The Best of Mary Roberts Rinehart

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

  She rose and went over to the French windows. That flimsy bolt! She parted the curtains and looked out - a flicker of lightning stabbed the night - the storm must be almost upon them.

  "Bring some candles, Billy," she said. "The lights may be going out any moment - and Billy," as he started to leave, "there's a gentleman arriving on the last train. After he comes you may go to bed. I'll wait up for Miss Dale - oh, and Billy," arresting him at the door, "see that all the outer doors on this floor are locked and bring the keys here."

  Billy nodded and departed. Miss Cornelia took a long breath. Now that the moment for waiting had passed - the moment for action come - she felt suddenly indomitable, prepared to face a dozen Bats!

  Her feelings were not shared by her maid. "I know what all this means," moaned Lizzie. "I tell you there's going to be a death, sure!"

  "There certainly will be if you don't keep quiet," said her mistress acidly. "Lock the billiard-room windows and go to bed."

  But this was the last straw for Lizzie. A picture of the two long, dark flights of stairs up which she had to pass to reach her bedchamber rose before her - and she spoke her mind.

  "I am not going to bed!" she said wildly. "I'm going to pack up tomorrow and leave this house." That such a threat would never be carried out while she lived made little difference to her - she was beyond the need of Truth's consolations. "I asked you on my bended knees not to take this place two miles from a railroad," she went on heatedly. "For mercy's sake, Miss Neily, let's go back to the city before it's too late!"

  Miss Cornelia was inflexible.

  "I'm not going. You can make up your mind to that. I'm going to find out what's wrong with this place if it takes all summer. I came out to the country for a rest and I'm going to get it."

  "You'll get your heavenly rest!" mourned Lizzie, giving it up. She looked pitifully at her mistress's face for a sign that the latter might be weakening - but no such sign came. Instead, Miss Cornelia seemed to grow more determined.

  "Besides," she said, suddenly deciding to share the secret she had hugged to herself all day, "I might as well tell you, Lizzie. I'm having a detective sent down tonight from police headquarters in the city."

  "A detective?" Lizzie's face was horrified. "Miss Neily, you're keeping something from me! You know something I don't know."

  "I hope so. I daresay he will be stupid enough. Most of them are. But at least we can have one proper night's sleep."

  "Not I. I trust no man," said Lizzie. But Miss Cornelia had picked up the paper again.

  "'The Bat's last crime was a particularly atrocious one,'" she read. "'The body of the murdered man...'"

  But Lizzie could bear no more.

  "Why don't you read the funny page once in a while?" she wailed and hurried to close the windows in the billiard room. The door leading into the billiard room shut behind her.

  Miss Cornelia remained reading for a moment. Then - was that a sound from the alcove? She dropped the paper, went into the alcove and stood for a moment at the foot of the stairs, listening. No - it must have been imagination. But, while she was here, she might as well put on the spring lock that bolted the door from the alcove to the terrace. She did so, returned to the living-room and switched off the lights for a moment to look out at the coming storm. It was closer now - the lightning flashes more continuous. She turned on the lights again as Billy re-entered with three candles and a box of matches.

  He put them down on a side table.

  "New gardener come," he said briefly to Miss Cornelia's back.

  Miss Cornelia turned. "Nice hour for him to get here. What's his name?"

  "Say his name Brook," said Billy, a little doubtful. English names still bothered him - he was never quite sure of them at first.

  Miss Cornelia thought. "Ask him to come in," she said. "And Billy - where are the keys?"

  Billy silently took two keys from his pocket and laid them on the table. Then he pointed to the terrace door which Miss Cornelia had just bolted.

  "Door up there - spring lock," he said.

  "Yes." She nodded. "And the new bolt you put on today makes it fairly secure. One thing is fairly sure, Billy. If anyone tries to get in tonight, he will have to break a window and make a certain amount of noise."

  But he only smiled his curious enigmatic smile and went out. And no sooner had Miss Cornelia seated herself when the door of the billiard room slammed open suddenly and Lizzie burst into the room as if she had been shot from a gun - her hair wild - her face stricken with fear.

  "I heard somebody yell out in the grounds - away down by the gate!" she informed her mistress in a loud stage whisper which had a curious note of pride in it, as if she were not too displeased at seeing her doleful predictions so swiftly coming to pass.

  Miss Cornelia took her by the shoulder - half-startled, half-dubious.

  "What did they yell?"

  "Just yelled a yell!"

  "Lizzie!"

  "I heard them!"

  But she had cried "Wolf!" too often.

  "You take a liver pill," said her mistress disgustedly, "and go to bed."

  Lizzie was about to protest both the verdict on her story and the judgment on herself when the door in the hall was opened by Billy to admit the new gardener. A handsome young fellow, in his late twenties, he came two steps into the room and then stood there respectfully with his cap in his hand, waiting for Miss Cornelia to speak to him.

  After a swift glance of observation that gave her food for thought she did so.

  "You are Brooks, the new gardener?"

  The young man inclined his head.

  "Yes, madam. The butler said you wanted to speak to me.

  Miss Cornelia regarded him anew. His hands look soft - for a gardener's, she thought. And his manners seem much too good for one - Still -

  "Come in," she said briskly. The young man advanced another two steps. "You're the man my niece engaged in the city this afternoon?"

  "Yes, madam." He seemed a little uneasy under her searching scrutiny. She dropped her eyes.

  "I could not verify your references as the Brays are in Canada - " she proceeded.

  The young man took an eager step forward. "I am sure if Mrs. Bray were here - " he began, then flushed and stopped, twisting his cap.

  "Were here?" said Miss Cornelia in a curious voice. "Are you a professional gardener?"

  "Yes." The young man's manner had grown a trifle defiant but Miss Cornelia's next question followed remorselessly.

  "Know anything about hardy perennials?" she said in a soothing voice, while Lizzie regarded the interview with wondering eyes.

  "Oh. yes," but the young man seemed curiously lacking in confidence. "They - they're the ones that keep their leaves during the winter, aren't they?"

  "Come over here - closer - " said Miss Cornelia imperiously. Once more she scrutinized him and this time there was no doubt of his discomfort under her stare.

  "Have you had any experience with rubeola?" she queried finally.

  "Oh, yes - yes - yes, indeed," the gardener stammered. "Yes."

  "And - alopecia?" pursued Miss Cornelia.

  The young man seemed to fumble in his mind for the characteristics of such a flower or shrub.

  "The dry weather is very hard on alopecia," he asserted finally, and was evidently relieved to see Miss Cornelia receive the statement with a pleasant smile.

  "What do you think is the best treatment for urticaria?" she propounded with a highly professional manner.

  It appeared to be a catch-question. The young man knotted his brows. Finally a gleam of light seemed to come to him.

  "Urticaria frequently needs - er - thinning," he announced decisively.

  "Needs scratching you mean!" Miss Cornelia rose with a snort of disdain and faced him. "Young man, urticaria is hives, rubeola is measles, and alopecia is baldness!" she thundered. She waited a moment for his defense. None came.

  "Why did you tell me you were a professional gardener?" she went on ac
cusingly. "Why have you come here at this hour of night pretending to be something you're not?"

  By all standards of drama the young man should have wilted before her wrath, Instead he suddenly smiled at her, boyishly, and threw up his hands in a gesture of defeat.

  "I know I shouldn't have done it!" he confessed with appealing frankness. "You'd have found me out anyhow! I don't know anything about gardening. The to is," his tone grew somber, "I was desperate! I HAD have work!"

  The candor of his smile would have disarmed a stonier-hearted person than Miss Cornelia. But her suspicions were still awake.

  "'That's all, is it?"

  "That's enough when you're down and out." His words had an unmistakable accent of finality. She couldn't help wanting to believe him, and yet, he wasn't what he had pretended to be - and this night of all nights was no time to take people on trust!

  "How do I know you won't steal the spoons?" she queried, her voice still gruff.

  "Are they nice spoons?" he asked with absurd seriousness.

  She couldn't help smiling at his tone. "Beautiful spoons.

  Again that engaging, boyish manner of his touched something in her heart.

  "Spoons are a great temptation to me, Miss Van Gorder - but if you'll take me, I'll promise to leave them alone."

  "That's extremely kind of you," she answered with grim humor, knowing herself beaten. She went over to ring for Billy.

  Lizzie took the opportunity to gain her ear.

  "I don't trust him, Miss Neily! He's too smooth!" she whispered warningly.

  Miss Cornelia stiffened. "I haven't asked for your opinion, Lizzie," she said.

  But Lizzie was not to be put off by the Van Gorder manner.

  "Oh," she whispered, "you're just as bad as all the rest of 'em. A good-looking man comes in the door and your brains fly out the window!"

  Miss Cornelia quelled her with a gesture and turned back to the young man. He was standing just where she had left him, his cap in his hands - but, while her back had been turned, his eyes had made a stealthy survey of the living-room - a survey that would have made it plain to Miss Cornelia, if she had seen him, that his interest in the Fleming establishment was not merely the casual interest of a servant in his new place of abode. But she had not seen and she could have told nothing from his present expression.

  "Have you had anything to eat lately?" she asked in a kindly voice.

  He looked down at his cap. "Not since this morning," he admitted as Billy answered the bell.

  Miss Cornelia turned to the impassive Japanese. "Billy, give this man something to eat and then show him where he is to sleep."

  She hesitated. The gardener's house was some distance from the main building, and with the night and the approaching storm she felt her own courage weakening. Into the bargain, whether this stranger had lied about his gardening or not, she was curiously attracted to him.

  "I think," she said slowly, "that I'll have you sleep in the house here, at least for tonight. Tomorrow we can - the housemaid's room, Billy," she told the butler. And before their departure she held out a candle and a box of matches.

  "Better take these with you, Brooks," she said. "The local light company crawls under its bed every time there is a thunderstorm. Good night, Brooks."

  "Good night, ma'am," said the young man smiling. Following Billy to the door, he paused. "You're being mighty good to me," he said diffidently, smiled again, and disappeared after Billy.

  As the door closed behind them, Miss Cornelia found herself smiling too. "That's a pleasant young fellow - no matter what he is," she said to herself decidedly, and not even Lizzie's feverish "Haven't you any sense taking strange men into the house? How do you know he isn't the Bat?" could draw a reply from her.

  Again the thunder rolled as she straightened the papers and magazines on the table and Lizzie gingerly took up the ouija-board to replace it on the bookcase with the prayer book firmly on top of it. And this time, with the roll of the thunder, the lights in the living-room blinked uncertainly for an instant before they recovered their normal brilliance.

  "There go the lights!" grumbled Lizzie, her fingers still touching the prayer book, as if for protection. Miss Cornelia did not answer her directly.

  "We'll put the detective in the blue room when he comes," she said. "You'd better go up and see if it's all ready."

  Lizzie started to obey, going toward the alcove to ascend to the second floor by the alcove stairs. But Miss Cornelia stopped her.

  "Lizzie - you know that stair rail's just been varnished. Miss Dale got a stain on her sleeve there this afternoon - and Lizzie - "

  "Yes'm?"

  "No one is to know that he is a detective. Not even Billy." Miss Cornelia was very firm.

  "Well, what'l1 I say he is?"

  "It's nobody's business."

  "A detective," moaned Lizzie, opening the hall door to go by the main staircase. "Tiptoeing around with his eye to all the keyholes. A body won't be safe in the bathtub." She shut the door with a little slap and disappeared. Miss Cornelia sat down - she had many things to think over - "if I ever get time really to think of anything again," she thought, because with gardeners coming who aren't gardeners - and Lizzie hearing yells in the grounds and -

  She started slightly. The front door bell was ringing - a long trill, uncannily loud in the quiet house. She sat rigid in her chair, waiting. Billy came in.

  "Front door key, please?" he asked urbanely. She gave him the key.

  "Find out who it is before you unlock the door," she said. He nodded. She heard him at the door, then a murmur of voices - Dale's voice and another's - "Won't you come in for a few minutes? Oh, thank you." She relaxed.

  The door opened; it was Dale. "How lovely she looks in that evening wrap!" thought Miss Cornelia. But how tired, too. I wish I knew what was worrying her.

  She smiled. "Aren't you back early, Dale?"

  Dale threw off her wrap and stood for a moment patting back into its smooth, smart bob, hair ruffled by the wind.

  "I was tired," she said, sinking into a chair.

  "Not worried about anything?" Miss Cornelia's eyes were sharp.

  "No," said Dale without conviction, "but I've come here to be company for you and I don't want to run away all the time." She picked up the evening paper and looked at it without apparently seeing it. Miss Cornelia heard voices in the hall - a man's voice - affable - "How have you been, Billy?" - Billy's voice in answer, "Very well, sir."

  "Who's out there, Dale?" she queried.

  Dale looked up from the paper. "Doctor Wells, darling," she said in a listless voice. "He brought me over from the club; I asked him to come in for a few minutes. Billy's just taking his coat." She rose, threw the paper aside, came over and kissed Miss Cornelia suddenly and passionate1y - then before Miss Cornelia, a little startled, could return the kiss, went over and sat on the settee by the fireplace near the door of the billiard room.

  Miss Cornelia turned to her with a thousand questions on her tongue, but before she could ask any of them, Billy was ushering in Doctor Wells.

  As she shook hands with the Doctor, Miss Cornelia observed him with casual interest - wondering why such a good-looking man, in his early forties, apparently built for success, should be content with the comparative rustication of his local practice. That shrewd, rather aquiline face, with its keen gray eyes, would have found itself more at home in a wider sphere of action, she thought - there was just that touch of ruthlessness about it which makes or mars a captain in the world's affairs. She found herself murmuring the usual conventionalities of greeting.

  "Oh, I'm very well, Doctor, thank you. Well, many people at the country club?"

  "Not very many," he said, with a shake of his head. "This failure of the Union Bank has knocked a good many of the club members sky high."

  "Just how did it happen?" Miss Cornelia was making conversation.

  "Oh, the usual thing." The Doctor took out his cigarette case. "The cashier, a young chap named B
ailey, looted the bank to the tune of over a million."

  Dale turned sharply toward them from her seat by the fireplace.

  "How do you know the cashier did it?" she said in a low voice.

  The Doctor laughed. "Well - he's run away, for one thing. The bank examiners found the deficit. Bailey, the cashier, went out on an errand - and didn't come back. The method was simple enough - worthless bonds substituted for good ones - with a good bond on the top and bottom of each package, so the packages would pass a casual inspection. Probably been going on for some time."

  The fingers of Dale's right hand drummed restlessly on the edge of her settee.

  "Couldn't somebody else have done it?" she queried tensely.

  The Doctor smiled, a trifle patronizingly.

  "Of course the president of the bank had access to the vaults," he said. "But, as you know, Mr. Courtleigh Fleming, the late president, was buried last Monday."

  Miss Cornelia had seen her niece's face light up oddly at the beginning of the Doctor's statement - to relapse into lassitude again at its conclusion. Bailey - Bailey - she was sure she remembered that name - on Dale's lips.

  "Dale, dear, did you know this young Bailey?" she asked point-blank.

  The girl had started to light a cigarette. The flame wavered in her fingers, the match went out.

  "Yes - slightly," she said. She bent to strike another match, averting her face. Miss Cornelia did not press her.

  "What with bank robberies and communism and the income tax," she said, turning the subject, "the only way to keep your money these days is to spend it."

  "Or not to have any - like myself!" the Doctor agreed.

  "It seems strange," Miss Cornelia went on, "living in Courtleigh Fleming's house. A month ago I'd never even heard of Mr. Fleming - though I suppose I should have - and now - why, I'm as interested in the failure of his bank as if I were a depositor!"

  The Doctor regarded the end of his cigarette.

  "As a matter of fact," he said pleasantly, "Dick Fleming had no right to rent you the property before the estate was settled. He must have done it the moment he received my telegram announcing his uncle's death"