The Trevor case

by Natalie Sumner Lincoln

After about twenty minutes’ walking, Clark turned into a lane on his right, and going some distance in the direction of the Potomac River, he suddenly leaped a fence and struck off across country. It was not very easy to follow him in the more open fields, and Dick, fearful of being discovered, dropped far behind. On reaching the top of a slight rise in ground he was dismayed to find that Clark had disappeared. He glanced about him in every direction, but save for himself the field was deserted.

Cursing himself for going on so wild a goose chase, he started forward in the direction he judged Clark might have gone. But his hopes fell when, after trudging along for ten minutes, he found no trace of his quarry. Thoroughly discouraged, he rested for a moment against a rail fence before retracing his way to Anacostia. As his eyes traveled over the low, rolling country, he noticed three trees forming a triangle standing in a field a quarter of a mile away. His heart gave a bound; at last he knew where he was. He could not be mistaken. He hurried over to the trees; yes, he was right, they were the tall poplars which he himself had named “The Three Sisters.” He was on land belonging to Allan Dorsey. While he had accompanied Allan there in the summer, he had never been there in winter or at night. Allan Dorsey, whose paintings were known the world over, had purchased the deserted farm because of the magnificent views which stirred his artist soul. He would work for days at a time in solitude, and only Dick was privileged to come and see him on rare occasions.

“Lord! I wish Allan were there instead of in Paris,” thought Dick. “He’d give me a high ball for the inner man, and a dry suit for the outer one.” He shivered in his damp clothes. “May the foul fiend seize that Clark! I wonder where in thunder he went to.”

As if in answer to his unspoken question, an idea flashed into his head. The studio! By Jove! that was it; and yet, what in the name of Heaven was Clark doing in so deserted and forsaken a place?

There was but one way to find out and suiting the action to his thought, Dick walked in the direction of the old barn which had been converted into a roomy and up-to-date studio. It stood some distance from the “Three Sisters,” hidden from view by a grove of trees.

Dick cautiously approached the building. There was no sign of life or human habitation. The heavy, old-fashioned wooden shutters were tightly closed, but as Dick bent and placed his ear against the wide door, he distinctly heard the sound of several voices. Certain now that he was on the right track, and his curiosity at fever heat, he paused to think over the situation.

The rain and sleet had stopped some time before, and the wind was dying down. Suddenly he thought of the skylight Allan had built into the roof of the barn to obtain a better light. If he could climb up there he could see all that was going on inside the studio. To think was to act with Dick; his blood was up and he was determined to see the adventure through, whatever the consequences. Taking off his coat and shoes and hiding them behind a large bowlder, he proceeded to climb a tree whose limbs stretched out close to the roof of the barn. He hated to trust his weight to the slender limb, but there was no other way to accomplish his object. So, putting his trust in Providence, he crept along until just parallel with the chimney, then dropped lightly as a cat to the shingled roof.

Very gingerly and softly he crawled forward on hands and knees to the skylight. Gently he ran his hand over the portion of the glass frame nearest him. Joy of joys; one of the panes of glass was out, and his hand passed through the opening and touched the large Holland shade which was drawn over the inside of the skylight. Light was visible around the edges of the shade; that was all he could discover. He pulled out his penknife and gently cut an opening in the green shade, and applied his eye to the hole.

Seated directly beneath him around a table were four masked men. Their voices carried distinctly in the closed room to where he crouched above them. To his great surprise they spoke in Italian, a language with which he was fairly familiar, having studied it with a view to going into the Consular Service.

The smallest man of the four placed a square box in the center of the table.