GROWING ANXIETY
For some moments Kendrick watched him as he moved cautiously from one
vantage point to another, not a little surprised to discover that the
intruder was spying upon the cottage. Some belated camper, probably.
But there was no harm in making sure. Phil crept noiselessly off the
balcony and slipped quietly downstairs and out the back way. It was
his idea to come upon the man from behind and demand what he wanted;
but a careless step revealed his approach and sent the fellow running
at top speed through the bush to the edge of the lake, where he jumped
into a small launch which he must have paddled inshore very quietly.
No such caution marked his actions now, however. He started his engine
and went _putt-putting_ madly out across the lake.
Thoroughly aroused, Kendrick ran to the little landing where the launch
rented for the season was moored. He leaped for the engine, a moment
later had swung clear and was off in full chase.
As he nursed the engine to top speed it soon became apparent that his
was much the superior boat. Added to this he had the advantage of a
complete knowledge of the inlets and topography of Sparrow Lake. He
knew for instance, that the long neck of heavily wooded peninsula which
jutted out for some distance in the immediate vicinity was bisected by
a narrow channel of deep black water where a motor boat could negotiate
a passage without difficulty.
Kendrick headed straight for the half concealed entrance to this
channel. The stranger had gone tearing off to round the point. The
result of the channel manoeuvre was that Phil came out into open water
directly in the path of the fleeing launch just as it had rounded the
point.
At once the intruder shut off his engine, put a foot on the gunwale and
took a header into the lake, swimming vigorously for the shore close
by. This was confession of an intense anxiety to escape and for the
moment it did look as if his chances of getting away were excellent;
the unexpectedness of the action made it necessary for Phil to make a
wide parabola to bring his boat equally close inshore and to check its
speed. Without a moment's hesitation, however, Kendrick also shut off
his engine and dove overboard as he swept by. A strong swimmer, he was
soon climbing ashore.
By this time the man he was after had started away, _swish-wish_
through the underbrush; but he was only a few rods in the lead, and one
of thickset build was no match for Kendrick in a footrace. As Phil
overhauled him he turned suddenly and fiercely grappled with his
pursuer.
This again was something at which Kendrick was proficient and he threw
the man easily enough with a half-nelson. They were wrestling it out
in an open space in the bushes where the light was not quite so dim,
and at last Phil had the hold for which he had been playing.
"I can break your arm--quite easily," he panted in sharp warning. "Are
you ready to behave if I let you up?"
Upon receiving a strangled grunt of affirmation he released his
antagonist.
"Gee! 'bo, aint there nothin' y' aint good at? That's second
time--y've got my nanny fer fair!"
At sound of a familiar voice Phil opened his waterproof match-safe and
struck a light. He found himself gazing with some amazement into the
grinning homely face of "Iron Man" McCorquodale, the ex-pugilist with
whom he had exchanged sparring compliments the night of the fog.
"McCorquodale! How'd you get here?"
"On the too-too," responded the Iron Man, rapidly recovering both
breath and good humor.
"Don't get fresh, McCorquodale. What were you doing just now, sneaking
around our cottage over there?"
"Dry up, kid, on that 'sneak' stuff. I ain't answerin' a damn thing,
see,--not till we gets over to where I'm campin'. An' if that aint
suitin' you, y'knows what y'can do, don't youse?"
"You seemed keen enough to get away."
"I had m'reasons," grunted McCorquodale. "I ast you to dry up, didn't
I?"
"I'd sooner dry off," smiled Phil, pulling at his wet trousers.
"Where's this camp of yours?"
"Over that way," said McCorquodale, pointing. "We'd better get them
boats first, 'fore they drifts too far away."
They found them floating close together, down near the point, and
McCorquodale undertook to swim out and bring them in. It was a tribute
to him that he was permitted without demur to have such a golden
opportunity of escaping and a tribute to Kendrick's judgment that he
took no advantage of it.
He had pitched his small tent back from the lake about a quarter of a
mile in a gully, where it was hidden completely by thick undergrowth.
A spring bubbled not far away and the music of the tiny creek that
trickled from it through a bed of water-cress provided a pleasing
lullaby. His visitor nodded approval of the snug arrangements.
Apparently McCorquodale was an old hand at this sort of thing.
"Seem to have prepared for quite a stay," remarked Phil, turning from
inspection of the "kitchen," which had been built into the embankment
and which, with its sheet-iron stove-top and all, afforded culinary
facilities of a practical kind. "I suppose you have your refrigerator
sunk beside the spring, eh?"
"Got a tin box there--yep," confirmed McCorquodale as he fed the fire
he had started in front of the tent. "I've been here goin' on two
weeks an' I figger to make m'self comfortable when I goes fishin'."
"Fish much at night?" inquired Kendrick suspiciously.
"Yep. Night's best time to catch my kind o' fish," grinned his host.
"You come on over here to the fire an' get dried an' if y'll promise to
keep it to y'rself, I'll put you wise."
So while Kendrick sat on the opposite side of the fire McCorquodale
volunteered the information that he was a detective--in short, that he
was attached to the Special Service Department of the Canadian Lake
Shores Railway.
"You'll be interested in that, then," said Phil as he selected an
envelope from the papers which he had spread out to dry by the fire.
"Sort o' related, you an' me,--by employment," grinned McCorquodale as
he passed back the credentials. "I knowed already you was Wade's new
secretary. Got a letter from the Chief himself 's mornin', so
advisin'. Fine man to work for, Wade is. He never overlooks nothin'
an' I guess he figgered you'n me might meet up here, seein's it's my
special job just now to watch your aunt's cottage."
Since Kendrick had seen him last the "Iron Man" had grown a little
moustache, a weird affair of reddish bristles which a scar on his lip
compelled to lean mostly in one direction with a windswept appearance.
It looked like an old toothbrush which has had desperate adventures in
an overpacked travelling bag. This hirsute anomaly Mr. McCorquodale
now stroked complacently, enjoying the effect of his surprising speech.
"The reason I beats it just now," he went on, "is 'cause I thought
'twas Long Jawr, the butler, as was after me. I gotta keep incog with
the servants, see. If I'd 'a' knowed it was you as was chasin'
me--that's different, see."
Kendrick's questions came in a fusillade. He was more than surprised;
he was vaguely alarmed. Wade had said nothing about having placed one
of the C.L.S. detectives at Sparrow Lake and the knowledge that such a
course had been deemed advisable was disturbing. Why was it necessary
to watch the Waring cottage at this peaceful summer resort? The thing
was ridiculous.
The detective was ready enough to answer to the best of his ability,
but it was soon evident that his own information was limited. Cranston
had called him in off another job to tell him that the "Old Man" wanted
him for some personal work, and therefore he was excused from
officially reporting for an indefinite period. Mr. Wade merely had
told him to go and take a holiday at Sparrow Lake--camp out and fish;
incidentally, to keep an eye on the cottage which the Warings occupied.
He was to report instantly to the president personally if he noted any
suspicious characters hanging around and to trail the stranger or
strangers without fail. He knew nothing of the reasons for these
instructions. He wished all his assignments were "as big a cinch" as
this one.
Phil knew that McCorquodale was not concocting a yarn and his face
showed his anxiety. He questioned the detective so closely that that
worthy was moved to protest.
"Hot tamalies! Y'r auntie aint goin' to get croaked n'r nothin' like
that, kid! Not with me here, lookin' after her. What's eatin'
y'anyways? Everythin's ridin' along Jake, see. An' speakin' of
eatin', s'pose we has a bite. I can give you toast, tea an' a Welsh
rabbit or hot dogs, dill pickles----"
Phil smiled at his host's efforts to reassure him. Certainly there was
something so quizzically human about the whimsical McCorquodale that in
his presence it was difficult to entertain thought of impending
trouble. But as Phil toasted the bread on the end of a stick his mind
was busy beneath the surface of his camaraderie. He was trying to
recall everything Ben Wade had told him that morning they had ridden on
the back platform of the president's private car and the exact way he
had said it; but there was little which could have any possible bearing
upon the need of posting a man at Sparrow Lake.
"Wade's got you workin' on that Nickleby dope, aint he?" enquired
McCorquodale after the fire was going beneath the kettle to his
satisfaction. "He had me moochin' around on it fer a while, but
they're a pretty smooth bunch, them fellers, an' I had to quit final."
"How was that?" asked Kendrick with interest. "Did they catch you at
it?"
"Catch me?" repeated McCorquodale with an injured air. "Not me, kid!
Y'see, I hires out to that Brady Detective Agency that Nickleby does
business with, thinkin' to get right into the middle o' things--walk
right in through the front door an' pick up whatever I wanted. But the
very first job they puts me on gets me in bad with Brady. They ast me
to trail a kid with a tan satchel from the Alderson Construction
Company's office over to a lawyer's office an' I did; then they turns
around an' says somebody's gone an' swiped what was in the satchel an'
blames me for not lookin' after it. But there wasn't nothin' taken out
o' that there satchel for I was right behind it all the way. Somethin'
damn funny 'bout that."
"What was in it?--in the satchel?"
"Oh, just some legal papers o' some kind. Say, d'you like y'r tea
pretty black, Mr. Kendrick?" He got out the dishes and took another
look at the kitchen fire. "Wasn't my fault I had to get off that job.
I'd 'a' hooked them fellers up with this here whisky-runnin' gang up
north as sure as shootin' if I'd had a chanst. They're in it
somewheres. But I didn't get a look-in."
"What makes you think they're in it? Who do you mean? Nickleby?"
"Nick don't work straight from the shoulder, Mr. Kendrick; but he's got
a long arm with a lot o' elbows in it." McCorquodale shook his head.
thoughtfully and looked serious. "There was a guy named Weiler hangin'
around--I dunno. It's just one o' them hunches a feller gets now 'n'
then."
"But a financier with the standing Nickleby has----"
"Excuse me, but y're startin' off with the wrong foot," corrected
McCorquodale. "Nickleby aint no financier; he's a smooth pebble,
that's all. His standin's faked an' behind it he's layin' low or I
misses my best guess. If he aint a crook I never seen one."
Phil was silent for a moment. Apparently McCorquodale had not been
informed as to the real contents of that tan satchel he had been
assigned to guard. Wade and Cranston were following that line of
investigation under cover for the time being. But it was likely that
the bootlegging operations had no connection whatever with the missing
money and that the evidence Wade wanted was merely an additional net
with which to close in on this man who had usurped control of the
Interprovincial Loan & Savings Company--misuse of trust funds or
something like that.
"Listen to me, Cork. I've been thinking out a plan for getting to the
bottom of this law-breaking booze business that we've got a line on,
but I need another man to work it out right, and you're elected."
"Attaboy!" cried McCorquodale enthusiastically.
"We can't get busy on it till Mr. Wade gets back from Montreal in a few
days. I'm going to find out what lies back of the instructions you got
to come here and watch our cottage, then ask him to let you join me on
the investigation. I'm going back to town to-morrow, and if anything
happens here in the meantime you're to wire me at once. I can rely on
you?"
"Say, kid, y'lays a bet on a sure thing when y'lays it on y'r Uncle
Dudley. I aint no Little Fatima fer looks; but I knows it, see. Young
McKilligan bent me bugle in a ten-round go wunst; I gets this here
split whistler the time I licked Kay-O Bergey, an' I's born with this
here wheeze in me pipes, an' with that bum layout I aint buttin' into
no cynthia ortchesstra, believe me. But I knows it, see, an' I got a
kick in each mitt an' I aint never renigged on a pal, Mr. Kendrick, an'
I goes to church reg'lar every damn Sunday, see. Y'r auntie'll be
safer'n if she was at home; fer there aint no danger here o' gettin'
knocked down by street-cars 'n' autermobiles. Now, fer Gawd's sake,
c'm on an' eat."
"All right," laughed Phil. "Toast's just done. An' while we eat
perhaps you won't mind telling me why you think my uncle's a grafter."
"Aw, nix, nix! Don't go rubbin' it in, kid!" protested Mr.
McCorquodale hastily. "Y'r lamp's quit smokin', aint it? Ferget it.
Them two guys I was with that night was a couple o' bums as was workin'
fer Nickleby on a job an' I was just stringin' 'm along nice when you
comes buttin' in an' rings down the curtain on me, see. I's workin'
fer Brady then. An' when I says the Honorable Milt has white wings
folded acrost his back I says it sincere, believe me. Him 'n' me went
fishin' together in the same punt last week!"