WINNIE MASON STANDS BY
"I say, hello there! Wait a minute, Kearn!" Winnie Mason called as he
brought his roadster to a halt with a sudden grinding of brakes. It
was two days later and a cutting east wind skirled about the driveway
of the Park, rattling the naked branches of the trees like the
fleshless arms of a legion of skeletons.
The tall figure on the path waited, but his face was averted and there
was a listless, dispirited droop to his whole form which was not lost
upon the quick, sympathetic gaze of his friend.
"I'll back her up. . . Now get in, old man, and we'll take a little
spin. Jolly glad I ran across you, but what brings you out on a
blustering rotten afternoon like this? You're not very fit yet, you
know, after that bout of fever you had in Mexico, in spite of the
lacing you managed to give Starr Wiley."
"I came to try and walk off a brace of blue devils that have been
camping on my trail," Thode explained, climbing into the car with
manifest reluctance. "You won't find me very good company, Win, but
you've brought it on yourself."
"What's the matter, anyhow?" the other demanded. "It's not like you to
load up with a grouch. Has one of those blasted oil wells sprung a
leak?"
Thode shrugged.
"I wouldn't care if every gusher in Mexico went up in smoke!" he
affirmed, drearily. "I've had a nasty stab in the back, the kind of
thing a man doesn't get over in a hurry, that's all. Don't let's talk
about it."
"You're not the only one. I say, you'll keep this to yourself, of
course, but I've got to tell some one, and you were her friend down
there. She told me about that magnificent ride of yours for the troops
at the time of the raid, and she just about thought you were ace high.
She's such a plucky little thing herself, confound it? That's what
makes it so devilish hard, now."
"What are you talking about?" Thode looked up with the first gleam of
interest he had shown. "Not Miss Murdaugh?"
Winnie nodded.
"Only she isn't Miss Murdaugh at all, according to Starr Wiley. He's
dug up proof that the real Willa Murdaugh died and she is just a
trapper's daughter from the wilds somewhere, whom that gambler adopted
in order to bilk the estate later. The governor told me all about it,
he was so wrought up he couldn't keep it to himself."
"Not Willa Murdaugh!" repeated Thode in stunned accents. "And Starr
Wiley brought forward the proof? You'd better tell me all about it,
Win, now that you've started."
Nothing loth, Winnie complied and the other heard him through in
silence, until he told of Willa's disappearance the morning after the
revelation, and the little note she had left behind her.
"I swear I thought the governor would spill over when he read it to
me," Winnie concluded. "It was sort of fine for her to go away like
that. I don't care who she really is, she's the most wonderful girl I
know. She wouldn't even sign herself 'Murdaugh' after they questioned
her right; she used the name of the gambler chap who'd been so good to
her."
"How did she learn it?" Thode asked quickly. "He was known only as
'Gentleman Geoff' in Limasito. I'm certain she herself never heard the
name there."
"It was signed to the adoption agreement he and the trapper, Hillery,
made out when he took her in place of the real Willa. The governor
showed me the paper and there it was in black and white: Geoff
Abercrombie."
"Abercrombie!" Kearn Thode seized the other's arm in a convulsive grip
which made the steering-wheel jerk. "You're sure--you're sure of the
name, Win?"
"Dead sure! I'll get the governor to show you the document if you
like. But why the excitement? You nearly landed us up against that
rock, then."
"Never mind the rock!" exclaimed Thode. "I'm going to take you up on
that; I'd give a good bit to see that paper and the signature."
"I'll fix it." Winnie shot a quick glance at his companion. "I say,
you don't think it's phony, do you? The governor says it is absolutely
the straight goods."
"It isn't that," Thode hastened to explain cautiously. "But I knew
Gentleman Geoff personally, you know. It isn't etiquette to ask a man
for more of a name than he chooses to give below the border, but I had
a hazy idea of Gentleman Geoff's identity and the name in my mind was
not Abercrombie. It was just a suspicion of my own and I had nothing
to substantiate it, but the old chap interested me and I've always been
curious about him. I wonder if he could possibly have been related to
the Abercrombies of the Coast?"
"Whoever he was, he must have been rather a fine old codger himself for
he brought Will--his adopted daughter up splendidly," Winnie observed
with enthusiasm. "There isn't a girl in our set that can come anywhere
near her, and I think it is a dashed shame that she's thrown out on her
own. She took the whole business like a thoroughbred, walking calmly
out like that and leaving them to haggle over the details."
"And she has utterly disappeared?" asked Thode. "No one knows where
she is?"
"Nobody but your Uncle Sherlock!" Winnie grinned, and thumped himself
upon the chest. "I did a little detecting on my own and I found her
all right. She doesn't know yet that anyone has discovered her
whereabouts and I don't mean to pass it on to the Halsteads or the
governor, either. She's her own mistress now and if she wants to go
away by herself, it's no one's concern but hers."
"I can't imagine you in the role of a gumshoe!" The other laughed
outright, and it was Winnie's turn to gape in amazement.
The change which had come over his companion was too marked to go
unnoted; the listless, disheartened mood was gone and in its place the
old eager alertness manifested itself, intensified by a sort of
half-suppressed excitement.
"I turned the trick, anyway," Winnie remarked complacently after a
pause. "You see, old man, I'd heard about the way she'd held on to the
money Gentleman Geoff left her and I've caught glimpses of her more
than once riding around town in a speedy gray car with a nifty
chauffeur. I knew the Halstead bunch didn't know anything about it so
I kept quiet. I recognized the chauffeur in the chap she sent to the
governor's office for photographic copies of the documents Wiley dug
up, but the governor sent me away just when things promised to be
interesting.
"I scouted around outside the building and there, sure enough, drawn up
at the curb across the way, was the gray car. I slipped over and took
its number. Later, when we heard about her going away, I didn't say
anything, but I looked up the record of the car. The license had been
taken out under a man's name; the chauffeur's, maybe, but I traced it
to a garage up on the West Side. I took this car up there two days
ago, and whenever he took his own out I was right on the job after him.
"He found out that I was shadowing him, of course, and he tried like
blazes to shake me off, but I was foxy and beat him at his own game
yesterday. He drove up to a certain house and she came out herself, as
if she'd been waiting for him. I jotted down the address, and beat it
as hard as I could. It's lucky I found her when I did, because the car
was moved to another garage this morning and I lost its trail."
"What are you going to do?" inquired the other. "Call on her to extend
your sympathy? That's about the last thing on earth that Gentleman
Geoff's Billie wants, under any circumstances."
He uttered the name with an unconscious note of tenderness in his voice
which would have been illuminating to Winnie North, but that young man
was busied at the moment with embarrassing thoughts of his own. His
face at the other's abrupt question had turned a bright pink, but he
replied steadily:
"I don't want to intrude upon her, but I'd like to tell her that I'm
standing by in case of need.--I'll tell you what I'll do; I'll drop her
a line and ask her if I may bring you up to call, shall I? She can
tell you all about this thing better than I----"
Thode shook his head decisively.
"No. I am an old friend, as you say, and if she should want to see me
she knows how to reach me. I'm going away in a few days, at any rate."
"Away?" Winnie said impulsively. "Why, old man, you're not returning
to Mexico, are you? I thought you were going to stay around town for a
month or two."
"No!" There was a determined ring, not without a touch of grimness, in
his tones. "I'm going to take Horace Greeley's advice once more:
'Young man, go West.' I'll hit the trail for the setting sun----"
"And find your pot of gold, like the old fairy tale of the rainbow's
end? By Jove, but you fellows are dreamers!" Winnie laughed, then
touched his friend's shoulder persuasively. "Why don't you stay on
here where the money is and work this end of the game for a change?
You engineer chaps get out and do all the hard work, and the smug
brokers who sit tight in their offices down on the Street reap all the
profits. Get in on the ground floor, old man, and let the other fellow
do the prospecting."
Thode laughed also.
"Without a working capital? Besides, I know nothing and care less
about the manipulations of the financial end of it; the prospecting is
all I'm cut out for and it's more fascinating than the market game
could possibly be! However, I'm not going West for the elusive pot of
gold this trip; I'm going for something far more important, on a little
private hunch of my own. You'll wish me luck, I know, old man?"
"I will indeed, whatever your hunch is," Winnie responded heartily.
"That stab in the back hasn't downed you, after all. I knew it
wouldn't, after you got your second wind! You look like a different
chap than you were an hour ago----"
"I feel it!" laughed the other, but again that undernote of grimness
rang in his tone. "It's done me a lot of good, this little talk with
you, Win. You'll never realize just how you've bucked me up."
Winnie puzzled over the significance of the last remark after he had
dropped his friend at the Park entrance and turned north again. Could
the stab in the back to which Thode referred have come from Starr
Wiley, and had their conversation given Thode a clue to a way of
striking back at his enemy? Not through Willa and the lost
inheritance, of course; that was a bona-fide discovery, even if Wiley
had been the instrument in bringing it to light. However, the fact
that Wiley had stumbled upon the documents while in Arizona might have
given Thode a lead on some ulterior project out there in which Wiley
was trying to cut the ground out from under his feet.
In going over their conversation in retrospect, an idea came which
Winnie determined impulsively to act upon. Willa's car had been
removed from the garage to which he had traced it, but that did not
necessarily mean that it had been taken to another. What if she had
sold the car, in preparation for a return to Mexico? He felt that she
must not go before he had seen her. Heretofore he had not, as he said,
intruded upon her retreat, but he could not bear the thought of her
departure without at least her knowing what he had to tell her.
He would go to her now, without giving her an opportunity to refuse to
see him! She might be angry, and Willa's anger was something to be
reckoned with, but he would make her hear him out!
Darkness had already fallen as he drew up before the neat little house
with its twin front doors. He rang the bell of the one to the right
and when the tall pleasant-faced woman appeared in answer to his
summons, he asked without hesitation for Miss Abercrombie.
The woman eyed him somewhat doubtfully, but ushered him into a tiny
immaculate parlor.
"Please, tell her it is Mr. Winthrop North. I haven't a card with me,
but be sure about the first name. Say that I have an important message
for her and no one knows that I have come."
"Yes, Sir." The woman hesitated. "I'm thinking you've made a mistake
and got hold of the wrong Miss Abercrombie, but I'll find out."
In a moment, however, there was a rustle of silk on the narrow stairs
and Willa entered. Her eyes sought his in a defensive, questioning
stare as she held out her hand.
"Your visit is a surprise, Winnie. I thought--I was not aware that any
of my friends knew where I was."
"No one does but me. I followed your chauffeur. Please, don't be
angry! I was so afraid I should lose you; that you would return to
Limasito before I had an opportunity to see you, that I was desperate."
"Why should you want to see me?" Willa demanded, frankly. "I don't
mean to be ungracious, Winnie, we've grown to be awfully good friends
in these two months, but I've been through so much just lately that the
Willa Murdaugh episode seems far away, and all the people I knew then
are like dream people. I--I'm starting in all over again, you see, and
I meant to do it with a clean, blank sheet."
"But surely you don't mean to put us all behind you? Our friendship,
our admiration, all the happy times we've had together--oh, Willa, you
can't drop it all like this!" he stammered. "You can't go back now,
you belong to us!"
She smiled.
"You're very good to say so, Winnie, but remember I'm not Willa any
more! My place is gone, or rather it never was mine. I do believe in
your friendship, but how many of the rest bothered with me because of
myself alone? It was the Murdaugh position they accepted, the Murdaugh
interests. I'm not cynical, but I try to look things squarely in the
face. How many would admit within their circle the waif adopted by a
gambler?"
Winnie drew a deep breath.
"Then why not make a place for yourself, or rather step into one which
is waiting for you? It doesn't carry the prestige of the Murdaugh name
or money, but it's solid and substantial and assured, and all that love
can bring to make for happiness goes with it, too. Why don't you marry
me, dear?"
Willa started up in unutterable amazement. The mild round face of the
boy before her seemed all at once to have taken on a deeper, more
mature expression, strengthening and ennobling it, and a wistful light
which there was no mistaking glowed in his eyes.
"Winnie!"
"Oh, I know it sounds silly and presumptuous of me! You've known real
men in your life, men who have fought and accomplished things and I've
been just an idler. You couldn't care for me now, but if you'll give
me half a chance I'll prove myself! I know I could do big things, too,
if I had you with me, and I--I love you most tremendously, dear! I've
cared ever since that very first night when you broke into Vernon's
game in that splendid fearless way and drove Cal Shirley out as a
cheat. I never saw a girl with such spirit and I've worshiped you more
and more! Willa, won't you let me go to my father and tell him it's
all right, that you will stay? He may not have found the Murdaugh
heiress in Limasito, but I'd like to tell him that he found my wife!"
Willa's eyes blurred and a rich color dyed her cheeks as she replied
softly:
"Dear Winnie! I'll always love you for this, and respect you, too,
even though what you suggest is impossible.--'Presumptuous'? You don't
know what a big, fine thing you just proved yourself capable of!" Her
voice was not quite steady. "Willa Murdaugh was eligible, even a
catch, I suppose, but now, when I am stripped of everything that counts
in your world and nothing is left me but a past which would bar me from
polite society if I tried to batter down its prejudices alone, you
offer to brave its opinion, to give me the greatest thing a man can
give to a woman. It's splendid of you! I--I can't tell you how
wonderful it seems to feel that there are still men like you in the
world. But, Winnie, I couldn't marry you! I'm awfully fond of you,
but not in that way and one of the things I couldn't accept in the
creed of your world would be to marry a man I didn't love. Even if I
did care, I don't believe that I could bring myself to accept your
sacrifice, but I shall never forget your generosity."
"Don't, please!" Winnie thrust out his hand in a passionate gesture of
negation. "The generosity would have been on your part and the
sacrifice, too! What does it matter who your own people were? You are
yourself, the bravest, finest, truest girl in all the world! I knew
you couldn't care, but, oh, I hoped that if there was no one else you
would try to like me enough to give me an opportunity of proving to you
that I could make you happy anyway. I would be so awfully good to you,
and so proud! It is you who would be giving all, not me, and I should
try all the rest of my life to be worthy of you. Willa, dearest, won't
you think it over, and let me come again?"
She shook her head with a sad little smile.
"I am leaving to-night, Winnie, and going far away. I may return
sometime, quien sabe?--but I have played a lone hand ever since Dad was
killed and I've got to go on to the end. You're wonderfully kind,
wonderfully dear, but I have a long trail to follow and I must travel
it alone."
"You're leaving to-night!" He turned and walked to the window where he
stood for some minutes gazing out at the blank darkness before him in
silence. When he broke it at length and turned again, his face was
very pale but composed.
"You will write and let me know where you are and that all is well with
you?"
"Perhaps," Willa said gently. "At any rate you will know that I shall
think of you always and value your friendship as the one worth-while
thing in all this experience. I wish I could have cared for you,
Winnie, in that way, but it couldn't be."
"I understand." His voice was very low. "Remember that I am your
friend, if I can be nothing more, and I shall be waiting. If you ever
want me, or need me, you will have only to send me a word and I shall
come if it is half across the world.--I'm going, now. Don't be afraid
that I shall tell anyone where I found you. I can't bear to say it,
but it is 'good-bye', Willa. I--I hope, wherever you are, that nothing
but happiness will come to you. Good-bye, best and sweetest and
dearest----"
His voice broke, and Willa held out both her hands.
"Good-bye, Winnie. You're going to be happy, too, some day. I'll
always be proud of your friendship and what you have offered me. Our
trails may cross again some day, and if they do I shall be glad,
indeed. Till then, good luck and every wish of my heart to you, my
pal!"
Winnie pressed her hands, then dropped them and stumbled from the room.
In the machine, he turned and waved. Willa stood in the window, her
slender form outlined against the light behind her, her small head
proudly erect, and it seemed to the boy's blurred, exalted gaze as if
an aura of golden haze like a halo surrounded it. A passing glance and
he was swept along into the darkness ahead, the vision and the memory
of her all that remained to him.