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Chapter XXXVI
The very next day there called at Butler's office a long, preternaturally solemn man of noticeable
height and angularity, dark-haired, dark-eyed, sallow, with a face that was long and leathery,
and particularly hawk-like, who talked with Butler for over an hour and then departed. That
evening he came to the Butler house around dinner-time, and, being shown into Butler's room,
was given a look at Aileen by a ruse. Butler sent for her, standing in the doorway just far enough
to one side to yield a good view of her. The detective stood behind one of the heavy curtains
which had already been put up for the winter, pretending to look out into the street.
"Did any one drive Sissy this mornin'?" asked Butler of Aileen, inquiring after a favorite family
horse. Butler's plan, in case the detective was seen, was to give the impression that he was a
horseman who had come either to buy or to sell. His name was Jonas Alderson, and be looked
sufficiently like a horsetrader to be one.
"I don't think so, father," replied Aileen. "I didn't. I'll find out."
"Never mind. What I want to know is did you intend using her to-morrow?"
"No, not if you want her. Jerry suits me just as well."
"Very well, then. Leave her in the stable." Butler quietly closed the door. Aileen concluded at
once that it was a horse conference. She knew he would not dispose of any horse in which she
was interested without first consulting her, and so she thought no more about it.
After she was gone Alderson stepped out and declared that he was satisfied. "That's all I need
to know," he said. "I'll let you know in a few days if I find out anything."
He departed, and within thirty-six hours the house and office of Cowperwood, the house of
Butler, the office of Harper Steger, Cowperwood's lawyer, and Cowperwood and Aileen
separately and personally were under complete surveillance. It took six men to do it at first, and
eventually a seventh, when the second meeting-place, which was located in South Sixth Street,
was discovered. All the detectives were from New York. In a week all was known to Alderson. It
bad been agreed between him and Butler that if Aileen and Cowperwood were discovered to
have any particular rendezvous Butler was to be notified some time when she was there, so that
he might go immediately and confront her in person, if he wished. He did not intend to kill
Cowperwood--and Alderson would have seen to it that he did not in his presence at least, but
he would give him a good tongue-lashing, fell him to the floor, in all likelihood, and march Aileen
away. There would be no more lying on her part as to whether she was or was not going with
Cowperwood. She would not be able to say after that what she would or would not do. Butler
would lay down the law to her. She would reform, or he would send her to a reformatory. Think
of her influence on her sister, or on any good girl--knowing what she knew, or doing what she
was doing! She would go to Europe after this, or any place he chose to send her.
In working out his plan of action it was necessary for Butler to take Alderson into his confidence
and the detective made plain his determination to safeguard Cowperwood's person.
"We couldn't allow you to strike any blows or do any violence," Alderson told Butler, when they
first talked about it. "It's against the rules. You can go in there on a search-warrant, if we have to
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