WEST MAKES HIS CHOICE
The girl neither answered, nor hesitated, but crossed the room swiftly,
her hands seeking the lashings about his wrists. Her movement thrilled
him, and his blood leaped at the soft touch of her fingers.
"Really, I did not realize you were tied into the chair," she exclaimed
indignantly. "Hobart is a fool to do such a thing. Why, what has caused
him to become so frightened? Tell me, Captain West, how all this
occurred?"
"You know nothing?"
"Only what has been said since I entered the room. Mike simply told me
they had a man here who Hobart thought was a detective, and he wanted me
to come in a moment. I came, and found you. Now, please, what does it
all mean?"
She slipped back to her seat again, her eyes on his face, as he arose and
stretched his limbs to restore circulation. To his quick glance her face
expressed only sympathy, and innocent interest. Any doubt he may have
felt as to the sincerity of the girl vanished instantly; whatever of
crime was concealed here, she had no suspicion. He could tell her the
whole story without fear.
"I'll try and explain, Miss Natalie," he began rather lamely, "although
perhaps, you may not wholly understand the motives which have prompted
me. This, of course, is really no business of mine, and the only thing
that has involved me is the deep interest I have felt in you."
"In me! why that is rather interesting. It was to serve me you
came here?"
"At least I thought so. Shall I make it more definite? No doubt you are
aware that you are an unusually pretty woman. Well, at least, I think so
for one, and our first meeting, with its subsequent adventures, was
romantic enough to shake me out of a commonplace existence. In fact, I
became quite deeply interested in you."
"Why really, Captain," she interrupted, slightly puzzled. "I perhaps do
not fully comprehend to what you refer. Do you mean there was something
between us? Some special intimacy?"
"Oh, no; not that; probably no dream of what was occurring in your mind.
Yet the circumstances of our meeting were peculiar; they rendered a very
brief acquaintance into what promised to become a real friendship."
"How do you mean?"
"Surely you cannot have forgotten so soon," he exclaimed in surprise at
her attitude, seating himself once more and facing her determinedly. "I
came to you in response to a strange advertisement; you trusted me so
completely as to introduce me to your friends as your fiancé, and later
confided to me the special trouble you were in. I pledged you my
assistance, and it was surely very natural that, under these
circumstances, I as a young man, should have become rather deeply
interested--"
"In both the case, and the girl."
"Yes; so much so, indeed, that even when I was rather harshly dismissed,
I could not accept it without a protest. I had grown to feel that this
was not a mere business arrangement between us. Do you understand now?"
"I can see it from your stand-point. But nevertheless, I am surprised,
Captain West. You--you mean you actually fell in love with me?"
"I felt a very, very deep interest in you," he admitted gravely, "a
greater interest than I have ever felt in any other woman. That is my
sole excuse for becoming involved in your affairs. I could not bear to
see you make a mistake it might be in my power to prevent."
"What mistake?"
"Well, first of all, trusting in this man Hobart."
She laughed, her eyes glancing up quickly into his face.
"And why now, please? Remember your confession; I may think this only
jealousy."
"You are not so silly as that," earnestly. "Moreover, I may as well be
perfectly frank. I did confess an interest in you, and in a measure, I
still feel eager to serve you in every possible way; but you have
changed so greatly, Miss Natalie, that my confidence in you has been
severely tried."
"You no longer believe?"
"I hardly know; I fail utterly to understand you of late; you seem an
entirely different girl. For one thing, you have deliberately
deceived me."
"Indeed! in what?"
"In your visit to Arch Street with Percival Coolidge. That was no mission
of charity to a poor widow and children."
"What then?"
"An arranged conference with this fellow Hobart. He rented that cottage
for no other purpose, and left it the next day. You made a mistake when
you took me along."
She straightened up slightly in the chair, yet spoke rather
indifferently, her voice cold.
"No doubt I did," she said tersely. "Indeed I have already discovered,
Captain West, that I made an even greater mistake when I first took you
into my service. You have proven altogether too inquisitive. Now I will
be plain with you. Whatever need I once supposed I had for your services
ended with the explanation I received in that Arch Street cottage. I told
you so very distinctly after our return home. You recall that interview,
no doubt?"
He bowed, waiting for her to go on.
"You were then and there dismissed from my service. That should have been
sufficient. I knew nothing of your silly feeling of personal interest in
me; nor did I realize any occasion for discussing with you the reasons
causing me to change my plans. You were my employee, and I discharged
you; that was all. It is true Percival Coolidge took me to that cottage
to have certain mysterious things explained, and they were explained to
my complete satisfaction."
"By Hobart?"
"Yes."
"You knew the fellow before?"
She hesitated slightly, although there was no perceptible change in the
answering voice.
"For several years; he was in my father's employ; the--the whole trouble
originated in a joke, and--and was quite amusing, once I understood. Of
course, after that, I had no further need for you. Why did you persist in
annoying me?"
West hesitated an instant, his mind struggling with the situation. Was
she honest, truthful, in this statement? Could he say anything which
would change her viewpoint? She must have been deceived by these men, yet
how could he expose them so she would comprehend? He was so little
certain of the facts himself, that he had nothing but suspicion to offer.
"Why do you not answer, Captain West?"
The girl's eyes were clear, insistent, a little amused; they somehow
aroused his determination.
"I will endeavour to make you understood, Miss Natalie," he explained
slowly. "I would not have you feel that I deliberately pushed myself into
this affair. When I left Fairlawn after your dismissal, I had no thought
of ever seeing you again. I have already told you the interest I had felt
in you up to that time, but your abruptness during our last interview,
left me angry, and with no inclination to seek your presence again. You
can scarcely blame me for such a feeling?"
"No," she confessed. "I--I was so excited and nervous I was not
very nice."
"You certainly hurt me. I departed with a sense of wrong rankling, and no
desire to come back. But fate intervened. You know, perhaps, that I
overheard the shot which ended the life of Percival Coolidge, and I was
the first to discover his dead body. This made no particular impression
on me at the time. I supposed it a case of suicide, and so bore witness
at the inquest. The whole matter would have ended there; but the next day
you discharged Sexton also, and the man sought me out at the Club."
She leaned forward, her lips parted, a new light in her eyes.
"He told you something? He made you suspicious?" she asked breathlessly.
"He caused me to see the affair from a somewhat different point of
view--a point of view which, I confess, revived my interest in you. I
began to believe you had been deceived, and your treatment of me arose
through a misunderstanding; I thought you a victim, and that I would be a
cad if I failed to stand by you. We put this and that together, carried
out some investigations quietly, and arrived at a definite conclusion."
"What investigations?"
"In the field where the body was found first," West went on steadily, but
no longer looking at her, "tracing the different tracks through the
clover. Then I looked up that cottage in Arch Street, and thus learned
about Hobart. Somehow he seemed to fit into the picture, and your
mysterious visit there made me anxious to interview the man. He had left
no address however, just faded out of sight suddenly, which increased
suspicion. Then, when we were completely baffled, Sexton learned about
your conversation over the telephone."
"How? Was he at the house?"
"Yes; he went out at my suggestion."
"And heard me repeat this number?"
"It makes no difference how he got the information; we knew you were
coming here this afternoon, and jumped at the conclusion that you were
going to meet Hobart for some reason."
"Very bright, I am sure," and there was a tone of relief in her voice.
"And that is your whole story, I suppose? What does it amount to?"
"Not very much, perhaps."
"And the two of you came out here seeking to learn my business, to pry
into my personal affairs. That was not a very gentlemanly act, Captain
West, and I hardly see how you can justify yourself."
"I had two purposes," he insisted, "either of which justify. I felt it
a duty to locate this man Hobart; and also to warn you of the danger
you were in."
"Warn me!" she laughed scornfully. "That is ridiculous enough surely. I
have a perfectly good reason for being here, but I am not accountable to
you in any way for my movements. A duty you say--a duty to locate this
man? A duty to whom?"
"To the State, if no one else," he answered gravely. "Percival Coolidge
did not commit suicide; he was murdered."
"Murdered!" she came to her feet with utterance of the word. "You cannot
think that!"
"I know it, Miss Natalie; the evidence is beyond question; he was
murdered in cold blood."
"But by whom? for what purpose?"
"These points are not yet determined; I am only sure of the crime."
"Yes, but--but you suspect Jim Hobart. Isn't that true? You came here
seeking him--yes, and me. You even think I know how this death occurred.
You--you connect it with my fortune."
"No, Miss Natalie," he protested stoutly, moved by her agitation. "The
cause is a mystery, and who did it equally mysterious. The evidence thus
far unearthed is all circumstantial."
"Then why did you come out here searching for Hobart?"
"Because of his strange meeting with Percival Coolidge the very day of
his death; because his sudden disappearance furnished the only clue."
"And that is all the knowledge you possess, absolutely all?"
"Yes; I am no more than groping in the dark. My main object in coming was
to put you on your guard."
"You have repeated these suspicions to no one else? The Police?"
"To no one. Only Sexton and I have even talked the matter over. We are
both too loyal to you to ever say a word which might be to your injury."
She suddenly held out her hand, and he took it, conscious of the firm
clasp of her fingers.
"I thank you, Captain West," she said sincerely, "and believe your
purpose was honourable. You have told me frankly all you suspect, and
doubtless you have reasons. You have simply made a mistake, that is all.
Percival Coolidge was not murdered; he killed himself because he had
muddled my affairs, and knew he was about to be discovered. You have got
upon a wrong trail. Will you accept my word for this, and drop the whole
matter here?"
West was almost convinced, but not quite; the explanation had not been
sufficiently explicit.
"This man Hobart--who is he? What connection does he have with
your affairs?"
She hesitated slightly, yet her eyes did not fall, or her apparent
cordiality change.
"Mr. Hobart," she explained, "I have known for years. I told you before
he was once in my father's employ. Now he is a private detective, and
was employed on my case, before I advertised for you. I thought then he
was not accomplishing anything, but at our interview Sunday, all was
cleared up."
"In the presence of Percival Coolidge?"
"Yes; he was given a week in which to straighten matters. That was why he
killed himself."
"But why is it necessary for you to meet Hobart in a place like this--a
veritable thieves' den?"
She shrugged her shoulders, releasing his hand.
"He has not completed his work, and does not think it best for us to be
seen together. I know him so well I am not at all afraid, even here. Is
that all, Captain West?"
"It seems to explain everything," he admitted, yet far from satisfied.
"And you will drop the whole affair?" she asked anxiously.
"If I say yes--what?"
"You will be released from here of course, and the whole misunderstanding
forgotten."
"And otherwise?"
"I have no means of knowing what the men intend to do. They will accept
your pledge, I am sure."
"Possibly, but I am not so sure I will consent to give such a pledge."
"Then you do not accept my word; do not believe what I have told you?"
"Not that exactly, Miss Natalie; I could have faith in your word, except
that I believe you to be mistaken, deceived. Hobart is not square; he is
using you for his own ends. Under these conditions, I would be a coward
to give such a promise, and leave you helpless in this man's power."
"You intend then to refuse?"
"I do; I'll fight it out."
She stared at him, scarcely believing her own ears, her lips parted, a
look of angry fright in her eyes.
"You are a fool, Captain West," she burst forth at last, unable to hold
back the words. "I have done my best for you, and you spurn that. Now
look out."
She stepped backward, still fronting him, and, with hand behind her,
rapped sharply on the panel of the door.