When David said nothing, but sat holding tight to the arms of his old chair, Gregory reached for his hat and got up.
"The thing for him to do," he said, "is to leave town for a while. This Ba.s.sett is a hound-hog on a scent. They all are. He is Ba.s.sett of the Times-Republican. And he took Jud--he took your nephew"s automobile license number."
Still David sat silent, and Gregory moved to the door.
"Get him away, to-night if you can."
"Thank you," David said. His voice was thick. "I appreciate your coming."
He got up dizzily, as Gregory said, "Good-evening" and went out. The room seemed very dark and unsteady, and not familiar. So this was what had happened, after all the safe years! A man could work and build and pray, but if his house was built on the sand--
As the outer door closed David fell to the floor with a crash.
XI
Ba.s.sett lounged outside the neat privet hedge which it was Harrison Miller"s custom to clip with his own bachelor hands, and waited. And as he waited he tried to imagine what was going on inside, behind the neatly curtained windows of the old brick house.
He was tempted to ring the bell again, pretend to have forgotten something, and perhaps happen in on what might be drama of a rather high order; what, supposing the man was Clark after all, was fairly sure to be drama. He discarded the idea, however, and began again his interested survey of the premises. Whoever conceived this sort of haven for Clark, if it were Clark, had shown considerable shrewdness. The town fairly smelt of respectability; the tree-shaded streets, the children in socks and small crisp-laundered garments, the houses set back, each in its square of shaved lawn, all peaceful, middle cla.s.s and unexciting. The last town in the world for Judson Clark, the last profession, the last house, this shabby old brick before him.
He smiled rather grimly as he reflected that if Gregory had been right in his identification, he was, beyond those windows at that moment, very possibly warning Clark against himself. Gregory would know his type, that he never let go. He drew himself up a little.
The house door opened, and Gregory came out, turning toward the station.
Ba.s.sett caught up with him and put a hand on his arm.
"Well?" he said cheerfully. "It was, wasn"t it?"
Gregory stopped dead and stared at him. Then:
"Old dog Tray!" he said sneeringly. "If your brain was as good as your nose, Ba.s.sett, you"d be a whale of a newspaper man."
"Don"t bother about my brain. It"s working fine to-day, anyhow. Well, what had he to say for himself?"
Gregory"s mind was busy, and he had had a moment to pull himself together.
"We both get off together," he said, more amiably. "That fellow isn"t Jud Clark and never was. He"s a doctor, and the nephew of the old doctor there. They"re in practice together."
"Did you see them both?"
"Yes."
Ba.s.sett eyed him. Either Gregory was a good actor, or the whole trail ended there after all. He himself had felt, after his interview, with d.i.c.k, that the scent was false. And there was this to be said: Gregory had been in the house scarcely ten minutes. Long enough to acknowledge a mistake, but hardly long enough for any dramatic identification. He was keenly disappointed, but he had had long experience of disappointment, and after a moment he only said:
"Well, that"s that. He certainly looked like Clark to me."
"I"ll say he did."
"Rather surprised him, didn"t you?"
"Oh, he was all right," Gregory said. "I didn"t tell him anything, of course."
Ba.s.sett looked at his watch.
"I was after you, all right," he said, cheerfully. "But if I was barking up the wrong tree, I"m done. I don"t have to be hit on the head to make me stop. Come and have a soda-water on me," he finished amiably.
"There"s no train until seven."
But Gregory refused.
"No, thanks. I"ll wander on down to the station and get a paper."
The reporter smiled. Gregory was holding a grudge against him, for a bad night and a bad day.
"All right," he said affably. "I"ll see you at the train. I"ll walk about a bit."
He turned and started back up the street again, walking idly. His chagrin was very real. He hated to be fooled, and fooled he had been.
Gregory was not the only one who had lost a night"s sleep. Then, unexpectedly, he was hailed from the curbstone, and he saw with amazement that it was d.i.c.k Livingstone.
"Take you anywhere?" d.i.c.k asked. "How"s the headache?"
"Better, thanks." Ba.s.sett stared at him. "No, I"m just walking around until train-time. Are you starting out or going home, at this hour?"
"Going home. Well, glad the head"s better."
He drove on, leaving the reporter gazing after him. So Gregory had been lying. He hadn"t seen this chap at all. Then why--? He walked on, turning this new phase of the situation over in his mind. Why this elaborate fiction, if Gregory had merely gone in, waited for ten minutes, and come out again?
It wasn"t reasonable. It wasn"t logical. Something had happened inside the house to convince Gregory that he was right. He had seen somebody, or something. He hadn"t needed to lie. He could have said frankly that he had seen no one. But no, he had built up a fabric carefully calculated to throw Ba.s.sett off the scent.
He saw d.i.c.k stop in front of the house, get out and enter. And coming to a decision, he followed him and rang the doorbell. For a long time no one answered. Then the maid of the afternoon opened the door, her eyes red with crying, and looked at him with hostility.
"Doctor Richard Livingstone?"
"You can"t see him."
"It"s important."
"Well, you can"t see him. Doctor David has just had a stroke. He"s in the office now, on the floor."
She closed the door on him, and he turned and went away. It was all clear to him; Gregory had seen, not Clark, but the older man; had told him and gone away. And under the shock the older man had collapsed. That was sad. It was very sad. But it was also extremely convincing.
He sat up late that night again, running over the entries in his notebook. The old story, as he pieced it out, ran like this:
It had been twelve years ago, when, according to the old files, Clark had financed Beverly Carlysle"s first starring venture. He had, apparently, started out in the beginning only to give her the publicity she needed. In devising it, however, he had shown a sort of boyish recklessness and ingenuity that had caught the interest of the press, and set newspaper men to chuckling wherever they got together.
He had got together a dozen or so of young men like himself, wealthy, idle and reckless with youth, and, headed by him, they had made the exploitation of the young star an occupation. The newspapers referred to the star and her constellation as Beverly Carlysle and her Broadway Beauties. It had been unvicious, young, and highly entertaining, and it had cost Judson Clark his membership in his father"s conservative old clubs.
For a time it livened the theatrical world with escapades that were harmless enough, if sensational. Then, after a time, newspaper row began to whisper that young Clark was in love with the girl. The Broadway Beauties broke up, after a wild farewell dinner. The audiences ceased to expect a row of a dozen youths, all dressed alike with gardenias in their b.u.t.tonholes and perhaps red neckties with their evening suits, to rise in their boxes on the star"s appearance and solemnly bow. And the star herself lost a little of the anxious look she frequently wore.