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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gates of Chance, by Van Tassel Sutphen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Gates of Chance
+
+Author: Van Tassel Sutphen
+
+Posting Date: May 13, 2009 [EBook #3758]
+Release Date: February, 2003
+First Posted: August 21, 2001
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GATES OF CHANCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Gates of Chance
+
+
+by
+
+Van Tassel Sutphen
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+    I  THE GENTLEMAN'S VISITING-CARD
+   II  THE RED DUCHESS
+  III  HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BLOCK
+   IV  THE PRIVATE LETTER-BOX
+    V  THE NINETY-AND-NINE KISSES
+   VI  THE QUEEN OF SPADES
+  VII  THE OPAL BUTTON
+ VIII  THE TIP-TOP TIP
+   IX  THE BRASS BAGGAGE-CHECK
+    X  THE UPSET APPLE-CART
+   XI  THE PHILADELPHIA QUIZZING-GLASS
+  XII  THE ADJUSTER OF AVERAGES
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+The Gentleman's Visiting-Card
+
+
+The card that had been thrust into my hand had pencilled upon it, "Call
+at 4020 Madison Avenue at a quarter before eight this evening." Below,
+in copper-plate, was engraved the name, Mr. Esper Indiman.
+
+It was one of those abnormally springlike days that New York sometimes
+experiences at the latter end of March, days when negligee shirts and
+last summer's straw hats make a sporadic appearance, and bucolic
+weather prophets write letters to the afternoon papers abusing the
+sun-spots. Really, it was hot, and I was anxious to get out of the dust
+and glare; it would be cool at the club, and I intended dining there.
+The time was half-past six, the height of the homeward rush hours, and,
+as usual, there was a jam of vehicles and pedestrians at the Fourth
+Avenue and Twenty-third Street crossing. The subway contractors were
+still at work here, and the available street space was choked with
+their stagings and temporary footwalks. The inevitable consequent was
+congestion; here were two of the principal thoroughfares of the city
+crossing each other at right angles, and with hardly enough room, at
+the point of intersection, for the traffic of one. The confusion grew
+worse as the policemen and signalmen stationed at the crossing
+occasionally lost their heads; every now and then a new block would
+form, and several minutes would elapse before it could be broken. In
+all directions long lines of yellow electric cars stood stalled, the
+impatient passengers looking ahead to discover the cause of the
+trouble. A familiar enough experience to the modern New-Yorker, yet it
+never fails to exasperate him afresh.
+
+The impasse looked hopeless when I reached the scene. A truck loaded
+with bales of burlap was on the point of breaking down at the crossing,
+and it was a question of how to get it out of the way in the shortest
+possible time consistent with the avoidance of the threatened
+catastrophe. Meanwhile, the jam of cars and trucks kept piling up until
+there was hardly space for a newsboy to worm his way from one curb to
+another, and the crowd on the street corners began to grow restive.
+They do these things so much better in London.
+
+Now, I detest being in the mob, and I was about to back my way out of
+the crowd and seek another route, even if a roundabout one. But just
+then the blockade was partially raised, an opening presented itself
+immediately in front of me, and I was forced forward willy-nilly.
+Arrived at the other side of the street, I drew out of the press as
+quickly as possible, and it was then that I discovered Mr. Indiman's
+carte de visite tightly clutched in my left hand. Impossible to
+conjecture how it had come there, and my own part in the transaction
+had been purely involuntary; the muscles of the palm had closed
+unconsciously upon the object presented to it, just as does a baby's.
+"Mr. Esper Indiman--and who the deuce may he be?"
+
+The club dining-room was full, but Jeckley hailed me and offered me a
+seat at his table. I loathe Jeckley, and so I explained politely that I
+was waiting for a friend, and should not dine until later.
+
+"Well, then, have a cocktail while I am finishing my coffee," persisted
+the beast, and I was obliged to comply.
+
+"I had to feed rather earlier than usual," explained Jeckley.
+
+"Yes," I said, not caring in the least about Mr. Jeckley's hours for
+meals.
+
+"You see I'm doing the opening at the Globe to-night, and I must get my
+Wall Street copy to the office before the theatre. And what do you
+think of that by way of an extra assignment?" He took a card from his
+pocket-book and tossed it over. It was another one of Mr. Esper
+Indiman's calling-cards, and scrawled in pencil, "Call at 4020 Madison
+Avenue at eight o'clock this evening."
+
+Jeckley was lighting his cigar, and so did not observe my start of
+surprise. Have I said that Jeckley was a newspaper man? One of the new
+school of journalism, a creature who would stick at nothing in the
+manufacture of a sensation. The Scare-Head is his god, and he holds
+nothing else sacred in heaven and earth. He would sacrifice--but
+perhaps I'm unjust to Jeckley; maybe it's only his bounce and flourish
+that I detest. Furthermore, I'm a little afraid of him; I don't want to
+be written up.
+
+"Esper Indiman," I read aloud. "Don't know him."
+
+"Ever heard the name?" asked Jeckley.
+
+I temporized. "It's unfamiliar, certainly."
+
+Jeckley looked gloomy. "Nobody seems to know him," he said. "And the
+name isn't to be found in the directory, telephone-book, or social
+register."
+
+Wonderful fellows, these newspaper men; I never should have thought of
+going for Mr. Indiman like that.
+
+"But why and wherefore?" I asked, cautiously.
+
+"A mystery, my son. The card was shoved into my hand not half an hour
+ago."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"At Twenty-third and Fourth. There were a lot of people around, and I
+haven't the most distant notion of the guilty party."
+
+"What does it mean?"
+
+Jeckley shook his head. "What will you do about it?"
+
+"I will make the call, of course."
+
+"Of course!"
+
+"There maybe a story there--who knows. Besides, it's directly on my way
+to the Globe, and the curtain is not until eight-thirty. Tell you what,
+old man; come along with me and see the thing to a finish. Fate leads a
+card--Mr. Esper Indiman's--and we'll play the second hand; what do you
+say?"
+
+I declined firmly. God forbid that I should be featured, along with the
+other exhibits in the case, on the first page of to-morrow's Planet.
+
+"So," he assented, indifferently, and pushed his chair back. "Well, I
+must push along--Lord! there's that copy--the old man will have it in
+for me good and plenty if I don't get it down in time. Adios!" He
+disappeared, and I let him depart willingly enough. Later on I went up
+to the library for a smoke--no fear of encountering any Jeckleys there,
+and, in fact, the room was entirely deserted. I looked at my watch; it
+was ten minutes after seven, and that gave me a quarter of an hour in
+which to think it over. Should I accept Mr. Indiman's invitation to
+call?
+
+I looked around for an ash-tray, and, seeing one on the big
+writing-table in the centre of the room, I walked over to it.
+
+There were some bits of white lying in the otherwise empty tray--the
+fragments of a torn-up visiting-card. A portion of the engraved script
+caught my eye, "Indi--"
+
+It was not difficult to piece together the bits of pasteboard, for I
+knew pretty well what I should find. Completed, the puzzle read, "Mr.
+Esper Indiman," and in pencil, "Call at 4020 Madison Avenue at
+half-past seven this evening."
+
+So there were three of us--if not more. Rather absurd this assignment
+of a separate quarter of an hour to each interview--quite as though Mr.
+Indiman desired to engage a valet and we were candidates for the
+position. Evidently, an eccentric person, but it's a queer world
+anyhow, as most of us know. There's my own case, for example. I'm
+supposed to be a gentleman of leisure and means. Leisure, certainly,
+but the means are slender enough, and proceeding in a diminishing
+ratio. That's the penalty of having been born a rich man's son and
+educated chiefly in the arts of riding off at polo and thrashing a
+single-sticker to windward in a Cape Cod squall. But I sha'n't say a
+word against the governor, God bless him! He gave me what I thought I
+wanted, and it wasn't his fault that an insignificant blood-clot should
+beat him out on that day of days--the corner in "R. P." It was never
+the Chicago crowd that could have downed him--I'm glad to remember that.
+
+Well, there being only the two of us, it didn't matter so much; it
+wasn't as though there were a lot of helpless womenfolk to consider.
+After the funeral and the settlement with the creditors there was
+left--I'm ashamed to say how little, and, anyway, it's no one's
+business; the debts were paid. What is a man to do, at thirty-odd, who
+has never turned his hand to anything of use? The governor's friends?
+Well, they didn't know how bad things were, and I couldn't go to them
+with the truth and make them a present of my helpless, incompetent self.
+
+And so for the last two years I've been sticking it out in a hall
+bedroom, just west of the dead-line. I have a life membership in the
+club--what a Christmas present that has turned out to be!--and twice in
+the week I dine there. As for the rest of it, never mind--there are
+things which a man can do but of which he doesn't care to speak.
+
+The future? Ah, you can answer that question quite as well as I. Now I
+had calculated that, at my present rate of expenditure, I could hold
+out until Easter, but there have been contingencies. To illustrate, I
+had my pocket picked yesterday morning. Amusing--isn't it?--that it
+should have been my pocket--my pocket!
+
+Fortunately I have stacks of clothes and some good pearl shirt-studs,
+and I continue to present a respectable appearance. I shall always do
+that, I think. I don't like the idea of the pawn-shop and the dropping
+down one degree at a time. If, in the end, it shall be shown clearly
+that the line is to be crossed, I shall walk over it quietly and as a
+man should; I object to the indecency of being dragged or carried
+across. What line do I mean? I don't know that I could tell you
+clearly. What is in your own mind? There IS a line.
+
+At half after seven I left the club, and exactly a quarter of an hour
+later I stood opposite the doorway of No. 4020 Madison Avenue. A tall
+man was descending the steps; I recognized Bingham, a member of my
+club, and recalled the torn-up visiting-card that I had found in the
+library. So Bingham was one of us.
+
+Now I don't know Bingham, except by sight, and I shouldn't have cared
+to stop and question him, anyway. But I caught one glimpse of his face
+as he hurried away, and it looked gray under the electrics. Call it the
+effect of the arc light, if you like; he was hurrying, certainly, and
+it struck me that it was because he was anxious to get away.
+
+Many are the motives that send men into adventurous situations, but
+there is at least one among them that is compelling--hunger. I have
+said that I had gone to the club for dinner; I did not say that I got
+it. To be honest, I had hoped for an invitation--charity, if you insist
+upon it. But I had been unfortunate. None of my particular friends had
+chanced to be around, and Jeckley's cocktail had been the only
+hospitality proffered me. You remember that my pocket had been picked
+yesterday morning, and since then--well, I had eaten nothing. I might
+have signed the dinner check, you say. Quite true, but I shall probably
+be as penniless on the first of the month as I am to-day, and then
+what? Too much like helping one's self from a friend's pocket.
+
+So it was just a blind, primeval impulse that urged me on. This Mr.
+Indiman had chosen to fish in muddy waters, and his rashness but
+matched my necessity. A host must expect to entertain his guests. I
+walked up the steps and rang the bell.
+
+Instantly the door opened, and a most respectable looking serving-man
+confronted me.
+
+"Mr. Indiman will see you presently," he said, before I had a chance to
+get out a word. "This way, sir."
+
+The house was of the modern American basement type, and I was ushered
+into a small reception-room on the right of the entrance hall. "Will
+you have the Post, sir? Or any of the illustrated papers? Just as you
+please, sir; thank you."
+
+The man withdrew, and I sat looking listlessly about me, for the room,
+while handsomely furnished, had an appearance entirely commonplace.
+
+Five and ten minutes passed, and I began to grow impatient. I
+remembered that Jeckley's appointment had been for eight o'clock, and
+for obvious considerations I did not wish that he should find me
+waiting here. It was eight o'clock now, and I would abide Mr. Indiman's
+lordly pleasure no longer. I rose to go; the electric bell sounded.
+
+I could hear Jeckley's high-pitched voice distinctly; he seemed to be
+put out about something; he spoke impatiently, even angrily.
+
+"But this is 4020 Madison Avenue, isn't it? Mr. Indiman--I was asked to
+call--Mr. Jeckley, of the Planet."
+
+"Must be some mistake, sir," came the answer. "This is No. 4020, but
+there's no Mr. Inkerman--"
+
+"Indiman, not Inkerman--Mr. Esper Indiman. Look at the card."
+
+"Never heard the name, sir."
+
+"What! Well, then, who does live here?"
+
+"Mr. Snell, sir. Mr. Ambrose Johnson Snell. But he's at dinner, and I
+couldn't disturb him."
+
+"Humph!" I fancy that Jeckley swore under his breath as he turned to
+go. Then the outer door was closed upon him.
+
+It was a relief, of course, to be spared the infliction of Mr.
+Jeckley's society, but I could not but admit that the situation was
+developing some peculiarities. Eliminating the doubtful personality of
+Mr. Ambrose Johnson Snell, who was this Mr. Esper Indiman, whose
+identity had been so freely admitted to me and so explicitly denied to
+Jeckley? The inference was obvious that Jeckley had failed to pass the
+first inspection test, and so had been turned down without further
+ceremony. This reflection rather amused me; I forgot about the
+incivility to which I was being subjected in the long wait, and began
+to be curious about the game itself. What next?
+
+At a quarter after eight, and then again at half after, there were
+inquiries at the door for Mr. Indiman. To each caller the answer was
+returned that no Mr. Indiman was known at No. 4020 Madison Avenue, and
+that Mr. Ambrose Johnson Snell could not be disturbed at his dinner.
+
+There was no caller at the next quarter, and none again at nine
+o'clock. The series had, therefore, come to an end, and I remained the
+sole survivor--of and for what?
+
+I dare say that my nerves had been somewhat weakened by my two days'
+fast, or else it was the effect of Jeckley's cocktail on an otherwise
+empty stomach. Whatever the cause, I suddenly became conscious that I
+was passing into a state of high mental tension; I wanted to scream, to
+beat impotently upon the air; Jeckley would have put it that I was
+within an ace of flying off the handle.
+
+A deafening clash of clanging metal smote my ears. It should have been
+the finishing touch, and it was, but not after the fashion that might
+have been expected. As though by magic, the horrible tension relaxed;
+my nerves again took command of the situation; I felt as cool and
+collected as at any previous moment in my life.
+
+In the centre of the room stood a heavy table of some East-Indian
+wood--teak, I think, they call it. I could have sworn that there was
+nothing whatever upon this table when I entered the room; now I saw
+three objects lying there. I walked up and examined them. As they lay
+towards me, the first was a ten-thousand-dollar bill, the second a
+loaded revolver, caliber .44, the third an envelope of heavy white
+paper directed to me, Winston Thorp. The letter was brief and formal;
+it read:
+
+"Mr. Indiman presents his compliments to Mr. Thorp and requests the
+honor of his company at dinner, Tuesday, March the thirtieth, at nine
+o'clock.
+
+"4020 Madison Avenue."
+
+Dishonor, death, and dinner--a curious trio to choose between. Yet to a
+man in my present position each of them appealed in its own way, and
+I'm not ashamed to confess it. Perhaps the choice I made may seem
+inevitable, but what if you had seen Bingham's face as I did, with the
+arc light full upon it? It was the remembrance of that which made me
+hesitate; twice I drew my hand away and looked at the money and the
+pistol.
+
+Through the open door came a ravishing odor, that of a filet a la
+Chateaubriand; the purely animal instincts reasserted themselves, and I
+picked up the gardenia blossom that lay beside the letter and stuck it
+into the button-hole of my dinner-jacket. I looked down at the table,
+and it seemed to me that the ten-thousand-dollar note and the pistol
+had disappeared. But what of that, what did anything matter now; I was
+going to dine--to dine!
+
+I walked up-stairs, guided by that delicious, that heavenly odor, and
+entered the dining-room in the rear, without the smallest hesitation.
+At one end of the table sat a man of perhaps forty years of age. An
+agreeable face, for all of the tired droop about the mouth and the deep
+lines in the forehead; it could light up, too, upon occasion, as I was
+soon to discover. For the present I did not bother myself with
+profitless conjectures; that entrancing filet, displayed in a massive
+silver cover, stood before him; I could not take my eyes from it.
+
+My host, for such he evidently was, rose and bowed with great
+politeness.
+
+"You must pardon me," he said, "for sitting down; but, as my note said,
+I dine at nine. I will have the shell-fish and soup brought on."
+
+"I should prefer to begin with the filet," I said, decidedly.
+
+A servant brought me a plate; my hand trembled, but I succeeded in
+helping myself without spilling the precious sauce; I ate.
+
+"There are three conditions of men who might be expected to accept the
+kind of invitation which has brought me the honor of your company,"
+remarked my host as we lit our cigarettes over the Roman punch. "To
+particularize, there is the curious impertinent, the merely foolish
+person, and the man in extremis rerum. Now I have no liking for the
+dog-faced breed, as Homer would put it, and neither do I suffer fools
+gladly. At least, one of the latter is not likely to bother me again."
+He smiled grimly, and I thought of Bingham's face of terror.
+
+"I found my desperate man in you, my dear Mr. Thorp, shall we drink to
+our better acquaintance?" I bowed, and we drank.
+
+"The precise nature of your misfortune does not concern me," he
+continued, airily. "It is sufficient that we are of the same mind in
+our attitude towards the world--'to shake with Destiny for beers,' is
+it not?
+
+"One may meet with many things on the highway of life--poverty,
+disease, sorrow, treacheries. These are disagreeable, I admit, but they
+are positive; one may overcome or, at least, forget them. But suppose
+you stand confronting the negative of existence; the highway is clear,
+indeed, but how interminable its vista, its straight, smooth, and
+intolerably level stretch. That road is mine.
+
+"Yes; I have tried the by-paths. Once I was shanghaied; twice I have
+been marooned and by my own men. That last amused me--a little. I was
+the second man to arrive at Bordeaux in the Paris-Madrid race of 1903;
+during the Spanish-American war I acted as a spy for the United States
+government in Barcelona.
+
+"I made the common mistake of confounding the unusual with the
+interesting. Romance is a shy bird, and not to be hunted with a brass
+band. Where is the heart of life, if not at one's elbow? At the
+farthest, one has only to turn the corner of the street. It is useless
+to look for prodigies in the abyss, but every stream has its straws
+that float; I have determined to watch and follow them.
+
+"I want a companion, and so I advertised after my own fashion. I
+selected you, tentatively, from the mob; later on I made the test more
+complete. But you have no boutonniere; allow me."
+
+He took a spray of orchid from the silver bowl in the centre of the
+table and handed it to me.
+
+I protested: "I have my gardenia--" I looked at my button-hole and it
+was gone.
+
+Mr. Indiman smiled. "Let me confess," he said. "You recall the abnormal
+tension of your nerves as you sat waiting in my reception-room. Merely
+the effect produced by a mixture of certain chemical gases turned on
+from a tap under my hand. Then the crash of a brazen gong; it is what
+the scientists call 'massive stimulation,' resolving super-excitation
+into partial hypnosis.
+
+"Once I had you in the hypnotic condition, the rest was simple enough.
+I had only to suggest to your mind the three objects on the table, and
+you saw them. The bank-note, the revolver--they were as immaterial as
+the gardenia that no longer adorns your button-hole.
+
+"I did not attempt to influence your choice among the three, as that
+would have destroyed the value of the test to me. But, as I had hoped,
+you accepted my invitation to dinner. Frankly, now, I am curious--why?"
+
+"That is very simple," I answered. "I had not eaten anything for two
+days, and I detected the odor of that exquisite filet. Not the
+slightest ethical significance in the choice, as you see."
+
+Esper Indiman laughed. "I should have kept my pantry door closed. But
+it does not matter; I am satisfied. Shall we go into the library for
+coffee?"
+
+Directly opposite the door of the latter apartment stood an easel
+holding an unframed canvas. A remarkable portrait--little as I know
+about pictures, I could see that clearly enough. A three-quarter length
+of a woman wearing a ducal coronet and dressed in a magnificent costume
+of red velvet.
+
+"Lely's 'Red Duchess,'" remarks my host, carelessly. "You may have seen
+it in the Hermitage at Petersburg."
+
+I looked at the picture again. Why should this masterpiece not have
+been properly mounted and glazed? The edges of the canvas were jagged
+and uneven, as though it had been cut from its frame with a not
+oversharp knife. We sat down to our coffee and liqueurs.
+
+As I awake in the narrow quarters of my hall bedroom I am inclined to
+believe that the occurrences of the preceding night were only the
+phantasms of a disordered digestion; where had I eaten that Welsh
+rabbit? The morning paper had been thrown over the transom, and,
+following my usual custom, I reached for it and began reading. Among
+the foreign despatches I note this paragraph dated St. Petersburg:
+
+"The famous portrait of the Duchess of Lackshire, by Sir Peter Lely,
+better known as the 'Red Duchess,' has disappeared from the gallery of
+the Hermitage. It is now admitted that it must have been stolen, cut
+bodily from its frame and carried away. The theft took place several
+months ago, but the secret has just become public property. The absence
+of the picture from its accustomed place had, of course, been noted,
+but it was understood that it had been removed for cleaning. An
+enormous reward is to be offered for information leading to its
+recovery."
+
+There is also a letter for me which I had not noticed until now. It was
+from Indiman, and it read:
+
+"Dear Thorp,--Dine with me to-night at half after eight. I noticed that
+you were rather taken with my 'Red Duchess'; we will ask the lady to
+preside over our modest repast, and you can then gaze your fill upon
+her. Faithfully, E. I."
+
+Of course, I intend to accept the invitation.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+The Red Duchess
+
+
+At half after eight we sat down to dinner. Indiman, of course, took the
+head of the table, and opposite him, propped up on the arms of an
+enormous "bishop's chair" of Flemish oak, was Lely's portrait of the
+"Red Duchess." What a glorious picture it was, in the masterly sweep of
+its lines, in the splendor of its incomparable coloring! The jagged
+edges of the canvas showed plainly where the vandal knife had passed,
+separating the painting from its frame. But the really big thing is
+always independent of its cadre; one hardly noticed the mutilation, and
+then immediately forgot about it.
+
+I had been honored with a seat at the lady's right hand, and opposite
+me a fourth cover had been laid. Indiman noticed my look of inquiry.
+
+"Only one of my fancies," he explained, smiling. "I always make
+provision for the unexpected guest. Who knows what supperless angels
+may be hovering around?"
+
+We were hardly at the soup before a servant brought in a card.
+
+"Roger W. Blake," read Indiman, aloud. "An honest-enough-sounding name.
+Is the gentleman in evening dress, Bolder?"
+
+"No, sir; I don't think so, sir."
+
+"Hym! That is unfortunate. Still, if Madame la Duchesse will permit,
+and you, Thorp, have no objection--Good! Ask Mr. Blake to do me the
+favor of joining us at dinner."
+
+A few minutes later Mr. Roger Blake appeared at the door of the
+dining-room. He was a young man with a profusion of fair hair and a
+good deal of color, the latter heightened considerably by the somewhat
+embarrassing circumstances attending his introduction. But Indiman
+relieved the situation immediately, going forward and greeting the new
+guest with unaffected cordiality.
+
+"Mr. Blake, is it? You are very heartily welcome, I assure you. Let
+Bolder take your hat and stick; indeed, I insist upon it. Allow me now
+to present you: Her Grace the Duchess of Lackshire, more generally
+known as Lely's 'Red Duchess'--Mr. Roger W. Blake. My friend, Mr.
+Thorp--Mr. Blake."
+
+Evidently the young man was not overclear in his own mind as to how it
+had all happened, but there he was, sitting bolt upright in the vacant
+chair and drinking two glasses of wine in rapid succession to cover his
+confusion. A comedy, apparently, but to what purpose? Mr. Blake blushed
+painfully, and made no reply to the polite commonplaces that I
+ventured; Indiman smiled benevolently upon both of us, and in the most
+natural possible manner led the conversation to the subject of
+portrait-painting. There was his text before him--the famous "Red
+Duchess"--and he talked well. I found myself listening with absorbed
+attention, and even the shy Mr. Blake became oblivious of the keener
+agonies of self-consciousness. So we went on until the game course had
+been removed.
+
+Our host rose to his feet, champagne glass in hand. "Gentlemen," he
+said, and we followed his example, Blake managing to upset a decanter
+of sherry in the process, "in life and in art--the fairest of her sex.
+I give you, gentlemen, 'La Duchesse Rouge.'"
+
+The toast was drunk with becoming decorum. I was about to resume my
+seat when I saw that Mr. Blake had screwed himself up to a desperate
+decision, and that the climax of the drama was at hand. He was quite
+pale, and he stuttered a little as he spoke.
+
+"Very sorry, I--I'm sure," he blurted out, "but you are Mr. In-Indiman?"
+
+"I am, and not in the least sorry for it. Go on."
+
+"It is my d-duty, sir, to place you under arrest for complicity in the
+theft of that p-p-picture." Mr. Blake threw back his coat and displayed
+a detective's shield attached to an aggressively red suspender brace.
+
+Esper Indiman bowed ironically. "I presume that my presence at Police
+Headquarters is necessary?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes, sir. I have a coach in waiting outside, and we will start at
+once, if you please." Mr. Blake, under the stimulus of his professional
+functions, lost his embarrassed air and became severely business-like
+and official. "This gentleman will have to accompany us," he continued,
+looking at me.
+
+"The coffee, Bolder," called our host, "and never mind the sweets." I
+drank a demi-tasse and lit a cigarette. "Ready," announced Indiman, and
+we descended to the coach, Mr. Blake bringing up the rear and carrying
+the precious picture enveloped in a silken table-cover.
+
+"What reward is offered, officer?" asked Indiman as the carriage drove
+off.
+
+"One hundred thousand dollars, sir. It will be a big thing for me
+if--if--" He stopped, a trifle embarrassed.
+
+"Ah, those ifs!" quoted Indiman, musingly.
+
+The chief of the detective bureau received us in his private room. He
+listened attentively to Blake's report, but seemed rather puzzled than
+gratified by its triumphant peroration. Now the young man felt that he
+had done a big thing, and this non-committal attitude of his superior
+chagrined him. He unrolled the covering in which the picture had been
+wrapped.
+
+"There!" he said, half resentfully. The chief looked carefully at the
+picture and turned to Indiman.
+
+"Do you desire to make any explanation, Mr. Indiman, as to how this
+picture happens to be in your possession?"
+
+"Certainly," was the prompt reply. "I bought it for a small sum a month
+ago on the lower Bowery. The dealer's name was Gregory, I think."
+
+Young Mr. Blake sniffed incredulously. A messenger handed a couple of
+telegrams to the chief. He read them with knitted brows and then
+touched a call-bell.
+
+"Send in Officer Stone," he ordered.
+
+Mr. Stone immediately made his appearance. In his hand he carried a
+flat, square parcel which, in obedience to a further order, he
+proceeded to unwrap. I uttered an involuntary cry, for it was nothing
+less than a replica of the famous portrait of the "Red Duchess." A
+replica, indeed!--it would take an expert to decide which of the two
+was the copy; they were absolutely alike, even to the detail of the
+rough edges, the marks of the blunted knife.
+
+"This picture was discovered in an art dealer's window on Fourth Avenue
+near Twenty-ninth Street," explained the chief of the detective bureau.
+"And now kindly listen to these despatches. The first from the chief of
+police of New Orleans:
+
+"'Lely portrait discovered in pawn-shop. Officer Smith goes North
+to-night to return property and claim reward. J. H. BOWEN."
+
+The other from Pittsburg, in substantially the same language, reports
+the finding of the portrait of the 'Red Duchess' in a private gallery.
+This fourth picture is also on its way to New York for identification."
+
+We all looked at one another, Blake the picture of puzzled anger and
+disappointment. "Which is the true picture?" asked the chief. "Mr.
+Indiman, I should be glad of your opinion."
+
+Indiman, who had been examining the canvas held by Stone, answered
+quickly: "Neither of these, and it is more than probable that the other
+two are also copies by the same hand. Wonderfully well done, too, but
+the study of portraiture is a hobby of mine; I have even contemplated a
+monograph on the subject, or, more particularly, a hand-book to the
+smaller galleries and private collections. But I doubt if I ever do it
+now," he concluded, meditatively.
+
+"The 'Red Duchess'?" persisted the chief.
+
+"Of course, I know it perfectly. I won't bore you with technical
+explanations, but on the back of the stretcher is the address of the
+American art dealer from whom the original canvas was purchased. That
+should be enough."
+
+It was as Indiman said; each of the canvas stretchers carried a small
+gummed label, the address of a Fulton Street art-supply shop.
+
+"That settles the question," remarked the chief of detectives. "I may
+say finally that I have this cable from the Minister of Police at St.
+Petersburg, communicated to me through the Russian Consul-General:
+
+
+"'Lely portrait recovered and replaced in the gallery at the Hermitage.
+Withdraw published reward.
+
+"'(Signed) SOBRIESKA.'
+
+
+"A queer piece of business; but this appears to be the end of it,"
+commented the chief. "Needless to say, gentlemen, that you are at
+liberty to depart. My apologies for the annoyance to which you have
+been subjected."
+
+We all bowed and withdrew to the anteroom. Blake, blushing redly, came
+up to Indiman; he began to apologize, stuttering pitiably, but Indiman
+cut him short.
+
+"Call up the coach and offer the driver extra fare for the best time
+his horses can make to this address." He scribbled the name of the
+street and the house number on a leaf torn from his note-book and
+handed it to Blake. "Yes, you can come along if you like; it may be the
+big thing yet."
+
+As the carriage rolled along Indiman vouchsafed certain explanations.
+
+"As I have already told you," he began, "I bought the picture from a
+small dealer in the Bowery. I happened to notice it in his window, and,
+the 'Red Duchess' being one of the half-dozen superlative portraits of
+the world, I was naturally interested. It was certainly a fine copy,
+and I was pleased to get it so cheaply.
+
+"Now there were two or three circumstances connected with my find that
+afterwards struck me as peculiar. In the first place it is well known
+that permission to copy any of the pictures at the Hermitage Gallery is
+very rarely given, and the authorities are particularly averse to
+having reproductions made of the Lely portrait. Secondly, why were the
+edges of the canvas so curiously serrated, giving the picture the look
+of having been hastily cut away from its frame? And, finally, where and
+when had this copy been made? for the label of the Fulton Street art
+dealer on the back bore the date 1903, and this was the 2d of February
+in the same year. Obviously impossible that the artist could have gone
+to Russia, painted the picture, and returned with it to New York in a
+little over a month.
+
+"Two days later I was walking up Fourth Avenue, through the district
+affected by the curio and old-furniture dealers, and I discovered a
+replica of my 'Red Duchess' hanging in a shop-window. In every respect
+identical, you understand, the two pictures were unquestionably the
+work of the same hand. Whose hand?
+
+"Do you remember, Thorp, the name of Clive Richmond? Well, for a year
+or two he was the favorite painter of women's portraits here in New
+York, hailed as genius and all that. Then suddenly his work began to
+fall off in quality; his failures became egregious, and his clients
+left him. Shortly after he disappeared; it was the common report that
+his misfortunes had affected his reason; there were even hints at
+suicide. That was some four or five years ago, and whatever the secret
+may be it has been kept faithfully.
+
+"At least I had solved a portion of the problem--it was Clive Richmond
+and no other who had painted my copy of the 'Red Duchess.' How do I
+know? Well, with the expert it is a matter partly technical but more
+largely intuitive. How do you recognize a friend's face? How does the
+bank clerk detect the counterfeit bill?
+
+"Now this second copy bore the same ear-marks as the one in my
+possession--the edges of the canvas marred and jagged, the Fulton
+Street label on the back. What was this mystery?
+
+"Mystery--yes, and behind it the shadow of a crime, of a human tragedy.
+Who was to lift the veil? There was but one man--Clive Richmond--who
+could answer my question; and where was Clive Richmond? A week later I
+found still a third copy of my 'Duchess' over on Sixth Avenue. I had
+left my purse at home that morning, and when I went back the next day
+to buy the picture it was gone--sold to a stranger. Did I say that I
+had missed getting possession of the second picture through the same
+sort of contretemps? I never saw either of them again.
+
+"I had written to a friend in Petersburg to make certain inquiries for
+me, and his answer confirmed my suspicions. The 'Red Duchess' was not
+hanging in its accustomed place at the Hermitage; it was in process of
+renovation, according to a statement made by the director of the
+gallery.
+
+"That was enough for me. The portrait had been stolen and was probably
+in New York at this very moment. Where? Let me first find Clive
+Richmond, and I must be quick about it, for once the secret of the
+theft got out the detectives would not be long in rounding up the
+various purchasers of those wonderfully accurate copies. This morning
+the cable brought the news, and at dinner-time Mr. Blake's card was
+presented to me. Quick work, Mr. Blake; I congratulate you.
+
+"Here is the letter that I received just before we left my house; you
+remember that it had come in the evening mail and been overlooked. I
+will read it.
+
+
+"'DEAR INDIMAN,--There's more in the art business than can be squeezed
+out of a color tube, isn't there? But I have the secret now; it was
+given me by Lely himself--no less. What a pity it is that I shan't have
+the chance to use it, but you and the cognoscenti can fight it out
+together. You might bury me decently if you like; you ought to be
+willing to do that much, seeing that your critical pronouncements have
+been so amply vindicated.
+
+C. R.
+
+"'P. S.--My secret? But on second thought I will take it with me.'"
+
+
+St. John's Park and the streets fronting upon it was once a fashionable
+quarter of the town. Now a hideous railway freight station occupies the
+former park area, and the old-time residences, with their curiously
+wrought-iron stoop-railings and graceful fan-lights, have been degraded
+to the base uses of a tenement population. Only the quaint chapel of
+St. John has survived the slow process of contamination, a single rock
+rising above the sordid tide.
+
+The coach stopped before one of the most pretentious of the old-time
+houses-now, alas! one of the dirtiest and most dilapidated. We were
+directed to the upper story, Indiman leading the way.
+
+A single attic chamber, bearing the marks of the cruelest poverty, a
+stove, an artist's easel, a pallet spread directly on the grimy floor,
+and upon it a man in the last stage of consumption. He glanced up at
+Indiman and waved his hand feebly. He tried to speak, but his voice
+died away in his throat; Indiman knelt by his side to catch the words.
+
+"It is cold--shut stove door--there's enough now to last me out."
+
+Indiman went to the stove, where a little fire was smouldering; he shut
+the door and turned on the draught. The flame leaped up instantly, the
+crazy smoke-pipe rattling as it expanded under the influence of the
+heat. Indiman turned again to the dying man.
+
+"You know well enough why I have come," he said, slowly. "I have in my
+possession one of your copies of the 'Red Duchess.' Tell me the truth."
+
+There was no audible response from the bloodless lips, but the dark
+eyes were full of ironic laughter. Then they closed again.
+
+"Richmond!" said Indiman, sharply. "Richmond!"
+
+I had been standing by the door, but now I came forward and joined
+Indiman. "Gone!" he said, briefly. "Gone, and taken his secret with
+him. Only, what WAS the secret?"
+
+We tried to argue it out on the way up-town, but with only indifferent
+success. Granted the premise that Richmond had actually stolen the "Red
+Duchess," what were his motives in multiplying copies of the picture, a
+proceeding that must infallibly end in the detection of his crime? And
+the supreme question--what had finally become of the original?
+
+My theory was simple enough. The man was mentally unbalanced, the
+result of brooding over his own failure in art. He had stolen the
+picture, possessed with the idea that by study of it he should discover
+the secret of its power. He had made copies of the picture and sold
+them in order to supply himself with the necessities of life. At the
+end, knowing himself to be dying, he had caused the original to be
+returned to the gallery at Petersburg, a contribution to the conscience
+fund.
+
+Indiman's argument was more subtle. "Granted," he said, "that the poor
+chap was mentally irresponsible, and that he actually did steal the
+picture. But you must take into account his colossal vanity, his
+monumental egotism. Richmond never admitted for a moment that he was a
+failure as an artist; there was a cabal against him, and that accounted
+for everything. This affair was simply his revenge upon his critics and
+detractors; he would turn out these reproductions of a masterpiece so
+perfect in their technique as not to be distinguished from their
+original, nor indeed from each other. So having set the artistic world
+by the ears, he would enjoy his triumph, at first in secret, and
+afterwards openly."
+
+"But what was the picture returned to the Hermitage?"
+
+"One of these same copies--that was the supreme sarcasm."
+
+"The original, then--the 'Red Duchess'?"
+
+"The fuel in the stove consisted of some strips of painted canvas,"
+said Indiman, gravely. "I don't know, I can't be sure--they were almost
+consumed when I shut the door."
+
+"An imperfect copy," I hazarded.
+
+"Some day we will take a trip to the Hermitage to make sure," answered
+Indiman. "'Where ignorance is bliss,' etc. What do you think, Blake?"
+he continued, turning to our companion.
+
+"It's all the same to me, sir," answered Blake, a little ruefully. "It
+was a big thing, right enough, but somehow I seem to have missed it all
+round. Well, good-night, sir, if you'll kindly set me down at this
+corner."
+
+Indiman and I enjoyed a small supper under Oscar's watchful eye. The
+night was fine and we started to walk home. Have I said that Indiman
+had proposed that I should move my traps over to his house and take up
+my quarters there for an indefinite period? In exchange for services
+rendered, as he put it, and somehow he made it possible for me to
+accept the invitation. It had been twenty-four hours now since I had
+first enjoyed the honor of Mr. Esper Indiman's acquaintance; the
+novelty of having enough to eat--actually enough--was already beginning
+to wear off. Man is a wonderful creature; give him time and he will
+adjust himself to anything.
+
+At the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-seventh Street, Indiman
+stopped suddenly and picked up a small object. It was a latch-key of
+the familiar Yale-lock pattern. I looked at it rather indifferently.
+
+"Man! man!" said Indiman, with simulated despair. "Surely you are an
+incorrigibly prosaic person. A key--does it suggest to you no
+possibilities of mystery, of romance?"
+
+"Well, not without a door," I answered, smartly.
+
+"Oh, is that all! To-morrow we will go out and find a door upon which
+this little key may be profitably employed. You promise to enter that
+door with me?"
+
+"I promise."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+House in the Middle of the Block
+
+
+"All things come to him who waits," quoted Indiman. "Do you believe
+that?"
+
+"It's a comfortable theory," I answered.
+
+"But an untenable one. And Fortune is equally elusive to those who seek
+her over-persistently. The truth, as usual, lies between the extremes."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"The secret is simple enough. He who is ready to receive, receives.
+Love, fame, the shower of gold--they are in the air, and only waiting
+to be precipitated. I stand ready to be amused, and that same afternoon
+the Evening Post aims a blow at the Tammany 'Tiger' over the shoulder
+of Mr. Edward M. Shepard; I am in the mood adventurous, and instantly
+the shadow of a prodigy falls across my threshold; yea, though I live
+on upper West End Avenue. Do you remember this?" and he held out a
+small Yale latch-key.
+
+"It is the one you picked up at Twenty-seventh Street and Fifth Avenue
+last night."
+
+"Precisely. Now a key, you observe, is intended to open something--in
+this case a door. What door? As though that mattered! Put on your
+rain-coat, my dear Thorp, and let us begin a little journey into the
+unknown. Fate will lead us surely, O unbelieving one, if you will but
+place your hand unresistingly in hers."
+
+We left the house, and Indiman tossed a penny into the air. "Broadway,
+heads; Fourth Avenue, tails." Tails it was.
+
+Arrived at Fourth Avenue, we stood waiting for a car. The first that
+came along was on its way up-town and we boarded it.
+
+"Was it you who asked for a cross-town transfer at Twenty-ninth?"
+inquired the conductor of Indiman a few minutes later, and Indiman
+nodded assent and took the transfer slips.
+
+At Eighth Avenue the cross-town car was blocked by a stalled coal-cart.
+We alighted and passively awaited further directions from our esoteric
+guide. Quite an amusing game for a dull, rainy afternoon, and I felt
+grateful to Indiman for its invention.
+
+The policeman on the corner was endeavoring to direct a very small boy
+with a very large bundle. "Up one block and turn east," he said,
+impressively. "I've told you that now three times."
+
+I had a flash of inspiration. "Copper it," I cried.
+
+"Right," said Indiman, soberly. We walked down one block to
+Twenty-eighth Street and then turned westward.
+
+New York is a big city, and therefore entitled to present an occasional
+anomaly to the observant eye. And this particular section of
+Twenty-eighth Street is one of these departures from the normal, a
+block or two of respectable, even handsome houses set as an oasis in a
+dull and sordid neighborhood. How and why this should be does not
+matter; it is to be presumed that the people who live there are
+satisfied, and it is nobody else's business.
+
+We walked on slowly, then, half-way down the block, Indiman stopped me.
+"What did I tell you?" he whispered.
+
+The house was of the English basement type, and occupied two of the
+ordinary city lots; nothing particularly remarkable about that, and I
+said as much.
+
+"But look again," insisted Indiman. I did so and saw a man standing at
+the door, evidently desirous of entering. Twice, while we stood
+watching him, he rang without result, and the delay annoyed him. He
+shook the door-knob impatiently, and then fell to researching his
+pockets, an elaborate operation that consumed several minutes.
+
+"Lost his latch-key," commented Indiman. He walked up the steps of the
+entrance porch. "You might try mine," he said, politely, and held out
+the key picked up the night before at Fifth Avenue and Twenty-seventh
+Street.
+
+"Huh!" grunted the man, suspiciously, but he took the little piece of
+metal and inserted it into the slot of the lock. The door swung open.
+Amazing, but what followed was even more incredible. The man stepped
+into the hall, but continued to hold the door wide open.
+
+"You're coming in, I suppose," he said, surlily.
+
+"Certainly," answered Indiman. "This way, Thorp," he called at me, and
+most unwillingly I obeyed. We passed into the house and the door closed
+behind us. Our introducer turned up the gas in the old-fashioned hall
+chandelier, and favored us with a perfunctory stare. "New members, eh!"
+he grunted, and turned away as though it were a matter of entire
+indifference to him. But Indiman spoke up quickly.
+
+"Pardon me," he began, with the sweetest suavity. "I was afraid for the
+moment that we had got into the wrong place. This is the--" a
+delicately suggestive pause.
+
+"The Utinam Club," supplied the other.
+
+"Exactly," said Indiman, in a most relieved tone. "It IS the Utinam,
+Thorp," he continued, turning to me. Now I had not the smallest notion
+of what the Utinam Club might be, consequently I preserved a discreet
+silence. Indiman addressed himself again to our ungracious cicerone.
+
+"A snug little box you have here, Mr, er--"
+
+"Hoyt, sir--Colman Hoyt."
+
+"Ah, yes--of North Pole fame. You are the man--"
+
+"Who has led four expeditions to reach it, and failed as often. That is
+MY title to fame. And also my qualification for membership in the
+Utinam Club," he added, grimly.
+
+"Ah, yes--the discovery of the Pole. A unique and delightful idea in
+clubdom--eh, Thorp? To succeed--"
+
+"No, sir; to FAIL," interrupted Mr. Hoyt, rudely. "What the devil do
+you suppose I am doing in this galley? You must be a very new member of
+the Utinam Club."
+
+"To tell the truth, Mr. Hoyt," said Indiman, with an air of engaging
+frankness, "I have never, until this moment, even heard of the Utinam
+Club. But for all that I am convinced that I am about to become a
+member of it, and I may say the same for my friend, Mr. Thorp. Now,
+possibly you may be inclined to assist us."
+
+Mr. Hoyt stared. "It's a pity, isn't it," he remarked, reflectively,
+"that our standard of eligibility doesn't conform to that of your
+impudence. Still, I won't say that it can't be done; this is a
+proprietary club, you know. You had better see Dr. Magnus."
+
+"Dr. Magnus?"
+
+"The proprietor of the Utinam Club. Here he comes now."
+
+A slight, gray-haired man of fifty or there-abouts had entered the hall
+from the rear and immediately came forward to meet us. His eyes were
+the extraordinary feature of his face, piercingly brilliant and
+enormously magnified by the spectacles that he wore. The lenses of the
+latter were nearly an eighth of an inch thick and evidently of the
+highest power. Even with their aid his powers of vision seemed
+imperfect. On hearing the few words of explanation vouchsafed by the
+unamiable Mr. Hoyt, he drew from his pocket a second and third pair of
+glasses and deliberately added both to his original optical equipment.
+I know that I felt like a fly under a microscope in facing that
+formidable battery of lenses. But the scrutiny seemed to satisfy him;
+he spoke courteously enough:
+
+"Step into my office, gentlemen, and we will talk the matter over."
+
+Mr. Colman Hoyt had departed without further formality, and we followed
+our host into the room adjoining the hall on the right. It looked like
+the study of a man of science; charts and globes and plaster-of-Paris
+casts were everywhere, while the far end of the apartment was occupied
+by a huge, flat-topped table covered with papers, test-tubes, and
+glass-slides. But even more remarkable than its contents was the room
+itself, and its singular architectural proportions at once engaged my
+attention.
+
+As I have said, the house occupied two twenty-five-foot city lots, but
+the entrance and hall were at the extreme right as one looks outward
+towards the street, instead of being in the centre, as is usually the
+case. Consequently, the room in which we stood (being undivided by any
+interior partitions) extended the full width of the house, less that of
+the entrance hall--forty feet, let us say, in round numbers. But its
+measurements in the other direction were barely ten feet, the apartment
+presenting the appearance of a long, low, and narrow gallery. At the
+back were a row of five windows taking light from the interior
+court-yard; in brief, the house, imposing in its dimensions from the
+street side, was little more than a mask of masonry extremely
+ill-adapted for human habitation, or, indeed, for any purpose. Stepping
+to one of the rear windows, I looked out, and then the reason for this
+extraordinary construction--or, rather, reconstruction--became
+apparent. The lot was of the usual depth of one hundred feet, and,
+being a double one, it had a width of fifty. A large building of gray
+stone occupied the farther end of this inside space, the erection
+measuring about sixty feet in depth and extending the full width of the
+enclosure. That left a little less than thirty feet of court-yard
+between this back building and the one facing on the street, and it was
+evident that the rear of the original house had been sheared off bodily
+to provide for this singular readjustment in the owner's modus vivendi,
+only the party walls on either side being left standing. And these had
+been extended so as to enflank the building in the rear.
+
+If I have made my description clear, it now will be understood that the
+facade of the original house was nothing more than a shell, a ten-foot
+screen whose principal office was to conceal the interior structure
+from curious eyes. Describing the latter more particularly, it should
+be noted that it was connected with the original house by a covered
+passageway of brick running along one side of the court-yard and
+communicating with the hallway that led to the street door. Apparently,
+the rear building was three stories in height--I say apparently, for,
+being entirely destitute of windows, it was impossible to accurately
+deduce the number of its floors. Aesthetically, it made no pretensions,
+its only architectural feature being a domed roof of copper and a
+couple of chimney-stacks, from one of which a thin streak of vapor
+ascended. A chilling and depressing spectacle was that presented by the
+"House in the Middle of the Block," as I mentally christened it, and I
+speculated upon the strange offices to which it had been consecrated.
+
+"The Utinam Club," answered my unspoken query. Dr. Magnus had advanced
+to my side and stood staring at me through his triple lenses. I
+started, involuntarily.
+
+"There! there!" he said, soothingly. "I did not perceive that your
+attention was so entirely absorbed. I am honored by your interest--the
+Utinam Club, it is my hobby, sir, and one not altogether unworthy of
+the consideration of an intelligent man."
+
+"I can quite understand that," said Indiman, who had joined us at the
+window. "There is a distinct stimulus to the imagination in the picture
+before us. And what a picture!--this eyeless, gray-faced, architectural
+monstrosity, crowned with squat, domelike head of coppery red, and set
+in that gigantic cadre of fifty-foot masonry! Superb! Magnificent!"
+
+"The honor of your acquaintance--" began Dr. Magnus.
+
+"In two words," interrupted Indiman, smilingly. He made a brief
+statement of the circumstances attendant upon the finding of the Yale
+latch-key, and the proprietor of the Utinam Club listened attentively.
+
+"I have a passion for the unique," concluded Indiman, "and the Utinam
+Club appears to possess claims of unusual merit in that direction. I
+own frankly that I am curious as to its object and qualifications for
+membership."
+
+"They are quite simple," answered Dr. Magnus. "Indeed, the name of the
+club explains its raison d'etre--Utinam, a Latin ejaculation equivalent
+to our 'Would to Heaven!' or 'Would that I could be!' To be eligible
+for membership in the Utinam Club, one must have had a distinct object
+or ambition in life and then have failed to realize it."
+
+"Ah, I begin to understand," murmured Indiman. "An extraordinary basis,
+indeed, for a social organization--the lame ducks, the noble army of
+the incapables, the gentlemen a main gauche! Pray go on; you interest
+me exceedingly."
+
+"We have them all here," answered Dr. Magnus, smiling. "The
+unsuccessful author, the business bankrupt, the artist whose pictures
+have never reached the line. The touch-stone of failure, you see; the
+clubability (odious word!) of our membership is unimpeachable.
+
+"A superb conception. My dear Dr. Magnus, I must beg of you to enroll
+Mr. Thorp and myself at once. Believe me that we are not unworthy of a
+place in your galaxy of dark stars."
+
+Dr. Magnus walked to the table and took up his pen. "This gentleman?"
+he began, inquiringly, and looked at me.
+
+"An unfortunate affair of the heart," answered Indiman--an exquisite
+piece of audacity at which I frowned, and then perforce had to smile.
+"It comes within your rule, I trust?"
+
+"For limited membership only," answered Dr. Magnus. "In fact, we rather
+discourage victims of sentimental reverses, it being invariably
+impossible to determine whether the transaction is finally to show a
+profit or a loss. Then, too, the quick recoveries--but we'll let it
+stand at that. Now, with yourself?"
+
+"I," said Indiman, gravely, "am a mathematician by instinctive
+preference and early training, but I have never been able to cross the
+'Ass's Bridge,' the Forty-seventh problem of Euclid. Incidentally, I
+may mention that I am a golf-player with a handicap of eighteen."
+
+"A double first," commented the proprietor of the Utinam Club. "I
+perceive, Mr. Indiman, that you are bent upon amusing yourself; and
+since circumstances have undeniably favored you, you may continue to do
+so. But not at my expense," and thereupon he mentioned a figure for
+initiation and dues that made me sit up. But Indiman settled without
+flinching; he happened to have his check-book with him, and the
+remaining formalities were quickly discharged.
+
+"And now, gentlemen, let me show you about the club," said Dr. Magnus,
+affably. "Will you be good enough to follow me?"
+
+He led the way into the hall, and thence into the cloister-like passage
+communicating with the "House in the Middle of the Block." I glanced
+out at the court-yard as we passed a window; it was most ingeniously
+planned to take the utmost advantage of its limited area. An antique
+Italian fountain occupied a niche in the opposite wall, and on either
+side were sedilia flanked by bay-trees in tubs and two or three fine
+specimens of the Japanese dwarf oak. A bas-relief in plaster of the
+Elgin marbles ran friezelike the full length of the party wall, and
+fixed immediately above the fountain niche the terrible mask of the
+Medusa face looked down upon us. The time of the year being late in
+March, there was no snow upon the ground, and I could see that the
+ground of the court-yard was divided into four garden-beds, separated
+from each other by narrow paths of broad, red tile bordered by box. All
+in all it was a charming little bit of formal gardening; I could
+imagine how pretty it would be on a spring morning, when the beds
+should be gay with crocuses and tulips.
+
+We were admitted into the club proper by a liveried servant, and from
+the handsome oak-panelled vestibule we passed into a lofty apartment
+hung with pictures and filled with miscellaneous objects of art. All,
+without exception, were execrable--miserable daubs of painting,
+criminal essays in plastic and decorative work, and a collection of
+statuary that could be adequately matched only by the horrors in
+Central Park. "Our art gallery, gentlemen," explained Dr. Magnus.
+
+Art gallery indeed! To me it was the most melancholy of exhibitions,
+but Indiman was enraptured.
+
+"What a magnificent record of failure!" he exclaimed. "What miracles of
+ineptitude!" and Dr. Magnus smiled, well pleased.
+
+We ascended to the next floor. Here was the library, lined ceiling-high
+with books that had fallen still-born from the press. Gigantic cabinet
+presses occupied the centre of the room, the final depository of
+countless "unavailable" MSS. In an adjoining room were glass-cases
+crowded with mechanical models of unsuccessful inventions. Naturally, I
+expected to see a large section devoted to the resolution of the
+perpetual-motion problem, but in this I was disappointed, not a single
+specimen of the kind could I discover.
+
+"We do not attempt the impossible," explained Dr. Magnus, dryly. "Our
+failures must be inherent in the man, not in his subject."
+
+There were other rooms, a long succession of them, filled with
+melancholy evidences of incapacity and defeat in almost every
+department of human activity--plans of abortive military campaigns,
+prospectuses of moribund business enterprises, architectural and
+engineering drawings of structures never to be reared, charts, models,
+unfinished musical scores, finally a huge papier-mache globe on which
+were traced the routes of Mr. Colman Hoyt's four unsuccessful dashes
+for the North Pole. It depressed me, the sight of this vast
+lumber-room, this collection of useless flotsam and jetsam, cast up and
+rejected by the sea of strenuous life. Most moving of all, a broken
+golf-club standing in a dusty corner, and beside it a wofully scarred
+and battered ball. I pointed them out to Indiman.
+
+"A fellow-sufferer," he said, and sighed deeply.
+
+Last of all we were conducted to the common room, a spacious apartment
+immediately under the dome. At one end a huge stone fireplace, in which
+a fire crackled cheerfully.
+
+"'Non Possumus,'" read Indiman, deciphering the motto chiselled upon
+the chimney-breast.
+
+"An admirable sentiment indeed! Dr. Magnus, I venture to infer that the
+Utinam Club is the child of your own brain. Permit me, sir, to
+congratulate you--a glorious inception and carried out to perfection."
+
+Dr. Magnus smiled frostily. "I thank you, Mr. Indiman," he said,
+staring hard at him. "In a civilization so complex as ours the Utinam
+undoubtedly fills a want. And now, gentlemen, if you will excuse me; I
+have some affairs of moment. The club is yours; make use of it as you
+will. You are already acquainted with Mr. Hoyt, I believe. The other
+gentlemen--but opportunity will doubtless serve." He bowed and withdrew.
+
+Indiman dropped into an easy-chair and lit a cigar. "Les miserables,"
+he said to me in an undertone. "Look at them."
+
+In truth, it was a strange company with whom we had foregathered. There
+were perhaps a dozen men in the room, and each seemed absorbed in the
+listless contemplation of his own dejected personality. The large table
+in the centre of the room was laden with newspapers and periodicals,
+but no one had taken the trouble to displace the neat files in which
+they had been arranged. The card-room adjoining was untenanted; the
+green-baize tables, with their complement of shiny, new packs of cards
+and metal counters, bore no evidence of use; in the billiard-room at
+the back a marker slept restfully in his high-legged chair. Assuredly,
+the members of the Utinam Club were not advocates of the strenuous life.
+
+It was after six o'clock now, and the big room was beginning to fill up
+with later arrivals. Yet there was none of the cheerful hum and bustle
+ordinarily characteristic of such a gathering. A man would enter and
+pass to his place unfavored by even the courtesy of a friendly glance;
+at least a score of men had made their first appearance within the last
+quarter of an hour, and not a single word of greeting or recognition
+had I heard exchanged. Among them was Mr. Colman Hoyt, the unsuccessful
+Arctic explorer. He passed close to where Indiman and I sat, yet never
+looked at us. An odd set, these our fellow-members of the Utinam, and
+one naturally wondered why they came to the club at all. But we were
+now to learn.
+
+As I have said, the building was entirely windowless, ventilation being
+secured by forced draught from an engine-room in the basement.
+Consequently, artificial light was necessary at all times, and a very
+agreeable quality of it was furnished by electroliers concealed behind
+ground-glass slides in the walls and ceilings of the various
+apartments. The light thus obtained was diffused rather than direct,
+and, being colorless, it closely approximated natural conditions, the
+delusion being heightened by the construction of the wall panels so as
+to simulate windows. To add again to the effect, these lights had been
+gradually lowered as the day wore on. Now it must be almost dark in the
+outside world, and it was twilight in the common room of the Utinam
+Club; I could no longer distinguish between the motionless figures of
+the men around me and the shadows that enveloped them. Even the fire
+was dying out; in a few moments the darkness would become profound, and
+I felt my pulse slow down with the chill of the thought.
+
+One single ember remained in the fireplace; I watched it gleaming like
+a great red eye in its bed of ashes, then it winked and went out, and
+at the same instant the last ray from the false windows disappeared.
+Strain my eyes as I would, the sensitive retina remained absolutely
+unaffected; the darkness had finally come, and from one to another of
+that desolate company ran a little, tremulous sigh, then the silence of
+complete negation.
+
+From the apex of the domed ceiling a sudden and wonderful effulgence of
+rose-colored light streamed forth, flooding the great room with
+glorious color and life. Magical were its effects. Men straightened up
+in their chairs and looked about them, the flush of returning animation
+in their cheeks, and their eyes bright with questioning interest. A
+youngish chap leaned over and spoke earnestly to his neighbor, then
+some one laughed aloud. Instantly the flood-gates were opened; the air
+was vibrant with the hum of conversation, the ringing of call-bells,
+and the sputtering of fusees. A blue haze of cigarette-smoke formed
+itself above the heads of the assemblage; the Utinam Club had come to
+its own again.
+
+The large folding-doors at the east end were now opened, disclosing the
+supper-room beyond--a spacious apartment, and decorated with a barbaric
+splendor of gilding and intricate plastic work. I remarked particularly
+the preponderance of the red tints; indeed, no other shade of color
+could I discover--but of this more particularly hereafter. Indiman
+looked at me, and we trooped out with the rest--que voulez-vous? One
+must always dine.
+
+We found a small table; the napery and glass were exquisite, the
+cuisine and service perfect. We surrendered ourselves to the
+allurements of the hour. I was conscious of an unusual lightness and
+exhilaration of spirit; Indiman's eyes were sparkling with unwonted
+brilliancy. I raised my champagne-glass: "To the Utinam Club," I said,
+with enthusiasm, and rather more loudly than I had intended. The toast
+was at once re-echoed from every mouth, and a burst of laughter
+followed.
+
+A late-comer entered and looked about the room somewhat uncertainly,
+for all the tables had been taken. It was Mr. Colman Hoyt. He saw us
+and smiled genially. "We have room here," called out Indiman, and he
+joined us.
+
+"I am fortunate as ever," he said, as he took his seat. "New friends,
+old wine; and our chef's sauce tartare is incomparable to-night. What
+more can the heart of man desire?"
+
+"Not even the North Pole?" said Indiman.
+
+"Ah, the Pole! Bah! I can put my hand on it when I want it. Did I tell
+you that I start to-morrow on my fifth expedition? Success is certain.
+Will you honor me by drinking to it?" We drank solemnly.
+
+"I thought you were wearing a dark-green scarf," I interrupted,
+somewhat irrelevantly, speaking to Indiman.
+
+"I am," he replied.
+
+"It is red," I insisted. "Not green at all."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Indiman, and thereupon Mr. Colman Hoyt burst into a
+cackle of laughter.
+
+"Complementary colors," he said. "All the blue, green, and yellow rays
+are excluded from this kindly light invented by our friend Magnus;
+consequently there can be no sensation of those colors within our
+vision."
+
+"A curious fancy," said Indiman.
+
+"Say rather the most glorious and beneficent of discoveries," retorted
+Mr. Hoyt. "All life and vigor and power of achievement are dependent
+upon the red end of the spectrum. Incapacity, failure, disease,
+death-they are generated by the violet rays alone; eliminate them, and
+the problem of existence is solved. All hail to thee, O Magnus, and to
+thy incomparable genius! Light of lights! All hail!"
+
+A score of voices took up the cry, and I know that I shouted with the
+rest. Then I felt Indiman's hand upon my arm; my sober senses partially
+returned. "Keep hold of yourself," he whispered, and the warning came
+in time, I pushed away my wineglass, and thereafter ate only enough of
+the exquisitely seasoned viands to satisfy my hunger. And all the while
+Mr. Colman Hoyt babbled foolishly about the white glories of the queen
+of the North; to-morrow he should again be on the way to her dear
+embraces. "The Pole, gentlemen; behold, I arrive; c'est moi!"
+
+We passed out into the general room. The card-tables were now full, the
+billiard-balls rolled incessantly across the green cloth; from an inner
+room came the unmistakable click of a roulette-wheel. Men talked loudly
+of their projects and ambitions shortly to be accomplished. An epic
+poet was about to publish his magnum opus, the birth of a new star in
+the poetical firmament; a speculator had made his great coup--to-morrow
+he would have the wheat market cornered.
+
+"My novel!" cried one. "My symphony!" retorted another. A third said no
+word, but looked at the miniature of a woman's face that he held in the
+hollow of his hand--looked and smiled.
+
+The night wore away; nay, speeded were the better word, for no one felt
+any suggestion even of weariness or satiety. Then suddenly the rose
+glow grew dimmer; little by little the laughter died away and the
+voices were hushed. A few of the bolder spirits set themselves to stem
+the receding tide, but their blasphemies quickly trailed away into weak
+incoherencies, and again silence conquered all. And darkness fell.
+
+A servant crossed the room and drew aside the heavy velvet curtains
+draping the false windows; the pure, colorless light streamed in, but
+it disclosed a world in tinge all blue and green and indigo. Our eyes,
+so long deprived of the rays emanating from the violet end of the
+spectrum, were now affected by them alone; every object was horribly
+transformed by the bluish-green bands surrounding and outlining it. A
+man brushed carelessly past me; it was Colman Hoyt, and his face was of
+a man already dead; his lips moved, but no sound issued from them. He
+passed into the model-room connecting on the west with the central
+hall; there was the sound of a fall, and Indiman and I followed
+quickly. Yet not quickly enough, for across the great globe upon which
+were traced the records of his four unsuccessful expeditions lay the
+body of Colman Hoyt. He was a heavy man, and he had evidently flung
+himself at his full weight upon the sharp, arrow-pointed rod that
+served as the axis of this miniature world; it had pierced to his very
+heart. The North Pole-at last he had reached it.
+
+"Let us go," said Indiman to me, and we stole quickly away.
+
+Now, in the vestibule below, a young man who had entered in haste
+pushed rudely past us and made for the row of private letter-boxes
+fixed opposite the coat-room. He paused at box No. 82 and gazed eagerly
+into it. The front was of glass, and I could see readily that the box
+was empty. The young man had his pass-key in his hand, but it was
+clearly useless to insert it, and he finally turned away, his
+countenance displaying the bitterest sense of disappointment. His
+wildly roving eye encountered that of Esper Indiman. "Sir!" he began,
+impetuously, then checked himself, bowed ceremoniously, and was gone.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+The Private Letter-Box
+
+
+I had agreed to meet Esper Indiman at the Utinam and dine there. The
+weather had turned cold again, for it was the end of our changeable
+March, and the fireplace in the common room of the club was heaped high
+with hickory logs, a cheerful sight, were it not for that odious motto,
+"Non Possumus," graven over the mantel-shelf where it must inevitably
+meet every eye. Never could I read it without a tightening at my
+heartstrings; a potency of blighting evil seemed to lie in the very
+words.
+
+There were but two or three club members in the room, one of them the
+young Mr. Sydenham, who had attracted my attention once or twice before
+by the infinite wretchedness of his face. A mere boy, too, hardly
+five-and-twenty at the most. He sat in a big chair, a magazine with its
+leaves uncut lying in his lap. For an hour or more he had not stirred;
+then he rang for a servant, directing him to inquire for any mail that
+might have come in the afternoon delivery. Nothing for Mr. Sydenham was
+the report, and again the young man relapsed into his melancholy
+musing. An hour later, and just after Indiman had joined me, Mr.
+Sydenham repeated his inquiry about his letters, receiving the same
+negative answer--"Nothing for Mr. Sydenham." Evidently the
+disappointment was not unexpected, but it was none the less a bitter
+one. With a sigh which he hardly attempted to stifle, the young man
+took up his uncut magazine and made a pretence at examining its
+contents; I watched him with a lively but silent pity; any active
+sympathy might have seemed obtrusive.
+
+A servant stood at the young man's elbow holding a salver on which lay
+a missive of some sort, a telegraphic message, to judge by the flimsy,
+buff envelope.
+
+"Telegram, sir," said the man, at length. "For Mr. Sydenham; yes, sir.
+Will you sign for it?"
+
+The boy turned slowly, and there was a shaking horror in his eyes that
+made me feel sick. He signed the book and took the message from the
+salver, apparently acting against a sense of the most intense
+repulsion, and for all that unable to help himself. The message once in
+his hand he did not seem to concern himself overmuch with its possible
+import; presently the envelope fell from his inert fingers and
+fluttered down at Indiman's feet. The latter picked it up and handed it
+to the young man, who thanked him in a voice barely audible.
+
+"The man is waiting to see if there is any answer," suggested Indiman,
+quietly.
+
+Mr. Sydenham started, colored deeply, and tore open the envelope. He
+read the message through carefully, then perused it for a second and a
+third time, and sat motionless, staring into vacancy.
+
+Indiman leaned forward. "Well?" he said, sharply.
+
+The young man looked up; the cool confidence of Indiman's gaze seemed
+suddenly to inspire in him a feeling of trust; he took the risk; he
+handed the message to Indiman. "What answer would you advise me to
+give?" he said.
+
+The message contained these words:
+
+"The Empire State express passes the Fifty-third Street bridge at 8.35
+o'clock to-morrow morning. You can drop from the guard-rail. Is life
+more than honor? Answer.  V. S."
+
+Indiman looked at me, then he rose and took Mr. Sydenham by the arm.
+"Let us go into the card-room," he said, quietly. "Thorp, will you
+come?"
+
+The young man's story was very simple. He had held until lately the
+position of cashier in the firm of Sandford & Sands, stock-brokers. On
+January 15th a shortage of fifty thousand dollars had been discovered
+in his books. Mr. Sandford being an intimate friend of the elder
+Sydenham had declined to prosecute. That was all.
+
+"Let us proceed frankly, Mr. Sydenham," said Indiman. "Did you take the
+money?"
+
+"I am beginning to think so," answered the young man, dully.
+
+"Come," said Indiman, encouragingly, "that does not sound like a
+confession of guilt. Don't you know?"
+
+Mr. Sydenham shook his head. "I can't tell you," he answered,
+hopelessly. "My accounts were in perfect order up to January 10th, when
+I discovered that our bank balance showed a discrepancy of fifty
+thousand dollars. I covered it over for the time, hoping to find the
+source of the error. Five days later I told Mr. Sandford. The money was
+gone, and that was all that I could say."
+
+"Let us recall the events of January 9th. Did you make your regular
+deposit that day, and where?"
+
+"We keep our account at the Bank of Commerce. But that afternoon I
+overlooked a package of bills in large denominations. I sent another
+messenger over to the bank, but it was after three o'clock and the
+deposit was refused. The boy brought the money back to me--the package
+contained fifty thousand dollars."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"I don't know. I might have locked it up in our own safe or carried it
+home with me or pitched it out of the window. It is all a blank."
+
+"Did you stay at the office later than usual that day?"
+
+"Yes; I was busy with some of Mr. Sandford's private affairs, and that
+delayed me until all the others had gone. I left about five o'clock."
+
+"And now who is V. S.? Pardon me, but the question is necessary."
+
+"Miss Valentine Sandford--Mr. Sandford's daughter. I was engaged to be
+married to her."
+
+"Since when?"
+
+"I had proposed and was waiting for my answer. Then that very day she
+sent me a telegram. It contained the single word 'yes' and was signed
+by her initials. It came at the same moment that the messenger brought
+back the money from the bank."
+
+"And it is the same V. S, who sends this message?" asked Indiman,
+smoothing out the telegraph blank which he held in his hand.
+
+The young man took a bundle of papers from his breast-pocket. They were
+all telegraphic messages, and each was a suggestion towards
+self-destruction in one form or another. "Suicide's corner" at Niagara,
+poison, the rope--all couched in language of devilish ingenuity in
+innuendo, and ending in every instance with the expression, "Is life
+more than honor? Answer. V. S."
+
+"I have had at least one every day," said the young man. "Sometimes two
+or three. Generally in the morning, but they also come at any hour."
+
+"And Miss Sandford?"
+
+"I wrote and told her of my terrible misfortune, released her from the
+unannounced engagement, and begged her to believe in me until I could
+clear myself. I have not seen her since the fatal day of the 15th of
+January."
+
+"And you have received from her only these--these messages?"
+
+"That is all."
+
+"And you think they come from her?"
+
+"No; or I should have killed myself long ago. But there are times when
+I have to take a tight hold on myself; to-day is one of them," he
+added, very simply.
+
+"Mr. Sydenham," said Indiman, solemnly, "I now know you to be an
+innocent man. Had it been otherwise you would long since have succumbed
+under this mysterious and terrible pressure."
+
+"I am innocent!" repeated the young man. "But to prove it?"
+
+"It shall be proved."
+
+"The money?"
+
+"It shall be found."
+
+"Through whom?"
+
+"Yourself. A simple lapse of memory is the undoubted explanation. The
+gap must be bridged, that is all. Will you put yourself in my hands?"
+
+"Unreservedly."
+
+"Good! I desire then that you should return to your home and wait there
+until you hear from me. The address--thank you. You had better leave
+the club at once; this atmosphere is not the most wholesome for a man
+in your position."
+
+Mr. Sydenham proved most amenable to all of Indiman's suggestions, and
+we did not lose sight of him until he was finally on his way uptown in
+a Columbus Avenue car.
+
+"A good subject," remarked Indiman, "and it should be comparatively
+easy to get at the submerged consciousness in his case. A simple
+reconstruction of the scene should be sufficient."
+
+"You don't think the money was stolen, then?"
+
+"Not at all. It will be found in some safe place, its disposal being an
+act of Sydenham's subliminal personality, of which his normal
+consciousness knows nothing."
+
+"But why--"
+
+"The man was NOT himself that ninth day of January. He had received a
+tremendous impression in the receipt of that message from Miss
+Sandford. He was an accepted lover, and the consciousness, for the time
+being, swept him off his feet. He was doing his work mechanically, and
+it did not matter so long as it was only routine. Then came the
+emergency, and, objectively, he was unable to cope with it. The
+subjective personality took command and did the right thing, for
+Sydenham is an honest man. What action the subliminal self actually
+took is known only to itself, and no effort of Sydenham's normal memory
+will suffice to recall it. But there are other means of getting at the
+truth. The most practical is to reproduce the situation as exactly as
+possible. Given the same first causes and we get the identical results.
+First, now to see Mr. Sandford, with whom luckily I have some
+acquaintance."
+
+It was like the playing of a game, the scene in Sandford & Sand's
+office that following afternoon. The staff of clerks had been sent home
+as soon as possible after three o'clock, all save the young man who
+acted as bank messenger. The calendar on the wall had been set back to
+January 9th, and the HERALD of that date lay half-opened on Sydenham's
+old desk. It will be remembered that Sydenham had been detained on some
+of Mr. Sandford's private business, and it was perfectly feasible to
+reconstruct its details. Mr. Sandford had been coached in his part by
+Indiman, and the preparations for the experiment being finally
+perfected, Sydenham was called in. He appeared, dressed in the same
+clothes that he had worn the month before, looking a little pale,
+indeed, but resolute and collected.
+
+"Mr. Sydenham," said Indiman, keeping his eyes fixed on the young man's
+face, "you will observe that this is January 9, 1903. Kindly seat
+yourself at your desk, and remain there as passive as possible. Wait
+now until we withdraw."
+
+Through the half-opened door of Mr. Sandford's private office we could
+see distinctly all that passed. Sydenham sat motionless at his desk;
+Alden, the bank messenger, was within call in the outer office. The
+hands of the clock, which had been set back, pointed to five minutes of
+three.
+
+A telegraph delivery boy entered and handed Sydenham a yellow envelope.
+He signed for it and the boy withdrew. He opened it, and instead of a
+written message drew out a fresh sprig of heliotrope. Motionless and
+scarcely breathing, he sat and gazed at it as though he could never
+fill his eyes with the sight.
+
+"Now," said Indiman, pushing Mr. Sandford into the room where the young
+cashier sat.
+
+The conversation was a brief one, relating to the papers that Mr.
+Sandford carried in his hand.
+
+"Leave them on your way up-town in my box at the safe-deposit company,"
+concluded Mr. Sandford. Then he took his hat and went out.
+
+Sydenham swung back to his desk; the HERALD lying there was in his way,
+and he tossed it onto the floor. Underneath lay a package of bills of
+large denominations.
+
+The cashier acted quickly. "Alden!" he called, and the messenger came
+running in.
+
+"I overlooked this package," said Sydenham; "it contains fifty thousand
+dollars. Do you think you can get to the bank with it? You have a
+minute and a half."
+
+The messenger seized the package and dashed away. Sydenham looked again
+at the sprig of heliotrope; he pressed it passionately to his lips.
+Then carefully placing it in his pocket-book, he began an examination
+of the papers left by Mr. Sandford. The clock struck three.
+
+The clerk Alden re-entered. "They wouldn't take it," he said, and
+handed the package of bills to Sydenham.
+
+"Oh, very well," said the cashier, absently, "I'll take care of it.
+That's all, Alden; you can go."
+
+For an hour or more Sydenham worked steadily. Then, gathering the
+papers together, he rose, took off his office-coat, and began making
+preparations to depart. Once he came into Mr. Sandford's private
+office, where we were sitting, but apparently he did not notice our
+presence. Indiman gripped my hand hard. "Going splendidly," he
+whispered.
+
+The cashier put on his hat and top-coat. The legal papers were
+carefully stowed in an inside pocket, and he was about to close down
+his roll-top desk when the package of bank-bills met his eye. He
+frowned perplexedly; then picking up the bundle he dropped it into the
+same pocket with the papers belonging to Mr. Sandford. He went out,
+closing the door behind him.
+
+We followed as quickly as we could, but this time luck was against
+us--Sydenham had disappeared.
+
+"To the safe-deposit company," said Indiman, and we jumped into a
+hansom. Mr. Sandford was there, and we waited impatiently for
+Sydenham's appearance; it was the only chance of again picking up the
+lost trail.
+
+There he came, walking slowly up Nassau Street, his manner a trifle
+preoccupied and his eyes bent on the pavement. Opposite the
+safe-deposit company he stopped and thrust his hand into a
+waistcoat-pocket. He took it away empty and a terrible change came over
+his face. With a quick movement he drew out the bundle of bank-notes
+and regarded it fixedly. A cry burst from his lips; he reeled and fell,
+the money still clutched in his hand.
+
+Instantly we were at his side. A coach was at hand, and we got him into
+it and directed the driver to proceed to Indiman's lodgings. The attack
+had been but a momentary one, and Sydenham revived as we turned out of
+Park Row. He looked at us, then at the money in his hand.
+
+"It has failed," he said, brokenly, and none of us could say a word. "I
+came to myself," continued Sydenham, with forced calmness, "there in
+Nassau Street; it was as though I had awakened from a dream. The
+money--it was in my hand. I stood before the world, a self-convicted
+thief. I thank you; you have done your best, but it is useless." He
+passed the money to Mr. Sandford; mechanically his hand went to the
+inside breast-pocket of his over-coat; he drew out the package of legal
+papers bearing Mr. Sandford's name. "But--but," he stammered, "I don't
+understand--I left these in your box at the safe-deposit company."
+
+"To be sure you did," answered Indiman, coolly. He pulled the
+check-cord. "Drive back to the safe deposit," he called to the hackman.
+
+"Now, then," said Indiman, in a quiet, matter-of-fact tone, "will you
+tell me the conditions under which you had access to Mr. Sandford's
+vault. Of course your name as an authorized agent of Mr. Sandford was
+on the company's books. You had your pass-key, of course?"
+
+"No," said Mr. Sandford. "There was but one pass-key, and that I kept
+myself. When Mr. Sydenham had any business to do for me at the
+safe-deposit vaults I would let him have the key temporarily."
+
+"You gave it to him on that particular day, the 9th of January?"
+continued Indiman.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where is it now?" almost shouted Indiman.
+
+"Here," said Mr. Sandford, in surprise. "On my key-ring."
+
+"Exactly. There is the broken link in our psychological chain. When Mr.
+Sydenham felt for the pass-key, which should have been in his pocket,
+he discovered that it was missing. Instantly the continuity of events
+was broken, the subliminal personality was again submerged, and Mr.
+Sydenham's normal consciousness was re-established. Mr. Sandford, you
+are perfectly aware of the fact that these legal papers were properly
+deposited in your vault, and that the pass-key was returned to you by
+Mr. Sydenham on the morning of January 10th. Gentlemen, it is evident
+that we shall find the original fifty thousand dollars lying in Mr.
+Sandford's strong-box, where it was left by Mr. Sydenham on the
+afternoon of January 9th."
+
+I confess that I was mightily excited when the moment came to test the
+correctness of Indiman's deductions. We were shown into a private room,
+and, under Mr. Sandford's eye, the treasure-box belonging to him was
+carried in and opened. Almost at the bottom lay a long, brown Manila
+envelope fastened with three red rubber bands. It contained fifty
+one-thousand-dollar bills.
+
+"I noticed that envelope several times," explained Mr. Sandford, "but
+supposed it contained some mining stock. You see here is another
+envelope identical in appearance and lying directly beneath it. Mr.
+Sydenham never suggested even that he might have left the missing money
+in my safe-deposit vault."
+
+"It never occurred to me that I could have done so," said Sydenham. "I
+remembered making a deposit of the papers--but the money, no, I had no
+recollection of having seen or touched it from the moment that Alden
+brought it back from the bank and laid it on my desk."
+
+"Gentlemen," said Mr. Sandford, "I am indebted to you for much more
+than the mere recovery of the money. But we will speak of that again.
+Where can I put you down? Mr. Sydenham I shall carry off to my house; I
+want to have a talk with him."
+
+But Indiman declined to re-enter the coach, pleading some further
+business down-town, and, of course, I remained with him. The carriage
+was about to drive off when Indiman put up his hand.
+
+"How stupid of me!" he exclaimed. "I had almost forgotten." He took
+from the pocket of his overcoat a rather bulky package and handed it to
+young Mr. Sydenham. "They'll explain themselves," he said, smiling. The
+coach rolled away.
+
+"The missing letters from V. S.," said Indiman, in answer to my look of
+inquiry. "An average of two a day, and all addressed to him at the
+Utinam. Well, what was the poor girl to do? The young fool had changed
+his lodgings and obliterated every possible trace of his whereabouts.
+All Miss Sandford had to go on was the bare intimation that he could be
+addressed at the Utinam Club. She might as well have posted her
+communications in the North River."
+
+"I don't follow you."
+
+"Two days ago I put a dummy letter addressed to Sydenham in his private
+lock-box at the Utinam. I had promised, you know, to send him on his
+mail if he would keep away from the club, and accordingly I had the key
+of the letter-box in my possession. Ten minutes later I went again to
+the box and it was empty--that is, you could see distinctly from one
+end of the box to the other, and it was absolutely bare."
+
+"A duplicate key, of course."
+
+"Not at all. It is only a stupid person who descends to crime--except
+as a last resort."
+
+"Well, then?"
+
+"Did you ever attend any of the exhibitions at the old Egyptian Hall?
+One of the favorite illusions was the trick cabinet in which the
+performer seated himself in full view of the spectators. The doors
+would be closed for an instant, and then, when reopened, the man had
+disappeared. The full interior of the cabinet was plainly visible; it
+stood on legs, which precluded the idea of a trap-door, and it was
+incontestably shown that egress from the back, top, or sides was
+impossible."
+
+"Yet the performer was gone?"
+
+"I said that the cabinet appeared to be empty--quite another thing."
+
+"Go on."
+
+"It was a simple arrangement of plate-glass mirrors fitting closely at
+the sides and backed by the distinctive pattern of wall-paper with
+which the rest of the cabinet was covered. Immediately that the doors
+were closed, the performer drew these false sides outward, so that they
+met the centre post of the doors at an acute angle. The true side walls
+were thereby exposed, and, of course, they were papered to correspond
+with the rest of the interior. Their reflection was doubled in the
+mirrors, making it appear to the observer that the whole cabinet was
+open to his vision. The truth was that he saw only half of it, the
+performer being concealed behind the mirrors. The only possible point
+at which the illusion could be detected was the angle where the mirrors
+joined, and this was masked by the centre post at which the double
+doors met. To conclude the trick, the doors were again closed, the
+performer swung the mirrors back into place, and, presto! he was back
+in the cabinet, smiling genially at the gaping crowd."
+
+"Then you think--"
+
+"I know. Lock-box No. 82 was constructed on the same principle in
+miniature, the letter-slit being placed in such a position that
+anything deposited in the box fell behind the mirrors, the whole
+interior remaining apparently visible through the glass front, and
+presumably empty. The owner of the box would naturally glance into it
+before actually using his pass-key. Obviously, it were a waste of time
+to go through the form of opening an EMPTY box, and so poor Sydenham
+never got any of the letters that were daily deposited there, for the
+receptacle is a large one and the secret place behind the mirrors was
+almost full. The action of unlocking the box operated upon an interior
+mechanism that swung back the mirrors at the same instant that the door
+was pulled open. After seeing my dummy disappear, I tried the
+experiment, and was amply rewarded.
+
+"There isn't much more to tell. When I saw the letters lying there I
+knew that it was all right so far as the girl was concerned. I had only
+to acquaint Miss Sandford with the circumstances in the case to secure
+her further co-operation, for, of course, she had never ceased to
+believe in her lover. She prepared and sent the message which you saw
+delivered to Sydenham in Sandford's office this afternoon.
+
+"But it was not the same as the one received by him on the actual
+January 9th. That contained a word, 'yes,' and was signed by her
+initials; this second one consisted simply of a sprig of heliotrope."
+
+"Do you understand the language of flowers? The heliotrope means, 'Je
+t'adore,' and Sydenham understood it instantly, as you saw."
+
+"Yes; but why--"
+
+"To repeat the original message would not have impressed him as I
+wished; it would simply have seemed part of the illusion which he knew
+perfectly well we were endeavoring to create. The problem was to
+suddenly startle him by a real communication from V. S., and, above
+all, to have it of such a nature as to convince him that the cloud
+between them had finally lifted. Now, without trust and confidence,
+true love is impossible. The message of the sprig of heliotrope told
+him all that he had been hungering and longing to hear throughout these
+terrible two months; the shock was sufficient to drive the normal
+consciousness from its seat and permit the subliminal self to take
+control. In other words, it practically put him back in the identical
+mental mood of the afternoon of January 9th, and that was the crucial
+point of the whole experiment. Anything more?"
+
+"Who sent the false telegrams?"
+
+"Of course, you would ask that. I don't know."
+
+"Such a monstrous wickedness! It is inconceivable."
+
+"Yes, unless we admit the existence of a spirit of pure malevolence
+seeking to drive an innocent man to self-destruction for no other
+motive than that of doing evil for evil's sake. That such an
+intelligence has been active in this case is certain; or how explain
+the cheat of the letter-box, a necessary factor in the problem, as you
+will admit?"
+
+"But you don't know."
+
+"Not yet," answered my friend Indiman.
+
+We dined down-town that evening, and it was about nine o'clock when we
+called a hackney-coach and started homeward. As we drove on up the
+Bowery an illuminated transparency caught our eyes.
+
+"'Fair and Bazaar,'" read Indiman. "'Benefit of the United
+House-smiths' Benevolent Association.' What is a house-smith, Thorp?
+Evidently we will have to go and find out for ourselves." He pulled the
+check-cord and gave the driver the new direction. Pure foolishness, of
+course, but Indiman was not to be put out of his humor.
+
+Up one flight of stairs to a large, low-ceilinged hall that was jammed
+to suffocation. A score of gayly trimmed booths wherein were displayed
+various articles of feminine fallals and cheap bric-a-brac, each
+presided over by a lady house-smith. "Or should it be house-smithess?"
+asked Indiman. "Hullo! What's this?"
+
+Behind a long counter covered with red-paper muslin sat a dozen young
+women of more or less pronounced personal charms, and a huge placard
+announced that, kisses were on sale at the uniform price of fifty
+cents. "Take your own choice." Smaller cards bore the various cognomens
+assumed for the occasion by the fair venders of osculatory delights.
+"Cleopatra," "The Fair One with Golden Locks," "Kathleen Mavourneen,"
+"Pocahontas," or more simply, albeit not less mysteriously, "Miss A.
+B.," or "Mademoiselle X." Of course, each had dressed the part as
+nearly as might be, and the exhibition was certainly attractive to the
+masculine eye. In questionable taste, no doubt, but one does not stand
+upon trifles when it is all for sweet charity's sake.
+
+"My dear Thorp," said Indiman, with the utmost gravity, "have you half
+a dollar in your pocket? Then come with me," and forthwith we jammed
+and corkscrewed our way through the crowd until we reached the long
+counter covered with red-paper muslin.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+The Ninety-and-nine Kisses
+
+
+The fair and bazaar of the United House-smiths' Benevolent Association
+was assuredly a tremendous success, and not the least of its
+attractions was the open market where kisses might be purchased at the
+ridiculously small price of fifty cents each. But "Cash before
+delivery" was the motto, and on the counter in front of each young
+woman stood a brass bowl in which the purchaser deposited his
+money--"Free list entirely suspended." One could see that "The Fair One
+with Golden Locks," a large, full-fed blonde with extraordinarily vivid
+red cheeks, had been doing a rushing business; her bowl was overflowing
+with notes and coin. And the others also had done well, all except
+"Mademoiselle D.," the girl at the far end; she had not made a single
+sale. A slight little thing, pale and somewhat anxious-looking; no
+wonder that customers had passed her by. Then she looked up, and we
+both caught our breath. What eyes! Eyes of the purest, serenest
+gray--gray of that rare quality that holds no tint of either green or
+blue. Her eyes were her one beauty indeed, but the superlative miracle
+of loveliness is best seen when it stands alone. And these dolts of
+house-smiths had passed on to sample the pink-and-white confectionery
+at the other end of the counter.
+
+"One hundred, if you please," and Indiman laid a fifty-dollar bill in
+the bowl of the girl with the gray eyes. The crowd stopped and gaped,
+and "Mademoiselle D." turned from white to red and then to white again.
+
+"Bought up the whole stock, boss?" asked a foolish-looking youth whose
+collar was slowly but surely choking him to death.
+
+"Better take a couple on account," said the pert damsel attached to the
+young fellow's arm; "they might turn sour on you, Mister Man."
+
+"Give 'em away with a pound of tea," put in a third joker. "Eh, Josie?"
+
+"Let's get away from here," whispered Indiman to me. "The girl looks as
+though she might faint."
+
+We pushed on through the crowd that continued to chaff us
+good-naturedly--"joshing" they called it. Then we managed to struggle
+into a sort of backwater at the side of the dais upon which an alleged
+string band was trying to make good, as the scornful Miss Josie
+remarked.
+
+"There's something wrong in this, Thorp," said Indiman to me, in an
+undertone. "Did you notice the stout man who stood immediately behind
+her?"
+
+"The chap with one ear a full size larger than the other? Yes, I did."
+
+"He never takes his eyes from her, and I believe that the girl is here
+against her will."
+
+"Indiman!--" I began, but he cut me short.
+
+"I know it, I tell you, and I'm going to take her away. Do you see that
+electric-light switch on the wall behind you?"
+
+Back of the musicians' platform was a small wall cupboard holding the
+usual apparatus for controlling the incandescent lights with which the
+hall was illuminated. "Pull down both handles when I give the signal,"
+he went on, imperturbably.
+
+"What signal?"
+
+Indiman considered. "I'll take one of my kisses," he said, smiling.
+
+"I'll do nothing of the kind."
+
+"Oh yes, you will. Remember now--the instant that I bend down to kiss
+her."
+
+He was gone, leaving me to curse his folly. I tried to overtake him,
+but the foolish youth and his Josie blocked my way, intentionally, it
+seemed; that was part of their joshing of the stranger within the
+house-smiths' gates. I stepped up on the platform, and looked for
+Indiman. He had just reached the counter covered with red-paper muslin;
+he pushed his way up to the girl with the gray eyes and said something
+to her. She seemed to shrink away. Indiman turned for an instant and
+looked back at me, then he bent down and kissed her.
+
+Without having had the slightest intention of so doing, I pulled down
+both handles; the hall was in instant and utter darkness. For a moment
+the following silence persisted, menacing and deadly; it was as though
+panic had suddenly reared her frightful head, a wild beast ready to
+spring.
+
+A girl's light laugh turned the scale. "Trying to raid the fruit-stand,
+are you, bub?" went on Miss Josie, in her thin, cool voice. "Thought
+you could pinch a couple in the dark of the moon; but nay, nay,
+Thomas--those two smacks 'll just cost you supper for four. I'm not
+sitting behind the bargain-counter to-day, thank you."
+
+A babel of cat-calls, oaths, and laughter broke out, but the tension
+had been released and the danger was over. I pushed and jammed through
+the crowd to the stairs. No one was attempting to leave; in the hall
+they had just got the lights turned on again. I started down.
+
+"Here, you!"
+
+I looked back; the stout man with the disproportionate ears stood at
+the head of the stairs, hemmed in by the crowd. He panted and shook his
+clinched fist at me. "You!--you!" he shouted, impotently. I ran on.
+
+In the street below Indiman was helping the girl into the coach. He
+turned as I ran up.
+
+"Good!" he said, and offered me his cigarette-case.
+
+"The big fellow is coming down," I urged.
+
+"Have a light," said Indiman. "And now, my son, allons!"
+
+I stepped into the coach, and Indiman after me. There was a sound of
+angry voices from the hall above; two or three men dashed down the
+stairway, others following.
+
+"Drive on!" shouted Indiman, and the carriage started. Then we both
+turned and looked blankly at that empty back seat.
+
+Indiman bit his lip. "It is an old trick--leaving by the other door,"
+he said, quietly. "It was while we were lighting our cigarettes; and
+that reminds me that I have decided to give up the habit." He tossed
+his cigarette out of the window; the coach rolled away.
+
+Private business called me to Washington the next day, and I had to
+take the night train back, arriving in New York at the uncomfortably
+early hour of seven. But it was some small satisfaction to rap
+vigorously upon Indiman's door as I passed to my own room. One always
+experiences a sense of virtue in being up at unseasonable hours, and
+blessings should be shared with one's friends. Later on we met at
+breakfast, and he did not thank me.
+
+The following paragraph in the "Personal" column of the HERALD caught
+my eye. "Listen to this," I said, and read it aloud to my sulky host:
+
+"'To Mademoiselle D.,--There are ninety-and-nine kisses still due me,
+and I propose to collect. Box 90, Herald office (up-town), or telephone
+18,901 Madison Square. (Private wire.) "'HOUSE-SMITH.'"
+
+Esper Indiman smiled and touched an electric button. "The letters,
+Bolder," he said, but the man had anticipated his request, and was
+carrying in a salver heaped high with missives and papers.
+
+"I had the personal put in the HERALD the same night of our adventure
+at the House-smiths' bazaar," said Indiman. "Also repeated in to-day's
+issue."
+
+"It seems to be bearing a fine crop of replies."
+
+"There's a bushel-basket of 'em already--mostly from the alleged
+humorist. Or else it's this sort of thing," and he tossed over an
+extraordinary piece of stationery--white cream-laid, with edging like a
+mourning band, only pink instead of black; think of that!
+
+Of course, the contents of the letter did not belie its exterior. "Mr.
+House-smith" was informed that not only ninety-nine, but nine hundred
+and ninety-nine, kisses were at his disposal whenever he cared to
+communicate with Miss Delicia Millefleurs. The writing was somewhat
+shaky, and "communicate" was spelled with one m. Moreover, the general
+appearance of the epistle was marred by the presence of a large blot.
+But Miss Millefleurs was plainly a young person of instant ingenuity,
+and she had turned the disfigurement to good purpose by drawing a
+circle around it and labelling it, "One on account."
+
+"Then there's this," said Indiman, and handed me a sheet of foolscap
+which had been folded and sealed without an envelope, after the fashion
+of our great-grandfathers. On it was pasted a strip of the tape used in
+electric-recording instruments, and the characters were those of the
+Morse alphabet, rather an unusual sight nowadays, when receiving
+messages by sound is the universal practice. Underneath the row of dots
+and dashes had been written their English equivalents in Indiman's
+small, close handwriting. The transcribed message read:
+
+"One thousand (s) dollars apiece (s) offered for any or all of
+ninety-nine (s) kisses, undelivered. Take car No. 6 (s), 'Blue Line'
+crosstown, any (s) evening, and get off at West Fourth Street. Purchase
+two pounds of the best (s) butter at the corner grocery, and ask for a
+purple trading (s) stamp."
+
+"Quite as extravagant as the advertisement that called it forth," I
+remarked. "To the wholly impartial mind it seems like nonsense."
+
+"'Ah, but what precious nonsense!'" quoted Indiman, musingly. Then,
+suddenly: "Thorp, we need butter; I wish you'd step around to that West
+Fourth Street grocery and get a couple of pounds--the best butter,
+mind."
+
+I rose. "Certainly; back in half an hour."
+
+"Oh, this evening is time enough. Man, man, can't you see through a
+ladder? They're after the girl with the gray eyes, and hope in this way
+to get a clew to her whereabouts. Now, you can't fight shadows; the
+only chance is to match them against each other. Do I make myself quite
+clear?"
+
+"Not in the least."
+
+"I want to know who sends that message, and it's possible that the
+answer is right under our eyes." He held up the strip of telegraphic
+tape. "Do you see the letter S, enclosed in parentheses, and repeated
+before several words?"
+
+"Means nothing, so far as I see."
+
+"Unless it's a habit with the operator to occasionally sound the three
+dots that make up the letter S in the Morse alphabet--unconsciously,
+you know, and just as another man, in speaking, might stutter or
+continually introduce a hesitating 'er' or 'um.'"
+
+"Impossible."
+
+"Nothing is impossible, my dear fellow." Here the bell of the
+desk-telephone rang. "For example, this call may be from Mademoiselle
+D. herself." He picked up the receiver and held it to his ear. "It is,"
+he said, looking over at me.
+
+The weather conditions happened to be particularly favorable for
+telephonic communication; I could hear almost as distinctly, standing
+on my side of the table, as Indiman himself. I started to walk away,
+then I stopped, and announced my intention of listening also; Indiman
+nodded assent.
+
+There was unmistakable annoyance and anxiety in the tones of the voice
+that greeted us. "I have just seen your absurd advertisement," it
+began. "I beg of you to let this matter drop, instantly, finally."
+
+"A request without a reason," answered Indiman, "You owe me something
+more than that."
+
+"There is danger--"
+
+"To me or to you?"
+
+"To yourself."
+
+"I am sorry, but you have indicated the sole condition which makes my
+withdrawal possible."
+
+A little feminine sigh came from the other end of the wire. "Oh, dear,
+it was so stupid of me to say that--to a man!" A pause. Then, in a
+slightly vexed tone, "Supposing that it is a question of minding one's
+own business."
+
+"Precisely what I am trying to do," said Indiman, humbly. "It is a
+settlement that I am proposing."
+
+"I perceive, sir, that I am making myself ridiculous," and the voice
+sounded cold and inconceivably distant. "I have the honor to wish you a
+very good-morning." The telephone rang off sharply.
+
+I fancy that the same thought was in both our minds: Could this be the
+same woman whom we had seen selling her kisses at an East Side bazaar?
+The very thought was incredible. And remember that we had not heard her
+voice before. Yet neither of us doubted, even for a moment.
+
+"After all, it was only the one kiss that was actually sold and
+delivered," said Indiman, half-defiantly. But he need not have defended
+her to me.
+
+It was getting to be a very pretty problem as it stood, the one obvious
+probability being that it was the girl herself who stood in danger.
+What could we do? To discover the nature of the impending peril and,
+above all, the personnel of the conspirators. And then what? How were
+we to communicate with or warn the girl?--for, of course, she had
+called up Indiman from a public pay-station, leaving no clew to her
+identity or address. Well, there was still the Personal column in the
+HERALD; it had reached her once and might again.
+
+"I am going down-town to the main office of the Western Union," said
+Indiman, "and may be away all day. If I shouldn't return by
+dinner-time, you will carry out the instructions in the message.
+Exactly, remember--car No. 6, and the best butter--each detail may be
+important. About nine o'clock should be a good hour."
+
+"I understand," I said, and we parted.
+
+At exactly half after nine that evening I stepped off car No. 6 at the
+crossing of West Fourth and Eleventh streets. The grocery was on the
+northwest corner, and I entered without hesitation.
+
+Like many other big cities, New York (even excluding the transpontine
+suburbs) is a collection of towns and villages rather than a
+homogeneous municipality. Chelsea and Harlem and the upper West
+Side--all these are distinct and separate centres of community life.
+Greenwich Village knows naught of Yorkville, and the East Side Ghetto
+has no dealings with the inhabitants of the French quarter.
+
+Now the small area bounded by Waverley Place, Christopher, West Fourth,
+and West Eleventh streets is also a law unto itself. The neighborhood
+is respectable and severely old fashioned, the houses large and
+comfortable, and the resident population almost entirely native
+New-Yorkers in moderate circumstances. A village, then, with its shops
+and school-houses and churches; it is as provincial in its way as the
+Lonelyville of the comic weeklies. The grocery is the village club, at
+least for the respectable part of the male population, the men who
+would not be seen in a corner saloon. There were half a dozen of the
+regulars now in the shop, seated on boxes and chairs around the stove,
+for it was a raw and chilly day. They looked up as I entered, but no
+one moved or spoke. Undoubtedly my man was in the group, but how to
+pick him out. I walked to the counter and addressed the young fellow
+who lounged behind it.
+
+"Two pounds of the best butter, please."
+
+"All out," was the unexpected reply.
+
+"All out!" I repeated, stupidly.
+
+"None of the best--that's what I said."
+
+"I wanted a purple trading-stamp," I went on, helplessly.
+
+"Anything over five cents' worth--jar of pickles, if you like."
+
+"No, not that. Here, give me--how much are those cigars?"
+
+"Five and ten."
+
+"Ten cents, then."
+
+The young man handed out the box with a nonchalant air. "Help
+yourself," he said.
+
+I selected a cigar. "You're sure you haven't any butter--the BEST
+butter?"
+
+"Ah, now, whadjer giving us? This ain't no Tiffany & Co. Best butter?
+Uh! P'r'aps you'd like to take a peck of di'monds home wid jer--the
+best di'monds, mind, all ready shelled and fried in gold-dust. And just
+throw in a bunch of them German-silver banglelets for the salad.
+Yessir; charge 'em to Mr. Astor, Astorville, N. G."
+
+The loungers about the stove sniggered audibly, but something in the
+fellow's voice made me forget his insolence. I looked up and into the
+eyes of Esper Indiman.
+
+I think I did it pretty well--the cool, ignoring stare with which one
+is accustomed to put a boor out of countenance.
+
+"Let me have a light," I went on, quietly, and the pretended grocer's
+boy was zealous to oblige, scratching the match himself and leaning
+across the counter to hold the flame to the cigar end.
+
+"Coach waiting for you in front of the church," he whispered. "Drive
+straight home and slowly--to give him a chance."
+
+I left the shop without troubling to glance at the loungers about the
+fire; Indiman would attend to that part of the business. The coach was
+in waiting at the Baptist Church, and the driver touched his hat when I
+mentioned my name. I gave him the address, and told him to drive
+slowly. As we turned into Seventh Avenue I looked back and saw a cab
+following.
+
+An hour later Indiman came in and joined me in the library. "Now,
+then!" I said, impatiently, after waiting to see him mix a high-ball
+and light a tremendously black breva. Indiman is a little provoking at
+times with his infinite deliberation.
+
+"Where were we?" he began. "Ah, yes, I had my theory about finding the
+chap who wrote out that message. It was correct--absolutely so," and
+Indiman puffed away in dreamy content, staring up at the ceiling.
+
+"I know Mason of the main Western Union office quite well, and he was
+most obliging. Recognized the peculiarity of the telegraphic sending at
+once; there actually was a fellow who had a habit of interjecting the
+superfluous S in his despatches. Name of Ewall, and he was the operator
+in a sub-station near Jefferson Market.
+
+"Well, I posted up there and sounded him. He didn't know anything about
+it at first, so I had to scare him a bit; he weakened then, and told me
+what I wanted to know.
+
+"Of course it wasn't a real message; he had run it off on his machine
+at the request of a queer-looking gentleman who had given him a couple
+of dollars for his trouble. According to his description, the man was
+stout and dark, with one ear--the left--decidedly larger than the
+other."
+
+"Aha! the fellow we saw at the bazaar. But he wasn't in the group about
+the grocery stove."
+
+"Of course not, but he had his capper there."
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Well, I thanked Mr. Ewall for his information, and left him with a
+solemn admonition to be more careful in the future about doing business
+on the side. Then I sat down to consider.
+
+"Now, I was sure that the grocery and its proprietor, the two pounds of
+the best butter, and the purple trading-stamp had nothing to do with
+the real business of the evening. The game was simply to identify the
+'Mr. House-smith' who had advertised for his ninety-and-nine kisses,
+and the clap-trap of the message in telegraphic characters, and all the
+rest of it, were simply the kind of bait at which so eccentric a person
+might be expected to bite. The gentleman with one ear larger than the
+other desired to find the elusive Mademoiselle D., erstwhile dispenser
+of kisses at an East Side charity bazaar, and, consequently, he was
+following up every possible clew. He wanted 'Mr. House-smith,' and I
+wanted him.
+
+"Fight shadows with shadows, remember; and so I took service with my
+honest friend, David Brown, dealer in groceries at West Fourth and
+Eleventh streets. He was rather offish at first, but Mattson, at Police
+Head-quarters, had provided me with a special detective badge, and Mr
+Brown was led to believe that I was working up a case of graft. He lent
+me a jumper, and I was forthwith installed behind the counter.
+
+"Everything went off according to schedule. The 'shadow' had his cab in
+readiness and I had mine. He trailed you to No. 4020 Madison Avenue,
+and I followed Mr. Shadow to the Central Detective Office. It seems to
+have been a case of sleuth against sleuth, with the match all square."
+
+"Anything else?"
+
+"Well, yes. As I came into the house just now, two men were waiting for
+me in the vestibule. They went through me; but I didn't seem to have
+what they wanted. I still retain possession of my watch and purse."
+
+"So," I said, somewhat helplessly. "What's the next move on the board?"
+
+"It is the last night of the supplementary opera season," answered
+Indiman, "and we are going to dress and see what we can of
+Tschaikowsky's 'Queen of Spades.' A novelty--first and only performance
+outside of Russia, and Ternina heads the cast."
+
+ "There is Mademoiselle D.," remarked Indiman, as his glass swept
+the semicircle of the parterre. "The fourth box from the end."
+
+There were but three people in the party--the girl with the gray eyes,
+an elderly man with a ribbon in his button-hole, and Jack Crawfurd,
+whom everybody knows.
+
+The curtain fell on the third act, and immediately Crawfurd made his
+appearance in the omnibus-box where we were sitting.
+
+"Come with me, mes enfants," he said, genially. "It seems that you and
+the adorable Countess Gilda are old friends. She commands your instant
+attendance. What, man! do you hesitate? I shall lose my head an our
+sovereign lady be not instantly obeyed."
+
+The girl with the gray eyes greeted us with smiling unconcern. "Do you
+know my uncle?" she asked, and we were forthwith presented to his
+Excellency Baron Cassilis, the Russian ambassador to the United States.
+Then the Countess Gilda addressed herself squarely to Indiman.
+
+"I am in your debt, Mr. Indiman, and you must permit me to discharge
+the obligation. My dear uncle, your purse."
+
+Indiman bowed and accepted the fifty-dollar bill tendered him.
+
+"Now we are quits," she said, smiling.
+
+"Not quite," he answered, hardily. He drew a half-dollar from his
+waistcoat-pocket and offered it to her. A flood of color mantled her
+brow, but she took the coin and slipped it into her glove. "Well?" she
+asked, her small chin defiantly uptilted.
+
+"I have only one question," said Indiman, earnestly. "Is there danger
+for you?"
+
+"None in the world."
+
+"Then I am quite satisfied."
+
+She softened at that. "Only a rather aggravating disappointment; it
+does not matter now. But why will you men interfere in an unoffending
+woman's affairs."
+
+"I had no idea--"
+
+"Of course not. However, we need not enter further into particulars.
+Your friend in the orchestra-stall yonder will doubtless enlighten you
+later on." A stout man with one ear distinctly larger than the other
+deliberately faced about in his seat and directed his glasses at our
+box. Immediately upon this the curtain went up on the last act, and his
+Excellency held up his hand to command silence.
+
+"Madame," said Indiman, as he handed the Countess Gilda to her
+carriage, "I swear to you that the blunder I have unintentionally
+committed shall be atoned for. I ask but a hint--the slightest of
+clews."
+
+"With pleasure, monsieur. I give you, therefore, the third appearance
+of the Queen of Spades. Au revoir! We sail to-morrow by the Cunarder."
+
+The man with the disproportionate ears touched Indiman's elbow. "Beg
+pardon, sir," he said, deferentially, "but I shall have to have a word
+or two with you."
+
+We drove to the Utinam Club and found a secluded corner. "Now, what is
+it, officer?" said Indiman.
+
+The detective looked rather sheepish. "I'm afraid we've made a mess of
+it between us. Case of political blackmail, you see, and the young lady
+thought she could handle it herself. And so she could have done if we
+hadn't butted in, begging your pardon for so saying."
+
+"Get to the point."
+
+"Well, then, it's a question of a letter belonging to a great person in
+Roosha--written to or by her don't matter. The letter is here in New
+York, and it isn't a question of money with the holder, but power.
+There's only one thing to do in that case--steal it, and the Countess
+thought she could turn the trick. So she went over on the Rooshan East
+Side and laid her pipes to stand next to the old party who holds the
+precious document. At the Baron's request I was detailed from the
+Central Office and instructed to keep my eyes on the young woman and my
+hands off the case. 'Course, then, I couldn't do neither. I lost the
+girl when you walked off with her at the house-smiths' bazaar, and then
+I had to stick in my oar and answer your personal in the Herald. I laid
+what I thought was a pretty smart trap. You fell into it, right enough."
+
+"So you were the fellow who had me searched and held up at my own front
+door," said Indiman. "Confound your impudence! What did you expect to
+get?"
+
+"Why, the letter, sir. I had figured it out that you was the
+black-mailer."
+
+"Oh, the deuce! And in the mean time the real article had been put on
+his or her guard by all this hullabaloo, and the Countess Gilda's game
+was blocked."
+
+"That's it, sir. A mistake all round."
+
+"I should think so. Well, there's nothing more to be done. That's all
+you know about the case?"
+
+"That's all, sir."
+
+"Never heard of the Queen of Spades in this connection?"
+
+"Never, sir."
+
+"Well, good-night, officer. Brownson's your name, eh? I shan't forget
+it."
+
+"Good-night, sir."
+
+The night was fine, and we walked home. Over on Eighth Avenue a
+masquerade ball was in progress; we passed under the brightly lit
+windows of the hall in which it was being held. A masker stood at the
+door, a woman dressed to impersonate the Queen of Spades. She waved her
+hand to Indiman, who had chanced to look up; then she plucked a rose
+from her bodice and tossed it over to him. He caught the flower, as
+becomes a gallant man, but immediately walked on.
+
+"That was your cue--the Queen of Spades," I said.
+
+"Not at all. It is only the third time that counts. First at the opera,
+and now here; the final and only important appearance is still to come."
+
+At the next corner a wretchedly clad woman sat grinding a small
+barrel-organ. "For the love of Mary!" she whimpered, and Indiman thrust
+something into her waiting hand. He tried to hide the action, but I had
+caught sight of the money--a yellow-backed bill bearing the magic
+figures 50.
+
+"Did you notice the tune?" said Indiman, as we walked on. "The
+Ninety-and-Nine."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+The Queen of Spades
+
+
+I am very fond of Esper Indiman, but there are times when he is
+positively unfit for human society. Last week, for instance, when for
+three days on end we did not exchange a single word, not even at
+dinner, where the amenities should come on at least with the walnuts. I
+grant you that humdrum wears upon the spirit, that the flatness of the
+daily road may be a harder thing to get over than even Mr. Bunyan's
+hill Difficulty, but for a man to surrender himself mind and body to
+solitaire argues weakness. Moreover, it was a ridiculous combination of
+the cards that Indiman invariably set himself to resolve; the chances
+were at least a hundred to one against the solitaire coming out, and,
+indeed, I never saw him get it but once. Under rather curious
+circumstances, too--but I won't anticipate; let us begin with the
+beginning of the adventure of the Queen of Spades.
+
+You will remember that there was a mislaid letter whose possession had
+become a matter of supreme importance to a certain great person in
+Russia. The Countess Gilda (she of the Ninety-and-nine Kisses) had been
+on the point of obtaining the treasure, but the over-confidence of my
+friend Indiman, coupled with the blunders of a stupid detective, had
+brought about a premature explosion of the train. To Indiman,
+apologetic and remorseful, the Countess Gilda had vouchsafed a single
+pregnant utterance--"Wait for the third appearance of the Queen of
+Spades." This was his cue; let him make the most of it if he would
+repair the mischief that he had unwittingly done.
+
+Now the opera, on the night preceding the Countess's departure for
+Europe, had been Tschaikowsky's "Queen of Spades"; the inference was
+inevitable that here was the first materialization of our mysterious
+heroine. That same evening we had encountered, at an Eighth Avenue
+ball, a masker whose costume had been designed upon the familiar model
+of the court-card in question; so much for number two. But Fortune had
+been almost too kind, and immediately upon this promising beginning she
+had withdrawn her smiles. For upward of a month nothing whatever had
+happened. As I have said, Indiman played solitaire and I smoked as much
+as I could. Dull work for all that it was the end of April, the height
+of the Easter season, and New York was at its gayest. A brilliant
+show--yes, and the same old one. Did you ever eat a quail a day for
+thirty days? Why not for three hundred or three thousand days,
+supposing that one is really fond of quail?
+
+For the thirty-fifth consecutive time the solitaire failed to come out.
+Indiman gathered the cards, shuffled them with infinite precision, and
+handed them to me to cut. I did so. Indiman took the pack and flung it
+into the air; the cards fluttered in all directions, and one came
+sailing straight for my nose. I put up my hand and caught it--it was
+the Queen of Spades.
+
+"Here is the lady for the fateful third time," I remarked, jestingly.
+But Indiman was nothing if not serious. He took the card from me and
+studied it attentively.
+
+"Rather an interesting face, don't you think?" he said, musingly.
+"Somewhat Semitic in physiognomy, you notice; that comes from the
+almond-shaped eyes and the abnormally high arch of the brows. Would you
+know her in the actual flesh--say, on Broadway? Brunette, of course,
+jet-black hair banded a la Merode over the ears, a little droop at the
+corners of her mouth. Voila! The Queen of Spades. Let us go out and
+look for her."
+
+"A proposition," I remarked, judicially, "that savors of the rankest
+lunacy. And yet, why not? The lady certainly made the advances; it is
+an equivalent to an invitation to call. Pity she doesn't put her
+address on her card."
+
+"Hym!" coughed Indiman, delicately. "That is a difficulty. But not
+necessarily an insurmountable one. Let us consult the street directory,
+with minds open and unprejudiced, and our faith will be rewarded--doubt
+it not.
+
+"We will pass over the numbered streets and avenues," continued
+Indiman. "I am not in the mood for mathematical subtleties, although
+there is much of virtue in the digit 9, as every adept knows. Names are
+our quest to-day, so listen to them as they run--Allen, Bleecker,
+Bayard, Dey, Division--now why Division, do you suppose? What was
+divided, and who got the lion's share?"
+
+"A delicate allusion to some eighteenth-century graft," I suggested.
+"Consult the antiquaries."
+
+"Oh, it's enough for our purpose that the division itself exists; it
+must lie below the 'barbed-wire fence,' somewhere across the line. To
+speak precisely, Division Street appears to start at Chatham Square,
+and it runs eastward to Grand Street. We will take the Third Avenue
+Elevated to Chatham Square, and then ask a policeman. Nothing could be
+more simple."
+
+Descending the Elevated stairs, Division Street lay right before our
+eyes, and further inquiry was superfluous. Indiman's spirits had risen
+amazingly. "Why, it's only an elementary exercise," he said, smilingly.
+"Divide an East Side street by a pack of cards, and the quotient is the
+Queen of Spades; you simply cannot escape from the conclusion. Forward,
+then."
+
+Now, Division Street IS something out of the ordinary, as down-town
+thoroughfares go. It is the principal highway to that remote Yiddish
+country whose capital is William H. Seward Square, and the entire
+millinery and feminine tailoring business of the lower East Side is
+centred at this its upper end. In the one short block from Chatham
+Square to Market Street there are twenty-seven millinery
+establishments--count them for yourself--and with one exception the
+other shops are devoted to the sale of cloaks and mantuas and
+tailor-made gowns. All on the eastward of the street, you notice. There
+is a dollar and a shilling side in Division Street, just as elsewhere.
+
+Talk of Bond Street and Fifth Avenue! Where will you find twenty-seven
+millinery shops in an almost unbroken row? What a multiplied vista of
+delight for feminine eyes--hats, hats, hats, as far as the eye can
+reach. Black hats and white hats; red, blue, and greenery-yallery hats;
+weird creations so loaded with gimp and passementerie as to certainly
+weigh a pound or more; daring confections in gauze and feathers;
+parterres of exotic blooms such as no earthly garden ever held; hats
+with bows on 'em and hats with birds on 'em, and hats with beasts on
+'em; hats that twitter and hats that squawk; hats of lordly velvet and
+hats of plebeian corduroy; felt hats, straw hats, chip hats; wide brim
+and narrow brim; skewered, beribboned, bebowed--finally, again, just
+hats, hats, hats, a phantasmagoria of primary colors and gewgaws and
+fallalerie pure and simple, before which the masculine brain fairly
+reels. But the woman contemplates the show with serenity imperturbable:
+the hat she wants is here somewhere, and it is only a matter of time
+and patience to find it.
+
+There is always a Mont Blanc to overtop the lesser Alpine summits--a
+Koh-i-noor in whose splendor all inferior radiance is extinguished.
+
+Indiman touched my elbow. "Look at that one," he murmured.
+
+Now that WAS a hat. To describe it--but let me first bespeak the
+indulgence of my feminine readers. I am not an authority upon
+hats--most distinctly not; and I shall probably display my ignorance
+with the first word out of my mouth. But what matter. I am simply
+trying to tell of what these poor mortal eyes have seen.
+
+In effect, then, the foundation of the hat appeared to be a black
+straw, with a wide, straight brim, the trimming being a gimcrackery
+sort of material whose name for the moment has escaped me. Suppose we
+call it barege, and let it go at that? The principal ornament was a
+large, red apple in wax, pierced by a German-silver arrow, but the
+really unique feature of the entire creation was the parasol-like
+fringe that depended from the edge of the brim, a continuous row of
+four-inch filaments upon which shining black beads were closely strung.
+An over-bold device, perhaps, but it certainly caught the eye; there
+was a barbaric suggestion in those strings of glittering beads that
+made one think of the Congo and of tomtoms beating brazenly in the
+moonlight. A hat that WAS a hat, as I have previously remarked, and
+Indiman and I gazed upon it with undisguised interest. It is hardly
+necessary to add that this particular hat had the place of honor in the
+shop-window, it being mounted upon the waxen model of a simpering lady
+with flaxen curls and a complexion incomparable. Assuredly, then, the
+pearl of the collection.
+
+"L. Hernandez," said Indiman, reading the sign over the door. "Spanish
+Jew, I should say. Yes, and the Queen of Spades in person," he added,
+in an undertone, for L. Hernandez was standing in the open door-way of
+the shop and regarding us with a curious fixity of glance.
+
+Now, through the summer-time it is the custom of the Division Street
+modistes to occupy seats placed on the sidewalk. In a business where
+competition is so strenuous one must be prepared to catch the customer
+on the hop. Even in winter the larger establishments will keep a scout
+on duty outside, and the lesser proprietor must, at least, cast an
+occasional eye to windward, if the balance of trade is to be preserved.
+Undoubtedly Madame Hernandez was taking a purely business observation,
+and we had chanced to fall within its focus.
+
+The resemblance was, indeed, striking. There was the banded hair over
+the eyes, the slightly drooping mouth, the peculiar upspring of the
+eyebrow arch--the Queen of Spades in person, as Indiman had said. And
+this was her third appearance.
+
+Indiman removed his hat with a sweep. "Madame," he said, with elaborate
+civility, "it is a beautiful day."
+
+"What of it?" retorted L. Hernandez, ungraciously enough. "Or perhaps
+the sun isn't shining above Madison Square," she added, sarcastically.
+A strange voice this, raucous in quality and abnormally low in pitch.
+
+"I haven't noticed," said Indiman, with undisturbed good-humor. "Alike
+upon the just and unjust, you know. Now if you will kindly allow me to
+pass--"
+
+"What do you want in my shop?"
+
+"I desire to purchase that hat," replied Indiman, and pointed to the
+atrocity in the window.
+
+"It is not for sale."
+
+"I am prepared to pay liberally for what strikes my fancy." He took out
+a roll of bills.
+
+"The hat is not for sale."
+
+"Madame," said Indiman, with the utmost suavity, "are you in business
+for your health?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"Oh, in that case--"
+
+"You may come inside; it tires me to be on my feet for so long. To my
+sorrow I grow stout."
+
+"It is an affliction," murmured Indiman, sympathetically. We followed
+her within. The shop was crammed from floor to ceiling with bandboxes
+arranged in three or four rows, and glazed presses, filled with
+feminine hats and bonnets, lined the walls. Near the window was a small
+counter, behind which Madame L. Hernandez immediately installed
+herself, and from this vantage-point she proceeded to inspect us with
+cool deliberation, fanning herself the while with a huge palm-leaf.
+"You wish to buy a hat?" she said, tentatively.
+
+"That one," answered Indiman, stubbornly "--that hat on the model's
+head."
+
+"Bah! Senor, it is fatiguing to fight, like children, with pillows in
+the dark. You want that Russian letter. Why not say so?"
+
+For a full half-minute their eyes met in silent thrust and parry; it
+was to be a duel, then, and each was an antagonist to be respected.
+
+"If it is a question of money--" said Indiman, slowly.
+
+"It is not."
+
+"Then I must take it where I find it."
+
+"So it appears," answered L. Hernandez, placidly. "But you must first
+find it. Eh, my bold young man?"
+
+"Be tranquil, madame--"
+
+"I am tranquil. You are but wasting your time."
+
+"I have it to spend in unlimited quantity. I am a solitaire-player."
+
+"Oh, you play solitaire. How many variations do you know?"
+
+"One hundred and thirty-five."
+
+"I can count one hundred and forty-two."
+
+"Including the 'Bridge'?"
+
+"The famous 'Bridge'! Do you know it, then?"
+
+"I learned it from a Polish gentleman in Belgrade."
+
+"It is difficult."
+
+"Enormously so. It may come out once in a hundred times."
+
+Madame L. Hernandez produced a pack of cards from underneath the
+counter. "Will you oblige me, senor? I am anxious to see the play."
+
+Indiman proceeded with the explanation. It was too intricate for me to
+follow. I could only understand that, with the solitaire properly
+resolved, the cards should finally divide themselves into four packs,
+headed respectively by the ace of clubs, king of diamonds, queen of
+spades, and knave of hearts. Indiman tried it twice, but the
+combination would not come out.
+
+"We will try it again to-morrow," said Indiman, rising.
+
+"With pleasure. Good-day, gentlemen. Mind the step."
+
+As we walked towards Chatham Square a stout man joined us, a man with
+one ear noticeably larger than the other. "Mr. Indiman--" he began,
+deferentially.
+
+"What, you, Brownson?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I have an assignment on this job from the Central Office. I
+saw you coming out of L. Hernandez's just now. Smooth old bird, ain't
+it?"
+
+"You on this case?" said Indiman, stupefied.
+
+"Yes, sir. You see, the parties concerned finally determined to put it
+into our hands, and they'd have been enough sight better off if they'd
+done it in the beginning. Bless you! it's no great shakes of a lay-out.
+There's the letter--a single sheet of note-paper written in violet ink
+on one side only, and we know the party who has it up her sleeve. L.
+Hernandez--I don't mind saying it, seeing that you're also on. I'll do
+the trick within three days, or you can boil my head for a corned-beef
+dinner."
+
+"Well, good luck to you, Brownson," said Indiman, absently. There was a
+cab-rank here in Chatham Square, and we drove up-town to the Utinam
+Club for a late luncheon. While we were waiting for our filet to be
+prepared Indiman wrote a brief note and had it despatched by messenger;
+it was addressed, as he showed me, to Madame L. Hernandez,--Division
+Street. "I'm not going to have that booby upset the apple-cart for a
+second time," he said, savagely. "Now we shall have to wait for at
+least three days."
+
+This was on Monday; on Friday we presented ourselves again to Madame L.
+Hernandez. She received us politely, almost graciously; she sat in the
+great chair behind the counter, engaged in the truly feminine
+occupation of putting up her hair in curl-papers. A pad of stiff, white
+writing-paper lay on the counter before her, and from it she tore the
+strips as she needed them.
+
+"I am tired of these bandeaux," she explained, smilingly. "My friends
+tell me that curls will become me infinitely better."
+
+"Your friends have reason," acquiesced Indiman; "but tell me, madame,
+did you receive my note?"
+
+"I did, senor, and I return you a thousand thanks. Ah, how these pigs
+of detectives have tortured me!--you would never believe it. Twice my
+apartments, at the back there, have been entered and ransacked from end
+to end; I even suffered the indignity of being personally searched by a
+dreadful newspaper woman who had answered my advertisement for
+'Improvers Wanted.' Chloroformed in broad daylight in my own house!"
+
+"But they didn't get the letter?"
+
+"I was not born yesterday, senor."
+
+"Good!" said Indiman, heartily. "What imbeciles policemen can be!"
+
+"What, indeed! Behold, senor, I show you the ruin wrought by these
+swine. This way."
+
+L. Hernandez rose, waddled stiffly to the back room, and threw open the
+door. "There!" she exclaimed, dramatically.
+
+Evidently these were the lady's living apartments--a bed-chamber and a
+smaller room at the left, in which were a gas-range and some smaller
+culinary apparatus. It was plain that the intruders had made thorough
+work in their search. The carpet had been removed and the flooring
+partially torn up; the walls had been sounded for secret receptacles,
+the pictures stripped of their backing, and the chairs and bedstead
+pulled half to pieces. "Not a square inch of anything have they left
+unprobed by their accursed needles," said L. Hernandez, furiously. "It
+will take me a month, stiff as I am, to get things to rights."
+
+"An outrage!" said Indiman, soothingly. "Shall we have a try at
+crossing the 'Bridge'?" And forthwith they sat down to the great
+solitaire with the utmost amity. But again it did not come out; the
+combinations were insoluble.
+
+The next day we paid another visit to L. Hernandez.
+
+"The curl-papers do not seem to be very effective," remarked Indiman,
+glancing at the familiar smooth bands of hair drawn straight down from
+the forehead and over the ears.
+
+"Ah, these wretched bandeaux!" sighed madame; "they are intractable. I
+shall have to wear my curl-papers by day as well as by night. Excuse
+me, gentlemen, for a few minutes," and she disappeared into the back
+room, to shortly reappear with the rebellious bands tightly swathed in
+a dozen little rolls of twisted paper. "Again the impassable 'Bridge,'"
+she said, gayly, and the pair wrestled half a dozen times with the
+problem--of course, unsuccessfully.
+
+On the following day the comedy was repeated.
+
+"Madame," said Indiman, gravely, "you have again forgotten your
+curl-papers."
+
+"Senor, my memory is undoubtedly failing; I go to repair the omission."
+Re-enter madame in curl-papers, and then the "Bridge" as before; da
+capo for a week on end.
+
+"It seems impossible to get that accursed combination," said Indiman,
+and he threw down the cards. Madame L. Hernandez smiled, and there was
+a little silence.
+
+"Madame," said Indiman.
+
+"Senor."
+
+"You are not treating me fairly. You have allowed those stupid
+detectives to search your apartments, and I demand an equal privilege."
+
+"You shall have it, senor. I am going to make a complaint of the affair
+at Police Headquarters. Perhaps Senor Thorp will kindly accompany me?"
+
+"Excellent! I will remain here, and if the letter is within these four
+walls I shall find it."
+
+"My best wishes, senor."
+
+I called a coach. Madame arrayed herself in a fur cloak and crowned
+herself, curl-papers and all, with that atrocious hat from the window
+stock, a grotesque figure of a woman in all conscience. But I had
+nerved myself for the ordeal, and we drove away amid the jeers and
+laughter of the street crowd. In an hour we returned. Indiman was
+placidly smoking and working on his solitaire.
+
+"You were successful, senor?"
+
+"No, but I have hopes."
+
+"Ah! Well, good-day, gentlemen. Come again."
+
+"Of course there was nothing," said Indiman to me as we drove home. "I
+even went through every bandbox."
+
+"Yet you have hopes?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+It was the second day following, and we were calling again upon L.
+Hernandez. There was the usual badinage about the curl-papers, and
+madame retired to her private apartments, carefully closing the door
+behind her.
+
+"Now!" said Indiman. Hastily he pulled forward a cheval-glass, placing
+it upon a particular spot and tilting the mirror to a certain exact
+angle. When finally it was adjusted to his satisfaction, he motioned to
+me to come and look. In the mirror was plainly visible a vertically
+reversed reflection of L. Hernandez. Standing in front of a long
+dressing-glass in her bedroom, she deliberately removed her chevelure
+in its entirety and tossed it on the table. It was a wig, then; but I
+was hardly prepared for the secret that it had concealed--for the
+close-cropped head, with its straw-colored hair, was unmistakably that
+of a man.
+
+"Look! look!" whispered Indiman.
+
+From a drawer L. Hernandez had taken a second wig already furnished
+with curl-papers; the adjustment took but a minute or two; the door
+opened, and she reappeared, ready for the inevitable solitaire.
+
+On the way home that night Indiman stopped at Police Headquarters, but
+he did not see fit to make the nature of his inquiries known to me. On
+the subject of the apparition in the mirror, however, he was more
+communicative.
+
+"As you know," he said, "the partition that divides madame's private
+apartments from the shop does not extend to the ceiling; there is a gap
+of some three feet. I had previously noticed the cheval-glass in the
+bedroom; it was a natural presumption that L. Hernandez would take her
+stand in front of it while engaged in making her toilet. Now this glass
+is tilted at a sharp angle, and consequently the reflection must be
+projected upward to a particular point on the ceiling. Supposing a
+small looking-glass to be fixed at this point, the rays impinging upon
+it will be cast downward and ON OUR SIDE OF THE PARTITION, for the
+angle of reflection is always equal to that of incidence. We have,
+therefore, only to place in position a second cheval-glass, arranged at
+the proper inclination, to obtain a reproduction of the original image,
+although, of course, it will appear to us as upside-down. I have only
+to add that the day you escorted madame to Police Headquarters I took
+the opportunity to fasten a small mirror on the ceiling, trusting that
+it would not be noticed. Nor was it; the trap worked perfectly--an
+optical siphon, as it may be called--and the secret was mine."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"Wait until to-morrow," said Indiman.
+
+For the fiftieth time the game of solitaire was in progress, and on
+this occasion it seemed as though the combinations were actually coming
+out. Remember, that in the final fall of the cards it was necessary
+that they should be in four packs, headed by the ace of clubs, king of
+diamonds, queen of spades, and knave of hearts. Already the first two
+ranks had been completed; it all depended upon the disposition of the
+few remaining cards.
+
+"The queen of spades is buried," said L. Hernandez, with a sneer. "You
+have failed again."
+
+"I think not," replied Indiman, calmly. "I am sure that the last card
+is the knave of hearts." This was my cue. I stepped to the door and
+made an imperceptible signal to Brownson, who, with two other
+plain-clothes men, was lounging in a door-way across the street. They
+seemed eternally slow in obeying; I felt the muscles in my throat
+contracting with nervous excitement as I turned again to watch the
+solitaire.
+
+But two cards remained to be played; they lay face downward upon the
+table. If the upper one were the queen of spades, the packets would be
+completed in their proper order and the solitaire would be made; if it
+were the knave of hearts, the game would again be lost. Slowly--oh, so
+slowly--Indiman turned the first card.
+
+"Knave!" shouted L. Hernandez, exultingly. Then she stopped and went
+white. It was not the knave of hearts, but the queen of spades, and
+over it had been pasted a small carte-de-visite photograph--that of a
+man dressed in the coarse uniform of one of the Russian penal
+settlements. With lightning swiftness Indiman leaned forward and
+twitched the wig from L. Hernandez's head; the man himself sat there
+before our eyes.
+
+Brownson and his bull-dogs stood at the door, revolvers in hand. But
+there was no need. The squat, ungainly figure had fallen forward upon
+the counter, crushing the horrible nightmare of a hat of which I have
+so often spoken, and which, quite by chance, as it seemed, had been
+lying there. Brownson sprang forward and raised the limp body. The red,
+waxen apple had been broken into a dozen pieces. Among them lay the
+fragments of a fragile glass phial, and the smell of almonds was in the
+air.
+
+"Prussic acid," said Brownson, sententiously. "He wasn't the kind to be
+taken alive."
+
+Indiman mechanically turned over the last card; it was the knave of
+hearts, and the famous solitaire of the "Bridge" had been made at last.
+He slipped the cards into his pocket and rose to go. "Brownson," he
+said, with a little catch in his voice, "I didn't think that it would
+come to this, but it had to be, I suppose. Have him put away decently,
+and send the account to me."
+
+"Very good, sir. But ain't it a pity about that letter. However, we can
+take a good look now, and maybe we'll turn it up yet."
+
+"Perhaps so," said Indiman.
+
+"His real name was Gribedyoff, and he was implicated in the
+assassination of Prince Trapasky," said Indiman to me as we sat over
+our cigars that night. "A desperate fellow, one of the 'Blacks,' you
+know. I picked his picture out in a moment at Police Headquarters,
+after seeing his reflection in the mirror. I knew it was necessary to
+surprise him, and so I borrowed the photograph and used it to
+transmogrify the queen of spades card. Just for an instant he lost his
+nerve, but that was enough."
+
+"But, as Brownson said, how about the letter?"
+
+Indiman drew from his pocket the wig, to which the curl-papers were
+still attached. He unrolled one and showed it to me. I could see that
+the strip was written in French on one side of the paper and in violet
+ink. "It will be easy enough to piece it together again," he said.
+"Plain enough now, isn't it, why L. Hernandez cared not at all how
+often Brownson's men rummaged table-drawers and chair-seats. The letter
+was safe until the time should come to use it. Only it never came."
+
+"I suppose you are going abroad?"
+
+"I shall sail Thursday."
+
+"And you will be gone how long?"
+
+"That depends, doesn't it, upon the pleasure of that most gracious lady
+the Countess Gilda. I may be back in a fortnight, and in that case I
+will make an engagement with you. We will take a ride together on a
+trolley-car."
+
+"Agreed," said I.
+
+It was a warm afternoon in the middle of May, and I was lounging in the
+deserted common room of the Utinam Club when Esper Indiman walked in.
+We shook hands.
+
+"You landed to-day?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, by the Deutschland."
+
+It was impossible for me to utter the inquiry that rose to my lips.
+Indiman hesitated just a trifle, then he went on:
+
+"I delivered my letter to the Countess, and she was most obliged. She
+asked me to stay on, but I had a previous engagement to plead: you
+remember that I had agreed to go on a trolley-ride on or about this
+date?"
+
+"I remember," I answered. "Let us interview Oscar, then, upon the
+subject of dinner; it will be cooler up at Thirty-fourth Street.
+Afterwards we will have our adventure on the trolley."
+
+Well, we went and had our dinner, but, as you shall see, the
+trolley-ride had to be indefinitely postponed. We had started down
+Fifth Avenue, and near Madison Square we ran squarely into Indiman's
+cousin, George Estes. He was standing near a brilliantly illumined
+shop-window, and gazing intently at a small object that lay in the
+hollow of his hand.
+
+"Oh, it's you," he said, absently. Then, with a little laugh, "What do
+you think of this?" He held out to us a small button fashioned of some
+semiprecious stone like Mexican opal; it glowed with an elusive reddish
+lustre.
+
+"It looks almost alive," commented Indiman.
+
+"The vital spark, eh? Well, you're not so far out, for it means a man's
+life."
+
+"What is it, George?" asked Indiman, gravely.
+
+"Not to-night, old chap. It may be a mistake--probably is. Or say that
+I was kidding you."
+
+"That won't do, George. You've said both too much and too little. Cab
+there!" he called, and a hansom drew up to the curb.
+
+"You'll excuse me, Thorp--a family affair." He motioned to the boy to
+enter; he obeyed, sulkily enough, and they drove off.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+The Opal Button
+
+
+Now, as a matter of fact, I had no part in the affair of the opal
+button; for on the very next day following our meeting with Estes I
+came down with typhoid and spent the next two months in the hospital. I
+saw little of Indiman during that time, but his seeming neglect was
+fully explained by the story he told me the night I was well enough to
+get back to 4020 Madison Avenue.
+
+"You remember, of course," began Indiman, "that I went off with Estes
+that May evening with just an apology to you about a family affair.
+Really, I knew nothing; but the boy's manner struck me as peculiar,
+and, while the incident of the opal button was trifling in itself, I
+was sure that there was something behind it. But when I plumped the
+question squarely at Estes he had nothing to say except that the jewel
+had been slipped into his hand while he stood looking into a
+shop-window. Where it came from he did not know; what it meant he
+either could not or would not tell. So I had to drop the subject for
+the time. But it came up again of its own accord four days later, the
+exact date being May 15th. So much by way of preamble; the story proper
+I will read from my notes.
+
+"'De Quincey was right, and murder should be a fine art. But the
+Borgias--only amateurs! The far-famed Aqua Tofana--pooh! Any chemist
+will put it up for ten cents. Only be careful how you use it. Chemical
+analysis has advanced somewhat since the day of the divine Lucrezia,
+and a jury would convict without leaving their seats.'
+
+"'Rather rough on your business, I should think,' said Estes, speaking
+somewhat thickly, for the port had stopped with him overfrequently of
+late. 'Is poisoning really out of date?' he continued.
+
+"'As absolutely as crinoline and the novels of G. P. R. James,'
+answered our host, lightly. But I, who was watching him closely, saw
+his eyes harden. Estes had said more than one imprudent thing that
+evening, and this time he had gone too far. I would have to get the boy
+away somehow.
+
+"There were three of us dining with Balencourt that evening at his
+chambers in the Argyle--Estes, Crawfurd, and myself; and as usual we
+had had an excellent dinner, for Balencourt knew how to live. Who was
+Balencourt? Well, nobody could answer that precisely, but his letters
+of introduction had been unexceptionable and his checks were always
+honored at Brown Brothers. Moreover, Crawfurd had met him frequently at
+the Jockey Club in Paris, and there was his name on White's books for
+any one to read. A man of forty-five perhaps, clean-shaven, well set
+up, an inveterate globe-trotter, a prince among raconteurs, and the
+most astounding polyglot I have ever met. I myself have heard him talk
+Eskimo with one of Peary's natives, and he had collated some of his
+researches into Iranic-Turanian root-forms for the Philological
+Society. But let us go back to our walnuts.
+
+"Crawfurd picked up the thread. 'Then the science of assassination is a
+lost art,' he said, tentatively.
+
+"'Oh, I did not say that,' replied Balencourt, carelessly. 'There are
+other ways--better ones.'
+
+"'You mean beyond the risk of detection?'
+
+"'Perfectly.'
+
+"'Eliminating the toxic poisons of all kinds?'
+
+"'If you like.'
+
+"'I doubt it.' said Crawfurd, with a little hesitation.
+
+"'And I deny it,' interrupted Estes, rudely, and stared straight at
+Balencourt. A quick glance answered his challenge; it was like the
+engaging of rapiers.
+
+"'Perhaps Mr. Estes desires proof,' said Balencourt, slowly.
+
+"'I do.'
+
+"'Let us say between--'
+
+"'To-night and the 1st of August.'
+
+"'That will suit me perfectly. My passage is booked on the Teutoninc
+for the following Wednesday.'
+
+"'It is also the day set for my wedding to Miss Catherwood,' said
+Estes, quietly.
+
+"Balencourt took it admirably. 'So you have obtained the decision at
+last,' he said, smiling lightly. 'My felicitations.'
+
+"Crawfurd rose to his feet. The jovial flush had strained away from his
+fat cheeks, and his jaw hung loose and pendulous. 'For God's sake,
+fellows--' he began, but Balencourt stopped him with a gesture.
+
+"'This is a private matter between Mr. Estes and myself, as he knows
+full well. So far as you and Mr. Indiman are concerned, call it what
+you like--a duel, or, better yet, a sporting proposition.'
+
+"'The stakes?' put in Crawfurd, feebly, for, shaken as he was, he could
+still grasp at the definite idea included in the last-named
+alternative. Sport and a wager--now he understood.
+
+"'The stakes?' repeated Balencourt. 'Well, they are hardly of a nature
+that either Mr. Estes or myself can intrust them to the keeping of a
+third party. But rest assured that the loser will pay; it is a debt of
+honor.'
+
+"Up to this moment I had kept silence, but now I must make my one try.
+'He is but a boy,' I said, leaning my elbows on the table and seeking
+to plumb the soul-depths in the cold, gray eyes of the man who sat
+opposite to me. But Balencourt only laughed amusedly.
+
+"'Then he should not assume a man's--'
+
+"'Will you come now, Cousin Esper?' interrupted Estes. He pushed his
+chair noisily back, and we all rose.
+
+"'You won't wait for coffee?' said our host. 'Just as you please.' He
+touched the call-button, and Jarman entered to help us on with our
+top-coats. Par parenthese, how account for the anomaly of this
+scoundrel of a Balencourt possessing the most perfect of serving-men?
+There never was anybody who could roll an umbrella like Jarman, and I
+have been around a lot in my time. After the catastrophe I tried my
+best to locate him, but without success. He was gone; the pearl had
+dropped back into the unfathomable depths of ocean. Perhaps he followed
+his master.
+
+"The door closed behind us, and we three stood in the street. 'A cab?'
+I queried, and a passing hansom swung in towards the curb.
+
+"'I'd rather walk along with you, Cousin Esper,' said Estes. 'Jump in,
+Mr. Crawfurd, and we'll pick you up later at the club.'
+
+"Crawfurd nodded and was forthwith driven away. I turned to Estes.
+
+"'What is it, George?' I asked. 'Remember, there's Elizabeth to be
+considered in this.'
+
+"Now, while Estes is a second cousin of mine, 'Betty' Catherwood is my
+niece, and so I considered that I had a double right to stick in my
+oar. But I wasn't prepared for the depth of trouble that I encountered
+in the glance George Estes turned on me. 'So bad as that!' I finished,
+lamely.
+
+"'It won't take long in the telling,' began the boy, desperately. 'You
+remember that after I left Princeton I went to Germany for a two years'
+course in international law under Langlotz; it was a pet idea of the
+pater's.'
+
+"I nodded.
+
+"'Well, we all make fools of ourselves at one time or another, and here
+is where I donned the cap and bells. You have heard'--here he lowered
+his voice--'of the "Dawn."'
+
+"'The revolutionary society?'
+
+"'Yes; it's the active branch of the "Sunrise League"--the practical
+work, you know. I joined it.'
+
+"I had nothing to say. George laughed a little dismally and went on:
+
+"'Absurd, wasn't it? I, a citizen of the best and freest country on
+earth to be making common cause with a lot of crack-brained theorists
+who would replace constitutional government by the "Lion's Mouth" and
+the "Council of Ten"--a world ruled by a secret terror. But it seemed
+all right at the time. What was my life or any one man's life to the
+progress of civilization? It was only when I came to look at the means
+apart from the end that I realized the horrible fallacy of it all.'
+
+"'You withdrew, of course.'
+
+"'You don't quite understand. One doesn't withdraw from the "Dawn." He
+may cease to be identified actively with the propaganda, but he is
+still subject to be called upon for a term of "service"--that's the
+ghastly euphemism they use. You remember this and the night I received
+it?'
+
+"He took a pasteboard box from his pocket and handed it to me. It
+contained a small, red button, fashioned out of some semiprecious stone
+resembling Mexican opal.
+
+"'It was the first summons,' continued Estes, 'and within three days I
+should have been on my way to Berlin--to receive my instructions.'
+
+"'You refused, then?'
+
+"'There was Betty,' said the boy, simply.
+
+"'You must understand,' he went on, 'that this "service" can only be
+demanded once of a member. He may refuse compliance, if he chooses, but
+in that case there is a forfeit to be paid, and it becomes due after
+the third warning.'
+
+"'Well?'
+
+"'Must be paid, you understand. If not by the recalcitrant himself,
+then by the agent of the "Forty" through whom the summons comes. That
+makes it clear, doesn't it--Balencourt and his debt of honor?'
+
+"'When did you know--about him, I mean?'
+
+"'Here is the second button. Balencourt slipped it into my hand just
+before we went out to dinner to-night.'
+
+"'It is incredible. Balencourt is a man and you are but a boy. To take
+advantage of an act of youthful folly--'
+
+"'You forget that it is his life or mine,' interrupted Estes, quietly.
+
+"'But, George, it is unthinkable. When he knows--but you did tell
+him--about Betty--'
+
+"'That's just it, old chap. Balencourt asked her to marry him a week
+ago, just before I received the first red button.'
+
+"The monstrousness of the thing struck me all of a heap. 'The police,'
+I said, vaguely, but Estes shook his head.
+
+"'It is but postponing the bad quarter of an hour,' he said, gently,
+'and I don't think that I could put up with this sort of thing
+indefinitely. Moreover, it wouldn't be fair to--to Betty.
+
+"'No,' he went on, 'it's better to have a limit set, just as it is
+now--for at least Balencourt will keep his word. Once past the 1st of
+August, I am safe.'
+
+"'We'll work within the limit, then,' I said, cheerfully. 'If we
+three--Crawfurd, you, and I--can't match wits with one polyglot son of
+the "Dawn," we might as well let the bottom drop out of the Monroe
+Doctrine and be done with it.'
+
+"We had arrived at the club. For an instant our hands met. 'Not a word
+to Betty,' he whispered.
+
+"'Of course.' Then we went up-stairs to the pipe-room, where we found
+Crawfurd sitting gloomily over his fourth Scotch-and-soda. The clocks
+were striking three when we took Estes back to his apartments, and we
+both spent the night with him. The issue had been fairly joined, and it
+was exactly two months and a half to the 1st of August.
+
+"The rest of May passed absolutely without incident, and sometimes it
+was difficult to believe in the reality of the contest in which we were
+engaged. Yet we omitted no precaution, and during the whole fortnight
+Estes was never for a moment out of the sight of either Crawfurd or
+myself. But no; I'll correct myself there, for we had to allow him an
+hour and a half every evening with Betty, and I used to mount guard in
+the street outside, measuring the cold and unsympathetic flag-stones.
+And no thanks for it, either; indeed, Betty's manner was distinctly
+top-loftical whenever we chanced to meet, she being a young person of
+discernment, and perfectly well aware that we were keeping her in the
+dark about something. But it helped George to forget, and so I counted
+it in with the rest of the day's work and held my peace.
+
+"As for the rest, there was nothing to be done except to keep a couple
+of 'shadows' on Balencourt, and we had a full account of his movements
+by eight o'clock every night--a regular ship's chart worked out with
+time-stamps and neat entries in red ink, after the accustomed fashion
+of Central Office men. So May and the first two weeks in June dragged
+uneventfully along; the period of stress was already half over. Then
+came Monday, the 15th of June, and with it a little shock. Our man--I
+mean Balencourt--concluded to disappear, and he did it as effectually
+as though there were no such thing as a 'shadow' in existence. When the
+head-sleuth came that night to report his discomfiture, I cut him short
+in his theorizing and asked for the facts. But there was only the
+one--Balencourt was certainly non est, and that was all there was to
+say. Whereupon we banished the 'shadows' to the outer darkness whence
+they had come and convened our original council of war.
+
+"One thing was plain--the danger of remaining longer in the city. There
+are so many things that may happen in a crowd, and especially if our
+friend Balencourt formed part of that unknown quantity. There is always
+a chance of a chimney-pot tumbling about one's ears or of being run
+down by some reckless chauffeur. And who is to know the truth?
+Accidents will happen; they are wilful things and insist upon keeping
+themselves in evidence. Imprimis, then, to get out of town. But where?
+
+"'Hoodman's Ledge,' began Crawfurd, a little doubtfully, but I caught
+him up with joyful decision.
+
+"'The very thing,' I said. 'I'll send a wire to the caretaker to-night,
+and we'll be off by Thursday. I invite you all--for six weeks. Why, of
+course, George, that includes Betty and her mother; they were to come
+to me, anyway, in July.'
+
+"Now, Hoodman's Ledge is one of the innumerable small islands that dot
+the Maine coast above Portland. A few years ago the fancy had taken me
+to buy the island--it was only three acres in area--and later on I had
+put up a house, nothing very elegant, but everything for comfort, a
+model bachelor's establishment. For our present need no better asylum
+could have offered. The island was small and occupied only by my own
+domestic establishment. It lay in the bight of Oliver's Bay, quite a
+mile from the nearest shore, and there was but one other bit of land
+anywhere around--an uninhabited islet known as 'The Thimble,' that lay
+a quarter of a mile due east. Surely this isolation promised security.
+Here, if anywhere, we might snap our fingers at the machinations of M.
+Balencourt and the mysterious 'Forty.' It would be rather cold off the
+Maine coast during this unseasonable summer, but there were fireplaces
+in plenty and stacks of drift-wood. The only real difficulty lay in
+persuading my estimable sister to cut short her Newport visit and come
+to me a month earlier than usual.
+
+"Finally, I left it to Betty to manage. 'I can't explain myself any
+clearer, my dear,' I ended up, rather lamely, 'but it will be better
+for George. Will you do it?'
+
+"'So you won't trust me with the secret? No; you needn't protest--there
+is a secret, and I ought to know it. But you have put it so cleverly
+that I haven't any choice in the matter. "Better for George" indeed!
+Very good, mon oncle; I'll obey orders. But remember that it will be
+the worse for you later on, unless you can show good and sufficient
+reason for this ridiculous mystery. Poor, dear mamma! how she will hate
+to be plucked up--like an early radish.' And thereupon Miss Betty
+sailed away with her small head tilted skyward.
+
+"But she did manage it, and by Thursday night the party was actually
+assembled at 'The Breakers.' There was a sou'easter on that night, but
+the drift-wood burned stoutly in the wide chimney-piece, with now and
+then a cheerful sputter as a few stray drops sought to immolate
+themselves in the green and purple flames.
+
+"'Not so bad--eh, mamma?' said Betty, as she slipped another pillow
+behind Mrs. catherwood's back and handed her the last volume of 'Gyp,'
+with the pages neatly cut. And then she actually smiled over at me. I
+think I am beginning to understand Betty.
+
+"Again I pass over many uneventful days. 'Nothing doing,' as Crawfurd
+put it, and laisser-faire was a good enough motto for our side of the
+house. The two children, of course, were blissfully happy.
+
+"Three, four, nearly six weeks, and no sign or sound from M'sieur
+Balencourt. Not so surprising, after all, seeing that we were living on
+an island surrounded on all sides by deep water and no land within a
+mile except that little dot called 'The Thimble.' And while we didn't
+make any parade of our precautions, Crawfurd and I kept watch and
+watch, just as we used to do in the old Alert, on the China station,
+twenty-odd years ago. Moreover, the gardener and my boatman were men
+who could keep their eyes open and their mouths shut, and, finally,
+there were the four dogs--two Great Danes, a collie, and 'Snap,' the
+fox-terrier. It would have been a bold man who sought to visit
+Hoodman's Ledge, uninvited, during that particular month and a half.
+
+"It was the morning of the 1st of August, and I was lounging on the
+piazza, Crawfurd being on duty at the time. The warm weather had come
+at last. The air was so soft and delightful that the scientific review
+I had been reading slipped from my hand and I gave myself up to
+indolence, gazing lazily at the white pigeons that were trading about
+the lawn, between the boat-house and a rustic pavilion overlooking the
+tennis-court. One bird I marked in particular, admiring his strong and
+graceful sweeps and dips as he circled about, possessed, as it were,
+with the pure joy of motion. I followed him as he sank down on a long
+slant to the lawn, swift as a bolt from the blue; then I rubbed my eyes
+in amaze. It was a pigeon of snowy whiteness that an instant before had
+been flying free; it was a coal-black nondescript that now fluttered
+feebly once or twice and then lay still on the gravelled path, close to
+the stone sun-dial. I ran down the steps and bent over the pitiful
+thing. Pfui!--the bird was but a charred and blackened lump of dead
+flesh. There was a disagreeable odor of burned feathers in the air.
+Mechanically my eye fell on the sun-dial; there was a spot the size of
+a silver dollar on the side of the pedestal where the stone had
+crumbled and disintegrated, as though it had been placed at the focus
+of some immensely powerful burning-glass. I stepped behind the sun-dial
+and looked out to sea. And there, in line with the pedestal of the dial
+and the dead bird on the path, lay 'The Thimble.'
+
+"Now, as I have said, 'The Thimble' was a rocky islet only a few rods
+in extent, but densely wooded with spruce and blue-gum. The general
+shape of the rock was that of a lady's thimble; hence the name. Rather
+a picturesque object in the seascape, but, of course, utterly valueless
+except for occasional picnic uses--a bit of No Man's Land whose purpose
+in the economy of nature had hitherto remained unfulfilled. But now?
+
+"I went back to the piazza and caught up a pair of stereo-binoculars
+that were lying on the table. There, shining like a star through the
+close curtain of green that veiled 'The Thimble,' was the projecting
+end of a highly polished tube of steel. And even as I gazed a man's
+face peered out as though in the act of sighting--Aram Balencourt!
+
+"Then I understood. The tube was the means of projecting some
+enormously powerful heat-beam whose nature must be akin to that of the
+so-called X-ray. The article I had been reading not ten minutes
+ago--what was the title?--'Radium, the Wizard Metal'--that
+incomprehensible substance, forever sending forth its terrible
+emanations, yet never diminished by even the ten-thousandth part of a
+grain--a natural force whose properties and functions were but
+imperfectly understood, even by the learned men who had succeeded in
+isolating it, an agent of such enormous potency that an ounce or two
+might serve to put a battle-ship out of commission--a couple of pounds
+and the universe itself were endangered. Even now from that steel tube,
+sighted so carefully on the pedestal of the sun-dial, billions of ions
+might be rushing, invisible to the eye, but certain death to whatever
+of animal existence they chanced to encounter. There was the pigeon
+lying dead on the walk.
+
+"'Do hurry, George,' called out Betty's thin, sweet treble. She stood
+at the entrance to the pavilion and waved a tennis-racquet impatiently.
+
+"'Coming,' was the cheerful response, and Estes turned the corner of
+the house. He took the gravelled path at full speed. In an instant or
+two at the farthest he would be passing between the sun-dial and the
+dead pigeon, in line with those deadly radiations.
+
+"We had been playing a little single-wicket earlier in the day, and a
+cricket-ball lay on the wicker table at my hand. I could not have
+uttered a word or a cry to save my life--to save his--but instinct held
+true. With a full, round-arm sweep the ball left my hand, catching the
+boy squarely on the forehead. He fell within his stride.
+
+"Betty was with us on the instant, but I seized and held her despite
+her struggles. Naturally, she thought I had gone mad. Then I looked
+over again at 'The Thimble,' just in time to see a sheet of
+palest-colored flame shoot up from the island. The dense mass of green
+foliage seemed to wither and consume away within the tick of a clock.
+Through the glass I caught a glimpse of a dark figure that rolled down
+to the water's edge, clutching feebly at the shifting shingle. Perhaps
+a log, after all--it lay so still.
+
+"An instant later 'The Thimble' disappeared in a cloud of grayish
+vapor, the dull sound of an explosion filled the ear, and the ground
+under our feet trembled. There was nothing to be seen, even with the
+glass, save a light scum covering the water and some fragments of
+charred tree branches. But the air about us was full of a fine dust
+that powdered Betty's hair, as though for a costume ball, and made me
+cough consumedly.
+
+"Naturally, there were quite a number of explanations to make to Miss
+Betty after George had been resuscitated--a slightly disfigured hero,
+but still in the ring--but I spare you. The dear girl listened quietly,
+but at the end she began to tremble, and I won't say but that she cried
+a bit. It doesn't matter if she did, and I think we all began to feel a
+little queer when we came to think it over. However, it WAS over--no
+possible doubt about that.
+
+"'One thing I don't understand,' said Crawfurd. 'There were to be three
+warnings, and Estes only received two of the red buttons.' Whereupon
+Betty blushed, and drew a little package from her pocket.
+
+"'It came last night directed to George,' she said, 'but I forgot to
+give it to him. It broke open in my pocket and it contained this.' She
+held out to us the third red button. That was decent of Balencourt--to
+have given the last warning.
+
+"There is only one possible hypothesis to account for the catastrophe.
+Balencourt was dealing with a terrible force, whose nature was but
+partially understood, even by science. He had intended to use it to
+fulfil the vengeance of the 'Dawn' but something had happened, and in
+an instant the monster had turned and rended its master. That is all
+that we can know.
+
+"Two days later George and Betty were married, for they stuck to the
+original date in spite of the fact that George, with a lump on his
+forehead as big as the cricket-ball itself, did not make a particularly
+presentable bridegroom. I carried an umbrella at the function whose
+incomparable rolling was remarked upon by all. Need I say that it was
+the same umbrella that Balencourt's man, Jarman, had manipulated for me
+that fateful evening when we dined at the Argyle. I shall never unroll
+that umbrella, even at the cost of a wetting. To me it is a memento."
+
+"There's melodrama for you," said Indiman, a little shamefacedly as he
+finished. "But one feels differently, you know, about taking chances
+where a nice girl like Betty is concerned. Let me see; it's still
+early. Do you feel up to taking that long-deferred ride on a
+trolley-car? Good! We'll take the cross-town over to Eighth Avenue and
+get into the heart of it at once."
+
+"That's an unlucky number," said Indiman, as we boarded a car. "Sixteen
+hundred and twenty-four--the sum of the units is equal to thirteen."
+
+"You're going to lose some money," I suggested.
+
+"The tip points that way," he replied.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+The Tip-top Tip
+
+
+Do you know Abingdon Square? It is a small, irregularly shaped triangle
+of asphalt situated on the lower West Side, and at the
+intersecting-point of Eighth Avenue and Hudson Street. The houses that
+front upon it have seen better days. Many of them are now the quarters
+of cheap political clubs or centres of foreign revolutionary
+propaganda. It is a neighborhood that has finally lost all semblance to
+gentility and has become frankly and unreservedly shabby. A square,
+mind you, and not a park, for there is neither blade of grass nor tree
+in all of its dreary expanse. Half a block to the north lies a minute
+gore of land surrounded by an iron fence, and here are flowers and
+greenery upon which the eye may rest and be satisfied. But in Abingdon
+Square proper there is only the music-stand, that occupies the middle
+of the miniature plaza, a hideous wooden structure in which one of the
+city bands plays on alternate Sunday afternoons during the summer.
+However, open space counts in the city, and the air circulates a trifle
+more freely through the square than it does in the side streets--at
+least, that is the opinion of the neighborhood people, and they flock
+there on a hot night like seals at a blow-hole. Even the submerged
+tenth must come up to breathe now and then. During the dreadful passage
+of a hot wave from the West one may count them by the dozens, coatless
+and even shirtless wretches, lying prone on the flag-stones like fish
+made ready for the grid. Occasionally, a street-cleaning "White Wings"
+will be compassionate enough to open a fire-hydrant, under pretence of
+flushing the gutters, and then, for a few minutes, there is joy in
+Abingdon Square. Women line the curb, cooling their feet in the rushing
+flood; the men light their pipes and contentedly watch the children as
+they paddle about. There is the echo of mountain brooks in the gush of
+the water as it roars from the hydrant. With eyes tight closed one may
+conjure up the phantasma of green leaves waving and of meadows
+knee-deep with lush grasses and starred with ox-eyes. Such is Abingdon
+Square on a night in early August when first the dog-star begins to
+rage.
+
+Now my friend Esper Indiman is a social philosopher; life in all its
+phases interests him tremendously. Consequently, he likes to take long
+rides on trolley-cars. He calls them his vaudeville in miniature, and
+sometimes the performance is amusing--I acknowledge it freely. But
+to-night the actors were few and the play dull. I began to yawn. The
+car, one of the Eighth Avenue line bound down-town, swung round a curve
+into Abingdon Square, and Indiman touched my arm.
+
+"What's going on over there?" he said.
+
+Although it was not a concert night, there was a crowd around the
+band-stand. It looked as though some one was haranguing the assemblage
+from the vantage-point of the music pavilion--a local political orator
+or perhaps a street preacher. "Salvation Army," I suggested.
+
+"Shall we take a look?" I nodded, and we alighted and pushed our way to
+the front.
+
+It was a young man who stood there, rather a nice-looking chap, with a
+broad forehead from which the thin, fair hair fell away in a tumbled
+wave. He was attired in evening clothes, assuredly an unusual sight in
+Abingdon Square, where they do not dress for dinner, and the expression
+upon his countenance was that of recklessness tempered with a certain
+half-humorous melancholy. "One dollar," he repeated, as we came within
+sight and hearing. "Do I hear no other bid? One dollar, one dollar.
+Will any gentleman make it a half?"
+
+"I'll give fifty for your skull alone," spoke up a youngish,
+sallow-faced man who stood directly opposite the stand. "On condition,"
+he added, in a lower tone, "that the goods are delivered at Bellevue
+before the end of the week. Foot of Twenty-sixth Street, you know."
+
+The young man smiled with a pathetic quizzicality. "Now, doctor," he
+said, reproachfully, "there's no use in going over that ground again. I
+made the terms of the sale perfectly plain, and there can be no
+deviation from them."
+
+"Well, if that's your last word," retorted the unsuccessful bidder,
+"I'll say good-evening."
+
+He turned to Indiman, who stood at his elbow. "A fakir," he growled,
+disgustedly. "Now, I'll leave it to you, sir."
+
+"If you will acquaint me with the essential particulars," said Indiman,
+"I shall be most happy to pronounce upon them."
+
+"In two words. This cheap josher has been offering to sell himself, out
+and out, to the highest bidder. I make him a cash offer and he takes
+water."
+
+"Pardon me," interrupted the young man in evening dress, "but your bid
+is plainly for what the students in medical colleges call a 'subject.'
+Now, I expressly disclaimed any intention of terminating my material
+existence at any fixed period in the future. On the contrary, it is for
+the purpose of prolonging my life that I am driven to this
+extraordinary procedure. It is myself, my talents, and my services of
+which I desire to dispose. My skull, in which you seem to take such an
+interest, goes, of course, with the bargain. But I do not guarantee
+immediate delivery."
+
+"Your services," sneered the student of medicine. "May I inquire into
+their nature and nominal cash valuation?"
+
+"I am an experienced leader of the cotillon," answered the young man in
+evening clothes, with a sweet and serious dignity.
+
+"Umph!"
+
+"I play a fair hand at Bridge, and have an unexceptionable eye for
+matching worsteds."
+
+"G-r-r!"
+
+"That about sums up my list of accomplishments, but I dare say that I
+could learn to dig, for I have my full complement of limbs. Finally, a
+rare and pretty talent for losing money and a penchant for the unlucky
+side of everything."
+
+"Well, gentlemen," declared the student of medicine, with a snort,
+"it's quite evident that we're all playing the fool together. I wish
+you a very good-evening, and the devil take all crawfishers." And with
+that he marched off, evidently in high dudgeon. A little ripple of
+laughter swept over the upturned faces of the crowd. "One dollar,"
+repeated the young man, his voice full of a polite weariness. "Do I
+hear no other bid? I offer myself, a human chattel, at absolute sale;
+no reservations; warranted sound and kind; no objection to the country;
+not afraid of the Elevated railway."
+
+"Five dollars," said a voice at the rear, and a short, stout man, with
+little, black, beadlike eyes, held up his hand to identify his bid.
+"Joe Bardi," said a man to his neighbor. Both turned interestedly.
+
+"And who is Joe Bardi?" inquired Indiman, blandly.
+
+"Business of shipping sailors. There's big money in it, they say."
+
+"Ah, yes, a crimp--isn't that what they call them?"
+
+"Right you are, mister. A hard one, too. It'll be a sharp man that does
+for old Joe Bardi."
+
+"Five dollars," came again from the squat figure with its ratlike eyes,
+and the young man in evening dress paled a little. He had over-heard
+the colloquy between Indiman and the native Abingdonian, and it is
+difficult to regard with equanimity the prospect of a trip before the
+mast--to China, let us say. In an American ship, too, more shame to us
+that it must be said.
+
+But the young man was thoroughbred. He had sat down to play a desperate
+game with Fortune, and he could not withdraw with the cards on the
+table.
+
+"Five dollars," he repeated, mechanically. "Five dollars. What am I
+offered? Five dollars."
+
+"Want me to buy you dat, Mame?" said a half-grown boy of the
+unmistakable tough type. "Whatjer soy? Five cases for dat mug! And
+Tuesday ain't bargain-day, nuther."
+
+"Well, it looks like thirty cents," said Mame, critically. "In Chinese
+money, too--thirty yen-yen. What you say, John?" The crowd laughed
+again.
+
+"Five dollars."
+
+"Five dollars," repeated the young man, and there were little drops of
+sweat on the broad, fair forehead. "Five dollars, five dollars. Do I
+hear no other bid? Five dollars--going--going--"
+
+"Six."
+
+It was Indiman who spoke, and this time the crowd gaped in good
+earnest. An indescribable emotion possessed for an instant the face of
+the young man in evening clothes. Then he fell back upon his first
+manner, half-petulant, half-mocking. "Six dollars I am bid," he
+announced, briskly, and looked straight at the shipping agent.
+
+Joe Bardi hesitated. "And a half," he said, tentatively, as an angler
+who feels the mouth of the fish that he fears may be insecurely hooked.
+
+Indiman capped the bid promptly. "Seven dollars," he said.
+
+The crimp scowled. "Make it eight," he retorted.
+
+"Ten."
+
+The Italian hesitated again. This had the appearance of a contest, and
+he was not of the sort who love a fight for its own sake. But his
+cupidity had been powerfully aroused. There was a pretty profit in
+advance money to be made if he could get this young fool's signature on
+the ship's papers of the Southern Cross, outward bound for Shanghai, on
+the morrow. He must make at least another try. It might be that the
+intrusive stranger from the silk-stocking district was only amusing
+himself and would presently withdraw.
+
+"Twelve," he said, and "fifteen," answered Indiman.
+
+The crowd laughed, and Joe Bardi's vanity was sorely touched. It was
+not pleasant to be badgered in this unseemly manner while engaged in
+beating one's own preserves. Discretion forsook him forthwith.
+
+"Twenty-five," he bellowed.
+
+"Fifty."
+
+"A hundred, and be damned to you!"
+
+"Two hundred."
+
+There was a pause; the crowd held its breath in silent and joyous
+expectancy. Joe Bardi passed a hand over his wet forehead and pulled
+irresolutely upon his cigar. A severe-looking old man expressed his
+entire disapproval of the proceedings. "It's against the Constitution,"
+he said, loudly. "How about the Fourteenth Amendment? Well, the number
+doesn't matter anyway. Officer, I call upon you to stop this unlawful
+and outrageous farce. A human being selling himself on the auction
+block! The slave-market set up again in this Christian city of New
+York! It's a crime against the Constitution."
+
+But the policeman was a prudent person, and as yet he had seen no cause
+to interfere. The proceedings were unusual, no doubt, and they might be
+against the Constitution; he wouldn't like to say. It was none of his
+business anyway; HE went by the code.
+
+"Bah!" snorted the old gentleman, and rushed away to find a city
+magistrate.
+
+"Two hundred dollars," repeated the young man in evening clothes. "Two
+hundred dollars. What am I bid? Going, going--"
+
+The shipping agent made a hasty mental calculation--there was no profit
+in the transaction at anything over his last bid of an even hundred.
+But he was tempted to go a little further and run up the price on his
+adversary, thus punishing him for interfering in a man's private
+business. Very good, but suppose the stranger suddenly refused to
+follow the lead; then it would be Joe Bardi himself who would be
+mulcted. Revenge would be sweet, but it was too dangerous; he would
+stop where he was.
+
+"Two hundred, two hundred--going, going--" The crowd began to banter
+the crimp.
+
+"Lift her again, Joe," called out one voice. "Open up that barrel of
+plunks you've got stored away in your cellar," exhorted another
+counsellor. "A nice, white slave--that's what you're needing in your
+business," advised a third. But Joe Bardi kept his eyes on the ground
+and said nothing.
+
+"Gone," said the young man in evening clothes.
+
+Indiman took four fifty-dollar bills from his wallet and handed them to
+the young man. The latter glanced at the notes and stuffed them
+carelessly into his waistcoat-pocket. Then, turning to Indiman:
+
+"Sir," he said, with a profound seriousness, "I am now your property.
+Ah! Pardon me--"
+
+Like a cat he had sprung between Indiman and the crimp. With a
+dexterous upward fling of his arm the knife in the Italian's hand went
+spinning into the air. This was something that came within the
+policeman's accustomed sphere, and he took immediate charge of Mr. Joe
+Bardi. It was all done in a most methodical manner, and ten minutes
+later we were free to depart. A "cruiser" cab rattled by and the three
+of us squeezed in.
+
+"To the Utinam Club," ordered Indiman.
+
+Seated at a table in the big dining-room of the club, we drank a formal
+cocktail to our better acquaintance.
+
+"But I am afraid that you have made a bad bargain," said the young man
+to Indiman.
+
+"Frankly, now, I doubt if I can be made to pay even three per cent on
+the investment. That's no better than a government bond and not half so
+safe."
+
+I have already collected one satisfactory dividend," said Indiman,
+courteously. "That was cleverly done--to force the knife out of his
+hand and into the air."
+
+"It's a part of the Japanese science of defence without weapons," said
+the youth, blushing ingenuously. "Jiu-jitsu, you know. I took some
+lessons of a chap in Tokio."
+
+"Moreover, there is your story," continued Indiman. "Will you favor me
+with some particulars regarding yourself and the circumstances leading
+up to our late meeting? The situation was an unusual one, and the
+explanation should be interesting."
+
+"On the contrary," answered the young man, with a faint smile, "my
+narrative is of the most commonplace character imaginable, save only
+for the final chapter. But judge for yourself.
+
+"My name is Luke Harding, and, so far as I know, I have not a single
+blood relation living--at least, none nearer than a third cousin. Two
+years ago I inherited my paternal estate. It was too small to support
+me in the manner of life to which I had been accustomed, and at the
+same time it was large enough to effectually deaden any inclination
+towards real work. As an inevitable consequent, I became a speculator.
+Little by little my fortune has disappeared in the abyss of stock
+gambling; now it is gone entirely. To add to my misfortunes, my
+apartments were entered last night by burglars and literally cleaned
+out. I must have been drugged, for when I awoke this morning, with a
+bad headache, I could remember nothing of what had happened; there were
+only results to speak for themselves. The loot had been complete; the
+scoundrels had even carried off my ordinary garments, leaving me--what
+exquisite irony!--only this suit of evening clothes wherewith to cover
+my nakedness. Being somewhat sensitive to the proprieties, I was
+obliged to remain within doors until darkness fell, and I spent the
+time meditating upon my future course of action. As I have said, I have
+no relatives to whom I could apply, and my friends had already taxed
+themselves beyond reason in my behalf. It was clear, then, that I was
+born unlucky, and I concluded that I had no longer any right to a
+separate and independent existence. To one of my temperament suicide is
+a difficult proposition. Finally, I lit upon the idea which you have
+just witnessed in execution. A healthy, intelligent young man--surely
+there must be some market for his exclusive services? Fortunes used to
+be made in the African slave-trade.
+
+"It only remains to add that I immediately started to realize upon
+these reasonable expectations. I went to the plaza at Fifty-ninth
+Street and Fifth Avenue and asked for bids. Unfortunately, no one
+seemed to take me seriously, and a policeman obliged me to move on. I
+had the same disheartening experience in front of Delmonico's and again
+in the Turkish room of the Waldorf-Astoria. It is August, you know, and
+the town is empty, but I was a bargain; I can say that without
+affectation. Merely to have bought me on speculation, with the idea of
+unloading on one of the Adirondack or White mountain hotel resorts--it
+would have been impossible to lose. But I could not get a bid, and so I
+shifted along down-town--Madison Square, Union Square, then westward by
+Jefferson Market and West Tenth Street. Ever edging a little closer to
+the river, you observe, and yet, upon my honor, I was not conscious of
+any definite volition in the matter; it was as though some one were
+gently pushing me along. Then Abingdon Square and your entrance upon
+the boards of my little drama--you and Mr. Bardi. Gentlemen, I thank
+you for your attention."
+
+"I should say, Thorp," said Indiman, "that Mr. Harding is well
+qualified for membership in the Utinam Club. Will you put him up and
+I'll second him? The club," he added, by way of explanation to our
+guest, "is an association of the unsuccessful in life--the
+non-strenuous, the incapable--above all, the unlucky."
+
+"Rest assured that my eligibility is beyond question," answered Mr.
+Harding, with a smile. "In a society where misfortune confers a certain
+cachet I may confidently expect to attain distinction."
+
+"Do you really consider yourself an abnormally unlucky person?" said
+Indiman, seriously. "I have a reason for asking."
+
+"Upon my soul," returned the young man, warmly. "I verily believe that
+I have a genius for getting on the wrong side of things. If I should
+wager you that I am alive at this moment there would be a bolt out of
+the blue before the money could be paid over."
+
+A heavily built man of elderly appearance entered the dining-hall. He
+was accompanied by a friend who might be a banker or broker. The pair
+picked out a table on the opposite side of the room and immediately
+plunged into earnest conversation, their heads close together and
+speaking in guarded undertones.
+
+"The gentleman with the gray hair," said young Mr. Harding, eagerly,
+"that is Senator Morrison, chairman of the committee on foreign
+relations. He must be just in from Washington. Congress, you know, is
+in extra session."
+
+"Ah, yes; an able man," said Indiman, politely.
+
+"He would know--he would know," muttered Harding, disjointedly. His
+burning gaze fixed itself upon the two men at the distant table, as
+though by sheer will-power he would surprise the secret of their
+whispering lips. "He must--he does know."
+
+"What?" asked Indiman.
+
+"Man, man, it's a matter of millions! Panama Trading Company common
+stock is quoted at 70, and everything depends upon the passage by the
+Senate of the canal treaty. The committee must have come to a decision,
+and Morrison knows. I tell you he knows--he knows. One word--it would
+be enough--Wall Street--Panama common--"
+
+Indiman did not answer; he seemed preoccupied, indifferent even, his
+chair pushed back from the table and his eyes half closed. Let me
+explain that the small side-tables in the Utinam Club dining-room are
+not set flush against the wall, as is usually the case, but at some
+little distance from it. Consequently, when there is a party of three
+at a table, one man sits on the inside with his back to the wall, a
+sensible arrangement in that it allows the waiter free access by the
+unoccupied outer side of the table. It so happened that Indiman had
+this inside seat.
+
+Harding's lips moved mechanically. "The treaty, the treaty!" he
+repeated again and again. "The committee reports to-morrow; the Senate
+is certain to act upon its recommendation. If I only knew!"
+
+The conference at the other table was a brief one; its continuance had
+been measured by the consumption, on the part of the Senator, of a
+couple of biscuits and a glass of spirits-and-water. The two men rose
+and left the dining-room.
+
+"Of course you are going back to-night, Senator," said the younger man
+as they passed our table.
+
+"At midnight. A hard trip."
+
+"But a profitable one; don't forget that." They laughed and walked on.
+
+For a little while we sat in silence over our cheese and salad. Then
+Indiman spoke up, suddenly:
+
+"Mr. Harding."
+
+The young man looked at him dully.
+
+"The story of your persistent ill-fortune has interested me. But I find
+it difficult to believe in the consistency of bad luck; it must change
+sooner or later."
+
+"Not for me," answered the young man, with quick conviction.
+
+"I have a fancy to put that to the test. Take this card to my
+brokers--you know them, Sandford & Sands, of New Street. I have
+instructed them to place at your disposal a credit of one hundred
+thousand dollars. You will be at their office to-morrow morning, and at
+precisely ten o'clock you will receive from me a sealed communication
+containing certain information upon which you can rely absolutely. Use
+your credit according to your best judgment, and report the results to
+me at eight o'clock to-morrow evening. The address is on the card, and
+you will dine with me."
+
+"I thank you," said the young man, simply. "If such a thing were
+possible--" He stopped and shook his head.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Indiman, bluffly. "You must believe in yourself, man;
+it is the first requisite for success. To-morrow evening at eight,
+then."
+
+Sitting over a final cigar in Indiman's library, he made me a sharer in
+the mystery. "It is simply that the canal treaty will be reported
+unfavorably to-morrow by the committee, and consequently it will fail
+to pass the Senate. How do I know? I heard it from Senator Morrison's
+own lips."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"As you know, the dining-hall of the Utinam Club is of a circular
+shape, and it happens to possess certain peculiar acoustic properties.
+In other words, it is a whispering-gallery, and it so chanced that
+Senator Morrison sat at one of the definite points--they call them
+vocal foci, I think--and I at the other. That is the whole story."
+
+"You are quite sure--there can be no mistake?"
+
+"Not the slightest doubt. The man with Morrison is a broker, and he has
+the Senator's order to sell ten thousand Panama common at the market
+to-morrow. When the news of the treaty's failure to pass reaches Wall
+Street, by the regular channels, the stock will break sharply and the
+profits on the deal should be enormous. No wonder that Senator
+Morrison's flying trip to New York should be worth the taking."
+
+"And Harding?"
+
+"It remains to be proven whether the fault lies in the man himself or
+in his alleged bad luck. I am sending him the bare fact as to the canal
+bill's fate, and it is for him to seize the skirts of chance. I'll
+write the note now and deliver it at the office myself in the morning.
+Then we will see."
+
+"We will see," I echoed, and we parted for the night.
+
+At one o'clock the following afternoon Indiman and I stood watching the
+ticker in an up-town broker's office.
+
+"The Senate rejects the canal treaty," read out Indiman. "Now for the
+next quotation of Panama common; the last sale was at 70 1/2. Will you
+take the tape, Mr. Barnes?"
+
+There was an instant's pause in the click-click of the instrument, the
+heart-gripping lull before the breaking of the tempest. Then the wheels
+began to revolve again, and the white tape, our modern thread of the
+Norns, sped through the twitching fingers of the young chap to whom
+Indiman had yielded place.
+
+"Five hundred Pan. com., 68," he read out. "One thousand, 67 1/2; four
+hundred, 67; two thousand, 65. I guess I've seen enough, gentlemen;
+it's my--my finish." He gulped down something in his throat and walked
+over to the water-cooler,
+
+"And enough for us," whispered Indiman. "Let us go."
+
+"It's the way of the world," I philosophized as we gained the street.
+"One man up and another down. He is young; he will have his chance
+again."
+
+"It is Harding's day," said Indiman.
+
+Panama common had closed at 50, a drop of twenty points; there was a
+fortune to be made in selling even a few thousand shares short of the
+market. It was Harding's day, indeed.
+
+Eight o'clock and Indiman and I sat awaiting his coming. The electric
+bell rang sharply, and Bolder ushered in our protege. He came forward,
+shook hands, accepted a cigar, and sat down.
+
+"You received my note?" said Indiman.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What did you do?"
+
+"I bought five thousand Pan. com. at 70."
+
+"Oh, the deuce!" and Indiman stared blankly at his guest.
+
+"You see, it's no use--" began the young man, apologetically, but
+Indiman cut him short.
+
+"No use! And with my message in your hand before the market opened--the
+exclusive, the absolute information--"
+
+"Here it is," said Mr. Harding, and handed Indiman his own note. The
+latter glanced at the contents, and suddenly his face changed.
+
+"Read that, Thorp," he said, and tossed me the message. The letter
+contained these words:
+
+"The canal treaty will pass the Senate. Use your own judgment."
+
+"In some inexplicable absence of mind I left out the all-important
+'not,'" said Indiman, ruefully, "and it has cost me one hundred
+thousand dollars. Mr. Harding, I beg your pardon. You are the
+unluckiest man alive," and he went on to tell him of the
+whispering-gallery and of the secret obtained in manner so
+extraordinary. "And then, through my stupidity, worse than wasted," he
+concluded. "I can't understand it; I read that note through twice
+before I sealed it up. It is incredible."
+
+"No, it is my luck," said young Mr. Harding, and took a fresh cigar.
+"Or, rather, your luck," he corrected himself, smilingly. "Have you
+forgotten that I am now your property?"
+
+"God forbid!" said Indiman, hastily. "I give you back
+yourself--consideration of one dollar. You're a witness, Thorp. And now
+shall we go in to dinner?"
+
+A position in a wholesale business house was secured for young Mr.
+Harding, and for a month or two he seemed to be doing very well. Then
+one day he resigned; a letter to Indiman gave the explanation.
+
+"He's going to marry a wealthy widow," read out Indiman. "They sail on
+the Lucania next Saturday."
+
+"Then luck has turned for him," I said, heartily. "I'm glad of it."
+
+"Hym!" said Indiman. "Perhaps so."
+
+From the street came the sound of a hand-organ. It was playing Verdi's
+"Celeste Aida," and so lovely is the aria that I could have listened to
+it with pleasure, even when thus ground out mechanically. But,
+unfortunately, an atrocious mistake had been made in the preparation of
+the music cylinder. In the original the final note of the first two
+bars is F natural, while in the third bar the tonality is raised and
+the F becomes F sharp. The transcriber had failed to make this change,
+and so had lost the uplifting effect of the sharped F. All the life and
+color of the phrase had been destroyed, and the result was intolerable.
+
+I fished out a quarter and rang for Bolder. "Send him away," I said,
+somewhat impatiently.
+
+The servant returned looking puzzled. "The organ-grinder said I was to
+give this to the gentleman," he said, and handed me a small object. It
+was a brass baggage-check issued by the New York Central Railway, from
+Cleveland to New York, and bore the number 18329. I passed it to
+Indiman, ran to the window, and looked out. But the organ-grinder was
+gone.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+The Brass Baggage-Check
+
+
+It is not every day in the week that a hand-organ plays "Celeste Aida"
+under one's window with an F natural in the third bar where the music
+rightfully calls for F sharp. Nor is it usual to send out a quarter of
+a dollar to the man as an inducement for him to retire, and then to
+receive in return a New York Central baggage-check numbered 18329, and
+reading from Cleveland to New York. Esper Indiman and I exchanged
+smiles.
+
+"This looks like the real thing," said my friend. "My dear Thorp, there
+must be some rare element in your chemical make-up that serves to
+precipitate these delightful mysteries. Adventures fairly flock about
+us. We shall have to screen the doors and windows or be overwhelmed.
+Seriously, I am infinitely obliged to you, for I had started on my
+eleventh game of solitaire, and was beginning to feel a trifle bored.
+But now--now there is something doing, as Mr. Devery would remark. Let
+us start the ball rolling by giving Bolder the third degree."
+
+Bolder, recalled, was disposed to be cheerfully communicable. Certainly
+he would know the man again; he had a good look at him. The sun was
+shining brightly, and it had fallen full on the fellow's face.
+
+"Describe him, then," said Indiman, note-book in hand.
+
+Put to the test, Bolder was not so good a witness as we had hoped for;
+he wandered and grew confused in his statements. Light hair? Yes, it
+might have been that--though, now that he thought of it, the shade was
+rather on the darkish order. An old man? Well, not noticeably so;
+perhaps thirty-five or a little younger.
+
+"Or a little older--say fifty-five?"
+
+"Well, it might have been fifty-five, sir. I couldn't swear to it
+exactly."
+
+"That will do, Bolder," said Indiman, and our witness retired abashed.
+
+"Check number one," commented Indiman. "Suppose we try the Grand
+Central now. We won't take out the carriage; the day is fine and I want
+the walk."
+
+It was a beautiful morning in August, cool and clear, and we strode
+along briskly. A hand-organ began playing in a side street, and we
+stopped to listen. "It's the same aria," I said, excitedly--"'Celeste
+Aida.' What tremendous luck! No, it isn't; deuce take it!" I went on,
+dejectedly.
+
+"But you just said it was the same," persisted Indiman.
+
+"With a difference," I hastened to explain. Now, Indiman is not
+musical, and I had some trouble in convincing him that within the
+compass of a semitone a veritable gulf may yawn. This particular organ
+played the phrase in the third bar correctly--F sharp and not F
+natural--and consequently it could not be the same instrument that had
+vexed my ears half an hour ago at No. 4020 Madison Avenue.
+
+"There is a real difference, then?" said Indiman, thoughtfully. "One
+that you would recognize again?"
+
+"At any place or time," I answered, confidently. "It is an absolute
+means of identification, quite as much so as a glass eye would be in a
+man's face."
+
+"Very good. We'll find that hand-organ, then, if we have to go through
+'Little Italy' with a drag-net. How beautifully the problem is working
+out!--almost too beautifully."
+
+At the incoming baggage-room Indiman presented the check numbered
+18329. A porter appeared with a large trunk loaded on a truck. "City
+transfer?" he asked.
+
+"No, I'll take it with me," said Indiman. "Thorp, will you get a hack."
+
+We were about to drive off, and I felt for my match-box. Provoking! I
+must have left it at home, and I wanted a cigarette. "One moment," I
+called, and jumped out, having caught sight of Ellison, who had been
+with me in college. He was hurrying into the station. I should be glad
+to have a word with him and secure a match at the same time. But
+somehow I missed him in making my way through the swinging doors.
+Ellison was nowhere to be seen, and I had to content myself with
+getting a light at the cigar counter. I went back to the carriage and
+climbed in.
+
+"It was Ellison," I explained. "A good chap, and I should have liked to
+meet him."
+
+"Some other time, perhaps," said Indiman, politely, and we drove off.
+
+"So you've got it," I said, staring up at the trunk that occupied the
+box at the hackman's left. "It looks ordinary enough."
+
+"The porter told me that it came in last night on the Lake Shore
+Limited," said Indiman. "Nothing remarkable about that, either."
+
+A sudden thought struck me. "By Jove! we're no better than thieves," I
+said, frowningly. "The possession of a baggage-check doesn't
+necessarily carry with it the ownership of the parcel for which it
+calls. The rightful proprietor may be even now at the Grand Central
+explaining the loss of the check and trying to identify his property."
+
+Indiman looked a little blank. "Of course, your obvious theory may be
+the true one," he said, slowly. "The hunting of mare's-nests is a
+weakness of mine. But what are you about there?"
+
+"Telling the driver to take us back to the station," I answered, with
+my hand on the check-cord.
+
+"I don't know about doing that--just now. There might be some awkward
+explanations to make to your hypothetical owner. Or, failing him, to
+the police."
+
+"It doesn't absolutely follow," he continued, "that there is an owner
+or that he is anxious to claim and recover his property. He may have
+substantial reasons for wanting to get rid of it. Remember that the
+baggage-check was handed in at my door with the express direction that
+it was to be given to the gentleman of the house. We'll have to see it
+through, I think."
+
+I had nothing more to say, and shortly afterwards we pulled up at No.
+4020 Madison Avenue. Bolder and the hackman carried the trunk in, and
+Indiman directed that it should be placed in the library, the front
+room on the first landing. The cabman was paid and dismissed, and we
+were left alone.
+
+"Now for it," said Indiman, gayly. "I have always preferred mutton to
+lamb."
+
+The trunk was of the cheap variety, covered with brown paper that
+vaguely simulated leather. It was perfectly new, and this was probably
+its first trip on the road. The lock was of simple construction. It
+should be easy to find a key to fit it, and one of mine, with a little
+filing, did the trick. The bolt shot back, and Indiman unhesitatingly
+threw up the lid.
+
+There was no tray in the trunk, and the interior space was filled with
+some bulky article that had been carefully shrouded by manifold layers
+of cloth wrappings. I know that the same thought was in both our minds,
+but neither of us spoke. A keen-bladed ink-eraser lay on the desk
+before me, and I handed it to Indiman. He made a swift cut in the
+wrappings and drew the severed edges apart--a naked human foot
+protruded. To this hour I have only to shut my eyes to immediately
+recall that horrid vision. I remember particularly the purplish hue of
+the swollen veins, the unmistakable rigidity of the joints and muscles.
+
+Indiman shut down the lid and turned the key in the lock. We looked,
+white-faced, one at the other, then at the maid-servant who stood not
+ten feet away. Had she been any nearer?
+
+"What is it, Mary?" said Indiman, sharply.
+
+The girl, confused and stammering, explained that she had come in to
+sweep; she had no idea that Mr. Indiman was in the library. No, the
+door was not locked, and she had just that moment walked in. Indiman
+cut short her apologies, and, with a tolerable assumption of
+indifference, dismissed her to her duties elsewhere.
+
+"Unfortunate," he remarked, with a frown.
+
+"I doubt if she could have seen anything," I answered, reassuringly. "I
+should have heard her if she had come any nearer, and the trunk was
+only open for a second or two."
+
+"Quite long enough for anything to happen," said Indiman. "I say,
+Thorp, but this is a go," he went on, cockily enough. Then suddenly the
+steadiness went out of his voice, like a match-light in a high wind,
+and he finished with a little, choking gasp, "Just the very--rummest
+go."
+
+I don't remember that we had a drink on the strength of it, but it's
+more than probable. Then we sat down to consider.
+
+The natural, the obvious, and the only proper course of action was to
+go at once to Police Headquarters and make a frank statement of the
+case with its attendant circumstances. True, we were undistinguished
+citizens, with neither pull nor influence, but surely respectability
+must count for something, even as against charges of admitted theft and
+suspected murder. If we owned up now we should be subjected, doubtless,
+to more or less annoyance growing out of the affair, but the position
+would be infinitely less difficult than if we waited for events to
+force it upon us. "Murder will out," I quoted.
+
+"So they say," answered Indiman, and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling.
+
+And yet in the end we abandoned this eminently sane conclusion,
+deciding that we would keep our own counsel and let the matter work
+itself out. For such a crime as murder does not end with the actual
+deed; the rupturing of the thousand and one ties that bind even the
+most insignificant of lives to the general body of human existence
+cannot be accomplished without some disturbance; a circle has myriad
+points, and at any one of them the interrupted current may again begin
+to flow. Perchance the message falls upon indifferent ears or is too
+feeble and incoherent in itself to compel attention. In this event the
+signals must necessarily grow weaker and more infrequent until they
+finally cease altogether--the crime is now an accomplished fact, the
+chapter is finally closed. Or, again, the call may come as plangent and
+insistent as the stroke of a fire-alarm; the whole community hears and
+instantly understands; the murder is out.
+
+Now either of us could presume to measure the precise quality of odic
+force inherent in the grisly mystery that lay under our hand; the
+affair might range from the dignity of a cause celebre to the
+commonplace of a purely commercial transaction--the economical
+transportation of a medical college "subject." It was this very
+uncertainty that fascinated our imaginations and so allowed the sober
+judgment to be deposed. Our ostensible argument was that the police
+would be sure to make a mess of the affair. If that idiot, Detective
+Brownson, took hold of it, the goddess Justice might throw up her hands
+as well as close her eyes. And inwardly we desired to cherish our
+secret out of the same sense of fearful joy with which one listens to a
+ghost story--we had tasted the coal-black wine pressed from forbidden
+grapes, and we craved a yet deeper draught. Finally, a connoisseur does
+not willingly relinquish a good find, whatever the circumstances; there
+are bibliomaniacs who will not hesitate to steal what they may not
+otherwise procure. I myself know a charming woman who collects Japanese
+sword-guards AT ANY COST (I have her husband's authority for this
+statement).
+
+But, seriously again, the grip of the mystery was upon us; the
+inclination had become irresistible to see the thing out, or at least
+to let it run a little further, just as a child amuses itself with
+fire--the desire to see what will happen. Later on it might be
+necessary to pull up sharply, but the contingency would doubtless
+provide for itself. The ultimate fact remained that here was a genuine
+adventure, and as connoisseurs of romance we were bound to exploit it
+to the utmost limit of our ability. So be it, then.
+
+"The finding of that organ-grinder is our first and obvious procedure,"
+said Indiman, slowly. "And the clew to his identity lies, as you have
+explained, in his instrument."
+
+"The organ itself is a criminal; it murders 'Celeste Aida.'"
+
+"I believe that most of these instruments are rented from one company,"
+continued Indiman. "We can find out definitely at the city License
+Bureau, and we might as well make that the starting-point of our
+investigations. We have plenty of time before luncheon; it is barely
+twelve o'clock."
+
+"But shouldn't we begin with--with the thing itself," I objected, and
+glanced nervously at the big trunk standing in the middle of the floor.
+The identity of the victim--it may be possible to establish it--a most
+important point, surely."
+
+"I'll have to pass up that part of it--at least for the present," said
+Indiman, frankly. "But we must get the box out of sight somewhere. The
+weather"--and here he gave a little involuntary shudder--"is getting
+warmer. We'd better get it down into the cellar. I'll see if the way is
+clear."
+
+The servants were all busy in the upper part of the house, and we
+succeeded in getting the trunk down into the cellar unobserved, stowing
+it away temporarily in an empty coal-bin. On our way up-stairs we
+encountered the maid, Mary, and something in the hasty way in which she
+stood back to let us pass stirred again my vague suspicions. But there
+was nothing to say or do; we must trust to luck.
+
+Then there was no difficulty in finding the office of the company that
+leases hand-organs to itinerant musicians, and the manager, an
+Americanized Italian, was most courteous in answering our inquiries. It
+appeared that this particular aria of "Celeste Aida" was only included
+in the repertoire of some half-dozen of the older instruments. It
+chanced that they were all in stock at the present time, and it would
+be no trouble at all to let us hear them play. "Our incomparable
+maestro--he is no longer remembered," said the manager, mournfully.
+"The public--now it is that they demand what you calla hot
+stuff--'Loosianner Loo' and the 'Lobster Intermezzo,' Per Bacco! if
+they would but open their ears--la--la--there it goes--
+
+'"Ce-le-ste A-i-da, For-ma di-vi-na'--
+
+Ah, gentlemen, THAT is musica."
+
+An amiable person, but we were wasting both his and our time. Each one
+of the six organs reproduced the original notation of the aria, and the
+imperfect instrument must therefore be in private hands. So we returned
+thanks to Mr. Gualdo Sarto for his courtesy, and went away somewhat
+disheartened. Haystacks are large places and needles small objects.
+
+Two days went by--days spent in aimless wandering about the streets
+waiting for a distant hand-organ to give tongue. Then a hot chase, only
+to draw another blank.
+
+On the third day I came home alone about five o'clock. The weather was
+really hot again, and I was tired out with tramping. Yet a little chill
+ran down my spine as I happened to glance across the street and caught
+sight of a man's face in an areaway. He had been watching me; of that I
+was certain.
+
+I went up to the library and sat there waiting for Indiman. The man in
+the areaway waited also.
+
+At half after six Indiman appeared. He, too, had been unsuccessful; I
+could see it in his face before he spoke. I told him of the suspicious
+loiterer across the street. Together we kept close watch on the
+areaway, and after a while the fellow came out and strolled off with
+what was intended to pass as jaunty indifference. But we were not
+deceived.
+
+"That fool of a girl has talked," said Indiman. "Looks like it."
+
+"See here, Thorp, that thing in the cellar--we'll have to do something
+at once."
+
+I nodded.
+
+"The flooring in the coal-bin is brick; it won't be difficult to take
+up a section large enough for--"
+
+I nodded again.
+
+I shan't forget what we did that night--the stealing down into the
+echoing cellar--the flickering of the candle-light on the white-washed
+walls--the sound of the spade clinking against a casual stone.
+
+How we worked! Like slaves under the lash--an actual lash of terror.
+For we were afraid, frankly and honestly afraid, of what we had done
+and of what we were doing. I know that the sweat fairly poured off me.
+My word! but it WAS hot, and there was a fearful significance in the
+thought that urged us on to even greater exertions.
+
+It had to be done, and at last it was, the bricks neatly replaced and
+the surplus earth packed away in gunny-sacks to be removed at the first
+favorable opportunity. Then in the gray dawn we drew ourselves wearily
+up-stairs, and, separating without a word, went to our rooms. Was it
+pure, malignant chance that the maid, Mary, passed me on her way
+down-stairs and glanced, with a curious, shrinking repugnance, at my
+earth-stained and dusty clothes? I did not care; I was dog-tired and I
+wanted but one thing--bed. I reached my couch, fell sprawling upon it,
+and slept for seven hours straight.
+
+It was a relief to awake from the phantasmagoria of horrors that
+crowded my dreams. It was nearly two o'clock, and I had written to my
+friend Ellison asking him to luncheon at that hour. The meal was rather
+a silent one for two of us, but Ellison talked incessantly. He was in
+high spirits, having just been appointed to a university professorship
+in physiology--his specialty. "I've been busy getting my lecture
+material together," he explained, and "I had a beastly piece of bad
+luck the other day. My own fault, I suppose, but it illustrates the
+point that our American baggage system is still far from perfection.
+Now the European idea--"
+
+"Shall we go into the library for coffee," said Indiman, a little
+abruptly, and I could see that Ellison's chatter was beginning to get
+on his nerves; my own were vibrating like harp-strings. I walked over
+to one of the library windows and looked out, just in time to catch
+sight of a man backing quickly into the shadow of the areaway opposite.
+
+From down the street came the sound of a childish voice singing. Great
+Heavens! It was Verdi's aria "Celeste Aida," with F natural in the
+third bar instead of F sharp.
+
+"I am going out for a few minutes," I said, carelessly. "Just around
+the corner to get a special-delivery stamp. Of course you'll wait,
+Ellison," and I gave Indiman a quick glance. He understood.
+
+Perhaps I was shadowed by the watchers in the areaway. I neither knew
+nor cared. My one idea was to catch up with the child, and this time
+luck was with me.
+
+The little girl acknowledged shyly that she had learned the tune from a
+hand-organ. "It belongs to my uncle Bartolomeo," she explained,
+proudly. "It is a good organ, signore. There are little figures of men
+and women under the glass front, and when the musica plays they
+dance--so."
+
+Uncle Bartolomeo was fortunately at home, and I persuaded him to
+accompany me back to 4020 Madison Avenue. He spoke English perfectly,
+and looked both honest and shrewd. Well, we would find some way of
+getting the truth out of him.
+
+A police-officer opened the door for me. So the blow had fallen
+already. I went on up to the library, taking Bartolomeo with me. At the
+door I waited a moment.
+
+Brownson sat at the long table, the picture of the zealous and
+efficient guardian of public safety. The maid-servant, Mary, had just
+been interrogated--of course, it was she who had betrayed us, and
+Brownson was evidently her young man. What infernal luck!
+
+"Now, Mr Indiman--" said Brownson, sternly, "but be careful what you
+say; it may be used against you."
+
+Indiman told the whole story without reserve, and Brownson listened
+with cold incredulity. But Ellison seemed interested.
+
+"A baggage-check handed in at the door," commented the detective, with
+judicial impassivity. "Where is this organ-grinder?"
+
+"Here," I answered, and entered with Uncle Bartolomeo.
+
+But the examination, severe as it was, revealed only the bare fact that
+Bartolomeo had found the brass baggage-check lying on the sidewalk in
+front of No. 4020 Madison Avenue. He was an honest man, and, moreover,
+the acticle was of no use to him. He had given it to the servant at the
+door to be handed over to the gentleman of the house. That was all he
+knew. By the Holy Virgin, he had spoken the truth!
+
+Brownson rang the call-bell. "Bring in the trunk," he said, curtly, and
+forthwith two policemen appeared with the fatal box, just as it had
+been exhumed from its resting-place in the coal-bin. "Hullo!" blurted
+out Ellison, in vast surprise, and somehow my sinking spirits revived
+with the word.
+
+"Who is this gentleman?" demanded Brownson, frowning at the
+interruption.
+
+"Dr. Ellison," I answered.
+
+"Medicine?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Hum," said Brownson, importantly. "I will ask him to kindly take
+charge--"
+
+"I should think so," broke in Ellison, cheerfully, "seeing that it's my
+own property. I lost baggage-check No. 18329, from Cleveland to New
+York, the night of my arrival in town, and somewhere in this very
+neighborhood. The next morning I went to the Grand Central to prove my
+ownership, but the trunk had been claimed and carried away."
+
+"You are aware, Dr. Ellison," said Brownson, "that this trunk
+contains--well, we all know what."
+
+"Oh, do we!" retorted Ellison, smartly. "Just stand back there." He
+took a key from his pocket and unlocked the trunk. An irresistible
+curiosity drew us forward again. Ellison seized the wrapping and jerked
+it forcibly apart. I turned my eyes away, and Mary screamed outright.
+
+"Did you never see an anatomical manikin before?" asked Ellison,
+scornfully. "Made out of papier-mache, you know, and used for
+demonstrations in physiology before college classes. They used to come
+from Paris, but they're making them in Cleveland now, and better than
+the French ones. I tell you I'm mighty glad to get my 'old man' back;
+he's just out of the shop and cost me a hundred-dollar bill."
+
+Mr. Detective Brownson walked over to the trunk, gazed intently at the
+manikin, and gingerly poked it once or twice in the ribs. He turned red
+and swallowed at something in his throat.
+
+"So you wish to make a charge against these gentlemen?" he asked, with
+almost a note of appeal in his voice.
+
+"Not I," answered Ellison, cheerfully. "It's all between friends, and
+they can settle the matter with me over a petit souper at Delmonico's.
+Good-day, officer."
+
+ How quickly the echoes of the strenuous life die away. After the
+storm and stress of those dreadful four days one would suppose that
+peace at any price were the one thing worth while. And for a month or
+more we were quite content with the humdrum of ordinary existence. And
+then just because a game of patience would not make--
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+The Upset Apple-Cart
+
+
+Indiman was playing solitaire and I was idly looking on. It so happened
+that an important card, the ace of hearts, was buried, and Indiman had
+tried every legitimate means to get it out without success.
+
+"You can't do that," I said, decidedly, as Indiman was about to make a
+move. He looked up, caught my eye fixed upon the game, and colored
+deeply. Then he frowned and swept the cards into a disorganized heap.
+
+"I really believe that I was on the point of cheating myself," he said,
+soberly. "That argues a shameful flabbiness of the moral fibre, doesn't
+it? A 'brace' game of solitaire! What a hideous picture of degeneracy!"
+
+"Lay it on the weather," I suggested. "These gray November days with
+their depressing atmosphere of finality may be held responsible for
+anything."
+
+"Even my own pet extremity--the upsetting of an apple-cart. Really, I'm
+getting dangerously close to it. Let's go out for a walk."
+
+Now, why did Tito Cecco, dealer in small fruits, choose this precise
+day and hour to halt his barrow at our corner? Push-carts are not
+allowed in Madison Avenue, anyway, and five minutes earlier or later he
+would have been moved on by the policeman on the beat. But in that mean
+time Esper Indiman and I had left the house. The cart piled high with
+red and yellow apples confronted us, and a dangerous glint came into
+Indiman's eye.
+
+"Indiman!" I implored.
+
+Too late! With the mischievous agility of a boy, Indiman seized the hub
+of the near wheel and heaved it into the air. A little ripple of apples
+swept across the asphalt roadway, then a veritable cascade of the
+fruit. The light push-cart lay bottom up, its wheels revolving feebly.
+Tito Cecco had become incapable of either speech or motion. Then he
+caught the glimmer of the gold piece in Indiman's fingers, and grabbed
+at it eagerly.
+
+It is a poor sort of catastrophe that does not attract the attention of
+at least one pair of youthful eyes, and the vultures are famous for
+their punctuality in the matter of invitations to dinner. Where did all
+the boys come from, anyway; the street was jammed with them, and
+reinforcements were constantly arriving. Tito Cecco, having pouched
+Indiman's gold piece and righted his cart, had hastily departed. He had
+made a good thing out of the transaction, and explanations to policemen
+are awkward things--always so.
+
+The pile of fruit had disappeared with incredible swiftness, but the
+boys themselves departed slowly, as though reluctant to leave a region
+of such extraordinary windfalls. One little chap had fared particularly
+well, for both his coat-pockets were stuffed and each fist grabbed a
+big specimen of the beautiful fruit. A young fellow, fresh-faced and
+country-looking, had been looking at the scene from a little distance
+down the street. Now he walked up and spoke to the small boy.
+
+"Give you a nickel, bub, for one of the red ones. They look just like
+the apples up in Saco, Maine. Lord's sakes, how I wish I was there!"
+
+The boy signified his willingness to make the bargain, but he wanted to
+give a sporting color to the transaction. "Right or left?" he asked,
+his hands held behind his back.
+
+"Left, of course," answered the yokel.
+
+"'Ain't I always been that?"
+
+The boy handed over the apple, received the promised nickel in return,
+and departed with a joyous whoop. The young countryman held up the
+apple and looked at it sentimentally.
+
+"Now, what under the canopy's that!" he exclaimed. There was a piece of
+paper tightly twisted about the stem of the fruit. He unfolded it
+carefully, for it could be seen that it bore a written message.
+
+When a man with a complexion like a new red wagon turns pale it means
+something. Indiman and I stepped up, for we really thought that he was
+going to faint.
+
+"Much obliged, gentlemen. I'm all right now," said the young chap. "But
+for the minute I was that struck. Say, gentlemen, you'll think I'm a
+liar, but it was my own girl, Miss Mattie Townley, who wrote that there
+letter and twisted it around an apple-stem. And she wrote it to me--me,
+Ben Day. What do you think of that?"
+
+"This is a world of infinite chance," said Indiman, politely.
+
+"Look for yourself. I don't mind, and neither would Mattie."
+
+Indiman took the little scrawl of paper and I looked over his shoulder.
+It read:
+
+"Ben Day, if you're not an altogether born fool, come back to Saco,
+Maine. I never meant a word of what I said--you KNOW that. M. T."
+
+"S'pose you'd call it a lovers' quarrel," explained Mr. Ben Day. "I
+just piked out of Saco, Maine, like a bear with a sore head, and come
+down here to New York. For three months I 'ain't sent sign nor sound to
+the home people, but she was bound to catch up with me. And, by jinks!
+she just did. Wonder how many other Baldwin pippins are taking the glad
+tidings round the country. I'd give a nickel apiece for a million of
+'em." An actual tear glistened in the young fellow's eye. It was
+impossible not to sympathize, and we both congratulated him heartily.
+
+"Of course, you're going back to Saco at once?" said Indiman.
+
+"If I could get the five-o'clock express there's a through connection
+up north. I'd do it, too"--his voice fell suddenly--"only for--"
+
+"Only for what?"
+
+"This," and he held out a small package that he had been carrying. It
+was box-shaped and neatly wrapped in light-brown paper. The parcel was
+addressed to S. A. Davidge, 32 Edgewood Road, Exeter, England, and it
+bore a pasted label that read, "From Redfield & Company, Silversmiths,
+Maiden Lane, New York City." It also carried the label of the Oceanic
+Express Company, marked, "Charges Paid" and "per S.S. Russia" with the
+package number, 44,281, in indelible pencil.
+
+"Well?" said Indiman, interrogatively.
+
+"You see, I was in a scrape on account of that thing, and I wanted to
+put the matter straight. Up to ten o'clock this morning I was in the
+employ of the Oceanic Express Company--one of the messengers, you know,
+sir, who go out with the wagons. It was our first trip of the day, and
+we had a big load of small stuff for the Russia, When I had unloaded
+and checked up my sheet, No. 44,281 was missing. I went back to the
+office, reported the loss, and was discharged on the spot--they're hard
+as nails on anything like that. Well, I went home pretty blue, for it's
+hard work finding a job nowadays, and I didn't know which way to turn.
+I'd been keeping bachelor hall with the driver of the wagon. He's a
+foreigner named Grenelli, and claims to be an Italian. Maybe so, but he
+looks more like a German, and he can talk half a dozen languages. I
+used to go with him to the socialist meetings over on the East Side,
+and the Tower of Babel isn't in it with those fellows.
+
+"An anarchist? Oh, I don't think so. Liked to shoot off his mouth about
+the rights of man, and he was always down on taxes. But I shouldn't
+call him an anarchist. Why, he was the driver of an express wagon, and
+the two things don't jibe.
+
+"I should have said that Grenelli had been suspended during the
+investigation into the loss, and of course we went home together. We
+talked the thing over from end to end, but we couldn't explain the
+disappearance of the package--neither of us. Of course, it was me who
+was the real responsible party in the business, and Grenelli, who
+naturally wanted to get back on his time, felt pretty grouchy about it.
+Finally, I got mad, told him to go to blazes, and cleared out of the
+house.
+
+"Well, about an hour after that I went home, and met Grenelli coming
+out; he said that he was going down to the company stable. At two
+o'clock he come back all out of breath, and he had the package with
+him--yes, sir, that identical package that we'd been looking for. Told
+me that it had been found under the driver's seat wrapped up in one of
+the horse-blankets. Seems funny, too, for we had hunted through that
+wagon-body a dozen times.
+
+"However, that makes no difference; we had the package, and I had just
+started down-town to turn it in when I stopped to look at the
+excitement here. Lucky for me, or I'd never had a bite of this
+particular red apple, the sweetest pippin that orchard ever grew.
+Excuse me, gentlemen, if I do the saphead act--by jinks! I FEEL like
+it."
+
+"The sentiment does you honor, Mr. Day," said Indiman, gravely. "You
+ought to take that five-o'clock train."
+
+"Wouldn't I like to!" sighed the enamoured youth. "But I can't go down
+to the company office in Bowling Green and get back in time to make it.
+It's three o'clock now."
+
+"You would not care to intrust the delivery of the package to me?"
+
+"Well, hardly," was the frank reply. "You see, mister, I've been living
+in New York for three months, now, and I've cut most of my eye-teeth.
+No offence, of course."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"You look straight goods, and I b'lieve I'd run almost any risk to
+catch that train--well, by jinks! here comes Grenelli now; that makes
+it all O.K."
+
+I did not like the looks of the man who presently joined us in response
+to Ben Day's hail. I distrust, on principle, people with thin,
+bloodless lips and obliquely set eyes. Yet the fellow spoke pleasantly
+enough, and he readily undertook to clear young Day's name and
+reputation with his former employers. The boy handed over the parcel to
+Grenelli, and then, as he turned to go, begged the honor of shaking
+hands with Indiman and myself, a permission graciously granted. After
+all, we had borne no inconsiderable share in the later developments of
+his good-fortune. Suppose Indiman had NOT upset the apple-cart?
+
+"And now," said Indiman, turning to Grenelli and speaking with great
+suavity, "I am going to ask the favor of a short interview. My house is
+only two numbers away."
+
+Grenelli shook his head. "I've nothing to say to you--" he began,
+defiantly.
+
+Indiman stepped quickly to the fellow's side, took his arm and pressed
+it closely. He said a few words in an undertone, and to my surprise
+Grenelli instantly submitted. We entered the house and went to the
+library on the first floor front. Indiman took from his side
+coat-pocket a cocked revolver and laid it on the table. So that was the
+kind of persuasion that it had been necessary to apply to secure Mr.
+Grenelli's attendance. One is apt to yield the point when he feels a
+pistol-barrel prodding him in the ribs, and it is no great trick to set
+a trigger-catch with the weapon in your pocket.
+
+"Stand there," said Indiman, pointing to the far end of the table, and
+the man obeyed.
+
+"And now, Grenelli," continued Indiman, bluntly, "I want the truth
+about this affair. Bah, man! don't begin to shuffle about like that.
+This isn't the original package delivered by Redfield & Company to the
+Oceanic Express for shipment to England. You know it and I know it, so
+we'll just acknowledge a true bill and go on with the evidence.
+
+"A counterfeit, then, of the real thing. But why? That's what we're
+after now. Simple robbery? Or is there another reason why this
+particular package was intended to be shipped on the steamship Russia,
+sailing to-day at four o'clock sharp? You see the point, don't you?
+
+"I admit, Grenelli, that you are a clever man. Since the dynamite
+outrage on the Icelandic six months ago great care has been taken in
+the supervision of shipments, for the fast steamers and the Oceanic
+Express Company require that the contents of every package shall be
+visibly made known to them before it can be accepted. But once it is
+inspected and officially labelled it goes through without further
+difficulty, the steamship people being content with the express
+company's guarantee.
+
+"And now be kind enough to give me your very best attention. This
+morning, at ten o'clock, one of these officially registered packages
+disappeared from the wagon that you were driving. At half-past two this
+afternoon the parcel is returned to messenger Day, coming through your
+hands. Now, how long did it take you to make up this dummy--seal,
+stamp, and all? Of course, you had stolen what you needed for the
+forgery from the company office--all but the Redfield & Company label,
+and that you soaked off the original package and reaffixed to this one.
+
+"It wasn't a plausible story that you told Day, but you knew the boy
+wouldn't be particular over trifles. All he cared about was the cloud
+upon his honesty. You figured that the package would be returned,
+perfunctorily examined for identification, and immediately sent on
+board the steamer. How much picrate or dynamite does it take to knock
+out the biggest steamship afloat? You could get enough of the stuff in
+a box of this size--couldn't you? And how were you going to set it off?
+Clockwork, of course. But why were you so stupid as to use a clumsy
+mechanism whose ticking could be heard a block away? Listen to it now."
+
+In the succeeding silence the measured beat of the escapement was
+plainly audible. There was a sinister significance in the sound that I,
+for one, shall not easily forget. The man Grenelli paled and took an
+involuntary backward step.
+
+"The steamship Russia" continued Indiman, in his calm, inflectionless
+voice, "was booked to carry an unusually distinguished company on this
+particular trip. The International Peace Congress has been in session
+in New York during the past fortnight. It adjourned Tuesday, and some
+thirty of the European delegates had engaged passage on this boat. Now,
+consider for a moment, Grenelli--what a catastrophe to the cause of
+universal peace should anything happen to the Russia! For example, the
+destruction of the ship and the consequent loss of life through the
+explosion of an infernal machine smuggled into the cargo! What
+confusion, what dismay, what terror! Then the poison of slow suspicion,
+the dull but deadly undercurrent of racial resentments, the question,
+growing daily more insistent, 'Who has done this thing?'
+
+"It was an exquisite stroke of irony, Grenelli. I am connoisseur enough
+to admire really good technique wherever I find it. The nations
+assemble for a council of peace, and an invisible hand hurls a
+firebrand into the very centre of the august circle! Puff! The
+resolutions, with their well-rounded periods, go up into smoke and the
+tramp of armed men is heard throughout the world. Excellent! Oh,
+excellent, my good Grenelli!
+
+"But chance always takes a hand in a round game, and at the
+psychological moment I come out of my house and upset an
+apple-cart--your apple-cart, my good Grenelli. What incredible bad
+luck!--to be bowled out by a shiny, red-cheeked pippin from Mattie
+Townley's orchard in Saco, Maine. You will remember a somewhat similar
+incident in the Garden of Eden several thousand years ago. Apples are
+certainly unwholesome fruit for the masculine digestion. But I beg your
+pardon--you were about to say--"
+
+The man Grenelli glared at his tormentor. "What more do you want of
+me?" he asked, sullenly. "There's the police--why don't you turn me
+over to them and have done with it?"
+
+"For the very sufficient reason, my dear Grenelli, that the evidence
+against you isn't strong enough. The package never reached the Russia,
+and how are we going to prove your intentions. Besides, in a matter of
+this sort, the question of tools is of small importance compared with
+the identity of the intelligence that employs them. Who and what is
+back of this affair? You, Grenelli, are going to tell me."
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Don't be too hasty. Think it over. We have plenty of time before us."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"You will presently. Thorp, my dear fellow, will you see that the
+servants are cleared out of the house at once. Let them all go to the
+show at the New Academy--at my expense, of course--and they needn't
+return until noon to-morrow. Make them understand that these are their
+orders. Then come back here, if you will."
+
+When I returned to the library I found Grenelli seated at one end of
+the big centre-table and Indiman opposite him. In Indiman's right hand
+was a revolver, and the express package, addressed to S. A. Davidge,
+Exeter, England, lay on the table between them. The arrangement looked
+studied. It gave me an uncomfortable feeling--a well-founded one, as I
+was immediately to learn.
+
+"Take my place for a moment," said Indiman. He went to the clock on the
+mantel-piece and stopped it. When he came back to the table he had his
+watch in his hand; he laid it face downward by the pistol. "Do you
+carry a timepiece?" he inquired of Grenelli. The prisoner shook his
+head. "Very good," continued Indiman. "We are now ready for our little
+experiment. Let me again have your best attention.
+
+"The box containing the infernal machine lies on the table there. Mr.
+Grenelli knows at what hour the exploding mechanism is set to act; I do
+not. But seeing that the Russia sails to-day at four o'clock, we may
+assume that the explosion must be timed for to-morrow morning, when the
+vessel would be well out to sea. Certainly, not earlier; possibly some
+hours later. It makes no particular difference, for we are going to sit
+quietly here at the table with that curious box between us until
+something happens. Either Mr. Grenelli is going to give me that
+information or--he isn't. But in the latter case it will be of no
+further use to either of us. Do I make myself quite clear?"
+
+The ticking of the mechanism concealed in the box sounded like the
+blows of a trip-hammer. Grenelli lit a cigarette with a poor
+affectation of bravado. "I can stand as much of it as you can," he
+said, insolently.
+
+"You have the advantage of KNOWING how much," retorted Indiman. "But
+we'll wait and see who's the best man. And in the mean time, Thorp, old
+chap, I think you'd better cut your stick. Just bring up some biscuits
+and a bottle of Scotch, and we'll get along as comfortably as you
+please."
+
+But I declined to be sent away in this fashion for all that I was
+horribly afraid. "I can't sit down at that table," I explained, "but
+I'll keep coming in and out of the room as the spirit moves me. Now,
+don't say a word; I've made up my mind."
+
+"Well, I sha'n't forget it," said Indiman, simply. Then, in an
+undertone: "As a matter of absolute fact, the fellow is a coward, and
+he'll weaken at the end. There isn't the slightest danger--be sure of
+that."
+
+Hour by hour the early evening dragged away, and then began that
+interminable night. I spent most of the time in the dining-room at the
+back, smoking and pretending to read. Twice the book slipped from my
+hand, and I woke with a horrid start from my cat-nap. Then I would go
+softly to the library door and peep in. Always the same tableau--the
+two men sitting opposite each other, alert, silent, watchful, and
+between them the shaded lamp and that little box lying in the circle of
+its light.
+
+At about four o'clock I came in and mended the fire in the grate, for
+the house was growing chilly. Indiman looked over at me and smiled
+brightly. "Well, it's good to be out of the old ruts, isn't it?" he
+said. "'Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay,' as some
+one has truthfully remarked. He was a philosopher, that fellow. Wish we
+had him here with us to-night; we'd teach him a thing or two more about
+what living really is."
+
+After that I walked up and down the dining-room floor pretty steadily
+until the dawn began to steal over the chimney-pots of the houses at
+the back. It wasn't a pretty sky that the light revealed, dull and
+streaky looking, with a suggestion of coming rain. I stood looking at
+it in an absent-minded, miserable sort of stupor; then I heard Indiman
+calling me.
+
+"I'm out of cigars," he explained. "There's a box in the buffet; and
+just put out the lamp, will you."
+
+Grenelli looked haggard in the gray light that streamed into the room
+as I drew the curtains. He started, too, when he saw that the day had
+come--it was quite perceptible.
+
+"I should like to know the time," he growled. "It's only fair."
+
+"To be sure," assented Indiman, and he pushed his watch, face upward,
+into the middle of the table. The dial indicated half-past seven, at
+which I was somewhat surprised, for I had not thought it so late. But
+my own watch had run down, and it will be remembered that Indiman had
+stopped the mantel-clock the night before. Half-past seven it was,
+then, for all that the hour again struck me as being rather advanced
+for a cloudy morning in mid-November. And evidently Grenelli thought so
+too. He could hardly suppress the exclamation that rose to his lips as
+he glanced at the dial.
+
+Ten minutes passed, and then Grenelli spoke.
+
+"If I tell you what you want to know," he said, "am I to be allowed to
+leave the house at once?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And I am to be safe from arrest? At least, sufficient time will be
+given--"
+
+"Bah!" interrupted Indiman, scornfully. "Come and go as you will. I can
+break you like a rotten stick whenever it pleases me."
+
+Grenelli drew in his breath with a vicious hiss. "At five minutes to
+eight I will tell you," he said, in a loud, overbearing voice.
+
+"Very good," answered Indiman, placidly.
+
+But the fellow's courage deserted him at the pinch, in accordance with
+Indiman's prediction. He sat there dry-lipped and wet-browed, a
+half-burned cigarette in his yellow-stained fingers, and his eyes fixed
+immovably on Indiman's watch. It was barely a quarter to the hour when
+he gave in. He wanted to cut the corner as closely as he could, but his
+nerve was gone. "I will tell you--" he began.
+
+He stopped as abruptly as he had started. Suddenly the ticking of the
+clock-work had ceased, and it was succeeded by a pause infinitesimally
+brief and withal infinitely extended. Grenelli half rose from his
+chair, his hands beating backward at the air. Then came a curious
+premonitory whir of the hidden mechanism. The metallic rattle of the
+gong was magnified in my ears to the dimensions of a roll of thunder;
+then I saw that Indiman had torn the wrappings from the box and had
+opened it. There was no mistaking the object that lay within--a common
+American alarm-clock. Grenelli looked at it, wide-eyed, then he rolled
+off his chair in some sort of a fit, and Indiman and I were left to
+stare each other out of countenance.
+
+"Plain enough, I think," said Indiman. "There WAS another box
+containing the infernal machine, but Grenelli made up the dummy so
+successfully as to deceive even himself. He got the two mixed up, and
+this, the original and harmless package, was the one that should have
+reached the Russia if Ben Day hadn't stopped to buy a red apple. Of
+course, it was the ticking of the clock escapement that misled him--and
+me.
+
+"The alarm mechanism must have been wound up and set just before the
+clock left Redfield & Company's yesterday morning. Possibly a practical
+joke on some clerk's part, but that doesn't matter. You see, there is a
+twenty-four hour dial for the alarm, and it was set at a little before
+XIX, corresponding to about a quarter of seven."
+
+"But your watch says a quarter of eight," I objected.
+
+"I set it an hour ahead," answered Indiman. "I'm not altogether a fool,
+and although I was certain that Grenelli would weaken, I wanted some
+leeway for myself and you. Undoubtedly, the infernal machine was timed
+for eight o'clock, and Grenelli knew it. He tried to hold on long
+enough to insure our destruction, and yet get away himself, but he
+couldn't be sure of those last few minutes. By-the-way, the box
+containing the bomb must be at his house. It ought to be put out of
+business at once. Can you get the fellow on his feet?"
+
+But it took some time to bring the man around, and it was more than
+half an hour later before we got away, the three of us together in a
+hansom. I should say that the lodging occupied by Grenelli and Day was
+the loft of a disused private stable, situated in a side street, three
+or four blocks off, and the driver was instructed to get there as
+quickly as possible. As we passed a jeweler's place Grenelli glanced at
+the electric-clock dial in the window and saw that it was twenty-five
+minutes of eight. He had been deceived, then; he knew it instantly.
+"But it worked both ways," he sneered. "I have my secret still."
+
+"Quite so," answered Indiman, and smiled.
+
+At the corner we were halted by a hail from the sidewalk. It was
+Brownson, of the detective bureau.
+
+"Sorry to bother you, Mr. Indiman, but I want that man with you.
+Charged with larceny of a package consigned to Oceanic Express Company.
+I've been waiting for him all night."
+
+"By all means, officer," and the three of us got out.
+
+"I managed it pretty well, I think," continued Brownson. "Searched
+every nook and corner of the stable where Grenelli and Day lived, and
+finally I found the parcel. It answered precisely to the description,
+and I sent it down by Officer Smith to the RUSSIA not more than an hour
+ago."
+
+"To the RUSSIA! Why she sailed yesterday afternoon at four o'clock."
+
+"Slight accident to her low-pressure cylinder," explained Brownson.
+"She was delayed for several hours and was to sail early this morning.
+I beg your pardon--why, excuse me, Mr. Indiman--"
+
+There was a public telephone in the corner shop, and Indiman dashed
+into the booth, upsetting Officer Brownson into the gutter as he rushed
+past him. The clerk at the pier of the Cis-Atlantic Company answered
+that the RUSSIA had sailed a little before seven, and must be in the
+lower bay by this time. Impossible to reach her, as the morning was
+densely foggy and she carried no wireless apparatus. An indescribable
+expression came into the man Grenelli's face as he realized what this
+new turn of the kaleidoscope meant. But Indiman and I involuntarily
+looked the other way.
+
+Officer Smith had returned from his mission, and apparently his
+superior was not pleased with its outcome.
+
+"Block on the Elevated!" he exclaimed, disgustedly. "Always some
+excuse. Then you missed the Russia?"
+
+"She had just been pulled into the stream when I reached the pier."
+
+"Where's the package?"
+
+"I brought it back with me."
+
+Now, to be honest, I jumped at that. It was possible that the booby had
+the box under his coat, and it was now ten minutes of eight. But
+Brownson, who didn't know, went on imperturbably. "You should have
+handed it over to the representative of the express company. What did
+you do with it?"
+
+"It's at the stable where Grenelli lived," explained Officer Smith. "I
+locked it up in a bureau drawer, and here's the key."
+
+Brownson looked at his subordinate patronizingly. "You have much to
+learn, young man--" he began. "Much to learn. Hallo! Something's blown
+up down the block."
+
+Well, to sum up briefly, there was no stable left. Fortunately no one
+had been injured by the explosion, and the outside damage was confined
+to a few broken windows. We all went poking about in the ruins looking
+for a clew to the mystery.
+
+"Here's that box, Brownson," said Indiman, suddenly. "The cover is
+somewhat torn, but you can make out the address easily enough. It's the
+lost property, certainly, and you've got the thief, too." He handed the
+officer the package containing the alarm-clock.
+
+"That I have," answered the gratified Brownson. "Keep close eye on
+Grenelli, Officer Smith, and I may be able to overlook your
+shortcomings of this morning. I say, Mr. Indiman, but there's a regular
+miracle in this 'ere business. Now, how do you suppose this blessed
+little twopenny box ever come through an earthquake like that there."
+
+"I'll never tell you," said Indiman.
+
+We had been dining with Ellison, the deferred settlement of that little
+account which we had been owing him since August. However, we made it
+up, interest and all. The occasion had been an undeniably cheerful one,
+and it was close to midnight when we finally separated. Ellison went on
+his way up-town and Indiman and I stood on the corner waiting for a
+hansom, for as it chanced there was not a single disengaged one in the
+rank before the restaurant. "Here we are," said Indiman, and raised his
+stick as a four-wheeler was about to pass us. But the driver made a
+negative sign and drove on. "He has a fare, after all," said Indiman,
+with some annoyance. "But look, Thorp!"
+
+The rolling shades at the doors had been closely drawn, but just as the
+carriage came opposite us a sudden jolt displaced the spring catch of
+the curtain and up it flew with a snap. There were two persons in the
+cab, and the electric light from the corner shone full upon them. The
+one nearest us was an undersized, swarthy-faced person who wore a
+Turkish fez; his companion was a portly man attired in evening clothes
+and having his head entirely enveloped in a bag of some dark material
+gathered at the neck by a draw-string.
+
+With an exclamation that might pass for a blood-curdling Levantine oath
+the man of the fez seized the window-curtain and pulled it down; the
+carriage rolled on.
+
+"An extraordinary spectacle," I remarked. "There ought to be a big
+story behind that."
+
+"I admit," said Indiman, calmly, "that it is not usual for gentlemen to
+drive about town with their heads done up in black bags. Nevertheless,
+I doubt if there is much in the mystery worthy of a connoisseur's
+attention. It strikes me as smacking of the made-up, the theatric; it
+has something of the air commercial about it--an advertisement,
+perhaps."
+
+"Nonsense!" I retorted, warmly.
+
+"Well, let the event decide. The cab's number--did you note it?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It was No. 872," said Indiman.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+The Philadelphia Quizzing-Glass
+
+
+Knowing that the number of the four-wheeler was 872, it was not a
+difficult matter to begin the inquiry. But to secure any real
+information--that was different. The driver, a respectable albeit
+somewhat thick-headed Irishman, could offer only vague recollections of
+his business for the night of November 16th. He had been lucky enough
+to secure several fares, but there had been nothing in the appearance
+of any of his passengers to attract his attention. A gentleman in
+evening dress with his head tied up in a black bag and accompanied by a
+man wearing a red fez! Certainly he would have taken notice of anything
+like THAT. "Niver in my cab," asseverated honest Mulvihill. "I've been
+hacking it for twenty years and carried some quare cargoes. But of that
+sort--no, sorr!"
+
+Clearly there was nothing to be learned from the cabman, and he was
+undoubtedly sincere in his protestations. The little peculiarities of
+costume that had originally caught my eye were obviously unsuited for
+public wear. The fez and the black bag had probably been brought into
+use after the men of mystery had entered the cab, and it was only
+through the accident of the suddenly released window-shade that Esper
+Indiman and I had seen what we did. "No thoroughfare" stood out plainly
+on this particular road. Then the humor took me to try conclusions with
+Chance herself, the method a la Indiman. I chucked a silver dollar to
+the cabman. "Whatever it's worth to you in time and distance," I said.
+"Don't ask me any questions--go as you please."
+
+Hackman Mulvihill was a humorist in his way and he wanted to spare his
+horse. Six times in succession we made the circuit of Madison Square
+and never once off the walk. I was on the point of protesting, but I
+remembered the rules of the game and held my tongue. Finally, we
+started down-town by way of Fourth Avenue. Near Sixteenth Street and
+Union Square the cab pulled up to the curb, an intimation that my
+chartered voyage was over.
+
+"And now which way?" I inquired, smilingly.
+
+Mr. Mulvihill regarded me with compassionate and somewhat unflattering
+interest. "Be glory!" he said, frankly, "it's Bellevue that ye'll be
+wanting afore long, and badly, too. Come, now, jist jump in again and
+I'll rowl ye up there quiet and peaceable like. A touch of liver, sorr.
+I know how it takes them. Maning a drop too much of the 'red-eye,'" he
+added, under his breath. "Quiet, there, Noddy, ye black divil."
+
+It was with some difficulty that I convinced this good Samaritan of my
+mental and physical equilibrium. Finally he drove off, wagging his head
+doubtfully.
+
+"But which way?" I shouted after him. He would not answer in words, but
+pointed eastward with his whip-stock. Eastward then it was.
+
+Between Union Square and Second Avenue there are several blocks of
+dwelling-houses--a once fashionable and still highly respectable
+residential neighborhood. The particular street does not matter, but I
+was proceeding in the general direction of Stuyvesant Square and had
+crossed Third Avenue.
+
+Being on the lower or shady side it was something of a surprise to
+receive a flash of sunlight directly in the eye. I stepped back. On the
+pavement at my feet there floated a blot of quivering yellow light; it
+danced directly towards me, and again I was blinded by its dazzle.
+
+The reflection from a mirror, of course, but it took me several minutes
+to determine its location.
+
+Ah, there it was--a peculiar combination, in polished copper, of triple
+glasses fixed to the sill of a second-story window in the house
+directly opposite. The device is in common use in Philadelphia and
+Baltimore, but here in New York it must be classed as an exotic. Its
+very name is unfamiliar, and I dub it the "Philadelphia Quizzing-Glass"
+for want of a better term. You understand, of course, that the mirrors
+are hinged together and adjustable to any angle. It is consequently
+possible for an observer sitting in the room to remain entirely out of
+sight and yet command a view of all that passes in the street below. An
+ingenious contrivance, then, for keeping one's self informed upon the
+business of the neighborhood. But New-Yorkers, if not less inquisitive,
+are more energetic than their Quaker cousins, and prefer the direct
+method of leaning out of the window, or, if need be, going down into
+the street itself. Still, there is something to be said for the
+"quizzing-glass," for we may look upon it as the range-finder of the
+domestic fortress, forewarning us of the approach of the bore and the
+process-server. Obviously, the ability to look round a corner may save
+us from many of the minor complications that embitter modern life.
+
+I was under surveillance--that was certain. Now, should I submit to the
+impertinence? It was easy to put an end to it by walking away. But I
+had aspired to be a disciple of Esper Indiman, gentleman adventurer,
+and here was a chance to take out a letter of marque on my own
+account--one must look Fortune in the face to catch her smile. And so I
+stood there immovable, until the dazzle in my eyes cleared away
+signifying that the ordeal was at an end. Then I lifted my hat and
+walked on, taking note of the house number--23l.
+
+The next day, Wednesday, it rained, but Thursday was clear, and it was
+inevitable that I should pay a second visit to the house of the
+quizzing-glass, as I had mentally christened it. Again I submitted to a
+long scrutiny. Evidently the result was satisfactory, for the door of
+the house was opened and a man ran quickly down the steps and came
+towards me. He was a small man with an Oriental cast of features and he
+wore a red fez. It sounds incredible, I admit, but such was the fact.
+He addressed me civilly, but in somewhat imperfect English.
+
+"Morning, sar. It is a fine walk-day."
+
+"Delightful," I assented.
+
+"My mistress, sar--the Lady Allegra--she will be obligated of the honor
+to have your company dinner. You have no engagement anticipatory?" He
+stood with his head cocked a trifle to one side, smiling amiably.
+
+"To-night?" I asked.
+
+"That, sar, is my counselment. To-night, at clock nine."
+
+"Very good. I'll be here."
+
+Red-Fez shook his head deprecatingly. Finally, and after much
+circumlocution, I gathered that I was not expected at No. 231. My
+instructions were simply to be in waiting at the Worth Monument in
+Madison Square at half-after eight; for the rest Red-Fez would hold
+himself responsible. And upon this understanding we parted.
+
+"The Lady Allegra," I said, under my breath, as I walked home. "The
+Lady Allegra."
+
+Up to this point I had kept my own counsel, but now I felt it my duty
+to make a confidant of Indiman. He listened to my story with grave
+attention.
+
+"It promises well--decidedly so," admitted Indiman. "Confound it! If it
+were not for this unlucky accident of a sprained ankle--" and he
+glanced ruefully at his injured limb encased in its plaster-of-Paris
+form.
+
+"I like the name," I went on, somewhat irrelevantly. "The Lady Allegra."
+
+"There are possibilities in it," assented Indiman, grumpily. "Will you
+hand me my solitaire cards--and, for Heaven's sake! stop kicking the
+lacquer off the andirons."
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon."
+
+"Of course you understand what I mean. It isn't the andirons, but the
+sight of your aggressively vigorous legs that moves me to childish
+wrath. To be tied down here like a trussed pigeon! Better leave me to
+my solitaire.  I'll be more civilized after luncheon." Whereupon I
+smiled and went out.
+
+Half-past eight o'clock; the Worth Monument; Red-Fez in a four-wheeler;
+the carefully drawn window-curtains; the production of the black silk
+bag with which to envelop my head--it all happened in accordance with
+the playbill. At first I tried to keep some idea of distance and
+direction, but I soon got confused and had to give it up. I could only
+conjecture that the course was a long one, for I heard a clock striking
+nine just as the cab stopped, and our pace had been a rapid one.
+
+"Thisaway, sar," whispered my guide, and I yielded to the gentle
+pressure of his hand on my arm. The street door closed behind me, I
+felt myself guided up a pair of stairs, a sharp turn to the right, and
+we had arrived. But where? Then I realized that the black silk bag had
+been removed from my head and I was free to use my eyes. An ironical
+permission, truly, for I found myself in absolute darkness. Strain my
+vision as I might, not a ray of light met the sensitive surface of the
+retina. The blackness stood about me like a wall, immaterial,
+doubtless, but none the less impenetrable.
+
+Deprived of sight, every mental faculty was instantly concentrated upon
+the single sense of hearing. My conductor had left me. There was the
+sound of a closing door and of padded foot-falls that trailed off into
+nothingness; then silence.
+
+Out of the void came a sharp click as of a well-oiled gun-lock. It was
+followed by the first notes of a piano-forte accompaniment. A soprano
+voice began singing Schubert's "Fischermadchen." What a delicious
+timbre! The clear resonance of a crystal bell.
+
+The beautiful melody ceased, but still I seemed to hear the faint,
+sweet overtones born of its final breath, thin auditory flames that
+flickered for an instant against the blank wall of the subconscious
+sense, and then in their turn were gone. Entranced and motionless, I
+waited.
+
+A sudden burst of light flooded the room, the radiation being indirect
+and proceeding from electroliers sunken behind the ceiling cornice. The
+apartment was of medium size, evidently the middle one of the ordinary
+series of three rooms characteristic of New York City houses, and it
+was furnished most simply--merely a table of Flemish oak with two
+leather-backed chairs to match and some rugs. The walls and door spaces
+were hung with red velvet draperies, which contrasted brilliantly with
+the gorgeous, gold-leafed plastic-work of the cornices and ceiling. A
+convex mirror, framed in massive silver gilt, hung on the side wall. A
+second look showed that it was really a bull's-eye of crackled glass,
+opal-tinted and translucent. It glowed as though illumined by some
+inward fire (doubtless a concealed electric-light bulb), and the
+shifting play of iridescent color was exquisitely beautiful. One could
+compare it only with an imprisoned rainbow. I looked and wondered.
+
+"I have kept you waiting. A thousand apologies," said a voice at my
+back. I turned to face a gentleman who must have entered from the front
+room; so at least the draperies, still slightly swaying, attested. A
+tall man, gray-haired, and of an extraordinary thinness--a caricature
+of Don Quixote himself, if such a thing were possible.
+
+"The Lady Allegra," he went on, "is unfortunately indisposed. She begs
+me to tender her apologies and regrets. I am her ladyship's resident
+physician, and my name is Gonzales." His eyes, hidden behind smoked
+glasses, examined me attentively.
+
+I murmured some words of conventional regrets, and, truth to tell, I
+was bitterly disappointed. I turned as though to go.
+
+"It is the Lady Allegra's wish that you should dine here this evening,"
+continued Dr. Gonzales. "Solus, it is true, but the disappointment is a
+mutual one; of that you may be assured." Again I bowed and intimated my
+willingness to obey.
+
+The dining-room was an apartment of unusual size, panelled in Santo
+Domingo mahogany, the rich color of the wood standing in admirable
+contrast to the dark-green, watered silk with which the walls were
+covered. A magnificent tapestry, representing Dido's hunting-party in
+honor of AEneas, filled nearly the whole of one side wall, and on the
+chimney-breast opposite hung a mirror similar in appearance to that in
+the drawing-room. The illumination of the room was peculiar but
+effective--four bronze female figures, each holding in her hands a
+globe of translucent glass through which a mellow radiance diffused
+itself.
+
+The table, large enough to accommodate King Arthur and his knights, was
+beautifully set with plate and crystal, but only two covers had been
+laid. Red-Fez, who had now assumed the functions of a butler, showed me
+to my place, and then took up his stand behind the empty chair of his
+mistress. The two serving-men began immediately upon their duties.
+
+It was an extraordinary repast, for to both my eye and my palate the
+viands were utterly unknown. In fact, every dish had as its basis a
+peculiar substance that in appearance faintly suggested isinglass. But
+it had no taste, that I could discover, other than the flavor
+communicated to it by the various sauces and dressings with which it
+was served. It appeared first in the soup, and then, omitting the fish
+course, I recognized it as the foundation of an excellent vol-au-vent.
+It served again as a substitute for meat, compressed and moulded in the
+form of French chops. There was even a passable imitation of a green
+goose. I had a slice from the breast, and it tasted very well. The
+philosophers tell us that there is an infinite power in suggestion.
+That may account, in part at least, for the complacency with which I
+accepted these remarkable perversions of the ordinary menu. If ideas
+are the only realities, my green goose might have come straight from
+Washington Market itself.
+
+The two vegetables, cauliflower an gratin and boiled potatoes, were
+good to look at and good to eat, although neither of them had ever seen
+a garden. There was a salad, too, with an incomparable dressing.
+Finally, an excellent pudding. The wines and mineral waters, the
+liqueurs and the coffee, were genuine. The fantastic cuisine of my
+hostess extended only to the solid portions of the repast, and for this
+I was secretly thankful. I don't like chemical burgundies, and the
+"health-food" mochas and javas are only surprisingly good imitations of
+exceedingly bad coffee.
+
+The chair opposite me remained unfilled, but each course was served at
+the cover as scrupulously as though the Lady Allegra were actually
+present. It made me feel a trifle uncomfortable at the first--the sight
+of that vacant chair set back a little from the table, the napkin half
+unfolded, the full wineglasses, the plate with its untouched food. And
+once, when the foot-man offered the cauliflower to my invisible
+vis-a-vis, it seemed as though she declined it. The man hesitated a
+second and then passed on without putting a portion on the plate. For
+the moment I was foolish enough to contemplate a similar refusal, but I
+reconsidered--I am very fond of cauliflower.
+
+At the conclusion of dinner I took my cigar into the red drawing-room.
+The lights had been lowered, and only the opalescent bull's-eye glowed
+with undiminished brilliancy. I sat staring at it, and the outrageous
+perplexity of the situation began to get on my nerves. I must get out
+of here, and I half rose. Then I sank back, forgetting everything but
+that marvellous voice. Again the Lady Allegra was singing, and could I
+doubt that it was for me! David's "Charmant Oiseau," and then the gay
+little gavotte from "Manon."
+
+What an astonishing repertoire--Chaminade, Schumann, Grieg, Richard
+Strauss. Finally Schubert, and Schubert only, the last and the best
+given, as it is meet, to him who is the master of all. The
+rainbow-tinted orb of the wall mirror continued to hold my eyes; they
+drooped and fell as the radiance grew fainter and yet fainter.
+
+When I awoke Red-Fez was standing at the bedside, hot-water can in
+hand. "Morning, sar," he said, with gentle affability. "Will you permit
+me to shaver you?"
+
+I jumped out of bed and went to the window. It was closed, although a
+ventilator at the top admitted plenty of the outside air, and the glass
+was of the opaque bull's-eye variety through which it is impossible to
+see. I tried to throw up the sash, but it would not budge.
+
+I submitted in silence to the ministrations of Red-Fez, not choosing to
+enter into any discussion with a servant. But I was sorely tempted to
+protest when he proceeded to array me in an extraordinary robe of
+cardinal silk in lieu of the ordinary masculine habiliments. Certainly
+I could not leave the house enveloped in this ridiculous garment. My
+dress clothes would have been bad enough, but there was no trace of
+them to be seen. Evidently I should have to call Dr. Gonzales to
+account, and having descended to the now familiar red drawing-room, I
+sent Red-Fez with a request for an immediate audience. A few minutes
+later he appeared.
+
+"Am I a prisoner here?" I asked, abruptly.
+
+"You await the Lady Allegra's pleasure," he answered, imperturbably.
+"She is still indisposed. Possibly by to-night, but I cannot say
+definitely."
+
+"I do not wish--"
+
+"Chut!" he interrupted, irritably. "It is a matter not of your wishes
+but of her will. That is inevitable. Can you not understand?"
+
+I looked at the immovable figures of two footmen at the door and then
+walked out to breakfast. An excellent meal it was, although I
+recognized that the food was only an ingenious variation upon the theme
+of the night before; that mysterious substance resembling isinglass was
+the basis of everything set before me. It was the same with luncheon
+and again at dinner. And, as on the previous night, it was an empty
+chair that confronted me. Well, what did it matter, after all. Can you
+even imagine what Schubert's "Linden-Tree" might be when perfectly sung?
+
+Is it an hallucination, then, that possesses me--some subtle
+disturbance of the nerve-centres sapping the sources of will-power,
+enfeebling even the physical energies? I do not know. Sometimes I am
+ashamedly conscious that I do not greatly care. It is now a week since
+I entered this house, and I have made but one attempt to reassert my
+personal rights. Yesterday a sudden passion of resolution seized me; at
+all hazards I must break the bonds imposed upon me by this invisible
+enchantress. As I passed the door leading to the red drawing-room I put
+my fingers in my ears--Ulysses and the sirens. But when I reached the
+lower hall I walked plump into Dr. Gonzales, who fixed me with a
+penetrating look. "Go back!" he said, authoritatively. "The Lady
+Allegra sings--and for you." I listened; it was, "Ah, fors e lui."
+
+I divide my time between the library on the third floor and the red
+drawing-room, where the strange beauty of the opal-tinted mirror holds
+me possessed for hours together. Remember that the Lady Allegra still
+maintains her tantalizing role of inviolable seclusion. It is through
+her voice alone that she impresses her personality upon my senses. That
+seems ridiculous, does it not? But then you have not heard her sing
+"Ah, fors e lui."
+
+Yet, after all, the end came quickly. I shall be equally succinct in my
+chronicle of the events leading up to it.
+
+As usual I had dined alone, and had afterwards submitted to the
+customary examination at the hands of Dr. Gonzales. Why he should deem
+it necessary to take my pulse and temperature and then ascertain my
+weight and power of grip with such scrupulous exactitude I never
+troubled to inquire. Indeed, it seemed such a puerile proceeding that I
+have hitherto refrained from even mentioning it. To-night he seemed
+ill-pleased with the results of his investigation. "You are losing
+weight," he said, severely, "and you don't begin to grip within ten
+pounds of what you registered a week ago."
+
+"What does it matter?" I answered, as indifferently as I felt.
+
+"You ought to eat more. No steam without fuel."
+
+"I am not hungry."
+
+"Bah!" he snorted, indignantly. "It is always the same story. Another
+failure! But no, I will not suffer it. Sooner than that I will have you
+penned and stuffed as though you were a Strasburg goose." But I only
+laughed at his petulance and walked on to the drawing-room.
+
+I laughed, I say, and yet I had begun vaguely to realize that something
+was wrong. My head felt strangely light. I stumbled over a corner of
+the rug, and would have fallen out of pure weakness if I had not caught
+at the table for support. My respiration seemed more rapid than usual
+and the sweat from the slight exertion beaded my forehead. Then I
+forgot everything but that the Lady Allegra had begun to sing.
+
+The desire, the impulse, they had crystallized into resolution. I would
+wait no longer. This very night the walls of the fortress should fall,
+unveiling the secret of this insolent loveliness, the desire of all the
+world. Ah, my lady Allegra, was it chance alone that led you to choose
+Isolde's "Liebestod" for this the supreme enchantment?
+
+The music fell away into nothingness and I stepped forward, my hand on
+the knob of the folding-doors that led to the front room. I knocked
+twice--firmly, insistently. "Open!" I cried, and immediately the
+door-knob yielded to my touch.
+
+"Stop!"
+
+Dr. Gonzales stood at the hall entrance to the drawing-room. I saw
+something that gleamed like polished metal in his uplifted hand. Then
+he fell back and disappeared. It seemed as though some invisible force
+behind the portiere had taken sudden and irresistible possession of
+him. What did I care. I went forward and into the room, absolutely
+empty save for an upright cabinet of mahogany placed on a central
+pedestal. It was tall enough to conceal a person standing behind it,
+but it was not the Lady Allegra who came forward to meet me.
+
+"Indiman!" I said, weakly. "Esper Indiman!"
+
+"The carriage is waiting," he said. "Come."
+
+"Never!" I retorted, passionately. "You don't understand--the
+Lady--Allegra--"
+
+Well, I suppose I must have fainted from sheer inanition, and so
+Indiman explained it himself that next morning.
+
+"You had been half starved for over a week, and no wonder you keeled
+over. No; you can't have another mouthful of that beef-steak. You'll
+have to wait for luncheon."
+
+I sank back among the cushions of the couch rather resentfully. "Well,
+at least you can go on and tell me," I said.
+
+"Certainly. There are cranks of all degrees, as you know. It was your
+luck to fall into the hands of one of the king-pins of the
+confraternity--Dr. Ferdinand Gonzales, alias Moses the Second.
+
+"He wanted a new subject for his experiments upon the physical
+regeneration of the human race, and he caught you in his drag-net. It
+was a close call for you, old chap."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"You have been starving to death for ten days, and yet eating three
+meals a day right along. Nothing peculiar about that, eh?"
+
+"It WAS rather curious stuff. It looked like isinglass."
+
+"Perhaps it is. All I care about is the fact that the food you have
+been eating doesn't contain a particle of nourishment for the human
+system. But Moses the Second imagined that he had invented, or rather
+rediscovered, the one perfect nutriment for the race--nothing less than
+manna."
+
+"Manna!"
+
+"Don't you remember the manna in the wilderness, the children of
+Israel, and the forty years they fed upon it. Dr. Gonzales, who was
+really a fine chemist before he went dotty, got the idee fixe that all
+human ills were due to improper food. He tackled the problem, at first
+scientifically, but later on he had a vision that he was really the
+reincarnation of the Prophet Moses. Moses and manna--the connection is
+obvious and the secret was soon in his possession. He manufactured the
+stuff in his own laboratory and lived on it himself--at least to the
+verge of physical extinction. Then he went gunning for subjects, and
+you know the rest. The rubbish fills you up without nourishing you, and
+what you lived on was really stimulants alone--the wine and coffee."
+
+"But will you tell me--how did you chance to find--"
+
+"For the first few days I didn't dream of interfering--it was your own
+adventure. But on Monday--that's yesterday, you know--I determined to
+look things up a bit. So I walked into No. 231 and scared Mr. Red-Fez
+into a few plain truths. His real name is Dawson, you know."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It was simply an immensely improved sort of phonograph that Gonzales
+had invented. None of the harshness and squeakiness of tone that you
+associate with the ordinary instrument. Partly a new method of making
+the records and partly a system of qualifying chambers that refine and
+purify the tones. It is wonderful enough to deceive anybody, and, of
+course, he had all his records ready to hand."
+
+"Then the Lady Allegra, the Lady Allegra--"
+
+"'Vox et preterea nihil,'" quoted Indiman. He left the room quietly,
+and I lay there on the lounge staring up at the ceiling. "'Vox et
+preterea nihil.'"
+
+Two months have passed and I am slowly recuperating in body and mind.
+But there are some things not to be forgotten--for instance, "Ah, fors
+e lui," when sung by the most beautiful voice in all the world.
+
+Indiman proposes that we shall go to the Utinam Club, dine, and spend
+the night. Well, we don't often indulge in that rather questionable
+amusement, although we are accustomed to use the club freely throughout
+the daytime. All the more reason, then, that once in a while--I need a
+distraction and there are some interesting psychological
+deductions--But hang casuistry; it is enough to say that we did go.
+
+It is undeniably pleasant to be sitting here in the club dining-room
+sharing a ruddy duck and a bottle of burgundy. Yes, and to feel the
+cares, the disappointments, the burdens of life dropping off one by
+one; to be able to dismiss them with a nod as one gives an unfortunate
+beggar his conge. Ills that one need not bear; evils that it is no
+longer necessary to endure--they have all been eliminated by the simple
+process of excluding from the spectrum the ultra blue-and-violet rays.
+A palpable evasion, of course. Call it immoral, if you will, and I
+shall not lift the gauntlet. Why should we quarrel over phrases when it
+is only required to return thanks to the good Dr. Magnus for his
+beneficent discovery? That is enough for me at least. Carpe diem, or,
+more precisely, noctem.
+
+It was Dr. Magnus himself who later on introduced us to Chivers in the
+common room--Chivers, a little man of Semitic physiognomy, with a hard,
+knobbed face and a screw of black beard. He addressed himself
+effusively to Indiman, while the doctor and I remained spectators,
+silent but interested.
+
+"A dealer in adventures, a specialist in the grotesque--ah, I like
+that, Mr. Indiman. The rest of us"--this with a gesture inexpressibly
+mean and fawning--"prefer to haggle over the lion's skin after it has
+been cured and dressed. It's a mere question of temperament, dear sir."
+
+"What have you to say to me?" inquired Indiman, abruptly. I could see
+that he wanted to kick him.
+
+"I have an adventure--of the first class. I desire to dispose of it."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"A noble, a surpassing adventure. Moreover, a commercial opening that
+is not to be despised--fifty per cent on your capital every six months."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I offer you, then, my well-established business of adjuster of
+averages, good-will and office fixtures included."
+
+"But I never even heard of such a profession. I know nothing about
+averages and their adjustment."
+
+"What difference! It is the adventure that particularly concerns you,
+is it not? The business--pouf! it runs itself." "And the terms?"
+
+"I make them ridiculously easy. You are to take over the business,
+including the lease of my offices in the Barowsky Brothers' bank
+building, William H. Seward Square. In return for this accommodation I
+am prepared to pay you the sum of ten thousand dollars." Mr. Chivers
+grinned cheerfully as he concluded this astounding proposition. He
+pulled ten new one-thousand-dollar bills from his waistcoat-pocket and
+laid them on the table.
+
+Indiman regarded the little man thoughtfully. "You have been in
+business for your health?" he inquired, with an affectation of polite
+interest.
+
+"You have hit it exactly," returned the imperturbable Chivers. "I was
+pretty rocky when I first went to William H. Seward Square. But the air
+in that Yiddish country--wonderful, dear sir. Regard me; punch, poke,
+pound where and how you like. Sound as a bell you'll find me. Now I
+pass on. I yield place to you. The honor, dear sir, is mine."
+
+"I confess that I am interested," said Indiman. "The conditions are
+simply--"
+
+"Your personal day and night tenancy of the chambers in the Barowsky
+Building for a period of not less than three months. I should have
+explained that the rooms really form a bachelor's suite, all furnished,
+of course."
+
+"There are papers to sign?"
+
+"Only the assumption of the office lease, and I'll give you a bill of
+sale for the furniture." Mr. Chivers laid the documents before Indiman;
+the latter glanced them over and drew out his fountain-pen. A quick
+look, one of satisfaction and understanding, passed between Chivers and
+Dr. Magnus. I caught it and tried to convey a warning to my friend. But
+he had already affixed his signature to the lease of the offices in the
+Barowsky bank building. Chivers did the same for the bill of sale.
+
+Indiman gathered up the ten one-thousand-dollar bills and stuffed them
+into his pocket. "Want a receipt?" he asked.
+
+"It is not necessary."
+
+"Well, at least, we must have a bumper to celebrate the conclusion of
+the transaction. Waiter."
+
+We took a cab in the gray of the dawning hour and drove home. As might
+have been predicted, my spirits had dropped to the zero-point again.
+
+"I don't like it--frankly, I don't, old man. What if it should be a
+trap?"
+
+Indiman laughed heartily. "Why, of course, it's a trap," he said.
+"That's plain as a pike-staff, whatever a pike-staff itself may be.
+It's the particular kind of a trap that interests me. The why and the
+wherefore."
+
+Arrived at the house, Indiman handed a bill to the driver and we
+ascended the steps. But the cabman seemed dissatisfied with his
+treatment. "Hey, there!" he called once, and then again. Indiman turned
+impatiently.
+
+"Well, what is it?" he asked
+
+"You can see for yourself, guv'nor. A mistake, ain't it?"
+
+It was one of the thousand-dollar bills that the honest cabby was
+holding up. What a phenomenon in the way of a hackman! And yet the New
+York night-hawks are no fools and thousand-dollar bills are easy to
+trace. Indiman gave the man fifty dollars as a reward of virtue and he
+was more than satisfied. But something still remained on his conscience
+thus agreeably stimulated.
+
+"'Scuse me, guv'nor," he went on, "but here's another little job in the
+same line of business. I drove a gentleman to your club early in the
+evening, and he must have left it accidental in the cab. Maybe you know
+him."
+
+It was a plain white envelope bearing the typewritten address:
+
+Mr. Orrin Chivers, Nos. 13-15 Barowsky Chambers, Seward Square, New
+York.
+
+The envelope had been opened, but the enclosure still remained in it.
+
+"Thank you," said Indiman. "I'll take charge of it." The cabman touched
+his hat and drove away.
+
+We went up to the library and proceeded to examine the treasure trove.
+It consisted of a long strip of thin bluish paper less than a quarter
+of an inch in width and containing a succession of apparently arbitrary
+and unmeaning characters written in ink. I reproduce a section of the
+strip, which should make my description more intelligible.
+
+Indiman looked at the hieroglyphics musingly. "Important--if true," he
+murmured.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+The Adjuster of Averages
+
+
+It was on December 21st that Indiman took up his tenancy of the offices
+in the Barowsky Building. I should have been glad to have accompanied
+him, but he would not have it. It was the dealer's hand at bridge and
+must be played alone. And owing to the accident of a slight attack of
+grippe it was some ten days later before I was able to call upon him in
+his new quarters.
+
+William H. Seward Square has its unique features. Lying in the heart of
+the East Side, it is outside the regular lines of north and south
+travel. There are thousands of otherwise well-informed New-Yorkers to
+whom its very name is unknown. And yet it is an important political
+centre, the capital of the Yiddish country, and the recipient of many
+special favors at the hands of a paternal municipality. There are still
+streets in the up-town districts whose pavement is the antiquated
+Belgian blocks or even cobble-stones, but none in Yiddishland; here
+everything is asphalted. You may trust the district leader to take care
+of his own.
+
+A fine, stone building forms the principal architectural feature of the
+square on the west side. It contains the free baths and would be a
+credit to any part of the city. Most of the remaining space is given
+over to the children for a playground. There is a semi-enclosed
+gymnasium for the boys, hand-ball and tether-ball courts, a separate
+enclosure for the girls and smaller children--in a word, every form of
+amusement and exercise that is practicable in a public institution of
+comparatively limited area. The children enjoy it, too. They come in
+droves, and the swings and flying rings are in constant use.
+
+It is like going to a foreign country. The shop signs, written in
+Hebrew characters, suggest a combination of horseshoes and
+carpet-tacks, and you may walk for blocks without hearing an English
+word spoken. Ask your whereabouts of a street boy and he will quite
+likely turn pale and edge away. He does not understand. You are an
+alien, a foreign devil.
+
+The Barowsky Brothers' bank building is the show-place of the district.
+It is a staring white structure covered with gilt business signs and
+adorned with abortive minarets that give it an air distinctly Oriental.
+The entrance hall and the banking-rooms are sumptuous. They recall the
+Arabian Nights and the word-painting of a circus poster. Mirrors,
+gilding, mosaics--it is all a dream of luxury and impresses one with a
+realizing sense of the financial standing of the Barowsky Brothers. You
+must have a good front in the Yiddish country if you expect to handle
+other people's money.
+
+Esper Indiman, adjuster of averages, occupied a suite of rooms on the
+fifth floor. I proceeded thither and found him in. We sat down and
+smoked amicably.
+
+"How is business?" I asked. "Have you adjusted many averages to-day?
+And, by-the-way, I'm rather taken with the title of your new trade.
+'Adjuster of averages'--there's an imposing note of omnipotence in the
+words."
+
+"It's a perfectly legitimate occupation. You'll find it listed in the
+business directory."
+
+"Of course, and never mind the details. I'm satisfied with its face
+value, a brevet of vice-gerency. God knows there are plenty of averages
+to be adjusted in this weary old world."
+
+"Well, I may have some accounts to balance before I take down my sign,"
+said Indiman, with a grim little smile. "I'm glad you came in to-day,
+Thorp; I've been wanting to have a talk with you."
+
+"Fire away," I answered, flippantly.
+
+"Come into the back room," and he led the way.
+
+The suite ran through the building. There was a good-sized room facing
+on the square, fitted up with ordinary office furniture; back of that a
+bath-room, and then the rear office, which had been turned into a
+bachelor's living-room. There were bookcases, rugs, pictures, a big
+mahogany writing-table, an open fireplace, easy-chairs--everything to
+make life comfortable. "And the couch over there is my bed," concluded
+Indiman. "I'm pretty well fixed, you see."
+
+"Decidedly so."
+
+"Intellectual diversion in abundance; even the artistic element is not
+wholly wanting."
+
+He stepped over to a table in the far corner; a phonographic machine of
+some kind stood upon it. Indiman touched a lever, and again I heard
+that unforgettable melody, "Ah, fors e lui," and in her voice--her
+voice! A cry escaped me. Indiman pushed me back into my chair. "Be good
+enough to listen," he said, and I obeyed.
+
+"While you have been laid up," he began, "I have been amusing myself
+with a little theory building. I had taken the liberty to sequestrate
+the remarkable phonographic apparatus of your quondam friend Dr.
+Gonzales; in fact, I carried it away in the same carriage with your
+honorable self from the house of the Philadelphia 'quizzing-glass.' The
+police didn't notice--that was all.
+
+"Dr. Gonzales was a genius, and his instrument is a revolution in
+phonographs--purity of tone, perfect enunciation, and all that. But the
+really interesting thing (to me as to you) was not the machine, but the
+records that it used. To whom belonged the voice that these little
+disks and cylinders so faithfully reproduced? It was a real woman who
+had poured the passion and sorrow of life into this insentient
+mechanism. And the medium had been sufficient; your heart had responded.
+
+"You were my friend, and I could not be indifferent to aught that
+concerned you. We are, neither of us, sentimental, so the bare
+statement of the fact is sufficient. You were on your back, and so it
+was my part to go to work. I did.
+
+"It is unprofitable business looking for a needle in a hay-stack when
+you can buy a packet of the best helix No. 8's at any shop for a
+nickel. But after spending a blank week interviewing the makers of
+phonographic records I began to feel doubtful of my economic theory.
+Nowhere could I find the slightest trace of this particular job of
+record-making. And then one day I ran across a chap named Hugens, who
+was in the business in a small way. His place was three blocks east of
+the Bowery, but I've forgotten the name of the cross street.
+
+"It was the usual experience at first--no information--but something
+told me that the man was lying. Finally, I pretended to give up the
+inquiry and left the shop. It was after dark on a snowy January
+afternoon, and I started to walk over to the Madison Avenue cars. I
+dawdled along purposely so as to give the telephone time to get in its
+work, and the affair turned out exactly as I had foreseen. At Elm
+Street a couple of fellows jostled against me, and when the mix-up was
+over the parcel containing my two sample records was gone. That was all
+that had been wanted; my watch, pin, and money had not been touched.
+
+"It was plain, then, that some one had an interest in preventing my
+tracing up these particular records. Not Hugens, of course, but his
+client, whoever he might be. Well, at least, it made the case more
+interesting--yes, and more promising. Two nights later the house in
+Madison Avenue was entered by second-story men while I was at dinner.
+But the records and repeating apparatus had been removed to the
+safe-deposit vaults, and my unknown opponent had drawn another blank.
+
+"Getting exciting, wasn't it? And then for a month or more nothing
+happened. You continued to convalesce and I kept on thinking.
+
+"This impersonal opposition--well, there had been something of the same
+sort once or twice before. You remember, in particular, the affair of
+the private letter-box. A devilish intelligence had been at work there,
+and some day, as I told you, the mystery would be cleared up.
+
+"Then did we ever know who Mr. Aram Balencourt really was? An agent of
+the 'Forty'? Well, perhaps so, but I can't help thinking that there was
+always a bigger man behind him. The same conclusion would apply to the
+case of that poor wretch Grenelli in the affair of the Russia and the
+box of dynamite. Some one with brains pulled the strings to make all
+these marionettes dance.
+
+"Finally, there was your own adventure with the amiable Dr. Gonzales.
+Did he ever remind you, even indefinitely, of some one else whom you
+had known? Think carefully. Well, it doesn't matter. I was deceived
+myself, and when I afterwards went to the Bellevue insane pavilion to
+make some inquiries I found that he had long since been discharged as
+cured.
+
+"There was just one hypothesis--the existence somewhere of a strong and
+alert personality; a genius along mechanical and scientific lines; a
+creature of abnormally developed mentality and correspondingly
+defective ethical nature; an intelligence absolutely passionless and
+ruthless, playing the game entirely for its own sake, and equally
+indifferent to the end and to the means used to attain it--in other
+words, a monster. Quite an elaborate theory, you observe; but the
+difficulty was to fit it to the individual. Looking back on the
+problem, I accuse myself of being rather slow-witted. Right under my
+eyes and yet only an accident opened them.
+
+"Well, you recall the night at the Utinam when we met Mr. Chivers and I
+accepted his very liberal proposition to become an adjuster of
+averages. Of course, it was a trap, but what connoisseur of the
+adventure grotesque could refuse such a bait? All I wanted to know was
+with whom I was expected to match wits.
+
+"Of course, the thousand-dollar bills were counterfeits--stage money?
+Not at all; every one was as good as the gold it called for at the
+sub-treasury. Bribery? From whom and for what? Doubtless I should know
+later. As it happened, I found out a little ahead of time.
+
+"You remember the incident of the honest cabman and the hieroglyphic
+letter which he turned over to me? Here it is, addressed, as you
+observe, to Mr. Chivers."
+
+Indiman drew from a locked drawer in the big centre-table the long
+strip of bluish paper covered with its incomprehensible dashes. "One of
+the oldest of devices for secret writing," he remarked. "This slip of
+paper was originally wrapped about a cylinder of a certain diameter and
+the message traced upon it, and it can only be deciphered by rerolling
+it upon another cylinder of the same diameter. Easy enough to find the
+right one by the empiric method--I mean experiment. Once you recognize
+the fundamental character of the cryptogram the rest follows with
+ridiculous certainty. Behold!"
+
+Indiman took a long, round, slender stick from the mantel-piece and
+proceeded to wrap the ribbon of bluish paper about it, touching both
+ends with paste to keep the slip in place. It read in part:
+
+"He will not find the girl, but so long as those records remain in his
+possession the possibility continues to exist. I leave it with you to
+make the bargain, and if he is not altogether a fool he will be content
+with his ten thousand dollars, and Nos. 13-15 Barowsky Chambers will be
+again without a tenant. Otherwise--and it is generally otherwise with
+these meddlers--there will have to be a new adjustment of
+averages--what a felicitous phrase!--and this, as usual, I will take
+upon myself. One way or the other, and, personally, I don't care a
+straw which it is."
+
+The name signed to this curious epistle was David Magnus.
+
+"Our Dr. Magnus of the Utinam," explained Indiman, but I hardly heard
+him. One overwhelming thought obscured everything else--there was a
+real Lady Allegra, after all. That was it--to find her, and I had the
+clew. I must go at once. But Indiman restrained me.
+
+"Yes, that is precisely what I want you to do, only let us first
+understand the situation thoroughly. I intend remaining here during the
+progress of the investigation, and if anything should happen--"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Pleasant rooms, aren't they?" and he looked about him approvingly.
+"And yet three men have been found sitting dead in the particular chair
+that I am now occupying."
+
+I only stared at him.
+
+"No marks of violence," continued Indiman. "Nothing to indicate foul
+play; nothing, mind you. 'Dead by the visitation of God,' according to
+the coroner, but I should call it an 'adjustment of averages.' That is
+a felicitous phrase. I got my facts, by-the-way, from the janitor. He
+is rather proud of the affair Barowsky, as we may call it."
+
+"A monster, indeed!" I exclaimed, warmly.
+
+"Oh, we mustn't misjudge our good Dr. Magnus," said Indiman,
+indulgently. "I used the word 'monster' in a purely psychological
+sense. You can't call such a being immoral; he is simply unmoral."
+
+"Not even a criminal lunatic."
+
+"Certainly not. But I acknowledge that society would be justified in
+protecting itself from such a creature. And it will."
+
+"But why should you remain here, exposed to danger?"
+
+"My dear Thorp, I want to play the game. I'm sure it's one worthy of my
+best attention."
+
+We argued it out for an hour or more, but Indiman was not to be moved
+from his position. So it came back to his original proposition. I was
+to take up the search on the outside for the Lady Allegra, and Indiman
+was to hold the fort at Nos. 13-15 Barowsky Chambers. I rose to go.
+
+"You don't need these, do you?" he asked, a little doubtfully, picking
+up one of the phonographic cylinders. I shook my head. As though I
+could have forgotten the smallest inflection of that voice! So we
+parted.
+
+It had resolved itself into the needle in a hay-stack, after all. Where
+was I to look and for what? A voice! "Vox et preterea nihil," to quote
+again that beloved Vergilian line. To the unprejudiced mind it would
+seem hopeless enough, and yet I never doubted for an instant but that I
+should find her. If a man is sure that the world holds the one woman
+intended for him he may be equally confident that their paths will
+somewhere, somehow, sometime intersect.
+
+It was the middle of the musical season, and I attended everything from
+grand opera to music-hall. For the first and most obvious procedure was
+to assume that the Lady Allegra was a professional singer. Either that
+or in the very front rank of amateurs. As to the latter, I had always
+been more or less in with the musical set, and I knew of no one who
+came within a mile of filling my bill of particulars.
+
+A professional, then, but not necessarily high up on the ladder. Merit
+may wait a long time for its due recognition. So I did not despise the
+humble field of vaudeville and of the continuous performance houses.
+
+Week after week passed without result, and it was now the 1st of March.
+I saw Indiman every few days and the game dragged equally with him.
+Chivers had called half a dozen times, and was now openly negotiating
+for the possession of the phonographic cylinders. But Indiman fenced
+skilfully and kept him hanging on.
+
+One night I was strolling through East Houston Street. A transparency
+caught my eye. It announced that a performance of high-class vaudeville
+was in progress. I paid my dime and entered.
+
+A long, low-studded room, dim with tobacco-smoke and redolent of stale
+beer. At the far end a small stage with faded red hangings. The card
+read No. 7, and the programme informed me that the turn was "A Bouquet
+of Ballads." A slight, fair-haired girl appeared on the stage. Her
+cheeks were burning, and she kept her eyes fixed on the floor. The
+piano jangled, and she began her song, Schubert's "Linden-Tree." Her
+voice shook and quavered as she went on, but I knew it. I had found the
+Lady Allegra.
+
+The audience listened indifferently. This sort of thing did not appeal
+to East Houston Street sensibilities, and there was no applause at the
+end. The girl essayed a few bars of her second number, a popular air in
+trivial waltz time, but with even poorer success. Then she broke down
+altogether and retired distressfully. Cat-calls and jeers, of course.
+
+But one turn had been allotted to "Mavis," as she was called in the
+bill, and I assumed that she would shortly leave the place. I went
+outside and waited. Within ten minutes I saw her emerging from the
+performer's entrance, cloaked and deeply veiled. But I could not be
+mistaken. I stood stock-still like any fool as she passed close to me.
+What was I to do?
+
+Then good-fortune smiled for once, and in gratitude for that surpassing
+indulgence I hereby relinquish all claim upon the lady for favors to
+come, now and forever. As the girl passed down the street a couple of
+pasty-faced young men stepped forward. I saw her stop and shrink away.
+A half-dozen steps and I had shoved in between them. The presumptuous
+youths sprawled to opposite points of the compass and I had drawn her
+hand through my arm. I could feel it tremble, but I carried her onward
+exultantly, masterfully. A man takes his own when he finds it. Then at
+the next street-lamp I stopped and released her. Within the circle of
+the light we stood and gazed into each other's eyes.
+
+The Lady Allegra who was! It seems odd to think of her now as Alice
+Allaire--a pretty enough name but not particularly romantic. And when
+she changes it to Thorp, as she has just promised to do--But perhaps I
+am going a bit too fast. However, her story is simplicity itself.
+
+My dear girl is an orphan, and six months ago she went to live with her
+guardian and uncle, David Magnus. But the situation quickly became
+intolerable. The attentions of the odious creature Olivers were openly
+encouraged by Dr. Magnus, and the child, although friendless and in a
+strange city, had no recourse but to run away. Surely, her voice would
+secure her a living! But the weeks passed and her store of money was
+running dangerously low. The Houston Street vaudeville had been the one
+chance that had offered, and she had hoped to make it good. But that
+first appearance had been her last. After the fiasco of which I had
+been a witness she had been discharged on the spot. We smile as we
+recall it now, but it had been a terrible catastrophe to contemplate at
+the time. What would you have done?
+
+We went straight to Indiman, and he listened with close attention.
+
+"You have property, then?" he asked.
+
+Miss Allaire looked troubled. "There is money. I even think it must be
+a large estate. But I don't know; my uncle never spoke of my affairs."
+
+"One of those cases where it is virtually impossible to prove
+anything," said Indiman to me. "Nevertheless, Magnus would be quite
+satisfied to have the absence of his niece made a permanent one--it
+saves the bother of making any explanations whatever."
+
+"The phonographic records were the only clew," I observed. "At least he
+thought so."
+
+"Yes, and consequently he has been working all this while to get them
+away from me. We're ready now to make a deal, but I'd like to know what
+stakes are on the table before playing a card."
+
+"There was an ante of ten thousand dollars, you remember."
+
+"Quite so. Well, Miss Allaire, if you are willing to have me play the
+partie in your behalf--"
+
+"I could ask for nothing better," said the girl, quickly.
+
+"Agreed, then. And, really, I think it is the only chance. Magnus is
+too clever a man not to have covered his tracks, and in an ordinary
+legal battle you would probably be worsted. But he doesn't want a fight
+if he can help it, and that is the club I propose to use. Now you'll
+have to go, for I expect Chivers at two."
+
+I am glad that I glanced back for that last time as we left the room.
+Indiman was smiling, his head thrown back and his eyes aglow. The fight
+was on, and he was awaiting it as another man might his bride. To be
+remembered at one's best; I know I should wish that for myself.
+
+A fortnight passed. I had not heard a word from Indiman, and I dared
+not intrude upon him without an invitation. I had taken Miss Allaire to
+the Margaret Louise Home for Women, but two weeks is the limit of
+residence there. What was to be done now? My own slender funds were
+exhausted and Alice had not a penny. So we did the wisest possible
+thing under the circumstances--or the most foolish, whichever you care
+to term it. An hour after we had been married I went down to Printing
+House Square and literally forced a city editor's hand for an
+assignment to general reportorial work. At least we should not starve.
+I informed Indiman by letter of the event, but received no reply.
+
+On the afternoon of the 21st of March I was in the city room of the
+Planet. Mr. Dodge, the city editor, beckoned to me. He spoke quickly:
+
+"Our representative at Police Headquarters has just telephoned that a
+man has been found dead in the Barowsky Brothers' bank building, and
+there's some yarn to the effect that he is the fourth to die alone in
+that particular office. Better go down and take a look at things. May
+be a good story in it."
+
+So there was, but the Planet never published it; they accepted my
+resignation in lieu of an explanation.
+
+I tried to think of indifferent matters as I hurried over to William H.
+Seward Square, but my heart kept pounding against my ribs. Could it be
+that Indiman--that he had lost the game?
+
+There was the usual crowd of curiosity-mongers hanging about the bank
+building, and of course the police had taken charge. But the sergeant
+happened to be well disposed towards newsmen, and my Planet badge
+procured me instant admission to the scene of the tragedy. I passed
+into the back room. I could see the rigid figure sitting in the big
+chair. I forced myself to look at him squarely.
+
+The dead man was David Magnus.
+
+I went straight from William H. Seward Square to our boarding-house. A
+bulky package had just come for me through a special-delivery
+messenger. It contained negotiable securities to the amount of two
+hundred and fifty thousand dollars; also a half-dozen sheets of
+letter-paper in Indiman's handwriting. I transcribe the latter:
+
+"Congratulations, my dear Thorp, on your marriage. They're a bit
+belated, I know, but I haven't been in the mood for writing of late.
+Moreover, I wanted to make sure of Mrs. Thorp's dowry. I enclose the
+proceeds of the campaign, and fancy that the settlement isn't so far
+out of the way. But then our good friend Magnus never expected that he
+would be called upon to pay it. Here's the story as I wrote it down
+from day to day.
+
+"March 1. It's plain enough that Magnus has been embezzling the fortune
+of his niece, Miss Allaire. From what the girl could tell me of her
+late parent's mode of living I put them down as being comfortably off,
+if not rich. So I have intimated that I might consider an offer of
+fifty thousand dollars for the phonographic records in my safe-deposit
+vault. At least I will now draw the enemy's fire.
+
+"March 3. Chivers has called and affects to regard my proposition as
+absurd. I have riposted by raising my price to seventy-five thousand
+dollars. He protested angrily, and I immediately made it one hundred
+thousand dollars.
+
+"March 8. Five days of silence and then another call from Chivers. I
+met him with the statement that now I would not take less than one
+hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. He seemed flurried and said
+that he would have to consult his principal. 'As you like,' I remarked,
+carelessly, 'but it will then cost you one hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars.' Magnus is evidently alarmed and is wondering how much I
+really know.
+
+"March 9. No word from the hostile camp. The inference is that I may
+now look for a move on my antagonists' part, 'Otherwise,' as he says in
+that precious note, 'there will have to be a new adjustment of
+averages.' Precisely.
+
+"The position is probably a dangerous one, and I must take the obvious
+precautions. To begin with, I shall not leave these rooms until the
+affair is over, and I have made arrangements with an up-town restaurant
+to supply me with my meals in sealed vessels. I am thus insured against
+a street assault and poison. But all this is probably useless. The
+Magnus method of attack will be far more subtle.
+
+"I have just written to Chivers that two hundred thousand dollars will
+now be necessary if he wants those phonographic records.
+
+"March 11. I have had a talk with Louis, the janitor, about the
+Barowsky 'affairs.' Three men found dead in the big chair that faces
+the centre-table in my living-room. The date in every case was the 21st
+of March. If not an extraordinary coincidence there is food for
+reflection in this plain statement. It gives me ten clear days, and I
+can eat my dinner to-night in comparative comfort.
+
+"March 12. I have assumed that the psychological moment is scheduled
+for March 21st, but both the direction and the nature of the blow are
+still unknown. I have made a minute examination of the rooms and all
+that they contain, but can discover nothing in the nature of a trap.
+There are no secret doors, no collapsing walls, no hidden tubes for the
+dissemination of poisonous vapors. My windows are not overlooked from
+any outside point of vantage, thus eliminating the silent bullet of the
+air-gun. In a word, the machinery of the melodrama seems to be entirely
+non-existent. And yet I know that unless I can get the end of the clew
+before the 21st of March I shall sit dead in the big chair over there,
+just as the three who have gone before me.
+
+"March 18. Still no answer from Chivers. I have sent him a final
+communication fixing my price at two hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars, and saying that unless the proposition is accepted within
+three days further negotiations will be broken off.
+
+"March 19. The offer is accepted. At noon on Friday, the 21st, two
+hundred and fifty thousand dollars in negotiable securities will be
+placed in my hands, and I am to give in return an order on the
+safe-deposit company for the phonographic plates. But there is one
+paragraph in the letter that puzzles me. It reads:
+
+"'My client will come in person on Friday to conclude the business, but
+only in the event of the day being bright and sunny. If rainy or cloudy
+you may expect him at a somewhat earlier hour on Saturday or the next
+clear day whichever it may be.'
+
+"Now what does this mean? On the face of it, a disinclination on the
+part of an elderly gentleman to expose himself to these chill March
+winds. But Magnus is not very old, and he does not look in the least
+rheumatic.
+
+"I have forgotten to mention the one peculiarity that I discovered in
+the furniture of my living-room. The big chair is immovably fixed to
+the floor, its heavy pivot-base being riveted down to an iron
+bed-plate. And the chair itself is not made of mahogany, as I had
+supposed, but of an unknown metallic alloy that simulates the wood very
+closely. Well, I was prepared for something like this.
+
+"Another interesting point. The windows in the living-room face in a
+southerly direction, and the sun is now every day getting a little
+farther round, penetrating a little deeper, at every noon hour, into
+the room. On the 21st it will cross the line, and at least one ray will
+illumine a spot that for several months has not been touched by the
+direct sunlight. What spot?
+
+"It is nearing twelve o'clock, and as I sit in the big chair I can see
+the bar of golden light creeping steadily onward. It reaches the chair,
+and half-way around the pivot-base. Then the heavenly clock begins its
+retrograde movement, and the ray of sunlight is forced to retreat. But
+to-morrow it will come a little farther, and so again on the day after.
+
+"Around the sash in the big window the architect has inserted a row of
+glass bull's-eyes, a style of ornamentation suited to the semi-Oriental
+tastes of William H. Seward Square. I go up and examine them closely.
+They seem ordinary enough--but stop! The third from the bottom; it has
+a peculiar depth and clearness. It might very well be a lens--a
+burning-glass, to use the old-fashioned term. How close has the sun
+drawn to this particular bull's-eye? To-morrow I will take note.
+
+"March 20. At high noon the sun has reached within a hair's-breadth of
+the third bull's-eye from the bottom. To-morrow it will surely shine
+through my suspect, and if the latter be a true lens it will
+concentrate, for several minutes, a high degree of heat at the
+particular spot upon which its rays are focussed. That spot I have
+found, by experiment, to be one of a series of small bosses set in the
+pivot-base of the big chair. I applied the flame of a match and
+immediately the metal boss began to soften. I understand now. The boss
+is made of a fusible alloy that melts at a certain prearranged
+temperature; it is simply a variation of the common safety plug used in
+all the systems of mechanical protection against fire. At noon
+to-morrow, March 21st, the rays of the sun will be concentrated by the
+lens in the window-sash and will fall upon this boss of fusible metal.
+The plug will melt, releasing a spring, let us say, and a train of
+action will be set in motion.
+
+"The precise nature of that action I shall probably not discover. I
+incline to the belief that it is of an electrical nature. A connection
+is to be thereby established with one of the deadly currents that can
+be tapped for the asking here in New York. It may be objected that the
+men who died in the chair over there showed no external marks of death
+by electrical shock. But the autopsy, if it had been performed by
+Coroner Lunkhead, might have told a different story. Magnus is as good
+an electrician as he is a chemist, and he could easily rig up some kind
+of transformer reducing the power of the current just enough to
+paralyze the victim--death by a myriad of small shocks instead of one
+big one. Now it is plain why the spider will not come to spring his
+trap unless the sun shines on the 21st of March. If it doesn't, the
+play goes over to the next clear day, only that the curtain will rise a
+minute or so earlier in correspondence with the onward march of the
+sun-god, the executioner in the cast of our drama. Well, I have made my
+preparations to counter-check. To-morrow we shall see what we shall see.
+
+"March 21. I have still an hour before the expressman will come for the
+clock-case, and I must take the opportunity to finish my notes. The
+dead man sits opposite me at the table, but that does not matter. There
+is plenty of room for us both.
+
+"The day dawned clear and fine, and at ten o'clock the sun was shining
+brightly. He will come then.
+
+"At eleven I began to wonder how Dr. Magnus proposes to witness my last
+agonies without risk of suspicion attaching to his precious self. If he
+is seen entering and leaving my room this morning he may be called upon
+for an explanation later. One cannot be too careful in playing the
+delicate role of the amateur assassin.
+
+"But I have wronged my excellent friend. He has foreseen the difficulty
+and provided against it. At precisely half after eleven a couple of
+expressmen delivered what purported to be a clock-case at my outer
+office. It was addressed to me and I receipted for it without
+hesitation.
+
+"'I understand that we are to call for it again at two o'clock,' said
+one of the men. 'That'll give you time to pack up the other clock?'
+
+"'Very good,' said I.
+
+"'And Mr. Gill said that you would set the case out on the landing if
+you had to leave the office before we got back. I'll put the receipt
+under the door.'
+
+"'I understand,' I answered, carelessly. 'Get yourself some cigars,'
+and I slipped a half-dollar in the man's hand. He thanked me and
+withdrew. I sat down and waited.
+
+"The lid of the case was removable from the inside. I watched the
+screws fall one after another to the floor. Then the lid followed, and
+Dr. Magnus stood before me. His eyes, distorted horribly by the extra
+powerful lenses of his spectacles, fixed me with a steady look. He came
+close as though to assure himself that there was no mistake. His face
+almost touched mine. He put on his second and third pair of glasses,
+and again I felt like the fly under the microscope.
+
+"We did not go through the farce of exchanging salutations. This was
+war and we should both know it. It was now nearly noon and the sun was
+rapidly approaching the zenith. I led the way into the rear room.
+
+"'Here are the securities,' said Magnus. I looked them over and
+announced myself as satisfied.
+
+"'Kindly sit down and write me out an order on the safe-deposit
+company,' he went on, in rather a petulant tone. He was standing by the
+big chair. He bent forward as though to turn it in my direction.
+
+"The psychological moment had come, but the trick was even easier than
+I had anticipated. Being in a stooping posture, he was partially off
+his balance. A sharp jerk at his coat-collar and he was seated in the
+big chair. He bit at my hand savagely as a dog snaps, but I had been
+too quick for him. Then a couple of turns of stout window-cord put
+everything secure.
+
+"The man seemed dazed. He made no attempt to release himself. He did
+not even speak. But then his lips were dry. They opened and shut
+mechanically. His eyes, staring through their triple glasses, were
+turned towards the window. The sunlight, shining in full strength, was
+creeping steadily towards the row of bull's-eyes on the right of the
+sash. It lay in a broad, golden band on the polished floor.
+
+"A decrepit fly crawled out of a crack and made feebly for the welcome
+warmth. The prisoner's feet were free and he advanced one of them
+slowly, stealthily towards the miserable insect, then smashed
+ruthlessly down upon it. In my turn I looked away, gazing steadily at
+the window and the sun beyond. A few minutes now and we would know.
+
+"A little cloud no bigger than a man's hand. It was travelling directly
+towards the sun's disk. Suppose now that its veil obscured, at the
+final moment, the fatal ray. He saw it too. Together we watched it
+slowly drifting through the brilliant blue of the sky--a little cloud
+no bigger than a man's hand.
+
+"The currents of air in the upper regions first accelerated and then
+retarded the progress of the vaporous island. It seemed to stop; then
+it hung for an instant directly on the lower limb of the great ball of
+light. A sensation of intolerable cold pervaded my entire body.
+Involuntarily I shut my eyes.
+
+"I forced myself to look. The cloud had disappeared. Its imponderable
+essence had been absorbed into the clear ether as a drop of water
+sizzles into nothingness on a red-hot stove. The sunlight, shining
+through the third bull's-eye from the bottom, was instantly transformed
+into a single concentrated beam. The heat-ray impinged upon the boss of
+fusible metal. I saw the alloy begin to melt. I turned and ran into the
+other room.
+
+"Twenty minutes of silence and then I re-entered. I was horribly
+afraid, but he sat there quiet and still. I unwound the cord and threw
+it out of the window. It was clouding over in earnest now. These March
+days are so changeable.
+
+"It is close to two o'clock, and I must be getting ready to depart. I
+have set the clock-case out in the passageway, and the lids and screws
+are in readiness. The expressman will doubtless be punctual. He will
+carry the case down-stairs and load it on his wagon. I shall be
+delivered in due course at my destination. What is it to be? Well, I
+shall have plenty of time in which to reflect upon the possibilities of
+the journey that lies before me.
+
+"One moment in which to seal up these notes, together with the bundle
+of securities. Fortunately, I have a special-delivery stamp in my
+pocket, and I can post the packet in the mail-chute. Best wishes, my
+dear Thorp, for the future happiness of yourself and your charming
+wife. You have now given a hostage to fortune and will no longer care
+to sail on uncertain seas. But the Wanderlust in my blood seems to be
+ineradicable. Again the gates of chance are opening before me and I am
+eager to enter in. Good-bye."
+
+Here the record ends abruptly. And there has been no sequel. Not the
+slightest sound nor sign has been vouchsafed from the void. He who was
+Esper Indiman is gone, like a stone dropped into the gulf, and I have
+lost something that is not easily replaced--a friend. But since it is
+his wish, there is nothing more to be said. He may return--a message
+may come--
+
+The gates of chance! Well, it is exactly a year and a day since that
+eventful afternoon when Esper Indiman's visiting-card was thrust into
+my unconscious hand. I have travelled along some strange ways in the
+course of that twelvemonth, and henceforth I shall be content to trudge
+along the common high-road of life. The gates of chance--for me they
+are closed forever. But I look over at my wife's dear face and know
+that it is better so.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Gates of Chance, by Van Tassel Sutphen
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