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Project Gutenberg surfs with a modem donated by Supra.
C >> Chester K. Steele >> Project Gutenberg surfs with a modem donated by Supra. Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 This Etext provided by Polly Stratton
THE GOLF COURSE MYSTERY
by Chester K. Steele
CONTENTS
I PUTTING OUT
II THE NINETEENTH HOLE
III "Why?"
IV VIOLA'S DECISION
V HARRY'S MISSION
VI By A QUIET STREAM
VII THE INQUEST
VIII ON SUSPICION
IX 58 C. H - 161*
X A WATER HAZARD
XI POISONOUS PLANTS
XII BLOSSOM'S SUSPICIONS
XIII CAPTAIN POLAND CONFESSES
XIV THE PRIVATE SAFE
XV POOR FISHING
XVI SOME LETTERS
XVII OVER THE TELEPHONE
XVIII A LARGE BLONDE LADY
XIX "UNKNOWN"
XX A MEETING
XXI THE LIBRARY POSTA
XXII THE LARGE BLONDE AGAIN
XXIII MOROCCO KATE, ALLY
XXIV STILL WATERS
CHAPTER I
PUTTING OUT
There was nothing in that clear, calm day, with its blue sky and its
flooding sunshine, to suggest in the slightest degree the awful tragedy
so close at hand - that tragedy which so puzzled the authorities and
which came so close to wrecking the happiness of several innocent
people.
The waters of the inlet sparkled like silver, and over those waters
poised the osprey, his rapidly moving wings and fan-spread tail
suspending him almost stationary in one spot, while, with eager and
far-seeing eyes, he peered into the depths below. The bird was a dark
blotch against the perfect blue sky for several seconds, and then,
suddenly folding his pinions and closing his tail, he darted downward
like a bomb dropped from an aeroplane.
There was a splash in the water, a shower of sparkling drops as the
osprey arose, a fish vainly struggling in its talons, and from a dusty
gray roadster, which had halted along the highway while the occupant
watched the hawk, there came an exclamation of satisfaction.
"Did you see that, Harry?" called the occupant of the gray car to a
slightly built, bronzed companion in a machine of vivid yellow,
christened by some who had ridden in it the "Spanish Omelet." "Did
you see that kill? As clean as a hound's tooth, and not a lost motion of
a feather. Some sport-that fish-hawk! Gad!"
"Yes, it was a neat bit of work, Gerry. But rather out of keeping with the
day."
"Out of keeping? What do you mean?"
"Well, out of tune, if you like that better. It's altogether too
perfect a day for a killing of any sort, seems to me."
"Oh, you're getting sentimental all at once, aren't you, Harry?"
asked Captain Gerry Poland, with just the trace of a covert sneer in
his voice. "I suppose you wouldn't have even a fish-hawk get a much
needed meal on a bright, sunshiny day, when, if ever, he must have
a whale of an appetite. You'd have him wait until it was dark and
gloomy and rainy, with a north-east wind blowing, and all that sort
of thing. Now for me, a kill is a kill, no matter what the weather."
"The better the day the worse the deed, I suppose," and Harry Bartlett
smiled as he leaned forward preparatory to throwing the switch of his
machine's self-starter, for both automobiles had come to a stop to
watch the osprey.
"Oh, well, I don't know that the day has anything to do with it," said
the captain - a courtesy title, bestowed because he was president of
the Maraposa Yacht Club. "I was just interested in the clean way the
beggar dived after that fish. Flounder, wasn't it?"
"Yes, though usually the birds are glad enough to get a moss-bunker.
Well, the fish will soon be a dead one, I suppose."
"Yes, food for the little ospreys, I imagine. Well, it's a good death
to die - serving some useful purpose, even if it's only to be eaten.
Gad! I didn't expect to get on such a gruesome subject when we started
out. By the way, speaking of killings, I expect to make a neat one
to-day on this cup-winners' match."
"How? I didn't know there was much betting."
"Oh, but there is; and I've picked up some tidy odds against our friend
Carwell. I'm taking his end, and I think he's going to win."
"Better be careful, Gerry. Golf is an uncertain game, especially when
there's a match on among the old boys like Horace Carwell and the crowd
of past-performers and cup-winners he trails along with. He's just as
likely to pull or slice as the veriest novice, and once he starts to
slide he's a goner. No reserve comeback, you know."
"Oh, I've not so sure about that. He'll be all right if he'll let the
champagne alone before he starts to play. I'm banking on him. At the
same time I haven't bet all my money. I've a ten spot left that says
I can beat you to the clubhouse, even if one of my cylinders has been
missing the last two miles. How about it?"
"You're on !" said Harry Bartlett shortly.
There was a throb from each machine as the electric motors started the
engines, and then they shot down the wide road in clouds of dust - the
sinister gray car and the more showy yellow - while above them, driving
its talons deeper into the sides of the fish it had caught, the osprey
circled off toward its nest of rough sticks in a dead pine tree on the
edge of the forest.
And on the white of the flounder appeared bright red spots of blood,
some of which dripped to the ground as the cruel talons closed until
they met inside.
It was only a little tragedy, such as went on every day in the inlet
and adjacent ocean, and yet, somehow, Harry Bartlett, as he drove on
with ever-increasing speed in an endeavor to gain a length on his
opponent, could not help thinking of it in contrast to the perfect blue
of the sky, in which there was not a cloud. Was it prophetic?
Ruddy-faced men, bronze-faced men, pale-faced men; young women, girls,
matrons and "flappers"; caddies burdened with bags of golf clubs and
pockets bulging with cunningly found balls; skillful waiters hurrying
here and there with trays on which glasses of various shapes, sizes,
and of diversified contents tinkled musically-such was the scene at
the Maraposa Club on this June morning when Captain Gerry Poland and
Harry Bartlett were racing their cars toward it.
It was the chief day of the year for the Maraposa Golf Club, for on it
were to be played several matches, not the least in importance being
that of the cup-winners, open only to such members as had won prizes
in hotly contested contests on the home links.
In spite of the fact that on this day there were to be played several
matches, in which visiting and local champions were to try their skill
against one another, to the delight of a large gallery, interest
centered in the cup-winners' battle. For it was rumored, and not
without semblance of truth, that large sums of money would change
hands on the result.
Not that it was gambling-oh, my no! In fact any laying of wagers was
strictly prohibited by the club's constitution. But there are ways
and means of getting cattle through a fence without taking down the
bars, and there was talk that Horace Carwell had made a pretty stiff
bet with Major Turpin Wardell as to the outcome of the match, the
major and Mr. Carwell being rivals of long standing in the matter of
drives and putts.
"Beastly fine day, eh, what?" exclaimed Bruce Garrigan, as he set down
on a tray a waiter held out to him a glass he had just emptied with
every indication of delight in its contents. "If it had been made to
order couldn't be improved on," and he flicked from the lapel of Tom
Sharwell's coat some ashes which had blown there from the cigarette
which Garrigan had lighted.
"You're right for once, Bruce, old man," was the laughing response.
"Never mind the ashes now, you'll make a spot if you rub any harder."
"Right for once? 'm always right!" cried Garrigan "And it may interest
you to know that the total precipitation, including rain and melted
snow in Yuma, Arizona, for the calendar year 1917, was three and one
tenth inches, being the smallest in the United States."
"It doesn't interest me a bit, Bruce !" laughed Sharwell. "And to
prevent you getting any more of those statistics out of your system,
come on over and we'll do a little precipitating on our own account.
I can stand another Bronx cocktail."
"I'm with you! But, speaking of statistics, did you know that from
the national forests of the United States in the last year there was
cut 840,612,030 board feet of lumber? What the thirty feet were for
I don't know, but - "
"And I don't care to know," interrupted Tom. "If you spring any more
of those beastly dry figures - Say, there comes something that does
interest me, though!" he broke in with. "Look at those cars take
that turn !"
"Some speed," murmured Garrigan. "It's Bartlett and Poland," he went
on, as a shift of wind blew the dust to one side and revealed the gray
roadster and the Spanish Omelet. "The rivals are at it again."
Bruce Garrigan, who had a name among the golf club members as a human
encyclopaedia, and who, at times, would inform his companions on almost
any subject that chanced to come uppermost, tossed away his cigarette
and, with Tom Sharwell, watched the oncoming automobile racers.
"They're rivals in more ways than one," remarked Sharwell. "And it
looks, now, as though the captain rather had the edge on Harry, in
spite of the fast color of Harry's car."
"That's right," admitted Garrigan. "Is it true what I've heard about
both of them-that each hopes to place the diamond hoop of proprietorship
on the fair Viola?"
"I guess if you've heard that they're both trying for her, it's true
enough," answered Sharwell. "And it also happens, if that old lady,
Mrs. G. 0. 5. Sipp, is to be believed, that there, also, the captain
has the advantage."
"How's that? I thought Harry had made a tidy sum on that ship-building
project he put through."
"He did, but it seems that he and his family have a penchant for doing
that sort of thing, and, some years ago, in one of the big mergers in
which his family took a prominent part, they, or some one connected
with them, pinched the Honorable Horace Carwell so that he squealed for
mercy like a lamb led to the Wall street slaughter house."
"So that's the game, is it?"
"Yes. And ever since then, though Viola Carwell has been just as nice
to Harry as she has to Gerry - as far as any one can tell-there has
been talk that Harry is persona non grata as far as her father goes.
He never forgives any business beat, I understand."
"Was it anything serious?" asked Garrigan, as they watched the racing
automobiles swing around the turn of the road that led to the clubhouse.
"I don't know the particulars. It was before my time - I mean before
I paid much attention to business."
"Rot! You don't now. You only think you do. But I'm interested. I
expect to have some business dealing with Carwell myself, and if I
could get a line - "
"Sorry, but I can't help you out, old man. Better see Harry. He knows
the whole story, and he insists that it was all straight on his
relatives' part. But it's like shaking a mince pie at a Thanksgiving
turkey to mention the matter to Carwell. He hasn't gone so far as to
forbid Harry the house, but there's a bit of coldness just the same."
"I see. And that's why the captain has the inside edge on the love
game. Well, Miss Carwell has a mind of her own, I fancy."
"Indeed she has! She's more like her mother used to be. I remember
Mrs. Carwell when I was a boy. She was a dear, somewhat conventional
lady. How she ever came to take up with the sporty Horace, or he with
her, was a seven-days' wonder. But they lived happily, I believe."
"Then Mrs. Carwell is dead?"
"Oh, yes-some years. Mr. Carwell's sister, Miss Mary, keeps The Haven
up to date for him. You've been there?"
"Once, at a reception. I'm not on the regular calling list, though Miss
Viola is pretty enough to - "
"Look out !" suddenly cried Sharwell, as though appealing to the two
automobilists, far off as they were. For the yellow car made a sudden
swerve and seemed about to turn turtle.
But Bartlett skillfully brought the Spanish Omelet back on the road
again, and swung up alongside his rival for the home stretch-the broad
highway that ran in front of the clubhouse.
The players who were soon to start out on the links; the guests, the
gallery, and the servants gathered to see the finish of the impromptu
race, murmurs arising as it was seen how close it was likely to be.
And close it was, for when the two machines, with doleful whinings of
brakes, came to a stop in front of the house, the front wheels were in
such perfect alignment that there was scarcely an inch of difference.
"A dead heat !" exclaimed Bartlett, as he leaped out and motioned for
one of the servants to take the car around to the garage.
"Yes, you win !" agreed Captain Poland, as he pushed his goggles back
on his cap. He held out a bill.
"What's it for?" asked Bartlett, drawing back.
"Why, I put up a ten spot that I'd beat you. I didn't, and you win."
"Buy drinks with your money!" laughed Bartlett. "The race was to be for
a finish, not a dead heat. We'll try it again, sometime."
"All right-any time you like!" said the captain crisply, as he sat down
at a table after greeting some friends. "But you won't refuse to split
a quart with me?"
"No. My throat is as dusty as a vacuum cleaner. Have any of the
matches started yet, Bruce?" he asked, turning to the Human Encyclopedia.
"Only some of the novices. And, speaking of novices, do you know that
in Scotland there are fourteen thousand, seven hundred - "
"Cut it, Bruce! Cut it !" begged the captain. "Sit in - you and
Tom - and we'll make it two bottles. Anything to choke off your flow
of useless statistics!" and he laughed good-naturedly.
"When does the cup-winners' match start?" asked Bartlett, as the four
young men sat about the table under the veranda. "That's the one I'm
interested in."
"In about an hour," announced Sharwell, as he consulted a card. "Hardly
any of the veterans are here yet."
"Has Mr. Carwell arrived?" asked Captain Poland, as he raised his glass
and seemed to be studying the bubbles that spiraled upward from the
hollow stem.
"You'll know when he gets here," answered Bruce Garrigan.
"How so?" asked the captain. "Does he have an official announcer?"
"No, but you'll hear his car before you see it."
"New horn?"
"No, new car-new color-new everything!" said Garrigan. "He's just
bought a new ten thousand dollar French car, and it's painted red,
white and blue, and-"
"Red, white and blue?" chorused the other three men.
"Yes. Very patriotic. His friends don't know whether he's honoring
Uncle Sam or the French Republic. However, it's all the same. His
car is a wonder."
"I must have a brush with him !" murmured Captain Poland.
"Don't. You'll lose out," advised Garrigan. "It can do eighty on
fourth speed, and Carwell is sporty enough to slip it into that gear
if he needed to."
"Um! Guess I'll wait until I get my new machine, then," decided the
captain.
There was more talk, but Bartlett gradually dropped out of the
conversation and went to walk about the club grounds.
Maraposa was a social, as well as a golfing, club, and the scene of
many dances and other affairs. It lay a few miles back from the shore
near Lakeside, in New Jersey. The clubhouse was large and elaborate,
and the grounds around it were spacious and well laid out.
Not far away was Loch Harbor, where the yachts of the club of which
Captain Gerry Poland was president anchored, and a mile or so in the
opposite direction was Lake Tacoma, on the shore of which was Lakeside.
A rather exclusive colony summered there, the hotel numbering many
wealthy persons among its patrons.
Harry Bartlett, rather wishing he had gone in for golf more devotedly,
was wandering about, casually greeting friends and acquaintances, when
he heard his name called from the cool and shady depths of a
summer-house on the edge of the golf links.
"Oh, Minnie! How are you ?" he cordially greeted a rather tall and
dark girl who extended her slim hand to him. "I didn't expect to see
you today."
"Oh, I take in all the big matches, though I don't play much myself,"
answered Minnie Webb. "I'm surprised to find you without a caddy,
though, Harry."
"Too lazy, I'm afraid. I'm going to join the gallery to-day. Meanwhile,
if you don't mind, I'll sit in here and help you keep cool."
"It isn't very hard to do that to-day," and she moved over to make room
for him. "Isn't it just perfect weather!"
At one time Minnie Webb and Harry Bartlett had been very close
friends - engaged some rumors had it. But now they were jolly good
companions, that was all.
"Seen the Carwells' new machine?" asked Bartlett.
"No, but I've heard about it. I presume they'll drive up in it to-day."
"Does Viola run it?"
"I haven't heard. It's a powerful machine, some one said-more of a racer
than a touring car, Mr. Blossom was remarking."
"Well, he ought to know. I understand he's soon to be taken into
partnership with Mr. Carwell."
"I don't know," murmured Minnie, and she seemed suddenly very much
interested in the vein structure of a leaf she pulled from a vine that
covered the summer-house.
Bartlett smiled. Gossip had it that Minnie Webb and Le Grand Blossom,
Mr. Carwell's private secretary, were engaged. But there had been no
formal announcement, though the two had been seen together more
frequently of late than mere friendship would warrant.
There was a stir in front of the clubhouse, followed by a murmur of
voices, and Minnie, peering through a space in the vines, announced:
"There's the big car now. Oh, I don't like that color at all!
I'm as patriotic as any one, but to daub a perfectly good car up like
that - well, it's - "
"Sporty, I suppose Carwell thinks," finished Bartlett. He had risen as
though to leave the summerhouse, but as he saw Captain Poland step up
and offer his hand to Viola Carwell, he drew back and again sat down
beside Minnie.
A group gathered about the big French car, obviously to the delight of
Mr. Carwell, who was proud of the furor created by his latest purchase.
Though he kept up his talk with Minnie in the summer-house, Harry
Bartlett's attention was very plainly not on his present companion nor
the conversation. At any other time Minnie Webb would have noticed it
and taxed him with it, but now, she, too, had her attention centered
elsewhere. She watched eagerly the group about the big machine, and
her eyes followed the figure of a man who descended from the rear seat
and made his way out along a path that led to a quiet spot.
"I think I'll go in now," murmured Minnie Webb. "I have to see - "
Bartlett was not listening. In fact he was glad of the diversion, for
he saw Viola Carwell turn with what he thought was impatience aside
from Captain Poland, and that was the very chance the other young man
had been waiting for.
He followed Minnie Webb from the little pavilion, paying no attention
to where she drifted. But he made his way through the press of persons
to where Viola stood, and he saw her eyes light up as he approached.
His, too, seemed brighter.
"I was wondering if you would come to see dad win," she murmured to him,
as he took her hand, and Captain Poland, with a little bow, stepped back.
"You knew I'd come, didn't you?" Bartlett asked in a low voice.
"I hoped so," she murmured. "Now, Harry," she went on in a low voice,
as they moved aside, "this will be a good time for you to smooth things
over with father. If he wins, as he feels sure he will, you must
congratulate him very heartily - exceptionally so. Make a fuss over
him, so to speak. He'll be club champion, and it will seem natural for
you to bubble over about it."
"But why should I, Viola? I haven't done anything to merit his
displeasure."
"I know. But you remember what a touch-fire he is. He's always held
that business matter against you, though I'm sure you had nothing to
do with it. Now, if he wins, and I hope he will, you can take advantage
of it to get on better terms with him, and - "
"Well, I'm willing to be friends, you know that, Viola. But I can't
pretend - I never could!"
"You're stubborn, Harry !" and Viola pouted.
"Well, perhaps I am. When I know I'm right - "
"Couldn't you forget it just once?"
"I don't see how!"
"Oh, you provoke me! But if you won't you won't, I suppose. Only it
would be such a good chance - "
"Well, I'll see him after the match, Viola. I'll do my best to be
decent."
"You must go a little farther than that, Harry. Dad will be all worked
up if he wins, and he'll want a fuss made over him. It will be the very
chance for you."
"All right-I'll do my best," murmured Bartlett. And then a servant came
up to summon him to the telephone.
Viola was not left long alone, for Captain Poland was watching her from
the tail of his eye, and he was at her side before Harry Bartlett was
out of sight.
"Perhaps you'd like to come for a little spin with me, Miss Carwell,"
said the captain. "I just heard that they've postponed the cup-winners'
match an hour; and unless you want to sit around here - "
"Come on !" cried Viola, impulsively. "It's too perfect a day to sit
around, and I'm only interested in my father's match."
There was another reason why Viola Carwell was glad of the chance to go
riding with Captain Poland just then. She really was a little provoked
with Bartlett's stubbornness, or what she called that, and she thought
it might "wake him up," as she termed it, to see her with the only man
who might be classed as his rival.
As for herself, Viola was not sure whether or not she would admit
Captain Poland to that class. There was time enough yet.
And so, as Bartlett went in to the telephone, to answer a call that had
come most inopportunely for him, Viola Carwell and Captain Poland swept
off along the pleasantly shaded country road.
Left to herself, for which just then she was thankful, Minnie Webb
drifted around until she met LeGrand Blossom.
"What's the matter, Lee?" she asked him in a low voice, and he smiled
with his eyes at her, though his face showed no great amount of jollity.
"You're as solemn as though every railroad stock listed had dropped ten
points just after you bought it."
"No,it isn't quite as bad as that," he said, as he fell into step beside
her, and they strolled off onone of the less-frequented walks.
"I thought everything was going so well with you. Has there been any
hitch in the partnership arrangement?" asked Minnie.
"No, not exactly."
"Have you lost money?"
"No, I can't say that I have."
"Then for goodness' sake what is it? Do I have to pump you like a
newspaper reporter?" and Minnie Webb laughed, showing a perfect set of
teeth that contrasted well against the dark red and tan of her cheeks.
"Oh, I don't know that it's anything much," replied LeGrand Blossom.
"It's something!" insisted Minnie.
"Well, yes, it is. And as it'll come out, sooner or later, I might as
well tell you now," he said, with rather an air of desperation, and as
though driven to it. "Have you heard any rumors that Mr. Carwell is in
financial difficulties?"
"Why, no! The idea! I always thought he had plenty of money. Not a
multi-millionaire, of course, but better off financially than any one
else in Lakeside."
"He was once; but he won't be soon, if he keeps up the pace he's set of
late," went on LeGrand Blossom, and his voice was gloomy.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, things don't look so well as they did. He was very foolish to
buy that ten-thousand-dollar yacht so soon after spending even more than
that on this red, white and blue monstrosity of his !"
"You don't mean to tell me he's bought a yacht, too?"
"Yes, the Osprey that Colonel Blakeson used to sport up and down the
coast in. Paid a cool ten thousand for it, though if he had left it
to me I could have got it for eight, I'm sure."
"Well, twenty thousand dollars oughtn't to worry Mr. Carwell, I should
think," returned Minnie.
"It wouldn't have, a year ago," answered LeGrand. "But he's been on the
wrong side of the market for some time. Then, too, something new has
cropped up about that old Bartlett deal."
"You mean the one over which Harry's uncle and Mr. Carwell had such
a fuss?"
"Yes. Mr. Carwell's never got over that. And there are rumors that he
lost quite a sum in a business transaction with Captain Poland."
"Oh, dear !" sighed the girl. "Isn't business horrid! I'm glad I'm not
a man. But what is this about Captain Poland?"
"I don't know?haven't heard it all yet, as Mr. Carwell doesn't tell me
everything, even if he has planned to take me into partnership with him.
But now I'm not so keen on it."
"Keen on what, Lee ?" and Minnie Webb leaned just the least bit nearer
to his side.
"On going into partnership with a man who spends money so lavishly when
he needs all the ready cash he can lay his hands on. But don't mention
this to any one, Minnie. If it got out it might precipitate matters,
and then the whole business would tumble down like a house of cards. As
it is, I may be able to pull him out. But I've put the soft pedal on
the partnership talk."
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