“I meant to have him do that later,” was the weak explanation.
“As in the case of the servants,” I commented sarcastically. “You’re pretty deeply interested in protecting your nephew, aren’t you? Your actions show remarkable concern.”
“Explain this thing!” Flash demanded, hands folded behind his back, leaning against the door. “I’ve a right to know!”
I listened while Uncle Cato made his explanation, then nodded to Spence to tell his tale.
“Mr. Santelle told me to come to my room with him,” the butler explained. “When we entered we found this,” he hesitated, caught my eye, then resumed, “this gentleman here. That is all I know about it, sir.”
Flash looked me over calmly, then asked: “What’s the idea, Norton?”
“The idea is to have my instructions obeyed after this!” I snapped heatedly. “I’m here to see after your safety,” I went on to remind him, “and not to have my directions in the matter questioned or ignored. That’s the idea!”
“Quite correct, Norton,” he agreed. “You are in command. Still, I don’t quite understand your coming up to Spence’s room, after thinking you had disposed of him for half an hour by a — shall I call it a pretext?”
“A rose by any name whatever smells just as sweet, or as disagreeable, owing to how well you like roses,” I remarked. “The point is that I wanted Spence to spend half an hour on the front lawn. He didn’t do it, though I’m not blaming him for that. Uncle Cato probably didn’t tell him to. Did you, uncle?”
“Well, no—”
“I thought so. Now, Santelle,” I said as disagreeably as possible, “either I get action when I want it and as I want it, or you can hire another pair of sleuths to do your guarding and mingling. I’m one of the sort who does his work under orders from himself and nobody else. Take me that way, or not at all. It’s your time to talk. What about it?”
“I’m keeping you,” he said quietly. “And approve of your attitude. Uncle Cato, no doubt, thought it unnecessary to hurry in the execution of your instructions. About Spence, though — you haven’t explained—”
“Oh,” I broke in nonchalantly, moving toward the door, “that is not important. I merely wished to see if he kept his shoes as clean as a good butler should. That’s all.”
Flash gave me a searching look, his face expressing perplexity — but he stepped aside and allowed me to pass out. I closed the door and went down to the lawn, no longer worried about those footprints in the loam.
Steel met me as I left the servants’ door.
“That young Patterson is acting mighty queer,” he announced. “I located him at the foot of the lawn, leaning against a tree, alone. Tried to open up a conversation with him — and he told me to get the hell away. I did, but not out of sight. When he started moving off, away from the house, I sneaked along too. Then the damned young fool suddenly started sprinting. I lost him. He runs like Man o’ War, that baby!”
“He’s in love, Jim,” I told him.
“Then he ought to run,” was the dry comment. “Away from her, and not toward her — which is what he done. To her, I mean.”
“This gets interesting,” I said. “Go on.”
“After I lost him,” Jim continued, “I started hunting Miss Bailey, figuring that would be the best chance to pick him up again. I was right. He joined the girl on a bench in the shadow of a tree a bit later. The funny thing about that is that he must have known exactly where she was, because she was barely recognizable to me in that shadow at twenty feet away.
“Seeing that he had joined his lady, I drew off and hid in a bush. Then, five minutes afterward, this young fool conies tearing and swearing away from there, nearly run me down in the bush, and went blindly away on high. Me trying to keep up, and losing. Where he is now is something I don’t know, and haven’t been able to find out.”
“I’ll have a look,” I told him. “Keep an eye on the servants’ door, and find out if any of them come out and search, as I sent instructions for them to do. Report when you see me again.”
Jim departed, and I began a stroll through the trees. Tommy Patterson must be found and made to act like a sane person — if a man in love can be made to act that way, or even give a fair imitation. He’d be tramping up and down, ruining flower beds, in some retired spot, no doubt. Love sometimes accelerates the foot as well as the heart.
I searched patiently, but Tommy proved elusive. Nearing the lower end of die river path, where it leaves the lawn and dips into the first hollow on its way to the boathouse, I came up short. Something moved sketchily in the moonlight, near the path or on it, and about fifty feet away. I stepped into the shadow of a clump of bushes.
The sketchy figure came on, reached a point opposite me, then stopped in a listening attitude. I stared hard, trying to make out the features of the woman, for it was a woman — and not one of the guests, at that. A woman in a red dress. Failing to get a good view of her face from where I was, I stepped forward suddenly.
She cried out, though not loudly, darted back—
And then a light exploded in from of my eyes, just like a photographer’s flash-powder does, a terrific pain shot through my head, and I went down on my face, groping blindly until I buried my nails in the sod.
I heard a man’s voice behind me — then ceased either to hear or feel. But before all my senses went dead, I knew that my face, as I pitched downward, brushed against something soft and silky — and I breathed in a strong odor of lilac.
Chapter XII
A Couple of Wrenches
“You damned crook!”
It was Jim Steel’s voice, but I didn’t feel like saying howdy to him right then.
“I was ordered to search, sir—”
“Yeah! But you wasn’t ordered to clout the guests on the head with a blackjack!” Jim blazed.
“I think I cannot be blamed, sir,” the voice of Spence, sounding a bit muddled and distant, went on. “I saw him dart into the shadow of the bush, and crept up to investigate. Then he dashed toward the path, a lady cried out — and then I acted, sir. What else could I do?”
“Can’t answer that!” Jim retorted tersely. “But if you’ve laid him out for good, my man, you won’t even get a trial. I’ll croak you—”
“ ’Sall right, old man,” I broke in weakly, wriggling to my knees. “I must have fainted, or something. Sorry, Spence,” I went on, addressing the butler, “that my head is so damned much like a billiard ball. You’ll have to try again. Where did that woman go?”
“I’m very sorry, Mr. Norton—” Spence began apologetically.
“Where did she go?” I barked.
“I did not observe her departure, sir.”
“Had eyes only for the top of my dome, I take it. What about you, Steel?”
“I got here right on the heels of this bird,” Jim growled. “Was just a trifle too late to stop him committing an assault on you. As for the woman, I ain’t seen any.”
“Did you hear a scream?”
“No.”
“You heard it, Spence,” I remarked. “So did I. That means I haven’t dreamed it while I slept on the grass. Off with you, Spence — and keep your trap closed. Come with me, Steel.”
“For once in my life I admire that mop of sun-cured hair you sport on your dome,” quoth Jim. “It’s serviceable, even if it ain’t exactly an ornamental adornment. Saved you a cracked skull to-night. What’s the trouble between you and the crook-butler?”
“A pair of dirty shoes,” I replied. “He’s sorry he didn’t clean ’em, and that’s the way he apologized for his carelessness. Just a small matter, Jim. Don’t let it worry you.”