CHAPTER XV
THE PLOT
We had been able to secure a key to the hotel entrance of the OldTavern, so that we felt free to come and go at any hour of the day ornight. We let ourselves in and mounted the stairs cautiously to ourroom.
"At least they haven't discovered anything, yet," Garrick congratulatedhimself, looking about, as I struck a light, and finding everything aswe had left it.
Late as it was, he picked up the detective receiver of the mechanicaleavesdropper and held it to his ears, listening intently severalmoments.
"There's someone in the garage, all right," he exclaimed. "I can hearsounds as if he were moving about among the cars. It must be the garagekeeper himself--the one they call the Boss. I don't think our cleverChief would have the temerity to show up here yet, even at this hour."
We waited some time, but not the sound of a voice came from theinstrument.
"It would be just like them to discover one of these detectaphones,"remarked Garrick at length. "This is a good opportunity. I believe I'lljust let myself down there in the yard again and separate those twowires, further. There's no use in risking all the eggs in one basket."
While I listened in, Garrick cautiously got out the rope ladder anddescended. Through the detectaphone I could hear the noise of the manwalking about the garage and was ready at the window to give Garrickthe first alarm of danger if he approached the back of the shop, butnothing happened and he succeeded in accomplishing his purpose offurther hiding the two wires and returning safely. Then we resumedlistening in relays.
It was early in the morning when there came a telephone call to thegarage and the garage keeper answered it.
"Where did you go afterward?" he asked of the man who was calling him.
Garrick had quickly shifted to the instrument by which we couldoverhear what was said over the telephone.
A voice which I recognised instantly as that of the man they called theChief replied, "Oh, I had a little business to attend to--youunderstand. Say, they got that fire out pretty quickly, didn't they?How do you suppose the alarm could have been turned in so soon?"
"I don't know. But they tell me that Garrick and that other fellow withhim showed up, double quick. He must have been wise to something."
"Yes. Do you know, I've been thinking about that ever since. Ever hearof a little thing called a detectaphone? No? Well, it's a littlearrangement that can be concealed almost anywhere. I've been wonderingwhether there might not be one hidden about your garage. He might haveput one in that night, you know. I'm sure he knows more about us thanhe has any right to know. Hunt around there, will you, and see if youcan find anything?"
"Hold the wire."
We could hear the Boss poking around in corners, back of the piles ofaccessories, back of the gasoline tank, lifting things up and lookingunder them, apparently flashing his light everywhere so that nothingcould escape him.
A hasty exclamation was recorded faithfully over our detectaphone,close to the transmitter, evidently.
"What the deuce is this?" growled a voice.
Then over the telephone we could hear the Boss talking.
"There's a round black thing back of a pile of tires, with a wireconnected to it. One side of it is full of little round holes. Is thatone of those things?"
"Yes," came back the voice, "that's it." Then excitedly, "Smash it! Cutthe wires--no, wait--look and see where they run. I thought you'd findsomething. Curse me for a fool for not thinking of that before."
Garrick had quickly himself detached the wire from the receivinginstrument in our room and, sticking his head cautiously out of thewindow, he swung the cut ends as far as he could in the direction of abig iron-shuttered warehouse down the street in the opposite directionfrom us.
Then he closed the window softly and pulled down the switch on theother detectaphone connected with the fake telephone receiver.
He smiled quietly at me. The thing worked still. We had one connectionleft with the garage, anyway.
There was a noise of something being shattered to bits. It was theblack disc back of the pile of tires. We could hear the Boss mutteringto himself.
"Say," he reported back over the telephone, "I've smashed the thing,all right, and cut the wires, too. They ran out of the back window tothat mercantile warehouse, down the street, I think. I'll look afterthat in the morning. It's so dark over there now I can't see a thing."
"Good!" exclaimed the other voice with satisfaction. "Now we can talk.That fellow Garrick isn't such a wise guy, after all. I tell you, Boss,I'm going to throw a good scare into them this time--one that willstick."
"What is it?"
"Well, I got Warrington, didn't I?"
"Yes."
"You know I can't always be following that fellow, Garrick. He's tooclever at dodging shadows. Besides, unless we give him something elseto think about he may get a line on one of us,--on me. Don't youunderstand? Warrington's out of it for the present. I saw to that. Now,the thing is to fix up something to call them off, altogether,something that we can use to hold them up."
"Yes--go on--what?"
"Why--how about Violet Winslow?"
My heart actually skipped beating for a second or two as I realised theboldness and desperation of the plan.
"What do you mean--a robbery up there in Tuxedo?"
"No, no, no. What good would a robbery do? I mean to get her--kidnapher. I guess Warrington would call the whole thing off to releaseher--eh?"
"Say, Chief, that's going it pretty strong. I'd rather break in upthere and leave a threat of some kind, something that would frightenthem. But, this,--I'm afraid--"
"Afraid--nothing. I tell you, we've got to do it. They're getting tooclose to us. We've either got to get Garrick or do something that'llcall him off for good. Why, man, the whole game is up if he keeps onthe way he has been going--let alone the risk we have of gettingcaught."
The Boss seemed to be considering.
"How will you get a chance to do it?" he asked at length.
"Oh, I'll get a chance, all right. I'll make a chance," came back theself-confident reply.
It sent a shiver through me merely to contemplate what might happen ifViolet Winslow fell into such hands. Mentally I blessed Garrick for hisforethought in having the phony 'phone in the garage against possiblediscovery of the detective instrument.
"You know this poisoned needle stuff that's been in the papers?"pursued the Chief.
"Bunk--all bunk," came back the Boss promptly.
"Is that so?" returned the Chief. "Well, you're right about it as faras what has been in the papers is concerned. I don't know but I doubtabout ninety-nine and ninety-nine hundredths per cent of it, too. But,I'll tell you,--it can be done. Take it from me--it can be done. I'vegot one of the best little sleepmakers you ever saw--right from Paris,too. There, what do you know about that?"
I glanced hastily, in alarm, at Garrick. His face was set in hardlines, as he listened.
"Sleepmaker--Paris," I heard him mutter under his breath, and just aflicker of a smile crossed the set lines of his fine face.
"Yes, sir," pursued the voice of the Chief, "I can pull one of thosepoisoned needle cases off and I'm going to do it, if I get half achance."
"When would you do it?" asked the Boss, weakening.
"As soon as I can. I've a scheme. I'm not going to tell you over thewire, though. Leave it to me. I'm going up to our place, where I leftthe car. I'll study the situation out, up there. Maybe I'll run overand look over the ground, see how she spends her time and all that sortof thing. I've got to reckon in with that aunt, too. She's a Tartar.I'll let you know. In the meantime, I want you to watch that place onForty-seventh Street. Tell me if they make any move against it. Don'twaste any time, either. I can't be out of touch with things the way Iwas the last time I went away. You see, they almost put one across onus--in fact they did put one across with that detectaphone thing. Now,we can't let that happen again. Just keep me posted, see?"
They had fin
ished talking and that was apparently all we were to getthat night, or rather that morning, by way of warning of their plot forthe worst move yet.
It was enough. If they would murder and burn, what would they stop atin order to strike at us through the innocent figure of Violet Winslow?What might not happen to such a delicate slip of a girl in the power ofsuch men?
"At least," rapped out Garrick, himself smothering his alarm, "theycan't do anything immediately. It gives us time to prepare and warn.Besides, before that we may have them rounded up. The time has come forsomething desperate. I won't be trifled with any longer. This lastproposal goes just over the limit."
As for me, I was speechless. The events of the past two days, thealmost sleepless nights had sapped my energy. Even Garrick, though hewas a perfect glutton for work, felt the strain.
It was very late, or rather very early, and we determined to snatch afew moments of sleep at the Old Tavern before the rest of the worldawoke to the new day. It was only a couple of hours that we couldspare, but it was absolutely necessary.
In spite of our fatigue, we were up again early and after another tryat the phony 'phone which told us that only the men were working in thegarage, we were on our way up to Garrick's apartment.
We had scarcely entered when the telephone boy called up to say thatthere was a Mr. Warrington on long distance trying to get us. Garrickeagerly asked to have him put on our wire.
Warrington, it seemed, had been informed of the fire by one of hisagents and was inquiring anxiously for details, especially about theletter. Garrick quickly apologised for not calling up himself, andrelieved his anxiety by assuring him that the letter was safe.
"And how are you?" he asked of Warrington.
"Convalescing rapidly," laughed back the patient, to whom the loss ofanything was a mere bagatelle beside the letter. Garrick had not toldhim yet of the stealing of the other letters. "Getting alongfine,--thanks to a new tonic which Dr. Mead has prescribed for me."
"I can guess what it is."
Warrington laughed again. "Yes--I've been allowed to take short motortrips with Violet," he explained.
The natural manner in which "Violet" replaced "Miss Winslow" indicatedthat the trips had not been without result.
"Say, Warrington," burst out Garrick, seeing an opportunity ofintroducing the latest news, "I hate to butt in, but if you'll take myadvice, you'll just cut out those trips a few days. I don't want toalarm you unnecessarily, but after to-day I want Miss Winslow never tobe out of sight of friends--friends, I said; not one, but several."
"Why--what's the matter?" demanded Warrington in alarm.
"I can't explain it all over the telephone," replied Garrick, sketchingout hastily something of what we had overheard. "I'll try to see youbefore long--perhaps to-day. Don't forget. I want you to warn MissWinslow yourself. You can't put it too strongly. Use your judgmentabout Mrs. de Lancey. I don't want to get you in wrong with her. But,remember, it's a matter of life or death--or perhaps worse. Try to doit without unnecessarily alarming Miss Winslow, if you can. Just fix itup as quietly as possible. But be positive about it. No, I can'texplain more over the wire now. But--no more outings for either of you,and particularly Miss Winslow, until I raise the ban."
Warrington had been inclined to argue the matter at first, but Garrickof course quickly prevailed, the more so because Warrington realisedthat in his condition he was anything but an adequate body-guard forher if something unexpected should happen.
"Oh--I had a call the other day," reported Warrington as anafterthought before hanging up the receiver. "It was from McBirney. Hesays one of his unofficial scouts has told him of seeing a car thatmight have been mine up this way lately."
Garrick acquiesced to the information which, to us, was not new. "Yes,"he said, "there have been several such reports. And, by the way, thatreminds me of something. You will have to put at our disposal one ofyour cars down here."
"Go as far as you like. What do you want--a racer?"
"Why--yes, if it's in perfect condition. You see, we may have to dosome unexpected sleuthing in it."
"Go as far as you like," repeated Warrington, now thoroughly aroused bythe latest development of the case. "Spare nothing, Garrick--nothing.Curse my luck for being laid up! Every dollar I have is at yourdisposal, Garrick, to protect her from those scoundrels--damn them!"
"Trust me, Warrington," called back Garrick. "I give you my word thatit's my fight now."
"Garrick--you're a brick," came back Warrington as the conversationclosed.
"Good heavens, Guy," I exclaimed when he hung up the receiver aftercalling up Warrington's garage and finding out what cars wereavailable, "Are we going to have to extend operations over the wholeState, after all?"
"We may have to do almost anything," he replied, "if our scientificmurderer tries some of his smooth kidnapping tricks. It's possible thatMcBirney may be right about that car being up there. Certainly we knowthat it has been up there, whether it is now or not."
"And Herman wrong about its being in the city?" I suggested. "Well, oneguess is as good as another in a case like this, I suppose."
It had been a great relief to get back to our rooms and live even for afew minutes like civilised beings. I suggested that we might have areal breakfast once more.
I could tell, however, that Garrick's mind was far away from thethought of eating, and that he realised that a keen, perhaps thekeenest, test of his ability lay ahead of him, if he was to come outsuccessfully and protect Violet Winslow in the final battle with thescientific gunman. I did not interrupt him.