The Red Seal [73]
"Your testimony there does not cover the question," he explained. "You stated then that you had not recognized Jimmie in the court room. Had you already penetrated his disguise at your house?"
"And if I had?"
"Did you?" Kent was doggedly persistent, and Helen's fingers closed around her handbag with convulsive force. Why had she not sent Barbara to see Kent in her place?
"Did I what?" she parried.
"Did you recognize and talk with Jimmie Turnbull in your house?"
"I talked with him, yes," she admitted, and her voice dropped almost to a whisper.
"As Jimmie Turnbull or Smith the burglar?"
"As Jimmie" - she confessed, after a slight pause.
"Then why did you go through the farce of having Jimmie arrested as a burglar?" Kent demanded.
"So that Barbara might win her wager," promptly. Kent stared at her incredulously.
"Do you mean that, notwithstanding the risk to which you were subjecting him with his weak heart, you kept up the farce simply that Barbara might win an idiotic wager?" Kent asked.
Helen passed one nervous hand over the other; her palms were hot and dry, and two hectic spots had appeared in each white cheek.
"Jimmie was quite well Monday night," she protested. "He - he - had some heart medicine with him."
Amyl nitrite?"
"No."
"Nitro-glycerine?"
"I - I think that was it, I am not quite sure," she spoke with uncertainty, and Kent knew that she lied. His heart sank.
"Did he swallow any medicine in your presence?"
She shook her head vigorously. "No, he did not."
Kent lowered his voice. "Did you see him take Mrs. Brewster's aconitine pills off the hall table?"
Helen shifted her gaze to his face and then back to her ever restless hands. "No," she said. "I did not see him take the pills."
Kent studied her in a silence which, to her, seemed never-ending.
"I want the true answer to this question," he announced with meaning emphasis. "Why did Jimmie go in disguise to your house on Monday night?"
Helen blanched. "How should I know," she muttered evasively. "He - he didn't come to see me - the admission was barely above a whisper.
"But you know what transpired in your house on Monday night?" demanded Kent eagerly.
His question met with no response, and he repeated it, but still the girl remained silent. Kent gave her a moment's grace, then drawing out the unaddressed envelope from his pocket he held it toward her. A low cry broke from her, and her expression changed as she caught sight of the broken seal.
"You have opened it!"
"Not yet," Kent held the envelope just beyond her reach. "I will only give it to you with the understanding that you open the envelope now in my presence and let me see its contents."
Helen drew back, then impulsively extended her hand.
"I agree," she said. "Give me the envelope."
"Stop!" The word rang out, startling Kent as well as Helen, and Mrs. Brewster, whose noiseless entrance a few seconds before had gone unobserved, hurried to them. "The envelope is mine.
CHAPTER XX
THE UNKNOWN EQUATION
No, no," protested Helen vehemently. "You shall not give the envelope to Margaret - you must not."
"It is mine," insisted the widow with equal vehemence.
"Mrs. Brewster." Kent withheld the envelope from both women. "Will you tell me the contents of this envelope?"
"No," curtly. "It is not your affair."
"It is my affair," retorted Kent with equally shortness of manner. "I insist on an answer to my questions in the limousine this morning. How came your handkerchief in Jimmie's possession, and why did you go to the police court and, yet keep your presence there a secret?"
"Jimmie must have picked up the handkerchief when in the McIntyre house," she answered sullenly. "I presume he forgot to provide him self with one in his make-up as burglar. As regards your second question I admit I did go to the police court out of curiosity - I wanted to find out what was going on. You," with a resentful glance at Helen, "treated me as an outsider, and I was determined to find out for myself