LIGHT ON A DARK SPOT
Janet returned from the matinee in a state of great excitement. "She's
here!" she cried, bursting in on Lefty. "You were right about it! I've
seen her!"
The southpaw gazed in surprise at the flushed face of his charming wife.
"You mean--"
"Virginia! I tell you I've seen her!"
"When? Where?"
"As we were leaving the theater. The lobby was crowded, and we were in
the back of the jam. Suddenly I saw her over the heads of the people. She
was just getting into an auto that was occupied by a handsome woman with
snow-white hair. I wasn't mistaken; it was Virginia. I couldn't get to
her. I tried to call to her, but she didn't hear me. I'll never say
you were mistaken again, Lefty. Somehow you seem always to be right."
Locke scarcely heard these final words. He was thinking rapidly. A sudden
ray of hope had struck upon him. Confound it! Where was Stillman? He
sprang to the telephone and called the _Blade_ office again.
"Jack is the one best bet in this emergency," he said, as he waited for
the connections to be made.
He got the reporter on the wire, and Stillman stated that he had not been
in the office ten minutes, and was about to call Lefty. Could he come
up to the Great Eastern right away? Sure.
The feeling of depression and helplessness that had threatened to crush
Locke began to fall away. The door he had sought, the one door by which
there seemed any chance of passing on to success, appeared to be almost
within reach of his hand. In her excitement at the theater, Janet had not
possessed the presence of mind to call the attention of her friends to
the snowy-haired woman, but he knew that she could describe her with
some minuteness.
"Stillman knows everybody," Lefty said. "It may be clew enough for
him."
There was a rap on the door. A messenger boy appeared with a telegram.
Locke ripped it open and read:
Jones sick. Team busted. I'm busted. Signal of distress. How
about that five hundred? I knead the dough. Don't shoot! Wire
cash. WILEY.
"Trouble in another quarter," muttered Lefty, handing the message
over to Janet. "How am I going to send him that money? I can't force
Weegman to do it. Wiley has a right to demand it. If I don't come
across, he'll have a right to call the deal off."
"But Jones is sick," said Janet.
"Still it was a square bargain, and I mean to stand by it. Jones is
sick. He was sick that day in Vienna; that was what ailed him. He showed
flashes of form when he braced up, but he was too ill to brace up long.
I've wondered what was the explanation, now I have it. Get him on his
feet again, and he'll be all right. I've got to hold my grip on Jones
somehow."
Kennedy and Stillman appeared at the Great Eastern together. First, Lefty
showed them the message from Cap'n Wiley. Over it the former manager
screwed up his face, casting a sharp look at his successor.
"If you can trust this Wiley," he said, "send him two hundred, and
tell him to bring Jones north as soon as Jones can travel. Don't worry.
Wiley's outfit didn't come under the national agreement, and Jones'
name on a Stockings contract ties him up."
"But without drawing money from the club I haven't the two hundred to
spare now. I can't draw."
"I'll fix that. I've got two hundred or more that you can borrow.
After the training season opens, you'll pretty soon find out whether
or not you've picked a dill pickle in your dummy pitcher."
Janet told Stillman about seeing Virginia Collier, and gave him a fairly
minute description of the woman Virginia was with. The reporter smoked a
cigarette, and considered.
"I think I can find that lady with the snow-white hair," he said, after
a time. "Leave it to me. You'll hear from me just as soon as I have
something to tell."
With a promising air of confidence, he took his departure, leaving
Kennedy and Locke to attend to the matter of Wiley and Mysterious Jones.
Of course, the southpaw told the old manager all about Skullen's attempt
at revenge, but he did not do so within the hearing of Janet, whom he
did not care to alarm. The veteran chuckled over the result of the
encounter in the back room of Mike's saloon.
"Right from the first," he said, "you was picked for something soft
and easy. I knew you was a fighter, son, but Weegman and his gang didn't
know it. Mebbe they'll begin to guess the fact pretty soon."
A few minutes after eight that evening, Stillman returned to the hotel
and found Locke waiting with what patience he could command. The reporter
wore a smile, but he declined to answer questions.
"Mrs. James A. Vanderpool's private car is waiting for us at the
door," he said. "Bring Mrs. Hazelton, Lefty. We're going to make
a call."
"Mrs. Vanderpool? The widow of the traction magnate? Why, what--"
"Now don't waste time! Somebody else can gratify your curiosity a great
deal better than I. In fact, I know so little about the facts at the
bottom of this queer business that any explanations I'd make would be
likely to ball things up."
The magnificent residence of the late James Vanderpool was on upper
Fifth Avenue. They were ushered into a splendid reception room. In a
few minutes an aristocratic-looking woman with white hair entered, her
appearance bringing an involuntary exclamation to Janet's lips.
"It's the very one!" she breathed excitedly, her fingers gripping
Lefty's arm. Stillman introduced them to Mrs. Vanderpool, who met them
graciously.
"Virginia will be down in a minute or two," said the lady. "For
reasons, she has been staying with me since she returned from abroad.
I'll let her tell you about it." She regarded Locke with frank
interest, yet in a manner that was not at all embarrassing, for it
plainly contained a great deal of friendliness. "Virginia has told
me much about you," she stated. "It has never before been my good
fortune to meet a professional baseball player. My niece is very fond of
Mrs. Hazelton."
"Your niece!" exclaimed Lefty.
"Virginia is my niece, although I have scarcely seen her since she was
a very small child. Here she is now."
Virginia ran, laughing, to meet Janet. After the manner of girl friends,
they hugged and kissed each other.
"Really," said Virginia, "I should give you a good shaking for not
answering all my letters!"
"Your letters!" cried Janet. "I've received only two letters from you
in goodness knows how long! I answered them; and wrote you a dozen to
which I got not a word of reply."
They gazed at each other in blank uncertainty for a minute or two, and
every trace of laughter died from Miss Collier's face. Her blue eyes
began to flash.
"Then," she said, "our letters were intercepted. I can't remember
whether I posted any of mine or not, but I was so worried over father
that it is doubtful if I did. I let my maid attend to that. She nearly
always brought the mail to me, too. When I obtained positive proof that
she was dishonest, I discharged her. Even now it's hard to believe she
was so treacherous."
"But why should she intercept our letters? I don't understand,
Virginia."
"There has been a dreadful plot to ruin my father. You'll hardly
believe it when I tell you. I find it difficult to believe, even now."
She shivered, some of the color leaving her face. "It was necessary
to cut us off from any true information of what was happening to his
business interests. Letters from you might have given me an inkling,
Janet, and so they were secured and destroyed before they ever reached
my hands. Other letters met the same fate. Mr. Weegman declared he
wrote several which I know my father never got."
"Weegman!" exclaimed Locke incredulously. "Why, he--"
"Doctor Dalmers warned Mr. Weegman that father must not be disturbed or
excited in the least over business matters. He said such a thing might
have a fatal effect on his heart. Still Weegman says he wrote guardedly
several times, mildly hinting that things were not going right."
"The liar!" whispered Lefty to himself.
A bit in the background, Jack Stillman was listening with keen interest,
thinking what a sensational special article the truth regarding this
affair would make.
"We were surrounded by wretches who had no compunction," declared
Virginia Collier. "It was I who first suspected them. My father was too
ill, and the doctor kept him under opiates almost all the time, so that
his mind was dulled. After I discharged Annette I became suspicious of
the nurse. I spoke to Doctor Dalmers about her, but he insisted that she
was all right. He insisted too earnestly. I began to watch him without
letting him realize I was doing so. Once or twice I found a chance to
change father's medicine for harmless powders and clear water, and
it seemed to me that he was better than when he took the medicine. He was
very weak and ill, but his mind seemed clearer. I kept the medicine away
from him for two days in succession, and got an opportunity to talk to
him alone. I succeeded in convincing him that the change of climate,
the baths, and the stuff the doctor had given him were doing him no good
at all. In London there was a physician whom he knew and in whom he had
confidence, Doctor Robert Fitzgerald. I urged him to go to Doctor
Fitzgerald, but not to tell Doctor Dalmers of his intention, and I
begged him to refuse to take any more of Doctor Dalmers' medicine.
We were in Luchon, and all the way to London I had to watch like a
hawk to keep that medicine from father, but I succeeded, although I
became extremely unpopular with Doctor Dalmers. The minute we reached
London, I went to Doctor Fitzgerald and told him all that I suspected.
Although he could not believe such a thing possible, he accompanied me
at once to our hotel. Doctor Dalmers was taken by surprise, for he had
not anticipated this move. When I discharged both him and the nurse, he
gave me a terrible look. Of course, I could not have carried this
through, had not Doctor Fitzgerald been a close friend of my father.
Dalmers called Fitzgerald's action unprofessional, and made threats,
but we got rid of him."
Despite the fact that she was such a mere slip of a girl, it was evident
that she possessed brains and the courage and resourcefulness to use
them. Mrs. Vanderpool seemed very proud of her. Lefty expressed his
admiration.
"I knew," Virginia continued, "that there must be something behind
such a plot. I did not believe Dalmers had put it through merely to
bleed my father while keeping him ill. I was worried over the fact that
we knew so very little concerning how father's affairs were going over
here. What information we could get by cable or otherwise might be
unsatisfactory. So I determined to come home and investigate for myself.
I got father's consent, and I left him in Doctor Fitzgerald's care. I
intended to sail by the _Victoria_, but there was a misunderstanding
about accommodations, and I was forced to take a later ship. I find
father's affairs involved, and I've sent a statement of conditions as
they appear to be.
"Of course," she concluded, smiling a little, "I was greatly
relieved to learn from Mr. Weegman that he felt sure he had blocked the
contemptible efforts to smash the Blue Stockings. He felt highly elated
over signing Lefty Locke as manager."
"Miss Collier," said the pitcher, "did Weegman offer an explanation
of the raid on the team? Did he say who was at the bottom of it?"
Instantly a little cloud came to her face, and an expression of regret
appeared in her eyes. "Yes," she answered. "He told me. At first I
could not believe it."
Stillman leaned forward, listening, his lips slightly parted. Locke
turned toward him, but turned back quickly, with another question on
his lips. Virginia was speaking again, however.
"I can scarcely believe it now," she said sadly. "It seems too utterly
impossible! I can't imagine any one being such a scoundrel--much less
him! But Weegman has made sure; he has the proof. Of course, he has told
you all about it, Lefty; it was necessary that you should know." Her
manner had grown deeply dejected.
"What did Weegman tell you?" asked the southpaw. "Who did he say was
responsible for what had happened to the Blue Stockings?"
With an effort the girl answered: "Franklin Parlmee!"