"Didn"t you know that you couldn"t get away with anything of that sort?"
the warden demanded, angrily.
The convict looked past the warden, straight into the eyes of Wagg.
"You never can tell what you can get away with till you try it,"
Two-Eight-Two declared. There was a touch of insolence in his manner.
"Into the doghole with him!" the warden commanded.
Wagg surveyed the departure of the convict. The man contrived to twist his head around and look behind him; and he disclosed a grin. But he was hampered by the clutch on his collar and Wagg was not sure that the grin was intended for him, though the consciousness that the convict might have beheld what was on the inner side of that shield of boards was a thought which troubled Mr. Wagg"s complacent belief that a good job had been well done.
He continued to watch the man until the narrow door which opened from the yard, admitting to the doghole cells, swallowed up the convict and his guard. All that time a sort of quivery feeling was inside Wagg. He actually found himself in frantic mental search of some kind of a lie to be used in case the convict whirled and pointed to the big chimney and got over an accusation. But the man did not look around again.
"I can plainly see that you are in a bad way, Wagg," affirmed the warden. Fervently did Mr. Wagg agree in his heart. "Your leave of absence dates from this moment, if you say so."
"I may have to go on to stone work again if I don"t get back my grit, warden. I"d like to have the run of the yard for a day or so, in order to look over just how that blast worked. Seeing that it cost a human life, I"d like to get full value of experience out of it."
"Come and go as you like, Wagg. I"ll lend you a key to the small door beside the wagon entrance in case you don"t want to ring in through the guardroom."
Mr. Wagg expressed his grat.i.tude in proper terms and allowed that he would go and lie down for a time in order to calm himself. Again he urged the warden to break the news gently to Vaniman"s mother and respectfully requested that Guard Wagg"s sympathy be included in the condolence in the official letter.
The newspapers of that afternoon contained an account of the tragic happening at the state prison.
That night, too, Vona Harnden kept vigil, her door locked against her mother, whose fatuous commonplaces of commiseration were like files against the raw surface of the girl"s agony.
The front parlor of the Harndens had been converted into a sleeping room for Tasper Britt. Vona"s room was over the parlor. She could hear the rasping diapason of his snoring. He appeared to be sleeping with the calm relaxation of a man who had been able to eliminate some especial worries from his mind.
Furthermore, that night, the chairman of the prison commissioners had a talk with the warden over the telephone. The warden made a guess as to how many thousands of tons of rock were piled above the body of the unfortunate victim.
"The taxpayers will never indorse the project of digging out that pit to recover the body of a convict, no matter who he is," declared the commissioner. "I don"t mean to sound brutal, but we must let it stand as it is. Enter the reports of witnesses and declare the man officially dead. Here is one case, at least, Mr. Warden, when there"s no doubt about a man being dead."
However, shortly after twelve o"clock that night--and the night being particularly black with an overcast sky--Bartley Wagg opened the iron door of the big chimney and called forth Frank Vaniman and led him out through the little door at the side of the carriage entrance.
There was a conveyance waiting there, a good-sized van, drawn by a solid-looking horse. Mr. Wagg lifted the flap of the van"s cover.
"Crawl in!" he commanded. "You"ll find plenty of room along with the rest of the camping kit. Roll yourself up in the tent and take it easy.
My nerves have been shocked by the terrible affair and I"m going into the mountains to recuperate. Doctor"s orders!" He was grimly serious.
He mounted the seat of the van and drove away with his pa.s.senger and the outfit.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE SHADE WHO STALLED
Mr. Wagg did not hurry. He used several days for his trip to Egypt.
He drove leisurely along roads which led through small towns and out-of-the-way places. That plan afforded him opportunity and excuse for pitching a tent to serve as shelter during the night stops. And after the tent was pitched and the dusk descended, Vaniman was able to come thankfully from the hateful restraint of the van and stroll along the woodland aisles and get the kinks out of his anatomy.
But, although he eased his body, he was unable to ease his mind. He had not expected to enjoy his questionable freedom, anyway. Liberty was of value to him only as he might be able to use it in his fight for his rights as an innocent man. He could not freely use his liberty until he had cleared his name and thereby justified his escape from the prison.
Now he was wondering whether he would have allowed Wagg to proceed as he did had the guard apprised him of the full details of the plan. The sweat of anguish stood out on him as he pondered in the jolting van; he found no pleasure in the respite of the peaceful woods.
By the plot of Wagg he had dealt his loved ones the cruel blow that sudden death inflicts on the affections. In spite of what he hoped to gain from his freedom, Vaniman was accusing himself, realizing what his mother, his sister, and Vona were suffering. It was his nature to draw fine distinctions in points of honor; he was ashamed in the presence of Wagg; and in the consideration of the interests of self, he felt that his liberty was exacting too great a price from others. To all intents and purposes, outside the knowledge of one man to the contrary, he was dead, and he had deprived his best beloved of hope and peace of mind.
The one man in the secret profanely declared that if Vaniman made an attempt to communicate with any person in the world until their particular business had been settled, the whole project was in danger.
"I don"t care how much dependence you put in your mother"s good sense.
She"s a woman, and women slop over when they"re all wowed up! She"d have to tell your sister, wouldn"t she? She couldn"t let your sister go on suffering. And your sister"s too young to be trusted. Vaniman, the toughest part is over for "em. That"s a cinch! They"ll go on sorrowing, of course, but they"ll be feeling more reconciled every day. Mourners always do. Mourners can"t help seeing the bright side, after a time.
Think of that and quit your foolishness. You have made a trade with me.
Till your part of that trade is carried out you ain"t a free agent to do what you want to do in your own affairs."
The worry over his inability to carry out that trade was mingled with the young man"s general bitterness of regret because he had challenged Fate so boldly.
"There"s one thing about it," Mr. Wagg pursued, "the quicker you come across with me the sooner you can do what you darnation want to on your own hook. I have worked a thing that could be worked only once. You"re out--and you"re out right. n.o.body is chasing you. Take another name, show up in some other part of the country, and you"ll live happy ever after."
He dwelt on that theme whenever the two talked, and he played all the variations. Furthermore, he complained because Vaniman was not showing his grat.i.tude in more hearty fashion. "I catch you looking at me like a youngster would look at a b.u.mblebee crawling across his bare foot.
I don"t ask to be taken into your bosom as your main and particular chum--understand that! But while there"s business on between us I expect pleasant looks, even if you don"t feel like handing me conversation."
Mr. Wagg was doing practically all the talking on that trip. He had emerged from his coc.o.o.n of taciturnity. He explained that naturally he was a great talker, but that prison rules had pretty nigh paralyzed his tongue and he was trying to get it back into good working order once more.
He made an especial point of vaunting himself upon the success of his scheme of deliverance. He tackled the thing from all angles. He played it up as the greatest achievement that ever had been worked in behalf of a convict. Mr. Wagg, serving as board of appraisal of his own feat, kept boosting the value. It was evident that he was suspecting that Vaniman, out and free, was in the mood that is characteristic of the common run of humanity: urgent desire is reckless about price; possession proceeds to haggle and demur.
"And there"s one thing about it," insisted Wagg, "we"ve got to keep on going ahead. We can"t back up. We can"t dissolve partnership. And the trade has got to stand as it was made--fifty-fifty."
"I"m not going back on the trade."
They were sitting close to each other on a tussock behind their little tent. Mr. Wagg leaned close and bored Vaniman with earnest gaze. "We"ll fetch Egypt on to-morrow"s. .h.i.tch. Of course, you"re going to stick close to me, and you can bet that I"m going to stick close to you till the whack-up has been made. No shenanigan! Now, seeing how far I have gone in doing my part, don"t you think it"s about time for you to come across?"
Vaniman spread his hands. "How can I? Wait till we get to Egypt." Right then he had no notion of what he was going to do when he arrived in Egypt. He had not dared to look the proposition squarely in the face.
He did not even a.n.a.lyze his feelings. He was dimly conscious that he was pitying Wagg. That ambitious person was in for a grievous disappointment. To be sure, Wagg had insisted on following a current belief and persisted in building his hopes on a fallacy and had forced human nature until weak human nature had snapped under the strain. Wagg had refused to believe the truth; he had preferred to indulge his own delusion in regard to the treasure of the Egypt Trust company.
Nevertheless, Vaniman was ashamed--and he was afraid.
Britt was the crux of the situation--that was evident enough! Britt knew where the coin was. Vaniman was sure on that point. Britt had so maneuvered that wild-goose errand to Levant that he had made the affair furnish opportunity to himself and fix the odium on Vaniman. In spite of what the young man knew of Britt"s l.u.s.t for money, he believed that the usurer had worked a scheme to ruin a rival instead of merely operating to add to his riches. But Vaniman knew Britt well enough to reach the conclusion that, once having the hard cash in his possession, and the blame fastened on another man, Britt was allowing avarice to stand pat on the play.
But if, now being on the job in person, he could rig a scheme to make Britt disclose, what could be done for coadjutor Wagg? There was a reward posted for information leading to the recovery of the money.
Britt had offered that reward. He had made quite a show of the thing in the public prints. He pledged himself to pay the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars from his own pocket, and Vaniman bitterly realized just why Britt had adopted that pose. Would Wagg be content with the sop of the reward?
The man who had been declared dead knew that he must play for time. He ran over various plans in his head. He did not feel like blurting out the truth to Mr. Wagg and asking what that effectually compromised gentleman was going to do about it. He needed Mr. Wagg. He thought of pleading that the summer landscape was so much different from the winter lay of the land, when the snow was heaped in the gullies and on the hills, that he was bothered in remembering just where he had planted the treasure that night; he reflected that he might show Mr. Wagg a hole in the rocks and a.s.sert that some of the persistent Egyptian gold hunters had undoubtedly located the money and taken it for themselves; being moved to more desperate projects, he meditated on the plan of coming across to Wagg with the whole story, showing him that Britt must be guilty, and thereby turning a blackmailer loose on the magnate with plenty of material to use in extorting what Wagg might consider fair pay for the work he had put in.
But Vaniman was freshly free from prison walls. Just then he was psychologically incapable of standing up for himself as a real man ought. His sense of innocence had not been able to withstand that feeling of intimidation with which a prisoner becomes obsessed. Right along with him was the man who had been persistently his guard in the prison. Wagg"s narrow rut of occupation had had its full effect on his nature. His striated eyeb.a.l.l.s had a vitreous look; they were as hard as marbles. Vaniman knew that he could not look at those eyes and tell a convincing lie. In view of Wagg"s settled convictions in the matter of the treasure, the real truth might be harder to support than a lie.
Vaniman went into the van like a whipped dog into a kennel and lay awake and wrestled with his difficulties.
During the progress of the pilgrimage the next day Wagg halted frequently. Vaniman could hear the conversations between his charioteer and the natives of the section. Mr. Wagg was seeking information and at the same time he gave out a modest amount of revelation about himself and his need of a retired spot where he might recuperate. He explained that he wanted to find a camp in some place so remote that n.o.body would be coming around jarring his nerves.
Eventually he got on track of what he wanted. A native told him about an abandoned log house on the top of a mountain called "Devilbrow."
"They used it for a fire-warden station in the days when Egypt had enough timber to make it an object to protect it," said the man. "You"ll be plenty lonesome up there. You can get your wagon within half a mile.
Pack your truck on your hoss"s back and lead him the rest of the way.
That"s what I used to do. I was warden till I found myself trying to carry on conversations with tumblebugs and whippoorwills."