I INTERFERE FOR THE LAST TIME
"Must I go now--in the moonlight clear?
Would God that it were dark,
That I might pass like a homeless hound
Men neither miss nor mark."
_The Ransom._
TATIANA PAULINA VALENKA!
I sat as still as if I had been stabbed. It was no wonder she had
laughed when I asked her if she could ride, no wonder I had thought she
moved like Pavlova. Paulette Brown, whom Dudley had brought to La
Chance, was Tatiana Paulina Valenka, who had or had not stolen Van
Ruyne's emeralds! But the blood sprang into my face at the knowledge,
for--by all the holy souls and my dead mother's name--she was my dream
girl too! And I believed in her.
All the same, I was thankful Marcia had flounced out of the room before
Dudley let loose. It was no wonder she had thought she had seen Paulette
Brown before. The wonder was that she had ever forgotten how she had
seen her--dancing at the Hippodrome on her four horses as no girl ever
had danced--or forgotten the story about her that she had said was
"queer"! If Marcia's eyes had fallen on the signature mine were on now,
I knew her first act would have been to write to Jimmy Van Ruyne; that
even if she had only heard Dudley defending an ostensibly absent Valenka
she would have written--for Marcia was no fool. Then and there I made up
my mind that Marcia should never guess the whole of what she already
half-guessed about Paulette Brown; there were ways I could stop _that_.
As for Dudley----But a sudden tide of respect for Dudley, in spite of
his drink and all his queerness, rose flood-high in me. It had been
Dudley, of course, who had got Paulette away,--for I could not think of
her as Tatiana Paulina. How, I did not know; I knew he had not been one
of the Houstons' week-end party; but he had done it somehow, and
spirited Paulette out to La Chance. As for the rest, a fool could have
told that he respected and believed in her. If it had been risky
bringing Marcia out into the wilderness with her, it had been clever
too, because it was so bold that Marcia had never suspected it. Even I
never would have, if Macartney had not brought up Miss Valenka's name. I
knew he had done it merely to get Dudley off his cracked idea that
Billy Jones might have murdered Thompson, but I was suddenly nervous
that Dudley's fool vehemence over a missing girl might have set
Macartney on the track of things,--and heaven knows that, except he was
a competent mine superintendent, I knew little enough how far it would
be safe to trust Macartney. But suddenly one thing I did know flashed
over me. Macartney and Marcia were a firm, or going to be; and I was
instantly scared blue that he might turn around and see that name
Paulette Brown had signed to her letter, lying plain under the
living-room lamp! I knew I had to wake Paulette up to what she had done
and shut up Dudley before he let out any more intimate details the
public had never known, like Van Ruyne's bandaged wrist. I yawned and
got up, with one hand on the table, and my forefinger pointing straight
to that black signature of Tatiana Paulina Valenka that ought to have
been Paulette Brown.
"I'm like Marcia, Miss Paulette; I'm going to bed unless you can turn
off Dudley's eloquence. Oh, I'm so sorry--I'm afraid I've blotted your
letter," I said. I tapped my finger on it soundlessly--and she looked
down,--and saw!
I said once before that my dream girl had good nerves; she had iron
ones. I need not have been afraid she would exclaim. She said quite
naturally: "No, it's all right. And it wasn't a letter, anyhow. It was
only something I wanted to make clear." She picked it up, folded it
small, gathered up the bits of paper she had written on and torn up, and
turned round to Dudley. "What are you talking about all this time?"
But if her glance warned him to hold his tongue, as heaven knows her
mere presence would have warned me, Dudley was too roused to care. "I
was talking about that liar, Van Ruyne," he said, glaring at Macartney.
"He may be a liar, all right," said Macartney rather unpleasantly.
"Only, if that Valenka girl didn't steal his emeralds, Mr. Wilbraham,
who did?"
"That cousin of hers you said you knew; Hutton, or whatever you said his
name was," Dudley retorted, like a fool, for Macartney had never
mentioned the man's name. "How, I don't know, but I'm certain of it. He
was more in love with her than Van Ruyne, and more dangerous, for all
you say he was a good sort. Why, he was the kind to stick at nothing.
Miss Valenka had had the sense to turn him down hard; and I believe he
stole that necklace of Van Ruyne's from her during the short time she
had it--either just to get her into trouble and be revenged on her, or
to get her into his power. Whichever it was--to blackmail her--for he'd
cadged on her for money before her father died--or to scare her into
going to him for help--I'd like to hunt the worthless hound down for it.
And I'd never stop till I got him!"
"Like poor old Thompson's murderer," Macartney commented rather drily,
"and with no more foundation." But the thought of Thompson seemed to
have brought his self-command back to him; he tried to smooth Dudley
down. "I don't honestly believe old Thompson could have been murdered,"
he said gently, "or that Miss Valenka's cousin could have stolen those
jewels, for any reason. He seemed a pretty good sort when I knew him in
British Columbia. He was a clever mining engineer, too."
"He might have been the devil for all I care! Only if ever I come across
him I'll get those emeralds out of his skin," Dudley exploded. Paulette
gave one glance at him. It would have killed me; but even Dudley saw how
he was giving himself away to a stranger.
"Why under heaven do you work me up about abstract justice, Macartney?"
he growled. "You know how I lose my temper. Talk about something else,
for goodness sake!"
"Not I--I'm going to bed," Macartney returned casually. Dudley always
did work himself up over things that were none of his business, and the
Valenka argument evidently had not struck his superintendent as anything
out of the ordinary. He nodded and went out. Paulette strayed to the
fireplace, and I saw her handful of papers blaze up before she moved
away. I was thankful when that signature of Tatiana Paulina Valenka was
off the earth, even if Macartney had gone out of the room. Paulette said
good night, and went out on his heels.
I heard Macartney ask her something as she passed him where he stood in
the passage, getting on his coat to go over to the assay office, where
he slept. I thought it was about Marcia, from the tone of his voice, and
from Paulette's answer, cursory and indistinct through the closed door:
"I know. I'm going to." She added something I could not hear at all, but
I heard Macartney say sharply that to-morrow would be too late.
Paulette said "yes," and then "yes" again, as though he gave her a
message. Then she spoke out clearly: "There's nothing else to say. I'll
do it now." I heard her move away, I thought to Marcia's door. Macartney
went out the front door, banging it.
I had no desire to go to bed. I felt as if I had walked from Dan to
Beersheba and been knocked down and robbed on the way. I knew my dream
girl was not mine, now or ever, because she was Dudley's, but I had
never thought of her being anything like Tatiana Paulina Valenka. It was
not the jewel story that hit me: I knew she had not stolen Van Ruyne's
old necklace, no matter how things looked. It was that she must care for
Dudley, or she would never have let him bring her out here. And another
thing hit me harder still, and that was Hutton,--the cousin Macartney
said was engaged to her, and Dudley said cadged on her, till he ended by
branding her as a thief and getting away with the spoils. And the crazy
thought that jumped into my head, without any earthly reason, was that
it was just Hutton who had been hounding her at La Chance; that, while I
had been addling my brains with suspecting Collins, it was Hutton that
Paulette Brown--whose real name was Valenka--had stolen out to meet in
the dark!
Once I thought of it, I was dead sure Hutton had followed her to La
Chance. I knew from my own ears that she hated and distrusted the man
for whom she had once mistaken me, that it was he from whom she had
tried to protect my gold; and I wondered with a horror that made me too
sick to swear, if it were Hutton himself, and not Dunn nor Collins, who
had cached that wolf dope in my wagon! If it were, he had not cared
about wolves killing the girl who drove with me, so long as he got my
gold. But there I saw I was making a fool of myself, for he could not
have known she was going. I steadied my mind on the thing, like you
steady a machine.
If Hutton had been hanging around La Chance, either from so-called love,
or to get Paulette into a mess with our gold, as Dudley swore he had
with Van Ruyne's emeralds, he could not have been seen about the
mine,--for Macartney would have recognized him and given him away. He
must be cached in the bush somewhere, waiting his chance to grab our
gold and incriminate Paulette, as common sense told me she expected. I
was sure as death he had a gang somewhere, for no outsider would try to
run that business alone; Collins and Dunn might have been on their way
to join it the night they got scuppered, very likely: they were just
devils enough. But if they had started out to meet Hutton at my corduroy
road they had never got there, and I was pretty sure the rest of the
gang hadn't either, and Hutton--alone--had been scared to shoot at us
and give himself away.
That thought assured me of two things. It was Dunn and Collins who had
hidden the wolf bait in my wagon, for Hutton could never have done it
and reached the corduroy road before us; and Paulette must really hate
Hutton savagely, for she must have known whom she was shooting at on my
swamp road! That made me feel better--a little--but there was something
I wanted to know. I turned on Dudley for it.
"Look here, I never heard anything about Valenka but newspapers'
stories, till to-night. But, if you know the inside of the business, how
did that cousin Macartney was talking of ever get hold of that emerald
necklace? Didn't Macartney imply he was in British Columbia?"
"He was more likely anywhere than where he'd have to work--if he could
get money out of a girl," Dudley snapped. "What I think is that he was
masquerading as a servant in the Houstons' house--a chauffeur,
perhaps--anything, that would let him hang round and drive a girl half
wild. He was a plain skunk. I don't know how he managed the thing, but I
know he was there in the Houstons' house, somehow, if Paulette doesn't
think so"--he forgot all about the Valenka--"and that he took those
emeralds; left the girl powerless even to think so; and disappeared. I
never saw him; don't even know what he looks like. But if ever I get a
chance I'll hand him over to the law as I'd hand a man I caught throwing
a bomb at a child!"
I said involuntarily: "Shut up!" I knew it was silly, but I felt as if
walls might have ears in a house that sheltered Paulette Brown,--though
I knew Marcia was in bed and asleep, and there was no one else who could
hear. "You're never likely to see him here, anyhow," I added, since I
meant to see him myself first, somehow; after which I trusted he was not
likely to matter. And I thought of something to change the subject.
"What were you going to say to-night about no one having seen poor old
Thompson--when you cut yourself off?"
"Oh, that," Dudley replied almost carelessly. "It mayn't amount to
anything, and I only shut up because I didn't want Macartney to take the
wind out of my sails by saying so. It was just that if Thompson ever
went to Caraquet it ought to be simple enough to find the boy who took
his horse back to Billy Jones, and--there's apparently no such boy in
Caraquet! What set me on Billy Jones first was that he stammered and
stuttered about not knowing him, till I don't believe there ever was any
such boy. He's never been heard of since, any more than if he'd gone
into the ground. And what I want to know is _why_?--if it's all straight
about Thompson and Billy Jones!"
I was silent, remembering--I don't know why--the half-dead boy I had
carried home to Skunk's Misery. There was no cause to connect him with
the return of Thompson's horse to the Halfway, yet somehow my mind did
connect him with it, obstinately. I had never really discovered how he
had been hurt by a falling tree, and without reason some animal instinct
told me the two things belonged together and that they were queer. But
before I could say so, Dudley burst into unexpected speech, his little
pig's eyes as fierce as a tiger's: "Look here, Stretton! I'm going to
find out who drowned Thompson, and who took Van Ruyne's emeralds--and
hand them both over to the law, if I die for it. And when I say that you
know I mean it!"
I did. But once more I made no answer, for I thought I heard Marcia in
the passage. I am quick on my feet, and I was outside the door before I
finished thinking it. But it was not Marcia outside; it was only
Macartney. Yet I stopped short and stared at him, for it was a Macartney
I had never seen. He was close to the living-room door, just as if he
had been listening to Dudley, and his face was the face of a devil. I
never want to see set eyes like his again. But all the effect they had
on me was to make me furiously angry, and I swore at him.
"What the devil's the matter with you, Macartney? What do you want?"
"My keys," roughly. "I left them somewhere around this passage and I had
to come back for them; I couldn't get into my office. As for what's the
matter"--he lowered his voice and motioned me some feet away, out of the
light from the living-room door--"I heard all Wilbraham said just now,
and by gad, the man's crazy! We've got to get him off all that rot about
Billy Jones, or any one else, murdering Thompson; it's stark madness.
Both of us know Billy wouldn't murder a cat! And there's another thing,
too! I heard all Wilbraham said about that Valenka girl's cousin, and I
wish you'd tell him to go slow on it. I was in too much of a rage, or
I'd have gone in and told him myself. Dick Hutton was a friend of mine;
no matter how much he was in love with a girl who'd got sick of him for
Van Ruyne, he wasn't the kind to sneak round the Houstons' house as a
servant. I won't let any one say that with impunity. It's no use my
telling Wilbraham so in the state he's in to-night, but you might gently
hint it when you've a chance. I wish to heaven he'd give up drink and
drugs and being an amateur detective!" He shrugged his shoulders with a
complete return to his ordinary manner. "I'm sorry I startled you just
now, but I was too cursed angry to say I was here. Oh, there are my
keys!" He stooped, picked them up off the floor, and went out with a
careless good night.
"Was that Macartney?" Dudley inquired as I went back to him. "I thought
he'd gone!"
"Forgot the office key and came back for it." I felt no call to enter on
Macartney's embassy regarding Hutton. "Going to bed?"
Dudley gulped down a horn of whisky that would have settled any two men
in the bunk house, nodded, and shut the door behind him. I put out the
light and sat on in the living room alone, how long I don't know. I had
nothing pleasant to think of, either. It was no use my trying to imagine
that Tatiana Paulina Valenka was not going to marry Dudley, whatever I
had hoped about Paulette Brown. As far as any chance of her loving me
was concerned, I had lost my dream girl forever. She was none of my
business any more, except that--"By gad, she _is_ my business," I
thought in a sudden bitter fury, "as far as Hutton and our gold! If I'm
right, and he's hiding round here, I'll put a stopper on any more
hold-ups. And I'll make good and sure she never goes out to meet him
again, too!"
As I swore it I turned away from the dead fire and the dark room, that
looked as if we'd all deserted it hours ago, and went Indian-silent
into the hallway. And my heart contracted in a hard, tight lump.
The passage was light as day, with the moon full on the window at the
end of it. And wrapped in a shawl, with her back to me, stood my dream
girl, undoing the front door as noiselessly as I had come into the
passage.
I let her do it. The hallway on which Marcia's bedroom door opened, let
alone Dudley's, was no place for Paulette Brown and myself to talk. But
I was just three feet behind her as she slid around the corner of the
shack, toward the bush that lay dark against the cold winter moon. And I
rustled with my feet on purpose, so that she turned and saw me, with the
moon full on my face.
"You sha'n't do it," I said. I did not know I had made a stride to her
till I felt her arm under my hand. "You sha'n't go!"
My dream girl, who had two names and belonged to Dudley anyhow, said
nothing at all. She and I, who had really nothing to do with one
another, if I would have laid my soul under her little feet, stood still
in the cold moonlight, looking inimically into one another's eyes.