American fiction -- 20th century; Detective and mystery stories
On the morning of January the eighteenth, Heney, the chauffeur, turned
up in the Newark court, telling a story that bore the stamp of truth. At
five o’clock on the day of the suicide he had received a phone message
in the garage from Barker. This message instructed him to take the
limousine that evening at 8.15 to the corner of Twenty-second Street and
Ninth Avenue. There he was to wait for his employer, but not in any
ordinary way. The directions were explicit and, in the light of
subsequent events, illuminating. He was not to stop but to move about
the locality, watching for Barker. When he saw him he was to run along
the curb, slowing down sufficiently for the older man to enter the car.
From there he was to proceed to the Jersey Ferry, cross and continue on
to Elizabeth. The objective point in Elizabeth was the railway depot,
but instead of going straight to it, the car was to stop at the foot of
the embankment on the Pennsylvania side, where Barker would alight.
Further instructions were that Heney was to mention the matter to no
one, and if asked on the following day of Barker’s whereabouts, deny all
knowledge of it. Pay for his discretion was promised.
Heney said he was astonished, as he had been in Barker’s employment two
years and never piloted the magnate on any such mysterious enterprise.
But he did what he was told, sure of his money and trusting in his boss.
At the corner of the two streets he saw no one, looped the block, and on
his return made out a figure moving toward him that slowed up as he came
in sight. He ran closer and by the light of a lamp recognized Barker;
and skirted the curb as he’d been ordered. With a nod and glance at him,
Barker opened the car door and entered.
The run to Elizabeth was made without incident. Heney stopped the car at
the Pennsylvania side of the culvert, above which the station lights
shone. Barker alighted and with a short "Good night" mounted the steps
to the depot.
On the way home, going at high speed, Heney, rounding a corner, ran into
a wagon and found himself face to face with a pair of angry farmers.
They haled him before a magistrate to whom he gave a false name,
representing himself as a chauffeur joy-riding in a borrowed car. He
told this lie hoping to be able to hush the matter up the next day.
When he read of his boss’ disappearance in the papers he was uneasy,
knowing discovery could not be long postponed. The number of the
car—overlooked in the rush of bigger matters—was made public in the
evening papers of the seventeenth. Then he knew the game was up,
admitted his deception and the identity of his employer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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