CHAPTER XIV
Concerning Three Groups
For the first time, Wilkins looked at Mr. Bates and thought swiftly.
Having thought for half a minute, he had accomplished a complete circle and was exactly where he had started. It was plain that the maid Felice was somewhere else; equally plain was it that, for the purpose of the moment, the maid Felice could satisfactorily be in but one place--and that right here!
Had she merely been out for a little time he could have taken the trunk to her room and, opening the lid a bit, could have fled with his task accomplished; she was, however, out permanently--so that the very best Wilkins had accomplished at the end of a full minute was:
"Out? Quite so. But where has the young person gone, if you please?"
Mr. Bates scowled angrily.
"We don"t know, I"ve told you!" he said sharply. "When one of the help"s dismissed under circ.u.mstances like that, we don"t trouble to ask where she"s going and we don"t keep her address."
"But she might be having mail to forward----" Wilkins essayed hopefully.
"Any mail that comes for her"ll be handed to the carrier again," Bates snapped. "And now will you get her box out of here, you? I can"t have it about, and I"ve no time this morning to argue with you. The master"s daughter"s disappeared and we"re all on edge."
"And not a soul in the world knowing where she"s gone, poor lamb!"
sniveled the under-laundress, laying a hand on the trunk that held Mary.
"And her that home-loving she never----"
"Hush!" said Mr. Bates.
The woman subsided into her ap.r.o.n.
"Whatever"s taken her, she"s trying to get home! She"s trying----" she sobbed.
"Well, whatever"s taken her, get that trunk out of here!" the Dalton butler snapped.
Was there anything else to do? Wilkins, having thought until his head ached, could not see it. If the girl had a friend among the help, it might be left with the friend; but the only woman of the household present had taken pains to look properly scandalized at each mention of Felice. Or if Mary hadn"t cautioned him particularly against this Bates, he would have risked taking Bates aside and communicating the astounding truth.
But since things were as they were, and not as they might have been; since Bates was actually glaring at him now, and would, in another minute, be banging the trunk back to the street himself, there was really nothing left for Wilkins but to grip the wide handle and start slowly for the door again.
It was bad! Oh, it was very bad, with Mary in there and very likely stifling to death, but Wilkins shuffled slowly back to the taxicab with his burden, slowly and carefully put it aboard once more.
"What"s wrong?" asked the driver.
"The party it was for had left!" said Wilkins.
"Where to?"
Wilkins pondered heavily.
"Back again where we came from," he sighed. "But you might go rather slow, I think. Like enough I"ll change my mind and decide to take it somewhere else. I can"t say at the moment."
Clambering after himself, he looked about while the man hopped out and cranked his motor. Failure had leaped out and blasted the flower of success, just as every petal had opened wide! Utter failure was the portion of Wilkins--and the policeman on the far corner was watching him in the most disconcerting way.
Squinting over there in the sunshine, the blue-coat"s instinct was telling him that there was something wrong about the trunk. He moved to the other side of the lamp-post and stared on; and Just here his sergeant appeared from the side street and the officer addressed him, even pointing with his club at the taxi!
Faithful Wilkins"s heart stopped! When an officer approaches and asks one to open a trunk or bag, one opens it or goes up. Having opened this one, it was almost a certainty that one would go up also--and with that one would go Mary Dalton, and in the evening papers one of the most startling stories of the year would be featured.
We all of us have a peculiar way of seeing our own side of any given case before examining the others; so it was with Wilkins. Wilkins saw himself dismissed from what was really a very excellent, very well-paid, very easy job; he saw Anthony cursing himself and his stupidity and ordering him out of his sight forever!
"Can"t you start?" he shot at his driver.
"Well, I"m just sitting down," that person stated acidly.
"Well, get her a-going and then turn around; don"t go over there, but go back up this block! And start!" said Wilkins.
The cab started and turned, and he did not look behind. He had not need for that; he could feel the official eyes boring through the back of the cab and into himself; he could hear running feet; once he was quite sure he heard the pounding of a club on the curb, which meant that every officer in hearing would flock into sight. Wilkins, becoming stony of countenance after a struggle, shut his teeth and sat back, quite forgetting that Mary might welcome a breath or two of the outer air.
It was possible, after a little, if the police did not appear and stop the machine, that he would order the cab into the country and there release Mary, hat or no hat--but somehow Wilkins doubted whether he would make that decision.
What he craved more than anything else just now was security behind brick and stone walls--like the Lasande"s.
Be it said that Hobart Hitchin had regained enough of his normal senses to feel distinctly startled. His vision cleared considerably as he looked at Theodore Dalton, crouching behind his table. He felt, in spite of himself, that Dalton"s grief was perfectly genuine, but the utter mystery of the thing swept over him, too, and he leaned forward and asked:
"What did you say, sir? Your son?"
"These--these!" Dalton said, clutching the trousers. "My son d.i.c.k"s--his fishing suit."
"And your son, where is he supposed to be?"
"In the north woods, somewhere, although I haven"t heard from him for a week," Dalton choked; and then, being a powerful character, he threw off the hideous numbness and straightened up. "What did you say? What were you trying to tell me? Where did you get--these?"
"From the dumbwaiter where----"
"What dumbwaiter?"
"In the Hotel Lasande."
"When?"
"Very early this morning."
"How did you come to----"
"I saw a young man when he went into the house last night; I live there, you know. I had reason to think that something happened to him overnight, and this morning I managed to s.n.a.t.c.h this suit from the dumbwaiter as it pa.s.sed my door. Further----"
"What was he doing there?"
"He came home last night with a gentleman you know," said Hobart Hitchin. "One Anthony Fry!"