FullReads

“But the point remains that Geltmann sailed on the same ship that brought the army officer. Evidently he hoped to get possession of the paper the officer carried on the way over. Failing there, he tried other means. He followed the officer down to Washington, seduced Westerfeltner by the promise of a fat bribe, and then, just when his scheme was about to succeed, became frightened and returned to New York, trusting to a woman confederate to deliver the paper to him here. And now he’s here, awaiting her arrival, and from all the evidence available he expects to get it from her to-morrow night at your cousin’s party.”

“Then the woman is to be there too?” Miss Smith’s eyes were stretched wide.

“She certainly is.”

“And who is she–or, rather, who do you think she is?”

“Miss Smith, prepare for a shock. Either that woman is Mme. Josephine Ybanca, the wife of the famous South American diplomat, or else she is Miss Evelyn Ballister, sister of United States Senator Hector Ballister. And I am pretty sure that you must know both of them.”

“I do! I do! I know Miss Ballister fairly well, and I have met Madame Ybanca twice–once here in New York, once at Washington. And let me say now, that at first blush I do not find it in my heart to suspect either of them of deliberate wrongdoing. I don’t think they are that sort.”

“I don’t wonder you say that,” answered Mullinix. “Also I think I know you well enough to feel sure that the fact that both of them are to be guests of your cousin, Mrs. Hadley-Smith, to-morrow night has no influence upon you in forming your judgments of these two young women.”

“I know Miss Ballister has been invited and has accepted. But I think you must be wrong when you say Madame Ybanca is also expected.”

“When was the last time you saw your cousin?”

“The day before yesterday, I think it was, but only for a few minutes.”

“Well, yesterday she sent a telegram to Madame Ybanca saying she understood Madame Ybanca would be coming up from Washington this week and asking her to waive formality and come to the party.”

“You say my cousin sent such a wire?”

“I read the telegram. Likewise I read Madame Ybanca’s reply, filed at half after six o’clock yesterday evening, accepting the invitation.”

“But surely”–and now there was mounting incredulity and indignation in Miss Smith’s tone–“but surely no one dares to assert that my cousin is conniving at anything improper?”

“Certainly not! If I thought she was doing anything wrong I would hardly be asking you to help trap her, would I? Didn’t I tell you that we might even have to enlist your cousin’s co-operation? But I imagine, when you make inquiry, as of course you will do at once, you’ll find that since you saw your cousin she has seen Goldsborough, or Geltmann–to give him his real name–and that he asked her to send the wire to Madame Ybanca.”

“That being assumed as correct, the weight of the proof would seem to press upon the madame rather than upon Miss Ballister, wouldn’t it?”

“Frankly I don’t know. At times to-day, coming up here on the train, I have thought she must be the guilty one, and at times I have felt sure that she was not. But this much I do know: One of those two ladies is absolutely innocent of any wrongdoing, and the other one–pardon my language–is as guilty as hell. But perhaps it is only fair to both that you should suspend judgment altogether until I have finished telling you the whole business, as far as I know it.

“Let us go back a bit. Half an hour after I had heard Westerfeltner’s confession and fifteen minutes after I had seen the druggist and his clerk, the entire machinery of our branch of the service had been set in motion to find out what women in Washington were friends of Geltmann. For Geltmann spent most of last fall in Washington. Now while in Washington he was noticeably attentive to just two women–Miss Ballister and Madame Ybanca. Now mark a lengthening of the parallel: Both of them are small women; both of them are slender; both are young, and both of course have refined voices. Neither speaks with any special accent, for the madame, though married to a Latin, is an American woman. She has black hair, while Miss Ballister’s hair is a golden red-brown. So far, you see, the vague description furnished by the three men who spoke to the mythical Mrs. Williams might apply to either.”