More remembered a great deal about the Haggertys. He had lost money to them at pool and poker and they regarded him almost with affection as a source of income. “I went driving with Big Haggerty this evening,” More said. “He certainly has a swell new coupe. They’ve both been left money. Not before they needed it, the pool room owner said. They’re drinking quite a bit now. Big Haggerty says there’s no one big enough to fire him now, Dr. Gross is in charge. Humphries’ son-in-law.” More explained. “Humphries is too busy campaigning to spend much time here now.”
“You’ve done good work,” Trent said commendingly, “and it’s time to talk about Marcus North. You remember his trial and you’d like to see some of the famous patients. Suppose you summon up enough courage to see Mrs. Pate and North. They are under restraint.”
Trent saw More squirm at the prospect, but he did not propose to allow this fear to defeat his plans. “I’m afraid I’ll have to insist, More. Get as friendly as you can with Big Haggerty. The bootlegger at the Inn comes to me with splendidly inspiring analyses of his goods and I’ll see you have something to offer Haggerty when he visits you. You must seem no more curious about North than you do about Mrs. Pate. Haggerty is a boasting type. Get him to talk about Lang who tried to get him fired and how he put things over on him. Haggerty is just the sort who can be readily induced to brag especially when he’s drinking.”
“He’s got something on Dr. Gross,” More said, “and that’s bad for discipline. All right, Mr. Trent, I’ll do it. I’m sort of getting used to the idea now. It was at first I was so scared. Haggerty says all hell looks out of some of their eyes, but there’s nobody sane or insane that can frighten him.”
“Call me up at the Inn,” Trent said. “I’m having a debauch of golf and I imagine Lang will think he talked too much. I’ve got all I need from him.”
Dr. Stephen Lang did, indeed, think he had said more than was wise. He feared he had betrayed almost vindictiveness. And, too, there was the feeling that he should not take sides with a layman against his own profession. Lang was glad that during the next week Trent made no reference to Deerfarm or its prisoned guests. Probably he had bored Trent with his talk of reform.
More did not report to his employer for eight days. Then he suggested a visit.
“Mr. Trent, sir,” More said in his slow, mild voice as he smoked one of the cigars that Trent sometimes gave him, “there’s something wrong about Marcus North. I give Haggerty some of that liqueur Scotch of yours and he’s been to my rooms several times. Very friendly. No, he don’t need my money although he’s a great one for gambling. He’s got a big wad and I’ve seen it. One night he began to laugh at me for being afraid to go to Deerfarm. I told him I’d been there and most of the women were wearing my stockings — the nurses I mean — but he said that wasn’t what he meant. So I said I’d like to show I wasn’t a coward and I’d see Mrs. Pate.” More shivered a little. “I seen her, Mr. Trent. A good looking woman in her way but she scared me stiff. I couldn’t believe she was a murderess and a homicidal maniac. Then I went back to the ward where Marcus North was. I asked Haggerty suddenly where he was and I did what you told me and looked at his hands. They clenched like hands do when you’re going to sock some one. I couldn’t tell a thing from his voice or his eyes when I looked up. He asked me what I knew about Marcus North. I said some one down at the Hillsbro House said he killed an attendant.”
“Haggerty said he’d show me him. He took me to a room and made me look through a little grating with a shutter across it. It was too dark to see much at first but he turned up a light in the ceiling and there in the corner on a mattress was Marcus North. He was in one of his bad spells and they put him in there and pushed his food under the door until he gets less violent. No furniture in the room and the mattress is on the floor so he shouldn’t have a bed to break and use as a weapon.”
Trent thought a moment over what More had said. Haggerty did not welcome questions about North, whereas he did not mind what was said about another inmate, Mrs. Pate. He had displayed this emotion before he showed More the cell where violent maniacs were put. That was worth a thought. Why, if he did not wish More, a person of no importance in so far as influence was concerned, to see North or ask about him, did he take him to the cell when he need not have offered more than an excuse?
“You have no proof that the man lying there was Marcus North.”
“Nothing except his word and I’ve proved him a liar. I made a note of it because I thought it might be worth investigating. I was in his place last night. He has bought a house outside Deerfarm by the depot and the gang meets there for poker. I had a bottle of your Scotch and he said to wait and not open it until the bunch was gone. You know me, Mr. Trent, I’m no drinker so that meant pretty well the whole quart for him. He can drink, believe me. While he was getting ice the phone rang and I answered it. It was long distance from Worcester and the girl at this end wanted to be sure it was Big Haggerty. While I was saying I’d fetch him he came in. It’s my belief he’s a maniac.”
More rubbed his arm where Haggerty had gripped him. “He just threw me away from the phone and your bottle was knocked off the table. That made him madder than ever. I tell you, sir, he put me through the third degree and wanted to know if I knew who’d called and the number. I was mighty glad I didn’t know. Then the way he talked to the operator was a scandal. Then he got my hat and coat and fairly threw me out. This morning he apologized and said he was drunk and that a man at Worcester who owed him money had called him up. All the time he was apologizing he was looking hard at me. I wouldn’t like to be a patient under him.”
“When a man behaves that way to me,” Trent observed, “I don’t accept an apology very readily.”
“That’s because you are a scrapper,” More said. “I wasn’t very well pleased considering the money I’d dropped to him and the three quarts he’d had from me of real stuff.” More smiled a little. “I found the operator Haggerty had called down and she’s had my special gift box of six pairs of stockings. A pleasant-spoken sensible young lady.” More took out a scrap of paper. “That’s the number that was trying to get Haggerty. He calls up every night. May be nothing in it, but I knew you like to know everything. It’s a man.”
Trent smiled.
“Fine,” he cried.
More was always to be depended on to remember things more brilliant men overlooked. “I’d like to meet Haggerty. I want particularly to hear him talk.”
“I’m playing pool with him at seven,” More said. “If you drop around and watch the tables the voice you hear above all others will be Big Haggerty. His brother don’t say much and he’ll be on duty.”
“All right,” Trent said. “You won’t recognize me, of course. I’d like to know one other thing. When does he have this nightly conversation with the man in Worcester?”
“Always at one a.m. It’s over in a few words.”
“I shall be passing Haggerty’s house at one to-night. I want you to signal me when Haggerty hangs up. Promise him another bottle.”
More never raised difficulties. “That ought to be easy. I’ll come out on the porch and light a match. As a matter of precaution I’ll light three at once so you’ll see my face. That means okeh, he’s through.” More hesitated a moment. “If there’s likely to be a mix-up with Haggerty you’d better watch out. He was telling me some of the tricks he has of subduing them poor devils in there when they get violent. It made me sick to the stomach just listening to him.”
“Thanks for the tip,” Trent said. “I may never have to speak to him. I am working on the flimsiest of ideas. I may be all wrong.” He looked at More and the smaller man saw that adventure light in Trent’s eyes. Trent knew more than he said. Well, More was not inquisitive. In due time he would be told. “If I do have occasion to talk with your friend Big Haggerty I don’t think there’ll be a great deal of risk involved.”