BAT SCANLON IS SURPRISED
In the office, Bat Scanlon felt himself suddenly clutched by a creature
who seemed at first to be all rich silks, soft furs, dazzling complexion
and delicate perfume; but an instant later this impression failed; for
he knew that she was all eyes--great, brown, intelligent eyes--and a
voice which made one's heart tremble when she spoke.
"Oh, Bat, I'm glad you're in this big, cold city this morning," said the
voice, gratefully, while the long lashes held two great perilous tears.
"If you hadn't been, I don't know what I should have done."
"Danny," said Bat to the red-haired boy, "go sweep up, or something."
"Yes, sir," replied Danny, promptly, and was gone.
Mr. Scanlon then saw that his unusual visitor was settled comfortably in
a big, wide-armed chair, and he took a seat opposite her.
"I don't wonder that you're feeling so," said he. "It's a sudden kind of
thing, isn't it? And do you know," there was an apologetic note in his
voice, "this is the first morning I missed looking over the paper for
months. When you had me on the telephone a while ago I knew nothing at
all about the matter."
The girl shivered a little and drew her cloak around her shoulders.
"As soon as _I_ heard of it, I knew what was to happen," she said, a
trifle bitterly. "Nora Cavanaugh, celebrity, was to be dragged further
into the light. Nora Cavanaugh, who had just opened in a successful
play--the woman whose pictures were in all the magazines--was the wife
of the murdered man! Instantly the police, who would be much better
employed seeking a solution of the crime, must hunt out and torment me
with their questions; the newspapers must suddenly go mad with a desire
to exploit my years of work and my personality as a background for a
sordid crime. My press agent, my manager, are quivering with anxiety
that no shred of publicity be lost. My very maid is subtly suggestive as
to ways in which value could be gained from the circumstances."
"Too bad!" said Bat "It's a pretty messy kind of a job. But it's the
regular thing. They are not picking specially on you." He sat looking at
her for a moment in silence. Then he added: "Anyhow, in spite of all
this, there is one thing you might be thankful for, isn't there?"
She drew in a long breath; her hands clasped tightly, and for a moment
her eyes were closed.
"You mean that Tom Burton is dead?" she whispered.
"Yes," said the man.
Again there was a silence, and this time it was broken by the girl.
"I have never thought of him as dying," she said, and there was
something like wonder in her voice. "He had gradually become settled in
my mind as a sort of incubus--I felt that I was to see him always,
smiling, immaculate and unscrupulous--a sort of beast with whom
cleanliness took the place of a soul."
"You should have divorced him," said Bat. "It would have been the
easiest way."
She shivered.
"He knew I would never do that," she answered. "He knew I was forever
set against any such thing. My religion is against it; then," she gave a
little gesture of loathing, "the actress and the divorce court had
become associated in common jest; and I made up my mind that I would not
add to its truth."
"He knew that, and he took advantage of it," said Bat.
"Was there anything that promised him a profit that Tom Burton did not
take advantage of?" Her glorious eyes flashed and her head, superbly
crowned with masses of bronze hair, was reared, the round, beautifully
moulded chin was held high with scorn. "Was there anything, no matter
how mean, that he wouldn't stoop to, so long as it enabled him to coddle
his vices and go on in his idle way of life?"
Bat sat looking at the wonderfully beautiful and splendidly spirited
creature; and he found himself wondering what had ever led her into a
marriage with a man such as the one she had just described. And, as
though in answer to his thought, she went on:
"But he had a way with him; his only study in life, so he told me once,
had been women; and he knew how to get the better of them. When I first
met him I was playing in a middle western city in a stock company which
gave two performances a day and paid a fairly respectable salary. It was
the first good engagement I'd ever had; the following of the theatre
liked me and I began to be talked about; the east, and the creating of
important parts did not seem so impossible as they had only a little
while before.
"Maybe he heard some whisper of this; I don't know. But we became
acquainted; and I was carried away by him. Never had I met a man who
showed so many brilliant sides of character; he could talk about
anything, and in a way which indicated a mastery of the matter. Every
ambition I cherished met with his approval; everything I longed for
seemed within reach when he talked. It was a species of hypnotism, Bat;
nothing else explains it."
"How a fellow like that could so put it over on a woman like you, Nora,
puzzles me," said Bat Scanlon, shaking his head.
"It would puzzle any right sort of a man," said the girl. "Only a woman
would understand it thoroughly--or a man like Tom Burton. Well, it was
while I was feeling that way about him, completely under his influence,
that I married him. And in a week," here she arose, the cloak falling
from her shoulders as she flung out her arms in a gesture of despair, "I
knew just what I had done. The man was a cheap pretender; he'd never had
an honest thought in his life; he had familiarized himself with all my
little weaknesses and aspirations before he met me; all his learning was
a sham; his good nature was a mask."
"Some discovery for a week old bride to make," acknowledged Bat,
frowning. "Some discovery."
"He was a man who lived by his wits; it was common report that he'd been
expelled from a club, somewhere, for cheating at cards. His first wife
had died a long time before through his studied neglect and bad
treatment. He had heard of my good salary and increasing prospects, and
so had made up his mind to attach himself, after the manner of all
parasites, to one who promised to be a source of income."
"Was it then that you left him?" asked the man.
"It was." She bent her head, the white hands covered her face; her
bosom, deep and wonderful as that of a young Juno, rose and fell with
the sobs that shook her. "I thought I should die at first. To think that
I, who had prized myself so, should come to that; made the victim of
such a cheap, tawdry trick! Once or twice I actually thought of killing
myself; but I suppose I am too normal for that. At any rate, within
another week, I had thrown aside every tie I had, and they were not
many," with a little added break in the voice, over which she was
struggling for control, "and so I came east."
"But that wasn't the last you saw of Burton, though," said Bat, with a
grimace of dislike.
"While I was fighting to make a fresh way for myself, he did not disturb
me," said the girl. "But no sooner had I scored than he reappeared; by
every device known to his kind he began to bleed me."
"You did not allow that!" cried the man, surprised.
"I did," with a gesture of meek acknowledgment. "He mastered me with his
cunning. Not a thing escaped him--every weakness, every shrinking,
every faltering I had, seemed known to him; he kept me in an agony of
suspense; rather than be hampered and embarrassed by him at every turn I
tried to get rid of him by giving him money."
"It would take near all the money in the world to drive away a coyote
like that," said Bat.
"I soon found that out," said Nora Cavanaugh. "For from that time on I
was haunted by him; he kept demanding of me, and I never had the moral
courage to refuse him until last night."
"Last night!" Bat found himself staring at her. "Did you see him last
night?"
She looked at him suddenly, and there was a startled sort of look in the
wide brown eyes, a fleeting expression of fear; and at the same time her
hand went to her breast in a convulsive movement.
"Yes," she said, and her voice had sunk to a whisper. "He came last
night after I returned from the theatre. My maid had instructions not to
admit him, but he pushed her aside and came directly to my room."
"You're right," said Bat Scanlon, glowering, "he _had_ a way with him.
It's a pity you hadn't a brother--or some one--all these years to take
care of you. His study of women would have done him little good if he
had had a man to meet."
"He wanted money," said Nora. "He was wheedling and threatening by
turns; he did everything he had ever done before, and more. I don't know
what gave me the resolution--perhaps it was the way he forced his
presence upon me--but anyhow, I refused him."
"He went away empty handed," said Scanlon, gleefully. "Good!"
"I gave him nothing," said Nora. "And I think he saw in my attitude what
the future was to be; for when he left me he wore a look I had never
seen upon his face before."
"Well," and the big trainer expelled a great breath, "it won't make much
difference now what he thought; he'll never bother you again."
"No," she repeated, "he'll never bother me again--never!" The beautiful
voice quavered and grew faint as she said this; and the hand was still
held tightly against her breast.
"What do you want me to do, Nora?" said the man. "A fellow who was
brought up outside, as I have been, is not much at comforting a woman."
"Bat," said the girl, and the hand left her breast and rested upon his
arm, "it has eased my heart just to hear you speak. You were always good
to me--always. But to-day you have given me courage--when I needed it so
badly." There was a little pause; she came closer to him, and now both
her hands were upon his arm, the two beautiful, capable hands, whose
whiteness had always amazed him; the faint perfume which always clung
about her was in his nostrils, and the brown eyes, so perfectly spaced,
so wonderfully colored, were opened wide and regarding him steadily.
"There are two things I want you to do, Bat," she said, "and they are
not at all difficult. You are acquainted in the detective department,
and I wish you would ask them not to bother me any more. If they do,"
and here he felt the two white hands flutter and heard her breath drawn
in sharply, "I shall break down with fright."
"I'll fix it," the man assured her. "Leave it to me."
"Thank you, Bat; you're the best creature in the world," she said
gratefully. "And, too, I want you to go to Stanwick. I would like you to
see what the police are doing--everything you can. They must have found
out something by this time. Ask questions and keep your eyes open. And
when you have it all, come to me at once and let me know."
"Sure," said he, "I'll go right away."
"Thank you." She drew the rich cloak about her and then held out her
hand. "You're a dear, good fellow, Bat; I've always known that, but now
I'm surer of it than ever."
"Why, Nora, it's not hard to do things for you," said he, as he held the
hand for a moment.
"And you'll hurry?" Her eyes were full of pleading. "You'll find out
everything you can--but you'll hurry, won't you?"
"As soon as I've looked things over carefully," said he, "you'll hear me
at your door."
"Thank you, again," she said. "And good-bye."
And as the door closed behind her, Bat Scanlon stood in the middle of
the floor, his arms folded across his big chest.
"Cop stuff," said he, to himself. "What do you think of that?"
When he returned once more to the room in which he had left the others,
Scanlon found Dennison buttoning up his top-coat.
"I'll be in to-morrow," said the man; "and my togs will be sent around
to-day."
When he had departed, Scanlon looked at Ashton-Kirk.
"I guess you'll have to take your work-out with the big Greek," said he.
"Stanwick's my next stop; and I'm going to get the first train."
"Stanwick?" Ashton-Kirk's keen eyes regarded him inquiringly.
"Funny thing, ain't it? Here I didn't know a thing about this murder,
and then I get it piled in on me from two places. That was Tom Burton's
wife just in to see me--Nora Cavanaugh."
"Oh, yes, to be sure. She is--or was--his wife, wasn't she?"
"She had a fine lot of excitement with her. Dennison ain't the only one
who saw Burton last night. He called on Nora after the show, and wanted
money, as, it seems, he always did. But she refused him and he went away
sore."
"He was an utter scamp," said Ashton-Kirk. "It's rather remarkable,
though, how he managed to keep just outside the reach of the law."
"Nora's been pestered by the cops, and she wants me to have them called
off," said Bat. "And she's asked me to go out to Stanwick and see what
they are doing there."
"The police?"
"Yes. I don't know just what it's all about; but Nora knows, and that's
enough for me."
Ashton-Kirk smiled as the big man went to a closet and took out a long
coat and a soft hat.
"Miss Cavanaugh is fortunate in the control of such an obedient geni,"
said he, quietly. "But good luck on your trip; and while you are gone,
I'll grapple with the Greek, as you suggest."