CHAPTER TWO
I
Out of the woods and once more on a smooth highway the stolen car spedlike a frightened ghost through the starry night. The Governor drovewith the assurance of a man who knows what he's about. Huddled in a longulster he had found in the cabin, Archie, whose ideas of motoring hadalways been extremely conservative, yielded himself more and more to theinevitable. He was no longer a free agent but a plaything ofcircumstance. In no exaggerated sense he was a captive, a prisoner ofthe man beside him, whose friendliness was flattering and alarming in abreath!
At any moment they might be held up and subjected to scrutiny andquestioning, and Archie experienced a tingle at the prospect; but theGovernor had declared with apparent sincerity that he had never been injail and this in itself was reassuring, for presumably a man who sokeenly enjoyed his freedom was a skilled dodger of the law. TheGovernor, who would have passed anywhere for a successful banker orlawyer, had more of the spirit of the debonair swashbucklers of romancethan any other man Archie had known. He might be a great liar, andArchie suspected that he was; and doubts of the man's sanity troubledhim not a little; but it sufficed for the moment that his comrade wassteering him rapidly away from Bailey Harbor, and so far had managedthe business with excellent judgment.
Occasionally the Governor lifted his voice in songs of unimpeachableliterary and musical quality that rang sonorously above the hum of theengine.
"Who is Sylvia? What is she? That all our swains commend her,"
he sang through to the end to the old familiar air; followed by "Drinkto Me Only with Thine Eyes."
They struck a stretch of road under repair and slowing up the Governorremarked carelessly as he picked his way through a line of red lanterns:
"Speaking of women, my dear Archie, do you share the joy of the lyricpoets in the species?"
"Women?" gulped Archie, as surprised as though he had been askedsuddenly his opinion of the _gazella dorcas_.
"The same, Archie. It occurs to me that you have probably had manyaffairs. A fellow of your coolness and dash couldn't fail to appeal tothe incomprehensible sex. I'm thirty-four but I've loved only onewoman--that's the solemn truth, Archie. Occasionally smallindiscretions, I confess; and I sometimes weakly yield to the temptationto flirt, but with my hand on my heart I declare solemnly that only oncehave I ever been swayed by the grand passion. And strange as it may seemshe's a bishop's daughter, though a saint in her own right! O wonderful!O sublime!"
This confidence, vague as to the identity and habitat of the lady of theGovernor's adoration, nevertheless made it incumbent upon Archie to makesome sort of reply. The Governor would probably be disappointed in himif he confessed the meagerness of his experiences, and he felt that itwould be a grave error to jeopardize his standing with his companion.
"Well, I'm in the same boat," he answered glibly. "There's only one girlfor me!"
"Magnificent!" cried the Governor. "I hope she's not beyond your reachlike my goddess?"
"Well, I'll hardly say that," Archie replied. "But there aredifficulties, embarrassments, you know."
"Possibly your choice of the open road as a career is a bar to marriage?Such situations are always deplorable."
"It is quite the other way round with me," Archie protested. "It was shewho put me up to it!"
"What! Your inamorata wanted you to be a crook?" cried the Governor."She must be a wonderful girl! Shoplifter, perhaps? There are some jollygirls in that business! Or, maybe she's one of these confidence womenwho play a sure game and usually get by with it?"
"Nothing like that!" cried Archie hastily. "She just fancies thelife--thinks it offers me a good chance to prove my mettle. She hatesconventionality."
This reference to Isabel Perry, remote and guarded as it was, hedefended only on the ground that it was necessary in some way to meetthe Governor half-way in his confidences. And what he had said wasreally true, though to be sure Isabel could hardly be held responsiblefor the shooting at the Congdon house. He wondered what Isabel would sayif she could see him with a criminal beside him, joy-riding in a stolencar. And it was no lie that he sincerely believed that he loved her. Noother girl had ever roused him so much, or given him so good reason forstanding off and taking a look at himself. His thoughts of her had ledhim far afield when the Governor remarked ruminatively:
"Do you manage to see her? That's the devil of it in my case! The lady'sforbidden to recognize me in any way and the right reverend father is atart old party and keeps sharp watch of her. You'd think a girl oftwenty-two or thereabouts who spends her time in good works for theheathen and runs a Sunday-school class in a slum would be indulged inher admiration for a jolly rogue like me! But the facts are decidedlyotherwise. She's never quite brought her nerve to the point of breakinghome ties and bolting with me; but she's declined to marry all thebachelor and widower dominies in the paternal diocese on my account. Anda young bishop of the brightest prospects. Actually, my dear Archie!There's a steadfast soul for you! But I can't see her and the regularmails are closed to us. Nevertheless we have an arrangement--highlyromantic, by which if she ever needs me or thinks I can serve her in anyway she's to leave a note in a certain place. It's her own idea and verypretty. Savors of the good old times when bold knights went riding up tothe castle and yelled to the flinty-hearted duke inside to lower thedraw-bridge and send out his daughter to be married on the spot or he'dbe dropped in the moat with all his armor for a sinker."
Archie thought it would be a fine thing if he could make an arrangementwith Isabel by which he could hear from her on his travels and hemustered courage to ask the Governor how he managed his line ofcommunication.
"The device is the simplest possible. In our jauntings we shall pass atown where she visits a good deal--the home of an ancient aunt. It's ajolly old place, big grounds, with elms and maples all round, andthere's a tea house with a tile floor, and there's a particular bluetile under a bench that can be pried out with a pen knife. That's ourpost-office, and much safer than registered mail. Of course my businesscorrespondence is a different matter. I pick that up in countless placesbetween here and California--reports of the boys, their hopes andambitions and hints of schemes for acquiring sudden wealth. If you'dlike to use some of these addresses and have mail forwarded I'll be gladto oblige you. You know how fussy the government is about the use of themail for irregular purposes? Well, it rather tickled me to get someenvelopes with S. S. S. P. printed in the corner and the number of avacant lot in Sioux City as the address. A careless eye would think theinitials stood for some sort of learned society but the real translationis Society for the Segregation of Stolen Property. I always use these incommunicating with the brotherhood."
"There's a good deal about the business I don't know," said Archie withtwinges of envy and admiration. "My bridges are all burned behind me andI'm not getting mail anywhere; but I'll remember your offer."
Further conversation was ended by the swinging of a lantern across theroad.
"Ah!" exclaimed the Governor, with a curious rising inflexion. "I'vebeen looking for that."
He slowed up instantly and in a moment halted car. The headlights playedupon two men standing belligerently in front of the roadster.
"Good evening, gentlemen!" cried the Governor. "Short of gas or what'sthe trouble?"
"We're from the Portsmouth police," answered one of the men while theother ran to the rear of the car and swung a lantern over the licensetag.
"Maine tag," he shouted.
"Certainly a Maine license," replied the Governor. "We're deputysheriffs from Cumberland County looking for two crooks who've beenrobbing houses up our way. Got blank warrants all ready to serve if wecatch the scoundrels."
Archie shuddered at the Governor's assurance. The Portsmouth officersmanifested the deepest professional interest and sympathy as theGovernor with an authoritative air flourished two documents.
"Burglar shot at Bailey Harbor last night," explained one of theofficers; "they found his body this
morning and we're looking for hisaccomplice. Guess he didn't come this way; we been on the road allnight."
"We've held up everybody that looked suspicious all the way down andhaven't seen a soul," the Governor replied in official tones. "Think thechaps we're looking for skipped by train. What did the dead burglar looklike?"
"I talked with the Bailey mayor over the telephone and he said the deadman was a big fellow, clean-shaven with the scar of an old knife woundunder his left arm. One of the cottagers shot him in his house, but hegot away--crawled down on the shore and died. Boston policedepartment's sending a man up to look at the body. Never knew so manyburglaries up this way. Must be a whole gang at work."
"Certainly looks like it," the Governor assented. "Well, if you see atall chap and a short thick-set fellow anywhere nail 'em for us. Oldcriminals with long records. They've been enjoying themselves up ourway. The tall one doesn't say much, but the little chap is a smoothtalker--can talk himself right out of jail if you give him a chance."
"We'll shoot first and get an explanation afterward if we see 'em,"declared the Portsmouth officer, as his companion buttoned up his coatpreparatory to getting back into the car.
"Glad to see you, boys!" exclaimed the Governor, backing the stolenmachine and then calling a cheery "Good luck!" as he passed their car.
Archie had been sitting pigeon-toed expecting that at any minute the twoofficers would discover points in the stolen car to arouse theirsuspicions; but the Governor's jaunty tone had evidently thrown thementirely off guard. He had hoped that the Governor would press forfurther details as to the killing of the burglar at the Harbor, but asmatters stood he had learned nothing except that a burglar had been shotin one of the Harbor cottages and he was again torn with anxiety as tothe identity of the man he had fired at in the Congdon house.
The Governor began to chortle after a quick glance at the vanishing redlight of the Portsmouth car.
"Not the first time I've used warrants in that way! And they're goodwarrants too. I plucked a bunch of such literature from a deputy sheriffwho got too inquisitive last summer and I had to grab and tie him to atree up near Moosehead where I'd gone for a conference with some of theboys who were coming out of Canada. But I guess it's a sure thing thosePortsmouth chaps were looking for me! I'd been strolling round quitefreely with poor Hoky up the shore. If that chap had stuck his fingerinto the paint this machine would have gone no further. We'll do wellto leave the main road for a while, then step briskly into a trainsomewhere."
"Your nerve in describing us--you and me, sitting right there beforethem--to those officers gave me a chill," confessed Archie. "If you'dtalked to them much more we'd have been pinched for sure."
"You flatter the intelligence of the police. There are not a half adozen detectives worthy of the name in the whole country. Possibly wemay have a contest of wits with some of them before we close theseason."
It had always been Archie's habit to greet courteously the policemen hepassed at night in the Avenue, little dreaming that the day would comewhen he would view the policing of the world with contemptuous disdain.The Governor spoke of policemen and detectives with pity; they were sostupid, he said, though he admitted under Archie's cross-examinationthat they could be a nuisance at times.
"Make yourself as conspicuous as possible and they're hardly likely tobother you. There are times, of course, when one must hide, but themistake our boys make is in hiding in places where the police can callthem up by telephone and tell them to pay their own taxi fare to thenearest police station. I call on police chiefs in a purely social waynow and then, and talk to them about the best way of reforming crooks.It's their philosophy that no crook ever reforms; an absurd idea, ofcourse. But there's no surer way to ingratiate yourself with a big fatdetective than to ask how you can help poor repentant sinners, whichgives him a chance to discourage you. There's nothing in it, he warnsyou. You thank him for his advice and ask him out to lunch. I've boughtexpensive dinners for some of the highest priced crime-ferrets in thegame just for the joy of hearing their pessimism. They're all swollen upwith the idea of their superior knowledge of human nature. But it servesa good purpose to cultivate them, for you're perfectly safe so long asyou listen and don't try to tell them anything."
II
Toward morning the Governor again had recourse to the Elizabethan bards,then he lapsed suddenly into a meditative mood.
"It's always a bad sign when the season opens with the potting of someof the comrades. When there's one such catastrophe there are bound to beothers. Now that Hoky's dead you'll hear of the killing of otherburglars. Every householder on the coast will buy himself a gun and waitfor a chance to shoot some misguided stranger he finds collectingbric-a-brac in the dark watches of the night. But Hoky's death is a lossto the underworld. At his best he could achieve the impossible. Once hespent a week on the roof of police headquarters in Cincinnati; really hedid. Good weather and perfectly comfortable; used to stroll down throughthe building and go out for food; then back again. Chatted with thechief of detectives about his own crime, which was holding up thepaymaster of a big factory. Bless me if Hoky didn't bury the money in agraveyard and hurry uptown and live right there with the whole policesystem right under him. He was a dear fellow, Hoky! By the way, you'remighty lucky that you didn't get a neat little chunk of lead rightthrough the midriff, fooling with that drug store!"
In the rush of his thoughts Archie had forgotten his imaginary exploitat the Harbor drug store and realized that he must have his wits abouthim if he expected to retain the Governor's regard and confidence. Theease with which the supercrook rode around policemen vastly increasedhis feeling of reliance in his strange companion, and his only misgivingwas that the daring resourceful rogue might abandon him.
As dawn broke the whistle and rumble of a train caused the Governor tostop the car and dive into his pockets for time tables of which hecarried a large supply. He scanned one and hummed his satisfaction.
"We'll get rid of this machine right now as there's a station over therea little way where we can pick up a local right into Portsmouth. Don'tbe nervous. We'll pass for a couple of city men owning farms up here andjust riding into town on a little business.
'Virtue is bold and goodness never fearful,'
as well said by old William of Avon. We shall be bold, Archie, but nottoo bold."
He stopped, opened a gate and ran the car--thoroughly disreputable fromits nocturnal bath in mud--through a barnyard and into an empty shed.
"Now for a brisk walk! The owner of this place sleeps late--not a signof smoke from the kitchen chimney. And yet so many students of farm lifewonder at the meager earnings of the honest husbandman! However, we'vegiven that chap an excellent roadster and if he keeps his mouth shut hecan run it till it falls to pieces for all anybody will ever know it's astolen vehicle."
They crossed the railroad and were soon buying tickets from a sleepystationmaster. The Governor talked briskly through the window as theagent stamped their tickets while Archie cowered at the door marvelingthat any one could face the problems of a precarious existence so gaily.
They alighted at Portsmouth without mishap, and Archie, recalling theprimary object of his travels, stepped to the telegraph office and wiredhis sister as follows:
"Have been motoring with friend; hence delay in reporting. The house will not do. Plumbing in wretched condition, and house generally out of repair. Sorry but you will have to look further."
Then he wrote a telegram to his office in New York explaining that hehad been motoring, which accounted for his failure to call for hispassage to Banff, thoughtfully adding that the cost of his unusedsleeping car tickets should be charged to his personal account. Aftercomposing these messages he redeemed his suitcase in the check room anddropped it beside the Governor's battered kit bag on the platform.
"Ah! Burning the wires a little? I hope you are committing noindiscretion, son. I was admiring your baggage; that suitcase of yourswould hold a king's wardrobe. We'l
l drive to the hotel, get a bath and asolid, old-fashioned breakfast, a hearty meal such as old Ike Waltonrecommended to fishermen eager for the early worm, and plan our furthertravels."
The Governor commanded the best service of the inn, obtaining twoadjoining rooms with bath. He registered elaborately as Reginald HeberSaulsbury and wrote Archie down as Ashton Comly, dashingly indicatingthe residence of both as New York. In response to an inquiry for mailfor Mr. Saulsbury the clerk made search and threw out a letter which theGovernor opened indifferently and after a glance crumpled into hispocket.
"A note from Red Leary," he explained when they had reached their rooms."He's slipping along slowly toward Brattleboro, where we're to deliverthat loot we've got to pick up. You will pardon my cheek in registeringfor you; unwarrantable assumption. I choose Ashton Comly as a dignifiedand distinctive _alias_; sounds a little southern; you may consideryourself for the present a scion of an ancient house of the Carolinas.As for me, Saulsbury's a name I saw chalked on a box-car in the Buffaloyards and Reginald Heber is a fit handle to it. When I was in prepschool we had a lecture by an eminent divine on the life of ReginaldHeber, hymn writer, and that sort of thing. I'm rather ashamed of myselffor borrowing the name of a man of singularly pure life, but it's thedevil in me, lad! It's an awful thing to be born with a devil inside ofyou, but it could hardly be said that my case is unique. Here you are,also the possessor of a nasty little devil, and obviously, like me, aman of good bringing up. That's why I've warmed to you. You triedpulling rough talk on me at our first meeting, but you've got Harvardwritten all over you. No, not a word! We are two brunette sheep farastray from the home pastures and not apologizing for our color orprevious condition of servitude."
Archie had always enjoyed the ease of good inns, and being in acomfortable house with his own effects at hand, he might have forgottenthat he was a fugitive if it hadn't been for the propinquity of hiscompanion, who was addressing himself with elaborate ceremonial to thepreparation of his bath. The Governor's bag contained an assortment ofsilk shirts and underwear, a dress suit, a handsome set of toiletarticles, and as Archie scrutinized them approvingly the Governorsmiled, stepped to the door, and locked it.
"The property of a fastidious gentleman of breeding, you would say! Youwould never dream that thing has a false bottom!"
Archie would not have dreamed it, but the Governor dumped the remainingcontents on the bed, fumbled in the bottom of the bag, lifted aconcealed flap, and drew out a long fold of leather.
"You might think it a surgeon's pocket-kit, son, but you would begreatly in error. Drills, jimmies, even a light hammer--and here's alittle contrivance that has been known to pluck the secret from mostintricate combinations--my own invention. The common yegg habit ofpouring an explosive fluid into the cracks of a strong box is obsolete.I hold that such a procedure is vulgar, besides being calculated to makean ugly noise when not perfectly muffled. By George, Archie, it occursto me that you must have left your kit behind you in that absurd drugstore at the Harbor! It is just as well that you are no longerencumbered with those playthings. Trust the Governor in future. I'myearning for a cool grapefruit, so bestir yourself."
"I want to learn all the modern improvements," said Archie, fingeringthe burglar tools. "I've been playing the game wrong--decidedly wrong!"
"My favorite pupil!" cried the Governor, from the tub in which he wasalready rolling and splashing. "You shall be my successor when I pass onto other fields. Destiny has thrown you in my path for this verypurpose. You will rank high among the crooks of all history, the king ofthe underworld, feared and loved by the great comradeship who prey uponthe world by night!"
Archie felt very humble under these promises and prophecies, andwondered whether there was really deep down in his soul some moralobliquity that the acute master crook had detected and responded to.There had been clergymen and philanthropists among Archie's forebears,but never murderer or thief, and he was half-persuaded that he was thepredestined black sheep that he had always heard gave a spot of color tothe whitest flock.
At the breakfast table the Governor scanned a local paper and with achirrup passed it to Archie, pointing to a double-column headline:
A CARNIVAL OF BURGLARY IN MAINE
Archie's eyes fell upon the bizarre photograph of a dead man with whichthe page was illustrated, and he choked on a fragment of grapefruit ashe read the inscription: "Dead Thief, Identity Unknown."
It was a ghastly thing with which to be confronted; and his perturbationincreased as he read an account of the killing. It was in the house ofMr. Waldo S. Cummings, a cottager, that the man had been shot, themortal wound being inflicted by the householder's son, after an excitingbattle. The dead body of the burglar had been found on the shore and thewhole coast was being searched for his accomplice.
"That's poor old Hoky all right," murmured the Governor, buttering apiece of toast reflectively. "How indecent to prop up a corpse that wayand take a snapshot merely to satisfy the morbid curiosity of a sillypublic! As you seem to be entranced with the literary style of ourBailey Harbor correspondent, I shall take the liberty of helping you toa fried egg."
However, Archie's appetite was pretty effectually spoiled by thisparagraph:
An odd circumstance, more or less remotely connected with the killing of the burglar in the fashionable colony still remains to be explained. Officer Yerkes shortly before two o'clock, the hour at which the thief was shot in Mr. Cummings's home, saw a man hurrying through Water Street. He bore the appearance of a gentleman, and the officer did not accost him, thinking him a yachtsman from one of the boats in the harbor who had been visiting friends ashore. Yerkes says that the man walked oddly, pausing now and then as though in pain, and was carrying his right hand upon his left shoulder. Owing to the poor lighting of Water Street--a matter that has been a subject of frequent complaint to the city authorities--Yerkes was unable to catch a glimpse of the stranger's features. This morning drops of blood were found on the board walk crossed by the stranger where Officer Yerkes had seen him, and it is believed that this was another of the burglar-gang who was wounded in a struggle somewhere in the interior and was seeking the help of his confederate, presumably the man shot in the Cummings house.
As the paper fell from Archie's hand the Governor took it up.
"You seem agitated, Archie! You must learn to conceal your feelings!"
When he had read the paragraph he glanced quickly at Archie, whose forkwas beating a queer tattoo on his plate.
"Your work possibly?" murmured the Governor. "Compose yourself. That oldlady over there has her eye on you. I'm afraid you lied to me about thedrug store, for if you'd done any shooting in that neighborhood youwould never have got out of town alive! No!"--he held up his handwarningly--"tell me nothing! But if we've got a murder behind us, weshall certainly be most circumspect in our movements. That's all piffleabout Hoky having any confederate except me. And there's not a singleone of the great comradeship on this shore--I know that; no one whoknows the password of the inner door. You interest me more and more,Archie! I congratulate you on your splendid nerve."
Archie's nerve was nothing he could admire himself, but a second cup ofcoffee put warmth into his vitals and he recovered sufficiently to paythe breakfast check. If it was Congdon he had shot there was still thehope, encouraged by the newspaper, that the wounded man was in no hasteto report his injury to the police. But Archie found little comfort inthe thought that somewhere in the world there was a man he had shot andperhaps fatally wounded.
He must conceal his anxious concern from the Governor; for more thanever he must rely upon his strange friend for assistance in escapingfrom the consequences of the duel in the Congdon cottage.
III
"I was thinking," remarked the Governor, after a long reverie, "that itwould be only decent for me to run back to Bailey Harbor and attend poorHoky's funeral."
Archie stared aghast.
"Hoky was my friend
," the Governor continued. "The newspaper says he'sto be buried in the Potter's Field this afternoon, and it will only setus back a day in our plans. I can imagine how desperately forlorn thething will be. Some parson will say a perfunctory prayer for a poordevil he believes to have gone straight to the fiery pit and they'llbury him in a pauper's grave. There will be the usual morbidly curiouscrowd hanging round, wagging their heads and whispering. I shall go,Archie, and you can wait for me. It will take only a few hours and wecan spend the night here and resume our journey tomorrow."
"But a stranger appearing there! It's dangerous!" Archie protested."I wouldn't go back there for a million dollars!"
"Hoky would have taken the chance for me," said the Governor, firmly."The whole shore teems with tourists, and I'll leave it to your judgmentwhether any one would take me for a crook. Be careful of my feelings,Archie; I'm just a little emotional today. Hoky and I have run beforethe hounds too often for me to desert him now. The people up there maythink what they please and go to the devil! Hoky had ideals of a sort;he never squealed on a pal; he was as loyal as the summer sun toripening corn."
The Governor's interest in Hoky's obsequies was chivalrous beyondquestion, but Archie resented being left alone. The Governor's departurestruck him in all the circumstances as a base desertion, and forlorn andfrightened he locked himself in his room, expecting that any moment thepolice would batter down the door. The waiting for this catastrophebecame intolerable and after an hour of it he went downstairs meditatinga walk to the wharves. A young woman stood at the desk talking to theclerk, who scanned the pages of the register and shook his head.
"No Mrs. Congdon has registered here within a week, I'm sure. Will youleave any message?"
She said no and asked about trains.
"Did you want something, Mr. Comly?" the clerk asked courteously.
Archie had paused by the desk, staring open-mouthed at the young woman,who was asking the boy who held her bag to summon a taxi. If he wasstill possessed of his senses the girl in the gray tailored suit wasIsabel Perry. The walls of the hotel office appeared to be tippingtoward him. Isabel might have come to Portsmouth in answer to the prayerof his heart, but not Isabel asking for Mrs. Congdon. Isabel had glancedcarelessly in his direction as the clerk addressed him as Mr. Comly andhe had promptly raised his hat, only to be met with a reluctant nod anda look of displeasure with connotations of alarm. Having dramatizedhimself as appearing before her, a splendid heroic figure, to receiveher praise for his exploits, this reception was all but the last strawto his spirit. Moreover, she was walking toward the door as thoughanxious to escape from him.
He darted after her, resolved to risk another snub before allowing herto slip away ignorant of the vast change that had been wrought in himsince their meeting in Washington. A taxi was not immediatelyforthcoming and she frowned impatiently as he appeared beside her. Afrowning Isabel had not entered into his calculations at all; it was amirthful, light-hearted Isabel he was carrying in his heart. He wouldaffect gaiety; he would let her see that he was a dare-devil, the manshe would have him be.
"Really!" he exclaimed, twittering like an imbecile, "isn't it jollythat we've met in this way?"
"I'm not so sure of that! May I ask just why you are here under anassumed name?"
"Well, you know," he began, his lips twitching as he mopped his face,"you told me to throw a brick at the world and I've been following youradvice." Under her stoical scrutiny his voice squeaked hysterically."It's perfectly jolly, the life I'm leading! You never heard of anythingso wild and devilish! Miss Perry, behold your handiwork!"
Perspiring, stuttering, with the glitter of madness in his eyes, he wasnot on the whole an object to be proud of, and there was no pride or joymanifest in Miss Isabel Perry as she observed him critically, with thedetachment of one who observes a wild animal in a menagerie. Her silencemoved him to further frantic efforts to impress her with the fact thathe was now a character molded to her hand.
"You were asking for Mrs. Congdon; Mrs. Putney Congdon, I suppose? Well,I certainly could tell you a story if you would give me time! What Idon't know about the Congdon family wouldn't make a large book! Ha, ha!But if I had known Mrs. Congdon was a friend of yours I should haveacted differently, very differently indeed."
He was attracting attention. The porter, the bell-boy supportingIsabel's bag, and a few passers-by paused, amused by the spectacle of aheated gentleman earnestly addressing a young woman who seemed greatlyannoyed by his attentions.
The taxi drew up and she stepped into it, but he landed beside her,flinging a handful of silver on the walk and taking her suitcase on hisknees.
"This is unpardonable! If it hadn't been for making a scene I shouldhave told the porter to throw you out!"
His teeth chattered as he tried to throw a conciliatory tone into hisspeech without losing his air of bravado.
"You know you're responsible for everything! I see life differently,really I do! And this is so beautifully romantic, running into you here,of all places!"
"I think," she said, sweeping him with a look of scorn, "that you'vebeen following me or were put here to watch me!"
"Oh, that's unkind, most unkind! Purely chance,--the usual way, youknow! How do you imagine I should be watching you with anything but thenoblest intentions?"
"You went to Bailey Harbor to look at a cottage for Mrs. Featherstone,didn't you? Putney Congdon was there, wasn't he? And why are youloitering here when you were so eager to get away to the Rockies?"
At the mention of Putney Congdon a laugh, the sharp concatenation of alunatic caused the driver to glance round apprehensively.
"That's the scream of it, you know!" Archie cried. "I don't know for thelife of me whether it was Putney Congdon I shot at the Congdon house orHoky, the burglar. They're burying Hoky today and my partner incrime--wonderful chap--insisted on going to the funeral. You couldn'tbeat that! And it's so deliciously funny that you should be looking forMrs. Congdon, who may be a widow for all I know!"
"A widow!" Isabel, with her hand clutching the door, swung upon him withconsternation and fear clearly depicted in her face.
Her astonishment moved him to greater hilarity. Seeing that he had atlast impressed her, he redoubled his efforts to be entertaining.
"Oh, that's the mystery just at present, whether poor old Putney is deador not! No great loss, I imagine! But where do you suppose Mrs. Congdonwent to hide her children from the brute?"
"That's exactly what I suspected!" she exclaimed furiously. "You arewaiting here to find that out! How can you play the spy for him! Youtalk about shooting a man! Why, you haven't the moral courage to kill aflea! The kindest interpretation I can put upon your actions is toassume that you are hopelessly mad."
They had reached the station, and she jumped out and snatched her bag.He gave the driver a five dollar bill and dashed across the platformonly to see her vanish into the vestibule of a Boston train just as itwas drawing out.
He walked to the water front firmly resolved to drown himself, but hiscourage failing he yielded himself luxuriously to melancholyreflections. Instead of expressing delight at finding him reveling invillainy, Isabel had made it disagreeably clear that she not only wasnot delighted but that she thought him a dreadful liar, a spy upon heractions and possibly other things equally unflattering. Why she shouldthink him capable of spying upon her movements, he did not know, nor washe likely to learn in the future that hung darkly before him. As hepondered there was nothing more startling in the fact that he had nothurried on to Banff than that she should be in Portsmouth when she hadtold him she was leaving Washington immediately for the girls' camp inMichigan.
Congdon was a name of evil omen. What business could Isabel have withthat unhappy lady that would cause her to delay her departure for theWest? His intimations that Putney Congdon might be dead had filled herwith horror, and yet she had hinted at his sister's dinner that thetaking of human life was a small matter. That a girl so wholly charmingand persuasive at a dinner table could
be so stern and unreasonable at achance meeting afterward, shook his confidence in her sex, which thatmemorable meeting had done much to establish upon firm ground. He hadbeen wholly stupid and tactless in pouncing upon her with what herealized, under the calming influences of the brisk sea air, must havestruck her as the vaporings of a dangerous lunatic. He had never beenclever; he smarted now under the revelation that all things consideredhe was an immitigable ass.
He went back to the hotel bitter but fortified by a resolution thatnothing should check him now in his desperate career. He had quarreledwith the inspiration of his new life, but in the end Isabel should havereason to know how unjust she had been. It was something after all tohave seen her, perplexed, anxious and angry though she had been. She wasstill the most wonderful girl he had ever met, the more remarkable forthe fact that now she had gone he had not the slightest idea of what hadbrought her into the strange world inhabited by the quarreling andfleeing Congdons. But men had suffered before for love of woman and hewould bear his martyrdom manfully, keeping the humiliating interviewcarefully from the Governor.
The Governor returned from Hoky's funeral somewhat wistful, but hedescribed the burial with his accustomed enthusiasm.
"It will be one of the satisfactions of my life that I went," hedeclared. "They didn't have the decency to bring in a minister--fancyit! Blessed if I didn't step into the breach and make a few remarksmyself! I did, indeed, Archie, right there in the undertaker's joint,with a lot of bumpkins staring! No man sinks so low that he hasn't gotsome good in him; that was the burden of my argument. The sheriff cameup and wrung my hand when it was all over. He had heard my littlesermon and I suppose thought I was some rich and influentialphilanthropist; so I let it go at that."
IV
The next morning he announced Cornford as their next stopping point, atown, he explained, whose history thrust far back into colonial times.When they were seated in the parlor car he tossed a bundle of magazinesinto Archie's lap.
"It will amuse you to know that one of the policemen we met on the roadlooking for Hoky's accomplice is standing on the platform. He's justinspected the day coaches;--never occurs to him that knaves of ourdegree travel de luxe."
He yawned as the train started and drew a small volume from his pocket.
"I shall lose myself in old Horatius Flaccus for an hour. It's odd but Ialways do my best concentrating with a poet before me. And what you saidyesterday about those new bank notes Leary has hid up here disturbed mejust a little. You can't trust fellows of old Leary's type with a matterso delicate as launching new money, where the numbers, as you so sagelyremarked, are being looked for by every bank teller in America. I have ahunch that something unusual will happen before the summer's over, andwe must be primed for every emergency."
Archie saw that it was really a volume of the Horatian odes in which hissingular companion had become engrossed. The Governor was utterly beyondhim and he stared out moodily at the flying landscape, hating himselfcordially as he thought of Isabel Perry and living over again theexciting moments in the Congdon house that preluded this strangejourneying with a scholarly criminal who evidently derived the deepestsatisfaction from the perusal of Latin poetry. The Governor broke inupon his reflections occasionally to read him a favorite passage or toask questions, flattering to Archie's learning, as to possibleinterpretations of the venerated text.
The Cornford Inn proved to be a quaint old tavern, modernized, and itspatrons, the Governor explained, were limited to cultivated people whosought the peace and calm of the hills. After a leisurely luncheon theytook their coffee in a pleasant garden on one side of the house.
"One might be in France or Italy," remarked the Governor, lighting acigar. "An ideal place; socially most exclusive, and I trust we shallhave no reason to regret our visit."
"That depends," said Archie, inspecting the end of his cigarette, "onwhether we are transferred to the county jail or not."
"Your apprehensions are as absurd as they are groundless, my dear boy.We could cash checks for any reasonable sum in this caravanserai merelyon our appearance as men of education and property. Even in stolenclothes you look like a capitalist."
Two men came into the garden and seated themselves at a table on theother side of a screen of shrubbery. They ordered coffee and one of themremarked upon the recent prevalence of crime in New England.
"A thief was shot at Bailey Harbor night before last and there seems tobe a band of crooks operating all along the coast."
"We need a better type of men in Congress," said the Governor in a loudtone, with a wink at Archie. "There's a steady deterioration in thequality of our representatives in both houses."
"You are right," Archie responded, remembering with a twinge ofconscience his congressman brother-in-law.
The Governor nodded to Archie to keep on talking, while he played therole of eavesdropper.
"You oughtn't to have carried that cash up here," came in a low tonefrom the hedge. "The old man is a fool or he wouldn't have suggestedsuch a thing."
"Well, he wrote that he was coming here to spend a week and in hischaracteristic fashion said if I wanted his stock I could bring thecurrency here and close the transaction. The Congdons are all a lot ofcranks, you know. This old curmudgeon carries a small fortune aroundwith him all the time, and never accepts a check in any transaction."
The Governor grew more eloquent in his attempt to convince Archie of thedecadence of American statesmanship, while their unseen neighbors,feeling themselves secure, continued their discussion of the errand thathad brought them to Cornford.
"You're paying the old skunk a big price for his shares!"
"Well, I've got to to keep them out of hostile hands," said the secondvoice irritably. "I don't like the idea of carrying yellowbacks aroundin a satchel just to humor a lunatic. And he's had the nerve to writethat he won't be here until tomorrow!"
"But the cash--"
"Oh, it's all safe enough. No one knows but that I'm here just for arest."
"Let's stroll about a little," said the Governor. "We're not getting ourusual amount of exercise and there's a good bit of colonial historytucked away in Cornford."
He led the way through the garden to the street, and bade Archie proceedslowly to the post office while he walked toward the main entrance ofthe inn.
Archie was buying stamps for which he had no immediate use when theGovernor joined him.
"These chaps were quite providentially in the office calling for theirkeys so I had no trouble in identifying them. Seebrook and Walters arethe names. Seebrook, the older chap, has his daughter with him. Theyhave rooms on the floor below us."
"You don't think they've got any considerable sum of money with them, doyou?" asked Archie breathlessly.
"That remains to be seen! Did you notice their reference to a man namedCongdon? Singular how I keep running into members of that tribe. I'mbeginning to think there's a fatality in the name!"
Archie glanced at him covertly. He too felt that there was somethingdecidedly strange in the way the name haunted him, but the Governor hadpicked up a local guide book and was pointing out objects of interest asthey wended their way along the street. Archie's wits had never been sotaxed as since he had fired a pistol, more or less with intent to kill,in the house of Putney Congdon, but it was incredible that the Governorcould know aught of that matter. The Governor, however, was manifestingthe greatest interest in Cornford history, halting citizens to propoundinquiries as to landmarks, and pausing before the town hall to makeelaborate notes of a tablet struck in memory of the first selectmen.
When they reached the green, which the town's growth had left to oneside, he sat down on a bench and directed attention to a church whosehistory he read impressively from the book.
"That carries us back quite a way beyond the Revolution. No longer usedbut reverently preserved for its associations. And in the cellar of thatsimple edifice where the early colonists used to hide from predatoryIndians, is hidden fifty thousand dollars. A su
itcase all ready tosnatch, thrust under the bin where the worshipers of old kept the Sundaywood!"
"I suppose it might rot there and nobody be the wiser?" muttered Archie,glancing at the venerable meeting house with awakened interest.
"Quite true! But it must be saved from destruction. We mustn't failLeary; he's put his trust in me. It's our job to recover the funds, andif I never ask you to join me in anything more perilous you'll haveoccasion to congratulate yourself. There are two automobiles at thechurch door now--tourists, having a look at the relic, and theirpresence will neatly cover our visit."
They found half a dozen visitors roaming through the church, opening andclosing the doors of the old pews. Archie was accosted by a stout ladyin quest of just the information he had gained from the guide book. Hecourteously answered her questions and found the other sightseerspressing round to share in his lecture on the Cornford meeting house.When he had imparted everything he knew and added a few fanciful touchesto improve the story, he turned to look for the Governor.
"If you want to see the cellar, don't tumble down the steps as I did,"called a cheery voice from the entry; "it's an abominable hole!"
Being an abominable hole the visitors laughingly surged toward the doorto explore it, and the Governor struck matches to light their descent.
He brushed the dust from his knees and mopped his face until the voicesbelow receded.
"All safe and sound! Stuck it out through a back window into a lilacbush, and we'll pick it up at our leisure. You may not have noticed thatthis old pile is built up against an abandoned mill. We shall loiterback to the inn carrying the loot quite boldly with us. You might lug ityourself as I'm a little warm from digging the thing up--Leary hadburrowed under the wood bin and hidden it for keeps."
To be sauntering in broad daylight through the principal thoroughfare ofa serene New England town carrying a suitcase filled with stolen moneywas still another experience that made Archie feel that he had indeedentered upon a new manner of life. The Governor with a spray of lilac inhis lapel had never been in better spirits.
"That's a very decent suitcase and you can hand it to a bell hop andbid him fly with it to your room. You were a little short of linen andmade a few purchases--the thing explains itself. Who could challenge us,Archie! We'd make a plausible front in Buckingham palace."
They followed the suitcase upstairs, where the Governor unlocked itwith an implement that looked like a nut pick. Archie's last vestige ofdoubt as to the Governor's powers vanished when he saw that the bag wasfilled with packages of bank notes in small denominations.
"One might object to so many of the little fellows," remarked theGovernor, "but on the whole we have no reason to complain of Leary'swork. The rascal is anxious to settle down in some strictly moralcommunity and open a confectionery shop--one of these little concernswhere the neighborhood children bring in their pennies for sodas andchewing-gum, with a line of late magazines on the side. A kind, genialman is Leary, and he swears he'll abandon the road for good."
Archie picked up several bundles of the bills and turned them over,reflecting that to his other crimes he had now added the receipt andconcealment of stolen money.
"Dinner in an hour, Archie," said the Governor, who was drawing adiagram of some sort on a sheet of inn paper. "The evening meal israther a ceremonial affair here and as I notice that you carry a dresssuit we shall follow the conventions. Meanwhile I wish you would look inat Barclay & Pedding's garage, just around the comer, and ask if a carhas been left there for Mr. Reginald H. Saulsbury. You needn't be afraidof getting pinched, for the machine was acquired by purchase and I'mmerely borrowing it from Abe Collins, _alias_ Slippery Abe, the king ofall con men. Abe only plays for suckers of financial prominence who'dgladly pay a second time not to be exposed and he's grown so rich thathe's retiring this summer. He was to send a machine to me here so Icould avoid the petty annoyances of travel in a stolen car We'll leavehere like honest men, with the landlord bowing us away from the door."
That there should indeed be a handsome touring car at Barclay &Pedding's, awaiting the pleasure of Mr. Saulsbury, increased enormouslyArchie's respect and admiration for the Governor. It was a first-classmachine worth four or five thousand dollars as it stood, and Archie wascheered by the thought that he enjoyed the friendship of a man whosatisfied all his needs with so little trouble.
When he returned the Governor was dressing and manifested no surprisethat the car awaited his pleasure.
"Yes, of course," he remarked absently. "You can always rely on Abe.It's time for you to dress, and we must look our prettiest. I caught aglimpse of Miss Seebrook strolling through the garden with her papa abit ago. It may be necessary for you to cultivate her a trifle. A littleflirting now and then is relished by the wisest men."
"If you think--" began Archie warily.
"Of course I think!" the Governor interrupted. "We've got fifty thousanddollars of nice new bills here and we're not going to the trouble ofstaining and mussing them up for safe circulation if we can dispose ofthem _en bloc_, so to speak, in all their pristine freshness. There's tobe a dance in the dining hall as soon as dinner is over. The house isquite full and we shall mingle freely in the merry throng. I'll go downahead of you and test the social atmosphere a little."
When Archie reached the parlors half an hour later he found the Governorengaged in lively conversation with a gentleman he introducedimmediately as Mr. Seebrook.
"And Mr. Walters, Mr. Comly, and--"
"Mr. Saulsbury and Mr. Comly, my daughter, Miss Seebrook."
The girl had just joined her father and his friend. She acknowledged theintroduction with an inclusive smile and nod. Archie's spirits, whichdrooped whenever he was deprived of the Governor's enlivening presencefor a few minutes, were revived by this fresh demonstration of therascal's daring effrontery. Seebrook and Walters were apparentlyaccepting him at face value in the fashion of socially inclinedtravelers who meet in inns. To Archie's consternation the Governor begandescribing Hoky's funeral, which he did without neglecting any of itspoignant features or neglecting to mention the few remarks he hadoffered to relieve the bleakness of the burglar's obsequies.
"That was pretty fine, wasn't it?" Miss Seebrook remarked to Archie."Any one would know that Mr. Saulsbury is just the kind of man who woulddo that."
"There's no limit to his kindness and generosity," Archie replied withunfeigned sincerity.
"You are motoring?" asked the girl. "We drove through here last fall tosee the foliage,--it's perfectly wonderful, but I didn't know it couldbe so sweet at this season. I adore summer; don't you adore summer, Mr.Comly?"
Miss Seebrook was the most obvious of sentimentalists and Archie thoughtinstantly how different she was from Isabel. But being thrown in thecompany of any girl made possible the concrete comparison of Isabel withthe rest of womankind very greatly to Isabel's advantage. Miss Seebrookwas about Isabel's age, but she spoke in a languid purring voice thatwas wholly unlike Isabel's crisp, direct manner of speech. Her fatherhad come up on some tiresome business matter, bringing Mr. Walters, who,it seemed, was his attorney, and she confessed that they talked businessa great deal, which bored her immensely.
"I judge, Mr. Comly, that you are one of those fortunate men who canthrow business to the winds and have a good time without being botheredwith telegrams from a hateful office."
Her assumption flattered Archie. As his immediate concern was to escapethe consequences of his folly in shooting a fellow mortal, he assuredher that he was always glad of an opportunity to fling business caresaside. She explained that the inn was much affected by cottagers inneighboring summer settlements and that many of the diners had motoredin for the dance. Seebrook and Walters were undoubtedly enjoying theGovernor, proof of which was immediately forthcoming when Seebrooksuggested that they should all dine together.
"You do us much honor," said the Governor. "Mr. Comly and I shall bepleased, I'm sure."
Archie had often eaten alone in just such pleasant little
inns fromsheer lack of courage to make acquaintances, but it seemed the mostnatural thing in the world for the Governor to establish himself onterms of intimacy with perfect strangers. Their party was the merriestin the room, and Archie was aware of envious glances from other tablesthat were not enlivened by a raconteur so affable and amusing as theGovernor.
"It's so nice to stumble into a place like this where every one mayspeak to every one else and be _sure_, you know!" said Miss Seebrook.
"It does rather strengthen one's faith in the human race," Archieagreed, reflecting that if she had known that upstairs in the amiableMr. Saulsbury's room reposed fifty thousand dollars of stolen money herconfidence in the exclusiveness of the Cornford Inn would have beensomewhat shaken. But the ironic humor of the whole thing overmasteredhis sense of guilt and he managed to hold the table for a little whilewithout the Governor's assistance as he talked of the French chateauxwith honest knowledge. The Seebrooks had motored through the chateaucountry the year before the war and as Archie had once made theexcursion with an architect he was on firm ground.
"There's a thorough man for you!" exclaimed the Governor proudly whenArchie supplied some dates in French history for which Miss Seebrookfumbled.
They continued their talk over coffee served in the garden. When themusic began Seebrook and Walters recalled a bridge engagement and theGovernor announced that he must look up an old friend who lived inCornford. He produced a piece of paper on which he had scratched one ofthe diagrams he was eternally sketching as though consulting amemorandum of an address.
"I shall be back shortly," he said as they separated in the office.
Seebrook and Walters found their bridge partners and Archie and MissSeebrook joined the considerable company that were already dancing. Onlya few days earlier nothing could have persuaded Archie to dance, but nowthat he was plunged into a life of adventure the fear of dropping deadfrom excessive exercise no longer restrained him. Miss Seebrookundoubtedly enjoyed dancing and after a one-step and a fox-trot shedeclared that she would just love to dance all night. It had been a longtime since Archie had heard a girl make this highly unoriginal remark,and in his own joy of the occasion he found it tinkling pleasantly inremote recesses of his memory. As Miss Seebrook pouted when he suggestedthat she might like him to introduce some of the other men and said thatshe was perfectly satisfied, he hastened to assure her that the role ofmonopolist was wholly agreeable to him. In this mad new life aflirtation was only an incident of the day's work, and Miss Seebrook wasnot at all averse to flirting with him.
She thought it would be fine to take a breath of air, and gathering upher cloak they went into the garden for an ice. This refreshment orderedhe was conscious of new and pleasant thrills as he faced her across thetable. His youth stirred in him again. It was reassuring to have thisproof that one might be a lost sheep dyed to deepest black and yetindulge in philandering under the June stars with a pretty girl--ahandsome stately girl she was!--unrestrained by the thought that shewould run away screaming for the police if she knew that he was a manwho shot people and consorted with thieves and very likely would die onthe gallows or be strapped in an electric chair before he got hisdeserts. His mind had passed through innumerable phases since he lefthis sister's house in Washington, and now as he shamelessly flirted withMiss Seebrook he knew himself for an unmoral creature, a degenerate whowas all the more dangerous for being able to pass muster among decentfolk. He had always imagined that citizens of the underworld werelimited in their social indulgences to cautious meetings in the backrooms of low saloons, but this he had found to be a serious mistake. Itwas clear that the elite among the lawless might ride the high crest ofsocial success.
His only nervousness was due to the fear that he might betray himself.It was wholly possible that Miss Seebrook knew some of his friends; infact she mentioned a family in Lenox that he knew very well. She wasexpert in all the niceties of flirtation and he responded joyously, assurprised and delighted as a child with a new toy at the ease with whichhe conveyed to her the idea that his life had been an immeasurable darkwaste till she had dawned upon his enraptured vision. Her back wastoward the inn and across her shoulders he could see the swaying figuresin the ball room. The light from a garden lamp played upon her head andbrightened in her fair hair.
Miss Seebrook was speaking of music, and reciting the list of operas sheloved best when Archie's gaze was caught and held by a shadow thatflitted along an iron fire escape that zigzagged down from the fourth tothe first story of the long rambling inn.
"You seem very dreamy," remarked Miss Seebrook. "I know how that is forI can dream for hours and hours."
"Yes; reverie; just floating on clouds, on and on," Archie replied,though the shadow moving on and on along the side of the inn wastroubling him not a little.
"The stars were never so near as they are tonight," she said. "Was itShakspere or Longfellow who said, 'bright star, would I were steadfastas thou art!'"
It was neither, Archie knew, but he said he thought the line occurred inHamlet.
"Do you think Hamlet was insane?" she asked.
"I sometimes think I am," replied Archie, watching the shadow on the innwall.
"Why, Mr. Comly, how absurd!"
It was really not so absurd at the moment, but he again had recourse tothe poets, devoutly praying that she would not look toward the inn. Hehad surmised that the Governor's declared purpose to call on an oldfriend in Cornford was merely to cover his withdrawal from the party;but that he could have meditated a predatory excursion through the innhad not entered into Archie's speculations as to his friend's absence.There was no mistaking the figure that had moved swiftly down theladder. The Governor for a man of his compact build was amazingly agileand quick of foot and hand. He was now creeping along the little balconyat the third floor. He paused a moment and then vanished into an openwindow. The Governor had said that the Seebrook party had rooms justunder their own; but--
"I have chosen a star for you," Miss Seebrook was murmuring.
Archie, in his preoccupation with the Governor's strange performance,was so slow to respond that Miss Seebrook, thinking that he wasdeliberating as to which star he should bestow upon her in return,generously broadened the scope of her offer.
"You shall have Orion or Arcturus with his sons."
"I never could find Orion even with a sky map and a telescope," Archieroused himself to protest.
Something very unlike a star but more like the glimmer of a match in aroom on the third floor held his fascinated gaze, and it was difficultto be interested in the conversation of even so pretty a girl as MissSeebrook when an audacious thief was at work only a little way beyondher. For all Archie knew it was her own room that the venturesomeGovernor was ransacking and at that very moment he might be stuffing hispockets with her belongings.
Venus, Archie gravely announced, had always been his favorite star; andhe set her to searching for it in the bright expanse while he watchedthe Governor reappear, bending low as he crept out of the window andascended rapidly to the fourth floor. He had risked detection by a dozenpeople who were idling about the garden. The intermission was over andmusic floating through the open windows again invited to the dance.
"We must go back, I suppose," said Miss Seebrook with a sigh.
"I shall never forget this," declared Archie, hoping with all his heartthat there would be no occasion for regretting the hour spent in thegarden.
They danced again, and in the handclapping that followed the firstnumber he turned to find the Governor, calm and with no marks of hisescapade upon him, bowing before Miss Seebrook.
"Really, I must break in! Just a little fragment of this waltz! Morecapricious and jazzy measures have their day but the waltz enduresforever! Don't frown at me that way, Comly! My old friend kept me longerthan I expected and the night grows old."
The Governor danced with smoothness and ease. Archie, his back to thewall, saw the rogue laughing into his partner's face as lightheartedlyas though he had not, w
ithin a few minutes, imperiled his freedom in anact of sheerest folly.
He brought the girl back to Archie, and then ingratiated himself with ashy elderly woman who was having a difficult time finding partners forher granddaughters. The Governor introduced himself with a charmingdeference, a winning courtesy, that gained her heart at once. He notonly danced with her young charges but found other partners for them.Archie marveled; a man of the Governor's intelligence and address couldhardly have failed to gain a high place in the world, yet hisperformance on the fire escape proved all the man had said of himself asan outlaw. The Governor was not one man but a dozen different men and indespair Archie gave up trying to account for him.
V
At midnight Seebrook and Walters came in from their card game.
"We've certainly had the best of you, papa! It has been a wonderfulevening!" exclaimed Miss Seebrook.
"I knew it was going to be a good party," said the Governor warmly. "Iregretted every moment I had to spend with my friends in Putnam Street.And yet should auld acquaintance be forgot, you know!"
"You were perfectly lovely to that nice old lady and her frightenedlittle granddaughters. They will never forget you as long as they live!And I'm afraid Mr. Comly will always remember me as the girl who kepthim all to herself for a whole evening."
"I didn't make it a hard job for you," Archie protested. "I shall markthe evening with a white stone on the long journey of life."
"I hope, papa, you will add a word to my invitation to these gentlemento come and see us at home."
"Certainly," Seebrook assented cordially, drawing out his card-case.
"We shall be ready for a little sociability," remarked the Governor,"when we return from the West. We are motoring from Portland toPortland, with a few little side trips like this, and we ought to havesome good yarns to tell when we get back."
"You are not running off immediately?" asked Walters. "Mr. Seebrook andI are really here on business, but we've been delayed and may haveanother day's time to kill. We'd be glad to play around with you."
"It's most lamentable," replied the Governor, "that we've got to runaway tomorrow. It's now the hour when ghosts walk but we shall see youin the morning."
In Archie's room the Governor hummed one of his favorite ballads as heslipped out of his coat and picked a speck from his snowy waistcoat.Then he produced a tiny phial from his pocket and touched his upper lipwith a drop of the contents.
"It's a very curious thing about perfumes," he said meditatively. "Icarry an assortment of these little bottles. The psychology of the thingis most interesting. Fragrances differ astonishingly as to theirreactions upon the nerves. Only two hours ago I fortified myself for alittle foolishness that required nevertheless a steady hand by sniffingthe bouquet of a rare perfume known only to a few connoisseurs,--acompound based upon attar of roses. But this that I have just hadrecourse to is soothing and sedative. It is made from a rare flowerfound only in the most inaccessible fastnesses of the Andes, and isbelieved by the natives to be a charm against death. At some time Ishall be glad to show you a treatise on the plant written by an eminentSpanish botanist. Its effect upon me is instantaneous and yet it mightserve you quite differently, as our sensitiveness to these reactions ofthe olfactory nerve are largely idiosyncratic. Let me tap your upper lipwith the cork--ah!"
There was nothing more repulsive to Archie than perfumes and heimpatiently jerked his head away. The odor proved, however, to beexceedingly delicate and not the miserable chemical concoction hedreaded. But he was not to be thwarted in his purpose to learn just whatthe Governor meant by endangering their security so recklessly. Heslammed the transom tight and drew down the shades.
"Well?" he demanded sharply.
"It is evident," remarked the Governor good-humoredly, "that you do notreact to the soothing influences of the _rosa alta_. You seem perturbed,anxious, with slight symptoms of _paralysis agitans_. Pray be seated andI will do my best to restore your peace of mind."
"You needlessly exposed yourself to observation by sneaking down thefire escape of this hotel--I know that!"
"My dear boy, I was merely gathering a few blossoms of the crimsonrambler from the ancient walls of the inn. You may have noted that Iwore a spray of buds in my lapel when I joined you in the ball room."
"You had no right to plunder the house without warning me! I don'trelish the idea of being jailed for your foolishness. And those peoplewere mighty decent to us! If they knew we were two crooks--!"
"They merely yielded to our charms! They feel themselves honored by ouracquaintance! Now seat yourself on the bed and I'll tell you the wholestory. When I left you I hastened into the village, bought a stick ofshaving soap in a drug store and a few cigars in a tobacconist's. Ineach place I conversed with the clerk, thus laying ample ground for analibi. Hurrying back to the inn I avoided observation by entering by theside door, skipped up to our rooms--and there you are! I did run achance, of course, in climbing down the ladder, but all's well that endswell. I exchanged our new bank notes for sixty well-wornone-thousand-dollar gold certificates negotiable in all parts of therepublic. That means a net gain in the Red Leary trust fund of tenthousand dollars. Seebrook had the stuff in the collar tray of histrunk. As the trunk was otherwise empty and the lock a special one thatgave me a bit of trouble he's not likely to bother with it until old manCongdon turns up to close the stock transaction. When he opens it hewill find fifty thousand dollars of good bills neatly piled there andif he has the imagination of a canary he will think the fairies haveplayed a trick on him!"
"My God!" moaned Archie. "You don't think you can get away with this!"
"I think," returned the Governor imperturbably, "that _we_ must and willget away with it." His emphasis on the plural pronoun caused Archie tocringe. "It strikes me as highly amusing that we have unloaded thosebills of Leary's on a good sport like Seebrook. As I locked that stuffin his trunk I got to laughing--really, I did--and a chambermaid roamingthe hall must have heard me, for the key rattled in the lock just as Islipped out of the window. There's Leary's suitcase and I've packed itwith our soiled linen and stuck in a pair of shoes for weight.Seebrook's legal tender is neatly rolled up in my best silken hose in mykit bag. Hark! There's Seebrook tumbling into his bed, which is justbeneath mine!"
"You're getting me in pretty deep," mumbled Archie dejectedly.
"How about those blood stains on the sidewalk at Bailey Harbor?" askedthe Governor in his blandest tones. "When you speak of getting in deepyou forget that some one besides Hoky was shot back yonder. You came tome red-handed from a deed of violence, and I took you in and became yourprotector, asking no questions. It's the basest ingratitude for you towhimper over a small larceny when you have added assault or murder tothe liabilities of our partnership! But don't forget for a moment thatwe're pals and pledged to see each other through."
The reference to the blood stains reported by the Bailey Harbor policethrew Archie back instantly upon the Governor's mercy. Complicity inthe robbery of Seebrook was as nothing compared with the haunting fearthat the man he had shot in the Congdon house had died from the wound.Unable to determine this question he was floundering in a veritable seaof crimes. The Governor was undressing with provoking indifference tohis companion's perturbation.
"Sleep, lad, sleep! You may be sure that nothing will harm us tonight,and I have faith that more stirring adventures are ahead of us. Iforgive you your qualms and quavers, the pardonable manifestations ofyouth and inexperience. We walk in slippery places but we shall notstumble, at least not while the Governor keeps his head!"
Nothing appealed to Archie as of greater importance than the retentionby his companion of the head that now lay chastely upon a snowy pillow.A handsome, well-formed head, a head suggestive of family and the prideof race, though filled with the most complicated mental machinery withwhich a human being had ever been endowed.
"Put out the lights and get you to your couch!" the Governor muttereddrowsily.
The man certain
ly wore his crimes lightly. He was sound asleep beforeArchie had got into his pajamas.
VI
When they reached the dining-room at ten the next morning they foundSeebrook and Walters just finishing breakfast. Miss Seebrook was havingcoffee in her room, her father explained in response to Archie's politeinquiries.
"We're hoping to get away this afternoon," he continued. "It will takeonly a few minutes to transact our business when the man I'm waiting forappears; but he's an uncertain quantity, and there's no telling whenhe'll show up. But we're having a good time and I shan't mind anotherday or two. If only you gentlemen would bear us company!"
"Ah, you are very kind!" said the Governor; "but we must resume ourramble toward the Pacific. We are more or less dated up for littleentertainments on the way."
"I certainly envy you," said Walters ruefully. "Seebrook and I belong tothe large class of men who work for a living."
"Well, Comly and I have our own small jobs," the Governor protested."We're interested in some water power schemes through the West and hopeto make our expenses."
Seebrook and Walters lingered in the office as Archie and the Governorpaid their account. As they waited for their car to be sent round fromthe garage a machine drew up and discharged a short, wiry, elderly manin a motor coat that was much too large for him. He was accompanied byan enormous amount of luggage and from the steps of the inn gave ordersin a high piping voice as to the manner of its disposal. As the variouspieces were hustled into the office he enumerated them in an audibletone as though inviting the cooperation of all the loungers in making aninventory of his effects. When this had been concluded Seebrook steppedup and accosted the newcomer.
"Mr. Congdon, I am very glad to see you. I hope you are not worn out byyour drive."
"Worn out!" snapped the little man. "Do you imagine a run of a hundredmiles would fatigue a man of my constitution? I assure you that you aregreatly mistaken if you think I am feeling my age. Seventy! And I don'tfeel a day over fifty, not a day, sir. But I shall rest for a few hoursas a precaution, a mere precautionary measure and be able to meet youfor our little business at two-thirty sharp."
"That will suit me perfectly," replied Seebrook.
Archie hung about impatiently waiting for the Governor to make hisfarewells to the old lady and her granddaughters on whom he had expendedhis social talents at the dance. Mr. Congdon was quarreling with theclerk over the location of the room he had reserved; he wanted no roomwith a western exposure as such rooms were always so baked by theafternoon sun that they were as hot as tropical jungles at night. Havingfrightened the clerk into readjusting the entire registration toaccommodate him, he demanded to know whether his son, Mr. PutneyCongdon, was stopping in the house.
"Mind you, I have no reason to believe he _is_ here, but I've beenasking for him everywhere along the road."
Assured that Mr. Putney Congdon was not in the inn and hadn't been therewithin the recollection of the office staff, the senior Congdon explodedviolently upon Seebrook and Walters.
"Things have come to a pretty pass in this topsy turvy world when a mancan't find his own son! For three days I've been wiring his clubs andall other places he could possibly be without result. And I have learnedthat his wife has left Bailey Harbor and the house there is closed.Closed! How dare they close that house when I was about to pay them avisit? I spent thirty-five dollars last night in telephoning trying tofind out what's become of my son and his family and I got nothing for mymoney--nothing!"
Seebrook and Walters expressed their sympathy in mild tones that rousedthe old gentleman to greater fury.
"Can a whole family be obliterated and no trace left behind? Is itpossible that they've been murdered in their beds, servants and all, andthe police not yet aware of it?"
At the mention of murder Archie began stealthily feeling his way alongthe cigar counter to a water cooler. He drank two glasses of ice waterwhile he listened to Eliphalet's grievances against all things visibleand invisible. There seemed to be no escaping from the Congdons and herewas the father of Putney boldly publishing to the whole state of NewHampshire his fear that his son had been murdered.
"I called up everybody I could think of at Bailey Harbor, that dismalrotten hole, and got nothing for my trouble. Nothing! A fool druggist,who pretended to know everything about the place, had the effrontery totell me Putney hadn't been there for a week and declared that his familyhad left! Why should they leave? I ask you to tell me why mydaughter-in-law should leave a comfortable house at the shore at thisseason and tell nobody her destination?"
As no member of his growing audience of guests, clerks and bell-hopscould answer his questions, Mr. Congdon swept the whole company with afierce, disdainful glare and began mobilizing the entire day watch ofporters and bell-boys to convey his luggage to his room. One of theyoung gentlemen was engaged at the moment in winking at the girlattendant at the cigar counter when the agitated traveler thrust thepoint of an enormous umbrella into his ribs with a vigor that elicited ayell of surprise and pain.
The concentration of the hotel staff upon the transfer of Mr. Congdon'sluggage to his room left the Governor and Archie to manage the removalof their own effects to the waiting car. Seebrook and Walters obliginglyassisted, laughing at Congdon's eccentricities.
"The arrival of that enchanting old crank increases my grief atleaving," declared the Governor. "A delightful person. The son hementioned with so much feeling was in Boston looking for _him_ a monthago."
Seebrook seized the Governor's kit bag containing the sixty thousanddollars and carried it out to the car. The sight of it in Seebrook'shand gave Archie sensations of nausea that were not relieved by the grinhe detected on the Governor's face. Within an hour or two at most thesubstitution and robbery would be discovered and the country would ringwith the demand for their detention. But the Governor was carrying offthe departure with his usual gaiety. It was clear that he had made themost favorable impression upon Seebrook and Walters; and in the cordialhandshaking and expressions of hope for future meetings Archie joinedwith the best spirit he could muster. A cheery good-by caused him tolook up. Miss Seebrook with a red rose in her hand waved to him from herwindow.
As he lifted his cap she dropped the rose with a graceful sweep of thearm.
"Like the old stage coach days!" cried the Governor, applauding Archie'scatch.
He jumped into the machine and Archie scrambled after him. Archie's lastimpression of the inn was the blur of a waving handkerchief in MissSeebrook's window.
"We are a success, my boy! You bore yourself marvelously well," said theGovernor testing the gears. "As I remember we pass town hall on rightand cross railroad at bridge; then follow telephone poles. We don't needthe guide book; it's all in my head. Ah, that little touch of the rosewas worth all our perils; nothing in my experience was ever prettierthan that! A lovely girl; you might do worse if you were not alreadyplighted. If she had come down to say good-by it would have been muchless significant. But the rose, the red, red rose! It wouldn't be a badidea to stick it in an envelope and mail it to the girl you were tellingme about--the one who sent you forth to shatter kingdoms. I guess thatwould jostle her a little, particularly if you were to enclose a linetelling her that it had fallen to your hand from a curtained lattice."
"I don't know her address," mumbled Archie, fastening the flower in hisbuttonhole.
He still martyrized himself in his thoughts of Isabel. Her contumelioustreatment of him at Portsmouth rankled; but he had satisfied himselfthat it was all his fault. In some way the curse of the Congdons layupon her as upon him. If he had not burst upon her so idiotically shewould probably have listened to his story with some interest if notwith admiration. He meant to be very loyal to Isabel in spite of thedisheartening contretemps at Portsmouth and he drew the rose from hiscoat and cast it from him.
"So soon!" exclaimed the Governor. "I rejoice in your fidelity. Hoperides a high horse and I'm confident that in due season we shall findour two adorable ones. But it will
do you no harm to indulge in a littleaffair now and then on the way; merely practice at the approach shot,you know, to keep your hand in. You are undoubtedly thinking of yourbeloved with a new tenderness because you found Miss Seebrook kind.Such, lad, is the way of love, true love, the love that never dies."
Love as a subject for discussion seemed wholly incongruous in view ofthe fact that they were running off with Seebrook's money and pursuersmight already be hot on their trail. He suggested the dangers of theirsituation, thinking that here at last was something that would sober theGovernor. But the Governor merely laughed as he swung the car round asharp corner.
"Don't you believe that I hadn't a care for our safe flight! You mustlearn to use your eyes, son. There was one of the brotherhood of theroad right there in the office when we left. I gave him instructionslast night. He's a sneak thief of considerable intelligence who gave methe sign as I was pretending to leave for that call on my old friend. Ismuggled him upstairs to keep watch for me and he proved himself afellow of decided merit. He'll be hanging round Cornford today and asthe absurd police will be obliged to make an arrest to save theirreputations he will put himself in their way and encourage the idea bysubtle means that he _might_ have been the malefactor who robbedSeebrook's trunk and left Leary's bills behind. They will be unable tomake a case against him but he'll probably get thirty days forloitering. Then he'll walk out and draw a thousand dollars from one ofour little private banks further along the road for so chivalrouslythrowing himself into the breach! There are wheels within wheels in ourgame, and these fellows who make sacrifice hits are highly useful. Theyalso serve who only go to jail, as John Milton almost said. Even thepolice recognize the sacrificial artists; and encourage them--on thequiet, of course. It calms public complaint of their inefficiency. I canfind you men who will do a year's time to save the men higher up. Thissatisfies the public as to the zeal of its paid protectors and makes itpossible for men of genius like you and me to walk in high placesunmolested. A damnable system, Archie, but we learned it from the greedytrust magnates. You take the wheel; it just occurs to me that you saidyou were a fair driver."
Archie had always imagined that men slip gradually from the straight andnarrow path, but he felt himself plunging down a steep toboggan with allthe delirious joy of a speed maniac.
Of one thing he was confident: if he ever returned to his old orderly,lawful life, he would be much more tolerant of sinners than he had beenin the old tranquil times. He had always found it easy to be good butnow he was finding it quite as easy to be naughty, very naughty indeed.His speculations as to just how long he could be imprisoned for hiscrimes and misdemeanors to date resolved themselves into a questionwith which he interrupted the Governor in a sonorous recitation ofTennyson's Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington.
"If you shoot a man but don't kill him, and pile on top of thatreceiving stolen goods and complicity in burglary, how much can theyhand you?"
The Governor answered with disconcerting promptness.
"Shooting with intent to commit murder--they always put it that waywhether you meant the shot as anything more than a little pleasantry orreally had murder in your heart--that would be a minimum of ten years inmany of the American states and a hard-hearted judge might soak you fortwenty. Then pile on that from one to five years for hiding stolenproperty; and then a first-class burglary, might run you pretty high,particularly if they landed you on all three charges and showed that youwere viciously hostile to the forces of society. But there's no causefor worry. If you behaved yourself they'd knock off a generous allowanceand a fellow of your enlightenment and tact might be put to work in thewarden's office, or set to collecting potato bugs in the prison gardenpatch. But it's highly unprofessional to bother about such trifles. Wehaven't been nabbed yet, and if you and I are not smart enough to keepout of trouble we ought to be locked up; that's my philosophy of thesituation. You must conquer that morbid strain in you that persists inlooking for trouble. I find it highly depressing."
He sang a bar of "Ben Bolt" to test his memory of the words and thenurged Archie to join him in the ballad, which he said was endeared tohim by the most sacred associations. Archie hadn't indulged in songsince he sang "Fair Harvard" at his last class reunion, but the Governorpraised his singing and carried him through "Robin Grey" and a few otherclassics with growing animation.
"You respond to treatment splendidly! The sun and air are bringing afine color to your face until you don't even remotely suggest a dolefuljail bird. We'll soon be able to stroll along Fifth Avenue and pass formembers of the leisure class who live on the golf links. You needhardening up and if you stick to me you'll lay up a store of health thatwill last you forty years."
The Governor was amazingly muscular, and his shapely hands seemedpossessed of miraculous strength. When a tire went bad he changed itwith remarkable ease and dexterity, scorning Archie's offer ofassistance.
"No lost motion! The world spends half its time doing things twice thatcould as well be done once. I am blessed with an orderly mind, Archie.You will have noticed that virtue in me by the time the frost is on thepunkin and the fodder's in the shock, to quote the Hoosier Theocritus."
And so, to the merry accompaniment of old tunes and mellow rhymes, theycrossed the Connecticut.