CHAPTER XVI--AN ACCEPTED ALLY
"Mr. Pape has been painting your picture with a brush dipped in colorsof the Yellowstone," observed Curtis Lauderdale as he sipped thefragrant amber brew which his daughter had poured and passed.
The girl flashed their guest an indignant glance. "Attacking dad at hisweakest point? For that I should paint him an awful picture of you."
"With a brush dipped in colors of the truth?"
At her threat and Pape's meek retort, the old man's eyes continued tobeam their way, as only sightless eyes can beam.
"You needn't, Jen-Jen. It doesn't matter what Mr. Pape looks like. Menshow less on the outside what they are than women. I'd rather see him ashe is inwardly. Already I know that he has both an imagination and asense of humor. And he is direct with the _skookum_ talk, which doesn'tlend to lies. As for his exterior, I imagine him as moderately sizeableand well-muscled and plain, or you wouldn't have brought him around."
"Immoderately plain," she corrected, still with a punishing air.
"Good. Then I've got him--" her parent with a chuckle. "Now it seems tome, if he's done for us all you say he has, that we owe him someexplanation."
At once Jane's quasi-disapproval of their quickly established fellowshipturned into real.
"Explanation has been our downfall, dad," she warned. "You know yourfailing. You trust too much and too soon. You seem to have got worseinstead of better--positively--since you went to the war."
"She's right, Mr. Lauderdale," Pape advised. "It is too soon to trust mein _skookum_ or any other foreign language. But you seem shy some sortof help which I'd like to supply if I can. Why waste time explaining?You're entitled--on face value, you know--to the best I can give.There'll be plenty of time to explain after we've horned off all thesenesters that seem to be rooting around your ranch."
"Another good quality--generosity," commented the older man in anargumentative way to his daughter. "Don't you think, dear, that it wouldbe safe enough to tell him a certain amount of the truth, even though heshould prove to be an active agent of our enemies? If on the other side,he'd know it anyhow. If on ours, he'd be at a serious disadvantagewithout some of the facts. We are in no position to despise an ally,Jane, and----"
Pape was determined that her confidence should not be forced, even byher father. He interrupted briskly:
"Which or whether, let me trust you folks first. I am almost as much astranger to you as you to me--and no more given to explanations than ouryoung friend here. I feel kind of called to tell you who I am and whyI'm stranded in this Far East of New York. You may scent something incommon in the sad little story of my life, for I, too, am on a stillhunt for an enemy or enemies unknown."
He offered his tea cup for a refilling, climbed to his feet and steadiedthe china across to the white marble mantelpiece. There he stood anddrank the beverage between the deliberate lines of his opening. He beganat the beginning--or thereabouts--of Peter Pape. Over the early days ofhis stock-raising struggle to those of comparative, present success onthe Queer Question Ranch he passed in fair style and with reasonablerapidity. Thence he slowed down to the near past and its sudden,oleaginous wealth.
As is so often the case in oil, he, as owner of the land, had been thelast to suspect the presence of this liquid "gold" beneath his acres.Only the fact that he loved his ranch and would not sell the heart of ithad saved him. Price proffers had risen slowly but surely until theyreached figures which caused him to suspect, not the worst, but thebest. He had drilled on a chance to a ceaseless flow of fortune.
His account carried its own conviction and fulfilled his preface exceptfor one point. Where had he any cause, in this generous deal of Fate, tobe resenting or seeking to punish enemies, unknown or otherwise? Theblind man pointed the omission.
"Notwithstanding the enough-and-to-spare that I've got, sir, they stungme, these sharpers, through a lot of poor folks who couldn't afford evena nettle prick. Before I got hep to what was up I had sold a small tractfor which I had no further use to an alleged student of agriculture whohad interested me in a new scheme for making alfalfa grow where nothingmuch ever had grown before. When my wells began to gush by fifties andhundreds of barrels, the backer of this fake farmer organized an oilcompany on the strength of his buy and floated stock right and left."
He paused to clinch and thump a fist upon the mantel-shelf; thenglowered unreasonably at the nervous quivers of the wax flowers withinthe glass case which formed its centerpiece.
"When widows with orphans from everywhere and some of my friends fromnearby cow-towns began to write and ask me about their promiseddividends--Well, folks, in time I got wisened to the fact that my namehad been used along with the fame of Queer Question production. I askedmyself a question that didn't sound as queer to me as to the bunch ofsharpers that I soon put it to. After I'd gathered them in and theFederal Court had helped me hand 'em what was over-due, I started on along, long trail after the big guy that had planned the crooked deal.I'm still stalking him. He's lurking down in that gulch of Wall Streetto-day or I'm clean off the trail. You see, friends, the Montana GusherOil Fields, Inc., hasn't even a smell of oil. When I find thepromoter----"
"Montana Gusher--was that the company's name?" Jane's interruption wasmore than interested; was voiced with suppressed excitement. She turnedtoward her father. "You remember my telling you of Aunt Helene's narrowescape from buying a block of worthless oil stock a year ago? She wasonly saved by----"
"Child, child, don't name names," the blind man reproved her. On hisface, however, was the reflex of her startled look.
"It's all right to say 'child, child,'" insisted the girl vehemently."You never would believe ill of any one until it was proved at yourexpense. Doesn't it strike you as strange that _he_ should have been theone to know all about these far-away oil fields without time forinvestigation--that _he_ was able to dissuade Auntie against the smootharguments of a salesman whose claim on him as a friend he hadacknowledged? Do you suppose the promoter of Montana Gusher could havebeen----"
"Wait, Jen-Jen. You'd better be sure before suggesting such a charge tothis young man. You can see that he is in earnest. If you should bewrong----"
"You're plumb right about my being in earnest," Pape cut in. "But I'mwilling to go into all details before asking you to name me that name. Ishouldn't have minded so much had it been my bank account that wastapped. What they did me out of, though, was the good-faith of myfriends and neighbors. When they made _me_ look like the robber ofwidows and orphans instead of themselves--Well, if ever I get a ropearound the scrub neck of that----"
On account of an interruption he did not finish the threat. A peculiarlytuneful auto siren sounded up from the street through the open windows.Jane got to her feet with such suddenness as to jeopard the entire Chinapopulation of the tea-table. She crossed to one of the windows; held theSwiss curtain before her face; looked out and down.
"I thought I couldn't be mistaken." Her report was low-spoken, buttense. "The Allen car has stopped in the street, across from the house."
"Not--Sam Allen couldn't have found me over here?" The blind man alsoarose. With hands out, he swayed after her. "You must be mistaken, Jane.Look again!"
"How could I be mistaken? They are out of the car now. They're lookingat the house number. What--_what_ can this mean?"
Jane drew in from the window; leveled upon her parent a look of acutealarm; saw and remembered Pape. With an attempt at naturalness sheexplained:
"Mr. Allen was my father's lawyer and one of his oldest friends. We aresurprised by this visit because he isn't supposed to know even that dadis alive, let alone his address in New York."
"You said 'they,' Jane," her father puzzled. "Who else----"
"Mills Harford is with him."
The old man seemed shaken anew. "How could Harford know that we're hereunless Jasper----"
"No, dad, not Jasper. He is faithful as the moon. You know that. Itstrikes me as more possible that--" In a return rush of suspicion shefac
ed the Westerner. "Mr. Pape met both Mills and Judge Allen at theopera and later at Aunt Helene's. He is the only person who, to myknowledge, has discovered my disguise and our whereabouts."
Pape returned her look steadily and rather resentfully. "That is true,Miss Lauderdale. But I have had no communication with either of themsince, although I did visit both their offices with the hope of locatingyou. Only yesterday I was told that Harford was out of town."
The blind man threw up his hands intolerantly. "Out of town, was he, andleaving a love-letter a day at the Sturgis house for Jasper to deliver,all written at his club? Do you think that hare-hound would go out oftown so long as he suspects that Jane is in it? What are they doingnow?"
"Crossing straight toward our steps--" the girl in low, quick tones fromthe window. "Judge Allen probably recognizes the house, despite itscondition. He was here several times in granddad's day. He won't have toask the way up."
"But, Jane, they mustn't come up here--mustn't get in. What shall wedo?"
"I don't know, dad. Let me think. Meantime you, Mr. Pape----"
Again the Westerner heard that persistent suspicion of him in her voiceand saw that she had whipped from out her blouse a very small, veryblack, very competent-looking something which he was glad to know shewore.
"You are not to show your face at the window and you are not to crossthe room when they knock," she told him. "If you so much as cough----"
Pape eyed her interestedly and decided that she meant the impliedthreat. The puzzle of the Lauderdales, far from being solved, wasgrowing more intricate. Why should these two delightful and, he feltsure, innocent persons so fear the prospective visit--the old man fromhis lawyer and friend, his daughter from the personable and wealthyyoung real-estater whom Irene Sturgis had declared to be her most ardentsuitor? Truly, the case was one for a show of blind, dumb and deaffaith.
The increase of tension as heavy steps began to scroop up the stairsseemed to emanate from the figure of Jane Lauderdale. Straight andstrong she stood in the center of the room, her face more marble-likethan the mantel. Her head was thrown up in an attitude of alertlistening. The black something in her right hand continued to commandthe suspect of circumstance.
He, although in a somewhat easy attitude, demonstrated that he knew howto behave when "covered." He did not so much as glance toward thewindow. And he showed no tendency to cough. His one deflection was ascarcely audible whisper.
"If I should have to sneeze, you won't shoot me, Jane? If you do, you'llmiss a lot of love."
At the first light rap on the door, Lauderdale's knees seemed to weakenand he sat down upon one end of the Davenport. The younger pairstiffened; held their breath; eyed each other.
A second knock sounded, then a more imperative third. An advisorydiscussion outside, too low-voiced for intelligibility, ended in afourth demand for admittance, knuckled to carry to the rear of the houseand waken any sleeper within.
At each repetition the blind man had shuddered and gripped harder thearm of the Davenport. Now he flung out a summoning hand toward hisdaughter. She, with her trio of eyes on their silent guest--her ownblazing blue pair and the single black one of the gun--crossed and bentto her father's rasp:
"If they should force the lock--should batter down the door----"
Jane made no attempt to reassure him. At a step toward them of thestranger she retraced her steps and gestured him back with the pistol,silently but most significantly.
Pape, the while, threw a trusting smile into the three eyes, then strodestraight toward them. Close to Jane's ear he whispered:
"You won't shoot me. You can't. You'd lose too much good faith."
Despite her outraged gasp, he continued toward the door that was beingimportuned. Another smile he threw over-shoulder to reassure her of hisconfidence.
And Jane didn't shoot. Probably she couldn't. No report shocked the air.Nothing sounded except a gruff demand from the inner side of the door.
"Who's there? Wha'd'you want?"
From outside: "Old friends. We wish to see Miss Lauderdale."
"_Who_?"
"Lauderdale--Miss Lau-der-dale."
"Who in holy Hemlock directed you here, then? My name ain't Lauderdale.Never will be. Stop the noise, will you?"
There ensued further low-voiced consultation without. A moment laterfootsteps began a descent of the stairs. Scroop ... screak ... screech.
Not until the musical siren announced the departure from the block ofthe would-be visitors, did Pape relax from his listening attitude at thedoor. On turning he saw that Jane, too, had slumped, limp and white,into a chair, the very black and ominous something with which she hadthreatened him dropped into her lap. A look half-dazed, yet whollyhopeful was on her face.
"Thank Heaven--thank you, Peter Pape--they've gone!"
"But they'll come back." Her father's voice echoed none of her relief."Allen and Harford must have reason to suspect that you, at least, arehere in the old house. Otherwise they'd not have come. If my presence,too, is suspected, it won't be long until that other pack comes to houndme down. Jane, you can't go on with this search, vital though it be.Come what may, you shan't be sacrificed. It's no business for a girlalone and unprotected. We'll have to give it all up, dear. I'll go awaysomewhere--anywhere."
"But Jane ain't alone and unprotected." Pape crossed the room and facedthem both. "Looks clear enough to me why I sloped out of the West andinto the far East just in the nick o' time. I'm hoping the reason willsoon get clear to you."
The girl's lips moved, although she did not speak. She looked and lookedat him. Her father, unable to see, worded the demand of her eyes.
"Exactly what do you mean, Mr. Pape? What do you offer and why?"
"_Why_? Why not?" he asked in turn. "From this moment on, just as fromthe same back to that Zaza night, I am at Miss Lauderdale's service. Ihave a trusty bit of hardware myself--" in substantiation he drew fromsomewhere beneath his coat a blue-black revolver of heavy caliber--"andI am not so slow on the draw as some. If this pack you say is trailingyou is determined to get itself shot up, it would be better for me to doit than for her, wouldn't it? And while we're waiting for the mix-up, Icould dig for whatever it is she is looking for. Oh, you needn't tell mewhat that is! I've worked blind before. You folks just tell me when andwhere to dig and I'll _dig_!"
The girl turned to her parent. "I think, after all, I'll tell Mr.Pape----"
"I think it is time--high time, Jane." He nodded in vehement approval.
Rising, she faced their guest; spoke rapidly, although in a thinkingway.
"You've earned the partial confidence that dad wished to give you,Why-Not Pape. This old house belonged to my grandfather. He greweccentric in later life. The more this East Side section ran down, thetighter he clung to it. Toward the end, he fitted up this top-floor flatfor himself and rented out the others. From sentiment my father didn'tsell the house, although we could have used the money. We are not richlike the Sturgis branch of the family."
"That is, we are not unless----"
"I am getting to that, dad." With a shadow of her former frown, Jane cutoff her parent's interruption. "My grandfather's other particular hauntwas Central Park. He knew it from Scholars Gate at Fifty-ninth and Fifthto Pioneers at the farther northwest corner. He played croquet withother 'old boys' on the knoll above the North Meadow, sailed miniatureyachts for silver cups on Conservatory Lake and helped the predecessorsof Shepherd Tom tend their flocks on The Green. He had an eccentric'sdistrust of banks and deposit vaults and chose a spot in the park as thesecret repository for the most valuable thing he had to leave behindhim. The only key to the exact spot is a cryptogram which he worked outand by which he expected my father to locate his inheritance."
Pape filled the pause which, evidently, was for the weighing of furtherinformation. "So this cryptogram or map was in the stolen heirloomsnuff-box the night that I--that we----"
"Yes. My grandfather, on his death bed, tried to tell me where he hadhidden it, but he
waited a moment too long. For years father and Ihunted in vain. Not until the other day--the day of the night on whichyou and I met, Peter Pape--did I come upon it quite by accident in theattic space of this house. It was in the old snuff-box. I took both toAunt Helene's that night, hoping to find time to study and decipher it.And I did read it through several times, memorizing a verse or two of itand some of the figures before the opera. I asked my aunt to put the boxin her safe, not telling her its contents. The rest you know."
Although Pape felt the danger of his "little knowledge," he drove noprod; simply waited for her to volunteer.
"A number of people knew of our long search for grandfather's coveredmap, among them an enemy through whom we have been deprived, but whosename we do not know. How he could have been informed just when I foundor where I placed it, I cannot conceive. Possibly the safe has beenunder periodic search, although we never suspected. Possibly some onewithin the house is in the employ of this unknown enemy and saw me giveit to my aunt for deposit or heard that I had turned over some valuable.I was unforgivably careless."
"An inside job?" Pape queried. "I thought so."
"But not through Jasper--I'd stake anything on that!" the girlexclaimed. "He was our own butler in better days and is loyal, I know.Since that disastrous night, I've been trying to work out the verses ofthe crypt from memory before its present possessor would get the key toa translation. 'To whispers of poplars four' was the second line of oneof the verses. That is why----"
The rising of Curtis Lauderdale interrupted her. He crossed, with anervous clutch on this chair and that, to where Pape stood in the room'scenter.
"There's very great need of haste," he said. "Now that they are watchingJane's movements--Since they've trailed her here--Mr. Pape, I cannotafford to mistrust you, even were I inclined to do so. My dear girl hereblames me for trusting people, but since I must trust her to some one,I'd rather it should be you. I accept and hold you to your offer to seeher safely through to-night. Much more than you could imagine hangs inthe balance. This may be our last chance."
"I never acknowledge any chance as the last until success, sir." Papeagain grasped the forward fluttering right of the blind man. His lefthand he extended to the girl. "I'll try to deserve your father'sconfidence--and yours, Jane."
"Near the four poplars, then, at dusk," she consented.
Also she gave him a smile, all the lovelier for its faintness andrarity.
That moment of au revoir, in which they formed a complete circle, palmsto palms, Pape felt to be his initiation into what was to him a divinetriumvirate. "At dusk!" There was nothing--quite nothing which he couldnot accomplish for the common, if still unknown cause that night, then,at dusk.