The Bartlett Mystery Part 22

Fowle, though skilled in his trade, found well-paid loafing more to his choice, for Voles had sent Rachel to Fowle, guessing this man to be of the right kidney for underhanded dealings. Moreover, he knew Winifred, and would recognize her anywhere. Fowle, therefore, suddenly blossomed into a "private detective," and had reported steady failure day after day. Rachel Craik had never ascertained Carshaw's name, as it was not necessary that he should register in the Fairfield Inn, and Fowle, with a nose still rather tender to the touch, never spoke to her of the man who had smashed it.

So these a.s.sociates in evil remained at cross-purposes until Senator Meiklejohn, when the bridge game was renewed and no further information was likely to ooze out, went away from Mrs. Tower's house to nurse his sickness. He recovered speedily. A note was sent to Rachel by special messenger, and she, in turn, sought Fowle, whose mean face showed a blotchy red when he learned that Winifred could be traced by watching Carshaw.

"I'll get her now, ma'am," he chuckled. "It'll be dead easy. I can make up as a parson. Did that once before when--well, just to fool a bunch of people. No one suspects a parson--see? I'll get her--sure!"

CHAPTER XIV

A SUBTLE ATTACK

Voles was brought from Boston. Though Meiklejohn dreaded the man, conditions might arise which would call for a bold and ruthless rascality not quite practicable for a Senator.

The lapse of time, too, had lulled the politician's suspicions of the police. They seemed to have ceased prying. He ascertained, almost by chance, that Clancy was hot on the trail of a gang of counterfeiters.

"The yacht mystery" had apparently become a mere memory in the Bureau.

So Voles came, with him Mick the Wolf, carrying a left arm in splints, and the Senator thought he was taking no risk in calling at the up-town hotel where the pair occupied rooms the day after Carshaw blurted out Winifred's name to Helen Tower. He meant paying another visit that day, so was attired _de rigueur_, a fact at which Voles, pipe in mouth and lounging in pajamas, promptly scoffed.

"Gee!" he cried. "Here's the Senator mooching round again, dressed up to the nines--dust coat, morning suit, boots s.h.i.+ning, all the frills--but visiting low companions all the same. Why doesn't the man turn over a new leaf and become good?"

"Oh, hold your tongue!" said William. "We've got the girl, Ralph!"

"Got the girl, have we? Not the first girl you've said that about--is it, my wily William?"

"Listen, and drop that tone when you're speaking to me, or I'll cut you out for good and all!" said Meiklejohn in deadly earnest. "If ever you had need to be serious, it is now. I said we've got her, but that only means that we are about to get her address; and the trouble will be to get herself afterward."

"Tos.h.!.+ As to that, only tell me where she is, an' I'll go and grab her by the neck."

"Don't be such a fool. This is New York and not Mexico, though you insist on confounding the two. Even if the girl were without friends, you can't go and seize people in that fas.h.i.+on over here, and she has at least one powerful friend, for the man who beat you hollow that night, and carried her off under your very nose, is Rex Carshaw, a determined youngster, and rich, though not so rich as he thinks he is. And there must be no failure a second time, Ralph. Remember that! Just listen to me carefully. This girl is thinking of going on the stage! Do you realize what that means, if she ever gets there? You have yourself said she is the living image of her mother. You know that her mother was well known in society. Think, then, of her appearing before the public, and of the certainty of her being recognized by some one, or by many, if she does. Fall down this time, and the game's up!"

"The thing seems to be, then, to let daylight into Carshaw," said Voles.

"Oh, listen, man! Listen! What we have to do is to place her in a lonely house--in the country--where, if she screams, her screams will not be heard; and the only possibility of bringing her there is by ruse, not by violence."

"Well, and how get her there?"

"That has to be carefully planned, and even more carefully executed. It seems to me that the mere fact of her wis.h.i.+ng to go on the stage may be made a handle to serve our ends. If we can find a dramatic agent with whom she is in treaty, we must obtain a sheet of his office paper, and write her a letter in his name, making an appointment with her at an empty house in the country, some little distance from New York. None of the steps presents any great difficulty. In fact, all that part I undertake myself. It will be for you, your friend Mick, and Rachel Craik to receive her and keep her eternally when you once have her. You may then be able so to work upon her as to persuade her to go quietly with you to South America or England. In any case, we shall have shut her away from the world, which is our object."

"Poor stuff! How about this Carshaw? Suppose he goes with her to keep the appointment, or learns from her beforehand of it? Carshaw must be wiped out."

"He must certainly be dealt with, yes," said Meiklejohn, "but in another manner. I think--I think I see my way. Leave him to me. I want this girl out of New York State in the first instance. Suppose you go to the Oranges, in New Jersey, pick out a suitable house, and rent it? Go to-day."

Voles raised his s.h.a.ggy eyebrows.

"What's the rush?" he said amusedly. "After eighteen years--"

"Will you never learn reason? Every hour, every minute, may bring disaster."

"Oh, have it your way! I'll fix Carshaw if he camps on my trail a second time."

Meiklejohn returned to his car with a care-seamed brow. He was bound now for Mrs. Carshaw's apartment.

If he was fortunate enough to find her in, and alone, he would take that first step in "dealing with" her son which he had spoken of to Voles. He made no prior appointment by phone. He meant catching her unawares, so that Rex could have no notion of his presence.

Mrs. Carshaw was a substantial lady of fifty, a society woman of the type to whom the changing seasons supply the whole duty of man and woman, and the world outside the orbit of the Four Hundred is a rumor of no importance.

She had met Senator Meiklejohn in so many places for so many years that they might be called comrades in the task of dining and making New York look elegant. She was pleased to see him. Their common fund of scandal and epigram would carry them safely over a cheerful hour.

"And as to the good old firm of Carshaw--prosperous as usual, I hope,"

said Meiklejohn, balancing an egg-sh.e.l.l tea-cup.

Mrs. Carshaw shrugged.

"I don't know much about it," she said, "but I sometimes hear talk of bad times and lack of capital. I suppose it is all right. Rex does not seem concerned."

"Ah! but the mischief may be just there," said Meiklejohn. "The rogue may be throwing it all on the shoulders of his managers, and letting things slide."

"He may--he probably is. I see very little of him, really, especially just lately."

"Is it the same little influence at work upon him as some months ago?"

asked Meiklejohn, bending nearer, a real confidential crony.

"Which same little influence?" asked the lady, agog with a sense of secrecy, and genuinely anxious as to anything affecting her son.

"Why, the girl, Winifred Bartlett."

"Bartlett! As far as I know, I have never even heard her name."

"Extraordinary! Why, it's the talk of the club."

"Tell me. What is it all about?"

"Ah, I must not be indiscreet. When I mentioned her, I took it for granted that you knew all about it, or I should not have told tales out of school."

"Yes, but you and I are of a different generation than Rex. He belongs to the spring, we belong to the autumn. There is no question of telling tales out of school as between you and him. So now, please, you are going to tell me _all_."

"Well, the usual story: A girl of lower social cla.s.s; a young man's head turned by her wiles; the conventions more or less defied; business yawned at; mother, friends, everything shelved for the time being, and nothing important but the one thing. It's not serious, perhaps. So long as business is not _too_ much neglected, and no financial consequences follow, society thinks not a whit worse of a young man on that account--on one condition, mark you! There must be no question of marriage. But in this case there _is_ that question."

"But this is merely ridiculous!" laughed Mrs. Carshaw shrilly.

"Marriage! Can a son of mine be so quixotic?"

"It is commonly believed that he is about to marry her."

"But how on earth has it happened that I never heard a whisper of this preposterous thing?"

"It _is_ extraordinary. Sometimes the one interested is the last to hear what every one is talking about."