A Husband by Proxy

by Jack Steele

  CHAPTER XIX

  FRIGHT AND A DISAPPEARANCE

  With the almost disappointed thing of might purring tamely alongthrough the far-spread town, and then on through level ways of beauty,leading the way to Gotham, Dorothy found that she was still clingingfast to Jerold's arm, after nearly ten minutes of peace.

  Then she waked, as it were, and shyly withdrew her hand.

  Garrison had felt himself transported literally, more by the ecstasy ofhaving her thus put dependence upon him than by any mere flight of thecar. He underwent a sense of loss when the strain subsided, and hertrembling hold relaxed and fell from his arm.

  Nevertheless, she clung to the roses. His heart had taken time to beata stroke in joy during that moment of stress at the house, when she hadcaused a few seconds' added delay to gather up the crushed and fadedflowers.

  Since speaking to the driver last Garrison had been content to sitbeside the girl in silence. There was much he must ask, and much shemust tell, but for this little time of calm and delight he could notbreak the spell. Once more, however, his abounding confidence in hergoodness, her innocence, and deep-lying beauty of character rosetriumphant over fears. Once more the spell of a mighty love was laidupon his heart. He did not know and could not know that Dorothy, too,was Cupid's victim--that she loved him with a strange and joyousintensity, but he did know that the whole vast world was no price forthis moment of rapture.

  She was the first to speak.

  "Why did we have to run away? Aren't you supposed to have a perfectright to--to take me wherever you please--especially from a place likethat, and such outrageous treatment?"

  "I am only supposed to have that right," he answered. "As a matter offact, I committed a species of violence in Theodore's house, compellinghim to act at the point of the gun. Technically speaking, I had noright to proceed so far. But, aside from that, when they sprung thealarm--well, the time had come for action.

  "Had the constable dragged me away, as a legal offender--which he woulddoubtless have done on the charge of two householding citizens--thedelay would have been most annoying, while a too close investigation ofmy status as a husband might have proved even more embarrassing."

  A wave of crimson swept across her face.

  "Of course." She relapsed into silence for a moment. Then she added:"What does it all mean, anyway? How dared they carry me off like this?How did you happen to come? When did you find that I had gone? Whatdo you think we'd better do?"

  "Answer one question at a time," said Garrison, stuffing hishandkerchief into the tube, lest the driver overhear theirconversation. "There is much to be explained between us. In the firstplace, tell me, Dorothy, what happened just after I 'phoned you lastevening, and you made an appointment to meet me in the park."

  "Why, I hardly know," she said, her face once more a trifle pale. "Iwent upstairs to get ready, thinking to slip out unobserved. In theact of putting on my hat, I was suddenly smothered in the folds of astrong-smelling towel thrown over my head, and since that time I havescarcely known anything till this morning, when I waked in the bed atTheodore's house, fully dressed, and chained as you saw me."

  "But--these roses?" he said, lightly placing his hand upon them. "Howdid you happen to have them along?"

  It was not a question pertinent to the issues in hand, but it meant agreat deal to his heart.

  "Why--I--I was wearing them--that's all," she stammered. "No onestopped to take them off."

  He was satisfied. He wished they might once and for all dismiss theworld, with all its vexations, its mysteries, and pains, and ride onlike this, through the June-created loveliness bathed in itssunlight--comrades and lovers, forever.

  The hour, however, was not for dreaming. There were grim factsaffecting them both, and much to be cleared between them. Moreover hewas merely hired to enact a role that, if it sometimes called for ashow of tender love, was still but a role, after all. He attacked thebusiness directly.

  "We require an understanding on a great many topics," he said to herslowly. "After I 'phoned you I went to the park, was caught in therain, and attacked by two ruffians, who knocked me down, and left me towhat they supposed would be certain destruction."

  "Jerold!" she said, and his name thus on her lips, with no one by towhom she was acting, gave him an exquisite pleasure. There was nopossibility of guilty knowledge on her part. Of this he was thoroughlyconvinced. "You? Attacked?"

  "Later," he resumed, "when I recovered, I went to the house inNinety-third Street, was admitted by the woman in charge, and remainedall night, after taking the liberty of examining all the apartments."

  She looked at him in utter amazement.

  "Why--but what does it---- You, attacked in the park--these lawlessdeeds--you stayed all night---- And you found I had been carried away?"

  "No; I merely thought so. The woman knew nothing. But I presentlydiscovered a number of interesting things. Theodore has installed aprivate 'phone in his closet, and by means thereof had overheard ourappointment. Your bureau and dressing-case had both been searched----"

  "For the necklaces!" she cried. "You have them safe?"

  "I thought it might have been the jewels--or your marriagecertificate," he said, alive to numerous points in the case which, hefelt, were about to develop.

  She turned a trifle pale.

  "I've sewn the certificate--where I'm sure they'd never find it," shesaid. "But the jewels are safe?"

  "Quite safe," he said, making a mental note of her insistence on thetopic. "I then discovered the address of the Woodsite house, and youknow the rest."

  "It's terrible! The whole thing is terrible!" she said. "I wouldn'thave thought they'd dare to do such things! I don't know what we'regoing to do. We're neither of us safe!"

  "You must help me all you can," he said, laying his hand for a momenton her arm. "I've been fighting in the dark. I must find youapartments where you will not be discovered by the Robinsons, whosecriminal designs on the property inheritance will halt at nothing,and--you must tell me all you can."

  "I will," she said; "only----"

  And there she halted, her eyes raised to his in mute appeal, a dumbfear expressed in their depths.

  They had both avoided the topic of the murder, at the news of which shehad fainted. Garrison almost feared it, and Dorothy evidently dreadedits approach.

  More than anything else Garrison felt he must know she was innocent.That was the one vital thing to him now, whether she could ever returnhis love or not. He loved her in every conceivable manner, fondly,passionately, sacredly, with the tenderest wishes for her comfort andhappiness. He believed in her now as he always had, whensoever theywere together. Nevertheless, he could not abandon all his facultiesand plunge into folly like a blind and confident fool.

  "I'd like to ask about the jewels first," he said. "The night I firstcame to your home I entered the place next door by accident. Afancy-dress party was in progress."

  "Yes--I knew it. They used to be friends of Theodore's."

  "So I guessed," he added dryly. "Theodore was there."

  "Theodore--there?" she echoed in surprise he felt to be genuine. "Why,but--don't you remember you met him with the others in my house, soonafter you came?"

  "I do, perfectly. Nevertheless, I saw him in the other house, in mask,I assure you, dressed to represent _Mephistopheles_. Last night Ifound the costume in his closet, and the stairs at the rear were his,of course, to employ."

  "I remember," said Dorothy excitedly, "that he came in a long grayovercoat, though the evening was distinctly warm."

  "Precisely. And all of this would amount to nothing," Garrisonresumed, "only that while I stood in the hall of the house I hadentered, that evening, I saw a young woman, likewise in mask, wearingyour necklaces--your pearls and diamonds."

  Dorothy stared at him in utter bewilderment. Her face grew pale. Hereyes dilated strangely.

  "You--you are sure?" she said in a tone barely audible.
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  "Perfectly," said Garrison.

  "And you never mentioned this before?"

  "I awaited developments."

  "But--what did you think? You might almost have thought that Theodorehad stolen them, and handed them to me," she said. "Especially afterthe way I put them in your charge!"

  "I told you we have much to clear between us," he said. "Haven't I theright to know a little----"

  "But--how did they come to be there?" she interrupted, abruptlyconfronted by a phase of the facts which she had momentarilyoverlooked. "How in the world could my jewels have been in that houseand also in my bureau at the very same time?"

  "Isn't it possible that Theodore borrowed them, temporarily, andsmuggled them back when he came?"

  The startled look was intensified in her eyes as she met his gaze.

  "He must have done it in some such way!" she said. "I thought at thetime, when I ran in to get them, they were not exactly as I had leftthem, earlier. And I gave them to you for fear he'd steal them!"

  This was some light, at least. Garrison needed more.

  "Why couldn't you have told me all about them earlier?"

  She looked at him beseechingly. Some way, it seemed to them both theyhad known each other for a very long time, and much had been swept awaythat must have stood as a barrier between mere client and agent.

  "I felt I'd rather not," she confessed. "Forgive me, please. They donot belong to me.

  "Not yours?" said Garrison. "What do you mean?"

  "I advanced some money on them--to some one very dear," she answered."Please don't probe into that, if you can help it."

  His jealousy rose again, with his haunting suspicion of a man in thebackground with whom he would yet have to deal. He knew that here hehad no rights, but in other directions he had many.

  "I shall be obliged to do considerable probing," he said. "The timehas come when we must work much more closely together. A maze ofevents has entangled us both, and together we must find our way out."

  She lowered her glance. Her lip was trembling. He felt she wasstriving to gain a control over her nerves, that were strung to thehighest tension. For fully a minute she was silent. He waited. Shelooked up, met his gaze for a second, and once more lowered her eyes.

  "You spoke of--of something--yesterday," she faltered. "It gave me aterrible shock."

  She had broached the subject of the murder.

  "I was sorry--sorry for the brutal way--the thoughtless way I spoke,"he said. "I hope to be forgiven."

  She made no reply to his hope. Her entire stock of nerve was requiredto go on with the business in hand.

  "You said my uncle was--murdered," she said, in a tone he strained tohear. "What makes you think of such a thing?"

  "You have not before made the statement that the Hardy in Hickwood wasyour uncle," he reminded her.

  "You must have guessed it was my uncle," she replied. "You knew it allthe time."

  "No, not at first. Not, in fact, till some time after I began my workon the case. I knew Mr. Hardy had been murdered before I knew anythingelse about him."

  She was intensely white, but she was resolute.

  "Who told you he was murdered?"

  "No one. I discovered the evidence myself."

  He felt her weaken and grow limp beside him.

  "The--the evidence?" she repeated faintly. "What kind--of evidence?"

  "Poison."

  He was watching her keenly.

  She swayed, as if to faint once more, but mastered herself by exertingthe utmost of her will.

  "Poison?" she repeated, as before. "But how?"

  "In a box of cigars--a birthday present given to your uncle."

  It was brutal--cruelly brutal--but he had to test it out withoutfurther delay.

  His words acted almost with galvanic effect.

  "Cigars! His birthday! My cigars!" she cried. "Jerold, you don'tsuspect me?"

  The car was starting across the bridge. It suddenly halted in thetraffic. Almost on the instant came a crash and a cry. A daintylittle brougham had been crushed against another motor car in the jamand impatience on the structure. One of its wheels had lost half itsspokes, that went like a parcel of toothpicks.

  Garrison leaped out at once, and Dorothy followed in alarm. In thetide of vehicles, blocked by the trifling accident, a hundred personscraned their heads to see what the damage had been.

  A small knot of persons quickly gathered about the damaged carriage.Garrison hastened forward, intent upon offering his services, shouldhelp in the case be required. He discovered, in the briefest time,that no great damage had been done, and that no one had been injured.

  Eager to be hastening onward, he turned back to his car. Almostimmediately he saw that the chauffeur's seat was empty. Dorothy hadapparently stepped once more inside, to be screened from public view.

  Hastily scanning the crowd about the place, Garrison failed to find hisdriver. He searched about impatiently, but in vain. He presentlybecame aware of the fact that his man had, for some reason, fled andleft his car.

  Considerably annoyed, and aware that he should have to drive themachine himself, he returned once more to the open door of the auto,intent upon informing Dorothy of their loss.

  He gazed inside the car in utter bewilderment.

  Dorothy also was gone.