A RESCUE
I had rather expected that when I reached Saintsbury, Barney would be on hand to give an explanation of his urgent message, but no Barney was to be seen. I took a taxi to my office, which was across the street from Barney's stand. For the first time within my memory, Barney's stand was shut up and the owner gone. I told the chauffeur to wait and went up to my office. Perhaps Fellows could throw some light on things,--unless he too had disappeared.
Someone was there. I heard talking before I entered,--the loud and unfamiliar tones of a man's voice. I went in without knocking. Fellows was there, at my desk. His start of surprise turned into unmistakable confusion as he saw me. His own chair was occupied by a pretty girl, whom I recognized at once as Minnie Doty, the houseworker at Mr. Ellison's, and the girl whom I had seen with Fellows in the park. The third person in the room was a tall man who stood before the window, hat in hand. Evidently he was the man whose voice I had heard.
"Well, I must be going," he said now after a moment's awkward pause, and moved toward the door. As he turned from the window the light fell upon his shaven jaw, blue-black under the skin, and I recognized him. He was the man Barker had addressed with a taunting question about his marriage.
"Don't leave the room," I said quietly, keeping my position before the door. "Fellows, introduce me."
A gleam of amusement crossed Fellows' sardonic countenance. Leaning against the edge of my desk, he indicated the seated girl with a slight gesture. "Mr. Hilton, allow me to present you to Mrs. Alfred Barker!"
"How do you do?" the girl said nervously, trying to rise to the social requirements of the occasion.
"How long have you known this fact, Fellows?" I asked, watching him closely.
"For some time," he said easily. "Miss Doty--Mary Doherty her name was originally, but she changed it to Minnie Doty when she ran away from her husband and got a position as houseworker at Mr. Ellison's--she answered our advertisement for Mary Doherty, to learn something to her advantage. I talked with her,--she didn't want to be known as Barker's wife or in any way connected with the inquest, so I agreed to keep her secret for a short time, because--"
"Because she was afraid this man, whose name I don't know,--"