"I suppose you"re pretty well fixed. Well, so am I," Cooley shook his head, "but money certainly means something to me!"
"It wouldn"t if you"d thrown away the most precious friendship of your life."
"See here," said Cooley, halting at the foot of the bed and looking at his stricken companion from beneath frowning brows, "I guess I can see how it is with you, and I"ll tell you frankly it"s been the same with me. I never met such a fascinating woman in my life: she throws a reg"ler ole-fashioned _spell_ over you! Now I hate to say it, but I can"t help it, because it plain hits me in the face every time I think of it; the truth is--well, sir, I"m afraid you and me have had little red soldier-coats and caps put on us and strings tied to our belts while we turned somersets for the children."
"I don"t understand. I don"t know what you"re talking about."
"No? It seems to get more and more simple to me. I"ve been thinking it all over and over again. I can"t _help_ it! See here: I met Sneyd on the steamer, without any introduction. He sort of warmed into the game in the smoking-room, and he won straight along the trip. He called on me in London and took me to meet the Countess at her hotel. We three went to the theatre and lunch and so forth a few times; and when I left for Paris she turned up on the way: that"s when you met her. Couple of days later, Sneyd came over, and he and the Countess introduced me to dear ole friend Pedlow. So you see, I don"t rightly even know who any of "em really _are_: just took "em for granted, as it were. We had lots of fun, I admit that, honkin" about in my car. We only played cards once, and that was in her apartment the last night before I left Paris, but that one time Pedlow won fifteen thousand francs from me. When I told them my plans, how I was goin" to motor down to Rome, she said _she_ would be in Rome--and, I tell you, I was happy as a poodle-pup about it. Sneyd said he might be in Rome along about then, and open-hearted ole Pedlow said not to be surprised if _he_ turned up, too. Well, he did, almost to the minute, and in the meantime she"d got _you_ hooked on, fine and tight."
"I don"t understand you," Mellin lifted himself painfully on an elbow.
"I don"t know what you"re getting at, but it seems to me that you"re speaking disrespectfully of an angel that I"ve insulted, and I--"
"Now see here, Mellin, I"ll tell you something." The boy"s white face showed sudden color and there was a catch in his voice. "I was--I"ve been mighty near in _love_ with that woman! But I"ve had a kind of a shock; I"ve got my common-sense back, and I"m _not_, any more. I don"t know exactly how much money I had, but it was between thirty-five and thirty-eight thousand francs, and Sneyd won it all after we took off the limit--over seven thousand dollars--at her table last night. Putting two and two together, honestly it looks bad. It looks _mighty_ bad! Now, I"m pretty well fixed, and yesterday I didn"t care whether school kept or not, but seven thousand dollars is real money to anybody! My old man worked pretty hard for his first seven thousand, I guess, and"--he gulped--"he"d think a lot of me for lettin" go of it the way I did last night, _wouldn"t_ he? You never _see_ things like this till the next morning! And you remember that other woman sat where she could see every hand _you_ drew, and the Countess--"
"Stop!" Mellin flung one arm up violently, striking the headboard with his knuckles. "I won"t hear a syllable against Madame de Vaurigard!"
Young Cooley regarded him steadily for a moment. "Have you remembered yet," he said slowly, "how much _you_ lost last night?"
"I only remember that I behaved like an unspeakable boor in the presence of the divinest creature that ever--"
Cooley disregarded the outburst, and said:
"When we settled, you had a pad of express company checks worth six hundred dollars. You signed all of "em and turned "em over to Sneyd with three one-hundred-lire bills, which was all the cash you had with you.
Then you gave him your note for twelve thousand francs to be paid within three days. You made a great deal of fuss about its being a "debt of honor."" He paused. "You hadn"t remembered that, had you?"
Mellin had closed his eyes. He lay quite still and made no answer.
"No, I"ll bet you hadn"t," said Cooley, correctly deducing the fact.
"You"re well off, or you wouldn"t be at this hotel, and, for all I know, you may be fixed so you won"t mind your loss as much as I do mine; but it ought to make you kind of charitable toward my suspicions of Madame de Vaurigard"s friends."
The six hundred dollars in express company checks and the three hundred-lire bills were all the money the unhappy Mellin had in the world, and until he could return to Cranston and go back to work in the real-estate office again, he had no prospect of any more. He had not even his steamer ticket. In the shock of horror and despair he whispered brokenly:
"I don"t care if they "re the worst people in the world, they"re better than I am!"
The other"s gloom cleared a little at this. "Well, you _have_ got it!"
he exclaimed briskly. "You don"t know how different you"ll feel after a long walk in the open air." He looked at his watch. "I"ve got to go and see what that newspaper-man, Cornish, wants; it"s ten o"clock. I"ll be back after a while; I want to reason this out with you. I don"t deny but it"s possible I"m wrong; anyway, you think it over while I"m gone. You take a good hard think, will you?"
As he closed the door, Mellin slowly drew the coverlet over his head. It was as if he covered the face of some one who had just died.
VIII. What Cornish Knew
Two hours pa.s.sed before young Cooley returned. He knocked twice without a reply; then he came in.
The coverlet was still over Mellin"s head.
"Asleep?" asked Cooley.
"No."
The coverlet was removed by a shaking hand.
"Murder!" exclaimed Cooley sympathetically, at sight of the other"s face. "A night off certainly does things to you! Better let me get you some--"
"No. I"ll be all right--after while."
"Then I"ll go right ahead with our little troubles. I"ve decided to leave for Paris by the one-thirty and haven"t got a whole lot of time.
Cornish is here with me in the hall: he"s got something to say that"s important for you to hear, and I"m goin" to bring him right in." He waved his hand toward the door, which he had left open. "Come along, Cornish. Poor ole Mellin"ll play Du Barry with us and give us a morning leevy while he listens in a bed with a palanquin to it. Now let"s draw up chairs and be sociable."
The journalist came in, smoking a long cigar, and took the chair the youth pushed toward him; but, after a twinkling glance through his big spectacles at the face on the pillow, he rose and threw the cigar out of the window.
"Go ahead," said Cooley. "I want you to tell him just what you told me, and when you"re through I want to see if he doesn"t think I"m Sherlock Holmes" little brother."
"If Mr. Mellin does not feel too ill," said Cornish dryly; "I know how painful such cases sometimes--"
"No." Mellin moistened his parched lips and made a pitiful effort to smile. "I"ll be all right very soon."
"I am very sorry," began the journalist, "that I wasn"t able to get a few words with Mr. Cooley yesterday evening. Perhaps you noticed that I tried as hard as I could, without using actual force"--he laughed--"to detain him."
"You did your best," agreed Cooley ruefully, "and I did my worst. n.o.body ever listens till the next day!"
"Well, I"m glad no vital damage was done, anyway," said Cornish. "It would have been pretty hard lines if you two young fellows had been poor men, but as it is you"re probably none the worse for a lesson like this."
"You seem to think seven thousand dollars is a joke," remarked Cooley.
Cornish laughed again. "You see, it flatters me to think my time was so valuable that a ten minutes" talk with me would have saved so much money."
"I doubt it," said Cooley. "Ten to one we"d neither of us have believed you--last night!"
"I doubt it, too." Cornish turned to Mellin. "I hear that you, Mr.
Mellin, are still of the opinion that you were dealing with straight people?"
Mellin managed to whisper "Yes."
"Then," said Cornish, "I"d better tell you just what I know about it, and you can form your own opinion as to whether I do know or not. I have been in the newspaper business on this side for fifteen years, and my headquarters are in Paris, where these people are very well known. The man who calls himself "Chandler Pedlow" was a faro-dealer for Tom Stout in Chicago when Stout"s place was broken up, a good many years ago.
There was a real Chandler Pedlow in Congress from a California district in the early nineties, but he is dead. This man"s name is Ben Welch: he"s a professional swindler; and the Englishman, Sneyd, is another; a quiet man, not so well known as Welch, and not nearly so clever, but a good "feeder" for him. The very attractive Frenchwoman who calls herself "Comtesse de Vaurigard" is generally believed to be Sneyd"s wife, though I could not take the stand on that myself. Welch is the brains of the organization: you mightn"t think it, but he"s a very brilliant man--he might have made a great reputation in business if he"d been straight--and, with this woman"s help, he"s carried out some really astonishing schemes. His manner is clumsy; _he_ knows that, bless you, but it"s the only manner he can manage, and she is so adroit she can sugar-coat even such a pill as that and coax people to swallow it. I don"t know anything about the Italian who is working with them down here. But a gang of the Welch-Vaurigard-Sneyd type has tentacles all over the Continent; such people are in touch with sharpers everywhere, you see."
"Yes," Cooley interpolated, "and with woolly little lambkins, too."
"Well," chuckled Cornish, "that"s the way they make their living, you know."
"Go on and tell him the rest of it," urged Cooley.
"About Lady Mount-Rhyswicke," said Cornish, "it seems strange enough, but she has a perfect right to her name. She is a good deal older than she looks, and I"ve heard she used to be remarkably beautiful. Her third husband was Lord George Mount-Rhyswicke, a man who"d been dropped from his clubs, and he deserted her in 1903, but she has not divorced him. It is said that he is somewhere in South America; however, as to that I do not know."
Mr. Cornish put the very slightest possible emphasis on the word "know,"