At One-Thirty by Isabel Ostrander (best book series to read .txt) 📖

“I TELL, you’ve got me, Gaunt!” the younger man said, sullenly, “I told James to say that I was out, because I didn’t want to be annoyed any more. I’m in a terrible state over this whole affair, I tell you—terrible! I’ll go crazy if I have to talk it over any more! That’s the only reason why I didn’t want to see you, or anyone. You didn’t think I was afraid of you, did you?” he added, in sudden bluster, “I’ve got nodiing to hide!”

“I’m very glad to hear you say so, Mr. Appleton,” returned the detective. “Perhaps, in that case, you’ll tell me a few things I want to know.”

“I told you yesterday—” the young man began to protest.

But Gaunt cut him short.

“I want to know some of the things you did not tell me yesterday. But, first of all, I want to return this to you.”

He held out the little gold cufflink. Yates Appleton drew back, his eyes fixed upon the outstretched hand of the other in a sort of horror.

“I— I don’t—” he began, huskily. “What is it? I never saw—”

“Oh, yes, you did,” returned the detective. “It is your gold cufflink, which you lost night before last. Don’t you remember? When you reached your friend’s rooms, Maurice Livingston’s, from the club, he lent you a pair. He told me last night that he had done so.”

“Why—yes,” the younger man, admitted, in a tone of relief. “I had forgotten. That is mine, of course. Where was it found, Mr. Gaunt? At the club, or in the motor?”

“In neither place.” The detective’s tone was grave and stem. “It was found on the floor of the den, where it had rolled during your quarrel with your brother. It was loosened, probably, when you struck him that blow over the heart.”

There was a tense silence for a moment, and then the young man, with a shuddering sob, buried his face in his hands.

“My God!” he moaned. “My Godl”

“You bribed your chauffeur: why didn’t you bribe the butler?” persisted Gaunt. “You should not have turned on him last night, and thrown him out of your rooms. It was dangerous, you see. He knew too much of what had gone on the night before.”

“I couldn’t! I didn’t have the money,” Yates Appleton muttered. “I promised the chauffeur a hundred not to say he’d taken me home from the club; but that cursed Dakers wanted a thousand down, and more to follow. He’d never have done bleeding me, and, anyway, I didn’t think he’d give it away so soon. I thought he’d wait and try again to get money out of me. It’s all true, Mr. Gaunt! I did go home and quarrel with Garret, and—and strike him. But I didn’t kill him! swear to you, I didn’t! I left him alive and as well as ever he was in his life!”

“Then suppose you tell me the whole truth,” suggested Gaunt. “You see, I know all about your movements that night, and it’s going to look very bad for you, if you don’t tell everything now, frankly and honestly.”

“I will, Mr. Gaunt! I’m only too glad to, and I want nothing so much as to have you find out who killed Garret!” the younger man returned, eagerly. “Only, I don’t want you to make any mistake, and get after me. I’m innocent; but I know things look pretty black against me, and men have been convicted on circumstantial evidence long before this. There was bad blood between my brother and me, as a lot of people were aware, and, although the chauffeur knew I’d gone home for awhile, about midnight, I hadn’t any idea, until last night, that the butler had seen or heard me. I suppose I should have been more politic with him; but I was unnerved by—by everything that had happened.”

“Just what did happen, night before last, Mr. Appleton?”

“Well, you know of the lawsuit. I believe my mother told you that it was just a test case, a friendly suit. It wasn’t, entirely, although we stayed on in the house until the renovating of ours was completed, to save talk and gossip. There’d been too much of that, already. WeVe been pretty wild, I guess. Garret and I; but you can believe I’m going to be a different man, Mr. Gaunt! This terrible thing has pulled me up short, I can tell you! After the lawsuit was over, and I’d failed. Garret pulled the purse-strings tighter than ever, and wouldn’t help me out with my debts, or anything. Night before last, I went to the Patriarchs’, and gambled, and lost a lot of money. I gave my note for it, of course; but, as I was leaving, I overheard a remark that made me determined to pay up what I had lost, right then and there. I’d been drinking, too, and hitdng up the—the other thing that you discovered, and I was wild—desperate! I went home, tackled my brother where I knew he’d be by himself, drinking in the den, and tried to get him to advance me the money. I might as well have tried to move a rock! He’s always ugly when he’s drinking; but that night he was worse than ever. He was highly excited, just about purple with rage, in fact, when I entered. Something must have happened, before I came in, to upset him. He cursed and reviled me, and I—well, I told you I was pretty well wrought up, myself. He goaded me on until I struck him. Then he ordered me from the house. and, after a minute, I went. I discovered, after I was in the motor again, that I’d lost my cufflink; but I borrowed one from Maurice Livingston. All the rest of the night you know. I went home again when I got ready. My brother and Fd had rows before, although we hadn’t come to blows, in years, and I knew it would all have blown over by the morning. You know what was found when morning came. I don’t know who killed my brother. I wish to heaven I did! And I don’t know who faked up that burglary stunt, if it was really faked up. But I know I’m innocent of any part in his death!”

“You would have done far better if you had told me all this frankly yesterday, Mr. Appleton,” Gaunt remarked, quietly. “If you are innocent, as you say, there is one person who believed you guilty—your mother!”

“My mother!” the young man repeated, aghast.

“Have you forgotten what she said when she turned from the body of your brother and found you standing in the doorway? She called you,’ ‘Cain!’”

“She was unnerved, overwrought. What could be expected of a woman, a mother, at such a time? She was out of her mind with the shock and grief and horror. She didn’t know what she was saying! She had known, of course, that there wasn’t much love lost between Garret and me. She’s witnessed some pretty bad quarrels between us, and just for a minute she lost her senses, and accused me. She saw, though, almost immediately, how unjust, how impossible, such a thing could be, and she sent at once for you, to find out the truth for us.”

“Well, Mr. Apprleton, the evidence, circumstantial as it is, would point, at this stage of the investigation, directly to you in the eyes of the officials, the police. It would be useless for me to deny that. The fact that you bribed one servant, and would have bribed another had it been within your power to accede to his requests, to conceal your return to the house, to the room in which your brother was afterward found murdered, would look very bad for you, from Inspector Hanrahan’s point of view. However, there are one or two points in your favor, which he might cfverlook, and I won’t put the evidence I have obtained in his hands just yet. But you must give me your word of honor not to leave town, not to try any more tricks like that of this morning. You must be where I can reach you instantly at any hour of the day or night; for, if you are really as anxious as you say you are to discover who killed your brother, I may want your help.”

“Of course, Mr. Gaunt, I can’t thank you enough, sir, for your forbearance!” Tears of weakness and gratitude rose in the young man’s eyes, and he brushed them away with a trembling hand. “I’m sure you know as well as I do that I had nothing to do with Garret’s death; but I might have a hard time proving it to the police, and, as you say, appearances are against me. Of course, I want to know who killed my brother; but, if it wasn’t