The sinister mark
Clancy? Why should I answer your questions? I don't see----"
"You're a friend of Donald Morris's, an old and intimate friend," said
Peter, gravely. "You must be affected, deeply affected, I should think,
by the sight of his unhappiness."
"Yes," she said at once. "Yes--and I didn't know--I didn't realize
completely until this morning. But," she broke off, and cast a keen
glance at Peter, "forgive me, Mr. Clancy, but I don't see what concern
it can be of yours. I know most of Donald's friends--and I never saw
you before."
"Yet I think I can truly say that I am a friend to Donald Morris," said
Peter with evident sincerity. "And, aside from that, Mrs. Rutherford,
I'm a professional detective. I----"
"Clancy--Peter Clancy," she exclaimed, quickly. "I thought I'd heard
that name! Why, you're the man Dick Schuyler told me about, several
years ago."
Peter nodded. "Yes, Mrs. Rutherford, and it was Mr. Schuyler who
recommended me to Donald Morris. They both trust me, I think I can
safely say. Won't you trust me, too, Mrs. Rutherford?"
She looked at him for a long time in silence. Then she said:
"Yes, I think so.... I think, perhaps, I must.... It's a terrible
responsibility I have upon me. I didn't realize how serious it was
until to-day.... And now, I don't know.... I can't be sure what I ought
to do. But let me see. Ask your questions, Mr. Clancy, and I'll see if
I can answer them. What is it you want to know?"
"I've already asked one question that you haven't answered, Mrs.
Rutherford," Peter said with a little smile. "Perhaps you don't realize
that you haven't."
"No," she said, her straight black eyebrows drawn together in a
thoughtful frown. "What was the question?"
"I asked you how you happened to call Miss Blake's apartment on the day
after she disappeared?"
"Oh, yes. I remember, you did ask me that. Well," she spoke slowly, "it
was because of a letter I'd just received from her. It had just come
in, and I got it at the hotel desk when I turned in my key. I was so
worried about it that I went immediately to a booth and called her up."
"Yes, but what was in the letter?" asked Peter, eagerly. "Did she say
where she was going, or why?"
"That was what puzzled, worried me," said Mrs. Rutherford, frowning
still more. "It was a--a sort of wild letter. I couldn't understand
it. She said she was going away. That she might never come back.... It
sounded desperate.... She thanked me for all I had been to her. Asked
me to forgive her.... Not that I had anything to forgive. The whole
thing was my fault, if there was a fault." She paused, and added, "And
that was all, Mr. Clancy. There was nothing else in the letter. I give
you my word, that was all."
Disappointment was written large on Peter's face.
Kate Rutherford went on: "I thought that possibly she might not have
gone, so I called her apartment at once. I wanted to see her, to
dissuade her, if possible. Her career ... it seemed a shame--a terrible
waste. I couldn't understand why, when she had reached the height
we all crave, she should----And then I found she wasn't there. That
there were strangers in the apartment. I couldn't imagine why. I was
frightened, and rang off. I knew it would be no use to go down there.
She had said definitely, in her letter, that she was going away at
once. It was only on a bare chance that I called up----"
"I--see," said Peter, slowly. He thought in silence for a moment. Then
he dropped down upon the rock, bringing his face on a level with the
clever, mobile face of old "Kate Rohan."
"You said, a few minutes ago--" he hesitated--"I think you admitted,
Mrs. Rutherford, that you felt concerned for Donald Morris."
"Yes," she said, quickly. "I had no idea, until I read that article
in the paper last night--and saw Donald this morning--I knew, of
course, that he was interested in Mary Blake. He made no secret of it.
But Don has had a great many women friends, and he had the artist's
enthusiastic way of speaking of them--I didn't realize that this was
really serious."
"But you do realize it now?"
"Yes," she replied, sadly. "Yes. I think there can be no doubt. The
poor boy----"
"Mrs. Rutherford," Peter said, leaning forward and watching her face,
"do you know of a reason why Donald Morris should not marry Miss Blake?"
There was a long silence. The majestic old lady leaned slightly
forward, her tightly clasped hands resting on her ample knees. Her
white head was bent, her eyes fixed on the ground. After what seemed to
Peter a long time, she said:
"I--I think she would have--must have felt--that there was a reason."
"And do you feel that it was a reason, Mrs. Rutherford? A sufficient
reason?"
"I"--she raised her head, and threw out her hands in an expressive
gesture--"I don't know. I don't know how I would have felt, Mr. Clancy.
Knowing Donald as I do--no, I don't know how I would have felt," she
repeated, disconsolately.
"Will you tell me the reason, Mrs. Rutherford?" said Peter, with deep
seriousness in his tone. "I know a good deal. But I need to know
more. I can't form a definite plan until I'm sure. I've made some
guesses--just to-day and yesterday--that have sent me off on a new
tack. If what I've suddenly come to believe turns out to be true,
I think there's a chance, possibly a remote chance, of finding--of
finding Miss Blake."
"You think--you think there is?" There was an eager light in the
expressive old eyes.
"I think there may be," said Peter, evasively. "But I can do nothing
without your help, Mrs. Rutherford. That's my trouble. I must know
the whole story, as I am sure that you, and you only, can tell it.
All I am certain of, at the present time, is that Rosamond and Anne
Curwood (whom I first heard of as Mary and Anne Blake) were the twin
daughters of a man called Winthrop Curwood, who lived somewhere up in
the mountains, between here and Hobart Falls."
"Winthrop Curwood! You know, then, of Winthrop Curwood?" exclaimed Mrs.
Rutherford, sitting up straight, and looking at Peter in surprise.
"I know that he was the father, and that he was blind," said Peter.
"Yes, blind," sighed Mrs. Rutherford. "Poor Win!"
"You knew him, then?" said Peter, quick to note the familiar use of the
name.
"Oh, yes. I knew Win Curwood well. Very well, indeed," said Mrs.
Rutherford, sadly. "You're too young to remember, but he was leading
man at the Athenæum and I played opposite to him for two seasons."
"Ah, I--see," said Peter. "An actor. That explains--but go on,
Mrs. Rutherford. Tell me about him. How he came to be here, in this
out-of-the-way part of the country--who he was--everything. He was an
Englishman, wasn't he?"
"Yes, and well known in England. Arthur Quinn saw him play in London
and made him a big offer to come over here. He joined the company while
it was still at its best, and he was a great addition. A wonderful
actor, and handsome almost beyond belief. He was younger than I by a
number of years but we soon became great friends. I was jealous of him,
of course," with raised eyebrows and a whimsical smile, "but not so
much as I might have been, perhaps. He was very generous and tactful,
and after all, at that time, I didn't have much need to fear a rival in
popularity." There was an expression in the great, dark eyes, half sad,
half amused at the recollection.
"He was with us only two seasons," she continued. "I remember it was
in the middle of the second winter that I began to notice that he
wasn't quite himself. He hadn't quite the same certainty of movement,
and once, during performance, when he stumbled against a low table and
overturned it, I felt sure that he had been drinking. I said nothing at
the time, but afterward I spoke to him--and he told me. He was going
blind! Think of it, Mr. Clancy. Going blind, with no hope!... I don't
think he confided in any one but me until the very end. He managed to
get through the season--it would have left Arthur Quinn and the company
in an awful hole if he hadn't, and with my help--I played up to him
and helped him as well as I was able--he saw it through.... And then,
simply disappeared. He did tell Arthur Quinn (the manager, you know)
why he would not be able to play again.... And that was the last any
of us ever saw, and the last for a great many years that I ever heard,
of Winthrop Curwood."
The deep tones ceased, and Peter saw that there was a mist in the fine
old eyes. After a moment he said, gently:
"And then, after many years, you met Anne Curwood."
She roused herself at that and looked at Peter.
"Yes," she said, slowly. "I don't know how you found that out--but it
doesn't matter. Yes, I saw Anne Curwood, and curiously enough, too, it
was at Helena Atterbury's house that I saw her first."
Peter started in surprise. "At Mrs. Atterbury's house!" he exclaimed.
"Why, then, Morris must have seen her--must have seen Anne Blake!"
Mrs. Rutherford shook her head. "I don't know whether he ever saw her,
or if he did, whether he noticed her or would have given her a thought
if he had. She was doing menial work--Win Curwood's daughter: I can
hardly bear to think of it.... And, too, she was painfully shy and
self-conscious."
"On account of that birthmark," Peter interjected.
Mrs. Rutherford gave him a quick look, but went on at once, as if he
had not spoken--"You see, she appeared to be only a servant, after all.
She came in to do cleaning by the day. There was a great scarcity of
help here that year and we all had to manage as well as we could. That
was how I came to speak with her. I was telling Helena about a lot
of trouble I was having with the servants, and she said she thought I
might be able to get Anne Curwood for at least one day a week. At the
moment I thought nothing of the name, but when I saw her and heard
her speak--well, I became interested and engaged her at once for two
days a week. After a time, when she became used to me and my ways, I
asked her, point blank, about her father--and established, to my own
satisfaction, that she was, really, the daughter of my old friend, Win
Curwood."
"Did she tell you, at that time, about her sister, Rosamond?" asked
Peter.
"No, it was later, much later, that I learned about the sister," she
answered, quietly.
"You found her after you'd taken Anne to New York as your companion?"
Mrs. Rutherford slowly turned her head, and looked long into Peter's
eyes. Then Peter did a curious thing. They were all alone, in the deep
solitude of the leafy woods. There was no one, apparently, within miles
of them, certainly no one within earshot, but Peter leaned forward, and
with his keen eyes fixed on Kate Rutherford's face, he whispered, just
above his breath, one sentence--only one--but the effect was electrical.
She started forward and grasped his arm with clutching fingers. Her
face was white.
"How--how did you guess?" she asked, breathlessly.
CHAPTER XXIII
A MIDNIGHT ERRAND
Donald Morris paced nervously back and forth, back and forth, upon
the wide, ground-floor veranda of his sister's house. He could look
out along the road up which Clancy had gone, hours before, with Mrs.
Rutherford.
As the slow minutes dragged themselves away, his impatience mounted,
but he kept himself in hand. Clancy knew his business--of that he
was convinced--but what possible connection it could have with Mrs.
Rutherford he was at a loss to determine.
The luncheon hour had come and gone, and it was after three o'clock
when Donald, eagerly watching, saw Clancy make the turn which brought
him into sight, and saw him coming at a run down the sloping road.
"What has happened, Clancy?" Donald cried, impetuously, as they came
close. "Where have you been all these hours?"