AT THE HAIRDRESSER'S
What had happened was very simple. The confessional box from which Alice
had vanished was one not in use at the moment, owing to repairs in the wall
behind it. These repairs had necessitated the removal of several large
stones, replaced temporarily by lengths of supporting timbers between which
a person might easily pass. Coquenil, with his habit of careful
observation, had remarked this fact during his night in the church, and now
he had taken advantage of it to effect Alice's escape. The girl had entered
the confessional in the usual way, had remained there long enough to let
Groener hear her voice, and had then slipped out through the open wall into
the sacristy passage beyond. _And the priest was Tignol!_
"I scored on him that time," chuckled Coquenil, rubbing away at the
woodwork and thinking of Alice hastening to the safe place he had chosen
for her.
"M. Matthieu!" called Groener. "Would you mind coming here a moment?"
"I was just going to ask you to look at these carvings," replied Matthieu,
coming forward innocently.
"No, no," answered the other excitedly, "a most unfortunate thing has
happened. Look at that!" and he opened the door of the confessional. "She
has gone--run away!"
Matthieu stared in blank surprise. "Name of a pipe!" he muttered. "Not your
cousin?"
Groener nodded with half-shut eyes in which the detective caught a flash of
black rage, but only a flash. In a moment the man's face was placid and
good-natured as before.
"Yes," he said quietly, "my cousin has run away. It makes me sad
because--Sit down a minute, M. Matthieu, I'll tell you about it."
"We'll be more quiet in here," suggested Matthieu, indicating the sacristy.
The wood carver shook his head. "I'd sooner go outside, if you don't mind.
Will you join me in a glass at the tavern?"
His companion, marveling inwardly, agreed to this, and a few moments later
the two men were seated under the awning of the Three Wise Men.
"Now," began Groener, with perfect simplicity and friendliness, "I'll
explain the trouble between Alice and me. I've had a hard time with that
girl, M. Matthieu, a very hard time. If it wasn't for her mother, I'd have
washed my hands of her long ago; but her mother was a fine woman, a noble
woman. It's true she made one mistake that ruined her life and practically
killed her, still----"
"What mistake was that?" inquired Matthieu with sympathy.
"Why, she married an American who was--the less we say about him the
better. The point is, Alice is half American, and ever since she has been
old enough to take notice, she has been crazy about American men." He
leaned closer and, lowering his voice, added: "That's why I had to send her
to Paris five years ago."
"You don't say!"
"She was only thirteen then, but well developed and very pretty and--M.
Matthieu, she got gone on an American who was spending the winter in
Brussels, a married man. I had to break it up somehow, so I sent her away.
Yes, sir." He shook his head sorrowfully.
"And now it's another American, a man in prison, charged with a horrible
crime. Think of that! As soon as Mother Bonneton wrote me about it, I saw
I'd have to take the girl away again. I told her this morning she must pack
up her things and go back to Brussels with me, and that made the trouble."
"Ah!" exclaimed Matthieu with an understanding nod. "Then she knew at
luncheon that you would take her back to Brussels?"
"Of course she did. You know how she acted; she had made up her mind she
wouldn't go. Only she was tricky about it. She knew I had my eye on her, so
she got this priest to help her."
Now the other stared in genuine astonishment. "Why--was the priest in it?"
"Was he in it? Of course he was in it. He was the whole thing. This Father
Anselm has been encouraging the girl for months, filling her up with
nonsense about how it's right for a young girl to choose her own husband.
Mother Bonneton told me."
"You mean that Father Anselm helped her to run away?" gasped Matthieu.
"Of course he did. You saw him come out of the confessional, didn't you?"
"I was too far away to see his face," replied the other, studying the wood
carver closely. "Did _you_ see his face?"
"Certainly I did. He passed within ten feet of me. I saw his face
distinctly."
"Are you sure it was he? I don't doubt you, M. Groener, but I'm a sort of
official here and this is a serious charge, so I ask if you are _sure_ it
was Father Anselm?".
"I'm absolutely sure it was Father Anselm," answered the wood carver
positively. He paused a moment while the detective wondered what was the
meaning of this extraordinary statement. Why was the man giving him these
details about Alice, and how much of them was true? Did Groener know he was
talking to Paul Coquenil? If so, he knew that Coquenil must know he was
lying about Father Anselm. Then why say such a thing? What was his game?
[Illustration: "'You mean that Father Anselm helped her to run away?'
gasped Matthieu."]
"Have another glass?" asked the wood carver. "Or shall we go on?"
"Go on--where?"
"Oh, of course, you don't know my plan. I will tell you. You see, I must
find Alice, I must try to save her from this folly, for her mother's sake.
Well, I know how to find her."
He spoke so earnestly and straightforwardly that Coquenil began to think
Groener had really been deceived by the Matthieu disguise. After all, why
not? Tignol had been deceived by it.
"How will you find her?"
"I'll tell you as we drive along. We'll take a cab and--you won't leave me,
M. Matthieu?" he said anxiously.
Coquenil tried to soften the grimness of his smile. "No, M. Groener, I
won't leave you."
"Good! Now then!" He threw down some money for the drinks, then he hailed a
passing carriage.
"Rue Tronchet, near the Place de la Madeleine," he directed, and as they
rolled away, he added: "Stop at the nearest telegraph office."
The adventure was taking a new turn. Groener, evidently, had some definite
plan which he hoped to carry out. Coquenil felt for cigarettes in his coat
pocket and his hand touched the friendly barrel of a revolver. Then he
glanced back and saw the big automobile, which had been waiting for hours,
trailing discreetly behind with Tignol (no longer a priest) and two sturdy
fellows, making four men with the chauffeur, all ready to rush up for
attack or defense at the lift of his hand. There must be some miraculous
interposition if this man beside him, this baby-faced wood carver, was to
get away now as he did that night on the Champs Elysées.
"You'll be paying for that left-handed punch, old boy, before very long,"
said Coquenil to himself.
"Now," resumed Groener, as the cab turned into a quiet street out of the
noisy traffic of the Rue de Rivoli, "I'll tell you how I expect to find
Alice. I'm going to find her through the sister of Father Anselm."
"The sister of Father Anselm!" exclaimed the other.
"Certainly. Priests have sisters, didn't you know that? Ha, ha! She's a
hairdresser on the Rue Tronchet, kind-hearted woman with children of her
own. She comes to see the Bonnetons and is fond of Alice. Well, she'll know
where the girl has gone, and I propose to make her tell me."
"To make her?"
"Oh, she'll want to tell me when she understands what this means to her
brother. Hello! Here's the telegraph office! Just a minute."
He sprang lightly from the cab and hurried across the sidewalk. At the same
moment Coquenil lifted his hand and brought it down quickly, twice, in the
direction of the doorway through which Groener had passed. And a moment
later Tignol was in the telegraph office writing a dispatch beside the wood
carver.
"I've telegraphed the Paris agent of a big furniture dealer in Rouen,"
explained the latter as they drove on, "canceling an appointment for
to-morrow. He was coming on especially, but I can't see him--I can't do any
business until I've found Alice. She's a sweet girl, in spite of
everything, and I'm very fond of her." There was a quiver of emotion in his
voice.
"Are you going to the hairdresser's now?" asked Matthieu.
"Yes. Of course she may refuse to help me, but I _think_ I can persuade her
with you to back me up." He smiled meaningly.
"I? What can I do?"
"Everything, my friend. You can testify that Father Anselm planned Alice's
escape, which is bad for him, as his sister will realize. I'll say to her:
'Now, my dear Madam Page'--that's her name--'you're not going to force me
and my friend, M. Matthieu--he's waiting outside, in a cab--you're not
going to force us to charge your reverend brother with abducting a young
lady? That wouldn't be a nice story to tell the commissary of police, would
it? You're too intelligent a woman, Madam Page, to allow such a thing,
aren't you?' And she'll see the point mighty quick. She'll probably drive
right back with us to Notre-Dame and put a little sense into her brother's
shaven head. It's four o'clock now," he concluded gayly; "I'll bet you we
have Alice with us for dinner by seven, and it will be a good dinner, too.
Understand you dine with us, M. Matthieu."
The man's effrontery was prodigious and there was so much plausibility in
his glib chatter that, in spite of himself, Coquenil kept a last lingering
wonder if Groener _could_ be telling the truth. If not, what was his motive
in this elaborate fooling? He must know that his hypocrisy and deceit would
presently be exposed. So what did he expect to gain by it? What could he be
driving at?
"Stop at the third doorway in the Rue Tronchet," directed the wood carver
as they entered the Place de la Madeleine, and pointing to a hairdresser's
sign, he added: "There is her place, up one flight. Now, if you will be
patient for a few minutes, I think I'll come back with good news."
As Groener stepped from the carriage, Coquenil was on the point of seizing
him and stopping this farce forthwith. What would he gain by waiting? Yet,
after all, what would he lose? With four trained men to guard the house
there was no chance of the fellow escaping, and it was possible his visit
here might reveal something. Besides, a detective has the sportsman's
instinct, he likes to play his fish before landing it.
"All right," nodded M. Paul, "I'll be patient," and as the wood carver
disappeared, he signaled Tignol to surround the house.
"He's trying to lose us," said the old fox, hurrying up a moment later.
"There are three exits here."
"Three?"
"Don't you know this place?"
"What do you mean?"
"There's a passage from the first courtyard into a second one, and from
that you can go out either into the Place de la Madeleine or the Rue de
l'Arcade. I've got a man at each exit but"----he shook his head
dubiously--"one man may not be enough."
"_Tonnere de Dieu_, it's Madam Cecile's!" cried Coquenil. Then he gave
quick orders: "Put the chauffeur with one of your men in the Rue de
l'Arcade, bring your other man here and we'll double him up with this
driver. Listen," he said to the jehu; "you get twenty francs extra to help
watch this doorway for the man who just went in. We have a warrant for his
arrest. You mustn't let him get past. Understand?"
"Twenty francs," grinned the driver, a red-faced Norman with rugged
shoulders; "he won't get past, you can sleep on your two ears for that."
Meantime, Tignol had returned with one of his men, who was straightway
stationed in the courtyard.
"Now," went on Coquenil, "you and I will take the exit on the Place de la
Madeleine. It's four to one he comes out there."
"Why is it?" grumbled Tignol.
"Never mind why," answered the other brusquely, and he walked ahead,
frowning, until they reached an imposing entrance with stately palms on
the white stone floor and the glimpse of an imposing stairway.
"Of course, of course," muttered M. Paul. "To think that I had forgotten
it! After all, one loses some of the old tricks in two years."
"Remember that blackmail case," whispered Tignol, "when we sneaked the
countess out by the Rue de l'Arcade? Eh, eh, eh, what a close shave!"
Coquenil nodded. "Here's one of the same kind." He glanced at a sober
_coupé_ from which a lady, thickly veiled, was descending, and he followed
her with a shrug as she entered the house.
"To think that some of the smartest women in Paris come here!" he mused.
Then to Tignol: "How about that telegram?"
The old man stroked his rough chin. "The clerk gave me a copy of it, all
right, when I showed my papers. Here it is and--much good it will do us."
He handed M. Paul a telegraph blank on which was written:
DUBOIS, 20 Rue Chalgrin.
Special bivouac amateur bouillon danger must have Sahara easily
Groener arms impossible.
FELIX.
"I see," nodded Coquenil; "it ought to be an easy cipher. We must look up
Dubois," and he put the paper in his pocket. "Better go in now and locate
this fellow. Look over the two courtyards, have a word with the
doorkeepers, see if he really went into the hairdresser's; if not, find out
where he did go. Tell our men at the other exits not to let a yellow dog
slip past without sizing it up for Groener."
"I'll tell 'em," grinned the old man, and he slouched away.
For five minutes Coquenil waited at the Place de la Madeleine exit and it
seemed a long time. Two ladies arrived in carriages and passed inside
quickly with exaggerated self-possession. A couple came down the stairs
smiling and separated coldly at the door. Then a man came out alone, and
the detective's eyes bored into him. It wasn't Groener.
Finally, Tignol returned and reported all well at the other exits; no one
had gone out who could possibly be the wood carver. Groener had not been
near the hairdresser; he had gone straight through into the second
courtyard, and from there he had hurried up the main stairway.
"The one that leads to Madam Cecile's?" questioned M. Paul.
"Yes, but Cecile has only two floors. There are two more above hers."
"You think he went higher up?"
"I'm sure he did, for I spoke to Cecile herself. She wouldn't dare lie to
me, and she says she has seen no such man as Groener."
"Then he's in one of the upper apartments now?"
"He must be."
Coquenil turned back and forth, snapping his fingers softly. "I'm nervous,
Papa Tignol," he said; "I ought not to have let him go in here, I ought to
have nailed him when I had him. He's too dangerous a man to take chances
with and--_mille tonneres_, the roof!"
Tignol shook his head. "I don't think so. He might get through one scuttle,
but he'd have a devil of a time getting in at another. He has no tools."
Coquenil looked at his watch. "He's been in there fifteen minutes. I'll
give him five minutes more. If he isn't out then, we'll search the whole
block from roof to cellar. Papa Tignol, it will break my heart if this
fellow gets away."
He laid an anxious hand on his companion's arm and stood moodily silent,
then suddenly his fingers closed with a grip that made the old man wince.
"Suffering gods!" muttered the detective, "he's coming!"
As he spoke the glass door at the foot of the stairs opened and a handsome
couple advanced toward them, both dressed in the height of fashion, the
woman young and graceful, the man a perfect type of the dashing
_boulevardier_.
"No, no, you're crazy," whispered Tignol.
As the couple reached the sidewalk, Coquenil himself hesitated. In the
better light he could see no resemblance between the wood carver and this
gentleman with his smart clothes, his glossy silk hat, and his haughty
eyeglass. The wood carver's hair was yellowish brown, this man's was dark,
tinged with gray; the wood carver wore a beard and mustache, this man was
clean shaven--finally, the wood carver was shorter and heavier than this
man.
While the detective wavered, the gentleman stepped forward courteously and
opened the door of a waiting _coupé_. The lady caught up her silken skirts
and was about to enter when Coquenil brushed against her, as if by
accident, and her purse fell to the ground.
"Stupid brute!" exclaimed the gentleman angrily, as he bent over and
reached for the purse with his gloved hand.
At the same moment Coquenil seized the extended wrist in such fierce and
sudden attack that, before the man could think of resisting, he was held
helpless with his left arm bent behind him in twisted torture.
"No nonsense, or you'll break your arm," he warned his captive as the
latter made an ineffectual effort against him. "Call the others," he
ordered, and Tignol blew a shrill summons. "Rip off this glove. I want to
see his hand. Come, come, none of that. Open it up. No? I'll _make_ you
open it. There, I thought so," as an excruciating wrench forced the
stubborn fist to yield. "Now then, off with that glove! Ah!" he cried as
the bare hand came to view. "I thought so. It's too bad you couldn't hide
that long little finger! Tignol, quick with the handcuffs! There, I think
we have you safely landed now, _M. Adolf Groener!_"
[Illustration: "'No nonsense, or you'll break your arm.'"]
The prisoner had not spoken a word; now he flashed at Coquenil a look of
withering contempt that the detective long remembered, and, leaning close,
he whispered: "_You poor fool!_"