I
He arrived at home on the following afternoon at six and wasimmediately rung up by Spaulding, who demanded an interview. It was notworth while going down town again, as Helene was out and would no doubtreturn only in time to dress for dinner. They were to dine at half-pastseven and go to the play afterward. He told Spaulding to take a taxiand come to the house.
Nothing had occurred meanwhile to cause him anxiety. He had taken Heleneout to the Cliff House to dinner the night before, and afterward to seethe road-houses, whose dancing is so painfully proper early in theevening. Polly Roberts had come into the most notorious of them ateleven, chaperoning a party, which included Aileen Lawton, a girl asrestless and avid of excitement as herself. Rex Roberts and several otheryoung men had been in attendance, and Polly had begged Ruyler to stay onand let his wife see something of "real life."
"This is one of the sights of the world, you know," she said, puffing hercigarette smoke into his face. "It's too middle-class to be shocked,and not to see occasionally what you really cannot get anywhere else.Why, there'll even be a lot of tourists here later on, and these dancersdon't do the real Apache until about one. At least leave Helene with me,if you care more for bed than fun."
But Ruyler had merely laughed and taken his wife home. Helene had madeno protest; on the contrary had put her arm through his in the car andher head on his shoulder, vowing she was worn out, and glad to go home.It was only afterward that it occurred to him that she had clung to himthat night.
Spaulding entered the library without taking off his hat, and chewing atoothpick vigorously. He began to talk at once, stretching himself out ina Morris chair, and accepting a cigar. This time Price smoked with him.
"Well," said the detective, "it's like the game of button, button, who'sgot the button? Sometimes I think I'm getting a little warmer and then Igo stone cold. But I've found out a few things, anyhow. How tall shouldyou say Madame Delano is? I've only seen her sitting on her throne therein the Palace Court lookin' like an old Sphinx that's havin' a laugh allto herself."
"About five feet ten."
"The Mother Superior said six feet, but no doubt when she had figgerinstead of flesh she looked taller. Well, I've discovered no less thanfive tall handsome brunettes that sparkled here in the late Eighties andearly Nineties, but it's the deuce and all to get an exact descriptionout of anybody, especially when quite a few years have elapsed. Mostpeople don't see details, only effects. That's what we detectives come upagainst all the time. So, whether these ladies were five feet eight, fivefeet ten, or six feet, whether they had large features or small, bighands and feet or fine points, or whether they added on all the inchesthey yearned for by means of high heels or style, is beyond me. But herethey are."
He took his neat little note-book from his pocket and was about to readit, when Ruyler interrupted him.
"But surely you know whether these women were French or not?"
"Aw, that's just what you can't always find out. Lots of 'em pretend tobe, and others--if they come from good stock in the old country--want youto forget it. But the queens generally run to French names, as havin' abetter commercial value than Mary Jane or Ann Maria. One of these wasMarie Garnett, who wasn't much on her own but spun the wheel in Jim'sjoint down on Barbary Coast, which was raided just so often for form'ssake. She always made a quick getaway, was never up in court, and diedyoung. Gabrielle ran an establishment down on Geary Street and was one ofthe swellest lookers and swellest togged dames in her profession till thedrink got her. I can't find that she ever hooked up to a James or any oneelse. Pauline-Marie was another razzle-dazzle who swooped out here fromnowhere and burrowed into quite a few fortunes and put quite a few of oursociety leaders into mourning. She disappeared and I can't trace her, butshe seems to have been the handsomest of the bunch, and was fond ofshowing herself at first nights, dressed straight from Paris, until someof our war-hardened 'leaders' called upon the managers in a body andthreatened never to set foot inside their doors again unless she was keptout, and the managers succumbed. Then there was the friend of a richEnglishman, whose first name I haven't been able to get hold of. Theylived first at Santa Barbara, then loafed up and down the coast for ayear or two, spending quite a time in San Francisco. She was 'foreignlooking' and a stunner, all right. All of these dames drifted out aboutthe same time--"
"What was the Englishman's name?"
"J. Horace Medford. Front name may or may not have been James. I doubt ifhis name could be found on any deeds, even in the south, where there wasno fire. He doesn't seem to have bought any property or transacted anybusiness. Just lived on a good-sized income. Of course, all the hotelregisters here were burnt, but I wired to Santa Barbara and Monterey andgot what I have given you.
"He had a yacht, and he took the woman with him everywhere. There wasalways a flutter when they appeared at the theater. Of course she went byhis name, but as he never presented a letter all the time he was here andit was quite obvious he could have brought all he wanted, and as men arealways 'on' anyhow, there was but one conclusion."
"Where did he bank? They might have his full name."
"Bank of California, but his remittances were sent to order of J. HoraceMedford, and, of course, he signed his cheques the same way."
"That sounds the most likely of the lot--and the most hopeful."
"Well, haven't handed you the fifth yet, and to my mind she's the mostlikely of all. Ever hear of James Lawton's trouble with his wife?"
"Trouble? I thought she died."
"She--did--not. She went East suddenly about fifteen years ago, and soonafter a notice of her death appeared in the San Francisco papers. Butthere was a tale of woe (for old Lawton) that I doubt if most of her owncrowd had even a suspicion of."
"Good heavens!" Ruyler recalled the apparent intimacy of hismother-in-law and the senior member of the respectable firm of Lawton andCross. If "Madame Delano" were the former Mrs. Lawton, how many thingswould be explained.
"This woman's name was Marie all right, and she was French, although sheseems to have been adopted by some people named Dubois and brought up inCalifornia. She was quite the proper thing in high society, but thetrouble was that she liked another sort better. She was a regularfly-by-night. It began when Norton Moore, a rotten limb of one of thegrandest trees in San Francisco Society--so respectable they didn't knowthere was any side to life but their own--sneaked Mrs. Lawton and threegirls out of his mother's house one night when she was givin' a ball, put'em in a hack and took 'em down to Gabrielle's. There they spent an hourlookin' at Gabrielle's swell bunch dressed up and doin' the grand societyact with some of the men-about-town. Then they danced some and opened abottle or two.
"I never heard that this little jaunt hurt the girls any, but it woke upsomething in Mrs. Lawton. After that--well, there are stories withoutend. Won't take up your time tellin' them. The upshot was that one nightLawton, who took a fling himself once in a while, met her at Gabrielle'sor some other joint, and she went East a day or two after. I suppose hedidn't get a divorce, partly on account of the kid--Aileen--partlybecause he had no intention of trying his luck again."
"But is there any evidence that she had another child--that shehid away?"
"No, but it might easy have been. This life went on for about eightyears, and it was at least five that she and Lawton merely lived underthe same roof for the sake of Aileen. They never did get on. That much,at least, was well known. It might easy be--"
Ruyler made a rapid calculation. Aileen Lawton was just about three yearsolder than Helene. She was fair like her father. There was no resemblancebetween her and his wife, but the intimacy between them had beenspontaneous and had never lapsed. She had grown up quite unrestrained andspoilt, and broken three engagements, and was always rushing aboutproclaiming in one breath, that California was the greatest place onearth and in the next that she should go mad if she didn't get out andhave a change. Another grievance was that although her father let herhave her own way, or rather did not pretend to control her, he gave her arather niggardly allowance for her personal expenses and she was supposedto be heavily in debt. Ruyler thought he could guess where a good deal ofhis wife's spare cash had gone to. He disliked Aileen Lawton as much ashe did Polly Roberts; more, if anything, because she might have beenclever and she chose to be a fool. Both of these intimate friends of hiswife were the reverse of the superb outdoor type he admired.
"Good Lord!" he said. "I don't think there's much choice."
But in a moment he shook his head. "Too many things don't connect. Wheredid she get the money to go to her relations in Rouen--"
"He pensioned her off, of course."
"And the child? How did he consent to let her return here with a daughterhe probably never had heard of--"
"I figger out, either that she came into some money from a relation overin France, or else she has something on the old boy, and wanting to comeback here and marry her daughter, she held him up. He's a pillar of thechurch, been one of the Presidents of the Pacific-Union Club, has arguedcases before the Supreme Court that have been cabled all over thecountry. When a man of that sort gets to Lawton's time of life he don'twant any scandals."
"All the same," said Ruyler positively, "I don't believe it. I think itfar more likely that he was a friend of Madame Delano's husband--assumingthat she had one--and that some money was left with him in trust for heror the child."
"Well, it may be, but I incline to Lawton--"
"There's one person would know--"
"'Gene Bisbee. But I never went to that bunch yet for any information,and I don't go this time except as a last resort. Of course he knows, andthat is one reason I believe she is Mrs. Lawton. He was Gabrielle'smaquereau for years--when he'd wrung enough out of her he set up forhimself--Well, I ain't through yet, by a long sight. Beliefs ain'tproof." He rose slowly from the deep chair, stretched himself, andsettled his hat firmly on his head.
"What's this I hear about a wonderful ruby your wife wore up to Gwynne'sthe other night? Gosh! I'd like to see a sparkler like that."
"Why, by all means."
Ruyler swung the bookcase outward, opened the safe and handed him theruby. Spaulding regarded it with bulging eyes, and touched it with hisfinger tips much as he would a newborn babe. "Some stone!" he said, as hehanded it back, "but why in thunder don't you keep it in a safe depositbox? There are crooks that can crack any safe, and if they got wise tothis--oh, howdy, ma'am--"
Helene had come in and stood behind the two men.
Spaulding snatched off his hat and she acknowledged her husband'sintroduction graciously. She was dressed for the evening in white. Hereyes looked abnormally large, and she kept dropping her lids as if tokeep them from setting in a stare. Her lovely mouth with its soft curveswas faded and set. The whole face was almost as stiff as a mask, and evenher graceful body was rigid. Ruyler saw Spaulding give her a sharp"sizing-up" look, as he murmured,
"Well, so long, Guv. See you to-morrow. Hope the man'll turn out allright after all."
"I hope so. He's a good chap otherwise."
"Good night, ma'am. Tell your husband to put that ruby in a safedeposit box."
"Oh, nobody knows the safe is there except Mr. Ruyler and myself--"
"There have been safes hidden behind bookcases before," said Spauldingdryly. "And crooks, like all the other pests of the earth, just driftnaturally to this coast. If I were you I'd have a detective on handwhenever you wear that bit o' glass--not at a friendly affair like theGwynnes' dinner, of course, but--"
"Good idea!" exclaimed Ruyler. "My wife will wear the ruby to theThornton fete on the fourteenth. Will you be on hand to guard it?"
"Won't I? About half our force is engaged for that blow-out, but no onebut yours truly shall be guardian angel for the ruby. Well, good nightonce more, and good luck."
* * * * *
As soon as the detective had gone Ruyler drew his wife to him anxiously,"What is it, Helene? You look--well, you don't look yourself!"
"I have a headache," she said irritably. "Perhaps I'm developing nerves.I do wish you would take me to New York. Other women get away from thistown once in a while."
"But you told me on Sunday that you adored California, that it was likefairy land--"
"Oh, all the women out here bluff themselves and everybody else justso long and then suddenly go to pieces. It's a wonderful state, butwhat a life! What a life! Surely I was made for something better. Idon't wonder--"
"What?" he asked sharply.
"Oh, nothing. I feel ungrateful, of course. I really should be quitehappy. Think if I had to go back to Rouen to live--after this taste offreedom, and beauty--for California has all the beauties of youth as wellas its idiocies and vices--"
"There is not the remotest danger of your ever being obliged to live inRouen again--"
"Oh, I don't know. You might get tired of me. We might fight like cat anddog for want of common interests, of something to talk about. You wouldnever take to drink like so many of the men, but I might--well, I'm gladdinner is ready at last."
But she played with her food. That she was repressing an intense andmounting excitement Ruyler did not doubt, and he also suspected that shewished to broach some particular subject from which she turned in panic.They were alone after coffee had been served, and he said abruptly:
"What is it, Helene? Do you want money? I have an idea that Polly Robertsand Aileen Lawton borrow heavily from you, and that they may have cleanedyou out completely on the first--"
"How dear of you to guess--or rather to get so close. It's worse thanthat. I--that is--well--poor Polly went quite mad over a pearl necklaceat Shreve's and they told her to take it and wear it for a few days,thinking, I suppose, she would never give it up and would get the moneysomehow. She--oh, it's too dreadful--she lost it--and she dares not tellRex--he's lost quite a lot of money lately--and she's mad withfright--and I told her--"
"Where did she lose it? It's not easy to lose a necklace, especially whenthe clasp is new."
"She thinks it was stolen from her neck at the theater--you heard whatthat man said."
"Ah! What was the price of the necklace?"
"Twenty thousand dollars. The pearls weren't so very large, of course,but Polly never had had a pearl necklace--"
"I'll let her have the money to pay for it on one condition--that it is atransaction, between Roberts and myself--"
"No! No! Not for anything!"
"I've lent him money before--"
"But he'd never forgive Polly. He--he's one of those men who make anawful fuss on the first of every month when his wife's bills come in."
"There must be a bass chorus on the first of every month in SanFrancisco--"
"Oh, please don't jest. She must have this money."
"She may have it--on those terms. I'll have no business dealings withwomen of the Polly Roberts sort. That would be the last I'd ever see ofthe twenty thousand--"
"I never thought you were stingy!"
Ruyler, in spite of his tearing anxiety, laughed outright. "Is that youridea of how the indulgent American husband becomes rich?"
"Oh--of course I wouldn't have you lose such a sum. I really have learnedthe value of money in the abstract, although I can't care for it as muchas men do."
"I have no great love of money, but there is a certain difference betweena miser and a levelheaded business man--"
"Price, I must have that money. Polly--oh, I am afraid she willkill herself!"
"Not she. A more selfish little beast never breathed. She'll squeeze themoney out of some one, never fear! But I think I'll lock up your jewelsin case you are tempted to raise money on them for her--Darling!"
Helene, without a sound, had fainted.