Part 28 (1/2)

”Come on with ye. I'm blamed if I don't admire yer nerve. Of course ye understand I've no right to let ye in--that's up to the station-master, but he's a grouchy divil.” The speaker led Paul into a room piled high with trunks, then summoned two helpers. ”We'll move every dam' wan of them till we fit your little key,” he declared; then the four men fell to.

A blind search promised to be a job of hours, so Paul walked down the runway between the piles of trunks, using his eyes as he went. At least he could eliminate certain cla.s.ses of baggage, and thus he might shorten the search; but half-way down the row he called sharply to the smashers:

”Come here, quick!” At his tone they came running. ”Look! that one in the bottom row!” he cried. ”That's it. Something tells me it is.”

On the floor underneath the pile was a little, flat, battered tin trunk, pathetically old-fas.h.i.+oned and out of place among its more stylish neighbors; it was the kind of trunk Paul had seen in his mother's front room on the farm. It was bound about with a bit of rope.

His excitement infected the others, and the three smashers went at the pile, regardless of damage. Anderson's suspense bid fair to choke him; what if this were not the one? he asked himself. But what if it were the right one? What if this key he clutched in his cold palm should fit the lock? Paul pictured what he would see when he lifted the lid: a collection of forms, hangers, patterns, yard-sticks, a tape measure, and somewhere in it a little black yarn mitten. He prayed blindly for courage to withstand disappointment.

”There she is,” panted his Irish friend, dragging the object out into the clear. The other men crowded closer. ”Come on, lad. What are ye waitin' for?”

Anderson knelt before the little battered trunk and inserted the key.

It was the keenest moment he had ever lived. He turned the key; then he was on his feet, cold, calm, his blue eyes glittering.

”Cut those ropes. Quick!” he ordered. ”We're right.”

The man at his side whipped out a knife and slashed twice.

”Come close, all of you,” Paul directed, ”and remember everything we find. You may have to testify.”

He lifted the lid. On the top of the shallow tray lay a little black yarn mitten, the mate to that one in the city Morgue.

Anderson smiled into the faces of the men at his side. ”That's it,” he said, simply.

The tall Irishman laid a hand on his shoulder, saying: ”Yer all right, boy. Don't get rattled,”

Paul opened the till and found precisely the paraphernalia he had expected: there were forms, hangers, patterns, yard-sticks, and a tape measure. In the compartment beneath were some neatly folded clothes, the needlework of which was fine, and in one corner a bundle of letters which Anderson examined with trembling fingers. They were addressed to ”Miss Mabel Wilkes, Highland, Ontario, Canada, Care of Captain Wilkes.”

The amateur detective replaced the letters carefully; he closed and locked the trunk; then he thanked his companions.

”If I had a dollar in the world,” said he, ”I'd ask you boys to have a drink, but I'm broke.” Then he began to laugh foolishly, hysterically, until the raw-boned man clapped him on the back again.

”Straighten up, lad. Ye've been strained a bit too hard. I'll telephone for the cops.”

In an instant Paul was himself. ”You'll do nothing of the sort,” he cried. ”Why, man, you'll spoil the whole thing. I've worked this out alone, and if the police hear of it they'll notify all the papers and I'll have no story. Burns won't give me that job, and I'll be hungry again.”

”True! I forgot that fat-headed divil of an editor. Well, you say the word and n.o.body won't know nothin' from us. Hey, boys?”

”Sure not,” the other men agreed. This lad was one of their kind; he was up against it and fighting for his own, therefore they knew how to sympathize. But Paul had been seized with terror lest his story might get away from him, therefore he bade them a hasty good-by and sped up-town. His feet could not carry him swiftly enough.

Burns greeted him sourly when he burst into the editorial sanctum. It was not yet twenty-four hours since he had sent this fellow away with instructions not to return.

”Are you back again?” he snarled. ”I heard about your a.s.saulting Wells down at the City Hall. Don't try it on me or I'll have you pinched.”

Paul laughed lightly. ”I don't have to fight for my rights any more.”

”Indeed! What are you grinning about? Have you found who that girl is?”

”I have.”