QUEER INTELLIGENCE
The grip of Bat Scanlon upon the throat of Bohlmier did not relax; both
hands of the Swiss clutched at the arm thrust through the trellis work
of the rose arbor, but their puny strength was as nothing against the
brawn of the big athlete. After a little the hands lost their power and
slid helplessly away. Scanlon no longer heard the wheezing breath in the
man's chest; and, so, he let go his grip. Bohlmier crumpled up and fell
to the ground.
Bat drew his arms through the frail woodwork; there were many abrasions
upon his knuckles and he was nursing these solicitously when he heard
the stumbling approach of some one through the darkness. Instantly he
was all attention; for a moment he fancied it was Nora returning; but
the steps were not like hers--they were those of a man. Within a few
yards of the rose arbor they stopped; there was a silence and then a
voice said whisperingly:
"Hello! Bohlmier, are you there?"
"Big Slim!" was Bat's mental exclamation. "Hunting up his pal."
As no reply came to the lank burglar's low call, that gentleman moved
nearer; there was an awkward scrambling, a heavy body struck the side of
the rose arbor and set it creaking; then the voice of Big Slim was heard
uttering guarded but profane remarks.
"He's fallen over the Swiss," Bat told himself, grimly.
That this was true was proven in another moment. There came a long-drawn
breath from the man outside as though he'd made a startling discovery;
then Bat saw the glimmer of a light, faint and guarded, but enough to
show the figure of the Swiss huddled on the ground, and with another
stooping over it. The light suddenly snapped off; silence and darkness
followed.
The silence was so long continued that Bat grew uneasy. He was anxious
to once more get on the track of Nora; also he was not quite sure as to
his own position.
"It was easy to see through this place just then," he thought. "That
light must have shone in a little. My friend outside is a person of
observation; so how do I know he hasn't spotted the fact that some one
is here."
That the burglar could have recognized him, even if this were so, was
impossible; for the light was too brief and too dim. But that he had
caught sight of some one inside the arbor was within probability; so
Bat stepped with great caution toward the doorway. As he reached it he
saw, or perhaps felt, that there was a bulk directly before him, much
denser than the darkness; and as he studied this it occurred to him that
it was about the size of a man. But he was not at all sure; so he stood
very still, all his thews flexed, and waited for it to move. In a few
moments there came a slow stirring; the bulk seemed to push forward.
This was all Scanlon required; he lashed out with his right fist; it
crashed into a living something with frightful force; there was a low
outcry and a fall; and then Bat stepped out into the night and was away.
A score of paces from the rose arbor he stopped. He had not the least
idea as to the direction Nora had taken, and so was puzzled about the
next thing to do. But after the fright she had gotten he felt sure that
she'd not linger about the little patch of ground surrounding No. 620
Duncan Street.
"She's away to the station," he said. "And that's my play."
So in a few moments he was on the street and hurrying toward the
station. When within two score yards of it he heard a bell clang and
caught the hiss of released steam. Then a train pulled out and rolled
away down the dark line of track. The station lights were out, the
platform was deserted and the waiting room, when he tried the door, was
locked.
"Like as not she caught that train," mused Bat as he stood upon the
platform. "And if so, all right."
He looked at a train schedule with the aid of a match, and then at his
watch.
"Ten forty-eight," said he. "That's an hour yet. Some wait."
And a dismal, unproductive hour, too. The deserted platform, the chill
winds and the drizzle of rain, made it most uncomfortable.
"I ought to be doing something," said he. "I ought to be----"
Of course! He ought to be at the Burton house; he ought to be trying to
learn what was behind the marvel of the invalid girl who so suddenly
became well; he ought to be eager and anxious to discover the objective
of her cautious movements! At once, without any hesitancy, he hurried
back along the way he had just come. Lights still burned brightly in
comfortable little houses, set back from the street; they glowed with
cheer and family life; but on the way he did not encounter a single
pedestrian.
"Stanwick is strictly an indoor place on a rainy Sunday night," he
mused, as he hurried along. "And I don't know that it hasn't the best of
it."
He was inside the iron fence at No. 620 when he detected the first
signs of a stir; these were the low sounds of careful steps on the walk
and the murmur of conversation. He crouched in the shadow thrown by the
house; the steps grew nearer and he recognized the voices as those of
Big Slim and Bohlmier.
"I haf not much strength," wheezed the Swiss. "Holt me up! Ach! what a
grip! It was like a gorilla's!"
As they drew opposite to Bat, he saw in an uncertain sort of way that
the burglar was supporting his friend.
"Grip!" said Big Slim. "Well, the wallop he carried had some heft, too.
Once I thought I had him; he stood right in front of me; but as I was
reaching for my 'gat' he drove one at me that a bull couldn't have stood
up under."
"That woman!" gasped Bohlmier, "she is full of tricks, yet. Who would
haf thought she had somebodies here with her."
What the burglar replied Bat could not catch, for by this time they had
reached the sidewalk. Under the light he saw the Swiss was holding to
the other feebly, and that his steps were tottering and weak.
"I must have shut down on him even harder than I thought," said Bat to
himself. "It was the knife that did it, and him whipping it out on
Nora."
He waited until the two had disappeared; then he made his way softly
around the house on the side he had not examined before. Here the
windows were all blank and dark except one at the extreme rear. There he
could see the colored maid washing some glassware; this window was
partly open and he heard the woman's voice singing:
"Swing low, sweet chariot,
Come fo' to carry me home."
Bat stood for a while in silent inspection of the place.
"Nothing doing, evidently," he said. "Just as quiet as you please."
He turned his eyes for a few moments upon the surrounding houses; and
when they wandered back he noted with a start that one of the upper
windows was now illuminated. He stared steadfastly at it, and as he was
doing so the light grew brighter; he stood wondering at this, then he
saw Mary Burton, a candle in her hand, appear at the window. But this
was only for a moment; she moved away and the light dimmed, finally
disappearing completely.
"She's left the room and closed the door," said Bat.
A few moments passed, and then a second window, this time on the floor
below, flashed up with light. It remained so for some little time, now
growing dimmer, and now stronger, showing that the girl was moving about
the room. Then, like the other, the window suddenly became blank. One
after another the windows were lighted up in the same fashion; sometimes
Bat saw the girl, her dressing gown held about her with one hand, while
with the other she held the candlestick. Then both she and the light
disappeared altogether.
"Quite an active little excursion," said Bat. "Quite active and
extraordinary. What is it about, I wonder? Why this sudden parade
through the house on the quiet?"
He remained where he was for a short space of time. But all was silent
save for the maid crooning the hymn, and the occasional inquiring bark
of the dog on the next place, who probably got a strange scent coming
down the wind. As there was nothing more to be hoped for there, he
shifted his position to the other side. And as he came in range of the
sitting-room window he saw the invalid reclining once more in her chair,
supported by pillows, and with the nurse bending over her.
"Well," said Bat, after he had pondered over this scene for some time,
"that seems to be taps for the evening."
He lingered a half hour, however, thinking there might be a possibility
of something more; but as nothing happened, he made his way to the
street, and crossed to the opposite side. Standing in the sheltering
shadows of a building, while he contemplated the Burton house once more,
he was given a start by a voice saying:
"Taking a look at it, eh? Well, it's worth it. I've been here ever since
the place was Stanwick village, and I ain't never seen goings on in any
home like I've seen in that one."
The speaker stood almost at Bat's side; he leaned upon a cane, and from
the shaky quality of his voice, Scanlon felt that he must be of advanced
age.
"That's where the murder was done, isn't it?" asked the big athlete. For
there was a gossipy suggestion in the tone of the old man which made a
show of non-certainty of possible value.
"Yes, sir; that's it. That's where Thomas Burton was found dead of a
crushed skull," replied the old resident. "That's the house of his son
and daughter. I see the father taken away to be buried, and I see the
son taken away to be put in jail. And I see the daughter's doctor coming
to see her every day."
Here the old gentleman broke into a cackle of laughter.
"Every day," he repeated. "In a carriage with a little medicine case."
"An old party who seems to have his wits about him," said Bat to
himself. "And not at all backward about making a show of them."
"I have a son," continued the old man, "and my son has a wife. We live a
little piece down the street. My son's wife is fussy; she doesn't like
any kind of public notice. And so, when I wanted to go to the police
with what I've seen, she wouldn't hear of it. She said we might even
have our names in the papers."
"Women are that way sometimes," said Scanlon. "I've noticed it more than
once."
"Fools, I call them," declared the old resident. "But when they have
control of things, you've got to let them have their way." He stood with
his face turned toward No. 620 for a few moments and then continued:
"Yes, sir, queer things go on in that house. People that's sick don't
act the way she does."
"Who does?" asked Bat.
"Why, that girl over there! Every day stealing away out at the back door
with a veil over her face and some one's else clothes on, and taking a
taxicab for I don't know where."
"You saw that, did you?" asked Bat, eagerly.
"Yes, sir, I saw it; and I've seen it every day since the police were
taken off guard. Sick!" again came the cackling old laugh. "Sick! Why,
she ain't no more sick than I am."