"And you, Edwards?"
"Let it go as Bronse says. I cut back to Mrs. Thornhill"s, scouting to see what the chance was for getting Ina in without the family knowing anything."
"That"s right," Vandeman said. "I stayed to fetch her. She was fine. To the last, she let Gilbert save his face--actually send her home as though she were the one to blame. Right then I knew I loved her--wanted her for my wife. On the way home, I asked her and was accepted."
"In spite of the fact that she was engaged to Worth Gilbert?"
"Boyne," he said impatiently, "what"s the matter with you? Haven"t I made you understand what happened there at the study? She had to break off with the son of a man like that. Ina Thornhill couldn"t marry into such a breed."
"Slow up, Vandeman!" Edwards" tone was soft, but when I looked at him, I saw a tawny spark in his black eyes. Vandeman fronted him with the flamboyant embroidered monogram on his shirt sleeve, the carefully careless tie, the utterly good clothes, and, most of all, at the moment, the smug satisfaction in his face of social and human security. I thought of what that Frenchman says about there being nothing so enjoyable to us as the troubles of our friends. "Needn"t think you can put it all over the boy when he"s not here to defend himself--jump on him because he"s down! Tell that your wife discarded him--cast him off--for disgraceful reasons! d.a.m.nitall! You and I both heard Tom giving her her orders to break with his son, she sniffling and hunting hairpins over the floor and promising that she would."
"Cut it out!" yelled Vandeman, as though some one had pinched him. "I saw nothing of the sort. I heard nothing of the sort. Neither did you."
I think they had forgotten me, and that they remembered at about the same instant that they were talking before a detective. They both turned, mum and startled looking, Edwards to his window, Vandeman to a nervous brushing of his trouser edges, from which he looked up, inquiring doubtfully,
"What next, Boyne? Jim"s excited; but you understand that there"s no animus; and my wife and I are entirely at your disposal in this matter."
"Thank you," I said.
"Would you like to talk to her?"
"I would."
"When?"
"Now."
"Where?"
"Here--or let the lady say."
Vandeman gave me a queer look and went out. When he was gone, I found Jim Edwards scrabbling for his hat where it had dropped over behind the desk. I put my back against the door and asked,
"Is Bronson Vandeman a fatuous fool; or does he take me for one?"
"Some men defend their women one way, and some another. Let me out of this, Boyne, before that girl gets here."
"She won"t come in a hurry," I smiled. "Her husband"s pretty free with his promises; but more than likely I"ll have to go after her if I want her."
"Well?" he looked at me uncomfortably.
"Blackmail"s a crime, you know, Edwards. A woman capable of it, might be capable of murder."
"You"ve got the wrong word there, Boyne. This wasn"t exactly blackmail."
"What, then?"
"The girl--I never liked her--never thought she was good enough for Worth--but she was engaged to him, and--in this I think she was fighting for her hand."
He searched my face and went on cautiously,
"You read the diaries. They must have had complaints of her."
"They had," I a.s.sented.
"Anything about money?"
I shook my head.
"You said there were two entries gone; the first would have told you, I suppose--Before we go further, Boyne, let me make a little explanation to you--for the girl"s sake."
"Shoot," I said.
"It was this way," he sighed. "Thornhill, Ina"s father, made fifteen or twenty thousand a year I would say, and the family lived it up. He had a stroke and died in a week"s time. Left Mrs. Thornhill with her daughters, her big house, her fine social position--and mighty little to keep it up on. Ina is the eldest. She got the worst of it, because at the first of her being a young lady she was used to having all the money she wanted to spend. The twins were right on her heels; the thing for her to do was to make a good marriage, and make it quick. But she got engaged to Worth; then he went to France. There you were. He might never come back. Tom always hated her; watched her like a hawk; got onto something she--about--"
"Out with it," I said. "What? Come down to cases."
"Money." He uttered the one word and stood silent.
I made a long shot, with,
"Mr. Gilbert found she"d been getting money from other men--"
"Borrowing, Boyne--they used the word "borrowed,"" Edwards put in. "It was always Tom"s way to summon people as though he had a little private judgment bar, haul them up and lecture them; I suppose he thought he had a special license in her case."
"And she went prepared to frame him and bluff him to a standoff. Is that the way you saw it?"
"My opinion--what I might think," said Mr. James Edwards of Sunnyvale ranch, "wouldn"t be testimony in a court of law. You don"t want it, Boyne."
"Maybe not," I grunted. "Perhaps I could make as good a guess as you could at what young Mrs. Vandeman"s capable of; a dolly face, and behind it the courage of h.e.l.l."
"Boyne," he said, as I left the door free to him, "quit making war on women."
"Can"t," I grinned and waved him on out. "The detective business would be a total loss without "em."
CHAPTER XXII
A DINNER INVITATION
"Look what"s after you, man," Skeet warned me from her lofty perch as I went out through the big room in quest of Ina Vandeman. "Better you stay here. I gif you a yob. Lots safer--only run the risk of getting your neck broken."
I grinned up into her jolly, freckled face, and waited for the woman who came toward me with that elastic, swinging movement of hers, the well-opened eyes studying me, keeping all their secrets behind them.
"Mr. Boyne," a hand on my arm guided me to a side door; we stepped together out on to a small balcony that led to the lawn. "My husband brought me your message. n.o.body over by the tennis court; let"s go and walk up and down there."