The Strange Case of Cavendish | Page 9

you get a job--and a real one. You and I
have started something, Mr. Valois."
And, tossing money to cover the bill on the table, she took Valois's arm,
and with him in tow hurried through the restaurant to the city streets on
one of which was the Star office, where Farriss, the city editor, daily
damned the doings of the world.
That night when Farriss had heard the evidence his metallic eyes
snapped with an unusual light. Farriss, for once, was enthusiastic.
"A great lead! By God, it is! Now to prove it, Stella"--Farriss always
resorted to first names--"you drop everything else and go to this, learn

what you can, spend money if you have to. I'll drag Willis off police,
and you work with him. And damn me, if you two spend money, you've
got to get results! I'll give you a week--when you've got something,
come back!"
CHAPTER V
: ON THE TRACK OF A CRIME
In the city room of the Star, Farriss, the city editor, sat back in his
swivel chair smoking a farewell pipe preparatory to going home. The
final edition had been put to bed, the wires were quiet, and as he sat
there Farriss was thinking of plunging "muskies" in Maine streams. His
thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a clatter of footsteps, and,
slapping his feet to the floor, he turned to confront Willis and Miss
Donovan.
"Great God!" he started, at their appearance at so late an hour.
Miss Donovan smiled at him. "No; great luck!"
"Better than that, Mr. Farriss," echoed Willis. "We've got something;
and we dug all week to get it."
"But it cost us real money--enough to make the business office moan, I
expect, too," Miss Donovan added.
"Well, for Pete's sake, shoot!" demanded Farriss. "Cavendish, I
suppose?"
The two nodded. Their eyes were alight with enthusiasm.
"In the first place," said the girl, with grave emphasis, "Frederick
Cavendish did not die intestate as supposed. He left a will."
Farriss blinked. "By God!" he exclaimed. "That's interesting. There was
no evidence of that before."

"I got that from the servants of the College Club," Willis interposed.
"The will was drawn the night before the murder. And the man that
drew it was Patrick Enright of Enright and Dougherty. Cavendish took
away a copy of it in his pocket. And, Mr. Farriss, I got something else,
too--Enright and young John Cavendish are in communication further. I
saw him leaving Enright's office all excited. Following my hunch, I
cultivated Miss Healey, Enright's stenographer, and learned that the
two had an altercation and that it was evidently over some document."
Farriss was interested.
"Enright's in this deep," he muttered thoughtfully, "but how?
Well--what else?"
Stella Donovan began speaking now:
"I fixed it with Chambers, the manager of the Fairmount, to get Josette
La Baum--she's Valois's fiancée, you remember--into the hotel as a
maid. Josette 'soaped the keyhole' of the drawers in John Cavendish's
rooms there. I had a key made from the soap impression, and from the
contents of the correspondence we found I learned that Celeste La Rue,
the blonde of the Revue, had got some kind of hold on him. It isn't love,
either; it's something stronger. He jumps when she holds the hoop."
"La Rue's mixed up in this deeply, too," Willis cut in. "Neither one of
us could shadow her without uncovering ourselves, so we hired an
International operative. They cost ten dollars a day--and expenses.
What he learned was this--that while she was playing with young
Cavendish and seeing him almost daily, the lovely Celeste was also in
communication with--guess who!"
"Enright?" Farriss ventured.
"Exactly--Enright," he concluded, lighting his half-smoked cigarette.
"Well," the city editor tapped his desk; "you two have done pretty well,
so far. You've got considerable dope. Now, what do you make of it?"

He bent an inquiring gaze on both the girl and the youth.
"You do the talking, Jerry," Miss Donovan begged Willis; "I'm very
tired."
Willis was only too eager; Willis was young, enthusiastic,
reliable--three reasons why the Star kept him.
"It may be a dream," he said, smiling, "but here is the way I stack it up.
The night after he quarrelled with John, Frederick Cavendish called in
Enright and made a will, presumably, cutting John off with practically
nothing.
"Immediately after Frederick's departure, Enright calls Carbon's Café
and talks to John Cavendish, who had been dining there with Celeste
La Rue.
"It is reasonable to suppose that he told him of the will. Less than five
hours afterward Frederick Cavendish is found dead in his apartments.
Again it is reasonable to suppose that he was croaked by John
Cavendish, who wanted to destroy the will so that he could claim the
estate.
"These Broadway boys need money when they travel