The Short Cut Part 26

He did not answer; he had suddenly resolved to see the drift of Helga Strawn's thoughts before he did a great deal of talking.

"I have learned," came another of her abrupt thrusts, "that you and Hume are about as friendly as a cat and a dog."

He merely looked at her enquiringly, drawing thoughtfully at his pipe.

She smiled, turned from him back to the fire, settling a little more comfortably in her chair.

"Hume is a crook." She said it calmly, dispa.s.sionately, positively.

"It is in his blood. He couldn't help it if he tried. He isn't the kind to try. The deal he put over with me may have been nothing but clever business. On the other hand, considering that I was a relative, considering that there was going to be plenty of boodle for everybody, some people might say that there was an element of dishonesty in it.

But what I am getting at is that the man in unscrupulous. Now, he's in the biggest business deal of his life. Chances in that sort of thing for crooked work are many. Ergo, Mr. Shandon, it's a fair bet that starting with a crooked deal he has gone on playing a crooked game. Do you begin to see why I'm here?"

"Blackmail?" he said bluntly.

"Yes," she said coolly. "There's no use quarrelling over a name."

"If you imagine that I know anything about the man's private history--"

"You've quarrelled openly with him. Everybody knows about it. What was the reason for your quarrel?"

"Really, Miss Strawn---"

"Why can't you talk to me as if I were a man?" she flared out at him, the sudden heat from a woman who had been ice a moment ago taking him by surprise. "I'm not dragging my s.e.x into this like a buckler to hide behind. Why can't you say it's none of my d.a.m.ned business, if you feel that way about it?"

"I shouldn't put it quite so strong," he replied. "If you will go on and show me how I can be of any service to you, anything in my line--"

"Consequently excluding blackmail!" she laughed, her mood like ice again. "When you quarrelled with Hume a year ago you called him a crook, didn't you?"

"Your investigations seem to have been made very painstakingly," he countered.

"For one of your reputation you are surprisingly noncommittal," she said. "Will you tell me this: So far as you know is there a woman in Sledge Hume's life?"

"So far as I know there is not. He doesn't impress me as the sort of man to lose either his heart or his head over a woman."

"That sort of man," she replied swiftly, "very often surprises people who think that they understand human nature, and don't! Now I come to one of my reasons in coming to see you. I saw you one day at the Grand Central Station with a friend of mine, a Mr. Maddox. I was uncertain whether he had pointed me out to you or not, told you who I was. Did he?"

"No. I should have remembered."

"Thank you. That's the first pretty thing you've said! Well, no harm is done in making sure. I'm making sure of every little point as I go along, Mr. Shandon. I didn't want there to be a possibility of any one here knowing who I am. It is my own business and I hope that I am not asking overmuch if I request you not to tell any one that I am Helga Strawn."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"If you don't want Hume to know you I most certainly shall not seek to find or take advantage of an opportunity to tell him."

"Thank you again. Now, for the other part of my business with you.

You are in a position to stand pat and by just doing nothing smash Sledge Hume's little game all to flinders. He's counted on you, he's made sure in some way I don't know. But I am going to know before long. And I'm going to get Sledge Hume just where I want him! How?

Wait and see. I'm going to get back the property he cheated me out of.

How? I don't know and I don't care. And then--"

She rose swiftly, her eyes blazing, her head lifted triumphantly as though already she had met the success she had set out to find.

"And then, Wayne Shandon, you and I and Ruf Ettinger can take into our hands the thing that Sledge Hume has already half created for us!

There is a fortune in it for every one of us."

"I've told Ruf Ettinger already--" he began.

The door opened suddenly and Mr. Dart came into the room.

"Say, Red," he began with an important air, "I want to see you a minute, private. Hazel will excuse us, won't you?" with a rare smile and an abbreviated bow after Mr. Dart's best manner.

"Hazel?" frowned Shandon.

"Sure," grinned Dart. "We got chummy as twins riding over, didn't we?

Come on, Red. This here is urgent."

"It will have to wait, Dart. Miss--"

"Hazleton," prompted Helga.

"Sure," put in Dart. "Her uncle used to know my aunt in Poughkeepsie.

Come on, Red."

"Dart," cried Shandon, "you get out! We are busy."

Dart went slowly back to the door, to the surprise of Shandon who knew so well the little man's tenacity.

"Oh, well," he said mournfully from across the room. "Only Wanda said--"

"You will excuse me a moment?" Wayne asked hurriedly. Dart, already outside was grinning broadly.

"What is it?" queried Shandon.

"Whatever it is it'll keep until we get where we can talk," was the dogged answer. "There's n.o.body in the bunk house. Come on."

He hastened down the steps, Wayne following him. Only when they were in the bunk house, the door closed, the lamp lighted, did Dart speak.

"First thing," he said abruptly, "Hazel's name begins with an H, but she spells it Helga!"

"You little weasel! Well, what about it? And what about Miss Leland?"

"Wanda's part will keep. Gee, Red, she's some swell dame, that Egyptian skirt, take it from me! She's got Macbeth's frau of the fairy tale faded to a finish, ain't she?"

"Look here, Dart . . ."

"It's cold weather," interrupted Dart. "Keep your unders.h.i.+rt on, Red.

When your brother Archie mortgaged the Bar L-M . . ."

"What fool's nonsense are you talking, Dart?" demanded Shandon.

"Arthur never mortgaged--"