XVII
THE VOICE FROM THE AIR
"Do you believe it?" I asked Kennedy, as the voices died away, leavingus with a feeling that some one had gone out of the very room in whichwe were.
He shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. But I cannot say that heseemed ill pleased at the result of the interview.
"We'll just keep this vocaphone in," he remarked. "It may come in handysome time. Now, I think we had better go back to the laboratory! Thingshave begun to move."
On the way back he stopped to telephone Norton to meet us and a fewminutes after we arrived, the archaeologist entered.
Kennedy lost no time in coming directly to the point, and Norton couldsee, in fact seemed to expect and be prepared for what was coming.
"Well," exclaimed Kennedy, "you've done it, this time!"
"I know what you are going to ask," returned Norton. "You are going toask me why I did it. And I'm going to tell you. After I left you, theother day, I thought about it a long time. The more I thought, the moreof a shame it seemed to me that a girl like that should be made avictim of her feelings. It wasn't so much what they have done to methat made me do it. I would have acted the same if it had been de Mocheinstead of Lockwood who was playing on her heart. I was afraid, to tellthe truth, that you wouldn't tell her until it was too late. And she'stoo good to throw herself away and allow her fortune to be wasted by acouple of speculators."
"Very well," said Craig. "For the sake of argument, let us admit allthat. What did you expect to accomplish by it?"
"Why--put an end to it, of course."
"But do you think she was going to accept as truth what you told her?Would that be natural for one so high-strung?"
"Perhaps not--right away. But I supposed she would come to you--as Isee she has, for you know about it. After that, it was only a questionof time. It may have been a heroic remedy, but the disease wascritical."
"Suppose," suggested Craig, "that, after all, he told her that he wasthere in the Museum, but that he did not get the dagger. And supposethat she believed it. What then?"
Norton looked up quickly. "Did he tell her that?"
"I am supposing that he did," repeated Craig, declining to placehimself in a position which might lead to disclosing how he found out.
"Then I should say that he was a great deal cleverer than I gave himcredit for being," returned Norton.
"Well, it's done now, and can't be undone. Have you found out anythingabout the de Moches?"
"Not very much, I must admit. Of course, you know I'm not on the bestof terms with them, for some reason or other. But I've been around thePrince Edward Albert a good deal, and I don't think they've been ableto do much that I haven't some kind of line on. Alfonso seems to bemoping. His professors here tell me that he has been neglecting hiswork sadly for the past few days. The Senora and Whitney seem to be asfriendly as ever. I should say that they were going the pace fast, andit shows on him."
I glanced significantly at Kennedy, but he betrayed nothing that mightlead one to suppose he had discovered the cause. Evidently he was notready yet to come out into the open and expected further developmentson the poisoned cigarette clue.
The telephone rang and Craig took down the receiver.
"Yes, this is Kennedy," he answered. "Oh, hello, Lockwood. What's that?You've been trying to get me all day? I just came in. Why, yes, I cansee you in about half an hour."
"I guess I'd better clear out," said Norton with a bitter laugh, asKennedy hung up the receiver. "There have been enough crimes committedwithout adding another murder to the list."
"Keep on watching the de Moches," requested Kennedy as Norton made hisway to the door.
"Yes," agreed Norton. "They will bear it--particularly Alfonso. Theyare hot-blooded. You never know what they are going to do, and theykeep their own counsel. I might hope that Lockwood would forget; but ade Moche--never."
I cannot say that I envied him very much, for doubtless what he saidwas true, though his danger might be mitigated by the fact that thedagger was no longer in his Museum. Still, it would never have leftPeru, I reflected, if it had not been for him, and there is, even inthe best of us, a smouldering desire for revenge.
Lockwood was more than prompt. I had expected that he would burst intothe laboratory prepared to clean things out. Instead he came in asthough nothing at all had happened.
"There's no use mincing words, Kennedy," he began. "You know that Iknow what has happened. That scoundrel, Norton, has told Inez that youhad shoe-prints of some one who was in the Museum the night of therobbery and that those shoe-prints correspond with mine. As a matter offact, Kennedy, I was there. I was there to get the dagger. But before Icould get it, some one else must have done so. It was gone."
I wanted to believe Lockwood. As for Craig he said nothing.
"Then, when I did have a chance to get away that night," he continued,"I went over to Mendoza's. The rest you know."
"You have told Inez that?" asked Kennedy in order to seem properlysurprised.
"Yes--and I think she believes me. I can't say. Things are strainedwith her. It will take time. I'm not one of those who can take a girlby main force and make her do what she won't do. I wish I could smooththings over. Let me see the prints."
Kennedy handed them over to him. He looked at them, long and closely,then handed back the damning evidence against himself.
"I know it would be no use to destroy these," he remarked. "In thefirst place that would really incriminate me. And in the second Isuppose you have copies."
Craig smiled blandly.
"But I can tell you," he exclaimed, bringing his fist down on thelaboratory table with a bang, "that before I lose that girl, somebodywill pay for it--and there won't be any mistakes made, either."
The scowl on his face and the menacing look in his eye showed that now,with his back up against the wall, he was not bluffing.
He seemed to get little satisfaction out of his visit to us, and infact I think he made it more in a spirit of bravado than anything else.
Lockwood had scarcely gone before Kennedy pulled out the Universityschedule, and ran his finger down it.
"Alfonso ought to be at a lecture in the School of Mines," he saidfinally, folding up the paper. "I wish you'd go over and see if he isthere, and, if he is, ask him to step into the laboratory."
The lecture was in progress all right, but when I peered into the roomit was evident that de Moche was not there. Norton was right. The youngman was neglecting his work. Evidently the repeated rebuffs of Inez hadworked havoc with him.
Nor was he at the hotel, as we found out by calling up.
There was only one other place that I could think of where he would belikely to be and that was at the apartment of Inez. Apparently the sameidea occurred to Kennedy, for he suggested going back to ourobservation point in the boarding-house and finding out.
All the rest of the day we listened through the vocaphone, but withoutfinding out a thing of interest. Now and then we would try thedetective instrument, the little black disc in the back, but with nobetter success. Then we determined to listen in relays, one listening,while the other went out for dinner.
It must have been just a bit after dark that we could hear Inez talkingin a low tone with Juanita.
A buzzing noise indicated that there was some one at the hall door.
"If it's any one for me," we heard Inez say, "tell them that I will beout directly. I'm not fit to be seen now."
The door was opened and a voice which we could not place asked for thesenorita. A moment later Juanita returned and asked the visitor to beseated a few moments.
It was not long before we were suddenly aware that there was anotherperson in the room. We could hear whispers. The faithful littlevocaphone even picked them up and shot them down to us.
"Is everything all right?" whispered one, a new voice which wassomewhat familiar I thought, but disguised beyond recognition.
"Yes. She'll be out in a minute."
; "Now, remember what I told you. If this thing works you get fiftydollars more. I'd better put this mask on--damn it!--the slit's torn.It'll do. I'll hide here as soon as we hear her. That's a pretty niceprivate ambulance you have down there. Did you tell the elevator boythat she had suddenly been taken ill? That's all fixed, then. I've gotthe stuff--amyl nitrite--she'll go off like a shot. But we'll have towork quick. It only keeps her under a few minutes. I can't wear thismask down and I'm afraid some one will recognize me. Oh, you brought abeard. Good. I'll give you the signal. There must be no noise. Yes, Isaw the stretcher where you left it in the hall."
"All right, Doc," returned the first and unfamiliar voice.
It all happened so quickly that we were completely bowled over for themoment. Who was the man addressed as "Doc"? There was no time to findout, no time to do anything, apparently, so quickly had the plot beensprung.
I looked at Kennedy, aghast, not knowing what to do in this unexpectedcrisis.
A moment later we heard a voice, "I'm sorry to have had to keep youwaiting, but what is it that I can do for you?"
"Good God!" exclaimed Kennedy. "It is Inez herself!"
It was altogether too late to get over there to warn her, perhaps evento rescue her. What could we do? If we could only shout for help. Butwhat good would that do, around a corner and so far away?
The vocaphone itself!
Quickly Kennedy turned another switch, of a rheostat, which accentuateda whisper to almost a shout.
"Don't be alarmed, Senorita," he cried. "This is Kennedy talking. Lookunder the bookcase by the window. You will find a cedar box. It is adetective vocaphone through which I can hear you and which is talkingout to you. I have heard something just there just now--"
"Yes, yes. Go on!"
"You are threatened. Shout! Shout!"
Just then there came a sound of a scuffle and a muffled cry which wasnot much above a whisper, as though a strong hand was clapped over hermouth.
What could we do?
"Juanita--Juanita--help!--police!" shouted Craig himself through thevocaphone.
An instant later we could hear other screams as Juanita heard andspread the alarm, not a second too soon.
"Come on, Walter," shouted Kennedy dashing out of the room, now that hewas assured the alarm had been given.
We hurried around the corner, and into the apartment. One of theelevators was up, and no one was running the other, but we opened thegates and Kennedy ran it up by himself.
In the Mendoza apartment all was a babel of voices, every one talkingat once.
"Did you get them?" Craig asked, looking about.
"No, sir," replied the elevator boy. "One of them came in from theambulance and told me Miss Mendoza was suddenly taken sick. He rode upwith the stretcher. The other one must have walked up."
"Do you know him? Has he ever been here before?"
"I can't say, sir. I didn't see him. At least, sir, when I heard thescreams I ran in from the elevator, which the other one told me to waitwith--left the door open. Just as I ran in, they dodged out past me,jumped into the car and rode down. I guess they must have had theengine of the ambulance motor running, sir, if they got away withoutyou seeing them."
We were too late to head them from speeding off. But, at least, we hadsaved the Senorita. She was terribly upset by the attack, much shaken,but really all right.
"Have you any idea who it could be?" asked Craig as the faithfulJuanita cared for her.
"I don't know the man who was waiting and 'Nita never saw him, either,"she replied. "The one who jumped out from behind the portieres had on amask and a false beard. But I didn't recognize anything about him."
Sudden as the attack had been and serious as might have been theoutcome, we could not but feel happy that it had been frustrated.
Yet it seemed that some one ought to be delegated to see that such athing could not occur again.
"We must think up some means of protecting you," soothed Kennedy. "Letme see, Mr. Lockwood and Mr. Whitney seem to be the closest to you. Ifyou don't mind I'll call them up. I wonder if you'd object if we had alittle luncheon up here, to-morrow? I have a special reason for askingit. I want to insure your safety and we may as well meet on commonground."
"There isn't the slightest objection in the world," she replied, asKennedy reached for the telephone.
We had some little difficulty in locating both Lockwood and Whitney,but finally after a time managed to find them and arrange for theconference on the Senorita's safety for the next day.
Outside Kennedy gave instructions to the officer on the beat to watchthe apartment particularly, and there was no reason now to fear arepetition of the attempt, at least that night.
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