CHAPTER VIII.
A WOMAN SCORNED.
Dora kept her eyes fastened on Darwin.
There was a peculiar glitter in them.
At first Darwin returned her gaze without flinching, but soon he commenced to move about uneasily.
For some time neither spoke.
A cynical smile played around the corners of Dora’s lips.
“You are contemptible,” she sneered. “Really, I should feel sorry for you if I did not despise you so intensely!”
“Really, Dora, I don’t understand you,” Darwin replied.
“You don’t understand me? How can you sit there and say that? Where were you to-day at eleven o’clock?”
“Why—I—I——”
“Don’t lie to me. Where were you?”
“I was in O’Rourke’s restaurant.”
“With whom?”
“Sally Rich.”
“What were you doing in her company?”
“I met her by chance.”
“You had an appointment with her.”
“I did not.”
“I was in O’Rourke’s at the time, and I saw both of you.”
“Spying on me?”
Darwin’s face darkened, and he bit the ends of his mustache.
“I was not spying on you,” Dora ejaculated. “I wouldn’t spy on any one. But I am glad I’ve discovered your duplicity.”
“You are jealous of Sally Rich,” Darwin retorted.
“I am not! But I do hate her.”
“I am aware of that. She hates you.”
“She is a low——”
“Hush!”
“I will not hush! This is the third time that I have caught you with her.”
“You don’t understand. I have business with her brother——”
“Do you expect me to believe that? Not much! I’m not green. As long as you prefer that woman’s society to mine, you may go with her, and I never want you to speak to me again.”
“But, Dora——”
“Dick Darwin, my mind is made up.”
“Do listen to reason, Dora.”
“Good night.”
Dora arose from the table, cast a contemptuous glance at Darwin, and walked into a side room.
“Confound that woman!” Darwin muttered, as he gazed after her. “If she turns against me, she may ruin me. I wish I hadn’t met Sally Rich—at least, not for the present.”
Carter heard what Darwin muttered, and he saw that the man was greatly disturbed.
“He’s afraid of Dora, for some reason,” the detective cogitated. “If I could get her out of here, unseen by Darwin, while she is in her present mood, I might be able to worm some information out of her. Shall I make the attempt?”
Carter looked into the next room, where he saw Dora putting on her cloak. He glanced at Darwin, who was leaning back in his chair in a brown study.
“Shall I try?” the detective thought, and he gazed after Dora, who was starting for the stairway. He saw that Darwin did not move, and he was still thinking.
In an instant his mind was made up, and he started after Dora.
She went out into the street.
Then the detective spoke to her.
“You are a stranger to me,” she said coldly, with an air of affronted dignity.
“I am not such a stranger as you think, Miss Ferris. We have met several times,” Carter rejoined.
“I don’t seem to remember you.”
“Perhaps not, in this rig. Will you come up to Sherton’s with me and have some supper? I want to talk with you.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Nicholas Carter.”
“Why, I——”
“You need not be afraid.”
“I am not afraid.”
“Will you accompany me?”
“I don’t understand.”
“I will explain when we get to Sherton’s. There we can secure a secluded table, and no one will see us.”
“It isn’t that——”
“You will not regret it.”
“I will go with you.”
The detective and Dora had little to say until after the repast at Sherton’s was placed upon the table, and they were alone.
“Now we can talk,” the detective said, as soon as the waiter had left the room.
“You said you desired to secure some information from me?” Dora remarked.
“I do.”
“I can’t imagine what it is about.”
“You have been friendly with a man named Dick Darwin?”
Dora started. She laid down her knife and fork, and looked at the detective, with amazement depicted upon every line of her handsome face.
“You heard what passed between us a while ago?” she ejaculated.
“I did,” Carter calmly replied, and he smiled.
“Then you know that I have thrown him over?”
“Yes.”
“I do not intend to have anything more to do with him.”
“Do you really mean that?”
“I do. I am serious. I have made many sacrifices for that man, and he has treated me brutally.”
“To-morrow you will change your mind.”
“Mr. Carter, my mind is made up. Nothing will make me change it. I possess my father’s nature. You were a friend of his, and you know how bitter he could be against any one for whom he formed a dislike. It is the same way with me.”
“Then you will not hesitate to tell me all you know about Darwin?”
“Has he committed a crime?” asked Dora.
“Do you think he has?”
“I do not know.”
“Neither do I,” asserted Carter, with a smile.
“Then why are you so anxious to get information about him?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Oh!”
Dora gazed at the detective. She picked up the glass of wine and commenced to sip the amber-colored liquid.
Carter was silent, but he watched her closely.
“Mr. Carter,” Dora said, as she set down the glass, “I will tell you everything I know about that man.”
“I thank you,” the detective rejoined.
“I hate him.”
Her eyes flashed. The hot blood mantled her brow, and she hissed out the words between her clenched teeth.
Now the detective saw that she was in earnest. He knew that she did hate Dick Darwin, and no power could make her become friendly with him again.
“How long have you been acquainted with him?” Carter asked, after a short silence.
“About three years,” Dora answered.
“Where did you first meet him?”
“In London.”
“What were you doing over there?”
“I was in the chorus of ‘A Girl from New York.’ We were playing over there at the Gayety.”
“Were you introduced to him?”
“I was.”
“By whom?”
“One of the other chorus girls, Sally Rich.”
“Then you were acquainted with Miss Rich?”
“Yes.”
“And her brother?”
“I know him.”
“Well?”
“Yes.”
“How long have you known him?”
“Four years.”
“Where did you first meet him?”
“At Koster & Bial’s, where his sister and I were singing together.”
“Tell me all you know about Darwin.”
“Give me time to collect my thoughts.”
“Take all the time you desire.”
Carter was succeeding better than he had calculated.
At first he did not suspect that Dora felt so bitterly about the manner in which she had been treated by Darwin. He congratulated himself on the move he had made.
As he watched Dora, and noted the fleeting shadows crossing her face, he was able to read almost all her thoughts. He saw that she had no compunctions of conscience, no tenderness for Darwin, and that she would tell all she knew about the man.
Did she know anything about the mysterious murder at the Red Dragon Inn?
The detective was unable to surmise.
Finally, Dora raised her eyes, and, gazing straight at Carter, she said:
“Dick Darwin is a cousin of Simeon Rich. His mother was a sister of Rich’s father. He was educated in England, and he resided there until he was thirty years of age, when he came to New York to live.
“When his father died he inherited a small fortune. He soon ran through it. Then he became connected with several dramatic enterprises, and made money.
“Six months ago he took a company out on the road, and he became stranded in Cincinnati.
“I sent him money to return to New York.
“When he got here he was broke.
“For some time he and Rich did not speak, but after he got back to the city they patched up their differences and became as thick as two peas in a pod. Recently he got to going around with Sally Rich, unknown to me, and when I found it out, and chided him for it, he insulted me.
“Lately I have noticed that he was quite flush of money. He would not let me know where he got it from. When I would ask him what he was doing he would fly into a towering rage.
“To-day when I saw him with Sally Rich I made up my mind to sever our relationship.”
Dora stopped talking and drank some wine.
“You have not told me all you know about Darwin,” Carter remarked.
“How do you know that I have not?”
“I can tell from the manner in which you spoke that you have kept something back.”
“What do you think I have kept back?”
“Was Darwin ever guilty of any crime?”
“Why?”
“I want to know.”
“In England he was arrested for forgery.”
“Ah!”
“He was released on bail, and he fled to this country.”
“What did he forge?”
“Checks.”
“Then he was never tried?”
“No. The charges are still pending against him.”
“Is Dick Darwin his right name?”
“Yes.”
“Were you ever present when he and Rich were together?”
“No.”
“Don’t you know what business they are engaged in?”
“I do not. I wish I did know.”
“Did you ever hear Sally or her brother speak of a man named Lawrence?”
“Sally Rich once told me that she had an uncle by that name.”
“Did she ever speak about him?”
“She only said that he died and left her and her brother a lot of money. They had to fight for it in the courts.”
“Was that all she told you?”
“Yes.”
Carter thought for some time before he asked another question. He reviewed all that Dora had told him. He had gained some important information, but not as much as he had expected. However, he was firmly convinced that Dora had told him the truth, and that she had concealed nothing.
“Miss Ferris,” he said, after a time, “where was Dick Darwin on New Year’s Eve?”
“I don’t know where he was. He was with Rich. That I do know.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw them together, going down Sixth Avenue, about nine o’clock at night. They did not see me.”
“What time did you next see him?”
“At two o’clock in the morning.”
“Where?”
“He came to my flat. He was greatly excited about something, and it seemed to me that he was very nervous.”
“Didn’t he say where he had been?”
“No.”
“Did you ask him?”
“I did.”
“And he would not tell you?”
“He would not.”
“You say he was very nervous?”
“Very. His clothing was spattered with mud, and it seemed to me as if he had been in some kind of a rumpus.”
“Was he intoxicated?”
“No.”
“Is the clothing which he had on that night at your flat?”
“It is in his room there. But, Mr. Carter, for what purpose are you asking all these questions? What do you suspect?”
“I can’t tell you now.”
“You can trust me. I hate Dick Darwin so that I would help you to send him to prison.”
“Would you do that?”
“I swear I would do it!”
“I am afraid——”
“Afraid I wouldn’t?”
“Yes.”
“Try me—trust me.”
Carter looked at the woman intently for some time in silence.
Over and over again he asked himself whether he dare to trust her or not, and, at the same time, he was evolving a plan in his mind.