"Ask Nancy Cornish!"

CHAPTER XVI

THE LAST SHADOW: "LEAVE ALL THAT TIES THY FOOT BEHIND AND FOLLOW, FOLLOW ME!"

Oh, yes, the Italian proprietress cheerfully informed him, the parrot had been in the country with Maria Rosa and her great-aunt. Truly, the great-aunt was fond of the country, she was still there. When was he going to see Maria Rosa again? Oh, there, alas!--Maria Rosa had gone with her father to the moving-picture show--

He could get no further and he feared to excite conjecture. He might waylay the little girl as she returned, but not too near the watched house--nor was the idea of the father encouraging. Nevertheless, he betook himself outside, turning toward Third Avenue where the picture-shows flourished. About two blocks down the street he took refuge in the hole of a tobacconist, whose door stood open into the warm dusk. On the farther corner the bright blue interior of a delicatessen that was also a fruit stand blazed hot with gas and, in exchange for a bottle of oil, a child pa.s.sed a coin over the counter. The gas gleamed on the child's face and Herrick crossed the street. Here was Maria Rosa and here the moving-picture show which she attended!

He stopped on the outside for some nuts and affected surprise when Maria appeared. She accepted various delicacies and was freely chatty about her country visit. Oh, she had been in a beautiful place; gra.s.s, trees, flowers--nothing of its whereabouts could be ascertained. Great-auntie had lived there with old auntie--old auntie was her mama--when she was a little girl no bigger than Maria Rosa! But they had gone often to a grand big place where Cousin Nick's office used to be in the bas.e.m.e.nt.

But the morning after they brought the sick lady the things for the office were all gone! Ah, the grand big place had made the greater impression, but ignorance had evidently been carefully preserved.

Herrick tried the words "Waybridge" and "Benning's Point" to no avail.

With "river" he was more successful. Did you go there by the boat?

Apparently not. Finally it came out that you went there by the walk past old auntie's house. And what pretty thing had she ever noticed about old auntie's house? Eh? Come, now? What did she like best?

"The marble kitties with wings."

The marble--

A child had dropped an address, after all!

Herrick, reaching into his pocket for a time table, had discovered a train for Benning's Point at eight-fifteen when, hearing his name he turned; beyond the now hurrying figure of Maria Rosa Joe Patrick was advancing toward him.

The boy came up hastily, extending an envelope addressed to Herrick in Mrs. Deutch's hand. As he took it he saw that Joe was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with some communication. "I saw you from down street. She sent for me an' says to bring you this. I was lookin' for you when I met Mr. Ten Euyck and he said the place to find you was around here."

"Touche!" Herrick said to himself. Even at that moment he vouchsafed an admiring smile to Ten Euyck's able conveying of a taunt.

"Mr. Herrick?"

"Yes, Joe."

"I got to get right back in time for the theayter. But I'd like to speak to you a minute."

"Walk back toward the Square with me."

"It's something I been worried about telling for days an' now I'm goin'

to. I mean--Mr. Herrick, I wouldn't tell it to anybody but a friend o'

hers! But I make out that it's right to tell it to you.--You remember that night out to Riley's?"

"Yes."

"An' the shadder the chaufers seen?"

"Yes?"

"I was there. My cousin Sweeney sent for me, an' my uncle an' me come out together. As we come into the yard--that toon--you know! There was the shadder--I seen it, too! And another man seen it an' skipped up the steps an' went inside. Me after him! An' before he'd got in, hardly, out he bounced with a lady. That lady wasn't no Mrs. Riley, Mr. Herrick. It was--_her_!"

"You've seen the moving-picture?"

"Yes, sir."

"And this gesture was the same?"

"Yes, sir."

"So that you thought you saw Miss Hope's shadow?"

"I know I did, sir."

"Wait. This gentleman, had you ever seen him before?"

"No, I never laid eyes on him."

"He went right into the room?"

"Popped right in as if he lived there!"

"And came out with Miss Hope?"

"Yes, sir."

"How was she dressed?"

"She had on a long coat an' a fussed up hat o' Mrs. Riley's."

"And no one else saw them?"

"No, sir. They run down the back-stairs as everybody come up the front."

"She was willing to go with him, then? He wasn't forcing her?"

"Well, you bet he wasn't! She was hangin' right on to him!"

"What was your idea of the whole business?"

"I thought mebbe she done it for a signal to him when to come in."

"Now, Joe, don't you believe that--it being, as you say, done so quick--and you having just seen this shadow which you had taken for Miss Hope's, you might have imagined it was she who came out with this man?"

"No, Mr. Herrick. I was at the door when they come out. I saw her face clear. I didn't make no mistake this time."

"And you didn't follow?"

"No, sir. Because--because--Oh, Mr. Herrick, she seen me as plain as I see you an' she smiled at me!"