CHAPTER XVII. OVER THE TELEPHONE
Viola's first movement was of concealment--to toss over the scatteredletters on her desk a lace shawl she had been wearing earlier in theevening. Then satisfied that should the unknown knocker prove to be someone whom she might admit--her Aunt Mary or one of the maids--satisfiedthat no one would, at first glance, see the letters which might meannothing or much, Viola asked in a voice that slightly trembled:
"Who is it?"
"I did not mean to disturb you," came the answer, and with a sense ofrelief Viola recognized the voice of Colonel Ashley. "But I have justreturned from New York, and, seeing a light under your door, I thought Iwould-report, as it were."
"Oh, thank you-thank you!" the girl exclaimed, relief evident in hervoice.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" the colonel went on, as he stoodoutside the closed door. "Has anything happened since I went away?"
"No--no," said Viola, rather hesitatingly. "There is nothing new to tellyou. I was sitting up--reading."
Her glance went to the desk where the letters were scattered.
"Oh," answered the colonel. "Well, don't sit up too late. It is gettingon toward morning."
"Have you anything to tell me, Colonel Ashley?" asked Viola. "Did youdiscover anything?"
There was silence on the other side of the door for a moment, and thencame the answer, given slowly:
"No, nothing to report. I will have a talk with you in the morning."
And then the footsteps of the detective were heard, lessening in theirsound, as he made his way to his room.
Viola, perplexed, puzzled, and bewildered, went back to her desk. Shetook up the letters again. The torn one with its strange reference: "Asmembers of the same--"
What could it be? Was it some secret society to which her father andGerry Poland belonged, the violation of the secrets of which carried adeath penalty?
No, it could not be anything as sensational as that. Clearly the captainwas in love with her--he had frankly confessed as much, and Viola knewit anyhow. She was not at all sure whether he loved her for her positionor because she was good to look upon and desirable in every way.
As for her own heart, she was sure of that. In spite of the fact thatshe had tried to pique him that fatal day, merely to "stir him up,"as she phrased it, Viola was deeply and earnestly in love with HarryBartlett, and she was sure enough of his feeling toward her to find init a glow of delight.
Then there was in the letter the hint of a threat. "Let me hear from youby the twenty-third, or--"
"Oh, what does it mean? What does it mean?" and Viola bent her wearyhead down on the letters and her tears stained them. Puzzled as shewas over the contents of the letters--torn and otherwise--which she hadfound hidden in the drawer of the private safe, Viola Carwell was notyet ready to share her secret with her Aunt Mary or Colonel Ashley.These two were her nearest and most natural confidants under thecircumstances.
"I would like to tell Harry, but I can't," she reasoned, when shehad awakened after a night of not very refreshing slumber. "Of courseCaptain Poland could explain--if he would. But I'll keep this a secret alittle longer. But, oh! I wonder what it means?"
And so, when she greeted Colonel Ashley at the breakfast table shesmiled and tried to appear her usual self.
"I did not hear you come in," said Miss Carwell, as she poured thecoffee.
"No, I did not want to disturb any one," answered the colonel. "I saw alight under Miss Viola's door, and reported myself to her," he went on."But I don't imagine you slept much more than I did, for your eyes arenot as bright as usual," and he smiled at the girl.
"Aren't they?" countered Viola. "Well, I did read later than I should.But tell me, Colonel Ashley, are you making any progress at all?"
He did not answer for a moment. He seemed very much occupied inbuttering a piece of roll--trying to get the little dab of yellow inthe exact center of the white portion. Then, when it was arranged to hissatisfaction, he said:
"I am making progress, that is all I can say now."
"And does that progress carry with it any hope that Harry Bartlett willbe proved innocent?" asked Viola eagerly.
"That I can not say--now. I hope it will, though."
"Thank you for that!" exclaimed Viola earnestly.
Miss Carwell said nothing. She had her own opinion, and was going tohold to it, detectives or no detectives.
"Will you send Shag to me?" the colonel requested a maid, as he arosefrom the table. "Tell him we are going fishing."
"Isn't there anything you can do--I mean toward--toward the--case?"faltered Viola. "Not that I mean--of course I don't want to seem--"
"I understand, my dear," said the colonel gently. "And I am not goingfishing merely to shirk a responsibility. But I have to think some ofthese puzzles out quietly, and fishing is the quietest pastime I know."
"Oh, yes, I know," Viola hastened to add. "I shouldn't have saidanything. I wish I could get quiet myself. I'm almost tempted to takeyour recipe."
"Why don't you?" urged the colonel. "Come along with me. I can soonteach you the rudiments, though to become a finished angler, so thatyou would be not ashamed to meet Mr. Walton, takes years. But I think itwould rest you to come. Shall I tell Shag to fit you out with one of myrods?"
Viola hesitated a moment. This might give her an opportunity for talkingwith the colonel in secret and confidence. But she put it aside.
"No, thank you," she answered. "I'll go another time. I must stop atthe office and leave some bills that have come here to the house. Mr.Blossom attends to the payment."
"Let me leave them for you," offered the colonel. "I have to go intotown for some bait, and I can easily stop at the office for you."
"If you will be so good," returned Viola, and she got the bundle ofbills--some relating to Mr. Carwell's funeral and others that had beenmailed to the house instead of to the office.
The colonel might have sent Shag to purchase the shedder crabs he wasgoing to use for bait that day in fishing in the inlet, and the coloredservant might have left the bills. But the colonel was particular abouthis bait, and would let none select it but himself. Consequently he hadJean Forette drive him in, telling Shag to meet him at a certain dockwhere they would drop down the inlet and try for "snappers," youngbluefish, elusive, gamy and delicious eating.
"You have not yet found a place?" asked the colonel of the chauffeur, asthey rolled along.
"No, monsieur--none to my satisfaction, though I have been offered many.One I could have I refused yesterday."
"You liked it with Mr. Carwell, then?"
"Truly the situation was in itself delightful. But I could not managethe big car as he liked, and we had to part. There was no other way."
The detective narrowly observed the driver beside whom he sat. Jean didnot look well. He had much of the appearance of the "morning after thenight before," and his hand was not very steady as he shifted the gearlever.
"How much longer have you to stay here, Jean?"
"About two weeks. My month will be up then."
"And then you go--"
"I do not know, monsieur. Probably to New York. That is a greatheadquarters."
"So I believe."
"If monsieur should hear of a family that--"
"Yes, I'll bear you in mind, Jean. You are steady and reliable, Ipresume?" and the colonel smiled.
"I have most excellent letters!" he boasted, and for the moment heseemed to rouse himself from the sluggishness that marked him thatmorning.
"I'll bear it in mind," said the colonel again.
But as they drove on, and Colonel Ashley noted with what exaggeratedcare Jean Forette passed other cars--giving them such a wide berth thatoften his own machine was almost in the ditch--the impression grew onthe detective that the Frenchman was not as skillful as he would have itbelieved.
"He drives Like an amateur, or a woman out alone in her machine for thefirst time," mused the colonel. "He'd never do for a smart car. Wonderwhat
ails him. He wasn't drunk last night by any means, and yet--"
They reached the town, and paused at the only place where there was anycongestion of traffic--where two main seashore highways crossed in thecenter of Lakeside. Jean held the runabout there so long, waiting forother traffic to pass, that the officer who was on duty called:
"What's the matter--going to sleep there?"
Then Jean, with a start, threw in the clutch and shot ahead.
"That's queer," mused the colonel. "He seems afraid."
The purchase of the shedder crabs was gone into carefully, and havingquestioned the bait-seller as to the best location in the inlet, thedetective again got into the machine and was driven to the office ofthe late Horace Carwell. It was a branch of the New York office, andthither, every summer, came LeGrand Blossom and a corps of clerks tomanage affairs for their employer.
Colonel Ashley, who by this time was known to the office boy at theouter gate, was admitted at once.
"Mr. Blossom is at the telephone," said the lad, "but you can go rightin and wait for him."
This the colonel did, having left Jean outside in the car.
The telephone in LeGrand Blossom's private office was in a booth, putthere to get it away from the noise of traffic in the street outside.And, as the boy had said, Blossom was in this booth as Colonel Ashleyentered.
It so happened that the chief clerk was standing in the booth with hisback turned to the main door, and did not see the colonel enter. And thelatter, coming in with easy steps, as he always went everywhere, heard asnatch of the talk over the telephone that made him wonder.
Though the little booth was meant to keep sounds from entering, as wellas coming out, the door was not tightly closed and as LeGrand Blossomspoke rather loudly Colonel Ashley heard distinctly.
"Yes," said the head clerk over the wire, "I'll pay the money tonightsure. Yes, positive." There was a period of waiting, while he listened,and then he went on: "Yes, on the Allawanda. I'll be there. Yes, sure!Now don't bother me any more."
Colonel Ashley, through the glass door of the telephone booth, sawLeGrand Blossom make a move as though to hang up the receiver. And thenthe detective turned suddenly, and swung back, as though he had enteredthe room at the moment Blossom had emerged from the booth.
"Oh!" exclaimed the head clerk, and, for a second, he seemed nonplused.But Colonel Ashley took up the talk instantly.
"I will keep you but a minute," he said. "Miss Viola asked me to leavethese bills for you. I came in to town to buy some bait. There they are.I'm going fishing," and before LeGrand Blossom could answer the colonelwas saying good-bye and making his way out.
"I wonder," mused the colonel, as he started for the car where Jeanawaited him, "what or who or where the Allawanda is? I must find out."
He found further cause for wonder as he started off in the car with theFrench chauffeur for the boat dock, at the conduct of Jean himself.
For the man appeared to be a wholly different person. His face was allsmiles, and there was a jaunty air about him as though he had receivedgood news. His management of the car, too, left nothing to be desired.He started off swiftly, but with a smoothness that told of perfectmastery of the clutch and gears. He took chances, too, as he dashedthrough town, cutting corners, darting before this car, back of theother until, used as the colonel was to taxicabs in New York, he heldhis breath more than once.
"What's the matter--in a hurry?" he asked Jean, as they narrowly escapeda collision.
"Oh, no, monsieur, but this is the way I like to drive. It is muchmore--what you call pep!"
"Yes," mused the colonel to himself, "it's pep all right. But I wonderwhat put the pep into you? You didn't have it when we started out. SomeFrench dope you take, I'll wager. Well, it may put pep into you now, butit'll take the starch out of you later on."
Jean left the colonel at the dock, whither Shag had already made hisway, coming in a more prosaic trolley car from The Haven, and soon theywere ready to row down the inlet in a boat.
"Shall I call for you?" asked Jean, as he prepared to drive back.
"No," answered the colonel, "I can't tell what luck I'll have. We'llcome home when it suits us."
"Very good, monsieur."
And so the colonel went fishing, and his thoughts were rather more onthe telephone talk he had overheard than on his rod and line.
Contrary to the poor luck that had held all week, so the dockman said,the colonel's good luck was exceptional. Shag had a goodly string ofsnappers of large size to carry back with him.
"How'd you do it?" asked the boatman, as he made fast the skiff.
"Oh, they just bit and I hauled 'em in," said the colonel. "By the way,"he went on, "is there a place around here called Allawanda?"
"Yes, there's a little village named that, about ten miles back in thecountry," said the boatman.
"Nothing there, though, but a few houses and one store."
"Oh, I thought it might be quite a place."
"No, and nobody'd know it was there if there wasn't a boat around herenamed after it."
"Is there a boat called that?" asked the colonel, and he tried to keepthe eagerness out of his voice.
"Yes. The ferryboat that runs from Lakeside to Loch Elarbor is namedthat. Seems that one of the men in the company that owns it used to liveat Allawanda when he was a boy, and he called the boat that. It's an oldtub of a ferry, though, about like the town itself, I guess. Well, yousure did have good luck!"
"Yes, indeed," agreed the colonel, and his luck was better than theboatman guessed, and of a different kind.
It was in pursuance of this same luck that caused the colonel, laterthat day, when the shadows of evening were falling, to take his limpsatchel and slip out of the house. He went afoot to the ferry dock, andwhen the Allawanda floundered in like a porpoise he went on board. Itwas his first visit to this part of the inlet that separated Lakesidefrom Loch Harbor, and this means of getting to the yachting center wasseldom used by any guests of The Haven. They went around by the highwayin automobiles.
"Well," mused the colonel, as he went to the men's cabin with his limpvalise, "I hope Mr. Blossom keeps his promise and comes here to-night. Ishall be interested in noting to whom he pays the money."
Then, seeing that the little cabin of the ramshackle boat was desertedat that hour, the colonel went to a dark corner, and from it emerged,a little later, with a beard on that would have done credit to the mostorthodox inhabitant of New York's Ghetto.
Still the colonel did not look like a Jew, and he was not going toattempt that character. He made his way to the stern of the craft, wherehe could watch all who came aboard, and finding a deck hand who wassweeping, said:
"I'm not feeling very well. Thought maybe a ride back and forth acrossthe inlet would do me good if I stayed out in the air. So if you see mehere don't think I'm trying to beat my fare. Here's a dollar, you maykeep the change."
"Thanks--ride all you like," said the man. At five cents a trip, withthe boat stopping at midnight, there would still be a good tip in it forhim. The colonel ensconced himself in a dark corner and waited.
The first two trips over and back were fruitless as far as his objectwas concerned. But just as the Allawanda was about to pull out for herthird voyage across the inlet, there came on board a woman, with a shawlso closely wrapped about her that her features were completely hidden.There were only a few oil lamps on the old-fashioned craft, and theillumination was poor.
The colonel thought there was something vaguely familiar about thefigure, but he was not certain. He tried to get near enough to her, ina casual walk up and down the deck, to view her countenance, but, eitherby accident or design, she turned away and looked over the rail. He wasclose enough, however, to note that the shawl was of fine texture and ofa peculiar pattern.
Retiring again to his corner in the stern of the boat, and noting thatthe woman kept her place there, Colonel Ashley waited in patience. Andhe had his reward.
The Allawanrda was whist
ling to tell the deck hands to cast off themooring ropes, when LeGrand Blossom came running down the inclinedgangway and got on board. He seemed in a hurry and excited, and,apparently unaware of the presence of the detective in the dark corner,he went directly to the woman in the shawl. The boat began to move fromher slip.
"Did you think I was never coming?" asked LeGrand Blossom.
"No, I was detained," the woman answered, and at the sound of her voiceColonel Ashley started and uttered a smothered exclamation. "I but justarrived," the woman went on. "Did you bring it?"
"Hush! Yes. Not so loud. Some one may hear you."
"There is no one here. One man, with a heavy beard, passed by me as Icame on board. At first I thought it was you, disguised, but when I sawit was not I kept to myself. There is no one here."
"I hope not," murmured LeGrand Blossom, as he looked cautiously around.The after deck was but dimly lighted.
For a time the woman and man talked in tones so low that the detectivecould hear nothing, and he dared not leave his hidden corner to comecloser.
But, just as the Allawanda was nearing her slip on the other side, theman spoke in louder tones. "And so we come to the end!" he said.
"No, please don't say that!" begged the woman.
"I must," Blossom answered. "We can't go on this way any longer. Here iswhat I promised you. It is all I can raise, and I had a hard time doingthat. Every one is suspicious, and that detective is all eyes and ears.It is the best I can do. You must not bother me any more."
The lights from a passing boat fell on the couple as they stood close tothe rail, and, from his vantage point in the darkness, the colonelsaw LeGrand Blossom hand the woman in the shawl a package. She took iteagerly, and thrust it into her bosom. Then, turning to the man, shesaid reproachfully:
"You say this is the end. Then you don't love me any more?"
LeGrand Blossom did not answer for a moment.
"You don't--do you?" the woman insisted.
"No," was the slow reply. "I might as well be brutally frank about it,and say I don't. And you don't care either."
"Oh, I do! I do!" she eagerly protested.
"No, you only think you do. It is better for both of us to have it endthis way. But let us make sure that it is an end. There must be no moreof it. I have given you all I can. You must go away as you promised."
"Yes, I suppose I must," and her voice was broken. "Oh, I wish I hadnever met you!"
"Perhaps it would have been better that way," was Blossom's coldresponse. "However, it's too late for that now. Good-bye," he added, asthe boat was grating her way along the Loch Harbor slip. "I'm not goingto get off. Don't telephone me again. This is all I can ever give you."
"Oh, yes, I suppose, now you've finished, you can get rid of me. Well,let it be so," she said bitterly. And then, as the boat bumped to alanding she cried: "If I could only find--"
But the rattle of the chains and the clatter of the wheels on the ferrybridge drowned her voice. She rushed away from LeGrand Blossoms's sideand, clutching her shawl close around her as if to make sure of thepackage the man had given her, she disappeared into the interior of theferryboat.
Colonel Ashley started to follow, but as LeGrand Blossom remainedon board he decided to watch him instead of the woman, though he wasvaguely disquieted trying to remember where he had heard her voicebefore.