THE FALCONS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2455, 20 March 1909, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE FALCONS

■ I v — — ■ Pf ' (By 'L. A. New-come.)

Awqricau and a Frenchman were !' “jfecrarettes at a little round in the Cafe do la Falx, on leasant afternoon in* May. They a 0,1 idly at the passing people. The American was Henry Allen Smith, a de, ; ' tivo from New York, the Frenchman ? ilo Henriqnes, of the Fans eeoret l ice As thoy lounged at oaso they P ° 1- little sips of coffee from steaming digcussed tho faj’s.devomoments in a rather interesting embez- ‘ r dement oYsh, thoy had boon following toL * thcr< Smith was stumbling along - nLmdi the mazes of the French lan- ' £ as ho understood it, and M. Hen- : '$ Les was politely, though not. without •> ain humoring the foreigner’s ambi4. J Oll and making his own responses very . sloA' r and c.cai. || uj e coinprong ma’nt’uaw,” Smith was saying- “Nous sorames tout au :• || a faint,, but unmistakable p jJcssure on his foot arrested his atten- . f| cpipe!” interrupted the Frenchman, 0 who spoke English not only fluently, hut J| jjj t he best Broadway idiom. “Pipe 1” ' Whereupon Henry Allen Smith began to give attention to. the only other §;• p ers ousln the outdoor enclosure, a man H an j woman at a near-by table back of I him, who were speaking English eviI they thought no one else $ wou/cTunderstand it. Both detectives appeared to bo studying casually the upl-| per windows of a house across the way, [i lollg h really they were listening in-. @ tently|j'i Smith became aware of a. dignified , v American voice, a voice round and rich, jj imposing, rather pompous, perhaps. “Hare no fear, my dear,” the voice i ffas saying. “I >avo drawn the con'l tract to protect us in just this Jr emergency.” i . “But, father,” came tho reply, “if we.lose this we must return to London I j'-London in August 1 How I dread it!” :i Smith was charmed. There is sorao--1 thing enchanting in a voice low, sweet, clear, whose melodious tones fascinate every hearer. The American turned toil 1] ward the exquisite music, and received at the -first glanoo a wound in the heart ;i from which he has never recovered; for I tb&Jpl was as beautiful as her voice, ij As two strangers arose-and walked | past their table Smith saw that the girl. P was tall, elegant, delicately -blond in. @ coloring, with hair whose pale golden jf sheen gleamed in strange contrast with | the great, dark eyes which for one fleet 7 Sing instant met his. She had the aspect of one born to command; every gracer II ful movement was eloquent of power; • firmness of purpose was written in the aquiline nose, and clear-cut chin ; yet the conscious above all else of the thrill of her dulcet voice and haunting eyes, of tho charm of her wonderful; beauty. Smith J-vas called hack to earth by another tap on his foot. “Oh, pardon mo,” ho said, hastily. “But those Americans—er—interested I “Interested, mv dear colleague? i laughed Henriques. “I should say they ! -no, let us be frank—she hypnotized j/ you. You appear to be in a . trance. j. Come dftt of it.” “She f is a princess,” Smith began, as the pair disappeared in the Boulevard ties Capucines. “She must be “Pardon,” Henriques interrupted. “There is some obscure hint of royalty in her ancestry, I believe, but she is a thorough American, nevertheless. 1 congratulate your country, my friend. It possesses in these two'the most daring, the most aristocratic, criminals in the world. When they defraud an undistfa&mshed person it is only under the s compulsion of great need, and the act is an act of condescension on their part. You will recall Lombroso’s doctrine that confidence*' men owe their success not only to adroit boldness, but to their ability to simulate' honesty, frankness, the extreme of trustful candor. They meet the victim’s scrutiny with an ingenuous gaze. So- wonderfully does naher creatures to their environment and their pursuits. “But these two are still better equipped. They possess distinction. They dominate. By subtle yet irresistible suggestion they compel their victims to offer voluntarily the spoils which they consent to -receive. If you wl promise not to let your admiration run away with your good sense, I a^so V 1 promise that you shall meet them. They have swindled a French family. And, belief me, if we capture them wc shall have’ achieved something which the a e police of Scotland Yard and St. Peters burg and Berlin and even of your own beloved Mulberry Street have never been able to do.” - Smith promised. A busy week passed, during which he forgot a a u the distinguished strangers.. Then he received one day a note asking him call at the office of tho prefect of police. M. Henriques met him, asked a ytow questions, and left the room, fcmit m a cigarette, finished it, and dozed awhile. Suddenly a door was opened and closed by an invisiblo hanjl upon two persons who had been shown into the room. They were the two Amei icans„ but they were talking Italian now, and the girl’s eyes and cheeks i?ere flaming v T ith anger. The father .-addressed Smith in French, but he, instantly very wide awake, smiled and 3ad ho poqld speak nothing hut English. Jvs.v- . ; “Are you an officer?” asked .'the girl, ; ; Abruptly. >.-“No,” replied honest Smith. “I am waiting here icf a firießA,”.

H ml • So are we,’\said th©.father, dryly, and both tho strangers smiled. “Don’t yoii ’know you : are here under detention ?” the man presently asked. ‘‘Look about you. There is no door in sight.. Thor© i 6 a . swinging , panel in tlie. wall,, hut it can bo unlocked, only from tlio outside.”

“But I haven’t done: a thing or touched a card since I came to Paris a month ago,” said Smith. “I don’t understandnvhy they’ve brought me hero.” “They do whatever they liko with all of us,” the girl cried'. “It is outrageous. The rery idea of forcing us into such a position I What would our friends sayP” At that moment a man in uniform .opened the door, and led the girl away. The fathor explained to Smith, whom lie readily believed to he ah American sharper, that ho was Rupert Solingsby, a retired banker. His eyos glistened as he described the plight of his daughter Ethel, “as good as she is beautiful, sir,” who was now* called upon by the unscrupulous police to explain her acquaintance with a French family who for some foolish reason had complained- of both the Solingsbys. . “And what is your name?” the elderly man asked., f i.. “Henry Allen,” replied Smith, compromising with his conscience by telling two-thirds of the truth. He smypathised with Solingsby and denounced the Frenoh police. He was called away presently by an attendant who led him to Henriques. “All goes well,” said the Frenchman, smiling. “This precious pair have taken a liking to* you,-as I happen,to know by. observing your conversation. The walls of our detention-room have ears, you know; yes, and eyes, too. These Solingsbys have been in France only three weeks, yet that girl has so bewitched the son of a merchant that the young man proposed marriage and was accepted. When he asked the consent of papa Solingsby the old fraud flew into a rage, denounced international marriages, swore he wouldn’t let his Ethel be the prey of an unscrupulous Frenoh fortune-hunter. He had determined that his only child should marry a free-hearted, noble American. He actually managed to' make young Grandin offer him one hundred thousand francs cash as security for liis disinterested and altruistic intentions. At first Solingsby refused, but finally with much reluctance accepted the money, insisting,upon a contract that if for any reason the engagement were broken, the money should he forfeited. “I believe it must have been Solingsby himself who wrote an anonymous lotter warning the Grandin family that, the Solingsbys are swindlers. The Grandins earned to us. What could we do ? Ah, my friend, you should have seen that young tigress in office of the prefect just now! She raged, she vowed that her distinguished father would call out poor old fat papa Grandin in a duel to the death; that the. American ambassador would demand reparation from our government for this dire insult.- Suddenly she picked up. the contract from the prefect’s desk and laughed. “‘Here, goose!’ she exclaimed, as she shook the contract in the face of poor Anatole Grandin. ‘Your own signature witnesses that you have given me this money absolutely in case the engagement is.broken. It is you who have broken it, not I. Come I I will marry you at this moment. “What could we do? Is there any taw in France, or even in America, that could break that contract? Certainly not. "Those Solingsbys have walked off with the money in their pockets and snapping their insolent fingers -at us. But we shall see. You, my dear colleague, will help- me. As your American proverb has it: ‘He laughs best who laughs last!’ . I ask you to join me in obtaining that ultimate laugh. Detective Smith had barely entered the Cafe Richepin on the following evening when a waiter brought him Rupert Solingsby’s card with a line of invitation scribbled on it. He found both the Solingsbys. at a remote table, smiling and triumphant, quite in contrast with their appearance when he last saw them. The girl, more beautiful than ever, in evening costume, was radiank as she ioined her father in welcoming their new friend to dinner. By the time tW arrived at the salad and the enu of the second magnum, the dignified Solings•by was genially loquacious. “Mere bagatelle, that matter,w.th the police yesterday,” he. volunteered. “Awful bore to have to waste an afternoon on them, and I hate to see Ethel annoyed. But they couldn’t touch us. They never can. They’ve invited us to leave France, however, and were going back to America. We can work the same game over there if we can only find —” “Mr Allen if* the very man, Mss Solingsby interrupted. “He’s so clever. “Henriques isn’t a bad sort for a man in his position,” said the old man. “He told me all about several of the neatest tricks you turned at - home, I think you’ll do. Just to show yon, now. In St. Petersburg, two months ago, my daughter was engaged to a Count Karavinzowski. When she happened to remark that she was about to, valuable estate, in England because she could not pay off a wretched little rno tgage of four thousand pounds, the infatuated Karavinzowski insisted upon lending her that amount. I don t need to tell you that that loan was our signal to depart. The count was coming with us, of course, and he had gathered all his ready monby an’d jewels when a. friend told - him That -we 'were, adventurer*. Re didn't, go to the police.. Mo

came .straight, to us.. Allen, 'it was good ,a<3 a play. Ethel told him —” : “Oh; father,, you forgot,”; tlio girl interrupted. “I- wept. In.a shower of tears I told him his friend hated me because I had refused him. I don’t think .1 was ever more effective. Karavinzqwski hurried off, raging, and challenged his kind friend to a duel.”

“And we,” Solingsby continued, “were so afraid of further exciting tho good count that we very unostentatiously skipped.”,. “Tho funny thing was,” said Ethel, Sayly, “that before lie could" follow us, his relatives had him arrested for taking some of. his mother’s jewels with Ins own. So they sent him to* prison for fifteen-years. Rather different from a romantic elopement, wasn’t it?”

Ethel’s low, exultant laugh, though it vibrated like a- chimo of litblc golden bells, chilled tho heart of Detective Smith. Ho could hardly respond to the ardent glances she forthwith bestowed ui<on him.

when I’ve played my part in your next scheme I supposo I’ll go away for fifteen years?” lie stammered. “No, no, Mr Allen; you’re far too clever,”- the. beauty answered. “Americans are not so easily fooled. You’ll be my brother in tho next game, and I’ll he a lovely sister to you. Besides, you’re in for one-third of the graftwhat ? Father, 'do tell Mr Allen about that funny big Spaniard who committed suicide when he found that his darling Ethel wouldn’t give back either his heart or liis pesetas. Do you know, Mr Allen, 1 think the fun of the game is quite as interesting as the mere money. If you could only have heard Don Tomas say, ‘I loave you’ 1”

The..Solingsbys. spent the following summer at the Haddington House in the White Mountains. There they made few acquaintances, for promiscuous society bored them, even though the hotel contained many very pleasant people. The Fairholds of Baltimore were different. The Fairhold wealth, no less than the Fairhold social status, was well known throughout the land, and it was by the merest chance that and Mrs Fairhold, resting at the hotel a few days on a motoring trip, met the. Solingsbys and found them delightful. When the Fairholds. went on to their Newport place the charming Solingsbys accompanied them on a visit of indefinite length. Ted Fairhold met the heavenly Ethel, and was entranced. With the wisdom born of great experience she managed affairs so that in a few weeks they were engaged. I know that all this sounds extravagant and difficult of belief; and the. only extenuation I can offer is that this is not fiction I write here, with all its cold and obstructive- conventions, hut the real and extraordinary truth, with nothing changed but the names. When the family returned to Baltimore in October the delightful Solingsbys went with them. The father had a bulky package of bonds and other securities which he begged Air Fairhold to keep in his safe, inasmuch as he had no hanker in Baltimore.

Ethel and Ted were very busy with their air-castles in the library one afternoon when Rupert Solingsby dashed in, gasping. “My bonds!” lie panted. I have only three thousand in cash by me, and I must put up. twenty thousand more margin before three o’clock or he wiped out of a deal that will clear at least fifty for me. Can you by any chance Open your father’s safe?” Instantly Ted Fairhold busied himself with the combination, and as the door swung back Air Solingsby reaching with trembling hands for his securities. Young Fail-hold’s siftilo of congratulation was cut short by a sudden crash from the other end of the library, followed by a muffled scream. He ran to the spot and found that Ethel, in reaching for a book on a high shelf, had accidentally displaced five or six heavy volumes that knocked her to the floor. Tho voung man raised his fiancee in his arms, and she, still panic-stricken, clung to him with a hysterical grasp, moaning and shuddering. His hack )vas to the safe. Air Solingsby stopped only to make sure that liis daughter was uninjured, then hurried off to his hankers. A wise and aged sceptic perhaps I should 'say cynic—might have found cause for unrest in this incident, but Ted Fairhold, young, fond, and loveblind, felt no other emotion than grief when Ethel, half an hour later, turned to him from the telephone and cried: “Poor father. He was too late. Now he must go to New-York, and lie says I must go with him.’.’ Disconsolate Ted took Ethel to the station and said good-hy to her and her father. Old Solingsby tried- to cheer up the young people. -“Dry yoiir tears, children,’ ho said, gayly. “My business will not take many days; and then you shall see each;other, I promise.’’ _

When pompous, old Solingsby spoke nothing was farther from his intent than to permit these two ever to meet again. For I hardly need to tell the reader who has followed him thus far that while young Fairhold was soothing the hysterical Ethel in the library, that, wicked old man not only took out of the safe his packet of imitation securities, but also helped himself to all the money in sight, some ten thousand dollars, and all of Airs. Fairhold’s . jewels as well. The loss was not discovered until the following .week, and then the Fairholds, father and son, flew post-haste to New York and called on their lawyer, at the time ipeople always call -on la.wyers—when it is too late to <lo any*

twmkled when he heard the .stale tale. Then he turned to the telephone, called a number, and asked some one to comic, to his office. Presently Henry Allen Smith was announced, and the lawyer introduced him to the Fairholds. “And I think,” he added, “that if you will tell them, Smith, "'about the charming Solingsby family you met in Paris the subject will be of interest to us all.”

" Smith related tho history accurately, not omitting a detailed description of the precious pair.

“I'would give half of what I possess to see them properly punished I” cried the elder Fairhold. “If we can only find ”

“Oli, I guess it won’t he hard as all that,”' Smith interrupted. “I met them at Hector’s the other evening after the theatre, and they asked me to call on them in their apartment in the Ravenholmo. Suppose wo all drop in there this evening?”

Tho Solingsbys gave their friend Henry Allen a cordial welcome when lie was shown into their drawing-room, but when the father saw the Fairholds at his heels he made a sudden movement of the right hand towards his hip pocket. The detective ..whipped a stubby derringer out of the lower pocket of his dinner coat and grinned as lie. held it close- to the old man’s imposing front. “Be nice, won’t you?” lie chuckled. “Just keep your hands open and hanging down. Mr. Fairhold, will you be good enough to step around my large and elderly friend and take away that revolver. That’s good.”

Solingsby collapsed upon rather than sat in a big chair. Ethel did not for a moment lose her self-control. Her .patrician head was poised more haughtily than ever as she exclaimed: “Father, will you ring for the porter and have the#e persous arrested?” “I shall certainly call the police 1” Solingsby blustered, his courage loturning under the influence of the. girl’s superb effrontery. The Fairholds looked dazed. “ ’Sli-h-h-h!” warned the detective. “Wc don’t need the police. You’ll begood.” o-i'" “By what warrant, sir,” rumbled Solingsby, arising and stalking about tho room as he regained his pompous manner —“by what warrant do you dare invade ” I am sorry not to be able to record the rest of the tirade, for at the word “invade” Air. Fairhold leaped forward, struck the big man on tlio chin, and knocked him to the floor, where he sprawled, half conscious. “Lie there, you bounder!” the Baltimorean panted, quite beside himself. “That is for thrusting yourself into my home.” . . .. Not a word was uttered until Solmgsby, still dazed ail'd altogether crestfallen, arose and stumbled into a chair. Ethel, who had sprung to her feet at the sight of violence, now rested upon the eud of a little leather trunk in the farthest corner.

“Of course,” Detective Smith resumed, pleasantly, “you understand, Solmgsby —alias Vincent, alias iSt. John, alias Heatlierington—that you and your daughter are good for ten years each in Alaryland State’s prison. ? If you’ll be nice and restore all you’ve stolen from the Fairholds it is possible that they won’t prosecute you.” “But I’ve sent it abroad,” muttered Solingsby, conquered hut still crafty. “No, no,” Smith replied. “Just see how neatly your innocent child is concealing that trunk with her skirts. I’ll bet a penny the stuff is all in there. Open up.” There was no response, and bmitn, advancing upon the trunk, was about to slash it open with his knife when Ethel dashed a bunch of keys upon the floor. . “There, Alister Detective, do your wretched, prying work!” she cried with fine scorn. “00-h-h-h, you miserable weasel! How dared you to pretend to be a decent soldier of fortune? Rupert, we may as well let these, these men take away what they claim. As for you, my darling little Theodore, you’d better run home to your mamma before someone steals you. My fiancee! Why, you little pink-cheeked mamma’s boy, l nearly choked • with' laughter in your library! I pulled those books down on purpose to call you away from the safe. And when you picked me up ! —I was laughing over your shoulder to see my band take your money and jewel—’’ “Your wha-a-at?” cried young-ban hold, startled out of his shamefaced silence. ‘ ‘My husband, you booby! the ragmg beautv retorted. “Aly husband, do you hear?” Alore of a man than- you and your puffy father and your sneaking detective a hundred times over.” Smith meanwhile unlocked the trunk, then unlocked a despatch box inside, of it and took out the Fairhold -family jewels, bonds, and cash, all intact. There was no arrest, of course. Very few citizens would care, under the circumstances, to go on tho witness-stand and tell all mankind how easily they had been duped-especially citizens as prominent in society as the - Fairholds. As for the Solingsbys, they sailed next day for Europe, where they are still at large. Mr Henriques was quite right about them. They not only pluck tlieir victims with ease, , but they never fail "to shield themselves from all risk of proseoution,.