The Black Box Part 67

"Just as we were speaking about you, Mr. Craig," the landlady continued.

"I was saying to the young lady that there was only one thing I could wish for you both, and that was that you weren't quite so worried like."

Craig seemed scarcely to hear her.

"Look across the road," he begged. "Tell me if there is a man in a blue serge suit and a bowler hat, smoking a cigar, looking across here."

Mrs. Malony and the girl both obeyed. The girl was the first to speak.

"Yes!" she announced. "He is looking straight at these windows."

Craig groaned and sank down upon a chair.

"Leave us, if you please, Mrs. Malony," he ordered. "I'll ring when I'm ready."

Mrs. Malony hesitated with the door-k.n.o.b in her hand.

"I'm not wis.h.i.+ng to say anything that might sound offensive," she observed slowly, "but if it's a case of trouble of any sort with the police, Mr.

Craig--"

"That will do," Craig interrupted. "It isn't anything of the sort you think. You are not likely to suffer by having me here, Mrs. Malony, or by looking after my niece when I have gone."

The landlady left the room silently. The girl came over to her uncle and threw her arm around his neck.

"Please don't talk about going away, uncle," she pleaded. "I have been so happy since I have been with you."

He patted her head, felt in his pocket, and drew out a little paper bag, from which he shook a bunch of violets. The girl pinned them to her frock with a little cry of pleasure.

"How kind you are to me!" she exclaimed. "You think of everything!"

He sighed.

"If I had had you for a little longer, Mary," he said, "perhaps I should have been a better man. Go to the window, please, and tell me if that man is still there."

She crossed the room with light footsteps. Presently she returned.

"He is just crossing the street," she announced. "I think that he seems to be coming here."

Craig took the girl for a minute into his arms.

"Good-bye, dear," he said. "I want you to take this paper and keep it carefully. You will be cared for always, but I must go."

"But where must you go?" she asked bewildered.

"I have an appointment at Professor Ashleigh's," he told her. "I cannot tell you anything more than that. Good-bye!"

He kissed her for a moment pa.s.sionately. Then suddenly he tore himself away. She heard him run lightly down the stairs. Some instinct led her to the back window. She saw him emerge from the house and pa.s.s down the yard.

Then she went to the front. The man in the blue serge suit was talking to the landlady below. She sank into a chair, puzzled and unhappy. Then she heard heavy footsteps. The door was opened. The man in the blue serge suit entered, followed by the protesting landlady.

"There's no sense in coming here to worry the young lady," Mrs. Malony declared irritably. "As for Mr. Craig, I told you that he'd gone out."

"Gone out, eh?" the man repeated, speaking in a thick, disagreeable tone.

"Why, I watched him in here not ten minutes ago. Now then, young lady, guess you'd better cough up the truth. Where's this precious uncle of yours?"

"My uncle has gone out," the girl replied, drawing herself up. "He left five minutes ago."

"Sneaked out by the back way, maybe," the man sneered.

"If there was any fear of your stopping to speak to him, I should think he would," the girl retorted boldly. "My uncle is rather particular about his acquaintances."

The man laughed.

"What's that in your hand?" he demanded.

"Something my uncle gave me before he went out," the girl replied. "I haven't looked at it yet myself."

"Give it here," he ordered.

She spread it out upon the table.

"You may look at it if you choose," she agreed. "My uncle did not tell me not to show it to any one."

They read it together. The few lines seemed to be written with great care.

They took, indeed, the form of a legal doc.u.ment, to which was affixed the seal of a notary and the name of a witness.--

I, John Craig, being about to receive the just punishment for all my sins, hereby bequeath to my niece, Mary Carlton, all monies and property belonging to me, a list of which she will find at this address. I make one condition only of my bequest and I beg my niece to fervently respect it. It is that she never of her own consent or knowledge speak to any one of the name of Ashleigh, or a.s.sociate with any of that name.

JOHN CRAIG.

The man folded up the paper.

"I'll take care of this," he said. "It's yours, right enough. We'll just need to borrow it for a time. Go and get your hat and coat on, miss."

"I shall not," the girl objected. "My uncle told me, if anything happened to him, that I was to remain here."

"And remain here she shall, so long as she likes," Mrs. Malony insisted.

"I've given my promise, too, to look after her, and Mr. Craig knows that I am an honest woman."

"You may be that," the man replied, "but it's just as well for you both to understand this. I'm from the police, and what I say goes. No harm will come to the girl, Mrs. Malony, and she shall come back here, but for the present she is going to accompany me to headquarters. If you make any trouble, I only have to blow my whistle and I can fill your house with policemen."

"I'll go," the girl whispered.

In silence she put on her hat and coat, in silence she drove with him to the police-station, where she was shown at once into an inspector's office. The man who had brought her whispered for a moment or two with his chief and handed him the paper. Inspector French read it and whistled softly. He took up the telephone by his side.

"Say, you've something of a find here," he remarked to the plain-clothes man. "Put me through to Mr. Quest, please," he added, speaking into the receiver.

The two men whispered together. The girl stole from her place and turned over rapidly the pages of a directory which was on the round table before her. She found the "A's" quickly. Her eye fell upon the name of Ashleigh.

She repeated the address to herself and glanced around. The two men were still whispering. For the moment she was forgotten. She stole on tiptoe across the room, ran down the stone steps, and hastened into the street.