CHAPTER XXI
THE THIRD OBLONG BOX ARRIVES
"I think," said Wilton Barnstable, when Cleggett had finished, "that Imay be able to clear up a few points for you.
"The two men whom you saw me hazing up and down the bank of the canal,and whom you saw again tonight, followed by the man in the baby bluesilk pajamas, were Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat!"
"The wretches!" cried Lady Agatha.
"Wretches indeed," said Wilton Barnstable, Barton Ward, and WatsonBard, in unison, and with conviction.
"And the man in the baby blue silk pajamas, was----" the greatdetective paused, as if to make his revelation more effective. Andwhile he paused, Miss Genevieve Pringle, with pursed lips and avertedface, signified that the very idea of introducing a man in baby bluesilk pajamas into the conversation was intensely displeasing to her.
"The man in pajamas was Reginald Maltravers," finished the greatdetective.
"Reginald Maltravers!" cried Lady Agatha.
She opened her mouth again as if to say something more, but wordsfailed her, and she only stared at the detective, with parted lips andround eyes.
Cleggett went to her and touched her on the arm, and with the touch shegave a sob of emotion and found her tongue again.
"Reginald Maltravers," she said, "is not dead then! Not dead afterall!"
She endeavored to control herself, but for a moment or two shetrembled. It was evident that it was all she could do to keep fromcrying hysterically with relief. The nightmare that had haunted herfor days had vanished almost too suddenly. Presently she began to beherself again.
"You are sure that he is not dead?" she said with a voice that stillshook.
"Sure," said Wilton Barnstable.
And as if quietly satisfied with the sensation they had produced, thethree detectives smiled at each other urbanely and contentedly.Barnstable continued:
"Reginald Maltravers came to my agency some days ago and requested abodyguard. Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat had attacked him, no doubtintending to earn the money which Elmer had promised them. He beatthem off. In fact, he caned them soundly. But they still continued todog him.
"Mr. Ward here, who handled the case, soon reported to me that hebelieved Reginald Maltravers to be insane."
"Insane he was," cried Lady Agatha. "I have seen the light of insanityin his eye, gleaming through his accursed monocle." She spoke withvehemence. Now that she knew the man to be alive, her hatred of himhad flared up again.
"Insane he was," agreed Wilton Barnstable. "And shortly after thatdiscovery was made, he disappeared. The next day after hisdisappearance, Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat were liberally suppliedwith money.
"Of course they got the money, Lady Agatha, through the clever trickthey worked upon you."
"A great many people have got money from me since I have been inAmerica," said Lady Agatha.
"Ah! Yes?" The great detective went on with his masterly summing up."Of course they got the money from the trick they worked on LadyAgatha. But at the time I thought it possible that they had robbedReginald Maltravers and then put him out of the way. They arewell-known gunmen.
"I took them into custody and determined to hold them until such timeas Reginald Maltravers would be found, or his fate discovered.Eventually I brought them with me on my house boat. I was reallyholding them without due legal warrant, but I am forced to do that,sometimes. They complained of lack of exercise, so I gave themexercise in the manner which you saw the other morning, Mr. Cleggett.
"One of my agents, shortly after this, picked up the trail of ReginaldMaltravers again. When I learned that he was alive my first impulsewas to release Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat. But I learned that thetwo gunmen could, if they would, give me a tip as to certain of theactivities of Logan Black, against whom I have been collecting evidencefor nearly a year. So I kept them on my boat.
"Reginald Maltravers, most of the time that you were riding about thecountry, Lady Agatha, with the box that you thought contained him, wasreally following you. He would lose your trail and find it again, buthe was always some hours behind you. Of course, he knew nothing of theoblong box. He thought that you were running away from him. And allthe time that Reginald Maltravers was following you, agents of minewere following Reginald Maltravers."
"Lady Agatha," interrupted Cleggett, "was also being pursued by MissPringle here."
Wilton Barnstable carefully made a note in a little book which he drewfrom his waistcoat pocket. Barton Ward also made a note in a littlebook, Watson Bard started to make a note, and then paused; in fact,Watson Bard did not complete his note until he had gotten a peep intothe notebook of Barton Ward. The notes made, the three detectives oncemore smiled craftily at each other, and Wilton Barnstable resumed:
"We knew, of course, that another lady was also following Lady Agatha.But, until the present moment, we had not identified her with MissPringle. And I should not be at all surprised, not at ALL surprised,if still another person had been following Miss Pringle."
"With what object?" asked Miss Pringle, looking alarmed at the idea.
"The motive, my dear lady, I must for the present withhold," saidWilton Barnstable. And again the three detectives exchanged knowingglances.
"Reginald Maltravers' pursuit of you, Lady Agatha, led him toFairport," went on the great sleuth. "No doubt he met the driver ofthe vehicle which brought you hither, and learned that you and Elmerhad been set down in this neighborhood, just as Miss Pringle learnedit. No doubt it was well after dark when he arrived in the vicinity ofthe Jasper B. And it is to be supposed that, once out here, he went toMorris's road house, thinking it quite likely that you and Elmer wouldstop there, as he had been tracking you from road house to road house.Logan Black, knowing that the authorities were on his trail, mistookReginald Maltravers for a detective, and held him prisoner at Morris's.Logan Black's men took away his clothes in order to minimize thepossibility of his escape."
"And the Earl of Claiborne's signet ring----" began Cleggett.
"Of course, Reginald Maltravers was wearing it, and of course they tookhis valuables from him," said Barnstable. "One of the ruffians waswearing the ring as he approached your vessel with a bomb. But, Mr.Cleggett, there are points about that bomb explosion which I do notunderstand."
"Nor I," admitted Cleggett.
"We will clear them up later," said the great detective, smilingbenignly at his thumbs, which he was revolving slowly about each otheras he reconstructed the case.
"Later!" smiled Barton Ward. "Later!" murmured Watson Bard. With theirhands clasped over their stomachs, they, too, benignly twirled theirthumbs.
"Tonight," pursued Barnstable, "having finally got all the informationI wished from Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat with regard to Logan Black,I tossed them the key to their irons and told them to unlock themselvesand clear out. It was just before the storm began, and they weresitting on the bank of the canal at the time. I allowed them to sitthere in the evenings and get the fresh air.
"But before they could unlock themselves Reginald Maltravers, who had,we must suppose, escaped from Morris's through the carelessness of oneof Logan Black's subordinates, crawled up the bank of the canal, whichhe had swum, and made for the two gunmen, with the water dripping fromhis eyeglass. He had recognized them as the men who had dogged andassaulted him, and every other idea was obliterated in his desire forvengeance.
"They fled. He pursued. He caught them, and they fought. Theysucceeded in dropping one of the iron balls on his foot--on his bunionfoot, Mr. Cleggett--crippling him."
As this mention of the bunion, Miss Genevive Pringle arose withdignity, and, flinging a shawl about her shoulders, left the cabin,chin in air. She did not vouchsafe so much as one backward glance atCleggett or the three detectives or lady Agatha as she left, butoutraged propriety was expressed in every line of her figure.
"H'm," mused the detective, flushing slightly; and Watson Bard andBarton Ward also colored a little, and looked hack
ed. They glancedfurtively at Lady Agatha, to see if she too might be offended.
"Proceed, Mr. Barnstable," she said a little impatiently. "Bunionsdon't bother me, either mentally or physically. I am familiar with theidea of bunions. There are many bunions in the Claiborne family."
"On his bunion foot, crippling him," resumed the detective, reassured."The storm came up, and still the gunmen fled, and still ReginaldMaltravers pursued. I suppose, since you saw them on the west side ofthe canal, Mr. Cleggett, that they had run around the north end of it.Probably, while you and Logan Black were fighting, they were running upand down in the neighborhood, in the storm, intent only upon their ownfeud."
"They certainly seemed exhausted when I saw them," said Cleggett, "allthree of them. But if you will permit me to say so, the astutenesswith which you are reconstructing this case compels my admiration."
Wilton Barnstable bowed, and Barton Ward and Watson Bard slightlyinclined their heads.
"Your skill," said Lady Agatha, "is equal to that of Sherlock Holmes."
At the name of Sherlock Holmes a shade passed over the face of WiltonBarnstable. He slightly compressed his lips, and his eyebrows went upa fraction of an inch. This shade was reflected on the faces of BartonWard and Watson Bard. There was a moment of silence, but presentlyWilton Barnstable continued, repressing a sigh:
"I thought at first, Mr. Cleggett, that you were an ally of LoganBlack's, just as you believed me to be his ally, and as he believed youand me to be working together. It may interest you to know thatsmuggling has been one of his side lines. There is, somewherehereabouts, a cave in which smuggled goods are stored. These coastshave a sinister history, Mr. Cleggett. It is possible that your canalboat--I beg your pardon, your schooner, Mr. Cleggett--played some partin their smuggling operations. At any rate it is evident that LoganBlack transferred to the hold of this vessel the incriminating evidenceagainst him, contained in that oblong box, when he learned that myagents were watching Morris's. The Jasper B. has been lying in herpresent position for a long time. In the event that a sudden get-awayfrom Morris's became necessary, it was an advantage to Logan Black tobe able to leave without being hampered with this matter. No one, formany years, had paid any attention to the Jasper B., with the exceptionof the old truck farmer, Abernethy, who used sometimes to fish from herdeck, and----"
"Truck farmer!" cried Cleggett. "Abernethy?"
"Truck farmer," repeated Wilton Barnstable.
"Is not Abernethy an old sea captain?" asked Cleggett.
"Why, no, I believe not," said Barnstable. "At least I never heard so.He is well known as a small truck gardener in this neighborhood. It istrue that he comes of a seafaring family--indeed, it is his boast.But, in a community where nearly everyone knows a little about boats, Ibelieve that Abernethy is remarkable for an indisposition to venturefar from shore."
"I can scarcely believe it," breathed Cleggett.
"He does not understand boats," said Barnstable. "That is the reason, Itake it, why he has always fished in the canal from the deck of theJasper B."
"Abernethy is a gallant man," said Cleggett, rather sternly. "And evenalthough he may have had little actual seafaring experience, theinstinct is in him! The inherited love of a nautical life has beenlatent in him all along. And at the first opportunity it has come out.He has shown his mettle aboard the Jasper B."
"I do not doubt it, if you insist upon it," said Wilton Barnstable,politely. And from revolving his thumbs benignly towards himself hebegan to revolve them urbanely from himself. The reversal was imitatedat once by Barton Ward, but Watson Bard was slower in putting this newcoup into execution.
"The resemblance between the two oblong boxes evidently fooled LoganBlack," continued Barnstable, "and his men stole the wrong one, but heknows by this time that his plan to get the box has failed."
"He knows it?" said Cleggett.
"From the bank of the canal he witnessed our capture of the box, and ofthe two men who were making off with it. After you had beaten off hisassault upon the ship, he turned his attention to the canal, to see ifthe men whom he had assigned to the job of creeping over the stern ofthe Jasper B. had by any chance succeeded in purloining the box. Hewas alone, but he attempted to come to the assistance of his twofollowers even as we made them prisoners. In fact, we exchanged shots."
The great detective made little of the danger he had encountered.
Indeed, his smile became one of amusement as he removed his coat,rolled up his shirt sleeves, and exhibited a bandaged wound in thefleshy part of his arm.
"It is only a slight wound," he said, beaming on it as if wounds werequite delightful affairs, "and scarcely inconveniences me."
Barton Ward and Watson Bard, with their sleeves rolled up, were alsosmiling placidly and indulgently at bandages about their left arms.Whether there were real wounds beneath their bandages also, Cleggettcould not determine. The bandage of Barton Ward was slightly stainedwith red, but the bandage of Watson Bard was quite white. All threereplaced their coats at the same time, and Wilton Barnstable went on:
"Our course of procedure is plain, Mr. Cleggett. We have the evidenceagainst Logan Black. We must have the man himself. I depend upon youto cooperate with me. I think," he said, beaming at Barton Ward andWatson Bard with an air of modest triumph, "that the case of LoganBlack is going to prove one of my really GREAT cases.
"There is only one point which I have not yet made clear to you, Ibelieve--and that is how Logan Black's men were able to enter and leavethe hold of your vessel so mysteriously. But I am shaping up my theoryabout that! I am shaping it up!"
"Would it be indescreet to inquire just what your theory is?" askedCleggett.
And Lady Agatha murmured:
"For my part, I can make nothing of it, and I should be glad to hearyour theory."
"It would," said Wilton Barnstable, soberly, "it would be premature, ifI told you my theory at the present moment. You must pardon me--but itWOULD. In my line of business--and I insist, Mr. Cleggett, that I am aplain business man, nothing more--I find it absolutely necessary not tocommunicate all my information to the layman until the case is quiteperfect in all its points. But do not get the notion, Mr. Cleggett,that I underestimate the part that you have taken in the case of LoganBlack. You have helped me, Mr. Cleggett. When I have my secretaryprepare the case of Logan Black for magazine and newspaper publicationI shall have your name mentioned as that of a person who has helped me.Yes, you have helped me."
As he spoke he picked from a reading table a magazine, on the cover ofwhich appeared his own portrait--or rather, the portrait of the popularconception of Wilton Barnstable--and began to make motions about itwith his finger. He appeared to be marking off the space beside theportrait into an arrangement of letters and spaces. His lips moved ashe did so; he murmured: "The Case of Logan Black--the Case of LoganBlack!" He seemed to see, with the eye of a typographical expert, thelegend printed there. Barton Ward and Watson Bard, slightly flushed anda little excited in spite of themselves, seemed also to see it there.
It might have occurred to a person more critical than Cleggett that itwas he himself who had furnished nearly all the real evidence uponwhich Wilton Barnstable was constructing this Case of Logan Black. ButCleggett looked for the gold in men, not the dross; the great qualitiesof Wilton Barnstable appealed to his imagination; the best in Cleggettresponded to the best in Wilton Barnstable; if the detective possesseda certain amount of vanity, Cleggett preferred to overlook it.
"Decidedly," said Wilton Barnstable, laying down the magazine, andlooking at Cleggett kindly and serenely, "I shall see to it that yourname is mentioned in connection with the Case of Logan Black." AndBarton Ward and Watson Bard also bent upon him their bland and friendlyregard.
Cleggett was about to thank them, but at that moment there was acommotion of some sort on deck.
Two female voices, one of which they all recognized as that of MissGenevieve Pringle, were mingling in a babble of
greeting,expostulation, interjection, and explanation, and presently MissPringle entered the cabin, followed by a younger lady who, except forher youth, looked much like her.
"My niece, Miss Henrietta Pringle, of Flatbush," said Miss Pringle,primly presenting her prim relation. "She has just arrived----"
"With the plum preserves!" cried Lady Agatha.
"With the plum preserves," confirmed Miss Genevieve Pringle.
And Captain Abernethy and George the Greek bore into the cabin a thirdoblong box, exactly similar in appearance to the box of ReginaldMaltravers and the box which contained the evidence against LoganBlack, and set it on the floor.
The three detectives stood and looked at the three boxes with an air ofgreat satisfaction.
"With this addition to our oblong boxes," said Wilton Barnstable,"their number is now complete. Miss Henrietta Pringle, we will listento your story."
There was little to tell, and Miss Henrietta Pringle told it in abreath. Having received no acknowledgment of the receipt of the plumpreserves from her aunt, an unusual oversight on her aunt's part, shehad journeyed to Newark with a vague fear that there might be somethingwrong.
"Arrived in Newark," she said, "I learned that my aunt, with her twowhite horses and her family carriage driven by Jefferson, the negrocoachmen, had suddenly left Newark, without giving any explanation toanyone, or making her destination known.
"The proceeding was very strange; it was very unlike my aunt, and I wasfrightened. Everyone who had seen her start testified that she waslaboring under a great nervous strain of some sort.
"I called at the freight depot and got the box of plum preserves whichI had shipped to her. To tell the truth, I feared for her reason. Ithought that if I could find her, and could show her the familiar plumpreserves, which she loved so well, they would be of materialassistance in influencing her to return to her home. So, setting outto search for her in my Ford auto, I took the box of plum preserveswith me.
"I soon got upon her trail. The negro coachman, the family carriageand the white horses had excited remark everywhere. Briefly, I tracedher here, and am happy to discover that my worst fears with regard toher have proved false."
"Henrietta," said her aunt, reproachfully, "your fears do you verylittle credit, or me either."
"Aunt Genevieve," said the niece, "pray, do not rebuke me."
"I was certain," said Wilton Barnstable, complacently, "that it woulddevelop that Miss Genevieve Pringle was herself being pursued. I wasconfident of it, Cleggett. And now that I have cleared up for you themystery of Logan Black, the mystery of the box of Reginald Maltravers,and the mystery of the box of plum preserves, there only remains thecapture of Logan Black to hold me in this part of the country and tokeep you from your voyage to the China Seas."
"We must get together," said Cleggett, "on a plan of campaign. LoganBlack will certainly attack again. He has only been beaten offtemporarily. In the meanwhile, it is almost breakfast time."
And, indeed, the lights in the cabin were suddenly growing pale. Thesun was rising. Its beams, shining through the cabin skylight, fellupon the three great detectives, each one of whom, with an air ofineffable satisfaction, was gloating--but gloating urbanely and withdignity--over an oblong box.