The House Opposite Part 22

"Thank you very much for your timely a.s.sistance," I said; "you are a brave man."

"Oh, not at all," he replied; "I am on duty here; I've been shadowing this man all the evening."

We had an awful job getting Argot into the ambulance, and I confess I never felt more relieved in my life than when I saw him safely locked up in a padded cell.

As I was coming away from the hospital, I met Merritt hurrying towards it.

"h.e.l.lo!" he called out; "is it all over?"

"Yes; he's locked up, if that's what you mean."

"Well, Doctor, you've had a pretty lively time of it, my man tells me."

"It's entirely owing to your forethought, in having Argot immediately watched, that some of us are alive at present."

"You don't say; well, let's have a drink to celebrate the occasion. You look a little white around the gills, Doctor."

After tossing down my second bracer, I said: "Well, Mr. Merritt, how do you feel about your bet now?"

"Oh, all right," he answered, with a twinkle in his eye.

I stared at him in bewilderment. Then, remembering that of course he had not yet heard Madame's story, I proceeded at once to impart it to him.

"Very curious," was the only comment he made.

"But, look here, Mr. Merritt; what more do you want to convince you of the Frenchman's guilt?"

"Proofs; that's all," he replied cheerfully.

"But what further proof do you need? Here you have a man who is undoubtedly insane, who is furthermore an inmate of the Rosemere, and who, on Tuesday evening, went out with the avowed intention of killing his supposed rival; and, to cap the climax, the victim's hat is found in his possession. And yet, you have doubts!"

The detective only smiled quietly.

"By the way," he said, "I must go to the hospital, and get that hat before it disappears again."

I started.

"It didn't occur to me before, but when we put him into the ambulance, he was bareheaded," I confessed.

Merritt uttered an exclamation of impatience.

"We'll go to your place, then; it must be there. When you saw him in the street, he had on a hat similar to the one we are looking for, didn't he?"

"Yes."

"Then it's probably somewhere in your hall. That you shouldn't have noticed its absence does not surprise me so much, but that my man should have overlooked an article of such importance, does astonish me. It's his business to look after just such details."

When we reached the house we had to fight our way through a crowd of reporters, but in the hall, sure enough, we found the hat. Merritt positively pounced on it, and, taking it into my office, examined it carefully.

"What do you think of it?" I at last asked.

"I'm not yet prepared to say, Doctor; besides, you and I are now playing on different sides of the fence--of that $50, in other words, and till I can produce my pretty criminal, mum's the word."

"When will that be?"

"Let me see," replied the detective; "to-day is Tuesday. What do you say to this day week? If I haven't been able to prove my case before then, I will acknowledge myself in the wrong and hand you the $50."

"That suits me," I said.

I am ashamed to say that all this time I had forgotten about poor Madame. Having remembered her, I went to her at once, and found her violently hysterical and attended by several well-meaning, if helpless, Irish women, who listened to her voluble French with awe, not unmixed with distrust. I at last succeeded in calming her, but I was glad her master was spending several days out of town, for I could imagine nothing more distasteful to that correct gentleman than all this noise and notoriety. I was afraid that if he heard that more reporters were awaiting his return, he would not come back at all.

CHAPTER XII

A PROFESSIONAL VISIT OUT OF TOWN

BEVERLEY, L. I., Monday, August 15.

DEAR CHARLEY:

My leg is worse. Won't you run down here and have a look at it? I also want your advice about May Derwent.

Aff. yours, FRED.

When I received this note early on Tuesday morning, I at once made arrangements for a short absence. Now that duty, and not inclination alone, called me elsewhere, I had no scruples about leaving New York; and when, a few hours later, after visiting my most urgent cases, I found myself on a train bound for Beverley, I blessed Fred's leg, which had procured me this unexpected little holiday. What a relief it was to leave the dust and the noise of the city behind, and to feast my eyes once more on the sight of fields and trees.

On arriving at my destination, I drove immediately to the Cowper's cottage. I found Fred in bed, with his leg a good deal swollen. His anxiety to go to the Derwents had tempted him to use it before it was sufficiently strong; consequently, he had strained it, and would now be laid up with it for some time longer.

"Well, Charley," he said, when I had finished replacing the bandages, "I don't suppose you are very sorry to be in this part of the world, eh? My leg did you a good turn, didn't it?"

I a.s.sented, curtly, for, although I agreed with him from the bottom of my heart, I didn't mean to be chaffed on a certain subject, even by him.

In order, probably, to tease me, he made no further allusion to the other object of my visit, so that I was, at last, forced to broach the subject myself.

"Oh, May? She's really much better. There is no doubt of it. I think the idea of brain fever thoroughly frightened her, for now she meekly obeys orders, and takes any medicine I prescribe without a murmur."

"Well, but then why did you write that you wished to consult me about her?"

"Because, Charley," he replied, laying aside his previously flippant manner, "although her general health has greatly improved, I can't say as much for her nervous condition. The latter seems to me so unsatisfactory that I am beginning to believe that Mrs. Derwent was not far wrong when she suggested that her daughter might be slightly demented."

I felt myself grow cold, notwithstanding the heat of the day. Then, remembering the quiet and collected way she had behaved under circ.u.mstances as trying as any I could imagine a girl's being placed in, I took courage again. May was not insane. I would not believe it.

"At all events," continued Fred, "I felt that she should not be left without medical care, and, as I can't get out to see her, and as she detests the only other doctor in the place, I suggested to Mrs. Derwent that she should consult you. Being a friend of mine, ostensibly here on a simple visit, it would be the most natural thing in the world for you to go over to their place, and you could thus see May, and judge of her condition without her knowing that she was under observation."

"That's well. It is always best to see a nervous patient off guard, if possible. Now, tell me all the particulars of the case."