Tearing open the envelope Colonel Ashley read:

"Spotty Morgan has confessed everything and agrees to extradition.

Shall we send him on?"

"Send him on? I should say so!" cried the colonel to himself, as he made a grab for the telephone to dictate a message telling the police of Sango, the Western city, to hold Spotty Morgan until he could come for him. "And so Spotty has confessed? Well, that let's me out, even if he did save my, life! But it was a close call!"

CHAPTER XX

IN THE SHADOWS

Colonel Ashley, after a night's sleep, was about to prepare for the trip, when he thought of Darcy in jail.

"I've got to send him word," he reasoned. "No, I'll let his sweetheart take it to him. It will be all the sweeter. Here, s.h.a.g!" he called.

"Yes, sah, Colonel! Whut is it?"

"Get me an auto, s.h.a.g--any kind of car will do. I want to take a run out to Pompey where Miss Mason lives. I won't trust the telephone, and I'll have time enough before I leave for the West. Get an auto."

"Yes, sah, Colonel!" and s.h.a.g hurried down to the hotel office.

It was while getting into the machine that a message was handed the colonel. Hastily he tore the note open. It was from James Darcy and read:

"Have just been informed they are going to put me on trial to-morrow for the murder of Mrs. Darcy. I don't know what this unexpected move on the part of the prosecutor means, but I would like to see you."

"Whew!" whistled the colonel. "I never counted on _this_. Maybe the prosecution has something up their sleeve they're waiting to spring.

They're trying to get ahead of me. Well, by gad, sir, they shan't!

I'll beat 'em yet. This trip West will have to wait. s.h.a.g, you keep this auto here. I'm going into the hotel to telephone."

"Yes, sah, Colonel!"

Getting Kenneth on the wire, the detective ascertained that the message from Darcy was correct--the trial was to go on unexpectedly.

"I may be able to get a postponement," said the lawyer, "but it would not be safe to count on it. We had better prepare our defense. Are you all ready, Colonel?"

"Not quite. I've got to get a certain man back here from the West, but I can send for him. I'll not go myself, it's too risky. See what you can do about getting a postponement. It will be so much better if we can. I was going to tell Miss Mason to go and give some good news to Darcy, but maybe I'd better wait now."

"Can you produce the real murderer, Colonel Ashley?"

"I can, Mr. Kenneth. Don't let that worry you. When I want him I can lay my hands on the real murderer! He can't get away! We'll have our little surprise, too!"

"Good! That will make Darcy feel better. I think I'll go to see him!"

"All right. And if you want to arrange for Miss Mason to visit him I think it would be a good thing. He may never go to trial, and then again he might, and, as you never can count on legal tangles, all the sentiment you can work up in his favor will be so much gained. You might let a discreet reporter know about Miss Mason's going to the jail."

"I will, Colonel, and thanks for the tip!"

But James Darcy did not go to trial the next day. Up to the last minute it looked as though he would, and he was even brought down from jail to the courtroom where a great crowd had a.s.sembled in antic.i.p.ation of the opening of the now celebrated case.

But, when the judge took his place on the bench, and the criers had proclaimed silence, there was a whispered conference among the prosecutor and his detectives, in which Carroll and Thong took part.

Then the judge was consulted and Darcy's lawyer was called to the bench. He was observed to be protesting against something, and finally the prosecutor went back to his seat at the table opposite the one where Darcy sat with his counsel.

"Have you any cases to move this morning, Mr. Prosecutor?" asked the court in formal tones.

"May it please your Honor," began Mr. Bardon, "I had hoped to move the case of the State against James Darcy, indicted for murder, but, at the last minute, I find that one of my important witnesses is unable to be in attendance and, under those circ.u.mstances, I am compelled to ask for an adjournment of two weeks.

"I regret, as regards the counsel on the other side, having to do this, as he a.s.sures me he is ready and anxious to go to trial, but it is unavoidable, and I promise this, that if the witness referred to is not here two weeks from to-day, I will go on with the case anyhow."

"Have you anything to say, Mr. Kenneth?" asked the judge of Darcy's lawyer.

"Only that I regret the delay as much as does the prosecutor, and that we will be ready any time. I should prefer to go on with the trial now, but I realize that the matter is out my hands."

"The case then stands adjourned for two weeks," announced the court, and the officer, arising, announced:

"The case of the State against James Darcy postponed for two weeks, and all witnesses for the prosecution and for the defence will then appear without further notice."

There was a hum of disappointment, and most of the crowd filed out when the prosecutor moved a case of a.s.sault and battery. Darcy, with a look at Amy Mason, which she returned with one of a.s.surance and confidence, was taken back to jail.

Colonel Ashley read:

"Let your bait be as big a red worm as you can find."

"Spotty is certainly red," mused the fisherman. He was sitting, after the adjournment, in his hotel room. "Red and freckled. As for bait--"

Musingly he closed the little green book and watched the smoke curl lazily from his cigar.

Several days went by. The colonel was seated in his hotel room, his finger between the leaves of a little green book, smoking and reading.

The telephone rang sharply.

"h.e.l.lo. Oh, it's you, is it, Ba.s.set. So you got back with Spotty, did you? Good! No trouble on the trip? Fine! All right, I'll wait here for you. No, the trial went off for two weeks. You're in plenty of time. I'll expect you soon. Good-bye."

An hour later the man he had sent West to bring on Spotty Morgan entered his room. This man, a detective from the colonel's office, had been instructed by wire to go to a certain city and there, without the formality of requisition papers, which Spotty more or less generously waived, bring on the prisoner.

"Well, what does he say, Ba.s.set?" asked the colonel, when he had provided his man with a cigar. "What does he say?" and the voice was eager.

"Oh, he says he did it all right. And there's the cross," and Ba.s.set tossed on the table beside the colonel a battered cross of gold in which sparkled many stones with the limpid fire of hidden rainbows.

"Did he give any particulars?"

"Oh, yes, he come across with the whole story."

"What made him hold back on me then? He might have known I'd find out.