The Silver Butterfly

by Mrs. Wilson Woodrow

  CHAPTER XVI

  As was natural after so restless a night, Hayden slept late the nextmorning, but when he awoke it was with his usual sense of buoyantoptimism. The forebodings of the night had vanished, and the good, glad,fat years stretched before him in an unclouded vista. To-day in allprobability marked the conclusion of his comparatively lean years. A halfan hour of conversation with those mysterious "owners," the disclosure ofhis maps, photographs, ore samples, the report of the assayers, etc., andthen, the final arrangements. It might result in a trip to the property;but a journey made, his high heart promised, with Marcia.

  At the thought of her a slight cloud obscured the shining towers of hisSpanish castles. He recalled with a pang her pallor, her agitation of thenight before. Something had evidently lain heavily upon her mind; she hadbeen greatly distressed, even alarmed; but with the confidence of a loverhe saw himself a god of the machine, consoling, reassuring, dissipatinggrief, and causing smiles to take the place of tears.

  Upheld by these pleasant reflections, he breakfasted and then strolledthrough the rooms. They had been put in perfect order. And with theexception of the orchids, now sedately arranged in bowls and vases,instead of fluttering from palm-trees and lattices, there was no trace ofthe last night's festivities. Suddenly he bethought himself of gettingtogether his photographs, etc., in readiness for the interview of theafternoon; but they were no longer on the small table between thedrawing-room windows, where he had placed them the night before.

  After seeking for them in every likely place for a few moments, Haydenrather impatiently summoned Tatsu and demanded to know what he had donewith them. Tatsu, however, was a picture of the grieved ignorance heprofessed. He said that after every one had left the apartment, the nightbefore, he had locked up very carefully and gone to bed; that he hadarisen early in the morning, shortly after five, and had put the rooms intheir present and complete order; and he was positive that there were nophotographs upon the table then.

  Hayden questioned him closely about the extra servants taken on for theoccasion; but he insisted that none of them had penetrated farther thanthe dining-room, and that he, himself had seen them all leave before thedeparture of the guests.

  "There is a possibility that I may have tucked them away somewhere andhave forgotten about them," said Hayden half-heartedly. "Come, Tatsu, letus get to work and make a systematic search for them. Don't overlook anypossible nook or cranny into which they may inadvertently have beenthrown."

  The two of them, master and man, made a diligent and careful search,taking perhaps an hour, but not a trace of the lost package could theyfind; then, dazed, puzzled beyond words, unbelieving still, but with aheavy sinking of the heart, Hayden sat down to face the situation, tomake some attempt to review it calmly and to get matters clear in his ownmind.

  Their recent search eliminated himself from the situation; reluctantly herelinquished the hope that in an absent-minded moment he had disposed ofhis precious bundle in some out-of-the-way place. No, he and Tatsu hadsought too thoroughly for that to remain a possibility. Eliminating thenhimself, there remained Tatsu. Although perfectly convinced in his ownmind of his valet's innocence, still, for the purposes of inquiry, hewould presume him to be the thief. Of course nothing could have beeneasier than for him to purloin the photographs; but what reason would hehave for doing so? The motive, where would be the motive? Would not thereasonable hypothesis be that the Japanese had been approached by some ofthe owners of the property, who either fearing or suspecting that he,Hayden, held visible proofs of the lost mine, had bribed his servant togain the desired information? But admitting this to be the case, andHayden did not believe it for a moment, why had Tatsu remained instead ofdeparting as prudence would seem to dictate?

  That of course could be explained by assuming that prudence dictatedanother line of policy, that he deemed it the best way of avertingsuspicion. Perhaps! But the conclusion was not particularly satisfactory.Every lead Robert had followed seemed to bring him to a blind wall. Herose restlessly and walked up and down the room, and then sat down again,drumming drearily on the arm of his chair. What now? What new line couldhe follow? By eliminating the servants, Tatsu, and himself, whatremained? His guests. He felt a swift recoil at the bare suggestion, eventhough a mental and hidden one, of implicating them in this matter, andexperienced a succeeding disgust and impulse to abandon his inquiry atonce.

  Yet, there were the facts, the ugly, inexplicable facts staring him inthe face, and he knew that it would be impossible for him to abandon thematter, mentally at least, until he had arrived at some sort of asatisfactory solution. His guests, he ran them over. In every instance,even if they were capable of such an act, the motive was lacking, save inone case. Steadily as the needle veers to the pole, his suspicionspointed to the Mariposa. There at least the motive was not lacking.

  Ah, he reflected, falling into deeper gloom, if she had them, then he wasindeed lost. Even now, by this time, there would be a set of duplicatephotographs made, and careful copies of his charts and maps. In somepeculiar way he would probably find the photographs again on his table,and all further communication with him on the subject of The VeiledMariposa would doubtless be declined by the owners of the property, theirvoice being Mademoiselle Mariposa. Within the shortest possible time, oneof their prospectors on the property would discover the hidden trail, andthe owners would begin immediate operations, and he as much out of alltransactions as if he did not exist.

  Suppose he put a detective on the case immediately; it was extremelylikely that before the man could take any steps in the matter or decideon the line he meant to follow, the photographs would again be inHayden's possession.

  No, he thought in bitter cynicism, he might as well await their returnwith what calmness he could muster, for he saw little or no use in takingany definite steps in the matter.

  For a time he remained sunk in a listless dejection, sitting among theashes of his hopes, his dreams of vast wealth gone, his shining Spanishcastles in ruins about him. But again his dulled brain began to work. Howdid Ydo secure the photographs, if indeed it were she who had securedthem? She had come late, laid aside her wraps in the dressing-room, andhad entered the drawing-room followed by her secretary. From the momentof her first appearance he remembered practically every motion she hadmade. She had not moved about at all during her brief stay and hadcertainly not been anywhere near the table which had held thephotographs, but had seated herself and gone through her tricks on theopposite side of the room.

  Now as to the secretary. Well, she on her part had not moved from thepiano-stool. He could see her, too, enter the room and leave it. Thewhole mental picture of the group was portrayed before him. As hedistinctly remembered, the person who stood nearest the table whileMademoiselle Mariposa drew aside the veil of the future, was EdithSymmes, who sat almost directly before it. To the left of her was Marcia,pale and sad, and close beside her Horace Penfield. Heavens! He jumpedimpatiently to his feet. He was simply getting into a morbid muddlesitting here brooding over this matter. He must have action, action ofsome kind, and obeying a sudden impulse, he decided to see Ydo at once.

  Wasting no time in reflection, he telephoned to her apartment, andimpressed upon the surprised and reluctant maid that no matter who wasthere, or what the appointments for the day might be, he must see hermistress within the half-hour on business of the most imperative nature.

  His rapid and excited speech must have impressed the young woman with theurgency of the case, for she presently returned to the telephone with themessage that if he would call within the next twenty minutes MademoiselleMariposa would see him.

  It is needless to say that Hayden lost no time in getting to theMariposa's apartment-house, but reached it as fast as a chauffeur couldbe induced to make the run thither, and was, after a very brief delay,admitted to Ydo's library. She was sitting there alone, looking over anewspaper, and as he came through the door she sprang up smilingly andexpectantly to meet him. Then at the sight of his pale
and harassed faceshe recoiled in evident and unsimulated surprise.

  "Why, what is the matter?" she cried. "You have aged a thousand years!"

  "Matter enough!" he exclaimed. "The photographs and maps of The VeiledMariposa are all, all gone. They have been taken." He shot the words ather as from a rapid-fire gun, watching keenly from narrowed and scornfuleyes the effect upon her.

  Her very lips grew white. "Impossible!" she gasped. "Impossible!" Hersurprise was as genuine as the slow, sickly pallor which had over-spreadher face. He could not doubt her. Supremely clever woman as she was, shewas incapable of this kind of acting. He gave a quick sob, almost a sobof relief. If not against him she would be for him and her assistancewould be invaluable, especially since their interests were pooled.

  "Then you," he stammered involuntarily, "you know nothing about it?"

  "I!" Her eyes glittered in quick anger. "Of what are you thinking? Oh, Isee." She was laughing now. "Oh, no, no, no! Dear me, no! That would notsuit my game at all. If you knew the circumstances and, if I may ventureto suggest it, myself better you would never have dreamed of such athing. But," frowning now, "when and how were they taken? Begin at thebeginning and tell me all about it."

  "There is nothing much to tell," he said. "I sent for the photographswhile still at the dinner-table intending to tell my guests the story ofthe mine, but--but--" He stammered a little. "I changed my mind. When weleft the table I carried them with me, and placed them on the small tablebetween the drawing-room windows."

  "And left them there?" she asked quickly.

  "Yes, after laying them on the table I dismissed them from my mind, hadno further remembrance of them until this morning. Then I went to getthem and found them gone. My first idea was that having the appointmentwith you for this afternoon so on my mind I had probably gotten up in thenight and hidden the package somewhere, either when asleep or in a stateof half-wakefulness; but Tatsu and I made a most thorough search of theentire apartment, over-looking no possible receptacle where I might havehidden them, and there is absolutely no trace of them."

  "The servants," she said rapidly.

  "I was coming to them. They were all taken on for the dinner, with theexception of Tatsu, who has been with me for years, and whom, I think, Iwould trust further than I would myself. When I questioned him he wasextremely clear and quick in his answers. His story is that the extraservants all departed before my guests did, and that he personally sawthem each one leave and locked the door after them. Then, after theguests had gone he locked up the other rooms very carefully and went tobed. This morning he got up early and put the whole apartment in order;and he is positive, and when Tatsu is positive he is not apt to bemistaken, that neither the photographs nor the maps were on that table,nor indeed anywhere in the rooms at five o'clock in the morning."

  The Mariposa listened attentively to what he had to say, and then thoughtdeeply for a few moments.

  "There are only two possible explanations of the whole affair, which arein the least plausible," she said at last. "One is that some interestedperson or persons have heard of your find. It might be some prospectorwho has been tracking you for weeks, and he, or they may have stolen thepapers with a view of communicating with the owners, whom they may knowand whom they may fancy that you have not discovered. Your valet may ormay not be a tool, that remains to be discovered. Well," resolutely, "inthat case there is nothing to fear, I can assure you of that.

  "The other hypothesis is that one of the guests had a motive for removingthose especial maps and photographs, thus securing possession of them.But who and why?" As she pondered this question an expression of moststartled and amused surprise swept over her face, and then she burst outlaughing. "How funny!" she cried. "How awfully funny!" The peals of hersilver laughter rang through the room.

  "What is so awfully funny?" inquired Hayden politely, but with anirritation he could not conceal. "I assure you, it does not seem funny tome."

  Ydo had evidently recovered her spirits; the sparkle had come back to hereyes, the color to her cheeks. "Don't bother any more," she counseledblithely. "It's all going to turn out right now. You see."

  "I should prefer to know how." Hayden's irritation was increasing insteadof diminishing, and he spoke more stiffly than before. "As it is a matterwhich concerns me primarily and which has caused me much worry I think itonly fair that you should share with me the knowledge which seems tojustify you in drawing such happy conclusions."

  Hayden would never again be nearer losing his temper completely than hewas at this moment, for Ydo, after gazing at him for a moment with a sortof whimsical, mock seriousness, again broke into laughter. "Who wouldever have dreamed of her doing such a thing?" she apostrophized theceiling.

  "Her!" Hayden felt as if his heart had stopped beating for a moment andthen begun again with slow and suffocating throbs. Perhaps Ydo saw orguessed something of his emotion, for she again repeated reassuringly:"It will be all right now within a few hours. You Will see."

  "It's going to be dropped," he said in a dull, toneless voice. "It's myaffair, Mademoiselle Mariposa, and you are not going to make the leastmove in the matter. Your suspicions--whichever one of my guests theyaffect, and I can not even surmise which one you are trying toimplicate--are quite beside the mark. This is entirely my own affair, andI tell you, we are going to drop it. Do you hear?"

  Ydo leaned forward, her chin upon her hand, and surveyed him with ahumorous, unabashed and admiring scrutiny. "Brother in kind if not inkin, little brother of the wild, you are great. But do you mean what yousay? Are you really willing to run the chance of giving up a fortune toprotect--"

  "Nonsense!" he broke in roughly. "Don't go any further. There's no use intalking the thing over." He again sank into somber silence.

  But Ydo was apparently unmoved. "There is one thing I meant to ask youthis afternoon," she said, "but since I shall probably not have anopportunity to do so I want my curiosity appeased. Why is that minecalled The Veiled Mariposa? Did you happen to find out?"

  "Yes," he answered, still entirely without interest. "Because, as themaps and photographs show, the only way to reach it is by a little hiddentrail just back of a waterfall. You would never suspect it. I happened onit by the merest chance, followed it, and discovered that the mine laybehind this mountain cascade."

  "Ah, beautiful!" Ydo clapped her hands. "I remember, I am sure, the verycascade. Although perhaps not, there were many."

  "You have been on the ground then?" he asked.

  "Ah, yes, with prospectors. But," with a shrug of the shoulders, "we werenot so lucky as you."

  "The interview for the afternoon is of course off," he said, risingheavily and stretching out his hand for his hat.

  "I suppose so," conceded Ydo. She smiled and sighed. "The pretty littlecoup I had planned is smashed. I have been arranging it for weeks, eversince I learned that you were interested in--But the gods have decreedit differently and have taken the matter into their own hands. Ah, well!But I shall hear again from you to-day; and you will hear from me."