THE VEILED WOMAN
Inside the house the atmosphere of danger reached Garth more positively
than it had done even through Brown's unreasoning terror. Alsop and
Marvin met them in the hall. Both were white-faced and nervous. Through
the open door of a library Garth saw five men in evening clothes
gathered about a table which was littered with papers. Alsop closed the
door.
"I hope you and the inspector are satisfied," he jeered. "We're properly
trapped."
"The house is surrounded by detectives," Garth said. "We've arranged to
take care of the one with the bomb. For there is a bomb, Mr. Alsop.
There's no point lying about that."
Alsop scarcely made an effort to hide his fear.
"How are your detectives outside going to help us in here?"
He pointed to the closed door of the library.
"All my figures, all of my plans that I've ever put on paper I've
brought out here for the first time to-night for this conference. Don't
you suppose those devils know? And that thing--you can laugh at me if
you like--I tell you that thing in white is after them. When I went
upstairs just now to bring them from the safe I felt it. I _saw_
something white, and I ran down. Ask Marvin. I'm afraid. I acknowledge
it. Stay in this house with that--that influence, then if you'll tell me
I'm a coward I'll believe it."
"I'm not sneering," Garth said grimly. "As a matter of fact we know your
veiled woman is actually to be in this house at nine o'clock. It's
likely enough she's upstairs now in some hidden corner after failing to
steal your papers. I'll search every rat hole, because you can take it
for granted her apparent magic is pure trickery, and if she isn't to be
found upstairs we've a net arranged down here for her a little later."
He explained briefly the arrangement that Nora's presence and her
disguise had made possible. Alsop and Marvin were not impressed.
"Better find out what you can now," Alsop advised.
He nodded at Marvin. Garth and Nora followed the secretary towards the
stairs. Suddenly, with a sharp intake of breath, Garth turned, grasped
Nora's arm, and drew her back.
"Alsop," he whispered excitedly, "I don't give a hang how long you've
had your servants, or how much you trust them. The thing's obvious
anyway. Nora! You saw that?"
Nora nodded. Her eyes were wide.
"What do you mean?" Alsop gasped.
Without answering Garth ran down the hallway and flung the curtain at
the end to one side. Across a wide dining-room he saw a woman, slender
and middle-aged. Her attitude was of flight. Her hand rested on the knob
of the farther door. As Garth called sharply for Alsop she opened the
door and went through. Alsop had only a glimpse.
"It's my housekeeper," he said. "She's worked here for twenty years.
Certainly there's nothing wrong there."
"I wonder." Nora spoke softly. "Such people are clever enough to involve
one's own family against one. She can't leave the house anyway. Suppose,
Jim, we look upstairs."
While Alsop, angry and at a loss, went back to the library, Garth and
Nora climbed to the upper hall. Garth supposed that Marvin would have
made a light for them, but of all the doors that opened from the stair
landing one alone was wide, and no light gleamed through that.
"Marvin!" he called, and again: "Marvin! Marvin!"
He was aware of Nora's shivering. He glanced at her. The color had left
her cheeks.
"Something's wrong up here, Jim," she said. "I know it. I feel it. Don't
you feel anything strange? You heard him come up, and after what Mr.
Alsop said--where is he? Why doesn't he answer?"
Garth stepped forward. Nora reached out and grasped his arms. The
quality of her voice startled him.
"Don't go in there without a light, Jim."
He shook off her hands. He entered the dark room, and immediately he
knew she had been right, that he had advanced too precipitately. He
stumbled against something soft and yielding, and went down, stretching
out his hand to save himself. He knew what his fingers had found. He
snatched them away with a little cry:
"Get back to the hall, Nora!"
But he heard no movement from her, so, since he didn't dare wait, he
took his flashlight from his pocket, pressed the control, and turned the
ray on the features his hand had touched in the dark. Marvin was
stretched, face downward on the floor near the head of the bed. His arm
lay beyond his head, pitiful evidence that he had reached for the
electric light switch which had been just beyond his grasp.
Nora with a reluctant air had come closer. Crying out her horror, she
indicated the collar, at the back of Marvin's neck.
"Blood!"
Garth nodded.
"Like Brown. The same place as Brown's wound."
Nora covered her face with her hands.
Garth sprang up, unconsciously quoting Brown's words:
"That's madness!"
He ran to the bathroom and brought water with which he bathed Marvin's
face and head. He looked up after a moment with a sigh of relief.
"It was only a glancing blow," he said. "He'll come around."
Marvin, indeed, before long stirred, and tried to struggle to a sitting
posture as Brown had done. He cried out, as Brown had cried:
"The veiled woman!"
"You see," Nora breathed.
Garth lifted the secretary to the bed, but when, to an extent, the man
had recovered consciousness he had nothing reasonable to tell.
He had started, he said, up the stairs, thinking Garth at his heels. He
had been about to press the switch.
"I knew she was there," he sobbed. "I saw her--all white, and with a
veil over her face. Then I don't know. I don't remember being struck.
Everything went black."
Garth with a gesture of determination turned and commenced examining the
room. Nora, crouched against the wall, watched him with the assurance of
one who sees an evil prophecy fulfilled. After a quarter of an hour he
gave it up. There was no one concealed in the room. Nor, he would have
sworn, was there any reasonable hiding place. From behind the screen
where the veiled woman had evidently disappeared twice there was no
possible escape.
"Before long, Marvin," he muttered, "I'll be as bad as you and old
Alsop. If you believe in ghosts, Nora, this certainly looks like one."
He glanced at his watch.
"Are you still anxious to try that plan of yours after what you've
seen?"
She nodded. She went uncertainly from the room. Marvin stumbled after
them. They helped him down the stairs and to a sofa in the lower hall.
Garth led Nora to the west door.
"We've less than ten minutes," he said, "and I don't understand. I'd
rather you kept out of it."
In silence and with determination she slipped on the white gown she had
brought and draped the white veil over her face. Garth, shaking his
head, arranged a screen just within the doorway. He turned out the
electric lamp, lighted a single candle, and placed it on a stand at some
distance.
"Wait behind the screen," he said. "Actually, Nora, unless we are
dealing with something beyond the human, the result is certain. I shall
be at the other end of the hall just within the library door. Anybody
coming from the interior of the house must pass me. I'll grab the woman.
I'll see she makes no outcry. I'll keep her out of the way for she must
be human to that extent. When you hear the two raps open the door and
take the bomb. According to Alsop's description you won't be suspected
in this light. A little over five minutes! I'll get Alsop and his crew
out of the library and where their precious skins will be safe."
He touched her hand in farewell. Her fingers were very cold. She
shivered and slipped behind the screen. He went to the library, knocked,
entered, and closed the door. The faces that greeted him were restless
with misgiving.
"I want you all out of this room now, please," Garth said. "I've delayed
moving you as long as I dared, so, if anything goes wrong, those outside
won't know you have left. Take them to the back part of the house, Mr.
Alsop. Into the cellar, if you like. It's safest. In fifteen or twenty
minutes I hope you will be able to resume your conference in perfect
security."
Without words the men gathered up their papers and filed out.
Garth, left alone in the room, turned out the light, went to the window,
slipped behind the curtain, opened the casement, and peered through.
The darkness was still unrelieved. Through that darkness, he knew, men
crept on an errand of fanaticism and death. Through that silence he was
momentarily expectant of the audible evidence of their approach. But he
could hear nothing, see nothing. He couldn't wait. It was necessary for
him to go to the door from behind which he was to ambush the veiled
woman in order that Nora might take her place.
As he thrust the curtain aside a thin, tinkling sound stole from the
silence of the room. He felt his way to the telephone and lifted the
receiver.
"Hello!" he whispered. "Hello!"
The inspector's hoarse voice came to him, lowered to a note of caution.
"You, Garth? I'm in the gardener's cottage. Tell me Alsop and his people
are safe."
"Yes," Garth said. "Hurry! Hurry! What's up?"
"For Heaven's sake, be careful," the inspector answered, "because,
Garth, all your dope was right. There are four of them in the grounds
now, and one carries a thing that looks like a bomb. Are you going to
get away with it? The veiled woman--"
"She's in the house," Garth murmured. "I'm waiting. I must go. Hush! I
hear--"
He broke off. Through the appalling quietness of the house he had heard
distinctly from the direction of the west door two sharp raps. He
flashed his light at the clock over the mantel. Its hands pointed
exactly to nine o'clock. Yet he had seen no one pass the dim frame of
the library doorway--nothing white.
He ran through. In the wan candle light he could see the slender figure
in the white gown and the flowing veil slip from behind the screen and
open the door. Then Nora would get the bomb, but where was the real
veiled woman? What unaccountable intuition had warned her away?
Garth slipped along the hall, clinging to the shadow of a tapestry. He
knew from the black patch at the end of the corridor that the door was
wide. In that dark patch he suddenly saw the silhouette of a man. The
hands were stretched out as if to meet the hands which Nora appeared to
offer for the bomb. But the man carried no bomb. In the dim light Garth
thought at first that he carried nothing. Then he understood his
mistake, and he cried out, drawing his own revolver, darting forward:
"Nora! Look out!"
He had seen that the man's fingers fondled an automatic, raised it,
aimed it at the confident, expectant figure.
"For police spies!" the man called.
Before Garth could reach the door the harsh, tearing report of the
automatic came, and was repeated twice. There was no question. At that
short range each sound from the stubby cylinder was the voice of death.
Garth saw the form that he loved sway, clutch at nothing, without a cry
crumple and lie motionless across the threshold.
Before the other could turn his gun on him the detective had grappled
with the murderer. He bore him to the porch floor and struck him across
the temple with the butt of his revolver. Garth arose then, and,
scarcely aware of what he did, placed his police whistle at his lips,
and blew shrilly through the night.
While he waited for the help that he knew would be too late for Nora or
for him, he gazed at the silent, slender form. The veil alone moved,
trembling from time to time in the wind which came gently from the
woods. That reached the candle also, which flickered, making the light
ghastly, unbearable.
* * * * * *
Garth shook. He covered his face with his hands, for the dim, unreal
illumination had shown him that the figure was no longer completely
white. The reason for its stillness exposed a scarlet testimony.
That which Garth had feared but had forgotten in the rush of his more
personal terror rent the silence with a chaotic turmoil. A terrific
detonation was followed by the shattering of glass. Shouts and curses
arose from the house. Someone hurried across the drive and up the steps.
Garth was aware of a heavy hand on his shoulder. He glanced up at the
inspector's startled face. Suddenly the detective realized that the old
man had no misgivings for Nora. At this moment, with the white form at
his feet, he must picture her quietly, safely at home. Garth moved away,
but the inspector grasped him again.
"What's the matter with you? You've let them use their infernal bomb.
You're responsible for Alsop and his people."
"They're safe," Garth answered.
The candle still burned. In its wan and flickering light he indicated
the still, white figure.
"The veiled woman!" the inspector said. "Dead!"
He stooped swiftly.
"You've done well here anyway, Garth. Let's have a look."
Frantically Garth snatched at his arm and tried to pull him away.
"Don't look! Not you!"
The inspector glanced up amazed. Garth knelt with a gesture of despair.
"What's that?" the inspector whispered, and his voice was suddenly
afraid. Garth followed his glance. From the black shadows of the woods a
white figure glided. Its face was hidden beneath a white cloth.
Garth's shaking fingers reached out and lifted the stained veil from the
silent form. He drew back. His cry was like a sob. For a long time the
inspector and Garth stared at the features, apprehensive even in death,
of the secretary, Marvin.
* * * * * *
Nora, who ran up the steps crying out her fear for those in the house,
gave Garth no opportunity for questions or for the expression of that
relief which shook him with a power nearly physical. Even the inspector,
after his first shock of surprise, had no time to demand the particulars
of her share in the night's work.
The four prisoners were brought to the hall. They knew they must stand
trial for Brown's death as well as for this attempt. The one who had
shot Marvin and who had gone down before Garth's attack was still dazed.
Garth identified him as the man who had disguised himself as an Oriental
in the shop. The sharp face of the Levantine twitched with hatred and
fright. The other two, although he knew the type, the detective had
never seen before. They boasted openly that the shop had been only an
outpost for this affair. Through a dictaphone and the telegraphy of the
pipe, instructions had been sent to and from their headquarters.
To-night, they declared, the shop had ceased to be useful. No trail
would lead from it to the central force that worked in New York.
As they drove home in a taxicab the inspector bitterly lamented the fact
to Garth and Nora.
"We'll get to it later," Garth said.
"If only things hadn't gone wrong at the last minute!" Nora cried. "If
only I might have taken the bomb and talked to the man who brought it!
Even with the others! For it's clear those fellows will give nothing
away now. We can blame poor Marvin that I never had a chance."
"What do you mean?" Garth asked. "You haven't told us what happened when
I left you by the west door."
"You remember we had got Marvin on a sofa in the hall," Nora answered.
"He must have seen you close the door when you went in the library to
warn Alsop and the others, because from my hiding place I saw him get
up, and, with no appearance of an injured man, sneak along the wall to
the stairs. I followed him up, and, Jim, I found him on the floor in his
room again, but this time he didn't hear me, and he was talking. Then I
saw his whole game. There was a dictaphone hidden beneath the bed with
which he had probably communicated with those outside the house for
days. We had stopped him the first time when he had just learned of my
intended masquerade. Don't you see? He had to tell them that. We caught
him, and he scratched himself to throw us off the track with the details
of another case like Brown's. Now I heard him tell everything--just what
I was to do, and that Alsop and the others were in the library. I ran
downstairs, but when I reached the lower hall I saw him coming after me.
So I said I had changed my mind, that I was afraid, that I wanted only
to leave the house. I went to the kitchen and slipped out, intending to
get to you, Jim, with my information. But I knew these men were in the
grounds, and I had to go carefully. When I crept up to the library
window I thought I saw you. Then the telephone bell rang, and I couldn't
make you hear."
"Of course," Garth said, "Marvin, coming down, had seen that the library
door was open, and that there was no longer a light there. It was too
late to use the dictaphone again, but he knew he must change his
instructions and tell them not to waste the bomb in the library. So he
threw on his disguise and rushed to the west door as he had originally
planned, in too much of a hurry to dream such a mistake could happen. I
suppose he got past while I was at the window."
"Marvin," the inspector mused, "was just the man for them. Probably full
of wild-eyed ideas, and feeling a divine call to help smash Alsop. I
hold no brief for that millionaire. I understand he had to work, like
most everybody else, for what he's got, and maybe that's the reason he
can't understand these new social notions. And far be it from me to say
anything about Marvin's grand thoughts, although it may be his share in
this affair was made worth his while. My part in life is to see that the
law's kept, and I guess without the law there wouldn't be anything much
worth while for anybody to fight over. These rough boys had certainly
fixed Marvin to help them break the law into little bits of pieces. So
maybe he deserves just what he got. Alsop tells me he didn't trust any
of his employes with his schemes for putting a stop to socialistic
movements in his concerns, and that's where the big hitch came. Marvin,
whenever he knew there were private papers in the house, was always
searching. He had a key to Alsop's door. He used that old ghost story,
and dressed himself up in case any of the servants should see him. Their
fright would give him time to cover himself. When Alsop did catch him he
came across with the terrible experiences he had had himself with the
veiled woman. Ought to have got on to him before."
"It wasn't easy to suspect him," Nora said, "particularly after we had
seen the housekeeper's curiosity, and had found him, apparently
unconscious, in his room. He was really too frightened at the flat, and
we might have suspected when Jim heard those directions at the shop.
Such luck as that doesn't often happen. It's easily explained now. The
time it took you, Jim, to go to the hospital and to visit the shop was
just the time he needed to return to Wall Street with Mr. Alsop, make
some excuse, and get into the shop by a back way to receive his new
orders. It was simple enough."
The inspector grunted.
"If we saw all the simple things there'd be no need for detectives."
He commenced to cough with a persistent vehemence.
"Take me home, Nora," he groaned. "Back to the fireplace and the flannel
for the old man. You're always right, Nora. Isn't she always right,
Garth?"
But Garth, recalling that moment before Nora and he had entered the
Alsop house, shook his head. Nora must have seen and understood, for she
laughed lightly.
"Maybe she is," Garth said thoughtfully, "but sometimes I wonder."