Part 30 (1/2)
His att.i.tude of mind was infectious and when Willa descended before the Halstead house her own natural buoyancy of thought had rea.s.serted itself, although the mystery remained as black and sinister as ever.
Wiley, still hors de combat from his thras.h.i.+ng at Thode's hands, could scarcely have been a factor himself in this new development and if it proved to be the result of any of his agents' activities, surely Dan would be able to find some trace.
She pa.s.sed a sleepless night, however, and arose to find a foot of snow glistening on the ground and the air keen and brittle with cold. No word came from Dan, and in the afternoon she threw discretion to the winds and went boldly to the Brooklyn house.
Nothing had developed save that Jose had worried himself into a fever, and the Senora Rodriguez's lamentations were tinged with a querulous resentment.
The young Senorita was paying handsomely for the hospitality to her friends, and she herself would gladly do anything to aid her country-people, even if they were but Mexican Spanish and not of the blood. Nevertheless, she was not to blame for the old Senora's departure, she had not agreed to stand guard over her and surely the Evil Eye had descended upon her house! She would nurse the little Jose as though he were her own, and the old Senora's room should be kept in readiness for her return, but she, Conchita Rodriguez, would worry her own head no longer!
Willa placated the woman's displeasure with promises of more generous pay, and arranged for extra care and comforts for Jose, whom the Senora evidently regarded with a tenderness born of superst.i.tion; to aid a jorobado brought luck to one's hearth-stone, even as the touch of his humped shoulders gave promise of good fortune.
Secure at least in the thought of his well-being, Willa was content to leave Jose in the hands of his irascible but kind-hearted landlady, stipulating that daily messages should be telephoned to her of his condition.
”And if anyone comes to inquire for him, remember that he is not here, please,” she added. ”He and the Senora have both gone; that is, unless a young American named Morrissey should appear. He is a friend of mine, and trying to help me find the Senora.”
”'Morrissey?' I shall not forget.” Senora Rodriguez repeated the name thoughtfully. ”No one has been here to-day but a plumber, who arrived without my order. He said there was a leak in the cellar next door which came from my house and he did strange things to my pipes so that now I can draw no water in my kitchen. Now my neighbor tells me there was no leak, and I cannot understand. They do singular things, these Americanos.”
Willa returned to her home in a more despondent mood even than before, and a telephone call from Dan late in the evening did not tend to raise her spirits.
”I've canva.s.sed every hospital and inst.i.tootion in the five boroughs!”
he announced. ”I even tried the morgue, but there ain't hide nor hair of the old lady. Looks like the earth might have opened and swallowed her up. I take it you don't want me to report her missing at headquarters, do you?”
”Only as the very last resort,” Willa responded. ”We must avoid publicity if we can, although of course if she is ill or in any danger I shall have to let every other consideration go.”
”You leave it to me, Miss!” The familiar slogan came as cheerfully as ever over the wire. ”I don't think the old lady's in bad, wherever she is. n.o.body'd dare do anything to her, would they? It ain't a rough-house gang that's after her, from what you told me.”
”No, Dan. I am not afraid of any violence to her at their hands. They will only worry and annoy her.”
”Well, the chances are, if she just wandered off and lost herself, that somebody's taken her in. I'm doin' fine, so far. I had a grand talk with the dame over in Brooklyn to-day, and she never once got on to me.”
His tone was filled with such honest pride that Willa was loath to disturb it, yet she could not forbear I remarking:
”I did, though, Dan, when she told me what had been done to the plumbing! What did you find out from her?”
”Everything she knew and a lot that she threw in for good measure. I didn't have to start her; she was just aching to tell the whole story; how they came to her and all! If them other people get on to the house, she'll spill the beans to them sure, Miss. She don't own that house; she only rents it, and the next time I go I'll have an order from the agent to put in weatherstrips or clean the chimneys and grates. I want a talk with the lad as soon as he is well enough. I'll report to you, Miss, just as quick as anything turns up.”
Willa gave him some final instructions and hung up the receiver, to find Angie at her elbow.
”You've been an unconscionable time!” the latter complained, veiling her eyes to conceal their gleam of awakened curiosity and interest.
”We're waiting for you to make up a rubber. Who was that message from?
Any of the crowd?”
”No,” Willa replied directly. ”It was from a friend of mine; you do not know him, Angie.”
”Oh, I'm sure I didn't mean to intrude.--Dear me! to-morrow's Thanksgiving, and this wretched season is scarcely begun!”
It was a weary holiday for Willa and she sat through the elaborate formal dinner with which the Halsteads celebrated it in an abstraction of mood which gave two of her callow admirers much concern.
The presence of Kearn Thode's sister, however, brought her out of her reverie and later, when Mrs. Beekman sought her out in the drawing-room, Willa left her problem to take care of itself for the hour in her interest in the breezy clear-eyed woman so like Kearn himself.