The Breaking Point

His long training made him quick to scent a story. He was not sure, of

course, but the situation appeared to him at least suggestive. With the

end of the play he wandered out with the crowd, edging his way close to

the man and girl who had focused Gregory's attention, and following them

into the street. He saw only a tall man with a certain quiet distinction

of bearing, and a young and pretty girl, still flushed and excited, who

went up the street a short distance and got into a small and shabby car.

Bassett noted, carefully, the license number of the car.

Then, still curious and extremely interested, he walked briskly around

to the stage entrance, nodded to the doorkeeper, and went in.

Gregory was not in sight, but the stage manager was there, directing the

striking of the last set.

"I'm waiting for Gregory," Bassett said. "Hasn't fainted, has he?"

"What d'you mean, fainted?" inquired the stage manager, with a touch of

hostility.

"I was with him when he thought he recognized somebody. You know who.

You can tell him I got his automobile number."

The stage manager's hostility faded, and he fell into the trap. "You

know about it, then?"

"I was with him when he saw him. Unfortunately I couldn't help him out."

"It's just possible it's a chance resemblance. I'm darned if I know.

Look at the facts! He's supposed to be dead. Ten years dead. His money's

been split up a dozen ways from the ace. Then--I knew him, you know--I

don't think even he would have the courage to come here and sit through

a performance. Although," he added reflectively, "Jud Clark had the

nerve for anything."

Bassett gave him a cigar and went out into the alley way that led to the

street. Once there, he stood still and softly whistled. Jud Clark! If

that was Judson Clark, he had the story of a lifetime.

For some time he walked the deserted streets of the city, thinking and

puzzling over the possibility of Gregory's being right. Sometime after

midnight he went back to the office and to the filing room. There, for

two hours, he sat reading closely old files of the paper, going through

them methodically and making occasional brief notes in a memorandum.

Then, at two o'clock he put away the files, and sitting back, lighted a

cigar.

It was all there; the enormous Clark fortune inherited by a boy who had

gone mad about this same Beverly Carlysle; her marriage to her leading

man, Howard Lucas; the subsequent killing of Lucas by Clark at his

Wyoming ranch, and Clark's escape into the mountains. The sensational

details of Clark's infatuation, the drama of a crime and Clark's

subsequent escape, and the later certainty of his death in a mountain

storm had filled the newspapers of the time for weeks. Judson Clark had

been famous, notorious, infamous and dead, all in less than two years. A

shameful and somehow a pitiful story.