Part 12 (2/2)
”My darling little girl, I'm coming, just as fast as I can. I wouldn't be here, leaving you to face this anxiety alone, if I could possibly help it--you know that, dear,” he pleaded. ”I've one more important, unavoidable interview; then my car couples on to the first express. Give Teddy all my sympathy. I can hardly realize what you say. Why, I saw him only last night just before I took the train. Keep up your courage, and don't be frightened.”
”I'll try,” came the pathetic voice; ”I will--but, oh, come soon!”
Gard excused himself to everyone, pleading the necessity of rest, and once alone in his room, set about ripping and smas.h.i.+ng the incriminating evidence, until nothing but a few loose stones and crumpled bits of gold remained. He broke the monogrammed case of the watch from its fastening and crushed its face. Now to contrive to scatter the fragments would be a simple matter. He secreted them in an inner pocket, and his pressing desire of their destruction satisfied, he telephoned to Langley to join him in his private room at a hurried luncheon. Next he sent for the afternoon papers. Not a line as yet, however; and Langley and Denning having evidently decided it to be unwise to deflect his thoughts from matters in hand, did not mention Mahr. Even when he brought up the name himself with a casual mention of the possibility of acquiring the Heim Vand.y.k.e, there was nothing said to give him an opportunity to speak and he was breathless for details, to learn if his ruse had succeeded. At last he called Brencherly, both Denning and Langley endeavoring to divert him from his intention.
”Yes, yes,” snapped Gard; ”what's the news?”
His companions exchanged dubious glances.
”Nothing learned yet about the matter, sir, on which you engaged me, nothing at all. But--there's something else--I think you ought to know--Victor Mahr is dead!”
”Dead! How? When?” Gard feigned surprise.
”Murdered last night,” came the reply. ”Found this morning. Our man watching the house learned it as soon as anyone did. A case of robbery, they say--but the coroner's verdict hasn't been given yet. He was. .h.i.t in the head with a pistol--but--I think, sir, they'll want you; you saw him last night, they say--after you left me. Have you any instructions to give me, sir?”
Gard reflected. ”I don't know,” he wavered. ”Hold all the good men in your service you can for me--and remember what I told you.” He turned to the two men. ”Mahr's dead--murdered!” he blurted out, as if startled by the news.
They nodded. ”Yes, we knew. But,” Denning added, ”we didn't want to upset you any further. It came out on the ticker at eleven. How are you feeling?” he asked with friendly solicitude. ”I wish you'd eat something--you've not touched anything but coffee for nearly twenty-four hours.”
”I can't,” said Gard grimly. ”Let's go to the Capitol and get it over with. Have you 'phoned Senator Ryan? I'm all right,” he a.s.sured them, as he caught sight of Langley's dubious expression. ”I want to get through here as quickly as possible and get back. I suppose you realize that I'll be wanted in the city in more ways than one. I was the last person, except the murderer, to see Mahr. Come on.”
As they came from the Capitol at the close of their conference, Langley and Denning fell behind for a moment.
”What a wonder the man is!” exclaimed Denning with enthusiasm. ”Sick as he is, and with all these other troubles on him, he's bucked up and buffaloed this whole thing into shape. He forgets nothing!”
Gard entered the motor first, and, as he leaned forward, dropped from the opposite window a fragment of twisted gold. An hour later, in the waiting room they had traversed, a woman picked up a pigeon blood ruby, but the grinding wheels of trains and engines had left no trace of the trifles they had destroyed. In the yard near the private siding, a coupling hand came upon a twisted gold watch case, so crushed that the diamond monogram it once had boasted was unrecognizable.
”At every stop, Jim,” said Gard, as he threw himself wearily into a lounging chair in the saloon end of the car, ”I want you to go out and get me all the latest editions of the New York papers.”
The negro bowed, disappeared into the cook's galley and returned with gla.s.ses and a bottle of champagne. He poured a gla.s.s, which Gard drank gratefully.
Gard heard Langley and Denning moving about their stateroom. The noise of the terminal rang an iron chorus, accompanied by whistles and the hiss of escaping steam. The private car was attached to the express, and the return journey began. His irritated nerves would have set him tramping pantherwise, but sheer weariness kept him in his chair.
Presently his fellow travelers joined him, but he took little or no heed of their conversation. Once he drank again, a toast to the successful issue of their combined efforts. He lay back, striving to control his rising anxiety. What would the story be that would greet him from the heavy leads of the newspapers?
”Baltimore--Baltimore--Baltimore”--the wheels seemed to pound the name from the steel rails; the car rocked to it. By the time they reached that city the New York afternoon editions would have been distributed.
At last they glided up to the station and the porter swung off into the waiting room. Gard rose and stood waiting, chewing savagely on his unlighted cigar.
”It's Mahr,” he apologized to Denning. ”I want to learn the facts.” His hand shook as he s.n.a.t.c.hed the smudgy sheets from the negro.
In big letters across the front page he caught the headline:
MURDER OF VICTOR MAHR
FAMOUS CLUBMAN AND FINANCIER STABBED TO DEATH IN HIS OWN LIBRARY
EVIDENCE OF ROBBERY
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