"Of course. I knew I"d seen you play that sort of part some time.
You came on during the dark scene and--"
"--switched on the lights and--"
"--covered the bunch with your gun while they were still blinking! You were great in that part, dad."
"It was a good part," said Mr. Crocker modestly. "It had fat. I"d like to have a chance to play a kidnapper again. There"s a lot of pep to kidnappers."
"You _shall_ play one again," said Jimmy. "I am putting on a little sketch with a kidnapper as the star part."
"Eh? A sketch? You, Jim? Where?"
"Here. In this house. It is ent.i.tled "Kidnapping Ogden" and opens to-night."
Mr. Crocker looked at his only son in concern. Jimmy appeared to him to be rambling.
"Amateur theatricals?" he hazarded.
"In the sense that there is no pay for performing, yes. Dad, you know that kid Ogden upstairs? Well, it"s quite simple. I want you to kidnap him for me."
Mr. Crocker sat down heavily. He shook his head.
"I don"t follow all this."
"Of course not. I haven"t begun to explain. Dad, in your rambles through this joint you"ve noticed a girl with glorious red-gold hair, I imagine?"
"Ann Chester?"
"Ann Chester. I"m going to marry her."
"Jimmy!"
"But she doesn"t know it yet. Now, follow me carefully, dad. Five years ago Ann Chester wrote a book of poems. It"s on that desk there. You were using it a moment back as second-base or something. Now, I was working at that time on the _Chronicle_. I wrote a skit on those poems for the Sunday paper. Do you begin to follow the plot?"
"She"s got it in for you? She"s sore?"
"Exactly. Get that firmly fixed in your mind, because it"s the source from which all the rest of the story springs."
Mr. Crocker interrupted.
"But I don"t understand. You say she"s sore at you. Well, how is it that you came in together looking as if you were good friends when I let you in this morning?"
"I was waiting for you to ask that. The explanation is that she doesn"t know that I am Jimmy Crocker."
"But you came here saying that you were Jimmy Crocker."
"Quite right. And that is where the plot thickens. I made Ann"s acquaintance first in London and then on the boat. I had found out that Jimmy Crocker was the man she hated most in the world, so I took another name. I called myself Bayliss."
"Bayliss!"
"I had to think of something quick, because the clerk at the shipping office was waiting to fill in my ticket. I had just been talking to Bayliss on the phone and his was the only name that came into my mind. You know how it is when you try to think of a name suddenly. Now mark the sequel. Old Bayliss came to see me off at Paddington. Ann was there and saw me. She said "Good evening, Mr. Bayliss" or something, and naturally old Bayliss replied "What ho!" or words to that effect. The only way to handle the situation was to introduce him as my father. I did so.
Ann, therefore, thinks that I am a young man named Bayliss who has come over to America to make his fortune. We now come to the third reel. I met Ann by chance at the Knickerbocker and took her to lunch. While we were lunching, that confirmed congenital idiot, Reggie Bartling, who happened to have come over to America as well, came up and called me by my name. I knew that, if Ann discovered who I really was, she would have nothing more to do with me, so I gave Reggie the haughty stare and told him that he had made a mistake. He ambled away--and possibly committed suicide in his anguish at having made such a bloomer--leaving Ann discussing with me the extraordinary coincidence of my being Jimmy Crocker"s double. Do you follow the story of my life so far?"
Mr. Crocker, who had been listening with wrinkled brow and other signs of rapt attention, nodded.
"I understand all that. But how did you come to get into this house?"
"That is reel four. I am getting to that. It seems that Ann, who is the sweetest girl on earth and always on the lookout to do some one a kindness, had decided, in the interests of the boy"s future, to remove young Ogden Ford from his present sphere, where he is being spoiled and ruined, and send him down to a man on Long Island who would keep him for awhile and instil the first principles of decency into him. Her accomplice in this admirable scheme was Jerry Mitch.e.l.l."
"Jerry Mitch.e.l.l!"
"Who, as you know, got fired yesterday. Jerry was to have done the rough work of the job. But, being fired, he was no longer available. I, therefore, offered to take his place. So here I am."
"You"re going to kidnap that boy?"
"No. You are."
"Me!"
"Precisely. You are going to play a benefit performance of your world-famed success, Chicago Ed. Let me explain further. Owing to circ.u.mstances which I need not go into, Ogden has found out that I am really Jimmy Crocker, so he refuses to have anything more to do with me. I had deceived him into believing that I was a professional kidnapper, and he came to me and offered to let me kidnap him if I would go fifty-fifty with him in the ransom!"
"Gosh!"
"Yes, he"s an intelligent child, full of that sort of bright ideas. Well, now he has found that I am not all his fancy painted me, he wouldn"t come away with me; and I want you to understudy me while the going is good. In the fifth reel, which will be released to-night after the household has retired to rest, you will be featured. It"s got to be tonight, because it has just occurred to me that Ogden, knowing that Lord Wisbeach is a crook, may go to him with the same proposal that he made to me."
"Lord Wisbeach a crook!"
"Of the worst description. He is here to steal that explosive stuff of Willie Partridge"s. But as I have blocked that play, he may turn his attention to Ogden."
"But, Jimmy, if that fellow is a crook--how do you know he is?"
"He told me so himself."
"Well, then, why don"t you expose him?"
"Because in order to do so, Skinner my man, I should have to explain that I was really Jimmy Crocker, and the time is not yet ripe for that. To my thinking, the time will not be ripe till you have got safely away with Ogden Ford. I can then go to Ann and say "I may have played you a rotten trick in the past, but I have done you a good turn now, so let"s forget the past!" So you see that everything now depends on you, dad. I"m not asking you to do anything difficult. I"ll go round to the boarding-house now and tell Jerry Mitch.e.l.l about what we have arranged, and have him waiting outside here in a car. Then all you will have to do is to go to Ogden, play a short scene as Chicago Ed., escort him to the car, and then go back to bed and have a good sleep. Once Ogden thinks you are a professional kidnapper, you won"t have any difficulty at all. Get it into your head that he wants to be kidnapped. Surely you can tackle this light and attractive job?
Why, it will be a treat for you to do a bit of character acting once more!"
Jimmy had struck the right note. His father"s eyes began to gleam with excitement. The scent of the footlights seemed to dilate his nostrils.
"I was always good at that rough-neck stuff," he murmured meditatively. "I used to eat it!"
"Exactly," said Jimmy. "Look at it in the right way, and I am doing you a kindness in giving you this chance."
Mr. Crocker rubbed his cheek with his forefinger.
"You"d want me to make up for the part?" he asked wistfully.