XVIII
DOWN, BRUNO!
For six days after the night of revelations Kent dived deep, personallyand by paid proxy, in a sea of secrecy which, but for the five pregnantminutes in the doorway of the governor's office, might easily have provedfathomless.
On the seventh day the conflagration broke out. The editor of the Belmount_Refiner_ was the first to smell smoke and to raise the cry of "Fire!" butby midnight the wires were humming with the news and the entire State wasablaze.
The story as it appeared under the scare headlines the next morning wascrisply told. An oil company had been formed with Senator Duvall at itshead. After its incorporation it was ascertained that it not only heldoptions on all the most valuable wells in the Belmount region, but thatits charter gave it immunity from the law requiring all corporations tohave their organizations, officers, and operating headquarters in theState. By the time the new company was three days old it had quietly takenup its options and was the single big fish in the pool by virtue of itshaving swallowed all the little ones.
Then came the finishing stroke which had set the wires to humming. On thesixth day it was noised about that Senator Duvall had transferred hiscontrolling interest to Rumford--otherwise to the Universal Oil Company;that he had served only as a figurehead in the transaction, using hisstanding, social and political, to secure the charter which had beendenied Rumford and his associates.
It had all been managed very skilfully; the capping of the wells by theUniversal's agent, the practical sealing up of the entire district, beingthe first public intimation of the result of Duvall's treachery and thecomplete triumph of a foreign monopoly.
The storm that swept the State when the facts came out was cyclonic, andit was reported, as it needed to be, that Senator Duvall had disappeared.Never in the history of the State had public feeling risen so high; andthere were not lacking those who said that if Duvall showed himself hislife would not be safe in the streets of the capital.
It was after the _Argus_ had gone to press on the night of explosions thatEditor Hildreth sought and found David Kent in his rooms at the Clarendon,and poured out the vials of his wrath.
"Say, I'd like to know if you cue-call this giving me a fair show!" hedemanded, flinging into Kent's sitting-room and dropping into a chair."Did I, or did I not understand that I was to have the age on this oilbusiness when there was anything fit to print?"
Kent gave the night editor a cigar and was otherwise exasperatinglyimperturbable.
"Keep your clothes on, and don't accuse a man of disloyalty until you haveall the documents in the case," he said. "I didn't know, until I saw yourbulletin a few hours ago, that the thing had been pulled off. In fact,I've been too busy with other things to pay much attention to the Belmountend of it."
"The ded-devil you have!" sputtered Hildreth, chewing savagely on the giftcigar. "I'd like to know what business you had to mix up in other thingsto the detriment of my news column. You were the one man who knew allabout it; or at least you did a week or two ago."
"Yes; but other and more important things have intervened. I have beendesperately busy, as I say."
"Well, you've lost your chance to get your grip on the capitol gang,anyway; that is one comfort," growled the editor, getting what consolationhe could out of Kent's apparent failure. "They played it too fuf-fine foryou."
"Did they?" said Kent.
"It looks pretty much that way, doesn't it? Duvall is the scapegoat, andthe only one. About day after to-morrow Bucks' organ, the _Tribune_, willcome out with an 'inspired' editorial whitewashing the entire capitoloutfit. It will show how Rumford's application for the charter wasrefused, and how a truly good and beneficent state government has beenhoodwinked and betrayed by one of its most trusted supporters."
Kent threw off his street coat and went to get his dressing-gown from thewardrobe in the bedroom. When he came back he said: "Hildreth, you havetaken me at my word thus far, and you haven't had occasion to call meeither a knave or a fool. Do it a little longer and I'll put you in theway of touching off a set-piece of pyrotechnics that will double discountthis mild little snap-cracker of the Belmount business."
"Can't you do it now?"
"No; the time isn't ripe yet. We must let the _Tribune's_ coat ofwhitewash dry in first."
Hildreth wriggled in his chair.
"Kent, if I thought it would do any good, I'd cuc-curse you out; I wouldfor a fact. You are too blamed close-mouthed for any ordinary newspaperuse."
But Kent only laughed at him. Now that the strain was in some measurerelaxed he could stand any amount of abuse from so good a friend as thenight editor.
"Turn on the hot water if you want to, and if it will relieve thepressure. I know about how you feel; and I'd be as sore as you are if Ididn't know that I am going to make it up to you a little later on. Butabout this oil blaze and to-morrow's--or to-day's--issue of the _Argus_. Ihope you haven't said too much."
"I haven't sus-said anything. The stuff trickled in by Associated wire atthe last minute, and we had to cut and slash for space and run it prettymuch as it came--the bare story."
"All right; that's better. Now suppose you hint darkly that only half ofthe truth has come out; that more--and more startling--developments may besafely predicted in the immediate hence. Hit it up hard toward thecapitol, and don't be afraid of libeling anybody."
Hildreth's eyes narrowed.
"Say, Kent; you have grown a lot in these last few weeks: what is yourdiet?"
"Hard work--and a determination to make my brag good."
"To down the ring, you mean?"
"Yes; to down the ring."
"Are you any nearer to it than you were when you began?"
"A good many parasangs."
"By Jove! I more than half believe you've got hold of somethingded-definite at last!"
"I have, indeed. Hildreth, I have evidence--printable evidence--enough todig a dozen political graves, one of them big enough to hold Jasper G.Bucks' six-feet-two."
"Let me see it!" said the night editor, eagerly; but Kent laughed andpushed him toward the door.
"Go home and go to bed. I wouldn't show it to you to-night if I had ithere--as I have not. I don't go around with a stick of dynamite in mypocket."
"Where is it?" Hildreth asked.
"It is in a safety-deposit box in the vault of the Security Bank; where itis going to stay until I am ready to use it. Go home, I say, and let me goto bed. I'm ragged enough to sleep the clock around."
In spite of his weariness, which was real enough, Kent was up betimes thenext morning. He had a wire appointment with Blashfield Hunnicott and twoothers in Gaston, and he took an early train to keep it. The ex-localattorney met him at the station with a two-seated rig; and on the way tothe western suburbs they picked up Frazee, the county assessor, and Orton,the appraiser of the Apache Building and Loan Association.
"Hunnicott has told you what I am after," said Kent, when the surrey partywas made up. "We all know the property well enough, but to have it allfair and above-board, we'll drive out and look it over, so that ourknowledge may be said to be fully up to date."
Twenty minutes afterward the quartet was locating the corners of a squarein Gaston's remotest suburb; an "addition" whose only improvements werethe weathered and rotting street and lot stakings on the bare, brownplain.
"'Lots 1 to 56 in Block 10, Guilford & Hawk's Addition,'" said Kent,reading from a memorandum in his note-book. "It lies beautifully, doesn'tit?"
"Yes; for a chicken farm," chuckled the assessor.
"Well, give me your candid opinion, you two: what is the property worth?"
The Building and Loan man scratched his chin.
"Say fifty dollars for the plot--if you'll fence it."
"No, put it up. You are having a little boom here now: give it the topboom price, if you like."
The two referees drew apart and laid their heads together.
"As property is going here just now, fifty dollars for the inside lots
,and one hundred dollars apiece for the corners; say three thousand for theplot. And that is just about three times as much as anybody but aland-crazy idiot would give for it." It was Frazee who announced thedecision.
"Thank you both until you are better paid. Now we'll go back to town andyou can write me a joint letter stating the fact. If you think it will getyou disliked here at home, make the figure higher; make it high enough sothat all Gaston will be dead sure to approve."
"You are going to print it?" asked the Building and Loan appraiser.
"I may want to. You may shape it to that end."
"I'll stand by my figures," said Frazee. "It will give me my little chanceto get back at the governor. I had it assessed as unimproved suburbanproperty at so much the lot, but he made a kick to the board ofequalization and got it put in as unimproved farm land at fifty dollars anacre." Then, looking at his watch: "We'd better be getting back, if youhave to catch the Accommodation. Won't you stay over and visit with us?"
"I can't, this time; much obliged," said Kent; and they drove to theBuilding and Loan office where the joint letter of appraisal was writtenand signed.
Kent caught his train with something to spare, and was back at the capitalin good time to keep a dinner engagement at Miss Van Brock's. He hadunderstood that Ormsby would be the only other guest. But Portia had alittle surprise in store for him. Loring had dropped in, unannounced, fromthe East; and Portia, having first ascertained that Mrs. Brentwood'sasthma was prohibitive of late dinings-out, had instructed Ormsby to bringElinor and Penelope.
Kent had been saving the results of his deep-sea divings in the oil-fieldinvestigation to spread them out before Miss Van Brock and Ormsby "incommittee," but he put a padlock on his lips when he saw the others.
Portia gave him Elinor to take out, and he would have rejoiced brazenly ifthe table talk, from the bouillon to the ices, had not been persistentlygeneral, turning most naturally upon the Universal Oil Company'ssuccessful _coup_ in the Belmount field. Kent kept out of it as much as hecould, striving manfully to monopolize Elinor for his own especial behoof;but finally Portia laid her commands upon him.
"You are not to be allowed to maroon yourself with Miss Brentwood anylonger," she said dictatorially. "You know more about the unpublished partof this Belmount conspiracy than any one else excepting the conspiratorsthemselves, and you are to tell us all about it."
Kent looked up rather helplessly.
"Really, I--I'm not sure that I know anything worth repeating at yourdinner-table," he protested.
But Miss Van Brock made a mock of his caution.
"You needn't be afraid. I pledged everybody to secrecy before you came. Itis understood that we are in 'executive session.' And if you don't knowmuch, you may tell us what you know now more than you knew before you knewso little as you know now."
"Hold on," said Kent; "will you please say that over again and say itslowly?"
"Never mind," laughed Ormsby. "Miss Portia has a copyright on that. Butbefore you begin, I'd like to know if the newspapers have it straight asfar as they have gone into it?"
"They have, all but one small detail. They are saying that Senator Duvallhas left the city and the State."
"Hasn't he?" Loring asked.
"He hadn't yesterday."
"My-oh!" said Portia. "They will mob him if he shows himself."
Kent nodded assent.
"He knows it: he is hiding out. But I found him."
"Where?" from the three women in chorus.
"In his own house, out in Pentland Place. The family has been away sinceApril, and the place has been shut up. I took him the first meal he'd hadin thirty-six hours."
Portia clapped her hands. The butler came in with the coffee and shedismissed him and bade him shut the doors.
"Now begin at the very tip end of the beginning," she commanded.
Kent had a sharp little tussle with his inborn reticence, thrust it to thewall and told a plain tale.
"It begins in a piece of reckless folly. Shortly after I left Mrs.Brentwood's last Thursday evening I had a curious experience. The shortestway down-town is diagonally through the capitol grounds, but someundefinable impulse led me to go around on the Capitol Avenue side. As Iwas passing the right wing of the building I saw lights in the governor'sroom, and in a sudden fit of desperation resolved to go up and have it outwith Bucks. It was abnormally foolish, I'll confess. I had nothingdefinite to go on; but I--well, I was keyed up to just about the rightpitch, and I thought I might bluff him."
"Mercy me! You do need a guardian angel worse than anybody I know!" Portiacut in. "Do go on."
Kent nodded.
"I had one that night; angel or demon, whichever you please. I was fairlydragged into doing what I did. When I reached the upper corridor the doorof the public anteroom was ajar, and I heard voices. The outer room wasnot lighted, but the door between it and the governor's private office wasopen. I went in and stood in that open doorway for as much as fiveminutes, I think, and none of the four men sitting around the governor'swriting-table saw me."
He had his small audience well in hand by this time, and Ormsby's questionwas almost mechanical. "Who were the four?"
"After the newspaper rapid-fire of this morning you might guess them all.They were his Excellency, Grafton Hendricks, Rumford, and Senator Duvall.They were in the act of closing the deal as I became an onlooker. Rumfordhad withdrawn his application for a charter, and another 'straw' companyhad been formed with Duvall at its head. I saw at once what I fancy Duvallnever suspected; that he was going to be made the scapegoat for the ring.They all promised to stand by him--and you see how that promise has beenkept."
"Good heavens!" ejaculated Loring. "What a despicable lot of scoundrels!But the bribe: did you learn anything about that?"
"I saw it," said Kent, impressively. "It was a slip of paper passed acrossthe table by Rumford to Bucks, face down. Bucks glanced at it before hethrust it into his pocket, and I had my glimpse, too. It was a draft on aChicago bank, but I could not read the figures, and I doubt if either ofthe other conspirators knew the amount. Then the governor tossed a foldedpaper over to the oil man, saying, 'There is your deed to the choicestpiece of property in all Gaston, and you've got it dirt cheap.' I cameaway at that."
Elinor's sigh was almost a sob; but Miss Van Brock's eyes were dancing.
"Go on, go on," she exclaimed. "That is only the beginning."
Kent's smile was of reminiscent weariness.
"I found it so, I assure you. So far as any usable evidence was concerned,I was no better off than before; it was merely my assertion against theirdenial--one man against four. But I have had a full week, and it has notbeen wasted. I needn't bore you with the mechanical details. One of my menfollowed Bucks' messenger to Chicago--he wouldn't trust the banks here orthe mails--and we know now, know it in black on white, with the properaffidavits, that the draft was for two hundred thousand dollars, payableto the order of Jasper G. Bucks. The ostensible consideration was thetransfer from Bucks to Rumford of a piece of property in the outskirts ofGaston. I had this piece of land appraised for me to-day by twodisinterested citizens of Gaston, and they valued it at a possible, buthighly improbable, three thousand."
"Oh, how clumsy!" said Portia, in fine scorn. "Does his Excellency imaginefor a moment that any one would be deceived by such a primitive bit ofdust-throwing?" and Ormsby also had something to say about the fatalmistakes of the shrewdest criminals.
"It was not so bad," said Kent. "If it should ever be charged that he tookmoney from Rumford, here is a plain business transaction to account forit. The deed, as recorded, has nothing to say of the enormous price paid.The phrasing is the common form used when the parties to the transfer donot wish to make the price public: 'For one dollar to me in hand paid, andother valuable considerations.' Luckily, we are able to establishconclusively what the 'other valuable considerations' were."
"It seems to me that these documents arm and equip you for anything youwant to do," said L
oring, polishing his eye-glasses after his ingrainedhabit.
Kent shook his head.
"No; thus far the evidence is all circumstantial, or rather inferential.But I picked up the final link in the chain--the human link--yesterday.One of the detectives had been dogging Duvall. Two days ago the senatordisappeared, unaccountably. I put two and two together, and late lastevening took the liberty of breaking into his house."
"Alone?" said Elinor, with the courage-worshiping light in the blue-grayeyes.
"Yes; it didn't seem worth while to double the risk. I did it ratherclumsily, I suppose, and my greeting was a shot fired at random in thedarkness--the senator mistaking me for a burglar, as he afterwardexplained. There was no harm done, and the pistol welcome effectuallybroke the ice in what might otherwise have been a rather difficultinterview. We had it out in an upper room, with the gas turned low and thewindow curtains drawn. To cut a long story short, I finally succeeded inmaking him understand what he was in for; that his confederates had usedhim and thrown him aside. Then I went out and brought him some supper."
Ormsby smote softly upon the edge of the table with an extendedforefinger.
"Will he testify?" he asked.
Kent's rejoinder was definitive.
"He has put himself entirely in my hands. He is a ruined man, politicallyand socially, and he is desperate. While I couldn't make him give me anyof the details in the Trans-Western affair, he made a clean breast of theoil field deal, and I have his statement locked up with the other papersin the Security vaults."
It was Penelope who gave David Kent his due meed of praise.
"I am neither a triumphant politician nor a successful detective, but Irecognize both when they are pointed out to me," she said. "Mr. Kent, willyou serve these gentlemen up hot for dinner, or cold for luncheon?"
"Yes," Portia chimed in. "You have outrun your pace-setters, and I'm proudof you. Tell us what you mean to do next."
Kent laughed.
"You want to make me say some melodramatic thing about having the shacklesforged and snapping them upon the gubernatorial wrists, don't you? It willbe prosaic enough from this on. I fancy we shall have no difficulty now inconvincing his Excellency of the justice of our proceedings to quash JudgeMacFarlane and his receiver."
"But how will you go about it? Surely you can not go personally andthreaten the governor of the State!" this from Miss Brentwood.
"Can't I?" said Kent. "Having the score written out and safely committedto memory, that will be quite the easiest number on the programme, Iassure you."
But Loring had something to say about the risk.
"Thus far you have not considered your personal safety--haven't had to,perhaps. But you are coming to that now. You are dealing with a desperateman, David; with a gang of them, in fact."
"That is so," said Ormsby. "And, as chairman of the executive committee, Ishall have to take steps. We can't afford to bury you just yet, Kent."
"I think you needn't select the pall-bearers yet a while," laughed theundaunted one; and then Miss Van Brock gave the signal and the "executivecommittee" adjourned to the drawing-room. Here the talk, already so deeplychanneled in the groove political, ran easily to forecastings andpredictions for another electoral year; and when Penelope began to yawnbehind her fan, Ormsby took pity on her and the party broke up.
It was at the moment of leave-taking that Elinor sought and found herchance to extract a promise from David Kent.
"I must have a word with you before you do what you say you are going todo," she whispered hurriedly. "Will you come to see me?"
"Certainly, if you wish it. But you mustn't let Loring's nervousnessinfect you. There is no danger."
"There is a danger," she insisted, "a much greater danger than the one Mr.Loring fears. Come as soon as you can, won't you?"
It was a new thing for her to plead with him, and he promised in an accessof tumultuous hope reawakened by her changed attitude. But afterward, whenhe was walking down-town with Loring, the episode troubled him a little;would have troubled him more if he had not been so deeply interested inLoring's story of the campaign in the East.
Taking it all in all, the ex-manager's report was encouraging. The NewEnglanders were by no means disposed to lie down in the harness, and sincethe Western Pacific proper was an interstate line, the Advisory Board hadtaken its grievance to Washington. Many of the small stockholders werestanding firm, though there had been panicky defections in spite of allthat could be done. Loring had no direct evidence to sustain the stockdeal theory; but it was morally certain that the Plantagould brokers werepicking up Western Pacific by littles wherever they could find it.
"I am inclined to believe we haven't much time to lose," was Kent'scomment. "Things will focus here long before Washington can get action.The other lines are bringing a tremendous pressure to bear on Guilford,whose cut rates are demoralizing business frightfully. The fictitious boomin Trans-Western traffic is about worked out; and for political reasonsBucks can't afford to have the road in the hands of his henchmen when thecollapse comes. The major is bolstering things from week to week now untilthe Plantagould people get what they are after--a controlling majority ofthe stock--and then Judge MacFarlane will come back."
They were within two squares of the Clarendon, and the cross-street wasdeserted save for a drunken cow-boy in shaps and sombrero staggeringaimlessly around the corner.
"That's curious," Loring remarked. "Don't you know, I saw that samefellow, or his double, lurching across the avenue as we came out ofAlameda Square, and I wondered what he was doing out in that region."
"It was his double, I guess," said Kent. "This one is many pegs too drunkto have covered the distance as fast as we have been walking."
But drunk or sober, the cow-boy turned up again most unexpectedly; thistime at the entrance of the alley half-way down the block. In passing hestumbled heavily against Kent; there was a thick-tongued oath, and Loringstruck out smartly with his walking-stick. By consequence the man's pistolwent off harmlessly in the air. The shot brought a policeman lumberingheavily up from the street beyond, and the skirling of relief whistlesshrilled on the night. But the man with a pistol had twisted out of Kent'sgrasp and was gone in a flash.
"By Jove!" said Loring, breathing hard; "he wasn't as drunk as he seemedto be!"
Kent drew down his cuffs and shook himself straight in his coat.
"No; he wasn't drunk at all; I guess he was the man you saw when we cameout of the square." Then, as the policeman came up puffing: "Let me do thetalking; the whisky theory will be good enough for the newspapers."
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