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THE SUMMITHOUSE MYSTERY
THE SUMMITHOUSE MYSTERY
OR THE EARTHLY PURGATORY BY L. DOUGALL Author of "Beggars All," "The Madonna of a Day," "The Zeit-Geist," etc. FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK and LONDON 1905 Copyright, 1905, by FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY [Printed in the United States of America] —— Published, March, 1905...
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Chapter I A HUT IN THE PRECIPICE
Chapter I A HUT IN THE PRECIPICE
In the southern part of the Appalachian Mountains the tree-clad ridges fold and coil about one another. In this wooded wilderness the trend of each slope, the meandering of each stream, take unlooked-for turnings, and the valleys cross and twist. It is such a region as we often find in dreams, where the unexpected bars the way or opens out into falling vistas down which our souls must speed, chasing some hope or chased by unknown fears. On a certain day a man called Neil Durgan passed through th
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Chapter II THE UNWELCOME GUEST
Chapter II THE UNWELCOME GUEST
The sun set glorious over the peaks of the Cherokee ridges, and their crimson outline lay dark, like a haven for the silver boat of the descending moon, when Durgan, satchel in hand, climbed the ascending foot-trail. The cart-road evidently reached the summit by further turnings; but this footpath, wending through close azalea scrub and under trees, emerged between one gable of the summit house and the higher rocks above it. On the other three sides of the house its open lands were broad enough.
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Chapter III A STRANGE DISMISSAL
Chapter III A STRANGE DISMISSAL
When Durgan woke in the sunshine the door had been unlocked and the key removed. The sisters, and the good cheer they offered, were the same at breakfast as on the former evening; but the incident of the night had disturbed Durgan's feeling of respect. Adam and his wife were betimes at their work as day servants. They had, as commanded, brought two negro laborers for the mine. Durgan shouldered his pick and marched before his men. They went by the cart-road, under the arching branches. Suddenly,
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Chapter IV THE HOSTESS JAILER
Chapter IV THE HOSTESS JAILER
There was one other house nearer to the mine than Deer Cove. A small farm belonging to "mountain whites" lay on the other side, but cut off from the road by precipice and torrent. Thither in the early evening Durgan, by steep detour, bent his way, but found his journey useless. The family was in excess of the house-room, and the food obviously unclean. More weary with his work than laborer bred to toil can ever be, again in the gloaming he climbed to the summit of Deer. He began the ascent with
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Chapter V THE NORTHERN LADIES
Chapter V THE NORTHERN LADIES
Durgan furnished the wooden hut that stood on the ledge of the cliff between the road and the mine. Adam's wife baked his bread and made his bed. Durgan fell into the fanciful habit of calling her "Eve." "Oh, Marse Neil, honey; Adam an' Eve they was white folks. Thought you'd have known your Bible better 'an us pore niggers, an' we knows that much, sure 'nough—yes, we does, suh." When Eve spoke her words came in a multitude, soft and quick. "Wasn't mighty surprised you didn't stop with those Nor
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Chapter VI EVENTS ON DEER MOUNTAIN
Chapter VI EVENTS ON DEER MOUNTAIN
The sisters made all their expeditions on horseback, and, on the upward ride, the horses were commonly breathed on the zigzag of the road which abutted on the mine. Miss Smith, who was disposed to be offended by Durgan's quick change of residence, was dry and formal when he greeted them; but Bertha bent kind glances upon him, and always made time to chat. Her manner to men had the complete frankness and dignity which is more usually acquired by older women; and she always appeared to be on perfe
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Chapter VII THE GODSON POSSIBILITY
Chapter VII THE GODSON POSSIBILITY
When young Blount paid his next visit Durgan was in a mood better to appreciate his budget of gossip. He even contributed to it. Adam had beaten his wife, and with good cause. Durgan had himself seen a strange nigger eating Adam's dinner, waited upon by Adam's wife. He found time to explain to his interested cousin that the nigger was both sickly and flashy—a mulatto, consumptive and dandified. "The worst sort of trash. What could have brought him here? There is no such fellow belonging to the c
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Chapter VIII THE WORDLESS LETTERS
Chapter VIII THE WORDLESS LETTERS
Close around the little village of Deer Cove, three mountain steeps looked down in everlasting peace; two upland valleys descended to the village, and held on their fertile slopes many small farms and hamlets. The houses of men employed in the saw-mill, which had created the village, lay within a nearer circle. Of all this district the post-office at Deer Cove was the centre. The mill belonged to the Durgan Blounts, whose summer residence lay at some distance on the one road which threaded the d
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Chapter IX THE SPECTRE IN THE FOREST
Chapter IX THE SPECTRE IN THE FOREST
The letters Durgan resealed had each borne a different handwriting; they had not all come from New York. The sheets could hardly have been covered with invisible ink, having been subjected to both water and fire with no result. These, apparently, were the letters which came to the sisters with marked regularity. "These ladies are hiding," said Durgan to himself. "This is a device of their New York lawyers to save them from remark." He was unable to associate trickery with the sisters. In conside
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Chapter X A SKELETON IN THE FIRE
Chapter X A SKELETON IN THE FIRE
The mountains now burst into midsummer. Bloom, color, and fragrance reigned; also heat and drought. The cups of the tulip tree, the tassels of the chestnut, lit the leafy canopy. The covert of azaleas blazed on the open slopes in all shades of red and yellow. In every crevice by the trickling streams rhododendrons lined the glades with garlands of purple and white. The hidden house of the sisters was embowered in climbing roses and the passion flower. It was surrounded by gorgeous parterres, and
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Chapter XI THE MYSTERIOUS 'DOLPHUS
Chapter XI THE MYSTERIOUS 'DOLPHUS
For a few days after the fire at the summit house some of the mountain folk from far and near took occasion to ride up to the scene of the excitement, "to visit with" the ladies, and hear that the bruit of the matter had greatly magnified it. They were an idle, peaceful people; a little thing diverted them. The road by the mine was thus unusually gay; yet Durgan kept a more or less jealous watch, and at last caught sight of the yellow negro who a month before had visited Eve. He was dressed like
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Chapter XII THE SECRET OF THE OAK
Chapter XII THE SECRET OF THE OAK
Next morning Bertha rode down to the village. Later, Durgan heard that she had visited 'Dolphus, taken pains to get him a more comfortable lodging, and left him a basket of sundry nourishing foods. More than this, she had sat and talked with him in a friendly way for quite an hour. When she passed up the hill again, Durgan observed that she appeared calm and contented. She stopped to give him an invitation. "My sister requires your attendance at supper o'clock this evening—no excuse accepted." "
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Chapter XIII A SOB IN THE DARK
Chapter XIII A SOB IN THE DARK
When Durgan had said good-night to the sisters, he made the warm moonlight night an excuse for wandering. He sat down a little way off, able to watch the lights in the house, and also the stunted oak into whose keeping he had seen Miss Smith confide something. He felt pretty sure that, as soon as the house was shut up for the night, the dogs as usual within, 'Dolphus would appear to take money from the tree. The house was closed; the curtained windows ceased to glow; but no one climbed the tree.
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Chapter XIV THE GOING OUT OF EVE
Chapter XIV THE GOING OUT OF EVE
When the next day was breaking, Durgan wakened to the sound of footsteps and loud lamenting. Adam, weeping like a heart-broken schoolboy, in terrified haste stumbled into the door of the hut. "Marse Neil, suh, I've been huntin' her the whole night long, an' I've found her done dead. Marsa, come, for de good Lord's sake! She's lyin' all by herself on de ground. Oh, oh, my pore gal; my pore honey!" He was now running away again, and Durgan was following. In the thick of the forest, in a hollow of
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Chapter XV THE QUESTION OF GUILT
Chapter XV THE QUESTION OF GUILT
When Durgan reached the stone platform of the mine, Bertha came out to meet him. She had apparently been sitting alone on some rock in the lateral cutting. She was dressed for riding; her face was quite pale, and had a strength and sternness in it that alarmed him. "I must go at once to Hilyard. I have come to—have you not heard?" "'Tis an affair of niggers," said he; "they are always knifing one another." "Oh, no, no! Do you not understand at all? Whom do you suppose to be guilty?" "'Dolphus, o
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Chapter XVI A CALL FOR HELP
Chapter XVI A CALL FOR HELP
That night Adam, who had given up his cabin to the female watchers of the dead, lay stretched at the door of Durgan's hut. In the small hours Durgan was awakened by the negro's sighs. "Oh, Adam! Can't you sleep?" "Oh! Marse Neil, suh; d'you think my pore gal's in de bad place? The min'ster, he come to see me to-day, an' he said as how she was, 'cause she wasn't converted. D'you think so, suh?" If Durgan had the modern distrust of old-fashioned preaching, he did not feel sure that he knew better
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Chapter XVII HERMIONE'S ADVOCATE
Chapter XVII HERMIONE'S ADVOCATE
Durgan felt very curious to know whether Theodore Alden, the well-known lawyer, would appear. He knew little about him except that his name was always in the papers in connection with the law courts, with philanthropic schemes and religious enterprise of an evangelical sort. Report said various things—that he would plead in no case in which he did not believe his cause to be right—that his integrity was in excess of his brains, and was the only argument he offered worthy of a juror's considerati
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Chapter XVIII A STARTLING DISCLOSURE
Chapter XVIII A STARTLING DISCLOSURE
At last Alden said, "Mr. Durgan, I came here this morning at the request of my clients and dear friends to make a communication to you. When I have made it you will understand why I should have been glad had you been certain that during the evening no one could have left or entered the house—this negro or any other person. Have you any idea of what I am going to tell you?" "I am aware that these ladies are, for some good reason, hiding. This information came to me by accident. The secret is safe
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Chapter XIX TANGLED IN THE COIL
Chapter XIX TANGLED IN THE COIL
Those elemental emotions, the protection of feebleness, the vindication of womanhood tender and motherly, were aroused in Durgan to the heat of passion. In heart he joined hands firmly with the little lawyer who had fought the battle so long. He had saved this good woman once from the worst peril, but Durgan feared there was more to come, and was panting to establish her innocence. He struggled with a temptation. If he could swear that he had heard Eve's last breath at an hour when it was known
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Chapter XX THE TERRIBLE CONFESSION
Chapter XX THE TERRIBLE CONFESSION
Bertha and Durgan were standing in the broad central doorway of the barn. Hay, full of meadow flowers, was piled high to right and left. The air was full of dried pollen, and golden with the level sunlight. "Do you know who it was that killed your parents?" Durgan asked. She put up trembling hands in the brave pretense of shielding her eyes from the sun. Her whole body shook; her head sank on her breast. At last she said in faint tones: "You think this because I warned you of danger—because of a
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Chapter XXI OPENING THE PAST
Chapter XXI OPENING THE PAST
"Are you sure of what you tell me?" asked Durgan. Bertha answered: "Yes; I do not know what she wrote, but I am sure it was her confession." "You don't know what she wrote," sharply. "How do you know she confessed?" "She told me so." "Then, even in the face of that, I say she is innocent." "Innocent—ah, yes, indeed—of any motive, any intent, of any knowledge at the moment of what she was doing. As innocent as any angel of God. Do you think I do not know the heart, the life, of my sister? It was
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Chapter XXII THE EARTHLY PURGATORY
Chapter XXII THE EARTHLY PURGATORY
Waking or sleeping, one figure stood forth in Durgan's imagination that night, and was the center of all his mental activity—it was Hermione Claxton. He had been accustomed to regard her as the very incarnation of the commonplace, in so far as good sense and good feeling can be common. Now he knew her as the chief actor in a story wherein the heights and depths of human passion had been so displayed that it might seem impossible for one mind to habitually hold so wide a gamut of experience in it
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Chapter XXIII WHAT 'DOLPHUS KNOWS
Chapter XXIII WHAT 'DOLPHUS KNOWS
Durgan left the breeze of the sunrise and the mountains behind him, and after that one first gallop, rode slowly down into the stillness of the lower country and the heat of the midday hours. The smoke of some distant forest fire filled the air, diffusing the sunlight in a golden glow. Who can tell the sweetness that the flame of distant pine-woods lends? It is not smoke after it has floated many hundred miles; it is a faint and delicious aroma and a tint in the air—that is all. On the lower sid
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Chapter XXIV THE WOMAN WITH A SECRET
Chapter XXIV THE WOMAN WITH A SECRET
Durgan had ridden down the hills in rather leisurely fashion; now he urged his horse to speed. He had come uncertain how to meet the issue of the day; now he was eager to forestall the issue of the next. He had brought from his interview with the dying prisoner a strong impression that the poor fellow had more mind and purpose than he had supposed, and that he certainly had some scheme on hand from the development of which he expected excitement and some lively satisfaction. The hints thrown out
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Chapter XXV LOST IN THE MAZE
Chapter XXV LOST IN THE MAZE
Durgan had still one strong emotion regarding his wife; he was able to feel overwhelming shame on her account, and he dreaded any publicity concerning her behavior. She had always lived so as to command the consent of good society to her doings. He had perfectly trusted her social instinct to do this as long as it lay in her power to tell her own story; but he knew, with a sense of bitter degradation, that if someone else had need to tell that story, it would sound very different. His wife was t
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Chapter XXVI A TORTURED CONSCIENCE
Chapter XXVI A TORTURED CONSCIENCE
"Did you see the prisoners?" asked Durgan. He assumed that Alden would visit Adam as a blind. "Ah—I saw the doctor. It occurred to me to see him first." "How long will 'Dolphus live?" asked Durgan, eagerly. Again he felt that he could not let this man die without extracting whatever clue he held. "Impossible to make any forecast. The doctor has had the glass removed from his window—in short, the proper steps are being taken. Absolute quiet is ordered." "Then you could not see him?" "No." After a
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Chapter XXVII A HOUND ON THE SCENT
Chapter XXVII A HOUND ON THE SCENT
It was that season in the summer when, in regions remote from fields of harvest, time itself stands still. Nothing is doing in the wild wood. Each young thing is fledged and flown, or, strong in its coat of fur, is off and away; the flower of the season is passed, the berry hangs green on the bush. The panting trees of the valleys speak to the trees of the mountains, telling them, in hot, dry whispers, to look out for the autumn that comes from afar. Only sometimes, in the morning on the hilltop
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Chapter XXVIII PROBING A DEEP WOUND
Chapter XXVIII PROBING A DEEP WOUND
Alden began with a stiff, quaint bow to his little audience. It was easy to see that he had fallen into the mannerism of a court. "In making my statement it is not necessary for me to tell from what source I obtained any part of my information, or what is inference from information. I will say exactly what I now suppose to have happened upon the morning of the day on which Mr. Claxton was killed with unparalleled brutality, and his wife shot." Durgan felt rebellion in its keenest form at this be
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Chapter XXIX FORGED LETTERS
Chapter XXIX FORGED LETTERS
Alden looked at Bertha. "Mr. Durgan must read these letters," he said, "because they belong to his wife. You must choose whether you will be a witness to the reading. Yours is a filial as well as a sisterly part. It is in the effort to bring your father's enemy to justice that I take this step. On the other hand, you may think that your sister has also acted with that filial duty in view, and that, in taking a course in opposition to her wishes, you would be casting a reflection upon her conduct
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Chapter XXX THE VISION IN THE HUT
Chapter XXX THE VISION IN THE HUT
There is, perhaps, no more enthralling sound than the far but sure approach of someone who comes unlooked-for to a lonely place. The two men who were keeping vigil became certain that travelers were ascending the steep zig-zags of Deer. They looked at one another in apprehensive silence, and went softly out to that side of the house nearest the road. The young moon had set, and there was cloud overhead. Almost an hour's journey below them the creak of wheel, the sound of hoof, came faint but nea
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Chapter XXXI A FLASH OF LIGHT
Chapter XXXI A FLASH OF LIGHT
The bank shelved: no one could come on the precipice unwarned. Soon they found a travelling boot, and after that, at some distance, another. They felt sure now that the fugitive had climbed one of the trees, throwing away his boots as far as possible. Looking up, they perceived the hopelessness, in that case, of their quest. The arms of the forest spread out above them thick, gnarled, and black with the heaviest foliage of the year. The flame of their torches glared only on the under side of the
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Chapter XXXII WHAT A TERRIER FOUND
Chapter XXXII WHAT A TERRIER FOUND
Durgan took the terrier and led him up and down through the bit of sequestered woodland; but the animal, beyond enjoying the unusual festivity of a night walk, exhibited no sense of the situation. It stopped to bark at no tree-foot, and altho it resented the intrusion of the driver, discovered nothing else to resent. The slow-tongued driver made another remark. "That's a queer thing, too. I'd have thought he'd have barked at a cat in a tree, I would." Durgan had despised Alden in the vicious sna
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Chapter XXXIII THE RESTORATION
Chapter XXXIII THE RESTORATION
They went back to Durgan's hut, and made a stretcher of his bed, and brought down his laborers as carriers. A curious group walked slowly up the zig-zag road to the summit house: Durgan and the terrier walked one on each side; the doctor rode behind. There was naught to be said; they walked in silence. Sometimes the eyelids of the still face drooped; again they were opened wide. The wet forest breathed about their silence the whisper of the rain. When the party came in sight of the house gable,
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Chapter XXXIV ALL THAT HAPPENED
Chapter XXXIV ALL THAT HAPPENED
Durgan felt that day to be a distinctly happy one. A youth makes many pictures of happiness for himself, and he must have but a poor outfit of hope and imagery whose pictures are realized. Yet happiness springs up beside the steps of the older wayfarer, a wild flower that he has not sown or tended. In places where his familiar burden lightens, or when gathering clouds disperse, it pushes up its bright flower-face with a positive beauty and fragrance, something much fairer and better than the mer
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Chapter XXXV READJUSTMENTS
Chapter XXXV READJUSTMENTS
A day or two later Alden was returning to New York. Durgan drove him to Hilyard in Miss Claxton's surrey. All the mountains had begun to wear golden caps. Lower down the yellow pod of the wild pea and purple clusters of wild grapes were tangled in the roadside bushes. The sun shone, and the birds cawed and chirped as they quarreled for the scarlet berries of the ash; not a bird sang, for it was not nesting time. "The doctor can't make a guess, then, as to how long Claxton may live? It may be for
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