Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1911-10-27


place Of detention on the awful charge
Of murder found that my keenest tor.
ment arose from the fact that | was
shut of from the instant knowledge Of
what was going on In the house where
all nv thoughts. my fears and-shall
say it?-latent hopes were centered. Tc
know Carmel III and not to know how
I'll: to feel the threatening arm of
the law lowering constantly over her
head and neither to know the instant
of its fall nor be given the least op-
portunity TO divert it!
My examination before the magis.
trate held one element OF comfort.
| Nothing in its whole tenor went to
| show that as yet she was in the least
suspected of any participation in my
so called crime. But the knowledge
which came later Of how the police
| first learned OF trouble at the clubhouse
| did not add TO this sense of relief,
whatever satisfaction it gave my curl
osity. A cry of distress had come to
them over the telephone, a wild cry in
a woman's choked and tremulous voice:
Help at the whispering Pines! Helpr'
! That was all, or all they revealed to
me. In their endeavor to find out
whether or not l was present when
this call was made learned the ma
ture Of their own suspicious. They be-
lieved that Adelaide in some moment
of provision had managed TO reach the
telephone and send out this message.
1t was in a condition Of mingled
dread and expectation that opened
the paper which was brought me the
next morning. Arthur. the goodfor-
nothing brother had returned from
his wild carOuse and had taken affairs
In charge with something like spirit
and a decent show Of repentance for
his own shortcomings and the mad
taste for liquor which had led him
away from home that night. Carmel
was still i'll and likely to be so for
many days to come. Her case was
diagnosed rs one of brain fever and Of
q most dangerous type. Doctors and
nurses were busy at her bedside, and
little hope was held out of her being
able to tell soon, If ever. what she
knew of her sisters departure from
the house on that fatal evening. That
her testimony on this point would be
invaluable was self evident. for proofs
were plenty of her having haunted her
sisters rooms all the evening in con-
dition of more or less delirlum. She
was alone in the house, and this may
have added to her anxieties, all Of the
servants having gone to the police
mems ball. 1t was on their return in
the early morning hours that she had
been discovered lying III and injured
before her sisters fireplace.
One fact was mentioned which set
me thinking The keys of the club
house had been found lying on a table
In the side hall of the Cumberland
mansion-the keys which have al
ready mentioned as missing from my
pocket-an alarming discovery which
might have acted Qs a clew to the sus-
picious | feared If their presence there
had not been explained by the wait
ress who had cleared the table after
dinner. Coming upon these keys lying
on the floor beside one of the chairs,
she had carried them out into the hall
and laid them where they would be
more readily seen. She had not rec
ognized the keys, but had taken 1t for
granted that they belonged to Mr..
Ranelagh, who had dined at the house
that night.
They were my keys. and have al
ready related how came to drop them
on the floor. Had they but stayed
there! Adelaide. or was 1t Carmel,
, might not have seen them and been
led by some strange if not tragic pur-
pose, incomprehensible to US now ana
possibly never to find full explanation,
to enter the secret and forsaken spot
where | later found them, the one
; dead, the other fleeing In frenzy, put
not In such q thoughtless frenzy as to
forget these keys or to fail to lock the
clubhouse door behind her. That she
on her return home should have mad
sufficient presence of mind to toss these
' KEYS down in the same place from
|
them argued well for her clear head
edness up to that moment. The fever
must have come on later.
l The next paragraph detailed fact
startling enough to rouse my deepest
4 interest. Zadok Brown, the CumDer-
lands coachman. declared that Ar
+ thurs cutter and what he called the
n gray mare had been out that night
a They were both in place when he re-
o turned to the stable toward early
e morning, but the signs were unmistak-
f able that both had been out In the
y snow since he left the stable at about
j. Q. He had locked the stable door
r at that time, but the key always hung
|, In the kitchen where any one could
d get it. This was on account Of Ar
IS thur. who, if he wanted to go out
v late, sometimes harnessed a horse
,r himself. Zadok judged that he had
n done so this night, though how the
d horse happened to be back and In hel
If Stall and no Mr.. Arthur In the house
/ II would take wiser heads than his tt
IS explain.
If There was some comment made on
i, this because Arthur had denied usint
i. his cutter that night. He declared in
r stead that he had gone out on foot
" and designated the coachman's tale
v MS all bosh.
r. As for myself, felt inclined to be
+. lieye that the mare had been out. tha
,e one or both of the women had bar
,e messed her and that 1t was by thes'
ID means they had reached the Whisper
ing Pines. Adelaide was far from
n strong and never addicted to walking
N under the most favorable conditions
- could understand now how Carme
hnd snccaednd in returning In Snfet,