"Am I speaking to the gentleman who talked with me at the working girls" club?" a clear, fresh young voice asked. "This is Margaret Hefferman, Mr. Rockamore"s stenographer--that is, I was until ten minutes ago, but I have been discharged."
"Discharged!" Blaine"s voice was eager and crisp as he reiterated her last word. "On what pretext?"
"It was not exactly a pretext," the girl replied. "The office boy accused me of taking shorthand notes of a private conversation between my employer and a visitor, and I could not convince Mr. Rockamore of my innocence. I--I must have been clumsy, I"m afraid."
"You have the notes with you?"
"Yes."
"The visitor"s name was Paddington?"
"Yes, sir."
Blaine considered for a moment; then, his decision made, he spoke rapidly in a clear undertone.
"You know the department store of Mead & Rathbun? Meet me there in the ladies" writing-room in half an hour. Where are you now?"
"In a booth in the drug-store just around the corner from the building where Mr. Rockamore"s offices are located."
"Very good. Take as round-about a route as you can to reach Mead & Rathbun"s, and see if you are followed. If you are and you find it impossible to shake off your shadow, do not try to meet me, but go directly to the club and I will communicate with you there later."
"Oh, I don"t think I"ve been followed, but I"ll be very careful. If everything is all right, I will meet you at the place you named in half an hour. Good-by."
Henry Blaine paced the floor for a time in undisguised perturbation.
His move in placing inexperienced girls from Anita Lawton"s club in responsible positions, instead of using his own trained operatives, had been based not upon impulse but on mature reflection. The girls were unknown, whereas his operatives would a.s.suredly have been recognized, sooner or later, especially in the offices of Carlis and Rockamore. Moreover, the ruse adopted to obtain positions for Miss Lawton"s protegees had appeared on the surface to be a flawlessly legitimate one. He had counted upon their loyalty and zeal to outweigh their possible incompetence and lack of discretion, but the stolid German girl had apparently been so clumsy at her task as to bring failure upon his plan.
"So much for amateurs!" he murmured to himself, disgustedly. "The other three will be discharged as soon as excuses for their dismissal can be manufactured now. My only hope from any of them is that French governess. If she will only land Paddington I don"t care what suspicions the other three arouse."
Margaret Hefferman"s placid face was a little pale when she greeted him in the ladies" room of the department store a short time later.
"I"m so sorry, Mr. Blaine!" she exclaimed, but in carefully lowered tones. "I could have cut my right hand off before I would hurt Miss Lawton after all she has done for me, and already the first thing she asks, I must fail to do!"
"You are sure you were not followed?" asked the detective, disregarding her lamentations with purposeful brusqueness, for the tears stood in her soft, bovine eyes, and he feared an emotional outburst which would draw down upon them the attention of the whole room.
"Oh, no! I made sure of that. I rode uptown and half-way down again to be certain, and then changed to the east-side line."
"Very well." He drew her to a secluded window-seat where, themselves almost unseen, they could obtain an un.o.bstructed view of the entrance door and of their immediate neighbors.
"Now tell me all about it, Miss Hefferman."
"It was that office boy, Billy," she began. "Such sharp eyes and soft walk, like a cat! Always he is yawning and sleepy--who would think he was a spy?"
Her tone was filled with such contempt that involuntarily the detective"s mobile lips twitched. The girl had evidently quite lost sight of the fact that she herself had occupied the very position in the pseudo employ of Bertrand Rockamore which she derided in his office boy.
He did not attempt to guide her in her narrative of the morning"s events, observing that she was too much agitated to give him a coherent account. Instead, he waited patiently for her to vent her indignation and tell him in her own way the substance of what had occurred.
"I had no thought of being watched, else I should have been more careful," she went on, resentfully. "This morning, only, he was late--that Billy--and I did not report him. I was busy, too, for there was more correspondence than usual to attend to, and Mr. Rockamore was irritable and short-tempered. In the midst of his dictation Mr.
Paddington came, and I was bundled out of the room with the letters and my shorthand book. They talked together behind the closed door for several minutes and I had no opportunity to hear a word, but presently Mr. Rockamore called Billy and sent him out on an errand. Billy left the door of the inner office open just a little and that was my chance. I seated myself at a desk close beside it and took down in shorthand every word which reached my ears. I was so much occupied with the notes that I did not hear Billy"s footsteps until he stopped just behind me and whistled right in my ear. I jumped and he laughed at me and went in to Mr. Rockamore. When he came out he shut the door tight behind him and grinned as if he knew just what I had been up to.
I did not dare open the door again, and so I heard no more of the conversation, but I have enough, Mr. Blaine, to interest you, I think."
She fumbled with her bag, but the detective laid a detaining hand on her arm.
"Never mind the notes now. Go on with your story. What happened after the interview was over?"
"That boy Billy went to Mr. Rockamore and told him. Already I have said he was irritable this morning. He had seemed nervous and excited, as if he were angry or worried about something, but when he sent for me to discharge me he was white-hot with rage. Never have I been so insulted or abused, but that would be nothing if only I had not failed Miss Lawton. For her sake I tried to lie, to deny, but it was of no use. My people were good Lutherans, but that does not help one in a business career; it is much more a nuisance. He could read in my face that I was guilty, and he demanded my shorthand note-book. I had to give it to him; there was nothing else to be done."
"But I understood that you had the notes with you," Blaine commented, then paused as a faint smile broke over her face and a demure dimple appeared in either cheek.
"I gave to him a note-book," she explained navely. "He was quite pleased, I think, to get possession of it. No one can read my shorthand but me, anyway, so one book did him as much good as another.
He tried to make me tell him why I had done that--why I had taken down the words of a private conference of his with a visitor. I could not think what I should say, so I kept silent. For an hour he bullied and questioned me, but he could find out nothing and so at last he let me go. If now I could get my hands on that Billy--"
"Never mind him," Blaine interrupted. "Rockamore didn"t threaten you, did he?"
"He said he would fix it so that I obtained no more positions in Illington," the girl responded, sullenly. "He will tell Miss Lawton that I am deceitful and treacherous and I should no longer be welcome at the club! He said--but I will not take up your so valuable time by repeating his stupid threats. Miss Lawton will understand. Shall not I read the notes to you? I have had no opportunity to transcribe them and indeed they are safer as they are."
"Yes. Read them by all means, Miss Hefferman, if you have nothing more to tell me. I do not think we are being overheard by anyone, but remember to keep your voice lowered."
"I will, Mr. Blaine."
The girl produced the note-book from her bag and swept a practised eye down its cryptic pages.
"Here it is. These are the first words I heard through the opened door. They were spoken by Mr. Rockamore, and the other, Paddington, replied. This is what I heard:
""I don"t know what the devil you"re driving at, I tell you."
""Oh, don"t you, Rockamore? Want me to explain? I"ll go into details if you like."
""I"m hanged if I"m interested. My share in our little business deal with you was concluded some time ago. There"s an end of that. You"re a clever enough man to know the people you"re doing business with, Paddington. You can"t put anything over on us."
""I"m not trying to. The deal you spoke of is over and done with and I guess n.o.body"ll squeal. We"re all tarred with the same brush. But this is something quite different. We were pretty good pals, Rockamore, so naturally, when I heard something about you which might take a lot of explaining to smooth over, if it got about, I kept my mouth shut. I think a good turn deserves another, at least among friends, and when I got in a hole I remembered what I did for you, and I thought you"d be glad of a chance to give me a leg up."
""In other words you come here with a vague threat and try to blackmail me. That"s it, isn"t it?"
""_Blackmail_ is not a very pleasant term, Rockamore, and yet it is something which even you might attempt. Get me? Of course the others would be glad to help me out, but I thought I"d come to you first, since I--well, I know you better."
""How much do you want?"
""Only ten thousand. I"ve got a tip on the market and if I can raise the coin before the stock soars and buy on margin, I"ll make a fine little _coup_. Want to come in on it, Rockamore?"
""Go to the devil! Here"s your check--you can get it certified at the bank. Now get out and don"t bother me again or you"ll find out I"m not the weak-minded fool you take me for. Stick to the small fry, Paddington. They"re your game, but don"t fish for salmon with a trout-fly."
""Thanks, old man. I always knew I could call on you in an emergency.
I only hope my tip is a straight one and I don"t go short on the market. If I do--"
""Don"t come to me! I tell you, Paddington, you can"t play me for a sucker. That"s the last cent you"ll ever get out of me. It suits me now to pay for your silence because, as you very well know, I don"t care to inform my colleagues or have them informed that I acted independently of them; but I"ve paid all that your knowledge is worth, and more."
""It might have been worth even more to others than to you or your colleagues. For instance--"
"Then Billy came up behind me and whistled," concluded Miss Hefferman, as she closed her note-book. "Shall I transcribe this for you, Mr.