A TANGLED NET
"Arrested?" cried Eleanor, startled. "Why, what do you mean? How can
that be?"
"That's all I know, ma'am," said Rogers, soberly. "Even if I did know
anything more, I guess maybe I oughtn't to be saying anything about it.
I'm an officer, you see. But here's the district attorney. Maybe
he'll be able to tell you what you want."
He pointed to a tall, thin man who was talking earnestly to Holmes, and
who came over when Rogers beckoned to him.
"This is Mr. Niles, Miss Mercer," said Rogers. "I'll leave you with
him."
"Glad to meet you, Miss Mercer," said Niles, heartily, "though I'm
sorry to have dragged you away from your good times at Long Lake.
These, I suppose, are the young ladies who were kidnapped?"
"Yes, though of course they weren't really kidnapped, because they got
away before any real harm was done," Eleanor replied. "But, Mr. Niles,
what is this absurd story about my cousin, Mr. Jamieson? Mr. Rogers
said something about his having been arrested."
Niles grew grave.
"I hope you're right--I hope it is absurd, my dear young lady," he
said. "Your cousin, you say? Dear me, that's most distressing--most
distressing, upon my word! However, you will understand I had nothing
to do with the matter.
"I have to take cognizance, in my official capacity, of any charges
that are made, but I am allowed to have my own opinion as to the guilt
or innocence of those accused--yes, indeed! And I am quite sure that
Mr. Jamieson had nothing to do with this attempted kidnapping!"
"What?" gasped Eleanor. "Do you mean to say that it is on such a
charge as that that he has been arrested?"
She laughed, in sheer relief. The absurdity of such an accusation, she
was sure, would carry proof in itself that Charlie was innocent. No
matter who was trying to spoil his reputation, they could not possibly
succeed with such a flimsy and silly charge.
"I'm glad it seems so funny to you, Miss Mercer," said Niles, stiffly.
"I'll confess that it looked serious to me, although, as I say, I do
not believe in Mr. Jamieson's guilt. However, he will have to clear
himself, of course, just as anyone else accused of a crime must do.
Where I have jurisdiction, no favors are shown.
"The poor are on a basis of equality with the rich; I would send a
guilty millionaire to prison with a light heart, and on the same day I
would move heaven and earth to secure the freedom of an innocent
beggar, though men of wealth were trying to railroad him to jail!"
He finished that peroration with a sweeping and dignified bow. And
then he stopped, thunder-struck, as a clear, girlish laugh rose on the
air. It was Dolly who laughed.
"I couldn't help it," she said, afterward. "He was so funny, and he
didn't know it! As if anyone would take a man who talked such rot as
that seriously!"
But the trouble was that, vain and pompous as Niles plainly was, his
official position made it necessary to take him seriously. Though at
first she was disposed to agree with Dolly, and had, indeed, had
difficulty in keeping a straight face herself while he was boasting of
his own incorruptibility, Eleanor discovered that fact as soon as she
had a chance to talk with Charlie Jamieson.
"I shall be glad to arrange for you to have an interview with your
cousin, Miss Mercer," Niles informed her. "Theoretically, he is a
prisoner, although of course he will be able to arrange for his own
release on bail as soon as he finds some friend who owns property in
this county. But I have given orders that he is not to be confined in
a cell. I trust he is making himself very much at home in the parlor
of Sheriff Blaine. If you will honor me, I will take you there."
"I should like to see him at once," said Eleanor. "Come, girls! Mr.
Niles, I am sure, will find a place where you can wait for me while I
talk with Mr. Jamieson."
Charlie greeted her with a sour grin when she was taken to the room
where, a prisoner, he was sitting near a window and smoking some of the
sheriff's excellent tobacco.
"Hello, Nell!" he said. "First blood for our friend Holmes on this
scrap, all right. First time I've ever been in jail. It's intended as
a little object lesson of what he can do when he once starts out to be
unpleasant, I fancy. He must know that he hasn't any sort of chance of
keeping me here."
"Why, Charlie, I never heard anything so absurd!" said Eleanor, hotly.
"As if you, who have done everything possible for those girls, would do
such an insane thing as hire that gypsy to kidnap them. And especially
when we know who did do it!"
"That's just the rub! We know, but can we prove it? You see, it's my
idea that Holmes is starting this as a sort of backfire. He thinks
we're going to accuse him, and he wants to strike the first blow. He's
clever, all right."
"I don't see what good it can do him, Charlie."
"A lot of good, and this is why. He puts me on the defensive, right
away. He wants time as much as anything else. And if he can keep me
busy proving my own innocence, he figures that I'll have less time to
get after him. It's a good move. The more chance he has to work on
those gypsies, the less likely they are to say anything that will make
trouble for him. He can show them his power and scare them, even if he
can't buy them.
"And I think the chances are that he won't find it very hard to buy
them. They pinched me as soon as I got off the train this morning.
I've sent out a lot of telegrams, asking fellows to come up here and
bail me out, but of course I can't really expect to get an answer
today--an answer in person, at least."
"Mr. Niles seems friendly. He said that he doesn't believe you're
guilty, Charlie."
"That's kind of him, I'm sure. Niles is an ass--a pompous,
self-satisfied ass! Holmes is using him just as he likes, and Niles
hasn't got sense enough to see it. He's honest enough, I think, but he
hasn't got the brains of a well-developed jellyfish."
Eleanor laughed at the comparison.
"Well, if he's honest, you don't have anything to fear, I suppose," she
said. "I'm glad of that, Charlie. I was afraid at first that he might
be just a tool of Mr. Holmes, and that he would do what Mr. Holmes told
him."
"I'd feel easier in my mind if he were a regular out-and-out crook,
Nell. That sort always has a weakness. Your crook is afraid of his
own skin, and when he knows he's doing things for pay, he'll always
stop just short of a certain danger point. He won't risk more than so
much for anyone. But with this chap it's different. He's probably let
Holmes, or Holmes's gang, fill him up with a lot of false ideas, and
they're clever enough to get him to wanting to do just what they want
him to do."
"And you mean that he'll think he's doing the right thing?"
"Yes, and not only that, but he'll persuade himself that he figured the
whole thing out, thought it out for himself, when really he'll just be
carrying out their own suggestions. We've got to find some way to
spike his guns, or else Holmes will work things so that his gypsy will
get off, and there'll be no sort of chance to pin the guilt down to
him, where it belongs."
"Then the first thing to do is to get you out, isn't it?"
"Yes, but I've done all that can be done on that. There's really
nothing to be done now but just wait--and I'd rather do pretty nearly
anything I can think of but that."
"I don't know, Charlie. Why can't I give bail for you? You know, Dad
made over all that land up in the woods around Long Lake that he owns
to me. So I'm a property holder in this county--and that's what is
needed, isn't it?"
"By Jove! You're right, Nell! Here, I'll make out an application.
You send for Niles, and we'll get him to approve this right now. Then
we'll get the judge to sign the bail bond, and I'll get out. I never
thought of that--good thing you've got a good head on your shoulders!"
Eleanor, pleased and excited, went out to find Niles, and returned to
Charlie with him at once.
"H'm, bail has been fixed at a nominal figure--five thousand dollars,"
said Niles. "I may mention that I suggested it, knowing that you would
not try to evade the issue, Mr. Jamieson. We have heard of you, sir,
even up here. If the young lady will come to the judge's office with
me, I have no doubt we can arrange the matter."
Before long it was evident there was a hitch.
"I am sorry, Miss Mercer," said Niles, with a long face, "but there
seems to be some doubt as to this. You have not the deed with you--the
deed giving title to this property?"
"No," said Eleanor. "But the records are here, are they not?
Certainly you can make sure that I own it?"
Niles shook his head.
"I'm afraid we must have the deed," he said.
For the moment it looked as if Charlie would have to stay in
confinement over night, at least. But suddenly Eleanor remembered old
Andrew and his offer to help. And twenty minutes later she was
explaining matters to him over the telephone.
"Why, sure," he said. "I can fix you up, Miss Eleanor. I've saved
money since I've been working here, and I've put it all into land. I
know these woods, you see, and I know that when I get ready to sell
I'll get my profit. I'll be down as soon as I can come."
"Don't say a word," said Charlie. "It wouldn't be past them to fake
some way of clouding the old man's title if they knew he was coming.
We'll spring that on them as a surprise. Evidently they figure on
being able to keep me here until to-morrow, at least. They've got some
scheme on foot--they've got a card up their sleeves that they want to
be able to play while I'm not watching them. I don't just get on to
their game--it's hard to figure it out from here. But if I once get
out I won't be afraid of them. We'll be able to beat them, all right,
thanks to you. You're a brick, Nell!"
Andrew was as good as his word. He reached the town in time to go to
the judge with the deeds of his property, and though Holmes, who was
evidently watching every move of the other side closely, scowled and
looked as if he would like to make some protest, there was nothing to
be done. He and his lawyers had no official standing in the case--they
could only consult with and advise Niles in an unofficial fashion.
And, though Niles held a long conference with Holmes and his party
before the bail bond was signed, it proved to be impossible for the
court to decline to accept it. Some things the law made imperative,
and, much as Niles might feel that he was being tricked, he could not
help himself.
Once he was free, as he was when the bail bond was signed, Jamieson
wasted no time. He saw Eleanor and the two girls settled in the one
good hotel of Hamilton, and then rushed back to the court house. And
there he found a strange state of affairs. Holmes had brought with him
from the city two lawyers, though Isaac Brack, the shyster, was not one
of them. And the leader, a man well known to Jamieson, John Curtin by
name, now appeared boldly as the lawyer for the accused gypsies.
Moreover, he refused absolutely to allow Charlie to see his clients.
In answer to Charlie's protests he merely looked wise, and refused to
say anything more than was required to reiterate his refusal. But
Charlie had other sources of information, and an hour after his
release, meeting Eleanor, who had walked down to look around the town,
leaving the girls behind at the hotel, he gave her some startling news.
"They're trying to get those gypsies out right now," he said. "They
were indicted, you know, for kidnapping. Now Curtin has got a writ of
habeas corpus, and he's kept it so quiet that it was only by accident I
found it was to be argued."
"What does that mean?" asked Eleanor. "I don't know as much about the
law as you do, you know."
"It means that a judge will decide whether they are being legally held
or not, Nell. And it looks very much to me as if Holmes had managed to
fix things so that they'll get off without ever going before a jury at
all! Niles isn't handling the case right. He's allowed Holmes and his
crowd to pull the wool over his eyes completely. If we had some
definite proof I could force him to hold them. But--"
Eleanor laughed suddenly.
"I didn't suppose it was necessary to give this to you until the
trial," she said. "But look here, Charlie--isn't this proof?" And she
handed him the letter found on John, the gypsy--a letter from Holmes,
giving him the orders that led to the kidnapping of Dolly.
Charlie shouted excitedly when he read it.
"By Jove!" he said. "This puts them in our power. You were quite
right--we don't want to produce this yet. But I think I can use it to
scare our friend Niles. If I'm right, and he's only a fool, and not a
knave, I'll be able to do the trick. Here he is now! Watch me give
him the shock of his young life!"
Niles approached, with a sweeping bow for Eleanor, and a cold nod for
Jamieson. But the city lawyer approached him at once.
"How about this habeas corpus hearing, Mr. District Attorney?" he
asked. "Are you going to let them get those gypsies out of jail?"
"The case against them appears to be hopelessly defective, sir,"
returned Niles, stiffly. "I am informed by counsel for the defense
that there are a number of witnesses to prove an alibi for the man
John, and I feel that it is useless to try to have them held for trial."
"Suppose I tell you that I have absolute evidence--evidence connecting
them with the plot, and bringing in another conspirator who has not yet
been named? Hold on, Mr. Niles, you have been tricked in this case. I
don't hold it against you, but I warn you that if you don't make a
fight in this case, papers charging you with incompetence will go to
the governor at once, with a petition for your removal!"
"I--I don't know why I should allow one of the prisoners in this case
to address me in such a fashion!" stuttered Niles.
"I don't care what you know! I'm telling you the truth, and, for your
own sake, you'd better listen to me," said Jamieson, grimly. "I mean
just what I say. And unless you want to be lined up with your friend
Curtin in disbarment proceedings, you'd better cut loose from him. I
suppose Holmes has told you he'll back your ambitions to go to
Congress, hasn't he?"
Niles seemed to be staggered.
"How--how did you know that?" he gasped.
As a matter of fact, Charlie had not known it; he had only made a
shrewd guess. But the shot had gone home.
"There's more to this than you can guess, Mr. Niles," he said, more
kindly. "It's a plot that is bigger than even I can understand and
they have simply tried to use you as a tool. I knew that once you had
a hint of the truth, your native shrewdness would make you work to
defeat it. You understand, don't you?"
Coming on top of the bullying, this sop to the love of Niles for
flattery was thoroughly effective. Charlie was using the same sort of
weapons that the other side had employed. And Niles held out his hand.
"I'll take the chance," he said. "I'll see that those fellows stay in
jail, Mr. Jamieson. As I told Miss Mercer, I was sure from the
beginning that you were all right. May I count on you for aid when the
case comes up for trial?"
"You may--and I'll give you a bigger prisoner than you ever thought of
catching," said Charlie.