CHAPTER XX.
MAN OR WOMAN.
Into the cab sprang the woman. Slam! the door closed behind her.Crack!--the whip of the driver fell on the horses, and away went thecab.
"Stop!" shouted Hodge.
Cabby did not heed the command.
Frank made a rush for another cab.
"Follow!" he cried, pointing toward the disappearing vehicle. "I willgive you five dollars--ten dollars--if you do not lose sight of thatcab!"
"In!" shouted the driver. "I'll earn that ten!"
In Frank plunged, jerking the door to behind him. The cab whirled fromthe platform with a jerk. Away it flew.
"It will be worth twenty dollars to get a peep beneath that veil!"muttered Frank Merriwell.
The windows were open. He looked out on one side. He could see nothingof the cab they were pursuing. Back he dodged, and out he popped hishead on the other side.
"There it is!"
He felt that he was not mistaken. The fugitive cab was turning a cornerat that moment. They were after it closely.
Frank wondered where the woman could have been hidden on the train sothat she had escaped observation. He decided that she must have been inone of the toilet rooms.
But what about the veiled man who was disguised as a woman? That man hadknown Frank--had spoken his name.
It was a double mystery.
The pursuit of the cab continued some distance. At last the cab inadvance drew up in front of a hotel, and a man got out!
Merriwell had leaped to the ground, and cabby was down quite as swiftly,saying:
"There, sir, I followed 'em. Ten plunks, please."
The door of the other cab had been closed, and the man was paying thedriver. He wore no overcoat, and carried no baggage.
"Fooled!" exclaimed Frank, in disappointment. "You have followed thewrong cab, driver!"
"I followed the one you told me to follow," declared the driver.
"No; you made a mistake."
"Now, don't try that game on me!" growled the man. "It's your way ofattempting to get out of paying the tenner you promised."
"No; I shall pay you, for you did the best you could. It was not yourfault that you made a mistake in the mass of carriages at the depot."
"Didn't make no mistake," asserted the cabby, sullenly.
"Well, it's useless to argue over it," said Merry, as he gave the manthe promised ten dollars. "I am sure you made a mistake."
"Think I couldn't follow Bill Dover and his spotted nigh hawse?"exploded the driver. "I couldn't have missed that hawse if I'd tried."
Frank saw one of the horses attached to the other cab was spotted. Hehad noticed that peculiarity about one of the horses attached to the cabthe mysterious woman had entered.
"It's the same horse!" exclaimed Merry.
"'Course it is," nodded the driver.
The man had paid his fare and was carelessly sauntering into the hotel.As he disappeared through the door-way, Frank sprang to the door of theother cab, flung it wide open, and looked in, more than half expectingto discover the woman still inside.
No woman was there!
Frank caught his breath in astonishment, and stood there, staring intothe empty cab.
"Hi, there! wot cher doin'?" called the man on the box.
Frank did not answer. He reached into the cab and felt on the floor. Hefound something, brought it forth, looked at it amazed.
It was a woman's dress!
But where was the woman?
Garment after garment Frank lifted, discovering that all a woman's outerwearing apparel lay on the floor of that cab.
"Vanished!" he muttered. "Disappeared--gone? What does it mean?"
Then he thought of the man who had left the cab and entered the hotel,and he almost reeled.
"That was the woman!"
He had seen one woman change into a man on the train, and here wasanother and no less startling metamorphosis.
"Driver," he cried, "didn't you take a person on in woman's clothes atthe station and let one off in man's clothes just now?"
"None of yer business!" came the coarse reply. "I knows enough not teranswer questions when I'm paid ter keep still."
That was quite enough; the driver might as well have answered, for hehad satisfied Merriwell.
Frank was astonished by the remarkable change that the woman had madewhile within the cab, but now he believed he understood why she had notbeen detected while on the train. She had been able to make a change ofdisguises in the toilet room, and had passed herself off as a man. Hodgehad looked for a veiled woman, and he had looked for a veiled woman; itwas not strange that both of them had failed to notice a person inmasculine attire who must have looked like a woman.
Up the hotel steps Frank leaped. He entered the office, he searched andinquired. At last, he found out that a beardless man had entered by thefront door, but had simply passed through and left by a side door.
"Given me the slip," decided Frank. He realized that he had encountereda remarkably clever woman.
And the mystery was deeper than ever.
Frank went to the hotel at which the company was to stop, and found allsave Wynne had arrived. Hodge was on the watch for Merry, and eagerlyinquired concerning his success in following the woman. Frank explainedhow he had been tricked.
"Well, it's plain this unknown female is mighty slippery," said Bart."You have not seen the last of her."
"I am afraid there are some things about this double mystery which willnever be solved," admitted Frank. "For instance, the identity of the manwho fell into the river."
"We'll be dead lucky if we do not have trouble over that affair," saidHodge.
"How do you mean?"
"Some fool is liable to swear out a warrant charging us with throwingthe unknown overboard."
"I thought of that," nodded Frank, "and that is why I took occasion onthe train to straighten out your story somewhat. It is always best,Bart, to stick to the straight truth."
Hodge flushed and looked resentful, but plainly sought to repress hisfeelings, as he said:
"I am not the only person in the world who believes the truth should notbe spoken at all times."
"If one cannot speak the truth," said Merry, quietly, "he had betterremain silent and say nothing at all, particularly in a case like this.There is an old saying that 'the truth can afford to travel slowly, buta lie must be on the jump all the time, or it will get caught.'"
"Well, I don't think this is any time to moralize," came a bit sharplyfrom Bart. "If we were to go into an argument, I rather think I couldshow logically that a white lie is sometimes more commendable than thetruth."
"In shielding another, possibly," admitted Merry; "but never inshielding the one who tells it. The more a person lies, the more he hasto lie, for it becomes necessary to tell one falsehood to cover upanother, and, after a while, the unfortunate individual finds himself soensnared in a network of fabrications that it is impossible for him toclear himself. Then disaster comes."
"Oh, don't preach!" snapped Bart. "Let's go to your room and talk thismatter of the veiled woman over. There is trouble brewing for you, andyou must be prepared to meet it. Havener has registered for the company,and all you have to do is call for your key."
So Frank and Bart went to the room of the former.
Puelbo had been well "papered." The work was done thoroughly, and everyboard, every dead wall, and every available window flaunted the paper of"True Blue."
The failure of "For Old Eli" was still fresh in the minds of the peopleof the city, but neither had they forgotten Frank Merriwell's pluckypromise to bring the play back to that place and perform it successfullythere.
The newspapers of the place had given him their support, but Frank wasdetermined that extracts from the notices in the Denver papers shouldreach the eyes of those who did not read the Puelbo papers closely. Withthis end in view, he had the extracts printed on flyers, as small billsare called, and the flyers were headed in startling type:
br />
"Five Hundred Dollars Fine!"
To this he added:
"Each and every person who reads the following clippings from Denver newspapers will be fined Five Hundred Dollars!"
It is needless to say that nearly every one who could read was carefulto read the clippings through to the end.
This manner of attracting attention was effective, even though it mayseem rather boyish in its conception.
His printing was done on the very night that he arrived in Puelbo, andthe flyers were scattered broadcast the following day.
He obtained the names of a large number of prominent citizens, to whomhe sent complimentary tickets, good for the first night's performance.
Frank was determined to have a house, even if it was made up principallyof deadheads.
On the occasion of his former visit to Puelbo he had received some freeadvertising through Leslie Lawrence, who had circulated printedaccusations against him. He scarcely expected anything of the sort onthis occasion, and he was rather startled when, on the morning followinghis arrival, he discovered that a circular had been scattered broadcast,which seemed to be even more malicious than the former attempt upon him.
In this circular he was plainly charged with the murder of an unknownwoman shortly after leaving Denver, and it was said he had been aided inthe crime by Bartley Hodge.
Frank was calmly reading this bold accusation when Hodge came burstinginto the room in a manner that reminded Merry of his entrance undersimilar circumstances on the former occasion.
Seeing the paper in Merry's hand, Bart hoarsely cried:
"So you've got it! Then you know about it! Well, now, sir, what do youthink of that?"
"Sit down, Hodge," said Frank, calmly. "You seem all out of breath. Youare excited."
"Excited!" shouted the dark-faced youth. "Well, isn't that enough toexcite a man of stone!"
"Do you mean this?"
"Yes, that! What in the name of creation do you suppose I meant?"
"I wasn't certain."
"Wasn't cert---- Oh, say; that's too much! What do you think? What areyou made of, anyway?"
"Now, my dear fellow, you must stop going on like this. You'll bring onheart disease if you keep it up."
Hodge dropped down on a chair and stared at Merry.
"Well--I'll--be--blowed!" he gasped.
"You are nearly blowed now," said Frank. "You seem quite out of breath."
"Is it possible you have read that paper you hold in your hand?" askedBart, with forced calmness.
"Yes, I have read it."
"Well, I do not understand you yet! I thought I did, but I'm willing toconfess that I don't."
Then he jumped up, almost shouting:
"Why, man alive, don't you understand that we are charged withmurder--with murder?"
"Yes," said Frank, still unruffled, "it seems so by this."
"And you take it like that!"
"What is the use to take it differently?"
"Use? Use? Sometimes I think you haven't a drop of good, hot blood inyour body."
"If a person has plenty of good, hot blood, it is a good thing for himto cool it off with good, cool brains. Hot blood is all right, but itshould be controlled; it should not control the man."
"I don't see how you can talk that way, under such circumstances. Why,we may be arrested for murder any moment!"
"We shall not."
"Shall not?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because our unknown enemy does not dare come out into the open and makethe charge against us."
"What makes you think so?"
"This."
Frank held up the accusing paper.
"That?"
"Yes."
"Why should that make you think so?"
"If our enemy had intended to come out and make the charge against usopenly, this would not have appeared. It is simply an attempt to hurt usfrom under cover, or to arouse others against us--against me, inparticular."
Bart could see there was logic in Merry's reasoning, but still he wasfearful of what might happen.
"Well, even you must acknowledge that the unknown enemy may succeed inhis purpose," said Hodge. "There were a number of persons who sawsomething of the struggle on the train. This may arouse some of them, orone of them, at least, to do something."
"It may."
"You confess that?"
"Yes."
"Didn't think you would."
"I don't believe it will. Hodge, I have a fancy that, in this case, sameas in the other, my enemy will overshoot the mark."
"How?"
"Something tells me that this warning, intended to turn suspicionagainst me, will serve as an advertisement. Of course, it will be a mostunpleasant notoriety to have, but it may serve to bring people out tosee me."
Bart looked thoughtful.
"I never thought of that," he confessed, hesitatingly.
"I had far rather not had the notoriety," admitted Frank; "but thatcan't be helped now. Let the people turn out to see 'True Blue.' PerhapsI'll get a chance at my enemy later."
"The veiled woman----"
"Is in it, I fancy. I believe there was some connection between theveiled woman and the veiled man--the one who plunged from the train intothe river."
"I have thought of that, but I've been unable to figure out what theconnection could be. Why was the man veiled and disguised thus?"
"So that I would not recognize him."
"Then, it must be that you would know him if you saw him face to face."
"As he knew me. He called me by name as he sprang upon me."
"Well, he's done for, but I believe the woman will prove the mostdangerous. Something tells me she was the real mover in this business."
"I fancy you are right, Hodge. At first, in Denver, I thought she hadbeen piqued by the manner in which I replied to her, but since all thesestrange things have happened, I know it was more than a case of pique."
"When you make a woman your enemy, she is far more dangerous than a man,for women are more reckless--less fearful of consequences."
"That's right," nodded Frank. "Women know they will not be punished tothe full extent of the law, no matter what they do. Juries are easilyhypnotized by pretty women. Where a woman and a man are connected incommitting a crime, and the woman is shown to be the prime mover, a jurywill let the woman off as easily as possible. A jury always hesitatesabout condemning a woman to death, no matter if she has committed a mostfiendish murder. In the East, women adventuresses ply their nefariousarts and work upon the sympathies of the juries so that, when called tothe bar, they are almost always acquitted. It is remarkable that menshould be so soft. It is not gallantry; it is softness. The very man whowould cry the loudest if he had been hit by an adventuress is the mosteager to acquit the woman in case he happens to be on the jury topronounce the verdict in her case."
"Well," said Hodge, "you are sound and level in that statement, Frank.It's plain you do not think true chivalry consists of acquitting femaleblackmailers and assassins."
"Don't let this little attempt to injure us frighten you, Hodge,"advised Frank, rising. "I think it will miscarry entirely. We've gotplenty of work for to-day, and to-night I believe I shall be able totell beyond a doubt whether 'True Blue' is a success or a failure. Ithink the test will come right here in Puelbo, where we met disasterbefore."