Somewhere beneath I heard the rumble and bang of a bowling-alley above the music. Then my eyes, roaming the lake, fell upon the casino pier below. Some one was coming toward me--a girl wrapped in a long cloak who had apparently just landed from a boat. She moved swiftly toward the casino. I saw her and lost her again as she pa.s.sed in and out of the light of the pier lamps. A dozen times the shadows caught her away; a dozen times the pier lights flashed upon her; and at last I was aware that it was Helen Holbrook, walking swiftly, as though upon an urgent errand. I ran down the steps and met her luckily on a deserted stretch of board walk. I was prepared for an angry outburst, but hardly for the sword-like glitter of her first words.
"This is infamous! It is outrageous! I did not believe that even you would be guilty of this!"
The two-step was swinging on to its conclusion, and I knew that the casino entrance was not the place for a scene with an angry girl.
"I am anything you like; but please come to a place where we can talk quietly."
"I will not! I will not be tricked by you again."
"You will come along with me, at once and quietly," I said; and to my surprise she walked up the steps beside me. As we pa.s.sed the ball-room door the music climbed to its climax and ended.
"Come, let us go to the farther end of the veranda."
When we had reached a quiet corner she broke out upon me again.
"If you have done what I think you have done, what I might have known you would do, I shall punish you terribly--you and her!"
"You may punish me all you like, but you shall not punish her!" I said with her own emphasis.
"Reginald promised me some papers to-night--my father had asked me to get them for him. She does not know, this cousin of mine, what they are, what her father is! It is left for you to bring the shame upon her."
"It had better be I than you, in your present frame of mind!"--and the pity welled in my heart. I must save her from the heartache that lay in the truth. If I failed in this I should fail indeed.
"Do you want her to know that her father is a forger--a felon? That is what you are telling her, if you trick Reginald into giving her those papers he was to give me for my father!"
"She hasn"t those papers. I have them. They are in my pocket, quite safe from all of you. You are altogether too vindictive, you Holbrooks! I have no intention of trusting you with such high explosives."
"Reginald shall take them away from you. He is not a child to be played with--duped in this fashion."
"Reginald is a good fellow. He will always love me for this--"
"For cheating him? Don"t you suppose he will resent it? Don"t you think he knows me from every other girl in the world?"
"No, I do not. In fact I have proved that he doesn"t. You see, Miss Holbrook, he gave her the doc.u.ments in the case without a question."
"And she dutifully pa.s.sed them on to you!"
"Nothing of the kind, my dear Miss Holbrook! I took them out of her cloak pocket."
"That is quite in keeping!"
"I"m not done yet! Pardon me, but I want you to exchange cloaks with me. You shall have Reginald in a moment, and we will make sure that he is deceived by letting him take you home. You are as like as two peas--in everything except temper, humor and such trifles; but your cloaks are quite different. Please!"
"I will not!"
"Please!"
"You are despicable, despicable!"
"I am really the best friend you have in the world. Again, will you kindly exchange cloaks with me? Yours is blue, isn"t it? I think Reginald knows blue from red. Ah, thank you! Now, I want you to promise to say nothing as he takes you home about papers, your father, your uncle or your aunt. You will talk to him of times when you were children at Stamford, and things like that, in a dreamy reminiscential key. If he speaks of things that you don"t exactly understand, refers to what he has said to your cousin here to-night, you need only fend him off; tell him the incident is closed. When I bring him to you in ten minutes it will be with the understanding that he is to take you back to St. Agatha"s at once. He has his launch at the casino pier; you needn"t say anything to him when you land, only that you must get home quietly, so Miss Pat shan"t know you have been out. Your exits and your entrances are your own affair. Now I hope you see the wisdom of obeying me, absolutely."
"I didn"t know that I could hate you so much!" she said quietly. "But I shall not forget this. I shall let you see before I am a day older that you are not quite the master you think you are: suppose I tell him how you have played with him."
"Then before you are three hours older I shall precipitate a crisis that you will not like, Miss Holbrook. I advise you, as your best friend, to do what I ask."
She shrugged her shoulders, drew the scarlet cloak more closely about her, and I left her gazing off into the strip of wood that lay close upon the inland side of the club-house. I was by no means sure of her, but there was no time for further parley. I dropped the blue cloak on a chair in a corner and hurried round to the door of the ball-room, meeting Rosalind and Gillespie coming out flushed with their dance.
"The hour of enchantment is almost past. I must have one turn before the princess goes back to her castle!"--and Rosalind took my arm.
"Meet me at the landing in two minutes, Gillespie! As a special favor--as a particular kindness--I shall allow you to take the princess home!" And I hurried Rosalind away, regained the blue cloak, and flung it about her.
"Well," she said, drawing the hood over her head, "who am I, anyhow!"
"Don"t ask me such questions! I"m afraid to say."
"I like your air of business. You are undoubtedly a man of action!"
"I thank you for the word. I"m breathing hard. I have seen ghosts and communed with dragons. She"s here! your _alter ego_ is on this very veranda more angry than it is well for a woman to be."
"Oh," she faltered, "she found out and followed?"
"She did; she undoubtedly did!"
As we paused under one of the veranda lamps she looked down at the cloak and laughed.
"So this is hers! I thought it didn"t feel quite right. But that pair of gloves!"
"It"s in my pocket. I have stolen it!" I led the way to the lower veranda of the casino, which was now de-a sorted. "Stay right here and appear deeply interested in the heavens above and the waters under the earth until I get back."
I ran up the stairs again and found Helen where I had left her.
"And now," I said, giving her my arm, "you will not forget the rules of the game! Your fortunes, and your father"s are brighter to-night than they have ever been. You hate me to the point of desperation, but remember I am your friend after all."
She stopped abruptly, hesitating. I felt indecision in the lessening touch upon my arm, and I saw it in her eyes as the light from the ball-room door flooded us.
"You have taken everything away from me! You are playing Reginald against me."
"Possibly--who knows! I supposed you had more faith in your powers than that!"
"I have no faith in anything," she said dejectedly.
"Oh, yes, you have! You have an immense amount of faith in yourself.
And you know you care nothing at all about Reginald Gillespie; he"s a nice boy, but that"s all."
"You are contemptible and wicked!" she flared. "Let us go."
Gillespie"s launch was ready when we reached the pier, and after he had handed her into it he plucked my sleeve, and held me for an instant.
"Don"t you see how wrong you are! She is superb! She is not only the most beautiful girl in the world, but the dearest, the sweetest, the kindest and best. You have served me better than you know, old man, and I"m grateful!"