The Bartlett Mystery Part 31

"But how? Tell me how to find her!" came the fierce demand.

"If you jump at me like that I'll make you stop here another week," said Clancy. "Man alive, I hate humbug as much as any man; but don't you see that the Bureau must make sure of its case before it acts? We can't go before a judge until we have better evidence than the vague hearsay of twenty years ago. But, for goodness' sake, next time you grab Winifred, rush her to the nearest clergyman and make her Mrs. Carshaw, Jr.

That'll help a lot. Leave me to get the Senator and the rest of the bunch. Now, if you'll be good, I'll show you the house where your Winifred was born!"

CHAPTER XX

IN THE TOILS

East Orange seemed to be a long way from New York when Winifred hastened to the appointment at "Gateway House," traveling thither by way of the Tube and the Lackawanna Railway.

More and more did it seem strange that a theatrical agent should fix on such a rendezvous, until a plausible reason suggested itself: possibly, some noted impresario had chosen this secluded retreat, and the agent had arranged a meeting there between his client and the great man whose Olympian nod gave success or failure to aspirants for the stage.

The letter itself was rea.s.suringly explicit as to the route she should follow.

"On leaving the station," it said, "turn to the right and walk a mile along the only road that presents itself until you see, on the left, a large green gate bearing the name 'Gateway House.' Walk in. The house itself is hidden by trees, and stands in s.p.a.cious grounds. If you follow these directions, you will have no need to ask the way."

The description of the place betokened that it was of some local importance, and hope revived somewhat in her sorrowing heart at the impression that perhaps, after all, it was better she had failed in finding work at the bindery.

Notwithstanding the charming simplicity of her nature, Winifred would not be a woman if she did not know she was good-looking. The stage offered a career; work in the factory only yielded existence. Recent events had added a certain strength of character to her sweet face; and Miss Goodman, who happened to be an expert dressmaker, had used the girl's leisure in her lodgings to turn her nimble fingers to account.

Hence, Winifred was dressed with neat elegance, and the touch of winter keenness in the air gave her a splendid color as she hurried out of the station many minutes late for her appointment.

Would she be asked to sing, she wondered? She had no music with her, and had never touched a piano since her music-master's anxiety to train her voice had been so suddenly frustrated by Rachel Craik. But she knew many of the solos from "Faust," "Rigoletto," and "Carmen"; surely, among musical people, there would be some appreciation of her skill if tested by this cla.s.s of composition, as compared with the latest rag-time melody or gushing cabaret ballad.

Busy with such thoughts, she hastened along the road, until she awoke with a start to the knowledge that she was opposite Gateway House.

Certainly the retreat was admirable from the point of view of a man surfeited with life on the Great White Way. Indeed, it looked very like a private lunatic asylum or home for inebriates, with its lofty walls studded with broken gla.s.s, and its solid gate crowned with iron spikes.

Winifred tried the door. It opened readily. She was surprised that so pretentious an abode had no lodge-keeper's cottage. There were signs of few vehicles pa.s.sing over the weed-grown gravel drive, and such marks as existed were quite recent.

She was so late, however, that her confused mind did not trouble about these things, and she sped on gracefully, soon coming in full view of the house itself. It was now almost dark, and the grounds seemed very lonely; but the presence of lights in the secluded mansion gave earnest of some one awaiting her there. She fancied she heard a noise, like the snapping of a latch or lock behind her. She turned her head, but saw no one. Fowle, hiding among the evergreens, had run with nimble feet and sardonic smile to bolt the gate as soon as she was out of sight.

And now Winifred was at the front door, timidly pulling a bell. A man strolled with a marked limp around the house from a conservatory. He was a tall, strongly built person, and something in the dimly seen outline sent a thrill of apprehension through her.

But the door opened.

"I have come--" she began.

The words died away in sheer affright. Glowering at her, with a queer look of gratified menace, was Rachel Craik!

"So I see," was the grim retort. "Come in, Winnie, by all means. Where have you been all these weeks?"

"There is some mistake," she faltered, white with sudden terror and nameless suspicions. "My agent told me to come here--"

"Quite right. Be quick, or you'll miss the last train home," growled the voice of Voles behind her.

Roughly, though not violently, he pushed her inside, and the door closed.

He snapped at Rachel: "She'd be yelling for help in another second, and you never know who may be pa.s.sing."

Now, Winifred was not of the order of women who faint in the presence of danger. Her love had given her a great strength; her suffering had deepened her fine nature; and her very soul rebelled against the cruel subterfuge which had been practised to separate her from her lover. She saw, with the magic intuition of her s.e.x, that the very essence of a deep-laid plot was that Rex and she should be kept apart.

The visit of Mrs. Carshaw, then, was only a part of the same determined scheme? Rex's mother had been a puppet in the hands of those who carried her to Connecticut, who strove so determinedly to take her away when Carshaw put in an appearance, and who had tricked her into keeping this bogus appointment. She would defy them, face death itself rather than yield.

In the America of to-day, nothing short of desperate crime could long keep her from Rex's arms. What a weak, silly, romantic girl she had been not to trust in him absolutely! The knowledge nerved her to a fine scorn.

"What right have you to treat me in this way?" she cried vehemently.

"You have lied to me; brought me here by a forged letter. Let me go instantly, and perhaps my just indignation may not lead me to tell my agent how you have dared to use his name with false pretense."

"Ho, ho!" sang out Voles. "The little bird pipes an angry note. Be pacified, my sweet linnet. You were getting into bad company. It was the duty of your relatives to rescue you."

"My relatives! Who are they who claim kinship? I see here one who posed as my aunt for many years--"

"Posed, Winnie?"

Miss Craik affected a croak of regretful protest.

Winifred's eyes shot lightnings.

"Yes. I am sure you are not my aunt. Many things I can recall prove it to me. Why do you never mention my father and mother? What wrong have I done to any living soul that, ever since you were mixed up in the attack on Mr. Ronald Tower, you should deal with me as if I were a criminal or a lunatic, and seek to part me from those who would befriend me?"

"Hush, little girl," interposed Voles, with mock severity. "You don't know what you're saying. You are hurting your dear aunt's feelings. She is your aunt. I ought to know, considering that you are my daughter!"

"Your daughter!"

Now, indeed, she felt ready to dare dragons. This coa.r.s.e, brutal giant of a man her father! Her gorge rose at the suggestion. Almost fiercely she resolved to hold her own against these persecutors who scrupled not to use any lying device that would suit their purpose.

"Yes," he cried truculently. "Don't I come up to your expectations?"

"If you are my father," she said, with a strange self-possession that came to her aid in this trying moment, "where is my mother?"

"Sorry to say she died long since."

"Did you murder her as you tried to murder Mr. Tower?"

The chance shot went home, though it hit her callous hearer in a way she could not then appreciate. He swore violently.

"You're my daughter, I tell you," he vociferated, "and the first thing you have to learn is obedience. Your head has been turned, young lady, by your pretty Rex and his nice ways. I'll have to teach you not to address me in that fashion. Take her to her room, Rachel."

Driven to frenzy by a dreadful and wholly unexpected predicament, Winifred cast off the hand her "aunt" laid on her shoulder.

"Let me go!" she screamed. "I will not accompany you. I do not believe a word you say. If you touch me, I shall defend myself."

"Spit-fire, eh?" she heard Voles say. There was something of a struggle.

She never knew exactly what happened. She found herself clasped in his giant arms and heard his half jesting protest:

"Now, my b.u.t.terfly, don't beat your little wings so furiously, or you'll hurt yourself."