THE NERVE OF ANNE.
Curran laid emphasis in his account to his wife on the details of
Arthur's rooms, and on the photographs which had helped to discover the
lost boy in California. Edith laughed at him.
"Horace Endicott invented that scheme of the photographs," said she.
"The dear clever boy! If he had been the detective, not a stupid like
you! I saw Arthur Dillon in church many times in four years, and I tell
you he is not a Catholic born, no matter what you saw in his rooms. He's
playing the part of Arthur Dillon to the last letter. Don't look at me
that way, Dick or I'll scratch your face. You want to say that I am
crazy over this theory, and that I have an explanation ready for all
your objections."
"I have nothing to say, I am just working on your lines, dearie," he
replied humbly.
"Just now your game is busy with an affair of the heart. He won't be too
watchful, unless, as I think, he's on our tracks all the time. You ought
to get at his papers."
"A love affair! Our tracks!" Curran repeated in confusion.
"Do you think you can catch a man like Arthur napping?" she sneered. "Is
there a moment in the last four years that he has been asleep? See to it
that you are not reported to him every night. But if he is in love with
Honora Ledwith, there's a chance that he won't see or care to see what
you are doing. She's a lovely girl. A hint of another woman would settle
his chances of winning her. I can give her that. I'd like to. A woman of
her stamp has no business marrying."
She mused a few minutes over her own statements, while Curran stared. He
began to feel that the threads of this game were not all in his hands.
"You must now go to the priest and Anne Dillon," she resumed, "and say
to them plump ... take the priest first ... say to them plump before
they can hold their faces in shape: do you know Horace Endicott? Then
watch the faces, and get what you can out of them."
"That means you will have Arthur down on you next day."
"Sure," catching her breath. "But it is now near the end of the season.
When he comes to have it out with me, he will find himself face to face
with Sonia. If it's to be a fight, he'll find a tiger. Then we can run
away to California, if Sonia says so."
"You are going to bring Sonia down, then?"
"You suggested it. Lemme tell you what you're going to find out to-day.
You're going to find out that Monsignor knew Horace Endicott. After that
I think it would be all right to bring down Sonia."
Little use to argue with her, or with any woman for that matter, once an
idea lodged so deep in her brain. He went to see Monsignor, with the
intention of being candid with him: in fact there was no other way of
dealing with the priest. In his experience Curran had found no class so
difficult to deal with as the clergy. They were used to keeping other
people's secrets as well as their own. He did not reveal his plan to
Edith, because he feared her criticism, and could not honestly follow
her methods. He had not, with all his skill and cunning, her genius for
ferreting.
Monsignor, acquainted with him, received him coldly. Edith's
instructions were, ask the question plump, watch his face, and then run
to Anne Dillon before she can be warned by the Monsignor's messenger.
Looking into the calm, well-drilled countenance of the priest, Curran
found it impossible to surprise him so uncourteously. Anyway the
detective felt sure that there would be no surprise, except at the mere
question.
"I would like to ask you a question, Monsignor," said Curran smoothly,
"which I have no right to ask perhaps. I am looking for a man who
disappeared some time ago, and the parties interested hope that you can
give some information. You can tell me if the question is at all
impertinent, and I will go. Do you know Horace Endicott?"
There was no change in the priest's expression or manner, no starting,
no betrayal of feeling. Keeping his eyes on the detective's face, he
repeated the name as one utters a half-forgotten thing.
"Why has that name a familiar sound?" he asked himself.
"You may have read it frequently in the papers at the time Horace
Endicott disappeared," Curran suggested.
"Possibly, but I do not read the journals so carefully," Monsignor
answered musingly. "Endicott, Endicott ... I have it ... and it brings
to my mind the incident of the only railroad wreck in which I have ever
had the misfortune to be ... only this time it was good fortune for one
poor man."
Very deliberately he told the story of the collision and of his slight
acquaintance with the young fellow whose name, as well as he could
remember, was Endicott. The detective handed him a photograph of the
young man.
"How clearly this picture calls up the whole scene," said Monsignor much
pleased. "This is the very boy. Have you a copy of this? Do send me
one."
"You can keep that," said Curran, delighted at his progress, astonished
that Edith's prophecy should have come true. Naturally the next question
would be, have you seen the young man since that time? and Curran would
have asked it had not the priest broken in with a request for the story
of his disappearance. It was told.
"Of course I shall be delighted to give what information I possess,"
said Monsignor. "There was no secret about him then ... many others saw
him ... of course this must have been some time before he disappeared.
But let me ask a question before we go any further. How did you suspect
my acquaintance with a man whom I met so casually? The incident had
almost faded from my mind. In fact I have never mentioned it to a soul."
"It was a mere guess on the part of those interested in finding him."
"Still the guess must have been prompted by some theory of the search."
"I am almost ashamed to tell it," Curran said uneasily. "The truth is
that my employers suspect that Horace Endicott has been hiding for years
under the character of Arthur Dillon."
Monsignor looked amazed for a moment and then laughed.
"Interesting for Mr. Dillon and his friends, particularly if this
Endicott is wanted for any crime...."
"Oh, no, no," cried the detective. "It is his wife who is seeking him, a
perfectly respectable man, you know ... it's a long story. We have
chased many a man supposed to be Endicott, and Mr. Dillon is the latest.
I don't accept the theory myself. I know Dillon is Dillon, but a
detective must sift the theories of his employers. In fact my work up to
this moment proves very clearly that of all our wrong chases this is the
worst."
"It looks absurd at first sight. I remember the time poor Mrs. Dillon
sent out her photographs, scattered a few hundred of them among the
police and the miners of California, in the hope of finding her lost
son. That was done with my advice. She had her first response, a letter
from her son, about the very time that I met young Endicott. For the
life of me I cannot understand why anyone should suppose Arthur
Dillon...."
He picked up the photograph of Endicott again.
"The two men look as much alike as I look like you. I'm glad you
mentioned the connection which Dillon has with the matter. You will
kindly leave me out of it until you have made inquiries of Mr. Dillon
himself. It would not do, you understand, for a priest in my position to
give out any details in a matter which may yet give trouble. I fear that
in telling you of my meeting with Endicott I have already overstepped
the limits of prudence. However, that was my fault, as you warned me.
Thanks for the photograph, a very nice souvenir of a tragedy. Poor young
fellow! Better had he perished in the smash-up than to go out of life in
so dreary a way."
"If I might venture another----"
"Pardon, not another word. In any official and public way I am always
ready to tell what the law requires, or charity demands."
"You would be willing then to declare that Arthur Dillon----"
"Is Mrs. Dillon's son? Certainly ... at any time, under proper
conditions. Good morning. Don't mention it," and Curran was outside the
door before his thoughts took good shape; so lost in wonder over the
discovery of Monsignor's acquaintance with Endicott, that he forgot to
visit Anne Dillon. Instead he hurried home with the news to Edith, and
blushed with shame when she asked if he had called on Anne. She forgave
his stupidity in her delight, and put him through his catechism on all
that had been said and seen in the interview with Monsignor.
"You are a poor stick," was her comment, and for the first time in years
he approved of her opinion. "The priest steered you about and out with
his little finger, and the corner of his eye. He did not give you a
chance to ask if he had ever seen Horace Endicott since. Monsignor will
not lie for any man. He simply refuses to answer on the ground that his
position will not permit it. You will never see the priest again on this
matter. Arthur Dillon will bid you stand off. Well, you see what my
instinct is now! Are you more willing to believe in it when it says:
Arthur Dillon is Horace Endicott?"
"Not a bit, sweetheart."
"I won't fight with you, since you are doing as I order. Go to Anne
Dillon now. Mind, she's already prepared by this time for your visit.
You may run against Arthur instead of her. While you are gone I shall
write to Sonia that we have at last found a clue, and ask her to come on
at once. Dillon may not give us a week to make our escape after he
learns what we have been doing. We must be quick. Go, my dear old
stupid, and bear in mind that Anne Dillon is the cunningest cat you've
had to do with yet."
She gave an imitation of the lady that was funny to a degree, and sent
the detective off laughing, but not at all convinced that there was any
significance in his recent discovery. He felt mortified to learn again
for the hundredth time how a prejudice takes the edge off intellect.
Though certain Edith's theory was wrong, why should he act like a donkey
in disproving it? On the contrary his finest skill was required, and
methods as safe as if Dillon were sure to turn out Endicott. He
sharpened his blade for the coming duel with Anne, whom Monsignor had
warned, without doubt. However, Anne had received no warning and she met
Curran with her usual reserve. He was smoothly brutal.
"I would like to know if you are acquainted with Mr. Horace Endicott?"
said he.
Anne's face remained as blank as the wall, and her manner tranquil. She
had never heard the name before, for in the transactions between
herself and her son only the name of Arthur Dillon had been mentioned,
while of his previous life she knew not a single detail. Curran not
disappointed, hastened, after a pause, to explain his own rudeness.
"I never heard the name," said Anne coldly. "Nor do I see by what right
you come here and ask questions."
"Pardon my abruptness," said the detective. "I am searching for a young
man who disappeared some years ago, and his friends are still hunting
for him, still anxious, so that they follow the most absurd clues. I am
forced to ask this question of all sorts of people, only to get the
answer which you have given. I trust you will pardon me for my
presumption for the sake of people who are suffering."
His speech warned her that she had heard her son's name for the first
time, that she stood on the verge of exposure; and her heart failed her,
she felt that her voice would break if she ventured to speak, her knees
give way if she resented this man's manner by leaving the room. Yet the
weakness was only for a moment, and when it passed a wild curiosity to
hear something of that past which had been a sealed book to her, to know
the real personality of Arthur Dillon, burned her like a flame, and
steadied her nerves. For two years she had been resenting his secrecy,
not understanding his reasons. He was guarding against the very
situation of this moment.
"Horace Endicott," she repeated with interest. "There is no one of that
name in my little circle, and I have never heard the name before. Who
was he? And how did he come to be lost?"
And she rose to indicate that his reply must be brief.
Curran told with eloquence of the disappearance and the long search, and
gave a history of Endicott's life in nice detail, pleased with the
unaffected interest of this severe but elegant woman. As he spoke his
eye took in every mark of feeling, every gesture, every expression. Her
self-command, if she knew Horace Endicott, remained perfect; if she knew
him not, her manner seemed natural.
"God pity his poor people," was her fervent comment as she took her seat
again. "I was angry with you at first, sir," looking at his card, "and
of a mind to send you away for what looked like impertinence. But it's I
would be only too glad to give you help if I could. I never even heard
the young man's name. And it puzzles me, why you should come to me."
"For this reason, Mrs. Dillon," he said with sincere disgust. "The
people who are hunting for Horace Endicott think that Arthur Dillon is
the man; or to put it in another way, that you were deceived when you
welcomed back your son from California. Horace Endicott and not Arthur
Dillon returned."
"My God!" cried she, and sat staring at him; then rose up and began to
move towards the door backwards, keeping an eye upon him. Her thought
showed clear to the detective: she had been entertaining a lunatic. He
laughed.
"Don't go," he said. "I know what you imagine, but I'm no lunatic. I
don't believe that your son is an impostor. He is a friend of mine, and
I know that he is Arthur Dillon. But a man in my business must do as he
is ordered by his employers. I am a detective."
For a minute she hesitated with hand outstretched to the bell-rope. Her
mind acted with speed; she had nothing to fear, the man was friendly,
his purpose had failed, whatever it was, the more he talked the more she
would learn, and it might be in her power to avert danger by policy. She
went back to her seat, having left it only to act her part. Taking the
hint provided by Curran, she pretended belief in his insanity, and
passed to indignation at this attempt upon her happiness, her
motherhood. This rage became real, when she reflected that the Aladdin
palace of her life was really threatened by Curran's employers. To her
the prosperity and luxury of the past five years had always been
dream-like in its fabric, woven of the mists of morning, a fairy
enchantment, which might vanish in an hour and leave poor Cinderella
sitting on a pumpkin by the roadside, the sport of enemies, the burden
of friends. How near she had been to this public humiliation! What
wretches, these people who employed the detective!
"My dear boy was absent ten years," she said, "and I suffered agony all
that time. What hearts must some people have to wish to put me through
another time like that! Couldn't any wan see that I accepted him as my
son? that all the neighbors accepted him? What could a man want to
deceive a poor mother so? I had nothing to give him but the love of a
mother, and men care little for that, wild boys care nothing for it. He
brought me a fortune, and has made my life beautiful ever since he came
back. I had nothing to give him. Who is at the bottom of this thing?"
The detective explained the existence and motives of a deserted,
poverty-stricken wife and child.
"I knew a woman would be at the bottom of it," she exclaimed viciously,
feeling against Sonia a hatred which she knew to be unjust. "Well, isn't
she able to recognize her own husband? If I could tell my son after ten
years, when he had grown to be a man, can't she tell her own husband
after a few years? Could it be that my boy played Horace Endicott in
Boston and married that woman, and then came back to me?"
"Oh, my dear Mrs. Dillon," cried the detective in alarm, "do not excite
yourself over so trifling a thing. Your son is your son no matter what
our theories may be. This Endicott was born and brought up in the
vicinity of Boston, and came from a very old family. Your suspicion is
baseless. Forget the whole matter I beg of you."
"Have you a picture of the young man?"
He handed her the inevitable photograph reluctantly, quite sure that she
would have hysterics before he left, so sincere was her excitement. Anne
studied the portrait with keen interest, it may be imagined, astonished
to find it so different from Arthur Dillon. Had she blundered as well as
the detective? Between this portrait and any of the recent photographs
of Arthur there seemed no apparent resemblance in any feature. She had
been exciting herself for nothing.
"Wonderful are the ways of men," was her comment. "How any one ..." her
brogue had left her ... "could take Arthur Dillon for this man, even
supposing he was disguised now, is strange and shameful. What is to be
the end of it?"
"Just this, dear madam," said Curran, delighted at her returning
calmness. "I shall tell them what you have said, what every one says,
and they'll drop the inquiry as they have dropped about one hundred
others. If they are persistent, I shall add that you are ready to go
into any court in the land and swear positively that you know your own
son."
"Into twenty courts," she replied with fervor, and the tears, real tears
came into her eyes; then, at sight of Aladdin's palace as firm as ever
on its frail foundations, the tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Precisely. And now if you would be kind enough to keep this matter from
the ears of Mr. Dillon ... he's a great friend of mine ... I admire him
... I was with him in the little expedition to Ireland, you know ... and
it was to save him pain that I came to you first ... if it could be kept
quiet----"
"I want it kept quiet," she said with decision, "but at the same time
Arthur must know of these cruel suspicions. Oh, how my heart beats when
I think of it! Without him ten years, and then to have strangers plan to
take him from me altogether ... forever ... forever ... oh!"
Curran perspired freely at the prospect of violent hysterics. No man
could deal more rudely with the weak and helpless with right on his
side, or if his plans demanded it. Before a situation like this he felt
lost and foolish.
"Certainly he must know in time. I shall tell him myself, as soon as I
make my report of the failure of this clue to my employers. I would take
it as a very great favor if you would permit me to tell him. It must
come very bitter to a mother to tell her son that he is suspected of not
being her son. Let me spare you that anguish."
Anne played with him delightfully, knowing that she had him at her
mercy, not forgetting however that the sport was with tigers. Persuaded
to wait a few days while Curran made his report, in return he promised
to inform her of the finding of poor Endicott at the proper moment. The
detective bowed himself out, the lady smiled. A fair day's work! She had
learned the name and the history of the young man known as Arthur Dillon
in a most delightful way. The doubt attached to this conclusion did not
disturb her. Wonderful, that Arthur Dillon should look so little like
the portrait of Horace Endicott! More wonderful still that she, knowing
Arthur was not her son, had come to think of him, to feel towards him,
and to act accordingly, as her son! Her rage over this attempt upon the
truth and the fact of their relationship grew to proportions.