The in the Mountains Part 3 (1/2)

”Yes, but I've done all that can be done on that. There's really nothing to be done now but just wait--and I'd rather do pretty nearly anything I can think of but that.”

”I don't know, Charlie. Why can't I give bail for you? You know, Dad made over all that land up in the woods around Long Lake that he owns to me. So I'm a property holder in this county--and that's what is needed, isn't it?”

”By Jove! You're right, Nell! Here, I'll make out an application. You send for Niles, and we'll get him to approve this right now. Then we'll get the judge to sign the bail bond, and I'll get out. I never thought of that--good thing you've got a good head on your shoulders!”

Eleanor, pleased and excited, went out to find Niles, and returned to Charlie with him at once.

”H'm, bail has been fixed at a nominal figure--five thousand dollars,” said Niles. ”I may mention that I suggested it, knowing that you would not try to evade the issue, Mr. Jamieson. We have heard of you, sir, even up here. If the young lady will come to the judge's office with me, I have no doubt we can arrange the matter.”

Before long it was evident there was a hitch.

”I am sorry, Miss Mercer,” said Niles, with a long face, ”but there seems to be some doubt as to this. You have not the deed with you--the deed giving t.i.tle to this property?”

”No,” said Eleanor. ”But the records are here, are they not? Certainly you can make sure that I own it?”

Niles shook his head.

”I'm afraid we must have the deed,” he said.

For the moment it looked as if Charlie would have to stay in confinement over night, at least. But suddenly Eleanor remembered old Andrew and his offer to help. And twenty minutes later she was explaining matters to him over the telephone.

”Why, sure,” he said. ”I can fix you up, Miss Eleanor. I've saved money since I've been working here, and I've put it all into land. I know these woods, you see, and I know that when I get ready to sell I'll get my profit. I'll be down as soon as I can come.”

”Don't say a word,” said Charlie. ”It wouldn't be past them to fake some way of clouding the old man's t.i.tle if they knew he was coming. We'll spring that on them as a surprise. Evidently they figure on being able to keep me here until to-morrow, at least. They've got some scheme on foot--they've got a card up their sleeves that they want to be able to play while I'm not watching them. I don't just get on to their game--it's hard to figure it out from here. But if I once get out I won't be afraid of them. We'll be able to beat them, all right, thanks to you. You're a brick, Nell!”

Andrew was as good as his word. He reached the town in time to go to the judge with the deeds of his property, and though Holmes, who was evidently watching every move of the other side closely, scowled and looked as if he would like to make some protest, there was nothing to be done. He and his lawyers had no official standing in the case--they could only consult with and advise Niles in an unofficial fas.h.i.+on. And, though Niles held a long conference with Holmes and his party before the bail bond was signed, it proved to be impossible for the court to decline to accept it. Some things the law made imperative, and, much as Niles might feel that he was being tricked, he could not help himself.

Once he was free, as he was when the bail bond was signed, Jamieson wasted no time. He saw Eleanor and the two girls settled in the one good hotel of Hamilton, and then rushed back to the court house. And there he found a strange state of affairs. Holmes had brought with him from the city two lawyers, though Isaac Brack, the shyster, was not one of them. And the leader, a man well known to Jamieson, John Curtin by name, now appeared boldly as the lawyer for the accused gypsies. Moreover, he refused absolutely to allow Charlie to see his clients.

In answer to Charlie's protests he merely looked wise, and refused to say anything more than was required to reiterate his refusal. But Charlie had other sources of information, and an hour after his release, meeting Eleanor, who had walked down to look around the town, leaving the girls behind at the hotel, he gave her some startling news.

”They're trying to get those gypsies out right now,” he said. ”They were indicted, you know, for kidnapping. Now Curtin has got a writ of habeas corpus, and he's kept it so quiet that it was only by accident I found it was to be argued.”

”What does that mean?” asked Eleanor. ”I don't know as much about the law as you do, you know.”

”It means that a judge will decide whether they are being legally held or not, Nell. And it looks very much to me as if Holmes had managed to fix things so that they'll get off without ever going before a jury at all! Niles isn't handling the case right. He's allowed Holmes and his crowd to pull the wool over his eyes completely. If we had some definite proof I could force him to hold them. But--”

Eleanor laughed suddenly.

”I didn't suppose it was necessary to give this to you until the trial,” she said. ”But look here, Charlie--isn't this proof?” And she handed him the letter found on John, the gypsy--a letter from Holmes, giving him the orders that led to the kidnapping of Dolly.

Charlie shouted excitedly when he read it.

”By Jove!” he said. ”This puts them in our power. You were quite right--we don't want to produce this yet. But I think I can use it to scare our friend Niles. If I'm right, and he's only a fool, and not a knave, I'll be able to do the trick. Here he is now! Watch me give him the shock of his young life!”

Niles approached, with a sweeping bow for Eleanor, and a cold nod for Jamieson. But the city lawyer approached him at once.

”How about this habeas corpus hearing, Mr. District Attorney?” he asked. ”Are you going to let them get those gypsies out of jail?”

”The case against them appears to be hopelessly defective, sir,” returned Niles, stiffly. ”I am informed by counsel for the defense that there are a number of witnesses to prove an alibi for the man John, and I feel that it is useless to try to have them held for trial.”

”Suppose I tell you that I have absolute evidence--evidence connecting them with the plot, and bringing in another conspirator who has not yet been named? Hold on, Mr. Niles, you have been tricked in this case. I don't hold it against you, but I warn you that if you don't make a fight in this case, papers charging you with incompetence will go to the governor at once, with a pet.i.tion for your removal!”

”I--I don't know why I should allow one of the prisoners in this case to address me in such a fas.h.i.+on!” stuttered Niles.

”I don't care what you know! I'm telling you the truth, and, for your own sake, you'd better listen to me,” said Jamieson, grimly. ”I mean just what I say. And unless you want to be lined up with your friend Curtin in disbarment proceedings, you'd better cut loose from him. I suppose Holmes has told you he'll back your ambitions to go to Congress, hasn't he?”

Niles seemed to be staggered.

”How--how did you know that?” he gasped.

As a matter of fact, Charlie had not known it; he had only made a shrewd guess. But the shot had gone home.

”There's more to this than you can guess, Mr. Niles,” he said, more kindly. ”It's a plot that is bigger than even I can understand and they have simply tried to use you as a tool. I knew that once you had a hint of the truth, your native shrewdness would make you work to defeat it. You understand, don't you?”

Coming on top of the bullying, this sop to the love of Niles for flattery was thoroughly effective. Charlie was using the same sort of weapons that the other side had employed. And Niles held out his hand.

”I'll take the chance,” he said. ”I'll see that those fellows stay in jail, Mr. Jamieson. As I told Miss Mercer, I was sure from the beginning that you were all right. May I count on you for aid when the case comes up for trial?”

”You may--and I'll give you a bigger prisoner than you ever thought of catching,” said Charlie.

CHAPTER VI.

BESSIE KING'S PLUCK.

”We've got them, I think,” Jamieson said to Eleanor Mercer and the two girls after his talk with District Attorney Niles. ”There's just one thing; I don't understand how Holmes can be so reckless as to take a chance when he must remember that he hasn't got a leg left to stand on.”

”He probably doesn't know that we know anything about it,” said Bessie. ”And I guess he thinks that if we had had that note all this time we'd have produced it before, so that he thought it was safe to act.”

”You're probably right, Bessie,” said Eleanor. ”I thought that letter would be useful, Charlie, when we took it from that gypsy. I don't suppose I really had any right to keep it, but just then, you see, Andrew and the other guides were the only people around, and they would never question anything I did--they'd just be sure I was right.”

”Good thing they do, for you usually are,” laughed Charlie. ”I've given up expecting to catch you, Nell. You guess right too often. And this time you've certainly called the turn. Niles is convinced. All I'm afraid of now is that he won't be able to hold his tongue.”

”You want to surprise Mr. Holmes, then?”

”I certainly do. I'd give a hundred dollars right now to see his face when I spring that letter and ask for a warrant for his arrest. Mind you, I don't suppose for a minute we'll be able to do him any real harm. He's got too much influence, altogether, with bigger people than Niles and this judge here.”

”You know I'm not very vindictive, Charlie, but I would like to see him get the punishment he deserves. I'd much rather have them let those poor gypsies off, if only they would put him in prison in their place. I feel sorry for them--really, I do. It seems to me that they were just led astray by a man who certainly should know better.”

”That part of it's all right enough, Eleanor. But if one accepted the excuse from every criminal that he was led astray by a stronger character, no one would ever be punished. Pretty nearly everyone who ever gets arrested can frame up that excuse.”

”You don't think it's a good one?”

”It is, to a certain extent. But if our way of punis.h.i.+ng people for doing wrong is any good at all, and if it is really to have any good effect, it's got to teach the weaklings that every man is responsible himself for what he does, that he can't s.h.i.+ft the blame to someone else and get out of it that way.