Room Number 3, and Other Detective Stories

no mate for you, and you ought to know it. You have s

drawn aside his coat f

ing about the old lady, but I do know that room 3 was repapered the night before last, and secretly, by him. I didn’t see him do it, nobody did, but this is how I know: Some weeks ago I was hunting for something in the attic, when I stumbled upon some rolls of old wall-paper lying in a little cubby-hole under the eaves. The end of one of the rolls was torn and lay across the floor. I couldn’t help seeing it or remembering its colour. It was like this, blue and strip

t him. Her wits are evidently gone — frightened away by the horrors of the nig

out at her former mistress, who was again bei

nt looking about in the barrels and where they throw the refuse, for bits to prove that this papering had been done in the night. It seemed so wonderful to me that any one, even Jake, who is the smartest man you ever saw, could d

ed gasp; Jake was looking

ren’t you true to me? Why did you p

s very much subdued in aspect and did not think to

as his eye stole outside again, they saw the spirit melt within him and simple human grief take the place of icy resolution. “She was like a mot

[there was no doubt as to whom he meant by that tremulous she] was the only one I’ve e

but in my own. It will be short

own man. Then he did his part. The affair of the old woman was an unpremeditated one. It happened in this wise: Miss Demarest’s story had been true in every particular. Her mother was with her when she came to the house, and he, Jake, was the person sitting far back in the shadows at the time the young lady registered. There was nothing peculiar in the occurrence or in their behaviour except the decided demand which Miss Demarest made for separate rooms. This attracted his attention, for the house was pretty full and only one room was available in the portion reserved for transients. Wha

Miss Demarest was shown to the one empty room in front, and the mother — as being the one less likely to be governed by superstitious fears if it so happened that some rumour of the undesirability of the haunted Number 3 should have reached them — to the small closet so hastily prepared for the clerk. Mrs. Quimby accompanied her, and afterward visited her again for the purpose of carrying her a bowl and some water. It was then she encountered Miss Demarest, who, anxious for a second and more affectionate good-night from her moth

? It was a question that opened the door to endless controversy and possibly to a great difference of opinion; for in his way Quimby was a miser of the worst type and cared less for what money would do than for the sight and feeling of the money itself, while Mrs. Quimby was even more tenacious in her passion for the trinkets and gems which she looked upon as her part of the booty. Jake, on the contrary, cared little

en. Jake’s presence would keep the peace; they had no reason to fear any undue urging of his claims. All this he knew, and he was not therefore surprised, only greatly excited, when, after a last quiet look and some listening at the foot of the stairs, Mr. Quimby beckoned him into the office and, telling him to lock the door behind him, stepped around the bar to summon his wife. Jake never knew how it happened. He flung the door to and lock

he latter too brilliant for the dark calico background they blazed against. Jake, who was no fool, noted both facts, but had no words for the situation. He was absorbed, and he saw that Quimby was absorbed, in watching her broad hand creeping over those diamonds and huddling them up in a burning heap against her heart. There was f

the figure of a living, breathing woman, with eyes fastened on those jewels — those well-known, much-advertised jewels! So much they saw in that instant flash, then nothing! For Quimby, in a frenzy of unreasoning fear, had taken the chair from under him and had swung it at the figure. A lamp had stood on the

uld not be otherwise. The door had been locked, entrance was impossible; yet doubt held them powerless. The moments were making years of themselves. To each came in a flash a review of every earthly incident they had experienced, every wicked deed, every unholy aspiration. Quimby gritted his teeth. It was the first sound which had followed that thud and, slight as

u there

here ar

th an effort to keep her t

ght!” came from the h

voice at last.

I’ll stay where I

ded Quimby, but not without a t

onse, Quimby seemed to take a step nearer,

nything I’ve got so a

ng to light here.

nt, then Quimby

es, you can go down cellar and bring up tha

of the rickety table which his fat han

, though with some hesitation, said with

her move away from it toward

n that clatter and clink, and all breathed easier for a moment, but only for a moment. The something lying there behind them, or was it almost under their feet, soon got its hold again upon their fears, and Jake found himself standing stock-still, listening both ways for that dreaded, or would it be welcome, movement on the floor behind, and to the dragging sound of Mrs. Quimby’s skirt and

andle,” came in a hollow

the dark, then disappeared. Another; but no l

h?” appealed the voice of Q

hat moment, and the awful nearness of hell. They could see now, but not one of them looked in the direction where all their thoughts lay. Instead of that, they rolled their ey

! this is my only match

d darkness was about to close upon them again before — before —— But another hand had seized the candle. Mrs. Quimby has come f

e’s no help for it now; they must look. Jake’s head turned f

man lay before them, face downward on the hard floor. A woman dressed in black, with hat on head and a little satchel clutche

ed to raise her; but he instantly desisted, and looking up at Quimby an

ea

d, “Dead?” echoed the

ed his no less

and seeing what he had done to make entrance possible, cursed himself and locked it properly. Meanwhile, Mrs. Quimby, with her eyes on her husba

ver seen her look like this before. What

s of what she saw! I’ll not stand for this killing, Jacob. You may count me out of this and the chain, too. If you don’t

speaking? “Susan, are y

ng black like an ineffaceable blot on the office floor, t

the police by such an unnecessary murder? She was walking in her sleep. I

used him. But Jake saw from the nature of the glance he shot at his poor old victim that her words

l use your wits, now that you have used your hand, t

lties were undisturbed by anger or shock, knelt and turne

minutes of cautious scrutiny. “The old lady fell and struck her foreh

house at just this time is full of da

head, thought for a minute, and then slowly came back, glanced at th

nts. “She fell in the woods; the path is full of bared roots, and there

m enough nod, whereupon Quimby bade his wife to take a look outs

fell into a rage; an

! do as I bid yo

ook on the look he had learne

ter! What abou

n a tone smooth as oil, but freighted with purpose, “

r the precious chain sparkling with the sinister gleam o

no more risk

out to rush upon her. But he was only gathering up his

no difficulty with her,” he muttered b

ed that the use to which Number 3 had been put was known to but one of the maids, who could easily be silen

ies of a stumble or a fall against some one of the many trees they had to pass filled them with constant terror. They did stumble once, and the low cry Jake uttered caused them new fears. Was

woods. Men of no compassion, unreached by ordinary sympathies, they felt the furtive skulking back, step by s

was not even disturbed by the sight of her wild figure walking in a circle round and round the office, the stump o

d her husband, la

sence of the two men had re

ion to the register where the two names of mother a

gether with the corresponding one in the back. “The devil’s on our side all right, or why did she p

his wife had c

our whole plan and possibly hang us. Miss Demarest visited her mother in Number 3 and noticed the room well, and parti

er the eaves in the front attic, I will engage to have it on those four walls before daylight. Bring the raggedest rolls you can find. If it shouldn’t be

a transformation made in the room in question which astonished even those concerned in it. Dawn rose upon the completed work and, the self-possession of all three having been restored with the burning up

g up room and occupant before further discoveries could be made. What became of him in the turmoil which followed, no one could tell, not even Jake. They had been together in Jake’s room before the latter ran out with his gun, but beyond that the clerk knew nothing. Of Mrs. Quimby he could tell more. She had not been taken into their confid

wn to others? We cannot tell, for no sign nor word of Jacob

ee Forks Tavern and the room