The Bartlett Mystery Part 10

"Well, think matters over. I'll see you again soon. Then you may be able to tell me some more."

"I have told you everything."

"Perhaps _I_ may do the telling."

"Now, as to this poor woman, Miss Craik. You will not adopt harsh measures, I trust?"

"We are never harsh, Senator. If she speaks the truth, and all the truth, she need not fear."

In the hall Clancy met the valet, carrying a laden tray.

"Do you make good coffee, Phillips?" he inquired.

"I try to," smiled the other.

"Ah, that's modest--that's the way real genius speaks. Sorry I can't sample your brew to-day. So few Englishmen know the first thing about coffee."

"Nice, friendly little chap," was Phillips's opinion of the detective.

Senator Meiklejohn's description of the same person was widely different. When Clancy went out, he, too, rose and stretched his stiff limbs.

"I got rid of that little rat more easily than I expected," he mused--that is to say, the Senator's thoughts may be estimated in some such phrase. But he was grievously mistaken in his belief. Clancy was no rat, but a most stubborn terrier when there were rats around.

While Meiklejohn was drinking his coffee the telephone rang. It was Mrs.

Tower. She was heartbroken, or professed to be, since no more selfish woman existed in New York.

"Are you coming to see me?" she wailed.

"Yes, yes, later in the day. At present I dare not. I am too unhinged.

Oh, Helen, what a tragedy! Have you any news?"

"News! My G.o.d! What news can I hope for except that Ronald's poor, maimed body has been found?"

"Helen, this is terrible. Bear up!"

"I'm doing my best. I can hardly believe that this thing has really happened. Help me in one small way, Senator. Telephone Mr. Jacob and explain why our luncheon is postponed."

"Yes, I'll do that."

Meiklejohn smiled grimly as he hung up the receiver. In the midst of her tribulations Helen Tower had not forgotten Jacob and the little business of the Costa Rica Cotton Concession! The luncheon was only "postponed."

An inquiry came from a newspaper, whereupon he gave a curt order that no more calls were to be made that day, as the apartment would be empty. He dressed, and devoted himself forthwith to the task of overhauling papers. He had a fire kindled in the library.

Hour after hour he worked, until the grate was littered with the ashes of destroyed doc.u.ments. Sending for newspapers, he read of Rachel Craik's arrest. At last, when the light waned, he looked at his watch.

Should he not face his fellow-members at the Four Hundred Club? Would it not betray weakness to shirk the ordeal of inquiry, of friendly scrutiny and half-spoken wonder that he, the irreproachable, should be mixed up in such a weird tragedy. Once he sought support from a decanter of brandy.

"Confound it!" he muttered, "why am I so shaky. _I_ didn't murder Tower.

My whole life may be ruined by one false step!"

He was still pondering irresolutely a visit to the club when Phillips came. The valet seemed flurried.

"There's a gentleman outside, sir, who insists on seeing you," he said nervously. "He's a very violent gentleman, sir. He said if I didn't announce him he----"

"What name?" interrupted Meiklejohn.

"Name of Voles, sir."

"Voles?"

"Yes, sir, but he says you'll recognize him better by the initials R. V.

V."

Men of Meiklejohn's physique--big, fleshy, with the stamp of success on them--are rare subjects for nervous attacks. They seem to defy events which will shock the color out of ordinary men's cheeks, yet Meiklejohn felt that if he dared encounter the eyes of his discreet servant he would do something outrageous--shriek, or jump, or tear his hair. He bent over some papers on the table.

"Send Mr. Voles in," he murmured. "If any other person calls, say I'm engaged."

The man who was ushered into the room was of a stature and demeanor which might well have cowed the valet. Tall, strongly built, altogether fitter and more muscular than the stalwart Senator, he carried with him an impression of truculence, of a savage forcefulness, not often clothed in the staid garments of city life. Were his skin bronze, were he decked in the barbaric trappings of a p.a.w.nee chief, his appearance would be more in accord with the chill and repellant significance of his personality. His square, hard features might have been chiseled out of granite. A pair of singularly dark eyes blazed beneath heavy and prominent eyebrows. A high forehead, a ma.s.sive chin, and a well-shaped nose lent a certain intellectuality to the face, but this attribute was negatived by the coa.r.s.e lines of a brutal mouth.

From any point of view the visitor must invite attention, while compelling dislike--even fear. In a smaller frame, such qualities might escape recognition, but this man's giant physique accentuated the evil aspect of eyes and mouth. Hardly waiting till the door was closed, he laughed sarcastically.

"You are well fixed here, brother o' mine," he said.

The man whom he addressed as "brother" leaned with his hands on the table that separated them. His face was quite ghastly. All his self-control seemed to have deserted him.

"You?" he gasped. "To come here! Are you mad?"

"Need you ask? It will not be the first time you have called me a lunatic, nor will it be the last, I reckon."

"But the risk, the infernal risk! The police know of you. Rachel is arrested. A detective was here a few hours ago. They are probably watching outside."

"Bosh!" was the uncompromising answer. "I'm sick of being hunted. Just for a change I turn hunter. Where's the mazuma you promised Rachel?"

Meiklejohn, using a hand like one in a palsy, produced a pocketbook and took from it a bundle of notes.

"Here!" he quavered. "Now, for Heaven's sake----"

"Just the same old William," cried the stranger, seating himself unceremoniously. "Always ready to do a steal, but terrified lest the law should grab him. No, I'm not going. It will be good nerve tonic for you to sit down and talk while you strain your ears to hear the tramp of half a dozen cops in the hall. What a poor fish you are!" he continued, voice and manner revealing a candid contempt, as Meiklejohn did indeed start at the slamming of a door somewhere in the building. "Do you think I'd risk my neck if I were likely to be pinched? Gad! I know my way around too well for that."

"But you don't understand," whispered the other in mortal terror. "By some means the detective bureau may know of your existence. Rachel promised to be close-lipped, but--"

"Oh, take a bracer out of that decanter. At the present moment I am registered in a big Fifth Avenue hotel, a swell joint which they wouldn't suspect in twenty years."

"How can that be? Rachel said you were in desperate need."

"So I was until I went through that idiot's pockets. He had two hundred dollars in bills and chicken-feed. I knew I'd get another wad from you to-night."

"Why did you want to murder me, Ralph?"

"Murder! Oh, shucks! I didn't want to kill anybody. But I don't trust you, William. I'm always expecting you to double-cross me. Last night it was a la.s.so. To-night it is this." And he suddenly whipped out a revolver.