Missing men
be eager and able to solve any difficulty we might propound to him,
including the riddle of the Sphinx.
“How long had Mr. Vanderdonck been a tenant of yours?”
“Two years, Sergeant——”
“Lieutenant!” I said severely. “Lieutenant Lavender!”
“I beg your pardon! Two years, Lieutenant Lavender.”
Lavender threw me a venomous glance and proceeded. “He had never
vanished this way before, of course?”
“He always paid his rent promptly, that’s all I know,” responded Giles.
“He sent a check the first of every month. When it didn’t come this
month, or on the second or third, neither, I came over to see him.
Hadn’t seen him since he took the rooms. Well, he wasn’t here and he
hasn’t been here since.”
Lavender appeared to be shocked by this delinquency.
“So you very properly went to the police,” he agreed. “Do I understand
that you only saw this Mr. Vanderdonck once in your life?”
“The day he took the rooms,” answered Giles with a nod. “I don’t bother
them that pays their rent, and this Vanderdonck never bothered me.”
“Hm-m!” mumbled Lavender. “Do you remember him? How he looked?”
“I never forget a face,” declared Giles with emphasis. “He was middle
aged, rather dark, and his hair was beginning to get gray. Pretty tall
man he was, and heavy I should say, though he didn’t look it.”
“You know nothing about his business?”
“Not a thing. Looks to me now as if he didn’t have any!”
Lavender smiled sweetly.
“You are quite right, Mr. Giles. He didn’t.”
“What!” cried the landlord.
“Who occupied these rooms before Mr. Vanderdonck took them?” demanded
Lavender.
“A dentist fellow named Bradbury.”
Lavender chuckled and rubbed his hands. “Ah,” said he, “it’s a black,
black case. But we have it in hand, Mr. Giles. Trust us, leave it
entirely in our hands, and say nothing!”
We got rid of the old fool at last, and Lavender looked at his watch.
“Half past dinner time,” he announced. “We’re wasting moments, Gilly.
I’ll leave a note here for Morley to say we’ve been here and won’t be
back, then we’ll go to luncheon and afterward we’ll transfer our
attentions to the more pleasant and lucrative task of aiding Miss
Minor.”
“But what did you mean by telling that fellow that Vanderdonck had no
business?” I asked.
“Just that,” was the reply. “He came here as a blind. The whole office
shows it. Everything is practically as the dentist left it two years
ago. Vanderdonck just moved in. The holes in the floor indicate where
the chair of pain used to be, the walls have not been cleaned since the
dentist took down his pictures, and the books and magazines for the most
part were left there by the old tenant. The place was never intended for
occupancy. Vanderdonck came here when it was necessary only. But someone
else came here, too—came here and didn’t leave again. The safe will tell
the story. I’ll tell Morley enough to make it look like his discovery.
But the fact is, Gilly, I’m as sure as I’m here that the safe contains
all that is left of Charles Merritt!”
I spun about and looked with horror at the great black hideous thing,
and a dreadful picture formed in my mind as I seemed to see the door
swing open, upon—what? But Lavender, without a shudder, sat down to pen
his note to Morley.
—— III ——
At luncheon I questioned Lavender vigorously, but he had little
information to impart. He ate in silence for the greater part of the
meal and afterward smoked several thoughtful cigarettes.
“I’ve told you practically all I know about the case, Gilly,” was all he
said in direct reply to my questions. “And what I know, I know chiefly
because it must be so. Of actual evidence I have very little, but there
certainly have been many significant indications.”
“And now we go back to Miss Minor and her troubles?”
“Exactly! You’ve no objections to going back to Miss Minor, surely?”
I laughed. “None in the world. I like her very much. But what did you
say in your note to Morley, Lavender?”
“Just this: Morley, open safe at earliest opportunity. It contains the
solution of two mysteries. See morning papers. Now will you call a
taxi?”
On that we fared forth to attack the problem we, or at any rate
Lavender, had been employed to solve. As we drove north across the Loop
in a swirling ocean of traffic my mind became occupied with thoughts of
the charming young person we were going to see, and I looked forward
with pleasure to our second meeting. Lavender, whatever his thoughts
were, smoked many cigarettes and drummed impatiently with his fingers on
the narrow window ledge. When he had finished with one cigarette, he
lighted another from the glowing tip of the old one and resumed his
drumming. I supposed him to be in deep thought.
The progress of the taxi was slow, for the press was bewildering. A
mounted policeman, dancing his horse in the maelstrom, recognized
Lavender and gave him a nod of greeting. The line of automobiles had
stopped for perhaps the twelfth time. The officer’s greeting called my
friend’s wandering attention back to his surroundings, and suddenly he
was sitting straight up and looking at a shop window within line of his
vision. It was a barber shop, as it happened, and as vastly
uninteresting as most barber shops, as far as I could see. But Lavender
had seen more than the shop.
“See the placard, Gilly,” he nodded. “The ‘Tinfoil Revue’ again. We
can’t dodge it, it seems. The woman in the picture, if I’m not mistaken,
is the very person we were discussing. No, not Miss Minor. I mean Miss
Sidney Kane.”
I looked and saw that he was right. Her name appeared below the portrait
in letters of some size.
“An atrocious portrait, too, I should imagine,” he continued. “Do you
know, Gilly, on second thought I think I shall be altruistic this
afternoon. You shall go alone to Miss Minor, pay our respects, and
listen to anything she may have to tell us. I will inform you what
further you are to ascertain. As for myself, I shall—this is Wednesday,
isn’t it, Gilly?—I shall go to a matinee, I think, against the sterner
labors that lie ahead of us. Thus we shall both be benefited, according
to our tastes.”
I am, of course, frequently a fool, but I am never as big a fool as
Lavender’s remarks often would suggest. I looked back at him sternly.
“What you mean is, that you will go to the ‘Tinfoil Revue’ and see Miss
Kane,” I corrected.
“Well, if you put it that way, yes,” he grinned. “The fact is, Gilly,
the lady attracts me, and there already has been so much coincidence in
this case, or in these cases I should say, that I’m determined to check
them against each other and see what happens. The theatre, I believe, is
just around the corner.”
“What am I to ask Miss Minor?” I demanded.
“First, whether she has heard from her father. I’m inclined to think
that she has not, but ask her anyway. Tell her that I think she will
hear from him shortly, but not to be too sanguine. Then ask her
permission to look casually over his desk, or whatever he uses, to see
if there are any clues to his movements. Probably the young lady will
have done this herself, but you will make a more thorough job of it.
Look at the letters if there are any, however far back they may go, and
don’t leap at any wild conclusions whatever you find. Your principal
task is to remember what you see so that you can tell me about it
to-night.”
“And when shall I see you?”
He hesitated. “You have a key. Be in my rooms at six. I may join you for
dinner. If I’m not there by six, though, I won’t be in for dinner. Sit
around until about eight, as I may call you up if I don’t come. If you
don’t hear from me by eight—well, I’m darned if I know when you will.”
It sounded very dubious indeed. “Look here. Lavender,” I said uneasily,
“does that mean that you are going into some danger?”
“Without you, Gilly? Not by a large majority! I wouldn’t think of going
into danger without my second line of defense. No, it means that I may
be detained longer than I now expect, that’s all. If there is any danger
it will come later and you shall have your full share, I promise.”
With that I was forced to be content, although what new idea had
possessed my eccentric friend I could not imagine. No doubt he would see
Miss Kane and confront her with her apparent knowledge of Vanderdonck,
and no doubt he would ask about the disappearance of Charles Merritt. I
thought again of that sinister safe in Vanderdonck’s rooms, and in fancy
I saw a slow dark stream issuing from the impassable crack of its heavy
door.
Lavender climbed from the machine, and with a wave of his hand
disappeared for a moment in the throng of cars. An instant later I saw
him standing before the barber shop window, studying the libelous
portrait of Sidney Kane. Then again I lost him as the whirlpool shifted,
and he did not reappear. I continued on my way alone.
It was a pleasant enough ride to the Minor mansion far out on the north
side, and it was pleasant to find Miss Minor at home. Her exclamation of
delight at sight of me was enough to pay for any disappointment caused
by Lavender’s desertion.
But charming as was Miss Shirley Minor and happy as was the hour or two
I spent in her company, I learned not a thing calculated to further our
investigations. There were few letters from persons other than Miss
Minor herself. Her letters, Cyril Minor had saved for years back; he
seemed to have saved all she had ever written to him. But for the rest I
found nothing but a scattering of business communications of no
particular interest save as they furnished the names of a number of
Minor’s early ventures. As Lavender had foretold, Miss Minor had heard
nothing from her father, so at the close of my visit I made her happy
with my friend’s message of cheer, and took my departure. I was
convinced not only that I was in love with Shirley Minor, but also that
I was a very poor detective indeed.
It was growing toward dusk as I climbed the interminable and familiar
steps to Lavender’s rooms, and as I let myself in the clock struck five.
I helped myself to a cigar, placed the humidor within reach, and picked
up a magazine. But I did not read. I dozed instead, and finally I slept.
When I awoke with a start, it was quite dark outside and the clock, when
I had flooded the room with light, showed the hour to be well past
eight. Lavender had not come and there had been no call. Evidently he
had found work to do. So I went downstairs to dinner on the opposite
corner, and then climbed the stairs again. I read diligently until past
midnight, then as there was still no sign of Lavender I turned in on the
bed I called mine.
It seemed that I had been asleep for no time at all when something
wakened me. I sat up in bed to find Lavender in the room. It was two
o’clock in the morning and he was whistling quietly to himself as he
undressed.
“Jimmie,” I said sleepily, “where the devil have you been?”
“Hullo, Gilly,” said he. “Didn’t intend to wake you. I was later than I
thought I’d be, but it was worth while. I’ve got half the mystery
solved.”
My brain cells began to function. “Tell me!” I commanded.
“Can you follow me? All right.” He lighted a cigarette and dropped into
an easy chair. “Well, after I left you, Gilly, I had a look at the
portrait of Miss Kane, as you probably saw, and then I went to the
matinee and had a look at the lady herself. She’s very clever, although
nearer forty than thirty. After the show I sent around my card with a
few words penciled on it, and she consented to see me.”
“What did you write?” I asked, deeply interested.
“I wrote under my name ‘In connection with the case of Charles
Merritt.’”
“Go on!”
“Well, she saw me. I told her I was looking into the Merritt affair and
asked her if she could tell me anything. She asked why I had come to