The Late Tenant

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THE LATE TENANT

by

GORDON HOLMES

Author of "A Mysterious Disappearance," "The Arncliffe Puzzle."

New York Edward J. Clode 156 Fifth Avenue 1906

Copyright, 1906, by Edward J. Clode

Entered at Stationers Hall

The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I PAGE A WHIFF OF VIOLETS 1

CHAPTER II A SIGNATURE WITH A FLOURISH 15

CHAPTER III VIOLET 27

CHAPTER IV "JOHANN STRAUSS" 36

CHAPTER V VON OR VAN? 45

CHAPTER VI THE WORD OF JOY 60

CHAPTER VII VIOLET'S CONDITIONS 70

CHAPTER VIII AT DEAD OF NIGHT 83

CHAPTER IX COMING NEAR 96

CHAPTER X THE MARRIAGE-LINES 106

CHAPTER XI SWORDS DRAWN 117

CHAPTER XII THE NIGHT-WATCHES 133

CHAPTER XIII NO MORE VIOLET 144

CHAPTER XIV THE DIARY 163

CHAPTER XV IN PAIN 173

CHAPTER XVI HAND TO HAND 180

CHAPTER XVII DAVID MORE THAN REGAINS LOST GROUND 197

CHAPTER XVIII FROM THE DEPTHS 213

CHAPTER XIX VIOLET DECIDES 227

CHAPTER XX DAVID HAS ONE VISITOR, AND EXPECTS OTHERS 242

CHAPTER XXI THE MIDNIGHT GATHERING 257

CHAPTER XXII VAN HUPFELDT MAKES AMENDS 271

The Late Tenant

CHAPTER I

A WHIFF OF VIOLETS

"I suppose one becomes used to this sort of thing in time," thought David Harcourt, as he peered through the dusty plate-glass windows of his third-floor flat. "At present I can appreciate the feelings of a Wyoming steer when he first experiences the restraint of a cattle-truck. Or am I a caged bird? or a menagerie ape? or a mere ass? There is something in the evolution theory, after all. Obviously, one of my respected ancestors is kicking."

Then, being a cheerful soul, he laughed, and turned from the outer prospect to face the coziness of his new abode. He did not understand yet that in No. 7, Eddystone Mansions, picked almost at haphazard from a house-agent's list, he had hit upon a residence singularly free from the sort of thing which induced this present fit of the blues. In the first place, owing to a suit in chancery, the "eligible" building-site opposite was vacant, and most of the windows of No. 7 commanded an open space. Secondly, the street itself did not connect two main thoroughfares; hence its quietude was seldom disturbed by vehicles. Thirdly, and, perhaps, most important of all, his neighbors, above, below, and on three sides, were people who had achieved by design what he had done by accident--they had taken up their abode in Eddystone Mansions on account of the peace thus secured in the heart of London.

For London has a stony heart with wooden arteries, through which the stream of life rushes noisily. To ears tuned by the far-flung silence of the prairie this din of traffic was thunderous. To eyes trained by the smooth horizon it was bewildering to see a clear sky overhead and a sun sinking slowly, like a dim Chinese fire-balloon, into a compound of smoke and chimneys. In fact, David Harcourt came to the conclusion that Londoners, as a race, must be purblind and somewhat deaf.

"I wonder if I can stand it?" he commented. "I saw a map of South Africa in a shop window to-day. It looked wonderfully attractive. Yes, I am beginning to believe there is neither claw nor feather in my composition. 'Kicking' is the right word--hoof--ass! Oh! the line of descent is clear." Then he laughed again, taking a box of cigars off the top of a bookcase, and any one who heard him laugh would have grasped the reason why men soon called him "Davie," and women smiled when he looked at them.

Dame Nature, aided by his less remote ancestors in the evolutionary tree, had been good to him. It would have needed the worst "environment" ever dreamed of by sociology to make him a degenerate. As it was, a healthy upbringing, a fair public-school education, and the chance that a relation of his owned a Wyoming ranch, joined in fashioning an excellent specimen of lusty and clean-souled young manhood. But that same general wet-nurse, who had intended David to lord it over herds and vast pastures, had complicated matters by throwing a literary kink into the deftly coiled strands of his composition. Thus, at the age of twenty-five, he took more interest in scribbling stories and searching for rimes than in toting up the proceeds of sales at Chicago stock-yards. Worse than that, having oft imagined and striven to depict various ethereal creatures typical of the Spirit of the Dawn, the Fairy of the Dell, or the Goddess of the Mist, he had refused, most emphatically, to wed the elderly rancher's daughter, his relative, a lady blessed with more wealth and weight than was necessary for any one woman in the world.