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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END* + + + + + + + + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +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 NlNETY-AND-NINE KlSSES + 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 + +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 your- self," 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, mononcle; 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 +exclamationtion 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 in- differently 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 pecupeculiarity 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 difect 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 The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Gates of Chance +by Van Tassel Sutphen + diff --git a/old/thgts10.zip b/old/thgts10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f41f9c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/thgts10.zip |