CHAPTER XVI

MAMMY A SHERLOCK HOLMES.

During the following week Independence Day was celebrated, and such had become the fame of both Mammy’s luncheons and Constance’s candies, that these two busy women found every moment filled more than full.

Each had reason to remember another July Fourth, and Mary Willing most reason of all. The Mary Willing of this year bore little resemblance to the Mary Willing of that one, and a happier girl it would have been hard to find. Fanny was now staying with Mary, sharing with her the pretty little room in Mrs. Carruth’s home, and had quite won her way into Mrs. Carruth’s heart by her sweet, gentle ways.

During the spring poor, shiftless Jim Willing had taken himself and his family out West, thanks to Hadyn’s influence in securing for him a position upon a large farm in Minnesota, where he was not only compelled to work, but where also, thanks to Hadyn, he could not loaf and drink, for the man whom he served was not to be trifled with. In May the family had emigrated, to the intense satisfaction of those most deeply interested in Mary and Fanny, and the boundless relief of their neighbors.

In the course of the week which followed her suspicions concerning Katherine Boggs, Mammy began to lay her plans, and, as usual, with her accustomed shrewdness. She did not wish Constance to suspect her interference, but she was fully resolved to get to the bottom of the matter. Mammy had already formed her opinion, and Mammy was not often wrong. Fate seemed to favor her, for one morning, when she happened to be at her counter, Elijah Sniffins entered the Arcade, and going to the cigar stand bought a cigar, which he lighted and began to smoke. He then strolled down toward the candy counter. It was a warm, sultry day, with scarcely a breath stirring. The window giving upon the street in the Arch was open, as was the door leading from Constance’s little office, to a short hall communicating with the side street. From her counter Mammy watched Sniffins until he entered the candy Arch, and then slipping out of the rear door of the Arcade made her way around the block and entered Constance’s office by the side door.

For greater protection Constance had hung China silk curtains across the grillwork, which divided her office from the counter, but these, while affording her perfect seclusion, did not cut off the sound of a customer’s footfalls.

Under ordinary circumstances, Mammy would have scorned to resort to such measures to obtain her end, but she felt pretty sure that her Miss Constance was being tricked for some purpose, and felt herself justified in fighting fire with fire.

With exceptional wisdom for her years Constance had arranged with Charles and Mammy a little code of signals on the electric buttons beside her desk and under the counter in her Arch. The signals had served to good purpose, as has already been shown, for old Charles had come most opportunely when needed one morning. The code was simple: One ring meant, “Are you there?”; two, “Come to my counter”; three, “Please ’phone up to Mr. Porter that Miss Carruth needs him at once.” This last call was clearly an emergency call and had never been put to the test; but both Mammy and Charles, as well as the young colored boy who served at Mammy’s counter, knew that it must not be disregarded for one instant if it did come. Constance never knew why she had added it to the simple little code, for she certainly never anticipated any special need for it. Still, it was a comfort to the young girl to feel that, should anything serious occur, she could instantly turn to Mr. Porter.

Mammy entered the office unheard by the two people in the Arch, the rumble of vehicles in the street drowning all sound of her footfalls. Sniffins was standing at the counter in earnest conversation with Miss Boggs. Presently Mammy overheard these words:

“Lige, I _can’t_! I just can’t any longer. She’s too lovely to me.”

“Ah, shut up that stuff. What does she do for you, anyway! Nothin’ mor’n anybody else would, an’ she gets enough out o’ you for seven dollars a week. Gosh, she’s makin’ seventy if she’s makin’ a cent. Here, lemme see that last memorandum of sales made.”

“I haven’t got it here,” was the low-spoken reply.

“Then where have you got it? I want it, do you understand.”

“I don’t see why you want it. I don’t see what good it does you, anyway, to know how much candy is sold here,” was the querulous answer.

“Ah, what do you know, anyway? You never did have enough sense to go in out of the rain. _I_ know what I want it for. When I’m sure this business is makin’ the right-sized pile, I’m goin’—well, never mind what I’m going to do. But what I want you to do right now is to strike for ten dollars a week—see? You’ve been here six months on seven dollars, an’ that’s long and plenty. Now we’re going to have more of the profits.”

Katherine merely shook her head stubbornly.

“Does that mean that you won’t?” asked Lige, in an ugly tone.

“Yes, it does.”

“All right, all right. Then you can dust your sweet self out of 620 mighty quick. No happy home for you of my puttin’ up unless you do as I say, Miss Prude. Now where’s that memorandum I want?”

As he spoke Lige made a move as though he intended to go behind the counter. Poor, simple little Katherine! She had never been intended to play a double game.

At that moment Mammy pressed the button four times. Here was a situation needing a firmer hand than hers. A moment later the boy at Mammy’s Arch was ’phoning up to Mr. Porter’s office.

“Please, sir, I just got four rings from Miss Carruth’s candy Arch, and Mrs. Blairsdale, she say if ever I git _that_, I must call you up right smart, and ask you please to go there, ’cause Miss Constance ain’t never goin’ to ring four rings unless she need you quick.”

“I’ll be there inside of two minutes, Fred,” and the receiver was snapped back.

“Get away, Lige; are you crazy?” cried Katherine, under her breath, at the same time foolishly making a dash for her pocketbook which lay upon a shelf behind her. As she clasped it Lige caught her wrist in a grip which made her cry aloud in pain. At that moment Mr. Porter entered the Arch. Lige dropped Katherine’s arm and made a dash for Constance’s sanctum, but Mammy had anticipated all this; she had shut and locked the door leading to the side street.

“Mebby yo’ t’ink mos’ eve’ybody as big a fool as yo’ is, Mr. Sniffins, but yo’ see dey’s _some_ wise an’ hones’ ones yit, don’ yo’? Now, sah, yo’ set yo’sef right spang down on dat ar’ cheer t’will I ax yo’ a few ques’ions, wha’ Massa Po’tah gwine hyar, an’ dat po’ li’l fool out yonder gwine ’splain ef we ses-so. Yas, Massa Po’tah, _I’se_ runnin’ t’ings just now, an’, please, sah, keep yo’ eye on dat skunk, fo’ I tells yo’ he ain’t nothin’ in de roun’ worl’ else. Now, _Miss Sniffins_, yo’ please, ma’am, come on hyar, too, fo’ yo’s needed p’intedly.”

In spite of the serious side of the question, Mr. Porter could not help smiling at Mammy’s generalship. Sniffins stood in the middle of the room, glowering like a trapped animal, and Katherine entered it trembling like a leaf. Notwithstanding her righteous wrath, Mammy could not help pitying the shrinking little figure, and, placing a chair for her, she said kindly:

“Dar, dar, chile, don’ yo’ git so pannicky. Nobody ain’ gwine kill yo’ whilst Massa Po’tah an’ me close by, dough, Gawd knows wha’ dat low-down sumpin’-nurrer lak ter do if he git a chance; _I_ ain’ speculatin’.”

“Mammy, what is the meaning of all this?” interrupted Mr. Porter at this juncture.

“Dat’s jist ’xactly what I don’ sent fo’ yo’ fer ter fin’ out, sah. Dere’s been some sort of debbilmint gwine on hyar fer a right smart while, an’ I’se made it ma b’isness fer ter git scent of it an’ trail it, I has. Dat ar’—dat ar’, my Gawd! I spec’s I _gotter_ call him a man kase dar don’ seem to be no yether name fo’ him, but _he’s_ at de bottom ob it, an’ wha’ fo’ he is, is jist what I means fer ter fin’ out befo’ I lets him outer dis hyar office. Now, sah, Massa Po’tah, yo’ kin hab de bench an’ question de prisoner.”

Porter had seen enough upon entering the Arch to make him realize that Mammy had pretty good grounds for her words and the rage which seemed to almost consume her. Ordinarily Mammy’s face was wonderfully serene, but Mammy was a pure-blooded African negro, born of an African slave captured and brought to the United States when the slave trade was a flourishing and disgraceful source of revenue, and Mammy was born not long after her mother’s capture. In moments of excitement all her racial characteristics dominated to a degree that transformed her. At the present moment there was a fierce conflict between heredity and tradition, and the environment and training of a lifetime.

“Mammy, tell me what took place before I came upon the scene,” said Mr. Porter. “I mean within the last half hour, not before.”

Mammy repeated all she had seen and heard. As she talked Mr. Porter rang the janitor’s bell. When the man appeared he said to him: “Get Terry and wait with him out in the main corridor. Do it quickly, and don’t make a fuss.” Terry was the house detective.

“Now, Sniffins, sit down and explain what I saw as I entered the Arch. There is something wrong here, and I’ve got to get to the bottom of it right off. It will be useless to beat about the bush now. Mammy has seen and heard enough to make things very disagreeable for you, I fancy, and certainly I’ve seen pleasanter spectacles than your conduct with Miss Boggs as I entered——”

“She ain’ Miss Boggs no mo’n I is,” broke in Mammy.

Sniffins would not answer. Mr. Porter turned to the trembling little figure at the opposite side of the room, real pity in his kind eyes. Sniffins glowered at her. Catching the look, Mr. Porter turned upon him like lightning.

“If you try to intimidate that child, by the great Jehosaphat I’ll either give myself the satisfaction of thrashing you, or turning you over to Terry on an accusation you’ll not like. Now quit it! You haven’t a thing in the world to fear, Miss Boggs; I guess it is all far less grave than it seems to you this minute. So tell me the whole truth.”

Mr. Porter’s voice had changed rapidly from the severe tones directed toward Sniffins, and now held only encouragement for the terrified girl. After a few spasmodic sobs she faced him and said:

“No, Mr. Porter, I shall not try to keep up this deceit any longer. I told Lige when I began it that it would be useless. I’m not the kind of girl who can do such things; I’m not smart enough.”

“Reckons yo’s too smart fer ter try ter be what he is,” broke in Mammy. Mr. Porter held up his hand to enjoin silence, but if Mammy consented to keep her tongue still, she could still wag her head and use her eyes, and to some purpose.

“My name isn’t Boggs, but Sniffins——”

“What I done tole yo’!” exploded Mammy.

“Lige is my brother. He wanted me to take the situation. At first I did not know why he was so anxious for me to. I thought it was just because he wanted me to have one which he believed might lead to something a good deal better later on, because Miss Carruth’s candy business was growing fast, and I might get to be a forewoman, or something like that. You see, I used to know Mary Willing at school, and she and Fanny are both doing so well, but——” and Katherine hesitated.

“Go on, Miss Sniffins,” said Mr. Porter, encouragingly; but the look Elijah Sniffins gave his sister was not pleasant.

“Well, he just made me take this place, and wouldn’t let me tell my real name; and I’ve been scared nearly to death every day of my life for fear Mary Willing would come down here, and that would be the end of it all. But that wasn’t the worst; pretty soon I guessed just why Lige wanted me here, and—and—oh, it seemed as though I just couldn’t stand it another minute; I was so ashamed. Miss Carruth is so kind to me, and has always been.”

“And the true reason?” interrogated Mr. Porter.

“Oh, I _can’t_ tell it,” cried the girl, turning scarlet and burying her face in her hands.

“It will be better to do so here than to do so elsewhere, will it not? I am determined to get to the bottom of all this, now that I have begun, and much prefer to keep it quiet for the sake of all concerned. I think I already guess more than you realize. I shall ask a few questions to make it easier for you?”

“She ain’t got to answer none if she don’t want ter,” was Elijah’s surly remark.

“Will you kindly keep quiet until your information is desired?” said Mr. Porter, quietly. “Your brother wished you to have this situation for two reasons, I take it: The first for the income and prospective advancement; the second because it brought you in close touch with Miss Carruth and might prove a wedge for his social aspirations, which I hear are ambitious.”

The girl nodded assent.

“You objected to the deceit practiced and rebelled. Was that the cause of his anger and gross rudeness as I entered?”

“Partly.”

“And the rest?”

“He made me keep strict account of the sales and profits and give him a memorandum each week,” whispered Katherine.

“Indeed. And to what end?”

“He said—he said, he’d make up his mind that he would get to know and would marry Miss Carruth if the business got to be—to be—a big one——”

“My Gawd a-mighty!” cried Mammy, flying out of the chair upon the edge of which she had been sitting, her old face the picture of consternation and amazement. It was not surprising that Sniffins sprung from his simultaneously and made toward the door, for Mammy certainly was wrath and retribution incarnate.

Mr. Porter barred the way of one and said sternly: “Mammy, sit down!”

“But—but—but—Massa Po’tah, is yo’ hyar wha’ dat man a-sayin’? _Is_ yo’? He—he marry ma Miss Jinny’s daughter? Why, he ain’, he ain’ fitten fer ter bresh her shoes! Lemme jes’ lay ma hans on him an’ frazzle him out.”

Mammy was nearly beside herself with indignation.

“Mammy, do you wish to remain here and hear the rest of this ridiculous story, or must I have Sniffins and his sister taken up to my office? It is too public here for loud talking, and if you wish to save your little girl deep mortification, and her mother the keenest distress, you will control yourself. This is the greatest folly I could have believed any sane being capable of, but if it gets noised abroad it will soon grow into a scandal, as you must realize. Remember this, every one present, Miss Carruth must never learn one word about it if we can keep it from her. Now, go on, Miss Sniffins, and tell all the rest of this wretched folly and, yes, downright rascality, for your brother has placed himself in a very unenviable position.”

“You can’t _prove_ nothin’,” protested Sniffins.

“Prove anything! Man, are you altogether a fool? Intimidating your sister into masquerading under an assumed name, to say nothing of handing over a private memoranda of another person’s business affairs, and, by the way, Miss Sniffins, I’ll take charge of that last memorandum, if you please,” said Mr. Porter, extending his hand toward Katherine.

“No, I’m hanged if you do,” blustered Sniffins, springing toward her.

With a grip like iron Mr. Porter forced him back upon his chair. Katherine handed him a slip of paper from her purse.

“Thank you. Now, Sniffins, I’ve just a few concluding words to say to you, but you will do well to heed them: In the first place, you have made an ass of yourself pure and simple. In the second, you are pretty close to being something far worse. You have done some queer things lately, and tried some very questionable tricks down there on State Street, as you know even better than I do, although, as I hinted to you some time ago, I know enough, and a heap more than you suspect. I don’t want to make trouble for you, or any other man just beginning his career, but I won’t stand for rascality. Now here is your chance and you have no choice but to take it: You gave your sister no choice, remember, and now it’s your turn to eat a little of your own loaf. Ask to be transferred to some other office—the further away the better.”

“Ah—what sort of a game are you puttin’ up?” snarled Sniffins.

“It is you, not I, who have put up the game, and since you’ve begun it you may as well make up your mind to play it out. You can easily get transferred, and that is just what you’ve got to do. This place has grown too warm for you in a good many ways. Your mother is fairly well-to-do, and your sister has this situation.”

“But I can’t keep it! I can’t!” lamented Katherine.

“You must. Once your brother is away you have nothing to apprehend.”

“But my name! What will Miss Carruth think?” deplored Katherine.

“Will you leave that to me?” asked Mr. Porter, real compassion in his voice and face for this unhappy little victim of an unscrupulous will.

“I want to stay, oh, I _do_ want to, for Miss Carruth is always so lovely to me.”

“You’s gwine fer ter stay, too,” announced Mammy, autocratically, hastily going to Katherine’s side to soothe and pat as she would have consoled a distressed child.

“Oh, Mammy, Mammy, she won’t let me stay,” sobbed the contrite little soul.

“How she gwine know anything ’bout dese hyer doin’s?” demanded Mammy.

“I don’t see how she can help it.”

“Well, den, I does.”

“Keep your situation, Miss Sniffins, and also keep quiet. I shall tell Miss Constance that you gave the assumed name because you feared she might feel some prejudice against engaging you if she learned you were Mr. Sniffins’ sister; I am sure that is a pretty valid reason, for she has every reason to wish to avoid him; he has never figured pleasantly in her affairs. And now I think we have had enough of all this. But remember this, Sniffins: I mean exactly what I have said, and South Riveredge is no place for your future business operations. You have come pretty near making a serious mess of things for yourself and everyone connected with you, and a halt has been called. Move on, and take a word of advice from a business man of double your years—_move straight hereafter_. Now go.”

Sniffins left the office by the side door, which Mammy unlocked and held open with this parting shot:

“Ain’ I done told yo’ long time ergo dat _some_ day niggers gwine fer ter hol’ open de do’ fo’ yo’ stid of yo’ fo’ _dem_?”

Mammy had never forgotten or forgiven the experience of her first visit to Elijah Sniffins’ office, and she was settling an old score. Then, turning to Katherine, she asked:

“Wha yo’ gwine spen’ de nex’ few days, honey? I would’n aim fer ter go home ef I was yo’.”

“I shall stay with a friend here in South Riveredge. I believe Lige would half kill me if I went home, he’s so awful mad.”

“Dat’s right, yo’ keep ’way f’om dat man.”

“Yes, it is wiser, Miss Sniffins. Don’t worry, all will come out right in the end; he has just lost his head—that’s all. Now mind what I say, both of you: Not one word of all this anywhere else. I wouldn’t have all this folly come to that little girl’s ears for all I’m worth. It’s almost incredible that anyone could act like such a fool. Paugh! it makes me ill. I feel as though some loathsome beast had drawn near that little girl of ours,” and with a quick “good-day” Mr. Porter turned and strode from the office, out through the Arch and into the main corridor, where the janitor and Terry stood quietly talking together. They glanced up as he drew near.

“Oh, Donnely,” he said to the janitor, “just take a look at that faucet in Arch Number One, will you? It’s leaking a little; and Terry, if you’ll come up to my office with me you can get those papers now as well as any time.” A word, a smile to those in the other Arches, and not a thought was given by anyone to what might have been a very unpleasant episode in Constance Carruth’s career.