“Too bad!” said the father with sudden sympathy. “I’m sorry you’ve had all this trouble. Wait! I’m going to ring for my car and send you around.”
“Indeed, no!” said the girl firmly, “I should much prefer to walk. It’s only a step anyway.”
He opened the door for her himself, and thanked her again most cordially, and she gave him a faint fleeting smile in acknowledgment.
He stood for a moment watching her walk away in the darkness. There was a sweet girl! Why couldn’t Murray get her for a friend, instead of smashing her up! Just like Murray to lose his head over a Countess and a dance-hall favorite and let a peach of a girl blossom at his feet and never notice her! Oh, well, life was a disappointment anyway, whichever way you turned. Now here was Murray! What a bitter disappointment he was! Just when he might have been a comfort. Of course there was a slight possibility of his being injured somehow, but if he had been able to take a girl to the hospital he couldn’t have been very badly off. No, he was probably off with the fellows somewhere having a good time, or off with his Countess, or his latest fancy! What a son! But he must do his duty as a father, anyhow. So Murray’s new car was smashed! That was probably the reason Murray did not come home. He was waiting till his father’s ire should blow over. Of course the car was covered by insurance, but what kind of a way was that to do, smash a new car all to bits the first week!
So he called up the Blakeley Hospital first, and it being about the same hour as the accident he got the same stiff-starched nurse with double lenses who had been on duty at the desk that day.
“Yes, sir, I was here when that party came in. Yes, I remember him. Kind of a snob he was. Good-looking. They always are lookers when they’re that way, but looks aren’t everything. He thought he owned the earth. Said his name was Van something, as if that made any difference here! What’s that? Yes, I guess it was Van Rensselaer. One of those millionaire families that think they come of a different race from the rest of us. Oh, yes, I remember him. He pranced around here and got up in the air because we couldn’t stop the whole hospital for his benefit. And then he got mad and left before his girl came down after all. Yes, she was a pretty little thing. No, I don’t know what the doctor said about her. I guess she was pretty bad at first. They mighta thought she was going to die. I don’t know. But they took her home, and I guess she’s all right. No, I didn’t see the young man go out. There was another party come in to get a wound dressed, and about that time the nurse come down to report on the case, but she had to get the police station first about a drunk they had brought in, and when she went to say the girl was coming round all right, the young fella was gone.”
The father thanked her and hung up. He sat thoughtfully for a few minutes in his big chair, trying to work it all out. Then he took up the telephone again and went the rounds of the hospitals, but found no trace of any patient in any of them who answered to the description of his son. After more thought he even called up the Countess, and a few of the other various stars and favorites, without giving his name of course, but each of them professed not to have seen Murray. So that was that! Of course, if Murray was in hiding, he wouldn’t have let anybody find him, and they would be in league with him. Well!
So he called up a very extra secret service man, a private one, who frequented fashionable haunts, and was one of the company, knew everybody, and was known, but not in his secret capacity except to a few.
“That you, Eddie? Well, I want you to hunt up Murray. He’s off somewhere. Just found out he had a smash-up with his new car. Guess he’s keeping dark till it blows over. We had a few words about some bills the other day, and he got up in the air. But something has come up I want him to sign. You just look about and get hold of him. Tell him I won’t say anything about the car or the bills. Tell him I’m in need of him. Get me, Eddie? All right. Let me hear from you as early as convenient, even if it’s in the night. The business is important and immediate. All right, Eddie. You understand.”
He hung up with a tolerable feeling of ease. He had done his best, and Murray would likely turn up tonight or in the morning. Of course his mother would rave again if he didn’t come to her bore of a dinner. But then she always raved about something. It might as well be one thing as another.