Chapter XV
TEA AND ORDERS
After she had changed her clothes and fed the famished pup with a bowlof warm milk and bread, Dorothy took him down to the library. Gretchenbrought a small open basket and a blanket and they made him a bed nearthe open fire. Professor promptly went to sleep, and his mistress curledup in a deep chair beside him, reading and dozing for the rest of theafternoon. To amuse Gretchen, she had placed a dictionary near thebasket, to see if Professor would follow his double's example and sojustify his name. When he awoke, however, about four o'clock, he merelyjumped out of his bed on to the book, and up to Dorothy's lap, where hewent to sleep again.
"Good ole pup!" Dorothy rubbed his smooth, warm head between his ears."You show your intelligence by using the dictionary as a stepping stoneto better things, don't you, Prof!"
She yawned, closed her book, and promptly went to sleep again herself.
She awoke with a start, to find Mrs. Lawson smiling down at her.Tunbridge was laying the tea-things on a table at the other side of thefire. "Well, my dear," the lady said, her eyes on the fox terrier, "Isee you've found a new friend."
"Oh, yes, isn't he just too darling? I found him out in the blizzard, hewas half frozen and almost starved!" She went on to tell Mrs. Lawsonabout it.
"I'm afraid I'm not very fond of animals, Janet." Dorothy noticed thatshe did not attempt to touch the puppy. "I don't dislike them, youunderstand, but somehow they never seem to like me."
"That's too bad," said Dorothy. "I do hope you won't mind my keepinghim--at least until we learn who his owner is?"
Laura Lawson looked doubtful. "Well, I don't mind. But--this is DoctorWinn's house, you know, and his decision, after all, is the one thatcounts. You will have to ask him about keeping the dog, Janet."
"Is Doctor Winn going to have tea with us, Mrs. Lawson?"
"He most certainly is, my dear. That is, if you ladies will pour him acup."
Dorothy glanced up, and beside her stood an old gentleman, very tall andspare, but bowed with the weight of his years. She knew that thescientist was well over eighty. Catching up the fox terrier, she rose toher feet.
"How do you do, Doctor Winn?" She smiled and offered him her hand.
The old gentleman bent over it with courtly grace. "Good afternoon, MissJanet Jordan. Welcome to Winncote." Merry gray eyes twinkled at her frombehind pince-nez attached to a broad black ribbon. An aristocrat of theold school, Dorothy thought, as she studied his handsome, clean shavenface crisscrossed with the tiny wrinkles of advanced age. She hadimagined him to be quite a different sort of person. His next wordsproved that he read her thoughts.
"You expected to see a musty old fellow, with a long white beard,wearing a smock stained by chemicals, eh?" He chuckled softly. "Now,tell me, young lady, isn't that so? Though I admit these flannel slacksand old Norfolk jacket are hardly fashionable habiliments when one istaking tea with ladies!"
He released her hand and smiled a greeting to Mrs. Lawson. The secondfootman, he of the plum-colored knee-breeches, set the tea table beforethat young matron, under the supervision of the stately Tunbridge.
Dorothy liked this gallant old scientist and his courtly ways. Her owneyes sparkled gaily back at him. "Yes, you did surprise me, DoctorWinn," she confessed. "Please don't think I'm being forward, but--butyou seem much more like the English fox-hunting squires I've read about,than the world-renowned chemist you really are, with stacks of lettersafter your name. But ever so much nicer, and jollier, you know!"
Doctor Winn beamed. "Now that, my dear, is a most charming compliment.Old fellows like me aren't used to compliments from young ladies,either. Do sit down again, please, and tell me how you like Winncote andour New England snowstorms. We old people need young folks around. I cansee that we are going to be good friends."
He sat down in a chair the butler drew up for him.
"Mrs. Lawson will tell you," replied Dorothy, "that I love it out herein the country." She accepted a cup of tea from Tunbridge and addedsugar and a slice of lemon. The butler was followed by his liveriedassistant, bearing silver platters of hot, buttered scones and tiny icedcakes. Professor immediately began to show interest in the proceedings.Dorothy held him firmly out of harm's way, and placed her tea andeatables on the broad arm of her chair.
Mrs. Lawson looked up from her place behind the shining silver and oldchina of the tea table. She smiled graciously. "Oh, yes, Janet lovesblizzards, too, Doctor Winn. She went out for a walk this afternoon andacquired a fox terrier puppy, as you see."
"And naturally, she wants to keep him." The old gentleman leaned forwardin his chair, the better to look at Professor. "You certainly may,Janet. And by the way, I hope you'll agree that it's an old man'sprivilege to call you by your first name?"
"Oh, that is sweet of you!" Dorothy cried delightedly, and the Doctor'schuckle echoed her pleasure.
"The dog's got a fine head--a very fine head, indeed. If anybodyadvertises for him, or comes to claim him, I'll take pleasure in buyingthe puppy for you."
"Why, you're nicer every minute," declared Dorothy. "Isn't he,Professor?"
The pup yawned with great indifference, which set all three of themlaughing. His mistress put him in his blanket where he promptly curledup and fell into slumber once more.
"I sadly fear," said Doctor Winn, as he polished his pince-nez with awhite silk handkerchief, "that you are a good deal of a flirt Janet. Butinasmuch as I am old enough to be your grandfather, orgreat-grandfather, for that matter, you are pardoned with a reprimand."He chuckled deep in his throat, a habit he had when pleased. "Now tellme, how you happened to find him out in the snow."
Dorothy recounted the story in detail. When she came to the part aboutGretchen's fear of the wildcat and the fox, even Mrs. Lawson, who wasnone too sure she liked the turn things were taking, broke into a merrypeal of laughter.
"Capital, capital!" Doctor Winn beamed. "I only wish I'd been there tosee it. But why, may I ask, do you call him Professor?"
Dorothy explained about the dictionary and Gretchen's idea of the pup'sresemblance to Dorothea Gutmann's fox terrier.
"Better and better," exclaimed the Doctor. "This is the jolliest teawe've had in this house for ages. We need young people around us to bereally happy. You and I and Martin, Laura, have been working too hard oflate. 'All work and no play'--We've been bothering too much about thingsscientific, and neglecting things personal. Well now, we can rest awhile, and become human beings again."
Mrs. Lawson leaned forward eagerly. "Then, the formula is complete?" sheasked in a low voice, in which Dorothy detected the barely controlledtremor of excitement.
"Yes, indeed. Finished and locked in my safe. I added the final figuresand quantities three-quarters of an hour ago. Tomorrow, or if theweather doesn't clear by then, the next day at latest, I shall take iton to Washington."
"I congratulate you, Doctor. And I know that once it is in the hands ofthe government, a great load will be taken off your mind."
"You're right, my dear, you are right. I've been jumpy as a cat witheight of its lives gone for the past year." He turned to Dorothy. "Thankgoodness, you're young and without responsibilities, Janet. There are somany unscrupulous people about nowadays. If those papers were lost orstolen, there is no telling what would happen. I dare not think of it.The whole world might suffer if that formula got into the wrong hands!"
Dorothy could not help thinking that the world at large would be muchbetter off if the formula were destroyed. She, therefore, merely noddedand looked impressed. How this gentle, kindly old man could have broughthimself to invent such a ghastly menace to life, she found it difficultto understand.
Laura Lawson stood up. "Doctor Winn likes to dine early, Janet, so if weare to be dressed by six-thirty, we had better start upstairs."
"My word, yes!" The old gentleman snapped open the hunting case of hisrepeater and got stiffly to his feet. "Time flies when one is enjoyingoneself. I
t's nearly six o'clock. This has been very pleasant indeed,the first of many afternoons, I hope." He snapped the watch shut andreturned it to his pocket. "You ladies will excuse me, I'm sure." Hebowed to them both, and holding himself much more erect than he hadformerly, walked stiffly from the room.
"He's simply darling," exclaimed Dorothy in a hushed voice.
"Yes, he's a very simple and a very fine old gentleman," said LauraLawson. She seemed lost in her thoughts and evidently unaware that sheuttered them aloud. "Sometimes--I hate to hurt him so."
"Why--why, what do you mean?" Dorothy could have bitten her own tongueout for speaking that sentence.
"Mean--? Oh, nothing, child. Run along now, and change. But take yourdog with you. I'll see that one of the men gives him a run in thestables while we're at dinner."
"Thank you very much," said Dorothy. She turned the sleeping pup out ofhis bed, caught up the basket, and with Professor at her heels, ranlightly from the room.
Just outside the door she collided with Tunbridge, and Professor'sbasket was jerked from her grasp.
"Oh, I'm so very sorry, Miss Jordan!" His acting was perfect. Dorothyknew that Mrs. Lawson was close behind them. Then as they both stoopedto retrieve the basket their heads came close together. "Under yourpillow!" It was hardly more than the breath of a whisper, but Dorothycaught the words, nodded her understanding, and stood up.
"I'm afraid I'm to blame, Tunbridge. I didn't see you coming."
"Not at all, Miss. It was my fault, entirely. Very clumsy of me I'msure!"
From the corner of her eye Dorothy caught a glimpse of Laura Lawsonwatching them from the doorway.
"Don't let it worry you, Tunbridge. I'm not hurt, neither is the basket.Professor will probably park himself on my _pillow_ tonight, anyway.Puppies have a way of doing such things, you know. So it really wouldn'tmatter much if you had smashed it."
She gave him a nod, and picking up the dog made for the staircase.
"So instructions are waiting under my pillow," she mused, as she slowlymounted the broad stair. The afternoon had been a pleasant one, but theevening, with those instructions ahead of her, portended to be somethingquite different. It had been so nice and cheerful, chatting round thetea table; so cozy sitting before the glowing logs, just talking ofjolly things and forgetting all worry and responsibility. Of course,beyond the curtained windows, the blizzard howled. And it whipped theswirling snowflakes into disordered clouds with its arctic lash beforeit let them seek the shelter of their fellows in the drifts. She feltvery much as though she too were a snowflake, tossed hither and thitheron the storm of circumstance, to be whipped forward by the secret lashof underlying crime.
If she could only drop down on to her bed and sleep--and awake to findit all a bad dream! She sighed and went toward her door on the gallery.Her pillow held no peace for her tonight--nothing more nor less thandetailed instructions as to how Tunbridge wished her to rob a safe. Whydidn't the man do his own stealing? Her part was to take Janet's placeout here, and kill suspicion in Laura Lawson. Well, she'd done that,hadn't she? And now they loaded this other job on to her. It wasn'tfair. She had done enough--she'd--
"Oh, shucks!" She pulled herself up mentally as her hand fell on thedoorknob. "I'll be losing my nerve altogether, if I let my thoughts runon this way. D. Dixon, you just _must not_ funk it!"
She turned the knob and entered her room.