The Case and the Girl Part 27

"Ash.o.r.e, perhaps, by this time."

"Then we cannot be far away from land?"

"I have no means of knowing. Probably not, if they relied upon oars."

"Why should they? There was a mast and sails stowed in the boat; they were always kept there for an emergency." She lifted her eyes, and stared about into the gloom. "Do you suppose, Captain West, they could have remained nearby to make sure the yacht sank?"

"No, I do not," he said firmly. "I thought of that once myself; but it is not at all probable. They were too certain they had done a good job, and too eager to get away safely. Hogan never deemed it possible for us to get away alive. As it was, the escape was almost a miracle."

"A miracle!" softly. "Perhaps so, yet I know who accomplished it. I owe my life to you, Captain West," she paused doubtfully, and then went on impulsively. "Won't you explain to me now what it all means? How you came to be here? and--and why those men sought in this way to kill me?"

"You do not know?"

"Only in the vaguest way; is it my fortune? I have been held prisoner; lied to, and yet nothing has been made clear. This man who went down in the cabin--you said he died trying to save me?"

"Yes; he endeavoured to release you from the stateroom, and was caught by Hogan. In the struggle he received a death wound."

"I heard them fight. This Hogan then was the leader?"

"Of those on board--yes. But he is only the tool of others. This devilish conspiracy has been plotted for a long while. There must be a dozen involved in it, one way or another, but, as near as I can learn, the chief devil, the brains of the gang, is the fellow named Hobart. Have you known him--long?"

She hesitated, and West glanced aside wonderingly. Would she venture to deny her knowledge of the man?

"No," she said at last doubtfully, "not unless his other name was Jim.

There was a fellow they called Jim. He was my jailer after that woman locked me into a room."

"A woman? The same one who was with you on the yacht?"

"Yes."

"Where was this?"

"Why surely you must know. In that cottage where we stopped with Percival Coolidge."

He drew a deep breath, more thoroughly puzzled than ever. What could be her purpose to make so bold an effort to deceive? Did she imagine for a moment that he could be made to believe she had been continuously held prisoner since that Sunday morning? It was preposterous. Why, he had seen her again and again with his own eyes; had talked with her, and so had s.e.xton. His heart sank, but he determined to go on, and learn how far she would carry this strange tale. Perhaps out of the welter he could discern some truth.

"The fellow's name is Jim, all right, Jim Hobart. I've looked him up in the police records. He is a confidence man, with one charge of a.s.sault with attempt to kill against him. Nothing lately, however; it seems he disappeared about ten years ago, and has just drifted back. The woman pa.s.ses as his wife. You knew nothing of all this?"

"No; I only saw the man twice; he was very rough then, and swore when I questioned him."

"And the woman?"

"She would not talk either; only once she told me that Percival Coolidge had committed suicide. That made me wonder, for I believed he had something to do with my being held there. What did he say when he returned to the auto without me? What explanation did he make for my absence?"

"Explanation! He needed none; you came out of the cottage with him."

"I? What do you mean?"

"But I saw you with my own eyes, talked with you, and all three of us drove back to 'Fairlawn' together. My G.o.d, Miss Natalie, have you lost your mind? Do you even deny dismissing me from your service?"

She gazed at him through the gloom, utterly unable to comprehend.

"I must have, if what you say is true," she admitted, "For I certainly have no such recollection."

"You remember nothing of going back with us to 'Fairlawn'?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"Or of a conversation had with me later in the library?"

"No, Captain West."

He stared off into the black night, his lips pressed closely together.

Could this be false? Could she sit there calmly, in the midst of such peril as surrounded them, and still deliberately endeavour to deceive?

"And you knew nothing of the death of Percival Coolidge, except what was told you by that woman?"

"She brought me a newspaper which I read; that was all I knew."

"And in that house on Wray Street where I met you again last night. I suppose you were not there either?"

"Wray Street? I do not know; I was at some place with a saloon on the ground floor. I could not tell you where it was."

"That is where it was--Wray Street, on the northwest side, a thieves'

rendezvous. And you talked with me there; tried to get me to quit following you. You surely haven't forgotten that already?"

She dropped her face wearily into her hands, and her voice sounded listless.

"I--I almost believe you are the crazy one, Captain West. I swear I have never knowingly met, or spoken to you since we drove to that cottage on Sunday. I cannot believe what you say."

"Yet it is true, every word true"; he a.s.serted stoutly. "Why else should I be here? You returned with us to 'Fairlawn,' and we chatted together pleasantly all the way. Later you seemed to change, and discharged me rather rudely. Then Percival Coolidge was killed--shot down by an a.s.sa.s.sin, not a suicide. I know because I found the body. You were at the inquest, and testified. I saw you with my own eyes. The next day you discharged s.e.xton, and later he learned, and reported to me, that some one called you on the phone from Wray Street, and wanted you to come over there at once."

"Was that why you went there?"

"Yes; I felt something was wrong; the killing of Percival Coolidge had aroused my suspicions; and I sought to learn who those people were you had visited in the cottage. They were gone, and only for this telephone call, I should have lost the trail entirely. I found you there, and this fellow Hobart with you."

"But, Captain West, I never saw you; I never left the room in the third story where I was locked in, except when they took me away in a machine to the yacht."

"You dropped a note in the alley, enclosed in a silver knife?"

"Yes, I did. I dared not hope it would be found, but I took the chance.

Did you find it?"

"s.e.xton did, and that was what brought me here."

"But it is all so strange," she exclaimed despairingly. "How could I have done all these things, been in all these places, and yet know nothing about it? Could I have been drugged? or influenced in some way by those people? I have read there is such a power--where one person can make another obey absolutely, with no knowledge of what he is doing; what do they call that?"

"Hypnotism. I have seen it cut some odd capers; but I do not believe you were either hypnotized or drugged. Good G.o.d; why did I not think of this solution before? I must have been blind; that was not you; I can recall a hundred little things now to convince me."