“The young person left in haste, that’s clear enough,”
remarked Hood.
“The young person left in haste, that’s clear enough,” remarked Hood, balancing one of the pumps in his hand. “‘Bonet, Paris,’” he read, squinting at the lining. “Most deplorable that we have both slippers; one would have been a clew, and we could have spent the rest of our lives measuring footprints. Very nice slippers, though; fastidious young person, I’ll wager. The monogram on these trinkets is of no assistance—it might be R. G. T., or T. G. R., or G. R. T. Monograms are a nuisance, a delusion, a snare!”
Deering flung the faintly scented violet-tinted toilet-case into the bag resentfully.
“The silly little fool; why didn’t she mind what she was doing!” he exclaimed angrily, “and not steal other people’s things!”
“Pardon me,” Hood remonstrated, “but from your story the less you speak of stealing the better. But it isn’t clear yet why you sneaked the bonds. Your father has a reputation for generosity; you’re an only son and slated to succeed him in the banking-house. Just what was your idea in starting for Boston with the loot?”
“It was to help Ned Ranscomb, an old pal of mine,” Deering blurted—“one of the best fellows on earth, who has pulled me out of a lot of holes. He’d taken options on Mizpah Copper for more than he could pay for and fell on my neck to help him out. And the rotten part of it is that I can’t find him anywhere! I’ve telephoned and telegraphed all over creation, but he’s fallen off the earth! I tell you everything from the start has gone wrong. I guess I didn’t tell you that I already had a couple of hundred thousand in Mizpah—all I could put up personally, and now I’ve lost the two hundred thousand I stole, and Ned’s got cold feet and drowned himself, and here I’m talking about it to a man who may be a crook for all I know!”
“This disappearance of Ranscomb has a suspicious look,” remarked Hood, ignoring the fling. “Either money or a woman, of course.”
“Ranscomb,” Deering retorted savagely, “is all business and never fools with women. And you can bet that with this big copper deal on he wouldn’t waste time on any girl that ever was born.”
“Human beings are as we find them,” observed Hood judicially, “but you’re entirely too tragic about this whole business. If it isn’t comedy, it’s nothing. I’ll wager the girl who skipped with your stolen boodle has a sense of humor. The key-note to her character is in this novel she grabbed as she hastily packed her bag—‘The Madness of May.’ That’s one of the drollest books ever written. A story like that is a boon to mankind; it kept me chuckling all night. Haven’t read it? Well, the heroine excused herself from a dinner-table that was boring her to death, ran to her room and packed a suitcase, and that was the last her friends saw of her for some time. Along about this season it’s in the blood of healthy human beings to pine for clean air and the open road. It’s the wanderlust that’s in all of us, old and young alike. It’s possible that the young lady who ran off with your bonds felt the spring madness and determined to hit the trail as the girl did in that yarn. Finding herself possessed of a lot of bonds belonging to a stranger, I dare say she is badly frightened. Put yourself in that girl’s place, Deering—imagine her feelings, landing somewhere after a hurried journey, opening her suitcase to chalk her nose, and finding herself a thief!”
“Rot!” sniffed Deering angrily.