Seven Keys to Baldpate

by Earl Derr Biggers

  CHAPTER X

  THE COLD GRAY DAWN

  The gayest knight must have a morning after. Mr. Magee awakened to histo find suite seven wrapped again in its favorite polar atmosphere.Filling the door leading to the outer room, he beheld the cause of hisawakening--the mayor of Reuton. Mr. Cargan regarded him with the coldsteely eye of a Disraeli in action, but when he spoke he opened the jawsof a cocktail mixer.

  "Well, young fellow," he remarked, "it seems to me it was time you gotup and faced the responsibilities of the day. First of which, I maymention, is a little talk with me."

  He stepped into the room, and through the doorway he vacated Mr. Maxcame slinking. The unlovely face of the foe of suspicion was badlybruised, and he looked upon the world with no cheerful eye. Pushingaside one of the frail bedroom chairs as untrustworthy, the mayor satdown on the edge of Mr. Magee's bed. It creaked in protest.

  "You used us pretty rough last night in the snow," Cargan went on."That's why I ain't disposed to go in for kid gloves and diplomacy thismorning. It's my experience that when you're dealing with a man who'sgot the good old Irish name of Magee, it's best to hit first and debateafterward."

  "I--I used you roughly, Mr. Cargan?" said Magee.

  "No debate, mind you," protested the mayor. "Lou and me are making thismorning call to inquire after a little package that went astraysomewhere last night. There's two courses open to you--hand over thepackage or let us take it. I'll give you a tip--the first is the best.If we have to take it, we might get real rough in our actions."

  Mr. Max slipped closer to the bed, an ugly look on his face. The mayorglared fixedly into Magee's eyes. The knight who fought for fair ladiesin the snow lay on his pillow and considered briefly.

  "I get what I go after," remarked Cargan emphatically.

  "Yes," sparred Magee, "but the real point is keeping what you get afteryou've gone after it. You didn't make much of an impression on me lastnight in that line, Mr. Cargan."

  "I never cared much for humor," replied the mayor, "especially at thisearly hour of the morning."

  "And I hate a fresh guy," put in Max, "like poison."

  "I'm not fresh," Mr. Magee smiled, "I'm stating facts. You say you'vecome for that package. All right--but you've come to the wrong room. Ihaven't got it."

  "The hell you haven't," roared the mayor. "Lou, look about a bit."

  "Look about all you like," agreed Magee. "You won't find it. Mr. Cargan,I admit that I laid for you last night. I saw you open the safeaccording to the latest approved methods, and I saw you come forth witha package of money. But I wasn't rough with you. I might have been, tobe frank, but somebody beat me to it."

  "Who?"

  "The man with the seventh key, I suppose. The man Bland heard walkingabout last night when we were at dinner. Don't tell me you didn't seehim in that mix-up at the foot of the steps?"

  "Well--I did think there was another guy," the mayor answered, "but Lousaid I was crazy."

  "Lou does you an injustice. There was another guy, and if you areanxious to recover your precious package, I advise you to wake him up tothe responsibilities of the day, not me."

  The mayor considered. Mr. Max, who had hastily made the rounds of thethree rooms, came back with empty hands.

  "Well," said the mayor, "I might as well admit it. I'm up in the air. Idon't know just at this minute where to get off. But that state ofaffairs don't last long with me, young fellow. I'll go to the bottom ofthis before the day is out, believe me. And if I can't do anything else,I'll take you back to Reuton myself and throw you in jail for robbery."

  "I wouldn't do that," smiled Magee. "Think of the awful job ofexplaining to the white necktie crowd how you happened to be dynamitinga safe on Baldpate Mountain at midnight."

  "Oh, I guess I can get around that," said the mayor. "That money belongsto a friend of mine--Andy Rutter. I happen to go to the inn for a littlerest, and I grab you dynamiting the safe. I'll keep an eye on youto-day, Mr. Magee. And let me tell you now that if I catch you or any ofthe bunch that's with you trying to make a getaway from Baldpate,there's going to be a war break out."

  "I don't know about the other hermits," laughed Magee, "but personally,I expect to be here for several weeks to come. Whew! It's cold in here.Where's the hermit? Why hasn't he been up to fix my fire?"

  "Yes, where is he?" repeated Mr. Cargan. "That's what everybody'd liketo know. He hasn't showed up. Not a sign of breakfast, and me as hollowas a reformer's victory."

  "He's backslid," cried Magee.

  "The quitter," sneered Max. "It's only a quitter would live on themountain in a shack, anyhow."

  "You're rather hard on poor old Peters," remarked Magee, "but when Ithink that I have to get up and dress in a refrigerating plant--I can'tsay I blame you. If only the fire were lighted--"

  He smiled his most ingratiating smile on his companion.

  "By the way, Mr. Cargan, you're up and dressed. I've read a lot ofmagazine articles about you, and they one and all agree that you're agood fellow. You'll find kindling and paper beside the hearth."

  "What!" The mayor's roar seemed to shake the windows. "Young man, with anerve like yours, you could wheedle the price of a battleship fromCarnegie. I--I--" He stood for a moment gazing almost in awe at Magee.Then he burst forth into a whole-souled laugh. "I am a good fellow," hesaid. "I'll show you."

  He went into the other room, and despite the horrified protests of LouMax, busied himself amid the ashes of the fireplace. When he had a blazeunder way, Mr. Magee came shivering from the other room and held out hishand.

  "Mr. Cargan," he laughed, "you're a prince." He noted with interest thatthe mayor's broad shoes were mighty near two hundred thousand, dollars.

  While Mr. Magee drew on his clothes, the mayor and Max sat thoughtfullybefore the fire, the former with his pudgy hands folded over the vastexpanse where no breakfast reposed. Mr. Magee explained to them that theholder of the sixth key had arrived.

  "A handsome young lady," he remarked; "her name is Myra Thornhill."

  "Old Henry Thornhill's daughter," reflected the mayor. "Well, seems I'vesort of lost the habit of being surprised now. I tell you, Lou, we'rebreaking into the orchid division up here."

  While Mr. Magee shaved--in ice-cold water, another black mark againstthe Hermit of Baldpate--he turned over in his mind the events of thenight before. The vigil in the office, the pleading of the fair girl onthe balcony, the battle by the steps, the sudden appearance of MissThornhill, the figure in his room, the conversation by the annexdoor--like a moving picture film the story of that weird night unrolleditself. The film was not yet at an end. He had given himself the nightto think. Soon he would stand before the girl of the station; soon hemust answer her questions. What was he to do with the fortune that laybeneath the feet of the mayor of Reuton at this minute? He hardly knew.

  He was ready to descend at last, and came into the parlor of his suitewith greatcoat and hat. In reply to Mr. Cargan's unasked question, hesaid:

  "I'm going up the mountain presently to reason with our striking cook."

  "You ain't going to leave this inn, Magee," said the mayor.

  "Not even to bring back a cook. Come, Mr. Cargan, be reasonable. You maygo with me, if you suspect my motives."

  They went out into the hall, and Mr. Magee passed down the corridor tothe farther end, where he rapped on the door of Miss Thornhill's room.She appeared almost immediately, buried beneath furs and wraps.

  "You must be nearly frozen," remarked Mr. Magee pityingly. "You and yourmaid come down to the office. I want you to meet the other guests."

  "I'll come," she replied. "Mr. Magee, I've a confession to make. Iinvented the maid. It seemed so horribly unconventional and shocking--Icouldn't admit that I was alone. That was why I wouldn't let you build afire for me."

  "Don't worry," smiled Magee. "You'll find we have all the conveniencesup here. I'll present you to a chaperon shortly--a Mrs. Norton, who ishere with her daughter. Allow me to introduce Mr. Cargan and Mr
. Max."

  The girl bowed with a rather startled air, and Mr. Cargan mumbledsomething that had "pleasure" in it. In the office they found ProfessorBolton and Mr. Bland sitting gloomily before the fireplace.

  "Got the news, Magee?" asked the haberdasher. "Peters has done adisappearing act."

  It was evident to Magee that everybody looked upon Peters as hiscreature, and laid the hermit's sins at his door. He laughed.

  "I'm going to head a search party shortly," he said. "Don't I detect theodor of coffee in the distance?"

  "Mrs. Norton," remarked Professor Bolton dolefully, "has kindlyconsented to do what she can."

  The girl of the station came through the dining-room door. It wasevident she had no share in the general gloom that the hermit's absencecast over Baldpate. Her eyes were bright with the glories of morning ona mountain; in their depths there was no room for petty annoyances.

  "Good morning," she said to Mr. Magee. "Isn't it bracing? Have you beenoutside? Oh, I--"

  "Miss Norton--Miss Thornhill," explained Magee. "Miss Thornhill has thesixth key, you know. She came last night without any of us knowing."

  With lukewarm smiles the two girls shook hands. Outwardly the glancesthey exchanged were nonchalant and casual, but somehow Mr. Magee feltthat among the matters they established were social position, wit,cunning, guile, and taste in dress.

  "May I help with the coffee?" asked Miss Thornhill.

  "Only to drink it," replied the girl of the station. "It's all made now,you see."

  As if in proof of this, Mrs. Norton appeared in the dining-room doorwith a tray, and simultaneously opened an endless monologue:

  "I don't know what you men will say to this, I'm sure--nothing in thehouse but some coffee and a few crackers--not even any canned soup, andI thought from the way things went yesterday he had ten thousand cans ofit at the very least--but men are all alike--what name did you say?--ohyes, Miss Thornhill, pleased to meet you, I'm sure--excuse my notshaking hands--as I was saying, men are all alike--Norton thought if hebrought home a roast on Saturday night it ought to last the week out--"

  She rattled on. Unheeding her flow of talk, the hermits of Baldpate Innswallowed the coffee she offered. When the rather unsatisfactorysubstitute for breakfast was consumed, Mr. Magee rose briskly.

  "Now," he said, "I'm going to run up to the hermit's shack and reasonwith him as best I can. I shall paint in touching colors our sad plight.If the man has an atom of decency--"

  "A walk on the mountain in the morning," said Miss Thornhill quickly."Splendid. I--"

  "Wonderful," put in Miss Norton. "I, for one, can't resist. Even thoughI haven't been invited, I'm going along." She smiled sweetly. She hadbeaten the other girl by the breadth of a hair, and she knew it. Newglories shone in her eyes.

  "Good for you!" said Magee. The evil hour of explanations was at hand,surely. "Run up and get your things."

  While Miss Norton was gone, Mr. Cargan and Lou Max engaged in earnestconverse near a window. After which Mr. Max pulled on his overcoat.

  "I ain't been invited either," he said, "but I reckon I'll go along. Ialways wanted to see what a hermit lived like when he's really buckleddown to the hermit business. And then a walk in the morning has alwaysbeen my first rule for health. You don't mind, do you?"

  "Who am I," asked Magee, "that I should stand between you and health?Come along, by all means."

  With the blue corduroy suit again complete, and the saucy hat perched onher blond head, Miss Norton ran down the stairs and received the newsthat Mr. Max also was enthralled by the possibilities of a walk upBaldpate. The three went out through the front door, and found under thesnow a hint of the path that led to the shack of the post-card merchant.

  "Will you go ahead?" asked Magee of Max.

  "Sorry," grinned Max, "but I guess I'll bring up the rear."

  "Suspicion," said Mr. Magee, shaking his head, "has caused a lot oftrouble in the world. Remember the cruelty practised on Pueblo Sam."

  "I do," replied Mr. Max, "and it nearly breaks my heart. But there's alittle matter I forgot to mention last night. Suspicion is all right inits place."

  "Where's that?" asked Mr. Magee.

  Mr. Max tapped his narrow chest. "Here," he said. So the three began theclimb, Mr. Magee and the girl ahead, Mr. Max leering at their heels.

  The snow still fell, and the picture of the world was painted in graysand whites. At some points along the way to the hermit's abode it haddrifted deep; at others the foot-path was swept almost bare by the wind.For a time Mr. Max kept so close that the conversation of the two in thelead was necessarily of the commonplaces of the wind and sky andmountain.

  Covertly Mr. Magee glanced at the girl striding along by his side. Thered flamed in her cheeks; her long lashes were flecked with the white ofthe snow; her face was such a one as middle-aged men dream of whiletheir fat wives read the evening paper's beauty hints at their side. Farbeyond the ordinary woman was she desirable and pleasing. Mr. Magee toldhimself he had been a fool. For he who had fought so valiantly for herheart's desire at the foot of the steps had faltered when the time cameto hand her the prize. Why? What place had caution in the wild scheme ofthe night before? None, surely. And yet he, dolt, idiot, coward, had inthe moment of triumph turned cautious. Full confession, he decided, wasthe only way out.

  Mr. Max was panting along quite ten feet behind. Over her shoulder thegirl noted this; she turned her questioning eyes on Magee; he felt thathis moment had come.

  "I don't know how to begin," muttered the novelist whose puppets'speeches had always been so apt. "Last night you sent me on a sortof--quest for the golden fleece. I didn't know who had been fleeced, orwhat the idea was. But I fared forth, as they say. I got it for you--"

  The eyes of the girl glowed happily. She was beaming.

  "I'm so glad," she said. "But why--why didn't you give it to me lastnight? It would have meant so much if you had."

  "That," replied Mr. Magee, "is what I'm coming to--very reluctantly. Didyou note any spirit of caution in the fellow who set forth on yourquest, and dropped over the balcony rail? You did not. I waited on theporch and saw Max tap the safe. I saw him and Cargan come out. I waitedfor them. Just as I was about to jump on them, somebody--the man withthe seventh key, I guess--did it for me. There was a scuffle. I joinedit. I emerged with the package everybody seems so interested in."

  "Yes," said the girl breathlessly. "And then--"

  "I started to bring it to you," went on Magee, glancing over hisshoulder at Max. "I was all aglow with romance, and battle, and all thatsort of thing. I pictured the thrill of handing you the thing you hadasked. I ran up-stairs. At the head of the stairs--I saw her."

  The light died in her eyes. Reproach entered there.

  "Yes," continued Magee, "your knight errant lost his nerve. He ceased torun on schedule. She, too, asked me for that package of money."

  "And you gave it to her," said the girl scornfully.

  "Oh, no," answered Magee quickly. "Not so bad as that. I simply sat downon the steps and thought. I got cautious. I decided to wait untilto-day. I--I did wait."

  He paused. The girl strode on, looking straight ahead. Mr. Magee thoughtof adding that he had felt it might be dangerous to place a package sovoraciously desired in her frail hands. He decided he'd better not, onsecond thought.

  "I know," he said, "what you think. I'm a fine specimen of a man to sendon a hunt like that. A weak-kneed mollycoddle who passes into a state ofcoma at the crucial moment. But--I'm going to give you that packageyet."

  The girl turned her head. Mr. Magee saw that her eyes were misty withtears.

  "You're playing with me," she said brokenly. "I might have known. And Itrusted you. You're in the game with the others--and I thought youweren't. I staked my whole chance of success on you--now you're makingsport of me. You never intended to give me that money--you don't intendto now."

  "On my word," cried Magee, "I do intend to give it to you. The minute weget back to the inn. I have
it safe in my room."

  "Give it to her," said the girl bitterly. "Why don't you give it toher?"

  Oh, the perversity of women!

  "It's you I want to give it to," replied Magee warmly. "I don't knowwhat was the matter with me last night. I was a fool. You don't believein me, I know--" Her face was cold and expressionless.

  "And I wanted to believe in you--so much," she said.

  "Why did you want to?" cried Magee. "Why?"

  She plodded on through the snow.

  "You must believe," he pleaded. "I don't know what all this is about--onmy word of honor. But I want to give you that money, and I will--theminute we get back to the inn. Will you believe then? Will you?"

  "I hate you," said the girl simply.

  She should not have said that. As far back as he could remember, suchopposition had stirred Mr. Magee to wild deeds. He opened his mouth andwords flowed forth. What were the words?

  "I love you! I love you! Ever since that moment in the station I haveloved you! I love you!"

  Faintly he heard himself saying it over and over. By the gods, he wasproposing! Inanely, in words of one syllable, as the butcher's boy mighthave told his love to the second kitchen maid.

  "I love you," he continued. Idiot!

  Often Mr. Magee had thought of the moment when he would tell his love toa woman. It was a moment of dim lights, music perhaps in the distance,two souls caught up in the magic of the moonlit night--a pretty gracefulspeech from him, a sweet gracious surrender from the girl. Andthis--instead.

  "I love you." In heaven's name, was he never going to stop saying it? "Iwant you to believe."

  Bright morning on the mountain, a girl in an angry mood at his side, aseedy chaperon on his trail, an erring cook ahead. Good lord! Herecalled that a fellow novelist, whose love scenes were regarded asmodels by young people suffering the tender passion, had once confessedthat he proposed to his wife on a street-car, and was accepted just asthe conductor handed him his transfers. Mr. Magee had been scornful. Hecould never be scornful again. By a tremendous effort he avoidedrepeating his childish refrain.

  The girl deliberately stopped. There was never less of sweet gracioussurrender in a suffragette hurling a stone through a shop-keeper'swindow. She eyed Mr. Magee pityingly, and they stood until Mr. Maxcaught up with them.

  "So that's the hermit's shack," said Max, indicating the little woodenhut at which they had arrived. "A funny place for a guy to bury himself.I should think he'd get to longing for the white lights and the tabled'hotes with red wine."

  "A very unromantic speech," reproved the girl. "You should be deeplythrilled at the thought of penetrating the secrets of the hermitage. Iam. Are you, Mr. Magee?"

  She smiled up at Magee, and he was in that state where he thought thatin the blue depths of her eyes he saw the sunny slopes of the islands ofthe blest.

  "I--" he caught himself in time. He would not be idiot enough to babbleit again. He pulled himself together. "I'm going to make you believe inme," he said, with a touch of his old jauntiness.

  Mr. Max was knocking with characteristic loudness at the hermit's door.