CHAPTER XXVII
Searching
Betty Tabor had remained at the hotel in the home town with Mrs. Clancy when the Bears went to play their two-game series with the Blues.
Mrs. Clancy had refused positively to engage in any baseball conversation or to debate with Miss Tabor the chances of the Bears winning the championship.
"Heavens knows it's hard enough to be married to a baseball man," she said as she bit a thread, "him makin' base hits in his sleep and worrying the little hair he has left off his head, without havin' a girl that ought to be thinkin' of dresses and hats wantin' to din baseball into my ears all day. My dear, never marry a ball player."
"You appear to be pretty well satisfied with yours, Mother Clancy," teased the girl. "Maybe I'll find one as fine some day"——
"I'm thinkin' you've found yours now," replied Mrs. Clancy, without glancing up from her work. "A nice bye, too, although they do say the red-headed ones are hot tempered."
"Why, Mother Clancy! How dare you!" the girl expostulated, reddening.
"If you're thinkin' to deceive Ellen Clancy, you're sore mistaken," replied the manager's wife. "My Willie says I can tell when young people are in love before they know it themselves, an' ye and the red-headed McCarthy boy has all the symptoms. 'Tis a nice boy he is, too, and you'll be doin' well."
"But after ye've been married as long as we have ye'll not be wantin' to see many ball games. Many's the time I've begged Willie to quit it and get a little house out in the country, with a bit of green grass and maybe a flower bed and a little garden and a porch, and maybe a chicken yard, and let me end my days in peace, out of the sound of crowds and yellin' maniacs. Eighteen year I've ridden with him on cars smellin' of arnica, and with the train dust an' cinders in me eyes an' hair, and I long for peace. Only one season I've missed—'twas when little Mar-rtin was born"——
She snuffled a little and dropped her work to wipe her eyes hastily. It was fifteen years since their only baby had come and gone in a short year, to leave them closer to each other, but each with a heart pain that never ceased.
A bell boy interrupted her lecture to bring in a card, and Mrs. Clancy, glancing at it, passed it over to Miss Tabor.
"'Tis for you, Betty girl," she said. "And, Mother of Mary, she'll see us this way"——
Betty Tabor sat staring at the card, at first puzzled, then in a panic of mingled emotions.
"Tell her to come up," she said. "I'll see her here. Mother Clancy, don't you dare hide."
The girl hastily arranged her hair and straightened the room, and a few minutes later, when the boy ushered the visitor into the apartments, she was self-possessed and cool. She arose as the door opened, and started forward to meet her guest, but stopped staring as the color faded from her face and then slowly heightened.
"You are Miss Tabor?" inquired the visitor, her voice trembling from excitement and nervousness.
"Yes. You are Miss Helen Baldwin; you desired to see me?"
The sight of the girl she had seen talking with Kohinoor McCarthy in the hotel parlor, shortly after he joined the club, had shaken her composure.
"Oh, Miss Tabor," Helen Baldwin cried, sinking into a chair and giving way to her emotions. "I had to come—I had nowhere else to go—and they told me over the telephone only you and Mrs. Clancy were here and all the men of the team away."
"If it is baseball business," replied Miss Tabor, "perhaps you'd better see Mrs. Clancy. I'll call her"——
"No! no! no!" expostulated the girl, drying her eyes. "It is you I must see. Have you heard anything from Mr. McCarthy?"
"I have no especial reason to hear from Mr. McCarthy," said Miss Tabor, freezing slowly. "I suppose he is with the team."
"He isn't! He isn't!" pleaded the girl. "He has disappeared—— Haven't you seen the papers?"
"Mr. McCarthy disappeared! Where? When?" Betty Tabor had forgotten her jealousy in her startled alarm. "He isn't with the team?"
"I read it in the papers," sobbed Helen Baldwin. "He was at my house last evening. He left there—and he has disappeared. I hoped you might know."
"At your house?" Betty Tabor's alarm struggled with her jealousy. "And he's gone? Let me see the paper."
"I haven't seen him, Miss Baldwin," she said, after glancing at the paper. "We thought he had gone with the team. Tell me what you know. Perhaps we may help you. You were engaged to him, were you not?"
"We were—once," sobbed Helen Baldwin. "But that's all over. I did him a wrong. I never loved him—that way—and it's all my fault he's in trouble now."
Betty Tabor's heart leaped with a joy that overwhelmed all other emotions. Her cold attitude toward Helen Baldwin changed, and, sinking upon the seat beside the sobbing girl, she put her arm around her.
"There, there," she said comfortingly, as a mother might, forgetting that Helen Baldwin was older that she. "You must not blame yourself. Try to tell me what happened last evening. Perhaps we may know what to do."
Slowly, with interruptions by hysterical moments, Helen Baldwin told the story of her unconscious part in the conspiracy; of her alarm for the safety of McCarthy; how she had sent for him and warned him, and of Swanson's telephone call.
"You'd better go home, dear, and rest," Betty said finally. "There is nothing we can do. The men will have started the search early this morning and notified the police. He will return."
Helen Baldwin, calmed and reassured by the brave pretense of the younger woman, prepared to go home. Betty Tabor assisted her to rearrange her disordered fair hair, murmuring her admiration for it as she worked. For the first time a smile came to the troubled face of Helen Baldwin, and when she was ready to go she kissed Betty and held her at arm's length.
"You're very good and unselfish," she said in low tones. "I hope you and he are very happy."
"Why, Miss Baldwin," exclaimed Betty, blushing, "there is nothing between us. He is scarcely a friend"——
"I know, dear," replied the taller girl, kissing her again. "He is a very good and lovable boy, and very impetuous. He really loves you."
She smiled a trifle wanly and turning, left the room.
Betty Tabor turned with a sigh, just in time to see Mrs. Clancy making violent gestures through a small crack in the door.
"You didn't ask her," exclaimed the exasperated Mrs. Clancy. "You didn't ask her!"
"Ask her what?" inquired Betty in surprise. "You heard what we talked about?"
"Every word. I listened shamelessly," replied the manager's wife. "'Tis my curiosity will kill me. You didn't ask her one word about who McCarthy is. And she knows all about him!"
"I didn't think—I forgot," said Betty, hurrying to gather her work and belongings in preparation for leaving.
"Where are you going, child?" asked Mrs. Clancy.
"I'm going to dress and get an automobile to make the rounds of all the hospitals. He may be hurt and in one."
"Glory be! I never thought of it! Dress fast, darlin', an' I'll go with you."
They returned, weary and discouraged. They had not found a trace of the missing boy. Scarcely had they reached their rooms than another call for Miss Tabor came, and a few minutes later Technicalities Feehan entered.
"Mr. Feehan, what are you doing here?" both women exclaimed in chorus.
"I'm searching for Mr. McCarthy," responded Feehan. "I reached the city shortly after five o'clock, and, having concluded my arrangements for finding Mr. McCarthy, it occurred to me that, having an evening of idleness, I might devote it to no better purpose than in escorting you ladies to some place of amusement."
"To a theatre, with a tragedy like this happening to one of our boys!" exclaimed Miss Tabor indignantly.
"Rest assured, Miss Tabor," he replied, "we can do nothing, and eventually Mr. McCarthy will be found."
"How? Who is looking for him while we waste time?" she asked hotly.
"My arrangements," he stated quietly, "did not include useless running around. I called upon our managing editor, laid the figures and conclusive data before him, and convinced him that, besides securing an excellent news story, he can serve the team and the ends of right and justice by seeking Mr. McCarthy."
"Well, what did he do?" demanded Mrs. Clancy, sadly out of patience with his deliberate manner and rather flamboyant style of expression.
"As a result of his interest in the matter," replied Technicalities, "eight of the most highly trained men of his staff—men who know the city better than anyone who lives in it does—are seeking Mr. McCarthy with orders to find him to-night."
"How did to-day's game come out?" inquired Miss Tabor, relieved. "I almost forgot the game."
"Our team was defeated, 8 to 6," replied Feehan quietly. "McCarthy's absence already has cost us one game, and I greatly fear that unless he plays to-morrow the Bears are defeated in the championship contest."
"Glory be! I've dropped two more stitches!" said Mrs. Clancy.