At the inquest on the following day, Mrs. Balfame, circumvested in
crepe, sat between Mr. and Mrs. Cummack, gracefully erect, and without
even a nervous flutter of the hands.
When called upon to testify, she told in a clear low voice the meagre
story already known to her friends and by this time the common property
of Elsinore and all that read the newspapers of the State.
The coroner released her as quickly as possible, and called her servant
to the stand. Although the swelling in Frieda's face had subsided
somewhat under Dr. Anna's repeated ministrations, the tooth still
throbbed; and she also was released after announcing resentfully that
she'd seen "notings," heard "notings," and "didn't know notings" about
the murder except having to get up and make coffee when she was like to
die with the ache in her tooth.
There was no one else to testify, except Cummack, who gave the hour,
about a quarter or ten minutes to eight, when the deceased had left his
house, and Mr. Gifning and his two guests, who testified to hearing the
sound of Balfame's voice raised in song, followed a moment later by the
report of a pistol. They also described minutely the position of the
body when found. Indubitably the shot had been fired from the grove.
The staff artists were forced to be content with a black sketch of a
very long widow, who held her head high and emanated an air of chill
repose. One reporter, camera set, forced his way to her side as she was
about to enter Mrs. Battle's limousine and begged her plaintively to
raise her veil; but he might as well as have addressed a somnambulist;
Mrs. Balfame did not even snub him.
"Why should they want a picture of me?" she asked Mrs. Battle,
wonderingly. "It's poor Dave that is dead. Whoever heard of me outside
of Elsinore?"
"I guess you haven't amused yourself reading the papers. You've been
written up as a beauty and the intellectual and social leader of
Elsinore. Some distinction, that! The public is mighty interested in you
all over the State and will be for several days yet, no doubt. Then
we'll find the man and they'll forget all about the whole affair until
the trial comes up."
Mrs. Balfame, clad in full weeds, more dignified, stately and
unapproachable than ever, ran the gauntlet of staring eyes at the church
funeral, apparently unconscious of the immense crowd of women that had
driven over from every township in Brabant County. That the women did
not approve of her haughty head and tearless eyes, brilliant even behind
the heavy crepe, would have concerned her little if she had known it.
Her mind was concentrated upon the future moment when this series of
hideous ordeals would be over and she could re-enter the decent
seclusion of private life.
Mrs. Balfame may have had her faults, but a vulgar complaisance to
publicity was not among them.
She had also made up her mind sternly not to feel happy, not to rejoice
in her freedom, not to make a plan for the future until her husband was
in his grave. But all during that long service, while the new parson
discoursed unctuously upon the virtues and eminence of the slain, she
had the sensation of holding her breath.
It was four days from the night of the murder before she consented to
see the reporters. Meanwhile every suspected person had proved an alibi,
including the red-haired Miss Foxie Bell, and the indignant and highly
respectable Miss Mamie Russ, who officiated at the telephone. She had
known the deceased, yes, and once or twice she had driven out to one of
the roadhouses with him, where a number of her friends were indulging in
a quiet Sunday afternoon tango, but she had merely looked upon him as a
kind fatherly sort of person; and at the hour of his death she was
asleep, as her landlady could testify.
Old Dutch had indignantly repudiated the charge of employing gunmen, and
had even attended the funeral and shed tears. Whatever the faults of the
deceased, they were not of a nature to antagonise permanently the erring
members of his own sex. Moreover, he had been an able politician,
respected of his enemies, and was now glorified by his cowardly and
untimely taking off.
The local police had an uneasy suspicion that the assassin was one of
their "pals"--in that small and democratic community, where every man
was an Elk from the banker to the undertaker. They were quite ready to
drop the case, loudly ascribing the deed to an ordinary housebreaker, or
to some unknown enemy from out the impenetrable rabbit warrens of New
York City.
The newspaper men were chagrined and desperate. The Balfame Case had
proved uncommonly magnetic to the New York public. They had done their
best to create this interest, and now were on their mettle to "make
good." But they were beginning to wish they had waited for at least a
lantern's ray at the end of the dark perspective before exciting the
public with descriptions of the winding picturesque old street of the
ancient village of Elsinore; the stately old-time residence at its head
which had housed (in more or less discomfort) three generations of
Balfames, the sinister grove of trees that had sheltered the dastardly
assassin, the prominence and political importance of David Balfame who
had inherited this ancestral estate, and played among those trees in
childhood; his unsuspecting and vocal return at an early hour to be shot
down at his own gate.
All this appealed acutely to a public which makes the fortune of the
sentimental play, the "crook" play, and the "play with a punch and a
mystery." Here was the real thing, as rural as the childhood of many of
the Greater New York public--weary of black-hand murders and anarchist
bombs--with a mystery as deep as any ever invented by their favourite
authors, and in no remote district but at their very gates.
If anything more were necessary to rivet their interest, there was the
handsome and elegant (if provincial) Mrs. Balfame, as austere as a Roman
matron, as chaste as Diana, as decently invisible in public during this
harrowing ordeal as imported crepe could make her. The men reporters had
dismissed the widow with a paragraph of personal description, but the
newspaper women had filled half a page in each of the evening journals.
The press had given the public at least two columns a day of the Balfame
murder; there had been a biography of every suspect in turn, and there
had been the thrilling episode of the bloodhounds turned loose upon that
trampled enclosure. But no road led anywhere, and the public, baffled
for the moment, but still hopeful, demanded an interview with the
interesting widow.
Of course, her alibi was perfect, but all felt sure that she "knew
something about it." Her unhappy married life was now common property,
and if it only could be proved that she had had a lover--but the
newspapers as has been said were discouraging upon this point. Mrs.
Balfame (quoting the young men this time), while amiable and kind to
all, was cold and indifferent. Men were afraid of her. The New York
detectives had "fine-tooth-combed" Brabant County and reported
disgustedly to their chief that she was "just one of those club women;
no use for men at all."
The reporters, however, had made up their minds to fix the crime, if
possible, upon her. They would have compromised upon the young servant,
but Frieda, especially with her face framed in a towel stained brown,
and her eyes swollen above the wrenching agonies of an ulcerated tooth,
was hopeless material. Moreover, they were convinced, after thorough
investigation, that the deceased's gallantries, while sufficiently
catholic, had not run to serving maids, and that of late particularly he
had loudly hated all things German.
Regarding Mrs. Balfame they held their judgment in reserve until they
met and talked with her; but Broderick had extracted the miserable
details of her life from his friend, Alys Crumley, as well as a lively
description of the scene at the Country Club; they believed they could
bring to light enough to base a sensational trial upon, whatever the
verdict of the jury.
It must not be inferred for a moment that these brilliant and
industrious young men were bloodthirsty. They knew that if Mrs. Balfame
had committed the crime and could be induced to make a defiant
confession, it was more than probable that she would go scot free; that
in no case was there more than a bare possibility of a woman of her age,
position and appearance being sent to the chair. But it is these alert,
resourceful, ruthless young men who make the newspapers we read with
such interest twice a day; it is they who write the columns of "news"
that we skip if dull (with a mental reservation to change our
newspaper), or devour without a thought of the tireless individual
activities that re-supply us daily with our strongest impersonal
interests. Sometimes a trifle more sparkle or vitality, or a deeper
note, will wring from us that facile comment, "How well written!"
without a pause to reflect that mere good writing never made a
newspaper, or to hazard a guess that behind the column that thrilled us
were hours, perhaps weeks, of incessant unravelling of clues, of
following a scent in the dark, with death at every turn. It is the
business of reporters to furnish news of vital interest to a pampered
public, and as so large a part of it is furnished to them by the
weaknesses and misdeeds of mankind, what wonder that the reporters grow
cynical and make no bones about providing clues that will lead, at the
least, to many columns charged with suspense and sensational human
interest!
These young men knew the moment the Balfame case "broke" that it was big
with possibilities; they scented a mystery that would be cleared by the
arrest of no local politician; and they knew the interlocking social
relationships of these loyal old communities. It was "up to them" to
solve the mystery, and by a process of elimination, spurred by their own
desire to give the public the best the market afforded, they arrived at
Mrs. Balfame.
Within forty-eight hours they were hot on her trail. Among other things,
they discovered that she was an expert shot at a target; but did she
keep a pistol in the house? She had used one, kept for target purpose,
out at the Country Club, and it was impossible to verify the rumor that
in common with many another, she had one in the house as a protection
against burglars and tramps.
At their instigation, Phipps, the local chief of police, had reluctantly
consented to interrogate her on this point (a mere matter of form, he
assured her), and she had replied blandly that she never had possessed a
pistol. The chief apologised and withdrew. He was of a respectable
Brabant family himself, and was horrified that a member of the good old
order should even be brushed by the wing of suspicion. Being a quiet
family man and a Republican to boot, he had never approved of Dave
Balfame, and had only refrained from arresting him upon more than one
occasion--notably a week or two since when he had publicly blacked the
eye of Miss Billy Gump--out of deference to the good name of Elsinore;
and after all, they were both Elks and had spun many a yarn in the
comfortable clubrooms. Inheritance, circumstances, and a fine common
contempt for the inferior brands of whiskey, had made them "stand in
together, whatever happened." The chief had no love for Mrs. Balfame,
for she had frozen him too often, but she was the pride of Elsinore and
he was alert to defend her.
It had never occurred to Mrs. Balfame that she would incur even a
passing suspicion, and she had left the pistol in the pocket of her
automobile coat. Immediately after the visit of the chief of police she
took the pistol into the sewing-room, locked the door, covered the
keyhole, and buried the weapon in the depths of an old sofa. As her
large strong fingers had mended furniture many times, no one would
suspect that this ancient piece (dating back to the first Balfame) had
been tampered with. She performed the operation with haughty reluctance,
but the instinct of self-preservation abides in the proudest souls, and
Mrs. Balfame had the wit to realise that it was by far the better part
of valour.
The shooting occurred on Saturday night. By Wednesday all the horrors of
the criminal episode were over and she felt as young as she looked, and
at liberty to begin life again, a free and happy woman. Her mourning was
perfect.
She made up her mind to see the newspaper men and have done with it.
They had haunted the grounds--no patrols could keep them out--sat on the
doorstep, forced their way into the kitchen, and rung the front
door-bell so frequently that hourly she expected the scowling Frieda to
give notice. Mr. Cummack told her repeatedly that she might as well give
in first as last and she finally agreed with him.
It was five o'clock in the afternoon when they were admitted to the
spacious old-fashioned parlour with its incongruous modern notes.
Like many women, Mrs. Balfame had an admirable taste in dress, so long
as she marched with the conventions, but neither the imagination nor the
training to create the notable room. Long since she had banished the old
"body brussels" carpet and substituted rugs subdued in colour if
commonplace in design. The plush "set" had not gone to the auction room,
however, but had been reupholstered with a serviceable "tapestry
covering." A what-not still stood in one corner, and both centre-table
and mantel were covered with marble, although the wax works that once
embellished them were now in the garret. The wall paper, which had been
put on the year before, was a neutral pale brown. Nevertheless, it was a
homelike room, for there were two rocking-chairs and three easy chairs;
and on a small side-table was Mrs. Balfame's workbasket. On the marble
centre-table was a most artistic lamp. The curtains matched the
furniture.
There were ten reporters from New York, two from Brooklyn, three from
Brabant County, and four correspondents. Word had been passed during the
morning that Mrs. Balfame would see the newspaper men, and they were
there in force; those that were not "on the job all the time" having
loyally been notified by those that were. But they had stolen a march on
the women. Not a "sob-sister" was in that intent file, led by James
Broderick of _The New York Morning News_, that entered the Balfame house
and parlour on Wednesday at five o'clock.
Frieda had announced that her mistress would be "down soon," and Mr.
Broderick immediately drew the curtains back from the four long windows,
and placed a comfortable chair for Mrs. Balfame in a position where she
would face both the light and her visitors. It was not the first stage
that the astute Mr. Broderick had set; and whenever he was on a case he
fell naturally into the position of leader; not only had he the most
alert and driving, the most resourceful and penetrative mind, but his
good looks and suave manner inspired confidence in the victim, and led
him insensibly into damaging admissions. He was a tall slim young man, a
graduate of Princeton, not yet thirty, with a regular face and warm
colouring, and an expression so pleasant that the keenness of his eyes
passed unnoted. In general equipment and dress he was typical of his
kind, unless they took to drink and grew slovenly; but his more emphatic
endowment enabled him to take the lead among a class of men whom he
respected too thoroughly to antagonise with arrogance.
"Late--to make an impression!" he growled, but young Ryder Bruce of the
evening edition of his paper nudged him. Mrs. Balfame was on the
staircase opposite the parlour doors.
The young men stood up and watched her as she slowly descended, her
black dress clinging to her tall rather rigid figure, her head high, her
profile as calm as marble, her eye as devoid of expression as if
awaiting the click of the camera.
The reporters were prejudiced on the spot, so impatient are newspaper
men of any sort of pose or attempt to impress them. As she entered the
room she greeted them pleasantly, looking straight at them with her
large cold eyes, and allowed herself to be conducted to a chair by the
polite Mr. Broderick.
She knew that in her high unrelieved black she looked older than common,
but this was a deliberately calculated effect. She was not as adroit as
she would have been after recurrent experiences with the press, but
instinct warned her to look the dignified middle-aged widow, quite above
the coquetry of the bare throat of fashion, or of tempering her weeds
with soft white lawn.
As Mr. Broderick made a little speech of gratitude for her gracious
reception of the press, she appraised her guests. The greater number
were well-groomed, well-dressed, well-bred in effect, very sure of
themselves; altogether a striking contrast to the local reporters that
had come in on their heels.
She answered Mr. Broderick diffidently: "I have never been interviewed.
I am afraid you will hardly find--what do you call it?--a story?--in
me."
"We don't wish to be too personal," he said gently, "but the public is
tremendously interested in this case, and more particularly in you. It
isn't always that it takes an interest in the wife of a murdered
man--but--well, you see, you are such a personality in this community.
We really must have an interesting interview." He smiled at her with a
charming expression of masculine indulgence that made her own eyes
soften. "You see--don't you--we hate to intrude--but--we understand that
you had a serious quarrel with your husband on the last day of his life.
Would you mind telling us what you did after leaving the Country Club?"
She gave him a frozen stare, but recalled Mr. Cummack's warning not to
take offence--"for remember that these men have their living to get, and
if they fall down on their job they don't get it. Blame their paper, not
them."
"That is a surprising question," she said sweetly. "Do you expect me to
answer it?"
"Why not? Of course you read the newspapers. You know we have told the
public of the scene at the clubhouse already--and with no detriment to
you! It was a very dramatic scene, and every moment that you passed from
that time until Mr. Balfame fell at his gate will be of the most
absorbing interest to the public. In fact, they will eat it up."
Mrs. Balfame shrugged her shoulders. "As a matter of fact I have not
read a newspaper since the--" She set her lips and her eyes grew
hard--"the crime. I know you have written a great deal about it, but it
hasn't interested me. Well--Dr. Anna Steuer drove me home, and shortly
after I went up to my room--"
"Pardon me; let us take things in their turn. You took a box of sardines
and some bread from the pantry, did you not?"
"I did." Mrs. Balfame's tones were both puzzled and bored.
"And then you were interrupted." As she raised her eyebrows, he
continued. "The appearance of the sardine can indicated that."
She gave him a brilliant smile, her substitute for the average woman's
merry laugh. "You are teaching me how they write those intricate
detective tales my husband was so fond of. It is true that I was
interrupted, but it is equally true that I should probably have left the
can as you found it in any case, for I soon realised that I was not
hungry. I had had sandwiches at the club, and although I always think it
best to eat something before retiring, I was hardly hungry enough for
sardines--"
"You ate sandwiches at the club? I have been out there once or twice
and never saw--I was under the impression that during the afternoon the
young people danced and the matrons played bridge before an early
dinner."
"Did you?" Mrs. Balfame's eyes and tones abashed even Mr. Broderick, and
he tacked hastily: "Oh, well, that is immaterial, as the lawyers say.
And of course you ladies may have sandwiches served in the bridge rooms.
May I ask what interrupted you?"
"My husband telephoned from Mr. Cummack's house that he was obliged to
go to Albany at once and asked me to pack his suitcase."
"Yes, we have seen the suitcase. You suggested, did you not--over the
telephone--making him a glass of lemonade with aromatic and bromide in
it?"
Mrs. Balfame experienced an obscure thrill of alarm, but her haughty
stare betrayed nothing. One of the reporters whose "job" it was to watch
her hands, noted that they curved rigidly. "And may I ask how you found
_that_ out? Really, I think I feel even more curiosity than you do."
"He told it to Cummack and the other men present as a good joke, adding
that you knew your business."
"I did. The matter had passed entirely out of my mind. More momentous
things have happened since! Well--I made the glass of lemonade and left
it on the dining-room table; then I went upstairs and packed his
suitcase--"
"One moment. What became of that glass of lemonade? No one remembers
having seen it, although I have made very particular inquiries."
Mrs. Balfame by this time was quite cold, but her brain was working
almost as quickly as Mr. Broderick's. She uncurved her fingers and
smiled. But her keen brain-sword had one edge only; the other was dull
with inexperience. She knew nothing of the vast practice of newspaper
men in detecting the lie.
"Oh--I drank it myself." She had drawn her brows for a moment as if in
an effort of memory. "When I heard the noise outside--when I heard them
say 'coroner'--and realised that something dreadful had happened, I ran
downstairs. Then I suddenly felt faint and remembered the lemonade with
the aromatic spirits of ammonia and bromide in it. I ran into the
dining-room and drank it--fortunately!"
"And what became of the glass?"
"Oh!" Mrs. Balfame was now righteously indignant. "How do I know? Or any
one else? Frieda, soon after, began to make coffee by the quart--and I
don't doubt whisky was brought round from the Elks. Who could have
noticed a glass more or less?"
"Frieda swears she never saw it."
"She has the worst memory of any servant I ever had, and that is saying
a good deal."
Mr. Broderick regarded her with admiration. He distrusted her more every
moment, but he had realised at once that he had no ordinary woman to
deal with, and he rejoiced in the clash of wits.
The other young men were sitting forward, almost breathless, and Mrs.
Balfame was now fully alive to the danger of her position. But all
sensation of fear had left her. All the iron in her nature fused in the
crucible of those terrible moments and came forth finely tempered steel.
"Anything more?"
"Oh--ah--yes. Would you mind telling us what you did after you had
packed the suitcase and brought it downstairs?"
"I went up to my room and began to undress for bed."
"But that must have been quite fifteen minutes before Mr. Balfame's
return. He walked from Cummack's house, which is about a mile from here.
It was noticed that you merely had taken your dress off. Would you not
have had time to get into bed?"
"If I were a man. But I had my hair to brush--with fifty strokes; and--a
little nightly massage, if you will have it. Besides, I had intended to
go down and lock the front door after my husband had left."
"Ah!" The admiration of the young men mounted higher. They disliked her
coldly, if only for that lack of sex-magnetism, which men, particularly
young men, naive in their extensive surface psychology, take as a
personal affront. They did not believe a word she said, and they did not
give her and her possible fate a throb of sympathy, but they generously
pronounced her "a wonder."
Mr. Broderick took a chance shot. "And did you not during that time look
out of the window--toward the grove?"
Mrs. Balfame hesitated the fraction of a minute, then wisely returned to
her know-nothing policy. "Why should I? Certainly not. I heard no sound
out there. I am not in the habit of examining the grounds from my window
at night. It is enough to go through the lower rooms before I lock up."
"But your window was dark when the men ran over from Gifning's after
hearing the shot. They remember that. Do you brush your hair--and--and
massage in the dark?"
Mrs. Balfame sat back in her chair with the resigned air of the victim
who expects an interview with inquisitive newspaper men to last all
night. "No. But I sometimes sit in the dark. I told you that I intended
to sit up--partly dressed--until my husband had gone. I did not feel
like reading, and my eyes were tired. As you know so much, you may have
guessed that I cried a little after that trying afternoon. I do not
often cry, and my eyes stung."
"But you had forgiven your husband?"
"I had forgiven him many times before. I infer that you know that also."
"Mrs. Balfame, is it not true that about two years ago you contemplated
obtaining a divorce?"
This time her eyes flashed with anger. "I see that my kind friends have
been gossiping. You would seem to have interviewed everybody in town."
"Pretty nearly. But you don't seem to realise that Elsinore--Brabant
County, for that matter--has talked of nothing else but this case for
the last four days."
"I did think of a divorce for a short time, but I never mentioned it to
him, and as soon as I thought it all out I dismissed the idea. In the
first place, divorce is against the principles of the school in which I
was brought up, and in the second Mr. Balfame was a good husband in his
way. Every woman has some sort of a heavy cross to bear, and I guess
mine was lighter than most. The trouble is, we American women expect
too much. I dismissed the subject so completely from my mind that I had
practically forgotten it."
"Ah--yes--we thought you might have seen some one lurking in the grove
and gone down to investigate." This was another chance shot. He was
hoping for a "lead."
Mrs. Balfame thought him inspired.
For the moment the cold brilliant eyes of the woman and the keen
contracted eyes of the reporter met and clashed. Then Mrs. Balfame
displayed her teeth in her sweet and charming smile. "What a truly
masculine inference. You don't know me. If I had seen anything I should
have flown to the telephone and called the police."
"You look indomitable," murmured Mr. Broderick. "But will you tell us
how it happened that you did not hear the shot? The men down at
Gifning's did."
"They were standing on the porch, and I think now that I did hear the
shot. But my windows were closed. I hear tires burst constantly. And
that was Saturday night. The machines turn off just below our gate into
Dawbarn Street, especially if they are bound for Beryl Myrtle's road
house."
"True." Broderick leaned forward, staring at the carpet. He permitted
the silence to last quite a minute. Even Mrs. Balfame, who had
congratulated herself that the inquisition must be nearly over, stirred
uneasily, so sinister was that silence.
The other men knew the Broderick method too well to spoil one of his
designs; they sat in expectant stillness and turned upon Mrs. Balfame a
battery of eyes.
Suddenly Broderick raised his head and his sharp boring gaze darted into
hers. "I had not fully intended to tell you of a discovery made by one
of us yesterday. We have told no one as yet--waiting for just the right
moment to publish it. But I think I'll tell you. There is evidence that
two revolvers were fired that night. One killed David Balfame, and a
bullet from the other penetrated the tree before the house and slightly
to the right of where he must have stood for a moment. Bruce here
dug it out. Now, not only did the men at Gifning's not hear two
shots--indicating that they were fired simultaneously--but one bullet
came from a .38 and the other from a .41."
Mrs. Balfame stood up. "Really, gentlemen, I did not consent to see you
in order to help you solve riddles. But possibly you know better than I
that gunmen generally travel in pairs. I am convinced that my husband--"
(they applauded her for not saying "my poor husband") "was killed by one
of those creatures, hired by his political enemies. Unless I can tell
you something more of interest--if, indeed, you have found anything to
interest the great New York public in this interview--I will ask you to
excuse me."
The young men were politely on their feet. "And you have no pistol--nor
ever had?"
She laughed outright. "Are you trying to fasten the crime on me?"
"Oh, no, indeed. Only, in a case like this, one leaves no stone
unturned--I hope you do not think we are rude."
"I only just realise that quite the most polite young men I have ever
met have been hoping to make me incriminate myself. If I had not been so
dense I should have dismissed you long since. Good night."
And, once more looking human in her just indignation, she lifted her
proud head and swept out of the room.
The young men left the house and adjourned to a private room in the rear
of their favourite saloon. For twenty minutes they rehearsed the
interview carefully, those that had taken notes correcting any lapses of
memory on the part of those that had elected to watch as well as listen.
Broderick and many of the men were firmly of the opinion that Mrs.
Balfame had committed the crime; others believed that she was shielding
some one else; the less experienced were equally positive that no guilty
woman taken off her guard repeatedly, as she had been, could "put it
over" like that. She had "talked and acted like an innocent woman."
"She acted, all right," said Broderick. "I for one am convinced that she
did it. But whether she did or didn't, she's got to be indicted and
tried. This case, boys, is too big to throw away--too damned big; and
she's already a personality to the public. She's the only one we have
the ghost of a chance with; the only one whose arrest and trial would
keep the interest going--"
"But say!" It was the youngest reporter that interrupted. "I call it
lowdown to fasten a crime on a possibly innocent woman--a lady--keep her
in jail for months; try her for murder! Why, even if she were acquitted,
she would carry the stigma through life."
"Don't get sentimental, sonny," said Broderick patiently. "Sentiment is
to the vanquished in this game. When you've been it as long as the rest
of us you'll know that in nine cases out of ten the real solution of
any mystery is the simplest. Balfame drank. He had a violent temper when
drunk. He was a dog at best. She must have hated him. Look at her. We
have reason to believe that she did hate him and that her friends knew
it. She thought of divorce two years ago. Gave it up because she was
afraid of losing her leadership in this provincial hole. Look at her.
She is as proud as Lucifer. And as hard as nails. There had been an ugly
scene at the club that afternoon. He mortified her publicly. She was so
overcome she had to leave. I've a hunch she poisoned that lemonade and
got it out of the way in time. She's the sort that would think of nearly
everything. Not quite, of course. Otherwise she would never have
invented on the spur of the moment that story about drinking it herself;
she'd have had the assumption on tap that one of the neighbours had
drunk it. That complication, however, is yet to prove. It merely points
a finger at her--straight; what we've got to prove and prove quick is
that she was out of doors when that shot was fired--"
"Would you like to see her in the chair?" gasped young Loring.
"Good Lord, no. Not the least danger. Women of that sort don't go to the
chair. If she even got a term, I'd head a petition to let her out, for
she's a dead game sport, and I'm only after good front page stuff." He
turned to Ryder Bruce of the evening edition of his newspaper. "You make
love to that German hired girl. She hates us all, for we represent the
real American press--that hasn't a hyphen in it. I sensed that. And I
don't believe she's all the fool she looks. I believe she can tell
something--few servants that can't--and that she only pretended at the
inquest that she knew nothing because she was nearly dead with pain and
wanted it over. Well, she had the tooth out this morning, and at least
she isn't quite as hideous as she was; so go to it, old boy. Get 'round
her and do it quick. Use money if necessary. There's not a day to lose.
Find out what she wants most--probably it's to send her sweetheart at
the front something more substantial than mitts and bands. Got me?"
"I get you," said young Bruce gloomily. "You've picked me out because
I'm blond and round faced and can pass myself off as a German. I wish
I'd been born an Italian. Nice job, making love to _that_. But I'll do
it."
"Good boy. Well, s'long. I'm off on a trail of my own. I'll report
later. May be nothing in it."