Part 35 (1/2)
”Confidential agent, she said I was to tell you.” Dan could scarcely suppress a grin of importance. ”She told me to remind you that she asked you particular last night if she might send for the copies of the papers, not call for them herself, and you said 'yes.' And you'll excuse me, Sir, but I'm not to answer any more questions.”
The attorney shrugged and turned to the telephone, but Dan interposed quietly:
”Miss Murdaugh ain't at home, Sir. She's waiting for me and she says she'll not set foot in the house until I bring her the copies of the papers.”
”Very well.” Mason North capitulated, and, opening a drawer in his desk, handed over a rolled package. ”Here you are. I shall want a receipt, of course.”
He made out one, which Dan signed, and with a nod turned to leave, when the attorney halted him on the threshold.
”Ask Miss Murdaugh if she can find it convenient to call here this afternoon; tell her I would like to talk things over with her and will expect her between four and five o'clock.”
”Very good, Sir.”
Dan departed, colliding violently as he did so with an elderly gentleman who entered the inner office and banged the door behind him.
”Mason, have you heard from her? Do you know where she has gone?”
”Who?” North rose hurriedly. ”What is it, Ripley? What has happened?”
”Willa. She's gone!” Ripley Halstead dropped despondently into a chair beside the desk. ”Here's the note the poor, proud little thing left behind her. Mason, I feel as if, between us, we've given her a beastly, rotten deal.”
But the attorney did not heed the final observation. He pressed the b.u.t.ton in his desk excitedly and when a wondering clerk appeared he barked:
”That young man who just went out of here! Follow him, stop him!”
”Too late, Sir. He went down in the express elevator as I stepped out of the local.”
North seated himself again with a gesture of hopelessness.
”All right; never mind, then. Ripley----” as the door closed once more--”if you'd been five minutes sooner I could have located her. Why under the sun didn't you telephone me?”
”Her absence was only discovered as I was leaving the house and I came straight to you.” Halstead stared. ”What young man were you speaking of?”
”Her messenger. He came with a note from Willa authorizing him to bring her the photographic copies of those doc.u.ments, and like a fool I gave them to him! We've lost our chance of tracing her, and heaven only knows what difficulties that headstrong wilful child will get into by herself,”
groaned North. ”I took her away from her home and friends in Mexico on this mistaken matter of her inheritance and I feel responsible for her.
I'm fond of the child, too; I like her independent spirit even if it did raise the deuce with us, and if any harm comes to her----”
”I won't let myself think of that!” Ripley Halstead's kind face had grown suddenly haggard. ”I have a good deal of respect for her clear-headed ability to take care of herself; nevertheless, I sha'n't feel easy until she is found. I've taken more comfort in her than in my own daughter, Mason. My wife doesn't need Willa's share of the Murdaugh money and I wish young Wiley had never unearthed the truth!”
The attorney had picked up the little note.
”'My dear Mrs. Halstead,' he read.
”'I hope you will forgive me for leaving you so unceremoniously. I do not mean to be rude or seem ungrateful, but I am afraid that in your hospitality you would urge me to remain until the doc.u.ments are verified at least, and I really cannot do so. If I have been an impostor, it was an unconscious one. Nevertheless, I could not endure a false position.
Will you permit me once more to thank you and your family for all your kindness to me, and believe me to be,