The Sorcery Club Part 12

"I know better," Hamar said. "Will you get your gardener--who by the way was very rude to me just now when I spoke to him--to dig where I tell him. I have absolute confidence in my power of divination."

The owner of the property, whom I will call Mr. B. a.s.sented, and several gardeners, including the one who had so insulted Hamar, were soon digging vigorously. At the depth of fifteen feet, water was found, and, indeed, so fast did it begin to come in that within a few minutes it had risen a foot. The onlookers were jubilant.

"I shall send an account of it to the local papers," Mr. B. remarked.

"Your fame will be spread everywhere. You have increased the value of my property a thousandfold, I cannot tell you how grateful I am"--and he, then and there, invited Hamar to luncheon.

After luncheon Mr. B. made him a present of a cheque--rather in excess of the sum which Hamar had all along intended to have, and could not have refrained from demanding much longer.

In the afternoon all the San Francisco specials were full of the incident, and Hamar, seeing his name placarded for the first time, was so overcome that he spent the rest of the evening in the hotel deliberating how he could best turn his sudden notoriety to account.

At ten o'clock Kelson came in, looking somewhat fatigued, but, nevertheless, pleased. He, too, had had adventures, and he detailed them with so much elaboration that the other two had frequently to tell him to "dry up."

"I began the morning," he commenced, "by accosting a very fas.h.i.+onably dressed lady coming out of Bushwell's Store in Commercial Street.

Divination at once told me she was the popular widow of J.K. Bater, the Biscuit King of n.o.b Hill, and that she was carrying in her big seal-skin m.u.f.f a gold hatpin mounted with an emerald b.u.t.terfly, a silver-backed hair brush, a blue enamelled scent bottle, and a porcelain jar, all of which she had slyly 'nicked,' when no one was looking.

"I stepped up to her, and politely raising my hat said, 'Good morning, Mrs. Bater. I've a message for you.'

"'I don't know you,' she said eyeing me very doubtfully, 'who are you?'

"'Forgotten!' I said tragically, 'and I had flattered myself it would be otherwise. Still I must try and survive. I wanted to ask you a favour, Mrs. Bater.'

"'A favour!' she exclaimed nervously, 'what is it? You are really a very extraordinary individual.'

"'I was only going to ask if I might examine the contents of your m.u.f.f? I think you have certain articles in it that have not been paid for--and I believe I am right in saying this is by no means the first time such a thing has happened.'

"She turned so pale I thought she was going to faint. 'Why, whatever do you mean,' she stammered, 'I've nothing that does not belong to me.'

"'Opinions differ on that score, Mrs. Bater,' I replied, 'you have a pin, a hair brush, a scent bottle and a jar,' and I described them each minutely, 'whilst in your house you have on your dressing-table a silver-backed clothes brush, a silver manicure set you kleptomaniad--if you prefer to call it so--from Deacon's in Sacramento Street; a tortoisesh.e.l.l manicure set, and an ivory card case you obtained in the same manner from Varter's in Market Street; a set of silver b.u.t.tons, a glove stretcher, and a mauve pin-cus.h.i.+on--you likewise helped yourself to--from Selter's in Kearney Street; but I might go on detailing them to you till further orders, for your house is literally crammed with them. You have done very well, Mrs. Bater, with the San Francisco storekeepers.'

"'Good G.o.d, man, what are you?' she gasped. 'You seem to read into the innermost recesses of my soul, and to know everything.'

"'You are right, madam,' I said, trying to appear very stern and almost failing, she was so pretty. By Jove! you fellows, I wonder I didn't kiss her; she had such fine eyes, my favourite nose, a ripping mouth and--"

"Oh! go on! go on with your story. Never mind her looks," Curtis interrupted, "I've got a touch of indigestion."

"As I was saying," Kelson went on complacently, "I could have kissed her and I felt downright mean for upsetting her so.

"'Now you have found me out,' she said, 'what do you intend doing?

Show me up in there?' and she pointed shudderingly at the store.

"'No,' I said, 'not if you are sensible and come to terms. I will agreeto say nothing about either this or any of your other--ahem!-- thefts--if you let me escort you home, and write me out a cheque for a thousand dollars!'

"'Beast!' she hissed, 'so you are a blackmailer!'

"'A black beetle if you like,' I responded, 'but I a.s.sure you, Mrs.

Bater, I am letting you off cheap. I have only to call for a policeman and your reputation would be gone at once. Besides, I know other things about you.'

"'What other things?' she stuttered.

"'Well, madam!' I replied, 'some things are rather delicate--er--for single men like me to mention, but I do know that--er--a lady--very like--remarkably like--you, has in her pocket at this moment a rattle which she bought and paid for in Oakland's late last night. And as, madam, Mr. Bater has been dead over two years--let me see--yes, two years yesterday--one can--!'

"'Stay! that will do,' she whispered; 'come to my house and I will give you the thousand dollars. You must pretend you are my cousin.'

"'I will pretend anything, Mrs. Bater,' I murmured, helping her into a taxi, 'anything so long as I can be with you.'"

"You got the money?" Hamar queried.

"Yes," Kelson said with a smile, "I got the money--in fact, everything I asked for."

There was silence for some minutes, and then Hamar said, "What next?"

"What next!" Kelson said, "why I thought I had done a very good day's work and was on my way back here to take a much needed rest, when I'm dashed if the Unknown hadn't another adventure in store for me. Coming out of a garden in Gough Street, within sight of Goad's house, was a lady, young and very plain, but rigged out in one of those latest fas.h.i.+on costumes--a very tight, short skirt, and huge hat with high plume in it. By the bye, I can't think why this costume, which is so admirably suited to pretty girls--because it attracts attention to them--should be almost exclusively adopted by the ugly ones. But to continue. I knew immediately that she was Ella Barlow, the much-pampered and only daughter of J.B. Barlow, the vinegar magnate; that she was in love, or imagined herself in love with Herbert Delmas, the manager of the Columbian Bank--a young, good-looking fellow, whom she had been trying to set against his fiancee, Dora Roberts. Dora is only nineteen, very pretty and a trifle giddy--nothing more. But this failing of hers--if you can call it a failing, was just the very weapon Ella Barlow wanted. She worked on it at once, and by sending Delmas a series of anonymous letters made him mad with jealousy. This resulted in a breach between Delmas and Dora, and Ella Barlow, much elated, at once tried to step into her shoes. She has been going out a good deal with Delmas, who is in reality still very much in love with Dora, and consequently exceedingly miserable. This morning Ella, anxious to show off a magnificent set of diamonds, given her by her father, telephoned to Delmas to take her to the Baldwyn Theatre, where she has engaged a box for this evening--fondly hoping that the diamonds will bring him up to the scratch, and that he will propose to her. When I saw her she was on her way to a notorious quack doctor and beauty specialist in Californian Street. She suffers from some nasty skin disease, and is in mortal terror lest Delmas should get to know of it, and also of the fact that all her teeth are false, and that two of her toes are badly deformed."

"By Jupiter!" Hamar e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "this divination of yours beats mine into fits--nothing escapes you!"

"No!" Kelson laughed, "nothing! Ella Barlow, metaphysical and physical was laid before me just as bare as if the Almighty had got hold of her with his dissecting knife. I saw everything--and what is more I said to myself--here's plenty I can turn to a profitable account. Well! I didn't stop her--I let her go."

"Let her go!" Curtis growled, his mouth full of almonds and raisins.

"You squirrel!"

"Only for a time," Kelson said, "I went to see Delmas!"

"Delmas!" Hamar interlocuted, "why the deuce Delmas?"

"Impulse!" Kelson explained, "purely impulse."

"Yes, but impulse is often a dangerous thing!" Hamar said, "it is essential for us three, especially, to be on our guard against impulse. What did you get out of Delmas?"

"Nothing!" Kelson said looking rather shamefaced, "But the matter hasn't ended yet. I'm going to the theatre after I've had something to eat. I'll tell you what happens, to-morrow."

It was late ere Kelson came down to breakfast the following day, and Hamar and Curtis were comfortably seated in armchairs reading the _Examiner_, when he joined them.

"Well!" Hamar said, looking up at him, "what luck?"

But Kelson wouldn't say a word till he had finished eating. He then lolled back in his seat and began:--

"Arriving at the Baldwyn I went straight to box one. A tall figure rose to greet me, and then, an angry voice exclaimed, 'Why it's not Herbert! Who are you, sir? Do you know this box is engaged?'

"'I humbly beg your pardon, Miss Barlow,' I said, 'I do know it is engaged, but I came as Mr. Delmas' deputy and friend.'

"'Came as Herbert's deputy and friend,' Ella Barlow repeated--and by Jove the diamonds did s.h.i.+ne--she was simply a ma.s.s of them, hair, neck, arms and fingers--and she had been so well faked up for the occasion that she was almost good-looking; but I thought of all I knew about her--and shuddered.

"'I will explain myself,' I said, 'Mr. Delmas telephoned to you this afternoon, did he not?'

"She nodded.

"'Saying that he very much regretted he could not leave business in time to escort you here. Would you mind very much going by yourself, and he would join you as soon as possible.'

"'Yes,' Ella Barlow said, 'he told me all that.'