CHAPTER XXXIV
THE WOMAN IN THE CASE
My mind remained appalled before the contemplation of the devilishingenuity of this man, who could plan the murder with such diabolicalcunning. No wonder we were finding it a difficult matter to secure proofagainst him! Who was he? Was he someone I knew or a stranger who hadhitherto remained unsuspected by us? Did McKelvie have any idea of theman's identity, or was he also groping in the dark? Persistently Idiscarded the thought of Dick, even though the ring was his, and Jones'description of the criminal fitted the boy, for I could not believe thathe could have become such a fiend, unless indeed he had suddenly lostall sense of proportion and balance.
It was at this point in my meditations that Jones arose and declaredthat he must be going, but McKelvie refused to listen to him. He likedJones, even though the two were so often on opposite sides of the casethey were investigating.
"Stay for dinner," McKelvie urged. "I owe you that much anyhow. Also, Imay need you. And now I wish you fellows would cease worrying about thecriminal's identity and put your faculties to work on a more pressingsubject. Where do you suppose he has hidden Cora Manning?"
Where, indeed, with the whole of New York to choose from.
We were enjoying our after-dinner cigars when McKelvie suddenly gave ashout. "Eureka!" he cried. "I've got it. She's at Riverside Drive. Whatan idiot I was not to think of it before."
"How do you make that out?" asked Jones.
"Lee thought he heard a step on the walk and assumed that it was thegirl leaving the grounds. He hurried to the gate, but when he lookedaround there was no one in sight. If she had really left the place hewould have been in time to see her as she walked down the block. Therewould be no place for her to disappear to unless she jumped in theriver, which would hardly be likely."
"She may have hidden in the grounds and have waited for Lee to go awayfirst," I objected.
"She did not know he was there and would have no reason then for hiding.No, no, she's at the Darwin house. It was the easiest place to hide herin, safe and secure, and it would not involve his having to take anyoneinto his confidence. The house, doubtless, has more than one secretroom. We'll go out there now, and in an hour we'll have her free."
"Do you want a taxi?" asked Jones.
"No, we'll use the subway this time," replied McKelvie.
We walked to Union Square and took the Broadway Subway to DyckmanStreet, walking from there to Riverside Drive. As we entered the Darwingrounds I paused to admire the brilliancy of the stars, and noticed howthe reflection of the lights from the river craft twinkled in the watersof the Hudson as if in friendly rivalry.
But my companions did not wait to look at the scenery, and I had tohurry to catch up with them.
"We'll go in the back entrance again," said McKelvie. "I want toquestion Mason."
After a slight delay the old man admitted us and McKelvie asked him ifhe ever took occasion to go into the main wing of the house.
"Yes, sir. I have been in twice, sir, to open the windows and air theplace against Mrs. Darwin's coming home," he replied.
"And while you were there did you hear any sounds, a person walking, forinstance?" continued McKelvie.
Mason looked at him in great surprise. "Oh, no, sir. There is no one inthe house now, sir."
"Is there an attic to the house?"
"Yes, sir; but I'm sure there's no one there. I went in yesterdaymorning to put away Mr. Darwin's things, sir."
"Have you any provisions in the house?" was the next question.
"Yes, sir, for myself."
"Prepare some broth for me, please. I'll send for it when I want it."
"Yes, sir."
"What's the idea? Do you think she's starving, too?" asked Jones, as wecrossed the passageway and entered the main hall.
"Does he strike you as the kind that would be gentle with his prisoners?We'll ransack the whole house from attic to cellar, despite Mason'sassertions."
We ascended the broad staircase to the second floor. McKelvie thenapportioned the back rooms to Jones, the front ones to me, and reservedfor himself the whole third floor, which was mostly the attic. My partcomprised the sleeping apartments of Ruth as well as Darwin's suite.
I entered Ruth's rooms first, but did not remain in them long, sinceevery article spoke to me of the girl I loved and who was at this momentenduring the hardness of a narrow cot in a barred and grated cellinstead of enjoying the comforts to which she had been alwaysaccustomed, and all this because she had been accused of a crime thatshe was utterly incapable of committing.
Darwin's suite of dressing-room, bedroom, and bath were alsounproductive of any clues to Cora Manning's whereabouts, although once Ithought I detected a faint odor of rose jacqueminot and wondered idlywhether Darwin, too, had caught the epidemic.
Out in the hall I encountered Jones.
"Nothing doing," he said. "Besides, she wouldn't be lying around loose,or that old butler would have come across her, unless he was lying. Formy own part, I think this is a wild goose chase."
Before I could reply McKelvie descended from the attic. "Would you mindtalking in a lower key," he remarked in a whisper. "I could hear youdistinctly upstairs, Jones, and if the criminal should come here, wewould frighten him off for good."
"You don't mean to tell me he'd have the nerve to come here!" exclaimedJones.
"He's come here more than once, as Mr. Davies and I can prove," hereturned, drawing us into a room and closing the door. "Don't yousuppose he comes here to see the girl? It's my opinion he is trying tobreak her into going away with him, though I can't see what is to stophim from drugging her and carrying her away."
He walked to the window and looked out into the night. "She's not in theattic. There's no secret room up there; yet I'm positive she's in thehouse. He wouldn't come back for anything less important, though I didthink once that he had a hiding-place in the room behind the safe. Youremember that I was looking for it the night we found Dick's ring," hecontinued, more to himself than to us. Then he turned away from thewindow, his eyes shining, "Lord, I'm growing dull! Do you recall, Mr.Davies, that we heard steps on the stone staircase and that when Iopened the door and turned my flash on the stairs they were empty andthe door below locked?"
I nodded, and he went on quickly, "It never occurred to me before, buthe must have vanished into a second secret room off those stairs. Comeon, I'll bet that's where he's got her hidden."
At the door, however, he paused to issue final instructions. "Go softlyand obey me implicitly. Also don't talk, and have your gun handy, Jones,in case of need."
We tiptoed down the stairs and crossed the hall to the study door, whichMcKelvie opened slowly and silently. The room was dark. With the aid ofhis flash we walked down the length of the room to the safe, ourfootfalls deadened by the thickness of the carpet. Then McKelviemanipulated the dial and opened the safe. It was Jones' first initiationinto the mysteries of the entrance, and I pulled him down to a stoopingposition as we passed through to the secret room. Then we crossed to thedoor at the head of the stairs and McKelvie listened intently before heinserted his key in the lock. Then he turned to us.
"Stay here," he whispered. "When I locate the room I'll call to you. Ifanyone comes in that lower door, don't hesitate to shoot, Jones."
Jones and I obeyed and stood together in the darkness, watching the diskof light from McKelvie's flash dart here and there along the walls asMcKelvie descended the stairs. Then the ray of light rested upon thewall into which the staircase had been built and which extended aboutthree feet beyond the lowest step, that is, extended the length of thedistance between the bottom of the staircase and the outer door, which,being but two feet in width, had plenty of margin with which to swinginwards. On this three feet of wall space the light danced up and downas McKelvie hunted for indications of a second secret room. Then weheard him calling to us softly.
We descended the stairs cautiously, and when we neared the bottomMcKelvie pressed a depression w
hich he pointed out to us. We saw asection of the wall disappear from view and the ray of light rested onthe interior of a dark room. McKelvie stepped through first and called:
"Miss Manning, are you there?" he asked.
There was no answer, and telling us not to advance further, hedisappeared into the darkness. We strained forward to look, and Idistinctly smelled a musty, damp odor, as though the room or cell, orwhatever it was, had been used as a vault, or maybe a tomb.
Then McKelvie came out again and swung the panel into place. He shiveredslightly. "It's empty, but there are indications of a trap door in theceiling. What is the room directly above this end of the study?"
"Darwin's dressing-room," I replied.
"Any windows on this side?"
"No."
"Just as I thought. There is a room above that vault. We'll try thesecond floor. I trust we are not too late," he added as we returned tothe study. There we waited while McKelvie relocked the entrance, andwhen he was ready to lead the way upstairs again, Jones spoke in atroubled whisper.
"What's the idea of building a house with holes in the wall? It's aregular rat-trap," he said.
"I have a book at home that I'll have to lend you, Jones. The man whobuilt this house was a nut on old-fashioned ideas. He copied anancestral home, secret rooms and all. Not that he meant to use them, ofcourse, but because it suited him to put them in. The one I justexamined was used in ancient times, I think, to receive the bodies ofthose who fell through the trap door from the room above. A convenientway of getting rid of your enemy, that is all."
"This criminal of yours seems very familiar with this house," saidJones.
"Yes, he had been here many times before the murder, and he took painsto learn all he could about the place," returned McKelvie.
"I thought he only learned of the entrance on the night of the murder,"I objected.
"Well, what of it. He is clever enough to have deduced what I did. Heprobably stumbled across the lower room in opening the outer door andthen it was mere child's play to discover the room above."
Yes, that part was easy enough, but it was another matter to find thehidden spring that worked the panel. We turned on the light in the room,and divided the wall into three parts, each of us fingering a thirdcarefully and painstakingly from top to bottom. It was Jones finally whostumbled on the spring. He had pressed the center of one of themahogany flowers that formed the carved border of the dash-board andsilently the panel slid back.
Never shall I forget the sight revealed to my eyes as the light from thedressing-room dispelled slightly the gloom of that interior.
In the center of the narrow room kneeled a young girl, with her darkhair streaming about her shoulders and her pale face raised to heaven asshe pressed the barrel of an automatic to her heart. In that attitude ofutter renunciation, she was very beautiful, so beautiful that she tookaway our breath and held us motionless.
That at least was her effect upon Jones and myself, but McKelvie wasless susceptible, or perhaps his quick eyes noted a motion that we didnot observe. At any rate, he sprang forward and knocked up the pistol.There was a sharp report, and the girl fell forward into his arms in adead faint.
He carried her into Darwin's bedroom and laid her on the bed. While heworked over her, I descended to the kitchen where Mason was watching thebroth McKelvie had ordered him to make.
When I returned she was sitting up, and as she sipped the broth I lookedat her again and felt my pulses stirring as I looked into her face. I'mnot much of a hand at describing beauty in a woman, and perhaps thegreatest compliment I can pay her is to say that though she had sufferedand her lustrous black eyes were dull and her face wan and pale, she wasbeautiful still, and her voice held all the haunting quality of theSouth in its depths as she told us her story, a story so unusual that itwas almost unbelievable.