Winterberry by name, but called by you by the alias of the "Pet.""
"Winterberry?" exclaimed Mr. Dorgan. "That Winterberry? That ain"t Winterberry! That"s a stone man, a made-to-order concrete man, with hollow tile stomach and reinforced concrete arms and legs. I had him made to order."
"The criminal mind is well equipped with explanations for use in time of stress," said Mr. Gubb. "Lesson Six of the Correspondence School of Deteckating warns the deteckative against explanations of murderers when confronted by the victim. I demand an autopsy onto Mr.
Winterberry."
"Autopsy!" exclaimed Mr. Dorgan. "I"ll autopsy him for you!"
He grasped one of the Pet"s hands and wrenched off one concrete arm.
He struck the head with a tent stake and shattered it into crumbling concrete. He jerked the Roman tunic from the body and disclosed the hollow tile stomach.
"h.e.l.lo!" he said, lifting a rag-wrapped parcel from the interior of the Pet. "What"s this?"
When unwrapped it proved to be two dozen silver forks and spoons and a good-sized silver trophy cup.
""Riverbank Country Club, Duffers" Golf Trophy, 1909?"" Mr. Dorgan read. ""Won by Jonas Medderbrook." How did that get there?"
"Jonas Medderbrook," said Mr. Gubb, "is a man of my own local town."
"He is, is he?" said Mr. Dorgan. "And what"s your name?"
"Gubb," said the detective. "Philo Gubb, Esquire, deteckative and paper-hanger, Riverbank, Iowa."
"Then this is for you," said Mr. Dorgan, and he handed the telegram to Mr. Gubb. The detective opened it and read:--
Gubb, Care of Circus, Bardville, Ia.
My house robbed circus night. Golf cup gone. Game now rotten: never win another. Five hundred dollars reward for return to me.
JONAS MEDDERBROOK
"You didn"t actually come here to find Mr. Winterberry, did you?"
asked Syrilla.
Mr. Gubb folded the telegram, raised his matted hair, and tucked the telegram between it and his own hair for safe-keeping.
"When a deteckative starts out to detect," he said calmly, "sometimes he detects one thing and sometimes he detects another. That cup is one of the things I deteckated to-day. And now, if all are willing, I"ll step outside and get my pants on. I"ll feel better."
"And you"ll look better," said Mr. Dorgan. "You couldn"t look worse."
"In the course of the deteckative career," said Mr. Gubb, "a gent has to look a lot of different ways, and I thank you for the compliment.
The art of disguising the human physiology is difficult. This disguise is but one of many I am frequently called upon to a.s.sume."
"Well, if any more are like this one," said Mr. Dorgan with sincerity, "I"m glad I"m not a detective."
Syrilla, however, heaved her several hundred pounds of bosom and cast her eyes toward Mr. Gubb.
"I think detectives are lovely in any disguise," she said, and Mr.
Gubb"s heart beat wildly.
THE EAGLE"S CLAWS
As Philo Gubb boarded the train for Riverbank after recovering the silver loving-cup from the interior of the petrified man, he cast a regretful glance backward. It was for Syrilla. There was half a ton of her pinky-white beauty, and her placid, cow-like expression touched an echoing chord in Philo Gubb"s heart.
Philo felt, however, that his admiration must be hopeless, for Syrilla must earn a salary in keeping with her size, and his income was too irregular and small to keep even a thin wife.
Five hundred dollars was a large reward for a loving-cup that cost not over thirty dollars, it is true, but Mr. Jonas Medderbrook could afford to pay what he chose, and as he was pa.s.sionately fond of golf and pa.s.sionately poor at the game, and as this was probably the only golf prize he would ever win, he was justified in paying liberally, especially as this cup was not merely a tankard, but almost large enough to be called a tank.
Detective Gubb hastened to the home of Mr. Medderbrook, but when the door of that palatial house opened, the colored butler told Mr. Gubb that Mr. Medderbrook was at the Golf Club, attending the annual banquet of the Fifty Worst Duffers. Mr. Gubb started for the Golf Club. As he walked he thought of Syrilla, and he was at the gate of the Golf Club before he knew it.
He walked up the path toward the club-house, but when halfway, he stopped short, all his detective instincts aroused. The windows of the club-house glowed with light, and sounds of merriment issued from them, but the cause of Philo Gubb"s sudden pause was a head silhouetted against one of the glowing windows. As Mr. Gubb watched, he saw the head disappear in the gloom below the window only to reappear at another window. Mr. Gubb, following the directions as laid down in Lesson Four of the Correspondence Lessons, dropped to his hands and knees and crept silently toward the "Paul Pry." When within a few feet of him, Mr. Gubb seated himself tailor-fashion on the gra.s.s.
As Philo sat on the damp gra.s.s, the man at the window turned his head, and Mr. Gubb noted with surprise that the stranger had none of the marks of a sodden criminal. The face was that of a respectably benevolent old German-American gentleman. Kindliness and good-nature beamed from its lines; but at the moment the plump little man seemed in trouble.
"Good-evening," said Mr. Gubb. "I presume you are taking an observation of the dinner-party within the inside of the club."
The old gentleman turned sharply.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A HEAD SILHOUETTED AGAINST ONE OF THE GLOWING WINDOWS]
"Shess!" he said. "I look at der peoples eading and drinking. Alvays I like to see dot. Und sooch goot eaders! Dot man mit der black beard, he vos a schplendid eader!"
Mr. Gubb raised himself to his knees and looked into the dining-room.
"That," he said, "is the Honorable Mr. Jonas Medderbrook, the wealthiest rich man in Riverbank."
"Metterbrook? Mettercrook?" said the old German-American. "Not Chones, eh?"
"Not Jones, to my present personal knowledge at this time," said Philo Gubb.
"Not Chones!" repeated the plumply benevolent-looking German-American.
"Dot vos stranche! You vos sure he vos not Chones?"
"I"m quite almost positive upon that point of knowledge," said Philo Gubb, "for I have under my arm a golf cup I am returning back to Mr.
Medderbrook to receive five hundred dollars reward from him for."
"So?" queried the stranger. "Fife hunderdt dollars? Und it is his cup?"
"It is," said Philo Gubb. He raised the cup in his hand that the stranger might read the inscription stating that the cup was Jonas Medderbrook"s.
The light of the window made the engraving easy to read, but the old German-American first drew from his pocket a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles and adjusted them carefully on his nose. He then took the cup and moved closer to the window and read the inscription.
"Shess! Shess!" he agreed, nodding his head several times, and then he smiled at Mr. Gubb a broadly benevolent smile. "Oxcoose me!" he added, and with gentle deliberation he removed Mr. Gubb"s hat. "Shoost a minute, please!" he continued, and with his free hand he felt gently of the top of Mr. Gubb"s head. He turned Mr. Gubb"s head gently to the right. "So!" he exclaimed: "Dot vos goot!" He raised the cup above his head and brought it down on top of Mr. Gubb"s head in the exact spot he had selected. For two moments Mr. Gubb made motions with his hands resembling those of a swimmer, and then he collapsed in a heap. The kindly looking old German-American gentleman, seeing he was quite unconscious, tucked the golf cup under his own arm, and waddled slowly down the path to the club gates.