Officer 666 Part 24

Barnes led the way through the long, narrow corridor to the rear of the house, while Phelan followed, muttering and grumbling every inch of the way. There was no further conversation between them while they investigated the elaborate quarters below stairs, and at last Phelan ceased his mutterings and accepted from Barnes an armful of cook books with which to regale himself until he was summoned to resume his uniform.

Returning to the big silent rooms above, Whitney Barnes was utterly at a loss how to occupy himself. The thundering stillness got on his nerves and he found himself thinking of a dozen different things at once. But as idea pursued idea the image of the shy and winsome Sadie persisted in intervening.

So he dropped Travers Gladwin, or rather the two Travers Gladwins, Helen, Phelan and all the others from his mind and gave himself up to the beatific contemplation of the picture that was most soothing to his spirits.

For a while he lolled back in one of the great chairs, shut his eyes and revolved pleasant visions. Suddenly he thought of his father and sprang to his feet.

"By Jove! I'll break the news to the pater," he cried. "There's a telephone somewhere in this house, and I'll call him up at his club."

He fairly danced out into the hallway, switching on lights wherever he could find a b.u.t.ton to press. Presently he located the phone in a secluded alcove and slumped down on a divan with the instrument in his lap.

As a matter of fixed routine, it happened that this particular hour found Joshua Barnes, mustard magnate, settled down to his cigar and coffee, in which he found immense comfort after a hearty meal. To be disturbed at this most luxurious moment of the day was, to a man of his temperament, about as pleasant a sensation as being stung by a rattlesnake.

He sent the club attendant back to the phone with a savage growl and the message to his son to call him up in an hour or to come to the club in person. The attendant crept back with the report that Barnes junior insisted that there could be no delay--that he had a vastly important matter to report on.

Old Grim Barnes flung down his cigar, gulped his coffee till he choked and stamped off to the telephone booth.

"Well?" he bellowed.

--That you, pater--sorry to disturb you, but--

--Of course it's important and no d.a.m.n nonsense about it, I----

--No, I haven't been arrested and am not in a police station.

--Then what the devil----

--No devil, nothing of the sort. On the contrary, quite the opposite!

I've called you up to report progress----

--You know better than that, dad. I've only had two drinks.

--I'd better take four more and sober up? Now, Father Barnes, will you oblige me by cooling off for an instant? You recall that this afternoon you gave me a year within which to find a wife. Well, I've found one already.

--Now you know I'm intoxicated? Was my voice ever soberer--now listen.

--You won't listen? But you must. This is all up to you. You commanded. I obeyed. Say, dad, she's an angel. I'm madly in love with her.

--Who is she? Well, er, I really don't know--that is, her first name is Sadie. I----

--Sadie what? Sadie Omaha--I mean she lives in Omaha.

--What is her last name and who are her people? To tell you the truth I haven't found that out yet. I----

--I'm an a.s.s?--a blankety, blank a.s.s? Just wait till you see her! I met her up at Travers Gladwin's, and----

--Travers is in Egypt! No, yes, of course he is, but----

The final outburst of paternal expletive fairly hurled Whitney Barnes from the phone.

"There, by thunder! He's rung off in a rage."

"There's the ungrateful parent for you!" he muttered as he made his way back to Gladwin's drawing room. "Here I've gone and broken my neck to fall in love for him and that's all the thanks I get for it. Well, I'll marry her in spite of him, if he doesn't leave me a dollar. I could starve in a garret with her, and if I got too dreadfully hungry I could eat her. Hi, ho! but, say, Mr. Whitney Barnes, you had better switch off some of these lights. This house isn't supposed to be occupied."

He left just one heavily shaded bronze lamp abeam. Then he carefully drew all the curtains across the windows and tiptoed about the room with the air of a sinister conspirator. He stopped in front of the great, mysterious-looking chest to one side of the entrance to the hallway, lifted the heavy lid and looked in.

"Here's where we will put our dead," he said, with a lugubrious grin, let down the lid softly and crossed abruptly to the roomiest and coziest chair beside the curtained window. After another sweeping glance about the room he stretched his arms and yawned.

"Reckon I better sleep off that jag the pater presented me over the wire," he chuckled, and down he slid into the soft upholstery, raising his long legs upon another chair and sighing with deep contentment.

His eyes roved about the room for a moment, when he smiled suddenly and quoted:

Why, let the stricken deer go weep; The hart ungalled play, For some must watch, while some must sleep: So runs the world away.

And upon the suggestion of the immortal bard he chose the sleeper's end of it and pa.s.sed away.

CHAPTER XXIV.

AUNTIE TAKES THE TRAIL.

"Mix a tablespoonful of corn starch with a quarter of a cupful of water. Stir this into a cupful of boiling water, and boil for two minutes; then add the juice and rind of a lemon and a cupful of sugar, and cook three minutes longer. Beat an egg very light, and pour the boiling mixture over it. Return to the fire and cook a minute longer, stirring all the while--a most tasty lemon sauce"----

"T' 'ell wit' these limon sauces!" exploded Michael Phelan, hurling the book across the room and bounding from his chair. "Sure 'n I'll niver be able to look a limon in the face agin. Limon, limon, limon--these blame books are filled wit' 'em. 'Tis a limon I am mesilf an' all fer a limon colored bill. But I'll not stand it a minute longer, shut down into this tomb wit' nothin' but mice fer comp'ny.

Wurra! Wurra! Rose O'Neil, but your blue eyes an' your black hair an'

your divilish smiles have spelled me finish."

Phelan wrung his hands and took a turn around the room. Now and again he stopped and shook his fist at the ceiling, and at last, beside himself, he made a rush for the door that led to the stairway. Opening a crack, he listened. Nothing but heavy silence beat down on him from above and he shivered. He looked back into the kitchen and his eye fell on the pile of cookbooks. With a muttered oath he flung himself through the doorway and crept upstairs.

He had to feel his way through the narrow slit of a corridor above, and it was with an immense sigh of relief that he opened the door and stepped into the great drawing room he had left. In the dim light of the one glowing lamp he made out Whitney Barnes deep in the embrace of a great chair and sonorously asleep.

"So that's the way he's kapin' watch!" hissed Phelan through his teeth, as he fairly pounced across the room. First he seized the young man's feet and threw them from their resting place to the floor, exclaiming as he did so:

"Here you--wake up!"

"Yes, dear," mumbled the young man in his sleep, "I could abide with you always."

"Don't yez be afther dearin' me," snarled Phelan. "Wake up!"

Barnes opened his eyes and asked thickly:

"Wa.s.sa ma.s.ser."

"What are yez doin' there?" cried Phelan.

"What am I doing here," rejoined Barnes, now wide-awake and getting on his feet. "Why, I'm keeping watch at the window--on guard as it were."