CHAPTER X
PREPARATIONS
My first thought, when I awoke next morning, was for Parks, forGodfrey's manner had impressed me with the feeling that Parks was inmuch more serious danger than either he or I suspected. It was with alively sense of relief, therefore, that I heard Parks's voice answermy call on the 'phone.
"This is Mr. Lester," I said. "Is everything all right?"
"Everything serene, sir," he answered. "It would take a mighty smoothburglar to get in here now, sir."
"How is that?" I asked.
"Reporters are camped all around the house, sir. They seem to thinksomebody else will be killed here to-day."
He laughed as he spoke the words, but I was far from thinking theidea an amusing one.
"I hope not," I said, quickly. "And don't let any of the reportersin, nor talk to them. Tell them they must go to the police for theirinformation. If they get too annoying, let me know, and I'll have anofficer sent around."
"Very good, sir."
"And, Parks."
"Yes, sir?"
"Don't let anybody in the house--no matter what he wants--unless Mr.Grady or Mr. Simmonds or Mr. Goldberger accompanies him. Don't letanybody in you don't know. If there is any trouble, call me up. Iwant you to be careful about this."
"I understand, sir."
"How is Rogers?" I asked.
"Much better, sir. He wanted to get up, but I told him he might aswell stay in bed, and I'd look after things. I thought that was thebest place for him, sir."
"It is," I agreed. "Keep him there as long as you can. I'll come induring the day, if possible; in any event, Mr. Godfrey and I will bethere this evening. Call me at the office, if you need me foranything."
"Very good, sir," said Parks again, and I hung up.
I glanced through Godfrey's account of the affair while I ate mybreakfast, and noted with amusement the sly digs taken atCommissioner Grady. Under the photograph of the unknown woman was thelegend:
MR. VANTINE'S MYSTERIOUS CALLER
(Grady Please Notice)
And it was intimated that when Grady wanted any real informationabout an especially puzzling case, he had to go to the _Record_ toget it.
This, however, was merely by the way, for the story of the doubletragedy, fully illustrated, was flung across many columns, and wasplainly considered the great news feature of the day.
I glanced at two or three other papers on my way down-town. All ofthem featured the tragedy with a riot of pictures--pictures ofd'Aurelle and Vantine, of Grady (very large), of Simmonds, ofGoldberger, of Freylinghuisen, of the Vantine house, diagrams of theante-room showing the position in which the bodies were found,anatomical charts showing the exact nature of the wounds, pictures ofthe noted poisoners of history with a highly-coloured list of theirachievements--but, when it came to the story of the tragedy itself,their accounts were far less detailed and intimate than that in the_Record_. They were, indeed, for the most part, mere farragos oftheories, guesses, blood-curdling suggestions, and mysterious hintsof important information confided to the reporters but withheld fromthe public until the criminal had been run to earth. That this wouldsoon be accomplished not a single paper doubted, for had not Grady,the mighty Grady, taken personal charge of the case? (Here followed aglowing history of Grady's career.)
It was evident enough that all these reporters had been compelled togo to Grady for their information, and I could fancy them damning himbetween their teeth as they penned these panegyrics. I could alsofancy their city editors damning as they compared these incoherentimaginings with the admirable and closely-written story in the_Record_, and I suspected that it was the realisation of the_Record's_ triumph which had caused the descent of the phalanx ofreporters upon the Vantine place.
I went over the whole affair with Mr. Royce, as soon as he reachedthe office, and spent the rest of the day arranging the papersrelating to Vantine's affairs and getting them ready to probate.Parks called me up once or twice for instructions as to variousdetails, and Vantine's nearest relative, a third or fourth cousin,wired from somewhere in the west that he was starting for New York atonce. And then, toward the middle of the afternoon, came thecablegram from Paris which I had almost forgotten to expect:
"Royce & Lester, New York.
"Regret mistake in shipment exceedingly. Our representative will call to explain.
"Armand et Fils."
So there was an end of the romance Godfrey had woven, and which I hadbeen almost ready to believe--the romance of design, of a carefullylaid plot, and all that. It had been merely accident, after all. AndI smiled a little sarcastically at myself for my credulity. No doubtmy own romance of a secret drawer and a poisoned mechanism wouldprove equally fabulous. In my over-wrought state of the night before,it had seemed reasonable enough; but here, in the cold light of day,it seemed preposterous. How Grady and Goldberger would have laughedat it!
I put the whole thing impatiently away from me, and turned to otherwork; but I found I could not conquer a certain deep-seatednervousness; so at last I locked my desk, told the boy I would not beback, and took a cab for a long drive through the park. The freshair, the smell of the trees, the sight of the children playing alongthe paths, did me good, and I was able to greet Godfrey with a smilewhen he called for me at seven o'clock.
"I've engaged a table at a little place around the corner," he said."It is managed by a friend of mine, and I think you'll like it."
I did. Indeed, the dinner was so good that it demanded undividedattention, and not until the coffee was on the table and the cigarslighted did we speak of the business which had brought us together.
"Anything new?" I asked, as we pushed back our chairs.
"No, nothing of any importance. The man at the morgue has not beenidentified. In the first place, the Paris police have never taken hisBertillon measurements."
"Then he's not a criminal?"
"He has never been arrested," Godfrey qualified. "More peculiar isthe fact that he hasn't been recognised here. Two million people,probably, saw his photograph in the papers this morning. Some ofthem thought they knew him and went around to the morgue to see hisbody, but nothing came of it. The police have no report of any suchman missing."
"That _is_ peculiar, isn't it!" I commented.
"It's very peculiar. It means one of two things--either the fellow'sfriends are keeping dark purposely, or he didn't have any friends,here in New York, at least. But even then, one would think thatwhoever rented him a room would wonder what had become of him, andwould make some inquiries."
"Perhaps he hadn't rented a room," I suggested. "Perhaps he had justreached New York, and went direct to Vantine's."
Godfrey's face lighted up.
"From the steamer, of course! I ought to have guessed as much fromthe cut of his hair. He hasn't been out of France more than ten daysor so. Excuse me a moment."
He hurried away, and five minutes passed before he came back.
"I 'phoned the office to send some men around to the boats which camein yesterday. If he was a passenger, some one of the stewards willrecognise his photograph. There were three boats he might have comeon--the _Adriatic_ and _Cecelie_ from Cherbourg, and _La Touraine_from Havre. There is nothing else that I know of," he addedthoughtfully, "except that Freylinghuisen thinks he has discoveredthe nature of the poison. He says it is some very powerful variant ofprussic acid."
"Yes," I said, "I heard him say something of the sort last night."
"I had a talk with him this afternoon about it, and he was quitelearned," Godfrey went on. "This is a great chance for him to getbefore the public, and he's making the most of it. I gathered fromwhat he said that ordinary prussic acid, which is deadly enough,heaven knows, contains only two per cent. of the poison; while thestrongest solution yet obtained contains only four per cent.Freylinghuisen says that whoever concocted this particular poison hasevidently discovered a new way of doing it--or rediscovered an oldway--so that it is at least fifty p
er cent. effective. In otherwords, if you can get a fraction of a drop of it in a man's blood,you kill him by paralysis quicker than if you put a bullet throughhis heart."
"Nothing can save a man, then?" I questioned.
"Nothing on earth. Oh, I don't say that if somebody had an axe handyand chopped your arm off at the shoulder an instant after you werestruck on the hand, you mightn't have a chance to live; but it wouldtake mighty quick work, and even then, it would be nip and tuck.Freylinghuisen thinks it is a new discovery. I don't. I think someone has dug up one of the old Medici formulae. Maybe it was placed inthe secret drawer, so that there would never be any lack ofammunition for the mechanism."
"Godfrey," I said, "are you still bent on fooling with that thing?"
"More than ever; I'm going to find that secret drawer. And if thefangs strike--well, I'm ready for them. See here what I had madetoday."
He drew from his pocket something that looked like a steel gauntlet,such as one sees on suits of old armour. He slipped it over his righthand.
"You see it covers the back of the hand completely," he said, "halfway down the first joint of the fingers. It is made of the tougheststeel and would turn a bullet. And do you see how it is depressed inthe middle, Lester?"
"Yes," I said, "I was wondering why you had it made in that shape."
"I want to get a sample of that poison. My theory is that when thefangs strike the hand, the shock drives out a drop or two of thepoison. I don't want those drops to get away; I want them to rollinto this depression, and I shall very carefully bottle them. Thinkwhat they are, Lester--the poison of the Medici!"
I sat for a moment looking at him, half in amusement, half in sorrow.It seemed a pity that his theory must come tumbling down, it was sopicturesque, and he was so interested and enthusiastic over it. Andit would make such a good story! He caught my glance, and put thegauntlet back into his pocket.
"Well, what is it?" he asked quietly.
For answer, I got out the cablegram and passed it across to him. Heread it with brows contracted.
"That seems to put a puncture in our little romance, doesn't it?" Iasked, at last.
He nodded thoughtfully.
"Yes, it does," and he read the message again, word by word."Armand's man hasn't called yet?"
"No, I didn't get the message till about three o'clock. I supposehe'll be around to-morrow."
"You will have to turn the cabinet over to him, of course?"
"Why, yes, it belongs to him. At least, it doesn't belong toVantine."
He slipped the message into its envelope and handed it back to me. Icould see that he was perplexed and upset.
"Well, in spite of this," he said finally, "I am still interested inthat cabinet, Lester, and I wish you would keep possession of it aslong as you can. At least, I wouldn't give it up until he deliveredto you the other cabinet which Vantine really bought."
"Oh, I'll make him do that," I agreed quickly. "That will no doubttake a few days--longer than that if Vantine's cabinet is in Paris."
Godfrey raised a finger to the waiter, asked for the check, and paidit.
"And now let us go down and have a look at this one," he said, "as weintended doing. You will think me foolish, Lester, but even thatcablegram hasn't shaken my belief in the existence of that secretdrawer."
"And all the rest?" I asked.
"Yes," he answered slowly, "and all the rest." He said nothing moreuntil we stopped before the Vantine house, but I could see, from hispuckered brows, how desperately he was trying to untangle this quirkin the mystery.
"The siege seems to have been lifted," I remarked, as we alighted.
"The siege?"
"Parks telephoned me that your esteemed contemporaries had the placesurrounded. I told him to hold the fort!"
"Poor boys!" he commented, smiling. "To think that all they know iswhat Grady is able to tell them!" Then he stopped before the houseand made a careful survey of it.
"Which room is the cabinet in?" he asked.
"The ante-room is there at the left where those two shuttered windowsare. The cabinet is in the corner room--there is one window on thisside and two on the other."
"Wait till I take a look at them," he said, and, vaulting the lowrailing, he walked quickly along the front of the house and aroundthe corner. He was gone only a minute. "They're all right," he said,in a tone of relief.
"Of course they're all right. You didn't suppose--"
"If that cabinet contains what I thought it did, Lester--yes," headded, a little savagely, as he saw my look, "and what I still thinkit does--it wouldn't be safe in the strongest vault of the NationalCity Bank," and he motioned for me to ring the bell.
I did so, in silence.
Parks answered it almost instantly, and I could tell from the way hisface changed how glad he was to see me.
"Well, Parks," I said, as we stepped inside, "everything is allright, I hope?"
"Yes, sir," he answered. "But--but it gets on the nerves a little,sir."
I heard a movement behind me, as I gave Parks my coat, and turned tosee Rogers sitting on the cot.
"Hello," I said, "so you're able to be up, are you?"
"Yes, sir," he answered, without looking at me. "I thought I'd comedown and keep Parks company."
Parks smiled a little sheepishly.
"I asked him to, Mr. Lester," he said. "I got so lonesome and jumpyhere by myself that I just had to have somebody to talk to.Especially, after the burglar-alarm rang."
"The burglar-alarm?" repeated Godfrey quickly. "What do you mean?"
"We've got a burglar-alarm on the windows, sir. It's usually turnedoff in the day-time, but I thought I'd better leave it on to-day, andit rang about the middle of the afternoon. I thought at first thatone of the other servants had raised a window, but none of them had.Something went wrong with it, I guess."
"Did you take a look at the windows?" I asked.
"Yes, sir; a policeman came to see what was the matter and we wentaround and examined the windows, but they were all locked. It made mefeel kind of scary for a while."
"Does the alarm work now?"
"No, sir; the policeman said there must be a short circuit somewhere,and that he'd notify the people who put it in; but nobody has comearound yet to fix it."
"We'd better take a look at the windows, ourselves," said Godfrey."You stay here, Parks. We can find them, all right; and I don't wantyou to leave that door unguarded for a single instant."
We went from window to window, and Godfrey examined each of them witha minuteness that astonished me, for I had no idea what he expectedto find. But we completed the circuit of the ground floor without hisapparently discovering anything out of the way.
"Let's take a look at the basement," he said, and led the waydownstairs with a readiness which told me that he had been over thehouse before.
In the kitchen, we came upon the cook and housemaid sitting closetogether and talking in frightened whispers. They watched usapprehensively, and I stopped to reassure them, while Godfreyproceeded with his search. Then I heard him calling me.
I found him in a kind of lumber-room, standing before its singlesmall window, his electric torch in his hand.
"Look there," he said, his voice quivering with excitement, and threwa circle of light on the jamb of the window at the spot where theupper and lower sashes met.
"What is it?" I asked, after a moment. "I don't see anything wrong."
"You don't? You don't see that this house was to be entered to-night?Then what does this mean?"
With his finger-nail, he turned up the end of a small insulated wire.And then I saw that the wire had been cut.