The Bartlett Mystery Part 30

"I--don't know."

"Surely there was some motive?"

"You are speaking in enigmas. I heard of the girl from you. I have never seen her. If your mother interfered, it was for your good."

He smiled cynically. The cold, far-away look in his eyes was bitter to her soul, yet he had never looked so handsome, so distinguished, as in this moment when he was ruthlessly telling her that another woman absorbed him utterly.

"What hold has Meiklejohn over you?" he went on.

She simulated tears. "You have no right to address me in that manner,"

she protested.

"There is a guilty bond somewhere, and I shall find it out," he said coldly. "My mother was your catspaw. You, Helen, may have been spiteful, but Meiklejohn--that sleek and smug politician--I cannot understand him.

The story went that owing to an accidental likeness to Meiklejohn your husband was nearly killed. His a.s.sailant was a man named Voles. Voles was an a.s.sociate of Rachel Craik, the woman who poses as Winifred's aunt. That is the line of inquiry. Do you know anything about it?"

"Not a syllable."

"Then I must appeal to Ronald."

"Do so. He is as much in the dark as I am."

"I fancy you are speaking the truth, Helen."

"Is it manly to come here and insult me?"

"Was it womanly to place these hounds on the track of my poor Winifred?

I shall spare no one, Helen. Be warned in time. If you can help me, do so. I may have pity on my friends, I shall have none for my enemies."

He was gone. Mrs. Tower, biting her lips and clenching her hands in sheer rage, rushed to an escritoire and unlocked it. A letter lay there, a letter from Meiklejohn. It was dated from the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel, Atlantic City.

"Dear Mrs. Tower," it ran, "the Costa Rica cotton concession is almost secure. The President will sign it any day now. But secrecy is more than ever important. Tell none but Jacob. The market must be kept in the dark. He can begin operations quietly. The shares should be at par within a week, and at five in a month. Wire me the one word 'settled' when Jacob says he is ready."

"At five in a month!"

Mrs. Tower was promised ten thousand of those shares. Their nominal value was one dollar. To-day they stood at a few cents. Fifty thousand dollars! What a relief it would be! Threatening dressmakers, impudent racing agents asking for unpaid bets, sneering friends who held her I. O. U.'s for bridge losses, and spoke of asking her husband to settle; all these paid triumphantly, and plenty in hand to battle in the whirlpool for years--it was a stake worth fighting for.

And Meiklejohn? As the price of his help in gaining a concession granted by a new compet.i.tor among the cotton-producing States, he would be given five shares to her one. Why did he dread this girl? That was a fruitful affair to probe. But he must be warned. Her lost lover might be troublesome at a critical stage in the affairs of the cotton market.

She wrote a telegram: "Settled, but await letter." In the letter she gave him some details--not all--of Carshaw's visit. No woman will ever reveal that she has been discarded by a man whom she boasted was tied to her hat-strings.

Carshaw sought the detective bureau, but Steingall was away now, as well as Clancy. "You'll be hearing from one of them" was the enigmatic message he was given.

Eating his heart out in misery, he arranged his affairs, received those two daily telegrams from Miss Goodman with their dreadful words, "No news," and haunted the bookbinder's, and Meiklejohn's door hoping to see some of the crew of Winifred's persecutors. At the bookbinder's he learned of the visit of the supposed clergyman, whose name, however, did not appear in the lists of any denomination.

At last arrived a telegram from Burlington, Vermont. "Come and see me.

Clancy." Grown wary by experience, Carshaw ascertained first that Clancy was really at Burlington. Then he instructed Miss Goodman to telegraph to him in the north, and quitted New York by the night train.

In the sporting columns of an evening paper he read of the sale of his polo ponies. The scribe regretted the suggested disappearance from the game of "one of the best Number Ones" he had ever seen. The Long Island estate was let already, and Mrs. Carshaw would leave her expensive flat when the lease expired.

Early next day he was greeted by Clancy.

"Glad to see you, Mr. Carshaw," said the little man. "Been here before?

No? Charming town. None of the infernal racket of New York about life in Burlington. Any one who got bitten by that bug here would be afflicted like the Gadarene swine and rush into Lake Champlain. Walk to the hotel?

It's a fine morning, and you'll get some bully views of the Adirondacks as you climb the hill."

"Winifred is gone. Hasn't the Bureau kept you informed?"

Clancy sighed.

"I've had Winifred on my mind for days," he said irritably. "Can't you forget her for half an hour?"

"She's gone, I tell you. Spirited away the very day I asked her to marry me."

"Well, well. Why didn't you ask her sooner?"

"I had to arrange my affairs. I am poor now. How could I marry Winifred under false pretenses?"

"What, then? Did she love you for your supposed wealth?"

"Mr. Clancy, I am tortured. Why have you brought me here?"

"To stop you from playing Meiklejohn's game. I hear that you camp outside his apartment-house. You and I are going back to New York this very day, and the Bureau will soon find your Winifred. By the way, how did you happen onto the Senator's connection with the affair?"

Taking hope, Carshaw told his story. Clancy listened while they breakfasted. Then he unfolded a record of local events.

"The Bureau has known for some time that Senator Meiklejohn's past offered some rather remarkable problems," he said, dropping his bantering air and speaking seriously. "We have never ceased making guarded inquiries. I am here now for that very purpose. Some thirty years ago, on the death of his father, he and his brother, Ralph Vane Meiklejohn, inherited an old-established banking business in Vermont.

Ralph was a bit of a rake, but local opinion regarded William as a steady-going, domesticated man who would uphold the family traditions.

There was no ink on the blotter during upward of ten years, and William was already a candidate for Congress when Ralph was involved in a scandal which caused some talk at the time. The name of a governess in a local house was a.s.sociated with his, and her name was Bartlett."

Carshaw glanced at the detective with a quick uneasiness, which Clancy pretended not to notice.

"I have no proof, but absolutely no doubt," he continued, "that this woman is now known as Rachel Craik. She fell into Ralph Meiklejohn's clutches then, and has remained his slave ever since. Two years later there was a terrific sensation here. A man named Marchbanks was found lying dead in a lakeside quarry, having fallen or been thrown into it.

This quarry was situated near the Meiklejohn house. Mrs. Marchbanks, a ward of Meiklejohn's father, died in childbirth as the result of shock when she heard of her husband's death, and inquiry showed that all her money had been swallowed up in loans to her husband for Stock Exchange speculation. Mrs Marchbanks was a noted beauty, and her fortune was estimated at nearly half a million dollars. It was all the more amazing that her husband should have lost such a great sum in reckless gambling, seeing that those who remember him say he was a nice-mannered gentleman of the old type, devoted to his wife, and with a pa.s.sion for cultivating orchids. Again, why should Mrs. Marchbanks's bankers and guardians allow her to be ruined by a thoughtless fool?"

Clancy seemed to be asking himself these questions; but Carshaw, so far from New York, and with a mind ever dwelling on Winifred, said impatiently:

"You didn't bring me here to tell me about some long-forgotten mystery?"

"Ah, quit that hair-trigger business!" snapped Clancy. "You just listen, an' maybe you'll hear something interesting. Ralph Vane Meiklejohn left Vermont soon afterward. Twelve years ago a certain Ralph Voles was sentenced to five years in a penitentiary for swindling. Mrs.

Marchbanks's child lived. It was a girl, and baptized as Winifred. She was looked after as a matter of charity by William Meiklejohn, and entrusted to the care of Miss Bartlett, the ex-governess."

Carshaw was certainly "interested" now.

"Winifred! My Winifred!" he cried, grasping the detective's shoulder in his excitement.

"Tut, tut!" grinned Clancy. "Guess the story's beginning to grip. Yes.

Winifred is 'the image of her mother,' said Voles. She must be 'taken away from New York.' Why? Why did this same Ralph vanish from Vermont after her father's death 'by accident'? Why does a wealthy and influential Senator join in the plot against her, invoking the aid of your mother and of Mrs. Tower? These are questions to be asked, but not yet. First, you must get back your Winifred, Carshaw, and take care that you keep her when you get her."