Under Cover Part 49

"That's the idea," Taylor cried cheerfully.

"Provided," Denby added, "you let me have a few words with your men.

They've got to understand I'm innocent, and I want to see how they take it. You see, I don't know them as well as you do. They've got to back you up in squaring me with the Harringtons. You've put me in all wrong here, remember."

"Why sure," Taylor agreed generously, "talk your head off to 'em."

"And you'll leave the girl out of it?"

"I'll do more than that," Taylor told him with a grin; "I'll leave her to you."

Denby heaved a sigh of relief. "Now we understand one another," he said.

"Here's your money, Taylor."

"Much obliged," Taylor responded. He handed the other the pearls. "I've no evidence," he declared in high good humor, "that you ever had any necklace. Have a cigar, Mr. Denby?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "NOW WE UNDERSTAND ONE ANOTHER," HE SAID. "HERE'S YOUR MONEY." _Page 288_.]

"Thanks," the younger man returned; "I'll smoke it later it you don't mind. Now call 'em in."

"Certainly," Taylor said briskly. "And say, I'm glad to have met you, Mr. Denby; and next time you're landing in New York and I can be of use, let me know." He leered. "I might be of considerable use, understand?"

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Taylor walked briskly across the hall and threw open the door of the room in which his subordinates were guarding their prisoner. "Duncan,"

he called, "and Gibbs, come here."

When they had come in with Ethel Cartwright, he turned to them impressively. "Boys," he declared, "it was all a mistake."

"What!" cried his men.

"Thank G.o.d!" the girl cried softly.

"Our dope was phoney. We were tipped off wrong by someone, out of mischief or malice--I'll have to look into that--and we're all in wrong.

It was a case of mistaken ident.i.ty, but Mr. Denby's been very nice about it, very nice, indeed. Let the lady go, Jim."

"I asked Mr. Taylor to send for you," Denby explained, "because I thought it was due you, and I didn't want any come-back. I want you all to understand the facts, if you don't mind waiting, Miss Cartwright."

"Of course I'll wait," she said brightly. What had happened to change things she could not guess, but she was confident the man she loved had some magic to save them both.

"Listen to him, boys," Taylor counselled. "You see, he's a bit anxious to straighten things out, so tell him all you know. Fire ahead, Mr.

Denby."

Denby addressed himself to James Duncan. "You got a tip from Harlow that a Steven Denby had bought a necklace at Cartier's?"

"Yes, sir," Duncan agreed.

Denby now turned to Gibbs who a.s.sumed a character of importance.

"Then you got a wireless that this Denby had sailed with Mrs. Michael Harrington and Mr. Montague Vaughan, which threw suspicion on the lady as a possible smuggler?"

"That's right, too," Gibbs conceded, contentedly.

"And yet," Denby remarked with inquiry in his tone, "you let Denby slip through the Customs to-day, didn't you?"

Taylor's satisfied expression had faded partially. "You see," he explained, "we didn't have any absolute evidence to arrest him on."

"Just what I was going to say," Gibbs remarked.

"But after he got through," Denby went on, "you received an anonymous telegram late this afternoon that Denby carried the necklace in a tobacco-pouch, didn't you?"

Taylor advanced a step frowning. "What's all this, anyway?" he demanded.

"How do you know about that telegram?"

"I found it out to-night," Denby said pleasantly.

"That's a private Government matter," Taylor bl.u.s.tered.

Denby looked at him in surprise. "Surely," he said, "you don't object to my making things clear? I was pretty nice to you, Mr. Taylor."

Taylor's fingers nestled tenderly about the crackling notes in his pocket. "All right," he a.s.sented, "go ahead."

Denby turned on the expectant Gibbs.

"You knew about that tip in the telegram?"

"First I ever heard about it," Gibbs returned, open-eyed.

"Then you didn't tell them?" Denby observed, looking toward their chief.

"That was my own business," Taylor said impatiently. He wished this fool cross-examination over, and himself out of Long Island.

"Did it ever occur to you boys that it was rather peculiar that this supposed smuggler wasn't searched--that he got through without the slightest trouble?"

"Why, the Chief didn't want to get in any mix-up with the Harringtons in case he was wrong about Denby," Gibbs elucidated.

"Oh, I see," Denby remarked, as though the whole thing were now perfectly straightforward. "He told you that, did he?"

"He sure did," Duncan agreed readily.

"Don't you boys see," Denby said seriously, "that this whole job looks very much as if the scheme was to let Denby slip through and then blackmail him?"

"I never thought of that," Duncan returned.

"Me, neither," the ingenuous Gibbs added.