CHAPTER XXI.--THE MISSING LINK.
Mr. Bangs made three calls on that memorable Monday. The first was toBillie, as you already surmise. If he recognized the strong undercurrentwhich connected the strange adventures of the Motor Maids during thepast two months, he said nothing, but listened gravely to the younggirl's account of the happenings in Boulder Lane, the box of jewels, thecases of rifles at Seven League Island, and so on through the eventswhich have been told in this history.
When Billie had finished, she paused and waited for the detective tospeak, but he sat silently twirling his thumbs and looking down at thefloor with half-closed eyes.
Billie was slightly irritated.
"I have sent for you, Mr. Bangs," she continued with some dignity,"because, while I am certain of two things, I'm not at all sure of thethird. The first is that Fannie Alta has some very good reason fortrying to prove that Mary is a thief. The second is that this smugglerwho has been trying to steal the jewels has something to do with it."
"And what is the third, Miss Campbell?" asked the detective, smiling,without looking up.
"That is what I want you to tell me," exclaimed Billie restlessly."There is a third. It is the missing link. And it is what I wanted youto find out for me. I have thought and thought and puzzled and puzzled,but I can't make it out. I believe with all my soul that there is somewicked force back of the whole thing."
Mr. Bangs raised his eyes at last and looked at the young girl withevident admiration.
"You are taking the first step toward making a good detective, MissCampbell," he said. "You have expressed it in three words. It is themissing link we need to get at in this business and it is what I mustfind."
Billie flushed with pleasure at this professional praise. She had neverhad occasion to play the part of detective before. But devotion andloyalty to her friend had sharpened her wits.
"Now, why?" asked the detective. "Isn't Miss Alta the missing link?"
"That is the strangest part of the whole business. She is a piece of thelink, I think, but then she has nothing against Mary and me. There wouldbe no object to what she has done unless she had."
"You did not know that she accused you of being the confederate of yourfriend or that she knew that you had the box of jewels hidden in thesafe?"
"What?" cried Billie, with amazement. "But how did she know----" shebegan.
"Yes, how?"
Billie sat looking down at her hands. She was not thinking of thoseslender, strong fingers, which appeared to clasp each other with afriendly grip. Her thoughts were busy going back over the past fewweeks.
"I think I've found the missing link," she said at last, with a seriouslook in her eyes, as she turned toward the detective. "Belle Rogers isthe missing link. I can't understand why I haven't thought of it before,but it seemed so incredible."
"Miss Campbell," put in Mr. Bangs severely, "I am afraid you are notsuch a good detective, after all. You have left out one of the mostimportant things. You did not tell me that some one besides your threefriends knew about the jewels."
Billie had omitted the story of the confusion of the two suit cases atShell Island. She had really quite forgotten it and Mr. Bangs chuckledwith amusement when he heard how Belle had opened and examined all thecontents of another girl's suit case out of pure curiosity.
"Then she must have read the name on the card, too," he said presently.
"I suppose so."
"Now, tell me, Miss Campbell, what is the grudge which this young ladyperhaps has against you and your friends?"
"Oh, it's only a silly schoolgirl affair," replied Billie. "I am ashamedto tell you, because it seems so utterly trivial in comparison to otherthings. She was angry because I wouldn't join her club and because wesaw her the night of the fire with her hair up in rubber curlers."
The detective laughed outright.
"That's a woman's reason for taking revenge," he said.
"And she was angry again because I took her into the wrong room, whenthe hotel was burning and we had to escape over the roof."
"Humph!" exclaimed the detective. "Insult piled onto injury, eh? So thisMiss Rogers is a very vindictive character?"
Billie hesitated. It went against her straight-forward, honest nature tomalign even Belle Rogers.
"She has been spoiled all her life," she said, "and you know how spoiledchildren must have their own way. That is all. She was angry because sheplanned to make me a member of her club and queen it over me as she doesover the others, and I disappointed her. Her mother and friends havetaken good care always that she should never be disappointed and shejust didn't know what the feeling was, I suppose."
"She must be quite a remarkably spoiled young woman to go to suchlengths for such a trivial offence. But we sometimes get in deeper thanwe intend, you know."
The detective rose to go.
"Good day, Miss Campbell," he said, giving her hand quite a warm grip,considering what a quiet, cold individual he had seemed at first. "Youwill hear from me again, soon. I had not intended to work when I camedown here. You know I am a West Haven boy. My father was old Bill Bangs,the jailer. You probably have heard of him. He was a famous character inhis day. I came home to rest and see my people, but when a detectivescents a good case he is not apt to let it slip by, even on a holiday."
"And you think this is a good case?"
"It's a corking one," he replied, as he closed the door after him.
Billie and Mary did not go to school that famous Monday. Billie had nomind to face the curious looks she felt certain would be turned upon herby the other girls, because news travels quickly in any school. Mary waslying on her mother's bed with a throbbing sick headache. All day Mrs.Price sat beside her daughter and held her hand. At intervals she bathedher temples with eau de cologne and whispered:
"My dearest, it will come out all right. Mother loves you and believesin you and so does Billie. Don't sob like that for my sake, my littlegirl."
Belle Rogers also stayed at home that Monday. Mr. Bangs discovered thisfact on his second visit of the day when he was closeted for an hour ormore with Miss Gray and Mrs. St. Clair in the principal's privateoffice.
After a tiresome interview with these two well meaning but mistakenladies, in which he said little and they said much, he left the HighSchool with a sigh of relief.
Presently he found himself in the fashionable district of West Haven. Itwas the second time he had climbed the street that day, but he was acalm little person, not easily heated by emotion or exercise, and whenhe rang the bell at the Rogers home, there was just the suspicion of asmile on his face. He sent up his card for Miss Rogers and word wasbrought back that Miss Rogers was ill and not to be seen. Then, with apencil, he wrote across the face of the card, "Lafitte--Paris."
In three minutes the swish of skirts down the steps announced that someone was coming.
"I hope it's not the mother," he said to himself.
But it was Belle, very pale, with violet circles around her eyes and anervous quivering about the lips.
When Mr. Bangs left the Rogers house after spending three-quarters of anhour with Belle, he remarked as he strolled down the gravel driveway tothe street:
"It will have to be an out and out confession from one or the other. Ifthis one doesn't give it, the Alta girl must. I shall pay my respects toMme. Alta this evening."
He had hardly passed through the great iron gateway leading into thestreet, when Belle, wearing a heavy veil and a long ulster, hurriedafter him. She carried a music roll under her arm, although she was nottaking lessons, since she had been injured in the fire, but it wasunderstood by the servant who opened the door for her that she was goingto see Mme. Alta.