CHAPTER XXVIII.John Talks“If you mean me, dad,” John spoke right up, and I’d given a pretty penny to have had him say something else, for, of course, Sam had not meant him, “I’m not worried. They don’t hang innocent men in Nevada, no matter how much rope their friends present them with.”“As a matter of fact,” Hubert Hand said, “I guess they don’t hang any men in Nevada, now, do they? Lethal chamber, isn’t it?”Sam growled at him to shut up; and told John that it was his turn to talk, and to go ahead and to try to talk sense, if possible.“I don’t know where to begin,” John said. “I’ve got nothing to talk about.”“Begin at the beginning. What did Gaby say to you, after dinner, that made you decide, right off, to go to Rattail?”“I’ve told you that already. I’ve got no changes to make in it. Gaby told me, after dinner, that Danny’s headache was getting worse. She said that Danny had sent to Salt Lake for a certain kind of headache medicine, the only kind that ever did her any good. She said it should have come in the morning’s mail. She said that Danny would be peeved at her for telling me about it—asking me to go, that is. So, if I didn’t want a fuss, and wanted to be allowed to go, I’d better make a sneak of it, with no explanations. I did. Here is something I haven’t told, though, for Danny just told me, when we came in here at three. She hadn’t sent for any headache medicine to Salt Lake, nor anywhere. That certainly looks as if Gaby wanted to get either me, or the sedan, off the job and out of the way, yesterday afternoon. She must have had some reason for sending me on a fool’s errand like that.”“Well, well, go on, son,” Sam said, after we had all sat in dead silence for about a minute.“Go on where?” John asked. “I’ve got nothing more to say. Hand’s told the rest of it, hasn’t he?”“Answer him, you fool,” Sam roared. “You’ve got answers, haven’t you? Use ’em. Sitting there like a dummy! Did anyone see you towing Saule to his place?”“Not that I know of. I towed him all right; but I can’t prove it. Hand was right when he said he could be bought for a half dollar. He might come cheaper. I’d try him with a quarter, first, Hand.”“Good God!” Sam shouted. “What are you trying to do? Pry your way into the lethal chamber? Can you give a reason for driving to the back door, instead of leaving the car in the garage?”“Only two hundred-pound sacks of rock salt. They’d dumped them on the platform for us this morning from Eighteen. I could give a reason for bringing them up, instead of leaving them there until we went down with the truck. Sure, I’m full of reasons. Got a good reason for taking half an hour to bathe and dress. It would be hard to find a guy with more reasons than I can produce for everything—all, but murdering the twin sister of the girl I love.”“Son,” Sam said, “I don’t blame you a damn bit for being sore clear to the bone. But, come to that, we haven’t any right to blame Hand, here, either; not if he is honest in his suspicions, and, maybe, he is. I forced them out of him. Can’t you swallow your pride, for a while, and——”“I’ve swallowed it already,” John said, “if that’s what you want. Swallowed it till I’m choked with it.”“I know, I know. But it is like this, John—and this goes for all you folks, too—a person can’t get to the bottom of anything without going down. In this case, it looks like we were going to have to go pretty low down—a trip to hell for most of us, I reckon. But it will be a round trip. Most of us will come up clean, to a clean Desert Moon. Can’t we go down, then, like a lot of reasonable human beings, and not like a kennel of yapping dogs?”“It won’t hold, dad,” John answered. “Not this round trip to hell stuff, as human beings. If I hadn’t stopped being a human being; that is, a man, I wouldn’t have sat still here and let Hand have his say out. And I wouldn’t have done it, not to save my own neck. But I know how you feel about the ranch. I’ve gone through with it for that reason, and—for Danny, though I know that all of this is a rotten mistake on your part. I know that; but it is no use telling you, now that you’ve started. I’ll go on with it, the best I can. I guess the others will, too. But none of us will come up clean, as you say. Don’t look for that—not after this muck. All right. Hop to it, dad. What’s your next question?”I was relieved when Sam asked, “Do you suspect, with reason, anyone in this room?” I had thought, following right along with Hubert Hand’s accusations, as Sam had been doing, that his next question would be about what was troubling and bothering John when he came in. Why he had acted so queerly that he had had to explain it by saying he was loco from the sun.“I do not.” John answered Sam’s question, straight. “But it seems darn queer to me the way everyone is leaving Chad’s suicide out of this. Hold on, dad! I’m not saying that I think Chad killed her. I know he didn’t. But I know just as well that he didn’t walk out and shoot himself simply because he had loved Gaby. Chad was a queer bird, all right. I guess none of us understood him very well. He was as emotional as the deuce, too—I’ll grant that. But he was not, ever, a damn fool.”“John!” Danny interrupted. “Do you think that a man who kills himself, when he finds that the girl he loves has been cruelly murdered, needs to be a fool?”“Yes,” John answered. “A man might not care much about living, after that, but if he killed himself he’d be a fool. I mean—— It is like this. Regular fellows, and Chad sure was one, don’t walk out and kill themselves, when they find the girl they love is dead. It takes more than death to make a real man kill himself. Sounds like a book, I know; but, loss of honor is a reason, and shame—maybe that’s the same thing—is another reason. Or, a fellow might kill himself to save the honor of his girl—or to save a friend’s life, if he owed the friend a lot——”Danny interrupted again. “Absolute despair should be a reason——”“Sure, I know how you mean. But Chad had despaired of Gaby’s love long ago. Dozens of times I’ve seen her treat him so rottenly that, if he had been the suicidal sort, he would have killed himself right then. No sir. I tell you Chad did not shoot himself because Gaby was dead. Sure, that was a part of it; but not the main part.“Chad was a darn good guy. Good all the way through. We all know that he didn’t kill her. We’d know it, if dad didn’t have his alibis for him. But what I’m getting at is, that, someway or other, and not meaning to at all, he got himself mixed up in it. When he saw what had happened, and realized that he had been involved—— There’s your reason, all right. I think that, if we can find out why Chad shot himself, we’ll find out most of the other things we want to know. I’m through, dad. I’ve said all I’ve got to say, and more too.”Sam hesitated a minute. I was relieved to see him take Chad’s note out of his pocket. “Chad says that he killed her,” he said, and read the note aloud. Everyone but me, to whom it was no surprise, and Martha, who was almost asleep again, squeaked, or gasped, or otherwise showed their horrified astonishment.John spoke first. “I’ll bet four dollars he never wrote it.”Sam passed the paper to him. “It looks like his writing. It sounds like him too. Soon as I can get track of one of these what-you-may-call-em’s, handwriting experts, I’m going to send it to him. I reckon it will match up all right. I wish there was an expert of some kind that we could send it to, to find out why he wrote it.”“Uncle Sam,” Danny said, and I could see that the note had upset her pretty badly, “there is something no one has thought of. We haven’t had time to think. But, where was Chad during the hour we were hunting for Gaby? You, and John, and Mary and I were in the sedan. But where were the others, during that time; between seven and eight o’clock, wasn’t it?”“I reckon,” Sam spoke real gently to her, “that we have all had time to do some tall thinking about that hour, little girl. But there couldn’t be any doubt that Gaby had been dead a sight longer than an hour, when we found her.”“But can you know that, for a certainty?” Danny insisted.“Just as certain as I know that she was dead, Danny. I—— Well, in the early days here—— Never mind that, though. I’ve had experience with deaths, kind of on that order. I know. The coroner and the sheriff knew. But, she might have been brought into the house during that hour. Hand let loose on his alibi business a little too early——”“I’m no fool,” Hubert Hand interrupted. “You admit that she could not have been murdered during the hour between six and seven. Every one of us, except John, can account for every minute of our time from four o’clock, when we saw Gaby alive, up to seven.”“All right. All right,” Sam said. “Have it your own way. But you’ve had your say, and plenty of time to say it in. You’ll maybe have another turn later. Now, keep still. We are going to hear from the others.“It is your turn next, Danny, I’m sorry. You understand, we haven’t any time to lose. Take it easy, though. Do you suspect, with reason, anyone in this room of being connected with the murder?”
“If you mean me, dad,” John spoke right up, and I’d given a pretty penny to have had him say something else, for, of course, Sam had not meant him, “I’m not worried. They don’t hang innocent men in Nevada, no matter how much rope their friends present them with.”
“As a matter of fact,” Hubert Hand said, “I guess they don’t hang any men in Nevada, now, do they? Lethal chamber, isn’t it?”
Sam growled at him to shut up; and told John that it was his turn to talk, and to go ahead and to try to talk sense, if possible.
“I don’t know where to begin,” John said. “I’ve got nothing to talk about.”
“Begin at the beginning. What did Gaby say to you, after dinner, that made you decide, right off, to go to Rattail?”
“I’ve told you that already. I’ve got no changes to make in it. Gaby told me, after dinner, that Danny’s headache was getting worse. She said that Danny had sent to Salt Lake for a certain kind of headache medicine, the only kind that ever did her any good. She said it should have come in the morning’s mail. She said that Danny would be peeved at her for telling me about it—asking me to go, that is. So, if I didn’t want a fuss, and wanted to be allowed to go, I’d better make a sneak of it, with no explanations. I did. Here is something I haven’t told, though, for Danny just told me, when we came in here at three. She hadn’t sent for any headache medicine to Salt Lake, nor anywhere. That certainly looks as if Gaby wanted to get either me, or the sedan, off the job and out of the way, yesterday afternoon. She must have had some reason for sending me on a fool’s errand like that.”
“Well, well, go on, son,” Sam said, after we had all sat in dead silence for about a minute.
“Go on where?” John asked. “I’ve got nothing more to say. Hand’s told the rest of it, hasn’t he?”
“Answer him, you fool,” Sam roared. “You’ve got answers, haven’t you? Use ’em. Sitting there like a dummy! Did anyone see you towing Saule to his place?”
“Not that I know of. I towed him all right; but I can’t prove it. Hand was right when he said he could be bought for a half dollar. He might come cheaper. I’d try him with a quarter, first, Hand.”
“Good God!” Sam shouted. “What are you trying to do? Pry your way into the lethal chamber? Can you give a reason for driving to the back door, instead of leaving the car in the garage?”
“Only two hundred-pound sacks of rock salt. They’d dumped them on the platform for us this morning from Eighteen. I could give a reason for bringing them up, instead of leaving them there until we went down with the truck. Sure, I’m full of reasons. Got a good reason for taking half an hour to bathe and dress. It would be hard to find a guy with more reasons than I can produce for everything—all, but murdering the twin sister of the girl I love.”
“Son,” Sam said, “I don’t blame you a damn bit for being sore clear to the bone. But, come to that, we haven’t any right to blame Hand, here, either; not if he is honest in his suspicions, and, maybe, he is. I forced them out of him. Can’t you swallow your pride, for a while, and——”
“I’ve swallowed it already,” John said, “if that’s what you want. Swallowed it till I’m choked with it.”
“I know, I know. But it is like this, John—and this goes for all you folks, too—a person can’t get to the bottom of anything without going down. In this case, it looks like we were going to have to go pretty low down—a trip to hell for most of us, I reckon. But it will be a round trip. Most of us will come up clean, to a clean Desert Moon. Can’t we go down, then, like a lot of reasonable human beings, and not like a kennel of yapping dogs?”
“It won’t hold, dad,” John answered. “Not this round trip to hell stuff, as human beings. If I hadn’t stopped being a human being; that is, a man, I wouldn’t have sat still here and let Hand have his say out. And I wouldn’t have done it, not to save my own neck. But I know how you feel about the ranch. I’ve gone through with it for that reason, and—for Danny, though I know that all of this is a rotten mistake on your part. I know that; but it is no use telling you, now that you’ve started. I’ll go on with it, the best I can. I guess the others will, too. But none of us will come up clean, as you say. Don’t look for that—not after this muck. All right. Hop to it, dad. What’s your next question?”
I was relieved when Sam asked, “Do you suspect, with reason, anyone in this room?” I had thought, following right along with Hubert Hand’s accusations, as Sam had been doing, that his next question would be about what was troubling and bothering John when he came in. Why he had acted so queerly that he had had to explain it by saying he was loco from the sun.
“I do not.” John answered Sam’s question, straight. “But it seems darn queer to me the way everyone is leaving Chad’s suicide out of this. Hold on, dad! I’m not saying that I think Chad killed her. I know he didn’t. But I know just as well that he didn’t walk out and shoot himself simply because he had loved Gaby. Chad was a queer bird, all right. I guess none of us understood him very well. He was as emotional as the deuce, too—I’ll grant that. But he was not, ever, a damn fool.”
“John!” Danny interrupted. “Do you think that a man who kills himself, when he finds that the girl he loves has been cruelly murdered, needs to be a fool?”
“Yes,” John answered. “A man might not care much about living, after that, but if he killed himself he’d be a fool. I mean—— It is like this. Regular fellows, and Chad sure was one, don’t walk out and kill themselves, when they find the girl they love is dead. It takes more than death to make a real man kill himself. Sounds like a book, I know; but, loss of honor is a reason, and shame—maybe that’s the same thing—is another reason. Or, a fellow might kill himself to save the honor of his girl—or to save a friend’s life, if he owed the friend a lot——”
Danny interrupted again. “Absolute despair should be a reason——”
“Sure, I know how you mean. But Chad had despaired of Gaby’s love long ago. Dozens of times I’ve seen her treat him so rottenly that, if he had been the suicidal sort, he would have killed himself right then. No sir. I tell you Chad did not shoot himself because Gaby was dead. Sure, that was a part of it; but not the main part.
“Chad was a darn good guy. Good all the way through. We all know that he didn’t kill her. We’d know it, if dad didn’t have his alibis for him. But what I’m getting at is, that, someway or other, and not meaning to at all, he got himself mixed up in it. When he saw what had happened, and realized that he had been involved—— There’s your reason, all right. I think that, if we can find out why Chad shot himself, we’ll find out most of the other things we want to know. I’m through, dad. I’ve said all I’ve got to say, and more too.”
Sam hesitated a minute. I was relieved to see him take Chad’s note out of his pocket. “Chad says that he killed her,” he said, and read the note aloud. Everyone but me, to whom it was no surprise, and Martha, who was almost asleep again, squeaked, or gasped, or otherwise showed their horrified astonishment.
John spoke first. “I’ll bet four dollars he never wrote it.”
Sam passed the paper to him. “It looks like his writing. It sounds like him too. Soon as I can get track of one of these what-you-may-call-em’s, handwriting experts, I’m going to send it to him. I reckon it will match up all right. I wish there was an expert of some kind that we could send it to, to find out why he wrote it.”
“Uncle Sam,” Danny said, and I could see that the note had upset her pretty badly, “there is something no one has thought of. We haven’t had time to think. But, where was Chad during the hour we were hunting for Gaby? You, and John, and Mary and I were in the sedan. But where were the others, during that time; between seven and eight o’clock, wasn’t it?”
“I reckon,” Sam spoke real gently to her, “that we have all had time to do some tall thinking about that hour, little girl. But there couldn’t be any doubt that Gaby had been dead a sight longer than an hour, when we found her.”
“But can you know that, for a certainty?” Danny insisted.
“Just as certain as I know that she was dead, Danny. I—— Well, in the early days here—— Never mind that, though. I’ve had experience with deaths, kind of on that order. I know. The coroner and the sheriff knew. But, she might have been brought into the house during that hour. Hand let loose on his alibi business a little too early——”
“I’m no fool,” Hubert Hand interrupted. “You admit that she could not have been murdered during the hour between six and seven. Every one of us, except John, can account for every minute of our time from four o’clock, when we saw Gaby alive, up to seven.”
“All right. All right,” Sam said. “Have it your own way. But you’ve had your say, and plenty of time to say it in. You’ll maybe have another turn later. Now, keep still. We are going to hear from the others.
“It is your turn next, Danny, I’m sorry. You understand, we haven’t any time to lose. Take it easy, though. Do you suspect, with reason, anyone in this room of being connected with the murder?”