Holt, Rinehart and Winston

“ With a quick thrust—she’s a big woman and a bold one—she strikes. Possibly Hotchkiss is right about the left-hand blow. Harrington may have held her right hand, or perhaps she held the dirk in her left hand as she groped with her right. Then, as the man falls back, and his grasp relaxes, she straightens and attempts to get away. The swaying of the car throws her almost into your berth, and, trembling with terror, she crouches behind the curtains of lower ten until everything is still. ”

“ Even those who have no sympathy with your movement will burn at such a rumor. The better the citizen, the more a lover of home and order, the more outraged he will be. Every man in the city with a child of his own will rise against the Palace.”
“Madame,” the leader had said, “you should be of the Committee.”
But she had ignored the speech contemptuously, and gone on to other things.
Now everything was arranged. Black Humbert had put his niece to work on a Carnival dress for a small boy, and had stayed her curiosity by a hint that it was for the American lad. ”

“ In the doorway Hotchkiss was a half dozen feet ahead; Richey fell back beside me. He dropped his affectation of gayety, and I thought he looked tired. "Same old Sam, I suppose?" he asked.
"Same, only more of him."
"I suppose Alison was there? How is she?" he inquired irrelevantly.
"Very well. I did not see her this morning." Hotchkiss was waiting near the elevator. McKnight put his hand on my arm. "Now, look here, old man," he said, "I've got two arms and a revolver, and you've got one arm and a splint. If Hotchkiss is right, and there is a row, you crawl under a table." ”

“ If it is only a liaison—!” He spread his hands. “If, as is possible, she betrays us to Karnia, that we should find out. It is not,” he added, “among our plans that Karnia should know too much of us.”
“Who is it?”
“I cannot betray a lady,” said Black Humbert, and leered.
The brandy was still working, but the spy’s mind was clear. He asked for a pencil, and set to work. After all, if there was a spy of Karl’s in the Palace, it were well to know it. ”

“ Only, Mrs. Wells was wearing a green kimono, and the testimony of the governess indicated that the death must have taken place as early as 9:15. Following a clue, the two men went to a drug-store where the governess had been telephoning that evening. They found the number she had called was that of young Ellingham, who was known to be in love with Elinor Wells.
At a second séance the medium dwelt especially on a lost handbag that contained letters, and on a bullet in the ceiling. Alone, Johnson went to the Wells house at night to search. ”

“ You'd better come along, Nina.”
“What is it? Is somebody sick?” Elizabeth gasped.
“Jim's been in an automobile accident. Steady now, Elizabeth! He's hurt, but he's going to be all right.”
The Wheeler house, when they got there, was brightly lighted. Annie was crying in the hall, and in the living-room Mrs. Sayre stood alone, a strange figure in a gaudy dress, but with her face strong and calm.
“They've gone to the hospital in my car,” she said. “They'll be there now any minute, and Mr. Oglethorpe will telephone at once. You are to wait before starting in.” ”

“ Jim got up pettishly and drew on her gloves.
“That's another trip for me,” she said, shaking out her skirts; but Miss Maria was on her feet, staring at the squire with blazing eyes.
“You're crazy, Ira Andrews!” she stormed, a spot of indignant red in either cheek. “If he goes to the lockup I go too, and we neither of us go if you haven't got the stove put up yet. The idea of a man with eleven children at home putting a seven-year-old boy in that damp, cold place over night! Sammy has a cold now. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!” ”

“ She may have married Sullivan, for one thing."
I fell into gloom after that. The roan was led unwillingly into the weather, Hotchkiss and I in eclipse behind the blanket. The liveryman stood in the doorway and called directions to us. "You can't miss it," he finished. "Got the name over the gate anyhow, 'The Laurels.' The servants are still there: leastways, we didn't bring them down." He even took a step into the rain as Hotchkiss picked up the lines. "If you're going to settle the estate," he bawled, "don't forget us, Peck and Peck. ”

“ If there’s a scrap of any kind, you hike for the timber.” Which was Halsey’s solicitous care for me, put into vernacular.
“I shall stay right here,” I said, and crossing the small veranda, now shaded and fragrant with honeysuckle, I hammered the knocker on the door.
Thomas opened the door himself—Thomas, fully dressed and in his customary health. I had the blanket over my arm.
“I brought the blanket, Thomas,” I said; “I am sorry you are so ill.”
The old man stood staring at me and then at the blanket. His confusion under other circumstances would have been ludicrous.
“What! Not ill?” ”

“ If—if you have to tell her the truth, be as gentle as you can, sir. She has been good to me—that's why I have played the spy here all summer. It's a thankless thing, spying on people."
"It is that," I agreed soberly.
Hotchkiss and I arrived in Washington late that evening, and, rather than arouse the house hold, I went to the club. I was at the office early the next morning and admitted myself. McKnight rarely appeared before half after ten, and our modest office force some time after nine. I looked over my previous day's mail and waited, with such patience as I possessed, for McKnight. ”

“ The hag made as if to close the door, but a woman spoke from behind.
“Let him in, ma,” she said. “We ain't got nothing to hide. Come in, mister.”
A man came up from a cellarway with a box of bottles. I can still see his face over the bottles—his sickening pallor, his squint. He thought it was a raid, clearly. Then he saw me and his color came back.
“I guess a man's 'ouse is 'is own,” he snarled. “We drink a little beer ourselves. That ain't agin' the law, I reckon.”
“Not at all,” Mr. Patton said good-humoredly. “I'll have a lamp, please.”
It appeared to be a four-roomed house. ”

“ As he went up the main street, Hotchkiss was cheerfully oblivious of the weather, of the threatening dusk, of our generally draggled condition. My draggled condition, I should say, for he improved every moment,—his eyes brighter, his ruddy face ruddier, his collar newer and glossier. Sometime, when it does not encircle the little man’s neck, I shall test that collar with a match.
I was growing steadily more depressed: I loathed my errand and its necessity. I had always held that a man who played the spy on a woman was beneath contempt. ”

“ Klopton that Mr. Blakeley was wrecked, or robbed, or whatever it was, with a button missing and a hole in one sock, she’ll retire to the Old Ladies’ Home. I’ve heard her threaten it.”
Mr. Hotchkiss was without a sense of humor. He regarded McKnight gravely and went on:
“I’ve been up in the room where the man lay while he was unable to get away, and there is nothing there. But I found what may be a possible clue in the dust heap.
“Mrs. Carter tells me that in unpacking his grip the other day she took out of the coat of the pajamas some pieces of a telegram. ”

“ I had an idea that he hadn't cared much for women before, and that, this being a first attack, he hadn't established what the old doctor used to call an immunity.
CHAPTER XIV PIERCE DISAPPROVES
Mrs. Hutchins came out to the spring-house the next morning. She was dressed in a black silk with real lace collar and cuffs, and she was so puffed up with pride that she forgot to be nasty to me.
"I thought I'd better come to you, Minnie," she said. "There seems to be nobody in authority here any more. Mr. Carter has put the—has put Mr. von Inwald in the north wing. ”

“ Thomas had not the moral courage to tell her of the crime. She refused a doctor, and shrank morbidly from having her presence known. Mrs. Watson and Thomas had had their hands full, and at last Rosie had been enlisted to help them. She carried necessary provisions—little enough—to the lodge, and helped to keep the secret.
Thomas told me quite frankly that he had been anxious to keep Louise's presence hidden for this reason: they had all seen Arnold Armstrong that night, and he, himself, for one, was known to have had no very friendly feeling for the dead man. ”

“ Holcombe, no doubt, in his character of Ladley—and came reeling in at three in the morning, singing. Mr. Holcombe was very sick the next day, but by Monday he was all right, and he called me into the room.
"We've got him, Mrs. Pitman," he said, looking mottled but cheerful. "As sure as God made little fishes, we've got him." That was all he would say, however. It seemed he was going to New York, and might be gone for a month. "I've no family," he said, "and enough money to keep me. ”

“ Above her plain black gown her eyes looked big and somber, and the rapid drive had brought no color to her face. I got up and drew forward a chair.
“He has not come back,” I said quietly. “Sit down, child; you are not strong enough for this kind of thing.”
I don’t think she even heard me.
“He has not come back?” she asked, looking from me to Gertrude. “Do you know where he went? Where can I find him?”
“For Heaven’s sake, Louise,” Gertrude burst out, “tell us what is wrong. Halsey is not here. He has gone to the station for Mr. Jamieson. What has happened?” ”

“ She proved to be one of the dismissed servants—the waitress, she said.
“Why, Freddie!” she cried. “And Harry, too! Aren't you going to speak to Nora?”
“'I Had No Idea it would be Like This. I'm Dying of Fear!'” After a moment or two she turned to me, and I felt she wanted to say something, but hardly dared.
“How is Mrs. Reed?” she asked. “Not sick, I hope?”
She glanced at my St. Luke's cloak and bonnet.
“No, she is quite well.”
“And Mr. Reed?”
“Quite well also.”
“Is Mademoiselle still there?”
“No, there is no one there but the family. There are no maids in the house.” ”

“ I panted. "That is—unless—you didn't see any one crossing the lawn or skulking around the house, did you?"
"I think we have mystery on the brain," Gertrude said wearily. "No, I haven't seen any one, except old Thomas, who looked for all the world as if he had been ransacking the pantry. What have you locked in the laundry?"
"I can't wait to explain," I replied. "I must get Warner from the lodge. If you came out for air, you'd better put on your overshoes." And then I noticed that Gertrude was limping—not much, but sufficiently to make her progress very slow, and seemingly painful. ”

“ Nina hesitated.
“I don't know about Elizabeth. She's fond of Wallie, as who isn't? But lately—”
“Yes?”
“Well, for the last few days I have been wondering. She doesn't talk, you know. But she has been seeing something of Dick Livingstone.”
“Doctor Livingstone! She'd be throwing herself away!”
“Yes, but she's like that. I mean, she isn't ambitious. We've always expected her to throw herself away; at least I have.”
A half hour later Leslie, upstairs, leaned over the railing to see if there were any indications of departure. The door was open, and Mrs. Sayre evidently about to take her leave. ”

“ Holcombe. The gas bills are a horror to me as it is. I think he kept it on all last night. I turned off all the other lights and went to the cellar. The meter was going around."
"Fine!" he said. "Every murderer fears the dark. And our friend of the parlor bedroom is a murderer, Mrs. Pitman. Whether he hangs or not, he's a murderer."
The mirror affair, which Mr. Holcombe called a periscope, was put in that day and worked amazingly well. I went with him to try it out, and I distinctly saw the paper-hanger take a cigarette from Mr. Ladley's case and put it in his pocket. ”

“ I have learned this much,” Hotchkiss concluded: “Lower seven was reserved from Cresson.”
Cresson! Where Alison West and Mrs. Curtis had taken the train!
McKnight came forward and suddenly held out his hand. “Mr. Hotchkiss,” he said, “I—I’m sorry if I have been offensive. I thought when you came in, that, like the Irishman and the government, you were ‘forninst’ us. If you will put those cheerful relics out of sight somewhere, I should be glad to have you dine with me at the Incubator.” (His name for his bachelor apartment.) “Compared with Johnson, you are the great original protoplasm.” ”

“ Halsey replied, "when I ran after Mrs. Watson. It's down to this, Aunt Ray. Rosie's basket and Mrs. Watson's blanket can only mean one thing: there is somebody hiding or being hidden in the lodge. It wouldn't surprise me if we hold the key to the whole situation now. Anyhow, I'm going to the lodge to investigate."
Gertrude wanted to go, too, but she looked so shaken that I insisted she should not. I sent for Liddy to help her to bed, and then Halsey and I started for the lodge. The grass was heavy with dew, and, man-like, Halsey chose the shortest way across the lawn. ”

“ She led him out onto the terrace, her shoulders militant and her head high, and faced him there.
“I can see you are not going to talk to me,” she said. “So I'll talk to you. Has Dick Livingstone's return made any change between Elizabeth and you?”
“No.”
“She's just the same to you? You must tell me, Wallace. I've been building so much.”
She realized the change in him then more fully than ever for he faced her squarely and without evasion.
“There's no change in her, mother, but I think you and I will both have to get used to this: she's not in love with me. She doesn't pretend to be.” ”