Part 3 (1/2)
”I informed your uncle of the details,” declared Mallikan. ”I followed your advice. I told him to do nothing for you. I explained that if your captors knew that you had a wealthy relative, they might spirit you away to some place in the interior and hold you for ransom.”
”Which they would have, at the time. Well, it was all right temporarily after I was moved into the international settlement. But just the same, it was wise for Uncle Milton to forget me.”
Mallikan chuckled at the remark.
”HE did forget you,” observed the s.h.i.+pping man, dryly. ”He told me he was going to cut you off in his will. I wrote the American consul about it. You probably received the message.”
”I did,” returned Callard, ”and my uncle wrote the consul also. He said the same. I was disinheritedbecause of my so-called crime. Because I sided with those who were in the right.”
”I suppose you did, Dave. But you were indiscreet; and indiscretion carries a penalty.”
”Does it?” Callard arose from his chair; his question was a hot challenge. ”I'm not so sure of that, Mallikan. Not if I knew my uncle rightly. I've come back here, Mallikan, believing that Uncle Milton simply played the game as I wanted him to do. I still think that he arranged some legacy for me.”
Mallikan shook his head.
”I understand,” he said, ”that your uncle left his entire estate to charity. After all, he did not have much wealth. Less than fifty thousand dollars, I believe.”
Dave Callard delivered a raucous laugh.
”You believed that, Mallikan?” he questioned. ”Why no one who knew anything about my uncle's affairs would have let that joke pa.s.s. Uncle Milton was worth millions!”
”I never met your uncle,” reminded Mallikan. ”I merely talked with him over the telephone.”
”What about his secretary?” demanded Callard. ”Ba.s.slett? Didn't you have any dealings with him?”
”None at all. I never saw the fellow. Did he know much about your uncle's affairs?”
”Enough to know that fifty thousand dollars wasn't much to Uncle Milton.”
”Why not look up Ba.s.slett then?”
”Perhaps I shall. I came to see you first; that was all. I thought that because of our old acquaintances.h.i.+p, Uncle Milton might have confided in you.”
Dave Callard had again seated himself. It was Mallikan who had now arisen. The s.h.i.+pping man was pacing toward the window. He stopped there to watch the boats in the bay. Mallikan shook his head as he heard Callard's remark.
”I received no confidence from your uncle,” he a.s.serted. ”When he stated that he intended to disinherit you, I considered the matter closed. As for Ba.s.slett, I never met him; and I have no idea where you could find him.”
”I can find him,” returned Callard. ”I know where” - he paused as he eyed Mallikan's profile at the window - ”that is, I think I know where he might be. I'll look him up later on.”
”You arrived last night?” queried Mallikan, still staring from the window. ”Aboard the Tamalpais?”
Callard started to speak; then caught himself.
”I came in on the Zoroaster,” he replied, in a casual tone. ”Docked this morning.”
”The Zoroaster?” queried Mallikan, swinging in from the window. ”That s.h.i.+p came from Pernambuco.”
”I s.h.i.+pped on at Trinidad,” explained Callard, rising from his chair. ”Stopped over there for a week or so.
Well, Mallikan” - the young man extended his hand - ”you have a busy day ahead. I won't occupy any more of your time.”
Dave Callard departed. Roger Mallikan's keen features showed a frozen smile as the s.h.i.+pping man staredat the door through which his visitor had left.
Mallikan went back to his desk and began to busy himself with details. An hour pa.s.sed; a stenographer entered to announce another visitor.
”A gentleman named Burke,” stated the girl. ”He says he's a reporter from the New York Cla.s.sic.”
”Show him in,” ordered Mallikan.
A WIRY, friendly-faced young man was ushered into the private office. This was Clyde Burke, on the staff of the New York Cla.s.sic, one of Manhattan's tabloid journals. As a roving reporter, Clyde did double duty.
He was more than a newspaperman; he was secretly an agent of The Shadow. It was in behalf of his hidden chief that Clyde had come to interview Roger Mallikan; but he intended to camouflage the visit under his guise of newspaperman.
”Good morning, sir,” said Clyde, briskly. ”I'm from the Cla.s.sic; we're after a story on a young fellow named Dave Callard.”
”Why come to me?” queried Mallikan, dryly.
”I looked up Callard's name in the newspaper morgue,” replied Clyde. ”Found that he s.h.i.+pped abroad a few years ago on a boat that your company controlled. We just learned that young Callard came into New York last night aboard the Steams.h.i.+p Tamalpais. Thought maybe you'd heard from him.”
”The Tamalpais?” demanded Mallikan. ”You're sure of that? Dave Callard was aboard that boat?”
”Certainly,” replied Clyde. He drew a folded newspaper from beneath his arm; but did not open it ”A couple of detectives saw him at the dock -”
”Dave lied to me!” exclaimed Mallikan. ”He told me that he came in on the Zoroaster, this morning. I doubted his statement at the time.”
”When was that?”
”This morning. An hour ago.”
”He was here in this office?”
”Yes.”
”Where is he now?”
”I don't know.”
CLYDE BURKE unfolded the newspaper. It was the first edition of an evening tabloid. Mallikan stared at the headline to which the reporter pointed. It told of double murder; the deaths of Ralgood and Ba.s.slett.
”The police received an anonymous tip-off,” explained Clyde. ”After midnight. It brought them to Luther Ralgood's residence They found the bodies there; and they discovered a letter from Dave Callard to Luther Ralgood.”
”My word!” gasped Mallikan, settling back in his chair. His eyes flashed as he stared at the reporter”Dave Callard mentioned Ba.s.slett here this morning. He said that he intended to hunt up his uncle's secretary.”
”He knew where Ba.s.slett was,” remarked Clyde. ”Dave's letter to Ralgood was proof of that fact.
Ba.s.slett had written Dave in China.”