[Illustration: HE WAS THROTTLING THE LIFE OUT OF THE LITTLE DETECTIVE]


DOUBLE CROSSED

BY
W. DOUGLAS NEWTON

AUTHOR OF “LOW CEILINGS,” “GREEN LADIES,”
“WESTWARD WITH THE PRINCE OF WALES,” ETC.

[Illustration: Logo]

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK :: 1922 :: LONDON


COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA


TO
GLADYS AND JOE




DOUBLE CROSSED




CHAPTER I


I

A little, knuckly man bounded into Clement Seadon’s cabin with an
india-rubber violence. He snapped the door closed, and faced the
startled young man.

“You’re Clement Seadon,” he cried; “I’m Hartley Hard.”

The young man stopped unpacking.

“I don’t think I know you,” he said.

“You needn’t think. You don’t know. I’m a complete stranger to you--in
the flesh. But don’t talk. I haven’t much time.”

Clement glanced at the umbrella and obvious shore rig of the bounding
little man.

“In fact,” he said, in the other’s manner, “you have no time at all.
‘All ashore’ was called two minutes ago.”

“Oh, don’t talk,” panted the little man. “This thing is terribly
important. I mustn’t lose a moment telling you. You know Heloise Reys?”

“Not at all,” said Clement dryly. He began again to unpack.

“For heaven’s sake, don’t quibble, man. You know her. You came from
London to Liverpool in the same carriage as Heloise Reys.”

“Oh, that was Heloise Reys,” said the young man, dropping his
dress-shirts and looking up with interest. “The Gorgon woman with her
called her Loise.”

“Nickname,” said the little man breathlessly. “Her name is really
Heloise--What I mean to say is, you do know her.”

“Not really,” said Clement with exasperating (and, one is afraid,
deliberate) casualness. “A mere chance acquaintance.”

He refused to tell the little man that, having encountered her in the
C.P.R. office, he had determinedly looked out for her on the boat train.

The little man danced about in a fury of anxiety.

“Please _do_ remember that I have the barest possible time to tell you
what I must tell you. Don’t interrupt. Don’t quibble. You know her. She
is good looking.”

“Very good looking,” said Clement, staring at the little man in
amazement.

“She is a charming girl,” urged the little man.

“Perfectly charming,” said Clement.

“Of very good family, too,” snapped the little man.

“Probably,” said Clement. “But I didn’t find that out.”

“Don’t have to, take it from me. Very good family. No father, no
mother.”

“That,” said Clement, “I shall _have_ to take from you.”

His astonishment had given way to a sort of guarded amusement. He was
of the genial type of young man, one who could see the humorous side of
things quickly.

The little bouncy man waved his umbrella in excitement.

“Do take it from me,” he cried. “No mother, no father. No encumbrances,
and no one to control her. Remember that, no one to watch over her. And
she is very well off. Very rich.”

Clement could only stare. The little man swept on: “Very beautiful.
Very charming. A girl with a gentle, tender heart--much too tender. Too
quixotic. A fine character. Good family--and rich. Extremely rich. You
understand all that?”

“Look here--what on earth are you driving at?” cried the astounded
Clement.

“But _do_ you understand?” wailed the little man. “Have you grasped it
all? A worthy girl. A girl worthy of any man. A girl that any man can
be proud of. A girl----”

This was too much for Clement. “I say,” he burst out, “I say, are
you--are you asking me to _marry_ her?”

The excited dance of the little man now took on a touch of relief as
well as anxiety. “You grasp it. You see it,” he trilled. “Assuredly.
Marry her--that’s it.”

“My dear idiot,” shouted Clement. “My dear madman. Don’t you understand
that----”

“No time to understand,” skated on the little man. “No time at all.
Know it’s all rapid and wrong and amazing, but that’s what I want. You
marry her. You can do it. You’re young. Young and handsome and healthy.
And a sea-voyage. Sea-voyages are the chance of sentiment. Idle days,
luxurious days. Moonlight--looking at the wake. Oh, the very chance for
falling in love.”

“Do you realize you’re talking like an idiot? I’ve only just met
Miss----”

“I know. I know. Awfully like an idiot. That’s because I am in such a
hurry. I know exactly how it all sounds to you--but, really, I can’t
help myself. Such a time. But that’s what I want you to do--really.
Fall in love with her. Make her fall in love with you. Make her promise
to marry you. Before she gets to Canada make her promise to marry you.
Don’t let her put you off. Force her to do it.”

Clement sat down heavily on his bunk. He stared amazed at the little
man.

“I’m afraid you’re mad,” he said.

“Mad,” snapped the little man. “I’m not mad. I’m a lawyer.”


II

Clement wanted to say that even lawyers went mad sometimes, but the
little man hurled himself along.

“I’m a lawyer. I’m her lawyer. I’m your lawyer, too--one of them.
That’s luck. When I saw you come out of the train with her, saw that
you knew her, I noted that down as a piece of luck. You see I knew
_you_ were all right. Knew that through business--oh, I’m a partner of
Rigby & Root.”

“My lawyers!” cried Clement.

“Yes! Yes! Haven’t I been telling you that? We’re her lawyers, too.
When I saw you together, I said to myself, ‘Good, that’s a second line
of defense. If I fail to bring her to reason I fall back on Clement
Seadon--Mr. Clement Seadon. He’ll be my second line. Good fellow. Good
family. Young, attractive, handsome to the eye. Has wits. Has capacity.
Has a brain in his head. Has pluck and physical strength, too. Can
carry a thing through in spite of danger.’ ...”

As he said that, his rapid eye glinted on Clement. He was staccato, but
he was not stupid. Clement stiffened. He was the type of clean, young
Anglo-Saxon who did stiffen at the hint of danger. The type that goes
about quietly, calmly avoiding trouble--but is not really heartbroken
when trouble comes along. The little lawyer saw Clement stiffen, he
chuckled internally and continued his express monologue.

“That’s what I said to myself when I saw you. I said, ‘Mr. Clement
Seadon has all the qualities necessary. An admirable second line
of defense. And well-off, too. Rich. He’s not an adventurer hunting
heiresses.’ That’s what I said when I saw you. And I went off to
Heloise Reys’ cabin and tried to bring her to reason. Oh, I strove. I
strove. I talked my best.”

He stopped and waved his umbrella in a gesture of hopelessness.

“You strove, and strove--and then had to fall back on your second
line,” said Clement, helping him out.

Clement’s mind was in a curious condition. He realized that all this
was madder than anything had any right to be--and yet he was rather
intrigued, rather interested. He could not have told why. The fact
that the little man was a lawyer, and his own lawyer at that, may
have been the reason. Or it may have been that suggestion of danger,
of adventure, called to that instinct lying dormant in the young of
Clement’s race. Whatever it was, mad though he felt the whole business
to be, he sat and listened.

The lawyer said, “You are right. I could do nothing with her. I failed.
I could not bring her to reason. She is so quixotic. So headstrong. She
has the wrongest sense of what is right.... And then I have no proofs.
Only fears, only suspicions. I couldn’t clinch the matter with her. I
couldn’t bring home anything to her.”

“And what were you trying to bring home to her?” demanded Clement, who
really thought he was entitled to some explanation.

“Bring home to her? The truth about _that_ scamp. I was trying to make
her see that she should _not_ go out to Canada to marry him.”

Clement gasped. Also he felt a little stab of pain. Heloise was
certainly most extraordinarily attractive.

“Marry him? Marry whom? Haven’t you just been insisting that she should
marry _me_?”

“Of course,” shouted the little man. “That’s it. That’s what I’m
driving at.”

“But what are you driving at?” gasped Clement. “First you tell me to
get her to marry me, then you tell me she is going to marry some one
else.”

“Perfectly true,” said the little man. “She is making this journey to
Canada to marry some one else, a man named Henry Gunning.”

Clement fell back, too, staggered for thought. “Are you a lawyer,” he
demanded, “or are you an apostle of the Mormons?”

The little lawyer rushed over to Clement and caught him by the lapel
of his coat. “No! no! no!” he cried. “Please do understand. It is
this hurry that has made everything so complicated. She is going to
Canada to marry Henry Gunning. But she must not marry him. She must be
prevented. That’s what I want you to do. I want you to make her marry
you in order that she won’t marry Gunning.”

“And why shouldn’t she marry the man she wants to?” Clement demanded.

“Because,” said the lawyer, speaking earnestly and impressively,
“because it’s a swindle. She’s got into the hands of rogues, of
swindlers, of criminals. Of that I am sure. The whole thing is terribly
evil. And she must be saved. You must save her.”

Clement was about to answer. There was a knock on the cabin door.
Clement called, “Come in.”

The door opened about a foot. An evil and repulsive face looked in. The
little eyes in the ugly face swiveled all round the cabin in a swift,
furtive glance. They took in Clement; they took in the little lawyer.
A palish tongue licked purple, dry lips. A husky voice croaked, “Beg
pardin, sir!”

The little lawyer snapped, “What do you want, man?”

“Beg pardin,” said the hoarse voice again. “Just looking round ter see
if all visitors is ashore. Bedroom steward, sir.”

The fully opened door revealed the white coat and bobbly trousers of a
veritable bedroom steward.

“All right, my man,” said the little lawyer, “I’m going ashore in a
minute.”

“Ha,” said the steward, coming in with the satisfaction on his face
such as policemen wear when they catch an authentic burglar. “_Should_
be ashore. Orders is that all visitors sh’d be ashore. Come this way,
sir. Quick, please, sir.”

“I’m going ashore in a minute,” said the little lawyer.

“Orders, sir. Gotter be now, sir.”

“Get out of this,” snapped the lawyer. “I’ll go ashore before the ship
sails, never you fear.”

The steward came forward with an air of menace in his bearing.

“You go ashore, now, see. Them’s me orders, an’ I’ve got to see that
it’s done--can’t stop arguing.”

“I don’t want you to,” said the little man decisively. “Particularly as
Captain Heavy is the person you should argue with. If Captain Heavy was
wrong in saying I could stop aboard, I think you should be the one to
tell him, not me.”

“Ca’pen Heavy.... Why didn’t you say that ’efore?” snarled the man. He
went sullenly out of the cabin. The little lawyer waited for a minute,
then he slipped out, too. He darted up the little alleyway that led to
the main passage along the deck. Clement heard him say in a tart voice:

“My good man, I know my way off this ship--you needn’t hang about here
waiting to conduct me off.”

In a moment he was back with Clement, talking rapidly again, but this
time in a noticeably lowered voice.

“He’s one of them. I thought he was. You’ll have to be on your guard
against that steward.”

“One of whom?” asked Clement, trying to keep pace with the happenings.
“One of the rogues, do you mean? Good heavens! are you telling me there
is a sort of Villains’ Gang of them aboard this ship?”

“I don’t say it,” said the little man grimly, “but I shouldn’t be at
all surprised if it were so. It’s a big thing, a terribly big thing, my
friend, this marriage of Heloise. It is a matter of a million pounds
sterling and more.”


III

“You are rather stunning as well as other things,” said Clement limply.

He really was feeling a trifle dazed. The little man had so hustling
a manner. Also, his own knowledge of the girl, Heloise Keys, was of
the faintest kind. She was just a tall, slim girl whom he had found
attractive enough to want to know again after his first meeting.
She was quite pleasant, quite English, quite natural. Apart from
her special attraction, she was just one of the millions of crisp,
self-assured and self-contained young women of Britain.

He had met her, as he had said, twice. The first time had been a
delightful accident. He had arrived to book his passage at the Canadian
Pacific Ocean Service Office in London, to find her there on the same
errand.

What is more, there was a certain sense of comradeship in that action,
for both intended to sail to Canada in the same ship, the _Empress of
Prague_. One shipping clerk attended to both, he left the one cabin
plan before them from which to choose their rooms, while he went away
on the business of registering their tickets.

Clement had only to glance once at the cabin-plan to make his
decision. He had sailed on the _Empress_ before. All he had to do was
to see whether his old cabin, which had been a comfortable one, was
unoccupied. It was unoccupied. He jotted down its number to give to the
clerk when he came back.

Heloise and her companion were not so decisive. Heloise, at least,
showed all the hesitance proper to people unaccustomed to sea travel.
The other woman was making suggestions, but Clement did not pay any
attention to her. She was so obviously a companion, a servant, though
of the cultured sort.

The clerk had tactfully pointed out a large cabin. After having spoken
in glowing terms of it, he had gone off leaving the decision to the
ladies. Clement had nothing against that clerk. As a clerk, he knew his
business, which was to fill up cabins. He was merely doing his duty in
suggesting that cabin to people who did not know the art of selecting
cabins--there were so many people who knew it too well, and would leave
that cabin on his hands.

Clement noted the battle of indecision with some amusement. Also with
some interest, because Heloise (only he didn’t know she was Heloise,
then) was extremely pretty. Also he thought she was of that trusting
and sweet disposition that will take the word of anybody--even of
shipping clerks. Obviously, she was going to follow his suggestion.

When the shipping clerk went to the back of the office Clement saw to
it that she didn’t. He looked up at her as she puzzled over the deck
plan, smiled in a disarming way, and said, “I say, if you don’t mind
my butting in, I wouldn’t take that inner room. You’ll find it hot and
rather airless, and there’s no light at all except artificial light.”

She answered him before she thought about who he was. “Are you sure of
that?”

“Quite,” he told her. “I know the _Empress of Prague_ well; you’ll be
quite comfortable on her, particularly if you take, say, that cabin
over there, instead of that inner one.”

As he spoke he heard an indignant sniff from the companion. He looked
beyond the girl and saw a comely, chilly, thick-set, middle-aged woman.
A woman who had a broad and attractive smile which, somehow, did not
seem to penetrate deeper than the surface of her skin. It was the sniff
and the smile that led Clement to christen her the Gorgon, then and
there.

But the girl herself was not sniffing in moral indignation. She was
pleased and friendly. “But it is jolly of you to help,” she cried. “You
are sure that one over there is the better cabin?”

“As sure as I like light and fresh air,” Clement smiled at her. “You’ll
get both in that, you see, it’s an outside cabin. Has--windows--ports,
you know. And it’s roomier.”

“Then, that’s the one we’ll have, Méduse,” said the girl, and the
Gorgon (really, Clement had been very apt in his nickname) said in
a light voice slightly tipped with frost, “That is also the one I
suggested. Remember I, too, have traveled on the sea before, Loise.”

The girl paid no attention to that. She did not allow herself to be
distracted from Clement, as she was obviously meant to be distracted.
She was, in fact, rather pleased to meet a young, good-looking,
polished man, who was also to be a companion during the voyage across
the Atlantic. She said, smiling, “I’m thoroughly mystified by all this
sort of thing. I’ve never done anything but the cross-Channel trip
before, and then only by daylight. The tricks of cabins and comfort are
dark secrets, as yet. It is really very good of you to give me that
tip.”

“Oh, travelers are a brotherhood who should band together in the face
of the common enemy,” said Clement cheerfully.

“Are we going to have common enemies?” she asked pleasantly.

“Not on the _Empress_,” said Clement. “It’s a happy ship. But still
there are always little things where the hardened traveler can help.”

“Hardened?” she echoed. “You must have begun before your teens then....
But it is rather nice, oh, and lucky, to meet some one who is going by
the same boat. I have a feeling that going by boat must be rather like
going to a new school--everybody is new and reserved. So that if one
knows some one already....” They went galloping off into that chatter
which overtakes vivid people who have found a common ground, and not
even the sniffs of the Gorgon could check them. Definitely, Clement
thought then, the Gorgon wanted to claw the girl away. She disliked the
acquaintance.

Still, she did not have her way, though she hurried the girl off with
some speed when the bargain over the counter had been completed. Even
then the girl, as she went, held out the pleasant promise of their
future meeting.

“We’ll meet again, then, on board,” she had nodded to him as she left
the shipping office.

“Or on the boat train,” said Clement. “You’ll go up to Liverpool by
that?”

“Of course,” she said, smiling. “Until then.”

Clement completed his own reservations, and went out of the office with
a feeling of elation. He was already looking forward to his trip to
Canada, where he hoped to get some sport: trout and salmon fishing, and
later some duck shooting, and, perhaps, a chance at moose. But now his
trip seemed a much jollier affair, and he wasn’t thinking of sport when
he felt that.

She had been so pretty. She had such an extraordinary charm. She was
fine and upspringing if she was slim. She carried herself so well. And
her face was so vivid and alluring. Her skin was cool and white and
glowing, and her features delicate and exquisite. She was more than
pretty, she was beautiful.

And that candor and kindness that seemed to be her nature. A sort
of honesty, a nobility that placed her right above petty feminine
things--yet there was no denying the warm and tender femininity of her
nature. A real woman, a beautiful woman. A woman in a million.

And yet he had not found out her name. Beyond the fact that her
companion called her Loise, he knew nothing about her. He might have
inquired from the shipping clerk. He did not inquire. He was as young
and as straight-minded as that.

He had thought about her a great deal between that time and the sailing
of the boat. And he was early at Paddington on the day that the boat
train left. He had got all his own luggage stowed with the celerity
of an old traveler and was looking out for her some time before she
arrived.

He helped her and her companion, the Gorgon. He had already found them
a compartment, had secured it with a healthy tip. It was to be his own
compartment, too, if she gave permission, and, delightfully, she did.
He traveled with her all the way to Liverpool, but, looking back at it
now, it had been rather a curious journey.

He had put certain things down to accidents, those accidents that will
beset travelers at times. But now--he wondered.

In the first place, he had nearly missed the train. They had been
sitting there, chatting, quite serenely, gazing with slightly amused
contempt at those passengers of the breed always doomed to be late for
trains. Then the Gordon discovered that a rather special parcel left in
the baggage room yesterday (heaven knows why!--the Gorgon seemed the
sort of feminine mystery who would do just that sort of thing) had not
been retrieved. When the Gorgon mentioned the parcel, the girl Loise
had made an exclamation of acute vexation.

Clement was young enough (and she was pretty enough) to seize such
an opportunity of doing her service. He said decisively it might be
rescued, and he asked crisply, “How much time have we?”

It was the Gorgon who had pulled her watch with (now he could see)
astonishing celerity. The watch showed that there was a full thirteen
minutes to spare before the train went. That was ample. The Gorgon gave
him the cloakroom ticket for the parcel. The girl described its nature
rather well in one or two words, and she indicated the shelf on which
it had been placed.

Clement darted out to the cloakroom, not looking at the station clock,
as he should have done. He reached the counter, put the ticket and a
large tip on the zinc surface and exhorted the attendant to hurry.
The attendant smiled happily at the tip, examined the ticket and said
blandly, “Na-poo.” It wasn’t his ticket at all, it was one issued by
another station, Victoria.

“Hang!” shouted Clement. “I must get that parcel ... there it is over
there.” The girl Loise’s description and directions had helped him out.
He told the attendant in vivid language who had left it. He was not
kind to the Gorgon, but his picture of her was unmistakable.

“I remember,” said the attendant. “Remember the lady wot was wit’ ’er.
A very pretty lady.... All the same, you ain’t got the right ticket.”

“Hang it all, man, don’t argue!” shouted Clement. “I’ve got to catch
the boat train....”

And when he said that the attendant had suddenly become very much
alive. He snatched at the parcel and swung it over. “’Ave you got to
catch it, well you’ve got to run blame ’ard ter do it. It’s just about
going out.”

As Clement, sprinting like the deuce, ran for the train, he glanced
at the station clock. Heavens! that wretched woman’s watch must be
frightfully and femininely wrong. The train was just due to leave.

He simply flung himself by the ticket collector at the platform gate.
The man shouted at him, but Clement fought his way by--if they wanted
to question him they must do it at the other end. The train was just
moving.

He flung himself at the door of the guard’s van. And the evil chance of
such things seemed to be against him. A very large, a very bulky man
was trying to do the same thing. He was an idiot of a man. He stumbled
and fumbled. He blocked the way with his hideous ineptitude. So stupid
was he that Clement had the feeling that exasperated people get, that
is, the fool was doing it all purposely.

Clement Seadon was young and very active. While the excessive man still
stumbled and blundered along beside a train steadily gathering pace, he
nipped ahead of him, and with an agile twist was on to the footboard
and into the van.

He turned at once to help the large fool. With a surprising access of
nimbleness the big fellow was already in the train, standing beside him
in the van. Already saying with a sort of purring urbanity, “Well,
that was the nearest shave--nearer for you, sir. I must apologize. I
did not actually realize you were trying to get on the train. I thought
you were a porter or some one trying to help me. I must apologize, sir.”

He said this with the utmost geniality, which, at the same time, seemed
to be reserved. It was as though he spoke automatically the right
things; but what he said had no relationship to what he felt. And while
he spoke he stared fixedly across Clement’s shoulder, and Clement was
aware of the smallness of his eyes and their astonishing closeness
together.

Still everything had ended well, and he said as much. He parted with
this far too much of a man, and made his way along the corridor to his
compartment. Here he was not at all sorry for the accident. Both ladies
were in a lively state of alarm, and that alarm gave way to a cheery
thankfulness at seeing him safely on board once more.

Or rather with the girl Loise that was how things worked out, and, as
far as he was concerned, the journey was made even more attractive
by the emotion this little episode had called up. It was not quite
so with the Gorgon. She seemed overwhelmed by the knowledge that it
was her stupidity in the matter of her watch and the wrong cloakroom
ticket that had nearly caused Clement to miss the train and the boat.
Her apologies were profuse, and she endeavored to make an _amende_ by
correcting, rather late in the day, the time on her watch.

The rest of the journey was uneventful (and Clement was now seeing
things in a more acute light)--unless one could see something grave in
the tiny incident on the landing stage.

The whole of Clement’s baggage had gone astray.

Now that he looked at it, Clement began to see the strangeness of the
happening. He had not been careless. He had instructed a porter fully
before returning to help the ladies. He had even chuckled at his own
efficiency when, on looking back, he saw the big man who had all but
prevented his gaining the boat train, standing helpless near his own
busy porter.

Nevertheless twenty minutes later Nicholson, his cabin steward, told
him he could not find his luggage anywhere. Nicholson was not a man
to make mistakes and if he said luggage could not be found, it could
not be found. Angry as he was at the mishap Clement wasted no time.
He _had_ to have that luggage. Naturally, he could not possibly sail
without a rag to his name.

The stuff that was in Clement Seadon came out in the way he handled
this _contretemps_. He went straight to the Canadian Pacific shipping
agent, and put the problem up to him. The man belonged to a service
that suffers attractively from an ideal of complete efficiency. The
agent began to hustle.

He was, of course, helped by Clement. Clement had the type of mind
that pays attention to a porter’s registration number when the porter
holds up the metal plate upon which it is stamped to the hirer’s gaze.
Clement remembered and repeated the number, and left the matter in
the hands of the agent. In half an hour his luggage was on board the
_Empress_.

A foreman had named the porter from the number; a dock policeman had
stated that he had seen this man trundling the barrow-load of luggage
away from the shed in the direction of the Cunard dock; the luggage was
run to earth. The porter, on being taxed with his strange behavior,
offered a wild and absurd story of having been told that Mr. Seadon had
suddenly received orders to go by Cunard. A steward had come off the
_Empress_ just as he was going on to it, and given this very definite
command.

He was, so the porter said, “a littlish, mean-looking ’ound of a
steward.” Nicholson was a big man. And, though the porter may have
based his description of the offending steward on anger, Clement,
with a sudden blaze of comprehension, now recognized how well that
description fitted the steward who had just tried to turn the little
lawyer off the boat. Had that steward tried to keep _him_ off the boat
also? It looked extraordinarily like it.

Thus, though he might have been inclined to scout the whole idea of
the gang of rogues who were working to accomplish the undoing of the
girl Heloise and her million pounds, as something absurd and unreal,
actually the train of circumstances forced him to say limply:

“You are rather stunning as well as other things.”


IV

The little man went on promptly with his hasty and hurtling attack.

“I know, stunning and absurd and incredible. It sounds all that, I
know. To me it is all that--only, I’ve got to face things as they
appear to me and I’ve so little to go on, yet so much. A huge fortune,
that foolish girl’s happiness, and all that sort of thing--is at
stake....”

He seemed anxious to impress Clement with the soundness of his case,
and it was now Clement who cried, “But get on with it, man. You haven’t
too much time. You’ll have to go ashore very soon. Tell me the facts.”

“Facts,” snapped the little man. “The first is she’s going out
expressly to find and marry this weak-will, this ne’er-do-well Henry
Gunning.”

“Why? Is she engaged to him?” demanded Clement, with peculiar interest.

“Engaged to him. Good gad--rubbish. Sheer quixotery. This is the story:
They were brought up together--boy and girl. He was an unpleasant,
feckless cub. His people had estates next old Reys. Both of ’em went
about as kids. There was a sort of calf love. Both of ’em had it mildly
... nothing else to do in the country for the young but to be calves.
Then he did something idiotic, and he was shipped off to Canada. His
guardians did it--parents dead then.”

“What was it?”

“Oh, general irritation with his spinelessness and low tastes, plus a
crisis. They made use of that crisis. Matter of fact, he stole.”

“Stole! But could Miss Heloise have anything to do with a thief?”

“Oh, but a plausible thief,” snapped the little lawyer. “What he
stole, he said, was his. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t, and he knew
it. It was a picture, an Old Master, belonging to his family. Family
had died up to its ears in debt--for which his own bad habits were
mainly responsible. Everything had been sold to settle those debts. He
knew that all right. But he stole that picture, sold it, and went on
the spree with the proceeds. There you get the type of man he is in a
nutshell.”

“That doesn’t explain Miss Reys’ attitude.”

“Oh, he made a case. Said he thought he’d taken only what was his own.
He bought her a silly little trinket, too, and made her believe he
had sold the picture to get that. Absurd. But she was woefully young.
She has a generous heart, and she was on the side of the scamp in
affection. Well, that’s the beginning. He left her with the usual vows.
He’d been unlucky. He had an unlucky nature, so he told her; but he was
going to the great and grand New World to carve out a fortune for her.
He would return, like the hero in a story, rich and powerful, and all
because of her--all for her.”

“Well, what’s next. Has he made that fortune?”

“Not a bit of it. He’s the sort that doesn’t. Hasn’t the guts or the
honesty. I don’t know what he’s done in the ten years he’s been away;
nobody knows. I suspect a mountain of beastliness. But one thing I
know. He hasn’t made that fortune.”

“You’re sure?”

“My dear lad, isn’t that why she’s going out? Oh, of course, I’m
running on too fast. Well, that _is_ the reason, anyhow. First year or
two there were plenty of letters. Then the letters dropped away. His
were sloppy and disconsolate, I gather. He was the unlucky sort even
in Canada, he let her know. Of course he was. Then the letters stopped
altogether. For years nothing was heard of him. Things went on with
Heloise ever so much better. I thought she’d forgotten the ass. Then,
quite suddenly, the whole of this business started again. Came at us,
as it were, out of the blue.”

“And what precisely do you mean by that?” Clement asked.

“I can’t quite explain. Know nothing definite, you see. First Heloise’s
father died. He left her in control of this fortune. Really an immense
fortune. When I mentioned the figure of a million pounds I meant it. It
is more than true. Heloise continued for some time in a state of happy
ordinariness. Then she had another letter from the scallywag Gunning.
I don’t know what was in it, but it seemed to fling her right back to
those old flapperish, calfish days. From what I could gather, Gunning
was still fighting his luck. He was fighting (so he hinted) with dogged
courage. He remembered his vow to her, and had kept himself staunch,
unfettered, and upright because of it. He meant to redeem it; in fact,
he hinted that there was a chance of redeeming it--if only his spell of
bad luck would break. He had a big thing in view--a huge thing--that
would bring him a great fortune. Then he would be able to come to her.
But he didn’t do more than hint at this big _coup_ he had in mind.
I told Heloise that that was the man all over; that he was merely
exhibiting his vague and spineless nature. Stupid of me to say that.
I was set aside as hard and unsympathetic at once, and nothing more
was told to me. Heloise, naturally, thought it was his noble nature
cropping out. He would tell her nothing until he had brought it off. He
would be beholden to nobody until he had fulfilled himself. I said it
was all rubbish; but Heloise, who thinks the best of everybody, clung
to her view.... And then this confounded new companion supported that
view, gave it a new strength?”

“How could a companion do any such thing?”

“I can’t answer riddles; I can only guess. Perhaps I am too easily
suspicious. I suspected the _old_ companion when she so inexplicably
left Heloise’s service. Why? Well, it seemed illogical. She had an
extraordinarily well-paid, extraordinarily comfortable job. It is the
sort of job no woman of that kind would leave in a hurry. But she did.
She said she had come into some money, a lot of it, and wanted to set
up a little business of her own. Well, I couldn’t find out how she had
come into that money--a few thousands it must have been. I tried to
trace a source. I couldn’t find one. But she had the money from some
one all right.”

“You suspect it was an underhand affair--she was paid?”

“I suspect, only. No facts. This new companion made me more suspicious.
She’s a Canadian, or says she is.”

“Perhaps that’s the reason Miss Reys chose her--a reason of sentiment,”
said Clement.

“You’ve touched the crucial plausibility of the matter. That _is_
why Heloise chose her. The departing companion recommended this
creature--suspicious again. Heloise was not altogether smitten with
her at first, but the fact that she knew Canada turned the scale. The
sentimental note won. And then--too surprising for life, I think:
an attractive coincidence, thinks Heloise--this new companion knows
Gunning.”

Clement nodded. He, too, was beginning to think that the long arm of
coincidence was beginning to suffer from strain.

“‘It only came out casually,’ says Heloise,” went on the little man;
“but there’s the fact this companion who came to her by fishy means
knew Gunning. Knew him well enough to sing rather an attractive song
about him. Oh, she made it all sound very ordinary. She had not
_actually_ spoken to or known Gunning, but she had stayed at a place
called Sicamous, where he was often to be seen, and where his name was
very well known. He was known there as the Englishman whom providence
had a grouch against. He was also known as the Englishman who would be
a millionaire some day. No, don’t ask me why he was called that. That
hasn’t been told me. I suspect my attitude of non-sympathy has been
adroitly enlarged by that confounded companion. I’ve been kept out of
it. All I know is that Heloise is filled with a sort of sentimental
certainty that Gunning is out there in the wilds needing help. He is
fighting a lone hand against circumstances beyond his strength. He is
there working doggedly with a great chance within his grasp; but for
lack of means, for lack of support, for lack of money he cannot make
good. That’s how I see it, and I can see how the sentimental side has
been worked up to secure Heloise’s sympathy. She feels he won’t, he
doesn’t write to her because of his pride. His self-respect, his sense
of decency, his grit and all that sort of bunkum forbids his writing to
the girl he loves and wants to marry. That’s how they are playing on
Heloise’s candid and sympathetic nature.”

“Well,” said Clement. “It might be correct. Men are rather like that,
don’t you think?”

“_Men_, yes,” snapped the little lawyer. “Fellows like you, real men,
would be like that. But Gunning--I don’t believe it.”

“That’s rather drastic.”

“My boy, I know Gunning. We acted for _his_ people too. Gunning is not
like that. He’s a moral tadpole. If he has changed, then the age of
miracles has very certainly not passed.”

Clement thought this sort of talk led to nothing. He changed the line.

“And what’s the big chance that lies before him?”

“I told you I didn’t know,” said the little lawyer. “I’ve been kept in
the dark over that.”

“Is Miss Reys in the dark?”

“What do you mean by that? As I tell you, I think she is certainly in
the dark concerning this foul plot that is being worked on her. But
concerning this big _coup_ that Gunning is supposed to be able to bring
off--no. She knows all about that. She’s been writing letters to people
in Canada. The companion has supplied her with addresses, I take it.
She’s received replies that have convinced her of the genuineness of
Gunning and his prospects. Of that I am certain.”

“You don’t think those letters genuine?”

“I don’t think anything connected with this trip to Canada is genuine.”

Clement frowned. Thinking, he said, “Exactly what do you think these
rogues, if they be rogues, are out to do?”

“I think they are out to get control of rather more than a million
pounds sterling, which, at present, belongs to Heloise.”

“How will they do that--if she marries Gunning?”

“How will they?” began the little lawyer in exasperation. Then he
said more precisely and quietly, “I will tell you exactly what I
think. I think that, somehow, a band of rogues in Canada has found
out from Henry Gunning that there is a sort of engagement between him
and Heloise. They have learned from the same source that Heloise is
worth a million of money. They have that rascal in their power. They
have seen that through him there is a very good chance of getting that
million of money into their power.”

“You’re making rather a long shot, aren’t you? After all, they must
have known that they would have to reckon with Heloise, who will have
something to say in the matter.”

The little man waggled his umbrella fiercely.

“Not a long shot,” he insisted. “They probably saw her letters to him.
If they read those letters they would see exactly the sort of girl
Heloise is. She is fine, honest. She is too generous for this world....
She is undoubtedly quixotic, as I have told you several times. They
would see that a girl like that would respond to adroit handling. Her
sense of honor would lead her to remain true to the letter of the
bargain she made with Gunning years ago. Her sense of chivalry would
send her out post-haste to his aid, if that aid was required. She would
feel that he was making a tremendous sacrifice for her, and she would
at once be willing to make a tremendous sacrifice in return.”

The little man paused, gazing at Clement.

“That’s her nature; generous to folly. She gives greatly, tremendously,
if her heart is touched.... Well, that’s what these brutes have done.
As I see it, they have assessed her, sized her up. They have put
this plot into motion. Cunningly they have reawakened her interest in
Gunning; first, by that letter from him; then they got rid of the old
companion, and substituted this--this temptress from Canada. She has
spent all her days playing upon Heloise’s heart-strings. She has cast a
spell, a glamour, a damned romantic glamour, over that poor girl. She
has painted a picture of the stoic Gunning fighting against luck for
_her_. Painted him proud and silent and full of pluck, refusing to call
on her aid, though she has but to stretch out a finger, back up some
scheme of his, and he will win--he will win a fortune and win her. Oh,
they have painted for her a beauteous and beastly picture. The sort of
picture that can have but one effect on such a girl as Heloise. She has
become inspired by it. She sees the great and the generous way. If this
true man, Gunning, is too proud to cry for help, then she should be
proud to go to him and help him. She will make her sacrifice also....
So--so off she packs to Canada. She starts out like a sort of rapturous
female knight-errant.”

The little man had to stop, because his face and throat were working.

“And then when she finds him,” he ended, his voice harsh with emotion,
“there’ll be a love scene ... and a marriage ... and then ... God knows
what _they_ will do then ... but as sure as I’m here, Clement Seadon,
they’ll get that million ... and I daren’t ask myself _how they will
get it_.”

Clement stood stiff with the tragedy that had suddenly burst in horror
into that little cabin.

“I daren’t ask myself how they will get that million,” the little
lawyer had said in emotion, and Clement shuddered. He saw the gaunt
and lonely mountains of Sicamous (wasn’t that the place?). The dark,
spruce-clad valleys, awfully lonely and awfully quiet. And in those
silent valleys away from man--away from help and discovery--anything
might happen.

He had a quick vision of the beautiful and splendid girl, and his skin
crept with horror of--of the things that might happen.

He found that he had very little to say. He muttered lamely, “You are
sure she is going out for this?”

“To see Gunning? Yes. She told me so frankly.”

“But--but to marry him?”

“I think so. Of course she wouldn’t tell me that, but”--and a gleam in
his eye relieved the horror of the moment--“but I, as her lawyer, have
been called upon lately to settle heavy bills with all the milliners,
dressmakers, and purveyors of dainty feminine _trivia_ in the kingdom
of woman’s shopping. I don’t want to let you into delicate secrets;
but, even to the unsophisticated male, such wholesale buying seems to
point to one definite end.”

“I am a--a bachelor in such matters,” said Clement, glad to get the
topic off the ugly strain. “But even with such preparations woman is
not doomed to marriage. After ten years--Henry Gunning may not be
likable. A man of the type you have described is an unpleasant object
when he goes to seed; as, no doubt, he has gone to seed.”

“That gives me no ground for hope,” said the little lawyer. “He is
plausible. He will probably get himself up to the scratch for the time
being. Even this gang would see to that, don’t you think? His very
seediness may make him seem more romantic--women are so illogically
and amazingly made. And then in a lonely place.... No, the only safe
and settled thing is to prevent the marriage. For you to prevent the
marriage.”

Clement laughed with a touch of annoyed self-consciousness. “After all
you’ve told me,” he said lamely, “I’ll keep my eye on her.”

“No--make love to her,” snapped the little lawyer.

“Perhaps I can advise her.”

“Rubbish--make her love you. Advise her? Good Lord, can any man advise
a headstrong, well-educated young woman of the twentieth century.
Advise her? Haven’t I been advising her not to do this mad thing
for months! She’s certain of herself. She’s so practical about the
whole matter.--Advise her? You might just as well try to advise Mount
Popocatepetl to melt into the plain. Don’t attempt to advise. Do! Love
her. Marry her.”

A sharp voice came swiftly along the gallery outside. A boy, running
with some urgency, was yelling a name.

“Marry her, man,” snapped the little lawyer. “I’m cut off from her. I
can do nothing. I depend on you.” He listened to the boy’s yells. “My
name. I’m wanted.” He sprang to the door, ran up the alley-way to the
gallery. “Boy! Boy! I’m Mr. Hard. Want me?”

A shrill voice yelled, “Lookin’ fer you everywhere, sir. Hurry. Ca’pen
Heavy’s compliments, you gotter get off the ship damn quick. Casting
off now. Look sharp, sir.”

The little man swung round, called down the alley-way into which
Clement had come, “Got to go ashore. Don’t forget what you’ve got to
do.”

“I’ll do my best,” cried the confused Clement.

“Best! No good. Marry her.”

“But, you see, she mightn’t----”

“Marry her,” snapped the little lawyer, already on the run. “Don’t give
in to her. Make her marry you.”

Running, he went along the gallery out of sight.

Clement stared after him in bewilderment.

“Holy romance!” he murmured to himself. “Here’s a thing with which to
begin a sea voyage.”

He turned to go back to his cabin. Away along the gallery, by the
staircase that led up to the smoking room, he saw two men standing.
They were standing watching him. They stood there for but a second, and
then, with furtive quickness, they stepped back out of his sight.

It had been a matter of an instant. But Clement had recognized both of
them.

One was the steward with the evil face who had tried to get the little
lawyer off the ship, and had, so Clement felt, tried to get him off the
ship, too, by sending his luggage astray.

The other was a tall, huge, almost excessive man. A man with little,
sinister eyes ... the man who had all but prevented his getting into
the train. The man whom he had seen close to his baggage before it went
astray. He was there watching Clement, talking to the evil steward in
an intimate way.

“Ah,” reflected Clement. “So you _are_ in this. You are one of them....
And now that I come to think things out, there was never any doubt of
it.”

He sat down on his bunk to face the problem of saving the girl Heloise
from a gang of rogues, of whom the companion, Méduse, this huge man,
and the steward at least were members.




CHAPTER II


I

Clement Seadon got up from his bunk almost as soon as he had sat
down on it. He was young, that is, he preferred swift action to deep
thinking.

“It’s no good arguing about this,” he told himself. “It’s no good
telling one’s cautious soul that outside the cinematograph and the
painted pages of fiction, pretty young women _aren’t_ the victims
of gangs of rogues in this the twentieth century. She is. I’ve seen
her. I’ve seen the gang and already felt them at work.... I’ve had
circumstantial evidence pumped into me by that hurtling little lawyer.
It all sounds mad. It all sounds untrue. But it happens to be true.
I’ve got to do something.”

He made a stride towards the door. He stopped.

“Ah, yes,” he reflected. “I’ve got to do something--_what_?”

He suddenly realized how easy it was to say “I’ve got to do something.”
How hard it was to do anything at all.

What could he do? Rush out and confront the gang with their
villainies--idiotic idea. He’d probably be put into irons as an
irresponsible madman. There wasn’t any evidence. If there had been
any, the little lawyer would have acted upon it, the criminal gang
would have been slapped into jail before the ship sailed. Heloise--what
a really suitable name for her, Heloise; how it fitted her curious,
slim, rather _exaltè_ kind of beauty--Heloise would have been rescued
even before she started for Canada.... The voyage would not have been
undertaken....

On second thoughts he was rather glad there had been no evidence. Gang
or no gang, it was rather pleasant to think that Heloise Reys really
would be with him on the _Empress_ until they all reached Quebec....
And perhaps he’d be with her longer.

“All the same,” he reflected, “this isn’t going to be so simple as it
looks. I only know indirectly that there is a gang at work to ensnare
Heloise Reys. Nothing to go on except suspicion. Also, I must remember
that Heloise herself is, to all intents and purposes, on the side of
the gang. She wants to get to Henry Gunning and marry him. She does
regard the one member of the gang she knows, this Gorgon companion,
Méduse, not as an enemy, but as a tried, and trusted friend. If I do
unpleasant and senseless things to the gang I make Heloise my enemy,
through the Gorgon.... Oh, it’s infernally complicated. This isn’t a
matter for clumsy rough-and-tumble methods. This is a matter for wits,
for brain work, for guileful intelligence.... However, I fancy I have a
good share of guileful intelligence.”

As a matter of fact Clement was doing himself rather less than
justice. He had rather more than his fair share of keen wits, only,
as one of his friends said, “one never noticed it because he was so
well-tailored.”

Clement Seadon was one of those young Anglo-Saxons--and their number is
not so inconsiderable as our enemies imagined--who were responsible for
so many German failures during the war. They were so entirely unlike
the things they were capable of doing.

Clement, for example, looked indolent. He looked easy-going. He looked
as if he cared for nothing very much, and hadn’t any particular
intelligence. He was obviously very careful about the set of his
clothes, and could be guaranteed to shine adequately in most sports
and at any social gathering. He had blunt, but neat features, that
conspired to give him a suggestion of geniality not easily moved
from an habitual calm. People felt they could not take him quite
seriously--until they suddenly bumped up against an extremely
disconcerting and swift coolness of wit. Only then, when they had been
“stung” did they note the squareness of the jaw and the lips, and the
broad and quite definite power of his brow.

Clement Seadon, in fact, was rather a drastic sort of young man to
those who thought he didn’t matter very much. In the Diplomacy,
where he had served before the war, several quite brilliant brains
had chuckled at him for an amiable and well-dressed ninny, whom it
was ridiculously easy to twist round the finger. They had thought
this until a sharp reprimand from their Governments, and, on some
occasions, instant dismissal, taught them that some people are not so
simple as they look, and that the cheerful young man who had seemed
to them so easy a victim had actually been twisting them round _his_
well-manicured fingers all the time--not they him.

Clement was not in Diplomacy now; he had thrown up his job to go to
the front. His father, his only relative, had died during the war, so
that after the armistice he had found himself in complete control of a
very useful income, and with it a freedom to indulge his love of travel
and sport, which, up to the war, he had only been able to assuage
intermittently.

He was, then, a young man entirely free to do as he liked. A young man
who preferred action, who did not ask for adventure, but wasn’t so very
sorry when adventure came along; and also a young man who knew quite
well how to enjoy the considerable mental faculties he happened to
possess.... He was, as the little lawyer had felt, quite the luckiest
ally Heloise could find in a battle against the powers of crime.

Clement, thinking near his door, turned the matter over.

“Obviously,” he thought, “I can do nothing just at present. I can’t
strike at them until I find out their plot and have proof that they are
criminals. What then? Consolidate my position with Heloise?--blessed
word consolidate. That’s the first and only move. I must get to know
her better; I must get her to trust in me. I must become intimate....”

At that thought he suddenly switched round and shook his fist at the
place where he thought Liverpool must stand--the sound of machinery had
told him some time ago that the ship had begun to move.

“Why _did_ you talk of marriage,” he said with irritation, obviously
referring to the little-head-long lawyer. “Marry the girl!... Marry
her, that actually complicates things. I shall ... I mean I should feel
just as much an adventurer, a conspirator, as this Henry Gunning person
if I did ... if I ever thought of doing such a thing.” And then, with
the inconsequence of the young, he said, “But she _is_ astonishingly
pretty and good company.... Oh, hang, that only makes it worse.”

“Marry her,” he went on. “That’s quite absurd, of course. I mean--well,
it is quite absurd. She’s got her mind set on Henry Gunning ... and
she wouldn’t care twopence for a fellow like me. Indecent to think she
would.... No, marriage is a bee in that old lawyer’s bonnet. But I’ll
help. I’ll do all I can to help her. And that’s the first move; I’ll
now lay the solid foundations upon which real friendship can be based.”

He went very quickly to the door of his cabin.

“The first move, and I know how to make it.”

He went quickly along the gallery. As he passed along the balcony that
overhung the dining saloon, he looked down at a little group of people
collected about one of the tables near the door. Yes, old Maxwell was
already filling up tables, and a few of the travel-wise were selecting
them. Clement smiled. He was glad he was travel-wise himself.

But before he got to the end of the gallery he was pulled up in his
stride. His way was blocked by a very large, a very solid, an immovable
man. There was no getting past this human mountain. And the back of the
human mountain was towards him, and he was obviously deep in some most
absorbing contemplation. Clement said gently, “If you don’t mind.” And
then he said, “Sorry, do you mind my passing?” And then he said, “Would
you mind getting out of the way?” Then he touched the human mass on the
shoulder, and shouted in his ear, “I’m through. I’ve said everything I
can remember.... The next move’s with you.... Just move!”

The dinosaur heaved a little. There was a perceptible undulation over
its surface. A voice came back. “What’s that?”

“I want to pass,” said Clement.

“Eh?”

“I want to----”

But Clement did not finish. The mass, as though the thing that had
held its attention had suddenly released it, came round with an almost
dismaying swiftness--how could such a bulk actuate with such rapidity.
A large man stood in front of Clement, bowing and apologizing....
A large man who seemed genial only on the surface, whose eyes were
astonishingly close together, and looked steadily, not into Clement’s
eyes, but at something mystical across his shoulder. It was the large
fat man again. The large fat man who seemed instinctively to mix
himself up in Clement’s accidents.

“I owe you a thousand apologies,” said the big man pleasantly and
without the slightest sense of right. “I did not know you were behind
me.” He smiled sleekly. “It seems that I am foredoomed to stand in your
way, sir.”

“That,” Clement’s mind told him at once, “that is a threat--or a
warning.” And he answered in his pleasantest, young-fellow-about-town
voice, “Does seem a habit of mine to come stealing up behind, so to
speak.”

“And that,” he told himself, “is also a threat, or warning. Only he
won’t see it. I’m much too well dressed.”

“Ah, ‘behind,’ that has an ominous ring. Let us hope it is not
ominous,” smiled the large man with his artificial geniality, and he
stepped aside and let Clement by.

And Clement went on musing, “But, by Jove! he _did_ see. That was
another warning. I shall have to keep my eyes on that large fellow. He,
too, has wits and doesn’t look it.”

He ran down the accommodation stairs towards the dining saloon deck. On
that deck he received another shock. Coming through the swing doors of
the saloon was the Gorgon. She came out briskly with the gait of an old
traveler. She saw Clement, and she smiled. Clement thought it a smile
with malice behind it. As she passed him she nodded, and said brightly,
“Well, we’ve started them.”

A commonplace remark. One of the ordinary, stupid, current phrases of
travelers by liner. It referred, possibly, to the fact that the ship
had sailed, that the voyage had started. It might mean only that. On
the other hand it mightn’t. In the light of that smile Clement reserved
his judgment until he had gone into the saloon.

He greeted Maxwell, the chief steward, as an old friend, and asked if
there were any good tables left.

“Nearly all the good tables,” said Maxwell. “Not many old travelers on
this trip. You can take almost anything you like.”

Clement did not take what he liked. He examined the chart of tables and
saw that what he liked had already gone. He had planned to sit at the
same table as Heloise Reys. That is, he had schemed to be her companion
at meals all through the voyage. That was the recognized move of the
wise and old traveler. But he had not been wise quickly enough. As
he looked down the chart he saw the names “Miss Heloise Reys,” “Miss
Méduse Smythe” already inscribed.

And Miss Heloise Reys and Miss Méduse Smythe were to occupy a small
table that would only accommodate two.

He had received his first check. He understood why the large fat man
had blocked his way. He understood why the Gorgon had smiled with
meaning.

They had started the game of wits, and the first trick was against him.


II

They had scored the first trick, but it was not altogether a signal
advantage. It put Clement on his mettle. It enabled him to appreciate
exactly the type of rogues he was dealing with. There was going to
be nothing timid about their methods. They were bold and they were
clever, they were going to take hold of every advantage and push it
home ruthlessly. Clement did not mind that at all. He could be bold and
ruthless, too, and because of his apparently casual manner his boldness
and his ruthlessness could be carried off in a way which would baffle
them.

In fact, no later than that afternoon, Clement, with an apparently
thoughtless inconsequence, began to baffle them. He played for the
second trick--and won it.

It was obvious that from the first the gang meant to block him from
Heloise’s side. Clement smiled as he saw the little comedy being
played. The Gorgon clung to the girl tenaciously. To double the guard,
so to speak, the large fat rogue was called in.

They were clever. They played with infinite skill. The mountain of a
man was drawn in with brilliant casualness. Heloise and the Gorgon
looked at Ireland over the taffrail. They talked about Ireland. The
Gorgon made a conspicuous mistake about an Irish headland ... and
there was the large fat man putting her right, standing already one of
that little group pouring out attractive facts about Ireland with a
pleasant, well-informed politeness.

It was one of those swift shipboard acquaintances. The apparent
stranger had skillfully inserted himself into the duologue between the
Gorgon and Heloise, and the Gorgon had, as skillfully, drawn him into
the circle.

Clement, who had been hovering in the background saw what it meant. One
of them, now, would always be at the girl’s side; effectually putting a
stop to any particular and personal approach of his own.

The three watched Ireland until they had had enough of it. Then they
walked the deck a little. Then the two ladies sat down, and the fat
man, with invincible politeness, walked away. Clement exchanged a few
words with the two women in their deck chairs; pleasant words, but of
no effect. The Gorgon showed no signs of moving, Heloise was too polite
to move away from the Gorgon.

The lunch bugle went, and they were separated. After lunch the Gorgon
and Heloise were inseparable. They sat on deck chairs again. Tea came.
Clement found that the Gorgon had whisked the girl into an alcove in
the lounge. He was about to join them boldly, when the big fat man
materializing with his unexpected swiftness, crossed the lounge and
planted himself in the only other seat available. Clement smiled and
sat and had his own tea and waited. He watched the trio. Presently his
chance came. The fat man and the Gorgon suddenly involved themselves in
one of those duologues in which the third person plays the part of a
listener only. As the two talked Clement crossed to them swiftly and
quietly--and snapped the girl from under their very noses.

It was one of those simple acts that baffle the clever. Clement slipped
round behind the discussion, as it were, and said to the girl, “Coming
for a stroll, Miss Reys?”

And Heloise came--alone. There was nothing for the others to do. To
break off their discussion to fence with this pleasant young man
would have looked strange. To come out with the girl was certainly
impossible, for they had not been invited. They had to remain,
apparently unconcerned, if they were not to draw attention to
themselves and their actions.

And in his casual way Clement clinched his victory by drawing attention
to any future “blockading” action the precious pair might attempt.

He took Heloise up to the boat deck, and found chairs and placed them
in a spot that could only accommodate two, which was also quite neatly
screened from casual view. He sighed, “Oh, well, this is very much
better.”

“It isn’t strolling, anyhow,” laughed Heloise.

“Oh, I didn’t want to stroll, I just wanted to be selfish,” smiled
Clement. “I wanted you to myself. There seem to have been millions of
people about you ever since we came aboard.”

“Scarcely millions,” she smiled back. “Only my companion and that
rather stout, quite pleasant Mr. Neuburg.”

“Only those,” said Clement, underlining the personality and the actions
of the pair deliberately, “but they do seem to be rather clinging....
Always there seems to be a great crowd barring the way....”

“Always,” she laughed. “But we’ve only been on board half a day.”

“Perhaps I was looking forward,” said Clement, ingeniously emphasizing
his point. “I saw it happening every day, every hour of the day, for
the rest of the voyage.”

“You’re unnecessarily gloomy,” laughed the girl, not altogether
displeased at the interest this good-looking young man took in her. “It
won’t happen every hour every day.”

And Clement, with an inward chuckle, thought it wouldn’t. He left it
at that. He had won that trick. Not merely would he have _tête-à-tête_
talks with Heloise in the future, but he had so emphasized the attitude
of the pair of rogues that their attempts to shut him out from Heloise
must only engender suspicion in her mind.

After a moment’s silence Heloise said, “You’re rather hard on Mr.
Neuburg. He’s a very pleasant person, and quite well-informed about
Canada.”

“I’m quite well-informed about Canada myself,” said Clement.

“About shooting--sport”--she teased him.

“That--and other things,” Clement laughed back. “I know appearances are
against me, but, really, there’s a solid core inside. I know quite a
lot about Canadian industries, for instance.”

It was a casual remark delivered with an inconsequence that covered up
the deliberate meaning Clement had put into it. And it struck home, as
Clement had meant it to.

“Really!” she cried. “Industrial things--you know something about
Canadian industries?” She was eager at once.

“Quite a lot,” said Clement. “You see, even if I didn’t happen to
be keen--which I am--I’d have to take a personal interest. I’ve
money invested in quite a number of Canadian concerns--agricultural
machinery, fruit farms, grain areas, mines----”

“Mines!” breathed the girl. “Do you know something about mines?”

Under his casual easiness Clement Seadon thrilled. He had suspected
from the beginning that the venture in which Henry Gunning was supposed
to need backing must be mines; the district in which he lived pointed
to that. But here was confirmation of that suspicion. He had touched
the matter which was the foundation of the plot at his first attempt
to find out. And he had also obviously done more. He had made the girl
feel that he was a sympathetic and knowledgeable person to whom it
would be easy to talk about mines and the prospects of mining. And, in
fact, he _was_ just that person. He said, “I know, I think, a very
fair amount about mines. Oh, but not merely on the investing, but on
the practical side, too. Before the war I went out for three months
with a prospecting party--not as a fortune hunter, but as one who
wanted to learn. It’s rather a fad of mine to get to know how things
are done from the bottom up. As some of our money was invested in
mines, it seemed to me that I should have a working knowledge of the
whole proposition.”

“And you did your prospecting--where?” she asked, a little breathlessly.

“Oh--in Canada,” he said. And then he paused. Should he risk being
specific? Would it frighten her to hear the name of the very place
where Henry Gunning, her old lover, was living; and would that put her
on her guard against him--as she had been on her guard against the
questions of the little lawyer? Or would it, on the other hand, draw
out confidences? He rather felt it might. He was, as far as she knew,
quite outside her concerns, and she might want to learn things, just as
he wanted to learn everything as early as possible if he was to act.
And then as he hesitated, she said with extraordinary eagerness, “In
Canada; but what part of Canada?”

Her eagerness decided Clement. “In British Columbia,” he answered, as a
man mentioning something of no purpose. “To be exact, in the mountain
valleys in the south of British Columbia. There’s a whole string
of valleys there with rather beautiful lakes in ’em. We started at
Penticton, on Okanagan Lake, and worked up northward.... They mostly
grow apples and peaches there, but there was a good deal of mineral
about, we’d heard. Anyhow--I say, I hope I’m not boring you--anyhow,
we pushed slowly up those valleys to a little one-horse place called
Sicamous----”

“Sicamous!” she cried, her eyes very bright, her cheeks exquisitely
flushed, and for a moment Clement wondered if he had done right to
mention that name. “Sicamous! But that’s real luck--for me, I mean. I
actually want to learn something first-hand about Sicamous--and about
the mining in those districts....”

With a throb of excitement and satisfaction, Clement, looking exactly
like an Englishman who was no more interested than he should be when a
pretty woman gave him her confidences, leaned forward to hear the next
important words. And....

“Oh ... Loise.... Forgive me, Miss Heloise.... Where did you put the
aspirin tablets?... I have a terrible headache.... I went to the cabin,
and could not find them.... And I’ve looked for you everywhere....”

Before them stood the Gorgon smiling apologetically, wearily, but at
the same time determinedly. She had arrived just at the right moment to
interrupt revelations.


III

The Gorgon did interrupt revelations, but, as Clement had planned,
the trick he had scored was a most useful one. More useful from
the fact that the pair of rogues did not know how effectively the
inconsequent-looking young Briton had taken measures against them. That
is, they still continued the tactics of trying to shut Clement off from
intimacy with Heloise.... The very method Clement had delicately drawn
the girl’s attention to.

And of course the girl began to notice that the Gorgon was always at
her side with a sort of leechlike doggedness. She began to notice that
the massive Mr. Neuburg inevitably took up the siege, as it were,
whenever her companion was away. Mr. Neuburg talked cleverly and also
incessantly, but he wasn’t young and he wasn’t that rather attractive
Mr. Seadon. Without realizing anything of its meaning, she felt that
Mr. Seadon was, as he had laughingly suggested, being barred out by a
crowd.

She began to show irritation--and independence. Mr. Neuburg found she
was leaving him in the middle of conversations. Méduse Smythe could
produce nothing important enough to hold her mistress at her side. The
twain were not fools. They recognized they were beaten. They ceased
their attentions with a brilliant naturalness, but Clement knew that
the eyes of Mr. Neuburg watched him always as he walked with Heloise.

Clement knew that the intelligence that was busy considering him was
not one to be despised. He did not know the extent of the gang working
to ensnare Heloise, but he felt that Neuburg was probably the brains
of it, the master mind, and that he would act in a masterly manner,
leaving very little to chance. To checkmate such a fellow would call
for all his ability--and perhaps all his strength and courage.

All the same, though he was constantly on the alert, Clement made
the most of his opportunities with Heloise. It was for the good of
Heloise--and it was extraordinarily attractive for himself. He wasn’t
going to marry her. That was absurd.... How could he? Only--only
she was decisively and radiantly pretty. The singular glowing
curd-whiteness of her skin, the vividness of her beautiful and delicate
lips against the coolness of that skin, the clearness and steadiness of
her eyes--all these things gave him an eversharpening sense of delight
whenever he set eyes on her.

And her step suited his so perfectly. On board ship, one is immensely
appreciative of any one whose step suits one perfectly. Her tall figure
swung so gracefully, so untiringly, beside him as they walked, no
matter if the sea was as smooth as polished glass--which the Atlantic
rarely is--or whether there was a “lop” on. She was as physically
fit and as hard as he was, and she took the same zest in out-of-door
things. He felt a sort of comradeship, a rightness in the fact that
they should stride up and down the promenade deck together in such a
perfect unison as almost to suggest they were one....

As though they were one!... but, of course, that was idiotic. They
weren’t one. There was no suggestion of their being one. One--that
meant marriage. And that question didn’t come up. Although, of course,
the little lawyer had said ... “Oh, hang the little lawyer!” he
muttered.

“Who are you hanging?” asked Heloise, who was near and who had heard
the most lethal part of his muttering.

“I was hanging this top-heavy sea,” said Clement genially. “I wanted
to show you the captain’s bridge--I’ve got permission--but with this
lop....”

“Show me the captain’s bridge--now,” she laughed back. “The lop doesn’t
matter--not a _hang_.”

That was part of her attraction. She really didn’t care a hang about
things that made other people uncomfortable. She enjoyed risks. She was
daring enough to go anywhere, see everything. They adventured into all
the strange and usually unseen parts of that splendid ship, even as far
as the boiler room. She was eager, she was interested in everything,
she had a zest for life. She was an ideal chum. More and more he began
to perceive that she was the ideal chum--anyhow for one particular man.
And presently he was saying not “Hang the little lawyer,” but “Hang
Henry Gunning.”

Because both had a healthy disregard for exposure, and a healthy regard
for fresh air, they became almost the sole occupants of the breezy boat
deck. There they sat daily and talked; there in the evenings they sat,
and sometimes did not talk.

In their talks they found splendid affinities. They found that they
liked so many similar things: not merely sports, books, theaters, the
open country and the other solaces of life, but other more significant
things. They found that both cared most in life for character: for
honesty, straightness, generosity, high-mindedness. They liked
intelligent people rather than merely jolly ones. They liked people who
did things rather than people who played at doing things. They found
that they had a mutual austerity of ideal in their way of looking at
problems ... would rather be the losers in anything than win underhand;
they would take the difficult path if it was the right one, rather than
the easy if it were wrong.

This brought them dangerously near to the core of the matter they
were both engaged on, dangerously near Henry Gunning ... yet both
instinctively veered away from that.

But he had come in when she spoke of her journey to Canada--though
even in this he came in only as “a friend, an old friend in whom I am
interested.”

This happened when they talked about Sicamous one night.

“I am going as far as Sicamous, at any rate,” she had said. “And that
reminds me, there are things I wanted to ask you about Sicamous....
Perhaps you remember--we were interrupted?”

“Something about mines, wasn’t it?” said Clement with a careful
casualness.

“Yes.... I want you to tell me all about mines in that area....
Now--please tell me.”

Clement laughed with a touch of dismay.

“But _all_ about them. That’s a terrifically large order. In the first
place, there’s nothing to say about them--and then there’s everything.”

“That sounds enigmatic. You’ll have to explain.”

“I mean by that there are not so very many mines--those at Nelson, on
Kootenay Lake--silver-mines, they are--are perhaps the most important.
But, on the other hand, it’s always supposed that there are great
possibilities among those rocky valleys.”

“Ah,” breathed the girl, “there are possibilities then.”

“Not thinking of going in for mining, are you?” Clement teased--and
with a reason.

“N-o,” said the girl. “It’s rather--it’s rather because a friend of
mine is interested. Deeply interested. I wanted to learn if there is
any foundation for--for expecting big things, immense returns from
mining in the Sicamous district.”

Clement was excited. Then it was mining. That was the venture Henry
Gunning was supposed to need backing for. He answered without any show
of his emotion. “What exactly are your friend’s interests--silver,
copper, gold?”

“All of them,” she answered quickly, and Clement though he saw the
character of Gunning at once in that report. Your unsuccessful
prospector is rather like that. He hasn’t merely a Golconda of one
metal up his sleeve--he has all the rare metals in the world, only
asking to be picked out of the surface ... if only some one will
oblige with the money to buy picks. “All of them,” repeated the girl.
“I understand that--that the claims (that’s right, isn’t it?) pegged
out show rich veins of gold, copper and silver, and there’s also
nickel--even platinum. It--is that possible?”

“I will say,” said Clement candidly, “It’s held to be possible.
Prospectors are always saying that the whole of the district is a
likely place for--yes, all those minerals.”

“These particular claims have been assayed and show excellent results.”

“They have, however, to be worked, I take it,” said Clement. “With
mines you can’t really tell until they have been worked.”

“Oh----” said the girl rather pitifully. “Then don’t you think there
is a possibility of an--an immense fortune in claims showing such good
sample results?”

“There might be. There is always that possibility.... On the other
hand, I should advise your friend to go with extreme caution.”

“You’re not--you’re not very stimulating,” she said ruefully.

“I’m just being as honest as I can,” said Clement, with a meaning she
could not appreciate, for actually he was. His whole instinct told him
to pour the coldest of cold water upon that mining scheme--and yet he
couldn’t altogether in fairness do that.

“I believe you are,” she said softly, and with a surprising intuition
she added, “I believe you’d be honest even against your own interests.”

In the tiny and quite significant pause that followed that touch of
curiously personal intimacy, Clement felt bound to say, “You see, Miss
Heloise, mining is a risky venture. You can throw away more money
and more easily in mining than you can in anything else--not even
excepting theaters and newspapers. There are so many things that make
it a gamble. The lode or stope may peter out. There may be immense
difficulties in cutting shafts. There may be fatal drawbacks in the
matter of transport, of working, of labor, and scores of things....
Mineral finds that look good at the first assay may not pay for their
keep when they come to be worked. I know these valleys. We came
across some seams that looked good. They looked enormously good to a
tenderfoot like myself, for example. But the experts with the party
wouldn’t look at them. Nothing in them. Not worth the blasting.... Your
friend certainly should be advised to move with the greatest care in
this matter.”

The girl was silent for a while.

“It hurts so to shatter people’s dreams,” she said in a low voice.
And then she said on a lighter note, “But I remember--you talked of
difficulties that turned on transport; most of the difficulties do,
don’t they?”

“Yes; it’s lack of transport facilities that kills most mining
ventures.”

“Well,” cried the girl, with glee, “that’s a difficulty that doesn’t
hold good here.... The railway runs within a very short distance of the
claims. Doesn’t that make it sound more hopeful?”

Clement said decisively, “It makes it sound hopeless.”

“Mr. Seadon!” she protested, aghast.

“It does,” said Clement, sure of himself. “Miss Heloise, if those
claims are only a very short distance from the railway, then they
are claims that could not have been overlooked. Don’t you see ...
railwaymen, engineers, prospectors, scores of people must have had a
chance of poking round. If there had been anything good there, it would
have been found long ago. And as it hasn’t happened--well----”

“You think there is no chance at all,” said the girl in dismay.

“I think,” said Clement impressively--this, he felt, was his great
opportunity. He must drive home truth into the soul of this girl,
though it was painful--“I think that you--that your friend should go
into this matter with the most scrupulous attention, that you--that
your friend should commit himself” (in his stress he overlooked the
gender he had employed) “in no way. All the dealings should be made
through unbiased experts--unbiased, Miss Heloise; some big mining
consultants with a reputation for straight-dealing.... Nobody locally.
I urge you to impress upon your friend the need of the greatest care.”

The girl gave a gasp. It was a gasp of misery. Clement felt sore and
sorry for her--but he must say what he had to say. Then she said with
pain, “Then you think--you think there might be something--underhand
about such a venture.”

“Yes,” said Clement slowly, “I think there is a great possibility of
there being something underhand in it--from what you tell me.”

“O-oh,” sighed the girl, and she fell back in her chair. Clement knew
why she was overcome. His confirmation of the suspicions that the
little lawyer Hartley Hard had fired at her, had forced her soul to
face an ugly conviction.

Clement, inexpressibly sorry for her, followed her action with his
eyes. He would like to help her, he felt in his heart an almost
agonized desire to do something to soothe her wounded soul. She was
so gentle, so young to have suffered a shock. He half turned in his
eagerness to help her.

Something--a shadow where there should have been the gray-blue light of
the open sea--caused him to lift his eyes.

Behind her chair, close behind, crouching against the bow of the boat
that shielded them from the wind, filling up the space through which
Clement should have been able to gaze straight out to sea, he saw a
figure.

A great, a bulky figure. The black, the stealthy figure of a mountain
of a man--listening.

He poised there for a minute--then he vanished.


IV

Heloise had had her warning--_and_ so had Mr. Neuburg.

What effect his warning would have on the girl, Clement did not know.
Time alone would show that. But he knew what would be the effect on
the big and sinister man.

It would be a direct declaration of war. Neuburg had heard something
which must tell him definitely that he--Clement Seadon--meant to
prevent Heloise Reys from having anything to do with Henry Gunning and
his wild-cat schemes.

In other words the mountainous Mr. Neuburg knew that Clement meant
to prevent him getting the million pounds which he considered his
legitimate plunder. And if Clement knew anything that was not the sort
of threat that the big man would suffer quietly.

It was going to be a fight, and, an ugly one. He made no mistake
about this Neuburg. He was a brilliant fellow and a criminal to boot.
He would not only employ all his cunning, but he would also stop at
nothing to gain his ends. Clement was perfectly certain that if it came
to the pinch, Mr. Neuburg would kill him, or have him killed, if he
felt it necessary.

But that thought only stiffened him. When he thought of Heloise and
her beauty and her trustfulness at the mercy of such blackguards, his
heart might grow sick, but his chin grew stiff also. He was not going
to allow Heloise to be their victim.

He’d beat the scoundrels. But how?

In his cabin after he had said good-night to Heloise, he thought it
out. Against a gang the odds were decidedly not in his favor. He could
be smothered by sheer weight if he fought them direct. Should he play
carefully to try and win Heloise to reason? Not a trustworthy policy.
They would be working against him all the time, and the slightest
slip might prove disastrous. Should he wait and expose this mining
scheme with his own knowledge? Dangerous again, there was no saying
how Heloise’s emotions might react when she saw her old lover, or what
cunning trick Mr. Neuburg might spring to win her emotions.

What then?

The words of the little lawyer rose up. “Make her love you! Marry her!”

By Jove, after all, that little lawyer was right. It was the only sure
thing. Marry her and her quixotic trip was finished. Marry her and
Gunning was ended and all that Gunning stood for. Marry her....

“And I _want_ to marry her,” he said to his looking glass. “Clement,
my dear ass, do look things in the face. You think she’s adorable. The
way she smiles; the way she lifts that soft little chin of hers; the
sound of her voice; that boyish brave air of hers ... all of her is
adorable. You know you want her, you know you want to marry her. Why
put on this ‘She loves another’ pose? She doesn’t really love him--it’s
just sentiment; while she does--well, she’s awfully fond of you. She
is, don’t pretend. Propose to her at once, propose to her before you
reach Quebec and you’ll carry her away. Marry her, that’s it, you want
to and you’ll also put a spoke in their wheels.”


V

And even while he was contemplating putting a spoke in the wheel of the
gang, it was actually putting a spoke in his.

He went to bed full of this happy resolve.

“To-morrow,” he said, “I’ll propose.”

The big Mr. Neuburg had slipped from his hiding place, with that
curious silent swiftness which went so strangely with his bulk, crossed
the boat deck noiselessly, and went down to the promenade.

He found the Gorgon sitting there, and he dropped into the seat beside
her. What he had to say was not very much, but it was apparently to the
point. She listened attentively, nodded, and when he finished she rose.

But before she went to her cabin, she took from him a paper.

“Make this your opening,” Mr. Neuburg said. “I know you are clever;
this is a time for being very clever. Be very natural ... be very
sympathetic ... do not pretend this letter has any significance for
you.”

When Heloise, tired and dispirited, came down to the cabin, she
found her companion already half undressed. Not very talkative, she
never was, but showing no emotion against or for anybody--Clement,
of course, was the anybody. It was no different from any of the
going-to-bed scenes that had taken place since they came on board--that
is, it wasn’t until Heloise, stretching out her hand for her hairbrush,
that inevitable feminine implement, encountered a folded sheet of
notepaper. She picked it up absently. It was a business letter, that
had been folded lengthways in three, and the printed heading was on the
outside. She read the name of the firm which had sent it--Rigby & Root.

“Méduse,” she said in a surprised voice. “Did I leave this lying about?”

“Did you leave what lying about, Loise?” said the companion in a quiet
voice, though, for all her apparent indifference, her singularly
immobile eyes seemed to gleam below the surface.

“This letter--from my lawyers?”

At that, “Yes, you did,” said the companion--there was the nicest tinge
of reproach in her voice; it was beautifully done. “You did--on the
promenade deck. Yes, my dear Loise, it was on the very deck. I actually
kicked it out of my way before it occurred to me that it really was a
letter and not a dirty piece of paper. Then I picked it up, and saw
that name on the outside--Rigby & Root. And I was surprised--your
lawyers, of course; I knew that--so naturally I brought it straight
down here....”

“How could I have taken it up on deck?” said Heloise, puzzled.

“That I don’t know,” said Méduse pleasantly. “Unless you are like
me, and use the first thing that comes to hand as a bookmarker. It’s
not always wise. I remember once opening a book at a young woman’s
religious instruction class, and the piece of paper I had used as a
marker slipped out for all to see ... and it was a handbill of the most
lurid sort of play--a very fast play even. You see I....” Her manner
was gossipy, perfect, but she did not have to carry her garrulous
anecdote to a finish.

First, Heloise said, “But a lawyer’s letter.” And then with a sort of
gasp she cried, “But it’s not my letter.”

The Gorgon switched round, smiling indulgently. “My dear ... but I saw
the name at the top--Rigby & Root.”

“Yes, it’s from Rigby & Root,” said Heloise in a curious voice, for she
was at that moment, and abruptly, a prey to strange emotions of doubt
and suspicion.

“Well, if it’s from Rigby & Root----” said the Gorgon indolently.

“It’s addressed to Mr. Clement Seadon,” said Heloise in a dry voice.

The Gorgon’s look of smiling amazement was an admirable piece of
acting. “But, my dear--whatever are your lawyers writing to Mr. Seadon
about?”

And that well-barbed dart was fired with beautiful precision. Without
the slightest appearance of malice, the Gorgon had underscored the
significant fact that Mr. Clement Seadon was connected with the little
lawyer Hartley Hard (a partner in Rigby & Root), who had shown himself
so prejudiced against Henry Gunning and Heloise’s journey to Canada.
She looked at the girl, her eyebrows raised in faint amusement and
surprise. “What could Mr. Hard be writing to Mr. Seadon about?”

Heloise did not read other people’s letters, but the circumstances made
it impossible for her not to read that short and very businesslike
communication. It was unthrilling. It dealt with the sale of certain
stocks, and the buying of certain bonds. It was not signed by the
irritating Mr. Hard. She said, “It’s not from Mr. Hard. It’s from
Mr. Root himself” (Rigby was dead). “And it’s about nothing in
particular--just business. Apparently Rigby & Root are Mr. Seadon’s
lawyers also.”

Heloise had an air of dismissing any implication of underhand conduct.
But she had not dismissed it. The surprising fact, brought before her
mind so suddenly and neatly, made her feel that she had been trusting
somebody who could not be trusted. He was in league with the man who
had tried to hamper her movements.... She tried to tell herself, of
course, that there was no ground for such a thought; people can have
the same lawyers without conspiring with those lawyers. But the shock
of it, the coincidence of it cut the ground from under her.... This
young man who had only just now taken pains to set her against Henry
Gunning and his mining schemes was intimate with her lawyers, who had
also taken pains to set her against Henry Gunning.... The facts seemed
too pronounced to admit of coincidence.... And while she was feeling
sore, rankled, the clever companion pushed the barb of suspicion a
little deeper.

“How strange that you should both have the same lawyers,” she said with
an air of innocent wonder. “How strange that he should know that Mr.
Hard who has been so annoying to you.”

It was, of course, the attitude of Méduse Smythe to pretend that
she had little or nothing to do with Heloise’s trip to Canada. She
pretended all along to play a passive part. All the initiative was
supposed to come from Heloise.

Méduse Smythe was clever. She had the master brain of Mr. Neuburg to
prompt her, and she had played her cards subtly, so that although
it was she alone who had inspired the high-minded girl to undertake
this adventure, she was yet able to pose as no more than a lucky and
accidental link in the chain of circumstances. Heloise thought of her
only as a companion who was but faintly and sentimentally interested in
an act of her employer’s life over which she had no control. It was to
keep up this air of being altogether outside the business that Méduse
had said not that Mr. Hard was annoying to “us,” but that “Mr. Hard had
been so annoying to _you_.”

Her attitude gave her so many advantages. Thus when Heloise said in
answer to that little flick on the raw, “I wonder whether he knows
Mr. Hard?” she was able to say with an admirable and impersonal air.
“Well, it didn’t seem important before, but it may explain why he has
monopolized you since you came on board.”

Heloise was suddenly aware how easily, how frequently she had slipped
off with Clement Seadon. Had he monopolized her? Why----? She
remembered how she had talked to him about Sicamous, about mining. How
he had warned her.... Was that the reason? His lawyers were her lawyers
... her lawyers had warned her, too. Was that the reason?

And then as the girl sat quietly, feeling suspicious, miserable,
hurt, the clever Miss Méduse Smythe improved the shining hour. She
fired another little barb: “Of course, you are both young, and he is
very handsome and has charming ways with him--I could understand your
getting on so well together ... indulging in even a little ship-board
flirtation.”

Heloise gasped. She was acutely conscious of Clement’s good looks, his
charming ways--had they been used to an end? And flirting--had she
flirted?

“You think I have been flirting?” she said in a low, breathless voice.

“You?” smiled Miss Méduse tolerantly. “Oh, no, I don’t think you
flirted, my dear. I know how you feel about your Mr. Gunning.” Heloise
winced. She had not been feeling very much about Mr. Gunning lately.
She was unpleasantly reminded of her inconstancy--as Miss Méduse Smythe
meant her to be reminded. “I knew you were safe enough,” the smiling
companion went on, “but I don’t know about that young man.... He
seemed, well, yes, I must say, I think he flirted.”

That practically ended the conversation. A conversation with apparently
very little in it, but a very telling conversation all the same.
When Heloise went to bed she carried it with her. And as she tossed
unsleeping, its different phases kept turning over in her mind, turning
over and over with something of the steady throbbing of the engines in
their ceaselessness.

So that while Clement Seadon, also awake, was tossing in his bunk,
the throb of the engines beating out entrancingly the thoughts, “I’ll
marry her ... I love her and I’ll marry her ... I’ll make her marry
me ... I’ll save her through loving her....” Heloise lay awake asking
herself: “Is he in league against me? Is he tricking me? After all I
thought of him, isn’t he tricking me? His lawyers are my lawyers. He
has wormed out my secret from me ... things my lawyers did not know.
Things they wanted to know? Was that accidental, or was it cunning? Is
he fighting against--Harry?” She shivered in disgust at herself. “Harry
... have I acted honorably towards Harry? I have flirted with this man
... flirted! I’ve enjoyed his company, I’ve come to like him ...” she
could not go on. She dare not go on. She dare not put her feelings for
Clement Seadon under close examination.... “I’ve behaved dishonorably.
I’ve forgotten Harry for this man who has--has been working against
Harry.” Her heart chilled. “Perhaps his--his flirting with me was part
of his plan against Harry....”

The whole of these thoughts jumbled and tumbled together in her
anguished mind. The duplicity of Clement Seadon became entangled
with her own inconstancy towards Henry Gunning, until, in the end,
they became one and the same thing, and Seadon was the archvillain
responsible for all ... as the adroit Mr. Neuburg and the clever Miss
Méduse Smythe had meant him to be.

And so when the morning came Clement rose saying with immense purpose,
“I’ll do it to-day. It’s the last day; to-morrow we land. I will tell
her I love her to-day. I’ll _make_ her love me.”

As he said that with great cheerfulness, Heloise, rising, jaded, worn
out, with a mind incapable of clear and unprejudiced thought, said, “I
must find out. I’ll put it to the test. I’ll confront him with this
letter. And if I am right....”

She knew a little pain, but that only strengthened her resolve. If she
found out she was right, then it would be finished. Clement Seadon
would not be allowed to intrude into her life again.


VI

It was the last day of the voyage, and Clement Seadon, supremely
conscious of the fact, was feeling baffled.

Again Heloise Reys was proving unapproachable. Again he was finding it
difficult to get near her because of the crowd about her. The blockade
of the first days of the trip was resumed.

But now Clement could not view this blockade with equanimity. He could
not smile and bide his time--there was no time. Already they were
passing up the mighty river St. Lawrence, already the end of the voyage
was in sight. A few hours only were all that were left to him. He must
get her alone.

He could not get her alone--not for a moment. And as the day
relentlessly advanced, a further, a more disturbing thought was born
in upon him--she did not want to be left alone with him. He began
to realize this with a sense of dismay. It was she who was putting
barriers between them. It was she who kept her companion close at her
side, who actually invited the big man to fill the vacancy when the
companion went away. It was not the pair shutting him out; it was
Heloise herself deliberately shutting him out with the pair.

He could not understand it. She had left him in perfect friendliness
last night. There was no hint of misunderstanding--estrangement. Why
had she changed? What was causing her to stand so aloof from him? Was
it the doing of that precious rascally pair? Was it anything he himself
had done or said? Was it, perhaps, the way he had talked about the
mining venture? He did not think so. He knew that had pained her--that
could not be helped; but it had not offended her. She had left him,
well, in such a manner that he had felt confident of winning her as a
lover....

No, it wasn’t that--but what was it? Some deep and cunning game of
those rogues. Something subtle and devilish emanating from the brain of
that master villain Neuburg--that was the only explanation. But what
it was he could not find out. And the fact that there was so little
time to find out, win back her confidence--that and the real ardor he
felt for her, robbed his wits of their habitual steadiness, made them
unstable, in a crisis.

And the crisis came. It came with an unfair abruptness. It could not
be aught else, for Heloise’s wits were also in something of a whirl.
She was dreading the moment of confronting Clement, just as she was
determined that she would do so. Her mind had been an affair of veering
unstability all day. Now she believed him to be underhand, now she
disbelieved. Now she hated him, now she thought he could do nothing
dishonorable. Now she made up her mind to go to him, now she held back.
She was a mass of hesitations and decisions; she was hot, and she was
cold.

She made up her mind only a few minutes before the dressing-bugle
sounded. Clement had tramped past her in dark loneliness, had turned
and passed round the end of the deck. She felt, “I must do it now
or never.” With an indefinite gesture, more than half an appeal for
support, to her companion, she rose and went after him.

She expected to see him on the other side of the deck, and she would
call him and hand him his letter.... But when she reached the end of
the deck she actually ran into him. He had swung round on his heel,
returned in his tracks.... As a matter of fact, he had made up _his_
mind to talk to her, to demand an explanation from her.

They met. It was a shock. They stared at each other a little
breathless. Then, “This is your letter,” said Heloise.

Clement took it, looked at it, frowned.

“Yes, it is,” he said. “But how on earth....” Heloise wasn’t going to
trouble about trivial explanations.

“I looked at it because Rigby & Root are my lawyers as well as your
own--did you know that?”

Clement was too honest, as well as too startled, to tell anything but
the truth.

“Yes, I did know it,” he said.

Heloise’s breath caught in something like a sob. There was a sudden
blaze of contempt and anger in her heart; she had trusted this man ...
and liked him.

“And you knew about me ... about the reason of my voyage?”

“Miss Reys----” he began.

“Did you?” she cried. “Did you?”

“Yes, I knew, but----”

“You knew,” she cried at him, and her face was white. “And you were
acting in the interests of--of Mr. Hard?...”

Clement stared at her. This sudden attack had left his wits woolly and
bewildered. And, of course, he was, in a sense, acting in the interests
of Mr. Hard. If he said he wasn’t he would be lying. And yet Mr. Hard
wasn’t the whole of the thing ... but the whole of the thing.... How
could he explain it to her in this unsympathetic mood, in the presence
of her archenemy and his, Miss Méduse?... He couldn’t explain. He could
only temporize. He cried, “Miss Reys ... there is an explanation behind
it all....”

He got no further. Heloise read his hesitation correctly. He _was_
acting for Mr. Hard. He had, under the guise of friendship, been
conspiring against her....

She turned about. Clutching the arm of the clever Miss Méduse Smythe
she walked away, left him.


VII

The first thing Clement Seadon did was to give way to one of those
outbursts of anger that, in time, bring calmness. They had scored over
him--they had tricked him, these blackguards. They had dealt him a very
damaging blow.

Then from this anger against their very definite triumph, his cooling
brain turned to the matter which had helped them to score that point.
The explanation he found was perfectly simple. That letter had been
stolen from his despatch case. He was not of the type that leaves
letters lying about, particularly lawyers’ letters. Theft, that was the
solution. Some one had been through his effects. They had found this
letter, appreciated its worth as a means of alienating Heloise. They
had been clever, as clever as he thought they were, and had struck at
him at the psychological moment.

Who had been the thief? That, again, was easy. Who else but the
rascally steward, a fellow in their pay, a member of the gang, who had
the right to come and go in all the cabins. And, now that the thing
was brought acutely to his mind, he recalled seeing the rogue hanging
about in the gallery, conspicuously near his door. He remembered him,
not merely because of his redoubtably evil face, but also because he
was so resolutely dirty.... His should-be white steward’s jacket had a
beastly and disfiguring stain of yellow--rust, perhaps--up the left arm
and shoulder.

Yes, that criminal-looking steward was the thief--but what matter? That
part was passed and over. Could the thing be remedied? It looked black.
It looked as though Heloise Reys would for the future hold him at arm’s
length--only she must not. For her own sake, if not for his, he must
prevent her holding him at arm’s length. He must speak with her.

It would be difficult. He might see and be able to speak to her
to-night, after dinner, but he was not hopeful. She would evade
him--Neuburg and the Gorgon would see to that. To-morrow--less hope
to-morrow. The hustle and bustle of leaving the ship at Quebec would
give no opportunity. At Quebec ... he gained a ray of comfort. At
Quebec, yes, it might be done. He knew that she was to stay at the
Château Frontenac for at least two days. She had told him she had rooms
reserved there.... And so had he. Well, if he could not see her, even
if he had to force himself upon her, during those two days, then he
wasn’t the man he thought he was.

Quebec would be his salvation. Quebec would see him right himself with
her, put him on a footing which would enable him better to counteract
the plans of her enemies. He felt more sanguine.

More than that, he felt his old capacity and alertness come back to him.

It was as well it did. He had full need of those qualities.

For the gang was not leaving things to chance. Mr. Neuburg, that master
mind, was aware that Quebec would give him opportunities for regaining
ground with Heloise. Mr. Neuburg meant to prevent that.

As the great liner pushed up the vast river towards that city of beauty
and history, that on its great cliff hangs like a fairy citadel over
the shining waters, Mr. Neuburg acted. He devised an acute, a cunning
and a beastly plan for getting Clement Seadon out of the way.

As the big vessel was wharping into the dockside, Clement Seadon,
who had remained on deck to the last possible moment in the hope of
seeing Heloise Reys, went below. He went below disconsolately to gather
together his traps, and to prepare for his effort in Quebec.

He went below, past the busy stewards working in their shirt-sleeves
among the baggage, past their glory hole, full of their clothes and
their intimate litter, past the many scattered trunks and suitcases
ready to be taken off, past the wholesale reminders of voyages ended,
and into his own cabin.

His own kit was, of course, already packed. A good traveler, he got
through that swiftly and early. Now he gathered together his stick and
his mackintosh and his hat ready for departure. He sat down on his bunk
and felt for his cigarette case.

His cigarette case indicated the state of mind he was in; it was empty.
For a moment, and in sheer desperation, he felt that he could not be
bothered to unstrap his suitcase and dive to its bottom for smoking
materials. Then he drove his melancholy from him, pulled the heavy
leather case towards him.

In thirty seconds his hand encountered something hard and edgy.
Something strange to his groping fingers.... He tugged it out....

In the palm of his hand lay a thing that glittered and flashed. A thing
of immense worth--_a woman’s tiara_.

A woman’s diamond tiara in his suitcase. It was incredible.

Then Clement Seadon jumped alertly to his feet. He saw the meaning of
that tiara at once. It had been put there so that he should be branded
as a thief, that he--by gad!--that he should be arrested, be kept under
lock and key while Heloise Reys was in Quebec.

He saw it all. The devils, the clever devils, this was their
plan--Neuburg’s plan--to get him out of the way.

What should he do? The thing was immensely valuable. Return it?... No,
couldn’t risk wandering about with that in his possession, for anybody
to fling accusations. Oh, but there was something quite simple ...
there always is. The purser ... he’d run right along to the purser,
hand it to him, say that he had found it. He’d do it now. He guessed
he’d have to be quick. Neuburg and his gang would see to it that the
loss of that tiara did not go long undiscovered.

He almost ran along the gallery towards the purser’s office. He did not
get far. Before he came to the accommodation stairs that led up to the
smoking saloon, stairs that stood between him and the purser, he heard
an excited babble of voices coming down those stairs.

Yes, there was a definite excitement in them. Men’s voices raised in
protest and advice. A woman’s voice, hysterical and accusative.... A
woman who had a grievance.

The hunt was up.... They were after that tiara.

It was absolutely impossible to go on. They were bound to see him ...
and he had that damnable tiara on him.... He glanced about wildly....
There seemed no way of escape, and the voices were very near.... They
were about to come round the corner.... Like a fox bolting to earth,
Clement Seadon dived into the empty glory hole. He crouched behind
the door amid the hanging coats.... The voices passed him talking
at a babble.... He heard them drifting along the gallery towards his
cabin.... He stood up, scrutinizing his lair carefully. No other way
out except by the door he had come in. He waited a few moments. Then
he stepped out quietly, and walked a little way towards the purser’s
office, he must not on any account show haste. He heard voices behind
him, he faced about for a moment and looked.... It was a crucial
moment. As he looked, the captain of the ship walked out from the
alleyway in which his cabin stood, looked along the gallery towards him
... saw him.

He saw him and immediately called out, “Hello, Seadon” (genial Captain
Heavy was an old friend), “I say, you’re the man we want. Would you
mind coming along here for a moment, my good chap?”

Clement Seadon, with a throbbing heart, went along. He went to his
own cabin. There seemed to be a crowd of people in that cabin. In the
blur which his painful sensations brought to him, Clement could only
distinguish one excited and angry lady and a steward--the evil little
steward. He turned his face quickly away from these. He looked at
Captain Heavy. He meant to say something to Heavy, but his mouth was
parched.

Captain Heavy, his good-tempered face frowning, understood that
inquiring look. “Yes, it does seem an idiot mob to thrust into a
man’s cabin, old chap. None of my doing. I--well, look here, it’s a
rotten and unwarrantable thing, but--but you see this lady has lost a
valuable piece of jewelry ... a diamond tiara.... She says it has been
stolen....”

“It has been stolen,” snapped the lady.

“Well--she says it has been stolen. And one of the stewards declares he
knows who did it. In fact--in fact, old man, he has the--the effrontery
to say that it was--_you_.”

“Well,” said Clement, in a voice whose evenness surprised him.

“Well--well,” said the distressed captain. “Well--they came along to
see for themselves--to--to search.”




CHAPTER III


I

There was a moment of deep silence in the cabin after the definite and
cruel accusation was made. Clement swept the little crowd with a glance
he strove to make amazed.

“I have been accused of theft! I am to be searched!...” he said. “My
dear Heavy, this is absurd!”

“I know! I know! I’ve said that already. This la--they’ve taken the
matter into their own hands.”

“But to be searched--the idea is infamous.”

“You can refuse,” said Heavy. “And await--er--the authorities.”

“And I stay here,” said the lady, like a figure of vengeance, “until
the authorities come. I am _not_ going to lose my tiara.”

“You’d scarcely do that, madam,” said the captain soothingly.
“Even--even if Mr. Seadon had it, he could scarcely get rid of it.
If he tried to get rid of it through his porthole people would see
him--we’re alongside. And in any case his porthole is shut....”

Seadon, with a start, darted a glance to the porthole. Heavy’s remarks
had closed that loophole pretty thoroughly, he thought.

“All the same, I stay,” said the lady implacably. “Unless, of course,
Mr. Seadon allows us to search.”

“Shall I signal the police, sir?” asked the evil-looking little steward.

“Is this the man who accused me?” Clement asked sharply, and as the
captain nodded, “What’s the reason behind this charge?” he demanded
cuttingly of the fellow.

“Reason b’ind it?” snarled the man. “Ain’t no reason be’ind it. It’s
just that when Mrs. Smot said she lorst ’er dimend terara, well I
recalled or recollected I’d seen _you_ ’angin’ about suspicious like,
comin’ out of ’er cabin where an’ when you ’ad no right to be there.”

“And how is it you saw me come out of this lady’s cabin?”

“’Ow! ’Ow! Strewth, ain’t I ’er cabin steward?”

“Oh, you’re her cabin steward. You’re the one who has the _entré_ to
her cabin. What’s the record of this man, Heavy?” Seadon rapped out the
sentences with a fighting air, obviously trying to parry suspicion.

“Don’t know,” answered Heavy, who was feeling that it was rather stupid
of Seadon to act like this, when a search, distasteful though it might
be, would clear him at once. “Don’t know. He only signed on this
voyage; we don’t know anything about him.”

“If you think you c’n switch it off ter me,” said the steward with an
evil grin, “lemme tell you _I_ don’t mind being searched, anyhow.”

“Oh!” said Clement, catching his breath.

“Yes,” said the lady acidly. “I don’t see why any man, if he is
innocent, should object to being searched.”

Clement acknowledged that he could no longer fence off the evil moment.
He turned to the captain with a resigned air. “There are my bags,”
he said. “I haven’t been in the baggage room since I came aboard, as
your baggage master can testify. If that tiara is anywhere it is in
my suitcases.” He pointedly drew attention to his suitcases. He noted
that the steward attended to this fact. For though he searched the
suitcases with great cunning, starting first on the one he _had not_
put the tiara into, so as to hide his own knowledge, he seemed to have
something on his mind.

It was very definitely on his mind after he had drawn blank in the
suitcases, had drawn blank in his careful examination of the cabin, and
had reassured himself that the porthole had been locked, anyhow, since
this morning.

He stood up studying Clement with lowering and evil eyes. He said, “No,
it ain’t anywhere ’ere. Not in the suitcases or anywheres. There’s
only ’imself.”

“You seem curiously anxious to fix suspicion on me,” said Clement
sharply. “To divert it, I might say.”

“Well, there’s nowhere else, is there?” snapped the man.

“Captain Heavy,” said Clement, with an anger that must affect the
captain, “Am I to submit to this outrage any longer? Is this man to fix
suspicion on me for some reason of his own?...”

“I don’t want ter search ’im, if ’e don’t want it. There’s always th’
police,” said the steward.

Clement turned swiftly to the captain. He held his arms out straight.
“Please search me, captain,” he said savagely.

Captain Heavy with a little shrug, and a “I wish this was merely a
joke, old man,” searched Clement. He did the job in the Scotland Yard
manner. It was complete, it was brilliantly thorough. When he had
finished he stepped back and stared at the steward. He also stared at
the lady. And he said, bitterly, “Well?”

The lady’s face showed that apoplectical tint that might come to even
the best-nourished woman when she is torn by the two powerful but
contrary emotions, those of groveling apology, and anger with a steward
who had made her look a fool.

The steward--well, the steward simply goggled at Clement. There was
incredulity and also fear showing in his devastated countenance. He had
been ready to pounce at the first glitter of a diamond. He had been
ready to suggest some hiding place overlooked by the captain. He was
sure that the tiara must be on Clement’s person since it was not in his
suitcase--where he himself had put it.

Captain Heavy glared at him, and snapped, “Well, my man, what have you
got to say? You’ve subjected a passenger on _my_ ship to a disgusting
indignity--for what?”

“It--it must be on ’im,” said the steward, sullenly backing away, his
mind absolutely bewildered by the unexpected absence of the tiara.

“Must!” thundered the captain. “Good God! man, do you want me to take
his skin off?”

“Well, ’e ’as it. Didn’t I see ’im ’angin’ about----”

“We’ll get to the bottom of this. As I knew, Mr. Seadon did _not_ take
that tiara. Why the devil did you accuse him? I want to know that? And
now.”

“I think”--said Clement in a cold voice--“I think I have already
suggested why.”

“Eh, Seadon? You suggested? What did you suggest, my good chap?” cried
the captain, only too anxious for the good of his service to make
amends.

“I suggested that he was anxious to fix suspicion on some one--some
one other than himself.”

“Yes--to divert suspicion. That’s it. That’s what you said,” snapped
the lady, who not only had a natural instinct for finding scapegoats,
but who owed the steward something for making her appear so
conspicuously foolish.

“Ah, divert suspicion,” said the captain, swinging round on the steward
and appreciating his substantial air of villainy for the first time. “I
see. You are this lady’s cabin steward, and----”

Clement might have helped the good work along. There was no need. The
lady was only too anxious to help the good work along herself.

“And he had the run of my cabin,” she piped. “_He_ could go in there
whenever he liked, do what he liked, _take_ what he liked.”

“I never,” snarled the steward, cringing back, glaring hate at Clement.
He felt that this softy-looking young man had turned the tables on him
in some way. He was afraid. But more, he resented the fact that this
dandy fellow, who looked the last person to possess brains in good
working order should be tying him in such a knot. As his wits darted
back over the happenings and the talk in that cabin during the last few
minutes, he saw, blazingly, that its apparent casualness had really
been a net to entangle him. In a desperate effort to beat the brain
working against him, he cried, “I never took nuthin’. If I ’ad, would
I ’ave pushed meself forward in this ... brought meself inter the
limelight? I risked sumthin’ accusin’ _’im_, though it was me duty.”

Clement might have said something. There was no need. He never believed
in doing work others could do better. The incensed lady did it much
better. She cried, “That was only your vile cunning. Of course it was.
My tiara is missing--who would be the first person I would accuse? The
cabin steward--naturally. And naturally my cabin steward would know it.
If he wasn’t a thief--it wouldn’t matter. If he was--well, he’d do his
best to divert suspicion, as Mr. Sneezedon----”

“Seadon,” from Heavy.

“--Seadon said. Oh, I see it. You suggested some one I did not know,
on the other side of the ship, to lead me away. You joined furiously
in the search so that I should be convinced that you, at least, were
honest. Oh, I see it. I see it. You pretended to be honest to cover up
your guilt.”

“Guilt ... cut out the guilt. I _ain’t_ guilty,” snarled the steward,
backing farther away, and watching Clement all the time. What had
this man who looked so inconsequent, and wasn’t, up his sleeve. “I
didn’t take that terara.” He made another desperate effort in defense.
“An’--an’ why should I pick on this gentleman ’ere, of all passengers.
Why?”

Clement cut in like a flash. This was his time to speak. “Because at
the very beginning of the voyage I kicked you out of this cabin--since
you were in it, and had no right to be in it. Because you tampered with
my private papers during the voyage, and you know I know it, and want
either to prejudice beforehand any report I might make, or to get me
out of the way.... Isn’t that true?”

“My God!” jerked the man at the mention of the papers, “’ow did you
know that?... I mean I never did.” He stared at Clement, his face
working. If the gang had utilized that stolen letter with great effect
against Clement, he had turned their own weapon against them with
dismaying force. The mere mention of it had staggered the steward.
Already convicted of theft out of his own mouth the steward was at
a loss. It was Captain Heavy who acted next. He rang the cabin bell
imperiously. When Clement’s own steward, Nicholson, answered, he
snapped, “Nicholson, have this man’s effects searched--at _once_.
Make it a thorough search. A diamond tiara is missing. This fellow
has accused Mr. Clement Seadon of taking it.” Nicholson regarded the
evil-faced steward with a sudden glance in which benevolence was
conspicuously absent. He knew Mr. Clement Seadon. Also Captain Heavy
knew he knew Mr. Clement Seadon. “It’s more than likely that he has
merely accused Mr. Seadon to distract attention from himself. Get to
it.”

Nicholson got to it. With another unbrotherly glance at the steward he
nipped out of the cabin and sped towards the glory hole. The evil-faced
lad attempted an air of insouciance. He even called after Nicholson,
“Search ’ard, me bucky. I’ve already expressed me willingness.”

The lady who had been so ready to accuse proved herself more than
ready to apologize. Her method of apology was lavish, but particularly
unsatisfactory to the evil-faced steward. It was one long hymn of hate
concerning the steward. His feelings grew more and more disturbed as
the minutes passed.

He was confident it was all right, it was bound to be all right, he
told himself. He’d been most careful. Nothing could go wrong with ’im.
Nothing ... or anyhow, he thought nothing could go wrong with him. He
saw no reason for feeling scared ... but....

Nicholson came into the cabin.

Nicholson looked wisely at Clement; with resignation at his superior
officer; with a certain touch of cheeriness at the evil-faced steward.

He lifted his right hand. He opened it. Something flamed and flashed.

“My tiara,” screamed the lady.

“In the pocket of this,” said Nicholson, lifting up a steward’s white
jacket.

“My coat--my oath,” blurted the evil-faced steward.

There was no doubt about it. That dirty coat with its yellow
stain--probably rust--on its arm and shoulder was unmistakable.
Everybody recognized it. Clement Seadon had never forgotten it, in fact.

“A cunnin’ hiding-place,” said Nicholson. “Hunted all through his--his
effects, as ordered, finding nothing. Never thought of looking in his
coat. Never would have thought. Only we see it hanging in the glory
hole.”

That was where Clement Seadon had seen it hanging last--in the glory
hole when he had dodged in there for cover. He smiled.

“My oath!” burst out the evil-faced steward, seeing that smile. “My
oath--in my coat pocket. _You_ put it there.”

He stared at Clement in hate. Clement’s smile was even sweeter.

“Of course I put it there.” And only he and the steward knew that he
was telling the truth. The others merely appreciated his sarcasm.

“That settles that,” said Captain Heavy. “Nicholson, take this brute
out, and keep him safe until the police come aboard. Seadon, I can’t
tell you how mad I am that all this has happened. It’s infamous.... If
it’s any consolation, I’ll promise you that this scoundrel will be made
to suffer in full....”

But the rest doesn’t matter, nor do the voluble apologies of the lady
of the tiara matter. All that matters is that Clement Seadon left the
_Empress_ for the Château Frontenac, just about the time that the
police went on board her to arrest and convey the steward to prison.

And in the lobby of the Château Frontenac, the first person he saw was
the mountain of a man--Mr. Neuburg.

Mr. Neuburg was standing facing the door, and he started perceptibly
as Clement came into the hotel. He betrayed himself by a quick stride
forward and a muttered oath.

Clement smiled. He said cheerfully, “Oh, were you expecting the _other_
fellow? Sorry. He took my place--at the last minute. You’ll know where
to find him, I think--or, anyhow, the first _policeman_ will direct
you----”

The mountain of a man stared across Clement’s shoulder for a moment. In
his usually placid eye there was a red light of rage. His hand, with
fist clenching, lifted to the level of his ribs. He gulped. Without
another sign he swung round and went with his surprising swiftness out
of the lobby.


II

Clement Seadon went to his room with a certain geniality in his heart.

When making his reservation at the reception counter he had carefully
studied the room bookings before his name. The clerk had said to him,
“I’ll give you a nice room on the fifth floor, Mr. Seadon. A good room.
Overlooks Dufferin Terrace and the river. One of the best rooms we’ve
got.”

“I know it,” said Clement pleasantly. “Ripping view.... Have you
anything on the same gallery as 359? I don’t mind if there isn’t a
view.”

“Why, yes,” said the clerk, “I can give you 362. It’s round the corner,
but it’s on the same floor and only three doors away. Same view, too.
It’s an intercommunicating bathroom, but locked on your side, of
course. You’ll like that room.”

Clement Seadon hastily scanned the names above his. Who had room
361--on the other side of his intercommunicating bathroom? His heart
beat. He said,

“You’re right. I fancy I shall more than like room 362.”

The name against room 361 was “Adolf Neuburg.”

The Frontenac has two lifts. As Clement knew this brilliant hotel quite
well, he could choose his lift with cunning and so could get into his
room without being seen on the gallery in which Mr. Neuburg had his
door.

There was a matter for further satisfaction, and also, it must be said,
for a certain anxiety in this business of rooms. He had had luck in
getting a room next Mr. Neuburg’s. His choice of the gallery itself
had been deliberate. Heloise Reys had her room on that gallery.

He had looked for her name at once, before he had sought out the name
attached to room 361. He had seen that the room booked to Heloise
Reys was 359. The room booked to Méduse Smythe, the companion, was
360--it was to be expected. They had rooms together--probably also
with a communicating bathroom. It was only when he had discovered Mr.
Neuburg’s room that a feeling of anxiety crept into his thoughts. For,
obviously, Mr. Neuburg had the room next Méduse Smythe. The gang had
deliberately arranged to group themselves--and their victim--together.
It probably went without saying that Méduse, the Gorgon, and Mr.
Neuburg also had a communicating bathroom. They were all in rooms in
line, the victim, Heloise, the gang, and himself.

Clement went quickly to his room, left the door ajar, so that he would
not have to call out when the baggage man brought his baggage up--to
call out loud would be to warn Mr. Neuburg--and went very quietly
into his own bathroom. He felt the handle of his own internal door,
found it bolted, slipped the bolt, and carefully opened it. The door
of Mr. Neuburg’s room (there were double doors separating the rooms)
was shut, and it was probably bolted; anyhow, Clement was not going
to attract attention by trying the handle. What mattered was that
there was only a single thickness of door between him and the master
villain. He could hear the mountain of a man moving about quietly
inside his room. He heard him mutter an angry oath--probably directed
at his own (Clement’s) head; then, luck of luck, he heard him use his
telephone. It was of no importance. He was merely demanding his baggage
from the porter, but it gave Clement the knowledge that, unless Mr.
Neuburg whispered, it would be quite delightfully easy to overhear his
conversations. Nothing more happened then, and Clement closed his own
door again--and bolted it--as he heard the baggage man’s trolley coming
along the passage.

Only when that fellow had gone did he bolt his outer door, slip into
the bathroom, and wait for a conversation he thought was bound to come.
Mr. Neuburg, he felt, must open his bruised heart to the companion
Méduse.

He had some time to wait, but he did not mind. He was feeling satisfied
with events. He had these devils on the hip. There was no doubt of
that. They had given him definite facts to put before Heloise. He could
go straight to her now and tell her how the lawyer’s letter had been
stolen from him in order that Méduse Smythe could work on her feelings,
and how the rogues had endeavored to get him out of the way with the
business of the tiara.

They were bold, were they? He was going to be bold, too. Heloise
should have the cold facts without apology. He was more than certain
how a clearly honest nature like hers would view the revelations.
Neuburg was done, Méduse was done, Gunning was done--the plot was ended.

As he decided this in his mind, he heard a sound from the room beyond
the door.

“Aah ... it is all right, Méduse? You are free.... You are alone for
a few minutes?” ... A deep, slightly muffled voice said these words
curiously close to Clement Seadon’s ear.

It was Mr. Neuburg speaking. The companion Méduse had come into the
room on the other side of the bathroom door.


III

“Don’t talk, woman,” said Mr. Neuburg’s voice. “He is here, in this
hotel.”

“He ... who?” gasped a female voice. It was a little fainter than Mr.
Neuburg’s, who, Clement was delighted to hear, was in that masculine
condition of rage when he must “take it out” on some one.

“Don’t be a dense fool,” the big man snapped. “He ...! Who ...! The
Englishman, ninny. Is there another?”

“It is impossible. He has been arrested.”

“Pah! Do I have to keep on saying it? He is here. He has not been
arrested. He is somewhere in this hotel _now_. The Englishman, Clement
Seadon, is here. He is free. Do you begin to gather ... just a glimmer,
woman?”

“But”--the woman’s voice was almost scandalized--“but he was to have
been arrested. Molke was to see to it that he was arrested.”

“And he is not arrested. It is Molke who has been arrested.”

Clement heard the creak of a chair. The news had been too much for
the amiable Méduse. She had had to sit down--and sit down hard. He
would have liked to chuckle. He dare not. The snarling voice of the
mountainous Mr. Neuburg said with bitter passion, “Ah, you begin to
see. Something active begins to stir in your head. And you are shocked.
Well, I did not thrill with joy myself.... No, I do not know how it
happened. I only know I set Molke to effect this Englishman’s arrest,
and it doesn’t happen; it is Molke who is arrested instead.”

“Yes; but that--_that_ Englishman,” protested an incredulous female
voice.

“Yes--_that_ Englishman. Only, my dear Méduse, say ‘that Englishman’
with more respect. I assure you, he is like that. He does not look
like intelligence at all. He looks a mere decoration. He looks a mere
easy-going, meaningless, drawing-room young man without any wits of his
own.... And--and it is Molke who is arrested after all. Just appreciate
the fact, my dear. That is the Anglo-Saxon. He does not look like
anything in particular, and you find him sitting firmly on top of you
just at that moment when you are beginning to rub your hands over the
clever way you have knocked him down?”

“But--but Molke had him so tight.”

“So tight,” snarled Mr. Neuburg, “that Mr. Clement Seadon walked
smiling and calm into the lobby of the hotel, and still smiling, still
calm, told me to my face that he had beaten me at my own game.”

“He--_he_ told _you_ to your face?”

“In his own way, of course. He told me that he was not in prison,
but that the steward Molke was.... I am not so dull that I did not
understand him completely. But--but, you see what it means?”

“That--that”--the woman was a little flustered before the bullying
anger of her companion--“that means he is still a danger we have to
contend with.”

“Women”--said the mountainous Mr. Neuburg--“women are the apostles of
the obvious. Yes, he is a danger we have to contend with, my dear. Only
he is something more. It means that _he_ thinks _we_ are a danger that
no longer counts.... I see I will have to explain. This is truly your
day for being heroically dull. This man who looks foolish is not. He
knows that we have delivered ourselves into his hands. He is going to
strike--strike once and swiftly--and smash us. He will expose us to
Heloise Reys. That is why he is so confident. His sort do not taunt for
the mere sport of the thing.”

Clement smiled grimly, appreciating the acuteness with which Mr.
Neuburg had sized up the situation. Mr. Neuburg, also, was no fool.

“Heloise will not speak with him,” said the woman.

“He will speak with her. It will come to the same in the end. Oh, yes,
I tell you that is what he will do. He is not a man to miss chances.”

“We will prevent that,” said the woman.

“We will do our best to prevent that,” said the man.

Clement knew they would. He knew that to get that ten minutes’ talk
with Heloise would not be an easy matter.

He listened intently. Since they meant to prevent him speaking to the
girl, they might say how they meant to do it. He might, thanks to his
splendid good luck, overhear their plan for check-mating him. That would
be a crowning triumph. A silence settled down on the other side of the
door. Then, surprisingly, astoundingly, Neuburg growled, “But there is
something else. Gunning has broken loose again.”

Clement gasped--and so did the woman. But where his gasp was one of
astonishment, that of the woman was one of anger. “Ah, that was what
made Joe look so sour on the quayside. I saw he was there,” she gasped.
“Well--what is it now?”

“It is not revealed,” said Mr. Neuburg, being, apparently, sardonic.
“Nor is it revealed to where he has--vanished.”

“Vanished--you mean he’s left Sicamous?”

“My dear Méduse, he always leaves Sicamous. He is behaving, as he
always behaves--the slack-willed, backboneless swine.”

Clement registered that character reading of Henry Gunning in his mind.
Assuredly fortune was smiling on him to-day with her most genial smile.

The woman on the other side of the door suddenly showed a flash of
spirit.

“Just stop being clever, Adolf, and tell me exactly what Joe Wandersun
told you on the quayside.”

“He told me that Henry Gunning had been Henry Gunning. He got drunk, as
usual. He talked big about his idiot mine claims, as usual. He boasted
about the millionaire he’d be when his soft-hearted English sweetheart
married him--I suppose that’s as usual now. He then got a little
drunker. Told the world that he was going to strike the trail and ‘show
’em all.’ And he struck the trail--and--so--vanished.”

“And Joe sat down on his hunkers and watched him go?” said Méduse
bitterly.

“Leave Joe to me, my dear.” There was a nasty edge to the big man’s
tone, the position of Joe was not enviable. “Joe says that the brute
sneaked off in the night. Joe left him apparently sleeping the solid
sleep of ‘bootleg’ whisky in his shack. He thought he was safe for
eight hours. When he went there again in the morning Gunning had gone.
He had taken his kit, slipped off somewhere in the dark.”

“Well,” snapped the woman after a pause. “It doesn’t stop there, does
it? Joe didn’t just sit down and weep, did he? What’s he found out?”

Mr. Neuburg chuckled. “You are unerring, my dear,” he said. “As
you imply, our good Joe did not sit down and weep.... People who
work for Adolf Neuburg know better than to do that. Our Joe has
found out things. Not everything, but something. This sodden and
spineless Gunning struck east. No, my dear, do not spoil your burst
of intelligence by asking the obvious. If I knew exactly where he had
gone I should have mentioned it. You appreciate that? When one fails to
mention things it is because one doesn’t know. But we will know. Siwash
Mike is finding out. He will find out. That is his forte. In a day or
two we shall know where this fool Gunning is.”

The woman vented an exclamation.

“Ah, you see that that is the point, my mild Méduse. In a day or two.
That means, perhaps, a day or two longer here in Quebec, with that
foolish-looking Englishman, who is far from foolish, on the spot. The
situation is not excellent.”

The pair were silent for a moment. Clement, with ears straining, wanted
to learn answers to several questions that passed through his head.

As though his thoughts had been communicated telepathically through the
door, his speculations were immediately answered.

The voice of the big man boomed abruptly, “This Heloise has gone out to
the postoffice, eh?”

“Yes,” said Méduse. “She has gone to see if the letter is there.”

“It is there,” said Mr. Neuburg. “Her agent at Sicamous--our good
Joe--sent it before he left. He showed me a copy. He did quite well.
He informs her that Henry Gunning has left Sicamous on one of his
periodical trips--probably on business. He does not know where Mr.
Gunning has gone, but he will cable when he finds out, or when Mr.
Gunning returns ... as he should in a few days.”

“That, I suppose, will not make her suspicious,” said the woman.

“What is the matter with you, Méduse?” snarled the big man with an
oath. “Where is the reason for suspicion? Gunning--the fool--is not
supposed to know she is coming. If he likes to go off, well, it is
merely a natural thing for him to do.... If anything, his going off
destroys the suggestion of a plot, of his being kept there by us as a
bait for her. You are a fool, Méduse. This Englishman--he is destroying
your nerve.”

“Yes, it is the Englishman. He is too unexpected. I do not like the
idea of our remaining here several days with him about.”

“Well, you know his capacities; it will help to keep you alert. And we
will deal with him--as best we can.”

The woman said, “Still--would it not be better to get her away? Would
it be possible?”

“It would be better, but not possible,” said Mr. Neuburg. “We must
remain here, in touch with the Sault Algonquin; Siwash is to report
there. He is ‘in the air,’ as it were, and that is the only way we can
keep in touch. No, my dear Méduse, it will not suffice that he cables.
He will cable Sicamous, and Joe’s wife will send on the message to
our soft-hearted little girl. But the cable is not good enough for
us. We must know all the details: what Gunning is doing, what is his
condition, and so forth, in order to know how to act. No, we must stay
in Quebec until we see Siwash.”

“And Joe is staying, too?”

“Yes, he is at the gluemaker’s in Algonquin. I see what you mean.
He will be an addition to our forces if we have to deal with that
Englishman. Joe is a useful man.... He may be slow at times, but he is
not squeamish.”

Clement Seadon was glad of the hint. He would adopt a special alertness
for the benefit of this unknown and unsqueamish Joe. But more than
this, he was exceedingly grateful for the address they had given
him--the gluemaker’s in the Sault Algonquin. He rather fancied he knew
the street. It was one of those in the old town, in that network of
dark and narrow alleys crowded between the water front and the rocky
cliff on which Quebec was piled up. It was good to know the local
headquarters of the gang. Also, Siwash Mike--whoever he was--was to
report there. It would be interesting to hear that report. One might
gather a great deal of useful and destructive information about
Henry Gunning and the plans of the gang from it. The woman Méduse
was saying, “Yes, something must be done about this Englishman. I
assure you, Adolf, I do not feel secure with him about. It is not
merely that apparently his easy-going appearance covers an unnatural
cleverness--but--but--we must not mince matters, he has an effect on
this girl Heloise.”

There was a pause. Clement felt that the big Mr. Neuburg was impressed
by the significance of the companion Méduse’s words. He knew that he
himself was certainly impressed by the significance of Méduse’s words.
His heart had suddenly leaped. His brain was singing. He could scarcely
restrain himself from calling out, “Say it. Say what you mean plainly.”
And, as before, it was as though the intensity of his own feelings
compelled those in the farther room to be explicit.

“Ah,” breathed the mountainous man. “You mean that she is, perhaps, in
love with him?”

“I mean,” answered the woman, “that it would be very easy for her to
be in love with him. I do not think she knows it yet. But he--he would
quickly make her know the state of her heart.”

“Thank you,” Clement almost cried aloud.

“That is the devil,” said the big Mr. Neuburg, and his was the only
expression that was vocal. “We must certainly deal with him....” And
then came an unexpected happening, the woman hissed.

“Shiss, one moment.”

There was a sound of stealthy and swift movement in the room. A
silence. Presently another movement of skirts, as though the woman was
returning from a farther chamber. Then, “It is she. She has returned
from the postoffice. I hear her moving in her room. I must go to her
before she finds the bathroom door locked.” It was the companion
Méduse, speaking softly.

Again movement. Again silence. A long silence. Clement heard the
scratch of a match. Smelt cigar smoke. Heard a chair complain as a
heavy body dropped into it. Then once more silence.

Mr. Neuburg had sat down to think things out.

Clement shut his own bathroom door noiselessly, noiselessly bolted it.

The seance of eavesdropping was over.


IV

Clement decided that the next item of importance was to arrange for his
talk with Heloise.

Although he was quite willing--so strong was his case--to say all that
he meant to say in front of Méduse, and even Mr. Neuburg if necessary,
he thought that a ten-minutes’ undistracted conversation with Heloise
would give him a better chance of stating all the facts firmly and
finally.

How to fix that up was the problem. As he was deciding whether he would
risk telephoning to her room, his eye fell on his wrist watch. It was
close to lunch time, and at once it came to him that not only did he
want lunch himself, but that Heloise, being human as well as a goddess,
would want hers.

He smiled suddenly as he saw how things might be managed, went down to
the first floor where the great dining room was, and sat in a modestly
remote seat in the lounge. Without being seen himself, he could watch
everybody who came to or went from the dining room.

He had about twenty minutes to wait. Probably Heloise was telling the
innocent Méduse that there had been a letter from her Sicamous agent at
the Poste Restante, and that they had perhaps to stay a few days more
in Quebec, and the reason why. But after that wait they both came.

From a safe distance Clement saw the captain of the waiters lead them
to a table, noticed that the room was not full, and that there were
plenty of places at the end. Satisfied about this, he went downstairs.

In the lobby he selected a form, wrote on it, tore it up. Wrote on
another, and then, apparently, thought better of it. But whereas he
threw the first into the waste basket, the second he folded rather
cleverly under cover of that action, and kept it in his hand. Then
having convinced all about him that he wasn’t sending a message, he
waited until he saw a page go upstairs with a caller’s form, went up
himself, and waited at the turn of the stairs for the boy’s return.

The boy returned alone, fortunately. Clement snapped him up.

“Want to earn a dollar?” he asked.

“Bettcher life,” said young Canada.

“Take this call form to Miss Méduse Smythe. She and another lady are
sitting at the fifth table for two on the window side. Call her name,
please, but that’s where she is. Give the form to her, and come away
quick.”

“Yep,” said the page, grinning.

“And you don’t know where it came from to anybody--even the lady
herself.”

“I gottcher,” said the page, grinning more expansively. He took the
dollar and the call form. He went upstairs. Clement went after him.
The page went into the dining room. Clement stepped back quietly and
swiftly into a deep passage where the male diners deposited their
coats. He heard the boy calling out, “Miss Smidt--Miss Medoose Smidt.”

In seventy-five seconds Miss Méduse Smythe came by the end of the coat
passage at a great pace. Clement had thought she would be swift. What
he had written on the call form, in anybody’s handwriting, was:


     “Must see you for ten minutes. At once. JOE.”


The companion might have argued about that handwriting, but how was she
to know that “Joe” did not have to disguise it. Clement had banked on
that idea. And he had scored.

Miss Méduse Smythe was no sooner out of vision than he was in the
dining room, alongside Heloise’s table, speaking to Heloise. “Miss
Reys,” he said, “will you give me an opportunity to talk to you
privately?...”

“Mr. Seadon!”

Heloise’s tone was affronted. Obviously she resented his speaking to
her, but obviously, too, the extreme publicity of the place robbed her
attitude of some of its effectiveness. It is to be feared that Clement
had taken that into his calculations when he had decided on this plan.

“Miss Reys,” he said, “I want to speak to you--privately--for no
more than ten minutes. And I want you to understand that it is only
the urgency of the matter that makes me force myself upon you.” She
hesitated, looking up at him, her vivid face showing the keenness of
her emotions. “Do you remember saying that you believed I’d be honest
even against my own interests?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I did say that, but----”

“I am honest now. Will you believe that?”

The girl looked at him quietly for a moment.

“I believe that,” she said.

“And will you give me that chance of speaking to you--alone?”

The girl bent her eyes to the table. She was thinking quickly.
“To-morrow morning I will be in the writing room at half past nine.
Will that do? It will not be easy to manage it before then.”

“It will do admirably. Thank you,” said Clement.

He left her, and went to the back of the room, where there were a
number of empty tables.

As he sat and ate his lunch the companion, Méduse came in. She was
flustered, she was even scared. Clement was amused, but he did not
think it mattered very much. She would not, he thought, mention the
reason for her leaving Heloise--though actually there was no reason.
Neither did he think that Heloise would tell her of the appointment she
had made. His insistence upon privacy, the way he had snatched at the
chance to speak to her alone at her table, the way he had left her,
would all tell Heloise that the companion Méduse was excluded from the
secret.

And even if she did tell, it would matter very little. Clement would
have his interview with Heloise no later than the next morning, for
Heloise would see to it that it happened, and nothing very much could
occur until that time. The rogues could not whisk her away against her
will. They had to move delicately always.

And after he had spoken to Heloise, nothing at all could occur. He
would have settled with Mr. Neuburg and his gang once and for all.

He finished his lunch after the two ladies, watched them out of the
dining room, then he got his hat and stick and walked out through
Quebec. He would take a look at this glue merchant’s in the Sault
Algonquin. It was best to be “well-up” in every particular. Very
cheerfully he walked through the Place d’Armes, and down the steep
street of The Mountain to the huddled network of passageways--they can
hardly be called roads--that crowded under the rocky scarp of the Grand
Battery. He was feeling “good,” as the Canadians would say. Why not?
Hadn’t he all the factors for victory surely in his grasp?

Possibly he would have felt less “good” if he had been aware of a
little scene between the companion Méduse and the massive Mr. Neuburg
that was even then taking place.


V

Both Heloise and the companion had gone up to their rooms, a prey to
emotions. Heloise’s emotion was not altogether unpleasant. She was
agitated at the prospect of an intimate talk with Clement Seadon on the
morrow; but, like all people who trample on their feelings in order
to bolster up their pride, she felt relief that this condition of
chilly aloofness between them was coming to an end. As Méduse Smythe
had told Mr. Neuburg, Heloise did not know exactly what her feelings
were towards Clement Seadon, but she did know enough to realize that a
renewal of their old companionship would be an extraordinarily pleasant
thing.

Méduse Smythe’s agitation was of a different order. There was fear
in it. She had received an imperative message from one of the
conspirators; he wanted to see her in the hotel lobby. That fact in
itself was disturbing. She hurried swiftly to the lobby--and there was
no Joe. Nobody was there wanting her. What did it mean? Had Joe been
frightened away? Or--or was it some ruse? She was puzzled, scared. She
felt that her own wits were not capable of dealing with this matter.

She left Heloise, grappling with the feminine complications of
preparing for a walk, in her room, passed swiftly across her own. She
slipped ajar her door of the bathroom that led to Mr. Neuburg’s room,
and scratched stealthily on the inner door. That was the signal. She
repeated it several times. It was not answered. Mr. Neuburg was not in
his room. She half expected that; that might be the reason why Joe had
sent in to her. She closed her own of these double bathroom doors, and
her anxiety was increased. She must see and speak with Mr. Neuburg. It
might be a matter that did not brook of delay. Her agitation developed
steadily until both ladies got down to the lobby again, then, with a
gasp of relief, she said, “Oh, there’s Mr. Neuburg.... Do you mind,
Loise; I do want to speak to him about something before it slips out of
my memory?”

She went across to Mr. Neuburg, who rose from his chair and bowed
with all the affability of a mere acquaintance. She said, in quite
an ordinary voice, as though discussing the weather, “I am going to
give you a slip of paper. It seems important. Can you take it from me
without being seen?”

Mr. Neuburg, with all the charm of a genial man of the world, and all
the acuteness of a master rogue, bowed at once, led her to the magazine
counter to the right of the lobby. “My dear Méduse, as I select a guide
book for you, lean across me to reach those post cards, then you can
drop your paper.”

The call form that was supposed to have come from the man Joe was
dropped. Mr. Neuburg picked it up with a guide book. He read it. He
opened the guide book, as though in search for some locality, pointed
to a page with his fat finger, and said, “When did you get this,
Méduse?”

“It was brought to me by a page, just after I had sat down to lunch.”

“Ha--and you went out at once, and Joe--he was not there, of course. He
would not be there. This is a thing he would not do.”

“He was not there,” said Méduse.

“And when you came back from this false call--how was the girl?”

“She was alone--as I left her. She seemed the same.”

“She said nothing to you--about anybody speaking to her, I mean?”

“Nothing at all.”

“And the Englishman--did you see him in the dining room?”

“No--I did not see him. But then I did not look very keenly. Surely the
Englishman does not know about Joe?”

“Somebody knows about Joe,” said Mr. Neuburg. “Somebody knows so much
about Joe that he recognized that the name was enough to get you away
from Miss Heloise into the lobby at a run. Who do you think would pull
off a trick like that, my mild Méduse?”

“But the Englishman cannot know about Joe,” said the woman sullenly.

“Certainly this is your day for being triumphantly dull, my dear. This
Englishman has bewitched you.”

“But how could he know about Joe?”

“Ah, my mild one, that is a thing that even I cannot tell you without
finding out. It is to be found out. Now go back to the girl with this
guide book, tell her the pleasant Mr. Neuburg has recommended it as the
best of its kind--and remember that if your brain has turned into wool,
you have the support of mine, which is particularly acute. That may
restore and stimulate your wits.”

When the two ladies had gone out Mr. Neuburg sat and smoked and
considered this unexpected happening deeply. His was a quite
exceptional brain, and he had mastery over his thoughts and his
memories. It was while he was going over his memories that the smoke of
his cigar suddenly ceased to puff. That was the only sign exhibited by
his impressive, placid and genial bulk.

At once he rose indolently, walked across the lobby to the reception
desk. He asked in his affable way if he could see the room bookings.
He looked through them. He stopped when he came to the name “Clement
Seadon.” He stopped with reason, for he saw that Clement’s room was
next his own. He stared at that number for a moment, said “Thank you”
very politely to the reception clerk, and mounted to the gallery on
which his room stood.

He went not merely to his own room but walked round the corner of
the gallery to the door of Clement Seadon’s room. As he stood there
regarding it contemplatively, the chambermaid passed by. He looked at
her, or rather across her shoulder, with that smile which was quite
charming, but had not the slightest tinge of human emotion in it, and
he said, “There is, I think, a blind in that room which is making
noises in the wind. It destroys my nap. I have knocked on the door, but
the occupant of the room is not there apparently. Would it be asking
you too much to go in and pull up that blind, so that I can have my
beauty sleep undisturbed?”

He backed his appeal with the weight of a half-dollar piece.

The girl smiled and opened the door. With a polite, “Thanks
enormously,” Mr. Neuburg slipped away from her with his extraordinary
swiftness. He went into his own room. He opened his one of the double
doors between his room and Clement Seadon’s bathroom. He listened at
the other door. He did not hear as well as Clement had heard, for the
bathroom was between him and the Englishman’s room. But he heard. He
heard the movements of the chambermaid, heard her rattling at the
windows.

When the chambermaid came round the corner of the gallery to ask if it
was all right now, he was at his door beaming--but this time, perhaps,
with a more natural good humor.

“Yes, that is satisfactory, _very_ satisfactory.”

And indeed he thought it was.


VI

As the massive Mr. Neuburg sat in his room certain that things were
satisfactory, Clement Seadon, with much the same emotions, was
searching for and finding the gluemaker in the Sault Algonquin.

The street was as unprepossessing as he imagined it would be. It was a
narrow cañon, indescribably gloomy and muddy, between the tall, old,
straight-faced houses that lined it. It was right round beyond the
splendid old seventeenth century hospital, the austere Hôtel-Dieu, and
in the area of the docks, too. From these latter it got some of its
mud, and, perhaps, some of its lowering air. It looked a darkling,
brooding, sinister street. Clement found it quite easy to imagine it
a place where, in the grim old days, bravos quietly and expeditiously
slit throats, or where fur hunters had been lured to be despoiled of
the earnings of long, lonely months of trapping in the virgin wilds.

In this old and moody street, and in the grim and reticent houses that
bordered it, almost anything might have happened in the early days of
Canada--but most of those things, Clement thought, would have been
evil. The street had an aroma of crime. One felt it, as it were, in the
air, just as though centuries of wickedness about its narrow, greasy
sidewalks had saturated it with an essential aura. It was a street
fitted to be the headquarters of Mr. Neuburg and his gang of ruffians.

It was a short street, and it was easy to find the gluemaker’s. There
were only two other business premises. The gluemaker’s, No. 7, was
a tall, depressing house that was even dirtier than its neighbors.
It had the distinction of keeping all its windows covered with the
latticelike jalousies of France, as though its inmates were determined
to keep themselves to themselves. It had one window on the ground
floor, the shutters were back from this, but as it was filled with
trade samples backed by trade advertisements, a view of the room behind
was impossible. There was no doorway on to the street. Entrance was
effected through a cartway. A heavy wooden gate covered this, with a
smaller door for humans in it. Clement surmised that, having passed
through this gate into the cartway that ran under the house (which
joined to and made one of a block with all the houses on that side),
one entered the house itself by a doorway on the left.

However, this cartway told him one thing. In spite of the fact that the
cliff seemed to come up right behind the house, there must be a yard
at the back of the gluemaker’s. Glancing along the face of the houses
he obtained confirmation of this. There was no iron fire escape stair
in front of this house and its immediate neighbors, although farther
along the street this inevitable disfigurement of western cities
zig-zagged down the faces of the buildings. That meant that the fire
escapes--by law enforced--were at the back, and that there were yards
there into which people could escape.

Getting round to the back was not easy. He found he had to climb
through distant streets to watch the cliff-top, and when he arrived on
top he had to trespass into a builder’s yard in order to look down on
to the backs of the houses in the Sault Algonquin. As he did not wish
to be disturbed, he hid behind a pile of scrapped rubbish.

No. 7 was easy to find. It was under the cliff where it sloped down
rather less steeply. Clement noted that. At a pinch an active man
might find a way down there. The yard was a fairly large one, littered
with the rubbish of manufactory, and partly filled by a single-storied
building, of very much later construction than the house itself.
This had a flat roof and square walls, a jet of steam came out of a
thin exhaust pipe--in it, undoubtedly, were carried on the mystical
processes of gluemaking.

While Clement was studying the house, he became conscious that some
one else had entered the builder’s yard where he had hidden himself.
A young, slim man came casually into view, strolling with hands in
pockets towards the edge of the cliff. Clement crouched closer in his
shelter, and prayed that this workman--for that was what the young
man seemed--had no business which would bring him round the pile of
scrapped rubbish sheltering him.

Then, as he thought this, he noticed two peculiarities about the man.
The first was, that in spite of his casualness, the young man had
no more right to be there than himself. He was throwing keen, swift
glances about him, as though he were doing something that he did not
want other people to see.

The second thing about him was the color and the outline of his
features, as well as the lithe slimness of his build. His face
had a curious copper brownness that might have been sunburn, only
it was deeper than sunburn. His features had a definite aquiline
clear-cutness, rather individual features they were--like an Indian’s.

Clement tingled as he thought that. And even as he thought it, the slim
man moved abruptly and swiftly to the cliff, glanced along it, and in a
moment was descending the sloping face of it.

Clement stared and chuckled. And he muttered, “Siwash Mike. By all
that’s lucky, it’s Siwash Mike come to Quebec to report on the doings
and whereabouts of Henry Gunning.”

There could be little doubt about it. The newcomer was making his
way, in such a fashion as to escape detection, to the gluemaker’s of
Algonquin, the place where he was to report. From his hiding place,
Clement followed his movements. They were sinuous and swift, veritably
an Indian’s. He wriggled down the cliff by known footholds, reached the
back yard of the gluemaker’s, poised for a moment just above it, and
then sprang lightly on to the flat roof of the building--then that was
possible. Clement saw that there was a ledge along the cliff that made
the take-off for the jump easy.

Once on the roof, the slim man again adopted his casual air. He was to
all appearances an occupant of the glue factory taking an airing on
the roof. He dawdled about, hands in pockets, looking about him, up
to the cliff, along the backs of the other houses. Then he strolled
towards the house, poised himself on the edge of the roof just by the
fire escape over the cartway. He jumped, caught it, scrambled on to the
landing. Then very calmly, he walked up the iron stairway until he came
to the fourth floor. The window of the fourth floor was shuttered but,
apparently, not bolted, for the slim man opened the shutters without
effort, slid through them into the house, pulled them to after him and
disappeared.

Waiting for a minute or two Clement presently backed away from the
shelter of his scrap heap, and made his way out of the builder’s yard.
He had discovered two very important things. The first, that Siwash
Mike had returned to the gluemaker’s to report the whereabouts of
Henry Gunning. The second discovery was that there was a way into the
gluemaker’s from the back.

He hurried back to the Château Frontenac. He was anxious to know
what the massive Mr. Neuburg made of the first fact. And how far his
own knowledge of the second fact was going to help him discover Mr.
Neuburg’s future plans.


VII

While Clement Seadon had been active, Mr. Neuburg had not been idle.
He had sat and smoked for a while. Then having decided upon a plan, he
rose and searched for something in his baggage. When he had found it,
he opened his one of the pair of doors between his room and Clement’s
bathroom, and for several moments did something to the foot of
Clement’s door.

Having done this to his complete satisfaction, he sat and smoked and
thought again. Three minutes after the time Clement had seen Siwash
Mike enter the gluemaker’s, the telephone bell rang in Mr. Neuburg’s
room. With one glance at the floor near the door he had just shut and
bolted, he rose and answered the ring.

What he heard over the wire gave him apparently a pleasant surprise,
for though his curiously impassive face showed no sign, he said, “Eh,
but you have been quick, I did not expect you for a day or two.... No,
say nothing now.... I will see you this night, about ten o’clock. And
now listen----” And in his slightly purring voice he gave a string of
directions. They were very guarded, for telephones have eavesdroppers,
but quite explicit to understanding ears.

He hung up the telephone, dropped back into his chair again and thought
and smoked. But after a perceptible minute this curious, immobile-faced
man, allowed himself the luxury of a great laugh. It was a terrible
laugh, but a short one. It was perhaps well it was so, for very quickly
after there came the scratch at the communicating door, which betokened
that Méduse Smythe had returned to her room, and was ready to serve him.

He sprang up at once, and again glancing at the floor by the other
communicating door, let Méduse in. The woman said, “I have come back by
myself. The girl wished to go for half an hour’s motor drive alone in
the Battlefield Park.... No, the Englishman was not with her. She may
be going to meet him, but I don’t think so.... The whole thing seemed a
sudden thought on her part. Can I do anything?”

“You will,” he smiled at her with his mirthless grin. “This Seadon may
be meeting her, but even if he is or isn’t, I want you to go down
to the lobby, watch for him coming in, and when he comes in, come up
here as swiftly as you can and tell me. No, do not telephone up. Come
yourself. I need you....” She made a step to go. “When you join me in
this room don’t be surprised at anything. When I say things to you,
play up--play up, remember that.”

It seemed only a few minutes before she was back in the room. Mr.
Neuburg came through the intercommunicating bathroom at the sound of
the key in her door. He looked at her, indicating the necessity for
quiet.

“He came in just as I reached the lobby,” she said. “He did not see me.
He came up straight to his room, I think.”

Mr. Neuburg caught her by the wrist, and both very stealthily went
back to his room. He led her close to the doors that communicated with
Clement Seadon’s bathroom. He paused, listened. He could hear no sound
from the Englishman’s side of the doors. He looked at her, grinned, and
pointed to the floor near their feet.

On the floor was a yellow-painted lead pencil. It was lying alongside
a white line Mr. Neuburg had chalked on the floor. The woman Méduse
stared down at it, wondering what on earth it all meant.... And as she
stared down the pencil began to move.

There was no sound. The silence was profound. There was nothing to
indicate a reason for the pencil’s movement. And the pencil moved ...
slowly, stealthily, cautiously it moved away from the chalk mark. It
moved six inches and then it stopped. Mr. Neuburg looked into her face
and grinned. His hand indicated the door leading to Clement Seadon’s
bathroom.

Then the woman, looking closer at the pencil, understood. Round the
waist of the pencil was a thin line, a line of thread. The thread ran
from the pencil under the closed door. Undoubtedly it was attached
to the inner door of the pair by a piece of wax. She understood at
once that the Englishman was in the other room. Thread and wax would
be invisible in the dim light and in the almost imperceptible space
between the double doors; but as Clement’s door opened, its movement
would be shown by the movements of the pencil.

The pencil had moved. The Englishman had opened his door. He was at the
opening of the door now--listening for what he might learn through the
closed door of Mr. Neuburg’s room.

The woman Méduse in a flash understood how the Englishman had learned
the name of Joe, which he had used to get her away from Heloise at
lunch time. Mr. Neuburg, in his brilliant manner, had solved that
riddle.

Mr. Neuburg, in his brilliant manner, was going to make the most of
his knowledge. Very quietly he led the woman back to the door through
which she had entered. He left her standing there with a soundless
command to silence. He went to his chair and lowered himself softly
into it. He picked up a newspaper and rustled it. He cleared his
throat. He moved so that his chair would creak. He did this for a long
ten minutes. Then abruptly he sprang up, making a definite noise, and
moved towards her. “Ah, you are back, my dear Méduse,” he said aloud.
“Where is the girl?”

Méduse played up--played up well.

“She wished to go for a drive alone in the Battlefield Park. No, the
Englishman was not with her. She may be going to meet him, but I do not
think so. The whole thing seemed a sudden thought on her part.”

“We cannot help it, anyhow,” said Mr. Neuburg, smiling in his sinister
manner. “I do not think, on the whole, her seeing him will have much
effect. I have good news--Siwash Mike has arrived.”

The companion Méduse was a little startled at that, but she played up.
“But--is that possible? You did not expect him for a day or two.”

“It is a fact. He has arrived, my mild Méduse. I had a telephone
message from No. 7 Sault Algonquin this afternoon.”

He said “No. 7 Sault Algonquin” precisely and clearly. He wanted the
Englishman behind the door to hear it. Clement Seadon behind the door
heard it, and chuckled silently. He was certainly having great good
fortune.

“Did--did Siwash say where he had found Henry Gunning? I suppose he has
found him?” The woman was not playing up so well, Mr. Neuburg frowned
bleakly; and yet, swiftly, he made her question serve his ends.

“Siwash knows better than to talk of matters like that over the
telephone,” he said. “I take it that he has discovered the lurking
place of our besotted friend Gunning. But I shall not know until
to-night. I meet him at Algonquin at 10:30. He will report then.”

He said the last words very clearly. The Englishman was to hear them.
Clement heard them and congratulated himself.

There was a pause in Mr. Neuburg’s room, then Clement heard the massive
man speak again, “What are you doing to-night--you and the girl?”

“O-oh,” said the woman. “We are going to a concert of old _habitant_
French songs. One of the ladies from the _Empress_ told the girl she
must not miss it for the world, so she booked seats.... But if you
wanted me at Algonquin, I could have a headache.”

“You will not have a headache,” said Mr. Neuburg, very distinctly. “I
do not want you at Algonquin. I want you by that girl’s side. But, and
attend to this carefully, my dear Méduse, if anything untoward occurs
you must come to the gluemaker’s immediately. Understand that--you must
come yourself. I will not have telephoning. I do not trust a woman
on the telephone in so delicate a business as this. Follow carefully
what I have to say. You may take a taxi, if you like, as far as the
docks, but you _must not_ take it into the Sault Algonquin, or to the
door of No. 7. You understand? No curiosity, particularly that of
the gluemaker’s neighbors, must be aroused. For that reason you will
not knock at the door, which, you know, is in a cart gate, or wait
about outside. _All you need do is to push against the little door in
the gate. It will be open. It will purposely be left open._ Now you
understand that perfectly?”

The woman understood that perfectly. She repeated the directions to
show that she had it perfectly. Mr. Neuburg said, “That is good. I do
not think anything untoward will occur, but we must always plan for any
event. And now that you know everything, you had better go back to your
room and await the girl. We cannot risk suspicion of any sort. Let us
hope that Siwash will bring us definite and good news of Henry Gunning,
and that what I hear at 10:30 to-night may mean a speedy finish to our
big scheme.”

Clement echoed the sentiments. He hoped, in fact he felt certain, that
what Siwash Mike would have to say about the vanished Henry would give
him (Seadon) facts which, in addition to the other damning material he
had, would enable him to settle the accounts of these rogues swiftly
and for all time when he spoke of them in his talk with Heloise Reys
to-morrow morning.

He felt, indeed, that it was all part of fate working on his side.

Siwash Mike’s coming fitted into the situation as neatly as if it had
all been thought out. Clement thought it might have been thought out,
ordained, by Providence.

And not only had good fortune sent along Siwash Mike to-day, but good
fortune had also stepped in to enable him to make the most of Siwash
Mike. To be present when that rogue reported to his master was not
going to be child’s play, but it was going to be simpler than he
had first thought. The way down the cliffside to the gluemaker’s of
Algonquin was a certain way in, but it would be difficult and dangerous
in the dark. Now, thanks to his abounding good luck, he had overheard
that all he had to do was _to push against the little door in the big
cart gate of the gluemaker’s, and it would be open_. Good fortune had
favored him with an easy entrance. How could he reject this offer of
good fortune? He could not.

And Mr. Neuburg, as he sat in his own room and smoked, thought much the
same thoughts. How could this Englishman reject this offer which good
fortune apparently had offered him? No, the fellow could not.... He
would go to the gluemaker’s of the Sault Algonquin at 10:30 to-night.

And Clement Seadon went.

He put on old clothes. He carried an automatic pistol in his pocket.
He also wore rubber-soled brown shoes. His adventure was not going to
be easy and without danger, and he was prepared for all eventualities.
But, on the whole, his great good luck had given him an exhilarating
sense of confidence, and as he passed through the dark streets of
the lower town of Quebec, and into the cañon of lowering and silent
blackness that night made of the Sault Algonquin, he felt sure of his
success.

There was no one about. He reached the gluemaker’s unobserved. The
face of the house was black, enigmatic. There was no sign of life or
light. He pressed upon the little door in the big cart gate. Yes, it
was yielding ... it was open. With a sharp movement he opened it wide
enough to let his body through, slipped inside.

Under the arch of the house, the cartway was a cave of almost
impenetrable blackness. Moving very slowly and very easily, Clement
stole to the left. The door of the house must be there. He felt along
the house wall. There was no window ... for yards there was nothing.
Then his hand dropped into the recess of the door, slid across the
woodwork, found the handle.... Softly, gently he turned. The door
answered under pressure--it opened. Clement was inside a pitch black
room.

There was just a faint sound ... something small fell ... something as
small as a pencil.... Only in that terrific silence would he have heard
so small a sound. Then complete silence ... silence bearing down like
a shroud.... Slowly, cautiously Clement closed the door behind him ...
took one, then another, then another step into the room.... Something
tautened and snapped across his instep, a thread.... Things happened....

A hoarse whisper ... a sudden rush of movement ... a torch clicked,
wavered, struck into his eyes with its brilliant and dazzling light ...
there was a sweep of movement.... Men bore down on him in a terrific
rush....




CHAPTER IV


I

Clement realized at once that he was trapped, and neatly. The thought
did not rob him of activity. The instinctive sense of action which is
in every athlete functioned immediately. He dashed, not at the torch
as every cornered animal or man would, as they expected him to do, but
away from it.

He swung cleanly on his heel, and jumped as he swung. He sensed that
there were several men in the room, and that they guarded the door. He
neglected the door. He leaped for the window. If he could smash that,
create an uproar in the Sault Algonquin, then he would attract help.

An oath came from a man as his game was realized. Something whistled
through the air, hit a wall with a soft and terrible thud. “Sandbag,”
registered Clement’s brain. He dodged, and there was another oath and
another miss.

A shadow, lean and leaping like a cat, shot from the darkness into the
dazzle of the torch. Clement saw a fierce, feline face, and one hand
stretched forward to clutch, while the other swung up to club.

“Siwash,” Clement’s brain signaled. He spurred his body forward with
a quicker drive of his foot, got in under the blow, and punched in
both hands hard and sure. Siwash staggered and his stick went flying
loose over Clement’s shoulder. Clement uppercut with a savage left,
Siwash jerked upward grotesquely, went over wildly into the blackness.
Clement hurdled his body, and his hand was on the advertisement boards
screening the window.

Adolf Neuburg was on him.

The mountain of a man with his unexpected and terrible agility swept
down from nowhere. His great hands went out plucking at the young
Englishman. His vast fists were free of weapons, for he was confident
in his enormous strength. And he grabbed at Clement, he did not
hit--that was foolish. His hand closed on Clement’s upper arm and
swung the lighter man round. Then Mr. Neuburg uttered a curious,
staccato yell. As his hand closed on the arm, the arm, instead of being
wrenched away, had closed on the hand, the upper and lower arms coming
together. As the Englishman swung round, his body doubled forward, and
Mr. Neuburg’s arm, caught and twisted, was vilely wrenched. The fact
that Mr. Neuburg endeavored to save his wrist and forearm by exerting
his huge strength only made matters worse--that is the great truth
underlying Japanese wrestling. But Mr. Neuburg did not know that.

He snatched his hand away as Clement unhinged, only to receive a
snapping right-hand swing to the side of the head. He bellowed, made a
furious swipe at the Englishman with his left. Clement ducked, slipped
in under it, banged right and left to Mr. Neuburg’s great face. And Mr.
Neuburg went down. He went down not because he had been knocked, but
because Clement had employed a trick he had once seen a shifty boxer
use. As he jumped in to hit, he had slipped his left toe behind Mr.
Neuburg’s heel. The force of the blow sent Mr. Neuburg reeling over
that toe.

But Mr. Neuburg had served his purpose. He had delayed Clement. Clement
knew it. Directly he had struck the mountain of a man, he darted, not
towards the window now, for the other men--how many were there?--must
be converging on that, but towards the door again, which should have
been left unguarded. The tussle had lasted moments only--but----

The man who had held the torch had not moved during all the fighting.
It was Joe, who was slow, but enduringly calm. He had seen Siwash go
down and out. He had seen the massive Mr. Neuburg go down. He saw
Clement dart away from the window towards the door. He stood still. His
hand held the blazing torch steady. But his other hand moved. It moved
in a long swinging arc. It completed its swing at the moment Clement’s
hand touched the door handle. Clement slumped forward against the door,
and then he crumpled nervelessly to the floor. The sandbag in that
swinging hand had reached its mark on Clement’s head with a beautiful
accuracy.

Joe played the light round Clement’s inert body. Mr. Neuburg scrambled
to his feet, snarling because he tried to help himself up with his
damaged wrist. He came to Joe’s side. Joe put out his hand, clicked on
the electric light. Both rogues stood over the Englishman. He did not
move.

“Some wildcat,” said Joe. He gazed down with grim admiration. He looked
at Siwash, still prone. He looked at Mr. Neuburg’s palpably damaged
face and wrist. A fourth man, so tall and thin that his bones seemed
loose and rattling, joined the two. He was the only other in the room.
He held a sandbag in his hand, but he had the general air of being a
tradesman. That gave his furtive pose a tone of nervousness. He looked
at Neuburg, moistening his lips in agitation--and did not speak. He
looked at Joe and did. “Dead?” he asked hesitantly. “Dead?”

“Aw,” said Joe without passion, “you make me tired. A little knock like
that killing any feller.”

Mr. Neuburg looked across the tall, thin man’s shoulder with an
emotionless chuckle. “Since our good Louis took to glue, his morale has
become--shall we say--very sticky?” he said softly.

“Well, mustn’t one preserve appearances, Adolf?” the thin man protested
nervously. “Now mustn’t one? If anything happened to cause trouble
would it help me--any of us? It is by keeping up the appearance of--of
honesty that we--we----”

“Timidity has given our dear friend Louis a certain wisdom,” said
Neuburg, smiling his creaseless smile. “There is something in what he
says.”

“That means,” commented Joe without emotion--“that means you ain’t
goin’ to dump this coyote inter the river.”

“No--no--no!” cried the gluemaker feverishly. “If it got out, that
would----” The man Louis seemed to have a terror of finishing sentences.

“Aw, you’re crazy,” said Joe. “You make me real tired. Get quit o’ him
once and for all, I says.”

“The shock of the water would bring him to,” murmured Mr. Neuburg, not
in friendliness towards Clement, but in speculation.

“We could fix that--rope him,” said Joe.

“And that would indicate foul play. So would hitting him over the head,
or shooting him before we slipped him into the St. Lawrence....”

“I could keep him safe,” put in the timid Louis. “Safe, up at top of
house. In that room he’d never get out. You see.”

“He’d have to get out sometime,” said Mr. Neuburg.

“I’d see that he didn’t.”

“Forever?” put in Joe dryly.

“Well--for long enough. For days, for a week--until you’ve got things
fixed....”

“That’s all right,” said Mr. Neuburg with quick decision. “You take
him up to that room of yours and keep him tight. Don’t forget he’s
a cunning one, whatever you do.--I’m not a pleasant person to have
trouble with.” Louis cringed away. “Right; you understand that. In a
few days we’ll telegraph you. Then you can let him free.”

“To raise hell,” sneered Joe sullenly, puzzled by Mr. Neuburg’s
decision.

Mr. Neuburg turned with his silent swiftness on Joe. He gazed bitterly
across Joe’s shoulder. “Do I give orders, Joe, or do you? Do I make
mistakes, Joe, or do you?”

Joe shuffled his feet anxiously. Mr. Neuburg was not looking at him,
but Joe dropped his gaze to the dirty floor. “Oh, I know you’re the
brains, boss ... but I don’t see ...” he muttered.

“I’m seeing for you,” sneered Mr. Neuburg coldly. “You’re a bright
feller in a rough-house, but thinking isn’t one of your assets. Just
for that I’ll explain to you. Item one, we don’t want trouble in this
business. Item two, if we can squash trouble it’s wiser to squash it.
Item three, if we can make this fool Englishman feel that he’s played
a losing game, that he’s only butting in where he’s not wanted--by
the girl; that the girl is happy and content with what she’s doing,
an’ so on, and so on, well, he’ll stop making trouble right then an’
there. Item four, given that the girl is what we know she is, and
Gunning being licked up to the scratch, an’ the pair or twain thrown
together--well, she’ll be content. Do you follow now, my friend? This
Heloise girl meets Gunning; Gunning is love’s young dream to her. They
fix it up together. That’s settled. We wire Louis here to release this
feller; he can even let drop where he is to find the girl. He comes
chasing after her. He finds her. She hasn’t a glance for him. She is
all for Gunning; maybe, even, she has married him--I think we can fix
that up, get a reason for the hurry. Anything this Englishman says to
her, he says against Gunning, so it will be an insult. He’ll be simply
out of it. So he goes away quietly, for her sake. Do you get it now?”

“If he _did_ go away quietly,” said Joe haltingly. “It has a good
sound, what you say, but----”

“And if he doesn’t go away quietly,” said Mr. Neuburg in a soft, cold
voice, “well, we will be, perhaps, in the wilds; at Sicamous, or
somewhere. Away from cities, from people who ask questions and pry
deeply. In the wilds, _accidents_ have a more plausible air, my good
Joe; dead men are less noticeable--than--say in Quebec!”

Joe looked at the big mountain of a Mr. Neuburg with a wide-eyed gaze.
“I see, you _want_ him to come out and be killed. You’re a wonder of a
devil, Adolf,” he said.

“Take his head, Joe, Louis will probably drop him before we get to that
room at the top. Louis, his legs.”


II

When Clement came to himself he was conscious of extreme darkness, an
agonizing pain in his head where that sandbag had landed, and also
considerable pain where his bonds bit into wrist and leg.

He also felt from the sounds drifting up to him that he was in a room
at the top of the gluemaker’s house, and probably a lumber room from
the musty smell of it.

It must be confessed that his first responsible emotion was not
thankfulness for an escape from what should have been death, but a
very hearty disgust at the way he had allowed himself to be captured.
In fact, when he realized how he had thrown away his chance and maybe
delivered Heloise into the hands of Mr. Neuburg and his gang, he lost
his nerve, and with a terrific output of strength tried to free himself
from his bonds.

He had seen heroes in the “movies” and Mr. Houdini free themselves from
their shackles often enough, and it had seemed a simple matter. The men
who had fixed his bonds, however, would have spoiled any movie hero’s
business. Not only could he not throw them off, but the struggle to do
so, so increased the pain of them and that of his head, that in the end
he fainted.

He was forced back to consciousness by the frightful sensation of blood
recirculating in his limbs. He writhed and moaned. An oath sounded at
his side, something was flung over his head, and handcuffs were snapped
on to his wrists. Clement struggled with the thing about his head,
while shuffling footsteps hurried across the boards but he only got the
rug--that is what it proved to be--away from his eyes in time to see
the legs and back of a tall, thin man flash out of the door. A strong
lock snapped home. Louis, the gluemaker, was not risking identification.

When he had recovered sufficiently, Clement sat up and took stock
of the situation. He was, as he had thought in the roof room of the
gluemaker’s. It was a big room, crowded with old junk. The room
was lit by a narrow window of the kind known to architects as a
“lie-on-your-stomach,” that is, it rose from the floor boards to end
at the slant of the roof about two feet above. By the light coming in
through the dirty panes the morning was well on, but whether it was
past his hour to see Heloise--9:30--he could not say.

He was sitting in the center of this room, with some fresh food and
water beside him. The gang then did not want him to starve. He also
saw that the gang had thought of him in other ways. The thin man who
had just bolted through the door, had been with him for no other reason
than to remove the tight ropes, and substitute manacles of an easier
kind.

He had snapped a pair of police handcuffs on his wrists, as Clement
knew, but before that he had put another pair on his ankles; these
were linked by a heavy chain to a staple in the wall. The chain was
padlocked.

Clement lifted the jug of water with both hands, took a long drink, and
then examined the handcuffs on his wrists. In less than a minute one
wrist was free. It was quite simple. These handcuffs were ratcheted to
take several sizes in wrists. In his hurry the thin man had not pushed
the ratchet of the right cuff beyond the first notch. Clement was
what might be called a third notch man--hence he had no difficulty in
slipping his wrist out.

The leg irons presented a graver problem. Unable to get them off with
his hands, he searched about for some means of removing them. He was
lucky. With difficulty he unearthed from a box full of odd tools, a
hacksaw. With this slowly and patiently, and with his attention always
alert for movements in the house, he sawed through the connecting links
of the ankle irons.

It was a tedious and painful business. He heard the mid-day “break”
sound from scores of factory sirens, but he worked on trying not to
think of what might be happening to Heloise.

She would remain on in Quebec, he told himself. She could not hurry
away, she would not leave without seeing him. He tried to convince
himself of this. He would see her in spite of this trap. And after he
had talked with her the whole bad business would be ended.

If he thought of Mr. Neuburg and his cunning, he said to himself, “He
thinks he has me here safely. He won’t attempt to attract attention by
hustling things.”

It was after two o’clock when he got free. Nobody had come up to him.
He had thought this would be the case since a day’s supply of food had
been left with him. Concealing the ankle cuffs under his socks, and
that on his left wrist up his sleeve, he lay down and looked out of the
window.

It was overlooking the yard he had studied yesterday from the cliff
behind. In that yard nothing was stirring save the “puff-puff-puff” of
the steam pipe. From this window to the yard was a sheer drop of some
seventy feet. On the other hand, the thin, topmost upright of the fire
escape was two feet away from the window, and level with it--if he
dared risk that.

He meant to. He forced the dirt-gummed window open, and, laying flat on
his stomach, wriggled his body inch by inch out of the narrow window.
It was soul chilling. To find himself poised there half in and half
out of that tube of a window, with nothing to aid him, and with that
horrible drop beneath him, unnerved him. He felt himself slipping,
going. For one moment he seemed to be clawing the empty air, with the
feeling that nothing could save him. He was dropping--

Then in a flash his nerve came back. He lunged forward and grasped the
slender iron girder of the escape, and there for an agonized moment he
hung swaying, helpless. He made a giant effort. The thin iron of the
fire escape support creaked and appeared to bend toward him. He heard
the structure groan. His feet came away suddenly, and his knees and
thighs struck the iron pole with excruciating pain. But the instinct
of preservation caused his limbs to act almost, it appeared, on their
own initiative. Just as his hands seemed about to be torn loose by
his weight, his legs circled the iron support and gripped. He slid
downward. In a moment he was crouching on the top platform of the fire
escape behind a rain-water barrel.

He remained there for a few minutes, regaining his breath and his
nerve, surveying the side of the cliff up which he must presently go.
Then he looked downward--and saw a man on the flat roof beneath the
fire escape.

The man had come out from the window of the house that was flush with
the roof. He stood, a slim, lithe figure, gazing idly about him. He
was occupied with nothing more significant than the after-lunch
exercise of picking his teeth. Clement knew who the man was. It was
Siwash Mike. He hoped Siwash Mike was one of those who liked to take an
afternoon siesta on his bed.

Siwash Mike stood there, easy, feeling, no doubt, that the world was
a good place to live in. Then he apparently decided what he was going
to do. He turned and reentered the house. Clement, thanks to his
rubber-soled shoes, was down another floor on the escape by the time he
emerged again. That was the fourth floor, through the window of which
Clement had seen Siwash himself enter the house yesterday.

The action of Siwash was now not satisfactory. Siwash was dragging
behind him a deck chair. Siwash--it was horrible to see it--had under
his arm a bundle of magazines with highly colored covers.... Siwash was
going to make an afternoon of it on that roof. An afternoon of it--and
Clement must leap from the escape to that roof, and cross it in order
to reach the cliff.

It was a bitter moment.

But Clement meant to get across that roof and up that cliff. And, what
is more, he meant to do it quickly. He could not afford to waste any
more time away from Heloise’s side. Indeed, he dare not waste time
here. At any moment some one might go up to the attic, find him gone,
and raise the alarm....

Raise the alarm! The thought flashed through Clement’s mind not with a
thrill of anxiety but with the thrill of a happy idea. With his eyes
on the now reposeful head of Siwash Mike, he felt the jalousies of
the window behind him. As yesterday, they were unfastened. He opened
one, slipped his hand in--yes, the window was wide open also.... In
another moment he was inside that window, and had closed the jalousies
behind him. Before him were the stairs, descending steeply into yawning
darkness. He went to the head of these. With his hands he made a
trumpet about his mouth. He opened his mouth. With the full power of
his lungs he yelled, “Siwash! Siwash!”

He nipped back to the jalousies. He looked down at Siwash Mike. The
half-breed was standing, glaring towards the house, his body tense and
alert. Clement nipped to the head of the stairs. He yelled again in a
tone of terrific alarm, “Siwash! Help!”

He heard a tumult below. When he got to the jalousies Siwash was no
longer on the roof. In a flash of seconds Clement was; had swung from
the escape to the flat roof; had dashed along that roof and had leaped
to the ledge of the low cliff. He was three parts up the cliff before
the fierce face of the half-breed appeared at the little window of the
attic.

The face appeared, scowled ferociously, then the right arm shot out.
The automatic in the hand came down, sighting on Clement’s climbing
figure. Clement shut his eyes and felt sick. He was a mark that could
scarcely be missed.

Nothing happened.

He opened his eyes.

Siwash’s face was turned away from him; he appeared to be arguing
vehemently with some one behind him in the attic. As Clement looked,
a long, thin arm with an incredibly bony hand stretched itself past
Siwash’s shoulder, and clutched avidly at the automatic pistol. Clement
did not waste time then. He was up the remainder of the cliff as fast
as his best climbing could take him. He was through the builder’s yard
at a run, though a man yelled at him to know his business.... And in
a near street he caught a taxi and went to the Château Frontenac as
rapidly as petrol could carry him.

As he went into the lobby he was stopped by the porter. “We’ve
been looking for you, Mr. Seadon,” the man said. “Looking for you
everywhere. A lady was asking for you.”

“A lady!” cried Clement, stopping in his stride. “What lady?”

“Oh, the one that left this morning,” said the porter.

“The one that went this morning?” echoed Clement stupidly.

“Yes, the one that left for Montreal.”

Clement glared at him. “You can’t mean Miss Reys, Miss Heloise Reys,
who was here with a companion?” he cried.

“That’s the lady I mean,” said the cataclysmic porter. “She was asking
for you right up to the moment she left.”


III

Clement Seadon was for the moment dazed by the dismaying unexpectedness
of the news.

He had lost. Mr. Neuburg and his gang had not wasted a moment. They had
whipped the girl out of his reach. They had effectually put a barrier
of distance between him and Heloise.

He had a bitter vision of Heloise traveling away from him--away through
this vast country where communications were scarce. She was more
completely in the clutches of those terrible and sinister people with
every mile she traveled, and he was less able to help. He stared at the
porter. “She’s gone,” he said. “She--didn’t the lady leave a message?”

“None, sir. She seemed to expect that you was going to see her.”

“Yes,” said Seadon. He could understand how bewildered Heloise must
have been when he did not keep his appointment of this morning. “And
you’re sure she went to Montreal?”

“Yessir,” said the porter. Some one touched Clement’s arm, somebody
said, “Seadon, old fellow....” Clement waved this hand aside without
looking round. “Just one minute,” he said. Then to the porter, “You’re
sure it was Montreal? I mean she wasn’t going further? Through to
Sicamous, for example?”

“Sure, they’re stopping off at Montreal, her and her lady fren’. Didn’t
I check their baggage to Montreal?”

Clement thought for a moment. What did that mean? Did it mean that
Heloise would stop in Montreal, or did it mean that she was merely
changing trains there in order to go to the place--wherever it
was--where Henry Gunning was lurking at the moment? That seemed the
more likely, and it was the more dismaying. She was going to some
unknown town in the tremendous continent. It filled him with dread even
to think of it.

His arm was touched again. He thanked the porter, turned, and saw the
captain of the _Empress of Prague_ by his side. “Hello, Heavy,” he said.

“I’ve been looking for you, old chap,” said the captain. “I want you to
meet The Chief.”

“The Chief,” echoed Clement vaguely. He saw a man of middle height with
astonishingly thick, square shoulders standing by the captain’s side.
He was a man with a firm, sunburned face in which big bones showed
strongly. His nose was powerful and high-bridged, and the skin round
the eyes was dark. The eyes were extraordinarily steady and keen, and,
since he was smiling, his face had a singularly pleasant, indeed,
tender kindness which tempered its undoubted resolution. Clement looked
at this man, and knew him for a staunch and extremely capable friend at
once. He said again, “The Chief?”

“He’s our policeman,” said the genial captain. “He’s down here to
find out why you weren’t arrested in that diamond tiara affair on the
_Empress_.”

“Is he, by Jove?” cried Clement abruptly, glancing at the strong,
intelligent face of The Chief with a sudden feeling of hope.

“He’s the head of the railway police organization,” explained Captain
Heavy. “Not the Dominion police, mind you. His name, by the way, is
Joseph Fiscal. And, seriously, he’d like a few words with you regarding
that robbery.”

“He’s the very man I’m wanting myself,” said Clement heartily, to the
surprise of the captain--nothing yet created seemed able to surprise
The Chief. “Can we go somewhere and talk?”


IV

The three men went into the private sitting room in the manager’s
office. The first thing Clement did was to take his left hand from the
pocket in which it had reposed since he escaped from the house in the
Sault Algonquin, pull up his sleeve, shake his arm, and so expose to
The Chief the handcuff still clasping his left wrist.

That redoubtable man looked at it calmly, fingered it, sat upright
slowly, and turned on Captain Heavy a dry, genial smile. His eyes
scrutinized the puzzled face of the captain for but a moment, then he
turned back to Clement. With the same movement his hand came out of his
pocket, and in the hand was a handcuff key.

In a moment, and with free hands, Clement was rolling down his socks,
exposing the handcuffs on his ankles.

The smile of The Chief became broader. “Is your friend quite as honest
as you think, Heavy?” he asked genially.

“Ab-solutely,” said Heavy in a perplexed tone. “Though he does seem to
have been trying to do Houdini stunts, and failing.”

“Not altogether failing,” smiled Clement, as The Chief’s key got to
work. “I managed to get out of _this_ trap, just as I managed to get
out of the one on the _Empress_--the diamond tiara trap.”

“Ah,” said The Chief, looking up, smiling with his lips, but his eyes
keen. “There _is_ something behind it all?”

“There is; but first, how soon can I get to Montreal?”

“Talking to us won’t hold you up,” said The Chief with unexpected
penetration. “You can’t go before the night train.”

“Isn’t there something before that--any means?”

“No,” said The Chief. He looked at Clement steadily. That look was a
request for information.

“Well, as I said, I want your help; but it’s going to be a tale, even a
sort of ‘shocker,’ a strange, unbelievable crime and mystery story.”

“_I’ll_ be able to appreciate it,” smiled The Chief. “Go on, Mr.
Seadon.”

So Seadon told the whole story from the beginning. He told everything,
indeed, except one thing. That thing was the little lawyer’s suggestion
that he should make love to and marry Heloise, and the fact that he had
himself arrived at the conclusion that the little lawyer had talked
wisdom. He did not talk of it, but perhaps the men who listened were
not unaware of his condition. The Chief smiled even more humanly.
Heavy, with a seaman’s bluntness, cried, “I remember Miss Reys, a
beautiful woman. To think that a pack of scoundrels.... Still, old man,
you’ve got The Chief with you now.”

Clement thought of Canada and its vastness. Even the most astute
chief of police would find it difficult to track a girl through that
immensity--and do it in time.

“Mr. Seadon is not quite sure about The Chief,” smiled the head of the
railway police.

“Well ... Canada’s such a huge place. It’s easy to vanish without trace
in such a country.”

“Oh, our system compares with the country,” said The Chief genially.
“That porter told you he’d checked Miss Reys’ baggage through to
Montreal? We’ll begin by confirming that.” He pressed a bell. A girl
came in. “How do, Miss Jeannette. I wonder whether you’d mind asking
Mr. Labage--he’s still at the rail reservation desk, isn’t he?--to step
along. Say, that’s real nice of you.”

Mr. Labage came in. The Chief said to him immediately, “How are you
keeping, Mr. Labage? That’s good. Now, I’m wondering if you can tell me
if a lady from this hotel and her companion, a Miss Heloise Reys and a
Miss Méduse Smythe, took reservations on any train pulling out to-day?”

“Sure she did. Both ladies reserved on the _Imperial_, leaving at 1:15
for Montreal.”

“That confirms it, then,” said Clement. The Chief only smiled, he was
after full proof.

“And say, did another feller, a big feller by name of Neuburg, go out
to-day?”

“He certainly did,” said the efficient Mr. Labage. “He, an’ a feller
with him, some one outside, had reservations on the morning train.”

“To Montreal?”

“To Montreal.”

That finished the clerk.

“And the next move, Chief?” asked Clement, for he knew that there
would be another move. He saw that The Chief had made it certain that
Heloise--and the gang--were going straight through to Montreal, and
were not leaving the train before. He was beginning to appreciate the
calm ability and keenness, yes, and the immense resources, lying behind
the genial smile of this man.

The Chief put out his hand to the telephone. “I want Montreal, Miss,”
he said into the receiver. “Get me Windsor Station, the Department of
Investigation.” He hung up and turned to Clement. “This feller Neuburg
is new to me. I’ve been thinking about him, but I can’t place him.
He must have come up from the States, or, he may have worked behind
others. The one class of life I am thoroughly acquainted with is bad
men. I know all the leading lights, but I don’t get him.... This
Gunning feller--we’ll get news of easy. And we’ll find out about this
Joe Wandersun. He’s Neuburg’s traveling companion on this trip, since
Siwash stayed, hey? P’raps we’ll trail up Siwash Mike, too. But this
Neuburg.... Give me an idea of him, Mr. Seadon.”

Clement described Neuburg as pointedly as he could, while The Chief
listened with his smile, as though it were but a good story, but his
level and capable eyes proved his keenness.

Clement had just finished his picture of the master rogue when the
telephone bell rang. The Chief picked up the receiver, “That Mac
speaking? This is The Chief. Who’s about?... Ah, Gatineau’s there.
Call him.... Oh, Xavier, it’s The Chief speaking. I’m in Quebec on the
_Empress_ robbery case.... See here, there is a lady stopping off at
Montreal on _Imperial No. 1_. She is a Miss Heloise Reys, she has a
companion with her, a Miss Méduse Smythe. I want her trailed. Find out
where she’s stopping, if she stays in Montreal. If she isn’t staying,
find out where she’s going and by what train she goes.--No, don’t
interfere with her, just find out what she’s doing. Got that? Next, I
want you to find out all you can about a feller called Henry Gunning,
and another called Joe Wandersun, both of Sicamous.” He gave the few
details Clement had been able to give of these men. “If you can’t find
out anything about ’em in Records, or from the Dominion police, just
flash through to Sicamous or Revelstoke. Got that? Next isn’t so easy.
I want to hear somethin’ about a man who calls himself Adolf Neuburg.”
He spelled it out. Then he described him with an accuracy which
was amazing, considering he had only had Clement’s not very expert
description. “This feller Neuburg seems to be an out-size bad hat, but
I can’t place him. We haven’t come across him, I know. But just find
out if there’s anything known. You might trace him through mining,
or you might pick up something about him in connection with British
Columbia. He pulled out of here for Montreal on the morning train,
see if that helps.... You’ve got all that? Well, if it’s possible,
long-distance me here at the Frontenac about Miss Heloise Reys. The
other stuff can keep. I’m pulling out myself by the night train.”

As The Chief put down the instrument Clement said enthusiastically,
“That’s splendid, it draws a noose round them. We’re bound to trace
them now.”

“Yes, there are possibilities in my job,” smiled The Chief. “We’ve got
many means of heading off rogues and finding out things about them.”

“And I’m going to give you another,” said Clement. “This Sherlock
Holmes business is contagious. Miss Heloise went because she had reason
to go. Yes, I know they must have persuaded her, but, and this is my
point, they wouldn’t have persuaded her unless they had something to
persuade with. At the bottom of this journey there must have been a
message.”

The Chief stood up, reached for his soft hat. “That’s it. She got the
message she was expecting about this Gunning man. You said she had
letters addressed to her at the post office. Come along, we’ll look at
that message.”

They went down the hill to the post office--where most of the notices
were in French. The Chief’s authority took them at once to a
superintendent, who had no difficulty in finding the duplicate of a
wire which Heloise Reys must have received late the night before. The
wire had come from Sicamous. It was signed by Wandersun--that meant
Joe’s wife had sent it. It said tersely:


     “Henry Gunning is present working at Cobalt.”


“Cobalt,” said Clement, staring down at the flimsy slip. “That’s the
famous silver mining town, isn’t it?”

“Yes, and this Gunning is a miner,” said The Chief. “Well, that’s all
natural enough. You see what’s happened. When Gunning broke loose from
those toughs he came east, meaning probably to hit the high spots.
Somewhere this side of Winnipeg his money ran dry. Being on his uppers,
and being a miner, he’d just naturally think of Cobalt, for Cobalt’d be
the place where he would find his own job and at good money.”

“And I see how they persuaded Heloise--Miss Reys. They made her feel
that if she did not start for Cobalt at once there’d be every chance of
her missing him again. Gunning would wander off again directly he got
money into his pocket.”

“Yes, and they got her to go by that train because she’d be able to
catch a connection out of Montreal,” capped The Chief. “She’ll go out
by No. 17. It’s one of the few direct trains. She’ll get a through
sleeper on that. Cobalt it is, Mr. Seadon.”

“But Cobalt is an unhandy place to get at.”

“It’s just as unhandy a place to get out of, too. But it’s Cobalt she’s
gone to, take that as fixed, Mr. Seadon.”

Before they boarded the night train for Montreal they learned over
the long-distance ’phone that the girl and her companion had taken
reservations for Cobalt on the night train.

They also learned that a large man, answering unmistakably to the
description of Mr. Neuburg, with a companion, had left Montreal earlier
in the day.

He, too, had booked through to Cobalt.


V

All through the night journey Clement was sleepless. He was thinking
of Heloise and the danger she was in. His own adventures with Mr.
Neuburg and his gang had taught him that there was very little these
scoundrels would stop at, and the thought of that slim, beautiful and
fine-tempered girl at the mercy of creatures so base and so cruel was a
thing of terror.

What would happen to her? What, even now, was happening to her, or was
about to happen? He was tortured by a thousand fears.

That Neuburg was going on before he knew was ominous. He was going to
deal with the inveterate Henry Gunning so that he would appear at his
best when Heloise “found” him. From his own experience Clement felt
that what Mr. Neuburg took in hand would be done thoroughly.

At Montreal they were met by a slim, pleasant young man, with a quiet
manner and a nearly bald head. A satisfying young man, whose modesty
covered a definite ability to think and do things quickly. He told The
Chief at once that he had reserved accommodation for two on the next
train out to Cobalt.

“Two?” asked Clement.

“Xavier Gatineau here is going with you, Mr. Seadon,” said The Chief,
indicating the quiet young man with a nod. “It’s our case, too, you
know. We want to get to the bottom of that tiara business. Now, come
along and have breakfast with me. We have time before your train goes.
Xavier will tell us anything fresh.”

Over the cantaloupe and ice water and gaspé salmon and superb coffee,
that made the breakfast, the young man told them there was nothing
particularly fresh.

“The two ladies went through to Cobalt,” he said. “A point is they
traveled light. They took only suitcases. The heavy baggage was left
here--on demand. The baggage master told me that Miss Reys expected to
wire for it to be sent on somewhere.”

“That means they don’t expect to make a stay in Cobalt. It also means
that if they left in a hurry it wouldn’t be so easy to trail them,”
commented The Chief. “Well, we’re warned anyhow. I’ll take steps,
Xavier. If you lose the trail, or anything goes wrong, get a message to
me. I’ll try and have something at all divisions,[1] too, and I’ll send
a general warning west. Now, about Mr. Neuburg?”

“He pulled out early on the westbound. He’ll have changed at North Bay,
and so got to Cobalt last night. I haven’t been able to connect up with
Cobalt.--It’s not on our system, you know,” he explained to Clement.
“Neuburg had another man with him. Both only carried suitcases.”

“Anything through from Sicamous?”

“Joe Wandersun is a bad hat. We have his record, because he fell foul
of us once over false declarations in way-sheets. He’s got a shack
at Sicamous.... I’ve had a message through from the station master
there. Seems to be living more or less in retirement for the present.
Sicamous, anyhow, is no more than a scattered handful of shacks, no
scope for a man who lives by his wits. That’s what Wandersun has been
doing for years. He’s done a term in prison for fraud; it reads as
though it were the confidence trick. He’s a friend of Gunning’s.”

“Ah,” said Clement. “You’ve heard something about Gunning.”

“Our chap at Sicamous says he’s a remittance man. That’s a term in
British Columbia for a man who won’t work--a fellow who lives by
sponging. Gunning says he has mine claims, and is a booze artist.” The
young man’s eyes twinkled. “That’s our expression for a man given to
drink, Mr. Seadon.”

“Nothing against him?”

“Nothing proven--to our knowledge, but his habits are bad, and his
company shady.”

“Have you found out anything about Siwash Mike?” asked The Chief.

“Nothing.”

“Neuburg?”

“I’m going to hear from the Dominion police--perhaps; or, rather,
they’ll get on to you, sir. They don’t place him. But one of them said
he had an idea that the description you gave was like a man the U. S.
A. police were after. As far as he remembered, this man was wanted in
Oregon, well, considerably more than two years ago. They are going to
look into it, and get in touch with the U. S. A., too.”

From the way he spoke, Clement thought that the quiet young man was
holding something back. Abruptly he leaned across the breakfast table.
“Did they say what he was wanted for?”

The young man looked at The Chief before answering. The Chief nodded.

“Murder,” he said quietly.

Murder! Clement fell back in his chair, staring at the quiet, partly
bald young man who had made the calm statement.

“As far as the Dominion police could remember--it was a good while
back, you understand--it was a matter of murder, or complicity in a
murder. Something with a lot of money in it, and a man killed. But
they’ll find out the full facts.”

“Good God! and that girl is in this--this murderer’s power,” gasped
Clement, unable to think of anything else.

“It may not be the same feller, Mr. Seadon,” said The Chief kindly.
“It’s an old case, and they are only working from memory, not facts.”

“Are there many men answering to the description of Mr. Neuburg?”

“No,” said The Chief slowly. “But then I don’t know. An’ when we get
the Oregon description we may find it doesn’t fit him.”

“A case of money and murder ... that fits Neuburg,” said Clement. “Yes,
he’s a murderer and a thief, and--and that poor girl’s at his mercy. We
must do something.”

“We can’t do anything until you get to Cobalt, Mr. Seadon. Come now,
you mustn’t lose your nerve.”

But that was a thing easier to talk about than to do. Clement’s nerves,
very decidedly, had become jumpy. The thought that he had to sit
passive while that murderer had his way with Heloise filled him for a
moment with panic.

He suggested getting through to Cobalt by ’phone or wire and doing
something. It was only the soothing calm of The Chief, who, rightly or
wrongly, trusted only his own system that quieted him in the end. He
felt that there was no good doing anything until he and Xavier Gatineau
got to Cobalt. A false step, a clumsy movement, a hint thrown out by
some one not too sure of his job, and the rogues would take fright and
all their work would be undone.

And after all, as The Chief pointed out, Heloise could not be in danger
for a day or two, and, moreover, it was extremely unlikely that she
could get away from Cobalt before they arrived.


VI

While they were waiting to catch the connection at North Bay, Clement
Seadon saw a man dodge out of the station telegraph office. He came
out furtively, saw Clement near him, hung hesitating, and then with
the movement of a weasel snapped back into cover behind the telegraph
office door.

Clement walked away, but, always, he watched that door.

When the train for Cobalt drew up, he handed his bag to the black
porter of his car--and still kept his eyes on the door. The young
detective who accompanied him paused as he entered the train, and
stood watching Clement’s antics. Clement heard him speaking over
his shoulder. He mounted the steps of the train backwards. He said,
“Gatineau, just keep your eyes on the door of the telegraph office,
will you?”

The train began to pull out. A head appeared round the door of the
telegraph office. The dark, swift eyes in the head scanned the train
and platform.... Clement felt that, shrewd though that glance was, he
and Gatineau were well screened by the side of the train. One look and
the head was followed by a lithe, sinewy figure. This figure crossed
the platform at a swift, loping run, jumped to the steps of a car
farther back, and pulled himself into the train.

“You saw him?” said Clement. “That was Siwash Mike. He’s traveling with
us to Cobalt.”

They went to their seats in the train. Clement sat facing back so
that he could see any one who came forward through the train. He
thought Siwash Mike would lie low, but these rogues were so bold and
unscrupulous that he meant to be ready for all emergencies.

“I was rather startled to see him,” he said to Xavier Gatineau, “but,
of course, I should have expected him. He has been following me from
Quebec without a doubt.”

“Yes, in worrying about other things we forgot him,” admitted Gatineau.
“He complicates matters. He’ll have sent Neuburg word that we are
coming to Cobalt.... He was probably doing that in the telegraph
office.”

The young detective’s surmise was a natural one. But it happened to be
wrong--as they found out later. Siwash Mike had sent his message of
their coming to Neuburg when they left Montreal. He had gone into the
telegraph office at North Bay for quite another reason. But Clement
and his companion were not to know that. They simply formed their
deductions on the material they had, and as the material they had was
limited, their deductions were wrong.

“Yes, they’ll know we are coming; they’ll be prepared for us. And we
can do exactly nothing,” said Clement bitterly.

“Let’s try and think what they’ll do to checkmate us,” said the
detective.

“That’s easy,” said Clement. “They’ll do what they’ve been doing or
attempting to do ever since this affair began. They’ll get Heloise Reys
out of our reach.”

“Not easy in a smallish town like Cobalt.”

“Then they’ll take her outside Cobalt.”

“But--but can they move her about at their will like that? She’s an
intelligent woman. Wouldn’t she object, wouldn’t she see something
wrong in this constant repetition of these tactics?”

“They’ll be plausible,” said Clement. “Their excuse will be logical.
You must remember that this Gunning fellow is not supposed to know she
is coming to him. However erratic his movements may seem, they’re his
own, or appear to be his own. If they tell her at Cobalt that Gunning
has left the town, gone off to a shack, or a mine in the wilds, she
can’t say anything. That’s the sort of thing he would do, and she has
to adapt herself to him. That’s how they’ll get her away. Gunning will
go off somewhere--and she’ll follow.”

“It’s a tough problem,” said the little detective. And both men fell
silent, thinking this tough problem out.

This was a new difficulty to cap the old one. Already Clement had felt
that Heloise would be taken to some place hard to find in Cobalt, and
now he felt that, thanks to Siwash’s message, she would be doubly hard
to discover. And then suddenly, as he began to dwell upon Siwash’s
unpleasant presence on the train he smiled.

“By Gad,” he cried, “it is just luck after all.”

The little detective looked at him sharply. Clement answered that look
by saying:

“From our brother Siwash’s antics do you feel that he thinks _we_ know
he is on this train?”

“Why, no,” said the detective. “From the way he acted I think he
thought we hadn’t seen him, and he hoped we wouldn’t.”

“That’s my conclusion,” smiled Clement. “He has us under his eye and
expects no guile from us, simply because he thinks us innocent of his
presence. And that’s going to help us.”

The detective’s eyes showed that he hadn’t grasped what Clement was
driving at.

“This is what I mean. He, personally, fears nothing from us. He is
confident that he can do his job without any suspicion or threat to
himself. Now, what is his job--it’s to shadow us to Cobalt, see us
safely there, and report. Do you agree with that; I mean do you think
there might be something further for him to do?”

“No,” said the detective with thought. “I don’t see what more he can
do. They’ll naturally want to hear from him exactly what we’ve been
doing. He’ll probably turn us over to another man, or if, it being the
dead of night, we went to the hotel, he’d judge we were safe for an
hour or so....”

“And we’ll arrange that he thinks that. But the point is that you agree
he’ll report. And who to?”

“Why, to Neuburg--the gang.”

“Yes--he’ll lead us to them,” smiled Clement quietly. The detective
looked at him, and then smiled in return.

“Say, that’s pretty snappy thinking. Tell me the idea.”

“It’s based on the fact that he thinks we don’t suspect he’s following
us. Now, this is my plan. When the train stops at Cobalt we’ll delay
getting off until the last.... That’ll thin out the other passengers
who alight ... that’ll make it easier for you to spot him, to fix him
in your mind....”

“I’ve got him already,” smiled the detective. “That’s our job, you
know, to remember men. I know him. I won’t miss him.”

“All right. But, anyhow, you’ll get a chance of picking him up easily
if there are fewer people about. When we get on to the platform, and
he has a chance of hearing all we say, I’ll arrange in a loud voice
to have both the bags carried to the hotel. Then you will say to me
(for, remember, we don’t suspect he’s there, we don’t suspect the
gang knows we’ve come to Cobalt), also in a loudish voice, that while
I’m reserving rooms in the hotel, you’ll have a word with the station
master. I’ll agree to wait in the hotel lobby until you come to me.”

“And Siwash Mike overhears it all?”

“Siwash Mike overhears it all. And having overheard all that, he’ll do
one of two things, I think. He’ll either shadow me, as the person he’s
most concerned in, to the hotel or put another man on to me to follow
me to the hotel--if there is another person; or he’ll decide that we’re
safe for a short while, and so go off to report to Neuburg.”

“And I?”

“You keep your eye on Siwash all the time. You follow him. If he
follows me to the hotel, follow him.... I shall go straight there
unless I get some signal to join you. If I am in the hotel I’ll manage
to keep my eye on the door all the time, so that if he moves off I’ll
take a signal from you and join you at once--I know you’ve an electric
torch. If you shine, then I’ll come out. But I’m rather hoping that if
he feels certain we don’t know he’s here, he’ll go off at once after
hearing our conversation about the hotel, and will trust his luck
about getting his report in before we stir abroad. If that’s the case
then we will both follow him.... We must plan a way for you to call my
attention, should I have already gone towards the hotel....”

“That should be easy. You have to go up a pretty steep hill to get out
of the station yard. The hotel is just across the road. From the hotel
door you should command the approach; if you’ve not reached the hotel
by the time he goes off, well, I should pass so close that I should
be able to get you a warning.... But--but--he might go by car or by
rig....”

“That would be the devil ...” began Clement; but the detective cried,
“No, I don’t think it would. If he got right into a car or rig I would
know at once what he was about. I’d take one of the other cars that are
sure to be there, and that steep hill in the station yard will check
his car, and enable me to pick you up.”

They talked out the general line of this plan, and the more they
talked the most satisfactory it seemed. They would get to Neuburg’s
headquarters by following the man who was trailing them, and who felt
secure because he thought they didn’t know he was trailing them. There
were, of course, dangers and difficulties bristling along the line of
their proposed action.

“What if they do put another man on to shadow you?” the detective asked.

“We’ll have to deal with him--as the contingency arises,” said Clement
grimly. “It is a risk we can’t avoid.”

“And we must beware of traps.”

“We must,” said Clement with a smile that was yet more grim. “Trap or
no trap, I’m going into it. But I’m going in with my eyes open.” He
patted his pocket where reposed a new pistol The Chief had given him.
“I’m going in with my hand on the trigger, ready to shoot. I’m going
in with an electric torch. I’m ready for all tricks--and I’ll have you
with me. Armed, I suppose?”

The little detective’s hand went down to his pocket. “Automatic.
Brother to the one The Chief gave you. And a good supply of magazine
refills.”

“The two of us ought to be able to deal with them. But I don’t think
there’ll be a trap. I can understand how I tumbled into it before. I
gave the game away, I’m certain, by sending Joe Wandersun’s name in to
Méduse Smythe at lunch. But here--how could there be a trap? As far as
they’re concerned we’re entirely unaware that Siwash is on the train.
There’s no reason or time for them to prepare traps. We’ll simply
carry the day with surprise tactics--and, in any case, _is_ there any
possible other course of action open to us if we are to rescue that
girl effectively and without loss of time?”

There was no other way. Now that Siwash had warned the rogues--as they
thought he had done by telegraph from North Bay there was precious
little time to lose--the only way to get to Neuburg, and the girl
Heloise, was to follow Siwash, to him. There was no other plan so
swift. And its boldness, Clement thought, must make it effective.

He would have been less sanguine had he known that in the telegraph
office at North Bay, Siwash had not been sending a message _but
receiving one_. That he had been fulfilling the instructions in that
message at the moment when he had shown himself deliberately to Clement
outside the telegraph office. If Clement had known all these things he
might have hesitated. But he did not know.

He did not know. And when a closed car passed him groaning at the steep
grade of the station yard hill at Cobalt, and following that car came
another, with Xavier Gatineau, leaning out of it and calling to him,
“Get in, get in, he’s in that car at the front. He’s swallowed our
bait,” he got in joyfully.

Directly these things happened, Clement gleefully congratulated
himself that their little comedy of deception had proved brilliantly
successful. He fell back into the padded seat smiling. He watched the
red rear light of the closed car in front picking up speed as it wound
through the corkscrew streets of Cobalt. And his heart was saying, “To
Neuburg.... To Heloise.... That car’s leading us to them.”

And in the front car Siwash Mike was chuckling. He leaned across to
Joe Wandersun, who was driving, and cried, still chuckling, “They’ve
bitten. They’ve bitten. They’re following.”

FOOTNOTE:

[1] A division on the C.P.R. varies in length from approximately
115 miles to 140 miles. All trains change engines and crews at such
divisions.




CHAPTER V


I

The two cars rushed through the night, switch-backing up and down the
strange streets of that strange town. Clement had the queer feeling
that he was passing through a dream city created by some fantastic
fairy tale illustrator. The streets of Cobalt wound haphazard amid
houses built haphazard. The bumpy driveway wriggled between buildings
now on the road-level, now hanging above it on rocky outcrops. Now an
ordinary side road was passed in the dusk. Now a flight of stairs shot
upward in place of a road.

“We’ve got him,” said Clement cheerfully, looking out at the speeding
car ahead, “and we’ll get Neuburg through him. That is, if your
driver----”

“That’s all right,” said the detective Gatineau. “He’s game. I put him
wise before I hired him. For twenty dollars and a little excitement
he’ll do all you want him to do.”

“There may be gunning,” said Clement.

“He knows that. All he said was that the burg had been kind of
sluggish anyhow for the past six months.... This is a mining town, you
know. Don’t you worry, he thrives on excitement.”

The cars swept out of the town. Between the stiff, rocky hills and the
giant humpings of silver mine workings they were pressing towards the
wild tracts of the open country. The road grew deliriously worse.

“What about headlights?” asked the detective. “We don’t want Siwash or
his driver to see us.”

“They haven’t yet,” said Clement. “That rear lamp would go out if they
did. It’s a closed car, anyhow, and unless we were right up to them I
don’t think they would notice our lights. But to be on the safe side
they might be half-switched down, though.”

He rose and spoke to the genial and husky driver about this.

“Sure,” said that individual, and he checked down his lights until
there was but a faint radiance on the road before them. “If this wasn’t
such a hell of a trail I’d cut ’em out altogether. Must have some
light. I’ll bump my springs to scrap else.”

“Put down all repairs to us,” said Clement. “You’re a good scout to
take this on. There may be trouble.”

“Ain’t exactly done tatting all me life meself,” grinned the driver.

“I guess you haven’t,” smiled Clement, looking at his burly figure.
“Where are those chaps heading for?”

“Hudson Bay and the Arctic Belt gen’rally, sh’d say, from the way
they’re hitting it,” grinned the man. “Somewhere fresh t’me anyways.
Not that I mind novelties, only I hope this trail holds to wherever
they’re going.”

There was, indeed, every indication that the trail would not. It had
become astonishingly rough, so that they bumped and soared on the
padded seats in an astounding way, their only satisfaction being that
Siwash and his companion in front were also feeling the strain, and had
checked their pace down to something more humanly bearable.

As the road grew rougher the country became more inhospitable and
empty. Its emptiness, in fact, was impressive. They had, some time
ago, left the last vestige of the township behind them. They had
passed the last of the outlying mines--the blank and almost inhumanly
empty grouping of a discarded and probably forgotten working. They
were now heaving and shouldering along this strange trail, where grass
proclaimed a lack of traffic, going always into a bleak, strange land
where not even the bark of a dog gave indication of the dwellings of
man. The enormous emptiness of it weighed on the mind.

The country over which they had been passing for hours, it seemed, had
been flat. At length it became broken up. The hard rock was thrusting
its way up through the thin soil, first in little outcrops, then in
mounds and bluffs that resembled the ground at Cobalt. The trail, which
had gone forward as directly as an arrow, began to twist, worming round
the rocky pockets, forever finding the most negotiable way. Then, in
the midst of his automatic and quite unsplenetic growls at the tricky
steering this new circumstance demanded, the driver said, “Hey, _look_
at that big Swede. Hey, but just you look at him, hitting it up again.”

It was a fact. The car in front of them had abruptly increased its
speed. From its steady, but cautious pace, it had suddenly started to
run away.

“Have they seen us?” asked Clement.

“Not they,” said the driver. “That’s the explanation.” He pointed ahead
of him towards the trail. Even as he pointed the reason for the change
of speed became obvious. The car ceased its wild and stormy bumping.
They were still pitched about, but the rough trail across country
had ceased; they were on a road. As they wound in and out among the
rocks they could see the fairly even and rutted surface under their
headlights.

“Where are we? What road?” demanded Clement.

“I miss my guess,” said the driver, his eyes fixed warily ahead for the
abrupt and surprising twists. “I don’t know more’n you. It’s Nowhere
in the middle of Neverwas.”

They ran on, twisting and turning along the crooked, rock-dodging path.
Clement’s pulse began to beat with excitement. A made road--that meant
a house. A house meant....

The driver said abruptly, his expert eye flashing to the side of the
track and back again with a darting glance, “Thought so ... workings.”
He pointed with a stabbing finger. “Stuff taken out of there--see. Ugh!
ye brute, _do_ ye want to go, prospecting wid yer nose?”

Clement looked to the side of the trail, but saw nothing of the signs
of mining which the driver noted at a glance. But he saw and felt the
road, saw signs of the presence of man in that, and he recognized that
they were coming to the critical point of their ride. He braced himself
alertly, looking ahead. His hand went into his pocket, caught at the
automatic pistol and held it ready.

“Water, see,” said the driver, jerking left with his ear, to where
something shimmered flatly and; eerily in the dark.

Ahead of them the red light of the rear lamp swerved and vanished.

“Hell,” groaned the driver, and working his hands one over the other
like a strenuous pianist, he whipped the car round an “S” curve into a
straight, round another curve, and caught the distant twinkling of the
red light again.

“They’re moving away,” cried the detective, now by Clement’s side.

“They know the ground, hang ’em,” said Clement.

“There’s the outfit,” stabbed the driver. “You look. Don’t wanter pile
her up....”

Clement imitated the action he had just seen the driver indulge in. He
bent low down so that he could catch faintly the black silhouette of
the earth against the fainter darkness of the sky. He saw merely masses
of dark shades on shadow--fantastic, indeterminable shades--rocks, no
doubt.... Then ... yes, there was the tall, square shoulder of a mine
building, the frail fret of derrick against the dark, and the humped
mound of slack.

“I see it,” he cried. “That’s the place, for a certainty.”

“Seems so,” growled the driver. He swore deeply. He had lost the tail
light. He was laboring round another cruel bend. He straightened out.
“Where in creation....” he began, searching for the red light.

“There!” cried the detective.

“There!” cried Clement. “Straight ahead. Why, we’ve got ’em. We’re on
top of ’em. We’ve got ’em sure.”

There was a sudden and appalling bump.

“Fer th’ love of Mike....” yelled the driver. He wrenched frantically
at the wheel. “We’re off the trail ... off....”

There was a sudden succession of terrific and violent bumps. The car
seemed to jump. It thrust forward, sank. Kicked again, buried its nose
deep, and threatened to capsize. Then the hind part sank softly and
squarely.... All movement ceased.

The all-but-buried headlights, the driver instinctively switched full
on, shone on a flat, moist surface that threw back the rays with a
curious, livid shine. The driver swore deeply.

“Steve,” he cried to Clement. “Steve, we’re done. We’re knocked. We’re
beat.... We’re _bogged_.”

In the distance the red light dwindled and dwindled, and abruptly was
lost.

In the first car Siwash, leaning towards Joe Wandersun, smiled his cold
Indian smile. “They’re in it, pard,” he said. “In it up to the lamps.
That settles _them_.”


II

Clement, in rage, tore at the door of the car, opened it and made to
leap out.

The detective gripped his arm. The driver, leaning back over the seat,
joined the detective in that grip.

“Here, Steve,” snapped the driver. “You quit that.”

“We can get to these buildings in time--but we must hurry,” snapped
Clement angrily, trying to struggle free.

“You can not,” said the driver. “You can get up to your occi_putt_ in
enduring mud, Steve, an’ that’ll be about the limit o’ your carnal
activities. What we’ve hit is a slime lake. That mine dumped into here,
see? It’s probably a little more solid than water, but more uneasy to
swim in, see?”

“But--but--man, we must do something....” cried Clement.

“Sure, Steve, but with circumspuction. As we ain’t sinking no more, we
have a sure base or deepo’ to work from. By workin’ cautious....”

“And while we are being cautious--with our lights full on--what will be
happening at that mine, my good chap?”

“Not much,” said the driver. “A coyote prowling round, a bat flutterin’
hither an’ thither.... Not much more, Steve. This mine is an abandoned
mine, Steve. C’n tell that by the surface o’ th’ slime....”

“An abandoned mine,” snapped Clement in an edgy voice. “But that’s just
the place....”

“Moreover, Steve,” said the driver. “Moreover, our pals in the forward
car did not go to or enter said abandoned mine. Take that as law,
Steve. For why--I saw their headlights flash on the building and pass.
I saw them lights turn beyond a big outcrop of rock further on, going
away left, Steve, turning their back on that old mine.”

“They’ve gone on?” gasped Clement, in a tone of despair.

“They sure have,” said the driver. “An’ it’s no good feelin’ sore about
it. Circumstances is just gone bad on us, an’ that’s that. No call fer
chasing a Hudson Six to Baffin Bay on the unaided feet.”

Clement, his eyes still fixed on the point in the darkness where the
red light had vanished, dropped back into his seat. “What exactly
happened?” he asked, more in a groan than anything else.

“We got bogged,” said the driver, with a touch of irony. “I was the
tin horn, an’ well, we got bogged. See how it is? That trail takes a
sharp loop round this lake. I came round in a crazy hurry, missed that
tail light--then I picked it up dead ahead--that was when _they_ picked
up th’ straight again after getting round th’ lake. Me being that tin
horn, I took me eyes off the trail for a fleck and drove right ahead
instead o’ goin’ round. And--and, well, Steve, we was well and duly
bogged.”

Clement groaned. Again, through the veriest slip, he had lost his
chance of saving the girl Heloise.

“If they’d planned it, they couldn’t have beat us to it better,” said
the driver, with a curse.

“Perhaps they did plan it,” said the detective Gatineau softly and
suddenly.

“Eh,” gasped Clement; “but, of course, they didn’t do that. How could
they know we....”

“Then why are they turning back?” said the detective. “There, abreast
of us between those two rocks....”

Clement and the driver swung their eyes to the left. Between the two
rocks, distantly, they saw the glow of automobile lamps. They shone
steadily. Then the rocks hid them as they moved. Without a word the men
in the bogged car sat staring into the darkness, searching it for those
glowing lights. They came again from behind a rock. Now they were well
to the rear. The significance of those lights was unmistakable.

“They’ve circled,” said Clement.

“You’re damn right,” said the driver angrily. “They’re heading to cut
the trail behind. They’re going to make Cobalt again by the same road.”

Before he could say another word Clement was out of the car. He plunged
desperately, slime or no slime. He went down over his knees in the
viscid stuff. He jumped forward. He found a shelf of rock, strode off
it, again up to his knees. He went on. He slipped and half fell in a
deeper pocket, and with the effort of recovery found himself on ground
that was but shin deep. He plunged forward, and a bush whipped his
faces. He was on solid ground at once.

He ran back along the trail until he met the face of the rock where
the turn had been so disastrous to them. At this he sprang, clambering
upwards. It was a hard, steep climb, but he was glad of it. The higher
it was, the more commanding a position it would give him. He knew he
was at the summit by the sudden sight of the departing car lights he
obtained. But even as he scrambled erect those lights disappeared,
leaving a faint, moving glow only.

Clement followed that steadily with his eyes. Then as the lights
abruptly flamed into view, his hand went up, and the automatic pistol
in it spoke and spoke again. As he fired, the lights disappeared, and
he wondered if he had hit. They came again, and again he fired. He
emptied his clip and jerked out an exclamation of anger as he reached
into his pocket for a fresh magazine. As he did that, the lights
vanished once more.

He heard a man panting by his side, and the detective Gatineau’s voice
said, “Too far and too dark for fine shooting, Mr. Seadon, I’m afraid.
Also it’s quite illegal.”

And even as he said that, his own automatic was pumping off, to be
joined at least ten seconds later by the snap of Clement’s pistol.

But the darkness and the distance were against them. Both men fired
once more when the lights showed, but the car appeared to go steadily
and calmly on its course. Soon it swung into the trail, and all
that could be seen of it was the up flung haze of its great lamps.
Presently even that was lost, though they could hear on the almost
preternaturally silent air the drone of the car’s engines as they
dwindled and sank into the distance.

“Yes, you were right. It was planned and we were deliberately tricked,”
said Clement harshly, as he turned to clamber down to the car, and he
did not, indeed could not, speak again, so hot was his anger against
himself. When he reached the edge of the slime lake, within hailing
distance of the stranded car, he called to the driver. “It was a trap,
after all. A trap to maroon me out here miles away from anywhere----”

“About forty miles from Cobalt station, anyhow, Steve,” said the
driver. “Forty miles, if it’s an inch.”


III

“Forty miles away from Cobalt,” gasped the detective Gatineau.

“I reckon that,” said the driver. “I reckon it; but don’t you ask me
where we are. In the middle of the Sarah Desert of Africa, for all I
know.”

“And we’re right out of touch of anybody. Miles away from the nearest
house?”

“Hundreds of miles,” said the driver fervently and with convincing
inaccuracy. “I don’t know of even a shack out this way.”

“I don’t suppose there is one ... trust Neuburg and his gang for that,”
said Clement bitterly, reviewing the situation and finding its meaning.

“There may be a telephone in that old mine,” suggested the detective,
with no great conviction.

“Oh, there may be,” said the driver. “There may be a Packard de luxe
only waiting to take us back. Anyhow, to look won’t mean any harm. An’
it’ll be an occupation. There’s all the night yet.”

Clement and the detective went round by the trail to the abandoned
mine. They felt their way carefully with their torches, and they
carried their pistols ready. There was no need for the latter. The mine
was dark and empty, its buildings degenerating into rot, its workings
choked with weeds. There was not a telephone.

They had left another torch with the driver, and he had spent his
time carefully surveying the position of the car in the rather vague
hope that she might be got out of the slime lake on her own power. As
Clement and his companion returned, he called out to them, “Nothin’
doing with th’ old girl. It’ll take a team to pull her clear, and an
overhaul in a garage when she is clear an’ back at Cobalt. But she
won’t sink any more, so she’s safe to sleep in.”

“We’ll send back that team,” said Clement. He turned to the detective.
“Or, rather, I will; there’s no need for you to walk in, I’ll send
back another car.”

“I’ll come along,” said Gatineau.

“A hell of a walk on a dark night with a trail bad enough to be easily
missed. You’re risking a lot,” said the driver.

“We’ve got to,” answered Clement. “You see, the reason we were lured
out here, and marooned, is, as I look at it, that those people in the
car want to get us out of the way and keep us out of the way for a long
time.... Isn’t that the way you see this, Mr. Gatineau?”

“That’s the only reason in it,” agreed the detective. “I should say
that we got to Cobalt before Neuburg and his lot were ready for us.
They had to decide on this desperate trick to get us out into the wilds
and maroon us. I take it that the man in the car signaled to Siwash
directly he saw him.”

“I agree in the main,” said Clement, who had been thinking hard. “But
this thing has been well planned. They knew if they could get us out
here we might be landed helpless.... And to get us out here, well,
Siwash must have been the bait. I don’t see how they knew we knew of
his presence on the train----”

“Perhaps his showing himself at North Bay was deliberate,” said the
detective. “Half-breed Indians with all the tricks of the woods don’t
give themselves away so easily. Although it’s rather late in the day
to remember that.”

“And the fact is neither here nor there, anyhow,” said Clement. “Our
chief concern is that we are ten or more hours tramp away from Cobalt
on this bad trail, and that during those ten hours Neuburg and his
rogues will be able to do things--things connected,” he meant to
mention Heloise Reys’ name, but he boggled at that, he said instead,
“do things that our presence in Cobalt would have prevented. They have
gained very valuable time.”

“But they, whoever you’re talking about, _have_ gained it,” pointed the
driver. “You can’t get away from that. That being so, where’s the value
of risking that tramp along a dangerous trail in a dark night? It’s
mortal easy to stray and get lost in these parts.”

“That’s a risk I think we’ve got to take,” said Clement. “They may be
counting on the fact that we won’t try to follow the trail during the
night; I mean by that they may need more time than those ten hours.
Again, we may have luck, may hit upon a shack or a homestead where we
could get a rig or some conveyance. And always, too, the closer we keep
to their heels the more likely we are to throw their plans out.”

“I don’t know who they are, but these fellers seem a healthy lot of
toughs from the indications thrown off,” said the driver. And as he
voiced his ignorance, Clement swung round on him with an inspiration.

“Do you know a man named Henry Gunning?” he demanded.

“Henry Gunning,” cried the driver. “What, again! Do I know him? Why,
the feller’s an epidemic.”

Clement, startled by the tone of the man’s voice, simply echoed the
expression, “an epidemic?”

“He’s certainly that. The whole world’s asking after him.”

“What do you mean by the whole world?” demanded Clement in some
excitement.

“In a manner o’ speaking, I mean he seemed an ordinary sort of feller
up to a day or so ago. Then a big fat man hits the burg and he and a
feller with him begins to agitate for this Henry Gunning----”

“That is Neuburg and Joe Wandersun--the big man is Neuburg,” said
Clement.

“That’s Neuburg,” said the driver. “Well, I can understand your lack of
heartiness about him--a shifty-looking mammoth he is. Well then, they
asked and asked for Henry Gunning, reg’ler raised the burg. And then,
when they’d finished--when the subject might be considered dropped, so
to speak--there came the ladies----”

“The two ladies,” said Clement quickly.

“Yep, the queen one, a real swell Jane, and the plain prune one. They
made the burg to-day, and they asked. The big shark had nothin’ on
them ladies in eagerness for Henry. An’ now here’s you.”

This seemed all very strange to Clement. If Neuburg had asked
for Gunning, why should Heloise, in her turn, have had to ask so
persistently? He said, “I don’t quite follow this. The big man asked
for Gunning, you say, and then the lady.... Does that mean that Neuburg
did not find Gunning?”

“Oh, he found him. You bet _he_ found him all right, all right.” From
the amusement in the driver’s tone it was evident that there was some
ripe story connected with Neuburg’s discovery of Gunning.

Clement ignored that. “Well, then--why the lady? Why did she have to
ask for Gunning?”

“Why,” said the driver. “Why, don’t you see, because that Neuburg
feller found him first, see.”

“I don’t see at all.”

“Well, he found him first, didn’t he. Took him away. Beat it with
him----”

“What!” cried Clement. “Are you saying Gunning has left Cobalt with
Neuburg?”

“First train out, sure,” said the man. “This morning, or rather,
yesterday mornin’.”

“An’ the lady----?”

“But ain’t I bin tellin’ you all the time Henry was gone when she came
in?”

Clement stared amazedly at the faint blur of white that in the
darkness represented the driver’s face. In the pause the detective
Gatineau said, “Then, Miss Reys, this lady and her companion, are still
in Cobalt?”

“They certainly are.”

Clement spoke. “Until the first train out,” he said bitterly. “That’s
why we’re here. We were lured out here so that Miss Reys can be got
away from Cobalt without our meeting or seeing her. They can’t very
well get her out of Cobalt until the morning, so they got me, us, out
of Cobalt instead.”

Indeed, it was unmistakable. Gunning had been whisked out of Cobalt to
some unconjecturable place, either because he was not in a fit state to
see Heloise, or because, hearing of Clement’s pursuit, Neuburg feared
that his plan might be interrupted. The rest naturally followed.


IV

It was a good thing that the motor driver came back with them along the
trail to Cobalt. There were times when the track branched deceptively,
and they might have gone astray. It was he who shone his torch on the
dusty earth and said, “This way. There’s the heart-shaped tread of the
new tire I got on me back wheel.”

Also he enlivened a monotonous journey by his story of the coming of
Neuburg to Cobalt.

There was that grim humor in it that Clement naturally connected with
the mountain of a man and the circumstances.

Henry Gunning had been in a billiard saloon, “half-canned,” as the
driver said, with “bootleg” whiskey. He had been bragging violently
about the millionaire he’d be in ten minutes after his marriage.
Neuburg had just walked into the billiard dive and looked at him--or
rather looked over his shoulder.

Gunning had crumpled at once, and, a thing of limp fear had followed
Neuburg “like a dorg.--”

“Jist like er dorg. Neuburg never said a word, but that Gunning
feller put his moral tail between his hypothetical legs and went out
arter him. When they made the train he was still follering th’ big
man--without a word.”

The driver also told them about the coming of Heloise. He had been in
that, too. He had heard that she was inquiring for Gunning, and, as he
had seen all that had happened, he had “greased” along to the hotel.
But, of course, he had not been allowed to get near Heloise.

“A woman with a glacial face handed me the frozen mitt,” he explained.
“She come down an’ saw me in the lobby, and said she was glad to hear
what I tole her, an’ it was very interesting, an’ she’d make a note o’
it, an’ here’s a dollar fer yer trouble an’ good-by.”

That was how Heloise had been fenced off from the truth.

By the time the driver had finished they had tramped into the dawn.
About them the land loomed gray and bleak, and full of up-shouldering
masses of rock.

At the same time they gained a hope of being near homesteads, for the
main trail was now broken by many branching tracks.

It was while they bent over one of these junctions that the next
manifestation of Mr. Neuburg’s criminal efficiency developed.

A spurt of earth kicked up almost in their faces. And then another.
They heard the snap of a pistol, and the “whit-whit” of bullets about
them.

The driver sprang erect with an oath, but Clement caught him and flung
him to the ground.

“Down on your tummy!” he snapped. “Crawl to cover under those rocks.
There’s a man on that outcrop ahead, and he’s shooting to kill.”


V

As the three of them huddled to the earth under cover, there came a
sparkle of light from the mound of rock ahead, and a bullet droned
above them. At the flash, the driver darted his hand upward, fired
every chamber of the five-shot revolver he carried. At once above his
head the protecting rock splintered, and on a rock behind a bullet
starred.

“Better not do that again,” said Clement, hugging cover.

“Shootin’ _me_ up,” breathed the driver as he reloaded. “I’ll teach
him.”

“You won’t that way,” said Clement. “Not without damage to yourself.
That must be the half-breed Siwash planted there to hold us away from
Cobalt as long as possible. He’s up to all the tricks. We won’t be able
to rush him, we’ve got to get him by guile.”

“I don’t care about guile as long as I can shoot him up.”

Clement who, in the broadening pallor of light, had been studying the
ground, said crisply, “You shall. Stick your revolver round the farther
end of your rock ... no more than your gun, if you value your arm,
and when you’ve fired, whip it in sharp. No, don’t trouble to aim at
anything. Ready. Now fire.”

The driver’s revolver spoke. Almost at once there was an answering
sparkle from the rock-cliff, and the rock against which the revolver
rested chipped into flecks of flying particles.

“Close up,” said the driver. “He’s getting his range pretty.”

“He is,” said Clement, who had asked the driver to fire so that he
might study their opponent’s position. “Lucky for us his first shots
were mere sighters. But now he’ll get anything of us that shows. Also
he moves after every shot. We won’t get him by pot shooting. We’ve got
to tackle this fellow with some of his own cunning. And we’ve got to
do it quickly before the light gets too good?”

His mind, accustomed in the old days to trench warfare, sized up the
situation quickly and accurately.

“Will you two crawl over to the left there? And, don’t forget, cover
is life. I want you to get behind those rocks. When I give you the
word, I want one of you to blaze at him and draw his fire. When he
fires back, I want you both to loose off.... Can you fire with the left
hand, Gatineau? Well, do, alternating your shots. I want that lad to be
convinced that he has three men pinned here.”

“And you’re going to flank him?” said Gatineau.

“I’m going to try to do that.”

“Not a very safe job with a slim feller like that,” said the driver.

“I had some practice at it in France.... Great training ground, France.
Also, I’ve done quite a lot of stalking. Anyhow, it’s our only chance
if we’re not to remain here all day.”

The two men crawled across to their stations and Gatineau fired at
Siwash. The shot was immediately answered, and as immediately a very
hearty fusilade burst from the two behind their rocks. Clement chuckled
at the ardor Gatineau and his companion put into the business. It was
a real early morning “hate.” Not three men but a file seemed to be in
action.

But though Clement Seadon was grinning, he was also fulfilling his own
part of the plan. Directly the attention of the man on the rock was
occupied, he began to worm his way in a wide circle to the right. He
had good cover, and he made excellent progress. He was also helped by
the clever coöperation of his companions. They went one better than
instructions. Instead of remaining in one place and firing from that,
they worked steadily along the arc to the left, and Siwash--Clement was
certain it was Siwash--in swiveling round to follow them, naturally
turned his back more and more on Clement. They drew fire with all
manner of tricks.

Meanwhile Clement made definite progress. The ground was rocky and made
for stalking. In about half-an-hour he reached a position from which
he could see the fellow as he moved stealthily from point to point. It
was, as he had thought, Siwash.

Actually, at one time, he had Siwash’s legs and thighs at the mercy of
his pistol, but though the chances were six to one on his hitting, he
decided not to risk it. If he wounded the fellow he might not put him
out, while it would betray the double game they were playing. When he
fired he must do so with absolute certainty of putting an end to this
pistol play.

All the same, he had to fire before he was ready. He had worked round
to a fairly good position, when he saw no more than the hands of Siwash
(the rest was covered) doing a peculiar thing. The hands seemed to be
rolling a cigarette. The hands finished rolling the cigarette, and,
with the utmost cunning, it was lighted. A broad puff of smoke rose
up, and another, immediately drawing a spattering of shots from the
men below. Siwash, hidden, puffed for a minute on the cigarette, then
the hands appeared again, and Clement watched them fixing the wet butt
of the smoke cleverly to the face of a rock. Siwash had calculated the
draught well, for the lighted end gave off a thin thread of smoke,
which occasionally became puffs, in the now advanced light of the
growing day. Directly he had fixed up the cigarette, he appeared and
began to slink away between the rocks.... Then Clement fired.

He had to fire. He recognized Siwash’s game at once. Siwash meant to
hypnotize the men below with that cigarette smoke. With their eyes
fixed on that, they would not notice the fellow was worming round them.
The first intimation of his tactics they would get would be a shot from
their exposed flank, and that shot would be aimed to kill. Clement
recognized this in a flash, and fired.

He saw Siwash jerk and dive forward out of sight. He thought he had
hit, but did not waste time speculating on the matter. He nipped
forward rapidly to close with the brute. He had covered half the
distance when he heard a shout, and saw the detective Gatineau on the
ground where Siwash had fallen and disappeared. Gatineau stood upright,
but drew no shot. Clement discarded cover and ran, scrambling over the
rocks to join him.

He reached the spot, found Gatineau, but no Siwash. There was blood on
the ground leading away through the rocks. Clement was about to ask
questions when, with a loud “Got it, Steve,” the driver scrambled into
sight. He had a large automatic in his hand as well as his own revolver.

“Say, you got him pretty,” shouted the driver. “But where is that bad
man?”

“We saw him go down ‘smash!’ when you fired,” explained the detective.
“He shot right into sight before dropping out of it; his gun dropped
out of his hand, hit that rock there and went bouncing down to the foot
of the outcrop.... I guess you hit him powerful. I came up here quick
to get him if he wasn’t done, while the driver went for the gun.”

“An’ I got the gun, but you didn’t get that bad man.”

“He must be a pretty sick man, anyhow,” said Gatineau, pointing to the
blood. “He can’t be far off.”

They followed the trail. It wormed in and out of the rocks, and against
some of them was a smear of blood. Then suddenly, across an open space
ringed with rocks, they lost it. Siwash had evidently staunched the
flow before he had crossed this place. They stared at the rocks, the
hard surface of which showed no footprints. They could see no sign of
movement.

“He might be at any point of the compass there,” said Clement.
“We might hunt all day for him, and not find him.... And we don’t
particularly want to find him.”

“No, the sooner we get to Cobalt the better,” agreed Gatineau. “And his
teeth are drawn anyhow. We can lodge information at the town and the
police there can deal with him--if he remains hereabouts to be dealt
with. We’d better get along.”

It was another hour and a half before they reached Cobalt. Here they
learned that the tactics of Mr. Neuburg had accomplished all that that
villain desired. Heloise and the companion Méduse Smythe had left. They
had taken tickets to North Bay. By this time they were already beyond
North Bay and any telephone message that could be got there.

They had vanished into the maze of cross lines that radiated from that
railway junction.


VI

The journey from Cobalt to North Bay was made on one of those skeleton
motor trolleys railway men use to get from place to place. It was the
only means of making the journey.

It was swift and thoroughly uncomfortable. They had to cling tight
to the center handrail as they rocked and swung through a primitive
country of bare rocks and skeleton like, burnt-out forests. Clement,
bone-tired from his heavy and sleepless night, was saved from pitching
onto the ballast several times by the grip of the motorman or Gatineau.

At North Bay, they had to walk across goods yards through groups of men
to get to the station offices. This walk, slight though it was, seemed
to have so curious an effect on Clement that he behaved entirely out of
the normal. He refused to go on with Xavier Gatineau.

The little detective hesitated for a moment, puzzled, and Clement said
quietly, “Go in--I must stay outside, for a reason.” In a louder voice
he cried, “I’ll put these suitcases in the baggage room, and make
inquiries there.”

Mystified at this strange behavior, Xavier Gatineau went into the
station superintendent alone. When he came out half an hour later he
expected Clement to be missing from the platform, but he was still
there. His eye that caught Gatineau’s said, “Well?”

“The ladies have gone south,” said the little detective. “They’ve gone
to a place called Orillia. It’s a junction town. They can break off
from there anywhere--back to Montreal, or to the West, or even down to
the States.”

He gave his information in a matter-of-fact tone. He was astonished, in
fact, horrified, when Clement Seadon said in a loud voice, “Orillia! I
see it; it’s like them. They are banking on us rushing straight west
to Sicamous, the dogs! While we scamper west, the meeting between Miss
Reys and Gunning will happen at Orillia, or near it. Good God, it’s a
neat blind. But, thank heaven, we have your organization behind us;
that’s saved us; well steal a march on them to Orillia.”

Xavier Gatineau was completely mystified as well as aghast at this
attitude. He was aghast that this stupid fellow should talk so that all
the world could hear. He was mystified, because, unless Clement Seadon
had suddenly lost his senses, this dash to Orillia was obviously not at
all the thing to do.

“I also found out----” he began.

“You found out the next train to Orillia?” said Clement loudly.

Gatineau named the time of the train, trying not to feel that this
young man was a fool. The young man exploded.

“Absurd! We can’t wait all that time. We must find a quicker way of
getting there.”

“There isn’t a quicker way,” said the detective tartly.

“We’ve got to find one. We must take another of those motor trolleys.”

“No good. There isn’t one.”

“But, my dear man, we _can’t_ wait hours,” shouted Clement, showing his
anxiety with his waving hands. “Do you realize what may happen in those
hours?” He began to stamp up the platform in his agitation.

“It can’t be helped,” snapped Gatineau, forced to follow him. “We’ve
just got to wait.”

Waving his hands, arguing, Clement reached the end of the platform. He
turned and shot a glance along it. He still waved his arms angrily, but
in an even tone he said,:

“Think I’m acting like a looney, Gatineau? There’s a reason. Tell me
anything more you’ve found out, quick.”

“I’ve found out that Neuburg and Gunning pulled out from here to the
west. That means the meeting place won’t be in Orillia, but somewhere
west, in Sicamous, likely.”

“Of course,” said the astonishing Clement.

“But you said....”

“More than that, I howled it,” said Clement still making wild gestures.
“I wanted somebody to hear it. That thick-set man over there. He’s been
shadowing me ever since we left the motor-trolley. Now play up, my
lad....” He made a gesture of resignation, and said aloud, “All right,
then, I suppose there is nothing more for it but to wait. But it’s
awful--ghastly.... What shall we do?”

“There is a hotel here, we might get a sleep.”

“Ah! And a bath. I want one. We’d better get reservations to Orillia
first, though,--save the rush at the end. Come along.”

As they went to their hotel, Gatineau made a point of crossing the road
in front of a great shop window. He chuckled.

“Yes, he’s following us, that attentive friend of yours. It’s probably
that Joe Wandersun. He’s the only one unaccounted for.”

“What’s his game?”

“Easy. He’ll sleuth us to our rooms, then he’ll wire brother Neuburg
somewhere west that we’re here and following hotly the blind trail to
Orillia. You played him princely, Mr. Seadon. We’ll settle him.”

“How?”

“Leave it to me. All I ask you to do is to dawdle about in the lobby of
the hotel for five minutes before going to your room. I want to get out
of the back to be ready when he comes out of the front door again.”

Clement was shrouded in bath towels when the little detective came
back to the hotel. He was all smiles, and sat beaming at Clement as he
fanned his young bald head with his hat.

“It was easy as fallin’ off a wall,” he grinned. “That feller went
straight to the station telegraph and filled in a blank. He didn’t even
look round. Here’s the blank.”

“Good Lord!” cried Clement. “How did you get that?”

“Our work, we have the pull there.”

“What an ass,” said Clement. “He ought to have known better than to use
the C.P.R. lines.”

“Couldn’t help himself. Look at the address, Banff in the Rockies;
we’re the only cable company to serve it. Also, he thinks he’s well
covered. Read it.”

The wire read:


     “_Banff Springs Hotel._

     “ARTHUR NEWMAN,

     “Our party reached North Bay from Cobalt. Learned of business in
     Orillia. We go there next train.

     “NIMMO BATES.”


“Nimmo Bates,” said Clement. “I’ll swear that’s Joe Wandersun.”

“Why not,” smiled Gatineau, “since Arthur Newman is Adolf Neuburg?”

“That’s true,” agreed Clement. “Well, this bears things out. The
meeting place is in the west, at Banff probably instead of Sicamous.
In fact it’s lovely. Banff and its beauty will be idyllic for a--a
lovers’ reunion. Also it is near Sicamous, and they can get away from
it, as they can get into it, easily. The ladies will be able to work
round behind us and reach there?”

“Easy,” said Gatineau.

“Then we go to Banff. Meanwhile there is this fellow Nimmo, or Joe.”

“I’ll fix Joe,” said Gatineau grimly.

“But there’s this telegram. Neuburg will expect reports from
Orillia....”

“Nope!” said Gatineau.

“But of course he will, this telegram....”

“That telegram _isn’t_ the one that was sent.”

“Eh?” gasped Clement.

“This is the one I sent.”

He handed Clement a carbon duplicate which went:


     “_Banff Springs Hotel._

     “ARTHUR NEWMAN,

     “Our party reached North Bay from Cobalt. Think business better
     done Montreal. We go there next train.

     “NIMMO BATES.”


“That quiets brother Neuburg, see?” grinned Gatineau in the face of
Clement’s perplexity. “It tells brother Neuburg we’ve muddled the trail
and cut back to headquarters at Montreal. Quite natural. You see,
like you, I figured Neuburg’d want reports, and he can get them from
Montreal.”

“Can he? How?”

“The Chief will see to that. I’ve sent all facts to him, he’ll send
reports to Arthur Newman that will keep Neuburg purring. Trust The
Chief, he’s a bear. Of course Nimmo Bates will sign ’em. Meanwhile we
go comfortably to Banff.”

Clement roared with laughter.

“Well, of all the calm, foreseeing, clever little devils.... It’s a
dazzling idea, Gatineau. Neuburg will be certain we’re at a loss in
Montreal, will think he has plenty of time, while all the time we are
overhauling him.”

“That’s it,” agreed the little detective. “The only thing that worries
me is will the girl--Miss Reys--figure according to plan. I mean if she
has any sense she’ll be suspicious at all this roundabout traveling,
this chopping and changing of plans.”

“I hope she will be,” said Clement. “But I’m afraid she won’t. She
doesn’t know the country; her companion does. She’s bound to follow
blindly. And then anything can be put down to the erratic movements of
Gunning.”

“She’ll find him too erratic, I’m thinking,” said Gatineau wisely.

“I’m hoping that, too,” said Clement.

Both had the sleep they needed, and a meal, and went to the railway
station in good fettle. Under Gatineau’s instructions, Clement suddenly
turned from the platform and entered the booking hall as though making
for the street.

The man who had shadowed him from the hotel did not hesitate for a
moment, but trailed after him. In the middle of the booking hall the
hand of Xavier Gatineau came down on his shoulder, and he swung round
to find the muzzle of an automatic within six inches of his solar
plexus. He started to put up his hands.

“What’s the game?” he snarled.

“I want you, Nimmo Bates,” said Gatineau. “I want you in connection
with the jewel robbery on the _Empress of Prague_. Cut out the rough
stuff, Joe, and go quietly.”

As Joe Wandersun stared amazed, three large railway policemen slipped
out of the office.

“Take him along, boys,” said Gatineau. “The Chief will give you
instructions in Montreal.”

As the police hustled the half-dazed rogue away, Gatineau went to the
booking window.

“Say, Jim, got those reservations for Banff on the next westbound?
Good.... She’s on time, I hope.”




CHAPTER VI


I

From North Bay to Winnipeg on the run to Banff, Clement was occupied
mainly by monotony and his own anxious thoughts regarding Heloise. But
at Winnipeg they picked up the trail again. Gatineau heard news from
Montreal, and both saw the man with his arm in a sling--Siwash Mike.

There was actually nothing fresh concerning the ladies, it was obvious
that they had doubled on their tracks in the tangle of railways south
of North Bay; that was the first item Gatineau offered as they sat at
lunch in the Alexandra Hotel.

“Is that bad news?” asked Clement.

“Well, no,” said the little detective. “They’re coming along here all
right.”

“I like the positive sound of that,” smiled Clement. “You _are_
positive?”

“Sure. They’ll follow this big rough neck Neuburg, an’ Gunning.”

“And Neuburg and Gunning?”

“Gone through to Banff.”

“Well, that’s as we expected. Miss Reys will join them there--or
rather all of us. We’ll be of the pleasant company, too.”

“Sure,” said Gatineau reflectively.

“Well, then,” said Clement, “all this being as we thought, would you
mind telling me what the bad news is?”

“Hey?” cried the little detective, looking up from the soup that is
called gumbo.

“You have the ‘how-can-I-break-it-gently’ air. Out with it.”

“It’s Neuburg,” said Gatineau quietly.

“Neuburg?”

“He _is_ the murderer.”

“Well, we’ve always felt fairly certain of that,” said Clement, after
the first twinge of horror had run through him. “You mean, the matter
is now decided?”

“As certain as we can be from the facts on hand. I’ve just read a
message from The Chief. He’s sure. He’s been looking at those old
descriptions provided by the Oregon police. Adolf Neuburg is Albrecht
Nachbar, wanted for murder by U. S. A.”

“Queer that he should be alliterative in alias,” said Clement. “Arthur
Newman.... Why has he used those initials again, I wonder?”

“Criminals do strange things,” said the detective. “It’s a kink in him,
I suppose. P’raps Neuburg has a fancy those initials bring luck--that’s
the sort of thing one finds in rogues. Or, it may be an easy way to
keep his gang together; his A and N may be so characteristic as to
guard against forgery.”

“And it may, after all, be mere cleverness. Many people would not
credit him with the daring of using names so similar, and be put off
the trail.... But the fact is that Neuburg is Nachbar.”

“The Chief is sure; he sends along warning to be mighty spry in dealing
with the feller. He’s a tough nut, is Neuburg.”

“I’ve already learned it,” said Clement dryly. “Was the crime a bad
one?”

“Real bad. I kept my mouth shut about it until we could be sure--but
it was real bad. The feller he killed was a rich dude in Oregon. There
was some sort of crazy bucket-shop deal that this feller--his name was
Roberts--was interested in.”

“Did Nachbar or Neuburg appear in the deal?”

“He did not.... I see what you mean. His tactics appear to have been
the same as now. He didn’t show up in the open, he merely played the
part of a disinterested adviser to this rich man’s orphan. Fact is,
nobody noticed Neuburg, or Nachbar as he was then, until Roberts died.”

“And he died--how?” Gatineau looked at him quickly.

“He went out on a shooting trip----”

“Yep,” said Gatineau. “That appears to be his method in these
things.... Gets people into the wilds. Well, Roberts goes shooting into
the wilds and there is a hell of an accident. His gun bursts and he is
killed outright.”

“And _was_ it an accident?”

“At the inquest it was. That was the verdict. But when people began
poking round they found it wasn’t. I needn’t go into it all, and, in
fact, I have only the outline of the business, but the things that came
out were these. First, a big, solid block of cash was missing. Second,
Nachbar was linked up with that missing cash. Then people began to hunt
for things.

“First, they got no change out of Nachbar. He produced letters and
papers by the boxful to show that his dealings with Roberts were
straight--forgeries, no doubt, but good ones, especially since the
victim was a dead ’un--you can bettcher life Nachbar was sound on this.
He’s the real brainy bad man, all right, all right. Things were kind of
tied up until a fellow from the American Department of Justice began to
find the trail of the murder. He found out that Nachbar had been in the
district where Roberts was shooting, at the very time of the murder.”

Clement was rather startled. “That sounds rather crude for a criminal
of Neuburg’s propensities,” he said.

“Nope, it wasn’t crude. He traveled by a different railway system to
a different valley. He didn’t even go near Roberts’s camp. But this
detective, who was nosing round, found that he had stayed at a hotel
in a neighboring valley for a week end shoot, that he had gone off,
early in the morning of Saturday, the day of Roberts’ death, that he
went out shooting without a guide, and though nobody could tell the
direction he went, he had time to go somewhere close to where Roberts’s
body was found.”

“There were other clues of course?”

“They began to come down in a blizzard, once they started. Roberts’s
actions had been unusual on that day. First, he had made his plans
to go out shooting to the west with a couple of guides. Then, early,
he had got a special delivery letter. After reading that letter, he
changed his plans, went out shooting alone, and went east--that is,
towards the hotel where Nachbar was staying. His body was found about
half-way between.”

“But didn’t all this come out at the inquest?”

“The inquest was on a man accidentally killed. These points were passed
over as interesting, but not relevant.”

“But the letter--if it made an appointment----?”

“That letter was never found. It wasn’t on him when his body was
brought in. Everything on him down to his bootlaces was impounded by
the Court, but no special delivery letter was found. Some one had taken
that letter from his body after his--apparently--lonely death.”

“It must have been signed for? Didn’t the postoffice know anything
about it?”

“Nachbar wasn’t the one to slip-up over a detail like that. It had
been sent from Roberts’s home district in a faked name--couldn’t be
connected with Nachbar or the hotel where he was staying for his shoot.
Still, it was a link. And on top of that it was found the gun that
killed Roberts--_wasn’t his_.”

“What!” cried Clement in a startled tone.

“No, it wasn’t his. It looked like his. It was just the sort of
Winchester magazine rifle he used, but the dealer found the number and
proved it wasn’t his. Some one must have swopped guns with him--while
he was out, apparently, alone. And the gun he got in exchange for his
own was a gun meant to burst and kill, an’ _did_ burst an’ kill.”

“Devilish!” cried Clement. “And his own gun--was that traced?”

“Did you think it would be? No, it wasn’t. It was proved that Neuburg
had also left his hotel carrying a Winchester magazine--easy to effect
a change, you see, an’ when he came back with the same sort of gun on
his shoulder nobody had reason to suspect it was Roberts’s gun--then.
Moreover, when Neuburg’s rooms were searched, it was found that he
had kindly left an identical Winchester rifle behind--an’ it wasn’t
Roberts’s.”

“An alibi. He could swear that this gun was the gun he used on that
murderous weekend.--Has the burst gun been traced?”

“No. But, of course, it is only a detail. It is obvious that Neuburg or
Nachbar did that murder, though full facts have to be proved.”

For a moment they sat silent, and Clement, anyhow, was appreciating
the full meaning of this revelation. Roberts’s murder, Heloise Reys’
case--how they ran parallel. Roberts was a victim because of his
wealth--Heloise Reys was possessed of a million pounds. Nachbar kept
in the background as far as Roberts was concerned. He was an advising
friend; Neuburg played the same rôle to Heloise Reys. Roberts had been
lured into the wilds; Heloise Reys was, even now, being lured into the
wilds. Roberts was killed by a secret, brilliant “accident;” Heloise
Reys ... Clement shivered. He stared at Gatineau.

“I told you,” said the little detective, “because I think it best to
know exactly the ways and methods of this brute.”

“I understand,” said Clement. “And then there is the brighter side,
too. It is certain that Neuburg is Nachbar. He’ll be arrested. When?”

“The Chief tells me he is getting a move on already,” said the little
detective, and Clement caught a hint of hesitation.

“Does that mean that Nachbar won’t be arrested at once?”

“Not at once.”

“But--but that’s incredible. He’s a murderer, and you can arrest
murderers without warrant, surely?”

“We can--if we’re dead positive they’re murderers.”

Clement gave vent to a gesture and an exclamation of despair.

“See here, Mr. Seadon,” broke in Gatineau. “Don’t you condemn the
police in a hurry. Recollect that, keen as we may be, we can’t go about
arresting folk off-hand. We’ve got to be sure we ain’t running innocent
men into jail--an’ disgrace. This is complicated. It’s an old crime.
We don’t know whether the American police have dropped it, or caught
their man, or have definite news that proves Neuburg isn’t the feller
we think he is. Until we can be sure we daren’t move. We’ve got to get
in touch with the U. S. A. before we can hold him.”

“That’s logical, I suppose, but it is also rather terrible. And it will
take--how long?”

“A few days at least.”

A few days! Clement stared at the little detective: what might not
happen in a few days?

“She’s got us anyhow,” said Gatineau, reading his thoughts.

“Yes, she’s got us, and it lies with us to keep Neuburg or Nachbar so
that he won’t have time to do anything--critical. But I confess I’m
rather fearful, Gatineau.”

And a little later in the day, things appeared even more disturbing.


II

Clement Seadon and the detective had made their way through the
underground passage that leads from the great hotel to the railway
station. They were to catch the train west to Banff. They were emerging
into the booking hall when Gatineau caught hold of the Englishman’s arm.

Instinctively Clement looked ahead.

Seen through the glass swing-doors of the passage a young man passed
towards the platform walking swiftly. He was a slim, lithe young man
with a dark, aquiline face. And he had his right arm in a sling. There
was no mistaking the curious lilting walk, as there was no mistaking
the features of the man.

“Good God!” said Clement “Siwash Mike! Siwash here--why?”

“_Not_ trailing us anyhow, I guess,” said Gatineau.

“How can you say that?”

“He hasn’t the air--an’ then, he’s got a grip in his hand. He is going
to catch the westbound to join brother Neuburg at Banff.”

“Perhaps,” said Clement, remembering how they had been tricked before.
“But why is he in Winnipeg?”

“That’s easy,” said the detective. “He probably got in here over the
other railway north of Cobalt, and has changed onto our line for Banff.
But we’d better watch him.”

They followed the half-breed cautiously, and saw him follow the crowd
up the steps of Platform 6. There was no doubt that he was watching the
westbound. Like a flash Gatineau did _not_ go up the steps of Platform
6. He nipped up the steps of Platform 4. They arrived on the railway
level just in time to see Siwash gain the platform. They took cover,
and across the station watched him. They seemed astonishingly close,
but it was obvious that he was not suspicious; he did not throw a
glance their way.

Almost at once Clement said, “There is something more in this than
merely catching the westbound, Gatineau. He’s waiting near the
exit--for some reason.”

“He’s waiting for somebody, I guess,” said Gatineau. “Somebody who is
stopping off the Montreal train.”

Clement’s heart jumped. Somebody who was stopping off from the
transcontinental train--who could that somebody be? Heloise? Certainly
his heart fluttered. Perhaps after all this was the end of the chase.
It was more than likely Siwash had received some message from Neuburg
at Winnipeg--he’d know how and where to pick one up, and that message
had warned him to meet this train and Méduse and Heloise who came by
it. He thought that quite likely, and then Gatineau said, “But why that
grip?”

Yes, that was a puzzle. If he was meeting some one, why carry baggage
for a journey?

With its loudly clanging bell the great train steamed slowly into the
station. Both men watched the half-breed with the keenest attention. He
stood there quite passively as the passengers thronged out of the cars.
He watched them indolently as they passed him in a stream. Then with an
air of casualness he picked up his grip and strolled towards the train.

“Damn,” grunted Clement. “Nothing at all. He’s just going to board the
train. Look here, we must look slippy, too, if we are to travel by her
also.”

He picked up his own grip, began to move out to cross the intervening
rails and platforms to the train. Gatineau said suddenly, “Hold
on--ain’t that long scarecrow of a feller interested in our pal?”

Clement shot a look towards the train. He saw a tall man moving
aimlessly after Siwash. Clement did not recognize this fellow until
suddenly he caught a flash of a skinny leg and arm as the fellow dodged
between the passengers, and he had an abrupt twinge of memory. Where
the devil had he seen that scarecrow before?

Gatineau caught his arm and lugged him behind a stack of baggage.

Siwash had walked up to the car in which his seat was reserved. He
handed his grip to the black porter, and then, after pretending to
mount into the car, had turned back as though to take one last look
at Winnipeg. In that moment he swept the whole of the platform with a
searching glance--fortunately he kept his eyes on his own platform.
Satisfied that there were no watchers, he turned and stared straight at
the skinny man. The skinny man was by his side in a moment.

There was a swift talk between the twain. The skinny one listening
attentively, and nodding his head as if he understood. Then Siwash
took a paper from his pocket, and the other stretched out his long and
skinny arm. And at that gesture, memory came to Clement. He remembered
acutely such an arm stretching out from a small window clutching at the
pistol hand of Siwash. “Heavens!” he breathed. “The fellow from the
glue factory--from the Sault Algonquin at Quebec. Another of the beasts
on the spot.”


III

The guards were shouting “All aboard.” Siwash turned and sprang into
his car, while the skinny man strode towards the exit. Clement picked
up his bag and went in the same direction. Gatineau cried softly,
“Say, we can’t monkey about; we’ll miss that train.”

“I’m going to,” said Clement grimly. “I want to find out why that
fellow is here.”

“But----”

“And I don’t like him being here,” said Clement. “I’m not going to
leave anybody here to wait for Miss Reys unless I know the exact why
and the wherefore of his waiting.”

Gatineau was by his side now; he was smiling. “Yep, I rather want to
look at that paper myself. Say, if you catch hold of this grip I’ll
trail that lad. Best be me--he may have recollections of your outline.”

An hour later Gatineau rejoined Clement in the lounge of the hotel.
“That’s the sort of job that makes a feller ashamed to draw his pay,”
he grinned, as he sat down. “Easy--made me cry, it was so easy!”

“You’ve got that paper?”

“No, sir; I’m not little Xavier miracle worker yet. But I’ve got
him located. He’s in a rooming house in the dark areas off Portage
Avenue--room 163 is his number. And he hasn’t the slightest fear that
evil men like us are here and interested in him. Walked all the way to
his dive without so much as a look round.”

“That’s good; that means that Siwash don’t know we’re here either. He’s
gone off to Banff and Neuburg without a suspicion. Well, what next?”

“We just go an’ call on our lean friend--he calls himself Jean
Renadier, he’s a French-Canadian all right, though he says he comes
from Montreal, not Quebec. I’ve got a man there spotting for me
already, one of our local men, an’ I’ve arranged with the police to
pull him on the _Empress of Prague_ robbery charge--in silence. Shall
we go?”

They went. On the way Gatineau told his plan: “I’ve arranged that we
tackle him first, so that he don’t have any chance of destroying any
paper. Then when we’ve got him, we call in the police. We’ll just walk
up to his room, see? I’ll go in an’ you stay outside, because the sight
of you might make him do things to his papers. When I’ve got him you
can come in. Is that good?”

The spotter outside the rather dingy rooming house told them that
Renadier had not left the building. As they went into it, he drew in,
ready to help effect the arrest. Walking in boldly, and with a casual,
“Renadier--room 163, ain’t he?” from Gatineau, they were able to mount
to the man’s room as though they were friends of his. It was high up in
the building, and at the dark end of a corridor. Gatineau softly tried
the handle, found the door yielded, strode boldly in, shutting the door
behind him--for the man must not catch a glimpse of Clement.

He went in, and there was silence.

Clement heard Gatineau say something, and then the silence came down.
It was a curious silence, intense, deep--disturbing. It seemed to draw
itself out. It became full of significance. Clement pressed close to
the door, listened--nothing! What was happening? Why did not Gatineau
give some signal? Why should there be this appalling quiet in that
room? It was uncanny, it was unreal--it was ugly.

He bent down in a sudden anxiety and put his ear to the keyhole.
Nothing! There was no sound from the room. The room was apparently
dead, vacant--a tomb.

He put his hand on the door. As he did so, two sounds came from the
room, two soft sounds.

One was a soft knock--it might have been the heel of a boot kicking
against the carpeted floor. The other was a slow, animal sound, low,
guttural, choking.

With a spasm of fear Clement dashed open the door.


IV

An amazing sight met his eyes.

Gatineau was stretched full length on his back. He was moving
nervelessly, struggling feebly. Squatting over him was a tall,
inexpressibly gaunt man. This fellow crouched over the detective’s
chest with an almost stolid calm. His long, lean arms were stretched
downward. His thin, knotty hands were about Gatineau’s neck. He was
carefully and calmly throttling the life out of the little detective.

Clement caught one glimpse of the preoccupied face before it
turned upon him. The face of this calmly murderous man was utterly
transfigured with fear--fear that, somehow, did not interfere with the
efficient labors of killing a man. Then the eyes turned to him as he
charged forward. The fear in the fellow’s face leaped to an absolute
panic at the recognition of Clement--and yet the fellow acted with an
astounding calm.

He simply fell flat. He made no attempt at active resistance; he simply
fell flat upon Gatineau. Then, as Clement jumped forward, he rolled,
quick as lightning, towards him. It was unexpected. Clement in his
stride could not check. His foot caught the lank, rolling body, and he
pitched forward. As he fell, the other leaped to his feet, and jumped
to the door. Clement had shut the door, and he caught at the handle.
That gave Clement time to grab at him. As he fell, Clement twisted as
he had often done on the football field. He did not try to recover, he
let himself go, while trying to fall as near the door as possible. He
succeeded enough to enable him to get his hand to the tall man’s ankle.
He grabbed and held. He braced himself to resist.

The fellow was astonishing. He did not struggle. For a perceptible
instant he stood there at the half-open door, staring down at the
man who held his ankle. The look of devastating fear on his face
was appalling. Clement had never seen any man so afraid. In that
flash--it was no more than a single breath--he felt that the fellow was
theirs--he was nerveless with fear. Then the lank man kicked him.

He kicked with his free foot coolly and deliberately--an astonishing
kick when Clement recalled the sheer fright on the fellow’s face. So
unexpected was it that Clement had only time to half-check the drive of
the heavy boot with a quick-flung hand--and then his head rang and he
saw a million stars.

After that, confusion. The lank man wrenched himself free and was
running. Clement, dazed, tried to get up to go after him. He was
knocked sideways by some one rushing by. It was only when he managed to
get into the dark passage--that somehow seemed to be misty (but that
was that fellow’s boot)--that he realized that the man who had bowled
him over was Gatineau. He saw Gatineau running along the passage before
him. Gatineau was groggy but determined. Rather groggy himself, he ran
after Gatineau.

He had to trust to Gatineau. He couldn’t see the lean man, but Gatineau
seemed to know. Gatineau went upstairs instead of down. Gatineau rushed
across a roof landing instead of going through one of three doors,
and flung himself headlong on to a fourth door. That burst wildly open
under his charge, letting in a bewildering flash of daylight. They were
on the roof. Then Gatineau was running across the leads, and Clement
after him--and, yes, there was the lank man running ahead.

The lank man rushed to the edge of the roof, started back, looked
round with his incredibly fearful look, then dodged at a right angle.
Gatineau could not check in time to head him off. But Clement could.
He cut across the fellow’s path, and, like a fox, the fellow tried to
double again. He dodged round a stack, and found Gatineau ready for
him, pivoted, and ran for the parapet. He scrambled on to the parapet,
and stood swaying, staring about him for a loophole of escape. Between
him and the next roof was a ten-foot alley, but the other roof was
lower, and he seemed to think it was a chance. Clement did not; he
yelled, “Stop that, you fool. You’ll kill yourself.”

It was too late. The fellow had braced himself, had leaped. He went
through the air in a way that showed he was no jumper. He seemed to
hang in the air for an eternity. Then his feet came down on the parapet
on the opposite side. For a breathless moment he hung there, clawing
wildly, as though seeking to grasp support from the very air; then his
balance went, he sagged backwards, fell, went out of sight with an
uncanny abruptness.

“My God!” cried Clement. “My God!” He felt physically sick. Gatineau
had no time for sentiment. He was already running downstairs. He wanted
to get to the man before the crowd.


V

Clement Seadon and Xavier Gatineau left Winnipeg by the next
west-bound. Gatineau’s throat was a little sore, and Clement’s soul was
more than sick at the death of the man who had played a part in his
captivity in the gluemaker’s at Quebec; but apart from this they were
little the worse for their experience--and little to the good either.

The lank man had fallen into a narrow yard between the houses, and his
fall had not been noticed. Gatineau had got to him before anybody else.
He had secured all the papers on the poor dead body, and had then seen
to it that not only were the police informed, but that the matter was
to be kept quiet for the present.

All they had found on the man was a number of letters making it plain
that he was Louis Penible, a glue manufacturer of the Sault Algonquin,
Quebec. There was also a single telegram signed A. N. bidding him
travel at once to Winnipeg, where he would be met by “some one.” This
telegram was sent off from North Bay. “Before we caught Joe,” said
Gatineau. “It looks as though Neuburg was summoning all his forces to
hand rather than anything else.”

The only other piece of paper--the piece that had cost the wretched man
his life, the piece Siwash had handed him at the station--was merely a
plain sheet containing the address of the rooming house where he had
died, and an address, “A. N., c/o Mrs. Wandersun, Sicamous.”

“Beyond telling us that Neuburg has gone on to Sicamous--is not
stopping on at Banff--it seems a small thing to have brought about a
man’s death,” said Clement.

“It might have been a big thing,” said Gatineau. “It might prove to be
a big thing now. Neuburg has one man less, that may be useful to us. It
is useful, too, because, so far as we can see, we have the whole gang
under our eyes now--two arrested, the steward and Joe, one dead and the
rest at Sicamous or traveling to it. We know where we are.”

But they did not know very much. They knew nothing about the
whereabouts of Heloise Reys and her evil companion; they had no inkling
concerning the plot Neuburg, the master-mind, had devised--save that it
was concerned with a great deal of money, and with the luring of the
victim into the wilds--just as it had been in Roberts’s case.

They passed across the rolling monotony of the prairies thinking the
matter out. They passed through Calgary, a vivid, gold-washed town
amid foothills that seemed to cup the sunlight. They heard news of
Neuburg and Gunning going on before them, but no other news.

From Calgary they climbed to the fairy ramparts of the Rocky Mountains,
austere, snow-cowled, promising immensities and mysteries beyond. They
mounted, step by step, the “benches” of the foothills, besides the
breathless azure of the shining Bow River. Then abruptly the gate of
the mountains was above them, silent, stark, sheer brooding as their
train roared through The Gap, and then they were at Banff.

They went by car to the wonderful hotel perched like Aladdin’s palace
on a spur amid mighty spurs. It was a peerless place. For the staging
of a love scene one might have gone to the ends of the earth and not
have found a better setting. The exquisite beauty of the surroundings
called to the emotions--and yet Neuburg had rejected this spot and had
gone on to Sicamous after but the shortest stay! Why? Clement thought
the answer to that unspoken question must be an ominous one.

The Chief had been good at his word. He had sent word along the line,
and the C. P. R. people at the hotel were ready for Gatineau. They had
a thick bundle of telegrams and reports waiting for him--a bewildering
bundle, for it included all Neuburg’s wires to his underlings, Nimmo
Bates (that is, Joe Wandersun) at the Place Viger Hotel, Montreal,
where (thanks to the cunning of The Chief) he was supposed to be
staying with Siwash Mike, and others. It contained the wires Neuburg
had received, and it contained reports from The Chief himself, from the
agent at Sicamous, and others. A truly awesome mass of paper.

“I think I’ll let you disentangle the story,” grinned Clement. “The
very bulk of it frightens me, and I guess you are more used to it than
I am.”

“Sure,” smiled Gatineau. “I’ll go through this and knock some sort of
connected report out of it. You go an’ try a dip in the swimming pool,
Mr. Seadon, an’ leave it to me.” He was running lightly through the
duplicates of the telegrams. “Hullo! One moment, Mr. Seadon; here’s one
to Méduse Smythe at Winnipeg--that must be to await her coming.”

“What does it say?”

“It tells her to come on here and await orders; it is initialed A. N.”

“Here?” said Clement.

“Yes, sir,” said the hotel manager, who was with them. “Miss Smythe and
Miss Heloise Reys are coming to stay here. There is a suite booked for
them.”

“And yet Neuburg and Gunning have gone on to Sicamous,” said Clement.
“What does that mean? What is behind that move?”


VI

Clement had his plunge in the hot sulphur pool under the slope of a
snow-tipped mountain, and, refreshed, went back to Gatineau in the
manager’s office. Gatineau grinned at him.

“I guess I’ve made a connected yarn out of this jig-saw all right.
In the first place, let me tell you that our dangerous pal Neuburg,
Newman, or Nachbar, seems to be fairly certain that he has been given a
new lease of life--has days on his hands in fact.”

“What makes you think that?”

“First place, he had booked here for himself and Gunning for an
indefinite number of days. Then, quite suddenly, he decided to go
off to Sicamous. He sent telegrams to various people--one to meet
Siwash at Winnipeg, one to Nimmo or Joe Wandersun at Montreal, and
another to sister Méduse--telling of the change. And the reason he
feels safe is that you and I are definitely marooned in Montreal.
The Chief has played the game as I expected he would. His fake wires
coming, apparently, from Nimmo (who we know is in jail) are gems. We
are apparently standing baffled in Montreal, hunting about for the
trail. One can read between the lines that Neuburg is sure of that--f’r
instance the mere fact that he wires to Nimmo at the Place Viger Hotel
shows he thinks it all right. Again, his wire to Siwash confirms this.
He tells Siwash to come on to Sicamous, _not_ Banff. He also tells
Siwash to meet Louis the gluemaker of Quebec on such and such a train
at Winnipeg and tell him there is no need to stand by and watch trains
for _us_ yet--that was evidently why he was sent for--but to meet
Méduse when she arrives and do as she tells him. Oh, Neuburg is certain
that we are out of the running for the time being, and it’s because of
that, he’s gone off to Sicamous.”

Clement thought for a moment. “Yes, that sounds logical,” he admitted.
“With us close up on his heels he would have to rush things. Probably
his first plan to checkmate us was a lover’s meeting in this place of
lovers. There would have been a--an affectionate reunion, and then, if
we were threatened, the pair would have been spirited away. And what
would have happened to Heloise Reys when they were lost?”

His face contracted with pain. It was only after a moment that he went
on.

“However, what would have happened doesn’t matter. The plan’s changed.
He had gone to Sicamous to prepare a more elaborate and a more certain
plot--we can take that as certain. And--and the women follow after us?”

“Sure they do that,” put in Gatineau. “They are a day or more behind.
As I thought, they did dodge about in that tangle of railways by North
Bay for the express purpose of throwing us off the trail. Then they
hit the main line behind us, and started west in earnest. They’ll stop
off at Winnipeg to pick up news from Neuburg, an’ then they’ll come
straight on here.”

“That’s a point that baffles me!” admitted Clement. “Why come here? Why
not go straight on to Sicamous?”

“The rest of the story explains something of that. I should say he
wants time to be sure he’s got his plans perfect. According to the
reports from our Sicamous man, he’s been acting rather strangely at
that end. Our feller at Sicamous has sent on train letters, so his
statements are full. Neuburg and Gunning arrived in due course at
Sicamous station, but instead of going to Gunning’s shack on the lake,
they stayed the night at Joe Wandersun’s house--where, of course, Mrs.
Wandersun is living.”

“Next morning Neuburg went down to the lakeside and overhauled the big
motor boat that Joe uses on the lake, but instead of going in it, the
three--the woman as well--came to the station and caught a train for
Revelstoke. Revelstoke is the nearest considerable town; they have
to travel back towards Banff to reach it. Our agent at Sicamous is a
real live man; he ’phoned through to one of our fellows at Revelstoke
and caught the same train as Neuburg. Reaching Revelstoke, the trio
did some shopping--shadowed by our men. The proceedings were ordinary
enough, save that they seemed to show a strange passion for buying
medical things. Also, Neuburg, giving Gunning the slip, went into a
store where mining outfits are sold _and bought several high-explosive
cartridges and a quantity of fuse_.”

Clement made an exclamation at those words. He stared at the little
detective, who said, “No, I don’t see what it signifies, but it is
a matter worth noting. But there is something queerer to come. The
woman and Gunning went off to dinner in a hotel. Neuburg did not go
with them. Instead he went off by himself and found, because he was
looking for it, an obscure sort of hash joint. He sat down and ordered
a meal. Our fellow who was shadowing him walked in casually and got
into a table nearby. Apparently there was nothing odd about Neuburg’s
choice, but presently a young, smart-looking feller pops into this
joint and sits down at Neuburg’s table. Neuburg was reading a paper by
this time, an’ paid not the slightest attention. Soon, though, they got
into conversation, just like two strangers. What they said, of course,
our feller couldn’t hear, but it didn’t appear to amount to much;
soon, too, Neuburg paid his bill and went out with a ‘Well, good-day,
stranger. Glad to have become acquainted. I shall certainly try those
creeks of yours for red fish.’

“Our feller guessed that Neuburg would go back to the other two--anyhow
he risked it. He followed the smart young stranger instead, when he
left the hash joint later. This feller sneaked round several blocks,
as though he didn’t want people to know where he’d been, and in the
end he entered the Grand Dominion Consolidated Bank. In there he went
behind the counter, hung up his hat and settled down to work. _He was
one of the employees._”

There was a very significant pause. Both men looked at each other, and
both men were thinking the same thoughts. They were recalling that
Neuburg as Nachbar had worked through a bucket shop in his plan for
robbing Roberts of Oregon. He was working through a bank now--not,
of course, that the famous bank was acting as his confederate, but
that the smart young man was. This fellow had no doubt figured in the
bucket shop at Oregon, and had managed to worm his way into the bank
at Revelstoke to further Neuburg’s ends--since, obviously, the master
rogue had planned well ahead.

As Clement reflected on this point he reached for a telegraph form, and
at once wrote the following to The Chief at Montreal:


     “Find out what interests Heloise Reys has in Revelstoke Branch
     Grand Dominion Consolidated Bank. Neuburg has confederate there.”


“That may bring something,” he said, as he handed the message to
Gatineau. “If Miss Reys has any money in that bank it must have been
transferred from the head office at Montreal. The Chief will be able to
find out, eh?”

Gatineau said, “Sure,” added a code number to the message, and had it
sent off at once. Then he went on with his story.

“After this business Neuburg met the other two in the hotel, and they
all went back to Sicamous, where they loaded their purchases into the
big motor boat. They didn’t, as our man thought they would, go on up
the lake then, but went back to Mrs. Wandersun’s house. It was about
one o’clock at night when Gunning and Neuburg actually left for his
shack. A railwayman, who had been on watch, woke our feller, and he
just had time to see them sneak off in the dark. They took an awful lot
of additional packages with them, loading them secretly--a regular sort
of moving day, our man writes, as though they were going to stay in the
wilds for a hell of a time. The two men only got into the boat, and
then, strangely, the boat left, not under power, but rowed.”

“That was Neuburg covering himself up,” said Clement. “Nobody saw or
heard him leave, nobody can connect him with--with anything that might
happen up at Gunning’s shack in the wilds. I suppose that’s all there
is so far.”

“That’s all,” agreed Gatineau. “We know their movements to a dotted
‘i,’ an’ we know Miss Reys is coming on here. I suppose we had best
just wait around until she comes?”

“Yes,” said Clement, “there seems nothing else to do at the moment.
We must wait for a wire from The Chief about that money, anyhow. But
I confess I don’t like waiting. Certainly Miss Reys appears to be
coming here, but with these brutes, with that demoniac intelligence of
Neuburg’s working against us, I am fearful. Who can say what sudden
turn events might take, and--and what terrible crime might be committed
without our being able to interpose?”


VII

Clement Seadon was manifestly uneasy. Not barring the path which led
from Heloise to the archscoundrel at Sicamous made him feel safe. Not
even the exquisite beauty of this delightful place could tranquilize
him. He felt that some slip, some chance warning to Neuburg, might
bring a calamity. Neuburg, that monster, with his cold, quiet, and
uncannily placid intelligence, would act like a flash. He was, Clement
felt, being so desperately driven that he would not hesitate to act
desperately to attain his ends.

There was no doubting the fiend’s terrible capacity. Clement was
sure that, in some way, Neuburg had already arranged to get control
of Heloise’s money--or some of her money--through this bank, and his
confederate in the bank, at Revelstoke. He had already his evil
fingers on that loot. All that he needed was to secure Heloise to make
his control of her money complete. And, at a crisis, he would stop at
nothing to secure Heloise--that meant her silence--in order to get that
money.

Her silence. Clement shuddered. He saw, again, the mental picture of
how Neuburg, as Nachbar, had secured the silence of Roberts of Oregon.
The dead cannot give evidence.

Clement tried to quiet his nerves by going for a long tramp through the
deep spruce woods that clung to the sides of the austere mountains, but
half-way through it he became panicky and hurried back to the hotel in
case he might miss some crucial message.

There was no message. He had to wait hours before anything came. Then
it came from Sicamous. That message, however, was significant enough
for those who could get an inkling of the ominous riddle behind it.

The agent at Sicamous reported that a young, dark-faced, slim man with
his right arm in a sling had arrived at Sicamous. He had gone to Mrs.
Wandersun’s shack. He called himself Lucas, and looked like a halfbreed.

“Siwash on the spot,” commented Clement.

The next fact was that a wire had come through from Méduse Smythe at
Winnipeg, saying she was coming straight through to Banff. Immediately
on receipt of this, things happened. The man Lucas--despite his bad
arm--went off up the lake in a canoe, apparently to Gunning’s shack. On
his return there was a bustle. Mrs. Wandersun, in the language of the
agent, flacked about like a worried hen.

She had run down to the station and had sent off a train letter to
Heloise Reys--to await arrival at Banff--and also another to Méduse
Smythe.

Having got rid of these letters, Mrs. Wandersun immediately prepared
herself for a journey. That done, she bounced into her neighbor’s shack
with a lamentable story of a friend taken dangerously ill up the lake.
She said she had wired to his relatives, and she thought they were
coming on. She said she was going to her sick friend with the young man
Lucas to run the power boat for her, and she asked her neighbors if
they would mind telling anybody who might arrive before Lucas returned,
that he was coming back from the sick man in order to take them up to
him.

Having impressed this upon her kindly friends, she got into the motor
boat with Lucas, and went up the lake. Lucas had not returned yet. The
agent had not pressed his inquiries for fear of stirring up suspicion.

Clement had listened to the reading of this report with a face grim and
white. When it was finished he said, “This seems to be the first move
in the definite plot. Once she arrives in Sicamous, Heloise Reys will
be spirited away into the wilds. You can see how they have planned it.
Nobody but Lucas is to take her there; they don’t want outsiders to
figure in this.”

“An’ it seems to me that they don’t want anybody--even Miss Reys--to
get there before they are ready for her,” said Gatineau.

“Yes, that seems likely.--Now the letters.”

The one addressed to Heloise Reys was a simple letter stating that
Henry Gunning had returned to Sicamous and had gone along the lake to
his home. The letter said that Gunning was quietlike, and not quite his
usual self. He said he was going to rest up for a while as he felt sort
of seedy. The writer concluded by giving directions how to find his
shack, and declared himself ready to do all in his power to help Miss
Reys. He signed himself--Joe Wandersun.

“Joe Wandersun!” cried Gatineau. “Well, I’m gormed! How did he write
that when he’s snug in jail at Montreal?”

“He didn’t write it. It’s a forgery.”

“You mean his wife forged that----?”

“His wife--no. Remember Roberts, man, and how forgery apparently played
its part in that case. The same capable scoundrel forged this.”

“Neuburg?”

“Neuburg or Newman or Nachbar, or whatever you like to call him.
Forgery is part of his game. And there’s another point. You see it
contains a hint of Gunning’s illness--illness is also part of this
devil’s game.”

“It says nothing about a dangerous illness.”

“No. Perhaps they’re going to use that as a weapon of shock, to make
her lose her head at a moment when it will pay them for her to lose her
head. But the other letter--the one addressed to Méduse Smythe?”

The other letter contained a few lines only. They ran:


     “All clear. Have seen Landor at Revelstoke. Break your journey
     there for signatures, etc. Be as clever as you are, my dear, for
     you are to have a shock at Sicamous. Play up. The Englishman who
     does not look brainy is safely interned at Montreal.”


There were no initials even, and the message was written in block
capitals.

“Bold,” said Gatineau, putting the message down.

“Not so very bold,” said Clement. “The Englishman who doesn’t look
brainy is interned at Montreal, you understand. He feels quite safe. He
doesn’t think anybody will see that message but Méduse.”

“And you were right about their springing the dangerous illness upon
Miss Reys at the last moment. That’s what he means by the shock, eh?
And Landor of Revelstoke----”

“The smart young man in the bank is undoubtedly Landor. It all fits in.
Miss Reys is to call on the bank on her way to Sicamous to register her
signature, and so on. Landor is the man who will interview her. All
that is part of their plan for getting hold of her money. You can see
how the hellish thing is developing.”

“But how can they get money out of her--how keep her unsuspicious?”

“How did Nachbar plan to keep Roberts of Oregon from giving evidence?”

“My God!” muttered Gatineau. Then he said, “But the money. No woman
would transfer a huge sum to a local bank, a bank that may, perhaps,
only be going to serve her for a few days?”

“I am waiting for The Chief’s telegram,” said Clement. “That will tell
us how much she has in the bank at Revelstoke. It seems illogical that
she should have a large sum--yet I fear----”

The fear was realized. In the afternoon The Chief’s wire came. It said:


     “Heloise Reys deposited sum £20,000 cash and securities extent
     £120,000 in Montreal Branch Dominion Consolidated from England
     before leaving that country. Same time opened account £5,000
     cash Revelstoke branch. Week ago authority in own handwriting to
     transfer all funds securities Revelstoke branch. Most securities
     easily negotiable. New message. Neuburg is Nachbar. Warrant being
     issued.”


Of the whole of that pregnant message one passage, and one alone, stood
out with a terrible significance.

Neuburg is Nachbar!

Neuburg was Nachbar, the murderer. Neuburg was the cold-blooded genius
who slew Roberts of Oregon in the wilds, and for the sake of a huge sum
of money. The telegram told that the girl, Heloise, had to hand a great
sum of money, and she was being lured into the wilds--lured towards
Nachbar, the brute who would let nothing stand between him and his
greedy desire.

Neuburg was Nachbar the murderer--and Heloise was to be his next
victim. Only dimly he heard Gatineau saying, “He wants to get all that
money--£145,000. It’s all under the hand of his tool at Revelstoke.
I see how it is. But what beats me is how any one would think of
transferring----”

“Did she?” snapped Clement. “Wasn’t it forgery? Nachbar is a forger as
well. Couldn’t he have forged that letter ordering the transfer?”

Gatineau cried, “Forgery! Yes, that’s it. That’s damn likely. But even
though that letter was forged, I don’t see how they are going to work
it. What’s the game?”

Clement suddenly became completely aware of the detective and what he
was saying. He echoed the words, “What’s the game? I don’t know. But
I’m going to find out. I’m going down to Sicamous _now_ to find out.”

“Now?” gasped Gatineau.

“Now. I can’t wait here passive. Anything might happen. That girl might
be prevented coming here, might go right through, might be turned
aside. I’m not going to run any more risks. I’m going to Neuburg. Can
we catch a train?”

“With a car, easy. There’s one due.”

“Get that car.”

“But to rush right in like this. Is it wise--safe?”

“I don’t care. We’ve been passive too long, anyhow. Come along. Find
that car. It’s our turn to attack.”




CHAPTER VII


I

The rush to the train was a frantic episode, undertaken with the eye on
the second hand of the watch. As they flashed down through the spruce
woods and over the delightful bridge of the shining Bow, the detective,
Xavier Gatineau, was scribbling a wire on a pad resting on his swaying
knee.

“To our man at Sicamous,” he explained. “He must meet that train. When
we get to the depot, will you jam that into the telegraph office? I’ll
dive for the station master an’ arrange for accommodation, an’ hold the
train if necessary. Phew! we’re cutting it fine.”

They were. They heard the train pull in and stop before they could
see it. They saw the guards preparing to send the train away as they
drew up, braking perilously beside the low platform. Clement sprang to
the telegraph office without a word. Gatineau seemed to be half-way
along the platform in the direction of the station master before their
automobile had really stopped.

The handing in of the wire took no more than a few seconds, but short
though that time was, Gatineau was already beckoning him to the rear
car when Clement appeared.

“Luck all the way,” said Gatineau. “Section superintendent’s private
car hitched on to this train. This is it.... He’ll be here in a
minute----”

He got no further. Clement suddenly caught his arm. “My God!” he
gasped. “Look there--those women.”

Two women stood by the edge of the platform watching their suitcases
being put into an automobile.

It was dark, but the two well-dressed figures could plainly be seen
in the light of an arc lamp. One was a comely, chilly, thick-set,
middle-aged woman--the Gorgon, Méduse Smythe. The other--Heloise.

No mistaking that slim, upstanding, gallantly poised figure. Even there
in the darkness and newly arrived on a strange railway platform, she
carried herself with a crispness, an air of daintiness, a grace of
candid beauty. No mistaking her at all--and no mistaking the curious
and quite sharp thrill that went through his own being as he looked at
her.

“Miss Reys?” asked Gatineau in a sharp whisper.

“Yes--and that she-scoundrel, her companion. They’ve arrived. Of
course, I should have remembered this would be their train.”

“Did they see you?” demanded Gatineau, more practically. He had a
sudden, unpleasant vision of the crafty Méduse Smythe sending telegrams
ahead of them, warning Neuburg, upsetting their own hair-brained plan.

“I’m certain they didn’t,” said Clement. “And--and do you think, from
their attitudes, that they did?”

Both men had drawn into the cover of their car, and as they looked, it
was quite obvious to them that they had not been seen.

Uneasiness was not expected from Heloise; still, if she had seen
Clement, with whom she had quarreled, who, on the word of Méduse, she
was also well on the way to love, she must have shown some sort of
nervousness. She showed none.

The Gorgon companion, who had every reason to show anxiety if she
had, unexpectedly, set eyes upon that enemy who disconcerted her
most--Clement Seadon--showed no anxiety. She was calm and smiling. With
just the right smiling calm--no amount of acting could have given her
precisely that air.

“No, they haven’t seen us,” said Clement.

“No, they certainly haven’t,” said Gatineau. “All the same----”
he began, and he realized Clement’s intent gaze and stopped, and
smothered a grin. Clement would not be fit for comment or reasoning
until the train pulled out.

Clement gazed hungrily at Heloise. During the days of excitement and
anxiety he had thought incessantly of her, and had, he thought, created
an unreal dream woman. But as he looked at her he saw that she was
better even than his dream. The beauty of her features, the charm of
her movements, the whole crisp, boyish attraction of her came to him,
even now, as a fresh revelation. Her car moved and he moved with it
towards the observation platform.

“Mr. Seadon,” Gatineau protested. “The light shines upon the platform,
if they turned and saw you....”

With a sigh Clement relinquished the most desirable sight in the world.
Their own train started.

Presently he said, “They have arrived at Banff, Gatineau. That horror of
a woman has arrived--and she will ask for a message from Newman. Do you
appreciate that? She’ll go there expecting a message.”

“She won’t get one,” said Gatineau, grinning. He put his hand in his
pocket. He drew out Newman’s--or Neuburg’s--train letter saying all was
clear, and ordering Méduse to go to Revelstoke. “I brought it along
with me. I thought of that.”

“Yes,” said Clement. “You thought of that. But did you think of what
would happen when she asks for the message she is expecting--and does
not get it?”

“Hell,” said the little detective explosively.

“Just that,” agreed Clement. “She’ll raise it. She’ll get panicky. And
she’ll do something.”

“She just will; she’ll fly to the wire or to the distance ’phone to
Sicamous. She’ll get through to Neuburg. Why, in the name of Mike,
didn’t I think of that?”

“Why, in the name of Michael, didn’t _I_?” said Clement hardly. “It was
my idiotic haste. But that doesn’t help. What does help? She’ll get
through to Sicamous and Neuburg; she will warn Neuburg. And--and what
can we do?”

They stood staring blankly at each other in the swaying car.

What could they do?


II

They stood and stared at each other. A night journey away was Neuburg
and Gunning and Siwash Mike and Joe Wandersun’s wife. They were
unsuspecting. They were preparing for some terrible crime perhaps, but
they were unsuspecting.

Behind them were the two women going in a fast car to the Banff Springs
Hotel. The woman who had most to fear was also unsuspecting. But she
would cease to be so after she had been in the foyer of the hotel
many minutes. She would ask for a message, a letter, or a wire--and
she would not get one. At once because of her fear she would become
anxious. She would communicate with Neuburg. He would be warned. He
would know at once that his letter had gone astray, that something was
wrong, and he would take steps to meet the crisis.

And the men moving towards him were standing in the saloon of a
moving train, hanging, as it were, between the two danger points in a
traveling isolation. What could they do?

Gatineau said “Hell” again, and then he said, “She’ll wire, sure.”

“Or ’phone,” said Clement.

“Yes, she might.... But who to? Joe’s wife, Mrs. Wandersun, went up to
Gunning’s shack in a motor boat. She left word she wouldn’t be back.
Remember, left word an’ a letter.”

“Siwash Mike, or Herbert Lucas, as he calls himself, may be there
waiting for the ladies.”

“Yep, that’s so,” he thought a while. “But their shack might not have a
’phone. It’s unlikely, I think. An’ then ’phoning--would she risk it?
Miss Reys might come in on her as she spoke.”

“You think she’d wire?”

“Sure I think she’d wire,” said Gatineau, his face brightening a little.

“But how does it help? I know if we could get in touch with Sicamous
we could stop it ... but from a moving train.... One of these pocket
wireless sets would be very handy just now.”

“Got it,” shouted Gatineau.

“Got what, you little train jumper?” said a large, genial man coming
into the saloon.

The little detective all but leaped at the superintendent.

“Walt, have you a train telegraph set in this car?” he cried.

“Good Lord!” said Walt. “What’s the joke?”

“I’m asking--have you?”

“Of course I have,” said Walt. “What’s the answer?”

He didn’t get an answer. Instead, Gatineau swung round on Clement with
a great laugh. “We’ve got ’em. Walt, here, will stop the train.”

“Walt, here, will be asked to do it first. Then he’ll think about it,”
said Walt, with just that tinge of asperity that showed he had not been
too neatly handled. Gatineau noticed that tone in a flash.

“Say, Walt, I guess I’m a bit fresh. We’re rather rattled, Mr.
Seadon and me.... Oh, Walt, meet Mr. Clement Seadon, a friend of The
Chief’s.... We’re on a big thing, a big criminal thing, and we did
something quite stupid back in Banff that we can only put straight by
telegraphing, an’ at once.”

“It may save a murder,” said Clement, watching the big man.

“Holy Mike!” cried the big Walt.

“Well, we’re afraid of that,” agreed Gatineau. “You see, we daren’t
wait!”

“You won’t wait,” said the superintendent. “I’m getting that set.” He
began to run out of the saloon.

“All right, Walt,” called Gatineau. “We’ve got to figure out that wire
first.”

He went over to the little writing desk near the rear window. He
switched on the desk lamp and selected cable forms. At once he wrote:
“Hold all wires from Méduse Smythe to Newman or Neuburg.” He looked
up. “Will that do?” he asks. “Our man knows Neuburg; he’ll know what
that telegram means. An’ we mustn’t block other wires. Neuburg may
be expecting one from Nimmo at Montreal, f’rinstance, and might get
anxious if he didn’t get it.”

“That’s true,” said Clement over Gatineau’s shoulder. “And while we’re
stopping Méduse’s getting to Neuburg by wire, we might stop her getting
to him in person. Write this:


     ‘Wire Méduse Smythe Banff Springs Hotel as follows: All clear.
     Have seen Landor Revelstoke. All will be well. Don’t communicate
     him. Will let you know to-morrow or next day when you can come on
     here. Wait. No reason anxiety. Englishman who does not look brainy
     safely interned Montreal. ARTHUR NEWMAN.’”


“Do you think that will answer?”

“It’ll answer fine--if she’s not suspicions.”

“She won’t be suspicious--if Arthur Newman isn’t. This is from Arthur
Newman.”

The little detective considered it carefully. “You’re right. It
bears the authentic stamp of Arthur. Wondered why you were putting
in that bit about the foxy bank man, Landor of Revelstoke. But I see
why. Feeling that Newman is the only one to know about him, she’ll
be certain this wire’s from him. An’ she’ll stay quiet at Banff
accordingly.”

“That’s the idea. You feel confident that your man will send it
correctly--as though it really, did come from Newman, I mean?”

“Rely on him. Walt, we’re ready if you are.”

The superintendent had been busy in the saloon with the young man who
acted as his clerk. On the saloon table a telegraph instrument had
been set up, and the young man was active with what looked like a long
bamboo fishing pole that had electric flex instead of fishing line
attached to it, as well as a curious hook at its top end. Walt gave
orders to the youth to stop the train.

In a minute the long train groaned to a standstill, and at once the
young man dropped from the observation platform at the rear of the
car, and, first hooking the bamboo rod over one of the telegraph wires
beside the track, did various things with electric plugs. Then he
came back to the saloon and began working the telegraph instrument.
“Through to Sicamous,” he said.

Gatineau pushed the slip forward, “There’s your message.”

In a surprisingly short time the young man said, “They’re O.K.ing.”

“Ask them to repeat,” said Gatineau.

The young man wrote down the message as it clicked back, Gatineau
watching his writing hand. He had written the last word only when the
detective said, “O.K. That’s all.” Then the bamboo pole and the plugs
were disconnected, the instrument dismantled, a guard waved a light and
the train moved on.

“Five minutes,” smiled Walt. “That’s how it’s done, Mr. Seadon.”

“Yes, you people make the check-mating of rogues seem child’s play,”
smiled Clement, and he went to his bunk almost with serenity.


III

At Sicamous station a railwayman slipped on board the car and spoke to
Gatineau. Gatineau and Clement left the train at once, walked straight
into the pretty hotel that hangs right above the lake and is the only
considerable structure in the place, and, passing straight through the
lounge, found themselves in the manager’s sitting room.

A youngish man with the nondescript clothes and the air of a
homesteader got up from a rocker-chair and said: “You’re Mr. Gatineau.
Pleased to meet you. And Mr. Seadon. My name is Cager. Plenty of news,
Mr. Gatineau.”

“You sent the wire I asked?” asked Gatineau. The young man handed over
a cable form. It was the wire to Méduse. “Good. Did the woman send
anything?” Again, without a word, the young man handed over another
cable form. Both men read it. It was to Arthur Newman c/o Wandersun. It
ran:


     “Arrived Banff. No message from you. M. S.”


“Blocked that, of course,” explained Cager.

“Any telephone message through, do you think, to Lucas or Siwash at
Wandersun’s shack?”

“No telephone,” said Cager. “An’ then Siwash isn’t there. That is part
of the news. He went along the lake yesterday--to Gunning’s shack.”

“What time?” asked Gatineau anxiously.

“About five.”

“Before those ladies made Banff,” said Gatineau with relief. “Unless,
of course, they got a message through on the way.”

“They didn’t,” said Cager. “No wires, no train letters came through.
I’ve been watching Siwash--Lucas, as he calls himself--pretty close. I
guess he didn’t get any sort of message.”

“Not from along the lake?”

“Not even that. But I don’t know why he went. He just went up in a
canoe. I think he’s coming back. You see he was to meet them ladies,
and the woman, Mrs. Wandersun, hasn’t come back, or Neuburg shown
himself? No--then about those people who had a letter for Siwash when
he came along--I mean those neighbors who were told that he was coming,
and the ladies, too. Are they in this, do you think?”

“My opinion is, they’re just neighbors. They were here years before the
Wandersuns showed up. My opinion is that they are not in with Neuburg.”

Gatineau thought a while. “We’ll risk it, anyhow,” he said. “Look here,
Mr. Seadon, you’d better not show, but I will. I’ll go ’long an’ talk
to them.... Got a boat to take us along the lake, Cager?”

“Not a power boat, just now. You can have a skiff or a canoe.... Skiff?
Well, that’s less dangerous in a scuffle. I’ll get one ready while
you’re going to the Bloss’s.” He went to the window. “That path leading
up hill. It’s one of them two shacks you c’n see. There’s a chintz
settee on the porch.”

Gatineau was back in half-an-hour, his face was puzzled.

“Some news, Mr. Seadon,” he said. “Lucas--that’s Siwash, they don’t
know his real name, they’re on the square all right--Lucas will be
back to-morrow to meet the ladies.” He glanced deliberately at Clement.
“He’s gone up the lake to sit at the bedside of his dear cousin Henry
Gunning.”

“What!” cried Clement.

“Sure thing. Cousin Henry Gunning--he’s lying at death’s door.”

Clement stared at him in amazement. That Gunning was dangerously
ill seemed incredible.... Suddenly he remembered a passage in the
Joe Wandersun letter to Heloise at Banff. He remembered a passage
in Neuburg’s note to Méduse. He remembered the buying at the drug
stores in Revelstoke, and Mrs. Wandersun’s going to a sick friend. He
smiled grimly. “That’s the shock,” he said. “Remember Méduse was to be
prepared for one, and to play up to it. She won’t expect to learn that
a quite healthy man is abruptly at death’s door.”

“But I wonder what it means, just how it fits in with the scheme of
that blackguard Neuburg? Don’t you see, it’s saddling that outfit with
a sick man--even though he’s faking.”

“He’s got more time than he thought,” said Clement. “We’re at Montreal,
don’t forget.”

“With the long distance wire ever handy. He may have time, but not for
a long, sentimental sickness. I don’t see it fitting in.”

“No,” said Clement reflectively. “A long illness seems barred--but,
look at the effect of this sudden news of Gunning’s dangerous illness
on a nature like Miss Reys. It’ll bowl her over. Coming at the end of
all these lost trails and excitements, and the end of all the emotions
she’s been bottling up for months, this sudden, dramatic threat at the
last moment will emotionally sweep her right off her feet.”

“She’ll be crazy with anxiety--I see,” said Gatineau. “She’ll be right
off her guard, not noticing anything but how he is to be looked after,
that’s it. It’s a sweet move on that rotten rogue’s part.”

“Also,” said Clement, grimly, “Henry will look better in bed--more
presentable. He’s been on the loose, and it probably shows. But what
would look disgusting in a man standing on his feet, will only look
like the ravages of illness in a man lying and moaning on a sick bed.”

“The pathetic stop,” said Gatineau.

“The pathetic stop,” agreed Clement. “And they’ll play it for all
they’re worth to the undoing of that girl.”

In a very short time Clement Seadon and Gatineau were rowing up the
lake towards Gunning’s shack. To their friends they would have been
quite unrecognizable. Cager, the alert, had provided them with floppy
hats and clothes and fishing tackle. To the world at large they were
two westerners avid for the lake’s celebrated trout.

They had discussed with Cager the problem of getting at Neuburg and
his gang by stealth, and decided that they had best drift up to it
alone under their fishermen disguise. To guard against any eventuality,
a boatload of short, sturdy, and well-armed men followed them.

These men would wait behind a headland that cut off Gunning’s shack
from the rest of the lake, and at a signal, or if, through glasses,
they saw any signs of foul play, they would dash to the rescue.

Rowing up the lake, Clement could not repress a shudder at its
ominousness. The great spruce-clad mountains came right down to the
fillet of water, hemming it darkly. As they turned a shoulder, and the
hotel and railway buildings, standing up sharply in this clear air a
mile behind, were cut off from view, they seemed to be plunged at once
into the heart of No Man’s Land. The dark lake was stark and empty and
utterly beyond human touch and help, it seemed. What might not happen
to Heloise in a place like this?

They went ashore at the headland to spy out the land. From amid the
trees at its crest, Clement looked down on a mountain bay that might
have been the crater of an extinct volcano in the mountains of the
moon. At first it appeared almost terribly empty, then his glasses
picked out a shack well hidden in the trees alongside the lake. He saw
four people about that shack.

One was a man who sat smoking at his healthy ease and reading a paper
on the porch of the shack. One was a woman, who sometimes came out
of the door of the shack with a flutter of garments. She stood for a
moment, always, and looked along the lake. Once she picked up what
obviously were glasses, to stare across the water. She was watching.
She was Mrs. Wandersun; the man reading was undoubtedly Gunning.

Undoubtedly Gunning--neither of the other two men by the waterside were.

These two men were in a motor boat. They were obviously working with
some concentration on that motor boat. Only once, as Clement looked,
did they become erect and examine something.

One of the men was a slight, slim fellow with his arm in a sling. That
was Siwash.

The other was a big, massive mountain of a man, who sat up and moved
with curiously swift movements. That was Neuburg.

Neuburg, the murderer, and Siwash, busy over something in a motor boat.
Gatineau looked at Clement.

“What are they doing?” he asked. “What are they up to in that boat?”


IV

“The three of them there, an’ the woman,” said Gatineau, as they pushed
out their boat again. “Three to face.”

“We’ll see,” said Clement. “When we get there--well, we’ll see.”

Gatineau, as the least known of the two, stood up, plying his rod;
Clement hunched over the rowing. They drifted round the headland. They
moved slowly along the lake. Gatineau pretended to be dissatisfied
with his sport. He pointed with a long arm, indicating more likely
spots for a bite. Clement rowed languidly--there was a great deal of
power in his rowing and it took the boat nearer and nearer the shack.
Gatineau held up his hand, made a graceful cast, then he said, “Holy
Mike!--vanished.” He did not refer to the fish. He said it softly, not
because the fish might hear, but because in these silent places sounds
carry amazingly.

“You mean Neuburg and Siwash have vanished?” said Clement in the same
quiet tone.

“The earth might have swallowed them up. Not a sign of them.”

“And the woman--and Gunning?”

“Not a sign of them. Gone from the porch.”

“They’ve seen us. They’re taking all precautions.”

Clement glanced back to the headland. It shut them off from the entire
world. They could see no sign of humanity, not even of the three men
in the canoe who were following them so cautiously. Gatineau fished
sedately, partly to throw dust in the eyes of the people in or near the
shack, partly to give the men in the canoe time to make the headland.
Always they drifted nearer and nearer the shack.

Presently--it was part of their plan--Gatineau placed his rod in the
boat and sat down. He sat down facing Clement, facing in the direction
of the shack.

“Might as well eat,” he said in a loudish, clear voice. Clement said
nothing. It did not matter so much that Gatineau’s voice would carry
across the water to the shack, but his own voice was known.

Gatineau began munching and surveying the lake. Suddenly he cried,
“Say,” and his arm went out, indicating the shack. Clement, his hat
well down over his eyes, his chin crouched in his shoulder, looked
towards the shack. He said something. Gatineau answered clearly. “No,
it ain’t deserted. Why, there’s smoke coming out of the stack. We sure
can get some coffee there, or some hot water for our’n.”

He said this loudly, giving warning. If Neuburg and Siwash were in the
shack, they had time to get out of it, to run to the bush and hide.
Undoubtedly they would not want to be seen.

As they came close in under the shack, the woman appeared on the porch.
She was a tall, wiry woman, as lithe-strung as a cat. She had the
fierce, sharp, haggard air of a woman who had been wrenched from the
more hectic pleasures of cities to stagnate in the wilds. She stood in
the break of the door looking down on them, her eyes bright, her face
pale, her hand gripping the doorjamb violently to help her master her
emotions. Gatineau called, “Hello, mother; who’d a thought of seeing a
white woman here?”

“Hello,” she said in a dry voice. “Fishin’? Had luck?” Her tone
repelled advances.

“Poor,” said Gatineau. “Say--we was thinkin’--I mean seein’ you had a
fire, we thought as you’d allow us to boil a drop o’ water fer cawfee.”

The woman’s tongue went over her dry lips. “Better not come here,” she
said in a gasp. “There’s a sick man in this shack.”

“Say--out here--pore feller.”

“Infectious,” cried the woman, catching too much kindliness in
Gatineau’s tone. “Turrible infectious.”

“Still a drop of hot water fer cawfee,” said Gatineau. “We don’t want
to butt in on your trouble, mother. But we’d be mortal obliged if you
could give us a drop of hot water fer our cawfee.”

“But--but it’s turrible infectious,” said the woman, at a loss.

“Oh, but I don’t think a drop of hot water fer our cawfee’d matter
much.”

The woman made a decision. “Here, throw up yer can with the cawfee
in it, I’ll give you that water.” She caught the can deftly. “But
you stay there. Don’t you take no risk. I has to notify any risk of
infec’ion.” She turned and went swiftly into the shack.

Clement and Gatineau were out of the skiff and up the bank in a flash.


V

The woman turned from the stove with a half-cry of fear as their boots
clumped on the boards of the shack. She dropped the coffee can with a
crash, and her lips clenched tight together as she saw the weapons in
their hands. There was something significant in that sudden gesture of
silence; she had seen pistols in men’s hands before--in the hands of
men who shot regardless of sex.

Clement felt pity for her and the life she must have led. “We mean no
harm, Mrs. Wandersun. Only you must keep quiet----”

“And not move,” added Gatineau. “Stand over in that corner there, Mrs.
Wandersun--yes, in the angle of the walls. Now understand, no movement,
no sound.”

They looked about the room quickly. It was a bare room, with a table
and stove, and one window, next the door, looking on to the porch.
There was a door into an inner room. Gatineau sprang across to it and
looked in. It had a bed and a glassless window and very little else.
The window was shut, the bed had evidently been used by the woman.
Gatineau came out of the room, shutting the door. There was no need to
go into that room. What they wanted was in this outer, living room.

In a corner was a truckle bed. On that bed was a man, his deeply-marked
face pale and unshaven. He looked sick, and he stirred gently and
moaned like a sick man, not opening his eyes to them. Gatineau gave
him one look, then went and stood by the window, which was just by the
foot of the bed. Crouching against the woodwork, the little detective
watched the world outside, his pistol ready.

Clement acted quickly. From his pocket he took a piece of paper,
unfolded it and put it on the table. He found that ink and pens were
already there and he put the paper near them. It was a confession. He
had drawn it up in the train coming from Banff. It set out the general
lines of the plot as Clement saw it. And he meant Henry Gunning to sign
it. It would frighten Gunning into fleeing the country, as well as an
argument to use when he put the case before Heloise Reys.

He took a step to the bedside. The man under the blankets moved. It
might have been merely the tossing of a sick body, it might have been
anxiety. Clement looked down at the face, saw its looseness, its
weakness, its degeneration; saw, too, in the outline of good looks how
such a face might carry a fond memory right back to the time when this
man was a fine, upstanding, clean-looking boy. Oh, yes, that face
would call up memories that might well obliterate the present.

He said harshly, “Up with you, Henry Gunning. You’re found out. The
game’s up.”

The man on the bed moaned and stirred. And he made a false move. He
muttered, “Heloise.”

Clement saw red. “Up, you skunk!” he snapped. His hand went down,
plucking at the blankets. With a twist they were on the floor. Henry
Gunning, with one ineffectual grab at the disappearing clothes, lay
looking up at Clement, his eyes full of fear, his mouth loose. He had
reason for fear. He lay on the bed with his nightshirt on him, but
beneath that were all his clothes (save the boots) he had worn but a
few minutes ago as he sat a healthy man reading his newspaper on the
porch of the shack.

Clement shifted his pistol to his left hand. “Do you get up yourself?”
he snapped.

Gunning shakily got up. “Who th’ hell are you?” he demanded thickly.

“An Englishman like yourself, but a cleaner one,” said Clement with a
strong sense of racial anger.

And at the name Gunning winced. But he pulled his wits, which were
obviously fuddled, together and he stuttered, “What th’ hell do you
mean by all this? Hey, what the hell----? Look here, I’ll have the law
on you.”

“The law,” Clement sprang on him. “The law is over there”--he
indicated Gatineau. “That is a detective come to settle with you, my
friend.”

As expected, Henry Gunning stumbled back at the mere threat of the law.
Terror shone in his face.

Clement followed up his advantage. “We’re here for you, Henry Gunning.
We know all about you and this plot against Heloise Reys. We know how
you lured her out here, how you want to get hold of her and her million
of money.”

“Lies! Lies!” cried Henry Gunning. “You don’t bluff me.”

“Then you lied when you bragged at Cobalt, my friend,” snapped Clement.
“Do you want me to tell you all that you bragged of in the billiard
parlor of Cobalt?” Henry Gunning shrank back against the bed. “I see
you are recognizing we know. Well, understand fully that we’ve got
all the evidence against you. The story of those silver mines, the
details of how Joe Wandersun pretended to act as a bona fide agent,
the way Méduse Smythe became the companion of Heloise Reys, the
meaning of Adolf Neuburg behind it all. We know the whole foul plot,
the love making, the robbing of that girl, with the aid of Landor at
Revelstoke--her murder.”

“Murder!” said Gunning in a sharp voice.

“The murder at the hands of Neuburg, or Newman, or Nachbar.”

“That’s a lie!” snarled Henry Gunning. “There isn’t a murder in it.
That’s a lie; that isn’t in it.”

“It is in it.”

“Murder. The same sort of murder as Nachbar did in Oregon.”

There was a sudden movement from the corner. The woman moaned and fell
against the wall. She had swooned--apparently. Only apparently.--As
her body reached the floor her hands moved swiftly. Something flashed
and spat. Clement had taken a step towards her. It saved his life. The
bullet from a tiny pistol struck him in the fleshy part of the right
forearm. He gasped in pain, staggered. Immediately things happened.

Gatineau had spun round at the sound of the shot. His attention for a
fateful second was torn between the window, Gunning, and the woman. And
Gunning hit him.

Gunning, unsteady, but still powerful, fell forward across the narrow
gap between him and the unready detective. A great arm flailed, and
his fist took the little man behind the ear. As Gatineau fell, Gunning
fell on top of him, smothering him. Clement acted swiftly. He could
not shoot because of Gatineau underneath. With a lightning gesture, he
transferred his pistol to his right hand again, and grabbed at a chair.
He made a stride forward.

“Drop it!” snapped a voice. “Drop that chair!”

A slim man was at the window. A slim man with one arm in a sling,
but whose dark eye shone with steady purpose behind the sights of an
automatic pistol.

Clement dropped the chair.

There was a movement by the door. The light from it was darkened by
some huge and bulky figure. Clement turned his head. Smiling, without
the slightest vestige of emotion, and looking steadily not into his
eyes, but over Clement’s shoulder, the mountainous Mr. Neuburg came
into the shack.


VI

Whatever Mr. Neuburg felt he hid it with the cold, enigmatic
mirthlessness of his smile. But Clement knew that the great brute must
be at a loss. Obviously, he appreciated the fact that if his opponent
was here and not in Montreal, he must know far too much about Arthur
Newman and his doings.

Clement realized this and meant to make the most of it. He must play
for time. The three men in the canoe must have a chance to get to them,
for, of course, they would have heard the pistol shot.

Mr. Neuburg said, “Sophie, take his pistol.”

The woman came behind the young Englishman and took the pistol from
his injured hand. She pressed the muzzle of her own small weapon into
his spine, just to show what any attempt to fight might mean. Then she
stood aside. Henry Gunning stood up and away from the detective, who
lay prostrate. He looked swiftly at the silent Neuburg, and then as
swiftly turned his eyes away. He stared at Clement. He seemed to be
puzzling over Clement. Siwash Mike left the window when Clement was
disarmed. He came round into the room. He bent over the detective, his
pistol held ready; but, satisfied that the little man was stunned, he
picked up the automatic that had fallen to the floor and dropped it
into his pocket. To make sure that Gatineau was not shamming, he kicked
him sharply and savagely in the body. The prone man did not stir or
groan.

Neuburg, after a speculative stare at Clement said, “You have blundered
in on me again. You are clever, my exteriorly ingenuous young man. But
not quite clever enough. However, clever enough to know that this is a
very awkward situation for you.”

He waited for Clement to answer. Clement did not answer.

“Have you anything to say for yourself?” He wanted Clement to show his
hand either by defiance or an attempt to temporize.

Clement unsatisfyingly said, “Nothing at all.”

Mr. Neuburg blinked at the invisible thing across Clement’s shoulder.

“I am afraid I want you to say something,” said Mr. Neuburg with
his smooth suavity. “Yes, I think I must ask you to give me a few
explanations.” He waited. Again Clement did not answer. “Mr. Seadon,
you are a worldly-wise young man; you are no fool. You will, I think,
understand my position. There are certain facts I must have. I mean to
have them.”

Clement did not answer.

“I think you had better say something,” said Mr. Neuburg. His voice
took on a curious purr.

“I am not a man who finds stubbornness agreeable. I will have those
facts. Now, how and why are you here? Answer, you dog!”

“Oh, no,” said Clement. “I’m not going to answer.”

As he spoke, the woman--perhaps something still feminine in her
revolted against the horrors she thought bound to come--stepped to the
table and picked up the paper Clement had put upon it. Neuburg read it
through.

“A confession. Our bright Henry was to sign it, the girl Heloise
was to read it, and all would be well. An ingenious plan, Seadon. A
well-considered plan. You would have terrorized our backboneless Henry
with threats. Perhaps you would have carried it through, for Henry is a
cur. But you did not. I intervened. So far, then, that was your idea.
But before----”

Clement, who had been watching Gunning’s face, observing the perplexity
on it, said evenly, “That certainly was my plan. But I changed it at
the last moment. I was about to change it, that is, when you arrived. I
found an unexpected ignorance in Henry Gunning. I found he knew nothing
about--Nachbar.”

The big man’s hand moved upwards towards his breast in a startled and
curious gesture. It was an instinctive defense against an unexpected
blow. His breath came in a sudden sharp hiss. His eyes flickered
to Clement’s face with a movement and with a light, startled, yet
unfathomable. And no other sign did he give. Presently, “What is this
talk about Nachbar?” he said, in a quiet, even voice.

Gunning said explosively, “This fellow said something about this
Nachbar--and about murder. I don’t know what is meant.”

“They mean the same thing,” said Clement evenly, his attention keenly
on the alert for any movement from the mountainous man, or Siwash, or
the woman. “Nachbar--Albrecht Nachbar--is a murderer, Gunning.”

“I was speaking to Adolf,” said Gunning, snarling at Clement.

“Albrecht,” said Clement evenly.

Gunning gasped, his eyes became wild. “What--who is this Nachbar?” he
cried.

“You are speaking to him now,” said Clement. “Adolf Neuburg is Albrecht
Nachbar--murderer.”

“A murderer!” cried Gunning. He shrank away from Neuburg, his face pale
and working. “A murderer.” There was real disgust and horror in his
tone. He was a real bad hat, but somehow that had touched to horror and
disgust a clean streak in him. Then with a genuine anger he swung round
on the big man. “Give him the lie, Adolf,” he shouted. “Fling the lie
in his dirty face.”

Neuburg, or rather Nachbar, stood passive, his great face in an awful
inscrutability. Only his right hand moved. It lifted, and its fingers
caressed the flap of his coat pocket, caressed as if eager to get at
something that lay in that pocket. Only when Gunning shouted once more,
“Go on, Adolf, fling the lie in his face,” did he say, “Stop that,
Gunning. Go on, Seadon. Go on.--Don’t stop at that. Let’s have all of
it.”

He wanted to find out all Clement knew. He ignored Gunning’s horror and
disgust. He was, no doubt, entirely confident of his supremacy over
Gunning.

Clement, conscious of the play of that eager hand over the pistol
pocket, said evenly: “Gunning, for reasons of his own, for reasons
connected with Heloise Reys, this man has thought best to keep you
ignorant of his real nature. He is Albrecht Nachbar who is wanted by
the Oregon police for murder. He is careful not to deny it.”

“God!” breathed Gunning, his eyes fixed in horror on Nachbar.
“God--but you lie, he _will_ deny it.”

“Go on,” said Nachbar with a deadly evenness. “Go on, Seadon.”

“He won’t deny it,” said Clement, shooting at venture. “He won’t deny
it--because he feels that, since I have unmasked him, it will be best
for you to know what he intends to do to that girl, Heloise Reys.”

“Murder her! No--no; we aren’t going to do that. It’s a lie!” cried
Gunning, shrinking in loathing.

“You are a clever young man,” said Nachbar to Clement. “Too clever. Go
on.”

“You think he doesn’t mean murder? Ask him. Ask him if he hasn’t made
up his mind to rob a rich young girl, as he made up his mind to rob the
rich young man, Roberts of Oregon. Ask him if he didn’t plan to lure
her to the wilds, just as he lured Roberts into the wilds. Ask him if,
having planned to secure all her money through Landor at Revelstoke,
as he secured all Roberts’s money in Oregon, he does not mean to kill
her--kill her so that his robbery can be covered up, just as the
killing of Roberts covered up that robbery.”

“Kill her--murder Heloise,” said Gunning in a whisper.

“It won’t look like murder. It’ll look like an accident. Just as
Roberts’s death looked like an accident. A burst gun barrel while
hunting, Gunning--only Nachbar had seen to it that it would burst.”

“It’s a lie! It’s a lie!” shouted Gunning.

“Ask him.”

“It’s a lie! How could they kill her! How would they murder her?”

Clement had a sudden flashing intuition. “Ask him about the motor boat,
Gunning?”

And the shot in the dark struck home.

Siwash Mike loosed an oath. The mountain of a man started as if stung.
His mouth twisted in an ugly snarl. He made a step towards Clement. His
right hand jerked to his pocket. The effect on Gunning was startling.
That chance shot had exploded a definite fact in his mind.

“Motor boat,” he shouted. “That’s why you wouldn’t let me
help.--Mending a perfectly sound motor boat. You liar! You--you
Nachbar!”

He jumped forward and faced the big man.

“Out of the way, you dog. Out of the way!” snarled Nachbar, with a
twisted mouth. His hand had flashed out of his pocket, and in it was a
pistol. “Out of the way, you sot!”

Gunning flung himself upon him.

There was chaos in that flimsy shack.

At the first hint of violence Clement had dropped flat to the ground.
The woman’s pistol snapped as he did so, and her bullet struck the
planking where his chest had been. Nachbar and Gunning staggered in a
wild tangle. The shoulders of the huge man struck Siwash as, pistol
ready, he jumped round to get at Clement. He was flung back. Even as
he swayed under the impact, the little detective Gatineau, prone and
overlooked on the floor, suddenly came to life. He became abruptly
conscious. His arms went out and plucked at the half-breed’s ankles.
Siwash went down with a bang. As he went down, Gatineau heaved himself
up and forward with an astonishing strength and flung himself on the
fallen man. Siwash screamed as Gatineau twisted his wounded arm, and
his pistol clattered to the ground. Gatineau snatched at that pistol,
and got it.

Gunning and the mountain of a man went in a long, wild stagger, across
the shack. The table crashed as their writhing bodies smashed into
it. They tripped and thudded into the wall. They stamped and wrestled
clear, went in a writhe across the floor again. The woman failed to
get out of the way. The fighting bodies struck her and she was knocked
across the room. Then Gunning screamed. A huge, fat thumb was pressing,
pressing with monstrous power, up under his jaw-bone beneath his ear.
He screamed and wriggled to break away. Nachbar with his incredible
mobility slipped clear. In the same movement his pistol flickered
towards Gunning’s chest. A report and a scream sounded together, and
Gunning tumbled forward into the arms of the man who had shot him.

With his immense strength Nachbar flung the limp man from him and swept
round to deal with Clement. Clement was ready. As the huge body bunched
and the pistol hand jerked forward, Clement struck at it. As Clement
had risen to his feet, he had grabbed the chair again, and that was
what he struck with. The solid wood of the seat caught Nachbar’s wrist
and arm, and with such force that the pistol was sent flying across the
room. Nachbar bellowed and leaped to finish the young Englishman with
his great hands. Clement dropped the chair in front of him.

His shins caught the flimsy structure as his huge body stumbled
forward, and at the same time Clement landed with all his force on the
big face. He struck again on the mouth, and then in the excitement
strove to swing to the swaying chin with his injured right. He reached
his mark, but the pain that shot through his arm was so exquisite that
it both robbed the blow of its power and caused Clement to writhe. In
that moment of suspension Nachbar, shaking himself like some giant
beast that had been stung to rage by an insect, leaped on Clement.

They went down with a crash. Nachbar’s body caught the surface of
the capsized table, and it split and broke under the fierce impact.
Nachbar was on top. Clement strove to twist him off with a Japanese
wrestling throw, but the sheer weight of the man bore him down. His
great legs were upon the Englishman’s body, his great knee was grinding
down the injured right arm. A pair of huge hands were tearing away the
Englishman’s left, were clutching at the throat.

Clement’s head was forced back and back until he felt his spine would
snap. There was a cruel pressure on his gullet, and his blood was
roaring in his ears. He felt that his body was slipping away into
a deep and terrible abyss, and that as it slipped his strength was
dropping swiftly away from him. The great body on him was grinding him
down, crushing him down.

There was a thumping of heavy boots on the planking of the porch.
Men were running and shouting. A great voice from the window yelled,
“You--the elephant--shove your hands up--lively.”

“I’ll get hit if he fires,” Clement’s mind registered.

More stampings. A voice shouted in the door, “Don’t shoot, Paul--t’
feller underneath.--That’s it, the butt.”

Nachbar jerked round and looked up. A man was upon him, his hand up, a
pistol swinging by its barrel poised to strike. With his astonishing
mobility, the mountain of a man was on his feet. His arm shot out and
the threatening man thudded into a corner. The murderer was round at
once, springing in shack-shaking leaps of bewildering agility for the
door that lead to the inner room. He reached the door, grabbed at the
handle.

A Winchester banged from the window. Nachbar’s shoulders struck the
door, burst it open. A rifle barked again, and the door crashed to in
an echo of the shot.

There was a rush of feet across the room; the strong shoulders of two
of the men from the canoe jammed together in its narrow length before
they burst it open. Both men stopped dead, wheeled about.

“Gone!” yelled one of them. “Jumped clean through that window.” The
three made for the door of the shack.

“One of you stay,” yelled Gatineau. “There’s the man an’ the woman to
look to. The other two go after him, and shoot on sight.”

In a minute they heard the two crashing through the spruce on the trail
of Mr. Neuburg.


VII

Clement, his head feeling bigger and more painful than any human head
had a right to be, heaved himself from the floor, grabbed the pistol
Neuburg had dropped, and made swaying for the door.

“You stop here, Seadon,” snapped Gatineau, as he handcuffed the woman
(the other man was roping Siwash). “You can’t do anything outside. You
_can_ here. Gunning’s dying.”

So while the chase went on up the slope above the lake, Clement watched
Henry Gunning die.

The fellow opened his eyes in a minute or two, stared dully at Clement,
as though not realizing what had happened, and then suddenly he
understood.

“Murder!” he choked. “I won’t have murder. I’m a swine, but I won’t
have murder. _No!_”

“Take it easy,” said Clement. “Don’t tear yourself to pieces. There
won’t be any murder now.”

He hoped that was the truth, although Neuburg _had_ got away.

It was difficult to quiet the dying man, for, in his last hour, the
clean streak in him had come out uppermost, and he was beside himself
in his desire to prevent any hurt coming to the girl, Heloise Reys.

But he was quieted in the end. Suddenly he seemed to realize that he
was about to die, and he ceased to rave and struggle. Abruptly he lay
quiet.

“A fool all the time,” he said with a wry grin upon Seadon. “I muddled
my life; I’m going to muddle my death if I’m not careful. Sit down
beside me and listen. I’m going to straighten things out while I can.”

It was then that Clement heard the full story of the plot against
Heloise Reys. It had been planned very much as he had thought.

Henry Gunning, a wastrel, had fallen into the power of Adolf Neuburg
and his gang. One day Gunning had read in the paper a notice of the
death of Heloise’s father. He had forgotten all about Heloise, but that
paragraph had recalled their boy and girl affair, and, being the man he
was, he had bragged, declaring that he might marry a millionairess if
he chose.

Adolf Neuburg had in this way learned the whole story and seen its
possibilities. He had at once begun to plot. He had arranged for the
purchase of worthless mining claims, and had dictated the letter with
which Gunning reawakened the girlhood emotions in Heloise’s heart. Then
he had gone to England, bought out the old companion and seen that
Méduse took her place, and so on through the story.

But the object all through was money, insisted Gunning. They had meant
Heloise to sign away first the cash and securities she had brought to
Canada, and then they hoped to get hold of the rest of the million. He
was to make love to Heloise, even marry her to attain this end--but
murder her, _No_!

He died on that profession of guiltlessness in the major crime. It had
been impossible to argue with him, as well as useless. A muddler of
his sort could not see the logical end to the plot. Could not see that
the simplified end was to _kill_ Heloise rather than turn her loose
penniless, as seemed to be Gunning’s vague idea.

And his ignorance of what was being done to the motor boat supported
his contention.

What was being done to the motor boat?

Clement was about to turn to the imprisoned Siwash and demand the truth
about the motor boat when there came a startling interruption.

From up the hill they heard shouts and shots. Gatineau and Clement
instinctively dived towards the door. Something hit the shack with a
resounding thwack.

“Christopher!” yelled Gatineau. “They’re shooting up the shack.”

“Neuburg’s come back,” shouted Clement. “Take the back. I’ll take the
front.”

The shouts and shots redoubled. Then suddenly across the tumult they
heard another sound. From the lake there came the quick, stuttering
throb of a gasoline engine springing into life.

With a yell Clement flung himself onto the porch.

Away across the lake the big motor boat that had been at the
stringpiece was shooting towards Sicamous. Behind it trailed the skiffs
and canoes that had been tied up at the lakeside.

Clement shot out his arm and began firing. He was too late. The motor
boat had gathered speed and was already covered by the trees.

He could not hit Adolf Neuburg, who was steering it.




CHAPTER VIII


I

They rushed to the water’s edge, as the two men who had been chasing
Neuburg came tumbling down the slope through the trees.

“The feller’s an Indian!” they shouted. “Led us on a faked trail right
up to the top, while he doubled back an’ made for the water. We only
saw him when he’d got way out on it. Sakes, I wantter get that big
feller just to cry quits.”

“You won’t,” said Clement. “We’re marooned.”

“No, we ain’t!” shouted another man. “There’s another motor boat--look!”

“_He_ knew that wasn’t any good,” said Clement, “or he’d taken it.”

Indeed, the motor boat that had been left behind was the one they had
watched Siwash and Neuburg tinkering with.

“Let’s have a look at it, anyhow!” cried one man, and he made a run at
it.

“Not so fast!” snapped Clement, and, as the men stopped,
bewildered--“Fetch out the woman and the half-breed. Tell ’em to get
into that boat first.”

Mrs. Wandersun was led out, Siwash following. She glanced round,
hesitated when she saw there were no boats at the stringpiece. A hand
urged her towards the motor boat.

She screamed.

“Get in,” said Clement curtly. “We’re in a hurry.”

“No!” cried the woman. “No!”

“Shut up, you fool!” cried Siwash.

“No nonsense! In with you!” snapped Gatineau, as he drew the woman
towards the boat. She struggled.

“It’s murder!” she shouted. “You know it’s murder!”

“She’s crazy,” said Siwash, and with a forced calmness walked towards
the boat.

“She isn’t,” Clement grinned at him. “How was she to know you hadn’t
finished fixing it yet?” As Siwash turned, snarling at the trap into
which he had fallen, Clement said to the men: “All right, get aboard
and see what you can do with her--she’s apparently not quite ready for
killing people _yet_.”

In five minutes he was looking at a dynamite cartridge, fixed cunningly
near the gasoline tank. There was a time fuse by it, but not yet
connected up.

“The hand of Nachbar,” said Gatineau, holding up the cartridge.

“Yes,” agreed Clement, feeling sick. “That was to be the ‘accident’ in
the wilds.”

“Sure,” agreed Gatineau. “Miss Reys was to be sent off in a hurry in
that boat for something. Somewhere, when the time fuse expired--within
sight of Sicamous, prob’bly--the dynamite would send up the gas tank.
Boat and girl would just vanish before the eyes of men in a sheet of
flame--a natural, brilliant, devilish accident.”

Clement, almost physically ill, shook his fist at the lake.

“By God!” he cried. “That man must not be allowed to get free! We’ve
got to find him, Gatineau, and settle with him. We’ve _got_ to get him.”


II

It was more than an hour before they were out on the lake, pushing
towards Sicamous.

They did not go straight to that place. They had reasoned it out that
Neuburg dare not go there. He would know that Sicamous was warned, and
that only arrest awaited him.

They cut through the lake at their best speed, searching the shore on
either side, swinging into little inlets and out again, in their search
for the motor boat that had carried Neuburg.

A man in the bow shouted and pointed. They turned their eyes to the
lakeside below a clearing. Piled high, with the boats she towed
knocking at her rudder post, was the motor boat. Above the motor boat
in the clearing was a shack. As they drove towards it, Gatineau rapped.

“Heck! See the reason? He landed here. There’s a telephone.”

They made the shore; three of them piled out of their boat; two sat
with guns ready for anything.

They ran to the shack, calling out, but nobody came to meet them. They
hammered at the door post; there was no answer. They went in through
the door into a living-room. It was empty.

Here they saw the trail of Neuburg. A cupboard had been forced and
food taken from it, hurriedly, so that other food was scattered. On
the table were two empty cartridge boxes, and several of the shells
had fallen on the floor as the big man had emptied the cartons in a
hurry. The telephone receiver dangled helplessly, and the wire had been
snipped off short.

They pushed into the two bedrooms, one was stark empty, one seemed so,
but Gatineau heard a whimper. Bending swiftly, he jerked a boy of ten
from under the bed. Even as the little detective yanked the boy to his
feet the kid pulled a gun, and only Gatineau’s agility saved him from a
bullet in the stomach.

Clement grabbed the gun and shouted: “Here, stow that, sonny! You
aren’t Buffalo Bill, you know.”

“I ain’t a bit afraid of you,” said the kid, pretending that what they
thought crying was merely dust in his eye.

“No need, kiddo,” grinned Gatineau. “We ain’t the bad men; we’re just
plain policemen.”

“Ho,” said the kid, visibly disappointed. Then he brightened. “That
other feller wuz bad as bad.”

“Worse!” chuckled Clement. “He was a robber and a murderer, and
everything.”

Young Canada swelled visibly with pride.

“Golly--an’ he might have gunned me any time, ’cos I was here, see? _I_
didn’t run away.”

There was an uproar from the front of the shack, men shouting at each
other, threatening. Clement and Gatineau went out. In the clearing was
a wild-eyed homesteader, brandishing a club and threatening to brain
the man they had put on guard. Again Clement played a soothing part.

“Easy on him, old son!” he shouted. “We don’t mean harm. We’re the
police.”

“That’s right, pop,” said young Canada, leaning over the porch rail.
“You stop being mad; there ain’t no call for it. I’m just putting
things straight with these fellers here. Put up your gun, pard.”

The manly tone was smothered in a flutter of skirts. A woman ran in
from the scrub, yelling: “Jimmy! My Jimmy!” And Jimmy, the gunman,
was in his mother’s embrace. A little girl and a smaller boy followed
timidly.

Neuburg, they found, had run his boat ashore in the creek under the
homestead while the man was back in the woods working. He had walked
into the living room and held up the woman and her two youngest
children.

“I was in the bedroom,” said Jimmy, the daring. “I saw what was what,
so I nipped under the bed.”

Neuburg had stolen the food, packing it in his pockets, found the
revolver, and stolen it and cartridges. Then he had ordered them out of
the house while he spoke on the telephone. They had run straight to the
husband.

“Then you didn’t hear who he called up on the ’phone?” said Gatineau.

“I was under the bed----” began Jimmy.

The father interrupted angrily. “How could she hear? That’s why he
drove my wife out.”

“Damn!” muttered Clement. “I’d give a hundred dollars to know who he
called up on that ’phone, and what he said.”

“Give ’em to me, then,” said Jimmy.

“What’s that?” gasped everybody.

“I keep on telling yer I was under that bed, an’ heard,” said Jimmy in
contempt.

“Magnificent!” shouted Clement. “Who did he ring up?”

“A Revelstoke number. Ast fer a feller named Locust.”

“Lucas!” shouted Clement. “What did he say?”

“Said something about things was all gone bust, and that he, this Lucas
feller, must meet him at the Three Pins with all he could get hold of.
Then he got out.”

“To the mountains,” said Gatineau.

“Why?”

“Three Pins is a difficult and little known pass. I know it. A hard
journey, but it can be reached from here-and Revelstoke.”

“Can we get there quicker than by following Neuburg’s trail?”

“Sure! But why worry? We can put a cordon round him. We’ve got him.”

“I’ve got to see him taken with my own eyes before I believe that. Also
I want to do some of the taking myself. I owe Neuburg something. And
then there’s Lucas ‘with all he can get hold of.’”

“Well, what about it? What do you think that means?”

“I think it means £145,000 of easily negotiable securities and cash,”
said Clement. “Remember The Chief’s wire. I’m going to see with my own
eyes that Miss Heloise Reys does not lose it.”


III

A motor trolley jerked them up along the mountain track, and dropped
Clement, the detective and two men at a little wayside station that
seemed to be clinging by sheer strength to the rocks under the
snow-clad crags.

A guide and horses met them, and they rode off along the mountain
trails, skirting ravines and river gorges by paths that seemed to poise
them on the lip of sickening drops. They climbed up and up until the
air took on the nip of the everlasting snows. They pushed forward until
they seemed lost in a Dantesque hell of bleak gray rock and somber
spruce furred valleys.

When night came down, they camped fireless for fear of giving the alarm
to the huge, ugly and indomitable rogue who must even then be pushing
his way through the mountain passes in their neighborhood. They had
time on their side. They knew they must be ahead of him.

In the chill mists of dawn they were up and away again, striking
through the stark, craggy Valleys for the lonely pass under the Three
Pins. Toiling up from the Arrowhead district, on the other shoulder of
the range must be the shady bank clerk, Lucas. Would they be present at
the rendezvous of the two criminals? Would they be there at the right
time and at the right place?

It was noon before the guide pointed to a curious mountain with three
sharp points, the Three Pins. They dismounted and pressed through the
wild and rocky forests with infinite caution. Quite suddenly the guide
put up his hand. They crept to his side.

There beneath him sat a man.

He was a young man, lolling on a rock and smoking. He was dressed with
a nattiness that was incongruous amid that bleak scenery. But beside
him was a haversack, and his city-cut clothes showed evidences of rough
wear. It was Lucas.

One of the men sighted his rifle on him, but Gatineau’s hand went out.
He whispered:

“Not yet. Wait for Neuburg.”

They waited, watching the young man in that aching silence, in that
almost startling clearness of air.

An hour, and suddenly the young man sprang up.

A bird call had abruptly sounded.

The young man stood looking about. The call sounded again. He grabbed
his haversack and began to move.

Clement was impatient to get out at him; again Gatineau checked him.

“Neuburg’s here. That was his call,” he said. “He’s in hiding. He’s
waiting to see whether Lucas’s movement draws anything.”

Lucas walked eagerly up the trail, with all eyes watching him. There
was no movement or sound on the mountainside above him. A minute
passed. Suddenly they saw Neuburg standing above the trail.

He had slipped silently out of the shadow, and was standing quietly
looking round. Lucas changed direction at once, and ran up to him.

Gatineau, too, began to move. The men with them spread out to form a
half-circle about the little detective, who headed straight through the
spruce, going with the skill of a trapper towards the big murderer.

They dipped to a hollow, rose to a point where they could see the two
men. Neuburg was talking rapidly. As he talked he put his hand behind
him, raised it with a revolver, and fired straight at Gatineau in cover.

Gatineau shouted and fell. Two shots rang out. Lucas fell dead and
Neuburg began to run.

He dived straight for the bush, crashing the branches aside with his
huge figure. In a moment he had plunged into the gloom. Clement was
after him, and one of the men cut across to head the big fellow.

In front, Clement heard the crashing of the murderer’s passage, and
even at times caught the back swing of the branches. Once he saw the
brute, sighted and fired. Once a revolver spat and a bullet screamed
close to his head. They scrambled into a rocky pocket and out again.
Ahead there came a sudden shout, the explosion of two guns close
together, and a great scream of rage and fear.

Clement broke cover to see a man struggling in the great arms of
Neuburg. Neuburg was trying to break the fellow’s back with knee and
hands. Clement shouted and leaped forward. Neuburg turned, snarling
like an animal, and flung his victim at the Englishman’s knees.

Clement went down, but was up and running again at once. They were
among rocks now, heading for a small torrent that roared down the
mountain side. Neuburg dodged in and out of the rocks making for the
stream, and there was blood along his trail. That was slowing him; he
was hit.

By the stream Clement got him in the open and shouted and fired.
Neuburg turned and with blazing revolver came back.

He charged like a bull. His revolver spat once, twice, but already
Clement had jumped to cover behind a tree. The revolver spoke again,
and then the murderer snarled in rage, dropped it and came on with his
empty hands. Clement fired at his legs twice, apparently missed, and
then flung his own empty pistol at the oncoming brute.

It struck him in the chest, and he brushed it aside as though it had
been a gnat. Then he closed with Clement.

They went down, Clement battering with his one useful fist at the gross
face. Neuburg ignored all blows and ground him back and into the
earth, held him there, and felt blindly with his right hand for a piece
of rock.

He found it and struck. Clement just had time to wriggle his head,
and only his hat was crushed in. The great arm went up again with the
huge, jagged splinter of stone. It poised, waiting its certain chance.
Clement tried to struggle, but with knee and arm the giant man held him
rigid. The arm with the rock heaved to strike.

Some one--the guide--came leaping straight from the blue at the poised
Neuburg. The man simply took a header straight at the murderer. Head
and shoulders and fists struck, and Neuburg went over. Clement wriggled
up like a flash and flung himself on the huge brute.

Another man limped up at a run and hurled himself into the wriggling
mass.

They fought and squirmed to hold the bull-like creature down. He shook
them off. They went at him like terriers, clutching at leg or arm.
A great fist flailed out and sent one man backwards into the bush.
Clement shifted and caught him round the neck. He found himself being
lifted into the air. He clung tighter, the other man gripped with
clawing fingers at a thick arm. The arm swung and shook and the man
went into the bushes spreadeagled. The great body whirled and Clement
found himself spun off against a rock.

The first man was at it again, but once more Neuburg was running.

He ran with a lurching step towards the torrent. They yelled at him to
stop, to throw up his hands. He lumbered onward. When he reached the
torrent, a man fired. Neuburg staggered, steadied himself, then jumped
clear out into the boiling fall.

They saw him hang swaying amid the welter of white and angry water, his
feet slipping on a slab of rock on the very lip of the fall. Then the
giant arms were flung wide, and he toppled into the stream.

They saw his body just for one minute, turning over and over in the
torn and angry water at the bottom of the fall, three hundred feet
below. Then it was gone.

Mr. Neuburg was finished.

They found Gatineau, by the body of the dead Lucas, making the best of
a flesh wound along the ribs.

“As you thought, Mr. Seadon,” he said, “Lucas skipped with the
securities. They’re all here, £145,000 pounds worth of them.”

“Well, that point is cleared up,” said Clement. “We’d better head for
Banff now, and Miss Reys.”

“_And_ Mrs. Neuburg, alias Méduse Smith,” grinned Gatineau, who had
learned much from the wanderers. “I’m going to arrest _one_ of the
family, anyhow.”




CHAPTER IX


After the arrest of Méduse Smythe, tactfully carried out by Gatineau,
Clement sought out Heloise.

On the terrace of the Arabian Nights Hotel at Banff, where the lawns
go down in emerald under spruce to meet the shining turquoise waters
of the Bow, and the mountains stand about to cup the beauty of the
exquisite place, Clement found her.

He walked out amid that divine quiet that the slurring rush of the Bow
falls only makes more delicate, and for a moment he was held by the
glowing beauty of the place. Then he heard a quiet voice cry with a
catch of gladness:

“Clement!”

He turned and went to her as she stood against the miracle of a view,
and it was minutes before they realized that, by the rights of things,
they should not hold each other like this.

Then she stood away from him, blushing. Her eyes for a moment left his
face and for the first time saw his arm.

“Clement!” she cried. “Your arm ... I did that?”

“You--never!” he laughed. “How could you?”

“I did--it was Neuburg?”

“Yes,” he told her. “But how did you guess that?”

“Oh, I’ve been guessing it since Quebec, and now that little detective
has let me know. What a little fool I’ve been, Clement. I’m not fit to
look after myself.”

“The little lawyer, Hartley Hard, suggested you needed special
protection.”

“Hartley Hard.... But what sort of protection would be adequate for a
little idiot like me?”

“He seemed to think marriage might meet the case.”

“Oh,” she murmured, blushing again.

“I think it a splendid idea myself. What do you think, Heloise?”

“I--I--I think my opinion of lawyers has improved enormously,” she
whispered.

It really was not until the next day that they had a sensible
discussion of all that had happened, and even that was inextricably
mixed up with the plans of a honeymoon.


THE END




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