rouses doubt. When they reachedG---- and he saw from their quick rising that they were about to leavethe train, he naturally glanced their way again, and this time he caughta glimpse of the inner one's neck. Her veil had become slightlydisarranged, exposing the whole nape. It was unexpectedly dark, almostbrunette in color, and quite devoid of delicacy; such a skin as one mightlook for in the gipsy Anitra after years of outdoor living and a longlack of nice personal attention, but not such as I saw and admired a fewhours ago on the neck of the woman bending over her work in thelandlady's room. Oh, I recognized the difference; I have an eye fornecks."
He paused, coming to a standstill in the middle of the room, to see whateffect his words had had on Ransom.
"I have that man's name," he continued, "and can produce him if I havetime and it seems to be necessary. But I had rather come to my owndecision without any outside interference. This is not an affair forpublic gossip or newspaper notoriety. It is a question of justice tomyself. If this girl is Georgian--" His whole face changed. For a momentRansom hardly knew him. The quiet, self-contained man seemed to havegiven way to one of such unexpected power and threat that Ransom roseinstinctively to his feet in recognition of a superiority he could nolonger deny.
The action seemed to recall Hazen to himself. He wheeled about andrecommenced his quiet pacing to and fro.
"I beg pardon," he quietly finished. "If it is Georgian, she must standmy friend. That is all I was going to say. If it is, against all reasonand probability, her strangely restored twin, I shall leave this house bymidnight, never probably to see any of you again. So you perceive that itis incumbent upon us to work promptly. Are you ready to hear what I haveto propose?"
"Yes."
Hazen paused again, this time in front of the door. Laying his handlightly on one of the panels, he glanced back at Ransom.
"You are nicely placed here for observation. Your door directly faces thehall she must traverse in returning to her room."
"That's quite true."
"She's in her room now. Ah, you know that?"
"Yes." Ransom seemed to have no other word at his command.
"Will she come out again before night to eat or to visit?"
"There's no telling. She's very fitful. No one can prophesy what shewill do. Sometimes she eats in the landlady's room, sometimes in herown, sometimes not at all. If you have frightened her, or she has beendisturbed in any way by your companion who shows such interest in herand in me, she probably will not come out at all."
"But she must. I expect you to see that she does. Use any messenger, anyartifice, but get her away from this hall for ten minutes, even if it isonly into Mrs. Deo's room. When she returns I shall be on my knees beforethis keyhole to watch her and observe. To see what, I do not mean to tellyou, but it will be something which will definitely settle for me thismatter of identity. Does this plan look sufficiently harmless to meetwith your approval?"
"Yes, but looks cannot always be trusted. I must know just what you meanto do. I will leave nothing to a mind and hand I do not trust any morefully than I do yours. You are too eager for Georgian's money; too littleinterested in herself; _and you are too sly in your ways_. I overlookedthis when you had the excuse of a possible distrust of myself. But nowthat your confidence is restored in me, now that you recognize the factthat I stand outside of this whole puzzling affair and have no other wishthan to know the truth about it and do my duty to all parties concerned,secrecy on your part means more than I care to state. If you persist init I shall lend myself to nothing that you propose, but wait for time tosubstantiate her claim or prove its entire falsity."
"You will!"
The words rang out involuntarily. It almost seemed as if the man wouldspring with them straight at the other's throat. But he controlledhimself, and smiling bitterly, added:
"I know the marks of human struggle. I have read countenances from mybirth. I've had to, and only one has baffled me--_hers_. But we are goingto read that too and very soon. We are going to learn, you and I, whatlies behind that innocent manner and her rude, uncultivated ways. We aregoing to sound that deafness. I say _we_," he impressively concluded,"because I have reconsidered my first impulse and now propose to allowyou to participate openly, and without the secrecy you object to, in allthat remains to be done to make our contemplated test a success. Willthat please you? May I count on you now?"
"Yes," replied Ransom, returning to his old monosyllable.
"Very well, then, see if you can make a scrawl like this."
Pulling a piece of red chalk from his pocket, he drew a figure of asomewhat unusual character on the bare top of the table between them;then he handed the chalk over to Ransom, who received it with a stare ofwonder not unmixed with suspicion.
"I'm not an adept at drawing," said he, but made his attempt,notwithstanding, and evidently to Hazen's satisfaction.
"You'll do," said he. "That's a mystic symbol once used by Georgianand myself in place of our names in all mutual correspondence, andon the leaves of our school-books and at the end of our exercises. Itmeant nothing, but the boys and girls we associated with thought it didand envied us the free-masonry it was supposed to cover. A ridiculousmake-believe which I rate at its full folly now, but one which cannotfail to arouse a hundred memories in Georgian. We will scrawl it onher door, or rather you shall, and according to the way she conductsherself on seeing it, we shall know in one instant what you with yourpatience and trust in time may not be able to arrive at in weeks."
Ransom recalled some of the tests he had himself employed, many of whichhave been omitted from this history, and shrugged his shoulders mentally,if not physically. If Hazen noted this evidence of his lack of faith, heremained entirely unaffected by it, and in a few minutes everything hadbeen planned between them for the satisfactory exercise of what Hazenevidently regarded as a crucial experiment. Ransom was about to proceedto take the first required step, when they heard a disturbance in front,and the coach came driving up with a great clatter and bang and from itstepped the lean, well-groomed figure of Mr. Harper.
"Bah!" exclaimed Hazen with a violent gesture of disappointment. "Therecomes your familiar. Now I suppose you will cry off."
"Not necessarily," returned Ransom. "But this much is certain. I shallcertainly consult him before hazarding this experiment. I am not so sureof myself or--pardon me--of yourself as to take any steps in the darkwhile I have at hand so responsible a guide as the man whom you choose tocall my familiar."
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