GERMS
As the two quietly-dressed, intelligent looking men were in the act of
going through a desk, they saw from the window the slow and painful
approach of M. Misel. Without a word they let themselves out of a back
window, left open for emergencies, and before the master had opened the
front door the detectives were over the back fence and out of sight.
They were desirous of catching more than the Misels in their net and did
not want to act too quickly.
Had they peeped through the window, they would have seen Misel with an
impatient gesture sling his crutch in one direction, his cane in
another.
"Lena!" he called, in anything but a gentle tone. "Lena!" And then with
muttered curses, when he found his wife to be absent, he settled himself
to look over the bunch of mail he had just obtained at the post-office.
One letter he examined very critically before opening. It was an
inoffensive enough looking envelope, addressed on a typewriter and with
a postmark from New York. It had the appearance of a circular or
advertisement of some sort, being made of cheap, greyish-white paper,
the kind of letter one would wait until last to open in a pile of mail,
being sure it was of no especial interest or importance. Misel seemed to
find it very interesting, however. It was the one he chose from all the
letters and papers, and as he examined it, he scowled darkly.
"Lena!" he called as Madame Misel hurriedly entered the cottage, "Lena,
some fool has been meddling with my mail!"
"Perhaps not such a big fool as you are!" she answered tartly.
"Look! The envelope has been opened before. Of course it is the letter
from Fritz von Lestes, the one we have been awaiting." He tore it open
and read aloud: "'The paint which you have ordered will be delivered
immediately. Am sorry there should have been any delay. I am sending a
light grey, as agreed upon.' Umm--I don't see how they could make much
out of that."
"Let me see the letter.--Of course they can make much out of it as there
is no address,--you men bungle things so! Why should a man who is in the
paint business write a letter with no address and sign his name so
illegibly that no one could make it out? He should have had a letter
head and a business envelope."
"And speaking of bungling,--why did you go and leave the house with no
one in it? Can't you see that is imprudent?"
"Mrs. Green came for me and I had no excuse.--Besides, I am sure if I am
by when the dressings are handed in that no one will inspect my work. I
have been packing all morning and have seen to it that my labor has not
been in vain."
"Oh, peerless woman!" he said sarcastically.
Madame Misel said nothing but busied herself over the luncheon. Suddenly
she gave a little cry, half distress, half indignation. Misel hastened
to her.
"What is it?"
"Look! This back window is not quite closed! Did you open it?"
"No! I have not been here in the kitchen."
"Then someone has been in the house," she announced in a dead tone.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course! I left the windows locked, stupid! Look about and see if all
is in order."
The detectives had worked as neatly as detectives can work, but the
Misels found several traces of them. In one room a chair had been moved;
in another a drawer had not been shut as close as Madame was confident
she had left it; papers had been turned over in the desk, Misel was
sure, although none were missing.
"Someone has been in the laboratory, too! Look at this crucible! I
always place them so,--and this has been turned."
The pair faced each other with despair on their countenances.
"What now?" they gasped.
"We must make a flitting this very night!" exclaimed the woman. "Thank
goodness, nobody dreams that you are not crippled nor that I am anything
but the homely hausfrau I appear. The dressings will be off this very
afternoon, too, so my work is completed in that line, at least. If you
could boast as much, no doubt you would not mind leaving. I told you to
begin the teaching at Exmoor sooner."
"The youths were not ripe for it. I have begun in a way, but not much
has been accomplished. Perhaps the person who has been here is just some
prying neighbor and we are not really being watched. Go out and see if
you can discover anything!"
When Madame Misel peeped through the windows of the old church she saw
enough to make her turn pale. Andy McLean was there with two strange men
and Professor and Mrs. Green. Molly was weeping bitter tears as she
untied the carefully packed surgical dressings. Madame saw at a glance
that it was her work that was being examined by the men. She did not
stop to make sure what they found on her beautifully made dressings, but
turned and fled towards the cottage that she called home.
"Why is she weeping?" she asked herself, and there was woman enough in
her to know that Molly wept because one of her own sex had proved
faithless.
Blinds were pulled down in the cottage with the lovely old garden, and
the activities that ensued could only be equaled by a circus breaking up
to leave town. Madame Misel moved with a quiet precision that showed she
was an adept at making a quick get-away. Misel worked with a fury of
impatience. He went through his desk, scattering papers hither and yon
and burning everything of no value. Other documents he stowed carefully
away in his breast pocket. The laboratory was dismantled and small,
mysterious-looking vials packed in boxes and placed in the huge
suit-case that seemed to hold most of their belongings.
A letter was written to the landlord informing him that his tenants had
been called out of Wellington by the illness of a fictitious sister. A
month's rent was enclosed. Another letter was written to the postmaster
asking that mail be forwarded to an entirely imaginary address. The work
proceeded rapidly. The cottage was always in apple-pie order, as Madame
Misel was certainly an excellent housekeeper.
"You must write to the president of the college," commanded Madame.
"Naturally! Must I use the same sister?"
"Of course! Why two lies when one will suffice?"
A letter to Miss Walker was dispatched forthwith.
"And now for our disguises,--or rather the time has come to discard our
disguises!" cried Madame almost joyfully. "I hate to appear as such a
frump!"
Misel's disguise was composed principally of cane and crutch, but at his
wife's instigation he shaved his mustache. With the help of a checked
suit and red necktie and a brown derby hat a trifle too small for
him, the pathetic and interesting teacher of the French language was
transformed into the type of man one sees hanging around a race track.
With a clever brush Madame put a quirk in his eyebrows that completed
the portrait. Then a bit of court plaster was stuck on one of the
perfect teeth which gave the handsome Misel a sinister look and
suggested to the beholder former battles and fisticuffs in which he
had been struck in the mouth.
"Even your dying sister will not recognize you!" exclaimed his wife.
Madame's transformation was even more startling than her husband's.
First she shook out her smoothly brushed hair and with the help of
curling tongs soon had a wave that the finest hair dresser in New York
could not have exceeded. She piled her abundant hair up in curls and
twists and coils, pulling out puffs over her ears. Then with pencil and
rouge pot and powder puff she went to work on her countenance. A raging
beauty was the outcome, but rather fast and loud looking. A lavender
suit lined and slashed with corn-colored silk was then donned, with
many rings and bracelets. The flat-heeled shoes were packed away in the
suit-case with the sober costume, and high-heeled French boots were
fitted on in their stead. A plentiful sprinkling of musk was added so
that the nostrils were assailed as soon as the eyes.
"Tough sports!" would have been the verdict of anyone meeting the
Misels. They had decided on the night train to New York. The cottage was
carefully locked, the key enclosed in the letter to the landlord, which
they posted on their way to the station. Everything was going smoothly.
The station was empty when the pair stepped upon the platform and in a
moment the New York train came steaming around the curve.
"Thank God, we are getting away unnoticed!" gasped Misel.
"Thank God if you choose, but it would be more to the point if you
thanked me. I can't see that anyone has helped you but me."
"Oh, well! Have it your own way!" said the spurious bookmaker as they
boarded the train.
"Someone got left," he laughed as they took their seats in the chair
car. "I saw a man and woman running down the road just as we got aboard.
I am glad they got left. Whoever it is might have recognized us."
"Nonsense! Didn't I tell you your own dying sister would not know you?"
and Madame Misel smoothed her lavender draperies and jangled her many
bracelets and rings, peeping in the mirror meantime to adjust her large
beplumed hat. There was a commotion in the end of the Pullman and she
heard a familiar voice. In the mirror she espied a familiar face, and
under the heavily laid on rouge, the woman paled and the hand that
adjusted her hat shook. Misel buried his face in the evening paper some
traveler had left in his seat, while the innocent cause of their
perturbation found a seat with the help of the porter.