by Robert Barr
CHAPTER III. JENNIE INTERVIEWS A FRIGHTENED OFFICIAL.It was a little past seven o'clock when Miss Baxter's hansom drove up tothe two-storeyed house in Rupert Square numbered 17. She knocked at thedoor, and it was speedily opened by a man with some trace of anxiety onhis clouded face, who proved to be Hazel himself, the clerk at the Boardof Public Construction. "You are Mr. Hazel?" she ventured, on entering.
"Yes," replied the man, quite evidently surprised at seeing a ladyinstead of the man he was expecting at that hour; "but I am afraid Ishall have to ask you to excuse me; I am waiting for a visitor who is afew minutes late, and who may be here at any moment."
"You are waiting for Mr. Alder, are you not?"
"Yes," stammered the man, his expression of surprise giving place to oneof consternation.
"Oh, well, that is all right," said Miss Jennie, reassuringly. "I havejust driven from the office of the _Daily Bugle_. Mr. Alder cannot cometo-night."
"Ah," said Hazel, closing the door. "Then are you here in his place?"
"I am here instead of him. Mr. Alder is on other business that he had toattend to at the editor's request. Now, Mr. Hardwick--that's the editor,you know----"
"Yes, I know," answered Hazel.
They were by this time seated in the front parlour.
"Well, Mr. Hardwick is very anxious that the figures should be givenwith absolute accuracy."
"Of course, that would be much better," cried the man; "but, you see, Ihave gone thoroughly into the question with Mr. Alder already. He saidhe would mention what I told him to the editor--put my position beforehim, in fact."
"Oh, he has done so," said Miss Baxter, "and did it very effectivelyindeed; in fact, your reasons are quite unanswerable. You fear, ofcourse, that you will lose your situation, and that is very important,and no one in the _Bugle_ office wishes you to suffer for what you havedone. Of course, it is all in the public interest."
"Of course, of course," murmured Hazel, looking down on the table.
"Well, have you all the documents ready, so that they can be publishedat any time?"
"Quite ready," answered the man.
"Very well," said the girl, with decision; "here are your fifty pounds.Just count the money, and see that it is correct. I took the envelope asit was handed to me, and have not examined the amount myself."
She poured the sovereigns out on the table, and Hazel, with tremblingfingers, counted them out two by two.
"That is quite right," he said, rising. He went to a drawer, unlockedit, and took out a long blue envelope.
"There," he said, with a sigh that was almost a gasp. "There are thefigures, and a full explanation of them. You will be very careful thatmy name does not slip out in any way."
"Certainly," said Miss Jennie, coolly drawing forth the papers fromtheir covering. "No one knows your name except Mr. Alder, Mr. Hardwick,and myself; and I can assure you that I shall not mention it to anyone."
She glanced rapidly over the documents.
"I shall just read what you have written," she said, looking up at him;"and if there is anything here I do not understand you will, perhaps,be good enough to explain it now,--and then I won't need to come hereagain."
"Very well," said Hazel. The man had no suspicion that his visitor wasnot a member of the staff of the paper he had been negotiating with. Shewas so thoroughly self-possessed, and showed herself so familiar withall details which had been discussed by Alder and himself that not theslightest doubt had entered the clerk's mind.
Jennie read the documents with great haste, for she knew she was runninga risk in remaining there after seven o'clock. It might be that Alderwould come to Brixton to let the man know the result of his talk withthe editor, or Mr. Hardwick himself might have changed his mind, andinstructed his subordinate to secure the papers. Nevertheless, there wasno sign of hurry in Miss Jennie's demeanour as she placed the papersback in their blue envelope and bade the anxious Hazel good-bye.
Once more in the hansom, she ordered the man to drive her to CharingCross, and when she was ten minutes away from Rupert Square she changedher direction and desired him to take her to the office of the _EveningGraphite_, where she knew Mr. Stoneham would be busy with his leadingarticle, and probably impatiently awaiting further details of theconspiracy he was to lay open before the public. A light was burning inthe editorial rooms of the office of the _Evening Graphite_, always asuspicious thing in such an establishment, and well calculated to causethe editor of any rival evening paper to tremble, should he catch aglimpse of burning gas in a spot where the work of the day should befinished at latest by five o'clock. Light in the room of the eveningjournalist usually indicates that something important is on hand.
A glance at the papers Miss Baxter brought to him showed Mr. Stonehamthat he had at least got the worth of his fifty pounds. There would be afluttering in high places next day. He made arrangements before heleft to have the paper issued a little earlier than was customary,calculating his time with exactitude, so that rival sheets could nothave the news in their first edition, cribbed from the _Graphite_,and yet the paper would be on the street, with the newsboys shouting,"'Orrible scandal," before any other evening journal was visible.And this was accomplished the following day with a precision trulyadmirable.
Mr. Stoneham, with a craft worthy of all commendation, kept back fromthe early issue a small fraction of the figures that were in hispossession, so that he might print them in the so-called fourth edition,and thus put upon the second lot of contents--bills sent out, in huge,startling black type, "Further Revelations of the Board of ConstructionScandal;" and his scathing leading article, in which he indignantlydemanded a Parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of the Board, wasrecognized, even by the friends of that public body, as having seriouslyshaken confidence in it. The reception of the news by the other eveningpapers was most flattering. One or two ignored it altogether, othersalluded to it as a rumour, that it "alleged" so and so, and threw doubton its truth, which was precisely what Mr. Stoneham wished them to do,as he was in a position to prove the accuracy of his statement.
Promptly, at five o'clock that afternoon a hansom containing Miss JennieBaxter drove up to the side entrance of the _Daily Bugle_ office, andthe young woman once more accosted the Irish porter, who again came outof his den to receive her.
"Miss Baxter?" said the Irishman, half by way of salutation, and half byway of inquiry. "Yes," said the girl.
"Well, Mr. Hardwick left strict orders with me that if ye came, or,rather, that _whin_ ye came, I was to conduct ye right up to his room atonce."
"Oh, that is very satisfactory," cried Miss Jennie, "and somewhatdifferent from the state of things yesterday."
"Indeed, and that's very true," said the porter, his voice sinking."To-day is not like yesterday at all, at all. There's been greatructions in this office, mum; although what it's about, fly away with meif I know. There's been ruunin' back and forrad, an' a plentiful deal oflanguage used. The proprietor himself has been here, an' he's here now,an' Mr. Alder came out a minute ago with his face as white as a sheet ofpaper. They do be sayin'," added the porter, still further lowering hisvoice, and pausing on the stairway, "that Mr. Hardwick is not goin' tobe the editor any more, but that Mr. Alder is to take his place. Anyway,as far as I can tell, Mr. Hardwick an' Mr. Alder have had a fine fallout, an' one or other of them is likely to leave the paper."
"Oh, dear, oh, dear!" said Miss Jennie, also pausing on the stairs. "Isit so serious as all that?"
"Indeed it is, mum, an' we none of us know where we're standin', at all,at all."
The porter led the way to Mr. Hardwick's room, and announced thevisitor.
"Ask her to come in," she heard the editor say, and the next instant theporter left them alone together.
"Won't you sit down, Miss Baxter?" said Mr. Hardwick, with no trace ofthat anger in his voice which she had expected. "I have been waiting foryou. You said you would be here at five, and I like punctuality. Withoutbeating round the bush, I suppose I may tak
e it for granted that the_Evening Graphite_ is indebted to you for what it is pleased to call theBoard of Public Construction scandal?"
"Yes," said the young woman, seating herself; "I came up to tell youthat I procured for the _Graphite_ that interesting bit of information."
"So I supposed. My colleague, Henry Alder, saw Hazel this afternoon atthe offices of the Board. The good man Hazel is panic-stricken at theexplosion he has caused, and is in a very nervous state of mind, moreespecially when he learned that his documents had gone to an unexpectedquarter. Fortunately for him, the offices of the Board are throngedwith journalists who want to get statements from this man or the otherregarding the exposure, and so the visit of Alder to Hazel was notlikely to be noticed or commented upon. Hazel gave a graphic descriptionof the handsome young woman who had so cleverly wheedled the documentsfrom him, and who paid him the exact sum agreed upon in the exact waythat it was to have been paid. Alder had not seen you, and has not theslightest idea how the important news slipped through his fingers; butwhen he told me what had happened, I knew at once you were the goddessof the machine, therefore I have been waiting for you. May I bepermitted to express the opinion that you didn't play your cards at allwell, Miss Baxter?"
"No? I think I played my cards very much better than you played yours,you know."
"Oh, I am not instituting any comparison, and am not at all settingmyself up as a model of strategy. I admit that, having the right cardsin my hands, I played them exceedingly badly; but then, you understand,I thought I was sure of an exclusive bit of news."
"No news is exclusive, Mr. Hardwick, until it is printed, and out in thestreets, and the other papers haven't got it."
"That is very true, and has all the conciseness of an adage. I wouldlike to ask, Miss Baxter, how much the _Graphite_ paid you for thatarticle over and above the fifty pounds you gave to Hazel?"
"Oh! it wasn't a question of money with me; the subject hasn't even beendiscussed. Mr. Stoneham is not a generous paymaster, and that is why Idesire to get on a paper which does not count the cost too closely. WhatI wished to do was to convince you that I would be a valuable additionto the _Bugle_ staff; for you seemed to be of opinion that the staff wasalready sufficient and complete."
"Oh, my staff is not to blame in this matter; I alone am to blame inbeing too sure of my ground, and not realizing the danger of delay insuch a case. But if you had brought the document to me, you would havefound me by far your best customer. You would have convinced me quite aseffectually as you have done now that you are a very alert young woman,and I certainly would have been willing to give you four or five timesas much as the _Graphite_ will be able to pay."
"To tell the truth, I thought of that as I stood here yesterday, but Isaw you were a very difficult man to deal with or to convince, and Idared not take the risk of letting you know I had the news. You mightvery easily have called in Mr. Alder, told him that Hazel had given upthe documents, and sent him flying to Brixton, where very likely theclerk has a duplicate set. It would have been too late to get thesensation into any other morning paper, and, even if it were not toolate, you would have had something about the sensation in the _Bugle_,and so the victory would not have been as complete as it is now. No, Icould not take such a risk. I thought it all out very carefully."
"You credit us with more energy, Miss Baxter, than we possess. I canassure you that if you had come here at ten or eleven o'clock with thedocuments, I should have been compelled to purchase them from you.However, that is all past and done with, and there is no use in oursaying anything more about it. I am willing to take all the blame forour defeat on my shoulders, but there are some other things I am notwilling to do, and perhaps you are in a position to clear up a littlemisunderstanding that has arisen in this office. I suppose I may take itfor granted that you overheard the conversation which took place betweenMr. Alder and myself in this room yesterday afternoon?"
"Well," said Miss Baxter, for the first time in some confusion, "I canassure you that I did not come here with the intention of listening toanything. I came into the next room by myself for the purpose of gettingto see you as soon as possible. While not exactly a member of the staffof the _Evening Graphite_, that paper nevertheless takes about all thework I am able to do, and so I consider myself bound to keep my eyes andears open on its behalf wherever I am."
"Oh, I don't want to censure you at all," said Hardwick; "I merely wishto be certain how the thing was done. As I said, I am willing to takethe blame entirely on my own shoulders. I don't think I should havemade use of information obtained in that way myself; still, I am notventuring to find fault with you for doing so."
"To find fault with me!" cried Miss Jennie somewhat warmly, "that wouldbe the pot calling the kettle black indeed. Why, what better were you?You were bribing a poor man to furnish you with statistics, which hewas very reluctant to let you have; yet you overcame his scruples withmoney, quite willing that he should risk his livelihood, so long as yougot the news. If you ask me, I don't see very much difference in ourpositions, and I must say that if two men take the risk of talking aloudabout a secret, with a door open leading to another room, which may beempty or may be not, then they are two very foolish persons."
"Oh, quite so, quite so," answered Hardwick soothingly. "I have alreadydisclaimed the critical attitude. The point I wish to be sure of isthis--you overheard the conversation between Alder and myself?"
"Yes, I did."
"Would you be able to repeat it?"
"I don't know that I could repeat it word for word, but I couldcertainly give the gist of it."
"Would you have any objection to telling a gentleman whom I shall callin a moment, as nearly as possible what Alder said and what I said?I may add that the gentleman I speak of is Mr. Hempstead, and he ispractically the proprietor of this paper. There has arisen between Mr.Alder and myself a slight divergence of memory, if I may call it so, andit seems that you are the only person who can settle the dispute."
"I am perfectly willing to tell what I heard to anybody."
"Thank you."
Mr. Hardwick pressed an electric button, and his secretary came in fromanother room.
"Would you ask Mr. Hempstead to step this way, if he is in his room?"
In a few minutes Mr. Hempstead entered, bowed somewhat stiffly towardsthe lady, but froze up instantly when he heard that she was the personwho had given the Board of Public Construction scandal to the _EveningGraphite_.
"I have just this moment learned, Mr. Hempstead, that Miss Baxter was inthe adjoining room when Alder and I were talking over this matter. Sheheard the conversation. I have not asked her to repeat it, but sent foryou at once, and she says she is willing to answer any questions you mayask."
"In that case, Mr. Hardwick, wouldn't it be well to have Henry Alderhere?"
"Certainly, if he is on the premises." Then, turning to his secretary,he said, "Would you find out if Mr. Alder is in his room? Tell him Mr.Hempstead wishes to see him here."
When Henry Alder came in, and the secretary had disappeared, Miss Baxtersaw at once that she was in an unenviable situation, for it was quiteevident the three men were scarcely on speaking terms with each other.Nothing causes such a state of tension in a newspaper office as themissing of a piece of news that is important.
"Perhaps it would be better," suggested Hardwick, "if Miss Baxter wouldrepeat the conversation as she heard it."
"I don't see the use of that," said Mr. Hempstead. "There is only onepoint at issue. Did Mr. Alder warn Mr. Hardwick that by delay he wouldlose the publication of this report?"
"Hardly that," answered the girl. "As I remember it, he said, 'Isn'tthere a danger that some other paper may get this?' Mr. Hardwickreplied, 'I don't think so. Not for three days, at least'; and then Mr.Alder said, 'Very good,' or 'Very well,' or something like that."
"That quite tallies with my own remembrance," assented Hardwick. "Iadmit I am to blame, but I decidedly say that I was not definitelywarned by Mr. Alder that the mat
ter would be lost to us."
"I told you it would be lost if you delayed," cried Alder, with theemphasis of an angry man, "and it _has_ been lost. I have been on thetrack of this for two weeks, and it is very galling to have missed it atthe last moment through no fault of my own."
"Still," said Mr. Hempstead coldly, "your version of the conversationdoes not quite agree with what Miss Baxter says."
"Oh, well," said Alder, "I never pretended to give the exact words. Iwarned him, and he did not heed the warning."
"You admit, then, that Miss Baxter's remembrance of the conversation iscorrect?"
"It is practically correct. I do not 'stickle' about words."
"But you did stickle about words an hour ago," said Mr. Hempstead, withsome severity. "There is a difference in positively stating that theitem would be lost and in merely suggesting that it might be lost."
"Oh, have it as you wish," said Alder truculently. "It doesn't matter inthe least to me. It is very provoking to work hard for two weeks, andthen have everything nullified by a foolish decision from the editor.However, as I have said, it doesn't matter to me. I have taken serviceon the _Daily Trumpet_, and you may consider my place on the _Bugle_vacant"--saying which, the irate Mr. Alder put his hat on his head andleft the room.
Mr. Hempstead seemed distressed by the discussion, but, for the firsttime, Mr. Hardwick smiled grimly.
"I always insist on accuracy," he said, "and lack of it is one ofAlder's failings."
"Nevertheless, Mr. Hardwick, you have lost one of your best men. How areyou going to replace him?" inquired the proprietor anxiously.
"There is little difficulty in replacing even the best man on any staffin London," replied Hardwick, with a glance at Miss Baxter. "As thisyoung lady seems to keep her wits about her when the welfare of herpaper is concerned, I shall, if you have no objection, fill HenryAlder's place with Miss Baxter?"
Mr. Hempstead arched his eyebrows a trifle, and looked at the girl insome doubt.
"I thought you didn't believe in women journalists, Mr. Hardwick," hemurmured at last.
"I didn't up till to-day, but since the evening papers came out I havehad reason to change my mind. I should much rather have Miss Baxter forme than against me."
"Do you think you can fill the position, Miss Baxter?" asked theproprietor, doubtingly.
"Oh, I, am sure of it," answered the girl. "I have long wanted a placeon a well-edited paper like the _Bugle_." Again Mr. Hardwick smiledgrimly. The proprietor turned to him, and said, "I don't quite see,Mr. Hardwick, what a lady can do on this paper outside of the regulardepartments."
"I hardly think there will be any trouble about that, Mr. Hempstead. Forexample, who could be better equipped to attempt the solution of thatknotty question about the Princess von Steinheimer's diamonds?"
"By Jove!" cried Hempstead, his eyes glittering with excitement. "Thatis an inspiration. I imagine that if anyone can unravel the mystery, itis Miss Baxter."