"There, gentlemen and ladies," Simon P. Groot was saying, "there in that place of vast silences and infolding shadows I met and addressed one who was soon to be no more. 'Madam,' I said, 'you are worn. You are wan. You are weary. Trust the chivalry of one who might be your father. Rest and be comforted as with balm.' Standing by the roadside, she drooped like a flower. 'There is no rest for me,' said she in mournful tones. 'I must away upon my mission.' 'Stay!' I bade her. 'Ere you go, but touch your lips to this revivifying flagon. De Lorimer's Life Giving Tonic, free from intoxicants, poisons, and deception, a boon to the blood, a balm to the nerves, a prop to the flagging spirit.' She looked, she tasted, she drank. New color sprang to her cheeks. Her form pulsated with joyous vigor. 'Aged sir,' said she, 'I know not your name; but if the blessings of a harried spirit are of avail, your sleep will be sweet this night.'

Of this wonderful balm, ladies and gentlemen of Annalaka, I have still a few bottles left at the low price of half a dollar each. Sickness flies before it. Amalgamating at once with the blood, it clears the precious life fluid of all impurities, and rehabilitates man, woman, and child, body, soul and mind."

The shrill voice rose and fell, the wide beard quivered with the pa.s.sion of salesmanship, the gaudy bottles on the shelf were replaced by half-dollars, until the market flagged. Whereupon again the orator took up his tale.

"Ever shall I give thanks for that inestimable privilege, the privilege of having given cheer to one on the brink of a dreadful doom. She vanished, that fair creature, into the forest. I looked at my watch-the unerring, warranted, sixteen-jeweled chronometer which I shall presently have the honor of showing to you at the unexampled price of three-seventy-and saw that the hour was exactly-for these timepieces vary not one fraction of a second in a day-eight-forty-five. When next I looked at the face of Father Time's trustiest accountant, it was to mark the hour of the horrid shriek that shook my soul; precisely nine-thirty-one. And later, when I heard the dread news, I realized that my ears had thrilled to a death cry."

He looked about him with a face of controlled emotion. His voice dropped to a throaty and mesmeric gurgle.

"How frail," he continued: "How frail and uncertain is the life of mankind! Who of these happy faces before me may not to-morrow be bathed in tears for the loss of some loved one? Best be prepared against the time of sorrow. I show you here a unique collection of framed mottoes, suitable alike for the walls of the humblest home or the grandest palace. Within these tasty frames are enshrined comforting mortuary verses, delicately ornamented by the hands of our leading artists, such poetry as distils a.s.suagement upon the wounded heart; and these priceless objects of art and agents of mercy I am distributing at the nominal charge of one dollar each."

Kent moved away, his chin pressed down upon his chest. He went to the office of Lawyer Adam Bain, and spent an hour waiting, with his feet propped up on the desk. When the lawyer entered Kent remarked:

"You rather put our two official friends in a hole this morning."

"Just a mite, maybe. But they've crawled out. I guess I spoke too quick."

"How so?"

"Well, if they'd gone ahead and buried the body as it was, we could have had it exhumed. And then we'd have seen what we'd have seen."

"True enough. And you didn't see it as it was?"

"See what? Did you?"

Kent's quiet smile sidled down from the corner of his mouth.

"Suppose," he said, "you give me the fullest possible character sketch of our impulsive friend, the sheriff."

Half an hour was consumed in this process. At the end of the time Kent strolled back to the Square where Simon P. Groot had been discoursing.

There he found the ornate wagon closed, and its ornate proprietor whistling over some minor repairs that he had been making. An invitation to take a ride in Kent's car was promptly accepted.

"Business first," said Kent. "You're a seller. I'm a buyer. You've got some information that I may want. If so, I'm ready to pay. Was any of your talk true?"

"Yep," replied Simon P. Groot austerely. "It was all true but the frills."

"Will you trim off the frills for ten dollars?"

"Fair dealing for a fair price is my motto; you'll find it in gilt lettering on the back of the wagon. I will."

"What were you doing on Hawkill Cliffs?"

"Sleeping in the wagon."

"And you really met this mysterious wanderer?"

"Sure as you're standing there."

"What pa.s.sed between you?"

"I gave her good evening, and she spoke to me fair enough but queer, and said that my children's children might remember the day. Now, I ain't got any children to have children; so I wouldn't have thought of it again but for the man that came inquiring after her."

"When was that?"

"Not fifteen minutes after."

"Did you tell the crowd here that?"

"Yep. I sold two dozen wedding-rings on the strength and romance of that point. From my description they allowed it was a painter man named Sedgwick. I thought maybe I'd call in and have him touch up the wagon a bit where she's rusty."

"And you heard the woman cry out less than an hour later?"

"That's a curious thing. I'd have almost sworn it was a man's voice that yelled. It went through me like a sharpened icicle."

"All this was night before last. What have you been doing meantime?"

"Drove over to Marcus Corners to trade yesterday. There I heard about the murder and came back here to make a little business out of it. I've done fine."

"You made no attempt to trace the woman?"

"Look here!" said Simon P. Groot after a spell of thoughtfulness. "Your ten dollars is good, and you're a gent, all right; but I think I've talked a little too much with my mouth around here, and I'm afraid they might dig up this lady and start something new and want me for a witness. Witnessing is bad for business."

"I'm safe," said Kent.

"So far so good. Now, would it be worth five dollars to you, likely, a relic of the murderer?" suggested the old man.

"Quite likely."

"Mum's the word, then, for my part in it. That next morning I followed her trail a ways. You see, the yell in the night had got me interested.

It was an easy trail to follow for a man that's acquainted in the woods, and I used to be a yarb-grubber. Do a little of it now, sometimes. She'd met somebody in a thicket. I found the string and the paper of the bundle she was carrying, there. Then there was a fight of some sort; for the twigs were broken right to the edge of the thicket, and the ground stamped down. One or both of 'em must have broken out into the open, and I lost the trail. But this is what I found on a hazel bush. Do I win the five on it?"

Kent's eyes drooped, fixing themselves on a small object which the other had laid on his knee. His lips pursed. Nothing that could be interpreted as an answer came from them. Simon P. Groot waited with patience.

Finally he said:

"That's an awful pretty tune you're whistlin', mister, but sad, and terrible long. What about the five? Do we trade?"

The car came to a stop. Digging into his pocket, Kent produced a bill which he handed over, and still whistling the long-meter _China_, took possession of Simon P. Groot's "relic". It was an embroidered silver star, with a few torn wisps of cloth clinging to it.

CHAPTER VIII-RECKONINGS

"Facts that contradict each other are not facts," p.r.o.nounced Chester Kent.

Fumes of tobacco were rising from three pipes hovered about the porch of the Nook where Kent, Sedgwick and Lawyer Bain were holding late council.

A discouraged observation from the artist had elicited Kent's epigram.

"Not all of them, anyhow," said Bain. "The ch.o.r.e in this case is to find facts enough to work on."