A Husband by Proxy

by Jack Steele

  CHAPTER XV

  SIGNIFICANT DISCOVERIES

  Damp and uncomfortable, he kept to the farther side of the street, andslackened his pace as he drew near the dwelling which he realized was aplace replete with mystery.

  He stood on the opposite sidewalk at length, and gazed across at thefrowning brownstone front. The place was utterly dark. Not theslightest chink of light was visible in all its somber windows.

  Aware that nothing is so utterly confusing to a guilty being as to beconfronted unexpectedly by a victim, supposed to be dispatched,Garrison had come this far without the slightest hesitation. Theaspect of the house, however, was discouraging.

  Despite the ache at the base of his skull, and despite the excitedthumping of his heart, he crossed the street, climbed unhaltingly tothe steps, and rang the bell. He had made up his mind to act as ifnothing unusual had occurred. Then, should either Dorothy or theRobinsons exhibit astonishment at beholding him here, or otherwisebetray a guilty knowledge of the "accident" which had befallen him, hisdoubts would be promptly cleared.

  A minute passed, and nothing happened.

  He rang the bell again.

  Once more he waited, in vain.

  His third ring was long and insistent.

  About to despair of gaining admission, he was gratified to note a dimlyreflected light, as if from the rear, below stairs. Then the hall wasillumined, and presently a chain-lock was drawn, inside the door, thebarrier swung open, and the serving-woman stood there before him,dressed with the evidences of haste that advertised the fact she hadrisen from her bed.

  Garrison snatched at his wits in time to act a part for which he hadnot been prepared.

  "I'm afraid it's pretty late," he said, "but I came to surprise mywife."

  "My word, that's too bad, sir, ain't it?" said the woman. "Mrs.Fairfax has went out for the night."

  This was the truth. Dorothy, together with the Robinsons, had left thehouse an hour before and gone away in an automobile, leaving no word oftheir destination, or of when they intended to return.

  Utterly baffled, and wholly at a loss to understand this unexpectedmaneuver. Garrison stood for a moment staring at the woman. Afterall, such a flight was in reasonable sequence, if Dorothy were guilty.The one thing to do was to avail himself of all obtainable knowledge.

  "Gone--for the night," he repeated. "Did Mrs. Fairfax seem anxious togo?"

  "I didn't see her, sir. I couldn't say, really," answered the woman."Mr. Theodore said as how she was ailing, sir, and they was going away.That's all I know about it, sir."

  "I'm sorry I missed them," Garrison murmured, half to himself. Then athought occurred to him abruptly--a bold suggestion, on which hedetermined to act.

  "Is my room kept ready, in case of present need like this to-night?" hesaid. "Or, if not, could you prepare it?"

  "It's all quite ready, sir, clean linen and all, the room next to Mrs.Fairfax's," said the woman. "I always keeps it ready, sir."

  "Very good," said Garrison, with his mind made up to remain all nightand explore the house for possible clews to anything connected with itsmysteries. "You may as well return to your apartments. I can find myway upstairs."

  "Is there anything I could get you, sir?" inquired the woman. "Youlook a bit pale, sir, if you'll pardon the forwardness."

  "Thank you, no," he answered gratefully. "All I need is rest." Heslipped half a dollar in her hand.

  The woman switched on the lights in the hallway above.

  "Good-night, sir," she said. "If you're needing anything more I hopeyou'll ring."

  "Good-night," said Garrison. "I shall not disturb you, I'm sure."

  With ample nerve to enact the part of master, he ascended the stairs,proceeded to the room to which he had always gone before, and waited tohear the woman below retire to her quarters in the basement.

  The room denoted nothing unusual. The roses, which he had taken fromthe vase to obtain the water to sprinkle on Dorothy's face, haddisappeared. The vase was there on the table.

  He crossed the floor and tried the door that led to Dorothy's boudoir.It was locked. Without further ado, he began his explorations.

  It was not without a sense of gratitude that he presently discoveredthe bathroom at the rear of the hall. Here he laved his face and head,being very much refreshed by the process.

  A secondary hall led away from the first, and through this he came atonce to the rooms which had evidently been set apart for Dorothy andher husband. The room which he knew was supposed to be his owncontained nothing save comfortable furnishings. He therefore went atonce to Dorothy's apartments.

  She occupied a suite of three rooms--one of them large, the otherssmall. Exquisite order was apparent in all, combined with signs of adainty, cultured taste. It seemed a sacrilege to search herpossessions, and he made no attempt to do so. Indeed, he gainednothing from his quick, keen survey of the place, save a sense of herbeauty and refinement as expressed in the features of her "nest." Hefelt himself warranted in opening a closet, into which he cast acomprehensive glance.

  It seemed well filled with hanging gowns, but several hooks were empty.

  On a shelf high up was a suit-case, empty, since it weighed almostnothing as he lifted up the end. He took it down, found marks wherefingers had disturbed the dust upon its lid, then stood on a chair,examined the shelf, and became aware that a second case had beenremoved, as shown by the absence of accumulated dust, which hadgathered all about the place it had formerly occupied.

  Replacing the case he had taken from the shelf, he closed the closet,in possession of the fact that some preparation, at least, had beenmade against some sort of a journey. He was certain the empty hookshad been stripped of garments for the flight, but whether by Dorothyherself or by her relatives he could not, of course, determine.

  He repaired at once to the rooms farther back, which the Robinsons hadoccupied. When he switched on the lights in the first one entered, heknew it had been the old man's place of refuge, for certain signs ofthe occupancy of Mr. Robinson were not lacking.

  It reeked of stale cigar-smoke, which would hang in the curtains for aweek. It was very untidy. There were many indications that oldRobinson had quitted in haste. On the table were ash-trays, oldcigar-stumps, matches, burned and new; magazines, hairpins, atooth-brush, and two calf-bound volumes of a legal aspect. One was alawyer's treatise on wills, the other a history of broken testaments,statistical as well as narrative.

  The closet here supplied nothing of value to Garrison when he gave it abrief inspection. At the end of the room was a door that stoodslightly ajar. It led to the next apartment--the room to whichTheodore had been assigned. Garrison soon discovered the electricbutton and flooded the place with light.

  The apartment was quite irregular. The far end had two windows,overlooking the court at the rear--the hollow of the block. These wereboth in an alcove, between two in-jutting partitions. One partitionwas the common result of building a closet into the room. The otherwas constructed to accommodate a staircase at the back of the house,leading to the quarters below.

  Disorder was again the rule, for a litter of papers, neckties, soiledcollars, and ends of cigarettes, with perfumes, toilet requisites, andbeer bottles seemed strewn promiscuously on everything capable ofreceiving a burden.

  Garrison tried the door that led to the staircase, and found it open.The closet came next for inspection. Without expecting anything ofparticular significance, Garrison drew open the door.

  Like everything else in the Robinsons' realm, it was utterlydisordered. Glancing somewhat indifferently over its contents.Garrison was about to close the door when his eye caught upon a gleamof dull red, where a ray of light fell in upon a bit of color on thefloor.

  He stopped, put his hand on the cloth, and drew forth a flimsy pair oftights of carmine hue--part of the Mephistophelian costume thatTheodore had worn on the night of the party next door. With this inhis hand, and a clearer understanding of
the house, with its staircaseat the rear. Garrison comprehended the ease with which Theodore hadplayed his role and gone from one house to the other without arousingsuspicion.

  Encouraged to examine the closet further, he pawed around through thegarments hung upon the hooks, and presently struck his hand against asolid obstacle projecting from the wall in the darkest corner, andheard a hollow, resonant sound from the blow.

  Removing half a dozen coats that hung concealingly massed in the place,he almost uttered an exclamation of delight. There on the wall was asmall equipment telephone, one of the testing-boxes employed by thelinemen in their labors with which to "plug in" and communicate betweenplaces where no regular 'phone is installed.

  It was Theodore's private receiver, over which he could hear every wordthat might be said to anyone using the 'phone!

  It tapped the wires to the regular instrument installed in the house,and was thoroughly concealed.

  Instantly aware that by this means young Robinson could have overheardevery word between himself and Dorothy concerning their meeting in thepark, Garrison felt his heart give a lift into realms of unreasonablejoy.

  It could not entirely dissipate the doubts that hung about Dorothy, butit gave him a priceless hope!