The Luminous Face

“Wait, Mr Barry,” Belknap said, “what about that letter signed by you, yet which you say you didn’t write. Suppose you explain that first.”

“Just what I intend to do! I haven’t quite proved it, but I have found out a possible solution of that matter. If I can prove I didn’t write it, and can show who did and how and why, it’ll help some – won’t it?”

“You bet it will!” cried Prescott. “That’s the kind of talk. But have you some real information, or merely a supposition that doesn’t mean anything definite?”

“We’ll see,” and Barry shook his head. “I’m not telling it all now. But I came to see Miss Lindsay. Where is she?”

“She’ll be here in a minute,” Millicent said, eyeing Barry closely.

But in a minute, instead of Phyllis, Hester returned.

Excitedly, she exclaimed, “Miss Phyllis is gone. Nobody saw her go and nobody knows where she is!”

“Gone!” said Millicent contemptuously; “how absurd! If you mean she has run away! Phyllis wouldn’t do that.”

“Well, madam, she’s not in the apartment. Her moleskin coat is gone from her wardrobe, and her little taupe hat. She has certainly gone out, ma’am.”

And gone Phyllis surely had. It was foolish to look for her in the rooms, for her hat and coat were missing, of course she had gone out into the street; whether for some ordinary errand, or to disappear who could tell?

“I’ll find her,” said Prescott, and clapping on his hat he hurried away.

CHAPTER XV – Phyllis and Ivy

And where was Phyllis?

Why, sitting in the small, but pretty, little bedroom of Ivy Hayes, in that young woman’s boarding-house home.

“And so you’re Phyllis Lindsay,” said the other girl, looking admiringly at Phyllis’ smart, inconspicuous costume. “I’m jolly glad to see you. What can I do for you?”

The frank, pleasant manner of the hostess pleased the guest and Phyllis said, impulsively, “Oh, I hope you can help me. I’m in a quandary. Will you tell me frankly just why you said I was at Mr Gleason’s the day he died?”

“Now, how did you know I said that? I declare those detectives tell everything!”

“I thought it was Mr Barry whom you told.”

“Well, it’s all the same. Why, I said you were there, because you were there.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“All right, then, you weren’t. I like you, Miss Lindsay, and I’ll stand by you. Now, you tell me what you want me to say, and I’ll say it.”

“Oh, dear, I don’t want you to say anything that isn’t true. Why did you think I was there, if you didn’t see me?”

“I heard you.”

“Heard me talking?”

“Yes.”

“What did I say?”

“You were asking Mr Gleason for money – a big sum.”

“And you heard me ask him?”

“I didn’t exactly hear you, you spoke very low, and I was behind a closed door. But I heard all Mr Gleason said – so I could tell.”

“What did he say?”

“He said, ‘twenty thousand dollars! I should say not! Not unless – well, you know my conditions.’ That’s exactly what he said. And then you murmured something, and he said, ‘You’re a Lindsay – you’re both Lindsays,’ but I don’t know whether he meant you and his sister, or you and your brother.”

“What has my brother to do with it?”

“I don’t know – but when he spoke of the two of you together, like that, I thought he meant you and Louis. But afterward, I thought he might have meant you and his sister, Mrs Lindsay.”

“You know my brother? You call him Louis!”

“Yes, I know him – not awfully well, but enough to call him anything I like. You don’t have to know anybody so very long to call him pet names.”

“Pet names!”

“Oh, come now, Miss Lindsay, don’t be so shocked. You’re probably more conventional than I am, but you must know a few things. Well, anyhow, I didn’t hear any more, because Mr Gleason shut the door, and I just scooted down the back way and home. I never knew whether you got the money you wanted or not. Did you?”

Phyllis gasped. She was annoyed at the girl’s rudeness, but, after all, Ivy Hayes had a charm of her own, and it was impossible to feel deep resentment toward the flippant little thing.

“I didn’t get it from Mr Gleason, because I didn’t ask him for it. I didn’t ask him for it, because I wasn’t there. I’ve never been there.”

“All right, Miss Lindsay – what you say goes. You’ve never been there. Is that what you came to tell me?”

Ivy cocked her foolish little curly head on one side, and gave Phyllis such a humorous wink that she couldn’t help smiling.

“I don’t wonder Louis likes you,” she said, impulsively. “You’re an adorable little piece.”

“That’s right,” said Ivy, gravely. “Pile it on thick. I just lap it up. Do you think I’m pretty?”

“Yes,” Phyllis returned, simply. “Now, tell me again, why did you think the – the person Mr Gleason said those things to was myself, when you never had seen me – and you say you couldn’t hear me.”

“Well, when the bell rang, Mr Gleason said it was you. That he expected you.”

Phyllis turned pale. “Go on,” she said.

“That’s all. He said, ‘That’s Miss Lindsay coming up. You go.’ So I went. I hung around a few moments, trying to get a glimpse of you, but I couldn’t. I heard you speak, but you spoke so low, and the door was almost shut, so I couldn’t hear a word you said.”

“Well,” Phyllis drew a long breath. “If I was there – I didn’t kill Mr Gleason.”

“Of course you didn’t!” Ivy exclaimed. Then, with a look deep into Phyllis’ eyes, she added, “And you weren’t there. I know it now!”

“How do you know it?”