THE SECRET OF LONESOME COVE (SERIAL)
Adams, Samuel Hopkins
The Secret of Lonesome Cove By SAMUEL HOPKINS ADAMS (Copyright, 1912, by the Bobbs-Merrill Company) Synopsis THE body of an unknown woman partly handcuffed is found at Lonesome Cove. Chester...
...Why did you set that line there...
...All those sketches that you saw were but studies for a more serious attempt to catch and fix her personality...
...Haven't I? Well, when she turned"— "Just a moment Was it the jewelry that you were going to speak of when you first accosted her...
...Then I may look for you again...
...Comment by C. K.: False name, of course, but highly probable first name is Mar-jorie...
...She came and went, but who she is or why she came or where she went I have no more idea than you have— perhaps not nearly so much...
...You can do that, can't you...
...Therein lies the only true happiness—to dare and to follow...
...She asked what point of the headland gave the best view...
...By the way, what time is it...
...I felt too, something uncanny about her...
...From common gossip...
...Everything—her being there, her actions, her—her apparel, the jewelry, you know, and all that" "You've said nothing about jewelry...
...Love affair, perhaps," suggested the artist...
...Investigates the mystery...
...No...
...There was the slightest possible hesitation before the artist replied, "None at all...
...When she came near I spoke to her"— "You spoke to her first...
...She thanked me and asked if I were Mr...
...Just there the rain had made a puddle of thick, sticky mud, the mud pie variety...
...Rut when I said to her, "You, who have all my heart, and whose name, even, I have not—is there no word for me," she rose and threw out her hands in a gesture that sent a chill through me...
...I do not like it at all," said Kent again...
...The place where she is staying is a good way off, assuming a 7:30 dinner hour...
...I'm so sorry...
...she cried vehemently...
...But surely these points of yours aren't the work of an amateur...
...You're sure...
...She asked me the time...
...That's a pity...
...There was that about her which held me at arms' length—the mystery of her, her quickly given trust in me, a certain strained look that came into her face, like the startled attention of a wild thing poised for flight, whenever 1 touched upon the personal note...
...Chance settled that point then and there...
...She shook her head, and there was a shadow over the brightness of her face...
...Comment by C. K.: Good...
...She seemed anx-ious to know...
...This is a coast of guardian reefs.' 'What difference?' she said, and then gave me another surprise, for she quoted: "And, though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond, Still leagues beyond those leagues there is more sea...
...I have destroyed the picture...
...But you have the advantage of me, you see...
...Why not...
...The message was unsigned...
...Her eyes were alive with anger...
...In a moment she was herself again...
...It was a hand for a sculptor to model, as beautiful and full of character as her face...
...I insisted on knowing who she was...
...pursued Kent "You know it all without my telling you," cried Sedgwick...
...Comment by C. K.: Here follows more talk, showing how young people imperceptibly and unconsciously cement an acquaintance, but not one word upon the vital point of how far the horse seemed to have come, whether he was ridden out or fresh, etc...
...Say twelve to fifteen miles...
...Or," he added savagely, "do you misunderstand...
...My tone silenced her for a moment...
...Very likely...
...but it isn't his fault that he doesn't He did his best in the interviewing line when he met her on her way to your place...
...However," he added, rubbing his bruised head remin-iscently, "she had a very practical bent for a romantic person...
...Help me...
...It seemed to be heavy, • for she shifted it from hand to hand...
...She had said that she knew a little about pictures...
...Had you ever seen that necklace before...
...You sell...
...Well, she came back at a stride...
...Surely that isn't enough...
...I'm not altogether a Philistine," she said, and I looked up at her for the first time...
...The girth had loosened and the saddle had turned with her...
...Quarter to 5, Miss Daw...
...She laughed, but in a moment became grave again...
...Casual female wayfarers aren't given to quoting 'The House of Life.' " "Nor casual ships to visiting this part of the coast...
...it was the messenger boy...
...May I—I should like to—buy your picture...
...Au revoir, then," I said...
...I did it in pastel, and if I missed something of her tender and changeful coloring I at least caught the ineffable wistfulness of her expression—the look of one hoping against hope for an unconfessed happiness...
...I'm afraid, my boy," he said at length, "I'm very much afraid that you'll have to tell me the whole story of the romance of the pictured face, and this time without reservation...
...I should be very much surprised if the autopsy showed any water in the lungs...
...Sedgwick dropped his chin in meditation...
...Last evening...
...You do not want a love story from me, yet that is what it was for me almost from the first...
...You'd better come along and rest there while Ching Lung and I round up your mount...
...After her first visit she did not ride on her horse, but came across lots and through the side hedge, swinging down the hillside yonder with her light dipping stride that always recalled to me the swoop of a swallow, her gloved hands usually holding a slender stick...
...I'm afraid I'll have to give it up...
...And her voice was suspiciously meek when she presently spoke again...
...When I got up she was well along toward the cliffs, and I never did find her trail in that maze of copses and thickets...
...Don't you understand...
...I went over like a tenpin...
...I did follow her," said Sedgwick in a low tone...
...If I have done damage I should be allowed to repair it...
...Some of it was very valuable, I judge...
...How did you know that a woman came here last night...
...It was so quick I hardly know...
...You may not," I replied...
...Kent's fingers went to his ear, pulling at the lobe until that unoffending pendant stretched like rubber...
...She smiled at the name...
...It isn't a thing that I can tell, man to man...
...It was the next day that she read the line...
...I don't like it," announced Kent...
...She walked away from me a few paces, but turned and came back at once...
...Remember this meeting,' she said in a tone of solemn command, 'for it may mark an epoch in your life...
...Nothing—except goodby...
...In that day you will know the hidden things that are clear only to the chosen minds...
...Involuntarily Sedgwick's hand went to the spot "Who gave it to you...
...It will be a fair view, then,' I told her...
...Well, we spoke simultaneously...
...Goodby, and thank you so much, Mr...
...She hurried away...
...As it was, her ankle got a bit of a wrench...
...I forgot to tell you that when I was sketching her I asked if she could bring something pink to wear, preferably coral...
...That is quite a different matter...
...No, I don't misunderstand," answered Kent very gently...
...Proceed...
...Your horse is headed that way...
...Sedgwick...
...How can you be sure, then, that the dead woman was my visitor...
...I should so like to see your prints...
...Good...
...But I have enjoyed talking again with some one who knows and loves the best in art...
...Was there any other mark of identification...
...Not of itself...
...Wait...
...Her manner was awkward and her dress wierd for that time of day, and for all that she carried herself like a person accustomed to some degree of consideration...
...You couldn't get near him, though, perhaps, if you had some salt"— "I can get some at my place," said I, gathering up my things...
...There you are wrong...
...No, I'll have to wait until"— A shadow passed over her face...
...I fairly yelped...
...The body of a women, dead by violence, is found on the beach not far from here...
...Oh, no...
...Lonesome Cove," repeated Sedgwick mechanically...
...Did I hurt you...
...I heard you cry out," said a voice, very full and low...
...Well, no...
...She listened, with her eyes on the pictured face...
...A woman in love will take any risk of death...
...No...
...I was sitting on my wall when the woman came down the road...
...I know it wasn't she, having seen your picture, and since then your visitor of last night...
...There couldn't be any mistake...
...Is it possible that she foresaw her death...
...Robbery, then, probably...
...Call this a preliminary, then, and come back when you have more time...
...Strongly suspected, at least" On what basis...
...But I should say a short overhand snap...
...Some wonderful cloud effects after a hard rain had brought me out into the open...
...she said...
...He saw the attack on you...
...Not...
...The last person, as far as is known, to have seen her alive is yourself...
...DEAR Kent—Here goes...
...I suppose that you think a picture that can be bought for a hundred dollar bill can be painted with a hundred dollar bill...
...I have not seen her since...
...King Cole (Comment by C. K.: Probably a dead black horse) was coy for a time before he succumbed to temptation...
...said I. "How do you propose to do it...
...Goodby...
...Kent whistled, soft and long...
...Presumably she was on her way to an appointment, then...
...Why could he not have described the horse...
...Yes," was the reply, given with obvious reluctance...
...But in the case of a studio the conventions are not so rigid but that one may look at pictures unchaperoned...
...He hid behind a bush and watched...
...However, there's one point clear: she is a woman of means...
...Now, come, Sedgwick, if I'm to help you in this you must help me...
...I stood and watched her go...
...Dennett, you say, saw your picture, 'The Rough Rider.' He will tell every one about it, you may be sure...
...She turned quite white and cried out a little...
...Did she throw overhand or underhand...
...Before I could guard myself she had caught up a rock from the road and let me have it...
...She wasn't drowned...
...She wasn't on her way to my place," objected Sedgwick...
...She limped forward a few steps...
...I called to her to come back or I would follow and make her explain herself...
...Don't you like it " She repeated the line softly, making pure music of it...
...You're an artist, aren't you...
...she breathed, her eyes fixed on me with a strange expression...
...The stones were matched rose topazes...
...When I declined to sell she seemed put out...
...Sedgwick...
...It seems to express something in you which I have tried to embody in the picture...
...Sedgwick...
...That I felt quite plainly...
...She wasn't a woman of your own class, then...
...No...
...Nothing easier," said T. "My shack is just over the hill...
...Dennett mentioned a necklace...
...her eyes suggested that I fill the blank...
...I'm afraid not," she said...
...I noticed her first when she stopped to look back, and her absurd elegance of dress, expensive and ill-fitting, attracted my closer attention...
...It's an interminable six days since I've seen her...
...Chester Kent, a scientist...
...King Cole will have to do his best if I am to be back for dinner...
...If you'll promise to sell me any print I may choose...
...Manacled...
...And how could her being found drowned on the beach be connected with me...
...Afterward I remembred that never again in our friendship did I see it ungloved...
...I asked...
...One might well guess that later you followed her to her death...
...Kent broke it "Do you see now the wisdom of frankness...
...At that I recovered some decency of manner...
...1 feel it is her will that I shall never see her again...
...He was too,far away...
...I shall have a time catching him...
...Comment by C. K.: Couldn't he have given me in two words her height and approximate weight...
...No," I said, busily scraping away at my copperplate...
...On my return I found my visitor in the studio...
...I didn't say that she was found drowned on the beach...
...That's interesting," remarked Kent...
...Kent nodded, watching him closely...
...If there was the sheriff got away with it before I "saw it...
...Comment by C. K.: Rossetti again...
...It isn't that at all," she said earnestly...
...For one thing, she was painted badly, and the perspiration, running down her forehead, had made her a sight...
...There's a bruise back of your right ear...
...She was carrying a bundle wrapped in strong paper...
...No...
...The dead woman of the beach quoted "The House of Life" also...
...But I don't sell without a good bit of bargaining, particularly when I suspect my purchaser of wishing to make amends by a purchase...
...It isn't necessary for me to tell you, Kent, how in our talks I came to divine in her a spirit as wistful and pure as her face...
...However, I went at it and was cursing over the job when the rider came back...
...However, there was no ship...
...The artist placed Kent and moved off five paces...
...That's what I've been guarding against," retorted the other...
...I'm afraid it wouldn't do," she answered, smiling...
...It was from my love...
...On the beach at Lonesome Cove...
...I know there are things that can't be spoken not because they are shameful, but because they are sacred...
...She was too quick for me...
...Some observation that...
...It depends on what you wish to see.' 'My ship coming in,' she said...
...Today—it is yesterday really, since I am finishing this at 3 a. m.—the messenger boy brought me a telegram...
...You did—no...
...I don't say this simply because she tried before she went to buy some of mine...
...I have it...
...Chester Kent smiled inscrutably...
...I asked...
...I had pitched my easel in the hollow on the Martin-dale road so as to get "that clump of pine against the sky...
...The blow of the rock had made me giddy, and she got away among the thickets...
...But why do you paint it on copper...
...Yet I don't know...
...I hope not," "No," I said without looking up...
...pardon me...
...Here...
...You are the last person known to have seen her alive...
...Probably 1 had put more o£ myself into it than I had meant...
...She called on you, and there was a colloquy, apparently vehement, between you, culminating in the assault upon you...
...I answered that I was and suggested that she make good by completing the introduction...
...If I find it difficult to believe that what will the villagers think of it when Elder Dennett returns from Ca-dystown and tells his story, as he is sure to do...
...Suppose you let me do the questioning a while...
...Oh, why did you speak...
...What a ghastly mystery...
...It came hard enough...
...Dennett got the notion that she was...
...The strange coincidence of the subject and the apparent manner of the unknown's death...
...I know I shouldn't come plunging around turns in that reckless way...
...Which you didn't succeed in doing...
...Oh...
...Did he overhear our conversation...
...And I'm truly sorry...
...It had been sent from Boston and it read: Destroy the picture for my sake...
...she asked...
...Oh, yes, I sell—when I can...
...I saw the color die from her face and flood back again...
...I thought not then or I shouldn't have been so free and easy with her...
...he murmured...
...CHAPTER IV My Lady of Mystery Seing a single autobiographical chapter from the life of Francis Sedgwick, with editorial comment by Professor Chester Kent...
...I met her first on June 22 at 3 o'clock in the afternoon...
...After her mysterious prophecy she Btarted on...
...She leaned over from the saddle to examine the picture...
...But it might have been drugs...
...To get it all off was hopeless...
...People will hardly suspect that I killed her and set her adrift for a model, I suppose," said the artist bitterly, "particularly as Dennett can tell them that the picture was finished before her death...
...I explained...
...I want the pictures for themselves...
...I'm depending on you to tell me about her...
...The question is, Who was it...
...Not that I ever questioned her...
...It's very interesting and curious...
...said I. "Let me...
...There came a torrent of words from her— strong words, too...
...questioned Kent "Not wholly sane, certainly...
...Now, just fit together these significant bits of fact...
...There is no one but my aged and highly respectable Chinaman to play propriety...
...A possibility...
...I don't know what to call you at all...
...I do not like it...
...To find out who she was...
...CHAPTER III A Strange Meeting "AND now, Sedgwick," said Kent decisively, "if I'm to help you suppose you tell me all that you know about the woman who called on you last evening...
...One more point ot suspicion...
...Show me your relative positions when she attacked you...
...King Cole has been acting badly all day," she said...
...Nothing of the well bred woman left there...
...That isn't quite fair, is it...
...Yes, I can do that," decided Sedgwick after some consideration...
...Yes, it was...
...What of it...
...At that I spoke as it is given to a man to speak to one woman in the world when he has found her...
...Perhaps you will be the last person but one to see me as I now am.' " Kent pulled nervously at the lobe of his ear...
...That was the first of many visits ot days that grew in radiance for me...
...You understand, Kent, you must find her...
...And where have you seen her since...
...Her eyes alone would have produced that impression...
...She said: "I don't wonder you're cross...
...As if from the strain of nervous haste, you know...
...When I'm gone sit down and write it cut for me, simply and fully, and send it to my hotel as soon as it is done...
...Nothing...
...At the bungalow I called Ching, and we set out with a supply of salt...
...but I never saw the woman before in my life, Kent—I give you my word of honor...
...If she wasn't drowned then she was murdered and thrown overboard from a boat—is that it...
...And then...
...F. S...
...After all," she added xith a note of determination, almost of defiance, "there is no reason why I shouldn't some time...
...Comment by C. K.: "Bosh" retracted...
...he asked...
...Where...
...By which he meant that he did not understand it What Chester Kent does not understand, Chester Kent resents...
...Here, that won't do...
...He meets Artist Sedgwick, an old friend, who Is suspected of killing her and plans to help him...
...I—1 know a little about pictures...
...Ah, that wasn't the girl of the picture...
...There I sat working away with a will, when I heard the drumming of hoofs, and a horse with a girl in the saddle came whizzing round the turn almost upon me...
...Some day in the future I may send for you and recall today to your mind by what I have just said...
...It was that necklace and none other that the woman with the bundle wore, half concealed, when she came here...
...I love it," she said...
...They were peculiarly restless and brilliant'' "Insane...
...I follow my star,' she said, pointing to a planet that shone low over the sea...
...she said...
...Is it quite ruined...
...Anywhere from the first rise on is good,' I said...
...I looked for myself when I was trying to find the woman later...
...not openly, though...
...then with a startled glance, "Not the dead woman...
...Yet I've got to know about her...
...On the crushed flesh of the dead woman's neck there is the plain impress of a jewel setting...
...Repair...
...She came the next time with a string of the most beautiful rose topazes I have ever seen, set in a most curious old gold design...
...On the neck of the girl of my picture...
...A man is likely to when he paints with his heart as well as his brain and hand...
...I'm an archeolo-gist engaged in exhuming an ancient ruin from a square mile of mud...
...Does Dennett know the woman...
...What are you smiling at...
...That was five interminable days ago...
...As she finished, she was in my arms...
...I finished...
...It was lashed to a grating and manacled...
...Her face—(Elision and comment by Kent: I know her face from the sketches...
...As the horse went by at full gallop a fine, fat mud pie rose, soared through the air and landed in the middle of my painting...
...The daub doesn't matter...
...You say that no jewels were found on the body...
...Forgive a hermit," I said, "who doesn't see enough people to keep him civilized...
...When it was done I made a little frame for it and lettered on the frame this line: "And her eyes dreamed against a distant goal...
...Oh, but it isn't a daub!'' she protested...
...I'm sorry I interrupted...
...For a space of four heartbeats—one very slow and three very quick— there was silence between them...
...she said...
...Her voice was that of a cultivated person...
...You mightn't find another like it in the whole country...
...And there is a Mrs...
...Sedgwick looked puzzled...
...Wasn't it found on the body...
...About like that," he said...
...It tells too much of both of us...
...And I must...
...She nqdded as she moved out across the porch...
...Comment by C. K.: Bosh...
...You mean that I shall be accused of having a hand in her death...
...But the boy said that the body was lashed to a grating, and there were chains on it—is that true...
...She hesitated, then, with a little soft quiver of her eyelids, which I afterward learned to identify as an evidence of amusement, said: "Daw is a nice name, don't you think...
...Somehow, though, I got the feeling that she was amused more than abashed at my resentment...
...Not if my life hung on it...
...She held out her hand...
...I had barely time to twist her foot from the stirrup when the brute of a horse bolted...
...Yet there was an uncanny air of joyousness about her too...
...It would look so, in the light of what has happened, wouldn't it...
...In fact, I think she used the word 'exact;' 'the exact time,' she said...
...She knew more than a little—a good deal, in fact—and talked most intelligently about them...
...When I told her she seemed relieved, I might even say relaxed...
...But you said that her body was found in Lonesome Cove...
...You can give no clew whatsoever to the identify of your yesterday's visitor...
...As to what...
...Small thanks to you that you didn't...
...That suggested itself to me...
...For what purpose...
Vol. 6 • December 1914 • No. 46
