Part 24 (1/2)

”Yes, and I think a drop of something wouldn't hurt us,” added Grey, following the direction of the expressman's wink and thought quickly.

They stepped over to the saloon and were soon calmly looking at each other through the bottom of some gla.s.ses where there had been whiskey and sugar. They looked at each other twice this way, and finally they were obliged to take the third telescopic view of each other before they could resume the subject.

Then the expressman looked very wise at Grey, remarking musingly, ”A big 'oman with a big trunk, eh?”

”Yes, a pretty fine-looking woman, too.”

”Purty cranky?”

”Yes.”

”And steps purty high wid a long sthride?”

”Exactly.”

”'N has clothes that stand up sthiff wid starch 'n silk 'n the makin'?”

”The very same,” said Grey anxiously.

”I didn't move her,” said the expressman, shaking his head solemnly.

Grey felt like ”giving him one,” as he said in his reports, but repressed himself and said pleasantly that he was sorry he had troubled him, and turned to go away, knowing this would unloosen his companion's tongue, if anything would.

”Sthop a bit, sthop a bit; you didn't ax me did I know ef any other party moved her?”

”That's so,” said Grey, smiling and waiting patiently for developments.

”Av coorse it's so.” Then looking very knowingly, he said mysteriously, ”The man's just ferninst the Planters',--not a sthone's throw away. He's a big Dutchman, 'n got a dollar fur the job.”

They were both around the corner in a moment, and Grey at once made inquiries of the German owner of a ”grey horse and a covered wagon” as to what part of the city he had removed the trunk.

He was very secretive about the matter, and refused any information whatever.

”Come, come, me duck,” said the Irishman, ”me frind here is an officer, 'n ef ye don't unbosom yerself in a howly minit, ye'll be altogether shnaked before the coort!”

He said this with such an air of pompous sincerity, as if he had the whole power of the government at his back, that the German at once began relating the circ.u.mstances in such a detailed manner that he would have certainly been engaged an entire hour in the narrative, if Grey had not, as he himself expressed it, ”out of the tail of his eye” seen Mrs.

Winslow, not twenty feet away, sailing down Fourth street, towards the Planters'. In another moment she would pa.s.s the corner of the court-house square, where she could not help but see the little crowd of expressmen, hackmen and runners, his inquiries, and the statement by his companion that he was an officer, had attracted.

CHAPTER XXV.

Still foiled.-- Mr. Pinkerton perplexed over the Character of the Adventuress.-- Her wonderful recuperative Powers.-- A lively Chase.-- Another unexpected Move.-- The Detectives beaten at every Point.-- From Town to Town.-- Mrs.

Winslow's Shrewdness.-- Among the Spiritualists at Terre Haute.-- Plotting.-- The beautiful Belle Ruggles.-- A wild Night in a ramshackle old Boarding-House.-- Blood-curdling ”Manifestations.”-- Moaning and weeping for Day.-- Outwitted again.-- Mr. Pinkerton makes a chance Discovery.-- Success.

Grey took in the situation at once, and was equal to the emergency. He knew if the German saw Mrs. Winslow, and thinking him an officer who might arrest him for complicity in something wrong, he would probably shout right out, ”There she is, now!” He was also just as sure that his new-found Irish acquaintance, in the excess of his friendliness, would rush right over to Fourth street and stop the woman. So in an instant he created a counter-attraction by calling the German a liar, collaring him, and backing him through the line of wagons out of sight, and as Mrs. Winslow pa.s.sed farther down Fourth street, backed him through the line of teams in the opposite direction, while the German protested volubly that he was telling only the truth; and just the moment Mrs.

Winslow's form was hid by the Planters' House, he released the now angry expressman, flung him a dollar for ”treats,” and running nimbly around the block, fell into a graceful walk behind Mrs. Winslow, keeping at a judicious distance, and following her for several hours through the dry-goods stores, to the Butchers and Drovers' Bank, where she drew a portion of the amount which she had secured from the prominent St. Louis daily as damages, and which had remained undisturbed in that bank until this time; into several saloons, where she boldly went, and, in defence of the theory of women's rights, stood up to the counter like a man, ordering and drinking liquor like one too; to the Four Courts, where she at least _seemed_ to have considerable business; to numberless Spiritualist brothers and sisters, including, of course, the mediums; and finally to a very elegant private boarding-house kept by a respectable lady named Gayno, whom the adventuress had so won with her oily words and das.h.i.+ng manners, accompanied by her large Saratoga trunk, that not only she, but a little French gentleman named Le Compte--whom Grey had hard work to avoid, as he had followed Mrs. Winslow at a respectful distance, and as if with a view of ascertaining whether any other person besides himself was following the madam--had managed to secure quarters in an aristocratic home and an aristocratic neighborhood, for all of which the experienced female swindler had no more idea of paying, unless compelled to, than she had of paying her fifty-dollar hotel bill at the Denver House.

On receipt of this information, I directed Superintendent Bangs to proceed to Rochester and hurry up Lyon's attorneys in securing the legal papers necessary to avail ourselves of the large amount of evidence already discovered, and serve notice upon her while she was still in sight, and before her suspicions of being watched and followed, which it was evident was now growing upon her, had forced her into still more artful dodges to evade us.