<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></SPAN>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
<h3>A SUSPICIOUS TEST</h3>
<p>"Let him make his experiment. It will do no harm, and if it rids us of
him, well and good."</p>
<p>Such was Mr. Harper's decision after hearing all that Mr. Ransom had to
tell him of the present situation.</p>
<p>"His disappointment when he learns that he has nothing to hope for from
his sister's generosity calls for some consideration from us," proceeded
the lawyer. "Go and have your little talk with the landlady or take
whatever other means suggest themselves for luring this girl from her
room. I will summon Hazen and hold him very closely under my eye till the
whole affair is over. He shall get no chance for any hocus-pocus
business, not while I have charge of your interests. He shall do just
what he has laid out for himself and nothing more; you may rely on that."</p>
<p>Ransom expressed his satisfaction, and left the room with a lighter heart
than he had felt since Hazen came upon the scene. He did not know that
all he had been through was as nothing to what lay before him.</p>
<p>It was an hour before he returned. When he did, it was to find Hazen and
the lawyer awaiting him in ill-concealed impatience. These two were much
too incongruous in tastes and interests to be very happy in a forced and
prolonged tête-à-tête.</p>
<p>"Have you done it?" exclaimed Hazen, leaping eagerly to his feet as the
door closed softly behind Ransom. "Is she out of her room? I have
listened and listened for her step, but could not be sure of it. There
seem to be a lot of people in the house to-night."</p>
<p>"Too many," quoth Ransom. "That is why I couldn't get hold of Mrs. Deo
any sooner. Anitra is having her hair brushed or something else of equal
importance done for her in one of the rear rooms. So we can proceed
fearlessly. Have you looked to see if you can get a good glimpse of her
door through the keyhole of this one?"</p>
<p>"Haven't you already made a trial of that? Then do so now," suggested
Hazen, drawing out the key and laying it on the table.</p>
<p>But this was too uncongenial a task for Ransom.</p>
<p>"I shall be satisfied," said he, "if Mr. Harper tells me that it can."</p>
<p>"It can," asserted that gentleman, falling on his knees and adjusting his
eye to the keyhole. "Or rather, you can see plainly the face of any one
approaching it. I don't suppose any of us expected to see the door
itself."</p>
<p>"No, it is not the door, but the woman entering the door, we want to see.
Did you ask for an extra lamp?"</p>
<p>"Yes, and saw it placed. It is on a small table almost opposite her
room."</p>
<p>"Then everything is ready."</p>
<p>"All but the mark which I am to put on the panel."</p>
<p>"Very good. Here is the chalk. Let us see what you mean to do with it
before you risk an attempt on the door itself."</p>
<p>Ransom thought a minute, then with one quick twist produced the
following:</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <SPAN href="images/symbol.png"><ANTIMG src="images/symbol.png" alt=""/></SPAN></div>
<p>"Correct," muttered Hazen, with what Harper thought to be a slight but
unmistakable shudder. "One would think you had been making use of this
very cabalistic sign all your life."</p>
<p>"Then <i>one</i> would be mistaken. I have simply a true eye and a ready
hand."</p>
<p>"And a very remarkable memory. You have recalled every little line and
quirk."</p>
<p>"That's possible. What I have made once I can make the second time. It's
a peculiarity of mine."</p>
<p>There was no mistaking the continued intensity of Hazen's gaze. Ransom
felt his color rise, but succeeded in preserving his quiet tone, as he
added:</p>
<p>"Besides, this character is not a wholly new one to me. My attention was
called to it months ago. It was when I was courting Georgian. She was
writing a note one day when she suddenly stopped to think and I saw her
pen making some marks which I considered curious. But I should not have
remembered them five minutes, if she had not impulsively laid her hand
over them when she saw me looking. That fixed the memory of them in my
mind, and when I saw this combination of lines again, I remembered it.
That is why I lent myself so readily to this experiment. I lent that what
you said about her acquaintance with this odd arrangement of lines was
true."</p>
<p>Hazen's hand stole up to his neck, a token of agitation which Ransom
should have recognized by this time.</p>
<p>"And her account of the use we made of it tallied with mine?"</p>
<p>"She gave me no account of any use she had ever made of it."</p>
<p>"That was because you didn't ask her."</p>
<p>"Just so. Why should I ask her? It was a small matter to trouble her
about."</p>
<p>"You are right," acquiesced Hazen, wheeling himself away towards the
window. Then after a momentary silence, "It was so then, but it is likely
to prove of some importance now. Let me see if the hall is empty."</p>
<p>As he bent to open the door, the lawyer, who had not moved nor spoken
till now, turned a quick glance on Ransom and impulsively stretched out
his hand. But he dropped it very quickly and subsided into his old
attitude of simple watchfulness, as Hazen glanced back with the remark:</p>
<p>"There's nobody stirring; now's your time, Ransom."</p>
<p>The moment for action had arrived.</p>
<p>Ransom stepped into the hall. As he passed Hazen, the latter whispered:</p>
<p>"Don't forget that last downward quirk. That was the line she always
emphasized."</p>
<p>Ransom gave him an annoyed look. His nerves as well as his feelings were
on a keen stretch, and this persistence of Hazen's was more than he could
bear.</p>
<p>"I'll not forget the least detail," he answered shortly, and passed
quickly down the hall, while Hazen watched him through the crack of the
door, and the lawyer watched Hazen.</p>
<p>Suddenly Mr. Harper's brow wrinkled. Hazen had uttered such a sigh of
relief that the lawyer was startled. In another moment Ransom re-entered
the room.</p>
<p>"She's coming," said he, striving to hide his extreme emotion. "I heard
her voice in the hall beyond."</p>
<p>Hazen sprang to the door which Ransom had carefully closed, and was about
to fall on his knees before the keyhole when he suddenly stiffened
himself and, turning towards the lawyer, cried with a new strain of
loftiness in his tone:</p>
<p>"You. You shall do the looking, only promise to be very minute in your
description of her behavior. It's a great trust I repose in you. See that
you honor it."</p>
<p>The revulsion of feeling caused in the lawyer by this show of confidence
was not perceptible. But it softened his step as well as his manner as he
crossed to do the other's bidding.</p>
<p>The remaining two stood at his side breathless, waiting for his first
word.</p>
<p>It came in a whisper:</p>
<p>"She's approaching her room. She looks tired. Her eyes are stealing this
way;—no, they are resting on her own door. She sees the sign. She stands
staring at it, but not like a person who has ever seen it before. It's
the stare of an uneducated woman who runs upon something she does not
understand. Now she touches it with one finger and glances up and down
the hall with a doubtful shake of the head. Now she is running to another
door, now to another. She is looking to see if this scrawl is to be found
anywhere else; she even casts her eye this way—I feel like leaving my
post. If I do, you may know that she's coming—No, she's back at her own
door and—gentlemen, her bringing up or rather coming up asserts itself.
She has put her palm to her mouth and is vigorously rubbing off the
marks."</p>
<p>The next instant Mr. Harper rose. "She's gone into her room," said he.
"Listen and you will hear her key click in the lock."</p>
<p>Ransom sank into a seat; Hazen had walked to the window. Presently he
turned.</p>
<p>"I am convinced," said he. "I will not trouble you gentlemen further.
Mr. Ransom, I condole with you upon your loss. My sister was a woman of
uncommon gifts."</p>
<p>Mr. Ransom bowed. He had no words for this man at a moment of such
extreme excitement. He did not even note the latent sting hidden in the
other's seeming tribute to Georgian. But the lawyer did and Hazen
perceived that he did, for pausing in his act of crossing the room, he
leaned for a moment on the table with his eyes down, then quickly
raising them remarked to that gentleman:</p>
<p>"I am going to leave by the midnight train for New York. To-morrow I
shall be on the ocean. Will it be transgressing all rules of propriety
for me to ask the purport of my sister's will? It is a serious matter to
me, sir. If she has left me anything—"</p>
<p>"She has <i>not</i>," emphasized the lawyer.</p>
<p>A shadow darkened the disappointed man's brow. His wound swelled and his
eyes gleamed ironically as he turned them upon Ransom.</p>
<p>Instantly that gentleman spoke.</p>
<p>"I have received but a moiety," said he. "You need not envy me the
amount."</p>
<p>"Who has it then?" briskly demanded the startled man. "Who? who? <i>She?</i>"</p>
<p>Mr. Harper never knew why he did it. He was reserved as a man and,
usually, more than reserved as a lawyer, but as Hazen lifted his hands
from the table and turned to leave, he quietly remarked:</p>
<p>"The chief legatee—the one she chose to leave the bulk of her very large
fortune to—is a man we none of us know. His name is Josiah Auchincloss."</p>
<p>The change which the utterance of this name caused in Hazen's expression
threw them both into confusion.</p>
<p>"Why didn't you tell me that in the beginning?" he cried. "I needn't have
wasted all this time and effort."</p>
<p>His eyes shone, his poor lips smiled, his whole air was jubilant. Both
Mr. Harper and his client surveyed him in amazement. The lines so fast
disappearing from his brow were beginning to reappear on theirs.</p>
<p>"Mr. Harper," this hard-to-be-understood man now declared, "you may
safely administer the estate of my sister. She is surely dead."</p>
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