Burke felt himself vaguely guilty as the cause of such suffering on the part of one so young, so fair, so innocent.As a culprit, he sought his best to afford a measure of soothing for this grief that had had its source in his performance of duty.
"That's all right, little lady," he urged in a voice as nearly mellifluous as he could contrive with its mighty volume."That's all right.I have to keep on telling you.Nobody's going to hurt you--not a little bit.Believe me! Why, nobody ever would want to hurt you!"But his well-meant attempt to assuage the stricken creature's wo was futile.The sobbing continued.With it came a plaintive cry, many times repeated, softly, but very miserably.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!"
"Isn't there something else you can tell me about this woman?"Burke inquired in desperation before the plaintive outburst.He hoped to distract her from such grief over her predicament.
The girl gave no least heed to the question.
"Oh, I'm so frightened!" she gasped.
"Tut, tut!" the Inspector chided."Now, I tell you there's nothing at all for you to be afraid of.""I'm afraid!" the girl asserted dismally."I'm afraid you will--put me--in a cell!" Her voice sank to a murmur hardly audible as she spoke the words so fraught with dread import to one of her refined sensibilities.
"Pooh!" Burke returned, gallantly."Why, my dear young lady, nobody in the world could think of you and a cell at the same time--no, indeed!"Instantly, the girl responded to this bald flattery.She fairly radiated appreciation of the compliment, as she turned her eyes, dewy with tears, on the somewhat flustered Inspector.
"Oh, thank you!" she exclaimed, with naive enjoyment.
Forthwith, Burke set out to make the most of this favorable opportunity.
"Are you sure you've told me all you know about this woman?" he questioned.
"Oh, yes! I've only seen her two or three times," came the ready response.The voice changed to supplication, and again the clasped hands were extended beseechingly.
"Oh, please, Commissioner! Won't you let me go home?"The use of a title higher than his own flattered the Inspector, and he was moved to graciousness.Besides, it was obvious that his police net in this instance had enmeshed only the most harmless of doves.He smiled encouragingly.
"Well, now, little lady," he said, almost tenderly, "if I let you go now, will you promise to let me know if you are able to think of anything else about this Turner woman?""I will--indeed, I will!" came the fervent assurance.There was something almost--quite provocative in the flash of gratitude that shone forth from the blue eyes of the girl in that moment of her superlative relief.It moved Burke to a desire for rehabilitation in her estimation.
"Now, you see," he went on in his heavy voice, yet very kindly, and with a sort of massive playfulness in his manner," no one has hurt you--not even a little bit, after all.Now, you run right home to your mother."The girl did not need to be told twice.On the instant, she sprang up joyously, and started toward the door, with a final ravishing smile for the pleased official at the desk.
"I'll go just as fast as ever I can," the musical voice made assurance blithely.
"Give my compliments to your father," Burke requested courteously."And tell him I'm sorry I frightened you."The girl turned at the door....After all, too great haste might be indiscreet.
"I will, Commissioner," she promised, with an arch smile."And Iknow papa will be so grateful to you for all your kindness to me!"It was at this critical moment that Cassidy entered from the opposite side of the office.As his eyes fell on the girl at the door across from him, his stolid face lighted in a grin.And, in that same instant of recognition between the two, the color went out of the girl's face.The little red lips snapped together in a line of supreme disgust against this vicissitude of fate after all her manoeuverings in the face of the enemy.She stood motionless in wordless dismay, impotent before this disaster forced on her by untoward chance.
"Hello, Aggie!" the detective remarked, with a smirk, while the Inspector stared from one to the other with rounded eyes of wonder, and his jaw dropped from the stark surprise of this new development.
The girl returned deliberately to the chair she had occupied through the interview with the Inspector, and dropped into it weakly.Her form rested there limply now, and the blue eyes stared disconsolately at the blank wall before her.She realized that fate had decreed defeat for her in the game.It was after a minute of silence in which the two men sat staring that at last she spoke with a savage wrath against the pit into which she had fallen after her arduous efforts.
"Ain't that the damnedest luck!"
For a little interval still, Burke turned his glances from the girl to Cassidy, and then back again to the girl, who sat immobile with her blue eyes steadfastly fixed on the wall.The police official was, in truth, totally bewildered.Here was inexplicable mystery.Finally, he addressed the detective curtly.
"Cassidy, do you know this woman?"
"Sure, I do!" came the placid answer.He went on to explain with the direct brevity of his kind."She's little Aggie Lynch--con'
woman, from Buffalo--two years for blackmail--did her time at Burnsing."With this succinct narrative concerning the girl who sat mute and motionless in the chair with her eyes fast on the wall, Cassidy relapsed into silence, during which he stared rather perplexedly at his chief, who seemed to be in the throes of unusual emotion.
