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diff --git a/39229.txt b/39229.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5db6add --- /dev/null +++ b/39229.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7471 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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-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. 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