Part 36 (1/2)

She yearned over him, rather. She made little tentative overtures of friends.h.i.+p and affection. But he scarcely seemed to hear them, wrapped as he was in the selfish absorption of his disappointment. When she heard the postman outside and went to the door for the mail, she thought he had not noticed her going. But when she returned he was watching her with jealous, almost tragic eyes.

”I suppose you hear from him by every mail.”

”There has been nothing to-day.”

Something in her voice or her face made him look at her closely.

”Has he written at all?”

”The first day he got there. Not since.”

He went away soon, and not after all with the feeling of going for good. In his sceptical young mind, fed by Clare's malice, was growing a comforting doubt of d.i.c.k's good faith.

XXVII

When Wilkins had disappeared around the angle of the staircase Ba.s.sett went to a chair and sat down. He felt sick, and his knees were trembling. Something had happened, a search for Clark room by room perhaps, and the discovery had been made.

He was totally unable to think or to plan. With d.i.c.k well they could perhaps have made a run for it. The fire-escape stood ready. But as things were--The murmuring among the crowd at the foot of the stairs ceased, and he looked up. Wilkins was on the staircase, searching the lobby with his eyes. When he saw Ba.s.sett he came quickly down and confronted him, his face angry and suspicious.

”You're mixed up in this somehow,” he said sharply. ”You might as well come over with the story. We'll get him. He can't get out of this town.”

With the words, and the knowledge that in some incredible fas.h.i.+on d.i.c.k had made his escape, Ba.s.sett's mind reacted instantly.

”What's eating you, Wilkins?” he demanded. ”Who got away? I couldn't get that tongue-tied bell-hop to tell me. Thought it was a fire.”

”Don't stall, Ba.s.sett. You've had Jud Clark hidden upstairs in three-twenty all day.”

Ba.s.sett got up and towered angrily over the sheriff. The crowd had turned and was watching.

”In three-twenty?” he said. ”You're crazy. Jud Clark! Let me tell you something. I don't know what you've got in your head, but three-twenty is a Doctor Livingstone from near my home town. Well known and highly respected, too. What's more, he's a sick man, and if he's got away, as you say, it's because he is delirious. I had a doctor in to see him an hour ago. I've just arranged for a room at the hospital for him. Does that look as though I've been hiding him?”

The positiveness of his identification and his indignation resulted in a change in Wilkins' manner.

”I'll ask you to stay here until I come back.” His tone was official, but less suspicious. ”We'll have him in a half hour. It's Clark all right. I'm not saying you knew it was Clark, but I want to ask you some questions.”

He went out, and Ba.s.sett heard him shouting an order in the street. He went to the street door, and realized that a search was going on, both by the police and by unofficial volunteers. Men on horseback clattered by to guard the borders of the town, and in the vicinity of the hotel searchers were investigating yards and alleyways.

Ba.s.sett himself was helpless. He stood by, watching the fire of his own igniting, conscious of the curious scrutiny of the few hotel loungers who remained, and expecting momentarily to hear of d.i.c.k's capture. It must come eventually, he felt sure. As to how d.i.c.k had been identified, or by what means he had escaped, he was in complete ignorance; and an endeavor to learn by establis.h.i.+ng the former entente cordiale between the room clerk and himself was met by a suspicious glance and what amounted to a snub. He went back to his chair against the wall and sat there, waiting for the end.

It was an hour before the sheriff returned, and he came in scowling.

”I'll see you now,” he said briefly, and led the way back to the hotel office behind the desk. Ba.s.sett's last hope died when he saw sitting there, pale but composed, the elderly maid. The sheriff lost no time.

”Now I'll tell you what we know about your connection with this case, Ba.s.sett,” he said. ”You engaged a car to take you both to the main line to-night. You paid off Clark's room as well as your own this afternoon.

When you found he was sick you canceled your going. That's true, isn't it?”

”It is. I've told you I knew him at home, but not as Clark.”

”I'll let that go. You intended to take the midnight on the main line, but you ordered a car instead of using the branch road.”