The Chief Legatee

  CHAPTER XXIII

  A STARTLING DECISION

  Before Mr. Ransom and the lawyer had recovered from their astonishment,Hazen had slipped from the room. As Mr. Harper started to follow, he sawthe other's head disappearing down the staircase leading to the office.He called to him, but Hazen declined to turn.

  "No time," he shouted back. "I shall have to make use of somebody'sautomobile now, to get to the Ferry in time."

  The lawyer did not persist, not at that moment; he went back to hisclient and they had a few hurried words; then Mr. Harper went below andtook up his stand on the portico. He was determined that Hazen should notleave the place without some further explanation.

  It was light where he stood and he very soon felt that this would notdo, so he slipped back into the shade of a pillar, and seeing, from thebustle, that Hazen was likely to obtain the use of the one automobilestored in the stable, he waited with reasonable patience for hisreappearance in the road before him.

  Meanwhile he had confidence in Ransom, who he felt sure was watchingthem both from the window overhead. If he should fail in getting inthe word he wanted, Ransom was pledged to shout it out without regardto appearances. But this was not likely to occur. He knew his ownpersistency to equal Hazen's. Nothing should stop the momentary interviewhe had promised himself.

  Ah! A well-known whirr and clatter is heard. The automobile was leavingthe stable. Hazen was already in it and the man who had come up from NewYork was with him. This was bad; they would flash by--No; he would not bebalked thus. Stepping out into the road, he stopped full in the glare ofthe office lights and held up his hand. They could not but see him andthey did. The chauffeur reversed the lever and the machine stopped tothe accompaniment of low muttered oaths from Hazen, which were ratherdisagreeable than otherwise to Harper's ear.

  "One word," said he, approaching to the side where Hazen sat. "I thoughtyou ought to know before leaving that we can take no proceedings in thematter we were speaking of till we have undisputed proof that your sisteris dead. That we may not get for a long time, possibly never. If you areinterested in having this Auchincloss receive his inheritance, you hadbetter prepare both yourself and him for a long wait. The river seemsslow to give up its dead."

  The quiver of impatience which had shaken Hazen at the first word hadsettled into a strange rigidity.

  "One moment," he said in a command to the chauffeur at his side. Then ina low, strangely sounding whisper to Harper: "They think the body's inthe Devil's Cauldron. Nothing can get it out if it is. Would some proofof its presence there be sufficient to settle the fact of her death?"

  "That would depend. If the proof was unmistakable, it might pass in theSurrogate's Court. What is the matter, Hazen?"

  "Nothing." The tone was hollow; the whole man sat like an image of death."I--I'm thinking--weighing--" he uttered in scattered murmurs. Thensuddenly, "You're not deceiving me, Harper. Some proof will be necessary,and that very soon, for this man Auchincloss to realize the money?"

  "Yes," the monosyllable was as dry as it was short. Harper's patiencewith this unnatural brother was about at an end.

  "And who will venture to obtain this proof for us? No one. Not evenRansom would venture down into that watery hole. They say it is almostcertain death," babbled Hazen.

  Harper kept silence. Strange forces were at work. The head of anothergruesome tragedy loomed vaguely through the shadows of this alreadysufficiently tragic mystery.

  "Go on!" suddenly shouted Hazen, leaning forward to the chauffeur. Butthe next instant his hand was on the man's sleeve. "No, I have changed mymind. Here, Staples," he called out as a man came running down the steps,"take my bag and ask the landlady to prepare me a room. I'll not try forthe train to-night." Then as the man at his side leaped to the ground, heturned to Harper and remarked quietly, but in no common tone:

  "The steamer must sail without me. I'll stay in this place a while andprove the death of Georgian Ransom myself."