CHAPTER ONE
THE SHADOW OF THE BAT
“You’ve _got_ to get him, boys—get him or bust!” said a tired police
chief, pounding a heavy fist on a table. The detectives he bellowed the
words at looked at the floor. They had done their best and failed.
Failure meant “resignation” for the police chief, return to the hated
work of pounding the pavements for them—they knew it, and, knowing it,
could summon no gesture of bravado to answer their chief’s. Gunmen,
thugs, hi-jackers, loft-robbers, murderers, they could get them all in
time—but they could not get the man he wanted.
“Get him—to hell with expense—I’ll give you carte blanche—but get him!”
said a haggard millionaire in the sedate inner offices of the best
private detective firm in the country. The man on the other side of the
desk, man hunter extraordinary, old servant of Government and State,
sleuthhound without a peer, threw up his hands in a gesture of odd
hopelessness. “It isn’t the money, Mr. De Courcy—I’d give every cent
I’ve made to get the man you want—but I can’t promise you results—for
the first time in my life.” The conversation was ended.
“Get him? Huh! I’ll get him, watch my smoke!” It was young ambition
speaking in a certain set of rooms in Washington. Three days later
young ambition lay in a New York gutter with a bullet in his heart and
a look of such horror and surprise on his dead face that even the
ambulance-Doctor who found him felt shaken. “We’ve lost the most
promising man I’ve had in ten years,” said his chief when the news came
in. He swore helplessly, “Damn the luck!”
“Get him—get him—get him—_get_ him!” From a thousand sources now the
clamor arose—press, police, and public alike crying out for the capture
of the master criminal of a century—lost voices hounding a specter down
the alleyways of the wind. And still the meshes broke and the quarry
slipped away before the hounds were well on the scent—leaving behind a
trail of shattered safes and rifled jewel cases—while ever the clamor
rose higher to “Get him—get him—get—”
Get whom, in God’s name—get what? Beast, man, or devil? A specter—a
flying shadow—the shadow of a Bat.
From thieves’ hangout to thieves’ hangout the word passed along
stirring the underworld like the passage of an electric spark. “There’s
a bigger guy than Pete Flynn shooting the works, a guy that could have
Jim Gunderson for breakfast and not notice he’d et.” The underworld
heard and waited to be shown; after a little while the underworld began
to whisper to itself in tones of awed respect. There were bright stars
and flashing comets in the sky of the world of crime—but this new
planet rose with the portent of an evil moon.
The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours
for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly,
noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
He’d never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn’t run
with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even
the fence couldn’t swear he knew his face. Most lone wolves had a moll
at any rate—women were their ruin—but if the Bat had a moll, not even
the grapevine telegraph could locate her.
Rat-faced gunmen in the dingy back rooms of saloons muttered over his
exploits with bated breath. In tawdrily gorgeous apartments, where
gathered the larger figures, the proconsuls of the world of crime,
cold, conscienceless brains dissected the work of a colder and swifter
brain than theirs, with suave and bitter envy. Evil’s Four Hundred
chattered, discussed, debated—sent out a thousand invisible tentacles
to clutch at a shadow—to turn this shadow and its distorted genius to
their own ends. The tentacles recoiled, baffled—the Bat worked
alone—not even Evil’s Four Hundred could bend him into a willing
instrument to execute another’s plan.
The men higher up waited. They had dealt with lone wolves before and
broken them. Some day the Bat would slip and falter; then they would
have him. But the weeks passed into months and still the Bat flew free,
solitary, untamed, and deadly. At last even his own kind turned upon
him; the underworld is like the upper in its fear and distrust of
genius that flies alone. But when they turned against him, they turned
against a spook—a shadow. A cold and bodiless laughter from a pit of
darkness answered and mocked at their bungling gestures of hate—and
went on, flouting Law and Lawless alike.
Where official trailer and private sleuth had failed, the newspapers
might succeed—or so thought the disillusioned young men of the Fourth
Estate—the tireless foxes, nose-down on the trail of news—the trackers,
who never gave up until that news was run to earth. Star reporter,
leg-man, cub, veteran gray in the trade—one and all they tried to pin
the Bat like a caught butterfly to the front page of their respective
journals—soon or late each gave up, beaten. He was news—bigger news
each week—a thousand ticking typewriters clicked his adventures—the
brief, staccato recital of his career in the morgues of the great
dailies grew longer and more incredible each day. But the big news—the
scoop of the century—the yearned-for headline, _Bat Nabbed Red-Handed,
Bat Slain in Gun Duel with Police_—still eluded the ravenous maw of the
Linotypes. And meanwhile, the red-scored list of his felonies
lengthened and the rewards offered from various sources for any clue
which might lead to his apprehension mounted and mounted till they
totaled a small fortune.
Columnists took him up, played with the name and the terror, used the
name and the terror as a starting point from which to exhibit their own
particular opinions on everything and anything. Ministers mentioned him
in sermons; cranks wrote fanatic letters denouncing him as one of the
even-headed beasts of the Apocalypse and a forerunner of the end of the
world; a popular revue put on a special Bat number wherein eighteen
beautiful chorus girls appeared masked and black-winged in costumes of
Brazilian bat fur; there were Bat club sandwiches, Bat cigarettes, and
a new shade of hosiery called simply and succinctly _Bat_. He became a
fad—a catchword—a national figure. And yet—he was walking
Death—cold—remorseless. But Death itself had become a toy of publicity
in these days of limelight and jazz.
A city editor, at lunch with a colleague, pulled at his cigarette and
talked. “See that Sunday story we had on the Bat?” he asked. “Pretty
tidy—huh—and yet we didn’t have to play it up. It’s an amazing list—the
Marshall jewels—the Allison murder—the mail truck thing—two hundred
thousand he got out of that, all negotiable, and two men dead. I wonder
how many people he’s really killed. We made it six murders and nearly a
million in loot—didn’t even have room for the small stuff—but there
must be more—”
His companion whistled.
“And when is the Universe’s Finest Newspaper going to burst forth with
_Bat Captured by_ BLADE _Reporter?_” he queried sardonically.
“Oh, for—lay off it, will you?” said the city editor peevishly. “The
Old Man’s been hopping around about it for two months till everybody’s
plumb cuckoo. Even offered a bonus—a big one—and that shows how crazy
he is—he doesn’t love a nickel any better than his right eye—for any
sort of exclusive story. Bonus—huh!” and he crushed out his cigarette.
“It won’t be a _Blade_ reporter that gets that bonus—or any reporter.
It’ll be Sherlock Holmes from the spirit world!”
“Well—can’t you dig up a Sherlock?”
The editor spread out his hands. “Now, look here,” he said. “We’ve got
the best staff of any paper in the country, if I do say it. We’ve got
boys that could get a personal signed story from Delilah on how she
barbered Samson—and find out who struck Billy Patterson and who was the
Man in the Iron Mask. But the Bat’s something else again. Oh, of
course, we’ve panned the police for not getting him; that’s always the
game. But, personally, I won’t pan them; they’ve done their damnedest.
They’re up against something new. Scotland Yard wouldn’t do any
better—or any other bunch of cops that I know about.”
“But look here, Bill, you don’t mean to tell me he’ll keep on getting
away with it indefinitely?”
The editor frowned. “Confidentially—I don’t know,” he said with a
chuckle: “The situation’s this: for the first time the super-crook—the
super-crook of fiction—the kind that never makes a mistake—has come to
life—real life. And it’ll take a cleverer man than any Central Office
dick I’ve ever met to catch him!”
“Then you don’t think he’s just an ordinary crook with a lot of luck?”
“I do not.” The editor was emphatic. “He’s much brainier. Got a ghastly
sense of humor, too. Look at the way he leaves his calling card after
every job—a black paper bat inside the Marshall safe—a bat drawn on the
wall with a burnt match where he’d jimmied the Cedarburg Bank—a real
bat, dead, tacked to the mantelpiece over poor old Allison’s body. Oh,
he’s in a class by himself—and I very much doubt if he was a crook at
all for most of his life.”
“You mean?”
“I mean this. The police have been combing the underworld for him; I
don’t think he comes from there. I think they’ve got to look higher, up
in our world, for a brilliant man with a kink in the brain. He may be a
Doctor, a lawyer, a merchant, honored in his community by day—good line
that, I’ll use it some time—and at night, a bloodthirsty assassin.
Deacon Brodie—ever hear of him—the Scotch deacon that burgled his
parishioners’ houses on the quiet? Well—that’s our man.”
“But my Lord, Bill—”
“I know. I’ve been going around the last month, looking at everybody I
knew and thinking—_are you the Bat?_ Try it for a while. You’ll want to
sleep with a light in your room after a few days of it. Look around the
University Club—that white-haired man over
there—dignified—respectable—is he the Bat? Your own lawyer—your own
Doctor—your own best friend. Can happen you know—look at those Chicago
boys—the thrill-killers. Just brilliant students—likeable boys—to the
people that taught them—and cold-blooded murderers all the same.”
“Bill! You’re giving me the shivers!”
“Am I?” The editor laughed grimly. “Think it over. No, it isn’t so
pleasant.—But that’s my theory—and I swear I think I’m right.” He rose.
His companion laughed uncertainly.
“How about you, Bill—are you the Bat?”
The editor smiled. “See,” he said, “it’s got you already. No, I can
prove an alibi. The Bat’s been laying off the city recently—taking a
fling at some of the swell suburbs. Besides I haven’t the brains—I’m
free to admit it.” He struggled into his coat. “Well, let’s talk about
something else. I’m sick of the Bat and his murders.”
His companion rose as well, but it was evident that the editor’s theory
had taken firm hold on his mind. As they went out the door together he
recurred to the subject.
“Honestly, though, Bill—were you serious, really serious—when you said
you didn’t know of a single detective with brains enough to trap this
devil?”
The editor paused in the doorway. “Serious enough,” he said. “And yet
there’s one man—I don’t know him myself but from what I’ve heard of
him, he might be able—but what’s the use of speculating?”
“I’d like to know all the same,” insisted the other, and laughed
nervously. “We’re moving out to the country next week ourselves—right
in the Bat’s new territory.”
“We-el,” said the editor, “you won’t let it go any further? Of course
it’s just an idea of mine, but if the Bat ever came prowling around our
place, the detective I’d try to get in touch with would be—” He put his
lips close to his companion’s ear and whispered a name.
The man whose name he whispered, oddly enough, was at that moment
standing before his official superior in a quiet room not very far
away. Tall, reticently good-looking and well, if inconspicuously,
clothed and groomed, he by no means seemed the typical detective that
the editor had spoken of so scornfully. He looked something like a
college athlete who had kept up his training, something like a pillar
of one of the more sedate financial houses. He could assume and discard
a dozen manners in as many minutes, but, to the casual observer, the
one thing certain about him would probably seem his utter lack of
connection with the seamier side of existence. The key to his real
secret of life, however, lay in his eyes. When in repose, as now, they
were veiled and without unusual quality—but they were the eyes of a man
who can wait and a man who can strike.
He stood perfectly easy before his chief for several moments before the
latter looked up from his papers.
“Well, Anderson,” he said at last, looking up, “I got your report on
the Wilhenry burglary this morning. I’ll tell you this about it—if you
do a neater and quicker job in the next ten years, you can take this
desk away from me. I’ll give it to you. As it is, your name’s gone up
for promotion today; you deserved it long ago.”
“Thank you, sir,” replied the tall man quietly, “but I had luck with
that case.”
“Of course you had luck,” said the chief. “Sit down, won’t you, and
have a cigar—if you can stand my brand. Of course you had luck,
Anderson, but that isn’t the point. It takes a man with brains to use a
piece of luck as you used it. I’ve waited a long time here for a man
with your sort of brains and, by Judas, for a while I thought they were
all as dead as Pinkerton. But now I know there’s one of them alive at
any rate—and it’s a hell of a relief.”
“Thank you, sir,” said the tall man, smiling and sitting down. He took
a cigar and lit it. “That makes it easier, sir—your telling me that.
Because—I’ve come to ask a favor.”
“All right,” responded the chief promptly. “Whatever it is, it’s
granted.”
Anderson smiled again. “You’d better hear what it is first, sir. I
don’t want to put anything over on you.”
“Try it!” said the chief. “What is it—vacation? Take as long as you
like—within reason—you’ve earned it—I’ll put it through today.”
Anderson shook his head, “No sir—I don’t want a vacation.”
“Well,” said the chief impatiently. “Promotion? I’ve told you about
that. Expense money for anything—fill out a voucher and I’ll O.K. it—be
best man at your wedding—by Judas, I’ll even do that!”
Anderson laughed. “No, sir—I’m not getting married and—I’m pleased
about the promotion, of course—but it’s not that. I want to be assigned
to a certain case—that’s all.”
The chief’s look grew searching. “H’m,” he said. “Well, as I say,
anything within reason. What case do you want to be assigned to?”
The muscles of Anderson’s left hand tensed on the arm of his chair. He
looked squarely at the chief. “I want a chance at the Bat!” he replied
slowly.
The chief’s face became expressionless. “I said—anything within
reason,” he responded softly, regarding Anderson keenly.
“I want a chance at the Bat!” repeated Anderson stubbornly. “If I’ve
done good work so far—I want a chance at the Bat!”
The chief drummed on the desk. Annoyance and surprise were in his voice
when he spoke.
“But look here, Anderson,” he burst out finally. “Anything else and
I’ll—but what’s the use? I said a minute ago, you had brains—but now,
by Judas, I doubt it! If anyone else wanted a chance at the Bat, I’d
give it to them and gladly—I’m hard-boiled. But you’re too valuable a
man to be thrown away!”
“I’m no more valuable than Wentworth would have been.”
“Maybe not—and look what happened to him! A bullet hole in his
heart—and thirty years of work that he might have done thrown away! No,
Anderson, I’ve found two first-class men since I’ve been at this
desk—Wentworth and you. He asked for his chance; I gave it to
him—turned him over to the Government—and lost him. Good detectives
aren’t so plentiful that I can afford to lose you both.”
“Wentworth was a friend of mine,” said Anderson softly. His knuckles
were white dints in the hand that gripped the chair. “Ever since the
Bat got him I’ve wanted my chance. Now my other work’s cleaned up—and I
still want it.”
“But I tell you—” began the chief in tones of high exasperation. Then
he stopped and looked at his protege. There was a silence for a time.
“Oh, well—” said the chief finally in a hopeless voice. “Go
ahead—commit suicide—I’ll send you a ‘Gates Ajar’ and a card, ‘Here
lies a damn fool who would have been a great detective if he hadn’t
been so pig-headed.’ _Go_ ahead!”
Anderson rose. “Thank you, sir,” he said in a deep voice. His eyes had
light in them now. “I can’t thank you enough, sir.”
“Don’t try,” grumbled the chief. “If I weren’t as much of a damn fool
as you are I wouldn’t let you do it. And if I weren’t so damn old, I’d
go after the slippery devil myself and let you sit here and watch _me_
get brought in with an infernal paper bat pinned where my shield ought
to be. The Bat’s supernatural, Anderson. You haven’t a chance in the
world but it does me good all the same to shake hands with a man with
brains _and_ nerve,” and he solemnly wrung Anderson’s hand in an iron
grip.
Anderson smiled. “The cagiest bat flies once too often,” he said. “I’m
not promising anything, chief, but—”
“Maybe,” said the chief. “Now wait a minute, keep your shirt on, you’re
not going out bat hunting this minute, you know—”
“Sir? I thought I—”
“Well, you’re not,” said the chief decidedly. “I’ve still some little
respect for my own intelligence and it tells me to get all the work out
of you I can, before you start wild-goose chasing after this—this bat
out of hell. The first time he’s heard of again—and it shouldn’t be
long from the fast way he works—you’re assigned to the case. That’s
understood. Till then, you do what I tell you—and it’ll be _work_,
believe me!”
“All right, sir,” Anderson laughed and turned to the door. “And—thank
you again.”
He went out. The door closed. The chief remained for some minutes
looking at the door and shaking his head. “The best man I’ve had in
years—except Wentworth,” he murmured to himself. “And throwing himself
away—to be killed by a cold-blooded devil that nothing human can
catch—you’re getting old, John Grogan—but, by Judas, you can’t blame
him, can you? If you were a man in the prime like him, by Judas, you’d
be doing it yourself. And yet it’ll go hard—losing him—”
He turned back to his desk and his papers. But for some minutes he
could not pay attention to the papers. There was a shadow on them—a
shadow that blurred the typed letters—the shadow of bat’s wings.
CHAPTER TWO
THE INDOMITABLE MISS VAN GORDER
Miss Cornelis Van Gorder, indomitable spinster, last bearer of a name
which had been great in New York when New York was a red-roofed Nieuw
Amsterdam and Peter Stuyvesant a parvenu, sat propped up in bed in the
green room of her newly rented country house reading the morning
newspaper. Thus seen, with an old soft Paisley shawl tucked in about
her thin shoulders and without the stately gray transformation that
adorned her on less intimate occasions,—she looked much less formidable
and more innocently placid than those could ever have imagined who had
only felt the bite of her tart wit at such functions as the state Van
Gorder dinners. Patrician to her finger tips, independent to the roots
of her hair, she preserved, at sixty-five, a humorous and quenchless
curiosity in regard to every side of life, which even the full and
crowded years that already lay behind her had not entirely satisfied.
She was an Age and an Attitude, but she was more than that; she had
grown old without growing dull or losing touch with youth—her face had
the delicate strength of a fine cameo and her mild and youthful heart
preserved an innocent zest for adventure.
Wide travel, social leadership, the world of art and books, a dozen
charities, an existence rich with diverse experience—all these she had
enjoyed energetically and to the full—but she felt, with ingenious
vanity, that there were still sides to her character which even these
had not brought to light. As a little girl she had hesitated between
wishing to be a locomotive engineer or a famous bandit—and when she had
found, at seven, that the accident of sex would probably debar her from
either occupation, she had resolved fiercely that some time before she
died she would show the world in general and the Van Gorder clan in
particular that a woman was quite as capable of dangerous exploits as a
man. So far her life, while exciting enough at moments, had never
actually been dangerous and time was slipping away without giving her
an opportunity to prove her hardiness of heart. Whenever she thought of
this the fact annoyed her extremely—and she thought of it now.
She threw down the morning paper disgustedly. Here she was at 65—rich,
safe, settled for the summer in a delightful country place with a good
cook, excellent servants, beautiful gardens and grounds—everything as
respectable and comfortable as—as a limousine! And out in the world
people were murdering and robbing each other, floating over Niagara
Falls in barrels, rescuing children from burning houses, taming tigers,
going to Africa to hunt gorillas, doing all sorts of exciting things!
She could not float over Niagara Falls in a barrel; Lizzie Allen, her
faithful old maid, would never let her! She could not go to Africa to
hunt gorillas; Sally Ogden, her sister, would never let her hear the
last of it. She could not even, as she certainly would if she were a
man, try and track down this terrible creature, the Bat!
She sniffed disgruntledly. Things came to her much too easily. Take
this very house she was living in. Ten days ago she had decided on the
spur of the moment—a decision suddenly crystallized by a weariness of
charitable committees and the noise and heat of New York—to take a
place in the country for the summer. It was late in the renting
season—even the ordinary difficulties of finding a suitable spot would
have added some spice to the quest—but this ideal place had practically
fallen into her lap, with no trouble or search at all. Courtleigh
Fleming, president of the Union Bank, who had built the house on a
scale of comfortable magnificence—Courtleigh Fleming had died suddenly
in the West when Miss Van Gorder was beginning her house hunting. The
day after his death her agent had called her up. Richard Fleming,
Courtleigh Fleming’s nephew and heir, was anxious to rent the Fleming
house at once. If she made a quick decision it was hers for the summer,
at a bargain. Miss Van Gorder had decided at once; she took an innocent
pleasure in bargains. The next day the keys were hers—the servants
engaged to stay on—within a week she had moved. All very pleasant and
easy no doubt—adventure—pooh!
And yet she could not really say that her move to the country had
brought her no adventures at all. There had been—things. Last night the
lights had gone off unexpectedly and Billy, the Japanese butler and
handy man, had said that he had seen a face at one of the kitchen
windows—a face that vanished when he went to the window. Servants’
nonsense, probably, but the servants seemed unusually nervous for
people who were used to the country. And Lizzie, of course, had sworn
that she had seen a man trying to get up the stairs but Lizzie could
grow hysterical over a creaking door. Still—it was queer! And what had
that affable Doctor Wells said to her—“I respect your courage, Miss Van
Gorder—moving out into the Bat’s home country, you know!” She picked up
the paper again. There was a map of the scene of the Bat’s most recent
exploits and, yes, three of his recent crimes had been within a
twenty-mile radius of this very spot. She thought it over and gave a
little shudder of pleasurable fear. Then she dismissed the thought with
a shrug. No chance! She might live in a lonely house, two miles from
the railroad station, all summer long—and the Bat would never disturb
her. Nothing ever did.
She had skimmed through the paper hurriedly; now a headline caught her
eye. _Failure of Union Bank_—wasn’t that the bank of which Courtleigh
Fleming had been president? She settled down to read the article but it
was disappointingly brief. The Union Bank had closed its doors; the
cashier, a young man named Bailey, was apparently under suspicion; the
article mentioned Courtleigh Fleming’s recent and tragic death in the
best vein of newspaperese. She laid down the paper and
thought—_Bailey—Bailey_—she seemed to have a vague recollection of
hearing about a young man named Bailey who worked in a bank—but she
could not remember where or by whom his name had been mentioned.
Well—it didn’t matter. She had other things to think about. She must
ring for Lizzie—get up and dress. The bright morning sun, streaming in
through the long window, made lying in bed an old woman’s luxury and
she refused to be an old woman.
_Though the worst old woman I ever knew was a man!_ she thought with a
satiric twinkle. She was glad Sally’s daughter—young Dale Ogden—was
here in the house with her. The companionship of Dale’s bright youth
would keep her from getting old-womanish if anything could.
She smiled, thinking of Dale. Dale was a nice child—her favorite niece.
Sally didn’t understand her, of course—but Sally wouldn’t. Sally read
magazine articles on the younger generation and its wild ways. _Sally
doesn’t remember when she was a younger generation herself_, thought
Miss Cornelia. _But I do—and if we didn’t have automobiles, we had
buggies—and youth doesn’t change its ways just because it has cut its
hair._ Before Mr. and Mrs. Ogden left for Europe, Sally had talked to
her sister Cornelia ... long and weightily, on the problem of Dale.
_Problem of Dale, indeed!_ thought Miss Cornelia scornfully. _Dale’s
the nicest thing I’ve seen in some time. She’d be ten times happier if
Sally wasn’t always trying to marry her off to some young snip with
more of what fools call ‘eligibility’ than brains! But there, Cornelia
Van Gorder—Sally’s given you your innings by rampaging off to Europe
and leaving Dale with you all summer and you’ve a lot less sense than I
flatter myself you have, if you can’t give your favorite niece a happy
vacation from all her immediate family—and maybe find her someone
who’ll make her happy for good and all in the bargain._ Miss Cornelia
was an incorrigible matchmaker.
Nevertheless, she was more concerned with “the problem of Dale” than
she would have admitted. Dale, at her age, with her charm and
beauty—_why, she ought to behave as if she were walking on air_,
thought her aunt worriedly. _And instead she acts more as if she were
walking on pins and needles. She seems to like being here—I know she
likes me—I’m pretty sure she’s just as pleased to get a little holiday
from Sally and Harry—she amuses herself—she falls in with any plan I
want to make, and yet_— And yet Dale was not happy—Miss Cornelia felt
sure of it. _It isn’t natural for a girl to seem so lackluster and—and
quiet—at her age and she’s nervous, too—as if something were preying on
her mind—particularly these last few days. If she were in love with
somebody—somebody Sally didn’t approve of particularly—well, that would
account for it, of course—but Sally didn’t say anything that would make
me think that—or Dale either—though I don’t suppose Dale would, yet,
even to me. I haven’t seen so much of her in these last two years—_
Then Miss Cornelia’s mind seized upon a sentence in a hurried flow of
her sister’s last instructions—a sentence that had passed almost
unnoticed at the time—something about Dale and “an unfortunate
attachment—but of course, Cornelia, dear, she’s so young—and I’m sure
it will come to nothing now her father and I have made our attitude
_plain!_”
_Pshaw—I bet that’s it_, thought Miss Cornelia shrewdly. _Dale’s fallen
in love, or thinks she has, with some decent young man without a penny
or an ‘eligibility’ to his name—and now she’s unhappy because her
parents don’t approve—or because she’s trying to give him up and finds
she can’t. Well—_ and Miss Cornelia’s tight little gray curls trembled
with the vehemence of her decision, _if the young thing ever comes to
me for advice I’ll give her a piece of my mind that will surprise her
and scandalize Sally Van Gorder Ogden out of her seven senses. Sally
thinks nobody’s worth looking at if they didn’t come over to America
when our family did—she hasn’t gumption enough to realize that if some
people hadn’t come over later, we’d all still be living on crullers and
Dutch punch!_
She was just stretching out her hand to ring for Lizzie when a knock
came at the door. She gathered her Paisley shawl more tightly about her
shoulders. “Who is it—oh, it’s only you, Lizzie,” as a pleasant Irish
face, crowned by an old-fashioned pompadour of graying hair, peeped in
at the door. “Good morning, Lizzie—I was just going to ring for you.
Has Miss Dale had breakfast—I know it’s shamefully late.”
“Good morning, Miss Neily,” said Lizzie, “and a lovely morning it is,
too—if that was all of it,” she added somewhat tartly as she came into
the room with a little silver tray whereupon the morning mail reposed.
We have not yet described Lizzie Allen—and she deserves description. A
fixture in the Van Gorder household since her sixteenth year, she had
long ere now attained the dignity of a Tradition. The slip of a colleen
fresh from Kerry had grown old with her mistress, until the casual bond
between mistress and servant had changed into something deeper; more in
keeping with a better-mannered age than ours. One could not imagine
Miss Cornelia without a Lizzie to grumble at and cherish—or Lizzie
without a Miss Cornelia to baby and scold with the privileged frankness
of such old family servitors. The two were at once a contrast and a
complement. Fifty years of American ways had not shaken Lizzie’s firm
belief in banshees and leprechauns or tamed her wild Irish tongue;
fifty years of Lizzie had not altered Miss Cornelia’s attitude of fond
exasperation with some of Lizzie’s more startling eccentricities.
Together they may have been, as one of the younger Van Gorder cousins
had, irreverently put it, “a scream,” but apart each would have felt
lost without the other.
“Now what do you mean—if that were all of it, Lizzie?” queried Miss
Cornelia sharply as she took her letters from the tray.
Lizzie’s face assumed an expression of doleful reticence.
“It’s not my place to speak,” she said with a grim shake of her head,
“but I saw my grandmother last night, God rest her—plain as life she
was, the way she looked when they waked her—and if it was _my_ doing
we’d be leaving this house this hour!”
“Cheese-pudding for supper—of course you saw your grandmother!” said
Miss Cornelia crisply, slitting open the first of her letters with a
paper knife. “Nonsense, Lizzie, I’m not going to be scared away from an
ideal country place because you happen to have a bad dream!”
“Was it a bad dream I saw on the stairs last night when the lights went
out and I was looking for the candles?” said Lizzie heatedly. “Was it a
bad dream that ran away from me and out the back door, as fast as
Paddy’s pig? No, Miss Neily, it was a man—Seven feet tall he was, and
eyes that shone in the dark and—”
“Lizzie Allen!”
“Well, it’s true for all that,” insisted Lizzie stubbornly. “And why
did the lights go out—tell me that, Miss Neily? They never go out in
the city.”
“Well, this isn’t the city,” said Miss Cornelia decisively. “It’s the
country, and very nice it is, and we’re staying here all summer. I
suppose I may be thankful,” she went on ironically, “that it was only
your grandmother you saw last night. It might have been the Bat—and
then where would you be this morning?”
“I’d be stiff and stark with candles at me head and feet,” said Lizzie
gloomily. “Oh, Miss Neily, don’t talk of that terrible creature, the
Bat!” She came nearer to her mistress. _There’s bats in this house,
too—real bats_, she whispered impressively. “I saw one yesterday in the
trunk room—the creature! It flew in the window and nearly had the
switch off me before I could get away!”
Miss Cornelia chuckled. “Of course there are bats,” she said. “There
are always bats in the country. They’re perfectly harmless,—except to
switches.”
“And the Bat ye were talking of just then—he’s harmless too, I
suppose?” said Lizzie with mournful satire. “Oh, Miss Neily, Miss
Neily—do let’s go back to the city before he flies away with us all!”
“Nonsense, Lizzie,” said Miss Cornelia again, but this time less
firmly. Her face grew serious. “If I thought for an instant that there
was any real possibility of our being in danger here—” she said slowly.
“But—oh, look at the map, Lizzie! The Bat has been flying in this
district—that’s true enough—but he hasn’t come within ten miles of us
yet!”
“What’s ten miles to the Bat?” the obdurate Lizzie sighed. “And what of
the letter ye had when ye first moved in here? _The Fleming house is
unhealthy for strangers_, it said. _Leave it while ye can_.”
“Some silly boy or some crank.” Miss Cornelia’s voice was firm. “I
never pay any attention to anonymous letters.”
“And there’s a funny-lookin’ letter this mornin’, down at the bottom of
the pile—” persisted Lizzie. “It looked like the other one. I’d half a
mind to throw it away before you saw it!”
“Now, Lizzie, that’s quite enough!” Miss Cornelia had the Van Gorder
manner on now. “I don’t care to discuss your ridiculous fears any
further. Where is Miss Dale?”
Lizzie assumed an attitude of prim rebuff, “Miss Dale’s gone into the
city, ma’am.”
“Gone into the city?”
“Yes, ma’am. She got a telephone call this morning, early—long distance
it was. I don’t know who it was called her.”
“Lizzie! You didn’t listen?”
“Of course not, Miss Neily.” Lizzie’s face was a study in injured
virtue. “Miss Dale took the call in her own room and shut the door.”
“And you were outside the door?”
“Where else would I be dustin’ that time in the mornin’?” said Lizzie
fiercely. “But it’s yourself knows well enough the doors in this house
is thick and not a sound goes past them.”
“I should hope not,” said Miss Cornelia rebukingly. “But—tell me,
Lizzie, did Miss Dale seem—well—this morning?”
“That she did not,” said Lizzie promptly. “When she came down to
breakfast, after the call, she looked like a ghost. I made her the eggs
she likes, too—but she wouldn’t eat ’em.”
“H’m,” Miss Cornelia pondered. “I’m sorry if—well, Lizzie, we mustn’t
meddle in Miss Dale’s affairs.”
“No, ma’am.”
“But—did she say when she would be back?”
“Yes, Miss Neily. On the two o’clock train. Oh, and I was almost
forgettin’—she told me to tell you, particular—she said while she was
in the city she’d be after engagin’ the gardener you spoke of.”
“The gardener? Oh, yes—I spoke to her about that the other night. The
place is beginning to look run down—so many flowers to attend to.
Well—that’s very kind of Miss Dale.”
“Yes, Miss Neily.” Lizzie hesitated, obviously with some weighty news
on her mind which she wished to impart. Finally she took the plunge. “I
might have told Miss Dale she could have been lookin’ for a cook as
well—and a housemaid—” she muttered at last, “but they hadn’t spoken to
me then.”
Miss Cornelia sat bolt upright in bed. “A cook—and a housemaid? But we
have a cook and a housemaid, Lizzie! You don’t mean to tell me—”
Lizzie nodded her head. “Yes’m. They’re leaving. Both of ’em. Today.”
“But good heav— Lizzie, why on earth didn’t you tell me before?”
Lizzie spoke soothingly, all the blarney of Kerry in her voice. “Now,
Miss Neily, as if I’d wake you first thing in the morning with bad news
like that! And thinks I, well, maybe ’tis all for the best after
all—for when Miss Neily hears they’re leavin’—and her so
particular—maybe she’ll go back to the city for just a little and leave
this house to its haunts and its bats and—”
“Go back to the city? I shall do nothing of the sort. I rented this
house to live in and live in it I will, with servants or without them.
You should have told me at once, Lizzie. I’m really very much annoyed
with you because you didn’t. I shall get up immediately—I want to give
those two a piece of my mind. Is Billy leaving too?”
“Not that I know of—the heathern Japanese!” said Lizzie sorrowfully.
“And yet he’d be better riddance than cook or housemaid.”
“Now, Lizzie, how many times have I told you that you must conquer your
prejudices? Billy is an excellent butler—he’d been with Mr. Fleming ten
years and has the very highest recommendations. I am very glad that he
is staying, if he is. With you to help him, we shall do very well until
I can get other servants.” Miss Cornelia had risen now and Lizzie was
helping her with the intricacies of her toilet. “But it’s too
annoying,” she went on, in the pauses of Lizzie’s deft ministrations.
“What did they say to you, Lizzie—did they give any reason? It isn’t as
if they were new to the country like you. They’d been with Mr. Fleming
for some time, though not as long as Billy.”
“Oh, yes, Miss Neily—they had reasons you could choke a goat with,”
said Lizzie viciously as she arranged Miss Cornelia’s transformation.
“Cook was the first of them—she was up late—I think they’d been talking
it over together. She comes into the kitchen with her hat on and her
bag in her hand. ‘Good morning,’ says I, pleasant enough, ‘you’ve got
your hat on,’ says I. ‘I’m leaving,’ says she. ‘Leaving, are you?’ says
I. ‘Leaving,’ says she. ‘My sister has twins,’ says she. ‘I just got
word—I must go to her right away.’ ‘What?’ says I, all struck in a
heap. ‘Twins,’ says she, ‘you’ve heard of such things as twins.’ ‘That
I have,’ says I, ‘and I know a lie on a face when I see it, too.’”
“Lizzie!”
“Well, it made me sick at heart, Miss Neily. Her with her hat and her
bag and her talk about twins—and no consideration for you. Well, I’ll
go on. ‘You’re a clever woman, aren’t you?’ says she—the impudence! ‘I
can see through a millstone as far as most,’ says I—I wouldn’t put up
with her sauce. ‘Well!’ says she, ‘you can see that Annie the
housemaid’s leaving, too.’ ‘Has her sister got twins as well?’ says I
and looked at her. ‘No,’ says she as bold as brass, ‘but Annie’s got a
pain in her side and she’s feared it’s appendycitis—so she’s leaving to
go back to her family.’ ‘Oh,’ says I, ‘and what about Miss Van Gorder?’
‘I’m sorry for Miss Van Gorder,’ says she—the falseness of her!—‘But
she’ll have to do the best she can for twins and appendycitis is acts
of God and not to be put aside for even the best of wages.’ ‘Is that
so?’ says I and with that I left her, for I knew if I listened to her a
minute longer I’d be giving her bonnet a shake and that wouldn’t be
respectable. So there you are, Miss Neily, and that’s the gist of the
matter.”
Miss Cornelia laughed. “Lizzie—you’re unique,” she said. “But I’m glad
you didn’t give her bonnet a shake—though I’ve no doubt you could.”
“Humph!” said Lizzie snorting, the fire of battle in her eye. “And is
it any Black Irish from Ulster would play impudence to a Kerrywoman
without getting the flat of a hand in—but that’s neither here nor
there. The truth of it is, Miss Neily,” her voice grew solemn, “it’s my
belief they’re scared—both of them—by the haunts and the banshees
here—and that’s all.”
“If they are they’re very silly,” said Miss Cornelia practically. “No,
they may have heard of a better place, though it would seem as if when
one pays the present extortionate wages and asks as little as we do
here—but it doesn’t matter. If they want to go, they may. Am I ready,
Lizzie?”
“You look like an angel, ma’am,” said Lizzie, clasping her hands.
“Well, I feel very little like one,” said Miss Cornelia, rising. “As
cook and housemaid may discover before I’m through with them. Send them
into the livingroom, Lizzie, when I’ve gone down. I’ll talk to them
there.”
An hour or so later, Miss Cornelia sat in a deep chintz chair in the
comfortable living-room of the Fleming house going through the pile of
letters which Lizzie’s news of domestic revolt had prevented her
reading earlier. Cook and housemaid had come and gone—civil enough, but
so obviously determined upon leaving the house at once that Miss
Cornelia had sighed and let them go, though not without caustic
comment. Since then, she had devoted herself to calling up various
employment agencies without entirely satisfactory results. A new cook
and housemaid were promised for the end of the week—but for the next
three days the Japanese butler, Billy, and Lizzie between them would
have to bear the brunt of the service. _Oh, yes—and then there’s Dale’s
gardener, if she gets one_, thought Miss, Cornelia. _I wish he could
cook—but I don’t suppose gardeners can—and Billy’s a treasure_. Still,
its inconvenient—now, stop—Cornelia Van Gorder—you were asking for an
adventure only this morning and the moment the littlest sort of one
comes along, you want to crawl out of it.”
She had reached the bottom of her pile of letters—these to be thrown
away, these to be answered—ah, here was one she had overlooked somehow.
She took it up. It must be the one Lizzie had wanted to throw away—she
smiled at Lizzie’s fears. The address was badly typed, on cheap
paper—she tore the envelope open and drew out a single unsigned sheet.
_If you stay in this house any longer_—DEATH. _Go back to the city at
once and save your life._
Her fingers trembled a little as she turned the missive over but her
face remained calm. She looked at the envelope—at the postmark—while
her heart thudded uncomfortably for a moment and then resumed its
normal beat. It had come at last—the adventure—and she was not afraid!
CHAPTER THREE
PISTOL PRACTICE
She knew who it was, of course. The Bat! No doubt of it. And yet—did
the Bat ever threaten before he struck? She could not remember. But it
didn’t matter. The Bat was unprecedented—unique. At any rate, Bat or no
Bat, she must think out a course of action. The defection of cook and
housemaid left her alone in the house with Lizzie and Billy—and Dale,
of course, if Dale returned. _Two old women, a young girl, and a
Japanese butler to face the most dangerous criminal in America_, she
thought grimly. And yet—one couldn’t be sure. The threatening letter
might be only a joke—a letter from a crank—after all. Still, she must
take precautions; look for aid somewhere. But where could she look for
aid?
She ran over in her mind the new acquaintances she had made since she
moved to the country. There was Doctor Wells, the local physician, who
had joked with her about moving into the Bat’s home territory—He seemed
an intelligent man—but she knew him only slightly—she couldn’t call a
busy Doctor away from his patients to investigate something which might
only prove to be a mare’s-nest. The boys Dale had met at the country
club—“Humph!” she sniffed, “I’d rather trust my gumption than any of
theirs.” The logical person to call on, of course, was Richard Fleming,
Courtleigh Fleming’s nephew and heir, who had rented her the house. He
lived at the country club—she could probably reach him now. She was
just on the point of doing so when she decided against it—partly from
delicacy, partly from an indefinable feeling that he would not be of
much help. _Besides_, she thought sturdily, _it’s my house now, not
his. He didn’t guarantee burglar protection in the lease._
As for the local police—her independence revolted at summoning them.
They would bombard her with ponderous questions and undoubtedly think
she was merely a nervous old spinster. _If it was just me_, she
thought, _I swear I wouldn’t say a word to anybody—and if the Bat flew
in he mightn’t find it so easy to fly out again, if I am sixty-five and
never shot a burglar in my life! But there’s Dale—and Lizzie. I’ve got
to be fair to them._
For a moment she felt very helpless, very much alone. Then her courage
returned.
“Pshaw, Cornelia, if you have got to get help—get the help _you_ want
and hang the consequences!” she adjured herself. “You’ve always
hankered to see a first-class detective do his detecting—well, _get_
one—or decide to do the job yourself. I’ll bet you could at that.”
She tiptoed to the main door of the living-room and closed it
cautiously, smiling as she did so. Lizzie might be about and Lizzie
would promptly go into hysterics if she got an inkling of her
mistress’s present intentions. Then she went to the city telephone and
asked for long distance.
When she had finished her telephoning, she looked at once relieved and
a little naughty—like a demure child who has carried out some piece of
innocent mischief unobserved. “My stars!” she muttered to herself. “You
never can tell what you can do till you try.” Then she sat down again
and tried to think of other measures of defense.
_Now if I were the Bat, or any criminal_, she mused, _how would I get
into this house? Well, that’s it—I might get in ’most any way—it’s so
big and rambling. All the grounds you want to lurk in, too; it’d take a
company of police to shut them off. Then there’s the house itself.
Let’s see—third floor—trunk room, servants’ rooms—couldn’t get in there
very well except with a pretty long ladder—that’s all right. Second
floor—well, I suppose a man could get into my bedroom from the porch if
he were an acrobat, but he’d need to be a very good acrobat and there’s
no use borrowing trouble. Downstairs is the problem, Cornelia,
downstairs is the problem._
“Take this room now.” She rose and examined it carefully. “There’s the
door over there on the right that leads into the billiard room. There’s
this door over here that leads into the hall. Then there’s that other
door by the alcove, and all those French windows—whew!” She shook her
head.
It was true. The room in which she stood, while comfortable and
charming, seemed unusually accessible to the night prowler. A row of
French windows at the rear gave upon a little terrace; below the
terrace, the drive curved about and beneath the billiard-room windows
in a hairpin loop, drawing up again at the main entrance on the other
side of the house. At the left of the French windows (if one faced the
terrace as Miss Cornelia was doing) was the alcove door of which she
spoke. When open, it disclosed a little alcove, almost entirely devoted
to the foot of a flight of stairs that gave direct access to the upper
regions of the house. The alcove itself opened on one side upon the
terrace and upon the other into a large butler’s pantry. The
arrangement was obviously designed so that, if necessary, one could
pass directly from the terrace to the downstairs service quarters or
the second floor of the house without going through the living-room,
and so that trays could be carried up from the pantry by the side
stairs without using the main staircase.
The middle pair of French windows were open, forming a double door.
Miss Cornelia went over to them—shut them—tried the locks. _Humph!
Flimsy enough!_ she thought. Then she turned toward the billiard room.
The billiard room, as has been said, was the last room to the right in
the main wing of the house. A single door led to it from the
living-room. Miss Cornelia passed through this door, glanced about the
billiard room, noting that most of its windows were too high from the
ground to greatly encourage a marauder. She locked the only one that
seemed to her particularly tempting—the billiard-room window on the
terrace side of the house. Then she returned to the living-room and
again considered her defenses.
Three points of access from the terrace to the house—the door that led
into the alcove, the French windows of the living room—the
billiard-room window. On the other side of the house there was the main
entrance, the porch, the library and dining-room windows. The main
entrance led into a hall-living-room, and the main door of the
living-room was on the right as one entered, the dining-room and
library on the left, main staircase in front. “My mind is starting to
go round like a pinwheel, thinking of all those windows and doors,” she
murmured to herself. She sat down once more, and taking a pencil and a
piece of paper drew a plan of the lower floor of the house.
_And now I’ve studied it_, she thought after a while, _I’m no further
than if I hadn’t. As far as I can figure out, there are so many ways
for a clever man to get into this house that I’d have to be a couple of
Siamese twins to watch it properly. The next house I rent in the
country, she decided, just isn’t going to have any windows and doors—or
I’ll know the reason why._
But of course she was not entirely shut off from the world, even if the
worst developed. She considered the telephone instruments on a table
near the wall, one the general phone, the other connecting a house line
which also connected with the garage and the greenhouses. The garage
would not be helpful, since Slocum, her chauffeur for many years, had
gone back to England for a visit. Dale had been driving the car. But
with an able-bodied man in the gardener’s house—
She pulled herself together with a jerk.
“Cornelia Van Gorder, you’re going to go crazy before nightfall if you
don’t take hold of yourself. What you need is lunch and a nap in the
afternoon if you can make yourself take it. You’d better look up that
revolver of yours, too, that you bought when you thought you were going
to take a trip to China. You’ve never fired it off yet, but you’ve got
to sometime today—there’s no other way of telling if it will work. You
can shut your eyes when you do it—no, you can’t either—that’s silly.
“Call you a spirited old lady, do they? Well, you never had a better
time to show your spirit than now!”
And Miss Van Gorder, sighing, left the living-room to reach the kitchen
just in time to calm a heated argument between Lizzie and Billy on the
relative merits of Japanese and Irish-American cooking.
Dale Ogden, taxiing up from the two o’clock train some time later, to
her surprise discovered the front door locked and rang for some time
before she could get an answer. At last, Billy appeared, white-coated,
with an inscrutable expression on his face.
“Will you take my bag, Billy—thanks. Where is Miss Van Gorder—taking a
nap?”
“No,” said Billy succinctly. “She take no nap. She out in srubbery
shotting.”
Dale stared at him incredulously. “Shooting, Billy?”
“Yes, ma’am. At least—she not shoot yet but she say she going to soon.”
“But, good heavens, Billy—shooting what?”
“Shotting pistol,” said Billy, his yellow mask of a face preserving its
impish repose. He waved his hand. “You go srubbery. You see.”
The scene that met Dale’s eyes when she finally found the “srubbery”
was indeed a singular one. Miss Van Gorder, her back firmly planted
against the trunk of a large elm tree and an expression of ineffable
distaste on her features, was holding out a blunt, deadly looking
revolver at arm’s length. Its muzzle wavered, now pointing at the
ground, now at the sky. Behind the tree Lizzie sat in a heap, moaning
quietly to herself, and now and then appealing to the saints to avert a
visioned calamity.
As Dale approached, unseen, the climax came. The revolver steadied,
pointed ferociously at an inoffensive grass-blade some 10 yards from
Miss Van Gorder and went off. Lizzie promptly gave vent to a shrill
Irish scream. Miss Van Gorder dropped the revolver like a hot potato
and opened her mouth to tell Lizzie not to be such a fool. Then she saw
Dale—her mouth went into a round O of horror and her hand clutched
weakly at her heart.
“Good heavens, child!” she gasped. “Didn’t Billy tell you what I was
doing? I might have shot you like a rabbit!” and, overcome with
emotion, she sat down on the ground and started to fan herself
mechanically with a cartridge.
Dale couldn’t help laughing—and the longer she looked at her aunt the
more she laughed—until that dignified lady joined in the mirth herself.
“Aunt Cornelia—Aunt Cornelia!” said Dale when she could get her breath.
“That I’ve lived to see the day—and they call US the wild generation!
Why on earth were you having pistol practice, darling—has Billy turned
into a Japanese spy or what?”
Miss Van Gorder rose from the ground with as much stateliness as she
could muster under the circumstances.
“No, my dear—but there’s no fool like an old fool—that’s all,” she
stated. “I’ve wanted to fire that infernal revolver off ever since I
bought it two years ago, and now I have and I’m satisfied. Still,” she
went on thoughtfully, picking up the weapon, “it seems a very good
revolver—and shooting people must be much easier than I supposed. All
you have to do is to point the—the front of it—like this and—”
“Oh, Miss Dale, dear Miss Dale!” came in woebegone accents from the
other side of the tree. “For the love of heaven, Miss Dale, say no more
but take it away from her—she’ll have herself all riddled through with
bullets like a kitchen sieve—and me too—if she’s let to have it again.”
“Lizzie, I’m ashamed of you!” said Lizzie’s mistress. “Come out from
behind that tree and stop wailing like a siren. This weapon is
perfectly safe in competent hands and—” She seemed on the verge of
another demonstration of its powers.
“_Miss Dale, for the dear love o’ God will yuo make her put it away?_”
Dale laughed again. “I really think you’d better, Aunt Cornelia. Or
both of us will have to put Lizzie to bed with a case of acute
hysteria.”
“Well,” said Miss Van Gorder, “perhaps you’re right, dear.” Her eyes
gleamed. “I _should_ have liked to try it just once more though,” she
confided. “I feel certain that I could hit that tree over there if my
eye wouldn’t _wink_ so when the thing goes off.”
“Now, it’s winking eyes,” said Lizzie on a note of tragic chant, “but
next time it’ll be bleeding corpses and—”
Dale added her own protestations to Lizzie’s. “Please, darling, if you
really want to practice, Billy can fix up some sort of target range—but
I don’t want my favorite aunt assassinated by a ricocheted bullet
before my eyes!”
“Well, perhaps it would be best to try again another time,” admitted
Miss Van Gorder. But there was a wistful look in her eyes as she gave
the revolver to Dale and the three started back to the house.
“I should _never_ have allowed Lizzie to know what I was doing,” she
confided in a whisper, on the way. “A woman is perfectly capable of
managing firearms—but Lizzie is really too nervous to live, sometimes.”
“I know just how you feel, darling,” Dale agreed, suppressed mirth
shaking her as the little procession reached the terrace. “But—oh,” she
could keep it no longer, “oh—you did look funny, darling—sitting under
that tree, with Lizzie on the other side of it making banshee noises
and—”
Miss Van Gorder laughed too, a little shamefacedly.
“I must have,” she said. “But—oh, you needn’t shake your head, Lizzie
Allen—I _am_ going to practice with it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t
and you never can tell when things like that might be useful,” she
ended rather vaguely. She did not wish to alarm Dale with her
suspicions yet.
“There, Dale—yes, put it in the drawer of the table—that will reassure
Lizzie. Lizzie, you might make us some lemonade, I think—Miss Dale must
be thirsty after her long, hot ride.”
“Yes, Miss Cornelia,” said Lizzie, recovering her normal calm as the
revolver was shut away in the drawer of the large table in the
living-room. But she could not resist one parting shot. “And thank God
it’s lemonade I’ll be making—and not bandages for bullet wounds!” she
muttered darkly as she went toward the service quarters.
Miss Van Gorder glared after her departing back. “Lizzie is really
impossible sometimes!” she said with stately ire. Then her voice
softened. “Though of course I couldn’t do without her,” she added.
Dale stretched out on the settee opposite her aunt’s chair. “I know you
couldn’t, darling. Thanks for thinking of the lemonade.” She passed her
hand over her forehead in a gesture of fatigue. “I _am_ hot—and tired.”
Miss Van Gorder looked at her keenly. The young face seemed curiously
worn and haggard in the clear afternoon light.
“You—you don’t really feel very well, do you, Dale?”
“Oh—it’s nothing. I feel all right—really.”
“I could send for Doctor Wells if—”
“Oh, heavens, no, Aunt Cornelia.” She managed a wan smile. “It isn’t as
bad as all that. I’m just tired and the city was terribly hot and noisy
and—” She stole a glance at her aunt from between lowered lids. “I got
your gardener, by the way,” she said casually.
“Did you, dear? That’s splendid, though—but I’ll tell you about that
later. Where did you get him?”
“That good agency, I can’t remember its name.” Dale’s hand moved
restlessly over her eyes, as if remembering details were too great an
effort. “But I’m sure he’ll be satisfactory. He’ll be out here this
evening—he—he couldn’t get away before, I believe. What have you been
doing all day, darling?”
Miss Cornelia hesitated. Now that Dale had returned she suddenly wanted
very much to talk over the various odd happenings of the day with
her—get the support of her youth and her common sense. Then that
independence which was so firmly rooted a characteristic of hers
restrained her. No use worrying the child unnecessarily; they all might
have to worry enough before tomorrow morning.
She compromised. “We have had a domestic upheaval,” she said. “The cook
and the housemaid have left—if you’d only waited till the next train
you could have had the pleasure of their company into town.”
“Aunt Cornelia—how exciting! I’m so sorry! Why did they leave?”
“Why do servants ever leave a good place?” asked Miss Cornelia grimly.
“Because if they had sense enough to know when they were well off, they
wouldn’t be servants. Anyhow, they’ve gone—we’ll have to depend on
Lizzie and Billy the rest of this week. I telephoned—but they couldn’t
promise me any others before Monday.”
“And I was in town and could have seen people for you—if I’d only
known!” said Dale remorsefully. “Only,” she hesitated, “I mightn’t have
had time—at least I mean there were some other things I had to do,
besides getting the gardener and—” She rose. “I think I will go and lie
down for a little if you don’t mind, darling.”
Miss Van Gorder was concerned. “Of course I don’t mind but—won’t you
even have your lemonade?”
“Oh, I’ll get some from Lizzie in the pantry before I go up,” Dale
managed to laugh. “I think I must have a headache after all,” she said.
“Maybe I’ll take an aspirin. Don’t worry, darling.”
“I shan’t. I only wish there were something I could do for you, my
dear.”
Dale stopped in the alcove doorway. “There’s nothing anybody can do for
me, really,” she said soberly. “At least—oh, I don’t know what I’m
saying! But don’t worry. I’m quite all right. I may go over to the
country club after dinner—and dance. Won’t you come with me, Aunt
Cornelia?”
“Depends on your escort,” said Miss Cornelia tartly. “If our landlord,
Mr. Richard Fleming, is taking you I certainly shall—I don’t like his
looks and never did!”
Dale laughed. “Oh, he’s all right,” she said. “Drinks a good deal and
wastes a lot of money, but harmless enough. No, this is a very sedate
party; I’ll be home early.”
“Well, in that case,” said her aunt, “I shall stay here with my Lizzie
and my ouija-board. Lizzie deserves _some_ punishment for the _very_
cowardly way she behaved this afternoon—and the ouija-board will
furnish it. She’s scared to death to touch the thing. I think she
believes it’s alive.”
“Well, maybe I’ll send you a message on it from the country club,” said
Dale lightly. She had paused, half-way up the flight of side stairs in
the alcove, and her aunt noticed how her shoulders drooped, belying the
lightness of her voice. “Oh,” she went on, “by the way—have the
afternoon papers come yet? I didn’t have time to get one when I was
rushing for the train.”
“I don’t think so, dear, but I’ll ask Lizzie.” Miss Cornelia moved
toward a bell push.
“Oh, don’t bother; it doesn’t matter. Only if they have, would you ask
Lizzie to bring me one when she brings up the lemonade? I want to read
about—about the Bat—he fascinates me.”
“There was something else in the paper this morning,” said Miss
Cornelia idly. “Oh, yes—the Union Bank—the bank Mr. Fleming, Senior,
was president of has failed. They seem to think the cashier robbed it.
Did you see that, Dale?”
The shoulders of the girl on the staircase straightened suddenly. Then
they drooped again. “Yes—I saw it,” she said in a queerly colorless
voice. “Too bad. It must be terrible to—to have everyone suspect
you—and hunt you—as I suppose they’re hunting that poor cashier.”
“Well,” said Miss Cornelia, “a man who wrecks a bank deserves very
little sympathy to my way of thinking. But then I’m old-fashioned.
Well, dear, I won’t keep you. Run along—and if you want an aspirin,
there’s a box in my top bureau-drawer.”
“Thanks, darling. Maybe I’ll take one and maybe I won’t—all I really
need is to lie down for a while.”
She moved on up the staircase and disappeared from the range of Miss
Cornelia’s vision, leaving Miss Cornelia to ponder many things. Her
trip to the city had done Dale no good, of a certainty. If not actually
ill, she was obviously under some considerable mental strain. And why
this sudden interest, first in the Bat, then in the failure of the
Union Bank? Was it possible that Dale, too, had been receiving
threatening letters?
_I’ll be glad when that gardener comes_, she thought to herself. _He’ll
make a man in the house at any rate._
When Lizzie at last came in with the lemonade she found her mistress
shaking her head.
“Cornelia, Cornelia,” she was murmuring to herself, “you should have
taken to pistol practice when you were younger; it just shows how
children waste their opportunities.”
CHAPTER FOUR
THE STORM GATHERS
The long summer afternoon wore away, sunset came, red and angry, a
sunset presaging storm. A chill crept into the air with the twilight.
When night fell, it was not a night of silver patterns enskied, but a
dark and cloudy cloak where a few stars glittered fitfully. Miss
Cornelia, at dinner, saw a bat swoop past the window of the dining room
in its scurrying flight, and narrowly escaped oversetting her glass of
water with a nervous start. The tension of waiting—waiting—for some
vague menace which might not materialize after all—had begun to prey on
her nerves. She saw Dale off to the country club with relief—the girl
looked a little better after her nap but she was still not her normal
self. When Dale was gone, she wandered restlessly for some time between
living-room and library, now giving an unnecessary dusting to a piece
of bric-a-brac with her handkerchief, now taking a book from one of the
shelves in the library only to throw it down before she read a page.
This house was queer. She would not have admitted it to Lizzie, for her
soul’s salvation—but, for the first time in her sensible life, she
listened for creakings of woodwork, rustling of leaves, stealthy steps
outside, beyond the safe, bright squares of the windows—for anything
that was actual, tangible, not merely formless fear.
“There’s too much _room_ in the country for things to happen to you!”
she confided to herself with a shiver. “Even the night—whenever I look
out, it seems to me as if the night were ten times bigger and blacker
than it ever is in New York!”
To comfort herself she mentally rehearsed her telephone conversation of
the morning, the conversation she had not mentioned to her household.
At the time it had seemed to her most reassuring—the plans she had
based upon it adequate and sensible in the normal light of day. But now
the light of day had been blotted out and with it her security. Her
plans seemed weapons of paper against the sinister might of the
darkness beyond her windows. A little wind wailed somewhere in that
darkness like a beaten child—beyond the hills thunder rumbled, drawing
near, and with it lightning and the storm.
She made herself sit down in the chair beside her favorite lamp on the
center table and take up her knitting with stiff fingers. Knit two—purl
two—Her hands fell into the accustomed rhythm mechanically—a spy,
peering in through the French windows, would have deemed her the
picture of calm. But she had never felt less calm in all the long years
of her life.
She wouldn’t ring for Lizzie to come and sit with her, she simply
wouldn’t. But she was very glad, nevertheless, when Lizzie appeared at
the door.
“Miss Neily.”
“Yes, Lizzie?” Miss Cornelia’s voice was composed but her heart felt a
throb of relief.
“Can I—can I sit in here with you, Miss Neily, just a minute?” Lizzie’s
voice was plaintive. “I’ve been sitting out in the kitchen watching
that Jap read his funny newspaper the wrong way and listening for
ghosts till I’m nearly crazy!”
“Why, certainly, Lizzie,” said Miss Cornelia primly. “Though,” she
added doubtfully, “I really shouldn’t pamper your absurd fears, I
suppose, but—”
“Oh, please, Miss Neily!”
“Very well,” said Miss Cornelia brightly. “You can sit here, Lizzie—and
help me work the ouija-board. That will take your mind off listening
for things!”
Lizzie groaned. “You know I’d rather be shot than touch that uncanny
ouijie!” she said dolefully. “It gives me the creeps every time I put
my hands on it!”
“Well, of course, if you’d rather sit in the kitchen, Lizzie—”
“Oh, give me the ouijie!” said Lizzie in tones of heartbreak. “I’d
rather be shot _and_ stabbed than stay in the kitchen any more.”
“Very well,” said Miss Cornelia, “it’s your own decision,
Lizzie—remember that.” Her needles clicked on. “I’ll just finish this
row before we start,” she said. “You might call up the light company in
the meantime, Lizzie—there seems to be a storm coming up and I want to
find out if they intend to turn out the lights tonight as they did last
night. Tell them I find it most inconvenient to be left without light
that way.”
“It’s worse than inconvenient,” muttered Lizzie, “it’s criminal—that’s
what it is—turning off all the lights in a haunted house, like this
one. As if spooks wasn’t bad enough with the lights _on_—”
“Lizzie!”
“Yes, Miss Neily—I wasn’t going to say another word.” She went to the
telephone. Miss Cornelia knitted on—knit two—purl two— In spite of her
experiments with the ouija-board she didn’t believe in ghosts—and
yet—there were things one couldn’t explain by logic. Was there
something like that in this house—a shadow walking the corridors—a
vague shape of evil, drifting like mist from room to room, till its
cold breath whispered on one’s back and—there! She had ruined her
knitting, the last two rows would have to be ripped out. That came of
mooning about ghosts like a ninny.
She put down the knitting with an exasperated little gesture. Lizzie
had just finished her telephoning and was hanging up the receiver.
“Well, Lizzie?”
“Yes’m,” said the latter, glaring at the phone. “That’s what he
says—they turned off the lights last night because there was a storm
threatening. He says it burns out their fuses if they leave ’em on in a
storm.”
A louder roll of thunder punctuated her words.
“There!” said Lizzie. “They’ll be going off again to-night.” She took
an uncertain step toward the French windows.
“Humph!” said Miss Cornelia, “I hope it will be a dry summer.” Her
hands tightened on each other. Darkness—darkness inside this house of
whispers to match with the darkness outside! She forced herself to
speak in a normal voice.
“Ask Billy to bring some candles, Lizzie—and have them ready.”
Lizzie had been staring fixedly at the French windows. At Miss
Cornelia’s command she gave a little jump of terror and moved closer to
her mistress.
“You’re not going to ask me to go out in that hall alone?” she said in
a hurt voice.
It was too much. Miss Cornelia found vent for her feelings in crisp
exasperation.
“What’s the matter with you anyhow, Lizzie Allen?”
The nervousness in her own tones infected Lizzie’s. She shivered
frankly.
“Oh, Miss Neily—Miss Neily!” she pleaded. “I don’t like it! I want to
go back to the city!”
Miss Cornelia braced herself. “I have rented this house for four months
and I am going to stay,” she said firmly. Her eyes sought Lizzie’s,
striving to pour some of her own inflexible courage into the latter’s
quaking form. But Lizzie would not look at her. Suddenly she started
and gave a low scream;
“There’s somebody on the terrace!” she breathed in a ghastly whisper,
clutching at Miss Cornelia’s arm.
For a second Miss Cornelia sat frozen. Then, “Don’t do that!” she said
sharply. “What nonsense!” but she, looked over her shoulder as she said
it and Lizzie saw the look. Both waited, in pulsing stillness—one
second—two.
“I guess it was the wind,” said Lizzie at last, relieved, her grip on
Miss Cornelia relaxing. She began to look a trifle ashamed of herself
and Miss Cornelia seized the opportunity.
“You were born on a brick pavement,” she said crushingly. “You get
nervous out here at night whenever a cricket begins to sing—or scrape
his legs—or whatever it is they do!”
Lizzie bowed before the blast of her mistress’s scorn and began to move
gingerly toward the alcove door. But obviously she was not entirely
convinced.
“Oh, it’s more than that, Miss Neily,” she mumbled. “I—”
Miss Cornelia turned to her fiercely. If Lizzie was going to behave
like this, they might as well have it out now between them—before Dale
came home.
“What did you _really_ see last night?” she said in a minatory voice.
The instant relief on Lizzie’s face was ludicrous; she so obviously
preferred discussing any subject at any length to braving the dangers
of the other part of the house unaccompanied.
“I was standing right there at the top of that there staircase,” she
began, gesticulating toward the alcove stairs in the manner of one who
embarks upon the narration of an epic. “Standing there with your switch
in my hand, Miss Neily—and then I looked down and,” her voice dropped,
“I saw a _gleaming eye!_ It looked at me and _winked!_ I tell you this
house is haunted!”
“A flirtatious ghost?” queried Miss Cornelia skeptically. She snorted.
“Humph! Why didn’t you yell?”
“I was too scared to yell! And I’m not the only one.” She started to
back away from the alcove, her eyes still fixed upon its haunted
stairs. “Why do you think the servants left so sudden this morning?”
she went on. “Do you really believe the housemaid had appendicitis? Or
the cook’s sister had twins?”
She turned and gestured at her mistress with a long, pointed
forefinger. Her voice had a note of doom.
“I bet a cent the cook never had any sister—and the sister never had
any twins,” she said impressively. “No, Miss Neily, they couldn’t put
it over on me like that! They were scared away. They saw—It!”
She concluded her epic and stood nodding her head, an Irish Cassandra
who had prophesied the evil to come.
“Fiddlesticks!” said Miss Cornelia briskly, more shaken by the recital
than she would have admitted. She tried to think of another topic of
conversation.
“What time is it?” she asked.
Lizzie glanced at the mantel clock. “Half-past ten, Miss Neily.”
Miss Cornelia yawned, a little dismally. She felt as if the last two
hours had not been hours but years.
“Miss Dale won’t be home for half an hour,” she said reflectively. _And
if I have to spend another thirty minutes listening to Lizzie shiver_,
she thought, _Dale will find me a nervous wreck when she does come
home_. She rolled up her knitting and put it back in her knitting-bag;
it was no use going on, doing work that would have to be ripped out
again and yet she must do something to occupy her thoughts. She raised
her head and discovered Lizzie returning toward the alcove stairs with
the stealthy tread of a panther. The sight exasperated her.
“Now, Lizzie Allen!” she said sharply, “you forget all that
superstitious nonsense and stop looking for ghosts! There’s nothing in
that sort of thing.” She smiled—she would punish Lizzie for her
obdurate timorousness. “Where’s that ouija-board?” she questioned,
rising, with determination in her eye.
Lizzie shuddered violently. “It’s up there—with a prayer book on it to
keep it quiet!” she groaned, jerking her thumb in the direction of the
farther bookcase.
“Bring it here!” said Miss Cornelia implacably; then as Lizzie still
hesitated, “Lizzie!”
Shivering, every movement of her body a conscious protest, Lizzie
slowly went over to the bookcase, lifted off the prayer book, and took
down the ouija-board. Even then she would not carry it normally but
bore it over to Miss Cornelia at arms’-length, as if any closer contact
would blast her with lightning, her face a comic mask of loathing and
repulsion.
She placed the lettered board in Miss Cornelia’s lap with a sigh of
relief. “You can do it yourself! I’ll have none of it!” she said
firmly.
“It takes two people and you know it, Lizzie Allen!” Miss Cornelia’s
voice was stern but—it was also amused.
Lizzie groaned, but she knew her mistress. She obeyed. She carefully
chose the farthest chair in the room and took a long time bringing it
over to where her mistress sat waiting.
“I’ve been working for you for twenty years,” she muttered. “I’ve been
your goat for twenty years and I’ve got a right to speak my mind—”
Miss Cornelia cut her off. “You haven’t got a mind. Sit down,” she
commanded.
Lizzie sat—her hands at her sides. With a sigh of tried patience, Miss
Cornelia put her unwilling fingers on the little moving table that is
used to point to the letters on the board itself. Then she placed her
own hands on it, too, the tips of the fingers just touching Lizzie’s.
“Now make your mind a blank!” she commanded her factotum.
“You just said I haven’t got any mind,” complained the latter.
“Well;” said Miss Cornelia magnificently, “make what you haven’t got a
blank.”
The repartee silenced Lizzie for the moment, but only for the moment.
As soon as Miss Cornelia had settled herself comfortably and tried to
make her mind a suitable receiving station for ouija messages, Lizzie
began to mumble the sorrows of her heart.
“I’ve stood by you through thick and thin,” she mourned in a low voice.
“I stood by you when you were a vegetarian—I stood by you when you were
a theosophist—and I seen you through socialism, Fletcherism and
rheumatism—but when it comes to carrying on with ghosts—”
“Be still!” ordered Miss Cornelia. “Nothing will come if you keep
chattering!”
“That’s _why_ I’m chattering!” said Lizzie, driven to the wall. “My
teeth are, too,” she added. “I can hardly keep my upper set in,” and a
desolate clicking of artificial molars attested the truth of the
remark. Then, to Miss Cornelia’s relief, she was silent for nearly two
minutes, only to start so violently at the end of the time that she
nearly upset the ouija-board on her mistress’s toes.
“I’ve got a queer feeling in my fingers—all the way up my arms,” she
whispered in awed accents, wriggling the arms she spoke of violently.
“Hush!” said Miss Cornelia indignantly. Lizzie always exaggerated, of
course—yet now her own fingers felt prickly, uncanny. There was a
little pause while both sat tense, staring at the board.
“Now, Ouija,” said Miss Cornelia defiantly, “is Lizzie Allen right
about this house or is it all stuff and nonsense?”
For one second—two—the ouija remained anchored to its resting place in
the center of the board. Then—
“My Gawd! It’s moving!” said Lizzie in tones of pure horror as the
little pointer began to wander among the letters.
“You shoved it!”
“I did not—cross my heart, Miss Neily—I—” Lizzie’s eyes were round, her
fingers glued rigidly and awkwardly to the ouija. As the movements of
the pointer grew more rapid her mouth dropped open—wider and
wider—prepared for an ear-piercing scream.
“Keep quiet!” said Miss Cornelia tensely. There was a pause of a few
seconds while the pointer darted from one letter to another wildly.
“B—M—C—X—P—R—S—K—Z—” murmured Miss Cornelia trying to follow the
spelled letters.
“It’s Russian!” gasped Lizzie breathlessly and Miss Cornelia nearly
disgraced herself in the eyes of any spirits that might be present by
inappropriate laughter. The ouija continued to move—more letters—what
was it spelling?—it couldn’t be—good heavens—“B—A—T—Bat!” said Miss
Cornelia with a tiny catch in her voice.
The pointer stopped moving: She took her hands from the board.
“That’s queer,” she said with a forced laugh. She glanced at Lizzie to
see how Lizzie was taking it. But the latter seemed too relieved to
have her hands off the ouija-board to make the mental connection that
her mistress had feared.
All she said was, “Bats indeed! That shows it’s spirits. There’s been a
bat flying around this house all evening.”
She got up from her chair tentatively, obviously hoping that the séance
was over.
“Oh, Miss Neily,” she burst out. “Please let me sleep in your room
tonight! It’s only when my jaw drops that I snore—I can tie it up with
a handkerchief!”
“I wish you’d tie it up with a handkerchief now,” said her mistress
absent-mindedly, still pondering the message that the pointer had
spelled. “B—A—T—Bat!” she murmured.
Thought-transference—warning—accident? Whatever it was, it
was—nerve-shaking. She put the ouija-board aside. Accident or not, she
was done with it for the evening. But she could not so easily dispose
of the Bat. Sending a protesting Lizzie off for her reading glasses,
Miss Cornelia got the evening paper and settled down to what by now had
become her obsession. She had not far to search for a long black
streamer ran across the front page—_Bat Baffles Police Again_.
She skimmed through the article with eerie fascination, reading bits of
it aloud for Lizzie’s benefit.
“‘Unique criminal—long baffled the police—record of his crimes shows
him to be endowed with an almost diabolical ingenuity—so far there is
no clue to his identity—’” _Pleasant reading for an old woman who’s
just received a threatening letter_, she thought ironically—ah, here
was something new in a black-bordered box on the front page—a statement
by the paper.
She read it aloud. “‘We must cease combing the criminal world for the
Bat and look higher. He may be a merchant—a lawyer—a Doctor—honored in
his community by day and at night a bloodthirsty assassin—’” The print
blurred before her eyes, she could read no more for the moment. She
thought of the revolver in the drawer of the table close at hand and
felt glad that it was there, loaded.
“I’m going to take the butcher knife to bed with me!” Lizzie was
saying.
Miss Cornelia touched the ouija-board. “That thing certainly spelled
Bat,” she remarked. “I wish I were a man. I’d like to see any lawyer,
Doctor, or merchant of my acquaintance leading a double life without my
suspecting it.”
“Every man leads a double life and some more than that,” Lizzie
observed. “I guess it rests them, like it does me to take off my
corset.”
Miss Cornelia opened her mouth to rebuke her but just at that moment
there, was a clink of ice from the hall, and Billy, the Japanese,
entered carrying a tray with a pitcher of water and some glasses on it.
Miss Cornelia watched his impassive progress, wondering if the Oriental
races ever felt terror—she could not imagine all Lizzie’s banshees and
kelpies producing a single shiver from Billy. He set down the tray and
was about to go as silently as he had come when Miss Cornelia spoke to
him on impulse.
“Billy, what’s all this about the cook’s sister not having twins?” she
said in an offhand voice. She had not really discussed the departure of
the other servants with Billy before. “Did you happen to know that this
interesting event was anticipated?”
Billy drew in his breath with a polite hiss. “Maybe she have twins,” he
admitted. “It happen sometime. Mostly not expected.”
“Do you think there was any other reason for her leaving?”
“Maybe,” said Billy blandly.
“Well, what was the reason?”
“All say the same thing—house haunted.” Billy’s reply was prompt as it
was calm.
Miss Cornelia gave a slight laugh. “You know better than that, though,
don’t you?”
Billy’s Oriental placidity remained unruffled. He neither admitted nor
denied. He shrugged his shoulders.
“Funny house,” he said laconically. “Find window open—nobody there.
Door slam—nobody there!”
On the heels of his words came a single, startling bang from the
kitchen quarters—the bang of a slammed door!
CHAPTER FIVE
ALOPECIA AND RUBEOLA
Miss Cornelia dropped her newspaper. Lizzie, frankly frightened, gave a
little squeal and moved closer to her mistress. Only Billy remained
impassive but even he looked sharply in the direction whence the sound
had come.
Miss Cornelia was the first of the others to recover her poise.
“Stop that! It was the wind!” she said, a little irritably—the “Stop
that!” addressed to Lizzie who seemed on the point of squealing again.
“I think not wind,” said Billy. His very lack of perturbation added
weight to the statement. It made Miss Cornelia uneasy. She took out her
knitting again.
“How long have you lived in this house, Billy?”
“Since Mr. Fleming built.”
“H’m.” Miss Cornelia pondered. “And this is the first time you have
been disturbed?”
“Last two days only.” Billy would have made an ideal witness in a
courtroom. He restricted himself so precisely to answering what was
asked of him in as few words as possible.
Miss Cornelia ripped out a row in her knitting. She took a deep breath.
“What about that face Lizzie said you saw last night at the window?”
she asked in a steady voice.
Billy grinned, as if slightly embarrassed. “Just face—that’s all.”
“A—man’s face?”
He shrugged again.
“Don’t know—maybe. It there! It gone!”
Miss Cornelia did not want to believe him—but she did. “Did you go out
after it?” she persisted.
Billy’s yellow grin grew wider. “No thanks,” he said cheerfully with
ideal succinctness.
Lizzie, meanwhile, had stood first on one foot and then on the other
during the interrogation, terror and morbid interest fighting in her
for mastery. Now she could hold herself in no longer.
“Oh, Miss Neily!” she exploded in a graveyard moan, “last night when
the lights went out I had a token! My oil lamp was full of oil but, do
what I would, it kept going out, too—the minute I shut my eyes out that
lamp would go. There ain’t a surer token of death! The Bible says, ‘Let
your light shine’—and when a hand you can’t see puts your lights
out—good night!”
She ended in a hushed whisper and even Billy looked a trifle
uncomfortable after her climax.
“Well, now that you’ve cheered us up,” began Miss Cornelia undauntedly,
but a long, ominous roll of thunder that rattled the panes in the
French windows drowned out the end of her sentence. Nevertheless she
welcomed the thunder as a diversion. At least its menace was a physical
one—to be guarded against by physical means.
She rose and went over to the French windows. That flimsy bolt! She
parted the curtains and looked out—a flicker of lightning stabbed the
night—the storm must be almost upon them.
“Bring some candles, Billy,” she said. “The lights may be going out any
moment—and Billy,” as he started to leave, “there’s a gentleman
arriving on the last train. After he comes you may go to bed. I’ll wait
up for Miss Dale—oh, and Billy,” arresting him at the door, “see that
all the outer doors on this floor are locked and bring the keys here.”
Billy nodded and departed. Miss Cornelia took a long breath. Now that
the moment for waiting had passed—the moment for action come—she felt
suddenly indomitable, prepared to face a dozen Bats!
Her feelings were not shared by her maid. “I know what all this means,”
moaned Lizzie. “I tell you there’s going to be a death, sure!”
“There certainly will be if you don’t keep quiet,” said her mistress
acidly. “Lock the billiard-room windows and go to bed.”
But this was the last straw for Lizzie. A picture of the two long, dark
flights of stairs up which she had to pass to reach her bedchamber rose
before her—and she spoke her mind.
“I am not going to bed!” she said wildly. “I’m going to pack up
tomorrow and leave this house.” That such a threat would never be
carried out while she lived made little difference to her—she was
beyond the need of Truth’s consolations. “I asked you on my bended
knees not to take this place two miles from a railroad,” she went on
heatedly. “For mercy’s sake, Miss Neily, let’s go back to the city
before it’s too late!”
Miss Cornelia was inflexible.
“I’m not going. You can make up your mind to that. I’m going to find
out what’s wrong with this place if it takes all summer. I came out to
the country for a rest and I’m going to _get_ it.”
“You’ll get your heavenly rest!” mourned Lizzie, giving it up. She
looked pitifully at her mistress’s face for a sign that the latter
might be weakening—but no such sign came. Instead, Miss Cornelia seemed
to grow more determined.
“Besides,” she said, suddenly deciding to share the secret she had
hugged to herself all day, “I might as well tell you, Lizzie. I’m
having a detective sent down tonight from police headquarters in the
city.”
“A detective?” Lizzie’s face was horrified. “Miss Neily, you’re keeping
something from me! You know something I don’t know.”
“I hope so. I daresay he will be stupid enough. Most of them are. But
at least we can have one proper night’s sleep.”
“Not I. I trust no man,” said Lizzie. But Miss Cornelia had picked up
the paper again.
“‘The Bat’s last crime was a particularly atrocious one,’” she read.
“‘The body of the murdered man...’”
But Lizzie could bear no more.
“Why don’t you read the funny page once in a while?” she wailed and
hurried to close the windows in the billiard room. The door leading
into the billiard room shut behind her.
Miss Cornelia remained reading for a moment. Then—was that a sound from
the alcove? She dropped the paper, went into the alcove and stood for a
moment at the foot of the stairs, listening. No—it must have been
imagination. But, while she was here, she might as well put on the
spring lock that bolted the door from the alcove to the terrace. She
did so, returned to the living-room and switched off the lights for a
moment to look out at the coming storm. It was closer now—the lightning
flashes more continuous. She turned on the lights again as Billy
re-entered with three candles and a box of matches.
He put them down on a side table.
“New gardener come,” he said briefly to Miss Cornelia’s back.
Miss Cornelia turned. “Nice hour for him to get here. What’s his name?”
“Say his name Brook,” said Billy, a little doubtful. English names
still bothered him—he was never quite sure of them at first.
Miss Cornelia thought. “Ask him to come in,” she said. “And Billy—where
are the keys?”
Billy silently took two keys from his pocket and laid them on the
table. Then he pointed to the terrace door which Miss Cornelia had just
bolted.
“Door up there—spring lock,” he said.
“Yes.” She nodded. “And the new bolt you put on today makes it fairly
secure. One thing is fairly sure, Billy. If anyone tries to get in
tonight, he will have to break a window and make a certain amount of
noise.”
But he only smiled his curious enigmatic smile and went out. And no
sooner had Miss Cornelia seated herself when the door of the billiard
room slammed open suddenly and Lizzie burst into the room as if she had
been shot from a gun—her hair wild—her face stricken with fear.
“I heard somebody yell out in the grounds—away down by the gate!” she
informed her mistress in a loud stage whisper which had a curious note
of pride in it, as if she were not too displeased at seeing her doleful
predictions so swiftly coming to pass.
Miss Cornelia took her by the shoulder—half-startled, half-dubious.
“What did they yell?”
“Just yelled a yell!”
“Lizzie!”
“I heard them!”
But she had cried “Wolf!” too often.
“You take a liver pill,” said her mistress disgustedly, “and go to
bed.”
Lizzie was about to protest both the verdict on her story and the
judgment on herself when the door in the hall was opened by Billy to
admit the new gardener. A handsome young fellow, in his late twenties,
he came two steps into the room and then stood there respectfully with
his cap in his hand, waiting for Miss Cornelia to speak to him.
After a swift glance of observation that gave her food for thought she
did so.
“You are Brooks, the new gardener?”
The young man inclined his head.
“Yes, madam. The butler said you wanted to speak to me.”
Miss Cornelia regarded him anew. _His hands look soft—for a
gardener’s_, she thought. _And his manners seem much too good for
one—still—_
“Come in,” she said briskly. The young man advanced another two steps.
“You’re the man my niece engaged in the city this afternoon?”
“Yes, madam.” He seemed a little uneasy under her searching scrutiny.
She dropped her eyes.
“I could not verify your references as the Brays are in Canada—” she
proceeded.
The young man took an eager step forward. “I am sure if Mrs. Bray were
here—” he began, then flushed and stopped, twisting his cap.
“_Were_ here?” said Miss Cornelia in a curious voice. “Are you a
_professional_ gardener?”
“Yes.” The young man’s manner had grown a trifle defiant but Miss
Cornelia’s next question followed remorselessly.
“Know anything about hardy perennials?” she said in a soothing voice,
while Lizzie regarded the interview with wondering eyes.
“Oh. yes,” but the young man seemed curiously lacking in confidence.
“They—they’re the ones that keep their leaves during the winter, aren’t
they?”
“Come over here—closer—” said Miss Cornelia imperiously. Once more she
scrutinized him and this time there was no doubt of his discomfort
under her stare.
“Have you had any experience with rubeola?” she queried finally.
“Oh, yes—yes—yes, indeed,” the gardener stammered. “Yes.”
“And—alopecia?” pursued Miss Cornelia.
The young man seemed to fumble in his mind for the characteristics of
such a flower or shrub.
“The dry weather is very hard on alopecia,” he asserted finally, and
was evidently relieved to see Miss Cornelia receive the statement with
a pleasant smile.
“What do you think is the best treatment for urticaria?” she propounded
with a highly professional manner.
It appeared to be a catch-question. The young man knotted his brows.
Finally a gleam of light seemed to come to him.
“Urticaria frequently needs—er—thinning,” he announced decisively.
“Needs scratching you mean!” Miss Cornelia rose with a snort of disdain
and faced him. “Young man, urticaria is _hives_, rubeola is _measles_,
and alopecia is _baldness!_” she thundered. She waited a moment for his
defense. None came.
“Why did you tell me you were a professional gardener?” she went on
accusingly. “Why have you come here at this hour of night pretending to
be something you’re not?”
By all standards of drama the young man should have wilted before her
wrath, Instead he suddenly smiled at her, boyishly, and threw up his
hands in a gesture of defeat.
“I know I shouldn’t have done it!” he confessed with appealing
frankness. “You’d have found me out anyhow! I don’t know anything about
gardening. The truth is,” his tone grew somber, “I was desperate! I
_had_ to have work!”
The candor of his smile would have disarmed a stonier-hearted person
than Miss Cornelia. But her suspicions were still awake.
“‘That’s all, is it?”
“That’s enough when you’re down and out.” His words had an unmistakable
accent of finality. She couldn’t help wanting to believe him, and yet,
he wasn’t what he had pretended to be—and this night of all nights was
no time to take people on trust!
“How do I know you won’t steal the spoons?” she queried, her voice
still gruff.
“Are they nice spoons?” he asked with absurd seriousness.
She couldn’t help smiling at his tone. “Beautiful spoons.”
Again that engaging, boyish manner of his touched something in her
heart.
“Spoons are a great temptation to me, Miss Van Gorder—but if you’ll
take me, I’ll promise to leave them alone.”
“That’s extremely kind of you,” she answered with grim humor, knowing
herself beaten. She went over to ring for Billy.
Lizzie took the opportunity to gain her ear.
“I don’t trust him, Miss Neily! He’s too smooth!” she whispered
warningly.
Miss Cornelia stiffened. “I haven’t asked for your opinion, Lizzie,”
she said.
But Lizzie was not to be put off by the Van Gorder manner.
“Oh,” she whispered, “you’re just as bad as all the rest of ’em. A
good-looking man comes in the door and your brains fly out the window!”
Miss Cornelia quelled her with a gesture and turned back to the young
man. He was standing just where she had left him, his cap in his
hands—but, while her back had been turned, his eyes had made a stealthy
survey of the living-room—a survey that would have made it plain to
Miss Cornelia, if she had seen him, that his interest in the Fleming
establishment was not merely the casual interest of a servant in his
new place of abode. But she had not seen and she could have told
nothing from his present expression.
“Have you had anything to eat lately?” she asked in a kindly voice.
He looked down at his cap. “Not since this morning,” he admitted as
Billy answered the bell.
Miss Cornelia turned to the impassive Japanese. “Billy, give this man
something to eat and then show him where he is to sleep.”
She hesitated. The gardener’s house was some distance from the main
building, and with the night and the approaching storm she felt her own
courage weakening. Into the bargain, whether this stranger had lied
about his gardening or not, she was curiously attracted to him.
“I think,” she said slowly, “that I’ll have you sleep in the house
here, at least for tonight. Tomorrow we can—the housemaid’s room,
Billy,” she told the butler. And before their departure she held out a
candle and a box of matches.
“Better take these with you, Brooks,” she said. “The local light
company crawls under its bed every time there is a thunderstorm. Good
night, Brooks.”
“Good night, ma’am,” said the young man smiling. Following Billy to the
door, he paused. “You’re being mighty good to me,” he said diffidently,
smiled again, and disappeared after Billy.
As the door closed behind them, Miss Cornelia found herself smiling
too. “That’s a pleasant young fellow—no matter what he is,” she said to
herself decidedly, and not even Lizzie’s feverish “Haven’t you any
sense taking strange men into the house? How do you know he isn’t the
Bat?” could draw a reply from her.
Again the thunder rolled as she straightened the papers and magazines
on the table and Lizzie gingerly took up the ouija-board to replace it
on the bookcase with the prayer book firmly on top of it. And this
time, with the roll of the thunder, the lights in the living-room
blinked uncertainly for an instant before they recovered their normal
brilliance.
“There go the lights!” grumbled Lizzie, her fingers still touching the
prayer book, as if for protection. Miss Cornelia did not answer her
directly.
“We’ll put the detective in the blue room when he comes,” she said.
“You’d better go up and see if it’s all ready.”
Lizzie started to obey, going toward the alcove to ascend to the second
floor by the alcove stairs. But Miss Cornelia stopped her.
“Lizzie—you know that stair rail’s just been varnished. Miss Dale got a
stain on her sleeve there this afternoon—and Lizzie—”
“Yes’m?”
“No one is to know that he is a detective. Not even Billy.” Miss
Cornelia was very firm.
“Well, what’ll I say he is?”
“It’s nobody’s business.”
“A detective,” moaned Lizzie, opening the hall door to go by the main
staircase. “Tiptoeing around with his eye to all the keyholes. A body
won’t be safe in the bathtub.” She shut the door with a little slap and
disappeared. Miss Cornelia sat down—she had many things to think over.
_If I ever get time really to think of anything again_, she thought,
_because with gardeners coming who aren’t gardeners—and Lizzie hearing
yells in the grounds and—_
She started slightly. The front door bell was ringing—a long trill,
uncannily loud in the quiet house. She sat rigid in her chair, waiting.
Billy came in.
“Front door key, please?” he asked urbanely. She gave him the key.
“Find out who it is before you unlock the door,” she said. He nodded.
She heard him at the door, then a murmur of voices—Dale’s voice and
another’s—“Won’t you come in for a few minutes? Oh, thank you.” She
relaxed.
The door opened; it was Dale. _How lovely she looks in that evening
wrap!_ thought Miss Cornelia. _But how tired, too. I wish I knew what
was worrying her._
She smiled. “Aren’t you back early, Dale?”
Dale threw off her wrap and stood for a moment patting back into its
smooth, smart bob, hair ruffled by the wind.
“I was tired,” she said, sinking into a chair.
“Not worried about anything?” Miss Cornelia’s eyes were sharp.
“No,” said Dale without conviction, “but I’ve come here to be company
for you and I don’t want to run away all the time.” She picked up the
evening paper and looked at it without apparently seeing it. Miss
Cornelia heard voices in the hall—a man’s voice—affable—“How have you
been, Billy?”—Billy’s voice in answer, “Very well, sir.”
“Who’s out there, Dale?” she queried.
Dale looked up from the paper. “Doctor Wells, darling,” she said in a
listless voice. “He brought me over from the club; I asked him to come
in for a few minutes. Billy’s just taking his coat.” She rose, threw
the paper aside, came over and kissed Miss Cornelia suddenly and
passionately—then before Miss Cornelia, a little startled, could return
the kiss, went over and sat on the settee by the fireplace near the
door of the billiard room.
Miss Cornelia turned to her with a thousand questions on her tongue,
but before she could ask any of them, Billy was ushering in Doctor
Wells.
As she shook hands with the Doctor, Miss Cornelia observed him with
casual interest—wondering why such a good-looking man, in his early
forties, apparently built for success, should be content with the
comparative rustication of his local practice. That shrewd, rather
aquiline face, with its keen gray eyes, would have found itself more at
home in a wider sphere of action, she thought—there was just that touch
of ruthlessness about it which makes or mars a captain in the world’s
affairs. She found herself murmuring the usual conventionalities of
greeting.
“Oh, I’m very well, Doctor, thank you. Well, many people at the country
club?”
“Not very many,” he said, with a shake of his head. “This failure of
the Union Bank has knocked a good many of the club members sky high.”
“Just how did it happen?” Miss Cornelia was making conversation.
“Oh, the usual thing.” The Doctor took out his cigarette case. “The
cashier, a young chap named Bailey, looted the bank to the tune of over
a million.”
Dale turned sharply toward them from her seat by the fireplace.
“How do you _know_ the cashier did it?” she said in a low voice.
The Doctor laughed. “Well—he’s run away, for one thing. The bank
examiners found the deficit. Bailey, the cashier, went out on an
errand—and didn’t come back. The method was simple enough—worthless
bonds substituted for good ones—with a good bond on the top and bottom
of each package, so the packages would pass a casual inspection.
Probably been going on for some time.”
The fingers of Dale’s right hand drummed restlessly on the edge of her
settee.
“Couldn’t somebody else have done it?” she queried tensely.
The Doctor smiled, a trifle patronizingly.
“Of course the president of the bank had access to the vaults,” he
said. “But, as you know, Mr. Courtleigh Fleming, the late president,
was buried last Monday.”
Miss Cornelia had seen her niece’s face light up oddly at the beginning
of the Doctor’s statement—to relapse into lassitude again at its
conclusion. Bailey—Bailey—she was sure she remembered that name—on
Dale’s lips.
“Dale, dear, did you know this young Bailey?” she asked point-blank.
The girl had started to light a cigarette. The flame wavered in her
fingers, the match went out.
“Yes—slightly,” she said. She bent to strike another match, averting
her face. Miss Cornelia did not press her.
“What with bank robberies and communism and the income tax,” she said,
turning the subject, “the only way to keep your money these days is to
spend it.”
“Or not to have any—like myself!” the Doctor agreed.
“It seems strange,” Miss Cornelia went on, “living in Courtleigh
Fleming’s house. A month ago I’d never even heard of Mr. Fleming—though
I suppose I should have—and now—why, I’m as interested in the failure
of his bank as if I were a depositor!”
The Doctor regarded the end of his cigarette.
“As a matter of fact,” he said pleasantly, “Dick Fleming had no right
to rent you the property before the estate was settled. He must have
done it the moment he received my telegram announcing his uncle’s
death.”
“Were you with him when he died?”
“Yes—in Colorado. He had angina pectoris and took me with him for that
reason. But with care he might have lived a considerable time. The
trouble was that he wouldn’t use ordinary care. He ate and drank more
than he should, and so—”
“I suppose,” pursued Miss Cornelia, watching Dale out of the corner of
her eye, “that there is no suspicion that Courtleigh Fleming robbed his
own bank?”
“Well, if he did,” said the Doctor amicably, “I can testify that he
didn’t have the loot with him.” His tone grew more serious. “No! He had
his faults—but not that.”
Miss Cornelia made up her mind. She had resolved before not to summon
the Doctor for aid in her difficulties, but now that chance had brought
him here the opportunity seemed too good a one to let slip.
“Doctor,” she said, “I think I ought to tell you something. Last night
and the night before, attempts were made to enter this house. Once an
intruder actually got in and was frightened away by Lizzie at the top
of that staircase.” She indicated the alcove stairs. “And twice I have
received anonymous communications threatening my life if I did not
leave the house and go back to the city.”
Dale rose from her settee, startled.
“I didn’t know that, Auntie! How dreadful!” she gasped.
Instantly Miss Cornelia regretted her impulse of confidence. She tried
to pass the matter off with tart humor.
“Don’t tell Lizzie,” she said. “She’d yell like a siren. It’s the only
thing she does like a siren, but she does it superbly!”
For a moment it seemed as if Miss Cornelia had succeeded. The Doctor
smiled; Dale sat down again, her expression altering from one of
anxiety to one of amusement. Miss Cornelia opened her lips to dilate
further upon Lizzie’s eccentricities.
But just then there was a splintering crash of glass from one of the
French windows behind her!
CHAPTER SIX
DETECTIVE ANDERSON TAKES CHARGE
“What’s that?”
“Somebody smashed a windowpane!”
“And threw in a stone!”
“Wait a minute, I’ll—” The Doctor, all alert at once, ran into the
alcove and jerked at the terrace door.
“It’s bolted at the top, too,” called Miss Cornelia. He nodded, without
wasting words on a reply, unbolted the door and dashed out into the
darkness of the terrace. Miss Cornelia saw him run past the French
windows and disappear into blackness. Meanwhile Dale, her listlessness
vanished before the shock of the strange occurrence, had gone to the
broken window and picked up the stone. It was wrapped in paper; there
seemed to be writing on the paper. She closed the terrace door and
brought the stone to her aunt.
Miss Cornelia unwrapped the paper and smoothed out the sheet.
Two lines of coarse, round handwriting sprawled across it: _Take
warning! Leave this house at once! It is threatened with disaster which
will involve you if you remain!_
There was no signature.
“Who do you think wrote it?” asked Dale breathlessly.
Miss Cornelia straightened up like a ramrod—indomitable.
“A fool—that’s who! If anything was calculated to make me stay here
forever, this sort of thing would do it!”
She twitched the sheet of paper angrily.
“But—something may happen, darling!”
“I hope so! That’s the reason I—”
She stopped. The doorbell was ringing again—thrilling, insistent. Her
niece started at the sound.
“Oh, don’t let anybody in!” she besought Miss Cornelia as Billy came in
from the hall with his usual air of walking on velvet.
“Key, front door please—bell ring,” he explained tersely, taking the
key from the table.
Miss Cornelia issued instructions.
“See that the chain is on the door, Billy. Don’t open it all the way.
And get the visitor’s name before you let him in.”
She lowered her voice.
“If he says he is Mr. Anderson, let him in and take him to the
library.”
Billy nodded and disappeared. Dale turned to her aunt, the color out of
her cheeks.
“Anderson? Who is Mr.—”
Miss Cornelia did not answer. She thought for a moment. Then she put
her hand on Dale’s shoulder in a gesture of protective affection.
“Dale, dear—you know how I love having you here—but it might be better
if you went back to the city.”
“Tonight, darling?” Dale managed a wan smile. But Miss Cornelia seemed
serious.
“There’s something _behind_ all this disturbance—something I don’t
understand. But I mean to.”
She glanced about to see if the Doctor was returning. She lowered her
voice. She drew Dale closer to her.
“The man in the library is a detective from police headquarters,” she
said.
She had expected Dale to show surprise—excitement—but the white mask of
horror which the girl turned toward her appalled her. The young body
trembled under her hand for a moment like a leaf in the storm.
“Not—the police!” breathed Dale in tones of utter consternation. Miss
Cornelia could not understand why the news had stirred her niece so
deeply. But there was no time to puzzle it out, she heard crunching
steps on the terrace, the Doctor was returning.
“Ssh!” she whispered. “It isn’t necessary to tell the Doctor. I think
he’s a sort of perambulating bedside gossip—and once it’s known the
police are here we’ll _never_ catch the criminals!”
When the Doctor entered from the terrace, brushing drops of rain from
his no longer immaculate evening clothes, Dale was back on her favorite
settee and Miss Cornelia was poring over the mysterious missive that
had been wrapped about the stone.
“He got away in the shrubbery,” said the Doctor disgustedly, taking out
a handkerchief to fleck the spots of mud from his shoes.
Miss Cornelia gave him the letter of warning. “Read this,” she said.
The Doctor adjusted a pair of pince-nez—read the two crude sentences
over—once—twice. Then he looked shrewdly at Miss Cornelia.
“Were the others like this?” he queried.
She nodded. “Practically.”
He hesitated for a moment like a man with an unpleasant social duty to
face.
“Miss Van Gorder, may I speak frankly?”
“Generally speaking, I detest frankness,” said that lady grimly.
“But—go on!”
The Doctor tapped the letter. His face was wholly serious.
“I think you _ought_ to leave this house,” he said bluntly.
“Because of that letter? Humph!” His very seriousness, perversely
enough, made her suddenly wish to treat the whole matter as lightly as
possible.
The Doctor repressed the obvious annoyance of a man who sees a warning,
given in all sobriety, unexpectedly taken as a quip.
“There is some deviltry afoot,” he persisted. “You are not safe here,
Miss Van Gorder.”
But if he was persistent in his attitude, so was she in hers.
“I’ve been safe in all kinds of houses for sixty-odd years,” she said
lightly. “It’s time I had a bit of a change. Besides,” she gestured
toward her defenses, “this house is as nearly impregnable as I can make
it. The window locks are sound enough, the doors are locked, and the
keys are there,” she pointed to the keys lying on the table. “As for
the terrace door you just used,” she went on, “I had Billy put an extra
bolt on it today. By the way, did you bolt that door again?” She moved
toward the alcove.
“Yes, I did,” said the Doctor quickly, still seeming unconvinced of the
wisdom of her attitude.
“Miss Van Gorder, I confess—I’m very anxious for you,” he continued.
“This letter is—ominous. Have you any enemies?”
“Don’t insult me! Of course I have. Enemies are an indication of
character.”
The Doctor’s smile held both masculine pity and equally masculine
exasperation. He went on more gently.
“Why not accept my hospitality in the village to-night?” he proposed
reasonably. “It’s a little house but I’ll make you comfortable. Or,” he
threw out his hands in the gesture of one who reasons with a willful
child, “if you won’t come to me, let me stay here!”
Miss Cornelia hesitated for an instant. The proposition seemed logical
enough—more than that—sensible, safe. And yet, some indefinable
feeling—hardly strong enough to be called a premonition—kept her from
accepting it. Besides, she knew what the Doctor did not, that help was
waiting across the hall in the library.
“Thank you, no, Doctor,” she said briskly, before she had time to
change her mind. “I’m not easily frightened. And tomorrow I intend to
equip this entire house with burglar alarms on doors and windows!” she
went on defiantly. The incident, as far as she was concerned, was
closed. She moved on into the alcove. The Doctor stared at her, shaking
his head.
She tried the terrace door. “There, I knew it!” she said triumphantly.
“Doctor—you _didn’t_ fasten that bolt!”
The Doctor seemed a little taken aback. “Oh—I’m sorry—” he said.
“You only pushed it part of the way,” she explained. She completed the
task and stepped back into the living-room. “The only thing that
worries me now is that broken French window,” she said thoughtfully.
“Anyone can reach a hand through it and open the latch.” She came down
toward the settee where Dale was sitting. “Please, Doctor!”
“Oh—what are you going to do?” said the Doctor, coming out of a brown
study.
“I’m going to barricade that window!” said Miss Cornelia firmly,
already struggling to lift one end of the settee. But now Dale came to
her rescue.
“Oh, darling, you’ll hurt yourself. Let me—” and between them, the
Doctor and Dale moved the heavy settee along until it stood in front of
the window in question.
The Doctor stood up when the dusty task was finished, wiping his hands.
“It would take a furniture mover to get in there now!” he said airily.
Miss Cornelia smiled.
“Well, Doctor—I’ll say good night now—and thank you very much,” she
said, extending her hand to the Doctor, who bowed over it silently.
“Don’t keep this young lady up too late; she looks tired.” She flashed
a look at Dale who stood staring out at the night.
“I’ll only smoke a cigarette,” promised the Doctor. Once again his
voice had a note of plea in it. “You won’t change your mind?” he asked
anew.
Miss Van Gorder’s smile was obdurate. “I have a great deal of mind,”
she said. “It takes a long time to change it.”
Then, having exercised her feminine privilege of the last word, she
sailed out of the room, still smiling, and closed the door behind her.
The Doctor seemed a little nettled by her abrupt departure.
“It may be mind,” he said, turning back toward Dale, “but forgive me if
I say I think it seems more like foolhardy stubbornness!”
Dale turned away from the window. “Then you think there is really
danger?”
The Doctor’s eyes were grave.
“Well—those letters—” he dropped the letter on the table. “They mean
_something_. Here you are—isolated the village two miles away—and
enough shrubbery round the place to hide a dozen assassins—”
If his manner had been in the slightest degree melodramatic, Dale would
have found the ominous sentences more easy to discount. But this calm,
intent statement of fact was a chill touch at her heart. And yet—
“But what enemies can Aunt Cornelia have?” she asked helplessly.
“Any man will tell you what I do,” said the Doctor with increasing
seriousness. He took a cigarette from his case and tapped it on the
case to emphasize his words. “This is no place for two women,
practically alone.”
Dale moved away from him restlessly, to warm her hands at the fire. The
Doctor gave a quick glance around the room. Then, unseen by her, he
stepped noiselessly over to the table, took the matchbox there off its
holder and slipped it into his pocket. It seemed a curiously useless
and meaningless gesture, but his next words evinced that the action had
been deliberate.
“I don’t seem to be able to find any matches—” he said with assumed
carelessness, fiddling with the matchbox holder.
Dale turned away from the fire. “Oh, aren’t there any? I’ll get you
some,” she said with automatic politeness, and departed to search for
them.
The Doctor watched her go—saw the door close behind her. Instantly his
face set into tense and wary lines. He glanced about—then ran lightly
into the alcove and noiselessly unfastened the bolt on the terrace door
which he had pretended to fasten after his search of the shrubbery.
When Dale returned with the matches, he was back where he had been when
she had left him, glancing at a magazine on the table.
He thanked her urbanely as she offered him the box. “So sorry to
trouble you—but tobacco is the one drug every Doctor forbids his
patients and prescribes for himself.”
Dale smiled at the little joke. He lit his cigarette and drew in the
fragrant smoke with apparent gusto. But a moment later he had crushed
out the glowing end in an ash tray.
“By the way, has Miss Van Gorder a revolver?” he queried casually,
glancing at his wrist watch.
“Yes—she fired it off this afternoon to see if it would work.” Dale
smiled at the memory.
The Doctor, too, seemed amused. “If she tries to shoot anything—for
goodness’ sake stand behind her!” he advised. He glanced at the wrist
watch again. “Well—I must be going—”
“If anything happens,” said Dale slowly, “I shall telephone you at
once.”
Her words seemed to disturb the Doctor slightly—but only for a second.
He grew even more urbane.
“I’ll be home shortly after midnight,” he said. “I’m stopping at the
Johnsons’ on my way—one of their children is ill—or supposed to be.” He
took a step toward the door, then he turned toward Dale again.
“Take a parting word of advice,” he said. “The thing to do with a
midnight prowler is—let him alone. Lock your bedroom doors and don’t
let anything bring you out till morning.” He glanced at Dale to see how
she took the advice, his hand on the knob of the door.
“Thank you,” said Dale seriously. “Good night, Doctor—Billy will let
you out, he has the key.”
“By Jove!” laughed the Doctor, “you _are_ careful, aren’t you! The
place is like a fortress! Well—good night, Miss Dale—”
“Good night.” The door closed behind him—Dale was left alone. Suddenly
her composure left her, the fixed smile died. She stood gazing ahead at
nothing, her face a mask of terror and apprehension. But it was like a
curtain that had lifted for a moment on some secret tragedy and then
fallen again. When Billy returned with the front door key she was as
impassive as he was.
“Has the new gardener come yet?”
“He here,” said Billy stolidly. “Name Brook.”
She was entirely herself once more when Billy, departing, held the door
open wide—to admit Miss Cornelia Van Gorder and a tall, strong-featured
man, quietly dressed, with reticent, piercing eyes—the detective!
Dale’s first conscious emotion was one of complete surprise. She had
expected a heavy-set, blue-jowled vulgarian with a black cigar, a
battered derby, and stubby policeman’s shoes. _Why this man’s a
gentleman!_ she thought. _At least he looks like one—and yet—you can
tell from his face he’d have as little mercy as a steel trap for anyone
he had to—catch—_ She shuddered uncontrollably.
“Dale, dear,” said Miss Cornelia with triumph in her voice. “This is
Mr. Anderson.”
The newcomer bowed politely, glancing at her casually and then looking
away. Miss Cornelia, however, was obviously in fine feather and
relishing to the utmost the presence of a real detective in the house.
“This is the room I spoke of,” she said briskly. “All the disturbances
have taken place around that terrace door.”
The detective took three swift steps into the alcove, glanced about it
searchingly. He indicated the stairs.
“That is not the main staircase?”
“No, the main staircase is out there,” Miss Cornelia waved her hand in
the direction of the hall.
The detective came out of the alcove and paused by the French windows.
“I think there must be a conspiracy between the Architects’ Association
and the Housebreakers’ Union these days,” he said grimly. “Look at all
that glass. All a burglar needs is a piece of putty and a
diamond-cutter to break in.”
“But the curious thing is,” continued Miss Cornelia, “that whoever got
into the house evidently had a key to that door.” Again she indicated
the terrace door, but Anderson did not seem to be listening to her.