Burke, after the lawyer had left him, watched the doorexpectantly for the coming of the girl, whom he had orderedbrought before him. But, when at last Dan appeared, and stoodaside to permit her passing into the office, the Inspector gaspedat the unexpectedness of the vision. He had anticipated thecoming of a woman of that world with which he was most familiarin the exercise of his professional duties--the underworld ofcriminals, some one beautiful perhaps, but with the brand ofviciousness marked subtly, yet visibly for the trained eye tosee. Then, even in that first moment, he told himself that heshould have been prepared for the unusual in this instance, sincethe girl had to do with Mary Turner, and that disturbing personherself showed in face and form and manner nothing to suggestaught but a gentlewoman. And, in the next instant, the Inspectorforgot his surprise in a sincere, almost ardent admiration.
The girl was rather short, but of a slender elegance of form thatwas ravishing. She was gowned, too, with a chic nicety to arousethe envy of all less-fortunate women. Her costume had about itan indubitable air, a finality of perfection in its kind. Onanother, it might have appeared perhaps the merest trifle garish.
But that fault, if in fact it ever existed, was made into avirtue by the correcting innocence of the girl's face. It was achildish face, childish in the exquisite smoothness of the soft,pink skin, childish in the wondering stare of the blue eyes, nowso widely opened in dismay, childish in the wistful drooping ofthe rosebud mouth.
The girl advanced slowly, with a laggard hesitation in hermovements obviously from fear. She approached the desk, frombehind which the Inspector watched, fascinated by the fresh andwholesome beauty of this young creature. He failed to observethe underlying anger beneath the girl's outward display of alarm.
He shook off his first impression by means of a resort to hiscustomary bluster in such cases.
"Now, then, my girl," he said roughly, "I want to know----"There came a change, wrought in the twinkling of an eye. Thetiny, trimly shod foot of the girl rose and fell in a wrathfulstamp.
"How dare you!" The clear blue eyes were become darkened withanger. There was a deepened leaf of red in either cheek. Thedrooping lips drooped no longer, but were bent to a haughtinessthat was finely impressive.
Before the offended indignation of the young woman, Burke satbewildered by embarrassment for once in his life, and quite at aloss.
"What's that?" he said, dubiously.
The girl explained the matter explicitly enough.
"What do you mean by this outrage?" she stormed. Her voice waslow and rich, with a charming roundness that seemed the veryhallmark of gentility. But, now, it was surcharged with anindignant amazement over the indignity put upon her by therepresentatives of the law. Then, abruptly, the blue eyes weresoftened in their fires, as by the sudden nearness of tears.
"What do you mean?" the girl repeated. Her slim form was tensewith wrath. "I demand my instant release." There wasindescribable rebuke in her slow emphasis of the words.
Burke was impressed in spite of himself, in spite of hisaccustomed cold indifference to the feelings of others asnecessity compelled him to make investigation of them. Hisharsh, blustering voice softened perceptibly, and he spoke in awheedling tone, such as one might employ in the effort totranquillize a spoiled child in a fit of temper.
"Wait a minute," he remonstrated. "Wait a minute!" He made apacifically courteous gesture toward one of the chairs, whichstood by an end of the desk. "Sit down," he invited, with aneffort toward cajoling.
The scorn of the girl was superb. Her voice came icily, as sheanswered:
"I shall do nothing of the sort. Sit down, indeed!--here! Why, Ihave been arrested----" There came a break in the music of hertones throbbing resentment. A little sob crept in, and broke thesequence of words. The dainty face was vivid with shame. "I--"she faltered, "I've been arrested--by a common policeman!"The Inspector seized on the one flaw left him for defense againsther indictment.
"No, no, miss," he argued, earnestly. "Excuse me. It wasn't anycommon policeman--it was a detective sergeant."But his effort to placate was quite in vain. The ingenuouslittle beauty with the child's face and the blue eyes so widelyopened fairly panted in her revolt against the ignominy of herposition, and was not to be so easily appeased. Her voice camevibrant with disdain. Her level gaze on the Inspector was of asort to suggest to him anxieties over possible complicationshere.
"You wait!" she cried violently. "You just wait, I tell you,until my papa hears of this!"Burke regarded the furious girl doubtfully.
"Who is your papa?" he asked, with a bit of alarm stirring inhis breast, for he had no mind to offend any one of importancewhere there was no need.
"I sha'n't tell you," came the petulant retort from the girl.
Her ivory forehead was wrinkled charmingly in a little frown ofobstinacy. "Why," she went on, displaying new symptoms ofdistress over another appalling idea that flashed on her in thismoment, "you would probably give my name to the reporters." Onceagain the rosebud mouth drooped into curves of sorrow, of a greatself-pity. "If it ever got into the newspapers, my family woulddie of shame!"The pathos of her fear pierced through the hardened crust of thepolice official. He spoke apologetically.
"Now, the easiest way out for both of us," he suggested, "is foryou to tell me just who you are. You see, young lady, you werefound in the house of a notorious crook."The haughtiness of the girl waxed. It seemed as if she grew aninch taller in her scorn of the Inspector's saying.
"How perfectly absurd!" she exclaimed, scathingly. "I was callingon Miss Mary Turner!""How did you come to meet her, anyhow?" Burke inquired. Hestill held his big voice to a softer modulation than that towhich it was habituated.
Yet, the disdain of the girl seemed only to increase momently.
She showed plainly that she regarded this brass-buttoned officialas one unbearably insolent in his demeanor toward her.
Nevertheless, she condescended to reply, with an exaggeration ofthe aristocratic drawl to indicate her displeasure.
"I was introduced to Miss Turner," she explained, "by Mr. RichardGilder. Perhaps you have heard of his father, the owner of theEmporium.""Oh, yes, I've heard of his father, and of him, too," Burkeadmitted, placatingly.
But the girl relaxed not a whit in her attitude of offense.
"Then," she went on severely, "you must see at once that you areentirely mistaken in this matter." Her blue eyes widened furtheras she stared accusingly at the Inspector, who betrayed evidencesof perplexity, and hesitated for an answer. Then, the doll-like,charming face took on a softer look, which had in it a suggestionof appeal.
"Don't you see it?" she demanded.
"Well, no," Burke rejoined uneasily; "not exactly, I don't!" Inthe presence of this delicate and graceful femininity, heexperienced a sudden, novel distaste for his usual sledge-hammermethods of attack in interrogation. Yet, his duty required thathe should continue his questioning. He found himself in factbetween the devil and the deep sea--though this particular devilappeared rather as an angel of light.
Now, at his somewhat feeble remark in reply to her query, thechildish face grew as hard as its curving contours would permit.
"Sir!" she cried indignantly. Her little head was thrown back inscornful reproof, and she turned a shoulder toward the officialcontemptuously.
"Now, now!" Burke exclaimed in remonstrance. After all, he couldnot be brutal with this guileless maiden. He must, however, makethe situation clear to her, lest she think him a beast--whichwould never do!
"You see, young lady," he went on with a gentleness of voice andmanner that would have been inconceivable to Dacey and ChicagoRed; "you see, the fact is that, even if you were introduced tothis Mary Turner by young Mr. Gilder, this same Mary Turnerherself is an ex-convict, and she's just been arrested formurder."At the dread word, a startling change was wrought in the girl.
She wheeled to face the Inspector, her slender body swaying alittle toward him. The rather heavy brows were lifted slightlyin a disbelieving stare. The red lips were parted, rounded to atremulous horror.
"Murder!" she gasped; and then was silent.
"Yes," Burke went on, wholly at ease now, since he had broken theice thus effectually. "You see, if there's a mistake about you,you don't want it to go any further --not a mite further, that'ssure. So, you see, now, that's one of the reasons why I mustknow just who you are." Then, in his turn, Burke put the querythat the girl had put to him a little while before. "You seethat, don't you?""Oh, yes, yes!" was the instant agreement. "You should have toldme all about this horrid thing in the first place." Now, thegirl's manner was transformed. She smiled wistfully on theInspector, and the glance of the blue eyes was very kind, subtlyalluring. Yet in this unbending, there appeared even moredecisively than hitherto the fine qualities in bearing of onedelicately nurtured. She sank down in a chair by the desk, andforthwith spoke with a simplicity that in itself was somehowpeculiarly potent in its effect on the official who gaveattentive ear.
"My name is Helen Travers West," she announced.
Burke started a little in his seat, and regarded the speaker witha new deference as he heard that name uttered.
"Not the daughter of the railway president?" he inquired.
"Yes," the girl admitted. Then, anew, she displayed a seriousagitation over the thought of any possible publicity in thisaffair.
"Oh, please, don't tell any one," she begged prettily. The blueeyes were very imploring, beguiling, too. The timid smile thatwreathed the tiny mouth was marvelously winning. The neatlygloved little hands were held outstretched, clasped insupplication. "Surely, sir, you see now quite plainly why itmust never be known by any one in all the wide, wide world that Ihave ever been brought to this perfectly dreadful place--thoughyou have been quite nice!" Her voice dropped to a note of musicalprayerfulness. The words were spoken very softly and veryslowly, with intonations difficult for a man to deny. "Pleaselet me go home." She plucked a minute handkerchief from herhandbag, put it to her eyes, and began to sob quietly.
The burly Inspector of Police was moved to quick sympathy.
Really, when all was said and done, it was a shame that one likeher should by some freak of fate have become involved in thesordid, vicious things that his profession made it obligatory onhim to investigate. There was a considerable hint of the paternalin his air as he made an attempt to offer consolation to theafflicted damsel.
"That's all right, little lady," he exclaimed cheerfully. "Now,don't you be worried--not a little bit. Take it from me, MissWest.... Just go ahead, and tell me all you know about thisTurner woman. Did you see her yesterday?"The girl's sobs ceased. After a final dab with the minutehandkerchief, she leaned forward a little toward the Inspector,and proceeded to put a question to him with great eagerness.
"Will you let me go home as soon as I've told you the teensylittle I know?""Yes," Burke agreed promptly, with an encouraging smile. And fora good measure of reassurance, he added as one might to analarmed child: "No one is going to hurt you, young lady.""Well, then, you see, it was this way," began the briskexplanation. "Mr. Gilder was calling on me one afternoon, and hesaid to me then that he knew a very charming young woman,who----"Here the speech ended abruptly, and once again the handkerchiefwas brought into play as the sobbing broke forth with increasedviolence. Presently, the girl's voice rose in a wail.
"Oh, this is dreadful--dreadful!" In the final word, the wailbroke to a moan.
Burke felt himself vaguely guilty as the cause of such sufferingon the part of one so young, so fair, so innocent. As a culprit,he sought his best to afford a measure of soothing for this griefthat had had its source in his performance of duty.
"That's all right, little lady," he urged in a voice as nearlymellifluous as he could contrive with its mighty volume. "That'sall right. I have to keep on telling you. Nobody's going tohurt you--not a little bit. Believe me! Why, nobody ever wouldwant to hurt you!"But his well-meant attempt to assuage the stricken creature's wowas futile. The sobbing continued. With it came a plaintivecry, many times repeated, softly, but very miserably.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!""Isn't there something else you can tell me about this woman?"Burke inquired in desperation before the plaintive outburst. Hehoped to distract her from such grief over her predicament.
The gi............