"I have something in my head where you hit me," I said. "Perhaps that is it."
But my sarcasm was lost on him.
"I am Harry Wardrop," he said, "and I have been robbed, Mr. Knox. I was trying to get in the house without waking the family, and when I came back here to the front door, where I had left my valise, it was gone. I thought you were the thief when you came out, and--we"ve lost all this time. Somebody has followed me and robbed me!"
"What was in the bag?" I asked, stepping to the edge of the porch and looking around, with the help of the candle.
"Valuable papers," he said shortly. He seemed to be dazed and at a loss what to do next. We had both instinctively kept our voices low.
"You are certain you left it here?" I asked. The thing seemed incredible in the quiet and peace of that neighborhood.
"Where you are standing."
Once more I began a desultory search, going down the steps and looking among the cannas that bordered the porch. Something glistened beside the step, and stooping down I discovered a small brown leather traveling-bag, apparently quite new.
"Here it is," I said, not so gracious as I might have been; I had suffered considerably for that traveling-bag. The sight of it restored Wardrop"s poise at once. His twitching features relaxed.
"By Jove, I"m glad to see it," he said. "I can"t explain, but--tremendous things were depending on that bag, Mr. Knox. I don"t know how to apologize to you; I must have nearly brained you."
"You did," I said grimly, and gave him the bag. The moment he took it I knew there was something wrong; he hurried into the house and lighted the library lamp. Then he opened the traveling-bag with shaking fingers.
It was empty!
He stood for a moment, staring incredulously into it. Then he hurled it down on the table and turned on me, as I stood beside him.
"It"s a trick!" he said furiously. "You"ve hidden it somewhere. This is not my bag. You"ve subst.i.tuted one just like it."
"Don"t be a fool," I retorted. "How could I subst.i.tute an empty satchel for yours when up to fifteen minutes ago I had never seen you or your grip either? Use a little common sense. Some place to-night you have put down that bag, and some clever thief has subst.i.tuted a similar one. It"s an old trick."
He dropped into a chair and buried his face in his hands.
"It"s impossible," he said after a pause, while he seemed to be going over, minute by minute, the events of the night. "I was followed, as far as that goes, in Plattsburg. Two men watched me from the minute I got there, on Tuesday; I changed my hotel, and for all of yesterday--Wednesday, that is--I felt secure enough. But on my way to the train I felt that I was under surveillance again, and by turning quickly I came face to face with one of the men."
"Would you know him?" I asked.
"Yes. I thought he was a detective, you know I"ve had a lot of that sort of thing lately, with election coming on. He didn"t get on the train, however."
"But the other one may have done so."
"Yes, the other one may. The thing I don"t understand is this, Mr. Knox.
When we drew in at Bellwood Station I distinctly remember opening the bag and putting my newspaper and railroad schedule inside. It was the right bag then; my clothing was in it, and my brushes."
I had been examining the empty bag as he talked.
"Where did you put your railroad schedule?" I asked.
"In the leather pocket at the side."
"It is here," I said, drawing out the yellow folder. For a moment my companion looked almost haunted. He pressed his hands to his head and began to pace the room like a crazy man.
"The whole thing is impossible. I tell you, that valise was heavy when I walked up from the station. I changed it from one hand to the other because of the weight. When I got here I set it down on the edge of the porch and tried the door. When I found it locked--"
"But it wasn"t locked," I broke in. "When I came down-stairs to look for a burglar, I found it open at least an inch."
He stopped in his pacing up and down, and looked at me curiously.
"We"re both crazy, then," he a.s.serted gravely. "I tell you, I tried every way I knew to unlock that door, and could hear the chain rattling.
Unlocked! You don"t know the way this house is fastened up at night."
"Nevertheless, it was unlocked when I came down."
We were so engrossed that neither of us had heard steps on the stairs.
The sound of a smothered exclamation from the doorway caused us both to turn suddenly. Standing there, in a loose gown of some sort, very much surprised and startled, was Margery Fleming. Wardrop pulled himself together at once. As for me, I knew what sort of figure I cut, my collar stained with blood, a lump on my forehead that felt as big as a door-k.n.o.b, and no shoes.
"What _is_ the matter?" she asked uncertainly. "I heard such queer noises, and I thought some one had broken into the house."
"Mr. Wardrop was trying to break in," I explained, "and I heard him and came down. On the way I had a b.l.o.o.d.y encounter with an open door, in which I came out the loser."
I don"t think she quite believed me. She looked from my swollen head to the open bag, and then to Wardrop"s pale face. Then I think, woman-like, she remembered the two great braids that hung over her shoulders and the dressing-gown she wore, for she backed precipitately into the hall.
"I"m glad that"s all it is," she called back cautiously, and we could hear her running up the stairs.
"You"d better go to bed," Wardrop said, picking up his hat. "I"m going down to the station. There"s no train out of here between midnight and a flag train at four-thirty A. M. It"s not likely to be of any use, but I want to see who goes on that train."
"It is only half past two," I said, glancing at my watch. "We might look around outside first."
The necessity for action made him welcome any suggestion. Reticent as he was, his feverish excitement made me think that something vital hung on the recovery of the contents of that Russia leather bag. We found a lantern somewhere in the back of the house, and together we went over the grounds. It did not take long, and we found nothing.
As I look back on that night, the key to what had pa.s.sed and to much that was coming was so simple, so direct--and yet we missed it entirely.
Nor, when bigger things developed, and Hunter"s trained senses were brought into play, did he do much better. It was some time before we learned the true inwardness of the events of that night.
At five o"clock in the morning Wardrop came back exhausted and nerveless. No one had taken the four-thirty; the contents of the bag were gone, probably beyond recall. I put my dented candlestick back on the mantel, and prepared for a little sleep, blessing the deafness of old age which had enabled the Maitland ladies to sleep through it all. I tried to forget the queer events of the night, but the throbbing of my head kept me awake, and through it all one question obtruded itself--who had unlocked the front door and left it open?
CHAPTER V
LITTLE MISS JANE
I was almost unrecognizable when I looked at myself in the mirror the next morning, preparatory to dressing for breakfast. My nose boasted a new arch, like the back of an angry cat, making my profile Roman and ferocious, and the lump on my forehead from the chair was swollen, gla.s.sy and purple. I turned my back to the mirror and dressed in wrathful irritation and my yesterday"s linen.
Miss Fleming was in the breakfast-room when I got down, standing at a window, her back to me. I have carried with me, during all the months since that time, a mental picture of her as she stood there, in a pink morning frock of some sort. But only the other day, having mentioned this to her, she a.s.sured me that the frock was blue, that she didn"t have a pink garment at the time this story opens and that if she did she positively didn"t have it on. And having thus flouted my eye for color, she maintains that she did _not_ have her back to me, for she distinctly saw my newly-raised bridge as I came down the stairs. So I amend this. Miss Fleming in a blue frock was facing the door when I went into the breakfast-room. Of one thing I am certain. She came forward and held out her hand.
"Good morning," she said. "What a terrible face!"
"It isn"t mine," I replied meekly. "My own face is beneath these excrescences. I tried to cover the b.u.mp on my forehead with French chalk, but it only accentuated the thing, like snow on a mountain top."