Under Cover Part 47

"Mr. Denby will be with you immediately," the butler said, and left the hall.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Denby came eagerly down the stairs, looking about him with no especial care. He had learned that the special service men a.s.sumed him to have made good his escape and were contenting themselves with surrounding the gardens.

"What's happened?" he asked, coming quickly toward her. "Is everything all right now? Where is--"

Ethel interrupted him. "Will you have a cigarette, d.i.c.k?" she asked, pushing the silver box to him.

He took it calmly enough but instantly realized her warning. His alert gaze swept about the room and dwelt no longer on the screen than any other of its furnishing, but he knew where his enemy was hidden.

"Thanks," he said simply, and lighted it with a hand that was steady.

"Now we are alone," she said, "and those men imagine you are not here, and I admit you've beaten me, please tell me the truth about that necklace. What have you done with it?"

"Are you still persisting in that strange delusion?" he asked calmly. "I never had a necklace, Miss Cartwright."

"But I know you did," she persisted, "I saw it."

"Ah, you thought you did," he corrected. "We went all over that in my room and I imagined I had persuaded you. Why do you want to know this?"

"The agent of the secret service has been here," she told him, "and he suspects that I am defending you and won't believe what I say. If you'll tell me the truth, I'll get him to let you go."

"Then the secret service agent is just as wrong as you," he remarked. "I have no necklace. Because I knock down a man who breaks into my room at night and escape rather than be shot, am I supposed on that account to carry these fabulous necklaces about with me? I don't care even to prolong this conversation, Miss Cartwright."

At this point Lambart entered, and coming toward him, delivered a small package.

"Pardon me, sir," the butler began, "but Mr Vaughan asked me to take this to your room."

"What is it?" Denby asked, and a slight movement behind the screen betokened the curiosity of the man hidden there.

"Mr. Vaughan didn't say, sir," Lambart returned. "He only said it was very important for you to get it immediately." Lambart bowed and retired.

"I wonder what on earth Monty can be sending me at this time of the night," said Denby, balancing the thing as though to judge its contents from the weight. "It must be important, so forgive me if I see what it is."

He tore the envelope open carelessly, and out of it dropped the necklace. Quickly he stooped down and picked it up, putting it in his left-hand coat-pocket.

The girl could not refrain from giving a cry as he did so. "Oh," she exclaimed, "we're done for now."

There was a crash behind them as the screen clattered to the floor and Daniel Taylor stepped over it, levelled gun in hand.

"Hands up, Denby," he commanded, and then blew his police whistle.

He looked sourly at the trembling girl by the table. "I don't know how you tipped him off, but you two are d.a.m.ned smart, aren't you? But I've got you both now, so it's just as well it happened as it did."

Gibbs and Duncan burst in, their anxious faces breaking into smiles of joy. The Chief's temper if his plans miscarried was a fixed quant.i.ty and an unpleasant one. They had been consoling themselves outside, and Duncan had been wishing he had Gibbs' outside job. Now everything would be well and they would each be able to boast in his home circle of to-night's exploit.

"You're both under arrest," Taylor said, addressing his captives.

"Boys," he commanded his satellites cordially, "take her into one of those side rooms and keep her there till I call. They can talk without speaking, these two. I'll question 'em separately."

For the second time within an hour he searched Denby. From the right-hand pocket of his dinner jacket he took an automatic pistol. From the left he drew out the string of pearls.

"It's a pippin, all right," Taylor muttered, his eyes gloating over the treasure. "How much did you pay the girl?"

"Not a cent," his prisoner a.s.serted. "Nothing. You're all wrong there."

"Then why did she tip you off just now?"

"She didn't tip me off," Denby told him. "She didn't say a word, as you yourself must have heard."

"Can it! can it!" Taylor retorted impatiently. "I saw the result all right, but I couldn't get on to the cause. What did she do it for?"

Denby shrugged his shoulders and smiled a little. It was the first time he had come off his high horse.

"Maybe," he hinted, "she didn't want to see me go to prison."

"Oh, you pulled the soft stuff, eh?" Taylor said. "Well, she tried to double-cross me and that don't pay, Denby. She'll find that out, all right."

Denby a.s.sumed a certain confidential air. "Look here, Taylor," he said, "so long as she did the decent thing by me, I'd like to see her out of this. You've got me, and you've got the pearls--Why not let her go?"

Taylor shook his head. He did not signalize his triumphs by the freeing of captives or the giving of rewards. "I guess not," he returned with his sourest look. "You've both given me a lot of unnecessary trouble, and I think a little trip down south ought to fix you two comfortably.

What do you say to five years in Atlanta? Fine winter climate they say."

"Then I guess we are up against it;" Denby sighed.

"You are, son," Taylor a.s.sured him; "right up against it."

"Take it out on me," the other implored; "ease up on her. It isn't as if she were a grafter, either. Why, I offered her twenty thousand dollars to square it."

"Tried to bribe a Government official, eh?" Taylor observed. "That don't make it any better for you."

"Oh, you can't prove it against me," Denby returned easily.

"Twenty thousand dollars," Taylor muttered; "twenty thousand dollars! So you _were_ trying to smuggle it in for the Harringtons, then?"

"I hate bringing names in," said Denby, looking at him shrewdly.

"Well, they'll have to come out in court anyway," the other reminded him, and then reverted to the money. "Twenty thousand dollars!" he repeated. "It seems to mean a whole lot to you--or somebody--to get this through, eh?"

"It does," Denby returned, "and it's a big lot of money; but I'd rather pay that than sample your winter climate down south--see?" He looked at him still with that air of confidence as though he expected Taylor to comprehend his motives.

"Say, what are you trying to do?" Taylor said sharply; "bribe me?"

"What an imagination you have!" Denby said in astonishment. "Why, you couldn't be bribed, Mr. Taylor!"