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diff --git a/22781-8.txt b/22781-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46135fb --- /dev/null +++ b/22781-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5560 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of 32 Caliber, by Donald McGibeny + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: 32 Caliber + +Author: Donald McGibeny + +Illustrator: Hugh Mackey + +Release Date: September 27, 2007 [EBook #22781] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 32 CALIBER *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +32 CALIBER + + +by + +Donald McGibeny + + + +_Frontispiece by_ + +HUGH MACKEY + +[Transcriber's note: frontispiece missing from book] + + + + +INDIANAPOLIS + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1920 + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I BRING JIM HERE + II TWO MEN AND A WOMAN + III I COULD KILL HIM + IV THE WORST HAPPENS + V ACCIDENT OR MURDER + VI A CLUE AND A VERDICT + VII I TURN DETECTIVE + VIII IT LOOKS BAD FOR HELEN + IX LOOK OUT, JIM + X I ACCUSE ZALNITCH + XI A DOUBLE INDICTMENT + XII WHO AM I + XIII WE PLAN THE DEFENSE + XIV BULLET PROOF + XV THE ANSWER + XVI THE MECHANICIAN + XVII RED CAPITULATES + XVIII I LISTEN TO MY FOREBEARS + + + + +32 CALIBER + + +CHAPTER ONE + +BRING JIM HERE + +I was in the locker-room of the country-club, getting dressed after the +best afternoon of golf I had ever had. I had just beaten Paisley +"one-up" in eighteen holes of the hardest kind of sledding. + +If you knew Paisley you'd understand just why I was so glad to beat +him. He is a most insufferably conceited ass about his golf, for a man +who plays as badly as he does; in addition to which he usually beats +me. It's not that Paisley plays a better game, but he has a way of +making me pull my drive or over-approach just by his confounded manner +of looking at me when I am getting ready to play. + +We usually trot along about even until we come to the seventh hole--in +fact, I'm usually ahead at the seventh--and then conversation does me +in. You see, the seventh hole can be played two ways. There's a small +clay bank that abuts the green and you can either play around or over +it to the hole, which lies directly behind. The real golfers play over +with a good mashie shot that lands them dead on the green, but dubs, +like Paisley, play around with two easy mid-iron shots. When we get to +the place where the choice must be made, Paisley suggests that I go +around, which makes me grip my mashie firmly, recall all the things I +have read in the little book about how to play a mashie shot, and let +drive with all my force, which usually lands me somewhere near the top +of the clay bank, where it would take a mountain goat to play the next +shot. After that, Paisley and I exchange a few hectic observations and +my temperature and score mount to the highest known altitude. + +Of course, every now and then, I forget my stance and Paisley long +enough to send the ball in a beautiful parabola right on to the green, +and when I do--oh, brother!--the things I say to Paisley put him in +such a frame of mind that I could play the rest of the course with a +paddle and a basket-ball and still beat him. This particular afternoon +he had tried to play the seventh hole as it should be played, and +though we had both foozled, I had won the hole and romped triumphantly +home with the side of pig. + +I was gaily humming to myself as I put on my clothes when James +Felderson came in. His face was drawn and his mouth was set in a way +that was utterly foreign to Jim, whose smile has done more to keep +peace in committee meetings and to placate irate members than all other +harmonizing agencies in the club put together. There was something +unnatural, too, about his eyes, as though he had been drinking. + +"Have you seen Helen?" he demanded in a thick voice. + +"No. Not to-day," I answered. "What's the matter, Jim? Anything +wrong?" + +Felderson has been my law partner ever since he married my sister +Helen. I had left him at the office just before lunch and he had +seemed then as cheerful and unperturbed as usual. + +"Helen has gone with Frank Woods!" he burst out, his voice breaking as +he spoke. + +It took a second for me to grasp the meaning of what he said, then I +grabbed him by the shoulder. + +"Jim, Jim, what are you saying?" + +My sister--left her husband--run off with another man! I had read of +such things in stories, but never had I believed that real people, in +real life and of real social position, ever so disgraced themselves. +Every one knew that Frank Woods had been seeing a lot of Helen, and +several close friends had asked me if Jim knew the man's reputation. I +had even spoken to Helen, only to be laughed at, and assured that it +was the idle gossip of scandal-mongers. That she should have left Jim, +darling old Jim, for Frank Woods, or any other man, was unthinkable. +Jim sank on a bench and turned a face to me that had grown utterly +haggard. + +"It's true, Bupps! I found this on the table when I went home to +lunch." + +He held out a crumpled note written in Helen's rather mannish back-hand. + + +"Jim, + +"It is now ten-thirty. Frank is coming for me at eleven. He has made +me realize that, loving him the way I do, I would be doing you a +horrible injustice to keep up the wretched pretense of being your wife. + +"Had you left any other way open, I would have taken it, but you +refused a divorce. I hate to hurt you the way I must, but try to +understand and forgive me. + +"Helen." + + +I turned toward Jim. His chin was sunk in his hands. Two men came in +from the tennis-courts and nodded as they went by. + +"What have you done?" I asked. + +He raised his head, and on his face was written incalculable misery. + +"Nothing!" he answered, dropping his hands hopelessly. "What can I do, +except let them go and get a divorce as soon as possible? It's my +fault. After we--quarreled the other night, she asked me to divorce +her, and I refused. God, Bupps! If you only knew how much I love her +and how hard I've tried to make her love me. And she did love me till +Woods came along." + +I hurried up my dressing, turning over in my mind the details of Jim's +married life. In the light of the latest developments, I realized the +painful fact that I was partly to blame myself. Helen hadn't really +loved Jim when she married him. Oh, she'd loved him in the same way +she'd loved a lot of other men whom she'd been more or less engaged to +at one time or another. She had married Jim, because it had been the +thing to do that year, to get married; and she realized that Jim loved +her more and could give her more than any of the others. Where I came +in was that I had urged her to marry Jim because he was the best man in +the world and because I wanted him for my brother-in-law. + +I remembered now how cold Helen had been, even during their engagement, +trumping up almost any excuse to keep from spending an evening alone +with the man who was to be her husband. It had made me so hot that I +had reproached her even in Jim's presence. My words didn't seem to +affect Helen any, but they did affect Jim a lot. He had taken me for a +long ride in his car and filled me full of moonshine about how he was +unworthy of her and how he would win her love after they were married. +I was in such sympathy with him that I tried to believe it true, +although I knew Helen as only a younger brother can know a sister. I +knew that she had been pampered and petted ever since she was a child; +that she had never shown much affection for father and mother, who were +her slaves, while toward me, who had insulted and made fun of her, she +was almost effusive. With this in mind, I had urged Jim to neglect +her, to "treat her rough," but when a man is head-over-heels in love +with a girl, what's the good of advice? To tell him to mistreat her +was like telling a Mohammedan to spit in the face of the prophet. + +They had been married a little over a year when Frank Woods came to +Eastbrook on war business for the French Government. He had been in +Papa Joffre's Army during part of the mêlée, wore the _Croix de Guerre_ +with several palms, and could hold a company of people enthralled with +stories of his experiences. Whether he had a right to the decorations, +or even the uniform, no one was quite sure, but it set off every good +point of his massive, well-built frame. He would stand in front of the +fire and tell of air-scraps in such a way that, while he never +mentioned the hero by name, it was easy to guess that "hero" and Frank +Woods were synonymous. He could dance, ride, play any game and shoot +better than the best of us, and when he sat at the piano and sang, +every man looked at his wife or his fiancée and wondered where the +lightning was going to strike. For although he was a very proper young +bachelor for months, showing no unseemly interest in women, we all of +us, I think, secretly felt that he was setting the stage for a "grand +coup." + +If he had singled out Helen from the first, he couldn't have played his +game better, for his seeming indifference to her loveliness piqued her +almost to madness. During the early months of our entrance in the war +he was called back to France, and every man in Eastbrook breathed a +sigh of relief. There wasn't one of us who could say why we thought +him a cad, but just the same, I doubt if there was a father in +Eastbrook who would willingly have given his daughter to him. He was +too much of the ideal lover to make a good husband. There was +something about him, too, that made no man want to claim him as a +particular friend, but perhaps it was because we were all jealous. + +While most of the younger men of the town were in France, or, like Jim +and myself, in a training-camp, Frank Woods came back, and this time +there was no mistaking whom he had picked out for his attentions. +Until the war was over and Jim home, it was not noticeable, for he was +most meticulous in his behavior, but with Jim busy trying to straighten +out our tangled practise, Woods lost no time in taking advantage of his +opportunities. And there had been opportunities enough, heaven knows, +with Jim surrounded by clients, yet trying in his clumsy, lovable way +to remonstrate with Helen for seeing so much of Woods. My interference +had only increased his opportunities, for the evening I told her what +people were saying, she quarreled with Jim, and as a result he threw +himself into his work with an energy in which enthusiasm had no part. + +All the time these thoughts were running through my head--and they ran +much faster than I can set them down--I had been throwing my clothes +on, knowing something had to be done, yet what that something was I +couldn't for the life of me figure out. + +"Come on, Jim!" I said, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him from +his dejected position. + +"Where to?" he responded wearily. + +"First of all, we're going to shut this thing up. _The Sun_ would like +nothing better than to spread it thick all over the front page of their +filthy sheet." + +"You're right, old boy! I'd forgotten about the newspapers. It would +be horrible for Helen to have her name dragged through the mud." + +"I wasn't thinking of Helen," I responded testily, "but a lot of cheap +notoriety won't help our law practise any." + +All the spirit seemed to have seeped out of his system, so I pushed him +into my car, preferring to take the wheel rather than have him drive. +I can always think better when I have a steering wheel in my hands, and +knowing with what speed Jim drove ordinarily, I didn't care to trust my +precious body to him in his overwrought condition. + +We were just backing into the drive when one of the servants came +running from the club. + +"Oh, Mr. Thompson!" he called. + +I stopped the car and waited for him to come up. + +"What is it?" + +"You're wanted on the telephone." + +I jumped from the car and started for the club. There were the usual +groups of tea-drinkers and bridge-players scattered about on the broad +veranda, and it seemed to me, as I ran up the steps, that they all +stopped talking and looked at me, I thought, with curiosity, if not +with pity. There would be no use shutting up the newspapers if that +bunch of gossips were in possession of the scandal. + +I hurried to the telephone and slammed the door to the booth, expecting +to hear the voice of some reporter demand if there was any truth to the +rumor that Mrs. James Felderson had run off with Frank Woods. To my +buzzing brain it seemed that the whole world must have heard the news. + +"Hello," I called. + +"Is that you, Warren?" It was Helen's voice. + +"Helen!" I yelled. "For God's sake, where are you?" + +"I am at the house. Listen, Warren! Have you seen Jim?" + +Her voice sounded faint and strangely uncontrolled. + +"Yes--yes," I shouted. "He's here with me now." + +"Then bring him here quickly, Warren! Please hurry." + +"But, Helen----" + +"Don't ask me any questions, please." There was a catch in the voice +on the other end of the wire. "I c-can't answer any questions now, but +bring Jim, and hurry!" + +The receiver clicked and I dashed out of the booth, a thousand +questions pounding in my brain. Why was Helen at the house? Had Frank +Woods failed to keep his appointment, thinking better of eloping with +another man's wife; or, had Helen come to her senses, seen through the +thin veneer that covered the cad and the libertine in Frank Woods and +returned to her husband for good? Over and above these questions and +conjectures and hopes, there was thanksgiving in my heart that the +irremediable step had not been taken; that something had intervened to +keep scandal and disgrace away from Jim. + +There must have been something in my face that told Jim I had been +talking to Helen, for he moved into the driver's seat and greeted me +with the single question: "Where is she?" + +"Home!" I panted, "and drive like the devil!" + + +I might have saved myself the trouble of the last, for even before I +got into the car there was a roar of exhaust and the crunch of grinding +gears and we were off down the smooth drive with a speed that quickly +brought tears to my eyes and put the fear of God in my heart. + +How we ever escaped a smash-up after we got into the city I can't tell +to this day, for Jim never once slackened speed. He sat there with +jaws set, pumping gas and still more gas into the little car. Thrice I +saw death loom up ahead of us, as vehicles approached from +side-streets, but with a swerve and a sickening skid, we missed them +somehow. Once a street-car and a wagon seemed completely to block the +road ahead, but Jim steered for the slender opening and when I opened +my eyes we had skinned through, leaving a corpulent and cursing driver +far behind. After that I forgot my wretched fear and the blood surged +through my veins at the delicious feel of the air as it whipped my +cheeks. We turned at last into the long approach to Jim's house and it +was then that my heart sank. + +Frank Woods' car was standing before the door. + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +TWO MEN AND A WOMAN + +Had Helen been alone, I would have dropped Jim and gone on, knowing +that what they had to say to each other was not for outside ears, but +when I saw Frank Woods' car there, I felt that a cool head might be +needed. There was an ominous set to Jim's shoulders as he walked +toward the steps, a sort of drawing in of the head, as though all the +muscles in his big frame were tensed. He hesitated a fraction of a +second at the door, either to let me catch up with him or because of +distaste for the prospective meeting, and we entered the cool dark hall +together. + +Helen was standing at the entrance to the big living-room, her tall +figure erect, her head proudly poised, one graceful arm upraised, with +the hand buried in the velvet hangings. She had on a gray +traveling-suit, the coat of which lay tossed over the back of a near-by +chair. A large patent-leather traveling-case lay beside it. I had +expected, from the urgency of the message and the sound of her voice +over the telephone, to find Helen agitated, but, except for slight +traces of recent tears and a high color, she looked as cool and +collected as though she had invited us to tea. Jim, on the other hand, +was trembling, his face a pasty white, with great beads of perspiration +standing on his forehead. + +She motioned us to enter, and I led the way, gripping Jim's hand in +passing. Woods was standing by the window, his back to us, and his +whole pose so artificial, so expressive of disdain, that I felt the +short hair rising along the back of my neck in antagonism. When he +heard us, Woods turned with contemptuous deliberation, but when he +caught sight of the dumb misery on Jim's face, his own turned a dull +crimson. Helen crossed the room and seated herself on the divan, back +of which Woods was standing. The whole performance--the place she +chose near him, the look she flashed at him as she sat down, showed so +completely which of the men she loved, that my heart sank and I lost +hope of ever bringing her back to Jim. It was Helen who first spoke. + +"You received the note I left this morning?" + +Jim moistened his lips once and said, "Yes." The word was barely +audible. + +"Then there is no need to tell you I have made up my mind to go with +Frank." + +Her tone was coldly final. Woods had turned and was again gazing out +of the window. Jim looked at Helen with the eyes of a hound-dog. My +heart ached for him, but there was nothing I could do. + +"Why did you come back?" Jim almost whispered, keeping his eyes +directly on her face. + +"Because I didn't want a scandal." She glanced down at her lap where +she was opening and closing a beaded vanity bag. Evidently she was +finding the interview harder than she had expected. + +"I felt--I hoped that if I could show you definitely and finally that I +don't love you, that I am devoted to Frank, your pride, if nothing +else, would induce you to give me the divorce for which I asked. That +is the reason we decided to come back--so you might make it possible +for us to marry without a scandal." + +The gross selfishness of the woman--I could hardly think of her as my +sister--her cold cruelty, yes, even her damnable beauty, seemed to go +to my head and something snapped inside. I couldn't bear the sight of +Jim standing there helpless, while these two turned the knife. + +"That was very considerate of you," I sneered. + +"You keep out of this, Warren!" + +"I'm damned if I do," I retorted. "I at least have a brother's right +to tell you that a man who will sneak into another's home to make love +to his wife, behind his back, and then----" + +Woods turned quickly. "That's a lie, and you know it." + +Jim put his hand on my shoulder. He knew I was ready to fight. + +"Don't, Bupps!" + +Suddenly he seemed to straighten into life. From the way he set his +jaw, I knew that the old courage, which had won so many cases in the +court-room, was back on the job. + +"You were quite right, Helen. While I imagine your reason for not +wanting a scandal was largely selfish, yet I think that consideration +for my position was partly responsible for your return, and for that I +thank you. When you asked for a divorce the other night, I didn't +realize that your love for me was so entirely dead, or that you had +fallen so completely under this man's influence. Under the +circumstances, I shall give you a divorce, if only to keep you from +taking matters into your own hands. But I shall not do it until I have +satisfied myself that your new love is real, that the man is worthy of +it. If there is anything in Woods' life that does not bear looking +into, I'll find it out; if he has done anything in the past that is +likely to hurt you in the future, I shall know it, and you shall know +it, too, before you take this irrevocable step." + +Woods flushed for a moment when Jim spoke of digging into his past, but +he laughed easily and said: + +"You're getting a bit melodramatic, aren't you?" + +"Better melodrama than tragedy," Jim responded bitterly. + +"Helen has told you she doesn't love you, and that she does love me. +This morning she was ready to face the scandal of leaving her husband; +to go to live with me, to live openly with me, unmarried, until you +could get a divorce. That rather answers your first point, doesn't it?" + +"It makes me think no better of you, that you should have agreed to +such a sacrifice." + +"I never expected to win the husband's love at the same time I won his +wife's," Woods responded evenly. + +Never have I seen murder shine out of a man's eyes as it did out of +Jim's at that moment. Each man measured the other across the narrow +space, and I longed that the laws of civilization might be swept aside +so that the two might tear at each other's throats, for the woman they +loved. Both men were powerful, and neither feared the other. + +"As to looking up my past," Woods continued, "one might think you were +the father of the lady and I a youthful suitor. While I recognize no +right of yours to meddle in my affairs, the fact that I was sent to +America as the duly accredited agent of the French Government should +have some weight. They are not accustomed over there to hiring thugs +and cutthroats to carry on their business." + +"This is all beside the point," Helen broke in. "May I ask, Jim, where +I am going to stay and what I am going to do while you are +investigating Frank's past?" + +"You are going to stay here." + +"Here? But where will you stay?" + +"I am going to stay here with you." + +Woods came around the divan. "Look here, Felderson! Can't you see +Helen doesn't love you, that you've lost--?" + +"Keep back!" warned Jim huskily. + +"She can't stay here with you. She's no more your wife than if she had +never married you. Do you think I'll allow her to stay in this house, +forced to endure your attentions--?" + +"Who are you to say what you will or won't allow?" Jim roared, his eyes +blazing. "You came into my house as my guest and stole my most +precious possession. Get out before I kill you!" + +Woods' face was white. For one minute I felt sure the two men would +settle matters then and there. Suddenly he turned and said: "Come, +Helen!" + +"She stays here!" Jim cried. + +Helen had arisen from the divan when the two men came together. Now +she stepped forward. + +"I'm going with Frank. We came back here more for your sake than our +own. We tried to give you a chance to do the decent thing, but I might +have known you wouldn't. With all your protestations of love for me, +when I ask you to do the one thing that would show that love, the one +thing that would make me happy, you not only refuse, but you insult the +man who means everything in the world to me. If I had ever loved you +in my life, what you have just said would have made me hate you. As I +never loved you, I despise and loathe you now." + +She started to pass him, but he grabbed her by the shoulders. His face +was white and drawn and his eyes were the eyes of a madman. He lifted +her up bodily and almost threw her on the divan, crying, "By God! You +stay here!" + +Jim turned just as Woods rushed and with a mighty swing to the side of +the head, sent him crashing into the corner. Dazed as he was, he half +struggled to his feet, and when I saw him reach beneath his coat, I +sprang on him and wrenched the revolver from his hand. + +Disheveled and half-stupefied, he rose and glared at us like an angry +bull. Slowly he straightened his tie and brushed back his hair. He +glanced over at Helen, who was sobbing on the sofa. + +"Two of you--eh? A frame-up." All the hatred in the world gleamed in +his eyes, as he looked at Jim. "If you don't let Helen come to me, +Felderson, I'll kill you; so help me God, I'll kill you!" Then he +picked up his coat and hat and walked out of the room. + +Jim went slowly to the door and into the hall. He looked tired and +old. I heard the outer door slam behind Frank Woods and a motor start. +Then I went out to Jim. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +I COULD KILL HIM + +I was on my way back to Jim's after having gone home to change my +clothes. Jim had asked me to stay with him that evening and, to tell +the truth, I was glad to do it, partly because of the threat Woods had +made and partly because of the way Helen looked at Jim when she passed +us in the hall on the way to her bedroom. Being a lawyer, I have +naturally made a pretty close study of character, and if I ever saw +vindictiveness on the face of any human, it was on Helen's at that +moment. + +I said nothing about the affair to mother while I was home, for she has +been very frail ever since my father's death and I thought there was no +use in needlessly upsetting her. There would be plenty of time to +discuss the matter after Helen left Jim. + +Again and again I recalled the struggle of the afternoon and again and +again, Helen's face, distorted with anger, reappeared. Finally I +decided to drive the car over to Mary Pendleton's and ask her to come +spend the night with Helen. In her overwrought, hysterical condition, +Helen was capable of doing almost anything. + +Mary has been like a second sister to me. She really cares nothing for +me, except in a sisterly way, but we have been together, so much so and +so long that Eastbrook gossips have given up speculating whether we are +engaged. I'd marry her in a minute, or even less, if she would have +me, but Mary insists on treating me like a kid; calls my crude attempts +at love-making "silly tosh and flub-dub," which makes the going rather +difficult. She was bridesmaid to Helen and is the one person, besides +myself, who can influence her in the least, so I felt that her presence +would add ballast to our wildly tossing domestic craft. Needless to +say, my own lack of self-control during the afternoon had been as +unexpected as it was disappointing, but when it comes to anything that +concerns Jim, I'm not responsible. + +I rang the bell and Mary, herself, came to the door, looking radiant as +usual. + +"Hello, Buppkins!" She greeted me with that detestable nick-name she +has used since I wore rompers. "Aren't you trying for a record or +something? This is twice you've called on me this month." + +"Mary, I'm in trouble." + +"Is the poor 'ittle boy in trouble and come to Auntie Mary to tell her +all about it?" she sing-songed, making a little moue, as though she was +talking to her pet cat. + +"Cut it, Mary!" I said. "I'm really in trouble." + +"What is it, Bupps?" + +"Helen ran off with Frank Woods to-day." + +"Heavens, Bupps!"--she was serious enough now.--"Where did they go?" + +"They went, but they came back. Helen's home with Jim. They tried to +force him to give Helen a divorce. There was an awful fight and Woods +swore that he would kill Jim unless he let Helen go. But put on your +hat and coat and get your things. Helen needs you with her. I'll tell +you the rest on the way over." + +"I'll be with you in a second," she called, running up-stairs. + +When Mary was snuggled down beside me in the car--and she does snuggle +the best of any girl I ever knew--I told her everything, not forgetting +the part where I wrenched the gun away from Woods. + +"Goodness, Bupps! I bet you were scared," she commented, her eyes +twinkling. + +"Frankly, I didn't know what I was doing, or I would never have had the +nerve," I laughed. "But, lord! I feel sorry for Jim." + +Mary's face clouded over. + +"So do I, Bupps, but any one could have seen it coming. Jim was too +good to her. As much as I like Helen, I will say that the only kind of +husband she deserves is a brute who would beat her. That's the only +kind she can love. I was with her the night before her wedding, and +she confessed then that if Jim were only cruel or indifferent to her, +just once, she thought she could love him to death. The only reason +Helen cares for you and me, was because we never paid any particular +attention to her when she acted up and pouted. That is why she is mad +about Frank Woods. When he came to Eastbrook, he treated her as though +she didn't exist." + +"And if Jim were cruel to her now, do you think she would go back to +him?" I asked. + +Mary shook her head. "No, it's different now. If Jim were cruel to +her, she would probably hate him all the more for it." + +"Proving the incomprehensibility of woman," I jeered. + +"Proving the flumdability of flapdoodle," Mary responded. "If you men +only put one little thought into giving a woman what she wants, instead +of giving her what you think she ought to want; if you kept as +up-to-date in your love-making as you do in your law practise, women +wouldn't be the incomprehensible riddle you always make them out to be." + +"Well, why don't you tell us what you want?" I asked. + +"Silly! That would spoil it all, don't you see? Besides we aren't +sure just what we want ourselves." + +My spirits, which had risen considerably during our conversation, +dropped with a slump when Jim's big house loomed up ahead. Already, +something of the unhappiness within seemed to have added a more somber +touch to the outside. Have you noticed how you can tell from the face +of a house what kind of life the inhabitants lead? Happiness or +misery, health or sickness, riches or poverty all show as though the +walls were saturated from the admixture of life within. + +I sent Mary up-stairs to see Helen, while I went into the drawing-room +in search of Jim, but there was no one there except Wicks, the butler, +who was lighting a fire, for, though it was only the last of September, +the nights were chilly. I snatched up the evening paper to see if by +any chance a hint of the scandal had crept into print. I felt sure +that, as matters stood, they would not dare to put in anything +definite, but _The Sun_ has a nasty way of writing all around a +scandal, so that, while the persons involved are readily recognized, +they are quite helpless as far as redress is concerned. + +I noticed that Wicks had taken an infernally long time to start the +fire. Although it was burning merrily, he still puttered about, +brushing up the chips and rearranging the blower and tongs. When Wicks +hangs about he usually has a question on his mind that he wants +answered, and he takes that means of letting you know it. I decided +not to notice him but to force him to come out in the open and ask, for +once, a straightforward question. From the fire, he moved to the table +and straightened the magazines and books, glancing now and then in my +direction, trying to catch my eye, but I buried myself more deeply than +ever in the paper. When he finally stepped back of my chair, human +nature could stand his puttering no longer, so I laid down _The Sun_, +and turned to him. + +"Well, Wicks, what do you want?" I snapped. + +Wicks looked at me with the expression of a small boy caught +sticky-handed in the jam-closet. + +"Nothing, sir!--that is--er--nothing." He turned and started from the +room. + +"Come here, Wicks!" I called. "I know when you hang around a room +unnecessarily, as you have been doing for the last ten minutes, that +you have something on your mind. Now, out with it." + +"I was merely going to arsk, sir, hif I 'ad better begin lookin' arfter +another place, sir?" + +That was an extraordinary question. Wicks had been with the Feldersons +ever since they were married. + +"What put that idea into your head, Wicks?" + +He was far more confused than I had ever seen him. + +"Meanin' no disrespect, sir, and I don't mean to be hinquisitive about +what doesn't concern me, but I couldn't 'elp 'earin' a bit of what took +place this arfternoon, sir." + +Good lord! I'd forgotten there might have been other witnesses to the +scene of the afternoon besides myself. + +"Do the other servants know about this, Wicks?" + +"Hi think they do, sir, seein' as 'ow Mrs. Felderson 'as been actin' +and talkin' so queer." + +"What do you mean?" I demanded. + +Wicks struggled for composure. The subject was evidently most +distasteful to his conservative and conventional British nature. + +"Hit was Annie, Mrs. Felderson's maid, sir, that hupset the servants. +W'en she came down from hup-stairs, she said as 'ow Mrs. Felderson was +a ragin' and a rampagin' around 'er room, sayin' that if Mr. Felderson +didn't give 'er a divorce, she would do violence to 'im, sir." + +"Did Annie hear her say that?" I questioned. + +"She says so, sir." + +The whole thing was so monstrous that I gasped. For this awful +dime-novel muck to be tumbled into the middle of my family was too +sickening. My sister, running away from her husband with another man +and now threatening, in the hearing of the servants, to kill him, +unless he gave her a divorce, disgusted me with its cheap vulgarity. I +hid, as best I could, the tempest that was brewing inside me. + +"Wicks, Mrs. Felderson is not well. Tell the servants that she is +greatly depressed over an accident that happened to a friend. At the +present time, she is so upset over that, she really doesn't know what +she is saying. Quiet them in some way, Wicks! And tell Annie to stay +with Mrs. Felderson!" + +"Very good, sir." He started to leave. + +"And, Wicks--" + +"Yes, sir." + +"There is no need of your looking for another place." + +"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir!" + +Wicks departed and I was left to my gloomy thoughts. Helen must be +brought to her senses. Mary and I must work, either to bring her back +to Jim, or, if that prove hopeless, to see that the divorce was hurried +as much as possible. The very thought of having Mary along with me, +with her inexhaustible fund of God-given humor and common sense, gave +me a vast amount of comfort and confidence. + +At this point, Jim came in. He had had a bath and a shave and had put +on a dinner-coat, looking a lot more fit to grapple with his troubles +than he had the last time I had seen him. Only in his eyes did he show +the shock he'd received that day. + +"Communing with yourself in the dark, Bupps?"--his voice was natural +and easy. + +"Yes," I sighed, "I've been trying to see a way out of this mess." + +Jim lit a cigarette and threw himself into a chair. For a few moments +he puffed in silence, taking deep inhalations and blowing the smoke +against the lighted tip, so that it showed all the rugged, strength of +his superb head. + +"What would you say, Bupps, if I told you everything would come out all +right?" + +"And Helen stay with you?" I asked incredulously. + +"And Helen stay with me," he repeated calmly. + +"Of her own free will?" + +"Of her own free will," he answered. + +"I should say that the events of the day had addled your brain and that +you are a damned inconsiderate brother-in-law to try to make a fool of +me." + +"I mean it, Bupps," he said quietly. + +"What do you mean?" I demanded. + +"That everything will come out all right," he smiled. + +"But how, man?" His complacency almost drove me wild. + +"Bupps, have you noticed how much money Woods has been spending around +here--his extravagant way of living? Where do you think that money +comes from?" + +"His contracts with the French Government," I replied. + +"But I happen to know he didn't land those contracts. That's the +reason he beat it so suddenly when we got into the war." He tossed his +cigarette into the fire. + +"His salary from the French, then. They must have paid him some kind +of salary." + +"Have you never heard what ridiculously small salaries the French +Government pays its officers?" + +It was true that Woods could never have lived as he did on ten times +the salary of a French captain. + +"His own private fortune then," I suggested. + +"Ah! There's the point! If he has a private fortune, then my whole +case falls to pieces. That's what I've got to find out. Woods has +been playing for a big stake, and I think he has been playing with +other people's money. Did you notice how he flushed this afternoon +when I suggested looking into his private affairs? It was the veriest +accident--I was stalling for time--but when I saw him color up I knew +I'd touched a sore spot. No, Bupps, I don't think Woods has a private +fortune." + +"But even if you show him up as worthless, will Helen come back to you, +Jim?" + +The color came to his face and he laughed with a queer twist to his +mouth. + +"Am I as horrible as all that, Bupps?" + +His words brought a lump to my throat. I went over to him and almost +hugged him. + +"Jim, you're such a peach--dammit all--" + +I heard a light step behind me. + +"Oh, Bupps!" laughed Mary, "if you'd only make love to me in that +ardent fashion, I'd drag you to the altar by your few remaining hairs." + +I stood up, blushing in spite of myself. She can always make me feel +that whatever I am doing is either stupid or foolish. + +"Dinner is served, and I'm starving. Come on, people!" she announced, +leading the way to the dining-room. + +"Where's Helen?" I asked. + +"She's not coming down. She has a slight headache," Mary answered, +giving me a warning look. "I am delegated to be lady of the manor this +evening." She looked so adorable as she curtsied to us that I felt an +almost uncontrollable impulse to grab her in my arms and smother her +with kisses, but remembering what she had done to me once when I +yielded to impulse, I refrained. + +When we sat down to the table, Helen's empty place threatened to cast a +gloom over the party, so Mary told Wicks to remove it. + +"It's too much like Banquo's ghost," she whispered, laughing merrily at +Jim. + +"Speaking of ghosts," said Jim turning to me, "I hear the labor people +are asking the governor to pardon Zalnitch." + +"A lot of good it will do them," I responded. "If ever a man deserved +hanging, he does." + +"I know, but labor is awfully strong now, and with the unsettled social +conditions in the state, a bigger man than Governor Fallon might find +it expedient to let Zalnitch off." + +"Who is Zalnitch? Don't think I've met the gentleman," Mary said. + +"He's the Russian who was supposed to be the ring-leader of the gang +that blew up the Yellow Funnel steamship piers in 1915," I explained. + +"Do you mean to say he hasn't been hanged yet?" + +"Yes!" Jim answered. "And what's more, I'm afraid he's going to be +pardoned." + +"Not really, Jim?" I queried. + +"Yes! I'm almost sure of it. Fallon is a machine man before +everything else, although he was elected on a pro-American ticket. +They are threatening to do all kinds of things to him, just as they +threatened me, unless Zalnitch goes free, and I think Fallon is afraid +of them, not physically perhaps, but politically. He wants reelection." + +Jim had helped the prosecuting attorney convict Zalnitch; in fact it +was Jim's work more than anything else that had sent the Russian to +prison. At the time, Jim had received a lot of threatening letters, +just as every other American who denounced the Germans before we +entered the war had received them. Nothing had come of it, of course, +and after we went in, the whole matter dropped from public attention. +Zalnitch had been sent to prison, but his friends had worked constantly +for commutation of his sentence. With labor's new power, due to the +fear of Bolshevism, they were again bringing influence to bear on the +governor. + +Wicks had removed the soup plates and was bringing in the roast, when +Annie appeared. The girl was both frightened and angry. + +"Mr. Felderson?" + +Jim looked up. "What is it, Annie?" + +"Will you come up-stairs, please, sir?" + +Mary pushed back her chair, "I'll go, Jim." + +"It's Mr. Felderson that's wanted," Annie said with just a touch of +asperity. + +"Yes, you two better stay here and amuse each other," said Jim. +"Bupps, you carve!" + +"If Bupps carves, I'm _sure_ to be amused," laughed Mary. + +Jim left, and I went around to his place. If there is one thing I do +more badly than another, it is carving. At home it's done in the +kitchen, but Jim takes great pride in the neatness and celerity with +which he separates the component parts of a fowl and so insists on +having the undissected whole brought to the table. + +"What is it to-night?" Mary asked as I eyed my task with disfavor. + +"Roast duck." I tried to speak casually. + +"Wait, Bupps, while Wicks lays the oilcloth and I get an umbrella." + +"Smarty!" I responded, grabbing my tools firmly, "you wait and see! I +watched Jim the last time he carved one of these and I know just how +it's done." + +I speared for the duck's back, but the fork skidded down the slippery +side of the bird and spattered a drop of gravy in front of me. + +"I'm waiting and seeing," Mary chided. + +"Well, you wanted some gravy, didn't you?" + +"Yes, but on my plate, please." + +This time I placed the tines of the fork carefully on the exact middle +of the duck's breast and gently pushed, giving some aid and comfort +with my knife. The little beast eased over on the platter an inch or +two. + +"The thing's still alive," I exclaimed, getting mad. + +"If you'll let me have full control, I'll carve it for you," Mary spoke +up. + +"Come on, then," I responded, gladly relinquishing my place. With a +deftness and ease that could only be explained by the fact that the +duck was ready and willing to be carved, she removed the legs and then +demolished the bird altogether. + +There was the sound of voices raised in altercation up-stairs, the +slamming of a door and the patter of feet rapidly descending the steps. +The next moment Helen burst into the room. She was fully dressed for +going out and was pinning on her hat with spiteful little jabs. + +"Will you take me home, Warren?" + +Mary left me and went over to her. + +"What has happened, Helen?" + +"Oh, I can't stay here another minute. It is bad enough to have to +stay in the same house with a man you loathe, but when a husband bribes +his wife's servants to spy on her and watch over her as though she were +a dangerous lunatic--" + +Her eyes were blazing. Mary put her arm around her and tried to quiet +her. + +"Helen, dear, you don't know how ridiculous that is. No one is spying +on you." + +Helen tore herself away. + +"That's right, stand up for him! You're all against me, I know. The +only reason Warren brought you here, was to try to talk me into staying +with him. Well, I won't, you understand? I won't! I hate him! I +could kill him! If you won't take me home, Warren, I'll go alone." +She was almost hysterical. + +"Have you thought what this would do to mother?" I asked. "She doesn't +know you've quarreled with Jim. If she found out you were +contemplating a divorce, it would kill her. You know how weak she is." + +I heard Jim's heavy tread coming downstairs. + +"Can I stay with you, Mary?" Big tears stood in Helen's eyes and she +seemed on the verge of a complete breakdown. + +"Of course, Honey-bunch!" Mary responded, kissing her and leading her +into the drawing-room. "Just go in there and lie down while I get my +things." + +As Helen walked from the room, Jim came in. Mary turned toward us, +looked us over for the briefest moment and whispered, "You men are +brutes!" As she ran up-stairs, Jim gazed after her. That same gray +look had come back into his face. + +"I guess we are," he said, shaking his head, "but I don't know how or +why." + +I patted him on the shoulder and went for my coat. Whether he realized +it or not, I knew Helen would never come back to him. + +I went out to the car and turned on the lights. A white moon was +sailing through a sky cluttered with puffy clouds, its soft radiance +bathing the house and grounds in mellow loveliness. It all seemed so +remote from the sordid quarrel inside that its beauty was enhanced by +the contrast. Here was a night when the whole world should be in love. +Nature herself conspired to that end. And yet, there were thousands of +men and women who were so forgetful of everything except their own +petty differences that they turned their backs to the beauty around +them, in order to try to hurt each other. + +As Helen and Mary came out of the door, I climbed into the car and said +to myself, "Damn men, damn women, damn everything!" + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +THE WORST HAPPENS + +I was late getting down to the office the next morning, for I had gone +back to Jim's and talked till all hours. It seemed that my +instructions to Wicks, to tell Annie to stay with Helen, had been taken +quite literally by that estimable pair, for when Helen had told the +girl to leave she had refused, saying that Mr. Felderson had ordered +her to stay. That was what had precipitated the quarrel. + +Even when I left Jim, to go to bed, I had heard him walking back and +forth in his room, and once during the night, I heard him shut his +door. Thinking perhaps he might want me with him, I went to his door +and knocked. Jim was untying his shoes and explained that, unable to +sleep, he had gone out for a walk. The clock on the mantel-piece +showed half past four. + +In spite of the fact he had practically no sleep the night before, he +was down at his usual hour, nine o'clock, and when I went into his +office to see him, there was no sign of fatigue on his face. + +"Any news?" I inquired. + +"This may interest you," and he tossed over the morning paper folded to +an article on the first page. + + + ZALNITCH FREED + + GOVERNOR FALLON PARDONS MAN + IMPLICATED IN YELLOW PIER + EXPLOSION + + Prisoner Upon Release Makes Terrific + Indictment Against Those Responsible for + His Imprisonment + + +I glanced hurriedly down the long article. One paragraph in particular +caught my eye. It was part of a quotation from Zalnitch's "speech" to +the reporters. + + +"Those who were responsible for my imprisonment may well regret the +fact that justice has at last been given me. I shall not rest until I +lay before the working classes the extent to which the processes of law +can be distorted in this state, and rouse them to overthrow and drive +out those who have the power of depriving them of their rights and +their liberty. I shall not rest until I see a full meed of punishment +brought to those who have punished me and hundreds like me. Their +money and their high position will not help them to escape a just +retribution." + + +"It looks as though our friend was going to have a very restless time," +I commented, after reading the passage aloud to Jim. + +"'Vengeance is mine,' saith Zalnitch." Jim's eyes twinkled. + +"You're not afraid of him, are you, Jim?" I asked. + +"No more now than ever, Bupps." + +His face suddenly clouded over. "Wouldn't it clear the air, though, if +they did carry out their funny little threats and put me out of the +way? When I think of some of the things Helen has said to me during +the last month, I almost wish they would." + +"That sounds weak and silly," I scoffed; "not a bit like you, Jim. +Cheer up! Give Helen a divorce and let her go! She's not worth all +this heartache." + +Jim sat for a moment thinking. "You don't know what this has done to +me, Bupps. It's not as though divorcing Helen would straighten the +whole matter out. Ever since I've known Helen I've--idolized +her--foolishly, perhaps. She has been the one big thing worth working +for; the thing I've built my whole life around. I've got to fight for +her, Bupps. I can't let her smash my ideals all to pieces. I've got +to make her live up to what I've always believed her to be." + +The tone of the man, the dead seriousness of his words, made me want to +disown Helen and then kill Woods. I left the room with my eyes a bit +misty and did my best, in the case I was working on, to forget. + +For two days I was kept so busy I hardly saw Jim except when I had to +go into his office for papers, or to consult an authority. I was +trying to win a case against the L. L. & G. railroad, and though I knew +my client could never pay me a decent fee, even if I should win, I was +pitted against some of the best lawyers in the state, and was anxious +for the prestige that a verdict in my favor would give me. The case +was going my way, or seemed to be, but the opposition was fighting +harder every day, so that I had time for little else than food, sleep +and work. Frank Woods had apparently left town, either on business or +to give Helen a clear field to influence Jim. Helen was still at +Mary's, and her presence on a visit there was so natural that it hid +her separation from Jim better than if she had gone home to mother. + +I was just leaving for court one morning when Jim called me into his +office. There was a gleam of triumph in his eyes and his whole +attitude was one of cheerful excitement. + +"Have you a minute, Bupps?" + +"Only a minute, Jim. This is the day of days for me." + +There were several letters and telegrams lying on the table. Jim +pointed exultantly to them and cried: "I've got him, Bupps! There is +enough evidence there to send Woods up for twenty years. I wouldn't +have used such underhand methods against any one else, against anything +but a snake, but I had to win, I had to win!" + +I rushed to the table and rapidly scanned one of the telegrams. + +"You've started at the wrong end, but it doesn't matter. Frank Woods +has used the money entrusted him by the French Government to gamble +with. He counted on the contracts with the International Biplane +people to bring him clean and leave him a comfortable fortune besides. +The end of the war and the wholesale cancellation of government +contracts killed that. To cover his deficits, he borrowed from the +Capitol Loan and Trust, and they are hunting for their money now." + +"How did you find all this out, Jim?" I demanded breathlessly. + +"From friends, good friends, Bupps. Men who knew that if I asked for +this unusual information, I had need of it and that I wouldn't abuse +their confidence." + +"And now that you've got it, what are you going to do with it?" + +"I have sent messages to Woods, to his apartment, to the club and to +the International plant, saying that I want to see him. I know he is +working like the devil to get the contracts to furnish the government +with mail planes for next year. If he gets that contract, he may +possibly pull through, for the bank would probably extend his credit, +but if knowledge of his illegal use of the money entrusted to him by +the French Government ever gets out, he knows it's the stripes without +the stars for him." + +"Be careful when you meet him, Jim," I warned. "He'll go to the limit, +you know, to save himself." + +"He's all front, Bupps; just like Zalnitch. I'll give him three days +to straighten out his affairs and get away. If he hasn't left by then, +I'll put all the evidence I have into the hands of the Capitol Loan and +Trust." + +"Are you going to tell Helen about this?" I asked. + +Jim pondered a moment. "I haven't decided that yet. If I was sure +Woods would go away without any trouble, I think I'd leave her in +ignorance; but he might use her to save himself." + +"How do you mean?" + +"I'm not so blind I can't see that Helen's infatuated with the man. If +he is blackguard enough to ask her again to go with him, I think she +would go, and that would pretty effectively tie my hands." + +"You mean that for Helen's sake you wouldn't prosecute Woods?" I +demanded. "That's stupid sentimentality." + +"It's for Helen's sake that I'm doing _all_ this," Jim insisted. +"Don't think for a moment I would stop the prosecution just because she +was with him. The reason my hands would be tied is because Helen's +money would pay his obligations." + +"Helen's money?" I laughed. "Helen hasn't as much as I have." + +Jim flushed. "Helen is quite a wealthy woman, Bupps. When I went into +the army I wanted to leave Helen perfectly easy in a financial way +while I was gone, so I transferred all my railroad stock to her, so +that she might draw the interest. I haven't asked her for it since I +came home, because, in the light of our recent differences, I was +afraid she might think I didn't trust her." + +"And do you suppose Woods knows that?" + +"Of course he knows it!" Jim burst out. "She must have told him. Why +do you suppose he played around so long before deciding to make love to +Helen? Oh, it's all so simple and clear to me now that I wonder at my +stupidity." + +I glanced at my watch. + +"Good lord, Jim! You've almost made me lose my case. I have only +three minutes to get to the court-house. Hold up the climax until I +get back, if you can." + +I jumped for the elevator and rushed to my appointment, getting there +just in time. The news of the morning had so raised my spirits that I +was filled with an immense enthusiasm. Everything went my way. My +summing up was a masterpiece of logic, if I do say so myself, and my +client received a substantial judgment. + +There is no moment sweeter in a young lawyer's life than when another +lawyer, of big reputation, congratulates him on his conduct of a case. +My cup was filled to overflowing, and I must confess I had little +thought for Jim's affairs when I lunched that day with Stevenson and +McGuire, councils for the L. L. & G. The prognostications that they +made for my future were so exaggerated that a bigger man than I might +well have been excused for increased head and chest measurements. + +At half past two I went back to the office to announce the good news to +Jim. I had made up my mind before luncheon to spend the afternoon on +the links in honor of my victory, but the clouds, which had been heavy +during the morning, by two o'clock opened up a steady drizzle. Jim was +at his desk when I came in bringing the glad tidings. He got up and +gripped my hand. + +"Good boy, Bupps! I knew you'd do it. Thank the Lord your affairs are +going well anyway." + +"Has something happened since I've been out?" I asked. + +"Yes. The First National telephoned about eleven o'clock saying that +Helen wanted to borrow quite a large sum of money on her railroad stock +and asking if I knew about it. They thought the money was probably for +me and they wanted to ask if I'd be willing to wait a few days." + +"How much was it?" + +"Fifty thousand dollars." + +"Is the stock worth that much, Jim?" + +"Yes," said Jim seriously, "the stock is worth twice that. That's why +I have to go slow. She could sell that stock for fifty thousand at any +broker's in five minutes." + +I whistled. "Gee! Fifty thousand. Woods must have asked her for it +because he knew you were after him." + +"It's open warfare now. I told the bank I knew what the money was for +and that it would cause no inconvenience to me to have them hold up the +loan for a few days. In fact I asked Sherwood, the cashier, to wait +until he saw me before making the loan." + +Just then the telephone rang. Jim answered it. + +"Hello--Yes--Woods?--Where are you now?" He listened a moment. "I +understand--Eight-thirty promptly?--I'll be there--Yes, I +understand--I'll be there." + +He hung up the receiver and looked at me with twinkling eyes. + +"The shoe is beginning to pinch, Bupps. That was Woods. He asks me to +meet him alone this evening at the country-club, at eight-thirty +promptly. Says he wants to see me urgently on business that concerns +us both." + +"Did he ask you to come alone?" + +"Yes. He distinctly said that I was to come alone and be prompt." + +"Jim," I argued, "you can't go out there alone to meet that man. It's +too infernally dangerous." + +"There's no danger, Bupps; but I'm not going alone. Helen is going +with me." + +He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out a leather +portfolio, into which he put all the letters and telegrams that were +scattered about his desk. + +"I'm going to prove to Helen, in his presence, what kind of man he is; +that he loves her only for the money I gave her, and to save his yellow +hide. I'm going to tear out of her heart all the affection she ever +had for him. I think, after that, she will not only come back to me, +but she will love me all the more for having known Frank Woods. No +matter how badly a leg or an arm may be shattered, a quick, clean +operation may cause the parts to grow together again, stronger than +they were before. I think I win, Bupps." + +"Still, I believe you ought to carry a gun, in case he gets nasty." + +"I will, if you like," he responded; "but I won't use it, no matter +what happens." + +I left the office, vaguely disquieted with the thought of Jim going out +to the club to face a man as dangerous and desperate as Frank Woods. +When a fellow of his standing sees the penitentiary looming up in his +foreground he's capable of anything. Helen, herself, in the crazed +condition I had seen her the other night, was an added element of +danger. I didn't like the looks of the situation any way I turned. + +I climbed into my car and drove slowly through the wet slippery +streets. The windshield was so covered with rain-drops that I lowered +it to see the better, and the autumn rain, beating into my face, soon +swept away my gloomy forebodings. After all, no man was going to stick +his neck into the hangman's noose, no matter how eager he was for +revenge. This was the twentieth century, in which no man could +deliberately flout the law. Frank Woods would never have invited Jim +to a "rendezvous" so public as the country-club, if he planned +mischief. When he found out how much Jim knew, realizing the game was +up, he would leave town quietly. Helen certainly would shake Woods +when she learned of his dishonesty and trickery. Surely, no woman with +Helen's pride could learn how she had been duped without hating the man +who duped her. + +I stopped at the University Union and found the card room well filled +with bridge players. The rainy afternoon had driven the golfers to +cards, and as one of the men, Terry O'Connel, was on the point of +leaving, I took his place. I played till seven and then started home +to dinner. The rain had stopped and a fresh chilly wind was rippling +the pools in the streets and rapidly drying the sidewalks. The +prospect of a cold blustery evening made me look forward with pleasure +to the warm comfort of my study, and a good book. + +I had just finished a solitary dinner--mother being confined to her +room--and had settled down in dressing gown and slippers before my +cheerful fire, when the telephone rang. I put down my book and tried +to think of some excuse for staying home, in case it was my +bridge-playing friends of the afternoon wanting me to come back to the +club. A strange voice called from the other end of the wire. + +"Mr. Thompson?" + +"Yes." + +"There has been an accident to your brother-in-law's car." + +"What?--Where?--Who is this talking?" I shouted breathlessly. + +"This is Captain Wadsworth of the North District Police Station +speaking. Your brother-in-law had a very bad accident with his car at +the second bridge on the Blandesville Road. Both Mr. and Mrs. +Felderson were pretty badly injured." + +"Where are they now?" I gasped, fear clutching at my throat. + +"They have been taken to St. Mary's Hospital." + +I slammed down the receiver and tore into my clothes. I ran out to the +car and drove through the dark wet streets regardless of speed laws. +From out the gray gloom, the heavy bulk and lighted windows of St. +Mary's loomed just ahead. I ran up the steps and went at once to the +office. Three nurses were standing there talking. + +"Can you tell me where they have taken Mr. and Mrs. Felderson?" + +"Were they the people in the automobile accident?" + +I nodded my head. + +One of the nurses led me to a large room on the second floor. As we +neared the door a young interne, so the nurse told me, came out. He +was thoughtfully polishing his glasses. + +"I am Warren Thompson, Mr. Felderson's brother-in-law," I explained. +"Can you tell me how badly Mr. and Mrs. Felderson were hurt?" + +He put his glasses back on his nose and looked at me sympathetically. + +"Mr. Felderson is dead, and Mrs. Felderson is dying," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +ACCIDENT OR MURDER + +Have you ever had the whole world stop for you? Well, that's what +happened when that young interne told me that Jim was dead. I must +have been half mad for a few moments, at least they said I acted that +way. + +Sometimes, tragic news deadens the senses, like the brief numbness that +follows the sudden cutting off of a limb, the pain not manifesting +itself until some time afterward. But with me, the fact of Jim's death +clawed and tore at the very foundation of my brain. It stamped itself +into my sensibilities with such crushing force that I writhed under the +burden of its bitter actuality. I felt as though I, myself, had died +and my spirit, snatched from the brilliant, airy sunlight of life, had +been plunged into the hammering emptiness of hell. "Jim is dead--big, +happy, kind-hearted Jim is dead" ached through my brain. + +They gave me something to drink--ammonia, I think--and my whirling head +began to clear. + +"Can I see Mrs. Felderson?" I asked the interne. It was he who had +given me the ammonia. + +"I'm afraid not," he replied. "She is being prepared for the operating +table." + +"There is a chance, then, of her being saved?" I clutched at his arm. + +He slowly shook his head. "One chance in a thousand only, I'm afraid. +There was severe concussion of the brain and a slight displacement of +one of the cranial vertebra. Luckily, Doctor Forbes is here, and if +any one can save her, he can." He got up from his seat beside me. +"Now, Mr. Thompson, I advise you to go home and get a good night's +rest. You can do nothing here, and the next few days are bound to be a +great strain." + +"You will telephone me at once the result of the operation?" I asked +quickly. + +"I wouldn't count too much on the operation," he said kindly, "but I +will let you know." + +He turned and walked back toward Helen's room. Just then the door was +opened and there appeared a sort of elongated baby-cab, without a top. +On this wheeling table was a still white bundle, from which a stifled +moan escaped now and then. Shaken with terror and nausea, I ran for +the stairs and did not stop until I got into my car and was racing away. + +As I drove, my brain cleared and I remembered that there were others to +whom the tragedy was almost as vital as to myself and who ought to be +informed. I stopped at a corner drug store and called up Mary. Mother +should not be told until a physician could assure me she was strong +enough to stand the shock. + +Mary was wonderfully sympathetic and tender, not voluble the way some +women would have been. She asked me if I had been to the scene of the +accident, and when I told her I was just going, she asked me if I +wanted her with me. As it was after ten o'clock and the rain had begun +again, I told her "No," and added that I'd come to see her in the +morning. + +When I left the telephone-booth the drug clerk stared at me +inquisitively. + +"You look all fagged out," he said frankly. + +"I'm not feeling very well," I replied, struggling into my rain-coat. + +"Better let me give you somethin' to fix you up," he suggested. I +acquiesced, and he went to the shelf and shook some white powder into a +glass. Then he put some water with it and it phizzed merrily. I drank +it at a gulp and, climbing into the car, started for the second bridge +on the Blandesville Road. + +The drink braced me up and as I drove I began to recall the events of +the last few days, and for the first time to wonder if they had any +connection with the tragedy. Captain Wadsworth had told me it was an +accident. Could Frank Woods have been in any way responsible? No, +certainly not, for Helen had been in the car, and he surely would never +have done anything to put her life in jeopardy. _But Woods didn't know +that she was there_. He had told Jim to come out alone; had insisted +on it, in fact. It was _Jim's_ idea to bring Helen with him. + +My heart was doing a hundred revolutions to the minute. Now that I had +hit on this idea, every fiber of my being cried out that Frank Woods +was in some way responsible. I tried to urge my car to more speed. +The wreck would surely tell me something. I determined to hunt every +inch of ground around the place for a clue. Woods would have to prove +to me that he had nothing to do with the accident before I'd believe +him innocent. + +I drove up the long hill overlooking the little bridge that had +suddenly assumed such a tragic significance in my life. It lies at the +bottom of the hill, about half-way between the city and the +country-club and on the loneliest stretch of the entire road. There +are no houses about; the city not having grown that far out and the +soil being entirely unsuitable for farming. In fact, there are only +one or two large trees near by, to break the desolate expanse, the +vegetation consisting mostly of thorny bushes springing from the rocky +soil. There have been several accidents at the bridge, for its +narrowness is deceiving and it is impossible for two autos to pass. +Motorists, going to the club, usually let their cars out on the long +hill and if another car, coming around the bend from the opposite +direction, reaches the bridge at the same time, only skilful driving +and good brakes can avoid a smash-up. The matter has been brought to +the attention of the authorities several times, but nothing has ever +been done, either to widen the bridge or to warn automobilists of the +danger. + +As I reached the top of the hill, I saw that two automobiles had +stopped at the bottom, and, noticing that their lights blinked as +people passed back and forth in front of them, I was convinced that a +small crowd had gathered, probably out of curiosity. I slowed up as I +neared the spot and came to a stop at the side of the road. A +motorcycle cop walked up to my car. + +"Inspector Robinson, sir?" + +"No," I answered, "I am Warren Thompson, brother-in-law of Mr. +Felderson, who had the accident. How did it happen, do you know, +Sergeant?" + +"It was the fault of the bridge again, sir. I've told the chief that +something ought to be done. This is the third accident in six months. +We've been trying to find the other car." + +"What other car?" I asked. + +"The car that made Mr. Felderson take the ditch," he explained. "He +must have been driving fast--he usually did; many's the time I've had +to warn him--and must have seen that the other car would meet him at +the bridge. He stopped too quick, skidded off the road and turned over +into the creek." + +I shuddered as I pictured the scene. One of the automobiles turned +around and the lights picked out the upturned wheels of Jim's car. It +looked like some monster whose back had been broken. It was a large +Peckwith-Pierce touring car, and the force of the crash had twisted and +smashed the huge chassis. Several men were gathered around the car, +examining it with the aid of a barn-lantern. + +"Where were the bodies found?" I asked, my voice trembling. + +"Mrs. Felderson was over there on the bank. She was thrown out likely +when the car left the road. Mr. Felderson's body was under the +machine." + +While the thought of the heavy weight crushing the life out of Jim +sickened me, I thanked God that death must have been instantaneous. + +"Do you know who found them, Sergeant?" + +He pointed to a man standing by the wreck. "That man over there. He +found them and took them to the hospital after sending one of his +friends to notify the police." + +The man evidently heard our voices, and came over to us. + +"Is this the inspector?" he asked. + +"No," I replied, "I am Mr. Felderson's brother-in-law." + +"Oh, I'm sorry!" he said quickly. "May I express my deep, deep +sympathy?" + +"Thank you. Will you tell me how you discovered the accident?" + +"I had been out to Blandesville on business and was returning with a +party of friends. As we neared the bridge, one of them caught sight of +the upturned automobile in the creek, and we stopped. We found Mrs. +Felderson first, being attracted by her moans. We went at once to the +car, and as there were four of us, we were able to lift the automobile +sufficiently to get Mr. Felderson from under it. We knew that the +woman was still living, but none of us was doctor enough to tell +whether Mr. Felderson was alive or not. We carried them quickly to our +car and hurried to St. Mary's, dropping one of my friends at the North +District Station to inform the police what had occurred. Afterward we +drove back here, thinking we might be wanted in case there was an +investigation." + +"Did you see the lights of any car ahead of you, as you came along the +road?" I asked. "Did any car pass you, going in the same direction?" + +"A car turned in ahead of us from the Millerstown Road about ten +minutes before." + +"Do you think that might have been the car that was partly responsible +for this accident?" I queried. + +"Of course, no one could be sure in a situation of that kind, but I +wouldn't doubt it at all. It left us behind as if we were tied." + +Another car had driven up while we were talking and our policeman had +gone over to it at once. He came back now, accompanied by a short +heavy-set man in plain clothes. + +"I am Inspector Robinson, detailed to examine into this affair. Were +you the man who discovered the accident?" he asked, addressing my +companion. + +"Yes, Inspector; Pickering is my name. I'm with the Benefit Insurance +Company." + +He told the circumstances of the discovery to the plain-clothes man, +who, all the time Pickering was talking, bustled up and down and around +the car. Finally he made Pickering show him just where the bodies lay. + +"Distressing, distressing," the inspector chirped, "dreadful accident, +dreadful indeed, but quite to be expected with fast driving. If they +will risk their lives----" + +"Inspector," I broke in, "I am the brother-in-law of the man who drove +that car. While he was a fast driver, he was not a careless one. I've +never known him to have an accident before." The little man irritated +me. + +"That's the way it always happens," he came back at me; "they take +risks a dozen times and get away with them, and then--Blooey!!" + +"But aren't you going to find the other car?" I demanded. + +"What other car?" he snapped. + +"The one that must have been coming from the opposite direction; that +caused this accident." + +"Do you know there was any such car?" he bristled. + +"There must have been," I answered. "No accident has ever happened +here except under such circumstances. Besides, Mr. Pickering saw a car +turn into this road ahead of him not ten minutes before the accident." + +Robinson looked from me to Pickering as though we were both conspiring +to defeat justice. + +"Did you see such a car?" he barked at Pickering. + +"A car turned out of the Millerstown Road and went toward the city +about ten minutes before we discovered the bodies," Pickering replied +evenly. + +"Why didn't you say so?" the detective asked sharply. "What kind of a +car was it?" + +"A black limousine with wire wheels. I couldn't see the number." + +Robinson's humor seemed to have come back. + +"Now we're getting on," he said, rubbing his hands. "That's better. +That's much better. If you gentlemen had just told me that in the +first place we'd have saved all this time." + +He turned to the motorcycle policeman. "Feeney, go over to Millerstown +and inquire if a black limousine with wire wheels stopped there +to-night between eight and nine o'clock." + +A figure, unnoticed in the darkness, approached. It proved to be a +lanky farmer, who spoke with a decided drawl. + +"I reckon I kin help ye thar. They was a big limozine tourin' car with +wire wheels went through Millerstown 'bout ha'f past eight, quat' t' +nine. I know, 'cause it durn near run me down." + +"Do you live in Millerstown?" the inspector questioned. + +"Yep! Come over t' see the accident." + +"Did that auto stop in Millerstown?" + +The farmer chuckled and expectorated. "It didn't even hesitate." + +"Can you tell us anything else about it?" I spoke up. + +The inspector glared at me. "I'll conduct this investigation, +Mr.--err----" + +The farmer scratched his head. "Waal, nothin' much. It went too +blamed fast fer me to git mor'n a right good look, but I did gee that +it was full o' men an' the tail-light was bu'sted an' they wa'n't no +license on it." + +"You're sure of that?" the inspector asked. + +"Yep!" he said, "I'm sure, 'cause I was goin' to report 'em." + +Again the inspector turned to Feeney, who had been listening intently. + +"Feeney, go in and tell the chief to issue instructions to all the +force to keep an eye out for a black limousine with wire wheels, a +broken tail-light and no license tag! My friend," he said, turning to +the farmer, "I thank you for your information. By to-morrow night +we'll have that car and the parties concerned. By gad! They had their +nerve, running away after the accident. The damned rascals--killing +people and then running away. I'll grill their toes for them." + +The malice of the little detective, his readiness to jump from one +conclusion to another, reminded me for all the world of some +disagreeable, little, barking dog that chases every passing vehicle. + +I bade him good night, shook hands with Pickering and was on my way +back to my car, when another automobile drove up. Three men jumped +out, and as they passed in front of the lamps, I recognized Lawrence +Brown and Fred Paisley, from the club; the third man was Frank Woods. +As I caught sight of his well-set-up figure, all the hatred I had for +him seemed to rise in my throat and choke me. Try as I would I +couldn't separate him from the tragedy. When the farmer said the black +limousine was full of men, I realized that Frank Woods couldn't have +been one of them, and yet, so great was my distrust of the man, that I +felt like accusing him on the spot. + +Larry Brown caught sight of me and wrung my hand. "Dammit, old man, I +can't fell you how sorry I am." Paisley patted me on the back. "If +there is anything we can do, Thompson----" + +I shook my head and tears came to my eyes. They made me realize +poignantly how much I had lost. Woods didn't join us. He knew if he +tried to sympathize with me, after the affair the other day, that I +would throttle him for his hypocrisy. + +"Was Jim killed outright?" Brown asked. + +"Yes! And there's one chance in a thousand for Helen." + +Both men started. "Was Mrs. Felderson there? They telephoned us at +the club that Jim had been killed, but we didn't know she was with him." + +They glanced at each other and then at Woods, who was standing by the +side of the overturned car. + +"You'd better tell him, Larry," Paisley muttered. + +"Doesn't he know?" I asked. + +"Of course not," replied Brown. "He was out there at the club with us. +I'm afraid it will hit him awfully hard." + +He stepped over to Woods and, taking him by the arm, they disappeared +into the darkness. We heard a choking cry, and the next moment Woods +came running toward us. His face was distorted with horror and his +eyes were almost starting from his head. + +"Thompson, for God's sake, tell me he lies! Tell me he lies!" he +shrieked. "Helen wasn't in that car?" + +The old suspicions came tumbling back an hundredfold and I turned cold +all over. + +"It is true," I said, "Mrs. Felderson is in the hospital at the point +of death." + +With a stifled groan, Woods sank to the ground and buried his face in +his shaking hands. + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +A CLUE AND A VERDICT + +I drove home with my thoughts in a tumult. The look on Woods' face and +the vehemence of his words made me sure he was in some way responsible +for Jim's death. I walked the floor for hours trying to build up my +case against him. He had sworn to kill Jim, unless he let Helen go, +and he must have known that afternoon that not only was Jim going to +keep Helen from him, but that he had the proof with which to ruin him +forever. He had planned to have it out with Jim at the country-club, +knowing it would be a cold damp night and that few people would be out +there. He had emphatically stated that Jim should come alone and +should be there promptly at half-past eight. All those facts pointed +to the man's guilt and I felt sure that in some way I should be able to +unearth the proof. + +I knew I ought to sleep, but sleep was the last thing I could do. +Twice I called up the hospital to inquire after Helen, but they could +tell me nothing. Had the operation been successful? Yes, she had come +through it. Would she get well? Ah, that they could not say. They +would let me know if there was any change. I sent a telegram to Jim's +uncle in the West, the only relative Jim ever corresponded with, and +told him to notify any others to whom the news would be of vital +interest. + +Toward five o'clock, when dawn was just graying the windows, I threw +myself on my bed. I suddenly realized I was extremely tired, yet my +brain was buzzing like a dynamo. Pictures and scenes from the last few +days flashed through my mind: the vindictive look in Helen's eyes after +the fight with Woods; that table being wheeled out of Helen's room at +the hospital, with the moaning white bundle on it; the upturned car +pricked out of the darkness by the automobile lamps, and finally, Frank +Woods' face when he heard that Helen had been in the car. With the +realization that I ought to get up and close the window, where the +morning breeze was idly flapping the curtain, I fell asleep. + +I awoke with a start, to find the room flooded with golden sunlight. A +glance at the clock on the mantel-shelf showed that it was after nine. +My body was cramped and stiff and I felt stale and musty from having +slept in my clothes. It was only after a cold shower and a complete +change that I felt refreshed enough to pick up the threads where I had +dropped them the night before. + +Again, like the sudden aching of a tooth, came the heart-breaking +realization that Jim was dead. With it came also anxiety for Helen's +condition, so I called up the hospital at once. They could only say +she had not recovered consciousness, but seemed to be resting +comfortably. + +I went down to the office to tell the stenographers they might have a +vacation until after the funeral, and to lock up. The first person I +found there was Inspector Robinson, who was calmly reading over the +correspondence on Jim's desk. With all the "sang-froid" in the world, +he met my infuriated gaze. + +"Good morning, Mr. Thompson. Thought there might be something here +touching on the case." He waved a hand toward Jim's letter basket. + +"Have you found the black limousine?" I asked. + +"Certainly, my dear man, certainly! We've not only found the car, but +we found the people who were in the car and they know nothing about the +accident. My first explanation was the right one, as I knew it would +be. Felderson was driving recklessly, saw the bridge, put on the +brakes, skidded--was killed." + +"But why should he put on his brakes at the bridge?" I queried. + +"I've thought of that," he smiled. "Perfectly logical. There's a +nasty bump at the bridge and he naturally didn't want to jar Mrs. +Felderson." + +"So he turned into the ditch and pitched her out on her head instead," +I jeered. "That's all poppy-cock. I've taken that bridge at full +speed a hundred times without a jar." + +"It's immaterial anyway," he snapped, frowning at me. "You can't make +any fool mystery out of it. The point is that Mr. Felderson put on his +brakes rapidly, perhaps for a dog or a rabbit, and skidded into the +ditch." + +"It's not immaterial!" I burst out angrily. "There was a real reason +for his putting his brakes on rapidly. He was afraid of hitting +something, or being hit himself. Who was the driver of that other car?" + +"The son of one of the biggest men in the state, Karl Schreiber." + +"Karl Schreiber?" I cried. "The son of the German Socialist, who was +put in jail for dodging the draft?" I grabbed him by the arm. "Quick, +man! Who were the others with him?" + +Robinson gazed at me with a stupid frown. + +"Two reporters from _The Sun_, a fellow by the name of Pederson, Otto +Metzger and that Russian, Zalnitch, who just got out of prison." + +"Zalnitch!" I yelled exultantly. + +Zalnitch! The man Jim had sent to prison and who had threatened +revenge. Metzger, who had been his accomplice all along. Schreiber, +who hated Jim and all the virile Americanism that he stood for. +Pederson and the two reporters I didn't know, but they were no doubt of +the same vile breed. A fine gang of cutthroats who would have liked +nothing better than to get rid of Jim. They probably saw his big +search-light, that makes his car easily recognizable, and realized +their opportunity had come. They had driven toward him as though to +smash into him and made Jim take the ditch to get out of the way. That +explained the sudden jamming on of his brakes that had caused him to +skid and overturn. All these thoughts passed through my mind as I +heard the names of the men in the black limousine. + +"Inspector," I said, "I am fully convinced that the men in the black +limousine are responsible for my brother-in-law's accident." + +"What makes you think that?" he demanded, eying me narrowly. + +"Because all of them had reason to hate and fear my brother-in-law. +Zalnitch, since his release, has sworn he would get even with Mr. +Felderson for putting him in prison. Metzger felt the same way. As +for Schreiber, I'm sure if he could have manipulated that car so as to +cause an accident to Mr. Felderson, he would have done it." + +"You're crazy," Robinson sneered. "This thing's gone to your head. +How could they have known it was your brother-in-law's car?" + +"By the big search-light in front. It's the only car in the state with +such a search-light. Mr. Felderson's car was so fast that the police +sometimes used it, and he had their permission to wear that light, as +you probably know. Also, it may have been dark enough to use the +search-light and yet light enough so that a car could be distinguished +at a hundred feet. If there was any light at all, that big +Peckwith-Pierce car could be recognized by any one." He was impressed. +I could see it by the thoughtful, shrewd look that, came into his eyes. +Already, he was making arrests by the wholesale, in his mind. + +"But I can't go pulling these men for murder on such slight evidence as +that," he exploded. + +"No one wants you to," I said sharply. "All I want you to do is to +help me find out whether those men were present when the accident +happened." + +The idea of helping me didn't please him at all. As soon as I had +spoken I saw my error in not putting it the other way around. + +"Now, Mr. Thompson, you better keep out of this," he advised, getting +to his feet. "I know that you are anxious to find out if these men had +anything to do with Mr. Felderson's death, but the case is in good +hands. We professionals can do a lot better, when there's no amateurs +messing about. You leave it to me!" + +"Just as you say," I acquiesced. "Get busy, though, and if you find +out anything, let me know!" + +Robinson stood a minute, turning his derby hat in his hands. I knew +what he was after. + +"By the way," I added. "I'll pay all expenses." + +His face brightened at once. "Well, now, that's good of you, Mr. +Thompson. I wasn't going to suggest anything like that, but it'll help +a lot." + +I handed over several bills, which he pocketed with satisfaction. + +"Don't you worry a minute, Mr. Thompson. We'll get those birds yet. I +was pretty sure they had something to do with it, all the time. You've +got the best man in the department on the job." + +He put on his derby hat with a flourish and trotted out the door. I +recalled that I had told Mary I would see her, so I dismissed the +stenographers and locked up the office. It was a perfect morning, with +all the warm spicy perfumes of Indian summer. Overhead, a blue sky was +filled with tumbled clouds of snowy whiteness. The rain of the night +before was still on the grass and the trees, giving a dewy fragrance to +the air that was invigorating. + +Now that I had found a possible solution to the tragedy, I was filled +with enthusiasm. I felt that if I could bring Jim's murderers to +trial, I would conduct such a case for the prosecution as would send +them up for life. They had succeeded in carrying out their threats, +but I would make them pay for it. + +I stopped in front of Mary's house and honked the horn. She opened the +door and came quickly to the car. The tragic news of the night before +had taken the laughter out of her eyes and the buoyancy from her step. + +"I could cry my eyes out, Bupps," she said as she climbed into the car. + +"Don't do it, or I'll start, too," I responded, a lump coming in my +throat. + +"How did it happen?" she asked, as we drove away. "The papers gave a +long account, but said it was an accident." + +"Zalnitch did it, Mary. At least, I'm almost sure it was he." I told +her what I had learned during the morning, and as I talked, I finally +touched on Frank Woods' strange words of the night before. + +"You don't think he had anything to do with it, do you, Bupps?" + +"No," I said. "I did think so, but I have changed my mind since this +morning. I suppose it was just his grief that made him act so queerly." + +"He does love Helen, Bupps," Mary murmured. "Helen got quite +confidential while she was staying with me, and the things she told me +about Woods made me see he was really in love with her." + +"Yes, I suppose he does love her," I responded, "but he had no right to +take her away from Jim." + +"It's the man who takes a woman, whether he has the right or not, that +wins," responded Mary seriously. + +I looked at her and wondered whether she was growing the least bit +personal. She was looking straight ahead, with an unsmiling gaze. As +I glanced at her, there beside me, with the breeze blowing wisps of +golden hair around her temples, I got panic-stricken. + +"Mary--" I began. + +"Watch where you are going, Bupps!" + +I fastened my eyes on the street ahead, but only for an instant. With +Jim gone, I was going to be fearfully lonesome. I glanced at her again. + +"Mary, I know this isn't the right time or place, but--" + +"Let's go to the hospital and find out about Helen," she interposed +quickly. She knew we were going there all the time. The mention of +Helen brought me back to earth with a snap, and made me realize I had +no business talking about love at such a time. Yet never in my life +did I feel more like telling Mary how much I wanted her. + +We had no sooner entered the cool hall of St. Mary's than the little +interne with glasses, whom I had seen the night before, came hurrying +up to me. + +"Mr. Thompson, we have been telephoning every place for you." + +My heart jumped to my throat. "Is Mrs. Felderson---?" + +"No," he responded, "Mrs. Felderson is still unconscious. It is Mr. +Felderson. The coroner has made an important discovery." + +I waved for Mary to stay where she was and hurried down-stairs, where +Jim's body lay. It had not been moved before the coroner's inquest. +The room was dark and several people were gathered around the inquest +table. All eyes were turned on me as I entered the room. A portly man +detached himself from the group and came toward me. + +"Mr. Thompson?" + +"Yes." + +"I am the coroner. In making my inquest, I find that death was not due +to the automobile smash-up. Mr. Felderson was shot through the head, +from behind. We have rendered a verdict of murder." + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +I TURN DETECTIVE + +Murdered! For a moment I was stupefied by the doctor's revelation, and +then, as he went on to describe the course of the bullet, and certain +technical aspects of the case, a sudden rush of thankfulness came over +me. Let me explain! The coroner had given a verdict of murder by +person or persons unknown. From the first moment I heard of the +accident I was certain there was something sinister about it, but had +little on which to base my belief. The coroner's verdict substantiated +my suspicions and gave me a chance to work in the open; to bring into +court, if possible, the people I suspected. + +Murder by person or persons unknown? I knew the persons: Zalnitch, +Metzger, Schreiber. They must have recognized the car as it came +toward them and taken a shot as they went by. My thoughts were +recalled from their wanderings by an unexpected sentence of the +coroner's. I had been following him vaguely, but now my attention was +riveted. + +"One could not be sure, because of the varied course that bullets take +through the body, but the shot seems to have been fired from above and +behind. Unless it were otherwise proved, I'd strongly suspect that the +murderer had fired the shot from the back seat of the car." + +"Of course that is impossible," I said, "because in that case the +murderer would have been in the accident." + +"I had the same idea," he said slowly, giving me a searching look. + +Helen! + +I felt suddenly sick and faint. I wanted air, sunlight; to get away +from that darkened room and those piercing eyes that seemed to read my +thoughts. I thanked him for letting me know what he had discovered, +and hurriedly excused myself. + +Helen! The blood pounded through my temples. + +God! No! + +Wilful, spoiled woman, if you will, ready to leave her husband without +thought of the consequences, to go with another man; but his +premeditated murderer? A thousand times, no! + +I felt that with the unworthy suspicion in my mind, I could not face +Mary, and I waited a moment at the bottom of the stairs before going up +to meet her. There were two questions that had to be answered. Was +Helen in the back seat when the car left Mary's the evening before; and +had Jim told Helen about the proofs he had of Woods' irregularities? +Mary was probably there when Helen and Jim left, and could answer both +questions. + +I wiped the perspiration from my forehead and assuming as calm an air +as possible, went up-stairs. Mary was chatting with the little +interne, but as soon as she saw my face, she hurried toward me. + +"You look as though you'd seen a ghost. What was it, Bupps?" + +"Not here!" I cautioned. "Wait until we get outside!" + +We walked down the broad sunlit steps and climbed into the car. I felt +like a traitor to let Mary even think that I suspected Helen, but my +questions had to be answered. + +"Will you have luncheon with me, Mary?" + +"Certainly," she answered. "Let's go to Luigi's. We can talk quietly +there." + +I headed for down-town and kept my eyes on the road, dreading to put my +questions into words. + +"What was it, Bupps?" Mary asked. + +I decided to ask what I had to ask before telling her the coroner's +verdict. + +"Did you see Helen leave the house with Jim yesterday?" + +"Yes. I was looking out the window when they started. Why?" + +I could hardly force myself to go on. + +"Was Helen--did Helen get into the front seat with Jim?" I faltered. + +"No. She climbed into the back," Mary replied. "They had some sort of +an argument before they left. I knew Jim was excited and that Helen +was angry. Of course I didn't hear all that passed between them, I +tried not to hear any, but they talked very loud and were right in the +next room." + +"What did you hear?" I asked, my heart sinking. + +"Once Jim laughed, a hard sort of laugh, and I heard Helen say, 'You +lie! You know you are lying! He will disprove everything you say!' +Another time I heard Helen exclaim, 'Give me that pistol! You shan't +threaten him while I'm there!' I knew, of course, they were speaking +of Frank Woods, but I didn't know what it was all about. But why do +you ask all this, Bupps?" + +"Mary," I said, and I couldn't look at her, "the coroner has given a +verdict of murder." + +"Murder?" Mary gasped. I nodded. + +"Jim was shot from behind, while he was driving Helen out to the +country-club to meet Woods, and Helen was in the back seat." + +"She didn't do it!" Mary burst out. "She couldn't have done it." + +"Of course she didn't do it!" I exploded. We were glaring at each +other as though each was defending Helen from the other's accusation. +"We know she didn't do it, but there are many who won't take our word +for it. I could see by the way the coroner looked at me this morning +that he is ready to accuse her of murdering Jim, and it's up to us to +save her, by finding out who really is guilty." + +We drove up in front of Luigi's, and I was able to get a small table, +in the corner by ourselves. Although no one could have overheard us, I +sat as near Mary as I could and we talked with our heads close together. + +Mrs. Webster Pratt came in the door just then, with a luncheon party, +and, noticing how we were engrossed, came bouncing over to the table at +once. + +"Poor Mr. Thompson, my heart bleeds for you--simply bleeds for you." + +I got to my feet and permitted her to squeeze my hand. She squeezes +your hand or pats you at the least opportunity, and this one was +unequaled. + +"Poor, dear Mr. Felderson. It is such a loss. I was shocked to death +when I heard it. And Mrs. Felderson, the poor child, is she going +to--ah--t-t-t. I was afraid so when I read it in the paper. I'm +surprised to find you here. How is your poor dear mother?" + +I knew that the woman would gossip all over the place about my +heartlessness, unless I explained my presence in a public café so soon +after Jim's death and my sister's injury. + +"My mother doesn't know about it yet," I said quietly. "I didn't think +her strong enough to stand the shock. I shouldn't have come here, but +I had a very important matter to talk over with Miss Pendleton." + +"I could see that from the way you were sitting," she giggled. "I'm +afraid that you're going to give Eastbrook something to talk about as +soon as this distressing thing is over." She patted my arm, beamed at +Mary and swished over to her party. + +"We shouldn't have come here, Mary," I said with a sour grimace. + +"I forgot that old cat sometimes comes here. She'll spread it all over +town that you were down here making love to me before Jim was decently +buried. She'll probably say we're engaged." + +"Well, I wish we were." I know I must have shown my longing in my eyes. + +"Don't, please, Warren!" Mary whispered, putting her hand on my arm. +"We've got too much to do. That Pratt woman drove everything out of my +mind for a moment. I wish she hadn't seen us here." + +I didn't feel as though I could eat a thing and neither did Mary, so I +told the waiter to bring us a light salad, and sent him away. + +"Mary," I said, after he had gone, "we know Helen didn't do this thing, +but if you are called by the grand jury to tell what you just told me, +they will bring an indictment against her in a minute." + +"They couldn't!" Mary expostulated. "They couldn't believe such a +thing." + +"Don't you think Mrs. Webster Pratt would believe it, if she knew +everything that we know?" I argued. "She'd believe it with only half +as much proof, and she has just about the mental equipment of the +average juryman. There'll be about four Mrs. Webster Pratts on that +jury." + +"What can we do, Bupps?" Mary begged with tears in her eyes. + +"Well," I said, "you've got to see Helen as soon as they will let you +and as often as they'll let you, so that the first time she speaks, +you'll be there to hear what she says." + +"But suppose she dies, Bupps?" + +"Even while she is unconscious," I went on, disregarding her query, +"she may say something that will give us a clue. I'm going out to the +bridge right after lunch." + +"What for?" Mary asked. + +"To see if I can find Jim's revolver. If it had been found on Helen, +the coroner would have told me this morning, I think. Of course, they +may not have taken it at all. In that case it will still be at your +house. If Helen took it with her, it must have fallen out when the car +turned over, and if it did, I must get it before anybody else does." + +The waiter interrupted here with the salad. Mary dabbled with hers a +bit and then said: + +"Bupps, hadn't I better get out of town?" + +"No," I replied. "They'd be sure to find you, and when you gave your +testimony, it would hurt Helen just that much more." + +"But I can't stand up before them and tell what I heard. I'll lie +first." Her lovely little face clouded up as though she were going to +cry. + +"You'll do nothing of the kind!" I insisted. "We know Helen didn't do +it. Don't we?" + +"Ye-es." Her tone was not convincing. + +"Well, then, whatever we say can't hurt her. And we're bound to find +out who the guilty persons are." + +"But, Bupps, who could it have been?" she asked anxiously. + +"I still think it was Zalnitch and the men who were with him, but it +might have been Woods. I'm going to find out everything he did last +night. It may throw some light on the case. After all, he is the one +who had the most to gain by Jim's death, and his words of last night +were mighty queer." + +I paid the waiter and we left the café. On the way to Mary's I stopped +at the undertaker's and made arrangements for Jim's burial. The man in +charge was the saddest looking person I have ever seen. He had a +woebegone look about him that was infectious--made you want to weep for +him or with him. He discussed the funeral arrangements in a hushed +voice and finished by whispering, "I sincerely hope what the papers are +hinting is not so." + +"What's that?" I asked. + +"The noon edition of _The Sun_ says, 'The finger of suspicion points +very strongly to Mrs. Felderson.'" + +I hurried out to the car and jumped in. + +"Mary, we've got to work fast." + +"Is Helen suspected?" she asked. + +"Yes. _The Sun_ is more than hinting." + +The news seemed to bring out the fight in Mary. + +"Well, we'll prove her innocent." + +When we reached the Pendletons' we hurried into the house and went at +once to the room where Jim and Helen had their argument. The revolver +was not there. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +IT LOOKS BAD FOR HELEN + +I drove Mary to the hospital with my spirits at lowest ebb. If _The +Sun_ were going to try to convict Helen of the murder, I realized that +we had a hard fight ahead of us, for that yellow sheet was most zealous +in hounding down any one who happened to be socially prominent, and in +demanding punishment. The blacker the scandal, the deeper they dug, +and the more details they gave to their gluttonous, filth-loving +public. They would be particularly eager here, for they had no love +for Jim, due to the stand he took against them during the war. + +I knew the reporters would be hot on my trail and that sooner or later +they would interview Mary. So I determined that Mary should spend as +much time as possible at the hospital, feeling sure the reporters would +not be allowed in the room where Helen lay, battered and unconscious. +As for me, I wanted to get to the bridge on the Blandesville Road as +quickly as possible and from there to the country-club to inquire what +Woods had done the night before. I made up my mind I'd lead the +reporters a merry old chase before they ran me to earth, and when they +did, I'd tell them nothing. I also wanted to get in touch with +Robinson as soon as I could, to find out whether he had discovered +anything new of Zalnitch and his confederates--but that could wait +until evening. + +At the hospital they were at first opposed to having any one in the +room with Helen, who still lay in a coma, but with the help of one of +the nurses in charge, it was at last arranged. + +As I drove over the road to the club, the bleak barrenness of the +country struck me anew. Twenty-four hours before Jim had been alive. +Twenty-four hours before we had been in our office discussing the proof +of Woods' guilt, and Woods had telephoned to Jim, asking him to come to +the country-club alone. My suspicions of the man stirred afresh, so +that when I came to the bridge and found no one there, I decided to +leave my search for the revolver until later and go straight on to the +club. + +It was still early for the golfers and the bridge players and there +were only a few people there. These, of course, came up to me and +pressed my hand with genuine sympathy. I realized how many, many +friends Jim had and what a loss his death was to them all. + +As soon as I could disengage myself I hunted up Jackson, the negro +head-waiter and general house-man, who knows everything that happens at +the club. He had just finished his dinner and I drew him into the +cloak-room so that our talk might be uninterrupted. I took out a five +dollar bill and held it up before his expectant eyes. + +"Do you see that, Jackson?" I questioned. + +"Yas, indeed Ah sees it, suh! Ah may be gittin' old but Ah ain't blind +yit. Ah'll giv you whut you wants, instan'ly." + +He started to leave, but I grabbed him. + +"That's not what I want, Jackson," I laughed. Since the prohibition +law went into effect, it has been only through some such ritual that +"wets" can get theirs at the club. "All I want is to ask you a few +questions." + +"Fo' dat money?" His teeth gleamed. + +I nodded. + +"Mr. Woods was here last night?" I asked, abruptly. + +"Yas, suh." + +"What time did he come in?" + +"Ah cain't raghtly say, Mist' Thompsin, but he had dinnah out heah +'bout seben-thuty," he answered. + +"Did he leave the club after that?" + +"Not 'til de telephone call come whut says Mist' Feldahson ben killt. +Den he lef wif Mist' Brown an' Mist' Paisley." + +"You're sure he was here all that time?" I asked. + +"No, sah, I ain't suah, but Ah seen him ev'y now an' den thu de +ev'nin'." + +"Was he here at quarter past eight?" I questioned. + +"He was heah at twenty-fahv minutes past eight, Ah knows, cause Ah done +brought him a drink." + +"You're sure of that?" + +"Yas, suh! Positive!" the negro answered. "'Cause Ah looked at de +clock raght den an' der." + +As near as I could figure, the accident had happened about eight-ten or +eight-fifteen and the bridge was six miles away from the club. Woods +couldn't have been at the bridge at the time of the tragedy and got +back to the club by eighty twenty-five. Still, he might have had an +accomplice. + +"Thank you, Jackson," I said, giving him the money. "Just forget that +I asked you any questions!" + +The darky chuckled. "Ah done fohgot 'em befoh you evah asted 'em, suh. +Thank you, suh!" + +As I passed into the big, central living-room, Paisley came in. + +"What was this I saw in _The Sun_?" he asked. + +"The sort of rot that nasty sheet always prints," I said. + +"Nothing to it of course. I thought not. You don't feel like golfing?" + +I shook my head. "Not to-day, old chap. By the way, were you with +Frank Woods when the news of Jim's death reached the club?" + +"Yes--why?" he asked. + +"You won't think it too strange if I ask you how he appeared to take +it?" I said, trying to make my remark seem as casual as possible. +Seeing the puzzled expression on his face, I added: "I know it is a +peculiar thing to ask, but please don't think any more about it than +you can help, and just answer." + +"Why--" Paisley began, a little flustered, "why he took it just the way +the rest of us took it, I suppose. I don't remember exactly." + +"Did he seem surprised?" I questioned. + +"Of course," Paisley answered, + +"He didn't seem relieved?" + +"Say, what the devil are you driving at, Thompson?" Paisley burst out. + +I saw I could get nothing from him so I left him looking after me with +a perplexed and somewhat indignant gaze. As a detective it seemed I +might make a good plumber. I knew very well he would not repeat my +questions, but it would be just like good old Paisley to worry himself +to death trying to solve them. + +I drove back to the bridge, determined to find the revolver, if +possible, and then hunt up Inspector Robinson to learn what he had to +report. Apparently, my suspicions of Frank Woods were groundless. He +had had dinner at the club and then waited around for Jim to keep his +appointment. He had been seen by Jackson at eight twenty-five; Jackson +was positive of that fact. Ten or fifteen minutes at the most in which +to go six miles to the bridge and back to the club, put up his car and +ask Jackson for a drink. The thing couldn't be done. He had heard of +Jim's death with surprise and had heard of Helen's injury with the +greatest horror. There seemed to be no doubt of one thing: no matter +how much he wished for Jim's death, no matter how much he benefited by +the murder, Frank Woods, himself, didn't do the killing. + +An automobile was standing at the bridge when I got there and I cursed +the whim that had sent me to the club on a false scent and kept me from +having an uninterrupted search for the weapon. When I saw, however, +that the driver of the automobile was Inspector Robinson, I was greatly +relieved, for this would not only give me a chance to learn what he had +discovered concerning the men in the black limousine, but would not +interfere with the search for Jim's gun. Robinson had his coat off and +his sleeves rolled up and was fishing around the edge of the little +creek with his hands. So engrossed was he in his task that I was +almost upon him before he looked up. + +"Good afternoon, Inspector," I addressed him. "What are you doing, +digging for gold or making mud pies?" + +"I'm gettin' bait to catch a sucker," he snarled. "You must have +thought you had one this morning." + +"What do you mean?" I asked. + +"All that bunk you handed me about Schreiber and the men in the black +limousine. That was a fine stall you pulled. I might have known you +was tryin' to cover up somebody's tracks." + +He dried his hands on a rather flamboyant, yellow handkerchief. + +"I haven't the least idea what you are talking about," I replied coldly. + +"Oh, you haven't, haven't you?" the little man burst out malignantly. +"You're innocent, you are! Too damned innocent! I suppose you didn't +know that your brother-in-law was shot in the back of the head and that +your sister was the only one that was with him when it was done. I +suppose that's news--eh?" + +My heart stood still as I heard his words. So he was after the proof +that Helen did it. He had read the insinuations in _The Sun_ and had +abandoned his work against Schreiber and Zalnitch for the fresher trail. + +"I found out this morning that my brother-in-law was shot, but that +only makes the case look the blacker for those who openly threatened +his life." + +"Among whom was your beautiful sister," the detective retorted acidly. + +"How do you know that?" I demanded. + +"From her maid and all the rest of the servants in the house. I found +that out when I went up to take another squint at the automobile. You +thought you were pretty smart sendin' me on a wild-goose chase after a +couple of cracked Socialists, when all the time you knew it was your +own sister done the thing. Tried to keep me off the track by slippin' +me a little dough. Well, it didn't work, see? There's your dough +back." He threw a crumpled wad of bills on the ground at my feet. "No +one saw you give it to me, but I ain't takin' any chances, you may have +marked those bills. From now on I work alone without any theories from +you." + +"Look here, Inspector!" I demanded, "I was in earnest when I told you I +wanted you to find out all you could about the men in the black +limousine. I'm sure they had something to do with Mr. Felderson's +death. I didn't try to bribe you, nor throw you off the right track. +Even though my sister did have a little unpleasantness with her +husband, it was no serious difference." + +I determined to find out just how much Robinson knew. + +"She was utterly incapable of doing an act like this. What possible +motive could she have?" + +I could see that Robinson was rather impatiently waiting for me to go +before continuing his search. + +"Well, I ain't found out her motive yet. That can wait. It might have +been money or jealousy." + +"Money?" I scoffed. "My sister had plenty; more than she could use. +And as for her being jealous of her husband, that is even more +ridiculous." + +The little man eyed me angrily. "I said that the motive could wait. +There's no tellin' what a society woman will do. She may have been +crazy for all I know. But I ain't, and all your arguin' is just so +much time wasted. You think those guys in the automobile done it. I +don't. I think your sister done it. You don't. All right, then, you +take your road and I'll take mine, and we'll see who comes out ahead." + +He turned and started back to where he had been hunting when I came up. + +"May I ask what you expect to find here?" I queried, walking after him. + +"Sure you can ask," he replied. As he found me following, he turned +and snapped: "Say, what the hell are you hangin' around here for, +anyway?" + +"I merely wanted to ask what you had discovered about the men in the +black limousine. That's why I stopped." + +"Well, you've found out, haven't you? _Nothin'_. All right then, you +go on into the city and see if you can find out anything more!" + +I walked on down the sloping bank, searching the ground to see if I +could find the gun that might reveal so much. I could feel the eyes of +the inspector boring into my back. + +"What are you looking for?" he demanded. + +"A cuff-link," I answered easily. "I think I lost one here last night. +You didn't happen to find it, did you?" + +"A cuff-link? Humph!" he grunted. "No, I haven't found it, but I +wouldn't be surprised if I was lookin' for that same cuff-link." + +All this time I was searching the bank with my eyes. A scrubby, little +bush overhung the creek and I kicked at it with my foot. There was a +"plopp" as though something heavy had dropped into the water. +Instinctively I knew it was the object for which we were both +searching, and I turned to find the inspector eying me quizzically. + +"What was that noise?" + +"What noise?" I asked. + +"Sounded as though that precious cuff-link of yours had dropped into +the water." He started for me, and as he did so, I bent down quickly +and plunged my arm into the water. My fingers closed on the revolver +just as he came bounding toward me. With a quick shove I pushed it far +into the soft clay of the bank, and, grabbing a rock off the bottom of +the creek, withdrew my arm from the water and slipped the rock into my +pocket. The red-faced little detective was peering over my shoulder as +I turned. Rarely have I seen a man so angry. + +"Give me what you pulled out of that creek!" he almost screamed. + +"What for, Inspector?" I asked quietly. + +"Never mind what for. You give me what you found in that creek, or +I'll--" he grabbed me by the shoulder. + +"All right," I said; "all right, Inspector, don't get so excited over +nothing. It's yours." I pulled the muddy rock from my coat pocket and +gravely handed it to him. "It was only an ordinary, every-day rock. I +didn't know you were a geologist." + +He pounced on me and ran his fingers over my person. Red-faced, he +surveyed me. + +"I ain't a geologist, but I am a criminologist, and just one more of +your monkey tricks like that and I'll put you where you'll have time to +study a lot of rocks and do a lot of thinkin' before bein' funny again. +Now, you get out! Get into that car as quick as you can, if you know +what's good for you!" + +Hoping I could retrieve the revolver later, and realizing that nothing +could be gained by staying there longer, I started toward the car. I +had hardly taken five steps when I heard a joyful yell and turned to +see Robinson struggling to his feet, the muddy revolver in his hand. + +"Here's your cuff-link," he cried. "Before I'm through you'll find +that this ain't a cuff-link, but a necklace for the neck of that pretty +sister of yours. You, with your Socialists and your cuff-buttons, +tryin' to keep me from gettin' what I go after. Well, it didn't work! +It don't usually, when I go after somethin'. It didn't work, did it?" + +"No. It didn't work," I admitted. + +"Oh, I don't blame you," Robinson went on, mollified by his success and +the soft tone of my reply; "I'd of done the same thing in your place, +if my sister was a murderer." + +The word "murderer" acted like an electric shock on me. + +"She didn't do it, I tell you; she couldn't have done it!" + +"Now, Mr. Thompson," Robinson began in a soothing voice. "These things +happen in even the best families sometimes. You mustn't take it too +hard." + +"Will you let me examine that revolver?" I demanded. + +"Why, no. I can't let you examine it. But I'll examine it when I get +ready." + +"Will you be so good as to do it now?" I asked. + +"What for?" + +"Because it may not have been fired at all. That would make things +look entirely different, you know." + +The inspector took out the gaudy handkerchief again and wiped the mud +off the barrel and the grip. I had shoved the pistol barrel foremost +into the bank so the muzzle was filled with clay. It was Jim's--a "32" +automatic. + +"It won't be spoilin' any evidence by my cleanin' this mud off the +outside, because you put that there yourself," the detective said, +wiping the pistol carefully. He released the spring and pulled out the +clip. I saw a cartridge at the top of the clip and exclaimed: + +"There! You see? That gun was never fired!" + +The inspector looked at me with a pitying smile. + +"Now, that's where you're wrong, Mr. Thompson. You see, you don't know +the inner workings of an automatic. When a gun like this is fired, it +discharges the old shell and a new cartridge comes to the top of the +clip. There are only three cartridges left in this clip." + +"Do you mean to say that my sister fired more than one shot?" I asked +sarcastically. + +"Not at all, not at all," the little man responded airily. "There were +probably only four cartridges in the gun in the first place. You're +gettin' all excited over this thing. Of course, I don't blame you, Mr. +Thompson, for tryin' to fight against facts, but it certainly looks bad +for sister." + +I got into my car and started home, my heart dead within me. It +certainly did look bad for Helen. + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + +LOOK OUT, JIM + +A good general realizes when he is beaten and changes his tactics +accordingly. Where I had been certain of Zalnitch's guilt before, and +had planned his prosecution, now, with the sickening certainty that it +was my sister herself who was guilty, I began to plan her defense. +Yes, I'll admit right now, the gun convinced me. I had been certain +that Jim had not been killed through careless driving, that is why I +had been so insistent that Inspector Robinson should hunt down those +responsible for his death. Now that it was too late, I cursed myself +for not having let well-enough alone and aided the coroner in giving a +verdict of accidental death. My suspicions against Zalnitch had been +based on the knowledge that he hated Jim and would have done anything +to put him out of the way. Coincidence had brought him over the same +road that Jim had traveled a few minutes before his death. This had +strengthened my suspicions, but the case would have been hard to prove, +while the evidence against Helen was too pronounced to be disregarded. +Woods, too, had gained my suspicions, and yet he was miles away from +the murder. I realized suddenly that I had been refusing to look at +the obvious in order that I might place the guilt where I wanted to +believe it lay. Yet it did seem the irony of fate that the two men +benefiting by Jim's death should have had nothing to do with it. + +Helen did it! As the awful realization of what that meant came over +me, I hoped, for a brief second, that death would take her and so spare +her the consequences of her act. It would be such an easy way out. I +felt sure that if she died I could hush the whole thing up. _The Sun_ +could be bought, if enough money was offered. + +These gruesome thoughts carried me into the city almost before I knew +it. I stopped at the house to change my muddy clothes, before going to +the hospital to get Mary, and learned from the maid that mother had +been asking for me. I went quickly to her room. She was lying in bed +and at first I thought she was asleep, but she turned as I approached +her. + +"Is that you, Warren?" she asked softly. + +"Yes, mother. Stella said you wanted to see me." I bent down and +kissed her lightly. She reached up and put her thin weak arms around +my neck. + +"Warren, is there anything wrong? If there is you must tell me." + +"No, mother. What made you think that?" I asked. + +She slowly withdrew her arms and let them fall at her side. + +"I don't know. I seemed to feel that something had happened. Just +lying here, I felt afraid for you children--and then there were so many +people ringing the bell and the telephone, I was afraid that some +accident had happened to you or Helen." + +I patted her wan cheek. "It's just your imagination. The only thing +wrong is that my dearest, little mother isn't as well and strong as her +good-for-nothing son." + +I kissed her again, and she smiled up at me. "I'm so glad," she +whispered. "I was worried." + +I almost choked when I got outside. If Helen should recover and be put +on trial, it would kill mother, I felt sure. And I would be left alone +in the world. Down-stairs, I asked Stella who had called, and she told +me the reporters had been trying to find me all day. + +During the drive to the hospital, I tried to focus my mind on Helen's +defense, but all the force seemed to have been sapped out of me. I +felt weak and miserable and unutterably lonely. + +At the hospital, they received me with the quiet sympathy that +strengthens you in spite of yourself and gives you hope. Doctor +Forbes, who had operated on Helen the night before, was in the office. +He had just come from Helen's room and he reported her condition to be +"extremely satisfactory." + +"There is only one thing that worries me," he said. "Your sister seems +to have something on her mind that keeps her from resting as quietly as +I could wish. It is some real or fancied danger that repeats itself +over and over in her delirium. If we could only hit on something that +would ease her mind of those fears, I should have every reason to +believe she'd get well. I say this to you because you are her brother +and are no doubt acquainted with what has happened to her in the last +few weeks, and may be able to suggest what it is she fears." + +"Perhaps it is the accident itself," I offered. + +He shook his head. "It may be, but I think not. However, suppose you +step into the room and listen to what she says. If we can only rid her +of her fears and get her to rest quietly, I am positive she will +recover." + +I shook his hand warmly and went upstairs to Helen's room. I knew what +it was Helen feared. The consequences of her crime. The terrible fear +of public prosecution for the murder of her husband was torturing her +poor delirious brain. For a moment I forgave her everything and pitied +her from the depths of my heart. + +The smell of ether lay thick in the air as I walked down the long +corridor to Helen's room. I knocked softly at the door and a +white-capped nurse opened it a little way, her finger to her lips. I +beckoned her outside and told her Doctor Forbes wished me to find out, +if I could, what troubled my sister's mind. + +As we entered, I saw Mary sitting by the bed, holding the hand of the +poor white figure that lay, death-like, beneath the sheet. Helen's +head was swathed in bandages, except for the oval of her face. She +looked quite like some fair nun who had said her last "Ava." It was +impossible to believe that it was her hand that had fired the shot that +killed Jim, and if she lived, that she would have to face the world a +murderer. + +Mary only glanced up at me for a moment and then turned her eyes again +to Helen's lips to catch any sound that might pass them. As I watched +her sitting there so patiently, a little pale from her cramped vigil by +the bedside, a great tenderness welled up in my heart, for her. Just +then Helen's lips began to move. At first the words were inaudible, +although Mary leaned forward to catch them. Then with a half-cry, in +which there was a perfect agony of fear---- + +"Look out, Jim! It's going to hit us! Oh-oh-oh----" + +The voice died away and was succeeded by moans, low and trembling. +Mary glanced up with a startled look in her eyes. The nurse went +quickly to the bedside and soothed the impatient hand that was plucking +at the sheets. As for me, my forehead was bathed in sweat and tears +were running down my cheeks, but a joy throbbed and sang through my +heart till I felt that I should suffocate unless I left that +ether-filled room for the open air. + +I tiptoed toward the door and caught a nod from Mary as I passed, which +said she would join me later. For a second, after I closed the door, I +couldn't move. My legs failed me and I felt I was going to faint. +Gathering all my strength, I stumbled over to a chair by the window and +sat down. + +I think I should have dropped to my knees and thanked God right there, +if I hadn't feared that my prayers would have been interrupted. That +cry, "Look out, Jim!" proved not only that Helen had nothing whatever +to do with Jim's death, but that she had tried to warn him of his +danger. "It's going to hit us!" What could that mean but that my +first theory was correct, that the men in the black limousine had +recognized Jim's car and had tried to run him into the ditch? +Schreiber and Zalnitch were at the bottom of it, after all, and Helen +was innocent. + +As I had hoped she would die, when I thought her guilty, now I hoped +and prayed she would live. I recalled Doctor Forbes' words: "If we +could only hit on something that would ease her mind of those fears, I +would have every reason to believe she would get well." I could at +least tell him the cause of the fear and leave it to him to find a +remedy. With Helen well, ready to testify as to the details of that +tragic night, we would certainly bring Jim's murderers to trial. + +The door opened and Mary came out. I rose and walked over to her, my +eyes still betraying the emotion Helen's words had roused in me. + +"You heard what she said?" Mary breathed. + +"We knew she didn't do it, didn't we?" + +"But, Warren, the things she says are all so weird and mixed up. +Sometimes she talks of things that happened just recently and then +again she babbles of things that took place a long time ago when we +were kids. Once when the nurse came into the room, Helen began crying +as though her heart would break and begged that we wouldn't think too +harshly of her. Again she repeated over and over, 'He didn't do it--He +didn't do it!'" + +"Her other fears," I replied, "probably had to do with Woods. But that +cry to Jim to 'Look out!' is a real clue and I'm going to sift it to +the bottom." + +"What are you going to do?" Mary demanded. + +"I'm going to accuse Zalnitch of Jim's murder--going to accuse him to +his face." + +"Oh, be careful, Bupps! Nothing must happen to you!" + +The tone she used, her sweet anxiety for my safety, went to my head and +I reached out to take her in my arms, but with a little protesting +gesture she stopped me. + +"Please don't be foolish, Warren!" Then as she saw my spirits droop, +she added, "Not till Helen is well." + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + +I ACCUSE ZALNITCH + +"Mr. Zalnitch is busy and can't see you." + +The girl, evidently a stenographer or secretary, looked coolly +competent in her white shirt-waist and well-made skirt. I was +surprised to find a young woman of her evident education and refinement +in the employ of such a man. + +"Did you give him my message?" I asked. + +"Yes. He said he was not interested." + +I felt vaguely disappointed that my strategy had not worked. I had +given the name of Anderson, and had represented myself as the head of +the Steamfitters' Union of Cleveland, anxious for instructions on how +to settle a labor problem in our local union. I had done this, feeling +that if I gave my own name, he might refuse to see me. Apparently my +alias was to have no better success. + +"When will he be free, can you tell me?" + +"I couldn't say," the girl answered. "He is very busy at present, but +if you will come in and wait, perhaps he may see you later." + +It seemed to me there was the faintest suggestion of a smile on the +girl's face as I stepped across the threshold into the small +waiting-room, but I hadn't a chance to observe more closely, for she +turned her back on me at once and immediately resumed her typewriting. + +The room in which I found myself was one of a dingy suite in an old +warehouse that had been converted into a newspaper building to house +_The Uplift_, a weekly paper, edited by a Russian Jew named Borsky and +financed by Schreiber. It was a typical anarchistic sheet, and had +been suppressed for a time, during the war. Opposite where I sat was a +door from which the paint had peeled in places. This evidently led +into Zalnitch's office, for I could hear the murmur of voices behind +it. The rooms were ill-lighted and unclean, and it made me mad to see +as nice a girl as the stenographer working herself to death in such +dingy surroundings and for such a man as Zalnitch. + +I watched her as she worked and marveled that any one could make her +fingers go so rapidly. I noticed with admiration and dissatisfaction, +that unlike my stenographers, she didn't have to stop to erase a +misspelled word every two minutes. I wondered what salary Zalnitch +paid her and if she would like to change employers. + +"I hope you will pardon my interrupting your work--" I began. + +"You're not," the girl responded, without even glancing up. + +"May I ask if you are entirely satisfied with your employment here?" + +"Why do you ask?" she inquired, stopping for a moment and fixing me +with clear gray eyes. + +"I am badly in need of a competent stenographer and I thought you might +prefer working in a place where the surroundings are pleasanter and the +pay probably higher." + +She studied me a moment, as though card-indexing me, then having +apparently decided that I was in earnest and not merely trying to +flirt, that elusive smile again played about her mouth. + +"You are the first steamfitter I ever met that found himself badly in +need of a stenographer." + +Caught! I bit my lip at my stupid blunder, but had to laugh in spite +of myself. + +"Your make-up is all wrong, Mr. Anderson--if your name is Anderson. I +don't know what you are trying to do, nor why you picked out +steamfitting as your mythical life-work, but I do know you aren't a +detective." + +This time the smile came out in the open. I liked her immensely. She +might make an ally. She would at least know what had happened in the +office during the last few days. + +"Miss--?" + +"Miller," she added. + +"Miss Miller. I am a lawyer, and my sister is about to be accused of a +terrible crime which she didn't commit. I think I know who did commit +it, but so far I haven't been able to connect him definitely with the +crime. I think you can help me. Will you?" + +"What makes you think I can help you?" she asked. + +"Because you are so situated you can observe the person I believe to be +responsible for the crime," I replied. + +Her gaze changed from pleasant questioning to indignant surprise. When +she spoke her voice was coldly final. + +"I think you have made a mistake in judgment of character. Please let +me finish my work now." + +"Miss Miller, please don't think for a minute that I--" + +Behind me a door opened and, as I turned, I found myself looking into +the wrathful eyes of a stunted little man with an enormous head. Any +one who has once seen Zalnitch can never forget him. His wizened, +misshapen body is a grotesque caricature of a man's, which, surmounted +by his huge head with its bushy hair, makes him look for all the world +like some scientist's experiment. In the doorway to Zalnitch's private +office stood Schreiber, a heavy-jowled, unsmiling mastiff of a man. + +"What do you want that you should be keeping my stenographer from +working?" Zalnitch's voice rose in a shrill crescendo. "Get out of +here! You have no business here. Get out!" + +"Zalnitch, I came here to speak to you." + +"Get out!" he screamed. "I won't talk with you. I have no time to +waste, even if you have. I know who you are. You're the +brother-in-law of Felderson, the blood-sucking millionaire who sent me +to jail. I won't talk with you, do you hear?" + +As he grew more excited I seemed to grow cooler. + +"Zalnitch, I'm going to swear out a warrant against you for my +brother's murder." + +For a moment the little man blinked at me in amazement; then he threw +back his head and laughed, a shrill, giggling squeak. With his fists +he pounded his misshapen legs. + +"You arrest me for his murder? Hee-hee! You hear, Schreiber? He is +going to--to arrest me!" + +Suddenly he stopped, as quickly as he had started. + +"Go ahead! Arrest me! Try to send me to prison again. I'll make you +sweat blood before you are through. You think I killed him--your +brother? I wish I had. I'd be proud to say I killed him! You hear? +I wish I had killed him. I wish he were alive so I _could_ kill him." + +The little monstrosity emphasized each of his staccato sentences by +stamping a puny foot on the floor. His gloating over Jim's death was +more than flesh could stand. + +"Stop!" I yelled. "If it wasn't you that killed him, it was one of +that murderous gang of cutthroats and anarchists that was with you. If +it wasn't you, then it was Schreiber's son--that Prussian jail-bird, or +one of his friends." + +Zalnitch's eyes blazed. "You call us anarchists and cutthroats. You, +who are a product of the rotten government that has ground down and +oppressed the people I represent. Because we rebel, you throw us in +prison, making a mockery of your boasted liberty. So they did for a +time in Russia. You call us 'cutthroats.' It's a good term. I hope +to God we earn that title." + +Finding that the talk was turning into a political harangue, I turned +my back on Zalnitch and started toward the door. Schreiber followed me. + +"Chust one minud." There was heavy menace in his look. "You galled my +son a chail-bird a minud ago. He vas in chail because he did righd, +but dot don't matter. You're egsited, because your brodder vas gilled. +Ve don't know nodding aboud it. Ve heard aboud it de nexd day. I +don'd have nodding against Velderson, bud if you dry to pud my son, +Karl, in chail again, someding vill happen to you. I'm delling dis to +you vor your own good." + +Disappointed at the interview, I closed the door behind me and started +down the hall. I don't know just what I had hoped to find out, but I +thought Zalnitch would betray himself in some way--must in some way +show his guilty knowledge of Jim's death. Instead, he had laughed at +me when I threatened to arrest him, even wished he could claim the +credit for the crime. + +I heard the pattering of feet and turned to find Miss Miller behind me. + +"Mr. Thompson." + +"Yes, Miss Miller." + +"A few moments ago you asked me to help you discover who killed your +brother-in-law. For some reason you think Mr. Zalnitch had something +to do with it, and you wanted me to give you any information I could +about him." + +"Yes," I responded. + +"When you made that proposal, I was very angry because I resented your +thinking I'd spy on my employer. However, your suspicions are so +ridiculous I feel it is only fair to tell you that you are wasting your +time." + +"What makes you so sure that Zalnitch had nothing to do with it, Miss +Miller?" + +"Because I know he is utterly incapable of doing anything of that +kind," she answered. + +I half smiled. "Mr. Zalnitch has the reputation of holding life very +cheaply--that is, the lives of others who stand in his way. He hated +my brother-in-law for that very reason. If he didn't kill him, it +wasn't because he didn't want to. For proof of it, you heard what he +said in there." + +The girl looked me over for a minute. A far-away look had come into +her eyes. + +"Mr. Thompson, Mr. Zalnitch is obsessed by a wonderful idea. You +people call him 'Bolshevist' and 'anarchist,' because he is trying to +overthrow the existing order of things. In working out his great +theory, he would stamp out a nation if it interfered with the +fulfillment of his plan, and he would not think that he had done +anything wrong. In fact, he would think it the only thing to do. In +that much, he holds life cheaply. But if you think he would descend to +wreaking vengeance on individuals for personal spite, you are all +wrong. He is too big a man for that." + +"Did Zalnitch send you out to say this to me?" I asked suspiciously. + +The girl flushed angrily. "Really, Mr. Thompson, you make it almost +impossible for any one to help you. Instead of being sent, I may be +dismissed for having come out here to talk to you. You asked for my +assistance and now that I have tried to give it, you make me regret the +impulse." + +She turned and started to leave, but I called her back. + +"Miss Miller, please forgive me and don't think me ungrateful. Mr. +Felderson meant more to me than any person living, and I have made up +by mind to bring his murderer to justice if I have to devote the rest +of my life to it. I know that I have been jumping at conclusions. +I've done a lot of things since Mr. Felderson's death that I can't +understand, myself,--things that were entirely unlike me--but I feel +that I would be a traitor to my brother-in-law's memory unless I follow +every possible clue. He had only three enemies and one was Zalnitch, +who threatened him. Isn't it only natural that I should suspect him?" + +Her look was entirely sympathetic as she replied. + +"I know how Mr. Felderson's death must have affected you, Mr. Thompson, +and I do want to help you. You say he had three enemies; then I advise +you to look for the other two, for I am positive Mr. Zalnitch had +nothing to do with the murder." + +I thanked her and went down the rickety stairs, believing somehow that +she had told me the truth. But if not Zalnitch, then who? I knew that +in less than a week, as soon as Helen was well enough to stand the +shock, she would be indicted, unless in the meantime, I could discover +the murderer. Helen had regained consciousness the night before, but +was far too weak to undergo any questioning. My impatience at the +delay, necessary before she could tell the story of the crime, had +driven me, most foolishly, I now realized, into trying to force +Zalnitch to a guilty admission of complicity. + +When I got hold of myself, I knew well enough that the only sensible +course was to wait until Helen should be able to clear up the mystery, +so I went to the office and began the heavy task of putting Jim's +effects in order. + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + +A DOUBLE INDICTMENT + +Jim was buried on Tuesday. The funeral was very quiet, only Mary and +myself, with a few of Jim's most intimate friends, attending. I have +always had a repugnance to large and ostentatious funerals and I felt +that Jim would have preferred to have the actual ceremony over as +quickly and quietly as possible. It affected me too much to allow me +to think of anything else but my loss, at the time, and I should have +left town the day after, had I not received a summons to appear before +the grand jury. + +Mary called me up and told me that she, too, had been summoned, so I +drove the car around for her. She was nervous and frightened at the +thought of having to testify and she asked me all the questions she +could think of on what to do and what to say. I reassured her, telling +her the district attorney was friendly to Jim and that I was confident +our testimony as to Helen's words would stave off any indictment until +Helen was well enough to testify. + +"But, Warren, the fact that she was delirious will make it pretty shaky +testimony, won't it?" Mary argued. + +"Yes, that's true. But I don't think that they will want to bring an +indictment while Helen is ill. You see, the indictment couldn't be +served anyway, and I think our testimony will convince them there's a +reasonable doubt as to Helen's guilt." + +She seemed convinced until the gloomy bulk of the court-house came in +view, when terror rushed back fourfold. + +"Oh, Bupps, can't I get out of it?" + +"No, dear, it's got to be gone through with. Remember it depends on +you and me." + +"But what if they ask me Jim's and Helen's conversation before they +started for the country-club?" + +"Tell them as little as possible, but stick to the truth. We know +Helen's innocent and the truth can't hurt her." + +We passed Inspector Robinson in the hall down-stairs and the half smile +on his lips irritated me. It was his report to the grand jury that had +stirred things up. He knew only too well that with the sensational +_Sun_ to back him, an indictment would be taken by the public to mean +proven guilt. + +At the entrance to the anteroom we found Wicks, his face drawn into +lines of the most acute misery. + +"I couldn't 'elp it, sir. They made me come." + +"I know it, Wicks. Don't worry! It's a mere formality," I reassured +him. + +"I 'ope so, sir, but I don't like it." + +"None of us do, Wicks, but it can't be helped," I replied. "Did Annie +come with you?" + +"No, sir. Strange to say she wasn't called, sir." + +Good! That helped our case some. Mary and I walked into the anteroom +to await our turn. The coroner was already there. Wicks had followed +us and took a seat close by. Mary's face was a study in suppressed +nervousness. + +"Couldn't you go in there with me, Bupps?" she asked. + +"No, Mary, the grand jury does its work in secret." + +A clerk called the coroner and as he passed from the room, Robinson and +Pickering came in. Robinson didn't even glance in my direction, but +Pickering walked over quickly and shook hands. + +"Devilish sorry things have taken the turn they have, old man," he said. + +"You mean about--my sister?" + +"Yes. Robinson seems to think he has all the proof he needs. I wish I +could help you." + +"Thanks awfully," I replied. + +He had only been seated a few moments when he was called to testify. +As the coroner left the room, I tried to read in his face the nature of +his testimony, but it was inscrutable. Pickering was out in less than +ten minutes, and then Wicks was called. His legs seemed a bit shaky as +he started for the door and he gave me a parting look, half awe, half +terror. + +Robinson paced up and down, his short stubby legs expressing confidence +and satisfaction. Every turn, he scrutinized Mary, as if trying to +place her in some criminal category. + +At last Wicks came out, perspiring as if he'd been in a steam bath. +Robinson looked him over once, gave a snort of derision and passed into +the jury room. I wanted to ask Wicks some questions, but the poor man +fled before I could attract his notice. + +Mary got up and walked over to the big windows where a flood of warm +September sunlight poured into the room. For a moment she stood gazing +down on the crowded square below, then suddenly turned and half sobbed: + +"Bupps, I can't stand it! I may say something that will hurt Helen." + +Great sobs shook her slender body. I went over and clumsily tried to +comfort her. + +"Mary, dear, Helen didn't do it. When she is well enough, we'll be +able to find out all about it. Even if they do bring an indictment, +Helen can prove her innocence." + +The sobs diminished to sniffles, and then to occasional sighs. She +opened her bag, extracted a miniature powder-puff and dabbed at her +small upturned nose spitefully. I knew that the storm had passed. + +"I know--that--that I'm foolish to c-cry, but I just c-couldn't help +it." + +A clerk opened the door and called Mary's name. She gave me a startled +glance and her face blanched. I thought she was going to break down +again, but suddenly I saw her raise her chin defiantly and an angry +sparkle come to her eyes. She snapped shut her vanity-bag and marched +toward the jury room like a soldier, sentenced to be shot, yet +determined to die bravely. + +It was only after she had left that I began to think about my own +testimony. After all, the evidence was terrifyingly strong against +Helen. She had threatened to kill Jim. She had quarreled with him +just before their last ride, had chosen the back seat purposely, had +Jim's revolver with her, and knew she was being taken to see her lover +humiliated and threatened. Against all this, I had only a brother's +faith in his sister and those half dozen words cried out in a delirium. +A sickening certainty that they would indict Helen came over me. What +if she did--? What if she should confess? + +In some way I had to save Helen if only for mother's sake. After all, +Woods, too, had threatened Jim. He knew Jim had proof of his +dishonesty. He had made the engagement and had asked Jim to come +alone. At this point of my review of the facts I decided to tell the +jury all. If Woods was at the country-club the entire evening he would +be able to establish a complete alibi and my testimony would not hurt +him, while it might be enough, if I could make it so, to hold the jury +until Helen could testify. Hearing steps outside, I turned to see the +object of my mental attentions walk into the room. + +"You here, Woods?" I queried. + +"Yes. Those admirable servants of your sister's gave the police just +enough of the vulgar details of that meeting between Felderson and +myself to make them think I--well, they ordered me to report and here I +am." + +He looked worried and irritable. For the first time I realized what +the man must have gone through during the last few days, with his +business troubles and Helen's injury. How he had met his obligations +without Helen's money, I didn't know. + +"I should have thought you'd have been glad to testify to save Helen +from an indictment." + +Woods whirled around. "You don't mean to say there's a chance of that, +Thompson? Why, she didn't do it, she couldn't have done it. She--she +isn't capable of doing such a thing. It's monstrous. I've read the +rot that _The Sun_ has been printing, but I didn't think--I can't think +any one would take it seriously." A gray shadow seemed to fall across +his face. + +"Felderson was shot from behind and Helen was the only one with him," I +threw out, watching Woods closely to see what effect my words would +have on him. The man looked as though he knew more about the crime +than I had supposed. + +"I know that! But haven't people sense enough to see that Helen is +utterly incapable of such an act. Good God, they must be blind!" + +I was brought back to the business on hand by hearing my name shouted. +They must have let Mary out by another door for when I entered the jury +room she was not there. It was hot and stuffy, smelling of stale +tobacco and staler clothing. I noticed that the jurymen seemed deeply +interested and that they were, for the most part, a rather intelligent +lot. The foreman, a near-sighted business-looking person, seemed to +radiate sympathy through his glasses. The district attorney, +Kirkpatrick, knew Jim well, had his help often and was one of his best +friends. + +"What is your name?" he asked. + +"Warren Thompson." + +"Your address?" + +"Eleven thirty-two Grant Avenue." + +"Your business?" + +"I am a lawyer," I responded. + +The district attorney seated himself at a table and arranged some +papers before him. + +"You were what relation to the deceased?" + +"The brother-in-law," I replied. + +"Mr. Thompson," the attorney began, leaning on the table in front of +him, "will you please tell the jury if there was any unhappiness in the +married life of your sister and brother-in-law?" + +"Until recently Mr. and Mrs. Felderson were very happy together. +During the last three months their happiness has not been quite--so +pronounced." + +"What was the cause of their disagreement?" + +I determined to begin my attack on Woods at once. + +"A man whom Mr. Felderson disliked and did not wish to come to the +house." + +"Can you tell the jury that man's name?" + +"Frank Woods." + +The attorney glanced at his notes. + +"Did this man Woods make love to Mrs. Felderson?" + +"I couldn't say. He was very attentive to her." + +"Did Mrs. Felderson ask her husband to divorce her?" + +"Yes," I replied. + +"And Mr. Felderson refused?" + +"No. Mr. Felderson consented." + +"You are sure of that?" he demanded. + +"Yes. I was present when he said he would give her a divorce." + +"Was Woods there at the time?" + +"Yes." + +The foreman of the jury interrupted here. + +"Will you tell the jury just what took place at that meeting?" + +I told them briefly what happened, not forgetting to mention that Woods +had threatened Jim's life in case he did not let Helen go. + +"Has that man been summoned?" asked the foreman. + +"Yes. He is waiting to appear now," a clerk responded. + +"Mr. Thompson, did you hear your sister threaten to kill her husband?" +Kirkpatrick asked. + +"My sister was very excited at that time and said several things--" + +"Please answer my question!" fired the district attorney. + +"I can't remember," I replied. + +Kirkpatrick again consulted his papers. + +"A witness says that on the evening of the disagreement between Mr. and +Mrs. Felderson, she used the words: 'I could kill him,' referring to +her husband. Did you hear her use those words?" + +"I don't think she realized what she was saying." + +"I did not ask for your opinions. Did you hear her say she could kill +him or that she would like to kill him?" + +"Yes." + +The attorney seemed satisfied and I noticed the foreman of the jury +lean back in his chair. + +"Now, Mr. Thompson," Kirkpatrick began, "on the evening of the tragedy +did you see Mrs. Felderson leave with Mr. Felderson?" + +"No," I replied. + +"Do you know if she was sitting in the back seat or the front seat of +that automobile?" he asked. + +"I couldn't say." + +Kirkpatrick took Jim's revolver from the table. + +"Is this revolver familiar to you?" + +"I don't know." + +"Did Mr. Felderson have a revolver like this?" he demanded. + +"Yes." + +"Do you know whether he was carrying it at the time of the tragedy?" + +"I'm not sure," I stated. + +"Did Mr. Felderson usually carry a gun?" + +"No." + +"Did Mrs. Felderson have a revolver?" + +"No," I replied, "I don't think she even knows how to use one." + +"Please only answer my questions!" Kirkpatrick rebuked me sharply. + +"You have stated to the jury that Mr. Woods had threatened Mr. +Felderson's life in case he did not give Mrs. Felderson a divorce. +When did Mr. Felderson intend giving his wife the promised divorce?" + +"I don't think he really intended to give Mrs. Felderson a divorce." + +"But you stated that he consented to a divorce?" + +"He did, but with certain reservations," I answered. + +"What were those reservations?" + +"That there should be nothing in Mr. Woods' past that could cause Mrs. +Felderson trouble in the future, in case she married Woods." + +"Did Mr. Woods know of Mr. Felderson's intention not to divorce Mrs. +Felderson?" he demanded. + +"I don't know. I know that Mr. Felderson had made an important +discovery about Mr. Woods' past life." + +"Was this discovery of such a nature as to cause Mr. Felderson to +refuse a divorce?" + +"It was!" I answered. + +"Can you tell the jury what this discovery was?" + +"No, I can not." + +"Did Mr. Woods know that Mr. Felderson had made this discovery?" + +"I think he did." + +"Aren't you certain?" + +"No." + +"This is important, Mr. Thompson. Will you tell the jury why you think +Mr. Woods knew of Mr. Felderson's discovery?" + +"Because Mr. Woods called Mr. Felderson up shortly after the discovery +was made and asked for an interview at the country-club." + +"Was Mr. Felderson on his way to that meeting when he met his death?" +the attorney queried. + +"Yes," I responded. + +"Do you know whether Mr. Felderson intended to inform Woods that he +would not divorce Mrs. Felderson?" + +"I think he intended to accuse Woods of dishonesty," I replied. + +"Mrs. Felderson knew the purpose of the meeting, did she not?" + +"I couldn't say." + +Kirkpatrick turned to the jury. + +"Has the jury any questions they wish to ask?" + +I seized my opportunity. + +"I would like to say a few words with the permission of the jury." + +Receiving a nod of consent, I related to them as briefly as possible my +conviction of my sister's innocence, her cry of danger to her husband, +and the coincidence of the black limousine on the road at about the +same time as the tragedy. I also told of the enmity of Zalnitch for +Jim and of his presence with the others in the black limousine. The +foreman of the jury leaned forward. + +"Will you repeat the words that your sister uttered?" + +"She cried, 'Look out, Jim! It's going to hit us!'" + +"Your sister was delirious at the time, was she not?" + +"Yes," I answered. "But from the tone of her voice I feel perfectly +sure she referred to something that occurred on the night of the +tragedy." + +"You think she referred to the black limousine when she said, 'It's +going to hit us'?" the foreman continued. + +"Yes." + +"Yet the coroner's verdict was that your brother-in-law was killed by a +bullet, fired, apparently, from behind and above." + +I felt the weakness of my ground. + +"The bullet might have been fired from the automobile and ricochetted +from some part of Mr. Felderson's machine." + +I saw the incredible smile that played on the face of the prosecutor. + +"That will do, Mr. Thompson," Kirkpatrick announced, and I passed out +of the stuffy room into the corridor. Wicks had returned and was +standing with Mary. They looked at me with wide and anxious eyes. + +Mary saw the droop in my shoulders and caught my arm. + +"What happened, Warren?" she asked. + +"Nothing yet," I responded. + +"Are they going to----?" + +"I don't know, I don't know." + +Tears welled up in Mary's eyes. "Oh, Warren, that man was terrible!" + +"What man?" I asked. + +"The man who asked me all the questions," Mary sobbed. "There wasn't +anything he didn't ask me." + +"Did he ask you about the conversation between Helen and Jim?" + +"He asked me everything, I tell you!" Mary exclaimed angrily. "He +twisted and turned everything I said into something horrible." + +Discouraged, I led the way to the car. I drove out into the country, +thinking the fresh air might quiet Mary's nerves. Twice I tried to +start a conversation about some trivial thing, to take her mind off her +unpleasant experience of the afternoon, but with no success. It always +came back to the jury room. Our drive, for the most part, was a silent +one. At length we turned back and as we walked up the steps of Mary's +home, her father came from the house with a newspaper in his hand. + +"This is terrible, Warren." + +"What is it?" I cried, reaching for the sheet. + +It was an extra edition of _The Press_, our only respectable paper. In +black head-lines, I read the words: + + "SOCIETY LEADER INDICTED FOR + HUSBAND'S MURDER!" + +Then underneath in small type: + +"Frank Woods, Well Known Business Man, Released on $10,000 Bail." + +Helen and Frank Woods had both been indicted. + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + +WHO AM I + +I jumped into the automobile and drove as fast as I could to the +offices of Simpson and Todd, the best criminal lawyers in the state, to +retain them as council for Helen. Simpson had already gone home, but +George Todd was there, and I talked the case over with him. + +"You can get a stay of proceedings, can't you?" I asked. + +"Surely," he replied. "I'll see that the warrant isn't served until +Mrs. Felderson's doctor assures me she is out of danger. The trial +needn't come off for three or four months--six if you wish. We can see +to that. In the meantime, when will you be able to see Mrs. Felderson?" + +"I was going up there now," I answered. "The chances are the doctor +won't let me question her yet, but it may be we can see her. Will you +come with me?" + +"I'd like very much to. Wait till I get my coat!" + +We ran up to the hospital and asked if we could be admitted if only for +a few moments to Mrs. Felderson's room. Johnson, the little interne +with the glasses, had just come in, and when he heard my request he was +splutteringly indignant. + +"What the devil do you think Mrs. Felderson is suffering from, a broken +ankle? Don't you realize she has been desperately ill? If you tried +to question her now, she'd become excited and it might result in a +serious relapse. Of course you can't see her! You won't be able to +talk to her for two or three weeks yet." + +"I'm sorry," I said, "I should have known better. It was stupid of me, +but then, I've been little else than stupid for days. This tragedy has +been too much for me. You will let me know as soon as she can be seen, +won't you, Johnson?" + +"I'll let you know," he murmured. "You may be able to _see_ her +to-morrow, but I won't let you bother her with any infernal questions +until she is well." + + +The week passed only too slowly. Each day I went to the hospital and +sat for a brief fifteen or twenty minutes by Helen's side. She was +fully conscious and I thought I could see at times that there were +questions she wanted to ask me. Remembering the doctor's emphatic +instructions, I said very little, never asking any questions, only +telling her a few of the unimportant happenings of the town. She +seemed uninterested and lay apathetically quiescent except when some +apparently perplexing question corrugated her brows. They told her of +Jim's death early in the week, but far from being shocked, she had +appeared almost indifferent, showing only too plainly how little he +meant in her life. Woods she never referred to. + +Mary, of course, was her devoted slave, hardly leaving her bedside, and +in our daily meetings at the hospital, I fell more and more in love +with her, if such a thing were possible. Once when I was coming up the +corridor with a large bunch of flowers, I met her outside Helen's door. +As she took the blooms from me, she reached up and patted my cheek. + +"Bupps, you're a darling to bring these lovely flowers to Helen every +day. I think you're quite the nicest brother a girl could have." + +"If you think that, why won't you have me?" I asked. + +"I think I will----" she answered, smiling, "for a brother." + +She started to open the door, but I grasped her hand. + +"Mary, do be serious! You know I love you." + +She haughtily drew herself up in all the majesty of her five feet three +inches and commanded: "Unhand me, villain! I spurn your tempting +offer." Then earnestly, "Let me go, Bupps! I've got to put these +flowers away." + +With a quick wrench she freed herself and was gone, leaving me half +sick with love of her. + +After the first sensational extra, the newspapers had said but little +of Helen's and Frank's indictment. Somehow I was confident that Helen +would be able to clear herself. Woods had published a statement in +which he said he would be able to prove where he was every minute of +the evening of the tragedy, and so had had no difficulty in finding +bail. In fact, since the indictment, he seemed to have gained a good +deal of sympathy and popularity. Every one who knew of his devotion to +Helen felt that he had indicted himself to try to save her. + +One morning, about a week after my interview with the be-spectacled +interne, I met Doctor Forbes as he was coming from Helen's room and he +gave me permission to ask her a few questions. + +"I'm trusting to your good sense, Thompson, not to overdo it," Forbes +cautioned. "Remember, she is still in a very weak condition and don't +be surprised if she fails to respond to your questions as you expect. +Above all things, do not refer in any way to the fact that she has been +indicted, the shock might be too much for her." + +"Thank you, Doctor," I replied, eager to get away, "I'll be very +careful." + +"And remember, no more than ten minutes this first time." + +I nodded and opened the door. Helen was propped up in bed and showed +unmistakably the great suffering she had been through. She was pale +and wan, but smiled when she saw me and gave me her cheek to kiss. + +"Good morning," she whispered. "The flowers were lovely." + +"I'm glad you liked them, Sis, dear," I said, sitting down by the side +of her bed. + +I asked her the usual questions, how she felt and if she wanted +anything, and then tried to lead up to the only question that was of +any consequence to either of us. + +"Helen, dear, there are certain questions about your accident that have +puzzled us. The doctor said that you could talk for ten minutes this +morning and I want to ask you some questions." + +"Wait a minute!" she interrupted. "Did the doctor say I might really +talk this morning?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"There are a hundred questions then that you must answer me. I want to +know so many things." She looked away and passed a thin hand over her +forehead. Finally she turned her big brown eyes toward me and said: + +"First, tell me who I am!" + +For a brief second I felt numb all through. My brain whirled until I +thought my head would burst. + +"Helen, dear, what did you say?" + +My speech was thick, as though my tongue was swollen. Still keeping +her gaze fixed on me, she continued: + +"They call me Helen, and I gather that you are my brother. There is a +beautiful girl who comes here every day. She and I seem to be great +friends, but I don't know her, I have heard them call her Mary; tell me +who she is!" + +If I could have run from the room I should have done so. A horror +gripped me such as I never felt before. Then I saw two large tears +tremble in Helen's eyes, overflow and course down her cheeks and I +gathered all the strength that I could muster for the task of trying to +awaken a memory that had apparently ceased to function. + +"Helen, dearest little sister, I am your brother. The beautiful girl +you speak of is Mary Pendleton, one of the best and truest friends you +ever had. She was your bridesmaid, don't you remember?" + +Helen shook her head weakly. + +"I have been married, then?" she asked. + +"You were married to James Felderson. Can't you remember him?" I +begged. + +Again she shook her head. "No. It's all gone." She thought hard a +minute, then she asked: "He is dead--my husband?" + +"Yes," I muttered, trying to keep the tears back, "he was killed in the +same accident--" + +"What was he like?" she interrupted. + +"Helen, think!" I cried, fighting blindly against the terror that was +choking me. "Little sister. You must think--_hard_. Jim. Don't you +remember big handsome Jim?" I snatched my watch from my pocket and +opened the back, where I carried a small picture of Jim, taken years +before. I had put it there in boyish admiration when I first knew him. +I held it up in front of her eyes. "You must remember him, Helen!" + +She gazed at the picture with eyes in which there were tears and a +little fright, but not a spark of recognition. Fearing that I was +over-exciting her, I sat close to her and drew as best I could a mental +picture of Jim. I was only half-way through the recital when the door +opened and Doctor Forbes came in. + +"The ten minutes are up, Mr. Thompson." + +I stooped and kissed Helen. + +"Promise that you'll come back to-morrow," she whispered. + +I promised and hurried from the room. Outside the doctor awaited me +questioningly. + +"Her memory is completely gone!" I gasped. + +The doctor patted me on the shoulder sympathetically. + +"We suspected that day before yesterday. I would have told you before, +but thought that your questions might start her memory functioning." + +I gripped him by both arms. "But, Doctor, can nothing be done? Will +she have to--have to begin all over again?" + +"I can't say yet. There may be some pressure there still. We'll have +to wait until she is much stronger before we can tell." + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + +WE PLAN THE DEFENSE + +Helen's loss of memory was the last straw. The shock of finding her +unable to remember the most familiar things was bad enough from a +purely physical standpoint, but when I realized how completely it swept +away all my plans for Helen's defense, how it fastened the guilt on her +poor shoulders, I felt that our case was hopeless indeed. + +I drove to the offices of Simpson and Todd and was lucky enough to find +both of them in. Simpson, a slender man with steel-gray hair and eyes, +at once ordered a closed session to thrash out the whole affair. He +first made me repeat everything I knew about Jim's murder, from the +beginning. Several times he interrupted me, to ask a question, but for +the most part he sat with his back to me, gazing out of the window, the +tips of his fingers to his lips. Half the time I thought he wasn't +listening, until a quick question would show his interest. Todd, on +the contrary, was the picture of attention. He took notes in shorthand +most of the time I was talking. When I had finished, Simpson rose and +came over to me. + +"Let's examine this thing from the start. You have three people who +had a motive for killing Felderson--Zalnitch, Woods and Mrs. Felderson. +Let's take Zalnitch first, for I think suspicion falls the slightest on +him. You say that Felderson helped to convict Zalnitch in the Yellow +Pier case and that he made vague threats against those who had put him +in prison, after he was released. Good! There's a motive and a +threat. He was seen on the same road that Mr. Felderson traveled, a +short time before the murder. All those facts point to Zalnitch's +complicity. But--the bullet that killed Felderson was fired from +behind and above, according to the coroner's statement. Knowing the +average juryman, I should say that we would have to stretch things +pretty far to make him believe that a shot fired from one rapidly +moving automobile at another rapidly moving automobile would ricochet +and kill a man. That's asking a little too much. Also, it is hard to +believe that Schreiber, who was driving the car, would risk a smash-up +to his own car and possible death for himself and party, in order to +try to make Felderson go into the ditch. Then, too, if Zalnitch +recognized Felderson's car, why didn't he fire point-blank at Felderson +instead of waiting till he got past? No! The case against Zalnitch +falls down. We can strike him off the list." + +I hated to give him up, but I had to admit Simpson's logic was +faultless. + +"Now let us take up the case of Woods. Here is a man who threatened +Felderson's life unless he gave his wife a divorce, which you say +Felderson did not intend to do. There, again, is a motive. Woods knew +that Felderson was in possession of certain papers that would ruin him. +There is a stronger motive." He turned to me. "By the way, you have +those papers, haven't you?" + +I hadn't thought of them until that very minute. + +"I don't know where they are right now, but I'm pretty sure I can find +them." + +He nodded. + +"Get hold of them by all means! They may be important to us." He lit +a cigar and threw himself into a chair. + +"Well, let's go on. Woods had all the motive necessary for killing +Felderson. He made a definite engagement with Felderson on the night +of the murder, to meet him at a certain time and place specified by +Woods. That's important. Everything up to that point is as clear as +crystal, yet you say you have positive testimony that Woods was at the +country-club waiting for Felderson at about the time the murder took +place, and Woods claims that he has an absolute alibi. If that is +true, it lets him out." + +"But I'm not sure he was at the country-club at the time the murder +took place," I explained. "I only know he was there just before and +just afterward." + +"What do you know of his movements that night?" Simpson asked. + +"I know he dined there at seven-thirty or thereabouts and that he +ordered a drink at eight twenty-five." + +"And what time was the murder?" + +"Probably about a quarter past eight--the bodies were found at half +past, they say," I answered. + +Simpson shook his head. "I'm afraid his alibi is good. It's cutting +things too fine to think that he could have run six miles and back in +less than half an hour and committed a murder in the bargain. It would +have taken a speedy automobile. Do you know whether he had an +automobile that night?" he queried. + +"I think he did. I can find out in a minute," I added, going to the +telephone. + +I called up the country-club and finally succeeded in getting Jackson +on the wire. Jackson thought Mr. Woods did not have an automobile that +night, because he had gone to town in Mr. Paisley's car. + +"He might have used somebody else's car," Todd suggested. + +Simpson shook his head again. "We're getting clear off the track, now." + +An idea came to me suddenly and I called Up Pickering at the Benefit +Insurance Company. + +"This is Thompson speaking, Pickering," I said. + +"Yes." + +"Do you remember if an automobile passed you on the night of the +Felderson murder, going toward the country-club?" + +"No." + +"Do you mean you don't remember?" + +"No, I remember perfectly. There was only one automobile passed us and +that was the black limousine." + +"You're sure?" I asked. + +"I'm positive, old man. We only saw one car from the time we left +Blandesville, until we reached the city." + +I put up the receiver and sank back in my chair. + +"Well?" Todd flung at me. + +"I'm out of luck!" I responded. + +Simpson rose. "Let's go on. We have crossed off two of our suspects +from the list, let's see--" + +"I'd rather not go on," I interrupted, looking out of the window to +escape Todd's searching eyes. There was a moment's silence, then +Simpson spoke. + +"We'll do our best but it will be a hard fight. If Mrs. Felderson +could only recall what happened that night and before, we might have a +chance, but every woman that has come up for murder during the last few +years, has worked that lost memory gag." + +"But my sister really _has_ lost her memory!" I exclaimed. + +"I know, my dear boy," Simpson soothed. "That is what makes it so +difficult. If she were only shamming now, we could--. But with your +sister as helpless as a child, the prosecuting attorney will so confuse +her, that our case will be lost as soon as she takes the stand." + +"Why put her on at all?" I asked. + +"Because we have to, if we hope to win our case," he replied. "The one +big chance to win your jury comes when your beautiful client testifies." + +For a few minutes he was silent, obviously thinking, and thinking hard. + +"Of course, our defense will have to be temporary insanity," he +declared at last. + +"Oh, not that!" I begged. + +"It's our only chance," Simpson argued, "and I don't mind saying that +it's a pretty poor chance at that. Three years ago it might have been +all right, because a conviction only meant a few months at a +fashionable sanitarium, and then freedom. But when that Truesdale +woman went free, an awful howl went up all over the country and I'm +afraid the next woman who is found, 'guilty but insane,' will be sent +to a real asylum." + +A shudder of horror ran through me. For Helen to be sent to an asylum +while her mind was in its weak state might well mean permanent insanity. + +"You talk to your sister as often as you can and try to help her +recover her lost memory. Of course you'll have the best specialists +examine and prescribe for her. In the meantime, we'll investigate both +the Woods and Zalnitch cases to see if they are hole-proof." + +"You might get those papers on Woods, if you will," Todd reminded me. + +I thanked them and left, greatly depressed but ready to fight to the +last ditch to save Helen's life. The papers dealing with Woods had not +been among Jim's effects when I had looked them over at the office and +I was confident they had not been picked up on the night of the murder, +for they would have been returned to me. Thinking they had probably +been left in one of the pockets of the automobile, and overlooked when +the machine was searched, I decided to run out to the Felderson home +the first thing in the morning. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + +BULLETPROOF + +Jim's car had been moved to his own garage the morning after the +accident, and as I had a pass-key to the place I found it unnecessary +to go to the house at all. Wicks and Annie were taking care of the +establishment until Helen should come home, or the house be sold. + +I opened the door of the garage and shuddered involuntarily as I caught +sight of the wrecked Peckwith-Pierce. It had been more badly smashed +than I had at first supposed. On the night of the murder I saw that +the chassis was twisted and the axle broken, but I had not noticed what +that jolting crash had done to the body of the car. The steering rod +was broken and the cushions were caked with mud. One wheel sagged at a +drunken angle like a lop-ear and the wind-shield was nothing but a +mangled frame. One long gash ran the length of the body, as though it +had scraped against a rock, and this gash ended in a jagged wound the +size of a man's head. In the back were three small splintered holes. + +I examined these with particular interest, wondering what could have +caused them. Evidently the police had neglected to examine the +machine. The sight of what looked like the end of a nail caused me to +drop to my knees and to begin digging frantically at the wood with my +pen-knife. At the end of five feverish minutes I held the prize in my +hand. + +It was a misshapen, steel, "32" rifle bullet. + +In the floor of the car, near where Jim's feet must have been, I found +two more splintered holes, apparently made by the same rifle from which +the shots had been fired into the back of the car. + +Two thoughts flashed through my mind, exuberant assurance that this +latest discovery cleared Helen completely. She couldn't have fired a +rifle from the rear seat of the automobile, nor could she have put +those bullet holes into the back of the car. In my joy that I had +found proof of my sister's innocence, I forgot to speculate on who +could have committed the murder. My second thought was really a +continuation of the first, that I must bring the coroner and Simpson at +once to confirm my discovery. + +I carefully locked the door of the garage, as though fearful some one +would rob me of my find, or that the automobile might move away of its +own volition, then I ran to the house and rang the bell. All the +curtains were drawn and I had about decided there was no one at home, +when, after what seemed an interminable wait, I heard the sound of +footsteps within, and Wicks opened the door. + +"Who'd you expect to see, Wicks, a policeman?" I asked. + +"No, sir. One of those blarsted reporters, sir." + +"Poor old Wicksy," I sympathized. "Well, it'll soon be over now. I +want to use the telephone." + +I ran down the hall to the table where I knew the telephone to be, and +called up Simpson. He promised he would come right up. + +The coroner demurred for a moment, pleading important business, but +when he heard I had proof that would clear Mrs. Felderson, he, too, +promised to be with me in a few minutes. + +Wicks, who had been listening, was so excited that he momentarily +forgot himself and clutched me by the arm as I put down the receiver. + +"Is it true, sir, that you can prove Mrs. Felderson 'ad nothing to do +with it?" he gasped. + +"Truest thing you know, Wicks!" + +"I fear I'm going to act unseemly, sir. I feel like yelling, 'ip, 'ip, +sir." Then he noticed he had me by the arm and hastily murmured +apology. + +"That's all right, Wicksy, old top. Go as far as you like," I cried. +"I'm so happy and relieved I could kiss the Kaiser." + +"You surely wouldn't do that, sir," Wicks reproved. + +"All right, Wicks. I guess it's not being done this year." + +The butler turned to leave but stopped at the door to say: "Mr. Woods +called about a week ago, sir." + +"What did he want?" I demanded. + +"He stated as 'ow 'e was after some papers concerning a business deal +that 'e and Mr. Felderson were interested in." + +In the excitement over my discovery, I had completely forgotten the +real errand that had brought me to the house. + +"What did you tell him, Wicks?" + +"I told 'im that you had charge of all Mr. Felderson's effects, sir, +and that he could probably obtain them from you," the butler replied. + +"That was right. Did he leave after that?" + +"Shortly after that, sir," Wicks answered. "But first he asked for the +key to the garage, sayin' that 'e would like to hinspect the auto." + +"Did you give it to him?" I snapped. + +"Y-yes, sir. I saw no 'arm in that, sir." + +I ran to the garage and quickly searched the broad pockets of Jim's +car. The portfolio was not there. I hurried toward the house to ask +Wicks if Woods had had any papers with him when he returned the garage +key, but slackened my pace before I had gone half-way. After all, it +made very little difference. The evidence had only been gathered to +keep Helen with her husband. Now, since that was no longer an issue, +what did it matter if Woods had stolen the proofs of his own +dishonesty. True, Simpson and Todd had asked me to get them, but I +felt that they had urged the importance of those papers more to give me +something to do than for any real need of them. + +Just then an automobile came up the drive and Simpson jumped out. He +was gravely skeptical until I led him into the garage and showed him +the bullet holes; then he was enthusiastic. He examined the back of +the car minutely, and at the end of his scrutiny he turned to me. + +"I'm not at all sure that we were justified in giving Zalnitch a clean +bill of health so soon. It is just possible he had a lot more to do +with this than we supposed." + +While we were talking the coroner drove up. He took the bullet I had +extracted from the back of the car and looked at it as though he +expected to find its owner's name etched on it, after which he examined +the holes in the back of the car and in the foot-board. Then I eagerly +related our suspicions against Zalnitch, but he shook his head. + +"This would seem to clear Mrs. Felderson but it also makes it look as +though every other suspect is innocent. Look at these holes in the +floor! The bullets that lodged there must have been fired from above. +Also you will notice there are three bullet holes in the back of the +car and two in the foot-board, besides the shot that killed Mr. +Felderson. Unless your friends, the Socialists, were carrying a young +armory with them, they could never have fired that many shots in the +short space of time that it took Mr. Felderson to pass them. I should +say that it would take a man from--well, from fifteen to thirty +seconds, at least, to fire six shots at _any_ target, and before that +time, the automobile would have been out of range." + +"He might have used an automatic rifle," I interposed. + +The coroner took off his hat and rubbed the bald spot on the back of +his head. + +"That is possible," he admitted, "but it doesn't explain how those +bullet holes got into the floor. There might have been a struggle and +the gun discharged into the floor that way." + +"That doesn't explain the holes in the back of the car," I objected, +fearing that they would again go back to the theory that Helen was +responsible. + +"The holes in the foot-board seem to me positive proof that the shots +were fired from above," Simpson argued. "Are there any buildings or +trees along that road where the murderer might have stationed himself +and waited for Felderson to come along?" + +"There are no buildings," I replied, "but there must be trees in the +vicinity of that stream." + +"That sounds as though it might bring results," Simpson said. +"Thompson, suppose you take the coroner out there and see what you can +find. In the meantime I'll start proceedings to quash that indictment +against Mrs. Felderson." + +The coroner insisted he was due at an inquest that very moment, but +would go with me in the afternoon. As we walked toward the cars, +Simpson asked me if I had found the papers dealing with Woods' case, +and I told him I thought Woods had stolen them and repeated the +information Wicks had given me. + +"I don't think we shall need them, fortunately," Simpson replied. +"Todd saw Woods last night. He's making a frantic effort to raise +money and came to him, among others. He says that Woods can clear +himself of all connection with the crime. Men who were with him that +night can testify he didn't leave the club. By the way, Woods hasn't +approached you, has he?" + +"No," I laughed, "he knows I have no money, and if I had I wouldn't +give it to him." + +After they had left, I decided to go out to the Blandesville bridge and +do a little preliminary scouting on my own. Eager for Mary's company, +and wishing to tell her the glorious news that was to clear Helen, I +drove to the hospital, only to find that Mary had not been there and +Helen was asleep; so I drove on to Mary's, hoping to find her home. + +"Miss Pendleton is just going out, but I will ask if she will see you," +the maid informed me. + +I stepped into the living-room and picked up a magazine. As I took it +in my hand it fell open to a story entitled, "Who Murdered Merryvale?" +I looked at one of the illustrations and quickly laid the magazine +down, conscious that I'd never again read a mystery story built around +a tragic death. Then I heard Mary's light step pattering down the +stairs and turned to greet her. She was dressed in a smart, +semi-military costume which she had worn while a volunteer chauffeur +during the war, and she looked simply radiant. + +"Mary, we've made certain discoveries which absolutely clear Helen of +suspicion," I cried, taking her hands in mine. I told her of my find +of the morning, and watched her eyes widen with joy and surprise. "So, +while we haven't found out yet who murdered Jim, we know that Helen had +no part in it." + +Mary was thinking hard about something, but she recalled herself +quickly, and said: + +"Oh! It's wonderful, Bupps, simply _wonderful_!" + +"I'm going out to the Blandesville bridge to do a little sleuthing on +my own hook. Can you come with me?" + +"I'm sorry, but I can't, Warren. I have another engagement," she +answered. + +"Some other man?" I asked, disappointed and a bit jealous. + +"Yes." + +"Is it that young Davis?" + +She shook her head. + +"It's some one you don't like very well." + +"That's natural," I replied. "I don't love any of my rivals. Who is +it?" + +"Promise you won't say anything if I tell you who it is?" + +"Of course I won't say anything," I said a little haughtily. "You have +a perfect right to go with any one you care to." + +"It's Frank Woods." + +"Mary," I gasped, "do you mean to say you'd be seen with that man, +after what he did to Jim?" + +"Now, Bupps, you promised not to say anything." + +"I know--but this is different. Do you think I'll stand quietly by and +see that man make a fool of you as he did of Helen? Do you think I'll +let that--that rake make love to you?" + +"He's not going to make love to me!" Mary answered with some asperity. + +"That's what you think. That's what Helen thought and Jim thought. +That's what all of them think when he starts. Do you know what he +wants to do? He asked you to go out with him so he could try to borrow +money of you, to save his rotten hide." + +"But, Bupps, he didn't ask me to go riding with him. I asked him to +take me." + +"You asked him to take you?" I cried. + +"Don't talk so loud, Bupps! The people on the street will hear you." + +If there was anything she could have said that would have made me +angrier than I already was, it was that. + +"I'm not talking loud," I shouted, "and what if I do? The people on +the street may hear me, but they will _see_ you with Frank Woods, which +is a hundred times worse. Why, it is as much as a girl's reputation is +worth to be seen alone with him." + +"I'll take care of my reputation," she replied coldly. + +"You think you will," I said, flinging myself into a chair. + +"Warren! Do you know that's insulting?" Mary exclaimed angrily. +"You're acting like a schoolboy. I have good reasons for wanting to go +out with Frank Woods." + +"Reasons!" I sneered. + +She went into the hall and I followed. + +"Mary, I don't know what your reasons are, and I don't care. I'm not +going to have that man making love to you. Either you don't go out +with him, or I quit." + +Mary turned and looked me straight in the eyes. + +"What do you mean?" she asked. + +"Any girl who is Frank Woods' friend, after the mess he stirred up in +my family, isn't my friend." + +Mary's face was white, but her little chin was set determinedly. + +"That's just as you wish," she said, and ran up-stairs. + +I picked up my hat and gloves and left the house. + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + +THE ANSWER + +The coroner and I drove out to the bridge that afternoon and I must +admit I was mighty poor company. Mary's unreasonableness, her stupid +obstinacy, when she knew she was wrong and I was right, her willingness +to break our friendship at the first opportunity, gave me little room +to think of anything else. + +That she should risk her reputation to run after that man was +inexplicable, but it was just like a woman. Show them a place they +must not go or a man they must not see and they will sacrifice life, +liberty and everybody else's happiness to satisfy their curiosity. It +has been true from Pandora to Pankhurst. + +Well, if she could get along without me, I could get along without her. +I'm the easiest going person in the world, but when it comes to +allowing the girl you are practically engaged to, to make a fool of +herself over another man, I won't stand for it. I knew she would +probably come to me afterward and say she was sorry and she didn't +know, but I made up my mind that she would have to give me an awfully +good reason for her sudden interest in Frank Woods before I would +forgive her. + +These thoughts held my attention all the way out. Now and again I +would be recalled from my gloom by some question from the coroner. He +was trying to solve the problem of who murdered Jim and I am sure he +must have thought it strange that I was so preoccupied. + +As we neared the bridge, I noticed again how scant the vegetation was +on both sides of the road. Any one wishing to murder Jim would have +been able to see him coming for at least a half-mile. On the left of +the road was clay soil, sparsely covered with weeds and shrubs, while a +half-mile away could be seen the thirteenth hole of the country-club +golf links. + +When we reached the crest of the hill leading down to the bridge, our +eyes at once caught sight of a tall maple tree, on the right-hand side +of the road and about two hundred yards from it. + +As he saw it the coroner gave a grunt of satisfaction. + +"There's our tree." + +We stopped the car and scrambled through the thorny bushes that lined +the road. The ground was hard clay with only burdock and weeds growing +on it. There was nothing that would lead us to believe that any one +had been there before. When we reached the tree, the coroner examined +the ground around it carefully. When he arose he seemed disappointed. + +"What did you expect to find here?" I asked. + +"I didn't know what we might find. If the man who fired those shots +used this tree, I thought we might find an empty cartridge or two. +There ought to be at least some broken twigs or something to show that +he was up there, but I find nothing at all." + +"Still, the fact that the tree is where it is, makes the theory +plausible." + +He shook his head. "No. Now that I've seen how far we are from the +road I don't think it does. Those bullet holes in the back of the car +were fired from above and behind the machine. They slanted down but +not sidewise. If a tree had been at the very side of the road, our +theory would be acceptable, but if the murderer used this tree, two +hundred yards from the road, he would have started firing before the +car came opposite, with the probability that the holes would have been +found in the side of the car. I'm sorry, for when I saw this tree, I +thought we'd struck the right track." + +"There's one thing I can't make out," I stated, "and that is the +strange cry of my sister in her delirium. 'Look out, Jim! It's going +to hit us,' she called out, and I would be willing to swear it had +something to do with the murder." + +The coroner thought a moment, then turned to me. + +"What else did she say?" + +"Nothing that seemed to refer to the accident. All the rest was +apparently delirium. She begged forgiveness for some fancied wrong, +and repeated that a certain man was not guilty of dishonesty. But her +first weird cry had to do with the murder, I'm sure." + +We walked back toward the road together. High overhead we heard the +droning of an aeroplane and we both stopped to gaze at it. Suddenly +the coroner clapped me on the shoulder. + +"I've got it!" + +"What do you mean?" I asked, bewildered. + +"An aeroplane, man! Who owns an aeroplane around here?" + +"I don't know. There are several at the aviation grounds. What's that +got to do with it?" + +"Everything! Don't you see? The bullets fired from above and behind. +The number of bullets fired. Those two bullet holes in the foot-board +of the car--everything points to an aeroplane. It was done a hundred, +yes, a thousand times in the war. While I was over there with my +hospital unit we used to get a lot of cases of motorcycle despatch +riders who had been picked off by German aviators. They machine-gunned +moving trains and military automobiles. It is one of the simplest +tricks of a pilot's repertoire. Has Woods an aeroplane?" + +"He was a military pilot in the French army and is the head of an +aeroplane firm, but I don't think he has an aeroplane here." + +"He could get one easy enough." + +"The clever devil! Look over there! He had the broad sweep of the +golf course as a perfect landing ground and this road hasn't a tree on +it for a mile. He could have come down within fifty feet of the ground +and followed that car, pumping bullets into it all the way. He had +absolutely everything in his favor." + +For a moment I saw red as I pictured Jim, helpless before approaching +death. I could imagine Helen's agony as she saw that dim black shape +come closer and closer and screamed in her terror, "Look out, Jim! +It's going to hit us." + +"Yes, but how are we going to prove it?" I asked. + +"That's up to us now. An aeroplane has such speed that it was easy for +Woods to fashion an ingenious alibi to account for every minute of his +time on the night of the murder, but there must be some holes in it; +there always is in a manufactured alibi. I want you to go over to the +country-club and check up Mr. Woods' schedule of that night while I +examine the golf links to see if he landed there." + +We jumped into my car and drove rapidly to the club. I went into the +house by the back way to avoid meeting people and asked for Jackson. + +"Jackson, what time did Mr. Woods get out here on the evening Mr. +Felderson was killed?" + +"Ah espect he got heah 'bout six o'clock, Mistuh Thompson," the negro +replied. + +"Did you see him at that time?" + +"Did Ah see him at dat time? Le'me see? Why, no, suh, Ah don' think +Ah did." + +"When was the first time you did see him, Jackson?" + +"Ah guess it was at dinnah time, suh. He was heah den." + +"You're sure he was here all through dinner?" I asked. + +"Yes, suh! He must hab been, 'cause he ohdahd dinnah." + +"What time was he through dinner, do you know?" + +The darky scratched his head. "Ah reckon it war just befoh he ohdahd +me ter bring him dat drink." + +"And he was here all that time?" I demanded. + +"Yes, suh! He was right heah." + +"Where did he sit?" + +"Lemme see. Ah recollec' now, he ask me speshul fo' dat table ovah +yondah by de winder." + +"Can you find the boy that waited on that table that night?" + +The old darky hurried away, but came back presently leading a scared +yellow boy by the sleeve. + +"Now, Geoge Henry, you-all quit youah contrahiness an' ansuh de +genleman's questions o' Ah 'low Ah whup you." + +"George, did you wait on that table over there by the window two weeks +ago?" + +"Ya-yas, suh! Ah ben waitin' on dat table fo' mo'n a month." + +"Do you remember waiting on Mr. Frank Woods two weeks ago last Thursday +night?" I asked. + +The boy was trembling. He rolled frightened eyes toward Jackson who +was glaring at him. Finally he broke into a wail. "Oh! Pappy +Jackson, da's all Ah knows. He tell me he go to de bah an' ef'n +anybuddy ask whah he go dat night to sen' em in dah." + +"Just tell me what you know, George!" I said, motioning the angry +Jackson away. + +"He--he set down at de table but he ain't eat none," the boy stuttered. + +"What do you mean, George?" + +"He sit down an' look out de winder. Ah brung him some soup but he got +up powful sudden, lak he had a call to de telephome, an' he ain't come +back." + +"Are you sure of that, George?" + +"Yas, suh, Ah ast him did he want dinnah aftah he come back but he say +he ain't hongry." + +"What time was it when he came back?" I asked. + +"Ha'f past eight, suh." + +I gave the boy a dollar and he went away happy. Jackson had a sheepish +look on his face. + +"Then Mr. Woods wasn't here all through dinner, Jackson?" + +"Drat dat boy, he make me out a liah fo' a dollah," he grinned. + +"Are you sure, absolutely sure, that you saw Mr. Woods at half past +eight?" I questioned. + +"Yas, suh! You cain't catch me up no mo'. I saw Mistuh Woods at eight +twenty-fahv exackly." + +I handed him a bill and went into the bar. Grogan, the old bartender +was there alone. + +"Grogan, do you remember who was in the bar between seven-thirty and +eight-thirty on the night of the Felderson murder?" + +"Only one or two of the gentlemen, sir. There was Mr. Farnsworth and +Mr. Brown and I think Mr. Woods." + +"Are you sure Mr. Woods was in here?" + +"Well, no, sir, not exactly. I remember Mr. Farnsworth and Mr. Brown. +There were probably some others. The reason I think Mr. Woods was here +was because he called my attention to the fact a few nights after the +murder. There were a few gentlemen in here and they were talking of +Mr. Felderson's death. Mr. Woods said, in view of the fact that the +murderer hadn't been found, almost any one might be accused. Some one +asked him if he was worried--we all knew, sir, that Mr. Felderson and +Mr. Woods were not very friendly--and Mr. Woods laughed and said that +fortunately he had a perfect alibi and called my attention to the fact +that he was in here at about the time the crime was committed." + +"And you're not sure that he was?" I asked. + +"Oh, his alibi is good of course, because he was around the club all +that evening. I guess he was here and I don't remember it." + +I shook hands with him and left. + +Far out on the golf links the coroner was bending over, examining +something on the ground. When I reached him he grabbed me by the +sleeve and pointed to two barely discernible tracks paralleling each +other for almost a hundred yards. Between them ran a shallow, jagged +rut, where the spade of an aeroplane had dug up the turf. + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + +THE MECHANICIAN + +"We've got it! We're on the trail at last!" I exclaimed. "I just +found out at the club that Woods left his dinner hurriedly and was not +seen again until twenty-five minutes past eight." + +"We've got to go slow," cautioned the coroner. "A man who is ingenious +enough to devise this means of murdering a man won't be tripped up for +lack of a perfect alibi." + +"I've found what that is too. He has the bartender at the club half +believing that he was in the bar at the time the murder was committed." +I told him briefly what I had discovered. + +"See!" the coroner pointed out. "If they bring him into court, the +bartender won't be able to swear he wasn't in the bar and the short +time that he was absent will convince the jury that Woods is telling +the truth and that our theory is all bunk." + +"But we're not going to leave things as they stand, just when we are +hot on the trail. What do we do now?" + +"I'm of the opinion that there is a short-cut to the solution of the +whole affair. Woods must have had a mechanician with him on the night +of the murder." + +"What makes you think that?" I asked rather impatiently. + +"Because we know Woods came back to the club immediately after the +murder and played cards the rest of the evening. He returned to the +city in another man's car; obviously, then, some one else must have +taken the aeroplane back to its hangar, since it would have caused too +much comment had it been on the links in the morning. Our plan, then, +is to find that mechanician and bribe or threaten him into telling the +truth. If Woods hasn't got rid of him, he ought to be around the +aviation grounds. We must wait until we are certain Woods is not there +before trying to see our man." + +"Then there is no better time than right now, for I know Woods is +taking a certain young lady automobiling this afternoon." + +"Let's go quickly then," exclaimed the coroner. + +We climbed into the car and sped toward the city. Since Eastbrook is +on the aerial postal route, we have a well-equipped aviation field just +outside the city. Several of our younger set with special sporting +proclivities have taken up aerial joy-riding since the war, so that +there is always a group of mechanicians and hangers-on around the field. + +I proposed to the coroner that we stop for Simpson and he agreed. When +Simpson heard who it was he came down at once. As we sped toward the +aerodrome I told him of our findings of the afternoon. He was +astounded. + +"You know, I'll hand it to the man who thought up that scheme. That's +the cleverest piece of work I ever heard of, if your theories are +correct and he really did do it." + +"What makes you think Woods didn't do it?" I questioned. + +"Not a thing," Simpson answered, "only I didn't know Woods kept a plane +in Eastbrook. Of course, it would be easy enough for him to get one. +Lord! Think of the possibilities it opens up. It fairly takes your +breath away. Automobile bandits aren't in it. Imagine trying to cope +with a gang of thieves who add an aeroplane to their kit of tools. +Suppose they decide to rob the Guarantee Trust Company of New York or +Tiffany's. The robbery itself would be the simplest part of the thing. +It is getting the swag away that worries the criminals. Suppose they +pull this robbery off and the police put a net around the city to guard +against their escape. Mr. Thief and his gang sail away calmly over the +heads of the police. Think of your diamond smugglers! Why, that big +British dirigible could have flooded the American market with diamonds +and laughed in the face of the customs authorities. I say it gets you." + +"Yes, but in the meantime, we get Mr. Woods," I said grimly. + +"Don't be too sure of that!" Simpson warned. "The man who thinks up +such a scientific way of murdering people isn't going to be an easy man +to catch." + +Memories of big whole-hearted Jim came to my mind and I swore I would +get Woods if I had to hang for it. Woods--murderer of Jim, after +stealing his wife away, and now making love to Mary Pendleton, putting +his bloody hands on her! The thought almost drove me mad. + +We stopped our machine at the entrance to the field and walked toward +the hangars. Three aeroplanes were out, being tuned up. They looked +like birds, ready to take wing at the slightest disturbance. The +coroner walked over to one of the helpers. + +"Can you direct me to the hangar Mr. Frank Woods uses?" + +"Woods?" the man repeated with a puzzled frown. "I don't remember any +such machine here. I know most of 'em, but I don't think any Woods has +a machine here. Wait! I'll ask Bill. He'd know if any one did." + +He walked over to a group of mechanicians and returned in a moment. + +"It's the last one down. He ain't had a machine here only two weeks. +That's the reason I didn't know the name." + +We thanked him and started for the other end of the field. A pilot +climbed into one of the machines. Two mechanicians spun the propeller +and the engine sputtered and roared. The plane wabbled and swayed +drunkenly out on to the field, then as the roar increased, it gathered +speed and was off. + +At the door of the Woods hangar, a red-haired mechanic of powerful +build was cleaning and oiling some delicate-looking piece of mechanism. +He looked up with a questioning frown as we approached, then became +engrossed again in his work. + +"Is this where Mr. Woods keeps his aeroplane?" the coroner asked. + +"Un-hu," grunted the mechanician, continuing with his work. + +"Mr. Woods isn't here, is he?" + +"No," was the laconic reply. + +"Are you Mr. Woods' mechanician?" + +"One of 'em," the red one responded. + +"How many has he?" + +"Three." + +"Are the others about?" continued the coroner. + +"One of 'em is," said the mechanic, "and he just loves to answer fool +questions." + +The coroner laughed. "Excuse me, my friend, but I am in need of some +important information. Will you tell me which one of the mechanicians +was with Mr. Woods when he visited the country-club two weeks ago last +Thursday night?" + +The mechanic scrambled to his feet and advanced toward the coroner, his +face twisted with passion. For a moment I thought he was going to +attack us, but he stopped a foot in front of the coroner and snarled: +"I don't know who you are, nor what you are, nor what you want, but I +ain't no information bureau--See? So git t' hell out o' here if you +know what's good for you!" With that he turned and disappeared inside +the hangar. + +We looked at one another. The signs seemed propitious. + +"Would it do any good to try to bribe him?" I asked. + +"You can try it if you want to; I don't care for the job," Simpson +smiled. + +"No," the coroner interposed. "He was with Woods that night and he +won't talk." + +"Shouldn't we get the police?" suggested Simpson. + +"That wouldn't do any good," the coroner replied. "Wait a minute! I +think I've got it." And with that he went inside. + +Above us we heard the hum of a plane. We turned to watch it dip and +glide and loop, in the afternoon sunlight. The sun, catching its +wings, made it stand out against the blue sky like some fiery +dragon-fly. It flew up, turned a somersault and nose-dived for a +thousand feet, swung around in a wide circle, flew across the field at +about four hundred feet, circled again and slid downward. Closer and +closer it came to the ground, until the horizon was lost and it seemed +to be gliding along the earth itself at terrific speed. Finally it +nosed up, touched the earth, bounced away as though it were a rubber +ball, touched again, and at last came to a stop within a hundred yards +of where we were standing. + +A girl climbed from it, and with a sickening clutch at my heart I +recognized who it was. Mary had been aeroplaning with Woods instead of +automobiling as I had supposed. At the sight of her, laughing gaily at +some witticism that Woods made as they walked across the field toward +us, my head spun with hatred and jealousy of the man. + +I had no time to observe more, for there were angry shouts within the +hangar and the coroner came bounding out, with the red-haired +mechanician close behind him. The coroner had in his hand what looked +like an iron crow-bar, and as the mechanician caught him, this bar +became the center of the struggle. We hurried to the coroner's aid, +but before we could reach him, the mechanician gave him a vicious kick +in the stomach that sent him sprawling and helpless. With a curse, the +mechanic picked up the tool they had been struggling for and dashed +back into the hangar. + +The coroner lay writhing where he had fallen, and could not speak. His +breath was completely knocked out. We pumped his arms until at last he +was able to gasp: "Get that----! Get that----!" + +"It looks as though you had a little disagreement here," a laughing +voice sounded behind us. "This isn't at all my idea of a hospitable +reception for my guests." + +We all turned to look into the smiling face of Woods. As we helped the +coroner to his feet and began brushing him off Woods continued: +"Gentlemen, if you are going to present me with the key to the city, +please make it as unostentatious as possible." His smile still +continued, but there was an odd glint in his eyes. Mary had left his +side and was walking away. She had evidently seen me and did not want +to speak to me. + +The coroner cleared his throat. "Mr. Woods, I'm not here to make any +presentation speeches. I am here to accuse you of the murder of James +Felderson." + +Not for an instant did the smile leave Frank Woods' face, nor did his +expression change. He looked us over calmly and slowly and then he +said: "Why, that is very interesting, but you seem to forget that I +have already been accused of that murder once." + +"You were accused on mere suspicion before, but now we have the proof." + +The red-haired mechanic sauntered out of the doorway and walked over +toward the aeroplane. Behind him followed another youth with a bunch +of waste in his hand. The coroner pointed to the former. + +"I had the machine gun with which you did the murder until your man +there kicked me in the stomach and jerked it away from me. It's in the +hangar now. But we don't need the gun, we've got enough evidence +without it to convict you." + +Woods looked us over carefully. He was by far the calmest one of the +party. + +"Gentlemen, I have already sent to the papers a statement that I am +able to produce testimony as to my whereabouts during every minute of +the night when James Felderson was killed. When the trial comes, I +shall produce that testimony. If you think that machine gun is any +proof against me, just step inside and I'll show you that it is of an +entirely different caliber from the gun that killed Felderson." + +We hesitated for a second, I think because of the brazen effrontery, +the splendid calmness of the man. A doubt began to form in my mind as +to whether he had anything to do with the murder at all. Woods noticed +my hesitation and turning to me said with a smile: "Surely you aren't +afraid of me, Thompson, when you so readily trust me with both your +sister and your fiancée." + +I longed with all my soul to hit the man between the eyes, to crush +that half-sneering smile into his face with my heel, but I let the +insult pass and followed the others inside. + +"Here is the machine gun, gentlemen. If you will notice, it is a 36 +caliber and not a 32 at all. If you will wait one minute, I'll get you +the magazine. That will prove it to you beyond a doubt." + +He left the hangar and the coroner picked up the gun. + +"I could have sworn that the gun I had hold of was a 32. The barrel +seems too small for a 36. Why, look here! This _is_ a 32. Here is +the caliber marked on it." + +From outside came the sputter and crack of an aeroplane engine. +Simpson caught it first and dashed to the door. + +"It's Woods' plane. He's going to escape." + +We ran out of the hangar and across the field toward the aeroplane +which, by now, was enveloped in blue vapor. Before we had gone +half-way, it was taxi-cabbing across the field, careening first to one +side and then to the other. Suddenly it swerved and turned in our +direction. We stood there, a little breathless, to see what it would +do. The engines of the plane droned higher as it came toward us. + +Suddenly Simpson clutched my arm and yelled: "Look out! he's trying to +run us down." + +I ran wildly to one side of the field, not daring to look back but only +trying to reach a place of safety. The sound of the engines came +crashing to my ears like the staccato roar of a hundred machine guns. +My legs felt as if they were lead. I seemed to be standing still. One +frightened glance over my shoulder showed the machine, like some +monstrous vulture, bearing down on me. I could feel it gaining and +gaining. The heavy drone of the engines seemed to fill the air with +its noise. A pitiful sense of helplessness gripped me. I knew I was +going to die like a rat in the jaws of a fox terrier. I screamed aloud +in my terror and pitched headlong on the turf. With a roar, and a rush +of wind that almost lifted me from the ground, the aeroplane passed +over me, its wheels no more than four feet from my head. + +I am not sure to this day, whether Frank Woods tried to kill me or not. +I don't know whether he was cheated of his game when I stumbled and the +speed of his motor carried the plane off the ground, or whether he was +just trying to put the fear of God in me. I will swear, however, that +as the motor passed over my head, I heard Frank Woods' voice raised in +a demoniacal laugh. + +As the drum of the motor passed and I knew that I was safe for the +moment, I raised my head to see if the devil should be planning to come +back. With joy I saw he had risen to the height of fifteen or twenty +feet. Suddenly the plane swooped up as though Woods were trying to +loop. For a second it tipped sidewise like a cat boat reeling over in +the wind, and then there was the sound of splintering wood and tearing +silk, and the plane crashed miserably to the ground. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + +RED CAPITULATES + +We hurried over to the smashed plane, the coroner leading. Woods, in +his effort to run me down, had forgotten the telegraph wires at the end +of the field. Too late, he had seen them and vainly tried to lift his +machine clear of them. The wires had caught a wing and sent him +crashing to the earth. + +We found him underneath the engine, quite dead, the fall having killed +him instantly. We made an improvised litter out of one of the wings +and carried him to the nearest hangar. As we placed an overcoat over +the shapeless form, I heard a sniffle behind me and found the +red-haired mechanician at my side. + +"You didn't get him, you dirty cops. He got away from you, after all." + +"Yes, he's safe now," I murmured. + +"Sure! An' he would 'a' been always if he hadn't been daff' over +women. He never had no luck when he played the women. His takin' that +skirt out this afternoon was what give him the hoodoo." + +The coroner came over to him. + +"Now that we can't get him, will you tell us about the night Mr. Woods +killed Mr. Felderson?" + +The mechanic showed himself distinctly hostile to the coroner. + +"Oh, no you don't, you fly cop! Think I'll spill the beans and get +meself in Dutch? You can go to hell!" + +"I'll promise you won't be prosecuted if you will tell us what happened +that night." + +He looked us over suspiciously, but apparently reassured, he said: +"Well, that's fair enough, especially since I didn't have nothin' to do +with the croakin', although I know pretty much how it happened. + +"The boss there come over to the plant--the International plant, you +know--about two weeks ago and had me bring that plane out there over +here. We always got along together, the boss and me. Wasn't pals or +anything like that, but we understood each other. I'd seen, for a +couple of months, that the boss had somethin' on his mind. I knew it +wasn't any jane, because they never worried him none. He worried them +a lot, but somehow he just took 'em as they come. He talked with me +some--he claimed I was the best mechanician he had over there,--and I +figured it out at last that what he was worryin' about was money. He +spent a lot, an' was free an' easy, an' it worried him to figure that +he was goin' to go bu'st pretty soon. The first day I was here, he +brought a woman out, a swell looker--I didn't find out till afterwards +that it was Felderson's wife--an' he kinda kidded her along about +helpin' him over the rough spots by lendin' him a little of her dough. +I sort of figured out he was goin' to run off with the woman, 'cause +the next morning he come out and said we could take a month's lay-off +if we wanted to, as he was goin' on his honeymoon. I thought he was +goin' to take me along, but when he said that, I made up my mind to +beat it back to the plant to keep from goin' bugs watchin' them other +guys callin' theirselves mechanics, tinkerin' around them other busses +when they didn't know their job. It's a darn wonder more of these fool +dudes out here ain't been killed. + +"Somethin' must 'a' slipped up, because he come out late that afternoon +cussin' like the devil. He had one whale of a temper when he got +started, the boss did. He took me with him in the buss and we cruised +around the country for a while. Every time he spotted a straight +stretch of road without too many trees, he'd come down and look it +over. Finally we found that straight stretch of road out by the golf +links at the country-club, an' that must 'a' suited him 'cause that was +the only place we come to after that. He mounted that machine gun in +there on the plane, an' it was then I decided he was a-goin' to slip +somepin over on somebody. He didn't take me with him after that, but +two or three times when he come into the field he'd swoop down on that +there square target he made and put over in the corner and I'd hear the +ratti-tat-tat of that machine gun a-goin'. I ast him what was he goin' +to do with it an' he said: 'We're a-goin' out one of these nights and +kill a skunk.' + +"The afternoon of the night we went out to the country-club he come out +here, kind of excited, but cool, if you know what I mean. You could +see they was somethin' on his mind, but just the same he had his head +with him every minute. Get me? He told me, as soon as it begin to get +dusk, to take the plane out to the country-club and land on the links, +about a half a mile from the club house, an' when I got there to flash +my pocket lamp, until I see him light a cigarette on the club-house +porch. I done as he told me, an' he come out. He wasn't dressed in a +jumper, but just had a cap an' a rain-coat over his clothes. He told +me to stay there, and after I started the engine, he streaked away. He +left about eight o'clock and was back in fifteen minutes. He slipped +me a fifty and told me to take the plane back an' to forgit 'at I'd +brought it out. I ast him had he killed his skunk an' he laughed an' +said, 'I made him pretty sick anyway.' I'd told the boys to have the +flares out at the park as I was a-goin' to test the machine, so I +didn't have no trouble in landin'." + +He stopped and rolled a cigarette. + +"That's all you know, is it?" the coroner asked. + +"That's all I know, so help me Henry--but ain't it enough?" + +He looked around at the three of us who had been listening intently to +his story. + +"I should say it is," said Simpson. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + +I LISTEN TO MY FOREBEARS + +Helen had come home. She preferred living with mother and myself, +rather than opening up Jim's house, which she had been told belonged to +her. Yes, her memory of past events was still gone, and each night I +sat with her and repeated bits here and there of the experiences through +which she had lived. Every now and then a thought would come to her and +she would be able to fill in parts of the narrative, but this was +seldom. In a way, it was fortunate, for I was able to leave out all the +sordid details of her past and give her only the recollections worth +keeping. As soon as she is quite strong, Doctor Forbes is going to +reconstruct the tragedy for her, and he says he has every reason to +believe that he will be successful in restoring her memory. In the +meantime, she is entirely happy and content, and more beautiful than +ever. + +Mary had not spoken to me for a month. Somehow we could not get +together. I realized how hasty and peremptory I had been in commanding +her not to go with Woods, and I tried in a thousand different ways to +make her realize that I was sorry. Whenever I found we were to be +invited to the same dance or supper party, I lay awake half the night +before, planning how I would approach her; what she would say and what I +would say. It was a delightful game to play, because I always came out +the victor. I made her say and do just the things that would make a +reconciliation easy, but when we actually met, it was vastly different. + +We were both invited to the Rupert-Smiths' ball, and I made up my mind +that before the evening was over, I would be back in her good graces, on +the same old footing. As much as I hated being treated like a younger +brother, it was far better than being treated like a stepchild. + +As soon as I saw her come into the ballroom, I hurried toward her, but +at that moment the orchestra began a fox-trot and she whirled away in +the arms of young Davis, smiling into his face as though she adored him. +Davis holds a girl so tightly that it is actually indecent, but she +seemed to enjoy it. + +I was by her side, almost before the music stopped, but she turned away +without looking in ray direction and, literally hanging on Davis' arm, +made her way from the ballroom. + +I finally caught her alone while she was waiting for some yokel to get +her a glass of punch. + +"Mary, may I have a dance?" I blurted out. + +"I'm sorry, Mr. Thompson, but my program is full," she answered +sweetly--too sweetly. + +"But there aren't any programs," I insisted. + +"Nor have I any dances left," she countered. + +"Mary, I'm awfully sorry--" + +"Oh! There you are, Mr. Steel," she laughed over my shoulder, "I almost +thought you had forgotten me." I fled, leaving that ass, Steel, cooing +the most puerile rot about how he couldn't forget her and so forth. + +I called up Anne McClintock before the McClintock dinner and begged her +as my guardian angel to put me next to Mary. She agreed on condition +that she could put that Sterns woman, the parlor Bolshevic, on the other +side of me. I consented, and through the entire dinner, Mary talked to +old Grandfather McClintock about the labor disputes although she doesn't +know the difference between a strike-out and a lock-out. She actually +seemed perfectly contented to shout into that old man's ear all evening, +though I did everything to get her attention except spill my plate in +her lap. Afterward I heard her telling that Sterns woman what a +charming couple we'd make. I tried to call on Mary twice and both times +she was out--to me. + +Finally people began to see that there was a serious difference between +us and they avoided inviting us to small parties together, so that I saw +her at only the largest, most formal and most stupid functions. + +I had told Helen one day that I would be late to dinner on account of an +important case. About three o'clock in the afternoon, however, I found +that a certain book I needed was at the house, so I jumped into the car +and went up after it. Mary's electric was out in front. For a moment I +contemplated flight, Mary so obviously disliked me, but being determined +that no girl in the world could keep me from going where I pleased, I +trotted up the steps. + +The door opened just as I reached the porch, and disclosed Mary hastily +saying "Good-by" to Helen. The sight of her leaving, so as to avoid +meeting me, angered me and some piratical old forebear of mine came down +from above or came up from below at that moment and perched on my right +shoulder. + +"Treat 'em rough!" he whispered. + +I hurried over to the door, walked in and slammed it after me. + +Helen laughed and said: "Warren, dear, aren't you getting noisy?" + +"Helen," I said, "will you please go into the other room?" + +"Helen, stay here!" Mary ordered. + +"I shall do neither the one nor the other. I shall go up-stairs." She +turned to leave. + +"If you go, Helen, I'll go with you," Mary announced. + +Another ancestral spook with dwarfed, hairy body and gorilla arms, +climbed to my left shoulder, sat down on his hunkers and whispered in my +ear: "Treat 'em rough!" + +"You're going to stay right here!" I commanded, grabbing her by the +hand. + +"Let go of my hand!" Mary demanded. "I am _not_ going to stay here." + +The sight of her sweet indignant face made my heart jump to my throat. +Helen laughed and went up-stairs. + +"Mary--" I began, my voice softening. + +My ancient forebears made wry faces at each other and hopped down from +my shoulders. + +"He's a fool!" announced the cave man. + +"I'll say he is," answered the pirate. + +"I'm not going to stay here a minute longer. Will you please get out of +my way?" Mary said coldly. + +"No, I won't!" I yelled. "I've had about enough of this, Mary. You +think you can dangle me on the end of a string, like a damned jumping- +jack, until you see fit to let me have a little rest." + +My guiding ancestors hopped back on my shoulders. + +"That's the stuff to give 'em!" yelled Hunkers. + +"Treat 'em rough!" shouted Captain Kidd. + +"You know I was right when I objected to your going with Frank Woods. +It wasn't a friendly thing to do, after the way he messed up things in +my family." + +"Well, if you hadn't been so dictatorial--" + +"Why shouldn't I be dictatorial?" I shouted, while my ancestors held +their sides with laughter, "and this being my house I'm going to talk as +loud as I please. If the girl I love, as no man ever loved a girl +before, tries to go out with a man I think is wholly unworthy of her, +why shouldn't I object? I'll do it again. I want you and I'm to have +you, if I've got to fight for you. Even if I have to fight _you_ for +you." + +Suddenly Mary buried her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook. + +"Don't cry, Mary! I know I've--" + +"I'm not crying, I--I'm laughing," she gurgled, dropping into a chair. +"Bupps, you do look so funny when you get excited." + +I went over to her and made her make room for me on her chair, and then +I put my arms around her. + +"Mary, lover-darling, why did you go out with Frank Woods that day?" + +"Why, Bupps, I was hunting the same proof that you were. I felt all +along that Frank was guilty." + +"I'm a brute!" + +"You're a foolish boy," she said, twisting one of my few locks of hair. + +She snuggled closer. + +"Dearest of dearests, when are you going to stop teasing me?" I asked. + +"Never, Buppkins!" she replied. "I just discovered that it brings out +your strong points." + +"Do you remember what you said when I tried to ask you to marry me?" I +whispered. She shook her head. + +"You told me to wait until Helen was well." + +"You know, Bupps--the first thing I said to Helen this--this afternoon +was--" + +"What?" + +"'How--how well you're looking.'" + +With her face so close to mine and those lovely lips smiling at me so +invitingly, there was only one thing to do, so I did it. + +"The kid's got the stuff in him after all," said Hunkers. + +"I'll say he has," agreed Captain Kidd. + + + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of 32 Caliber, by Donald McGibeny + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 32 CALIBER *** + +***** This file should be named 22781-8.txt or 22781-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/8/22781/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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