by Frank Cobb
CHAPTER III
"Well, what did you see?" demanded Mr. Ridgeway as the man paused.
But he did not answer. He had been leaning on the edge of the massivetable that Mr. Ridgeway used as a desk, and his fingers were feelingunder the edge of the mahogany top. Suddenly he sank to his knees, andpeered under the edge. Then he beckoned Mr. Ridgeway and Lawrence.Totally at a loss to imagine what O'Brien was doing, they too sank totheir knees and looked under the table.
After a glance Mr. Ridgeway sprang to his feet and stared at O'Brien,who delivered a huge wink in the direction of the table. Then he startedin as though he had only stopped talking long enough to clear histhroat.
"Well, I peeked," he said, "and there was a feller mauling thatdirigible around and hacking at the propellers. I knew him at a glance;he was a dude I had discharged last week; wasn't no good so I let himgo, an' he wanted to get even, so he done it by destroyin' that machine.Of course I didn't see his face, but I know the looks of his back,"added O'Brien, again winking at the table.
Mr. Ridgeway played up gallantly.
"I am glad you, found out who it was, O'Brien. Will you swear out awarrant? I am sorry about the dirigible, but I can get along without itfor awhile. I am going out to the Golf Club now. Can I give either ofyou a lift?"
It seemed to Lawrence as though the two men were acting a part. Hewondered if by any chance O'Brien had discovered one of the wonderfullistening machines under the edge of the table. If that was so, theirenemy must be close to them. He kept still, and let the others talk.
"No, sir; I am going right over to the police station and tell 'em whatI know," said O'Brien.
"I will have to go down to the Union Station and see about having mytrunk sent up," said Lawrence.
O'Brien nodded, as though pleased with the boy's quickness ofperception.
The three walked out, Mr. Ridgeway slamming the door sharply after him.Then instead of turning to the elevator, he started toward the back ofthe corridor, and reaching a small door inserted a key and opened it ona narrow, winding stairway walled into the building. It was nothing morethan a perpendicular tunnel, with a narrow staircase winding through it.Leading O'Brien and Lawrence into this dimly lighted burrow, Mr.Ridgeway, with a sharp glance down the corridor, closed the door, lockedit, and motioned O'Brien, who was ahead, to ascend the stairs. He wentswiftly, the others close at his heels. Up and up he went, in obedienceto a whispered word from Mr. Ridgeway, until a ground glass skylightmarked the end of the stairway.
"Open!" whispered Mr. Ridgeway, and with a heave of his broad shoulderO'Brien pushed the skylight up and the three emerged on the pebbled roofof the building. Replacing the skylight, O'Brien looked at his superiorfor further orders.
"Well," said Mr. Ridgeway, "I told you this morning, Lawrence, that Inever liked to talk unless I was in the middle of a ten-acre lot. Sothey are listening, are they, O'Brien? Well, we are safe here, I shouldthink. For this time, anyway. Let us get away from these chimneys."
They walked out into the center of the great space that indicated thesize of the building, and O'Brien, picking up a pebble and tossing it ashe spoke, said:
"Well, sir, it looks as though there was more in the wind than we havebeen bargaining for. At all events, they have shown us their hand. It isnot a coincidence that so many things have happened to hamper us, andthe destruction in the shops and around the hangars that has appearedmerely slovenly, sinful waste, has been the work of these same dirtymiscreants. You are spotted, sir, sure as sure! Known to be working withthe government, and instrumental in passing messages and what not alongto wherever they ought to go. What are you going to do about it? If youwill excuse me for saying it, sir, I think you ought to duck."
"Duck? Duck where?" asked Mr. Ridgeway.
"Anywhere you like, say South America, or Alaska, or there's goodshooting up at Hudson Bay or was when I was in the Mounted Police ofCanada."
"Why should I duck?" demanded Mr. Ridgeway.
"Why, sir, they have you spotted, and you are too valuable a man to thiscountry to take any chances. Suppose they send you West?"
"Kill me, you mean?" asked Mr. Ridgeway. "Well, O'Brien, thank you, butof course you know that I will stay and take my chance. If they have mespotted as you say, why, they will spend a good deal of time watchingme, and that will leave the field clear for you and Lawrence. I willhave to depend on you for a good deal. For one thing, I think we hadbetter stage a small scrap, when we go downstairs, and I will dischargeLawrence, and will order you somewhere out of range. Then we will notmeet without the greatest precautions. Where are you living, O'Brien?"
"I have a room and bath over in the southeast part of the city,"answered O'Brien.
"And you, Lawrence?"
"Up on the heights, sir. I like to be high."
"I wish you were closer together," mused Mr. Ridgeway.
"There are twin beds in my bedroom," said Lawrence. "I wish you wouldcome over there if you feel like it, Mr. O'Brien."
"I accept without further parley," said O'Brien. "Have you a telephone?"
"Yes," said Lawrence.
"A regular swell, this lad," said O'Brien, smiling. "Well, give Mr.Ridgeway our address, and let's go down and get fired."
They descended, reconnoitered the corridor carefully, and retraced theirsteps. Mr. Ridgeway entered his office alone and pressed the button onhis desk. A boy appeared.
"I am expecting the young fellow who was with me this morning," he said."When he comes send him in."
When Lawrence entered, he said severely,
"I have looked your credentials over, young man, and I find that in oneor two regards they are not exactly what I desire. If there is anythingI can do for you, I will be glad to do it, but I think our talk thismorning will have to go for nothing!" He scuffled a few papers on hisdesk, and Lawrence, in as disappointed a tone as he could muster, said,"I am very sorry, sir. If you do not care for my services, I think I hadbetter go back to Louisville. I have a standing offer of a job in theAircraft Company's shops there."
As he spoke he noiselessly stepped forward and handed Mr. Ridgeway apaper with his telephone number on it.
"I insist on giving you a check for your railroad fare," said Mr.Ridgeway, and took up a pen. What he wrote however was not the few magicwords on a blank check, but the words, "Do not come here. Go to yourapartment and stay there until ten tonight. Then both of you come to myaddress; skirt the wall until you find a gate. It will be unlocked.Follow the path at the right until you come to a porch with a Frenchwindow. This will be open. Go into the room and wait there in the darkuntil I come."
Lawrence nodded and handed the note back. Mr. Ridgeway touched a matchto it, at the same time lighting a cigar so that the smell of burnedpaper would not be evident.
"Thank you, sir," said Lawrence as though he had received a check. "Andgood-bye."
The door closed, and he was alone. He sat staring at the edge of thetable that hid the wicked little device which had handed him over intothe hands of his enemies. No wonder plans had gone wrong! And now whenso much hinged on the attitude of the country to the new Republic inEurope, and when the question of a mammoth loan was a matter of the mostimportance. As he mused, O'Brien jerked the door open and came in.Although O'Brien knew that the listener at the end of the tiny wirecould not see him, he was by nature too much of an actor not to play thewhole part. So he came in swaggering and approaching the table saidtruculently, "I come back to see you, sir, on something important."
"Speak up, my man," said Mr. Ridgeway. "I am rather busy, and hereafteryou will send in your name."
"I won't send nothing," said O'Brien, "unless I get a raise. I worktwice as hard and long as any man at the field, and there are twentyplanes to look over and keep in order, to say nothing of that dirigiblethat I will have to nurse back to health. I want more money."
"Impossible!" exclaimed Mr. Ridgeway.
"No such thing!" growled O'Brien. "I know you! Take me or le
ave me!"
"It's the latter then, O'Brien. I won't be bullied by you or any otherman," said Mr. Ridgeway with a wink.
"Then that settles it," said O'Brien. "Belave me when I say I am glad tobe through with the likes of you, and if you will pay me what you owe Iwill get me a job where I am appreciated."
He pointed toward the door with his stubby thumb, and Mr. Ridgeway,taking the hint, said, "Wait here and I will get your money," and leftthe room.
As soon as the door closed O'Brien proceeded to abuse Mr. Ridgeway withall the fluency and fervor of his Irish tongue. Clearly and distinctlyhe addressed the air with a shower of choice phrases. He abused, hethreatened, he raved, never once forgetting to hold his voice clear andsteady as though addressing a stupid central on a buzzing line.According to his remarks, Mr. Ridgeway had insulted him. And he wouldget even. Over and over, he promised himself that he would get even. Andthen in the very middle of O'Brien's finest flight of fancy, the dooropened. Like turning off a top, O'Brien shut up, took what Mr. Ridgewayoffered him and with a growl went out, slamming the door.
"Good riddance!" growled Mr. Ridgeway in his turn, then shaking his fistat the table, he too went out, springing the lock.
The rest of the afternoon he spent at the Chevy Chase golf course but itis likely that a worse game was never played over that course. TheHonorable Theodore Miller, who had asked him to play, went through onefit of amazement and remorse into another. Amazement that such tops andfoozles could come from a sane man, and remorse that he was obliged towaste the afternoon with such a being. Mr. Ridgeway did not notice thathe was playing badly, but thumped and whacked away at the ball with afrowning look that Senator Miller took for an earnest desire to mend hisstroke, but which in fact indicated utter absent-mindedness. Mr.Ridgeway knew that if he was being watched, he must put up an appearanceof unconcern, and so the Golf Club.
But that night soon after dinner he spoke a few words over a privatewire that led to the private room of a Certain Great Person, and soonMr. Ridgeway was with him in close consultation. He came away lookingmore anxious than ever. He had learned that an answer had been drawn upfor the young republic which needed help, and that another country closeon its borders was ready to declare war if there seemed to be anythingin the way of affiliation with the United States. Besides this, therereposed in the strongest of the strong boxes at the Treasury the crownjewels of a monarch who had sent them across for safe keeping six yearsago, and who now wanted them returned at once to figure at theintroduction of the Crown Prince on his twenty-first birthday.
The jewels and the state papers all must be delivered safely within twomonths. Otherwise.... Mr. Ridgeway did not like to think of theotherwise.
The jewels had no business in the country at all. They had been allowedto come over piecemeal, by the ill-advised judgment of one who shouldhave known enough to keep clear of everything to do with littleprincipalities with their many entanglements and jealousies. However,the deed was done.
Walking along Pennsylvania Avenue, Mr. Ridgeway called at The Willard tosee a man who was then in Bolivia, and took a taxi to the Army and NavyClub. Then he went home, and to his own room, where he lighted all thelights and for a moment stood looking out the window before pulling downthe blinds.
Then hastily he slipped off his shoes and felt his way down to thelibrary, where he seated himself in his favorite chair beside the bigtable and, leaning back, gave himself up to his thoughts. He knew thatit would be fifteen minutes or so before he could expect his visitors.
Suddenly a draft of air struck the back of his head. He knew that he hadclosed the door leading into the hall. He turned and half rose in hischair, but too late. Something descended with a sickening thud andwithout a groan he rolled over on the floor, a dead weight.
When later O'Brien and Lawrence entered by the window, as they had beentold, they sat down on a couple of chairs that they were able to find inthe darkness and proceeded to wait. But O'Brien was like a hound. He_sensed_ disaster. Leaning close to Lawrence, he whispered, "There issomething wrong here. I can smell it. I am going to light up." With thewords, he pressed on his electric searchlight, and slowly turned thebrilliant ray about the room. What he saw caused him to leap to thewindow, lower the blind, and then switch on the big ceiling light.
Half under the table lay a tumbled figure. All the drawers were draggedout and ransacked and scattered papers which had been hastily unfoldedand read were scattered everywhere.
"Is he dead?" gasped Lawrence.
O'Brien listened to Mr. Ridgeway's heart. "Niver a bit! Sure he's cominground pretty quick belike. What's in that vase of posies? Wather?Gimme!"
He turned the big vase over on the unconscious man, and while nearlydrowning him, it brought him to consciousness with a gasp. He looked up.
"Don't rise, sir!" begged O'Brien. "Lay still now and collect yourthoughts. Golly, that was a crack! I told you what would happen, didn'tI then? You are needing a nurse, and a steel jacket and a tin lid likethe good old times of the late war if so be you are going to get tappedlike this."
In a few minutes Mr. Ridgeway was able to sit up, and with a rueful lookgazed around at the disordered room. With a little help he got into hischair, and sighed. O'Brien, as though he had always been an inmate ofthe house, went through the dining-room, and beyond in a littlebreakfast room found a percolator all ready for breakfast. In a jiffy hehad the coffee ready, and returned to Mr. Ridgeway with a steaming cupwhich he insisted on him drinking. The hot liquid seemed to revive Mr.Ridgeway, and presently he sat up, asking:
"Well, O'Brien and Lawrence, what part did you play in the lateunpleasantness?"