“All right – go ahead and search!” Wheeler spoke sharply. “I’ve confessed the crime, now waste no time in useless chattering. Get the evidence, get the proofs, and let the law take its course.”

“You will not leave the premises,” put in Hallen, and his tone was that of command rather than inquiry.

“I most certainly shall not,” declared Wheeler. “But I do ask you, gentlemen, to trouble and annoy my wife and daughter as little as possible. Their grief is sufficient reason for their being let alone.”

“H’m,” grunted Burdon. “Well, sir, I can promise not to trouble the ladies more than is necessary – but I can’t help feeling necessity will demand a great deal.”

Mrs. Wheeler was next interviewed, and the confab took place in her own sitting-room.

None of her family was allowed to be present, and the four men filed into the room with various expressions of face. The two detectives were stolid-looking, but eagerly determined to do their work, while Allen and Keefe were alertly interested in finding out some way to be of help to Mrs. Wheeler.

She received the men quietly, even graciously, sensing what they had come for.

“To start with, Mrs. Wheeler,” said Burdon, frankly but not unkindly, “who do you think killed Mr. Appleby?”

“Oh – I don’t know – I don’t know,” she wailed, losing her calm and becoming greatly agitated.

“Where were you when the shot was fired?” asked Hallen.

“I don’t know – I didn’t hear it – ”

“Then you were up in your own room?”

“I suppose so – I don’t know.”

“You were up there when the fire broke out?”

“Yes – I think I was – ”

“But you must know, Mrs. Wheeler – that is, you must know where you were when you first heard of the fire – ”

“Yes, yes; I was up in my bedroom.”

“And who told you of the fire?”

“My maid – Rachel.”

“And then what did you do?”

“I – I – I don’t remember.”

“You ran downstairs, didn’t you?”

“I don’t remember – ”

“Yes, you did!” Burdon took up the reins. “You ran downstairs, and just as you got down to the den you saw – you saw your husband shoot Mr. Appleby!”

His harsh manner, as he intended, frightened the nervous woman, and reduced her to the verge of collapse.

But after a gasping moment, she recovered herself, and cried out: “I did not! I shot Mr. Appleby myself. That’s why I’m so agitated.”

“I knew it!” exclaimed Burdon. “Mr. Wheeler’s confession was merely to save his wife. Now, Mrs. Wheeler, I believe your story, and I want all the particulars. First, why did you kill him?”

“Be – because he was my husband’s enemy – and I had stood it as long as I could.”

“H’m. And what did you do with the weapon you used?”

“I threw it out of the window.”

“And it dropped on the lawn?”

“Not dropped; I threw it far out – as far as I could.”

“Oh, I see. Out of which window?”

“Why – why, the one in the den – the bay window.”

“But your daughter – Miss Maida – was sitting in the bay window.”

“No, she was not,” Mrs. Wheeler spoke emphatically now. “She was not in the room at all. She had gone to the fire.”

“Oh, is that so? And then – what happened next?”

“Why – nothing. I – I ran upstairs again.”

“Appalled at what you had done?”

“Not appalled – so much as – as – ”

“Unnerved?”

“Yes; unnerved. I fell on my bed, and Rachel looked after me.”

“Ah, yes; we will interview Rachel, and so save you further harrowing details. Come on, men, let’s strike while these irons are hot.”

The four filed from the room, and Burdon spoke in a low tone, but excitedly:

“Come quickly! There goes Miss Maida across the lawn. We will take her next. The maid, Rachel, can wait.”

Inwardly rebelling, but urged on by the others, Jeff Allen went along, and as Burdon stopped Maida, on her quick walk across the lawn, Jeff put his arm through that of the girl, and said: “Do as they tell you, dear. It’s best to have this matter settled at once.”

Again the party grouped themselves under the old sycamore, and this time Maida was the target for their queries.

“Tell me all you know of the case,” she said, peremptorily; “then I’ll tell you what I know.”

“We know that the murder was committed by one of you three Wheelers,” said Burdon, brutally. “Now, both your parents have confessed to being the criminal – ”

“What?” Maida cried, her face white and her eyes big and frightened.

“Yes, ma’am, just that! Now, what have you to say? Are you going to confess also?”

“Of course I am! For I am the real criminal! Can’t you see that my father and mother are both trying to shield me? I did it, because of that awful man’s hold on my father! Take my confession, and do with me what you will!”

“Here’s a state of things!” cried Burdon, truly surprised at this new development.

“The girl is telling the truth,” exclaimed Curtis Keefe, not because he really thought so but his quick mind told him that it would be easier to get a young girl acquitted than an older person, and he saw the plausibility of the detectives’ theory that it must have been one of the three Wheelers.

“All right,” Burdon went on, “then, Miss Wheeler, enlighten us as to details. Where’s the weapon?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything except that I did it. Do I, Jeffrey? Do I, Mr. Keefe?” She looked at these two for help.

“No, Miss Wheeler,” Keefe assured her, “you needn’t say a word without legal advice.”

“But, Maida,” Jeffrey groaned, “you didn’t do it – you know! You couldn’t have!”

“Yes, I did, Jeff.” Maida’s eyes were glittering, and her voice was steady. “Of course I did. I’d do anything to save father from any more persecution by that man! And there was to be more! Oh, don’t let me talk! I mustn’t!”

“No, you mustn’t,” agreed Keefe. “Now, Burdon, you’ve got three confessions! What are you going to do with them?”

“Going to find out which is the true one,” answered Burdon, with a dogged expression. “I knew all the time it was one of the three, and I’m not surprised that the other two are willing to perjure themselves to save the criminal.”

“Also, there may have been collusion,” suggested Hallen.

“Of course,” the other agreed. “But we’ll find out. The whole thing rests among the three. They must not be allowed to escape – ”

“I’ve no intention of running away!” said Maida, proudly.

“No one will run away,” opined Hallen, sagaciously. “The criminal will stand by the other two, and the other two will stand by him.”

“Or her, as the case may be,” supplemented Burdon.

“Her,” Maida assured him. “In the first place, my mother was upstairs in her own room, and my father was not in the den at the time. I was there alone.”

“Oh, yes, your father was in the den,” cried Jeffrey, imploringly.

“No,” said Maida, not catching his meaning.

But Hallen caught it.

“Where was Mr. Wheeler?” he asked.

“I – I don’t know,” Maida said.

“Well, if he wasn’t in the den, and if he wasn’t upstairs, maybe he was in the big living-room, looking out at the fire.”

“Yes – yes, I think he was!” Maida agreed.

“Then,” Hallen went on, “then, Mr. Wheeler broke his parole – and is due for punishment.”

“Oh, no,” Maida moaned, seeing where her statements had led. “I – I guess he was in the den – after all.”

“And I guess you’re making up as you go along,” opined Mr. Hallen.

CHAPTER IX
COUNTER-CONFESSIONS

Before Keefe went away, young Allen had a serious talk with him.

“I want to ask your advice,” Allen said; “shall I confess to that crime?”

“Man alive, what are you talking about?” Keefe cried, astounded at the suggestion.

“Talking sense,” Jeffrey stoutly asserted. “I don’t believe any one of those three did it – they’re saying they did to shield one another – and so – ”

“And so, you want to get into the game!” Keefe smiled at him. “You’re very young, my boy, to think such crude methods would get over, even with such muffs as those two booby sleuths! No, Allen, don’t add another perjury that can be of no possible use. You didn’t do the killing, did you?”

“Of course not! But neither did the Wheelers!”

“No one of them?”

“Certainly not.”

“Who did, then?”

“I don’t know; but you yourself insisted on some marauder.”

“Only to get suspicion away from the family. But there’s no hope of finding any evidence of an outside job. You see, I’ve made some inquiries myself, and the servants’ tales make it pretty sure that no intruder could have been here. So, the Wheelers are the only suspects left.”

“And am I not as good for a suspect as they are – if I make due confession?”

“No, Allen, you’re not. You’re in love with Miss Maida – ”

“I’m engaged to her!”

“All right; don’t you see, then, the absurdity of expecting any one to believe that you, a decent, law-abiding young citizen, would commit a murder which would positively render impossible a marriage with the girl you love?”

“I didn’t think of that!”

“Of course you didn’t. But that would make it unlikely that those detectives would believe your tale for a moment. No, it’s ridiculous for any more people to confess to this murder. Three avowed criminals are quite enough for the crime!”

“But none of them really did it.”

“How you harp on that string! Now, look here, Allen, I’m as loath to believe it as you are, but we must face facts. Those three people had motive and opportunity. Moreover, they’re a most united family, and if any one thought either of the other two guilty, that one is quite capable of falsely avowing the crime.”

“Yes – I see that” – Allen spoke impatiently. “What I want to know is, what we’re going to do about it?”

“There I can’t advise you. I have to get away now, but, as I said, I’ll return. I’ve more than a little taste for investigation myself, and when I come back, I’ve no doubt I can hel – ”

“But – Keefe – I don’t want you to help – to investigate – if it’s going to prove anything on any of the Wheelers.”

“But you believe them innocent!”

“Yes; but crime has been fastened on the innocent.”

“Look here, Allen, you do believe them innocent – but you fear your belief is a mistaken one!”

“God help me, I do fear that, Keefe! Oh, what can we do?”

“It’s a bad lookout! All I can say now, is, to preserve a non-committal demeanor, and keep things stationary as much as you can. Maybe when I come back, we can – well, at least muddle things so – ”

“Complicate the evidence! So that it won’t indicate – ”

“Be careful now! You know what compounding a felony means, don’t you? Oh, Allen, you’re so young and impulsive, and the Wheelers are so emotional and indiscreet, I wonder what will happen before I get back!”

“Somebody ought to be in charge here.”

“Yes, some good lawyer, or some level-headed person who would hold back those fool detectives, and look out for the interests of the Wheelers.”

“I wish you could stay.”

“I wish so, too, but I’ll do all I can to return quickly. And Mr. Wheeler ought to be able to look after his own affairs!”

“I know he ought to – but he isn’t. Also, I ought to, but I’m not!”

“Yes you are, Jeffrey,” cried Maida, who had happened along in time to hear the young man’s depreciation of himself.

“Hello, Maida,” he turned to her. “What did you mean by making up that string of falsehoods?”

“Don’t talk about it, Jeff,” and the girl’s face went white. “If you do, I shall go mad!”

“I don’t wonder, Miss Wheeler,” said Keefe, sympathetically. “Now, as I’ve just told Allen, I’m coming back as soon as I can make it, and until I do, won’t you try to hold off those men? Don’t let them pound you and your parents into admissions better left unmade. I’m not asking you any questions, I’ve no right to, but I beg of you to keep your own counsel. If you are shielding someone, say as little as possible. If you are guilty yourself, say nothing.”

“‘Guilty herself!’ You’ve no right to say such a thing!” Allen cried out.

“Of course I have,” Keefe returned, “when I heard Miss Wheeler avow the crime! But I must go now. Here’s the car. Good-bye, both of you, and – Miss Wheeler, if I may advise, don’t confide too much – in anybody.”

The last words were spoken in an aside, and if Allen heard them he gave no sign. He bade Keefe good-bye with a preoccupied air, and as others joined them then, he waited till the car started, and then took Maida’s arm and led her away, toward the garden.

Miss Lane, of course, went with Keefe, and as the girls parted Maida had suddenly felt a sense of loneliness.

“I liked Genevieve a lot,” she said to Allen, as they walked away.

“I didn’t,” he returned.

“Oh, Jeff, you are so quick to take prejudices against people. I don’t mean I’m specially fond of Genevieve, but she was kind to me, and now I do seem so alone.”

“Alone, Maida? When you have your parents and me? What do you mean?”

“I can’t tell you, exactly, but I seem to want someone – someone with wide experience and educated judgment – to whom I can go for advice.”

“Won’t I do, dear?”

“You’re kind enough and loving enough – but, Jeff, you don’t know things! I mean, you haven’t had experience in – in criminal cases – ”

“Come on, Maida, let’s have it out. What about this criminal case of ours? For it’s mine as much as it’s yours.”

“Oh, no, it isn’t, Jeff. You’ve nothing to do with it. I must bear my burden alone – and – I must ask you to release me from our engagement – ”

“Which I will never do! How absurd! Now, Maida mine, if you won’t speak out, I must. I know perfectly well you never killed Mr. Appleby. I know, too, that you saw either your father or mother kill him and you’re trying to shield the criminal. Very right, too, except that you mustn’t keep the truth from me. How can I help you, dear, unless I know what you’re doing – or trying to do? So, tell me the truth – now.”

“I can’t tell you more than I have, Jeff,” Maida spoke with a long-drawn sigh. “You must believe me. And as a – a murderer, I never, of course, shall marry.”

“Maida, you’re a transparent little prevaricator! Don’t think I don’t realize the awful situation, for I do, but I can’t – I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for either of your parents. I don’t ask you which one it was – in fact, I’d rather you wouldn’t tell me – but I do ask you to believe that I know it wasn’t you. Now, drop that foolishness.”

“Jeffrey,” and Maida spoke very solemnly, “don’t you believe that I could kill a man? If he was so cruel, so dangerous to my father – my dear father, that I couldn’t stand it another minute, don’t you believe I’d be capable of killing him?”

“We’ve spoken of that before, Maida, and I think I said I believed you would be capable, in a moment of sudden, intense anger and excitement – ”

“Well, then, why do you doubt my word? I told the detectives – I tell you, that the moment came – I saw my father, under stress of terrible anger – in immediate, desperate danger from Samuel Appleby. I – I shot – to kill – ” the girl broke down and Jeffrey took the slender, quivering form in his arms.

“All right, sweetheart,” he whispered, “don’t say another word – I understand. I don’t blame you – how could you think I would! I just want to help you. How can I best do that?”

But Maida could not tell him. Her tears, once started, came in torrents. Her whole frame shook with the intensity of her sobs, and, unable to control herself at all, she ran from him into the house and up to her own room.

“What did you find out?” Burdon asked, coming out from behind a nearby clump of shrubbery.

“You sneak, you cad!” Allen cried, but the detective stopped him.

“Now, look here, Mr. Allen,” he said, “we’re here to do our duty, said duty being to discover the perpetrator of a pretty awful crime. You may be so minded as to let the murderer go scot-free, even help him or her to make a getaway, but I can’t indulge in any such philanthropic scheme. Mr. Appleby’s been foully murdered, and it’s up to the law to find out the killer and see justice done. My job is not a pleasant one, but I’ve got to see it through, and that’s all there is about that! Now, this case is what we call open-and-shut. The murderer is sure and positively one of three people – said three people being known to us. So, I’ve just got to use all my powers to discover which of the three I’m really after, and when I find that out, then make my arrest. But I’ve no desire to nab the wrong one.”

“Which one do you think it is?” demanded Allen, angrily.

“I’ve got no right nor reason to think it’s either one. I’ve got to find out for sure, not just think it. So, I ask you what you learned just now from Miss Wheeler, and why did she run to the house, weeping like a willow tree?”

“I found out nothing that would throw any light on your quest, and she wept because her nerves are strained to the breaking point with worry and exhaustion.”

“And I don’t wonder!” the detective spoke sympathetically. “But all the same, I’m obliged to keep on investigating, and I must ask you what she said to you just now.”

Allen thought over the conversation he had had with Maida. Then he said: “I am telling the truth when I say there was no word said between us that would be of any real use to you. Miss Wheeler is my fiancée, and I tried to comfort her, and also to assure her anew of my faithfulness and devotion in her trouble.”

“And what did she say?”

“Without remembering her words exactly, I think I can state that she said nothing more than to reiterate that she had killed Mr. Appleby. But I want to state also, that I believe she said it, as she said it to you, to shield some one else.”

“Her parents – or, one of them?”

“That is the reasonable supposition. But I do not accuse either of the elder Wheelers. I still suspect an intruder from outside.”

“Of course you do… Anybody in your position would. But there was none such. It was one of the three Wheelers, and I’ll proceed to find out which one.”

“Just how do you propose to find out?”

“Well, the one that did it is very likely to give it away. It’s mighty difficult to be on your guard every minute, and with one guilty, and two shielding, and all three knowing, which is which, as I’ve no doubt they do, why, it’s a cinch that one of the three breaks down through sheer overcarefulness pretty soon.”

“That’s true enough,” Allen agreed, ruefully. “Is that your only plan?”

“Yes, except to look up the weapon. It’s a great help, always, to find the revolver.”

“Hoping to find the criminal’s initials on it?”

“Well, no, they don’t mark firearms in real life, as they do in story-books. But to find the weapon gives a lot of evidence as to where it was fired from, and what was done with it afterward, and to whom it belongs. Not that the owner is always the murderer. More often the reverse is true. But the weapon we want and want pretty badly. By the way, I’m told that young Appleby is out of the running for governor now that his father isn’t here to help him through.”

“More, I take it, because of his grief for his father’s untimely end.”

“Be that as it may, he’ll withdraw his name from the candidates.”

“Who told you?”

“I heard Mr. Keefe telling Miss Lane.”

“You hear a lot, Burdon.”

“I do, Mr. Allen. It’s my business to do so. Now, here’s another thing. About that garage fire.”

“Well, what about it?”

“It was a mighty mysterious fire, that’s all. Nobody knows how it started, or where.”

“They must know where!”

“Not exactly. It seemed to start in the vicinity of Mr. Appleby’s own car. But there was nothing inflammable around that part of the garage.”

“Well, what does that prove or indicate? Anything prejudicial to the Wheelers?”

“Not so far as I can see. Only it’s queer, that’s all.”

“Perhaps Mr. Appleby kept tobacco and matches in his car.”

“Perhaps so. Anyway, that’s where the fire originated, and also about where it stopped. They soon put it out.”

“Glad they did. I can’t see that the fire has any bearing whatever on the murder.”

“Neither can I, Mr. Allen. But Hallen, now, he thinks it has.”

“Just how?”

“I can’t say. Hallen doesn’t know himself. But he says there’s a connection.”

“There may be. But unless it’s a connection that will free the Wheelers from suspicion, it doesn’t interest me.”

Allen left the detective, who made no effort to detain him, and went to the den for a talk with Mr. Wheeler.

But that gentleman, locked in the room, declared through the closed door that he would see nobody.

“Sorry, Jeff,” he said, in a kindly tone, “but you must excuse me at present. Give me the day to myself. I’ll see you late this afternoon.”

As it was already noon, Allen made no further attempt at an interview and went in search of Mrs. Wheeler. It seemed to him he must talk to some of the family, and he hadn’t the heart to disturb Maida, who might be resting.

Mrs. Wheeler’s maid said that her mistress would see him in a few minutes. And it was only a few minutes later that the lady came downstairs and greeted Allen, who awaited her in the living-room.

“What are we going to do?” she exclaimed to him. “Do help us, Jeff. Did I do right?”

“In lying to save some one you love? Yes, I suppose so.”

But Sara Wheeler had very acute hearing. Even as they spoke, she heard a slight movement on the porch outside, and realized at once that a detective was listening to her every word.

Allen couldn’t be sure whether this changed her mental attitude or whether she continued as she had meant to when she began.

But she said: “Oh, I don’t mean that! I mean, did I do right to confess my crime at once? You know they would discover it sooner or later, and I thought it would save time and trouble for me to own up immediately.”

“Dear Mrs. Wheeler, don’t quibble with me. I know you didn’t do it – ”

“Oh, yes, I did, Jeff. Who else could it have been? And, too, you know about the bugler, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s what made me do it. You see, I thought if a death occurred, that would be the death the bugler was heralding, and if it wasn’t Mr. Appleby it might have been Dan himself.”

She leaned forward as she spoke, her voice dropped to a mere whisper, and her large eyes took on a glassy stare, while her white face was drawn and set with an agonized expression as of a dreadful memory.

“And you killed Appleby for that reason?” cried Allen.

“Oh, no – I killed him because – because” – her mind seemed to wander – “oh, yes,” she resumed, “because he was a menace to Dan. To my husband.”

For the first time Allen began to doubt her sanity. Her eyes were wild, her fingers nervously interlaced and her speech was jerky and stammering.

“A menace, how?” he asked, softly.

“In different ways,” Mrs. Wheeler returned, in so low a voice that the listener outside could scarcely hear. “Through me, because of something he knew; through Maida – because of – of something he wanted; and, of course, through Dan himself, because of that old conditional pardon.”

“What do you mean about Maida?” Allen caught at the thing that most impressed him. “Did old Appleby want to marry Maida?”

“Yes, he did. Of course, neither her father nor I would hear of such a thing, but Mr. Appleby was an insistent man – insistent and inexorable – and he wanted Maida – ”

“Mother dear, I want you to come away now,” and Maida came into the room. “Come, you have talked too long. It does no good, to you or to any one else. Did you call her down, Jeffrey?”

“Yes,” and Allen deeply regretted his act. “But I want to talk to somebody, Maida. Will you take your mother away – and return?”

“Yes, I will,” and the girl left the room, guiding the slow footsteps of her mother.

When she came back, Allen took her out under the old sycamore.

“Now, Maida,” he said, gently, “the truth. No matter what it is, you must tell me. We are here alone, that eavesdropping detective can’t overhear us, and you must tell me whom you are shielding and the full details for the crime.”

“I can’t tell you all the details, Jeff,” the girl returned, “they include a secret that is not mine to divulge.”

“You can divulge anything in a crisis like this, Maida.”

“No, I cannot. Before he – before he died, Mr. Appleby told me something that I will never tell, unless my conscience makes me do so.”

“Isn’t it a matter of conscience already?”

“I don’t know, Jeff; truly, I can’t tell. But much as I am bound by my principles of right, and you know, dear, I am conscientious, I would willingly throw them all to the winds if they interfered with my parents’ happiness, well-being or safety.”

“Let me get this straight, Maida. You would stifle your conscience, would act directly against its dictates for the sake of your parents?”

“Yes, Jeffrey; right or wrong, that’s what I should do.”

“Who am I that I should judge you, dear? I know well your lifelong submission to your conscience, even when your inclinations were strong the other way. Now, if you have thrown over principle, honor, conscience and right, for what you consider a stronger motive, I can only accept your decision. But I wish you would confide in me more fully. Do you mean in regard to Mr. Appleby?”

“Of course I mean in regard to Mr. Appleby. And I’m going to ask you, Jeff, to believe what I tell you.”

“Of course I’ll do that, Maida.”

“No; you won’t want to. But I ask you to believe it implicitly and to act accordingly. Do you promise me this?”

The girl’s face was turned to his, her great, sorrowful eyes were full of dumb agony and showed unshed tears, but her voice was clear and strong as of one whose purpose was unshakable.

“Yes, dear,” and Jeffrey took her hands in his and looked deep into her eyes, whose blank despair haunted him long after, “yes, Maida, I promise.”

“Well, then, I killed Mr. Appleby, and you must do whatever you think best for us all. What shall we do first, Jeffrey?”

And with the clutch of an icy dread at his heart, Allen replied, brokenly, “I don’t know, Maida, darling, but I will find out what is best, and we will do it – ”