CHAPTER VII--THE EMERGENCY MAN
"Sixty-fourth and Central Park East. Otherwise Fifth Avenue, boss." Thedriver of the pink-and-gray made the announcement through the openwindow behind the wheel seat as he drew up at the park-side curb. "Whereaway, now?"
"Nowhere away. We've arrived. How much says the clock?"
"Dollar twenty--to you." The overcharge was committed with the usualstress of favoring the fare.
Why-Not Pape reached across with two green singles. "Keep the bonus,friend robber. Likely you need it more than I. If you've any scruples,though, you can overcome 'em by telling me what building that is, thedingy one with the turrets, back among the park trees."
"Arsenal they calls it. Police station."
Succinct as his service, the licensed highwayman of city streets steppedon the gas and was off to other petty pilfering. Police stations andovercharges probably did not seem suitable to him on the same block.
"The Arsenal, eh?" Pape queried himself. "Ain't the Arsenal where PudgeO'Shay threatened to take me to tea the afternoon Dot polkaed up thosesacred rocks to the block-house?"
He crossed the oily asphalt, smeared with the spoor of countless motorvehicles; turned south a few steps; half way between Sixty-fourth andSixty-third streets located the eight-hundred-odd number in which he wasinterested. A brownstone house, not particularly distinguishable fromits neighbors it was, entered by a flight of steps above anold-fashioned or "American" basement. Noting that the ground floor wasdark and the second and third illumined, he turned back across theAvenue and stopped in the shadow of the wall that bounds Central Park.
Between jerking into his hat and coat in full face of the astonishmentof his own opera-box party and accomplishing the trip up in the fewestpossible minutes which could cover the roundabout traffic routeprescribed during "theater hours" he had not found time to think outjust what he was going to do when he arrived at his destination. Nowthat he was on the scene of his next impertinence, he appreciated thatits success demanded a careful plan. His self-selected lady's dismissalof him had been so definite that he needed some tenable excuse forhaving followed her home. Stansbury caution warned him that an offer ofassistance would, without doubt, be ignominiously spurned. But Papeinitiative was in the saddle.
He had about decided on the most direct course--to rush up the steps,ring the bell, ask for her, tell her that he had come to give her thenote and trust to subsequent events--when the front door of the house hewas watching flew open. A hatless man bounded down to the sidewalk;straight as though following a surveyed line, headed for the entrance ofthe Arsenal.
Pape stepped back and waited until the heavy on-comer was about to enterthe park, then sprang out and blocked the way.
"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded.
From surprise or alarm the man backed a step or two. "To--to the policestation," he answered nervously.
"Why didn't you telephone? that would have been quicker. You seem in ahell of a hurry."
"The wires are cut, sir."
"Who are you anyway?" Pape's demand was uttered with a note ofauthority.
"I am Jasper--the Sturgis' butler. Mrs. Sturgis has sent me to bring adetective."
With a short laugh Pape approved the born butler's habit ofsubordination. "You're in luck, Jasper. I'm the very man you're lookingfor. Lead me to the case."
His location--he well might have been coming from the Central Parkstation house--favored him. The Arsenal could be seen a few yards withinthe wall. Although he had no shield to show, nor named himself asergeant of the Force, the butler seemed satisfied with the assertionand his own misconclusions. Dutifully, he led the way back to the housewhich he had quitted in such a hurry.
"This rushing about gets me in the wind, sir," complained Jasper _enroute_. "I fear I am growing a bit weighty. And what a comfort is thetelephone. Things like that, sir, you never miss until they're gone. Ah,sir, excitement like this is bad for the heart."
Opening the door with a latch key, he conducted his find across thereception hall, up a broad flight of stairs and into a formallyfurnished drawing-room. From between wide doors, half opened into a roombeyond, appeared a woman of medium height, whose looks made unnecessaryany introduction as Irene's mother. If her mauve crape dress revealedrather too distinctly her plump outlines, it softened the middle-agedbeauty of her face and toned with the magnificent grayish pearls shewore.
"Is this the detective, Jasper?" she asked, but did not await an answer."I'll ring when I want you again."
She turned to the stranger as the butler passed out of the room. "Thankyou for answering our call for help so promptly Mr. ----"
"Pape, madam."
"Won't you take off your coat and be seated, Mr. Pape? This is in somerespects an unusual robbery, and your investigation probably will takesome time."
He followed her suggestion with alacrity, using a nearby Davenport torack his hat and overcoat. It would be an advantage, he considered, tobe in possession of as many facts as possible, before Jane appeared toexpose him. Facts might help him in some way to induce her to go onplaying the game as she had in the Metropolitan box.
"Best begin at the very beginning, Mrs. Sturgis."
He seated himself in a chair opposite that into which the matron hadsunk, and leaned toward her with frowning concentration. Too late heremembered that the Arsenal detectives, if any were there assigned, didnot sit around at all hours in evening clothes. But if she noticed atall his attire, it was with approval, judging by the confidential smileshe bent upon him.
"This is a manless house, except for the servants," she began in themodulated voice of those "to the manner" born. "I have the misfortune tobe a widow. This evening my daughter and my niece went to the opera withold friends of the family. I have no liking for operas of the 'Zaza'type so remained at home. But I promised the young ladies to stay up, asthey wished to bring their friends back with them to supper."
Stopped by a thought, she indicated an ebony cigarette outfit thattopped a tabaret near his chair. "Men think so much better when theysmoke," she suggested. "If you prefer cigars, Mr. Pape, I'll have somebrought in."
"Please don't trouble. My chest's full of 'em."
With a forced smile, she watched the "detective" produce one of his ownregardlessly purchased cigars, light it and puff with manifest pleasurefrom its fragrance.
"This afternoon," she proceeded, "Miss Lauderdale, my niece, returnedfrom a visit to an old woman who had been her governess years ago whenher father was--well, before he lost his money. She brought back ajeweled snuffbox of antique design which had belonged to hergreat-grandfather. In some way not yet explained to me it had came intopossession of this upper servant. Although its intrinsic value is notgreat--the rubies set in its cover are small, not worth more than athousand dollars, I should say--Miss Lauderdale seems to set great storeby it. She asked me to lock it up in a secret safe built in my librarywall until she should want it again."
From his very light experience with operatives of the force--really noneat all except with those of the printed page--Pape considered that heshould begin asking questions if he was to sustain the part. He matchedhis finger-tips in pairs--in most "sleuth" stories they did that;cleared his throat--also inevitable; observed somewhat stupendously:
"I see. You opened the secret wall safe and within it installed theheirloom snuffbox. At what hour, Mrs. Sturgis, was this?"
"About five o'clock."
"And you found the safe cracked, might I ask--its contents gone?"
"Not at all. You anticipate me. What jewelry I keep in the safe was allthere. Some of it, at my daughter's coaxing, I had withdrawn for her towear to the opera. She is entirely too much of a child to be allowedsuch adornment, but you know our young ladies these days, Mr. Pape."
He nodded, but none too assuredly in view of his fathomless ignorance of"our young ladies these days."
"And after taking out this jewelry for Miss Sturgis, you are sure thatyou locked the safe--shut it secu
rely and turned the dial?" he asked,quite as the professional he was trying to emulate would have pursuedthe case. "Sometimes you women folks----"
"I am not the careless sort. I locked the safe."
From the matron's composed manner, he well could believe her.
"It was about nine o'clock," she continued, "when, having changed to thegown I meant to wear to supper, I wanted these black pearls." Sheindicated the two pendants in her ears, a ring and the vari-sized strandabout her neck. "With purple or lavender, you see, they make the secondmourning effect which I shall always wear for my dear husband. Again Icame downstairs to the safe. Imagine my astonishment and fright when Ifound it open--the door full an inch ajar."
"But you're wearing the pearls, madam?"
"That is the strangest part of it!" Moved at last by her nervousness,Mrs. Sturgis arose, crossed to a window that overlooked Central Park,clutched the curtains and drew them apart. For a second or two she stoodlooking out, then returned to her chair. "Mr. Pope, not a single pieceof my jewelry was missing. The cash drawer had not been disturbed,though it happened to contain a considerable sum of money. A sheaf ofLiberty Bonds in plain sight lay untouched. Absolutely nothing was goneexcept Miss Lauderdale's heirloom snuffbox. Of course that's no greatfinancial loss, but she is much upset by the loss and I can't helpfeeling my responsibility. Tell me, what do you make of it?"
His chin cupped in one hand, Pape tried to look that shade of studydenominated as "brown." Next he puffed viciously at the plump middlesection that was left of his cigar--women, he had noticed, alwaysharkened with more respect to a man who puffed viciously at a cigar.
"Strange--passing strange," he muttered. From a pocket of his figuredwhite waistcoat he drew his watch and looked enquiringly into its face."You say it was about nine o'clock when you discovered this theft? Itwas after ten when you sent the butler after--after me. Just to keep thetally straight, madam, may I ask what you were doing in the interim?"
Mrs. Sturgis' brows--black as her daughter's, but unplucked--liftedslightly, as if she were surprised by the question. However, after amomentary pause she answered, "At first I was uncertain just what to do.Finally I decided to summon Miss Lauderdale from the opera house. She,as the only loser, was the person most concerned. She returned just nowand insisted that the police be called in. She was even more upset thanI when we discovered that our telephone was out of commission. She sentJasper at once to----"
Pape managed an interruptive glower of disapproval that would have donecredit to the most efficient "bull" of the Central Office.
"You've wasted valuable time," he declared. "In robberies, it isadvisable to get the authorities on the scene of the crime at theearliest possible moment."
"But in this instance the circumstances were so peculiar and I----"
"I know. I know, madam. Circumstances always are more or less peculiar."Pape had deemed a touch of official discourtesy not out of place. "WhatI want to know next is--that is to say, the person I'd like next tointerview is this niece of yours who has been deprived of her snuffbox."
Lonesome Town Page 8