THE BITER BIT
Mrs. Carshaw focused him again through her gold-rimmed eye-glasses.
"Crazy?" she questioned calmly. "Not a bit of it--merely an old woman
bargaining for her son. Rex would not have done it. After thrashing you
he would have left you to the law, and, were the law to step in, you
would surely be ruined. I, on the other hand, do not scruple to compound
a felony--that is what my lawyers call it. My extravagance and
carelessness have contributed to encumber Rex's estates with a heavy
mortgage. If I provide his wife with a dowry which pays off the mortgage
and leaves her a nice sum as pin-money, I shall have done well."
"Half a million! I--I repudiate your statements. Even if I did not, I
have no such sum at command."
"Yes, you have, or will have, which is the same thing. Shall I give you
details of the Costa Rica cotton concession, arranged between you, and
Jacob, and Helen Tower? They're here. As for repudiation, perhaps I have
hurried matters. Permit me to go through my story at some length,
quoting chapter and verse."
She spread open her papers again, after having folded them.
"Stop this wretched farce," he almost screamed, for her coolness broke
up his never too powerful nervous system. "If--I agree--what guarantee
is there--"
"Ah! now you're talking reasonably. I can ensure the acceptance of my
terms. First, where is Winifred?"
He hesitated. Here was the very verge of the gulf. Any admission implied
the truth of Mrs. Carshaw's words. She did not help him. He must take
the plunge without any further impulsion. But the Senator's nerve was
broken. They both knew it.
"At Gateway House, East Orange," he said sullenly. "I must tell you that
my--my brother is a dare-devil. Better leave me to----"
"I am glad you have told the truth," she interrupted. "She is not at
Gateway House now. Rex and a detective were there last night. There was
a fight. Your brother, a resourceful scoundrel evidently, carried her
off. You must find him and her. A train leaves for New York in half an
hour. Come back with me and help look for her. It will count toward your
regeneration."
He glanced at his watch abstractedly. He even smiled in a sickly way as
he said:
"You timed your visit well."
"Yes. A woman has intuition, you know. It takes the place of brains. I
shall await you in the hall. Now, don't be stupid, and think of
revolvers, and poisons, and things. You will end by blessing me for my
interference. Will you be ready in five minutes?"
She sat in the lounge, and soon saw some baggage descending. Then
Meiklejohn joined her. She went to the office and asked for a telegraph
form. The Senator had followed.
"What are you going to do?" he asked suspiciously.
"I'm wiring Rex to say that you and I are traveling to New York
together, and advising him to suspend operations until we arrive. That
will be helpful. You will not be tempted to act foolishly, and he will
not do anything to prejudice your future actions."
He gave her a wrathful glance. Mrs. Carshaw missed no point. A man
driven to desperation might be tempted to bring about an "accident" if
he fancied he could save himself in that way. But, clever as a mother
scheming for her son's welfare proved herself, there was one thing she
could not do. Neither she nor any other human being can prevent the
unexpected from happening occasionally. Sound judgment and astute
planning will often gain a repute for divination; yet the prophet is
decried at times. Steingall had discovered this, and Mrs. Carshaw
experienced it now.
It chanced that Mick the Wolf, lying in Gateway House on a bed of pain,
his injuries aggravated by the struggle with the detective, and his
temper soured by Rachel Craik's ungracious ministrations, found his
thoughts dwelling on the gentle girl who had forgotten her own sorrows
and tended him, her enemy.
Such moments come to every man, no matter how vile he may be, and this
lorn wolf was a social castaway from whom, during many years, all
decent-minded people had averted their faces. His slow-moving mind was
apt to be dominated by a single idea. He understood enough of the Costa
Rican project to grasp the essential fact that there was money in it for
all concerned, and money honestly earned, if honesty be measured by the
ethics of the stock manipulator.
He realized, too, that neither Voles nor Rachel Craik could be moved by
argument, and he rightly estimated Fowle as a weak-minded nonentity. So
he slowly hammered out a conclusion, and, having appraised it in his
narrow circle of thought, determined to put it into effect.
An East Orange doctor, who had received his instructions from the
police, paid a second visit to Mick the Wolf shortly before the hour of
Mrs. Carshaw's arrival in Atlantic City.
"Well, how is the arm feeling now?" he said pleasantly, when he entered
the patient's bedroom.
The answer was an oath.
"That will never do," laughed the doctor. "Cheerfulness is the most
important factor in healing. Ill-temper causes jerky movements and
careless--"
"Oh, shucks," came the growl. "Say, listen, boss! I've been broke up
twice over a slip of a girl. I've had enough of it. The whole darn thing
is a mistake. I want to end it, an' I don't give a hoorah in Hades who
knows. Just tell her friends that if they look for her on board the
steamer _Wild Duck_, loadin' at Smith's Pier in the East River, they'll
either find her or strike her trail. That's all. Now fix these bandages,
for my arm's on fire."
The doctor wisely put no further questions. He dressed the wounded limb
and took his departure. A policeman in plain clothes, hiding in a
neighboring barn, saw him depart and hailed him: "Any news, Doc?"
"Yes," was the reply. "If my information is correct you'll not be kept
there much longer."
He motored quickly to the police-station. Within the hour Carshaw, with
frowning face and dreams of wreaking physical vengeance on the burly
frame of Voles, was speeding across New York with Steingall in his
recovered car. He simply hungered for a personal combat with the man who
had inflicted such sufferings on his beloved Winifred.
The story told by Polly Barnard, and supplemented by Petch, revealed
very clearly the dastardly trick practised by Voles the previous
evening, while the dodge of smearing out two of the figures on the
automobile's license plate explained the success attained in traversing
the streets unnoticed by the police.
Steingall was inclined to theorize.
"The finding of the car puzzled me at first, I admit," he said. "Now,
assuming that Mick the Wolf has not sent us off on a wild-goose chase,
the locality of the steamer explains it. Voles drove all the way to the
East Side, quitted the car in the neighborhood of the pier, deposited
Miss Bartlett on board the vessel under some plausible pretext, and
actually risked the return journey into the only part of New York where
the missing auto might not be noticed at once. He's a bold rogue, and no
mistake."
But Carshaw answered not. The chief glanced at him sideways, and smiled.
There was a lowering fire in his companion's eyes that told its own
story. Thenceforward, the run was taken in silence. But Steingall had
decided on his next move. When they neared Smith's Pier Carshaw wished
to drive straight there.
"Nothing of the sort," was the sharp official command. "We have failed
once. Perhaps it was my fault. This time there shall be no mistakes.
Turn along the next street to the right. The precinct station is three
blocks down."
Somewhat surprised by Steingall's tone, the other obeyed. At the
station-house a policeman, called from the men's quarters, where he was
quietly reading and smoking, stated that he was on duty in the
neighborhood between eight o'clock the previous evening and four o'clock
that morning. He remembered seeing a car, similar to the one standing
outside, pass about 9.15 P.M. It contained two people, he believed, but
could not be sure, as the screens were raised owing to the rain. He did
not see the car again; some drunken sailors required attention during
the small hours.
The local police captain and several men in plain clothes were asked to
assemble quietly on Smith's Pier. A message was sent to the river
police, and a launch requisitioned to patrol near the _Wild Duck_.
Finally, Steingall, who was a born strategist, and whose long experience
of cross-examining counsel rendered him wary before he took irrevocable
steps in cases such as this, where a charge might fail on unforeseen
grounds, made inquiries from a local ship's chandler as to the _Wild
Duck_, her cargo, and her destination.
There was no secret about her. She was loading with stores for Costa
Rica. The consignees were a syndicate, and both Carshaw and Steingall
recognized its name as that of the venture in which Senator Meiklejohn
was interested.
"Do you happen to know if there is any one on board looking after the
interests of the syndicate?" asked the detective.
"Yes. A big fellow has been down here once or twice. He's going out as
the manager, I guess. His name was--let me see now--"
"Voles?" suggested Steingall.
"No, that wasn't it. Oh, I've got it--Vane, it was."
Carshaw, dreadfully impatient, failed to understand all this preliminary
survey; but the detective had no warrant, and ship's captains become
crusty if their vessels are boarded in a peremptory manner without
justification. Moreover, Steingall quite emphatically ordered Carshaw to
remain on the wharf while he and others went on board.
"You want to strangle Voles, if possible," he said. "From what I've
heard of him he would meet the attempt squarely, and you two might do
each other serious injury. I simply refuse to permit any such thing. You
have a much more pleasant task awaiting you when you meet the young
lady. No one will say a word if you hug her as hard as you like."
Carshaw, agreeing to aught but delay, promised ruefully not to
interfere. When the river police were at hand a nod brought several
powerfully built officers closing in on the main gangway of the _Wild
Duck_. The police-captain, in uniform, accompanied Steingall on board.
A deck hand hailed them and asked their business.
"I want to see the captain," said the detective.
"There he is, boss, lookin' at you from the chart-house now."
They glanced up toward a red-faced, hectoring sort of person who
regarded them with evident disfavor. Some ships, loading for Central
American ports at out-of-the-way wharves, do not want uniformed police
on their decks.
The two climbed an iron ladder. Men at work in the forehold ceased
operations and looked up at them. Their progress was followed by many
interested eyes from the wharf. The captain glared angrily. He, too, had
noted the presence of the stalwart contingent near the gangway, nor had
he missed the police boat.
"What the--" he commenced; but the detective's stern question stopped an
outburst.
"Have you a man named Voles or Vane on board?"
"Mr. Vane--yes."
"Did he bring a young woman to this ship late last night?"
"I don't see--"
"Let me explain, captain. I'm from the detective bureau. The man I am
inquiring for is wanted on several charges."
The steady official tone caused the skipper to think. Here was no
cringing foreigner or laborer to be brow-beaten at pleasure.
"Well, I'm--" he growled. "Here, you," roaring at a man beneath, "go aft
and tell Mr. Vane he's wanted on the bridge."
The messenger vanished.
"I assume there _is_ a young lady on board?" went on Steingall.
"I'm told so. I haven't seen her."
"Surely you know every one who has a right to be on the ship?"
"Guess that's so, mister, an' who has more right than the daughter of
the man who puts up the dough for the trip? Strikes me you're makin' a
hash of things. But here's Mr. Vane. He'll soon put you where you
belong."
Advancing from the after state-rooms came Voles. He was looking at
the bridge, but the police-captain was hidden momentarily by the
chart-room. He gazed at Steingall with bold curiosity. He had a foot
on the companion ladder when he heard a sudden commotion on the wharf.
Turning, he saw Fowle, livid with terror, writhing in Carshaw's grasp.
Then Voles stood still. The shades of night were drawing in, but he had
seen enough to give him pause. Perhaps, too, other less palpable shadows
darkened his soul at that moment.