The colonel might have sent Shag to purchase the shedder crabs he was going to use for bait that day in fishing in the inlet, and the colored servant might have left the bills.But the colonel was particular about his bait, and would let none select it but himself.Consequently he had Jean Forette drive him in, telling Shag to meet him at a certain dock where they would drop down the inlet and try for "snappers," young bluefish, elusive, gamy and delicious eating.
"You have not yet found a place?" asked the colonel of the chauffeur, as they rolled along.
"No, monsieur - none to my satisfaction, though I have been offered many.One I could have I refused yesterday.""You liked it with Mr.Carwell, then?"
"Truly the situation was in itself delightful.But I could not manage the big car as he liked, and we had to part.There was no other way."The detective narrowly observed the driver beside whom he sat.Jean did not look well.He had much of the appearance of the "morning after the night before," and his hand was not very steady as he shifted the gear lever.
"How much longer have you to stay here, Jean?" "About two weeks.My month will be up then." "And then you go - ""I do not know, monsieur.Probably to New York.That is a great headquarters.""So I believe."
"If monsieur should hear of a family that - ""Yes, I'll bear you in mind, Jean.You are steady and reliable, I presume?" and the colonel smiled.
"I have most excellent letters!" he boasted, and for the moment he seemed to rouse himself from the sluggishness that marked him that morning.
"I'll bear it in mind," said the colonel again.
But as they drove on, and Colonel Ashley noted with what exaggerated care Jean Forette passed other cars - giving them such a wide berth that often his own machine was almost in the ditch - the impression grew on the detective that the Frenchman was not as skillful as he would have it believed.
"He drives Like an amateur, or a woman out alone in her machine for the first time," mused the colonel."He'd never do for a smart car.Wonder what ails him.He wasn't drunk last night by any means, and yet- "
They reached the town, and paused at the only place where there was any congestion of traffic - where two main seashore highways crossed in the center of Lakeside.Jean held the runabout there so long, waiting for other traffic to pass, that the officer who was on duty called:
"What's the matter - going to sleep there?"Then Jean, with a start, threw in the clutch and shot ahead."That's queer," mused the colonel."He seems afraid."The purchase of the shedder crabs was gone into care fully, and having questioned the bait-seller as to the best location in the inlet, the detective again got into the machine and was driven to the office of the late Horace Carwell.It was a branch of the New York office, and thither, every summer, came LeGrand Blossom and a corps of clerks to manage affairs for their employer.
Colonel Ashley, who by this time was known to the office boy at the outer gate, was admitted at once.
"Mr.Blossom is at the telephone," said the lad, "but you can go right in and wait for him."This the colonel did, having left Jean outside in the car.
The telephone in LeGrand Blossom's private office was in a booth, put there to get it away from the noise of traffic in the street outside.And, as the boy had said, Blossom was in this booth as Colonel Ashley entered.
It so happened that the chief clerk was standing in the booth with his back turned to the main door, and did not see the colonel enter.And the latter, coming in with easy steps, as he always went everywhere, heard a snatch of the talk over the telephone that made him wonder.
Though the little booth was meant to keep sounds from entering, as well as coming out, the door was not tightly closed and as LeGrand Blossom spoke rather loudly Colonel Ashley heard distinctly.
"Yes," said the head clerk over the wire, "I'll pay the money tonight sure.Yes, positive." There was a period of waiting, while he listened, and then he went on: "Yes, on the Allawanda.I'll be there.Yes, sure! Now don't bother me any more."Colonel Ashley, through the glass door of the telephone booth, saw LeGrand Blossom make a move as though to hang up the receiver.And then the detective turned suddenly, and swung back, as though he had entered the room at the moment Blossom had emerged from the booth.
"Oh!" exclaimed the head clerk, and, for a second, he seemed nonplused.But Colonel Ashley took up the talk instantly.
"I will keep you but a minute," he said."Miss Viola asked me to leave these bills for you.I came in to town to buy some bait.There they are.I'm going fishing," and before LeGrand Blossom could answer the colonel was saying good-bye and making his way out.
"I wonder," mused the colonel, as he started for the car where Jean awaited him, "what or who or where the Allawanda is? I must find out."He found further cause for wonder as he started off in the car with the French chauffeur for the boat dock, at the conduct of Jean himself.
For the man appeared to be a wholly different person.His face was all smiles, and there was a jaunty air about him as though he had received good news.His management of the car, too, left nothing to be desired.He started off swiftly, but with a smoothness that told of perfect mastery of the clutch and gears.He took chances, too, as he dashed through town, cutting corners, darting before this car, back of the other until, used as the colonel was to taxicabs in New York, he held his breath more than once.
"What's the matter - in a hurry?" he asked Jean, as they narrowly escaped a collision.
"Oh, no, monsieur, but this is the way I like to drive.It is much more- what you call pep!"
"Yes," mused the colonel to himself, "it's pep all right.But I wonder what put the pep into you? You didn't have it when we started out.SomeFrench dope you take, I'll wager.Well, it may put pep into you now, but it'll take the starch out of you later on.
