FLANK ATTACKS
Somewhat tired, having ridden that day to Poughkeepsie and back, Petch,
nevertheless, put up a great race after the fleeing motor-car.
His muscles were rejuvenated by Polly Barnard's exciting news and no
less by admiration for the girl herself. Little thinking that Jim, the
plumber, was performing deeds of derring-do in the hall of Gateway
House, he congratulated himself on the lucky chance which enabled him to
oblige the fair Polly. He dashed into the road to Hoboken, and found, to
his joy, that the dust raised by the passage of the car gave an
unfailing clue to its route. Now, a well-regulated motor-cycle can run
rings round any other form of automobile, no matter how many horses may
be pent in the cylinders, if on an ordinary road and subjected to the
exigencies of traffic.
Voles, break-neck driver though he was, dared not disregard the traffic
regulations and risk a smash-up. He got the best out of the engine, but
was compelled to go steadily through clusters of houses and around
tree-shaded corners. To his great amazement, as he was tearing through
the last habitations before crossing the New Jersey flats, he was hailed
loudly from behind:
"Hi, you--pull up!"
He glanced over his shoulder. A motor-cyclist, white with dust, was
riding after him with tremendous energy.
"Hola!" cried Voles, snatching another look. "What's the matter?"
Petch should have temporized, done one of a hundred things he thought of
too late; but he was so breathless after the terrific sprint in which he
overtook Voles that he blurted out:
"I know you--you can't escape--there's the girl herself--I see her!"
"Hell!"
Voles urged on the car by foot and finger. After him pelted Petch, with
set teeth and straining eyes. The magnificent car, superb in its
energies, swept through the night like the fiery dragon of song and
fable, but with a speed never attained by dragon yet, else there would
be room on earth for nothing save dragons. And the motor-cycle leaped
and bounded close behind, stuttering its resolve to conquer the monster
in front.
The pair created a great commotion as they whirred past scattered houses
and emerged into the keen, cold air of the marshland. A few cars met en
route actually slowed up, and heads were thrust out to peer in wonder.
Women in them were scared, and enjoined drivers to be careful, while men
explained laughingly that a couple of joy-riders were being chased by a
motor "cop."
It was neck or nothing now for Voles, and when these alternatives
offered, he never hesitated as to which should be chosen. He knew he was
in desperate case.
The pace; the extraordinary appearance of a hatless man and a girl with
her hair streaming wild--for Winifred's abundant tresses had soon shed
all restraint of pins and twists before the tearing wind of their
transit--would create a tumult in Hoboken. Something must be done. He
must stop the car and shoot that pestiferous cyclist, who had sprung out
of the ground as though one of Medusa's teeth had lain buried there
throughout the ages, and become a panoplied warrior at a woman's cry.
He looked ahead. There was no car in sight. He peered over his shoulder.
There was no cyclist! Petch had not counted on this frenzied race, and
his petrol-tank was empty. He had pulled up disconsolately half a mile
away, and was now borrowing a gallon of gas from an Orange-bound car,
explaining excitedly that he was "after" a murderer!
Voles laughed. The fiend's luck, which seldom fails the fiend's
votaries, had come to his aid in a highly critical moment. There
remained Winifred. She, too, must be dealt with. Now, all who have
experienced the effect of an anesthetic will understand that after the
merely stupefying power of the gas has waned there follows a long period
of semi-hysteria, when actual existence is dreamlike, and impressions of
events are evanescent. Winifred, therefore, hardly appreciated what was
taking place until the car stopped abruptly, and the stupor of cold
passed almost simultaneously with the stupor of anesthesia.
But Voles had his larger plan now. With coolness and daring he might
achieve it. All depended on the discretion of those left behind in
Gateway House. It was impossible to keep Winifred always in durance, or
to prevent her everlastingly from obtaining help. That fool of a
cyclist, for instance, had he contented himself with riding quietly
behind until he reached the ferry, would have wrecked the exploit beyond
repair.
There remained one last move, but it was a perfect one in most ways.
Would Fowle keep his mouth shut? Voles cursed Fowle in his thought. Were
it not for Fowle there would have been no difficulty. Carshaw would
never have met Winifred, and the girl would have been as wax in the
hands of Rachel Craik. He caught hold of Winifred's arm.
"If you scream I'll choke you!" he said fiercely.
Shaken by the chloroform mixture, benumbed as the outcome of an
unprotected drive, the girl was physically as well as mentally unable to
resist. He coiled her hair into a knot, gagged her dexterously with a
silk handkerchief--Voles knew all about gags--and tied her hands behind
her back with a shoe-lace. Then he adjusted the hood and side-screens.
He did these things hurriedly, but without fumbling. He was losing
precious minutes, for the telephone-wire might yet throttle him; but the
periods of waiting at the ferry and while crossing the Hudson must be
circumvented in some way or other. His last act before starting the car
was to show Winifred the revolver he never lacked.
"See this!" he growled into her ear. "I'm not going to be held by any
cop. At the least sign of a move by you to attract attention I'll put
the first bullet through the cop, the second through you, and the third
through myself, if I can't make my get-away. Better believe that. I mean
it."
He asked for no token of understanding on her part. He was stating only
the plain facts. In a word, Voles was born to be a great man, and an
unhappy fate had made him a scoundrel. But fortune still befriended him.
Rain fell as he drove through Hoboken. The ferry was almost deserted,
and the car was wedged in between two huge mail-vans on board the boat.
Hardened rascal though he was, Voles breathed a sigh of relief as he
drove unchallenged past a uniformed policeman on arriving at Christopher
Street. He guessed his escape was only a matter of minutes. In reality,
he was gone some ten seconds when the policeman was called to the phone.
As for Petch, that valorous knight-errant crossed on the next boat, and
the Hoboken police were already on the _qui vive_.
Every road into and out of New York was soon watched by sharp eyes on
the lookout for a car bearing a license numbered in the tens of
thousands, and tenanted by a hatless man and a girl in indoor costume.
Quickly the circles lessened in concentric rings through the agencies of
telephone-boxes and roundsmen.
At half past nine a patrolman found a car answering the description
standing outside an up-town saloon on the East Side. Examining the
register number he saw at once that blacking had been smeared over the
first and last figures. Then he knew. But there was no trace of the
driver. Voles and Winifred had vanished into thin air.
Mrs. Carshaw, breakfasting with a haggard and weary son, revealed that
Senator Meiklejohn was at Atlantic City. He kissed her for the news.
"Meiklejohn must wait, mother," he said. "Winifred is somewhere in New
York. I cannot tear myself away to Atlantic City to-day. When I have
found her, I shall deal with Meiklejohn."
Then came Steingall, and he and Mrs. Carshaw exchanged a glance which
the younger man missed.
Mrs. Carshaw, sitting a while in deep thought after the others had gone,
rang up a railway company. Atlantic City is four hours distant from New
York. By hurrying over certain inquiries she wished to make, she might
catch a train at midday.
She drove to her lawyers. At her request a smart clerk was lent to her
for a couple of hours. They consulted various records. The clerk made
many notes on foolscap sheets in a large, round hand, and Mrs. Carshaw,
seated in the train, read them many times through her gold-mounted
lorgnette.
It was five o'clock when a taxi brought her to the Marlborough-Blenheim
Hotel, and Senator Meiklejohn was the most astonished man on the Jersey
coast at the moment when she entered unannounced, for Mrs. Carshaw had
simply said to the elevator-boy: "Take me to Senator Meiklejohn's
sitting-room."
Undeniably he was startled; but playing desperately for high stakes had
steadied him somewhat. Perhaps the example of his stronger brother had
some value, too, for he rose with sufficient affability.
"What a pleasant _rencontre_, Mrs. Carshaw," he said. "I had no notion
you were within a hundred miles of the Board Walk."
"That is not surprising," she answered, sinking into a comfortable
chair. "I have just arrived. Order me some sandwiches and a cup of tea.
I'm famished."
He obeyed.
"I take it you have come to see me?" he said, quietly enough, though
aware of a queer fluttering about the region of his heart.
"Yes. I am so worried about Rex."
"Dear me! The girl?"
"It is always a woman. How you men must loathe us in your sane moments,
if you ever have any."
"I flatter myself that I am sane, yet how could I say that I loathe
_your_ sex, Mrs. Carshaw?"
"I wonder if your flattery will bear analysis. But there! No serious
talk until I am refreshed. Do ring for some biscuits; sandwiches are apt
to be slow in the cutting."
Thus by pretext she kept him from direct converse until a tea-tray, with
a film of _pate de fois_ coyly hidden in thin bread and butter, formed,
as it were, a rampart between them.
"How did you happen on my address?" he asked smilingly.
It was the first shell of real warfare, and she answered in kind: "That
was quite easy. The people at the detective bureau know it."
The words hit him like a bullet.
"The Bureau!" he cried.
"Yes. The officials there are interested in the affairs of Winifred
Marchbanks."
He went ashen-gray, but essayed, nevertheless, to turn emotion into mere
amazement. He was far too clever a man to pretend a blank negation. The
situation was too strenuous for any species of ostrich device.
"I seem to remember that name," he said slowly, moistening his lips with
his tongue.
"Of course you do. You have never forgotten it. Let us have a friendly
chat about her, Senator. My son is going to marry her. That is why I am
here."
She munched her sandwiches and sipped her tea. This experienced woman of
the world, now boldly declared on the side of romance, was far too
astute to force the man to desperation unless it was necessary. He must
be given breathing-time, permitted to collect his wits. She was sure of
her ground. Her case was not legally strong. Meiklejohn would discover
that defect, and, indeed, it was not her object to act legally. If
others could plot and scheme, she would have a finger in the pie--that
was all. And behind her was the clear brain of Steingall, who had camped
for days near the Senator in Atlantic City, and had advised the mother
how to act for her son.
There was a long silence. She ate steadily.
"Perhaps you will be good enough to state explicitly why you are here,
Mrs. Carshaw," said Meiklejohn at last.
She caught the ring of defiance in his tone. She smiled. There was to be
verbal sword-play, and she was armed _cap-a-pie_.
"Just another cup of tea," she pleaded, and he wriggled uneasily in his
chair. The delay was torturing him. She unrolled her big sheets of
notes. He looked over at them with well-simulated indifference.
"I have an engagement--" he began, looking at his watch.
"You must put it off," she said, with sudden heat. "The most important
engagement of your life is here, now, in this room, William Meiklejohn.
I mentioned the detective bureau when I entered. Which do you prefer to
encounter--me or an emissary of the police?"
He paled again. Evidently this society lady had claws, and would use
them if annoyed.
"I do not think that I have said anything to warrant such language to
me," he murmured, striving to smile deprecatingly. He succeeded but
poorly.
"You sent me to drive out into the world the girl whom my son loved,"
was the retort. "You made a grave mistake in that. I recognized her,
after a little while. I knew her mother. Now, am I to go into details?"
"I--really--I--"
"Very well. Eighteen years ago your brother, Ralph Vane Meiklejohn,
murdered a man named Marchbanks, who had discovered that you and your
brother were defrauding his wife of funds held by your bank as her
trustees. I have here the records of the crime. I do not say that your
brother, who has since been a convict and is now assisting you under the
name of Ralph Voles, could be charged with that crime. Maybe 'murderer'
is too strong a word for him where Marchbanks was concerned; but I do
say that any clever lawyer could send you and him to the penitentiary
for robbing a dead woman and her daughter, the girl whom you and he have
kidnapped within the last week."
Here was a broadside with a vengeance. Meiklejohn could not have endured
a keener agony were he facing a judge and jury. It was one thing to
have borne this terrible secret gnawing at his vitals during long years,
but it was another to find it pitilessly laid bare by a woman belonging
to that very society for which he had dared so much in order to retain
his footing.
He bent his head between his hands. For a few seconds thoughts of
another crime danced in his surcharged brain. But Mrs. Carshaw's
well-bred syllables brought him back to sanity with chill
deliberateness.
"Shall I go on?" she said. "Shall I tell you of Rachel Bartlett; of the
scandal to be raised about your ears, not only by this falsified trust,
but by the outrageous attack on Ronald Tower?"
He raised his pallid face. He was a proud man, and resented her
merciless taunts.
"Of course," he muttered, "I deny everything you have said. But, if it
were true, you must have some ulterior motive in approaching me. What is
it?"
"I am glad you see that. I am here to offer terms."
"Name them."
"You must place this girl, Winifred Marchbanks, under my care--where she
will remain until my son marries her--and make restitution of her
mother's property."
"No doubt you have a definite sum in your mind?"
"Most certainly. My lawyers tell me you ought to refund the interest as
well, but Winifred may content herself with the principal. You must hand
her half a million dollars!"
He sprang to his feet, livid. "Woman," he yelled, "you are crazy!"