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Show l TvSvvv'999999'1'999999 "" ' 1 -j I j I Diamond Gut Diamond jji By JANE BUNKER jlj I ' (CoDyrlght, by Bobbs-Merrill Company.) i ft s i . r.r.r.r.?.r.r.".r.r.. .. Cw"""l",l,','""w '" CHAPTER XVI. Continued. 18 "Oh, well it doesn't matter anyway," any-way," I soothed. "Just tell him again I'm not at home, and if he says anything any-thing more repeat it and keep on repeating re-peating it till he goes, for I won't see him. But, George" this I said sternly stern-ly "if you bring that man up after what I've said to you you needn't say good morning to me next Sunday." George understood the allusion I always give him a quarter on Sunday morning when he brings the paper up. He grinned and departed. "Now, what new dodge is this?" I cogitated, carrying the paper to my study and examining it in the light. The writing was distinctly loreign French or Germf.fi in the "r's." The "mademoiselle" also suggested a foreigner. for-eigner. The bell rang. I sat down. The bell rang again. I put my feet on a hassock, has-sock, turned up my nose slightly, smiled and sat still. The door was pounded not furiously, but with evident evi-dent determination and the bell rang again. At this I thought I'd better show a sign of life, so I went and called through without opening. "Stop that noise!" I commanded angrily. an-grily. Noise stopped. Both persons waited for the other to say something. As the opposite side didn't I called through again, "Who Is it?" "Police detective." The words were hissed through in a stage whisper, and I noticed n foreign for-eign accent on "police." I t! .ought I might as well look at him, anyway which I did through the crack without removing the chain-bolt. I aaw a rather short, very slight man j-pongee colored, to be accurate with an intelligent, intel-ligent, honest-looking face, but very common clothes cheap ready-made overcoat and hat. Yet the man had very much of an air about him. "Well?" said I in as unwelcoming a tone as I could. "I wished to see you about Mademoiselle Made-moiselle de Bavenol the young lady who crossed In the steamer with you." "Wall 9" cotrt T "She has disappeared." "Well?" And this last from me left him quite in the air, as I saw by his frown. However, he made a fresh start : "Mademoiselle de Ravenol crossed in the same steamer with you about two weeks ago, did she not?" "She may have." "Her name is on the passenger list with yours I have the list here" he produced some papers, but apparently did not find that he had the list, nnd .with a gesture of impatience appealed to me "I am correct, am I not she crossed with you on the same steamer?" "What have I to do with that?" I asked curtly, wondering what he was driving at; for of course I knew Claire hadn't disappeared since last night, and if she had he wouldn't be asking me about the steamer. "Dozens of people crossed on the same steamer with me." ''Naturally," he admitted, trying to be pleasant. "But this Mademoiselle de Ravenol she crossed in your care, did she not?" "She did not." "She did not?" he asked in a surprised sur-prised sort of way, as if he thought I was lying. "In whose, then, may I ask?" I merely shrugged, as though to tell him, "Find out 'for yourself." Seeing it he did not pursue that line but tried this: "You saw a good deal of her on the steamer, did you not talked with her frequently?" I ignored this last and told him, "But I have no information to give you ! Nothing at all. She did not come over with me I had no charge of her no responsibility for her actions ac-tions on board the steamer, or for her being met or not met or anything else." "Certainly. I understand." He gave the door a little push as a hint to me. "But do you not see that you might furnish me with a valuable clue?" He gave the door a harder push, and as it clicked on the chain-bolt chain-bolt he repeated, "If you allow me to enter that we may discuss this in private pri-vate " I thought I saw myself letting a strange man enter with all those diamonds dia-monds loose in a box with peus ! And it the thought of them I saw that this might be only another plot of monsieur's mon-sieur's ! , I looked at him In a way that made him think I was conF.ioering my responsibilities, re-sponsibilities, and then I asked as casually cas-ually as I could, "But at what time did the disappear?" "Ah, that is the question when?" he cried, giving a tragic or what he . meant to be tragic gesture to show I how utterly the girl had vanished, j And he stopped to consider what he should tell me next, and I, seeing no : chance to catch a clue foi myself, I added, "If you are simply free-lancing in the case I should not feel justified i In discussing her with you--nut if her father is employing you if it Is he who has put the case in your hands that is a different matter, and I see no objection to telling you all I know." He took the bait, hook and sinker! "It is her father who has placed the matter in my hands," he replied convincingly; con-vincingly; and at the same time he gave the door a shove as if to say, "Now you must let me in !" and dropping drop-ping his voice to a-whisper: "You will understand also why the greatest secrecy se-crecy must be maintained !" "Oh, of course. Now, when did she disappear?" I got this off in a tone to indicate that I was thawing out. Not lost on him ! He answered with a quick but vague, "Shortly after landing." "You don't say !" I exclaimed, wish- .. a l,rtol.-a1 onH trvinir to LU OHVL"t ...... ---o keep back a laugh at the way he'd given himself away. But the next moment mo-ment I realized that the fellow could have no possible connection with monsieur. It came over me with a rush that this was a plot against Claire herself 1 Was it to kidnap her and hold her for ransom? Her California grandfather, grand-father, now dying, was reputed many times the millionaire. Or was this the counterplot of some other nation against Germany for the possession of Mexico? an effort to strike at De Ravenol, the emperor's messenger, through his daughter and put a spoke in the treaty? I .experienced a positive shock as this situation burst on me. I must get rid of this detective immediately, yet not let him guess what I was now fairly certain of, so I told him with affected cordiality, "I see just how It is and that you wish to keep this secret se-cret as long as possible. I'm sorry but it isn't convenient for me to receive re-ceive you at this moment." v "Can you make it this afternoon?" he asked. "Not very well unless you wish to meet a reporter from one of the big dailies." I gave him a look that said, "That's what I'm trying to avoid for you." He started slightly and hastily begged me, "Do not let the press get hold of this! I have spoken to you in confidence I felt I might trust you." "Certainly. Tomorrow at nine will be safe I think. Shall I expect you?" I saw he was about to demur at this, but the rumbling of the elevator, coming com-ing nearer and nearer, had attracted his attention. The top of the car showed up at our door. "Nine," he whispered, giving me a signal to be silent; and with that he slipped noiselessly to the stairs the way he had come up and disappeared. disap-peared. The -car door opened and Billy jumped out. I hastily undid the chain-bolt chain-bolt and he bounded in with a "What do you think?" and dragged me along the hall, out of earshot of the door, and then cried in an excited whisper, "Your 'niossoo' has flew the coop !" Billy flung his hat on the table and repeated his words "Your 'mossoo' has flew the coop do you hear?" for I had been too astonished to say anything any-thing when I heard them the first time. "Gone bag and baggage! Evaporated Evapo-rated ! Took a carriage and told the driver the Waldorf." "Then he's not gone very far," I remarked, re-marked, without thinking, only to have Billy ask scornfully: "Do you suppose I haven't 'en there already? I tell you he's lh out for parts unknown that's the size of it, and I want to know what for ! He left the hotel at seven in the morn ing seven, mind you, before anybody was out of bed. He hadn't registered at the Waldorf by eleven and he hasn't registered at any of the other big hotels. I got a hunch he's got some new scheme on and there's no use looking for him in New York. Do you imagine he would go to Washington Washing-ton on his own hook with his daughter daugh-ter and all and lay the case before the president? I mean to lay a case before the president trust little old 'mossoo' to tell only what he wants known !" "Suppose he has!" I cried, and then I added, "That would be almost too good to be true." yes 1 feel that way I kind-a don't seem to feel that he did my huDCh doesn't say he did. But say I've been figuring it out coming up on the sub your 'mossoo' is laying a new trap for you and Mrs. Delario. II;- 'nows one of you two women has got the diamonds he knows it in his boots, no matter what you say and anyway you have. He knows you've got 'em that you're bound to keep 'cm nnd wouldn't dare sell or tell. See? That's where he's got you; ant! be knows you're both of you shaking in your boots." "I'm shaking, all right I've had my fill of diamonds!" I admitted bitterly. bit-terly. "And that's how he argues, no's oniy got to give you a new scare of some sort and wait. And I bet ycu. too, you get your scare Inside an i hour !" "Perhaps I've had it already!" I cried, suddenly recollecting my mysterious mys-terious detective, whom I bad forgotten forgot-ten in this new development of af fairs, and I told Billy the story. But when I came to my suspicions that it was Claire the man was after Billy flopped down all in a heap on the divan. "Good Lord !" he gasped. "It might be!" and for some minutes he sat there, squeezing his hands and glaring glar-ing at the floor. Suddenly Mrs. Thing-down-stairs began rendering her Mendelssohn's Men-delssohn's "Spring Song" of a pig on ice, and Billy jumped up in irritation and paced the floor. I was glad of her performance it was a gratuitous contribution to the safety of conversation conversa-tion in my own flat. "Tell me again everything your detective de-tective man said," commanded Billy. "And vnn're sure hp's n tec?" "I'm not sure of anything," I returned. re-turned. "I had nothing to go on but what he said and what I guessed. He may have been a fancy burglar a literary lit-erary burglar, after my last novel ; such things have happened." I saw Billy's lip curl at this frivolous suggestion, sug-gestion, but I ran on. "He may be a gentleman crook someone on the steamer whom I didn't know but who noticed 1 had an interest in the girl and is using it now to get in here and map the grounds so he can come back and rob and murder me." "Oh, don't joke," he begged dlscon-1 solately. "This Is awfully serious. Why couldn't this man you say you A "Your 'Mossoo' Has Flew the Coop." think he's a foreigner why couldn't be be the emperor's follow-up? Now why?" "He could." "Say that's what he is ! And 'mossoo' 'mos-soo' got wind of him last night and scooted for the tall timbers ! The emperor em-peror wouldn't iust hand 'mossoo' a box of diamonds like that and tell him just to take 'em and present 'em with his compliments they don't do things that way over here. He'd send a second man to see that the first man did his job according to contract. And why isn't this the man?" It did look possible though I couldn't still see why he had begun his acquaintance with me telling me a lie about Claire. While I was wondering over it, Billy remarked, "Poor De Ravenol has got his troubles all right. He knows the old man's after him and he's lost the goods. Say, you can af- tora to pity mm now. A wave of utter despair swept over me. I know of nothing more unhinging unhing-ing than the facetious nonchalance of the young male in face of a serious situation. sit-uation. I was ready to weep. I was saved from it by the ringing of the front bell. I put up the chain-bolt before I opened it I had sense enough for that and then I cried: "You!" and received re-ceived a sharp, "Ssh ! Let me in, quick." It was Mrs. Delario. When I saw her, you could have knocked me down with a feather. I let her in and whisked her into my bedroorii and shut the door on us. My first thought was Billy he had naturally looked down the hall when I went to the door and I knew he'd guess immediately who it was; but though I had told her the part he had already played in our adventure she hadn't met him and I had the presence of mind not to spring him on her till I'd found out what she came for. She had caught sight of him and now spoke in a whisper. "You can't guess what's happened !" "What next!" I gasped, almost in a whisper. "Monsieur has simply dumped Claire bark on my hands and decamped without a word of real explanation!" "Oh, never!" "It's what he's done! And I'm in the worst pirkle! What docs it all mean? lie came last evening and told me he'd just seen you and you told him I had the diamonds " "What a lie!" I burst out involuntarily. involun-tarily. "And then this morning before I'm even out of bed this comes by a mts- 1 senger." She had drawn out a letter from her bag; she took it out of the envelope and handed it to me, remarking remark-ing at the same time, "There was fifty dollars in it." The letter read : 1 "Dear Madame Delario: "I was unable to return according to promise because of telegraphic communication com-munication notifying me that my w-ife Claire's mother is probably ill with a fatal illness and I am leaving for California immediately. My child knows nothing of her mother's illness and the reason of my so sudden departure. depar-ture. I am concealing it from her by saying that it is diplomatic business which calls me away. It would be cruelty to subject her so sensitive nature na-ture to anxiety and shock of long journey jour-ney when she could not hope to see her mother alive. "I implore you in human kindness take pity on her once more and shelter shel-ter her for a few days, keeping from her the knowledge of this calamity that threatens her. I shall communicate communi-cate with you in a few days. My gratitude," etc. "And Claire followed it in an hour I" Mrs. Delario whispered. "Did he bring her?" "No he sent her in a carriage. Of course he didn't bring her! He didn't take any chances of my refusing to keep her for him." "Poor child!" I exclaimed. "She was devoted to her mother it will be a terrible blow to her." Mrs. Delario sniffed at me taking the letter from my hand and glancing at it before she answered : "You don't think for a minute there's anything the matter with Claire's mother, do you?" "There isn't?" "Why, of course not! . . . Oh, I know," she answered the question she must have read in my face. "I psychometrized psycho-metrized this note as soon as I got it. That man can't deceive me I feel 'scheme' and 'plot' all over it," She held it a moment in a testing sort of way, running her fingers back and forth over it, then placed it in my hand, asking: "Can't you feel the occult oc-cult influences?" and looked as if she expected me to reply that I could feel the occult influences, plain as anything. any-thing. Which I couldn't. She seemed disappointed and put the letter into its envelope and that into her handbag, hand-bag, remarking: "It's parj of a scheme he's working. I haven't made out the rest of it I'm not clear on it yet, though I know it's something tricky." "And you think he didn't go to California?" Cali-fornia?" "I'm sure he didn't I can't see a journey for him I mean an immediate journey. There are journeys all around him he travels a great deal but 1 don't see anything for today for tomorrow to-morrow ; there's nothing like that near. But I do get the word elairaudient- ly 'Hiding.' That doesn't help tnmgs very much for us, if he is !" "Or for Claire !" "No. But please don't think I'm not willing to do all I can for the child for her own sake. But having her thrust on me In this mysterious way " She broke off and looked at me helplessly help-lessly and I finished for her: "Has upset up-set you." "Terribly! I'm nearly distracted! And that isn't all I mean Claire's being be-ing thrust on me; there's a new man come on the scene I'm more troubled about him than almost anything else." "A new man? When did he appear?" ap-pear?" "Last night just after I got back from here and was waiting for monsieur; mon-sieur; so I let him in " and she described de-scribed the very man who had just been to see me, and who was either a thief or Baron von Follow-up for the Emperor William, as Billy had called him. He had reached Mrs. Delario as he had me, through Claire, saying she had disappeared. "And what's your impression of this new man?" I asked. I wns beginning to take some little stock in her impressions, impres-sions, partly because they coincided with my own; partly because I was clutching at anything that might help. "Trouble trouble for monsieur. I get the word clairaudiently. You see, I'm so upset why, my dear, it Isn't any more possible for me to do my work get my readings right in an atmosphere at-mosphere of confusion and fear and anxiety than it is for you to do your work write, nnd compose beautiful things. You couldn't, could you? You couldn't write, if you were all upset?" I admitted I shouldn't expect to produce pro-duce much of my own line of goods under like circumstances; and having won this from me, she laid her hand on my arm in an appealing way and said : "It's why I came to you I didn't know what else to do or where to turn for advice. What am I to do about Claire?" I was sure I didn't know, but I asked some trite question about bow she seemed to be taking it. "The poor child went into hysterics the minute she got in the bouse! I had to put her to bed. I'm afraid she's in for a sickness a nervous breakdown." break-down." (TO BE CONTINUED.) |