Part 19 (1/2)
”Of course, we are at home!” Then, as Welsh withdrew. ”Fancy, we did not even know he had returned! It's Starr Wiley!”
CHAPTER XI
A CHANGE OF FRONT
The following morning, Willa and Dan Morrissey went motor shopping.
The latter was still slightly bewildered by his sudden change of fortune, but it was plain to be seen that he regarded his new employer with wors.h.i.+pful admiration and respect, and she in turn was satisfied, from his discussion of technical details with the several automobile salesmen, that he was sufficiently expert for her purposes. His loyalty remained to be proven, but she had learned to read faces swiftly and surely, and she had formed an instinctive belief that he was worthy of trust.
The car she decided upon was a gray roadster, light and high-powered with long low lines like a racer and a multiplicity of cylinders which made Dan fairly delirious with joy. This important matter settled, she gave him his initial instructions.
”You are simply to hold yourself in readiness for a call from me at any hour of the day or night. You are to obey no summons unless you hear my voice over the telephone, or a written order in my handwriting is brought to you--unless a hunch backed boy about sixteen, a foreigner with very dark skin, should come to you. In that case, you are to accompany him wherever he directs. Do you drink, Dan?”
”Only beer, and not that when I'm on the job, Miss.” He eyed her straightforwardly. ”I don't go joy-ridin', and I keep my mouth shut, and ask no questions. I'll be on the spot when you want me, Miss, and there till the finish.”
”I'm sure you will!” she smiled. ”I sha'n't mind your asking questions so much as answering them. There are apt to be quite a few people interested in our doings, Dan; a young man and two older ones particularly, and they will try all sorts of methods to get information from you.”
”Let 'em,” he responded, briefly. ”It's precious-little dope they'll get out of me! But have you forgotten the registry, Miss, and the license?”
”No.” Willa drew a roll of bills from her purse. ”It had better be attended to at once, for I don't know how soon I may need you. That's why I insisted upon having their exhibition car, without waiting for delivery. Take this and get yourself an outfit; something dark and neat, not noticeable so that it could be easily described. Then can't you take out the license in your own name? You can refer to me if you like, and say that I gave you the car.”
”As if you'd set me up in the renting business, maybe,” he observed shrewdly. ”I guess I can put it over, Miss. I've got a good, clean record in taxi'-driving, and I know most of the cops. You'll 'phone when you want me?”
Taking leave of her new henchman, Willa crossed the Park on foot and swung down the Avenue, so intent upon her own thoughts that she all but collided with Vernon, descending the steps of his club. He appeared troubled and morose, but his brow cleared at sight of her.
”h.e.l.lo! May I walk a bit of the way with you?” He fell into step beside her. ”I say, you aren't angry with me about last night, are you?”
”Indeed no, Vernon. Why should I be? You did nothing.”
”That's just why.” He reddened. ”Perhaps you think I might have taken your part after what a bully pal you proved yourself the night you showed Cal s.h.i.+rley up, and I did feel like telling the whole bunch to stop hectoring you, the mater included, only--well, we can't do just what we'd like, always!”
”There wasn't anything you could have said, really,” she a.s.sured him.
”I was the only one involved and I had to see it through.”
”At least, I want you to believe I never mentioned any house on the Parkway, or saw you there. Angie made a mistake. Someone did say something about it once, but I didn't repeat it.” He gave her a curious sidewise glance, but her face was inscrutable.
”I believe you, of course, but it doesn't matter anyway, Vernon. I'm sorry everyone was so worried about my absence last evening, but it was unavoidable. Don't let's discuss it any more.”
”All right,” he sighed. ”I only wish, though, that I'd learned to stand up to the family the way you can. You're so different to the girls up here, but I suppose that is the result of the wonderful, free kind of a life you led in Mexico. You must have had some great experiences down there.”
It was Willa's turn to glance curiously at him, for Vernon's tone was oddly constrained and hesitant as if he were endeavoring, awkwardly enough, to lead up to some point in his own mind.
”Yes,” she a.s.sented quietly, and waited.
”Starr Wiley was disappointed last night at not seeing you,” he pursued. ”I never knew you had met him down there.”
”You never asked.” Her tone was serenely noncommittal.
”He was telling us of some of the queer characters he has run across in that part of the country.” Vernon paused, and then plunged in desperately. ”He said you knew one old woman who was a wonder; a half-caste hoodoo-worker who brewed magic potions in a big pot, and knew all the legends of the countryside. 'Tia--' something, her name is. Do you know what has become of her?”