Detective Fiction Weekly. Vol. 36, No. 4, October 20, 1928

Gangdom’s guns spit death when Tug Norton undertakes to guard Flash Santelle, the million dollar crook.

Chapter I In Search of a Nephew

The freckled youth who may be found on duty in the reception room of the Kaw Valley offices, when not more agreeably engaged, ambled into my private room one morning and dropped a card on my desk.

“Old gent,” he remarked. “White hair; blue eyes. Looks like a million smackers. Better see him, boss. He’s meat-on-the-table.”

I glanced at the card:

Memory clicked to the surname, Santelle, but Cato didn’t register. The Santelle whom every cop in the town was worrying over, regulars and privates, bore the given name of Cletus. Of course there might easily be other Santelles around, though the name was not by any means a common one.

“Dish the meat up, Spec,” I ordered. “And don’t spill the gravy.”

Spec gave me a wise look, and vanished. A moment later Mr. Cato Santelle came in. Amplifying Spec’s description, I’ll say that he was a benevolent looking old gentleman who bore many marks of prosperity prominently exposed, among them being a diamond stud of three-carat proportions, a platinum watch chain, and a gold-headed stick.

His clothing was above reproach, and his demeanor was pleasing. At my invitation he sat down.

“How can I serve you, Mr. Santelle?” I inquired.

“I want to find my nephew,” the old gentleman stated. “I have reason to believe that he is at present in Kansas City, but have no idea where.”

“And your nephew’s name?”

He gave me a steady look — a sort of challenging look, I would call it — when he answered:

“His name is Cletus Santelle.”

“That name is rather well known here and elsewhere, Mr. Santelle,” I commented, concealing my surprise. “Am I to understand that it is the nationally known Cletus, or Flash, whom you seek?”

The old man bowed. “It is,” he said, a note of sorrow in his voice. “Cletus Santelle, my dead brother’s only child, is a victim of untoward circumstances. He is no more a criminal than I am — and my life has always been free from guilty conduct of any sort.”

“He has, I’ll say, made something of a name for himself, whether he’s enjoyed the game or not,” was my comment. “Just what is your reason for seeking him now? Have you tried to locate him before?”

“I have,” was the reply. “I came from my home in Australia, two years ago, and for the purpose of finding my brother, Cletus, or his heirs if he had died since emigrating here. Imagine my surprise and horror when I learned that the only representative of the Santelle family in America was my nephew, an infamous lawbreaker!

“That was a cruel blow, Mr. Norton. In fact, I couldn’t believe that Cletus, my dead brother’s son, could have fallen so low as the New York authorities pictured him. It could not be the same Cletus.

“Yet I had finally to admit that it could be no other. His pictures are simply replicas of what his father appeared when at his age, and his accounts of his parentage, given to the police of New York, identified him beyond doubt.

“I began searching for him, and under a tremendous handicap. I dared not advertise, since I knew it to be likely that my movements would be watched by the police, and that advertising might lead to unfortunate results.

“From time to time I heard of him in certain places, and I always hastened to whatever city it was at the moment, and endeavored to get track of him by employing the services of private detectives. A week ago, while in Birmingham, I heard that he was in this city, and I hastened here. That is my story, Mr. Norton.”

“And when you locate him, if you do — what?” I asked.

“I am wealthy,” Mr. Santelle replied, “and I shall provide him with everything his heart desires — make up to him in good deeds the fearful tricks Fate seems to have played him. Cletus Santelle,” he said impressively, “is my only living relative, and heir to my fortune, which is in excess of two million dollars. That is why I wish to find him.”

I gasped mentally, but only mentally. The prospect might dazzle even Flash Santelle, and cause him thenceforward to tread the straight and narrow — fairly straight and fairly narrow, I mean.

“What makes you believe him innocent of all the charges against him?” I asked.

“If guilty, why have the officers not succeeded in convicting him? Even one conviction would be convincing. But they have never done so. Is it reasonable to think that a man could be guilty of so many crimes, in so many different places, and never leave positive proof behind him?

“Stuff and nonsense! My nephew has been terribly mistreated! I know it! I want to find him and give him a chance to look the world in the face and say in its teeth: ‘I am a Santelle. No better blood flows in the veins of kings. I am an honest, upright man, and you are liars — all liars!’ That, Mr. Norton, is the one wish of my life!”

“And it does you great credit, Mr. Santelle,” I applauded warmly. “But whether or not Flash will click to it—”

“Sir!”

I checked myself and offered, apologetically:

“Sorry. But I’m not his uncle, mind you, and can’t quite get the slant you have. I’m hoping you’re right, and that is the best I can say. As for finding your nephew, that should be easy. As a matter of fact, he has been found by, and closely watched by, practically the entire police force already.

“I should say that he is to-day the most ‘found ’ man within the city limits. It would be a shame to take money for finding him for you, since he is already so well—”

“Mr. Norton!” the old gentleman exclaimed, leaning forward, tears flushing his eyes. “If you will bring about a meeting, in private, between me and that poor, abused boy, I will hand you a fee of one thousand dollars — and with it the blessing of an old man whose happiness will be almost too great for words!”

And that from the man whom the godless Spec had referred to as meat-on-the-table!

Chapter II Flash Santelle

Flash Santelle began his criminal career in New York City, so far as the records go. He was, according to the police, an adaptable crook, trying his hand at everything, getting away with everything he tried. But no act of his ever landed him in jail in New York for long at a time, because the police were never able to prove anything on him. Therefore the cops, tiring of him, made it so hot for him he had to depart and remain departed. They couldn’t jug him, so they, in effect, banished him.

Every large city in the country knew him later, and in some of them the police nearly pinned him to the pasteboard. But nearly is as far as they got. So far as is known, Santelle did time in none of them.

Finally he chose Kansas City. The cops knew about his arrival, for Kansas City’s sunken garden has its stool pigeons, just like other cities. But what could they do about it? There was absolutely nothing against him — and, so long as he wasn’t caught at something crooked, he was as free to come and go as any other citizen.

The cops couldn’t do anything. Santelle knew it. The cops knew it. They located him at a luxurious but shady hotel on East Twelfth Street, a place favored by high class crooks, and watched him with an ardor that would have shamed that celebrated cat at the rathole. But nothing came of it.

Santelle, a medium-sized, dark-skinned, gray-eyed man of about thirty-five years, was, in so far as his conduct showed, a man of leisure who chose to while away the time by reading, visiting theaters, dining well, and occasionally conversing with persons who happened to arouse his interest. Not at all different from many other wealthy loafers in the city.

Now it appeared that he was to be taken out of danger’s way by a fond old fool of a relative, and I was to be an instrument promoting his salvation. That one-thousand-dollar fee looked good to me, and I took the commission.

The clerk at the Hotel Croydon, on East Twelfth, was an old friend of mine, regardless of the fact that I had been instrumental in obtaining for him a two-year vacation at Jeff City while I was on the force. Abe Hopkins was not one to bear malice.

He greeted me affably when I approached the desk on the afternoon of Cato Santelle’s visit to my office.

“Hello, Tug Norton,” Abe welcomed. “How’s tricks? The old Kaw Valley still flourishing?”

“Like the green bay tree, Abe,” I assured him. “But I’m not here on business, exactly. Not looking for anybody to pinch, I mean. Is Flash Santelle still honoring you with his patronage?”

“Absolutely,” Abe returned. “Mr. Santelle is one of our most esteemed guests. He’s in his apartment right now. Want to see him?”

“Yeah. Got nothing on him, Abe, understand. A business matter that he may or may not click to, but I want to have a chance to put it up to him, anyhow. Fix it.”

Five minutes later I was ushered into Flash Santelle’s sitting room, and Santelle was extending a strong, white hand. I shook, and sat down.

“You’re Norton, of the Kaw Valley Detective Bureau,” he remarked casually, also sitting. “Heard of you, of course, but hope that our little chat is to be a pleasant one. Hopkins said you had a business proposition to make me. I’m ready to hear it, Mr. Norton.”

A pleasant spoken chap, and rather pleasing in appearance. A swell dresser, too, without being in the least loud and flashy. Looked like he might be a professional man of some kind — a lawyer, say, and prosperous. None of the earmarks commonly present in a hardened crook. I was impressed.

“I can put the proposition up to you in a few words, Santelle,” I told him. “It isn’t mine, but I’m acting as agent in the matter. Did you ever hear anything about having an uncle in Australia?”

He raised his brows slightly in surprise, stared at me for a moment, then said:

“My father used to mention a brother who lived in Australia somewhere,” he replied. “Why do you ask?”

“He’s here, and looking for you,” I stated bluntly. “Rich as goose-gravy, convinced that you’re on the square and always have been, wants to weed you a big bunch of honest kale and stand by while you convince the world, and the police departments in it, that you are just a nice little woolly lamb upon whose snowy fleece some cruel persons have thrown a pot of crude oil. Fine old gentleman, is Uncle Cato, I’m thinking. Innocent as lemon pop, and effervescing with good intentions.

“Now, here’s the frame-up: Uncle Cato commissioned me to arrange a meeting in private between you and him. He’s genuine, and I’m genuine — in this matter at least. He produced documentary evidence enough to convince me. Do I return to Uncle Cato with glad tidings — and collect a fee? Or do I dash his hopes, and charge the work I’ve done so far in the matter to sweet charity?”

Santelle smiled, showing perfect teeth. His eyes twinkled, then his face crinkled, and he burst into beany laughter.

“You’re good, Norton!” he exclaimed, after the paroxysm was over, “Good — but not quite good enough. I’ve got an uncle in Australia, if he hasn’t passed on to his reward, and his name is Cato. But that old bird wouldn’t remain five minutes in the same town with me if he knew I was there. Why, man, he’s so Godly — if my old man told it right when he used to yarn about Cato — that he wouldn’t hesitate a minute to execute his own son, if he had one, if the said son went crooked. Give me money, and stand by me! Hell! That’s good!”

“Try something more plausible, Norton, old fellow,” he said good-humoredly, glancing significantly toward the door. “Glad to see you again some time — if you’ve got a real laugh for me, like the one you slipped me this time. I enjoy laughing, and there is seldom anything really amusing happening nowadays. You’ll excuse me?”

I didn’t argue with him. Just took myself off, but stopped and dropped a few words into the ear of Abe.

“Tell that fresh crook, Santelle,” I requested, “that I’m on the level, Abe. That when I put up a proposition to a man I mean it. Tell him I’ll be back to-morrow morning — with maybe another laugh for him. Will you get that to him?”

“Sure, Tug,” Abe agreed. “Anything you say.”

To make it short, it took me four days to earn that thousand dollar fee, and I earned it, too. Santelle was as shy as a quail in nesting time. He just naturally couldn’t bring himself to believe that I wasn’t spreading an elaborate snare for him, and it required the combined influence of Abe Hopkins and half a dozen others among my crook friends to finally convince him that I could be trusted.

I banked that thousand on the morning of my fifth day’s labor.

Chapter III Cletus Settles Down

They met in the privacy of Uncle Cato’s apartment at Kansas City’s classiest hotel. I don’t know what was said and done during that first contact, because I left them standing and staring at each other, after I had inducted Flash.

The following day the papers had something to tell the public. They did the telling in big head lines. Why not? Anything authentic concerning Flash Santelle was news in big, black letters. Also, Mr. Cato Santelle was undoubtedly a big card for the news-hounds. He furnished the human interest stuff in great gobs. His long hunt for his nephew, and his childlike faith in that nephew’s innocence — all that was played up with billowing frills. Also, it may be added, Uncle Cato’s reputed millions didn’t detract any from his news value.

On the whole, it was a pretty and romantic story. It had the ring of truth in it. Certainly Uncle Cato was a God-fearing, earnest and indefatigable champion of his young nephew, be that nephew sinner or sinned against. Cato made a distinct hit, as was quite natural.

As for Flash, many people believed that he had been a much abused person. Why shouldn’t they? Had the police ever convicted him of anything? Certainly not! And is there not a great and undying truth to the effect that murder will out? Nothing ever had “outed” on poor young Cletus Santelle, so far as the police records of the country could show. Cletus Santelle’s stock skyrocketed with some folks, believe me!

Uncle Cato’s joy knew no bounds. He could hardly bear Flash out of his sight. That made it necessary for him to remove from the classy hotel referred to, of course. No first-class hostelry could take a chance on harboring Flash Santelle. Uncle Cato was all right, but some other hotel could have the honor of entertaining Flash — and welcome.

But Uncle Cato and Flash didn’t have to seek quarters at the Croydon, or any other place where the young man would be thrown again into the evil atmosphere from which he had so recently been rescued. There was, in Kansas City, one man at least with a heart in him. That man came forward.

The following day the papers announced that Mr. Cato Santelle and nephew, Cletus Santelle, were house guests of Mr. Anderson Bailey, president and general manager of the Bailey Importing Company, at his home in the Country Club section of the city.

Mr. Anderson Bailey was an important person in Kansas City. He was known to possess a million dollars for each letter in his name, including the Mr. He opened his huge mausoleum to the Santelles and furnished them with an asylum.

It is a mere waste of words to tell you that the women of the town, young, not so young, middle-aged, and plain old, fell for Flash. I’ll dismiss the subject by saying that they toppled over like so man dominoes in a row. No blame to them. These birds with a past are certainly the honey-coated flypaper.

Then, a week later, came the announcement that Uncle Cato had purchased a residence in the vicinity — and it was none other than the Willow Bend property up on the Kaw. To call it a residence certainly betokened modesty on the part of somebody. Willow Bend was not a residence at all. It was an estate.

“I have decided that it is best for the present that my nephew shall live in something approaching complete retirement. Deep wounds require time for healing — if they ever are healed. Fortunately, it is not necessary for Cletus to exercise the fine talents he unquestionably possesses in a business way. I have settled an adequate income upon him, and Willow Bend will shortly become his property. In the meantime, we shall go into seclusion.” That was the way Cato put it.

“Yeah,” Chief Enger, of the local police, commented bitingly when he scanned that statement. “Yeah, and Uncle Cato will be damned lucky if this seclusion stuff doesn’t turn out to be oblivion for him. Financial oblivion, at least. Why, confound it all, he’ll be lucky if within the next six months he ain’t drawing on charity for the necessary coffee — and!”

I had my own opinion, of course, but didn’t express it. Whichever way the cat jumped, Tug Norton was in the money.

I dismissed Cletus Santelle from my mind, having other things to think about. But the police didn’t dismiss him — not at all!

Queer, isn’t it, how obstinately skeptical the police are about a crook reforming?

Chapter IV Dog Eat Dog

Affairs at Willow Bend seemed to go forward nicely indeed. Cletus was seldom visible off the grounds, but Cato proved to be a good mixer. One had only to look once at his smiling, happy countenance to know that everything was lovely with him. The inference was that everything was also lovely with Flash, too, because Flash was the biggest interest Cato had in life. People came, in time, to take the Santelles as a matter of course, which was to be expected.

Cops from all directions slipped in and out of Kansas City, each and every one of them having a pronounced interest in Flash Santelle. But, since not one of them had anything on him that they could make stick, the Santelles were undisturbed.

Then came a day, about three months after I’d forgotten about the Santelles, when I happened to be alone.

Cletus Santelle lapped on my door — tapped, and entered directly afterward.

“Pardon me,” he apologized smilingly, “but there was no one to announce me, so I took a chance and came right in. Is it all right? Can you spare me a few minutes?”

“Take a chair, park your hat and stick,” I invited.

“I’m aware, Norton,” he began, “that you’re not buying any Cletus Santelle stock, looking for a rising market, but I take it that you are too fair-minded to let personal prejudices interfere with business. Am I right?”

I nodded. “Got a job for me?”

“Yes.”

“So long as your proposition is on the square, Santelle, I’ll take your money. Unbosom yourself,” I invited.

“I’m being blackmailed,” he said, after a bit, looking at me with a seriocomic expression in his keen eyes. “Funny, isn’t it? But it is a fact. Before my uncle and I were brought together through your kind offices, I lived rather a haphazard sort of life. Perhaps you’ve heard rumors, now and then, about the sort of existence I mean?”

“Yes,” I said gravely.

“Well, as you must know, a chap meets a lot of queer customers, first and last, when dwelling in that vast estate commonly termed the underworld,” he continued. “One is forced at times to become very familiar with persons one would shun most willfully if it were a matter of choice.

“Naturally, I made acquaintances. Then came my uncle; good fortune, so long a stranger, tapped me familiarly on the shoulder — and I promptly became a shining mark for blackmailers.”

He ceased there, and his handsome features hardened. Then he was all smiles again.

“Yes,” he resumed, “the blackmailers scented me. Plenty of chance, too, you’ll allow, seeing how much advertising I got through the papers here and elsewhere. I have been, in the past, something of a public character, Norton, as you may have heard. Letters came to me from parties who hungered to have a share of my presumed wealth, and not one of the writers seemed to care anything about the ethics of the thing.

“Naturally, being something of a student of the processes of the criminal mind myself, as you may have heard, I destroyed these letters in the order of their arrival. They weren’t worth bothering about.

“But one came to me last week, mailed at St. Louis, which differs somewhat from the others. This fellow means business. You see, Norton, I happen to know him. One of the undesirable acquaintances, you understand.

“Of course his signature isn’t affixed, but there is sketched upon the page at the bottom a sort of design that is enlightening. This chap is shy a thumb and a little finger, both off the left hand. A neat sketch of a man’s hand, so mutilated, identifies the letter with the man. Do you follow me?”

A case of dog eating dog, eh? For the life of me, I couldn’t help feeling a sneaking liking for the polished, friendly chap, even though I knew that his pretense of honest respectability — thinly laid on before me, by the way — was a pretense only. What the devil was he up to?

I merely nodded, my face giving no hint of my thoughts.

“Glad you do,” he commented. “Well, Norton, this chap demands a cool fifty thousand dollars, else he will carry out certain designs upon my person which will result in totally unfitting me for further activities in this life. That is the gist of the letter.

“Understand me, Norton,” he went on, his face serious, “I am not one to tremble at shadows — nor at anything else, for that matter. The truth is, I need help only because during the coming week I shall be pretty well occupied with other things than watching for the three-fingered assassin to try his stuff. Otherwise, I assure you, I’d give him plenty of rope — and then jerk the rope at the proper moment. Unfortunately I must forego the pleasure I’d get out of playing a hand against him, and for that reason I’m asking you to sit in the game.”

That surely gave me a laugh — a quiet laugh, ’way down deep!

Chapter V A Pair of Forty-Fives

Flash Santelle grinned broadly. The thing was serious, of course, but there was a certain humor in it that could not fail to appeal to him.

“The situation, as you outline it, seems to offer possibilities for excitement, as well as amusement,” I commented. “Suppose you spill it all, explaining just how the Kaw Valley can aid you in the emergency.”

“I want you to assign two thoroughly reliable, intelligent men to the case,” he replied promptly. “They are to be near me night and day. Put me to bed at night, as it were, and take me up in the morning. The day man must be one who can mingle with my guests as one of them, of course.”

“There is to be guests, then?” I commented. “How many?”

“About a dozen. Anderson Bailey and daughter, Marthe, Roscoe Patterson, wife, son, and daughter, and several out-of-town friends of both families, to mention a few. It is to be a house party extending over a week. Judge, then, how necessary it is to guard closely against anything unfortunate, such as my three-fingered correspondent threatens, happening during the week. Can you supply such men as I need?”

“Sure,” I replied. “I’ve got a fine assortment, Santelle. One in particular, a near-graduate of a correspondence school of prominence, the name of which slips me just now, who could loaf all evening in the lobby of the Ritz and never attract attention. His middle name is Etiquette.

“He’ll do you proud in the role of mingler, and Jim Steel, my right-hand man, will absolutely guarantee to take care of any one attempting to violate the privacy of your bedchamber, and do it without even disturbing your slumber. When do they report?”

“You’re not spoofing me?” Flash queried, evidently shying off on account of my clumsy attempt at light comedy. “This thing is serious, old chap.”

“Flash,” I said soberly, and in absolute sincerity, “you are about the last man on earth I’d undertake to kid. My manner of speech does not always indicate my real sentiments. If I take your money I’ll earn it in a manner absolutely satisfactory to you, or I’ll give it back.”

His face cleared immediately, and he laughed. “It seems like old times, that ‘Flash,’ ” he was good enough to say. “All that is behind me, though thanks to the kindness of Uncle Cato.”

“And we report when?” I repeated the question.

“Monday morning. The guests will begin arriving in the afternoon. You will want your men to have a chance to look over the ground, of course. Send them along as early as you can. Now, as to the fee?”

I named it, and he paid it. That was satisfactory. Jim Steel and Art Garrett would deliver what had been bought, and no mistake about it. Reliable, efficient, I could always trust that pair.

“By the way,” I was reminded as Flash arose to depart, “the letter from your old acquaintance, the three-fingered party — got it with you?”

“Yes,” he answered, taking out a note-case. “Clear forgot to submit it. A sort of exhibit to prove my case eh?” he finished good-naturedly.

“Do you blame me?” I came back.

“Not in the least. You will discover, let me earnestly assure you, that I’m genuine in the matter. There is no hug under a chip, and so far as I’m informed, nothing dead and unburied in Denmark. I’m on the level when I tell you I need help.”

The letter bore him out. It exhibited a St. Louis postmark, had been laboriously picked out on a typewriter, and its contents jibed with what Flash had told me, even to the sketch at the bottom of the page.

“I’ll have my men on the job early Monday morning. Anything else?” I queried, returning the letter.

“That about covers everything,” he replied. “Thank you. Glad to be able to do business with you, I’m sure.”

I didn’t miss the emphasis he put on the “with,” and the grin he gave me at departing left me chuckling in real enjoyment. Whatever else Flash might be, he certainly was a pleasant, understanding chap.

I often wonder, as I review the case of Flash Santelle, what the outcome of the next week would have been had my plans gone according to schedule. They did not, however. Art Garrett, cast for the role of mixer, got into an unfortunate argument, in the course of duty, with a proprietor of a night club — and the proprietor beaned him with it. That put Art in a hospital, and me in a hole. But not in the hole for long.

There simply had to be a mingler present at Willow Bend, in order to carry out my contract, so, lacking a better one, I attired myself in a dress suit and a pair of forty-five’s, and decided to mingle.

Chapter VI The Cast Assembles

Jim Steel indulged a hot line of entertaining comment while I arrayed myself that Monday night at Willow Bend — entertaining to him, I mean. I could have managed without it.

What Jim didn’t know was that I’d had a fling at a manner of living outside his ken, long before I ever saw him, and the claw-hammer duds were not exactly being introduced into my career for the first time that night. I’d performed in ’em before, and nobody had ever called for the hook. Nobody would have occasion to on this appearance, either. But Jim didn’t know that.

“Talk about things you know something about,” I told him, beginning the process of spoiling my fourth tie. “For; instance, what did you learn while strolling over the fields, among the daisies and the daffodils, to-day?”

Jim had reached Willow Bend early that morning, I joining him in the afternoon. It had been up to him to get the lie of the land and then report to me.

“For one thing,” he began, “this is about the loneliest location I ever happened on. A mile from the highway, and in the middle of about six hundred and forty acres of land. Not a neighboring chalet to be seen. River makes a bend and skirts the north side of the tract, but where the willows are I haven’t been able to determine.

“Back of the house, clear to the western limits, lies a good deal of cultivable land. All the rest — about one-fourth of the whole — is trees, hills and hollows.

“A path, pretty well grown up in weeds after it leaves the lawn, leads from the front door down through the hollows to the boathouse. Lot of boats there, including a couple of high-powered launches. So much for the topographical survey.

“We now pass to the domestic observations. Uncle Cato’s butler is a reformer crook — and, if I’m any judge of such matters, he was badly in need of reformation when he took down with it. Hard-looking customer, but appears to know bulling clear down to the grass roots.

“There are two chauffeurs, a boatman, two gardeners, a footman, two maids, a cook, and a party that calls himself a farmer. He looks the part. That is about all I have learned, and observed, up to date.

“But that ain’t saying I haven’t got a few ideas about this business that can stand airing,” he went on. “Take it from me, this Flash is framing something. He’s a crook, from the cradle to the grave. Smooth, I’ll admit, but that’s what has kept him alive and out of jail — smoothness.

“I saw him perform when the Baileys arrived — and on the path to the boathouse afterward, when there was only one of the Baileys visible. I mean the daughter and sole heir. It’s been a long time since I made any love to anybody, but I’m still able to recognize signs when I see ’em.

“Not saying, mind you, that this Flash is in love with the girl — not a bit of it. But she’s all mired down in it herself. Had hold of one of his arms with both of her hands, and clinging like the well-known wistaria. Eyes all shiny, face flushed, drinking in his line of bull with eyes, ears, and all the rest of her senses — except maybe that sixth one we hear so much about. Trouble there, Tug — for the girl and old man Bailey. Maybe for Flash. Watch ’em.”

“Anything else?” I grunted, besting the tie at last.

“Ain’t that enough?” Jim demanded truculently. “Remember, I ain’t been here a week. Just part of one day.”

“That’s a fact, now you mention it, Jim,” I agreed. “Now, get this: Don’t do any night time snoozing while you’re guarding Flash. You can sleep all you want to in the daytime. I’d suggest that you provide yourself with a lot of light literature — Henty, Oliver Optic, and the like. Something that won’t tax you too much. Settle down in Flash’s sitting-room, which is admirably situated for the purpose of watching the only door leading onto the corridor. The bed room has no exit except through the sitting-room.

“Read, but don’t fall asleep while doing it. Tell Flash, if he gets inquisitive, that I’ve ordered you to watch over him carefully, and that you can’t carry out the order while doing a Morpheus.

“Get this, too: If Flash leaves that bedroom, after he has announced his intention of retiring, you go with him. My orders again, if he objects. Don’t let him out of your sight, except in the bedroom. I’m thinking he won’t try anything like that, but you never can tell.

“Frankly, I believe that he is on the level about this job he’s given us — but, again, you never can tell. Report to me, of course, every morning, when you come off watch.”

I buckled on my six-guns; then, as an afterthought, added a derringer to my equipment. It was hard indeed to associate the smiling, debonair, good-looking Flash Santelle with anything evil, but, as I had just said to Jim, you never can tell.

“How’s the scenery?” I asked, after. I was fully geared.

Jim surveyed me critically — pretty much as a trader does a horse which he is mighty suspicious of — and replied:

“O.K, except that you bulge a trifle over each hip. But that will be laid to avoirdupois, rather than hardware, I reckon. On the whole, and considering who they’re on, the glad rags do the tailor proud.

“Don’t forget and split the tails of the coat when you sit down. You might expose your rear attachments, and them cannons certainly ain’t good taste in polite society, and the other is that such ain’t being done. Sit right down on the tails, and let the presser take care of the wrinkles—”

“I merely asked for an opinion, Jim,” I interrupted, “and not a whole statute by the supreme court en banc. Time for dinner, I see, so you’ll have to say the rest of it to yourself. Remember me, old man, about an hour from now — when you’re scoffing with the rest of the servants.”

I made an exit on that, and strolled leisurely down the stairway and joined a group on the big veranda. I’d been introduced at tea time that afternoon and, so far as I knew, had stood the test. So I wasn’t worrying any to speak of.

Uncle Cato was relating something tunny, as I approached, and the group about him did him the honor to laugh appreciatively. They were a cultured and high-toned lot, those guests.

Old Anderson Bailey was paying a good deal in the way of lost social prestige by backing young Mr. Cletus Santelle to the extent of taking him and his uncle up, but he could afford to do as he darned well pleased — and did do just that, on all occasions. He was a bullheaded man, to put it mildly.

His laugh was loudest, and a hand rested friendly upon Uncle Cato’s off shoulder.

Besides his money, Anderson Bailey had something else to distinguish him. A daughter. The girl — about twenty years old — was a blonde, but not the type called dizzy. She was a little slip of a person, slender and graceful, with lots of honest yellow hair, and a pair of big, violet-colored eyes that seemed to be always laughing. If I’d been a trifle older, I’d have loved her like a father.

She had been christened Martha, but later on changed it to Marthe. She’d have changed the family name, too, the story goes, but came squarely up against the old man’s veto when she tried it. She desired it spelled Baillie. The old man wanted it to remain Bailey — and it remained. That episode surely ought to furnish a fair line-up on Marthe.

Roscoe Patterson, a cattle baron of a past era, then a retired magnate of some kind, had a good-looking wife, a fair-looking daughter — and a son who was the real article.

Tommy Patterson was a tall, athletic chap of twenty-five — and a he-man with it. Went through the business overseas. Started in a private, and came out a top-sergeant. Roscoe’s money and influence might have obtained for Tommy a grand stand seat, thereby making the war much quieter and a lot safer for him, but the young man wouldn’t have it that way. As a result he saw the ruckus with his naked eyes, instead of through binoculars. A likable youngster, from all accounts.

There were others of the cast present, of course, but I’m not going to dwell much on any except the principals. There were two more women and three more men in the minor roles, and that’s attention enough for them.

Dinner was announced directly after I appeared, and I had the pleasure of pairing off with an empty-headed lady who either had an impediment in her speech or hadn’t learned to talk, for she gave me little trouble in a conversational way, and that enabled me to listen in and do a lot of observing.

Say what you please, people give away a lot about themselves when they’re eating — and that applies to those for whom knives, forks and spoons have no mysteries, as well as to the hand-to-mouthers.

Chapter VII A Sealed Letter

I had an arrangement with Santelle whereby I was at liberty to run into the city after the evening frolic was over, returning along about noon the following day. Business in the office had to be looked after, making such a deal necessary. Had I known when Flash made his bid for my services, that my crack mingler would not be available, I would have turned the job down. I explained that to him, and he made no objection to my daily excursions into town.

I had no uneasiness about absenting myself from the place, because I was leaving a good man on the job. One I could trust as I would myself — and that’s saying a lot. Jim Steel would take care of the situation during my absence.

About one o’clock on the morning following my first evening as a mingler at Willow Bend, which proved to be rather entertaining but not at all exciting, I motored in with one of Flash’s launches. The Kaw had no mysteries for me, and I was as much at home in a motor boat as I was in a rocking-chair, so night running was a real pleasure.

At ten o’clock that morning, just as I was beginning to get ready to depart up river again, Spec brought word that a woman wished to consult with me, but refused to send in a card. I scented business at once.

The ones who come cardless, make you promise never to reveal their identities, usually turn out to be anything but triflers and time wasters. They can be counted on to produce liberally, I’ve learned. I had her in.

A tall, slender young woman in very neat and fashionable attire, she proved to be — and a beauty. Spanish was her type.

Just enough of the foreigner about her to make her attractive in a mysterious, romantic way. She wore jewels, too, but not too profusely: just enough for good taste.

“You wish to remain incognita?” I queried, after she had taken a seat. “If so, please give me an alias — any you choose will be all right with me. Something to call you by. If I do not take your case, you will remain unknown. If I accept it, I shall require your real name. Are you willing to proceed with that understanding?”

She gave me a steady look out of big, brown eyes, smiled a trifle wanly, and spoke:

“My business with you can hardly be regarded as a ‘case,’ ” she informed me. “But it may be one later. I have a sealed letter,” she went on, “which I wish to intrust to your care. I wish you to place it in your safe and leave it there until this hour to-morrow morning. If I have not called for it, or have not communicated with you by that time, you will open the letter immediately. You will then have a case, as you term it.

“Should I call for the letter, you will return it to me intact, and then forget about it. Is that agreeable? Will you accept?”

I nodded. She went on:

“You may put my name down as Ayra Banning,” she instructed. “It may or may not be an alias, which, I take it, is neither here nor there. What is your charge for the service?”

I named it, and she handed me a pad of bills and a letter. The letter, in a long envelope, was considerably thicker than the pad of bills. I’ll add. A moment later she was gone, leaving behind her a haunting sense of mystery, and the scent of lilac perfume.

I put the letter away; then, on thinking the matter over, decided to learn, if possible, how this mysterious, hypnotic beauty happened to pick on the Kaw Valley for her commission. With that end in view I called up Chief Eager. He was, and is, a bountiful source in the matter of clients.

“Did you send me a mysterious. Spanish-type beauty this morning, chief?” I queried.

“Show me a beauty, Spanish, Hungarian, Fijian or plain Siwash, Tug, that ain’t mysterious, and I’ll buy you a new lid!” Enger came back. “What’s the trouble? Somebody been leading you astray?”

“Not lately,” I replied. “Didn’t send me a client this morning, then, I take it?”

“No.”

“All right. Good-by!”

Funny, isn’t it, how meeting with obstacles makes a fellow all the more eager to climb? Makes me that way, anyhow. I wasn’t so very particular about that Spanish-looking woman until Enger told me he knew nothing of her. That served to sharpen my curiosity.

Then I reached a sort of solution. During the Santelle episode, newspapers all over the country had somewhat widely advertised Tug Norton and the Kaw Valley. We took a prominent part in the play, at the start, and figured in the accounts of the matter. ’Most anybody who had not already established relations with a sleuthing organization in Kansas City would Be inclined to consult with me, if needing a detective, thanks to that same advertising. That might account for the woman’s picking me.

“This woman,” I reflected, as I sped up the Kaw, “probably is staking her life on the outcome of a problem that will be answered before ten o’clock tomorrow morning. If she gets the wrong answer, then some hotel or boarding house will call up the police department and order an ambulance to remove a beautiful, Spanish-type woman who has bumped herself off. Then I’ll open the letter and know all about it.”

I’ve known it to happen that way before, and this case had all the earmarks of a to-be-opened-in-case-of-death affair.

I let it go at that.

“Everything serene,” Steel reported when I reached Willow Bend. “This promises to get monotonous, Tug, if you ask me. That Cletus bird is mighty congenial, and makes it mighty easy to keep watch on him — suspiciously easy — but I like a little action now and then.”

I didn’t reply to Jim right then. He had said something that gave me pause. So like what had touched a remote corner of my own reasoning machine. Suspiciously easy. That was the phrase.

Was Flash Santelle, for reasons best known to himself, deliberately establishing espionage upon himself? If so, what could be his reason?

Then the answer came to me in a flash.

“An alibi!” I ejaculated. “That’s it, Jim — an alibi!”

“What’s an alibi, and why?” Jim demanded, examining me critically.

“Never mind that just now,” I replied. “But bear down hard on this night-watch business,” I instructed with emphasis. “Watch not only Santelle, but each and every person with whom he comes in contact. If my alibi theory is correct — well, it ’ll be a good alibi, and no mistake!”

Chapter VIII A Young Man in Trouble

Jim, somewhat disgusted over my secretive tactics, departed for bed, and a moment later I was hailed by a tall young man on the lawn. It was Tommy Patterson.

“Norton,” he said quietly, a smile struggling with a somewhat serious expression on his face, “whom did you come out here to detect? Has my old man been hiring somebody to watch mother, or is it the other way about?”

That was my cue to cry “Discovered!” in a deep, chagrined voice — but I did nothing of the sort.

“If there is anybody in the Patterson family who needs watching, it’s you,” I told him, grinning. “From the looks of things, based on my observations last night, you’ll be ready to commit murder pretty soon. Why the devil don’t you either marry the girl or quit thinking about her in that way?”

The smile vanished from his lips, and his face was immediately shrouded in gloom. “That’s why I called to you,” he informed me seriously. “Wanted to talk with you, I mean, about what you refer to. Recognized you the minute you showed up yesterday, Mr. Norton,” he went on to explain, “but since your being here is none of my business, I have not mentioned it to anybody. Don’t intend to, if you request me to keep it quiet.”

“I’ll be glad to talk with you, and I do want you to keep your knowledge about me to yourself,” I told him. “What’s on your mind?”

He led the way to a bench which was out of view from the house, and we sat down.

“I don’t like this business about Santelle,” he informed me without apology or preamble. “No matter what his uncle may be, he himself was, and no long time back, one of the most notorious and elusive crooks in all crookdom. A man doesn’t reform so suddenly, if you ask me. He’s working some kind of a racket, I’ll bet. Not that I care about that. What I’m interested in is his butting in between me and my girl. That’s what’s getting me hot under the collar — and damned hot.”

“I figured that out,” I told him. “How long has it been going on?”

“It began when all that goo was being circulated about this poor, misunderstood crook of a Flash Santelle!” he replied hotly. “Aroused her interest — and then her old fool of a dad takes him right home and makes him one of the family! Can you beat that?”

“No,” I replied. “Can’t even equal it. But that shouldn’t worry you much, I’m thinking. Miss Bailey is just taken with a passing fancy—”

“Hell!” Patterson exploded. “I thought you were a man of good sense! You are talking just like dad — and as for him, well, it’s a good thing for sis and mother and me that he made his money in a day when it didn’t require much besides brawn and a little cow-sense to do it! A passing fancy, eh?” he mimicked. “Tell me this, how long does it take for these so-called fancies to pass? And what about the bird that is waiting for the passing? Flow about his feelings?”

“Go on,” I urged. “You interest me, Tommy. I’ll admit everything you say, and imply. Spill yourself.”

“I mean to,” he snapped, his face flushing. “I love Marthe. Mr. Norton — and I’m willing to tell the world I do! She seemed to care a lot about me, too, until here lately. Enough to wear my ring and set the date for next June. That much, anyhow. Now she has returned the ring, and the only especial interest I now have in the coming of June is the fun I may get out of watching the June bugs. So, you see, I happen to be the ‘passing’ fancy in the case. What do you say to that?”

“I say that you have some cause for complaint,” I acknowledged. “Still, it could be worse. The girl isn’t Mrs. Cletus Santelle yet — and not likely to be. Have you any reason to think that he has serious intentions in regard to her?”

“He’d better have!” Tommy blazed. “If he’s got any other kind of ideas, and I find it out, I’ll drill him with about a ton of hot lead! Taking my girl away from me and making her Mrs. Santelle would be bad enough, but the other—”

“You don’t get me,” I interrupted soothingly. “I mean do you not think it quite possible that Santelle is merely humoring the young lady’s infatuation, if it has gone that far, with no intention of using it in any way? Couldn’t that be possible? Must there be—”

“Have you ever spent a few minutes even in company with a girl like Marthe Bailey?” he demanded. “I guess not, or you wouldn’t make such damned fool cracks. She’s the kind men take to — young or old. And she’s wild about this redeemed crook. Talk sense!”

“Well,” I conceded, “we’ll grant that she is wild about him, and that he couldn’t resist her if he wanted to. What then? What can be done about it? Got anything to suggest?”

“That’s the undiluted hell of it!” he groaned. “I haven’t!”

I felt sorry for Tommy. At the age of twenty-five they take such things hard. I did, I distinctly remember. The perfume of June roses, mingled with the smell of raindrops in the dust of a country road—

I came back with a jerk, and considered Tommy. June roses and raindrops in the dust were playing hell with him just then, and he needed help.

“Look here, young fellow.” I told him, “I’m with you in this. Not just in the role of a sympathetic watcher, understand, but in that of a willing helper. I haven’t got much stomach for such as Santelle, crook or redeemed lamb, hooking up in any way with a nice girl like Marthe. What do you suggest?”

Tommy Patterson raised his face from his hands, and his fine eyes flashed. “Thank you, Mr. Norton,” He said gratefully. “I need help. As for a suggestion, what about this: Prove that Flash Santelle is still a crook, and that all this rubbish about reformation is part of a well laid scheme — and do it before the affair between him and Marthe results in something that can’t ever be remedied. That’s what I suggest.”

As a suggester, that boy was something of a whang! But I offered no change or amendment.

“That’s a large order, Tommy,” I said quietly. “But maybe it can be filled. Here comes Santelle and Miss Bailey now,” I broke off to inform him, as the pair came into view up the path leading from the house to our bench. “Talk about dogs, or horses, or something.”

I thought for a minute that I’d have to throw Tommy and hogtie him, but by the time the strolling pair were within hearing of us we were discussing the chances of the Blues for a pennant that season. They bowed to us and went on down the path.

“Now beat it,” I ordered the young man, “and we’ll talk again to-morrow. Don’t commit suicide, except as a last resort, and maybe you’ll be glad you didn’t. Give old man Norton a chance to straighten things out. That’s all he asks.”

Tommy, somewhat more cheerful, departed — and I sat down to do some sure enough thinking.

Chapter IX A Trifle Odd

A million dollars for each letter in his name — and “Anderson Bailey” employs quite a number of alphabetical characters, to say nothing of the Mr.

That was the thought about which my mental tendrils clung when I finally left the bench and set out for the house. But the idea that Flash Santelle had framed such a thing wouldn’t exactly wash. If he was in bad faith about this redemption business, then it was reasonable to think that he had designs on Uncle Cato’s millions, rather than the strong-box belonging to Bailey. As for being in love with the young woman — well, I couldn’t picture Flash in love with anybody to the extent of giving himself in marriage to her.

A smart crook doesn’t fall for any woman very hard. If a crook does fall, then he becomes just a crook and is no longer entitled to be called smart.

Flash Santelle bad proved himself one of the smartest crooks the sunken gardens had ever known. In no instance had the police ever been able to connect him with women. That is the reason he got by so long and so easily. No woman to betray him.

Now it stood to reason that Santelle, if still a crook, was not going to entangle himself with Marthe. Not a bit of it. Too smart for that. In which case Tommy Patterson need not worry about his love affair, in so far as Flash was concerned.

On the other hand, if Santelle had really decided to tread the straight and narrow, what would be more natural than that he should fall in love with a girl whose father had so many millions as had Bailey, and marry her?

And if he decided to marry Marthe, and Marthe seconded the motion, who could stop him? Anderson might try, of course, but he was the sort who backed a man without reservation or didn’t back him at all. He had come out strong for Flash, and doubtless would not kick very hard against a marriage between his daughter and him. Anderson Bailey was just that sort of man, and might even welcome the union in order to further prove to the world that he was a mighty fine judge of men.

So much for the tangle involving Marthe, Flash and Tommy.

As for the other phase of the Santelle case which I had expressed to Jim in the word alibi, I wasn’t any clearer. If Flash feared that something might be pulled in or around Kansas City, something crooked, and that he’d fall under suspicion — which would not be unlikely, considering who he was and that he was on the ground — having indisputable proof that he could not have had a hand in it would naturally be mighty helpful to him. I could see that.

But Flash couldn’t hire the Kaw Valley to keep watch on him forever, that was certain, even if he could stand such espionage himself. Therefore, if my alibi theory wasn’t just a dud, the danger that threatened Flash would not be a threat after the passing of the present week.

That conclusion would argue that he had private advices that something big would be pulled that week — which didn’t ring true with me.

So I had to come back to the situation as Flash had detailed it to me in my office. A certain three-fingered party was after his meat, and, being tied up with company at the time, he desired a little help in the matter of protection.

After all, couldn’t a reformed crook, or even one who had not resolved to do better, hire a detective for a legitimate job without laying himself open to suspicion on account of it? It stood to reason he could.

But there was a certain question in my mind, having lodged there the evening before, which gave me some heavy thinking. It was this:

Why had not Santelle, if in fear of trouble from a blackmailer, arranged for his servants to guard him and the grounds? That probably doesn’t make much impression the way it’s put, but consider this:

Flash Danielle’s domestic establishment numbered eight males, and every one of them young enough and husky enough to make it hot for anybody who came prowling around the premises. The butler, as I knew, had been a hard-bitten bird in the past, and I’d have hesitated to tackle him myself, even in his present supposedly pacific character. His chauffeurs were mighty powerful looking men, and young, as were his footman, gardeners, valets — in short, Flash seemed to have surrounded himself with servants of a somewhat unusual type.

Also, what the devil did Santelle find for such a staff of servants to do? He entertained but seldom, and his family numbered only himself and Uncle Cato. How did Flash manage to keep so many able-bodied men busy?

Having all the men help his establishment boasted, why go out and hire a pair of sleuths to stand guard over him? That struck me as being a trifle odd. Had he wanted a mystery unraveled, the sleuths would have been logical. But that wasn’t the case. Flash merely wanted a pair of guards — and that was something entirely unnecessary, everything considered.

There was a black boy hanging around the woodpile at Willow Bend or I’d lost my ability to scent ’em.

With that conclusion in mind, and resolving to be even more alert than usual, I joined the guests for a boat trip up the Kaw, which killed the rest of the afternoon.

Chapter X Footprints

Tommy Patterson merely dallied with his dinner that evening, which caused me some concern. A healthy young chap with a poor appetite is usually deserving of a watchful eye. I resolved to keep him under observance until he showed a better mood.

My character as a Mr. Norton from Birmingham, a broker who was staying with tile Santelles while arranging certain investments for Uncle Cato, conferred a sort of half guest, half agent status upon me, and nobody thought, it worth while either to snub me or take me up in their arms, so to speak. That left me valued freedom. I was certain that only Tommy, among the guests, knew my identity, and he only by chance.

After dinner the party separated, pairing off to suit themselves, some to play cards and others to stroll in the moonlight. I found myself cornered by Uncle Cato, who made slight but understandable signals to me.

“What’s up?” I asked when he came to me in the library.

“Cletus is worried,” the old man informed me, his own face none too happy. “The head gardener found tracks in a clump of lilac under my nephew’s bedroom window this afternoon. Large tracks, and there is every indication that the person making them stood there for a considerable time. The fact that they are in the midst of the clump where nobody but one desiring to be hidden would stand causes considerable speculation. Will you have a look?”

I nodded. “Send the head gardener to me back of the house,” I requested, and strolled leisurely outside. A wait of five minutes brought the gardener, and we repaired to the lilac bush.

“I was raking leaves from among the stalks, sir,” he explained, “and saw the tracks. They seemed fresh, and I am sure they were not there yesterday. So I reported the circumstance, sir.”

“Quite right, Benson,” I said, thinking that this bird must have attended grammar school for a considerable spell before he specialized in agriculture. “Now go up the back stairs, find Mr. Cletus’s valet and have him light the bedroom. Tell him to walk about in the room, stand before the dressing table, sit down under the reading lamp, and otherwise show himself. Do that at once.”

The gardener was off, and I parted the foliage and stepped into the middle of the lilac bush, where my flash disclosed the tracks mentioned. A man had evidently stood there for some time, as the tracks were deep, signifying that he had remained motionless long enough for his weight to cause quite a depression. He had come into the bush from the side away from the house, as lighter impressions showed. Outside, on the grass, the tracks did not show.

Presently the lights in Flash’s room came on, and placing myself in the sulker’s tracks I surveyed the windows. From where I stood the figure of the valet could be plainly seen as he moved about in the room. When he sat down in the chair under the reading lamp, as directed, I could see only the top of his head.

“Cletus will do well to draw his curtains at night,” I thought. “If an enemy — the three-fingered party, for instance — wants to take a shot at him, this would be an admirable point of vantage. I’ll mention it to him.”

I whistled for the valet, drew him to the open window, and dismissed both him and the gardener. Then I returned to Uncle Cato.

“Somebody stood in the bush and spied on Cletus, I have no doubt,” I told him. “Better have your servants circulate around the premises at intervals to-night, beginning now. He might come back — and he might not go away again so quietly. I’ll do a bit of looking myself.”

Cato hastened to the servants’ quarters, and I routed out Jim Steel. He and I, separating, gave the grounds adjacent to the house a thorough combing, but discovered no one. Not even a servant.

“Funny,” I remarked when Jim reported that he had not come in contact with any one except half a dozen guests. “Cato was supposed to scatter his gang in the grounds.”

“Gang is a good word.” Jim commented.

I let that pass. Pessimism is Steel’s curse. Anybody can convince him that it’s going to rain, but he has to see the sun before he’ll believe it is going to shine.

“I’m going to send your friend the reformed crook out scouting,” I told him. “You watch that young fool Patterson, if you can locate him.”

Finding Cato, I instructed him to send for the butler and instruct him to spend the next half hour prowling in the grounds at the front of the house. Cato again hastened off. I waited five minutes, then sneaked up the back stairs, picked the lock on the butler’s door, and let myself in. I wanted to see his shoes.

In a corner of a closet I came upon two pairs. One of house shoes, and the other heavy walking brogues. The brogues had recently been in intimate contact with black loam — such as could be found in the middle of the lilac bush and around its edges. Furthermore, the brogues were big enough to have made the impressions there.

“Maybe this reformed crook didn’t get a good dose of it,” I thought. “Have to be vaccinated again. He must have stood in the bush this evening, else he’d surely have cleaned these shoes. Allowing that the tracks were made last night, there would have been an entire day for cleaning them. Must have been to-night. In that case the gardener did not discover them today while raking leaves. I may be wrong, but darned if I believe it.”

My meditations were interrupted just as I replaced the shoes and closed the closet. The room door opened, and the butler, followed by Cato, walked in. Both stopped, looking me over in surprise that wasn’t faked.

“What the—” the butler began.

“I don’t understand your tactics, Mr. Norton,” Cato broke it.

I broke in on Cato. “Come inside and close the door,” I ordered — and I mean just that. Ordered. They obeyed.

“And I don’t understand your tactics, uncle,” I told Cato. “Which is a damned sight more to the point than your failure to understand mine. Questions and answers, with you doing the answering, please.”

“What’s the idea, you being in my room?” the butler demanded angrily, advancing toward me.

“Back up, big boy,” I shot at him. “Back up and subside, or I’ll have to ruffle you up some. Your turn will come presently.”

“You forget yourself, Spence!” Uncle Cato admonished sternly. “Mr. Norton,” he went on, when Spence had sullenly retired to a chair — but holding it by the back, instead of sitting in it, “please explain your conduct, and the remark just addressed to me.”

“Right!” I agreed heartily. “But you’ll do some explaining first. I asked you to scatter the servants over the place. You didn’t scatter. Why?”

The old man looked a bit disturbed, but answered. “I really did not think it necessary to do so until later,” he offered.

“You went off hurriedly,” I reminded. “Must have changed your mind hurriedly, too. Why didn’t you give instructions to your servants to search the lawns later, then?” I demanded.

“I... I am sure I did,” he stammered.

“And I’m sure you didn’t!” I snapped.

“How do you know?” he demanded, bristling.

“Because I inquired,” was my reply. That was a lie, but it worked.

“Well,” Cato admitted, “I said nothing to them at the moment. I shall see to the matter directly, however.”

“You needn’t bother,” I told him. “He won’t come back, that prowler. Because,” I turned suddenly toward the butler, “he knows better than to do any sneaking to-night. He’s been caught — with the goods on him. Rather, on his shoes. What about it, big boy? Got anything to say?”

He drew himself up haughtily, butler-like, but before he could utter the cold words on his tongue, I wheeled back to Uncle Cato.

“And that reminds me,” I barked accusingly, “that you have disobeyed instructions a second time to-night! Instead of sending Spence to search the grounds for half an hour, you brought him here! Why?”

Before the startled old mail could frame an answer, Flash Santelle entered the room quietly and closed the door behind him.

Chapter XI A Woman in Red

“I was looking for Spence, heard voices and— What’s the trouble?” he broke off to inquire, appearing to sense the tenseness of the situation he had walked in on.

“No trouble at all,” I replied. “Unless mutiny in the garrison can be called that.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Perhaps Uncle Cato will explain,” I said. “Go right ahead, uncle,” I told him. “The question and answer game is not over yet. Never mind Flash. He’s just a listener — now. Why did you bring Spence here, when I instructed you to have him make a search of the front lawn?”

“I meant to have him do that later,” was the weak explanation.

“As in the case of the servants,” I commented sarcastically. “You’re pretty deeply interested in protecting your nephew, aren’t you? Your actions show remarkable concern.”

“Explain this thing!” Flash demanded, hands folded behind his back, leaning against the door. “I’ve a right to know!”

I listened while Uncle Cato made his explanation, then nodded to Spence to tell his tale.

“Mr. Santelle told me to come to my room with him,” the butler explained. “When we entered we found this,” he hesitated, caught my eye, then resumed, “this gentleman here. That is all I know about it, sir.”

Flash looked me over calmly, then asked: “What’s the idea, Norton?”

“The idea is to have my instructions obeyed after this!” I snapped heatedly. “I’m here to see after your safety,” I went on to remind him, “and not to have my directions in the matter questioned or ignored. That’s the idea!”

“Quite correct, Norton,” he agreed. “You are in command. Still, I don’t quite understand your coming up to Spence’s room, after thinking you had disposed of him for half an hour by a — shall I call it a pretext?”

“A rose by any name whatever smells just as sweet, or as disagreeable, owing to how well you like roses,” I remarked. “The point is that I wanted Spence to spend half an hour on the front lawn. He didn’t do it, though I’m not blaming him for that. Uncle Cato probably didn’t tell him to. Did you, uncle?”

“Well, no—”

“I thought so. Now, Santelle,” I said as disagreeably as possible, “either I get action when I want it and as I want it, or you can hire another pair of sleuths to do your guarding and mingling. I’m one of the sort who does his work under orders from himself and nobody else. Take me that way, or not at all. It’s your time to talk. What about it?”

“I’m keeping you,” he said quietly. “And approve of your attitude. Uncle Cato, no doubt, thought it unnecessary to hurry in the execution of your instructions. About Spence, though — you haven’t explained—”

“Oh,” I broke in nonchalantly, moving toward the door, “that is not important. I merely wished to see if he kept his shoes as clean as a good butler should. That’s all.”

Flash gave me a searching look, his face expressing perplexity — but he stepped aside and allowed me to pass out. I closed the door and went down to the lawn, no longer worried about those footprints in the loam.

Steel met me as I left the servants’ door.

“That young Patterson is acting mighty queer,” he announced. “I located him at the foot of the lawn, leaning against a tree, alone. Tried to open up a conversation with him — and he told me to get the hell away. I did, but not out of sight. When he started moving off, away from the house, I sneaked along too. Then the damned young fool suddenly started sprinting. I lost him. He runs like Man o’ War, that baby!”

“He’s in love, Jim,” I told him.

“Then he ought to run,” was the dry comment. “Away from her, and not toward her — which is what he done. To her, I mean.”

“This gets interesting,” I said. “Go on.”

“After I lost him,” Jim continued, “I started hunting Miss Bailey, figuring that would be the best chance to pick him up again. I was right. He joined the girl on a bench in the shadow of a tree a bit later. The funny thing about that is that he must have known exactly where she was, because she was barely recognizable to me in that shadow at twenty feet away.

“Seeing that he had joined his lady, I drew off and hid in a bush. Then, five minutes afterward, this young fool conies tearing and swearing away from there, nearly run me down in the bush, and went blindly away on high. Me trying to keep up, and losing. Where he is now is something I don’t know, and haven’t been able to find out.”

“I’ll have a look,” I told him. “Keep an eye on the servants’ door, and find out if any of them come out and search, as I sent instructions for them to do. Report when you see me again.”

Jim departed, and I began a stroll through the trees. Tommy Patterson must be found and made to act like a sane person — if a man in love can be made to act that way, or even give a fair imitation. He’d be tramping up and down, ruining flower beds, in some retired spot, no doubt. Love sometimes accelerates the foot as well as the heart.

I searched patiently, but Tommy proved elusive. Nearing the lower end of die river path, where it leaves the lawn and dips into the first hollow on its way to the boathouse, I came up short. Something moved sketchily in the moonlight, near the path or on it, and about fifty feet away. I stepped into the shadow of a clump of bushes.

The sketchy figure came on, reached a point opposite me, then stopped in a listening attitude. I stared hard, trying to make out the features of the woman, for it was a woman — and not one of the guests, at that. A woman in a red dress. Failing to get a good view of her face from where I was, I stepped forward suddenly.

She cried out, though not loudly, darted back—

And then a light exploded in from of my eyes, just like a photographer’s flash-powder does, a terrific pain shot through my head, and I went down on my face, groping blindly until I buried my nails in the sod.

I heard a man’s voice behind me — then ceased either to hear or feel. But before all my senses went dead, I knew that my face, as I pitched downward, brushed against something soft and silky — and I breathed in a strong odor of lilac.

Chapter XII A Couple of Wrenches

“You damned crook!”

It was Jim Steel’s voice, but I didn’t feel like saying howdy to him right then.

“I was ordered to search, sir—”

“Yeah! But you wasn’t ordered to clout the guests on the head with a blackjack!” Jim blazed.

“I think I cannot be blamed, sir,” the voice of Spence, sounding a bit muddled and distant, went on. “I saw him dart into the shadow of the bush, and crept up to investigate. Then he dashed toward the path, a lady cried out — and then I acted, sir. What else could I do?”

“Can’t answer that!” Jim retorted tersely. “But if you’ve laid him out for good, my man, you won’t even get a trial. I’ll croak you—”

“ ’Sall right, old man,” I broke in weakly, wriggling to my knees. “I must have fainted, or something. Sorry, Spence,” I went on, addressing the butler, “that my head is so damned much like a billiard ball. You’ll have to try again. Where did that woman go?”

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Norton—” Spence began apologetically.

“Where did she go?” I barked.

“I did not observe her departure, sir.”

“Had eyes only for the top of my dome, I take it. What about you, Steel?”

“I got here right on the heels of this bird,” Jim growled. “Was just a trifle too late to stop him committing an assault on you. As for the woman, I ain’t seen any.”

“Did you hear a scream?”

“No.”

“You heard it, Spence,” I remarked. “So did I. That means I haven’t dreamed it while I slept on the grass. Off with you, Spence — and keep your trap closed. Come with me, Steel.”

“For once in my life I admire that mop of sun-cured hair you sport on your dome,” quoth Jim. “It’s serviceable, even if it ain’t exactly an ornamental adornment. Saved you a cracked skull to-night. What’s the trouble between you and the crook-butler?”

“A pair of dirty shoes,” I replied. “He’s sorry he didn’t clean ’em, and that’s the way he apologized for his carelessness. Just a small matter, Jim. Don’t let it worry you.”

“He’s woozy in the head yet,” Jim muttered to himself. “Your shoes would be something of a large matter, Tug,” he commented. “Was it your boats he neglected?”

“No. His own — and shut up, will you?”

Jim subsided, and I led the way along the path toward the boathouse. I felt fairly sure the woman in red had approached the house from that point, and I might discover her, or some trace of where she had gone, by searching in that direction.

Where had I smelled that lilac perfume before, and recently? The place was alive with the shrubs, but it was past blooming time, and the scent had not come from one of them. Yet it had been very distinct. As noticeable as— As it had been in my office the morning before!

“Got it!” I exclaimed, coming to a stop in the path.

“Let me have it,” Jim requested. “I’m tired of being outside of things. Suppose you spill something?”

“After a bit,” I replied. “I want to add things up first. Try to make two and two emerge into four. Shut up again, will you?”

“Anything to oblige,” Jim replied.

We went on.

“Trying to save his nibs his job?” Jim queried, after a bit. “Telling him to keep his trap shut sounds like you’re afraid Flash might can him.”

“It does sound like it, doesn’t it?”

We came out on the little pier where the boats were at anchor.

“Reckon Flash knew his man was going to clout you?” Steel asked.

“Maybe. Maybe not,” I answered.

“Oh, go to hell!” Jim blazed, disgusted.

When Steel is disgusted he keeps quiet, and that was what I wanted. A big lump had risen on top of my head, and the head itself felt like it was an extra large lump inhabited chiefly by little boys with hammers. I felt uncomfortable in my stomach, too, like I had gone to sea right after eating heartily of pork. But I meant to know something about several things before humoring my desire to go off somewhere and lie down for a day or two.

That creeping, listening woman in red intrigued me greatly. She was on that path for a purpose, and as long as the purpose remained unknown to me, just so long would I feel mighty uncomfortable. Also, had Spence’s attack on me been brought about by his suspicions at seeing me acting like a skulker? Had he recognized me before he struck? And what part had Cato and Flash had in it, if any?

I had a lot of questions, but the answers had been torn out of the back of the book. I’d have to solve them for myself.

No one was about on the pier, and all the boats were in their accustomed places. I had previously checked them over, and knew their number and what each looked like. If the woman had come to Willow Bend by boat, she had departed and taken the craft with her.

We started back up the path.

“Jim,” I said, breaking a long silence, “I’m half persuaded that all is not as it seems to be here.”

“Sometimes a lick on the head has that result,” Steel remarked. “Glad to see you are again thinking in straight lines. As for me, I’ve known this dump was crooked ever since Uncle Cato bought it.”

“I don’t mean that exactly,” I objected. “Cato and his nephew may have as many curves as a clock spring, but I’m not interested in them in that way just now. I’m thinking there is real need for a guard over Cletus. Something is threatening him. Maybe it’s this butler. It may be the three-fingered party. It might even be a woman — the one I saw to-night, for instance. At any rate, Flash is uneasy about something. His actions show it.”

“He may be in love,” Jim suggested. “That would make him act queer. This Marthe is something most anybody could fall for without much exertion, and without ever having had any previous experience in falling. Had you stopped to consider that Marthe may have succeeded in casting a spell over him, whether he was willing or not, and that she might thereby have heaved a monkey wrench into some machinery that was theretofore running smoothly?”

I stopped where I was. Steel had started something going, and going with a hum. Maybe the blow on the head had had a good effect.

“Jim,” I told him with conviction, “you have hit something plumb meaty — and without the aid of a blackjack. I’m thinking you’re right as far as you have gone, and that is only halfway.”

“Halfway?” Steel queried. “What do you mean, halfway?”

“This,” I answered. “There has been two monkey wrenches heaved into the machinery — and by two separate and independent persons! Two large, drop-forged, steel monkey wrenches, Jim — make no mistake about it!”

“You and me. We’re the wrenches, eh?”

“Not by a damn sight!” I contradicted. “We’re the monkeys, Jim! That is to say, we’ve been assigned the role of monkeys! Hung up by our tails, so to speak—”

“And now the tails are slipping — thanks to the blackjack,” Jim broke in, but I didn’t pay any attention to him. I was busy listening.

Somebody was in the shrubbery on our left, speaking in low but earnest tones. A man’s voice. Beckoning to Jim, I slipped off in that direction.

Chapter XIII Shadows

It didn’t take me long to locate the speaker. The voice came from a summerhouse about fifty feet off the path. I crept up and listened.

The male voice ceased, and a woman began speaking.

“You have no right to follow me around! I told you once to-night that I would be engaged for the evening, but you are very dense! You haven’t any right—”

“Oh, I haven’t, eh? You were glad to give me certain rights, let me remind you—”

“And let me remind you that I took those rights away—”

“And transferred them to that dam—”

“Don’t you dare!”

Just Tommy and Marthe giving each other the devil. And I had thought I’d struck something worthwhile!

Steel, who also had heard, was plucking at my arm. “He found her again,” he whispered. “Let’s get away from here, and leave ’em fight it out in true loverly fashion. They’re going good, now. That’s a case of real love.”

I was about to follow Jim’s suggestion, when Tommy’s voice came again — harsh and hate-laden.

“Remember what I told you!” he snarled. “If he goes too far I’ll explode some powder under his nose — and he don’t have to go very much farther than he has right now! Where is he, anyhow?”

I wanted to get the answer to that. Twice since supper, to my knowledge, Flash had planted the girl somewhere and left her. Why?

“It isn’t any of your business, Tommy Patterson!” Marthe informed him, and not sweetly. “But if you must know, he had to go to the house to answer a telephone call. Now go away and stay away!”

Tommy stumbled off into the shrubbery, swearing under his breath. I know, because Jim and I had to dodge aside or be caught spying.

“Follow him, Jim,” I ordered.

“Don’t lose sight of him again tonight, if you can help it.”

“That’s a hell of a job!” Steel grumbled nastily. “Playing tag with a bird gone rumdum with love! Monkey is right! You said it!”

But he went off after Tommy — which is Jim Steel’s way. He’d walk straight into hell on orders, and he’d cuss about the heat before he got there — but not after. He’d start in to put out the fire. There’s not many like old Jim Steel.

I changed sides on the summerhouse. Wanted to observe Flash and the girl together — hear ’em, rather. Not a very nice thing to do, perhaps, but a sleuth can’t always observe the niceties of life.

Flash had hired me to watch him, and I meant to earn the money. Perhaps this love affair, if it was one, between him and Marthe wasn’t any of my business, and Flash hadn’t counted on me watching him while he was at it. But he hadn’t counted on there being a love affair at all, for that matter. That love affair was monkey wrench number one.

I waited, and while I did so I couldn’t help thinking that Flash had been rather thoughtless to leave the girl alone so far from the house. Then I had another thought. Maybe Flash was well aware that no harm would be likely to befall her. That last thought stuck.

About that time Flash came back. He entered the summerhouse and I heard a low murmur of voices. Then both came out into the moonlight, and strolled off toward the lower end of the garden. I let them get a fair start, then followed.

There were two of us following them. I became aware of that almost at once. Somebody was moving along slowly on the opposite side of a rose hedge, stooping low and barely discernible.

I quit watching Flash and the girl, and gave my undivided attention to the shadow. At a point twenty feet after I discovered the shadow I came to a gate in the hedge, and passed through. The skulker was then only ten feet or so ahead of me, with Flash and Marthe about twice as far beyond.

Whether the shadow discovered me, or whether somebody else caused a disturbance, I don’t know. But the black patch in front of me stopped suddenly, wheeled and dashed for the shadow of the trees on our right. I sprang forward, reached out and caught the edge of a flowing robe, there was a ripping noise, the cloth gave way — and I was left standing with a square of red silk in my hand. It felt bulky, and I peered intently at it.

“A pocket!” I exclaimed softly. “I ripped it clear away! And that’s not all!”

There was a handkerchief inside the pocket. A dainty one — and it reeked with lilac perfume!

Chapter XIV Tommy Rages

Flash Santelle called from a point a few feet off.

“Who is it?” he demanded.

“Norton,” I answered. “Come here for a minute.”

He joined me, leaving Marthe alone.

“There’s a stranger scouting about the grounds,” I told him. “I’ve been following her—”

“Her?” he broke in. “You mean to say—”

“I mean to say it, if you’ll keep quiet and let me,” I interrupted. “Here’s the lay: A woman is interested in somebody here, and that somebody appears to be you. She was trailing you and your companion, and I trailed her. She ran, but I got a grip on her gown, cloak, or whatnot, and — here, smell this.”

I thrust the handkerchief under his nose. He took one deep whiff, then seized the bit of cloth in a hand, gripping it tightly, snapping his jaws rigidly together. Only for a moment did he exhibit signs of surprise and — shall I say consternation?

“One of the guests, probably,” he ventured, returning the handkerchief, his voice easy and natural. “No woman would be prowling about here at night — no outsider, I mean. Thanks, Norton, for keeping such good watch. And now that you are here, may I ask you to keep Miss Bailey company while I go to the house for a few minutes?”

I joined Marthe, made apologies for Flash, and managed to amuse her until he came back. Then I departed.

Flash had gone to order the servants out into the grounds to search. I found that out very shortly by bumping into them here and there.

Strange, I thought, that he should show so little concern over the prospect of a man hiding in the brush — the three-fingered party, probably — with evil intent, but the moment he smelled that lilac perfume he was all up in the air. Didn’t waste a minute routing out the guard.

I was already interested in that sealed letter deposited with me the day before, but my interest grew by leaps and bounds then. Of course, the lilac-lady of the river path and the one who came to my office might not be the same, but I couldn’t help associating them. Maybe it was the effect of the perfume. At any rate, I began to wish for the hour of ten to roll round. Maybe the letter would clear up some of the mystery — all of it.

Near the house I bumped squarely into Tommy Patterson.

“You’re a devil of a fellow!” I exclaimed. “When I want you I can’t find you, and when I’m not even thinking about you I find you under my feet. What’s the idea for all this racing about the grounds? Practicing for a long-distance sprint?”

“Listen!” he hissed, drawing me into the shadow of a tree. “By God, Norton, something has got to be done! You’ll call me a cad for what I did tonight, but I had to do it — couldn’t keep from it! I listened to a conversation—”

“Between Flash and Marthe,” I interrupted. “I know the preliminaries, so you can skip ’em. Give me the gist of the conversation.”

“He proposed to her, damn him!”

That was news!

“Think of it, Norton — that damned crook asked Marthe to be his wife! And she — I can’t hardly believe it, even now! — said yes! I heard her!”

Well, that proved me right about the monkey-wrench number one.

“Go on,” I urged. “The parson hasn’t spliced ’em yet, has he?”

“You’re not trying to be funny?”

“Not at all. I’m just reminding you that until the fatal words have been uttered by somebody in authority, there’s a chance they never will be. Aren’t you behaving rather like an overgrown kid?”

“Hell!” he snapped, gripping my arm until his fingers must have bruised the flesh. “Do you think I’d raise a rumpus under ordinary circumstances? I wouldn’t. If Marthe, or any other girl, threw me over I’d swallow the dose, no matter how bitter it might be. But this is not an ordinary situation. That fellow is a crook, Norton, and I’d swear it. He has fallen in love with Bailey’s money, managed to fascinate Marthe, and unless somebody prevents it she’ll marry him. That’s why I’m raising hell, and why I mean to keep on raising it!”

“All right,” I told him. “Go off by yourself and raise the devil and all his imps if that will relieve you. But, take my advice and don’t let anybody hear you. I have told you to leave things to me. Do that and I’ll promise to do all I can to show Marthe and her dad one or two reasons why there should be no wedding bells ring out for a Bailey-Santelle picnic. Go off alone—”

“Alone, hell!” he exclaimed. “Santelle won’t let me! He’s had a guy tagging me around all evening! On my heels since right after dinner, and I’ve had to keep on the dodge! But I’ve decided to let him catch me now — and when this crook boss of his sees him again he won’t know him! That’s all!”

He was off. Poor Jim! I certainly hoped he wouldn’t tag that madman too close.

So Marthe had already said yes to Flash! Fast work — and because of it I would have to show speed myself from then on. Things were not going in the direction I had expected them to travel when I first came to Willow Bend. No. They were going off at a tangent, and one wholly unprovided for.

But, then, there was that monkey-wrench number two. Somehow or other I couldn’t get away from the notion that monkey-wrench number two would wreck the machinery altogether.

I went prowling for Steel. Within an hour I’d be on my way down the Kaw to Kansas City, and I wanted to make sure that Jim would be aware of my departure.

Chapter XV Uncle Apologizes

Somewhere in the grounds Jim Steel would be playing tag with Tommy, and I set off to round him up, following in the direction the young man had gone. Jim, I judged, had temporarily lost his playmate, which accounted for him being nowhere around when Tommy and I last met.

“Jim is cagy,” I said to myself, “and he’ll have a try for Flash and Marthe, knowing full well that the lad will be snooping around. So I’ll have an eye out for that pair myself.”

But I couldn’t locate either them or Jim. It was getting late, and already some of the guests had gone indoors. The early evenings in that locality are usually pleasant and conducive to nocturnal rambling, but the summer night had begun to grow rather cool. I went to the house, got a light overcoat and returned to the grounds. If I couldn’t find Jim soon I’d have to go on without him.

Fifteen minutes later I found myself on the path to the river and decided to leave Willow Bend for the night, deferring my talk with Jim until I returned next morning.

That sealed letter was calling me. But for the fact that there might be no connection whatever — probably wasn’t — between the woman who gave it to me and the one who had haunted Willow Bend that night, I’d have it open long before the assigned hour. But what if the woman should call for it, and find that I had betrayed her trust? That would be bad — and the Kaw Valley doesn’t do business that way.

I’d have to wait until ten o’clock in the morning. Then, granting she had not called for it in person nor communicated with me about it, I’d not waste a minute reading it. On the other hand, should she present herself at my office before ten, then I’d busy myself in another direction. I’d follow her and dig her out. And that was that.

I started down the path, and came up against Uncle Cato.

“Mr. Norton,” he said, recognizing me, “I want to offer my apologies for to-night. The fact is I am unused to such goings on as my nephew hints at hereabouts — this three-lingered man, you know. I simply can’t take him seriously. That accounts for my failure to attach a great deal of importance to your orders.”

But he had appeared somewhat concerned over those footprints in the lilac bush, if I recalled it correctly. I let that pass.

“No harm has been done, Mr. Santelle,” I told him good-naturedly. “You may be right, at that. There may not be any three-fingered bird mixed up in this. Cletus may be just imagining things — poor chap. Go to bed and don’t let thoughts of this ogre with the mutilated hand disturb your rest, and I’ll guarantee he won’t in the flesh. Good night.”

He went along the path until the night swallowed him, and I stood where I was and pondered. What was Uncle Cato doing in the grounds alone, and the hour nearing twelve? Searching? If so, for whom or what? He had made it a point to inform me that he didn’t take the three-fingered man seriously, and he would hardly be searching for him in whom he did not believe.

Maybe just strolling. All by himself. Yes — maybe. But it didn’t wash with me. He had not impressed me as one who would be out doing a Romeo with a maid, or one of the women guests. A trifle old for such foolishness. Anyhow, I’d have to pass him up until later.

Again I resumed my way toward the river — and again came to a halt before I had gone far. A groan, long-drawn and anguished, seemed to rise out of the depths of a snowball bush just off the path, and I made for the bush.

Jim Steel was in the act of getting shakily to his knees, one hand caressing his jaw, the other groping for something substantial to hold to.

“It was that damned lover!” he grunted, recognizing me. “Laid for me, and clouted me on the jaw! I went down like a poled ox—”

“Too bad he didn’t use a blackjack, Jim,” I consoled him. “With two of us able to use our thinking apparatuses, we’d have this case sewed up in ragtime!”

“Rub it in!” Jim grumbled.

“I think things will quiet down now,” I said seriously. “It’s getting late. Get right on Flash’s tail and stick there. Watch out for a woman — a strange woman in red. I think she won’t show up again to-night, but you never can tell. So long.”

“What about this Tommy fellow?”

“Oh, he’s not going to cause much trouble,” I assured him. “Just a jealous kid. He and Flash will have to settle their business between themselves. And I’m betting Flash loses.”

“I don’t give a damn either way!” Steel declared heatedly. “Say, what do you make of this business anyhow?”

“Jim,” I replied, “there’s an old wise-crack which runs something like this: When Fate wants a man, it sends a woman after him — and the woman gets him. Ever hear it before?”

“Of course. Have you gone nutty? What’s that got to do with this thing?”

“Well,” I advised, “just keep it in mind. It applies to Flash Santelle, or I’m badly mistaken. So long.”

I took one of Santelle’s fast motor boats, and lit out for the city.

Chapter XVI A Firecracker

I confess that I did little but watch the clock on the following morning, waiting for ten to roll round, or for the woman to appear, as the case might be. That letter and that woman had become mighty important in my mind.

While waiting, I did a little summing up. Cletus Santelle was a crook — and a mighty smooth article. I was convinced of that. Cato Santelle, I felt forced to believe, was not the honest, innocent old man he pretended to be. Spence, the butler, was anything but a reformed doer of evil. All Santelle’s servants, males at least, were of a piece with Flash, Cato and Spence.

Having reasoned things out thus far, the rest of the going was easier. But the scheme was so astounding it almost forbade belief — granting I had the right of it.

And the most disturbing thing about it was this:

Even if Santelle and his uncle were working a gigantic fraud on the public, there was not a single thing I could do about it. As usual, Flash was in the dear with the law.

Unless the lilac woman, or the letter, put me on to something that could be hung on Flash, or unless Flash did something more than he had done so far, and got caught in the doing, then he was where the law couldn’t touch him.

I was scowling over that thought, at about nine o’clock, when my phone rang.

“Mr. Norton?”

It was the voice of the woman.

“Norton speaking,” I replied.

“This is Ayra Banning. Please keep the letter until ten o’clock to-morrow morning. If you do not hear from me by that time, then open it and take whatever course you wish. Is that clear?”

“Perfectly, Miss Banning,” I assured her. “I have some other articles in the office, your property I believe,” I added, and waited.

Silence. Then: “What are they?”

“A pocket torn from a red silk dress, and a lilac scented handkerchief,” I explained. “Will you let me know when and where I can return them?”

Silence, followed by a gasp. Then the phone clicked up.

That settled it. The woman of the letter and the woman of the handkerchief were one and the same.

Without the least twinge of conscience, I arose, opened the safe, withdrew the letter and proceeded to read it. A breach of trust? Think so, if you will.

Here’s what I read:

“Well, what of it?” I asked myself, after finishing the letter. “It confirms what I already believed, and that’s about all. But confirmation is worth a lot — come to think of it.”

I reached for the phone, having it in mind to call Chief Enger and arrange for a little conference. But I sat back without touching the instrument.

What, after all, could that letter accomplish? Was it not merely a firecracker, instead of the bombshell which I had hoped it would be? What would it mean to the police? Flash Santelle? Exposure of Santelle. That was all.

“No law against Cletus and Cato masquerading as nephew and uncle,” I told myself. “No law against them buying Willow Bend, and hiring servants from whatever source they chose. In short, Flash Santelle has not, so far as is known, broken the law in this instance, any more than it can be proved he has broken it in other of his enterprises. And that’s that.”

Why expose Santelle? Society wanted more than that. It wanted Flash Santelle put away where he would cease to be a menace. That letter, and the inevitable exposure it would accomplish, would merely interrupt Flash for the present, leaving him free to try something else.

And he had had the nerve to use me to further his scheme!

Right then and there I began to get hot under the collar.

Chapter XVII Flash’s Big Stunt

I cooled off quickly, however, and began to do some thinking. Surely there was some way in which I could trap Flash Santelle — and trap him right.

What was this big scheme of his, anyhow? Little by little I pieced it out — to my satisfaction at least.

It was a good scheme, to my way of thinking. The police of the nation had long been making it too hot for Santelle’s comfort. Something had to be done.

His best chance would be to establish himself somewhere under a cloak of respectability. The police had not a thing on him, and by a bold stroke it might be possible to convince them that he was going straight.

Flash took a trip abroad, according to Ayra Banning’s letter. There he hooked up with George Pierce, the confidence man. Very carefully they recruited a small but efficient gang of expert thieves, then all drifted into America quietly and at different times.

That much I could piece together without any trouble, having the letter to guide me. Finally the old think-tank evolved the following:

Flash selected Kansas City as a field for future operations. There the fake uncle stunt was pulled — and a most convincing and successful stunt it proved to be. By means of forged letters, and a big bank account, the latter the proceeds of Flash’s prowess, the thing had been feasible. The very boldness of it assured its success. It was something entirely new.

So far, so good. What next? Guess work, and I kept on guessing — though confessedly not so sure of my ground.

For instance:

Flash would succeed in thoroughly establishing himself before the general public in the character of a badly abused and wholly innocent young man. Before the police as a reformed crook — he hoped. Then would occur a series of really big jobs in different parts of the country, all of them planned and directed by Flash, but in which he would never participate in person. His tight little gang would do the actual work. Flash would remain quietly at Willow Bend — and see to it that he always had a perfect alibi.

Willow Bend would make an admirable retreat, accessible by motor car and by the river. Its size would enable him to keep some of his gang near him in the guise of servants. Uncle Cato’s seeming respectability, and his known wealth, would make an admirable cloak for Flash.

I got that far, then asked myself if it sounded reasonable. My final opinion was that it did. So I went on with more sureness.

Flash met up with something unforeseen. Bailey fell hard for Him and for Uncle Cato — and Bailey had millions. Also one daughter, the sole heir. Daughter also falls, or seems to fall, for Flash. And he quickly perceives the big possibility. Why not marry the girl and get old Bailey’s millions? What a stake! And it could be done while operating his other scheme, as well.

Flash made up his mind to do just that — and therein he made a fatal error. At least, it seemed so to me, now that I knew about this scorned woman business. The woman whom he had left behind somewhere, promising to bring her on later and marry her, had stepped into the picture. And when the woman steps in, things happen — not at all according to schedule. Flash should have known better.

Then a bit of light came in regard to his hiring a pair of sleuths to watch him during the week of the house party. It would seem that the guests alone would be sufficient alibi for Flash, but, as he figured it, not so. The testimony of two reputable private detectives, one watching him at night and the other having an eye on him during the day, would make the alibi rock-ribbed, and no mistake.

“That three-fingered bird was all in Flash’s imagination,” I grinned at this point. “But it was a reasonable excuse for having himself guarded closely.”

Then I sat up and took notice. Flash wanted a mighty good alibi during that week, hence it followed he meant to pull something during that time. No mistake about it.

Could I make anything of that? I thought I could. The big job, whatever it might be, had evidently not yet occurred, since no report of anything worthy of the talents of Flash Santelle had been heard. It followed, then, that the job would be done before the week was about and the house party broken up.

And there, if ever, would be my chance to hook Flash good and proper.

What about the woman, Ayra Banning? She had failed to get in touch with Flash the night before, or to get a good chance to bump him off, as the intention might have been. She had requested me to hold the letter one more night, and that argued that she would make a try for Flash again the coming evening. But would she, after I had tipped her off that I had identified her as the woman whom I saw in the grounds at Willow Bend? I hoped not, but believed she would.

What was that crack I had made to Jim Steel? Oh, yes. I recalled it:

When Fate wants a man, it sends a woman after him — and the woman gets him. Was Fate sending the woman?

Only Fate knew the answer to that — and Fate wasn’t doing any talking.

But of one thing I was certain, if Flash Santelle pulled anything that week, Fate and the woman would have to hurry if they beat me to him.

I pressed a button on my desk and summoned every available man the Kaw Valley had on its roster.

Chapter XVIII Ominous Quiet

Flash Santelle had hired two men to watch him, but I figured two would be far too few for the job. It would require at least half a dozen. Two to watch him, and the others to watch the rest of the Santelle household. I laid my plans accordingly.

When I reached Willow Bend in the afternoon, I was met at the dock by a grinning Jim Steel.

“This Marthe girl is all in tears,” he remarked. “Wants her Tommy, I take it — and Tommy simply ain’t.”

“Huh? I don’t get that.”

“Tommy took himself off, bag and baggage, this morning,” Jim went on. “When the bunch got together for lunch, he didn’t show. At tea he still kept out of the picture. Then she began to get anxious.

“At about that time I delivered a note which Tommy had intrusted to me, with instructions to hold it until the girl began asking about him. When she read the note, her face went sort of white, tears sprung into her eyes, and she registered deep concern. Been registering it ever since.”

“Well, I’m damned!” I exclaimed feelingly. “Last night she was all off of Tommy, and now she’s wanting him! Can you beat that, Jim?”

“No accounting for what a woman will do,” Jim remarked sagely. “As for her, I’m frank to say that she has only been fooling herself about Flash. Tommy took the only course open to him, as she saw it. He absented himself, leaving a note bidding her good-by forever. Smart kid. Figures that will bring her to her senses. And it will.”

“How do you know what was in that note?” I demanded.

Jim merely grinned.

“I forgot that you had it in your keeping all day,” I remarked. “Hope you opened it expertly.”

“I did.”

That settled that. I somehow felt that Flash Santelle would not be in the best of moods that evening. He wasn’t. Very glum, though he tried to appear very gay. He wasn’t doing any moonlighting with Marthe that night, I noticed.

Miss Bailey had copped herself another young man among the guests, and was making him entertain her. She kept pretty well to the front lawn, watchful, hoping, no doubt, that Tommy would show up.

I sneaked around quietly among the shrubs and trees, watching. At about ten o’clock I took notice that Spence and the rest of the male servants, with the exception of the footmen who were busied with the guests, were also doing some scouting on the premises.

Were they looking for the lilac woman to appear?

I was. Also watching for something else to happen. So long as the servants remained on the premises, well and good. If any of them tried to sneak away — well, there were four of my men watching, ready to trail them wherever they might go.

If Flash meant to pull a big job that night, the Kaw Valley meant to be in on it.

But it might be on the cards that Flash was too much occupied with his two female complications to do much else but keep an eye on them. He had blundered in two places. The names of the two blunders were Ayra and Marthe, and in the order mentioned.

So Flash Santelle, having mixed up with women, had ceased to be a smart crook. Had become merely a crook. Sometimes it happens that way.

By losing sight of his original purpose in locating at Willow Bend, and going after a girl worth millions, Flash had with his own hand thrown a monkey wrench into his own machinery. And the first woman, Ayra Banning, whom he probably had regarded as of little moment — just a weepy woman who could be stalled off with promises — was about to heave a second monkey wrench into the same machinery. Flash now realized all that. No wonder he was not in a good humor.

The evening passed very quietly I kept on the prowl in the grounds, and Jim Steel trailed Flash as much as possible. Eleven o’clock found most of the guests indoors, but the servants still guarded the lawn.

Uncle Cato played host in the drawing-room — instead of searching for the lilac woman as he had the night before. Flash was nowhere to be seen.

Neither was Jim Steel in evidence, so I rested easy about Flash.

Nearing the summerhouse at the foot of the lawn, I was about to turn back when Jim Steel suddenly broke from the shadows, running toward the house. I called, and he stopped.

Chapter XIX The Chase

“The woman, Tug!” he exclaimed. “They got her!”

“Who?”

“Spence, the two chauffeurs, and Flash! I was tagging Flash, lost him. Then I broke into a patch of moonlight, and saw them. Flash had hold of her, choking her. Then he swung her up in his arms and beat it toward the river. I ran back to get you. Too many for me alone!”

Just then the sputter of a motor caught my ear from the river.

“Round up the boys,” I ordered. “Detail two to arrest Cato and the footmen. Follow to the river with the others. Quick!”

I was off to the wharf. Reaching there, I caught sight of a motor boat heading up the Kaw. One other motor boat remained, but I leaped into a skiff, the motor being too noisy. Besides, Jim and the boys would need it.

A quarter of a mile up the river could be seen the bulk of a small, wooded island which cut the stream in two parts. The motor boat seemed headed for it. I shot my craft into the stream and sent it after the motor.

When I had covered about half the distance the motor boat merged into the shadows of the trees of the island, and I hastened. A few minutes later I landed just below it, and leaped ashore.

I listened, but all was still. Then I started inland, to come up standing in the brush at the edge of a moonlight flooded open space.

There were five of them, four men and the woman. I heard the voice of Flash Santelle — cold, hard, merciless.

“You would have it,” he was saying, deadly calm. “And you have only yourself to blame for it. Quite likely you have wrecked everything here — and you can’t wreck Flash Santelle’s schemes and get away with it!”

“But, Cletus!” came the woman’s voice chokingly. “You promised!”

“And here is how I fulfill the promise!” Santelle snarled. “For, remember, I also promised death if you betrayed me!”

Then, before I could possibly interfere, Flash Santelle’s right hand shot forward, steel glimmered in the moonlight — and the red-draped form of the woman reeled for a moment, a moan came from her lips, and she crumpled to the ground.

I went into action with both guns. My first shot caught Santelle, and he whirled around, gun out and spitting lead. I felt a stab of pain in my right side, but went forward, weapons smoking.

Spence came into action, followed by the other two, and I dropped behind a shrub. Another second, and Spence went down. Back of me I heard the put-put of a motor boat, and I knew that Jim Steel and his men were coming.

Could I last until then?

Santelle, evidently not hurt badly by my first shot, was crouching behind a stump, searching for me with lead. The two chauffeurs were also under cover and blazing away.

Leaping up, I ran zigzagging for the trees, reached them in a storm of lead, and plunged toward the river. Steel and his men were perhaps half a quarter away. Back of me Santelle and his men were coming. I reached down and cast off the motor boat, then ran and kicked the skiff away from shore.

“At least they can’t get away!” I thought. “And Steel will get ’em, no matter what happens to me!”

Then Flash broke from cover, twenty feet away. His face was that of a madman. I was looking upon the real Flash Santelle.

“By God, Norton!” he shouted. “You’ve wrecked things, but you’ll never live to brag about it!”

I whipped up my guns, snapped them — and there was no report. I had emptied them, and had no time to reload.

Santelle laughed, his gun arm stiffened. Then, behind him, appeared a red figure, a pair of arms went round him, tugging at him, ruining his aim. The next instant my clubbed gun dropped him on the ground.

Up the tree line the chauffeurs appeared, running toward us. I snatched up Santelle’s gun — and then hell broke loose behind me. Jim Steel and his men were in action!

I stooped over the woman on the ground, hoping to aid her who had so vitally aided me.

The two chauffeurs went down before the blasting bullets of Steel and his men.

Raising the woman’s head, I sought to find some sign of life. Her eyes opened, and her lips moved.

“He — shall — not — have — her—”

Then Ayra Banning died.

I turned and snapped the cuffs on Flash Santelle, just as he was struggling up from the ground.

“It’s the gallows for you, Flash,” I remarked. “But I take no credit. Fate sent a woman — and the woman got you.”