"That"s all, Moore, and not a word to any one of anything that has been said in this room!"
"Now," said Zizi, after Moore had disappeared, "Vail"s one; who"s the other?"
"Why, Zizi, Vail was in the elevator----"
"Penny, I"ve known that "Vail was in the elevator" all through this whole matter. I"ve been told a thousand times that Vail was in the elevator! It"s been fairly rubbed into my noddle that Vail was in the elevator! Why, don"t you see, that"s Vail"s alibi! His being in the elevator is his safeguard! Oh, Penny-poppy-show, sometimes I despair of _ever_ making a detective out of you! Well, my dear child, Mr Vail is one,--as I remarked,--and I found him; now you may find the other, and then we"ll have the "two men" who "did this." Get busy."
"S"pose, since you"re so smart, _you_ find the other one," said Wise, with no trace of jealousy in his tone. He was as elated at Zizi"s cleverness as if it had been his own, and he believed her implicitly.
"I can do it," she said, calmly. "Send for Molly."
"Yes, there"s the key to the situation," Wise agreed.
Richard Bates sat still, wondering if the joyful news that no one he cared for was implicated could really be true! He awaited Molly"s coming with impatience, longing to get the whole matter cleared up.
"And so, Molly," Zizi began, when the girl came into the room and Wise had closed the door behind her, "and so it was Mr Vail who married you!"
A suppressed shriek answered them, and Molly glared like an angry tiger.
"No!" she screamed, "_no_!"
"Useless talk," said Zizi, "your fright and your excitement give the lie to your words! Though your words are oftener lies than not. Now, Molly, you don"t dare go contrary to Mr Vail"s orders, I know, but don"t you think you"d better do that than to go to jail?"
"I don"t know----Oh, I don"t know _what_ to do," and the girl broke down and wept so piteously that Zizi was sorry for her.
"There, there, Molly," she said, "I"ll take care of you. You"re only a tool in the hands of a villain; you stay by me, and I"ll look after you.
Penny, we want Vail."
They got Vail. At first he brazened it out, and finally, when he was cornered, he turned state"s evidence to save what he could of his own skin.
It seemed, Vail was determined to make the deal for the Binney Buns, and, as a last resort, had waylaid Sir Herbert on his way home from the Hotel Magnifique after the dinner to the chorus girls.
With Vail on that occasion was a friend of his, one Doctor Weldon, who was a skillful surgeon, more careful in his surgical operations than in his mental or moral ones. He was Vail"s tool, by reason of past historic incidents, and the scheme had been planned by the two conspirators.
Binney was invited to Dr Weldon"s home, not far from The Campanile, and there, from midnight on, both Vail and Weldon tried to persuade the Englishman to consent to Vail"s terms.
But Binney was obdurate and finally went home, accompanied by the two men. When near The Campanile, Vail darted on ahead, and managed adroitly to get into the elevator with Moore and be on the way up when Binney and Dr Weldon entered the onyx lobby.
The rest was easy. Binney had the Prall paper-knife with him and the Doctor knew it. With it, the skilled surgeon stabbed his victim and made away at once. Sir Herbert, dying, but with mind alert, wrote the fact that two men were responsible for his death; and whether he tried to continue with "get both" or "get Bob"s evidence" or "get bakery," or what was in his fast clouding brain, they never knew.
But when to the surprise of the criminals, women were suspected, they felt so freed from suspicion that they took no care about it.
Vail, however, was keen for the recipe, which was, in part, why he had Binney killed, and he made many attempts to find it in its clever hiding place. When he did find it, Molly knew of it, and in order to keep the girl quiet he married her, with, however, a mock ceremony.
Discovering this, Molly was so angry that she told on Vail, and he, in turn, told on Doctor Weldon.
All of this was disclosed promptly, and justice took its course with the "Two men."
It would be pleasant to write further that the historic feud of the "women" who had been so keenly suspected was settled as satisfactorily.
But not so. The two opposing forces seemed to take on new vim from the revelation of the truth about the murder, and each positively seemed angered that the other had not been found guilty.
This may not have been the real truth at the bottom of the hearts of Miss Prall and Mrs Everett, but certain it is that, though they might not have desired conviction for one another, they greatly enjoyed suspicion.
"At any rate," said Miss Prall, "Adeline did set her cap for Sir Herbert, and I think that"s a crime in itself."
And Mrs Everett remarked, "Poor man! but he"s better off than if Let.i.tia Prall had caught him! Which she tried her best to do!"
The young lovers, relieved of all fears that their people or each other"s people were implicated in crime, were so emanc.i.p.ated from fear of any sort, that they dared to plan their marriage without the consent of their elders.
Said Richard, "We"re going to be married, anyway, Aunt Let.i.tia; you can understand that! And your own conduct you may shape as you choose."
Quoth Dorcas: "I"m going to marry Ricky, mother. If you consent all right,--if you don"t, I"ll elope."
And the Feudists, though incensed to the point of exasperation, had a certain secret feeling of satisfaction that the wedding would add fuel to the flames of their somewhat smoldering fires of wrath.
"Bless "em," said Bates, as the honeymoon began, "they ought to be grateful to us for giving them something new to fight about."
"They are," said Dorcas.
THE END
By CAROLYN WELLS
In the Onyx Lobby
The Man Who Fell Through the Earth
The Room with the Ta.s.sels
Faulkner"s Folly
The Bride of a Moment
Doris of Dobbs" Ferry
Such Nonsense! _An Anthology_