The crooked crossDutton, Charles J. (Charles Judson)
General
The crooked cross
Dutton, Charles J. (Charles Judson)
Bartley, John (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction
Even in the few moments we had been in the house, the wind had
increased. Now it came sweeping across the lake from the distant
mountains—not in the wild gusts of a few moments before, but with a
steady strength which seemed to be increasing. A few drops of rain
dashed against my face, and I could hear the lake as it started to
pound upon the shore. The clouds seemed very low, and not a star was
in the sky.
As we came through the hedge, for the first time we felt the full
strength of the wind. Out in the street, where the few street lamps
gave the only brightness in the dense darkness, I saw a newspaper go
whirling up the hill in a crazy fashion. In front of us, just an
indistinct dark mass in the gloom, was the church. No lights were to
be seen at the rectory windows, and save for the wind no other sound
came to our ears.
With Bartley a few steps in front of us, we went up the slight incline
and across the close-cropped grass which formed the lawn. Where we
were heading, I could not tell; but Bartley kept in the lead, hurrying
with the certainty of a man who knew just where he was going and what
he expected to discover. We followed, though several feet behind. No
one spoke, and as we bent forward against the wind, I wondered what
Carter and Ranville might be thinking.
We paused under the shadow of the tower, which divided the church from
the rectory. It loomed above us in the darkness, but as I put out my
hand, I discovered that the door leading to the top was closed. I
pressed down the latch, only to find the door was locked. I had begun
to wonder why we had stopped in the place we did when above the roar
of the wind I heard a sound. At first I could not tell what it was,
for it rose for a second and died away—rose and fell, to suddenly
swell forth into a great volume of sound. And then I recognized what
it was. Some one was playing the organ in the church.
Ranville started to speak, and in fact said one word, but there came a
sharp command from Bartley, and he became silent. As Bartley started
in the direction of the church, we followed. We crept along the
ivy-covered wall and reached the three steps which led to the
entrance. When we were before the oak door and tried the latch, we
found it was locked. Stopping a moment, we listened. Above the wind
the notes of the organ came faintly from within.
I half expected Bartley might pound on the door, though why he should
care to enter the church I could not see. Instead, he walked down to
the grass, and we went to his side. Our eyes turned toward the rich
glass windows of the building. In the darkness it was almost
impossible to even perceive the place where they were. One thing was
certain; though some one was within the church—some one playing upon
the pipe organ—yet the church was dark. Not a ray of light was
reflected from the windows out into the darkness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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