Ahead of the Show Part 16

Both our hero and the manager recognized him as one of the stage hands in the Rockton Theater.

When he saw Al he started, then he said: "Mr. Wattles, I came here on purpose to get this here young gentleman's address."

"My address?" cried Al. "What do you want that for?"

"Is it true, sir," the man asked, "that the young lady as was on the bills as Miss Gladys March is your sister?"

"Yes."

"Then, sir, I have some information for you."

"Do you know where she is?" demanded the boy, breathlessly.

"No, sir; but I know that she is in a trap, and that if you want to save her you must act quick. I've come here, sir, to make a clean breast of my part in the affair."

Overcome by excitement, Al seized the fellow by the throat and forced him to his knees.

"Speak!" he hissed. "Tell the truth, or I will strangle you!"

CHAPTER XXIV.

A CLEW.

Mr. Wattles stepped forward and gently forced Al to relax his hold on the man's throat.

"Don't get excited, my boy," he said. "This is just the time when you need a cool head."

"That's so, sir," added the visitor. "I don't blame the young gent for the way he feels, but if he expects to get the best of that villain, Jack Farley, he has got to keep his wits about him."

"Then," gasped Al, "it was Farley that enticed her away?"

"It was him, sir."

"And what had you to do with it?"

"More than I wish I had. The truth is, sir, I did not realize what I was doing at the time. I was not onto his game until it was too late, and then I----"

"Don't beat about the bush any longer," interrupted Mr. Wattles, impatiently. "What was Farley's game?"

"Where is my sister?" added Al, in an agony of suspense.

"It's like this, gents," replied the man. "Just before the alarm of fire was given a man came to the stage door, where I happened to be standing at the time. His collar was turned up, and his hat was pulled down, and at first I did not recognize him. 'I want you to do me a favor,' he says. 'What is it?' says I, 'and who are you?' 'Don't you know me?' he asks me. 'No, I don't,' I tells him, 'and I ain't got no time to stand here fooling with you.' You see, I thought maybe he was a stage-door masher, though he didn't look much like one, to tell the truth, for he was dressed in a way that----"

"Never mind all that," interrupted Mr. Wattles again. "Get to the point. The man told you he was Farley?"

"He did, sir."

"Why were you any more willing to talk to him then? Had you ever met him before?"

"Oh, yes."

"By your own admission you knew he was a villain. Why, then, were you willing to do him a favor?"

"He did me a great service once, sir, and I was glad of a chance to repay him."

"Even at the risk of a young girl's life happiness, perhaps her life itself?"

"I did not think it was as serious as all that then, sir. You see, all he asked me was to tell Miss March that a friend bearing important news was waiting just outside the stage door to see her, and that he would not detain her more than a minute. He also told me not to say that it was him if she should ask."

"And you did this?"

"I took the message to Miss March, and, as she had at least half an hour's time before she had to go on again, she went with me to the door without any hesitation."

"And then?" cried Al, breathlessly.

"There was no one else around at the moment. Miss March stepped out. I was surprised to see that there was a carriage waiting in the alley. He said something to her that I could not hear, and led her to the door of the carriage. The next moment, to my surprise, he lifted her in his arms and put her into the carriage. She didn't have time to make any resistance at all. I am not sure, but I think there was another person in the carriage."

"And you made no attempt to interfere?" cried Mr. Wattles.

"What could I do, sir?"

"I am pretty sure that if I had been in your place I should have done something," said the old gentleman, warmly.

"The carriage drove off like mad as soon as the young lady was put into it, sir."

"Didn't Farley enter it, too?"

"Oh, yes, he jumped right in after her. The driver seemed to know what to do; anyway, he received no directions from Mr. Farley in my hearing. I suppose it had all been arranged between them beforehand."

"Of course. You might have given the alarm at once; why didn't you?" demanded Al.

"By that time, sir, the alarm of fire had been given, and there was a terrible commotion in the theater. In the confusion I did not know what to do."

"Well," said Mr. Wattles, "better late than never. But what put it into your head to come here at all?"

"I don't know that I should have come, sir, but when I heard of the heroic way in which this young gent behaved, and how he saved the lives of maybe half the audience--when I heard all this, and was told that the young lady, Miss March, was his sister, I made up my mind that I would come here and make a clean breast of my part of the affair."

"And you have really told us all you know?"

"All, sir, so help me Heaven!"

"I believe you, my man," said Mr. Wattles.

"And so do I," added Al. "But we must not spend any more time in talk; we have got to do something at once."

"I will do anything in my power to help you, sir," said the man.

"I don't see that you can do much more than you have done," said Al. "You can give me a description of the carriage and the horse, though."

"The carriage was an ordinary livery coach. There were two horses, both of them gray. It was a livery turn-out--there can't be any doubt about that--and not a first-cla.s.s one, either."

"You don't know what stable it came from?"

"No, sir; but it won't be a very hard job to find that out, for there are only three stables in town. Two of them are quite swell, but the other isn't, and I guess it was from that one that the coach came."

"Well," said Mr. Wattles, springing to his feet, "we can get to work now. Come, my boy, this man shall take us to the stable at once, and we will see what they have to tell us there."

"I don't want to drag you out, Mr. Wattles," said Al. "I can manage this business alone."

"You can, eh?" said the manager, almost indignantly. "Well, maybe you could, but you won't get the chance. I am going to be right in it with you. Why, do you suppose I could sleep a wink to-night with this thing on my mind? I tell you, my boy, I thought more of that girl than you imagine, and if anything should happen to her----"

Mr. Wattles choked and turned away his head. Al was surprised at this exhibition of emotion; he had not given his employer credit for the possession of so much feeling.

He extended his hand.

"Mr. Wattles," he said, "you are a good friend of mine and hers. Have it your own way, then. Come!"

The manager pressed the boy's hand.

"I don't like scenes--off the stage," he said, rather shamefacedly. "I dislike emotion, and am seldom betrayed into it. But--but---- Oh, well, we mustn't stand here talking all night. Lead the way to the stable you spoke of, my man."

Ten minutes later the trio reached the stable. Here several delays awaited them. In the first place, the man who had been on duty in the office at the time the coach must have been hired, was asleep in a room above the stable, and when awakened refused to get up. After some persuasion, he agreed to do so, and came downstairs half dressed. He was also half asleep, and for several minutes could not recall the event about which his visitors were so anxious to be informed. It had been an unusually busy evening, and he was not sure whether the coach had come from that stable or not.

At last, however, his memory having been stimulated by a five-dollar bill, which Mr. Wattles slipped into his hands, he remembered having rented the team to a man who answered Farley's description.

"There was a lady with him, too," the man added.

"What sort of a looking woman?" asked the manager.

"Tall, dark, with very black eyes."

"Miss Hollingsworth!" exclaimed Mr. Wattles.

"Just the idea that occurred to me," added Al.

"It was she, beyond the shadow of a doubt. She is in the scheme, too, then. That woman is capable of anything. At last we have a clew, and a strong one."

CHAPTER XXV.

ON THE TRACK.

"But why," questioned Al, "should Miss Hollingsworth lend herself to such a scheme?"

"For several reasons," Mr. Wattles replied. "In the first place, she is a woman who likes mischief for its own sake--there are such people, you know. Then, she is under the influence of Farley; that is a fact that I have known for a long time. That man can make her do almost anything he wishes."

"Is she in love with him?"

"Sometimes I have thought so, and sometimes I have thought she almost hated him. He seems to exercise a sort of hypnotic influence over her; that is the only way in which I can explain it."

"If she is in love with him," suggested Al, "it is rather strange, isn't it, that she should help him to abduct a rival?"

"Not when you consider everything. Remember that the woman has a grudge against you. You haven't forgotten that episode at the Boomville Opera House, have you? You were the indirect means of throwing her out of an engagement."

"That is so."

"You can depend upon it," went on the manager, "that the woman in the case--and in the carriage--was Miss Olga Hollingsworth. But we mustn't stand talking here any longer."

Mr. Wattles had observed that the stableman was listening to the dialogue with considerable interest.

"Where did the couple say they were going?" he added.

"They said," was the reply, "that they wanted to catch a train, but that they had to make a call first."

"Did they say where they were going to call?"

"They did not."

"Did they say what train they wanted to catch?"

"No, sir."

"Where is the driver that took them out? Has he returned yet?"

"He came back long ago, and has gone home."

"Did he say where he took them?" questioned Al.

"No, sir, he said nothing about the matter; all we were talking about was the theater fire."

"Well," said Mr. Wattles, with a wink at Al, "we are much obliged for your information. Good-night."

And he took the boy's arm and walked him rather unceremoniously out of the place.