if dr. underwood awaited his investigating committee with any special anxiety, his mobile face did not show it. burton read excitement, interest, even satirical amusement in it, but nothing like dread. but surprise and disapproval came into it when the door opened abruptly and leslie entered.

"i'm going to hear what they have to say," she announced.

"now, see here, leslie, it's bad enough to have a daughter bothering a man to death in his own home, but when she begins to tag him around in public affairs, so that he can't even meet a committee of his neighbors who want to search his study in order to arrest him for highway robbery without having her putting herself in evidence, it becomes a regular nuisance. you go back to your spinning-wheel."

"you neglected to bring me up to a spinning-wheel, father."

"you go back to your mother."

"i am going to stay here. i'll be reasonably quiet, but that's the only compromise i'll agree to. don't waste nerve force scolding me, father. you need to conserve your strength." and with the evident intention of making herself as inconspicuous as possible she took a low chair half hidden by the heavy curtain of the window. burton could not help thinking how futile any attempt at obscurity on her part must always be. her beauty lit up the shadowy corner as a jewel lights its case. he had to make a conscious effort to turn his eyes away.

again the door opened and henry entered. the contrast between his attitude and his sister's was striking. he entered hesitatingly, one would have said reluctantly, and his eyes were not lifted from the floor.

"mother thought i ought to be present," he said in a low voice.

dr. underwood regarded him with a baffled look, and burton understood and sympathized with his perplexity. he looked curiously at henry himself. his youthful escapades, so out of the ordinary, had evidently made him something of a family problem.

"you might profitably take for an example your brother's ready obedience to a parent's wishes," the doctor said dryly. he spoke to leslie, but it was henry who winced at the jibe. his face darkened, and he shot an angry look at his father.

the tramping of feet in the hall announced the approach of the committee.

"here they be," said mrs. bussey, opening the door, and herself entering at the head of the little procession of three men. her lively interest in the affair was comically evident.

dr. underwood saved the situation from its awkwardness with a savoir faire which burton could not too much admire.

"good evening, gentlemen," he cried genially. "you are very welcome. you will excuse my remaining seated, i hope. i have sprained my ankle. let me present you to my friend, mr. burton,--mr. hadley, who is one of our most distinguished citizens; mr. ralston, who forms the opinions of the public of high ridge by virtue of his position as our leading editor; mr. orton selby, who was the unhappy victim of the highway robbery of which you have heard and who is justifiably anxious to let no guilty man escape. be seated, gentlemen."

burton bowed, in acknowledgment of the several introductions. he was touched by the simple-heartedness of dr. underwood in presenting him so frankly as a "friend," and felt more bound by it to act the part of a friend than he could have been by any formal pledge. he took quick appraisal of the three committeemen. hadley was evidently prosperous, pompous and much impressed with his own importance. ralston had the keen eye and dispassionate smile of the experienced newspaperman, so accustomed to having today's stories contradicted by to-morrow's that he has learned to be slow about committing himself to any side. selby he had already met! that selby remembered the fact was quite evident from the look of surprise and suspicion which he cast upon dr. underwood's guest. a striking man he was, with a dark narrow face, and a nervous manner. his eye was so restless that it seemed continually flitting from one object to another. his lips were thin, and, in their spasmodic twitching, gave the same sense of nervous instability that his restless eyes conveyed. burton had an impulse to pick him up and set him forcibly down somewhere, with an injunction to sit still.

"if you have formed any plan of procedure, gentlemen, go ahead," said underwood. "we stand ready, of course, to assist you in any way possible."

"sorry you've had an accident," said ralston, with friendly interest, "i hope it's not serious."

"oh, no. it interferes with my walking for the present, but i'll be all right in a few days. those pestiferous little imps, the sprigg children, threw stones at my nag, and some of them took effect on me. tormented little wretches! they are bound to be in the fashion if it takes a leg,--my leg, i mean. i told them fire would descend from heaven to burn up children who stoned prophets, but they didn't seem to realize that i was a prophet."

"i hope you may not prove so, in this instance," laughed ralston.

"yes, if fire should descend upon them, it might look as though you were responsible," said hadley, with a ponderous air of perpetrating a light pleasantry. "they say it is dangerous to go up against you, doctor. something is apt to happen."

"oh, laws!" gasped a frightened voice. mrs. bussey had been an open-mouthed listener to the conversation.

underwood turned sharply upon her, perhaps glad of an opportunity to vent his irritation indirectly.

"mrs. bussey, while i regret to interfere with the liberty of action which belongs to every freeborn citizen of this great republic, i think we shall have to dispense with your presence at the ceremonies. i mean, mrs. bussey, we shan't need you any longer. you may go."

the woman muttered a grumbling dissent, but slowly withdrew. burton was divided between amusement over the scene and wonder that the underwoods, whatever their financial stress, should keep so untrained and untrainable a servant. she seemed to have all the defects and none of the merits of an old family retainer.

"well, we came here for business and we don't want to be wasting time," said selby abruptly. "you probably know how to get even with the spriggs without delaying us."

"certainly," said underwood courteously, "but there is something i'd like to say first,--"

"if you are ready to make a confession, of course we are ready to hear you. i don't think anything else is in order at this point," said selby, in the same aggressively abrupt manner.

burton was suddenly conscious of an impulse to go up to the man and knock him down, and by that token he knew, if there had been any reservation in his mind before, that he had taken sides for good and all. he was for dr. underwood. he glanced swiftly around the room to see how the others took this wanton rudeness. ralston was watching the doctor quizzically from under his eyebrows. hadley did not know that anything had happened. henry was still as impassive as a statue, but leslie, from her low seat by the window, was leaning forward with a look of lively indignation that was more eloquent than words. burton went quickly over to her and sat down beside her without speaking.

"what i have to say is entirely in order at this point, even though it be not a confession," dr. underwood said quietly. "i invited you here in good faith to conduct any sort of an investigation that you might consider necessary. an hour or so ago, mr. burton found this handkerchief concealed behind the books on that shelf. as you would of course have discovered it, if he had not found it, i consider it only proper that i should place it in your hands." he picked up the mutilated handkerchief which had been left on the table, and after a moment's hesitation, said: "henry, will you hand this to mr. hadley, as chairman of this committee?"

as henry took the handkerchief from his father's hand, it fell open and the staring eyelet holes glared at the company. he stopped suddenly and a look of dismay went like a wave over his face. he glanced swiftly at his father. but while he hesitated, selby sprang forward and snatched it from his hand with something like the snarl of an animal.

"look at that! look at that, will you?" he almost shouted. hadley blinked at it and ralston got up and took the handkerchief in his hand.

"it seems to be the orthodox thing," he said with interest.

"seems to be! seems to be pretty conclusive, i should say. it's proof!"

"it's proof that dr. underwood has a malicious enemy and a rather stupid one," said burton, thinking that it was time for him to take a hand in this remarkable scene. "i found that handkerchief an hour ago, tucked behind one of the books there, where you would certainly have found it if you had made any search. it is, of course, perfectly evident that it was placed there for the express purpose of having you find it."

"i don't see that that is so evident," selby interrupted. "what have you got to say about this, anyhow?"

"do you think that if dr. underwood had had such an incriminating piece of evidence he would have kept it instead of destroying it? if he were bound to keep it, do you think he would hide it where the first careless search would bring it to light? if he had so hidden it, would he have invited you here to search? you can't answer yes to those questions, unless you think he is a fit subject for the insane asylum rather than the jail."

leslie shot him an eloquent glance of thanks. hadley coughed and looked at ralston, who was attending to burton closely.

"i agree with you perfectly," the editor said, and hadley nodded.

selby turned a face of deliberate insolence upon burton. "i don't know who you are, mr. burton, but you are here as a friend of dr. underwood's, that's clear."

"yes," said burton. "i love him for the enemies he has made." ralston looked at him with evident enjoyment.

"well, a friend's say-so won't go very far in clearing a man when facts like these stand against him. we're here looking for a thief. if it wasn't dr. underwood that held me up, let him explain that handkerchief, found here in his own private room."

and hadley sagely nodded.

"i can't explain it," said dr. underwood. the life had gone out of his voice.

"it explains itself," said burton impatiently. "some one is trying to make trouble for dr. underwood by a very clumsy and transparent device. of course," he added, suddenly realizing that he was not taking the politic tone, "of course such an obvious trick might impose on ignorant people, but to three men of more than average intelligence and experience, it must be perfectly clear that the very obviousness of the evidence destroys its value."

ralston cocked his left eye at him and laughed silently. hadley nodded, but with some dubiousness. he agreed heartily with that part of the speaker's last sentiment which bore witness to his more than average intelligence, but he had a dizzy feeling that he was getting himself somewhat tangled up as to what he was committed to. but selby was a cerberus superior to the temptations of any sop.

"then we'll look for some other evidence," he said aggressively. "we're here to search, and i propose to search."

"the house is yours, gentlemen," said dr. underwood.

selby took a truculent survey of the room, which was not a large one. he walked over to the bookcase and ran his hand behind the books on the shelves and lifted heaps of loose papers and magazines without disclosing anything more deadly than dust. then he opened the door of a medicine cabinet on the wall and pulled out the drawers of the table, and ran his eye over the mantel. he suggested a terrier trying to unearth a rat and apparently he was perfectly willing to conduct the search alone.

leslie was watching him with a look of so much indignation and repressed scorn that burton bent to her and said in a low voice: "wouldn't it be better for you to leave?"

she shook her head.

"don't waste your good hate on him," burton urged gently. "he isn't worth it."

"there is some one behind all this who is," she flashed.

"yes. we'll find out who it is before we are through."

she gave him a grateful look, and on the instant he began wondering how he could win another. they seemed especially well worth collecting.

selby had dropped on his knees before the open fireplace and was examining the bricks that made the hearth.

"some of these bricks are loose," he said accusingly to underwood.

"careless of them," murmured the doctor.

but selby was in no mood for light conversational thrusts and parries. he was trying to pry up the suspicious bricks with his fingers and breaking his nails on them.

"hand him a knife, henry," said dr. underwood.

henry took a clasp-knife from his pocket in the same passive silence that had marked him throughout, and mechanically opened the large blade. it slipped in his hand and burton saw him wince as the steel shut with a snap upon his finger. but he opened it again and handed it to selby, who took it with an inarticulate grunt. burton kept his eye upon the cut finger, but as henry, after a hasty glance, merely wrapped his handkerchief hard about it, and made no motion to leave the room, he concluded the hurt had not been as serious as it looked.

p71

"'well, perhaps this can be explained away, too!'" page 71.

selby was busy trying to pry up one of the bricks with the knife, when suddenly the point snapped.

"you've broken it," exclaimed henry, who was standing nearest.

"if i have, i'll pay for it," said selby, with a vicious look. "i pay my debts in full every time. hello! this looks like something interesting! well, perhaps this can be explained away, too!" he picked up from the mortar under the loose brick a glittering something and held it up with a triumphant air.

"what is it?" asked ralston.

"it's my watch-chain and my charm, that i was robbed of; that's what it is." he shook it in his excitement until the links rattled. "is that evidence or isn't it? does that prove anything or doesn't it?"

"is that chain yours?" asked underwood gravely.

"of course it's mine. my initials are on the charm and the date it was presented to me. i guess there isn't any one going to claim that chain but me."

he took it to ralston and hadley, talking excitedly. underwood sat silent, with his head a little bent and his eyes on the floor. he looked as though a weight had fallen upon him. burton tried to catch leslie's eye for a reassuring glance, but she was anxiously watching her father and was regardless of everything else.

"it looks bad--bad," muttered hadley, handing the chain back to selby.

henry had been glowering at selby in somber silence, and now he startled every one by speaking out with a slow emphasis that stung.

"i've heard it said that those who hide can find," he said.

selby whirled upon him. "meaning me?"

henry lifted his shoulders in an exasperating shrug. "you went pretty straight to the right brick."

selby walked up to henry with out-thrust chin, and spoke in a manner that struck burton as deliberately offensive and provocative.

"that's what you have to say, is it? now my advice to you is that you say just as little as possible. you're not far enough out of the woods yourself to holler very loud."

"how so? do you mean now that it was i who robbed you?" henry asked tauntingly. "it would have been quite easy for me to wear my father's cloak, if i wanted to throw suspicion on him; and to hide these things in the room, wouldn't it? come, now! was it i, or wasn't it?"

selby hesitated an instant. burton wondered whether he were considering the advisability of changing his line of attack to that so audaciously suggested by henry. perhaps he regretted that he had not accused henry in the first place, but saw that it was impossible consistently to do so now.

"it's the sort of thing that you might do, easy enough, we all know that," he said bitingly. "we haven't forgotten your tricks here six years ago, and you needn't think it. just because the police didn't catch you, you needn't think that you fooled anybody."

"gentlemen," the doctor tried to interpose, but no one heard him. henry was evidently enjoying himself. he seemed curiously determined to provoke selby to the uttermost, and the insolent mockery of his manner was all the more strange because of its contrast to his former taciturnity.

"you're a poor loser, selby. what's a few dollars more or less to make a fuss over? some time you may lose something that you really will miss. as for this robbery, if you really were held up,--i don't know whether you were or not, since i have only your word for it,--i'm sure you didn't have money enough to pay for that cheap handkerchief. and as for that plated chain!" he lifted his shoulders.

"what's mine is mine," said selby, with the ineffective viciousness of a badgered animal.

"but the point is, is everything yours that you think is?"

"i'm going to find out who got my money," said selby doggedly. "and as for you,--i'll get you yet."

"sorry, but you can't have me. i'm already engaged," said henry deliberately.

the retort seemed to carry selby entirely beyond his own control.

"you're very clever at making speeches, aren't you? almost as clever as you are at throwing people, and breaking their backs--"

but dr. underwood again interposed and this time successfully.

"all this is aside from the question. we are not here to study ancient history in any of its forms. this committee was invited here to consider the robbery of mr. selby, and anything else is beside the mark."

"and my watch-chain? is that beside the mark? found concealed here under your hearth. does that mean nothing?"

the doctor looked so unhappy that burton took the answer upon himself.

"it means exactly as much and as little as the handkerchief," he said. "it means that the place has been 'salted' in expectation of your visit, and if you want to go into the investigating business to some effect, you'll set yourselves to finding out who did it."

"never mind going into that," said underwood a little anxiously. "these gentlemen were invited here to investigate me, and here my interest in the matter ends. if they are satisfied--"

"but we are not," interrupted selby. "satisfied! i'm satisfied that we've got evidence enough to hang a man on, and i shall demand the arrest of dr. underwood."

"then you will do so on your own responsibility," said ralston, in decided tones. "i think mr. burton is right. the evidence was so plainly intended to be found that it amounts to nothing. i, for one, shall not allow myself to be made a laughing stock by taking action on it, and i am sure that mr. hadley agrees with me."

"i--certainly--ah--should not wish to be made a laughing stock," said mr. hadley, with a reproachful look at selby.

selby picked up his hat and made for the door. "you needn't think i'm going to drop this," he said with bitter emphasis. he addressed the room in general, but his look fell on henry underwood.

hadley and ralston also rose.

"if he acts on this evidence," said ralston, addressing dr. underwood, "you may count on mr. hadley and myself to state exactly how it was found. we will say good night now, and i hope your foot will be all right in a day or two."

"thank you," said underwood. "henry, will you see the gentlemen to the door?"

henry went out with the committee. incidentally, he did not return to the surgery. from his place by the window, burton saw the men depart. selby, who had left the room some minutes before the others, was the last to leave the house. indeed, the others waited at the gate some minutes before he came hurriedly out to join them. burton wondered if he had occupied the time in poking into other rooms in his absurd "search."

leslie had sprung up and gone to her father. she put one arm around his neck and lifted his face with a sort of fierce affection.

"why do you look so depressed, father?" she demanded. "how dare you let yourself go down like that?"

he wrinkled his face in one of those queer smiles.

"i know, my dear, that it is the proper and right-minded thing for a man with a sprained ankle to go around capering and dancing for joy, and i am sorry not to be living up to your just expectations. i'll try to improve."

she turned with one of her swift transitions to burton. "what do you think of it?"

"exactly what i told the committee," he said, and was glad that he could say it promptly.

"you can understand now how i feel,--as though a net were drawing around me. it is so intangible and yet so horribly real. what can one do?"

instead of answering he asked a question in his turn.

"why does your brother hate selby?"

"wouldn't any one hate him?"

"well, then, why does selby hate your brother?"

"i don't know that he does."

"yes, he does. they hate each other royally, and it is nothing new, either."

underwood groaned, and leslie promptly patted his shoulder.

"poor papa, does it hurt?"

"yes," he sputtered.

then he pulled himself together and turned again to burton. "henry has an unfortunate way of provoking antagonism. but all this has no more to do with this robbery than it has to do with the spots on the sun. even selby doesn't accuse henry of holding him up. i am the target of his attacks, thank heaven."

"why this pious gratitude?"

"i can stand it better than henry. possibly you did not understand selby's slur. it has been the tragedy of henry's life that he crippled ben bussey. it was ten years ago that it happened. they had a tussle. ben was the older, but henry was larger and stronger, and he was in a violent temper. he threw ben in such a way that his spine was permanently injured. but the effect on henry was almost equally serious. his hand has been against friend and foe alike. i don't consider that he was responsible for what happened here a few years later."

"of course not. he had nothing to do with it," said leslie. burton saw that she had missed the significance of the doctor's remark,--and he was glad she had. as the doctor said, that matter had nothing to do with the robbery, and henry was not implicated in the present trouble. he turned to the doctor. "i don't want to force myself upon you in the character of a pushing perseus, but if you have no objections, i should like to spend the night in this room."

the doctor looked at him with the countenance of a chess player who is looking several moves ahead. "why?" he asked.

"i have an idea that the person who made such elaborate preparations for your committee may be curious to learn how much of his cache was unearthed, and, knowing that the committee has been here, may come before morning to take a look. i'd like to receive him properly. i can't at this moment imagine anything that would give me more unalloyed pleasure. as no one knows of my being here, i hope the gentleman may not yet have been put upon his guard. it is evident that he has been able to get into this room before, and possibly he might try again."

"but you won't be comfortable here," protested leslie.

"i shall be more than comfortable. that couch is disgraceful luxury compared with what i am accustomed to when camping. may i stay, doctor?"

dr. underwood's grave face relaxed into a sardonic smile.

"the house is yours!"

"thank you! i was horribly afraid you would refuse. is this room locked at night?"

"no."

"this door opens into a back hall, i noticed. where does that lead?"

"to the kitchen and back stairs. also, at the other end, to the side door of the house, opening out into the garden and to a path which runs down to the side street."

"is that outside door locked at night?"

"oh, yes."

"yet--some one has been able to get into this room without detection. that could only have been at night."

"but why should any one wish to?" protested the doctor uncomfortably.

"the heart is deceitful and wicked. your faith in human nature does you honor, but i am afraid it has also got you into trouble. however, we'll hope that it may also serve to put an end to the trouble. when we find the man who hid these claptrap stage properties in here, we will find the man who knows something about the robbery. it seems to me a fair guess that he may come back to this room tonight to investigate; but in any event there isn't anything else i can do tonight, and it will flatter my sense of importance to feel that i am trying to do something. now, if i may, i will assist you to your room, and then say good night."

leslie, who had been waiting beside her father, rose. "i hope you won't be too uncomfortable," she said.

"my dear," her father interrupted, "i recognize in mr. burton the type that would rather be right than comfortable. we are in his hands, and we may as well accept the situation gracefully. the couch isn't a bad one, burton. i have frequently spent the night here when i have come in late. yonder door leads to a lavatory. and i hope you may not be disturbed."

burton laughed. he had all the eagerness of the amateur. "i'm hoping that i may be! now if you'll lean on my shoulder and pilot the way, i'll take you to your room."

the doctor accepted his assistance with a whimsical recognition of the curiousness of the situation. "that i should be putting myself and my affairs into your hands in this way is probably strange, but more strangely i can't make it seem strange," he said, when burton left him.

when burton came downstairs, leslie was waiting for him.

"i want to thank you," she said impulsively.

"i haven't done anything yet."

"but you are going to."

"i am going to try." then the conscience of the ambassador nudged his memory. after all, he was here for another and a specific purpose, and it behooved him to remember it. "if i succeed, will you have a different answer to send to philip?" he asked, with a searching look.

she clasped her hands together upon her breast with the self-forgetful gesture he had noticed before, and her face was suddenly radiant. "oh, yes, yes!" she cried.

very curiously, her eagerness made burton conscious of a sudden coolness toward his mission. of course he ought to rejoice at this assurance that she was really fond of philip and that nothing kept them apart but her sensitive pride, and he had sense enough to recognize that he was going to be ashamed of his divided feeling when he had time to think it over. but in the meantime the divided feeling was certainly there, with its curious commentary on our aboriginal instincts. he smiled a little grimly at himself, as he answered.

"thank you! i hope that i may claim that promise from you very soon. i shall certainly do my best to have a right to remind you of it. now i am going to say good night and walk ostentatiously away. that is a part of the game. you can leave the front door unlocked, and i'll let myself in when i think the coast is all clear. the door bolts, i see. and i'll find my way to the surgery all right."

"there is always a light in the hall."

"then it will be plain sailing. good night. and be sure to keep mrs. bussey out of the way while i am breaking in."

she laughed, as though he jested. but as he walked back to the hotel to make some necessary arrangements for his night's camping, he hoped she would not wholly disregard that injunction.