PAULINE TAXES THE FIRST TRICK
"All right, I'll do it," growled Harry Marvin, with the air of a martyr
going to the stake. "I'll do it for your sake, Polly."
"Well, you'd better begin to get ready," said Pauline blithely.
"I'll climb into a frock coat and endure an hour or two of this
afternoon tea chatter," promised Harry, "but first you must talk sense
with me for a few minutes."
"Oh, Harry," spoke Pauline, softly, "I know what 'talking sense'
means. You want to argue about my year of adventure. Now, lets not
argue. Let's just be happy. You know I love you and I know you love
me, and that ought to be enough. This year will be gone before you
know it. I'm going to begin it right away just to please you. The
sooner it starts the sooner it will be over."
"Begin it?" said Harry. "Why, a month of it is gone now. But it's all
nonsense. Polly, if you love me you are going to give up this crazy
idea."
A maid, bringing the card of Miss Lucille Hamlin, interrupted Harry.
She was the first of the afternoon tea party. Polly hurried Harry off
to dress, and, of course, he had no further chance to "talk sense"
until the door had closed on the last guest. Then he pounced upon
her. But Pauline, sweetly stubborn, cheerfully unyielding, insisted on
carrying out her father's promise to the letter.
Raymond Owen, the secretary of the late Mr. Marvin, had thought it
important to overhear this argument, and finally to walk into the
library where the debate was going on. If the adventures were to start
he had an idea for a beginning. The words of Hicks, the blackmailer,
had been in his mind for some thirty days and were beginning to bear
fruit. He had soon reached the point of hoping, almost praying,
something would happen to Pauline that he might be left in control of
her, estate. During the last few days Owen had progressed, from merely
hoping to readiness to help his wish to come true.
Harry instantly appealed to the secretary to dissuade Pauline. There
was no doubt that Owen had some influence over the girl. In years gone
by, before Owen had taken to the drug, Pauline had sought him out in
many a time of perplexity and learned to rely on his tactful,
well-considered advice.
To the surprise of the young master of the house, Owen made no attempt
to dissuade. Very unobtrusively he pointed out that for many years he
had been accustomed to carry out the wishes of Harry's father, and that
he was bound to fulfill his last wish in the same way.
"Raymond, you're a dear," laughed Pauline; "let's think of something
thrilling to do right off. Have you any idea?"
"No," lied Owen, "I hadn't given the matter any thought. We might look
at a newspaper and see what's happening."
Owen had a paper with him and the three examined it together.
Owen pretended to discover that an aviation meet was about to be held.
His idea, for which Harry promptly hated him, was to induce some
aviator to take Pauline as a passenger. Many of the races called for
carrying a passenger. Harry made a few objections, but the speed with
which they were overruled showed that he had no standing in this
court. So Harry subsided, but he thought very hard.
Several things were becoming evident to Harry.
One was that this year to see life and have adventures was actually
going to take place and no opposition on his part would stop it. It
was also clear that if he hoped to control Pauline's adventures in any
way it would be by the use of his wits, matching them against Pauline
and the secretary.
When Pauline and Owen decided upon the aeroplane ride, Harry contented
himself with remarking that he would have to see about it. Both
chuckled when he said it, Pauline outwardly and Owen inwardly.
Then they had dinner under the round glassy eye of Aunt Cornelia. Aunt
Cornelia was an elderly maiden relative of Harry, who had arrived with
others for the funeral and made the brilliant discovery that since Mr.
Marvin's death the "social situation," as she termed it, at the Marvin
house had become impossible.
It seemed, according to Aunt Cornelia, that a young man and a young
woman of impressionable age living in the same house unchaperoned
constituted an "impossible social situation," Either Pauline or Harry
must move out or someone must be installed as chaperon. Of course, the
chaperon was the least of the three evils and Aunt Cornelia, being the
discoverer of the job, was elected to fill it.
Harry ordered a bottle of wine with his dinner. Though he actually
drank very little, this unusual event created no little consternation.
"Harry, I didn't know you drank?" said Pauline.
"I am just beginning. You see, now that I must take over father's
affairs and mix with men of the world I ought to get a little
experience in things. See life and know what's what."
After dinner Harry casually asked if Pauline thought her adventures
would lead her to Paris. Pauline thought it likely, whereat Harry
remarked that he might see her over there.
"I haven't been to Paris since I was a kid, and I really ought to see
it, don't you think?"
"Yes," agreed Pauline, without enthusiasm, "but wait until we are
married and we'll do Paris together."
"No, Polly, that won't do. I'm sorry, but as you say, you can't see
life after you're married and settled down, so I'll have to do Paris
alone."
"Harry, are you sure you love me?" Pauline whispered.
"Polly, I know it, and everybody else knows it except you. Get Owen,
he's a notary public, and I'll take an oath before him that you have
been the only girl in all the world, are now and ever will be, world
without end, amen."
"And I love you, Harry," said Pauline, lowering her eyes until he saw
only the silky lashes.
"Why, Polly, that's the first time you ever volunteered that
information."
"Yes, Harry, I love you too much to let you go to Paris."
"Paris can't hurt me unless I let it hurt me."
"Harry, you won't be quite the same sort of boy when you come back from
Paris. Will you promise not to go until we are married?"
"Will you promise not to go on this trip of adventure?"
"Why should I?" demanded Pauline.
"Because you won't ever be quite the same sort of girl when you come
back."
After breakfast the next morning when the big touring car rolled up to
the front door to got Pauline and Owen, Harry was hurt that he had not
been consulted. Pauline's belated invitation to go with them to the
aviation field in the automobile was declined. Away went the big car
to the fine stretch of roads, where it made short work of the distance
to the aviation grounds.
Owen made a complete canvass of the "hangars" and soon accounted for
every machine entered in the race for the next day. From all but one
of the aviators he obtained a flat refusal. Not for money or any other
consideration would they take a strange woman as a passenger. The only
exception was a Frenchman, whose hesitation in declining led Owen to
further argument. At the last moment Pauline, impatient at the
suspense, entered the Frenchman's "hangar" and added her blandishments
to Owen's financial inducements. The gallant foreigner succumbed and a
bargain was struck. He exhibited his tame bird of steel and wood and
cloth with the utter pride of a mother showing off her only child.
The aviator's fingers touched one of the wires and the easy smile left
his face. He turned to his mechanics and sharp words followed. A
moment later one of his assistants was at work tightening the wire.
Owen's eyes scarcely left the wire, and when the opportunity arose he
questioned the mechanic as, to what would happen if that particular
steel strand should fail during flight. The foreigner explained
frankly that the aeroplane would capsize and plunge to the earth. But
he assured Owen that no such thing would happen, as he had just
tightened the wire in question and would make another inspection after
the practice flight that afternoon.
All the way home Owen's thoughts were of that wire and what it would
mean to him. In the meanwhile Harry, after watching the car depart
toward Hempstead, concluded to follow. He went to the picturesque
private garage behind the Marvin mansion and soon was, following in the
tracks of the bigger car.
Arrived on the field, he recognized Pauline's car and awaited patiently
until he saw it drive away. Then he interviewed the aviator and
learned of the proposed trip on the morrow. Harry's French was nothing
to boast of, nor was the Frenchman's English. But they managed to have
a long and in the end a heated argument. The birdman said he had given
his word to a beautiful lady, and that settled it. Besides, there was no
danger in his wonderful machine. Had he not flown upside down and done
all the things the great Pegoud himself had done?
"As you Americans say--let's see, what is your idiom?"
One of his mechanics prompted him:
"Ah, yes," he said, with a smile. "I believe the proper expression is,
'I should worry.'"
Harry threw up his hands and went home. As he buzzed his horn outside
the garage the door was opened by the Marvin chauffeur with a telegram
in his hand. The chauffeur's wife was sick and he wanted a couple of
days' leave of absence. Harry granted it instantly. That evening he
made no mention of either the chauffeur's absence or his trip to the
field. Pauline thought she was teasing Harry by saying nothing of her
plans. She was sure he was eaten up with curiosity to know the result
of her visit and admired his ability, as she thought, to conceal it.
Owen spent a nervous evening. He walked out soon after dinner and from
a drug-store telephone booth called up a friend in the insurance
business. To the secretary's surprise and disappointment he learned
that the percentage of accidents to aviators had become comparatively
small. Passengers were particularly fortunate. The friend even agreed
to obtain accident insurance for any one at a reasonable premium.
If aeroplanes had become reasonably safe the chance of Pauline's being
killed during the flight on the following day was insignificant. He
must give up all hope of wealth from the permanent control of her
estate. As the evening wore on Owen began to feel how he had
unconsciously relied on this hope. He doubled his evening dose of
morphine, but it neither soothed his disappointment nor brought him
sleep.
Hour after hour, during the night, his sleepless eyes seemed to see
that loose wire which the mechanic had explained to be so vitally
important. He could see in imagination the machine flying off into the
clouds with Pauline in it. He could see it suddenly waver, dip and
plunge to the earth. In his mind's eye he saw himself rushing to, the
wreck, lifting out the girl's crushed form, wildly calling for a
doctor, and exulting all the time that she was beyond human aid.
About two o'clock Owen fell into a doze, and in that doze came one of
his vivid opium dreams. He beheld Hicks enter his bedroom. It was not
Hicks, the blackmailer, but Hicks, the counselor, who had told Owen how
he might become rich. Hicks was speaking to him in a sort of noiseless
voice, very different from his usual tones. He spoke in a sort of
shells or husks of words. The consonants were there, but the vowels
were lacking. Yet he heard as plainly as if the red-faced man had
shouted. Hicks advised him to be a man, to show courage for once, to
risk something, and then reap the reward forever afterward. "Take your
motorcycle, ride to the aviation field before daylight, file that wire
half through, and fate will take care of the rest."
But Owen lacked the nerve. He feared that he would be seen sneaking
onto the field at night or at daybreak. Hicks replied that the field
was deserted at this hour. Owen then insisted that the aeroplane would
be guarded, and even if it were not locked in its hangar the first rasp
of a file on the wire would call the attention of some one on guard.
No, it was too much, Owen could not do it. Instead, he made a counter
suggestion that Hicks should undertake the task, since he was so
certain of its success. For his part the secretary agreed to divide
all that the estate might be made to yield him.
Owen, like everybody else, had seen many strange things in dreams, but
never had he known of any character in a dream admitting or even
suggesting that he was a dream. Yet this was just what Hicks did.
"I would, Owen. I would do it in a minute if I were talking to you.
But this isn't me at all. I'm only a dream, in, reality I'm sound
asleep in a hotel on upper Broadway, where I am dreaming that I am
talking to you. Tomorrow morning I'll remember enough of this dream to
make me go down to the aviation field with a sort of premonition that
Pauline is going to be killed in an aeroplane."
"How did you know about that wire and that she is going to fly
tomorrow," asked Owen.
"I don't know that," said the phantom Hicks frankly in his empty
voice. "There is a third party in this and I don't know who he is or
much about him, except that he is not a living being. He seems to be
somebody from the past, a priest of some old religion I ought to have
studied about when I was at school. I don't know what his motive is,
but he is with us. He wants her killed for some reason. He brought
this dream of me to you so I could explain.
"You needn't worry about the man on guard over the aeroplanes. That
man won't wake up, no matter how much noise you make."
"How do you know?" Owen asked.
"He knows," replied Hicks, "because he has transferred the effects of
your morphine from your astral body to his. That's how he knows. You
ought to know, too, because you have taken almost enough of the drug to
kill you tonight, and yet this is the first time you have even closed
your eyes. You'd better let him help us and file that wire as he
advises. I'm going now, you will wake up in a moment. This priest man
told me after I had given you the message to drop this out of my hand
and the dream would end. So here goes. Goodbye."
Owen saw Hicks hold his hand over a table and drop a small black shiny
object upon it. As it dropped Hicks vanished and Owen awoke. He heard
a sharp snap and saw something black and shiny on the table. For a
moment the secretary sat quietly in his chair staring at the table and
making sure that he was no longer dreaming. Then he examined the black
object. It was the scarab which old Mr. Marvin had removed from the
folds of the mummy. An image of the beetle which Egypt held sacred,
carved in black stone. Owen had not noticed the scarab before his
short nap and he could not account for its presence in his room
anyway.
A little later he donned his motor-cycling suit, tip-toed downstairs,
noiselessly went out by a back door and was soon trundling his big
two-cylinder motorcycle from the garage. He was careful to push it out
of the Marvin premises onto the highway before lighting his lamp and
starting.
Arriving at the field just at dawn Owen found it as deserted as the
spectral Hicks had promised. From the tool kit of his motor-cycle he
took two files of different shapes and a pair of pliers and walked
briskly and fearlessly over the uneven ground to the hangars. All were
closed except one, and that one contained the French machine in which
Pauline was to ascend. The secretary knew that this hangar would be
open. He knew in advance that he would find a mechanic on guard and
sound asleep.
Whether real or unreal, awake or asleep, the business of the moment was
the filing of that wire. Owen recognized it readily and found it not
to be a single wire, as he supposed, but a slender cable composed of
many strands. These strands resisted his file and even the clipper
attached to his pliers. After what seemed an hour's work he had
weakened or broken enough of the metal threads so that the cable
stretched perceptibly at that point to do more might cause the cable to
break at once and betray what had been done.
Owen hurriedly, returned to his machine had dashed back through the
beautiful morning air to the Marvin home. Servants were stirring in
their rooms and the gardener was engaged in shaking some sort of powder
from a can onto a bare spot on the front lawn. He glanced up at Owen
without surprise, for these early rides were known to be an old habit
of the secretary.
Owen took the machine to the garage, satisfied that there was nothing
guilty in his appearance or the gardener would have noted it. Stepping
out of the garage he met Harry and could not help starting
perceptibly. Harry looked him in the eye, and there was nothing for
Owen to do but stare steadily back.
"You are up very early, Owen," said Harry, looking at the dust on the
motor.
"Yes, I've been for a long ride. I think the morning air does me
good."
"You don't look well, Owen. Why don't you go to bed today. I'll take
Polly to the meet."
"No, thanks. I wouldn't miss seeing Miss Pauline fly," said Owen
firmly.