The long envelope, with the gold seals uppermost, was lying on the table. Clo removed a napkin she had laid over it, and pushed the parcel across the table. As she did this she rose.
"Looks right enough!" remarked the ferret man, sitting still. "This is what she told me to expect: long white envelope, three gold seals----" He picked the parcel up, holding it to his sharp nose and near-sighted eyes. "Yeh, munergram, or what yuh call it, right, too."
"Then that"s all," said Clo, Beverley"s dollar bill in her hand. "I"ll call the waiter----"
"Don"t be too previous, cutie, _if_ you please!" and a not immaculate hand helped itself to a fold of her dress. "Yuh an" me ain"t workin"
this show on our own. You"re for Mrs. Sands, I"m fur--well, I"m fur someone I guess is even more particular than her. It"s as much as my job"s worth to let yuh make your get-away till I"ve had a squint inside this yere envelup."
"Mrs. Sands didn"t tell me there was anything to wait for after I"d put it in your hands," Clo objected. "I don"t see----"
"It"s me that"s got to see. Now yuh keep yer hair on, gurlie, while I lamp this thing. No good tryin" the sneak game, because I"d be on to yuh like a thousand o" brick before yuh"d took a step----"
"I"ve no intention of running away," Clo a.s.sured him, with a dignity copied from her idol. "Mrs. Sands has nothing to hide."
The man chuckled, as with a knife taken from the table he opened the envelope without breaking the seals. He did this slowly. Clo sat down again.
The ugly hands drew out from the envelope another smaller envelope.
There were no seals on it, but the flap was stuck with gum. The man swore under his breath as he used the knife again. Clo was deeply interested. Her idea was that the fellow would pull out a quant.i.ty of greenbacks; but in an instant she saw that she had guessed wrong. There were many sheets of paper folded together, at least a dozen, and this seemed to astound the man. With a jerk he opened out the sheaf of papers, and having stared an instant, slammed them on to the table.
"Curse her, she thought she"d do us, did she?" The words tumbled out between his brown, broken teeth, as he dashed his fist on to the papers.
"So this is why she sent you--you catspaw!"
Clo was far from being a coward. Her hot, defiant temper rose at the least alarm, but she was so amazed at the result of her errand that she was struck dumb. Mechanically her eyes had turned to the papers. She saw that the upper sheets consisted of blank stationery taken from a train, the Santa Fe Limited.
"If you"re trying to scare me, you can"t," she said. "You"re acting like a fool. If something"s gone wrong in your business, it isn"t my fault, and I"m sure it isn"t Mrs. Sands. If there"s a trick, she"s tricked, too. Try to have common sense."
The girl"s fearless gaze and quickly spoken words calmed the man.
"It"s darned rot to say my lady who stayed at home ain"t in the trick.
Why, dumbhead, this paper shows! She was on board the Limited. Gee!
Don"t I have cause to know that? It"s easy as slidin" off a log to see what she done. She helped herself to what was in this yere envelope, an"
filled it with train stationery. Then she sealed it up with the same kind o" seals. Stole the stamp and wax on purpose. Thought she could get away with it. I take off my hat to her."
"I know nothing except that I agreed to bring the parcel," said Clo.
"You go back to her ladyship as fast as you can scamper, and tell her I wasn"t soft enough to bow myself off the stage without peepin" at what Santa Claus had put in my stockin". Tell her "twould only o" bin a matter o" time if I hadn"t peeped. As it is, it"s a matter o" less time.
Tell her a life will pay for this, and she jolly well knows whose!"
The man had ceased to bl.u.s.ter, and now that he had got himself in hand again his fierce eyes and his low, hissing voice thrilled the girl as his threats had not thrilled her. This time he allowed her to rise, which she did, tottering slightly. She had forgotten about paying for her tea, but the dollar bill lay in a crumpled wad on the table. The man placed one of his oddly repulsive hands over it.
"I"ll see to the waiter," he said. "I"m stayin" in this hotel. You cut along and tell your lady friend she"s got till ten o"clock to-night to explain herself, not a minute more. Good day to you, Miss Baby Doll!"
Without answering, Clo walked out of the room, ashamed that her knees were weak, and hoping that she could get safely to the car without making a fool of herself. Physically, it was a great relief to lie back against the soft cushions of robin"s egg blue, and shut her eyes. What would Angel do when she heard how dreadfully the errand had failed?
Clo had forgotten the difficulty of making Sister Lake believe, without a fib, that she and Mrs. Sands had only just come in from their drive together. But she remembered as she went up in the elevator. It was very late now--long after five. Sister was sure to be cross; but if she were cross only with Clo, and not Mrs. Sands, that wouldn"t matter.
Few things work out according to expectations. Sister Lake had been at the window, it seemed, when the car brought back Mrs. Sands and Clo before four o"clock, and had been alarmed when the former descended to hurry alone into the house.
"I was afraid you"d fainted," she said when Clo arrived at last. "I flew out of this room to go down in the elevator, and b.u.mped into Mr. Sands in the hall, and while I was apologizing and making him understand she appeared on the scene."
"My goodness, the fat _is_ in the fire!" Clo thought desperately. Aloud she said: "Well?"
"She said you wanted to go to tea with someone, and she was hurrying to her room to get money for you, so that you could stand treat. I objected, as I had a right to do," went on Sister Lake. "You"re still my patient, if my time is up to-morrow. And if you have a relapse I shall be in a nice fix, as I"m due at Mrs. Jardine"s Tuesday morning! Mrs.
Sands really acted very queer, she was so determined you should go. Even when her husband backed me up, she was as obstinate as--as--if she wasn"t such a sweet woman, I should say a pig!"
"It was my fault," pleaded Clo. "I"m not tired a bit." Yet as she argued, a voice was saying inside her head: "No wonder the poor darling was a long time coming down with the parcel!"
But this, though exciting enough, was as naught beside the great question: "What would Beverley say, what would she feel, when Clo had to confess all that had happened at the Hotel Westmorland?"
VII
THE QUEEN"S PEARLS
Roger also had a secret that Sunday. He waited for Beverley and Clo to be gone (reminding his wife that she had promised to be back by four) and then called up the Belmont Hotel by telephone.
"Give me Count Lovoresco"s room," he said, and presently a foreign conception of the word "h.e.l.lo!" rumbled through the receiver.
"h.e.l.lo, Count," Roger replied, recognizing the voice. "My wife"s safely off. I"ll send my own car round at once. Now you"ve got the letter of confirmation we can settle our business. What? You"re ready? Thank you.
My man"ll be at the hotel as soon as you can get down. Good-bye."
Fifteen minutes later a dark, dapper, elderly man with magnificent eyes was ushered into Roger"s study.
"You"ve brought the pearls, of course?" Roger asked.
"Yes, Mistaire Sand, I bring ze pearls," announced Count Lovoresco.
"And the letter from the Queen?"
"From "er Majesty"s secretaire," Count Lovoresco corrected. ""Ere it is." He drew from a breast pocket a square envelope with a crown and a monogram on the flap. This he handed to Sands, and as the latter opened it, he took from another pocket a purple velvet box, oval in shape, about eight inches long by two in height. On the cover appeared a gold crown, and the same monogram as that of the envelope. Roger had seen this box and its contents; so, instead of watching a tiny gold key fitted into a miniature padlock, he read the letter authorizing Count Lovoresco, in the name of his Queen, to sell in America a rope of pearls, for the benefit of the soldiers" orphans of her country.
"This clears the deck," remarked Roger. The cover of the oval box was raised, and lying in a series of concentric grooves he saw the pearls which he intended to buy for Beverley. They were two hundred and fifty in number, as he knew, and were graduated in size, the largest being as big as a giant pea. All were exquisitely matched in shape and colour, and the one fault--if fault existed--was a blue whiteness disliked by some connoisseurs. Roger was aware, however, that Beverley loved snow-white pearls.
"Any minute Simon Lecourt may be here," he said to Lovoresco. "When he"s looked at the things, I"ll sign and hand you my cheque for two hundred and sixty thousand dollars."
Lovoresco smiled under his dyed moustache, but the wonderful eyes, for which men of his race are famous, lit angrily.
"You are ze most prudent of gentlemen!" he exclaimed. "Your great Franco-American pearl expert, "e "as valued ze pearls one time already at "is own place, under your eye, Mistaire Sand. Now "e "as to come to your "ouse! Mazette! But you must tink me a smart one, saire, if I could change false tings for real in ze last minute!"
"I think some other smart men might have changed them without you or me being smart enough to know the difference," Roger explained. "I believe in making a ship watertight before she goes to sea."
"You are right," Lovoresco said, shrugging his shoulders. "I am pleased once more to meet ze expert."
"Mr. Simon Lecourt," announced the butler.
At a quarter to four--the cheque having been signed--Roger was shaking hands with the jewel expert he had summoned, and bowing to Count Lovoresco. The pearls were his, and he was impatient for Beverley. In five or six minutes she ought to arrive.