FullReads

PART I

“I’ll catch the first train back this evening, Graves. Wouldn’t go down there if it were not absolutely necessary; but I have just heard that Mrs. Delancy is to leave for New York to-night, and if I don’t see her to-day there will be a pack of troublesome complications. Tell Mrs. Graves she can count me in on the box party to-night.”

“We’ll need you, Crosby. Don’t miss the train.”

“I’ll be at the station an hour before the train leaves. Confound it, it’s a mean trip down there–three hours through the rankest kind of scenery and three hours back. She’s visiting in the country, too, but I can drive out and back in an hour.”

“On your life, old man, don’t fail me.”

“Don’t worry, Graves; all Christendom couldn’t keep me in Dexter after four o’clock this afternoon. Good-by.” And Crosby climbed into the hansom and was driven away at breakneck speed toward the station.

Crosby was the junior member of the law firm of Rolfe & Crosby, and his trip to the country was on business connected with the settlement of a big estate. Mrs. Delancy, widow of a son of the decedent, was one of the legatees, and she was visiting her sister-in-law, Mrs. Robert Austin, in central Illinois. Mr. Austin owned extensive farming interests near Dexter, and his handsome home was less than two miles from the heart of the town. Crosby anticipated no trouble in driving to the house and back in time to catch the afternoon train for Chicago. It was necessary for Mrs. Delancy to sign certain papers, and he was confident the transaction could not occupy more than half an hour’s time.

At 11:30 Crosby stepped from the coach to the station platform in Dexter, looked inquiringly about, and then asked a perspiring man with a star on his suspender-strap where he could hire a horse and buggy. The officer directed him to a “feed-yard and stable,” but observed that there was a “funeral in town an’ he’d be lucky if he got a rig, as all of Smith’s horses were out.” Application at the stable brought the first frown to Crosby’s brow. He could not rent a “rig” until after the funeral, and that would make it too late for him to catch the four o’clock train for Chicago. To make the story short, twelve o’clock saw him trudging along the dusty road covering the two miles between town and Austin’s place, and he was walking with the rapidity of one who has no love for the beautiful.

The early spring air was invigorating, and it did not take him long to reduce the distance. Austin’s house stood on a hill, far back from the highway, and overlooking the entire country-side.

The big red barn stood in from the road a hundred yards or more, and he saw that the same driveway led to the house on the hill. There was no time for speculation, so he hastily made his way up the lane. Crosby had never seen his client, their business having been conducted by mail or through Mr. Rolfe. There was not a person in sight, and he slowed his progress considerably as he drew nearer the big house. At the barn-yard gate he came to a full stop and debated within himself the wisdom of inquiring at the stables for Mr. Austin.

He flung open the gate and strode quickly to the door. This he opened boldly and stepped inside, finding himself in a lofty carriage room. Several handsome vehicles stood at the far end, but the wide space near the door was clear. The floor was as “clean as a pin,” except along the west side. No one was in sight, and the only sound was that produced by the horses as they munched their hay and stamped their hoofs in impatient remonstrance with the flies.