The Vanishing of Betty Varian

Alarmed, Wise tried another tone.

“This won’t do, North,” he said; “whatever your crime, you can’t refuse that last act of expiation. Tell where she is, and die the better for it.”

“No,” gasped the dying man. “Bad I’ve lived and bad I’ll die. You’ll never find Betty Varian. There are standing orders to do away with her if anything happens to me, and,” – he tried to smile, – “something has happened!”

“It sure has,” Wise said, and looked at him with real pity, for the man was suffering tortures. “But, I command you, North, by the blood you have shed, by the two human lives you have taken, by the heart of the wife and mother that you have broken, – I charge you, give up your secret while you have strength to do so!”

For a moment, North seemed to hesitate.

A little stimulant administered by the doctor gave him a trifle more strength, but then his face changed, – he turned reminiscent.

“Good work,” he said, it seemed, exultingly. “When I first found the cave a year ago, I began to plan how I could get the Varians to take this house. They little thought I brought it about through the real estate people – ”

“Never mind all that,” Wise urged him, “where’s Betty?”

“Betty? ah, yes, – Betty – ” His mind seemed to wander again and Varian gave him a few drops more stimulant.

“Get it out of him,” he said to the detective, “this will lose all efficacy in another few moments. He is going.”

“Going, am I?” and North was momentarily alert. “All right, Doc, I’ll go and my secret will go with me.”

“Where is Betty?” Wise leaned over the miserable wretch, as if he would drag the secret from him by sheer will power.

But the other’s will power matched his own.

“Betty,” he said, – “oh, yes, Betty. Really, my wife’s daughter, you know, – my step-daughter, – I had a right to her, didn’t I – ”

“‘Step’!” Wise cried, “Step, that you signed to those letters was short for Stepfather!”

“Yes, of course; my wife didn’t mean to tell me that story, – didn’t know she did, – she babbled in her sleep, and I got it out of her by various hints and allusions. Mrs Varian never knew, so I bled the old man. My, he was in a blue funk whenever I attacked him about it!”

“Where is she now?” Wise hinted.

“No, sir, you don’t get it out of me. You caught me, – damn you! now I’ll make you wish you hadn’t!” and Lawrence North died without another word.

Baffled, and spent with his exhausting efforts, Wise left the dead man in the doctor’s care and returned to the library.

He found Zizi there. She had listened from the hall and had overheard much that went on, but she couldn’t bring herself to go where the wounded man lay.

“Oh, Penny,” she sobbed, “he didn’t tell! Maybe if I had gone in I could have got it out of him! But I c-couldn’t look at him – ”

“Never mind, dear, that’s all right. He wouldn’t have told you, either. The man is the worst criminal I have ever known. He has no drop of humanity in his veins. As to remorse or regret, he never knew their meaning! Now, what shall we do? Is Mrs Varian awake?”

“Yes; in mild hysterics. Fletcher is with her.”

“Doctor Varian must go to her, and after that doubtless you can soothe her better than any one else. I’ll get Potter and Dunn up here, – and I fervently hope it’s for the last time!”

“Penny, your work was wonderful! You were right, a thing like that had to be trapped, – not caught openly. You’re a wonder!”

“Yet it all failed, when I failed to learn where Betty is. I shall find her, – but I fear, – oh, Zizi, I fear that the evil that man has done will live after him, – and I fear for the fate of Betty Varian.”

Zizi tried to cheer him, but her heart too was heavy with vague fears, and she left him to his routine work of calling the police and once again bringing them up to Headland House on a gruesome errand.

These things done, Wise went at once to North’s bungalow in Headland Harbor. He had small hope of finding Joe Mills there, and as he had foreseen, that worthy had decamped. Nor did they ever see him again.

“I suppose,” Wise said afterward, “he was in the cellar when North was killed; but I never thought of him then, nor could I have caught him as he doubtless fled away in the darkness to safety.”

“Then it was a put up job, that scene of struggle and confusion in North’s bedroom that day he disappeared?” Bill Dunn asked of Wise.

“Yes; I felt it was, but I couldn’t see how he got away. You see, at that time, North began to feel that my suspicions were beginning to turn in his direction, and he thought by pretending to be abducted himself, he would argue a bold and wicked kidnapper again at work. At any rate, he wanted to get away, and stay away the better to carry on his dreadful purposes, and he chose that really clever way of departing. The touch of leaving his watch behind was truly artistic, – unless he forgot it. Well, now to find Betty Varian.”

“Just a minute, Mr Wise. How’d you come to think of looking for that cave arrangement?”

“After I began to suspect North, I watched him very closely. I had in my mind some sort of rock passage, and when I took him out in a boat, or Joe Mills, either, when we went close to that part of the rocks where the cave is, I noted their evident efforts not to look toward a certain spot. It was almost amusing to see how their eyes strayed that way, and were quickly averted. They almost told me just where to look!”

“Wonderful work!” Dunn exclaimed, heartily. “No,” Wise returned, “only a bit of psychology. Now to find Betty.”

But though the detective doubtless would have recovered the missing girl, he had not the opportunity, for love had found a way.

By the hardest sort of work and with indefatigable perseverance, Granniss had gone from one to another of the various officials, mechanicians and even workmen of the moving picture company he was on the trail of and after maddening delays caused by their lack of method, their careless records and their uncertain memories, he finally found out where the picture of a crowd, in which Betty had appeared, was taken.

And then by further and unwearying search, he found an old but strongly built and well guarded house where he had reason to think Betty was imprisoned.

Finding this, he didn’t wait for proofs of his belief, but telegraphed for Pennington Wise and Sheriff Potter to come there at once and gain entrance.

Rod’s inexperience led him to adopt this course, but it proved a good one, for his telegram reached Wise the day after North’s death, and he hurried off, Potter with him.

The house was in Vermont, and while Potter made the necessary arrangements with the local authorities, Wise went on to meet Granniss.

“There’s the house,” and Wise saw the rather pleasant-looking old mansion. “I’m dead sure Betty’s in there, but I can’t get entrance, though I’ve tried every possible way.”

But the arrival of the police soon effected an entrance, and armed with the knowledge of North’s death as well as more material implements, they all went in.

Pretty Betty, as pretty as ever, though pale and thin from worry and fear, ran straight into Granniss’ arms and nestled there in such absolute relief and content, that the other men present turned away from the scene with a choke in their throats.

If Granniss hadn’t found her!

The news of North’s death brought the jailers to terms at once. They were a man and wife, big, strong people, who were carrying out North’s orders “to be kind and proper to the girl, but not to let her get away.”

The moving picture incident had occurred just as Wise had surmised. On her daily walks for exercise, Betty was sometimes allowed to get into a crowd at the studio near by, and frequently she had tried her clever plan of silent talk. But only once had that plan succeeded.

Yet once was enough, and Granniss said, “Look here, you people, clear up all the red tape, won’t you? Betty and I want to go home!”

“Run along,” said Wise, kindly. “There’s a train in an hour. Skip, – and God bless you!”

Their arrival at Headland House, heralded by a telegram to Zizi, had no unduly exciting effects on Minna Varian.

Doctor Varian watched her, but as he saw the radiant joy with which she clasped Betty in her arms, he had no fear of the shock of joy proving too much for her.