The Almost Complete Short Fiction

by Don Wilcox

  The voices fell silent. Brenda stopped. Intuitively she felt that she had nearly intruded upon a secret moment.

  Through the leafy shadows she could see the two forms—Louise and her mysterious friend. The young man was not wearing a mask. He was holding it in his left hand. And he was kissing Louise.

  Brenda glanced around her. She moved a few steps closer. She cleared her throat gently. They didn’t hear her. Louise was speaking.

  “To think that you are really Bob Porter!” she said softly. “It’s been you all along, Bob. But how could I know? How could I know that you ever thought of me after those short times we were together?”

  “Believe me, Louise, I’ve dreamed of meeting you again,” the tall young man said. “Not in Washington, but here in this garden—near the river—”

  “The river?”

  “The invisible river. It’s my home, Louise. That’s why I’d like to have you see it as I see it. Not many people can, you know. It’s right over here at the ravine. Won’t you come?”

  “I—I don’t know, Bob. This is all so sudden and—”

  “And unbelievable, even now that you know? Please come with me.”

  “Tomorrow night, Bob, I’ve promised to talk with Jim Stark,” said Louise. “He’s determined to win over me in a game of chess. I’m going to bring him here, Bob. I hope I’ll see you too. Now—”

  Louise was about to say goodnight when, glancing back toward the mansion, she saw Brenda standing there.

  “Yes, it’s me,” said Brenda abruptly. “I came to find you. The scientists are waiting for someone to call them to order.”

  “Oh, Brenda,” Louise started down to her. “This is the man in the mask—only he’s really—”

  “He’s really a ghost, and don’t try to tell me different,” said Brenda. “All right, kiss him goodnight and come on. Your party needs you.”

  “But I thought Professor White—”

  “Teddy! That young rascal couldn’t find any papers to speak from and he’s in such a stew he’s got me boiling.”

  “Papers?” said the young man in the black silk raiment. “I think I can help.”

  Whereupon he turned and walked off into the wooded ravine. Brenda stared into the deep shadows, a strange expression on her face.

  “Did you see what I saw?” she asked Louise.

  “I saw him walk away, with the moon lighting his waves of blue-black hair.” Louise spoke as if in a reverie. “I saw the glitter of emeralds as he put the wide cap on over his mask. Then I saw a thousand colors in the moonbeams that carried him off into the darkness.”

  “Ugh!” Brenda muttered uncomfortably. “I didn’t see any color. I’m not sure I saw any jewels. But I’d swear I saw him vanish!’

  “He did vanish,” Louise whispered, “in a river of magic.”

  Presently the masked figure reappeared. He strode up and spoke pleasantly, but the mask was frightening to Brenda and she kept moving away from him.

  “Here are the papers Professor White lost,” he said. Then for a second time he disappeared.

  Every step of the way back to the house Brenda grew angrier. Finally she exploded. “River of magic! Don’t tell me I He’s nothing but a common thief, lurking in our woods. Give him a chance and he’ll steal the very doorsteps off the porch. We’ve got to get the police after him—the quicker the better.”

  CHAPTER VII

  Darlene Takes a Ride

  The following afternoon Senator James Stark arrived at an airport within a two hours’ drive of his destination.

  While he was making arrangements for a car to drive to the lakeside estate he happened to find Darlene Donovan, Louise’s secretary and companion. She, too, was bound for the country mansion to be with Louise.

  “Just my good fortune,” the handsome young senator exulted. “I’ll load up your luggage and we’ll be off together at once.”

  “I’m sure Louise thinks I’ve deserted her,” Darlene said. “Still, according to the papers, she hasn’t been suffering for lack of company. Imagine it—fifty scientists! Are we on the right road?”

  The car hummed down the highway. Senator Stark always got a feeling of power out of driving, and he never drove anything less than the best. He didn’t, have to. As soon as he was accustomed to the touch of the wheel and the foot-feed, he settled back and turned his attention to the pretty girl beside him.

  This was luck indeed. Anyone as close to the nation’s Miss Citizen as Darlene Donovan would be sure to have some influence.

  “I talked with her on the phone yesterday,” said Stark. “I know she’s glad I’m coming. Naturally.” He laughed. “Not only because I’m her intimate friend, the Senator, but also on account of all those fireworks.”

  Darlene frowned. “What do you suppose caused all that excitement? People don’t just walk out to the road and start shooting at the cars going by.”

  “There must be money at stake,” said the senator. Darlene observed that he tilted his chin with an air of importance. It was a well-practiced pose, famous for making his senatorial oratory convincing. “Whatever these scientists expect to get out of their sojourn at her estate, they must be on the trail of something with great value. Otherwise no rival gang would try to head them off.”

  “So you think the scientists are mixed up in a gang war?”

  James Stark didn’t know about that, but he was sure the police would bog down in their investigation.

  “From the babble of foreign scientists there’s no way to know whether some of the fifty might not belong to the gun crew. I expect to start my own investigation when I get there.”

  This sounded to Darlene like a noble purpose. “Could I help?”

  “You’d do anything for Louise, wouldn’t you?” he said, rather too enthusiastically.

  “She’s my best friend.” Darlene wondered what he was getting at.

  “I’m glad I ran across you,” he said. “You can do something very important for her. You can help her come to a decision. I want you to talk to her.”

  “What about?”

  “Me,” said the senator. “I want to marry her.”

  “That,” said Darlene, “comes under the head of not my business.”

  “Look, Darlene.” James Stark unrolled some bills. “The next election is just around the corner. What I need before that election is the popular Louise Wilmott for a wife. Suppose Bob Porter should take a notion to run again? Where would I be? I’m willing to pay a fair price to swing the deal. See?

  “I see too well. You’re trying to bribe your way into popular favor. You don’t love Louise.”

  “Love—that hasn’t anything to do with it,” said James Stark, with an impudent tilt of his head. “Be your age, Darlene. The point is, I’m going to marry her. If you don’t help me put the deal over you’ll wish you had.”

  “I don’t like to be threatened,” Darlene snapped angrily. “You’ve opened your mouth to the wrong person, Senator. I’m going to tell her everything you said.”

  He held the steering-wheel and his billfold with his left hand and shuffled out some more bills. He slapped the pack against his knee.

  “There’s more cash than you could make in a year. How about playing the game with me?”

  “Just what would you have me do?” asked Darlene dryly.

  “Put a bug in her ear. Tell her there’s a rumor in Washington that she’s unappreciative of Jim Stark’s favors. Tell her the story is going the rounds that everybody knows she wants to marry him except herself and she’s too stubborn to admit it. Tell her the congressional leaders Say her scientific goal will suffer if she doesn’t take her place in Washington society as my wife.”

  Darlene wanted to slap him. If he had been anybody but the well-known senator, she would have slapped him.

  “Here’s the money,” he said insistently. “Well, aren’t you going to take it?”

  Darlene was white with anger. “I’d rather die than betray a friend like Louise.”

 
“Don’t talk foolishness. That’s a lot of money. Think it over while we stop at this tavern for a drink.”

  There was something strange about the taste of the drink that James Stark ordered for Darlene in the tavern. Darlene drank leisurely. The senator had remembered an important telephone call. She had finished her drink by the time he returned.

  They got into the car again and sped off.

  Darlene yawned. For some reason she was getting very sleepy. But why not take a good nap? It would be hours before they reached Louise’s place if the senator kept driving this way.

  “Where are we going?” Darlene asked. “This can’t be right.”

  “Don’t you like it?” James Stark’s voice was edged with caustic sarcasm.

  “This is the way back to the airport. Why?”

  “You’re a very sleepy girl, aren’t you? Well, don’t let it worry you. You’ll have time for a good long rest.”

  “Everything—is—fading,” Darlene said slowly. She closed her eyes.

  “Make it a long, sound sleep, you little simpleton,” said James Stark. “After what I’ve told you, it wouldn’t do to have you around where you can talk—and so—”

  “So-o-o?”

  “So I’ve just called in for a reservation for you on a southbound plane. Imagine yourself taking a long, long trip down to Argentina. Won’t that be pleasant?”

  Darlene barely heard, and somehow it sounded very pleasant. But she was already too far away to answer.

  CHAPTER VIII

  The Senator Plays a Double Game

  That evening Theodore White was interrupted just as he was being presented to the assembled scientists. What mysteries he was to expound no one knew. For as he was in the very act of swallowing his boyish embarrassment and clearing his throat to speak, Senator James Stark strode in.

  Stark’s grand entrance swept everything else aside. Photographers and reporters were on hand to make the most of this moment. Perhaps they missed the most dramatic expression by failing to snap the disappointment in Theodore White’s face as he was nosed out of his place in front of the audience.

  The French scientist, who had been chosen chairman for the evening, waved his arms helplessly against the battery of flash bulbs.

  “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” the young senator shouted to the crowd. The newsreel men followed him toward the improvised dais. “It is a pleasure to see such a fine group of intelligent faces gathered together in one room.”

  Fifty scientists’ beamed like schoolboys.

  “This moment has long been Louise Wilmott’s wish,” the senator went on, lustily. “And my wish as well. I cannot say which one of us has wished for you more. We’ll not split hairs over the credit of your coming. The point is that, at last, here tonight, we have joined in a movement for closer cooperation between science and the functions of our government.

  “And so, my dear friends, in appreciation of your reception, I shall consider it my duty to speak to you at some length—”

  That was only the beginning. Thus he was fairly launched, and all else that might have happened on that evening’s program was swept into a trash can of oblivion.

  Theodore White retired to the rear door and did his best to listen attentively.

  Louise entered a few minutes late and took a seat in the rear of the room. She had met James Stark downstairs a few minutes before. Now she was greatly puzzled to discover this state of affairs. The scientists, however, were engrossed in the speech; and if they had not been they would nevertheless have listened respectfully, realizing the high esteem which Americans bestow upon their senators. They had forgotten Theodore White, who, after all, was comparatively unknown.

  Disconsolately Teddy White turned his notes over in his hands, and presently he left the assembly.

  Stark talked on and on. Louise wondered, however, if he might be thinking of something besides his speech. He seemed to be searching the audience for some familiar faces.

  For whom? These foreign scientists would not be known to him. It appeared that he did expect, however, to see a few persons he knew. Perhaps, thought Louise, he was secretly worried to discover that they were not present.

  The senator’s eyes had occasionally lingered with interest upon the scientific documents which Theodore White held, until growing discomfort had caused the latter to walk out. This, too, mystified Louise.

  At last the evening session with the scientists was done, except for the after-meeting babble. Whether the conference had gotten off to a promise of something practical seemed a matter for debate in a dozen different languages. The young senator couldn’t stay to answer questions. He had other matters to attend to.

  “I’ll have an interview for you tomorrow,” he told the reporters with a wink. “I’m dated for a private conversation with Louise Wilmott for the rest of the evening. See you tomorrow, boys.”

  The reporters watched James Stark and their own Miss Citizen as the two walked down the steps. No one could fail to note the contrast—the young senator’s bluster and egotism, Louise Wilmott’s quiet charm of manner.

  They sauntered out to the wide garden, in time to see the late moon rise.

  James Stark brought up the subject of a chess game for the coming day. “I want the pleasure of beating you.”

  “You needn’t wait until tomorrow,” Louise said. “Here are the chessmen.”

  “Is this the place? Where’s the light?”

  “The rising moon,” said Louise. “Is your game as good by moonlight?”

  “Better. My best moves are made on the sly,” said Stark. “Damned careless of someone to leave these jeweled men out here without lock and key. All that glitter would buy a man into victory at the primaries. There. Your move Oh, oh! Don’t scare me that way.”

  “What’s the matter?” Louise asked.

  “I’m seeing things,” said Stark. “I thought that player had jumped out of your hands. But he settled down where you wanted him, I guess, seeing that it costs me an uneven trade. Ugh! I am seeing things. I’ll swear that knight swung at me with his sword. Shadows, I guess.”

  After more moves, James Stark planted his elbows on the table and his head in his hands for a long interval of concentration.

  Louise waited and waited. The senator was not ready to move.

  Out of the shadows came Bob Porter clad in black silks and gleaming jewels: “Good evening, Louise—Good evening, Senator Stark.” How very natural Bob’s voice sounded, thought Louise, now that she knew his identity. He was no longer trying to disguise it, nor was he attempting to take any advantage whatsoever. He removed his mask as he bowed.

  Senator Stark didn’t even look up. He was so completely engrossed in his losing game that he couldn’t take his eyes off the board. But he did mumble unconsciously, “Don’t bother me, Porter.”

  Louise and her friend exchanged glances. As will sometimes happen when one is in deepest concentration, Stark had responded to the familiar voice, without actually taking cognizance of the fact of Porter’s being there.

  “Go away, both of you. Don’t bother me. I’ll find a way to win this game yet.”

  James Stark was desperate for this game, thought Louise. He had what amounted to a superstition that if he could once win over her, he could break down her resistance against his proposal of marriage.

  “We’ll walk toward the ravine,” said Bob Porter, taking Louise by the arm. “We’ll be back sometime after you’ve made your move.”

  They smarted off. They heard the senator muttering to himself. “These chess-men are fishy. They don’t stay put—damn it, you can’t slip a false move. They jump right back in place. But that’s impossible. I must have the jitters too damned much on my mind. I’ll take a walk too. When I come back I’ll have it.”

  Senator Stark walked toward the mansion. There was a great deal weighing heavily in his thoughts just now.

  When he arrived at his parked car he hastily opened a case containing a small radio transmitter and receive
r.

  He was angry. He wasn’t used to having his well laid plans go astray.

  Where were those gunners? Why should they all have disappeared from the scene without leaving him any word? It was the plan that if they failed to turn the scientists back they were to wedge their way in among the throng. At all costs they were to have prevvented any public hearing of Theodore White’s secret discoveries.

  If Stark himself had not prevented, the discoveries would already have been made public. Something had slipped, and bad.

  Stark talked rapidly into the transmitter microphone.

  “Where are you, men? Who’s listening? Give me a signal, someone. Where are you hiding? This is the boss. I want to see you here on the west side of the house right away. I want to know who muffed the deal. Those papers are still in White’s hands. Another twenty-four hours and it will be too late to clamp a lid on any secret knowledge. Another twenty-four hours—or less—Are you listening? This is the boss. Give me a signal, damn it! Someone give me a signal!”

  There were, no return signals. This was unbearably mystifying. The senator kept trying. He never let the microphone rest for a minute. The night was passing. The chess game would have to wait. Louise could wait, too. She dare not know about this game. But where did she go?

  “Bob Porter!” Stark suddenly ejaculated to himself. “What’s he doing here? I thought he was at the other end of the country.

  “On the lookout, you men, for Bob Porter. They say he was the first to report your shooting to the state police. But how the hell did he get onto it? Come in, someone Still no answer!

  All right, if I have to take this deal over alone, that’s your hard luck, boys. It’ll be all my gravy, you damned traitors. I’ll show the whole bunch of you how to play off on me. Come in . . . come in . . . come in . . .”

  Utter and complete silence.

  “All right for you, you lice! I know who’s been throwing the monkey wrenches, but that doesn’t excuse you men. You’re out, the whole damned bunch of you. That’s final. I’ll run this show myself. Just watch me.”