The Mark of Cain

“Then tell Mr. Duane.”

“I said a knowin’ detective. That goat don’t know a clue from pickled pigs’ feet! No ma’am! ’Scuse me, but them clues is my own, – and they’ll go to waste, lessen I can give ’em to the right man.”

“And who is the right man, Fibsy?”

“He’s Fleming Stone, that’s who he is! And no one else is any good whatsumever.”

“Fleming Stone? I have heard of him.”

“Have you, Miss Avice! Well, if you want ter find out for sure who killed your uncle, they ain’t no one as can find out but that same Fleming Stone!”

“You go back now, Fibsy,” said Avice, after a moment’s thought, “and if I decide to send for this man, I’ll let you know.”

“All right, Miss Avice, but I ain’t goin’ back to Phil’delphia, I’m goin’ to stay here fer awhile. If you wanter see me, they’s a telephone to the house where I live. Here, I’ll write you down the number. If I ai’n’t home, leave word wit’ me Aunt Becky.”

Avice took the paper Fibsy gave her, and nodded pleasantly to him as he went away, but she was so deeply absorbed in her own thoughts she scarcely heeded the boy.

CHAPTER XIX

TWO AT LUNCHEON

Terence McGuire, potential detective, went straight to the office of Judge Hoyt.

It was about one o’clock, and he found the lawyer, about to go to his luncheon.

“Well, Terence,” the Judge said, in surprise, “I thought you were busy at your Philadelphia desk.”

It was on the tip of Fibsy’s tongue to say that Miss Avice sent for him, but he suddenly changed his mind and said, “Yes, sir, Judge, I was, but me Aunt is awful sick an’ I hadda come home. I’m all she’s got, an’ I can’t leave her w’en she’s sick.”

As a matter of fact, Aunt Becky was at that moment preparing some complicated combination of pastry and fruit and whipped cream for her mendacious nephew’s dinner, and was in robust health.

“So you’ve left Mr. Stetson?”

“Well, I jest came over to see Aunt Becky, an’ she’s so ailin’ I simpully can’t go back. I gotta stay here, I’m sorry, Judge, but say, Mr. Stetson, he don’t really need me, – he don’t.”

“No? Is that so? Well, Terence, I want you to have a position, perhaps we can find one in New York, and then you can look after your aunt.”

“Good for you, sir. That would be jest the ticket!”

“I’m just going out to luncheon. How would you like to go along with me, and we can talk things over?”

“Go to lunch! With you, Judge? Gee!”

“Yes, come along. As Mr. Trowbridge’s trusted clerk, I feel an interest in your welfare, and I want to see what I can do for you. Yes, come on, and we’ll talk it over as we lunch.”

“Great jumpin’ cows! Say, Judge, I s’pose you’d ruther I’d talk nice an’ pretty, if I’m goin’ to eat wit’ a gentleman. Well, say, I’ll try, honust, I will.”

“Not only for this time, Terence, but don’t you think it would be a good idea, if you gave up that foolish slang for good and all?”

“You bet I do! An’ say, you don’ know how hard I’ve tried! Why, I practice at home, an’ I make Aunt Becky scowl at me every time I say a onnecess’ry woid. An’ I do sure hate to be scowled at! Yes, sir, I do! Well, I’m goin’ to keep on tryin’.”

When the strangely mated pair started out, Judge Hoyt led his guest to a restaurant of a good but plain type.

“I won’t take you to one of my clubs today, Terence,” said his host, “but as you’re ambitious, let me prophesy that some day you’ll grow up to be a man I’ll be proud to take to luncheon anywhere.”

“Say, Judge,” and Fibsy looked serious, “that’s the kinda talk that makes a feller want to rise in this world. I’m ambitious, – I am, – Aunt Becky says I’ve got more ambition ’n’ any one she ever see – ”

“Saw, Terence.”

“Yessir, I mean saw. An’ to talk wit’ you onct, makes me feel I want to go to night school, or sumpum – ”

“Something.”

“Yessir, something.”

Seated at a table that was properly appointed, but not elaborate enough to embarrass his young guest, Judge Hoyt settled himself comfortably in his chair, and adjusted his napkin, while Fibsy, watching him closely, followed every motion with a like one of his own. He took a sip of water immediately after his model had done so, and replaced the glass with an imitative gesture, extending his stubby little finger in the manner of the other’s carefully manicured digit.

Judge Hoyt noticed all this, but seeing that Fibsy was in earnest and entirely unself-conscious, he ignored it and let the boy have his lessons in etiquette.

“Ain’t it a shame, Judge, that they can’t find the feller, – fel-low, I mean, who moidered Mr. Trowbridge?”

“Oh, didn’t you know that Kane Landon is indicted for the crime?”

“Yep, sure I know that, but he didn’t do it, allee samee.”

“Don’t you think so? Why not?”

“Well, I loined it outen o’ my pus-shy-kollergy book.”

“Terence, if you’re going to read a book on the subject of psychology, you ought to learn to pronounce it.”

“Yes, sir. Could you tell me, so’s I kin remember?”

“Why, yes, it’s not difficult, once you know it.” And Judge Hoyt carefully taught the young seeker after knowledge how to pronounce the word in question.

“Well, now wouldn’t that jar you!” and Fibsy smiled, delighted at his own accomplishment. “All that fooled me was that P to begin it with. If it hadn’t been for that, I’d a loined it long ago. Well, I got that book, an’ it tells you how to know w’en a man’s a criminal an’ w’en he ain’t. An’ Mr. Landon, he’s too careless to be guilty.”

“Too careless to be guilty. What do you mean?”

“I mean, if he was guilty, he wouldn’t sling around his speech so free. He wouldn’t a told that he was in Van Cortlandt Park that day Mr. Trowbridge was killed. Nor he wouldn’t a owned up so free that he wanted money sumpun – something, – fierce. An’ he wouldn’t a taken his imprisonment so orful easy. He’d a been busy preparin’ alibis, an’ things like that.”

“How do you know these are his attitudes?”

“Pape. Every day there’s a guy writes a lot about the – psy – chology, – got it! – of crime, an’ spoke about Kane Landon bein’ a example of – of what I was a-talkin’ about.”

“But if Landon isn’t guilty, and I fervently hope he isn’t, then who is?”

“I dunno, Judge Hoyt,” and Fibsy’s freckled little face was very earnest. “But there’s a chap as can find out. Do you know Fleming Stone?”