The Mark of Cain

Berg turned again to Miss Wilkinson, the blonde stenographer.

“Will you tell me,” he said, “if you know, what caused Mr. Trowbridge to leave his office early, yesterday?”

The girl hesitated. She shot a quick glance at Landon, and then looked down again. She fidgeted with her handkerchief, and twice essayed to speak, but did not finish.

“Come,” said Berg, sharply, “I am waiting.”

“I don’t know,” said Miss Wilkinson at last.

Fibsy gave a quick whistle. “She does know,” he declared; “she takes all the telephone calls, and she knows the G’uvnor went out ’cause somebody telephoned for him.”

“Is this true?” asked Berg of the girl.

“How can I tell?” she retorted, pertly. “Mr. Trowbridge had a lot of telephone calls yesterday, and I don’t know whether he went out because of one of them or not. I don’t listen to a telephone conversation after Mr. Trowbridge takes the wire.”

“You do so!” said Fibsy, in a conversational tone. “Mr. Berg, Yellowtop told me just after the Guv’nor went out, that he’d gone ’cause somebody asked him over the wire to go to Van Cortlandt Park.”

“Tell the truth,” said Berg to the girl, curtly.

“Well, I just as lief,” she returned; “but it ain’t my way to tell of private office matters in public.”

“Make it your way, now, then. It’s time you understand the seriousness of this occasion!”

“All right. Somebody, then, – some man, – did call Mr. Trowbridge about two o’clock, and asked him to go to Van Cortlandt Park.”

“What for? Did he say?”

“Yes, he said somebody had set a trap for him.”

“Set a trap for him! What did he mean?”

“How do I know what he meant? I ain’t a mind-reader! I tell you what he said, – I can’t make up a meanin’ for it too. And I ain’t got a right to tell this much. I don’t want to get nobody in trouble.”

The girl was almost in tears now, but whether the sympathy was for herself or another was an open question.

“You have heard, Miss Wilkinson, of testimony that means to be true, but is – er – inexact.” The coroner smiled a trifle, as if thus atoning for his own late slip. “Therefore, I beg that you will do your utmost to remember exactly what that message was.”

“I do, ’cause I thought it was such a funny one. The man said, ‘you’d better come, he’s set a trap for you.’ And Mr. Trowbridge says ‘I can’t go today, I’ve got an engagement’ And the other man said, ‘Oh, c’mon. It’s a lovely day, and I’ll give you some stephanotis.’”

“Stephanotis!”

“Yes, sir, I remembered that, ’cause it’s my fav’rite puffume.”

“Was Mr. Trowbridge in the habit of using perfumery?” asked Berg of Avice.

“Never,” she replied, looking at the blonde witness with scorn.

“I don’t care,” Miss Wilkinson persisted, doggedly; “I know he said that, for I had a bottle of stephanotis one Christmas, and I never smelled anything so good. And then he said something about the Caribbean Sea – ”

“Now, Miss Wilkinson, I’m afraid you’re romancing a little,” and the coroner looked at her in reproof.

“I’m telling you what I heard. If you don’t want to hear it, I’ll stop.”

“We want to hear it, if it’s true, not otherwise. Are you sure this man said these absurd things?”

“They weren’t absurd, leastways, Mr. Trowbridge didn’t think so. I know that, ’cause he was pleasant and polite, and when the man said he’d give him some stephanotis Mr. Trowbridge said, right off, he’d go.”

“Go to the Caribbean Sea with him?”

“I don’t know whether he meant that or not. I didn’t catch on to what he said about that, but I heard Caribbean Sea all right.”

“Do you know where that sea is?”

“No, sir. But I studied it in my geography at school, I forget where it is, but I remember the name.”

“Well it’s between – er – that is, it’s somewhere near South America, and the – well, it’s down that way. Did this man speaking sound like a foreigner?”

“N – no, not exactly.”

“Like an American?”

“Yes, – I think so.”

“Explain your hesitation.”

“Well,” said the girl, desperately, “he sounded like he was trying to sort of disguise his voice, – if you know what I mean.”

“I know exactly what you mean. How did you know it was a disguised voice?”

“It was sort of high and then sort of low as if making believe somebody else.”

“You’re a very observing young woman. I thought you didn’t listen to telephone conversations of your employer.”

“Well, I just happened to hear this one. And it was so – so queer, I kind of kept on listenin’ for a few minutes.”

“It may be fortunate that you did, as your report is interesting. Now, can you remember any more, any other words or sentences?”

“No sir. There was a little more but I didn’t catch it. They seemed to know what they was talkin’ about, but most anybody else wouldn’t. But I’m dead sure about the puffumery and the Sea.”

“Those are certainly queer words to connect with this case. But maybe the message you tell of was not the one that called Mr. Trowbridge to the Park.”

“Maybe not, sir.”

“It might have been a friend warning him of the trap set for him, and urging him to go south to escape it.”

“Maybe sir.”

“These things must be carefully looked into. We must get the number of the telephone call and trace it.”

“Can’t be done,” said Detective Groot, who being a taciturn man listened carefully and said little. “I’ve tried too many times to trace a call to hold out any hopes of this. If it came from a big exchange it might be barely possible to trace it; but if from a private wire or a public booth, or from lots of such places you’ll never find it. Never in the world.”

“Is it then so difficult to trace a telephone call?” asked one of the jury. “I didn’t know it.”

“Yes, sir,” repeated Groot. “Why there was a big case in New York years ago, where they made the telephone company trace a call and it cost the company thousands of dollars. After that they tore up their slips. But then again, you might happen to find out what you want. But not at all likely, no, not a bit likely.”

Avice looked at the speaker thoughtfully. The night before she had asked the number of a call and received it at once. But, she remembered, she asked a few moments after the call was made, and of the same operator. Her thoughts wandered back to that call made by Eleanor Black, and again she felt that impression of something sly about the woman. And to think, she had the number of that call, and could easily find out who it summoned. But all such things must wait till this investigation of the present was over. She looked at Mrs. Black.

The handsome widow wore her usual sphinx-like expression and she was gazing steadily at Kane Landon. Avice thought she detected a look in the dark eyes as of a special, even intimate interest in the young man. She had no reason to think they were acquaintances, yet she couldn’t help thinking they appeared so. At any rate, Eleanor Black was paying little or no attention to the proceedings of the inquest. But Avice remembered she had expressed a distaste and aversion to detectives and all their works. Surely, the girl thought, she could not have cared very much for Uncle Rowly, if she doesn’t feel most intense interest in running the murderer to ground.

She turned again toward the coroner to hear him saying:

“And then, Miss Wilkinson, after this mysterious message, did Mr. Trowbridge leave the office at once?”

“Yes sir. Grabbed his hat and scooted right off. Said he wouldn’t be back all afternoon.”

“And you did not recognize the voice as any that you had ever heard?”

“No, sir.”

“And you gathered nothing from the conversation that gave you any hint of who the speaker might be?”

Whether it was the sharp eye of Mr. Berg compelling her, or a latent regard for the truth, the yellow-haired girl, for some reason, stammered out, “Well, sir, whoever it was, called Mr. Trowbridge ‘uncle.’”

Again one of those silences that seemed to shriek aloud in denunciation of the only man present who would be supposed to call Mr. Trowbridge “uncle.”

Berg turned toward Kane Landon. For a moment the two looked at each other, and then the younger man’s eyes fell. He seemed for an instant on the verge of collapse, and then, with an evident effort, drew himself up and faced the assembly.

“You are all convinced that I am the slayer of my uncle,” he said almost musingly; “well, arrest me, then. It is your duty.”

His hearers were amazed. Such brazen effrontery could expect no leniency. And too, what loop-hole of escape did the suspect have? Motive, opportunity, circumstantial evidence, all went to prove his guilt. True, no one had seen him do the deed; true, he had not himself confessed the crime; but how could his guilt be doubted in view of all the incrimination as testified by witnesses?

The coroner hesitated. He was afraid of this strange young man who seemed so daring and yet had an effect of bravado rather than guilt.

“Was it you, Mr. Landon who telephoned to Mr. Trowbridge the message we have heard reported?”

“It was not.”

“Did you telephone your uncle at all yesterday?”

“In the morning, yes. In the afternoon, no.”

“Do you know of any one else who could call him uncle?”

“No man, that I know of.”

“This was a man speaking, Miss Wilkinson?”

“Yes, sir, I’m sure it was a man. And Mr. Trowbridge called him nephew.”

“That means, then, Mr. Landon, that it was you speaking, or some other nephew of Mr. Trowbridge.”

“Might not the stenographer have misunderstood the words? The young lady reports a strange conversation. I would never have dreamed of offering my uncle stephanotis.”

“I cannot think any man would. Therefore, I think Miss Wilkinson must have misunderstood that part of the talk.”

A diversion was created just here by the arrival of a messenger from headquarters, who brought a possible clue. It was a lead pencil which had been found near the scene of the crime.

“Who found it?” asked the coroner.

“One of the police detectives. He’s been scouring ground by daylight, but this is all he found.”

“Ah, doubtless from Mr. Trowbridge’s pocket. Do you think it was his, Miss Trowbridge?”

Avice looked at the pencil. “I can’t say positively,” she replied. “It very likely was his. I think it is the make he used.”

“Not much of a clue,” observed Groot, glancing at the pencil.

“Kin I see it?” asked Fibsy, eagerly. And scarce waiting for permission, he stepped to the coroner’s table, and looked carefully at the new exhibit.

“Yep,” he said, “it’s the make and the number Mr. Trowbridge always has in the office. Keep it careful, Mr. Berg, maybe there’s finger marks on it, and they’ll get rubbed off.”

“That’ll do, McGuire. If you must see everything that’s going on, at least keep quiet.”

“No, it’s no clue,” grumbled Detective Groot. “There is no real clue, no key clue, as you may say. And you have to have that, to get at a mystery. This crime shows no brains, no planning. It isn’t the work of an educated mind. That’s why it’s most likely an Italian thug.”

Kane Landon’s deep gray eyes turned to the speaker. “Whoever planned that weird telephone message showed some ingenuity,” he said.

“And you did it!” cried the detective, “I meant you to fall into that trap, and you did. My speech brought it to your mind and you spoke before you thought. Now, what did you mean by it? What about the Caribbean Sea? Were you going to take your uncle off there? Was the trap laid for that?”

“One question at a time,” said Landon, with a look that he permitted to be insolent. “Does it seem to you the sender of that message was getting my uncle into a trap, or saving him from one? I believe the young woman reported that the message ran ‘He set a trap for you.’ Then was it not a rescuer telling of it?”

“Don’t be too fresh, young man! You can’t pull the wool over my eyes! And that telephone message isn’t needed to settle your case. When a man is found dead, and with his dying breath tells who killed him, I don’t need any further evidence.”

“Keep still, Groot,” said the coroner. “We’ve all agreed that those words about Cain, might mean any murderer.”

“They might, but they didn’t,” answered Groot, angrily.

“As Mr. Landon says,” spoke up Judge Hoyt, “it may be merely a coincidence that his name is Kane, when his uncle had so recently stigmatized his assailant as Cain. Surely such questionable evidence must be backed up by some incontrovertible facts.”

Landon looked at this man curiously. He knew him but slightly. He remembered him as a friend of his uncle’s, but he knew nothing of his attachment for Avice Trowbridge. Kane noted the fine face, the grave and scholarly brow, and he breathed a sigh of relief to think that the lawyer had said a kindly word for him. Landon’s was a peculiar nature. Reproof or rebuke always antagonized him, but a sympathetic word softened him at once.

Had Landon but known it, he had another friend present. Harry Pinckney, his college mate, recognized him the moment he entered the room. Then, obeying a sudden impulse, Pinckney drew back behind a pillar that divided the two drawing-rooms, as is the fashion of old houses, and had remained unseen by Landon all the morning. Pinckney himself could scarcely have told why he did this, but it was due to a feeling that he could not write his story for his paper with the same freedom of speech if Landon knew of his presence. For though he refused to himself to call it by so strong a term as suspicion, Pinckney felt that the coincidence of Cain and Kane was too unlikely to be true. Regretting his friend’s downfall, Pinckney thought, so far as he had yet discovered, that Landon was the most likely suspect. And so he did not want to meet him just yet. Later, perhaps, he could help him in some way or other, but the “story” came first.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MILK BOTTLE

“Nothing but an old milk bottle!” exclaimed Berg, disgustedly, as the exhibit was placed before him on the table.

That’s all it was, and yet somehow the commonplace thing looked uncanny when considered as evidence in a murder case. But was it evidence? Or was it merely the remnant of a last week’s picnic in the woods?

A search of the Swede’s house had brought the thing to light, and now the big fellow told again of his finding it.

Buried, he declared it was, not fifty feet from where he had seen the dying man. He had not thought at first, that it had any connection with the murder, and had taken it merely on an impulse of thrifty acquisition of anything portable. He told his wife to wash out the ill-smelling contents, and she had done so.

“If you’d only let it alone!” wailed Groot. “What did the stuff smell like? Sour milk?”

“No, no,” and Sandstrom shook his head vigorously. “It bane like a droog.”

“A droog?”

“Drugs, I suppose you mean,” said Berg. “What sort of a drug? Camphor? Peppermint? Or, say, did it smell like prussic acid? Peach pits? Bitter almonds? Hey?”

“Ay tank Ay don’t know those names. But it smell bad. And it had molasses.”

“You stick to that molasses! Well, then I say it’s an old molasses bottle long since discarded, and time and the weather had sunk it in the mud.”

“Na, not weathers. It bane buried by somebody. Ay tank the murderer.”

“The witness’s thinks would be of more value,” said the policeman who had brought the bottle, “if we hadn’t found this bit of property also, in his shanty.”

And then, before the eyes of all present, he undid a parcel containing a blood-stained handkerchief! Blood-soaked, rather, for its original white was as incarnadined as the hypothetical seas.

“Hid in between their mattresses,” he added; “looks like that settles it!”

It did look that way, but had there been a question as to the import of this mute testimony, it was answered by the effect on the two Swedes. The woman sank back in her chair, almost fainting, and the man turned ashy white, while his face took on the expression of despair that signifies the death of the last flicker of hope.

“Yours?” asked the coroner, pointing to the tell-tale thing and looking at Sandstrom.

“Na!” and the blue eyes looked hunted and afraid. “Ay bane found it anear the body, – ”

“Yes, you did! Quit lying now, and own up! You’re caught with the goods on. The jig is up, so you may as well confess decently. You hid this in your mattress!”

“Yes, Ay hid it, but it is not mine. Ay found it anear the – ”

“Don’t repeat that trumped-up yarn! You killed that man! What did you do with the knife?”

“Ay got na knife – ”

“Yes, you have! Lots of knives. Come, Mrs. Sandstrom, what have you to say?”

But the Swede woman could only incoherently repeat that her husband had brought home the handkerchief, and declared he had found it, as he had found the bottle, near the dead body of a strange man. They had hidden it quickly, lest some of the police come to their house; and the bottle they had washed to get rid of the foul odor.

“She’s in earnest,” said the coroner, looking sharply at her, “he told her this tale and she believes it, even yet. Or if she doesn’t, she’ll stick to it that she does. You see, it all hangs together. Sandstrom killed Mr. Trowbridge, and probably the dying man did call him Cain, and cry out ‘Wilful murder!’ for this fellow wouldn’t be likely to make up such a speech. But it referred to himself and he tried to place it on another. The bottle story is a made-up yarn, by which he clumsily tried to imply a poisoning. The lead pencil found there, is Mr. Trowbridge’s own; the queer telephone call had nothing to do with the affair, and there you are!”

The case was certainly plain enough. The stained handkerchief showed clearly that it had been used to wipe a bloody blade. The long red marks were unmistakable. There was no chance that it might have been used as a bandage or aid to an injured person. The stains spoke for themselves, and proclaimed the horrid deed they mutely witnessed.

A few further questions brought only unintelligible replies from the Swede, and the verdict was speedy and unanimous.

Sandstrom was taken off to jail, but his wife was allowed to return to her home.

Avice felt sorry for the poor woman, and stepping to her side offered some words of sympathy.

“My man didn’t do it, Miss,” and the light blue eyes looked hopelessly sad. “He ba’n’t that kind. He wouldn’t harm anybody. He – ”

But foreseeing an imminent scene, Judge Hoyt took Avice gently by the arm and drew her away.

“Don’t talk to her,” he whispered, “you can do the poor thing no good, and she may become intractable. Let her alone.”

Avice let herself be persuaded, and she followed the judge to the library. On the way, however, she was stopped by Stryker, who said the boy wanted to speak to her.

“What boy?” asked Avice.

“That office boy, Miss Avice. He says just a minute, please.”

“Certainly,” she returned, kindly, and went back a few steps to find Fibsy, bashfully twisting his cap in his hands as he waited for her.

“’Scuse me, Miss, but – are you boss now?”

“Boss? of what?”

“Of the – the diggin’s – the whole layout – ” More by the boy’s gestures than his words, Alice concluded he meant her uncle’s business rather than the home.

“Why, no, I don’t suppose I am, child.”

“Who is, then? The lawyer guy?”

“Judge Hoyt? No, – what do you want to know for?”

“Well, Miss, I want a day off – off me job, you know.”

“Oh, is that all? You are – were my uncle’s office boy, weren’t you?”

“Yes’m.”

“And your name is Fibsy?”

“Well, dat name goes.”

“Then I’ll take the responsibility of saying you may have your day off. Indeed, I’m sure you ought to. Go ahead, child, and if anybody inquires about it, refer him to me. But you must be back in your place tomorrow. They may need you in – in settling up matters, you know – ”

“Oh, gee, yes! I’ll be on deck tomorrow, Miss. But I want today somepin’ fierce, – fer very special reasons.”

“Very well, run along, Fibsy.”

Avice stood looking after the red-headed boy, who seemed for the moment so closely connected with her uncle’s memory. But he darted out of the open front door and up the street, as one on most important business bent.

The girl went on to the library, and found there Kane Landon and the reporter Pinckney busily engaged in the staccato chatter of reunion. Meeting for the first time in five years, they reverted to their college days, even before referring to the awfulness of the present situation.

“But I must beat it now,” Pinckney was saying, as Avice appeared.

“Look me up, old scout, as soon as you can get around to it. A reporter’s life is not a leisure one, and I’ve got to cover this story in short order. Mighty unpleasant bit for you, that Cain speech. No harm done, but it will drag your name into the paper. So long. Good-by, Miss Trowbridge. I may see you again sometime, – yes?”

“I hope so,” said Avice, a little absently. “Good-by.”

Then she turned to Landon. For a moment they took each other’s two hands and said no word.

Then, “It’s great to see you again,” he began; “I’d scarcely recognize the little pig-tailed girl I played with five years ago.”

“You teased me more than you played with me,” she returned. “You were twenty then, but you put on all the airs of a grown man.”

“I was, too. I felt old enough to be your father. That’s why I used to lecture you so much, don’t you remember?”

“Indeed I do! You could make me mad by half a dozen words.”

“I knew it, and I loved to do it! I expect I was an awful torment.”

“Yes, you were. But tell me all about yourself. Why are you in New York and not staying here? Oh, Kane, what does it all mean? I’ve been in such miserable uncertainty all the morning. Not that I thought for a minute you’d done anything – anything wrong, but it’s all so horrible. Did you quarrel with Uncle Rowly yesterday?”

“Yes, Avice, just as the little chap said. But don’t talk about awful things now. It’s all over, the harrowing part, I mean. Now, I just want to look at you, and get acquainted all over again. Let’s put off anything unpleasant until another day.”

“I remember that trait in you of old. Always put off everything disagreeable, and hurry on anything nice,” and Avice smiled at the recollection.

“And not a bad philosophy, my dear. Now tell me of yourself. You are well – and happy? I mean until this tragedy came.”

“Yes, Kane, I’ve had a happy home here with Uncle. I liked it better before Eleanor Blade came, but Uncle wanted a housekeeper, and she applied for the position and he took her. That was about a year or more ago, and Kane, what do you think? They were engaged to be married!”

“Yes, so I learned at the inquest. Don’t you like her?”

“I don’t know; I suppose so. But sometimes, I think I don’t trust her.”

“Don’t trust anybody, my dear Avice. That’s the safest and sanest plan.”

“Have you become a cynic? You talk like one.”

“Don’t you want me to be one?”

“Surely not. I hate cynicism.”

“Then I won’t be one. For the only wish I have in life is to please you.” Landon’s voice fell lower, and glancing about to make sure there was no one in hearing, he went on, “All these years, Avice, I’ve been loving you more and more. I’ve been striving to make a name and a fortune worthy of you. And I came home to further that purpose, and to see if there’s any hope for me. Is there, dear?”

“Oh, Kane, don’t talk like that now. Why, just think, Uncle – ”

“I know it, little girl. Uncle isn’t yet buried. But when I saw you this morning, for the first time in so long, and when I saw how beautiful you have grown, I couldn’t wait to tell you of my love and hopes. Tell me I may hope, – tell me that, Avice.”

“I don’t know, Kane. You bewilder me. I never dreamed of this – ”

“What, Avice! Never dreamed of it? Never even dreamed that I loved you – that you could – some day, love me?”

Avice blushed and looked down. Perhaps she had dreamed, – just dreamed of such a thing.

“Don’t ask me about it now, Kane,” she said, firmly. “I’m all nervous and unstrung. These awful excitements following one another so fast and furious. Oh, I shall break down.” The tears came, but Landon said lightly, “No, you won’t, girlie, it’s all right. I’m here now to look after you. But you’re right. I mustn’t tease you now, – why, I’m back at my old teasing tricks, amn’t I?”