Part 38 (1/2)
”If I did I wouldn't still be handling your case, Mr. Darcy,” was the answer. ”But I don't say that there isn't something to explain. I am, now, giving you the benefit of the doubt.”
”Then maybe Amy will do the same.”
It was not many hours before the colonel knew this point. The first edition afternoon papers had not long been out when the detective, who had gone to his hotel after an early morning visit to the jail, was telephoned to by Miss Mason.
”I happened to be in town, shopping,” she said, and the agitation was plainly audible in her voice, ”when I saw this terrible thing about Mr.
Darcy's wires and poor Sallie. Is she in any danger, Colonel?”
”I believe not.”
”That's good! May I come to see you? I have something important to ask you.”
”Yes, or I will come to see you, Miss Mason.”
”No, I had rather come to your hotel, if you will meet me in the ladies' parlor. It will be secluded enough at this time.”
And a little later Amy and the colonel were talking. The girl's haggard look told plainly of her distress.
”Tell me, frankly,” she begged, ”doesn't this make it look a little worse for Mr. Darcy?”
”Yes, Miss Mason, it does. I had best be frank with you. The prosecutor is bound to show that the presence of the wires, controlled by a switch from Mr. Darcy's table, were so arranged that he might shock his cousin, or any one who put his hands on the showcase. And they will, undoubtedly, argue that he planned this to make her insensible for his own purposes, whether it was that he did it in a fit of pa.s.sion to kill her for his fancied troubles, or to cover up a robbery. I am only making it thus bald that you may know and face the worst.”
”I appreciate that, and I thank you. Then it does look bad for him?”
”It does.”
”And how does he bear up under it?”
”Very well. His chief anxiety is regarding you. I realize this is a test of friends.h.i.+p, Miss Mason. A test of both the loyalty of yourself and your father, and--”
”Oh, you needn't worry about dad! He'll stick by Jimmie through thick and thin, for he says he knows he's innocent,”
”And yourself? How does your loyalty meet the test?”
Amy Mason drew herself up, a splendid figure of beautiful womanhood.
She flashed a look at the detective that made him stand to his full military height and bearing, and then she said:
”Do you think I'm going to let dad beat _me_? Oh, no, Colonel Ashley!”
So Amy Mason met the test.
CHAPTER XIX
WORD FROM SPOTTY
”Well,” remarked Jack Young, as he critically observed the smoke from his cigar curling upward toward the ceiling in the colonel's hotel room, ”we have our work cut out for us all right.”
”I should say so!” agreed Mr. Kettridge, who sat before a little table, on top of which were strewed parts of a watch. Mr. Kettridge had a jeweler's magnifying gla.s.s stuck in one eye, and it gave him a most grotesque appearance as he glanced from the wheels, springs and levers, spread out in front of him, over to Colonel Ashley.