The House of the Whispering Pines by Anna Katherine Green Page B

me
to have resource to the one and only means by which the scent might be
diverted from its original course, confusion be sown in the minds of the
police, and Carmel, as well as myself, be saved from the pit gaping to
receive us.
    This was my plan. I would acknowledge to having seen a horse and cutter
leave the club-house by the upper gateway, simultaneously with my
entrance through the lower one. I would even describe the appearance of
the person driving this cutter. No one by the greatest stretch of
imagination would be apt to associate this description with Carmel; but
it might set the authorities thinking, and if by any good chance a cutter
containing a person wearing a derby hat and a coat with an extra high
collar should have been seen on this portion of the road, or if, as I
earnestly hoped, the snow had left any signs of another horse having been
tethered in the clump of trees opposite the one where I had concealed my
own, enough of the truth might be furnished to divide public opinion and
start fresh inquiry.
    That a woman's form had sought concealment under these masculine
habiliments would not, could not, strike anybody's mind. Nothing in
the crime had suggested a woman's presence, much less a woman's
active agency.
    On the contrary, all the appearances, save such as I believed known to
myself alone, spoke so openly of a man's strength, a man's methods, a
man's appetite, and a man's brutal daring that the suspicion which had
naturally fallen on myself as the one and only person implicated, would
in shifting pass straight to another man, and, if he could not be found,
return to me, or be lost in a maze of speculation. This seemed so evident
after a long and close study of the situation that I was ready with my
confession when Mr. Clifton next came. I had even forestalled it in a
short interview forced upon me by the assistant district attorney and
Chief Hudson. That it had made an altogether greater impression upon the
latter than I had expected, gave me additional courage when I came to
discuss this new line of defence with the young lawyer. I was even able
to tell him that, to all appearance, my long silence on a point so
favourable to my own interests had not militated against me to the extent
one would expect from men so alive to the subterfuges and plausible
inventions of suspected criminals.
    "Chief Hudson believes me, late as my statement is. I saw it in his eye."
Thus I went on. "And the assistant district attorney, too. At least, the
latter is willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, which was more
than I expected. What do you suppose has happened? Some new discovery on
their part? If so, I ought to know what it is. Believe me, Charles, I
ought to know what it is."
    "I have heard of no new discovery," he coldly replied, not quite pleased,
as I could see, either with my words or my manner. "An old one may have
served your purpose. If another cutter besides yours passed through the
club-house grounds at the time you mention, it left tracks which all the
fury of the storm would not have entirely obliterated in the fifteen
minutes elapsing between that time and the arrival of the police. Perhaps
they remember these tracks, and if you had been entirely frank that
night—"
    "I know, I know," I put in, "but I wasn't. Lay it to my confusion of
mind—to the great shock I had received, to anything but my own
blood-guiltiness, and take up the matter as it now stands. Can't you
follow up my suggestion? A witness can certainly be found who encountered
that cutter and its occupant somewhere on the long stretch of open road
between The Whispering Pines and the resident district."
    "Possibly. It would help. You have not asked for news from the Hill."
    The trembling which seized and shook me at these words testified to the
shock they gave me. "Carmel!" I cried. "She is worse—dead!"
    "No. She's not worse and she's not dead. But the doctors say it will be
weeks before they can allow a question of any importance to be