Constance had quietly laid one of the erased checks on the library table. Again she dipped the sponge into the brownish liquid. Again the magic touch revealed the telltale name. With her finger she was pointing to the faintly legible "Helen Brett" on the check as the sulphide had brought it out.
Douglas stared-dazed.
He rubbed his eyes and stared again as the last of the flickering fire died away. In an instant he realized that it was not a dream, that it was all a fact.
He looked from one to the other of the women.
He was checkmated.
Constance ostentatiously folded up the erased vouchers.
"I--I shall not--make any--contest," Douglas managed to gasp huskily.
CHAPTER XI
THE DOPE FIENDS
"I have a terrible headache," remarked Constance Dunlap to her friend, Adele Gordon, the pet.i.te cabaret singer and dancer of the Mayfair, who had dropped in to see her one afternoon.
"You poor, dear creature," soothed Adele. "Why don"t you go to see Dr.
Price? He has cured me. He"s splendid--splendid."
Constance hesitated. Dr. Moreland Price was a well-known physician. All day and even at night, she knew, automobiles and cabs rolled up to his door and their occupants were, for the most part, stylishly gowned women.
"Oh, come on," urged Adele. "He doesn"t charge as highly as people seem to think. Besides, I"ll go with you and introduce you, and he"ll charge only as he does the rest of us in the profession."
Constance"s head throbbed frantically. She felt that she must have some relief soon. "All right," she agreed, "I"ll go with you, and thank you, Adele."
Dr. Price"s office was on the first floor of the fashionable Recherche Apartments, and, as she expected, Constance noted a line of motor cars before it.
They entered and were admitted to a richly furnished room, in mahogany and expensive Persian rugs, where a number of patients waited. One after another an attendant summoned them noiselessly and politely to see the doctor, until at last the turn of Constance and Adele came.
Dr. Price was a youngish, middle-aged man, tall, with a sallow countenance and a self-confident, polished manner which went a long way in rea.s.suring the patients, most of whom were ladies.
As they entered the doctor"s sanctum behind the folding doors, Adele seemed to be on very good terms indeed with him.
They seated themselves in the deep leather chairs beside Dr. Price"s desk, and he inclined his head to listen to the story of their ailments.
"Doctor," began Constance"s introducer, "I"ve brought my friend, Mrs.
Dunlap, who is suffering from one of those awful headaches. I thought perhaps you could give her some of that medicine that has done me so much good."
The doctor bowed without saying anything and shifted his eyes from Adele to Constance. "Just what seems to be the difficulty?" he inquired.
Constance told him how she felt, of her general la.s.situde and the big, throbbing veins in her temples.
"Ah--a woman"s headaches!" he smiled, adding, "Nothing serious, however, in this case, as far as I can see. We can fix this one all right, I think."
He wrote out a prescription quickly and handed it to Constance.
"Of course," he added, as he pocketed his fee, "it makes no difference to me personally, but I would advise that you have it filled at Muller"s--Miss Gordon knows the place. I think Muller"s drugs are perhaps fresher than those of most druggists, and that makes a great deal of difference."
He had risen and was politely and suavely bowing them out of another door, at the same time by pressing a b.u.t.ton signifying to his attendant to admit the next patient.
Constance had preceded Adele, and, as she pa.s.sed through the other door, she overheard the doctor whisper to her friend, "I"m going to stop for you to-night to take a ride. I have something important I want to say to you."
She did not catch Adele"s answer, but as they left the marble and onyx, bra.s.s-grilled entrance, Adele remarked: "That"s his car--over there.
Oh, but he is a reckless driver--dashes along pell-mell--but always seems to have his eye out for everything--never seems to be arrested, never in an accident."
Constance turned in the direction of the car and was startled to see the familiar face of Drummond across the street dodging behind it. What was it now, she wondered--a divorce case, a scandal--what?
The medicine was made up into little powders, to be taken until they gave relief, and Constance folded the paper of one, poured it on the back of her tongue and swallowed a gla.s.s of water afterward.
Her head continued to throb, but she felt a sense of well-being that she had not before. Adele urged her to take another, and Constance did so.
The second powder increased the effect of the first marvelously. But Constance noticed that she now began to feel queer. She was not used to taking medicine. For a moment she felt that she was above, beyond the reach of ordinary rules and laws. She could have done any sort of physical task, she felt, no matter how difficult. She was amazed at herself, as compared to what she had been only a few moments before.
"Another one?" asked Adele finally.
Constance was by this time genuinely alarmed at the sudden unwonted effect on herself. "N-no," she replied dubiously, "I don"t think I want to take any more, just yet."
"Not another?" asked Adele in surprise. "I wish they would affect me that way. Sometimes I have to take the whole dozen before they have any effect."
They chatted for a few minutes, and finally Adele rose.
"Well," she remarked with a nervous twitching of her body, as if she were eager to be doing something, "I really must be going. I can"t say I feel any too well myself."
"I think I"ll take a walk with you," answered Constance, who did not like the continued effect of the two powders. "I feel the need of exercise--and air."
Adele hesitated, but Constance already had her hat on. She had seen Drummond watching Dr. Price"s door, and it interested her to know whether he could possibly have been following Adele or some one else.
As they walked along Adele quickened her pace, until they came again to the drug store.
"I believe I"ll go in and get something," she remarked, pausing.
For the first time in several minutes Constance looked at the face of her friend. She was amazed to discover that Adele looked as if she had had a spell of sickness. Her eyes were large and gla.s.sy, her skin cold and sweaty, and she looked positively pallid and thin.
As they entered the store Muller, the druggist, bowed again and looked at Adele a moment as she leaned over the counter and whispered something to him. Without a word he went into the arcana behind the part.i.tion that cuts off the mysteries of the prescription room in every drug store from the front of the store.
When Muller returned he handed her a packet, for which she paid and which she dropped quickly into her pocketbook, hugging the pocketbook close to herself.
Adele turned and was about to hurry from the store with Constance. "Oh, excuse me," she said suddenly as if she had just recollected something, "I promised a friend of mine I"d telephone this afternoon, and I have forgotten to do it. I see a pay station here." Constance waited.
Adele returned much quicker than one would have expected she could call up a number, but Constance thought nothing of it at the time. She did notice, however, that as her friend emerged from the booth a most marvelous change had taken place in her. Her step was firm, her eye clear, her hand steady. Whatever it was, reasoned Constance, it could not have been serious to have disappeared so quickly.