Out of a Labyrinth Part 20

"Don't let my presence interfere with your duties," I said. "You and I can finish our smoke to-morrow, doctor."

He shot me a glance which a.s.sured me that he comprehended my meaning.

Five minutes later, Dr. Bethel and 'Squire Brookhouse were going up the hill toward the house of the latter, while I, still smoking, sauntered in the opposite direction, lazily, as beseemed an idle man.

I felt very well satisfied just then, and was rather glad that my disclosure to the doctor had been interrupted. A new thought had lodged in my brain, and I wished to consult Carnes.

Just at sunset, while I sat on the piazza of the hotel, making a pretence of reading the _Trafton Weekly News_, I saw Charlie Harris, the operator, coming down the street with a yellow envelope in his hand.

He came up the steps of the hotel, straight to me, and I noted a mischievous smile on his face as he proffered the envelope, saying:

"I am glad to find you so easily. I should have felt it my duty to ransack the town in order to deliver that."

I opened the telegram in silence, and read these words:

The widow B. is in town and anxious to see you. T. C.

Then I looked up into the face of young Harris, and smiled in my turn.

"Harris," I said, "this is a very welcome piece of news, and I am much obliged to you."

"I knew you would be," laughed the jolly fellow. "I love to serve the ladies. And what shall I say in return?"

"Nothing, Harris," I responded. "I shall go by the first train; the widow here referred to, is a particular friend of mine."

Harris elevated his eyebrows.

"In dead earnest, aren't you? Tell me--I'll never, never give you away, is she pretty?"

"Pretty!" I retorted; "Harris, I've a mind to knock you down, for applying such a weak word to _her_. She's _magnificent_."

"Whew," he exclaimed, "It's a bad case, then. When shall we see you again in Trafton?"

"That depends upon the lady. I'll never leave the city while she desires me to stay."

After a little more banter of this sort, Harris returned to his duties, and I went up-stairs, well pleased with the manner in which he had interpreted my Chief's telegram, and wondering not a little what had brought the widow Ballou to the city.

Carnes and I had another long talk that night, while waiting the time for the arrival of the city express.

I told him that I was called to the city in the interest of the case I had abandoned after getting my wound, and that unless my continued presence there was absolutely indispensable, I would return in three days, at the farthest.

I gave him a detailed account of my visit to Bethel, with its attendant circ.u.mstances.

"Bethel will hardly make a decided move in the matter for a day or two, I think," I said, after we had discussed the propriety of taking the doctor into our counsel. "I will write him a note which you shall deliver, and the rest must wait."

I wrote as follows:

DR. CARL BETHEL,

_Dear Sir_--Am just in receipt of a telegram which calls me to the city. I go by the early train, as there is a lady in the case. Shall return in a few days, I trust, and then hope to finish our interrupted conversation. I _think_ your success will be more probable and speedy if you delay all action for the present.

This is in confidence.

Yours fraternally, etc., etc.

"There," I said, folding the note, "That is making the truth tell a falsehood." And I smiled as I pictured the "lady in the case," likely to be conjured up by the imaginations of Harris and Dr. Bethel, and contrasted her charms with the sharp features, work-hardened hands, and matter-of-fact head, of Mrs. Ballou.

Just ten minutes before twelve o'clock Carnes and myself dropped noiselessly out of our chamber window, leaving a dangling rope to facilitate our return, and took our way to the depot to watch for the expected experts.

Ten minutes later the great fiery eye of the iron horse shone upon us from a distance, disappeared behind a curve, reappeared again, and came beaming down to the little platform.

The train halted for just an instant, then swept on its way.

But no pa.s.sengers were left upon the platform; our errand had been fruitless; the detectives were still among the things to be looked for.

The next morning, before daybreak, I was _en route_ for the city.

CHAPTER XIV.

MRS. BALLOU'S PISTOL PRACTICE.

Half an hour after my arrival in the city, I was seated in the private office of our Chief, with Mrs. Ballou opposite me.

I had telegraphed from a way station, so that no time might be lost. I found the Chief and the lady awaiting me; and, at the first, he had signified his wish that I should listen to her story, and then give him my version of it.

"She seems ill at ease with me," he said, "and frankly told me that she preferred to make her statement to you. Go ahead, Bathurst; above all we must retain her confidence."

Mrs. Ballou looked careworn, and seemed more nervous than I had supposed it in her nature to be.

She looked relieved at sight of me, and, as soon as we were alone, plunged at once into her story, as if anxious to get it over, and hear what I might have to say.

This is what she told me in her own plain, concise, and very sensible language, interrupted now and then by my brief questions, and her occasional moments of silence, while I transferred something to my note-book.

"I presume you have wanted to know what I did with that letter I took,"

she began, smiling a little, probably in recollection of her adroit theft. "I will tell you why I took it. When you first showed it to me, the printed letters had a sort of familiar look, but I could not think where I had seen them. During the night it seemed to come to me, and I got up and went into the parlor." Here she hesitated for a moment, and then went on hurriedly: "Grace--my girl, you know--has a large autograph alb.u.m; she brought it home when she came from the seminary, and everybody she meets that can scratch with a pen, must write in it. I found this precious alb.u.m, and in it I found--this."

She took from her pocket-book a folded paper and put it in my hand. It was a leaf torn from an alb.u.m, and it contained a sentimental couplet, _printed_ in large, bold letters.

I looked at the bit of paper, and then muttering an excuse, went hurriedly to the outer office. In a moment I was back; holding in my hand the printed letter of warning, which I had confided to the care of my Chief.

I sat down opposite Mrs. Ballou with the two doc.u.ments before me, and scrutinized them carefully.

They were the same. The letter of warning was penciled, and bore evidence of having been hastily done; the alb.u.m lines were in ink carefully executed and elaborately finished, but the lettering was the same. Making allowances for the shading, the flourishes, and the extra precision of the one, and looking simply at the formation of the letters, the height, width, curves, and s.p.a.cing of both, and the resemblance was too strong to pa.s.s for a mere coincidence.