XVIII
"Bless me!" Mr. Kingley stared unbelievingly into Joe Cary's excitedface. "Queen Teresa kidnaped? Nonsense, Cary! Such things aren't done inWaloo in broad daylight. You say it's true? What a story! I must haveGray telephone the _Gazette_ that we have a front page story for them.Bless me!"
"Never mind the publicity end of this now, Mr. Kingley!" exclaimed Joe,so disgusted that he could scarcely speak calmly. "Let's think of Tessiefirst and the Evergreen second for a change."
Mr. Kingley opened his mouth to say that the Evergreen must always comefirst, and people, no matter who they were, second, but as he looked atJoe, he suddenly decided that some explanations were better left unmade.
"The little queen is all right!" he insisted instead. "Of course she is!This is Waloo, the United States, not a savage island. Nothing couldhappen to Miss Gilfooly in Waloo. She's all right! What makes you thinkshe was kidnaped? Who kidnaped her? Where was that frizzle-headedbodyguard? Why wasn't he on his job?" He shot the questions, one afteranother at Joe, and then was impatient because they were not answered.
"You forget that Ka-kee-ta disappeared first," Joe said, as quietly ashe could when he was so full of disgust and impatience. "Tessie wastrying to find him when she was carried off. I don't know who did it,but I'd be willing to bet that a tow-headed man with a big nose had ahand in it--a big hand!" He looked keenly at Mr. Kingley, as hedescribed the man he thought had had a hand in kidnaping Tessie.
Mr. Kingley snorted contemptuously. "Bets won't get you anywhere," hesaid scornfully. "What you want are a few facts. Do you know where shewas and what she was doing when she was kidnaped?"
"Her brother Johnny saw her get into a car, and as soon as the door wasshut, the car dashed up the street and around a corner."
Mr. Kingley rubbed his hands together and nodded approvingly. "Nowyou're talking. You show you have something to work with. I don'tsuppose you have the number of the car?" There was considerablesuperiority in his voice because, of course, Joe did not have thenumber.
"Yes, I have! And a description, too. The car was a dark blue limousineand its license number was 13,023!" He moved closer to Mr. Kingley andeyed him oddly, but Mr. Kingley did not become at all excited when heheard the license number.
"13,023," he repeated slowly. "Well, have you found whose car that is?It seems simple enough now, Cary. Whose car is it?"
Joe looked at him. Was it possible that he didn't know whose car borethe license number 13,023? Joe watched him like a hawk as he told himwhose car it was.
"The car is listed," he said slowly, "as belonging to Mr. W. A.Kingley--Mr. William A. Kingley!"
"No!" exclaimed Mr. William A. Kingley in a surprise that seemedgenuine, although Joe could not believe that any man would be ignorantof the license number of his own car. "It can't be!"
"Owner of the Evergreen," went on Joe, with a thump on the table todrive the fact home.
"It's been stolen!" declared Mr. Kingley excitedly. "My car has beenstolen! I don't know a thing about this! I don't even believe it!" heexclaimed shrilly.
"When I got the information from the police," Joe told him slowly, "Itelephoned to your house to learn if your car was there."
"And it was!" insisted Mr. Kingley, leaning forward in his big chair."Of course it was!"
"It was not!" Mr. Kingley sank back with a groan. "And your chauffeurwas found in the garage, tied and gagged!"
"Bless me!" In the face of such facts Mr. Kingley could only stammer andsputter. "Who could--who could--who found him?" he demanded sharply.
"Your daughter telephoned to the garage for the car, and when it wasn'tbrought around, she went herself to see what was the matter. She foundthe chauffeur on the floor tied and gagged."
"But what did he say? What did he say?" Mr. Kingley had jumped up fromhis big chair and was tramping up and down the office with quick excitedsteps.
"He said he had the car all ready to drive out, when two men came in andthreatened him with a gun. They gagged him, tied him up and drove thecar out of the garage. He didn't know either of them, he said. Never sawthem before. They were both masked, but he thought one of them, atleast, was a Jap." He stopped and looked at Mr. Kingley significantly.
"A Jap!" repeated Mr. Kingley aghast. He stared at Joe, and he triedwith all of his might to understand what Joe so plainly wanted him tounderstand. "I never employed a Jap in my life," he said hurriedly. "Notin any capacity!"
"Didn't you?" questioned Joe, with even more of that puzzlingsignificance.
"A Jap kidnaping the Queen of the Sunshine Islands," Mr. Kingley saidslowly. His eyes brightened. "Such pub--I mean," as he caught theindignant flash in Joe's eyes--"I mean, I hope it won't lead to anyinternational complication."
"I hope not," agreed Joe, wishing he could raise the top of Mr.Kingley's head, with its shining scalp and fringe of pepper-and-salthair, and take a look at his mental machinery. "You can't tell meanything more then, Mr. Kingley? You don't know anything about this?"His eyes seemed to be boring into Mr. Kingley's very soul.
"Know? How should I know anything?" demanded Mr. Kingley, and he lookedinsulted.
"Several little things made me think that possibly you might know moreabout the Sunshine Islands and their queen than you admit," Joe told himwith more of that disagreeable significance. "Maybe you know more aboutthe Sons of Sunshine than I do," he added, as Mr. Kingley turned awaywith a muttered exclamation.
"Yes, yes," he said hastily. "Bill told me about them, that they hadthreatened to make trouble for Miss Gilfooly. I told Bill then that sheshould ask for police protection, but Bill laughed at me and saidKa-kee-ta with his ax was worth a platoon of police."
"I thought you would know about them," Joe went on completely ignoringwhat Mr. Bill said. "And perhaps you know about the specialrepresentative--I believe his name is Pitts? The Sons of Sunshineclaimed they had him a prisoner."
"I don't know a word about him!" Mr. Kingley seemed pained to hear thatJoe thought that he did. "I don't see why you come here, Cary, and talkto me as if I were implicated in this kidnaping. Why aren't you runningdown this clue you have? Did Ethel telephone to the insurance company?Who got the number anyway? Are you sure that it's correct?"
"I'm sure. Johnny Gilfooly took the number, and he's a Boy Scout andtrained to observe."
"Why wasn't he looking after his sister? Aren't Boy Scouts trained totake care of their sisters?" Mr. Kingley sounded quite as unreasonableas he looked.
"Tessie sent him into the Bon Bon Box for some chocolates----"
"Then he didn't see his sister kidnaped?" Mr. Kingley interruptedquickly.
"Yes, he did. He was just coming out when he saw Tessie get into thecar. It dashed away, but not before he had snatched his pencil from hispocket and written the number on the box of candy. He did itmechanically, and when Tessie didn't come home, we were glad he did.It's the only clue we have. It is mighty strange that she should havebeen carried away in your car, Mr. Kingley!" he insisted.
"Very, very strange," agreed Mr. Kingley with a frown. "And very strangethat I didn't hear about the car until you came in. Why didn't Etheltelephone to me?"
"Your line was busy. And Bill-- Where is your son Bill, Mr. Kingley?" heasked sharply.
"My son Bill! Why--why--" What on earth was Joe Cary driving at. Nowonder he stammered.
It seemed to Joe that he was just stammering to gain time.
"Yes, your son Bill!" he repeated sharply.
"What do you mean?" demanded Mr. Kingley.
"Just what I say. Where's young Bill Kingley?" insisted Joe, growingmore suspicious every minute.
"Who wants Bill Kingley?" asked a voice from the doorway, and Mr. Billhimself came in. He looked excited and worried. "I say, dad, have youheard? Queen Teresa has been kidnaped! We've got to find her! There arethree reporters out here."
"Reporters! Why should they come to me?" wondered Mr. Kingley, chafingunder the fiery gaze of Joe Cary.
"Tessie was carried off in your car," J
oe reminded him. "I should thinkthe police, as well as the reporters, would want to talk to you. TheQueen of the Sunshine Islands was found in the basement of your store,and now she has been carried off in your car. It sounds----"
"How!" interrupted Mr. Bill, stepping in front of his shrinking fatherand facing Joe. "How does it sound to you, Cary?" he asked thirstily.
"Queer!" Joe told him flatly. "Darned queer! But if you don't tell allyou know now, Mr. Kingley, you'll have to come through some day!" Heregarded Mr. Kingley with an odd combination of eager hope and hotdefiance. Would Mr. Kingley tell all he knew now?
But Mr. Kingley had stood all he was going to stand from Joe Cary."You--you--" he stammered furiously and had to stop for breath. "You'redischarged! Discharged! Do you hear? I won't let any employee talk to meas if I were a kidnaper and a thief!"
"Yes, you will!" Joe dared to say to his purple face. "Unless you proveyou aren't a kidnaper and a thief! And you'd better not discharge me! Isuspect too much! When I'm ready to leave, I'll resign. You had bettergo now and talk to your reporters," he added with contempt. "You'll missthe afternoon papers if you don't. And that would be too bad, when youhave some more publicity for the Evergreen."
"What do you mean, Joe?" asked Mr. Bill, who could not make anything ofthe eager words that Joe was uttering, and that made his father soapoplectic that he could only gasp and gurgle and shake his fist at Joeas he left the room. "What do you mean?" Joe seemed to mean so much morethan he said.
"I haven't time to tell you now!" Joe exclaimed brusquely. "I must findTessie!" He would have brushed by Mr. Bill, as if Mr. Bill were only apart of the office furniture, but Mr. Bill clutched his arm.
"I'm going to find her, too!" he insisted. "I'm going to find her! Wheredo you suppose she is? What could have happened to her?" He shivered ashe thought of what might have happened to Tessie. "I don't suppose thoseSons of Sunshine would stop at anything, would they?" His voice shook ashe asked the question.
Joe stood still and looked at him curiously. "Yes," he said as if heknew what he was talking about. "I think there are some things the Sonsof Sunshine will not attempt--not in Waloo. Come on, if you're goingwith me. Do you happen to know," he stopped as a thought flashed throughhis brain, "do you happen to know if Tessie had the Tear of God withher?"
Mr. Bill shook his head, and the anxious look in his face deepened.Would it make it better or worse for Tessie if she had the royal jewelwith her?
"I don't know," he confessed. "She usually did have it around her neckor somewhere else in a safety-bag. Mrs. Gilfooly would know," hesuggested when Joe frowned and said nothing.
"Of course," Joe shrugged his shoulders and threw back his head. "Ofcourse, Granny will know!"