The Greatest Works of Anna Katharine Green. Анна Грин

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СКАЧАТЬ to draw, and indeed there are nothing but hitches and improbable features in this case. Nothing fits; nothing jibes. I get just so far in it and then I run up against a wall. Either there is a superhuman power of duplicity in the persons who contrived this murder or we are on the wrong tack altogether.”

      “In other words, you have tried every means known to you to get at the truth of this matter, and failed.”

      “I have, sir; sorry as I may be to acknowledge it.”

      “Then we must accept her terms. She can be shadowed?”

      “Every moment.”

      “Very well, then. Extreme cases must be met by extreme measures. We will let her have her swing, and see what comes of it. Revenge is a great weapon in the hands of a determined woman, and from her look I think she will make the most of it.”

      And returning to where the young girl stood, the Superintendent asked her whether she felt sure the murderer would not escape in the time that must elapse before his apprehension.

      Instantly her cheek, which had looked as if it could never show color again, flushed a deep and painful scarlet, and she cried vehemently:

      “If any hint of what is here passing should reach him I should be powerless to prevent his flight. Swear, then, that my very existence shall be kept a secret between you two, or I will do nothing towards his apprehension,—no, not even to save the innocent.”

      “We will not swear, but we will promise,” returned the Superintendent. “And now, when may we expect to hear from you again?”

      “Two weeks from to-night as the clock strikes eight. Be wherever I may chance to be at that hour, and see on whose arm I lay my hand. It will be that of the man who killed Mrs. Van Burnam.”

Chapter XXXVIII.

       A White Satin Gown

       Table of Contents

      The events just related did not come to my knowledge for some days after they occurred, but I have recorded them at this time that I might in some way prepare you for an interview which shortly after took place between myself and Mr. Gryce.

      I had not seen him since our rather unsatisfactory parting in front of Miss Althorpe’s house, and the suspense which I had endured in the interim made my greeting unnecessarily warm. But he took it all very naturally.

      “You are glad to see me,” said he; “been wondering what has become of Miss Oliver. Well, she is in good hands; with Mrs. Desberger, in short; a woman whom I believe you know.”

      “With Mrs. Desberger?” I was surprised. “Why, I have been looking every day in the papers for an account of her arrest.”

      “No doubt,” he answered. “But we police are slow; we are not ready to arrest her yet. Meanwhile you can do us a favor. She wants to see you; are you willing to visit her?”

      My answer contained but little of the curiosity and eagerness I really felt.

      “I am always at your command. Do you wish me to go now?”

      “Miss Oliver is impatient,” he admitted. “Her fever is better, but she is in an excited condition of mind which makes her a little unreasonable. To be plain, she is not quite herself, and while we still hope something from her testimony, we are leaving her very much to her own devices, and do not cross her in anything. You will therefore listen to what she says, and, if possible, aid her in anything she may undertake, unless it points directly towards self-destruction. My opinion is that she will surprise you. But you are becoming accustomed to surprises, are you not?”

      “Thanks to you, I am.”

      “Very well, then, I have but one more suggestion to make. You are working for the police now, madam, and nothing that you see or learn in connection with this girl is to be kept back from us. Am I understood?”

      “Perfectly; but it is only proper for me to retort that I am not entirely pleased with the part you assign me. Could you not have left thus much to my good sense, and not put it into so many words?”

      “Ah, madam, the case at present is too serious for risks of that kind. Mr. Van Burnam’s reputation, to say nothing of his life, depends upon our knowledge of this girl’s secret; surely you can stretch a point in a matter of so much moment?”

      “I have already stretched several, and I can stretch one more, but I hope the girl won’t look at me too often with those miserable appealing eyes of hers; they make me feel like a traitor.”

      “You will not be troubled by any appeal in them. The appeal has vanished; something harder and even more difficult to meet is to be found in them now: wrath, purpose, and a desire for vengeance. She is not the same woman, I assure you.”

      “Well,” I sighed, “I am sorry; there is something about the girl that lays hold of me, and I hate to see such a change in her. Did she ask for me by name?”

      “I believe so.”

      “I cannot understand her wanting me, but I will go; and I won’t leave her either till she shows me she is tired of me. I am as anxious to see the end of this matter as you are.” Then, with some vague idea that I had earned a right to some show of confidence on his part, I added insinuatingly: “I supposed you would feel the case settled when she almost fainted at the sight of the younger Mr. Van Burnam.”

      The old ambiguous smile I remembered so well came to modify his brusque rejoinder.

      “If she had been a woman like you, I should; but she is a deep one, Miss Butterworth; too deep for the success of a little ruse like mine. Are you ready?”

      I was not, but it did not take me long to be so, and before an hour had elapsed I was seated in Mrs. Desberger’s parlor in Ninth Street. Miss Oliver was in, and ere long made her appearance. She was dressed in street costume.

      I was prepared for a change in her, and yet the shock I felt when I first saw her face must have been apparent, for she immediately remarked:

      “You find me quite well, Miss Butterworth. For this I am partially indebted to you. You were very good to nurse me so carefully. Will you be still kinder, and help me in a new matter which I feel quite incompetent to undertake alone?”

      Her face was flushed, her manner nervous, but her eyes had an extraordinary look in them which affected me most painfully, notwithstanding the additional effect it gave to her beauty.

      “Certainly,” said I. “What can I do for you?”

      “I wish to buy me a dress,” was her unexpected reply. “A handsome dress. Do you object to showing me the best shops? I am a stranger in New York.”

      More astonished than I can express, but carefully concealing it in remembrance of the caution received from Mr. Gryce, I replied that I would be only too happy to accompany her on such an errand. Upon which she lost her nervousness and prepared at once to go out with me.

      “I would have asked Mrs. Desberger,” she observed while fitting on her gloves, “but СКАЧАТЬ