CHAPTER XVIII--TOO READY RESCUE
Before the desk sergeant of a metropolitan police station friendshipusually ceases. It did tonight in the Arsenal, otherwise the 33rdPrecinct. By not so much as the ghost of a grin could the be-mustachedofficial in a uniform striped by decades of service have detected even aspeaking acquaintance between captors and prisoners.
The "case" was Pudge O'Shay's and he made the arraignment, Moore havingsubsided into a wooden arm-chair tilted against the wall.
"These are the grub worms that the 'phone message was about," announcedthe sparrow cop.
"Mind telling me who sent in that get-your-gun alarm?" Pape asked with anaivete that masked the effrontery of his request.
The sergeant stared at him in amazement. "None of your business, youhuman mole."
"Then I'll tell you," was his easy-manner counter. "A sharp-faced littlecrook named Swinton Welch."
"Easy there with the hard names, young fellow! Swin Welch is a friend ofmine and no person's going to call him a crook to my face, much less aprisoner."
"Thought so," said Pape with a grin. "If he ain't a crook, how about thefolks he's working for?"
Ignoring him, the sergeant opened the blotter.
"Name?"
"Peter Stansbury----"
"Never heard about a little rule of ladies first, I reckon," interruptedthe officer. "If the ship was sinking you'd make the first boat, I bet.Answer up, mother."
For the first time the poke-bonneted head of the less aggressiveprisoner lifted sufficiently to show the face within.
"Well, I'll be----"
He was--struck dumb, if that was what he had been about to say. Nextminute, however, he must have remembered that sergeants are supposed tobe superior to shock. At any rate, he began the routine questions.
The red, soft-curved lips of youth answered readily from the shadow ofthe antiquated headgear. Even "How old are you?" had no terrors for onewho had voted at the last election. Her "more than twenty-one" suggestedthe folly of pressing the point.
"Are you armed?" asked the officer in charge when the skeleton biographywas completed.
Jane's startled glance at Pape told him at least that now she understoodthe commandeering of her automatic--that some penalty was imposed forthe bearing of weapons without permit. With a word and wag of chin shereplied in the negative.
"Not having a matron here to search you, I'll have to take your say-so."The sergeant, after a meditative tug at his gray mustache, waved herback.
Pape was pedigreed with scant ceremony and his answers recorded as hegave them, even to "Hotel Astor, residence."
"Frisk him, Pudge!" was the concluding order.
Because Jane's automatic was first found and placed upon the desk themore personal "hardware," a 45 Colt snugly fitted into its arm-pitholster, was almost overlooked. The sparrow cop's triumph on drawing itforth was weighty as his figure.
"You go right well heeled for a guest of the hoity-toity," remarked thesergeant, also pleasurably excited. "We'll just book you for a doublefelony under the Sullivan law."
At the threat, "mother" took a step toward her companion, evidentlyappreciating that this last charge was due to the service rendered infore-disarming without fore-warning her. She looked ready to confess herownership of the black gun, as she was trying to get the sergeant'sattention around the interposed bulk of Pudge O'Shay. But she pausedwhen she saw Pape hand a yellow pig-skin card-case to the officer.
"Before you 'phone your friend Welch the glad news that you've got adouble-barreled Sullivan on me," he requested, "calm yourself by a lookat this."
The sergeant obliged; aloud read sketchily from the filled-in courtesycard signed by his chief, the commissioner of police.
"Peter S. Pape, deputy sheriff, Snowshoe County, Montana. Permitted tocarry arms while in pursuit of fugitives from justice."
His pleased expression faded; rather, appeared to pass from his face tothat of the prisoner. And indeed, Pape felt that he had reason to bepleased. Only that week, in preparation for any trail's-end contretemps,he had taken the precaution of presenting at Police Headquarters hiscredentials from the home county sheriff. Sooner than expected, ifsomewhat otherwise, preparedness had won.
"You're not going to tell me you thought them fugitives was buried onthe far side of the park?" the sergeant grumbled.
"Wish they were. Say, if you think there's any chance of your friendWelch dropping in for a social call, I'd like to swap a few words withhim."
"Leave up on Swin Welch! He's harmless--ain't been west of Weehawken inhis life. Where does this old--that is to say, young lady come in?"
"She came in merely as a spectator to cheer me whilst I did my diggingexercise. You can have nothing against her."
Obviously the sergeant was troubled.
"Wish the lieutenant was here," he was heard to mutter.
Adonis Moore made his way to the desk. "The sheriff is giving you theright dope, serg. All the while Pudge and I was watching, his ladyfriend didn't move as much as a clod."
"She wouldn't need to move more'n a clod if she'd take that bonnet offher head," his superior commented. "We can't let her out now. She'salready booked. But likely she'll make short shrift of the magistrate inthe morning. The sheriff I've gotta hold on the park despoliationcharge. There ain't nothing in his card allowing for that. He's entitledto have his guns back, but----"
"But how about a thousand dollars cash bail for the two of us on themisdemeanor?" Pape stepped forward to propose, his hand suggestivelyseeking the inner pocket of his corduroy coat. "The price is a bit highjust for the practice of my daily physical culture, still I'll pay."
His confident expression faded the next moment when his hand came outempty of his well-stocked wallet. In changing to rough-and-readies, hehad forgotten to transfer from his tweeds the price of adventure in agreat city. Except for several crumpled small bills and certain loosechange in his trouser pocket, he was without financial resource. Hisattempt at a hopeful glance in Jane's direction weakened under thethought that, even were she not a self-declared poor relation, shewouldn't be carrying ten century notes on her person.
"I've got telephone and war-tax money, anyhow," he observed cheerfully."Lead me to a booth and I'll have Mr. Astor chip in the ante. Sorry onmother's account about the delay. She ain't used to late hours in policestations."
"It might take quite a while to convince the hotel that you are you,"Jane demurred.
"As it did you, Jane?"
She ignored his _sotto voce_ aside. "Why not let me send for collateral,Mr. Sergeant? I live just across the avenue."
"Oh, you do, eh?"
"That is, my aunt does. They wouldn't have a thousand dollars in thehouse, but you'd take jewelry, wouldn't you, if it was worth severaltimes the amount?"
Assuming his consent and thanking him with a radiant smile, she motionedAdonis Moore to one side and advised with him a moment in an undertone.
"Be sure to ask for Miss Sturgis, not Mrs." Her final direction heldover Pape's protest. "Under no circumstance alarm my aunt. And don't saywho is in trouble--just that a good friend of hers needs jewelry bail.She'll be thrilled by the mystery. She'll manage."
The ensuing wait seemed to try the chief culprit more than his young-oldlady "friend." While she sat at comparative ease in the absentlieutenant's desk chair behind the railing, he paced outside. Hisinterest in the sergeant had lapsed on that worthy's refusal to discussSwinton Welch's connection with the case and he leant only half an earto the preferred discussion of the latest crime wave which had dashed upto park shores from the ocean of post-war inactivity.
The entrance of Irene Sturgis was "staged"--anticipated, timed,well-lit. After her first burst into the room, she stopped short beneaththe electric glare, unbelievably lovely in a blush-pink evening wrapover a gown of vari-tinted tulle. Her back-thrown curls, her heightenedcolor, her parted lips and wide eyes--all proclaimed her utterastonishment at the scene before her. Her surveying glance began withthe
"costumed" Westerner standing before the high oaken desk ofarraignment, swept to the bent old lady in black, on to thegray-mustached sergeant and the pompous arresting officer, then back toits starting point.
"Oh, don't you look dar-rling in those clothes?" she exclaimed on herway to Pape, "I never saw _anything_ quite so heroic. I didn't _dream_,Why-Not, that you were the 'good friend' in need of bail. I am just too_happy_ about it for anything--oh, not that you are in trouble, ofcourse, but that you'd send for me. I've always been _crazy_ to see theinside of this Arsenal. Police courts and jails and insane asylums just_fascinate_ me. Don't they you--or _do_ they? Maybe I have a morbidtendency, but I enjoy it. It's always the unexpected that reallyhappens, isn't it? I wasn't in an expecting or hoping mood at allto-night and here you, of all people, go and get yourself arrested andsend for me and--and _everything_! I forgive you for the past and loveyou all the more in trouble. But that's as it should be, isn't it? Howcould any true woman resist you in those clothes and in this----"
Of necessity she paused for breath--paused verbally, not materially.Reaching Pape, she lifted a look of utter adoration that would have madealmost any man's heart do an Immerman flop--lifted also two bare,soft-curved, elbow-dinted arms about his neck.
"I didn't mean a word of what I said this morning at the end of ourride," she confessed in an aside voiced _a la_ the histrionics ofyesteryear. "Of course I couldn't seriously call you contemptible, whenmy deeper nature knows there's a noble reason back of all that you do.You'll forget it except as a lover's quarrel, won't you, dar-rling? Itis in need and affliction, don't you think, that one's real feelingsshould come to the surface? I'm not one bit ashamed to tell you thatI've been perfectly _miserable_. Haven't you been, too, Why-Not?"
"I ain't just comfortable," he admitted, untieing the lover's knot atthe back of his neck.
"Mother," her blue eyes on the red flame of his countenance, looked asthough she believed him, but as though she didn't feel "justcomfortable" either. In truth, her heart, too, had done some sort of aflop, then had dropped as if dead. She shrank further back into herrusty mourning garb, but did not miss a movement of the two baby-softhands of her cousin, the one holding the Westerner's arm, the otherstroking the same member as though to limber up its strain.
"What dire deed have you done, dar-rling?" The girl's voice was intensefrom the thrill of her rescue role. "Tell Rene all--at least all. It issuch a revelation that you should appeal to me first in trouble. You_always_ will, won't you--or will you? But then, _of course_ you will."
With the eyes of three of the police upon him, Pape's situation wouldhave been trying enough. Faced also by the amaze which he could betterimagine than see in the shadow of that bonnet-brim, he felt desperate.Truly, Jane's wish to avoid alarming her aunt had brought real troubleupon him--more real than any he could explain to this child vampire.
"There ain't much to tell, Miss Sturgis," he began. "Not anythingserious enough to----"
_"Miss Sturgis!"_ she interrupted reproachfully. "After I've rifled myjewel box to make up the hush money and after all that's been betweenus! Are you _ashamed_ of the deeper feeling you showed this morning onour ride? If you don't call me Irene instantly, I'll let them lock youup in a deep, dark, dank dungeon and keep you there until you do."
With a laugh of tender cruelty, she tripped toward the desk in hertip-tilted slippers; there laid upon its flat top a limp, beaded bagwhich had been swinging from her arm.
"You look so kind, Mr. Chief, I don't see how you _can_ be so mean," shecoaxed him. "You really didn't know you were capturing and torturing aninnocent man, I feel sure. But you'll right the wrong now, won't you,for _my_ sake if not for his? See what I've brought to assure you of hisworth."
The sergeant opened the bag, dumped its contents upon the desk beforehim and took up a piece of jewelry for examination.
"The emerald drop on that fillet is a princely ransom in itself," Ireneassured him. "But I brought my mother's black pearls for good measure.Just look at them--the platinum settings alone are more than thethousand dollars' worth that the nice-looking policeman said yourequired!"
Perhaps the sergeant found her pleading eyes and smile more inducingbail than the valuables offered. But he began a perfunctory examinationof them. The while, the girl's gaze encompassed the bent, black figureinside the rail. With an unsmothered exclamation, she started forward,then stopped short.
"_Jane_--not _really?_" she cried. "Did he send for you, too? And howdid you happen--to come--in costume? I think when you were getting upthis party you _might_ have invited me. You know I _dote_ on fancy-dressalmost as much as police courts."
Jane came slowly through the gate and straightened before her youngrelative.
"The 'party' was quite impromptu," she said, pushing back her bonnet toshow a smile more grave than gay. "It was I who sent for you, not Mr.Pape. Part of the bail is for me. You see, dear, I am arrested, too."
"Arrested--_you?_ I guess I don't understand. How does it come that youare here when you're visiting the Giffords in Southampton? And how inthe world did you and Why-Not--You two were hauled up--_together?_"
Her final utterance was in a tone fictionally describable as "tinged bythe bitterness of despair."
As Jane seemed disinclined to explain, Pape tried to ease the moment."We happened to meet near the Maine Monument. I was out for--forexercise, you see. Your cousin here showed me some new ways of gettingthe same."
"Sure, blame it on her, Adam," Pudge O'Shay made grumpy interposition."Remember, though, that this ain't the first evening I've caught youtrying new ways of exercising in the park."
Jane turned toward the sergeant. "Can't we settle about the bail and beoff, sir?"
He coughed, bent for a moment's scribbling; made answer direct to Irene.
"Here's a receipt for your jewelry, miss. I'll take a chance on itsvalue. While I don't congratulate anybody on getting pinched, I'm gladthat your friends, if they must cut capers, have you to help them out.Thank you for breezing into this gloomy old place."
"Good for you, you nice old barking dog that don't bite!" enthused thegirl. "I _thought_ you weren't half as cross as you look. I don't knowwhat my friends have done to get the law down on them, but I _do_believe in their innocence of motive and so may you. My cousin is thestormy petrel sort, with the best intentions in the world, but _always_getting herself and others into trouble. And Why-Not Pape--He's justfrom the West, you know, and I haven't had time yet to teach him how tobehave in a city. In a way you have done me a favor in pinching them, asyou so cleverly put it. It is _something_ for a true woman to be giventhe opportunity to show by her actions just how much she--You get what Imean, don't you--or _do_ you?"
Others in the room got it rather more forcefully than he. Papesuppressed a groan at the flush which had blotted the pallor of Jane'sface. Fast though he had worked, this infant fiend worked faster. Hardthough he had tried, she had upset all his gains with a laugh and asigh. Desperate though he felt to protest her claim on him, the factthat she claimed him discounted any protestation he might make. His Westhad schooled him in deeds, not words. By deeds he would--he _must_ provethe truth.
Characteristically Irene rewarded Adonis Moore. He was a "dear" of ahorse cop and wore his uniform just "scrumptiously." He must keep an eyeout for her when next she rode over park bridle-paths. She thanked himfor her friends, therefore for her. It was these acts of simple humankindness that made the world worth while. Didn't he agree with her--or_did_ he? She only hoped that others were as appreciative of _her_efforts as was she of his.
Even for Pudge O'Shay, whose case it was, she had a cordial _au revoir_.She had noticed from first glance that he looked worried. But he mustn'tworry, not one tiny bit. Worry made one thin and he had such an imposingappearance--so official--just as he was. He must rely on her. Surely hecould--or _couldn't_ he? She had taken the case in hand now and wouldreturn the two out-on-bails to court if she had to carry them. He wasmerely loaning them to her over night. Wouldn't he tr
y to remember that?
"Good-night, you nice persons, one and all!"
She shook hands with the uniformed three before attaching herself,dangle-wise, to Pape's weak right arm.
"Come along, crooks," she advised the "pinched" pair cheerfully. "Thispaper declares me your custodian--says it will cost me the family joolsnot to produce you in court at ten of to-morrow morn. No matter howguilty you be or be not, I shall produce!"
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