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Most of this little army were mounted men, and of this number was Mrs. Coolidge, who was an admirable horsewoman. Their course lay over the almost boundless plains that stretch westward to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, a distance of nearly one thousand miles. In fifty days they reached Santa Fe, of which they took possession without opposition.
"That is ridiculous enough surely. I have a perfectly good reason for being here, but I am not accountable to you in any way for my movements. A duty you say a duty to locate this man? A duty to whom?" "To the State, if no one else," he answered gravely. "Percival Coolidge did not commit suicide; he was murdered." "Murdered!" she came to her feet with utterance of the word.
The two men walked slowly up the gravelled path, leading to the side door. West's thoughts were busy with this new discovery. Had he inadvertently stumbled upon a clue? So he had occupied the room usually reserved for Percival Coolidge. Perhaps here was the explanation of the coming of his strange visitor.
If West had not known the young woman under different conditions, he might have accepted this theory, and dismissed the whole matter from mind. But it was the haunting memory of that earlier Natalie Coolidge, the mistress of Fairlawn, which would not permit his complete surrender. She had seemed all that his dream of womanhood called for.
Within five years the department had grown to such proportions that Doctor Coolidge proposed a plan whereby mothers might be instructed, by mail, in the rearing of babies in their general care, their feeding, and the complete hygiene of the nursery.
She stood leaning back against the closed door as though on guard, her uncovered hair ruffled, a scornful, defiant look in her eyes, the smile on her lips revealing the gleam of white teeth. In spite of a wonderful resemblance, a mysterious counterfeit in both features and expression, West knew now this was not Natalie Coolidge.
I am a graduate of the University of Virginia, and also of the Massachusetts Polytechnic. Before the war I was connected for a short time, with a well-known firm of Engineers in this city, but, since my return, I have not resumed professional work. Having been wounded in France, I have felt entitled to a little rest after my return." "Quite interesting, I am sure," Coolidge turned to the Colonel.
"In the presence of Percival Coolidge?" "Yes; he was given a week in which to straighten matters. That was why he killed himself." "But why is it necessary for you to meet Hobart in a place like this a veritable thieves' den?" She shrugged her shoulders, releasing his hand. "He has not completed his work, and does not think it best for us to be seen together.
She had done so many startling things, and always with such dashing success, since Governor Coolidge had brought her, a bride, to the old town, that people had become accustomed to her, just as they had grown used to the climate, and expected her deeds of daring as unthinkingly as they did cool breezes in summer, or sunshine in winter.
In addition to this, those few hours I passed at 'Fairlawn' served to confirm my faith. I got hold of various odds and ends of evidence which convinced me that something was wrong that you were actually being conspired against. I even gained a suspicion that Percival Coolidge was the actual leader of the conspiracy." "Percival Coolidge! but why? What could he gain by such a crime?"
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