Missing at Marshlands Part 36

"Trick?" Dimitri questioned.

"I mean promise and then get out and later do as you pleased."

"The Uzlovs never do that, sir! I beg of you! Yes!"

"Oh, well, all right. You can't go two ways at the same time," said the chief, grinning. "What else happened?"

"Nothing. I stayed in the cellar closet. Clayton maintained me bound and gagged as you saw. Once he came to me to say he had gone back to my boat to restore my beautiful box. But, as he was about to put it in the broken cupboard, he was surprised by you girls and my brother Serge coming on board. So Clayton leaped over the rail in great haste. I suppose you did not then see him or my box?"

"We heard a noise," said Terry, "and saw a man jump off your boat, but we didn't even guess who was leaving the _Merry Jane_ in such a rush. And to think at that time the snuffbox was on the point of being given back. If we only had known!"

"Perhaps it is as well," said Dimitri with rather a wan smile. "If the box had been put back then, and my sister Olga, she of the so spendthrift habits, had paid another visit, she might have then taken it. And if she knew this Clayton had it, without doubt she would have so raged at him that she would have secured it. So it is all well as it is. Also Mr.

Clayton told me something else. It seems my beautiful but desperate sister tried to bribe poor Melissa, with auto rides and some money and trinkets, to get the box for her. But that plot did not quite come off.

It may have been Olga's talk, speaking of my box in the cupboard, that caused Melissa to take it for herself."

"And she got your tie pin, also," said Arden.

"Oh, yes, but I have that back." He showed it to them. "Mr. Clayton gave it to me. He said his daughter had picked it up off the floor in my paint room. It is very possible. Poor Melissa!"

"But how did Clayton and his daughter come to go away and leave you tied in the cellar?" asked the chief. "If it hadn't been for the way your dog barked, we might never have found you."

"Oh, yes. That I can explain. Good Tania!" He pulled her silky ears.

"Only last night," Dimitri went on, "Mr. Clayton came to my prison cell and told me he was then leaving to go to the _Merry Jane_ and, under the cover of darkness, restore my box."

"And he did!" exclaimed Sim. "Some virtue in him, anyhow."

"Yes," agreed the artist. "Also he told me that matters were all now settled. He did not require any promise from me, for he told me his daughter was going away with her aunt and he would separate from her.

Perhaps that is not so?" He looked questioningly at the girls.

"Oh, yes, that part is true," said Arden.

"I am so glad. The poor child! Well, Mr. Clayton went on to say that he was shuffling off, as he expressed it, though why shuffle, I do not know.

Nevertheless, he said he and his daughter were going away. But he felt he had to protect himself. So he said he would not release me then. But when he was safely far enough away, he would telephone to you, sir, the head of the Metropolitan Police here, and tell you to come and unbind me."

Dimitri bowed to Mr. Reilly.

"First I heard about that," said the chief. "I didn't get no telephone call. Out of sight sours no cream."

"Maybe a message has come since you started out with us," suggested Sim.

"Maybe it has; better late than never get to the fair."

"Oh--" Sim began, but she repressed herself.

"So you see how it all happened," concluded Dimitri. "I was taken unawares, kept prisoner even when my lovely box was restored, and all because I was such a stickler for a principle. Yes, we Russians are very stubborn. But, to say the truth, I was on the point of agreeing to what Mr. Clayton wanted me to, about not being instrumental in having his daughter sent away, when he told me he had arranged for my release, so it is just as well. I have my pride left."

"But you must have suffered," said Terry.

"One must always suffer for one's pride. Yes?"

There was little else to tell. The _Merry Jane_ seemed like her old self again with Dimitri and Tania on board. The Russian drank more tea and offered gla.s.ses to his guests.

"What are you thinking of, Arden?" asked Sim, noticing that her chum was scarcely sipping her tea and had a dreamy far-away look in her eyes.

"I was wondering," came the answer, and Arden addressed Dimitri, "if you were down in the cellar of the Clayton shack the time we went to it, with your brother and Melissa, to get the box she said she had. Did you hear us talking or moving around up above you?"

"No, I can't say I did," the Russian replied. "But that is easily accounted for. I dozed or slept much of the time. More than once I think Clayton put some quieting potion in my food or drink, for I seemed always to have a heavy, sleepy feeling. No, I didn't know how near you were."

"If we had only known then," said Terry, "we could have made a thrilling rescue. But we didn't. Or if we had taken Tania she would have discovered you. A pity we didn't."

"Yes," agreed Arden.

"Please do not reproach yourselves," said Dimitri. "I am too much in your debt to allow that. It is all over now."

"Another thing I wonder about," said Arden. "You know when we went to the shack with Melissa after she promised to restore the box, and it wasn't where she said she had hidden it, she was, or appeared to be, greatly surprised. I wonder if she was acting or if she knew her father had taken the treasure?"

"I don't believe Melissa could act that much, though she is very clever at times," said Terry. "I don't believe she suspected her father had taken the box from where she had concealed it. And it would be well within reason, considering her character, for her to have thought that perhaps she had forgotten where she had put the box. You know, when we first talked with her father, after he wouldn't let her keep the bracelet, he said she often took trifling bright objects and hid them all around the house. He said she often forgot where she had hidden her simple treasures and would go looking for them day after day. Then she would suddenly recall the place and be happy again. So in this case Melissa might have thought that, after putting the box in her poor little bureau, she herself had removed it and couldn't recall where it was."

"Yes, that would account for it," Sim said.

"It's very possible," Arden agreed. "It is all very strange. The poor girl certainly needs careful and regular training. I'm so glad this aunt of hers remembers her in time."

"I wonder if Melissa knew you were down in the cellar?" asked Sim.

Dimitri shrugged his shoulders, answering: "It is difficult to say. I don't know just when her father told her what he had done. I believe, though, it was only a short time before they both left."

"It's queer Melissa didn't discover you," spoke Arden.

"No, not when you consider what sort of a girl she is," replied Sim. "She was always coming and going, wandering like a wild spirit. I don't believe she saw much of her father. He could easily keep his secret from her."

"I believe he did," said the Russian. "It is strange to think that once you were all so close to me, and again so near to getting the box when Clayton brought it back but was frightened away. Very strange. But, Mr.

Reilly, I am neglecting you. Let me give you some more tea, if you please."

"Not for me," said the chief. "Coffee sets me up better. It is the cup which cheers but doesn't give you the jitters." He laughed. "And now, if there's no arrests to be made, I guess we might as well call it a day, wind the clock, and put the cat out." He laughed again.

"Your brother will be anxious about you," said Arden. "You should let him know, Mr. Uzlov."

"I shall. At once."

"We are going back," said Terry. "We could send him a telegram. In fact, we did."

"You did?"

"I mean before we found you," and Arden's ruse was detailed.

"Oh, how clever of you, my dear young ladies. Yes, I must let Serge know.

If you will be so good. His address--"

He fumbled in his pocket and brought out a paper with the house number in Ninth Street.