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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mardi Gras Mystery, by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+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: The Mardi Gras Mystery
+
+Author: H. Bedford-Jones
+
+Illustrator: John Newton Howitt
+
+Release Date: March 22, 2012 [EBook #39229]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARDI GRAS MYSTERY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Darleen Dove, Ernest Schaal, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             THE MARDI GRAS
+                                MYSTERY
+
+
+
+
+                                BOOKS BY
+                            H. BEDFORD-JONES
+
+
+                        CONQUEST
+
+                        CROSS AND THE HAMMER: A
+                          TALE OF THE DAYS OF THE
+                          VIKINGS
+
+                        FLAMEHAIR THE SKALD: A
+                          TALE OF THE DAYS OF
+                          HARDREDE
+                        GOLDEN GHOST
+
+                        THE MESA TRAIL
+
+                        THE MARDI GRAS MYSTERY
+
+                        UNDER FIRE
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_'You frightened me, holy man!' she cried gaily.
+'Confess to you, indeed! Not I.'_"]
+
+
+
+
+                             THE MARDI GRAS
+                                 MYSTERY
+
+                                   BY
+                            H. BEDFORD-JONES
+
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+
+                              FRONTISPIECE
+                                   BY
+                           JOHN NEWTON HOWITT
+
+
+                    GARDEN CITY, N. Y., AND TORONTO
+                       DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+                                  1921
+
+
+
+
+                        COPYRIGHT, 1920, 1921, BY
+                        DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+           ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
+           INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                                     PAGE
+
+       I. CARNIVAL                                                 3
+
+      II. MASQUERS                                                21
+
+     III. THE BANDIT                                              38
+
+      IV. CALLERS                                                 58
+
+       V. THE MASQUER UNMASKS                                     82
+
+      VI. CHACHERRE                                              107
+
+     VII. IN THE OPEN                                            125
+
+    VIII. COMUS                                                  143
+
+      IX. ON THE BAYOU                                           169
+
+       X. MURDER                                                 190
+
+      XI. THE GANGSTERS                                          209
+
+     XII. THE ULTIMATUM                                          228
+
+    XIII. THE COIN FALLS HEADS                                   249
+
+     XIV. CHACHERRE'S BUNDLE                                     262
+
+      XV. WHEN THE HEAVENS FALL                                  280
+
+     XVI. THE IMPREGNABILITY OF MR. FELL                         299
+
+    XVII. MI-CARÊME                                              310
+
+
+
+
+                             THE MARDI GRAS
+                                MYSTERY
+
+
+
+
+                         THE MARDI GRAS MYSTERY
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+                               _Carnival_
+
+
+Jachin Fell pushed aside the glass curtains between the voluminous
+over-draperies in the windows of the Chess and Checkers Club, and gazed
+out upon the riotous streets of New Orleans. Half an hour he had been
+waiting here in the lounge room for Dr. Cyril Ansley, a middle-aged
+bachelor who had practised in Opelousas for twenty years, and who had
+come to the city for the Mardi Gras festivities. Another man might have
+seemed irritated by the wait, but Jachin Fell was quite unruffled.
+
+He had much the air of a clerk. His features were thin and unremarkable;
+his pale eyes constantly wore an expression of wondering aloofness, as
+though he saw around him much that he vainly tried to understand. In his
+entire manner was a shy reticence. He was no clerk, however, this was
+evident from his attire. He was garbed from head to foot in soberly
+blending shades of gray whose richness was notable only at close view.
+One fancied him a very precise sort of man, an old maid of the wrong
+sex.
+
+Doctor Ansley, an Inverness flung over his evening clothes, entered the
+lounge room, and Fell turned to him with a dry, toneless chuckle.
+
+"You're the limit! Did you forget we were going to the Maillards'
+to-night?"
+
+Ansley appeared vexed and irritated. "Confound it, Fell!" he exclaimed.
+"I've been all over town looking for El Reys. Caught in a crowd--no El
+Reys yet!"
+
+Again Fell uttered his toneless chuckle. His voice was absolutely level,
+unmarked by any change of inflection.
+
+"My dear fellow, there are only three places in the city that can afford
+to carry El Reys in these parlous times! This club, however, happens to
+be one of the three. Here, sit down and forget your troubles over a real
+smoke! We need not leave for fifteen minutes yet, at least."
+
+Doctor Ansley laid aside his cape, stick, and hat, and dropped into one
+of the comfortable big chairs. He accepted the proffered cigar with a
+sigh. Across his knees he laid an evening paper, whose flaring headlines
+proclaimed an extra.
+
+"I suppose you've been gadding all around the town ever since the
+Revellers opened the season?" he inquired.
+
+"Hardly," said Fell with his shy air. "I'm growing a bit stiff with age,
+as Eliza said when she crossed the ice. I don't gad much."
+
+"You intend to mask for the Maillards'?" Ansley cast his eye over the
+gray business attire of the little man.
+
+"I never mask." Jachin Fell shook his head. "I'll get a domino and go as
+I am. Excuse me--I'll order a domino now, and also provide a few more El
+Reys for the evening. Back in a moment."
+
+Doctor Ansley, who was himself a non-resident member of the club and
+socially prominent when he could grant himself leisure for society,
+followed the slight figure of the other man with speculative eyes. Well
+as he knew Jachin Fell, he invariably found the man a source of puzzled
+speculation.
+
+During many years Jachin Fell had been a member of the most exclusive
+New Orleans clubs. He was even received in the inner circles of Creole
+society, which in itself was evidence supreme as to his position. At
+this particular club he was famed as a wizard master of chess. He never
+entered a tournament, yet he consistently defeated the champions in
+private matches--defeated them with a bewildering ease, a shy and
+apologetic ease, an ease which left the beholders incredulous and
+aghast.
+
+With all this, Jachin Fell was very much of a mystery, even among his
+closest friends. Very little was known of him; he was inconspicuous to a
+degree, and it was usually assumed that he was something of a recluse,
+the result of a thwarted love affair in his youth. He was a lawyer, and
+certainly maintained offices in the Maison Blanche building, but he
+never appeared in the courts and no case of his pleading was known.
+
+It was said that he lived in the rebuilt casa of some old Spanish
+grandee in the Vieux Carre, and that this residence of his was a
+veritable treasure-trove of historic and beautiful things. This was mere
+rumour, adding a spice of romance to the general mystery. Ansley knew
+him as well as did most men, and Ansley knew of a few who could boast of
+having been a guest in Jachin Fell's home. There was a mother, an
+invalid of whom Fell sometimes spoke and to whom he appeared to devote
+himself. The family, an old one in the city, promised to die out with
+Jachin Fell.
+
+Ansley puffed at his cigar and considered these things. Outside, in the
+New Orleans streets, was rocketing the mad mirth of carnival. The week
+preceding Mardi Gras was at its close. Since the beginning of the new
+year the festival had been celebrated in a steadily climaxing series of
+balls and entertainments, largely by the older families who kept to the
+old customs, and to a smaller extent by society at large. Now the final
+week was at hand, or rather the final three days--the period of the
+great balls, the period when tourists were flooding into town; for
+tourists, the whole time of Mardi Gras was comprised within these three
+days. Despite agonized predictions, prohibition had not adversely
+affected Mardi Gras or the gaiety of its celebration.
+
+Now, as ever, was Mardi Gras symbolized by masques. In New Orleans the
+masquerade was not the pale and pitiful frolic of colder climes, where
+the occasion is but one for display of jewels and costumes, and where
+actual concealment of identity is a farce. Here in New Orleans were
+jewels and costumes in a profusion of splendour; but here was preserved
+the underlying idea of the masque itself--that in concealment of
+identity lay the life of the thing! Masquers swept the streets gaily; if
+harlequin husband flirted with domino wife--why, so much the merrier!
+There was little harm in the Latin masque, and great mirth.
+
+When Jachin Fell returned and lighted his cigar he sank into one of the
+luxurious chairs beside Ansley and indicated the newspaper lying across
+the latter's knee, its flaring headlines standing out blackly.
+
+"What's that about the Midnight Masquer? He's not appeared again?"
+
+"What?" Ansley glanced at him in surprise. "You've not heard?"
+
+Fell shook his head. "I seldom read the papers."
+
+"Good heavens, man! He showed up last night at the Lapeyrouse dance, two
+minutes before midnight, as usual! A detective had been engaged, but was
+afterward found locked in a closet, bound with his own handcuffs. The
+Masquer wore his usual costume--and went through the party famously,
+stripping everyone in sight. Then he backed through the doors and
+vanished. How he got in they can't imagine; where he went they can't
+imagine, unless it was by airplane. He simply appeared, then vanished!"
+
+Fell settled deeper into his chair, pointed his cigar at the ceiling,
+and sighed.
+
+"Ah, most interesting! The loot was valued at about a hundred thousand?"
+
+"I thought you said you'd not heard of it?" demanded Ansley.
+
+Fell laughed softly and shyly. "I didn't. I merely hazarded a guess."
+
+"Wizard!" The doctor laughed in unison. "Yes, about that amount.
+Exaggerated, of course; still, there were jewels of great value----"
+
+"The Masquer is a piker," observed Fell, in his toneless voice.
+
+"Eh? A piker--when he can make a hundred-thousand-dollar haul?"
+
+"Don't dream that those figures represent value, Doctor. They don't! All
+the loot the Masquer has taken since he began work is worth little to
+him. Jewels are hard to sell. This game of banditry is romantic, but
+it's out of date these days. Of course, the crook has obtained a bit of
+money, but not enough to be worth the risk."
+
+"Yet he has got quite a bit," returned Ansley, thoughtfully. "All the
+men have money, naturally; we don't want to find ourselves bare at some
+gay carnival moment! I'll warrant you've a hundred or so in your pocket
+right now!"
+
+"Not I," rejoined Fell, calmly. "One ten-dollar bill. Also I left my
+watch at home. And I'm not dressed; I don't care to lose my pearl
+studs."
+
+"Eh?" Ansley frowned. "What do you mean?"
+
+Jachin Fell took a folded paper from his pocket and handed it to the
+physician.
+
+"I met Maillard at the bank this morning. He called me into his office
+and handed me this--he had just received it in the mail."
+
+Doctor Ansley opened the folded paper; an exclamation broke from him as
+he read the note, which was addressed to their host of the evening.
+
+    JOSEPH MAILLARD, President,
+        Exeter National Bank, City.
+
+    I thank you for the masque you are giving to-night. I shall be
+    present. Please see that Mrs. M. wears her diamonds--I need
+    them.
+
+                                           THE MIDNIGHT MASQUER.
+
+Ansley glanced up. "What's this--some hoax? Some carnival jest?"
+
+"Maillard pretended to think so." Fell shrugged his shoulders as he
+repocketed the note. "But he was nervous. He was afraid of being laughed
+at, and wouldn't go to the police. But he'll have a brace of detectives
+inside the house to-night, and others outside."
+
+Ever since the first ball of the year by the Twelfth Night Club this
+Midnight Masquer, as he was termed, had held New Orleans gripped in
+terror, fascination, and vivid interest. Until a month previous to this
+week of Mardi Gras he had operated rarely; he had robbed with a stark
+and inelegant forcefulness, a brutality. Suddenly his methods
+changed--he appeared and transacted his business with a romantic
+courtesy, a daredevil gaiety; his robberies became bizarre and
+extraordinary.
+
+During the past month he appeared at least once a week, now at some
+private ball, now at some restaurant banquet, but always in the same
+garb: the helmet, huge goggles and mask, and leathern clothes of a
+service aviator. On these occasions the throbbing roar of an airplane
+motor had been reported so that it was popular gossip that he landed on
+the roof of his designated victims and made his getaway in the same
+manner--by airplane. No machine had ever been seen, and the theory was
+believed by some, hooted at by others.
+
+The police were helpless. The Midnight Masquer laughed openly at them
+and conducted his depredations with brazen unconcern, appearing where he
+was least expected. The anti-administration papers were clamouring about
+a "crime wave" and "organization of crooks," but without any visible
+basis for such clamours. The Midnight Masquer worked alone.
+
+Doctor Ansley glanced at his watch, and deposited his cigar in an ash
+tray.
+
+"We'd best be moving, Fell. You'll want a domino?"
+
+"I ordered one when I got my cigars. It'll be here in a minute."
+
+"Do you seriously think that note is genuine?"
+
+Fell shrugged lightly. "Who knows? I'm not worried. Maillard can afford
+to be robbed. It will be interesting to see how he takes it if the
+fellow does show up."
+
+"You're a calm one!" Ansley chuckled. "Oh, I believe the prince is to be
+there to-night. You've met him, I suppose?"
+
+"No. I've had a rush of business lately, as Eliza said when she crossed
+the ice: haven't gone out much. Heard something about him, though. An
+American, isn't he? They say he's become quite popular in town."
+
+Ansley nodded. "Quite a fine chap. His mother was an American--she
+married the Prince de Gramont; an international affair of the past
+generation. De Gramont led her a dog's life, I hear, until he was killed
+in a duel. She lived in Paris with the boy, sent him to school here at
+home, and he was at Yale when the war broke. He was technically a French
+subject, so he went back to serve his time.
+
+"Still, he's an American now. Calls himself Henry Gramont, and would
+drop the prince stuff altogether if these French people around here
+would let him. He's supposed to be going into some kind of business, but
+just now he's having the time of his life. Every old dowager is trying
+to catch him."
+
+Jachin Fell nodded. "I've no use for nobility; a rotten crowd! But this
+chap appears interesting. I'll be glad to size him up. Ah, here's my
+domino now!"
+
+A page brought the domino. Fell, discarding the mask, threw the domino
+about his shoulders, and the two men left the club in company.
+
+They sought their destination afoot--the home of the banker Joseph
+Maillard. The streets were riotous, filled with an eddying, laughing
+crowd of masquers and merrymakers of all ages and sexes; confetti
+twirled through the air, horns were deafening, and laughing voices rose
+into sharp screams of unrestrained delight.
+
+Here and there appeared the rather constrained figures of tourists from
+the North. These, staid and unable to throw themselves into the utter
+abandon of this carnival spirit, could but stare in perplexed wonder at
+the scene, so alien to them, while they marvelled at the gaiety of these
+Southern folk who could go so far with liberty and yet not overstep the
+bounds of license.
+
+At last gaining St. Charles Avenue, with the Maillard residence a
+half-dozen blocks distant, the two companions found themselves well away
+from the main carnival throngs. Even here, however, was no lack of
+revellers afoot for the evening--stray flotsam of the downtown crowds,
+or members of neighbourhood gatherings on their way to entertainment.
+
+As the two walked along they were suddenly aware of a lithe figure
+approaching from the rear; with a running leap and an exclamation of
+delight the figure forced itself in between them, grasping an arm of
+either man, and a bantering voice broke in upon their train of talk.
+
+"Forfeit!" it cried. "Forfeit--where are your masks, sober gentlemen?
+This grave physician may be pardoned, but not a domino who refuses to
+mask! And for forfeit you shall be my escort and take me whither you are
+going."
+
+Laughing, the two fell into step, glancing at the gay figure between
+them. A Columbine, she was both cloaked and masked. Encircling her hair
+was a magnificent scarf shot with metal designs of solid gold--a most
+unusual thing. Also, from her words it was evident that she had
+recognized them.
+
+"Willingly, fair Columbine," responded Fell in his dry and unimpassioned
+tone of voice. "We shall be most happy, indeed, to protect and take you
+with us----"
+
+"So far as the door, at least," interrupted Ansley, with evident
+caution. But Fell drily laughed aside this wary limitation.
+
+"Nay, good physician, farther!" went on Fell. "Our Columbine has an
+excellent passport, I assure you. This gauzy scarf about her raven
+tresses was woven for the good Queen Hortense, and I would venture a
+random guess that, clasped about her slender throat, lies the queen's
+collar of star sapphires----"
+
+"Oh!" From the Columbine broke a cry of warning and swift dismay. "Don't
+you dare speak my name, sir--don't you dare!"
+
+Fell assented with a chuckle, and subsided.
+
+Ansley regarded his two companions with sidelong curiosity. He could not
+recognize Columbine, and he could not tell whether Fell were speaking of
+the scarf and jewels in jest or earnest. Such historic things were not
+uncommon in New Orleans, yet Ansley never heard of these particular
+treasures. However, it seemed that Fell knew their companion, and
+accepted her as a fellow guest at the Maillard house.
+
+"What are you doing out on the streets alone?" demanded Fell, suddenly.
+"Haven't you any friends or relatives to take care of you?"
+
+Columbine's laughter pealed out, and she pressed Fell's arm confidingly.
+
+"Have I not some little rights in the world, monsieur?" she said in
+French. "I have been mingling with the dear crowds and enjoying them,
+before I go to be buried in the dull splendours of the rich man's house.
+Tell me, do you think that the Midnight Masquer will make an appearance
+to-night?"
+
+"I have every reason to believe that he will," said Jachin Fell,
+gravely.
+
+Columbine put one hand to her throat, and shivered a trifle.
+
+"You--you really think so? You are not trying to frighten me?" Her voice
+was no longer gay. "But--the jewels----"
+
+"Wear them, wear them!" There was command in the tone of Fell. "Were
+they not given you to wear to-night? Then wear them, by all means. Don't
+worry, my dear."
+
+Columbine said nothing for a moment; her gaiety seemed to be suddenly
+extinguished and quenched. Ansley was wondering uneasily at the
+constraint, when at length she broke the silence.
+
+"Since you have ordered, let the command be obeyed!" She essayed a
+laugh, which appeared rather forced. "Yet, if they are lost and are
+taken by the Masquer----"
+
+"In that case," said Fell, "let the blame be mine entirely. If they are
+lost, little Columbine, others will be lost with them, fear not! I think
+that this party would be a rich haul for the Masquer, eh? Take the rich
+man and his friends--they could bear plucking, that crowd! Rogues all."
+
+"Confound you, Fell!" exclaimed Ansley, uneasily. "If the bandit does
+show up there would be the very devil to pay!"
+
+"And Maillard would do the paying." Fell's dry chuckle held a note of
+bitterness. "Let him. Who cares? Look at his house, there, blazing with
+lights. Who pays for those lights? The people his financial tentacles
+have closed their sucker-like grip upon. His wife's jewels have been
+purchased with the coin of oppression and injustice. His son's life is
+one of roguery and drunken wildness----"
+
+"Man, are you mad?" Ansley indicated the Columbine between them. "We're
+not alone here--you must not talk that way----"
+
+Jachin Fell only chuckled again. Columbine's laugh broke in with renewed
+gaiety:
+
+"Nonsense, my dear Galen! We surely may be allowed to be ourselves
+during carnival! Away with the heresies of hypocritical society. Our
+friend speaks the sober truth. We masquers may admit among ourselves
+that Bob Maillard is----"
+
+"Is not the man we would have our daughters marry, provided we had
+daughters," said Fell. Then he gestured toward the house ahead of them,
+and his tone changed: "Still, now that we are about to enter that house,
+we must remind ourselves of courtesy and the limitations of guests. Say
+no more. Produce your invitation, Columbine, for I think we shall find
+that the doors to-night are guarded by Cerberus."
+
+They had come to a file of limousines and cars, and approached the
+gateway of the Maillard home. They turned into the gate.
+
+The house loomed before them, a great house set amid gardens, stately in
+the fashion of olden days. The lower floors were discreetly darkened to
+the streets, but on the upper floor, where was the ballroom with its
+floor of cypress, there was a glitter of bright lights and open windows.
+Music drifted to them as they approached. Jachin Fell touched the arm of
+Ansley and indicated an inconspicuous figure to one side of the entrance
+steps.
+
+"An outer guardian," he murmured. "Our host, it seems, is neglecting no
+precaution! I feel sorry for the Masquer, if he appears here."
+
+They came to the doorway. Columbine produced an invitation, duly
+numbered, and the three entered the house together.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+
+                               _Masquers_
+
+
+Joseph Maillard might have hopefully considered the note from the
+Midnight Masquer to be a hoax perpetrated by some of his friends, but he
+took no chances. Two detectives were posted in the grounds outside the
+house; inside, two others, masked and costumed, were keeping a quietly
+efficient eye on all that transpired.
+
+Each guest upon entering was conducted directly to the presence of
+Joseph Maillard himself, or of his wife; was bidden to unmask in this
+private audience, and was then presented with a favour and sent forth
+masked anew to the festivities. These favours were concealed, in the
+case of the ladies, in corsage bouquets; in that of the men, inside
+false cigars. There was to be a general opening of the favours at
+midnight, the time set for unmasking. All this ceremony was regarded by
+the guests as a delightful innovation, and by Joseph Maillard as a
+delightful way of assuring himself that only the invited guests entered
+his house. Invitations might be forged--faces, never!
+
+Lucie Ledanois entered the presence of her stately relative, and after
+unmasking, dutifully exchanged kisses with Mrs. Maillard. Until some
+months previously, until she had come into the management of her own
+property--or what was left of it--Lucie had been the ward of the
+Maillards. Their former attitude of possession still lingered, but they
+were relatives for whom she felt little real affection.
+
+"Mercy, child, how marvellous you look to-night!" exclaimed Mrs.
+Maillard, holding her off and examining her high colour with obvious
+suspicion. Mrs. Maillard was herself rather plump and red, and stern of
+eye into the bargain. She was a keen, masterful woman.
+
+"Thank you, ma'am," and Lucie made a mock courtesy. "Do you like little
+Columbine?"
+
+"Very much. Here's Aunt Sally; take Miss Lucie's cloak, Sally."
+
+An old coloured servant bobbed her head in greeting to Lucie, who
+removed her cloak. As she did so, she saw that Mrs. Maillard's voice
+died away, and that the lady's eyes were fastened in utter amazement
+upon her throat.
+
+"Isn't it pretty, auntie?" she asked, smilingly. This was straining the
+relationship a trifle, but it was a custom which Lucie usually followed
+with the family.
+
+"My goodness gracious!" The stern eyes hardened. "Where--where on earth
+did _you_ obtain such a thing? Why--why----"
+
+Columbine's features flinched. She was a poor relation, of course, so
+the look in the older woman's eyes and the implication of the words
+formed little less than an insult.
+
+Quietly she put one hand to her throat and removed the collar, dropping
+it into the hand of Mrs. Maillard. It was a thing to make any woman's
+eyes widen--a collar of exquisitely wrought gold studded with ten great
+blazing star sapphires. Beside it the diamonds that bejewelled Mrs.
+Maillard's ample front looked cold and lifeless.
+
+"That?" queried Lucie, innocently, producing a scrap of chamois and
+dabbing at her nose. "Oh, that's very interesting! It was made for Queen
+Hortense--so was this scarf that keeps my ragged hair from lopping out!"
+
+"You didn't buy them, certainly!" demanded Mrs. Maillard.
+
+"Of course not. They were a present--only this morning."
+
+"Girl!" The lady's voice was harsh. "A present? From whom, if you
+please?"
+
+"Oh, I promised not to tell; he's a particular friend of mine. Aren't
+the stones pretty?"
+
+Mrs. Maillard was speechless. She compressed her firm lips and watched
+Lucie replace the sapphire collar without a word to offer. Silently she
+extended a corsage bouquet from the pile beside her; then, in a
+trembling voice, forced herself to explain about the favour inside.
+
+"And I hope," she added, "that before receiving any more such valuable
+presents you'll consult _me_. Of course, if you don't wish to tell about
+this, you needn't; but a word of advice will often save a girl from
+making very serious mistakes."
+
+"Thank you, auntie dear," and Lucie nodded as she pinned the bouquet.
+"You're just as dear to me as you can be! See you later."
+
+Slipping her mask into place she was gone, not without relief. She knew
+very well that within half an hour Bob Maillard would be informed that
+she had accepted gifts of jewels from other men, with all the
+accompanying implications and additions that imagination could furnish.
+For, although Bob Maillard wanted very much indeed to marry her his
+mother had no intention of sanctioning such a union.
+
+"Neither has Uncle Joseph," she reflected, smiling to herself, "and
+neither have I! So we're all agreed, except Bob."
+
+"Columbine!" A hand fell upon her wrist. "Columbine! Turn and confess
+thy sins!"
+
+A cry of instinctive alarm broke from the girl; she turned, only to
+break into a laugh of chagrin at her own fright.
+
+She had come to the foot of the wide, old-fashioned stairway that led to
+the floors above, and beside her had suddenly appeared a Franciscan
+monk, cowled and gowned in sober brown from head to foot.
+
+"You frightened me, holy man!" she cried, gaily. "Confess to you,
+indeed! Not I."
+
+"Never a better chance, butterfly of the world!" It was a voice that she
+dimly recognized, yet she could not name the owner: a merry, carefree
+voice that was slightly disguised.
+
+"Never a better chance," and the Franciscan offered his arm. "Haste not
+to the dance, fair sister--tarry a while and invite the soul in speech
+of import! Having passed the dragon at the gate, tarry a moment with
+this man of vows----"
+
+"Shrive me quickly, then," she said, laughing.
+
+"Now, without confession? Would you have me read your thoughts and give
+penance?"
+
+"If you can do that, holy man, I may confess; so prove it quickly!"
+
+For the moment they stood alone. Higher on the stairs, and among the
+rooms behind them, were gay groups of masquers--dominoes, imposing
+Mephistos, backwoodsmen, gallants of Spain and France, red Indians and
+turbaned Hindus.
+
+The Franciscan leaned forward. His voice came low, distinct, clear-cut,
+and he spoke in the French which Lucie understood as another
+mother-tongue, as do most of the older families of New Orleans.
+
+"See how I read them, mademoiselle! One thought is of uneasy suspicion;
+it is typified by a hard-lipped, grasping man. One thought is of
+profound regret; it is typified by a darkly welling stream of oil. One
+thought----"
+
+Suddenly Lucie had shrunk away from him. "Who--who are you?" she
+breathed, with a gasp that was almost of fear. "Who are you, monsieur?"
+
+"A humble brother of minor orders," and he bowed. "Shall I not continue
+with my reading? The third thought, mademoiselle, is one of hope; it is
+typified by a small man who is dressed all in gray----"
+
+Lucie turned away from him quickly.
+
+"I think that you have made some grave error, monsieur," she said. Her
+voice was cold, charged with dismissal and offended dignity. "I pray
+you, excuse me."
+
+Not waiting any response, she hastily ran up the stairs. After her, for
+a moment, gazed the Franciscan, then shrugged his wide shoulders and
+plunged into the crowd.
+
+The ballroom on the top floor was throbbing with music, gay with
+costumes and decorations, thronged with dancing couples. Into the whirl
+of it pirouetted Columbine. Almost at once she found herself dancing
+with a gorgeously attired Musketeer; she separated from him as quickly
+as possible, for she recognized him as Bob Maillard. Nor did he find her
+again, although he searched, not knowing her identity; for she evaded
+him.
+
+While she danced, while she chattered and laughed and entered into the
+mad gaiety of the evening, Lucie Ledanois could not banish from her mind
+that ominous Franciscan. How could he have known? How could he have
+guessed what only she and one other barely suspected? There was no
+proof, of course; the very breath of suspicion seemed a calumny against
+an upright man!
+
+Joseph Maillard had sold that Terrebonne land six months before any gas
+or oil had been discovered there, and eight months before Lucie had come
+into the management of her own affairs. He had not known about the
+minerals, of course; it was a case only of bad judgment. Yet,
+indubitably, he was now a shareholder and officer in the Bayou Oil
+Company, the concern which had bought that strip of land.
+
+Two years previously Maillard had sold that swamp land up in St. Landry
+parish; the land had been drained and sectioned off by real estate
+people at enormous profit.
+
+Lucie strove angrily to banish the dark thoughts from her mind. Why,
+Maillard was a rich man, a banker, an honorable gentleman! To doubt his
+honour, although he was a harsh and a stern man, was impossible. Lucie
+knew him better than most, and could not believe----
+
+"May I crave pardon for my error?" came a voice at her elbow. She
+turned, to see the Franciscan again beside her. "With a thousand
+apologies for impertinence, mademoiselle; I am very sorry for my faults.
+Will not that admission obtain for me one little dance, one hint of
+forgiveness from fair Columbine?"
+
+Something in his voice spelt sincerity. Lucie, smiling, held out her
+hand.
+
+"You are pardoned, holy man. If you can dance in that friar's robe, then
+try it!"
+
+Could he dance, indeed! Who could not dance with Columbine for partner?
+So saying, the monk proved his word by the deed and proved it well. Nor
+did he again hint that he had recognized her; until, as they parted, he
+once more left her astonished and perturbed. As he bowed he murmured:
+
+"Beware, sweet Columbine! Beware of the gay Aramis! Beware of his
+proposals!"
+
+He was gone upon the word.
+
+Aramis? Why, that must be the Musketeer, of course--Bob Maillard! The
+name, with its implications, was a clever hit. But who was this brown
+monk, who seemed to know so much, who danced so divinely, whose French
+was like music? A vague suspicion was in the girl's mind, but she had no
+proof.
+
+Half an hour after this Bob Maillard came to her, and with impatient
+words made a path through the circle which surrounded her. He caught her
+hand and bent over it with an affectation of gallantry which became him
+well, for in his costume he made a handsome figure.
+
+"I know you now, Lucie!" he murmured. "I must see you at once--in the
+conservatory."
+
+She was minded to refuse, but assented briefly. The words of the monk
+intrigued her; what had the man guessed? If Bob were indeed about to
+propose, she would this time cut off his hopes for good. But--was it
+that sort of a proposal?
+
+As she managed to rid herself of her admirers, and descended to the
+conservatory, she was highly vexed with herself and the Franciscan, and
+so came to her appointment in no equable frame of mind. She found
+Maillard waiting in the old-fashioned conservatory; he had unmasked, and
+was puffing a cigarette. His heavy features and bold, shrewd eyes were
+fastened hungrily upon her as he came to meet her.
+
+"By gad, Lucie, you're beautiful to-night!"
+
+"Thanks, cousin Robert. Was it for that----?"
+
+"No! See here, where did you get that collar of jewels?"
+
+"Indeed!" The girl proudly drew herself up. "What business is that of
+yours, sir?"
+
+"Aren't you one of the family? It's our business to protect your
+rep----"
+
+"Be careful!" Anger trembled in her voice, cut off his words. "Be
+careful!"
+
+"But damn it--Lucie! Don't you know that I want to marry you----"
+
+"My dear Robert, I certainly do not want to marry any man who swears to
+my face--you least of all!" she coldly intervened. "I have already
+refused you three times; let this be the fourth and last. I owe you no
+account of my possessions nor where I get them; I am entirely capable of
+managing my own affairs. Now, kindly inform me why you wished me to meet
+you here. Also, you know that I don't like cigarette smoke."
+
+Sulkily, Maillard threw away his cigarette; with an effort he calmed
+himself. He was anything but a fool, this young man. He was rather
+clever, and saw that he had so long considered his pretty cousin a
+personal possession that he was now in some danger of losing her.
+
+"I have a chance to make some money for you in a hurry," he said. "Your
+father left you a good deal of land up Bayou Terrebonne way----"
+
+"Your father sold some of it," she put in, idly. His eyes flickered to
+the thrust.
+
+"Yes; but you've plenty left, near Paradis. It's away from the gas
+field, but I'm interested in an oil company. We've plenty of money, and
+we're going to go strong after the liquid gold. That land of yours is
+good for nothing else, and if you want to make some money out of it I'll
+swing the company into leasing at a good figure and drilling there."
+
+"You think there's oil on the land?"
+
+"No." He made a swift, energetic gesture of dissent. "To be frank, I
+don't. But I'd like to throw a bit of luck your way, Lucie. We're
+getting a lot of money into the company, and some brains. That fellow
+Gramont--the prince, you know him--he's an engineer and a geologist, and
+he's in the swim."
+
+"So," the girl smiled a little, "you would betray your business friends
+in order to make a bit of money for me?"
+
+Maillard stared at her. "Well, if you put it that way, yes! I'd do more
+than that for----"
+
+"Thank you," she interrupted, her voice cold. "I don't think I'd trust
+your sagacity very far, Robert. Good-night."
+
+She turned from him and was gone, dancing through the great rooms like a
+true Columbine. Later he saw her among the dancers above, although he
+obtained no further speech with her.
+
+Midnight neared, and brought a concern to many; the Midnight Masquer had
+gained his name by invariably appearing a moment or two before the
+stroke of twelve. Jachin Fell, who divided his time between enjoying the
+smoking room and wandering about among the masquers, perceived that
+Joseph Maillard was watching the time with anxiety.
+
+A large man, stern and a bit scornful of look, Maillard was imposing
+rather than handsome. He appeared the typical banker, efficient, devoid
+of all sentiment. Amused by the man's evident uneasiness, Jachin Fell
+kept him in view while the moments dragged. One might have thought that
+the little gray man was studying the financier as an entomologist
+studies a butterfly on a pin.
+
+Shortly before twelve Columbine pirouetted up to Jachin Fell and
+accepted the arm he offered her. They were for the moment alone, in a
+corner of the ballroom.
+
+"I must see you to-morrow, please," she breathed.
+
+"Gladly," he assented. "May I call? It's Sunday, you know----"
+
+"If you will; at three. Something has happened, but I cannot speak of it
+here. Does any one else know that you--that you are interested in my
+affairs?"
+
+The pale gray eyes of the little gray man looked very innocent and
+wondering.
+
+"Certainly not, my dear! Why?"
+
+"I'll tell you to-morrow." Then she broke into a laugh. "Well, it is
+midnight--and the Masquer has not appeared! I'm almost sorry."
+
+The lights flickered off for a moment, then on again. The signal for
+unmasking!
+
+The dancing ceased. From the whole room arose a babel of voices--cries
+of surprise, exclamations, merry laughter. Columbine removed her mask.
+An instant later Joseph Maillard approached them, chuckling to himself
+and looking hugely relieved.
+
+"Ha, Lucie! I guessed you beneath the Columbine daintiness! Well,
+Jachin, it was a hoax after all, eh? Some confounded joke. Come down to
+the library in five minutes, will you? A meeting of the select circle,
+to discuss prohibition."
+
+"Aren't you going to invite me, Uncle Joseph?" broke in Lucie, gaily.
+
+"No, no, little one!" Maillard reproved her, laughingly. "Look not upon
+the silver cup at your age, my dear. Have you examined your favour yet?"
+
+Remembering, the girl caught at her corsage. Cries of delight were
+arising on all sides as the favours were revealed--most handsome
+favours, even for Mardi Gras! From the heart of the rosebuds in her hand
+Lucie removed a brooch of old filigree work set with a group of pearls.
+She glanced about for Jachin Fell, but he had vanished with Maillard. A
+voice rose at her elbow:
+
+"Mademoiselle, you are not less lucky than beautiful! Pearls to the
+pearl!"
+
+She turned to see the Franciscan--no longer masked, but now gazing at
+her from a frank, laughing countenance, still partially veiled by the
+brown cowl that was drawn up close about his head.
+
+"Henry Gramont!" she exclaimed. "Oh, I half suspected that it was
+you----"
+
+"But you were not sure?" he chuckled. "You're not offended with me,
+Lucie?"
+
+"I should be." She tossed her head. "You were impertinent, M. le
+prince!"
+
+He made a distasteful gesture. "None of that, Lucie! You know I don't
+like it----"
+
+"Oh, la, la!" she mocked him. "M. le prince is seeing America, _n'est ce
+pas_? He has come to America to find a rich wife, is it not?"
+
+Gramont's face lost its smile, and suddenly became almost harsh.
+
+"I shall call upon you at four to-morrow, Lucie," he said, abruptly, and
+turned. Nor did he pause to get her reply. An instant afterward Lucie
+was surrounded by a merry group of friends, and she saw no more of Henry
+Gramont.
+
+About five minutes later those in the ballroom distinctly heard, through
+the open windows, the heavy pulsations of an airplane motor.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+                              _The Bandit_
+
+
+Joseph Maillard's library was on the ground floor of the house; it was a
+sedate and stately room, and was invariably shut off to itself. Not even
+to-night, of all nights, was it thrown open with the remainder of the
+house.
+
+Here, for a good half hour, had been Uncle Neb. The old butler was
+mysteriously engaged with certain tall silver goblets, fragrant mint,
+and yet more fragrant--if illegal--bottles. And it was here that Joseph
+Maillard summoned half a dozen of his particular cronies and friends,
+after the stroke of midnight had assured him that there was no danger to
+be expected from the bandit. His son was not among the number. The half
+dozen were nearly all elderly men, and, with the exception of Jachin
+Fell, all were men of prominent affairs.
+
+About the table grouped Maillard and his guests, while in the background
+hovered Uncle Neb, glistening black, hugely important, and grinning
+widely. Fell was the last to enter the room, and as he did so old Judge
+Forester turned to him smilingly.
+
+"Ah, here is an attorney in whom there is no guile! Jachin, come and
+settle a dispute. I maintain that the dignity of the law is not less now
+than in the old days; that it has merely accommodated itself to changing
+conditions, and that it is a profession for gentlemen now as always.
+Jules, state your argument!"
+
+Jules Delagroux, a white-haired Creole lawyer of high standing, smiled a
+trifle sadly.
+
+"My case," he said, "is that the old days are dead; that the law is no
+longer a profession, but a following for charlatans. In a word, that the
+law has been killed by the lawyers." He gestured finality and glanced at
+Fell.
+
+"So?" Jachin Fell smiled in his shy fashion. "Gentlemen, I heartily
+agree with you both. I am an attorney, but I do not practise because I
+cannot accommodate myself to those very changing conditions of which
+Judge Forester speaks. To-day, the lawyer must be a politician; he must
+be an adept in the trick of words and deeds; he must be able not to
+serve his profession but to make it serve him, and he must remember
+always that the rights of property are more sacred than those of life
+and liberty. Otherwise, he will remain honest and poor."
+
+An ejaculation of "True" from the judge brought smiles. Jachin Fell
+continued whimsically:
+
+"Regarding these very conditions many years ago, gentlemen, I was
+tempted to change my profession--but to what? I was tempted to enter the
+church until I saw that the same conditions hold good of a clergyman. I
+was tempted to enter medicine until I saw that they also held true of a
+doctor. I was tempted to other things, always with the like result.
+Well, you know the story of Aunt Dixie and her black underwear--'Honey,
+I ain't ashamed of mah grief; when I mourns, I _mourns_!' Even so with
+the law----"
+
+A burst of laughter drowned him out, and the original argument was
+forgotten. Maillard, standing before a small wall safe that flanked the
+open hearth, lifted his silver goblet, asteam with beads. The moment for
+which he had been waiting was here; he launched his little thunderbolt
+with an air of satisfied importance.
+
+"My friends, I have a confession to make!" he announced. "To-day I
+received a note from the Midnight Masquer stating that he would be with
+us this evening, presumably at the hour of midnight, his usual time."
+
+These words brought an instant silence. Uncle Neb, from his corner,
+uttered a startled "Fore de lawd!" that rang through the room; yet no
+one smiled. The half-dozen men were tense, watchful, astonished. But
+Maillard swung up his silver cup and laughed gaily.
+
+"I took full precautions, gentlemen. The hour of danger is past, and the
+notorious bandit has not arrived--or, if he has arrived, he is now in
+the hands of the law. After all, that note may have been something in
+the nature of a carnival jest! So up with your cups, my friends--a
+lifelong health to Mardi Gras, and damnation to prohibition and the
+Midnight Masquer!"
+
+From everyone broke a swift assent to the toast, a murmur of relieved
+tension. The silver goblets were lifted, touched in a musical clinking
+of edges, and the aromatic breath of juleps filled the library as the
+drinkers, in true Southern fashion, buried noses in the fragrant mint.
+Then, as the cups were lowered, from the recess of the curtained windows
+at one end of the room came a quiet voice:
+
+"I thank you, gentlemen! But I must remind you, Maillard, that there was
+not a time limit set in the note."
+
+With a simultaneous gasp everyone turned. Maillard staggered; his face
+went livid. Uncle Neb, who had been advancing to refill the cups,
+dropped his silver tray with a crash that went unheeded, indeed unheard.
+Every eye was fastened upon that amazing figure now advancing from the
+shadows of the recess.
+
+It was the figure of an aviator, clad in leather from top to toe, the
+goggles and helmet shield completely masking his head and features from
+recognition. In his hand he held an automatic pistol, which covered the
+group of men before him with its threatening mouth.
+
+"Not a sound, if you please," he warned, his voice thin and
+nasal--obviously disguised. "I trust that none of you gentlemen is
+armed, because I am very quick on the trigger. A very pleasant surprise,
+Maillard? You'd given me up, eh?"
+
+For an instant no one spoke. Then Maillard moved slightly, moved his
+hand toward a button set in the wall near the safe. The voice of the
+bandit leaped out at him like thin steel:
+
+"Quiet, you fool! If you touch that button----"
+
+Maillard stiffened, and gripped the table edge with his shaking hand.
+
+"This is an outrage, suh!" began Judge Forester, his white goatee
+bristling. The bandit bowed slightly, and addressed the gathering in a
+tone of dry raillery:
+
+"An outrage? Exactly. You were just now discussing the majesty of the
+law. Well, I assure you that I found your discussion intensely
+interesting. Mr. Fell correctly stated that the rights of property are
+more sacred in legal eyes than the rights of human life. You see,
+gentlemen, the discussion touched me very closely!
+
+"I am now engaged in outraging the law, and I have this amendment to
+propose to Mr. Fell: That if he had been tempted to follow the
+profession of a robber he would have found the same conditions
+prevailing which he quoted as applying to other professions."
+
+Jachin Fell, alone of those about the table, allowed a smile to curve
+his lips.
+
+"The rights of property," pursued the bandit with a deadly smoothness,
+"are to me, also, far more sacred than human life; there I agree with
+the law. So, gentlemen, kindly empty your pockets on the table." His
+voice became crisp. "The jewelled scarf-pins which you received as
+favours this evening may be added to the collection; otherwise, I shall
+not touch your private possessions. No watches, thank you. Maillard,
+kindly begin! I believe that you carry a wallet? If you please."
+
+The banker could not but obey. His hands trembling with fear and rage,
+he took from his pocket a wallet, and emptied a sheaf of bills upon the
+table. One after another, the other men followed his example. The bandit
+made no attempt to search them, but watched with eyes that glittered
+from behind his mask as they laid money and scarf-pins on the table.
+When it came his turn, Jachin Fell drew a single bill from his pocket,
+and laid it down.
+
+"You put some faith in that warning, Mr. Fell?" The bandit laughed. "Do
+you think that you will know me again?"
+
+"I hardly believe so, sir," answered Fell in his apologetic fashion.
+"Your disguise is really excellent."
+
+"Thank you." The bandit's voice held a thin mockery. "Coming from you,
+sir, that compliment is most welcome."
+
+"What the devil does the fellow mean?" exploded Judge Forester.
+
+"Then you are not aware that Mr. Fell is a man of large affairs?" The
+bandit's white teeth flashed in a smile. "He is a modest man, this
+attorney! And a dangerous man also, I assure you. But come, Mr. Fell,
+I'll not betray you."
+
+Jachin Fell obviously did not appreciate the pleasantry. His shy and
+wondering features assumed a set and hardened look.
+
+"Whoever you are," he responded, a subtle click of anger in his tone,
+"you shall be punished for this!"
+
+"For what, Mr. Fell? For knowing too much of your private affairs?" The
+bandit laughed. "Fear not--I am only an amateur at this game,
+fortunately! So do your worst, and my blessing upon you! Now, gentlemen,
+kindly withdraw a few paces and join Uncle Neb yonder against the wall.
+All but you, Maillard; I'm not through with you yet."
+
+The automatic pistol gestured; under its menace everyone obeyed the
+command, for the calm assurance of the bandit made it seem extremely
+likely that he would use the weapon without compunction. The men
+withdrew toward the far end of the room, where a word from the aviator
+halted them. Maillard remained standing where he was, his heavy features
+now mottled with impotent anger.
+
+The Masquer advanced to the table and gathered the heap of money and
+scarfpins into the leathern pocket of his coat. During the process his
+gaze did not waver from the group of men, nor did the threat of his
+weapon lift from the banker before him.
+
+"Now, Maillard," he quietly ordered, "you will have the kindness to turn
+around and open the wall safe behind you. And don't touch the button."
+
+Maillard started.
+
+"That safe! Why--why--damn you, I'll do nothing of the sort!"
+
+"If you don't," was the cool threat, "I'll shoot you through the
+abdomen. A man fears a bullet there worse than death. It may kill you,
+and it may not; really, I care very little. You--you financier!"
+
+Scorn leaped into the quiet voice, scorn that lashed and bit deep.
+
+"You money trickster! Do you think I would spare such a man as you? You
+draw your rents from the poor and destitute, your mortgages cover half
+the parishes in the state, and in your heart is neither compassion nor
+pity for man or woman. You take the property of others from behind the
+safety curtain of the law; I do it from behind a pistol! I rob only
+those who can afford to lose--am I really as bad as you, in the eyes of
+morality and ethics? Bah! I could shoot you down without a qualm!"
+
+In his voice was so deadly a menace that Maillard trembled. Yet the
+banker drew himself up and struggled for self-control, stung as he was
+by this flood of vituperation before the group of his closest friends.
+
+"There is nothing of mine in that safe," he said, his voice a low growl.
+"I have given it to my son to use. He is not here."
+
+"That," said the Masquer, calmly, "is exactly why I desire you to open
+it. Your son must make his contribution, for I keenly regret his
+absence. If you are a criminal, he is worse! You rob and steal under
+shelter of the law, but you have certain limitations, certain bounds of
+an almost outgrown honour. He has none, that son of yours. Why, he would
+not hesitate to turn your own tricks back upon you, to rob _you_, if he
+could! Open that safe or take the consequences; no more talk, now!"
+
+The command cracked out like a whiplash. With a shrug of helplessness
+the banker turned and fumbled with the protruding knob of the safe. With
+one exception all eyes were fastened upon this amazing Masquer. The
+exception was Jachin Fell, who, suddenly alert and watchful, had turned
+his attention to Maillard and the safe, a keen speculation in his gaze
+as though he were wondering what that steel vault would produce.
+
+All were silent. There was something about this Midnight Masquer that
+held them intently. Perhaps some were inclined to think him a jester,
+one of the party masquerading under the famous bandit's guise; if so,
+his last words to Maillard had removed all such thought. That indictment
+had been deadly and terrible--and true, as they knew. Bob Maillard was
+not greatly admired by those among his father's friends who best knew
+him.
+
+Now the door of the safe swung open. The compartments appeared empty.
+
+"Take out the drawers and turn them up over the table," commanded the
+Masquer.
+
+Maillard obeyed. He took several of the small drawers, and all proved to
+be empty; this development drew a dry chuckle from Jachin Fell. Then,
+from the last drawer, there fell out on the table a large envelope,
+sealed. The Masquer leaned forward, seized upon this envelope, and
+crushed it into his pocket.
+
+"Thank you," he observed. "That is all."
+
+"Damn you!" cried Maillard, shaking a fist. "You'd try blackmail, would
+you?"
+
+The bandit regarded him a moment, then laughed.
+
+"If you knew what was in that envelope, my dear financier, you might not
+speak so hastily. If I knew what was in it, I might answer you. But I
+don't know. I only suspect--and hope."
+
+While he spoke the bandit was backing toward the door that opened upon
+the lower hallway of the house. He drew this door open, glanced swiftly
+out into the hall, and then placed the key on the outside.
+
+"And now, my friends--_au revoir_!"
+
+The Masquer sprang backward into the hall. The door slammed, the key
+clicked. He was gone!
+
+Maillard was the first to wake into voice and action. "The other door!"
+he cried. "Into the dining room----"
+
+He flung open a second door and dashed into the dining room, followed by
+the other men. Here the windows, giving upon the garden, were open. Then
+Maillard came to a sudden halt, and after him the others; through the
+night was pulsating, with great distinctness, the throbbing roar of an
+airplane motor! From Maillard broke a bitter cry:
+
+"The detectives--I'll get the fools here! You gentlemen search the
+house; Uncle Neb, go with them, into every room! That fellow can't
+possibly have escaped----"
+
+"No word of alarm to the ladies," exclaimed Judge Forester, hurriedly.
+"If he was not upstairs, then they have seen nothing of him. We must
+divide and search."
+
+They hastily separated. Maillard dashed away to summon the detectives,
+also to get other men to aid in the search.
+
+The result was vain. Within twenty minutes the entire house, from cellar
+to garret, had been thoroughly gone over, without causing any alarm to
+the dancers in the ballroom. Maillard began to think himself a little
+mad. No one had been seen to enter or leave the house, and certainly
+there had been no airplane about. The Masquer had not appeared except in
+the library, and now he was most indubitably not in the house. By all
+testimony, he had neither entered it nor left it!
+
+"Well, I'm damned!" said Maillard, helplessly, to Judge Forester, when
+the search was concluded. "Not a trace of the scoundrel! Here,
+Fell--can't you help us out? Haven't you discovered a thing?"
+
+"Nothing," responded Jachin Fell, calmly.
+
+At this instant Bob Maillard rushed up. He had just learned of the
+Masquer's visit. In response to his excited questioning his father
+described the scene in the library and added:
+
+"I trust there was nothing important among those papers of yours,
+Robert?"
+
+"No," said the younger man. "No. Nothing valuable at all."
+
+Henry Gramont was passing. He caught the words and paused, his gaze
+resting for an instant upon the group. A faint smile rested upon his
+rather harshly drawn features.
+
+"I just found this," he announced, holding out a paper. "It was pinned
+to the outside of the library door. I presume that your late visitor
+left it as a memento?"
+
+Jachin Fell took the paper, the other men crowding around him.
+
+"Ah, Maillard! The same handwriting as that of your letter!"
+
+Upon the paper was pencilled a single hasty line:
+
+           My compliments to Robert Maillard--and my thanks.
+
+Bob Maillard sprang forward, angrily inspecting the paper. When he
+relinquished it, Fell calmly claimed it again.
+
+"Confound the rogue!" muttered the banker's son, turning away. His
+features were pale, perhaps with anger. "There was nothing but stock
+certificates in that envelope--and they can be reissued."
+
+The festivities were not broken up. As much could hardly be said for the
+host, who felt keenly the verbal lashing that had been administered to
+him before his friends. News of the robbery gradually leaked out among
+the guests; the generally accepted verdict was that the Masquer had
+appeared, only to be frightened away before he could secure any loot.
+
+It was nearly two in the morning when Jachin Fell, who was leaving,
+encountered Henry Gramont at the head of the wide stairway. He halted
+and turned to the younger man.
+
+"Ah--have you a pencil, if you please?"
+
+"I think so, Mr. Fell." Gramont felt beneath his Franciscan's robe, and
+extended a pencil.
+
+Jachin Fell examined it, brought a paper from beneath his domino, and
+wrote down a word. The paper was that on which the farewell message of
+the Midnight Masquer had been written.
+
+"A hard lead, a very hard point indeed!" said Fell. He pocketed the
+paper again and regarded Gramont steadily as he returned the pencil.
+"Few men carry so hard a pencil, sir."
+
+"You're quite right," and Gramont smiled. "I borrowed this from Bob
+Maillard only a moment ago. Its hardness surprised me."
+
+"Oh!" said Jachin Fell, mildly. "By the way, aren't you the Prince de
+Gramont? When we met this evening, you were introduced as plain Mr.
+Gramont, but it seems to me that I had heard something----"
+
+"Quite a mistake, Mr. Fell. I'm no prince; simply Henry Gramont, and
+nothing more. Also, an American citizen. Some of these New Orleans
+people can't forget the prince business, most unfortunately."
+
+"Ah, yes," agreed Fell, shyly. "Do you know, a most curious thing----"
+
+"Yes?" prompted Gramont, his eyes intent upon the little gray man.
+
+"That paper you brought us--the paper which you found pinned to the
+library door," said Fell, apologetically. "Do you know, Mr. Gramont,
+that oddly enough there were no pin holes in that paper?"
+
+Gramont smiled faintly, as though he were inwardly amused over the
+remark.
+
+"Not at all curious," he said, his voice level. "It was pinned rather
+stoutly--I tore off the portion bearing the message. I'll wager that
+you'll find the end of the paper still on the door downstairs. You might
+make certain that its torn edge fits that of the paper in your pocket;
+if it did not, then the fact _would_ be curious! I am most happy to have
+met you, Mr. Fell. I trust that we shall meet again, often."
+
+With a smile, he extended his hand, which Mr. Fell shook cordially.
+
+As Jachin Fell descended the wide staircase his face was red--quite red.
+One would have said that he had just been worsted in some encounter, and
+that the sense of defeat still rankled within him.
+
+Upon gaining the lower hall he glanced at the door of the library.
+There, still pinned to the wood where it had been unregarded by the
+passersby, was a small scrap of paper. Mr. Fell glanced at it again,
+then shook his head and slowly turned away, as though resisting a
+temptation.
+
+"No," he muttered. "No. It would be sure to fit the paper in my pocket.
+It would be sure to fit, confound him!"
+
+A little later he left the house and walked along the line of cars that
+were waiting parked in the drive and in the street outside. Before one
+of the cars he came to a halt, examining it closely. The sleepy
+chauffeur got out and touched his cap in a military salute; he was a
+sturdy young fellow, his face very square and blunt.
+
+"A very handsome car. May I ask whose it is?" inquired Fell, mildly.
+
+"Mr. Gramont's, sir," answered the chauffeur.
+
+"Ah, thank you. A very handsome car indeed. Good-night!"
+
+Mr. Fell walked away, striding briskly down the avenue. When he
+approached the first street light he came to a pause, and began softly
+to pat his person as though searching for something.
+
+"I told you that you'd pay for knowing too much about me, young man!" he
+said, softly. "What's this, now--what's this?"
+
+A slight rustle of paper, as he walked along, had attracted his
+attention. He passed his hands over the loose, open domino that cloaked
+him; he detected a scrap of paper pinned to it in the rear. He loosened
+the paper, and under the street light managed to decipher the writing
+which it bore.
+
+A faint smile crept to his lips as he read the pencilled words:
+
+        I do not love you, Jachin Fell,
+        The reason why I cannot tell;
+        But this I know, and know full well,
+        I do not love you, Jachin Fell!
+
+"Certainly the fellow has wit, if not originality," muttered Mr. Fell,
+as he carefully stowed away the paper. The writing upon it was in the
+hand of the Midnight Masquer.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+
+                               _Callers_
+
+
+The house in which Lucie Ledanois lived had been her mother's; the
+furniture and other things in it had been her mother's; the two negro
+servants, who spoke only the Creole French patois, had been her
+mother's. It was a small house, but very beautiful inside. The exterior
+betrayed a lack of paint or the money with which to have painting done.
+
+The Ledanois family, although distantly connected with others such as
+the Maillards, had sent forth its final bud of fruition in the girl
+Lucie. Her mother had died while she was yet an infant, and through the
+years she had companioned her father, an invalid during the latter days.
+He had never been a man to count dollars or costs, and to a large extent
+he had outworn himself and the family fortunes in a vain search for
+health.
+
+With Lucie he had been in Europe at the outbreak of war, and had come
+home to America only to die shortly afterward. Once deprived of his fine
+recklessness, the girl had found her affairs in a bad tangle. Under the
+guardianship of Maillard the tangle had been somewhat resolved and
+simplified, but even Maillard would appear to have made mistakes, and of
+late Lucie had against her will suspected something amiss in the matter
+of these mistakes.
+
+It was natural, then, that she should take Jachin Fell into her
+confidence. Maillard had been her guardian, but it was to Fell that she
+had always come with her girlish cares and troubles, during even the
+lifetime of her father. She had known Fell all her life; she had met him
+in strange places, both at home and abroad. She entertained a
+well-grounded suspicion that Jachin Fell had loved her mother, and this
+one fact lay between them, never mentioned but always there, like a bond
+of faith and kindliness.
+
+At precisely three o'clock of the Sunday afternoon Jachin Fell rang the
+doorbell and Lucie herself admitted him. She ushered him into the
+parlour that was restful with its quiet brasses and old rosewood.
+
+"Tell me quickly, Uncle Jachin!" eagerly exclaimed the girl. "Did you
+actually see the Midnight Masquer last night? I didn't know until
+afterward that he had really been downstairs and had robbed----"
+
+"I saw him, my dear," and the little gray man smiled. There was more
+warmth to his smile than usual just now. Perhaps it was a reflection
+from the eager vitality which so shone in the eyes of Lucie. "I saw him,
+yes."
+
+A restful face was hers--not beautiful at first glance; a little too
+strong for beauty one would say. The deep gray eyes were level and quiet
+and wide apart, and on most occasions were quite inscrutable. They were
+now filled with a quick eagerness as they rested upon Jachin Fell. Lucie
+called him uncle, but not as she called Joseph Maillard uncle; here was
+no relationship, no formal affectation of relationship, but a purely
+abiding trust and friendship.
+
+Jachin Fell had done more for Lucie than she herself knew or would know;
+without her knowledge he had quietly taken care of her finances to an
+appreciable extent. Between them lay an affection that was very real.
+Lucie, better than most, knew the extraordinary capabilities of this
+little gray man; yet not even Lucie guessed a tenth of the character
+that lay beneath his surface. To her he was never reserved or secretive.
+Nonetheless, she touched sometimes an impenetrable wall that seemed ever
+present within him.
+
+"You saw him?" repeated the girl, quickly. "What was he like? Do you
+know who he is?"
+
+"Certainly I know," replied Fell, still smiling at her.
+
+"Oh! Then who is he?"
+
+"Softly, softly, young lady! I know him, but even to you I dare not
+breathe his name until I obtain some direct evidence. Let us call him
+Mr. X., after the approved methods of romance, and I shall expound what
+I know."
+
+He groped in his vest pocket. Lucie sprang up, bringing a smoking stand
+from the corner of the room to his chair. She held a match to his El
+Rey, and then curled up on a Napoleon bed and watched him intently while
+he spoke.
+
+"The bandit did not enter the house during the evening, nor did he
+leave, nor was he found in the house afterward," he said, tonelessly.
+"So, incredible as it may appear, he was one of the guests. This Mr. X.
+came to the dance wearing the aviator's costume, or most of it,
+underneath his masquerade costume. When he was ready to act, he doffed
+his outer costume, appeared as the Midnight Masquer, effected his
+purpose, then calmly donned his outer costume again and resumed his
+place among the guests. You understand?
+
+"Well, then! Maillard yesterday received a note from the Masquer,
+brazenly stating that he intended to call during the evening. I have
+that note. It was written with an extremely hard lead pencil, such as
+few men carry, because it does not easily make very legible writing.
+Last night I asked Mr. X. for a pencil, and he produced one with an
+extra hard lead--mentioning that he had borrowed it from Bob Maillard,
+as indeed he had."
+
+"What! Surely, you don't mean----"
+
+"Of course I don't. Mr. X. is very clever, that's all. Here is what took
+place last night. Mr. X. brought us another note from the Masquer,
+saying that he had found it pinned to the library door. As a matter of
+fact, he had written it on a leaf torn from his notebook. I took the
+note from him, observing at the time that the paper had no pin holes.
+Probably, Mr. X. saw that there was something amiss; he presently went
+back downstairs, took the remainder of the torn leaf from his notebook,
+and pinned it to the door. A little later, I met him and mentioned the
+lack of pin holes; he calmly referred me to the piece on the door,
+saying that he had merely torn off the note without removing the pins.
+You follow me?"
+
+"Of course," murmured the girl, her eyes wide in fascinated interest.
+"And he knew that you guessed him to be the Masquer?"
+
+"He suspected me, I think," said Fell, mildly. "It is understood that
+you will not go about tracing these little clues? I do not wish to
+disclose his identity, even to your very discreet brain----"
+
+"Don't be silly, Uncle Jachin!" she broke in. "You know I'll do nothing
+of the sort. Go on, please! Did you find the airplane?"
+
+"Yes." Jachin Fell smiled drily. "I was thinking of that as I left the
+house and came to the line of waiting automobiles. A word with one of
+the outside detectives showed me that one of the cars in the street had
+been testing its engine about midnight. I found that the car belonged to
+Mr. X.
+
+"How simple, Lucie, and how very clever! The chauffeur worked a powerful
+motor with a muffler cutout at about the time Mr. X., inside the house,
+was making his appearance. It scarcely sounded like an airplane motor,
+yet frightened and startled, people would imagine that it did. Thus
+arose the legend that the Midnight Masquer came and departed by means of
+airplane--a theory aided ingeniously by his costume. Well, that is all I
+know or suspect, my dear Lucie! And now----"
+
+"Now, I suppose," said the girl, thoughtfully, "you'll put that awful
+Creole of yours on the track of Mr. X.? Ben Chacherre is a good
+chauffeur, and he's amusing enough--but he's a bloodhound! I don't
+wonder that he used to be a criminal. Even if you have rescued him from
+a life of crime, you haven't improved his looks."
+
+"Exactly--Ben is at work," assented Jachin Fell. "The gentleman under
+suspicion is very prominent. To accuse him without proof would be utter
+folly. To catch him _in flagrante delicto_ will be difficult. So, I am
+in no haste. He will not disappear, believe me, and something may turn
+up at any moment to undo him. Besides, I can as yet discover no motive
+for his crimes, since he is quite well off financially."
+
+"Gambling," suggested the girl.
+
+"I cannot find that he has lost any considerable sums. Well, no matter!
+Now that I have fully unbosomed myself, my dear, it is your turn."
+
+"All right, Uncle Jachin." Lucie took a large morocco case from the
+chair beside her, and extended it. "You lent me these things to wear
+last night, and I----"
+
+"No, no," intervened Fell. "I gave them to you, my dear--in fact, I
+bought them for you two years ago, and kept them until now! You have
+worn them; they are yours, and you become them better than even did poor
+Queen Hortense! So say no more. I trust that Mrs. Maillard was righteous
+and envious?"
+
+"She was disagreeable," said Lucie. She leaned forward and imprinted a
+kiss upon the cheek of the little gray man. "There! that is all the
+thanks I can give you, dear uncle; the gift makes me very happy, and
+I'll not pretend otherwise. Only, I feel as though I had no right to
+wear them--they're so wonderful!"
+
+"Nonsense! You can do anything you want to, as Eliza said when she
+crossed the ice. But all this isn't why you summoned me here, you bundle
+of mystery! What bothered you last night, or rather, who?"
+
+Lucie laughed. "There was a Franciscan who tried to be very mysterious,
+and to read my mind. He talked about oil, about a grasping, hard man,
+and mentioned you as my friend. Then he warned me against a proposal
+that Bob might make; and sure enough, Bob did propose to buy what land
+is left to me on Bayou Terrebonne, saying he'd persuade his oil company
+that there was oil on it, and that they'd buy or lease it. I told him
+no. The Franciscan, afterward, proved to be Henry Gramont; I wondered if
+you had mentioned----"
+
+"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Mr. Fell, piously. "I never even met Gramont
+until last night! Do you like him?"
+
+"Very much." The girl's eyes met his frankly. "Do you?"
+
+"Very much," said Jachin Fell.
+
+Lucie's gray eyes narrowed, searched his face. "I'm almost able to tell
+when you're lying," she observed, calmly. "You said that a trifle too
+hastily, Uncle Jachin. Why don't you like him?"
+
+Fell laughed, amused. "Perhaps I have a prejudice against foreign
+nobles, Lucie. Our own aristocracy is bad enough, but----"
+
+"He's discarded all that. He was never French except in name."
+
+"You speak as though you'd known him for some time. Have you had secrets
+from me?"
+
+"I have!" laughter dimpled in the girl's face. "For years and years!
+When I was in New York with father, before the war, we met him; he was
+visiting in Newport with college friends. Then, you know that father and
+I were in France when the war broke out--father was ill and almost
+helpless at the time, you remember. Gramont came to Paris to serve with
+his regiment, and met us there. He helped us get away, procured real
+money for us, got us passage to New York. He knows lots of our friends,
+and I've always been deeply grateful to him for his assistance then.
+
+"We've corresponded quite frequently during the war," she pursued. "I
+mentioned him several times after we got home from France, but you
+probably failed to notice the name. It's only since he came to New
+Orleans that I really kept any secrets from you; this time, I wanted to
+find out if you liked him."
+
+Jachin Fell nodded slowly. His face was quite innocent of expression.
+
+"Yes, yes," he said. "Yes--of course. He's a geologist or engineer, I
+think?"
+
+"Both, and a good one. He's a stockholder in Bob Maillard's oil company,
+and I think he's come here to stay. Well, about last night--he probably
+guessed at some of my private affairs; I've written or spoken rather
+frankly, perhaps. Also, Bob may have blabbed to him. Bob still
+drinks--prohibition has not hit _him_ very hard!"
+
+"No," agreed Fell, gravely. "Unfortunately, no. Lucie, I've discovered a
+most important fact. Joseph Maillard did not own any stock in the Bayou
+Oil Company at the time your land was sold them by him, and he had no
+interest at all in the real estate concern that bought your St. Landry
+swamplands and made a fortune off them. We have really blamed him most
+unjustly."
+
+For a moment there was silence between them.
+
+"We need not mince matters," pursued Fell, slowly. "Maillard has no
+scruples and no compassion; all the same, I am forced to the belief that
+he has maintained your interest uprightly, and that his mistakes were
+only errors. I do not believe that he has profited in the least from
+you. Two small fortunes were swept out of your grip when he sold those
+lands; yet they had been worthless, and he had good offers for them. His
+investments in the companies concerned were made afterward, and I am
+certain he sold the lands innocently."
+
+Lucie drew a deep breath.
+
+"I am glad you have said this," she returned, simply. "It's been hard
+for me to think that Uncle Joseph had taken advantage of me; I simply
+couldn't make myself believe it. I think that he honestly likes me, as
+far as he permits himself to like any one."
+
+"He'd not loan you money on it," said Fell. "Friendship isn't a tangible
+security with him. And a girl is never secure, as Eliza said when she
+crossed the ice."
+
+"Well, who really did profit by my loss? Any one?"
+
+Fell's pale gray eyes twinkled, then cleared in their usually wide
+innocence.
+
+"My dear Lucie, is there one person in this world to whose faults Joseph
+Maillard is deliberately blind--one person to whose influence he is ever
+open--one person to whom he would refuse nothing, in whom he would
+pardon everything, of whom he would never believe any evil report?"
+
+"You mean----" Lucie drew a quick breath, "Bob?"
+
+"Yes, I mean Bob. That he has profited by your loss I am not yet in a
+position to say; but I suspect it. He has his father's cupidity without
+his father's sense of honour to restrain him. When I have finished with
+the Masquer, I shall take up his trail."
+
+Jachin Fell rose. "Now I must be off, my dear. By the way, if I have
+need of you in running down the Masquer, may I call upon your services?"
+
+"Certainly! I'd love to help, Uncle Jachin! We'd be real detectives?"
+
+"Almost." Jachin Fell smiled slightly. "Will you dine with us to-morrow
+evening, Lucie? My mother commanded me to bring you as soon as
+possible----"
+
+"Oh, your mother!" exclaimed the girl, contritely. "I was so absorbed in
+the Masquer that I forgot to ask after her. How is she?"
+
+"Quite as usual, thank you. I presume that you'll attend Comus with the
+Maillards?"
+
+"Yes. I'll come to-morrow night gladly, Uncle Jachin."
+
+"And we'll take a look at the Proteus ball afterward, if you like. I'll
+send Ben Chacherre for you with the car, if you're not afraid of him."
+
+Lucie looked gravely into the smiling eyes of Fell.
+
+"I'm not exactly afraid of him," she responded, soberly, "but there is
+something about him that I can't like. I'm sorry that you're trying to
+regenerate him, in a way."
+
+Fell shrugged lightly. "All life is an effort, little one! Well,
+good-bye."
+
+Jachin Fell left the house at three-forty. Twenty minutes later the bell
+rang again. Lucie sent one of the servants to admit Henry Gramont; she
+kept him waiting a full fifteen minutes before she appeared, and then
+she made no apologies whatever for the delay.
+
+Not that Gramont minded waiting; he deemed it a privilege to linger in
+this house! He loved to study the place, so reflective of its owner. He
+loved the white Colonial mantel that surrounded the fireplace,
+perpetually alight, with its gleaming sheen of old brasses, and the
+glittering fire-set to one side. The very air of the place, the
+atmosphere that it breathed, was sweet to him.
+
+The Napoleon bed that filled the bow window, with its pillows and soft
+coverings; the inlaid walnut cabinet made by Sheraton, with its quaintly
+curved glasses that reflected the old-time curios within; the tilt
+tables, the rosewood chairs, the rugs, bought before the oriental rug
+market was flooded with machine-made Senna knots--about everything here
+had an air of comfort, of long use, of restfulness. It was not the sort
+of place built up, raw item by raw item, by the colour-frenzied hands of
+decorators. It was the sort of place that decorators strive desperately
+to imitate, and cannot.
+
+When Lucie made her appearance, Gramont bent over her hand and addressed
+her in French.
+
+"You are charming as ever, Shining One! And in years to come you will be
+still more charming. That is the beauty of having a name taken direct
+from the classics and bestowed as a good fairy's gift----"
+
+"Thank you, monsieur--but you have translated my name at least twenty
+times, and I am weary of hearing it," responded Lucie, laughingly.
+
+"Poor taste, mademoiselle, to grow weary of such beauty!"
+
+"Not of the name, but of your exegesis upon it. Why should I not be
+displeased? Last night you were positively rude, and now you decry my
+taste! Did you leave all your manners in France, M. le prince?"
+
+"Some of them, yes--and all that prince stuff with them." Smiling as he
+dropped into English, Gramont glanced about the room, and his eyes
+softened.
+
+"This is a lovey and loveable home of yours, Lucie!" he exclaimed,
+gravely. "So few homes are worthy the name; so few have in them the
+intimate air of use and friendliness--why are so many furnished from
+bargain sales? This place is touched with repose and sweetness; to come
+and sit here is a privilege. It is like being in another world, after
+all the money striving and the dollar madness of the city."
+
+"Oh!" The girl's gaze searched him curiously. "I hope you're not going
+to take the fine artistic pose that it is a crime to make money?"
+
+Gramont laughed.
+
+"Not much! I want to make money myself; that's one reason I'm in New
+Orleans. Still, you cannot deny that there is a craze about the eternal
+clutching after dollars. I can't make the dollar sign the big thing in
+life, Lucie. You couldn't, either."
+
+She frowned a little.
+
+"You seem to have the European notion that all Americans are dollar
+chasers!"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders slightly. His harshly lined face was very
+strong; one sensed that its harshness had come from the outside--from
+hunger, from hardship and privations, from suffering strongly borne. He
+had not gone through the war unscathed, this young man who had tossed
+away a princely "de" in order to become plain Henry Gramont, American
+citizen.
+
+"In a sense, yes; why not?" he answered. "I am an American. I am a
+dollar chaser, and not ashamed of it. I am going into business here.
+Once it is a success, I shall go on; I shall see America, I shall come
+to know this whole country of mine, all of it! I have been a month in
+New Orleans--do you know, a strange thing happened to me only a few days
+after I arrived here!"
+
+With her eyes she urged him on, and he continued gravely:
+
+"In France I met a man, an American sergeant named Hammond. It was just
+at the close of things. We had adjoining cots at Nice----"
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, quickly. "I remember, you wrote about him--the man
+who had been wounded in both legs! Did he get well? You never said."
+
+"I never knew until I came here," answered Gramont. "One night, not long
+after I had got established in my pension on Burgundy Street, a man
+tried to rob me. It was this same man, Hammond; we recognized each other
+almost at once.
+
+"I took him home with me and learned his story. He had come back to
+America only to find his wife dead from influenza, his home broken up,
+his future destroyed. He drifted to New Orleans, careless of what
+happened to him. He flung himself desperately into a career of burglary
+and pillage. Well, I gave Hammond a job; he is my chauffeur. You would
+never recognize him as the same man now! I am very proud of his
+friendship."
+
+"That was well said." Lucie nodded her head quickly. "I shan't call you
+M. Le prince any more--unless you offend again."
+
+He smiled, reading her thought. "I try not to be a snob, eh? Well, what
+I'm driving at is this: I want to know this country of mine, to see it
+with clear, unprejudiced eyes. We hide our real shames and exalt our
+false ones. Why should we be ashamed of chasing the dollar? So long as
+that is a means to the end of happiness, it's all right. But there are
+some men who see it as an end alone, who can set no _finis_ to their
+work except the dollar dropping into their pouch. Such a man is your
+relative, Joseph Maillard--I say it without offence."
+
+Lucie nodded, realizing that he was driving at some deeper thing, and
+held her peace.
+
+"You realize the fact, eh?" Gramont smiled faintly. "I do not wish to
+offend you, and I shall therefore refrain from saying all that is in my
+mind. But you have not hesitated to intimate very frankly that you are
+not wealthy. Some time ago, if you recall, you wrote me how you had just
+missed wealth through having sold some land. I have taken the liberty of
+looking up that deal to some extent, and I have suspected that your
+uncle had some interest in putting the sale through----"
+
+The gray eyes of the girl flashed suddenly.
+
+"Henry Gramont! Are my family affairs to be an open book to the world?"
+A slight flush, perhaps of anger, perhaps of some other emotion, rose in
+the girl's cheeks. "Do you realize that you are intruding most
+unwarrantably into my private matters?"
+
+"Unwarrantably?" Gramont's eyes held her gaze steadily. "Do you really
+mean to use that word?"
+
+"I do, most certainly!" answered Lucie with spirit. "I don't think you
+realize just what the whole thing tends toward----"
+
+"Oh, yes I do! Quite clearly." Gramont's cool, level tone conquered her
+indignation. "I see that you are orphaned, and that your uncle was your
+guardian, and executed questionable deals which lost money for you.
+Come, that's brutally frank--but it's true! We are friends of long
+standing; not intimate friends, perhaps, and yet I think very good
+friends. I am most certainly not ashamed to say that when I had the
+occasion to look out for your interests I was very glad of the chance."
+
+Gramont paused, but she did not speak. He continued after a moment:
+
+"You had intimated to me, perhaps without meaning to do so, something of
+the situation. I came here to New Orleans and became involved in some
+dealings with your cousin, Bob Maillard. I believed, and I believe now,
+that in your heart you have some suspicion of your uncle in regard to
+those transactions in land. Therefore, I took the trouble to look into
+the thing to a slight extent. Shall I tell you what I have discovered?"
+
+Lucie Ledanois gazed at him, her lips compressed. She liked this new
+manner of his, this firm and resolute gravity, this harshness. It
+brought out his underlying character very well.
+
+"If you please, Henry," she murmured very meekly. "Since you have thrust
+yourself into my private affairs, I think I should at least get whatever
+benefit I can!"
+
+"Exactly. Why not?" He made a grave gesture of assent. "Well, then, I
+have discovered that your uncle appears to be honestly at fault in the
+matter----"
+
+"Thanks for this approval of my family," she murmured.
+
+"And," continued Gramont, imperturbably, "that your suspicions of him
+were groundless. But, on the other hand, something new has turned up
+about which I wish to speak--but about which I must speak delicately."
+
+"Be frank, my dear Henry--even brutal! Speak, by all means."
+
+"Very well. Has Bob Maillard offered to buy your remaining land on the
+Bayou Terrebonne?"
+
+She started slightly. So it was to this that he had been leading up all
+the while!
+
+"He broached the subject last night," she answered. "I dismissed it for
+the time."
+
+"Good!" he exclaimed with boyish vigour. "Good! I warned you in time,
+then! If you will permit me, I must advise you not to part with that
+land--not even for a good offer. This week, immediately Mardi Gras is
+over, I am going to inspect that land for the company; it is Bob
+Maillard's company, you know.
+
+"If there's any chance of finding oil there, I shall first see you, then
+advise the company. You can hold out for your fair share of the mineral
+rights, instead of selling the whole thing. You'll get it! Landowners
+around here are not yet wise to the oil game, but they'll soon learn."
+
+"You would betray your business associates to help me?" she asked,
+curious to hear his reply. A slow flush crept into his cheeks.
+
+"Certainly not! But I would not betray you to help my business friends.
+Is my unwarrantable intrusion forgiven?"
+
+She nodded brightly. "You are put on probation, sir. You're in Bob's
+company?"
+
+"Yes." Gramont frowned. "I invested perhaps too hastily--but no matter
+now. I have the car outside, Lucie; may I have the pleasure of taking
+you driving?"
+
+"Did you bring that chauffeur?"
+
+"Yes," and he laughed at her eagerness.
+
+"Good! I accept--because I must see that famous
+soldier-bandit-chauffeur. If you'll wait, I'll be ready in a minute."
+
+She hurried from the room, a snatch of song on her lips. Gramont smiled
+as he waited.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+                         _The Masquer Unmasks_
+
+
+In New Orleans one may find pensions in the old quarter--the quarter
+which is still instinct with the pulse of old-world life. These pensions
+do not advertise. The average tourist knows nothing of them. Even if he
+knew, indeed, he might have some difficulty in obtaining accommodations,
+for it is not nearly enough to have the money; one must also have the
+introductions, come well recommended, and be under the tongue of good
+repute.
+
+Gramont had obtained a small apartment _en pension_--a quiet and
+severely retired house in Burgundy Street, maintained by a very proud
+old lady whose ancestors had come out of Canada with the Sieur
+d'Iberville. Here Gramont lived with Hammond, quite on a basis of
+equality, and they were very comfortable.
+
+The two men sat smoking their pipes before the fireplace, in which
+blazed a small fire--more for good cheer than through necessity. It was
+Sunday evening. Between Gramont and Hammond had arisen a discussion
+regarding their relations--a discussion which was perhaps justified by
+Gramont's quixotic laying down of the law.
+
+"It's all very well, Hammond," he mused, "to follow custom and
+precedent, to present to the world a front which will not shock its
+proprieties, its sense of tradition and fitness. In the world's eye you
+are my chauffeur. But when we're alone together--nonsense!"
+
+"That's all right, cap'n," said Hammond, shrewdly. To him, Gramont was
+always "cap'n" and nothing else. "But you know's well as I do it can't
+go on forever. I'm workin' for you, and that's the size of it. I ain't
+got the education to stack up alongside of you. I don't want you to get
+the notion that I'm figuring on takin' advantage of you----"
+
+"Bosh! I suppose some day I'll be wealthy, married, and bound in the
+chains of social usage and custom," said Gramont, energetically. "But
+that day isn't here yet. If you think I'll accept deference and
+servility from any man who has endured the same hunger and cold and
+wounds that I endured in France--then guess again! We're friends in a
+democracy of Americans. You're just as good a man as I am, and vice
+versa. Besides, aren't we fellow criminals?"
+
+Hammond grinned at this. There was no lack of shrewd intelligence in his
+broad and powerful features, which were crowned by a rim of reddish
+hair.
+
+"All that line o' bull sounds good, cap'n, only it's away off," he
+returned. "Trouble with you is, you ain't forgot the war yet."
+
+"I never will," said Gramont, his face darkening.
+
+"Sure you will! We all will. And you ain't as used to this country as I
+am, either. I've seen too much of it. You ain't seen enough."
+
+"I've seen enough to know that it's my country."
+
+"Right. But I ain't as good a man as you are, not by a long shot!" said
+Hammond, cheerfully. "You proved that the night you caught me comin'
+into the window at the Lavergne house. You licked me without half
+tryin', cap'n!
+
+"Anyhow," pursued Hammond, "America ain't a democracy, unless you're
+runnin' for Congress. It sounds good to the farmers, but wait till
+you've been here long enough to get out of your fine notions! Limousines
+and money ain't got much use for democracy. The men who have brains,
+like you, always will give orders, I reckon."
+
+"Bosh!" said Gramont again. "It isn't a question of having brains. It's
+a question of knowing what to do with them. All men are born free and
+equal----"
+
+"Not much!" retorted the other with conviction. "All men were born free,
+but mighty few were born equal, cap'n. That sort o' talk sounds good in
+the newspapers, but it don't go very far with the guy at the bottom, nor
+the top, either!"
+
+Gramont stared into the flickering fire and sucked at his pipe. He
+realized that in a sense Hammond was quite correct in his argument;
+nonetheless, he looked on the other man as a comrade, and always would
+do so. It was true that he had not forgotten the war. Suddenly he roused
+himself and shot a glance at Hammond.
+
+"Sergeant! You seem to have a pretty good recollection of that night at
+the Lavergne house, when I found you entering and jumped on you."
+
+"You bet I have!" Hammond chuckled. "When you'd knocked the goggles off
+me and we recognized each other--hell! I felt like a boob."
+
+Gramont smiled. "How many places had you robbed up to then? Three,
+wasn't it?"
+
+"Three is right, cap'n," was the unashamed response.
+
+"We haven't referred to it very often, but now things have happened."
+Gramont's face took on harsh lines of determination. "Do you know, it
+was a lucky thing that you had no chance to dispose of the jewels and
+money you obtained? But I suppose you didn't call it good luck at the
+time."
+
+"No chance?" snorted the other. "No chance is right, cap'n! And I was
+sore, too. Say, they got a ring of crooks around this town you couldn't
+bust into with grenades! I couldn't figure it out for a while, but only
+the other day I got the answer. Listen here, and I'll tell you something
+big."
+
+Hammond leaned forward, lowered his voice, and tamped at his pipe.
+
+"When I was a young fellow I lived in a little town up North--I ain't
+sayin' where. My old man had a livery stable there, see? Well, one night
+a guy come along and got the old man out of bed, and slips him fifteen
+hundred for a rig and a team, see? I drove the guy ten miles through the
+hills, and set him on a road he wanted to find.
+
+"Now, that guy was the biggest crook in the country in them days--still
+is, I guess. He was on the dead run that night, to keep out o'
+Leavenworth. He kep' out, all right, and he's settin' in the game to
+this minute. Nobody never pinched him yet, and never will."
+
+Gramont's face had tensed oddly as he listened. Now he shot out a single
+word:
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because his gang runs back to politicians and rich guys all over the
+country. You ask anybody on the inside if they ever heard of Memphis
+Izzy Gumberts! Well, cap'n, I seen that very identical guy on the street
+the other day--I never could forget his ugly mug! And where _he_ is, no
+outside crooks can get in, you believe me!"
+
+"Hm! Memphis Izzy Gumberts, eh? What kind of a crook is he, sergeant?"
+
+"The big kind. You remember them Chicago lotteries? But you don't, o'
+course. Well, that's his game--lotteries and such like."
+
+Gramont's lips clenched for a minute, then he spoke with slow
+distinctness:
+
+"Sergeant, I'd have given five hundred dollars for that information a
+week ago!"
+
+"Why?" Hammond stared at him suddenly. Gramont shook his head.
+
+"Never mind. Forget it! Now, this stunt of yours was clever. You showed
+brains when you got yourself up as an aviator and pulled that stuff,
+sergeant. But you handled it brutally--terribly brutally."
+
+"It was a little raw, I guess," conceded Hammond. "I was up against it,
+that's all--I figured they'd pinch me sooner or later, but I didn't
+care, and that's the truth! I was out for the coin.
+
+"When you took over the costume and began to get across with the Raffles
+stuff--why, it was a pipe for you, cap'n! Look what we've done in a
+month. Six jobs, every one running off smooth as glass! Your notion of
+going to parties ready dressed with some kind of loose robe over the
+flyin' duds was a scream! And then me running that motor with the cutout
+on--all them birds that never heard an airplane think you come and go by
+air, for certain! I will say that I ain't on to why you're doing it;
+just the same, you've got them all fooled, and I ain't worried a
+particle about the cops or the crooks, either one. But watch out for the
+Gumberts crowd! They're liable to show us up to the bulls, simply
+because we ain't in with 'em. Nobody else will ever find us out."
+
+Gramont nodded thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes? But, sergeant, how about the quiet little man who came along last
+night at the Maillard house and asked about the car? Perhaps he had
+discovered you had been running the engine."
+
+"Him?" Hammond sniffed in scorn. "He wasn't no dick."
+
+"Well, I was followed to-day; at least, I think I was. I could spot
+nobody after me, but I felt certain of it. And let me tell you something
+about that same quiet little man! His name is Jachin Fell."
+
+"Heluva name," commented Hammond, and wrinkled up his brow. "Jachin,
+huh? Seems like I've heard the name before. Out o' the Bible, ain't it?
+Something about Jachin and Boaz?"
+
+"I imagine so." Gramont smiled as he replied. "Fell is a lawyer, but he
+never practises law. He's rich, he's a very fine chess player--and
+probably the smartest man in New Orleans, sergeant. Just what he does I
+don't know; no one does. I imagine that he's one of those quiet men who
+stay in the backgrounds of city politics and pull the strings. You know,
+one administration has been in power here for nearly twenty years--it's
+something to make a man stop and think!
+
+"This chap Fell is sharp, confoundedly sharp!" went on Gramont, while
+the chauffeur listened with frowning intentness. "He's altogether too
+sharp to be a criminal--or I'd suspect that he was using his knowledge
+of the law to beat the law. Well, I think that he is on to me, and is
+trying to get the goods on me."
+
+"Oh!" said Hammond. "And someone was trailin' you? Think he's put the
+bulls wise?"
+
+Gramont shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. He almost caught me last
+night. We'll have to get rid of that aviator's suit at once, and of the
+loot also. I suppose you've reconciled yourself to returning the stuff?"
+
+Hammond stirred uneasily, and laid down his pipe.
+
+"Look here, cap'n," he said, earnestly. "I wasn't runnin' a holdup game
+because I liked it, and I wasn't doing it for the fun of the thing, like
+you are. I was dead broke, I hadn't any hope left, and I didn't care a
+damn whether I lived or died--that's on the dead! Right there, you come
+along and picked me up.
+
+"You give me a job. What's more, you've treated me white, cap'n. I guess
+you seen that I was just a man with the devil at his heels, and you
+chased the devil off. You've given me something decent to live for--to
+make good because you got some faith in me! Why, when you went out on
+that first job of ours, d'you know it like to broke me up? It did. Only,
+when we got home that night and you said it was all a joke, and you'd
+send back the loot later on, then I begun to feel better about it. Even
+if you'd gone into it as a reg'lar business, I'd have stuck with
+you--but I was darned glad about its bein' a joke!"
+
+Gramont nodded in comprehension of the other's feeling.
+
+"It's not been altogether a joke, sergeant," he said, gravely. "To tell
+the truth, I did start it as a joke, but soon afterward I learned
+something that led me to keep it up. I kept it up until I could hit the
+Maillard house. It was my intention to turn up at the Comus ball, on
+Tuesday night, and there make public restitution of the stuff--but
+that's impossible now. I dare not risk it! That man Fell is too smart."
+
+"You're not goin' to pull the trick again, then?" queried Hammond,
+eagerly.
+
+"No. I'm through. I've got what I wanted. Still, I don't wish to return
+the stuff before Wednesday--Ash Wednesday, the end of the carnival
+season. Suppose you get out the loot and find me some boxes. And be sure
+they have no name on them or any store labels."
+
+Hammond leaped up and vanished in the room adjoining. Presently he
+returned, bearing several cardboard boxes which he dumped on the centre
+table. Gramont examined them closely, and laid aside a number that were
+best suited to his purpose. Meantime, the chauffeur was opening a
+steamer trunk which he pulled from under the bed.
+
+"I'm blamed glad you're done, believe me!" he uttered, fervently,
+glancing up at Gramont. "Far's I'm concerned I don't care much, but I'd
+sure hate to see the bulls turn in a guy like you, cap'n. You couldn't
+ever persuade anybody that it was all a joke, neither, once they nabbed
+you. They're a bad bunch o' bulls in this town--it ain't like Chi or
+other places, where you can stand in right and do a bit o' fixing."
+
+"You seem to know the game pretty well," and Gramont smiled amusedly.
+
+"Ain't I been a chauffeur and garage man?" retorted Hammond, as though
+this explained much. "If there's anything us guys don't run up against,
+you can't name it! Here we are. Want me to keep each bunch separate,
+don't you?"
+
+"Sure. I'll be writing some notes to go inside."
+
+Gramont went to a buhl writing desk in the corner of the room, and sat
+down. He took out his notebook, tore off several sheets, and from his
+pocket produced a pencil having an extremely hard lead. He wrote a
+number of notes, which, except for the addresses, were identical in
+content:
+
+    DEAR SIR:
+
+    I enclose herewith certain jewellery and articles, also
+    currency, recently obtained by me under your kind auspices.
+
+    I trust that you will assume the responsibility of returning
+    these things to the various guests who lost them while under
+    your roof. I regret any discomfort occasioned by my taking them
+    as a loan, which I now return. Please convey to the several
+    owners my profound esteem and my assurance that I shall not in
+    future appear to trouble any one, the carnival season having
+    come to an end, and with it my little jest.
+
+                                           THE MIDNIGHT MASQUER.
+
+Gathering up these notes in his hand, Gramont went to the fireplace. He
+tossed the pencil into the fire, following it with the notebook.
+
+"Can't take chances with that man Fell," he explained. "All ready,
+sergeant. Let's go down the list one by one."
+
+From the trunk Hammond produced ticketed packages, which he placed on
+the table. Gramont selected one, opened it, carefully packed the
+contents in one of the boxes, placed the proper addressed note on top,
+and handed it to the chauffeur.
+
+"Wrap it up and address it. Give the return address of John Smith, Bayou
+Teche."
+
+One by one they went through the packages of loot in the same manner.
+Before them on the table, as they worked, glittered little heaps of
+rings, brooches, watches, currency; jewels that flashed garishly with
+coloured fires, historic and famous jewels plucked from the aristocratic
+heart of the southland, heirlooms of a past generation side by side with
+platinum crudities of the present fashion.
+
+There had been heartburnings in the loss of these things, Gramont knew.
+He could picture to himself something of what had followed his
+robberies: family quarrels, new purchases in the gem marts, bitter
+reproaches, fresh mortgages on old heritages, vexations of wealthy
+dowagers, shrugs of unconcern by the _nouveaux riches_; perchance lives
+altered--deaths--divorces----
+
+"There's a lot of human life behind these baubles, sergeant," he
+reflected aloud, a cold smile upon his lips as he worked. "When they
+come back to their owners, I'd like to be hovering around in an
+invisible mantle to watch results! Could we only know it, we're probably
+affecting the lives of a great many people--for good and ill. These
+things stand for money; and there's nothing like money, or the lack of
+it, to guide the destinies of people."
+
+"You said it," and Hammond grinned. "I'm here to prove it, ain't I? I
+ain't pulling no more gunplay, now I got me a steady job."
+
+"And a steady friend, old man," added Gramont. "Did it occur to you that
+maybe I was as much in need of a friend as you were?"
+
+He had come to the last box now, that which must go to Joseph Maillard.
+On top of the money and scarfpins which he placed in the box he laid a
+thin packet of papers. He tapped them with his finger.
+
+"Those papers, sergeant! To get them, I've been playing the whole game.
+To get them and not to let their owner suspect that I was after them!
+Now they're going back to their owner."
+
+"Who's he?" demanded Hammond.
+
+"Young Maillard--son of the banker. He roped me into an oil company;
+caught me, like a sucker, almost the first week I was here. I put pretty
+near my whole wad into that company of his."
+
+"You mean he stung you?"
+
+"Not yet." Gramont smiled coldly, harshly. "That was his intention; he
+thought I was a Frenchman who would fall for any sort of game. I fell
+right enough--but I'll come out on top of the heap."
+
+The other frowned. "I don't get you, cap'n. Some kind o' stock deal?"
+
+"Yes, and no." Gramont paused, and seemed to choose his words with care.
+"Miss Ledanois, the lady who was driving with us this afternoon, is an
+old friend of mine. I've known for some time that somebody was fleecing
+her. I suspected that it was Maillard the elder, for he has had the
+handling of her affairs for some time past. Now, however, those papers
+have given me the truth. He was straight enough with her; his son was
+the man.
+
+"The young fool imagines that by trickery and juggling he is playing the
+game of high finance! He worked on his father, made his father sell land
+owned by Miss Ledanois, and he himself reaped the profits. There are
+notes and stock issues among those papers that give his whole game away,
+to my eyes. Not legal evidence, as I had hoped, but evidence enough to
+show me the truth of things--to show me that he's a scoundrel! Further,
+they bear on my own case, and I'm satisfied now that I'd be ruined if I
+stayed with him."
+
+"Well, that's easy settled," said Hammond. "Just hold him up with them
+papers--make him come across!"
+
+"I'm not in that sort of business. I stole those papers, not to use them
+for blackmail, but to get information. By the way, get that tin box out
+of my trunk, will you? I want to take my stock certificates with me in
+the morning, and must not forget them."
+
+Hammond disappeared into the adjoining room.
+
+Gramont sat gazing at the boxes before him. Despite his words to
+Hammond, there was a fund of puzzled displeasure in his eyes, sheer
+dissatisfaction. He shook his head gloomily, and his eyes clouded.
+
+"All wasted--the whole effort!" he murmured. "I thought it might lead to
+something, but all it has given me is the reward of saving myself and
+possibly retrieving Lucie. As for the larger game, the bigger
+quarry--it's all wasted. I haven't unravelled a single thread; the first
+real clue came to me to-night, purely by accident. Memphis Izzy
+Gumberts! That's the lead to follow! I'll get rid of this Midnight
+Masquer foolishness and go after the real game."
+
+Gramont was to discover that it is not nearly so easy to be rid of folly
+as it is to don the jester's cap and bells; a fact which one
+Simplicissimus had discovered to his sorrow three hundred years earlier.
+But, as Gramont was not versed in this line of literature, he yet had
+the discovery ahead of him.
+
+Hammond reëntered the room with the tin box, from which Gramont took his
+stock certificates issued by Bob Maillard's oil company. He pocketed the
+shares.
+
+"Does this here Miss Ledanois," asked Hammond, "play in with you in the
+game? Young Maillard's related to her, ain't he?"
+
+"She's quite aware of his drawbacks, I think," answered Gramont, drily.
+
+"I see." Hammond rubbed his chin, and inspected his employer with a
+twinkle denoting perfect comprehension. "Well, how d'you expect to come
+out on top of the heap?"
+
+"I want to get my own money back," explained Gramont. "You see, young
+Maillard thinks that he's cleaned me up fine. I've invested heavily in
+his company, which has a couple of small wells already going. As I
+conceive the probable scheme, this company is scheduled to fail, and
+another company will take over the stock at next to nothing. Maillard
+will be the other company; his present associates will be the suckers!
+It's that, or some similar trick. I'm no longer interested in the
+affair."
+
+"Why not, if you got money in it?"
+
+"My son, to-morrow is Monday. Proteus will arrive out of the sea
+to-morrow, and the Proteus ball comes off to-morrow night. In spite of
+these distractions, the banks are open in the morning. Savvy?
+
+"I'll go to Maillard the banker--Joseph Maillard--first thing in the
+morning, and offer him my stock. He'll be mighty glad to get it at a
+discount, knowing that it is in his son's company. You see, the son
+doesn't confide in the old man particularly. I'll let the father win a
+little money on the deal with me, and by doing this I'll manage to save
+the greater part of my investment----"
+
+"Holy mackerel!" Hammond exploded in a burst of laughter as he caught
+the idea. "Say, if this ain't the richest thing ever pulled! When the
+crash comes, the fancy kid will be stinging his dad good and hard, eh?"
+
+"Exactly; and I think his dad can afford to be stung much better than I
+can," agreed Gramont, cheerfully. "Also, now that I'm certain Bob
+Maillard is the one who was behind the fleecing of Miss Ledanois, I'll
+first get clear of him, then I'll start to give him his deserts. I may
+form an oil company of my own."
+
+"Do it," advised Hammond, still chuckling.
+
+"Now," and Gramont rose, "let's take those packages and stow them away
+in the luggage compartment of the car. I'm getting nervous at the
+thought of having them around here, and they'll be perfectly safe there
+overnight--safer there than here, in fact. To-morrow, you can take the
+car out of town and send the packages by parcels post from some small
+town.
+
+"In that way they ought to be delivered here on Wednesday. You'd better
+wear one of my suits, leaving your chauffeur's outfit here, and don't
+halt the car in front of the postoffice where you mail the packages----"
+
+"I get you," assented Hammond, sagely. "I'll leave the car outside town,
+and hoof it in with the boxes, so that nobody will notice the car or
+connect it with the packages, eh? But what about them aviator's
+clothes?"
+
+"Take them with you--better get them wrapped up here and now. You can
+toss them into a ditch anywhere."
+
+Hammond obeyed.
+
+Ten minutes afterward the two men left the room, carrying the packages
+of loot and the bundle containing the aviator's uniform. They descended
+to the courtyard in the rear of the house. Here was a small garden, with
+a fountain in its centre. Behind this were the stables, which had long
+been disused as such, and which were now occupied only by the car of
+Gramont.
+
+It was with undisguised relief that Gramont now saw the stuff actually
+out of the house. Within the last few hours he had become intensely
+afraid of Jachin Fell. Concentrating himself upon the man, picking up
+information guardedly, he had that day assimilated many small items
+which increased his sense of peril from that quarter. Straws, no more,
+but quite significant straws. Gramont realized clearly that if the
+police ever searched his rooms and found this loot, he would be lost.
+There could be no excuse that would hold water for a minute against such
+evidence.
+
+In the garage, Hammond switched on the lights of the car. By the glow
+they disposed their burdens in the luggage compartment of the tonneau,
+which held them neatly. The car was a large twelve-cylinder,
+four-passenger Nonpareil, which Gramont had picked up in the used-car
+market. Hammond had tinkered it into magnificent shape, and loved the
+piece of mechanism as the very apple of his eye.
+
+The luggage compartment closed and locked, they returned into the house
+and dismissed the affair as settled.
+
+Upon the following morning Gramont, who usually breakfasted _en pension_
+with his hostess, had barely seated himself at the table when he
+perceived the figure of Hammond at the rear entrance of the dining room.
+The chauffeur beckoned him hastily.
+
+"Come out here, cap'n!" Hammond was breathing heavily, and seemed to be
+in some agitation. "Want to show you somethin'!"
+
+"Is there anything important?" Gramont hesitated. The other regarded him
+with a baleful countenance.
+
+"Important? Worse'n that!"
+
+Gramont rose and followed Hammond out to the garage, much to his
+amazement. The chauffeur halted beside the car and extended him a key,
+pointing to the luggage compartment.
+
+"Here's the key--you open her!"
+
+"What's the matter, man?"
+
+"The stuff's gone!"
+
+Gramont seized the key and opened the compartment. It proved empty
+indeed. He stared up into the face of Hammond who was watching in dogged
+silence.
+
+"I knew you'd suspect me," broke out the chauffeur, but Gramont
+interrupted him curtly.
+
+"Don't be a fool; nothing of the sort. Was the garage locked?"
+
+"Yes, and the compartment, too! I came out to look over that cut tire,
+and thought I'd make sure the stuff was safe----"
+
+"We're up against it, that's all." Gramont compressed his lips for a
+moment. Then he straightened up and clapped the other on the shoulder.
+"Buck up! I never thought of suspecting you, old fellow. Someone must
+have been watching us last night, eh?"
+
+"The guy that trailed you yesterday, most like," agreed Hammond, dourly.
+"It ain't hard to break into this place, and any one could open that
+compartment with a hairpin."
+
+"Well, you're saved a trip into the country."
+
+"You think they got us, cap'n? What can we do?"
+
+"Do?" Gramont shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "Nothing except to
+wait and see what happens next! If you want to run, I'll give you enough
+money to land you in New York or Frisco----"
+
+"Run--hell!" Hammond sniffed in scorn. "What d'you think I am--a boche?
+I'll stick."
+
+"Good boy." Gramont turned toward the house. "Come along in and get
+breakfast, and don't touch that compartment door. I want to examine it
+later."
+
+Hammond gazed admiringly after him as he crossed the garden. "If you
+ain't a cool hand, I'm a Dutchman!" he murmured, and followed his
+master.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+
+                               _Chacherre_
+
+
+At ten o'clock that Monday morning Gramont's car approached Canal
+Street, and halted a block distant. For any car to gain Canal, much less
+to follow it, was impossible. From curb to curb the wide avenue was
+thronged with carnival folk, who would hold their own until Proteus came
+ashore to manage his own parade and his own section of the festivities.
+
+Gramont left the car, and turned to speak with Hammond.
+
+"I've made out at least two fingerprints on the luggage compartment," he
+said, quietly. "Drive around to police headquarters and enter a
+complaint in my name to a robbery of the compartment; say that the thief
+got away with some valuable packages I had been about to mail. They have
+a process of transferring fingerprints such as these; get it done.
+Perhaps they can identify the thief, for it must have been some clever
+picklock to get into the compartment without leaving a scratch. Take
+your time about it and come home when you've finished."
+
+Hammond listened stolidly. "If it was the bulls done it, cap'n, going to
+them will get us pinched sure----"
+
+"If they had done it," said Gramont, "we'd have been pinched long before
+this! It was someone sent by that devil Jachin Fell, and I'll land him
+if I can!"
+
+"Then Fell will land us if he's got the stuff!"
+
+"Let him! How can he prove anything, unless he had brought the police to
+open up that compartment? Get along with you!"
+
+Hammond grinned, saluted, and drove away.
+
+Slowly Gramont edged his way through the eddying crowds to Canal Street,
+and presently gained the imposing portals of the Exeter National Bank.
+Entering the building, he sent his card to the private office of the
+president; a moment later he was ushered in, and was closeted with
+Joseph Maillard.
+
+The interior of the Exeter National reflected the stern personality that
+ruled it. The bank was dark, old fashioned, conservative, guarded with
+much effrontery of iron grills and bars against the evil doer.
+
+The window men greeted their customers with infrequent smiles, with
+caution and reserve so great that it was positively chilly. Suspicion
+seemed in the air. The bank's reputation for guarding the sanctity of
+wealth seemed to rest heavily upon each pair of bowed shoulders. Even
+the stenographers were unhandsome women, weary-eyed, drearily efficient,
+and obviously respectable.
+
+As befitted so old and conservative a New Orleans institution, much of
+its business was transacted in French.
+
+The business customers of this bank found their affairs handled coldly,
+efficiently, with an inhuman precision that was admirable. It was good
+for business, and they liked it. There were no mistakes.
+
+People who were accustomed to dealing with bankers of cordial smile and
+courteous word, people who liked to walk into a bank and to be met with
+a personal greeting, did not come here, nor were they wanted here. The
+Exeter National was a place for business, not for courtesy. It was
+absolutely precise, cold, inhuman, and spelled business from the ground
+up. Its oldest customer could not buy a draft on Paris or London or
+other of the bank's correspondents without paying the required fee. The
+wealthiest depositor could not expect to overdraw his checking account
+one dollar without being required to settle up before the next day was
+gone. Loans were made hesitatingly, grudgingly, and of necessity, always
+on security and never on character.
+
+Such was the Exeter National. Its character was reflected in the cold
+faces at its windows, and the chance customers who entered its sacred
+portals were duly cowed and put in their proper place. Most of them
+were, that is. Occasionally some intrepid soul appeared who seemed
+impervious to the gloomy chill, who seemed even to resent it. One of
+these persons was now standing in the lobby and staring around with a
+cool impudence which drew unfavourable glances from the clerks.
+
+He was a decently dressed fellow, obviously no customer of this
+sacrosanct place, obviously a stranger to its interior. Beneath a
+rakishly cocked soft hat beamed a countenance that bore a look of
+self-assured impertinent deviltry. After one look at that countenance
+the assistant cashier crooked a hasty finger at the floor guard, who
+nodded and walked over to the intruder with a polite query.
+
+"Can I help you, sir?"
+
+The intruder turned, favoured the guard with a cool stare, then broke
+into a laugh and a flood of Creole dialect.
+
+"Why, if it isn't old Lacroix from Carencro! And look at the brass
+buttons--_diable_! You must own this place, hein? _la tchè chatte poussé
+avec temps_--the cat's tail grows in time, I see! You remember me?"
+
+"Ben Chacherre!" exclaimed the guard, losing his dignity for an instant.
+"Why--you _vaurien_, you! You who disappeared from the parish and became
+a vagrant----"
+
+"So you turn up your sanctified nose at Ben Chacherre, do you?"
+exclaimed that person jauntily. He thrust his hat a bit farther over one
+ear, and proceeded to snap his fingers under the nose of Lacroix.
+
+"A _vaurien_, am I? Old peacock! Lead me to the man who cashes checks,
+lackey, brass buttons that you are! Come, obey me, or I'll have you
+thrown into the street!"
+
+"You--you wish to cash a check?" The guard was overcome by confusion,
+for the loud tones of Chacherre penetrated the entire institution. "But
+you are not known here----"
+
+"Bah, insolent one! _Macaque dan calebasse_--monkey in the calabash that
+you are! Do you not know me?"
+
+"Heaven preserve me! I will not answer for your accursed checks."
+
+"Go to the devil, then," snapped Chacherre, and turned away.
+
+His roving eyes had already found the correct window by means of the
+other persons seeking it, and now he stepped into the small queue that
+had formed. When it came his turn, he slid his check across the marble
+slab, tucked his thumbs into the armholes of his vest, and impudently
+stared into the questioning, coldly repellent eyes of the teller.
+
+"Well?" he exclaimed, as the teller examined the check. "Do you wish to
+eat it, that you sniff so hard?"
+
+The teller gave him a glance. "This is for a thousand dollars----"
+
+"Can I not read?" said Chacherre, with an impudent gesture. "Am I an
+ignorant 'Cajun? Have I not eyes in my head? If you wish to start an
+argument, say that the check is for a hundred dollars. Then, by heaven,
+I will argue something with you!"
+
+"You are Ben Chacherre, eh? Does any one here know you?"
+
+Chacherre exploded in a violent oath. "Dolt that you are, do I have to
+be known when the check is endorsed under my signature? Who taught you
+business, monkey?"
+
+"True," answered the teller, sulkily. "Yet the amount----"
+
+"Oh, bah!" Chacherre snapped his fingers. "Go and telephone Jachin Fell,
+you old woman! Go and tell him you do not know his signature--well, who
+are you looking at? Am I a telephone, then? You are not hired to look
+but to act! Get about it."
+
+The enraged and scandalized teller beckoned a confrere. Jachin Fell was
+telephoned. Presumably his response was reassuring, for Chacherre was
+presently handed a thousand dollars in small bills, as he requested. He
+insisted upon counting over the money at the window with insolent
+assiduity, flung a final compliment at the teller, and swaggered across
+the lobby. He was still standing by the entrance when Henry Gramont left
+the private office of the president and passed him by without a look.
+
+Gramont was smiling to himself as he left the bank, and Ben Chacherre
+was whistling gaily as he also left and plunged into the whirling vortex
+of the carnival crowds.
+
+Toward noon Gramont arrived afoot at his pension. Finding the rooms
+empty, he went on and passed through the garden. Behind the garage, in
+the alley, he discovered Hammond busily at work cleaning and polishing
+the engine of the car.
+
+"Hello!" he exclaimed, cheerily. "What luck?"
+
+"Pretty good, cap'n." Hammond glanced up, then paused.
+
+A stranger was strolling toward them along the alleyway, a jaunty
+individual who was gaily whistling and who seemed entirely carefree and
+happy. He appeared to have no interest whatever in them, and Hammond
+concluded that he was innocuous.
+
+"They got them prints fine, cap'n. What's more, they think they've
+located the fellow that made 'em."
+
+"Ah, good work!" exclaimed Gramont. "Some criminal?"
+
+Hammond frowned. The stranger had come to a halt a few feet distant,
+flung them a jerky, careless nod, and was beginning to roll a cigarette.
+He surveyed the car with a knowing and appreciative eye. Hammond turned
+his back on the man disdainfully.
+
+"Yep--a sneak thief they'd pinched a couple of years back; didn't know
+where he was, but the prints seemed to fit him. They'll come up and look
+things over sometime to-day, then go after him and land him."
+
+Gramont gave the stranger a glance, but the other was still surveying
+the car with evident admiration. If he heard their words he gave them no
+attention.
+
+"Who was the man, then?" asked Gramont.
+
+"A guy with a queer name--Ben Chacherre." Hammond pronounced it as he
+deemed correct--as the name was spelled. "Only they didn't call him
+that. Here, I wrote it down."
+
+He fished in his pocket and produced a paper. Gramont glanced at it and
+laughed.
+
+"Oh, Chacherre!" He gave the name the Creole pronunciation.
+
+"Yep, Sasherry. I expect they'll come any time now--said two bulls would
+drop in."
+
+"All right." Gramont nodded and turned away, with another glance at the
+stranger. "I'll not want the car to-day nor to-night that I know of. I'm
+not going to the Proteus ball. So your time's your own until to-morrow;
+make the most of it!"
+
+He disappeared, and Hammond returned to his work. Then he straightened
+up, for the jaunty stranger was bearing down upon him with evident
+intent to speak.
+
+"Some car you got there, brother!" Ben Chacherre, who had overheard most
+of the foregoing conversation, lighted his cigarette and grinned
+familiarly. "Some car, eh?"
+
+"She's a boat, all right," conceded Hammond, grudgingly. He did not like
+the other's looks, although praise of the car was sweet unto his soul.
+"She sure steps some."
+
+"Yes. All she needs," drawled Chacherre, "is some good tires, a new coat
+of paint, a good steel chassis, and a new engine----"
+
+"Huh?" snorted Hammond. "Say, you 'bo, who sold you chips in this game?
+Move along!"
+
+Ben grinned anew and rested himself against a near-by telephone pole.
+
+"Free country, ain't it?" he inquired, lazily. "Or have you invested
+your winnings and bought this here alley?"
+
+Hammond reddened with anger and took a step forward. The next words of
+Chacherre, however, jerked him sharply into self-control.
+
+"Seen anything of an aviator's helmet around here?"
+
+"Huh?" The chauffeur glared at his tormentor, yet with a sudden sick
+feeling inside his bosom. He suddenly realized that the man's eyes were
+meeting his squarely, with a bold and insolent directness. "Who you
+kiddin' now?"
+
+"Nobody. I was asking a question, that's all." Ben Chacherre flung away
+his cigarette, untangled himself from the telephone pole, and moved
+away. "Only," he flung over his shoulder, "I was flyin' along here last
+night in my airplane, and I lost my helmet overboard. Thought maybe
+you'd seen it. So long, brother!"
+
+Hammond stood staring after the swaggering figure; for once he was
+speechless. The jaunty words had sent terror thrilling into him. He
+started impulsively to pursue that impudent accoster--then he checked
+himself. Had the man guessed something? Had the man known something? Or
+had those words been only a bit of meaningless impertinence--a chance
+shaft which had accidentally flown home?
+
+The last conjecture impressed itself on Hammond as being the truth, and
+his momentary fright died out. He concluded that the incident was not
+worth mentioning to Gramont, who surely had troubles enough of his own
+at this juncture. So he held his peace about it.
+
+As for Ben Chacherre, he sauntered from the alley, a careless whistle
+upon his lips. Once out of Hammond's sight, however, he quickened his
+pace. Turning into a side street, he directed his step toward that part
+of the old quarter which, in the days before prohibition, had been given
+over to low cabarets and dives of various sorts. Most of these places
+were now boarded up, and presumably abandoned. Coming to one of them,
+which appeared more dirty and desolate than the rest, Chacherre opened a
+side door and vanished.
+
+He entered what had once been the Red Cat cabaret. At a table in the
+half-darkened main room sat two men. A slovenly waiter pored over a
+newspaper at another table in a far corner. The two in the centre nodded
+to Chacherre. One of them, who was the proprietor, jerked his chin in an
+invitation to join them.
+
+A man famous in the underworld circles, a man whose renown rested on
+curious feats and facts, this proprietor; few crooks in the country had
+not heard the name of Memphis Izzy Gumberts. He was a grizzled old bear
+now; but in times past he had been the head of a far-flung organization
+which, on each pay day, covered every army post in the country and
+diverted into its own pockets about two thirds of Uncle Sam's payroll--a
+feat still related in criminal circles as the _ne plus ultra_ of
+success. Those palmy days were gone, but Memphis Izzy, who had never
+been "mugged" in any gallery, sat in his deserted cabaret and still did
+not lack for power and influence.
+
+The man at his side was apparently not anxious to linger, for he rose
+and made his farewells as Chacherre approached.
+
+"We have about eighteen cars left," he said to Gumberts. "Charley the
+Goog can attend to them, and the place is safe enough. They're up to
+you. I'm drifting back to Chi."
+
+"Drift along," and Gumberts nodded, a leer in his eyes. His face was
+broad, heavy-jowled, filled with a keen and forceful craft. "It's a
+cinch that nobody in this state is goin' to interfere with us. About
+them cars from Texas--any news?"
+
+"I've sent orders to bring 'em in next week."
+
+Gumberts nodded again, and the man departed. Into the chair which he had
+vacated dropped Ben Chacherre, and took from his pocket the money which
+he had obtained at the bank. He laid it on the table before Gumberts.
+
+"There you are," he said. "Amounts you want and all. The boss says to
+gimme a receipt."
+
+"Wouldn't trust you, eh?" jeered Gumberts. He took out pencil and paper,
+scrawled a word or two, and shoved the paper at Chacherre. Then he
+reached down to a small satchel which lay open on the floor beside his
+chair. "Why wouldn't the boss leave the money come out of the takin's,
+hey?"
+
+"Wanted to keep separate accounts," said Chacherre.
+
+Gumberts nodded and produced two large sealed envelopes, which he pushed
+across the table.
+
+"There's rakeoff for week before last," he announced. "Last week will be
+the big business, judgin' from early reports."
+
+Chacherre pocketed the envelopes, lighted a cigarette, and leaned
+forward.
+
+"Say, Izzy! You got to send a new man down to the Bayou Latouche right
+away. Lafarge was there, you know; a nigger shot him yesterday. The
+nigger threatened to squeal unless he got his money back--Lafarge was a
+fool and didn't know how to handle him. The lottery's goin' to get a bad
+name around there----"
+
+Gumberts snapped his fingers. "Let it!" he said, calmly. "The big money
+from all that section is Chinese and Filipino, my friend. The niggers
+don't matter."
+
+"Well, the boss says to shoot a new man down there. Also, he says, you'd
+better watch out about spreadin' the lottery into Texas and Alabama,
+account of the government rules."
+
+The heavy features of Gumberts closed in a scowl.
+
+"You tell your boss," he said, "that when it comes to steerin' clear of
+federal men, I don't want no instructions from nobody! We got every man
+in this state spotted. Every one that can be fixed is fixed--and that
+goes for the legislators and politicians clear up the line! Tell your
+boss to handle the local gov'ment as well as I handle other things, and
+he'll do all that's necessary. What he'd ought to attend to, for one
+thing, is this here guy who calls himself the Midnight Masquer. I've
+told him before that this guy was playing hell with my system! This
+Masquer gets no protection, see? The quicker Fell goes after him, the
+better for all concerned----"
+
+Chacherre laughed, not without a swagger.
+
+"We've attended to all that, Izzy--we've dropped on him and settled him!
+The guy was doin' it for a carnival joke, that's all. His loot is all
+goin' back to the owners to-day. It needn't worry you, anyhow! There was
+nothin' much to it--jewellery that couldn't be disposed of, for the most
+part. We couldn't take chances on that sort o' junk."
+
+"I should say not." Gumbert regarded him with a scowl. "You've got the
+stuff?"
+
+"The boss has. Look here, Izzy, I want you to use a little influence
+with headquarters on this deal--the boss doesn't want to show his hand
+there," and leaning forward, Ben Chacherre spoke in a low tone. Then,
+Gumberts heard him out, chuckled, and nodded assent.
+
+At two that afternoon Henry Gramont, who was writing letters in total
+disregard of the carnival parade downtown, was summoned to the
+telephone. He was greeted by a voice which he did not recognize, but
+which announced itself promptly.
+
+"This is Mr. Gramont? Police headquarters speakin'. You laid a charge
+this morning against a fellow named Chacherre?"
+
+"Yes," answered Gramont.
+
+"Must ha' been some mistake, then," came the response. "We thought the
+prints fitted, but found later they didn't. We looked up the Chacherre
+guy and found he was workin' steady and strictly O. K. What's more to
+the point, he proved up a dead sure alibi for the other night."
+
+"Oh!" said Gramont. "Then there's nothing to be done?"
+
+"Not yet. We're workin' on it, and maybe we'll have some news later.
+Good-bye."
+
+Gramont hung up the receiver, a puzzled frown creasing his brow. But,
+after a minute, he laughed softly--a trace of anger in the laugh.
+
+"Ah!" he murmured. "I congratulate you on your efficiency, Mr. Fell! But
+now wait a little--and we'll meet again. I think I'm getting somewhere
+at last, and I'll have a surprise for you one of these days!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+                             _In The Open_
+
+
+In New Orleans the carnival season is always opened by the ball of the
+Twelfth Night Revellers soon after Christmas, and is closed by that of
+the Krewe of Comus on Mardi Gras night. Upon this evening of "Fat
+Tuesday," indeed, both Rex and Comus hold forth. Rex is the popular
+ball, the affair of the people, and is held in the Athenaeum. From here,
+about midnight, the king and queen proceed to Comus ball.
+
+Comus is an assembly of such rigid exclusiveness that even the tickets
+to the galleries are considered social prizes. The _personae_ of the
+Krewe, on this particular year as in all previous ones, would remain
+unknown; there is no unmasking at Comus. This institution, a tremendous
+social power and potentially a financial power also, during decades of
+the city's life, is held absolutely above any taint of favouritism or
+commercialism. Even the families of those concerned might not always be
+certain whether their sons and brothers belonged to the Krewe of Comus.
+
+Henry Gramont did not attend the ball of Proteus on Monday night.
+Instead, he sat in his own room, while through the streets of the
+French quarter outside was raging the carnival at its height. Before
+him were maps and reports upon the gas and oil fields about Bayou
+Terrebonne--fields where great domes of natural gas were already
+located and in use, and where oil was being found in some quantity.
+Early on Wednesday morning Gramont intended to set forth to his work.
+He had been engaged to make a report to Bob Maillard's company, and he
+would make it. Then he would resign his advisory job, and be free. A
+smile curled his lips as he thought of young Maillard and the company.
+
+"The young gentleman will be sadly surprised to discover that I've
+gotten out from under--and that his respected father holds my stock!" he
+reflected. "That was a good deal; I lost a thousand to old Maillard in
+order to save the balance of thirty thousand!"
+
+A knock at his door interrupted the thread of this thought. Gramont
+opened, to find the concierge with a note which had been left at the
+door below by a masked Harlequin, who had then disappeared without
+awaiting any reply.
+
+Gramont recognized the writing on the envelope, and hastened to the note
+inside. His face changed, however, as he read it:
+
+    Please call promptly at eleven to-morrow morning. I wish to see
+    you upon a matter of business.
+
+                                                 LUCIE LEDANOIS.
+
+Gramont gazed long at this note, his brows drawn down into a harsh line.
+It was not like Lucie in its tone, somehow; he sensed something amiss,
+something vaguely but most decidedly out of tune. Certainly it was not
+her way to write thus curtly and harshly--the words disquieted him. What
+could have turned up now? Then, with a shrug, he tossed the note on the
+table.
+
+"Eleven to-morrow morning, eh?" he murmured. "That's queer, too, for
+she's to be at the Proteus ball to-night. Most girls would not be
+conducting business affairs at eleven in the morning, after being up all
+night at Proteus! It must be something important. Besides, she's not in
+the class with any one else. She's a rare girl; no nonsense in her--full
+of a deep, strong sense of things----"
+
+He forced himself from thoughts of Lucie, forced himself from her
+personality, and returned to his reports with an effort of
+concentration.
+
+Gramont wanted to look over her Terrebonne land with a full knowledge of
+its geology and situation. Oil drilling is a gamble in any case, yet
+Gramont took a scholar's solid satisfaction in getting his subject
+thoroughly in hand before he went to work at it. Then, he reflected, he
+would get his task finished as rapidly as might be, turn in his report,
+and resign from the company. After that--freedom! He regretted sadly
+enough that he had ever gone into any relations with Maillard's company.
+
+"Yet, what's to hinder my going ahead, in the meantime?" he considered.
+"What's to hinder getting my own company on its feet? Nothing! All I
+need is backing. I'll put in twenty-five thousand, and that much more
+added to it will give us plenty of capital to start in drilling with. If
+I could find someone who had a positive faith in my judgment and whom I
+could trust in turn----"
+
+He checked himself suddenly, and stared at the papers before him with
+widening eyes. A slow whistle came from his lips, and then he smiled and
+pulled the papers to him. Yet, as he worked he could not keep down the
+thought that had forced itself upon him. It was altogether absurd, of
+course--yet why not?
+
+When Gramont went to bed that night it was with a startling and
+audacious scheme well defined in his brain; a scheme whose first
+conception seemed ludicrous and impossible, yet which, on second
+consideration, appeared in a very different light. It deserved serious
+thought--and Gramont had made his decision before he went to sleep.
+
+The following day was Tuesday--Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, the last day
+before Lent began, and the final culminating day of carnival. Henry
+Gramont, however, was destined to find little in its beginning of much
+personal pleasure.
+
+At eleven in the morning Hammond drove him to the Ledanois home, where
+Gramont was admitted by one of the coloured servants and shown into the
+parlour. A moment later Lucie herself appeared. At first glance her
+smiling greeting removed the half-sensed apprehensions of Gramont.
+Almost immediately afterward, however, he noted a perceptible change in
+her manner, as she led him toward the rear of the room, and gestured
+toward a mahogany tilt-top table which stood in a corner.
+
+"Come over here, please. I have something which I wish to show you."
+
+She needed to say no more. Gramont, following her, found himself staring
+blankly down at the symbol of consternation which overwhelmed him. For
+upon that table, lay all those self-same boxes which he himself had
+packed with the loot of the Midnight Masquer--the identical boxes,
+apparently unopened, which had been stolen from his automobile by the
+supposed thief Chacherre!
+
+For a moment Gramont found himself unable to speak. He was thunderstruck
+by the sight of those unmistakeable boxes. A glance at the calm features
+of the girl showed him that there was nothing to be concealed from her,
+even had he wished it. He was further stunned by this realization. He
+could not understand how the packages had come here. Recovering his
+voice with an effort, he managed to break the heavy silence.
+
+"Well? I suppose you know what is in those parcels?"
+
+She nodded. "Yes. One of them was opened, and the note inside was
+discovered. Of course, it gave a general explanation. Will you sit down,
+please? I think that we had better talk it over quietly and calmly."
+
+Gramont obeyed, and dropped into a chair.
+
+He was absurdly conscious of his own confusion. He tried to speak, but
+words and thoughts failed him. Torn between pride and chagrin, he found
+himself able to say nothing. Explanations, at any time, came to him with
+difficulty; now, at least, he felt that he could not lie to this girl.
+And how was he to tell her the truth?
+
+And how had Lucie come into the affair? This staggered him above all
+else. Was she behind the theft of the loot? It must be. How long had
+she suspected him, then? He had thought Jachin Fell the sole
+danger-point--he had never dreamed that this gray-eyed Athene could be
+tracing down the Masquer! He tried to visualize the situation more
+clearly and his brain whirled. He knew, of course, that she was fairly
+intimate with Fell, but he was not aware of any particular
+connection----
+
+He glanced up at her suddenly, and surprised a glint of laughter in her
+eyes as she watched him.
+
+"You seem to be rather astonished," she observed.
+
+"I am." Gramont drew a deep breath. "You--do you know that those boxes
+were taken from my car?"
+
+She nodded again. "Certainly. They were brought to me."
+
+"Then you had someone on my trail?" Gramont flushed a little as he put
+the question to her.
+
+"No. I have been chosen to settle affairs with you, that is all. It has
+been learned from the note in the opened box that you were not criminal
+in what you did."
+
+She leaned forward, her deep eyes searching him with a steady scrutiny.
+
+"Tell me, Henry Gramont, what mad impulse brought you to all this? Was
+it a silly, boyish effort to be romantic--was it a mere outburst of
+bravado? It was not for the sake of robbery, as the note explained very
+clearly. But why, then? Why? There must have been a definite reason in
+your mind. You would not have taken such dangerous chances unless you
+had something to gain!"
+
+Gramont nodded slightly, then flushed again and bit his lip. For a
+moment he made no response to her query.
+
+He might, of course, say that he had been the Midnight Masquer because
+of her alone; which would be decidedly untrue. He might tell her, as he
+had told Hammond, that all his efforts had led up to that scene in the
+Maillard library, when without suspicion by any concerned he might
+verify his own surmise as to who had been defrauding Lucie Ledanois. It
+would sound very well--but it would be a lie. That had been far from his
+only reason for playing the Midnight Masquer's game.
+
+But why tell her anything?
+
+A slight smile touched his lips. "You're not going to send me to prison,
+I trust?"
+
+"I ought to!" The girl broke into a laugh. "Why, I can hardly yet
+believe that it was really you who were guilty of those things! It
+mortified me, it stunned me--until I realized the truth from the note.
+Even the fact that you did not do it for criminal ends does not relieve
+the sheer folly of the act. Why did you do it? Come, tell me the truth!"
+
+Gramont shrugged. "The truth? Well, my chauffeur, Hammond, was the
+original Masquer. I caught him in the act--you remember I told you about
+him? After taking him into my employ, I became the Masquer. Poor Hammond
+was some time in realizing that my motives were altruistic and not
+criminal. He was quite distressed about it until he found that I meant
+to return all the loot intact."
+
+"Why did you do it, then?" persisted the girl.
+
+"Call it bravado, my dear Lucie. Call it anything you like--I can't lie
+to you! I had a motive, and I refuse to admit what it was; that's all."
+
+"Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"
+
+"Not particularly." He smiled. "I had a good end in view, and I
+accomplished it. Also, I flatter myself that I accomplished it very
+decently; there's nothing like being a good workman, you know. Now that
+I'm all through, now that I've finished playing my little game, you
+happened to discover it. I am ashamed on that point, Lucie--ashamed
+because the discovery has very naturally made you think harshly of
+me----"
+
+"I think you've been very silly," she said with a disconcerting
+calmness. He regarded her for a moment, steadily. "And you have
+displayed a fearful lack of judgment!"
+
+"Silly? Well--perhaps. What are you going to do with those boxes?"
+
+"I'll put them in the mail. I'm going downtown for luncheon, and will do
+it then. They'll be delivered this afternoon."
+
+He nodded. "I had meant to have them delivered to-morrow; it makes no
+difference. You're the boss. It will give the good people a little more
+reason for jubilation to-night, eh?"
+
+A sudden laugh broke upon his lips. "I'm beginning to see the humour of
+it, Lucie--and I know who put you next to me. It was Jachin Fell, the
+old fox! I suspected that he was on my trail, and I thought that he had
+managed the theft of those boxes. In fact, I was preparing to give him a
+big surprise this afternoon. But tell me, Lucie--are you angry?"
+
+She looked at him steadily for a space, then a swift smile leaped to her
+lips and she extended a pardoning hand. Her gesture and words were
+impulsive, sincere.
+
+"Angry? No. I think you've some good reason behind it all, which you
+won't confide to me. I can read you pretty clearly, Henry Gramont; I
+think I can understand some things in you. You're no weakling, no
+romantic, filibustering crackbrain! And I like you because you won't lie
+to me. You've a motive and you refuse to tell it--very well! I'll be
+just as frank and say that I'm not a bit angry. So, that's settled!
+
+"Now what was the big surprise that you just mentioned you were going to
+give poor Mr. Fell this afternoon?"
+
+Gramont's eyes twinkled. "You remember that I thought he suspected me of
+being the Masquer? Well, I was going to him and propose that we enter
+business together."
+
+"Oh! As bandits?"
+
+"No, as oil promotors. I'm out of Maillard's company, or shall be out of
+it soon. The minute I'm out, I'll be free to go into business for
+myself. It occurred to me that if Jachin Fell had brains enough to run
+down the Midnight Masquer, he would be a mighty good business partner;
+because I'm poor on business detail. Also, I think Fell is to be
+trusted. The things you've told me and written me about him prove that
+much. He's very strong politically, I have found--although few people
+know it."
+
+"But he's not interested in oil is he?"
+
+"I don't know; I take for granted that he's interested in making money.
+Most men are. The only way to make money in oil is to have money--and he
+has some! I have a little. I can put in twenty-five thousand. With an
+equal amount from him, we can sink a couple of wells, perhaps three. If
+we go broke, all right. If we find oil, we're rich!"
+
+"But, my dear Henry, if he knew you to be the Midnight Masquer, do you
+think he'd want to go into business with you?" Her gray eyes were
+dancing with amusement as she put the query.
+
+"Why not?" Gramont laughed. "If he knew that I had brains enough to pull
+off that stunt and keep all New Orleans up in the air--wouldn't I make a
+good partner? Besides, I believe that I have some notion where to go
+after oil; I'm going to examine your land first----"
+
+"My good prince, you surely have no lack of audacity!" She broke into a
+peal of laughter. "Your argument about inducing Mr. Fell to go into
+business with you is naïve----"
+
+"But, as an argument, isn't it quite sound?"
+
+"Possibly. Since it is Lucie Ledanois and not Jachin Fell who has
+brought you to a confession of your crimes against society--aren't you
+going to propose that she go into business with you? Doesn't the
+argument hold good with her?"
+
+Although Gramont was taken aback, he met her gaze squarely.
+
+"No. Oil is no woman's game, unless she can well afford to lose. I
+imagine that you cannot, Lucie. Once I get my company formed,
+however----"
+
+"You're right, I can't put in any money. I'm land poor. Unless I were to
+sell that Bayou Terrebonne land--it's an old farm, abandoned since
+before father died----"
+
+"Don't sell it!" he exclaimed, quickly. "Don't consider any dealings
+with it until I have looked it over, will you?"
+
+"Since you ask it, no. If there's gas near by, there must be oil."
+
+"Who knows?" he shrugged. "No one can predict oil."
+
+"Then you still mean to go to Jachin Fell with your scheme?"
+
+Gramont nodded. "Yes. See here, Lucie--it's about noon! Suppose you come
+along and lunch with me at the Louisiane, if you've no engagement. We
+can put those boxes in the mail en route, and after luncheon I'll try
+and get hold of Fell."
+
+She put her head on one side and studied him reflectively.
+
+"You're sure you'll not kidnap me or anything like that? It's risky to
+become a friend of hardened criminals, even if one is trying to uplift
+them."
+
+"Good! You'll come?"
+
+"If you can give me ten minutes----"
+
+"My dear Lucie, you are the most charming object in New Orleans at this
+minute! Why attempt to make yourself still more attractive? Gilding the
+lily is an impossible task."
+
+"Well, wait for me. Is your car here? Good! I want to see Hammond's face
+when he sees us carrying out those boxes."
+
+Laughing, the girl started toward the stairs. At the doorway she paused.
+
+"One thing, M. le prince! Do you solemnly promise, upon your honour,
+that the Midnight Masquer is dead for ever?"
+
+"Upon my honour!" said Gramont, seriously. "The farce is ended, Lucie."
+
+"All right. I'll be right down. Smoke if you like----"
+
+In her own room upstairs Lucie closed the door and sat down before her
+dressing table. She made no move toward the array of toilet articles,
+however. Instead, she took a desk telephone from the table, and called a
+number. In a moment she received a response.
+
+"Uncle Jachin!" she exclaimed. "Yes--it's just as we thought; it's all a
+joke. No, it was not a joke, either, because he had some motive behind
+it, but he won't tell me what it was. I'm terribly glad that you opened
+one of those boxes and found the letter--if you had gone to the police
+it would have been perfectly dreadful----"
+
+"I never go to the police," said Jachin Fell with his dry chuckle. "You
+are quite satisfied that there is nothing serious in the affair, then?"
+
+"Absolutely! He told me that he had accomplished his purpose, whatever
+it was, and that it's all ended. He just gave me his word that the
+Masquer was dead for ever. Now, aren't you glad that you confided in
+me?"
+
+"Very," said Jachin Fell. "Very glad, indeed!"
+
+"Now you're laughing at me--never mind! We're going to lunch downtown,
+and we'll mail those boxes on the way, by parcels post. Is that all
+right?"
+
+"Quite all right, my dear. It is the method adopted by the most
+exclusive and elusive criminals in the country, I assure you. Every
+handbag snatcher gets rid of his empty bags by mailing them back to the
+owner--unless first caught. It pays to follow professional examples, as
+Eliza said when she crossed the ice. Did your gown come for to-night?"
+
+"It's to come this afternoon."
+
+"Very well. Do not plan to wear any jewels, Lucie. I have a set to lend
+you for the occasion--no, not a gift, merely a loan for the sake of
+Comus. They are very nice pearls; a little old fashioned, because they
+were mounted for the Princesses de Lamballe, but you will find that they
+fit in excellently with your gown. I'll bring them with me when I call
+for you----"
+
+"And I'll tender fitting thanks then. One thing more: Henry Gramont is
+going to see you after luncheon, I think--on business. And I want you to
+be nice to him, Uncle Jachin."
+
+"Most assuredly," said the other, drily. "I should like to be associated
+in business with that young man. The firm would prosper."
+
+"Will you stop laughing at me? Then I'll ring off--good-bye!"
+
+And, smiling, she hung up the receiver.
+
+Ten minutes later, when Gramont and Miss Ledanois entered the waiting
+car, Hammond saw the boxes that they carried. He stood beside the open
+door, paralyzed, his eyes fastened on the boxes, his mouth agape.
+
+"To the postoffice, sergeant," said Gramont, then affected to observe
+his stupefaction. "Why, what's the matter?"
+
+Hammond met his twinkling eyes, saw the laughter of Lucie, and swallowed
+hard.
+
+"I--er--nothing at all, cap'n," he answered, hoarsely. "A--a little
+chokin' spell, that's all. Postoffice? Yes, sir."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+
+                                _Comus_
+
+
+From the time they left the Ledanois house with Lucie, Gramont had no
+opportunity of seeing his chauffeur in private until, later in the
+afternoon, he left the Maison Blanche building. He had enjoyed a
+thoroughly satisfactory interview with Jachin Fell. So wholly had
+Gramont's thoughts been given over to the business, indeed, that it was
+almost a shock to emerge into Canal Street and find everyone else in the
+world thinking only of the water carnival and the Rex parade.
+
+As for the Midnight Masquer and the mystery of the boxes of loot, all
+this had quite fled Gramont's mind before larger and more important
+things. The car was waiting for him in Royal Street, not far from the
+Monteleone, and Gramont approached it to find Hammond in deep worry over
+the outcome of the interview with Fell.
+
+"Well, cap'n!" he exclaimed, anxiously, as Gramont drew up. "You're
+smilin', so I guess it ain't a pinch!"
+
+Gramont laughed gaily. "Those boxes? Nonsense! Say, sergeant, you must
+have been scared stiff when you saw them!"
+
+"Scared? I was ready to flop, that's all! And how in the name o'
+goodness did they get in _her_ house? What's behind all this?"
+
+Gramont glanced around. He walked with Hammond to the front of the car,
+where he could speak without being overheard by the passersby.
+
+"It seems that I was more or less mistaken about Fell being on our
+trail," he explained, reflectively. "We had a very frank talk about it,
+and he disclaimed all knowledge of the boxes themselves. I gathered from
+little things he dropped that some criminal had looted the stuff from
+the car, and that it came to his attention yesterday in a legal
+capacity----"
+
+"Legal capacity, hell!" snorted Hammond. "Did you swallow all that?"
+
+"My swallowing capacity was pretty good," and Gramont chuckled. "It
+seems that he opened one of the boxes, and found the note I had written.
+This explained the business, and by way of a little joke he turned over
+the loot to Miss Ledanois and she had a bit of fun with us. Fell, in
+fact, proved to be a pretty good fellow----"
+
+"He sure handed you out a fine line of bull!" commented Hammond,
+savagely. "What gets me is your falling for all that dope! Looks like
+you wanted to believe him, cap'n."
+
+"Perhaps I did." Gramont shrugged his shoulders. "Why not? I've no
+reason to disbelieve him. The note made it plain that we were not
+criminals; now the whole affair is cleaned up and out of the way. We're
+out of it in good shape, if you ask me!"
+
+"You said something there," agreed Hammond, not without a sigh of
+relief. "All right, if you say so, only I ain't sure about this
+Fell----"
+
+"Don't worry. The stuff is returned, and the matter is now closed. We
+can forget all about the Midnight Masquer. Now, there's another and more
+important thing that I want to speak with you about, a matter of
+business----"
+
+"Hold on, cap'n!" interrupted Hammond, quietly, his eye on a spot behind
+Gramont. "One of your friends is headed over this way, and if I know
+anything about it, he's got blood in his eye."
+
+Gramont turned, to see Bob Maillard approaching. The latter addressed
+him without any response to his greeting.
+
+"Have you a moment to spare, Gramont?"
+
+"All afternoon," answered Gramont, cheerfully. He affected not to
+observe Maillard's air of heavy business, nor the frowning suspicion
+that lurked half-veiled in the other's glowering features. "By the way,
+I've been looking up a New Orleans landmark without much success--the
+Ramos gin fizz establishment. It seems to be gone!"
+
+"It is," returned Maillard, sourly. "Prohibition killed it, like it's
+killing everything. François moved into the place last September from
+Old 27, and it's become his restaurant now. But look here, Gramont!" The
+two were standing a bit apart, and Hammond was fussing with one of the
+headlights, but Gramont suspected that the chauffeur was listening
+avidly. "I've just come from a talk with dad. How did it happen that you
+sold him that stock of yours in the company?"
+
+Gramont smiled a little. He was amused by the way Maillard was
+endeavouring to keep down an outburst of angry passion.
+
+"I happened to need the money. Why?"
+
+"But why the devil didn't you hang on to that stock? Or if you needed
+money, why didn't you come to me?" exploded the other, angrily.
+
+"Heavens!" drawled Gramont, who was quite willing to exasperate young
+Maillard to the limit. "You seem frightfully concerned about it! What's
+the big idea, anyway? I don't recall that any of us went into an
+agreement not to sell if we wanted to. I offered the stock to your
+father at a discount. He realized that it was a good buy, and took it.
+What's wrong with that?"
+
+"Nothing wrong, if you put it that way," snapped Maillard, angrily. "But
+it's a confounded sly way of doing things----"
+
+"Now, just wait right there!" Gramont's easy smile vanished. "I don't
+take that kind of talk, Maillard. One more such insinuation, and you'll
+need to use a mask at the ball to-night, I promise you! I'll show you
+how sly I am, my friend! I'm off in the morning to start work on that
+report I was engaged to make. When the report comes in, my resignation
+comes with it."
+
+"All right. Let it come here and now, then." Maillard's tone was ugly.
+"If you're so blamed anxious to get out of the company, get out!"
+
+"Thanks. I'll be glad to be relieved of the job." Gramont turned and
+addressed his chauffeur. "Hammond, you'll kindly remember this
+conversation, in case your future testimony is needed----"
+
+"Confound you, what d'you mean talking that way?" broke out Maillard.
+"Do you suppose I'll deny firing you?"
+
+"I don't care to have you offer any reflections on my actions,
+Maillard," said Gramont, evenly. "My course in this matter is perfectly
+open and above board, which is more than you can say for your doings."
+
+"What?" Maillard clenched his stick and took a forward step, anger
+working in his face. "What the devil d'you mean?"
+
+"Exactly what I say--and perhaps I can prove it. Remember the oil
+concern to which you persuaded your precious father to sell some of Miss
+Ledanois's bayou land? Remember the real estate company to which you
+persuaded him to sell her St. Landry parish property? You had interests
+in both concerns; I don't imagine you'd care to have your share in those
+transactions exposed. Further, I entirely understand your indignation
+over my getting rid of this stock before the crash, and it ill becomes
+you to assume any such attitude."
+
+Maillard glared at him for a long moment, a red tide of rage flooding
+and ebbing from his heavy countenance. Then, mastering himself, he
+turned and strode away without further speech.
+
+"Hurray!" observed Hammond, when he was gone. "Cap'n, that guy is off
+you for life! I bet he'd like to meet you alone on a dark night!"
+
+Gramont shook his head. "He's a bad enemy, all right. Here, get into the
+car!"
+
+He climbed in beside Hammond.
+
+"Don't drive--I want to speak with you. Now that Maillard has relieved
+me of the necessity of making any report to his company, I'm free, and
+glad of it! I've been talking business with Mr. Fell, and I'm to have my
+own company."
+
+"With him?" Hammond sniffed.
+
+"Yes. He's matching his money against mine, and we're going to look for
+oil on some land owned by Miss Ledanois. It'll be a close corporation,
+and if we strike oil, we'll all three have a good thing. We may go
+broke, and we may go rich; if you're saving any coin out of your salary
+and feel like taking a gamble, I'll get you a bit of the stock after Mr.
+Fell gets things in shape. You can think it over----"
+
+"I don't want to think it over," broke in Hammond, eagerly. "I'm on,
+here and now--and it sure is mighty good of you, cap'n! Say, I ain't had
+any chance to tell you before, but I pulled two hundred out o' the
+lottery last week----"
+
+"Lottery!" Gramont looked at him quickly. "What lottery?"
+
+Hammond looked a trifle sheepish. "Well, it's against the law, o'
+course, but they run 'em right along just the same. A bunch of the
+chauffeurs here are wise to it; they put up some coin for me last week,
+and as I was sayin' I pulled out two hundred. I got most of it left, and
+have some saved up on the side. I'll stick it all in, huh?"
+
+Gramont nodded. "Well, we'll see later. You're free until morning,
+sergeant. I'm going to the Comus ball to-night as a guest of the
+Lavergnes, and they'll call for me. Enjoy yourself, keep out of jail,
+and be ready to start at six in the morning for Terrebonne."
+
+Leaving Hammond to take the car home, Gramont headed for Canal Street to
+mingle with the carnival crowd and revel in his new-found sense of
+freedom. Now that he was his own master, he felt like a new man.
+
+Overnight, it seemed, all weights had dropped from his shoulders. On the
+score of the Midnight Masquer, he was vastly relieved; all that was over
+and forgotten. Financially, he had achieved what was nothing less than a
+masterly triumph. In a business way, he was free of all ties and able to
+look forward to decisive action on his own behalf and that of a partner
+in whom he could feel a perfect reliance.
+
+Consequently, he began really to enjoy Mardi Gras for the first time,
+and plunged into the eddying crowds in a free and light-hearted manner
+which had not been his for years.
+
+It was the moment for the carnival spirit to seize on him, and seize him
+it did. With a boyish abandon he tramped the streets merrily, exchanging
+jests and confetti, shoves and bladder-blows, laughs and kisses. Madness
+and reckless gaiety were in the very air, and Gramont drank deep of
+these youthful tonics. When at last he wandered home to his pension, he
+was footsore, weary, disarranged, and touseled--and very happy. The wine
+of human comradeship is a good wine.
+
+That evening the Comus ball, the most exclusive revel of the most
+exclusive aristocracy of the southland, crowded the edifice in which it
+was held to capacity. Here evening dress was prescribed for all the
+guests. The Krewe of Comus alone were masked and costumed, in grotesque
+and magnificent costumes which had been in the making for months. The
+Krewe is to the South what the Bohemian Club is to the western coast,
+with the added enhancement of mystery.
+
+Despite the revels of the Krewe, however--despite the glittering jewels,
+the barbaric costumes, the music, the excitement--an indefinable air of
+regret, almost of sadness, pervaded the entire gathering. This feeling
+was something to be sensed, rather than observed definitely. Some said,
+afterward, that it was a premonition of the terrible event that was to
+happen this night. Wrong! It was because, for the first time in many
+generations, the Comus ball was held in one of the newer public
+buildings instead of in its accustomed place. Everyone was speaking of
+it. Even Maillard the banker, that cold man of dollars, spoke uneasily
+of it when Gramont encountered him in the smoking room.
+
+"It doesn't seem like Comus," said Maillard, with a vexed frown. "And to
+think that we had just finished redecorating the Opera House when it was
+burned down! Comus will never be the same again."
+
+"I didn't know you could feel such emotion for a ruined building,
+Maillard," said Gramont, lightly. The banker shrugged a trifle.
+
+"Emotion? No. Regret! None of us, who has been brought up in the
+traditions of the city but regarded the French Opera House as the centre
+of all our storied life. You can't understand it, Gramont; no outsider
+can. By the way, you haven't seen Bob? He's in costume, but he might
+have spoken to you----"
+
+Gramont answered in the negative, with a slight surprise at the
+question.
+
+It was not long before he came to comprehend more fully just what the
+loss of the old French Opera House meant to the assembly. He heard
+comparisons made on every hand, regretful allusions, sighs for the days
+that were no more.
+
+This present building, to be sure, was one of the city's finest, up to
+date in every way, with an abundance of room--and yet everyone said that
+Comus would never be the same. About the Opera House had clung the
+romance of many generations. About it, too, had clung the affections of
+the people with a fierceness beyond reason. More famous buildings had
+been allowed to go to ruin, like the Hotel Royale, but the Opera House
+had been kept in repair for Mardi Gras. It was itself--a landmark.
+Nothing else would ever be like it.
+
+From his seat in the Lavergne box Gramont contented himself during the
+early evening with the common rôle of all the "blackcoats"--that of
+looking on idly. More than once he saw Lucie Ledanois called out, among
+others of the fair sex, as a dancing partner for some member of the
+Krewe. None of the male guests, however, was allowed to participate in
+the festivity until Rex and his queen should arrive--at midnight; thus,
+Gramont saw almost nothing of Lucie during the evening.
+
+There was, inevitably, more or less visiting in boxes and foyers, and
+not a little lounging in the smoking room. The building was a huge
+structure, and richly furnished. Only a portion of it was in use by the
+Krewe; the remainder was, of course, deserted for the time being.
+
+While in search of smoking companions, Gramont encountered many of his
+acquaintances, and among them Doctor Ansley and Jachin Fell. In order to
+enjoy Fell's proffered El Reys in a somewhat clearer atmosphere these
+three strolled off together into one of the unused passages leading to
+other parts of the building. They opened a window and stood watching the
+crowd that surged in the street below, constantly increasing as the hour
+grew later, for the procession of Rex would be well worth seeing and
+nobody meant to miss anything upon this night of nights.
+
+Suddenly, at the sound of an approaching footstep, the three men turned.
+The electric lights were going in all of the hallways, and they
+perceived that the individual approaching them was a member of the Krewe
+of Comus. He was also, it became evident, giving a share of his
+allegiance to Bacchus, for his feet were obviously unsteady. He was clad
+in a parti-coloured costume, which was crowned by an exaggerated head of
+Mephisto.
+
+"Good evening to you, worthy gentlemen!" He came to a fuddled halt and
+stood there, laughing at the stares of the three. "Evening, I say."
+
+They responded to his liquor-tinged words with a laughing reply.
+
+"Wonderin' who I am, aren't you!" he hiccuped. "Well, don't wonder;
+'sall between ol' friends to-night! Tell you what, m' friends--come with
+me and I'll find you a li'l drink, eh? No prohibition booze, upon m'
+honour; real old Boone pinchneck--got it from some boys in Louisville,
+been savin' it up for to-night."
+
+He wagged his head at them, and pursued his subject in a half-maudlin
+burst of confidential assurance. An unsteady hand waved down the
+hallway.
+
+"Havin' a little party in one of the rooms," he continued. "All of us
+friends--lots more fun than dancin'! And say! I'm going pull something
+great, positively great; you don't want to miss it, gentlemen! You come
+along with me and I'll fix it for you. Come on, Gramont, that's a good
+fellow! You'n I had a dis'greement to-day--don't matter to-night,
+nothin' matters to-night, nothin' at all. Mardi Gras only comes once a
+year, eh? Come along, now."
+
+Jachin Fell very civilly refused the invitation, as did the others.
+Gramont, who now recognized their accoster, was less civil in his
+refusal. Mephisto sadly wagged his huge headpiece and regarded them with
+vinous regret.
+
+"No 'joyment in you any more? Better come along. Tell you, I've got the
+biggest joke of the season ready to pull off--something rich! Gramont,
+come on!"
+
+"Thanks, no," responded Gramont, curtly.
+
+The masquer gave up the struggle and moved on down the empty hallway.
+The three "blackcoats" watched in silence until the grotesque figure had
+vanished.
+
+"I wonder who that was, now?" mused Doctor Ansley, frowning. "Evidently,
+someone who knew us; at least, he recognized you, Gramont."
+
+"So it seemed," put in Jachin Fell. His tone, like his eyes, held a
+sombre fire. "A party of them drinking, eh? that will make trouble. The
+Krewe won't like it. Ten to one, that young man and his friends will
+start the makings of a fine scandal and the Krewe will come down hard on
+them--mighty hard. Who was he, Gramont? Sounded like----"
+
+"Young Maillard." At Gramont's response a whistle broke from Doctor
+Ansley. Jachin Fell nodded assent.
+
+"You took the words out of my mouth. So Bob is drinking again, eh? And
+they've occupied one of the rooms somewhere, and are enjoying a bit of
+liquor and a card game by themselves. Cursed slippery going, as Eliza
+said when she crossed the ice! The Krewe will expel them. Hello,
+Gramont--where to?"
+
+Gramont tossed his cigar through the open window.
+
+"I think I'll make my adieux, Fell. I intend to be up early in the
+morning and get off to work----"
+
+"What?" protested Ansley in astonishment. "You must stay until Rex
+comes, at least! Why, that's the event of the carnival! The evening
+hasn't started yet."
+
+"I'm growing old and sober, doctor," and Gramont chuckled. "To tell the
+truth," and he gave Fell a whimsical glance, "I am head over ears in
+some new business matters which have actually fired me with the divine
+afflatus of enthusiasm. What's more, I was drifting with the crowds all
+afternoon, and I've just begun to realize that I'm dead tired. Rex or no
+Rex, I'm afraid that I'd best say good-night, gentlemen."
+
+Gramont persisted in his intention, and bade the other two good-night.
+In truth, he cared very little about Rex, and a very great deal about
+getting off to Bayou Terrebonne early in the morning. The oil matter
+filled his mind. He had formed a thousand plans, he was fired with
+enthusiasm, and was anxious to make his preliminary investigation.
+
+Returning to the auditorium, Gramont sought out his hosts and made his
+farewells, although not without encountering some opposition. At length
+he was free, he had obtained his hat and coat, and as he passed out of
+the building he again met Fell and Ansley, who were finishing their
+cigars at the entrance. He bade them a final adieu and plunged into the
+crowd.
+
+It lacked half an hour of midnight. The streets were filled with
+merrymakers, who were making the night riotous with songs, yells, and
+noise-producing apparatus, anticipating the arrival of Rex. For a little
+Fell and Doctor Ansley stood talking, then tossed away their cigars and
+turned into the building.
+
+They halted in the foyer before the appearance of two men--Joseph
+Maillard, looking extremely agitated, and behind him old Judge Forester,
+who wore a distinctly worried expression.
+
+"Ah, here are Fell and Ansley!" exclaimed Maillard, almost with relief.
+"I--ah--my friends, I don't suppose you've seen Bob recently?"
+
+Ansley was silent. Jachin Fell, however, responded with a cold nod of
+assent.
+
+"Yes," he said in his peculiarly toneless manner. "Yes, we have. At
+least, I believe it was he----"
+
+"I'm worried," said Maillard, anxiously, hurriedly. He made an
+expressive gesture of despair. "He's in costume, of course. I've been
+given to understand that--well, that he has been--well, drinking."
+
+"He has," said Jachin Fell, without any trace of compassion. "A number
+of the Krewe are occupying one of the rooms in the building, and they
+must have been visiting it frequently. I trust for your sake that the
+fact hasn't become generally known inside?"
+
+Maillard nodded. Shame and anger lay heavily in his eyes.
+
+"Yes, Jachin. I--I was asked to exert my influence over Bob. The request
+came to me from the floor. This--this is a disgraceful thing to admit,
+my friends----"
+
+Judge Forester, in his kindly way, laid his hand on the banker's arm.
+
+"Tut, tut, Joseph," he said, gently, a fund of sympathy in his voice.
+"Boys will be boys, you know; really, this is no great matter! Don't let
+it hit you so hard. I'll go with you to find the room, of course. Where
+is it, Jachin?"
+
+"We'll all go," put in Ansley. "We'll have a little party of our own,
+gentlemen. Come on, I believe we'll be able to discover the place."
+
+The four men left the foyer and started through the corridors. Among
+them was a tacit understanding, a deep feeling of sympathy for Joseph
+Maillard, a bond which held them to his aid in this disgrace which had
+befallen him. Jachin Fell, who felt the least compassion or pity, cursed
+Bob Maillard--but under his breath.
+
+They walked through the empty, lighted corridors, following the
+direction in which Fell and Ansley had seen young Maillard disappear.
+
+"I hear," said Judge Forester to Doctor Ansley, as they followed the
+other two, "that there has been astonishing news to-day from the
+Midnight Masquer. It seems that a number of people have received back
+property this afternoon--loot the bandit had taken. It came by mail,
+special delivery. One of the Lavergne boys tells me that they received a
+box containing everything that was taken at their home, even to cash,
+with a note asking them to return the things to their guests. It appears
+to have been some sort of a carnival joke, after all."
+
+"A poor one, then," responded Ansley, "and in doubtful taste. I've heard
+nothing of it. I wouldn't mind getting back the little cash I lost,
+though I must say I'll believe the story when I see the money----"
+
+He broke off quickly.
+
+As they turned a corner of the corridor to the four men came realization
+that they had attained their goal. From one of the rooms ahead there
+sounded snatches of a boisterous chorus being roared forth lustily. As
+they halted, to distinguish from which door the singing proceeded, the
+chorus was broken off by an abrupt and sudden silence. This silence was
+accentuated by the preceding noise, as though the singers had checked
+their maudlin song in mid-career.
+
+"Damn it!" muttered Maillard. "Did they hear us coming? No, that
+wouldn't matter a hang to them--but what checked them so quickly?"
+
+"This door," said Fell, indicating one to their right. He paused at it,
+listening, and over his features came a singular expression. As the
+others joined him, they caught a low murmur of voices, a hushed sound of
+talk, a rattle as a number of chips fell from a table.
+
+"Cursed queer!" observed Jachin Fell, frowning. "I wonder what happened
+to them so abruptly? Perhaps the deal was finished--they're having a
+game. Well, go ahead, Joseph! We'll back you up as a deputation from the
+blackcoats, and if you need any moral support, call on Judge Forester."
+
+"Correct!" assented that gentleman with dignity. "I'll give these
+jackanapes a little advice! It's going a bit far, this sort of thing; we
+can't have Comus turned into a common drinking bout. Ready, Joseph?"
+
+He flung open the door, and Maillard entered at his side. They then came
+to a startled halt, at view of the scene which greeted them.
+
+The room was large and well lighted, windows and transom darkened for
+the occasion. Tobacco smoke made a bluish haze in the air. In the centre
+of the room stood a large table, littered with glasses and bottles, with
+scattered cards, with chips and money.
+
+About this table had been sitting half a dozen members of the Krewe of
+Comus. Now, however, they were standing, their various identities
+completely concealed by the grotesque costumes which cloaked them. Their
+hands were in the air.
+
+Standing at another doorway, midway between their group and that of the
+four unexpected intruders, was the Midnight Masquer--holding them up at
+the point of his automatic!
+
+There was a moment of tense and strained silence, as every eye went to
+the four men in evening attire. It was plain what had cut short the
+boisterous song--the Masquer must have made his appearance only a moment
+or two previously. From head to foot he was hidden under his leathern
+attire. His unrecognizable features, at this instant, were turned
+slightly toward the four new arrivals. It was obvious that he, no less
+than the others, was startled by this entry.
+
+Maillard was the first to break that silence of stupefaction.
+
+"By heavens!" he cried, furiously. "Here's that damned villain
+again--hold him, you! at him, everybody!"
+
+In a blind rage, transported out of himself by his sudden access of
+passion, the banker hurled himself forward. From the bandit burst a cry
+of futile warning; the pistol in his hand veered toward his assailant.
+
+This action precipitated the event. Perhaps because the Masquer did not
+fire instantly, and perhaps because Maillard's mad action shamed them,
+the nearer members of the drinking party hurled themselves at the
+bandit. The threat of the weapon was forgotten, unheeded in the sweeping
+lust of the man-hunt. It seemed that the fellow feared to fire; and
+about him closed the party in a surging mass, with a burst of sudden
+shouts, striking and clutching to pull him down and put him under foot.
+
+Then, when it seemed that they had him without a struggle, the Masquer
+broke from them, swept them apart and threw them off, hurled them clear
+away. He moved as though to leap through the side doorway whence he had
+come.
+
+With an oath, Maillard hurled himself forward, struck blindly and
+furiously at the bandit, and fastened upon him about the waist. There
+was a surge forward of bodies as the others crowded in to pull down the
+Masquer before he could escape. It looked then as though he were indeed
+lost--until the automatic flamed and roared in his hand, its choking
+fumes bursting at them. The report thundered in the room; a second
+report thundered, deafeningly, as a second bullet sought its mark.
+
+Like a faint echo to those shots came the slam of a door. The Masquer
+was gone!
+
+After him, into the farther room, rushed some of the party; but he had
+vanished utterly. There was no trace of him. Of course, he might have
+ducked into any of the dark rooms, or have run down the corridor, yet
+his complete disappearance confused the searchers. After a moment,
+however, they returned to the lighted room. The Masquer had gone, but
+behind him had remained a more grim and terrible masquer.
+
+In the room which he had just left, however, there had fallen a dread
+silence and consternation. One of the masqued drinkers held an arm that
+hung helpless, dripping blood; but his hurt passed unseen and uncared
+for, even by himself.
+
+Doctor Ansley was kneeling above a motionless figure, prone on the dirty
+floor; and it was the figure of Joseph Maillard. The physician glanced
+up, then rose slowly to his feet. He made a terribly significant
+gesture, and his crisp voice broke in upon the appalled silence.
+
+"Dead," he said, curtly. "Shot twice--each bullet through the heart.
+Judge Forester, I'm afraid there is no alternative but to call in the
+police. Gentlemen, you will kindly unmask--which one of you is Robert
+Maillard?"
+
+Amid a stunned and horrified silence the members of the Krewe one by one
+removed their grotesque headgear, staring at the dead man whose white
+face looked up at them with an air of grim accusation. But none of them
+came forward to claim kinship with the dead man. Bob Maillard was not in
+the room.
+
+"I think," said the toneless, even voice of Jachin Fell, "that all of
+you gentlemen had better be very careful to say only what you have
+seen--and know. You will kindly remain here until I have summoned the
+police."
+
+He left the room, and if there were any dark implication hidden in his
+words, no one seemed to observe it.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+
+                             _On The Bayou_
+
+
+At three o'clock in the morning a great office building is not the most
+desolate place on earth, perhaps; but it approaches very closely to that
+definition.
+
+At three o'clock on the morning of Ash Wednesday the great white Maison
+Blanche building was deserted and desolate, so far as its offices were
+concerned. The cleaners and scrub-women had long since finished their
+tasks and departed. Out in the streets the tag-ends of carnival were
+running on a swiftly ebbing tide. A single elevator in the building was,
+however, in use. A single suite of offices, with carefully drawn blinds,
+was lighted and occupied.
+
+They were not ornate, these offices. They consisted of two rooms, a
+small reception room and a large private office, both lined to the
+ceiling with books, chiefly law books. In the large inner room were
+sitting three men. One of the three, Ben Chacherre, sat in a chair
+tipped back against the wall, his eyes closed. From time to time he
+opened those sparkling black eyes of his, and through narrow-slitted
+lids directed keen glances at the other two men.
+
+One of the men was the chief of police. The second was Jachin Fell,
+whose offices these were.
+
+"Even if things are as you say, which I don't doubt at all," said the
+chief, slowly, "I can't believe the boy did it! And darn it all, if I
+pinch him there's goin' to be a hell of a scandal!"
+
+Fell shrugged his shoulders, and made response in his toneless voice:
+
+"Chief, you're up against facts. Those facts are bound to come out and
+the newspapers will nail your hide to the wall in a minute. You've a
+bare chance to save yourself by taking in young Maillard at once."
+
+The chief chewed hard on his cigar. "I don't want to save myself by
+putting the wrong man behind the bars," he returned. "It sure looks like
+he was the Masquer all the while, but you say that he wasn't. You say
+this was his only job--a joke that turned out bad."
+
+"Those are the facts," said Fell. "I don't want to accuse a man of
+crimes I know he did not commit. We have the best of evidence that he
+did commit this crime. If the newspapers fasten the entire Midnight
+Masquer business on him, as they're sure to do, we can't very well help
+it. I have no sympathy for the boy."
+
+"Of course he did it," put in Ben Chacherre, sleepily. "Wasn't he caught
+with the goods?"
+
+The others paid no heed. The chief indicated two early editions of the
+morning papers, which lay on the desk in front of Fell. These papers
+carried full accounts of the return of the Midnight Masquer's loot,
+explaining his robberies as part of a carnival jest.
+
+"The later editions, comin' out now," said the chief, "will crowd all
+that stuff off the front page with the Maillard murder. Darn it, Fell!
+Whether I believe it or not, I'll have to arrest the young fool."
+
+Chacherre chuckled. Jachin Fell smiled faintly.
+
+"Nothing could be plainer, chief," he responded. "First, Bob Maillard
+comes to us in front of the opera house, and talks about a great joke
+that he's going to spring on his friends across the way----"
+
+"How'd you know who he was?" interjected the chief, shrewdly.
+
+"Gramont recognized him; Ansley and I confirmed the recognition. He was
+more or less intoxicated--chiefly more. Now, young Maillard was not in
+the room at the moment of the murder--unless he was the Masquer. Five
+minutes afterward he was found in a near-by room, hastily changing out
+of an aviator's uniform into his masquerade costume. Obviously, he had
+assumed the guise of the Masquer as a joke on his friends, and the joke
+had a tragic ending. Further, he was in the aviation service during the
+war, and so had the uniform ready to hand. You couldn't make anybody
+believe that he hasn't been the Masquer all the time!"
+
+"Of course," and the chief nodded perplexedly. "It'd be a clear
+case--only you call me in and say that he _wasn't_ the Masquer! Damn it,
+Fell, this thing has my goat!"
+
+"What's Maillard's story?" struck in Ben Chacherre.
+
+"He denies the whole thing," said the worried chief. "According to his
+story, which sounded straight the way he tells it, he meant to pull off
+the joke on his friends and was dressing in the Masquer's costume when
+he heard the shots. He claims that the shots startled him and made him
+change back. He swears that he had not entered the other room at all,
+except in his masquerade clothes. He says the murderer must have been
+the real Masquer. It's likely enough, because all young Maillard's crowd
+knew about the party that was to be held in that room during the Comus
+ball----"
+
+"No matter," said Fell, coldly. "Chief, this is an open and shut case;
+the boy was bound to lie. That he killed his father was an accident, of
+course, but none the less it did take place."
+
+"The boy's a wreck this minute." The chief held a match to his unlighted
+cigar. "But you say that he ain't the original Masquer?"
+
+"No!" Fell spoke quickly. "The original Masquer was another person, and
+had nothing to do with the present case. This information is
+confidential and between ourselves."
+
+"Oh, of course," assented the chief. "Well, I suppose I got to pull
+Maillard, but I hate to do it. I got a hunch that he ain't the right
+party."
+
+"Virtuous man!" Fell smiled thinly. "According to all the books, the
+chief of police is only too glad to fasten the crime on anybody----"
+
+"Books be damned!" snorted the chief, and leaned forward earnestly.
+"Look here, Fell! Do you believe in your heart that Maillard killed his
+father?"
+
+Fell was silent a moment under that intent scrutiny.
+
+"From the evidence, I am forced against my will to believe it," he said
+at last. "Of course, he'll be able to prove that he was not the Masquer
+on previous occasions; his alibis will take care of that. Up to the
+point of the murder, his story is all right. And, my friend, there is a
+chance--a very slim, tenuous chance--that his entire story is true. In
+that case, another person must have appeared as the Masquer which seems
+unlikely----"
+
+"Or else," put in Ben Chacherre, smoothly, "the real original Masquer
+showed up!"
+
+There was an instant of silence. Jachin Fell regarded his henchman with
+steady gray eyes. Ben Chacherre met the look with almost a trace of
+defiance. The chief frowned darkly.
+
+"Yes," said the chief. "That's the size of it, Fell. You're keepin'
+quiet about the name of the real Masquer; why?"
+
+"Because," said Fell, calmly, "I happen to know that he was in the
+auditorium at the time of the murder."
+
+Again silence. Ben Chacherre stared at Fell, with amazement and
+admiration in his gaze. "When the master lies, he lies magnificently!"
+he murmured in French.
+
+"Well," and the chief gestured despairingly, "I guess that lets out the
+real Masquer, eh?"
+
+"Exactly," assented Fell. "No use dragging his name into it. I'll keep
+at work on this, chief, and if anything turns up to clear young
+Maillard, I'll be very glad."
+
+"All right," grunted the chief, and rose. "I'll be on my way."
+
+He departed. Neither Fell nor Chacherre moved or spoke for a space. When
+at length the clang of the elevator door resounded through the deserted
+corridors Ben Chacherre slipped from his chair and went to the outer
+door. He glanced out into the hall, closed the door, and with a nod
+returned to his chair.
+
+"Well?" Jachin Fell regarded him with intent, searching eyes. "Have you
+any light to throw on the occasion?"
+
+Chacherre's usual air of cool impudence was never in evidence when he
+talked with Mr. Fell.
+
+"No," he said, shaking his head. "Hammond worked on the car until about
+nine o'clock, then beat it to bed, I guess. I quit the job at ten, and
+his light had been out some time. Well, master, this is a queer affair!
+There's no doubt that Gramont pulled it, eh?"
+
+"You think so?" asked Fell.
+
+Chacherre made a gesture of assent. "_Quand bois tombé, cabri
+monté_--when the tree falls, the kid can climb it! Any fool can see that
+Gramont was the man. Don't you think so yourself, master?"
+
+Jachin Fell nodded.
+
+"Yes. But we've no evidence--everything lies against young Maillard.
+Early in the morning Gramont goes to Paradis to examine that land of
+Miss Ledanois' along the bayou. He'll probably say nothing of this
+murder to Hammond, and the chauffeur may not find out about it until a
+day or two--they get few newspapers down there.
+
+"Drive down to Paradis in the morning, Ben; get into touch with Hammond,
+and discover what time Gramont got home to-night. Write me what you find
+out. Then take charge of things at the Gumberts place. Make sure that
+every car is handled right. A headquarters man from Mobile will be here
+to-morrow to trace the Nonpareil Twelve that Gramont now owns."
+
+Chacherre whistled under his breath. "What?"
+
+Jachin Fell smiled slightly and nodded. "Yes. If Gramont remains at
+Paradis, I may send him on down there--I'm not sure yet. I intend to get
+something on that man Hammond."
+
+"But you can't land him that way, master! He bought the car----"
+
+"And who sold the car to the garage people? They bought it innocently."
+A peculiar smile twisted Fell's lips awry. "In fact, they bought it from
+a man named Hammond, as the evidence will show very clearly."
+
+Ben Chacherre started, since he had sold that car himself. Then a slow
+grin came into his thin features--a grin that widened into a noiseless
+laugh.
+
+"Master, you are magnificent!" he said, and rose. "Well, if there is
+nothing further on hand, I shall go to bed."
+
+"An excellent programme," said Jachin Fell, and took his hat from the
+desk. "I must get some sleep myself."
+
+They left the office and the building together.
+
+Three hours afterward the dawn had set in--a cold, gray, and dismal dawn
+that rose upon a city littered with the aftermath of carnival. "Lean
+Wednesday" it was, in sober fact. Thus far, the city in general was
+ignorant of the tragedy which had taken place at the very conclusion of
+its gayest carnival season. Within a few hours business and social
+circles would be swept by the fact of Joseph Maillard's murder, but at
+this early point of the day the city slept. The morning papers, which
+to-day carried a news story that promised to shock and stun the entire
+community, were not yet distributed.
+
+Rising before daylight, Henry Gramont and Hammond breakfasted early and
+were off by six in the car. They were well outside town and sweeping on
+their way to Terrebonne Parish and the town of Paradis before they
+realized that the day was not going to brighten appreciably. Instead, it
+remained very cloudy and gloomy, with a chill threat of rain in the air.
+
+Weather mattered little to Gramont. When finally the excellent highway
+was left behind, and they started on the last lap of their seventy-mile
+ride, they found the parish roads execrable and the going slow. Thus,
+noon was at hand when they at length pulled into Paradis, the town
+closest to Lucie Ledanois' bayou land. The rain was still holding off.
+
+"Too cold to rain," observed Gramont. "Let's hit for the hotel and get
+something to eat. I'll have to locate the land, which is somewhere near
+town."
+
+They discovered the hotel to be an ancient structure, and boasting
+prices worthy of Lafitte and his buccaneers. As in many small towns of
+Louisiana, however, the food proved fit for a king. After a light
+luncheon of quail, crayfish bisque, and probably illegal venison,
+Gramont sighed regret that he could eat no more, and set about inquiring
+where the Ledanois farm lay.
+
+There was very little, indeed, to Paradis, which lay on the bayou but
+well away from the railroad. It was a desolate spot, unpainted and
+unkept. The parish seat of Houma had robbed it of all life and growth on
+the one hand; on the other, the new oil and gas district had not yet
+touched it.
+
+Southward lay the swamp--fully forty miles of it, merging by degrees
+into the Gulf. Forty miles of cypress marsh and winding bayou,
+uncharted, unexplored save by occasional hunters or semi-occasional
+sheriffs. No man knew who or what might be in those swamps, and no one
+cared to know. The man who brought in fish or oysters in his skiff might
+be a bayou fisherman, and he might be a murderer wanted in ten states.
+Curiosity was apt to prove extremely unhealthy. Like the Atchafalaya,
+where chance travellers find themselves abruptly ordered elsewhere, the
+Terrebonne swamps have their own secrets and know how to keep them.
+
+Gramont had no difficulty in locating the Ledanois land, and he found
+that it was by no means in the swamp. A part of it, lying closer to
+Houma, had been sold and was now included in the new oil district; it
+was this portion which Joseph Maillard had sold off.
+
+The remainder, and the largest portion, lay north of Paradis and ran
+along the west bank of the bayou for half a mile. A long-abandoned farm,
+it was high ground, with the timber well cleared off and excellently
+located; but tenants were hard to get and shiftless when obtained, so
+that the place had not been farmed for the last five years or more.
+After getting these facts, Gramont consulted with Hammond.
+
+"We'd better buy some grub here in town and arrange to stay a couple of
+nights on the farm, if necessary," he said. "There are some buildings
+there, so we'll find shelter. Along the bayou are summer cottages--I
+believe some of them are rather pretentious places--and we ought to find
+the road pretty decent. It's only three or four miles out of town."
+
+With some provisions piled in the car, they set forth. The road wound
+along the bayou side, past ancient 'Cajun farms and the squat homes of
+fishermen. Here and there had been placed camps and summer cottages,
+nestling amid groups of huge oaks and cypress, whose fronds of
+silver-gray moss hung in drooping clusters like pale and ghostly
+shrouds.
+
+Watching the road closely, Gramont suddenly found the landmarks that had
+been described to him, and ordered Hammond to stop and turn in at a gap
+in the fence which had once been an entrance gate.
+
+"Here we are! Those are the buildings off to the right. Whew! I should
+say it had been abandoned! Nothing much left but ruins. Go ahead!"
+
+Before them, as they drove in from the road by a grass-covered drive,
+showed a house, shed, and barn amid a cluster of towering trees. Indeed,
+trees were everywhere about the farm, which had grown up in a regular
+sapling forest. The buildings were in a ruinous state--clapboards
+hanging loosely, roofs dotted by gaping holes, doors and windows long
+since gone.
+
+Leaving the car, Gramont, followed by the chauffeur, went to the front
+doorway and surveyed the wreckage inside.
+
+"What do you say, Hammond? Think we can stop here, or go back to the
+hotel? It's not much of a run to town----"
+
+Hammond pointed to a wide fireplace facing them.
+
+"I can get this shack cleaned out in about half an hour--this one room,
+anyhow. When we get a fire goin' in there, and board up the windows and
+doors, we ought to be comfortable enough. But suit yourself, cap'n! It's
+your funeral."
+
+Gramont laughed. "All right. Go ahead and clean up, then, and if rain
+comes down we can camp here. Be sure and look for snakes and vermin. The
+floor seems sound, and if there's plenty of moss on the trees, we can
+make up comfortable beds. Too bad you're not a fisherman, or we might
+get a fresh fish out of the bayou----"
+
+"I got some tackle in town," and Hammond grinned widely.
+
+"Good work! Then make yourself at home and go to it. We've most of the
+afternoon before us."
+
+Gramont left the house, and headed down toward the bayou shore.
+
+He took a letter from his pocket, opened it, and glanced over it anew.
+It was an old letter, one written him nearly two years previously by
+Lucie Ledanois. It had been written merely in the endeavour to distract
+the thoughts of a wounded soldier, to bring his mind to Louisiana, away
+from the stricken fields of France. In the letter Lucie had described
+some of the more interesting features of Bayou Terrebonne--the oyster
+and shrimp fleets, the Chinese and Filipino villages along the Gulf, the
+far-spread cypress swamps; the bubbling fountains, natural curiosities,
+that broke up through the streams and bayous of the whole wide
+parish--fountains that were caused by gas seeping up from the earth's
+interior, and breaking through.
+
+Gramont knew that plans were already afoot to tap this field of natural
+gas and pipe it to New Orleans. Oil had been found, too, and all the
+state was now oil-mad. Fortunes were being made daily, and other
+fortunes were being lost daily by those who dealt with oil-stocks
+instead of with oil.
+
+"Those gas-fountains did the work!" reflected Gramont. "And according to
+this letter, there's one of those fountains here in the bayou, close to
+her property. 'Just opposite the dock,' she says. The first thing is to
+find the dock, then the fountain. After that, we'll decide if it's true
+mineral gas. If it is, then the work's done--for I'll sure take a chance
+on finding oil near it!"
+
+Gramont came to the bayou and began searching his way along the thick
+and high fringe of bushes and saplings that girded the water's edge.
+Presently he came upon the ruined evidences of what had once been a
+small boat shed. Not far from this he found the dock referred to in the
+letter; nothing was left of it except a few spiles protruding from the
+surface of the water. But he had no need to look farther. Directly
+before him, he saw that which he was seeking.
+
+A dozen feet out from shore the water was rising and falling in a
+continuous dome or fountain of highly charged bubbles that rose a foot
+above the surface. Gramont stared at it, motionless. He watched it for a
+space--then, abruptly, he started. It was a violent start, a start of
+sheer amazement and incredulity.
+
+He leaned forward, staring no longer at the gas dome, but at the water
+closer inshore. For a moment he thought that his senses had deceived
+him, then he saw that the thing was there indeed, there beyond any
+doubt--a very faint trace of iridescent light that played over the
+surface of the water.
+
+"It can't be possible!" he muttered, bending farther over. "Such a thing
+happens too rarely----"
+
+His heart pounded violently; excitement sent the blood rushing to his
+brain in blinding swirls. He was gripped by the gold fever that comes
+upon a man when he makes the astounding discovery of untold wealth lying
+at his feet, passed over and disregarded by other and less-discerning
+men for days and years!
+
+It was oil, no question about it. An extremely slight quantity, true; so
+slight a quantity that there was no film on the water, no discernible
+taste to the water. Gramont brought it to his mouth and rose, shaking
+his head.
+
+Where did it come from? It had no connection with the gas bubbles--at
+least, it did not come from the dome of water and gas. How long he stood
+there staring Gramont did not know. His brain was afire with the
+possibilities. At length he stirred into action and started up the bayou
+bank, from time to time halting to search the water below him, to make
+sure that he could still discern the faint iridescence.
+
+He followed it rod by rod, and found that it rapidly increased in
+strength. It must come from some very tiny surface seepage close at
+hand, that was lost in the bayou almost as rapidly as it came from the
+earth-depths. Only accidentally would a man see it--not unless he were
+searching the water close to the bank, and even then only by the grace
+of chance.
+
+Suddenly Gramont saw that he had lost the sign. He halted.
+
+No, not lost, either! Just ahead of him was a patch of reeds, and a
+recession of the shore. He advanced again. Inside the reeds he found the
+oily smear, still so faint that he could only detect it at certain
+angles. Glancing up, he could see a fence at a little distance,
+evidently the boundary fence of the Ledanois land; the bushes and trees
+thinned out here, and on ahead was cleared ground. He saw, through the
+bushes, glimpses of buildings.
+
+Violent disappointment seized him. Was he to lose this discovery, after
+all? Was he to find that the seepage came from ground belonging to
+someone else? No--he stepped back hastily, barely in time to avoid
+stumbling into a tiny trickle of water, a rivulet that ran down into the
+bayou, a tributary so insignificant that it was invisible ten feet
+distant! And on the surface a faint iridescence.
+
+Excitement rising anew within him, Gramont turned and followed this
+rivulet, his eyes aflame with eagerness. It led him for twenty feet, and
+ceased abruptly, in a bubbling spring that welled from a patch of low,
+tree-enclosed land. Gramont felt his feet sinking in grass, and saw that
+there was a dip in the ground hereabouts, a swampy little section all to
+itself. He picked a dry spot and lay down on his face, searching the
+water with his eyes.
+
+Moment after moment he lay there, watching. Presently he found the
+slight trickle of oil again--a trickle so faint and slim that even here,
+on the surface of the tiny rivulet, it could be discerned only with
+great difficulty. A very thin seepage, concluded Gramont; a thin oil, of
+course. So faint a little thing, to mean so much!
+
+It came from the Ledanois land, no doubt of it. What did that matter,
+though? His eyes widened with flaming thoughts as he gazed down at the
+slender thread of water. No matter at all where this came from--the main
+point was proven by it! There was oil here for the finding, oil down in
+the thousands of feet below, oil so thick and abundant that it forced
+itself up through the earth fissures to find an outlet!
+
+"Instead of going down five or six thousand feet," he thought,
+exultantly, "we may have to go down only as many hundred. But first we
+must get an option or a lease on all the land roundabout--all we can
+secure! There will be a tremendous boom the minute this news breaks. If
+we get those options, we can sell them over again at a million per cent.
+profit, and even if we don't strike oil in paying quantities, we'll
+regain the cost of our drilling! And to think of the years this has been
+here, waiting for someone----"
+
+Suddenly he started violently. An abrupt crashing of feet among the
+bushes, an outbreak of voices, had sounded not far away--just the other
+side of the boundary fence. He was wakened from his dreams, and started
+to rise. Then he relaxed his muscles and lay quiet, astonishment seizing
+him; for he heard his own name mentioned in a voice that was strange to
+him.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+                                _Murder_
+
+
+The voice was strange to Gramont, yet he had a vague recollection of
+having at some time heard it before. It was a jaunty and impudent voice,
+very self-assured--yet it bore a startled and uneasy note, as though the
+speaker had just come unaware upon the man whom he addressed.
+
+"Howdy, sheriff!" it said. "Didn't see you in there--what you doin' so
+far away from Houma, eh?"
+
+"Why, I've been looking over the place around here," responded another
+voice, which was dry and grim. "I know you, Ben Chacherre, and I think
+I'll take you along with me. Just come from New Orleans, did you?"
+
+"Me? Take _me_?" The voice of Chacherre shrilled up suddenly in alarm.
+"Look here, sheriff, it wasn't me done it! It was Gramont----"
+
+There came silence. Not a sound broke the stillness of the late
+afternoon.
+
+Gramont, listening, lay bewildered and breathless. Ben Chacherre, the
+sneak thief--how had Chacherre come here? Gramont knew nothing of any
+tie between Jachin Fell and Chacherre; he could only lie in the grass
+and wonder at the man's presence. What "place" was it that the sheriff
+of Houma had been looking over? And what was it that he, Gramont, was
+supposed to have done?
+
+Confused and wondering, Gramont waited. And, as he waited, he caught a
+soft sound from the marshy ground beside him--a faint "plop" as though
+some object had fallen close by on the wet grass. At the moment he paid
+no heed to this sound, for again the uncanny silence had fallen.
+
+Listening, Gramont fancied that he caught slow, stealthy footsteps amid
+the undergrowth, but derided the fancy as sheer imagination. His brain
+was busy with this new problem. Houma, he knew, was the seat of the
+parish or county. This Ben Chacherre appeared to have suddenly and
+unexpectedly encountered the sheriff, to his obvious alarm, and the
+sheriff had for some reason decided to arrest him; so much was clear.
+
+Chacherre had something to do with the "place"--did that mean the
+adjacent property, or the Ledanois farm? In his puzzled bewilderment
+over this imbroglio Gramont for the moment quite forgot the trickle of
+oil at his feet.
+
+But now the deep silence became unnatural and sinister. What had
+happened? Surely, Ben Chacherre had not been arrested and taken away in
+such silence! Why had the voices so abruptly ceased? Vaguely uneasy,
+startled by the prolongation of that intense stillness, Gramont rose to
+his feet and peered among the trees.
+
+The two speakers seemed to have departed; he could descry nobody in
+sight. A step to one side gave Gramont a view of the land adjoining the
+Ledanois place. This was cleared of all brush, and under some immense
+oaks to the far left he had a glimpse of a large summer cottage, boarded
+up and apparently deserted. Nearer at hand, however, he saw other
+buildings, and these drew his attention. He heard the throbbing pound of
+a motor at work, and as there was no power line along here, the place
+evidently had its own electrical plant. He scrutinized the scene before
+him appraisingly.
+
+There were two large buildings here. One seemed to be a large barn,
+closed, the other was a long, low shed which was too large to be a
+garage. The door of this was open, and before the opening Gramont saw
+three men standing in talk; he recognized none of them. Two of the
+talkers were clad in greasy overalls, and the third figure showed the
+flash of a collar. The sheriff, Ben Chacherre, and some other man,
+thought Gramont. He would not have known Chacherre had he encountered
+him face to face. To him, the man was a name only.
+
+The mention of his own name by Chacherre impelled him to go forward and
+demand some explanation. Then it occurred to him that perhaps he had
+made a mistake; it would have been very easy, for he was not certain
+that Chacherre had referred to him. There could be other Gramonts, or
+other men whose name would have much the same sound in a Creole mouth.
+
+"I'd better attend to my own business," thought Gramont, and turned
+away. He noticed that the motor had ceased its work. "Wonder what rich
+chap can be down here at his summer cottage this time of year? May be
+only a caretaker, though. I'd better give all my attention to this oil,
+and let other things alone."
+
+He retraced his steps to the bayou bank and turned back toward the
+house. As he did so, Hammond appeared coming toward him, knife in hand.
+
+"I'm going to cut me a pole and land a couple o' fish for supper,"
+announced the chauffeur, grinning. "Got things cleaned up fine, cap'n!
+You won't know the old shack."
+
+"Good enough," said Gramont. "Here, step over this way! I want to show
+you something."
+
+He led Hammond to the rivulet and pointed out the thin film of oil on
+the surface.
+
+"There's our golden fortune, sergeant! Oil actually coming out of the
+ground! It doesn't happen very often, but it does happen--and this is
+one of the times. I'll not bother to look around any farther."
+
+"Glory be!" said Hammond, staring at the rivulet. "Want to hit back for
+town?"
+
+"No; we couldn't get back until sometime to-night, and the roads aren't
+very good for night work. I'm going to get some leases around
+here--perhaps I can do it right away, and we'll start back in the
+morning. Go ahead and get your fish."
+
+Regaining the house, he saw that Hammond had indeed cleaned up in great
+style, and had the main room looking clean as a pin, with a fire popping
+on the hearth. He did not pause here, but went to the car, got in, and
+started it. He drove back to the road, and followed this toward town for
+a few rods, turning in at a large and very decent-looking farmhouse that
+he had observed while passing it on the way out.
+
+He found the owner, an intelligent-appearing Creole, driving in some
+cows for milking, and was a little startled to realize that the
+afternoon was so late. When he addressed the farmer in French, he
+received a cordial reply, and discovered that this man owned the land
+across the road from the Ledanois place--that his farm, in fact, covered
+several hundred acres.
+
+"Who owns the land next to the Ledanois place?" inquired Gramont.
+
+"I sold that off my land a couple of years ago," replied the other. "A
+man from New Orleans wanted it for a summer place--a business man there,
+Isidore Gumberts."
+
+Gumberts--"Memphis Izzy" Gumberts! The name flashed to Gramont's mind,
+and brought the recollection of a conversation with Hammond. Why,
+Gumberts was the famous crook of whom Hammond had spoken.
+
+"I saw the sheriff awhile ago, heading up the road," observed the
+Creole. "Did you meet him?"
+
+Gramont shook his head. "No, but I saw several men at the Gumberts
+place. Perhaps he was there----"
+
+"Not there, I guess," and the farmer laughed. "Those fellows have rented
+the place from Gumberts, I hear; they're inventors, and quiet enough
+men. You're a stranger here?"
+
+Gramont introduced himself as a friend of Miss Ledanois, and stated
+frankly that he was looking for oil and hoped to drill on her land.
+
+"I'd like a lease option from you," he went on. "I don't want to buy
+your land at all; what I want is a right to drill for oil on it, in case
+any shows up on Miss Ledanois' land. It's all a gamble, you know. I'll
+give you a hundred dollars for the lease, and the usual eighth interest
+in any oil that's found. I've no lease blanks with me, but if you'll
+give me the option, a signed memorandum will be entirely sufficient."
+
+The farmer regarded oil as a joke, and said so. The hundred dollars,
+however, and the prospective eighth interest, were sufficient to induce
+him to part with the option without any delay. He was only too glad to
+get the thing done with at once, and to pocket Gramont's money.
+
+Gramont drove away, and was just coming to the Ledanois drive when he
+suddenly threw on the brakes and halted the car, listening. From
+somewhere ahead of him--the Gumberts place, he thought instantly--echoed
+a shot, and several faint shouts. Then silence again.
+
+Gramont paused, indecisive. The sheriff was making an arrest, he
+thought. A hundred possibilities flitted through his brain, suggested by
+the sinister combination of Memphis Izzy, known even to Hammond as a
+prince among crooks, with this secluded place leased by "inventors."
+Bootlegging? Counterfeiting?
+
+As he paused, thus, he suddenly started; he was certain that he had
+caught the tones of Hammond, as though in a sudden uplifted oath of
+anger. Gramont threw in his clutch and sent the car jumping forward--he
+remembered that he had left Hammond beside the rivulet, close to the
+Gumberts property. What had happened?
+
+He came, after a moment of impatience, to an open gate whose drive led
+to the Gumberts place. Before him, as he turned in, unfolded a startling
+scene. Three men, the same three whom he had seen from the bushes, were
+standing in front of the low shed; two of them held rifles, the third,
+one of the "inventors" in overalls, was winding a bandage about a
+bleeding hand. The two rifles were loosely levelled at Hammond, who
+stood in the centre of the group with his arms in the air.
+
+Whatever had happened, Hammond had evidently not been easily captured.
+His countenance was somewhat battered, and the one captor who wore a
+collar was bleeding copiously from a cut cheek. The three turned as
+Gramont's car drove up, and Hammond gave an ejaculation of relief.
+
+"Here he is now----"
+
+"Shut up!" snapped one of his armed captors in an ugly tone. "Hurry up,
+Chacherre--get a rope and tie this gink!"
+
+Gramont leaped from the car and strode forward.
+
+"What's been going on here?" he demanded, sharply. "Hammond----"
+
+"I found a dead man over in them bushes," shot out Hammond, "and these
+guys jumped me before I seen 'em. They claim I done it----"
+
+"A dead man!" repeated Gramont, and looked at the three. "What do you
+mean?"
+
+"Give him the spiel, Chacherre," growled one of them. Ben Chacherre
+stepped forward, his bold eyes fastened on those of Gramont with a look
+of defiance.
+
+"The sheriff was here some time ago, looking for a stolen boat," he
+said, "and went off toward the Ledanois place. We were following, in
+order to help him search, when we came upon this man standing in the
+bushes, over the body of the sheriff. A knife was in his hand, and the
+sheriff had been stabbed to death. He drew a pistol and shot one of
+us----"
+
+Gramont was staggered for a moment. "Wait!" he exclaimed. "Hammond, how
+much of this is true?"
+
+"What I'm tellin' you, cap'n," answered Hammond, doggedly. "I found a
+man layin' there and was looking at him when these guys jumped me. I
+shot that fellow in the arm, all right, then they grabbed my gun and got
+me down. That's all."
+
+The sheriff--murdered!
+
+Into the mind of Gramont leaped that brief conversation which he had
+overheard between Ben Chacherre and the sheriff; the strange, unnatural
+silence which had concluded that broken-off conversation. He stared from
+Hammond to the others, speechless for the moment, yet with hot words
+rising impetuously in him.
+
+Now he noticed that Chacherre and his two companions were watching him
+very intently, and were slightly circling out. He sensed an acquaintance
+among all these men. He saw that the wounded man had finished his
+bandaging, and was now holding his unwounded hand in his jacket pocket,
+bulkily, menacingly.
+
+Danger flashed upon Gramont--flashed upon him vividly and with startling
+clearness. He realized that anything was possible in this isolated
+spot--this spot where murder had so lately been consummated! He checked
+on his very lips what he had been about to blurt forth; at this instant,
+Hammond voiced the thought in his mind.
+
+"It's a frame-up!" said the chauffeur, angrily.
+
+"That's likely, isn't it?" Chacherre flung the words in a sneer, but
+with a covert glance at Gramont. "This fellow is your chauffeur, ain't
+he? Well, we got to take him in to Houma, that's all."
+
+"Where's the sheriff's body?" demanded Gramont, quietly.
+
+"Over there," Chacherre gestured. "We ain't had a chance to bring him
+back yet--this fellow kept us busy. Maybe you want to frame up an alibi
+for him?"
+
+Gramont paid no attention to the sneering tone of this last. He regarded
+Chacherre fixedly, thinking hard, keeping himself well in hand.
+
+"You say the sheriff was here, then went over toward the Ledanois land?"
+he asked. "Did he go alone, or were you with him?"
+
+"We were fixin' to follow him," asserted Chacherre, confidently. This
+was all Gramont wanted to know--that the man was lying. "We were
+trailin' along after him when he stepped into the bushes. This man of
+yours was standing over him with a knife----"
+
+"I was, too, when they found me--I was cuttin' me a fishpole," said
+Hammond, sulkily. He was plainly beginning to be impressed and alarmed
+by the evidence against him. Gramont only nodded.
+
+"No one saw the actual murder, then?"
+
+"No need for it," said Chacherre, brazenly. "When we found him that way!
+Eh?"
+
+"I suppose not," answered Gramont, his eyes fastened thoughtfully on
+Hammond. The latter caught the look, let his jaw fall in astonishment,
+then flushed and compressed his lips--and waited. Gramont glanced at
+Chacherre, and launched a chance shaft.
+
+"You're Ben Chacherre, aren't you? Do you work for Mr. Fell?"
+
+The chance shot scored. "Yes," said Chacherre, his eyes narrowing.
+
+"What are you doing here, then?"
+
+For an instant Chacherre was off guard. He did not know how much--or
+little--Gramont knew; but he did know that Gramont was aware who had
+taken the loot of the Midnight Masquer from the luggage compartment of
+the car. This knowledge, very naturally, threw him back on the defence
+of which he was most sure.
+
+"I came on an errand for my master," he said, and with those words gave
+the game into Gramont's hands.
+
+There was a moment of silence. Gramont stood apparently in musing
+thought, conscious that every eye was fastened upon him, and that one
+false move would now spell disaster. He gave no sign of the tremendous
+shock that Chacherre's words had just given him; when he spoke, it was
+quietly and coolly:
+
+"Then your master is evidently associated with Memphis Izzy Gumberts,
+who owns this place here. Is that right?"
+
+Both Hammond and Chacherre's two friends started at this.
+
+"I don't know anything about that," returned Chacherre, with a shrug
+which did not entirely conceal his uneasiness. "I know that we've got a
+murderer here, and that we'll have to dispose of him. Do you object?"
+
+"Of course not," said Gramont, calmly. "Step aside and give me a moment
+in private with Hammond. Then by all means take him in to Houma. I'd
+suggest that you tie him up, or make use of handcuffs if the sheriff
+brought any along. Then you'd better take in the body of the sheriff
+also. Hammond, a word with you!"
+
+This totally unexpected acquiescence on the part of Gramont seemed to
+stun Chacherre into inaction. He half moved, as though uncertain whether
+to bar Gramont from the prisoner, then he stepped aside as Gramont
+advanced. A gesture to his two companions prevented them from
+interfering.
+
+"Keep 'em covered, though," he said, shifting his own rifle slightly and
+watching with a scowl of suspicion.
+
+Gramont ignored him and went up to Hammond, with a look of warning.
+
+"You'll have to submit to this, old man," he said, in a tone that the
+others could not overhear. "Don't dream that I'm deserting you; but I
+want a good look at this place if all three of them go away. They must
+not suspect----"
+
+"Cap'n, look out!" broke in Hammond, urgently. "This here is a gang--the
+whole thing is a frame-up on me!"
+
+"I know it--I was present when the sheriff was murdered; but keep quiet.
+I'll come to Houma later to-night and see you." He turned away with a
+shrug as though Hammond had denied him some favour, and lifted his
+voice. "Chacherre! How are you to take this man into town? How did you
+get here? Will you need to use my car?"
+
+"No." The Creole jerked his head toward the barn. "I came in Mr. Fell's
+car--it's got a sprung axle and is laid up. We'll take him back in
+another one."
+
+"Very well," Gramont paused and glanced around. "This is a terrible
+blow, men. I never dreamed that Hammond was a murderer or could be one!
+You don't know of any motive for the crime?"
+
+They shook their heads, but suspicion was dying from their eyes. Gramont
+glanced again at his chauffeur.
+
+"I'll not abandon you, Hammond," he said, severely, coldly. "I'll stop
+in at Houma and see that you have a lawyer. I think, gentlemen, we had
+better attend to bringing in the body of the sheriff, eh?"
+
+The wounded man dodged into the barn and returned with a strip of rope.
+Chacherre took this, and firmly bound Hammond's arms, then forced him to
+sit down and bound his ankles.
+
+"You watch him," he ordered the wounded member of the trio. "We'll get
+the sheriff."
+
+Allowing Chacherre and his companion to take the lead, Gramont went with
+them to the place where the murdered officer lay. As he went, the
+conviction grew more sure within him that, when he lay there by the
+rivulet, he had actually heard the last words uttered by the sheriff;
+that Chacherre had committed the murder in that moment--a noiseless,
+deadly stab! That Hammond could or would have done it he knew was
+absurd.
+
+They found the murdered man lying among the bushes. He had been stabbed
+under the fifth rib--the knife had gone direct to the heart. Chacherre
+announced that he had Hammond's knife as evidence and Gramont merely
+nodded his head.
+
+Lifting the body between them, they bore it back to the barn.
+
+"Now," said Gramont, quickly, "I'm off for Houma--if I don't miss my
+road! You men will be right along?"
+
+"In a jiffy," said Chacherre, promptly.
+
+Gramont climbed into his car and drove away. He had no fear of anything
+happening to Hammond; the evidence against the latter was damning, and
+with three men to swear him into a hangman's noose, they would bring him
+to jail safe enough.
+
+"A clever devil, that Chacherre!" he thought, grimly. "We're up against
+a gang, beyond any doubt. Now, if they don't suspect me----"
+
+He turned in at the Ledanois gate, knowing himself to be beyond sight or
+hearing of the Gumberts place. He drove the car away from the house, and
+into the thick of the densest bush-growth that he could find where it
+was well concealed from sight. Then, on foot, he made his way along the
+bank of the bayou until he had come to the rivulet where oil showed.
+
+Here he paused, concealing himself and gaining a place where he could
+get a view of the Gumberts land. He saw Chacherre and Hammond there,
+beside the body of the sheriff; the other two men were swinging open the
+barn door. They disappeared inside, and a moment later Gramont heard the
+whirr of an engine starting. A car backed out into the yard--a
+seven-passenger Cadillac--and halted.
+
+The three men lifted the body of the sheriff, into the tonneau.
+Chacherre took the wheel, Hammond being bundled in beside him. The other
+two men climbed in beside the body, rifles in hand. Chacherre started
+the car toward the road.
+
+"All fine!" thought Gramont with a thrill of exultation. "They've all
+cleared out and left the place to me--and I want a look at that place."
+
+Suddenly, as he stood there, he remembered the slight "plump" that he
+had heard during that interminable silence which had followed the
+conversation between the sheriff and Ben Chacherre. It was a sound as
+though something had fallen near him in the soggy ground.
+
+The remembrance startled him strangely. He visualized an excited
+murderer standing beside his victim, knife in hand; he visualized the
+abhorrence which must have seized the man for a moment--the abhorrence
+which must have caused him to do something in that moment which in a
+cooler time he would not have done.
+
+Gramont turned toward the little marshy spot where he had lain
+listening. He bent down, searching the wet ground, heedless that the
+water soaked into his boots. And, after a minute, a low exclamation of
+satisfaction broke from him as he found what he sought.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+
+                            _The Gangsters_
+
+
+Gramont left the covert and walked forward.
+
+He was thinking about that odd mention of Jachin Fell--had Chacherre
+lied in saying he had come here on his master's business? Perhaps. The
+man had come in Fell's car, and would not hesitate to lie about using
+the car. For the moment, Gramont put away the circumstance, but did not
+forget it.
+
+He walked openly toward the Gumberts buildings, thinking that he would
+have time for a good look around the place before dusk fell; he would
+then get off for Houma, and attend to Hammond's defence.
+
+As for the place before him, he was convinced that it was abandoned. Had
+any one, other than Chacherre and his two friends, been about the
+buildings, the late excitement would have brought out the fact. No one
+had appeared, and the buildings seemed vacant.
+
+Gramont's intent was simple and straightforward. In case he found, as he
+expected to find, any evidence of illegal occupation about the place--as
+the sheriff seemed to have discovered to his cost--he would lay
+Chacherre and the other two men by the heels that night in Houma. He
+would then go on to New Orleans and have Gumberts arrested, although he
+had no expectation that the master crook could be held on the
+murder-accessory charge. If this place were used for the lotteries,
+even, he was fairly certain that Memphis Izzy would have his own tracks
+covered. The men higher up always did.
+
+He walked straight in upon the barn. It loomed before him, closed, lurid
+in the level rays of the westering sun. The doors in front had been only
+loosely swung together and Gramont found them unlocked. He stood in the
+opening, and surprise gripped him. He was held motionless, gazing with
+astonished wonder at the sight confronting him.
+
+Directly before him was a small roadster, one which he remembered to
+have seen Jachin Fell using; in this car, doubtless, Ben Chacherre had
+driven from the city. He recalled the fact later, with poignant regret
+for a lost opportunity. But, at the present moment, he was lost in
+amazement at the great number of other cars presenting themselves to his
+view.
+
+They were lined up as deep as the barn would hold them, crammed into
+every available foot of space; well over a dozen cars, he reckoned
+swiftly. What was more, all were cars of the highest class, with the
+exception of Fell's roadster. Directly before him were two which he was
+well aware must have cost close upon ten thousand each. What did this
+mean? Certainly no one man or one group of men, in this back-country
+spot, could expect to use such an accumulation of expensive cars!
+
+Gramont glanced around, but found no trace of machinery in the barn.
+Remembering the motor that he had heard, he turned from the doorway in
+frowning perplexity. He strode on toward the long shed which stood
+closer to the house. At the end of this shed was a door, and when he
+tried it, Gramont found it unlocked. It swung open to his hand, and he
+stepped inside.
+
+At first he paused, confused by the vague objects around, for it was
+quite dark in here. A moment, and his eyes grew accustomed to the
+gloomier lighting. Details came to him: all around were cars and
+fragments of cars, chassis and bodies in all stages of dismemberment.
+Still more cars!
+
+He slowly advanced to a long bench that ran the length of the shop
+beneath the windows. A shop, indeed--a shop, he quickly perceived,
+fitted with every tool and machine necessary to the most complete
+automobile repair establishment! Even an air-brush outfit, at one end,
+together with a drying compartment, spoke of repaint jobs.
+
+Comprehension was slowly dawning upon the mind of Gramont; a moment
+later it became certainty, when he came to a stop before an automobile
+engine lying on the bench. He found it to be the engine from a
+Stutz--the latest multi-valve type adopted by that make of car, and this
+particular bit of machinery looked like new.
+
+Gramont inspected it, and he saw that the men had done their work well.
+The original engine number had been carefully dug out, and the place as
+carefully filled and levelled with metal. Beside it a new number had
+been stamped. A glance at the electrical equipment around showed that
+these workers had every appliance with which to turn out the most
+finished of jobs.
+
+As he straightened up from the engine Gramont's eyes fell upon a typed
+sheet of paper affixed to the wall above the bench. His gaze widened as
+he inspected it by the failing light. Upon that paper was a list of
+cars. After each car was a series of numbers plainly comprising the
+original numbers of the engine, body, radiator, and other component
+parts, followed by another series of new numbers to be inserted. That
+sheet of paper showed brains, organizing ability, care, and attention to
+the last detail!
+
+Here was the most carefully planned and thorough system of automobile
+thievery that Gramont had ever heard of. He stood motionless, knowing
+that this typed sheet of paper in itself was damning evidence against
+the whole gang of workers. What was more to the point, that paper could
+be traced; the typewriting could be traced to the man higher
+up--doubtless Memphis Izzy himself! These men ran in cars by the
+wholesale, probably from states adjacent to Louisiana. Here, at this
+secluded point on the bayou, they changed the cars completely about, in
+number, paint, style of body, and then probably got rid of the new
+product in New Orleans.
+
+Gramont stood motionless. Surprise had taken hold of him, and even a
+feeling of slight dismay. This was not at all what he had hoped to find
+there. He had thought to come upon some traces of the lottery game----
+
+"Seen all you want, bo?" said a voice behind him.
+
+Gramont turned. He found himself gazing directly into an automatic
+pistol over which glittered a pair of blazing eyes. The man was a
+stranger to him. The place had not been deserted, after all. He was
+caught.
+
+"Who are you?" demanded Gramont, quietly.
+
+"Me?" The stranger was unsmiling, deadly. In those glittering eyes
+Gramont read the ferocity of an animal at bay. "I s'pose you would like
+to know that, huh? I guess you know enough right now to get all that's
+comin' to you, bo! Got any particular business here? Speak up quick!"
+
+Gramont was silent. The other sneered at him, viciously.
+
+"Hurry up! Turn over the name and address, and I'll notify the survivin'
+relatives. Name, please?"
+
+"Henry Gramont," was the calm response. "Don't get hasty, my friend.
+Didn't you see me here a little while ago with Chacherre and the other
+boys?"
+
+"What's that?" The glittering eyes flamed up with suspicion and
+distrust. "Here--with them? No, I didn't. I been away fishing all
+afternoon. What the hell you doing around this joint?"
+
+"Your best scheme," said Gramont, coldly, "is to change your style of
+tone, and to do it in a hurry! If you don't know what's happened here
+this afternoon, don't ask me; you'll find out soon enough when the other
+boys get back. You'd better tell them I'm going to get in touch with
+Memphis Izzy the minute I get back to the city, and that the less
+talking they do----"
+
+"What the hell's all this?" demanded the other again, but with a
+softening of accent. The moniker of Gumberts had its effect, and seemed
+to shake the man instantly. Gramont smiled as he perceived that the game
+was won.
+
+"I never heard of no Gramont," went on the other, quickly. "What you
+doin' here?"
+
+"You're due to learn a good many things, I imagine," said Gramont,
+carelessly. "As for me, I happened on the place largely by accident. I
+happen to be in partnership with a man named Jachin Fell, and I came out
+here on business----"
+
+To Gramont's astonishment the pistol was lowered instantly. It was well
+that he ceased speaking, for what he had just said proved to be open to
+misconstruction, and if he had said any more he would have spoiled it.
+For the man facing him was staring at him in mingled disgust and
+surprise.
+
+"You're in partnership with _the boss_!" came the astounding words.
+"Well, why in hell didn't you say all that in the first place, instead
+o' beefin' around? That's no way to butt in, and me thinking you was
+some dick on the job! Got anything to prove that you ain't pullin'
+something cute on me?"
+
+"Do you know Fell's writing?" asked Gramont, with difficulty forcing
+himself to meet the situation coherently. Jachin Fell--the boss!
+
+"I know his mitt, all right."
+
+From his pocket Gramont produced a paper--the memorandum or agreement
+which he had drawn up with Fell on the previous afternoon, relating to
+the oil company. The other man took it and switched on an electric light
+bulb overhead. In this glare he was revealed as a ratty little
+individual with open mouth and teeth hanging out--an adenoidal type, and
+certainly a criminal type.
+
+It crossed the mind of Gramont that one blow would do the work--but he
+stood motionless. No sudden game would help him here. The discovery that
+Fell was "the boss" paralyzed him completely. He had never dreamed of
+such a contingency. Fell, of all men!
+
+Jachin Fell the "boss" of this establishment! Jachin Fell the man higher
+up--the brains behind this criminal organization! It was a perfect
+thunderbolt to Gramont. Now he understood why Chacherre was in the
+employ of Fell--why no arrest of the man had been possible! Now he
+perceived that Chacherre must have told the truth about coming here on
+business for Fell. Reaching farther back, he saw that Fell must have
+received the loot of the Midnight Masquer, must have turned it over to
+Lucie Ledanois----
+
+Did _she_ know?
+
+"All right, Mr. Gramont." The ratty little man turned to him with
+evident change of front. "We ain't takin' no chances here, y'understand.
+Got quite a shipment of cars comin' in from Texas, and we're tryin' to
+get some o' these boats cleaned out to make room. Bring out any orders?"
+
+Gramont's brain worked fast.
+
+By overcoming this guttersnipe he might have the whole place at his
+mercy--but that was not what he wanted. He suddenly realized that he had
+other and more important fish to fry in New Orleans. Gumberts was there.
+Fell was there. What he must do demanded time, and his best play was to
+gain all the time possible, and to prevent this gang from suspecting him
+in any way.
+
+"Did you see Ben Chacherre?" he countered.
+
+"Uh-huh--seen him just after he come. Gumberts will be out day after
+to-morrow, he said. The boss is framin' some sort of deal on a guy that
+he wants laid away--some guy name o' Hammond. Chacherre is running it.
+He figgers on gettin' Hammond on account of some car that's bein' hunted
+up----"
+
+Gramont laughed suddenly, for there was a grim humour about the thing.
+So Jachin Fell wanted to "get something" on poor Hammond! And Chacherre
+had seized the golden opportunity that presented itself this
+afternoon--instead of "getting" Hammond for the theft of a car,
+Chacherre had coolly fastened murder upon him!
+
+"Ben is one smart man; I expect he thinks the gods are working for him,"
+said Gramont, thinly. "So you don't know what happened to-day, eh? Well,
+it's great news, but I've got no time to talk about it. They'll tell you
+when they get back----"
+
+"Where'd they go?" demanded the other.
+
+"Houma. Now listen close! Chacherre did not know that I was in
+partnership with the boss, get me? I didn't want to tell all the crowd
+in front of him. Between you and me, the boss isn't any too sure about
+Ben----"
+
+"Say, I get you there!" broke in the other, sagely. "I tells him six
+months ago to watch out for that Creole guy!"
+
+"Exactly. You can tell the boys about me when they come back--I don't
+suppose Ben will be with them. Now, I've been looking over that place
+next door----"
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed the other, suddenly. "Sure! The boss said that one of
+his friends would be down to----"
+
+"I'm the one--or one of them," and Gramont chuckled as he reflected on
+the ludicrous aspects of the whole affair. "I'm going to Houma now, and
+then back to the city. My car's over next door. Mr. Fell wanted me to
+warn you to lay low on the lottery business. He's got a notion that
+someone's been talking."
+
+"You go tell the boss," retorted the other in an aggrieved tone, "to
+keep his eye on the guys that _can_ talk! Who'd we talk to here?
+Besides, we're workin' our heads off on these here boats. Memphis Izzy
+is attending to the lottery--he's got the whole layout up to the house,
+and we ain't touching it, see? Tell the boss all that."
+
+"Tell him yourself," Gramont laughed, good-humouredly. "Gumberts is
+coming out day after to-morrow, is he? That'll be Friday. Hm! I think
+that I'd better bring Fell out here the same day, if I can make it. I
+probably won't see Gumberts until then--I'm not working in with him and
+he doesn't know me yet--but I'll try and get out here on Friday with
+Fell. Now, I'll have to beat it in a hurry. Any message to send?"
+
+"Not me," was the answer.
+
+Gramont scarcely knew how he departed, until he found himself scrambling
+back through the underbrush of the Ledanois place.
+
+He rushed into the house, found the fire had died down beyond all
+danger, and swiftly removed the few things they had taken from the car.
+Carrying these, he stumbled back to where he had hidden the automobile.
+He scarcely dared to think, scarcely dared to congratulate himself on
+the luck that had befallen him, until he found himself in his own car
+once more, and with open throttle sweeping out through the twilight
+toward Paradis and Houma beyond. A whirlwind of mad exultation was
+seething within him--exultation as sudden and tremendous as the past
+weeks had been uneventful and dragging!
+
+Gramont, in common with many others, had heard much indefinite rumour of
+an underground lottery game that was being worked among the negroes of
+the state and the Chinese villages along the Gulf coast. And now he knew
+definitely.
+
+Lotteries have never died out in Louisiana since the brave old days of
+the government-ordained gambles, laws and ordinances to the contrary. No
+laws can make the yellow man and the black man forego the get-rich-quick
+heritage of their fathers. On the Pacific coast lotteries obtain and
+will obtain wherever there is a Chinatown. In Louisiana the days of the
+grand lottery have never been forgotten. The last two years of high
+wages had made every Negro wealthy, comparatively speaking. The lottery
+mongers would naturally find them a ripe harvest for the picking. And
+who would gravitate to this harvest field if not the great Gumberts, the
+uncaught Memphis Izzy, the promoter who had never been "mugged!"
+
+Here, at one stroke, stumbling on the thing by sheer blind accident,
+Gramont had located the nucleus of the whole business!
+
+Gradually his brain cooled to the realization of what work lay before
+him. He was through Paradis, almost without seeing the town, and
+switched on his lights as he took the highway to Houma. Sober reflection
+seized him. Not only was this crowd of crooks working a lottery, but
+they were also managing a stupendous thievery of automobiles, in which
+cars were looted by wholesale! And the man at the head of it all, the
+man above Memphis Izzy and his crooks, was Jachin Fell of New Orleans.
+
+Did Lucie Ledanois dream such a thing? No. Gramont dismissed the
+question at once. Fell was not an unusual type of man. There were many
+Jachin Fells throughout the country, he reflected. Men who applied their
+brains to crooked work, who kept themselves above any actual share in
+the work, and who profited hugely by tribute money from every crook in
+every crime.
+
+To the communities in which they lived such men were patterns of all
+that wealthy gentlemen should be. Seldom, except perhaps in gossip of
+the underworld, was their connection with crime ever suspected.
+And--this thought was sobering to Gramont--never did they come within
+danger of retribution at the hands of the law. Their ramifications
+extended too far into politics; and the governors of some southern
+states have unlimited powers of pardon.
+
+"This is a big day!" reflected Gramont, dismissing the sinister
+suggestion of this last thought. "A big day! What it will lead to, I
+don't know. Not the least of it is the financial end of it--the oil
+seepage! That little iridescent trickle of oil on the water means that
+money worries are over, both for me and for Lucie. I'm sorry that I am
+mixed up with Fell; I've enough money of my own to drill at least one
+good well, and one is all we'll need to bring in oil on that place.
+Well, we'll see what turns up! My first job is to make sure Hammond is
+safe, and to relieve his mind. I'll have to leave him in jail, I
+suppose----"
+
+Why did Fell want to "get something" on Hammond? To this there was no
+answer.
+
+He drove into Houma to find the town abuzz with excitement, for the news
+of the sheriff's murder had stirred the place wildly. Proceeding
+straight to the court house, Gramont encountered Ben Chacherre as he was
+leaving the car.
+
+"Hello, there!" he exclaimed. "Lost my road. Where's Hammond?"
+
+Chacherre jerked his head toward the court house.
+
+"In yonder. Say, are you going back to the city to-night?"
+
+"Yes." Gramont regarded him. "Why?"
+
+"Take me back, will you? I've missed the last up train, and if you're
+goin' back anyhow I won't have to hire a car. I can drive for you, and
+we'll make it in a couple of hours, before midnight sure."
+
+"Hop in," said Gramont, nodding toward the car. "I'll be back as soon as
+I've had a word with Hammond. No danger of his getting lynched, I hope?"
+
+"Not a chance," said the other, conclusively. "Six deputies up there
+now, and quite a bunch of ex-soldiers comin' to stand guard. You goin'
+to fight the case?"
+
+"No," said Gramont. "Can't fight a sure thing, can you? I'm sorry for
+him, though."
+
+Chacherre shrugged his shoulders and got into the car.
+
+Gramont was much relieved to find that there was no danger of lynching,
+which had been his one fear. It was only with much persuasion that he
+got past the guard and into the court house, where he was received by a
+number of deputies in charge of the situation.
+
+After conferring with them at some length, he was grudgingly taken to
+the cell occupied by Hammond. The latter received him with a wide grin,
+and gave no signs of the gruelling ordeal through which he had passed.
+
+"Listen, old man," said Gramont, earnestly. "Will you play out the game
+hard to the end? I'll have to leave you here for two days. At the end of
+that time you'll be free."
+
+The listening deputies sniffed, but Hammond merely grinned again and put
+a hand through the bars.
+
+"Whatever you say, cap'n," he rejoined. "It sure looks bad----"
+
+"Don't you think it," said Gramont, cheerfully. "A lot of things have
+happened since I saw you last! I've got the real murderer right where I
+want him--but I can't have him arrested yet."
+
+"It's a gang," said Hammond. "You watch out, cap'n, I heard 'em say
+somethin' about Memphis Izzy--remember the guy I told you about one day?
+Well, this is no piker's game! We're up against somethin' solid----"
+
+"I know it," and Gramont nodded. He turned to the deputies. "Gentlemen,
+you have my address if you wish to communicate with me. I shall be back
+here day after to-morrow--at least, before midnight of that day. I warn
+you, that if anything happens to this man in the meantime, you shall be
+held personally responsible. He is innocent."
+
+"Looks like we'd better hold you, too," said one of the men. "You seem
+to know a lot!"
+
+Gramont looked at him a moment.
+
+"I know enough to tell you where to head in if you try any funny work
+here," he said, evenly. "Gentlemen, thank you for permitting the
+interview! I'll see you later."
+
+The coroner's jury had already adjudged Hammond guilty of the murder.
+Returning to the car, Gramont had Ben Chacherre drive to a restaurant,
+where they got a bite to eat. Twenty minutes later they were on their
+way to New Orleans--and Gramont learned for the first time of Joseph
+Maillard's murder by the Midnight Masquer, and of the arrest of Bob
+Maillard for the crime.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+                            _The Ultimatum_
+
+
+Upon the following morning Gramont called both Jachin Fell and Lucie
+Ledanois over the telephone. He acquainted them briefly with the result
+of his oil investigation, and arranged a meeting for ten o'clock, at
+Fell's office.
+
+It was slightly before ten when Gramont called with the car for Lucie.
+Under the spell of her smiling eagerness, the harshness vanished from
+his face; it returned again a moment later, for he saw that she, too,
+was changed. There was above them both a cloud. That of Gramont was
+secret and brooding. As for Lucie, she was in mourning. The murder of
+Joseph Maillard, the arrest and undoubted guilt of Bob Maillard, dwarfed
+all else in her mind. Even the news of the oil seepage, and the fact
+that she was probably now on the road to wealth, appeared to make little
+impression upon her.
+
+"Thank heaven," she said, earnestly, as they drove toward Canal Street,
+"that so far as you are concerned, Henry, the Midnight Masquer affair
+was all cleared up before this tragedy took place! It was fearfully
+imprudent of you----"
+
+"Yes," answered Gramont, soberly, reading her thought. "I can realize my
+own folly now. If this affair were to be laid at my door, some kind of a
+case might be made up against me, and it would seem plausible. But,
+fortunately, I was out of it in time. Were we merely characters in a
+standardized detective story, I suppose I'd be arrested and deluged with
+suspense and clues and so forth."
+
+"Your escape was too narrow to joke over, Henry," she reproved him,
+gravely.
+
+"I'm not joking, my dear Lucie. I learned nothing about the tragedy
+until late last night. From what I can find in the papers, it seems
+agreed that Bob was not the real Masquer, but had assumed that guise for
+a joke. A tragic joke! Since he was undoubtedly drunk at the time, his
+story can't be relied upon as very convincing. And yet, it's frightfully
+hard to believe that, even by accident, a son should have shot down his
+own father----"
+
+"Don't!" Lucie winced a little. "In spite of all the evidence against
+him, in spite of the way he was found with that aviation uniform, it's
+still awful to believe. I can't realize that it has actually happened."
+
+"According to the papers, poor Mrs. Maillard has gone to pieces. No
+wonder."
+
+"Yes. I was there with her all day yesterday, and shall go again to-day.
+They say Bob is terribly broken up. He sent for his mother, and she
+refused to see him. I don't know how it is all going to end! Do you
+think his story might be true--that somebody else might have acted as
+the Masquer that night?"
+
+Gramont shook his head.
+
+"It's possible," he said, reluctantly, "yet it hardly seems very
+probable. And now, Lucie, I'm very sorry indeed to say it--but you must
+prepare yourself against another shock in the near future."
+
+"What do you mean? About the oil----"
+
+"No. It's too long a story to tell you now; here we are at the Maison
+Blanche. Just remember my words, please. It's something that I can't go
+into now."
+
+"Very well. Henry! Do you think that it's possible your chauffeur,
+Hammond, could have learned about the drinking party, and could
+have----"
+
+Gramont started. "Hammond? No. I'll answer for him beyond any question,
+Lucie. By the way, does Fell know anything about Hammond having been the
+first Masquer?"
+
+"Not from me," said the girl, watching him.
+
+"Very well. Hammond got into a bit of trouble at Houma, and I had to
+leave him there. It was none of his fault, and he'll get out of it all
+right. Well, come along up to our oil meeting! Forget your troubles, and
+don't let my croakings about a new shock cause you any worry just yet."
+
+He was thinking of Jachin Fell, and the girl's closeness to Fell. Had he
+not known that Fell was responsible for Hammond's being in jail, he
+might have felt differently. As it was, he was now fore-warned and
+fore-armed, although he could not see what animus Fell could possibly
+have against Hammond.
+
+It was lucky, he reflected grimly, that he had never breathed to a soul
+except Lucie the fact that Hammond had been the first Masquer! Had Fell
+known this fact, his desire to lay Hammond by the heels might have been
+easily fulfilled--and Hammond would probably have found himself charged
+with Maillard's murder.
+
+They found Jachin Fell dictating to a stenographer. He greeted them
+warmly, ushering them at once into his private office.
+
+Gramont found it difficult to convince himself that his experiences of
+the previous afternoon had been real. It was almost impossible to
+believe that this shy, apologetic little man in gray was in reality the
+"man higher up!" Yet he knew it to be the case--knew it beyond any
+escape.
+
+"By the way," and Fell turned to Gramont, "if you'll dictate a brief
+statement concerning that oil seepage, I'd be obliged! Merely give the
+facts. I may have need of such a statement from you."
+
+Gramont nodded and joined the stenographer in the outer office where he
+dictated a brief statement. It did not occur to him that there might be
+danger in this; at the moment, he was rather off his guard. He was
+thinking so much about his future assault on Fell that he quite ignored
+the possibility of being placed on the defensive.
+
+Within five minutes he had returned to Lucie and Jachin Fell, who were
+discussing the condition of Mrs. Maillard. Gramont signed the statement
+and handed it to Fell, who laid it with other papers at his elbow.
+
+"I suppose we may proceed to business?" began Fell. "I have drawn up
+articles of partnership; we can apply for incorporation later if we so
+desire. Lucie, both Henry Gramont and I are putting twenty-five thousand
+dollars into this company, while you are putting in your land, which I
+am valuing at an equal amount. The stock, therefore, will be divided
+equally among us. That is understood?"
+
+"Yes. It's very good of you, Uncle Jachin," said the girl, quietly.
+"I'll leave everything to your judgment."
+
+The little gray man smiled.
+
+"Judgment is a poor horse to ride, as Eliza said when she crossed the
+ice. Here's everything in black and white. I suggest that you both
+glance over the articles, sign up, and we will then hold our first
+meeting."
+
+Gramont and Lucie read over the partnership agreement, and found it
+perfectly correct.
+
+"Very well, then, the meeting is called to order!" Jachin Fell smiled as
+he rapped on the desk before him. "Election of officers--no, wait! The
+first thing on hand is to give our company a name. Suggestions?"
+
+"I was thinking of that last night," said Lucie, smiling a little. "Why
+not call it the 'American Prince Oil Company'?" And her eyes darted to
+Gramont merrily.
+
+"Excellent!" exclaimed Jachin Fell. "My vote falls with yours, my
+dear--I'll fill in the blanks with that name. Now to the election of
+officers."
+
+"I nominate Jachin Fell for president," said Gramont, quickly.
+
+"Seconded!" exclaimed the girl, gaily, a little colour in her pale
+cheeks.
+
+"Any other nominations? If not, so approved and ordered," rattled Fell,
+laughingly. "For the office of treasurer----"
+
+"Miss Lucie Ledanois!" said Gramont. "Move nominations be closed."
+
+"Seconded and carried by a two-thirds vote of stockholders," chirped
+Fell in his toneless voice. "So approved and ordered. For secretary----"
+
+"Our third stockholder," put in Lucie. "He'll have to be an officer, of
+course!"
+
+"Seconded and carried. So approved and ordered." Mr. Fell rapped on the
+table. "We will now have the report of our expert geologist in further
+detail than yet given."
+
+Gramont told of finding the oil; he was not carried away by the gay
+mock-solemnity of Jachin Fell, and he remained grave. He went on to
+relate how he had secured the lease option upon the adjoining land, and
+suggested that other such options be secured at once upon other property
+in the neighbourhood. He handed the option to Fell, who laid it with the
+other documents.
+
+"And now I have a proposal of my own to make," said Jachin Fell. He
+appeared sobered, as though influenced by Gramont's manner. "Although
+we've actually found oil on the place, there is no means of telling how
+much we'll find when we drill, or what quality it will be. Is that not
+correct, Mr. Gramont?"
+
+"Entirely so," assented Gramont. "The chances are, of course, that we'll
+find oil in both quality and quantity. On the other hand, the seepage
+may be all there is. Oil is a gamble from start to finish. Personally,
+however, I would gamble heavily on this prospect."
+
+"Naturally," said Mr. Fell. "However, I have been talking over the oil
+business with a number of men actively engaged in it in the Houma field.
+I think that I may safely say that I can dispose of the mineral rights
+to our company's land, together with this lease option secured yesterday
+on the adjoining land, for a sum approximating one hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars; reserving to our company a sixteenth interest in any
+oil located on the property. Personally, I believe this can be done, and
+I am willing to undertake the negotiations if so empowered by a note of
+our stockholders. Lucie, you do not mind if we smoke, I know? Let me
+offer you a cigar, Mr. Gramont."
+
+Gramont took one of the El Reys offered him, and lighted it amid a
+startled silence. Fell's proposal came to him as a distinct shock, and
+already he was viewing it in the light of prompt suspicion.
+
+"Why," exclaimed Lucie, wide-eyed, "that would be fifty thousand dollars
+to each of us, and not a cent expended!"
+
+"In case it went through on that basis," added Jachin Fell, his eyes on
+Gramont, "I would vote that the entire sum go to Miss Ledanois. Her land
+alone is involved. If she then wishes to invest with us in a new company
+to exploit other fields, well and good. One moment, my dear! Do not
+protest this suggestion. The sixteenth interest reserved to our company
+would provide both Mr. Gramont and me with a substantial reward for our
+slight activity in the matter. Don't forget that interest, for it might
+amount to a large figure."
+
+"Right," assented Gramont. "I would second your vote, Mr. Fell; I think
+the idea very just and proper that Miss Ledanois should receive the
+entire amount."
+
+Lucie seemed a trifle bewildered.
+
+"But--but, Henry!" she exclaimed. "What do you think of selling the
+lease to these other men?"
+
+Gramont eyed the smoke from his cigar reflectively, quite conscious that
+Mr. Fell was regarding him very steadily.
+
+"I can't answer for you, Lucie," he said at last. "I would not presume
+to advise."
+
+Mr. Fell looked slightly relieved. Lucie, however, persisted.
+
+"What would you do, then, if you were in my place?"
+
+Gramont shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"In that case," he said, slowly, "I would gamble. We know oil is in that
+ground; we know that it has been found in large quantities at Houma or
+near there. To my mind there is no doubt whatever that under your land
+lies a part of the same oil field--and a rich one. To sell
+fifteen-sixteenths of that oil for a hundred and fifty thousand is to
+give it away. I would sooner take my chances on striking a
+twenty-thousand barrel gusher and having the whole of it to myself.
+However, by all means disregard my words; this is not my affair."
+
+Lucie glanced at Jachin Fell.
+
+"You think it is the best thing to do; Henry does not," mused the girl.
+"I know that you're both thinking of me--of getting that money for me.
+Just the same, Uncle Jachin, I--I won't be prudent! I'll gamble!
+Besides," she added with smiling naïveté, "I'm not a bit willing to give
+up having a real oil company the very minute it is formed! So we'll
+outvote you, Uncle Jachin."
+
+Despite their tension, the two men smiled at her final words.
+
+"That motion of mine has not yet been made," said Fell. Her rejection of
+his proposal had no effect upon his shyly smooth manner. "Will you
+excuse us one moment, Lucie? If I may speak with you in the outer
+office, Mr. Gramont, I would like to show you some confidential matters
+which might influence your decision in this regard."
+
+Lucie nodded and leaned back in her chair.
+
+Gramont accompanied Fell to the outer office, where Fell sent the
+stenographer to keep Lucie company. When the door had closed and they
+were alone, Fell took a chair and motioned Gramont to another. A cold
+brusquerie was evident in his manner.
+
+"Gramont," he said, briskly, "I am going to make that motion, and I want
+you to vote with me against Lucie. Unfortunately, I have only a third of
+the voting power. I might argue Lucie into agreement, but she is a
+difficult person to argue with. So I mean that you shall vote with
+me--and I'm going to put my cards on the table before you."
+
+"Ah!" Gramont regarded him coolly. "Your cards will have to be powerful
+persuaders!"
+
+"They are," returned Jachin Fell. "I have been carefully leading up to
+this point--the point of selling. I have practically arranged the whole
+affair. I propose to sell the mineral rights in that land, largely on
+the strength of the signed statement you gave me a few moments ago. That
+statement is going to be given wide publicity, and it will be
+substantiated by other reports on the oil seepage."
+
+"You interest me strangely." Gramont leaned back in his chair. The eyes
+of the two men met and held in cold challenge, cold hostility. "What's
+your motive, Fell?"
+
+"I'll tell you: it's the interest of Lucie Ledanois." In the gaze of
+Fell was a strange earnestness. In those pale gray eyes was now a light
+of fierce sincerity which startled and warned Gramont. Fell continued
+with a trace of excitement in his tone.
+
+"I've known that girl all her life, Gramont, and I love her as a father.
+I loved her mother before her--in a different way. I can tell you that
+at this moment Lucie is poor. Her house is mortgaged; she does not know,
+in fact, just how poor she really is. Of course, she will accept no
+money from me in gift. But for her to get a hundred and fifty thousand
+in a business deal will solve all her problems, set her on her feet for
+life!"
+
+"I see," said Gramont with harsh impulse. "What do you get out of it?"
+
+He regretted the words instantly. Fell half rose from his chair as
+though to answer them with a blow. Gramont, aware of his mistake,
+hastened to retract it.
+
+"Forgive me, Fell," he said, quickly. "That was an unjust insinuation,
+and I know it. Yet, I can't find myself in agreement with you. I'm
+firmly set in the belief that a fortune in oil will be made off that
+land of Lucie's. I simply can't agree to sell out for a comparative
+pittance, and I'll fight to persuade her against doing it! As I look at
+it, the thing would not be just to her. I'm thinking, as you are, only
+of her interest."
+
+A light of sardonic mockery glittered in the pale eyes of Jachin Fell.
+
+"You are basing your firm conviction," he queried, "very largely upon
+your discovery of the free oil?"
+
+"To a large extent, yes."
+
+"I thought you would," and Fell laughed harshly.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean," said the other, fiercely earnest, "that for a month I've
+worked to sell that land! I had young Maillard hooked and landed--it
+would have been poetic justice to make him hand over a small fortune to
+Lucie! But that deal is off, since he's in jail. And do you know why
+young Maillard wanted to buy the land? For the same reason you don't
+want to sell. I sent him out there and he saw that oil seepage, as I
+meant that he should! He thought he would skin Lucie out of her land,
+not dreaming that I had prepared a nice little trap to swallow him. And
+now you come along----"
+
+"Man, what are you driving at?" exclaimed Gramont. He was startled by
+what he read in the other man's face.
+
+"Merely that I planted that oil seepage myself--or had it done by men I
+could trust," said Jachin Fell, calmly. He sat back in his chair and
+took up his cigar with an air of finality. "The confession is shameless.
+I love Lucie more than my own ethical purity. Besides, I intend to wrong
+no one in the matter."
+
+Gramont sat stunned beyond words. The oil seepage--a plant!
+
+The thing could have been very easily done, of course. As he sat silent
+there unfolded before him the motives that underlay Fell's entire
+action. The amazing disclosure of Jachin Fell's intrigue to enrich the
+girl left him bewildered. This, coupled with what he had learned on the
+preceding day about Jachin Fell, put his own course of action into grave
+perplexity.
+
+There was no reason to doubt what Fell said. Gramont believed the little
+man sincere in his love for Lucie.
+
+"No matter what the outcome, your reputation will not be affected," said
+Fell, quietly. "The company which will buy this land of Lucie's is
+controlled by me. You understand? Even if no oil is ever found there, I
+shall see to it that you will not be injured because of that signed
+statement."
+
+Gramont nodded dull comprehension. He realized that Fell had devised
+this whole business scheme with infernal ingenuity; had devised it in
+order to take a hundred and fifty thousand dollars out of his own pocket
+and put it into that of Lucie. It was a present which the girl would
+never accept as a gift, but which, if it came in the way of business,
+would make her financially independent. Nobody would be defrauded. There
+was no chicanery about it. The thing was straight enough.
+
+"That's not quite all of my plan," pursued Fell, as though reading
+Gramont's unuttered thoughts. "The minute this news becomes public, the
+minute your statement is published, there will be a tremendous boom in
+that whole section. I shall take charge of Lucie's money, and within
+three weeks I should double it, treble it, for her. Before the boom
+bursts she will be out of it all, and wealthy. Now, my dear Gramont, I
+do not presume that you will still refuse to vote with me? I have been
+quite frank, you see."
+
+Gramont stirred in his chair.
+
+"Yes!" he said, low-voiced. "Yes, by heavens, I do refuse!"
+
+With an effort he checked hotly impulsive words that were on his tongue.
+One word now might ruin him. He dared not say that he did not want to
+see Fell's money pass into the hands of Lucie--money gained by fraud and
+theft and crime! He dared not give his reasons for refusing. He meant
+now to crush Fell utterly--but one wrong word would give the man full
+warning. He must say nothing.
+
+"It's not straight work, Fell. Regardless of your motives, I refuse to
+join you."
+
+Jachin Fell sighed slightly, and laid down his cigar with precision.
+
+"Gramont," his voice came with the softly purring menace of a tiger's
+throat-tone, "I shall now adjourn this company meeting for two days,
+until Saturday morning, in order to give you a little time to
+reconsider. To-day is Thursday. By Saturday----"
+
+"I need no time," said Gramont.
+
+"But you will need it. I suppose you know that Bob Maillard has been
+arrested for parricide? You are aware of the evidence against him--all
+circumstantial?"
+
+Gramont frowned. "What has that got to do with our present business?"
+
+"Quite a bit, I fancy." A thin smile curved the lips of Jachin Fell.
+"Maillard is not guilty of the murder--but you are."
+
+"Liar!" Gramont started from his chair as those three words burned into
+him. "Liar! Why, you know that I went home----"
+
+"Ah, wait!" Fell lifted his hand for peace. His voice was calm. "Ansley
+and I both saw you depart, certainly. We have since learned that you did
+not reach home until some time after midnight. You have positively no
+alibi, Gramont. You may allege, of course, that you were wandering the
+streets----"
+
+"As I was!" cried Gramont, heatedly.
+
+"Then prove it, my dear fellow; prove it--if you can. Now, we shall keep
+Lucie out of all this. What remains? I know that you were the Midnight
+Masquer. My man, Ben Chacherre, can prove by another man who accompanied
+him that the Masquer's loot was taken from your car. A dictograph in the
+private office, yonder, has a record of the talk between us of the other
+morning, in which you made patent confession to being the Masquer.
+
+"Once let me hand this array of evidence over to the district attorney,
+and you will most certainly stand trial. And, if you do stand trial, I
+can promise you faithfully that you will meet conviction. I have
+friends, you see, and many of them are influential in such small
+matters."
+
+It was not a nice smile that curved the lips of Fell.
+
+Gramont choked back any response, holding himself to silence with a firm
+will. He dared say nothing, lest he say too much. He saw that Fell could
+indeed make trouble for him--and that he must strike his own blow at
+Fell without great delay. It was a battle, now; a fight to the end.
+
+Fell regarded Gramont cheerfully, seeming to take this crushed silence
+as evidence of his own triumph.
+
+"Further," he added, "your man Hammond is now in jail at Houma, as you
+know, for the murder of the sheriff. Now, my influence is not confined
+to this city, Gramont, I may be able to clear Hammond of this charge--if
+you decide to vote with me. I may keep what I know about the Midnight
+Masquer from the press and from the district attorney--if you decide to
+vote with me. You comprehend?"
+
+Gramont nodded. He saw now why Fell wanted to "get something" on
+Hammond. Fell had rightly reasoned that Gramont would do more to save
+Hammond than to save himself.
+
+"You think I murdered Maillard, then?" he asked.
+
+"Gramont, I don't know what to think, and that's the honest truth!"
+answered Fell, with a steady regard. "But I am absolutely determined to
+put this oil deal across, to make Lucie Ledanois at least independent,
+if not wealthy. I can do it, I've made all my plans to do it, and--I
+_will_ do it!
+
+"We'll hold another meeting day after to-morrow--Saturday morning." Fell
+rose. "That will give me time to conclude all arrangements. I trust, Mr.
+Gramont, that you will vote with me for the adjournment?"
+
+"Yes," said Gramont, dully. "I will."
+
+"Thank you," and Jachin Fell bowed slightly, not without a trace of
+mockery in his air.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+
+                         _The Coin Falls Heads_
+
+
+Gramont sat in his own room that afternoon. It seemed to him that he had
+been away from the city for weeks and months. Yet only a day had
+intervened. He sat fingering the only piece of mail that had come to
+him--a notice from the post of the American Legion which he had joined,
+to the effect that there would be a meeting that Thursday evening. Only
+Thursday! And to-morrow was Friday.
+
+If he was to effect anything against the headquarters of Fell's gang he
+must act on the morrow or not at all. Gumberts was to be out there
+to-morrow. Gumberts would talk with the ratty little man of the
+projecting teeth and adenoids, would find Gramont had imposed upon the
+fellow, and there would be upheavals. The gang would take to flight,
+certainly, or at least make certain that Gramont's mouth was shut.
+
+He sat fingering the postal from the Legion, and turning over events in
+his mind. Against Fell he had particular animosity. All that the little
+gray man had done had been done with the thought of Lucie Ledanois as a
+spur.
+
+"Yet he can't realize that Lucie wouldn't have the money if she knew
+that it came from criminal sources," he thought, smiling bitterly. "He's
+been scheming a long time to make a fortune for her, and now he's
+determined to push it through regardless of me. It was clever of him to
+jail Hammond! He guessed that I'd do a great deal to save the
+redhead--more even than to save myself. Mighty clever! And now he's
+pretty sure that he's got me between a cleft stick, where I can't
+wriggle.
+
+"If I'm to strike a blow, I'll have to do it to-morrow--before noon
+to-morrow, also. I'll have to leave here mighty early, and get there
+before Gumberts does. What was it Hammond said that day about him--that
+nobody in the country had ever caught Memphis Izzy? I bet I could do it,
+and his whole gang with him--if I knew how. There's the rub! Fell won't
+hesitate a minute in having me arrested. And as he said, once he got me
+arrested, I'd be gone. He must be able to exert powerful influence, that
+man!"
+
+Should he strike or not? If he struck, he might expect the full weight
+of Jachin Fell's vengeance--unless his blow would include Fell among the
+victims.
+
+Gramont was still pondering this dilemma when Ben Chacherre arrived.
+
+Gramont heard the man's voice on the stairs. Ben's impudence, perhaps
+added to his name and the Creole French upon his lips, had carried him
+past the concierge unannounced, although not without a continued
+exchange of repartee that served to give Gramont warning of the visitor.
+Smiling grimly, Gramont drew a coin from his pocket, and flipped it.
+
+The coin fell heads. He pocketed it again as Ben Chacherre knocked, and
+opened the door.
+
+"Ah, Chacherre!" he exclaimed. "Come in."
+
+Ben swaggered inside and closed the door.
+
+"Brought a message for you, Mr. Gramont," he said, jauntily, and
+extended a note.
+
+Gramont tore open the envelope and read a curt communication:
+
+    Kindly let me know your answer as soon as possible. By to-morrow
+    evening at the latest. It will be necessary to arrange affairs
+    for Saturday.
+
+                                                        JACHIN FELL.
+
+To arrange affairs! Fell was taking for granted that Gramont would give
+an assent, under force of persuasion, to the scheme. He would probably
+have everything in readiness, and if assured by Friday night of
+Gramont's assent, would then pull his strings and perhaps complete the
+whole deal before the following Monday.
+
+The meeting of the company had been adjourned to Saturday morning.
+Gramont thought a moment, then went to his buhl escritoire and opened
+it. Chacherre had already taken a seat. Gramont wrote:
+
+    MY DEAR MR. FELL,
+
+    If you will arrange the company meeting for to-morrow evening,
+    say nine o'clock, at your office, I think that everything may
+    then be arranged. As I may not see Miss Ledanois in the
+    meantime, will you be kind enough to assure her presence at the
+    meeting?
+
+He addressed an envelope to Fell's office, and then stamped and pocketed
+it.
+
+"Well, Chacherre," he said, rising and returning to the Creole, "any
+further news from Houma? They haven't found the real murderer yet?"
+
+The other came to his feet with an exclamation of surprise. As he did
+so, Gramont's fist caught him squarely on the point of the jaw.
+
+Chacherre crumpled back across his chair, senseless for the moment.
+
+"I'm afraid to take any chances with you, my fine bird," said Gramont,
+rubbing his knuckles. "You're too clever by far, and too handy with your
+weapons!"
+
+He obtained cloths, and firmly bound the ankles and wrists of Chacherre.
+Not content with this, he placed the man in the chair and tied him to it
+with merciless knots. As he was finishing his task, Chacherre opened his
+eyes and gazed rapidly around.
+
+"Awake at last, are you?" said Gramont, genially. He got his pipe,
+filled and lighted it. The eyes of Chacherre were now fastened upon him
+venomously. "Too bad for you, Chacherre, that the coin fell heads up!
+That spelled action."
+
+"Are you crazy?" muttered the other in French. Gramont laughed, and
+responded in the same tongue.
+
+"It does look that way, doesn't it? You're slippery, but now you're
+caught."
+
+Chacherre must have realized that he stood in danger. He checked a
+curse, and regarded Gramont with a steady coolness.
+
+"Be careful!" he said, his voice deadly. "What do you mean by this?"
+
+Gramont looked at him and puffed his pipe.
+
+"The game's up, Ben," he observed. "I know all about the place down
+there--about the cars, and about the lottery. Your gang has had a
+pleasant time, eh? But now you and the others are going to do a little
+work for the state on the road gangs."
+
+"Bah! _Ça? va rivé dans semaine quatte zheudis!_" spat Chacherre,
+contemptuously. "That will happen in the week of four Thursdays, you
+fool! So you know about things, eh? My master will soon shut your
+mouth!"
+
+"He can't," said Gramont, placidly. "You'll all be under arrest."
+
+Chacherre laughed scornfully, then spoke with that deadly gravity.
+
+"Look here--you're a stranger here? Well, since you know so much, I'll
+tell you more! We can't be arrested, and even if you get us pinched,
+we'll never be convicted. Do you understand? We have influence! There
+are men here in New Orleans, men in the legislature, men at Washington,
+who will never see us molested!"
+
+"They'll be surprised," said Gramont, although he felt that the man's
+words were true. "But not all of them are your friends, Ben. I don't
+think the governor of the state is in your gang. He's a pretty straight
+man, Ben."
+
+"He's a fool like you! What is he? A puppet! He can do nothing except
+pardon us if the worst happens. You can't touch us."
+
+"Well, maybe not," agreed Gramont, tapping at his pipe. "Maybe not, but
+we'll see! You seem mighty sure of where you stand, Ben."
+
+Encouraged, Ben Chacherre laughed insolently.
+
+"Let me loose," he commanded. "Or else you'll go over the road for the
+Midnight Masquer's work! My master has a dictograph in his office, and
+has your confession on record."
+
+"So?" queried Gramont, his brows lifted. "You seem much in Mr. Fell's
+confidence, Ben. But I think I'll leave you tied up a little while.
+Memphis Izzy is going down to his summer cottage to-morrow, isn't he?
+I'll be there--but you won't. By the way, I think I'd better look
+through your pockets."
+
+Ben Chacherre writhed suddenly, hurling a storm of curses at Gramont.
+
+The latter, unheeding the contortions of his captive, searched the man
+thoroughly. Except for a roll of money, the pockets gave up little of
+interest. The only paper Gramont secured was a fresh telegraph blank. He
+would have passed this unheeded had he not noted a snaky flitting of
+Chacherre's eyes to it.
+
+"Ah!" he said, pleasantly. "You appear to be interested in this, Ben.
+Pray, what is the secret?"
+
+Chacherre merely glared at him in silence. Gramont inspected the blank,
+and a sudden exclamation broke from him. He held the bit of yellow paper
+to the light at varying angles.
+
+"It's the most natural thing in the world," he said after a moment, "for
+a man to walk into a telegraph office, write out his telegram, and then
+find that he's torn two blanks instead of one from the pad on the desk.
+Eh? I've done it, often--and I've always put the extra blank into my
+pocket, Ben, thinking it might come in handy; just as you did, eh? Now
+let's see!
+
+"You were excited when you wrote this, weren't you? You'd just thought
+of something very important, and you took care of it hurriedly--that
+made you jab down your pencil pretty hard. Who's Dick Hearne at Houma?
+An agent of the gang there?"
+
+Chacherre merely glared, sullenly defiant. Word by word, Gramont made
+out the message:
+
+       Burn bundle under rear seat my car. Have done at once.
+
+Gramont looked up and smiled thinly.
+
+"Your car? Why, you left it in the garage at Gumberts' place, eh? That
+little roadster of Fell's, with the extra seat behind. If you'd been
+just a little bit cooler yesterday, Ben, you would have made fewer
+mistakes. It never occurred to you that other people might have been
+there in the bushes when the sheriff was murdered, eh?"
+
+Chacherre went livid.
+
+"It was another mistake to throw away your knife after you killed him,"
+pursued Gramont, reflectively. "You should have held on to that knife,
+Ben. There's no blood, remember, on Hammond's knife--a hard thing for
+you and your friends to explain plausibly. Yet your knife is heavy with
+blood, which tests will show to be human blood. Also, the knife has your
+name on it; quite a handsome knife, too. On the whole, you must admit
+that you bungled the murder from start to finish----"
+
+Chacherre broke in with a frightful oath--a frantically obscene storm of
+curses. So furious were his words that Gramont very efficiently gagged
+him with cloths, gagged him hard and fast.
+
+"You also bungled when you forgot all about burning that bundle, in your
+excitement over getting Hammond jailed for the murder," he observed,
+watching Chacherre writhe. "No, you can't get loose, Ben. You'll suffer
+a little between now and the time of your release, but I really can't
+spare much pity on you.
+
+"I think that I'll send another wire to Dick Hearne on this blank which
+you so thoughtfully provided. I'll order him, in your name, not to burn
+that bundle after all; I fancy it may prove of some value to me. And
+I'll also tell your friend--I suppose he has some familiar cognomen,
+such as Slippery Dick--to meet Henry Gramont at Houma early in the
+morning. I'd like to gather Dick in with the other gentlemen. I'll
+mention that you were kind enough to supply a few names and incidents."
+
+At this last Ben Chacherre writhed anew, for it was a shrewd blow. He
+and his friends belonged to that class of crook which never "peaches."
+If by any mischance one of this class is jailed and convicted, he
+invariably takes his medicine silently, knowing that the whole gang is
+behind him, and that when he emerges from prison he will be sure to find
+money and friends and occupation awaiting him.
+
+To know that he would be placed, in the estimation of the gang, in the
+same class with stool-pigeons, must have bitten deeper into Ben
+Chacherre than any other lash. He stared at Gramont with a frightful
+hatred in his blazing eyes--a hatred which gradually passed into a look
+of helplessness and of impotent despair.
+
+Gramont, meantime, was writing out the telegram to Dick Hearne. This
+finished, he got his hat and coat, and from the bureau drawer took an
+automatic pistol, which he pocketed. Then he smiled pleasantly at his
+prisoner.
+
+"I'll be back a little later, Ben, and I'll probably bring a friend with
+me--a friend who will sit up with you to-night and take care of your
+health. Kind of me, eh? It's getting late in the afternoon, but I don't
+think that it will harm you to go without any dinner. I'll 'phone Mr.
+Fell that you said you'd be away for a few hours, eh?
+
+"This evening, Ben, I think that I'll attend a meeting of my post of the
+American Legion. You don't belong to that organization by any chance?
+No, I'm quite sure you don't. Very few of your exclusive acquaintances
+do belong. Well, see you later! Work on those bonds all you like--you're
+quite safe. I'm curious to see what is in that bundle under the rear
+seat of your car; I have an idea that it may prove interesting. Good
+afternoon!"
+
+Gramont closed the door, and left the house.
+
+Going downtown, he mailed the letter to Fell, confident that the latter
+would receive it on the following morning; but he did not telephone
+Fell. He preferred to leave the absence of Chacherre unexplained,
+rightly judging that Fell would not be particularly anxious about the
+man. It was now Thursday evening. The meeting of the oil company would
+be held at nine on Friday evening. Between those two times Gramont
+figured on many things happening.
+
+He chuckled as he sent the telegram to Dick Hearne at Houma--a telegram
+signed with the name Chacherre, instructing Hearne not to burn the
+bundle, but to meet Gramont early in the morning at Houma. He had a very
+shrewd idea that this Dick Hearne might prove an important person to
+dispose of, and quite useful after he had been disposed of. In this
+conjecture he was right.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+                         _Chacherre's Bundle_
+
+
+It was seven in the morning when Henry Gramont drove his car into Houma.
+
+In the wire which he had sent over Chacherre's signature he had
+commanded Dick Hearne to meet Gramont at about this time at a restaurant
+near the court house. Putting his car at the curb, Gramont went into the
+restaurant and ordered a hasty breakfast. He had brought with him copies
+of the morning papers, and was perusing the accounts of Bob Maillard's
+pitifully weak story regarding his father's murder, when a stranger
+stopped beside him.
+
+"Gramont?" said the other. "Thought it was you. Hearne's my name--I had
+orders to meet you. What's up?"
+
+The other man dropped into the chair opposite Gramont, who put away his
+papers. Hearne was a sleek individual of pasty complexion who evidently
+served the gang in no better light than as a go-between and runner of
+errands. That he suspected nothing was plain from his casual manner,
+although he had never seen Gramont previously.
+
+"Business," said Gramont, leaning back to let the waitress serve his
+breakfast. When she had departed, he attacked it hungrily. "You got
+Chacherre's wire about the stuff in his car? Was it burned?"
+
+"No. He countermanded it just as I was hirin' a car to go over to
+Paradis," said Hearne. "What's stirrin', anyhow?"
+
+"Plenty. Memphis Izzy's coming down to-day. When'll he get in?"
+
+"He'll go direct to the other place, won't come here. Oh, I reckon he'll
+get there along about nine this morning. Why?"
+
+"We'll have to go over there to meet him," said Gramont. "I stopped in
+here to pick you up. Hammond is still safe in jail?"
+
+"Sure." Hearne laughed evilly. "I don't guess he'll get out in a hurry,
+neither!"
+
+"Chacherre was pinched last night for the murder," said Gramont,
+watching the other.
+
+"The hell!" Hearne looked astonished, then relaxed and laughed again.
+"Some fly cop will sure lose his buttons, then! They ain't got nothin'
+on him."
+
+"I heard they had plenty."
+
+"Don't worry." Hearne waved a hand grandiloquently. "The boss is solid
+with the bunch up to Baton Rouge, and they'll take care of everybody. So
+old Ben got pinched, huh? That's one joke, man!"
+
+Gramont's worst suspicions were confirmed by the attitude of Hearne, who
+plainly considered that the entire gang had nothing to fear from the
+law. Chacherre's boasts were backed up solidly. It was obvious to
+Gramont that the ramifications of the gang extended very high up indeed.
+
+"Better cut out the talk," he said, curtly, "until we get out of here."
+
+Hearne nodded and rolled a cigarette.
+
+When his hasty meal was finished Gramont paid at the counter and led the
+way outside. He motioned toward the car, and Hearne obediently climbed
+in, being evidently of so little account in the gang that he was
+accustomed to taking orders from everyone.
+
+Gramont headed out of town and took the Paradis road. Before he had
+driven a mile, however, he halted the car, climbed out, and lifted one
+side of the hood.
+
+"Give me those rags from the bottom of the car, Hearne," he said,
+briefly.
+
+The other obeyed. As Gramont made no move to come and get them, Hearne
+got out of the car; then Gramont rose from the engine unexpectedly, and
+Hearne looked into a pistol.
+
+"Hold out your hands behind you and turn around!" snapped Gramont. "No
+talk!"
+
+Hearne sputtered an oath, but as the pistol jerked at him he obeyed the
+command. Gramont took the strips of cloth, which he had previously
+prepared, and bound the man's wrists.
+
+"These are better than handcuffs," he commented. "Too many slick
+individuals can get rid of bracelets--but you'll have one man's job to
+get rid of these! Ah! a gun in your pocket, eh? Thanks."
+
+"What t'ell you doin'?" exclaimed the bewildered Hearne.
+
+"Placing you under arrest," said Gramont, cheerfully.
+
+"Here, where's your warrant? You ain't no dick----"
+
+Gramont cut short his protests with a long cloth which effectually bound
+his lower jaw in place and precluded any further idea of talk.
+
+"You climb into that car, Hearne," he ordered, "and I'll attend to your
+feet next. That's the boy! Nothing like taking it calmly, Hearne. You
+didn't know that I was the fellow who pinched old Ben, did you? But I
+am. And before night your whole crowd will be hooked up, from the big
+boss down to you."
+
+Gramont tied Dick Hearne securely, hand and foot, and then lashed him to
+one of the top supports of the car. When he had finished, Hearne was
+reasonably safe. He then climbed under the wheel again and proceeded on
+his way. Hearne's lashings were inconspicuous to any one whom the car
+passed.
+
+It was a little after eight in the morning when Gramont drove into
+Paradis. He noticed that two large automobiles were standing in front of
+the postoffice, and that about them were a group of men who eyed him and
+his car with some interest. Paying no attention to these, he drove on
+through town without a halt.
+
+Sweeping out along the north road, he encountered no one. When at length
+he reached the Ledanois farm he drove in toward the deserted house and
+parked the car among some trees, where it could not be seen from the
+road.
+
+"You'll have some pleasant company before long, Dicky, my lad," he
+observed, cheerfully. A last inspection showed that his prisoner was
+quite secure. "In the meantime, sit and meditate upon your sins, which I
+trust have been many and deep. Chacherre is up for murder, and he's
+trying to save his neck by blowing on the remainder of your gang. We may
+give you a chance to do the same thing and corroborate his testimony.
+It's worth thinking over, isn't it?
+
+"Perhaps you imagine that you're safe from conviction. If so, take
+comfort while you can--I'll chance that end of it! When Memphis Izzy
+comes along, I'll have a nice comfortable little conversation with him.
+Then we'll all join up and go back to the city together. You get the
+idea? Well, be good!"
+
+Leaving the car Gramont took his way toward the bank of the bayou and
+followed this in the direction of the adjoining property. He looked at
+the water, a bitter smile upon his lips, and again made out the faint
+iridescent sheen of oil. When he came to the rivulet which gave birth to
+the oil he paused. He remembered the excitement that had so shaken him
+upon the discovery of this supposed seepage two days previously--he
+remembered ironically the visions it had aroused in his brain.
+
+"Farewell, too sudden wealth!" he murmured. "Farewell, toil's end and
+dreams of luxury! I'm still a poor but honest workingman--but I still
+think that there's some real oil under this land. Well, we'll see about
+that later on, perhaps. Our company is by no means busted up yet!"
+
+He passed on, wondering not a little at the deft skill of Jachin Fell in
+planting that oil; the men next door had done the work, of course.
+Gramont did not attempt to delude himself with the idea that Fell had
+acted selfishly. The whole affair had been handled with a clever
+secrecy, only in order that Fell's oil company might buy the land from
+Lucie, and that Fell might use the resultant boom to make her
+financially secure.
+
+"He doesn't believe there's oil here," reflected Gramont, "and he's
+sincere in the belief. Where Lucie is concerned, I think the man's
+absolutely unselfish. He'd do anything for her! And yet Jachin Fell is
+an enemy, a deadly enemy, of society! Hm--these criminals show some
+queer streaks. You can't call a man like Fell wholly bad, not by a good
+deal; I'll almost regret sending him to the pen--if I do!"
+
+He went on to an opening in the bushes which, over the low rail fence,
+gave him a clear view of the Gumberts property. There he paused, quickly
+drew back, and gained a point whence he could see without danger of his
+presence being discovered. He settled into immobility and watched.
+
+That Memphis Izzy himself had not yet arrived, he was fairly certain.
+Near the barn were drawn up two flivvers, and sitting in chairs on the
+cottage veranda were three men who must have come in these cars. Gramont
+had come provided with binoculars, and got these out. He was not long in
+discovering that all three men on the veranda were strangers to him.
+They, no doubt, were men in the lottery game, waiting for Gumberts to
+arrive. Gramont turned his attention to the other buildings.
+
+Both the barn and shop were open, and the buzzing thrum of machinery
+bore witness that the mechanics were hard at work upon the stolen cars.
+Gramont thought of Ben Chacherre, still tied and lashed to the chair in
+his room, and wondered what was to be found under the rear seat of Ben's
+car. He could see the car from where he lay.
+
+The minutes dragged interminably, and Gramont settled down to a
+comfortable position in the grass. Would Fell come? He hoped so, but
+strongly doubted it. Fell appeared to be merely "the boss" and it was
+Gumberts who was actually managing the lottery swindle.
+
+Nine o'clock came and passed. A third flivver came roaring into the
+opening, and Gramont leaned forward intently. Three workers came to the
+door of the shop. A single man left the flivver and greeted them, then
+went on to the cottage and joined the other three on the veranda. He was
+greeted with no excitement. The house door remained closed. The newcomer
+lighted a cigarette and sat on the steps.
+
+"Evidently he's not Gumberts," thought Gramont. "Seven of them so far,
+eh? This is going to be a real job and no mistake."
+
+Almost on his thought, a high-powered and noiseless car came sweeping
+down the road and he knew at once that Memphis Izzy had arrived. He knew
+it intuitively, even before he obtained a good glimpse of the broad,
+heavy figure, and the dominating features. Memphis Izzy was far from
+handsome, but he possessed character.
+
+"Where's the Goog?" As he left the car, which he had driven himself,
+Gumberts lifted his voice in a bull-like roar that carried clearly to
+Gramont. "Where's Charlie the Goog?"
+
+The mechanics appeared hurriedly. One of them, no other than Gramont's
+friend of the adenoidal aspect, who seemed to own the mellifluous title
+of Charlie the Goog, hastened to the side of Gumberts, and the latter
+gave him evident directions regarding some repair to the car. Then,
+turning, Memphis Izzy strode to the cottage. He nodded greetings to the
+four men who awaited him, took a bunch of keys from his pocket, and
+opened the cottage door. All five vanished within.
+
+Gramont rose. A moment previously, fever had thrilled him; the
+excitement of the manhunt had held him trembling. Now he was cool again,
+his fingers touching the pistol in his pocket, his eyes steady. He
+glanced at his watch, and nodded.
+
+"It's time!" he murmured. "Let's hope there'll be no slip-up! All ready,
+Memphis Izzy? So am I. Let's go!"
+
+Unhurried and openly, he advanced, making his leisurely way toward the
+barn and shop. Charlie the Goog, who was bent over the car of Gumberts,
+was first to discern his approach, and straightened up. Gramont waved
+his hand in greeting. Charlie the Goog turned his head and called his
+brethren, who came into sight, staring at Gramont.
+
+The latter realized that if he passed them the game was won. If they
+stopped him, he bade fair to lose everything.
+
+"Hello, boys!" he called, cheerily, as he drew near. "I came out on an
+errand for the boss--got a message for Gumberts. Where is he? In the
+house?"
+
+The others nodded, plainly mistrusting him yet puzzled by his careless
+manner and his reference to Fell.
+
+"Sure," answered Charlie the Goog. "Go right in--he's in the big front
+room."
+
+"Thanks."
+
+Gramont continued his way, conscious that they were staring after him.
+If there was anything phony about him, they evidently considered that
+Memphis Izzy would take care of the matter very ably.
+
+The steps of the cottage porch creaked protestingly as Gramont ascended
+them. Perhaps Memphis Izzy recognized an unaccustomed footstep; perhaps
+that conversation outside had penetrated to him. Gramont entered the
+front door into the hall, and as he did so, Gumberts opened the door on
+his right and stood gazing at him--rather, glaring.
+
+"Who're you?" he demanded, roughly.
+
+"Came out with a message from Mr. Fell," responded Gramont at once.
+"Brought some orders, I should say----"
+
+The sixth sense of Memphis Izzy, which had carried him uncaught into a
+grizzled age, must have flashed a warning to his crook's brain. In the
+man's eyes Gramont read a surge of suspicion, and knew that his bluff
+could be worked no longer.
+
+"Here's his note," he said, and reached into his pocket.
+
+Gumberts' hand flashed down, but halted as Gramont's pistol covered him.
+
+"Back into that room, and do it quickly," said Gramont, stepping
+forward. "Quick!"
+
+Memphis Izzy obeyed. Gramont stood in the doorway, his eyes sweeping the
+room and the men inside. Startled, all four of them had risen and were
+staring at him. In his other hand he produced the automatic which he had
+taken from Dick Hearne.
+
+"The first word from any of you gentlemen," he declared, "will draw a
+shot. I'm doing all the talking here. Savvy?"
+
+They stood staring, paralyzed by this apparition. They had been sitting
+about a table which was heaped with papers and with packages of money. A
+large safe in the wall stood open. Beside the table was a small mail
+sack, partially emptied of its contents; torn envelopes littered the
+floor.
+
+That this was the headquarters of at least a section of the lottery gang
+Gramont saw without need of explanation.
+
+"You're under arrest," said Gramont, quietly. "The game's up, Gumberts.
+Hands up, all of you! Dick Hearne has peached on the whole gang, and
+from the boss down you're all in for a term in stir. You with the derby!
+Take Gumberts' gun, and those of your companions, then your own; throw
+'em on the floor in the corner, and if you make the wrong kind of a
+move, heaven help you! Step lively, there!"
+
+One of the men who wore a derby on the back of his head obeyed the
+command. All five of the men facing Gramont realized that a single shout
+would call help from outside, but in the eyes of Gramont they read a
+strict attention to business. It was altogether too probable that one
+man who dared arrest them alone would shoot to kill at the first false
+move--and not even Memphis Izzy himself opened his mouth.
+
+Each man there had a revolver or pistol, and one by one the weapons
+clattered into the corner. Gumberts stood motionless, licking his thick
+lips, unuttered curses in his glaring eyes. And in that instant Gramont
+heard the porch steps creak, and caught a low, startled cry.
+
+"Hey, boss! They's a gang comin' on the run----"
+
+It was Charlie the Goog, bursting in upon them in wild haste. Gramont
+stepped into the room and turned slightly, covering with one of his
+weapons the intruder, who stood aghast in the doorway as he comprehended
+the scene.
+
+No words passed. Staring at the five men, then at Gramont, the adenoidal
+mechanic gulped once--and like a flash acted. He ducked low, and fired
+from his pocket. Gramont fired at the same instant, and the heavy
+bullet, catching Charlie the Goog squarely in the chest, hurled his body
+half across the room.
+
+With the shots Memphis Izzy flung himself forward in a headlong rush.
+That desperate shot of the little mechanic had broken Gramont's right
+arm above the wrist; before he could fire a second time, with the weapon
+in his left hand, Gumberts had wrested the pistol aside and was
+struggling with him. The other four came into the mêlée full weight.
+
+Gramont went down under a crashing blow. Over him leaped Memphis Izzy
+and rushed into the doorway--then stopped with astounding abruptness and
+lifted his arms. After him the other four followed suit. Two men,
+panting a little, stood outside the door and covered them with shotguns.
+
+"Back up," they ordered, curtly. Memphis Izzy and his four friends
+obeyed.
+
+"Tie 'em, boys," said Gramont, rising dizzily to his feet. "No, I'm not
+hurt--my arm's broken, I think, but let that wait. Got the ones
+outside?"
+
+A stamping of feet filled the hall, and other men appeared there.
+
+"Got two of 'em, Gramont!" responded the leader. "The third slipped in
+here--ah, there he is!"
+
+Poor Charlie the Goog lay dead on the floor--a touch of heroic tragedy
+in his last desperate action; the one great action of his life,
+possibly. He had realized that it meant doom yet he had done what he
+could.
+
+"I think that's all," said Gramont. "We've sure made a killing,
+boys--and it's a good thing you jumped in to the minute! A second later
+and they'd have done for me. Take care of that evidence, will you? Get
+that mail sack and the letters particularly; if they've been working
+their lottery outside the state, it'll be a Federal matter."
+
+Gumberts, who was being tied up with his friends, uttered a hoarse cry.
+
+"Who are you guys? You can't do this without authority----"
+
+"Don't be silly, Memphis Izzy!" said Gramont, smiling a little, then
+twitching to the pain of his arm. "These friends of mine are members
+with me of the American Legion, and they've come along at my request to
+put you crooks where you belong. As for authority, you can ask and go
+hang.
+
+"Here, boys, I've got to get out to that barn. Come along, some of you!
+We'll get my arm tied up later. Nobody hurt out here?"
+
+"Not a scrap, even," responded the leader, with a trace of disgust. "All
+three of those bums were outside, and we covered 'em as we came out of
+the brush. The one that got away did so by getting his friends between
+us and him. But you attended to him."
+
+"And he attended to me likewise," added Gramont, not without a wince of
+pain.
+
+He led the way out to the barn, and, the others trooping in behind him,
+entered. He pointed out the car which had brought Chacherre here
+previously, and ordered the extra seat in back opened up.
+
+"I think there's a bundle inside," he said. "What's in it, I don't
+know----"
+
+"Here we are, cap."
+
+A bundle was produced, and opened. In it was found the aviator's costume
+which Gramont had worn as the Midnight Masquer, and which Chacherre had
+stolen with the loot. Wrapped among the leathern garments was an
+automatic pistol.
+
+Gramont stood aghast before this discovery, as realization of what it
+meant broke full upon him.
+
+"Good lord!" he exclaimed, amazedly. "Boys--why, it must have been Ben
+Chacherre who killed Maillard! See if that pistol has been used----"
+
+The Midnight Masquer had fired two bullets into Maillard. Two cartridges
+were gone from this automatic.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+
+                        _When the Heavens Fall_
+
+
+The chief of police entered the office of Jachin Fell, high in the
+Maison Blanche building, at eight o'clock on Friday evening. Mr. Fell
+glanced up at him in surprise.
+
+"Hello, chief! What's up?"
+
+The officer gazed at him in some astonishment.
+
+"What's up? Why, I came around to see you, of course!"
+
+Jachin Fell smiled whimsically. "To see me? Well, chief, that's good of
+you; sit down and have a cigar, eh? What's the matter? You look rather
+taken aback."
+
+"I am," said the other, bluntly. "Didn't you expect me?"
+
+"No," said Jachin Fell, halting suddenly in the act of reaching for a
+cigar and turning his keen gaze upon the chief. "Expect you? No!"
+
+"It's darned queer, then! That chap Gramont called me up about ten
+minutes ago and said to get around here as quick as I could make it,
+that you wanted to see me."
+
+"Gramont!" Jachin Fell frowned. "Where's Ben Chacherre? Haven't you
+found him yet?"
+
+"Nary a sign of him, chief."
+
+The door opened, and Henry Gramont appeared, his right hand bandaged and
+in a sling.
+
+"Good evening, gentlemen!" he said, smiling.
+
+"Here's Gramont now," exclaimed Fell. "Did you call the chief over
+here----"
+
+"I sure did," and Gramont came forward. "I wanted to see you two
+gentlemen together, and so arranged it. Miss Ledanois is to be here at
+nine, Fell?"
+
+The little man nodded, his eyes intent upon Gramont. He noticed the
+bandaged arm.
+
+"Yes. Have you been hurt?"
+
+"Slightly." Gramont brought up a chair across the desk from Fell, and
+sat down. He put his left hand in his breast pocket, and brought forth a
+document which he handed to the chief of police. "Cast your eye over
+that, chief, and say nothing. You're here to listen for the present.
+Here's something to cover your case, Mr. Fell."
+
+Gramont produced his automatic from the pocket of his coat, and laid it
+on the desk before him. There was a moment of startled silence. The
+officer, looking over the paper which Gramont had handed him, seemed to
+find it of sudden, intense interest.
+
+"What means all this mystery and melodramatic action, Gramont?" demanded
+Jachin Fell, a slight sneer in his eyes, his voice quite toneless.
+
+"It means," said Gramont, regarding him steadily, "that you're under
+arrest. I went out to the Gumberts place on Bayou Terrebonne this
+morning, arrested Memphis Izzy Gumberts and four other men engaged in
+operating a lottery, and also arrested two mechanics who were engaged in
+working on stolen cars. We took in, further, a gentleman by the name of
+Dick Hearne; a lesser member of the gang, who is now engaged in
+dictating a confession. Just a moment, chief! I prefer to do the talking
+at present."
+
+The chief of police had been about to interfere. At this, however, he
+leaned back in his chair, tapping in his hand the paper which he had
+perused. He looked very much as though in danger from a stroke of
+apoplexy.
+
+Gramont smiled into the steady, unfaltering eyes of Fell.
+
+"You are next on the programme," he said, evenly. "We know that you are
+at the head of an organized gang, which is not only operating a lottery
+through this and adjacent states, but also is conducting an immense
+business in stolen automobiles. Therefore----"
+
+"Just one minute, please," said Jachin Fell. "Do you forget, Mr.
+Gramont, the affair of the Midnight Masquer? You are a very zealous
+citizen, I have no doubt, but----"
+
+"I was about to add," struck in Gramont, "that your pleasant friend Ben
+Chacherre is charged with the murder of the sheriff of Terrebonne
+Parish, in which I have clear evidence against him, having been present
+at the scene of the crime. He is also charged with the murder of Joseph
+Maillard-----"
+
+"What!" From both Fell and the officer broke an exclamation of
+undisguised amazement.
+
+"Quite true, I assure you," said Gramont. "The evidence is, at least, a
+good deal clearer than the evidence against young Maillard."
+
+"My heavens!" said Fell, staring. "I never dreamed that Chacherre----"
+
+"Perhaps you didn't." Gramont shrugged his shoulders. "Neither did any
+one else. I imagine that Ben learned of this room and drinking party,
+and rightly decided that he could make a rich haul off a small crowd of
+drunken young sports. He had the costume stolen from my car, as you
+know, also the automatic which went with it. Two shots were missing from
+the automatic when we found it in Ben's possession; and you remember the
+Masquer fired twice at the time Maillard was killed."
+
+"Ah! I always said young Maillard wasn't guilty!" exclaimed the chief.
+
+"And your man Hammond----" began Fell. Gramont interposed.
+
+"You thought you had Hammond sewed up tight, didn't you? To use the
+language of your favourite game, Fell, development is everything, and
+the player who gives up a pawn for the sake of development shows that he
+is possessed of the _idée grande_. You took the pawn, or thought you
+did--but I've taken the game!
+
+"In one way, Fell, I'm very sorry to arrest you. It's going to hurt a
+mutual friend of ours. I realize that you've been trying very hard to be
+unselfish toward her, and I think that you've been perfectly sincere in
+this respect. Nonetheless, I've only one duty in the matter, and I
+propose to carry it through to the finish."
+
+Fell's keen eyes sparkled angrily.
+
+"You're a very zealous citizen, young man," he said, softly. "I see that
+you've been hurt. I trust your little game did not result in
+casualties?"
+
+Gramont nodded. "Charlie the Goog went west. He was desperate, I fancy;
+at all events he got me in the arm, and I had to shoot him. Memphis Izzy
+hardly justified his tremendous reputation, for he yielded like a lamb."
+
+"So you killed the Goog, eh?" said Fell. "Very zealous, Mr. Gramont! And
+I suppose that the exigencies of the case justified you, a private
+citizen, in carrying arms and using them? Who aided you in this
+marvellous affair?"
+
+"A number of friends from my post of the American Legion," said Gramont,
+evenly.
+
+"Ah! This organization is going in for politics, then?"
+
+"Not for politics, Fell; for justice. I deputized them to assist me."
+
+"Deputized!" repeated Fell, slowly.
+
+"Certainly." Gramont smiled. "You see, this lottery business has been
+going on for a year or more. Some time ago, before I came to New
+Orleans, the governor of this state appointed me a special officer to
+investigate the matter. There is my commission, which the chief has been
+reading. It gives me a good deal of power, Fell; quite enough power to
+gather in you and your bunch.
+
+"I might add that I have secured an abundance of evidence to prove that
+the lottery gang, under your supervision, has extended its operations to
+adjacent states. This, as you are aware, brings the affair into Federal
+hands if necessary."
+
+The chief of police looked very uneasily from Gramont to Jachin Fell,
+and back again. Fell sat erect in his chair, staring at Gramont.
+
+"You were the original Midnight Masquer," said Fell in his toneless
+voice. At this direct charge, and at Gramont's assent, the chief started
+in surprise.
+
+"Yes. One reason was that I suspected someone in society, someone high
+up in New Orleans, to be connected with the gang; but I never dreamed
+that you were the man, Fell. I rather suspected young Maillard. I am now
+glad to say that I was entirely wrong. You were the big boss, Fell, and
+you're going to serve time for it."
+
+Fell glanced at the chief, who cleared his throat as if about to speak.
+At this moment, however, a sharp knock sounded at the door.
+
+"Come!" called Gramont.
+
+A man entered. It was one of Gramont's deputies, who happened also to be
+a reporter from one of the morning papers of the city. He carried
+several sheets of paper which he laid before Gramont. He glanced at
+Fell, who recognized him and exchanged a nod of greeting, then returned
+his attention to Gramont.
+
+"Ah!" said the latter with satisfaction, as he examined the papers. "So
+Hearne has given up everything, has he? Does this confession implicate
+Mr. Fell, here?"
+
+"Well, rather," drawled the other, cheerfully. "And see here, cap! There
+are two more of us in the crowd and we've arranged to split the story.
+We'd like to rush the stuff to our papers the minute you give the word,
+because----"
+
+"I know." Gramont returned the papers that bore the confession of
+Hearne. "You've made copies of this, of course? All right. Shoot the
+stuff in to your papers right away, if you wish."
+
+Fell raised a hand to check the other.
+
+"One moment, please!" he said, his eyes boring into the newspaper man.
+"Will you also take a message from me to the editor of your
+newspaper--and see that it goes to the others as well?"
+
+"If Mr. Gramont permits, yes."
+
+"Go ahead," said Gramont, wondering what Fell would try now. He soon
+learned.
+
+"Then," pursued Fell, evenly, "you will kindly inform the editors of
+your papers that, in case my name appears in connection with this
+matter, I shall immediately institute suit for libel. No matter what Mr.
+Gramont may say or do, I assure you fully that no publicity is going to
+attach to me in this matter. Neither, I may add, am I going to be
+arrested. That is all, sir."
+
+Gramont smiled. "Take the message if you see fit, by all means," he
+said, carelessly. "You may also take my fullest assurance that within
+twenty minutes you will observe Mr. Fell safely in jail. That's all."
+
+The newspaper man saluted and departed, grinning.
+
+Gramont leaned forward, the harsh lines of his face spelling
+determination as he looked at Jachin Fell.
+
+"So you won't be arrested, eh? Let's see. I know that this gang of yours
+has influence running up into high places, and that this influence has
+power. The governor knows it also. That is why I was appointed to
+investigate this lottery game secretly, and in my own way. That is why,
+also, I brought the chief of police here to-night."
+
+He turned to the perturbed officer, and spoke coldly.
+
+"Now, chief, you've seen my authority, you've heard my charges, and you
+know they will be proved up to the hilt. Dick Hearne gave up the names
+of most of the lottery gang and their confederates; my deputies already
+wired to their various places of operation for the purpose of securing
+their arrest. We'll make a clean sweep.
+
+"The same may be said of the automobile gang, although we will probably
+miss a few of the smaller fry. What other forms of criminality the
+organization may be engaged in I can't say at this moment; but we have
+secured quite enough evidence. Are you willing to arrest Jachin Fell, or
+not?"
+
+The chief cleared his throat.
+
+"Why, Mr. Gramont," he observed, nervously, "about the rest of the gang,
+we'll take care of 'em, sure! But it's different with Mr. Fell here.
+He's a friend of the senator----"
+
+"Different, hell!" snapped Gramont, angrily. "He's a criminal, no matter
+who his friends may be, and I have the proof of it!"
+
+"Well, that may be so," admitted the chief of police. "But this thing is
+goin' to raise one hell of a scandal, all up and down the state! You
+know that as well as I do. Now, if I was you, I'd act kind of slow----"
+
+Gramont smiled bitterly.
+
+"Perhaps you would, chief. In fact, I don't doubt that you would. But
+you are not _me_. Now, as a duly-appointed officer acting under
+authority of the governor of the state, I call upon you to arrest this
+criminal, and I make you duly responsible for his safe-keeping. Do you
+dare refuse?"
+
+The chief hesitated. He looked at Fell for help, but none came. Fell
+seemed to be rather amused by the situation.
+
+"Well," said the chief, "I ain't seen the evidence yet----"
+
+"I'll show you some evidence of another kind, chief," said Gramont,
+sternly quiet. "Outside the door, here, there are two men who will obey
+my orders and my authority. If you dare refuse to do your duty you will
+yourself be taken from this room under arrest, on a John Doe warrant
+which is already prepared and waiting; and you will be charged with
+being an accomplice of this gang. Now choose, and choose quickly!"
+
+Gramont leaned back in his chair. The purpling features of the chief
+were streaming with perspiration; the man was in a frightful dilemma,
+and his plight was pitiable. At this instant Jachin Fell interposed.
+
+"Let me speak, please," he said, gently. "My dear Mr. Gramont, it has
+just occurred to me that there may be a compromise----"
+
+"I'm not compromising," snapped Gramont.
+
+"Certainly not; I speak of our mutual friend here," and Fell indicated
+the chief with a bland gesture. "I believe that Judge Forester of this
+city is at present consulting with the governor at Baton Rouge on
+political matters. With them, also, is Senator Flaxman, who has come
+from Washington on the same errand. Now, it would be a very simple
+matter to end all this anxiety. Suppose that you call up the governor on
+long distance, from this telephone, and get his assurance that I am not
+to be arrested. Then you'll be convinced."
+
+Gramont laughed with deep anger.
+
+"You gangsters are all alike!" he said, turning to the desk telephone.
+"You think that because you have planted your slimy tentacles in high
+places you can do anything with absolute impunity. But the governor of
+this state is not in your clutches.
+
+"He's a man, by heaven! I have his assurance that he'll prosecute to the
+limit whoever is behind this criminal gang--and he keeps his word! Don't
+think that if your friend the senator is with him, you will be saved.
+I'll call him, if only to show the chief, here, that influence is not
+going to count in this game."
+
+Gramont took down the receiver, called long distance, and put in a
+hurried call for the executive mansion, asking for the governor in
+person.
+
+"So you think that he's immune from influence, do you?" Jachin Fell
+smiled patronizingly and lighted a fresh cigar. The chief of police was
+mopping his brow.
+
+"My dear Gramont, you exhibit a youthful confidence in human nature! Let
+me topple your clay-footed idol from its pedestal in a hurry. Mention to
+the governor that you have me under arrest, and that I have asked him to
+speak with Judge Forester and Senator Flaxman before confirming the
+arrest. I'll wager you five hundred dollars----"
+
+The smile in Fell's pale eyes drove Gramont into a cold fury of rage.
+
+"You devil! So your damnable influence goes as far as those two men,
+does it--those men who are respected above all others in this city? By
+the lord, I'll call your bluff! I know the governor, and I know he
+doesn't give a damn for all the dirty crooks and slimy politicians on
+earth!"
+
+"What sublime faith!" laughed Fell, softly.
+
+The telephone rang sharply. Taunted almost beyond endurance, Gramont
+seized the instrument and made answer. In a moment he had the governor
+on the wire. His gaze went exultantly to Fell.
+
+"Governor, this is Henry Gramont speaking," he said. "I've just
+succeeded in my work, as I wired you this afternoon--no, hold on a
+minute! This is important.
+
+"The head of the entire gang is a man here in New Orleans by the name of
+Jachin Fell. Yes, Fell. I find it very hard to get him arrested. Fell
+boasts that his influence is superior to any that I can bring to bear.
+He asks that you speak with Judge Forester and Senator Flaxman before
+confirming the arrest, and boasts that you will order me to keep hands
+off.
+
+"Speak with them, governor! If they're in the gang, too, don't you
+worry. You confirm this arrest, and I'll put Fell behind the bars if I
+have to turn all New Orleans inside out. Go ahead! I know that you can't
+be reached by any of these crooks--I'm merely calling Fell's bluff. We
+have the chief of police here, and he's sweating. Eh? Sure. Take as long
+as you like, governor."
+
+He smiled grimly at Jachin Fell as he waited. Two minutes
+passed--three--four. Then he heard the voice of the governor again.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Don't arrest him, Gramont."
+
+"What?" Gramont gasped.
+
+"Don't touch him, I said! Get in all the others, no matter who they are,
+but leave Fell alone----"
+
+"You damned coward!" shouted Gramont, in a heat of fury. "So this is the
+way you keep your promises, is it? And I thought you were above all
+influences--real American! You're a hell of a governor--oh, I don't want
+to hear any more from you."
+
+He jerked up the receiver.
+
+There was a moment of dead silence in the room. The chief mopped his
+brow, in evident relief. Jachin Fell sat back in his chair and
+scrutinized Gramont with his thin-lipped smile.
+
+Gramont sat helpless, wrung by chagrin, rage, and impotency. There was
+nothing he could say, nothing he could do. The man behind him had failed
+him. The entire power of the state, which had been behind him, had
+failed him. There was no higher power to which he could appeal, except
+the power of the Federal Government. His head jerked up sharply.
+
+"Fell, I've got the evidence on you, and I've got the evidence to put
+this lottery business into Federal hands. Boys! Come in here!"
+
+At his shout the door opened and two of his men entered. Gramont looked
+at the chief.
+
+"You're willing to take care of all the rest of the gang, chief?"
+
+"Sure," assented the officer, promptly.
+
+"All right. Boys, turn over the whole crowd to the chief, and I'll trust
+you to see that they're properly booked and jailed. Turn over all the
+evidence likewise, except that mail sack. Have that brought up here, to
+this room, and see that the corridor outside is kept guarded. Get me?"
+
+The two saluted. "Yes, sir."
+
+"Good. Send to the Federal building, find out where there's an agent of
+the Department of Justice, and get him here. Have him here inside of
+fifteen minutes."
+
+Fell smiled. "I can save you time, gentlemen. The agent in charge of
+this district will probably be home at this hour. I can give you his
+address----"
+
+He did so. In the pale eyes Gramont read an imperturbable challenge. The
+effrontery of the man appalled him. He turned to his men.
+
+"Confirm fully that he _is_ the agent before you get him," he ordered,
+curtly. "Have him bring one of his deputy agents likewise, to meet you
+here. That's all, chief, if you'll go along with these men, you'll be
+put in charge of our prisoners and evidence. I've left a guard at the
+Gumberts place at Terrebonne, and I'd suggest that you go through the
+residence of Gumberts here in town. You might find evidence. That's
+all."
+
+The chief departed without a word. It was obvious that he was mighty
+glad to be gone. Gramont and Fell were left alone together.
+
+"My dear Gramont, your devotion to duty is Roman in spirit," said Jachin
+Fell, lightly. "I really regret that circumstances so conspire to defeat
+you! Why can't you be satisfied with bagging so many other victims? You
+can't bag me----"
+
+"Can't I?" said Gramont, taking a cigar and biting at it. He was cooler
+now. "By heavens, Fell, there's one thing in this country that you and
+no other man can reach with any influence, political bribery, or crooked
+connections--and that's the Government of the United States! You can
+reach judges and senators and governors, but you can't reach the unknown
+and humble men who carry the badge of the Department of Justice!"
+
+Fell made a slight gesture.
+
+"Human nature, my dear Gramont. It is quite true that I have not
+established this gang of criminals, as you call them, without taking
+proper precautions. Memphis Izzy, for instance, has influence that
+reaches far and wide. So have I. So have others in the party. I give you
+my assurance that your Department of Justice man will not arrest me."
+
+Gramont paled.
+
+"If----" He choked on the word, then touched the automatic on the desk
+before him. "If he won't, Jachin Fell, I'll put a bullet through you
+myself!"
+
+For the first time the pale eyes of Jachin Fell looked slightly
+troubled.
+
+"You'll hang if you do," he said, gently.
+
+"I'll be damned if I don't!" snapped Gramont, and put the weapon in his
+lap.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+                   _The Impregnability of Mr. Fell_
+
+
+Jachin Fell glanced at his watch.
+
+"Lucie will be here at any minute now," he observed. "I suppose your
+sense of duty will force you to disclose everything to her?"
+
+Gramont merely nodded, tight-lipped. A knock at the door, and one of his
+men entered with the sack of mail they had taken as evidence.
+
+"A lady is coming here at any moment," said Gramont. "Allow her to
+enter."
+
+The other saluted and departed.
+
+"A sense of duty is a terrible thing," and Jachin Fell sighed. "What
+about the oil company? Are you going to let Miss Ledanois' fortunes go
+to wrack and ruin?"
+
+"Better that," said Gramont, "than to have her profit come through
+criminal money and means. She'd be the first to say so, herself. But
+I'll tell you this: I'm convinced that there is oil under the land of
+hers! If she'll agree, I'll put up what money I have against her land;
+we'll be able to have one well drilled at least, on the chance!"
+
+"If it's dry," said Fell, "you'll be broke."
+
+"I can always get work," and Gramont laughed harshly.
+
+Fell regarded him in silence a moment. Then: "I think Lucie loves you,
+Gramont."
+
+A trembling seized Gramont; a furious impulse to shoot the man down as
+he sat. Did he have the baseness to try and save himself through Lucie?
+Something of his stifled anger must have shone in his eyes, for Jachin
+Fell laid down his cigar and continued quickly:
+
+"Don't misunderstand. I say that I think she cares for you; it is merely
+surmise on my part. Lucie is one person for whom I'd do anything. I
+stand and have stood in the place of a parent to her. She is very dear
+to me. I have a special reason for intruding on your personal affairs in
+this manner, and some right to ask you in regard to your intentions."
+
+"I don't recognize any right whatever on your part," said Gramont,
+steadily.
+
+Fell smiled. "Ah! Then you are in love. Well, youth must be served!"
+
+"I'd like to know one thing," struck in Gramont. "That is, why you were
+so cursed anxious to get something on my man Hammond! And why you held
+the Midnight Masquer affair over me as a threat. Did you suspect my
+business?"
+
+Fell threw back his head and laughed in a hearty amusement that was
+quite unrestrained.
+
+"That," he responded, "is really humorous! Do you know, I honestly
+thought you a fortune-hunter from Europe? When I suspected you of being
+the Midnight Masquer, and afterward, I was convinced that you, and very
+likely Hammond as well, were very clever swindlers of some kind. There,
+I confess, I made a grave error. My friend Gumberts never forgets faces,
+and he said to me, one day, that Hammond's face was vaguely familiar to
+him, but he could not place the man. That led me to think----"
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Gramont. "Gumberts saw Hammond years ago, when he was
+escaping from the law--and to think he remembered! Hammond told me about
+it."
+
+"That's why I wanted you and Hammond in my gang," said Fell. "I thought
+it would be very well to get you into the organization for my own
+purposes."
+
+"Thanks," answered Gramont, drily. "I got in, didn't I?"
+
+Without a knock the door opened and Lucie Ledanois entered.
+
+"Good evening, stockholders!" she exclaimed. "Do you know there's a
+crowd down in the street--policemen and automobiles and a lot of
+excitement?"
+
+"Allow me," said Gramont, taking her coat and placing a chair for her.
+"Oh, yes, we've had quite a strenuous evening, Miss Ledanois."
+
+"Your hand! Why, what has happened?"
+
+"One of Mr. Fell's friends tried to shoot me. Will you sit down, please?
+You remember that I warned you regarding a shock that would come; and
+now I must explain." Gramont gravely handed her his commission from the
+governor, and resumed his seat. "When I say that I have come here, not
+to attend a meeting of our oil company, but to arrest Mr. Fell, you will
+understand. I am very sorry, Lucie, to have to tell you all this, for I
+know your attachment to him."
+
+"Arrest--you, Uncle Jachin?" The girl glanced from the paper to Fell,
+who nodded. "And you, Henry--a special officer of the governor's?
+Why--this isn't a joke of some kind?"
+
+"None whatever, my dear," said Fell, quietly. "Mr. Gramont is to be
+congratulated. He has discovered that I was the head of a large
+organization of criminals. He has there, under the table, a sack of mail
+which proves that my organization was conducting a lottery throughout
+several states; we are now expecting the arrival of Federal agents, to
+whom Gramont intends to turn me over as a prisoner."
+
+"Oh!" The girl stared at him, wide-eyed. Her voice broke. "It--it can't
+be true----"
+
+"It is quite true, my dear," and Jachin Fell smiled. "But don't let it
+distress you in the least, I beg. Here, if I mistake not, are your
+Department of Justice friends, Gramont."
+
+A knock at the door, and it opened to admit one of Gramont's men.
+
+"Here they are, sir--the chief agent and a deputy. Shall I let them in?"
+
+Gramont nodded. Two men entered the room, and Gramont dismissed his own
+man with a gesture. He saw that the agents both nodded to Fell.
+
+"Do you gentlemen know this man?" he demanded, rising.
+
+"Yes," said one of them, regarding him keenly. "Who sent for us?"
+
+"I did." Gramont gave his name, and handed them his commission. "I have
+been investigating a lottery which has been conducted in this state for
+a long time by an organization of very clever criminals. Jachin Fell is
+the man at the head of this organization. To-day I rounded up the entire
+gang, and procured all the evidence necessary. Under that table is a
+sack of mail proving that the lottery has been extended to other states,
+and that part of its operations have been conducted by means of the
+United States mails.
+
+"The lesser members of the gang are in custody. The police department
+will not arrest this man Fell; his influence and that of his gang is
+extensive in political fields and elsewhere. I have called up the
+governor, and have been told not to arrest him. I have disregarded these
+facts, and I now call upon you to hold him in custody as a Federal
+prisoner. He has boasted to me that you will not touch him--and if you
+don't, there's going to be a shakeup that will make history! Now go to
+it."
+
+The chief agent laid Gramont's commission on the table and looked at
+Jachin Fell. For an instant there was a dead silence. Then, when the
+Federal man spoke, Gramont was paralyzed.
+
+"I'm very sorry, Mr. Gramont, to have to refuse----"
+
+"What!" cried Gramont, incredulously. "Do you dare stand there and----"
+
+"One moment please," said Fell, his quiet voice breaking in. "It is
+quite true that I have organized all the criminals possible, Mr.
+Gramont, and have put the underground lottery into a systematized form.
+I have done this by the authority of the United States, in order to
+apprehend Memphis Izzy Gumberts and other men at one crack. These
+gentlemen will tell you that I am a special agent of the Department of
+Justice, employed in that capacity through the efforts of Judge Forester
+and Senator Flaxman. I regret that this had to be held so secret that
+not even the governor himself was aware of it until this evening. The
+conflict was quite unavoidable. Not a member of that gang must become
+aware of my real identity."
+
+Fell turned to the two agents, who were smiling.
+
+"I would suggest that you take this sack of mail, and arrange with the
+chief of police in regard to the prisoners," he said. "The chief, of
+course, must suspect nothing."
+
+Gramont sank into his chair, the automatic dropping from his hand. He
+was suddenly dazed, thunderstruck. Yet he had to believe. He was dimly
+aware that Lucie had gone to Jachin Fell, her arms about his neck. He
+stared from unseeing eyes.
+
+Realization smote him like a blow, numbing his brain. He saw now why the
+governor had conferred with Judge Forester and the senator, why he had
+been ordered off the trail. He saw now why Fell had preserved secrecy so
+great that even to the chief of police his impregnable position was
+supposedly due to influence higher up.
+
+He saw how Fell must have been working month after month, silently and
+terribly, to form one compact organization of the most talented
+criminals within reach--headed by Memphis Izzy, the man who had laughed
+at the government for years! And he saw himself, furious, raging like a
+madman----
+
+Gramont dropped his head into his hands. The pain of his forgotten
+wounded arm stabbed him like a knife. He jerked his head sharply up, and
+was aware that the agents had departed. He was alone with Lucie and
+Fell, and the latter was rising and holding out his hand, smiling.
+
+"Gramont, you got ahead of me in this deal, and I congratulate you with
+all my heart!" said Fell, earnestly. "Neither of us suspected the part
+played by the other man; but you've done the work and done it well. Will
+you shake hands?"
+
+Gramont confusedly took the hand extended to him.
+
+"I've been a fool," he said, slowly. "I might have guessed that
+something unusual was----"
+
+"No; how could you guess?" said Fell. "There are three men in Baton
+Rouge who know the truth, and three persons in this room. That's all,
+outside of the regular government men. I had not told even Lucie, here!
+I dared not. And I dare say nothing even now. To the underworld at large
+I will be known as the crook whom not even the government could touch;
+in days to come I may be of untold service to my country."
+
+"I'm so glad!" Lucie took Gramont's hand as Jachin Fell dropped it, and
+Gramont looked down to meet her brimming eyes. "For a moment I thought
+that all the world had gone mad--but now----"
+
+Jachin Fell regarded them for an instant, then he quietly went to the
+door.
+
+"If you will excuse me one moment," he said, "I shall speak with your
+men who are on guard, Gramont. I--ah--I will be back in a moment, as
+Eliza said when she crossed the ice; and we may then discuss business.
+If you agree, I think that your company may proceed upon the original
+lines, and we shall set to work drilling for oil without delay----"
+
+Gramont scarcely heard the words, nor did he hear the door close. He was
+still looking into the eyes of Lucie Ledanois, and wondering if the
+message they held were really meant for him.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+
+                              _Mi-Carême_
+
+
+A nameless gentleman from the effete North was enjoying for the first
+time the privileges of a guest card at the Chess and Checkers. In a
+somewhat perplexed manner he approached the secretary's desk and
+obtained a cigar. Then he paused, listening to the sounds of revelry
+which filled the club, and which came roaring in from the city streets
+outside.
+
+"Say!" he addressed the secretary. "What's this Mi-Carême I've been
+reading about in the papers, anyhow? I thought everything was tight as a
+clam down here after Mardi Gras! It's still the Lenten season, isn't it?
+Mardi Gras doesn't come more than once a year? Then what's all the
+celebration about?"
+
+The secretary smiled.
+
+"Certainly, sir, it's still Lent. But the French people have what they
+call Mi-Carême, or Mid-Lent, and they certainly give it a big
+celebration! You see, it's a night halfway through Lent, when they can
+enjoy themselves to the limit--let off steam, as it were. We're having
+several dinner parties here in the club to-night, for the occasion."
+
+A slightly built little man, who had much the air of a shy clerk--had it
+not been for his evening attire--approached the desk. He signed a check
+for a handful of cigars, which he stowed away.
+
+"Please provide a fresh box of the El Reys later," he said to the
+secretary. "Most of my party is here, I believe."
+
+"I'll send them up, Mr. Fell," answered the secretary, quickly. "Yes, I
+think the dining room is all ready for you, sir. By the way, Mr. Gramont
+was looking for you a moment ago--ah! Here he comes now!"
+
+Jachin Fell turned. Gramont was plunging at him, a yellow telegraph form
+in his hand, excitement in his eyes.
+
+"Look here, Jachin! This wire just came in from Hammond--you know, I
+left him in charge of things down at Bayou Terrebonne! Read it,
+man--read it! They've struck oil-sands at five hundred feet--and sands
+at five hundred, with these indications, mean a gusher at a thousand!
+Where's Lucie? Have you brought her?"
+
+"She's upstairs. Well, well!" Jachin Fell glanced at the telegram, and
+returned it. "So oil is actually found! This is certainly going to be
+one big night, as Eliza said when she crossed the ice! Come along. Let's
+find Lucie and tell her about it----"
+
+The two men turned away together.
+
+After them gazed the man from the North, not a little agape over what he
+had chanced to hear. Before the wondering questions in his eyes the
+assiduous secretary made haste to enlighten him.
+
+"That's Mr. Gramont, sir. They say that he used to be a real prince,
+over in France, and that he threw it up because he wanted to be an
+American. Mr. Fell is having a dinner upstairs--it's Mr. Gramont's
+engagement, you know--and the Mi-Carême ball afterward----"
+
+"Oh, I know, I know," and the man from the North sighed a little. "I was
+reading all about that in the paper. Fell is one of the crack chess
+players here, isn't he?"
+
+The secretary smiled.
+
+"Well, he plays a very fair game, sir--a very fair game indeed!"
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+                         THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
+                           GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+                           Transcriber Notes:
+
+Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_.
+
+Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS.
+
+Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of
+the speakers. Those words were retained as-is.
+
+Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
+unless otherwise noted. For instance, scarfpins was sometimes hyphenated
+and some times not.
+
+On page 49, a quotation mark was placed after "You'd try blackmail,
+would you?"
+
+On page 99, "hundered" was replaced with "hundred".
+
+On page 124, "geting" was replaced with "getting".
+
+On page 156, "asurance" was replaced with "assurance".
+
+On page 156, "he" was replaced with "be".
+
+On page 296, "I am not be arrested." was replaced with "I am not to be
+arrested."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Mardi Gras Mystery, by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARDI GRAS MYSTERY ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mardi Gras Mystery, by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+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
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+
+
+Title: The Mardi Gras Mystery
+
+Author: H. Bedford-Jones
+
+Illustrator: John Newton Howitt
+
+Release Date: March 22, 2012 [EBook #39229]
+
+Language: English
+
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARDI GRAS MYSTERY ***
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+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 476px;"> <img class="border" src="images/cover.jpg" width="476" height="700" alt="Book cover" title="Book cover" /></div>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h1>THE MARDI GRAS<br />
+MYSTERY</h1>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<p class="h2a">BOOKS BY<br />
+H. BEDFORD-JONES</p>
+
+<p class="hangindent"><span class="smcap">Conquest</span></p>
+
+<p class="hangindent"> <span class="smcap">Cross and the Hammer: A
+Tale of the Days of the Vikings</span></p>
+
+<p class="hangindent"> <span class="smcap">Flamehair the Skald: A
+Tale of the Days Of Hardrede</span></p>
+
+<p class="hangindent"> <span class="smcap">Golden Ghost</span></p>
+
+<p class="hangindent"> <span class="smcap">The Mesa Trail</span></p>
+
+<p class="hangindent"> <span class="smcap">The Mardi Gras Mystery</span></p>
+
+<p class="hangindent"> <span class="smcap">Under Fire</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 457px;"> <img class="border" src="images/illus-fpc.jpg" width="457" height="700" alt="" title="" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;<i>'You frightened me, holy man!' she cried gaily. 'Confess
+to you, indeed! Not I.'</i>&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p class="h2a">THE MARDI GRAS<br />
+MYSTERY</p>
+
+<p class="cnobmargin">BY</p>
+<p class="cnotmargin">H. BEDFORD-JONES</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 198px;"> <img src="images/title-emb.png" width="198" height="194" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="cnobmargin">FRONTISPIECE</p>
+<p class="cnomargins">BY</p>
+<p class="cnotmargin">JOHN NEWTON HOWITT</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="cnobmargin"><span class="smcap">garden city, n. y., and toronto</span></p>
+<p class="cnomargins">DOUBLEDAY, PAGE &amp; COMPANY</p>
+<p class="cnotmargin">1921</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="cnobmargin">COPYRIGHT, 1920, 1921, BY</p>
+<p class="cnomargins">DOUBLEDAY, PAGE &amp; COMPANY</p>
+<p class="cnomargins">ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION</p>
+<p class="cnotmargin">INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<p class="margin-left8">CHAPTER <span class="ralign">PAGE</span></p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<ul class="TOCR">
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Carnival</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page3">3</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Masquers</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page21">21</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Bandit</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page38">38</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Callers</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page58">58</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Masquer Unmasks</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page82">82</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Chacherre</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page107">107</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">In the Open</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page125">125</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Comus</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page143">143</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">On the Bayou</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page169">169</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Murder</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page190">190</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Gangsters</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page209">209</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Ultimatum</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page228">228</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Coin Falls Heads</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page249">249</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Chacherre's Bundle</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page262">262</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">When the Heavens Fall</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page280">280</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Impregnability of Mr. Fell</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page299">299</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Mi-Carême</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#page310">310</a></span></li>
+
+</ul>
+</blockquote>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h1>THE MARDI GRAS<br />
+MYSTERY</h1>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page3" id="page3"></a>[pg&nbsp;3]</span></p>
+
+<h1>THE MARDI GRAS MYSTERY</h1>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a"><i>Carnival</i></p>
+
+<p>JACHIN FELL pushed aside the glass
+curtains between the voluminous over-draperies
+in the windows of the Chess
+and Checkers Club, and gazed out upon the
+riotous streets of New Orleans. Half an hour
+he had been waiting here in the lounge room
+for Dr. Cyril Ansley, a middle-aged bachelor
+who had practised in Opelousas for
+twenty years, and who had come to the city
+for the Mardi Gras festivities. Another man
+might have seemed irritated by the wait, but
+Jachin Fell was quite unruffled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He had much the air of a clerk. His features
+were thin and unremarkable; his pale
+eyes constantly wore an expression of wondering
+aloofness, as though he saw around
+him much that he vainly tried to understand.
+In his entire manner was a shy reticence. He
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page4" id="page4"></a>[pg&nbsp;4]</span>
+was no clerk, however, this was evident from
+his attire. He was garbed from head to
+foot in soberly blending shades of gray whose
+richness was notable only at close view. One
+fancied him a very precise sort of man, an
+old maid of the wrong sex.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Doctor Ansley, an Inverness flung over his
+evening clothes, entered the lounge room, and
+Fell turned to him with a dry, toneless
+chuckle.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're the limit! Did you forget we
+were going to the Maillards' to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ansley appeared vexed and irritated.
+&quot;Confound it, Fell!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;I've
+been all over town looking for El Reys.
+Caught in a crowd&mdash;no El Reys yet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Again Fell uttered his toneless chuckle.
+His voice was absolutely level, unmarked by
+any change of inflection.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My dear fellow, there are only three
+places in the city that can afford to carry
+El Reys in these parlous times! This club,
+however, happens to be one of the three.
+Here, sit down and forget your troubles over
+a real smoke! We need not leave for fifteen
+minutes yet, at least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Doctor Ansley laid aside his cape, stick,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id="page5"></a>[pg&nbsp;5]</span>
+and hat, and dropped into one of the comfortable
+big chairs. He accepted the proffered
+cigar with a sigh. Across his knees he
+laid an evening paper, whose flaring headlines
+proclaimed an extra.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I suppose you've been gadding all around
+the town ever since the Revellers opened the
+season?&quot; he inquired.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hardly,&quot; said Fell with his shy air. &quot;I'm
+growing a bit stiff with age, as Eliza said
+when she crossed the ice. I don't gad much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You intend to mask for the Maillards'?&quot;
+Ansley cast his eye over the gray business
+attire of the little man.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I never mask.&quot; Jachin Fell shook his
+head. &quot;I'll get a domino and go as I am.
+Excuse me&mdash;I'll order a domino now, and
+also provide a few more El Reys for the evening.
+Back in a moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Doctor Ansley, who was himself a non-resident
+member of the club and socially
+prominent when he could grant himself
+leisure for society, followed the slight figure
+of the other man with speculative eyes.
+Well as he knew Jachin Fell, he invariably
+found the man a source of puzzled speculation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page6" id="page6"></a>[pg&nbsp;6]</span>
+During many years Jachin Fell had been a
+member of the most exclusive New Orleans
+clubs. He was even received in the inner
+circles of Creole society, which in itself was
+evidence supreme as to his position. At this
+particular club he was famed as a wizard
+master of chess. He never entered a tournament,
+yet he consistently defeated the champions
+in private matches&mdash;defeated them
+with a bewildering ease, a shy and apologetic
+ease, an ease which left the beholders incredulous
+and aghast.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With all this, Jachin Fell was very much of
+a mystery, even among his closest friends.
+Very little was known of him; he was inconspicuous
+to a degree, and it was usually assumed
+that he was something of a recluse,
+the result of a thwarted love affair in his
+youth. He was a lawyer, and certainly
+maintained offices in the Maison Blanche
+building, but he never appeared in the courts
+and no case of his pleading was known.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was said that he lived in the rebuilt casa
+of some old Spanish grandee in the Vieux
+Carre, and that this residence of his was a
+veritable treasure-trove of historic and beautiful
+things. This was mere rumour, adding a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7"></a>[pg&nbsp;7]</span>
+spice of romance to the general mystery.
+Ansley knew him as well as did most men,
+and Ansley knew of a few who could boast
+of having been a guest in Jachin Fell's home.
+There was a mother, an invalid of whom
+Fell sometimes spoke and to whom he appeared
+to devote himself. The family, an
+old one in the city, promised to die out with
+Jachin Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ansley puffed at his cigar and considered
+these things. Outside, in the New Orleans
+streets, was rocketing the mad mirth of carnival.
+The week preceding Mardi Gras was
+at its close. Since the beginning of the new
+year the festival had been celebrated in a
+steadily climaxing series of balls and entertainments,
+largely by the older families who
+kept to the old customs, and to a smaller
+extent by society at large. Now the final
+week was at hand, or rather the final three
+days&mdash;the period of the great balls, the
+period when tourists were flooding into town;
+for tourists, the whole time of Mardi Gras was
+comprised within these three days. Despite
+agonized predictions, prohibition had not adversely
+affected Mardi Gras or the gaiety of
+its celebration.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8"></a>[pg&nbsp;8]</span>
+Now, as ever, was Mardi Gras symbolized
+by masques. In New Orleans the masquerade
+was not the pale and pitiful frolic of colder
+climes, where the occasion is but one for
+display of jewels and costumes, and where
+actual concealment of identity is a farce.
+Here in New Orleans were jewels and costumes
+in a profusion of splendour; but here
+was preserved the underlying idea of the
+masque itself&mdash;that in concealment of identity
+lay the life of the thing! Masquers
+swept the streets gaily; if harlequin husband
+flirted with domino wife&mdash;why, so much the
+merrier! There was little harm in the Latin
+masque, and great mirth.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When Jachin Fell returned and lighted his
+cigar he sank into one of the luxurious chairs
+beside Ansley and indicated the newspaper
+lying across the latter's knee, its
+flaring headlines standing out blackly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's that about the Midnight Masquer?
+He's not appeared again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What?&quot; Ansley glanced at him in surprise.
+&quot;You've not heard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell shook his head. &quot;I seldom read the
+papers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good heavens, man! He showed up last
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9"></a>[pg&nbsp;9]</span>
+night at the Lapeyrouse dance, two minutes
+before midnight, as usual! A detective had
+been engaged, but was afterward found
+locked in a closet, bound with his own handcuffs.
+The Masquer wore his usual costume&mdash;and
+went through the party famously,
+stripping everyone in sight. Then he backed
+through the doors and vanished. How he
+got in they can't imagine; where he went
+they can't imagine, unless it was by airplane.
+He simply appeared, then vanished!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell settled deeper into his chair, pointed
+his cigar at the ceiling, and sighed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, most interesting! The loot was
+valued at about a hundred thousand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I thought you said you'd not heard of it?&quot;
+demanded Ansley.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell laughed softly and shyly. &quot;I didn't.
+I merely hazarded a guess.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Wizard!&quot; The doctor laughed in unison.
+&quot;Yes, about that amount. Exaggerated, of
+course; still, there were jewels of great
+value&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The Masquer is a piker,&quot; observed Fell,
+in his toneless voice.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Eh? A piker&mdash;when he can make a
+hundred-thousand-dollar haul?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id="page10"></a>[pg&nbsp;10]</span>
+&quot;Don't dream that those figures represent
+value, Doctor. They don't! All the loot the
+Masquer has taken since he began work is
+worth little to him. Jewels are hard to sell.
+This game of banditry is romantic, but it's
+out of date these days. Of course, the crook
+has obtained a bit of money, but not enough to
+be worth the risk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yet he has got quite a bit,&quot; returned
+Ansley, thoughtfully. &quot;All the men have
+money, naturally; we don't want to find
+ourselves bare at some gay carnival moment!
+I'll warrant you've a hundred or so in your
+pocket right now!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not I,&quot; rejoined Fell, calmly. &quot;One ten-dollar
+bill. Also I left my watch at home.
+And I'm not dressed; I don't care to lose my
+pearl studs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Eh?&quot; Ansley frowned. &quot;What do you
+mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell took a folded paper from his
+pocket and handed it to the physician.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I met Maillard at the bank this morning.
+He called me into his office and handed me
+this&mdash;he had just received it in the mail.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Doctor Ansley opened the folded paper;
+an exclamation broke from him as he read
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11"></a>[pg&nbsp;11]</span>
+the note, which was addressed to their host
+of the evening.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p><span class="smcap">Joseph Maillard</span>, President,</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Exeter National Bank, City.</p>
+
+<p>I thank you for the masque you are giving to-night.
+I shall be present. Please see that Mrs. M. wears her
+diamonds&mdash;I need them.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">The Midnight Masquer.</span></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">Ansley glanced up. &quot;What's this&mdash;some
+hoax? Some carnival jest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Maillard pretended to think so.&quot; Fell
+shrugged his shoulders as he repocketed the
+note. &quot;But he was nervous. He was afraid
+of being laughed at, and wouldn't go to the
+police. But he'll have a brace of detectives
+inside the house to-night, and others outside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ever since the first ball of the year by the
+Twelfth Night Club this Midnight Masquer,
+as he was termed, had held New Orleans
+gripped in terror, fascination, and vivid
+interest. Until a month previous to this
+week of Mardi Gras he had operated rarely;
+he had robbed with a stark and inelegant
+forcefulness, a brutality. Suddenly his methods
+changed&mdash;he appeared and transacted his
+business with a romantic courtesy, a daredevil
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12"></a>[pg&nbsp;12]</span>
+gaiety; his robberies became bizarre and extraordinary.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">During the past month he appeared at
+least once a week, now at some private ball,
+now at some restaurant banquet, but always
+in the same garb: the helmet, huge goggles
+and mask, and leathern clothes of a service
+aviator. On these occasions the throbbing
+roar of an airplane motor had been reported
+so that it was popular gossip that he landed
+on the roof of his designated victims and made
+his getaway in the same manner&mdash;by airplane.
+No machine had ever been seen, and the theory
+was believed by some, hooted at by others.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The police were helpless. The Midnight
+Masquer laughed openly at them and conducted
+his depredations with brazen unconcern,
+appearing where he was least expected.
+The anti-administration papers were clamouring
+about a &quot;crime wave&quot; and &quot;organization
+of crooks,&quot; but without any visible basis for
+such clamours. The Midnight Masquer
+worked alone.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Doctor Ansley glanced at his watch, and
+deposited his cigar in an ash tray.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'd best be moving, Fell. You'll want
+a domino?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13"></a>[pg&nbsp;13]</span>
+&quot;I ordered one when I got my cigars. It'll
+be here in a minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you seriously think that note is genuine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell shrugged lightly. &quot;Who knows? I'm
+not worried. Maillard can afford to be
+robbed. It will be interesting to see how
+he takes it if the fellow does show up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're a calm one!&quot; Ansley chuckled.
+&quot;Oh, I believe the prince is to be there to-night.
+You've met him, I suppose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No. I've had a rush of business lately,
+as Eliza said when she crossed the ice: haven't
+gone out much. Heard something about him,
+though. An American, isn't he? They say
+he's become quite popular in town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ansley nodded. &quot;Quite a fine chap. His
+mother was an American&mdash;she married the
+Prince de Gramont; an international affair
+of the past generation. De Gramont led her
+a dog's life, I hear, until he was killed in a duel.
+She lived in Paris with the boy, sent him to
+school here at home, and he was at Yale
+when the war broke. He was technically a
+French subject, so he went back to serve his
+time.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Still, he's an American now. Calls himself
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14"></a>[pg&nbsp;14]</span>
+Henry Gramont, and would drop the
+prince stuff altogether if these French people
+around here would let him. He's supposed to
+be going into some kind of business, but just
+now he's having the time of his life. Every
+old dowager is trying to catch him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell nodded. &quot;I've no use for
+nobility; a rotten crowd! But this chap
+appears interesting. I'll be glad to size him
+up. Ah, here's my domino now!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A page brought the domino. Fell, discarding
+the mask, threw the domino about
+his shoulders, and the two men left the club
+in company.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They sought their destination afoot&mdash;the
+home of the banker Joseph Maillard. The
+streets were riotous, filled with an eddying,
+laughing crowd of masquers and merrymakers
+of all ages and sexes; confetti twirled
+through the air, horns were deafening, and
+laughing voices rose into sharp screams of
+unrestrained delight.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Here and there appeared the rather constrained
+figures of tourists from the North.
+These, staid and unable to throw themselves
+into the utter abandon of this carnival spirit,
+could but stare in perplexed wonder at the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15"></a>[pg&nbsp;15]</span>
+scene, so alien to them, while they marvelled
+at the gaiety of these Southern folk who
+could go so far with liberty and yet not overstep
+the bounds of license.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At last gaining St. Charles Avenue, with the
+Maillard residence a half-dozen blocks distant,
+the two companions found themselves well
+away from the main carnival throngs. Even
+here, however, was no lack of revellers afoot
+for the evening&mdash;stray flotsam of the downtown
+crowds, or members of neighbourhood
+gatherings on their way to entertainment.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As the two walked along they were suddenly
+aware of a lithe figure approaching from
+the rear; with a running leap and an exclamation
+of delight the figure forced itself
+in between them, grasping an arm of either
+man, and a bantering voice broke in upon
+their train of talk.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Forfeit!&quot; it cried. &quot;Forfeit&mdash;where are
+your masks, sober gentlemen? This grave
+physician may be pardoned, but not a domino
+who refuses to mask! And for forfeit you
+shall be my escort and take me whither you
+are going.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Laughing, the two fell into step, glancing
+at the gay figure between them. A Columbine,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16"></a>[pg&nbsp;16]</span>
+she was both cloaked and masked.
+Encircling her hair was a magnificent scarf
+shot with metal designs of solid gold&mdash;a
+most unusual thing. Also, from her words
+it was evident that she had recognized them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Willingly, fair Columbine,&quot; responded Fell
+in his dry and unimpassioned tone of voice.
+&quot;We shall be most happy, indeed, to protect
+and take you with us&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So far as the door, at least,&quot; interrupted
+Ansley, with evident caution. But Fell drily
+laughed aside this wary limitation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nay, good physician, farther!&quot; went on
+Fell. &quot;Our Columbine has an excellent passport,
+I assure you. This gauzy scarf about
+her raven tresses was woven for the good
+Queen Hortense, and I would venture a
+random guess that, clasped about her slender
+throat, lies the queen's collar of star
+sapphires&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh!&quot; From the Columbine broke a cry
+of warning and swift dismay. &quot;Don't you
+dare speak my name, sir&mdash;don't you dare!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell assented with a chuckle, and subsided.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ansley regarded his two companions with
+sidelong curiosity. He could not recognize
+Columbine, and he could not tell whether
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17"></a>[pg&nbsp;17]</span>
+Fell were speaking of the scarf and jewels in
+jest or earnest. Such historic things were
+not uncommon in New Orleans, yet Ansley
+never heard of these particular treasures.
+However, it seemed that Fell knew their companion,
+and accepted her as a fellow guest at
+the Maillard house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What are you doing out on the streets
+alone?&quot; demanded Fell, suddenly. &quot;Haven't
+you any friends or relatives to take care of
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Columbine's laughter pealed out, and she
+pressed Fell's arm confidingly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Have I not some little rights in the world,
+monsieur?&quot; she said in French. &quot;I have
+been mingling with the dear crowds and enjoying
+them, before I go to be buried in the
+dull splendours of the rich man's house.
+Tell me, do you think that the Midnight
+Masquer will make an appearance to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I have every reason to believe that he
+will,&quot; said Jachin Fell, gravely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Columbine put one hand to her throat,
+and shivered a trifle.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You&mdash;you really think so? You are not
+trying to frighten me?&quot; Her voice was no
+longer gay. &quot;But&mdash;the jewels&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18"></a>[pg&nbsp;18]</span>
+&quot;Wear them, wear them!&quot; There was
+command in the tone of Fell. &quot;Were they
+not given you to wear to-night? Then wear
+them, by all means. Don't worry, my dear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Columbine said nothing for a moment; her
+gaiety seemed to be suddenly extinguished
+and quenched. Ansley was wondering uneasily
+at the constraint, when at length she
+broke the silence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Since you have ordered, let the command
+be obeyed!&quot; She essayed a laugh, which appeared
+rather forced. &quot;Yet, if they are lost
+and are taken by the Masquer&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In that case,&quot; said Fell, &quot;let the blame
+be mine entirely. If they are lost, little
+Columbine, others will be lost with them,
+fear not! I think that this party would be
+a rich haul for the Masquer, eh? Take the
+rich man and his friends&mdash;they could bear
+plucking, that crowd! Rogues all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Confound you, Fell!&quot; exclaimed Ansley,
+uneasily. &quot;If the bandit does show up
+there would be the very devil to pay!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And Maillard would do the paying.&quot;
+Fell's dry chuckle held a note of bitterness.
+&quot;Let him. Who cares? Look at his house,
+there, blazing with lights. Who pays for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19"></a>[pg&nbsp;19]</span>
+those lights? The people his financial tentacles
+have closed their sucker-like grip upon.
+His wife's jewels have been purchased with
+the coin of oppression and injustice. His
+son's life is one of roguery and drunken
+wildness&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Man, are you mad?&quot; Ansley indicated the
+Columbine between them. &quot;We're not alone
+here&mdash;you must not talk that way&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell only chuckled again. Columbine's
+laugh broke in with renewed gaiety:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nonsense, my dear Galen! We surely
+may be allowed to be ourselves during carnival!
+Away with the heresies of hypocritical
+society. Our friend speaks the sober
+truth. We masquers may admit among ourselves
+that Bob Maillard is&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is not the man we would have our daughters
+marry, provided we had daughters,&quot;
+said Fell. Then he gestured toward the
+house ahead of them, and his tone changed:
+&quot;Still, now that we are about to enter that
+house, we must remind ourselves of courtesy
+and the limitations of guests. Say no more.
+Produce your invitation, Columbine, for I
+think we shall find that the doors to-night
+are guarded by Cerberus.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20"></a>[pg&nbsp;20]</span>
+They had come to a file of limousines and
+cars, and approached the gateway of the
+Maillard home. They turned into the gate.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The house loomed before them, a great
+house set amid gardens, stately in the fashion
+of olden days. The lower floors were discreetly
+darkened to the streets, but on the
+upper floor, where was the ballroom with
+its floor of cypress, there was a glitter of
+bright lights and open windows. Music
+drifted to them as they approached. Jachin
+Fell touched the arm of Ansley and indicated
+an inconspicuous figure to one side of the
+entrance steps.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;An outer guardian,&quot; he murmured. &quot;Our
+host, it seems, is neglecting no precaution!
+I feel sorry for the Masquer, if he appears
+here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They came to the doorway. Columbine
+produced an invitation, duly numbered, and
+the three entered the house together.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21"></a>[pg&nbsp;21]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a"><i>Masquers</i></p>
+
+<p>JOSEPH MAILLARD might have hopefully
+considered the note from the Midnight
+Masquer to be a hoax perpetrated
+by some of his friends, but he took no chances.
+Two detectives were posted in the grounds outside
+the house; inside, two others, masked
+and costumed, were keeping a quietly efficient
+eye on all that transpired.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Each guest upon entering was conducted
+directly to the presence of Joseph Maillard
+himself, or of his wife; was bidden to unmask
+in this private audience, and was then
+presented with a favour and sent forth masked
+anew to the festivities. These favours were
+concealed, in the case of the ladies, in corsage
+bouquets; in that of the men, inside false
+cigars. There was to be a general opening of
+the favours at midnight, the time set for unmasking.
+All this ceremony was regarded
+by the guests as a delightful innovation, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22"></a>[pg&nbsp;22]</span>
+by Joseph Maillard as a delightful way of
+assuring himself that only the invited guests
+entered his house. Invitations might be
+forged&mdash;faces, never!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie Ledanois entered the presence of her
+stately relative, and after unmasking, dutifully
+exchanged kisses with Mrs. Maillard.
+Until some months previously, until she had
+come into the management of her own
+property&mdash;or what was left of it&mdash;Lucie had
+been the ward of the Maillards. Their former
+attitude of possession still lingered, but
+they were relatives for whom she felt little
+real affection.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mercy, child, how marvellous you look
+to-night!&quot; exclaimed Mrs. Maillard, holding
+her off and examining her high colour with
+obvious suspicion. Mrs. Maillard was herself
+rather plump and red, and stern of eye
+into the bargain. She was a keen, masterful
+woman.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thank you, ma'am,&quot; and Lucie made a
+mock courtesy. &quot;Do you like little Columbine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very much. Here's Aunt Sally; take
+Miss Lucie's cloak, Sally.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">An old coloured servant bobbed her head
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23"></a>[pg&nbsp;23]</span>
+in greeting to Lucie, who removed her cloak.
+As she did so, she saw that Mrs. Maillard's
+voice died away, and that the lady's eyes
+were fastened in utter amazement upon her
+throat.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Isn't it pretty, auntie?&quot; she asked, smilingly.
+This was straining the relationship
+a trifle, but it was a custom which Lucie
+usually followed with the family.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My goodness gracious!&quot; The stern eyes
+hardened. &quot;Where&mdash;where on earth did <i>you</i>
+obtain such a thing? Why&mdash;why&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Columbine's features flinched. She was
+a poor relation, of course, so the look in the
+older woman's eyes and the implication of
+the words formed little less than an insult.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Quietly she put one hand to her throat
+and removed the collar, dropping it into the
+hand of Mrs. Maillard. It was a thing to
+make any woman's eyes widen&mdash;a collar of
+exquisitely wrought gold studded with ten
+great blazing star sapphires. Beside it the
+diamonds that bejewelled Mrs. Maillard's
+ample front looked cold and lifeless.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That?&quot; queried Lucie, innocently, producing
+a scrap of chamois and dabbing at
+her nose. &quot;Oh, that's very interesting! It
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24"></a>[pg&nbsp;24]</span>
+was made for Queen Hortense&mdash;so was this
+scarf that keeps my ragged hair from lopping
+out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You didn't buy them, certainly!&quot; demanded
+Mrs. Maillard.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course not. They were a present&mdash;only
+this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Girl!&quot; The lady's voice was harsh. &quot;A
+present? From whom, if you please?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I promised not to tell; he's a particular
+friend of mine. Aren't the stones
+pretty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mrs. Maillard was speechless. She compressed
+her firm lips and watched Lucie
+replace the sapphire collar without a word to
+offer. Silently she extended a corsage bouquet
+from the pile beside her; then, in a
+trembling voice, forced herself to explain
+about the favour inside.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I hope,&quot; she added, &quot;that before
+receiving any more such valuable presents
+you'll consult <i>me</i>. Of course, if you don't
+wish to tell about this, you needn't; but a
+word of advice will often save a girl from
+making very serious mistakes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thank you, auntie dear,&quot; and Lucie
+nodded as she pinned the bouquet. &quot;You're
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25"></a>[pg&nbsp;25]</span>
+just as dear to me as you can be! See you
+later.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Slipping her mask into place she was gone,
+not without relief. She knew very well that
+within half an hour Bob Maillard would be
+informed that she had accepted gifts of
+jewels from other men, with all the accompanying
+implications and additions that imagination
+could furnish. For, although Bob
+Maillard wanted very much indeed to marry
+her his mother had no intention of sanctioning
+such a union.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Neither has Uncle Joseph,&quot; she reflected,
+smiling to herself, &quot;and neither have I! So
+we're all agreed, except Bob.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Columbine!&quot; A hand fell upon her wrist.
+&quot;Columbine! Turn and confess thy sins!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A cry of instinctive alarm broke from the
+girl; she turned, only to break into a laugh
+of chagrin at her own fright.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She had come to the foot of the wide, old-fashioned
+stairway that led to the floors
+above, and beside her had suddenly appeared
+a Franciscan monk, cowled and gowned in
+sober brown from head to foot.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You frightened me, holy man!&quot; she cried,
+gaily. &quot;Confess to you, indeed! Not I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26"></a>[pg&nbsp;26]</span>
+&quot;Never a better chance, butterfly of the
+world!&quot; It was a voice that she dimly
+recognized, yet she could not name the
+owner: a merry, carefree voice that was
+slightly disguised.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Never a better chance,&quot; and the Franciscan
+offered his arm. &quot;Haste not to the
+dance, fair sister&mdash;tarry a while and invite
+the soul in speech of import! Having passed
+the dragon at the gate, tarry a moment with
+this man of vows&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Shrive me quickly, then,&quot; she said, laughing.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now, without confession? Would you
+have me read your thoughts and give penance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If you can do that, holy man, I may
+confess; so prove it quickly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For the moment they stood alone. Higher
+on the stairs, and among the rooms behind
+them, were gay groups of masquers&mdash;dominoes,
+imposing Mephistos, backwoodsmen,
+gallants of Spain and France, red Indians and
+turbaned Hindus.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Franciscan leaned forward. His voice
+came low, distinct, clear-cut, and he spoke
+in the French which Lucie understood as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27"></a>[pg&nbsp;27]</span>
+another mother-tongue, as do most of the
+older families of New Orleans.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;See how I read them, mademoiselle! One
+thought is of uneasy suspicion; it is typified by
+a hard-lipped, grasping man. One thought is
+of profound regret; it is typified by a darkly
+welling stream of oil. One thought&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Suddenly Lucie had shrunk away from him.
+&quot;Who&mdash;who are you?&quot; she breathed, with a
+gasp that was almost of fear. &quot;Who are
+you, monsieur?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A humble brother of minor orders,&quot; and
+he bowed. &quot;Shall I not continue with my
+reading? The third thought, mademoiselle,
+is one of hope; it is typified by a small man
+who is dressed all in gray&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie turned away from him quickly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think that you have made some grave
+error, monsieur,&quot; she said. Her voice was
+cold, charged with dismissal and offended
+dignity. &quot;I pray you, excuse me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Not waiting any response, she hastily ran
+up the stairs. After her, for a moment,
+gazed the Franciscan, then shrugged his wide
+shoulders and plunged into the crowd.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The ballroom on the top floor was throbbing
+with music, gay with costumes and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28"></a>[pg&nbsp;28]</span>
+decorations, thronged with dancing couples.
+Into the whirl of it pirouetted Columbine.
+Almost at once she found herself dancing
+with a gorgeously attired Musketeer; she
+separated from him as quickly as possible,
+for she recognized him as Bob Maillard. Nor
+did he find her again, although he searched,
+not knowing her identity; for she evaded him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">While she danced, while she chattered and
+laughed and entered into the mad gaiety of
+the evening, Lucie Ledanois could not banish
+from her mind that ominous Franciscan.
+How could he have known? How could he
+have guessed what only she and one other
+barely suspected? There was no proof, of
+course; the very breath of suspicion seemed
+a calumny against an upright man!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Joseph Maillard had sold that Terrebonne
+land six months before any gas or oil had been
+discovered there, and eight months before
+Lucie had come into the management of her
+own affairs. He had not known about the
+minerals, of course; it was a case only of bad
+judgment. Yet, indubitably, he was now a
+shareholder and officer in the Bayou Oil
+Company, the concern which had bought that
+strip of land.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29"></a>[pg&nbsp;29]</span>
+Two years previously Maillard had sold
+that swamp land up in St. Landry parish; the
+land had been drained and sectioned off by
+real estate people at enormous profit.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie strove angrily to banish the dark
+thoughts from her mind. Why, Maillard
+was a rich man, a banker, an honorable
+gentleman! To doubt his honour, although
+he was a harsh and a stern man, was impossible.
+Lucie knew him better than most,
+and could not believe&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;May I crave pardon for my error?&quot; came
+a voice at her elbow. She turned, to see the
+Franciscan again beside her. &quot;With a thousand
+apologies for impertinence, mademoiselle;
+I am very sorry for my faults. Will
+not that admission obtain for me one little
+dance, one hint of forgiveness from fair
+Columbine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Something in his voice spelt sincerity.
+Lucie, smiling, held out her hand.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You are pardoned, holy man. If you
+can dance in that friar's robe, then try it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Could he dance, indeed! Who could not
+dance with Columbine for partner? So saying,
+the monk proved his word by the deed
+and proved it well. Nor did he again hint
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30"></a>[pg&nbsp;30]</span>
+that he had recognized her; until, as they
+parted, he once more left her astonished and
+perturbed. As he bowed he murmured:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Beware, sweet Columbine! Beware of
+the gay Aramis! Beware of his proposals!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He was gone upon the word.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Aramis? Why, that must be the Musketeer,
+of course&mdash;Bob Maillard! The name,
+with its implications, was a clever hit. But
+who was this brown monk, who seemed to
+know so much, who danced so divinely,
+whose French was like music? A vague
+suspicion was in the girl's mind, but she had
+no proof.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Half an hour after this Bob Maillard came
+to her, and with impatient words made a
+path through the circle which surrounded her.
+He caught her hand and bent over it with an
+affectation of gallantry which became him
+well, for in his costume he made a handsome
+figure.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know you now, Lucie!&quot; he murmured.
+&quot;I must see you at once&mdash;in the conservatory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She was minded to refuse, but assented
+briefly. The words of the monk intrigued
+her; what had the man guessed? If Bob
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31"></a>[pg&nbsp;31]</span>
+were indeed about to propose, she would this
+time cut off his hopes for good. But&mdash;was
+it that sort of a proposal?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As she managed to rid herself of her admirers,
+and descended to the conservatory,
+she was highly vexed with herself and the
+Franciscan, and so came to her appointment
+in no equable frame of mind. She found
+Maillard waiting in the old-fashioned conservatory;
+he had unmasked, and was puffing
+a cigarette. His heavy features and bold,
+shrewd eyes were fastened hungrily upon her
+as he came to meet her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;By gad, Lucie, you're beautiful to-night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thanks, cousin Robert. Was it for
+that&mdash;&mdash;?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No! See here, where did you get that
+collar of jewels?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Indeed!&quot; The girl proudly drew herself
+up. &quot;What business is that of yours, sir?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Aren't you one of the family? It's our
+business to protect your rep&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Be careful!&quot; Anger trembled in her voice,
+cut off his words. &quot;Be careful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But damn it&mdash;Lucie! Don't you know
+that I want to marry you&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My dear Robert, I certainly do not want
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id="page32"></a>[pg&nbsp;32]</span>
+to marry any man who swears to my face&mdash;you
+least of all!&quot; she coldly intervened. &quot;I
+have already refused you three times; let this
+be the fourth and last. I owe you no account
+of my possessions nor where I get them; I am
+entirely capable of managing my own affairs.
+Now, kindly inform me why you wished me
+to meet you here. Also, you know that I
+don't like cigarette smoke.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Sulkily, Maillard threw away his cigarette;
+with an effort he calmed himself. He was
+anything but a fool, this young man. He was
+rather clever, and saw that he had so long
+considered his pretty cousin a personal possession
+that he was now in some danger of
+losing her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I have a chance to make some money
+for you in a hurry,&quot; he said. &quot;Your father
+left you a good deal of land up Bayou Terrebonne
+way&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your father sold some of it,&quot; she put in,
+idly. His eyes flickered to the thrust.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes; but you've plenty left, near Paradis.
+It's away from the gas field, but I'm interested
+in an oil company. We've plenty of
+money, and we're going to go strong after the
+liquid gold. That land of yours is good for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33"></a>[pg&nbsp;33]</span>
+nothing else, and if you want to make some
+money out of it I'll swing the company into
+leasing at a good figure and drilling there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You think there's oil on the land?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No.&quot; He made a swift, energetic gesture
+of dissent. &quot;To be frank, I don't. But I'd
+like to throw a bit of luck your way, Lucie.
+We're getting a lot of money into the company,
+and some brains. That fellow Gramont&mdash;the
+prince, you know him&mdash;he's an
+engineer and a geologist, and he's in the
+swim.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So,&quot; the girl smiled a little, &quot;you would
+betray your business friends in order to make
+a bit of money for me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Maillard stared at her. &quot;Well, if you put
+it that way, yes! I'd do more than that
+for&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thank you,&quot; she interrupted, her voice
+cold. &quot;I don't think I'd trust your sagacity
+very far, Robert. Good-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She turned from him and was gone, dancing
+through the great rooms like a true Columbine.
+Later he saw her among the dancers
+above, although he obtained no further speech
+with her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Midnight neared, and brought a concern
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34"></a>[pg&nbsp;34]</span>
+to many; the Midnight Masquer had gained
+his name by invariably appearing a moment
+or two before the stroke of twelve. Jachin
+Fell, who divided his time between enjoying
+the smoking room and wandering about
+among the masquers, perceived that Joseph
+Maillard was watching the time with anxiety.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A large man, stern and a bit scornful of
+look, Maillard was imposing rather than
+handsome. He appeared the typical banker,
+efficient, devoid of all sentiment. Amused
+by the man's evident uneasiness, Jachin
+Fell kept him in view while the moments
+dragged. One might have thought that the
+little gray man was studying the financier
+as an entomologist studies a butterfly on a
+pin.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Shortly before twelve Columbine pirouetted
+up to Jachin Fell and accepted the
+arm he offered her. They were for the moment
+alone, in a corner of the ballroom.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I must see you to-morrow, please,&quot; she
+breathed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Gladly,&quot; he assented. &quot;May I call? It's
+Sunday, you know&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If you will; at three. Something has
+happened, but I cannot speak of it here.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35"></a>[pg&nbsp;35]</span>
+Does any one else know that you&mdash;that you
+are interested in my affairs?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The pale gray eyes of the little gray man
+looked very innocent and wondering.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Certainly not, my dear! Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll tell you to-morrow.&quot; Then she broke
+into a laugh. &quot;Well, it is midnight&mdash;and the
+Masquer has not appeared! I'm almost
+sorry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The lights flickered off for a moment, then
+on again. The signal for unmasking!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The dancing ceased. From the whole
+room arose a babel of voices&mdash;cries of surprise,
+exclamations, merry laughter. Columbine removed
+her mask. An instant later Joseph
+Maillard approached them, chuckling to himself
+and looking hugely relieved.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ha, Lucie! I guessed you beneath the
+Columbine daintiness! Well, Jachin, it was a
+hoax after all, eh? Some confounded joke.
+Come down to the library in five minutes,
+will you? A meeting of the select circle,
+to discuss prohibition.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Aren't you going to invite me, Uncle
+Joseph?&quot; broke in Lucie, gaily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, no, little one!&quot; Maillard reproved
+her, laughingly. &quot;Look not upon the silver
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36"></a>[pg&nbsp;36]</span>
+cup at your age, my dear. Have you examined
+your favour yet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Remembering, the girl caught at her corsage.
+Cries of delight were arising on all
+sides as the favours were revealed&mdash;most
+handsome favours, even for Mardi Gras!
+From the heart of the rosebuds in her hand
+Lucie removed a brooch of old filigree work set
+with a group of pearls. She glanced about
+for Jachin Fell, but he had vanished with
+Maillard. A voice rose at her elbow:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mademoiselle, you are not less lucky than
+beautiful! Pearls to the pearl!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She turned to see the Franciscan&mdash;no
+longer masked, but now gazing at her from
+a frank, laughing countenance, still partially
+veiled by the brown cowl that was drawn up
+close about his head.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Henry Gramont!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;Oh,
+I half suspected that it was you&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you were not sure?&quot; he chuckled.
+&quot;You're not offended with me, Lucie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I should be.&quot; She tossed her head. &quot;You
+were impertinent, M. le prince!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He made a distasteful gesture. &quot;None
+of that, Lucie! You know I don't like it&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, la, la!&quot; she mocked him. &quot;M. le
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37"></a>[pg&nbsp;37]</span>
+prince is seeing America, <i>n'est ce pas</i>? He
+has come to America to find a rich wife, is
+it not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont's face lost its smile, and suddenly
+became almost harsh.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I shall call upon you at four to-morrow,
+Lucie,&quot; he said, abruptly, and turned. Nor
+did he pause to get her reply. An instant
+afterward Lucie was surrounded by a merry
+group of friends, and she saw no more of
+Henry Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">About five minutes later those in the ballroom
+distinctly heard, through the open windows,
+the heavy pulsations of an airplane
+motor.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38"></a>[pg&nbsp;38]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a"><i>The Bandit</i></p>
+
+<p>JOSEPH MAILLARD'S library was on the
+ground floor of the house; it was a sedate
+and stately room, and was invariably
+shut off to itself. Not even to-night, of all
+nights, was it thrown open with the remainder
+of the house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Here, for a good half hour, had been Uncle
+Neb. The old butler was mysteriously engaged
+with certain tall silver goblets, fragrant
+mint, and yet more fragrant&mdash;if illegal&mdash;bottles.
+And it was here that Joseph Maillard
+summoned half a dozen of his particular
+cronies and friends, after the stroke of midnight
+had assured him that there was no danger
+to be expected from the bandit. His
+son was not among the number. The half
+dozen were nearly all elderly men, and,
+with the exception of Jachin Fell, all were
+men of prominent affairs.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">About the table grouped Maillard and his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39"></a>[pg&nbsp;39]</span>
+guests, while in the background hovered
+Uncle Neb, glistening black, hugely important,
+and grinning widely. Fell was the last
+to enter the room, and as he did so old Judge
+Forester turned to him smilingly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, here is an attorney in whom there is
+no guile! Jachin, come and settle a dispute.
+I maintain that the dignity of the law is not
+less now than in the old days; that it has
+merely accommodated itself to changing conditions,
+and that it is a profession for gentlemen
+now as always. Jules, state your
+argument!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jules Delagroux, a white-haired Creole
+lawyer of high standing, smiled a trifle sadly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My case,&quot; he said, &quot;is that the old days
+are dead; that the law is no longer a profession,
+but a following for charlatans. In a
+word, that the law has been killed by the
+lawyers.&quot; He gestured finality and glanced
+at Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So?&quot; Jachin Fell smiled in his shy fashion.
+&quot;Gentlemen, I heartily agree with you both.
+I am an attorney, but I do not practise because
+I cannot accommodate myself to those
+very changing conditions of which Judge
+Forester speaks. To-day, the lawyer must
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40"></a>[pg&nbsp;40]</span>
+be a politician; he must be an adept in the
+trick of words and deeds; he must be able not
+to serve his profession but to make it serve
+him, and he must remember always that the
+rights of property are more sacred than those
+of life and liberty. Otherwise, he will remain
+honest and poor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">An ejaculation of &quot;True&quot; from the judge
+brought smiles. Jachin Fell continued whimsically:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Regarding these very conditions many
+years ago, gentlemen, I was tempted to
+change my profession&mdash;but to what? I was
+tempted to enter the church until I saw
+that the same conditions hold good of a
+clergyman. I was tempted to enter medicine
+until I saw that they also held true of a doctor.
+I was tempted to other things, always with
+the like result. Well, you know the story
+of Aunt Dixie and her black underwear&mdash;'Honey,
+I ain't ashamed of mah grief; when
+I mourns, I <i>mourns</i>!' Even so with the
+law&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A burst of laughter drowned him out,
+and the original argument was forgotten.
+Maillard, standing before a small wall safe
+that flanked the open hearth, lifted his silver
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41"></a>[pg&nbsp;41]</span>
+goblet, asteam with beads. The moment for
+which he had been waiting was here; he
+launched his little thunderbolt with an air
+of satisfied importance.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My friends, I have a confession to make!&quot;
+he announced. &quot;To-day I received a note
+from the Midnight Masquer stating that
+he would be with us this evening, presumably
+at the hour of midnight, his usual time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">These words brought an instant silence.
+Uncle Neb, from his corner, uttered a startled
+&quot;Fore de lawd!&quot; that rang through the
+room; yet no one smiled. The half-dozen
+men were tense, watchful, astonished. But
+Maillard swung up his silver cup and laughed
+gaily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I took full precautions, gentlemen. The
+hour of danger is past, and the notorious
+bandit has not arrived&mdash;or, if he has arrived,
+he is now in the hands of the law. After
+all, that note may have been something in
+the nature of a carnival jest! So up with
+your cups, my friends&mdash;a lifelong health to
+Mardi Gras, and damnation to prohibition
+and the Midnight Masquer!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">From everyone broke a swift assent to
+the toast, a murmur of relieved tension. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id="page42"></a>[pg&nbsp;42]</span>
+silver goblets were lifted, touched in a musical
+clinking of edges, and the aromatic breath
+of juleps filled the library as the drinkers, in
+true Southern fashion, buried noses in the
+fragrant mint. Then, as the cups were lowered,
+from the recess of the curtained windows
+at one end of the room came a quiet voice:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I thank you, gentlemen! But I must remind
+you, Maillard, that there was not a
+time limit set in the note.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With a simultaneous gasp everyone turned.
+Maillard staggered; his face went livid.
+Uncle Neb, who had been advancing to refill
+the cups, dropped his silver tray with a crash
+that went unheeded, indeed unheard. Every
+eye was fastened upon that amazing figure
+now advancing from the shadows of the
+recess.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was the figure of an aviator, clad in
+leather from top to toe, the goggles and helmet
+shield completely masking his head and
+features from recognition. In his hand he
+held an automatic pistol, which covered the
+group of men before him with its threatening
+mouth.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not a sound, if you please,&quot; he warned,
+his voice thin and nasal&mdash;obviously disguised.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43"></a>[pg&nbsp;43]</span>
+&quot;I trust that none of you gentlemen is armed,
+because I am very quick on the trigger. A
+very pleasant surprise, Maillard? You'd
+given me up, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For an instant no one spoke. Then Maillard
+moved slightly, moved his hand toward
+a button set in the wall near the safe. The
+voice of the bandit leaped out at him like
+thin steel:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Quiet, you fool! If you touch that button&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Maillard stiffened, and gripped the table
+edge with his shaking hand.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is an outrage, suh!&quot; began Judge
+Forester, his white goatee bristling. The
+bandit bowed slightly, and addressed the
+gathering in a tone of dry raillery:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;An outrage? Exactly. You were just
+now discussing the majesty of the law. Well,
+I assure you that I found your discussion
+intensely interesting. Mr. Fell correctly
+stated that the rights of property are more
+sacred in legal eyes than the rights of human
+life. You see, gentlemen, the discussion
+touched me very closely!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I am now engaged in outraging the law,
+and I have this amendment to propose to Mr.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44"></a>[pg&nbsp;44]</span>
+Fell: That if he had been tempted to follow
+the profession of a robber he would have
+found the same conditions prevailing which
+he quoted as applying to other professions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell, alone of those about the table,
+allowed a smile to curve his lips.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The rights of property,&quot; pursued the
+bandit with a deadly smoothness, &quot;are to
+me, also, far more sacred than human life;
+there I agree with the law. So, gentlemen,
+kindly empty your pockets on the table.&quot;
+His voice became crisp. &quot;The jewelled scarf-pins
+which you received as favours this evening
+may be added to the collection; otherwise,
+I shall not touch your private possessions.
+No watches, thank you. Maillard, kindly
+begin! I believe that you carry a wallet?
+If you please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The banker could not but obey. His
+hands trembling with fear and rage, he took
+from his pocket a wallet, and emptied a sheaf
+of bills upon the table. One after another,
+the other men followed his example. The
+bandit made no attempt to search them,
+but watched with eyes that glittered from
+behind his mask as they laid money and scarf-pins
+on the table. When it came his turn,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45"></a>[pg&nbsp;45]</span>
+Jachin Fell drew a single bill from his pocket,
+and laid it down.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You put some faith in that warning, Mr.
+Fell?&quot; The bandit laughed. &quot;Do you think
+that you will know me again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I hardly believe so, sir,&quot; answered Fell
+in his apologetic fashion. &quot;Your disguise
+is really excellent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thank you.&quot; The bandit's voice held a
+thin mockery. &quot;Coming from you, sir, that
+compliment is most welcome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What the devil does the fellow mean?&quot;
+exploded Judge Forester.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then you are not aware that Mr. Fell is a
+man of large affairs?&quot; The bandit's white
+teeth flashed in a smile. &quot;He is a modest
+man, this attorney! And a dangerous man
+also, I assure you. But come, Mr. Fell,
+I'll not betray you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell obviously did not appreciate
+the pleasantry. His shy and wondering features
+assumed a set and hardened look.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Whoever you are,&quot; he responded, a subtle
+click of anger in his tone, &quot;you shall be punished
+for this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;For what, Mr. Fell? For knowing too
+much of your private affairs?&quot; The bandit
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46"></a>[pg&nbsp;46]</span>
+laughed. &quot;Fear not&mdash;I am only an amateur
+at this game, fortunately! So do your worst,
+and my blessing upon you! Now, gentlemen,
+kindly withdraw a few paces and join
+Uncle Neb yonder against the wall. All but
+you, Maillard; I'm not through with you
+yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The automatic pistol gestured; under its
+menace everyone obeyed the command, for
+the calm assurance of the bandit made it
+seem extremely likely that he would use the
+weapon without compunction. The men
+withdrew toward the far end of the room,
+where a word from the aviator halted them.
+Maillard remained standing where he was, his
+heavy features now mottled with impotent
+anger.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Masquer advanced to the table and
+gathered the heap of money and scarfpins
+into the leathern pocket of his coat. During
+the process his gaze did not waver from the
+group of men, nor did the threat of his weapon
+lift from the banker before him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now, Maillard,&quot; he quietly ordered, &quot;you
+will have the kindness to turn around and
+open the wall safe behind you. And don't
+touch the button.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47"></a>[pg&nbsp;47]</span>
+Maillard started.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That safe! Why&mdash;why&mdash;damn you, I'll
+do nothing of the sort!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If you don't,&quot; was the cool threat, &quot;I'll
+shoot you through the abdomen. A man
+fears a bullet there worse than death. It
+may kill you, and it may not; really, I care
+very little. You&mdash;you financier!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Scorn leaped into the quiet voice, scorn
+that lashed and bit deep.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You money trickster! Do you think I
+would spare such a man as you? You draw
+your rents from the poor and destitute, your
+mortgages cover half the parishes in the
+state, and in your heart is neither compassion
+nor pity for man or woman. You take the
+property of others from behind the safety
+curtain of the law; I do it from behind a
+pistol! I rob only those who can afford to
+lose&mdash;am I really as bad as you, in the eyes
+of morality and ethics? Bah! I could shoot
+you down without a qualm!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In his voice was so deadly a menace that
+Maillard trembled. Yet the banker drew
+himself up and struggled for self-control,
+stung as he was by this flood of vituperation
+before the group of his closest friends.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48"></a>[pg&nbsp;48]</span>
+&quot;There is nothing of mine in that safe,&quot;
+he said, his voice a low growl. &quot;I have given
+it to my son to use. He is not here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That,&quot; said the Masquer, calmly, &quot;is
+exactly why I desire you to open it. Your
+son must make his contribution, for I keenly
+regret his absence. If you are a criminal,
+he is worse! You rob and steal under shelter
+of the law, but you have certain limitations,
+certain bounds of an almost outgrown honour.
+He has none, that son of yours. Why, he
+would not hesitate to turn your own tricks
+back upon you, to rob <i>you</i>, if he could! Open
+that safe or take the consequences; no more
+talk, now!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The command cracked out like a whiplash.
+With a shrug of helplessness the banker
+turned and fumbled with the protruding
+knob of the safe. With one exception all
+eyes were fastened upon this amazing Masquer.
+The exception was Jachin Fell, who,
+suddenly alert and watchful, had turned his
+attention to Maillard and the safe, a keen
+speculation in his gaze as though he were
+wondering what that steel vault would produce.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">All were silent. There was something about
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49"></a>[pg&nbsp;49]</span>
+this Midnight Masquer that held them intently.
+Perhaps some were inclined to think
+him a jester, one of the party masquerading
+under the famous bandit's guise; if so, his
+last words to Maillard had removed all such
+thought. That indictment had been deadly
+and terrible&mdash;and true, as they knew. Bob
+Maillard was not greatly admired by those
+among his father's friends who best knew
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Now the door of the safe swung open. The
+compartments appeared empty.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Take out the drawers and turn them up
+over the table,&quot; commanded the Masquer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Maillard obeyed. He took several of the
+small drawers, and all proved to be empty;
+this development drew a dry chuckle from
+Jachin Fell. Then, from the last drawer,
+there fell out on the table a large envelope,
+sealed. The Masquer leaned forward, seized
+upon this envelope, and crushed it into his
+pocket.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thank you,&quot; he observed. &quot;That is all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Damn you!&quot; cried Maillard, shaking a
+fist. &quot;You'd try blackmail, would you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The bandit regarded him a moment, then
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50"></a>[pg&nbsp;50]</span>
+&quot;If you knew what was in that envelope,
+my dear financier, you might not speak so
+hastily. If I knew what was in it, I might
+answer you. But I don't know. I only suspect&mdash;and
+hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">While he spoke the bandit was backing
+toward the door that opened upon the lower
+hallway of the house. He drew this door
+open, glanced swiftly out into the hall, and
+then placed the key on the outside.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And now, my friends&mdash;<i>au revoir</i>!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Masquer sprang backward into the
+hall. The door slammed, the key clicked.
+He was gone!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Maillard was the first to wake into voice
+and action. &quot;The other door!&quot; he cried.
+&quot;Into the dining room&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He flung open a second door and dashed
+into the dining room, followed by the other
+men. Here the windows, giving upon the
+garden, were open. Then Maillard came to a
+sudden halt, and after him the others; through
+the night was pulsating, with great distinctness,
+the throbbing roar of an airplane motor!
+From Maillard broke a bitter cry:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The detectives&mdash;I'll get the fools here!
+You gentlemen search the house; Uncle Neb,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51"></a>[pg&nbsp;51]</span>
+go with them, into every room! That fellow
+can't possibly have escaped&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No word of alarm to the ladies,&quot; exclaimed
+Judge Forester, hurriedly. &quot;If he
+was not upstairs, then they have seen nothing
+of him. We must divide and search.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They hastily separated. Maillard dashed
+away to summon the detectives, also to get
+other men to aid in the search.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The result was vain. Within twenty minutes
+the entire house, from cellar to garret,
+had been thoroughly gone over, without
+causing any alarm to the dancers in the ballroom.
+Maillard began to think himself a
+little mad. No one had been seen to enter or
+leave the house, and certainly there had been
+no airplane about. The Masquer had not
+appeared except in the library, and now he was
+most indubitably not in the house. By all
+testimony, he had neither entered it nor left it!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I'm damned!&quot; said Maillard, helplessly,
+to Judge Forester, when the search
+was concluded. &quot;Not a trace of the scoundrel!
+Here, Fell&mdash;can't you help us out?
+Haven't you discovered a thing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nothing,&quot; responded Jachin Fell, calmly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At this instant Bob Maillard rushed up. He
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52"></a>[pg&nbsp;52]</span>
+had just learned of the Masquer's visit. In
+response to his excited questioning his father
+described the scene in the library and added:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I trust there was nothing important
+among those papers of yours, Robert?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; said the younger man. &quot;No. Nothing
+valuable at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Henry Gramont was passing. He caught
+the words and paused, his gaze resting for an
+instant upon the group. A faint smile rested
+upon his rather harshly drawn features.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I just found this,&quot; he announced, holding
+out a paper. &quot;It was pinned to the outside
+of the library door. I presume that
+your late visitor left it as a memento?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell took the paper, the other men
+crowding around him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, Maillard! The same handwriting
+as that of your letter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Upon the paper was pencilled a single hasty
+line:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="center">My compliments to Robert Maillard&mdash;and my
+thanks.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">Bob Maillard sprang forward, angrily inspecting
+the paper. When he relinquished
+it, Fell calmly claimed it again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53"></a>[pg&nbsp;53]</span>
+&quot;Confound the rogue!&quot; muttered the
+banker's son, turning away. His features
+were pale, perhaps with anger. &quot;There was
+nothing but stock certificates in that envelope&mdash;and
+they can be reissued.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The festivities were not broken up. As
+much could hardly be said for the host, who
+felt keenly the verbal lashing that had been
+administered to him before his friends. News
+of the robbery gradually leaked out among the
+guests; the generally accepted verdict was that
+the Masquer had appeared, only to be frightened
+away before he could secure any loot.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was nearly two in the morning when
+Jachin Fell, who was leaving, encountered
+Henry Gramont at the head of the wide
+stairway. He halted and turned to the
+younger man.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah&mdash;have you a pencil, if you please?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think so, Mr. Fell.&quot; Gramont felt
+beneath his Franciscan's robe, and extended
+a pencil.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell examined it, brought a paper
+from beneath his domino, and wrote down a
+word. The paper was that on which the
+farewell message of the Midnight Masquer
+had been written.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54"></a>[pg&nbsp;54]</span>
+&quot;A hard lead, a very hard point indeed!&quot;
+said Fell. He pocketed the paper again and
+regarded Gramont steadily as he returned
+the pencil. &quot;Few men carry so hard a pencil,
+sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're quite right,&quot; and Gramont smiled.
+&quot;I borrowed this from Bob Maillard only a
+moment ago. Its hardness surprised me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh!&quot; said Jachin Fell, mildly. &quot;By the
+way, aren't you the Prince de Gramont?
+When we met this evening, you were introduced
+as plain Mr. Gramont, but it seems to
+me that I had heard something&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Quite a mistake, Mr. Fell. I'm no prince;
+simply Henry Gramont, and nothing more.
+Also, an American citizen. Some of these
+New Orleans people can't forget the prince
+business, most unfortunately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, yes,&quot; agreed Fell, shyly. &quot;Do you
+know, a most curious thing&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes?&quot; prompted Gramont, his eyes intent
+upon the little gray man.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That paper you brought us&mdash;the paper
+which you found pinned to the library door,&quot;
+said Fell, apologetically. &quot;Do you know,
+Mr. Gramont, that oddly enough there were
+no pin holes in that paper?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55"></a>[pg&nbsp;55]</span>
+Gramont smiled faintly, as though he were
+inwardly amused over the remark.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not at all curious,&quot; he said, his voice
+level. &quot;It was pinned rather stoutly&mdash;I tore
+off the portion bearing the message. I'll
+wager that you'll find the end of the paper
+still on the door downstairs. You might make
+certain that its torn edge fits that of the
+paper in your pocket; if it did not, then the
+fact <i>would</i> be curious! I am most happy to
+have met you, Mr. Fell. I trust that we shall
+meet again, often.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With a smile, he extended his hand, which
+Mr. Fell shook cordially.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As Jachin Fell descended the wide staircase
+his face was red&mdash;quite red. One would
+have said that he had just been worsted in
+some encounter, and that the sense of defeat
+still rankled within him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Upon gaining the lower hall he glanced
+at the door of the library. There, still pinned
+to the wood where it had been unregarded
+by the passersby, was a small scrap of paper.
+Mr. Fell glanced at it again, then shook his
+head and slowly turned away, as though resisting
+a temptation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; he muttered. &quot;No. It would be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56"></a>[pg&nbsp;56]</span>
+sure to fit the paper in my pocket. It would
+be sure to fit, confound him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A little later he left the house and walked
+along the line of cars that were waiting parked
+in the drive and in the street outside. Before
+one of the cars he came to a halt, examining
+it closely. The sleepy chauffeur got out
+and touched his cap in a military salute;
+he was a sturdy young fellow, his face very
+square and blunt.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A very handsome car. May I ask whose
+it is?&quot; inquired Fell, mildly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mr. Gramont's, sir,&quot; answered the chauffeur.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, thank you. A very handsome car indeed.
+Good-night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Fell walked away, striding briskly
+down the avenue. When he approached
+the first street light he came to a pause,
+and began softly to pat his person as though
+searching for something.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I told you that you'd pay for knowing
+too much about me, young man!&quot; he said,
+softly. &quot;What's this, now&mdash;what's this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A slight rustle of paper, as he walked
+along, had attracted his attention. He
+passed his hands over the loose, open domino
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57"></a>[pg&nbsp;57]</span>
+that cloaked him; he detected a scrap of paper
+pinned to it in the rear. He loosened the
+paper, and under the street light managed
+to decipher the writing which it bore.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A faint smile crept to his lips as he read
+the pencilled words:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I do not love you, Jachin Fell,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">The reason why I cannot tell;</span><br />
+<span class="i0">But this I know, and know full well,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">I do not love you, Jachin Fell!</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Certainly the fellow has wit, if not originality,&quot;
+muttered Mr. Fell, as he carefully
+stowed away the paper. The writing upon
+it was in the hand of the Midnight Masquer.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58"></a>[pg&nbsp;58]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>Callers</i></p>
+
+<p>THE house in which Lucie Ledanois
+lived had been her mother's; the furniture
+and other things in it had been
+her mother's; the two negro servants, who
+spoke only the Creole French patois, had
+been her mother's. It was a small house,
+but very beautiful inside. The exterior betrayed
+a lack of paint or the money with
+which to have painting done.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Ledanois family, although distantly
+connected with others such as the Maillards,
+had sent forth its final bud of fruition in the
+girl Lucie. Her mother had died while she
+was yet an infant, and through the years
+she had companioned her father, an invalid
+during the latter days. He had never been
+a man to count dollars or costs, and to a large
+extent he had outworn himself and the family
+fortunes in a vain search for health.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With Lucie he had been in Europe at the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59"></a>[pg&nbsp;59]</span>
+outbreak of war, and had come home to
+America only to die shortly afterward. Once
+deprived of his fine recklessness, the girl had
+found her affairs in a bad tangle. Under
+the guardianship of Maillard the tangle
+had been somewhat resolved and simplified,
+but even Maillard would appear to have
+made mistakes, and of late Lucie had against
+her will suspected something amiss in the
+matter of these mistakes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was natural, then, that she should take
+Jachin Fell into her confidence. Maillard
+had been her guardian, but it was to Fell
+that she had always come with her girlish
+cares and troubles, during even the lifetime
+of her father. She had known Fell all her
+life; she had met him in strange places, both
+at home and abroad. She entertained a well-grounded
+suspicion that Jachin Fell had loved
+her mother, and this one fact lay between
+them, never mentioned but always there,
+like a bond of faith and kindliness.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At precisely three o'clock of the Sunday
+afternoon Jachin Fell rang the doorbell
+and Lucie herself admitted him. She ushered
+him into the parlour that was restful with its
+quiet brasses and old rosewood.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60"></a>[pg&nbsp;60]</span>
+&quot;Tell me quickly, Uncle Jachin!&quot; eagerly
+exclaimed the girl. &quot;Did you actually see
+the Midnight Masquer last night? I didn't
+know until afterward that he had really been
+downstairs and had robbed&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I saw him, my dear,&quot; and the little gray
+man smiled. There was more warmth to
+his smile than usual just now. Perhaps
+it was a reflection from the eager vitality
+which so shone in the eyes of Lucie. &quot;I
+saw him, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A restful face was hers&mdash;not beautiful at
+first glance; a little too strong for beauty
+one would say. The deep gray eyes were
+level and quiet and wide apart, and on most
+occasions were quite inscrutable. They were
+now filled with a quick eagerness as they
+rested upon Jachin Fell. Lucie called him
+uncle, but not as she called Joseph Maillard
+uncle; here was no relationship, no formal
+affectation of relationship, but a purely abiding
+trust and friendship.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell had done more for Lucie than
+she herself knew or would know; without her
+knowledge he had quietly taken care of her
+finances to an appreciable extent. Between
+them lay an affection that was very real.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61"></a>[pg&nbsp;61]</span>
+Lucie, better than most, knew the extraordinary
+capabilities of this little gray man; yet
+not even Lucie guessed a tenth of the character
+that lay beneath his surface. To her
+he was never reserved or secretive. Nonetheless,
+she touched sometimes an impenetrable
+wall that seemed ever present within
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You saw him?&quot; repeated the girl, quickly.
+&quot;What was he like? Do you know who he
+is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Certainly I know,&quot; replied Fell, still
+smiling at her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh! Then who is he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Softly, softly, young lady! I know him,
+but even to you I dare not breathe his name
+until I obtain some direct evidence. Let us
+call him Mr. X., after the approved methods
+of romance, and I shall expound what I know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He groped in his vest pocket. Lucie sprang
+up, bringing a smoking stand from the corner
+of the room to his chair. She held a match to
+his El Rey, and then curled up on a Napoleon
+bed and watched him intently while he spoke.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The bandit did not enter the house during
+the evening, nor did he leave, nor was he
+found in the house afterward,&quot; he said, tonelessly.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62"></a>[pg&nbsp;62]</span>
+&quot;So, incredible as it may appear,
+he was one of the guests. This Mr. X. came
+to the dance wearing the aviator's costume,
+or most of it, underneath his masquerade
+costume. When he was ready to act, he
+doffed his outer costume, appeared as the
+Midnight Masquer, effected his purpose, then
+calmly donned his outer costume again and
+resumed his place among the guests. You
+understand?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, then! Maillard yesterday received
+a note from the Masquer, brazenly stating
+that he intended to call during the evening.
+I have that note. It was written with an
+extremely hard lead pencil, such as few men
+carry, because it does not easily make very
+legible writing. Last night I asked Mr. X.
+for a pencil, and he produced one with an
+extra hard lead&mdash;mentioning that he had
+borrowed it from Bob Maillard, as indeed he
+had.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What! Surely, you don't mean&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course I don't. Mr. X. is very clever,
+that's all. Here is what took place last night.
+Mr. X. brought us another note from the
+Masquer, saying that he had found it pinned
+to the library door. As a matter of fact,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63"></a>[pg&nbsp;63]</span>
+he had written it on a leaf torn from his notebook.
+I took the note from him, observing
+at the time that the paper had no pin holes.
+Probably, Mr. X. saw that there was something
+amiss; he presently went back downstairs,
+took the remainder of the torn leaf
+from his notebook, and pinned it to the door.
+A little later, I met him and mentioned the
+lack of pin holes; he calmly referred me to
+the piece on the door, saying that he had
+merely torn off the note without removing
+the pins. You follow me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course,&quot; murmured the girl, her eyes
+wide in fascinated interest. &quot;And he knew
+that you guessed him to be the Masquer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He suspected me, I think,&quot; said Fell,
+mildly. &quot;It is understood that you will not
+go about tracing these little clues? I do not
+wish to disclose his identity, even to your
+very discreet brain&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't be silly, Uncle Jachin!&quot; she broke
+in. &quot;You know I'll do nothing of the sort.
+Go on, please! Did you find the airplane?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes.&quot; Jachin Fell smiled drily. &quot;I was
+thinking of that as I left the house and came
+to the line of waiting automobiles. A word
+with one of the outside detectives showed me
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64"></a>[pg&nbsp;64]</span>
+that one of the cars in the street had been
+testing its engine about midnight. I found
+that the car belonged to Mr. X.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How simple, Lucie, and how very clever!
+The chauffeur worked a powerful motor
+with a muffler cutout at about the time Mr.
+X., inside the house, was making his appearance.
+It scarcely sounded like an airplane
+motor, yet frightened and startled, people
+would imagine that it did. Thus arose the
+legend that the Midnight Masquer came
+and departed by means of airplane&mdash;a theory
+aided ingeniously by his costume. Well,
+that is all I know or suspect, my dear Lucie!
+And now&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now, I suppose,&quot; said the girl, thoughtfully,
+&quot;you'll put that awful Creole of yours
+on the track of Mr. X.? Ben Chacherre is
+a good chauffeur, and he's amusing enough&mdash;but
+he's a bloodhound! I don't wonder that
+he used to be a criminal. Even if you have
+rescued him from a life of crime, you haven't
+improved his looks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Exactly&mdash;Ben is at work,&quot; assented Jachin
+Fell. &quot;The gentleman under suspicion is
+very prominent. To accuse him without
+proof would be utter folly. To catch him
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65"></a>[pg&nbsp;65]</span>
+<i>in flagrante delicto</i> will be difficult. So, I am
+in no haste. He will not disappear, believe
+me, and something may turn up at any moment
+to undo him. Besides, I can as yet
+discover no motive for his crimes, since he is
+quite well off financially.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Gambling,&quot; suggested the girl.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I cannot find that he has lost any considerable
+sums. Well, no matter! Now that
+I have fully unbosomed myself, my dear, it is
+your turn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All right, Uncle Jachin.&quot; Lucie took
+a large morocco case from the chair beside
+her, and extended it. &quot;You lent me these
+things to wear last night, and I&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, no,&quot; intervened Fell. &quot;I gave them
+to you, my dear&mdash;in fact, I bought them for
+you two years ago, and kept them until now!
+You have worn them; they are yours, and
+you become them better than even did poor
+Queen Hortense! So say no more. I trust
+that Mrs. Maillard was righteous and envious?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She was disagreeable,&quot; said Lucie. She
+leaned forward and imprinted a kiss upon
+the cheek of the little gray man. &quot;There!
+that is all the thanks I can give you, dear
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66"></a>[pg&nbsp;66]</span>
+uncle; the gift makes me very happy, and I'll
+not pretend otherwise. Only, I feel as though
+I had no right to wear them&mdash;they're so
+wonderful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nonsense! You can do anything you
+want to, as Eliza said when she crossed the
+ice. But all this isn't why you summoned
+me here, you bundle of mystery! What
+bothered you last night, or rather, who?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie laughed. &quot;There was a Franciscan
+who tried to be very mysterious, and to read
+my mind. He talked about oil, about a
+grasping, hard man, and mentioned you as
+my friend. Then he warned me against a proposal
+that Bob might make; and sure enough,
+Bob did propose to buy what land is left to
+me on Bayou Terrebonne, saying he'd persuade
+his oil company that there was oil on
+it, and that they'd buy or lease it. I told
+him no. The Franciscan, afterward, proved
+to be Henry Gramont; I wondered if you had
+mentioned&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Heaven forbid!&quot; exclaimed Mr. Fell, piously.
+&quot;I never even met Gramont until
+last night! Do you like him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very much.&quot; The girl's eyes met his
+frankly. &quot;Do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67"></a>[pg&nbsp;67]</span>
+&quot;Very much,&quot; said Jachin Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie's gray eyes narrowed, searched his
+face. &quot;I'm almost able to tell when you're
+lying,&quot; she observed, calmly. &quot;You said
+that a trifle too hastily, Uncle Jachin. Why
+don't you like him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell laughed, amused. &quot;Perhaps I have
+a prejudice against foreign nobles, Lucie.
+Our own aristocracy is bad enough, but&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He's discarded all that. He was never
+French except in name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You speak as though you'd known him for
+some time. Have you had secrets from me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I have!&quot; laughter dimpled in the girl's
+face. &quot;For years and years! When I was
+in New York with father, before the war, we
+met him; he was visiting in Newport with
+college friends. Then, you know that father
+and I were in France when the war broke
+out&mdash;father was ill and almost helpless at
+the time, you remember. Gramont came
+to Paris to serve with his regiment, and met
+us there. He helped us get away, procured
+real money for us, got us passage to New
+York. He knows lots of our friends, and
+I've always been deeply grateful to him for
+his assistance then.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68"></a>[pg&nbsp;68]</span>
+&quot;We've corresponded quite frequently during
+the war,&quot; she pursued. &quot;I mentioned
+him several times after we got home from
+France, but you probably failed to notice
+the name. It's only since he came to New
+Orleans that I really kept any secrets from
+you; this time, I wanted to find out if you
+liked him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell nodded slowly. His face was
+quite innocent of expression.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; he said. &quot;Yes&mdash;of course.
+He's a geologist or engineer, I think?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Both, and a good one. He's a stockholder
+in Bob Maillard's oil company, and I
+think he's come here to stay. Well, about
+last night&mdash;he probably guessed at some of
+my private affairs; I've written or spoken
+rather frankly, perhaps. Also, Bob may
+have blabbed to him. Bob still drinks&mdash;prohibition
+has not hit <i>him</i> very hard!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; agreed Fell, gravely. &quot;Unfortunately,
+no. Lucie, I've discovered a most
+important fact. Joseph Maillard did not
+own any stock in the Bayou Oil Company
+at the time your land was sold them by him,
+and he had no interest at all in the real estate
+concern that bought your St. Landry swamplands
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69"></a>[pg&nbsp;69]</span>
+and made a fortune off them. We
+have really blamed him most unjustly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For a moment there was silence between
+them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We need not mince matters,&quot; pursued
+Fell, slowly. &quot;Maillard has no scruples and
+no compassion; all the same, I am forced
+to the belief that he has maintained your
+interest uprightly, and that his mistakes
+were only errors. I do not believe that he
+has profited in the least from you. Two small
+fortunes were swept out of your grip when he
+sold those lands; yet they had been worthless,
+and he had good offers for them. His
+investments in the companies concerned were
+made afterward, and I am certain he sold the
+lands innocently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie drew a deep breath.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I am glad you have said this,&quot; she returned,
+simply. &quot;It's been hard for me to
+think that Uncle Joseph had taken advantage
+of me; I simply couldn't make myself
+believe it. I think that he honestly likes
+me, as far as he permits himself to like any
+one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He'd not loan you money on it,&quot; said
+Fell. &quot;Friendship isn't a tangible security
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70"></a>[pg&nbsp;70]</span>
+with him. And a girl is never secure, as
+Eliza said when she crossed the ice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, who really did profit by my loss?
+Any one?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell's pale gray eyes twinkled, then cleared
+in their usually wide innocence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My dear Lucie, is there one person in
+this world to whose faults Joseph Maillard is
+deliberately blind&mdash;one person to whose influence
+he is ever open&mdash;one person to whom
+he would refuse nothing, in whom he would
+pardon everything, of whom he would never
+believe any evil report?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You mean&mdash;&mdash;&quot; Lucie drew a quick breath,
+&quot;Bob?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I mean Bob. That he has profited
+by your loss I am not yet in a position to
+say; but I suspect it. He has his father's
+cupidity without his father's sense of honour
+to restrain him. When I have finished with
+the Masquer, I shall take up his trail.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell rose. &quot;Now I must be off,
+my dear. By the way, if I have need of you
+in running down the Masquer, may I call
+upon your services?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Certainly! I'd love to help, Uncle Jachin!
+We'd be real detectives?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71"></a>[pg&nbsp;71]</span>
+&quot;Almost.&quot; Jachin Fell smiled slightly.
+&quot;Will you dine with us to-morrow evening,
+Lucie? My mother commanded me to bring
+you as soon as possible&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, your mother!&quot; exclaimed the girl,
+contritely. &quot;I was so absorbed in the Masquer
+that I forgot to ask after her. How is
+she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Quite as usual, thank you. I presume
+that you'll attend Comus with the Maillards?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes. I'll come to-morrow night gladly,
+Uncle Jachin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And we'll take a look at the Proteus ball
+afterward, if you like. I'll send Ben Chacherre
+for you with the car, if you're not
+afraid of him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie looked gravely into the smiling eyes
+of Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm not exactly afraid of him,&quot; she responded,
+soberly, &quot;but there is something
+about him that I can't like. I'm sorry that
+you're trying to regenerate him, in a way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell shrugged lightly. &quot;All life is an effort,
+little one! Well, good-bye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell left the house at three-forty.
+Twenty minutes later the bell rang again.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72"></a>[pg&nbsp;72]</span>
+Lucie sent one of the servants to admit Henry
+Gramont; she kept him waiting a full fifteen
+minutes before she appeared, and then she
+made no apologies whatever for the delay.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Not that Gramont minded waiting; he
+deemed it a privilege to linger in this house!
+He loved to study the place, so reflective of
+its owner. He loved the white Colonial mantel
+that surrounded the fireplace, perpetually
+alight, with its gleaming sheen of old brasses,
+and the glittering fire-set to one side. The
+very air of the place, the atmosphere that it
+breathed, was sweet to him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Napoleon bed that filled the bow
+window, with its pillows and soft coverings;
+the inlaid walnut cabinet made by Sheraton,
+with its quaintly curved glasses that reflected
+the old-time curios within; the tilt
+tables, the rosewood chairs, the rugs, bought
+before the oriental rug market was flooded
+with machine-made Senna knots&mdash;about
+everything here had an air of comfort, of long
+use, of restfulness. It was not the sort of
+place built up, raw item by raw item, by the
+colour-frenzied hands of decorators. It was
+the sort of place that decorators strive desperately
+to imitate, and cannot.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73"></a>[pg&nbsp;73]</span>
+When Lucie made her appearance, Gramont
+bent over her hand and addressed her
+in French.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You are charming as ever, Shining One!
+And in years to come you will be still more
+charming. That is the beauty of having a
+name taken direct from the classics and bestowed
+as a good fairy's gift&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thank you, monsieur&mdash;but you have
+translated my name at least twenty times,
+and I am weary of hearing it,&quot; responded
+Lucie, laughingly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Poor taste, mademoiselle, to grow weary
+of such beauty!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not of the name, but of your exegesis
+upon it. Why should I not be displeased?
+Last night you were positively rude, and
+now you decry my taste! Did you leave
+all your manners in France, M. le prince?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Some of them, yes&mdash;and all that prince
+stuff with them.&quot; Smiling as he dropped into
+English, Gramont glanced about the room,
+and his eyes softened.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is a lovey and loveable home of
+yours, Lucie!&quot; he exclaimed, gravely. &quot;So
+few homes are worthy the name; so few have
+in them the intimate air of use and friendliness&mdash;why
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74"></a>[pg&nbsp;74]</span>
+are so many furnished from
+bargain sales? This place is touched with
+repose and sweetness; to come and sit here
+is a privilege. It is like being in another
+world, after all the money striving and the
+dollar madness of the city.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh!&quot; The girl's gaze searched him
+curiously. &quot;I hope you're not going to take
+the fine artistic pose that it is a crime to
+make money?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not much! I want to make money
+myself; that's one reason I'm in New Orleans.
+Still, you cannot deny that there is a craze
+about the eternal clutching after dollars. I
+can't make the dollar sign the big thing in
+life, Lucie. You couldn't, either.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She frowned a little.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You seem to have the European notion
+that all Americans are dollar chasers!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He shrugged his shoulders slightly. His
+harshly lined face was very strong; one
+sensed that its harshness had come from the
+outside&mdash;from hunger, from hardship and
+privations, from suffering strongly borne. He
+had not gone through the war unscathed,
+this young man who had tossed away a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75"></a>[pg&nbsp;75]</span>
+princely &quot;de&quot; in order to become plain
+Henry Gramont, American citizen.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In a sense, yes; why not?&quot; he answered.
+&quot;I am an American. I am a dollar chaser,
+and not ashamed of it. I am going into
+business here. Once it is a success, I shall go
+on; I shall see America, I shall come to know
+this whole country of mine, all of it! I have
+been a month in New Orleans&mdash;do you know,
+a strange thing happened to me only a few
+days after I arrived here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With her eyes she urged him on, and he
+continued gravely:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In France I met a man, an American
+sergeant named Hammond. It was just at
+the close of things. We had adjoining cots
+at Nice&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah!&quot; she exclaimed, quickly. &quot;I remember,
+you wrote about him&mdash;the man who
+had been wounded in both legs! Did he get
+well? You never said.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I never knew until I came here,&quot; answered
+Gramont. &quot;One night, not long after I had
+got established in my pension on Burgundy
+Street, a man tried to rob me. It was this
+same man, Hammond; we recognized each
+other almost at once.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76"></a>[pg&nbsp;76]</span>
+&quot;I took him home with me and learned his
+story. He had come back to America only
+to find his wife dead from influenza, his home
+broken up, his future destroyed. He drifted
+to New Orleans, careless of what happened to
+him. He flung himself desperately into a
+career of burglary and pillage. Well, I gave
+Hammond a job; he is my chauffeur. You
+would never recognize him as the same man
+now! I am very proud of his friendship.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That was well said.&quot; Lucie nodded her
+head quickly. &quot;I shan't call you M. Le
+prince any more&mdash;unless you offend again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He smiled, reading her thought. &quot;I try
+not to be a snob, eh? Well, what I'm driving
+at is this: I want to know this country of
+mine, to see it with clear, unprejudiced eyes.
+We hide our real shames and exalt our false
+ones. Why should we be ashamed of chasing
+the dollar? So long as that is a means to the
+end of happiness, it's all right. But there are
+some men who see it as an end alone, who can
+set no <i>finis</i> to their work except the dollar
+dropping into their pouch. Such a man is
+your relative, Joseph Maillard&mdash;I say it
+without offence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie nodded, realizing that he was driving
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77"></a>[pg&nbsp;77]</span>
+at some deeper thing, and held her
+peace.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You realize the fact, eh?&quot; Gramont smiled
+faintly. &quot;I do not wish to offend you, and
+I shall therefore refrain from saying all
+that is in my mind. But you have not
+hesitated to intimate very frankly that you
+are not wealthy. Some time ago, if you
+recall, you wrote me how you had just missed
+wealth through having sold some land. I
+have taken the liberty of looking up that
+deal to some extent, and I have suspected
+that your uncle had some interest in putting
+the sale through&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The gray eyes of the girl flashed suddenly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Henry Gramont! Are my family affairs
+to be an open book to the world?&quot; A slight
+flush, perhaps of anger, perhaps of some
+other emotion, rose in the girl's cheeks. &quot;Do
+you realize that you are intruding most unwarrantably
+into my private matters?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Unwarrantably?&quot; Gramont's eyes held
+her gaze steadily. &quot;Do you really mean to
+use that word?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I do, most certainly!&quot; answered Lucie
+with spirit. &quot;I don't think you realize just
+what the whole thing tends toward&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78"></a>[pg&nbsp;78]</span>
+&quot;Oh, yes I do! Quite clearly.&quot; Gramont's
+cool, level tone conquered her indignation.
+&quot;I see that you are orphaned,
+and that your uncle was your guardian, and
+executed questionable deals which lost money
+for you. Come, that's brutally frank&mdash;but
+it's true! We are friends of long standing;
+not intimate friends, perhaps, and yet I
+think very good friends. I am most certainly
+not ashamed to say that when I had
+the occasion to look out for your interests
+I was very glad of the chance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont paused, but she did not speak.
+He continued after a moment:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You had intimated to me, perhaps without
+meaning to do so, something of the
+situation. I came here to New Orleans and
+became involved in some dealings with your
+cousin, Bob Maillard. I believed, and I
+believe now, that in your heart you have some
+suspicion of your uncle in regard to those
+transactions in land. Therefore, I took the
+trouble to look into the thing to a slight extent.
+Shall I tell you what I have discovered?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie Ledanois gazed at him, her lips compressed.
+She liked this new manner of his,
+this firm and resolute gravity, this harshness.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79"></a>[pg&nbsp;79]</span>
+It brought out his underlying character very
+well.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If you please, Henry,&quot; she murmured
+very meekly. &quot;Since you have thrust yourself
+into my private affairs, I think I should
+at least get whatever benefit I can!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Exactly. Why not?&quot; He made a grave
+gesture of assent. &quot;Well, then, I have discovered
+that your uncle appears to be honestly
+at fault in the matter&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thanks for this approval of my family,&quot;
+she murmured.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And,&quot; continued Gramont, imperturbably,
+&quot;that your suspicions of him were groundless.
+But, on the other hand, something new has
+turned up about which I wish to speak&mdash;but
+about which I must speak delicately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Be frank, my dear Henry&mdash;even brutal!
+Speak, by all means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very well. Has Bob Maillard offered to
+buy your remaining land on the Bayou
+Terrebonne?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She started slightly. So it was to this that
+he had been leading up all the while!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He broached the subject last night,&quot; she
+answered. &quot;I dismissed it for the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good!&quot; he exclaimed with boyish vigour.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80"></a>[pg&nbsp;80]</span>
+&quot;Good! I warned you in time, then! If you
+will permit me, I must advise you not to
+part with that land&mdash;not even for a good
+offer. This week, immediately Mardi Gras
+is over, I am going to inspect that land for the
+company; it is Bob Maillard's company, you
+know.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If there's any chance of finding oil there,
+I shall first see you, then advise the company.
+You can hold out for your fair share of the
+mineral rights, instead of selling the whole
+thing. You'll get it! Landowners around
+here are not yet wise to the oil game, but
+they'll soon learn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You would betray your business associates
+to help me?&quot; she asked, curious to hear
+his reply. A slow flush crept into his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Certainly not! But I would not betray
+you to help my business friends. Is my
+unwarrantable intrusion forgiven?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She nodded brightly. &quot;You are put on
+probation, sir. You're in Bob's company?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes.&quot; Gramont frowned. &quot;I invested
+perhaps too hastily&mdash;but no matter now. I
+have the car outside, Lucie; may I have the
+pleasure of taking you driving?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Did you bring that chauffeur?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81"></a>[pg&nbsp;81]</span>
+&quot;Yes,&quot; and he laughed at her eagerness.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good! I accept&mdash;because I must see that
+famous soldier-bandit-chauffeur. If you'll
+wait, I'll be ready in a minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She hurried from the room, a snatch of song
+on her lips. Gramont smiled as he waited.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82"></a>[pg&nbsp;82]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>The Masquer Unmasks</i></p>
+
+<p>IN NEW ORLEANS one may find pensions
+in the old quarter&mdash;the quarter which is
+still instinct with the pulse of old-world
+life. These pensions do not advertise. The
+average tourist knows nothing of them. Even
+if he knew, indeed, he might have some
+difficulty in obtaining accommodations, for
+it is not nearly enough to have the money;
+one must also have the introductions, come
+well recommended, and be under the tongue
+of good repute.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont had obtained a small apartment
+<i>en pension</i>&mdash;a quiet and severely retired house
+in Burgundy Street, maintained by a very
+proud old lady whose ancestors had come
+out of Canada with the Sieur d'Iberville.
+Here Gramont lived with Hammond, quite on a
+basis of equality, and they were very comfortable.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The two men sat smoking their pipes before
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83"></a>[pg&nbsp;83]</span>
+the fireplace, in which blazed a small fire&mdash;more
+for good cheer than through necessity.
+It was Sunday evening. Between Gramont
+and Hammond had arisen a discussion regarding
+their relations&mdash;a discussion which
+was perhaps justified by Gramont's quixotic
+laying down of the law.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's all very well, Hammond,&quot; he mused,
+&quot;to follow custom and precedent, to present
+to the world a front which will not shock its
+proprieties, its sense of tradition and fitness.
+In the world's eye you are my chauffeur.
+But when we're alone together&mdash;nonsense!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's all right, cap'n,&quot; said Hammond,
+shrewdly. To him, Gramont was always
+&quot;cap'n&quot; and nothing else. &quot;But you know's
+well as I do it can't go on forever. I'm
+workin' for you, and that's the size of it. I
+ain't got the education to stack up alongside
+of you. I don't want you to get the notion
+that I'm figuring on takin' advantage of
+you&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Bosh! I suppose some day I'll be
+wealthy, married, and bound in the chains of
+social usage and custom,&quot; said Gramont,
+energetically. &quot;But that day isn't here yet.
+If you think I'll accept deference and servility
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84"></a>[pg&nbsp;84]</span>
+from any man who has endured the same
+hunger and cold and wounds that I endured
+in France&mdash;then guess again! We're friends
+in a democracy of Americans. You're just as
+good a man as I am, and vice versa. Besides,
+aren't we fellow criminals?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond grinned at this. There was no
+lack of shrewd intelligence in his broad and
+powerful features, which were crowned by a
+rim of reddish hair.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All that line o' bull sounds good, cap'n,
+only it's away off,&quot; he returned. &quot;Trouble
+with you is, you ain't forgot the war yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I never will,&quot; said Gramont, his face
+darkening.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sure you will! We all will. And you
+ain't as used to this country as I am, either.
+I've seen too much of it. You ain't seen
+enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've seen enough to know that it's my
+country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Right. But I ain't as good a man as you
+are, not by a long shot!&quot; said Hammond,
+cheerfully. &quot;You proved that the night you
+caught me comin' into the window at the
+Lavergne house. You licked me without
+half tryin', cap'n!</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id="page85"></a>[pg&nbsp;85]</span>
+&quot;Anyhow,&quot; pursued Hammond, &quot;America
+ain't a democracy, unless you're runnin' for
+Congress. It sounds good to the farmers,
+but wait till you've been here long enough to
+get out of your fine notions! Limousines
+and money ain't got much use for democracy.
+The men who have brains, like you, always
+will give orders, I reckon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Bosh!&quot; said Gramont again. &quot;It isn't a
+question of having brains. It's a question of
+knowing what to do with them. All men
+are born free and equal&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not much!&quot; retorted the other with
+conviction. &quot;All men were born free, but
+mighty few were born equal, cap'n. That
+sort o' talk sounds good in the newspapers,
+but it don't go very far with the guy at the
+bottom, nor the top, either!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont stared into the flickering fire and
+sucked at his pipe. He realized that in a
+sense Hammond was quite correct in his
+argument; nonetheless, he looked on the
+other man as a comrade, and always would
+do so. It was true that he had not forgotten
+the war. Suddenly he roused himself and
+shot a glance at Hammond.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sergeant! You seem to have a pretty
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86"></a>[pg&nbsp;86]</span>
+good recollection of that night at the Lavergne
+house, when I found you entering and jumped
+on you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You bet I have!&quot; Hammond chuckled.
+&quot;When you'd knocked the goggles off me and
+we recognized each other&mdash;hell! I felt like a
+boob.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont smiled. &quot;How many places had
+you robbed up to then? Three, wasn't it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Three is right, cap'n,&quot; was the unashamed
+response.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We haven't referred to it very often, but
+now things have happened.&quot; Gramont's face
+took on harsh lines of determination. &quot;Do
+you know, it was a lucky thing that you had
+no chance to dispose of the jewels and money
+you obtained? But I suppose you didn't
+call it good luck at the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No chance?&quot; snorted the other. &quot;No
+chance is right, cap'n! And I was sore, too.
+Say, they got a ring of crooks around this
+town you couldn't bust into with grenades!
+I couldn't figure it out for a while, but only the
+other day I got the answer. Listen here, and
+I'll tell you something big.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond leaned forward, lowered his
+voice, and tamped at his pipe.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87"></a>[pg&nbsp;87]</span>
+&quot;When I was a young fellow I lived in a
+little town up North&mdash;I ain't sayin' where.
+My old man had a livery stable there, see?
+Well, one night a guy come along and got the
+old man out of bed, and slips him fifteen
+hundred for a rig and a team, see? I drove
+the guy ten miles through the hills, and set
+him on a road he wanted to find.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now, that guy was the biggest crook in the
+country in them days&mdash;still is, I guess. He was
+on the dead run that night, to keep out o'
+Leavenworth. He kep' out, all right, and he's
+settin' in the game to this minute. Nobody
+never pinched him yet, and never will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont's face had tensed oddly as he
+listened. Now he shot out a single word:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Because his gang runs back to politicians
+and rich guys all over the country. You ask
+anybody on the inside if they ever heard of
+Memphis Izzy Gumberts! Well, cap'n, I
+seen that very identical guy on the street the
+other day&mdash;I never could forget his ugly
+mug! And where <i>he</i> is, no outside crooks
+can get in, you believe me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hm! Memphis Izzy Gumberts, eh?
+What kind of a crook is he, sergeant?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88"></a>[pg&nbsp;88]</span>
+&quot;The big kind. You remember them
+Chicago lotteries? But you don't, o' course.
+Well, that's his game&mdash;lotteries and such
+like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont's lips clenched for a minute, then
+he spoke with slow distinctness:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sergeant, I'd have given five hundred
+dollars for that information a week ago!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why?&quot; Hammond stared at him suddenly.
+Gramont shook his head.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Never mind. Forget it! Now, this stunt
+of yours was clever. You showed brains
+when you got yourself up as an aviator and
+pulled that stuff, sergeant. But you handled
+it brutally&mdash;terribly brutally.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It was a little raw, I guess,&quot; conceded
+Hammond. &quot;I was up against it, that's all&mdash;I
+figured they'd pinch me sooner or later, but
+I didn't care, and that's the truth! I was
+out for the coin.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;When you took over the costume and
+began to get across with the Raffles stuff&mdash;why,
+it was a pipe for you, cap'n! Look
+what we've done in a month. Six jobs,
+every one running off smooth as glass! Your
+notion of going to parties ready dressed
+with some kind of loose robe over the flyin'
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89"></a>[pg&nbsp;89]</span>
+duds was a scream! And then me running
+that motor with the cutout on&mdash;all them
+birds that never heard an airplane think you
+come and go by air, for certain! I will say
+that I ain't on to why you're doing it; just
+the same, you've got them all fooled, and I
+ain't worried a particle about the cops or the
+crooks, either one. But watch out for the
+Gumberts crowd! They're liable to show
+us up to the bulls, simply because we ain't in
+with 'em. Nobody else will ever find us
+out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont nodded thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes? But, sergeant, how about the quiet
+little man who came along last night at the
+Maillard house and asked about the car?
+Perhaps he had discovered you had been
+running the engine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Him?&quot; Hammond sniffed in scorn. &quot;He
+wasn't no dick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I was followed to-day; at least, I
+think I was. I could spot nobody after me,
+but I felt certain of it. And let me tell you
+something about that same quiet little man!
+His name is Jachin Fell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Heluva name,&quot; commented Hammond,
+and wrinkled up his brow. &quot;Jachin, huh?
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90"></a>[pg&nbsp;90]</span>
+Seems like I've heard the name before. Out
+o' the Bible, ain't it? Something about
+Jachin and Boaz?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I imagine so.&quot; Gramont smiled as he
+replied. &quot;Fell is a lawyer, but he never
+practises law. He's rich, he's a very fine
+chess player&mdash;and probably the smartest
+man in New Orleans, sergeant. Just what
+he does I don't know; no one does. I imagine
+that he's one of those quiet men who
+stay in the backgrounds of city politics and
+pull the strings. You know, one administration
+has been in power here for nearly
+twenty years&mdash;it's something to make a man
+stop and think!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This chap Fell is sharp, confoundedly
+sharp!&quot; went on Gramont, while the chauffeur
+listened with frowning intentness. &quot;He's
+altogether too sharp to be a criminal&mdash;or
+I'd suspect that he was using his knowledge
+of the law to beat the law. Well, I think
+that he is on to me, and is trying to get the
+goods on me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh!&quot; said Hammond. &quot;And someone
+was trailin' you? Think he's put the bulls
+wise?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont shrugged his shoulders. &quot;I don't
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91"></a>[pg&nbsp;91]</span>
+know. He almost caught me last night.
+We'll have to get rid of that aviator's suit at
+once, and of the loot also. I suppose you've
+reconciled yourself to returning the stuff?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond stirred uneasily, and laid down
+his pipe.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Look here, cap'n,&quot; he said, earnestly.
+&quot;I wasn't runnin' a holdup game because I
+liked it, and I wasn't doing it for the fun of
+the thing, like you are. I was dead broke, I
+hadn't any hope left, and I didn't care a
+damn whether I lived or died&mdash;that's on the
+dead! Right there, you come along and
+picked me up.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You give me a job. What's more, you've
+treated me white, cap'n. I guess you seen
+that I was just a man with the devil at his
+heels, and you chased the devil off. You've
+given me something decent to live for&mdash;to
+make good because you got some faith in me!
+Why, when you went out on that first job of
+ours, d'you know it like to broke me up? It
+did. Only, when we got home that night and
+you said it was all a joke, and you'd send
+back the loot later on, then I begun to feel
+better about it. Even if you'd gone into it
+as a reg'lar business, I'd have stuck with you&mdash;but
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id="page92"></a>[pg&nbsp;92]</span>
+I was darned glad about its bein' a
+joke!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont nodded in comprehension of the
+other's feeling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's not been altogether a joke, sergeant,&quot;
+he said, gravely. &quot;To tell the truth, I did
+start it as a joke, but soon afterward I learned
+something that led me to keep it up. I
+kept it up until I could hit the Maillard house.
+It was my intention to turn up at the Comus
+ball, on Tuesday night, and there make public
+restitution of the stuff&mdash;but that's impossible
+now. I dare not risk it! That man Fell is too
+smart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're not goin' to pull the trick again,
+then?&quot; queried Hammond, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No. I'm through. I've got what I
+wanted. Still, I don't wish to return the
+stuff before Wednesday&mdash;Ash Wednesday,
+the end of the carnival season. Suppose you
+get out the loot and find me some boxes.
+And be sure they have no name on them or
+any store labels.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond leaped up and vanished in the
+room adjoining. Presently he returned, bearing
+several cardboard boxes which he dumped
+on the centre table. Gramont examined them
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93"></a>[pg&nbsp;93]</span>
+closely, and laid aside a number that were best
+suited to his purpose. Meantime, the chauffeur
+was opening a steamer trunk which he
+pulled from under the bed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm blamed glad you're done, believe
+me!&quot; he uttered, fervently, glancing up at
+Gramont. &quot;Far's I'm concerned I don't
+care much, but I'd sure hate to see the bulls
+turn in a guy like you, cap'n. You couldn't
+ever persuade anybody that it was all a joke,
+neither, once they nabbed you. They're a
+bad bunch o' bulls in this town&mdash;it ain't like
+Chi or other places, where you can stand in
+right and do a bit o' fixing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You seem to know the game pretty well,&quot;
+and Gramont smiled amusedly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ain't I been a chauffeur and garage
+man?&quot; retorted Hammond, as though this
+explained much. &quot;If there's anything us
+guys don't run up against, you can't name
+it! Here we are. Want me to keep each
+bunch separate, don't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sure. I'll be writing some notes to go
+inside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont went to a buhl writing desk in the
+corner of the room, and sat down. He took
+out his notebook, tore off several sheets, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page94" id="page94"></a>[pg&nbsp;94]</span>
+from his pocket produced a pencil having an
+extremely hard lead. He wrote a number of
+notes, which, except for the addresses, were
+identical in content:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I enclose herewith certain jewellery and articles, also
+currency, recently obtained by me under your kind
+auspices.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I trust that you will assume the responsibility of
+returning these things to the various guests who lost
+them while under your roof. I regret any discomfort
+occasioned by my taking them as a loan, which I now
+return. Please convey to the several owners my profound
+esteem and my assurance that I shall not in future
+appear to trouble any one, the carnival season having
+come to an end, and with it my little jest.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">The Midnight Masquer.</span></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">Gathering up these notes in his hand,
+Gramont went to the fireplace. He tossed
+the pencil into the fire, following it with the
+notebook.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Can't take chances with that man Fell,&quot;
+he explained. &quot;All ready, sergeant. Let's
+go down the list one by one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">From the trunk Hammond produced ticketed
+packages, which he placed on the table.
+Gramont selected one, opened it, carefully
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95"></a>[pg&nbsp;95]</span>
+packed the contents in one of the boxes,
+placed the proper addressed note on top, and
+handed it to the chauffeur.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Wrap it up and address it. Give the
+return address of John Smith, Bayou Teche.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">One by one they went through the packages
+of loot in the same manner. Before them on
+the table, as they worked, glittered little
+heaps of rings, brooches, watches, currency;
+jewels that flashed garishly with coloured
+fires, historic and famous jewels plucked
+from the aristocratic heart of the southland,
+heirlooms of a past generation side by side
+with platinum crudities of the present fashion.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There had been heartburnings in the loss of
+these things, Gramont knew. He could picture
+to himself something of what had followed
+his robberies: family quarrels, new purchases
+in the gem marts, bitter reproaches, fresh
+mortgages on old heritages, vexations of
+wealthy dowagers, shrugs of unconcern by
+the <i>nouveaux riches</i>; perchance lives
+altered&mdash;deaths&mdash;divorces&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There's a lot of human life behind these
+baubles, sergeant,&quot; he reflected aloud, a cold
+smile upon his lips as he worked. &quot;When
+they come back to their owners, I'd like to be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96"></a>[pg&nbsp;96]</span>
+hovering around in an invisible mantle to
+watch results! Could we only know it,
+we're probably affecting the lives of a great
+many people&mdash;for good and ill. These things
+stand for money; and there's nothing like
+money, or the lack of it, to guide the destinies
+of people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You said it,&quot; and Hammond grinned.
+&quot;I'm here to prove it, ain't I? I ain't pulling
+no more gunplay, now I got me a steady
+job.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And a steady friend, old man,&quot; added
+Gramont. &quot;Did it occur to you that maybe
+I was as much in need of a friend as you
+were?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He had come to the last box now, that
+which must go to Joseph Maillard. On top
+of the money and scarfpins which he placed
+in the box he laid a thin packet of papers.
+He tapped them with his finger.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Those papers, sergeant! To get them,
+I've been playing the whole game. To get
+them and not to let their owner suspect that
+I was after them! Now they're going back
+to their owner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who's he?&quot; demanded Hammond.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Young Maillard&mdash;son of the banker. He
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97"></a>[pg&nbsp;97]</span>
+roped me into an oil company; caught me,
+like a sucker, almost the first week I was here.
+I put pretty near my whole wad into that
+company of his.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You mean he stung you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not yet.&quot; Gramont smiled coldly,
+harshly. &quot;That was his intention; he thought
+I was a Frenchman who would fall for any
+sort of game. I fell right enough&mdash;but I'll
+come out on top of the heap.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The other frowned. &quot;I don't get you,
+cap'n. Some kind o' stock deal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, and no.&quot; Gramont paused, and
+seemed to choose his words with care. &quot;Miss
+Ledanois, the lady who was driving with us
+this afternoon, is an old friend of mine. I've
+known for some time that somebody was
+fleecing her. I suspected that it was Maillard
+the elder, for he has had the handling of
+her affairs for some time past. Now, however,
+those papers have given me the truth.
+He was straight enough with her; his son was
+the man.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The young fool imagines that by trickery
+and juggling he is playing the game of high
+finance! He worked on his father, made his
+father sell land owned by Miss Ledanois, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id="page98"></a>[pg&nbsp;98]</span>
+he himself reaped the profits. There are
+notes and stock issues among those papers
+that give his whole game away, to my eyes.
+Not legal evidence, as I had hoped, but
+evidence enough to show me the truth of
+things&mdash;to show me that he's a scoundrel!
+Further, they bear on my own case, and I'm
+satisfied now that I'd be ruined if I stayed
+with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, that's easy settled,&quot; said Hammond.
+&quot;Just hold him up with them papers&mdash;make
+him come across!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm not in that sort of business. I stole
+those papers, not to use them for blackmail,
+but to get information. By the way, get that
+tin box out of my trunk, will you? I want to
+take my stock certificates with me in the
+morning, and must not forget them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond disappeared into the adjoining
+room.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont sat gazing at the boxes before
+him. Despite his words to Hammond,
+there was a fund of puzzled displeasure in his
+eyes, sheer dissatisfaction. He shook his
+head gloomily, and his eyes clouded.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All wasted&mdash;the whole effort!&quot; he murmured.
+&quot;I thought it might lead to something,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99"></a>[pg&nbsp;99]</span>
+but all it has given me is the reward of
+saving myself and possibly retrieving Lucie.
+As for the larger game, the bigger quarry&mdash;it's
+all wasted. I haven't unravelled a single
+thread; the first real clue came to me to-night,
+purely by accident. Memphis Izzy
+Gumberts! That's the lead to follow! I'll
+get rid of this Midnight Masquer foolishness
+and go after the real game.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont was to discover that it is not
+nearly so easy to be rid of folly as it is to don
+the jester's cap and bells; a fact which one
+Simplicissimus had discovered to his sorrow
+three hundred years earlier. But, as Gramont
+was not versed in this line of literature,
+he yet had the discovery ahead of him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond reëntered the room with the
+tin box, from which Gramont took his stock
+certificates issued by Bob Maillard's oil company.
+He pocketed the shares.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Does this here Miss Ledanois,&quot; asked
+Hammond, &quot;play in with you in the game?
+Young Maillard's related to her, ain't he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She's quite aware of his drawbacks, I
+think,&quot; answered Gramont, drily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I see.&quot; Hammond rubbed his chin, and
+inspected his employer with a twinkle denoting
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100"></a>[pg&nbsp;100]</span>
+perfect comprehension. &quot;Well, how
+d'you expect to come out on top of the heap?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I want to get my own money back,&quot;
+explained Gramont. &quot;You see, young
+Maillard thinks that he's cleaned me up
+fine. I've invested heavily in his company,
+which has a couple of small wells already
+going. As I conceive the probable scheme,
+this company is scheduled to fail, and another
+company will take over the stock at next to
+nothing. Maillard will be the other company;
+his present associates will be the
+suckers! It's that, or some similar trick.
+I'm no longer interested in the affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why not, if you got money in it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My son, to-morrow is Monday. Proteus
+will arrive out of the sea to-morrow, and the
+Proteus ball comes off to-morrow night. In
+spite of these distractions, the banks are
+open in the morning. Savvy?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll go to Maillard the banker&mdash;Joseph
+Maillard&mdash;first thing in the morning, and
+offer him my stock. He'll be mighty glad to
+get it at a discount, knowing that it is in his
+son's company. You see, the son doesn't
+confide in the old man particularly. I'll let
+the father win a little money on the deal
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101"></a>[pg&nbsp;101]</span>
+with me, and by doing this I'll manage to
+save the greater part of my investment&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Holy mackerel!&quot; Hammond exploded
+in a burst of laughter as he caught the idea.
+&quot;Say, if this ain't the richest thing ever
+pulled! When the crash comes, the fancy
+kid will be stinging his dad good and hard,
+eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Exactly; and I think his dad can afford
+to be stung much better than I can,&quot; agreed
+Gramont, cheerfully. &quot;Also, now that I'm
+certain Bob Maillard is the one who was
+behind the fleecing of Miss Ledanois, I'll first
+get clear of him, then I'll start to give him his
+deserts. I may form an oil company of my
+own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do it,&quot; advised Hammond, still chuckling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now,&quot; and Gramont rose, &quot;let's take
+those packages and stow them away in the
+luggage compartment of the car. I'm getting
+nervous at the thought of having them
+around here, and they'll be perfectly safe
+there overnight&mdash;safer there than here, in
+fact. To-morrow, you can take the car out
+of town and send the packages by parcels
+post from some small town.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102"></a>[pg&nbsp;102]</span>
+&quot;In that way they ought to be delivered
+here on Wednesday. You'd better wear one
+of my suits, leaving your chauffeur's outfit
+here, and don't halt the car in front of the
+postoffice where you mail the packages&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I get you,&quot; assented Hammond, sagely.
+&quot;I'll leave the car outside town, and hoof it in
+with the boxes, so that nobody will notice the
+car or connect it with the packages, eh? But
+what about them aviator's clothes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Take them with you&mdash;better get them
+wrapped up here and now. You can toss
+them into a ditch anywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond obeyed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ten minutes afterward the two men left
+the room, carrying the packages of loot and
+the bundle containing the aviator's uniform.
+They descended to the courtyard in the rear
+of the house. Here was a small garden, with
+a fountain in its centre. Behind this were
+the stables, which had long been disused as
+such, and which were now occupied only by
+the car of Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was with undisguised relief that Gramont
+now saw the stuff actually out of the
+house. Within the last few hours he had
+become intensely afraid of Jachin Fell.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103"></a>[pg&nbsp;103]</span>
+Concentrating himself upon the man, picking
+up information guardedly, he had that day
+assimilated many small items which increased
+his sense of peril from that quarter. Straws,
+no more, but quite significant straws. Gramont
+realized clearly that if the police ever
+searched his rooms and found this loot, he
+would be lost. There could be no excuse
+that would hold water for a minute against
+such evidence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the garage, Hammond switched on the
+lights of the car. By the glow they disposed
+their burdens in the luggage compartment of
+the tonneau, which held them neatly. The
+car was a large twelve-cylinder, four-passenger
+Nonpareil, which Gramont had
+picked up in the used-car market. Hammond
+had tinkered it into magnificent shape,
+and loved the piece of mechanism as the very
+apple of his eye.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The luggage compartment closed and
+locked, they returned into the house and
+dismissed the affair as settled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Upon the following morning Gramont,
+who usually breakfasted <i>en pension</i> with
+his hostess, had barely seated himself at
+the table when he perceived the figure of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" id="page104"></a>[pg&nbsp;104]</span>
+Hammond at the rear entrance of the
+dining room. The chauffeur beckoned him
+hastily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come out here, cap'n!&quot; Hammond was
+breathing heavily, and seemed to be in some
+agitation. &quot;Want to show you somethin'!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is there anything important?&quot; Gramont
+hesitated. The other regarded him with a
+baleful countenance.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Important? Worse'n that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont rose and followed Hammond out
+to the garage, much to his amazement. The
+chauffeur halted beside the car and extended
+him a key, pointing to the luggage
+compartment.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Here's the key&mdash;you open her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's the matter, man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The stuff's gone!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont seized the key and opened the
+compartment. It proved empty indeed. He
+stared up into the face of Hammond who
+was watching in dogged silence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I knew you'd suspect me,&quot; broke out
+the chauffeur, but Gramont interrupted him
+curtly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't be a fool; nothing of the sort.
+Was the garage locked?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105"></a>[pg&nbsp;105]</span>
+&quot;Yes, and the compartment, too! I came
+out to look over that cut tire, and thought
+I'd make sure the stuff was safe&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We're up against it, that's all.&quot; Gramont
+compressed his lips for a moment. Then he
+straightened up and clapped the other on the
+shoulder. &quot;Buck up! I never thought of
+suspecting you, old fellow. Someone must
+have been watching us last night, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The guy that trailed you yesterday,
+most like,&quot; agreed Hammond, dourly. &quot;It
+ain't hard to break into this place, and any
+one could open that compartment with a
+hairpin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, you're saved a trip into the country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You think they got us, cap'n? What can
+we do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do?&quot; Gramont shrugged his shoulders
+and laughed. &quot;Nothing except to wait and
+see what happens next! If you want to
+run, I'll give you enough money to land you
+in New York or Frisco&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Run&mdash;hell!&quot; Hammond sniffed in scorn.
+&quot;What d'you think I am&mdash;a boche? I'll
+stick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good boy.&quot; Gramont turned toward the
+house. &quot;Come along in and get breakfast,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106"></a>[pg&nbsp;106]</span>
+and don't touch that compartment door. I
+want to examine it later.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond gazed admiringly after him as
+he crossed the garden. &quot;If you ain't a cool
+hand, I'm a Dutchman!&quot; he murmured, and
+followed his master.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107"></a>[pg&nbsp;107]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>Chacherre</i></p>
+
+<p>AT TEN o'clock that Monday morning
+Gramont's car approached Canal
+Street, and halted a block distant.
+For any car to gain Canal, much less to follow
+it, was impossible. From curb to curb the
+wide avenue was thronged with carnival folk,
+who would hold their own until Proteus came
+ashore to manage his own parade and his own
+section of the festivities.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont left the car, and turned to speak
+with Hammond.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've made out at least two fingerprints on
+the luggage compartment,&quot; he said, quietly.
+&quot;Drive around to police headquarters and
+enter a complaint in my name to a robbery
+of the compartment; say that the thief got
+away with some valuable packages I had been
+about to mail. They have a process of transferring
+fingerprints such as these; get it done.
+Perhaps they can identify the thief, for it must
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108"></a>[pg&nbsp;108]</span>
+have been some clever picklock to get into the
+compartment without leaving a scratch. Take
+your time about it and come home when
+you've finished.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond listened stolidly. &quot;If it was
+the bulls done it, cap'n, going to them will get
+us pinched sure&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If they had done it,&quot; said Gramont,
+&quot;we'd have been pinched long before this!
+It was someone sent by that devil Jachin
+Fell, and I'll land him if I can!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then Fell will land us if he's got the
+stuff!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Let him! How can he prove anything,
+unless he had brought the police to open up
+that compartment? Get along with you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond grinned, saluted, and drove
+away.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Slowly Gramont edged his way through the
+eddying crowds to Canal Street, and presently
+gained the imposing portals of the Exeter
+National Bank. Entering the building, he
+sent his card to the private office of the
+president; a moment later he was ushered
+in, and was closeted with Joseph Maillard.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The interior of the Exeter National reflected
+the stern personality that ruled it.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109"></a>[pg&nbsp;109]</span>
+The bank was dark, old fashioned, conservative,
+guarded with much effrontery of iron
+grills and bars against the evil doer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The window men greeted their customers
+with infrequent smiles, with caution and
+reserve so great that it was positively chilly.
+Suspicion seemed in the air. The bank's
+reputation for guarding the sanctity of wealth
+seemed to rest heavily upon each pair of
+bowed shoulders. Even the stenographers were
+unhandsome women, weary-eyed, drearily efficient,
+and obviously respectable.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As befitted so old and conservative a New
+Orleans institution, much of its business was
+transacted in French.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The business customers of this bank found
+their affairs handled coldly, efficiently, with
+an inhuman precision that was admirable.
+It was good for business, and they liked it.
+There were no mistakes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">People who were accustomed to dealing
+with bankers of cordial smile and courteous
+word, people who liked to walk into a bank
+and to be met with a personal greeting, did
+not come here, nor were they wanted here.
+The Exeter National was a place for business,
+not for courtesy. It was absolutely precise,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110"></a>[pg&nbsp;110]</span>
+cold, inhuman, and spelled business from the
+ground up. Its oldest customer could not
+buy a draft on Paris or London or other of the
+bank's correspondents without paying the
+required fee. The wealthiest depositor could
+not expect to overdraw his checking account
+one dollar without being required to settle up
+before the next day was gone. Loans were
+made hesitatingly, grudgingly, and of necessity,
+always on security and never on character.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Such was the Exeter National. Its character
+was reflected in the cold faces at its
+windows, and the chance customers who
+entered its sacred portals were duly cowed
+and put in their proper place. Most of them
+were, that is. Occasionally some intrepid
+soul appeared who seemed impervious to the
+gloomy chill, who seemed even to resent it.
+One of these persons was now standing in the
+lobby and staring around with a cool impudence
+which drew unfavourable glances from
+the clerks.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He was a decently dressed fellow, obviously
+no customer of this sacrosanct place,
+obviously a stranger to its interior. Beneath
+a rakishly cocked soft hat beamed a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>[pg&nbsp;111]</span>
+countenance that bore a look of self-assured
+impertinent deviltry. After one look at that
+countenance the assistant cashier crooked a
+hasty finger at the floor guard, who nodded and
+walked over to the intruder with a polite query.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Can I help you, sir?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The intruder turned, favoured the guard
+with a cool stare, then broke into a laugh and
+a flood of Creole dialect.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, if it isn't old Lacroix from Carencro!
+And look at the brass buttons&mdash;<i>diable</i>! You
+must own this place, hein? <i>la tchè chatte
+poussé avec temps</i>&mdash;the cat's tail grows in time,
+I see! You remember me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ben Chacherre!&quot; exclaimed the guard,
+losing his dignity for an instant. &quot;Why&mdash;you
+<i>vaurien</i>, you! You who disappeared
+from the parish and became a vagrant&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So you turn up your sanctified nose at
+Ben Chacherre, do you?&quot; exclaimed that
+person jauntily. He thrust his hat a bit farther
+over one ear, and proceeded to snap his
+fingers under the nose of Lacroix.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A <i>vaurien</i>, am I? Old peacock! Lead
+me to the man who cashes checks, lackey,
+brass buttons that you are! Come, obey me,
+or I'll have you thrown into the street!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>[pg&nbsp;112]</span>
+&quot;You&mdash;you wish to cash a check?&quot; The
+guard was overcome by confusion, for the
+loud tones of Chacherre penetrated the entire
+institution. &quot;But you are not known
+here&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Bah, insolent one! <i>Macaque dan calebasse</i>&mdash;monkey
+in the calabash that you are! Do
+you not know me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Heaven preserve me! I will not answer
+for your accursed checks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Go to the devil, then,&quot; snapped Chacherre,
+and turned away.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">His roving eyes had already found the
+correct window by means of the other persons
+seeking it, and now he stepped into the small
+queue that had formed. When it came his
+turn, he slid his check across the marble slab,
+tucked his thumbs into the armholes of his
+vest, and impudently stared into the questioning,
+coldly repellent eyes of the teller.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well?&quot; he exclaimed, as the teller examined
+the check. &quot;Do you wish to eat it,
+that you sniff so hard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The teller gave him a glance. &quot;This is
+for a thousand dollars&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Can I not read?&quot; said Chacherre, with an
+impudent gesture. &quot;Am I an ignorant
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113"></a>[pg&nbsp;113]</span>
+'Cajun? Have I not eyes in my head? If
+you wish to start an argument, say that the
+check is for a hundred dollars. Then, by
+heaven, I will argue something with you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You are Ben Chacherre, eh? Does any
+one here know you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre exploded in a violent oath. &quot;Dolt
+that you are, do I have to be known when the
+check is endorsed under my signature? Who
+taught you business, monkey?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;True,&quot; answered the teller, sulkily. &quot;Yet
+the amount&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, bah!&quot; Chacherre snapped his fingers.
+&quot;Go and telephone Jachin Fell, you
+old woman! Go and tell him you do not
+know his signature&mdash;well, who are you looking
+at? Am I a telephone, then? You are
+not hired to look but to act! Get about
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The enraged and scandalized teller beckoned
+a confrere. Jachin Fell was telephoned.
+Presumably his response was reassuring, for
+Chacherre was presently handed a thousand
+dollars in small bills, as he requested. He
+insisted upon counting over the money at the
+window with insolent assiduity, flung a final
+compliment at the teller, and swaggered across
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114"></a>[pg&nbsp;114]</span>
+the lobby. He was still standing by the entrance
+when Henry Gramont left the private
+office of the president and passed him by without
+a look.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont was smiling to himself as he left
+the bank, and Ben Chacherre was whistling
+gaily as he also left and plunged into the
+whirling vortex of the carnival crowds.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Toward noon Gramont arrived afoot at
+his pension. Finding the rooms empty, he
+went on and passed through the garden.
+Behind the garage, in the alley, he discovered
+Hammond busily at work cleaning and polishing
+the engine of the car.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hello!&quot; he exclaimed, cheerily. &quot;What
+luck?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Pretty good, cap'n.&quot; Hammond glanced
+up, then paused.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A stranger was strolling toward them along
+the alleyway, a jaunty individual who was
+gaily whistling and who seemed entirely
+carefree and happy. He appeared to have
+no interest whatever in them, and Hammond
+concluded that he was innocuous.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They got them prints fine, cap'n. What's
+more, they think they've located the fellow
+that made 'em.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115"></a>[pg&nbsp;115]</span>
+&quot;Ah, good work!&quot; exclaimed Gramont.
+&quot;Some criminal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond frowned. The stranger had
+come to a halt a few feet distant, flung them
+a jerky, careless nod, and was beginning to
+roll a cigarette. He surveyed the car with a
+knowing and appreciative eye. Hammond
+turned his back on the man disdainfully.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yep&mdash;a sneak thief they'd pinched a
+couple of years back; didn't know where he
+was, but the prints seemed to fit him. They'll
+come up and look things over sometime to-day,
+then go after him and land him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont gave the stranger a glance, but
+the other was still surveying the car with
+evident admiration. If he heard their words
+he gave them no attention.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who was the man, then?&quot; asked Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A guy with a queer name&mdash;Ben Chacherre.&quot;
+Hammond pronounced it as he
+deemed correct&mdash;as the name was spelled.
+&quot;Only they didn't call him that. Here, I
+wrote it down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He fished in his pocket and produced a
+paper. Gramont glanced at it and laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Chacherre!&quot; He gave the name the
+Creole pronunciation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116"></a>[pg&nbsp;116]</span>
+&quot;Yep, Sasherry. I expect they'll come
+any time now&mdash;said two bulls would drop
+in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All right.&quot; Gramont nodded and turned
+away, with another glance at the stranger.
+&quot;I'll not want the car to-day nor to-night
+that I know of. I'm not going to the Proteus
+ball. So your time's your own until to-morrow;
+make the most of it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He disappeared, and Hammond returned
+to his work. Then he straightened up, for
+the jaunty stranger was bearing down upon
+him with evident intent to speak.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Some car you got there, brother!&quot; Ben
+Chacherre, who had overheard most of the
+foregoing conversation, lighted his cigarette
+and grinned familiarly. &quot;Some car, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She's a boat, all right,&quot; conceded Hammond,
+grudgingly. He did not like the other's
+looks, although praise of the car was sweet
+unto his soul. &quot;She sure steps some.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes. All she needs,&quot; drawled Chacherre,
+&quot;is some good tires, a new coat of paint, a
+good steel chassis, and a new engine&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Huh?&quot; snorted Hammond. &quot;Say, you
+'bo, who sold you chips in this game? Move
+along!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117"></a>[pg&nbsp;117]</span>
+Ben grinned anew and rested himself against
+a near-by telephone pole.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Free country, ain't it?&quot; he inquired, lazily.
+&quot;Or have you invested your winnings and
+bought this here alley?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond reddened with anger and took
+a step forward. The next words of Chacherre,
+however, jerked him sharply into self-control.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Seen anything of an aviator's helmet
+around here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Huh?&quot; The chauffeur glared at his tormentor,
+yet with a sudden sick feeling inside
+his bosom. He suddenly realized that the
+man's eyes were meeting his squarely, with a
+bold and insolent directness. &quot;Who you
+kiddin' now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nobody. I was asking a question, that's
+all.&quot; Ben Chacherre flung away his cigarette,
+untangled himself from the telephone pole,
+and moved away. &quot;Only,&quot; he flung over
+his shoulder, &quot;I was flyin' along here last
+night in my airplane, and I lost my helmet
+overboard. Thought maybe you'd seen it.
+So long, brother!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond stood staring after the swaggering
+figure; for once he was speechless. The
+jaunty words had sent terror thrilling into
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118"></a>[pg&nbsp;118]</span>
+him. He started impulsively to pursue that
+impudent accoster&mdash;then he checked himself.
+Had the man guessed something? Had the
+man known something? Or had those words
+been only a bit of meaningless impertinence&mdash;a
+chance shaft which had accidentally flown
+home?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The last conjecture impressed itself on
+Hammond as being the truth, and his momentary
+fright died out. He concluded that
+the incident was not worth mentioning to
+Gramont, who surely had troubles enough
+of his own at this juncture. So he held his
+peace about it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As for Ben Chacherre, he sauntered from
+the alley, a careless whistle upon his lips.
+Once out of Hammond's sight, however, he
+quickened his pace. Turning into a side
+street, he directed his step toward that part
+of the old quarter which, in the days before
+prohibition, had been given over to low
+cabarets and dives of various sorts. Most of
+these places were now boarded up, and
+presumably abandoned. Coming to one of
+them, which appeared more dirty and desolate
+than the rest, Chacherre opened a side door
+and vanished.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119"></a>[pg&nbsp;119]</span>
+He entered what had once been the Red
+Cat cabaret. At a table in the half-darkened
+main room sat two men. A slovenly waiter
+pored over a newspaper at another table in a
+far corner. The two in the centre nodded to
+Chacherre. One of them, who was the proprietor,
+jerked his chin in an invitation to
+join them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A man famous in the underworld circles, a
+man whose renown rested on curious feats and
+facts, this proprietor; few crooks in the
+country had not heard the name of Memphis
+Izzy Gumberts. He was a grizzled old bear
+now; but in times past he had been the head
+of a far-flung organization which, on each pay
+day, covered every army post in the country
+and diverted into its own pockets about two
+thirds of Uncle Sam's payroll&mdash;a feat still
+related in criminal circles as the <i>ne plus ultra</i>
+of success. Those palmy days were gone, but
+Memphis Izzy, who had never been &quot;mugged&quot;
+in any gallery, sat in his deserted cabaret
+and still did not lack for power and influence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The man at his side was apparently not
+anxious to linger, for he rose and made his
+farewells as Chacherre approached.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We have about eighteen cars left,&quot; he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120"></a>[pg&nbsp;120]</span>
+said to Gumberts. &quot;Charley the Goog can
+attend to them, and the place is safe enough.
+They're up to you. I'm drifting back to Chi.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Drift along,&quot; and Gumberts nodded, a
+leer in his eyes. His face was broad, heavy-jowled,
+filled with a keen and forceful craft.
+&quot;It's a cinch that nobody in this state is
+goin' to interfere with us. About them cars
+from Texas&mdash;any news?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've sent orders to bring 'em in next
+week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gumberts nodded again, and the man departed.
+Into the chair which he had vacated
+dropped Ben Chacherre, and took from
+his pocket the money which he had obtained
+at the bank. He laid it on the table before
+Gumberts.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There you are,&quot; he said. &quot;Amounts
+you want and all. The boss says to gimme
+a receipt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Wouldn't trust you, eh?&quot; jeered Gumberts.
+He took out pencil and paper,
+scrawled a word or two, and shoved the paper
+at Chacherre. Then he reached down to a
+small satchel which lay open on the floor beside
+his chair. &quot;Why wouldn't the boss leave
+the money come out of the takin's, hey?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121"></a>[pg&nbsp;121]</span>
+&quot;Wanted to keep separate accounts,&quot; said
+Chacherre.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gumberts nodded and produced two large
+sealed envelopes, which he pushed across
+the table.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There's rakeoff for week before last,&quot; he
+announced. &quot;Last week will be the big
+business, judgin' from early reports.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre pocketed the envelopes, lighted
+a cigarette, and leaned forward.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Say, Izzy! You got to send a new man
+down to the Bayou Latouche right away.
+Lafarge was there, you know; a nigger shot
+him yesterday. The nigger threatened to
+squeal unless he got his money back&mdash;Lafarge
+was a fool and didn't know how to handle
+him. The lottery's goin' to get a bad name
+around there&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gumberts snapped his fingers. &quot;Let it!&quot;
+he said, calmly. &quot;The big money from all
+that section is Chinese and Filipino, my
+friend. The niggers don't matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, the boss says to shoot a new man
+down there. Also, he says, you'd better
+watch out about spreadin' the lottery into
+Texas and Alabama, account of the government
+rules.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122"></a>[pg&nbsp;122]</span>
+The heavy features of Gumberts closed in a
+scowl.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You tell your boss,&quot; he said, &quot;that when
+it comes to steerin' clear of federal men, I
+don't want no instructions from nobody!
+We got every man in this state spotted.
+Every one that can be fixed is fixed&mdash;and
+that goes for the legislators and politicians
+clear up the line! Tell your boss to handle
+the local gov'ment as well as I handle other
+things, and he'll do all that's necessary. What
+he'd ought to attend to, for one thing, is this
+here guy who calls himself the Midnight
+Masquer. I've told him before that this
+guy was playing hell with my system! This
+Masquer gets no protection, see? The quicker
+Fell goes after him, the better for all concerned&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre laughed, not without a swagger.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We've attended to all that, Izzy&mdash;we've
+dropped on him and settled him! The guy
+was doin' it for a carnival joke, that's all.
+His loot is all goin' back to the owners to-day.
+It needn't worry you, anyhow! There was
+nothin' much to it&mdash;jewellery that couldn't
+be disposed of, for the most part. We
+couldn't take chances on that sort o' junk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123"></a>[pg&nbsp;123]</span>
+&quot;I should say not.&quot; Gumbert regarded
+him with a scowl. &quot;You've got the stuff?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The boss has. Look here, Izzy, I want you
+to use a little influence with headquarters on
+this deal&mdash;the boss doesn't want to show his
+hand there,&quot; and leaning forward, Ben Chacherre
+spoke in a low tone. Then, Gumberts
+heard him out, chuckled, and nodded assent.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At two that afternoon Henry Gramont,
+who was writing letters in total disregard of
+the carnival parade downtown, was summoned
+to the telephone. He was greeted
+by a voice which he did not recognize, but
+which announced itself promptly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is Mr. Gramont? Police headquarters
+speakin'. You laid a charge this
+morning against a fellow named Chacherre?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; answered Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Must ha' been some mistake, then,&quot;
+came the response. &quot;We thought the prints
+fitted, but found later they didn't. We
+looked up the Chacherre guy and found he
+was workin' steady and strictly O.&nbsp;K. What's
+more to the point, he proved up a dead sure
+alibi for the other night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh!&quot; said Gramont. &quot;Then there's nothing
+to be done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124"></a>[pg&nbsp;124]</span>
+&quot;Not yet. We're workin' on it, and maybe
+we'll have some news later. Good-bye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont hung up the receiver, a puzzled
+frown creasing his brow. But, after a minute,
+he laughed softly&mdash;a trace of anger in the
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah!&quot; he murmured. &quot;I congratulate you
+on your efficiency, Mr. Fell! But now wait a
+little&mdash;and we'll meet again. I think I'm
+getting somewhere at last, and I'll have a
+surprise for you one of these days!&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125"></a>[pg&nbsp;125]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>In The Open</i></p>
+
+<p>IN NEW ORLEANS the carnival season is
+always opened by the ball of the Twelfth
+Night Revellers soon after Christmas, and
+is closed by that of the Krewe of Comus on
+Mardi Gras night. Upon this evening of
+&quot;Fat Tuesday,&quot; indeed, both Rex and Comus
+hold forth. Rex is the popular ball, the
+affair of the people, and is held in the Athenaeum.
+From here, about midnight, the king
+and queen proceed to Comus ball.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Comus is an assembly of such rigid exclusiveness
+that even the tickets to the galleries
+are considered social prizes. The <i>personae</i>
+of the Krewe, on this particular year
+as in all previous ones, would remain unknown;
+there is no unmasking at Comus.
+This institution, a tremendous social power
+and potentially a financial power also, during
+decades of the city's life, is held absolutely
+above any taint of favouritism or commercialism.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126"></a>[pg&nbsp;126]</span>
+Even the families of those concerned
+might not always be certain whether their
+sons and brothers belonged to the Krewe
+of Comus.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Henry Gramont did not attend the ball of
+Proteus on Monday night. Instead, he sat
+in his own room, while through the streets
+of the French quarter outside was raging
+the carnival at its height. Before him were
+maps and reports upon the gas and oil fields
+about Bayou Terrebonne&mdash;fields where great
+domes of natural gas were already located
+and in use, and where oil was being found in
+some quantity. Early on Wednesday morning
+Gramont intended to set forth to his work.
+He had been engaged to make a report to
+Bob Maillard's company, and he would make
+it. Then he would resign his advisory job,
+and be free. A smile curled his lips as he
+thought of young Maillard and the company.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The young gentleman will be sadly surprised
+to discover that I've gotten out from
+under&mdash;and that his respected father holds
+my stock!&quot; he reflected. &quot;That was a good
+deal; I lost a thousand to old Maillard in order
+to save the balance of thirty thousand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A knock at his door interrupted the thread
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127"></a>[pg&nbsp;127]</span>
+of this thought. Gramont opened, to find
+the concierge with a note which had been
+left at the door below by a masked Harlequin,
+who had then disappeared without awaiting
+any reply.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont recognized the writing on the
+envelope, and hastened to the note inside.
+His face changed, however, as he read it:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Please call promptly at eleven to-morrow morning.
+I wish to see you upon a matter of business.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Lucie Ledanois.</span></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont gazed long at this note, his brows
+drawn down into a harsh line. It was not
+like Lucie in its tone, somehow; he sensed
+something amiss, something vaguely but most
+decidedly out of tune. Certainly it was not
+her way to write thus curtly and harshly&mdash;the
+words disquieted him. What could have
+turned up now? Then, with a shrug, he tossed
+the note on the table.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Eleven to-morrow morning, eh?&quot; he murmured.
+&quot;That's queer, too, for she's to be
+at the Proteus ball to-night. Most girls
+would not be conducting business affairs
+at eleven in the morning, after being up all
+night at Proteus! It must be something important.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128"></a>[pg&nbsp;128]</span>
+Besides, she's not in the class with
+any one else. She's a rare girl; no nonsense
+in her&mdash;full of a deep, strong sense of
+things&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He forced himself from thoughts of Lucie,
+forced himself from her personality, and returned
+to his reports with an effort of concentration.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont wanted to look over her Terrebonne
+land with a full knowledge of its geology
+and situation. Oil drilling is a gamble
+in any case, yet Gramont took a scholar's
+solid satisfaction in getting his subject thoroughly
+in hand before he went to work at it.
+Then, he reflected, he would get his task
+finished as rapidly as might be, turn in his
+report, and resign from the company. After
+that&mdash;freedom! He regretted sadly enough
+that he had ever gone into any relations with
+Maillard's company.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yet, what's to hinder my going ahead,
+in the meantime?&quot; he considered. &quot;What's
+to hinder getting my own company on its
+feet? Nothing! All I need is backing. I'll
+put in twenty-five thousand, and that much
+more added to it will give us plenty of capital
+to start in drilling with. If I could find someone
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129"></a>[pg&nbsp;129]</span>
+who had a positive faith in my judgment
+and whom I could trust in turn&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He checked himself suddenly, and stared
+at the papers before him with widening eyes.
+A slow whistle came from his lips, and then
+he smiled and pulled the papers to him. Yet,
+as he worked he could not keep down the
+thought that had forced itself upon him. It
+was altogether absurd, of course&mdash;yet why
+not?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When Gramont went to bed that night
+it was with a startling and audacious scheme
+well defined in his brain; a scheme whose
+first conception seemed ludicrous and impossible,
+yet which, on second consideration,
+appeared in a very different light. It deserved
+serious thought&mdash;and Gramont had
+made his decision before he went to sleep.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The following day was Tuesday&mdash;Mardi
+Gras, Shrove Tuesday, the last day before
+Lent began, and the final culminating day
+of carnival. Henry Gramont, however, was
+destined to find little in its beginning of much
+personal pleasure.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At eleven in the morning Hammond drove
+him to the Ledanois home, where Gramont
+was admitted by one of the coloured servants
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" id="page130"></a>[pg&nbsp;130]</span>
+and shown into the parlour. A moment later
+Lucie herself appeared. At first glance her
+smiling greeting removed the half-sensed apprehensions
+of Gramont. Almost immediately
+afterward, however, he noted a
+perceptible change in her manner, as she
+led him toward the rear of the room, and gestured
+toward a mahogany tilt-top table which
+stood in a corner.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come over here, please. I have something
+which I wish to show you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She needed to say no more. Gramont,
+following her, found himself staring blankly
+down at the symbol of consternation which
+overwhelmed him. For upon that table, lay
+all those self-same boxes which he himself
+had packed with the loot of the Midnight
+Masquer&mdash;the identical boxes, apparently unopened,
+which had been stolen from his
+automobile by the supposed thief Chacherre!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For a moment Gramont found himself unable
+to speak. He was thunderstruck by
+the sight of those unmistakeable boxes. A
+glance at the calm features of the girl showed
+him that there was nothing to be concealed
+from her, even had he wished it. He was
+further stunned by this realization. He could
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131"></a>[pg&nbsp;131]</span>
+not understand how the packages had come
+here. Recovering his voice with an effort, he
+managed to break the heavy silence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well? I suppose you know what is in
+those parcels?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She nodded. &quot;Yes. One of them was
+opened, and the note inside was discovered.
+Of course, it gave a general explanation. Will
+you sit down, please? I think that we had
+better talk it over quietly and calmly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont obeyed, and dropped into a chair.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He was absurdly conscious of his own confusion.
+He tried to speak, but words and
+thoughts failed him. Torn between pride
+and chagrin, he found himself able to say
+nothing. Explanations, at any time, came
+to him with difficulty; now, at least, he felt
+that he could not lie to this girl. And how
+was he to tell her the truth?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And how had Lucie come into the affair?
+This staggered him above all else. Was she
+behind the theft of the loot? It must be.
+How long had she suspected him, then? He
+had thought Jachin Fell the sole danger-point&mdash;he
+had never dreamed that this gray-eyed
+Athene could be tracing down the
+Masquer! He tried to visualize the situation
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132"></a>[pg&nbsp;132]</span>
+more clearly and his brain whirled. He
+knew, of course, that she was fairly intimate
+with Fell, but he was not aware of any particular
+connection&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He glanced up at her suddenly, and surprised
+a glint of laughter in her eyes as she
+watched him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You seem to be rather astonished,&quot; she
+observed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I am.&quot; Gramont drew a deep breath.
+&quot;You&mdash;do you know that those boxes were
+taken from my car?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She nodded again. &quot;Certainly. They were
+brought to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then you had someone on my trail?&quot;
+Gramont flushed a little as he put the question
+to her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No. I have been chosen to settle affairs
+with you, that is all. It has been learned
+from the note in the opened box that you
+were not criminal in what you did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She leaned forward, her deep eyes searching
+him with a steady scrutiny.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Tell me, Henry Gramont, what mad
+impulse brought you to all this? Was it a
+silly, boyish effort to be romantic&mdash;was it a
+mere outburst of bravado? It was not for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133"></a>[pg&nbsp;133]</span>
+the sake of robbery, as the note explained
+very clearly. But why, then? Why? There
+must have been a definite reason in your
+mind. You would not have taken such dangerous
+chances unless you had something to
+gain!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont nodded slightly, then flushed
+again and bit his lip. For a moment he
+made no response to her query.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He might, of course, say that he had been
+the Midnight Masquer because of her alone;
+which would be decidedly untrue. He might
+tell her, as he had told Hammond, that all
+his efforts had led up to that scene in the
+Maillard library, when without suspicion by
+any concerned he might verify his own surmise
+as to who had been defrauding Lucie
+Ledanois. It would sound very well&mdash;but
+it would be a lie. That had been far from
+his only reason for playing the Midnight
+Masquer's game.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But why tell her anything?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A slight smile touched his lips. &quot;You're
+not going to send me to prison, I trust?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I ought to!&quot; The girl broke into a laugh.
+&quot;Why, I can hardly yet believe that it was
+really you who were guilty of those things!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134"></a>[pg&nbsp;134]</span>
+It mortified me, it stunned me&mdash;until I realized
+the truth from the note. Even the fact that
+you did not do it for criminal ends does not
+relieve the sheer folly of the act. Why did
+you do it? Come, tell me the truth!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont shrugged. &quot;The truth? Well,
+my chauffeur, Hammond, was the original
+Masquer. I caught him in the act&mdash;you
+remember I told you about him? After
+taking him into my employ, I became the
+Masquer. Poor Hammond was some time
+in realizing that my motives were altruistic
+and not criminal. He was quite distressed
+about it until he found that I meant to return
+all the loot intact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why did you do it, then?&quot; persisted the
+girl.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Call it bravado, my dear Lucie. Call
+it anything you like&mdash;I can't lie to you! I
+had a motive, and I refuse to admit what it
+was; that's all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Aren't you ashamed of yourself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not particularly.&quot; He smiled. &quot;I had
+a good end in view, and I accomplished it.
+Also, I flatter myself that I accomplished
+it very decently; there's nothing like being
+a good workman, you know. Now that I'm
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id="page135"></a>[pg&nbsp;135]</span>
+all through, now that I've finished playing
+my little game, you happened to discover it.
+I am ashamed on that point, Lucie&mdash;ashamed
+because the discovery has very naturally
+made you think harshly of me&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think you've been very silly,&quot; she said
+with a disconcerting calmness. He regarded
+her for a moment, steadily. &quot;And you
+have displayed a fearful lack of judgment!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Silly? Well&mdash;perhaps. What are you going
+to do with those boxes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll put them in the mail. I'm going downtown
+for luncheon, and will do it then. They'll
+be delivered this afternoon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He nodded. &quot;I had meant to have them
+delivered to-morrow; it makes no difference.
+You're the boss. It will give the good people
+a little more reason for jubilation to-night, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A sudden laugh broke upon his lips. &quot;I'm
+beginning to see the humour of it, Lucie&mdash;and
+I know who put you next to me. It was
+Jachin Fell, the old fox! I suspected that he
+was on my trail, and I thought that he had
+managed the theft of those boxes. In fact,
+I was preparing to give him a big surprise
+this afternoon. But tell me, Lucie&mdash;are you
+angry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136"></a>[pg&nbsp;136]</span>
+She looked at him steadily for a space,
+then a swift smile leaped to her lips and she
+extended a pardoning hand. Her gesture
+and words were impulsive, sincere.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Angry? No. I think you've some good
+reason behind it all, which you won't confide
+to me. I can read you pretty clearly, Henry
+Gramont; I think I can understand some
+things in you. You're no weakling, no romantic,
+filibustering crackbrain! And I like
+you because you won't lie to me. You've
+a motive and you refuse to tell it&mdash;very well!
+I'll be just as frank and say that I'm not a bit
+angry. So, that's settled!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now what was the big surprise that you
+just mentioned you were going to give poor
+Mr. Fell this afternoon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont's eyes twinkled. &quot;You remember
+that I thought he suspected me of being the
+Masquer? Well, I was going to him and
+propose that we enter business together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh! As bandits?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, as oil promotors. I'm out of Maillard's
+company, or shall be out of it soon.
+The minute I'm out, I'll be free to go into
+business for myself. It occurred to me that
+if Jachin Fell had brains enough to run down
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137"></a>[pg&nbsp;137]</span>
+the Midnight Masquer, he would be a mighty
+good business partner; because I'm poor on
+business detail. Also, I think Fell is to be
+trusted. The things you've told me and
+written me about him prove that much.
+He's very strong politically, I have found&mdash;although
+few people know it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But he's not interested in oil is he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't know; I take for granted that he's
+interested in making money. Most men are.
+The only way to make money in oil is to have
+money&mdash;and he has some! I have a little.
+I can put in twenty-five thousand. With
+an equal amount from him, we can sink
+a couple of wells, perhaps three. If we
+go broke, all right. If we find oil, we're
+rich!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But, my dear Henry, if he knew you to
+be the Midnight Masquer, do you think he'd
+want to go into business with you?&quot; Her
+gray eyes were dancing with amusement
+as she put the query.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why not?&quot; Gramont laughed. &quot;If he
+knew that I had brains enough to pull off
+that stunt and keep all New Orleans up in
+the air&mdash;wouldn't I make a good partner?
+Besides, I believe that I have some notion
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138"></a>[pg&nbsp;138]</span>
+where to go after oil; I'm going to examine
+your land first&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My good prince, you surely have no lack
+of audacity!&quot; She broke into a peal of
+laughter. &quot;Your argument about inducing
+Mr. Fell to go into business with you is
+naïve&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But, as an argument, isn't it quite sound?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Possibly. Since it is Lucie Ledanois and
+not Jachin Fell who has brought you to a
+confession of your crimes against society&mdash;aren't
+you going to propose that she go into
+business with you? Doesn't the argument
+hold good with her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Although Gramont was taken aback, he
+met her gaze squarely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No. Oil is no woman's game, unless she
+can well afford to lose. I imagine that you
+cannot, Lucie. Once I get my company
+formed, however&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're right, I can't put in any money.
+I'm land poor. Unless I were to sell that
+Bayou Terrebonne land&mdash;it's an old farm,
+abandoned since before father died&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't sell it!&quot; he exclaimed, quickly.
+&quot;Don't consider any dealings with it until
+I have looked it over, will you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139"></a>[pg&nbsp;139]</span>
+&quot;Since you ask it, no. If there's gas near
+by, there must be oil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who knows?&quot; he shrugged. &quot;No one
+can predict oil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then you still mean to go to Jachin Fell
+with your scheme?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont nodded. &quot;Yes. See here, Lucie&mdash;it's
+about noon! Suppose you come along
+and lunch with me at the Louisiane, if you've
+no engagement. We can put those boxes
+in the mail en route, and after luncheon I'll
+try and get hold of Fell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She put her head on one side and studied
+him reflectively.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're sure you'll not kidnap me or
+anything like that? It's risky to become a
+friend of hardened criminals, even if one is
+trying to uplift them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good! You'll come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If you can give me ten minutes&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My dear Lucie, you are the most charming
+object in New Orleans at this minute! Why
+attempt to make yourself still more attractive?
+Gilding the lily is an impossible task.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, wait for me. Is your car here?
+Good! I want to see Hammond's face when
+he sees us carrying out those boxes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140"></a>[pg&nbsp;140]</span>
+Laughing, the girl started toward the
+stairs. At the doorway she paused.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;One thing, M. le prince! Do you solemnly
+promise, upon your honour, that the
+Midnight Masquer is dead for ever?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Upon my honour!&quot; said Gramont, seriously.
+&quot;The farce is ended, Lucie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All right. I'll be right down. Smoke
+if you like&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In her own room upstairs Lucie closed
+the door and sat down before her dressing
+table. She made no move toward the array
+of toilet articles, however. Instead, she took
+a desk telephone from the table, and called a
+number. In a moment she received a response.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Uncle Jachin!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;Yes&mdash;it's
+just as we thought; it's all a joke. No,
+it was not a joke, either, because he had some
+motive behind it, but he won't tell me what
+it was. I'm terribly glad that you opened
+one of those boxes and found the letter&mdash;if
+you had gone to the police it would have
+been perfectly dreadful&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I never go to the police,&quot; said Jachin Fell
+with his dry chuckle. &quot;You are quite satisfied
+that there is nothing serious in the affair, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141"></a>[pg&nbsp;141]</span>
+&quot;Absolutely! He told me that he had accomplished
+his purpose, whatever it was,
+and that it's all ended. He just gave me his
+word that the Masquer was dead for ever.
+Now, aren't you glad that you confided in
+me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very,&quot; said Jachin Fell. &quot;Very glad,
+indeed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now you're laughing at me&mdash;never mind!
+We're going to lunch downtown, and we'll
+mail those boxes on the way, by parcels post.
+Is that all right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Quite all right, my dear. It is the method
+adopted by the most exclusive and elusive
+criminals in the country, I assure you. Every
+handbag snatcher gets rid of his empty bags by
+mailing them back to the owner&mdash;unless
+first caught. It pays to follow professional
+examples, as Eliza said when she crossed the
+ice. Did your gown come for to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's to come this afternoon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very well. Do not plan to wear any
+jewels, Lucie. I have a set to lend you for
+the occasion&mdash;no, not a gift, merely a loan
+for the sake of Comus. They are very nice
+pearls; a little old fashioned, because they
+were mounted for the Princesses de Lamballe,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142"></a>[pg&nbsp;142]</span>
+but you will find that they fit in excellently
+with your gown. I'll bring them with me
+when I call for you&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I'll tender fitting thanks then. One
+thing more: Henry Gramont is going to see
+you after luncheon, I think&mdash;on business.
+And I want you to be nice to him, Uncle
+Jachin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Most assuredly,&quot; said the other, drily.
+&quot;I should like to be associated in business with
+that young man. The firm would prosper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Will you stop laughing at me? Then I'll
+ring off&mdash;good-bye!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And, smiling, she hung up the receiver.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ten minutes later, when Gramont and
+Miss Ledanois entered the waiting car, Hammond
+saw the boxes that they carried. He
+stood beside the open door, paralyzed, his
+eyes fastened on the boxes, his mouth agape.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;To the postoffice, sergeant,&quot; said Gramont,
+then affected to observe his stupefaction.
+&quot;Why, what's the matter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond met his twinkling eyes, saw the
+laughter of Lucie, and swallowed hard.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I&mdash;er&mdash;nothing at all, cap'n,&quot; he answered,
+hoarsely. &quot;A&mdash;a little chokin' spell,
+that's all. Postoffice? Yes, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143"></a>[pg&nbsp;143]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>Comus</i></p>
+
+<p>FROM the time they left the Ledanois
+house with Lucie, Gramont had no
+opportunity of seeing his chauffeur
+in private until, later in the afternoon, he
+left the Maison Blanche building. He had
+enjoyed a thoroughly satisfactory interview
+with Jachin Fell. So wholly had Gramont's
+thoughts been given over to the business, indeed,
+that it was almost a shock to emerge into
+Canal Street and find everyone else in the
+world thinking only of the water carnival and
+the Rex parade.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As for the Midnight Masquer and the
+mystery of the boxes of loot, all this had
+quite fled Gramont's mind before larger and
+more important things. The car was waiting
+for him in Royal Street, not far from the
+Monteleone, and Gramont approached it to
+find Hammond in deep worry over the outcome
+of the interview with Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144"></a>[pg&nbsp;144]</span>
+&quot;Well, cap'n!&quot; he exclaimed, anxiously, as
+Gramont drew up. &quot;You're smilin', so I guess
+it ain't a pinch!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont laughed gaily. &quot;Those boxes?
+Nonsense! Say, sergeant, you must have
+been scared stiff when you saw them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Scared? I was ready to flop, that's all!
+And how in the name o' goodness did they
+get in <i>her</i> house? What's behind all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont glanced around. He walked with
+Hammond to the front of the car, where he
+could speak without being overheard by the
+passersby.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It seems that I was more or less mistaken
+about Fell being on our trail,&quot; he explained,
+reflectively. &quot;We had a very frank talk
+about it, and he disclaimed all knowledge of
+the boxes themselves. I gathered from little
+things he dropped that some criminal had
+looted the stuff from the car, and that it came
+to his attention yesterday in a legal capacity&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Legal capacity, hell!&quot; snorted Hammond.
+&quot;Did you swallow all that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My swallowing capacity was pretty good,&quot;
+and Gramont chuckled. &quot;It seems that he
+opened one of the boxes, and found the note
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page145" id="page145"></a>[pg&nbsp;145]</span>
+I had written. This explained the business,
+and by way of a little joke he turned over the
+loot to Miss Ledanois and she had a bit of fun
+with us. Fell, in fact, proved to be a pretty
+good fellow&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He sure handed you out a fine line of
+bull!&quot; commented Hammond, savagely.
+&quot;What gets me is your falling for all that
+dope! Looks like you wanted to believe
+him, cap'n.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps I did.&quot; Gramont shrugged his
+shoulders. &quot;Why not? I've no reason to
+disbelieve him. The note made it plain that
+we were not criminals; now the whole affair
+is cleaned up and out of the way. We're
+out of it in good shape, if you ask me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You said something there,&quot; agreed Hammond,
+not without a sigh of relief. &quot;All
+right, if you say so, only I ain't sure about
+this Fell&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't worry. The stuff is returned, and
+the matter is now closed. We can forget all
+about the Midnight Masquer. Now, there's
+another and more important thing that I
+want to speak with you about, a matter of
+business&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hold on, cap'n!&quot; interrupted Hammond,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page146" id="page146"></a>[pg&nbsp;146]</span>
+quietly, his eye on a spot behind Gramont.
+&quot;One of your friends is headed over this way,
+and if I know anything about it, he's got
+blood in his eye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont turned, to see Bob Maillard approaching.
+The latter addressed him without
+any response to his greeting.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Have you a moment to spare, Gramont?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All afternoon,&quot; answered Gramont, cheerfully.
+He affected not to observe Maillard's
+air of heavy business, nor the frowning suspicion
+that lurked half-veiled in the other's
+glowering features. &quot;By the way, I've been
+looking up a New Orleans landmark without
+much success&mdash;the Ramos gin fizz establishment.
+It seems to be gone!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It is,&quot; returned Maillard, sourly. &quot;Prohibition
+killed it, like it's killing everything.
+François moved into the place last September
+from Old 27, and it's become his restaurant
+now. But look here, Gramont!&quot; The two
+were standing a bit apart, and Hammond was
+fussing with one of the headlights, but Gramont
+suspected that the chauffeur was listening
+avidly. &quot;I've just come from a talk with
+dad. How did it happen that you sold him
+that stock of yours in the company?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page147" id="page147"></a>[pg&nbsp;147]</span>
+Gramont smiled a little. He was amused
+by the way Maillard was endeavouring to
+keep down an outburst of angry passion.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I happened to need the money. Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But why the devil didn't you hang on to
+that stock? Or if you needed money, why
+didn't you come to me?&quot; exploded the other,
+angrily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Heavens!&quot; drawled Gramont, who was
+quite willing to exasperate young Maillard to
+the limit. &quot;You seem frightfully concerned
+about it! What's the big idea, anyway? I
+don't recall that any of us went into an
+agreement not to sell if we wanted to. I
+offered the stock to your father at a discount.
+He realized that it was a good buy, and took
+it. What's wrong with that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nothing wrong, if you put it that way,&quot;
+snapped Maillard, angrily. &quot;But it's a confounded
+sly way of doing things&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now, just wait right there!&quot; Gramont's
+easy smile vanished. &quot;I don't take that
+kind of talk, Maillard. One more such
+insinuation, and you'll need to use a mask at
+the ball to-night, I promise you! I'll show
+you how sly I am, my friend! I'm off in the
+morning to start work on that report I was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page148" id="page148"></a>[pg&nbsp;148]</span>
+engaged to make. When the report comes in,
+my resignation comes with it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All right. Let it come here and now,
+then.&quot; Maillard's tone was ugly. &quot;If you're
+so blamed anxious to get out of the company,
+get out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thanks. I'll be glad to be relieved of the
+job.&quot; Gramont turned and addressed his
+chauffeur. &quot;Hammond, you'll kindly remember
+this conversation, in case your future
+testimony is needed&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Confound you, what d'you mean talking
+that way?&quot; broke out Maillard. &quot;Do you
+suppose I'll deny firing you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't care to have you offer any reflections
+on my actions, Maillard,&quot; said Gramont,
+evenly. &quot;My course in this matter is
+perfectly open and above board, which is more
+than you can say for your doings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What?&quot; Maillard clenched his stick and
+took a forward step, anger working in his
+face. &quot;What the devil d'you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Exactly what I say&mdash;and perhaps I can
+prove it. Remember the oil concern to
+which you persuaded your precious father to
+sell some of Miss Ledanois's bayou land?
+Remember the real estate company to which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page149" id="page149"></a>[pg&nbsp;149]</span>
+you persuaded him to sell her St. Landry
+parish property? You had interests in both
+concerns; I don't imagine you'd care to have
+your share in those transactions exposed.
+Further, I entirely understand your indignation
+over my getting rid of this stock before
+the crash, and it ill becomes you to assume
+any such attitude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Maillard glared at him for a long moment,
+a red tide of rage flooding and ebbing from
+his heavy countenance. Then, mastering
+himself, he turned and strode away without
+further speech.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hurray!&quot; observed Hammond, when he
+was gone. &quot;Cap'n, that guy is off you for
+life! I bet he'd like to meet you alone on a
+dark night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont shook his head. &quot;He's a bad
+enemy, all right. Here, get into the car!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He climbed in beside Hammond.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't drive&mdash;I want to speak with you.
+Now that Maillard has relieved me of the
+necessity of making any report to his company,
+I'm free, and glad of it! I've been
+talking business with Mr. Fell, and I'm to
+have my own company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;With him?&quot; Hammond sniffed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page150" id="page150"></a>[pg&nbsp;150]</span>
+&quot;Yes. He's matching his money against
+mine, and we're going to look for oil on some
+land owned by Miss Ledanois. It'll be a
+close corporation, and if we strike oil, we'll
+all three have a good thing. We may go
+broke, and we may go rich; if you're saving
+any coin out of your salary and feel like taking
+a gamble, I'll get you a bit of the stock
+after Mr. Fell gets things in shape. You can
+think it over&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't want to think it over,&quot; broke in
+Hammond, eagerly. &quot;I'm on, here and now&mdash;and
+it sure is mighty good of you, cap'n!
+Say, I ain't had any chance to tell you before,
+but I pulled two hundred out o' the lottery
+last week&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Lottery!&quot; Gramont looked at him
+quickly. &quot;What lottery?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond looked a trifle sheepish. &quot;Well,
+it's against the law, o' course, but they run
+'em right along just the same. A bunch of
+the chauffeurs here are wise to it; they put up
+some coin for me last week, and as I was
+sayin' I pulled out two hundred. I got most
+of it left, and have some saved up on the side.
+I'll stick it all in, huh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont nodded. &quot;Well, we'll see later.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page151" id="page151"></a>[pg&nbsp;151]</span>
+You're free until morning, sergeant. I'm
+going to the Comus ball to-night as a guest of
+the Lavergnes, and they'll call for me. Enjoy
+yourself, keep out of jail, and be ready to
+start at six in the morning for Terrebonne.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Leaving Hammond to take the car home,
+Gramont headed for Canal Street to mingle
+with the carnival crowd and revel in his new-found
+sense of freedom. Now that he was his
+own master, he felt like a new man.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Overnight, it seemed, all weights had
+dropped from his shoulders. On the score of
+the Midnight Masquer, he was vastly relieved;
+all that was over and forgotten.
+Financially, he had achieved what was nothing
+less than a masterly triumph. In a
+business way, he was free of all ties and able
+to look forward to decisive action on his own
+behalf and that of a partner in whom he
+could feel a perfect reliance.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Consequently, he began really to enjoy
+Mardi Gras for the first time, and plunged
+into the eddying crowds in a free and light-hearted
+manner which had not been his for
+years.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was the moment for the carnival spirit
+to seize on him, and seize him it did. With
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page152" id="page152"></a>[pg&nbsp;152]</span>
+a boyish abandon he tramped the streets
+merrily, exchanging jests and confetti, shoves
+and bladder-blows, laughs and kisses. Madness
+and reckless gaiety were in the very
+air, and Gramont drank deep of these youthful
+tonics. When at last he wandered home
+to his pension, he was footsore, weary, disarranged,
+and touseled&mdash;and very happy. The
+wine of human comradeship is a good wine.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">That evening the Comus ball, the most
+exclusive revel of the most exclusive aristocracy
+of the southland, crowded the edifice in
+which it was held to capacity. Here evening
+dress was prescribed for all the guests. The
+Krewe of Comus alone were masked and
+costumed, in grotesque and magnificent costumes
+which had been in the making for
+months. The Krewe is to the South what
+the Bohemian Club is to the western coast,
+with the added enhancement of mystery.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Despite the revels of the Krewe, however&mdash;despite
+the glittering jewels, the barbaric
+costumes, the music, the excitement&mdash;an
+indefinable air of regret, almost of sadness,
+pervaded the entire gathering. This feeling
+was something to be sensed, rather than observed
+definitely. Some said, afterward, that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" id="page153"></a>[pg&nbsp;153]</span>
+it was a premonition of the terrible event that
+was to happen this night. Wrong! It was
+because, for the first time in many generations,
+the Comus ball was held in one of the
+newer public buildings instead of in its accustomed
+place. Everyone was speaking of
+it. Even Maillard the banker, that cold man
+of dollars, spoke uneasily of it when Gramont
+encountered him in the smoking room.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It doesn't seem like Comus,&quot; said Maillard,
+with a vexed frown. &quot;And to think that
+we had just finished redecorating the Opera
+House when it was burned down! Comus
+will never be the same again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I didn't know you could feel such emotion
+for a ruined building, Maillard,&quot; said Gramont,
+lightly. The banker shrugged a trifle.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Emotion? No. Regret! None of us, who
+has been brought up in the traditions of the
+city but regarded the French Opera House
+as the centre of all our storied life. You
+can't understand it, Gramont; no outsider can.
+By the way, you haven't seen Bob? He's
+in costume, but he might have spoken to
+you&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont answered in the negative, with a
+slight surprise at the question.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page154" id="page154"></a>[pg&nbsp;154]</span>
+It was not long before he came to comprehend
+more fully just what the loss of the old
+French Opera House meant to the assembly.
+He heard comparisons made on every hand,
+regretful allusions, sighs for the days that
+were no more.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">This present building, to be sure, was one
+of the city's finest, up to date in every way,
+with an abundance of room&mdash;and yet everyone
+said that Comus would never be the same.
+About the Opera House had clung the romance
+of many generations. About it, too, had
+clung the affections of the people with a
+fierceness beyond reason. More famous buildings
+had been allowed to go to ruin, like the
+Hotel Royale, but the Opera House had been
+kept in repair for Mardi Gras. It was itself&mdash;a
+landmark. Nothing else would ever be like
+it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">From his seat in the Lavergne box Gramont
+contented himself during the early evening
+with the common rôle of all the &quot;blackcoats&quot;&mdash;that
+of looking on idly. More than once he
+saw Lucie Ledanois called out, among others
+of the fair sex, as a dancing partner for some
+member of the Krewe. None of the male
+guests, however, was allowed to participate
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page155" id="page155"></a>[pg&nbsp;155]</span>
+in the festivity until Rex and his queen should
+arrive&mdash;at midnight; thus, Gramont saw almost
+nothing of Lucie during the evening.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was, inevitably, more or less visiting
+in boxes and foyers, and not a little lounging
+in the smoking room. The building was a
+huge structure, and richly furnished. Only a
+portion of it was in use by the Krewe; the
+remainder was, of course, deserted for the
+time being.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">While in search of smoking companions,
+Gramont encountered many of his acquaintances,
+and among them Doctor Ansley and
+Jachin Fell. In order to enjoy Fell's proffered
+El Reys in a somewhat clearer atmosphere
+these three strolled off together into one of the
+unused passages leading to other parts of the
+building. They opened a window and stood
+watching the crowd that surged in the street
+below, constantly increasing as the hour
+grew later, for the procession of Rex would be
+well worth seeing and nobody meant to miss
+anything upon this night of nights.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Suddenly, at the sound of an approaching
+footstep, the three men turned. The electric
+lights were going in all of the hallways, and
+they perceived that the individual approaching
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page156" id="page156"></a>[pg&nbsp;156]</span>
+them was a member of the Krewe of Comus.
+He was also, it became evident, giving a share
+of his allegiance to Bacchus, for his feet were
+obviously unsteady. He was clad in a parti-coloured
+costume, which was crowned by an
+exaggerated head of Mephisto.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good evening to you, worthy gentlemen!&quot;
+He came to a fuddled halt and stood there,
+laughing at the stares of the three. &quot;Evening,
+I say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They responded to his liquor-tinged words
+with a laughing reply.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Wonderin' who I am, aren't you!&quot; he
+hiccuped. &quot;Well, don't wonder; 'sall between
+ol' friends to-night! Tell you what, m'
+friends&mdash;come with me and I'll find you a
+li'l drink, eh? No prohibition booze, upon
+m' honour; real old Boone pinchneck&mdash;got it
+from some boys in Louisville, been savin'
+it up for to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He wagged his head at them, and pursued
+his subject in a half-maudlin burst of confidential
+assurance. An unsteady hand waved
+down the hallway.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Havin' a little party in one of the rooms,&quot;
+he continued. &quot;All of us friends&mdash;lots more
+fun than dancin'! And say! I'm going pull
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" id="page157"></a>[pg&nbsp;157]</span>
+something great, positively great; you don't
+want to miss it, gentlemen! You come along
+with me and I'll fix it for you. Come on,
+Gramont, that's a good fellow! You'n I had a
+dis'greement to-day&mdash;don't matter to-night,
+nothin' matters to-night, nothin' at all.
+Mardi Gras only comes once a year, eh?
+Come along, now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell very civilly refused the invitation,
+as did the others. Gramont, who now
+recognized their accoster, was less civil in his
+refusal. Mephisto sadly wagged his huge
+headpiece and regarded them with vinous regret.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No 'joyment in you any more? Better
+come along. Tell you, I've got the biggest
+joke of the season ready to pull off&mdash;something
+rich! Gramont, come on!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thanks, no,&quot; responded Gramont, curtly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The masquer gave up the struggle and
+moved on down the empty hallway. The
+three &quot;blackcoats&quot; watched in silence until
+the grotesque figure had vanished.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wonder who that was, now?&quot; mused
+Doctor Ansley, frowning. &quot;Evidently, someone
+who knew us; at least, he recognized you,
+Gramont.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page158" id="page158"></a>[pg&nbsp;158]</span>
+&quot;So it seemed,&quot; put in Jachin Fell. His
+tone, like his eyes, held a sombre fire. &quot;A
+party of them drinking, eh? that will make
+trouble. The Krewe won't like it. Ten to
+one, that young man and his friends will
+start the makings of a fine scandal and the
+Krewe will come down hard on them&mdash;mighty
+hard. Who was he, Gramont?
+Sounded like&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Young Maillard.&quot; At Gramont's response
+a whistle broke from Doctor Ansley. Jachin
+Fell nodded assent.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You took the words out of my mouth.
+So Bob is drinking again, eh? And they've
+occupied one of the rooms somewhere, and
+are enjoying a bit of liquor and a card game
+by themselves. Cursed slippery going, as
+Eliza said when she crossed the ice! The
+Krewe will expel them. Hello, Gramont&mdash;where
+to?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont tossed his cigar through the open
+window.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think I'll make my adieux, Fell. I intend
+to be up early in the morning and get off
+to work&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What?&quot; protested Ansley in astonishment.
+&quot;You must stay until Rex comes, at least!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page159" id="page159"></a>[pg&nbsp;159]</span>
+Why, that's the event of the carnival! The
+evening hasn't started yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm growing old and sober, doctor,&quot; and
+Gramont chuckled. &quot;To tell the truth,&quot;
+and he gave Fell a whimsical glance, &quot;I am
+head over ears in some new business matters
+which have actually fired me with the divine
+afflatus of enthusiasm. What's more, I was
+drifting with the crowds all afternoon, and I've
+just begun to realize that I'm dead tired.
+Rex or no Rex, I'm afraid that I'd best say
+good-night, gentlemen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont persisted in his intention, and
+bade the other two good-night. In truth, he
+cared very little about Rex, and a very great
+deal about getting off to Bayou Terrebonne
+early in the morning. The oil matter filled
+his mind. He had formed a thousand plans,
+he was fired with enthusiasm, and was anxious
+to make his preliminary investigation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Returning to the auditorium, Gramont
+sought out his hosts and made his farewells,
+although not without encountering some opposition.
+At length he was free, he had obtained
+his hat and coat, and as he passed out
+of the building he again met Fell and Ansley,
+who were finishing their cigars at the entrance.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page160" id="page160"></a>[pg&nbsp;160]</span>
+He bade them a final adieu and plunged into
+the crowd.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It lacked half an hour of midnight. The
+streets were filled with merrymakers, who
+were making the night riotous with songs,
+yells, and noise-producing apparatus, anticipating
+the arrival of Rex. For a little Fell
+and Doctor Ansley stood talking, then tossed
+away their cigars and turned into the building.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They halted in the foyer before the appearance
+of two men&mdash;Joseph Maillard, looking
+extremely agitated, and behind him old Judge
+Forester, who wore a distinctly worried expression.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, here are Fell and Ansley!&quot; exclaimed
+Maillard, almost with relief. &quot;I&mdash;ah&mdash;my
+friends, I don't suppose you've seen Bob
+recently?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ansley was silent. Jachin Fell, however,
+responded with a cold nod of assent.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; he said in his peculiarly toneless
+manner. &quot;Yes, we have. At least, I believe
+it was he&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm worried,&quot; said Maillard, anxiously,
+hurriedly. He made an expressive gesture of
+despair. &quot;He's in costume, of course. I've
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" id="page161"></a>[pg&nbsp;161]</span>
+been given to understand that&mdash;well, that he
+has been&mdash;well, drinking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He has,&quot; said Jachin Fell, without any
+trace of compassion. &quot;A number of the
+Krewe are occupying one of the rooms in the
+building, and they must have been visiting it
+frequently. I trust for your sake that the
+fact hasn't become generally known inside?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Maillard nodded. Shame and anger lay
+heavily in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, Jachin. I&mdash;I was asked to exert my
+influence over Bob. The request came to me
+from the floor. This&mdash;this is a disgraceful
+thing to admit, my friends&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Judge Forester, in his kindly way, laid his
+hand on the banker's arm.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Tut, tut, Joseph,&quot; he said, gently, a fund of
+sympathy in his voice. &quot;Boys will be boys,
+you know; really, this is no great matter!
+Don't let it hit you so hard. I'll go with you
+to find the room, of course. Where is it,
+Jachin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'll all go,&quot; put in Ansley. &quot;We'll
+have a little party of our own, gentlemen.
+Come on, I believe we'll be able to discover the
+place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The four men left the foyer and started
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" id="page162"></a>[pg&nbsp;162]</span>
+through the corridors. Among them was a
+tacit understanding, a deep feeling of sympathy
+for Joseph Maillard, a bond which held them
+to his aid in this disgrace which had befallen
+him. Jachin Fell, who felt the least compassion
+or pity, cursed Bob Maillard&mdash;but under
+his breath.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They walked through the empty, lighted
+corridors, following the direction in which Fell
+and Ansley had seen young Maillard disappear.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I hear,&quot; said Judge Forester to Doctor
+Ansley, as they followed the other two, &quot;that
+there has been astonishing news to-day from
+the Midnight Masquer. It seems that a
+number of people have received back property
+this afternoon&mdash;loot the bandit had taken.
+It came by mail, special delivery. One of the
+Lavergne boys tells me that they received a
+box containing everything that was taken at
+their home, even to cash, with a note asking
+them to return the things to their guests. It
+appears to have been some sort of a carnival
+joke, after all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A poor one, then,&quot; responded Ansley,
+&quot;and in doubtful taste. I've heard nothing
+of it. I wouldn't mind getting back the little
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page163" id="page163"></a>[pg&nbsp;163]</span>
+cash I lost, though I must say I'll believe the
+story when I see the money&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He broke off quickly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As they turned a corner of the corridor to
+the four men came realization that they had
+attained their goal. From one of the rooms
+ahead there sounded snatches of a boisterous
+chorus being roared forth lustily. As they
+halted, to distinguish from which door the
+singing proceeded, the chorus was broken off
+by an abrupt and sudden silence. This silence
+was accentuated by the preceding noise, as
+though the singers had checked their maudlin
+song in mid-career.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Damn it!&quot; muttered Maillard. &quot;Did
+they hear us coming? No, that wouldn't
+matter a hang to them&mdash;but what checked
+them so quickly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This door,&quot; said Fell, indicating one to
+their right. He paused at it, listening, and
+over his features came a singular expression.
+As the others joined him, they caught a low
+murmur of voices, a hushed sound of talk, a
+rattle as a number of chips fell from a table.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Cursed queer!&quot; observed Jachin Fell,
+frowning. &quot;I wonder what happened to them
+so abruptly? Perhaps the deal was finished&mdash;they're
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page164" id="page164"></a>[pg&nbsp;164]</span>
+having a game. Well, go ahead,
+Joseph! We'll back you up as a deputation
+from the blackcoats, and if you need any moral
+support, call on Judge Forester.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Correct!&quot; assented that gentleman with
+dignity. &quot;I'll give these jackanapes a little
+advice! It's going a bit far, this sort of thing;
+we can't have Comus turned into a common
+drinking bout. Ready, Joseph?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He flung open the door, and Maillard entered
+at his side. They then came to a
+startled halt, at view of the scene which
+greeted them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The room was large and well lighted, windows
+and transom darkened for the occasion.
+Tobacco smoke made a bluish haze in the air.
+In the centre of the room stood a large table,
+littered with glasses and bottles, with scattered
+cards, with chips and money.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">About this table had been sitting half a
+dozen members of the Krewe of Comus. Now,
+however, they were standing, their various
+identities completely concealed by the grotesque
+costumes which cloaked them. Their
+hands were in the air.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Standing at another doorway, midway between
+their group and that of the four unexpected
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" id="page165"></a>[pg&nbsp;165]</span>
+intruders, was the Midnight Masquer&mdash;holding
+them up at the point of his
+automatic!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a moment of tense and strained
+silence, as every eye went to the four men in
+evening attire. It was plain what had cut
+short the boisterous song&mdash;the Masquer must
+have made his appearance only a moment or
+two previously. From head to foot he was
+hidden under his leathern attire. His unrecognizable
+features, at this instant, were
+turned slightly toward the four new arrivals.
+It was obvious that he, no less than the others,
+was startled by this entry.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Maillard was the first to break that silence
+of stupefaction.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;By heavens!&quot; he cried, furiously. &quot;Here's
+that damned villain again&mdash;hold him, you!
+at him, everybody!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In a blind rage, transported out of himself
+by his sudden access of passion, the banker
+hurled himself forward. From the bandit
+burst a cry of futile warning; the pistol in his
+hand veered toward his assailant.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">This action precipitated the event. Perhaps
+because the Masquer did not fire instantly,
+and perhaps because Maillard's mad
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page166" id="page166"></a>[pg&nbsp;166]</span>
+action shamed them, the nearer members of
+the drinking party hurled themselves at the
+bandit. The threat of the weapon was forgotten,
+unheeded in the sweeping lust of the
+man-hunt. It seemed that the fellow feared
+to fire; and about him closed the party in a
+surging mass, with a burst of sudden shouts,
+striking and clutching to pull him down and
+put him under foot.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then, when it seemed that they had him
+without a struggle, the Masquer broke from
+them, swept them apart and threw them off,
+hurled them clear away. He moved as though
+to leap through the side doorway whence he
+had come.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With an oath, Maillard hurled himself forward,
+struck blindly and furiously at the
+bandit, and fastened upon him about the
+waist. There was a surge forward of bodies
+as the others crowded in to pull down the
+Masquer before he could escape. It looked
+then as though he were indeed lost&mdash;until
+the automatic flamed and roared in his hand,
+its choking fumes bursting at them. The
+report thundered in the room; a second report
+thundered, deafeningly, as a second bullet
+sought its mark.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" id="page167"></a>[pg&nbsp;167]</span>
+Like a faint echo to those shots came the
+slam of a door. The Masquer was gone!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After him, into the farther room, rushed
+some of the party; but he had vanished utterly.
+There was no trace of him. Of course,
+he might have ducked into any of the dark
+rooms, or have run down the corridor, yet his
+complete disappearance confused the searchers.
+After a moment, however, they returned
+to the lighted room. The Masquer had gone,
+but behind him had remained a more grim and
+terrible masquer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the room which he had just left, however,
+there had fallen a dread silence and
+consternation. One of the masqued drinkers
+held an arm that hung helpless, dripping
+blood; but his hurt passed unseen and uncared
+for, even by himself.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Doctor Ansley was kneeling above a motionless
+figure, prone on the dirty floor; and
+it was the figure of Joseph Maillard. The
+physician glanced up, then rose slowly to
+his feet. He made a terribly significant
+gesture, and his crisp voice broke in upon the
+appalled silence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Dead,&quot; he said, curtly. &quot;Shot twice&mdash;each
+bullet through the heart. Judge
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" id="page168"></a>[pg&nbsp;168]</span>
+Forester, I'm afraid there is no alternative
+but to call in the police. Gentlemen, you
+will kindly unmask&mdash;which one of you is
+Robert Maillard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Amid a stunned and horrified silence the
+members of the Krewe one by one removed
+their grotesque headgear, staring at the dead
+man whose white face looked up at them with
+an air of grim accusation. But none of
+them came forward to claim kinship with the
+dead man. Bob Maillard was not in the
+room.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think,&quot; said the toneless, even voice of
+Jachin Fell, &quot;that all of you gentlemen had
+better be very careful to say only what you
+have seen&mdash;and know. You will kindly remain
+here until I have summoned the police.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He left the room, and if there were any
+dark implication hidden in his words, no one
+seemed to observe it.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page169" id="page169"></a>[pg&nbsp;169]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>On The Bayou</i></p>
+
+<p>AT THREE o'clock in the morning a
+great office building is not the most
+desolate place on earth, perhaps;
+but it approaches very closely to that definition.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At three o'clock on the morning of Ash
+Wednesday the great white Maison Blanche
+building was deserted and desolate, so far as
+its offices were concerned. The cleaners and
+scrub-women had long since finished their
+tasks and departed. Out in the streets the
+tag-ends of carnival were running on a swiftly
+ebbing tide. A single elevator in the building
+was, however, in use. A single suite of offices,
+with carefully drawn blinds, was lighted and
+occupied.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They were not ornate, these offices. They
+consisted of two rooms, a small reception
+room and a large private office, both lined to
+the ceiling with books, chiefly law books.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page170" id="page170"></a>[pg&nbsp;170]</span>
+In the large inner room were sitting three
+men. One of the three, Ben Chacherre, sat
+in a chair tipped back against the wall, his
+eyes closed. From time to time he opened
+those sparkling black eyes of his, and through
+narrow-slitted lids directed keen glances at
+the other two men.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">One of the men was the chief of police.
+The second was Jachin Fell, whose offices
+these were.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Even if things are as you say, which I
+don't doubt at all,&quot; said the chief, slowly,
+&quot;I can't believe the boy did it! And darn it
+all, if I pinch him there's goin' to be a hell of
+a scandal!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell shrugged his shoulders, and made response
+in his toneless voice:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Chief, you're up against facts. Those
+facts are bound to come out and the newspapers
+will nail your hide to the wall in a
+minute. You've a bare chance to save yourself
+by taking in young Maillard at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The chief chewed hard on his cigar. &quot;I
+don't want to save myself by putting the
+wrong man behind the bars,&quot; he returned.
+&quot;It sure looks like he was the Masquer all
+the while, but you say that he wasn't. You
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" id="page171"></a>[pg&nbsp;171]</span>
+say this was his only job&mdash;a joke that turned
+out bad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Those are the facts,&quot; said Fell. &quot;I
+don't want to accuse a man of crimes I know
+he did not commit. We have the best of
+evidence that he did commit this crime. If
+the newspapers fasten the entire Midnight
+Masquer business on him, as they're sure to
+do, we can't very well help it. I have no
+sympathy for the boy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course he did it,&quot; put in Ben Chacherre,
+sleepily. &quot;Wasn't he caught with the
+goods?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The others paid no heed. The chief indicated
+two early editions of the morning
+papers, which lay on the desk in front of Fell.
+These papers carried full accounts of the return
+of the Midnight Masquer's loot, explaining his
+robberies as part of a carnival jest.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The later editions, comin' out now,&quot;
+said the chief, &quot;will crowd all that stuff off
+the front page with the Maillard murder.
+Darn it, Fell! Whether I believe it or not,
+I'll have to arrest the young fool.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre chuckled. Jachin Fell smiled
+faintly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nothing could be plainer, chief,&quot; he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page172" id="page172"></a>[pg&nbsp;172]</span>
+responded. &quot;First, Bob Maillard comes to
+us in front of the opera house, and talks
+about a great joke that he's going to spring on
+his friends across the way&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How'd you know who he was?&quot; interjected
+the chief, shrewdly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Gramont recognized him; Ansley and I
+confirmed the recognition. He was more or
+less intoxicated&mdash;chiefly more. Now, young
+Maillard was not in the room at the moment
+of the murder&mdash;unless he was the Masquer.
+Five minutes afterward he was found in a
+near-by room, hastily changing out of an
+aviator's uniform into his masquerade costume.
+Obviously, he had assumed the guise
+of the Masquer as a joke on his friends, and
+the joke had a tragic ending. Further, he
+was in the aviation service during the war,
+and so had the uniform ready to hand. You
+couldn't make anybody believe that he hasn't
+been the Masquer all the time!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course,&quot; and the chief nodded perplexedly.
+&quot;It'd be a clear case&mdash;only you
+call me in and say that he <i>wasn't</i> the Masquer!
+Damn it, Fell, this thing has my goat!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's Maillard's story?&quot; struck in Ben
+Chacherre.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page173" id="page173"></a>[pg&nbsp;173]</span>
+&quot;He denies the whole thing,&quot; said the
+worried chief. &quot;According to his story, which
+sounded straight the way he tells it, he meant
+to pull off the joke on his friends and was
+dressing in the Masquer's costume when
+he heard the shots. He claims that the shots
+startled him and made him change back.
+He swears that he had not entered the other
+room at all, except in his masquerade clothes.
+He says the murderer must have been the real
+Masquer. It's likely enough, because all
+young Maillard's crowd knew about the party
+that was to be held in that room during the
+Comus ball&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No matter,&quot; said Fell, coldly. &quot;Chief,
+this is an open and shut case; the boy was
+bound to lie. That he killed his father was an
+accident, of course, but none the less it did
+take place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The boy's a wreck this minute.&quot; The
+chief held a match to his unlighted cigar.
+&quot;But you say that he ain't the original
+Masquer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No!&quot; Fell spoke quickly. &quot;The original
+Masquer was another person, and had nothing
+to do with the present case. This information
+is confidential and between ourselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page174" id="page174"></a>[pg&nbsp;174]</span>
+&quot;Oh, of course,&quot; assented the chief. &quot;Well,
+I suppose I got to pull Maillard, but I hate
+to do it. I got a hunch that he ain't the right
+party.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Virtuous man!&quot; Fell smiled thinly. &quot;According
+to all the books, the chief of
+police is only too glad to fasten the crime on
+anybody&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Books be damned!&quot; snorted the chief, and
+leaned forward earnestly. &quot;Look here, Fell!
+Do you believe in your heart that Maillard
+killed his father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell was silent a moment under that intent
+scrutiny.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;From the evidence, I am forced against
+my will to believe it,&quot; he said at last. &quot;Of
+course, he'll be able to prove that he was not
+the Masquer on previous occasions; his alibis
+will take care of that. Up to the point
+of the murder, his story is all right. And,
+my friend, there is a chance&mdash;a very slim,
+tenuous chance&mdash;that his entire story is true.
+In that case, another person must have
+appeared as the Masquer which seems unlikely&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Or else,&quot; put in Ben Chacherre, smoothly,
+&quot;the real original Masquer showed up!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page175" id="page175"></a>[pg&nbsp;175]</span>
+There was an instant of silence. Jachin
+Fell regarded his henchman with steady gray
+eyes. Ben Chacherre met the look with
+almost a trace of defiance. The chief frowned
+darkly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; said the chief. &quot;That's the size of
+it, Fell. You're keepin' quiet about the name
+of the real Masquer; why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Because,&quot; said Fell, calmly, &quot;I happen to
+know that he was in the auditorium at the time
+of the murder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Again silence. Ben Chacherre stared at
+Fell, with amazement and admiration in his
+gaze. &quot;When the master lies, he lies magnificently!&quot;
+he murmured in French.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well,&quot; and the chief gestured despairingly,
+&quot;I guess that lets out the real Masquer, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Exactly,&quot; assented Fell. &quot;No use dragging
+his name into it. I'll keep at work on
+this, chief, and if anything turns up to clear
+young Maillard, I'll be very glad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All right,&quot; grunted the chief, and rose.
+&quot;I'll be on my way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He departed. Neither Fell nor Chacherre
+moved or spoke for a space. When at length
+the clang of the elevator door resounded
+through the deserted corridors Ben Chacherre
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page176" id="page176"></a>[pg&nbsp;176]</span>
+slipped from his chair and went to the outer
+door. He glanced out into the hall, closed
+the door, and with a nod returned to his chair.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well?&quot; Jachin Fell regarded him with intent,
+searching eyes. &quot;Have you any light
+to throw on the occasion?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre's usual air of cool impudence was
+never in evidence when he talked with Mr. Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; he said, shaking his head. &quot;Hammond
+worked on the car until about nine
+o'clock, then beat it to bed, I guess. I quit
+the job at ten, and his light had been out some
+time. Well, master, this is a queer affair!
+There's no doubt that Gramont pulled it, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You think so?&quot; asked Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre made a gesture of assent. &quot;<i>Quand
+bois tombé, cabri monté</i>&mdash;when the tree falls,
+the kid can climb it! Any fool can see that
+Gramont was the man. Don't you think so
+yourself, master?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell nodded.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes. But we've no evidence&mdash;everything
+lies against young Maillard. Early in the
+morning Gramont goes to Paradis to examine
+that land of Miss Ledanois' along the bayou.
+He'll probably say nothing of this murder to
+Hammond, and the chauffeur may not find
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>[pg&nbsp;177]</span>
+out about it until a day or two&mdash;they get few
+newspapers down there.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Drive down to Paradis in the morning,
+Ben; get into touch with Hammond, and discover
+what time Gramont got home to-night.
+Write me what you find out. Then take
+charge of things at the Gumberts place.
+Make sure that every car is handled right.
+A headquarters man from Mobile will be here
+to-morrow to trace the Nonpareil Twelve that
+Gramont now owns.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre whistled under his breath.
+&quot;What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell smiled slightly and nodded.
+&quot;Yes. If Gramont remains at Paradis, I
+may send him on down there&mdash;I'm not sure
+yet. I intend to get something on that man
+Hammond.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you can't land him that way, master!
+He bought the car&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And who sold the car to the garage people?
+They bought it innocently.&quot; A peculiar smile
+twisted Fell's lips awry. &quot;In fact, they bought
+it from a man named Hammond, as the evidence
+will show very clearly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ben Chacherre started, since he had sold
+that car himself. Then a slow grin came into
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" id="page178"></a>[pg&nbsp;178]</span>
+his thin features&mdash;a grin that widened into a
+noiseless laugh.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Master, you are magnificent!&quot; he said, and
+rose. &quot;Well, if there is nothing further on
+hand, I shall go to bed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;An excellent programme,&quot; said Jachin Fell,
+and took his hat from the desk. &quot;I must get
+some sleep myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They left the office and the building together.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Three hours afterward the dawn had set
+in&mdash;a cold, gray, and dismal dawn that rose
+upon a city littered with the aftermath of
+carnival. &quot;Lean Wednesday&quot; it was, in sober
+fact. Thus far, the city in general was ignorant
+of the tragedy which had taken place at the
+very conclusion of its gayest carnival season.
+Within a few hours business and social circles
+would be swept by the fact of Joseph Maillard's
+murder, but at this early point of the day the
+city slept. The morning papers, which to-day
+carried a news story that promised to shock
+and stun the entire community, were not yet
+distributed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Rising before daylight, Henry Gramont and
+Hammond breakfasted early and were off by
+six in the car. They were well outside town
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page179" id="page179"></a>[pg&nbsp;179]</span>
+and sweeping on their way to Terrebonne
+Parish and the town of Paradis before they
+realized that the day was not going to brighten
+appreciably. Instead, it remained very cloudy
+and gloomy, with a chill threat of rain in the
+air.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Weather mattered little to Gramont. When
+finally the excellent highway was left behind,
+and they started on the last lap of their
+seventy-mile ride, they found the parish roads
+execrable and the going slow. Thus, noon was
+at hand when they at length pulled into Paradis,
+the town closest to Lucie Ledanois' bayou
+land. The rain was still holding off.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Too cold to rain,&quot; observed Gramont.
+&quot;Let's hit for the hotel and get something to
+eat. I'll have to locate the land, which is
+somewhere near town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They discovered the hotel to be an ancient
+structure, and boasting prices worthy of Lafitte
+and his buccaneers. As in many small
+towns of Louisiana, however, the food proved
+fit for a king. After a light luncheon of quail,
+crayfish bisque, and probably illegal venison,
+Gramont sighed regret that he could eat no
+more, and set about inquiring where the
+Ledanois farm lay.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" id="page180"></a>[pg&nbsp;180]</span>
+There was very little, indeed, to Paradis,
+which lay on the bayou but well away from
+the railroad. It was a desolate spot, unpainted
+and unkept. The parish seat of
+Houma had robbed it of all life and growth on
+the one hand; on the other, the new oil and gas
+district had not yet touched it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Southward lay the swamp&mdash;fully forty miles
+of it, merging by degrees into the Gulf. Forty
+miles of cypress marsh and winding bayou,
+uncharted, unexplored save by occasional
+hunters or semi-occasional sheriffs. No man
+knew who or what might be in those swamps,
+and no one cared to know. The man who
+brought in fish or oysters in his skiff might
+be a bayou fisherman, and he might be a murderer
+wanted in ten states. Curiosity was apt
+to prove extremely unhealthy. Like the
+Atchafalaya, where chance travellers find
+themselves abruptly ordered elsewhere, the
+Terrebonne swamps have their own secrets
+and know how to keep them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont had no difficulty in locating the
+Ledanois land, and he found that it was by
+no means in the swamp. A part of it, lying
+closer to Houma, had been sold and was
+now included in the new oil district; it was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" id="page181"></a>[pg&nbsp;181]</span>
+this portion which Joseph Maillard had sold
+off.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The remainder, and the largest portion, lay
+north of Paradis and ran along the west bank
+of the bayou for half a mile. A long-abandoned
+farm, it was high ground, with the
+timber well cleared off and excellently located;
+but tenants were hard to get and shiftless
+when obtained, so that the place had not been
+farmed for the last five years or more. After
+getting these facts, Gramont consulted with
+Hammond.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'd better buy some grub here in town
+and arrange to stay a couple of nights on
+the farm, if necessary,&quot; he said. &quot;There are
+some buildings there, so we'll find shelter.
+Along the bayou are summer cottages&mdash;I
+believe some of them are rather pretentious
+places&mdash;and we ought to find the road pretty
+decent. It's only three or four miles out of
+town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With some provisions piled in the car, they
+set forth. The road wound along the bayou
+side, past ancient 'Cajun farms and the squat
+homes of fishermen. Here and there had been
+placed camps and summer cottages, nestling
+amid groups of huge oaks and cypress, whose
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>[pg&nbsp;182]</span>
+fronds of silver-gray moss hung in drooping
+clusters like pale and ghostly shrouds.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Watching the road closely, Gramont suddenly
+found the landmarks that had been
+described to him, and ordered Hammond to
+stop and turn in at a gap in the fence which
+had once been an entrance gate.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Here we are! Those are the buildings
+off to the right. Whew! I should say it had
+been abandoned! Nothing much left but
+ruins. Go ahead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Before them, as they drove in from the road
+by a grass-covered drive, showed a house, shed,
+and barn amid a cluster of towering trees.
+Indeed, trees were everywhere about the farm,
+which had grown up in a regular sapling forest.
+The buildings were in a ruinous state&mdash;clapboards
+hanging loosely, roofs dotted by gaping
+holes, doors and windows long since gone.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Leaving the car, Gramont, followed by the
+chauffeur, went to the front doorway and surveyed
+the wreckage inside.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What do you say, Hammond? Think we
+can stop here, or go back to the hotel? It's
+not much of a run to town&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hammond pointed to a wide fireplace facing
+them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>[pg&nbsp;183]</span>
+&quot;I can get this shack cleaned out in about
+half an hour&mdash;this one room, anyhow. When
+we get a fire goin' in there, and board up the
+windows and doors, we ought to be comfortable
+enough. But suit yourself, cap'n! It's
+your funeral.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont laughed. &quot;All right. Go ahead
+and clean up, then, and if rain comes down we
+can camp here. Be sure and look for snakes
+and vermin. The floor seems sound, and if
+there's plenty of moss on the trees, we can make
+up comfortable beds. Too bad you're not a
+fisherman, or we might get a fresh fish out of
+the bayou&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I got some tackle in town,&quot; and Hammond
+grinned widely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good work! Then make yourself at home
+and go to it. We've most of the afternoon
+before us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont left the house, and headed down
+toward the bayou shore.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He took a letter from his pocket, opened it,
+and glanced over it anew. It was an old letter,
+one written him nearly two years previously
+by Lucie Ledanois. It had been written
+merely in the endeavour to distract the
+thoughts of a wounded soldier, to bring his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" id="page184"></a>[pg&nbsp;184]</span>
+mind to Louisiana, away from the stricken
+fields of France. In the letter Lucie had
+described some of the more interesting features
+of Bayou Terrebonne&mdash;the oyster and shrimp
+fleets, the Chinese and Filipino villages along
+the Gulf, the far-spread cypress swamps; the
+bubbling fountains, natural curiosities, that
+broke up through the streams and bayous of
+the whole wide parish&mdash;fountains that were
+caused by gas seeping up from the earth's interior,
+and breaking through.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont knew that plans were already afoot
+to tap this field of natural gas and pipe it to
+New Orleans. Oil had been found, too, and
+all the state was now oil-mad. Fortunes were
+being made daily, and other fortunes were
+being lost daily by those who dealt with oil-stocks
+instead of with oil.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Those gas-fountains did the work!&quot; reflected
+Gramont. &quot;And according to this
+letter, there's one of those fountains here in the
+bayou, close to her property. 'Just opposite
+the dock,' she says. The first thing is to find
+the dock, then the fountain. After that, we'll
+decide if it's true mineral gas. If it is, then the
+work's done&mdash;for I'll sure take a chance on
+finding oil near it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page185" id="page185"></a>[pg&nbsp;185]</span>
+Gramont came to the bayou and began
+searching his way along the thick and high
+fringe of bushes and saplings that girded the
+water's edge. Presently he came upon the
+ruined evidences of what had once been a
+small boat shed. Not far from this he found
+the dock referred to in the letter; nothing was
+left of it except a few spiles protruding from the
+surface of the water. But he had no need to
+look farther. Directly before him, he saw
+that which he was seeking.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A dozen feet out from shore the water was
+rising and falling in a continuous dome or
+fountain of highly charged bubbles that rose
+a foot above the surface. Gramont stared at
+it, motionless. He watched it for a space&mdash;then,
+abruptly, he started. It was a violent
+start, a start of sheer amazement and incredulity.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He leaned forward, staring no longer at the
+gas dome, but at the water closer inshore.
+For a moment he thought that his senses had
+deceived him, then he saw that the thing was
+there indeed, there beyond any doubt&mdash;a
+very faint trace of iridescent light that played
+over the surface of the water.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It can't be possible!&quot; he muttered, bending
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page186" id="page186"></a>[pg&nbsp;186]</span>
+farther over. &quot;Such a thing happens too
+rarely&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">His heart pounded violently; excitement
+sent the blood rushing to his brain in blinding
+swirls. He was gripped by the gold fever that
+comes upon a man when he makes the astounding
+discovery of untold wealth lying at his feet,
+passed over and disregarded by other and less-discerning
+men for days and years!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was oil, no question about it. An extremely
+slight quantity, true; so slight a
+quantity that there was no film on the water,
+no discernible taste to the water. Gramont
+brought it to his mouth and rose, shaking his
+head.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Where did it come from? It had no connection
+with the gas bubbles&mdash;at least, it did not
+come from the dome of water and gas. How
+long he stood there staring Gramont did not
+know. His brain was afire with the possibilities.
+At length he stirred into action and
+started up the bayou bank, from time to time
+halting to search the water below him, to make
+sure that he could still discern the faint iridescence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He followed it rod by rod, and found that it
+rapidly increased in strength. It must come
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" id="page187"></a>[pg&nbsp;187]</span>
+from some very tiny surface seepage close at
+hand, that was lost in the bayou almost as
+rapidly as it came from the earth-depths. Only
+accidentally would a man see it&mdash;not unless he
+were searching the water close to the bank,
+and even then only by the grace of chance.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Suddenly Gramont saw that he had lost the
+sign. He halted.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">No, not lost, either! Just ahead of him was
+a patch of reeds, and a recession of the shore.
+He advanced again. Inside the reeds he found
+the oily smear, still so faint that he could only
+detect it at certain angles. Glancing up, he
+could see a fence at a little distance, evidently
+the boundary fence of the Ledanois land; the
+bushes and trees thinned out here, and on
+ahead was cleared ground. He saw, through
+the bushes, glimpses of buildings.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Violent disappointment seized him. Was
+he to lose this discovery, after all? Was he
+to find that the seepage came from ground
+belonging to someone else? No&mdash;he stepped
+back hastily, barely in time to avoid stumbling
+into a tiny trickle of water, a rivulet that ran
+down into the bayou, a tributary so insignificant
+that it was invisible ten feet distant!
+And on the surface a faint iridescence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page188" id="page188"></a>[pg&nbsp;188]</span>
+Excitement rising anew within him, Gramont
+turned and followed this rivulet, his
+eyes aflame with eagerness. It led him for
+twenty feet, and ceased abruptly, in a bubbling
+spring that welled from a patch of low, tree-enclosed
+land. Gramont felt his feet sinking
+in grass, and saw that there was a dip in
+the ground hereabouts, a swampy little section
+all to itself. He picked a dry spot and lay
+down on his face, searching the water with his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Moment after moment he lay there, watching.
+Presently he found the slight trickle of
+oil again&mdash;a trickle so faint and slim that even
+here, on the surface of the tiny rivulet, it could
+be discerned only with great difficulty. A
+very thin seepage, concluded Gramont; a
+thin oil, of course. So faint a little thing, to
+mean so much!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It came from the Ledanois land, no doubt
+of it. What did that matter, though? His
+eyes widened with flaming thoughts as he gazed
+down at the slender thread of water. No
+matter at all where this came from&mdash;the main
+point was proven by it! There was oil here for
+the finding, oil down in the thousands of feet
+below, oil so thick and abundant that it forced
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page189" id="page189"></a>[pg&nbsp;189]</span>
+itself up through the earth fissures to find an
+outlet!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Instead of going down five or six thousand
+feet,&quot; he thought, exultantly, &quot;we may have
+to go down only as many hundred. But first
+we must get an option or a lease on all the
+land roundabout&mdash;all we can secure! There
+will be a tremendous boom the minute this
+news breaks. If we get those options, we can
+sell them over again at a million per cent.
+profit, and even if we don't strike oil in paying
+quantities, we'll regain the cost of our drilling!
+And to think of the years this has been here,
+waiting for someone&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Suddenly he started violently. An abrupt
+crashing of feet among the bushes, an outbreak
+of voices, had sounded not far away&mdash;just the
+other side of the boundary fence. He was
+wakened from his dreams, and started to rise.
+Then he relaxed his muscles and lay quiet,
+astonishment seizing him; for he heard his own
+name mentioned in a voice that was strange to
+him.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page190" id="page190"></a>[pg&nbsp;190]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>Murder</i></p>
+
+<p>THE voice was strange to Gramont, yet
+he had a vague recollection of having at
+some time heard it before. It was a
+jaunty and impudent voice, very self-assured&mdash;yet
+it bore a startled and uneasy note, as
+though the speaker had just come unaware
+upon the man whom he addressed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Howdy, sheriff!&quot; it said. &quot;Didn't see you
+in there&mdash;what you doin' so far away from
+Houma, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, I've been looking over the place
+around here,&quot; responded another voice, which
+was dry and grim. &quot;I know you, Ben Chacherre,
+and I think I'll take you along with
+me. Just come from New Orleans, did
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Me? Take <i>me</i>?&quot; The voice of Chacherre
+shrilled up suddenly in alarm. &quot;Look
+here, sheriff, it wasn't me done it! It was
+Gramont&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page191" id="page191"></a>[pg&nbsp;191]</span>
+There came silence. Not a sound broke
+the stillness of the late afternoon.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont, listening, lay bewildered and
+breathless. Ben Chacherre, the sneak thief&mdash;how
+had Chacherre come here? Gramont
+knew nothing of any tie between Jachin Fell
+and Chacherre; he could only lie in the grass
+and wonder at the man's presence. What
+&quot;place&quot; was it that the sheriff of Houma
+had been looking over? And what was it
+that he, Gramont, was supposed to have
+done?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Confused and wondering, Gramont waited.
+And, as he waited, he caught a soft sound from
+the marshy ground beside him&mdash;a faint &quot;plop&quot;
+as though some object had fallen close by on
+the wet grass. At the moment he paid no
+heed to this sound, for again the uncanny silence
+had fallen.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Listening, Gramont fancied that he caught
+slow, stealthy footsteps amid the undergrowth,
+but derided the fancy as sheer imagination.
+His brain was busy with this new problem.
+Houma, he knew, was the seat of the parish or
+county. This Ben Chacherre appeared to
+have suddenly and unexpectedly encountered
+the sheriff, to his obvious alarm, and the sheriff
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page192" id="page192"></a>[pg&nbsp;192]</span>
+had for some reason decided to arrest him; so
+much was clear.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre had something to do with the
+&quot;place&quot;&mdash;did that mean the adjacent property,
+or the Ledanois farm? In his puzzled
+bewilderment over this imbroglio Gramont for
+the moment quite forgot the trickle of oil at
+his feet.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But now the deep silence became unnatural
+and sinister. What had happened? Surely,
+Ben Chacherre had not been arrested and taken
+away in such silence! Why had the voices so
+abruptly ceased? Vaguely uneasy, startled by
+the prolongation of that intense stillness,
+Gramont rose to his feet and peered among the
+trees.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The two speakers seemed to have departed;
+he could descry nobody in sight. A step to
+one side gave Gramont a view of the land adjoining
+the Ledanois place. This was cleared
+of all brush, and under some immense oaks to
+the far left he had a glimpse of a large summer
+cottage, boarded up and apparently deserted.
+Nearer at hand, however, he saw other buildings,
+and these drew his attention. He heard
+the throbbing pound of a motor at work, and
+as there was no power line along here, the place
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page193" id="page193"></a>[pg&nbsp;193]</span>
+evidently had its own electrical plant. He
+scrutinized the scene before him appraisingly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There were two large buildings here. One
+seemed to be a large barn, closed, the other
+was a long, low shed which was too large to
+be a garage. The door of this was open, and
+before the opening Gramont saw three men
+standing in talk; he recognized none of them.
+Two of the talkers were clad in greasy overalls,
+and the third figure showed the flash of a collar.
+The sheriff, Ben Chacherre, and some other
+man, thought Gramont. He would not have
+known Chacherre had he encountered him face
+to face. To him, the man was a name only.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The mention of his own name by Chacherre
+impelled him to go forward and demand some
+explanation. Then it occurred to him that
+perhaps he had made a mistake; it would have
+been very easy, for he was not certain that
+Chacherre had referred to him. There could
+be other Gramonts, or other men whose name
+would have much the same sound in a Creole
+mouth.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'd better attend to my own business,&quot;
+thought Gramont, and turned away. He noticed
+that the motor had ceased its work.
+&quot;Wonder what rich chap can be down here at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page194" id="page194"></a>[pg&nbsp;194]</span>
+his summer cottage this time of year? May
+be only a caretaker, though. I'd better give
+all my attention to this oil, and let other
+things alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He retraced his steps to the bayou bank and
+turned back toward the house. As he did so,
+Hammond appeared coming toward him, knife
+in hand.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm going to cut me a pole and land a couple
+o' fish for supper,&quot; announced the chauffeur,
+grinning. &quot;Got things cleaned up fine, cap'n!
+You won't know the old shack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good enough,&quot; said Gramont. &quot;Here,
+step over this way! I want to show you
+something.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He led Hammond to the rivulet and pointed
+out the thin film of oil on the surface.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There's our golden fortune, sergeant! Oil
+actually coming out of the ground! It doesn't
+happen very often, but it does happen&mdash;and
+this is one of the times. I'll not bother to look
+around any farther.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Glory be!&quot; said Hammond, staring at the
+rivulet. &quot;Want to hit back for town?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No; we couldn't get back until sometime
+to-night, and the roads aren't very good for
+night work. I'm going to get some leases
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page195" id="page195"></a>[pg&nbsp;195]</span>
+around here&mdash;perhaps I can do it right away,
+and we'll start back in the morning. Go ahead
+and get your fish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Regaining the house, he saw that Hammond
+had indeed cleaned up in great style, and had
+the main room looking clean as a pin, with a
+fire popping on the hearth. He did not pause
+here, but went to the car, got in, and started it.
+He drove back to the road, and followed this
+toward town for a few rods, turning in at a
+large and very decent-looking farmhouse that
+he had observed while passing it on the way
+out.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He found the owner, an intelligent-appearing
+Creole, driving in some cows for milking, and
+was a little startled to realize that the afternoon
+was so late. When he addressed the
+farmer in French, he received a cordial reply,
+and discovered that this man owned the land
+across the road from the Ledanois place&mdash;that
+his farm, in fact, covered several hundred acres.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who owns the land next to the Ledanois
+place?&quot; inquired Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I sold that off my land a couple of years
+ago,&quot; replied the other. &quot;A man from New
+Orleans wanted it for a summer place&mdash;a business
+man there, Isidore Gumberts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page196" id="page196"></a>[pg&nbsp;196]</span>
+Gumberts&mdash;&quot;Memphis Izzy&quot; Gumberts!
+The name flashed to Gramont's mind, and
+brought the recollection of a conversation with
+Hammond. Why, Gumberts was the famous
+crook of whom Hammond had spoken.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I saw the sheriff awhile ago, heading up the
+road,&quot; observed the Creole. &quot;Did you meet
+him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont shook his head. &quot;No, but I saw
+several men at the Gumberts place. Perhaps
+he was there&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not there, I guess,&quot; and the farmer
+laughed. &quot;Those fellows have rented the
+place from Gumberts, I hear; they're inventors,
+and quiet enough men. You're a stranger
+here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont introduced himself as a friend of
+Miss Ledanois, and stated frankly that he was
+looking for oil and hoped to drill on her land.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'd like a lease option from you,&quot; he went
+on. &quot;I don't want to buy your land at all;
+what I want is a right to drill for oil on it, in
+case any shows up on Miss Ledanois' land.
+It's all a gamble, you know. I'll give you a
+hundred dollars for the lease, and the usual
+eighth interest in any oil that's found. I've
+no lease blanks with me, but if you'll give me
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page197" id="page197"></a>[pg&nbsp;197]</span>
+the option, a signed memorandum will be entirely
+sufficient.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The farmer regarded oil as a joke, and said
+so. The hundred dollars, however, and the
+prospective eighth interest, were sufficient to
+induce him to part with the option without
+any delay. He was only too glad to get the
+thing done with at once, and to pocket Gramont's
+money.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont drove away, and was just coming
+to the Ledanois drive when he suddenly
+threw on the brakes and halted the car,
+listening. From somewhere ahead of him&mdash;the
+Gumberts place, he thought instantly&mdash;echoed
+a shot, and several faint shouts. Then silence
+again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont paused, indecisive. The sheriff
+was making an arrest, he thought. A hundred
+possibilities flitted through his brain,
+suggested by the sinister combination of Memphis
+Izzy, known even to Hammond as a prince
+among crooks, with this secluded place leased
+by &quot;inventors.&quot; Bootlegging? Counterfeiting?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As he paused, thus, he suddenly started; he
+was certain that he had caught the tones of
+Hammond, as though in a sudden uplifted
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page198" id="page198"></a>[pg&nbsp;198]</span>
+oath of anger. Gramont threw in his clutch
+and sent the car jumping forward&mdash;he remembered
+that he had left Hammond beside the
+rivulet, close to the Gumberts property. What
+had happened?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He came, after a moment of impatience, to
+an open gate whose drive led to the Gumberts
+place. Before him, as he turned in, unfolded
+a startling scene. Three men, the same three
+whom he had seen from the bushes, were standing
+in front of the low shed; two of them held
+rifles, the third, one of the &quot;inventors&quot; in
+overalls, was winding a bandage about a bleeding
+hand. The two rifles were loosely levelled
+at Hammond, who stood in the centre of the
+group with his arms in the air.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Whatever had happened, Hammond had
+evidently not been easily captured. His
+countenance was somewhat battered, and the
+one captor who wore a collar was bleeding
+copiously from a cut cheek. The three turned
+as Gramont's car drove up, and Hammond
+gave an ejaculation of relief.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Here he is now&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Shut up!&quot; snapped one of his armed captors
+in an ugly tone. &quot;Hurry up, Chacherre&mdash;get
+a rope and tie this gink!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page199" id="page199"></a>[pg&nbsp;199]</span>
+Gramont leaped from the car and strode
+forward.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's been going on here?&quot; he demanded,
+sharply. &quot;Hammond&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I found a dead man over in them bushes,&quot;
+shot out Hammond, &quot;and these guys jumped
+me before I seen 'em. They claim I done
+it&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A dead man!&quot; repeated Gramont, and
+looked at the three. &quot;What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Give him the spiel, Chacherre,&quot; growled
+one of them. Ben Chacherre stepped forward,
+his bold eyes fastened on those of Gramont
+with a look of defiance.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The sheriff was here some time ago, looking
+for a stolen boat,&quot; he said, &quot;and went off
+toward the Ledanois place. We were following,
+in order to help him search, when we came
+upon this man standing in the bushes, over the
+body of the sheriff. A knife was in his hand,
+and the sheriff had been stabbed to death.
+He drew a pistol and shot one of us&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont was staggered for a moment.
+&quot;Wait!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;Hammond, how
+much of this is true?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What I'm tellin' you, cap'n,&quot; answered
+Hammond, doggedly. &quot;I found a man layin'
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page200" id="page200"></a>[pg&nbsp;200]</span>
+there and was looking at him when these guys
+jumped me. I shot that fellow in the arm,
+all right, then they grabbed my gun and got
+me down. That's all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The sheriff&mdash;murdered!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Into the mind of Gramont leaped that brief
+conversation which he had overheard between
+Ben Chacherre and the sheriff; the strange,
+unnatural silence which had concluded that
+broken-off conversation. He stared from
+Hammond to the others, speechless for the
+moment, yet with hot words rising impetuously
+in him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Now he noticed that Chacherre and his
+two companions were watching him very
+intently, and were slightly circling out. He
+sensed an acquaintance among all these men.
+He saw that the wounded man had finished
+his bandaging, and was now holding his
+unwounded hand in his jacket pocket, bulkily,
+menacingly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Danger flashed upon Gramont&mdash;flashed upon
+him vividly and with startling clearness.
+He realized that anything was possible in this
+isolated spot&mdash;this spot where murder had so
+lately been consummated! He checked on his
+very lips what he had been about to blurt forth;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page201" id="page201"></a>[pg&nbsp;201]</span>
+at this instant, Hammond voiced the thought
+in his mind.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's a frame-up!&quot; said the chauffeur,
+angrily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's likely, isn't it?&quot; Chacherre flung the
+words in a sneer, but with a covert glance at
+Gramont. &quot;This fellow is your chauffeur,
+ain't he? Well, we got to take him in to
+Houma, that's all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Where's the sheriff's body?&quot; demanded
+Gramont, quietly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Over there,&quot; Chacherre gestured. &quot;We
+ain't had a chance to bring him back yet&mdash;this
+fellow kept us busy. Maybe you want to
+frame up an alibi for him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont paid no attention to the sneering
+tone of this last. He regarded Chacherre
+fixedly, thinking hard, keeping himself well in
+hand.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You say the sheriff was here, then
+went over toward the Ledanois land?&quot; he
+asked. &quot;Did he go alone, or were you with
+him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We were fixin' to follow him,&quot; asserted
+Chacherre, confidently. This was all Gramont
+wanted to know&mdash;that the man was lying.
+&quot;We were trailin' along after him when he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page202" id="page202"></a>[pg&nbsp;202]</span>
+stepped into the bushes. This man of yours
+was standing over him with a knife&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I was, too, when they found me&mdash;I was
+cuttin' me a fishpole,&quot; said Hammond, sulkily.
+He was plainly beginning to be impressed and
+alarmed by the evidence against him. Gramont
+only nodded.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No one saw the actual murder, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No need for it,&quot; said Chacherre, brazenly.
+&quot;When we found him that way! Eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I suppose not,&quot; answered Gramont, his
+eyes fastened thoughtfully on Hammond.
+The latter caught the look, let his jaw fall in
+astonishment, then flushed and compressed his
+lips&mdash;and waited. Gramont glanced at Chacherre,
+and launched a chance shaft.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're Ben Chacherre, aren't you? Do
+you work for Mr. Fell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The chance shot scored. &quot;Yes,&quot; said Chacherre,
+his eyes narrowing.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What are you doing here, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For an instant Chacherre was off guard.
+He did not know how much&mdash;or little&mdash;Gramont
+knew; but he did know that Gramont
+was aware who had taken the loot of the Midnight
+Masquer from the luggage compartment
+of the car. This knowledge, very naturally,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page203" id="page203"></a>[pg&nbsp;203]</span>
+threw him back on the defence of which he was
+most sure.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I came on an errand for my master,&quot; he
+said, and with those words gave the game into
+Gramont's hands.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a moment of silence. Gramont
+stood apparently in musing thought, conscious
+that every eye was fastened upon him, and that
+one false move would now spell disaster. He
+gave no sign of the tremendous shock that
+Chacherre's words had just given him; when
+he spoke, it was quietly and coolly:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then your master is evidently associated
+with Memphis Izzy Gumberts, who owns this
+place here. Is that right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Both Hammond and Chacherre's two friends
+started at this.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't know anything about that,&quot; returned
+Chacherre, with a shrug which did not
+entirely conceal his uneasiness. &quot;I know
+that we've got a murderer here, and that we'll
+have to dispose of him. Do you object?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course not,&quot; said Gramont, calmly.
+&quot;Step aside and give me a moment in private
+with Hammond. Then by all means take
+him in to Houma. I'd suggest that you tie
+him up, or make use of handcuffs if the sheriff
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page204" id="page204"></a>[pg&nbsp;204]</span>
+brought any along. Then you'd better take
+in the body of the sheriff also. Hammond, a
+word with you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">This totally unexpected acquiescence on the
+part of Gramont seemed to stun Chacherre
+into inaction. He half moved, as though uncertain
+whether to bar Gramont from the
+prisoner, then he stepped aside as Gramont
+advanced. A gesture to his two companions
+prevented them from interfering.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Keep 'em covered, though,&quot; he said, shifting
+his own rifle slightly and watching with a
+scowl of suspicion.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont ignored him and went up to Hammond,
+with a look of warning.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You'll have to submit to this, old man,&quot;
+he said, in a tone that the others could not
+overhear. &quot;Don't dream that I'm deserting
+you; but I want a good look at this place if
+all three of them go away. They must not
+suspect&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Cap'n, look out!&quot; broke in Hammond,
+urgently. &quot;This here is a gang&mdash;the whole
+thing is a frame-up on me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know it&mdash;I was present when the sheriff
+was murdered; but keep quiet. I'll come to
+Houma later to-night and see you.&quot; He
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page205" id="page205"></a>[pg&nbsp;205]</span>
+turned away with a shrug as though Hammond
+had denied him some favour, and lifted his
+voice. &quot;Chacherre! How are you to take
+this man into town? How did you get here?
+Will you need to use my car?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No.&quot; The Creole jerked his head toward
+the barn. &quot;I came in Mr. Fell's car&mdash;it's got
+a sprung axle and is laid up. We'll take him
+back in another one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very well,&quot; Gramont paused and glanced
+around. &quot;This is a terrible blow, men. I
+never dreamed that Hammond was a murderer
+or could be one! You don't know of any motive
+for the crime?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They shook their heads, but suspicion was
+dying from their eyes. Gramont glanced again
+at his chauffeur.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll not abandon you, Hammond,&quot; he said,
+severely, coldly. &quot;I'll stop in at Houma and
+see that you have a lawyer. I think, gentlemen,
+we had better attend to bringing in the
+body of the sheriff, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The wounded man dodged into the barn
+and returned with a strip of rope. Chacherre
+took this, and firmly bound Hammond's arms,
+then forced him to sit down and bound his
+ankles.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page206" id="page206"></a>[pg&nbsp;206]</span>
+&quot;You watch him,&quot; he ordered the wounded
+member of the trio. &quot;We'll get the sheriff.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Allowing Chacherre and his companion to
+take the lead, Gramont went with them to the
+place where the murdered officer lay. As he
+went, the conviction grew more sure within
+him that, when he lay there by the rivulet,
+he had actually heard the last words uttered by
+the sheriff; that Chacherre had committed the
+murder in that moment&mdash;a noiseless, deadly
+stab! That Hammond could or would have
+done it he knew was absurd.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They found the murdered man lying among
+the bushes. He had been stabbed under the
+fifth rib&mdash;the knife had gone direct to the heart.
+Chacherre announced that he had Hammond's
+knife as evidence and Gramont merely nodded
+his head.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lifting the body between them, they bore
+it back to the barn.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now,&quot; said Gramont, quickly, &quot;I'm off
+for Houma&mdash;if I don't miss my road! You
+men will be right along?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In a jiffy,&quot; said Chacherre, promptly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont climbed into his car and drove
+away. He had no fear of anything happening
+to Hammond; the evidence against the latter
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page207" id="page207"></a>[pg&nbsp;207]</span>
+was damning, and with three men to swear him
+into a hangman's noose, they would bring him
+to jail safe enough.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A clever devil, that Chacherre!&quot; he
+thought, grimly. &quot;We're up against a gang,
+beyond any doubt. Now, if they don't suspect
+me&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He turned in at the Ledanois gate, knowing
+himself to be beyond sight or hearing of the
+Gumberts place. He drove the car away
+from the house, and into the thick of the
+densest bush-growth that he could find where
+it was well concealed from sight. Then, on
+foot, he made his way along the bank of the
+bayou until he had come to the rivulet where
+oil showed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Here he paused, concealing himself and
+gaining a place where he could get a view of
+the Gumberts land. He saw Chacherre and
+Hammond there, beside the body of the sheriff;
+the other two men were swinging open the
+barn door. They disappeared inside, and a
+moment later Gramont heard the whirr of an
+engine starting. A car backed out into the
+yard&mdash;a seven-passenger Cadillac&mdash;and halted.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The three men lifted the body of the sheriff,
+into the tonneau. Chacherre took the wheel,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page208" id="page208"></a>[pg&nbsp;208]</span>
+Hammond being bundled in beside him. The
+other two men climbed in beside the body,
+rifles in hand. Chacherre started the car
+toward the road.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All fine!&quot; thought Gramont with a thrill
+of exultation. &quot;They've all cleared out and left
+the place to me&mdash;and I want a look at that
+place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Suddenly, as he stood there, he remembered
+the slight &quot;plump&quot; that he had heard during
+that interminable silence which had followed
+the conversation between the sheriff and Ben
+Chacherre. It was a sound as though something
+had fallen near him in the soggy ground.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The remembrance startled him strangely.
+He visualized an excited murderer standing
+beside his victim, knife in hand; he visualized
+the abhorrence which must have seized the man
+for a moment&mdash;the abhorrence which must have
+caused him to do something in that moment
+which in a cooler time he would not have done.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont turned toward the little marshy
+spot where he had lain listening. He bent
+down, searching the wet ground, heedless that
+the water soaked into his boots. And, after a
+minute, a low exclamation of satisfaction broke
+from him as he found what he sought.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page209" id="page209"></a>[pg&nbsp;209]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>The Gangsters</i></p>
+
+<p>GRAMONT left the covert and walked
+forward.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He was thinking about that odd
+mention of Jachin Fell&mdash;had Chacherre lied in
+saying he had come here on his master's business?
+Perhaps. The man had come in Fell's
+car, and would not hesitate to lie about using
+the car. For the moment, Gramont put away
+the circumstance, but did not forget it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He walked openly toward the Gumberts
+buildings, thinking that he would have time
+for a good look around the place before dusk
+fell; he would then get off for Houma, and
+attend to Hammond's defence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As for the place before him, he was convinced
+that it was abandoned. Had any one,
+other than Chacherre and his two friends, been
+about the buildings, the late excitement would
+have brought out the fact. No one had appeared,
+and the buildings seemed vacant.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page210" id="page210"></a>[pg&nbsp;210]</span>
+Gramont's intent was simple and straightforward.
+In case he found, as he expected to
+find, any evidence of illegal occupation about
+the place&mdash;as the sheriff seemed to have discovered
+to his cost&mdash;he would lay Chacherre
+and the other two men by the heels that night
+in Houma. He would then go on to New
+Orleans and have Gumberts arrested, although
+he had no expectation that the master crook
+could be held on the murder-accessory charge.
+If this place were used for the lotteries, even,
+he was fairly certain that Memphis Izzy would
+have his own tracks covered. The men higher
+up always did.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He walked straight in upon the barn. It
+loomed before him, closed, lurid in the level
+rays of the westering sun. The doors in front
+had been only loosely swung together and
+Gramont found them unlocked. He stood
+in the opening, and surprise gripped him.
+He was held motionless, gazing with astonished
+wonder at the sight confronting him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Directly before him was a small roadster,
+one which he remembered to have seen Jachin
+Fell using; in this car, doubtless, Ben Chacherre
+had driven from the city. He recalled
+the fact later, with poignant regret for a lost
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page211" id="page211"></a>[pg&nbsp;211]</span>
+opportunity. But, at the present moment,
+he was lost in amazement at the great number
+of other cars presenting themselves to his
+view.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They were lined up as deep as the barn
+would hold them, crammed into every available
+foot of space; well over a dozen cars, he
+reckoned swiftly. What was more, all were
+cars of the highest class, with the exception of
+Fell's roadster. Directly before him were two
+which he was well aware must have cost close
+upon ten thousand each. What did this mean?
+Certainly no one man or one group of men, in
+this back-country spot, could expect to use
+such an accumulation of expensive cars!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont glanced around, but found no trace
+of machinery in the barn. Remembering the
+motor that he had heard, he turned from the
+doorway in frowning perplexity. He strode
+on toward the long shed which stood closer to
+the house. At the end of this shed was a door,
+and when he tried it, Gramont found it unlocked.
+It swung open to his hand, and he
+stepped inside.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At first he paused, confused by the vague
+objects around, for it was quite dark in here.
+A moment, and his eyes grew accustomed to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page212" id="page212"></a>[pg&nbsp;212]</span>
+the gloomier lighting. Details came to him:
+all around were cars and fragments of cars,
+chassis and bodies in all stages of dismemberment.
+Still more cars!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He slowly advanced to a long bench that
+ran the length of the shop beneath the windows.
+A shop, indeed&mdash;a shop, he quickly perceived,
+fitted with every tool and machine
+necessary to the most complete automobile
+repair establishment! Even an air-brush outfit,
+at one end, together with a drying compartment,
+spoke of repaint jobs.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Comprehension was slowly dawning upon
+the mind of Gramont; a moment later it became
+certainty, when he came to a stop before
+an automobile engine lying on the bench.
+He found it to be the engine from a Stutz&mdash;the
+latest multi-valve type adopted by that
+make of car, and this particular bit of machinery
+looked like new.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont inspected it, and he saw that the
+men had done their work well. The original
+engine number had been carefully dug out,
+and the place as carefully filled and levelled
+with metal. Beside it a new number had been
+stamped. A glance at the electrical equipment
+around showed that these workers had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page213" id="page213"></a>[pg&nbsp;213]</span>
+every appliance with which to turn out the
+most finished of jobs.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As he straightened up from the engine Gramont's
+eyes fell upon a typed sheet of paper
+affixed to the wall above the bench. His gaze
+widened as he inspected it by the failing light.
+Upon that paper was a list of cars. After each
+car was a series of numbers plainly comprising
+the original numbers of the engine, body,
+radiator, and other component parts, followed
+by another series of new numbers to be inserted.
+That sheet of paper showed brains, organizing
+ability, care, and attention to the last
+detail!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Here was the most carefully planned and
+thorough system of automobile thievery that
+Gramont had ever heard of. He stood motionless,
+knowing that this typed sheet of paper
+in itself was damning evidence against the
+whole gang of workers. What was more to
+the point, that paper could be traced; the
+typewriting could be traced to the man higher
+up&mdash;doubtless Memphis Izzy himself! These
+men ran in cars by the wholesale, probably
+from states adjacent to Louisiana. Here, at
+this secluded point on the bayou, they changed
+the cars completely about, in number, paint,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page214" id="page214"></a>[pg&nbsp;214]</span>
+style of body, and then probably got rid of the
+new product in New Orleans.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont stood motionless. Surprise had
+taken hold of him, and even a feeling of slight
+dismay. This was not at all what he had
+hoped to find there. He had thought to come
+upon some traces of the lottery game&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Seen all you want, bo?&quot; said a voice behind
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont turned. He found himself gazing
+directly into an automatic pistol over which
+glittered a pair of blazing eyes. The man was
+a stranger to him. The place had not been
+deserted, after all. He was caught.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who are you?&quot; demanded Gramont, quietly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Me?&quot; The stranger was unsmiling, deadly.
+In those glittering eyes Gramont read the
+ferocity of an animal at bay. &quot;I s'pose you
+would like to know that, huh? I guess you
+know enough right now to get all that's comin'
+to you, bo! Got any particular business here?
+Speak up quick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont was silent. The other sneered at
+him, viciously.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hurry up! Turn over the name and address,
+and I'll notify the survivin' relatives.
+Name, please?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page215" id="page215"></a>[pg&nbsp;215]</span>
+&quot;Henry Gramont,&quot; was the calm response.
+&quot;Don't get hasty, my friend. Didn't you see
+me here a little while ago with Chacherre and
+the other boys?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's that?&quot; The glittering eyes flamed
+up with suspicion and distrust. &quot;Here&mdash;with
+them? No, I didn't. I been away fishing
+all afternoon. What the hell you doing around
+this joint?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your best scheme,&quot; said Gramont, coldly,
+&quot;is to change your style of tone, and to do it
+in a hurry! If you don't know what's happened
+here this afternoon, don't ask me; you'll
+find out soon enough when the other boys get
+back. You'd better tell them I'm going to
+get in touch with Memphis Izzy the minute I
+get back to the city, and that the less talking
+they do&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What the hell's all this?&quot; demanded the
+other again, but with a softening of accent.
+The moniker of Gumberts had its effect, and
+seemed to shake the man instantly. Gramont
+smiled as he perceived that the game was won.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I never heard of no Gramont,&quot; went on
+the other, quickly. &quot;What you doin' here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're due to learn a good many things, I
+imagine,&quot; said Gramont, carelessly. &quot;As for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page216" id="page216"></a>[pg&nbsp;216]</span>
+me, I happened on the place largely by accident.
+I happen to be in partnership with a
+man named Jachin Fell, and I came out here
+on business&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">To Gramont's astonishment the pistol was
+lowered instantly. It was well that he ceased
+speaking, for what he had just said proved to
+be open to misconstruction, and if he had said
+any more he would have spoiled it. For the
+man facing him was staring at him in mingled
+disgust and surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're in partnership with <i>the boss</i>!&quot;
+came the astounding words. &quot;Well, why in
+hell didn't you say all that in the first place,
+instead o' beefin' around? That's no way to
+butt in, and me thinking you was some dick
+on the job! Got anything to prove that you
+ain't pullin' something cute on me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you know Fell's writing?&quot; asked Gramont,
+with difficulty forcing himself to meet
+the situation coherently. Jachin Fell&mdash;the
+boss!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know his mitt, all right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">From his pocket Gramont produced a paper&mdash;the
+memorandum or agreement which he
+had drawn up with Fell on the previous afternoon,
+relating to the oil company. The other
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page217" id="page217"></a>[pg&nbsp;217]</span>
+man took it and switched on an electric light
+bulb overhead. In this glare he was revealed
+as a ratty little individual with open mouth
+and teeth hanging out&mdash;an adenoidal type, and
+certainly a criminal type.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It crossed the mind of Gramont that one
+blow would do the work&mdash;but he stood motionless.
+No sudden game would help him here.
+The discovery that Fell was &quot;the boss&quot; paralyzed
+him completely. He had never dreamed
+of such a contingency. Fell, of all men!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell the &quot;boss&quot; of this establishment!
+Jachin Fell the man higher up&mdash;the brains
+behind this criminal organization! It was a
+perfect thunderbolt to Gramont. Now he
+understood why Chacherre was in the employ
+of Fell&mdash;why no arrest of the man had been
+possible! Now he perceived that Chacherre
+must have told the truth about coming here on
+business for Fell. Reaching farther back,
+he saw that Fell must have received the loot of
+the Midnight Masquer, must have turned it
+over to Lucie Ledanois&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Did <i>she</i> know?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All right, Mr. Gramont.&quot; The ratty little
+man turned to him with evident change of
+front. &quot;We ain't takin' no chances here,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page218" id="page218"></a>[pg&nbsp;218]</span>
+y'understand. Got quite a shipment of cars
+comin' in from Texas, and we're tryin' to get
+some o' these boats cleaned out to make room.
+Bring out any orders?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont's brain worked fast.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">By overcoming this guttersnipe he might
+have the whole place at his mercy&mdash;but that
+was not what he wanted. He suddenly realized
+that he had other and more important fish
+to fry in New Orleans. Gumberts was there.
+Fell was there. What he must do demanded
+time, and his best play was to gain all the time
+possible, and to prevent this gang from suspecting
+him in any way.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Did you see Ben Chacherre?&quot; he countered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Uh-huh&mdash;seen him just after he come.
+Gumberts will be out day after to-morrow, he
+said. The boss is framin' some sort of deal
+on a guy that he wants laid away&mdash;some guy
+name o' Hammond. Chacherre is running it.
+He figgers on gettin' Hammond on account of
+some car that's bein' hunted up&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont laughed suddenly, for there was a
+grim humour about the thing. So Jachin Fell
+wanted to &quot;get something&quot; on poor Hammond!
+And Chacherre had seized the golden
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page219" id="page219"></a>[pg&nbsp;219]</span>
+opportunity that presented itself this afternoon&mdash;instead
+of &quot;getting&quot; Hammond for the
+theft of a car, Chacherre had coolly fastened
+murder upon him!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ben is one smart man; I expect he thinks
+the gods are working for him,&quot; said Gramont,
+thinly. &quot;So you don't know what happened
+to-day, eh? Well, it's great news, but I've
+got no time to talk about it. They'll tell you
+when they get back&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Where'd they go?&quot; demanded the other.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Houma. Now listen close! Chacherre
+did not know that I was in partnership with the
+boss, get me? I didn't want to tell all the
+crowd in front of him. Between you and me,
+the boss isn't any too sure about Ben&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Say, I get you there!&quot; broke in the other,
+sagely. &quot;I tells him six months ago to watch
+out for that Creole guy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Exactly. You can tell the boys about me
+when they come back&mdash;I don't suppose Ben
+will be with them. Now, I've been looking
+over that place next door&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh!&quot; exclaimed the other, suddenly.
+&quot;Sure! The boss said that one of his friends
+would be down to&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm the one&mdash;or one of them,&quot; and Gramont
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page220" id="page220"></a>[pg&nbsp;220]</span>
+chuckled as he reflected on the ludicrous
+aspects of the whole affair. &quot;I'm going to
+Houma now, and then back to the city. My
+car's over next door. Mr. Fell wanted me to
+warn you to lay low on the lottery business.
+He's got a notion that someone's been talking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You go tell the boss,&quot; retorted the other
+in an aggrieved tone, &quot;to keep his eye on the
+guys that <i>can</i> talk! Who'd we talk to here?
+Besides, we're workin' our heads off on these
+here boats. Memphis Izzy is attending to the
+lottery&mdash;he's got the whole layout up to the
+house, and we ain't touching it, see? Tell the
+boss all that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Tell him yourself,&quot; Gramont laughed,
+good-humouredly. &quot;Gumberts is coming out
+day after to-morrow, is he? That'll be Friday.
+Hm! I think that I'd better bring Fell out
+here the same day, if I can make it. I probably
+won't see Gumberts until then&mdash;I'm not
+working in with him and he doesn't know me
+yet&mdash;but I'll try and get out here on Friday
+with Fell. Now, I'll have to beat it in a hurry.
+Any message to send?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not me,&quot; was the answer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont scarcely knew how he departed,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page221" id="page221"></a>[pg&nbsp;221]</span>
+until he found himself scrambling back through
+the underbrush of the Ledanois place.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He rushed into the house, found the fire had
+died down beyond all danger, and swiftly removed
+the few things they had taken from the
+car. Carrying these, he stumbled back to
+where he had hidden the automobile. He
+scarcely dared to think, scarcely dared to congratulate
+himself on the luck that had befallen
+him, until he found himself in his own car once
+more, and with open throttle sweeping out
+through the twilight toward Paradis and
+Houma beyond. A whirlwind of mad exultation
+was seething within him&mdash;exultation as
+sudden and tremendous as the past weeks
+had been uneventful and dragging!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont, in common with many others, had
+heard much indefinite rumour of an underground
+lottery game that was being worked
+among the negroes of the state and the Chinese
+villages along the Gulf coast. And now
+he knew definitely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lotteries have never died out in Louisiana
+since the brave old days of the government-ordained
+gambles, laws and ordinances to the
+contrary. No laws can make the yellow man
+and the black man forego the get-rich-quick
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page222" id="page222"></a>[pg&nbsp;222]</span>
+heritage of their fathers. On the Pacific coast
+lotteries obtain and will obtain wherever there
+is a Chinatown. In Louisiana the days of the
+grand lottery have never been forgotten. The
+last two years of high wages had made every
+Negro wealthy, comparatively speaking. The
+lottery mongers would naturally find them a
+ripe harvest for the picking. And who would
+gravitate to this harvest field if not the great
+Gumberts, the uncaught Memphis Izzy, the
+promoter who had never been &quot;mugged!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Here, at one stroke, stumbling on the thing
+by sheer blind accident, Gramont had located
+the nucleus of the whole business!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gradually his brain cooled to the realization
+of what work lay before him. He was through
+Paradis, almost without seeing the town, and
+switched on his lights as he took the highway
+to Houma. Sober reflection seized him. Not
+only was this crowd of crooks working a lottery,
+but they were also managing a stupendous
+thievery of automobiles, in which cars were
+looted by wholesale! And the man at the
+head of it all, the man above Memphis Izzy and
+his crooks, was Jachin Fell of New Orleans.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Did Lucie Ledanois dream such a thing?
+No. Gramont dismissed the question at once.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page223" id="page223"></a>[pg&nbsp;223]</span>
+Fell was not an unusual type of man. There
+were many Jachin Fells throughout the country,
+he reflected. Men who applied their
+brains to crooked work, who kept themselves
+above any actual share in the work, and who
+profited hugely by tribute money from every
+crook in every crime.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">To the communities in which they lived
+such men were patterns of all that wealthy
+gentlemen should be. Seldom, except perhaps
+in gossip of the underworld, was their
+connection with crime ever suspected. And&mdash;this
+thought was sobering to Gramont&mdash;never
+did they come within danger of retribution
+at the hands of the law. Their ramifications
+extended too far into politics; and the
+governors of some southern states have unlimited
+powers of pardon.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is a big day!&quot; reflected Gramont,
+dismissing the sinister suggestion of this last
+thought. &quot;A big day! What it will lead to,
+I don't know. Not the least of it is the financial
+end of it&mdash;the oil seepage! That little
+iridescent trickle of oil on the water means
+that money worries are over, both for me and
+for Lucie. I'm sorry that I am mixed up with
+Fell; I've enough money of my own to drill at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page224" id="page224"></a>[pg&nbsp;224]</span>
+least one good well, and one is all we'll need
+to bring in oil on that place. Well, we'll see
+what turns up! My first job is to make sure
+Hammond is safe, and to relieve his mind. I'll
+have to leave him in jail, I suppose&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Why did Fell want to &quot;get something&quot; on
+Hammond? To this there was no answer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He drove into Houma to find the town abuzz
+with excitement, for the news of the sheriff's
+murder had stirred the place wildly. Proceeding
+straight to the court house, Gramont encountered
+Ben Chacherre as he was leaving
+the car.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hello, there!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;Lost my
+road. Where's Hammond?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre jerked his head toward the court
+house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In yonder. Say, are you going back to
+the city to-night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes.&quot; Gramont regarded him. &quot;Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Take me back, will you? I've missed the
+last up train, and if you're goin' back anyhow
+I won't have to hire a car. I can drive for
+you, and we'll make it in a couple of hours,
+before midnight sure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hop in,&quot; said Gramont, nodding toward
+the car. &quot;I'll be back as soon as I've had a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page225" id="page225"></a>[pg&nbsp;225]</span>
+word with Hammond. No danger of his
+getting lynched, I hope?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not a chance,&quot; said the other, conclusively.
+&quot;Six deputies up there now, and quite a bunch
+of ex-soldiers comin' to stand guard. You
+goin' to fight the case?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; said Gramont. &quot;Can't fight a sure
+thing, can you? I'm sorry for him, though.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre shrugged his shoulders and got
+into the car.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont was much relieved to find that
+there was no danger of lynching, which had
+been his one fear. It was only with much
+persuasion that he got past the guard and into
+the court house, where he was received by a
+number of deputies in charge of the situation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After conferring with them at some length,
+he was grudgingly taken to the cell occupied
+by Hammond. The latter received him with
+a wide grin, and gave no signs of the gruelling
+ordeal through which he had passed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Listen, old man,&quot; said Gramont, earnestly.
+&quot;Will you play out the game hard to the end?
+I'll have to leave you here for two days. At
+the end of that time you'll be free.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The listening deputies sniffed, but Hammond
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page226" id="page226"></a>[pg&nbsp;226]</span>
+merely grinned again and put a hand
+through the bars.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Whatever you say, cap'n,&quot; he rejoined. &quot;It
+sure looks bad&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't you think it,&quot; said Gramont, cheerfully.
+&quot;A lot of things have happened since
+I saw you last! I've got the real murderer
+right where I want him&mdash;but I can't have him
+arrested yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's a gang,&quot; said Hammond. &quot;You
+watch out, cap'n, I heard 'em say somethin'
+about Memphis Izzy&mdash;remember the guy I told
+you about one day? Well, this is no piker's
+game! We're up against somethin' solid&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know it,&quot; and Gramont nodded. He
+turned to the deputies. &quot;Gentlemen, you
+have my address if you wish to communicate
+with me. I shall be back here day after to-morrow&mdash;at
+least, before midnight of that
+day. I warn you, that if anything happens to
+this man in the meantime, you shall be held
+personally responsible. He is innocent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Looks like we'd better hold you, too,&quot; said
+one of the men. &quot;You seem to know a lot!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont looked at him a moment.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know enough to tell you where to head
+in if you try any funny work here,&quot; he said,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page227" id="page227"></a>[pg&nbsp;227]</span>
+evenly. &quot;Gentlemen, thank you for permitting
+the interview! I'll see you later.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The coroner's jury had already adjudged
+Hammond guilty of the murder. Returning
+to the car, Gramont had Ben Chacherre drive
+to a restaurant, where they got a bite to eat.
+Twenty minutes later they were on their way
+to New Orleans&mdash;and Gramont learned for the
+first time of Joseph Maillard's murder by the
+Midnight Masquer, and of the arrest of Bob
+Maillard for the crime.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page228" id="page228"></a>[pg&nbsp;228]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>The Ultimatum</i></p>
+
+<p>UPON the following morning Gramont
+called both Jachin Fell and Lucie
+Ledanois over the telephone. He acquainted
+them briefly with the result of his oil
+investigation, and arranged a meeting for ten
+o'clock, at Fell's office.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was slightly before ten when Gramont
+called with the car for Lucie. Under the spell
+of her smiling eagerness, the harshness vanished
+from his face; it returned again a moment
+later, for he saw that she, too, was changed.
+There was above them both a cloud. That of
+Gramont was secret and brooding. As for
+Lucie, she was in mourning. The murder of
+Joseph Maillard, the arrest and undoubted
+guilt of Bob Maillard, dwarfed all else in her
+mind. Even the news of the oil seepage, and
+the fact that she was probably now on the road
+to wealth, appeared to make little impression
+upon her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page229" id="page229"></a>[pg&nbsp;229]</span>
+&quot;Thank heaven,&quot; she said, earnestly, as they
+drove toward Canal Street, &quot;that so far as you
+are concerned, Henry, the Midnight Masquer
+affair was all cleared up before this tragedy
+took place! It was fearfully imprudent of
+you&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; answered Gramont, soberly, reading
+her thought. &quot;I can realize my own folly
+now. If this affair were to be laid at my door,
+some kind of a case might be made up against
+me, and it would seem plausible. But, fortunately,
+I was out of it in time. Were we
+merely characters in a standardized detective
+story, I suppose I'd be arrested and deluged
+with suspense and clues and so forth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your escape was too narrow to joke
+over, Henry,&quot; she reproved him, gravely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm not joking, my dear Lucie. I learned
+nothing about the tragedy until late last night.
+From what I can find in the papers, it seems
+agreed that Bob was not the real Masquer,
+but had assumed that guise for a joke. A
+tragic joke! Since he was undoubtedly drunk
+at the time, his story can't be relied upon
+as very convincing. And yet, it's frightfully
+hard to believe that, even by accident, a son
+should have shot down his own father&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page230" id="page230"></a>[pg&nbsp;230]</span>
+&quot;Don't!&quot; Lucie winced a little. &quot;In spite
+of all the evidence against him, in spite of
+the way he was found with that aviation
+uniform, it's still awful to believe. I can't
+realize that it has actually happened.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;According to the papers, poor Mrs. Maillard
+has gone to pieces. No wonder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes. I was there with her all day yesterday,
+and shall go again to-day. They say
+Bob is terribly broken up. He sent for his
+mother, and she refused to see him. I don't
+know how it is all going to end! Do you
+think his story might be true&mdash;that somebody
+else might have acted as the Masquer
+that night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont shook his head.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's possible,&quot; he said, reluctantly, &quot;yet
+it hardly seems very probable. And now,
+Lucie, I'm very sorry indeed to say it&mdash;but
+you must prepare yourself against another
+shock in the near future.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What do you mean? About the oil&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No. It's too long a story to tell you now;
+here we are at the Maison Blanche. Just
+remember my words, please. It's something
+that I can't go into now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very well. Henry! Do you think that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page231" id="page231"></a>[pg&nbsp;231]</span>
+it's possible your chauffeur, Hammond, could
+have learned about the drinking party, and
+could have&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont started. &quot;Hammond? No. I'll
+answer for him beyond any question, Lucie.
+By the way, does Fell know anything about
+Hammond having been the first Masquer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not from me,&quot; said the girl, watching him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very well. Hammond got into a bit of
+trouble at Houma, and I had to leave him
+there. It was none of his fault, and he'll
+get out of it all right. Well, come along up
+to our oil meeting! Forget your troubles,
+and don't let my croakings about a new
+shock cause you any worry just yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He was thinking of Jachin Fell, and the
+girl's closeness to Fell. Had he not known
+that Fell was responsible for Hammond's being
+in jail, he might have felt differently. As
+it was, he was now fore-warned and fore-armed,
+although he could not see what
+animus Fell could possibly have against Hammond.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was lucky, he reflected grimly, that he
+had never breathed to a soul except Lucie
+the fact that Hammond had been the first
+Masquer! Had Fell known this fact, his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page232" id="page232"></a>[pg&nbsp;232]</span>
+desire to lay Hammond by the heels might
+have been easily fulfilled&mdash;and Hammond
+would probably have found himself charged
+with Maillard's murder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They found Jachin Fell dictating to a
+stenographer. He greeted them warmly, ushering
+them at once into his private office.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont found it difficult to convince
+himself that his experiences of the previous
+afternoon had been real. It was almost
+impossible to believe that this shy, apologetic
+little man in gray was in reality the &quot;man
+higher up!&quot; Yet he knew it to be the case&mdash;knew
+it beyond any escape.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;By the way,&quot; and Fell turned to Gramont,
+&quot;if you'll dictate a brief statement
+concerning that oil seepage, I'd be obliged!
+Merely give the facts. I may have need of
+such a statement from you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont nodded and joined the stenographer
+in the outer office where he dictated
+a brief statement. It did not occur to him
+that there might be danger in this; at the
+moment, he was rather off his guard. He
+was thinking so much about his future assault
+on Fell that he quite ignored the possibility
+of being placed on the defensive.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page233" id="page233"></a>[pg&nbsp;233]</span>
+Within five minutes he had returned to
+Lucie and Jachin Fell, who were discussing
+the condition of Mrs. Maillard. Gramont
+signed the statement and handed it to Fell,
+who laid it with other papers at his elbow.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I suppose we may proceed to business?&quot;
+began Fell. &quot;I have drawn up articles of
+partnership; we can apply for incorporation
+later if we so desire. Lucie, both Henry
+Gramont and I are putting twenty-five thousand
+dollars into this company, while you are
+putting in your land, which I am valuing at an
+equal amount. The stock, therefore, will be
+divided equally among us. That is understood?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes. It's very good of you, Uncle
+Jachin,&quot; said the girl, quietly. &quot;I'll leave
+everything to your judgment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The little gray man smiled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Judgment is a poor horse to ride, as
+Eliza said when she crossed the ice. Here's
+everything in black and white. I suggest
+that you both glance over the articles, sign
+up, and we will then hold our first meeting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont and Lucie read over the partnership
+agreement, and found it perfectly correct.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Very well, then, the meeting is called to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page234" id="page234"></a>[pg&nbsp;234]</span>
+order!&quot; Jachin Fell smiled as he rapped on
+the desk before him. &quot;Election of officers&mdash;no,
+wait! The first thing on hand is to give
+our company a name. Suggestions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I was thinking of that last night,&quot; said
+Lucie, smiling a little. &quot;Why not call it
+the 'American Prince Oil Company'?&quot; And
+her eyes darted to Gramont merrily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Excellent!&quot; exclaimed Jachin Fell. &quot;My
+vote falls with yours, my dear&mdash;I'll fill in the
+blanks with that name. Now to the election
+of officers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I nominate Jachin Fell for president,&quot;
+said Gramont, quickly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Seconded!&quot; exclaimed the girl, gaily, a
+little colour in her pale cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Any other nominations? If not, so approved and ordered,&quot;
+rattled Fell, laughingly.
+&quot;For the office of treasurer&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Miss Lucie Ledanois!&quot; said Gramont.
+&quot;Move nominations be closed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Seconded and carried by a two-thirds
+vote of stockholders,&quot; chirped Fell in his
+toneless voice. &quot;So approved and ordered.
+For secretary&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Our third stockholder,&quot; put in Lucie.
+&quot;He'll have to be an officer, of course!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page235" id="page235"></a>[pg&nbsp;235]</span>
+&quot;Seconded and carried. So approved and
+ordered.&quot; Mr. Fell rapped on the table.
+&quot;We will now have the report of our expert
+geologist in further detail than yet given.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont told of finding the oil; he was not
+carried away by the gay mock-solemnity of
+Jachin Fell, and he remained grave. He
+went on to relate how he had secured the
+lease option upon the adjoining land, and
+suggested that other such options be secured
+at once upon other property in the neighbourhood.
+He handed the option to Fell, who laid
+it with the other documents.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And now I have a proposal of my own
+to make,&quot; said Jachin Fell. He appeared
+sobered, as though influenced by Gramont's
+manner. &quot;Although we've actually found
+oil on the place, there is no means of telling
+how much we'll find when we drill, or what
+quality it will be. Is that not correct, Mr.
+Gramont?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Entirely so,&quot; assented Gramont. &quot;The
+chances are, of course, that we'll find oil in
+both quality and quantity. On the other
+hand, the seepage may be all there is. Oil is a
+gamble from start to finish. Personally, however,
+I would gamble heavily on this prospect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page236" id="page236"></a>[pg&nbsp;236]</span>
+&quot;Naturally,&quot; said Mr. Fell. &quot;However,
+I have been talking over the oil business with
+a number of men actively engaged in it in the
+Houma field. I think that I may safely say
+that I can dispose of the mineral rights to
+our company's land, together with this lease
+option secured yesterday on the adjoining
+land, for a sum approximating one hundred
+and fifty thousand dollars; reserving to our
+company a sixteenth interest in any oil
+located on the property. Personally, I believe
+this can be done, and I am willing to
+undertake the negotiations if so empowered
+by a note of our stockholders. Lucie, you do
+not mind if we smoke, I know? Let me
+offer you a cigar, Mr. Gramont.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont took one of the El Reys offered
+him, and lighted it amid a startled silence.
+Fell's proposal came to him as a distinct
+shock, and already he was viewing it in the
+light of prompt suspicion.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why,&quot; exclaimed Lucie, wide-eyed, &quot;that
+would be fifty thousand dollars to each of
+us, and not a cent expended!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In case it went through on that basis,&quot;
+added Jachin Fell, his eyes on Gramont,
+&quot;I would vote that the entire sum go to Miss
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page237" id="page237"></a>[pg&nbsp;237]</span>
+Ledanois. Her land alone is involved. If
+she then wishes to invest with us in a new
+company to exploit other fields, well and
+good. One moment, my dear! Do not protest
+this suggestion. The sixteenth interest
+reserved to our company would provide both
+Mr. Gramont and me with a substantial reward
+for our slight activity in the matter.
+Don't forget that interest, for it might amount
+to a large figure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Right,&quot; assented Gramont. &quot;I would
+second your vote, Mr. Fell; I think the idea
+very just and proper that Miss Ledanois
+should receive the entire amount.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie seemed a trifle bewildered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But&mdash;but, Henry!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;What
+do you think of selling the lease to these other
+men?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont eyed the smoke from his cigar
+reflectively, quite conscious that Mr. Fell
+was regarding him very steadily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't answer for you, Lucie,&quot; he said at
+last. &quot;I would not presume to advise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Fell looked slightly relieved. Lucie,
+however, persisted.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What would you do, then, if you were in
+my place?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page238" id="page238"></a>[pg&nbsp;238]</span>
+Gramont shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In that case,&quot; he said, slowly, &quot;I would
+gamble. We know oil is in that ground; we
+know that it has been found in large quantities
+at Houma or near there. To my
+mind there is no doubt whatever that under
+your land lies a part of the same oil field&mdash;and
+a rich one. To sell fifteen-sixteenths of that
+oil for a hundred and fifty thousand is to
+give it away. I would sooner take my
+chances on striking a twenty-thousand barrel
+gusher and having the whole of it to myself.
+However, by all means disregard my words;
+this is not my affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie glanced at Jachin Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You think it is the best thing to do; Henry
+does not,&quot; mused the girl. &quot;I know that
+you're both thinking of me&mdash;of getting that
+money for me. Just the same, Uncle Jachin,
+I&mdash;I won't be prudent! I'll gamble! Besides,&quot;
+she added with smiling naïveté, &quot;I'm
+not a bit willing to give up having a real oil
+company the very minute it is formed! So
+we'll outvote you, Uncle Jachin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Despite their tension, the two men smiled
+at her final words.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That motion of mine has not yet been
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page239" id="page239"></a>[pg&nbsp;239]</span>
+made,&quot; said Fell. Her rejection of his proposal
+had no effect upon his shyly smooth
+manner. &quot;Will you excuse us one moment,
+Lucie? If I may speak with you in the
+outer office, Mr. Gramont, I would like to
+show you some confidential matters which
+might influence your decision in this regard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lucie nodded and leaned back in her chair.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont accompanied Fell to the outer
+office, where Fell sent the stenographer to
+keep Lucie company. When the door had
+closed and they were alone, Fell took a chair
+and motioned Gramont to another. A cold
+brusquerie was evident in his manner.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Gramont,&quot; he said, briskly, &quot;I am going
+to make that motion, and I want you to vote
+with me against Lucie. Unfortunately, I
+have only a third of the voting power. I
+might argue Lucie into agreement, but she is
+a difficult person to argue with. So I mean
+that you shall vote with me&mdash;and I'm going
+to put my cards on the table before you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah!&quot; Gramont regarded him coolly.
+&quot;Your cards will have to be powerful persuaders!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They are,&quot; returned Jachin Fell. &quot;I
+have been carefully leading up to this point&mdash;the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page240" id="page240"></a>[pg&nbsp;240]</span>
+point of selling. I have practically arranged
+the whole affair. I propose to sell
+the mineral rights in that land, largely on the
+strength of the signed statement you gave me
+a few moments ago. That statement is
+going to be given wide publicity, and it will
+be substantiated by other reports on the oil
+seepage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You interest me strangely.&quot; Gramont
+leaned back in his chair. The eyes of the two
+men met and held in cold challenge, cold
+hostility. &quot;What's your motive, Fell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll tell you: it's the interest of Lucie
+Ledanois.&quot; In the gaze of Fell was a strange
+earnestness. In those pale gray eyes was
+now a light of fierce sincerity which startled
+and warned Gramont. Fell continued with
+a trace of excitement in his tone.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've known that girl all her life, Gramont,
+and I love her as a father. I loved her
+mother before her&mdash;in a different way. I
+can tell you that at this moment Lucie is
+poor. Her house is mortgaged; she does not
+know, in fact, just how poor she really is.
+Of course, she will accept no money from me
+in gift. But for her to get a hundred and
+fifty thousand in a business deal will solve
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page241" id="page241"></a>[pg&nbsp;241]</span>
+all her problems, set her on her feet for
+life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I see,&quot; said Gramont with harsh impulse.
+&quot;What do you get out of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He regretted the words instantly. Fell
+half rose from his chair as though to answer
+them with a blow. Gramont, aware of his
+mistake, hastened to retract it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Forgive me, Fell,&quot; he said, quickly. &quot;That
+was an unjust insinuation, and I know it.
+Yet, I can't find myself in agreement with you.
+I'm firmly set in the belief that a fortune in
+oil will be made off that land of Lucie's. I
+simply can't agree to sell out for a comparative
+pittance, and I'll fight to persuade her
+against doing it! As I look at it, the thing
+would not be just to her. I'm thinking,
+as you are, only of her interest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A light of sardonic mockery glittered in the
+pale eyes of Jachin Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You are basing your firm conviction,&quot;
+he queried, &quot;very largely upon your discovery
+of the free oil?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;To a large extent, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I thought you would,&quot; and Fell laughed
+harshly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page242" id="page242"></a>[pg&nbsp;242]</span>
+&quot;I mean,&quot; said the other, fiercely earnest,
+&quot;that for a month I've worked to sell that
+land! I had young Maillard hooked and
+landed&mdash;it would have been poetic justice to
+make him hand over a small fortune to Lucie!
+But that deal is off, since he's in jail. And do
+you know why young Maillard wanted to buy
+the land? For the same reason you don't
+want to sell. I sent him out there and he
+saw that oil seepage, as I meant that he
+should! He thought he would skin Lucie
+out of her land, not dreaming that I had
+prepared a nice little trap to swallow him.
+And now you come along&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Man, what are you driving at?&quot; exclaimed
+Gramont. He was startled by what
+he read in the other man's face.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Merely that I planted that oil seepage
+myself&mdash;or had it done by men I could
+trust,&quot; said Jachin Fell, calmly. He sat back
+in his chair and took up his cigar with an air
+of finality. &quot;The confession is shameless.
+I love Lucie more than my own ethical
+purity. Besides, I intend to wrong no one in
+the matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont sat stunned beyond words. The
+oil seepage&mdash;a plant!</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page243" id="page243"></a>[pg&nbsp;243]</span>
+The thing could have been very easily
+done, of course. As he sat silent there unfolded
+before him the motives that underlay
+Fell's entire action. The amazing disclosure
+of Jachin Fell's intrigue to enrich the girl
+left him bewildered. This, coupled with
+what he had learned on the preceding day
+about Jachin Fell, put his own course of action
+into grave perplexity.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was no reason to doubt what Fell
+said. Gramont believed the little man sincere
+in his love for Lucie.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No matter what the outcome, your reputation
+will not be affected,&quot; said Fell, quietly.
+&quot;The company which will buy this land of
+Lucie's is controlled by me. You understand?
+Even if no oil is ever found there, I shall see
+to it that you will not be injured because of
+that signed statement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont nodded dull comprehension. He
+realized that Fell had devised this whole
+business scheme with infernal ingenuity; had
+devised it in order to take a hundred and
+fifty thousand dollars out of his own pocket
+and put it into that of Lucie. It was a
+present which the girl would never accept as
+a gift, but which, if it came in the way of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page244" id="page244"></a>[pg&nbsp;244]</span>
+business, would make her financially independent.
+Nobody would be defrauded.
+There was no chicanery about it. The thing
+was straight enough.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's not quite all of my plan,&quot; pursued
+Fell, as though reading Gramont's unuttered
+thoughts. &quot;The minute this news becomes
+public, the minute your statement is published,
+there will be a tremendous boom in
+that whole section. I shall take charge of
+Lucie's money, and within three weeks I
+should double it, treble it, for her. Before the
+boom bursts she will be out of it all, and
+wealthy. Now, my dear Gramont, I do not
+presume that you will still refuse to vote
+with me? I have been quite frank, you see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont stirred in his chair.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes!&quot; he said, low-voiced. &quot;Yes, by
+heavens, I do refuse!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With an effort he checked hotly impulsive
+words that were on his tongue. One word
+now might ruin him. He dared not say that
+he did not want to see Fell's money pass into
+the hands of Lucie&mdash;money gained by fraud
+and theft and crime! He dared not give his
+reasons for refusing. He meant now to
+crush Fell utterly&mdash;but one wrong word
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page245" id="page245"></a>[pg&nbsp;245]</span>
+would give the man full warning. He must
+say nothing.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's not straight work, Fell. Regardless
+of your motives, I refuse to join you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell sighed slightly, and laid down
+his cigar with precision.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Gramont,&quot; his voice came with the softly
+purring menace of a tiger's throat-tone,
+&quot;I shall now adjourn this company meeting
+for two days, until Saturday morning, in
+order to give you a little time to reconsider.
+To-day is Thursday. By Saturday&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I need no time,&quot; said Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you will need it. I suppose you
+know that Bob Maillard has been arrested for
+parricide? You are aware of the evidence
+against him&mdash;all circumstantial?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont frowned. &quot;What has that got to
+do with our present business?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Quite a bit, I fancy.&quot; A thin smile
+curved the lips of Jachin Fell. &quot;Maillard is
+not guilty of the murder&mdash;but you are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Liar!&quot; Gramont started from his chair as
+those three words burned into him. &quot;Liar!
+Why, you know that I went home&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, wait!&quot; Fell lifted his hand for peace.
+His voice was calm. &quot;Ansley and I both
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page246" id="page246"></a>[pg&nbsp;246]</span>
+saw you depart, certainly. We have since
+learned that you did not reach home until
+some time after midnight. You have positively
+no alibi, Gramont. You may allege,
+of course, that you were wandering the
+streets&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;As I was!&quot; cried Gramont, heatedly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then prove it, my dear fellow; prove it&mdash;if
+you can. Now, we shall keep Lucie out of
+all this. What remains? I know that you
+were the Midnight Masquer. My man, Ben
+Chacherre, can prove by another man who
+accompanied him that the Masquer's loot was
+taken from your car. A dictograph in the
+private office, yonder, has a record of the talk
+between us of the other morning, in which
+you made patent confession to being the
+Masquer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Once let me hand this array of evidence
+over to the district attorney, and you will
+most certainly stand trial. And, if you do
+stand trial, I can promise you faithfully that
+you will meet conviction. I have friends,
+you see, and many of them are influential in
+such small matters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was not a nice smile that curved the lips
+of Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page247" id="page247"></a>[pg&nbsp;247]</span>
+Gramont choked back any response, holding
+himself to silence with a firm will. He
+dared say nothing, lest he say too much. He
+saw that Fell could indeed make trouble for
+him&mdash;and that he must strike his own blow
+at Fell without great delay. It was a battle,
+now; a fight to the end.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell regarded Gramont cheerfully, seeming
+to take this crushed silence as evidence of his
+own triumph.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Further,&quot; he added, &quot;your man Hammond
+is now in jail at Houma, as you know,
+for the murder of the sheriff. Now, my
+influence is not confined to this city, Gramont,
+I may be able to clear Hammond of this
+charge&mdash;if you decide to vote with me. I
+may keep what I know about the Midnight
+Masquer from the press and from the district
+attorney&mdash;if you decide to vote with me.
+You comprehend?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont nodded. He saw now why Fell
+wanted to &quot;get something&quot; on Hammond.
+Fell had rightly reasoned that Gramont
+would do more to save Hammond than to
+save himself.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You think I murdered Maillard, then?&quot;
+he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page248" id="page248"></a>[pg&nbsp;248]</span>
+&quot;Gramont, I don't know what to think,
+and that's the honest truth!&quot; answered Fell,
+with a steady regard. &quot;But I am absolutely
+determined to put this oil deal across, to
+make Lucie Ledanois at least independent, if
+not wealthy. I can do it, I've made all my
+plans to do it, and&mdash;I <i>will</i> do it!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'll hold another meeting day after to-morrow&mdash;Saturday
+morning.&quot; Fell rose.
+&quot;That will give me time to conclude all
+arrangements. I trust, Mr. Gramont, that
+you will vote with me for the adjournment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Gramont, dully. &quot;I will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thank you,&quot; and Jachin Fell bowed
+slightly, not without a trace of mockery in his
+air.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page249" id="page249"></a>[pg&nbsp;249]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>The Coin Falls Heads</i></p>
+
+<p>GRAMONT sat in his own room that
+afternoon. It seemed to him that he
+had been away from the city for weeks
+and months. Yet only a day had intervened.
+He sat fingering the only piece of mail that
+had come to him&mdash;a notice from the post of the
+American Legion which he had joined, to the
+effect that there would be a meeting that
+Thursday evening. Only Thursday! And
+to-morrow was Friday.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">If he was to effect anything against the
+headquarters of Fell's gang he must act on
+the morrow or not at all. Gumberts was to
+be out there to-morrow. Gumberts would
+talk with the ratty little man of the projecting
+teeth and adenoids, would find Gramont
+had imposed upon the fellow, and there would
+be upheavals. The gang would take to
+flight, certainly, or at least make certain that
+Gramont's mouth was shut.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page250" id="page250"></a>[pg&nbsp;250]</span>
+He sat fingering the postal from the Legion,
+and turning over events in his mind. Against
+Fell he had particular animosity. All that
+the little gray man had done had been done
+with the thought of Lucie Ledanois as a
+spur.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yet he can't realize that Lucie wouldn't
+have the money if she knew that it came from
+criminal sources,&quot; he thought, smiling bitterly.
+&quot;He's been scheming a long time
+to make a fortune for her, and now he's
+determined to push it through regardless of
+me. It was clever of him to jail Hammond!
+He guessed that I'd do a great deal to save
+the redhead&mdash;more even than to save myself.
+Mighty clever! And now he's pretty
+sure that he's got me between a cleft stick,
+where I can't wriggle.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If I'm to strike a blow, I'll have to do it
+to-morrow&mdash;before noon to-morrow, also. I'll
+have to leave here mighty early, and get
+there before Gumberts does. What was it
+Hammond said that day about him&mdash;that
+nobody in the country had ever caught
+Memphis Izzy? I bet I could do it, and his
+whole gang with him&mdash;if I knew how. There's
+the rub! Fell won't hesitate a minute in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page251" id="page251"></a>[pg&nbsp;251]</span>
+having me arrested. And as he said, once
+he got me arrested, I'd be gone. He must
+be able to exert powerful influence, that
+man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Should he strike or not? If he struck, he
+might expect the full weight of Jachin Fell's
+vengeance&mdash;unless his blow would include
+Fell among the victims.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont was still pondering this dilemma
+when Ben Chacherre arrived.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont heard the man's voice on the
+stairs. Ben's impudence, perhaps added to
+his name and the Creole French upon his
+lips, had carried him past the concierge
+unannounced, although not without a continued
+exchange of repartee that served to
+give Gramont warning of the visitor. Smiling
+grimly, Gramont drew a coin from his
+pocket, and flipped it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The coin fell heads. He pocketed it again
+as Ben Chacherre knocked, and opened the
+door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, Chacherre!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;Come
+in.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ben swaggered inside and closed the door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Brought a message for you, Mr. Gramont,&quot;
+he said, jauntily, and extended a note.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page252" id="page252"></a>[pg&nbsp;252]</span>
+Gramont tore open the envelope and read a
+curt communication:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Kindly let me know your answer as soon as possible.
+By to-morrow evening at the latest. It will be necessary
+to arrange affairs for Saturday.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Jachin Fell.</span></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">To arrange affairs! Fell was taking for
+granted that Gramont would give an assent,
+under force of persuasion, to the scheme.
+He would probably have everything in readiness,
+and if assured by Friday night of
+Gramont's assent, would then pull his strings
+and perhaps complete the whole deal before
+the following Monday.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The meeting of the company had been
+adjourned to Saturday morning. Gramont
+thought a moment, then went to his buhl
+escritoire and opened it. Chacherre had
+already taken a seat. Gramont wrote:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">My Dear Mr. Fell</span>,</p>
+
+<p class="indent">If you will arrange the company meeting for to-morrow
+evening, say nine o'clock, at your office, I think
+that everything may then be arranged. As I may not
+see Miss Ledanois in the meantime, will you be kind
+enough to assure her presence at the meeting?</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page253" id="page253"></a>[pg&nbsp;253]</span>
+He addressed an envelope to Fell's office,
+and then stamped and pocketed it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, Chacherre,&quot; he said, rising and
+returning to the Creole, &quot;any further news
+from Houma? They haven't found the real
+murderer yet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The other came to his feet with an exclamation
+of surprise. As he did so, Gramont's fist
+caught him squarely on the point of the jaw.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre crumpled back across his chair,
+senseless for the moment.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm afraid to take any chances with you,
+my fine bird,&quot; said Gramont, rubbing his
+knuckles. &quot;You're too clever by far, and too
+handy with your weapons!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He obtained cloths, and firmly bound the
+ankles and wrists of Chacherre. Not content
+with this, he placed the man in the
+chair and tied him to it with merciless knots.
+As he was finishing his task, Chacherre
+opened his eyes and gazed rapidly around.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Awake at last, are you?&quot; said Gramont,
+genially. He got his pipe, filled and lighted
+it. The eyes of Chacherre were now fastened
+upon him venomously. &quot;Too bad for you,
+Chacherre, that the coin fell heads up! That
+spelled action.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page254" id="page254"></a>[pg&nbsp;254]</span>
+&quot;Are you crazy?&quot; muttered the other in
+French. Gramont laughed, and responded
+in the same tongue.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It does look that way, doesn't it? You're
+slippery, but now you're caught.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre must have realized that he stood
+in danger. He checked a curse, and regarded
+Gramont with a steady coolness.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Be careful!&quot; he said, his voice deadly.
+&quot;What do you mean by this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont looked at him and puffed his
+pipe.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The game's up, Ben,&quot; he observed. &quot;I
+know all about the place down there&mdash;about
+the cars, and about the lottery. Your gang
+has had a pleasant time, eh? But now you
+and the others are going to do a little work
+for the state on the road gangs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Bah! <i>Ça? va rivé dans semaine quatte
+zheudis!</i>&quot; spat Chacherre, contemptuously.
+&quot;That will happen in the week of four Thursdays,
+you fool! So you know about things,
+eh? My master will soon shut your mouth!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He can't,&quot; said Gramont, placidly.
+&quot;You'll all be under arrest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre laughed scornfully, then spoke
+with that deadly gravity.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page255" id="page255"></a>[pg&nbsp;255]</span>
+&quot;Look here&mdash;you're a stranger here? Well,
+since you know so much, I'll tell you more!
+We can't be arrested, and even if you get
+us pinched, we'll never be convicted. Do
+you understand? We have influence! There
+are men here in New Orleans, men in the
+legislature, men at Washington, who will
+never see us molested!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They'll be surprised,&quot; said Gramont, although
+he felt that the man's words were
+true. &quot;But not all of them are your friends,
+Ben. I don't think the governor of the state
+is in your gang. He's a pretty straight man,
+Ben.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He's a fool like you! What is he? A
+puppet! He can do nothing except pardon
+us if the worst happens. You can't touch
+us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, maybe not,&quot; agreed Gramont, tapping
+at his pipe. &quot;Maybe not, but we'll
+see! You seem mighty sure of where you
+stand, Ben.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Encouraged, Ben Chacherre laughed insolently.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Let me loose,&quot; he commanded. &quot;Or
+else you'll go over the road for the Midnight
+Masquer's work! My master has a dictograph
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page256" id="page256"></a>[pg&nbsp;256]</span>
+in his office, and has your confession
+on record.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So?&quot; queried Gramont, his brows lifted.
+&quot;You seem much in Mr. Fell's confidence,
+Ben. But I think I'll leave you tied up a
+little while. Memphis Izzy is going down to
+his summer cottage to-morrow, isn't he?
+I'll be there&mdash;but you won't. By the way, I
+think I'd better look through your pockets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Ben Chacherre writhed suddenly, hurling
+a storm of curses at Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The latter, unheeding the contortions of
+his captive, searched the man thoroughly.
+Except for a roll of money, the pockets gave
+up little of interest. The only paper Gramont
+secured was a fresh telegraph blank.
+He would have passed this unheeded had he
+not noted a snaky flitting of Chacherre's eyes
+to it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah!&quot; he said, pleasantly. &quot;You appear
+to be interested in this, Ben. Pray, what is
+the secret?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre merely glared at him in silence.
+Gramont inspected the blank, and a sudden
+exclamation broke from him. He held the
+bit of yellow paper to the light at varying
+angles.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page257" id="page257"></a>[pg&nbsp;257]</span>
+&quot;It's the most natural thing in the world,&quot;
+he said after a moment, &quot;for a man to walk
+into a telegraph office, write out his telegram,
+and then find that he's torn two blanks instead
+of one from the pad on the desk. Eh?
+I've done it, often&mdash;and I've always put the
+extra blank into my pocket, Ben, thinking it
+might come in handy; just as you did, eh?
+Now let's see!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You were excited when you wrote this,
+weren't you? You'd just thought of something
+very important, and you took care of it
+hurriedly&mdash;that made you jab down your
+pencil pretty hard. Who's Dick Hearne at
+Houma? An agent of the gang there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre merely glared, sullenly defiant.
+Word by word, Gramont made out the message:</p>
+
+<p class="center">Burn bundle under rear seat my car. Have done at
+once.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont looked up and smiled thinly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your car? Why, you left it in the garage
+at Gumberts' place, eh? That little roadster
+of Fell's, with the extra seat behind. If
+you'd been just a little bit cooler yesterday,
+Ben, you would have made fewer mistakes.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page258" id="page258"></a>[pg&nbsp;258]</span>
+It never occurred to you that other people
+might have been there in the bushes when the
+sheriff was murdered, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre went livid.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It was another mistake to throw away
+your knife after you killed him,&quot; pursued
+Gramont, reflectively. &quot;You should have held
+on to that knife, Ben. There's no blood,
+remember, on Hammond's knife&mdash;a hard
+thing for you and your friends to explain
+plausibly. Yet your knife is heavy with
+blood, which tests will show to be human
+blood. Also, the knife has your name on it;
+quite a handsome knife, too. On the whole,
+you must admit that you bungled the murder
+from start to finish&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Chacherre broke in with a frightful oath&mdash;a
+frantically obscene storm of curses. So
+furious were his words that Gramont very efficiently
+gagged him with cloths, gagged him
+hard and fast.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You also bungled when you forgot all
+about burning that bundle, in your excitement
+over getting Hammond jailed for the
+murder,&quot; he observed, watching Chacherre
+writhe. &quot;No, you can't get loose, Ben.
+You'll suffer a little between now and the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page259" id="page259"></a>[pg&nbsp;259]</span>
+time of your release, but I really can't spare
+much pity on you.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think that I'll send another wire to
+Dick Hearne on this blank which you so
+thoughtfully provided. I'll order him, in
+your name, not to burn that bundle after all;
+I fancy it may prove of some value to me.
+And I'll also tell your friend&mdash;I suppose he
+has some familiar cognomen, such as Slippery
+Dick&mdash;to meet Henry Gramont at Houma
+early in the morning. I'd like to gather Dick
+in with the other gentlemen. I'll mention
+that you were kind enough to supply a few
+names and incidents.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At this last Ben Chacherre writhed anew,
+for it was a shrewd blow. He and his friends
+belonged to that class of crook which never
+&quot;peaches.&quot; If by any mischance one of
+this class is jailed and convicted, he invariably
+takes his medicine silently, knowing
+that the whole gang is behind him, and
+that when he emerges from prison he will be
+sure to find money and friends and occupation
+awaiting him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">To know that he would be placed, in the
+estimation of the gang, in the same class with
+stool-pigeons, must have bitten deeper into
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page260" id="page260"></a>[pg&nbsp;260]</span>
+Ben Chacherre than any other lash. He
+stared at Gramont with a frightful hatred in
+his blazing eyes&mdash;a hatred which gradually
+passed into a look of helplessness and of impotent
+despair.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont, meantime, was writing out the
+telegram to Dick Hearne. This finished, he
+got his hat and coat, and from the bureau
+drawer took an automatic pistol, which he
+pocketed. Then he smiled pleasantly at his
+prisoner.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll be back a little later, Ben, and I'll
+probably bring a friend with me&mdash;a friend
+who will sit up with you to-night and take
+care of your health. Kind of me, eh? It's
+getting late in the afternoon, but I don't
+think that it will harm you to go without
+any dinner. I'll 'phone Mr. Fell that
+you said you'd be away for a few hours, eh?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This evening, Ben, I think that I'll
+attend a meeting of my post of the American
+Legion. You don't belong to that organization
+by any chance? No, I'm quite sure
+you don't. Very few of your exclusive acquaintances
+do belong. Well, see you later!
+Work on those bonds all you like&mdash;you're
+quite safe. I'm curious to see what is in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page261" id="page261"></a>[pg&nbsp;261]</span>
+that bundle under the rear seat of your car;
+I have an idea that it may prove interesting.
+Good afternoon!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont closed the door, and left the house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Going downtown, he mailed the letter to
+Fell, confident that the latter would receive
+it on the following morning; but he did not
+telephone Fell. He preferred to leave the
+absence of Chacherre unexplained, rightly
+judging that Fell would not be particularly
+anxious about the man. It was now Thursday
+evening. The meeting of the oil company
+would be held at nine on Friday evening.
+Between those two times Gramont figured on
+many things happening.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He chuckled as he sent the telegram to
+Dick Hearne at Houma&mdash;a telegram signed
+with the name Chacherre, instructing Hearne
+not to burn the bundle, but to meet Gramont
+early in the morning at Houma. He
+had a very shrewd idea that this Dick Hearne
+might prove an important person to dispose
+of, and quite useful after he had been disposed
+of. In this conjecture he was right.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page262" id="page262"></a>[pg&nbsp;262]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>Chacherre's Bundle</i></p>
+
+<p>IT WAS seven in the morning when Henry
+Gramont drove his car into Houma.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the wire which he had sent over
+Chacherre's signature he had commanded
+Dick Hearne to meet Gramont at about
+this time at a restaurant near the court house.
+Putting his car at the curb, Gramont went into
+the restaurant and ordered a hasty breakfast.
+He had brought with him copies of
+the morning papers, and was perusing the
+accounts of Bob Maillard's pitifully weak
+story regarding his father's murder, when a
+stranger stopped beside him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Gramont?&quot; said the other. &quot;Thought
+it was you. Hearne's my name&mdash;I had
+orders to meet you. What's up?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The other man dropped into the chair
+opposite Gramont, who put away his papers.
+Hearne was a sleek individual of pasty
+complexion who evidently served the gang
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page263" id="page263"></a>[pg&nbsp;263]</span>
+in no better light than as a go-between and
+runner of errands. That he suspected nothing
+was plain from his casual manner, although
+he had never seen Gramont previously.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Business,&quot; said Gramont, leaning back to
+let the waitress serve his breakfast. When
+she had departed, he attacked it hungrily.
+&quot;You got Chacherre's wire about the stuff in
+his car? Was it burned?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No. He countermanded it just as I was
+hirin' a car to go over to Paradis,&quot; said
+Hearne. &quot;What's stirrin', anyhow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Plenty. Memphis Izzy's coming down
+to-day. When'll he get in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He'll go direct to the other place, won't
+come here. Oh, I reckon he'll get there
+along about nine this morning. Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'll have to go over there to meet him,&quot;
+said Gramont. &quot;I stopped in here to pick
+you up. Hammond is still safe in jail?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sure.&quot; Hearne laughed evilly. &quot;I don't
+guess he'll get out in a hurry, neither!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Chacherre was pinched last night for
+the murder,&quot; said Gramont, watching the
+other.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The hell!&quot; Hearne looked astonished,
+then relaxed and laughed again. &quot;Some fly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page264" id="page264"></a>[pg&nbsp;264]</span>
+cop will sure lose his buttons, then! They
+ain't got nothin' on him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I heard they had plenty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't worry.&quot; Hearne waved a hand
+grandiloquently. &quot;The boss is solid with the
+bunch up to Baton Rouge, and they'll take
+care of everybody. So old Ben got pinched,
+huh? That's one joke, man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont's worst suspicions were confirmed
+by the attitude of Hearne, who plainly
+considered that the entire gang had nothing
+to fear from the law. Chacherre's boasts
+were backed up solidly. It was obvious to
+Gramont that the ramifications of the gang
+extended very high up indeed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Better cut out the talk,&quot; he said, curtly,
+&quot;until we get out of here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hearne nodded and rolled a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When his hasty meal was finished Gramont
+paid at the counter and led the way
+outside. He motioned toward the car, and
+Hearne obediently climbed in, being evidently
+of so little account in the gang that
+he was accustomed to taking orders from
+everyone.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont headed out of town and took the
+Paradis road. Before he had driven a mile,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page265" id="page265"></a>[pg&nbsp;265]</span>
+however, he halted the car, climbed out, and
+lifted one side of the hood.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Give me those rags from the bottom of
+the car, Hearne,&quot; he said, briefly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The other obeyed. As Gramont made no
+move to come and get them, Hearne got out
+of the car; then Gramont rose from the
+engine unexpectedly, and Hearne looked into
+a pistol.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hold out your hands behind you and turn
+around!&quot; snapped Gramont. &quot;No talk!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Hearne sputtered an oath, but as the
+pistol jerked at him he obeyed the command.
+Gramont took the strips of cloth, which he
+had previously prepared, and bound the
+man's wrists.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;These are better than handcuffs,&quot; he
+commented. &quot;Too many slick individuals
+can get rid of bracelets&mdash;but you'll have one
+man's job to get rid of these! Ah! a gun in
+your pocket, eh? Thanks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What t'ell you doin'?&quot; exclaimed the
+bewildered Hearne.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Placing you under arrest,&quot; said Gramont,
+cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Here, where's your warrant? You ain't
+no dick&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page266" id="page266"></a>[pg&nbsp;266]</span>
+Gramont cut short his protests with a long
+cloth which effectually bound his lower jaw in
+place and precluded any further idea of talk.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You climb into that car, Hearne,&quot; he
+ordered, &quot;and I'll attend to your feet next.
+That's the boy! Nothing like taking it
+calmly, Hearne. You didn't know that I
+was the fellow who pinched old Ben, did you?
+But I am. And before night your whole
+crowd will be hooked up, from the big boss
+down to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont tied Dick Hearne securely, hand
+and foot, and then lashed him to one of the
+top supports of the car. When he had
+finished, Hearne was reasonably safe. He
+then climbed under the wheel again and
+proceeded on his way. Hearne's lashings
+were inconspicuous to any one whom the car
+passed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It was a little after eight in the morning
+when Gramont drove into Paradis. He
+noticed that two large automobiles were
+standing in front of the postoffice, and that
+about them were a group of men who eyed
+him and his car with some interest. Paying
+no attention to these, he drove on through
+town without a halt.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page267" id="page267"></a>[pg&nbsp;267]</span>
+Sweeping out along the north road, he
+encountered no one. When at length he
+reached the Ledanois farm he drove in
+toward the deserted house and parked the
+car among some trees, where it could not be
+seen from the road.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You'll have some pleasant company before
+long, Dicky, my lad,&quot; he observed,
+cheerfully. A last inspection showed that
+his prisoner was quite secure. &quot;In the meantime,
+sit and meditate upon your sins, which
+I trust have been many and deep. Chacherre
+is up for murder, and he's trying to
+save his neck by blowing on the remainder of
+your gang. We may give you a chance to
+do the same thing and corroborate his testimony.
+It's worth thinking over, isn't it?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps you imagine that you're safe
+from conviction. If so, take comfort while
+you can&mdash;I'll chance that end of it! When
+Memphis Izzy comes along, I'll have a nice
+comfortable little conversation with him.
+Then we'll all join up and go back to the
+city together. You get the idea? Well, be
+good!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Leaving the car Gramont took his way
+toward the bank of the bayou and followed this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page268" id="page268"></a>[pg&nbsp;268]</span>
+in the direction of the adjoining property.
+He looked at the water, a bitter smile upon
+his lips, and again made out the faint iridescent
+sheen of oil. When he came to the
+rivulet which gave birth to the oil he paused.
+He remembered the excitement that had so
+shaken him upon the discovery of this supposed
+seepage two days previously&mdash;he remembered
+ironically the visions it had aroused in his brain.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Farewell, too sudden wealth!&quot; he murmured.
+&quot;Farewell, toil's end and dreams of
+luxury! I'm still a poor but honest workingman&mdash;but
+I still think that there's some real
+oil under this land. Well, we'll see about
+that later on, perhaps. Our company is by
+no means busted up yet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He passed on, wondering not a little at the
+deft skill of Jachin Fell in planting that oil;
+the men next door had done the work, of
+course. Gramont did not attempt to delude
+himself with the idea that Fell had acted
+selfishly. The whole affair had been handled
+with a clever secrecy, only in order that Fell's
+oil company might buy the land from Lucie,
+and that Fell might use the resultant boom
+to make her financially secure.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page269" id="page269"></a>[pg&nbsp;269]</span>
+&quot;He doesn't believe there's oil here,&quot;
+reflected Gramont, &quot;and he's sincere in the
+belief. Where Lucie is concerned, I think
+the man's absolutely unselfish. He'd do
+anything for her! And yet Jachin Fell is an
+enemy, a deadly enemy, of society! Hm&mdash;these
+criminals show some queer streaks. You
+can't call a man like Fell wholly bad, not by
+a good deal; I'll almost regret sending him
+to the pen&mdash;if I do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He went on to an opening in the bushes
+which, over the low rail fence, gave him a
+clear view of the Gumberts property. There
+he paused, quickly drew back, and gained a
+point whence he could see without danger of
+his presence being discovered. He settled
+into immobility and watched.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">That Memphis Izzy himself had not yet
+arrived, he was fairly certain. Near the
+barn were drawn up two flivvers, and sitting
+in chairs on the cottage veranda were three
+men who must have come in these cars.
+Gramont had come provided with binoculars,
+and got these out. He was not long in
+discovering that all three men on the veranda
+were strangers to him. They, no doubt,
+were men in the lottery game, waiting for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page270" id="page270"></a>[pg&nbsp;270]</span>
+Gumberts to arrive. Gramont turned his
+attention to the other buildings.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Both the barn and shop were open, and the
+buzzing thrum of machinery bore witness that
+the mechanics were hard at work upon the
+stolen cars. Gramont thought of Ben Chacherre,
+still tied and lashed to the chair in
+his room, and wondered what was to be found
+under the rear seat of Ben's car. He could
+see the car from where he lay.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The minutes dragged interminably, and
+Gramont settled down to a comfortable
+position in the grass. Would Fell come?
+He hoped so, but strongly doubted it. Fell
+appeared to be merely &quot;the boss&quot; and it was
+Gumberts who was actually managing the
+lottery swindle.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Nine o'clock came and passed. A third
+flivver came roaring into the opening, and
+Gramont leaned forward intently. Three
+workers came to the door of the shop. A
+single man left the flivver and greeted them,
+then went on to the cottage and joined the
+other three on the veranda. He was greeted
+with no excitement. The house door remained
+closed. The newcomer lighted a cigarette and
+sat on the steps.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page271" id="page271"></a>[pg&nbsp;271]</span>
+&quot;Evidently he's not Gumberts,&quot; thought
+Gramont. &quot;Seven of them so far, eh? This
+is going to be a real job and no mistake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Almost on his thought, a high-powered and
+noiseless car came sweeping down the road and
+he knew at once that Memphis Izzy had arrived.
+He knew it intuitively, even before
+he obtained a good glimpse of the broad, heavy
+figure, and the dominating features. Memphis
+Izzy was far from handsome, but he
+possessed character.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Where's the Goog?&quot; As he left the
+car, which he had driven himself, Gumberts
+lifted his voice in a bull-like roar that carried
+clearly to Gramont. &quot;Where's Charlie the
+Goog?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The mechanics appeared hurriedly. One
+of them, no other than Gramont's friend of the
+adenoidal aspect, who seemed to own the mellifluous
+title of Charlie the Goog, hastened to
+the side of Gumberts, and the latter gave him
+evident directions regarding some repair to the
+car. Then, turning, Memphis Izzy strode to
+the cottage. He nodded greetings to the four
+men who awaited him, took a bunch of keys
+from his pocket, and opened the cottage door.
+All five vanished within.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page272" id="page272"></a>[pg&nbsp;272]</span>
+Gramont rose. A moment previously, fever
+had thrilled him; the excitement of the manhunt
+had held him trembling. Now he was
+cool again, his fingers touching the pistol in
+his pocket, his eyes steady. He glanced at
+his watch, and nodded.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's time!&quot; he murmured. &quot;Let's hope
+there'll be no slip-up! All ready, Memphis
+Izzy? So am I. Let's go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Unhurried and openly, he advanced, making
+his leisurely way toward the barn and shop.
+Charlie the Goog, who was bent over the car
+of Gumberts, was first to discern his approach,
+and straightened up. Gramont waved his
+hand in greeting. Charlie the Goog turned
+his head and called his brethren, who came into
+sight, staring at Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The latter realized that if he passed them
+the game was won. If they stopped him, he
+bade fair to lose everything.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hello, boys!&quot; he called, cheerily, as he drew
+near. &quot;I came out on an errand for the boss&mdash;got
+a message for Gumberts. Where is he?
+In the house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The others nodded, plainly mistrusting him
+yet puzzled by his careless manner and his
+reference to Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page273" id="page273"></a>[pg&nbsp;273]</span>
+&quot;Sure,&quot; answered Charlie the Goog. &quot;Go
+right in&mdash;he's in the big front room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thanks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont continued his way, conscious that
+they were staring after him. If there was anything
+phony about him, they evidently considered
+that Memphis Izzy would take care of
+the matter very ably.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The steps of the cottage porch creaked
+protestingly as Gramont ascended them.
+Perhaps Memphis Izzy recognized an
+unaccustomed footstep; perhaps that conversation
+outside had penetrated to him. Gramont
+entered the front door into the hall, and as
+he did so, Gumberts opened the door on
+his right and stood gazing at him&mdash;rather,
+glaring.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who're you?&quot; he demanded, roughly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Came out with a message from Mr. Fell,&quot;
+responded Gramont at once. &quot;Brought some
+orders, I should say&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The sixth sense of Memphis Izzy, which
+had carried him uncaught into a grizzled age,
+must have flashed a warning to his crook's
+brain. In the man's eyes Gramont read a
+surge of suspicion, and knew that his bluff
+could be worked no longer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page274" id="page274"></a>[pg&nbsp;274]</span>
+&quot;Here's his note,&quot; he said, and reached into
+his pocket.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gumberts' hand flashed down, but halted
+as Gramont's pistol covered him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Back into that room, and do it quickly,&quot;
+said Gramont, stepping forward. &quot;Quick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Memphis Izzy obeyed. Gramont stood in
+the doorway, his eyes sweeping the room and
+the men inside. Startled, all four of them had
+risen and were staring at him. In his other
+hand he produced the automatic which he had
+taken from Dick Hearne.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The first word from any of you gentlemen,&quot;
+he declared, &quot;will draw a shot. I'm doing all
+the talking here. Savvy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They stood staring, paralyzed by this apparition.
+They had been sitting about a table
+which was heaped with papers and with packages
+of money. A large safe in the wall stood
+open. Beside the table was a small mail sack,
+partially emptied of its contents; torn envelopes
+littered the floor.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">That this was the headquarters of at least
+a section of the lottery gang Gramont saw
+without need of explanation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're under arrest,&quot; said Gramont,
+quietly. &quot;The game's up, Gumberts. Hands
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page275" id="page275"></a>[pg&nbsp;275]</span>
+up, all of you! Dick Hearne has peached on
+the whole gang, and from the boss down you're
+all in for a term in stir. You with the derby!
+Take Gumberts' gun, and those of your
+companions, then your own; throw 'em on the
+floor in the corner, and if you make the wrong
+kind of a move, heaven help you! Step lively,
+there!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">One of the men who wore a derby on the
+back of his head obeyed the command. All
+five of the men facing Gramont realized that
+a single shout would call help from outside,
+but in the eyes of Gramont they read a strict
+attention to business. It was altogether too
+probable that one man who dared arrest them
+alone would shoot to kill at the first false
+move&mdash;and not even Memphis Izzy himself
+opened his mouth.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Each man there had a revolver or pistol, and
+one by one the weapons clattered into the
+corner. Gumberts stood motionless, licking
+his thick lips, unuttered curses in his glaring
+eyes. And in that instant Gramont heard
+the porch steps creak, and caught a low,
+startled cry.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hey, boss! They's a gang comin' on the
+run&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page276" id="page276"></a>[pg&nbsp;276]</span>
+It was Charlie the Goog, bursting in upon
+them in wild haste. Gramont stepped into
+the room and turned slightly, covering with
+one of his weapons the intruder, who stood
+aghast in the doorway as he comprehended the
+scene.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">No words passed. Staring at the five men,
+then at Gramont, the adenoidal mechanic
+gulped once&mdash;and like a flash acted. He
+ducked low, and fired from his pocket.
+Gramont fired at the same instant, and the heavy
+bullet, catching Charlie the Goog squarely in
+the chest, hurled his body half across the
+room.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With the shots Memphis Izzy flung himself
+forward in a headlong rush. That desperate
+shot of the little mechanic had broken Gramont's
+right arm above the wrist; before he
+could fire a second time, with the weapon
+in his left hand, Gumberts had wrested the
+pistol aside and was struggling with him.
+The other four came into the mêlée full
+weight.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont went down under a crashing blow.
+Over him leaped Memphis Izzy and rushed
+into the doorway&mdash;then stopped with astounding
+abruptness and lifted his arms. After
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page277" id="page277"></a>[pg&nbsp;277]</span>
+him the other four followed suit. Two men,
+panting a little, stood outside the door and
+covered them with shotguns.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Back up,&quot; they ordered, curtly. Memphis
+Izzy and his four friends obeyed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Tie 'em, boys,&quot; said Gramont, rising
+dizzily to his feet. &quot;No, I'm not hurt&mdash;my
+arm's broken, I think, but let that wait. Got
+the ones outside?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A stamping of feet filled the hall, and other
+men appeared there.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Got two of 'em, Gramont!&quot; responded the
+leader. &quot;The third slipped in here&mdash;ah, there
+he is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Poor Charlie the Goog lay dead on the floor&mdash;a
+touch of heroic tragedy in his last desperate
+action; the one great action of his life, possibly.
+He had realized that it meant doom
+yet he had done what he could.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think that's all,&quot; said Gramont. &quot;We've
+sure made a killing, boys&mdash;and it's a good
+thing you jumped in to the minute! A second
+later and they'd have done for me. Take care
+of that evidence, will you? Get that mail sack
+and the letters particularly; if they've been
+working their lottery outside the state, it'll be
+a Federal matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page278" id="page278"></a>[pg&nbsp;278]</span>
+Gumberts, who was being tied up with his
+friends, uttered a hoarse cry.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who are you guys? You can't do this
+without authority&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't be silly, Memphis Izzy!&quot; said Gramont,
+smiling a little, then twitching to the
+pain of his arm. &quot;These friends of mine are
+members with me of the American Legion,
+and they've come along at my request to put
+you crooks where you belong. As for authority,
+you can ask and go hang.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Here, boys, I've got to get out to that
+barn. Come along, some of you! We'll get my
+arm tied up later. Nobody hurt out here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not a scrap, even,&quot; responded the leader,
+with a trace of disgust. &quot;All three of those
+bums were outside, and we covered 'em as we
+came out of the brush. The one that got
+away did so by getting his friends between
+us and him. But you attended to him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And he attended to me likewise,&quot; added
+Gramont, not without a wince of pain.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He led the way out to the barn, and, the
+others trooping in behind him, entered. He
+pointed out the car which had brought Chacherre
+here previously, and ordered the extra
+seat in back opened up.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page279" id="page279"></a>[pg&nbsp;279]</span>
+&quot;I think there's a bundle inside,&quot; he said.
+&quot;What's in it, I don't know&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Here we are, cap.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A bundle was produced, and opened. In
+it was found the aviator's costume which Gramont
+had worn as the Midnight Masquer,
+and which Chacherre had stolen with the loot.
+Wrapped among the leathern garments was
+an automatic pistol.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont stood aghast before this discovery,
+as realization of what it meant broke full upon
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Good lord!&quot; he exclaimed, amazedly.
+&quot;Boys&mdash;why, it must have been Ben Chacherre
+who killed Maillard! See if that pistol has
+been used&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Midnight Masquer had fired two bullets
+into Maillard. Two cartridges were gone from
+this automatic.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page280" id="page280"></a>[pg&nbsp;280]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>When the Heavens Fall</i></p>
+
+<p>THE chief of police entered the office of
+Jachin Fell, high in the Maison Blanche
+building, at eight o'clock on Friday
+evening. Mr. Fell glanced up at him in surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hello, chief! What's up?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The officer gazed at him in some astonishment.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's up? Why, I came around to see
+you, of course!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell smiled whimsically. &quot;To see
+me? Well, chief, that's good of you; sit down
+and have a cigar, eh? What's the matter?
+You look rather taken aback.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I am,&quot; said the other, bluntly. &quot;Didn't
+you expect me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; said Jachin Fell, halting suddenly in
+the act of reaching for a cigar and turning his
+keen gaze upon the chief. &quot;Expect you?
+No!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page281" id="page281"></a>[pg&nbsp;281]</span>
+&quot;It's darned queer, then! That chap Gramont
+called me up about ten minutes ago and
+said to get around here as quick as I could
+make it, that you wanted to see me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Gramont!&quot; Jachin Fell frowned. &quot;Where's
+Ben Chacherre? Haven't you found him yet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nary a sign of him, chief.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The door opened, and Henry Gramont
+appeared, his right hand bandaged and in a
+sling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good evening, gentlemen!&quot; he said, smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Here's Gramont now,&quot; exclaimed Fell.
+&quot;Did you call the chief over here&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I sure did,&quot; and Gramont came forward.
+&quot;I wanted to see you two gentlemen together,
+and so arranged it. Miss Ledanois is to be
+here at nine, Fell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The little man nodded, his eyes intent upon
+Gramont. He noticed the bandaged arm.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes. Have you been hurt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Slightly.&quot; Gramont brought up a chair
+across the desk from Fell, and sat down. He
+put his left hand in his breast pocket, and
+brought forth a document which he handed to
+the chief of police. &quot;Cast your eye over that,
+chief, and say nothing. You're here to listen
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page282" id="page282"></a>[pg&nbsp;282]</span>
+for the present. Here's something to cover
+your case, Mr. Fell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont produced his automatic from the
+pocket of his coat, and laid it on the desk
+before him. There was a moment of startled
+silence. The officer, looking over the paper
+which Gramont had handed him, seemed to
+find it of sudden, intense interest.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What means all this mystery and melodramatic
+action, Gramont?&quot; demanded Jachin
+Fell, a slight sneer in his eyes, his voice quite
+toneless.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It means,&quot; said Gramont, regarding him
+steadily, &quot;that you're under arrest. I went
+out to the Gumberts place on Bayou Terrebonne
+this morning, arrested Memphis Izzy
+Gumberts and four other men engaged in operating
+a lottery, and also arrested two mechanics
+who were engaged in working on stolen cars.
+We took in, further, a gentleman by the name
+of Dick Hearne; a lesser member of the gang,
+who is now engaged in dictating a confession.
+Just a moment, chief! I prefer to do the talking
+at present.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The chief of police had been about to interfere.
+At this, however, he leaned back in his
+chair, tapping in his hand the paper which he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page283" id="page283"></a>[pg&nbsp;283]</span>
+had perused. He looked very much as though
+in danger from a stroke of apoplexy.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont smiled into the steady, unfaltering
+eyes of Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You are next on the programme,&quot; he said,
+evenly. &quot;We know that you are at the head
+of an organized gang, which is not only operating
+a lottery through this and adjacent states,
+but also is conducting an immense business in
+stolen automobiles. Therefore&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Just one minute, please,&quot; said Jachin Fell.
+&quot;Do you forget, Mr. Gramont, the affair of
+the Midnight Masquer? You are a very zealous
+citizen, I have no doubt, but&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I was about to add,&quot; struck in Gramont,
+&quot;that your pleasant friend Ben Chacherre is
+charged with the murder of the sheriff of
+Terrebonne Parish, in which I have clear
+evidence against him, having been present at the
+scene of the crime. He is also charged with
+the murder of Joseph Maillard&mdash;&mdash;-&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What!&quot; From both Fell and the officer
+broke an exclamation of undisguised amazement.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Quite true, I assure you,&quot; said Gramont.
+&quot;The evidence is, at least, a good deal clearer
+than the evidence against young Maillard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page284" id="page284"></a>[pg&nbsp;284]</span>
+&quot;My heavens!&quot; said Fell, staring. &quot;I
+never dreamed that Chacherre&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps you didn't.&quot; Gramont shrugged
+his shoulders. &quot;Neither did any one else. I
+imagine that Ben learned of this room and
+drinking party, and rightly decided that he
+could make a rich haul off a small crowd of
+drunken young sports. He had the costume
+stolen from my car, as you know, also the
+automatic which went with it. Two shots were
+missing from the automatic when we found it
+in Ben's possession; and you remember the
+Masquer fired twice at the time Maillard was
+killed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah! I always said young Maillard wasn't
+guilty!&quot; exclaimed the chief.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And your man Hammond&mdash;&mdash;&quot; began Fell.
+Gramont interposed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You thought you had Hammond sewed up
+tight, didn't you? To use the language of
+your favourite game, Fell, development is
+everything, and the player who gives up a pawn for
+the sake of development shows that he is
+possessed of the <i>idée grande</i>. You took the
+pawn, or thought you did&mdash;but I've taken
+the game!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In one way, Fell, I'm very sorry to arrest
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page285" id="page285"></a>[pg&nbsp;285]</span>
+you. It's going to hurt a mutual friend of
+ours. I realize that you've been trying very
+hard to be unselfish toward her, and I think
+that you've been perfectly sincere in this
+respect. Nonetheless, I've only one duty in
+the matter, and I propose to carry it through
+to the finish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell's keen eyes sparkled angrily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're a very zealous citizen, young man,&quot;
+he said, softly. &quot;I see that you've been hurt.
+I trust your little game did not result in casualties?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont nodded. &quot;Charlie the Goog went
+west. He was desperate, I fancy; at all events
+he got me in the arm, and I had to shoot him.
+Memphis Izzy hardly justified his tremendous
+reputation, for he yielded like a lamb.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So you killed the Goog, eh?&quot; said Fell.
+&quot;Very zealous, Mr. Gramont! And I suppose
+that the exigencies of the case justified you, a
+private citizen, in carrying arms and using
+them? Who aided you in this marvellous
+affair?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A number of friends from my post of the
+American Legion,&quot; said Gramont, evenly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah! This organization is going in for
+politics, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page286" id="page286"></a>[pg&nbsp;286]</span>
+&quot;Not for politics, Fell; for justice. I deputized
+them to assist me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Deputized!&quot; repeated Fell, slowly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Certainly.&quot; Gramont smiled. &quot;You see,
+this lottery business has been going on for
+a year or more. Some time ago, before I came
+to New Orleans, the governor of this state appointed
+me a special officer to investigate the
+matter. There is my commission, which the
+chief has been reading. It gives me a good
+deal of power, Fell; quite enough power to
+gather in you and your bunch.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I might add that I have secured an abundance
+of evidence to prove that the lottery
+gang, under your supervision, has extended its
+operations to adjacent states. This, as you
+are aware, brings the affair into Federal hands
+if necessary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The chief of police looked very uneasily from
+Gramont to Jachin Fell, and back again. Fell
+sat erect in his chair, staring at Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You were the original Midnight Masquer,&quot;
+said Fell in his toneless voice. At this direct
+charge, and at Gramont's assent, the chief
+started in surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes. One reason was that I suspected
+someone in society, someone high up in New
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page287" id="page287"></a>[pg&nbsp;287]</span>
+Orleans, to be connected with the gang; but I
+never dreamed that you were the man, Fell.
+I rather suspected young Maillard. I am now
+glad to say that I was entirely wrong. You
+were the big boss, Fell, and you're going to
+serve time for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell glanced at the chief, who cleared his
+throat as if about to speak. At this moment,
+however, a sharp knock sounded at the door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come!&quot; called Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A man entered. It was one of Gramont's
+deputies, who happened also to be a reporter
+from one of the morning papers of the city.
+He carried several sheets of paper which he
+laid before Gramont. He glanced at Fell, who
+recognized him and exchanged a nod of greeting,
+then returned his attention to Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah!&quot; said the latter with satisfaction, as he
+examined the papers. &quot;So Hearne has given
+up everything, has he? Does this confession
+implicate Mr. Fell, here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, rather,&quot; drawled the other, cheerfully.
+&quot;And see here, cap! There are two more of us
+in the crowd and we've arranged to split the
+story. We'd like to rush the stuff to our papers
+the minute you give the word, because&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know.&quot; Gramont returned the papers
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page288" id="page288"></a>[pg&nbsp;288]</span>
+that bore the confession of Hearne. &quot;You've
+made copies of this, of course? All right.
+Shoot the stuff in to your papers right away,
+if you wish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell raised a hand to check the other.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;One moment, please!&quot; he said, his eyes
+boring into the newspaper man. &quot;Will you
+also take a message from me to the editor of
+your newspaper&mdash;and see that it goes to the
+others as well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If Mr. Gramont permits, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Go ahead,&quot; said Gramont, wondering what
+Fell would try now. He soon learned.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then,&quot; pursued Fell, evenly, &quot;you will
+kindly inform the editors of your papers that,
+in case my name appears in connection with
+this matter, I shall immediately institute suit
+for libel. No matter what Mr. Gramont may
+say or do, I assure you fully that no publicity
+is going to attach to me in this matter.
+Neither, I may add, am I going to be arrested.
+That is all, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont smiled. &quot;Take the message if
+you see fit, by all means,&quot; he said, carelessly.
+&quot;You may also take my fullest assurance that
+within twenty minutes you will observe Mr.
+Fell safely in jail. That's all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page289" id="page289"></a>[pg&nbsp;289]</span>
+The newspaper man saluted and departed,
+grinning.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont leaned forward, the harsh lines of
+his face spelling determination as he looked at
+Jachin Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So you won't be arrested, eh? Let's see.
+I know that this gang of yours has influence
+running up into high places, and that this
+influence has power. The governor knows it
+also. That is why I was appointed to investigate
+this lottery game secretly, and in my own
+way. That is why, also, I brought the chief
+of police here to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He turned to the perturbed officer, and spoke
+coldly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Now, chief, you've seen my authority,
+you've heard my charges, and you know they
+will be proved up to the hilt. Dick Hearne
+gave up the names of most of the lottery gang
+and their confederates; my deputies already
+wired to their various places of operation for
+the purpose of securing their arrest. We'll
+make a clean sweep.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The same may be said of the automobile
+gang, although we will probably miss a few of
+the smaller fry. What other forms of criminality
+the organization may be engaged in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page290" id="page290"></a>[pg&nbsp;290]</span>
+I can't say at this moment; but we have
+secured quite enough evidence. Are you willing
+to arrest Jachin Fell, or not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The chief cleared his throat.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, Mr. Gramont,&quot; he observed, nervously,
+&quot;about the rest of the gang, we'll take
+care of 'em, sure! But it's different with Mr.
+Fell here. He's a friend of the senator&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Different, hell!&quot; snapped Gramont, angrily.
+&quot;He's a criminal, no matter who his friends
+may be, and I have the proof of it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, that may be so,&quot; admitted the chief
+of police. &quot;But this thing is goin' to raise
+one hell of a scandal, all up and down the state!
+You know that as well as I do. Now, if I was
+you, I'd act kind of slow&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont smiled bitterly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps you would, chief. In fact, I don't
+doubt that you would. But you are not <i>me</i>.
+Now, as a duly-appointed officer acting under
+authority of the governor of the state, I call
+upon you to arrest this criminal, and I make
+you duly responsible for his safe-keeping. Do
+you dare refuse?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The chief hesitated. He looked at Fell for
+help, but none came. Fell seemed to be rather
+amused by the situation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page291" id="page291"></a>[pg&nbsp;291]</span>
+&quot;Well,&quot; said the chief, &quot;I ain't seen the
+evidence yet&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll show you some evidence of another
+kind, chief,&quot; said Gramont, sternly quiet.
+&quot;Outside the door, here, there are two men
+who will obey my orders and my authority.
+If you dare refuse to do your duty you will
+yourself be taken from this room under arrest,
+on a John Doe warrant which is already prepared
+and waiting; and you will be charged
+with being an accomplice of this gang. Now
+choose, and choose quickly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont leaned back in his chair. The purpling
+features of the chief were streaming with
+perspiration; the man was in a frightful dilemma,
+and his plight was pitiable. At this
+instant Jachin Fell interposed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Let me speak, please,&quot; he said, gently.
+&quot;My dear Mr. Gramont, it has just occurred
+to me that there may be a compromise&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm not compromising,&quot; snapped Gramont.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Certainly not; I speak of our mutual friend
+here,&quot; and Fell indicated the chief with a
+bland gesture. &quot;I believe that Judge Forester
+of this city is at present consulting with the
+governor at Baton Rouge on political matters.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page292" id="page292"></a>[pg&nbsp;292]</span>
+With them, also, is Senator Flaxman, who
+has come from Washington on the same errand.
+Now, it would be a very simple matter to end
+all this anxiety. Suppose that you call up the
+governor on long distance, from this telephone,
+and get his assurance that I am not to be arrested.
+Then you'll be convinced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont laughed with deep anger.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You gangsters are all alike!&quot; he said, turning
+to the desk telephone. &quot;You think that
+because you have planted your slimy tentacles
+in high places you can do anything with absolute
+impunity. But the governor of this state
+is not in your clutches.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He's a man, by heaven! I have his assurance
+that he'll prosecute to the limit whoever
+is behind this criminal gang&mdash;and he keeps his
+word! Don't think that if your friend the
+senator is with him, you will be saved. I'll call
+him, if only to show the chief, here, that influence
+is not going to count in this game.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont took down the receiver, called long
+distance, and put in a hurried call for the
+executive mansion, asking for the governor in
+person.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So you think that he's immune from influence,
+do you?&quot; Jachin Fell smiled patronizingly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page293" id="page293"></a>[pg&nbsp;293]</span>
+and lighted a fresh cigar. The chief of
+police was mopping his brow.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My dear Gramont, you exhibit a youthful
+confidence in human nature! Let me topple
+your clay-footed idol from its pedestal in a
+hurry. Mention to the governor that you
+have me under arrest, and that I have asked
+him to speak with Judge Forester and Senator
+Flaxman before confirming the arrest. I'll
+wager you five hundred dollars&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The smile in Fell's pale eyes drove Gramont
+into a cold fury of rage.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You devil! So your damnable influence
+goes as far as those two men, does it&mdash;those
+men who are respected above all others in this
+city? By the lord, I'll call your bluff! I know
+the governor, and I know he doesn't give a
+damn for all the dirty crooks and slimy politicians on earth!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What sublime faith!&quot; laughed Fell, softly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The telephone rang sharply. Taunted almost
+beyond endurance, Gramont seized the
+instrument and made answer. In a moment
+he had the governor on the wire. His gaze
+went exultantly to Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Governor, this is Henry Gramont speaking,&quot;
+he said. &quot;I've just succeeded in my
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page294" id="page294"></a>[pg&nbsp;294]</span>
+work, as I wired you this afternoon&mdash;no, hold
+on a minute! This is important.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The head of the entire gang is a man here
+in New Orleans by the name of Jachin Fell.
+Yes, Fell. I find it very hard to get him arrested.
+Fell boasts that his influence is superior
+to any that I can bring to bear. He
+asks that you speak with Judge Forester and
+Senator Flaxman before confirming the arrest,
+and boasts that you will order me to keep hands
+off.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Speak with them, governor! If they're in
+the gang, too, don't you worry. You confirm
+this arrest, and I'll put Fell behind the bars if
+I have to turn all New Orleans inside out.
+Go ahead! I know that you can't be reached
+by any of these crooks&mdash;I'm merely calling
+Fell's bluff. We have the chief of police here,
+and he's sweating. Eh? Sure. Take as long
+as you like, governor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He smiled grimly at Jachin Fell as he
+waited. Two minutes passed&mdash;three&mdash;four.
+Then he heard the voice of the governor again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't arrest him, Gramont.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What?&quot; Gramont gasped.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't touch him, I said! Get in all the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page295" id="page295"></a>[pg&nbsp;295]</span>
+others, no matter who they are, but leave Fell
+alone&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You damned coward!&quot; shouted Gramont,
+in a heat of fury. &quot;So this is the way you keep
+your promises, is it? And I thought you were
+above all influences&mdash;real American! You're
+a hell of a governor&mdash;oh, I don't want to hear
+any more from you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He jerked up the receiver.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a moment of dead silence in the
+room. The chief mopped his brow, in evident
+relief. Jachin Fell sat back in his chair and
+scrutinized Gramont with his thin-lipped smile.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont sat helpless, wrung by chagrin,
+rage, and impotency. There was nothing he
+could say, nothing he could do. The man
+behind him had failed him. The entire power
+of the state, which had been behind him, had
+failed him. There was no higher power to
+which he could appeal, except the power of the
+Federal Government. His head jerked up
+sharply.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Fell, I've got the evidence on you, and I've
+got the evidence to put this lottery business
+into Federal hands. Boys! Come in here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At his shout the door opened and two of his
+men entered. Gramont looked at the chief.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page296" id="page296"></a>[pg&nbsp;296]</span>
+&quot;You're willing to take care of all the rest
+of the gang, chief?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sure,&quot; assented the officer, promptly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All right. Boys, turn over the whole
+crowd to the chief, and I'll trust you to see
+that they're properly booked and jailed. Turn
+over all the evidence likewise, except that
+mail sack. Have that brought up here, to
+this room, and see that the corridor outside is
+kept guarded. Get me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The two saluted. &quot;Yes, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good. Send to the Federal building, find
+out where there's an agent of the Department
+of Justice, and get him here. Have him here
+inside of fifteen minutes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell smiled. &quot;I can save you time, gentlemen.
+The agent in charge of this district
+will probably be home at this hour. I can
+give you his address&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He did so. In the pale eyes Gramont read
+an imperturbable challenge. The effrontery
+of the man appalled him. He turned to his
+men.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Confirm fully that he <i>is</i> the agent before
+you get him,&quot; he ordered, curtly. &quot;Have him
+bring one of his deputy agents likewise, to
+meet you here. That's all, chief, if you'll go
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page297" id="page297"></a>[pg&nbsp;297]</span>
+along with these men, you'll be put in charge
+of our prisoners and evidence. I've left a
+guard at the Gumberts place at Terrebonne,
+and I'd suggest that you go through the residence
+of Gumberts here in town. You might
+find evidence. That's all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The chief departed without a word. It was
+obvious that he was mighty glad to be gone.
+Gramont and Fell were left alone together.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My dear Gramont, your devotion to
+duty is Roman in spirit,&quot; said Jachin Fell,
+lightly. &quot;I really regret that circumstances
+so conspire to defeat you! Why can't you
+be satisfied with bagging so many other
+victims? You can't bag me&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Can't I?&quot; said Gramont, taking a cigar
+and biting at it. He was cooler now. &quot;By
+heavens, Fell, there's one thing in this country
+that you and no other man can reach with any
+influence, political bribery, or crooked connections&mdash;and
+that's the Government of the
+United States! You can reach judges and
+senators and governors, but you can't reach
+the unknown and humble men who carry the
+badge of the Department of Justice!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell made a slight gesture.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Human nature, my dear Gramont. It is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page298" id="page298"></a>[pg&nbsp;298]</span>
+quite true that I have not established this
+gang of criminals, as you call them, without
+taking proper precautions. Memphis Izzy,
+for instance, has influence that reaches far
+and wide. So have I. So have others in the
+party. I give you my assurance that your
+Department of Justice man will not arrest
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont paled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If&mdash;&mdash;&quot; He choked on the word, then
+touched the automatic on the desk before
+him. &quot;If he won't, Jachin Fell, I'll put a
+bullet through you myself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For the first time the pale eyes of Jachin
+Fell looked slightly troubled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You'll hang if you do,&quot; he said, gently.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll be damned if I don't!&quot; snapped
+Gramont, and put the weapon in his lap.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page299" id="page299"></a>[pg&nbsp;299]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>The Impregnability of Mr. Fell</i></p>
+
+<p>JACHIN FELL glanced at his watch.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Lucie will be here at any minute
+now,&quot; he observed. &quot;I suppose your
+sense of duty will force you to disclose everything
+to her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont merely nodded, tight-lipped. A
+knock at the door, and one of his men entered
+with the sack of mail they had taken as evidence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A lady is coming here at any moment,&quot;
+said Gramont. &quot;Allow her to enter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The other saluted and departed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A sense of duty is a terrible thing,&quot; and
+Jachin Fell sighed. &quot;What about the oil
+company? Are you going to let Miss Ledanois'
+fortunes go to wrack and ruin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Better that,&quot; said Gramont, &quot;than to
+have her profit come through criminal money
+and means. She'd be the first to say so,
+herself. But I'll tell you this: I'm convinced
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page300" id="page300"></a>[pg&nbsp;300]</span>
+that there is oil under the land of
+hers! If she'll agree, I'll put up what money
+I have against her land; we'll be able to have
+one well drilled at least, on the chance!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If it's dry,&quot; said Fell, &quot;you'll be broke.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can always get work,&quot; and Gramont
+laughed harshly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell regarded him in silence a moment.
+Then: &quot;I think Lucie loves you, Gramont.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A trembling seized Gramont; a furious
+impulse to shoot the man down as he sat.
+Did he have the baseness to try and save
+himself through Lucie? Something of his
+stifled anger must have shone in his eyes, for
+Jachin Fell laid down his cigar and continued
+quickly:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't misunderstand. I say that I think
+she cares for you; it is merely surmise on my
+part. Lucie is one person for whom I'd do
+anything. I stand and have stood in the
+place of a parent to her. She is very dear to
+me. I have a special reason for intruding on
+your personal affairs in this manner, and
+some right to ask you in regard to your
+intentions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't recognize any right whatever on
+your part,&quot; said Gramont, steadily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page301" id="page301"></a>[pg&nbsp;301]</span>
+Fell smiled. &quot;Ah! Then you are in love.
+Well, youth must be served!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'd like to know one thing,&quot; struck in
+Gramont. &quot;That is, why you were so cursed
+anxious to get something on my man Hammond!
+And why you held the Midnight
+Masquer affair over me as a threat. Did you
+suspect my business?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell threw back his head and laughed in
+a hearty amusement that was quite unrestrained.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That,&quot; he responded, &quot;is really humorous!
+Do you know, I honestly thought
+you a fortune-hunter from Europe? When
+I suspected you of being the Midnight
+Masquer, and afterward, I was convinced
+that you, and very likely Hammond as well,
+were very clever swindlers of some kind.
+There, I confess, I made a grave error. My
+friend Gumberts never forgets faces, and he
+said to me, one day, that Hammond's face
+was vaguely familiar to him, but he could not
+place the man. That led me to think&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah!&quot; exclaimed Gramont. &quot;Gumberts
+saw Hammond years ago, when he was
+escaping from the law&mdash;and to think he remembered!
+Hammond told me about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page302" id="page302"></a>[pg&nbsp;302]</span>
+&quot;That's why I wanted you and Hammond
+in my gang,&quot; said Fell. &quot;I thought it would
+be very well to get you into the organization
+for my own purposes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Thanks,&quot; answered Gramont, drily. &quot;I
+got in, didn't I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Without a knock the door opened and
+Lucie Ledanois entered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good evening, stockholders!&quot; she exclaimed.
+&quot;Do you know there's a crowd
+down in the street&mdash;policemen and automobiles
+and a lot of excitement?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Allow me,&quot; said Gramont, taking her
+coat and placing a chair for her. &quot;Oh, yes,
+we've had quite a strenuous evening, Miss
+Ledanois.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your hand! Why, what has happened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;One of Mr. Fell's friends tried to shoot
+me. Will you sit down, please? You remember
+that I warned you regarding a
+shock that would come; and now I must
+explain.&quot; Gramont gravely handed her his
+commission from the governor, and resumed
+his seat. &quot;When I say that I have come
+here, not to attend a meeting of our oil
+company, but to arrest Mr. Fell, you will
+understand. I am very sorry, Lucie, to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page303" id="page303"></a>[pg&nbsp;303]</span>
+have to tell you all this, for I know your
+attachment to him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Arrest&mdash;you, Uncle Jachin?&quot; The girl
+glanced from the paper to Fell, who nodded.
+&quot;And you, Henry&mdash;a special officer of the
+governor's? Why&mdash;this isn't a joke of some
+kind?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;None whatever, my dear,&quot; said Fell,
+quietly. &quot;Mr. Gramont is to be congratulated.
+He has discovered that I was
+the head of a large organization of criminals.
+He has there, under the table, a sack of mail
+which proves that my organization was conducting
+a lottery throughout several states;
+we are now expecting the arrival of Federal
+agents, to whom Gramont intends to turn
+me over as a prisoner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh!&quot; The girl stared at him, wide-eyed.
+Her voice broke. &quot;It&mdash;it can't be
+true&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It is quite true, my dear,&quot; and Jachin
+Fell smiled. &quot;But don't let it distress you in
+the least, I beg. Here, if I mistake not, are
+your Department of Justice friends, Gramont.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A knock at the door, and it opened to admit
+one of Gramont's men.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page304" id="page304"></a>[pg&nbsp;304]</span>
+&quot;Here they are, sir&mdash;the chief agent and a
+deputy. Shall I let them in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont nodded. Two men entered the
+room, and Gramont dismissed his own man
+with a gesture. He saw that the agents
+both nodded to Fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you gentlemen know this man?&quot; he
+demanded, rising.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; said one of them, regarding him
+keenly. &quot;Who sent for us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I did.&quot; Gramont gave his name, and
+handed them his commission. &quot;I have been
+investigating a lottery which has been conducted
+in this state for a long time by an
+organization of very clever criminals. Jachin
+Fell is the man at the head of this organization.
+To-day I rounded up the entire gang,
+and procured all the evidence necessary.
+Under that table is a sack of mail proving
+that the lottery has been extended to other
+states, and that part of its operations have
+been conducted by means of the United
+States mails.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The lesser members of the gang are in
+custody. The police department will not
+arrest this man Fell; his influence and that of
+his gang is extensive in political fields and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page305" id="page305"></a>[pg&nbsp;305]</span>
+elsewhere. I have called up the governor,
+and have been told not to arrest him. I have
+disregarded these facts, and I now call upon
+you to hold him in custody as a Federal
+prisoner. He has boasted to me that you
+will not touch him&mdash;and if you don't, there's
+going to be a shakeup that will make history!
+Now go to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The chief agent laid Gramont's commission
+on the table and looked at Jachin Fell. For
+an instant there was a dead silence. Then,
+when the Federal man spoke, Gramont was
+paralyzed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm very sorry, Mr. Gramont, to have to
+refuse&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What!&quot; cried Gramont, incredulously.
+&quot;Do you dare stand there and&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;One moment please,&quot; said Fell, his quiet
+voice breaking in. &quot;It is quite true that I
+have organized all the criminals possible,
+Mr. Gramont, and have put the underground
+lottery into a systematized form. I have
+done this by the authority of the United
+States, in order to apprehend Memphis Izzy
+Gumberts and other men at one crack.
+These gentlemen will tell you that I am a
+special agent of the Department of Justice,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page306" id="page306"></a>[pg&nbsp;306]</span>
+employed in that capacity through the efforts
+of Judge Forester and Senator Flaxman. I
+regret that this had to be held so secret that
+not even the governor himself was aware
+of it until this evening. The conflict was
+quite unavoidable. Not a member of that
+gang must become aware of my real identity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Fell turned to the two agents, who were
+smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I would suggest that you take this sack
+of mail, and arrange with the chief of police
+in regard to the prisoners,&quot; he said.
+&quot;The chief, of course, must suspect nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont sank into his chair, the automatic
+dropping from his hand. He was suddenly
+dazed, thunderstruck. Yet he had to believe.
+He was dimly aware that Lucie had gone to
+Jachin Fell, her arms about his neck. He
+stared from unseeing eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Realization smote him like a blow, numbing
+his brain. He saw now why the governor
+had conferred with Judge Forester and the
+senator, why he had been ordered off the
+trail. He saw now why Fell had preserved
+secrecy so great that even to the chief of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page307" id="page307"></a>[pg&nbsp;307]</span>
+police his impregnable position was supposedly
+due to influence higher up.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He saw how Fell must have been working
+month after month, silently and terribly, to
+form one compact organization of the most
+talented criminals within reach&mdash;headed by
+Memphis Izzy, the man who had laughed at
+the government for years! And he saw himself,
+furious, raging like a madman&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont dropped his head into his hands.
+The pain of his forgotten wounded arm
+stabbed him like a knife. He jerked his head
+sharply up, and was aware that the agents
+had departed. He was alone with Lucie and
+Fell, and the latter was rising and holding
+out his hand, smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Gramont, you got ahead of me in this
+deal, and I congratulate you with all my
+heart!&quot; said Fell, earnestly. &quot;Neither of us
+suspected the part played by the other man;
+but you've done the work and done it well.
+Will you shake hands?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Gramont confusedly took the hand extended
+to him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've been a fool,&quot; he said, slowly. &quot;I
+might have guessed that something unusual
+was&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page308" id="page308"></a>[pg&nbsp;308]</span>
+&quot;No; how could you guess?&quot; said Fell.
+&quot;There are three men in Baton Rouge who
+know the truth, and three persons in this
+room. That's all, outside of the regular
+government men. I had not told even Lucie,
+here! I dared not. And I dare say nothing
+even now. To the underworld at large
+I will be known as the crook whom not
+even the government could touch; in days
+to come I may be of untold service to my
+country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm so glad!&quot; Lucie took Gramont's
+hand as Jachin Fell dropped it, and Gramont
+looked down to meet her brimming eyes.
+&quot;For a moment I thought that all the world
+had gone mad&mdash;but now&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell regarded them for an instant,
+then he quietly went to the door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If you will excuse me one moment,&quot; he
+said, &quot;I shall speak with your men who are
+on guard, Gramont. I&mdash;ah&mdash;I will be back
+in a moment, as Eliza said when she crossed
+the ice; and we may then discuss business.
+If you agree, I think that your company
+may proceed upon the original lines, and
+we shall set to work drilling for oil without
+delay&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page309" id="page309"></a>[pg&nbsp;309]</span>
+Gramont scarcely heard the words, nor did
+he hear the door close. He was still looking
+into the eyes of Lucie Ledanois, and wondering
+if the message they held were really
+meant for him.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page310" id="page310"></a>[pg&nbsp;310]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<p class="h2a"><i>Mi-Carême</i></p>
+
+<p>A NAMELESS gentleman from the
+effete North was enjoying for the first
+time the privileges of a guest card at
+the Chess and Checkers. In a somewhat perplexed
+manner he approached the secretary's
+desk and obtained a cigar. Then he paused,
+listening to the sounds of revelry which
+filled the club, and which came roaring in
+from the city streets outside.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Say!&quot; he addressed the secretary.
+&quot;What's this Mi-Carême I've been reading
+about in the papers, anyhow? I thought
+everything was tight as a clam down here
+after Mardi Gras! It's still the Lenten season,
+isn't it? Mardi Gras doesn't come more than
+once a year? Then what's all the celebration
+about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The secretary smiled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Certainly, sir, it's still Lent. But the
+French people have what they call Mi-Carême,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page311" id="page311"></a>[pg&nbsp;311]</span>
+or Mid-Lent, and they certainly
+give it a big celebration! You see, it's a
+night halfway through Lent, when they can
+enjoy themselves to the limit&mdash;let off steam,
+as it were. We're having several dinner
+parties here in the club to-night, for the
+occasion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A slightly built little man, who had much
+the air of a shy clerk&mdash;had it not been for his
+evening attire&mdash;approached the desk. He
+signed a check for a handful of cigars, which
+he stowed away.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Please provide a fresh box of the El Reys
+later,&quot; he said to the secretary. &quot;Most of
+my party is here, I believe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll send them up, Mr. Fell,&quot; answered
+the secretary, quickly. &quot;Yes, I think the
+dining room is all ready for you, sir. By
+the way, Mr. Gramont was looking for
+you a moment ago&mdash;ah! Here he comes
+now!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jachin Fell turned. Gramont was plunging
+at him, a yellow telegraph form in his
+hand, excitement in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Look here, Jachin! This wire just came
+in from Hammond&mdash;you know, I left him in
+charge of things down at Bayou Terrebonne!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page312" id="page312"></a>[pg&nbsp;312]</span>
+Read it, man&mdash;read it! They've struck oil-sands
+at five hundred feet&mdash;and sands at
+five hundred, with these indications, mean
+a gusher at a thousand! Where's Lucie?
+Have you brought her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She's upstairs. Well, well!&quot; Jachin Fell
+glanced at the telegram, and returned it.
+&quot;So oil is actually found! This is certainly
+going to be one big night, as Eliza said when
+she crossed the ice! Come along. Let's
+find Lucie and tell her about it&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The two men turned away together.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After them gazed the man from the North,
+not a little agape over what he had chanced to
+hear. Before the wondering questions in his
+eyes the assiduous secretary made haste to
+enlighten him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's Mr. Gramont, sir. They say that
+he used to be a real prince, over in France, and
+that he threw it up because he wanted to be
+an American. Mr. Fell is having a dinner
+upstairs&mdash;it's Mr. Gramont's engagement,
+you know&mdash;and the Mi-Carême ball afterward&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I know, I know,&quot; and the man
+from the North sighed a little. &quot;I was
+reading all about that in the paper. Fell
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page313" id="page313"></a>[pg&nbsp;313]</span>
+is one of the crack chess players here, isn't
+he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The secretary smiled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, he plays a very fair game, sir&mdash;a
+very fair game indeed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="center">    THE END</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 196px;"> <img src="images/illus-endpage.png" width="196" height="206" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<p class="center">THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS<br/>
+GARDEN CITY, N. Y.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="tnote">
+<h2>Transcriber Notes:</h2>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="indent">Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of
+the speakers. Those words were retained as-is.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
+unless otherwise noted. For instance, scarfpins was sometimes hyphenated
+and some times not.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 49, a quotation mark was placed after &quot;You'd try blackmail, would you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 99, &quot;hundered&quot; was replaced with &quot;hundred&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 124, &quot;geting&quot; was replaced with &quot;getting&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 156, &quot;asurance&quot; was replaced with &quot;assurance&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 156, &quot;he&quot; was replaced with &quot;be&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 296, &quot;I am not be arrested.&quot; was replaced with &quot;I am not to be arrested.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mardi Gras Mystery, by H. Bedford-Jones
+
+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
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+
+
+Title: The Mardi Gras Mystery
+
+Author: H. Bedford-Jones
+
+Illustrator: John Newton Howitt
+
+Release Date: March 22, 2012 [EBook #39229]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARDI GRAS MYSTERY ***
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+
+
+
+Produced by Darleen Dove, Ernest Schaal, and the Online
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+
+                             THE MARDI GRAS
+                                MYSTERY
+
+
+
+
+                                BOOKS BY
+                            H. BEDFORD-JONES
+
+
+                        CONQUEST
+
+                        CROSS AND THE HAMMER: A
+                          TALE OF THE DAYS OF THE
+                          VIKINGS
+
+                        FLAMEHAIR THE SKALD: A
+                          TALE OF THE DAYS OF
+                          HARDREDE
+                        GOLDEN GHOST
+
+                        THE MESA TRAIL
+
+                        THE MARDI GRAS MYSTERY
+
+                        UNDER FIRE
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_'You frightened me, holy man!' she cried gaily.
+'Confess to you, indeed! Not I.'_"]
+
+
+
+
+                             THE MARDI GRAS
+                                 MYSTERY
+
+                                   BY
+                            H. BEDFORD-JONES
+
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+
+                              FRONTISPIECE
+                                   BY
+                           JOHN NEWTON HOWITT
+
+
+                    GARDEN CITY, N. Y., AND TORONTO
+                       DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+                                  1921
+
+
+
+
+                        COPYRIGHT, 1920, 1921, BY
+                        DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+           ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
+           INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                                     PAGE
+
+       I. CARNIVAL                                                 3
+
+      II. MASQUERS                                                21
+
+     III. THE BANDIT                                              38
+
+      IV. CALLERS                                                 58
+
+       V. THE MASQUER UNMASKS                                     82
+
+      VI. CHACHERRE                                              107
+
+     VII. IN THE OPEN                                            125
+
+    VIII. COMUS                                                  143
+
+      IX. ON THE BAYOU                                           169
+
+       X. MURDER                                                 190
+
+      XI. THE GANGSTERS                                          209
+
+     XII. THE ULTIMATUM                                          228
+
+    XIII. THE COIN FALLS HEADS                                   249
+
+     XIV. CHACHERRE'S BUNDLE                                     262
+
+      XV. WHEN THE HEAVENS FALL                                  280
+
+     XVI. THE IMPREGNABILITY OF MR. FELL                         299
+
+    XVII. MI-CAREME                                              310
+
+
+
+
+                             THE MARDI GRAS
+                                MYSTERY
+
+
+
+
+                         THE MARDI GRAS MYSTERY
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+                               _Carnival_
+
+
+Jachin Fell pushed aside the glass curtains between the voluminous
+over-draperies in the windows of the Chess and Checkers Club, and gazed
+out upon the riotous streets of New Orleans. Half an hour he had been
+waiting here in the lounge room for Dr. Cyril Ansley, a middle-aged
+bachelor who had practised in Opelousas for twenty years, and who had
+come to the city for the Mardi Gras festivities. Another man might have
+seemed irritated by the wait, but Jachin Fell was quite unruffled.
+
+He had much the air of a clerk. His features were thin and unremarkable;
+his pale eyes constantly wore an expression of wondering aloofness, as
+though he saw around him much that he vainly tried to understand. In his
+entire manner was a shy reticence. He was no clerk, however, this was
+evident from his attire. He was garbed from head to foot in soberly
+blending shades of gray whose richness was notable only at close view.
+One fancied him a very precise sort of man, an old maid of the wrong
+sex.
+
+Doctor Ansley, an Inverness flung over his evening clothes, entered the
+lounge room, and Fell turned to him with a dry, toneless chuckle.
+
+"You're the limit! Did you forget we were going to the Maillards'
+to-night?"
+
+Ansley appeared vexed and irritated. "Confound it, Fell!" he exclaimed.
+"I've been all over town looking for El Reys. Caught in a crowd--no El
+Reys yet!"
+
+Again Fell uttered his toneless chuckle. His voice was absolutely level,
+unmarked by any change of inflection.
+
+"My dear fellow, there are only three places in the city that can afford
+to carry El Reys in these parlous times! This club, however, happens to
+be one of the three. Here, sit down and forget your troubles over a real
+smoke! We need not leave for fifteen minutes yet, at least."
+
+Doctor Ansley laid aside his cape, stick, and hat, and dropped into one
+of the comfortable big chairs. He accepted the proffered cigar with a
+sigh. Across his knees he laid an evening paper, whose flaring headlines
+proclaimed an extra.
+
+"I suppose you've been gadding all around the town ever since the
+Revellers opened the season?" he inquired.
+
+"Hardly," said Fell with his shy air. "I'm growing a bit stiff with age,
+as Eliza said when she crossed the ice. I don't gad much."
+
+"You intend to mask for the Maillards'?" Ansley cast his eye over the
+gray business attire of the little man.
+
+"I never mask." Jachin Fell shook his head. "I'll get a domino and go as
+I am. Excuse me--I'll order a domino now, and also provide a few more El
+Reys for the evening. Back in a moment."
+
+Doctor Ansley, who was himself a non-resident member of the club and
+socially prominent when he could grant himself leisure for society,
+followed the slight figure of the other man with speculative eyes. Well
+as he knew Jachin Fell, he invariably found the man a source of puzzled
+speculation.
+
+During many years Jachin Fell had been a member of the most exclusive
+New Orleans clubs. He was even received in the inner circles of Creole
+society, which in itself was evidence supreme as to his position. At
+this particular club he was famed as a wizard master of chess. He never
+entered a tournament, yet he consistently defeated the champions in
+private matches--defeated them with a bewildering ease, a shy and
+apologetic ease, an ease which left the beholders incredulous and
+aghast.
+
+With all this, Jachin Fell was very much of a mystery, even among his
+closest friends. Very little was known of him; he was inconspicuous to a
+degree, and it was usually assumed that he was something of a recluse,
+the result of a thwarted love affair in his youth. He was a lawyer, and
+certainly maintained offices in the Maison Blanche building, but he
+never appeared in the courts and no case of his pleading was known.
+
+It was said that he lived in the rebuilt casa of some old Spanish
+grandee in the Vieux Carre, and that this residence of his was a
+veritable treasure-trove of historic and beautiful things. This was mere
+rumour, adding a spice of romance to the general mystery. Ansley knew
+him as well as did most men, and Ansley knew of a few who could boast of
+having been a guest in Jachin Fell's home. There was a mother, an
+invalid of whom Fell sometimes spoke and to whom he appeared to devote
+himself. The family, an old one in the city, promised to die out with
+Jachin Fell.
+
+Ansley puffed at his cigar and considered these things. Outside, in the
+New Orleans streets, was rocketing the mad mirth of carnival. The week
+preceding Mardi Gras was at its close. Since the beginning of the new
+year the festival had been celebrated in a steadily climaxing series of
+balls and entertainments, largely by the older families who kept to the
+old customs, and to a smaller extent by society at large. Now the final
+week was at hand, or rather the final three days--the period of the
+great balls, the period when tourists were flooding into town; for
+tourists, the whole time of Mardi Gras was comprised within these three
+days. Despite agonized predictions, prohibition had not adversely
+affected Mardi Gras or the gaiety of its celebration.
+
+Now, as ever, was Mardi Gras symbolized by masques. In New Orleans the
+masquerade was not the pale and pitiful frolic of colder climes, where
+the occasion is but one for display of jewels and costumes, and where
+actual concealment of identity is a farce. Here in New Orleans were
+jewels and costumes in a profusion of splendour; but here was preserved
+the underlying idea of the masque itself--that in concealment of
+identity lay the life of the thing! Masquers swept the streets gaily; if
+harlequin husband flirted with domino wife--why, so much the merrier!
+There was little harm in the Latin masque, and great mirth.
+
+When Jachin Fell returned and lighted his cigar he sank into one of the
+luxurious chairs beside Ansley and indicated the newspaper lying across
+the latter's knee, its flaring headlines standing out blackly.
+
+"What's that about the Midnight Masquer? He's not appeared again?"
+
+"What?" Ansley glanced at him in surprise. "You've not heard?"
+
+Fell shook his head. "I seldom read the papers."
+
+"Good heavens, man! He showed up last night at the Lapeyrouse dance, two
+minutes before midnight, as usual! A detective had been engaged, but was
+afterward found locked in a closet, bound with his own handcuffs. The
+Masquer wore his usual costume--and went through the party famously,
+stripping everyone in sight. Then he backed through the doors and
+vanished. How he got in they can't imagine; where he went they can't
+imagine, unless it was by airplane. He simply appeared, then vanished!"
+
+Fell settled deeper into his chair, pointed his cigar at the ceiling,
+and sighed.
+
+"Ah, most interesting! The loot was valued at about a hundred thousand?"
+
+"I thought you said you'd not heard of it?" demanded Ansley.
+
+Fell laughed softly and shyly. "I didn't. I merely hazarded a guess."
+
+"Wizard!" The doctor laughed in unison. "Yes, about that amount.
+Exaggerated, of course; still, there were jewels of great value----"
+
+"The Masquer is a piker," observed Fell, in his toneless voice.
+
+"Eh? A piker--when he can make a hundred-thousand-dollar haul?"
+
+"Don't dream that those figures represent value, Doctor. They don't! All
+the loot the Masquer has taken since he began work is worth little to
+him. Jewels are hard to sell. This game of banditry is romantic, but
+it's out of date these days. Of course, the crook has obtained a bit of
+money, but not enough to be worth the risk."
+
+"Yet he has got quite a bit," returned Ansley, thoughtfully. "All the
+men have money, naturally; we don't want to find ourselves bare at some
+gay carnival moment! I'll warrant you've a hundred or so in your pocket
+right now!"
+
+"Not I," rejoined Fell, calmly. "One ten-dollar bill. Also I left my
+watch at home. And I'm not dressed; I don't care to lose my pearl
+studs."
+
+"Eh?" Ansley frowned. "What do you mean?"
+
+Jachin Fell took a folded paper from his pocket and handed it to the
+physician.
+
+"I met Maillard at the bank this morning. He called me into his office
+and handed me this--he had just received it in the mail."
+
+Doctor Ansley opened the folded paper; an exclamation broke from him as
+he read the note, which was addressed to their host of the evening.
+
+    JOSEPH MAILLARD, President,
+        Exeter National Bank, City.
+
+    I thank you for the masque you are giving to-night. I shall be
+    present. Please see that Mrs. M. wears her diamonds--I need
+    them.
+
+                                           THE MIDNIGHT MASQUER.
+
+Ansley glanced up. "What's this--some hoax? Some carnival jest?"
+
+"Maillard pretended to think so." Fell shrugged his shoulders as he
+repocketed the note. "But he was nervous. He was afraid of being laughed
+at, and wouldn't go to the police. But he'll have a brace of detectives
+inside the house to-night, and others outside."
+
+Ever since the first ball of the year by the Twelfth Night Club this
+Midnight Masquer, as he was termed, had held New Orleans gripped in
+terror, fascination, and vivid interest. Until a month previous to this
+week of Mardi Gras he had operated rarely; he had robbed with a stark
+and inelegant forcefulness, a brutality. Suddenly his methods
+changed--he appeared and transacted his business with a romantic
+courtesy, a daredevil gaiety; his robberies became bizarre and
+extraordinary.
+
+During the past month he appeared at least once a week, now at some
+private ball, now at some restaurant banquet, but always in the same
+garb: the helmet, huge goggles and mask, and leathern clothes of a
+service aviator. On these occasions the throbbing roar of an airplane
+motor had been reported so that it was popular gossip that he landed on
+the roof of his designated victims and made his getaway in the same
+manner--by airplane. No machine had ever been seen, and the theory was
+believed by some, hooted at by others.
+
+The police were helpless. The Midnight Masquer laughed openly at them
+and conducted his depredations with brazen unconcern, appearing where he
+was least expected. The anti-administration papers were clamouring about
+a "crime wave" and "organization of crooks," but without any visible
+basis for such clamours. The Midnight Masquer worked alone.
+
+Doctor Ansley glanced at his watch, and deposited his cigar in an ash
+tray.
+
+"We'd best be moving, Fell. You'll want a domino?"
+
+"I ordered one when I got my cigars. It'll be here in a minute."
+
+"Do you seriously think that note is genuine?"
+
+Fell shrugged lightly. "Who knows? I'm not worried. Maillard can afford
+to be robbed. It will be interesting to see how he takes it if the
+fellow does show up."
+
+"You're a calm one!" Ansley chuckled. "Oh, I believe the prince is to be
+there to-night. You've met him, I suppose?"
+
+"No. I've had a rush of business lately, as Eliza said when she crossed
+the ice: haven't gone out much. Heard something about him, though. An
+American, isn't he? They say he's become quite popular in town."
+
+Ansley nodded. "Quite a fine chap. His mother was an American--she
+married the Prince de Gramont; an international affair of the past
+generation. De Gramont led her a dog's life, I hear, until he was killed
+in a duel. She lived in Paris with the boy, sent him to school here at
+home, and he was at Yale when the war broke. He was technically a French
+subject, so he went back to serve his time.
+
+"Still, he's an American now. Calls himself Henry Gramont, and would
+drop the prince stuff altogether if these French people around here
+would let him. He's supposed to be going into some kind of business, but
+just now he's having the time of his life. Every old dowager is trying
+to catch him."
+
+Jachin Fell nodded. "I've no use for nobility; a rotten crowd! But this
+chap appears interesting. I'll be glad to size him up. Ah, here's my
+domino now!"
+
+A page brought the domino. Fell, discarding the mask, threw the domino
+about his shoulders, and the two men left the club in company.
+
+They sought their destination afoot--the home of the banker Joseph
+Maillard. The streets were riotous, filled with an eddying, laughing
+crowd of masquers and merrymakers of all ages and sexes; confetti
+twirled through the air, horns were deafening, and laughing voices rose
+into sharp screams of unrestrained delight.
+
+Here and there appeared the rather constrained figures of tourists from
+the North. These, staid and unable to throw themselves into the utter
+abandon of this carnival spirit, could but stare in perplexed wonder at
+the scene, so alien to them, while they marvelled at the gaiety of these
+Southern folk who could go so far with liberty and yet not overstep the
+bounds of license.
+
+At last gaining St. Charles Avenue, with the Maillard residence a
+half-dozen blocks distant, the two companions found themselves well away
+from the main carnival throngs. Even here, however, was no lack of
+revellers afoot for the evening--stray flotsam of the downtown crowds,
+or members of neighbourhood gatherings on their way to entertainment.
+
+As the two walked along they were suddenly aware of a lithe figure
+approaching from the rear; with a running leap and an exclamation of
+delight the figure forced itself in between them, grasping an arm of
+either man, and a bantering voice broke in upon their train of talk.
+
+"Forfeit!" it cried. "Forfeit--where are your masks, sober gentlemen?
+This grave physician may be pardoned, but not a domino who refuses to
+mask! And for forfeit you shall be my escort and take me whither you are
+going."
+
+Laughing, the two fell into step, glancing at the gay figure between
+them. A Columbine, she was both cloaked and masked. Encircling her hair
+was a magnificent scarf shot with metal designs of solid gold--a most
+unusual thing. Also, from her words it was evident that she had
+recognized them.
+
+"Willingly, fair Columbine," responded Fell in his dry and unimpassioned
+tone of voice. "We shall be most happy, indeed, to protect and take you
+with us----"
+
+"So far as the door, at least," interrupted Ansley, with evident
+caution. But Fell drily laughed aside this wary limitation.
+
+"Nay, good physician, farther!" went on Fell. "Our Columbine has an
+excellent passport, I assure you. This gauzy scarf about her raven
+tresses was woven for the good Queen Hortense, and I would venture a
+random guess that, clasped about her slender throat, lies the queen's
+collar of star sapphires----"
+
+"Oh!" From the Columbine broke a cry of warning and swift dismay. "Don't
+you dare speak my name, sir--don't you dare!"
+
+Fell assented with a chuckle, and subsided.
+
+Ansley regarded his two companions with sidelong curiosity. He could not
+recognize Columbine, and he could not tell whether Fell were speaking of
+the scarf and jewels in jest or earnest. Such historic things were not
+uncommon in New Orleans, yet Ansley never heard of these particular
+treasures. However, it seemed that Fell knew their companion, and
+accepted her as a fellow guest at the Maillard house.
+
+"What are you doing out on the streets alone?" demanded Fell, suddenly.
+"Haven't you any friends or relatives to take care of you?"
+
+Columbine's laughter pealed out, and she pressed Fell's arm confidingly.
+
+"Have I not some little rights in the world, monsieur?" she said in
+French. "I have been mingling with the dear crowds and enjoying them,
+before I go to be buried in the dull splendours of the rich man's house.
+Tell me, do you think that the Midnight Masquer will make an appearance
+to-night?"
+
+"I have every reason to believe that he will," said Jachin Fell,
+gravely.
+
+Columbine put one hand to her throat, and shivered a trifle.
+
+"You--you really think so? You are not trying to frighten me?" Her voice
+was no longer gay. "But--the jewels----"
+
+"Wear them, wear them!" There was command in the tone of Fell. "Were
+they not given you to wear to-night? Then wear them, by all means. Don't
+worry, my dear."
+
+Columbine said nothing for a moment; her gaiety seemed to be suddenly
+extinguished and quenched. Ansley was wondering uneasily at the
+constraint, when at length she broke the silence.
+
+"Since you have ordered, let the command be obeyed!" She essayed a
+laugh, which appeared rather forced. "Yet, if they are lost and are
+taken by the Masquer----"
+
+"In that case," said Fell, "let the blame be mine entirely. If they are
+lost, little Columbine, others will be lost with them, fear not! I think
+that this party would be a rich haul for the Masquer, eh? Take the rich
+man and his friends--they could bear plucking, that crowd! Rogues all."
+
+"Confound you, Fell!" exclaimed Ansley, uneasily. "If the bandit does
+show up there would be the very devil to pay!"
+
+"And Maillard would do the paying." Fell's dry chuckle held a note of
+bitterness. "Let him. Who cares? Look at his house, there, blazing with
+lights. Who pays for those lights? The people his financial tentacles
+have closed their sucker-like grip upon. His wife's jewels have been
+purchased with the coin of oppression and injustice. His son's life is
+one of roguery and drunken wildness----"
+
+"Man, are you mad?" Ansley indicated the Columbine between them. "We're
+not alone here--you must not talk that way----"
+
+Jachin Fell only chuckled again. Columbine's laugh broke in with renewed
+gaiety:
+
+"Nonsense, my dear Galen! We surely may be allowed to be ourselves
+during carnival! Away with the heresies of hypocritical society. Our
+friend speaks the sober truth. We masquers may admit among ourselves
+that Bob Maillard is----"
+
+"Is not the man we would have our daughters marry, provided we had
+daughters," said Fell. Then he gestured toward the house ahead of them,
+and his tone changed: "Still, now that we are about to enter that house,
+we must remind ourselves of courtesy and the limitations of guests. Say
+no more. Produce your invitation, Columbine, for I think we shall find
+that the doors to-night are guarded by Cerberus."
+
+They had come to a file of limousines and cars, and approached the
+gateway of the Maillard home. They turned into the gate.
+
+The house loomed before them, a great house set amid gardens, stately in
+the fashion of olden days. The lower floors were discreetly darkened to
+the streets, but on the upper floor, where was the ballroom with its
+floor of cypress, there was a glitter of bright lights and open windows.
+Music drifted to them as they approached. Jachin Fell touched the arm of
+Ansley and indicated an inconspicuous figure to one side of the entrance
+steps.
+
+"An outer guardian," he murmured. "Our host, it seems, is neglecting no
+precaution! I feel sorry for the Masquer, if he appears here."
+
+They came to the doorway. Columbine produced an invitation, duly
+numbered, and the three entered the house together.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+
+                               _Masquers_
+
+
+Joseph Maillard might have hopefully considered the note from the
+Midnight Masquer to be a hoax perpetrated by some of his friends, but he
+took no chances. Two detectives were posted in the grounds outside the
+house; inside, two others, masked and costumed, were keeping a quietly
+efficient eye on all that transpired.
+
+Each guest upon entering was conducted directly to the presence of
+Joseph Maillard himself, or of his wife; was bidden to unmask in this
+private audience, and was then presented with a favour and sent forth
+masked anew to the festivities. These favours were concealed, in the
+case of the ladies, in corsage bouquets; in that of the men, inside
+false cigars. There was to be a general opening of the favours at
+midnight, the time set for unmasking. All this ceremony was regarded by
+the guests as a delightful innovation, and by Joseph Maillard as a
+delightful way of assuring himself that only the invited guests entered
+his house. Invitations might be forged--faces, never!
+
+Lucie Ledanois entered the presence of her stately relative, and after
+unmasking, dutifully exchanged kisses with Mrs. Maillard. Until some
+months previously, until she had come into the management of her own
+property--or what was left of it--Lucie had been the ward of the
+Maillards. Their former attitude of possession still lingered, but they
+were relatives for whom she felt little real affection.
+
+"Mercy, child, how marvellous you look to-night!" exclaimed Mrs.
+Maillard, holding her off and examining her high colour with obvious
+suspicion. Mrs. Maillard was herself rather plump and red, and stern of
+eye into the bargain. She was a keen, masterful woman.
+
+"Thank you, ma'am," and Lucie made a mock courtesy. "Do you like little
+Columbine?"
+
+"Very much. Here's Aunt Sally; take Miss Lucie's cloak, Sally."
+
+An old coloured servant bobbed her head in greeting to Lucie, who
+removed her cloak. As she did so, she saw that Mrs. Maillard's voice
+died away, and that the lady's eyes were fastened in utter amazement
+upon her throat.
+
+"Isn't it pretty, auntie?" she asked, smilingly. This was straining the
+relationship a trifle, but it was a custom which Lucie usually followed
+with the family.
+
+"My goodness gracious!" The stern eyes hardened. "Where--where on earth
+did _you_ obtain such a thing? Why--why----"
+
+Columbine's features flinched. She was a poor relation, of course, so
+the look in the older woman's eyes and the implication of the words
+formed little less than an insult.
+
+Quietly she put one hand to her throat and removed the collar, dropping
+it into the hand of Mrs. Maillard. It was a thing to make any woman's
+eyes widen--a collar of exquisitely wrought gold studded with ten great
+blazing star sapphires. Beside it the diamonds that bejewelled Mrs.
+Maillard's ample front looked cold and lifeless.
+
+"That?" queried Lucie, innocently, producing a scrap of chamois and
+dabbing at her nose. "Oh, that's very interesting! It was made for Queen
+Hortense--so was this scarf that keeps my ragged hair from lopping out!"
+
+"You didn't buy them, certainly!" demanded Mrs. Maillard.
+
+"Of course not. They were a present--only this morning."
+
+"Girl!" The lady's voice was harsh. "A present? From whom, if you
+please?"
+
+"Oh, I promised not to tell; he's a particular friend of mine. Aren't
+the stones pretty?"
+
+Mrs. Maillard was speechless. She compressed her firm lips and watched
+Lucie replace the sapphire collar without a word to offer. Silently she
+extended a corsage bouquet from the pile beside her; then, in a
+trembling voice, forced herself to explain about the favour inside.
+
+"And I hope," she added, "that before receiving any more such valuable
+presents you'll consult _me_. Of course, if you don't wish to tell about
+this, you needn't; but a word of advice will often save a girl from
+making very serious mistakes."
+
+"Thank you, auntie dear," and Lucie nodded as she pinned the bouquet.
+"You're just as dear to me as you can be! See you later."
+
+Slipping her mask into place she was gone, not without relief. She knew
+very well that within half an hour Bob Maillard would be informed that
+she had accepted gifts of jewels from other men, with all the
+accompanying implications and additions that imagination could furnish.
+For, although Bob Maillard wanted very much indeed to marry her his
+mother had no intention of sanctioning such a union.
+
+"Neither has Uncle Joseph," she reflected, smiling to herself, "and
+neither have I! So we're all agreed, except Bob."
+
+"Columbine!" A hand fell upon her wrist. "Columbine! Turn and confess
+thy sins!"
+
+A cry of instinctive alarm broke from the girl; she turned, only to
+break into a laugh of chagrin at her own fright.
+
+She had come to the foot of the wide, old-fashioned stairway that led to
+the floors above, and beside her had suddenly appeared a Franciscan
+monk, cowled and gowned in sober brown from head to foot.
+
+"You frightened me, holy man!" she cried, gaily. "Confess to you,
+indeed! Not I."
+
+"Never a better chance, butterfly of the world!" It was a voice that she
+dimly recognized, yet she could not name the owner: a merry, carefree
+voice that was slightly disguised.
+
+"Never a better chance," and the Franciscan offered his arm. "Haste not
+to the dance, fair sister--tarry a while and invite the soul in speech
+of import! Having passed the dragon at the gate, tarry a moment with
+this man of vows----"
+
+"Shrive me quickly, then," she said, laughing.
+
+"Now, without confession? Would you have me read your thoughts and give
+penance?"
+
+"If you can do that, holy man, I may confess; so prove it quickly!"
+
+For the moment they stood alone. Higher on the stairs, and among the
+rooms behind them, were gay groups of masquers--dominoes, imposing
+Mephistos, backwoodsmen, gallants of Spain and France, red Indians and
+turbaned Hindus.
+
+The Franciscan leaned forward. His voice came low, distinct, clear-cut,
+and he spoke in the French which Lucie understood as another
+mother-tongue, as do most of the older families of New Orleans.
+
+"See how I read them, mademoiselle! One thought is of uneasy suspicion;
+it is typified by a hard-lipped, grasping man. One thought is of
+profound regret; it is typified by a darkly welling stream of oil. One
+thought----"
+
+Suddenly Lucie had shrunk away from him. "Who--who are you?" she
+breathed, with a gasp that was almost of fear. "Who are you, monsieur?"
+
+"A humble brother of minor orders," and he bowed. "Shall I not continue
+with my reading? The third thought, mademoiselle, is one of hope; it is
+typified by a small man who is dressed all in gray----"
+
+Lucie turned away from him quickly.
+
+"I think that you have made some grave error, monsieur," she said. Her
+voice was cold, charged with dismissal and offended dignity. "I pray
+you, excuse me."
+
+Not waiting any response, she hastily ran up the stairs. After her, for
+a moment, gazed the Franciscan, then shrugged his wide shoulders and
+plunged into the crowd.
+
+The ballroom on the top floor was throbbing with music, gay with
+costumes and decorations, thronged with dancing couples. Into the whirl
+of it pirouetted Columbine. Almost at once she found herself dancing
+with a gorgeously attired Musketeer; she separated from him as quickly
+as possible, for she recognized him as Bob Maillard. Nor did he find her
+again, although he searched, not knowing her identity; for she evaded
+him.
+
+While she danced, while she chattered and laughed and entered into the
+mad gaiety of the evening, Lucie Ledanois could not banish from her mind
+that ominous Franciscan. How could he have known? How could he have
+guessed what only she and one other barely suspected? There was no
+proof, of course; the very breath of suspicion seemed a calumny against
+an upright man!
+
+Joseph Maillard had sold that Terrebonne land six months before any gas
+or oil had been discovered there, and eight months before Lucie had come
+into the management of her own affairs. He had not known about the
+minerals, of course; it was a case only of bad judgment. Yet,
+indubitably, he was now a shareholder and officer in the Bayou Oil
+Company, the concern which had bought that strip of land.
+
+Two years previously Maillard had sold that swamp land up in St. Landry
+parish; the land had been drained and sectioned off by real estate
+people at enormous profit.
+
+Lucie strove angrily to banish the dark thoughts from her mind. Why,
+Maillard was a rich man, a banker, an honorable gentleman! To doubt his
+honour, although he was a harsh and a stern man, was impossible. Lucie
+knew him better than most, and could not believe----
+
+"May I crave pardon for my error?" came a voice at her elbow. She
+turned, to see the Franciscan again beside her. "With a thousand
+apologies for impertinence, mademoiselle; I am very sorry for my faults.
+Will not that admission obtain for me one little dance, one hint of
+forgiveness from fair Columbine?"
+
+Something in his voice spelt sincerity. Lucie, smiling, held out her
+hand.
+
+"You are pardoned, holy man. If you can dance in that friar's robe, then
+try it!"
+
+Could he dance, indeed! Who could not dance with Columbine for partner?
+So saying, the monk proved his word by the deed and proved it well. Nor
+did he again hint that he had recognized her; until, as they parted, he
+once more left her astonished and perturbed. As he bowed he murmured:
+
+"Beware, sweet Columbine! Beware of the gay Aramis! Beware of his
+proposals!"
+
+He was gone upon the word.
+
+Aramis? Why, that must be the Musketeer, of course--Bob Maillard! The
+name, with its implications, was a clever hit. But who was this brown
+monk, who seemed to know so much, who danced so divinely, whose French
+was like music? A vague suspicion was in the girl's mind, but she had no
+proof.
+
+Half an hour after this Bob Maillard came to her, and with impatient
+words made a path through the circle which surrounded her. He caught her
+hand and bent over it with an affectation of gallantry which became him
+well, for in his costume he made a handsome figure.
+
+"I know you now, Lucie!" he murmured. "I must see you at once--in the
+conservatory."
+
+She was minded to refuse, but assented briefly. The words of the monk
+intrigued her; what had the man guessed? If Bob were indeed about to
+propose, she would this time cut off his hopes for good. But--was it
+that sort of a proposal?
+
+As she managed to rid herself of her admirers, and descended to the
+conservatory, she was highly vexed with herself and the Franciscan, and
+so came to her appointment in no equable frame of mind. She found
+Maillard waiting in the old-fashioned conservatory; he had unmasked, and
+was puffing a cigarette. His heavy features and bold, shrewd eyes were
+fastened hungrily upon her as he came to meet her.
+
+"By gad, Lucie, you're beautiful to-night!"
+
+"Thanks, cousin Robert. Was it for that----?"
+
+"No! See here, where did you get that collar of jewels?"
+
+"Indeed!" The girl proudly drew herself up. "What business is that of
+yours, sir?"
+
+"Aren't you one of the family? It's our business to protect your
+rep----"
+
+"Be careful!" Anger trembled in her voice, cut off his words. "Be
+careful!"
+
+"But damn it--Lucie! Don't you know that I want to marry you----"
+
+"My dear Robert, I certainly do not want to marry any man who swears to
+my face--you least of all!" she coldly intervened. "I have already
+refused you three times; let this be the fourth and last. I owe you no
+account of my possessions nor where I get them; I am entirely capable of
+managing my own affairs. Now, kindly inform me why you wished me to meet
+you here. Also, you know that I don't like cigarette smoke."
+
+Sulkily, Maillard threw away his cigarette; with an effort he calmed
+himself. He was anything but a fool, this young man. He was rather
+clever, and saw that he had so long considered his pretty cousin a
+personal possession that he was now in some danger of losing her.
+
+"I have a chance to make some money for you in a hurry," he said. "Your
+father left you a good deal of land up Bayou Terrebonne way----"
+
+"Your father sold some of it," she put in, idly. His eyes flickered to
+the thrust.
+
+"Yes; but you've plenty left, near Paradis. It's away from the gas
+field, but I'm interested in an oil company. We've plenty of money, and
+we're going to go strong after the liquid gold. That land of yours is
+good for nothing else, and if you want to make some money out of it I'll
+swing the company into leasing at a good figure and drilling there."
+
+"You think there's oil on the land?"
+
+"No." He made a swift, energetic gesture of dissent. "To be frank, I
+don't. But I'd like to throw a bit of luck your way, Lucie. We're
+getting a lot of money into the company, and some brains. That fellow
+Gramont--the prince, you know him--he's an engineer and a geologist, and
+he's in the swim."
+
+"So," the girl smiled a little, "you would betray your business friends
+in order to make a bit of money for me?"
+
+Maillard stared at her. "Well, if you put it that way, yes! I'd do more
+than that for----"
+
+"Thank you," she interrupted, her voice cold. "I don't think I'd trust
+your sagacity very far, Robert. Good-night."
+
+She turned from him and was gone, dancing through the great rooms like a
+true Columbine. Later he saw her among the dancers above, although he
+obtained no further speech with her.
+
+Midnight neared, and brought a concern to many; the Midnight Masquer had
+gained his name by invariably appearing a moment or two before the
+stroke of twelve. Jachin Fell, who divided his time between enjoying the
+smoking room and wandering about among the masquers, perceived that
+Joseph Maillard was watching the time with anxiety.
+
+A large man, stern and a bit scornful of look, Maillard was imposing
+rather than handsome. He appeared the typical banker, efficient, devoid
+of all sentiment. Amused by the man's evident uneasiness, Jachin Fell
+kept him in view while the moments dragged. One might have thought that
+the little gray man was studying the financier as an entomologist
+studies a butterfly on a pin.
+
+Shortly before twelve Columbine pirouetted up to Jachin Fell and
+accepted the arm he offered her. They were for the moment alone, in a
+corner of the ballroom.
+
+"I must see you to-morrow, please," she breathed.
+
+"Gladly," he assented. "May I call? It's Sunday, you know----"
+
+"If you will; at three. Something has happened, but I cannot speak of it
+here. Does any one else know that you--that you are interested in my
+affairs?"
+
+The pale gray eyes of the little gray man looked very innocent and
+wondering.
+
+"Certainly not, my dear! Why?"
+
+"I'll tell you to-morrow." Then she broke into a laugh. "Well, it is
+midnight--and the Masquer has not appeared! I'm almost sorry."
+
+The lights flickered off for a moment, then on again. The signal for
+unmasking!
+
+The dancing ceased. From the whole room arose a babel of voices--cries
+of surprise, exclamations, merry laughter. Columbine removed her mask.
+An instant later Joseph Maillard approached them, chuckling to himself
+and looking hugely relieved.
+
+"Ha, Lucie! I guessed you beneath the Columbine daintiness! Well,
+Jachin, it was a hoax after all, eh? Some confounded joke. Come down to
+the library in five minutes, will you? A meeting of the select circle,
+to discuss prohibition."
+
+"Aren't you going to invite me, Uncle Joseph?" broke in Lucie, gaily.
+
+"No, no, little one!" Maillard reproved her, laughingly. "Look not upon
+the silver cup at your age, my dear. Have you examined your favour yet?"
+
+Remembering, the girl caught at her corsage. Cries of delight were
+arising on all sides as the favours were revealed--most handsome
+favours, even for Mardi Gras! From the heart of the rosebuds in her hand
+Lucie removed a brooch of old filigree work set with a group of pearls.
+She glanced about for Jachin Fell, but he had vanished with Maillard. A
+voice rose at her elbow:
+
+"Mademoiselle, you are not less lucky than beautiful! Pearls to the
+pearl!"
+
+She turned to see the Franciscan--no longer masked, but now gazing at
+her from a frank, laughing countenance, still partially veiled by the
+brown cowl that was drawn up close about his head.
+
+"Henry Gramont!" she exclaimed. "Oh, I half suspected that it was
+you----"
+
+"But you were not sure?" he chuckled. "You're not offended with me,
+Lucie?"
+
+"I should be." She tossed her head. "You were impertinent, M. le
+prince!"
+
+He made a distasteful gesture. "None of that, Lucie! You know I don't
+like it----"
+
+"Oh, la, la!" she mocked him. "M. le prince is seeing America, _n'est ce
+pas_? He has come to America to find a rich wife, is it not?"
+
+Gramont's face lost its smile, and suddenly became almost harsh.
+
+"I shall call upon you at four to-morrow, Lucie," he said, abruptly, and
+turned. Nor did he pause to get her reply. An instant afterward Lucie
+was surrounded by a merry group of friends, and she saw no more of Henry
+Gramont.
+
+About five minutes later those in the ballroom distinctly heard, through
+the open windows, the heavy pulsations of an airplane motor.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+                              _The Bandit_
+
+
+Joseph Maillard's library was on the ground floor of the house; it was a
+sedate and stately room, and was invariably shut off to itself. Not even
+to-night, of all nights, was it thrown open with the remainder of the
+house.
+
+Here, for a good half hour, had been Uncle Neb. The old butler was
+mysteriously engaged with certain tall silver goblets, fragrant mint,
+and yet more fragrant--if illegal--bottles. And it was here that Joseph
+Maillard summoned half a dozen of his particular cronies and friends,
+after the stroke of midnight had assured him that there was no danger to
+be expected from the bandit. His son was not among the number. The half
+dozen were nearly all elderly men, and, with the exception of Jachin
+Fell, all were men of prominent affairs.
+
+About the table grouped Maillard and his guests, while in the background
+hovered Uncle Neb, glistening black, hugely important, and grinning
+widely. Fell was the last to enter the room, and as he did so old Judge
+Forester turned to him smilingly.
+
+"Ah, here is an attorney in whom there is no guile! Jachin, come and
+settle a dispute. I maintain that the dignity of the law is not less now
+than in the old days; that it has merely accommodated itself to changing
+conditions, and that it is a profession for gentlemen now as always.
+Jules, state your argument!"
+
+Jules Delagroux, a white-haired Creole lawyer of high standing, smiled a
+trifle sadly.
+
+"My case," he said, "is that the old days are dead; that the law is no
+longer a profession, but a following for charlatans. In a word, that the
+law has been killed by the lawyers." He gestured finality and glanced at
+Fell.
+
+"So?" Jachin Fell smiled in his shy fashion. "Gentlemen, I heartily
+agree with you both. I am an attorney, but I do not practise because I
+cannot accommodate myself to those very changing conditions of which
+Judge Forester speaks. To-day, the lawyer must be a politician; he must
+be an adept in the trick of words and deeds; he must be able not to
+serve his profession but to make it serve him, and he must remember
+always that the rights of property are more sacred than those of life
+and liberty. Otherwise, he will remain honest and poor."
+
+An ejaculation of "True" from the judge brought smiles. Jachin Fell
+continued whimsically:
+
+"Regarding these very conditions many years ago, gentlemen, I was
+tempted to change my profession--but to what? I was tempted to enter the
+church until I saw that the same conditions hold good of a clergyman. I
+was tempted to enter medicine until I saw that they also held true of a
+doctor. I was tempted to other things, always with the like result.
+Well, you know the story of Aunt Dixie and her black underwear--'Honey,
+I ain't ashamed of mah grief; when I mourns, I _mourns_!' Even so with
+the law----"
+
+A burst of laughter drowned him out, and the original argument was
+forgotten. Maillard, standing before a small wall safe that flanked the
+open hearth, lifted his silver goblet, asteam with beads. The moment for
+which he had been waiting was here; he launched his little thunderbolt
+with an air of satisfied importance.
+
+"My friends, I have a confession to make!" he announced. "To-day I
+received a note from the Midnight Masquer stating that he would be with
+us this evening, presumably at the hour of midnight, his usual time."
+
+These words brought an instant silence. Uncle Neb, from his corner,
+uttered a startled "Fore de lawd!" that rang through the room; yet no
+one smiled. The half-dozen men were tense, watchful, astonished. But
+Maillard swung up his silver cup and laughed gaily.
+
+"I took full precautions, gentlemen. The hour of danger is past, and the
+notorious bandit has not arrived--or, if he has arrived, he is now in
+the hands of the law. After all, that note may have been something in
+the nature of a carnival jest! So up with your cups, my friends--a
+lifelong health to Mardi Gras, and damnation to prohibition and the
+Midnight Masquer!"
+
+From everyone broke a swift assent to the toast, a murmur of relieved
+tension. The silver goblets were lifted, touched in a musical clinking
+of edges, and the aromatic breath of juleps filled the library as the
+drinkers, in true Southern fashion, buried noses in the fragrant mint.
+Then, as the cups were lowered, from the recess of the curtained windows
+at one end of the room came a quiet voice:
+
+"I thank you, gentlemen! But I must remind you, Maillard, that there was
+not a time limit set in the note."
+
+With a simultaneous gasp everyone turned. Maillard staggered; his face
+went livid. Uncle Neb, who had been advancing to refill the cups,
+dropped his silver tray with a crash that went unheeded, indeed unheard.
+Every eye was fastened upon that amazing figure now advancing from the
+shadows of the recess.
+
+It was the figure of an aviator, clad in leather from top to toe, the
+goggles and helmet shield completely masking his head and features from
+recognition. In his hand he held an automatic pistol, which covered the
+group of men before him with its threatening mouth.
+
+"Not a sound, if you please," he warned, his voice thin and
+nasal--obviously disguised. "I trust that none of you gentlemen is
+armed, because I am very quick on the trigger. A very pleasant surprise,
+Maillard? You'd given me up, eh?"
+
+For an instant no one spoke. Then Maillard moved slightly, moved his
+hand toward a button set in the wall near the safe. The voice of the
+bandit leaped out at him like thin steel:
+
+"Quiet, you fool! If you touch that button----"
+
+Maillard stiffened, and gripped the table edge with his shaking hand.
+
+"This is an outrage, suh!" began Judge Forester, his white goatee
+bristling. The bandit bowed slightly, and addressed the gathering in a
+tone of dry raillery:
+
+"An outrage? Exactly. You were just now discussing the majesty of the
+law. Well, I assure you that I found your discussion intensely
+interesting. Mr. Fell correctly stated that the rights of property are
+more sacred in legal eyes than the rights of human life. You see,
+gentlemen, the discussion touched me very closely!
+
+"I am now engaged in outraging the law, and I have this amendment to
+propose to Mr. Fell: That if he had been tempted to follow the
+profession of a robber he would have found the same conditions
+prevailing which he quoted as applying to other professions."
+
+Jachin Fell, alone of those about the table, allowed a smile to curve
+his lips.
+
+"The rights of property," pursued the bandit with a deadly smoothness,
+"are to me, also, far more sacred than human life; there I agree with
+the law. So, gentlemen, kindly empty your pockets on the table." His
+voice became crisp. "The jewelled scarf-pins which you received as
+favours this evening may be added to the collection; otherwise, I shall
+not touch your private possessions. No watches, thank you. Maillard,
+kindly begin! I believe that you carry a wallet? If you please."
+
+The banker could not but obey. His hands trembling with fear and rage,
+he took from his pocket a wallet, and emptied a sheaf of bills upon the
+table. One after another, the other men followed his example. The bandit
+made no attempt to search them, but watched with eyes that glittered
+from behind his mask as they laid money and scarf-pins on the table.
+When it came his turn, Jachin Fell drew a single bill from his pocket,
+and laid it down.
+
+"You put some faith in that warning, Mr. Fell?" The bandit laughed. "Do
+you think that you will know me again?"
+
+"I hardly believe so, sir," answered Fell in his apologetic fashion.
+"Your disguise is really excellent."
+
+"Thank you." The bandit's voice held a thin mockery. "Coming from you,
+sir, that compliment is most welcome."
+
+"What the devil does the fellow mean?" exploded Judge Forester.
+
+"Then you are not aware that Mr. Fell is a man of large affairs?" The
+bandit's white teeth flashed in a smile. "He is a modest man, this
+attorney! And a dangerous man also, I assure you. But come, Mr. Fell,
+I'll not betray you."
+
+Jachin Fell obviously did not appreciate the pleasantry. His shy and
+wondering features assumed a set and hardened look.
+
+"Whoever you are," he responded, a subtle click of anger in his tone,
+"you shall be punished for this!"
+
+"For what, Mr. Fell? For knowing too much of your private affairs?" The
+bandit laughed. "Fear not--I am only an amateur at this game,
+fortunately! So do your worst, and my blessing upon you! Now, gentlemen,
+kindly withdraw a few paces and join Uncle Neb yonder against the wall.
+All but you, Maillard; I'm not through with you yet."
+
+The automatic pistol gestured; under its menace everyone obeyed the
+command, for the calm assurance of the bandit made it seem extremely
+likely that he would use the weapon without compunction. The men
+withdrew toward the far end of the room, where a word from the aviator
+halted them. Maillard remained standing where he was, his heavy features
+now mottled with impotent anger.
+
+The Masquer advanced to the table and gathered the heap of money and
+scarfpins into the leathern pocket of his coat. During the process his
+gaze did not waver from the group of men, nor did the threat of his
+weapon lift from the banker before him.
+
+"Now, Maillard," he quietly ordered, "you will have the kindness to turn
+around and open the wall safe behind you. And don't touch the button."
+
+Maillard started.
+
+"That safe! Why--why--damn you, I'll do nothing of the sort!"
+
+"If you don't," was the cool threat, "I'll shoot you through the
+abdomen. A man fears a bullet there worse than death. It may kill you,
+and it may not; really, I care very little. You--you financier!"
+
+Scorn leaped into the quiet voice, scorn that lashed and bit deep.
+
+"You money trickster! Do you think I would spare such a man as you? You
+draw your rents from the poor and destitute, your mortgages cover half
+the parishes in the state, and in your heart is neither compassion nor
+pity for man or woman. You take the property of others from behind the
+safety curtain of the law; I do it from behind a pistol! I rob only
+those who can afford to lose--am I really as bad as you, in the eyes of
+morality and ethics? Bah! I could shoot you down without a qualm!"
+
+In his voice was so deadly a menace that Maillard trembled. Yet the
+banker drew himself up and struggled for self-control, stung as he was
+by this flood of vituperation before the group of his closest friends.
+
+"There is nothing of mine in that safe," he said, his voice a low growl.
+"I have given it to my son to use. He is not here."
+
+"That," said the Masquer, calmly, "is exactly why I desire you to open
+it. Your son must make his contribution, for I keenly regret his
+absence. If you are a criminal, he is worse! You rob and steal under
+shelter of the law, but you have certain limitations, certain bounds of
+an almost outgrown honour. He has none, that son of yours. Why, he would
+not hesitate to turn your own tricks back upon you, to rob _you_, if he
+could! Open that safe or take the consequences; no more talk, now!"
+
+The command cracked out like a whiplash. With a shrug of helplessness
+the banker turned and fumbled with the protruding knob of the safe. With
+one exception all eyes were fastened upon this amazing Masquer. The
+exception was Jachin Fell, who, suddenly alert and watchful, had turned
+his attention to Maillard and the safe, a keen speculation in his gaze
+as though he were wondering what that steel vault would produce.
+
+All were silent. There was something about this Midnight Masquer that
+held them intently. Perhaps some were inclined to think him a jester,
+one of the party masquerading under the famous bandit's guise; if so,
+his last words to Maillard had removed all such thought. That indictment
+had been deadly and terrible--and true, as they knew. Bob Maillard was
+not greatly admired by those among his father's friends who best knew
+him.
+
+Now the door of the safe swung open. The compartments appeared empty.
+
+"Take out the drawers and turn them up over the table," commanded the
+Masquer.
+
+Maillard obeyed. He took several of the small drawers, and all proved to
+be empty; this development drew a dry chuckle from Jachin Fell. Then,
+from the last drawer, there fell out on the table a large envelope,
+sealed. The Masquer leaned forward, seized upon this envelope, and
+crushed it into his pocket.
+
+"Thank you," he observed. "That is all."
+
+"Damn you!" cried Maillard, shaking a fist. "You'd try blackmail, would
+you?"
+
+The bandit regarded him a moment, then laughed.
+
+"If you knew what was in that envelope, my dear financier, you might not
+speak so hastily. If I knew what was in it, I might answer you. But I
+don't know. I only suspect--and hope."
+
+While he spoke the bandit was backing toward the door that opened upon
+the lower hallway of the house. He drew this door open, glanced swiftly
+out into the hall, and then placed the key on the outside.
+
+"And now, my friends--_au revoir_!"
+
+The Masquer sprang backward into the hall. The door slammed, the key
+clicked. He was gone!
+
+Maillard was the first to wake into voice and action. "The other door!"
+he cried. "Into the dining room----"
+
+He flung open a second door and dashed into the dining room, followed by
+the other men. Here the windows, giving upon the garden, were open. Then
+Maillard came to a sudden halt, and after him the others; through the
+night was pulsating, with great distinctness, the throbbing roar of an
+airplane motor! From Maillard broke a bitter cry:
+
+"The detectives--I'll get the fools here! You gentlemen search the
+house; Uncle Neb, go with them, into every room! That fellow can't
+possibly have escaped----"
+
+"No word of alarm to the ladies," exclaimed Judge Forester, hurriedly.
+"If he was not upstairs, then they have seen nothing of him. We must
+divide and search."
+
+They hastily separated. Maillard dashed away to summon the detectives,
+also to get other men to aid in the search.
+
+The result was vain. Within twenty minutes the entire house, from cellar
+to garret, had been thoroughly gone over, without causing any alarm to
+the dancers in the ballroom. Maillard began to think himself a little
+mad. No one had been seen to enter or leave the house, and certainly
+there had been no airplane about. The Masquer had not appeared except in
+the library, and now he was most indubitably not in the house. By all
+testimony, he had neither entered it nor left it!
+
+"Well, I'm damned!" said Maillard, helplessly, to Judge Forester, when
+the search was concluded. "Not a trace of the scoundrel! Here,
+Fell--can't you help us out? Haven't you discovered a thing?"
+
+"Nothing," responded Jachin Fell, calmly.
+
+At this instant Bob Maillard rushed up. He had just learned of the
+Masquer's visit. In response to his excited questioning his father
+described the scene in the library and added:
+
+"I trust there was nothing important among those papers of yours,
+Robert?"
+
+"No," said the younger man. "No. Nothing valuable at all."
+
+Henry Gramont was passing. He caught the words and paused, his gaze
+resting for an instant upon the group. A faint smile rested upon his
+rather harshly drawn features.
+
+"I just found this," he announced, holding out a paper. "It was pinned
+to the outside of the library door. I presume that your late visitor
+left it as a memento?"
+
+Jachin Fell took the paper, the other men crowding around him.
+
+"Ah, Maillard! The same handwriting as that of your letter!"
+
+Upon the paper was pencilled a single hasty line:
+
+           My compliments to Robert Maillard--and my thanks.
+
+Bob Maillard sprang forward, angrily inspecting the paper. When he
+relinquished it, Fell calmly claimed it again.
+
+"Confound the rogue!" muttered the banker's son, turning away. His
+features were pale, perhaps with anger. "There was nothing but stock
+certificates in that envelope--and they can be reissued."
+
+The festivities were not broken up. As much could hardly be said for the
+host, who felt keenly the verbal lashing that had been administered to
+him before his friends. News of the robbery gradually leaked out among
+the guests; the generally accepted verdict was that the Masquer had
+appeared, only to be frightened away before he could secure any loot.
+
+It was nearly two in the morning when Jachin Fell, who was leaving,
+encountered Henry Gramont at the head of the wide stairway. He halted
+and turned to the younger man.
+
+"Ah--have you a pencil, if you please?"
+
+"I think so, Mr. Fell." Gramont felt beneath his Franciscan's robe, and
+extended a pencil.
+
+Jachin Fell examined it, brought a paper from beneath his domino, and
+wrote down a word. The paper was that on which the farewell message of
+the Midnight Masquer had been written.
+
+"A hard lead, a very hard point indeed!" said Fell. He pocketed the
+paper again and regarded Gramont steadily as he returned the pencil.
+"Few men carry so hard a pencil, sir."
+
+"You're quite right," and Gramont smiled. "I borrowed this from Bob
+Maillard only a moment ago. Its hardness surprised me."
+
+"Oh!" said Jachin Fell, mildly. "By the way, aren't you the Prince de
+Gramont? When we met this evening, you were introduced as plain Mr.
+Gramont, but it seems to me that I had heard something----"
+
+"Quite a mistake, Mr. Fell. I'm no prince; simply Henry Gramont, and
+nothing more. Also, an American citizen. Some of these New Orleans
+people can't forget the prince business, most unfortunately."
+
+"Ah, yes," agreed Fell, shyly. "Do you know, a most curious thing----"
+
+"Yes?" prompted Gramont, his eyes intent upon the little gray man.
+
+"That paper you brought us--the paper which you found pinned to the
+library door," said Fell, apologetically. "Do you know, Mr. Gramont,
+that oddly enough there were no pin holes in that paper?"
+
+Gramont smiled faintly, as though he were inwardly amused over the
+remark.
+
+"Not at all curious," he said, his voice level. "It was pinned rather
+stoutly--I tore off the portion bearing the message. I'll wager that
+you'll find the end of the paper still on the door downstairs. You might
+make certain that its torn edge fits that of the paper in your pocket;
+if it did not, then the fact _would_ be curious! I am most happy to have
+met you, Mr. Fell. I trust that we shall meet again, often."
+
+With a smile, he extended his hand, which Mr. Fell shook cordially.
+
+As Jachin Fell descended the wide staircase his face was red--quite red.
+One would have said that he had just been worsted in some encounter, and
+that the sense of defeat still rankled within him.
+
+Upon gaining the lower hall he glanced at the door of the library.
+There, still pinned to the wood where it had been unregarded by the
+passersby, was a small scrap of paper. Mr. Fell glanced at it again,
+then shook his head and slowly turned away, as though resisting a
+temptation.
+
+"No," he muttered. "No. It would be sure to fit the paper in my pocket.
+It would be sure to fit, confound him!"
+
+A little later he left the house and walked along the line of cars that
+were waiting parked in the drive and in the street outside. Before one
+of the cars he came to a halt, examining it closely. The sleepy
+chauffeur got out and touched his cap in a military salute; he was a
+sturdy young fellow, his face very square and blunt.
+
+"A very handsome car. May I ask whose it is?" inquired Fell, mildly.
+
+"Mr. Gramont's, sir," answered the chauffeur.
+
+"Ah, thank you. A very handsome car indeed. Good-night!"
+
+Mr. Fell walked away, striding briskly down the avenue. When he
+approached the first street light he came to a pause, and began softly
+to pat his person as though searching for something.
+
+"I told you that you'd pay for knowing too much about me, young man!" he
+said, softly. "What's this, now--what's this?"
+
+A slight rustle of paper, as he walked along, had attracted his
+attention. He passed his hands over the loose, open domino that cloaked
+him; he detected a scrap of paper pinned to it in the rear. He loosened
+the paper, and under the street light managed to decipher the writing
+which it bore.
+
+A faint smile crept to his lips as he read the pencilled words:
+
+        I do not love you, Jachin Fell,
+        The reason why I cannot tell;
+        But this I know, and know full well,
+        I do not love you, Jachin Fell!
+
+"Certainly the fellow has wit, if not originality," muttered Mr. Fell,
+as he carefully stowed away the paper. The writing upon it was in the
+hand of the Midnight Masquer.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+
+                               _Callers_
+
+
+The house in which Lucie Ledanois lived had been her mother's; the
+furniture and other things in it had been her mother's; the two negro
+servants, who spoke only the Creole French patois, had been her
+mother's. It was a small house, but very beautiful inside. The exterior
+betrayed a lack of paint or the money with which to have painting done.
+
+The Ledanois family, although distantly connected with others such as
+the Maillards, had sent forth its final bud of fruition in the girl
+Lucie. Her mother had died while she was yet an infant, and through the
+years she had companioned her father, an invalid during the latter days.
+He had never been a man to count dollars or costs, and to a large extent
+he had outworn himself and the family fortunes in a vain search for
+health.
+
+With Lucie he had been in Europe at the outbreak of war, and had come
+home to America only to die shortly afterward. Once deprived of his fine
+recklessness, the girl had found her affairs in a bad tangle. Under the
+guardianship of Maillard the tangle had been somewhat resolved and
+simplified, but even Maillard would appear to have made mistakes, and of
+late Lucie had against her will suspected something amiss in the matter
+of these mistakes.
+
+It was natural, then, that she should take Jachin Fell into her
+confidence. Maillard had been her guardian, but it was to Fell that she
+had always come with her girlish cares and troubles, during even the
+lifetime of her father. She had known Fell all her life; she had met him
+in strange places, both at home and abroad. She entertained a
+well-grounded suspicion that Jachin Fell had loved her mother, and this
+one fact lay between them, never mentioned but always there, like a bond
+of faith and kindliness.
+
+At precisely three o'clock of the Sunday afternoon Jachin Fell rang the
+doorbell and Lucie herself admitted him. She ushered him into the
+parlour that was restful with its quiet brasses and old rosewood.
+
+"Tell me quickly, Uncle Jachin!" eagerly exclaimed the girl. "Did you
+actually see the Midnight Masquer last night? I didn't know until
+afterward that he had really been downstairs and had robbed----"
+
+"I saw him, my dear," and the little gray man smiled. There was more
+warmth to his smile than usual just now. Perhaps it was a reflection
+from the eager vitality which so shone in the eyes of Lucie. "I saw him,
+yes."
+
+A restful face was hers--not beautiful at first glance; a little too
+strong for beauty one would say. The deep gray eyes were level and quiet
+and wide apart, and on most occasions were quite inscrutable. They were
+now filled with a quick eagerness as they rested upon Jachin Fell. Lucie
+called him uncle, but not as she called Joseph Maillard uncle; here was
+no relationship, no formal affectation of relationship, but a purely
+abiding trust and friendship.
+
+Jachin Fell had done more for Lucie than she herself knew or would know;
+without her knowledge he had quietly taken care of her finances to an
+appreciable extent. Between them lay an affection that was very real.
+Lucie, better than most, knew the extraordinary capabilities of this
+little gray man; yet not even Lucie guessed a tenth of the character
+that lay beneath his surface. To her he was never reserved or secretive.
+Nonetheless, she touched sometimes an impenetrable wall that seemed ever
+present within him.
+
+"You saw him?" repeated the girl, quickly. "What was he like? Do you
+know who he is?"
+
+"Certainly I know," replied Fell, still smiling at her.
+
+"Oh! Then who is he?"
+
+"Softly, softly, young lady! I know him, but even to you I dare not
+breathe his name until I obtain some direct evidence. Let us call him
+Mr. X., after the approved methods of romance, and I shall expound what
+I know."
+
+He groped in his vest pocket. Lucie sprang up, bringing a smoking stand
+from the corner of the room to his chair. She held a match to his El
+Rey, and then curled up on a Napoleon bed and watched him intently while
+he spoke.
+
+"The bandit did not enter the house during the evening, nor did he
+leave, nor was he found in the house afterward," he said, tonelessly.
+"So, incredible as it may appear, he was one of the guests. This Mr. X.
+came to the dance wearing the aviator's costume, or most of it,
+underneath his masquerade costume. When he was ready to act, he doffed
+his outer costume, appeared as the Midnight Masquer, effected his
+purpose, then calmly donned his outer costume again and resumed his
+place among the guests. You understand?
+
+"Well, then! Maillard yesterday received a note from the Masquer,
+brazenly stating that he intended to call during the evening. I have
+that note. It was written with an extremely hard lead pencil, such as
+few men carry, because it does not easily make very legible writing.
+Last night I asked Mr. X. for a pencil, and he produced one with an
+extra hard lead--mentioning that he had borrowed it from Bob Maillard,
+as indeed he had."
+
+"What! Surely, you don't mean----"
+
+"Of course I don't. Mr. X. is very clever, that's all. Here is what took
+place last night. Mr. X. brought us another note from the Masquer,
+saying that he had found it pinned to the library door. As a matter of
+fact, he had written it on a leaf torn from his notebook. I took the
+note from him, observing at the time that the paper had no pin holes.
+Probably, Mr. X. saw that there was something amiss; he presently went
+back downstairs, took the remainder of the torn leaf from his notebook,
+and pinned it to the door. A little later, I met him and mentioned the
+lack of pin holes; he calmly referred me to the piece on the door,
+saying that he had merely torn off the note without removing the pins.
+You follow me?"
+
+"Of course," murmured the girl, her eyes wide in fascinated interest.
+"And he knew that you guessed him to be the Masquer?"
+
+"He suspected me, I think," said Fell, mildly. "It is understood that
+you will not go about tracing these little clues? I do not wish to
+disclose his identity, even to your very discreet brain----"
+
+"Don't be silly, Uncle Jachin!" she broke in. "You know I'll do nothing
+of the sort. Go on, please! Did you find the airplane?"
+
+"Yes." Jachin Fell smiled drily. "I was thinking of that as I left the
+house and came to the line of waiting automobiles. A word with one of
+the outside detectives showed me that one of the cars in the street had
+been testing its engine about midnight. I found that the car belonged to
+Mr. X.
+
+"How simple, Lucie, and how very clever! The chauffeur worked a powerful
+motor with a muffler cutout at about the time Mr. X., inside the house,
+was making his appearance. It scarcely sounded like an airplane motor,
+yet frightened and startled, people would imagine that it did. Thus
+arose the legend that the Midnight Masquer came and departed by means of
+airplane--a theory aided ingeniously by his costume. Well, that is all I
+know or suspect, my dear Lucie! And now----"
+
+"Now, I suppose," said the girl, thoughtfully, "you'll put that awful
+Creole of yours on the track of Mr. X.? Ben Chacherre is a good
+chauffeur, and he's amusing enough--but he's a bloodhound! I don't
+wonder that he used to be a criminal. Even if you have rescued him from
+a life of crime, you haven't improved his looks."
+
+"Exactly--Ben is at work," assented Jachin Fell. "The gentleman under
+suspicion is very prominent. To accuse him without proof would be utter
+folly. To catch him _in flagrante delicto_ will be difficult. So, I am
+in no haste. He will not disappear, believe me, and something may turn
+up at any moment to undo him. Besides, I can as yet discover no motive
+for his crimes, since he is quite well off financially."
+
+"Gambling," suggested the girl.
+
+"I cannot find that he has lost any considerable sums. Well, no matter!
+Now that I have fully unbosomed myself, my dear, it is your turn."
+
+"All right, Uncle Jachin." Lucie took a large morocco case from the
+chair beside her, and extended it. "You lent me these things to wear
+last night, and I----"
+
+"No, no," intervened Fell. "I gave them to you, my dear--in fact, I
+bought them for you two years ago, and kept them until now! You have
+worn them; they are yours, and you become them better than even did poor
+Queen Hortense! So say no more. I trust that Mrs. Maillard was righteous
+and envious?"
+
+"She was disagreeable," said Lucie. She leaned forward and imprinted a
+kiss upon the cheek of the little gray man. "There! that is all the
+thanks I can give you, dear uncle; the gift makes me very happy, and
+I'll not pretend otherwise. Only, I feel as though I had no right to
+wear them--they're so wonderful!"
+
+"Nonsense! You can do anything you want to, as Eliza said when she
+crossed the ice. But all this isn't why you summoned me here, you bundle
+of mystery! What bothered you last night, or rather, who?"
+
+Lucie laughed. "There was a Franciscan who tried to be very mysterious,
+and to read my mind. He talked about oil, about a grasping, hard man,
+and mentioned you as my friend. Then he warned me against a proposal
+that Bob might make; and sure enough, Bob did propose to buy what land
+is left to me on Bayou Terrebonne, saying he'd persuade his oil company
+that there was oil on it, and that they'd buy or lease it. I told him
+no. The Franciscan, afterward, proved to be Henry Gramont; I wondered if
+you had mentioned----"
+
+"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Mr. Fell, piously. "I never even met Gramont
+until last night! Do you like him?"
+
+"Very much." The girl's eyes met his frankly. "Do you?"
+
+"Very much," said Jachin Fell.
+
+Lucie's gray eyes narrowed, searched his face. "I'm almost able to tell
+when you're lying," she observed, calmly. "You said that a trifle too
+hastily, Uncle Jachin. Why don't you like him?"
+
+Fell laughed, amused. "Perhaps I have a prejudice against foreign
+nobles, Lucie. Our own aristocracy is bad enough, but----"
+
+"He's discarded all that. He was never French except in name."
+
+"You speak as though you'd known him for some time. Have you had secrets
+from me?"
+
+"I have!" laughter dimpled in the girl's face. "For years and years!
+When I was in New York with father, before the war, we met him; he was
+visiting in Newport with college friends. Then, you know that father and
+I were in France when the war broke out--father was ill and almost
+helpless at the time, you remember. Gramont came to Paris to serve with
+his regiment, and met us there. He helped us get away, procured real
+money for us, got us passage to New York. He knows lots of our friends,
+and I've always been deeply grateful to him for his assistance then.
+
+"We've corresponded quite frequently during the war," she pursued. "I
+mentioned him several times after we got home from France, but you
+probably failed to notice the name. It's only since he came to New
+Orleans that I really kept any secrets from you; this time, I wanted to
+find out if you liked him."
+
+Jachin Fell nodded slowly. His face was quite innocent of expression.
+
+"Yes, yes," he said. "Yes--of course. He's a geologist or engineer, I
+think?"
+
+"Both, and a good one. He's a stockholder in Bob Maillard's oil company,
+and I think he's come here to stay. Well, about last night--he probably
+guessed at some of my private affairs; I've written or spoken rather
+frankly, perhaps. Also, Bob may have blabbed to him. Bob still
+drinks--prohibition has not hit _him_ very hard!"
+
+"No," agreed Fell, gravely. "Unfortunately, no. Lucie, I've discovered a
+most important fact. Joseph Maillard did not own any stock in the Bayou
+Oil Company at the time your land was sold them by him, and he had no
+interest at all in the real estate concern that bought your St. Landry
+swamplands and made a fortune off them. We have really blamed him most
+unjustly."
+
+For a moment there was silence between them.
+
+"We need not mince matters," pursued Fell, slowly. "Maillard has no
+scruples and no compassion; all the same, I am forced to the belief that
+he has maintained your interest uprightly, and that his mistakes were
+only errors. I do not believe that he has profited in the least from
+you. Two small fortunes were swept out of your grip when he sold those
+lands; yet they had been worthless, and he had good offers for them. His
+investments in the companies concerned were made afterward, and I am
+certain he sold the lands innocently."
+
+Lucie drew a deep breath.
+
+"I am glad you have said this," she returned, simply. "It's been hard
+for me to think that Uncle Joseph had taken advantage of me; I simply
+couldn't make myself believe it. I think that he honestly likes me, as
+far as he permits himself to like any one."
+
+"He'd not loan you money on it," said Fell. "Friendship isn't a tangible
+security with him. And a girl is never secure, as Eliza said when she
+crossed the ice."
+
+"Well, who really did profit by my loss? Any one?"
+
+Fell's pale gray eyes twinkled, then cleared in their usually wide
+innocence.
+
+"My dear Lucie, is there one person in this world to whose faults Joseph
+Maillard is deliberately blind--one person to whose influence he is ever
+open--one person to whom he would refuse nothing, in whom he would
+pardon everything, of whom he would never believe any evil report?"
+
+"You mean----" Lucie drew a quick breath, "Bob?"
+
+"Yes, I mean Bob. That he has profited by your loss I am not yet in a
+position to say; but I suspect it. He has his father's cupidity without
+his father's sense of honour to restrain him. When I have finished with
+the Masquer, I shall take up his trail."
+
+Jachin Fell rose. "Now I must be off, my dear. By the way, if I have
+need of you in running down the Masquer, may I call upon your services?"
+
+"Certainly! I'd love to help, Uncle Jachin! We'd be real detectives?"
+
+"Almost." Jachin Fell smiled slightly. "Will you dine with us to-morrow
+evening, Lucie? My mother commanded me to bring you as soon as
+possible----"
+
+"Oh, your mother!" exclaimed the girl, contritely. "I was so absorbed in
+the Masquer that I forgot to ask after her. How is she?"
+
+"Quite as usual, thank you. I presume that you'll attend Comus with the
+Maillards?"
+
+"Yes. I'll come to-morrow night gladly, Uncle Jachin."
+
+"And we'll take a look at the Proteus ball afterward, if you like. I'll
+send Ben Chacherre for you with the car, if you're not afraid of him."
+
+Lucie looked gravely into the smiling eyes of Fell.
+
+"I'm not exactly afraid of him," she responded, soberly, "but there is
+something about him that I can't like. I'm sorry that you're trying to
+regenerate him, in a way."
+
+Fell shrugged lightly. "All life is an effort, little one! Well,
+good-bye."
+
+Jachin Fell left the house at three-forty. Twenty minutes later the bell
+rang again. Lucie sent one of the servants to admit Henry Gramont; she
+kept him waiting a full fifteen minutes before she appeared, and then
+she made no apologies whatever for the delay.
+
+Not that Gramont minded waiting; he deemed it a privilege to linger in
+this house! He loved to study the place, so reflective of its owner. He
+loved the white Colonial mantel that surrounded the fireplace,
+perpetually alight, with its gleaming sheen of old brasses, and the
+glittering fire-set to one side. The very air of the place, the
+atmosphere that it breathed, was sweet to him.
+
+The Napoleon bed that filled the bow window, with its pillows and soft
+coverings; the inlaid walnut cabinet made by Sheraton, with its quaintly
+curved glasses that reflected the old-time curios within; the tilt
+tables, the rosewood chairs, the rugs, bought before the oriental rug
+market was flooded with machine-made Senna knots--about everything here
+had an air of comfort, of long use, of restfulness. It was not the sort
+of place built up, raw item by raw item, by the colour-frenzied hands of
+decorators. It was the sort of place that decorators strive desperately
+to imitate, and cannot.
+
+When Lucie made her appearance, Gramont bent over her hand and addressed
+her in French.
+
+"You are charming as ever, Shining One! And in years to come you will be
+still more charming. That is the beauty of having a name taken direct
+from the classics and bestowed as a good fairy's gift----"
+
+"Thank you, monsieur--but you have translated my name at least twenty
+times, and I am weary of hearing it," responded Lucie, laughingly.
+
+"Poor taste, mademoiselle, to grow weary of such beauty!"
+
+"Not of the name, but of your exegesis upon it. Why should I not be
+displeased? Last night you were positively rude, and now you decry my
+taste! Did you leave all your manners in France, M. le prince?"
+
+"Some of them, yes--and all that prince stuff with them." Smiling as he
+dropped into English, Gramont glanced about the room, and his eyes
+softened.
+
+"This is a lovey and loveable home of yours, Lucie!" he exclaimed,
+gravely. "So few homes are worthy the name; so few have in them the
+intimate air of use and friendliness--why are so many furnished from
+bargain sales? This place is touched with repose and sweetness; to come
+and sit here is a privilege. It is like being in another world, after
+all the money striving and the dollar madness of the city."
+
+"Oh!" The girl's gaze searched him curiously. "I hope you're not going
+to take the fine artistic pose that it is a crime to make money?"
+
+Gramont laughed.
+
+"Not much! I want to make money myself; that's one reason I'm in New
+Orleans. Still, you cannot deny that there is a craze about the eternal
+clutching after dollars. I can't make the dollar sign the big thing in
+life, Lucie. You couldn't, either."
+
+She frowned a little.
+
+"You seem to have the European notion that all Americans are dollar
+chasers!"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders slightly. His harshly lined face was very
+strong; one sensed that its harshness had come from the outside--from
+hunger, from hardship and privations, from suffering strongly borne. He
+had not gone through the war unscathed, this young man who had tossed
+away a princely "de" in order to become plain Henry Gramont, American
+citizen.
+
+"In a sense, yes; why not?" he answered. "I am an American. I am a
+dollar chaser, and not ashamed of it. I am going into business here.
+Once it is a success, I shall go on; I shall see America, I shall come
+to know this whole country of mine, all of it! I have been a month in
+New Orleans--do you know, a strange thing happened to me only a few days
+after I arrived here!"
+
+With her eyes she urged him on, and he continued gravely:
+
+"In France I met a man, an American sergeant named Hammond. It was just
+at the close of things. We had adjoining cots at Nice----"
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, quickly. "I remember, you wrote about him--the man
+who had been wounded in both legs! Did he get well? You never said."
+
+"I never knew until I came here," answered Gramont. "One night, not long
+after I had got established in my pension on Burgundy Street, a man
+tried to rob me. It was this same man, Hammond; we recognized each other
+almost at once.
+
+"I took him home with me and learned his story. He had come back to
+America only to find his wife dead from influenza, his home broken up,
+his future destroyed. He drifted to New Orleans, careless of what
+happened to him. He flung himself desperately into a career of burglary
+and pillage. Well, I gave Hammond a job; he is my chauffeur. You would
+never recognize him as the same man now! I am very proud of his
+friendship."
+
+"That was well said." Lucie nodded her head quickly. "I shan't call you
+M. Le prince any more--unless you offend again."
+
+He smiled, reading her thought. "I try not to be a snob, eh? Well, what
+I'm driving at is this: I want to know this country of mine, to see it
+with clear, unprejudiced eyes. We hide our real shames and exalt our
+false ones. Why should we be ashamed of chasing the dollar? So long as
+that is a means to the end of happiness, it's all right. But there are
+some men who see it as an end alone, who can set no _finis_ to their
+work except the dollar dropping into their pouch. Such a man is your
+relative, Joseph Maillard--I say it without offence."
+
+Lucie nodded, realizing that he was driving at some deeper thing, and
+held her peace.
+
+"You realize the fact, eh?" Gramont smiled faintly. "I do not wish to
+offend you, and I shall therefore refrain from saying all that is in my
+mind. But you have not hesitated to intimate very frankly that you are
+not wealthy. Some time ago, if you recall, you wrote me how you had just
+missed wealth through having sold some land. I have taken the liberty of
+looking up that deal to some extent, and I have suspected that your
+uncle had some interest in putting the sale through----"
+
+The gray eyes of the girl flashed suddenly.
+
+"Henry Gramont! Are my family affairs to be an open book to the world?"
+A slight flush, perhaps of anger, perhaps of some other emotion, rose in
+the girl's cheeks. "Do you realize that you are intruding most
+unwarrantably into my private matters?"
+
+"Unwarrantably?" Gramont's eyes held her gaze steadily. "Do you really
+mean to use that word?"
+
+"I do, most certainly!" answered Lucie with spirit. "I don't think you
+realize just what the whole thing tends toward----"
+
+"Oh, yes I do! Quite clearly." Gramont's cool, level tone conquered her
+indignation. "I see that you are orphaned, and that your uncle was your
+guardian, and executed questionable deals which lost money for you.
+Come, that's brutally frank--but it's true! We are friends of long
+standing; not intimate friends, perhaps, and yet I think very good
+friends. I am most certainly not ashamed to say that when I had the
+occasion to look out for your interests I was very glad of the chance."
+
+Gramont paused, but she did not speak. He continued after a moment:
+
+"You had intimated to me, perhaps without meaning to do so, something of
+the situation. I came here to New Orleans and became involved in some
+dealings with your cousin, Bob Maillard. I believed, and I believe now,
+that in your heart you have some suspicion of your uncle in regard to
+those transactions in land. Therefore, I took the trouble to look into
+the thing to a slight extent. Shall I tell you what I have discovered?"
+
+Lucie Ledanois gazed at him, her lips compressed. She liked this new
+manner of his, this firm and resolute gravity, this harshness. It
+brought out his underlying character very well.
+
+"If you please, Henry," she murmured very meekly. "Since you have thrust
+yourself into my private affairs, I think I should at least get whatever
+benefit I can!"
+
+"Exactly. Why not?" He made a grave gesture of assent. "Well, then, I
+have discovered that your uncle appears to be honestly at fault in the
+matter----"
+
+"Thanks for this approval of my family," she murmured.
+
+"And," continued Gramont, imperturbably, "that your suspicions of him
+were groundless. But, on the other hand, something new has turned up
+about which I wish to speak--but about which I must speak delicately."
+
+"Be frank, my dear Henry--even brutal! Speak, by all means."
+
+"Very well. Has Bob Maillard offered to buy your remaining land on the
+Bayou Terrebonne?"
+
+She started slightly. So it was to this that he had been leading up all
+the while!
+
+"He broached the subject last night," she answered. "I dismissed it for
+the time."
+
+"Good!" he exclaimed with boyish vigour. "Good! I warned you in time,
+then! If you will permit me, I must advise you not to part with that
+land--not even for a good offer. This week, immediately Mardi Gras is
+over, I am going to inspect that land for the company; it is Bob
+Maillard's company, you know.
+
+"If there's any chance of finding oil there, I shall first see you, then
+advise the company. You can hold out for your fair share of the mineral
+rights, instead of selling the whole thing. You'll get it! Landowners
+around here are not yet wise to the oil game, but they'll soon learn."
+
+"You would betray your business associates to help me?" she asked,
+curious to hear his reply. A slow flush crept into his cheeks.
+
+"Certainly not! But I would not betray you to help my business friends.
+Is my unwarrantable intrusion forgiven?"
+
+She nodded brightly. "You are put on probation, sir. You're in Bob's
+company?"
+
+"Yes." Gramont frowned. "I invested perhaps too hastily--but no matter
+now. I have the car outside, Lucie; may I have the pleasure of taking
+you driving?"
+
+"Did you bring that chauffeur?"
+
+"Yes," and he laughed at her eagerness.
+
+"Good! I accept--because I must see that famous
+soldier-bandit-chauffeur. If you'll wait, I'll be ready in a minute."
+
+She hurried from the room, a snatch of song on her lips. Gramont smiled
+as he waited.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+                         _The Masquer Unmasks_
+
+
+In New Orleans one may find pensions in the old quarter--the quarter
+which is still instinct with the pulse of old-world life. These pensions
+do not advertise. The average tourist knows nothing of them. Even if he
+knew, indeed, he might have some difficulty in obtaining accommodations,
+for it is not nearly enough to have the money; one must also have the
+introductions, come well recommended, and be under the tongue of good
+repute.
+
+Gramont had obtained a small apartment _en pension_--a quiet and
+severely retired house in Burgundy Street, maintained by a very proud
+old lady whose ancestors had come out of Canada with the Sieur
+d'Iberville. Here Gramont lived with Hammond, quite on a basis of
+equality, and they were very comfortable.
+
+The two men sat smoking their pipes before the fireplace, in which
+blazed a small fire--more for good cheer than through necessity. It was
+Sunday evening. Between Gramont and Hammond had arisen a discussion
+regarding their relations--a discussion which was perhaps justified by
+Gramont's quixotic laying down of the law.
+
+"It's all very well, Hammond," he mused, "to follow custom and
+precedent, to present to the world a front which will not shock its
+proprieties, its sense of tradition and fitness. In the world's eye you
+are my chauffeur. But when we're alone together--nonsense!"
+
+"That's all right, cap'n," said Hammond, shrewdly. To him, Gramont was
+always "cap'n" and nothing else. "But you know's well as I do it can't
+go on forever. I'm workin' for you, and that's the size of it. I ain't
+got the education to stack up alongside of you. I don't want you to get
+the notion that I'm figuring on takin' advantage of you----"
+
+"Bosh! I suppose some day I'll be wealthy, married, and bound in the
+chains of social usage and custom," said Gramont, energetically. "But
+that day isn't here yet. If you think I'll accept deference and
+servility from any man who has endured the same hunger and cold and
+wounds that I endured in France--then guess again! We're friends in a
+democracy of Americans. You're just as good a man as I am, and vice
+versa. Besides, aren't we fellow criminals?"
+
+Hammond grinned at this. There was no lack of shrewd intelligence in his
+broad and powerful features, which were crowned by a rim of reddish
+hair.
+
+"All that line o' bull sounds good, cap'n, only it's away off," he
+returned. "Trouble with you is, you ain't forgot the war yet."
+
+"I never will," said Gramont, his face darkening.
+
+"Sure you will! We all will. And you ain't as used to this country as I
+am, either. I've seen too much of it. You ain't seen enough."
+
+"I've seen enough to know that it's my country."
+
+"Right. But I ain't as good a man as you are, not by a long shot!" said
+Hammond, cheerfully. "You proved that the night you caught me comin'
+into the window at the Lavergne house. You licked me without half
+tryin', cap'n!
+
+"Anyhow," pursued Hammond, "America ain't a democracy, unless you're
+runnin' for Congress. It sounds good to the farmers, but wait till
+you've been here long enough to get out of your fine notions! Limousines
+and money ain't got much use for democracy. The men who have brains,
+like you, always will give orders, I reckon."
+
+"Bosh!" said Gramont again. "It isn't a question of having brains. It's
+a question of knowing what to do with them. All men are born free and
+equal----"
+
+"Not much!" retorted the other with conviction. "All men were born free,
+but mighty few were born equal, cap'n. That sort o' talk sounds good in
+the newspapers, but it don't go very far with the guy at the bottom, nor
+the top, either!"
+
+Gramont stared into the flickering fire and sucked at his pipe. He
+realized that in a sense Hammond was quite correct in his argument;
+nonetheless, he looked on the other man as a comrade, and always would
+do so. It was true that he had not forgotten the war. Suddenly he roused
+himself and shot a glance at Hammond.
+
+"Sergeant! You seem to have a pretty good recollection of that night at
+the Lavergne house, when I found you entering and jumped on you."
+
+"You bet I have!" Hammond chuckled. "When you'd knocked the goggles off
+me and we recognized each other--hell! I felt like a boob."
+
+Gramont smiled. "How many places had you robbed up to then? Three,
+wasn't it?"
+
+"Three is right, cap'n," was the unashamed response.
+
+"We haven't referred to it very often, but now things have happened."
+Gramont's face took on harsh lines of determination. "Do you know, it
+was a lucky thing that you had no chance to dispose of the jewels and
+money you obtained? But I suppose you didn't call it good luck at the
+time."
+
+"No chance?" snorted the other. "No chance is right, cap'n! And I was
+sore, too. Say, they got a ring of crooks around this town you couldn't
+bust into with grenades! I couldn't figure it out for a while, but only
+the other day I got the answer. Listen here, and I'll tell you something
+big."
+
+Hammond leaned forward, lowered his voice, and tamped at his pipe.
+
+"When I was a young fellow I lived in a little town up North--I ain't
+sayin' where. My old man had a livery stable there, see? Well, one night
+a guy come along and got the old man out of bed, and slips him fifteen
+hundred for a rig and a team, see? I drove the guy ten miles through the
+hills, and set him on a road he wanted to find.
+
+"Now, that guy was the biggest crook in the country in them days--still
+is, I guess. He was on the dead run that night, to keep out o'
+Leavenworth. He kep' out, all right, and he's settin' in the game to
+this minute. Nobody never pinched him yet, and never will."
+
+Gramont's face had tensed oddly as he listened. Now he shot out a single
+word:
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because his gang runs back to politicians and rich guys all over the
+country. You ask anybody on the inside if they ever heard of Memphis
+Izzy Gumberts! Well, cap'n, I seen that very identical guy on the street
+the other day--I never could forget his ugly mug! And where _he_ is, no
+outside crooks can get in, you believe me!"
+
+"Hm! Memphis Izzy Gumberts, eh? What kind of a crook is he, sergeant?"
+
+"The big kind. You remember them Chicago lotteries? But you don't, o'
+course. Well, that's his game--lotteries and such like."
+
+Gramont's lips clenched for a minute, then he spoke with slow
+distinctness:
+
+"Sergeant, I'd have given five hundred dollars for that information a
+week ago!"
+
+"Why?" Hammond stared at him suddenly. Gramont shook his head.
+
+"Never mind. Forget it! Now, this stunt of yours was clever. You showed
+brains when you got yourself up as an aviator and pulled that stuff,
+sergeant. But you handled it brutally--terribly brutally."
+
+"It was a little raw, I guess," conceded Hammond. "I was up against it,
+that's all--I figured they'd pinch me sooner or later, but I didn't
+care, and that's the truth! I was out for the coin.
+
+"When you took over the costume and began to get across with the Raffles
+stuff--why, it was a pipe for you, cap'n! Look what we've done in a
+month. Six jobs, every one running off smooth as glass! Your notion of
+going to parties ready dressed with some kind of loose robe over the
+flyin' duds was a scream! And then me running that motor with the cutout
+on--all them birds that never heard an airplane think you come and go by
+air, for certain! I will say that I ain't on to why you're doing it;
+just the same, you've got them all fooled, and I ain't worried a
+particle about the cops or the crooks, either one. But watch out for the
+Gumberts crowd! They're liable to show us up to the bulls, simply
+because we ain't in with 'em. Nobody else will ever find us out."
+
+Gramont nodded thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes? But, sergeant, how about the quiet little man who came along last
+night at the Maillard house and asked about the car? Perhaps he had
+discovered you had been running the engine."
+
+"Him?" Hammond sniffed in scorn. "He wasn't no dick."
+
+"Well, I was followed to-day; at least, I think I was. I could spot
+nobody after me, but I felt certain of it. And let me tell you something
+about that same quiet little man! His name is Jachin Fell."
+
+"Heluva name," commented Hammond, and wrinkled up his brow. "Jachin,
+huh? Seems like I've heard the name before. Out o' the Bible, ain't it?
+Something about Jachin and Boaz?"
+
+"I imagine so." Gramont smiled as he replied. "Fell is a lawyer, but he
+never practises law. He's rich, he's a very fine chess player--and
+probably the smartest man in New Orleans, sergeant. Just what he does I
+don't know; no one does. I imagine that he's one of those quiet men who
+stay in the backgrounds of city politics and pull the strings. You know,
+one administration has been in power here for nearly twenty years--it's
+something to make a man stop and think!
+
+"This chap Fell is sharp, confoundedly sharp!" went on Gramont, while
+the chauffeur listened with frowning intentness. "He's altogether too
+sharp to be a criminal--or I'd suspect that he was using his knowledge
+of the law to beat the law. Well, I think that he is on to me, and is
+trying to get the goods on me."
+
+"Oh!" said Hammond. "And someone was trailin' you? Think he's put the
+bulls wise?"
+
+Gramont shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. He almost caught me last
+night. We'll have to get rid of that aviator's suit at once, and of the
+loot also. I suppose you've reconciled yourself to returning the stuff?"
+
+Hammond stirred uneasily, and laid down his pipe.
+
+"Look here, cap'n," he said, earnestly. "I wasn't runnin' a holdup game
+because I liked it, and I wasn't doing it for the fun of the thing, like
+you are. I was dead broke, I hadn't any hope left, and I didn't care a
+damn whether I lived or died--that's on the dead! Right there, you come
+along and picked me up.
+
+"You give me a job. What's more, you've treated me white, cap'n. I guess
+you seen that I was just a man with the devil at his heels, and you
+chased the devil off. You've given me something decent to live for--to
+make good because you got some faith in me! Why, when you went out on
+that first job of ours, d'you know it like to broke me up? It did. Only,
+when we got home that night and you said it was all a joke, and you'd
+send back the loot later on, then I begun to feel better about it. Even
+if you'd gone into it as a reg'lar business, I'd have stuck with
+you--but I was darned glad about its bein' a joke!"
+
+Gramont nodded in comprehension of the other's feeling.
+
+"It's not been altogether a joke, sergeant," he said, gravely. "To tell
+the truth, I did start it as a joke, but soon afterward I learned
+something that led me to keep it up. I kept it up until I could hit the
+Maillard house. It was my intention to turn up at the Comus ball, on
+Tuesday night, and there make public restitution of the stuff--but
+that's impossible now. I dare not risk it! That man Fell is too smart."
+
+"You're not goin' to pull the trick again, then?" queried Hammond,
+eagerly.
+
+"No. I'm through. I've got what I wanted. Still, I don't wish to return
+the stuff before Wednesday--Ash Wednesday, the end of the carnival
+season. Suppose you get out the loot and find me some boxes. And be sure
+they have no name on them or any store labels."
+
+Hammond leaped up and vanished in the room adjoining. Presently he
+returned, bearing several cardboard boxes which he dumped on the centre
+table. Gramont examined them closely, and laid aside a number that were
+best suited to his purpose. Meantime, the chauffeur was opening a
+steamer trunk which he pulled from under the bed.
+
+"I'm blamed glad you're done, believe me!" he uttered, fervently,
+glancing up at Gramont. "Far's I'm concerned I don't care much, but I'd
+sure hate to see the bulls turn in a guy like you, cap'n. You couldn't
+ever persuade anybody that it was all a joke, neither, once they nabbed
+you. They're a bad bunch o' bulls in this town--it ain't like Chi or
+other places, where you can stand in right and do a bit o' fixing."
+
+"You seem to know the game pretty well," and Gramont smiled amusedly.
+
+"Ain't I been a chauffeur and garage man?" retorted Hammond, as though
+this explained much. "If there's anything us guys don't run up against,
+you can't name it! Here we are. Want me to keep each bunch separate,
+don't you?"
+
+"Sure. I'll be writing some notes to go inside."
+
+Gramont went to a buhl writing desk in the corner of the room, and sat
+down. He took out his notebook, tore off several sheets, and from his
+pocket produced a pencil having an extremely hard lead. He wrote a
+number of notes, which, except for the addresses, were identical in
+content:
+
+    DEAR SIR:
+
+    I enclose herewith certain jewellery and articles, also
+    currency, recently obtained by me under your kind auspices.
+
+    I trust that you will assume the responsibility of returning
+    these things to the various guests who lost them while under
+    your roof. I regret any discomfort occasioned by my taking them
+    as a loan, which I now return. Please convey to the several
+    owners my profound esteem and my assurance that I shall not in
+    future appear to trouble any one, the carnival season having
+    come to an end, and with it my little jest.
+
+                                           THE MIDNIGHT MASQUER.
+
+Gathering up these notes in his hand, Gramont went to the fireplace. He
+tossed the pencil into the fire, following it with the notebook.
+
+"Can't take chances with that man Fell," he explained. "All ready,
+sergeant. Let's go down the list one by one."
+
+From the trunk Hammond produced ticketed packages, which he placed on
+the table. Gramont selected one, opened it, carefully packed the
+contents in one of the boxes, placed the proper addressed note on top,
+and handed it to the chauffeur.
+
+"Wrap it up and address it. Give the return address of John Smith, Bayou
+Teche."
+
+One by one they went through the packages of loot in the same manner.
+Before them on the table, as they worked, glittered little heaps of
+rings, brooches, watches, currency; jewels that flashed garishly with
+coloured fires, historic and famous jewels plucked from the aristocratic
+heart of the southland, heirlooms of a past generation side by side with
+platinum crudities of the present fashion.
+
+There had been heartburnings in the loss of these things, Gramont knew.
+He could picture to himself something of what had followed his
+robberies: family quarrels, new purchases in the gem marts, bitter
+reproaches, fresh mortgages on old heritages, vexations of wealthy
+dowagers, shrugs of unconcern by the _nouveaux riches_; perchance lives
+altered--deaths--divorces----
+
+"There's a lot of human life behind these baubles, sergeant," he
+reflected aloud, a cold smile upon his lips as he worked. "When they
+come back to their owners, I'd like to be hovering around in an
+invisible mantle to watch results! Could we only know it, we're probably
+affecting the lives of a great many people--for good and ill. These
+things stand for money; and there's nothing like money, or the lack of
+it, to guide the destinies of people."
+
+"You said it," and Hammond grinned. "I'm here to prove it, ain't I? I
+ain't pulling no more gunplay, now I got me a steady job."
+
+"And a steady friend, old man," added Gramont. "Did it occur to you that
+maybe I was as much in need of a friend as you were?"
+
+He had come to the last box now, that which must go to Joseph Maillard.
+On top of the money and scarfpins which he placed in the box he laid a
+thin packet of papers. He tapped them with his finger.
+
+"Those papers, sergeant! To get them, I've been playing the whole game.
+To get them and not to let their owner suspect that I was after them!
+Now they're going back to their owner."
+
+"Who's he?" demanded Hammond.
+
+"Young Maillard--son of the banker. He roped me into an oil company;
+caught me, like a sucker, almost the first week I was here. I put pretty
+near my whole wad into that company of his."
+
+"You mean he stung you?"
+
+"Not yet." Gramont smiled coldly, harshly. "That was his intention; he
+thought I was a Frenchman who would fall for any sort of game. I fell
+right enough--but I'll come out on top of the heap."
+
+The other frowned. "I don't get you, cap'n. Some kind o' stock deal?"
+
+"Yes, and no." Gramont paused, and seemed to choose his words with care.
+"Miss Ledanois, the lady who was driving with us this afternoon, is an
+old friend of mine. I've known for some time that somebody was fleecing
+her. I suspected that it was Maillard the elder, for he has had the
+handling of her affairs for some time past. Now, however, those papers
+have given me the truth. He was straight enough with her; his son was
+the man.
+
+"The young fool imagines that by trickery and juggling he is playing the
+game of high finance! He worked on his father, made his father sell land
+owned by Miss Ledanois, and he himself reaped the profits. There are
+notes and stock issues among those papers that give his whole game away,
+to my eyes. Not legal evidence, as I had hoped, but evidence enough to
+show me the truth of things--to show me that he's a scoundrel! Further,
+they bear on my own case, and I'm satisfied now that I'd be ruined if I
+stayed with him."
+
+"Well, that's easy settled," said Hammond. "Just hold him up with them
+papers--make him come across!"
+
+"I'm not in that sort of business. I stole those papers, not to use them
+for blackmail, but to get information. By the way, get that tin box out
+of my trunk, will you? I want to take my stock certificates with me in
+the morning, and must not forget them."
+
+Hammond disappeared into the adjoining room.
+
+Gramont sat gazing at the boxes before him. Despite his words to
+Hammond, there was a fund of puzzled displeasure in his eyes, sheer
+dissatisfaction. He shook his head gloomily, and his eyes clouded.
+
+"All wasted--the whole effort!" he murmured. "I thought it might lead to
+something, but all it has given me is the reward of saving myself and
+possibly retrieving Lucie. As for the larger game, the bigger
+quarry--it's all wasted. I haven't unravelled a single thread; the first
+real clue came to me to-night, purely by accident. Memphis Izzy
+Gumberts! That's the lead to follow! I'll get rid of this Midnight
+Masquer foolishness and go after the real game."
+
+Gramont was to discover that it is not nearly so easy to be rid of folly
+as it is to don the jester's cap and bells; a fact which one
+Simplicissimus had discovered to his sorrow three hundred years earlier.
+But, as Gramont was not versed in this line of literature, he yet had
+the discovery ahead of him.
+
+Hammond reentered the room with the tin box, from which Gramont took his
+stock certificates issued by Bob Maillard's oil company. He pocketed the
+shares.
+
+"Does this here Miss Ledanois," asked Hammond, "play in with you in the
+game? Young Maillard's related to her, ain't he?"
+
+"She's quite aware of his drawbacks, I think," answered Gramont, drily.
+
+"I see." Hammond rubbed his chin, and inspected his employer with a
+twinkle denoting perfect comprehension. "Well, how d'you expect to come
+out on top of the heap?"
+
+"I want to get my own money back," explained Gramont. "You see, young
+Maillard thinks that he's cleaned me up fine. I've invested heavily in
+his company, which has a couple of small wells already going. As I
+conceive the probable scheme, this company is scheduled to fail, and
+another company will take over the stock at next to nothing. Maillard
+will be the other company; his present associates will be the suckers!
+It's that, or some similar trick. I'm no longer interested in the
+affair."
+
+"Why not, if you got money in it?"
+
+"My son, to-morrow is Monday. Proteus will arrive out of the sea
+to-morrow, and the Proteus ball comes off to-morrow night. In spite of
+these distractions, the banks are open in the morning. Savvy?
+
+"I'll go to Maillard the banker--Joseph Maillard--first thing in the
+morning, and offer him my stock. He'll be mighty glad to get it at a
+discount, knowing that it is in his son's company. You see, the son
+doesn't confide in the old man particularly. I'll let the father win a
+little money on the deal with me, and by doing this I'll manage to save
+the greater part of my investment----"
+
+"Holy mackerel!" Hammond exploded in a burst of laughter as he caught
+the idea. "Say, if this ain't the richest thing ever pulled! When the
+crash comes, the fancy kid will be stinging his dad good and hard, eh?"
+
+"Exactly; and I think his dad can afford to be stung much better than I
+can," agreed Gramont, cheerfully. "Also, now that I'm certain Bob
+Maillard is the one who was behind the fleecing of Miss Ledanois, I'll
+first get clear of him, then I'll start to give him his deserts. I may
+form an oil company of my own."
+
+"Do it," advised Hammond, still chuckling.
+
+"Now," and Gramont rose, "let's take those packages and stow them away
+in the luggage compartment of the car. I'm getting nervous at the
+thought of having them around here, and they'll be perfectly safe there
+overnight--safer there than here, in fact. To-morrow, you can take the
+car out of town and send the packages by parcels post from some small
+town.
+
+"In that way they ought to be delivered here on Wednesday. You'd better
+wear one of my suits, leaving your chauffeur's outfit here, and don't
+halt the car in front of the postoffice where you mail the packages----"
+
+"I get you," assented Hammond, sagely. "I'll leave the car outside town,
+and hoof it in with the boxes, so that nobody will notice the car or
+connect it with the packages, eh? But what about them aviator's
+clothes?"
+
+"Take them with you--better get them wrapped up here and now. You can
+toss them into a ditch anywhere."
+
+Hammond obeyed.
+
+Ten minutes afterward the two men left the room, carrying the packages
+of loot and the bundle containing the aviator's uniform. They descended
+to the courtyard in the rear of the house. Here was a small garden, with
+a fountain in its centre. Behind this were the stables, which had long
+been disused as such, and which were now occupied only by the car of
+Gramont.
+
+It was with undisguised relief that Gramont now saw the stuff actually
+out of the house. Within the last few hours he had become intensely
+afraid of Jachin Fell. Concentrating himself upon the man, picking up
+information guardedly, he had that day assimilated many small items
+which increased his sense of peril from that quarter. Straws, no more,
+but quite significant straws. Gramont realized clearly that if the
+police ever searched his rooms and found this loot, he would be lost.
+There could be no excuse that would hold water for a minute against such
+evidence.
+
+In the garage, Hammond switched on the lights of the car. By the glow
+they disposed their burdens in the luggage compartment of the tonneau,
+which held them neatly. The car was a large twelve-cylinder,
+four-passenger Nonpareil, which Gramont had picked up in the used-car
+market. Hammond had tinkered it into magnificent shape, and loved the
+piece of mechanism as the very apple of his eye.
+
+The luggage compartment closed and locked, they returned into the house
+and dismissed the affair as settled.
+
+Upon the following morning Gramont, who usually breakfasted _en pension_
+with his hostess, had barely seated himself at the table when he
+perceived the figure of Hammond at the rear entrance of the dining room.
+The chauffeur beckoned him hastily.
+
+"Come out here, cap'n!" Hammond was breathing heavily, and seemed to be
+in some agitation. "Want to show you somethin'!"
+
+"Is there anything important?" Gramont hesitated. The other regarded him
+with a baleful countenance.
+
+"Important? Worse'n that!"
+
+Gramont rose and followed Hammond out to the garage, much to his
+amazement. The chauffeur halted beside the car and extended him a key,
+pointing to the luggage compartment.
+
+"Here's the key--you open her!"
+
+"What's the matter, man?"
+
+"The stuff's gone!"
+
+Gramont seized the key and opened the compartment. It proved empty
+indeed. He stared up into the face of Hammond who was watching in dogged
+silence.
+
+"I knew you'd suspect me," broke out the chauffeur, but Gramont
+interrupted him curtly.
+
+"Don't be a fool; nothing of the sort. Was the garage locked?"
+
+"Yes, and the compartment, too! I came out to look over that cut tire,
+and thought I'd make sure the stuff was safe----"
+
+"We're up against it, that's all." Gramont compressed his lips for a
+moment. Then he straightened up and clapped the other on the shoulder.
+"Buck up! I never thought of suspecting you, old fellow. Someone must
+have been watching us last night, eh?"
+
+"The guy that trailed you yesterday, most like," agreed Hammond, dourly.
+"It ain't hard to break into this place, and any one could open that
+compartment with a hairpin."
+
+"Well, you're saved a trip into the country."
+
+"You think they got us, cap'n? What can we do?"
+
+"Do?" Gramont shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "Nothing except to
+wait and see what happens next! If you want to run, I'll give you enough
+money to land you in New York or Frisco----"
+
+"Run--hell!" Hammond sniffed in scorn. "What d'you think I am--a boche?
+I'll stick."
+
+"Good boy." Gramont turned toward the house. "Come along in and get
+breakfast, and don't touch that compartment door. I want to examine it
+later."
+
+Hammond gazed admiringly after him as he crossed the garden. "If you
+ain't a cool hand, I'm a Dutchman!" he murmured, and followed his
+master.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+
+                               _Chacherre_
+
+
+At ten o'clock that Monday morning Gramont's car approached Canal
+Street, and halted a block distant. For any car to gain Canal, much less
+to follow it, was impossible. From curb to curb the wide avenue was
+thronged with carnival folk, who would hold their own until Proteus came
+ashore to manage his own parade and his own section of the festivities.
+
+Gramont left the car, and turned to speak with Hammond.
+
+"I've made out at least two fingerprints on the luggage compartment," he
+said, quietly. "Drive around to police headquarters and enter a
+complaint in my name to a robbery of the compartment; say that the thief
+got away with some valuable packages I had been about to mail. They have
+a process of transferring fingerprints such as these; get it done.
+Perhaps they can identify the thief, for it must have been some clever
+picklock to get into the compartment without leaving a scratch. Take
+your time about it and come home when you've finished."
+
+Hammond listened stolidly. "If it was the bulls done it, cap'n, going to
+them will get us pinched sure----"
+
+"If they had done it," said Gramont, "we'd have been pinched long before
+this! It was someone sent by that devil Jachin Fell, and I'll land him
+if I can!"
+
+"Then Fell will land us if he's got the stuff!"
+
+"Let him! How can he prove anything, unless he had brought the police to
+open up that compartment? Get along with you!"
+
+Hammond grinned, saluted, and drove away.
+
+Slowly Gramont edged his way through the eddying crowds to Canal Street,
+and presently gained the imposing portals of the Exeter National Bank.
+Entering the building, he sent his card to the private office of the
+president; a moment later he was ushered in, and was closeted with
+Joseph Maillard.
+
+The interior of the Exeter National reflected the stern personality that
+ruled it. The bank was dark, old fashioned, conservative, guarded with
+much effrontery of iron grills and bars against the evil doer.
+
+The window men greeted their customers with infrequent smiles, with
+caution and reserve so great that it was positively chilly. Suspicion
+seemed in the air. The bank's reputation for guarding the sanctity of
+wealth seemed to rest heavily upon each pair of bowed shoulders. Even
+the stenographers were unhandsome women, weary-eyed, drearily efficient,
+and obviously respectable.
+
+As befitted so old and conservative a New Orleans institution, much of
+its business was transacted in French.
+
+The business customers of this bank found their affairs handled coldly,
+efficiently, with an inhuman precision that was admirable. It was good
+for business, and they liked it. There were no mistakes.
+
+People who were accustomed to dealing with bankers of cordial smile and
+courteous word, people who liked to walk into a bank and to be met with
+a personal greeting, did not come here, nor were they wanted here. The
+Exeter National was a place for business, not for courtesy. It was
+absolutely precise, cold, inhuman, and spelled business from the ground
+up. Its oldest customer could not buy a draft on Paris or London or
+other of the bank's correspondents without paying the required fee. The
+wealthiest depositor could not expect to overdraw his checking account
+one dollar without being required to settle up before the next day was
+gone. Loans were made hesitatingly, grudgingly, and of necessity, always
+on security and never on character.
+
+Such was the Exeter National. Its character was reflected in the cold
+faces at its windows, and the chance customers who entered its sacred
+portals were duly cowed and put in their proper place. Most of them
+were, that is. Occasionally some intrepid soul appeared who seemed
+impervious to the gloomy chill, who seemed even to resent it. One of
+these persons was now standing in the lobby and staring around with a
+cool impudence which drew unfavourable glances from the clerks.
+
+He was a decently dressed fellow, obviously no customer of this
+sacrosanct place, obviously a stranger to its interior. Beneath a
+rakishly cocked soft hat beamed a countenance that bore a look of
+self-assured impertinent deviltry. After one look at that countenance
+the assistant cashier crooked a hasty finger at the floor guard, who
+nodded and walked over to the intruder with a polite query.
+
+"Can I help you, sir?"
+
+The intruder turned, favoured the guard with a cool stare, then broke
+into a laugh and a flood of Creole dialect.
+
+"Why, if it isn't old Lacroix from Carencro! And look at the brass
+buttons--_diable_! You must own this place, hein? _la tche chatte pousse
+avec temps_--the cat's tail grows in time, I see! You remember me?"
+
+"Ben Chacherre!" exclaimed the guard, losing his dignity for an instant.
+"Why--you _vaurien_, you! You who disappeared from the parish and became
+a vagrant----"
+
+"So you turn up your sanctified nose at Ben Chacherre, do you?"
+exclaimed that person jauntily. He thrust his hat a bit farther over one
+ear, and proceeded to snap his fingers under the nose of Lacroix.
+
+"A _vaurien_, am I? Old peacock! Lead me to the man who cashes checks,
+lackey, brass buttons that you are! Come, obey me, or I'll have you
+thrown into the street!"
+
+"You--you wish to cash a check?" The guard was overcome by confusion,
+for the loud tones of Chacherre penetrated the entire institution. "But
+you are not known here----"
+
+"Bah, insolent one! _Macaque dan calebasse_--monkey in the calabash that
+you are! Do you not know me?"
+
+"Heaven preserve me! I will not answer for your accursed checks."
+
+"Go to the devil, then," snapped Chacherre, and turned away.
+
+His roving eyes had already found the correct window by means of the
+other persons seeking it, and now he stepped into the small queue that
+had formed. When it came his turn, he slid his check across the marble
+slab, tucked his thumbs into the armholes of his vest, and impudently
+stared into the questioning, coldly repellent eyes of the teller.
+
+"Well?" he exclaimed, as the teller examined the check. "Do you wish to
+eat it, that you sniff so hard?"
+
+The teller gave him a glance. "This is for a thousand dollars----"
+
+"Can I not read?" said Chacherre, with an impudent gesture. "Am I an
+ignorant 'Cajun? Have I not eyes in my head? If you wish to start an
+argument, say that the check is for a hundred dollars. Then, by heaven,
+I will argue something with you!"
+
+"You are Ben Chacherre, eh? Does any one here know you?"
+
+Chacherre exploded in a violent oath. "Dolt that you are, do I have to
+be known when the check is endorsed under my signature? Who taught you
+business, monkey?"
+
+"True," answered the teller, sulkily. "Yet the amount----"
+
+"Oh, bah!" Chacherre snapped his fingers. "Go and telephone Jachin Fell,
+you old woman! Go and tell him you do not know his signature--well, who
+are you looking at? Am I a telephone, then? You are not hired to look
+but to act! Get about it."
+
+The enraged and scandalized teller beckoned a confrere. Jachin Fell was
+telephoned. Presumably his response was reassuring, for Chacherre was
+presently handed a thousand dollars in small bills, as he requested. He
+insisted upon counting over the money at the window with insolent
+assiduity, flung a final compliment at the teller, and swaggered across
+the lobby. He was still standing by the entrance when Henry Gramont left
+the private office of the president and passed him by without a look.
+
+Gramont was smiling to himself as he left the bank, and Ben Chacherre
+was whistling gaily as he also left and plunged into the whirling vortex
+of the carnival crowds.
+
+Toward noon Gramont arrived afoot at his pension. Finding the rooms
+empty, he went on and passed through the garden. Behind the garage, in
+the alley, he discovered Hammond busily at work cleaning and polishing
+the engine of the car.
+
+"Hello!" he exclaimed, cheerily. "What luck?"
+
+"Pretty good, cap'n." Hammond glanced up, then paused.
+
+A stranger was strolling toward them along the alleyway, a jaunty
+individual who was gaily whistling and who seemed entirely carefree and
+happy. He appeared to have no interest whatever in them, and Hammond
+concluded that he was innocuous.
+
+"They got them prints fine, cap'n. What's more, they think they've
+located the fellow that made 'em."
+
+"Ah, good work!" exclaimed Gramont. "Some criminal?"
+
+Hammond frowned. The stranger had come to a halt a few feet distant,
+flung them a jerky, careless nod, and was beginning to roll a cigarette.
+He surveyed the car with a knowing and appreciative eye. Hammond turned
+his back on the man disdainfully.
+
+"Yep--a sneak thief they'd pinched a couple of years back; didn't know
+where he was, but the prints seemed to fit him. They'll come up and look
+things over sometime to-day, then go after him and land him."
+
+Gramont gave the stranger a glance, but the other was still surveying
+the car with evident admiration. If he heard their words he gave them no
+attention.
+
+"Who was the man, then?" asked Gramont.
+
+"A guy with a queer name--Ben Chacherre." Hammond pronounced it as he
+deemed correct--as the name was spelled. "Only they didn't call him
+that. Here, I wrote it down."
+
+He fished in his pocket and produced a paper. Gramont glanced at it and
+laughed.
+
+"Oh, Chacherre!" He gave the name the Creole pronunciation.
+
+"Yep, Sasherry. I expect they'll come any time now--said two bulls would
+drop in."
+
+"All right." Gramont nodded and turned away, with another glance at the
+stranger. "I'll not want the car to-day nor to-night that I know of. I'm
+not going to the Proteus ball. So your time's your own until to-morrow;
+make the most of it!"
+
+He disappeared, and Hammond returned to his work. Then he straightened
+up, for the jaunty stranger was bearing down upon him with evident
+intent to speak.
+
+"Some car you got there, brother!" Ben Chacherre, who had overheard most
+of the foregoing conversation, lighted his cigarette and grinned
+familiarly. "Some car, eh?"
+
+"She's a boat, all right," conceded Hammond, grudgingly. He did not like
+the other's looks, although praise of the car was sweet unto his soul.
+"She sure steps some."
+
+"Yes. All she needs," drawled Chacherre, "is some good tires, a new coat
+of paint, a good steel chassis, and a new engine----"
+
+"Huh?" snorted Hammond. "Say, you 'bo, who sold you chips in this game?
+Move along!"
+
+Ben grinned anew and rested himself against a near-by telephone pole.
+
+"Free country, ain't it?" he inquired, lazily. "Or have you invested
+your winnings and bought this here alley?"
+
+Hammond reddened with anger and took a step forward. The next words of
+Chacherre, however, jerked him sharply into self-control.
+
+"Seen anything of an aviator's helmet around here?"
+
+"Huh?" The chauffeur glared at his tormentor, yet with a sudden sick
+feeling inside his bosom. He suddenly realized that the man's eyes were
+meeting his squarely, with a bold and insolent directness. "Who you
+kiddin' now?"
+
+"Nobody. I was asking a question, that's all." Ben Chacherre flung away
+his cigarette, untangled himself from the telephone pole, and moved
+away. "Only," he flung over his shoulder, "I was flyin' along here last
+night in my airplane, and I lost my helmet overboard. Thought maybe
+you'd seen it. So long, brother!"
+
+Hammond stood staring after the swaggering figure; for once he was
+speechless. The jaunty words had sent terror thrilling into him. He
+started impulsively to pursue that impudent accoster--then he checked
+himself. Had the man guessed something? Had the man known something? Or
+had those words been only a bit of meaningless impertinence--a chance
+shaft which had accidentally flown home?
+
+The last conjecture impressed itself on Hammond as being the truth, and
+his momentary fright died out. He concluded that the incident was not
+worth mentioning to Gramont, who surely had troubles enough of his own
+at this juncture. So he held his peace about it.
+
+As for Ben Chacherre, he sauntered from the alley, a careless whistle
+upon his lips. Once out of Hammond's sight, however, he quickened his
+pace. Turning into a side street, he directed his step toward that part
+of the old quarter which, in the days before prohibition, had been given
+over to low cabarets and dives of various sorts. Most of these places
+were now boarded up, and presumably abandoned. Coming to one of them,
+which appeared more dirty and desolate than the rest, Chacherre opened a
+side door and vanished.
+
+He entered what had once been the Red Cat cabaret. At a table in the
+half-darkened main room sat two men. A slovenly waiter pored over a
+newspaper at another table in a far corner. The two in the centre nodded
+to Chacherre. One of them, who was the proprietor, jerked his chin in an
+invitation to join them.
+
+A man famous in the underworld circles, a man whose renown rested on
+curious feats and facts, this proprietor; few crooks in the country had
+not heard the name of Memphis Izzy Gumberts. He was a grizzled old bear
+now; but in times past he had been the head of a far-flung organization
+which, on each pay day, covered every army post in the country and
+diverted into its own pockets about two thirds of Uncle Sam's payroll--a
+feat still related in criminal circles as the _ne plus ultra_ of
+success. Those palmy days were gone, but Memphis Izzy, who had never
+been "mugged" in any gallery, sat in his deserted cabaret and still did
+not lack for power and influence.
+
+The man at his side was apparently not anxious to linger, for he rose
+and made his farewells as Chacherre approached.
+
+"We have about eighteen cars left," he said to Gumberts. "Charley the
+Goog can attend to them, and the place is safe enough. They're up to
+you. I'm drifting back to Chi."
+
+"Drift along," and Gumberts nodded, a leer in his eyes. His face was
+broad, heavy-jowled, filled with a keen and forceful craft. "It's a
+cinch that nobody in this state is goin' to interfere with us. About
+them cars from Texas--any news?"
+
+"I've sent orders to bring 'em in next week."
+
+Gumberts nodded again, and the man departed. Into the chair which he had
+vacated dropped Ben Chacherre, and took from his pocket the money which
+he had obtained at the bank. He laid it on the table before Gumberts.
+
+"There you are," he said. "Amounts you want and all. The boss says to
+gimme a receipt."
+
+"Wouldn't trust you, eh?" jeered Gumberts. He took out pencil and paper,
+scrawled a word or two, and shoved the paper at Chacherre. Then he
+reached down to a small satchel which lay open on the floor beside his
+chair. "Why wouldn't the boss leave the money come out of the takin's,
+hey?"
+
+"Wanted to keep separate accounts," said Chacherre.
+
+Gumberts nodded and produced two large sealed envelopes, which he pushed
+across the table.
+
+"There's rakeoff for week before last," he announced. "Last week will be
+the big business, judgin' from early reports."
+
+Chacherre pocketed the envelopes, lighted a cigarette, and leaned
+forward.
+
+"Say, Izzy! You got to send a new man down to the Bayou Latouche right
+away. Lafarge was there, you know; a nigger shot him yesterday. The
+nigger threatened to squeal unless he got his money back--Lafarge was a
+fool and didn't know how to handle him. The lottery's goin' to get a bad
+name around there----"
+
+Gumberts snapped his fingers. "Let it!" he said, calmly. "The big money
+from all that section is Chinese and Filipino, my friend. The niggers
+don't matter."
+
+"Well, the boss says to shoot a new man down there. Also, he says, you'd
+better watch out about spreadin' the lottery into Texas and Alabama,
+account of the government rules."
+
+The heavy features of Gumberts closed in a scowl.
+
+"You tell your boss," he said, "that when it comes to steerin' clear of
+federal men, I don't want no instructions from nobody! We got every man
+in this state spotted. Every one that can be fixed is fixed--and that
+goes for the legislators and politicians clear up the line! Tell your
+boss to handle the local gov'ment as well as I handle other things, and
+he'll do all that's necessary. What he'd ought to attend to, for one
+thing, is this here guy who calls himself the Midnight Masquer. I've
+told him before that this guy was playing hell with my system! This
+Masquer gets no protection, see? The quicker Fell goes after him, the
+better for all concerned----"
+
+Chacherre laughed, not without a swagger.
+
+"We've attended to all that, Izzy--we've dropped on him and settled him!
+The guy was doin' it for a carnival joke, that's all. His loot is all
+goin' back to the owners to-day. It needn't worry you, anyhow! There was
+nothin' much to it--jewellery that couldn't be disposed of, for the most
+part. We couldn't take chances on that sort o' junk."
+
+"I should say not." Gumbert regarded him with a scowl. "You've got the
+stuff?"
+
+"The boss has. Look here, Izzy, I want you to use a little influence
+with headquarters on this deal--the boss doesn't want to show his hand
+there," and leaning forward, Ben Chacherre spoke in a low tone. Then,
+Gumberts heard him out, chuckled, and nodded assent.
+
+At two that afternoon Henry Gramont, who was writing letters in total
+disregard of the carnival parade downtown, was summoned to the
+telephone. He was greeted by a voice which he did not recognize, but
+which announced itself promptly.
+
+"This is Mr. Gramont? Police headquarters speakin'. You laid a charge
+this morning against a fellow named Chacherre?"
+
+"Yes," answered Gramont.
+
+"Must ha' been some mistake, then," came the response. "We thought the
+prints fitted, but found later they didn't. We looked up the Chacherre
+guy and found he was workin' steady and strictly O. K. What's more to
+the point, he proved up a dead sure alibi for the other night."
+
+"Oh!" said Gramont. "Then there's nothing to be done?"
+
+"Not yet. We're workin' on it, and maybe we'll have some news later.
+Good-bye."
+
+Gramont hung up the receiver, a puzzled frown creasing his brow. But,
+after a minute, he laughed softly--a trace of anger in the laugh.
+
+"Ah!" he murmured. "I congratulate you on your efficiency, Mr. Fell! But
+now wait a little--and we'll meet again. I think I'm getting somewhere
+at last, and I'll have a surprise for you one of these days!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+                             _In The Open_
+
+
+In New Orleans the carnival season is always opened by the ball of the
+Twelfth Night Revellers soon after Christmas, and is closed by that of
+the Krewe of Comus on Mardi Gras night. Upon this evening of "Fat
+Tuesday," indeed, both Rex and Comus hold forth. Rex is the popular
+ball, the affair of the people, and is held in the Athenaeum. From here,
+about midnight, the king and queen proceed to Comus ball.
+
+Comus is an assembly of such rigid exclusiveness that even the tickets
+to the galleries are considered social prizes. The _personae_ of the
+Krewe, on this particular year as in all previous ones, would remain
+unknown; there is no unmasking at Comus. This institution, a tremendous
+social power and potentially a financial power also, during decades of
+the city's life, is held absolutely above any taint of favouritism or
+commercialism. Even the families of those concerned might not always be
+certain whether their sons and brothers belonged to the Krewe of Comus.
+
+Henry Gramont did not attend the ball of Proteus on Monday night.
+Instead, he sat in his own room, while through the streets of the
+French quarter outside was raging the carnival at its height. Before
+him were maps and reports upon the gas and oil fields about Bayou
+Terrebonne--fields where great domes of natural gas were already
+located and in use, and where oil was being found in some quantity.
+Early on Wednesday morning Gramont intended to set forth to his work.
+He had been engaged to make a report to Bob Maillard's company, and he
+would make it. Then he would resign his advisory job, and be free. A
+smile curled his lips as he thought of young Maillard and the company.
+
+"The young gentleman will be sadly surprised to discover that I've
+gotten out from under--and that his respected father holds my stock!" he
+reflected. "That was a good deal; I lost a thousand to old Maillard in
+order to save the balance of thirty thousand!"
+
+A knock at his door interrupted the thread of this thought. Gramont
+opened, to find the concierge with a note which had been left at the
+door below by a masked Harlequin, who had then disappeared without
+awaiting any reply.
+
+Gramont recognized the writing on the envelope, and hastened to the note
+inside. His face changed, however, as he read it:
+
+    Please call promptly at eleven to-morrow morning. I wish to see
+    you upon a matter of business.
+
+                                                 LUCIE LEDANOIS.
+
+Gramont gazed long at this note, his brows drawn down into a harsh line.
+It was not like Lucie in its tone, somehow; he sensed something amiss,
+something vaguely but most decidedly out of tune. Certainly it was not
+her way to write thus curtly and harshly--the words disquieted him. What
+could have turned up now? Then, with a shrug, he tossed the note on the
+table.
+
+"Eleven to-morrow morning, eh?" he murmured. "That's queer, too, for
+she's to be at the Proteus ball to-night. Most girls would not be
+conducting business affairs at eleven in the morning, after being up all
+night at Proteus! It must be something important. Besides, she's not in
+the class with any one else. She's a rare girl; no nonsense in her--full
+of a deep, strong sense of things----"
+
+He forced himself from thoughts of Lucie, forced himself from her
+personality, and returned to his reports with an effort of
+concentration.
+
+Gramont wanted to look over her Terrebonne land with a full knowledge of
+its geology and situation. Oil drilling is a gamble in any case, yet
+Gramont took a scholar's solid satisfaction in getting his subject
+thoroughly in hand before he went to work at it. Then, he reflected, he
+would get his task finished as rapidly as might be, turn in his report,
+and resign from the company. After that--freedom! He regretted sadly
+enough that he had ever gone into any relations with Maillard's company.
+
+"Yet, what's to hinder my going ahead, in the meantime?" he considered.
+"What's to hinder getting my own company on its feet? Nothing! All I
+need is backing. I'll put in twenty-five thousand, and that much more
+added to it will give us plenty of capital to start in drilling with. If
+I could find someone who had a positive faith in my judgment and whom I
+could trust in turn----"
+
+He checked himself suddenly, and stared at the papers before him with
+widening eyes. A slow whistle came from his lips, and then he smiled and
+pulled the papers to him. Yet, as he worked he could not keep down the
+thought that had forced itself upon him. It was altogether absurd, of
+course--yet why not?
+
+When Gramont went to bed that night it was with a startling and
+audacious scheme well defined in his brain; a scheme whose first
+conception seemed ludicrous and impossible, yet which, on second
+consideration, appeared in a very different light. It deserved serious
+thought--and Gramont had made his decision before he went to sleep.
+
+The following day was Tuesday--Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, the last day
+before Lent began, and the final culminating day of carnival. Henry
+Gramont, however, was destined to find little in its beginning of much
+personal pleasure.
+
+At eleven in the morning Hammond drove him to the Ledanois home, where
+Gramont was admitted by one of the coloured servants and shown into the
+parlour. A moment later Lucie herself appeared. At first glance her
+smiling greeting removed the half-sensed apprehensions of Gramont.
+Almost immediately afterward, however, he noted a perceptible change in
+her manner, as she led him toward the rear of the room, and gestured
+toward a mahogany tilt-top table which stood in a corner.
+
+"Come over here, please. I have something which I wish to show you."
+
+She needed to say no more. Gramont, following her, found himself staring
+blankly down at the symbol of consternation which overwhelmed him. For
+upon that table, lay all those self-same boxes which he himself had
+packed with the loot of the Midnight Masquer--the identical boxes,
+apparently unopened, which had been stolen from his automobile by the
+supposed thief Chacherre!
+
+For a moment Gramont found himself unable to speak. He was thunderstruck
+by the sight of those unmistakeable boxes. A glance at the calm features
+of the girl showed him that there was nothing to be concealed from her,
+even had he wished it. He was further stunned by this realization. He
+could not understand how the packages had come here. Recovering his
+voice with an effort, he managed to break the heavy silence.
+
+"Well? I suppose you know what is in those parcels?"
+
+She nodded. "Yes. One of them was opened, and the note inside was
+discovered. Of course, it gave a general explanation. Will you sit down,
+please? I think that we had better talk it over quietly and calmly."
+
+Gramont obeyed, and dropped into a chair.
+
+He was absurdly conscious of his own confusion. He tried to speak, but
+words and thoughts failed him. Torn between pride and chagrin, he found
+himself able to say nothing. Explanations, at any time, came to him with
+difficulty; now, at least, he felt that he could not lie to this girl.
+And how was he to tell her the truth?
+
+And how had Lucie come into the affair? This staggered him above all
+else. Was she behind the theft of the loot? It must be. How long had
+she suspected him, then? He had thought Jachin Fell the sole
+danger-point--he had never dreamed that this gray-eyed Athene could be
+tracing down the Masquer! He tried to visualize the situation more
+clearly and his brain whirled. He knew, of course, that she was fairly
+intimate with Fell, but he was not aware of any particular
+connection----
+
+He glanced up at her suddenly, and surprised a glint of laughter in her
+eyes as she watched him.
+
+"You seem to be rather astonished," she observed.
+
+"I am." Gramont drew a deep breath. "You--do you know that those boxes
+were taken from my car?"
+
+She nodded again. "Certainly. They were brought to me."
+
+"Then you had someone on my trail?" Gramont flushed a little as he put
+the question to her.
+
+"No. I have been chosen to settle affairs with you, that is all. It has
+been learned from the note in the opened box that you were not criminal
+in what you did."
+
+She leaned forward, her deep eyes searching him with a steady scrutiny.
+
+"Tell me, Henry Gramont, what mad impulse brought you to all this? Was
+it a silly, boyish effort to be romantic--was it a mere outburst of
+bravado? It was not for the sake of robbery, as the note explained very
+clearly. But why, then? Why? There must have been a definite reason in
+your mind. You would not have taken such dangerous chances unless you
+had something to gain!"
+
+Gramont nodded slightly, then flushed again and bit his lip. For a
+moment he made no response to her query.
+
+He might, of course, say that he had been the Midnight Masquer because
+of her alone; which would be decidedly untrue. He might tell her, as he
+had told Hammond, that all his efforts had led up to that scene in the
+Maillard library, when without suspicion by any concerned he might
+verify his own surmise as to who had been defrauding Lucie Ledanois. It
+would sound very well--but it would be a lie. That had been far from his
+only reason for playing the Midnight Masquer's game.
+
+But why tell her anything?
+
+A slight smile touched his lips. "You're not going to send me to prison,
+I trust?"
+
+"I ought to!" The girl broke into a laugh. "Why, I can hardly yet
+believe that it was really you who were guilty of those things! It
+mortified me, it stunned me--until I realized the truth from the note.
+Even the fact that you did not do it for criminal ends does not relieve
+the sheer folly of the act. Why did you do it? Come, tell me the truth!"
+
+Gramont shrugged. "The truth? Well, my chauffeur, Hammond, was the
+original Masquer. I caught him in the act--you remember I told you about
+him? After taking him into my employ, I became the Masquer. Poor Hammond
+was some time in realizing that my motives were altruistic and not
+criminal. He was quite distressed about it until he found that I meant
+to return all the loot intact."
+
+"Why did you do it, then?" persisted the girl.
+
+"Call it bravado, my dear Lucie. Call it anything you like--I can't lie
+to you! I had a motive, and I refuse to admit what it was; that's all."
+
+"Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"
+
+"Not particularly." He smiled. "I had a good end in view, and I
+accomplished it. Also, I flatter myself that I accomplished it very
+decently; there's nothing like being a good workman, you know. Now that
+I'm all through, now that I've finished playing my little game, you
+happened to discover it. I am ashamed on that point, Lucie--ashamed
+because the discovery has very naturally made you think harshly of
+me----"
+
+"I think you've been very silly," she said with a disconcerting
+calmness. He regarded her for a moment, steadily. "And you have
+displayed a fearful lack of judgment!"
+
+"Silly? Well--perhaps. What are you going to do with those boxes?"
+
+"I'll put them in the mail. I'm going downtown for luncheon, and will do
+it then. They'll be delivered this afternoon."
+
+He nodded. "I had meant to have them delivered to-morrow; it makes no
+difference. You're the boss. It will give the good people a little more
+reason for jubilation to-night, eh?"
+
+A sudden laugh broke upon his lips. "I'm beginning to see the humour of
+it, Lucie--and I know who put you next to me. It was Jachin Fell, the
+old fox! I suspected that he was on my trail, and I thought that he had
+managed the theft of those boxes. In fact, I was preparing to give him a
+big surprise this afternoon. But tell me, Lucie--are you angry?"
+
+She looked at him steadily for a space, then a swift smile leaped to her
+lips and she extended a pardoning hand. Her gesture and words were
+impulsive, sincere.
+
+"Angry? No. I think you've some good reason behind it all, which you
+won't confide to me. I can read you pretty clearly, Henry Gramont; I
+think I can understand some things in you. You're no weakling, no
+romantic, filibustering crackbrain! And I like you because you won't lie
+to me. You've a motive and you refuse to tell it--very well! I'll be
+just as frank and say that I'm not a bit angry. So, that's settled!
+
+"Now what was the big surprise that you just mentioned you were going to
+give poor Mr. Fell this afternoon?"
+
+Gramont's eyes twinkled. "You remember that I thought he suspected me of
+being the Masquer? Well, I was going to him and propose that we enter
+business together."
+
+"Oh! As bandits?"
+
+"No, as oil promotors. I'm out of Maillard's company, or shall be out of
+it soon. The minute I'm out, I'll be free to go into business for
+myself. It occurred to me that if Jachin Fell had brains enough to run
+down the Midnight Masquer, he would be a mighty good business partner;
+because I'm poor on business detail. Also, I think Fell is to be
+trusted. The things you've told me and written me about him prove that
+much. He's very strong politically, I have found--although few people
+know it."
+
+"But he's not interested in oil is he?"
+
+"I don't know; I take for granted that he's interested in making money.
+Most men are. The only way to make money in oil is to have money--and he
+has some! I have a little. I can put in twenty-five thousand. With an
+equal amount from him, we can sink a couple of wells, perhaps three. If
+we go broke, all right. If we find oil, we're rich!"
+
+"But, my dear Henry, if he knew you to be the Midnight Masquer, do you
+think he'd want to go into business with you?" Her gray eyes were
+dancing with amusement as she put the query.
+
+"Why not?" Gramont laughed. "If he knew that I had brains enough to pull
+off that stunt and keep all New Orleans up in the air--wouldn't I make a
+good partner? Besides, I believe that I have some notion where to go
+after oil; I'm going to examine your land first----"
+
+"My good prince, you surely have no lack of audacity!" She broke into a
+peal of laughter. "Your argument about inducing Mr. Fell to go into
+business with you is naive----"
+
+"But, as an argument, isn't it quite sound?"
+
+"Possibly. Since it is Lucie Ledanois and not Jachin Fell who has
+brought you to a confession of your crimes against society--aren't you
+going to propose that she go into business with you? Doesn't the
+argument hold good with her?"
+
+Although Gramont was taken aback, he met her gaze squarely.
+
+"No. Oil is no woman's game, unless she can well afford to lose. I
+imagine that you cannot, Lucie. Once I get my company formed,
+however----"
+
+"You're right, I can't put in any money. I'm land poor. Unless I were to
+sell that Bayou Terrebonne land--it's an old farm, abandoned since
+before father died----"
+
+"Don't sell it!" he exclaimed, quickly. "Don't consider any dealings
+with it until I have looked it over, will you?"
+
+"Since you ask it, no. If there's gas near by, there must be oil."
+
+"Who knows?" he shrugged. "No one can predict oil."
+
+"Then you still mean to go to Jachin Fell with your scheme?"
+
+Gramont nodded. "Yes. See here, Lucie--it's about noon! Suppose you come
+along and lunch with me at the Louisiane, if you've no engagement. We
+can put those boxes in the mail en route, and after luncheon I'll try
+and get hold of Fell."
+
+She put her head on one side and studied him reflectively.
+
+"You're sure you'll not kidnap me or anything like that? It's risky to
+become a friend of hardened criminals, even if one is trying to uplift
+them."
+
+"Good! You'll come?"
+
+"If you can give me ten minutes----"
+
+"My dear Lucie, you are the most charming object in New Orleans at this
+minute! Why attempt to make yourself still more attractive? Gilding the
+lily is an impossible task."
+
+"Well, wait for me. Is your car here? Good! I want to see Hammond's face
+when he sees us carrying out those boxes."
+
+Laughing, the girl started toward the stairs. At the doorway she paused.
+
+"One thing, M. le prince! Do you solemnly promise, upon your honour,
+that the Midnight Masquer is dead for ever?"
+
+"Upon my honour!" said Gramont, seriously. "The farce is ended, Lucie."
+
+"All right. I'll be right down. Smoke if you like----"
+
+In her own room upstairs Lucie closed the door and sat down before her
+dressing table. She made no move toward the array of toilet articles,
+however. Instead, she took a desk telephone from the table, and called a
+number. In a moment she received a response.
+
+"Uncle Jachin!" she exclaimed. "Yes--it's just as we thought; it's all a
+joke. No, it was not a joke, either, because he had some motive behind
+it, but he won't tell me what it was. I'm terribly glad that you opened
+one of those boxes and found the letter--if you had gone to the police
+it would have been perfectly dreadful----"
+
+"I never go to the police," said Jachin Fell with his dry chuckle. "You
+are quite satisfied that there is nothing serious in the affair, then?"
+
+"Absolutely! He told me that he had accomplished his purpose, whatever
+it was, and that it's all ended. He just gave me his word that the
+Masquer was dead for ever. Now, aren't you glad that you confided in
+me?"
+
+"Very," said Jachin Fell. "Very glad, indeed!"
+
+"Now you're laughing at me--never mind! We're going to lunch downtown,
+and we'll mail those boxes on the way, by parcels post. Is that all
+right?"
+
+"Quite all right, my dear. It is the method adopted by the most
+exclusive and elusive criminals in the country, I assure you. Every
+handbag snatcher gets rid of his empty bags by mailing them back to the
+owner--unless first caught. It pays to follow professional examples, as
+Eliza said when she crossed the ice. Did your gown come for to-night?"
+
+"It's to come this afternoon."
+
+"Very well. Do not plan to wear any jewels, Lucie. I have a set to lend
+you for the occasion--no, not a gift, merely a loan for the sake of
+Comus. They are very nice pearls; a little old fashioned, because they
+were mounted for the Princesses de Lamballe, but you will find that they
+fit in excellently with your gown. I'll bring them with me when I call
+for you----"
+
+"And I'll tender fitting thanks then. One thing more: Henry Gramont is
+going to see you after luncheon, I think--on business. And I want you to
+be nice to him, Uncle Jachin."
+
+"Most assuredly," said the other, drily. "I should like to be associated
+in business with that young man. The firm would prosper."
+
+"Will you stop laughing at me? Then I'll ring off--good-bye!"
+
+And, smiling, she hung up the receiver.
+
+Ten minutes later, when Gramont and Miss Ledanois entered the waiting
+car, Hammond saw the boxes that they carried. He stood beside the open
+door, paralyzed, his eyes fastened on the boxes, his mouth agape.
+
+"To the postoffice, sergeant," said Gramont, then affected to observe
+his stupefaction. "Why, what's the matter?"
+
+Hammond met his twinkling eyes, saw the laughter of Lucie, and swallowed
+hard.
+
+"I--er--nothing at all, cap'n," he answered, hoarsely. "A--a little
+chokin' spell, that's all. Postoffice? Yes, sir."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+
+                                _Comus_
+
+
+From the time they left the Ledanois house with Lucie, Gramont had no
+opportunity of seeing his chauffeur in private until, later in the
+afternoon, he left the Maison Blanche building. He had enjoyed a
+thoroughly satisfactory interview with Jachin Fell. So wholly had
+Gramont's thoughts been given over to the business, indeed, that it was
+almost a shock to emerge into Canal Street and find everyone else in the
+world thinking only of the water carnival and the Rex parade.
+
+As for the Midnight Masquer and the mystery of the boxes of loot, all
+this had quite fled Gramont's mind before larger and more important
+things. The car was waiting for him in Royal Street, not far from the
+Monteleone, and Gramont approached it to find Hammond in deep worry over
+the outcome of the interview with Fell.
+
+"Well, cap'n!" he exclaimed, anxiously, as Gramont drew up. "You're
+smilin', so I guess it ain't a pinch!"
+
+Gramont laughed gaily. "Those boxes? Nonsense! Say, sergeant, you must
+have been scared stiff when you saw them!"
+
+"Scared? I was ready to flop, that's all! And how in the name o'
+goodness did they get in _her_ house? What's behind all this?"
+
+Gramont glanced around. He walked with Hammond to the front of the car,
+where he could speak without being overheard by the passersby.
+
+"It seems that I was more or less mistaken about Fell being on our
+trail," he explained, reflectively. "We had a very frank talk about it,
+and he disclaimed all knowledge of the boxes themselves. I gathered from
+little things he dropped that some criminal had looted the stuff from
+the car, and that it came to his attention yesterday in a legal
+capacity----"
+
+"Legal capacity, hell!" snorted Hammond. "Did you swallow all that?"
+
+"My swallowing capacity was pretty good," and Gramont chuckled. "It
+seems that he opened one of the boxes, and found the note I had written.
+This explained the business, and by way of a little joke he turned over
+the loot to Miss Ledanois and she had a bit of fun with us. Fell, in
+fact, proved to be a pretty good fellow----"
+
+"He sure handed you out a fine line of bull!" commented Hammond,
+savagely. "What gets me is your falling for all that dope! Looks like
+you wanted to believe him, cap'n."
+
+"Perhaps I did." Gramont shrugged his shoulders. "Why not? I've no
+reason to disbelieve him. The note made it plain that we were not
+criminals; now the whole affair is cleaned up and out of the way. We're
+out of it in good shape, if you ask me!"
+
+"You said something there," agreed Hammond, not without a sigh of
+relief. "All right, if you say so, only I ain't sure about this
+Fell----"
+
+"Don't worry. The stuff is returned, and the matter is now closed. We
+can forget all about the Midnight Masquer. Now, there's another and more
+important thing that I want to speak with you about, a matter of
+business----"
+
+"Hold on, cap'n!" interrupted Hammond, quietly, his eye on a spot behind
+Gramont. "One of your friends is headed over this way, and if I know
+anything about it, he's got blood in his eye."
+
+Gramont turned, to see Bob Maillard approaching. The latter addressed
+him without any response to his greeting.
+
+"Have you a moment to spare, Gramont?"
+
+"All afternoon," answered Gramont, cheerfully. He affected not to
+observe Maillard's air of heavy business, nor the frowning suspicion
+that lurked half-veiled in the other's glowering features. "By the way,
+I've been looking up a New Orleans landmark without much success--the
+Ramos gin fizz establishment. It seems to be gone!"
+
+"It is," returned Maillard, sourly. "Prohibition killed it, like it's
+killing everything. Francois moved into the place last September from
+Old 27, and it's become his restaurant now. But look here, Gramont!" The
+two were standing a bit apart, and Hammond was fussing with one of the
+headlights, but Gramont suspected that the chauffeur was listening
+avidly. "I've just come from a talk with dad. How did it happen that you
+sold him that stock of yours in the company?"
+
+Gramont smiled a little. He was amused by the way Maillard was
+endeavouring to keep down an outburst of angry passion.
+
+"I happened to need the money. Why?"
+
+"But why the devil didn't you hang on to that stock? Or if you needed
+money, why didn't you come to me?" exploded the other, angrily.
+
+"Heavens!" drawled Gramont, who was quite willing to exasperate young
+Maillard to the limit. "You seem frightfully concerned about it! What's
+the big idea, anyway? I don't recall that any of us went into an
+agreement not to sell if we wanted to. I offered the stock to your
+father at a discount. He realized that it was a good buy, and took it.
+What's wrong with that?"
+
+"Nothing wrong, if you put it that way," snapped Maillard, angrily. "But
+it's a confounded sly way of doing things----"
+
+"Now, just wait right there!" Gramont's easy smile vanished. "I don't
+take that kind of talk, Maillard. One more such insinuation, and you'll
+need to use a mask at the ball to-night, I promise you! I'll show you
+how sly I am, my friend! I'm off in the morning to start work on that
+report I was engaged to make. When the report comes in, my resignation
+comes with it."
+
+"All right. Let it come here and now, then." Maillard's tone was ugly.
+"If you're so blamed anxious to get out of the company, get out!"
+
+"Thanks. I'll be glad to be relieved of the job." Gramont turned and
+addressed his chauffeur. "Hammond, you'll kindly remember this
+conversation, in case your future testimony is needed----"
+
+"Confound you, what d'you mean talking that way?" broke out Maillard.
+"Do you suppose I'll deny firing you?"
+
+"I don't care to have you offer any reflections on my actions,
+Maillard," said Gramont, evenly. "My course in this matter is perfectly
+open and above board, which is more than you can say for your doings."
+
+"What?" Maillard clenched his stick and took a forward step, anger
+working in his face. "What the devil d'you mean?"
+
+"Exactly what I say--and perhaps I can prove it. Remember the oil
+concern to which you persuaded your precious father to sell some of Miss
+Ledanois's bayou land? Remember the real estate company to which you
+persuaded him to sell her St. Landry parish property? You had interests
+in both concerns; I don't imagine you'd care to have your share in those
+transactions exposed. Further, I entirely understand your indignation
+over my getting rid of this stock before the crash, and it ill becomes
+you to assume any such attitude."
+
+Maillard glared at him for a long moment, a red tide of rage flooding
+and ebbing from his heavy countenance. Then, mastering himself, he
+turned and strode away without further speech.
+
+"Hurray!" observed Hammond, when he was gone. "Cap'n, that guy is off
+you for life! I bet he'd like to meet you alone on a dark night!"
+
+Gramont shook his head. "He's a bad enemy, all right. Here, get into the
+car!"
+
+He climbed in beside Hammond.
+
+"Don't drive--I want to speak with you. Now that Maillard has relieved
+me of the necessity of making any report to his company, I'm free, and
+glad of it! I've been talking business with Mr. Fell, and I'm to have my
+own company."
+
+"With him?" Hammond sniffed.
+
+"Yes. He's matching his money against mine, and we're going to look for
+oil on some land owned by Miss Ledanois. It'll be a close corporation,
+and if we strike oil, we'll all three have a good thing. We may go
+broke, and we may go rich; if you're saving any coin out of your salary
+and feel like taking a gamble, I'll get you a bit of the stock after Mr.
+Fell gets things in shape. You can think it over----"
+
+"I don't want to think it over," broke in Hammond, eagerly. "I'm on,
+here and now--and it sure is mighty good of you, cap'n! Say, I ain't had
+any chance to tell you before, but I pulled two hundred out o' the
+lottery last week----"
+
+"Lottery!" Gramont looked at him quickly. "What lottery?"
+
+Hammond looked a trifle sheepish. "Well, it's against the law, o'
+course, but they run 'em right along just the same. A bunch of the
+chauffeurs here are wise to it; they put up some coin for me last week,
+and as I was sayin' I pulled out two hundred. I got most of it left, and
+have some saved up on the side. I'll stick it all in, huh?"
+
+Gramont nodded. "Well, we'll see later. You're free until morning,
+sergeant. I'm going to the Comus ball to-night as a guest of the
+Lavergnes, and they'll call for me. Enjoy yourself, keep out of jail,
+and be ready to start at six in the morning for Terrebonne."
+
+Leaving Hammond to take the car home, Gramont headed for Canal Street to
+mingle with the carnival crowd and revel in his new-found sense of
+freedom. Now that he was his own master, he felt like a new man.
+
+Overnight, it seemed, all weights had dropped from his shoulders. On the
+score of the Midnight Masquer, he was vastly relieved; all that was over
+and forgotten. Financially, he had achieved what was nothing less than a
+masterly triumph. In a business way, he was free of all ties and able to
+look forward to decisive action on his own behalf and that of a partner
+in whom he could feel a perfect reliance.
+
+Consequently, he began really to enjoy Mardi Gras for the first time,
+and plunged into the eddying crowds in a free and light-hearted manner
+which had not been his for years.
+
+It was the moment for the carnival spirit to seize on him, and seize him
+it did. With a boyish abandon he tramped the streets merrily, exchanging
+jests and confetti, shoves and bladder-blows, laughs and kisses. Madness
+and reckless gaiety were in the very air, and Gramont drank deep of
+these youthful tonics. When at last he wandered home to his pension, he
+was footsore, weary, disarranged, and touseled--and very happy. The wine
+of human comradeship is a good wine.
+
+That evening the Comus ball, the most exclusive revel of the most
+exclusive aristocracy of the southland, crowded the edifice in which it
+was held to capacity. Here evening dress was prescribed for all the
+guests. The Krewe of Comus alone were masked and costumed, in grotesque
+and magnificent costumes which had been in the making for months. The
+Krewe is to the South what the Bohemian Club is to the western coast,
+with the added enhancement of mystery.
+
+Despite the revels of the Krewe, however--despite the glittering jewels,
+the barbaric costumes, the music, the excitement--an indefinable air of
+regret, almost of sadness, pervaded the entire gathering. This feeling
+was something to be sensed, rather than observed definitely. Some said,
+afterward, that it was a premonition of the terrible event that was to
+happen this night. Wrong! It was because, for the first time in many
+generations, the Comus ball was held in one of the newer public
+buildings instead of in its accustomed place. Everyone was speaking of
+it. Even Maillard the banker, that cold man of dollars, spoke uneasily
+of it when Gramont encountered him in the smoking room.
+
+"It doesn't seem like Comus," said Maillard, with a vexed frown. "And to
+think that we had just finished redecorating the Opera House when it was
+burned down! Comus will never be the same again."
+
+"I didn't know you could feel such emotion for a ruined building,
+Maillard," said Gramont, lightly. The banker shrugged a trifle.
+
+"Emotion? No. Regret! None of us, who has been brought up in the
+traditions of the city but regarded the French Opera House as the centre
+of all our storied life. You can't understand it, Gramont; no outsider
+can. By the way, you haven't seen Bob? He's in costume, but he might
+have spoken to you----"
+
+Gramont answered in the negative, with a slight surprise at the
+question.
+
+It was not long before he came to comprehend more fully just what the
+loss of the old French Opera House meant to the assembly. He heard
+comparisons made on every hand, regretful allusions, sighs for the days
+that were no more.
+
+This present building, to be sure, was one of the city's finest, up to
+date in every way, with an abundance of room--and yet everyone said that
+Comus would never be the same. About the Opera House had clung the
+romance of many generations. About it, too, had clung the affections of
+the people with a fierceness beyond reason. More famous buildings had
+been allowed to go to ruin, like the Hotel Royale, but the Opera House
+had been kept in repair for Mardi Gras. It was itself--a landmark.
+Nothing else would ever be like it.
+
+From his seat in the Lavergne box Gramont contented himself during the
+early evening with the common role of all the "blackcoats"--that of
+looking on idly. More than once he saw Lucie Ledanois called out, among
+others of the fair sex, as a dancing partner for some member of the
+Krewe. None of the male guests, however, was allowed to participate in
+the festivity until Rex and his queen should arrive--at midnight; thus,
+Gramont saw almost nothing of Lucie during the evening.
+
+There was, inevitably, more or less visiting in boxes and foyers, and
+not a little lounging in the smoking room. The building was a huge
+structure, and richly furnished. Only a portion of it was in use by the
+Krewe; the remainder was, of course, deserted for the time being.
+
+While in search of smoking companions, Gramont encountered many of his
+acquaintances, and among them Doctor Ansley and Jachin Fell. In order to
+enjoy Fell's proffered El Reys in a somewhat clearer atmosphere these
+three strolled off together into one of the unused passages leading to
+other parts of the building. They opened a window and stood watching the
+crowd that surged in the street below, constantly increasing as the hour
+grew later, for the procession of Rex would be well worth seeing and
+nobody meant to miss anything upon this night of nights.
+
+Suddenly, at the sound of an approaching footstep, the three men turned.
+The electric lights were going in all of the hallways, and they
+perceived that the individual approaching them was a member of the Krewe
+of Comus. He was also, it became evident, giving a share of his
+allegiance to Bacchus, for his feet were obviously unsteady. He was clad
+in a parti-coloured costume, which was crowned by an exaggerated head of
+Mephisto.
+
+"Good evening to you, worthy gentlemen!" He came to a fuddled halt and
+stood there, laughing at the stares of the three. "Evening, I say."
+
+They responded to his liquor-tinged words with a laughing reply.
+
+"Wonderin' who I am, aren't you!" he hiccuped. "Well, don't wonder;
+'sall between ol' friends to-night! Tell you what, m' friends--come with
+me and I'll find you a li'l drink, eh? No prohibition booze, upon m'
+honour; real old Boone pinchneck--got it from some boys in Louisville,
+been savin' it up for to-night."
+
+He wagged his head at them, and pursued his subject in a half-maudlin
+burst of confidential assurance. An unsteady hand waved down the
+hallway.
+
+"Havin' a little party in one of the rooms," he continued. "All of us
+friends--lots more fun than dancin'! And say! I'm going pull something
+great, positively great; you don't want to miss it, gentlemen! You come
+along with me and I'll fix it for you. Come on, Gramont, that's a good
+fellow! You'n I had a dis'greement to-day--don't matter to-night,
+nothin' matters to-night, nothin' at all. Mardi Gras only comes once a
+year, eh? Come along, now."
+
+Jachin Fell very civilly refused the invitation, as did the others.
+Gramont, who now recognized their accoster, was less civil in his
+refusal. Mephisto sadly wagged his huge headpiece and regarded them with
+vinous regret.
+
+"No 'joyment in you any more? Better come along. Tell you, I've got the
+biggest joke of the season ready to pull off--something rich! Gramont,
+come on!"
+
+"Thanks, no," responded Gramont, curtly.
+
+The masquer gave up the struggle and moved on down the empty hallway.
+The three "blackcoats" watched in silence until the grotesque figure had
+vanished.
+
+"I wonder who that was, now?" mused Doctor Ansley, frowning. "Evidently,
+someone who knew us; at least, he recognized you, Gramont."
+
+"So it seemed," put in Jachin Fell. His tone, like his eyes, held a
+sombre fire. "A party of them drinking, eh? that will make trouble. The
+Krewe won't like it. Ten to one, that young man and his friends will
+start the makings of a fine scandal and the Krewe will come down hard on
+them--mighty hard. Who was he, Gramont? Sounded like----"
+
+"Young Maillard." At Gramont's response a whistle broke from Doctor
+Ansley. Jachin Fell nodded assent.
+
+"You took the words out of my mouth. So Bob is drinking again, eh? And
+they've occupied one of the rooms somewhere, and are enjoying a bit of
+liquor and a card game by themselves. Cursed slippery going, as Eliza
+said when she crossed the ice! The Krewe will expel them. Hello,
+Gramont--where to?"
+
+Gramont tossed his cigar through the open window.
+
+"I think I'll make my adieux, Fell. I intend to be up early in the
+morning and get off to work----"
+
+"What?" protested Ansley in astonishment. "You must stay until Rex
+comes, at least! Why, that's the event of the carnival! The evening
+hasn't started yet."
+
+"I'm growing old and sober, doctor," and Gramont chuckled. "To tell the
+truth," and he gave Fell a whimsical glance, "I am head over ears in
+some new business matters which have actually fired me with the divine
+afflatus of enthusiasm. What's more, I was drifting with the crowds all
+afternoon, and I've just begun to realize that I'm dead tired. Rex or no
+Rex, I'm afraid that I'd best say good-night, gentlemen."
+
+Gramont persisted in his intention, and bade the other two good-night.
+In truth, he cared very little about Rex, and a very great deal about
+getting off to Bayou Terrebonne early in the morning. The oil matter
+filled his mind. He had formed a thousand plans, he was fired with
+enthusiasm, and was anxious to make his preliminary investigation.
+
+Returning to the auditorium, Gramont sought out his hosts and made his
+farewells, although not without encountering some opposition. At length
+he was free, he had obtained his hat and coat, and as he passed out of
+the building he again met Fell and Ansley, who were finishing their
+cigars at the entrance. He bade them a final adieu and plunged into the
+crowd.
+
+It lacked half an hour of midnight. The streets were filled with
+merrymakers, who were making the night riotous with songs, yells, and
+noise-producing apparatus, anticipating the arrival of Rex. For a little
+Fell and Doctor Ansley stood talking, then tossed away their cigars and
+turned into the building.
+
+They halted in the foyer before the appearance of two men--Joseph
+Maillard, looking extremely agitated, and behind him old Judge Forester,
+who wore a distinctly worried expression.
+
+"Ah, here are Fell and Ansley!" exclaimed Maillard, almost with relief.
+"I--ah--my friends, I don't suppose you've seen Bob recently?"
+
+Ansley was silent. Jachin Fell, however, responded with a cold nod of
+assent.
+
+"Yes," he said in his peculiarly toneless manner. "Yes, we have. At
+least, I believe it was he----"
+
+"I'm worried," said Maillard, anxiously, hurriedly. He made an
+expressive gesture of despair. "He's in costume, of course. I've been
+given to understand that--well, that he has been--well, drinking."
+
+"He has," said Jachin Fell, without any trace of compassion. "A number
+of the Krewe are occupying one of the rooms in the building, and they
+must have been visiting it frequently. I trust for your sake that the
+fact hasn't become generally known inside?"
+
+Maillard nodded. Shame and anger lay heavily in his eyes.
+
+"Yes, Jachin. I--I was asked to exert my influence over Bob. The request
+came to me from the floor. This--this is a disgraceful thing to admit,
+my friends----"
+
+Judge Forester, in his kindly way, laid his hand on the banker's arm.
+
+"Tut, tut, Joseph," he said, gently, a fund of sympathy in his voice.
+"Boys will be boys, you know; really, this is no great matter! Don't let
+it hit you so hard. I'll go with you to find the room, of course. Where
+is it, Jachin?"
+
+"We'll all go," put in Ansley. "We'll have a little party of our own,
+gentlemen. Come on, I believe we'll be able to discover the place."
+
+The four men left the foyer and started through the corridors. Among
+them was a tacit understanding, a deep feeling of sympathy for Joseph
+Maillard, a bond which held them to his aid in this disgrace which had
+befallen him. Jachin Fell, who felt the least compassion or pity, cursed
+Bob Maillard--but under his breath.
+
+They walked through the empty, lighted corridors, following the
+direction in which Fell and Ansley had seen young Maillard disappear.
+
+"I hear," said Judge Forester to Doctor Ansley, as they followed the
+other two, "that there has been astonishing news to-day from the
+Midnight Masquer. It seems that a number of people have received back
+property this afternoon--loot the bandit had taken. It came by mail,
+special delivery. One of the Lavergne boys tells me that they received a
+box containing everything that was taken at their home, even to cash,
+with a note asking them to return the things to their guests. It appears
+to have been some sort of a carnival joke, after all."
+
+"A poor one, then," responded Ansley, "and in doubtful taste. I've heard
+nothing of it. I wouldn't mind getting back the little cash I lost,
+though I must say I'll believe the story when I see the money----"
+
+He broke off quickly.
+
+As they turned a corner of the corridor to the four men came realization
+that they had attained their goal. From one of the rooms ahead there
+sounded snatches of a boisterous chorus being roared forth lustily. As
+they halted, to distinguish from which door the singing proceeded, the
+chorus was broken off by an abrupt and sudden silence. This silence was
+accentuated by the preceding noise, as though the singers had checked
+their maudlin song in mid-career.
+
+"Damn it!" muttered Maillard. "Did they hear us coming? No, that
+wouldn't matter a hang to them--but what checked them so quickly?"
+
+"This door," said Fell, indicating one to their right. He paused at it,
+listening, and over his features came a singular expression. As the
+others joined him, they caught a low murmur of voices, a hushed sound of
+talk, a rattle as a number of chips fell from a table.
+
+"Cursed queer!" observed Jachin Fell, frowning. "I wonder what happened
+to them so abruptly? Perhaps the deal was finished--they're having a
+game. Well, go ahead, Joseph! We'll back you up as a deputation from the
+blackcoats, and if you need any moral support, call on Judge Forester."
+
+"Correct!" assented that gentleman with dignity. "I'll give these
+jackanapes a little advice! It's going a bit far, this sort of thing; we
+can't have Comus turned into a common drinking bout. Ready, Joseph?"
+
+He flung open the door, and Maillard entered at his side. They then came
+to a startled halt, at view of the scene which greeted them.
+
+The room was large and well lighted, windows and transom darkened for
+the occasion. Tobacco smoke made a bluish haze in the air. In the centre
+of the room stood a large table, littered with glasses and bottles, with
+scattered cards, with chips and money.
+
+About this table had been sitting half a dozen members of the Krewe of
+Comus. Now, however, they were standing, their various identities
+completely concealed by the grotesque costumes which cloaked them. Their
+hands were in the air.
+
+Standing at another doorway, midway between their group and that of the
+four unexpected intruders, was the Midnight Masquer--holding them up at
+the point of his automatic!
+
+There was a moment of tense and strained silence, as every eye went to
+the four men in evening attire. It was plain what had cut short the
+boisterous song--the Masquer must have made his appearance only a moment
+or two previously. From head to foot he was hidden under his leathern
+attire. His unrecognizable features, at this instant, were turned
+slightly toward the four new arrivals. It was obvious that he, no less
+than the others, was startled by this entry.
+
+Maillard was the first to break that silence of stupefaction.
+
+"By heavens!" he cried, furiously. "Here's that damned villain
+again--hold him, you! at him, everybody!"
+
+In a blind rage, transported out of himself by his sudden access of
+passion, the banker hurled himself forward. From the bandit burst a cry
+of futile warning; the pistol in his hand veered toward his assailant.
+
+This action precipitated the event. Perhaps because the Masquer did not
+fire instantly, and perhaps because Maillard's mad action shamed them,
+the nearer members of the drinking party hurled themselves at the
+bandit. The threat of the weapon was forgotten, unheeded in the sweeping
+lust of the man-hunt. It seemed that the fellow feared to fire; and
+about him closed the party in a surging mass, with a burst of sudden
+shouts, striking and clutching to pull him down and put him under foot.
+
+Then, when it seemed that they had him without a struggle, the Masquer
+broke from them, swept them apart and threw them off, hurled them clear
+away. He moved as though to leap through the side doorway whence he had
+come.
+
+With an oath, Maillard hurled himself forward, struck blindly and
+furiously at the bandit, and fastened upon him about the waist. There
+was a surge forward of bodies as the others crowded in to pull down the
+Masquer before he could escape. It looked then as though he were indeed
+lost--until the automatic flamed and roared in his hand, its choking
+fumes bursting at them. The report thundered in the room; a second
+report thundered, deafeningly, as a second bullet sought its mark.
+
+Like a faint echo to those shots came the slam of a door. The Masquer
+was gone!
+
+After him, into the farther room, rushed some of the party; but he had
+vanished utterly. There was no trace of him. Of course, he might have
+ducked into any of the dark rooms, or have run down the corridor, yet
+his complete disappearance confused the searchers. After a moment,
+however, they returned to the lighted room. The Masquer had gone, but
+behind him had remained a more grim and terrible masquer.
+
+In the room which he had just left, however, there had fallen a dread
+silence and consternation. One of the masqued drinkers held an arm that
+hung helpless, dripping blood; but his hurt passed unseen and uncared
+for, even by himself.
+
+Doctor Ansley was kneeling above a motionless figure, prone on the dirty
+floor; and it was the figure of Joseph Maillard. The physician glanced
+up, then rose slowly to his feet. He made a terribly significant
+gesture, and his crisp voice broke in upon the appalled silence.
+
+"Dead," he said, curtly. "Shot twice--each bullet through the heart.
+Judge Forester, I'm afraid there is no alternative but to call in the
+police. Gentlemen, you will kindly unmask--which one of you is Robert
+Maillard?"
+
+Amid a stunned and horrified silence the members of the Krewe one by one
+removed their grotesque headgear, staring at the dead man whose white
+face looked up at them with an air of grim accusation. But none of them
+came forward to claim kinship with the dead man. Bob Maillard was not in
+the room.
+
+"I think," said the toneless, even voice of Jachin Fell, "that all of
+you gentlemen had better be very careful to say only what you have
+seen--and know. You will kindly remain here until I have summoned the
+police."
+
+He left the room, and if there were any dark implication hidden in his
+words, no one seemed to observe it.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+
+                             _On The Bayou_
+
+
+At three o'clock in the morning a great office building is not the most
+desolate place on earth, perhaps; but it approaches very closely to that
+definition.
+
+At three o'clock on the morning of Ash Wednesday the great white Maison
+Blanche building was deserted and desolate, so far as its offices were
+concerned. The cleaners and scrub-women had long since finished their
+tasks and departed. Out in the streets the tag-ends of carnival were
+running on a swiftly ebbing tide. A single elevator in the building was,
+however, in use. A single suite of offices, with carefully drawn blinds,
+was lighted and occupied.
+
+They were not ornate, these offices. They consisted of two rooms, a
+small reception room and a large private office, both lined to the
+ceiling with books, chiefly law books. In the large inner room were
+sitting three men. One of the three, Ben Chacherre, sat in a chair
+tipped back against the wall, his eyes closed. From time to time he
+opened those sparkling black eyes of his, and through narrow-slitted
+lids directed keen glances at the other two men.
+
+One of the men was the chief of police. The second was Jachin Fell,
+whose offices these were.
+
+"Even if things are as you say, which I don't doubt at all," said the
+chief, slowly, "I can't believe the boy did it! And darn it all, if I
+pinch him there's goin' to be a hell of a scandal!"
+
+Fell shrugged his shoulders, and made response in his toneless voice:
+
+"Chief, you're up against facts. Those facts are bound to come out and
+the newspapers will nail your hide to the wall in a minute. You've a
+bare chance to save yourself by taking in young Maillard at once."
+
+The chief chewed hard on his cigar. "I don't want to save myself by
+putting the wrong man behind the bars," he returned. "It sure looks like
+he was the Masquer all the while, but you say that he wasn't. You say
+this was his only job--a joke that turned out bad."
+
+"Those are the facts," said Fell. "I don't want to accuse a man of
+crimes I know he did not commit. We have the best of evidence that he
+did commit this crime. If the newspapers fasten the entire Midnight
+Masquer business on him, as they're sure to do, we can't very well help
+it. I have no sympathy for the boy."
+
+"Of course he did it," put in Ben Chacherre, sleepily. "Wasn't he caught
+with the goods?"
+
+The others paid no heed. The chief indicated two early editions of the
+morning papers, which lay on the desk in front of Fell. These papers
+carried full accounts of the return of the Midnight Masquer's loot,
+explaining his robberies as part of a carnival jest.
+
+"The later editions, comin' out now," said the chief, "will crowd all
+that stuff off the front page with the Maillard murder. Darn it, Fell!
+Whether I believe it or not, I'll have to arrest the young fool."
+
+Chacherre chuckled. Jachin Fell smiled faintly.
+
+"Nothing could be plainer, chief," he responded. "First, Bob Maillard
+comes to us in front of the opera house, and talks about a great joke
+that he's going to spring on his friends across the way----"
+
+"How'd you know who he was?" interjected the chief, shrewdly.
+
+"Gramont recognized him; Ansley and I confirmed the recognition. He was
+more or less intoxicated--chiefly more. Now, young Maillard was not in
+the room at the moment of the murder--unless he was the Masquer. Five
+minutes afterward he was found in a near-by room, hastily changing out
+of an aviator's uniform into his masquerade costume. Obviously, he had
+assumed the guise of the Masquer as a joke on his friends, and the joke
+had a tragic ending. Further, he was in the aviation service during the
+war, and so had the uniform ready to hand. You couldn't make anybody
+believe that he hasn't been the Masquer all the time!"
+
+"Of course," and the chief nodded perplexedly. "It'd be a clear
+case--only you call me in and say that he _wasn't_ the Masquer! Damn it,
+Fell, this thing has my goat!"
+
+"What's Maillard's story?" struck in Ben Chacherre.
+
+"He denies the whole thing," said the worried chief. "According to his
+story, which sounded straight the way he tells it, he meant to pull off
+the joke on his friends and was dressing in the Masquer's costume when
+he heard the shots. He claims that the shots startled him and made him
+change back. He swears that he had not entered the other room at all,
+except in his masquerade clothes. He says the murderer must have been
+the real Masquer. It's likely enough, because all young Maillard's crowd
+knew about the party that was to be held in that room during the Comus
+ball----"
+
+"No matter," said Fell, coldly. "Chief, this is an open and shut case;
+the boy was bound to lie. That he killed his father was an accident, of
+course, but none the less it did take place."
+
+"The boy's a wreck this minute." The chief held a match to his unlighted
+cigar. "But you say that he ain't the original Masquer?"
+
+"No!" Fell spoke quickly. "The original Masquer was another person, and
+had nothing to do with the present case. This information is
+confidential and between ourselves."
+
+"Oh, of course," assented the chief. "Well, I suppose I got to pull
+Maillard, but I hate to do it. I got a hunch that he ain't the right
+party."
+
+"Virtuous man!" Fell smiled thinly. "According to all the books, the
+chief of police is only too glad to fasten the crime on anybody----"
+
+"Books be damned!" snorted the chief, and leaned forward earnestly.
+"Look here, Fell! Do you believe in your heart that Maillard killed his
+father?"
+
+Fell was silent a moment under that intent scrutiny.
+
+"From the evidence, I am forced against my will to believe it," he said
+at last. "Of course, he'll be able to prove that he was not the Masquer
+on previous occasions; his alibis will take care of that. Up to the
+point of the murder, his story is all right. And, my friend, there is a
+chance--a very slim, tenuous chance--that his entire story is true. In
+that case, another person must have appeared as the Masquer which seems
+unlikely----"
+
+"Or else," put in Ben Chacherre, smoothly, "the real original Masquer
+showed up!"
+
+There was an instant of silence. Jachin Fell regarded his henchman with
+steady gray eyes. Ben Chacherre met the look with almost a trace of
+defiance. The chief frowned darkly.
+
+"Yes," said the chief. "That's the size of it, Fell. You're keepin'
+quiet about the name of the real Masquer; why?"
+
+"Because," said Fell, calmly, "I happen to know that he was in the
+auditorium at the time of the murder."
+
+Again silence. Ben Chacherre stared at Fell, with amazement and
+admiration in his gaze. "When the master lies, he lies magnificently!"
+he murmured in French.
+
+"Well," and the chief gestured despairingly, "I guess that lets out the
+real Masquer, eh?"
+
+"Exactly," assented Fell. "No use dragging his name into it. I'll keep
+at work on this, chief, and if anything turns up to clear young
+Maillard, I'll be very glad."
+
+"All right," grunted the chief, and rose. "I'll be on my way."
+
+He departed. Neither Fell nor Chacherre moved or spoke for a space. When
+at length the clang of the elevator door resounded through the deserted
+corridors Ben Chacherre slipped from his chair and went to the outer
+door. He glanced out into the hall, closed the door, and with a nod
+returned to his chair.
+
+"Well?" Jachin Fell regarded him with intent, searching eyes. "Have you
+any light to throw on the occasion?"
+
+Chacherre's usual air of cool impudence was never in evidence when he
+talked with Mr. Fell.
+
+"No," he said, shaking his head. "Hammond worked on the car until about
+nine o'clock, then beat it to bed, I guess. I quit the job at ten, and
+his light had been out some time. Well, master, this is a queer affair!
+There's no doubt that Gramont pulled it, eh?"
+
+"You think so?" asked Fell.
+
+Chacherre made a gesture of assent. "_Quand bois tombe, cabri
+monte_--when the tree falls, the kid can climb it! Any fool can see that
+Gramont was the man. Don't you think so yourself, master?"
+
+Jachin Fell nodded.
+
+"Yes. But we've no evidence--everything lies against young Maillard.
+Early in the morning Gramont goes to Paradis to examine that land of
+Miss Ledanois' along the bayou. He'll probably say nothing of this
+murder to Hammond, and the chauffeur may not find out about it until a
+day or two--they get few newspapers down there.
+
+"Drive down to Paradis in the morning, Ben; get into touch with Hammond,
+and discover what time Gramont got home to-night. Write me what you find
+out. Then take charge of things at the Gumberts place. Make sure that
+every car is handled right. A headquarters man from Mobile will be here
+to-morrow to trace the Nonpareil Twelve that Gramont now owns."
+
+Chacherre whistled under his breath. "What?"
+
+Jachin Fell smiled slightly and nodded. "Yes. If Gramont remains at
+Paradis, I may send him on down there--I'm not sure yet. I intend to get
+something on that man Hammond."
+
+"But you can't land him that way, master! He bought the car----"
+
+"And who sold the car to the garage people? They bought it innocently."
+A peculiar smile twisted Fell's lips awry. "In fact, they bought it from
+a man named Hammond, as the evidence will show very clearly."
+
+Ben Chacherre started, since he had sold that car himself. Then a slow
+grin came into his thin features--a grin that widened into a noiseless
+laugh.
+
+"Master, you are magnificent!" he said, and rose. "Well, if there is
+nothing further on hand, I shall go to bed."
+
+"An excellent programme," said Jachin Fell, and took his hat from the
+desk. "I must get some sleep myself."
+
+They left the office and the building together.
+
+Three hours afterward the dawn had set in--a cold, gray, and dismal dawn
+that rose upon a city littered with the aftermath of carnival. "Lean
+Wednesday" it was, in sober fact. Thus far, the city in general was
+ignorant of the tragedy which had taken place at the very conclusion of
+its gayest carnival season. Within a few hours business and social
+circles would be swept by the fact of Joseph Maillard's murder, but at
+this early point of the day the city slept. The morning papers, which
+to-day carried a news story that promised to shock and stun the entire
+community, were not yet distributed.
+
+Rising before daylight, Henry Gramont and Hammond breakfasted early and
+were off by six in the car. They were well outside town and sweeping on
+their way to Terrebonne Parish and the town of Paradis before they
+realized that the day was not going to brighten appreciably. Instead, it
+remained very cloudy and gloomy, with a chill threat of rain in the air.
+
+Weather mattered little to Gramont. When finally the excellent highway
+was left behind, and they started on the last lap of their seventy-mile
+ride, they found the parish roads execrable and the going slow. Thus,
+noon was at hand when they at length pulled into Paradis, the town
+closest to Lucie Ledanois' bayou land. The rain was still holding off.
+
+"Too cold to rain," observed Gramont. "Let's hit for the hotel and get
+something to eat. I'll have to locate the land, which is somewhere near
+town."
+
+They discovered the hotel to be an ancient structure, and boasting
+prices worthy of Lafitte and his buccaneers. As in many small towns of
+Louisiana, however, the food proved fit for a king. After a light
+luncheon of quail, crayfish bisque, and probably illegal venison,
+Gramont sighed regret that he could eat no more, and set about inquiring
+where the Ledanois farm lay.
+
+There was very little, indeed, to Paradis, which lay on the bayou but
+well away from the railroad. It was a desolate spot, unpainted and
+unkept. The parish seat of Houma had robbed it of all life and growth on
+the one hand; on the other, the new oil and gas district had not yet
+touched it.
+
+Southward lay the swamp--fully forty miles of it, merging by degrees
+into the Gulf. Forty miles of cypress marsh and winding bayou,
+uncharted, unexplored save by occasional hunters or semi-occasional
+sheriffs. No man knew who or what might be in those swamps, and no one
+cared to know. The man who brought in fish or oysters in his skiff might
+be a bayou fisherman, and he might be a murderer wanted in ten states.
+Curiosity was apt to prove extremely unhealthy. Like the Atchafalaya,
+where chance travellers find themselves abruptly ordered elsewhere, the
+Terrebonne swamps have their own secrets and know how to keep them.
+
+Gramont had no difficulty in locating the Ledanois land, and he found
+that it was by no means in the swamp. A part of it, lying closer to
+Houma, had been sold and was now included in the new oil district; it
+was this portion which Joseph Maillard had sold off.
+
+The remainder, and the largest portion, lay north of Paradis and ran
+along the west bank of the bayou for half a mile. A long-abandoned farm,
+it was high ground, with the timber well cleared off and excellently
+located; but tenants were hard to get and shiftless when obtained, so
+that the place had not been farmed for the last five years or more.
+After getting these facts, Gramont consulted with Hammond.
+
+"We'd better buy some grub here in town and arrange to stay a couple of
+nights on the farm, if necessary," he said. "There are some buildings
+there, so we'll find shelter. Along the bayou are summer cottages--I
+believe some of them are rather pretentious places--and we ought to find
+the road pretty decent. It's only three or four miles out of town."
+
+With some provisions piled in the car, they set forth. The road wound
+along the bayou side, past ancient 'Cajun farms and the squat homes of
+fishermen. Here and there had been placed camps and summer cottages,
+nestling amid groups of huge oaks and cypress, whose fronds of
+silver-gray moss hung in drooping clusters like pale and ghostly
+shrouds.
+
+Watching the road closely, Gramont suddenly found the landmarks that had
+been described to him, and ordered Hammond to stop and turn in at a gap
+in the fence which had once been an entrance gate.
+
+"Here we are! Those are the buildings off to the right. Whew! I should
+say it had been abandoned! Nothing much left but ruins. Go ahead!"
+
+Before them, as they drove in from the road by a grass-covered drive,
+showed a house, shed, and barn amid a cluster of towering trees. Indeed,
+trees were everywhere about the farm, which had grown up in a regular
+sapling forest. The buildings were in a ruinous state--clapboards
+hanging loosely, roofs dotted by gaping holes, doors and windows long
+since gone.
+
+Leaving the car, Gramont, followed by the chauffeur, went to the front
+doorway and surveyed the wreckage inside.
+
+"What do you say, Hammond? Think we can stop here, or go back to the
+hotel? It's not much of a run to town----"
+
+Hammond pointed to a wide fireplace facing them.
+
+"I can get this shack cleaned out in about half an hour--this one room,
+anyhow. When we get a fire goin' in there, and board up the windows and
+doors, we ought to be comfortable enough. But suit yourself, cap'n! It's
+your funeral."
+
+Gramont laughed. "All right. Go ahead and clean up, then, and if rain
+comes down we can camp here. Be sure and look for snakes and vermin. The
+floor seems sound, and if there's plenty of moss on the trees, we can
+make up comfortable beds. Too bad you're not a fisherman, or we might
+get a fresh fish out of the bayou----"
+
+"I got some tackle in town," and Hammond grinned widely.
+
+"Good work! Then make yourself at home and go to it. We've most of the
+afternoon before us."
+
+Gramont left the house, and headed down toward the bayou shore.
+
+He took a letter from his pocket, opened it, and glanced over it anew.
+It was an old letter, one written him nearly two years previously by
+Lucie Ledanois. It had been written merely in the endeavour to distract
+the thoughts of a wounded soldier, to bring his mind to Louisiana, away
+from the stricken fields of France. In the letter Lucie had described
+some of the more interesting features of Bayou Terrebonne--the oyster
+and shrimp fleets, the Chinese and Filipino villages along the Gulf, the
+far-spread cypress swamps; the bubbling fountains, natural curiosities,
+that broke up through the streams and bayous of the whole wide
+parish--fountains that were caused by gas seeping up from the earth's
+interior, and breaking through.
+
+Gramont knew that plans were already afoot to tap this field of natural
+gas and pipe it to New Orleans. Oil had been found, too, and all the
+state was now oil-mad. Fortunes were being made daily, and other
+fortunes were being lost daily by those who dealt with oil-stocks
+instead of with oil.
+
+"Those gas-fountains did the work!" reflected Gramont. "And according to
+this letter, there's one of those fountains here in the bayou, close to
+her property. 'Just opposite the dock,' she says. The first thing is to
+find the dock, then the fountain. After that, we'll decide if it's true
+mineral gas. If it is, then the work's done--for I'll sure take a chance
+on finding oil near it!"
+
+Gramont came to the bayou and began searching his way along the thick
+and high fringe of bushes and saplings that girded the water's edge.
+Presently he came upon the ruined evidences of what had once been a
+small boat shed. Not far from this he found the dock referred to in the
+letter; nothing was left of it except a few spiles protruding from the
+surface of the water. But he had no need to look farther. Directly
+before him, he saw that which he was seeking.
+
+A dozen feet out from shore the water was rising and falling in a
+continuous dome or fountain of highly charged bubbles that rose a foot
+above the surface. Gramont stared at it, motionless. He watched it for a
+space--then, abruptly, he started. It was a violent start, a start of
+sheer amazement and incredulity.
+
+He leaned forward, staring no longer at the gas dome, but at the water
+closer inshore. For a moment he thought that his senses had deceived
+him, then he saw that the thing was there indeed, there beyond any
+doubt--a very faint trace of iridescent light that played over the
+surface of the water.
+
+"It can't be possible!" he muttered, bending farther over. "Such a thing
+happens too rarely----"
+
+His heart pounded violently; excitement sent the blood rushing to his
+brain in blinding swirls. He was gripped by the gold fever that comes
+upon a man when he makes the astounding discovery of untold wealth lying
+at his feet, passed over and disregarded by other and less-discerning
+men for days and years!
+
+It was oil, no question about it. An extremely slight quantity, true; so
+slight a quantity that there was no film on the water, no discernible
+taste to the water. Gramont brought it to his mouth and rose, shaking
+his head.
+
+Where did it come from? It had no connection with the gas bubbles--at
+least, it did not come from the dome of water and gas. How long he stood
+there staring Gramont did not know. His brain was afire with the
+possibilities. At length he stirred into action and started up the bayou
+bank, from time to time halting to search the water below him, to make
+sure that he could still discern the faint iridescence.
+
+He followed it rod by rod, and found that it rapidly increased in
+strength. It must come from some very tiny surface seepage close at
+hand, that was lost in the bayou almost as rapidly as it came from the
+earth-depths. Only accidentally would a man see it--not unless he were
+searching the water close to the bank, and even then only by the grace
+of chance.
+
+Suddenly Gramont saw that he had lost the sign. He halted.
+
+No, not lost, either! Just ahead of him was a patch of reeds, and a
+recession of the shore. He advanced again. Inside the reeds he found the
+oily smear, still so faint that he could only detect it at certain
+angles. Glancing up, he could see a fence at a little distance,
+evidently the boundary fence of the Ledanois land; the bushes and trees
+thinned out here, and on ahead was cleared ground. He saw, through the
+bushes, glimpses of buildings.
+
+Violent disappointment seized him. Was he to lose this discovery, after
+all? Was he to find that the seepage came from ground belonging to
+someone else? No--he stepped back hastily, barely in time to avoid
+stumbling into a tiny trickle of water, a rivulet that ran down into the
+bayou, a tributary so insignificant that it was invisible ten feet
+distant! And on the surface a faint iridescence.
+
+Excitement rising anew within him, Gramont turned and followed this
+rivulet, his eyes aflame with eagerness. It led him for twenty feet, and
+ceased abruptly, in a bubbling spring that welled from a patch of low,
+tree-enclosed land. Gramont felt his feet sinking in grass, and saw that
+there was a dip in the ground hereabouts, a swampy little section all to
+itself. He picked a dry spot and lay down on his face, searching the
+water with his eyes.
+
+Moment after moment he lay there, watching. Presently he found the
+slight trickle of oil again--a trickle so faint and slim that even here,
+on the surface of the tiny rivulet, it could be discerned only with
+great difficulty. A very thin seepage, concluded Gramont; a thin oil, of
+course. So faint a little thing, to mean so much!
+
+It came from the Ledanois land, no doubt of it. What did that matter,
+though? His eyes widened with flaming thoughts as he gazed down at the
+slender thread of water. No matter at all where this came from--the main
+point was proven by it! There was oil here for the finding, oil down in
+the thousands of feet below, oil so thick and abundant that it forced
+itself up through the earth fissures to find an outlet!
+
+"Instead of going down five or six thousand feet," he thought,
+exultantly, "we may have to go down only as many hundred. But first we
+must get an option or a lease on all the land roundabout--all we can
+secure! There will be a tremendous boom the minute this news breaks. If
+we get those options, we can sell them over again at a million per cent.
+profit, and even if we don't strike oil in paying quantities, we'll
+regain the cost of our drilling! And to think of the years this has been
+here, waiting for someone----"
+
+Suddenly he started violently. An abrupt crashing of feet among the
+bushes, an outbreak of voices, had sounded not far away--just the other
+side of the boundary fence. He was wakened from his dreams, and started
+to rise. Then he relaxed his muscles and lay quiet, astonishment seizing
+him; for he heard his own name mentioned in a voice that was strange to
+him.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+                                _Murder_
+
+
+The voice was strange to Gramont, yet he had a vague recollection of
+having at some time heard it before. It was a jaunty and impudent voice,
+very self-assured--yet it bore a startled and uneasy note, as though the
+speaker had just come unaware upon the man whom he addressed.
+
+"Howdy, sheriff!" it said. "Didn't see you in there--what you doin' so
+far away from Houma, eh?"
+
+"Why, I've been looking over the place around here," responded another
+voice, which was dry and grim. "I know you, Ben Chacherre, and I think
+I'll take you along with me. Just come from New Orleans, did you?"
+
+"Me? Take _me_?" The voice of Chacherre shrilled up suddenly in alarm.
+"Look here, sheriff, it wasn't me done it! It was Gramont----"
+
+There came silence. Not a sound broke the stillness of the late
+afternoon.
+
+Gramont, listening, lay bewildered and breathless. Ben Chacherre, the
+sneak thief--how had Chacherre come here? Gramont knew nothing of any
+tie between Jachin Fell and Chacherre; he could only lie in the grass
+and wonder at the man's presence. What "place" was it that the sheriff
+of Houma had been looking over? And what was it that he, Gramont, was
+supposed to have done?
+
+Confused and wondering, Gramont waited. And, as he waited, he caught a
+soft sound from the marshy ground beside him--a faint "plop" as though
+some object had fallen close by on the wet grass. At the moment he paid
+no heed to this sound, for again the uncanny silence had fallen.
+
+Listening, Gramont fancied that he caught slow, stealthy footsteps amid
+the undergrowth, but derided the fancy as sheer imagination. His brain
+was busy with this new problem. Houma, he knew, was the seat of the
+parish or county. This Ben Chacherre appeared to have suddenly and
+unexpectedly encountered the sheriff, to his obvious alarm, and the
+sheriff had for some reason decided to arrest him; so much was clear.
+
+Chacherre had something to do with the "place"--did that mean the
+adjacent property, or the Ledanois farm? In his puzzled bewilderment
+over this imbroglio Gramont for the moment quite forgot the trickle of
+oil at his feet.
+
+But now the deep silence became unnatural and sinister. What had
+happened? Surely, Ben Chacherre had not been arrested and taken away in
+such silence! Why had the voices so abruptly ceased? Vaguely uneasy,
+startled by the prolongation of that intense stillness, Gramont rose to
+his feet and peered among the trees.
+
+The two speakers seemed to have departed; he could descry nobody in
+sight. A step to one side gave Gramont a view of the land adjoining the
+Ledanois place. This was cleared of all brush, and under some immense
+oaks to the far left he had a glimpse of a large summer cottage, boarded
+up and apparently deserted. Nearer at hand, however, he saw other
+buildings, and these drew his attention. He heard the throbbing pound of
+a motor at work, and as there was no power line along here, the place
+evidently had its own electrical plant. He scrutinized the scene before
+him appraisingly.
+
+There were two large buildings here. One seemed to be a large barn,
+closed, the other was a long, low shed which was too large to be a
+garage. The door of this was open, and before the opening Gramont saw
+three men standing in talk; he recognized none of them. Two of the
+talkers were clad in greasy overalls, and the third figure showed the
+flash of a collar. The sheriff, Ben Chacherre, and some other man,
+thought Gramont. He would not have known Chacherre had he encountered
+him face to face. To him, the man was a name only.
+
+The mention of his own name by Chacherre impelled him to go forward and
+demand some explanation. Then it occurred to him that perhaps he had
+made a mistake; it would have been very easy, for he was not certain
+that Chacherre had referred to him. There could be other Gramonts, or
+other men whose name would have much the same sound in a Creole mouth.
+
+"I'd better attend to my own business," thought Gramont, and turned
+away. He noticed that the motor had ceased its work. "Wonder what rich
+chap can be down here at his summer cottage this time of year? May be
+only a caretaker, though. I'd better give all my attention to this oil,
+and let other things alone."
+
+He retraced his steps to the bayou bank and turned back toward the
+house. As he did so, Hammond appeared coming toward him, knife in hand.
+
+"I'm going to cut me a pole and land a couple o' fish for supper,"
+announced the chauffeur, grinning. "Got things cleaned up fine, cap'n!
+You won't know the old shack."
+
+"Good enough," said Gramont. "Here, step over this way! I want to show
+you something."
+
+He led Hammond to the rivulet and pointed out the thin film of oil on
+the surface.
+
+"There's our golden fortune, sergeant! Oil actually coming out of the
+ground! It doesn't happen very often, but it does happen--and this is
+one of the times. I'll not bother to look around any farther."
+
+"Glory be!" said Hammond, staring at the rivulet. "Want to hit back for
+town?"
+
+"No; we couldn't get back until sometime to-night, and the roads aren't
+very good for night work. I'm going to get some leases around
+here--perhaps I can do it right away, and we'll start back in the
+morning. Go ahead and get your fish."
+
+Regaining the house, he saw that Hammond had indeed cleaned up in great
+style, and had the main room looking clean as a pin, with a fire popping
+on the hearth. He did not pause here, but went to the car, got in, and
+started it. He drove back to the road, and followed this toward town for
+a few rods, turning in at a large and very decent-looking farmhouse that
+he had observed while passing it on the way out.
+
+He found the owner, an intelligent-appearing Creole, driving in some
+cows for milking, and was a little startled to realize that the
+afternoon was so late. When he addressed the farmer in French, he
+received a cordial reply, and discovered that this man owned the land
+across the road from the Ledanois place--that his farm, in fact, covered
+several hundred acres.
+
+"Who owns the land next to the Ledanois place?" inquired Gramont.
+
+"I sold that off my land a couple of years ago," replied the other. "A
+man from New Orleans wanted it for a summer place--a business man there,
+Isidore Gumberts."
+
+Gumberts--"Memphis Izzy" Gumberts! The name flashed to Gramont's mind,
+and brought the recollection of a conversation with Hammond. Why,
+Gumberts was the famous crook of whom Hammond had spoken.
+
+"I saw the sheriff awhile ago, heading up the road," observed the
+Creole. "Did you meet him?"
+
+Gramont shook his head. "No, but I saw several men at the Gumberts
+place. Perhaps he was there----"
+
+"Not there, I guess," and the farmer laughed. "Those fellows have rented
+the place from Gumberts, I hear; they're inventors, and quiet enough
+men. You're a stranger here?"
+
+Gramont introduced himself as a friend of Miss Ledanois, and stated
+frankly that he was looking for oil and hoped to drill on her land.
+
+"I'd like a lease option from you," he went on. "I don't want to buy
+your land at all; what I want is a right to drill for oil on it, in case
+any shows up on Miss Ledanois' land. It's all a gamble, you know. I'll
+give you a hundred dollars for the lease, and the usual eighth interest
+in any oil that's found. I've no lease blanks with me, but if you'll
+give me the option, a signed memorandum will be entirely sufficient."
+
+The farmer regarded oil as a joke, and said so. The hundred dollars,
+however, and the prospective eighth interest, were sufficient to induce
+him to part with the option without any delay. He was only too glad to
+get the thing done with at once, and to pocket Gramont's money.
+
+Gramont drove away, and was just coming to the Ledanois drive when he
+suddenly threw on the brakes and halted the car, listening. From
+somewhere ahead of him--the Gumberts place, he thought instantly--echoed
+a shot, and several faint shouts. Then silence again.
+
+Gramont paused, indecisive. The sheriff was making an arrest, he
+thought. A hundred possibilities flitted through his brain, suggested by
+the sinister combination of Memphis Izzy, known even to Hammond as a
+prince among crooks, with this secluded place leased by "inventors."
+Bootlegging? Counterfeiting?
+
+As he paused, thus, he suddenly started; he was certain that he had
+caught the tones of Hammond, as though in a sudden uplifted oath of
+anger. Gramont threw in his clutch and sent the car jumping forward--he
+remembered that he had left Hammond beside the rivulet, close to the
+Gumberts property. What had happened?
+
+He came, after a moment of impatience, to an open gate whose drive led
+to the Gumberts place. Before him, as he turned in, unfolded a startling
+scene. Three men, the same three whom he had seen from the bushes, were
+standing in front of the low shed; two of them held rifles, the third,
+one of the "inventors" in overalls, was winding a bandage about a
+bleeding hand. The two rifles were loosely levelled at Hammond, who
+stood in the centre of the group with his arms in the air.
+
+Whatever had happened, Hammond had evidently not been easily captured.
+His countenance was somewhat battered, and the one captor who wore a
+collar was bleeding copiously from a cut cheek. The three turned as
+Gramont's car drove up, and Hammond gave an ejaculation of relief.
+
+"Here he is now----"
+
+"Shut up!" snapped one of his armed captors in an ugly tone. "Hurry up,
+Chacherre--get a rope and tie this gink!"
+
+Gramont leaped from the car and strode forward.
+
+"What's been going on here?" he demanded, sharply. "Hammond----"
+
+"I found a dead man over in them bushes," shot out Hammond, "and these
+guys jumped me before I seen 'em. They claim I done it----"
+
+"A dead man!" repeated Gramont, and looked at the three. "What do you
+mean?"
+
+"Give him the spiel, Chacherre," growled one of them. Ben Chacherre
+stepped forward, his bold eyes fastened on those of Gramont with a look
+of defiance.
+
+"The sheriff was here some time ago, looking for a stolen boat," he
+said, "and went off toward the Ledanois place. We were following, in
+order to help him search, when we came upon this man standing in the
+bushes, over the body of the sheriff. A knife was in his hand, and the
+sheriff had been stabbed to death. He drew a pistol and shot one of
+us----"
+
+Gramont was staggered for a moment. "Wait!" he exclaimed. "Hammond, how
+much of this is true?"
+
+"What I'm tellin' you, cap'n," answered Hammond, doggedly. "I found a
+man layin' there and was looking at him when these guys jumped me. I
+shot that fellow in the arm, all right, then they grabbed my gun and got
+me down. That's all."
+
+The sheriff--murdered!
+
+Into the mind of Gramont leaped that brief conversation which he had
+overheard between Ben Chacherre and the sheriff; the strange, unnatural
+silence which had concluded that broken-off conversation. He stared from
+Hammond to the others, speechless for the moment, yet with hot words
+rising impetuously in him.
+
+Now he noticed that Chacherre and his two companions were watching him
+very intently, and were slightly circling out. He sensed an acquaintance
+among all these men. He saw that the wounded man had finished his
+bandaging, and was now holding his unwounded hand in his jacket pocket,
+bulkily, menacingly.
+
+Danger flashed upon Gramont--flashed upon him vividly and with startling
+clearness. He realized that anything was possible in this isolated
+spot--this spot where murder had so lately been consummated! He checked
+on his very lips what he had been about to blurt forth; at this instant,
+Hammond voiced the thought in his mind.
+
+"It's a frame-up!" said the chauffeur, angrily.
+
+"That's likely, isn't it?" Chacherre flung the words in a sneer, but
+with a covert glance at Gramont. "This fellow is your chauffeur, ain't
+he? Well, we got to take him in to Houma, that's all."
+
+"Where's the sheriff's body?" demanded Gramont, quietly.
+
+"Over there," Chacherre gestured. "We ain't had a chance to bring him
+back yet--this fellow kept us busy. Maybe you want to frame up an alibi
+for him?"
+
+Gramont paid no attention to the sneering tone of this last. He regarded
+Chacherre fixedly, thinking hard, keeping himself well in hand.
+
+"You say the sheriff was here, then went over toward the Ledanois land?"
+he asked. "Did he go alone, or were you with him?"
+
+"We were fixin' to follow him," asserted Chacherre, confidently. This
+was all Gramont wanted to know--that the man was lying. "We were
+trailin' along after him when he stepped into the bushes. This man of
+yours was standing over him with a knife----"
+
+"I was, too, when they found me--I was cuttin' me a fishpole," said
+Hammond, sulkily. He was plainly beginning to be impressed and alarmed
+by the evidence against him. Gramont only nodded.
+
+"No one saw the actual murder, then?"
+
+"No need for it," said Chacherre, brazenly. "When we found him that way!
+Eh?"
+
+"I suppose not," answered Gramont, his eyes fastened thoughtfully on
+Hammond. The latter caught the look, let his jaw fall in astonishment,
+then flushed and compressed his lips--and waited. Gramont glanced at
+Chacherre, and launched a chance shaft.
+
+"You're Ben Chacherre, aren't you? Do you work for Mr. Fell?"
+
+The chance shot scored. "Yes," said Chacherre, his eyes narrowing.
+
+"What are you doing here, then?"
+
+For an instant Chacherre was off guard. He did not know how much--or
+little--Gramont knew; but he did know that Gramont was aware who had
+taken the loot of the Midnight Masquer from the luggage compartment of
+the car. This knowledge, very naturally, threw him back on the defence
+of which he was most sure.
+
+"I came on an errand for my master," he said, and with those words gave
+the game into Gramont's hands.
+
+There was a moment of silence. Gramont stood apparently in musing
+thought, conscious that every eye was fastened upon him, and that one
+false move would now spell disaster. He gave no sign of the tremendous
+shock that Chacherre's words had just given him; when he spoke, it was
+quietly and coolly:
+
+"Then your master is evidently associated with Memphis Izzy Gumberts,
+who owns this place here. Is that right?"
+
+Both Hammond and Chacherre's two friends started at this.
+
+"I don't know anything about that," returned Chacherre, with a shrug
+which did not entirely conceal his uneasiness. "I know that we've got a
+murderer here, and that we'll have to dispose of him. Do you object?"
+
+"Of course not," said Gramont, calmly. "Step aside and give me a moment
+in private with Hammond. Then by all means take him in to Houma. I'd
+suggest that you tie him up, or make use of handcuffs if the sheriff
+brought any along. Then you'd better take in the body of the sheriff
+also. Hammond, a word with you!"
+
+This totally unexpected acquiescence on the part of Gramont seemed to
+stun Chacherre into inaction. He half moved, as though uncertain whether
+to bar Gramont from the prisoner, then he stepped aside as Gramont
+advanced. A gesture to his two companions prevented them from
+interfering.
+
+"Keep 'em covered, though," he said, shifting his own rifle slightly and
+watching with a scowl of suspicion.
+
+Gramont ignored him and went up to Hammond, with a look of warning.
+
+"You'll have to submit to this, old man," he said, in a tone that the
+others could not overhear. "Don't dream that I'm deserting you; but I
+want a good look at this place if all three of them go away. They must
+not suspect----"
+
+"Cap'n, look out!" broke in Hammond, urgently. "This here is a gang--the
+whole thing is a frame-up on me!"
+
+"I know it--I was present when the sheriff was murdered; but keep quiet.
+I'll come to Houma later to-night and see you." He turned away with a
+shrug as though Hammond had denied him some favour, and lifted his
+voice. "Chacherre! How are you to take this man into town? How did you
+get here? Will you need to use my car?"
+
+"No." The Creole jerked his head toward the barn. "I came in Mr. Fell's
+car--it's got a sprung axle and is laid up. We'll take him back in
+another one."
+
+"Very well," Gramont paused and glanced around. "This is a terrible
+blow, men. I never dreamed that Hammond was a murderer or could be one!
+You don't know of any motive for the crime?"
+
+They shook their heads, but suspicion was dying from their eyes. Gramont
+glanced again at his chauffeur.
+
+"I'll not abandon you, Hammond," he said, severely, coldly. "I'll stop
+in at Houma and see that you have a lawyer. I think, gentlemen, we had
+better attend to bringing in the body of the sheriff, eh?"
+
+The wounded man dodged into the barn and returned with a strip of rope.
+Chacherre took this, and firmly bound Hammond's arms, then forced him to
+sit down and bound his ankles.
+
+"You watch him," he ordered the wounded member of the trio. "We'll get
+the sheriff."
+
+Allowing Chacherre and his companion to take the lead, Gramont went with
+them to the place where the murdered officer lay. As he went, the
+conviction grew more sure within him that, when he lay there by the
+rivulet, he had actually heard the last words uttered by the sheriff;
+that Chacherre had committed the murder in that moment--a noiseless,
+deadly stab! That Hammond could or would have done it he knew was
+absurd.
+
+They found the murdered man lying among the bushes. He had been stabbed
+under the fifth rib--the knife had gone direct to the heart. Chacherre
+announced that he had Hammond's knife as evidence and Gramont merely
+nodded his head.
+
+Lifting the body between them, they bore it back to the barn.
+
+"Now," said Gramont, quickly, "I'm off for Houma--if I don't miss my
+road! You men will be right along?"
+
+"In a jiffy," said Chacherre, promptly.
+
+Gramont climbed into his car and drove away. He had no fear of anything
+happening to Hammond; the evidence against the latter was damning, and
+with three men to swear him into a hangman's noose, they would bring him
+to jail safe enough.
+
+"A clever devil, that Chacherre!" he thought, grimly. "We're up against
+a gang, beyond any doubt. Now, if they don't suspect me----"
+
+He turned in at the Ledanois gate, knowing himself to be beyond sight or
+hearing of the Gumberts place. He drove the car away from the house, and
+into the thick of the densest bush-growth that he could find where it
+was well concealed from sight. Then, on foot, he made his way along the
+bank of the bayou until he had come to the rivulet where oil showed.
+
+Here he paused, concealing himself and gaining a place where he could
+get a view of the Gumberts land. He saw Chacherre and Hammond there,
+beside the body of the sheriff; the other two men were swinging open the
+barn door. They disappeared inside, and a moment later Gramont heard the
+whirr of an engine starting. A car backed out into the yard--a
+seven-passenger Cadillac--and halted.
+
+The three men lifted the body of the sheriff, into the tonneau.
+Chacherre took the wheel, Hammond being bundled in beside him. The other
+two men climbed in beside the body, rifles in hand. Chacherre started
+the car toward the road.
+
+"All fine!" thought Gramont with a thrill of exultation. "They've all
+cleared out and left the place to me--and I want a look at that place."
+
+Suddenly, as he stood there, he remembered the slight "plump" that he
+had heard during that interminable silence which had followed the
+conversation between the sheriff and Ben Chacherre. It was a sound as
+though something had fallen near him in the soggy ground.
+
+The remembrance startled him strangely. He visualized an excited
+murderer standing beside his victim, knife in hand; he visualized the
+abhorrence which must have seized the man for a moment--the abhorrence
+which must have caused him to do something in that moment which in a
+cooler time he would not have done.
+
+Gramont turned toward the little marshy spot where he had lain
+listening. He bent down, searching the wet ground, heedless that the
+water soaked into his boots. And, after a minute, a low exclamation of
+satisfaction broke from him as he found what he sought.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+
+                            _The Gangsters_
+
+
+Gramont left the covert and walked forward.
+
+He was thinking about that odd mention of Jachin Fell--had Chacherre
+lied in saying he had come here on his master's business? Perhaps. The
+man had come in Fell's car, and would not hesitate to lie about using
+the car. For the moment, Gramont put away the circumstance, but did not
+forget it.
+
+He walked openly toward the Gumberts buildings, thinking that he would
+have time for a good look around the place before dusk fell; he would
+then get off for Houma, and attend to Hammond's defence.
+
+As for the place before him, he was convinced that it was abandoned. Had
+any one, other than Chacherre and his two friends, been about the
+buildings, the late excitement would have brought out the fact. No one
+had appeared, and the buildings seemed vacant.
+
+Gramont's intent was simple and straightforward. In case he found, as he
+expected to find, any evidence of illegal occupation about the place--as
+the sheriff seemed to have discovered to his cost--he would lay
+Chacherre and the other two men by the heels that night in Houma. He
+would then go on to New Orleans and have Gumberts arrested, although he
+had no expectation that the master crook could be held on the
+murder-accessory charge. If this place were used for the lotteries,
+even, he was fairly certain that Memphis Izzy would have his own tracks
+covered. The men higher up always did.
+
+He walked straight in upon the barn. It loomed before him, closed, lurid
+in the level rays of the westering sun. The doors in front had been only
+loosely swung together and Gramont found them unlocked. He stood in the
+opening, and surprise gripped him. He was held motionless, gazing with
+astonished wonder at the sight confronting him.
+
+Directly before him was a small roadster, one which he remembered to
+have seen Jachin Fell using; in this car, doubtless, Ben Chacherre had
+driven from the city. He recalled the fact later, with poignant regret
+for a lost opportunity. But, at the present moment, he was lost in
+amazement at the great number of other cars presenting themselves to his
+view.
+
+They were lined up as deep as the barn would hold them, crammed into
+every available foot of space; well over a dozen cars, he reckoned
+swiftly. What was more, all were cars of the highest class, with the
+exception of Fell's roadster. Directly before him were two which he was
+well aware must have cost close upon ten thousand each. What did this
+mean? Certainly no one man or one group of men, in this back-country
+spot, could expect to use such an accumulation of expensive cars!
+
+Gramont glanced around, but found no trace of machinery in the barn.
+Remembering the motor that he had heard, he turned from the doorway in
+frowning perplexity. He strode on toward the long shed which stood
+closer to the house. At the end of this shed was a door, and when he
+tried it, Gramont found it unlocked. It swung open to his hand, and he
+stepped inside.
+
+At first he paused, confused by the vague objects around, for it was
+quite dark in here. A moment, and his eyes grew accustomed to the
+gloomier lighting. Details came to him: all around were cars and
+fragments of cars, chassis and bodies in all stages of dismemberment.
+Still more cars!
+
+He slowly advanced to a long bench that ran the length of the shop
+beneath the windows. A shop, indeed--a shop, he quickly perceived,
+fitted with every tool and machine necessary to the most complete
+automobile repair establishment! Even an air-brush outfit, at one end,
+together with a drying compartment, spoke of repaint jobs.
+
+Comprehension was slowly dawning upon the mind of Gramont; a moment
+later it became certainty, when he came to a stop before an automobile
+engine lying on the bench. He found it to be the engine from a
+Stutz--the latest multi-valve type adopted by that make of car, and this
+particular bit of machinery looked like new.
+
+Gramont inspected it, and he saw that the men had done their work well.
+The original engine number had been carefully dug out, and the place as
+carefully filled and levelled with metal. Beside it a new number had
+been stamped. A glance at the electrical equipment around showed that
+these workers had every appliance with which to turn out the most
+finished of jobs.
+
+As he straightened up from the engine Gramont's eyes fell upon a typed
+sheet of paper affixed to the wall above the bench. His gaze widened as
+he inspected it by the failing light. Upon that paper was a list of
+cars. After each car was a series of numbers plainly comprising the
+original numbers of the engine, body, radiator, and other component
+parts, followed by another series of new numbers to be inserted. That
+sheet of paper showed brains, organizing ability, care, and attention to
+the last detail!
+
+Here was the most carefully planned and thorough system of automobile
+thievery that Gramont had ever heard of. He stood motionless, knowing
+that this typed sheet of paper in itself was damning evidence against
+the whole gang of workers. What was more to the point, that paper could
+be traced; the typewriting could be traced to the man higher
+up--doubtless Memphis Izzy himself! These men ran in cars by the
+wholesale, probably from states adjacent to Louisiana. Here, at this
+secluded point on the bayou, they changed the cars completely about, in
+number, paint, style of body, and then probably got rid of the new
+product in New Orleans.
+
+Gramont stood motionless. Surprise had taken hold of him, and even a
+feeling of slight dismay. This was not at all what he had hoped to find
+there. He had thought to come upon some traces of the lottery game----
+
+"Seen all you want, bo?" said a voice behind him.
+
+Gramont turned. He found himself gazing directly into an automatic
+pistol over which glittered a pair of blazing eyes. The man was a
+stranger to him. The place had not been deserted, after all. He was
+caught.
+
+"Who are you?" demanded Gramont, quietly.
+
+"Me?" The stranger was unsmiling, deadly. In those glittering eyes
+Gramont read the ferocity of an animal at bay. "I s'pose you would like
+to know that, huh? I guess you know enough right now to get all that's
+comin' to you, bo! Got any particular business here? Speak up quick!"
+
+Gramont was silent. The other sneered at him, viciously.
+
+"Hurry up! Turn over the name and address, and I'll notify the survivin'
+relatives. Name, please?"
+
+"Henry Gramont," was the calm response. "Don't get hasty, my friend.
+Didn't you see me here a little while ago with Chacherre and the other
+boys?"
+
+"What's that?" The glittering eyes flamed up with suspicion and
+distrust. "Here--with them? No, I didn't. I been away fishing all
+afternoon. What the hell you doing around this joint?"
+
+"Your best scheme," said Gramont, coldly, "is to change your style of
+tone, and to do it in a hurry! If you don't know what's happened here
+this afternoon, don't ask me; you'll find out soon enough when the other
+boys get back. You'd better tell them I'm going to get in touch with
+Memphis Izzy the minute I get back to the city, and that the less
+talking they do----"
+
+"What the hell's all this?" demanded the other again, but with a
+softening of accent. The moniker of Gumberts had its effect, and seemed
+to shake the man instantly. Gramont smiled as he perceived that the game
+was won.
+
+"I never heard of no Gramont," went on the other, quickly. "What you
+doin' here?"
+
+"You're due to learn a good many things, I imagine," said Gramont,
+carelessly. "As for me, I happened on the place largely by accident. I
+happen to be in partnership with a man named Jachin Fell, and I came out
+here on business----"
+
+To Gramont's astonishment the pistol was lowered instantly. It was well
+that he ceased speaking, for what he had just said proved to be open to
+misconstruction, and if he had said any more he would have spoiled it.
+For the man facing him was staring at him in mingled disgust and
+surprise.
+
+"You're in partnership with _the boss_!" came the astounding words.
+"Well, why in hell didn't you say all that in the first place, instead
+o' beefin' around? That's no way to butt in, and me thinking you was
+some dick on the job! Got anything to prove that you ain't pullin'
+something cute on me?"
+
+"Do you know Fell's writing?" asked Gramont, with difficulty forcing
+himself to meet the situation coherently. Jachin Fell--the boss!
+
+"I know his mitt, all right."
+
+From his pocket Gramont produced a paper--the memorandum or agreement
+which he had drawn up with Fell on the previous afternoon, relating to
+the oil company. The other man took it and switched on an electric light
+bulb overhead. In this glare he was revealed as a ratty little
+individual with open mouth and teeth hanging out--an adenoidal type, and
+certainly a criminal type.
+
+It crossed the mind of Gramont that one blow would do the work--but he
+stood motionless. No sudden game would help him here. The discovery that
+Fell was "the boss" paralyzed him completely. He had never dreamed of
+such a contingency. Fell, of all men!
+
+Jachin Fell the "boss" of this establishment! Jachin Fell the man higher
+up--the brains behind this criminal organization! It was a perfect
+thunderbolt to Gramont. Now he understood why Chacherre was in the
+employ of Fell--why no arrest of the man had been possible! Now he
+perceived that Chacherre must have told the truth about coming here on
+business for Fell. Reaching farther back, he saw that Fell must have
+received the loot of the Midnight Masquer, must have turned it over to
+Lucie Ledanois----
+
+Did _she_ know?
+
+"All right, Mr. Gramont." The ratty little man turned to him with
+evident change of front. "We ain't takin' no chances here, y'understand.
+Got quite a shipment of cars comin' in from Texas, and we're tryin' to
+get some o' these boats cleaned out to make room. Bring out any orders?"
+
+Gramont's brain worked fast.
+
+By overcoming this guttersnipe he might have the whole place at his
+mercy--but that was not what he wanted. He suddenly realized that he had
+other and more important fish to fry in New Orleans. Gumberts was there.
+Fell was there. What he must do demanded time, and his best play was to
+gain all the time possible, and to prevent this gang from suspecting him
+in any way.
+
+"Did you see Ben Chacherre?" he countered.
+
+"Uh-huh--seen him just after he come. Gumberts will be out day after
+to-morrow, he said. The boss is framin' some sort of deal on a guy that
+he wants laid away--some guy name o' Hammond. Chacherre is running it.
+He figgers on gettin' Hammond on account of some car that's bein' hunted
+up----"
+
+Gramont laughed suddenly, for there was a grim humour about the thing.
+So Jachin Fell wanted to "get something" on poor Hammond! And Chacherre
+had seized the golden opportunity that presented itself this
+afternoon--instead of "getting" Hammond for the theft of a car,
+Chacherre had coolly fastened murder upon him!
+
+"Ben is one smart man; I expect he thinks the gods are working for him,"
+said Gramont, thinly. "So you don't know what happened to-day, eh? Well,
+it's great news, but I've got no time to talk about it. They'll tell you
+when they get back----"
+
+"Where'd they go?" demanded the other.
+
+"Houma. Now listen close! Chacherre did not know that I was in
+partnership with the boss, get me? I didn't want to tell all the crowd
+in front of him. Between you and me, the boss isn't any too sure about
+Ben----"
+
+"Say, I get you there!" broke in the other, sagely. "I tells him six
+months ago to watch out for that Creole guy!"
+
+"Exactly. You can tell the boys about me when they come back--I don't
+suppose Ben will be with them. Now, I've been looking over that place
+next door----"
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed the other, suddenly. "Sure! The boss said that one of
+his friends would be down to----"
+
+"I'm the one--or one of them," and Gramont chuckled as he reflected on
+the ludicrous aspects of the whole affair. "I'm going to Houma now, and
+then back to the city. My car's over next door. Mr. Fell wanted me to
+warn you to lay low on the lottery business. He's got a notion that
+someone's been talking."
+
+"You go tell the boss," retorted the other in an aggrieved tone, "to
+keep his eye on the guys that _can_ talk! Who'd we talk to here?
+Besides, we're workin' our heads off on these here boats. Memphis Izzy
+is attending to the lottery--he's got the whole layout up to the house,
+and we ain't touching it, see? Tell the boss all that."
+
+"Tell him yourself," Gramont laughed, good-humouredly. "Gumberts is
+coming out day after to-morrow, is he? That'll be Friday. Hm! I think
+that I'd better bring Fell out here the same day, if I can make it. I
+probably won't see Gumberts until then--I'm not working in with him and
+he doesn't know me yet--but I'll try and get out here on Friday with
+Fell. Now, I'll have to beat it in a hurry. Any message to send?"
+
+"Not me," was the answer.
+
+Gramont scarcely knew how he departed, until he found himself scrambling
+back through the underbrush of the Ledanois place.
+
+He rushed into the house, found the fire had died down beyond all
+danger, and swiftly removed the few things they had taken from the car.
+Carrying these, he stumbled back to where he had hidden the automobile.
+He scarcely dared to think, scarcely dared to congratulate himself on
+the luck that had befallen him, until he found himself in his own car
+once more, and with open throttle sweeping out through the twilight
+toward Paradis and Houma beyond. A whirlwind of mad exultation was
+seething within him--exultation as sudden and tremendous as the past
+weeks had been uneventful and dragging!
+
+Gramont, in common with many others, had heard much indefinite rumour of
+an underground lottery game that was being worked among the negroes of
+the state and the Chinese villages along the Gulf coast. And now he knew
+definitely.
+
+Lotteries have never died out in Louisiana since the brave old days of
+the government-ordained gambles, laws and ordinances to the contrary. No
+laws can make the yellow man and the black man forego the get-rich-quick
+heritage of their fathers. On the Pacific coast lotteries obtain and
+will obtain wherever there is a Chinatown. In Louisiana the days of the
+grand lottery have never been forgotten. The last two years of high
+wages had made every Negro wealthy, comparatively speaking. The lottery
+mongers would naturally find them a ripe harvest for the picking. And
+who would gravitate to this harvest field if not the great Gumberts, the
+uncaught Memphis Izzy, the promoter who had never been "mugged!"
+
+Here, at one stroke, stumbling on the thing by sheer blind accident,
+Gramont had located the nucleus of the whole business!
+
+Gradually his brain cooled to the realization of what work lay before
+him. He was through Paradis, almost without seeing the town, and
+switched on his lights as he took the highway to Houma. Sober reflection
+seized him. Not only was this crowd of crooks working a lottery, but
+they were also managing a stupendous thievery of automobiles, in which
+cars were looted by wholesale! And the man at the head of it all, the
+man above Memphis Izzy and his crooks, was Jachin Fell of New Orleans.
+
+Did Lucie Ledanois dream such a thing? No. Gramont dismissed the
+question at once. Fell was not an unusual type of man. There were many
+Jachin Fells throughout the country, he reflected. Men who applied their
+brains to crooked work, who kept themselves above any actual share in
+the work, and who profited hugely by tribute money from every crook in
+every crime.
+
+To the communities in which they lived such men were patterns of all
+that wealthy gentlemen should be. Seldom, except perhaps in gossip of
+the underworld, was their connection with crime ever suspected.
+And--this thought was sobering to Gramont--never did they come within
+danger of retribution at the hands of the law. Their ramifications
+extended too far into politics; and the governors of some southern
+states have unlimited powers of pardon.
+
+"This is a big day!" reflected Gramont, dismissing the sinister
+suggestion of this last thought. "A big day! What it will lead to, I
+don't know. Not the least of it is the financial end of it--the oil
+seepage! That little iridescent trickle of oil on the water means that
+money worries are over, both for me and for Lucie. I'm sorry that I am
+mixed up with Fell; I've enough money of my own to drill at least one
+good well, and one is all we'll need to bring in oil on that place.
+Well, we'll see what turns up! My first job is to make sure Hammond is
+safe, and to relieve his mind. I'll have to leave him in jail, I
+suppose----"
+
+Why did Fell want to "get something" on Hammond? To this there was no
+answer.
+
+He drove into Houma to find the town abuzz with excitement, for the news
+of the sheriff's murder had stirred the place wildly. Proceeding
+straight to the court house, Gramont encountered Ben Chacherre as he was
+leaving the car.
+
+"Hello, there!" he exclaimed. "Lost my road. Where's Hammond?"
+
+Chacherre jerked his head toward the court house.
+
+"In yonder. Say, are you going back to the city to-night?"
+
+"Yes." Gramont regarded him. "Why?"
+
+"Take me back, will you? I've missed the last up train, and if you're
+goin' back anyhow I won't have to hire a car. I can drive for you, and
+we'll make it in a couple of hours, before midnight sure."
+
+"Hop in," said Gramont, nodding toward the car. "I'll be back as soon as
+I've had a word with Hammond. No danger of his getting lynched, I hope?"
+
+"Not a chance," said the other, conclusively. "Six deputies up there
+now, and quite a bunch of ex-soldiers comin' to stand guard. You goin'
+to fight the case?"
+
+"No," said Gramont. "Can't fight a sure thing, can you? I'm sorry for
+him, though."
+
+Chacherre shrugged his shoulders and got into the car.
+
+Gramont was much relieved to find that there was no danger of lynching,
+which had been his one fear. It was only with much persuasion that he
+got past the guard and into the court house, where he was received by a
+number of deputies in charge of the situation.
+
+After conferring with them at some length, he was grudgingly taken to
+the cell occupied by Hammond. The latter received him with a wide grin,
+and gave no signs of the gruelling ordeal through which he had passed.
+
+"Listen, old man," said Gramont, earnestly. "Will you play out the game
+hard to the end? I'll have to leave you here for two days. At the end of
+that time you'll be free."
+
+The listening deputies sniffed, but Hammond merely grinned again and put
+a hand through the bars.
+
+"Whatever you say, cap'n," he rejoined. "It sure looks bad----"
+
+"Don't you think it," said Gramont, cheerfully. "A lot of things have
+happened since I saw you last! I've got the real murderer right where I
+want him--but I can't have him arrested yet."
+
+"It's a gang," said Hammond. "You watch out, cap'n, I heard 'em say
+somethin' about Memphis Izzy--remember the guy I told you about one day?
+Well, this is no piker's game! We're up against somethin' solid----"
+
+"I know it," and Gramont nodded. He turned to the deputies. "Gentlemen,
+you have my address if you wish to communicate with me. I shall be back
+here day after to-morrow--at least, before midnight of that day. I warn
+you, that if anything happens to this man in the meantime, you shall be
+held personally responsible. He is innocent."
+
+"Looks like we'd better hold you, too," said one of the men. "You seem
+to know a lot!"
+
+Gramont looked at him a moment.
+
+"I know enough to tell you where to head in if you try any funny work
+here," he said, evenly. "Gentlemen, thank you for permitting the
+interview! I'll see you later."
+
+The coroner's jury had already adjudged Hammond guilty of the murder.
+Returning to the car, Gramont had Ben Chacherre drive to a restaurant,
+where they got a bite to eat. Twenty minutes later they were on their
+way to New Orleans--and Gramont learned for the first time of Joseph
+Maillard's murder by the Midnight Masquer, and of the arrest of Bob
+Maillard for the crime.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+                            _The Ultimatum_
+
+
+Upon the following morning Gramont called both Jachin Fell and Lucie
+Ledanois over the telephone. He acquainted them briefly with the result
+of his oil investigation, and arranged a meeting for ten o'clock, at
+Fell's office.
+
+It was slightly before ten when Gramont called with the car for Lucie.
+Under the spell of her smiling eagerness, the harshness vanished from
+his face; it returned again a moment later, for he saw that she, too,
+was changed. There was above them both a cloud. That of Gramont was
+secret and brooding. As for Lucie, she was in mourning. The murder of
+Joseph Maillard, the arrest and undoubted guilt of Bob Maillard, dwarfed
+all else in her mind. Even the news of the oil seepage, and the fact
+that she was probably now on the road to wealth, appeared to make little
+impression upon her.
+
+"Thank heaven," she said, earnestly, as they drove toward Canal Street,
+"that so far as you are concerned, Henry, the Midnight Masquer affair
+was all cleared up before this tragedy took place! It was fearfully
+imprudent of you----"
+
+"Yes," answered Gramont, soberly, reading her thought. "I can realize my
+own folly now. If this affair were to be laid at my door, some kind of a
+case might be made up against me, and it would seem plausible. But,
+fortunately, I was out of it in time. Were we merely characters in a
+standardized detective story, I suppose I'd be arrested and deluged with
+suspense and clues and so forth."
+
+"Your escape was too narrow to joke over, Henry," she reproved him,
+gravely.
+
+"I'm not joking, my dear Lucie. I learned nothing about the tragedy
+until late last night. From what I can find in the papers, it seems
+agreed that Bob was not the real Masquer, but had assumed that guise for
+a joke. A tragic joke! Since he was undoubtedly drunk at the time, his
+story can't be relied upon as very convincing. And yet, it's frightfully
+hard to believe that, even by accident, a son should have shot down his
+own father----"
+
+"Don't!" Lucie winced a little. "In spite of all the evidence against
+him, in spite of the way he was found with that aviation uniform, it's
+still awful to believe. I can't realize that it has actually happened."
+
+"According to the papers, poor Mrs. Maillard has gone to pieces. No
+wonder."
+
+"Yes. I was there with her all day yesterday, and shall go again to-day.
+They say Bob is terribly broken up. He sent for his mother, and she
+refused to see him. I don't know how it is all going to end! Do you
+think his story might be true--that somebody else might have acted as
+the Masquer that night?"
+
+Gramont shook his head.
+
+"It's possible," he said, reluctantly, "yet it hardly seems very
+probable. And now, Lucie, I'm very sorry indeed to say it--but you must
+prepare yourself against another shock in the near future."
+
+"What do you mean? About the oil----"
+
+"No. It's too long a story to tell you now; here we are at the Maison
+Blanche. Just remember my words, please. It's something that I can't go
+into now."
+
+"Very well. Henry! Do you think that it's possible your chauffeur,
+Hammond, could have learned about the drinking party, and could
+have----"
+
+Gramont started. "Hammond? No. I'll answer for him beyond any question,
+Lucie. By the way, does Fell know anything about Hammond having been the
+first Masquer?"
+
+"Not from me," said the girl, watching him.
+
+"Very well. Hammond got into a bit of trouble at Houma, and I had to
+leave him there. It was none of his fault, and he'll get out of it all
+right. Well, come along up to our oil meeting! Forget your troubles, and
+don't let my croakings about a new shock cause you any worry just yet."
+
+He was thinking of Jachin Fell, and the girl's closeness to Fell. Had he
+not known that Fell was responsible for Hammond's being in jail, he
+might have felt differently. As it was, he was now fore-warned and
+fore-armed, although he could not see what animus Fell could possibly
+have against Hammond.
+
+It was lucky, he reflected grimly, that he had never breathed to a soul
+except Lucie the fact that Hammond had been the first Masquer! Had Fell
+known this fact, his desire to lay Hammond by the heels might have been
+easily fulfilled--and Hammond would probably have found himself charged
+with Maillard's murder.
+
+They found Jachin Fell dictating to a stenographer. He greeted them
+warmly, ushering them at once into his private office.
+
+Gramont found it difficult to convince himself that his experiences of
+the previous afternoon had been real. It was almost impossible to
+believe that this shy, apologetic little man in gray was in reality the
+"man higher up!" Yet he knew it to be the case--knew it beyond any
+escape.
+
+"By the way," and Fell turned to Gramont, "if you'll dictate a brief
+statement concerning that oil seepage, I'd be obliged! Merely give the
+facts. I may have need of such a statement from you."
+
+Gramont nodded and joined the stenographer in the outer office where he
+dictated a brief statement. It did not occur to him that there might be
+danger in this; at the moment, he was rather off his guard. He was
+thinking so much about his future assault on Fell that he quite ignored
+the possibility of being placed on the defensive.
+
+Within five minutes he had returned to Lucie and Jachin Fell, who were
+discussing the condition of Mrs. Maillard. Gramont signed the statement
+and handed it to Fell, who laid it with other papers at his elbow.
+
+"I suppose we may proceed to business?" began Fell. "I have drawn up
+articles of partnership; we can apply for incorporation later if we so
+desire. Lucie, both Henry Gramont and I are putting twenty-five thousand
+dollars into this company, while you are putting in your land, which I
+am valuing at an equal amount. The stock, therefore, will be divided
+equally among us. That is understood?"
+
+"Yes. It's very good of you, Uncle Jachin," said the girl, quietly.
+"I'll leave everything to your judgment."
+
+The little gray man smiled.
+
+"Judgment is a poor horse to ride, as Eliza said when she crossed the
+ice. Here's everything in black and white. I suggest that you both
+glance over the articles, sign up, and we will then hold our first
+meeting."
+
+Gramont and Lucie read over the partnership agreement, and found it
+perfectly correct.
+
+"Very well, then, the meeting is called to order!" Jachin Fell smiled as
+he rapped on the desk before him. "Election of officers--no, wait! The
+first thing on hand is to give our company a name. Suggestions?"
+
+"I was thinking of that last night," said Lucie, smiling a little. "Why
+not call it the 'American Prince Oil Company'?" And her eyes darted to
+Gramont merrily.
+
+"Excellent!" exclaimed Jachin Fell. "My vote falls with yours, my
+dear--I'll fill in the blanks with that name. Now to the election of
+officers."
+
+"I nominate Jachin Fell for president," said Gramont, quickly.
+
+"Seconded!" exclaimed the girl, gaily, a little colour in her pale
+cheeks.
+
+"Any other nominations? If not, so approved and ordered," rattled Fell,
+laughingly. "For the office of treasurer----"
+
+"Miss Lucie Ledanois!" said Gramont. "Move nominations be closed."
+
+"Seconded and carried by a two-thirds vote of stockholders," chirped
+Fell in his toneless voice. "So approved and ordered. For secretary----"
+
+"Our third stockholder," put in Lucie. "He'll have to be an officer, of
+course!"
+
+"Seconded and carried. So approved and ordered." Mr. Fell rapped on the
+table. "We will now have the report of our expert geologist in further
+detail than yet given."
+
+Gramont told of finding the oil; he was not carried away by the gay
+mock-solemnity of Jachin Fell, and he remained grave. He went on to
+relate how he had secured the lease option upon the adjoining land, and
+suggested that other such options be secured at once upon other property
+in the neighbourhood. He handed the option to Fell, who laid it with the
+other documents.
+
+"And now I have a proposal of my own to make," said Jachin Fell. He
+appeared sobered, as though influenced by Gramont's manner. "Although
+we've actually found oil on the place, there is no means of telling how
+much we'll find when we drill, or what quality it will be. Is that not
+correct, Mr. Gramont?"
+
+"Entirely so," assented Gramont. "The chances are, of course, that we'll
+find oil in both quality and quantity. On the other hand, the seepage
+may be all there is. Oil is a gamble from start to finish. Personally,
+however, I would gamble heavily on this prospect."
+
+"Naturally," said Mr. Fell. "However, I have been talking over the oil
+business with a number of men actively engaged in it in the Houma field.
+I think that I may safely say that I can dispose of the mineral rights
+to our company's land, together with this lease option secured yesterday
+on the adjoining land, for a sum approximating one hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars; reserving to our company a sixteenth interest in any
+oil located on the property. Personally, I believe this can be done, and
+I am willing to undertake the negotiations if so empowered by a note of
+our stockholders. Lucie, you do not mind if we smoke, I know? Let me
+offer you a cigar, Mr. Gramont."
+
+Gramont took one of the El Reys offered him, and lighted it amid a
+startled silence. Fell's proposal came to him as a distinct shock, and
+already he was viewing it in the light of prompt suspicion.
+
+"Why," exclaimed Lucie, wide-eyed, "that would be fifty thousand dollars
+to each of us, and not a cent expended!"
+
+"In case it went through on that basis," added Jachin Fell, his eyes on
+Gramont, "I would vote that the entire sum go to Miss Ledanois. Her land
+alone is involved. If she then wishes to invest with us in a new company
+to exploit other fields, well and good. One moment, my dear! Do not
+protest this suggestion. The sixteenth interest reserved to our company
+would provide both Mr. Gramont and me with a substantial reward for our
+slight activity in the matter. Don't forget that interest, for it might
+amount to a large figure."
+
+"Right," assented Gramont. "I would second your vote, Mr. Fell; I think
+the idea very just and proper that Miss Ledanois should receive the
+entire amount."
+
+Lucie seemed a trifle bewildered.
+
+"But--but, Henry!" she exclaimed. "What do you think of selling the
+lease to these other men?"
+
+Gramont eyed the smoke from his cigar reflectively, quite conscious that
+Mr. Fell was regarding him very steadily.
+
+"I can't answer for you, Lucie," he said at last. "I would not presume
+to advise."
+
+Mr. Fell looked slightly relieved. Lucie, however, persisted.
+
+"What would you do, then, if you were in my place?"
+
+Gramont shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"In that case," he said, slowly, "I would gamble. We know oil is in that
+ground; we know that it has been found in large quantities at Houma or
+near there. To my mind there is no doubt whatever that under your land
+lies a part of the same oil field--and a rich one. To sell
+fifteen-sixteenths of that oil for a hundred and fifty thousand is to
+give it away. I would sooner take my chances on striking a
+twenty-thousand barrel gusher and having the whole of it to myself.
+However, by all means disregard my words; this is not my affair."
+
+Lucie glanced at Jachin Fell.
+
+"You think it is the best thing to do; Henry does not," mused the girl.
+"I know that you're both thinking of me--of getting that money for me.
+Just the same, Uncle Jachin, I--I won't be prudent! I'll gamble!
+Besides," she added with smiling naivete, "I'm not a bit willing to give
+up having a real oil company the very minute it is formed! So we'll
+outvote you, Uncle Jachin."
+
+Despite their tension, the two men smiled at her final words.
+
+"That motion of mine has not yet been made," said Fell. Her rejection of
+his proposal had no effect upon his shyly smooth manner. "Will you
+excuse us one moment, Lucie? If I may speak with you in the outer
+office, Mr. Gramont, I would like to show you some confidential matters
+which might influence your decision in this regard."
+
+Lucie nodded and leaned back in her chair.
+
+Gramont accompanied Fell to the outer office, where Fell sent the
+stenographer to keep Lucie company. When the door had closed and they
+were alone, Fell took a chair and motioned Gramont to another. A cold
+brusquerie was evident in his manner.
+
+"Gramont," he said, briskly, "I am going to make that motion, and I want
+you to vote with me against Lucie. Unfortunately, I have only a third of
+the voting power. I might argue Lucie into agreement, but she is a
+difficult person to argue with. So I mean that you shall vote with
+me--and I'm going to put my cards on the table before you."
+
+"Ah!" Gramont regarded him coolly. "Your cards will have to be powerful
+persuaders!"
+
+"They are," returned Jachin Fell. "I have been carefully leading up to
+this point--the point of selling. I have practically arranged the whole
+affair. I propose to sell the mineral rights in that land, largely on
+the strength of the signed statement you gave me a few moments ago. That
+statement is going to be given wide publicity, and it will be
+substantiated by other reports on the oil seepage."
+
+"You interest me strangely." Gramont leaned back in his chair. The eyes
+of the two men met and held in cold challenge, cold hostility. "What's
+your motive, Fell?"
+
+"I'll tell you: it's the interest of Lucie Ledanois." In the gaze of
+Fell was a strange earnestness. In those pale gray eyes was now a light
+of fierce sincerity which startled and warned Gramont. Fell continued
+with a trace of excitement in his tone.
+
+"I've known that girl all her life, Gramont, and I love her as a father.
+I loved her mother before her--in a different way. I can tell you that
+at this moment Lucie is poor. Her house is mortgaged; she does not know,
+in fact, just how poor she really is. Of course, she will accept no
+money from me in gift. But for her to get a hundred and fifty thousand
+in a business deal will solve all her problems, set her on her feet for
+life!"
+
+"I see," said Gramont with harsh impulse. "What do you get out of it?"
+
+He regretted the words instantly. Fell half rose from his chair as
+though to answer them with a blow. Gramont, aware of his mistake,
+hastened to retract it.
+
+"Forgive me, Fell," he said, quickly. "That was an unjust insinuation,
+and I know it. Yet, I can't find myself in agreement with you. I'm
+firmly set in the belief that a fortune in oil will be made off that
+land of Lucie's. I simply can't agree to sell out for a comparative
+pittance, and I'll fight to persuade her against doing it! As I look at
+it, the thing would not be just to her. I'm thinking, as you are, only
+of her interest."
+
+A light of sardonic mockery glittered in the pale eyes of Jachin Fell.
+
+"You are basing your firm conviction," he queried, "very largely upon
+your discovery of the free oil?"
+
+"To a large extent, yes."
+
+"I thought you would," and Fell laughed harshly.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean," said the other, fiercely earnest, "that for a month I've
+worked to sell that land! I had young Maillard hooked and landed--it
+would have been poetic justice to make him hand over a small fortune to
+Lucie! But that deal is off, since he's in jail. And do you know why
+young Maillard wanted to buy the land? For the same reason you don't
+want to sell. I sent him out there and he saw that oil seepage, as I
+meant that he should! He thought he would skin Lucie out of her land,
+not dreaming that I had prepared a nice little trap to swallow him. And
+now you come along----"
+
+"Man, what are you driving at?" exclaimed Gramont. He was startled by
+what he read in the other man's face.
+
+"Merely that I planted that oil seepage myself--or had it done by men I
+could trust," said Jachin Fell, calmly. He sat back in his chair and
+took up his cigar with an air of finality. "The confession is shameless.
+I love Lucie more than my own ethical purity. Besides, I intend to wrong
+no one in the matter."
+
+Gramont sat stunned beyond words. The oil seepage--a plant!
+
+The thing could have been very easily done, of course. As he sat silent
+there unfolded before him the motives that underlay Fell's entire
+action. The amazing disclosure of Jachin Fell's intrigue to enrich the
+girl left him bewildered. This, coupled with what he had learned on the
+preceding day about Jachin Fell, put his own course of action into grave
+perplexity.
+
+There was no reason to doubt what Fell said. Gramont believed the little
+man sincere in his love for Lucie.
+
+"No matter what the outcome, your reputation will not be affected," said
+Fell, quietly. "The company which will buy this land of Lucie's is
+controlled by me. You understand? Even if no oil is ever found there, I
+shall see to it that you will not be injured because of that signed
+statement."
+
+Gramont nodded dull comprehension. He realized that Fell had devised
+this whole business scheme with infernal ingenuity; had devised it in
+order to take a hundred and fifty thousand dollars out of his own pocket
+and put it into that of Lucie. It was a present which the girl would
+never accept as a gift, but which, if it came in the way of business,
+would make her financially independent. Nobody would be defrauded. There
+was no chicanery about it. The thing was straight enough.
+
+"That's not quite all of my plan," pursued Fell, as though reading
+Gramont's unuttered thoughts. "The minute this news becomes public, the
+minute your statement is published, there will be a tremendous boom in
+that whole section. I shall take charge of Lucie's money, and within
+three weeks I should double it, treble it, for her. Before the boom
+bursts she will be out of it all, and wealthy. Now, my dear Gramont, I
+do not presume that you will still refuse to vote with me? I have been
+quite frank, you see."
+
+Gramont stirred in his chair.
+
+"Yes!" he said, low-voiced. "Yes, by heavens, I do refuse!"
+
+With an effort he checked hotly impulsive words that were on his tongue.
+One word now might ruin him. He dared not say that he did not want to
+see Fell's money pass into the hands of Lucie--money gained by fraud and
+theft and crime! He dared not give his reasons for refusing. He meant
+now to crush Fell utterly--but one wrong word would give the man full
+warning. He must say nothing.
+
+"It's not straight work, Fell. Regardless of your motives, I refuse to
+join you."
+
+Jachin Fell sighed slightly, and laid down his cigar with precision.
+
+"Gramont," his voice came with the softly purring menace of a tiger's
+throat-tone, "I shall now adjourn this company meeting for two days,
+until Saturday morning, in order to give you a little time to
+reconsider. To-day is Thursday. By Saturday----"
+
+"I need no time," said Gramont.
+
+"But you will need it. I suppose you know that Bob Maillard has been
+arrested for parricide? You are aware of the evidence against him--all
+circumstantial?"
+
+Gramont frowned. "What has that got to do with our present business?"
+
+"Quite a bit, I fancy." A thin smile curved the lips of Jachin Fell.
+"Maillard is not guilty of the murder--but you are."
+
+"Liar!" Gramont started from his chair as those three words burned into
+him. "Liar! Why, you know that I went home----"
+
+"Ah, wait!" Fell lifted his hand for peace. His voice was calm. "Ansley
+and I both saw you depart, certainly. We have since learned that you did
+not reach home until some time after midnight. You have positively no
+alibi, Gramont. You may allege, of course, that you were wandering the
+streets----"
+
+"As I was!" cried Gramont, heatedly.
+
+"Then prove it, my dear fellow; prove it--if you can. Now, we shall keep
+Lucie out of all this. What remains? I know that you were the Midnight
+Masquer. My man, Ben Chacherre, can prove by another man who accompanied
+him that the Masquer's loot was taken from your car. A dictograph in the
+private office, yonder, has a record of the talk between us of the other
+morning, in which you made patent confession to being the Masquer.
+
+"Once let me hand this array of evidence over to the district attorney,
+and you will most certainly stand trial. And, if you do stand trial, I
+can promise you faithfully that you will meet conviction. I have
+friends, you see, and many of them are influential in such small
+matters."
+
+It was not a nice smile that curved the lips of Fell.
+
+Gramont choked back any response, holding himself to silence with a firm
+will. He dared say nothing, lest he say too much. He saw that Fell could
+indeed make trouble for him--and that he must strike his own blow at
+Fell without great delay. It was a battle, now; a fight to the end.
+
+Fell regarded Gramont cheerfully, seeming to take this crushed silence
+as evidence of his own triumph.
+
+"Further," he added, "your man Hammond is now in jail at Houma, as you
+know, for the murder of the sheriff. Now, my influence is not confined
+to this city, Gramont, I may be able to clear Hammond of this charge--if
+you decide to vote with me. I may keep what I know about the Midnight
+Masquer from the press and from the district attorney--if you decide to
+vote with me. You comprehend?"
+
+Gramont nodded. He saw now why Fell wanted to "get something" on
+Hammond. Fell had rightly reasoned that Gramont would do more to save
+Hammond than to save himself.
+
+"You think I murdered Maillard, then?" he asked.
+
+"Gramont, I don't know what to think, and that's the honest truth!"
+answered Fell, with a steady regard. "But I am absolutely determined to
+put this oil deal across, to make Lucie Ledanois at least independent,
+if not wealthy. I can do it, I've made all my plans to do it, and--I
+_will_ do it!
+
+"We'll hold another meeting day after to-morrow--Saturday morning." Fell
+rose. "That will give me time to conclude all arrangements. I trust, Mr.
+Gramont, that you will vote with me for the adjournment?"
+
+"Yes," said Gramont, dully. "I will."
+
+"Thank you," and Jachin Fell bowed slightly, not without a trace of
+mockery in his air.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+
+                         _The Coin Falls Heads_
+
+
+Gramont sat in his own room that afternoon. It seemed to him that he had
+been away from the city for weeks and months. Yet only a day had
+intervened. He sat fingering the only piece of mail that had come to
+him--a notice from the post of the American Legion which he had joined,
+to the effect that there would be a meeting that Thursday evening. Only
+Thursday! And to-morrow was Friday.
+
+If he was to effect anything against the headquarters of Fell's gang he
+must act on the morrow or not at all. Gumberts was to be out there
+to-morrow. Gumberts would talk with the ratty little man of the
+projecting teeth and adenoids, would find Gramont had imposed upon the
+fellow, and there would be upheavals. The gang would take to flight,
+certainly, or at least make certain that Gramont's mouth was shut.
+
+He sat fingering the postal from the Legion, and turning over events in
+his mind. Against Fell he had particular animosity. All that the little
+gray man had done had been done with the thought of Lucie Ledanois as a
+spur.
+
+"Yet he can't realize that Lucie wouldn't have the money if she knew
+that it came from criminal sources," he thought, smiling bitterly. "He's
+been scheming a long time to make a fortune for her, and now he's
+determined to push it through regardless of me. It was clever of him to
+jail Hammond! He guessed that I'd do a great deal to save the
+redhead--more even than to save myself. Mighty clever! And now he's
+pretty sure that he's got me between a cleft stick, where I can't
+wriggle.
+
+"If I'm to strike a blow, I'll have to do it to-morrow--before noon
+to-morrow, also. I'll have to leave here mighty early, and get there
+before Gumberts does. What was it Hammond said that day about him--that
+nobody in the country had ever caught Memphis Izzy? I bet I could do it,
+and his whole gang with him--if I knew how. There's the rub! Fell won't
+hesitate a minute in having me arrested. And as he said, once he got me
+arrested, I'd be gone. He must be able to exert powerful influence, that
+man!"
+
+Should he strike or not? If he struck, he might expect the full weight
+of Jachin Fell's vengeance--unless his blow would include Fell among the
+victims.
+
+Gramont was still pondering this dilemma when Ben Chacherre arrived.
+
+Gramont heard the man's voice on the stairs. Ben's impudence, perhaps
+added to his name and the Creole French upon his lips, had carried him
+past the concierge unannounced, although not without a continued
+exchange of repartee that served to give Gramont warning of the visitor.
+Smiling grimly, Gramont drew a coin from his pocket, and flipped it.
+
+The coin fell heads. He pocketed it again as Ben Chacherre knocked, and
+opened the door.
+
+"Ah, Chacherre!" he exclaimed. "Come in."
+
+Ben swaggered inside and closed the door.
+
+"Brought a message for you, Mr. Gramont," he said, jauntily, and
+extended a note.
+
+Gramont tore open the envelope and read a curt communication:
+
+    Kindly let me know your answer as soon as possible. By to-morrow
+    evening at the latest. It will be necessary to arrange affairs
+    for Saturday.
+
+                                                        JACHIN FELL.
+
+To arrange affairs! Fell was taking for granted that Gramont would give
+an assent, under force of persuasion, to the scheme. He would probably
+have everything in readiness, and if assured by Friday night of
+Gramont's assent, would then pull his strings and perhaps complete the
+whole deal before the following Monday.
+
+The meeting of the company had been adjourned to Saturday morning.
+Gramont thought a moment, then went to his buhl escritoire and opened
+it. Chacherre had already taken a seat. Gramont wrote:
+
+    MY DEAR MR. FELL,
+
+    If you will arrange the company meeting for to-morrow evening,
+    say nine o'clock, at your office, I think that everything may
+    then be arranged. As I may not see Miss Ledanois in the
+    meantime, will you be kind enough to assure her presence at the
+    meeting?
+
+He addressed an envelope to Fell's office, and then stamped and pocketed
+it.
+
+"Well, Chacherre," he said, rising and returning to the Creole, "any
+further news from Houma? They haven't found the real murderer yet?"
+
+The other came to his feet with an exclamation of surprise. As he did
+so, Gramont's fist caught him squarely on the point of the jaw.
+
+Chacherre crumpled back across his chair, senseless for the moment.
+
+"I'm afraid to take any chances with you, my fine bird," said Gramont,
+rubbing his knuckles. "You're too clever by far, and too handy with your
+weapons!"
+
+He obtained cloths, and firmly bound the ankles and wrists of Chacherre.
+Not content with this, he placed the man in the chair and tied him to it
+with merciless knots. As he was finishing his task, Chacherre opened his
+eyes and gazed rapidly around.
+
+"Awake at last, are you?" said Gramont, genially. He got his pipe,
+filled and lighted it. The eyes of Chacherre were now fastened upon him
+venomously. "Too bad for you, Chacherre, that the coin fell heads up!
+That spelled action."
+
+"Are you crazy?" muttered the other in French. Gramont laughed, and
+responded in the same tongue.
+
+"It does look that way, doesn't it? You're slippery, but now you're
+caught."
+
+Chacherre must have realized that he stood in danger. He checked a
+curse, and regarded Gramont with a steady coolness.
+
+"Be careful!" he said, his voice deadly. "What do you mean by this?"
+
+Gramont looked at him and puffed his pipe.
+
+"The game's up, Ben," he observed. "I know all about the place down
+there--about the cars, and about the lottery. Your gang has had a
+pleasant time, eh? But now you and the others are going to do a little
+work for the state on the road gangs."
+
+"Bah! _Ca? va rive dans semaine quatte zheudis!_" spat Chacherre,
+contemptuously. "That will happen in the week of four Thursdays, you
+fool! So you know about things, eh? My master will soon shut your
+mouth!"
+
+"He can't," said Gramont, placidly. "You'll all be under arrest."
+
+Chacherre laughed scornfully, then spoke with that deadly gravity.
+
+"Look here--you're a stranger here? Well, since you know so much, I'll
+tell you more! We can't be arrested, and even if you get us pinched,
+we'll never be convicted. Do you understand? We have influence! There
+are men here in New Orleans, men in the legislature, men at Washington,
+who will never see us molested!"
+
+"They'll be surprised," said Gramont, although he felt that the man's
+words were true. "But not all of them are your friends, Ben. I don't
+think the governor of the state is in your gang. He's a pretty straight
+man, Ben."
+
+"He's a fool like you! What is he? A puppet! He can do nothing except
+pardon us if the worst happens. You can't touch us."
+
+"Well, maybe not," agreed Gramont, tapping at his pipe. "Maybe not, but
+we'll see! You seem mighty sure of where you stand, Ben."
+
+Encouraged, Ben Chacherre laughed insolently.
+
+"Let me loose," he commanded. "Or else you'll go over the road for the
+Midnight Masquer's work! My master has a dictograph in his office, and
+has your confession on record."
+
+"So?" queried Gramont, his brows lifted. "You seem much in Mr. Fell's
+confidence, Ben. But I think I'll leave you tied up a little while.
+Memphis Izzy is going down to his summer cottage to-morrow, isn't he?
+I'll be there--but you won't. By the way, I think I'd better look
+through your pockets."
+
+Ben Chacherre writhed suddenly, hurling a storm of curses at Gramont.
+
+The latter, unheeding the contortions of his captive, searched the man
+thoroughly. Except for a roll of money, the pockets gave up little of
+interest. The only paper Gramont secured was a fresh telegraph blank. He
+would have passed this unheeded had he not noted a snaky flitting of
+Chacherre's eyes to it.
+
+"Ah!" he said, pleasantly. "You appear to be interested in this, Ben.
+Pray, what is the secret?"
+
+Chacherre merely glared at him in silence. Gramont inspected the blank,
+and a sudden exclamation broke from him. He held the bit of yellow paper
+to the light at varying angles.
+
+"It's the most natural thing in the world," he said after a moment, "for
+a man to walk into a telegraph office, write out his telegram, and then
+find that he's torn two blanks instead of one from the pad on the desk.
+Eh? I've done it, often--and I've always put the extra blank into my
+pocket, Ben, thinking it might come in handy; just as you did, eh? Now
+let's see!
+
+"You were excited when you wrote this, weren't you? You'd just thought
+of something very important, and you took care of it hurriedly--that
+made you jab down your pencil pretty hard. Who's Dick Hearne at Houma?
+An agent of the gang there?"
+
+Chacherre merely glared, sullenly defiant. Word by word, Gramont made
+out the message:
+
+       Burn bundle under rear seat my car. Have done at once.
+
+Gramont looked up and smiled thinly.
+
+"Your car? Why, you left it in the garage at Gumberts' place, eh? That
+little roadster of Fell's, with the extra seat behind. If you'd been
+just a little bit cooler yesterday, Ben, you would have made fewer
+mistakes. It never occurred to you that other people might have been
+there in the bushes when the sheriff was murdered, eh?"
+
+Chacherre went livid.
+
+"It was another mistake to throw away your knife after you killed him,"
+pursued Gramont, reflectively. "You should have held on to that knife,
+Ben. There's no blood, remember, on Hammond's knife--a hard thing for
+you and your friends to explain plausibly. Yet your knife is heavy with
+blood, which tests will show to be human blood. Also, the knife has your
+name on it; quite a handsome knife, too. On the whole, you must admit
+that you bungled the murder from start to finish----"
+
+Chacherre broke in with a frightful oath--a frantically obscene storm of
+curses. So furious were his words that Gramont very efficiently gagged
+him with cloths, gagged him hard and fast.
+
+"You also bungled when you forgot all about burning that bundle, in your
+excitement over getting Hammond jailed for the murder," he observed,
+watching Chacherre writhe. "No, you can't get loose, Ben. You'll suffer
+a little between now and the time of your release, but I really can't
+spare much pity on you.
+
+"I think that I'll send another wire to Dick Hearne on this blank which
+you so thoughtfully provided. I'll order him, in your name, not to burn
+that bundle after all; I fancy it may prove of some value to me. And
+I'll also tell your friend--I suppose he has some familiar cognomen,
+such as Slippery Dick--to meet Henry Gramont at Houma early in the
+morning. I'd like to gather Dick in with the other gentlemen. I'll
+mention that you were kind enough to supply a few names and incidents."
+
+At this last Ben Chacherre writhed anew, for it was a shrewd blow. He
+and his friends belonged to that class of crook which never "peaches."
+If by any mischance one of this class is jailed and convicted, he
+invariably takes his medicine silently, knowing that the whole gang is
+behind him, and that when he emerges from prison he will be sure to find
+money and friends and occupation awaiting him.
+
+To know that he would be placed, in the estimation of the gang, in the
+same class with stool-pigeons, must have bitten deeper into Ben
+Chacherre than any other lash. He stared at Gramont with a frightful
+hatred in his blazing eyes--a hatred which gradually passed into a look
+of helplessness and of impotent despair.
+
+Gramont, meantime, was writing out the telegram to Dick Hearne. This
+finished, he got his hat and coat, and from the bureau drawer took an
+automatic pistol, which he pocketed. Then he smiled pleasantly at his
+prisoner.
+
+"I'll be back a little later, Ben, and I'll probably bring a friend with
+me--a friend who will sit up with you to-night and take care of your
+health. Kind of me, eh? It's getting late in the afternoon, but I don't
+think that it will harm you to go without any dinner. I'll 'phone Mr.
+Fell that you said you'd be away for a few hours, eh?
+
+"This evening, Ben, I think that I'll attend a meeting of my post of the
+American Legion. You don't belong to that organization by any chance?
+No, I'm quite sure you don't. Very few of your exclusive acquaintances
+do belong. Well, see you later! Work on those bonds all you like--you're
+quite safe. I'm curious to see what is in that bundle under the rear
+seat of your car; I have an idea that it may prove interesting. Good
+afternoon!"
+
+Gramont closed the door, and left the house.
+
+Going downtown, he mailed the letter to Fell, confident that the latter
+would receive it on the following morning; but he did not telephone
+Fell. He preferred to leave the absence of Chacherre unexplained,
+rightly judging that Fell would not be particularly anxious about the
+man. It was now Thursday evening. The meeting of the oil company would
+be held at nine on Friday evening. Between those two times Gramont
+figured on many things happening.
+
+He chuckled as he sent the telegram to Dick Hearne at Houma--a telegram
+signed with the name Chacherre, instructing Hearne not to burn the
+bundle, but to meet Gramont early in the morning at Houma. He had a very
+shrewd idea that this Dick Hearne might prove an important person to
+dispose of, and quite useful after he had been disposed of. In this
+conjecture he was right.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+                         _Chacherre's Bundle_
+
+
+It was seven in the morning when Henry Gramont drove his car into Houma.
+
+In the wire which he had sent over Chacherre's signature he had
+commanded Dick Hearne to meet Gramont at about this time at a restaurant
+near the court house. Putting his car at the curb, Gramont went into the
+restaurant and ordered a hasty breakfast. He had brought with him copies
+of the morning papers, and was perusing the accounts of Bob Maillard's
+pitifully weak story regarding his father's murder, when a stranger
+stopped beside him.
+
+"Gramont?" said the other. "Thought it was you. Hearne's my name--I had
+orders to meet you. What's up?"
+
+The other man dropped into the chair opposite Gramont, who put away his
+papers. Hearne was a sleek individual of pasty complexion who evidently
+served the gang in no better light than as a go-between and runner of
+errands. That he suspected nothing was plain from his casual manner,
+although he had never seen Gramont previously.
+
+"Business," said Gramont, leaning back to let the waitress serve his
+breakfast. When she had departed, he attacked it hungrily. "You got
+Chacherre's wire about the stuff in his car? Was it burned?"
+
+"No. He countermanded it just as I was hirin' a car to go over to
+Paradis," said Hearne. "What's stirrin', anyhow?"
+
+"Plenty. Memphis Izzy's coming down to-day. When'll he get in?"
+
+"He'll go direct to the other place, won't come here. Oh, I reckon he'll
+get there along about nine this morning. Why?"
+
+"We'll have to go over there to meet him," said Gramont. "I stopped in
+here to pick you up. Hammond is still safe in jail?"
+
+"Sure." Hearne laughed evilly. "I don't guess he'll get out in a hurry,
+neither!"
+
+"Chacherre was pinched last night for the murder," said Gramont,
+watching the other.
+
+"The hell!" Hearne looked astonished, then relaxed and laughed again.
+"Some fly cop will sure lose his buttons, then! They ain't got nothin'
+on him."
+
+"I heard they had plenty."
+
+"Don't worry." Hearne waved a hand grandiloquently. "The boss is solid
+with the bunch up to Baton Rouge, and they'll take care of everybody. So
+old Ben got pinched, huh? That's one joke, man!"
+
+Gramont's worst suspicions were confirmed by the attitude of Hearne, who
+plainly considered that the entire gang had nothing to fear from the
+law. Chacherre's boasts were backed up solidly. It was obvious to
+Gramont that the ramifications of the gang extended very high up indeed.
+
+"Better cut out the talk," he said, curtly, "until we get out of here."
+
+Hearne nodded and rolled a cigarette.
+
+When his hasty meal was finished Gramont paid at the counter and led the
+way outside. He motioned toward the car, and Hearne obediently climbed
+in, being evidently of so little account in the gang that he was
+accustomed to taking orders from everyone.
+
+Gramont headed out of town and took the Paradis road. Before he had
+driven a mile, however, he halted the car, climbed out, and lifted one
+side of the hood.
+
+"Give me those rags from the bottom of the car, Hearne," he said,
+briefly.
+
+The other obeyed. As Gramont made no move to come and get them, Hearne
+got out of the car; then Gramont rose from the engine unexpectedly, and
+Hearne looked into a pistol.
+
+"Hold out your hands behind you and turn around!" snapped Gramont. "No
+talk!"
+
+Hearne sputtered an oath, but as the pistol jerked at him he obeyed the
+command. Gramont took the strips of cloth, which he had previously
+prepared, and bound the man's wrists.
+
+"These are better than handcuffs," he commented. "Too many slick
+individuals can get rid of bracelets--but you'll have one man's job to
+get rid of these! Ah! a gun in your pocket, eh? Thanks."
+
+"What t'ell you doin'?" exclaimed the bewildered Hearne.
+
+"Placing you under arrest," said Gramont, cheerfully.
+
+"Here, where's your warrant? You ain't no dick----"
+
+Gramont cut short his protests with a long cloth which effectually bound
+his lower jaw in place and precluded any further idea of talk.
+
+"You climb into that car, Hearne," he ordered, "and I'll attend to your
+feet next. That's the boy! Nothing like taking it calmly, Hearne. You
+didn't know that I was the fellow who pinched old Ben, did you? But I
+am. And before night your whole crowd will be hooked up, from the big
+boss down to you."
+
+Gramont tied Dick Hearne securely, hand and foot, and then lashed him to
+one of the top supports of the car. When he had finished, Hearne was
+reasonably safe. He then climbed under the wheel again and proceeded on
+his way. Hearne's lashings were inconspicuous to any one whom the car
+passed.
+
+It was a little after eight in the morning when Gramont drove into
+Paradis. He noticed that two large automobiles were standing in front of
+the postoffice, and that about them were a group of men who eyed him and
+his car with some interest. Paying no attention to these, he drove on
+through town without a halt.
+
+Sweeping out along the north road, he encountered no one. When at length
+he reached the Ledanois farm he drove in toward the deserted house and
+parked the car among some trees, where it could not be seen from the
+road.
+
+"You'll have some pleasant company before long, Dicky, my lad," he
+observed, cheerfully. A last inspection showed that his prisoner was
+quite secure. "In the meantime, sit and meditate upon your sins, which I
+trust have been many and deep. Chacherre is up for murder, and he's
+trying to save his neck by blowing on the remainder of your gang. We may
+give you a chance to do the same thing and corroborate his testimony.
+It's worth thinking over, isn't it?
+
+"Perhaps you imagine that you're safe from conviction. If so, take
+comfort while you can--I'll chance that end of it! When Memphis Izzy
+comes along, I'll have a nice comfortable little conversation with him.
+Then we'll all join up and go back to the city together. You get the
+idea? Well, be good!"
+
+Leaving the car Gramont took his way toward the bank of the bayou and
+followed this in the direction of the adjoining property. He looked at
+the water, a bitter smile upon his lips, and again made out the faint
+iridescent sheen of oil. When he came to the rivulet which gave birth to
+the oil he paused. He remembered the excitement that had so shaken him
+upon the discovery of this supposed seepage two days previously--he
+remembered ironically the visions it had aroused in his brain.
+
+"Farewell, too sudden wealth!" he murmured. "Farewell, toil's end and
+dreams of luxury! I'm still a poor but honest workingman--but I still
+think that there's some real oil under this land. Well, we'll see about
+that later on, perhaps. Our company is by no means busted up yet!"
+
+He passed on, wondering not a little at the deft skill of Jachin Fell in
+planting that oil; the men next door had done the work, of course.
+Gramont did not attempt to delude himself with the idea that Fell had
+acted selfishly. The whole affair had been handled with a clever
+secrecy, only in order that Fell's oil company might buy the land from
+Lucie, and that Fell might use the resultant boom to make her
+financially secure.
+
+"He doesn't believe there's oil here," reflected Gramont, "and he's
+sincere in the belief. Where Lucie is concerned, I think the man's
+absolutely unselfish. He'd do anything for her! And yet Jachin Fell is
+an enemy, a deadly enemy, of society! Hm--these criminals show some
+queer streaks. You can't call a man like Fell wholly bad, not by a good
+deal; I'll almost regret sending him to the pen--if I do!"
+
+He went on to an opening in the bushes which, over the low rail fence,
+gave him a clear view of the Gumberts property. There he paused, quickly
+drew back, and gained a point whence he could see without danger of his
+presence being discovered. He settled into immobility and watched.
+
+That Memphis Izzy himself had not yet arrived, he was fairly certain.
+Near the barn were drawn up two flivvers, and sitting in chairs on the
+cottage veranda were three men who must have come in these cars. Gramont
+had come provided with binoculars, and got these out. He was not long in
+discovering that all three men on the veranda were strangers to him.
+They, no doubt, were men in the lottery game, waiting for Gumberts to
+arrive. Gramont turned his attention to the other buildings.
+
+Both the barn and shop were open, and the buzzing thrum of machinery
+bore witness that the mechanics were hard at work upon the stolen cars.
+Gramont thought of Ben Chacherre, still tied and lashed to the chair in
+his room, and wondered what was to be found under the rear seat of Ben's
+car. He could see the car from where he lay.
+
+The minutes dragged interminably, and Gramont settled down to a
+comfortable position in the grass. Would Fell come? He hoped so, but
+strongly doubted it. Fell appeared to be merely "the boss" and it was
+Gumberts who was actually managing the lottery swindle.
+
+Nine o'clock came and passed. A third flivver came roaring into the
+opening, and Gramont leaned forward intently. Three workers came to the
+door of the shop. A single man left the flivver and greeted them, then
+went on to the cottage and joined the other three on the veranda. He was
+greeted with no excitement. The house door remained closed. The newcomer
+lighted a cigarette and sat on the steps.
+
+"Evidently he's not Gumberts," thought Gramont. "Seven of them so far,
+eh? This is going to be a real job and no mistake."
+
+Almost on his thought, a high-powered and noiseless car came sweeping
+down the road and he knew at once that Memphis Izzy had arrived. He knew
+it intuitively, even before he obtained a good glimpse of the broad,
+heavy figure, and the dominating features. Memphis Izzy was far from
+handsome, but he possessed character.
+
+"Where's the Goog?" As he left the car, which he had driven himself,
+Gumberts lifted his voice in a bull-like roar that carried clearly to
+Gramont. "Where's Charlie the Goog?"
+
+The mechanics appeared hurriedly. One of them, no other than Gramont's
+friend of the adenoidal aspect, who seemed to own the mellifluous title
+of Charlie the Goog, hastened to the side of Gumberts, and the latter
+gave him evident directions regarding some repair to the car. Then,
+turning, Memphis Izzy strode to the cottage. He nodded greetings to the
+four men who awaited him, took a bunch of keys from his pocket, and
+opened the cottage door. All five vanished within.
+
+Gramont rose. A moment previously, fever had thrilled him; the
+excitement of the manhunt had held him trembling. Now he was cool again,
+his fingers touching the pistol in his pocket, his eyes steady. He
+glanced at his watch, and nodded.
+
+"It's time!" he murmured. "Let's hope there'll be no slip-up! All ready,
+Memphis Izzy? So am I. Let's go!"
+
+Unhurried and openly, he advanced, making his leisurely way toward the
+barn and shop. Charlie the Goog, who was bent over the car of Gumberts,
+was first to discern his approach, and straightened up. Gramont waved
+his hand in greeting. Charlie the Goog turned his head and called his
+brethren, who came into sight, staring at Gramont.
+
+The latter realized that if he passed them the game was won. If they
+stopped him, he bade fair to lose everything.
+
+"Hello, boys!" he called, cheerily, as he drew near. "I came out on an
+errand for the boss--got a message for Gumberts. Where is he? In the
+house?"
+
+The others nodded, plainly mistrusting him yet puzzled by his careless
+manner and his reference to Fell.
+
+"Sure," answered Charlie the Goog. "Go right in--he's in the big front
+room."
+
+"Thanks."
+
+Gramont continued his way, conscious that they were staring after him.
+If there was anything phony about him, they evidently considered that
+Memphis Izzy would take care of the matter very ably.
+
+The steps of the cottage porch creaked protestingly as Gramont ascended
+them. Perhaps Memphis Izzy recognized an unaccustomed footstep; perhaps
+that conversation outside had penetrated to him. Gramont entered the
+front door into the hall, and as he did so, Gumberts opened the door on
+his right and stood gazing at him--rather, glaring.
+
+"Who're you?" he demanded, roughly.
+
+"Came out with a message from Mr. Fell," responded Gramont at once.
+"Brought some orders, I should say----"
+
+The sixth sense of Memphis Izzy, which had carried him uncaught into a
+grizzled age, must have flashed a warning to his crook's brain. In the
+man's eyes Gramont read a surge of suspicion, and knew that his bluff
+could be worked no longer.
+
+"Here's his note," he said, and reached into his pocket.
+
+Gumberts' hand flashed down, but halted as Gramont's pistol covered him.
+
+"Back into that room, and do it quickly," said Gramont, stepping
+forward. "Quick!"
+
+Memphis Izzy obeyed. Gramont stood in the doorway, his eyes sweeping the
+room and the men inside. Startled, all four of them had risen and were
+staring at him. In his other hand he produced the automatic which he had
+taken from Dick Hearne.
+
+"The first word from any of you gentlemen," he declared, "will draw a
+shot. I'm doing all the talking here. Savvy?"
+
+They stood staring, paralyzed by this apparition. They had been sitting
+about a table which was heaped with papers and with packages of money. A
+large safe in the wall stood open. Beside the table was a small mail
+sack, partially emptied of its contents; torn envelopes littered the
+floor.
+
+That this was the headquarters of at least a section of the lottery gang
+Gramont saw without need of explanation.
+
+"You're under arrest," said Gramont, quietly. "The game's up, Gumberts.
+Hands up, all of you! Dick Hearne has peached on the whole gang, and
+from the boss down you're all in for a term in stir. You with the derby!
+Take Gumberts' gun, and those of your companions, then your own; throw
+'em on the floor in the corner, and if you make the wrong kind of a
+move, heaven help you! Step lively, there!"
+
+One of the men who wore a derby on the back of his head obeyed the
+command. All five of the men facing Gramont realized that a single shout
+would call help from outside, but in the eyes of Gramont they read a
+strict attention to business. It was altogether too probable that one
+man who dared arrest them alone would shoot to kill at the first false
+move--and not even Memphis Izzy himself opened his mouth.
+
+Each man there had a revolver or pistol, and one by one the weapons
+clattered into the corner. Gumberts stood motionless, licking his thick
+lips, unuttered curses in his glaring eyes. And in that instant Gramont
+heard the porch steps creak, and caught a low, startled cry.
+
+"Hey, boss! They's a gang comin' on the run----"
+
+It was Charlie the Goog, bursting in upon them in wild haste. Gramont
+stepped into the room and turned slightly, covering with one of his
+weapons the intruder, who stood aghast in the doorway as he comprehended
+the scene.
+
+No words passed. Staring at the five men, then at Gramont, the adenoidal
+mechanic gulped once--and like a flash acted. He ducked low, and fired
+from his pocket. Gramont fired at the same instant, and the heavy
+bullet, catching Charlie the Goog squarely in the chest, hurled his body
+half across the room.
+
+With the shots Memphis Izzy flung himself forward in a headlong rush.
+That desperate shot of the little mechanic had broken Gramont's right
+arm above the wrist; before he could fire a second time, with the weapon
+in his left hand, Gumberts had wrested the pistol aside and was
+struggling with him. The other four came into the melee full weight.
+
+Gramont went down under a crashing blow. Over him leaped Memphis Izzy
+and rushed into the doorway--then stopped with astounding abruptness and
+lifted his arms. After him the other four followed suit. Two men,
+panting a little, stood outside the door and covered them with shotguns.
+
+"Back up," they ordered, curtly. Memphis Izzy and his four friends
+obeyed.
+
+"Tie 'em, boys," said Gramont, rising dizzily to his feet. "No, I'm not
+hurt--my arm's broken, I think, but let that wait. Got the ones
+outside?"
+
+A stamping of feet filled the hall, and other men appeared there.
+
+"Got two of 'em, Gramont!" responded the leader. "The third slipped in
+here--ah, there he is!"
+
+Poor Charlie the Goog lay dead on the floor--a touch of heroic tragedy
+in his last desperate action; the one great action of his life,
+possibly. He had realized that it meant doom yet he had done what he
+could.
+
+"I think that's all," said Gramont. "We've sure made a killing,
+boys--and it's a good thing you jumped in to the minute! A second later
+and they'd have done for me. Take care of that evidence, will you? Get
+that mail sack and the letters particularly; if they've been working
+their lottery outside the state, it'll be a Federal matter."
+
+Gumberts, who was being tied up with his friends, uttered a hoarse cry.
+
+"Who are you guys? You can't do this without authority----"
+
+"Don't be silly, Memphis Izzy!" said Gramont, smiling a little, then
+twitching to the pain of his arm. "These friends of mine are members
+with me of the American Legion, and they've come along at my request to
+put you crooks where you belong. As for authority, you can ask and go
+hang.
+
+"Here, boys, I've got to get out to that barn. Come along, some of you!
+We'll get my arm tied up later. Nobody hurt out here?"
+
+"Not a scrap, even," responded the leader, with a trace of disgust. "All
+three of those bums were outside, and we covered 'em as we came out of
+the brush. The one that got away did so by getting his friends between
+us and him. But you attended to him."
+
+"And he attended to me likewise," added Gramont, not without a wince of
+pain.
+
+He led the way out to the barn, and, the others trooping in behind him,
+entered. He pointed out the car which had brought Chacherre here
+previously, and ordered the extra seat in back opened up.
+
+"I think there's a bundle inside," he said. "What's in it, I don't
+know----"
+
+"Here we are, cap."
+
+A bundle was produced, and opened. In it was found the aviator's costume
+which Gramont had worn as the Midnight Masquer, and which Chacherre had
+stolen with the loot. Wrapped among the leathern garments was an
+automatic pistol.
+
+Gramont stood aghast before this discovery, as realization of what it
+meant broke full upon him.
+
+"Good lord!" he exclaimed, amazedly. "Boys--why, it must have been Ben
+Chacherre who killed Maillard! See if that pistol has been used----"
+
+The Midnight Masquer had fired two bullets into Maillard. Two cartridges
+were gone from this automatic.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+
+                        _When the Heavens Fall_
+
+
+The chief of police entered the office of Jachin Fell, high in the
+Maison Blanche building, at eight o'clock on Friday evening. Mr. Fell
+glanced up at him in surprise.
+
+"Hello, chief! What's up?"
+
+The officer gazed at him in some astonishment.
+
+"What's up? Why, I came around to see you, of course!"
+
+Jachin Fell smiled whimsically. "To see me? Well, chief, that's good of
+you; sit down and have a cigar, eh? What's the matter? You look rather
+taken aback."
+
+"I am," said the other, bluntly. "Didn't you expect me?"
+
+"No," said Jachin Fell, halting suddenly in the act of reaching for a
+cigar and turning his keen gaze upon the chief. "Expect you? No!"
+
+"It's darned queer, then! That chap Gramont called me up about ten
+minutes ago and said to get around here as quick as I could make it,
+that you wanted to see me."
+
+"Gramont!" Jachin Fell frowned. "Where's Ben Chacherre? Haven't you
+found him yet?"
+
+"Nary a sign of him, chief."
+
+The door opened, and Henry Gramont appeared, his right hand bandaged and
+in a sling.
+
+"Good evening, gentlemen!" he said, smiling.
+
+"Here's Gramont now," exclaimed Fell. "Did you call the chief over
+here----"
+
+"I sure did," and Gramont came forward. "I wanted to see you two
+gentlemen together, and so arranged it. Miss Ledanois is to be here at
+nine, Fell?"
+
+The little man nodded, his eyes intent upon Gramont. He noticed the
+bandaged arm.
+
+"Yes. Have you been hurt?"
+
+"Slightly." Gramont brought up a chair across the desk from Fell, and
+sat down. He put his left hand in his breast pocket, and brought forth a
+document which he handed to the chief of police. "Cast your eye over
+that, chief, and say nothing. You're here to listen for the present.
+Here's something to cover your case, Mr. Fell."
+
+Gramont produced his automatic from the pocket of his coat, and laid it
+on the desk before him. There was a moment of startled silence. The
+officer, looking over the paper which Gramont had handed him, seemed to
+find it of sudden, intense interest.
+
+"What means all this mystery and melodramatic action, Gramont?" demanded
+Jachin Fell, a slight sneer in his eyes, his voice quite toneless.
+
+"It means," said Gramont, regarding him steadily, "that you're under
+arrest. I went out to the Gumberts place on Bayou Terrebonne this
+morning, arrested Memphis Izzy Gumberts and four other men engaged in
+operating a lottery, and also arrested two mechanics who were engaged in
+working on stolen cars. We took in, further, a gentleman by the name of
+Dick Hearne; a lesser member of the gang, who is now engaged in
+dictating a confession. Just a moment, chief! I prefer to do the talking
+at present."
+
+The chief of police had been about to interfere. At this, however, he
+leaned back in his chair, tapping in his hand the paper which he had
+perused. He looked very much as though in danger from a stroke of
+apoplexy.
+
+Gramont smiled into the steady, unfaltering eyes of Fell.
+
+"You are next on the programme," he said, evenly. "We know that you are
+at the head of an organized gang, which is not only operating a lottery
+through this and adjacent states, but also is conducting an immense
+business in stolen automobiles. Therefore----"
+
+"Just one minute, please," said Jachin Fell. "Do you forget, Mr.
+Gramont, the affair of the Midnight Masquer? You are a very zealous
+citizen, I have no doubt, but----"
+
+"I was about to add," struck in Gramont, "that your pleasant friend Ben
+Chacherre is charged with the murder of the sheriff of Terrebonne
+Parish, in which I have clear evidence against him, having been present
+at the scene of the crime. He is also charged with the murder of Joseph
+Maillard-----"
+
+"What!" From both Fell and the officer broke an exclamation of
+undisguised amazement.
+
+"Quite true, I assure you," said Gramont. "The evidence is, at least, a
+good deal clearer than the evidence against young Maillard."
+
+"My heavens!" said Fell, staring. "I never dreamed that Chacherre----"
+
+"Perhaps you didn't." Gramont shrugged his shoulders. "Neither did any
+one else. I imagine that Ben learned of this room and drinking party,
+and rightly decided that he could make a rich haul off a small crowd of
+drunken young sports. He had the costume stolen from my car, as you
+know, also the automatic which went with it. Two shots were missing from
+the automatic when we found it in Ben's possession; and you remember the
+Masquer fired twice at the time Maillard was killed."
+
+"Ah! I always said young Maillard wasn't guilty!" exclaimed the chief.
+
+"And your man Hammond----" began Fell. Gramont interposed.
+
+"You thought you had Hammond sewed up tight, didn't you? To use the
+language of your favourite game, Fell, development is everything, and
+the player who gives up a pawn for the sake of development shows that he
+is possessed of the _idee grande_. You took the pawn, or thought you
+did--but I've taken the game!
+
+"In one way, Fell, I'm very sorry to arrest you. It's going to hurt a
+mutual friend of ours. I realize that you've been trying very hard to be
+unselfish toward her, and I think that you've been perfectly sincere in
+this respect. Nonetheless, I've only one duty in the matter, and I
+propose to carry it through to the finish."
+
+Fell's keen eyes sparkled angrily.
+
+"You're a very zealous citizen, young man," he said, softly. "I see that
+you've been hurt. I trust your little game did not result in
+casualties?"
+
+Gramont nodded. "Charlie the Goog went west. He was desperate, I fancy;
+at all events he got me in the arm, and I had to shoot him. Memphis Izzy
+hardly justified his tremendous reputation, for he yielded like a lamb."
+
+"So you killed the Goog, eh?" said Fell. "Very zealous, Mr. Gramont! And
+I suppose that the exigencies of the case justified you, a private
+citizen, in carrying arms and using them? Who aided you in this
+marvellous affair?"
+
+"A number of friends from my post of the American Legion," said Gramont,
+evenly.
+
+"Ah! This organization is going in for politics, then?"
+
+"Not for politics, Fell; for justice. I deputized them to assist me."
+
+"Deputized!" repeated Fell, slowly.
+
+"Certainly." Gramont smiled. "You see, this lottery business has been
+going on for a year or more. Some time ago, before I came to New
+Orleans, the governor of this state appointed me a special officer to
+investigate the matter. There is my commission, which the chief has been
+reading. It gives me a good deal of power, Fell; quite enough power to
+gather in you and your bunch.
+
+"I might add that I have secured an abundance of evidence to prove that
+the lottery gang, under your supervision, has extended its operations to
+adjacent states. This, as you are aware, brings the affair into Federal
+hands if necessary."
+
+The chief of police looked very uneasily from Gramont to Jachin Fell,
+and back again. Fell sat erect in his chair, staring at Gramont.
+
+"You were the original Midnight Masquer," said Fell in his toneless
+voice. At this direct charge, and at Gramont's assent, the chief started
+in surprise.
+
+"Yes. One reason was that I suspected someone in society, someone high
+up in New Orleans, to be connected with the gang; but I never dreamed
+that you were the man, Fell. I rather suspected young Maillard. I am now
+glad to say that I was entirely wrong. You were the big boss, Fell, and
+you're going to serve time for it."
+
+Fell glanced at the chief, who cleared his throat as if about to speak.
+At this moment, however, a sharp knock sounded at the door.
+
+"Come!" called Gramont.
+
+A man entered. It was one of Gramont's deputies, who happened also to be
+a reporter from one of the morning papers of the city. He carried
+several sheets of paper which he laid before Gramont. He glanced at
+Fell, who recognized him and exchanged a nod of greeting, then returned
+his attention to Gramont.
+
+"Ah!" said the latter with satisfaction, as he examined the papers. "So
+Hearne has given up everything, has he? Does this confession implicate
+Mr. Fell, here?"
+
+"Well, rather," drawled the other, cheerfully. "And see here, cap! There
+are two more of us in the crowd and we've arranged to split the story.
+We'd like to rush the stuff to our papers the minute you give the word,
+because----"
+
+"I know." Gramont returned the papers that bore the confession of
+Hearne. "You've made copies of this, of course? All right. Shoot the
+stuff in to your papers right away, if you wish."
+
+Fell raised a hand to check the other.
+
+"One moment, please!" he said, his eyes boring into the newspaper man.
+"Will you also take a message from me to the editor of your
+newspaper--and see that it goes to the others as well?"
+
+"If Mr. Gramont permits, yes."
+
+"Go ahead," said Gramont, wondering what Fell would try now. He soon
+learned.
+
+"Then," pursued Fell, evenly, "you will kindly inform the editors of
+your papers that, in case my name appears in connection with this
+matter, I shall immediately institute suit for libel. No matter what Mr.
+Gramont may say or do, I assure you fully that no publicity is going to
+attach to me in this matter. Neither, I may add, am I going to be
+arrested. That is all, sir."
+
+Gramont smiled. "Take the message if you see fit, by all means," he
+said, carelessly. "You may also take my fullest assurance that within
+twenty minutes you will observe Mr. Fell safely in jail. That's all."
+
+The newspaper man saluted and departed, grinning.
+
+Gramont leaned forward, the harsh lines of his face spelling
+determination as he looked at Jachin Fell.
+
+"So you won't be arrested, eh? Let's see. I know that this gang of yours
+has influence running up into high places, and that this influence has
+power. The governor knows it also. That is why I was appointed to
+investigate this lottery game secretly, and in my own way. That is why,
+also, I brought the chief of police here to-night."
+
+He turned to the perturbed officer, and spoke coldly.
+
+"Now, chief, you've seen my authority, you've heard my charges, and you
+know they will be proved up to the hilt. Dick Hearne gave up the names
+of most of the lottery gang and their confederates; my deputies already
+wired to their various places of operation for the purpose of securing
+their arrest. We'll make a clean sweep.
+
+"The same may be said of the automobile gang, although we will probably
+miss a few of the smaller fry. What other forms of criminality the
+organization may be engaged in I can't say at this moment; but we have
+secured quite enough evidence. Are you willing to arrest Jachin Fell, or
+not?"
+
+The chief cleared his throat.
+
+"Why, Mr. Gramont," he observed, nervously, "about the rest of the gang,
+we'll take care of 'em, sure! But it's different with Mr. Fell here.
+He's a friend of the senator----"
+
+"Different, hell!" snapped Gramont, angrily. "He's a criminal, no matter
+who his friends may be, and I have the proof of it!"
+
+"Well, that may be so," admitted the chief of police. "But this thing is
+goin' to raise one hell of a scandal, all up and down the state! You
+know that as well as I do. Now, if I was you, I'd act kind of slow----"
+
+Gramont smiled bitterly.
+
+"Perhaps you would, chief. In fact, I don't doubt that you would. But
+you are not _me_. Now, as a duly-appointed officer acting under
+authority of the governor of the state, I call upon you to arrest this
+criminal, and I make you duly responsible for his safe-keeping. Do you
+dare refuse?"
+
+The chief hesitated. He looked at Fell for help, but none came. Fell
+seemed to be rather amused by the situation.
+
+"Well," said the chief, "I ain't seen the evidence yet----"
+
+"I'll show you some evidence of another kind, chief," said Gramont,
+sternly quiet. "Outside the door, here, there are two men who will obey
+my orders and my authority. If you dare refuse to do your duty you will
+yourself be taken from this room under arrest, on a John Doe warrant
+which is already prepared and waiting; and you will be charged with
+being an accomplice of this gang. Now choose, and choose quickly!"
+
+Gramont leaned back in his chair. The purpling features of the chief
+were streaming with perspiration; the man was in a frightful dilemma,
+and his plight was pitiable. At this instant Jachin Fell interposed.
+
+"Let me speak, please," he said, gently. "My dear Mr. Gramont, it has
+just occurred to me that there may be a compromise----"
+
+"I'm not compromising," snapped Gramont.
+
+"Certainly not; I speak of our mutual friend here," and Fell indicated
+the chief with a bland gesture. "I believe that Judge Forester of this
+city is at present consulting with the governor at Baton Rouge on
+political matters. With them, also, is Senator Flaxman, who has come
+from Washington on the same errand. Now, it would be a very simple
+matter to end all this anxiety. Suppose that you call up the governor on
+long distance, from this telephone, and get his assurance that I am not
+to be arrested. Then you'll be convinced."
+
+Gramont laughed with deep anger.
+
+"You gangsters are all alike!" he said, turning to the desk telephone.
+"You think that because you have planted your slimy tentacles in high
+places you can do anything with absolute impunity. But the governor of
+this state is not in your clutches.
+
+"He's a man, by heaven! I have his assurance that he'll prosecute to the
+limit whoever is behind this criminal gang--and he keeps his word! Don't
+think that if your friend the senator is with him, you will be saved.
+I'll call him, if only to show the chief, here, that influence is not
+going to count in this game."
+
+Gramont took down the receiver, called long distance, and put in a
+hurried call for the executive mansion, asking for the governor in
+person.
+
+"So you think that he's immune from influence, do you?" Jachin Fell
+smiled patronizingly and lighted a fresh cigar. The chief of police was
+mopping his brow.
+
+"My dear Gramont, you exhibit a youthful confidence in human nature! Let
+me topple your clay-footed idol from its pedestal in a hurry. Mention to
+the governor that you have me under arrest, and that I have asked him to
+speak with Judge Forester and Senator Flaxman before confirming the
+arrest. I'll wager you five hundred dollars----"
+
+The smile in Fell's pale eyes drove Gramont into a cold fury of rage.
+
+"You devil! So your damnable influence goes as far as those two men,
+does it--those men who are respected above all others in this city? By
+the lord, I'll call your bluff! I know the governor, and I know he
+doesn't give a damn for all the dirty crooks and slimy politicians on
+earth!"
+
+"What sublime faith!" laughed Fell, softly.
+
+The telephone rang sharply. Taunted almost beyond endurance, Gramont
+seized the instrument and made answer. In a moment he had the governor
+on the wire. His gaze went exultantly to Fell.
+
+"Governor, this is Henry Gramont speaking," he said. "I've just
+succeeded in my work, as I wired you this afternoon--no, hold on a
+minute! This is important.
+
+"The head of the entire gang is a man here in New Orleans by the name of
+Jachin Fell. Yes, Fell. I find it very hard to get him arrested. Fell
+boasts that his influence is superior to any that I can bring to bear.
+He asks that you speak with Judge Forester and Senator Flaxman before
+confirming the arrest, and boasts that you will order me to keep hands
+off.
+
+"Speak with them, governor! If they're in the gang, too, don't you
+worry. You confirm this arrest, and I'll put Fell behind the bars if I
+have to turn all New Orleans inside out. Go ahead! I know that you can't
+be reached by any of these crooks--I'm merely calling Fell's bluff. We
+have the chief of police here, and he's sweating. Eh? Sure. Take as long
+as you like, governor."
+
+He smiled grimly at Jachin Fell as he waited. Two minutes
+passed--three--four. Then he heard the voice of the governor again.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Don't arrest him, Gramont."
+
+"What?" Gramont gasped.
+
+"Don't touch him, I said! Get in all the others, no matter who they are,
+but leave Fell alone----"
+
+"You damned coward!" shouted Gramont, in a heat of fury. "So this is the
+way you keep your promises, is it? And I thought you were above all
+influences--real American! You're a hell of a governor--oh, I don't want
+to hear any more from you."
+
+He jerked up the receiver.
+
+There was a moment of dead silence in the room. The chief mopped his
+brow, in evident relief. Jachin Fell sat back in his chair and
+scrutinized Gramont with his thin-lipped smile.
+
+Gramont sat helpless, wrung by chagrin, rage, and impotency. There was
+nothing he could say, nothing he could do. The man behind him had failed
+him. The entire power of the state, which had been behind him, had
+failed him. There was no higher power to which he could appeal, except
+the power of the Federal Government. His head jerked up sharply.
+
+"Fell, I've got the evidence on you, and I've got the evidence to put
+this lottery business into Federal hands. Boys! Come in here!"
+
+At his shout the door opened and two of his men entered. Gramont looked
+at the chief.
+
+"You're willing to take care of all the rest of the gang, chief?"
+
+"Sure," assented the officer, promptly.
+
+"All right. Boys, turn over the whole crowd to the chief, and I'll trust
+you to see that they're properly booked and jailed. Turn over all the
+evidence likewise, except that mail sack. Have that brought up here, to
+this room, and see that the corridor outside is kept guarded. Get me?"
+
+The two saluted. "Yes, sir."
+
+"Good. Send to the Federal building, find out where there's an agent of
+the Department of Justice, and get him here. Have him here inside of
+fifteen minutes."
+
+Fell smiled. "I can save you time, gentlemen. The agent in charge of
+this district will probably be home at this hour. I can give you his
+address----"
+
+He did so. In the pale eyes Gramont read an imperturbable challenge. The
+effrontery of the man appalled him. He turned to his men.
+
+"Confirm fully that he _is_ the agent before you get him," he ordered,
+curtly. "Have him bring one of his deputy agents likewise, to meet you
+here. That's all, chief, if you'll go along with these men, you'll be
+put in charge of our prisoners and evidence. I've left a guard at the
+Gumberts place at Terrebonne, and I'd suggest that you go through the
+residence of Gumberts here in town. You might find evidence. That's
+all."
+
+The chief departed without a word. It was obvious that he was mighty
+glad to be gone. Gramont and Fell were left alone together.
+
+"My dear Gramont, your devotion to duty is Roman in spirit," said Jachin
+Fell, lightly. "I really regret that circumstances so conspire to defeat
+you! Why can't you be satisfied with bagging so many other victims? You
+can't bag me----"
+
+"Can't I?" said Gramont, taking a cigar and biting at it. He was cooler
+now. "By heavens, Fell, there's one thing in this country that you and
+no other man can reach with any influence, political bribery, or crooked
+connections--and that's the Government of the United States! You can
+reach judges and senators and governors, but you can't reach the unknown
+and humble men who carry the badge of the Department of Justice!"
+
+Fell made a slight gesture.
+
+"Human nature, my dear Gramont. It is quite true that I have not
+established this gang of criminals, as you call them, without taking
+proper precautions. Memphis Izzy, for instance, has influence that
+reaches far and wide. So have I. So have others in the party. I give you
+my assurance that your Department of Justice man will not arrest me."
+
+Gramont paled.
+
+"If----" He choked on the word, then touched the automatic on the desk
+before him. "If he won't, Jachin Fell, I'll put a bullet through you
+myself!"
+
+For the first time the pale eyes of Jachin Fell looked slightly
+troubled.
+
+"You'll hang if you do," he said, gently.
+
+"I'll be damned if I don't!" snapped Gramont, and put the weapon in his
+lap.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+                   _The Impregnability of Mr. Fell_
+
+
+Jachin Fell glanced at his watch.
+
+"Lucie will be here at any minute now," he observed. "I suppose your
+sense of duty will force you to disclose everything to her?"
+
+Gramont merely nodded, tight-lipped. A knock at the door, and one of his
+men entered with the sack of mail they had taken as evidence.
+
+"A lady is coming here at any moment," said Gramont. "Allow her to
+enter."
+
+The other saluted and departed.
+
+"A sense of duty is a terrible thing," and Jachin Fell sighed. "What
+about the oil company? Are you going to let Miss Ledanois' fortunes go
+to wrack and ruin?"
+
+"Better that," said Gramont, "than to have her profit come through
+criminal money and means. She'd be the first to say so, herself. But
+I'll tell you this: I'm convinced that there is oil under the land of
+hers! If she'll agree, I'll put up what money I have against her land;
+we'll be able to have one well drilled at least, on the chance!"
+
+"If it's dry," said Fell, "you'll be broke."
+
+"I can always get work," and Gramont laughed harshly.
+
+Fell regarded him in silence a moment. Then: "I think Lucie loves you,
+Gramont."
+
+A trembling seized Gramont; a furious impulse to shoot the man down as
+he sat. Did he have the baseness to try and save himself through Lucie?
+Something of his stifled anger must have shone in his eyes, for Jachin
+Fell laid down his cigar and continued quickly:
+
+"Don't misunderstand. I say that I think she cares for you; it is merely
+surmise on my part. Lucie is one person for whom I'd do anything. I
+stand and have stood in the place of a parent to her. She is very dear
+to me. I have a special reason for intruding on your personal affairs in
+this manner, and some right to ask you in regard to your intentions."
+
+"I don't recognize any right whatever on your part," said Gramont,
+steadily.
+
+Fell smiled. "Ah! Then you are in love. Well, youth must be served!"
+
+"I'd like to know one thing," struck in Gramont. "That is, why you were
+so cursed anxious to get something on my man Hammond! And why you held
+the Midnight Masquer affair over me as a threat. Did you suspect my
+business?"
+
+Fell threw back his head and laughed in a hearty amusement that was
+quite unrestrained.
+
+"That," he responded, "is really humorous! Do you know, I honestly
+thought you a fortune-hunter from Europe? When I suspected you of being
+the Midnight Masquer, and afterward, I was convinced that you, and very
+likely Hammond as well, were very clever swindlers of some kind. There,
+I confess, I made a grave error. My friend Gumberts never forgets faces,
+and he said to me, one day, that Hammond's face was vaguely familiar to
+him, but he could not place the man. That led me to think----"
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Gramont. "Gumberts saw Hammond years ago, when he was
+escaping from the law--and to think he remembered! Hammond told me about
+it."
+
+"That's why I wanted you and Hammond in my gang," said Fell. "I thought
+it would be very well to get you into the organization for my own
+purposes."
+
+"Thanks," answered Gramont, drily. "I got in, didn't I?"
+
+Without a knock the door opened and Lucie Ledanois entered.
+
+"Good evening, stockholders!" she exclaimed. "Do you know there's a
+crowd down in the street--policemen and automobiles and a lot of
+excitement?"
+
+"Allow me," said Gramont, taking her coat and placing a chair for her.
+"Oh, yes, we've had quite a strenuous evening, Miss Ledanois."
+
+"Your hand! Why, what has happened?"
+
+"One of Mr. Fell's friends tried to shoot me. Will you sit down, please?
+You remember that I warned you regarding a shock that would come; and
+now I must explain." Gramont gravely handed her his commission from the
+governor, and resumed his seat. "When I say that I have come here, not
+to attend a meeting of our oil company, but to arrest Mr. Fell, you will
+understand. I am very sorry, Lucie, to have to tell you all this, for I
+know your attachment to him."
+
+"Arrest--you, Uncle Jachin?" The girl glanced from the paper to Fell,
+who nodded. "And you, Henry--a special officer of the governor's?
+Why--this isn't a joke of some kind?"
+
+"None whatever, my dear," said Fell, quietly. "Mr. Gramont is to be
+congratulated. He has discovered that I was the head of a large
+organization of criminals. He has there, under the table, a sack of mail
+which proves that my organization was conducting a lottery throughout
+several states; we are now expecting the arrival of Federal agents, to
+whom Gramont intends to turn me over as a prisoner."
+
+"Oh!" The girl stared at him, wide-eyed. Her voice broke. "It--it can't
+be true----"
+
+"It is quite true, my dear," and Jachin Fell smiled. "But don't let it
+distress you in the least, I beg. Here, if I mistake not, are your
+Department of Justice friends, Gramont."
+
+A knock at the door, and it opened to admit one of Gramont's men.
+
+"Here they are, sir--the chief agent and a deputy. Shall I let them in?"
+
+Gramont nodded. Two men entered the room, and Gramont dismissed his own
+man with a gesture. He saw that the agents both nodded to Fell.
+
+"Do you gentlemen know this man?" he demanded, rising.
+
+"Yes," said one of them, regarding him keenly. "Who sent for us?"
+
+"I did." Gramont gave his name, and handed them his commission. "I have
+been investigating a lottery which has been conducted in this state for
+a long time by an organization of very clever criminals. Jachin Fell is
+the man at the head of this organization. To-day I rounded up the entire
+gang, and procured all the evidence necessary. Under that table is a
+sack of mail proving that the lottery has been extended to other states,
+and that part of its operations have been conducted by means of the
+United States mails.
+
+"The lesser members of the gang are in custody. The police department
+will not arrest this man Fell; his influence and that of his gang is
+extensive in political fields and elsewhere. I have called up the
+governor, and have been told not to arrest him. I have disregarded these
+facts, and I now call upon you to hold him in custody as a Federal
+prisoner. He has boasted to me that you will not touch him--and if you
+don't, there's going to be a shakeup that will make history! Now go to
+it."
+
+The chief agent laid Gramont's commission on the table and looked at
+Jachin Fell. For an instant there was a dead silence. Then, when the
+Federal man spoke, Gramont was paralyzed.
+
+"I'm very sorry, Mr. Gramont, to have to refuse----"
+
+"What!" cried Gramont, incredulously. "Do you dare stand there and----"
+
+"One moment please," said Fell, his quiet voice breaking in. "It is
+quite true that I have organized all the criminals possible, Mr.
+Gramont, and have put the underground lottery into a systematized form.
+I have done this by the authority of the United States, in order to
+apprehend Memphis Izzy Gumberts and other men at one crack. These
+gentlemen will tell you that I am a special agent of the Department of
+Justice, employed in that capacity through the efforts of Judge Forester
+and Senator Flaxman. I regret that this had to be held so secret that
+not even the governor himself was aware of it until this evening. The
+conflict was quite unavoidable. Not a member of that gang must become
+aware of my real identity."
+
+Fell turned to the two agents, who were smiling.
+
+"I would suggest that you take this sack of mail, and arrange with the
+chief of police in regard to the prisoners," he said. "The chief, of
+course, must suspect nothing."
+
+Gramont sank into his chair, the automatic dropping from his hand. He
+was suddenly dazed, thunderstruck. Yet he had to believe. He was dimly
+aware that Lucie had gone to Jachin Fell, her arms about his neck. He
+stared from unseeing eyes.
+
+Realization smote him like a blow, numbing his brain. He saw now why the
+governor had conferred with Judge Forester and the senator, why he had
+been ordered off the trail. He saw now why Fell had preserved secrecy so
+great that even to the chief of police his impregnable position was
+supposedly due to influence higher up.
+
+He saw how Fell must have been working month after month, silently and
+terribly, to form one compact organization of the most talented
+criminals within reach--headed by Memphis Izzy, the man who had laughed
+at the government for years! And he saw himself, furious, raging like a
+madman----
+
+Gramont dropped his head into his hands. The pain of his forgotten
+wounded arm stabbed him like a knife. He jerked his head sharply up, and
+was aware that the agents had departed. He was alone with Lucie and
+Fell, and the latter was rising and holding out his hand, smiling.
+
+"Gramont, you got ahead of me in this deal, and I congratulate you with
+all my heart!" said Fell, earnestly. "Neither of us suspected the part
+played by the other man; but you've done the work and done it well. Will
+you shake hands?"
+
+Gramont confusedly took the hand extended to him.
+
+"I've been a fool," he said, slowly. "I might have guessed that
+something unusual was----"
+
+"No; how could you guess?" said Fell. "There are three men in Baton
+Rouge who know the truth, and three persons in this room. That's all,
+outside of the regular government men. I had not told even Lucie, here!
+I dared not. And I dare say nothing even now. To the underworld at large
+I will be known as the crook whom not even the government could touch;
+in days to come I may be of untold service to my country."
+
+"I'm so glad!" Lucie took Gramont's hand as Jachin Fell dropped it, and
+Gramont looked down to meet her brimming eyes. "For a moment I thought
+that all the world had gone mad--but now----"
+
+Jachin Fell regarded them for an instant, then he quietly went to the
+door.
+
+"If you will excuse me one moment," he said, "I shall speak with your
+men who are on guard, Gramont. I--ah--I will be back in a moment, as
+Eliza said when she crossed the ice; and we may then discuss business.
+If you agree, I think that your company may proceed upon the original
+lines, and we shall set to work drilling for oil without delay----"
+
+Gramont scarcely heard the words, nor did he hear the door close. He was
+still looking into the eyes of Lucie Ledanois, and wondering if the
+message they held were really meant for him.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+
+                              _Mi-Careme_
+
+
+A nameless gentleman from the effete North was enjoying for the first
+time the privileges of a guest card at the Chess and Checkers. In a
+somewhat perplexed manner he approached the secretary's desk and
+obtained a cigar. Then he paused, listening to the sounds of revelry
+which filled the club, and which came roaring in from the city streets
+outside.
+
+"Say!" he addressed the secretary. "What's this Mi-Careme I've been
+reading about in the papers, anyhow? I thought everything was tight as a
+clam down here after Mardi Gras! It's still the Lenten season, isn't it?
+Mardi Gras doesn't come more than once a year? Then what's all the
+celebration about?"
+
+The secretary smiled.
+
+"Certainly, sir, it's still Lent. But the French people have what they
+call Mi-Careme, or Mid-Lent, and they certainly give it a big
+celebration! You see, it's a night halfway through Lent, when they can
+enjoy themselves to the limit--let off steam, as it were. We're having
+several dinner parties here in the club to-night, for the occasion."
+
+A slightly built little man, who had much the air of a shy clerk--had it
+not been for his evening attire--approached the desk. He signed a check
+for a handful of cigars, which he stowed away.
+
+"Please provide a fresh box of the El Reys later," he said to the
+secretary. "Most of my party is here, I believe."
+
+"I'll send them up, Mr. Fell," answered the secretary, quickly. "Yes, I
+think the dining room is all ready for you, sir. By the way, Mr. Gramont
+was looking for you a moment ago--ah! Here he comes now!"
+
+Jachin Fell turned. Gramont was plunging at him, a yellow telegraph form
+in his hand, excitement in his eyes.
+
+"Look here, Jachin! This wire just came in from Hammond--you know, I
+left him in charge of things down at Bayou Terrebonne! Read it,
+man--read it! They've struck oil-sands at five hundred feet--and sands
+at five hundred, with these indications, mean a gusher at a thousand!
+Where's Lucie? Have you brought her?"
+
+"She's upstairs. Well, well!" Jachin Fell glanced at the telegram, and
+returned it. "So oil is actually found! This is certainly going to be
+one big night, as Eliza said when she crossed the ice! Come along. Let's
+find Lucie and tell her about it----"
+
+The two men turned away together.
+
+After them gazed the man from the North, not a little agape over what he
+had chanced to hear. Before the wondering questions in his eyes the
+assiduous secretary made haste to enlighten him.
+
+"That's Mr. Gramont, sir. They say that he used to be a real prince,
+over in France, and that he threw it up because he wanted to be an
+American. Mr. Fell is having a dinner upstairs--it's Mr. Gramont's
+engagement, you know--and the Mi-Careme ball afterward----"
+
+"Oh, I know, I know," and the man from the North sighed a little. "I was
+reading all about that in the paper. Fell is one of the crack chess
+players here, isn't he?"
+
+The secretary smiled.
+
+"Well, he plays a very fair game, sir--a very fair game indeed!"
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+                         THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
+                           GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+                           Transcriber Notes:
+
+Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_.
+
+Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS.
+
+Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of
+the speakers. Those words were retained as-is.
+
+Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
+unless otherwise noted. For instance, scarfpins was sometimes hyphenated
+and some times not.
+
+On page 49, a quotation mark was placed after "You'd try blackmail,
+would you?"
+
+On page 99, "hundered" was replaced with "hundred".
+
+On page 124, "geting" was replaced with "getting".
+
+On page 156, "asurance" was replaced with "assurance".
+
+On page 156, "he" was replaced with "be".
+
+On page 296, "I am not be arrested." was replaced with "I am not to be
+arrested."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Mardi Gras Mystery, by H. Bedford-Jones
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