exchanged chambers, but before the operation was complete, Miss Cornwall talked for a little while with her secretary.
"I would like to express my sincere appreciation of the favor you are doing me in accompanying me to Belgium. You are an intelligent girl and you have doubtless perceived the cloud under which all the members of the Cornwall family live. Our father feared death above all other things and perhaps we have inherited some of that fear. I suppose you have heard that he left his fortune to the one of us who will be the last to survive?"
"I have heard something about it," said Melicent.
"To my mind he did it as an incentive to us to take care of the precious years granted to us on this earth. Father never took care of himself until too late, and at fifty he was in ill health. I imagine he designed his will to force us to do what he had not done--to live exemplary lives. It is the pressure of that circumstance which has gradually reduced me to an overcautious behavior." Her dark eyes gazed piercingly at Melicent.
She merely said, "I quite understand, Miss Cornwall."
"I wonder," the old lady murmured. "I wonder if you do." In a moment she proceeded. "There is something which occurred since we got aboard the boat which has disturbed my nephew," she said positively. "He denies it, but I am not easily deceived. Can you learn from him what it is?"
"Perhaps," said Melicent guardedly. So her instinct had been right. Don Cornwall had approached her with chaff to conceal something else.
The next morning she found him, and on the sky deck they placed two chairs in the lee of a big life boat, and they were alone.
"I was rude yesterday," she said.
"But you weren't!"
"I came back to find you afterwards."
"I wish you'd come into the smoking room."
"I had a funny idea that I'd stopped you telling me something you meant to."
"You did."
"What was it?"
His eyes had been on her, but now he looked away over the sea. "Perhaps it's better left unsaid."
"Why?"
"Probably there's nothing to it. There can't be anything in it, of course, but--"
"Please look at me," said Melicent.
"You haven't got to ask that."
"You've discovered something more about--about the thing that bothers us."
"I wouldn't dignify it with calling it exactly a discovery. You save that word for such things as stumbling upon America when you're looking for China and finding the planet Pluto and so on."
"Well," demanded Melicent, smiling, "what did you do?"
"I noticed something quite interesting about our family names. I mean the given names of my father and of his sisters and brothers--Daniel, Everitt, Alice, Theodore, Hannah, and Lydia. That does not happen to be the order of the family by birth, but they can be arranged in that order. Perhaps they are being arranged in that order."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you make anything out of the names of the first five, taken in that order--
Daniel, Everitt, Alice, Theodore, Hannah?"
Melicent caught her breath. "D E A--" she began.
"Exactly. D was my father Daniel; he's been killed. E was my uncle Everitt, and he has just been murdered. A is my Aunt Alice, and we are on the way to her."
CHAPTER V
MELICENT experienced a moment of helplessness. She had the sensation of being in the grip of something she had no power to combat. Suddenly it was as if a sentence had been passed upon another and she could only stand by and watch it being executed. She turned from Donald Cornwall and stared out over the sea and let the cool wind on her cheek bring back more rational thought.
"You believe that some one has arranged your family in that order?" she asked at last.
"Some one seems to have made a start, certainly." Donald would not let his feeling be blown away. "Some one certainly has killed D and E; I was wondering--that was all--if A might be next. You see," he went on after an instant, "after I first noticed the initials of that message which came to my father, I tried to argue
"I would like to express my sincere appreciation of the favor you are doing me in accompanying me to Belgium. You are an intelligent girl and you have doubtless perceived the cloud under which all the members of the Cornwall family live. Our father feared death above all other things and perhaps we have inherited some of that fear. I suppose you have heard that he left his fortune to the one of us who will be the last to survive?"
"I have heard something about it," said Melicent.
"To my mind he did it as an incentive to us to take care of the precious years granted to us on this earth. Father never took care of himself until too late, and at fifty he was in ill health. I imagine he designed his will to force us to do what he had not done--to live exemplary lives. It is the pressure of that circumstance which has gradually reduced me to an overcautious behavior." Her dark eyes gazed piercingly at Melicent.
She merely said, "I quite understand, Miss Cornwall."
"I wonder," the old lady murmured. "I wonder if you do." In a moment she proceeded. "There is something which occurred since we got aboard the boat which has disturbed my nephew," she said positively. "He denies it, but I am not easily deceived. Can you learn from him what it is?"
"Perhaps," said Melicent guardedly. So her instinct had been right. Don Cornwall had approached her with chaff to conceal something else.
The next morning she found him, and on the sky deck they placed two chairs in the lee of a big life boat, and they were alone.
"I was rude yesterday," she said.
"But you weren't!"
"I came back to find you afterwards."
"I wish you'd come into the smoking room."
"I had a funny idea that I'd stopped you telling me something you meant to."
"You did."
"What was it?"
His eyes had been on her, but now he looked away over the sea. "Perhaps it's better left unsaid."
"Why?"
"Probably there's nothing to it. There can't be anything in it, of course, but--"
"Please look at me," said Melicent.
"You haven't got to ask that."
"You've discovered something more about--about the thing that bothers us."
"I wouldn't dignify it with calling it exactly a discovery. You save that word for such things as stumbling upon America when you're looking for China and finding the planet Pluto and so on."
"Well," demanded Melicent, smiling, "what did you do?"
"I noticed something quite interesting about our family names. I mean the given names of my father and of his sisters and brothers--Daniel, Everitt, Alice, Theodore, Hannah, and Lydia. That does not happen to be the order of the family by birth, but they can be arranged in that order. Perhaps they are being arranged in that order."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you make anything out of the names of the first five, taken in that order--
Daniel, Everitt, Alice, Theodore, Hannah?"
Melicent caught her breath. "D E A--" she began.
"Exactly. D was my father Daniel; he's been killed. E was my uncle Everitt, and he has just been murdered. A is my Aunt Alice, and we are on the way to her."
CHAPTER V
MELICENT experienced a moment of helplessness. She had the sensation of being in the grip of something she had no power to combat. Suddenly it was as if a sentence had been passed upon another and she could only stand by and watch it being executed. She turned from Donald Cornwall and stared out over the sea and let the cool wind on her cheek bring back more rational thought.
"You believe that some one has arranged your family in that order?" she asked at last.
"Some one seems to have made a start, certainly." Donald would not let his feeling be blown away. "Some one certainly has killed D and E; I was wondering--that was all--if A might be next. You see," he went on after an instant, "after I first noticed the initials of that message which came to my father, I tried to argue
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