The Vanderhoff Affair
Summary
Lester, sun-scorched and still smelling of agave, crosses the Rio Grande only to collide with a ghost: Helen, the girl he once fished from drowning, now rumored to be mad. Her gaoler—Uncle Vanderhoff, silk-gloved predator—has declared her reason capsized so he can steer her inheritance into his own vault. Lester’s confidant, Dr. Luchow, parrots the diagnosis until whispers in milk-coded ink reveal the oppressive pharmacology: loco-weed cocktails masquerading as medicine, physicians duped, a fortune in peril. Across moon-lit clapboard cottages the lovers semaphore truth through panes; a blank page, when ironed by candle, confesses conspiracy. A dropped notebook sketches the crime in tremulous graphite: the uncle, the weed, the forged lunacy. Lester burgles the manse at dawn, is coshed by the mestizo henchman Jose, trussed above the dining room like game. Vanderhoff accelerates commitment papers; Luchow signs, oblivious. From a brass ventilator Lester saws rope with raw knuckles; blood drips, baptizes the documents, alerts the doctor. Rescue, struggle, flight—an automobile detonates, swallowing villains in a bloom of orange fire. Helen steps into the smoke, lucid at last, fortune restored, trauma unforgotten.
Synopsis
Lester, returning from Mexico, becomes interested in Helen, a girl whose life he had saved. Helen, according to her uncle, Vanderhoff, is insane. Dr. Luchow, Lester's friend, confirms Vanderhoff's statement. Upon returning home, the author finds that the Vanderhoffs have rented the adjoining cottage. The writer sees Helen drop a note. Picking it up, he finds the paper blank. Lester's window faces Helen's window. That night, the girl informs him in pantomime that the note contains a message written in milk. Scorching brings the message into view. As the result, Lester learns that Helen is the victim of a foul plot on the part of her uncle who desires to obtain her fortune. The girl drops a notebook which contains the details. The author is thus informed that Vanderhoff, by keeping his niece drugged with a loco weed preparation, succeeds in fooling the physicians who examine her. Lester breaks into the Vanderhoff house the following morning. He is discovered by Jose, who knocks the author unconscious and places him in the room above the dining room. Vanderhoff hastens his preparations to place Helen in the insane asylum. Dr. Luchow calls for the purpose of preparing the papers. Lester, using the top of a ventilator, saws away at his bonds. The blood from his bruised hands drips down upon Luchow's paper and the doctor soon becomes aware of what is going on. Jose attacks Lester just as the latter gains his freedom, but Dr. Luchow's timely arrival saves his friend. The Mexican and Vanderhoff endeavor to make their get-away in an auto, but an explosion, which wrecks the machine, ends their villainous careers.
