If anything should happen to that gem while I was there at the house… Oh well, it was so simple there was no need to follow it out. When a nationally known crook visits a house and a valuable gem disappears from that house, anyone can add the two and the two and make four. It was so apparent that the letter was a myth, and that the reason given me for being there by Herman was a fake that they hadn’t even bothered to make their instructions about the letter sound reasonable. No instructions for photographing both sides of the sheet, no description as to the nature or length of the letter, and not even a plausible sounding name for the signer of it. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the camera was even without a lens. Bah, this Don G. Herman made me sick. I’d have laughed myself to death over him if it hadn’t been for that glimpse I had of his eyes when the mask slipped from his face, and he showed in his true colors. The man was a devil.
On Sunday night from eleven to twelve I was supposed to detain Kemper in conversation. I knew what that meant. Bah, a ten-year-old kid would have known what that meant.
At ten-thirty Sunday night I slipped up to the study, spun the tumblers of the safe and took out the gem. I slipped the copy back in place of the original and went down to hunt Kemper. I wanted to give myself plenty of margin.
I talked dogs with him from eleven to twelve.
Helen had retired about ten-thirty.
Kemper was hard to talk to that night. He kept his eyes on mine and listened. Damn the man! He would do nothing except listen. I talked dog psychology to him until I thought I should go crazy. The clock boomed out midnight, and I excused myself, asked him if he were turning in, and tried to keep the note of interest from my voice.
He looked out at the night, stretched his great arms above his shoulders and said he guessed he’d take a turn through the garden first.
I breathed a prayer of relief and skipped upstairs, dashed into that study, twirled the knobs of the safe and flung open the door. The gem case was gone.
I pulled the original out of my pocket, stuck it back in its place and went down stairs again. I found Kemper out near the fence.
“Say by the way, you’ll pardon my asking it, but is there anything of value in the house tonight?”
He turned and looked me over.
“Why yes,” he drawled, paused a maddening interval and added, “Helen is here, you know.”
I didn’t know whether I was supposed to laugh or look serious. Damn this high society stuff, anyway.
“I saw a man slinking along the fence as I looked out of my bedroom window,” I exclaimed, “and if there’s anything of value in the house I’d suggest you take especial steps to keep it safe tonight.”
In the starlight I could see his rugged face twist into a smile. “You saw the watchman,” he said shortly.
I still hesitated.
“Good-night, Jenkins.”
“Good-night,” I said and turned.
I walked in the front door, through the long hall and out the back door. It was a good thing the garage was a ways from the house and facing a down grade. I slid my car out, coasted down the incline, kicked in the clutch near the foot and purred away into the darkness. I’d noticed that there was dark space where one of the other cars should have been, but I couldn’t be bothered. I had Bobo sticking with me, parked down close to the floor, whining from time to time with sheer excitement. The dog read my moods better than a mind reader. I guess animals pick up thoughts from scent, from the sound of the voice. There must be something to this psychic wave stuff, after all.
I hoped I’d reach Herman’s in time, but I couldn’t be sure. I had to take my chance. I drove like the devil himself, skidded around the corner three blocks below the great, gloomy grounds, kicked out the clutch, shut off the motor, coasted as far as I dared, and then slipped out from behind the wheel, snapped my fingers to the dog, and we went over the fence together.
Bobo scouted on ahead, swiftly gliding through the shadows like an owl, sniffing the ground and the air. In a few minutes he returned, tail up, head cocked on one side, a sure sign that the coast was clear. I made for the window I’d jumped a few nights ago.
There was a light in Herman’s study, and before I’d been under the window ten seconds he heard something that sent him down the hall with quick steps.
I slipped in the window and behind the desk, waiting.
I heard the slam of the front door, the sound of steps, and then Herman’s voice, and in the voice was a note of disappointment.
“Well, young lady, you certainly don’t believe in waiting. I have some other people I’m waiting for, so you’ll have to be brief.”
It was Helen, a Helen that was strangely beautiful. Her lips were parted, her eyes shining, her hair streaming out from under her hat.
“Mr. Herman, I’ve lived up to my part of the bargain. The rest is between you and Jenkins. I want the notes.”
He nodded.
His thick lips twisted a bit, and then he walked over to the safe. Once more I noticed him stoop and saw his hand dart down. Then he swung back the picture and spun the dials on the safe.
He came back with a paper.
“Here you are, my dear.”
The girl reached eagerly up, then suddenly stiffened.
“There’s only one note there. You have ten.”
He bowed, silently acquiescing.
“But you were to give me all,” she said, and for the first time since I had known her there was a note of near hysteria in her voice.
He smiled, a thick flabby leer, and shook his head.
“Oh, no. I said I’d give you the note. You may have understood that I’d give them all to you, but you misunderstood me. I couldn’t give them all up. No, young lady, you have earned one, and one alone. There are nine others. From time to time I shall ask you to do other things for me. You will not refuse. Here, take this note and run along.”
She jumped to her feet, eyes blazing.
“You crook! You dirty, cheap, double-crossing crook!”
His eyes slipped again, closed until they were mere slits from which peered forth the devil of his nature.
“Take that note and beat it before I count three or you won’t get it at all. You’re in my power and you’ll do just as I say, and do it for nine times more. Any of those notes would kill your mother, ruin your father’s memory. Let’s have it understood here and now. You’re going to do as I say. You’re mine, body and soul, and I dispose of either as I wish.”
With that she struck him, a blow that sounded like a pistol shot.
Staggered, he stepped back, and she struck him again, not the blows of a child, not the slaps of a woman, but the double-fisted punches of a fighter. Then she turned to the safe.
Herman staggered back into the chair and wiped the blood from his mouth, and then he laughed. The safe was closed.
“I took the precaution of only seeming to open it, Cutie,” he taunted. “I had the note in my pocket. The others are in there safe and sound, and you’ll pay for this. Think it over. You’ve taken the first step. After tonight I’ve got another hold on you. Ed Jenkins is stealing Kemper’s collection of gems. Even now there’s a squad of police at the house. You’re an accomplice, an accessory if I breathe one word. I have political power, my dear. Jenkins is going to jail. Your name’s going through the mud if it ever gets out that you announced your engagement to a crook, even if you did try to keep it a secret. Also one word from me, and you’ll be thrown into a cell as an accomplice. Your explanation of where and how you met Jenkins will be interesting.”