Precisely at eight o’clock, Sidney Zoom sent his car into the curb back of the warehouse, switched off the ignition, jumped out, and motioned to his dog.
That which followed was rather peculiar, for Sidney Zoom took the dog’s head in his hands and talked to him, low-voiced, connected conversation which seemed more the type of conversation one would carry on with an intelligent child than with a dog.
The dog wagged his tail, glided off into the darkness.
Sidney Zoom looked at his watch.
Heavy feet, assured, authoritative, deliberate, sounded on the boards of the wharf.
“Hello,” said Zoom. “Did you manage to get the pictures?”
Captain Berkeley grunted.
“Then,” said Sidney Zoom in a low voice, “reach for your gun.”
Captain Berkeley paused stock still to stare.
There was a blur of dark motion from behind a pile of empty gasoline drums. The darkness gave forth the sound of a low growl, ominous, menacing. The planks of the wharf reverberated to four feet thudding at a full gallop.
Fire streaked from the darkness, and answering fire stabbed from Sidney Zoom’s hand. The dog barked once. A man screamed. A woman shouted some shrill command. More spurts of fire ripping the darkness. Bullets crashed through the night air, splintering the boards, glancing from metallic objects with long drawn snarls.
Captain Berkeley, veteran of years on the force, was down behind the nearest gasoline drum at the first sound of firing. By the time the third shot had been fired, his service revolver was out of its holster and barking an answer.
Once more there came the muffled thunder of padded four feet charging at a gallop. The scream of the woman knifed the night. There was a low, throaty growl.
“Steady, Rip!” called Sidney Zoom, and began to ran, heedless of the danger which the night might hold. He ran directly toward the sound of that scream, the noise of that ominous growl.
Captain Berkeley lumbered into a flat-footed charge.
“I surrender!” shrilled a frightened voice from the darkness.
Chapter VIII
The electric flash light of Captain Berkeley sent a white beam into the night, turning the black piles into dazzling brilliance.
Against the black background, a pair of white hands, stretched high above a barricade of empty boxes, caught the gleam of the light. There was a strained, drawn face below those upraised hands, a sagging mouth, eyes that bulged with terror.
“Take him, captain!” said Zoom, and continued in the direction from which the growl had sounded.
He found that which he sought, a woman shrinking from the bloody fangs of the growling animal. On the planking of the wharf was the glitter of a weapon. The right wrist of the woman bore red splotches where the teeth of the animal had locked and tom as he wrested the gun from her wrist.
Sidney Zoom grasped the dog by the collar, pulled him back, kicked the gun out of the way.
“Go find, Rip,” he said.
And the dog rushed out in a great, questing half circle.
A revolver spat twice. A man’s feet pounded the planks. They were the feet of a man who ran lightly, on his toes, running as a trained sprinter runs. But behind him came the tattoo of dog’s feet, and those feet cut down the distance with a savage swiftness.
A growl, a tawny shadow in the air, the thud of an impact! The running form of the man skidded over the rough planks, rolled, twitched and lay still as the dog stood over him, fangs snarling at his throat, wolf eyes gleaming with blood lust.
Ten minutes later the three prisoners were on the yacht, getting wounds bandaged, a surly, shifty-eyed crowd of thwarted criminals.
“All right,” said Captain Berkeley, turning to Sidney Zoom, “spill it!”
Zoom laughed.
“So absurdedly simple it seemed complicated,” he replied. “So obvious that it almost escaped observation. The girl was advised to rob the safe and wear a mask by the butler. There was no need for her to wear a mask, really no pressing need for her to rob the safe.
“But, notice the significant fact that Ralph Ames returns with two responsible witnesses at the exact time that will surprise the young lady at the safe. That time, concededly, was controlled by Mrs. Ames, who became ill and insisted upon being taken home from the reception.
“Notice, also, the significant fact that Garford, the woman’s accomplice, has vanished from police ken for approximately two years — almost exactly the length of time Graves, the butler, had been working for Ralph C. Ames.
“What more natural than that Garford alias Graves, knowing that the police were on his trail, and wishing to lay low for a while, should forge references and secure the position of butler to Ames? What more natural than that he should insinuate himself into the good graces of Ames and his secretary so that he could naturally bring about the entrance of his woman accomplice into the picture?
“Between them they worked the old man skillfully enough so that he actually married the woman. Then they wanted his fortune, wanted it quick before there should be any chance of Ames discovering how he had been duped.
“So, Garford, posing as Graves, the efficient butler, and the stanch friend of Miss Bendley, talked her into putting on men’s clothes and robbing the safe, with a mask over her features. Then he arranged to have Ames, accompanied by unimpeachable witnesses, walk in on the affair. He knew Ames well enough, hot-headed, irascible, tight-fisted, he would naturally pursue a running figure.
“And Graves, wearing a mask, dressed as the girl was dressed, stepped into the doorway where he could be seen by the witnesses, shot the old man and then slipped off his mask and became once more the loyal butler.
“But he made the mistake of gilding the lily. He wanted the police to get the gun with which the killing was done. This gun doubtless belonged to Miss Bendley, and could be traced to her by the police. Also it had her finger-prints-on it.
“So Graves, or Garford, planted the gun where I would find it, and turn it into the police. But he overlooked the fact that Miss Bendley couldn’t have tossed the gun there after the killing, that she had rushed from the house immediately after the shooting. Finding the gun where it was, pointed conclusively to the fact that some one other than Miss Bendley had fired the fatal shot.
“But the butler was damnedly clever in letting me in on what he knew the police would soon discover, that the supposed cousin was, in reality, the woman’s son.
“When he had his private detectives shadowing me, and learned I hadn’t been fooled, but intended to get the pictures and record of Garford, he had two alternatives, flight, or to take the chance of killing and effectually silencing our lips.
“I had hoped they would resort to flight, but the bait of Ames’s estate was too much. They decided to risk everything on silencing us until after the woman could collect at least a part of the estate.
“I felt certain they would either flee or be waiting for us—”
It was the woman who interrupted.
“Well, you’ve been damned smart. But you can’t stop me from getting that money. Mr. Ames made a will. That was revoked by his marriage. The girl is no relation to him. I’m the only legal relative he has in the world. And even if a jury would believe your story, the money will, of course, go in my family!”
Sidney Zoom shook his head, mournfully, solemnly.
“Perhaps you’ve forgotten that you were forced to marry Garford, legally. That marriage has never been dissolved. Therefore your marriage to Ames was bigamous, merely an empty ceremony, and not legal. As a result the will was never revoked. It’s just as good now as the day it was written.”