"That"s my opinion. And if I"m right, if those two were murdered, and if the murderer or murderers can be found, won"t Miss Callender feel she may safely marry a man she loves without delivering him up to danger?"
"Yes," Odell admitted. "Great Heaven, _if_ you were right!"
"Supposing I am, and can prove it?"
"There"s nothing on G.o.d"s earth I wouldn"t do for you."
"Well," I said, "I believe there"s something in that opinion of mine.
Don"t dream that now I am getting at this truth I would bury it even if you did worse than crush my play. I"ll go on, anyhow, but----"
"You say you are getting at the truth," he broke in. "What do you think--what do you know? But how can you, a stranger, _know_ anything?"
"A stranger to you and those connected with the case, but not to the case itself. You may thank that despised detective instinct of mine for my keen interest in its details."
"If you thought you"d unearthed the clue to a mystery, why didn"t you advertise yourself by pointing it out to the police a year and a half ago?"
"I certainly should if I"d got hold of it then, though not for the motive you suggest, Mr. Odell. My publishers were giving me all the publicity I wanted. As it happens, I picked up the clue in question only--a short time ago."
"Only a few hours ago" were the words which all but slipped out. I bit them back, however. My line with a keen business man like Roger Odell was not to give away something for nothing. It was to sell--for a price.
He tried to keep his countenance, but his eyes lit. I saw that my hint, like a spark to gun-cotton, had set him aflame with curiosity.
Already, in spite of himself, he began to look on me less as an enemy than an agent; perhaps (a wonderful "perhaps" he could not help envisaging) a deliverer.
"For G.o.d"s sake, speak out and say what you mean!" The appeal was forced from him. He looked half ashamed of it.
"I can"t do that--yet," I returned. "I might tell you my suspicions; but that wouldn"t be fair to myself, or you, or--anyone concerned. I must land first. Once off the ship, twenty-four hours are all I shall need to find--I won"t say the "_missing_ link," because I have reason to think it will not be missing, but the link I can"t touch this side of New York. I will make a rendezvous with you at the end of that time, either to tell you I"ve put two and two together with the link, or else to confess that the ends of the chain can"t be made to fit."
Odell stared at me hungrily.
"You want only twenty-four hours to do what the best police in the world haven"t done in a year and a half," he growled at me. "You think something of yourself, don"t you?"
"You see, I"ve known myself for a long time," I said modestly. "You"ve only just been introduced to me, and were prejudiced to begin with.
About that rendezvous--do you consent to my appointing the place?"
"Yes," he agreed. "Your hotel?"
"No. In the manager"s private office at the Felborn Theatre; the time, twenty-four hours after we get away from the dock. That will be the most convenient place for both of us in case of my success, for Julius Felborn and Carr Price can be called in to fix a date for the first rehearsal of _The Key_."
The man could not keep back a laugh. It was harsh and short; but it was a score for me and he knew it. "The Felborn Theatre let it be," he said grimly.
The weather was fine and we made almost a record trip in point of time.
There was nothing for Odell to regret in the briefness of the voyage, for Grace Callender remained in her cabin till he sent a message by her aunt, promising not to try for a word or a look if she came on deck.
After that she appeared again, as if to show appreciation, and Odell didn"t abuse her confidence. He kept himself to the other side of the deck; but there was no reason why I should give up my place near the two ladies. After the first night"s dinner _en tete-a-tete_, Odell and I had no more meals together; consequently, the Misses Callender, aunt and niece, were unaware of our acquaintanceship. They had no reason to shun their lame neighbour, and my crutches gave me their sympathy, as they have given me various other blessings. Instead of my picking up a dropped book, as a man usually contrives to do if he yearns to know a girl on shipboard, Grace Callender retrieved one for me. After that, I was permitted, even encouraged, to draw my deck-chair closer to theirs and "tell them things about the war." I noticed that the girl caught eagerly, nervously, at any subject which could hold her attention for a moment, even that of my book and Carr Price"s play. I, having the secret clue, guessed that she was for ever trying to escape from a thought too engrossing. Her aunt, Miss Marian Callender, had the clue also; and often I caught her long dark eyes--eyes like those of La Gioconda--fixed with almost painful intentness on Grace. "She knows that her niece is thinking about Odell," I told myself. Evidently she approved the girl"s decision to put him out of her life. If she had been Odell"s friend and sympathiser, a woman of her superior age and strong personal charm (for she had a sort of hypnotic charm, like a velvet-petalled flower with a penetrating perfume) could surely have influenced an impressionable girl, especially one so devoted to her as Grace Callender was.
It was nine o"clock on an April morning when we escaped from the custom-house men and spun away from the White Star docks in a glittering grey car. When I say "we," I refer to myself and the two Misses Callender. They had befriended me to the extent of recommending me to an hotel and offering to motor me to it; and I was malicious enough to hope that Odell might see me going off with them. There was little doubt in my mind that he did so, and none at all of what feelings must have been roused by the sight. These would have been still more poignant had he known that it was Grace who impulsively invited me, Marian who merely followed with a polite echo. They lived in a large old-fashioned house in Park Avenue, where the car dropped the ladies and by their order took me on to the Hotel Belmont. There Carr Price was waiting, for when--the day before our landing--the Callenders had mentioned the Belmont I marconied him to meet me at the hotel.
"Why did you wire "Don"t come to the dock?"" he asked almost resentfully.
"Because I thought it might annoy Roger Odell if I dangled you under his nose," I explained.
"Roger Odell"s nose!" Price gasped. "Where--where----"
"Was it? On the _Monarchic_. And I didn"t pull it; neither did he pull mine. I even have hopes that the two features may come to terms.
To-morrow, at exactly this hour, you"re due to know why. But meanwhile I want you to promise me patience, blind faith and--unquestioning help.
There"s no time to waste over it, so here goes! Who"s the most influential man you know in New York?"
"George Gould," he said.
"Pooh! a mere millionaire. He"s no use to me. Do you know anyone in the police force--high enough up to do you a favour?"
Price pondered for an instant. "I know Sam Yelverton. Is that name familiar to you?"
"It is. Think we"ll find him in now if you take me to call?"
"If this is our lucky day we shall."
"Let"s put it to the test. I"ve noticed that New York has taxis as well as London."
"And you"ll notice the difference when you"ve paid for one. But this is on me."
The omen of luck was good, for we found our man at the police head-quarters, and, true to his promise, Carr Price sat as still and expressionless as an owl while I did the talking. I had been introduced to the great Sam Yelverton by my own request as the author of _The Key_, and it really was a stroke of luck that he had read and liked it. He looked interested when I said that I"d got an idea for my book from a _cause celebre_ in New York--"The Callender-Graham affair,"
I explained.
"Ah, the latchkeys in the dead men"s pockets!" he caught me up.
"Exactly. Now it"s a question of a play by Mr. Price, on the same lines as my book and with the same t.i.tle, soon, _very_ soon, to be produced at the Felborn Theatre. It will be of the greatest a.s.sistance to him and to me in working out an important detail if I can have Ned Callender-Graham"s latchkeys--anyhow, the smaller one--in my hands for a few hours to-day. Indeed, I"m afraid we can"t get much "forrarder"
if you refuse."
(This was the literal truth, for, unless I could obtain the more important of those two keys and do with it what I hoped to do, I should be unable to "deliver the goods" to Roger Odell. I should stand with him where I had stood before the "hold up" interview, and the play would be pigeon-holed indefinitely. Price"s eyes were starting from his head, but he kept his tongue between his teeth.)
Mr. Yelverton seemed amused. "I guess I may be able to manage that,"
he said, "if one or both of those keys are still in our hands, as I believe they are. If I do the trick for you I"ll expect a box for the play on the first night, eh?"
"It"s a bargain, isn"t it, Carr?" said I.
The dazed Price a.s.sented.
"Oh, and by the way, Mr. Yelverton"--I arrested the famous man as he picked up the receiver of his desk telephone--"if the letters and the empty envelopes found on the bodies of the two brothers are still among your police archives, would it be possible for me to have a look at them?"
Yelverton--a big man with a red face and the keenest eyes I ever saw, deep set between cushiony lids--threw me a quick glance. "You do remember the details of that case pretty well, Lord John!" he said.
"I"m an amateur follower in your famous footsteps," I reminded him. He smiled, called up a number and began telephoning. I admired the clear way in which he put what he wanted--or what I wanted--without wasting a word. He asked not only for the keys, but for the whole dossier in the double case of the Callender-Graham brothers. Then came a moment of waiting in which my heart ticked like a clock; but I contrived to answer Mr. Yelverton"s mild questions about our weather on shipboard.
At last a sharp ring heralded an end of suspense.
"Sorry, Lord John," the big man began, taking the receiver from the generous sh.e.l.l of his ear. "They"re sending round the dossier, but our chaps have got none of the Callender-Graham "exhibits in their possession--haven"t had for nearly a year. I feared it was likely to be so. You see, there was no proof that any crime had been committed on either of the two brothers; in fact, the theory was against it.
When the police definitely dropped the case--or cases--the family was ent.i.tled to all personal property of the deceased. Everything found on the body of Ned Callender-Graham was handed over to the relatives by their request, as had been done a few weeks after the elder brother"s death, even the letters and those empty envelopes you were intelligent enough to single out for observation. We had done the same, naturally, but, in every sense of the word"--he grinned--"there was nothing in "em."
"The keys on Ned"s body were handed over to the Misses Callender, then?" I inquired, stiffening the muscles of my face to mask my disappointment.