pocketbook in a choice of restaurants, and Mrs. Michael Harrington was
married to a gourmand who well distinguished the difference between that
and the indefensible fault of gluttony. Thus both of Denby’s guests were
in a sense critical. They admitted that they had dined with one who
agreed with Dumas’ dictum that a dinner is a daily and capital action
that can only worthily be accomplished by _gens d’esprit_.
There are few places in Paris where a dinner in summer can be more
pleasantly eaten than the balcony at the Ambassadeurs, among slim
pillars of palest green and banks of pink roses. In the distance--not
too near to be disturbed by the performers unless they chose--the three
Americans saw that idol of the place, the great Polin at his best.
French waiters do not bring courses on quickly with the idea of using
the table a second time during the dining-hour. The financial genius who
calculates _l’addition_ knows a trick worth two of that.
Still a little anxious that Denby might not be able to stand the
expense, Monty fell to thinking of the charges that Parisian
restaurateurs can make. “They soaked me six francs for a peach here
once,” he said for the second time that day.
“That’s nothing to what Bignon used to charge,” Alice Harrington
returned. “Once when Michael’s father was dining there he was charged
fifteen francs. When he said they must be very scarce in Paris, Bignon
said it wasn’t the peaches that were scarce, it was the Harringtons.”
“Good old Michael,” said Monty, “I wish he were here. Why isn’t he?”
“Something is being reorganized and the other people want his advice.”
She laughed. “I suppose he is really good at that sort of thing, but he
gets so hopelessly muddled over small accounts that I can’t believe it.
He was fearfully sorry not to have seen his colt run at Deauville. I
shall have to tell him all about it.”
“I read the account,” said Denby. “St. Mervyn was the name, wasn’t it?”
She nodded. “He won by a short head. Michael always likes to beat French
horses. I’m afraid he isn’t as fond of the country as I am. The only
thing he really likes here is the _heure de l’aperitif_. He declares it
lasts from four-thirty till seven.” She laughed. “He has carried the
habit home with him.”
“Did you win anything?” Denby asked.
“Enough to buy some presents at Cartier’s,” she returned. “I’ve bought
something very sweet for Nora Rutledge,” she said, turning to Monty.
“Aren’t you curious to know what? It’s a pearl la vallière.”
“Then for Heaven’s sake, declare it!” Monty cried.
“Oh, no,” she said, “I’ll pay if it’s found, but it’s a sporting risk to
take and you can’t make me believe smuggling’s wrong. Michael says it’s
a Democratic device to rob Republican women.”
“Ask Mr. Denby,” Monty retorted. “He knows.”
“And what do you know, Mr. Denby?” she demanded.
“That the customs people and the state department see no humor in that
sort of a joke any longer. You read surely that society women even have
been imprisoned for taking sporting risks?”
“Milliners who make a practice of getting things through on their annual
trip,” she said lightly. “Of course one wouldn’t make a business of it,
but I’ve always smuggled little things through and I always shall.”
“Well, I wouldn’t if I were you,” said Monty. “Mr. Denby has frightened
me.”
Alice Harrington looked at him curiously.
“Have you been caught?” she asked with a smile.
“I’ve seen others caught,” he returned, “and if any sister of mine had
to suffer as they did by the publicity and the investigation the customs
people are empowered and required to make, I should feel rather
uncomfortable.”
“What a depressing person you are,” she laughed. “I had already decided
where to hide the things. I think I shall do it after all. It’s been all
right before, so why not now?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “It may be the new brooms are sweeping clean
or it may be the state department has said smuggling shall no longer be
condoned. I only know that things are done very differently now.”
Monty looked at him in amazement. His expression plainly meant that he
considered his friend the proprietor of an unusually large supply of
sheer gall.
“I heard about that,” she said, “but one can’t believe it. There’s a
mythical being known only by his initials who is investigating for the
state department. Even Michael warned me, so he may have some inside
tip. Have you heard of him, Mr. Denby?”
“I was thinking of him,” he answered. “I think they call him R. B. or R.
D. or some non-committal thing like that.”
“And you believe in him?” she asked sceptically.
“I’m afraid I do,” he returned.
“The deuce you do!” Monty cried, aggrieved. He had been happy for the
last few hours in the belief that his friend was too well armed to get
detected, and here he was admitting, in a manner that plainly showed
apprehension, that this initialed power might be even on his track.
“You never smuggle,” Alice Harrington said, smiling. “You haven’t the
nerve, Monty, so you need not take it to heart.”
“But I do nevertheless,” he retorted.
“Monty,” she cried, “I believe you’re planning to smuggle something
yourself! We’ll conspire together and defeat that abominable law.”
“If you must,” Denby said, still gravely, “don’t advertise the fact.
Paris has many spies who reap the reward of overhearing just such
confidences.”
“Spies!” She laughed. “How melodramatic, Mr. Denby.”
“But I mean it,” he insisted. “Not highly paid government agents, but
perhaps such people as chambermaids in your hotel, or servants to whom
you pay no attention whatsoever. How do you and I know for example that
Monty isn’t high up in the secret service?”
“Me?” cried Monty. “Well, I certainly admire your brand of nerve,
Steve!”
“That’s no answer,” his friend returned. “You say you have been two
years here studying Continental banking systems. I’ll bet you didn’t
even know that the Banque de France issued a ten thousand franc note!”
“Of course I did,” Monty cried, a little nettled.
Denby turned to Mrs. Harrington with an air of triumph.
“That settles it, Monty is a spy.”
“I don’t see how that proves it,” she answered.
“The Banque de France has no ten thousand franc note,” he returned; “its
highest value is five thousand francs. In two years Montague Vaughan has
not found that out. The ordinary tourist who passes a week here and
spends nothing to speak of might be excused, but not a serious student
like Monty.”
“I will vouch for him,” Mrs. Harrington said. “I’ve known him for years
and I don’t think it’s a life suited to him at all, is it, Monty?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said he airily. “I may be leading a double life.” He
looked at her not without an expression of triumph. Little did she know
in what a conspiracy he was already enlisted. After an excellent repast
and a judicious indulgence in some rare wine Monty felt he was
extraordinarily well fitted for delicate intrigue, preferably of an
international character. He stroked his budding moustache with the air
of a gentleman adventurer.
Alice Harrington smiled. She was a good judge of character and Monty was
too well known to her to lend color to any such notion.
“It won’t do,” she averred, “but Mr. Denby has every earmark of it.
There’s that piercing look of his and the obsequious way waiters attend
on him.”
Monty laughed heartily. He was in possession of a secret that made such
an idea wholly preposterous. Here was a man with a million-franc pearl
necklace in his pocket, a treasure he calmly proposed to smuggle in
against the laws of his country, being taken for a spy.
“Alice,” he said still laughing, “I’ll go bail on Steve for any amount
you care to name. I am also willing to back him against all comers for
brazen nerve and sheer gall.”
Denby interrupted him a little hastily.
“As we two men are free from suspicion, only Mrs. Harrington remains
uncleared.”
“This is all crazy talk,” Monty asserted.
“I know one woman, well known in New York, who goes over each year and
more than once has made her expenses by tipping off the authorities to
things other women were trying to get through without declaration.”
“You speak with feeling,” Mrs. Harrington said, and wondered if this
friend of Monty’s had not been betrayed by some such confidence.
“Are you going to take warning?” Denby asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. You’ve been reading the American
papers and are deceived by the annual warnings to intending European
tourists. I’m a hardened and successful criminal.” She leaned forward to
look at a dancer on the stage below them and Denby knew that his
monitions had left her unmoved.
“When were you last at home?” she demanded presently of Denby.
“About six months ago,” he answered. “I shall be there a week from
to-morrow if I live.”
The last three words vaguely disturbed Monty. Why, he wondered crossly,
was Denby always reminding him of danger? There was no doubt that what
his friend really should have said was: “If I am not murdered by
criminals for the two hundred thousand dollars’ worth of valuables they
probably know I carry with me.”
“Have you booked your passage yet?” she asked.
It occurred to her that it would be pleasant to have a second man on the
voyage. Like all women of her world, she was used to the attentions of
men and found life deplorably dull without them, although she was not a
flirt and was still in love with her husband.
“Not yet,” he answered, “but La Provence goes from Havre to-morrow.”
“Come with us,” she insisted. “The Mauretania sails a couple of days
later but gets you in on the same morning as the other.” She turned to
Monty. “Isn’t that a brilliant idea?”
“It’s so brilliant I’m blinded by it,” he retorted, gazing at his friend
with a look of respect. Not many hours ago Steven had asserted that he
and Monty must sail together on the fastest of ships, and now he had
apparently decided to forsake the Compagnie Transatlantique only on
account of Alice Harrington’s invitation.
“I shall be charmed,” was all he had said.
Monty felt that he was a co-conspirator of one who was not likely to be
upset by trifles. He sighed. A day or so ago he had imagined himself
ill-used by Fate because no unusual excitement had come his way, and now
his prayers had been answered too abundantly. The phrase “If I live”
remained in his memory with unpleasant insistency.
“We ought to cross the Channel by the afternoon boat to-morrow,” Alice
said. “There are one or two things I want to get for Michael in London.”
“It will be a much nicer voyage for me than if I had gone alone on La
Provence,” Denby said gratefully, while Monty continued to meditate on
the duplicity of his sex.
When they had taken Mrs. Harrington to her hotel Monty burst out with
what he had been compelled to keep secret all the evening.
“What in thunder makes you so careful about people smuggling?” he
demanded.
“About other people smuggling, you mean,” Denby corrected.
“It’s the same thing,” Monty asserted.
“Far from it,” his friend made answer. “If Mrs. Harrington is suspected
and undeclared stuff found on her, you and I as her companions will be
more or less under suspicion too. It is not unusual for women to ask
their men friends to put some little package in their pockets till the
customs have been passed. The inspectors may have an idea that she has
done this with us. Personally I don’t relish a very exhaustive search.”
“You bet you don’t,” his friend returned. “I shall probably be the only
honest man aboard.”
“Mrs. Harrington may ask you to hold some small parcel till she’s been
through the ordeal,” Denby reminded him. “If she does, Monty, you’ll be
caught for a certainty.”
“Damn it all!” Monty cried petulantly, “why can’t you people do the
right thing and declare what you bring in, just as I do?”
“What is your income?” Denby inquired. “Your father was always liberal
with you.”
“You mean I have no temptation?” Monty answered. “I forgot that part of
it. I don’t know what I’d do if there wasn’t always a convenient paying
teller who passed me out all the currency I wanted.”
He looked at his friend curiously, wondering just what this act of
smuggling meant to him. Perhaps Denby sensed this.
“You probably wondered why I wrung that invitation out of Mrs.
Harrington instead of being honest and saying I, too, was going by the
Cunard line. I can’t tell you now, Monty, old man, but I hope some day
if I’m successful that I can. I tell you this much, though, that it
seems so much to me that no little conventionalities are going to stand
in my way.”
Monty, pondering on this later when he was in his hotel room, called to
mind the rumor he had heard years ago that Steven’s father had died
deeply in debt. It was for this reason that the boy was suddenly
withdrawn from Groton. It might be that his struggles to make a living
had driven him into regarding the laws against smuggling as arbitrary
and inequitable just as Alice Harrington and dozens of other people he
knew did. Denby, he argued, had paid good money for the pearls and they
belonged to him absolutely; and if by his skill he could evade the
payment of duty upon them and sell them at a profit, why shouldn’t he?
Before slumber sealed his eyes, Montague Vaughan had decided that
smuggling was as legitimate a sport as fly-fishing. That these views
would shock his father he knew. But his father always prided himself
upon a traditional conservatism.
CHAPTER FOUR
Less than an hour before the Mauretania reached Quarantine, James
Duncan, whose rank was that of Customs Inspector and present assignment
the more important one of assistant to Daniel Taylor, a Deputy-Surveyor,
threw away the stub of cigar and reached for the telephone.
When central had given him his number he called out: “Is that you,
Ford?” Apparently the central had not erred and his face took on a look
of intentness as he gave the man at the other end of the line his
instructions. “Say, Ford,” he called, “I’ve got something mighty
important for you. Directly the Mauretania gets into Quarantine, go
through the declarations and ’phone me right away whether a man named
Steven Denby declares a pearl necklace valued at two hundred thousand
dollars. No. No, not that name, Denby, D-E-N-B-Y. Steven Denby. That’s
right. A big case you say? I should bet it is a big case. Never you mind
who’s handling it, Ford. It may be R. J., or it may not. Don’t you worry
about a little thing like that. It’s your job to ’phone me as soon as
you get a peek at those declarations. Let Hammett work with you.
Bye-bye.”
He hung up the receiver and leaned back in his chair, well satisfied
with himself. He was a spare, hatchet-faced man, who held down his
present position because he was used to those storm warnings he could
see on his chief’s face and knew enough to work in the dark and never
ask for explanations.
He did not, for instance, lean back in his chair and smoke cigars with a
lordly air when Deputy-Surveyor Daniel Taylor was sitting in his big
desk in the window opposite. At such times Duncan worked with silent
fury and felt he had evened up matters when he found a Customs Inspector
whom he could impress with his own superiority.
When a step in the outside passage warned him that his chief might
possibly be coming in, he settled down in an attitude of work. But there
entered only Harry Gibbs, dressed in the uniform of a Customs Inspector.
Gibbs was a fat, easy man, whose existence was all the more pleasant
because of his eager interest in gossip. None knew so well as Gibbs the
undercurrent of speculation which the lesser lights of the Customs term
office politics. If the Collector frowned, Gibbs instantly dismissed the
men upon whom his displeasure had fallen and conjured up erroneous
reasons concerning high official wrath. Since Duncan was near to a man
in power, Gibbs welcomed any opportunity to converse with him. He seldom
came away from such an interview empty-handed. He was a pleasant enough
creature and filled with mild wonder at the vagaries of Providence.
Just now he seemed hot but that was not unusual, for he was rarely
comfortable during the summer months as he complained frequently. He
seemed worried, Duncan thought.
“Hello, Jim,” he said when he entered.
Duncan assumed the inquisitorial air his chief had in a marked degree.
“Thought you were searching tourists on the Olympic this afternoon,” he
replied.
Gibbs mopped his perspiring head, “I was,” he answered. “I had two
thousand crazy women, all of ’em swearing they hadn’t brought in a
thing. Gosh! Women is liars.”
“What are you doing over here?” Duncan asked.
“I brought along a dame they want your boss Taylor to look over. It
needs a smart guy like him to land her. Where is he?”
“Down with Malone now; he’ll be back soon.”
Gibbs sank into a chair with a sigh of relief. “He don’t have to hurry
on my account. I’ll be tickled to stay here all day. I’m sick of
searching trunks that’s got nothing in ’em but clothes. It ain’t like
the good old days, Jim. In them times if you treated a tourist right
he’d hand you his business card, and when you showed up in his office
next day, he’d come across without a squeal. I used to know the
down-town business section pretty well in them days.”
“So did I. Why, when I was inspector, if you had any luck picking out
your passenger you’d find twenty dollars lying right on the top tray of
the first trunk he opened up for you.”
Gibbs sighed again. It seemed the golden age was passing.
“And believe me,” he said, “when that happened to me I never opened any
more of his trunks, I just labeled the whole bunch. But now--why, since
this new administration got in I’m so honest it’s pitiful.”
Duncan nodded acquiescence.
“It’s a hell of a thing when a government official has to live on his
salary,” he said regretfully. “They didn’t ought to expect it of us.”
“What do they care?” Gibbs asserted bitterly, and then added with that
inquiring air which had frequently been mistaken for intelligence:
“Ain’t it funny that it’s always women who smuggle? They’ll look you
right in the eye and lie like the very devil, and if you do land ’em
they ain’t ashamed, only sore!”
Duncan assumed his most superior air.
“I guess men are honester than women, Jim, and that’s the whole secret.”
“They certainly are about smuggling,” the other returned. “Why, we
grabbed one of these here rich society women this morning and pulled out
about forty yards of old lace--and say, where do you think she had it
stowed?”
“Sewed it round her petticoat,” Duncan said with a grin. He had had
experience.
Gibbs shook his head, “No. It was in a hot-water bottle. That was a new
one on me. Well, when we pinched her she just turned on me as cool as
you please: ‘You’ve got me now, but damn you, I’ve fooled you lots of
times before!’”
Gibbs leaned back in enjoyment of his own imitation of the society
lady’s voice and watched Duncan looking over some declaration papers.
Duncan looked up with a smile. “Say, here’s another new one. Declaration
from a college professor who paid duty on spending seventy-five francs
to have his shoes half-soled in Paris.”
But Gibbs was not to be outdone.
“That’s nothing,” said he, “a gink this morning declared a gold tooth.
I didn’t know how to classify it so I just told him nobody’d know if
he’d keep his mouth shut. It was a back tooth. He did slip me a cigar,
but women who are smugglin’ seem to think it ain’t honest to give an
inspector any kind of tip.” Gibbs dived into an inner pocket and brought
out a bunch of aigrettes. “The most I can do now is these aigrettes. I
nipped ’em off of a lady coming down the gangplank of the Olympic. They
ain’t bad, Jim.”
Duncan rose from his chair and came over to Gibbs’ side and took the
plume from his hand.
“Can’t you guys ever get out of the habit of grafting?” he demanded.
“Queer,” he continued, looking at the delicate feathers closely, “how
some soft, timid little bit of a woman is willing to wear things like
that. Do you know where they come from?”
“From some factory, I s’pose,” Gibbs answered with an air of candor.
“No they don’t,” Duncan told him. “They take ’em from the mother bird
just when she’s had her young ones; they leave her half dead with the
little ones starving. Pretty tough, I call it, on dumb animals,” he
concluded, with so sentimental a tone as to leave poor Gibbs amazed. He
was still more amazed when his fellow inspector put them in his own
pocket and went back to his desk.
“Say, Jim,” Gibbs expostulated, “what are you doing with them?”
“Why, my wife was asking this morning if I couldn’t get her a bunch.
These’ll come in just right.”
“You’re a funny guy to talk about grafting,” Gibbs grumbled, “I ain’t
showing you nothin’ more.”
“Never you mind me,” Duncan commanded. “You keep your own eyes peeled.
Old man Taylor’s been raising the deuce around here about reports that
some of you fellows still take tips.”
Gibbs had heard such rumors too often for them to affect him now. “Oh,
it’s just the usual August holler,” he declared.
Duncan contradicted him, “No, it isn’t,” he observed. “It’s because the
Collector and the Secretary of the Treasury have started an
investigation about who’s getting the rake-off for allowing stuff to
slip through. I heard the Secretary was coming over here to-day. You
keep your eyes peeled, Harry.”
“If times don’t change,” Gibbs said with an air of gloom, “I’m going
into the police department.”
He turned about to see if the steps he heard at the door were those of
the man he had come to see. He breathed relief when he saw it was only
Peter, the doorkeeper.
“Mr. Duncan,” said the man, “Miss Ethel Cartwright has just ’phoned
that she’s on her way and would be here in fifteen minutes.”
Gibbs looked from one to the other with his accustomed mild interest. He
could see that the news of which he could make little had excited
Duncan. It was evidently something important. Directly the doorkeeper
had gone Duncan called his chief on the telephone and Gibbs sauntered
nearer the ’phone. To hear both sides of the conversation would make it
much easier.
“Got a cigar, Jim?” he inquired casually of the other, who was holding
the wire.
“Yes,” said Duncan, taking one from his pocket.
Gibbs reached a fat hand over for it, “Thanks,” he returned simply.
Duncan bit the end off and put it in his own mouth. “And I’m going to
smoke it myself,” he observed.
Gibbs shook his head reprovingly at this want of generosity and took a
cigar from his own pocket. “All right then; I’ll have to smoke one of my
own.”
Just then Duncan began to speak over the wire. “Hello. Hello, Chief.
Miss Ethel Cartwright just ’phoned she’d be here in fifteen minutes....
Yes, sir.... I’ll have her wait.”
When he had rung off, Gibbs could see his interest was increasing.
“What do you think of her falling for a bum stall like that?”
“Who?” Gibbs demanded. “Which? What stall?”
“Why, Miss Cartwright!” said Duncan. “Ain’t I talking about her?”
“Well, who is she?” the aggrieved Gibbs cried. “Is she a smuggler?”
“No. She’s a swell society girl,” said Duncan in a superior manner.
“If she ain’t a smuggler, what’s she here for then?” Gibbs had a gentle
pertinacity in sticking to his point.
“The Chief wants to use her in the Denby case, so he had me write her a
letter saying we’d received a package from Paris containing dutiable
goods, a diamond ring, and would she kindly call this afternoon and
straighten out the matter.” Duncan now assumed an air of triumph. “And
she fell for a fake like that!”
“I get you,” said Gibbs. “But what does he want her for?”
“I told you, the Denby case.”
“What’s that?” Gibbs entreated.
Duncan lowered his voice. “The biggest smuggling job Taylor ever
handled.”
“You don’t say so,” Gibbs returned, duly impressed. “Why, nobody’s told
me anything about it.”
“Can you keep your mouth shut?” Duncan inquired mysteriously.
“Sure,” Gibbs declared. “I ain’t married.”
“Then just take a peek out of the door, will you?” Duncan directed.
The other did as he was bid. “It’s all right,” he declared, finding the
corridor empty.
“I never know when he may stop out there and listen to what I’m saying.
You can hear pretty plain.”
“He is the original pussy-foot, ain’t he,” Gibbs returned. He had known
of Taylor’s reputation for finding out what was going on in his office
by any method. “Now, what’s it all about?”
Duncan grew very confidential.
“Last week the Chief got a cable from Harlow, a salesman in Cartier’s.”
“What’s Cartier’s?” Gibbs inquired.
“The biggest jewelry shop in Paris. Harlow’s our secret agent there. His
cable said that an American named Steven Denby had bought a pearl
necklace there for a million francs. That’s two hundred thousand
dollars.”