CHAPTER XXI. THE LIBRARY POSTAL
"My dear, I am sorry if I have told you anything that distresses you,"said Viola gently. "But I thought--"
"Oh, yes, it is best to know," was the low response. "Only--only I wasso happy a little while ago, and now--"
"But perhaps it may all be explained!" interrupted Viola. "It is onlysome tiresome business deal, I'm sure. I never could understand them,and I don't want to. But it does seem queer that there is no record ofthat fifteen thousand dollars being paid back."
"What does Captain Poland say about it?"
"Oh, he told Harry, very frankly, that father paid the money, and thatthe receipt was sent to Mr. Blossom. But the latter says it can not befound."
"And do you suspect Mr. Blossom?" asked Minnie, and her voice held achallenge.
"Well," answered Viola slowly, "there isn't much of which to suspecthim. It isn't as if Captain Poland claimed to have paid father thefifteen thousand dollars, and the money couldn't be found. It's only areceipt for money which the captain admits having gotten back that ismissing. But it makes such confusion. And there are so many other thingsinvolved--"
"You mean about the poisoning?"
"Yes. Oh, I wish it were all cleared up! Don't let's talk of it. I mustfind out about Mr. Blossom going away. We shall have to get some one inhis place. Aunt Mary will be so disturbed--"
"Don't say that I told you!" cautioned Minnie. "Perhaps I should nothave mentioned it. Oh, dear, I am so miserable!" And she certainlylooked it.
"And so am I!" confessed Viola. "If only Harry would tell what he iskeeping back."
"You mean about that quarrel with your father?"
"Yes. And he acts so strangely of late, and looks at me in such a queerway. Oh, I'm afraid, and I don't know what I'm afraid of!"
"I'm the same way, Viola!" admitted Minnie.
"I wonder why we two should have all the trouble in the world?"
And the two were miserable together.
They were not the only ones to suffer in those days. Captain GerryPoland could not drive Viola from his mind. To the yachtsman, she wasthe most beautiful woman he had ever met, and he wondered if fortunewould ever make it possible for him to approach her again on the subjectthat lay so close to his heart.
And then there was Bartlett. It was true he walked the streets--orrather rode around them in his "Spanish Omelet"--a free man; yet thefinger of suspicion was constantly pointed at him.
More than once in the town he met people who sneered openly at him, asif to say, "You are guilty, but we can't prove it." And once on the golfcourse he went up to three men who had formerly been quite friendly andsuggested a game of golf, upon which one after another the others madetrivial excuses and begged to be excused. Upon this occasion the youngman had rushed away, his face scarlet, and he had only calmed down aftera mad tour of many miles in his racing machine.
"It's an outrage!" he had muttered to himself. "A dastardly outrage! Butwhat is a fellow going to do?"
Meanwhile Colonel Ashley and Jack Young were puzzling their heads overmany matters connected with the golf course mystery. Jack had obeyed thecolonel's instructions to the letter. He had played many rounds onthe links and had gotten to a certain degree of friendship with JeanForette. He had even formed a liking for Bruce Garrigan, who, offhand,informed him that the amount of India ink used in tattooing sailorsduring the past year was less by fifteen hundred ounces than the totaloutput of radium salts for 1916, while the wheat crop of Minnesota forthe same period was 66,255 bushels. All of which information, useful ina way, no doubt, was accepted by Jack with a smile. He was there to lookand listen, and, well, he did it.
"But I've got to pass it up," he told Colonel Ashley. "I've stuck tothat Jean chap until I guess he must think I want him for a chauffeurif ever I'm able to own a car bigger than a flivver. And aside from thefact that he does use some kind of dope, in which he isn't alone in thisworld, I can't get a line on him."
"No, I didn't expect you would," said Colonel Ashley, with a smile."But are you well enough acquainted with him to have a talk with hissweetheart?"
"You mean Mazi?"
"Yes."
"Well, I s'pose I might get a talk with her. But what's the idea?"
"Nothing special, only I'd like to see if she tells you the same storyshe told me. Have a try at it when you get a chance."
"On the theory, I suppose, of in any trouble, look for the lady?"
"Somewhat, yes."
They were talking in The Haven, for Jack had been put up there asa guest at the request of Colonel Ashley. And when the bellrang, indicating some one at the door, they looked at one anotherquestioningly.
Then came the postman's whistle, for Lakeside, though but a summerresort, with a population much larger in summer than in winter, boastedof mail delivery.
A maid placed the letters in their usual place on the hall table, andthe colonel quickly ran through them, for he had reports sent him fromhis New York office from time to time.
"Here's one for you, Jack," he announced, handing his assistant aletter.
While Jack Young was reading it the colonel caught sight of a postal,with the address side down, lying among the other missives. It was apostal which bore several lines of printing, the rest being filled in bya pen, and the import of it was that a certain library book, under thenumber 58 C. H--161* had been out the full time allowed under the rules,and must either be returned for renewal, or a fine of two cents a daypaid, and the recipient was asked to give the matter prompt attention.
The colonel turned the card over. It was addressed to Miss ViolaCarwell at The Haven.
"So the book is out on her card," murmured the detective. "I must lookfor her copy of 'Poison Plants of New Jersey,' and see if it is like theone I have."
"Were you speaking to me?" asked Jack, having finished his letter.
"No, but I will now. We've got to get busy on this case, and close itup. I've been too long on it now. Shag is getting impatient."
"Shag?"
"Yes, he wants me to go fishing."
"Oh, I see. Well, I'm ready. What are the orders?"
Two busy days on the part of Colonel Ashley and his assistant followed.They went on many mysterious errands and were out once all night. Butwhere they went, what they did or who they saw they told no one.
It was early one evening that Colonel Ashley waited for his assistant inthe library of The Haven. Jack had gone out to send a message and was toreturn soon. And as the colonel waited in the dim light of one electricbulb, much shaded, he saw a figure come stealing to the portieres thatseparated the library from the hall. Cautiously the figure advanced andlooked into the room. A glance seemed to indicate that no one was there,for the colonel was hidden in the depths of a big chair, "slumping,"which was his favorite mode of relaxing.
"I wonder if some one is looking for me?" mused the colonel. "Well, justfor fun, I'll play hide and seek. I can disclose myself later." And sohe remained in the chair, hardly breathing the silent figure parted theheavy curtains, within, dropped something white on the floor, and thenquickly hurried away, the feet making no sound on the thick carpet ofthe hall.
"Now," mused the colonel to himself, "I wonder that is a note for me,or a love missive for one the maids from the butler or the gardener, whotoo bashful to deliver it in person. I'd better look."
Without turning on more light the colonel picked up the thing that hadfluttered so silently to the floor. It was a scrap of paper, and as heheld it under the dimly glowing bulb he saw, scrawled in printed letters:
"Viola Carwell has a poison book."
"As if I didn't know it!" softly exclaimed the colonel.
And then, as he resumed his comfortable, but not very dignifiedposition, he heard some one coming boldly along the hall, and the voiceof Jack asked:
"Are you in here, Colonel?"
"Yes, come in. Did you get a reply?"
"Surely. Your friend must have been waiting for your telegram."
; "I expected he would be. Let me see it," and the detective read a briefmessage which said:
"Thomas much better after a long sleep."
"Ah," mused the colonel. "I'm very glad Thomas is better."
"Is Thomas, by any chance, a cat?" asked Jack, who read the telegram thecolonel handed him.
"He is--just that--a cat and nothing more. And now, Jack, my friend, Ithink we're about ready to close in."
"Close in? Why--"
"Oh, there are a few things I haven't told you yet. Sit down and I'lljust go over them. I've been on this case a little longer than you have,and I've done some elimination which you haven't had a chance to do."
"And you have eliminated all but--"
"Captain Poland and LeGrand Blossom."
At these words Jack started, and made a motion of silence. They werestill in the library, but more lights had been turned on, and the placewas brilliant.
"What's the matter?" asked the colonel, quickly. "I thought I heard anoise in the hall," and Jack stepped to the door and looked out. Buteither he did not see, or did not want to see, a shrinking figure whichquickly crouched down behind a chair not far from the portal.
"Guess I was mistaken," said Jack. "Anyhow I didn't see anything."Did he forget that coming out of a light room into a dim hall was notconducive to good seeing? Jack Young ought to have remembered that.
"One of the servants, likely, passing by," suggested the colonel. "Yes,Jack, I think we must pin it down to either the captain or Blossom."
"Do you really think Blossom could have done it?"
"He could, of course. The main question is, did he have an object ingetting Mr. Carwell out of the way?"
"And did he have?"
"I think he did. I've been trailing him lately, when he didn't suspectit, and I've seen him in some queer situations. I know he needed a lotof money and--well, I'm going to take him into custody as the murdererof Mr. Carwell. I want you to--"
But that was as far as the detective got, for there was a shriek in thehall--a cry of mortal anguish that could only come from a woman--andthen, past the library door, rushed a figure in white.
Out and away it rushed, flinging open the front door, speeding down thesteps and across the lawn.
"Quick!" cried Colonel Ashley. "Who was that?"
"I don't know!" answered Jack. "Must have been the person I thought Iheard in the hall."
"We must find out who it was!" went on the detective. "You make someinquiries. I'll take after her."
"Could it have been Miss Viola?"
The question was answered almost as soon as it was asked, for, at thatmoment, Viola herself came down the front stairs.
"What is it?" she asked the two detectives. "Who cried out like that? Issome one hurt?"
"I don't know," answered Colonel Ashley. "Mr. Young and I were talkingin the library when we heard the scream. Then a woman rushed out."
"It must have been Minnie Webb!" cried Viola. "She was here a momentago. The maid told me she was waiting in the parlor, and I was detainedupstairs. It must have been Minnie. But why did she scream so?"
Colonel Ashley did not stop to answer.
"Look after things here, Jack!" he called to his assistant. "I'm goingto follow her. If ever there was a desperate woman she is."
And he sped through the darkness after the figure in white.