MR. CHAMBERLAIN, SLEUTH
Unbeknown to himself, Mr. Chamberlain possessed the soul of a
conspirator. Leaving Aleck Van Camp at the crisp edge of the day, he
fell into deep thought as he walked toward the village. As he reviewed
the information he had received, he came more and more to adopt
Agatha's cause as his own, and his spirit was fanned into the glow
incident to the chase.
He walked briskly over the country road, descended the steep hill,
turning over the facts, as he knew them, in his mind. By the time he
reached Charlesport, he regarded his honor as a gentleman involved in
the capture of the Frenchman. His knowledge of the methods of legal
prosecutions, even in his own country, was extremely hazy. He had
never been in a situation, in his hitherto peaceful career, in which it
had been necessary to appeal to the law, either on his own behalf or on
that of his friends.
Legal processes in America were even less known to him, but he was not
daunted on that account. He remembered Sherlock Holmes and Raffles; he
recalled Bill Sykes and Dubosc, dodging the operations of justice; and
in that romantic chamber that lurks somewhere in every man's make-up,
he felt that classic tradition had armed him with all the preparation
necessary for heroic achievement. He, Chamberlain, was unexpectedly
called upon to act as an agent of justice against chicanery and
violence, and it was not in him to shirk the task. His labors, which,
for the greater part of his life, had been expended in tracing the
evolution of blind fish in inland caves, had not especially fitted him
for dealing with the details of such a case as Agatha's; but they had
left him eminently well equipped for discerning right principles and
embracing them.
Chamberlain's first move was to visit Big Simon, who directed him to
the house of the justice of the peace, Israel Cady. Squire Cady, in
his shirt-sleeves and wearing an old faded silk hat, was in his side
yard endeavoring to coax the fruit down gently from a flourishing pear
tree.
"You wait just a minute, if you please, until I get these two plump
pears down, and I'll be right there," he called courteously, without
looking away from his long-handled wire scoop.
Mr. Chamberlain strolled into the yard, and after watching Squire
Cady's exertions for a minute or two, offered to wield the pole himself.
"Takes a pru-uty steady hand to get those big ones off without bruising
them," cautioned the squire.
But Chamberlain's hand was steadiness itself, and his eyesight much
keener than the old man's. The result was highly satisfactory. No
less than a dozen ripe pears were twitched off, just in the nick of
time, so far as the eater was concerned.
"Well, thank you, sir; thank you," said Squire Cady. "That just goes
to show what the younger generation can do. Now then, let's see. Got
any pockets?"
He picked out six of the best pears and piled them in Chamberlain's
hands, then took off his rusty, old-fashioned hat and filled it with
the rest of the fruit. Chamberlain carefully stowed his treasures into
the wide pockets of his tweed suit.
"Now, sir," Squire Cady said heartily, "we'll go into my office and
attend to business. I'm not equal to Cincinnatus, whom they found
plowing his field, but I can take care of my garden. Come in, sir,
come in."
Chamberlain followed the tall spare old figure into the house. The
squire disappeared with his pears, leaving his visitor in the narrow
hall; but he returned in a moment and led the way into his office. It
was a large, rag-carpeted room, filled with all those worsted
knickknacks which women make, and littered comfortably with books and
papers.
Squire Cady put on a flowered dressing-gown, drew a pair of spectacles
out of a pocket, a bandana handkerchief from another, and requested
Chamberlain to sit down and make himself at home. The two men sat
facing each other near a tall secretary whose pigeonholes were stuffed
with papers in all stages of the yellowing process. Squire Cady's face
was yellowing, like his papers, and it was wrinkled and careworn; but
his eyes were bright and humorous, and his voice pleasant. Chamberlain
thought he liked him.
"Come to get a marriage license?" the squire inquired. Chamberlain
immediately decided that he didn't like him, but he foolishly blushed.
"No, it's another sort of matter," he said stiffly,
"Not a marriage license! All right, my boy," agreed Squire Cady.
"'Tisn't the fashion to marry young nowadays, I know, though 'twas the
fashion in my day. Not a wedding! What then?"
Then Chamberlain set to work to tell his story. Placed, as it were,
face to face with the law, he realized that he was but poorly equipped
for carrying on actual proceedings, even though they might be against
Belial himself; but he made a good front and persuaded Squire Cady that
there was something to be done. The squire was visibly affected at the
mention of the old red house, and fell into a revery, looking off
toward the fields and tapping his spectacles on the desk.
"Hercules Thayer and I read Latin together when we were boys," he said,
turning to Chamberlain with a reminiscent smile on his old face. "And
he licked me for liking Hannibal better than Scipio." He laughed
heartily.
The faces of the old sometimes become like pictured parchments, and
seem to be lighted from within by a faint, steady gleam, almost more
beautiful than the fire of youth. As Chamberlain looked, he decided
once more, and finally, that he liked Squire Cady.
"But I got even with Hercules on Horace," the squire went on, chuckling
at his memories. "However," he sighed, as he turned toward his desk
again, "this isn't getting out that warrant for you. We don't want any
malefactors loose about Charlesport; but you'll have to be sure you
know what you're doing. Do you know the man--can you identify him?"
"I think I should know him; but in any case Miss Redmond at the old red
house can identify him."
"We don't want to arrest anybody till we're sure we know what we're
about--that's poor law," said Squire Cady, in a pedagogical and
squire-ish tone, as if Chamberlain were a mere boy. But the Englishman
didn't mind that.
"I think I can satisfy you that we've got the right man," he answered.
"If I find him and bring him to the old red house this afternoon, so
that Miss Redmond can identify him, will you have a sheriff ready to
serve the warrant?"
"Yes, I can do that."
"Very well, then, and thank you, sir," said Chamberlain, moving toward
the door. "And I'm keen on hearing how you got even with Mr. Thayer on
the Horace."
The light behind the squire's parchment face gleamed a moment.
"Come back, my boy, when you've done your duty by the law. Every
citizen should be a protector as well as a keeper of the law. So come
again; the latch-string is always out."
It was mid-morning before the details connected with the sheriff were
completed. By this time Chamberlain's heavy but sound temperament had
lifted itself to its task, gaining momentum as the hours went by. His
next step was to search out the Frenchman. The meager information
obtained the day before was to the effect that the marooned yacht-owner
had taken refuge in one of the shacks near the granite docks in the
upper part of the village. He had persuaded the caretaker of the
Sailors' Reading-room to lend him money with which to telegraph to New
York, as the telegraph operator had refused to trust him.
It was not difficult to get on his trade, even though the village
people were constitutionally reluctant to let any unnecessary
information get away from them. A mile or so farther up the shore,
beyond the road that ran like a scar across the hill to the granite
quarry, Chamberlain came upon a saloon masquerading as a grocery store.
A lodging house, a seaman's Bethel and the Reading-room were grouped
near by; the telegraph office, too, had been placed at this end of the
town; obviously for the convenience of the operators of the granite
quarry. The settlement had the appearance of easy-going and pleasant
industry peculiar to places where handwork is still the rule.
Chamberlain applied first at the grocery store without getting
satisfaction. The foreign looking boy, who was the only person
visible, could give him no information about anything. But at the
Reading-room the erstwhile yacht-owner was known. Borrowing money is a
sure method of impressing one's personality.
The Frenchman had been in the neighborhood two or three days, latterly
becoming very impatient for a reply to his New York telegram. A good
deal of money had been applied for, was the opinion of the
money-lender. This person, caretaker and librarian, was a tall,
ineffective individual, with eyes set wide apart. His slow speech was
a mixture of Doctor Johnson and a judge in chancery. It was
grandiloquent, and it often took long to reach the point. He informed
Chamberlain, with some circumlocution, that the Frenchman had been
extremely anxious over the telegram.
"I tried to persuade him that it was useless to be impatient over such
things," said he. "And I regret to say that the man allowed himself to
become profane."
"I dare say."
"But it would appear that he has received his telegram by this time,"
continued the youth, "for it is now but a short time since he was
summoned to the station."
Chamberlain, thinking that the sooner he got to the telegraph station
the better, was about to depart, when the placid tones of the librarian
again casually broke the silence.
"If I mistake not, the gentleman in question is even now hastening
toward the village." He waved a vague hand toward the open door
through which, a little distance away, a man's figure could be seen.
"Why don't you run after him and get your money?" asked Chamberlain;
but he didn't know the youth.
"What good would that do?" was the surprising question, which
Chamberlain could not answer.
But the Englishman acted on a different principle. He thanked the
judge in chancery and made after the Frenchman, who was casting a
furtive eye in this and that direction, as if in doubt which way he
ought to go. Nevertheless, he seemed bent on going, and not too
slowly, either.
The Englishman swung into the road, but did not endeavor to overtake
the other. They were traveling toward the main village, along a road
that more or less hugged the shore. Sometimes it topped a cliff that
dropped precipitately into the water; and again it descended to a sandy
level that was occasionally reached by the higher tides.
Near the main village the road ascended a rather steep bluff, and at
the top made a sudden turn toward the town. As Chamberlain approached
this point, he yielded more and more to the beauty of the scene. The
Bay of Charlesport, the rugged, curving outline of the coast beyond,
the green islands, the glistening sea, the blue crystalline sky over
all--it was a sight to remember.
Not far from the land, at the near end of the harbor, was the _Sea
Gull_, pulling at her mooring. A stone's throw beyond Chamberlain's
feet, a small rocky tongue of land was prolonged by a stone breakwater,
which sheltered the curved beach of the village from the rougher waves.
Close up under the bluff on which he was standing, the waters of the
bay churned and foamed against a steep rock-wall that shot downward to
unknown depths. It was obviously a dangerous place, though the road
was unguarded by fence or railing. Only a delicate fringe of goldenrod
and low juniper bushes veiled the treacherous cliff edge. It was
almost impossible for a traveler, unused to the region, to pass across
the dizzy stretch of highway without a shuddering glance at the
murderous waves below.
On the crest of this cliff, each of the two men paused, one following
the other at a little distance. The first man, however, paused merely
for a few minutes' rest after the steep climb. Chamberlain, hardened
to physical exertions, took the hill easily, but stood for a moment
lost in speculative wonder at the scene. He kept a sharp eye on his
leader, however; and presently the two men took up their Indian file
again toward the village.
Some distance farther on, the road forked, one spur leading up over the
steep rugged hill, another dropping abruptly to the main village street
and the wharves. A third branch ran low athwart the hill and led,
finally, to the summer hotel where Chamberlain and the Reyniers had
been staying. At this division of the road Chamberlain saw the other
man ahead of him sitting on a stone. He approached him leisurely and
assumed an air of business sagacity.
"Good day, sir," said Chamberlain, planting himself solidly before the
man on the stone. He was rather large, blond, pale and unkempt in
appearance; but nevertheless he carried an air of insolent mockery, it
seemed to Chamberlain. He glanced disgustedly at the Englishman, but
did not reply.
"Rather warm day," remarked Chamberlain pleasantly. No answer. The
man sat with his head propped on his hands, unmistakably in a bad
temper.
"Want to buy some land?" inquired Chamberlain. "I'm selling off lots
on this hill for summer cottages. Water front, dock privileges, and a
guaranty that no one shall build where it will shut off your view.
Terms reasonable. Like to buy?"
"_Non_!" snarled the other.
Chamberlain paused in his imaginative flight, and took two luscious
yellow pears from his bulging pockets.
"Have a pear?" he pleasantly offered.
The man again looked up, as if tempted, but again ejaculated "_Non_!"
Chamberlain leisurely took a satisfying bite.
"I get tired myself," he went on, "tramping over these country roads.
But it's the best way for me to do business. You don't happen to want
a good hotel, do you?"
Coarse fare and the discomforts of beggars' lodgings had told on the
Frenchman's temper, as Chamberlain had surmised. He looked up with a
show of human interest. Chamberlain went on.
"There's a fine hotel, the Hillside, over yonder, only a mile or so
away. Best place in all the region hereabouts; tip-topping set there,
too. Count Somebody-or-Other from Germany, and no end of big-wigs; so
of course they have a good cook."
Chamberlain paused and finished his second pear. The man on the stone
was furtive and uneasy, but masked his disquiet with the insolent
sneering manner that had often served him well. Chamberlain, having
once adopted the role of a garrulous traveling salesman, followed it up
with zest.
"Of course, a man can get a good meal, for that matter, at the Red
House, a little way up yonder over the hill. But it wouldn't suit a
man like you--a slow, poky place, with no style."
The man on the stone slowly turned toward Chamberlain, and at last
found voice for more than monosyllabic utterances.
"I was looking for a hotel," he said, in correct English but with a
foreign accent, "and I shall be glad to take your advice. The
Hillside, you say, is in this direction?" and he pointed along the
lower road.
"Yes," heartily assented Chamberlain, "about two miles through those
woods, and you won't make any mistake going there; it's a very good
place."
The man got up from the stone.
"And the other inn you spoke of--where is that?"
"The Red House? That's quite a long piece up over the hill--this way.
Straight road; house stands near a church; kept by a country woman
named Sallie. But the Hillside's the place for you; good style,
everything neat and handsome. And fine people!"
"Very well, thanks," cut in the other, in his sharp, rasping tones. "I
shall go to the Hillside."
He slid one hand into a pocket, as if to assure himself that he had not
been robbed by sleight-of-hand during the interview, and then started
on the road leading to the Hillside. Chamberlain said "Good day, sir,"
without expecting or getting an answer, and turned down the hill toward
the village.
As soon as he had dropped from sight, however, he walked casually into
the thick bushes that lined the road, and from this ambush he took a
careful survey of the hill behind him. Then he slowly and cautiously
made his way back through the underbrush until he was again in sight of
the cross-roads. Here, concealed behind a tree, he waited patiently
some five or ten minutes. At the end of that time, Chamberlain's mild
and kindly face lighted up with unholy joy. He opened his mouth and
emitted a soundless "haw-haw."
For there was his recent companion also returning to the cross-roads,
taking a discreet look in the direction of the village as he came
along. Seeing that the coast was clear, he turned and went rapidly up
the road that led over the hill to the old red house.
When Chamberlain saw that the man was well on his way he stepped into
the road and solemnly danced three steps of a hornpipe, and the next
instant started on a run toward the village. He got little Simon's
horse and buggy, drove into the upper street and picked up the sheriff,
and then trotted at a good rattling pace around by the long road toward
Ilion.