Agatha Webb | Page 3

no!" was Mr. Sutherland's decisive though half-inaudible response.
"Philemon Webb might end his own life, but not Agatha's. It was the
money--"
Here he caught himself up, and, raising his voice, addressed the crowd
of villagers more directly.
"Wait," said he, "and I will go back with you. Where is Frederick?" he
demanded of such members of his own household as stood about him.
No one knew.
"I wish some one would find my son. I want him to go into town with
me."
"He's over in the woods there," volunteered a voice from without.
"In the woods!" repeated the father, in a surprised tone.
"Yes, sir; we all saw him go. Shall we sing out to him?"
"No, no; I will manage very well without him." And taking up his hat
Mr. Sutherland stepped out again upon the porch.
Suddenly he stopped. A hand had been laid on his arm and an
insinuating voice was murmuring in his ear:
"Do you mind if I go with you? I will not make any trouble."
It was the same young lady we have seen before.
The old gentleman frowned--he who never frowned and remarked
shortly:
"A scene of murder is no place for women."
The face upturned to his remained unmoved.

"I think I will go," she quietly persisted. "I can easily mingle with the
crowd."
He said not another word against it. Miss Page was under pay in his
house, but for the last few weeks no one had undertaken to contradict
her. In the interval since her first appearance on the porch, she had
exchanged the light dress in which she had danced at the ball, for a
darker and more serviceable one, and perhaps this token of her
determination may have had its influence in silencing him. He joined
the crowd, and together they moved down- hill. This was too much for
the servants of the house. One by one they too left the house till it stood
absolutely empty. Jerry snuffed out the candles and shut the front door,
but the side entrance stood wide open, and into this entrance, as the last
footstep died out on the hillside, passed a slight and resolute figure. It
was that of the musician who had questioned Miss Page's attractions.

II
ONE NIGHT'S WORK
Sutherlandtown was a seaport. The village, which was a small one,
consisted of one long street and numerous cross streets running down
from the hillside and ending on the wharves. On one of the corners thus
made, stood the Webb house, with its front door on the main street and
its side door on one of the hillside lanes. As the group of men and boys
who had been in search of Mr. Sutherland entered this last-mentioned
lane, they could pick out this house from all the others, as it was the
only one in which a light was still burning. Mr. Sutherland lost no time
in entering upon the scene of tragedy. As his imposing figure emerged
from the darkness and paused on the outskirts of the crowd that was
blocking up every entrance to the house, a murmur of welcome went up,
after which a way was made for him to the front door.
But before he could enter, some one plucked him by the sleeve.
"Look up!" whispered a voice into his ear.

He did so, and saw a woman's body hanging half out of an upper
window. It hung limp, and the sight made him sick, notwithstanding his
threescore years of experience.
"Who's that?" he cried. "That's not Agatha Webb."
"No, that's Batsy, the cook. She's dead as well as her mistress. We left
her where we found her for the coroner to see."
"But this is horrible," murmured Mr. Sutherland. "Has there been a
butcher here?"
As he uttered these words, he felt another quick pressure on his arm.
Looking down, he saw leaning against him the form of a young woman,
but before he could address her she had started upright again and was
moving on with the throng. It was Miss Page.
"It was the sight of this woman hanging from the window which first
drew attention to the house," volunteered a man who was standing as a
sort of guardian at the main gateway. "Some of the sailors' wives who
had been to the wharves to see their husbands off on the ship that sailed
at daybreak, saw it as they came up the lane on their way home, and
gave the alarm. Without that we might not have known to this hour
what had happened."
"But Mrs. Webb?"
"Come in and see."
There was a board fence about the simple yard within which stood the
humble house forever after to be pointed out as the scene of
Sutherlandtown's