Arthur Somers Roche

“ Prayed God that He would suffer no harm to come to Ruth Gilman. I thought not at all of myself, of the happiness that would be mine if her name were cleared. I thought, thank God, only of her. Of what it meant to her. And as the music rose I felt an emptiness in the pit of my stomach. One chance in a million! A million to one that, even if it had happened once, it could not happen again. And I had summoned the girl from Washington, had, in the enthusiasm, of my own belief in my solution of the mystery, encouraged her. Fool! ”

“ The Gray Ghost smiled malevolently. “Beagle wanted to know, Mr. Pelham—but you heard me repeat his question. Here's the answer: only a brilliant man would have conceived the idea of pretending to become a criminal himself in order to win his way to me. At least, only an extraordinarily brilliant man would have conceived this particular plan. I congratulate you, Mr. Pelham, and I regret that the association for which I had hoped can never be realized. But no falsehood can successfully impersonate a truth for long. You had a weak spot in your plan, Mr. Pelham.” ”

“ I only wanted to be the first to congratulate you, Tom, on your chance to make good; to show the people of Morgantown that you've told the truth about the rottenness of the city. It's your proof that the Construction company cheats the city. It's the proof that'll make the voters turn against the boss, defeat Landers, and—go to it, Tom, go to it! ”

“ Beyond one convulsive struggle, Dayless offered no resistance. He grew limp: he slid from his chair. But his watchful assailant slipping his hand under his employer's arms, eased his fall so that no sound could be heard in the hall beyond the closed door of the library.
For a moment Minturn stared down at his victim. His eyes showed alarm. He bent swiftly over and felt the heart of Dayless. Dayless, although unconscious, was alive. And now Minturn showed a brisk alertness very different from the methodical manner which seemed to belong to him.
From Dayless' pocket he drew a key ring. ”

“ And despite the fact that I had caught them myself, which should have flavored them, I never ate so tasteless a meal in my life. To enjoy dinner, one’s thoughts must be of dinner. Mine were up-stairs with the flashing-eyed girl to whom, it seemed, I was doomed ever to appear in evil light.
What was it that Ravenell and the new arrival, Minot, had thought was in her muff? Why were they so confident that she would make no charge against them?
I came to one conclusion: neither the major nor the girl was involved in any thing criminal. ”

“ He must be the man who had notified the Secretary of the treason, Tenney started to fold up the list, his eye running idly down the columns of names as he did so. As though printed in letters of flame, he saw the name, Henry Davis. The camera eye begets the photographic brain. He knew the name, and the face that the name belonged to stood before his mental eyes. Yet Tenney did not start, gave no sign of emotion. He merely folded the paper neatly and handed it to the chief clerk who had procured it for him with a languid thanks. ”

“ If you were English, and a man, the Victoria Cross would be yours, Miss Gilman. From what you have told me, I can guess the rest. You have risked a great deal to keep your uncle’s pledge. You have come in the night. I’m not much of a speech-maker, Miss Gilman. I can only tell you, once again, that England thanks you—and your uncle, too. I have no doubt that he could have sold this envelope to our enemies for a fortune. He gets nothing from England save England’s thanks. ”

“ Had I asked one of those men to commit a deliberate killing he would have refused. Killing to avoid capture, self-destruction for the same reason, killing to insure success of one of our plans—they are all different from deliberate murder. Not only can I not hire such men and have any assurance of their discretion, but I do not wish to. I am no gangster, Beagle. I am a gentleman.”
“Just the same, if we'd taken a chance and nicked Pelham and Tryon a few months ago, we'd be a million to the good,” argued Beagle. ”

“ Why on earth any one should think my inoffensive self a spy; why they should fear a spy; these were enough to amaze me. But above surprise was anger. And then a sense of the absurdity of the scene drowned both amazement and anger.
I reached up and from the outer pocket of my coat drew forth the ticket which I had bought in New York, and which plainly showed that it had been bought there. The telegram which I had not sent to Billy Odlin tumbled to the floor of the car, drawn forth by my pulling out the ticket, but I paid no attention to it, but let it lie. ”

“ I had brought every bit of my own brain to the solution of the mystery, and I had failed. Weatherbee Jones, my own creation, could not solve this mystery. Nor could any of the real detectives whom I had sent to Folly Cove.
It was ended. The only girl whom I would ever love, whom I would ever wish to make my wife, was too brave and devoted a spirit to let the shadow over her cloud me. ”

“ He would know that in the mind of every adult is a picture of himself, or herself, vastly different from the image which presents itself to the world. For there is no failure so complete but that he imagines a quick turn of circumstances which will make him a world figure.
****
RODDY, lying upon the bed, slowly ceased his sobbing. He had had a miraculous escape from gross and public humiliation. An angel had come down from Heaven itself and with certain magic words routed his foes. For certainly Miss Mildred Tennant was nothing less than an angel. ”

“ Dickenson darted across the road: with the silent tread that years of stalking animals had bred in him, he raced down the road and opened fire at the rear of the touring car. From the cries of the bandits it was easy to learn that the trappers now considered themselves the trapped. Dickenson's maneuver made them believe that they were surrounded. They gave up the battle at once. Pelham and Tryon, firing from behind Tryon's car, could not tell whether or not their shots had been as accurate as those of Dickenson. They know only that the battle ended as suddenly as it had begun. ”

“ There remained nothing of the great though vicious spirit that had laughed at law.
“What do you expect me to reply?” demanded Pelham. “That as long as you're ashamed and sorry it will be all right, eh?”
“I want to make a deal,” said the Gray Ghost. “You may be able to try me for murder. I'm not saying that you can't get a conviction. But I'm offering five million dollars for my life.”
“A shade more than it's worth,” grunted Jerry Tryon.
“Still,” argued Ballantyne, “there's a lot of people would be glad to get their money back. I'll plead guilty to murder in the second degree. ”

“ It landed fairly upon my forehead, the cold steel cutting open the skin.
But no more. The muzzle fell upon my forehead, did not crash down upon it. The arm that had propelled it had gone suddenly as limp as my own left arm. For like a wraith in the snowy gloom, but more muscularly substantial, I thanked God, Ruth Gilman had stolen up behind the one-idea Minot and the barrel of her own automatic had done for him what he had planned to do for me. His figure crumpled into itself and he lay in a heap on the ice. ”

“ Retired army officers with inventions are a drug on the military market. They are listened to politely and forgotten the moment they leave. Also, they are often jeered at, behind their backs, as fanatics. Especially so would this state of affairs be in the case of army officers presenting plans for a naval invention. The plans would be pigeonholed. Unless, indeed, the plans were perfected, up to the minute. But if the plans were in such shape that money was needed for experiments—well, both my uncle and Sir Richard knew better than to apply to their respective war offices. ”

“ Matter-of-fact, almost phlegmatic, was Tenney; that disembodied spirits had copied the plans, Tenney did not believe. And yet—figures could not lie, as the Secretary had hopelessly declared.
Didn't the Japanese boast of a culture, an education, a religion, that went back to those ages before Christianity dawned? Didn't intelligent men claim that the ancient civilizations of Asia were close to the scheme of the Universe and the Powers that planned the scheme? For one fraction of a second Tenney felt his flesh crawl. ”

“ I stepped inside my curtains, drew them close, buttoned them and drew off my clothing. From one of the suit-cases I abstracted pajamas; then I managed clumsily to shove both of them beneath my berth. My pocketbook, which contained money and several newspaper clippings, about crimes which had interested me because I thought that they might be put to fiction uses and serve as mediums for further adventures of Weatherbee Jones, I placed beneath my pillow. There were no cards or other papers in it.
I settled myself in the narrow berth. The train jolted through the storm. ”

“ It was my business to find out if the key to my room would fit the lock of the major’s door. There are forty odd keys hanging behind the office desk. No two of them are alike. The major’s door was locked. Only one key could unlock it. Yet Miss Gilman would have us believe that she was not in her uncle’s room when the shot was fired!
“If she wasn’t in there, then, how did she get in there later? Is it reasonable to believe that her uncle permitted her to lock him in? Rot, and you all know it! Would a grown man permit a young girl to lock him in his room and make off with the key? Nonsense! ”

“ This very day, the municipal ferry had landed the dummy-chucker, with others of his slinking kind, upon Manhattan's shores again. Not for a long time would the memory of the Island menu be effaced from the dummy-chucker's palate, the locked doors be banished from his mental vision.
A man might be arrested on Broadway, but he might also get the money. Timorously, the dummy-chucker weighed the two possibilities. He felt the dollar in his pocket. At a street in the Forties, he turned westward. Beyond Eighth Avenue there was a place where the shadow of prohibition was only a shadow. ”

“ Unless then, the major’s niece had lied, there was no one in the room to have fired the shot and broken the glass. But we—we knew that she had not lied! We know it still, no matter how this experiment comes out. But if it comes out well the fact that the major could have died by accident is enough! It will clear her, forever! It is only because the world at large thinks that she and she alone could have caused his death that it deems her guilty. ”

“ But Minot was cunning. He swerved as they drew closer.
“’Tend to him, Ravenell,” he cried. “I’ll follow the girl.”
And I knew that he would catch her; that she could not possibly escape him. I feared that she would not use the pistol she carried; that at the last moment her feminine shrinking from blood would deter her. Further, I feared that she would not dare use it. She had not informed the town authorities of their attack upon her in the path. She did not want publicity.
Would she dare use the gun? Wouldn’t Minot know that she’d fear to use it? ”

“ I told him how crowded elevators had begun insidiously to affect me. until I found myself unable to enter one that held more than two or three people; how I dreaded visiting editors whose offices were more than four or five stories above ground; how, last night, sudden panic, fear of what I knew not, had assailed me in the theater, so that I was compelled to flee from it immediately; how this morning I had entered the subway express at Seventy-second Street, felt all right until the thing began to slow down, and then became afflicted with panic. ”

“ It was absurd that I should be deemed guilty of murdering Major Penrose.
I comforted myself with the thought that absurdities can not exist forever. In my case they would not exist long. I had only to prove my utter lack of motive. ”

“ THE weak are very often selfish. Chosen by the boss to be Mayor because of his family's standing, and because personally he was popular, Landers knew that without Morris he would never have held office. And holding office was the breath of existence to Landers.
He could not meet the eyes of the boss when he left his house with the tacit understanding between them that the Mayor's daughter should be used to win over young Minot. Even the weak and selfish may not be lost to a sense of shame. ”

“ Did I draw Weatherbee Jones from life? Has he really a prototype on some police force, or in some private detective agency? Do I get my plots from the criminal notes in the papers? Could I solve mysteries myself? Why couldn’t I? My character, Weatherbee Jones, solves the most impossible problems; why couldn’t I have him tackle real-life mysteries? Will I read one of my stories to a gathering of ladies? Will I, in short, consent to show off?
So, then, when I accepted Billy Odlin’s advice, I made up my mind that no one at Folly Cove would know that I was Sidney Wrenham, the author. ”

“ After Minot gets through he comes out into the office and looks around. He sees Ravenell sitting here but for a moment he don’t speak. He just looks at Ravenell and Ravenell looks at him. They don’t act like they knows each other. Yet Ravenell gets up and walks over to Minot and in a minute they’re thick as two thieves. They get off in a corner with their heads together and stay there an hour or more. Talking quiet-like, too, and as though they don’t want no one to overhear them. ”

“ During the after-breakfast smoke the guide, one Slim Dickenson by name, discussed many things, finally fastening his speech upon New York.
“The way I look at it,” pronounced Slim, “it don't take no more to be a big guy in New York than it does to be a big guy in my home town of Juno. If a feller has git-up-and-git to him he'll succeed anywhere at all. Ain't I right. Mr. Pelham?” ”