Lonesome Town Part 39

The matron ignored him. "The judge, Jane, followed directions and discovered a crock-large and open topped, like the sort dill pickles are made in. But, alas, it contained nothing but a half-witted old man's keepsakes-sc.r.a.ps of his unutterable poetry, ribbon-tied parcels of yellowed love-letters, pressed flowers and a wisp of some woman's hair.

Were your father alive, I'd feel I should take some of my own fortune and make rest.i.tution of his frauds upon the collateral heirs. But since he's dead and gone, I don't exactly feel--"

"Not altogether gone, Helene, yet not in need of your rest.i.tution!"

At the voice, Mrs. Sturgis smothered a scream; turned; stared.

Through the portieres that closed off the hall stepped Curtis Lauderdale, led from the taxi by the driver thereof in answer to Pape's signal from the window.

Verily an apparition did he look to the four who had accepted the report of his death. Mrs. Sturgis, with hands grasping behind her, was backing as though from a ghost. The little jurist did not move, but all the apple color had departed his cheeks. Irene's red-rouged lips could not pale, but at least her mouth was agape. Harford stiffened, as though preparing for attack.

One on either side, Jane and Pape crossed to the latecomer and lined up the triumvirate. Accurately the blind eyes fixed on Allen. In direct address the long unheard lips began to speak.

"We meet again, Sam, my trusted counsellor and cherished friend. With your mask torn off, you look more changed to me than I possibly can to you. Oh, don't waste time with denials! I'd need to be blinder than mustard gas could make me not to see you as you are. For years you traded upon the gullibility of my father. You persuaded him that fortune would build bigger and faster if he withheld proof of t.i.tle to our Bronx estates and let the Guarantee Investors develop a property that has belonged to the Lauderdales since the grant of King James. You overcame his needs and his children's needs with false promises of rich reward when he eventually would claim the improved acreage. And after letting him die in half-crazed poverty, with his mysterious instructions unfound and our t.i.tle proofs buried with them, you advised me to raise money from the collateral heirs and inst.i.tute a court fight to establish our rights. And it was you, I feel sure, who brought these heirs before the Grand Jury that indicted me for fraud just after I had sailed for Somewhere in France."

A moment Lauderdale paused in the controlled fury of his accusation, brushed a hand across his eye-lids and moistened his lips.

"But the crookedest lane has its end, Sam Allen. My chief treasure you could not take from me-a glorious girl child born to retribution. To her aid came this real-man sample from out the West. Working together they have recovered every necessary doc.u.ment, even to my parent's last will and testament. We are ready and able now to right the most grievous wrong ever perpetrated in the medium of New York real estate-to force your company to turn over a thousand acres in the heart of the Bronx and to make rest.i.tution, under your guarantee, to innocent purchasers, even if it breaks you as you would have broken--"

He was stopped by the grasp which Pape had put on his arm.

"Don't dump all the onus on the judge, Mr. Lauderdale," he advised. "We mustn't forget that he is a lawyer, hence full of wriggles. Best leave his punishment to me and that more easily proved charge of the Montana Gusher oil-stock fraud. There is one among those present, to approach the subject guardedly, who is more directly responsible for the Bronx realty steal than His Honor."

Even Jane, close as she had been to the queer questioner throughout recent developments, was startled by his statement. What sort of a lone hand was he playing?

Allen's pudgy palms clasped. Aunt Helene eyed one, then another of the group, as though bewildered.

Only Pape's gaze did not wander. It turned from the blind man's face to fix upon that of Mills Harford. At the silent accusation, Irene sprang toward him, no longer a kitten, but a flare-eyed mother-cat in defense of her own.

"Don't you dare accuse my Harfy, you cave-brute!" she cried. "Just because he makes _money_ out of real-estate isn't any reason to jump at the _conclusion_ that he--"

"Right, Rene." Pape had a sympathetic grin for her vehemence. "I was only considering your Harfy as a possible witness to the truth. Cross my heart, I ain't got a thing against him personally, now that he has consented to take you instead of--"

"You horrid, hateful thing!" she screamed. "What do you _mean_ by 'consented to'--"

"Stand corrected, miss, soon to be madame. Now that you have consented to take him instead of aspiring to me."

"Beast! However could I have thought you nice-nice?"

"Can't say, unless it is that I am-sometimes."

Jane broke up their sprightly exchange with the serious demand: "But the some one more directly responsible?"

"Be done with innuendo, young man!" Mrs. Sturgis rose to her feet, with every inch of her scant height counting. "A gentleman-one of whom we say 'to the manner born'-makes no accusation without proof."

"I don't need to make accusation or present proof to you, madam."

"You're not trying to insinuate--"

Many lights had Pape seen in women's eyes, but never one as startled, angry and afraid as that flashed him by Aunt Helene. Next moment she attempted a light laugh that ended with a nervous crescendo.

"You, too, must be mad."

"At least that," he admitted cheerfully. "You've known why for several minutes past. You acknowledge the judge here as your advisor, don't you?"

"I certainly do."

"Better ask his advice, then, without further delay. I've an idea he'll tell you to come across clean-admit that you are The Guarantee Investors, Incorporated, who have been trying to grab off the Lauderdales' Bronx ranch and put Jane here out of the heiress cla.s.s.

Come, madam! Any woman who can rob her own safe and give the alarm and play-act the grief of a whole wake afterwards certainly ought to get a great deal out of a confession scene. Suppose you take your family-friend tool and your in-law-to-be into the library for a conference. Just possibly I-the outlaw-that-was-can show Mr. and Miss Lauderdale reasons why they should listen to a plea for mercy."

Before Pape had finished, the small jurist was on his feet in acceptance of the suggestion. The wilt of guilt drooped the matron into the arms of her child. As one woman they were supported toward the door by Mills Harford.

"It was all my poor husband's idea, not my own," Aunt Helene was heard to defend to an interlude of sobs. "And with him, as with me, it was all because we did so want our poor Irene to have the fortune her beauty deserves. We knew how impractical the Lauderdales were. He didn't believe they ever could make good their claim to the Bronx estate. We both thought it would be better for our own dear child to have it than some outsider. When he realized that he couldn't live to see the plan through he charged me to carry it out. Of course I meant to make proper provision for Jane if--"

The door closed behind them.

When the triumvirate stood alone, low-voiced and happier exchanges pa.s.sed.

"How did you know, son?"

"Didn't know. Aunt Helene seemed too good to be true, so I just stayed on a busted flush and finished a winner. Why not?"

"Why not, indeed?" Jane showed sufficient knowledge of the game to pay over what was due the taker of the pot.

"Welcomed at last to Lonesome Town-welcomed with open arms!" exulted he who so recently had had to welcome himself.

And that very night Broadway saw new reason to believe in its signs. Out over Times Canon winked a re-lettered electric message that lit the imagination as does every such happy ending and happier start:

CONGRATULATIONS MR. AND MRS. WHY-NOT PAPE

THE END