ISABEL OSTRANDER: Mystery & Western Classics: One Thirty, The Crevice, Anything Once, The Fifth Ace & Island of Intrigue. Isabel Ostrander
later. My condition is that of absolute confidence. My questions must be freely and fully answered, with no quibbling, no half-truths. If I ask you to go into family history, your common sense will tell you that it is through no idle curiosity, but a necessary measure, if I am to help you. I need not tell you that any communications will be strictly confidential."
"I am quite prepared to answer any questions you may ask, Mr. Gaunt; although I cannot see what bearing family history, as you call it, may have upon a case of robbery and murder so obviously perpetrated by a common thief." Mrs. Appleton 's voice was steady and frigid; but there was an underlying note of uneasiness not lost upon the quick ears of the detective.
"You must allow me to be the best judge of that," he returned quietly. " Mrs. Appleton, how long has your son been married?"
"Three years."
"And his wife, before her marriage, was--"
"A Miss Ellerslie--Miss Natalie Ellerslie."
"Of New York?"
"No, of the South; from Louisville, Kentucky."
"And, since his marriage, he and his wife have lived here?"
"Yes, in this house. My husband built and gave it to them for a wedding-gift."
"Mrs. Appleton, in your opinion, was your son's married life happy?"
"Quite the reverse. Understand, I am not defending my son. He has not been a model husband by any means; but the blame for that lies with his wife alone. You know, you must have heard, what these spoiled penniless Southern beauties are. Had my son married a woman of the world, a woman of his own set, I may say his own station, she would have known how to make him happy, to hold his interest. But I fail to see what all this has to do with his murder."
"She is beautiful, then, young Mrs. Appleton?" Gaunt asked quietly, ignoring her last remark.
"She is considered so." The older woman's tone was bitter. "A certain blond, doll-like type of prettiness."
"And you disapproved of this marriage?"
"Most heartily, I recognized its unsuitability from the first. And you see how it has ended!"
"But, surely, my dear Mrs. Appleton, you do not consider the fact of your son's marriage to be in any way connected with his death?"
There was a pause, and the detective could hear her rapid breathing, her effort to regain her iron control of herself. At length she spoke:
"I do not, Mr. Gaunt. I have been unable, since you started this line of inquiry, to connect it with the matter in hand."
"I am simply trying in my own mind to comprehend the relations the members of your son's household bear to one another. He and his wife were unhappy. Was that due in part, do you think, to the presence of your daughter-in-law's sister?"
"In great part. I see that you fully understood the significance of the scene in the den, beside my son's body this morning. Barbara Ellerslie is an interloper. She made her home here in my son's house, at her sister's invitation, and she has been the cause of many unpleasant, disgraceful domestic scenes, humoring Natalie, aiding and abetting her in her senseless quarrels and accusations against Garret, and constantly stirring up strife between them. My son could not oust her; for Natalie would not give her up. Naturally, Barbara made herself indispensable to her sister, in order to enjoy the advantages, social and otherwise, of living here, instead of in the dull, shabby, genteel surroundings of her Southern home."
"Miss Ellerslie spoke just a little while ago of there being a reason why young Mrs. Appleton's strength should not be overtaxed just now. Am I to infer that--"
"Natalie will in a few months become a mother."
A silence followed the terse statement, a silence in which the concentrated bitterness, and thwarted impotent hatred, expressed unconsciously in the tone of the few words, sank deep into the detective's mind. It told him volumes, which before he had only suspected, and cleared the way before him.
'tMrs. Appleton, your younger son's name has been in the papers lately, in connection with some effort to break a will. I can, of course, learn all about it in detail by having my secretary look over my newspaper files, but I prefer to hear about it from you. Will you give me the particulars?"
There was a stiff, silken rustle, as the lady moved restlessly, uneasily, in her chair, and then a new sound smote upon the detective's ears; a sharp, staccato tattoo. Mrs. Appleton was nervously tapping the broad mahogany arms of her chair, with the rounded tips of her finger nails. At last, she spoke quickly, imperiously; but the pause after his question had been so lengthy as to rob her words of their desired significance, and betray her real state of mind--her reluctance to discuss the new topic he had introduced.
"Mr. Gaunt, my son's murderer may be making good his escape, may be getting forever beyond our reach, while you are wasting time by delving into wholly extraneous matters. The matter of my late husband's will can have no possible connection with my son's murder." Her cold, forbidding voice trembled at the end with suppressed anger and latent agitation.
Gaunt shrugged.
"Then, you will not tell me?" he insisted. "You will permit me to use your telephone? I must get my secretary on the wire."
There was an exclamation of annoyance from Mrs. Appleton, and the nervous tapping on the chair-arms quickened for a moment, then ceased abruptly, as, after a moment's pause, she spoke:
"Of course, if you insist, Mr. Gaunt, I will tell you. It is nothing but what all the world knows, and it is a maddening waste of time; but I presume you must pursue your own method. My husband was an old-fashioned man, and the mode of life adopted by our two sons angered him to the extreme. I disapprove most strongly, of course, of the looseness of the lives of young men nowadays; but I knew that my sons were merely wild, not evil, and would in time marry suitably and settle down. My husband took an opposite view, and vowed he would leave his fortune in trust for them, that they might never have an opportunity to squander the principal. When, however, my eldest son, Garret, became infatuated with Natalie Ellerslie, and married her, my husband took an absurd fancy to her, and felt that Garret's future was safe in her hands; that she would, as he expressed, 'make a man of him.'
"My own fortune was assured by an ante-nuptial agreement, and my husband left a miserable pittance--considering his great wealth--to Yates, and that in trust for him for life, with the Mammoth Trust Company, that he might never touch any part of it but the interest. The rest of his estate my husband divided into halves, giving one share to Garret outright, the other portion co be held in trust by the Mammoth Company, together with Its accruing interest for ten years. If, at the end of that period, Natalie had borne no child, that portion was to be divided, and one-half of it given outright to each of the brothers. If, on the other hand, Natalie had given birth to a child, or children, the Mammoth Company was to hold that part of the estate, not its interest, until the children were twenty-one, and then divide it among them. Do I make myself dear?"
"Perfectly."
"It was a most unfair arrangement, as you can see, and naturally Yates resented it. A few months ago, when it became an assured fact that there was to be a child, Yates brought suit--an entirely friendly suit, I assure you, Mr. Gaunt--jointly against his brother and the Trust Company, to obtain his rightful share of the property and full control of it. It was merely to test the validity of the will, of course, and Yates lost. That is absolutely all there is in the story."
"The suit was entirely friendly? There had been no serious quarrels preceding it?"
"Oh, little discussions, of course; but only such as occur in all families over money matters. The suit was brought as a perfectly amicable arrangement of them. You can understand that we-- Yates and I--would' not be living here under my eldest son's roof had it been otherwise."
"Ah! Then, you sided with your youngest son in the matter, Mrs. Appleton?"
There was a rustle as the lady gave a start of annoyance at her involuntary slip, and the rapid rat-tat of the finger-tips