The Mask: A Story of Love and Adventure

by H. B. Marriott Watson

  CHAPTER XVII

  "I'm sure it was Mary," exclaimed Ray positively. "I never did likethe girl. She was sullen and vicious and would stop at nothing to geteven with us for discharging her."

  "Perhaps you are right," said Helen, "although it is hard to believethat a woman would do such a cruel thing to a mother. Just imagine howworried I was all the way to Philadelphia, only to find when I gotthere that no message had been sent, and Dorothy was perfectly well."

  It was evening. The two women were sitting alone in the library on thesecond floor, Ray busy at her trousseau, Helen helping her with a pieceof embroidery. The master of the house was absent, as usual. He hadnot come home to dinner, having telephoned at the last minute that hewas detained at the club, a thing of such common occurrence since hisreturn from South Africa that Helen had come to accept it as a matterof course. Indeed, things had come to such a pass that she ratherwelcomed his absence. She preferred the sweet, amiable companionshipof her little sister to that of a man who had suddenly become exacting,over-bearing and quarrelsome.

  "Why don't you let Dorothy come home?" asked Ray. "Then you wouldn'thave this constant worry about her."

  "I think I will, now that we are more settled and things are quieter.I wrote to auntie to-day that I might go to Philadelphia one day nextweek to bring her home. You are right. I shall not be happy untilshe's with me. I have such terrible dreams about her. If anythingwere to happen that child, I think it would kill me."

  Ray nodded approvingly. Sympathetically, she said:

  "Yes, dear. You'll feel better satisfied when she's with you. Besidesshe'll be a companion for you--especially when I'm married----"

  Helen sighed and turned away her face so her sister should not see thetears that suddenly filled her eyes. Sorrowfully, she said:

  "It will be terrible to lose you, dear. Of course, I'm happy over yourmarriage. It would be very selfish in me to want to stand in the wayof your happiness. I'm sure I wish you and Wilbur every joyimaginable. But I shall certainly feel very lonely when you are gone."

  The young girl looked closely at her sister. She realized that hersister was no longer the happy, contented woman she once was, and shereadily guessed the cause. Helen had not taken her into herconfidence, but she had ears and eyes. Living in the house in suchclose intimacy, she could not help noticing that the relations betweenthe wife and husband were no longer what they had been. Guardedly shesaid:

  "But you have Kenneth."

  Helen sighed and was silent.

  Ray looked up. More gently she said:

  "Haven't you your husband, dear?"

  Her sister shook her head. There was a note of utter discouragementand melancholy in her voice as she answered:

  "He is seldom home--his club seems to have more attraction for him. Irarely see him except at breakfast time." She was silent for a moment,and then added quickly: "Would you believe that he hasn't been home asingle night since the time I was called to Philadelphia?"

  Ray opened her eyes.

  "He's out all night?"

  "Yes--all night. The other morning it was seven o'clock when he camehome--and his dress suit and shirt looked as if he had been in a fight."

  The young girl put down her work and looked at her sister in dismay.

  "Sis!--what's the matter with Ken all at once?"

  Helen made no reply, but covering her face with her two hands, burstinto tears. Ray rose quickly and going over to where she was sitting,sat on the edge of the chair and put her arms about her. Soothinglyshe said:

  "Don't cry, dear, don't cry. He will soon be himself again. Histerrible experience on the steamer upset him dreadfully. His nervoussystem underwent such a shock that it has entirely changed hischaracter. Wilbur says it is quite a common phenomenon. Only theother day he read in some medical book an article on that very subject.The writer says any great shock of that kind can cause a temporarydisarrangement of the moral sense and perceptions. For example, a manwho, under ordinary circumstances is a perfect model of a husband, withevery good quality and virtue, may suddenly lose all sense of conductand become am unprincipled _roue_. In other words, we have two natureswithin us. When our system is working normally we succeed in keepingthe evil that's in us under control; but following any great shock, thesystem is disarranged, the evil gains the ascendancy, and we appearquite another person. This explains the dual personality about whichWilbur and I had an argument the other day. Don't you remember?"

  Helen nodded. Sadly she said:

  "I begin to think you are right. Certainly he has changed. If he hadbeen like this when I first met him I should never have married him.It is not the Kenneth I learned to love." Bitterly, she added: "As heis now, I feel I dislike and detest him. Unless he soon changes forthe better, I shall leave him. In self respect I can't go on livinglike this?"

  Kissing her sister again, Ray rose and went back to her seat.Confidently, she said:

  "Don't worry, dear. I'm sure everything will be all right soon. Yousee if I'm not right. By my wedding day--only three weeks awaynow--you'll think as much of Ken as ever----"

  "I hope so, dear, but three weeks is a long time to wait----"

  The young girl laughed.

  "Why that's nothing at all. Just imagine Ken is ill or gone away fromyou on a visit for that length of time----"

  As she spoke the door opened, and Francois entered with a silversalver, which he presented to his mistress.

  "A letter for Madame."

  Helen looked at the envelope and threw it down with a gesture ofimpatience. Crossly, she exclaimed:

  "Francois, I do wish you'd be more careful. Can't you read. Don't yousee the letter is addressed to Mr. Traynor?"

  The valet nodded.

  "_Oui_, madame. But as Monsieur is out I thought that possiblymadame----"

  Incensed more at the fellow's impudent air than by what he actuallysaid, Helen lost her temper. Angrily, she exclaimed:

  "Don't think. People of your class are not hired to think; they arepaid to do as they are told. You've been very careless in your workrecently. The next time it happens I shall have to tell you to findanother place."

  The valet smiled. An insolent look passed over his sallow, angularface. Dropping completely his deferential manner and fixing the twowomen with a bold, familiar stare, he said impudently:

  "You needn't wait till next time. I'll quit right now, _parbleu_.It's a rotten job, anyhow."

  Indignant, Helen pointed to the door.

  "Go!" she cried. "The housekeeper will settle with you. Never let mesee your face again."

  The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders and went toward the door. As hereached it, he turned round, a sneer on his face:

  "You'll see me again all right, but ze circumstances may be different?My lady may not be so proud ze next time."

  With this parting shot, he went away, and a moment later they heard himgoing up to his room to pack his things.

  Ray turned to her sister. Reprovingly, she said:

  "Weren't you a little severe with him?"

  Helen shook her head. Quickly, she said:

  "I never could bear the sight of the man. He is treacherous anddeceitful. I'm not at all sure that he's honest. It was only afterhe'd been here some time that I learned he was formerly with SignorKeralio. That was enough to set me against him. Like master, likevalet, as the saying goes, and it's usually a true saying. On severaloccasions lately I have noticed things that seemed suspicious. Thefellow is more intimate now with Kenneth than I, his wife, have everbeen. Only the other day I discovered them in earnest and intimateconversation. Directly I appeared they separated and Francois, insteadof continuing to converse on terms of apparent social equality, wasonce more the fawning valet. I didn't take the trouble to ask Kennethwhat it all meant. So many singular things have happened since hisreturn, that this only adds one more to the list."

  "May I come in?" said a voice.

  He
len looked up quickly. It was Wilbur Steell who was standing at thedoor with his head half in the room, laughing at them. The two womenhad been so busy talking that they had not heard the sound ofapproaching footsteps. With an exclamation of joy Ray jumped to herfeet and ran up to him.

  "It's Wilbur--my precious Wilbur!"

  Helen nodded approvingly, as she noticed the girl's enthusiasm.Certainly her sister had changed. She was hardly the cold,self-centered Ray of six months ago. With a smile she said:

  "It's astonishing how a man can alter a girl--if he's the right kind."

  The lawyer laughed.

  "It works both ways. The right kind of woman can make a man change hisways--even a hardened old bachelor. Who could have guessed that Iwould ever fall in love?"

  Helen sighed.

  "What is love? We have it to-day; it eludes us to-morrow. A few weeksago I thought I loved my husband better than any being in the world.To-day, I can hardly look him in the face. How do you account for it?"

  Dropping into a chair, the lawyer look serious.

  "I can't account for it, nor can I blame you. Kenneth has returnedfrom South Africa a changed man. Whether the wreck and the loss of thediamonds affected his mind I do not know. Only a psychologist coulddetermine that. But he is not the same. Where is he to-night?"

  Helen threw up her hands.

  "Do I ever know?" she exclaimed wearily. "I haven't seen him sincemorning, and don't expect to see him before breakfast to-morrow. He'sat his club or drinking and carousing, or in some gambling houseplaying roulette. How do I know?"

  "It is certainly a most singular case," said the lawyer meditatively."Mr. Parker and I have gone carefully over his accounts at theCompany's office. Everything is perfectly regular. There only remainsthe missing diamonds. We have detectives working on half a dozen cluesbut so far we have accomplished nothing. We have also gone toWashington to get the secret service men interested in the case on theground that if the diamonds are here they were smuggled in and no dutywas paid. But we found the secret service men busy following upcounterfeiters. The country is being flooded with counterfeit $10bills--a splendid reproduction, almost defying detection. It isbelieved that the plates and presses from which they are made are righthere in New York and the whole secret service force is at work tryingto run the counterfeiters to earth. This is why our diamond case isgoing so slowly. They are so busy following up the counterfeiters theyhave no time for us."

  Ray, much interested, leaned eagerly forward.

  "A counterfeit ten dollar bill, did you say?" she demanded.

  "Yes--it is a remarkable counterfeit. You would not know it from agood one. Only an expert can tell the difference. But all thesecrooks overreach themselves. Clever as they are, they usually leavesome mark which betrays them. For example, in printing this bill whichbears the head of Lincoln, they have spelled his first name'Abrahem'--in other words, the engraver made an 'e' when it should havebeen 'a.'"

  Ray jumped up, quite excited. Her eyes flashing, she cried.

  "Isn't that strange! I have a new $10 bill, and I noticed to-day thequeer spelling of Abraham. Wouldn't it be funny if I had one of thecounterfeits?"

  The lawyer smiled.

  "It wouldn't be funny; it would be a tragedy, considering that in ashort while from now I am to pay your bills. Where is the bank note?"

  "I'll run up and get it. It's in my purse."

  When she had disappeared, Steell turned to his hostess and said:

  "Have you seen Signor Keralio lately?"

  "Hardly--you know I dismissed him from the house."

  The lawyer sat thoughtfully drumming his fingers on the table.Musingly, he said:

  "Somehow I have a hunch that that fellow knows something about thediamonds. Does Kenneth ever see him?"

  "I asked him the other day. He said he did not."

  "That's strange!" exclaimed the lawyer. "It was only yesterday morningthat I saw them together in a taxicab."

  "Where?" demanded Helen, surprised.

  "Away uptown. I had business up in the Bronx. I was driving my carand was near 200th street and going north when suddenly I had to steerto one side to allow a taxicab to pass. There were two men in it. Ijust chanced to glance inside and, to my surprise, I recognized yourhusband and Keralio."

  "What time was that?"

  "Very early--about nine o'clock."

  "What direction?"

  "They were coming south."

  "Then he must have been with Keralio all night, for he didn't comehome."

  The lawyer was silent. Certainly here was a mystery which needed moredetective talent than he possessed to clear up. Yet he would not restuntil it was solved. To-morrow he would get Dick Reynolds busy, andthey would go to work in earnest. The first thing to find out was whattook Keralio and Kenneth to the Bronx.

  "Does Keralio live in the Bronx?"

  "I don't know," said Helen.

  "I'll find out," said the lawyer, grimly.

  At that moment Ray returned, holding out a new ten-dollar bill.

  "I was right," she cried. "The name Abraham is spelled with an 'e.'Do you really think this is a counterfeit?"

  The lawyer took the bill and examined it critically.

  "I have no doubt of it," he answered. "There are otherindications--the general appearance, the touch of the paper. Where didyou get it?"

  For a moment the young girl was puzzled.

  "Let me think. Where did I get it. Oh yes, I know. Francois gave itto me."

  "Francois!" exclaimed Helen.

  The lawyer started and looked up in surprise.

  "Francois, your brother-in-law's valet?"

  "Yes--I wanted a $20 bill changed to pay for some things that came homefrom the store, and he went out and brought me some old bills and thisnew one."

  The lawyer gave vent to a low, expressive whistle.

  "Francois gave it to you, eh? Where is Francois?"

  "I discharged him to-day for insolence," said Helen.

  "He's gone!"

  "Yes--he went shortly before you came in."

  The lawyer jumped to his feet, a look of exultation on his face.Quickly, he said:

  "Didn't you say that this Francois was formerly with Signor Keralio?"

  "Yes--he was with him for years."

  The lawyer gave a wild whoop of joy.

  "Then we've got it--at last."

  "Got what?" cried the women.

  "A clue--a clue!" cried the lawyer, excitedly. "Can't you see it?Francois is hand in glove with Keralio--the master rogue who is makingthis counterfeit."

  "What do you propose to do?"

  "Find where Keralio lives--then, perhaps, we'll find the lost diamonds."