The haunting hand
laugh at the way Hart swallowed whole all you said.”
“Perhaps he didn’t, really, but he seemed to. He’d been so darn
skeptical, that when finally I got him on the run in my exposition of
events, and he was eating right out of my hand, I couldn’t resist the
temptation to see how far I could go. Besides, Gene, I think my
imagination took the bit in its teeth. I almost believed what I was
saying, once I’d started.”
“Briefly, as I see it, Margot, the light you saw was a match, and
Boyle, with his superstitious fears, might have seen anything, and you
don’t actually _know_ that there _were_ any lights at any time, for
Murchison to tap out. Isn’t that it?”
“Certainly. The night I got the scare, undoubtedly he saw my match and
thought it safer to put it out while waiting for a propitious moment
for what he planned to do.”
“Well, to return to Stoner. I can’t see why you’re in doubt as to what
to do with _that_ bird.”
“Just because, dear, Stoner’s more of a fool than a knave, in my
humble opinion. If Murchison is caught--which I’m sure he’ll be--and
if Murchison squeals, as they call it, on Stoner--which I’m not so
sure of, for rogues sometimes have strange spasms of honor--then of
course he could be punished for trafficking in stolen goods. But _I’m_
not going to be the one to denounce him to the police. After all, he
hasn’t committed a _crime_.”
“Good Lord! You’re not going to let him go scot free!”
“No--not exactly.” The smile on Margot’s lips was a trifle feline in
quality. “I have a subtle revenge and punishment planned, which I’m
going to start going to-morrow. My unseen weapon is to be Corinne
Delamar. Can’t you picture the rumpus she’ll start? First a personal
one with her quondam lover, then one staged on a larger scale with the
entire Superfilm organization as props, actors and camera men.”
“By George, Margot! You’d have been invaluable to the subtle gentlemen
at the time of the Inquisition!”
“Not quite so bad as that, am I?” She asked, laughing.
She read his answer in his eyes, and his sudden spring from his chair,
as he came toward her. At that most inopportune moment--her heart said
it was inopportune--the telephone rang. She had had a connection put
in her new quarters. She ran to the instrument, brushing by Gene’s
outstretched arms, and took up the receiver.
“Hello! Yes… yes… Fine! All right!” He heard her call into the
mouthpiece, then she turned to him, and seized his arm excitedly.
“They’ve arrested Murchison!”
CHAPTER XIV.
LOVE’S ALARM
Cornelius Hart surprised and delighted Margot with his unsuspected
power for dramatic narrative. It was almost as exciting, she told him
sweetly, as if she had been present at the pursuit, discovery and
final capture of Murchison.
“… and so, after we’d smashed in his door, and searched everywhere in
his almost empty room, I knew there was only one place he could be.
He’d locked himself into the room, for the lodging-house woman next
door was positive she’d seen him go up a short time before. She was
equally sure he hadn’t come down again. Funny, the way those dames
keep track of their lodgers!” The amused reflection cut into his
narrative.
“Yes, isn’t it!” Margot laughed, with a sudden picture of her own
landlady snooping around in halls and outside of doors.
“Well, as I was saying, I knew he was inside that room. There was no
roof, like outside that room of yours, for him to get out on and no
fire-escape either. I took one look at the hole he’d dug to get into
this house, and I had a pretty good hunch where the old fellow was
hiding. So we poked into it. I’ll be damned if he hadn’t crawled so
far in, and was so tightly wedged in the tunnel, that it took two of
us to drag him out by his heels.”
“Poor old thing, I’m a little sorry for him, after all.” Margot’s
tender heart was not proof even against the menace of a criminal who
might have threatened her own safety.
“Don’t waste your pity, Miss Anstruther! He’s a hard old nut. But I’ll
say this much for him--he didn’t squeal on the man involved with him
the night the girl had her arm chopped off.”
“I didn’t think he would,” Margot said, smiling at Gene. “Honor among
thieves, Mr. Hart.”
“He may tell yet. We haven’t grilled him yet. Wait till he’s brought
to trial. That’ll be the test, when he’ll have a chance to get off
light by squealing.”
“Rotten ethics, I should say!” Margot’s lips curled with scorn for the
strange and devious ways of the law and of what is called justice.
“Well, that’s the way it’s always been, and always will be, I guess.
Of course you’ll have to be present at the trial, Miss Anstruther.” He
looked at her as if expecting a feminine protest, but Margot only
laughed.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world! And besides,” she added seriously,
“I’m sincerely interested in that poor girl, so I’d want to be on hand
for her sake, even if I didn’t have to be.”
When Hart had gone, Margot stared thoughtfully at Gene.
“I do hope,” she said anxiously, “that I’ll be able to get a light
sentence for that poor girl. Wish I could get her off altogether, but
I’m afraid there’s no hope for that.”
“Guess not. But if _anyone_ can influence the judge in her favor, you
can, Margot, in the circumstances. Shouldn’t be surprised if she’d go
straight after this, if they give her half a chance.”
“I’m _sure_ of it. She’s got a real brain in that small head of hers,
but she’s had a rotten run for her money all her young life. ‘_Nous
allons changer tout cela_’, as the French say. But my _next_ job is to
tackle our friend Stoner, through Corinne. And then--well, there’ll be
time for another matter of importance before the trial.”
“Now what the devil have you up your sleeve?” Gene frowned
impatiently.
“Oh, a most important and thrilling affair that will demand all my
thought and time--for a few weeks.”
Gene’s despair was obvious. It would appear that the mystery,
apparently cleared up, had fallen again. Apparently Margot was not yet
ready to give him--and his love for her--their due place in the scheme
of things.
“Don’t you wish you knew?” she teased him. “All in good time, old
dear.”
“But, Margot, there’s a limit to my endurance. I’m madly in love with
you, and you promised to face that particular tragedy--and it most
certainly is a tragedy for me until I can end this suspense--as soon
as you cleared up the mystery. Now it’s cleared up, and you actually
have the nerve to tell me that when you’ve cleaned up Delamar and
Stoner, you’ve still got another important matter to adjust!”
“I did say that, didn’t I?” Her eyes tried to look dreamily absent, in
a mist of uncertainty, but she couldn’t prevent the spark of laughter
and roguish dart of mischief as her glance met his.
“You _are_ a little devil!” He made a rush at her, but she was too
quick for him.
“Come on, now, Gene! I’m famished and I’m sure you are too. Let’s
celebrate with a good dinner somewhere which includes the privilege of
buying as many cocktails as we can swallow. I feel just like it, and I
know just the place. Come on!”
Cocktails and dinner and jazz! It was the cheeriest, jolliest evening
Margot had enjoyed since the night of her now famous party. The late
editions of the evening papers gave a grotesquely lurid account of the
arrest of Murchison and of the events leading up to it, events in
which Margot Anstruther, the beautiful and clever young screen star--a
star, mind you!--had played the rôle of detective in the most
thrilling of mystery stories since the time of Sherlock Holmes. Some
particularly enterprising reporter had got hold of a picture of
Margot--a “still” from the studio--in the costume of “Conchita.” The
morning papers would of course have additional details--most of them
Simon Pure inventions, unless she interviewed the reporters, which she
did, later in the evening, before going home.
Margot and Gene took bets as to what Stoner would do on reading the
news about Murchison and the stolen radium. Gene bet that he would
give himself away by his consciousness of guilt. Margot believed that
he would bluff it out, and would try to get word to Murchison, to
attempt to bribe the old man not to drag him into it.
“Of course,” Margot said, “he’s been on pins and needles for fear I’d
unearth something. But now that the story of the radium and Stella’s
arm has come out, and Stoner’s name hasn’t been remotely referred to,
I think he’ll feel quite safe except for Murchison. You wait and see
if I’m not right.”
“As you’ve been right about everything else to date, I’ll take your
word for it, Margot.”
She refused throughout the evening to talk about herself. When Gene
took her home, she let him go into her room to smoke a cigarette, but
love-making seemed to be taboo. She was tired, she was nervous, she
was sleepy--any one of the hundred things a woman can be when she
doesn’t want a man’s caresses. Finally Gene, baffled and a little
resentful, rose to go.
He bent over her, his eager eyes and lips demanding at least a
good-night kiss. She rose slowly and put both hands on his shoulders,
looking him squarely in the eyes, without the suspicion of a smile.
She said solemnly:
“You may kiss me good night, Gene--as a _brother_. It may be for the
very last time,” with which vague threat she kissed him herself, on
the lips, in a frankly sisterly manner, and she laughed suddenly into
his puzzled eyes.
Puzzlement changed quickly to resentment. She saw his eyes darken and
flash, and his lips tighten. He drew back and shook off her hands from
his shoulders. Then he said quietly:
“You’re making a fool of me, Margot, and I don’t particularly relish
it. If my love for you strikes you merely as a joke, or something to
be sisterly about, it’s time I got out from under. I’m getting a
little tired of mysteries and of a game which amuses only one of us.”
Surprised, then suddenly angry at his impatience and failure to
respond to her mood, Margot spoke coldly.
“Your remark about getting out from under would seem to imply that
I’ve been trying to _hold_ you. That’s a little far-fetched, isn’t it,
Gene?”
He took a step nearer to her, his eyes glowing with suddenly released
passion. With a sweep of his arm he seized her and crushed her against
him. He bent his head and kissed her eyes and then her mouth as he had
never dared to kiss her before. She was too startled to struggle in
his arms, and as suddenly as he had seized her he let her go. His
lips, trembling from their passionate contact with hers, formed words
that tumbled brokenly, one over the other.
“_That’s_--just how--_brotherly_--I feel--for you. That’s the way--I’m
going to kiss you--if at all. I’ll never kiss you again--I’ll never
_see_ you--again--unless you send for me--to be your husband--or your
lover.” He seemed to fling the last word at her in bitter defiance.
“Your--technique--hasn’t improved.” She knew that it had, but she said
that, urged by a vague, primitive desire to see what he would do if
further exasperated. She might have known that he would take her a
little too literally.
“No,” he said, with slow bitterness. “I don’t suppose it has,” and
with that, and before she could detain him with a word or look, he
tore open her door and slammed it behind him.
Silly--silly, of them both, Margot reflected, as she undressed. Of
course Gene would get over his extraordinary burst of angry
resentment, and, of course, when he understood just what she had meant
by saying that he could give her a brotherly kiss for the last time,
he would be sorry he had been so fierce. However, it was rather
interesting and exciting to find that Gene _could_ be fierce like
that.
She touched her lips softly, still feeling the pressure of his. She
smiled and a little thrill of genuine emotion made her tremble. For