“I see. And how is it that you know where he is?”
“I overheard him talking to his cousins. They discussed where he should go. Would that information be worth anything to you?”
“Would you not be willing to share it for the satisfaction of knowing it is the right thing to do?” Malcolm asked.
“Yes, I will have the satisfaction of knowing that it is the right thing to do. But I would also appreciate the reward. There is a reward, is there not?”
“Have you not been rewarded enough by being promoted? ’Tis true, is it not, that you would nae have the job of stage manager if MacCallister had not run off?”
“That is true,” Fowler said. “But with my new position comes new obligations. Financial obligations. You are in need of information, I am in need of some money. Perhaps we can work something out between us.”
“You want money.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.
“Yes.”
“I could see my way to giving you five pounds,” Malcolm suggested.
“Five dollars? Do you mean to tell me that all the sheriff is willing to give to find the killer of his three sons and two deputies is five dollars?”
“I said five pounds, not five dollars. If you took the five pounds to the bank and made a currency exchange you would get twenty-five dollars.”
“I’ll be needin’ more than twenty-five dollars,” Fowler said.
“Ten pounds. That would be fifty dollars.”
“I want a hundred dollars,” Fowler demanded.
“I’ll not give you a hundred dollars. The offer is fifty. Take it or leave it.”
“You’ll not find MacCallister without my help,” Fowler insisted.
“If you know where he has gone, there will be others who know as well. Perhaps someone who knows the value of money and will give me the information for five pounds.”
“All right, all right,” Fowler said. “You go to the bank, convert your money into dollars, then come back and see me,” Fowler said. “When you do, I’ll tell you where Duff MacCallister has gone.”
“Wait here, I will be back shortly,” Malcolm said. He turned to leave, with the box of doughnuts still in his hands.
“Leave the doughnuts,” Fowler said.
“Beg your pardon?”
“The doughnuts,” Fowler repeated, pointing to the box.
“Ah, yes, the pastries. Of course.” Malcolm put the box on the green room table, then left.
As luck would have it, the Commercial National Bank was but a very short distance from the theater. There, Malcolm changed all his British currency to American. He also opened an account there.
Returning to the theater, he found Percy Fowler waiting for him outside.
“Do you have the money?” Fowler asked.
“I do. Shall we go inside?”
Fowler looked around furtively. “No,” he said. “I think it is best we do our business out here. I don’t want anyone to see me talking to you. Give me the money.”
Malcolm counted out fifty dollars in five-dollar bills. Fowler took the bills, folded them over, then stuck them in his pocket.
“He went to Colorado,” Fowler said.
“Colorado? Isn’t that a state? Can’t you be more specific than that?”
“He has a cousin there, named Falcon MacCallister. I am given to understand that Falcon MacCallister is a name that nearly all in Colorado will recognize. I think if you go to Colorado, then start inquiring about Falcon MacCallister, you will find your man soon enough.”
“All right,” Malcolm said. “I will do that. But if I go to Colorado and find that I am on a wild duck chase, I’ll be coming back to settle with you. And you, I know where to find.”
Fowler chuckled. “Goose,” he said.
“What?”
“It is a wild-goose chase. But I’m not sending you on one. MacCallister did go to Colorado, and if you can find Falcon MacCallister, you will be able to find Duff MacCallister.”
After leaving the theater, Malcolm went to the transatlantic cable company, where he paid fifty cents a word to send a message back to Sheriff Somerled. He wrote it several times, but tore up the message each time until he had it worded exactly as he wanted, giving the maximum information with the least possible words. Then, once he was satisfied with it, he gave it to the clerk.
The clerk counted the words.
“Nineteen dollars,” the clerk said.
Malcolm counted the words.
Alexander and Roderick have both been killed. MacCallister has escaped to Colorado. I anticipate no trouble in finding him, but I will require two hundred pounds to be sent by return cable so that I may pursue.
Malcolm
“I thought my name was free.”
“No, sir. We charge for every word we dispatch,” the clerk replied.
“Give it back to me. I am going to rewrite it.
Alexander and Roderick dead. MacCallister escaped. I know where he has gone. Require two hundred pounds by return cable so that I may pursue.
“Are you going to attach your name to the message?” the clerk asked.
“There is no need. He will know who it came from.”
“Very well, sir. Your total is twelve dollars.”
Scotland—Donuun in Argyllshire
Sheriff Angus Somerled gasped as he read the words in the telegram that was given him by the young messenger.
“Dead? Both of them? But what happened to them? He dinnae say.”
“Beg pardon, sir?” the messenger, who was scarcely over fourteen years old, said.
“When did this message arrive?”
“I dinnae know, sir. Mr. McGinnis, he just gave it to me a few minutes ago. Is it bad news?”
“You mean you dinnae read it?”
“I dinnae read it, sir, for ’tis nae my job to read the messages what come in.”
Somerled returned to town with the young messenger, then went into the telegraph office.
“’Tis sorry I am for your loss, Sheriff,” McGinnis said. “Will ye be wantin’ to send a response?”
“Aye,” Somerled said and he quickly scrawled out a note.
How did boys die
It was the next day before Somerled got a reply.
KILLED BY MACCALLISTER STOP SEND MONEY STOP
New York
Malcolm had been using the Commercial National Bank of New York as his address, and when he called a day later to inquire as to whether or not he had received a cablegram, a smiling teller presented him with it.
TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS IS NOW ON DEPOSIT AT COMMERCIAL NATIONAL BANK OF NEW YORK STOP YOUR TASK REMAINS THE SAME STOP INFORM ME SOONEST UPON CONCLUSION STOP SHERIFF ANGUS SOMERLED
Malcolm read the cablegram, then looked up at the teller. “Is this right? Has the money been put in my account?”
“Indeed, it has, sir. You now have quite a tidy sum of money.” The teller looked at a book and ran his fingers down the figures. “Yes, sir, you have one thousand two hundred and seventeen dollars and fifty-one cents.”
“Good. I want to withdraw.”
“Yes, sir,” the eager teller said. “How much money do you want to withdraw?”
“I want all of it,” Malcolm said.
The smile on the teller’s face was replaced by a look of confusion. “All of it, sir?”
“Aye, all of it.”
“But, sir, if you take all the money, it will close your account.”
“Aye, that’s what I want, a closed account.”
“Very good, sir,” the teller said. He filled out a form, then slid it across the counter to Malcolm.
“If you would sign this, sir?”
Malcolm signed the form, gave it back to the teller, and the teller counted out all the money as he passed it across to Malcolm.
“That is a great deal of money to be carrying on your person, sir,” the teller said. “Do be careful with it.”