The Vanishing of Betty Varian

by Carolyn Wells

  CHAPTER XII A Letter from Nowhere

  Pennington Wise himself assisted in the locking up of the house thatnight, for he was determined if any more burglars came, he would know howthey got in. The money that Minna had in her possession he took chargeof, saying he would be responsible for its safety.

  Long the detective lay awake in his pleasant bedroom that overlooked thesea. He could hear the great waves tossing and breaking at the foot ofthe cliff and he couldn't free his mind from a queer obsession to theeffect that those waves held the secret of the mysteries of HeadlandHouse.

  "It's too absurd," he thought to himself in the darkness, "but I do feelthat the whole matter is dependent in some way or other on the cliff andthe sea."

  Had he been asked to elucidate this more definitely he could not havedone so. It was only a hunch,--but Wise's hunches were often worthy ofconsideration, and he determined to go out on the sea in somebody's boatwhen the morning came, and see if he could find any inspiration.

  When the morning came it brought a fresh surprise.

  The household assembled promptly for an eight o'clock breakfast. MinnaVarian, pale and fragile looking, clad in a simple black house dress, wasa strong contrast to the young and glowing vitality of Zizi, whose slimlittle black frock was touched here and there with henna, and whose vividand expressive face needed no aid of cosmetics to be a bright, colorfulpicture in itself.

  Wise was very grave and silent,--he was in a mood which Zizi knew wasthat of utter bafflement. It was not often the detective felt thisconviction of helplessness, but it had occurred before, and Zizi noted itwith some alarm. It meant desperate and wearing effort on Wise's part,deep thinking and dogged persistence in forming and proving theories,that more likely than not would prove false. It meant a strain of brainand nerves that might result in a physical breakdown,--for the detectivehad been working hard of late, and this impenetrable mystery seemed thelast straw.

  Granniss was the most serene of the quartette. He was young and hopeful.He was innocent of any crime or knowledge of it, and he cared naught forthe half-voiced suspicions of the local police. In fact, they hadpractically given up the case as far beyond their ken, and now that Wisewas in charge, the sheriff wanted nothing to say in the matter, exceptwhen Wise desired to consult him.

  And Granniss was confident that Wise would find Betty. He had no realreason for his belief in the detective's magic, but he had unboundedfaith, and he was a born optimist. He felt sure that, if Betty had beenkilled, the fact would have become known by this time,--and if she werestill alive, surely she would be found. He had come to believe in thekidnappers, and though he couldn't understand how the deed had been done,he cared more to get Betty back than to learn what had happened to her.Also, he was kept busy in attending to the daily influx of businessletters and financial matters connected with the Varian estate. DoctorVarian had promised to come up to Headland House again as soon as hecould, but he was a busy man and hadn't yet made time for the visit.

  As breakfast was about to be served, Kelly brought a letter to Minnasaying simply, "This was on the hall table when I came downstairs thismorning, madam."

  A glance showed Minna that it was from the same source as the other"ransom" letter, and she handed it unopened to Wise.

  Staring hard at the envelope, he slit it open, and read the contentsaloud.

  "We know all that is going on. We have your daughter. You have the required sum of money. If you will bring about an exchange, we will do our part. Your fancy detective must work with you, or at least refrain from working against you, or there can be no deal. You may drop the package over the cliff, exactly as directed before, at midnight on Friday. Unless you accomplish this, in strict accordance with our orders, you will lose both the money and your child. One divergence from our directions and your daughter will be done away with. You can see we have no other way out. This is our last letter, and our final offer. Take it or leave it. Enclosed is a note from your daughter to prove that we are telling you the truth."

  And enclosed was a small slip of paper on which was written,

  "Mother, do as they tell you. Betty."

  "Is that your daughter's writing?" Wise asked, as he passed the littlenote to Minna.

  "Yes," she whispered, trembling so violently and turning so white, thatZizi flew to her side, and induced her to take a sip of coffee.

  "Brace up, now, dear," Zizi said, "you'll need all your strength and allyour pluck. And cheer up, too. If that's from Betty, she's alive, and ifshe's alive, we'll get her! Bank on that!"

  Zizi's strong young voice and encouraging smile did as much as the coffeeto invigorate and cheer the distracted mother, and Rod Granniss, said,"Sure! that's Betty's own writing,--no forgery about that! Now, Mr Wise,what next?"

  "Next, is to find out how that note got into this house," said PenningtonWise. "I locked up myself last night,--I listened but I heard nointruder's footstep, and I know no outside door or window was opened. Itwas,--it _must_ have been an inside job. Kelly!"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Where were you all night?"

  "In my bed, sir. On the third floor of the house."

  "Oh, pouf! I know it wasn't you, Kelly, you could no more have engineeredthis letter than you could fly to the moon! And Hannah, I suppose was inher bed, too. I've no wish to question the servants,--they had nothing todo with it."

  "It was the kidnappers, then?" Zizi asked, softly.

  "It was the kidnappers," Wise said. "They,--or he,--came into this houseby some secret way, which we have got to find. They, or their agent, camein night before last to steal that money from the safe. Foiled in thatattempt, they have returned to their ransom scheme, hoping to get themoney that way. They are desperate, and,--I don't know, Mrs Varian butthat we'd better----"

  "Oh, Penny," Zizi cried, "don't throw away all that money----"

  "What is that sum,--any sum,--in comparison with getting my child?" criedMinna, so excited as to be with difficulty warding off a hystericalattack.

  "But you wouldn't get her," Zizi asserted, positively. "First, they'dnever get the money,--thrown down in the darkness like that,--it's toouncertain. And, if they did, they wouldn't return Betty,--I know theywouldn't."

  "Never mind that now, Zizi," Wise spoke from deep preoccupation. "We havetill Friday night to decide about it. Today is only Wednesday. What Ihope to get at from this note is the identity of the kidnapper. I am sureit is the same man as the one who wrote that blackmail letter."

  "This is typewritten," Granniss said, studying the letter. "And notsigned in any way. I've heard, though, that typewriting is as easilydistinguished or recognized as penwriting."

  "That's true in a sense," Wise told him. "I mean, if you suspect acertain person or machine, you can check up the peculiarities of thescript, and prove the typing. But in this case, the letter was doubtlesswritten on some public machine,--say in a hotel or business office, andeven if found, would give no clue to the writer. We have to do with thecleverest mind I have ever been up against. That is positive. Now thereason I connect the kidnapper and the blackmailer is twofold. First, ifthis man's blackmailing scheme proved unsuccessful, he may have struck athis victim in this more desperate way. And, second, there is aresemblance in the diction of the notes from the kidnappers and the noteof blackmail intent, signed 'Step'."

  "What do you suppose 'Step' means?" Granniss asked.

  "Short for Stephen, I daresay," replied Wise. "There's no other name thatbegins,--oh, yes, there is Stepney,--but it doesn't matter. 'Step' is ourman,--of that I'm sure. But how to find such an elusive individual is apuzzling problem."

  "Then you believe there's a secret passage?" Granniss said.

  "There simply has to be. It may be a hidden one,--or it may be a falsedoorway or window frame, but there is most certainly a way for thatvillain to get in and out of this house at will. Now that way must befound, and at once or I give up my profession and make no further claim
to detective ability!"

  "We'll find it, Penny," Zizi promised him.

  "Find it, if you have to tear down the whole house," Minna exclaimed,excitedly. She was nervously caressing the note from Betty, and was readyto further any project that was suggested.

  "You don't own the house?" Wise asked.

  "No; but I'll buy it. It's in the market, and the price is not so veryhigh. Then you can tear it down, if you wish, and I can sell the groundafterward."

  "Good business deal!" Granniss said. "I'd like nothing better than todrive a pick into these old walls."

  "But there's no place to drive, with any expectation of success," Wisedemurred. "Where's your friend North? Isn't he an architect? Can you gethim up here?"

  "Surely," Rod said, "I'll telephone him, if you say so. I'm sure he'll beglad to come. He isn't a professional architect, but he knows more aboutbuilding plans than many a firm of contractors does."

  "Call him, then, please, when you've finished your breakfast," Wisedirected, and returned to his study of the letter.

  "I can't understand it at all," he groaned to Zizi, after breakfast wasover.

  Minna had gone to her room, and Rodney was reading the mail.

  Wise and Zizi were in the hall, sitting on the sofa with the yellowpillows.

  "This figures in it," Zizi said, patting the yellow pillow that had heldthe little hairpin.

  "As how?"

  "Find that secret entrance first," she said, drawing her pretty browstogether. "That will explain 'most everything. And, Penny, it isn't asecret passage, as they call it. It's just a concealed entrance."

  "And through the cellar,--for you know, there was cellar dust on thelibrary floor,--near the safe."

  "That only proved the man had been down cellar,--hiding probably untilthe time was ripe. I've scoured that cellar myself."

  "So have I, Zizi, and there's not a loose stone in its walls or a trap inits floor,--of that I'm certain."

  "I'm sure of that, too; and Penny, I even went down the well."

  "You did! You little rascal. They told me Dunn went down and examinedthat."

  "Well, I had to go, too. It wasn't difficult,--the stone sides are easyto climb up and down. Not very slippery, either. But dirty! My, I ruinedone of my pet dresses. Yet there was no hole in the old well sides. Nomissing stone or anything suspicious. And that settles the cellar!"

  "I don't think the entrance is through the cellar. I incline more to theidea of a false door frame,--you know, the frame and all on hinges. Then,locking would not affect the opening of the whole affair."

  "That's all right,--but, which door?"

  "There are only two. I've examined them both. It may be a window."

  "Get friend North to confab with you. You're clever enough, Penny, butyou're not a real architect. Mr North may have some suggestions to make,that with your ingenuity may work it out."

  Lawrence North arrived and with him came Claire Blackwood. The latter wasurged to the visit largely by curiosity to learn how things were going,and also by a desire to renew her expressions of sympathy and hope to MrsVarian.

  Zizi managed to get a few words alone with Claire.

  "Tell me about this Eleanor," the girl said. "I feel sure a lot hinges onthat peculiar matter of the pearls. Is Eleanor a scheming sort?"

  "Oh, no!" exclaimed Mrs Blackwood. "She is a dear girl,--very young, andof a simple, charming nature. She was devoted to her cousin, and had nothought of the family pearls ever being hers. Don't for a moment think ofEleanor Varian as capable of the slightest thought of disloyalty, muchless of envy or covetousness."

  "Well, I just wanted to know," said Zizi, with her winning, confidentialsmile. "What about her parents? Could her mother have influenced MrFrederick Varian's mind against his own daughter?"

  "No, indeed! Nor Doctor Varian either! Why, they're the best and finestkind of people, all of them. Whatever the explanation of those pearlsbeing left away from Betty, it was not due to any maneuvering on the partof Eleanor or her parents! Of that you may be sure!"

  Meantime, Lawrence North and the detective were discussing architecture.They were in the library and the plans of the house were spread outbefore them.

  "I'm interested," North said, looking eagerly at the plans, "for I'malways fond of plans. And, too, I want to prove my contention thatthere's no space unaccounted for. At first, I thought there might be abit of spare room between this wall and this,--you see. But that jamb ismerely the back of a small cupboard in the hall. Can you find any hint offalse building?"

  "No; I can't," Wise admitted, and then he unfolded his theory of a doubledoor frame,--or, rather a hinged door frame or window frame.

  "That," said North, "must be looked for in the house, not on the plans.But I doubt it. Any such thing would be apt to show the joints afteryears of disuse. You see, this house hasn't been lived in before for along time."

  "Then I'll have to give up the notion of a double door," and Wise sighed."Now, here's another matter. I want to go out in a boat,--a good motorboat, and have a look round the sea and the cliff and observe for myselfthe possibilities of an expert climber entering the grounds from thatside. Will you take me in your boat? I'm told you have a fine one?"

  "Of course I will," was the ready response. "When do you want to go?"

  "As soon as you can make it convenient. I want to work rapidly, as thingsare coming to a focus, and I don't dare delay."

  North stared at him, as if wondering how a trip in his boat would advancethe work definitely, but the detective had no intention of telling himabout the kidnapper's letter and, too, Wise wanted to view the wholeheadland from the ocean.

  The result was that the two started off at once, and going first toNorth's bungalow to get his keys, and also his man who helped run theboat, inside of an hour Pennington Wise found himself out on the oceanwith North, and Joe Mills, who, though taciturn and even grumpy, was agood navigator.

  "Remarkable cliff!" Wise exclaimed, amazed at its effect from below.

  "It's all of that!" North said; "most wonderful cliff on the whole Mainecoast, they say. Notice the overhang, and then tell me if any one couldclimb it!"

  "No human being could!" Wise declared. "And I can think of noanimal,--unless a spider. Go clear round to the other side, will you?"

  North gave orders and Mills drove them round the great headland, and onall sides it was as massive and forbidding as the first view.

  "High tide, isn't it?" asked Wise, as they went on beyond the headland,and then turned back again.

  "Yes," said North, glancing at the rocky base. "Almost top notch."

  "Rise high?"

  "Very. Twenty feet at least."

  "I thought so. Marvelous tides up in this locality. Well, there's nothingmore to be discovered by gazing at these rocks and water: let's go home."

  On the trip homeward, the detective proved himself so entertaining thatNorth went back to Headland House with him.

  Again they poured over the plans of the house, and Wise announced hisdetermination of using a pick on one room in the third story that hesurmised might be a trifle shorter than its adjacent walls implied.

  "But it measures up," North insisted.

  "Not quite," Wise declared. "There may be a two foot space in there,which would be enough for a secret passage."

  "You're a persistent one!" North laughed. "All right, Mr Wise, go aheadwith your investigation. May I help? I can wield a pick with the best ofthem!"

  The detective glanced at the lithe, sinewy form, that seemed to be allmuscle and no superfluous flesh, and said, admiringly, "I believe you!But I think Kelly or the chauffeur can do the really hard work."

  "No, let me do it," North offered. "I'd really enjoy it."

  So, half amused at his own decision, Wise agreed, and the two went insearch of the necessary tools.

  But the result of their labor was absolutely nothing, beyond anincredible amount of dust and dirt, of lath and plaster, and two verymuch disheveled men.

  "
Now you must stay to dinner, Mr North," the detective urged him. "Youcan put yourself to right enough for our informal meal, and it is toolate for you to get to your home by dinner time."

  So North stayed, and at dinner they all discussed freely the wholeaffair. Mrs Varian did not appear at the table, the nurse thinking it wasbetter for her to have no more excitement that day.

  So Zizi calmly appropriated the chair at the head of the table, and actedthe part of hostess prettily and capably.

  Wise changed his mind about confiding to Lawrence North the matter of theransom letters, and concluded that in the absence of Mrs Varian thesubject might be discussed.

  "At any rate," the detective summed up, "we're in the possession ofpositive knowledge. We know that Betty was kidnapped,----"

  "Oh, come now," North said, thoughtfully, "those letters may befaked,--it seems to me they must be,--by some clever villain who expectsto get all that money under false promises. I don't believe for a minutethere is a kidnapper--why would anyone kidnap Betty Varian?"

  "For the usual kidnapper's reason,--ransom," Wise replied.

  "Well, how did the kidnapper get in?"

  "Oh, Mr North!" Wise threw up his hands. "This from you! I made up mymind that if one more person said to me, 'How did the kidnapper get in?'I'd have him arrested! I don't _know_ how he got in,--but I'm going tofind out!"

  "I think I won't assist in the work personally the next time you try,"Lawrence said. "I scarcely could get myself presentable for dinner! But,seriously, Mr Wise, you asked me up here to consult with you. Now, I'msure we must agree, that there is a way in and out of this house that wedon't know of. And that explains the entrance of the person who killedthat poor girl in the kitchen."

  "And explains the disappearance of Miss Varian, and the scattering of herbeads."

  "Beads?" said Lawrence North, interrogatively.

  "Yes; there were several beads found in the kitchen that have beenidentified as hers."

  "Then the way in must be connected with the kitchen," North remarked.

  "Perhaps, but not necessarily."

  "It's a dark night, Mr North," Rodney Granniss said, hospitably. "Won'tyou spend the night here? We can give you a room."

  After a polite demurrer, North accepted the invitation.

  The evening was spent in further and repeated discussion of the knownfacts and the surmised possibilities of the mystery, and then, both thedetective and Granniss went about locking up the house against furthermarauders, and they all retired.

  And the next morning they found that Lawrence North had disappeared! Hisroom showed signs of a struggle. A chair was overturned, a rug awry anddeep scratches on the shining floor proved a scuffle of some sort.

  "Another kidnapping case!" Granniss exclaimed. "Must have been a huskychap that got the better of North! Could there have been two against him?He's a powerful fighter!"

  "Search the house," said Wise, briefly, "and keep everybody out ofNorth's bedroom. I'll lock it and take the key myself. Now look for him.Is he given to practical joking?"

  But no amount of searching disclosed Lawrence North, or any sign of him,dead or alive. And the locked doors and windows were undisturbed.

  "He certainly didn't leave of his own accord," said Granniss; "hecouldn't have locked the doors behind him."

  "He was carried off," cried Minna, "just as Betty was! Oh, who of us issafe now?"