BESSIE KING'S PLUCK
"We've got them, I think," Jamieson said to Eleanor Mercer and the two
girls after his talk with District Attorney Niles. "There's just one
thing; I don't understand how Holmes can be so reckless as to take a
chance when he must remember that he hasn't got a leg left to stand on."
"He probably doesn't know that we know anything about it," said Bessie.
"And I guess he thinks that if we had had that note all this time we'd
have produced it before, so that he thought it was safe to act."
"You're probably right, Bessie," said Eleanor. "I thought that letter
would be useful, Charlie, when we took it from that gypsy. I don't
suppose I really had any right to keep it, but just then, you see,
Andrew and the other guides were the only people around, and they would
never question anything I did--they'd just be sure I was right."
"Good thing they do, for you usually are," laughed Charlie. "I've
given up expecting to catch you, Nell. You guess right too often. And
this time you've certainly called the turn. Niles is convinced. All
I'm afraid of now is that he won't be able to hold his tongue."
"You want to surprise Mr. Holmes, then?"
"I certainly do. I'd give a hundred dollars right now to see his face
when I spring that letter and ask for a warrant for his arrest. Mind
you, I don't suppose for a minute we'll be able to do him any real
harm. He's got too much influence, altogether, with bigger people than
Niles and this judge here."
"You know I'm not very vindictive, Charlie, but I would like to see him
get the punishment he deserves. I'd much rather have them let those
poor gypsies off, if only they would put him in prison in their place.
I feel sorry for them--really, I do. It seems to me that they were
just led astray by a man who certainly should know better."
"That part of it's all right enough, Eleanor. But if one accepted the
excuse from every criminal that he was led astray by a stronger
character, no one would ever be punished. Pretty nearly everyone who
ever gets arrested can frame up that excuse."
"You don't think it's a good one?"
"It is, to a certain extent. But if our way of punishing people for
doing wrong is any good at all, and if it is really to have any good
effect, it's got to teach the weaklings that every man is responsible
himself for what he does, that he can't shift the blame to someone else
and get out of it that way.
"You remember the poem Kipling wrote about that? I mean that line that
goes: 'The sins that we sin by two and two we must pay for one by one.'
It seems pretty hard sometimes, but it's got to be done. However, even
if Holmes gets out of this, it's a thundering good thing that we've got
as much as we have against him."
"I don't see why, if you say he's going to get off without punishment."
"Well, I think it's apt to make him more careful, for one thing. And
for another, some people will believe the evidence against him, and
he'll have the punishment of being partly discredited at least. That's
better than nothing, you know. One reason he's in a position to do
these rotten things without fear of being caught is that he's supposed
to be so respectable. Let people once begin to think he isn't any
better than he should be, and he'll have to mind his p's and q's just
like anyone else, I can tell you."
"That's so! I didn't think of that."
"The thing to do now is to make sure that the trial comes off at once.
I've got an idea that they'll try to get a delay, now that they've had
to give up their hope of rushing it through while I was tied up and
couldn't tell whatever I happened to know. They'll figure that the
more time they have, the more chance there is that they can work out
some new scheme, or that something will turn up in their favor--some
piece of luck. And it's just as likely to happen as not to happen,
too, if we give them a chance to hold things up for a few weeks. You
want to get away, too, don't you?"
"We certainly do, Charlie. The girls would be dreadfully disappointed
if we didn't get back in time to make the tramp through the mountains
with them."
"Well, I guess we'll manage it all right. Leave that to me. You've
had bothers and troubles enough already since you got here. I ought to
have a nurse! Here I come to look after your interests, and see that
nothing goes wrong with you and your affairs, and the first thing you
have to do is to get me out of jail!"
Eleanor returned his laugh.
"We really enjoyed it, though you've got Andrew to thank, not me," she
said. "Do you really think they'll manage to get it postponed after
to-morrow?"
"Not if I have to sit up with Niles and hold his hand all night, to
keep him in line," vowed Jamieson.
And, indeed, the morning proved that there was no cause for worry.
Niles, stiffened by Jamieson, refused even to see the men from the
other side, who were employed by Holmes, when they came to his office
to beg for an adjournment, or to ask him to consent to it, at least,
since only the judge had the power to grant it. And the trial began at
the appointed time.
Charlie, not being actively engaged as a lawyer in the case, could not
spring his sensation himself. But he sat near Niles, waiting for the
opportune moment, and, before the morning session was over, since he
saw that the time was drawing near, he wrote a note to Niles,
explaining his plan to surprise Holmes fully, which he handed to him in
the quiet courtroom.
"That's great--great!" said Niles. "It's immense, Jamieson! I never
dreamed of anything like that. Heavens! How I have been deceived in
this man Holmes! You have the original letter, you say?"
Jamieson tapped his breast pocket significantly.
"You bet I've got it!" he said. "And it doesn't leave my possession,
either, until it's been read into the records of this court. You'll
have to call me as a witness, Niles. That's the only way we can get
this over, since I can't very well act as counsel for either side of
the case."
"All right. First thing after lunch," said Niles.
Holmes was in the courtroom, and Jamieson, happening to look up just as
Niles spoke to him, caught the merchant pointing to him, the while he
bent over and talked earnestly with a sinister, scowling man who was
unknown to the lawyer, but who seemed to be on the most intimate terms
with Holmes. However, he thought nothing of the incident. He had
understood from the first that in opposing Holmes, and doing all he
could to spoil his plans regarding Bessie and Zara, he was incurring
the millionaire's enmity, and he did not greatly care.
"You know," he had said to Eleanor, "this chap Holmes thinks--or he did
think, at least--that I'd be scared by his ability to help or hurt a
man in my profession in the city. But I think a whole lot of that is
bluff on his part. I don't believe he can do as much as he thinks he
can. And I don't know that I care a whole lot, anyhow. He hasn't gone
out of his way to help me so far, and I've managed to get along pretty
well. I guess I can do without him to the end of the chapter."
Just after the court adjourned for lunch, Niles was called away by
Curtin, the leader of the lawyers Holmes had hired to defend the gypsy
prisoners, and Jamieson saw them talking earnestly together for several
minutes. Naturally, he did not try to overhear the conversation, but
he could not have done so in any case, for Curtin kept looking about
him, so that it was evident that he, at least, regarded what he had to
say as both important and confidential. But Charlie waited patiently,
sure that Niles would tell him all he wanted to know, unless he should
again go over to the other side.
"They're wise to us," said Niles, when he returned. "Curtin knows
we've got something up our sleeves, and maybe he wasn't anxious to find
out what it was!"
"You didn't tell him, I hope?"
"Not I! Trust me to know better than that! But I think he's got an
inkling."
"Lord, why shouldn't he?" said Charlie to himself, bitterly. "Of
course, there's no reason why that gypsy shouldn't tell him! He
probably doesn't realize what the letter means, but we do, and if the
rascal has told them that it was taken away from him they would realize
at once that they were up against it, and hard!"
"Well, you haven't told me the whole story," he said, with a suggestion
of being offended in his tone. "So I can't give you my advice as I
would be glad to do if you had taken me into your confidence."
"You'll know it all pretty soon, Niles," said Charlie. "Don't think
you're being slighted--you're not. I know just how valuable you are to
us, and that we couldn't get along without you. And, what's more, I'll
say that I never saw a case handled better than this one. You're all
right. Don't worry; I don't care much if they do know. It's too late
for them to do anything now. I'm going to run back to the hotel. I've
got to get a few papers from my room. Then I'll be back."
Leaving Niles with little ceremony, he hurried back to the hotel, and
went directly to his room, without telling anyone where he was going.
As he passed through the lobby the clerk happened to be busy and did
not see him, and, since his room was on the second floor, he did not
wait for the elevator, but walked up. Seemingly, the only person who
was interested in his movements was the sinister, black-browed man who
had been talking so earnestly with Holmes in the courtroom half an hour
before. And Charlie, in a great hurry, paid no attention to
him--probably did not even know that he was in the hotel.
With the man, however, matters were very different. He watched Charlie
go up the stairs with the keen eyes of a hawk; and, a minute later,
followed him up. And when, ten minutes after he had entered his room,
Charlie opened the door to come out, he was met with a sharp blow on
the chest that staggered him and sent him reeling back into his room.
In an instant the sinister man he had dismissed so readily from his
mind when he had seen him talking with Holmes was on him, the door
closing as he flung himself through it, and Charlie, taken completely
by surprise, was overpowered before he could even begin to put up any
sort of resistance.
Even his belated impulse to call for help came too late. A gag was
thrust into his mouth as he was about to open it, and then, with no
pains to be gentle, his assailant produced stout cord from his pocket
and tied him securely to the bed.
While he was thus rendering Charlie impotent to obstruct him in any way
the ruffian said nothing whatever. Now, however, standing off a
minute, and looking at his victim with much satisfaction, he broke his
silence.
"Trussed up as neat as a turkey for Thanksgiving," he said, in a hoarse
whisper that seemed to be his natural speaking voice. "You won't do
any more damage, I guess."
And then Charlie, who had been bewildered by this attack, realized at
last its meaning. For his assailant came close to him, began to search
his pockets, and, in a moment, drew out, with a cry of triumph, the
precious letter from Holmes to the gypsy--the letter without which the
whole case against Holmes was bound to collapse!
Charlie struggled insanely for a moment, but then suddenly he grew
quiet. For his eyes had happened to wander toward the window, which
the thief, with the carelessness for details that has caused the
downfall of so many of his kind, had left uncovered. And, peering
straight at him from a window across a small light shaft, he saw Bessie
King. He was longing to communicate with her when the thief suddenly
addressed him again.
"Say, bo," he said, in the same hoarse whisper, "I ain't got nuttin'
against you, see? If youse wants this here writin', you can have
it--if youse is willin' to pay more fer it than the other guy!"
He looked greedily at Charlie, and, though the lawyer understood
thoroughly that the man was only trying to add to the money that Holmes
had promised him, and would probably not give up the paper, no matter
how much was offered, he jumped at the chance to gain time. Bessie had
disappeared, and he was sure that she had gone for help. If he could
hold the robber for a few minutes he might beat him yet.
To talk with the gag in his mouth was, of course, impossible, and he
managed to lift his bound hands toward his mouth to remind the robber
of this.
"Say, that's right," said the thief. "Here, I'll ease youse a bit so
youse can talk. But no tricks, mind!"
"How much do you want?" gasped Charlie, when he was able to speak. The
man stood over him, ready to silence any attempt to cry out, and he
knew that it would be useless to call.
"How much you got? I don't mean in your clothes, but what youse has
got salted away in your room," asked the thief. "I ain't got time to
look for it or I'd leave you tied up," he added, with a leer.
"You've got something to sell, so name your price," said Charlie, still
trying to kill time. "That's for you to do. What does the other side
offer you?"
"Gimme two hundred bucks!" suggested the robber.
"That's a lot of money," said Charlie, pretending to hesitate. "I
might give it to you, but I haven't got it here. I could get it for
you or give you a check----"
"Cash--and cash down!" leered the robber. "An' say, if youse thinks
some of them dames youse is workin' with can help youse out of this
hole, guess again. They're all locked up, same as you--from the
outside. And there ain't no telephones in the rooms in this hotel."
For a moment Charlie's heart sank. If this was true, even though she
realized his danger, Bessie could not help him. He did not know what
to do, or what to say. But, fortunately for him, he was spared from
deciding. For there was a sudden crash at the door, and in a moment it
gave way before the onslaught of the proprietor, two or three clerks,
and a couple of stout porters. In a second the robber was overpowered
and a prisoner, and then Charlie saw Bessie, her eyes alight with
eagerness, in the background.
"I climbed down the waterspout!" she cried. "I knew I had to get them
to help you!"