The Grim Inheritance by Carl Clausen Read online

  Amazing Stories, August, 1928

  The Grim Inheritance

  by Carl Clausen

  An Unexpected Development

  worn puff sleeves. Some years later, at the age of eight, Austin had come across a fashion

  USTIN CRANE’S earliest

  plate in an old magazine. All the figures wore

  recollection was that of having to take

  puff sleeves. He had wondered mildly to

  A his medicine, literally speaking. Every whom these ladies fed orange-colored morning his nurse would give him an orange-capsules before breakfast.

  colored transparent capsule. He was warned

  Being an inquisitive child he had also

  not to chew it like candy, but to swallow it

  wondered about certain other things. Why, for

  right down with the drink of water which she

  instance, was he not permitted to go to school

  had ready for bun. This recollection dated

  with other children? The big handsome

  back to a period when he was between three

  schoolhouse with its Doric columns had

  and four years old.

  always fascinated him. When he rode past it

  The first nurse he remembered had with his tutor, and Gulp, the liveried chauffeur

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  2

  slowed up the car at the school crossing, If there was anything wrong with him he Austin would peer through the glass at the

  wanted to know it. He decided to speak to his

  words, “Knowledge is Power” which were

  mother about it that night after Doctor

  chiseled in gold letters above the door. As he

  Goldwin had gone, but abandoned the idea

  watched the army of shouting children at play,

  when he remembered that in doing so he

  an almost uncontrollable impulse to fling the

  would indict himself for eavesdropping. The

  door of the car open and to run out and join

  physician’s words, “He’s a perfect specimen

  the shouting mob would sweep over him. He

  of manhood,” kept ringing in his ears. What

  wanted to yell with than, to be yelled at by

  did Doctor Goldwin mean? And why

  them and above all he wanted to be let in on

  shouldn’t he be a perfect specimen?

  his share of the power which was advertised in

  He crossed to the window and stood

  the golden letters above the door.

  looking out into the Long Island Sound. In the

  At such moments he vaguely felt that

  cove at the foot of the garden his sloop lay

  somehow or other life had cheated him, that

  moored. His mother had bought it for him two

  there was something lacking in his existence

  years before, and on fine days he and Mr.

  which neither Gulp, the chauffeur, Sims, the

  Henley cruised about the Sound in it. Beyond

  butler, Mr. Henry, the tutor, or his mother

  the wide, sun-hot expanse of the Sound the

  could supply. He also felt that a sort of low cliffs of the Connecticut shore lay traced conspiracy to cheat him of something, he faintly in the late afternoon mist. He wondered hardly knew what, was going on between what manner of people lived there. He felt these people and old Doctor Goldwin, who

  suddenly a strong desire to go and see—to

  came down on the first of every month and

  bolt from the odious restraint of his daily

  looked over and left a fresh supply of orange-

  routine of lessons, exercises, and walks and to colored capsules with his mother.

  escape the spying eyes of Sims, Gulp, Mr.

  It was on one of these monthly visits

  Henley and his mother.

  when Austin was eighteen years old that he

  Turning, he walked to the cheval

  overheard a discussion of himself between her

  mirror at the end of the room. He looked

  and the doctor. He had not meant to be himself over critically. He could judge himself eavesdropping. He was coming down the soft-only by comparison with the few people with

  carpeted stairway when he heard the voices of

  whom he came in daily contact. He knew that

  his mother and the physician in the living

  he was taller than Mr. Henley, the tutor,

  room. Doctor Goldwin said:

  almost as tall as Gulp, the chauffeur, and that

  “The boy is entering young manhood

  he carried himself nearly as straight as Sims,

  with every normal manifestation. You need

  the butler; certainly with more ease. He knew

  not worry. He is a perfect specimen of that his blue eyes were much clearer than manhood. His physical and mental status is

  Gulp’s and that his light hair was of much

  decidedly above par.”

  finer quality. He wondered if these were signs

  Austin heard his mother reply:

  of perfect manhood. He had always rather

  “Rut suppose he wishes to marry some

  admired the chauffeur’s wiry hair and the way

  day—and the day must inevitably come?”

  Gulp wore his cap pulled forward over his

  “I see no reason why he shouldn’t,”

  shaggy eyebrows.

  the doctor had replied.

  Austin tiptoed back upstairs to his HE had thought about this episode for weeks.

  room. He pondered deeply upon what he had

  He was burning to know about himself, but he

  overheard. He wondered what they had meant.

  knew that any move on his part in that

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  3

  direction would be met by rebuffs. A hint

  rapid foreshortening of all horizons, the

  dropped to Mr. Henley one day had elicited

  shifting of the wind and the blotting out of the nothing but a hurried and ill-concealed anxiety land, forward and aft. An hour later, after

  to change the subject.

  tacking about double-reefed in the teeth of the Austin gave up definitely the idea of

  gale, he was forced to give her sheet and run

  questioning his mother, partly because he felt

  off free. Another hour and he knew that he

  very sure that she was at the bottom of the

  was being blown out to sea at the rate of ten

  conspiracy and partly because he loved her

  miles an hour.

  dearly and shrank from the thought of causing

  He was not frightened. His elation at

  her pain. She was a fragile dark-eyed person

  his new-found liberty left no room for fear.

  with white hair, a quick eager manner and tiny

  For the first time in his life he was going

  soft hands that were always reaching for him

  about the business of living independently. He

  with caresses. He admired her as greatly as he

  felt like one who had claimed at last some

  loved her.

  long deferred birthright.

  An inkling of the truth came to him in

  After six days of knocking about the

  quite an unexpected manner. During his Atlantic with a box of sea-biscuits and a small mother’s absence in New York one rainy day,

  breaker of water as the only fo
od and drink, he and while Mr. Henley was writing some was picked up by a Gloucester-man returning letters in his room, Austin stole down to the

  homeward, full to the deck with halibut. He

  sloop unobserved by the rest of the household,

  slept in one of its bunks nearly all the way

  cast the boat loose, hoisted the sail, and stood back to Gloucester while the stoop was towed

  out into the open Sound in a brisk north-

  astern. He was completely exhausted. The

  wester with his eyes on the distant exhilaration was gone. His body seemed in the Connecticut shore line. He was a good sailor,

  grip of some monstrous apathy from which he

  and he had learned to handle the little craft

  was unable to rouse himself. Even after being

  with the skill of a veteran, so the increasing of drenched with sleep he felt a curious

  wind did not disturb him. He merely took a

  disinclination to stir.

  reef in the mainsail and went on. He had no

  The authorities at Gloucester

  definite idea of where he was going. He communicated with his mother at once. She merely felt the immediate need of the open, of

  arrived in her car, accompanied by Doctor

  wind and rain sweeping down upon him from

  Goldwin and Henley that same afternoon, with

  illimitable spaces.

  terror in her dark eyes, which Austin searched

  It was not long before he noticed that

  his tired mind in vain to account for. He had

  more clouds were gathering in the north. He

  expected a scolding but none came. Doctor

  wondered if a storm was coming up and in the

  Goldwin gave him one of the orange-colored

  same breath hoped that one was. He felt elated

  capsules and the four returned, a silent party.

  at the thought, curiously light, and free from

  Austin had never seen his mother so

  restraint. Tiller in hand he watched the green

  tender before. She cried nearly all the way

  seas come tumbling along the rail as the sloop

  down the coast. She took his face between her

  heeled to the pressure of her sails. She clove

  small soft hands and searched his eyes with a

  the crested seas, shaking the spume and sort of breathless intentness that puzzled him.

  smother from her bows at each leap. Spindrift

  He tried to respond to her caresses, but they

  lashed his face. He shouted with exultation.

  left him cold and apathetic. He was conscious

  So engrossed was he with his newly-

  even of a slight feeling of nausea at her

  acquired freedom that he did not notice the

  demonstrativeness. He glanced at Mr. Henley

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  4

  for an explanation of this extraordinary

  When he was twenty-two years old his

  phenomenon, but the tutor averted his face as

  mother died. The day before she had been well

  if loath to meet his questioning eyes. and happy. They had motored to Montauk Drowsiness overtook him at last. He sank

  Point and had lunched at a wayside inn. Upon

  back in the cushioned seat and slept.

  returning she had complained of a slight

  headache and had retired early. The following

  WHEN he opened his eyes the next morning

  morning, Elaine the maid had gone into her

  he found that he was in bed in his own room.

  room to awaken her and had found her lying

  He lay for a long time trying to review the

  dead upon the canopied bed with her white

  happenings of the last ten days but his brain

  head thrown back and her small hands

  refused to respond to any orderly survey. He

  clutching the silken covers. She had scarcely

  felt no desire for anything except to lie prone, stirred. Death had been instantaneous and

  but he did not get any feeling of rest or except for the tightly-closed hands, there was relaxation from the thought of remaining in

  no evidence of pain or struggle. Her heart had

  bed. He glanced about the chamber. He had a

  simply stopped.

  momentary illusion of being in a strange

  Austin was left in a daze by the

  room. Even the most familiar object seemed

  unexpectedness of it; and the confusion of the

  remote and unreal.

  household robbed of its governing hand,

  He was conscious of being thirsty, but

  added to his misery. He stayed beside her until it took him several minutes to make up his

  Doctor Goldwin arrived and ordered him to

  mind to arise and search for a glass in the

  leave the room. Even then he could hardly tear

  bathroom. As he passed the cheval mirror on

  himself away. He gave the still form on the

  his way back to bed he caught sight of himself

  bed one last look and stumbled downstairs

  therein and paused, blinking at the image he

  after old Sims, then outdoors and down to the

  saw there: a sallow face with lacklustre sloop.

  eyeballs set deeply in narrowed slits. He ran

  He sailed on the Sound that afternoon,

  his fingers through his hair as if by this motion his mind a blank. When he returned he found

  to brush away the vision that confronted him

  that they had taken her away. Her room had

  in the mirror and noted that his hair felt been made up. He wandered about its crypt-curiously dry and brittle to the touch.

  like emptiness and touched her things one by

  He stood staring at himself for some

  one. On the dressing table there was a small

  moments, then crept back to bed. He didn’t

  silver casket containing a few long strands of

  understand what had happened and his mind

  white hair. She had told him laughingly one

  was too tired to grapple with the problem.

  day that she was saving them toward a switch

  When the nurse brought him his capsule for old age. He touched the strands lightly fifteen minutes later he swallowed it and said

  with the tips of his fingers, now. They seemed

  nothing.

  still a part of her living, fragile self.

  During his convalescence he tried to

  He opened the door of the clothes

  screw up courage to get out of bed and look at

  closet. Doll-like dresses hung there in orderly himself in the mirror, and when he finally did

  rows and a dozen pairs of tiny Cinderella

  get the courage to do so at the end of the

  slippers stood against the wall. Her warm

  second week, he saw there a well set-up youth

  eager personality seemed to be expressed in

  with clear blue eyes, soft wavy hair and a

  every pair, to be lingering in every last fold of healthy ruddy skin. He decided that he had

  each dainty garment He wanted to gather them

  dreamed that other image.

  up in his arms, and take them to some

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  5

  secluded spot and cry over them, but he

  “Yes?” he replied, breathlessly.

  couldn’t cry....

  “You have wondered often about

  A week after the funeral there was a

  certain things—I refer particularly to the

  meeting in the library between several men.

  medicine?”

  With t
he exception of Dr. Goldwin all were

  Austin nodded. He gripped the arms of

  strangers to Austin. The will was read by a

  his chair. He was on the brink of a momentous

  heavy-faced man with a porcine brow and a

  discovery. The realization of it made him

  flattened skull about which a fringe of coarse

  inarticulate.

  iron gray hair rode like a misplaced halo.

  “I am going to tell you what I consider

  Austin listened, abstractedly. He necessary for you to know,” the physician gathered from the stilted, legal phraseology

  went on; “against my advice your mother kept

  that he was the only heir; later that the heavy-it from you. I tried to make her see her error

  faced man whose name was Stoddard, and

  and to make her realize the danger she

  who seemed to be a distant relative of his dead exposed you to by keeping you in ignorance

  father, had succeeded in getting himself of certain things but she wouldn’t listen.

  appointed by the court as administrator. In the Women are that way. Sentimental and

  discussion that followed the reading of the

  unwilling to face the truths of life.” He paused will, Austin discovered that his mother had

  and glanced at the white face staring up at him lived far beyond her income for years and that

  from the depths of the cushioned chair.

  the estate was heavily encumbered. The man

  “There’s nothing to be frightened at, lad,” he

  Stoddard informed all present in somewhat

  said, “pull yourself together and listen to me.”

  pompous tone that he would do his best to

  “I am listening,” Austin replied with

  save what was left of the Crane fortune.

  an effort to keep his voice steady.

  Austin looked at the speaker and said

  “Do you know what a CRETIN is?”

  nothing. Finance was a closed book to him,

  the physician asked.