THE RISING TIDE OF DOUBT
Lorna Nicholet made no further comment, waiting anxiously for the big
blue limousine to approach. Surely it would stop before the lighthouse.
It did. The door of the car opened. But the crippled Arad Thompson did
not appear. Instead, a broad-hatted stranger in a rusty black suit
stepped out of the car.
"That's Rafe Silver driving, as usual," murmured Tobias. "But who is
this fellow? He ain't no acquaintance of mine."
The stranger came promptly to the lighthouse door. He glanced sharply
from the lightkeeper sitting on the bench with his pipe to the young
woman in the doorway, and back again.
"You are Mr. Tobias Bassett?" was his opening speech.
"I cal'late."
"Mr. Arad Thompson has sent me to you for some information."
"I'm chock-full of it," rejoined Tobias easily, putting his pipe between
his lips again and waving his hand.
"Confidential information," continued the man, glancing again at Lorna.
"That's all right," said Tobias. "This young woman knows almost as much
as I do, and a little extry information won't hurt her a mite. What was
you lookin' to find out?"
"My inquiry is in regard to the robbery of the Clinkerport Bank night
before last."
He threw back the left lapel of his coat with a practiced gesture,
revealing a glittering badge pinned near the armhole of his vest.
"Oh, sugar!" murmured Tobias. "A real detective? I cal'late I'm
pinched."
Lorna dropped a fluttering hand upon his shoulder, but then saw that the
old lightkeeper was still smiling cheerfully.
"You fire ahead, Mister."
"Did you ever see this knife before you picked it up under the bank
window?" and the detective displayed the toy in his palm.
"Oh, sugar! Can't say as I did. And yet I might. Seems to me--wal, I
cal'late I better say no and be done with it. I can't somehow seem to
place that thing," declared the lightkeeper, in deep reflection.
He did not notice Lorna's expression of countenance.
"I hope you will not withhold your opinion, Mr. Bassett," said the
detective.
"You take it from me, Mister," Tobias rejoined grimly, "I ain't going to
refuse any information that may lead to the recovery of the bank's money
and the arrest of the burglars. Me and Heppy's got an eight thousand
dollar interest in the robbery, as ye might say."
"You are prepared to help us, then, no matter who is hit, are you?"
"I cal'late," agreed Tobias wonderingly.
The detective produced a little red-covered notebook from his pocket.
He thrust it toward the lightkeeper.
"Did you ever see this before?"
"I don't know. Can't be sure that I ever did. But, mebbe."
"This address book was found on a ledge right by the vault door. There
seems to be no doubt as to whom it belongs, for the owner's name in his
own handwriting is on the fly-leaf. Mr. Thompson is quite convinced of
the ownership of the book, for there are specimens of the same
handwriting on file in the bookkeeping department of the bank."
"My goodness!" gasped Tobias, staring at the book but refusing to take
it from the other's hand.
"This book could not have been on the ledge where it was found at the
time the bank closed day before yesterday. The vault door was opened on
the combination. And the combination is written on one of the pages of
this address book."
"Oh, sugar!" murmured Tobias. "Then you've just as good as got one of
the burglars, ain't you?"
"Oh, no!" gasped Lorna, cowering in the doorway.
The men did not appear to notice her agitation. Tobias still smoked
calmly. The detective hesitated for a moment before he fairly forced
the red memorandum book into the lightkeeper's hand.
"Look at it," he said. "See that name on the front page? Do you know
his handwriting?"
Lorna dared not look over the lightkeeper's shoulder. At first glance
she had recognized the red-covered notebook. There might have been some
doubt regarding the ownership of the penknife; but of the
notebook--never!
"My soul and body!"
The pipe dropped from the lightkeeper's fingers and was shattered at his
feet. He gave this no attention. He was staring, quite fascinated, at
the flyleaf of the little book.
"Doesn't the knife belong to the same person?" asked the detective, with
sharp insistence.
For once Tobias was ready with no reply. He fluttered the leaves of the
book with unsteady fingers. The visitor continued:
"Mr. Thompson said you would know if anybody did. He says you are a
great chum of this fellow's--that he hangs about the lighthouse here a
good deal.
"Now, there is no possibility of the book's having been left there
before the vault door during banking hours. That fellow was never
inside the cage for any purpose whatsoever."
Tobias finally regained his voice.
"You don't mean to say you think he'd be foolish enough to leave this
book right in sight if he was one o' them burglars?"
"But I tell you it was found there. And you yourself found the knife
under the window. Isn't that his, too?"
"I wouldn't go so far as to say it was, nor I wouldn't say it wasn't,"
announced the old lightkeeper with emphasis. "But it looks right
senseless for him to have left the book there--let's see where you say
he marked down the combination? That looks right silly, too. If he
knowed the combination well enough to open the safe, why bother to write
it down?"
"There it is," said the detective, pointing, and with emphasis. "Those
figures in pencil. That is the bank vault combination. Or it was. Of
course, it will be changed now."
"Yes. I see. Lockin' the garage door after the tin Lizzie's been
stole," commented Tobias.
He squinted a long time at the row of numbers and letters written across
the otherwise blank page. He turned back a leaf or two, and appeared to
study the addresses written thereon.
"Yes," he muttered. "Writ down in pencil. All the rest in ink. He
most always _does_ carry a fountain pen."
"No doubt about that knife being his, too, is there?" insisted the
detective eagerly.
"I couldn't say. I give it as my opinion that I shall have to think it
over purt' serious afore I can say one way or another."
"You don't claim," the detective said in some heat, "that there are so
many fellows around here wearing platinum watch chains that you can't
guess?"
"Oh, sugar! I wouldn't take so much for granted, if I was you, Mister.
I don't 'low ary one o' them burglars belonged around here."
"How do you explain that address book?" snapped the other. "Left right
on that ledge beside the vault door. And the combination written in
it."
"Say, Mister," Tobias rejoined gravely, "seems to me I ain't got to
explain it. You are the detective, not me. I've come across lots of
things in this world o' toil and trouble that I couldn't begin to
explain."
"You're stalling," said the detective harshly. "That is what you are
doing. And it won't help this fellow any. Where is he? Have you seen
him around here this morning?"
"I cal'late I ain't," said Tobias, shaking his head. "Is it true what
they say, that he's run away?"
A slow red climbed the lightkeeper's wind-tanned cheek. Even his hairy
ear became inflamed. Lorna, who was watching him breathlessly, knew
that this dark flush signaled wrath--and Tobias was not prone to lose
his temper easily.
"Lemme tell you something, Mister Man," he finally rasped. "I give it
as my opinion that you air one o' them 'dead-sure' fellows. You know
more than the Creator that made ye--or you think you do."
"I'm here to investigate this burglary," interposed the detective.
"Investigate all you dern please!" exclaimed Tobias. "But don't you
come here and try to trip me up, fur I'm purt' sure-footed. I've gone
as far as I'm going to. That is, until I know more than I do now. That
there book probably belongs to Mr. Ralph Endicott. That leetle gold
knife may belong to him, too. Further than that I can't and won't say."
"They tell me down at the village that he's skipped out."
"I don't know nothing about that."
"Is that the house his folks live in--that second one up there on the
bluff?"
"Yes."
"Well, I'll go up there and see what they know about him. I guess I'll
learn something."
"I cal'late you will," rejoined Tobias, with scorn. "I cal'late that if
you see Professor Henry Endicott and tell him his nephew is a bank
burglar you--an' Arad Thompson, too--will l'arn more than you expect. I
shouldn't wonder."
The detective tramped away across the sandflat. Tobias secured his
bandana and mopped his heated brow.
"Oh, sugar!" he murmured. "I ain't got no business bein' all het up
this a-way. Won't nothing come of it. I give it as my opinion that
fellow is purt' near half a fool!"
"But Tobias!"
He started and looked around. Lorna, pale and red by turns, suddenly
clung to his shoulder.
"Tut, tut!" the old man muttered. "I'd forgot you was here, Lorny.
Thought you'd gone upstairs to see Heppy."
"I--I am going. But I had to wait to hear what that man had to say.
It's awful! Ralph----"
"Ain't no sense to that," interrupted Tobias with scorn. "O' course
not."
"But that knife. It is his. I'm almost sure it is!" sobbed the girl.
"Oh, sugar! Wish't I'd never picked it up," complained Tobias. "Ain't
nothing positive about it, I tell ye. I was too keen after a clue, I
was."
"The book! That is surely his."
"Wal--yes. I cal'late. But it don't look sensible that he'd leave it
there in the bank. Somebody picked it up, and put it there. Sure!"
"Tobias Bassett! how do you explain the combination being written in
Ralph's address book?"
"Don't believe he ever wrote it there," the lightkeeper replied
doggedly.
"Why, Tobias?"
"Them figgers don't look like what Ralph makes. I took a squint at some
of his'n. Of course, folks writes diff'rent with a pencil from what
they do with a pen 'most always. But, then----"
"Oh, Tobias! you are saying these things just to try to convince
yourself--and me--that Ralph is not guilty."
"Oh, sugar! I don't have to convince myself of any such thing. I'd
have to try mighty hard to made myself believe that he was guilty."
The young woman stared at him, her countenance very much troubled. She
said at last slowly:
"There is no reason in your mind for a belief in his possible guilt,
Tobias Bassett?"
"Nary reason," he declared in amazement.
"How about his poverty? If he is penniless? Suppose he needed a large
sum of money to save him from trouble--from disgrace?"
"What the----"
The lightkeeper's eyes were staring--almost popping out of his head!
"I know it sounds terrible," moaned the young woman. "But if the
Endicotts have lost all their money how do we know what financial
trouble Ralph may be in? Oh! can't you _see_? He might have been
desperately tempted. I hate to think of such a possibility. But----"
She burst into uncontrollable weeping at this juncture and, turning
swiftly, ran into the house. Tobias had started erect upon the bench.
It was several moments before he could utter any comment. Then:
"Now I have done it!" he ejaculated. "I've gone an' put my foot into it
half-laig deep, and no mistake. I dunno. Mebbe Heppy's right.
Enterin' in where angels fear to tread has its dangers. I cal'late my
matchmaking scheme was all right. But who'd have ever thought anything
like this would turn up?
"Oh, sugar!"