AMBULANCES AND DIAMONDS
THERE was an opportunity later on to visit the Scribblers again.
Crosbeigh begged him to come as he desired a full attendance in honor of
an occasion unique in the club’s history.
It seemed that some soldier members of the club, foregathering in New
York, offered the opportunity for a meeting that might never recur. The
toastmaster was a former officer and the speakers were men who had
fought through the ghastly early years of the war before the United
States came into it.
It happened that Trent had known the toastmaster, Captain Alan Kent,
when the two had been newspaper cubs together. In those days Kent had
been an irresponsible, happy-go-lucky youngster, liked by all for his
carefree disposition. To-day, after three years of war, he was a sterner
man, in whose eyes shone steadily the conviction of the cause he had
espoused. War had purged the dross from him.
“You boys, here,” he said, “haven’t suffered enough. You haven’t seen
nations in agony as we have. The theater of war is still too remote. The
loss of a transport wakens you to renewed effort for a moment and then
you get back to thinking of other things, more agreeable things, and
speculate as to when the war will be over. I’ve spoken to rich men who
seem to think they’ve done all that is required of them by purchasing a
few Liberty Bonds. They must be bought if we are to win the war, but
there’s little of the personal element of sacrifice in merely buying
interest-bearing bonds.”
He launched into a description of war as he had seen it, dwelling on the
character it developed rather than the horrors he had suffered, horrors
such as are depicted in the widely circulated book of Henri Barbusse.
This mention of negative patriotism rather disturbed Anthony Trent. All
he had done was to buy Liberty Bonds. And here was Alan Kent, who had
lived through three years of hell to come back full of courage and
cheer, and anxious, when his health was reestablished, to leave the
British Service and enroll in the armies of America. It was not
agreeable for him to think how he had passed those three years.
He was awakened from these unpleasant thoughts by the applause which
followed Kent’s speech. The next speaker was an ambulance driver, who
made a plea for more and yet more ambulances.
“Lots of you people here,” he said, “seem to think that when once a
battery of ambulances are donated they are there till the war is over.
They suffer as much as guns or horses. The Huns get special marks over
there for potting an ambulance, and they’re getting to be experts at the
game. I’ve had three of Hen. Ford’s little masterpieces shot under me,
so to speak. I’m trying to interest individuals in giving ambulances.
They’re not very expensive. You can equip one for $5,000. Men have said
to me, ‘What’s the use of one ambulance?’ I tell them as I tell you that
the one they may send will do its work before it’s knocked out. It may
pick up a brother or pal of a man in this room. It may pick up some of
you boys even, for some of you are going. God, it makes me tired this
cry of what’s the use of ‘one little ambulance.’”
When the dinner was over Trent renewed his acquaintance with Captain
Kent and was introduced to Lincoln, the Harvardian driver of an
ambulance. Over coffee in the Pirates’ Den Lincoln told them more of his
work.
“This afternoon,” he said, “I had tea with the Baroness von Eckstein.
You know who she is?”
Trent nodded. The Baroness was the enormously wealthy widow of a St.
Louis brewer who had married a Westphalian noble and hoped thereby to
get into New York and Washington society. The Baron had been willing to
sell his title--not an old one--for all the comforts of a wealthy home.
He had become naturalized and was not suspected by the Department of
Justice of treachery. His one ambition seemed to be to drink himself to
death on the best cognac that could be obtained. This potent brew, taken
half and half with champagne, seemed likely to do its work. It was
rumored that his wife did not hinder him in this interesting pursuit.
“I sat behind him at a theater once,” Trent admitted. “He’s a thin
little man with an enormous head and a strong Prussian accent.” He
resisted the temptation to mimic the Baron as he could have done. He
could not readily banish his professional caution.
“I tried to get the Baroness to buy and equip four ambulances,” Lincoln
went on. “It would only have cost her twenty thousand dollars--nothing
to her--but she refused.”
“Before we went into the war,” Captain Kent reminded him, “she was
strongly pro-German.”
“She’s had enough sense to stop that talk in New York,” Lincoln went on.
“She’s still trying to break into the Four Hundred and you’ve got to be
loyal to your country for that, thank God!”
“I thought she was in St. Louis,” Trent observed.
“She’s taken a house in town,” Lincoln told him. “The Burton Trent
mansion on Washington Square, North. Took it furnished for three months.
She had to pay like the deuce for the privilege. _Gotham Gossip_
unkindly remarks that she did it so some of the Burton Trents’ friends
may call on her, thinking they are visiting the Trents. It’s the nearest
she’ll ever get to high society. It made me sick to hear her hard luck
story. Couldn’t give me a measly twenty thousand dollars because of
income tax and high cost of living and all that sort of bunk, while she
had a hundred thousand dollars in diamonds on her fat neck. I felt like
pulling them off her.”
Anthony Trent pricked up his ears at this.
“I didn’t know she had a necklace of that value,” he mused.
“I guess you don’t know much about the fortunes these millionaire women
hang all over ’em,” said Lincoln. Lincoln had an idea the other man was
a bookish scholar, a collector of rare editions, one removed from
knowledge of society life.
“That must be it,” Trent agreed. He wondered if another man in all
America had so intimate a knowledge of the disposition of famous gems.
“So she won’t give you any money for ambulances?”
“It’s known she subscribed largely to the German Red Cross before we
got into the war. Leopards don’t change their spots easily, as you know.
It was one of her chauffeurs at her country place near Roslyn who rigged
up a wireless and didn’t know he was doing anything the government
disapproved of. His mistress lent him the money to equip the thing and
she didn’t know she ought not to have done it. I tell you I felt like
pulling that necklace off her fat old neck. Wouldn’t you feel that way?”
“It might make me,” Trent admitted, “a little envious.”
* * * * *
On the whole, Trent enjoyed his first evening of emancipation immensely.
Particularly glad was he to meet his old friend, Alan Kent, again. The
repressed life he had led made him more than ever susceptible to the
hearty friendship of such men as he had met.
With some of them he made arrangements to go to a costume dance, a
Greenwich Village festival, at Webster Hall, on the following evening.
He did not know that Captain Kent was attending less as one who would
enjoy the function socially than an emissary of his government. It was
known that many of the villagers had not registered. Some had spoken
openly against the draft and others were suspected of pro-German
tendencies that might be dangerous. It was not a commission Kent cared
about, but it was a time in the national history where old friendships
must count for naught. Treason must be stamped out.
It was not until midnight that Trent dropped into Webster Hall. It was
the nearest approach to the boulevard dances that New York ever saw. The
costumes were gorgeous, some of them, but for the greater part quaint
and bizarre. As a Pierrot he was inconspicuous. There were a number of
men he knew from the Scribblers’ Club. He greeted Lincoln with
enthusiasm. He liked the lad. He envied him his record. It was while he
was talking to him that a gorgeously dressed woman seized Lincoln’s
hands as one might grasp those of an old and dear friend.
“Naughty boy,” she said playfully. “Why haven’t you asked me to dance?”
“I feared I wasn’t good enough for you,” Lincoln lied with affable
readiness. “You dance like a professional.”
While this badinage went on Trent gazed at the woman with idle
curiosity. Her enameled face, penciled eyebrows and generally careful
make-up made her look no more than five-and-forty. Her hair was
henna-colored, with purple depths in it. She was too heavy for her
height and her eyes were bright with the light that comes in cocktail
glasses. She had reached the fan-tapping, coquettish, slightly amorous
stage. Her bold eyes soon fell on Anthony Trent, who was a far more
personable man than Lincoln.
“Who is your good-looking friend?” she demanded.
Lincoln was bound to make the introduction. From his manner Trent
imagined he was not overpleased at having to do so.
“Mr. Anthony Trent--the Baroness von Eckstein,” he said.
The Baroness instantly put her bejeweled hand within Trent’s arm.
“I am sure you dance divinely,” she cooed.
Lincoln was a little disappointed at the readiness with which the older
man answered.
“If you will dance with me I shall be inspired,” said Trent.
“Very banal,” Lincoln muttered as the two floated away from him.
“I’m so glad to be rescued from Lincoln,” he told her. “He is so earnest
and seems to think I have an ambulance in every pocket for him.”
“This begging, begging, begging is very tiresome,” the Baroness
admitted. She wished she might say exactly what she and her noble
husband felt concerning it. She had understood that some of these
artists and writers in the village were exceedingly liberal in their
views. “Mrs. Adrien Beekman has been bothering me about giving
ambulances all this afternoon.”
“She is most patriotic,” he smiled, “but boring all the same.”
“I suppose you are one of these delightfully bad young men who say and
do dreadful things,” she hazarded, a little later.
“I am both delightful and bad,” he admitted, “and a number of the things
I have done and shall do are dreadful.”
“I am afraid of you,” she cried coquettishly.
There was about her throat a magnificent necklace, evidently that of
which Lincoln had spoken at the Scribblers’ dinner. It was worth perhaps
half of what the ambulance man had said. The stones were set in
platinum.
“I wonder you are not afraid of wearing such a magnificent necklace
here,” he said later.
“Are you so dangerous as that?” she retorted.
“Worse,” he answered.
She looked at him curiously. The Baroness liked young and good-looking
men. Trent knew perfectly well what was going on in her mind. He had met
women of this type before; women who could buy what they wanted and need
not haggle at the price. Her eyes appraised him and she was satisfied
with what she saw.
“I believe you are just as bad as you pretend to be,” she declared.
“Do I disappoint you?” he demanded.
“Of course,” she laughed, “I shall have to reform you. I am very good at
reforming fascinating man-devils like you. You must come and have tea
with me one afternoon.”
“What afternoon?” he asked.
“To-morrow,” she said, “at four.”
If she had guessed with what repulsion she had inspired Trent she would
have been startled. She was a type he detested.
Later he said:
“Isn’t it unwise of you to wear such a gorgeous necklace at a mixed
gathering like this?”
“If it were real it would be,” she answered. “Don’t tell any one,” she
commanded, “but this is only an imitation. The real one is on my
dressing table. This was made in the Rue de la Paix for me and only an
expert could tell the difference and then he’d have to know his
business.”
“What are you frowning at?” he demanded when he saw her gaze directed
toward a rather noisy group of newcomers.
“These are my guests,” she whispered. “I’d forgotten all about them.
Doesn’t that make you vain? I shall have to look after them. Later on
they are all coming over to the house to have a bite to eat.” She
squeezed his hand. “You’d better come, too.”
The Baroness was not usually so reckless in her invitations. She had
learned it was not being done in those circles to which she aspired. But
to-night she was unusually merry and there was something about Trent’s
keen, hawk-like type which appealed to her. Lincoln, she reflected, came
of a good Boston family with houses in Beacon Street and Pride’s
Crossing, and his friend _must_ be all right.
* * * * *
No sooner had she moved toward her guests than Trent made his way to the
street. Over his costume he wore a long black cloak which another than
he had hired. Very few people were abroad. There was a slight fog and
those who saw him were in no way amazed. Webster Hall dances had
prepared the neighborhood for anything.
He was not long in coming to Washington Square. It was in the block of
houses on the north side that he was specially interested. From the
other side of the road he gazed up at the Burton Trent house. Then going
east a little, he came to the door of the only apartment house in the
block. It was not difficult for him to manipulate the lock. Quietly he
climbed to the top of the house until he came to a ladder leading to the
door on the roof.
A few feet below him he could see the roof of the neighboring house. To
this he dropped silently and walked along until the square skylight of
the Burton Trent mansion was at hand. The bars that held the aperture
were rusted. It required merely the exercise of strength to pry one of
them loose. Underneath him was darkness. Since Trent had not come out
originally on professional business, he was without an electric torch.
He had no idea how far the drop would be. Very carefully he crawled in,
and, hanging by one hand, struck a match. He dropped on to the floor of
an attic used mainly for the storage of trunks.
The door leading from the room was unlocked and he stepped out into a
dark corridor. Looking over the balustrade, he could see that the floor
below was brilliantly lighted. From an article in a magazine devoted to
interior decoration he had learned the complete lay-out of the
residence. He knew, for example, that the servants slept in the “el” of
the house which abutted on the mews behind. Ordinarily he would have
expected them to be in bed by this time. But the Baroness had told him
she had guests coming in. There would inevitably be some servants making
preparations. They would hardly have business on the second or third
floors of the house. The Burton Trents, who had let their superb home as
a war-economy measure, would never allow any alteration of the
arrangement of their wonderful furniture. And the Baroness would hardly
be likely to venture to set her taste against that of a family she
admired and indeed envied. It was therefore probable that the Baroness
occupied the splendid sleeping chamber on the second floor front, an
apartment to which the writer on interior decoration had devoted several
pages.
His borrowed cloak enveloping him, he descended the broad stairs until
he stood at the entrance of the room he sought. It was indeed a
magnificent place. His artistic sense delighted in it. Its furniture had
once been in the sleeping room of a Venetian Doge. It had cost a fortune
to buy.
The dressing room leading from it was lighted more brilliantly. There
was a danger that the Baroness’s maid might be there awaiting the return
of her mistress.
Peeping through the half-opened door, he satisfied himself that no maid
was there. On the superb dressing table with its rich ornaments he could
see a large gold casket, jewel-encrusted, which probably hid the stones
he had come to get.
Swiftly he crossed the soft Aubusson carpet and came to the table. He
was far too cautious to lay hands on the metal box straightaway.
Although he was nameless and numberless so far as the police were
concerned, he was not anxious to leave finger-prints behind. He knew
that in all robberies such as he intended the police carefully preserve
the finger-prints amongst the records of the case and hope eventually to
saddle the criminal with indisputable evidence of his theft. Usually
Parker wore the white kid gloves that go with full evening dress.
To-night he was without them. He was also in the habit of carrying a
tube of collodion to coat the finger-tips and defy the finger-printers.
This, too, he was without since his adventure was an unpremeditated one.
While he was wondering how to set about his business, he was startled by
a sound behind him. From the cover of a _chaise longue_ at the far end
of the room a small, thin man raised himself. Trent knew in a moment it
was the Baron von Eckstein. He relaxed his tense attitude and walked
with a friendly smile to the other man. He had mentally rehearsed the
rôle he was to play. But the Baron surprised him.
“Hip, hip, ’ooray!” hiccoughed the aristocrat.
There was not a doubt as to his condition. He swayed as he tried to sit
up straighter. His eyes were glazed with drink.